die judicii non ista purgatio quam Doctores ponunt ante diem judicii Mark his words He saith the Doctors not the Apostles had been the Teachers of Purgatory Yet this is the Text your Cardinal most magnifies lib. 1. cap. 5. as fittest to prove both this fire and its fewel both Purgatory and Venial sins though a very learned interpreter of his own Church Erasmus had avowed before that it was not sufficient to prove it either and in truth in that himself hath confessed it to be one of the hardest Texts of all the Scripture unum ex difficillimis he hath in effect discredited his own proof For no Divine may laudably take that Text to prove an Article of Faith whose obscurity is fitter to shew men their ignorance then to remedy it For God doth not oblige any man to an impossibility to believe that which he cannot know or to know that which he cannot understand and therefore to say the place is very obscure and yet to ground an Article of Faith upon it is in effect to say There ought to be a belief where there is not an understanding or there ought to be an understanding where the thing is not to be understood For sure God is not defective in necessaries and therefore if this doctrine had been necessary to salvation he would not have delivered it so obscurely as to leave the unlearned under a most irremediable ignorance which is inconsistent with the knowledge of Faith nor the learned under most inextricable doubts and perplexities which are incompetible with the assent of Faith So that this text makes no more for the belief of Purgatory then the former The third and last Text then alledged to prove Purgatory was that of Mat. 12. to which the forenamed Author answers Non sequitur non remittitur hic neque in futuro ergo utrobique est remissio Quia ex negativis nihil sequitur sed tantum dicitur ad majorem gravitatem peccati blasphemiae It followâ—… not because it is said It shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come that forgiveness may be had both here and there for nothing can follow from meer negatives But this is only spoken by way of aggravation against the sin of blasphemy Thus that judicious man answers this Text and I think you can scarce shew any of your writers that have exceqted against his answers But the very same answers in Peter Martyrs mouth much displease your Cardinal lib. 1. cap. 4. For first he excepts against that part of it That the words were spoken by way of aggravation and tells us That by the same reason we may deny Hell it self and say those other words Go ye cursed into everlasting fire were spoken only by way of aggravation Pray let another add after him that we may as well deny heaven too and say that those words in the Creed I believe the life everlasting were spoken only by way of aggravation that so if we will not have a Purgatory we may not have an Heaven as well as not have an Hell in our Creed But if you think this in forme too irreligious pray think the other so too which caused it and you will not approve your Cardinal as the only Master of Gods Israel who is so ready to teach men to turn Atheists if they will not turn Papists For all the Christian Churches many years before us and most Christian Churches at this day with us have no belief of your Purgatory and yet firmly believe both Heaven and Hell For both are alike contained in the same Article to wit the life everlasting which teacheth us to believe this Truth They that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil shall go into everlasting fire But we have no third state of those who have neither done good nor evil but partly good and partly evil Good by avoiding mortal sins or repenting of them but evil by committing venial sins and not repenting of them Or good by repenting but evil by not satisfying And we have no third place for this third state of men to go into a place in which is neither everlasting life by it self nor everlasting fire by it self but a strange kind of medly which is made up partly of life and partly of fire only the life of it is everlasting but the fire of it is temporary not everlasting so yon see we may very well deny Purgatory and yet not so much as doubt of Hell because that very Article which teacheth us to believe everlasting fire teacheth us not to believe temporary fire But your Cardinal hath another exception against this exposition Exaggeratio non debet esse inepta qualis est quum fit partitio uni membro nihil respondet An exaggeration ought not to be improper and unfit as that is which makes a Partition and leaves nothing to answer one member of it Pray Sir who can imagine That Negatives are capable of a Partition any more then meer non entities and therefore an exaggeration grounded upon negatives may not be supposed to make a partition because a non entity cannot be supposed to have any parts or members As if I should say of a confirmed Christian He is not to be made a Papist or a Turk what partition is here of Christians into Papists and Turks 8. Secondly he excepts against that answer Nothing can follow from meer Negatives As Philip King of Spain is not King of Venice therefore some other man is King of Venice it follows not saith Peter Martyr by good Logick because it is grounded upon a negative So here It shall not be forgiven him neither in this world nor in the world to come it follows not There shall be forgiveness in the world to come The Cardinal excepts saying It follows not according to the rules of Logick but it follows according to the Rules of Prudence because otherwise we should suppose our Saviour had spoken most unfitly or improperly nay in plain terms most foelishly Respondeo non sequi secundum regulas Dialecticorum id quod inferimus ex verbis Domini sed tamen sequi secundum regulam Prudentiae quia alioqui faceremus Dominum ineptissimè loquutum An horrid blasphemy to say the eternal Word spake impertinently or Wisdom it self spake foolishly unless we may set up a false consequence to make his words good Is not this contrary to the wise mans advice Ne dixeris quia ipse me implanavit Say not thou He hath caused me err for he hath no need of the sinfull man Eccl. 15. 12. Let an insolent Dogmatist say what he pleaseth but a conscientious Divine must say God needs not my Lye to maintain his Truth no more then he needs mâ—… sin to maintain his righteousness For a consequence without the Rules of Logick is a Lye since it is a conclusion without premises an effect without a cause or a Consequent without
an Antecedent that is a meer nothing but pretending to be somthing it is no longer a meer nothing for it is a Lye which is worse then nothing I say A Consequence without the rules of Logick is a Lye and I am forced to say it as a Christian Divine That I may not betray the Truth of Christ nor bely the Church of Christ For how many Truths doth the Church of Christ teach me to believe which are Divine Truths only as they are Logical Consequences whereas it is palpable A Logical Consequence cannot be a Truth but an Unlogical Consequence must be a Lye I will instance but in one The Monothelite who said Christ had but one will is condemned for an Heretick by the sixt general Council and yet it is only a Logical Consequence That Christ had two wills from this Antecedent That two compleat rational Natures must have two wills Whence cometh this Syllogism Two compleat rational Natures must have two wills Christ had two compleat rational Natures sc. the nature of God and the nature of man Therefore Christ had two wills Here is a Truth inferred by Logical Consequence which hath a Being in it self and chargeth them for Hereticks who deny it because it is a Divine Truth whereas such inferences as are only from Prudential not Logical Consequences have no being save in the fancy of him that makes them and therefore Charges all with Heresie that believe them because they are not Divine Truths but only humane imaginations For it is an heresie to believe that for a divine Truth which God hath not taught in his Word neither explicitly nor implicitly neither as a doctrine nor as a deduction neither as a Theological Principle nor as a Logical Conclusion For such a belief doth not only set up Fancy or rather Falsity instead of Truth or man instead of God for the author of our Faith but it also disbelieveth that Truth whereof God is the undoubted Author For he which believeth that which God hath not taught concerning any Truth must needs in some respect not believe that which God hath taught concerning the same Truth as in this particular case concerning the remission of sins He that believeth remissionn of sins in the next world which God hath not taught must needs not fully believe remission of sins in this world which God hath taught For what sins are left to be remitted there cannot be remitted here so I must not believe remission of all sins here though upon never so earnest a repentance never so true a faith that I may believe the remission of some sins hereafter So dangerous a thing is it for any Divine to set up rules of prudence rather of imprudence instead of rules of Logick that is to say Phantastical additions instead of rational deductions even as dangerous as to teach men to believe a Lye instead of believing Truth For what is inferred from any Text of Scripture by Logical consequence is a Theological conclusion and may not be disbelieved without an affront to God the Author of Logick that is of Reason But what is inferred without Logick is not a Theological conclusion but a Phantastical Addition and may not be received by us either as Christians because it comes not from God nor as men because it comes not by Reason And I think such a conclusion is that of the same Cardinals lib. 3. de euch c. 7. Per divinam Potentiam posse ab homine tolli facultatem intelligendi interim ut maneat Homo That by Gods Almighty power may be taken from a man the faculty of understanding and he may still remain a man A Consequence doubtless from the first Article of our belief I believe in God the Father Almighty but inferred only by the Rules of this new prudence not by the Rules of old sound Logick and therefore to be looked upon as a meer fiction for it supposeth an Impotency in Omnipotency as if God could deny himself working contradiction and making a man not a man a reasonable creature not a reasonable creature at the same time and in the same respect But however this Consequence hath found us out a man fit to believe other such like Consequences For such Consequences are clearly without Reason and therefore the man that can believe them had need be a man without Reason 9. But it is high time to leave your Cardinal whom yet I had not traced so far had it not been to follow your footsteps and since our Countrey-man could not his own Countrey-man shall stop his mouth For Saint Thomas of Aquine as good an Italian as himself and a far better Divine seeth here no remission of sins in the next world but proveth the contrary both out of Saint Augustine and out of Saint Chrysostom in his Commentary upon this Text that is out of the two chiefest Doctors both of the Greek and of the Latine Church And he sets down Saint Chrysostoms exposition with the approbation not only of its Truth but also of its perspicuity Chrysostomus valdè planè exponit dicit c. Saint Chrysostom expounds this place very plainly and saith That we are here told of a twofold blasphemy one against the Son of God calling him a wine-bibber and for this they had some excuse because of their ignorance The other against the Spirit of God calling him Beelzebub and for this they had no excuse because they were sufficiently instructed in the Scriptures that evil spirits could not be cast out by an evil spirit but by the good Spirit that is the Spirit of God and therefore this blasphemy should not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come which saith he is spoken upon this ground Because some sins are punished in this world some in the next some both in this and that The sins punished only in this world are those of Penitents yet your Purgatory will needs punish them and only them in the next world The sins punished only in the next world are those of miscreants of whom it is said Job 21. 13. In a moment they go down into Hell But the sin which is punished in this world and in the next is the sin against the Holy Ghost Therefore it is said concerning that sin â—…t shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Non quia sit remissio in futuro sed quia poena erit in futuro unde sensus est quod non remittitur quin poenam patiatur in hoc seculo in futuro Not because there is any forgiveness in the next world but because there shall be punishment in the next world wherefore the meaning is It shall not be forgiven but he shall suffer punishment for it both in this and in the next world Thus the Angelical Doctor expoundeth this Text and his Exposition stood good a long time and was generally received in the Latine Church for your own Ferus hath followed it saying
of the Decalogue are noâ—…ess fundamentals in regard of our Charity then the twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed are fundamentals in regard of our Faith and it is as Catholick to abolish or confound an Article as to abolish or confound a Commandement and you may as well say there may be no errour of ignorance against one of the Articles as that there may be no sin of ignorance against one of the Commandements For the Decalogue is Symbolum agendorum as the Creed is Symbolum credendorum the one is a short summarie of Duties to be practised as the other of Truths to be believed and all the Decalogue is as necessary to salvation as all the Creed for as he that dis-believes any one Article is in the state of damnation so he that disobeyes any one Command And as God requires us to know and believe every particular Article at least in the purpose and preparation of our souls that we may be saved so also to know and obey every particular Command dispencing no more with our dis-obedience then with our dis-belief and exacting as much our knowledge of and obedience to his Commands as our knowledge and our belief of his Promises both Faith and Obedience must be alike as to the perfection of parts though neither is or can be as to the perfection of degrees As our faith is not a true faith able to save us unless in our desire we perfectly believe all that God hath revealed to us so our charity is not a true charity able to save us unless in our desires we perfectly fulfill all that God hath commanded us For God accepting through Christ the will for the deed both in our believing and in our obeying doth so accept us in his Son â—…s not to deny himself He takes that for a true faith which saith Lord I believe help thou my unbelief because it desires to believe whatever he hath proposed for the object of faith He takes that for a true Charity which saith We are not able of our-selves as of our-selves to think a good thought because it desires to perform whatever he hath proposed as the object of our obedience There is his gracious accepting us in his Son But he takes not that for a true faith which saith concerning the least title of his revealed Truth I will not believe for that is to question his being the first Truth nor that for a true Charity which saith concerning the least title of his imposed Commands I will not obey for that is to question his being the last or chiefest good There is his not denying himself God accepts us in his Son by taking the will for the deed both in our Faith and in our Obedience but he denyes not himself by allowing us to believe or obey according to our own wills for what we want of actual conformity to his will in our righteousness we are bound to make up by a potential conformity to his will in our repentance which is a plain demonstration that God accepts not of half-Christians either in believing or in obeying but will have us put on All Christ before he will accept us in Christ according to the Apostles exhortation Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13. 14. that is Put him on no less as your Lord to be ruled and governed by his commands then as your Jesus to be revived by the purchase and promise or to be anointed with the joy and gladness of his salvation For a meer speculative knowledge of the divine promises can bring no man to Christ without a practical knowledge and love of the Divine Commands and therefore the doctrine of the moral Law is as necessary to us Christians both to be known and to be practised as it was to the Jews and consequently whatsoever is propounded in the Decalogue is so really fundamental in joyning us to Christ the foundation that as it must be obeyed to keep us from refractoriness which separates the will so it must be taught to keep us from ignorance and from errour which separates the understanding from the blessed Redeemer and lover of our souls For as the Creed doth teach us to know God in Christ as he will be known so the Decalogue doth teach us to worship God in Christ as he will be worshipped The same Messias who came to teach us all things hath not only said This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17. 3. but also I know that his commandement is life everlasting John 12. 50. As his Creed is life eternal which teacheth us to know God in Christ so his commandment is life eternal which teacheth us to love and obey God in Christ I know that his commandement is life everlasting If Christ know it the Christian may not doubt it much less deny it And therefore he that denyes or eludes any Commandement in the Decalogue is in as great danger of damnation as he that denyes or eludes any Article of the Creed For a false tenent in matters of obedience against any one Commandement is an heresie in practicks and destroyes salvation if it be unrepented even as a false tenent in matters of Faith against any one Article of the Creed is an heresie in speculatives So saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God As if the Apostle had said It is no less damnable to err in the principles of practice then in those of speculation therefore he supposeth these also may be Hereticks saying unto them Be not deceived For corruption of judgement in duties of life may make an Heretick as much as in Articles of Faith especially if it be in any principle or ground of the Law as he which thinks he may be a Rebel or an Idolator and yet inherit the Kingdom of God is as much deceived as he which denyes the Communion of Saints and yet thinks to be saved For he doth impinge in as fundamental a point and consequently incurrs a most pernicious and damnable heresie For a Practical truth declared in any Commandement is a fundamental Truth and challengeth our knowledge and belief no less then a speculative truth declared in an Article of faith 6. And therefore Suarez doth justily and judiciously except against those who labouring to maintain the Infallibility of your Church do notwithstanding confess that she may err in doctrina morum but not in doctrina fidei in doctrine of life but not in doctrine of belief in matter of fact but not in matter of faith Disp. de fide sec. 7. 8. because saith he by and from any impious and ungodly decision or determination in duties of life must
