serued and glorified and our selues beautefied thereby Ioh. 6. 29. but also that so we may stop the mouthes of our adversaries For among al the most slanderous imputations that they lay to our charge this is not the least that they avouch that wee teach a bare and naked faith without the fruit of all good workes in that wee affirme that faith is alone in the worke of our iustification The which is as true as if they should say that wee hold that the eye is alone in the body without the residue of the other senses seeing that wee avouch that the eie is alone in the apprehension of all such things as are subiect vnto sight And yet for this cause we must be called Solâ—fidians as if wee reiected all other fruits of the spirit with the practise exercise of all good works Nay let vs make no lesse vse hereof then Philip did of those slanders the which the Athenians had raised vp against him I am much said he beholding to the Athenians for that by their slanderous reports I am made the more careful to look to my waies that I may hold a right course that so I may confute them both by my words and workes So likewise whereas our doctrine is that the true Christian saith is accompanied with all manner of divine and heauenly graces and is fruitfull in all good workes let vs giue all diligence to confirme the same by an holy life and conversation that so we may confute them by our deeds also And so we may bee bold to retort vpon them iustly and truly that which they vntruely charge vs withall For in that they avouch that the true Christian faith may not only be in the reprobate but even in the very divels themselues thereby they teach that it may be alone without the company of any vertue without the practise of any good worke And therefore they may be truely tearmed not onely Solifidians but Implijfidians ' Diabolifidians also Vndoubtedly hereby they make it manifest to the whole world that they hold not the true Catholike faith seeing thereby in the iudgement of S. Austine the iust are discerned from the vniust Aug. ad Bomf l. 3. c. 5. Whereas by that faith which themselues hold to be Catholike they cannot be discerned from the very Divels themselues Now if they bee not severed from the Divels in their faith neither can they bee seuered from them in their workes seeing faith is the root works are the fruits and such a root such a fruit Now if they bee severed from the Divell neither in their faith nor workes how can they bee severed from him in their punishments Wherefore let them disgrace this gracious gift of faith which haue no part nor portion in the reward thereof But as for vs which acknowledge it to be a principall part of true sanctitie and holinesse let vs most carefully obserue the meanes whereby it is coliated by God set downe in these words of our text Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Wherein we are to obserue these two points First that God doth sanctifie his by the truth secondly that this truth is contained in Gods word even in that word of God which is delivered vnto vs by the Prophets and Apostles Concerning the first which is that truth is the true meanes whereby we attaine to an holy faith and to all the residue of the graces of sanctification it is manifest in this that truth doth rectifie our vnderstanding will affections in the vprightnesse of the which our whole and totall sanctification doth consist And therefore by S. Austine truth is tearmed The virginitie of the soule and the chastitie of the mind As falsehood and vntruth is the adulterous pollution of them all insomuch that all such as in Gods service embrace lyes either taken by tradition from their ancestors or sucken out of their owne heads are iustly charged by the spirit of God to goe a whoring after humane inventions Num. 15. 39. Here of it is that men of al professions lay claime to the truth and for proofe thereof make a shew to deriue the pedegree of their doctrine from God the author of truth and from his word the authenticall and vndeniable evidences thereof As it may appeare by Celsus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who as Origen reporteth entituled his bookes The word of truth which yet hee wrot against the truth Wherefore as the Apostle exhorteth we are not to beleeue every spirit but to trie the spirits whether they are of God or no and wisely to examine the grounds of all doctrines before that we make them Articles of our Creed that so we may imbrace the knowledge of the truth whereby we may bee saved and reiect the strong delusion of Satans lies which are the venome and poison of our soules 2. Thess 2. 10. Now the word of God which our blessed Saviour the wisdome of God Prov. 8. revealed by his spirit to the Prophets and Apostles is this word of sanctifying and sauing truth For if we continue in the same We shall knowe the truth the truth shall make vs free Ioh. 8. 