avoid this danger and not to fear mens enmity for preaching Gods Truth 4. Pleasure in unrighteousness makes this Doctrine not rightly preached and not rightly believed 5. The Articles of faith not given to devour the Commandements therefore no sacrilegious or unjust person can be justified by faith in Christ 6. This gospel-Gospel-Truth to be embraced by Papists and not forsaken by Protestants though it hath been most abused of all others and was so from the first entrance of the Gospel whence the Catholick Epistles were written chiefly against the Solifidian Haereticks 7. The Doctrine of Justification delivered by St. Paul Rom 3. in two Propositions the one Negative That 't is not by works proved by 3. Arguments The other affirmative That 't is by â—…aith proved from all the causes of Justification viz. God the efficient Christ the meritorious Faith the instrumental remission of sins through the imputation of Christs obedience the formal cause And the declaration of Gods righteousness and mans glorying in God alone the two final causes thereof These 2. Propositions afterwards joyned together in one Dogmatical conclusion That a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law which is again repeated Gal. 3. and confirmed by Ten arguments 8. The best way of arguing in this heavenly Doctrine is by arguments that come from Heaven agreeing not only with the analogie of faith in the Doctrine they prove but also with the analogie of the Text in the manâ—…er of their proof 9. That Faith which is without works justifieth not gives not works a share in justifying 10. That Charity is greater then Faith gives it not a greater influence in Justification 11. This Text Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified for faith is not in hearing but in doing not in the ear but in the heart 12. St. James and St. Paul deliver one and the same doctrine concerning Justification That t is by Faith in Chtist not by works but St. Paul speaks of Faith more in relation to Christ its proper Object to teach the Jews the necessity of Faith St. James speaks of Faith more in relation to works its proper effect to teach unsanctified Christians the obedience of Faith 13. The doctrine of Justification by Faith without works is the whole scope both of the Law and of the Gospel as is particularly proved in the Epistle to the Hebrews 14. Good worke are necessary consequents of the Faith that justifieth not Causes of the Justification and are no further required of us by any of the Apostles or Prophets in the judgement of St. Austin St. Ambrose and St. Chrysostom Therefore Justification by Faith without works was then the judgement of the Catholick Church and indeed is now of the present Roman Church if we look upon her Devotions not her Disputes 15. To maintain Justification by mans righteousness is not only to forsake Christs Church but also to destroy it 16. Christs imputed righteousness blasphemously called a Fiction by Bellarmin piously acknowledged a Reality by Pererius hîs brother Jesuit But the Saints imputed righteousness is a meer fiction both in regard of the Imputation which hath no promise of Gods acceptance and in regard of the righteousness which cannot challenge it as being incompleat because of Original and Actual sin therfore not superfluous in the best of Gods Saints as 〈◊〉 proved by several Texts of Holy Scripture according to the exposition of the Catholick Church 17. All men being sinners no man can be justified by his own righteousness 18. To be justified by works is to be justified without if not against Grace Christ and Faith 19. T is madness and wickedness for man to set up his own against his Saviours righteousness yet self-Justiciaries are guilty of this madness and wickedness undervaluing both Christs death and the Redemption thereby purchased for true blievers The sixt Exception IBidem sect 3. pag. 196. Against Justification by works you alledge Being justified by Faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. But what faith The same St. Paul Gal. 5. 5 6. saith thus ex fide spem Justitiae expectamus sed fides quae per Charitatem operatur Here are works required to Justification as well as faith which must proceed from charity which according to St. Paul 1 Cor. 13. 13. is greater then faith and must needs therefore have the greater influence in our justification For as he saith Rom. 2. 13. Not the hearers of the Law there is faith are just before God but the doers of the Law there are good works shall be justified The Answer 1. HE that walks on battlements had need take a special care of his footing because if he slip he must fall and if he fall he must be dashed to pieces And such is now the walk of all Orthodox Divines in the way of Gods Truth especially this of justification the main Gospel-Truth 't is as if they walked upon battlements every step is slippery and every slip threatens ruin not that God hath left his way either dangerous or slippery but that some men have made it so their debates have made it dangerous their devices have made it slippery For some men have turneth Devotion it self into Debate to make Gods way dangerous and Doctrine it self into Devices to make Gods way slippery And concerning such men it is the Apostle hath said Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the Truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3. 8. They that use tricks and devices to elude the sense when they cannot evade the sentence of the Law Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are wâ—…itten in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 10. do like Jannes and Jambres withstand Moses by enchantments making themselves Aegyptians when God made them Israelites or making themselves Magicians when God made them Divines only they seldome cry out Digitus Dei This is the finger of God though they be shewed never so plainly his own very hand writing to convence them oÌ„f their resistance against the Truth For the same corrupt minds that make them resist the Truth do also make them reprobate or of no Judgement concerning the faith For who can be judicious in the Faith but from the Truth and therefore he that resists the Truth must needs be of no Judgement concerning the faith And since we find among all the multitudes of factious men so little Judgement concerning the Faith we cannot but feat that they have all more or less resisted the Truth I am the way and the Truth saith Christ So that if the Christian look directly and constantly on Him he shall not walk out of the right way nor erre from the saving Truth Surely then t is because we have not looked on our Saviour but on our selves on our own Interests that our strayings have been so many from this right
way our errours have been so many against this Soul-saving Truth How far this may concern the grand factions of Christendome I will not determine but sure I am they whose Religion is rebellion and whose faith is faction have no other Truth but their own phansies or imaginations and consequently can have no other God but their own Perverseness Yet we doubt not but as Aarons Rod swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians so will Religion at last swallow up rebellion and Faith will swallow up Faction and Truth will swallow up Phansie and Wisedome will swallow up Folly if not so as to be acknowledged of her enemies yet so as to be justified of her Children For the Apostle hath said most positively though more comfortably But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all And he that hath promised concerning the Preachers of his truth hath much more promised concerning the Truths they are to Preach especially those which so nearly concern the salvation of Souls They shall not be removed into a Corner any more But thine eyes shall see thy teachers and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying This is the way walk â—…e in it when ye turn to the right hand and when ye turn to the left Isa. 30. 20 21. 2. But if the Lovers of Gods Truth will hope to obtain this promise of a word saying This is the way they must endeavour to obey that command see that ye walk circumspectly Eph. 5. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Latine Church in the Text of Sixtus 5. See therefore how circumspectly ye walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek Church in the Text of St. Chrysostome See therefore circumspectly how ye walk Men that will not wander in the by-paths of errour must have their eyes in their heads to look about them to see which is the way of Truth and they must keep their eyes open in their heads to look before them to walk in that way If they want a good circumspection to look about them they may chance never come into the right way if they want a good Prospection to look before them they may soon go out of it self-conceit is a great enemy to circumspection self-interest is a great enemy to prospection and 't is commonly one of these two if not both that makes so many Christians not walk in the way of Truth but choose faction or phansie instead of Faith This may seem to be far fetcht but it comes very neer my purpose and I pray God it may yet come neerer some mens consciences For they who licentiously abuse this Doctrine of justification by faith in Christ choose phansie instead of Faith and turn the Grace of God into wantonness They who wilfully oppose it to set up their own righteousness choose faction instead of Faith and turn the Grace of God into nothing for as mans age so his righteousness is as nothing in respect of God All my goods are nothing unto thee Psal. 16. 2. Both alike with Elymas the Sorcerer seek to turn away others from the Faith and may justly expect the hand of God upon them selves to make them so blind as not to see the Sun of Righteousness for ever God of his infinite mercy take away this mist and darkâ—…ess from before the eyes of all his servants but especially of all his Seers for if the light of the world be darkness how great will be the darkness thereof If we delight in the inner darkness here how shall we escape the outer darkness hereafter If they were a rebellious people lying children children that would not hear the law of the Lord who said to the Seers See not Isa. 30. 9 10. then what are those Seeâ—…s who say to themselves See not who shut their eyes against the light and shut their hearts against the Power of this Truth But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. See the light of this Truth for it is evident see we the Power of this Truth for even the just shall not live by his works but by his Faith The just shall live by Faith q. d. The justest must that is hath that justice whereby he shall live eternally from his Faith not from his works from his Saviours righteousness not from his own God speaking this soul-saving Truth so plainly to the understanding and pressing it so powerfully upon the Conscience bids all Christian Divines admire his goodness in shewing the great need and benefit of Christ not discover their own wickedness in seeking to undermine the very foundation of Christianity Accordingly St. Chrys. expounds that precept see ye walk circumspectly of the Ministers of the Gospel Observe saith he how the Apostle doth forewarn and forearm the Preachers of Gods Truth againg all the oppositions of their and its enemies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole Towns and Cities waged war against them which the Canonist signally expressed after this manner Laici clericis Oppidò sunt infesti yet they are furnished with no other armour but this to defend themselves see that ye walk ciâ—…rcumspectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Give your enemies no other occasion of their enmity but onely from your Preaching which is an occasion rather taken then given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let that alone be the ground of their enmity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man be able to accuse you of any thing else and then your adversaries will accuse God not you An admirable gloss and seasonable for this Atheistical Age wherein men will not believe the Truth because they have pleasure in unrighteousness though St. Paul tell them plainly that they shall be damned for their unbelief That they all mâ—…ght be damned who believe not the Truth but â—…ad pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes. 2. 12. 4. It is the pleasure in unrighteousness which makes either the people not rightly believe Gods Truth or the Priests not rightly preach it and particularly this Truth of Justification by Faith which some of your Priests care not to preach because it will spoil their markets and some of our Priests had need preach more warily for fear it should spoil our people It is onely pleasure in unrighteousness that hath hitherto opposed this Truth in its doctrine or poisoned this Truth in its belief For why should a Truth so clearly revealed in the word of Christ so neerly concerning the glory of Christ so highly condâ—…ceing to the salvation of Christians be so violently opposed by some of your Priests in its doctrine but that it pulleth down the prices of Masses and Indulgences stopping the hands of silly and simple but yet liberal and munificent votaries Hence it is that Demetrius-like for love of gain they raise an uproar against St. Paul for it is not against us it is against him or rather Gods Spirit in him the main Preacher
of this Truth taking this for their chiefest Topicks for Maxima locus Maximae Sirs ye know that by this craft we have our wealth Acts 19. 25. For no other reason but covetousness can easily be alledged why the same men should so mainly cry up the Imputation of their own and their Saints imaginary merits and righteousness to the maintaining and filling the supposed Treasure of the Church and yet so mainly cry down the imputation of our blessed Saviour's real and allsufficient merits and righteousness to the exhausting and emptying the Treasures of the people Thus it is clear that pleasure in unrighteousness hath hitherto opposed the Truth in its doctrine making Mammons Chaplains not over zealous to serve God in searching out his Truth that they may believe it or over zealous to serve themselves in not preaching a Truth which they do believe Again why should so many other formidable Truths and reasonings concerning righteousness temperance and judgment to come in and from the mouth of the same St. Paul make a Heathen tremble and not once move so many confident Christians but that this heavenly Truth of Justification by Faith hath been hitherto amongst them not rightly believed or poisoned in its belief and what venome can poison the operations of the soul but onely that of the Serpent the venome of sin turning the grace of our God into wâ—…n onness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into petulancy insolency and unsufferable contentiousness for so the Greek Orator hath joyned these together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocr in Panath. contending against not for the Faith once delivered to the Saints or which is all one denying the onely Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Jud. 4. Such men do falsely pretend Faith in Christ who do not deny ungodliness and worldly lusts who do not live soberly righteously and godly in this present world for they cannot look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ The Grace of God which bringeth salvation to others will bring the great damnation upon them because they resist that grace betray that Saviour and belye their own Souls For most certainly the greatest miscreants that are would break off their sins by repentance and their iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if they did with the eye of Faith see a watcher and an Holy one coming down from heaven and saying Hew the Tree down and destroy it Dan. 4. Or if they did hear with an honest and good heart and Faith cometh by no other hearing that word of Christs forerunner in his first coming to save us which is therefore the fittest to put us in mind of his second coming to judge us O generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the Tree Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Matth. 3. For surely that Faith cannot justifie the sinner which cannot justifie it self a Faith that hath eyes and seeth not the watcher the Holy one coming down from heaven that hath ears and heareth not the crier the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths strait A Faith that lets men profess Christâ—…ans but live and act Infidels hardning their hearts stopping their ears closing their eyes lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their eares and understand with their hearts and should be converted and their Saviour the Physitian of Souls should heal them Thus it is also clear That pleasure in unrighteousness hath hitherto poisoned this Truth in its belief making men take phansie for Faith and think themselves in Heaven by their perswasion whiles they are even in Hâ—…ll by theit affections and by their actions not regarding that word which they cannot deny dare not gainsay If ye were Abraham's children who is the Father of the faithful ye would do the works of Abraham Joh. 8. 39. 5. For God gave us not the Articles of our Faith to be like Pharaohs lean kine to eat up the rules of his Commandments the fat-fleshed and well-favoured kine such as were fit for Sacrifices for himself much less such as were offered to himself for Sacrifices Therefore those can be no Gospel Instructions which teach men to devour widows houses nay to devour Gods own house and not onely his house but also his glory and worship under pretence of Faith for of these starveliug Documents we may justly say now and others will be able to say to the worlds end what is said of the starveling kine And when they had eaten them up even all the fat Kine that came up out of the river and fed in the medow This is all the fatness of Sea and Land which their Forefathers had consecrated to the Service and Honour of God it could not be known that they had eaten them but they were still ill-favoured as at the beginning Gen. 41. 21. He that hath commanded us to sanctifie publick Persons as Mininisters publick times as Sabbaths or Festivals publick places as Churches to his own worship will not cannot justifie those who sacrilegiously rob and persecute his Ministers mock and suppress his Sabbaths revile and profane his Churches For it were very strange if such men who are angerly reproved and openly branded for sacrilegious profane blasphemous persons by the Spirit of God should if they still persist in their Sacriledge profaneness and blasphemy be acquitted and absolved for righteous and innocent persons by the Son of God The Spirit of God calleth them enemies adversaries and such as hate him Psal. 14. Therefore surely the Son of God will not make them Saints accept them as friends reward them as servants Such a devouring Gospel as this was never of Gods teaching though it hath been of mens practising to the discountenanceing of Gods Truth and to their own shame and destruction that have practised it For God will never uphold those men in his Truth who discourage others from embracing it 6. Yet as long as Gods Truths are infinitely above all mens discouragements neither are your Priests excusable if they will not embrace them nor ours if they do forsake them notwithstanding both be as much discouraged as either open enemies or false friends and brethren can discourage them What shall the Sons of God come no more to present themselves before their Father because Satan will coâ—…e also among them to present himself before the Lord Shall the the Holy Angels be out of love with their own light because the Devil himself can and doth also appear an Angel of light no more may we be out of love with this heavenly Truth of being righteous by the righteousness of our blessed Redeemer because Hypocrites and Atheists have made it an occasion of or a pretence for their
end But the Faith which doth not this as it proceedeth not from the grace of Christ but from the strength of our own conviction and tendeth not to the glory of Christ So it is rather the Faith of Devils than of good Christians and may well let a man go to hell for it may go thither along with him and therefore as it is not the foundation of righteousnesse so it cannot be the foundation of blessednesse Again the same Father tells us That though our blessed Saviour had at first in effect called the woman of Canaan a Dog it is not lawful to take the childrens bread and give it unto Dogs yet when he saw in her soul â—…he fruit of that reproof he changed his dialect and said not O Dog but O Woman great is thy Faith Non ait O canis sed O mulier magna est fides tua mutavit vocabulum quia mutatum vidit affectum That Faith which Christ approved in her had changed the affection and 't is not possible but the Affection should change the Action and therefore St. James feared not to call an actionless Faith or a Faith not working by love a Faith not of Christians but of Devils Fidem non Christianorum sed Daemonum For they are not Christians but Dogs and Devils who persist in ungodly affections and in unrighteous actions nay indeed they are Infidels so farre from having true Faith in Christ that they do not know what is true Faith They rightly affirme saith he that whosoever will not believe in Christ doth in some sort sin against the Holy Ghost and put himself under a necessity of damnation but they do not rightly understand what it is to believe in Christ for that is not to believe as Devils but as Christians not to have a dead Faith but a Faith living and working by love Illud sane non absurde intelligunt eum peccare in spiritum sanctum esse sine veniâ reum aeterni peccati qui usque in finem vitae noluerit credere in Christum sed si rectè intelligerent quid sit credere in Christum non enim hoc est habere Daemonum fidem quae rectè mortua perhibetur sed fidem quae per dilectionem operatur Aug. ibid. cap. 16. I have of purpose alledged many quotations out of St. Augustine indeed most of them which concerned this argument that all the world may see that his intent in confuting those mistaken brethren who thought to be saved by Faith without works was only to shew out of â—…t James and the other Catholick Epâ—…stles what Faith it is that justifieth sc. a Faith working by love but not to ascribe the glory of Justification either to works or love because they hold of mansrighteousness but only to Faith which holdeth of the righteousness of the Son of God I will now to St. Augustine further add St. Ambrose who in his Comment upon the Romans cap. 3. hath these words Justificati sunt gratis quia nihil operantes neque vicem reddentes solâ fide justificati sunt They are justified freely by his grace because working nothing sc. worth Gods acceptance and their own acquitment and making no recompence they are justified only by Faith through the gift of God And again upon those words cap. 4. Credenti autem in eum But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly he saith thus Sic decretum dicit à Deo ut cessante lege solam fidem gratia Dei posceret ad salutem The Apostle tells us it was so decreed of God that the Law ceasing sc. as to that male diction Cursed is he that continueth not in all things to do them The grace of God should require only Faith to our salvation we find no mention of a Decree in the Text either in the Greek Original or in the Latine Translation yet St. Ambrose sets down the words thus Ei vere qui non operatur credenti autem in eum qui justificat impium reputatur fides ejus ad justitiam secundum Propositum Gratiae Dei To him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is accounted for righteousness according to the Purpose of the Grace of God not intending by the addition of these words according to the Purpose of the Grace of God that any should cavil against the true reading of the Truth as of late some Criticks have taught us to do but that all should understand the true meaning of it and no more question that in justification of the ungodly Faith is accounted for righteousness then they dare question the Purpose of the Grace of God This is palbably St. Ambrose his Doctrine and therefore he asks him Is it possible the Jews should think themselves justified by the works of the Law according to the justification of Abraham when they saw that Abraham himself was justified not by the works of the Law but only by Faith Quomodo ergo Judaei per opera legis justificari se putant justificatione Abrahae quum vident Abrahamum non ex operibus legis sed solâ fide justificatum He saith moreover That our Apostle proved this from the Psalmist pronouncing them blessed unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works Beatos dicit quibus hoc sanxit Deus ut sine labore aliquâ observatione solâ fide justificentur apud Deum He calleth those blessed concerning whom the Lord hath determined that without their own labour and any observation of the Law by Faith alone they should be justified before Him which are so clear and high expressions for Justification by Faith alone that for any Divine now to say works are required to Justification as well as Faith is either to suppose the Apostles and Prophets not to have known Gods intent and meaning or to suppose St. Ambrose and St. Augustine not to have known the intent and meaning of the Apostles I must yet further add one more Testimony that in the mouth of two or three witnesses this so heavenly Word of Truth may be firmely established And that shall be the Testimony of St. Chrysostome who upon the two first Verses of the fourth Chapter to the Romans where the Apostle speaketh of Abrahams Justification giveth us this Exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as much as the Jews did turn this point of Divinity upside down because their Patriarch the friend of God was first circumcised sc. before he was accepted as a friend The Apostle is resolved to shew them that even Abraham himself was justified by Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that a man should be justified by Faith who had no works were nothing strange But for one that flourished in deeds of righteousness not to be made just from them but from his Faith was very wounderful and doth exceedingly declare the power of Faith Therefore passing by all others he maketh mention only of him that is of Abraham Chrys. Aug. 11. in
must be done by Christians which Christ hath commanded and that Christ hath commanded all the moral duties that were before commanded by Moses for Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect Mat. 5. allows not a lesse but rather requires a greater perfection under the Gospel than under the Law yet we dare not take our Personal doing that is our doing by our selves for the condition of the New Covenant as if our Salvation depended upon that but only our Virtual Doing that is our Doing by our blessed Saviour whose obedience is made ours by the power of Faith or our hearty desire of Doing and sorrow for not Doing which is accepted as Obedience by the power of Repentance Bona opera per peccata mortificata reviviscunt per poenitentiam is the general Tenent of the School good works that have been buried by sin are revived by Repentance As our sins have power to bury our good works so our Repentance hath power to raise them up again which clearly shews it is not our Righteousnesse but only our Repentance that is above our sins For our Righteousnesse may be overcome and conquered by our sins but our sins cannot be overcome and conquered by our Righteousness we must go to our blessed Redeemer for that conquest but only by our Repentance 17. Wherefore I will make bold to change your definition and say Christs New Testament is a new conditional Covenant with us by which we are bound to repent for not perfectly doing all those things our selves which God hath commanded us and to believe in him that hath perfectly done them all for us that we may obtain the promised inheritance in which condition if we fail sc. of believing but not of Doing we shall never attain thereto for to put Doing properly so taken and 't is not for a Divine to speak improperly as the Condition of life or Salvation is to set up the Covenant of Works not the Covenant of Grace and that is to puzzle not to Preach true Christianity We find Adam had but one poor Commandement upon the first Covenant viz. Not to eat of the fruit of one single Tree among so many and he kept it not though he was endued with strength to keep it he was to do but one thing whiles he had his perfect strength and he did it not And how can you say that a better Covenant binds us to do many things or else to forfeit our inheritance now we have lost our strength and are not able to do rightly and perfectly so much as one Therefore pray let the Condition of life in the second Covenant not be our Doing but our Believing not our entire Obedience but our entire Repentance And let him alone have the glory of perfect Obedience who came from Heaven to purchase it and the rather because he purchased it not for himself but for us allowing the benefit of it to his Servants though he reserve the glory of it only to himself we must do the best we can to keep off and to east out the great Dragon that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan but pray let it be only the seed of the Woman that shall break this Serpents Head and let not us think we are able to break it Nor have you made the condition of Salvation any whit lighter or easier by saying we are bound to do many things our selves then if you had said we are bounâ—… to do all things For if Doing be the condition of life it must reach to All Things that are to be done else not Doing will be the Condition as well as Doing And without doubt if we can do any one thing so exactly and perfectly as fully to satisfie the Obligation of the Law we may do many and consequently All and then what need we the seed of the Woman to break the Serpents Head since we can break it our selves for if we can take away his sting we may easily break his Head Now the sting of the Serpent is sin and the strength of sin is the Law Therefore if the Law be fully kept sin can have no strength and the Serpent can have no sting I do not think there is in all Christendom so religious a Votarie but will confesse that the old Serpent hath at some time or other by his sophistry beguiled him with his venome defiled him by his power overcome him and that therefore in himself he hath been captivated under Ignorance guiltinesse and infirmity even through his actual sins and should still have been detained under that captivity if God had not mercifully given him such a Redeemer who was pleased to be his Prophet to instruct his Ignorance his Priest to expiate his guiltiness and his King to strengthen his Infirmities If he confesse this he hath great reason to mistrust his own doing If he confesse it not He hath the greater reason to instruct himself For his ignorance keeping him from the knowledge of what he is to do his guiltiness keeping him from the desire and his weaknesse keeping him from the power of doing it he cannot hope to be saved by his Obedience but by his Faith not by his Doing but by his Believing Thus St. Paul preached the Covenant of Grace saying He was an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the Faith of Gods Elect and the acknowledgement of the Truth which is after Godlinesse there 's the Obligation to righteousness in the Covenant of Grace But this righteousnesse is not the condition of life in that Covenant for it follows In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began Tit. 1. 1 2. The eternal life is not annexed to mans performance but to Gods promise not to mans duty but to Gds mercy For this promise of eternal life was made before man was created and it was made to Christ the eternal Son of God on mans behalf That all who should believe in him according to the Faith of Gods Elect and the acknowledgement of the Truth which is after Godliness should through that Faith come to eternal life Upon this Promise did God seek us when we were lost restore us when we were dead reconcile us when we were his enemies and upon this same promise will he save us now we are his Servants For though all men are lyars and fail of their Godliness yet God that cannot lye will not fail of his promise Thus again saith the same St. Paul For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5. 10. There was first an Atonement to be made for our reconciliation before there could be a Covenant made for our Salvation And as mans righteousness did not make the Atonement so neither doth mans righteousnesse fulfill the Covenant we are eternally obliged and should be wholy devoted to our blessed Saviour for both alike as That
A Christian Vindication OF TRUTH Against ERROUR Concerning these Seven Controversies 1. Of Sinners Prayers 2. Of Priests Marriage 3. Of Purgatory 4. Of the second Commandment and Images 5. Of praying to Saints and Angels 6. Of Justification by Faith 7. Of Christs New Testament or Covenant By Edw. Hide D. D. sometimes Fellow of T. C. in Cambridge and late Rector Resident of Brightwell in Berks. Holding forth the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers Tit. 1. 9. Idcirco doctrinam Catholicam contradicentium obsidet impugnatio ut fides nostra non torpescat otio sed multis exercitationibus elimetur Aug. Serm. 98. de Tempore London Printed by R. White for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford 1659. The General Contents of each Chapter CAp. 1. Of Sinners prayers p. 1. 2. Of Priests Marriage p. 13. 3. Of Purgatory p. 69. 4. Of the Second Commandement and against Images p. 129. 5. Of Praying to Saints and Angels p. 245. 6. Of Justification p. 359. 7. Of Christs New Testament or Covenant p. 471. Courteous Reader The pages above-mentioned will shew theâ—… the full Contents of all particulars handled in each Chapter TO THE Christian Reader HE that writes Devotion is like to please all good Christians and is sure to please himself because he walks with God in whose presence is joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore But he that writes Controversie is sure to displease many even all that are either Unchristian as coming short of Religion or Antichristian as going beyond or against it and cannot easily please himself because he walks among briers and thorns which may entangle but must annoy and offend his footing I did little think when I took some few steps in Golgotha to teach my self and prepare others how to dye That I should have met with thorns instead of dead mens skuls though I made a publick impression of those steps in my Christian Legacie for others the more plainly to see and the more easily to follow them But such is the contentiousness of this carping and quarreling age That it turneth even Devotion it self into controversie and no wonder then if it turn controversie into contention and contention into bloodshed Let the Apostle cry never so lowd Foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the servant of Christ must not strive 2 Tim. 2. yet this captious world will afford more questions concerning strife then Godliness not considering that the Spirit of God calleth them foolish and unlearned questions though they be invented with never so much wit and maintained with never so great learning And such I think are most of these ensuing questions raised by so many exceptions lately brought against the doctrine and practice of the Church of England by one G. B. neerly devoted to the Church of Rome 1. Of Gods hearing the Prayers of Heathens for what is that to Christians 2. Of Purgatory for what is that to the Christian Faith 3. Of Priests marriage for what is that to the Christian Religion 4. Of worshiping Images for they are both directly against Religion. 5. Of Praying to Saints 6. Of Justification by works for that 's against Faith in Christ. 7. Of Quarrelling about the words of Testament and Covenant for that 's at least vain if not profane or sinful babling As t is meerly upon words so t is vain as t is quarrelling upon those words so it may easily be sinful For he that saith Hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. bids us stand upon Propositions which signifie true or false not upon single Terms which are unsignificant as to the Truth whether speculative or practick for there can be neither Faith nor Love in them yet I have endeavoured to make the Answers to these Questions though grounded on such unnecessary exceptions to contain some very necessary and sound Divinity for which purpose I have put them into large Chapters and have assigned to each Chapter large Contents being resolved to answer the Cause for the satisfaction of others rather then the Objection for the vindication ofmy self And I think I had a good occasion and a better reason so to do for though our Brethren most oppress us yet our Adversaries most revile us and therefore every true Son much more Servant of this distressed Church ought to believe and observe his Church now speaking to him in the language of St. Paul Be not thou therefore ashamed of the Testimony of the Lord nor of me his Prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the Power of God 2 Tim. 1. 8. He that is ashamed of his Religion is ashamed of the Testimony of the Lord He that forsakes his Church when she is the Lords Prisoner did hypocritically follow her when she was the Lords free Servant and refusing to partake in the afflictions of the Gospel shews he embraced the Gospel according to the custom of men not according to the Power of God But the Word of God is not bound 2 Tim. 2. 9. These Truths which we profess according to Gods word will alwaies be professed to the worlds end though with less visibility yet not with less constancy and if Protestants shall go from them Papists shall return to them For God that can raise Children out of Stones will never be without witness among his own children and I look upon all Christians at large as his children though only upon good Christians as his dutiful children And if they should hold their peace the very stones would speak crying Hosanna to the Son of David our blessed Saviour ascribing unto him the Truth of our Religion and the honour of our Salvation And we desire no more may obtain no less Let our adversaries shew any one Tenent or Practice wherein we of this Church leave them to be more for the honour of Christ then that which we embrace and we will acknowledge our selves the worser Christians nor be any longer in that particular Protestant against them but detestant of our selves But till they can shew that we beseech them to shew themselves good Christians in not railing and raging against us for being so because we cannot think God hath given any Church Dominion over Religion or his Servant power above his Son yet men of their perswasion then most call to be answered when they least resolve to be satisfied disiring only to hinder Orthodox Ministers from confirming Protestants because they have power by prohibiting their own Proselites the use of their Books to hinder them from converting Papists yet for my part I should not have laid open the corrupt doctrines and practices of Popery had I not been constrained to vindicate Protestancy for I had rather spend my time and zeal about doctrines of Conscience the of Contestation or of Corruption and these for the most part are both