32. And how doth truth make vs free but by sanctifying vs with al divlne and heavenly vertues For a true vertuous man is the only free man Let vs then come to the second point and take a true view of such proofes as may be produced to make manifest that the word of Christ revealed by his spirit to the Prophets and Apostles is only the rich treasury of that pretious truth whereby all the elect of God are brought to a sanctifying and sauing faith The which thing that we may effect let vs first search and enquire where and what truth is that so truth may speake and manifest it selfe Truth is either in things or words Truth in things is the fit and apt agreement of the causes with their effects and the effects with their causes of the accidents with their subiects and subiects with their accidents and so of all other arguments and reasons with the things whereof they are argumeÌ„ts reasons Vera est propositio quaÌ„do praedicatum convenit subiecto Tum praedicatuÌ„ coÌ„venit subiecto cum est genus c. So truth in words is when true reasons which agree with the things whereof they are reasons are accordingly set downe in the words which are deliuered to expresse the same Hence then we thus conclude that if all true reasons whereby the true God and true Godlinesse may be knowne and embraced are rightly set downe in the doctrine revealed by Christ to the Tum veritas est in verbis quando ita est in rebus quemadmodum verbâ— significant Prophets and Apostles and by them registred and enrolled in the Canonicall Scriptures of the old and new Testament then this word is the word of God and the word of truth But in these bookes are set downe all manner of most forcible and
Moizare that is deliver many doctrines set downe by Moses for that hee had taken them out of him So these Sybille did Prophetizare because they had receaued these prophesies either out of their books or by tradition from the old Patriarks For as Sampson said vnto his guests that were at his wedding when they gaue him the right sense of his riddle which lie had proposed vnto them If yee had not plowed with my heifer yee could not haue found out my riddle Iud. 14. 18. So may wee as truely say that if the heathenish Prophets and Prophetesses had not consulted with our Prophets they could not haue delivered these Oracles The which is evident by this that when they were consulted by their greatest friends concerning events that were presently to come to passe they deliuered their Oracles in doubtfull sentences which might be expounded divers waies for that they were not able to deliver any certaintie thereof As Aio te Aeacides Romanos vincere posse And Craesus halim penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim Whereas our Prophets not only delivered the certaintie of the events of divers battles when they were ready to bee vndertaken as Iud. 4. 9. and 7. 9. 1. Sam. 30. 8. 1. Reg. 20 13. But also many other events many hundred yeares before they fell out As namely the deliverance of the Iewes out of the captivitie of Babylon and the particular king by whom it should bee accomplished even Cyrus king of the Medes Persians Isa 44. 45. The which prophesie as Iosephus reporteth Antiq. Iudaic. l. 11. c. 1. Cyrus reading and perceauing himselfe to be named therein some 200 yeares before he was borne and appointed to such a worke gaue liberty to the Iewes to returne to their-owne country and to build their temple and he gaue them backe the vessels thereof which had beene carried away by the king of Babylon For he vnderstood that the God of the Iewes was the true God because he had foretold such an event a long time before it was to come to passe As it may appeare by his owne words Ez. 1. 2. Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia the Lord God of heauen hath given me all the kingdomes of the earth and hath commanded mee to build him an house in Ierusalem which is in Iudah Who is among you of all his people with whom his God is Let him goe vp to Ierusalem which is in Iudah and build the house of the Lord God of Israell he is the God which is in Ierusalem Here then wee may perceaue by evident reason set downe in the Scriptures that the heathen haue and therefore still may be convinced to acknowledge him to be the true God who hath revealed himselfe in those bookes of the Prophets and Apostles and that those bookes are the authenticall word of the true all seeing and well working God And verily even the most profoundest mysteries of those bookes may bee iustified by evident reason to the heathen themselues to be the doctrines of truth proceeding from the true God as it may appeare by the bookes of these notable lights in the Church of Christ ' D. de Plessis de veritate Christianae religionis Zeged in locis com Keckerm in Syntagm Theolog. Neither must the doctrines of our Christian religion bee by reason evicted against the Gentiles but also against all Schismatiks Heretiks For albeit all these or at the least the most of them acknowledge the holy Scriptures to proceed from God yet seeing this word of God consisteth not in the letters but in the sence not in the reading but in the vnderstanding not in the leaues of the speech wherein it is delivered but in the root of the reason whereon it is grounded and seeing all Schismatikes and Heretikes be the words that are produced against them never so plaine and pregnant yet peruert and corrupt the right sense and meaning of them how can the right sense be iustified against all such persons but by cleere and evident reasons For if one testimonie bee produced to cleere another they will pervert the sense of the one as well as of the other And if the testimonies of the ancient Fathers yea of generall Councels bee alleaged against them either they will pervert the meaning of them aswell as they did the meaning of the Scriptures or else they will flatly refuse to subscribe to their autoritie The truth hereof was fully knowne vnto S. Austin who for his learned confuting of many heretikes was called the Hammer wherewith heretikes were knocked Malleus haereâ—â—corum in the head For hee writing against Maximinus the Arrian l. 3. 