in doing or in suffering because there is no proportion betwixt an infinite Justice and a finite satisfaction This considered may I not be as gross an Ebionite or Cherinthian by saying there is a necessity of penal satisfaction as if I say there is a necessity of legal observations for the expiation of sin do not both alike diminish and disparage the efficacy of Christs death Or may I think that the Church of Christ by using the power of the Keyes in retaining sins intends to retain where Christ remits to wiâ—… in the true Penitent to the undervaluing of Christs merit in purchasing remission of sins and Gods free grace and mercy in granting it and Gods holy Spirit in testifying it Therefore I must let the satisfaction enjoyned by the Church die with the Penitent and not be required of him after death unless I will suppose the Church both able and willing to bind where Christ hath loosed For if Christ loose not the sinner here I do not find upon what grounds to believe That he will loose him hereafter So that we see if satisfaction is to be made by the sinner All must go to Purgatory and for ought we can prove tarry there eternally And so Purgatory will in truth be Hell If satisfaction hath been made by Christ then none at all can justly go thither And so Purgatory will in truth be Nothing certain it is no other satisfaction was given for all the offences of the good Thief though he were not a Penitent till the hour of his death and with what colour of Truth can any Divine teach that God will not take this satisfaction and this alone for all other Penitents And yet this in Bellarmines acount is one of the two supporters of Purgatory the other is Venial sins which may also be shaken in good time In a word The Place the Time the Quality of Torment the manner of tormenting the Tormentor and the cause or end for which souls are said to be tormented in Purgatory are all uncertain and how can the torment it self be taken for a certainty For it is not any mans confidence can make that certain which is invested with so many intrinsecal doubts and ambiguities nor any mans arguments can make that credible which is not certain But besides the uncertainty wâ—… meet with in this temporary Tormentâ—… which will not suffer us to believe it wâ—… find it casts an uncertainty upon that eternal Torment which we confess our selveâ—… bound to believe For as you rightly sayâ—… Nothing is more certain amongst Christiaâ—… then what is de fide of Divine Faith So crave leave to inferr from that sayinâ—… Nothing is to be affirmed de fide of diviâ—… faith among Christians which is not ceâ—…tain unless we will labour to overthroâ—… the Certainty of the Christian faith Fâ—… to require men to believe an uncertaiâ—… equally with a certainty is to invite theâ—… to disbelieve a certainty since it is not possible they should have one and the same Divine Faith for uncertainties and for certainties And therefore to teach men to believe Purgatory which is uncertain is the ready way to make them not believe Hell which is most certain Nor is it to be wondered That Bellarmines certainties concerning this doctrine should be so much enfeebled by his own uncertainties concerning the same no more then it is to be wondered that the certainty of our Christian saith should depend not upon the wit of man but upon the word of God 7. For this doctrine of Purgatory is so far from being taught in the Word of God that if you should ask those Disciples who have been most and best instructed in the Word Have ye received the doctrine of Purgatory since ye believed They must answer you We have not so much as heard whether there be any Purgatory and yet the same men will plainly tell you They have heard there is an holy Ghost and have received him though your over-bold Peltanus would perswade the world That Purgatory is as expresly taught in the holy Scriptures as the Unity of God and yet that is a little more expresly taught then the Deity of the Holy Ghost though blessed be God the Scripture is very express in both these Doctrines But in the whole Book of God there is neither in words nor in sense neither explicitly nor implicitly any such thing as your Purgatory which we cannot say concerning any Article of the Christian Faith That the thing we are bound to believe is not so much as really or virtually named in all the Holy Bible For an sit is as truly a precognition in the object of faith as in the subject of any question by that Rule of the Apostle if reason will not serve How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10. 14. We cannot believe what we have heard we cannot hear any supernatural truth unless God preach it and if he hath been the Preacher we may find the doctrine in his written Word which the most zealous defenders of this your doctrine durst not assert in former times For a very eminent Schoolman of our own Couâ—…rey Iohannis Bachâ—…nus lib. 4. dist 45. quâ—…unica answers all the Texts that were in his daies commonly alledged out of the Bible to prove Purgatory which were then but three though since they have swelled into a far greater number The first Text was that of 2 Mac. 12. To which his answer is Libri Macchabaeorum non sunt de Canone Bibliae ut dicit Hieronymus The Books of the Macchabees are not of the Canon of the Bible as saith Saint Hierom Nor doth your Cardinals new subtilty invalidate this answer Dico librum Maccha non esse Canonicum apud Judaeos sed apud Christianos esse I say the Books of the Macchabees were not Canonical among the Jews but they are among the Christians For the Christian Church had the Canon of the Old Testament from the Church of the Jews who not daring to make themselves a Canon took that which God gave them and therefore left out the Macchabees because they were not in the Ark that is to say not in that Canon which God had given them Nor hath God given the Christian Church power and authority to make that or any other Book Canonical which himself hath not made so for the Text is plain which saith To them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. Which words only shew a Trust of keeping not a power of making the Oracles of God either in Jew or Christian. The second Text then alledged to prove Purgatory was that of 1 Cor. 3. To which his answer is That the Apostle there speaketh of that fire which shall burn the world at the day of Judgement therefore that place will not prove such a a purging by fire as the Doctors suppose before the day of Judgement Benè probatur Purgatio ista conflagrationis in
Minus dicit plus significat vult enim quod non solum in futuro sed etiam hic punitur tale peccatum He speaks little but he signifies much for his meaning is That such a sin is punished not only in the next world but also in this 10. Your late Jesuites tell us of a remission of the sin with a reservation of the punishment but your old Divines take remitting for not punishing without which in truth it cannot be remission For God doth not afford us a less forgiveness then he doth require us to afford one another and that is so to forgive the sin as not once to think of punishing or of revenging it For indeed to forgive sin is nothing else in its own nature but not to reserve it to be punished and because God punished our Saviour for our sins it is said He made him sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. For so Christ took our sin upon him that is to say not our Guilt but our Punishment and he took it upon himself that he might not leave it upon us For he was wounded for our transgressions Isa. 53. 5. He was bruised for our iniquities that is He was punished that we might be acquitted The chastisement of our peace was upon him that is His chastisement was our Peace and with his stripes we are healed And blessed be God we are so for sure it is we could never be healed with our own stripes it is his wounds work our cure and not our own yet I will not follow Scotus who to confute them that denyed contingency did say It is pitty but such men should be under torments till they should confess it were possible for them not to be tormented I will not say in like manner It is pitty but they who deny our souls to be healed with our Saviours stripes should themselves be beaten with many stripes till they should confess that their own stripes could not heal them for then I know they would be under the lash for ever But I must say That it were just with God to put them under such a confutation For they are under a gross denyal not of a Metaphysical but of a Theological Truth and that of such a Truth as hath joyned Gods Mercy and Justice both together in mans salvation and therefore such a Truth as may not be denyed without great uncharitableness to man and greater unthankfulness to God I think few of those men who now most stand upon this new Divinity of remission in the next world to be obtained by our own stripes and others suffrages because it brings them so good a market would be willing at their deaths to venture their souls upon it for fear it should bring them as bad a remedy And I cannot but wonder at your Cardinal who hath said concerning this Text Hinc colligunt Sancti Patres quaedam peccata remitti in futuro seculo per orationes suffragia Ecclesiae Bellar. lib. 1. de Purg. cap. 4. Hence the holy Fathers do gather that some sins are forgiven in the next world by the prayers and the suff ages of the Church for he could not say this if Saint Thomas said true without putting Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostom out of the Catalogue of the Fathers 11. I know our Country-man Backet was swayed by Saint Augustine to conclude for Purgatory but I fear either he mis-applyed or mis-understood Saint Augustine or Saint Augustine mis-understood himself For Saint Augustine hath most dogmatically determined against it lib. 13. de Civit. Dei cap. 8. In requie sunt animae piorum à corpore separatae Impiorum autem poenas luunt donec istarum ad aeternam vitam illarum vero ad aeternam mortem corpora reviviscant The souls of the righteous are in rest of the unrighteous in torment after they are separated from the flesh till the bodies of the one shall be raised again to eternal life the bodies of the other to eternal death 12. But he that will not teach Fancy instead of Faith must take God for the Author and Gods Church for the Pillar and ground of that Truth which he teacheth else he may chance rove in uncertainties to the worlds end especially if he shall take Metaphorical allusions for dogmatical conclusions and florid declâ—…mations for solid determinations as Divines now usually are on all sides in their citations out of â—…he Fathers upon any argument making some of them speak against their own doctrine to speak for new devices and in effect to write contradictions rather then not write for the great Diana of these clamorous Ephesians Therefore I will not here examine the citations of the Fathers for surely A Christian Divine is bound to teach no other Faith for Christian then such as hath been manifestly declared in the Word of Christ and generally and constantly professed by the Catholick Church of Christ And your Cardinal finds not so muth as the word Purgatory in all the Scriptures nor in any one general Council till the fourth of Laterane under nnocent the third above twelve hundred years after Christ which was as far from being Oecumenical as Rome is from being all the Christian world and if it had been so yet hath only furnished us with Consultations not with Canons or Constitutions your own Platina being my witness who saith thus in the life of Innocent the third Venere multa in consultationem nec decerni tamen quicquam apertè potuit Many things were debated but nothing was openly decreed in this Council and I hope you will not say that they passed their decrees in private or by any underhand dealing An observation that may weaken some of your other Tenents no less then Purgatory which you obtrude upon the consciences of men as established by the Canons of this Council which in truth made no Canons at all if your own Platina be worth belief 13. Next I meet with your Cardinals Reasons whereof some do rather put then prove this new Article of Faith contrary to Aquinas who allows not of Ratio ponens but only of Ratio probans radicem fidei par 1. qu. 32. art 1. ad 2. arguing not so much from the authority of Gods Word as against it As particularly that reason lib. 1. cap. 11. Intelligibile non est quomodo verbum ociosum ex naturâ suâ dignum sit perpetuo odio Dei maneat igitur quaedam esse peccata venialia solâ temporaâ—…i poenâ digna No man can understand how an idle word is in its own nature worthy of Gods eternal hatred therefore let it stand for a Truth that some sins are venial and only worthy of temporal punishment A strange way of arguing for a Divine who should not exercise his Readers curiosity but establish his conscience Christ saith That for every idle word men shall give account in the day of Judgement to make men repent before hand even of their least sins that judging themselves they may not be
he never so glorious yet he is as far from God as my self for betwixt finite and infinite the distance is infinite whether the finite be glorious or inglorious for be he never so glorious yet he and his glory both are nothing in comparison of him to whom Cherubins and Seraphins continually do cry Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy Glory 7. Having vindicated mine own allegation against praying to Saints I come to oppose your Cardinals allegations for it which though they savour much more of learning authority yet not one jot less of impertinency And yet you and all yours swallow them as glib as once you swallowed the holy league and Covenant or as still you are desirous to swallow up all other Churches into your own pretended mother Church that is as that Behemoth swalloweth waters of whom it is said Behold he drinketh up a river and hasteth not he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth Job 4. 23. A large swallow you have to let down your own Camels whiles you strain at our gnats not considering the advice of the first Bishop of Hierusalem to his Clergy My Brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons Jam. 2. 1. If you had not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons more then of causes you would rather be exceptious against your own writers for most shamefully misapplying the holy Scriptures to set up your false worship then with ours for rightly applying them to pull it down since it is so much to the dishonour of Christ our Redeemer and to the danger of those Christian souls which he hath redeemed And yet your late writers seeing the unwritten word so unequal a match to grapple with the written word for the Protestants have opened their eyes though God alone can open their hearts and we pray him to open them do labour to prove all your false adorations and false invocations out of the holy Scriptures notwithstanding they are so plainly and so directly against the express letter of the Law of Moses and therefore cannot be according to the letter of the Prophets which are no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…aw But I will confine my self to your moâ—…â—…ed Dogmatist and desire you with me to consider the strange impertinency and if wilful the stranger imprety of his allegations out of the Text to maintain your invocation of Saints And amongst them all two only shall serve my turn 8. The first is that of Gen. 48. 16. The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads Hic apertè sanctus Jacob Aâ—…gelum invocavit saith Bellarm. Here holy Jacob did manifestly invocate an Angel If he did 't is manifest he took that Angel for the God of his Fathers Abraham and Isaac for the God which fed him all his life long and redeemed him from all evil for he invocateth none other to bless the lads but only that God so saith the Text God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which â—…ed me all my life long to this day The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the â—…ads 'T is palpable all these particulars do concern but one and him Jacob desireth to bless the children If that one were an Angel he did not pray for Gods blessing upon them so the lads were little beholding to him If that one were God he did not pray to an Angel to blesâ—… them so 〈◊〉 â—…olding to your Carâ—… Nay indeed all that are concerned in this Text for the Angel though named yet is not concerned in it are litâ—…le beholding to him for all are losers by this interpretation 1º God loseth his honour of accepting feeding redeeming and blessing his servants 2º Abraham and Isaac lose their God For it was the Almighty God not an Angel that said to Abraham Walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17. 1. and God before whom my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk saith this Text. 3º The poor infants lose their blessing for t is clear an Angel could not bless them but only ministerially from God 4º Jacob loseth his Religion for he calleth upon a false God if upon an Angel instead of God All these cannot lose by this interpretation the Interpreter himself be no loser therefore though I will not say he lost his honesty by seeking to wrest a text yet I must say he hath lost his authority by seeking to oppose it For it is not an exposition but an opposition of the Text when words are taken Grammatically in their own sense that should be taken Theologically in Gods sense The Grammatical sense of a word is according to its own signification But the Theological sense of a word is according to Gods use of it or Gods application As Genesis 18. 2. The Lord appeared unto Abraham but v 2. Lo three men stood by him And again v. 16. The men rose up from thence yet v. 17. And the Lord said and 't is evident by all Abrahams prayer that it was the Lord appeared unto him for he calleth him the Judge of all the earth v. 25. and v. 33. 't is said The Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham If you take this word men Grammatically as 't is in its own signification you must say Abraham prayed to a man But if you take it Theologically as 't is in Gods use or application 't is no less then the Lord appearing in the likeness of a Man and you must say That Abraham prayed only to the Lord So in this Text mis-interpreted by your great Doctor if you take the word Angel Grammatically as it signifies in it self 't is plain Iacob invocated an Angel but if you take it Theologically as God useth it 't is no less then the Lord in the likeness of an Angel and so 't is plain Iacob invocated none but God And truly the one Text might as well have been urged to prove that Abraham invocated a man as the other to prove that Iacob invocated an Angel Both good proofs Grammatically but neither a good proof Theologically For Grammarians look upon words as they signifie in themselves but Divines look upon words as they signifie in their use the reason is because the work of the one is to understand the Thing but the work of the other is to understand the Truth therefore as doubtful Propositions in the New Testament are to be expounded according to the Analogie of Faith in the Apostles Creed that we may have Truth in our Belief So doubtful Propositions in the Old Testament are to be expounded according to the analogie of righteousness in Moses his Decalogue that we may have Truth in our Obedience And as that Proposition This is my body must be taken Theologically that is in the sense of the speaker because taken Grammatically that is in the bare sense of the words it