1. 14. saith I will not alleage the Councell of Nice to preiudice thee neither shalt thou produce the Councell of Ariminum to preiudice me I will not be bound to yeeld to the autority of the one nor thou to the authority of the other but by the autoritie of the Scriptures as by most indifferent witnesses not proper to either of vs but common to both Let matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason bee compared together let that prevaile which is the stronger and weigh most wherein there is the most weight And verily there is no other meanes to cleere the meaning of all testimonies humane and divine then by the light of cleere arguments and reasons Wherefore seeing that the power of the word of God consisteth in the right sense and meaning thereof which cannot be cleered without the light of reason without the sure apprehension thereof the people of God themselues cannot be edified therefore cleere arguments and reasons must bee produced for the cleering of all doctrines of faith and an holy life by all such teachers as seeke after the edification of the people of God The truth whereof is plainely confirmed by the vsuall practise of all preachers of the word of God Among whoÌ„ it is most ordinary after the doctrines deduced out of their texts to cleere the same with varietie of reasons and then to drawe out the vses there of which are nothing else but particular doctrines by evidence of reason collected and gathered out of the generall And verily the true Christian faith is not an ignorant credulitie but an vnderstanding assent grounded vpon a sure knowledge even such a faith as was in the Apostles themselues the which they were to preach through out the whole world Luk. 1. 77. For of this their faith our Sauiour himselfe testifieth in this very chapter saying I haue giuen them the words which thou gauest mee and they haue receaued them haue knowne surely that I came out from thee and haue beleeued that thou hast sent me v. 8. The truth where of is plainly confirmed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of S. Peter Ioh. 6. 69. Thou hast the wordes of eternall life we beleeue knowe that thou art the very Christ the sonne of the liuing God Neither is this vnderstanding faith proper
THE REASONABLENESSE OF WISE AND holy truth and the absurditie of foolish and wicked Errour ECCL 7. 27. I haue compassed about both I and mine heart to knowe and to enquire and to search wisdome and reason and to knowe the wickednesse of folly and the foolishnesse of madnesse MATTH 11. 19. But wisdome is iustified of all her children AC OX AT OXFORD Printed by Iohn Lichfield and William Wrench Printers to the famous Vniversitie 161â— TO THE RIGHT REVErend Father in God ARTHVR Lord Bishop of BATH and WELLES Vice chancellour of the Vniversitie of Oxford and Warden of New Colledge IOHN TERRY wisheth all increase of that Glory and Vertue wherevnto you are called by our most glorious holy Lord. 2. Pet. 1. 2. MY duety bindeth me right Reuerend and my very Good Lord to offer vp to God for you the sacrifices of thankesgiuing and prayer Some of the Heathen offred sacrifice to the sunne rising for benefits to come and other to the Sunne setting for such as were already receaued VVherefore it being a great shame for a Christian to be out gone in any good dutie by an Heathen I cannot but offer vp to our most blessed Sauiour Christ the true Sonne of righteousnesse the sacrifice of thanksgiuing first for causing such a bright starre as your Lordship is to appeare aboue our Horizon in the west and secondly for causing you to set with leauing much good to that Colledge whereof my selfe was once a member And how can I also but offer vp prayer to God first that the fresh memorie of your renowned learning and religious life may instill such a sweet influence of celestiall grace into the hearts of all the members of that societie that they may bee effectually stirred vp to walke in your waies and to devote themselues by your example to the publike good as secondly I am to beseech him that walketh in the midst of the seauen golden Candlesticks and holdeth the starres in his right hand that he would hold vphold you long to his owne glory and to the edification and comfort of his people among whom hee hath now placed you to hold out the word of life And thus commending you to God the Father of light and to the word of his grace the most worthie instrument thereof with all humble thanks vnto your Lordship for your louing acceptance of this small paper present I rest Your Lordships in all Christian loue and dutie JOHN TERRY IOHN 17. 17. Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth THis Chapter containeth a most divine and heavenly prayer of our most blessed Saviour Christ wherein hee requesteth of his Father that hee would by the gracious word of his Gospell make more and more manifest the glorious worke of mans redemption For that hereby he and his father should be most glorified and all such as his father had giuen him should be made partakers of life everlasting For this is everlasting life saith he to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent videlicet to accomplish the worke of the redemption of all the elect Iesus Christ For the cleere doctrine of the Gospell laying open the glorious worke of mans redemption doth make manifest the light of Gods countenance shining in Christ and doth giue vnto all that are truely lightned therewith the holy eie of sauing faith whereby they assuredly apprehending and most certainely beleeuing the vnspeakable loue of God towards them that do cleaue vnto Christ and are made one with him and by him haue communion and fellowship with God and so are made partakers of life everlasting And verily the true sauing faith wrought by the Gospell is nothing else but such a sure and certaine knowledge of Gods vnspeakable loue in Christ as is accompanied with all manner of holy and heavenly graces And therefore as v. 8. our Saviour testifieth that he had given his Fathers words to them which he had giuen vnto him and they had receaued them and had surely knowne that hee came from the Father had beleeued that the Father had sent him so in this verse hee prayeth to his Father that the would sanctifie them with the truth that was contained in the same word In the which petition of our Saviour Christ we are to obserue these two points first the thing that our Saviour requesteth at his Fathers hands that hee would bestow vpon all those that he had giuen him which is Sanctification Secondly the meanes whereby it is wrought which is the truth of his owne word Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Now the sanctification that our Saviour here prayeth for is not maymed wanting any essential part but totall and whole even such a sanctification as doth sanctifie the minde with sauing knowledge faith the will and the affections with all other graces and gifts of the holy Ghost and so doth sanctifie the whole man Neither is this whole and total sanctification bestowed onely vpon some principall persons in the Church of Christ but even vpon the meanest also As the Apostle testifieth 2. Cor. 3. 18. Wee all saith he behold as in a mirrour the glory of God with open face there is the subiection action obiect clerenesse of faith and are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord there is the inseparable effect of sauing and sanctifying faith one and the same in substance though not in circumstance in all the faithfull And verily how can it otherwise bee but that all such as by faith are engraffed into Christ Rom. 11. 17. should immediatly be made good trees so consequently be enabled to beare good fruit Mat. 7.17 How can it otherwise be but that all such as by the linely word of God Heb. 4. 12. are quickned to a liuing faith Gal. 2. 20 should shew themselues to be aliue to God Rom. 6. 11. by the exercise of al holy and godly works For nature is never idle much lesse grace Gal. 5. 6. and therefore as the body without the operatiue spirit is dead so faith without workes is dead also Iac. 3 26. And therefore the same Apostle in the same chapter willeth Natura est nunquam otiosa all such as lay claime to a true faith to make proofe thereof by their good workes after the example of Abraham the father of the faithfull For after that he had shewed himselfe readie at the commandment of God to offer vp in sacrifice his most deare sonne Isaac then he made it manifest that he so firmely apprehended by an assured faith the incomprehensible loue of God in Christ Eph. 3. 19. towards himselfe that he preserred it before his most intire loue towards his own most deare sonne and then was the Scripture fulfilled Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed to him for righteousnes Wherefore it was not without cause that S. Peter writing to such as had obtained like pretious faith with himselfe willeth them to
and peculiar to the teachers of the truth but to all the godly professors of the same For none come to salvation but by the knowledge of the truth 2. Th. 2. 10. 11. In which place knowledge and faith are ioined together as inseparable companions as Ignorance is set downe as a separatist from faith salvation in the former chapter of the same Epistle Now to knowe a thing is to knowe the reasons thereof Scire est per cau sas scire Wherefore the true Christian faith grounded vpon knowledge doth no otherwise worke in the faithfull a right assent to the severall doctrines of faith then by grounds thereof This truth is manifestly proued throughout the whole body of the sacred Scripture which teacheth that the true Christian faith is a wise and holy not foolish and wicked a seeing and not a blind a cleere and not a darke a manly and not a childish a reasonable and not a brutish perswasion Faith is a wise assent grounded vpon the wise doctrines of the word of God which are able to make vs wise to salvation by faith in Christ 2. Tim. 3. 15. And what is wisdome but a right apprehensiō of truth the reasons thereof by the testimonies of divine humane autors I haue saith Solomō the wise compassed about both I mine heart to knowe and inquire and to search wisdome reason Eccl. 7. 