Aquinas his exposition of them which was for praying to Saints He falls into this absurdity to say that at that time this Invocation was both in the custome and in the faith of the Church Tum in consuetudine tum in fide fuisse receptam which though Bellarmine be zealous to affirm concerning the Invocation of Angels yet he is not so hardy as to affirm concerning the Invocation of Saints A Tenent that creates their contradictions cannot invite our assent may not have our belief And the rather because Hieronymus Osorius a Bishop but not a Jesuit of their own Religion if at least the Religion of Jesuits may be called the same with the Religion of the Bishops in the Church of Rome in his Paraphrase upon Job gives us a quite contrary exposition of these words saying Denuntia quaeso alicui praestanti viro testimonium animadverte an sit aliquis qui tecum sentiat Ad quem enim ex Sanctis hominibus adibis qui tuae sententiae suffragari audeat Declare now to some excellent men your testimony and observe if there be any that hath the same thoughts with you For unto whom amongst all the Holy men can you go that will dare to be of your opinion This man was trained up in the Invocation of Saints as well as Bellarmine yet could not see how to ground it upon this Text For he expounds it not of Saints in Heaven but of Saints on Earth as Abenezra had expounded it before him Ex cujus ore sanctorum qui in terrâ sunt talia unquam audisti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Saints which are on earth out of whose mouth among all the Saints which are on the Earth did you ever hear such things But we may very well grant the words are rather to be understood of Holy Angels then of Holy men because he had spoken of the Angels a little before yet even so Bellarmines inference will not be made good that it was then the custome to call upon the Holy Angels for their Patronage tunc fuisse consuetudinem invocandi patrocinium Sanctorum Angelorum For the context will then require this sense as it is delivered by the most judicious and learned Mercerus Voca Angelorum aliquem eum inclama an vero eorum vel minimus tibi respondebit te suo sermone alloquio dignabitur Nullum sanè reperies Vides quantum à Deo distes quum ne Angeli quidem longè Deo inferiores te sint allocuturi si ad eos clames ob distantiam quae inter te est illos Call any one of the Angels and cry unto him and see if the meanest of them will answer thee or vouchsafe thee one word of discourse Thou will find none Thou seest then how far thou art distant from God when not so much as his Angels who are so far below him will answer thee if thou call to them because of the distance which is betwixt them and thee This is most probably the meaning of the words from the context for Eliphaz had a little before debased the excellencies of the Angels in regard of God and now comes to debase the excellencies of men in regard of the Angels all the scope and intent of his discourse tending to shew the emptiness and vanity of the Creature that so he might make Job humble himself before his Creator as hath been shewed a little before sc. Paragraph 3. 4 5 6. out of your own Pineda 11. But we must take to us the whole Armour of God that we may be able to withstand the assaults of men so furiously assaulting us and so watchfully besetting us To the Law and to the Testimony if others speak not according to that word 't is because there is no light no truth in them I ask then Doth this Invocation of Saints agree with the analogie of Faith in the Apostles Creed or with the analogie of righteousness in Moses his Decalogue I trow not For the one teacheth me to believe in one God the other not to call upon him in whom I have not believed and cannot believe And 't is clear that Invocation of Saints is against the whole current of devotions derived to us by the Spirit of God through the channel either of the Old or of the New Testament For there is scarce any prayer in either which our Saviour Christ who hath taught it us doth not pray with us for if he do not 't is in vain for us to pray since God heareth not our prayers but for his Intercession And therefore the Invocations that are used in the Psalms a peculiar Book of Prayers and Praises made by Gods own Holy Spirit for the use of his Church and constantly used by it in all ages are generally first spoken in the Person of Christ as appears in that he applied to himself very many of them as my God my God why hast thou for saken me Psal. 22. 1. and Into thy hands I commit my spirit Psal. 31. 6. and being first spoken in the Person of Christ are the more strongly recommended to all good Christians as composed by his Spirit sanctified by his lips and impowered and strengthned by his Intercession For Christus realis and Christus mysticus Christ personally and Christ mystically considered do constitute but one Communion of Saints He is the Head they are his Body and therefore they must pray in sin for in Schisme if they pray not to him as their Head for that is not to pray in Christs Communion as also in vain because in sin if they pray without their Head for that is not to pray in Christs Intercession Wherefore it being an undoubted truth that Christ was made obedient to the whole Law for man it necessarily follows that praying to Saints cannot be a duty of the Law but we must say That Christ the eternal Son of God prayd to Saints that is the Creator to the Creature And if it be not a duty of the Law how can it be command in the Prophets since they are but expounders not enlargers of the Law How in this Prophet Job whose book was penned in Hebrew by the Law-giver himself and only in Arabick by Job as saith your own Bellarmine de Script Eccl. cap. de Job because it is the judgement of the Catholick Church that Moses was the first Ecclesiastical Writer or the first Amanuensis and penneman of the Holy Ghost which by the way is another argument to prove that Bellarmine did not could not believe this Text of Holy Job was to be interpreted as a command Ad aliquem Sanctorū respice Look to one of the Saints but as a question or expostulation Ad quem sanctorum respicies To which of the Saints wilt thou look for without doubt so great a Scholar could not believe That Moses did bid us to do that in Job which he did forbid us to do in Exodus For the Commandement which saith Thou shall have no other Gods
are there joyned in one but also to the third Commandement and we think it very unjust that a few Italian Bishops and Priests should endeavour to lay those sins upon the Catholick Church which they ought to lay to and upon their own consciences because they have not only suffered but also maintained them in their own Churches For it is not crying out Templum Domini Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord that can acquit us from any act of sin against the Lord 'T is not the noise of Gods Church in our ears can expell the knowledge or fear of Gods Commandements out of our hearts God hath entrusted his Church with the Keeping not with the Making of Religion she is the Guide to it and in it not the Author of it That Power and Trust he communicated only to his Son and to his Holy Spirit because indeed it was incommunicable to any other For who can know the mind of God but God who can declare the council of his heart â—…ut only he that came out of his bâ—…m Shall not God have that privileâ—…e over his servants which men have ovâ—…r theirs to prescribe the way and 〈◊〉 of his own service or â—…all we alâ—…ow that disorder in Gods Family which we will not admit into our own There was no King in Israel when every man did that which was right in his own eyes Jud. 17. 6. If the Church may do what she pleaseth in matters of Religion 't is either because there is no King in Gods Israel or because Truth and Righteousness are not the establishment of his Kingdom For Truth and Righteousness come not from man but from God and therefore none can be the author of Religion but only God since that is nothing else but Truth and Righteousness Truth in Articles of Faith Righteousness in duties of life Truth in what we are bound to believe Righteousness in what we are bound to practise Therefore 't is vain to set up the Church which is only the Judge against the Law which is the Rule of Righteousness For we can go to the Church only for the Practice but we 〈◊〉 go to the Law for the Purity of Religion The question is here concerning the Purity of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Saints be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law of God but the 〈◊〉 is made only concerning the Practice 〈◊〉 Religion for they tell us it was alwayes used in the Catholick Church We look upon this answer as faulty for its impertinency because the question is matter of Right but the answer is matter of Fact and much more faulty for its Calumny because the Romanists thereby so labour to excuse their own as to accuse the Catholick Church For 't is plain that Christ and his Apostles never used it and we must look upon him as the Head upon them as the chief members of the Catholick Church since we can have no Catholick Church without them that is which doth not persist in their doctrine nor continue in their Communion And 't is as plain that no particular Church since them can justify the using it and consequently t is unjust as well as untrue to ascribe the use of it to the Catholick Church although it hath of late years been used in some particular Churches For even Nicephorus himself saith expresly Hest. Eccl. lib. 15. cap. 28. ad finem That Petrus Crapheus who lived neer 500 years after Christ was the first that brought the Invocation of the blessed Virgin into the prayers of the Church and doubtless she was invocated before the other Saints who is now and hath been for some ages so much invocated above them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut in precatione omni Dei genitrix nominaretur divinum ejus nomen invocaretur That this Invocation was not till then in any Church is a clear proof it was not of the Apostolick and therefore though it hath been since in some Churches cannot be a proof that it is of the Catholick Church For the Apostolick the Catholick are not two Churches But let us suppose which we may not grant that the Catholick Church as far as 't is visible hath of late years used it yet that is not a sufficient ground for us still to continue the use of it For we are to serve God not out of Custome but out of Conscience and therefore in vain do any pretend Custome in Gods service against Conscience in vain do any alledge the Churches usage which calls for Custome against Gods Law which calls for Conscience If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then what ye have received let him be accursed saith St. Paul Gal. 1. 8. The same reason is for the Law received in the Old as for the Gospel received in the New Testament Gods truth and righteousness are above the Church Triumphant in heaven much more above the Church militant on Earth not that either Church hath opposed or will oppose them for the Church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. but that they are above the Churches opposition For no creature can be to it â—…eli the rule of working no more then the cause of being and therefore its work of righteousness cannot depend upon its own but upon its makers will And Religion being the principal work of Righteousness cannot depend upon the will of the Church but upon the will of God This sublime truth is admirably delivered by the master of subtilties and sublimites Scotus in 1. lib. sent dist 44. in these words In omni liberè agente quod potest agere secundum praeter vel contra dictamen legis rectae est distinguere potentiam ordinatam absolutam Ordinata quidem conformiter agendo legi rectae absoluta verò agendo praeter illam legem vel contra eam sic dicunt Juristae aliquis potest facere de facto hoc est de poten tiâ suà tabsolutâ vel de jure hoc est de potenia ordinatâ secundum jura Quando autem lex ista secundum quam recte agendum est non est in potestate agentis tunc agendo secundum potentiam absolutam inordinaâ—…è agit non rectè Qâ—…ùm enim subsit tali legi tenetur agere 〈◊〉 legem sed quando in poteâ—…ate ageâ—…s est lex rectitudo legis poâ—…est tale agens ordinatè rectè agere aliter quà m lex illa dictat quia non subest illi legi sic ejus poâ—…entia absoluta non est inordinata In every free agent which can act according besides or against the dictate of law and righteousness we must distinguish betwixt his orderly and his absolute power his orderly power is shewed in acting conformably to the Law his absolute power inacting either besides it or against it so the Civilians tell us a man may do a thing as a matter of fact that is by his absolute power according to his will or as
practice have divâ—…rted the principal streams of affiance and love from Him who had the only right unto them and turned them upon those unto whom neither so great honour is due nor so undue honour can be acceptable Sands Survey of Religion cap. 4. Jesu God heal their Tongues that preach such Blaphemy instead of Divinity heal their Hands that write it heal their Ears that hear it and much more heal their Hearts that believe it and their Lifes that practise it that though thy Truth hath been outfaced by their Lyes yet their miracles may be outvied by thy Power and their Souls saved by thy Grace and Mercy For all the miracles they can falsly attribute to thy Saints as if by their own power and holiness they could heal the Body to make us go to thy Servants for help when we should go only to Thy self are nothing in comparison of that great miracle of thy power and greater miracle of thy mercy whereby thou art pleased to heal the Soul I have been the longer upon this Argument as I was upon the former because the false Invocations and Adorations used by you have given others just occasion to depart from you even those who were under your own jurisdiction and much more those who were not For as he that kicks against Heaven stricks up his own Heels so a faction in your Church of late years kicking against Gods authority could not stand so fast as to keep their own nor is it any reason you should expect others to be dutiful to you according to the fift contrary to that duty which they ow to God according to the four first Commandements 16. But though others of your party argue much in this case from Authority yet you think fit to argue from reason saying Now since God puts this great Trust in them with us ought not we to put them in Trust by reverently commending our selves unto them no saith Reason to which you have appealed much more no saith Religion from which you have started First no saith Reason For that teacheth us to invocate none that is not All-present to hear our request All-merciful to receive it All-sufficient to grant it and Almighty to fullfil it and therefore to Invocate no creature which hath none much less all of these Secondly no saith Religion And first the Religion that is in Heaven I heard the voyce of many Angels round about the Throne and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voyce Worthy is the Lamb which was slain to receive power and riches and wisedome and strength and honour and glory and blessing Revel 5. 11 12. This is the Religion you must practise in Heaven and why should you practise any other in Earth since you are taught to pray Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven you may safely take the crowns of the Saints and Angels and cast them before the Throne giving glory and honour and thanks to Him who was dead but now liveth for ever and ever for so they do themselves Revel 4. 9 10. But never was it seen in Heaven That any Saint or Angel did make so bold as to take the Crown off from our Saviours Head to place it upon his own There this is the only dialect Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created v. 11. And the dialect should be here as 't is there so saith the Psalmist O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker as if he had said before no other but only Him to whom we can truly say For thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created Therefore secondly no saith the Religion that is in Earth that likewise answers no to your quaere Ought we not to put them in trust by reverently commending our selves into them And surely we ought not For that very Apostle who hath written most concerning the benefit and the assistance which the heirs of Salvation have by the Angels Hebr. 1. 14. forbids them to worship Angels for fear of endangering their inheritance Col. 2. 18 19. Let no man beguil you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puft up by his fleshly mind and not holding the Head c. where the Apostles full intent and scope is to dehort the Colossians from the worshipping of Angels first from the dangerous effect of it no less then the loss of eternal life Let no man beguil you of your reward 2. from the vain pretences for it viz. the obedience or submission we owe to them as to our Patrons and the need we have of their Patronage the first hath a shew of humility but 't is such as God never commended in a voluntary humility The second hath a real guilt of curiosity for 't is such as God never taught intruding into those things which he hath not seen 3. From the wicked and ungodly causes of it and they are two Pride of heart vainly puft up by his fleshly mind and Ignorance of Christ as Head of the Church And not holding the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Angels are a part of this Body as well as men and this Head gives life to them as to us As all is Neighbour that is not God in the Law so all is Body that is not Head in the Gospel The question is as unanswerable if asked of St. Michael or St. Gabriel as of St. Peter or St. Paul Is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you or were ye baptized in the name of Paul 1 Cor. 1. 13. Is Christ divided from himself that He should not be the Head of Angels as well as of men or is Christ divided from his Body on Earth more then from his Body in Heaven Hath he put that part of his Body to convey life and motion and nourishment to this or doth he not convey life and motion and nourishment to both parts immediately by Himself Was any Angel crucified for us or were we baptized in the name of any Angel Was St. Paul a lover of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrys. in denying this honour to the Apostles and can we be lovers of Christ in giving this honour to the Angels Is it more lawful for us then it was for him to give the honour of the Head to any part of the Body or can we look for a reward of our service if we serve any of the Body instead of the Head Let no men beguil you saith He of your reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man make you so run as not to receive the Prize or so run that you may not obtain you may lose the Prize by running out of the race as well
of my heart prove me and examine my thoughts look well if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me this day and ever in the way ever lasting Ps. 139. 'T is an excellent observation of Abulenâ—…is Dicitur quod loquutus est Deus ne tantum beneficium vel tantus actus quantus est dare legem attribueretur Angelo ne crederent se Judaei obligatos Angelis Tost in Exod. 20. q. 1. It is said God spake all these words at the giving of the Law least if such a great blessing had been attributed to an Angel The Jews might think themselves obliged to the Angels The Jews might not think themselves obliged to the Angels for giving the Law and may Christians pray to them for assistance in keeping it If so how will you answer your own Baronius An. 60. n. 19. Quòd praecipuos Episcopos appellet Angelos planè significat instar hominum Angelos hominibus ministrare nec tantae esse excellentiae ut quae divina sunt iisdem tribuantur The Spirit of God in giving the Title of Angels to the chiefest Bishops doth plainly shew that as men so Angels do minister unto men and are not of so great excellency as that we should ascribe to them those things which belong to God All the world cannot say more against your daily prayer to your Guardian Angel He ministers to you no otherwise then your Bishop enlightning you Instrumentally by propounding directing applying heavenly thoughts to your understanding not efficiently by infusing or increasing them And by this reason you may no more invocate him for Illumination then you may your Bishop for he is not of so great excellency that you should ascribe to him those things which belong to God Till you can say of him that he hath opened the eyes of your body to receive the Light of nature how can you say to him Open the eyes of my Soul to rereive the light of Grace Till you can say of him he hath enlightned the darkness of the night how can you say to him Enlighten the darkness of mine understanding The Centurion had many servants under him and they all did come and go as he bade them to do any Acts of favourable assistance to the Jews should therefore the servants have the thanks and honour that was due unto their master I find that when Lazarus died he was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome yet I do not find that Lazarus said to his Guardian Angel who doubtless was one of them that carried him Into thy hands do I commend my spirit nor do I see how you can say so to yours unless you can also say unto him For thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of truth and if you cannot commend your Soul to your Guardian Angel when you die how can you commend your Soul to him whiles you live You may say with St. Stephen Lord Jesus receive my Spirit when it is to be carried to him by the Angels for they minister to this Lord But you cannot say Lord Jesus receive my Prayers when they are given or offered to his Angels for they are not fellow-sharers in his Lordship And this instance alone is enough to answer all your objections which you have gathered out of my ejaculations but if not you may take another The Psalmist saith The Angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him and delivereth them yet he saith not O Taste and see how gracious the Angel of the Lord is But O Tast and see how gracious the Lord is blessed is the man that trusteth in him Ps. 34. 7 8. My Guardian Angel is a ministring Spirit for my comfort but my God alone is an al-sufficient Spirit for my content None but he can give the Spiritual gust taste of a blessed immortality to my Soul who hath made it immortal and since my prayers are the chiefest means to procure this spiritual gust or Taste to my Soul how shall I pray to them who cannot give it I desire my Religion may be to me the beginning of my Salvation for so is Grace the inchoation of Glory and therefore cannot delight in such prayers as will not give my Soul the Antipast of eternity that is in such prayers as do not bid me say unto my self O Taste and see how gracious the Lord is because they do not ascend up so high as the Lord For prayer being a spiritual colloquy with him to whom we pray why should I pray to an Angel which probably may not be present to partake of this colloquy and indeed cannot partake of it if it be meerly spiritual that is only in the heart or if he could why should my heart leave conversing with God to converse with his Servant Is not this to undervalue that happiness which I can not deserve should not desert nay is it not to undervalue prayer to make it the depression of the Soul to the Creature which God hath appointed for the elevation of the Soul unto himself What though one Angel destroyed 185000. Assyrans may we therefore say unto him Remember not our iniquities nor the iniquities of our forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our sins And if we may not pray to Angels for the averting of Judgements then sure not for the obtaining of mercies since God useth them as his instruments for the one as well as for the other If we may as you infer humbly pray them to do those good offices for us which God hath appointed them we may also humbly pray God to give us leave to sin against Him in our Prayers for to break his Commandement is to sin against Him and he hath expresly commanded saying Call upon me in the day of trouble Psal. 50. 15. In that he hath said Call upon me he hath also in effect said Call not upon any of my Angels for that is not to call upon me Therefore dare I not pray to Angels for fear of bringing Judas his curse upon my prayers of whom it was said Let his prayer be turned into sin Ps. 109. v. 7. For if my prayer be turned into sin how will my sin be turned into Repentance or my repentance be turned into mercy and forgiveness If my prayer end in sin how will my sin not end in damnation your own Clement the 8. that corrected your Latine Translation which was of much longer standing in your Church then any of your corrupt devotions will rise up against you in Judgement if you will needs continue still in these corruptions For if he reformed your Bibles why should not you reform your Breviaries CHAP. VI. Of Justification 1. THe way of Truth in the Doctrine of Justification by Faith made dangerous by mens debates slippery by mens devices yet the truth it self never to be subverted or suppressed 2. The danger of not walking circumspectly in this way by taking either faction or phansie for faith 3. Gods Seers or Ministers above all are to
the hearers of the law there is Faith for what can any sacrilegious Enthusiast say more who robs God of mens hearts in regular and sound prayers to place all Religion in the ear sure there were many hearers of St. Pauls Sermon for it was preached on the Sabbath and in a place where prayer was wont to be made Act. 16. 13. who heard more than the law for they also heard the Gospel yet only one Lydia for ought we know was judged faithful unto the Lord and the text gives this reason of her Faith whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul Therefore the hearers of the law have not Faith but the doers of it at least in vote and desire i. e. those who labour to do it yet they when they have done all are taught to say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Luk. 17. 10. Their doings cannot fully reach the obligation of their duty and how can they be a satisfaction for their undutifulnesse All their works of righteousnesse when they have laboured to do all those things which are commanded and as they are commanded them will leave them unprofitable and much more must their works of unrighteousnesse make them unacceptable so that you have only supposed a false Faith in the hearers of the Law not disprov'd Justification by Faith in the doers of it for he that saith not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified doth not thereby suppose much less averre any men to be so compleat doers of the Law as to rely upon their good deeds for their justification 12. You might happily better have appealed to St. James than to St. Paul for justification by works and yet neither would he have befriended this your appeal much lesse have justified that your position for St. James doth not contradict the doctrine of St. Paul but doth only correct those who had misunderstood or at least misapplied it bidding them add to their Faith Vertue as St. Peter had done before 2 Pet. 3. 5. or not expect to be justified by it wherefore those two Apostles may very well be said to have delivered but one and the same doctrine concerning justification if we take their words not as we please but as they intended them for St. Paul writing against proud Justitiaries among the Jews who sought for righteousness from their own works according to the Law of Moses and rejected the righteousnesse of God by Faith in Christ strongly denyed Justification by works meaning works properly so called that is to say a perfect and perpetual observation of the whole Law because all men whatsoever Christ only excepted had many wayes transgressed the Law But St. James writing against licentious and profane Hypocrites among the Christians who pretending to Faith in Christ lived not according to the Rule of the Christian Faith but altogether neglected the study and practice of good works affirmed Justification by works meaning by works the very obedience of Faith or a working by love and obedience The one writ against the proud opposers the other against the fond Pretenders of Faith in Christ therefore the one tells the proud Jews that their works were not answerable to the Law in which they trusted that he might teach them the necessity of Faith in Christ The other tell the hypocritical Christians that their works were not answerable to the Gospel of which they boasted that he might teach them the obedience of that Faith accordingly as often as St. Paul affirmeth in sense at least if not in words That we are justified only by Faith so often he understandeth a Faith working by love Gal. 5. 6. or an unfained unhypocritical Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a Faith as belongs not to hypocrites 1 Tim. 1. 5. And as often as St. James denieth that we are justified only by Faith so often he understandeth a Faith not working by love a Faith only in profession or in perswasion not in obedience or in affection a Faith belonging to hypocrities not to good Christians a Faith in noise and in word but not in truth and in deed as appeares from the manner of his expression ver 14. If a man say he hath Faith for the Apostle would not say it for him because he had only a dead Faith A Faith without works and therefore without life operari sequitur esse the Faith of devils from the evidence or power of truth convincing the understanding not the Faith of Abraham or Rahab from the acceptance and love of truth converting the will therefore these two positions are not contrary A man is justified before God not by the works of the Law which he cannot have but only by Faith in Christ which alwaies worketh by love and A man is justified before God not only by Faith that is an historical knowledge of the Gospel and an emptie profession of Faith but also by works that is an affectionate love of the Gospel and a sincere obedience of Faith The former position is maintained by St. Paul against those Jews who rejected the Gospel of Christ the latter position is maintained by St. James against those Christians who profaned the same Gospel Both Apostles teach one and the same Justification by Faith in Christ only St. Paul speaks of Faith more in relation to its proper object even to Christ because he went to convince gainsaying Jews and to make them Christians St. James speaks of Faith more in relation to its proper effect even good works because he went to convert revolting Christians and to make them good Christians For so himself saith concerning Abraham Seest then how Faith wrought with his works and by work was Faith made perfect ver 23. He saith not By works was his justification made perfect but only his Faith whereby he was justified requiring works only to the Faith that justifieth but not to the act of justification And after the same manner are we to understand his conclusion ver 24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified and not by Faith only as if he had said From this example of Abraham you may gather that 't is not the wording but the working not the professing but the performing Faith that justifies a man before God requiring works in that man which is justified but not denying to Faith the power and prerogative of justifying 13. You have well reconciled St. Paul with St. James in your question But what Faith which intimaâ—…eth that a justâ—…fying Faith is such a 〈◊〉 as workeâ—…h by love but you have ill reconciled your selfe with St. Paul in your position That works are required to Justification as well as Faith which plainly asserteth the contradictory of St. Pauls doctrine And surely 't is not safe for any Divine to differ in this Doctrine of Justification from St. Paul no more than it is safe for him
imputativè tantum suum Christus sanctificavit populum Arg. 10. True righteousnesse not Imputative and If Christ sanctified his people not truly but Imputatively whereby He supposes Imputative to be not True Then say that St. Paul did forsake a True for a false righteousness because he forsooke an inherent righteousnesse for an imputative But take heed that in saying so you do not only injuriously callumniate St. Paul chosing to be justified by an Imaginary righteousness but also impiously blaspheme your Saviour by supposing all that he did and suffered for sinners to be made theirs only by Imagination And consequently That Justification is but matter of phansie not of reality which the holy Scripture ascribes only to Imputed righteousnesse For the Text doth plainly say Abraham believed God and it was counted or imputed to him for righteousness Rom. 4. 3. And again v. 5. His Faith is counted for righteousnesse anâ—… v. 6. David describeth the blessednesse of the man unto whom the Lord imputeth righteousnesse without works and again v. 22. It was imputed to him for righteousnesse He that shall consider these Texts and say Imputed righteousnesse is a meer fiction will scarce be able to wash his hands from charging the Holy Ghost with teaching a Fiction and may easily keep the Holy Ghost from washing his heart from the guilt of that charge Pereâ—…ius durst not so thwart the Text cap. 4. ad Rom. disp 2. but saith of Abraham as St. Paul had taught him That though he was just and holy yet his faith not his holinesse was imputed to him for righteousnesse Abraham licet is justus jam esset sanctus propter fidem tamen non propter opera Justitia dicitur esse imputata What a vast difference is here betwixt Two men not only of the same Church I mean of Rome but also of the same order I mean of Jesuits Bellarmine being a zealous Disputant strives to bring the Holy Ghost to his Position Pererius being a judicious Commentator strives to bring his exposition to the Holy Ghost For doubtlesse he had observed the Hebrew words Gen. 15. 6. to which St. Paul here related to be these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imputavit illud ei in justitiam And he that is the Lord imputed it to him for righteousnesse So the Jewish Doctor Solemon Jarchi who best understood his own dialect glosseth those words He that is â—…oly and blessed imputed it tâ—… Abraham for purity and Justice or righteousnesse because of the Faith through which he had believed him If Abraham were made just by imputed righteousnesse then so also are the sons of Abraham therefore said the Prophet Look untâ—… Abraham your Father Isa. 51. 2. exhorting all the sons of Abraham after the pattern of their Father to trust in Christ as saith our Church in the contents nay as saith Gods holy Spirit in the Text Foâ—… St. Paul argueth from Abrahams Justification to ours That as he was not so we cannot be justified by inherent but by imputed righteousnesse For God is alwaies like himself not one to Abraham another to us therefore as He justified Abraham so He justifieth us And Aquinas gives a demonstrative reason for it saying Tota Ecclesia quae est mysticum corpus Christi computatur quasi una persona cum suo capite quod est Christus 3. par q. 41. art 1. c. The whole Church which is the mystical body of Christ is computed but as one person with its Head which is Christ Abraham the Father of the faithful and all his children are members of one and the same mystical body therefore they have all but one and the same righteousnesse whereby to be justified And Christ is the Head of that mysticall body therefore they all have His righteousness imputed to them for their Justification To set up another righteousness for this is to set up another Head and to set up another Head is to destroy the Body The righteousnesse of the Head is communicated and may be imputed to all the members of his Body because Head and Body make but one Person But the righteousnesse of one member is not communicable and may not be imputed to another member because all the members make several persons forasmuch as the Body whereof they are members is not natural but mystical so we have in the judgment of Aquinas great reason to believe the imputed righteousnesse of Christ but none at all to believe the imputed righteousnesse of the Saints For the Head hath but the members have not a communicable righteousnesse For though the Head and all the members make but one Person mystical yet the members make several distinct persons naturall and several distinct persons as they have their subsistencies so they have their properties and operations both alike incommunicable Each member hath its own righteousness not possibly to be communicated to another because it is confined to its own subject and therefore not truly imputed to another because it is not communicated This is a kind of imputed righteousness which is a meer figment or a fiction but 't is a righteousnesse both taught and imputed by man not by God even in the superfluous or superabunant righteousness of the Saints put into the treasure of the Church if we may believe your Authors to be communicated to those that want merits or satisfaction of their own either merits of their own working or satisfaction of their own making This imputed rightousnesse of man is in truth a meer fiction both in regard of the imputation and in regard of the righteousnesse First In regard of the imputation for it is againg the nature of Justice that one mans righteousness should be imputed for the satisfaction of another mans unrighteousnesse without his consent that is to be satisfied but God hath nowhere declared much less promised his consent to receive such satisfaction So that the imputing one mans righteousnesse to another must needs be vain because God may be thought not to accept it nay more it must needs be sinfull because man may be thought to prescribe if not to extort Gods acceptance And if there be vanity and sin in the imputation we must say there is fiction in it for having its very being in Vanity and sin it cannot have a real but a meer imaginary or fictitious being Secondly This imputed righteousness of men is a meer fiction in regard of the righteousnesse it self For it supposeth the righteousness of the creature to make condigne satisfaction to the Justice of the Creator which is impossible because the one is finite the other is infinite Nay yet farther to heighthen this impossibility at least in our conception though not in truth it supposeth the righteousness of the creature not only to satisfie for its own but also for anothers unrighteousnes whereas it is the opinion of some of the best Scholemen even of Bernard Scotus and Gabriel if we may believe Vasques That no creature can have a righteousnesse adequate