27. by the which manner of annexing the one to the other hee giueth vs to vnderstand that the one ariseth out of the other So Aristole the wisest of all Philosophers Prudence is an habit ioyned with right reason So Tully one of the wisest of all Orators Hee that doth best apprehend truth in every thing the reasons and grounds thereof is worthely to bee esteemed the most prudent and wise of all other Wherefore our Christian faith being a wise apprehension and assent vnto truth must needs apprehend the reasons whereon it is grounded The wisdome of the prudent saith Solomon is to vnderstand his way but the foolishnesse of fooles is deceit Prov. 14. 8. That is wisdome lightning the vnderstanding by meanes of true reason doth sanctifie it with truth as folly darkning it with ignorance leadeth it into errour both in matters of faith and of life and conversation For the foolishnesse of a man perverteth his waie Prov. 19. 3. for folly is the mother of wickednesse Eccl. 7. 27. Wherefore such as bee foolish shall not stand in Gods sight for he hateth all such as worke wickednesse Ps 5. 5. But the wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament Dan. 12. 3. The foolish Virgins could not enter into the marriage because their lamps were gone out Mat. 25. 10. That is they made profession of the word of God which is a lanthorne to our feet and a light to our paths without the vnderstanding thereof For what is the word not vnderstood but a lampe without oile or a candle without light But the wise that had oile in their lamps that is rightly vnderstood the doctrines of Gods word were admitted into the marriage For they that truely knowe God shall bee Visio iustificans Visio glorificans knowne of him and they that now see him with the eye that iustifieth shall hereafter see him with the eye that glorifieth But they that knowe not God shall not be knowne of God 2. Thess 1. 8. Hos 4. 6. Prov. 1 22. And all such as see him not with the eye of faith shall never see him with the eye of glory Prov. 29. Fooles mad men may be Saints with foolish and mad Mahomet but the children of wisdome Mat. 11. 19 are the chil dren of the most wise God such as haue their minds and affections sanctified by wisdome are his Saints in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Coll. 2. 3. Now if faith be a wise assent then it is not blind and darke but eyefull and cleere I saw saith Solomon the wise that there is more profit in wisdome thē in folly as the light is more excellent then darknesse Eccl. 2. 13. for a wise mans eyes are in his head but a foole walketh in darknesse Wisdome and faith are the sight of the eye of the mind and truth rightly apprehended and assented vnto is the light that leadeth in the' right way Morio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnto God Ps 43. 3. But a foole vnbeleeuer is a blind and a darke man 2. Pet. 1. 9. For infidelitie and folly is the blindnesse of the mind and where these lead the will and affections there is a wandring from God seeing he that walketh in darknesse woteth not whether hee goeth Ioh. 12. 35. and there is a falling into the pit of all errors and sinnes seeing where the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch Wherefore blessed are their eies who seeing see and doe perceaue hearing heare and doe vnderstand and so are converted so are saved Mat. 13. 16. And blessed are all not some but all beleeuers because they all behold as in a myrror the glory of God with open face are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of God 2. Cor. 3 18. Neither doth our wise Christian faith bring onely sight and light to all that beleeue but also a behauiour fit for men indued with sound and right reason and de liuereth them from childishnesse brutishnesse also It is the propertie of a child to doe childishly When I was a child saith the Apostle I spake as a child I vnderstood as a child but when I was a man I put away childishnesse Non qu◠eundū sed quo itur 1. Cor. 13. 11. So it is a propertie of a brute beast to goe not whether they should goe but whether others goe But the faithfull should not be children in vnderstanding but of a ripe age 1. Cor. 14. 20. Neither should they bee like the horse and mule in whom there is no vnderstanding Ps 32. 9. For children are childish and are led with such motiues as most prevaile with the affections and brute beasts are brutish and follow sense but the wise Christian beleeuer will take especially notice of such inducements as soundly informe the vnderstanding and are powerfull to rule direct the affections and senses in a right course Now by all these properties and effects of a true Christian faith it is evident that whosoever desireth to attaine therevnto must labour to vnderstand the severall reasons whereon the severall doctrines of faith are grounded that so he may bee enabled thereby to stand vpon the iust defence of his owne faith Thus much is Bellarmine himselfe forced to confesse in that hee maketh sanctity of doctrine which is the wisdome and reasonablenesse thereof to be a note of the true Church and of the right faith professed therein vpō that ground taketh exception against our