say it for he is cordially turning to him in all Thus was it with St. Peter look upon the course of his obedience you find him after his greatest undertakings grievously turning away from our blessed Saviour but look upon his repentance you find him earnestly turning to him Christ assured him his Faith should not fail and yet he should deny him thrice But we are sure his works failed and may be as sure our own works will fail so we must trust to our faith not to our works if we desire not to fail of our Justification 18. And I would gladly know how your doctrine of justification by works can agree with these three Scripture expressions justified by his free grace Rom. 3. 24. justified by Faith Rom. 5. 1. and justified by his blood Rom. 5. 9. For grace and works are set down as contraries mutually expelling one the other in the matter of Justification Rom. 11. 6. If by Grace then is it no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace But if it be of Works then is it no more Grace otherwise Work is no more Work So also Christ and Works Gal. 2. 21. If righteousnessâ—… come by the Law then Christ is dead in vaine So also Faith and Works Rom. 3. 28. A man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law so that to be justified by Works is to be justified without Grace without Christ without Faith unless we will make contraries not only abide but also agree one with another whereas in the doctrine of Justification by Faith all these expressions are as admirably reconciled among themselves as they are powerfully and plainly used to set forth our reconciliation with God For to be justified by Grace and by Christ and by Faith are so far from being contraries that they all speak one and the same truth namely this That we are justified through the free grace of Goâ—… for the mâ—…rit and bâ—…ood of Christ by a lively Faith applying that blood unto our souls and our souls unâ—… our God 〈◊〉 a lively Faith is not wiâ—…out works in the man 〈◊〉 justâ—…fieth though it be in the act of jusâ—…ification And therein it must be without â—…ks that it may be with Christ for if righteousnesse come by works it cannot come by Christ. 19. And what a madnesse is it for frail and weak flesh what a wickednesse is it for corrupt and sinful flesh to set up its own instead of its Saviours righteousnesse For though this doctrine may pretend to be most zealous for obedience yet is it in truth most averse from it nay most opposite against it so saith the Apostle Rom. 103. For they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God This was a great disobedience in the Jews but a greater in the Christians for they might be ignorant of the righteousnesse of God who knew not Christ not so we who know him Therefore if they in going about to establish their own righteousness did not submit unto the righteousness of God then we by going about to establish our righteousness must needs moreover wilfully resist and disobey Gods righteousness And in vaine do we talk of any other obedience whiles we are guilty of this resistance Yet I fear he came very near this guilt who said that justification by Faith alone was a most pestilent doctrine pestilentissimum dogma Stapâ—…eton qu. quodl 3. c. 9. cum itaque forgetting sure that St. Paul had fi st taught it And they who denounced Anathema against those who maintain this doctrine si quis dixerit solâ fide impium justificari Anathema sit Concil Trid. ses 6. can 9. forgetting sure that St. Paul still maintained it for their expurgatory Criticks durst not expunge this Position out of his Epistles though they durst out of the Index made upon them And this guilt must needs be very dangerous if not fully damnable because it labours to establish our own instead of our Saviours righteousness for so the same Council can 11. si quis dixerit justificari homines solâ imputatione justitiae Christi Anathema â—…it If any say that men are justified only by the imputation of Christs righteousnesse let him be accursed Jesu God didst thou give us thy righteousness to be imputed to us to bless us by taking away the guilt of our sins that in thee all the Nations of the earth might be blessed Gen. 22. 18. and shall any Ministers of thy Gospel dare to curse us for relying upon the imputation of thy righteousness was not our sin made thine that thy righteousness might be made ours and how can it be made ours but by imputation or why is it made ours by imputation but only for our Justification so saith the Text expressely 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him As Christ was made sin for us so we are made righteousnesse in Christ neither the one nor the other by inherence therefore both alike by imputation for a third way is unimaginable Therefore St. Augustine thus glosses the forecited text Ipse peccatum nos justitia nec nostra sed Dei nec in nobis sed in ipso sicut ipse peccatum non suum sed nostrum nec in se sed in nobis He was made sin and we were made righteousnesse not our own but Gods righteousnesse nor in our selves but in our Saviour as he was made sin not his own but our sin nor in himself but in us That is in one word we are so made the righteousnesse of God in him as he was made sin for us to wit by imputation Therefore neither St. Paul nor St. Augustine neither Scripture nor Church were much regarded by him who made a meer scoffe of this imputation as if it were a phansied Chimera of mans invention and not a real mercy of Gods Donation And what else doth that argumentation import urged by your great Doctor si concupiscentia est verum peccatum tum Christus non verè sed imputativè redemit nos a peccatis Bellar. de am gr lib. 5. c. 9. If concupiscence be a sin then Christ hath not tâ—…uely buâ—… imputatively redeemed us from our sins why did he say imputativè for putativè imputatively for putatively but only to perswade the world that imputation is but a meer imagination This seems to be the drift of his argument to make good mans righteousnesse as that which is not at all infected by original and therefore may not be at all impaired by actual sin and this is little lesse in the business of Justification than to make void the righteousnesse of Christ. It was a wretchednesse to say Concupiscence is no sin in the regenerate which St. Paul called a sin in himself above ten times together Rom. 7. But it was moreover a wickednesse to say
overthrows the analogie of Faith in the Apostles Creed concerning Christs natural body for that was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried ascended into heaven and now sitteth on the right hand of God which cannot be truly said of Christs Sacramental Body in the blessed Eucharist So this Proposition The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads must be taken Theologically that is in the sense of the speaker because taken Grammatically that is in the bare sense of the words it overthrows the analogy of righteousness in Mâ—…ses his Decalogue ascribing that to an Angel which is proper and peculiar to God alone by vertue of the first Commandement as to be the God before whom Abraham and Isaac did walk the God which had fed Jacob all his life and had redeemed him from all evil and could bless the lads by his own authority both with temporal and with spiritual blessings â—…or he that saith Thou shalt have no other Gods but me saith Thou shalt not have an Angel instead of me as if thy Fathers had walked before him thou wert to be fed from him to be redeemed by him to 〈◊〉 blessed through him The analogie o Righteousness or of Religion in the first Commandement admits not this interpretation therefore though it be Grammatically true in the sense of the words yet 't is Theologically false in the sense of the speaker for Gods Spirit speaketh not contradictorily to himself And being proved to be Theologically false because it is against the analogy of righteousness or of Religion it is easie to prove it Logically false because it is against the analogy of reason And truly so it is in three respects 1. In respect of the Proposition The Predicate not agreeing with the Subject and therefore though an Angel be named yet he is not intended because he is named with such a property or attribute as belongs only to God viz Redeeeming from all evil and Blessing with all good 2. This interpretation is Logically false in respect of the connexion the Proposition not agreeing with the Antecedents and Consequents For an Angel cannot be the God before whom Iacobs Fathers walked by whom Iacob himself was fed and redeemed from whom Iacobs children could be blessed 3. This interpretation is Logically false in respect of the deduction because if an Angel be here meant as he is named it will follow that an Angel hath the Kingdome and Power may have the Glory and worship of God And now pray Sir consider how distant are your proceedings from that love of truth that candor of Ingenuity that care of conscience which should be among Christian Divines both in rejecting those interpretations of the holy Scriptures against praying to Saints whether Angels or Men which are undoubtedly true not only Grammatically but also Theologically and Logically and in embracing those interpretations for praying to Saints which are undoubtily false if not Grammatically yet at least both Thelogically and Logically in all these respects And such will be found all the interpretations of the Text alledged by your late Divines in this argument if they be diligently examined either according to the analogy of Religion or according to the analogy of Reason But I return to this which cannot be made true in the judgement of the most eminent Divines both of Greek and Latine Church I will name you two St. Chrysostome for the Greek and St. Thomas of Aquine for the Latine Church 1. St. Chryst. for the Greek Church who upon these words The Angel which redeemed me from all evils bless the lads gives us this gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 66. in Genesin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O thankful resolution O Soul loving of God how doth the remembrance of his benefit dwell and lodge in his heart That God saith he whom my Fathers pleased who sed me from my youth until now who from the beginning delivered me from all evil He who hath shewed such signal providence towards me He bless these Children See here in St. Chrysostomes gloss Jacob prayed to God not to the Angel to bless his grand Children And He was the mouth of the Greek Church 2. St. Thomas of Aquine saith the same but much more perspicuously as to the Confutation of Bellarmines errour though not as to the confirmation of Gods truth For whereas Bellarmine saith Jacob invocated an Angel The Angelical Dr. saith he did not but that he called the God of his Fathers His Angel for these are his words upon the place Videtur quod Deum Patrum suorum suum vocat Angelum sui protectorem salvatorem unde postea in singulari dicit Benedicat pueris istis It seems that he calleth the God of his Fathers his Angel and his Protector and saviour whence it is that afterward he saith in the singular number though he had named two sc. God and the Angel He bless the lads nisi forte Angelicam benedictionem divinae benedictioni tanquam comministram sive subministraÌ„ adjungat sed modus loquendi quem tenet si benè advertatur magis sapit primum modum Unless you will say that He annexeth the Angelical benediction as ministerial to the Divine But the manner of his speech if it be well observed rather calleth for the first interpretation This was Aquinas his judgement after his most serious deliberation upon the words and we may well look upon it as the judgement of the Latine Church the rather because He was the chief Captain of the Schoolemen and though he laboured to prove the same conclusion with Bellarmine yet not by the same praemisses but he leaves out this as not thinking it a fit proof and is contented only with that of Job 5. 1. Voca si est qui tibi respondeat ad aliquem sanctorum convertere which is another of your Cardinals allegations out of the Text to prove the Invocation of Saints 9. And He is so over zealous for this proof lib. 2. de Verbo Dei cap. 12. That when Chemnitius had said the Text was corruptly interpreted in the Vulgar translation His answer is Fortè fuisse ebrium quum hoc scripsit Chemnitium Perchance Chemnitius was drunk when he writ this Bad words are seldom signs of a good cause but often more then signs they are proofs of a bad temper And we know that there is a sort of men which are drunken but not with wine that stagger but not with strong drink Isa. 29. 9. Those upon whom the Lord hath poured out the spirit of deep sleep and hath closed their eyes v. 10. and that this judgement is chiefly denounced against them who teach the fear of God by the precept of men v. 13. or who teach for Doctrines the Commandements of men as our blessed Saviour hath explained those words Mat. 15. 9. for concerning those it is said The wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of
abominable unrighteousness For even immediately after the first clear preaching of Justification by Faith we find a strange generation of licentious and ungodly men who did boast of Faith in Christ without good works committing all manner of sin with greediness and without remorse This gave occasion to St. Peter St. John St. James and St. Jude who all writ after St. Paul to direct their stiles chiefly against such vain boasters of this empty Faith and their Epistles were afterwatds peculiarly called Catholick for this reason amongst others That they were all written in Vindication of the true Catholick Faith which did teach a man so to believe in Christ as to have his life answerable to his belief This account doth St. Peter give for himself saying I have written briefly exhorting and testifying That this is the true Grace of God wherein ye stand 1 Pet. 5. 12. As if he had said These two things I have chiefly proposed to my self in my writing 1. To testifie the doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Grace of God in Christ to be the onely doctrine to bring you to eternal Salvation 2. To Perswade you to stand fast and persevere in that doctrine by leading your lives answerable to your profession And this account may we give concerning the rest of the Authors of the Catholick Epistles for thus the whole Argument of St. Johns first Epistle consists of those two principal parts of the Christian Religion The Promises and the Precepts of the Gospel For to the Promises we must refer all that he speaks of Communion with God of the expiation of our sins by the blood of Christ and of the hope of eternal life To the Precepts we must refer all that he speaks of true Faith in Christ of living godly and righteously according to that Faith and of loving God sincerely or not loving the world that we may live godly and of loving our Bretheren sincerely not hypocritically That we may live righteously The like may we say for St. James and St. Jude that their Epistles are chiefly against the Solifidean Hereticks and are therefore filled with divers exhortations to several Christian Virtues which they had deserted and with Dehortations from the the contrary vices which they had committed And we may be Catholicks in this doctrine of Justification according to these Catholick Epistles and yet still deny Justification by works For it is only the Faith in Christ that is justified by its works but the man is still justified only by his Faith 7. You are as zealous for Justification by works as St. Paul is against it with what good Conscience I cannot say but sure upon no good ground yet you have appealed to St. Paul himself as the Judge of this controversie to decide on your side and accordingly to St. Paul you shall go who sure will very little befriend you by his decision For I pray what works can any man do which are not comprised under The works of the Law But it is St. Paul's most absolute Determination Therefore by the deeds or works of the Law there shall no flesh be justified Rom. 3. 20. He that looks upon the foregoing words setting forth the abominable sins that were in the best of men then living the Jews and in those times wherein they lived best even the times of David and Hezekiah for all the proofs here concerning their wickedness are taken out of the Psalms and the Prophesie of Isaiah will easily acknowledge that the words though particular in their occasion yet are universal in their Instruction and do set forth the general corruption of all men whatsoever whereby they are most grievous transgressours of the Law and most odious in the sight most obnoxious to the Justice of God for their transgressions This considered He must be led by the spirit of errour who will not see the evidence and by the spirit of contradiction who will gainsay the power of St. Paul's conclusion Therefore by the works of the Law there shal no flesh be justified for it followeth upon these Premises No Transgressour of the Law can be justified by the works of the Law But all men whatsoever are transgressours of the Law Therefore no man whatsoever can be justified by the works of the Law which is as much as to say That no man whatsoever can be justified by works for all works whatsoever are reducible to the works of the Law as being done through obedience to its authority and not rightly done but through compliance with and conformity to its righteousness And to this Argument he adds another v. 27. which may be put into this Syllogism The Law of works doth not wholly exclude mans boasting in his Justification But God will have mans boasting wholly excluded in his Justification Therefore The Law of works doth not justifie The Major is further proved by Rom. 4. 2. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath wherof to glory The Minor by Eph. 2. 8 9. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith not of works lest any man should boast what remains then for the conclusion but that the Law of works doth not justify For if it justified not Abraham who had so good works as to be called the friend of God much less will it justify me who by my wicked deeds am become Gods enemy We have yet a third argument in this very place v. 29 30. which concludes thus If Justification were by the works of the Law then onely the Jews who alone had the Law written in tables could be justified and God should regard the salvation of no other people save of the Jews But these consequents are directly against the goodness of God and the whole scope or Tenor of his Word Therefore so is that Antecedent that Justification is by works of â—…e Law These are St. Paul's three arguments in this place for his Negative conclusion which is against Justification by works And he is not contented with this but he gives us also an affirmative conclusion which is for Justification by Faith v. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ which he fully explaineth and confirmeth from all the causes of our Justification The principal efficient cause is God of whom it is said v. 30. It is one God that shall justify by Faith and through Faith and this needs no other proof because no other could give us our blessed Jesus for a Saviour nor can give us Faith to be made partakers of his salvation The meritorious cause is Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man v. 25. Whom God hâ—…th set forth to be a propitiation The instrumental cause is Faith v. 22. The 〈◊〉 of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ upon all that beâ—…eve for there is no apprehending of Christ without 〈◊〉 as there is no righteousness and salvation without Christ and again v. 25. through Faith in his blood not excluding any other act of his Mediatorship
though instancing onely in the shedding of his blood which was the chiefest act of his passive obedience whereby he merited for us the remission of sins The formal cause for Justification being an action and therefore an accident cannot properly have a material cause though you by your inherent righteousness do a little intrench upon this Rule of Logick I say the formal cause of Justification is expressed v. 25. to wit The remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God not excluding sins present and to come as if they were not also remitted but onely nameing sins past that we might not think Justification doth give us a liberty of future sininng The formal cause then of Justification is the remission of sins For God doth so far justify us or accept and account us for just and righteous as far as he doth pardon our sins and absolve and acquit us from condemnation for Christs righteousness Thus it was God be merciful to me a sinner which made the Publican go away justified St. Luke 18. 13 14. not his own merit but Gods mercy And this is that doctrine which St. Paul preacheth with a Notum sit omnibus et singulis Bâ—… it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unâ—…o you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 38 39. If forgiveness of sins and justification be not one and the same how is this a good consequence Through Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that beleeve are justified For this cannot follow if to be forgiven and to be justified be not one and the same for then one thing is preached another performed one thing promised and another granted But if they be the same then we are sure this is good Divinity that the formal justice or righteousness for which God absolves us sinners in the judgement is not in and from our selves but in and from our Saviour as it is said By him all that beleeve are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses whereas if our Justification were for any inherent righteousness whether Habitual or Actual it were not by him but by our selves nor to be gotten by believing but by doing nor could we be justified from all things at once and together but from one thing after another not in an instant but successively for so we get our inherent righteousness not by the grace and mercy of God casting all our sins upon our Saviour that he may forgive them all at once and together for active Justification which respects God absolving the sinners is a forgiveing of all sins at once and together for Christs sake though passive Justification which respects the sinner to be absolved is a forgiveing of sins so often as the sinner earnestly repenting doth by a lively Faith flee unto God the Son for his merit and to God the Father for his mercy In a word if our Justification were for any inherent righteousness whether habitual or actual we could not be justified by the grace and mercy of God casting all our sins upon our Saviour that he may forgive them all but by the Law of Moses casting us into a mould of righteousness that we may not commit any sin norstand in need of forgiveness And if this be so we may bid farewel iâ—… not 〈◊〉 to the whole Gospel of Christ which is thus briefly but fully summed up by St. Paul That God was in Christ reâ—…nciling the world unto himself so by a Potential though only true believers by an actual reconciliation not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5 19. No man can be reconciled to God who is not justified before God for all sinners are odious to God as his enâ—…mies not reconciled unto him as his frienâ—…s therefore God looks upon a maâ—… as no 〈◊〉 wâ—…ch canâ—…ot be as he is iâ—… himself but as he is in his Saviour when he is reconciled unto him and accordingly to be reconciled is to be justified that is to be accounted righteous for as the formal cause of our reconciliation consisteth in the remssion or not imputation of our sins not imputing their trespasseâ—… unto them so doth also the formal cause of our Justification for that is no other but an absolution from the guilt of sin For Justification is not a Physiâ—…al but a Moral action of God absolving the sinner for the merit of Christ even as Sanctification is not a Moral but a Physical Action of God cleansing and purging the sinner by the Spirit of Christ The one makes the sinner righteous but the other only accounts him righteous And therefore Justification and Sanctification are as improperly confounded as Moral and Physical or real Actions For Moral actions work a change only in regard of the mans relation as He that is adopted or acquitted is changed only in his relation that instead of being guilty he is made not guilty instead of beâ—…g a stranger he is made a Son But real or Physical actions do work a change also in regard of a mans person as He that is instructed or converted hath a real change wrought upon his understanding and his will and consequently is really changed in his person So that if to justifie be not meerly a moral action that is To account as just by acquitting from the condemnation of the Law as we say but be also a real action that is to make just by a conformity to the Law as you affirm then it must needs work a real change in the Patient making him righteous from unrighteous and from righteous more righteous and by consequent Justification will be one and the same thing with Sanctification and so it will follow that the whole Tenor of the Text hath hitherto misinformed us and doth still misguide us for therein these two are reckoned up as two several and distinct mercies of Almighty God towards our sinful souls and these wrought by several means God justifying us by the righteousness of his Son and sanctifying us by the power of his Holy Spirit And from this ill consequence will yet follow a much worse That Sanctification will be supposed to be nothing for it will have nothing left to do Justification having done its work before and if it have nothing to do it cannot be an Action and if it be not an action it must be nothing These Logical absurdities besides others that are Theological cannot well be avoided by those who make inherent righteousness the formal cause of our Justification And therefore though we separate not inherent and imputative righteousness which your insolent Dogmatist blasphemously calls Putative as if it were meerly fictâ—…tious when as in truth all our righteousness is so in respect of it I say though we separate not inherent and imputative righteousness
from one another in the man that is justified for true Faith alwaies worketh obedience and God will not cannot justifie the disobedient yet we must separate them from one another in the doctrine of Justification For 't is only the Imputative righteousness which we have from our Saviour not the Inherent righteousness which we have in our selves which can acquit us at God's Judgement seat or absolve us as righteous and consequently which may be accounted the formal cause of our Justification Lastly the final cause of our Justification is set down first explicitly that it is the declaration of Gods Righteousness vers 25 26. To declare his righteousness not onely that this way of justifying a sinner is according to Gods Promise both in words and Types in all the Old Testament but also that this promise was according to the rule of righteousness because it acquitteth not a sinner without a due satisfaction for his sin nor without a true and serious aversion from himself and conversion to his Saviour Secondly the final cause of our justification is set down implicitly That it is our glorying or boasting in God alone For whereas v. 27. he excludeth all other boasting t is necessary he must include this as himself saith more largely 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. Christ Jesus is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption There is our Justification set forth in it self in its antecedents and in its consequents In it self for Châ—…st Jesus is our righteousness to deliver us from the guilt of sin by acquitting and discharging us In its antecedents for he is our wisdom to free us from the blindness and darkness of sin by enlighting and instructing us In its consequents for he is our Sanctification in this life to free us from the pollution of sin by renewing and cleansing us and our Redemption in the life everlasting to free us from the miseries of sin by receiving and by glorifying us That according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord There is the final cause of our Justification Christ Jesus doth therefore instruct us by his most holy Word justifie us by his allsufficient merit sanctifie us by his most holy Spirit glorifie us by his all saving Mercy that we may not glory in our selves but onely in our Saviour from whom we have both the Knowledg and the Purchase and the Procurement and the Enjoyment of our salvation The Apostle having thus severally proved first his negative conclusion which is against justification by works and after that his affirmative conclusion which is for justification by Faith he at length joyns them both together in one Dogmatical determination Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith wâ—…thout the deeds of the Law v. 28. And this conclusion he again repeateth Gal. 2. 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ which he immediately confirms with no less then Ten several arguments in the next Chapter all alledged to confute their foolishness in falling from Christ to the Law from Faith to works in the doctrine of Justification And being alledged by the Apostle to confute their foolishness they will either the more easily prevent or the more acceptably reform and redress Ours The first Argument is this You have received the gift of the Holy Spirit not by the works of the Law but by the hearing of Faith v. 2. but the gift of the Holy Spirit is the best pledge of your Justification or Reconciliation with God for he giveth not his Spirit to his enemies Therefore you are justified not by the Law but by the Gospel or by the Hearing of Faith The second Argument is this The same way that Abraham was justified who is the â—…ather of the faithful and to whom the Promise was made The same way must you be justified But He was justified onely by Faith v. 6 7 8 9. The Third this As many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse ver 10. but none that are under the curse are justified The fourth this The just shall live by Faith but the Law is not of Faith ver 11. 12. that is The just obtaineth life and salvation by the free grace of God apprehended by Faith in Christ but the Law alloweth no such free grace for that promiseth life only upon the now impossible condition of perfect obedience The man that doth them shall live in them The fifth this Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us ver 13. Therefore the Law could not justifie us for it did curse us and if it could in vaine was Christ made a curse for us in vaine did he do and suffer so much for our Redemption The sixth this To whom the Promises were made to him they were performed but the Promises of spiritual blessings and consequently of justification were made to Abrahams seed not seeds that is to Christ and his members not to them that should be under the Law but only to them that should be in Christ. The seventh is this The Promise of spiritual blessednesse was made to Abraham long before the giving of the Law therefore neither to be accomplished from the observation nor to be abolished by the obligation of the Law ver 17. which is further argued ver 18. If the inheritance be of the Law 't is no more of Promise but God gave it to Abraham by Promise therefore 't is not of the Law The eighth this That which was a sign of enmitie cannot be a means of reconciliation but the Law was a sign of enmitie betwixt God and man as appears in that it was ordained by Angels not immediately by God himself who being offended had withdrawn his presence which shews that men were at a distance from and at enmitie with God ver 19 20. Therefore the Law cannot be the means of our accesse to or of our reconciliation with God The ninth is this The Law cannot give life to any man by exempting him from the punishment of sin nor give righteousnesse by exempting him from the guilt of sin ver 21. 22. Therefore both righteousnesse and life are given only by Faith in Christ. The tenth and last argument is this The office of the Law was to be our School-master to bring us unto Christ to shew us the imperfection of our own and to make us desire the imputation of his righteousnesse that we might be justified by Faith ver 24. but the Law cannot go beyond its own office therefore no man can be justified either in whole or in part by the works of the Law 8. Thus have I mustred up S. Pauls Artillery to batter down our own but to keep up our Saviours righteousness in the doctrine of Justification which being a doctrine that came down from Heaven is best maintained by arguments from Heaven For as humane reason could not
opinion St. Peter St. John St. James and St. Jude did write their several Epistles That St. Peter speaketh concerning this same opinion of being saved by Faith without works when he saith that some unearned and unstable men did wrest St. Pauls Epistles to their own destruction and therefore exhorteth Christians to all holy conversation and godliness upon this account that such men did at last most miserably perish in their sins Sic itaque Petrus his ergo iâ—…quit hominibus pereuntibus quales oportet vos esse in sanctis conversationibus et pietatibus so saith S. Peter therefore since these men perish for that application St. Aug. makes of his words though not that Lection what manner of persons ought ye to be in all conversation and godliness ye therefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware least ye also being led away with the errour of the wicked sc. this errour of being saved by Faith without works fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3. 11 17. But St. James saith he is yet much more offended with such men Jacobus autem tam vehementer infestus est eis qui sapiunt fidem sine operibus valere ad salutem ut illos etiam Daemonibus comparet c. St. James is so displeased with those men who supposed Faith could save them without works that he down-right compares them to devils saying the devils also believe and tremble and tells them plainly their Faith was dead and that they were strangely besotted who thought that such a faith which had not life in it selfe could be a means of procuring them everlasting life quousquâ—… igitur falluntur qui fide mortuâ sibi vitam aeternam pollicentur And St. Aug. further assures us that S. Paul himself had exactly taught the very same Doctrine before Sicut etiam ipse Paulus non quamlibet fidem quae in Deum credat sed eam salubrem planéque Evangelicam definivit cujus opera ex dilectione procedunt fides inquit quae per dilectionem operatur Unde illam fidem quae sufficere ad salutem quibusdam videtur ita nihil prodesse asseverat ut dicat si habeam omnem fidem ita ut montes transferam charitatem autem non habeam nihil sum Ubi autem haec fidelis charitas operatur sine dubio benè vivitur Aug. lib. de fide et oâ—…er cap. 14. Even as also St. Paul himself speaking of Justificaâ—…ion and Salvation by Faith did not mean every Faith which believed in God but a saving and a â—…rue Evangelical Faith whose works proceeded from love a Faith saith he which worketh by love whence that Faith without works which some thought sufficient to Salvation he so flatly avoweth to be nothing worth that he plainly saith though he had all Faith so as to remove mountains and had not charity he should be nothing But wheresoever is this Faith working by love there without doubt the whole life is fraight with good works All his businesse is to distinguish a true and false Faith by requiring works to the Faith that justifieth not to confound Faith with works in the act of Justification Againe in the fifteenth Chapter Illud quoque non video cur Dominus dixerit Si vis venire ad vitam serva mandata commemoravit ea quae ad bonos more 's pertinent si etiam his non servatis ad vitam veniri potest per solam fidem quae sine operibus mortua est Illud deinde quomodo verum erit quod eis quos ad sinistram positurus est dicat Ite in ignem aeternum qui paratus est Diabolo Angelis ejus nec increpat quia in eum non crediderint sed quia bona opera non fecerint cap. 15. Nor do I see why our Lord said If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements reckoning up those moral duties whereby they were to be kept if without keeping them more might go to Heaven by a dead Faith nor how he will say to them on his left hand go into everlasting fire condemning them not because they had not believed but because they had not done good works answerable to their belief He tells the false believer he should be condemned for want of works he tells not the true believer he should be acquitted for his works where by the way our Solifidians may take notice that heâ—… is not like to be so full of moral honest men who want Faith for how could their hearts sanctifie their hands if Faith did not first sanctifie their hearts as of believing men who want moral honesty having only such a Faith as to sanctifie their mouths for holy professions but not their hearts by holy affections nor their lives by holy conversation For so the same St. Aug. in the next Chapter Si autem Christus fundamentum proculdubio fides Christi per fidem quippe habitat Christus in cordibus nostris Porro fides Christi illa est utique quam definivit Apostolus quae per dilectionem operatur Non enim fides illa Daemonum quum ipsi credant contremiscant filâ—…um Dei confiteantur Jesum potest 〈◊〉 in fundamentum Quare nisi quia non est fides quae operatur per dilectionem sed quae exprimitur per timorem fides itaque Christi fides gratiae Christianae i. e. ea fides quae per dilectionem operatur posita in fundamento neminem perire permittit cap. 16. If Christ be the foundation of our righteousnesse then without doubt the Faith of Christ is so too for Christ dwelleth in our hearts by Faith but 't is that Faith which the Apostle defineth to be a Faith working by love for it is not possible that the Faith of devils who do beleeve and tremble and confesse Jesus to be the Son of God should be taken into this foundation because it is not a Faith which worketh by love but which is extorted by fear whereas the true Faith of Christ which proceedeth from the grace of Christ that is a Faith which worketh by love being put in the foundation will not let any man perish everlastingly What can be said more of a justifying Faith but that it maketh Christ to dwell in the heart for the foundation of righteousnesse and that it passeth from the heart to the hand for the operation of righteousnesse In that this Faith giveth us Christ it delivereth us from the condemnation of sin for where Christ is there can be no condemnation Rom. 8. II. In that it giveth us good works it delivereth us from the conversation of sinners that we may live as becometh Christians This Faith cannot let us perish because it will not let us depart from Christ who is the Way the Truth and the Life the Way that we should walk in the Truth to direct us in our journey and the Life to reward us at our journeys