believe him and believing come into the rest of Canaan But they came not all thither though that was the mind of God for some of them hardened their hearts Which I would it were not so in Christ We see it is so and that it may not be so the Author of the Epistle to the Heb. admonisheth citing that of the Psalm To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts as your Fathers viz. hardned their hearts Therefore to return to our purpose whereas those things are by them so studiously selected to believe which God is to do and those refused which belong to the Duty of man I pray what a thing is this The beneficence and grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared How gladly is this received But that which follows teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present world how few do embrace this Most men believe this is so performed by Christ that it is unnecessary for us to perform it Again Blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute sin This all men easily believe But that which is subjoined and in whose Spirit there is no guile this they believe is not possible to be attained Again there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus This is pronounced with full mouth for 't is a most sweet sentence But that who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit is bitter and believed by very few Briefly men easily believe we shall mow with joy but if you say we most sow in tears this part they cast upon Christ Hence it is that false Prophets because they preach pleasing things and either feign pleasing promises of God or apply them to such to whom they do not belong easily find credit When the true Prophets because they urge the threats of God and teach the truth severely have place among the fewest as Esay exclaims Lord who hath believed our speech These things being so it is manifest Ludovic that men are hindred from believing the truth by the love of themselves But if self-selflove were quitted they would believe nothing so easily as Truth being naturally enclined to truth and owning it presently as our ally if there be no impediment Wherefore 't is necessary Ludovic if you are willing truly to believe truth that is God you must lay aside self love or rather conceive the hatred of your self Lud. O Federic you perswade me thus but 't is no small matter to hate one self nor do I see the way to atain unto it nor know whether I can do it so much do I love my self Fed. I know Ludovic it is a very difficult matter and above humane strength but here we ought to remember what the Lord said of Sarah when she could not believe she should be great with Child is any thing to hard for the Lord What is impossible to man is possible to God and under his conduct nothing is to be dispaired of Lud. I beseech you therefore shew me the way whereby I may attain unto it Fed. I will do so if God please Lend me your ear If I had a servant most pleasant kind and officious and one who provided dainties for my pallate but mixed with poyson to take away my life and you knew it Ludovic who love me what would you do Lud. Verily I would with all speed and diligence advice you to take heed of tasting those dainties or loving that servant for he would secretly take away your life Fed. What if I should say I am delighted with the obsequiousness of my servant and the daintiness of the dish Lud. I would admonish you not to value so much the present pleasure as to loose your life for it Fed. What if your friend were in love with a flattering and painted harlot one infected with the French disease and you knew it what would you do Lud. I would tell him of the disease and as much as I am able dehort him from her company Fed. What if he said I am delighted with her Lud. I would answer Fishes also are delighted with the bait But 't is a folly to buy so little pleasure with so great pain or rather with death Fed. What if he say I cannot chuse but desire the pleasure Lud. I would admonish him that if he cannot as yet quench his lust he would at least resist it and not obey it Fed. What if he obeyed it Lud. Then truly I should think him more foolish then the bruits and worthy of any Evil. For Fishes Wolves Foxes Kites though very hungry yet if they either see or suspect a hook a snare a trap they abstain from the prey Fed. You say well Ludovic Thus then Every mans flesh is as it were a harlot and that painted which allures and delights him with her enticements and flatteries drives him to sin and detains him in sin and at last casts him headlong into the death of his soul Now man ignorant of the poyson embraceth pleasures and gives himself to them Then there comes upon him his friend truth minding him that the wages of sin is death and demonstrates the flesh which the man took for his friend to be his capital enemy Wherefore if you desire to be saved you must believe that you have no enemy so pern cious as your self that is your flesh which hitherto because pleasing you have favoured and obeyed you must henceforth because noxious and deadly hate and resist Now if you cannot presently drive away the enticements of it as indeed you cannot for they cleave fast truth says to you as of old to Moses Go into Egypt for thou canst I will be with thy mouth I wili enable thee to do what thou canst not So truth speaks now to you Ludovic do what you are able God will make thee do more then thou art able For example Thou sittest at a full Table and hast eaten enough to renew thy strength and to satisfie thy hunger Then comes in some dish more delicate made to provoke the appetite Here thy flesh instantly riseth up and suggesteth to thee such a thought It is a delicate mess if thou eat of it it will be pleasant But the Spirit opposes the Flesh and thus admonisheth Take heed Ludovic of indulging thy pleasure there is poyson in it For first it calleth off thy mind from God then which evil no evil can be greater for whereas no man can serve two Masters thou canst not serve God and pleasure because pleasure oppresseth the soul and draws it down to the Earth and separates it from God Next intemperance hurts the body so that if thou hadst no soul thou oughtest even for thy bodies sake to abstain from immoderate eating I do not now require thee not to be tempted with the allurements of the Flesh but not to obey them But if you deny your self to have power not to obey them you shall easily be
A CONFERENCE OF FAITH Written in Latin by SEBASTIANUS CASTELLIO Now Translated into English Mark 9.23 All things are possible to him that believeth Phil. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ LONDON Printed by J. R. for John Barksdale at the Five Bells in New-street near Shooe-lane 1679. To his Friend D. of C. SIR I Confess I was glad when I heard you lately being with you in your well chosen Library Commend Castellio whose Dialogue De Fide I told you I had Translated and taught Ludovic and Federic to speak English I shall be willing as you mov'd me to do the rest if I see this does any good to the English Reader and serveth towards the plucking up of that vulgar noxious Error concerning Faith rooted in the hearts of our People so deep that there is need of more hands to joyn with yours for the Eradication thereof I commend your holy Studies to the Father of Lights Your Servant R. of N. Theodorus Zuingerus in Theatro vitae humanae p. 2808. SEBASTIANUS CASTELLIO a most Learned and most Holy man when he came from Geneva to Basil with his Wife was so pressed with poverty that he was near famishing unless JOANNES OPORINUS the Printer had sustained him by his Liberality and encouraged him to the Translation of the Bible Having then obtained the profession of the Greek Tongue he had greater relief of his poverty especially his Fame which yet he never affected as all good men can witness drew unto him Scholars from the remotest Nations At his death he left Riches worthy of a Christian man seeking his Treasure in Heaven Therefore his Scholars of Polonia were at the charge of his Funeral and they honored him with a fair Elogy He hath left ample matter for Pious and Learned men to exercise their liberality upon a good number of poor Children He deceased 4. Cal. Jan. An. Ch. 1563. Philip. Melanch to Castellio WHen I considered the Ornaments wherewith you are endowed I could not chuse but love you though we had no familiarity and here are many Witnesses of the honorable mention I do often make of you among my Friends A CONFERENCE OF FAITH The Persons LUDOVIC and FEDERIC The Argument What it is to believe in God What is the Vertue either of Worldly or of Divine Faith What are the Impediments of Faith By what means a man may be able to hate himself and to renounce himself by Faith and by the Spirit to kill the deeds of the Flesh In summ He that believeth in God and in his Son Jesus Christ is able by the Vertue of that Faith and by the Holy Spirit to mortifie his Flesh with the Lusts thereof and to serve God in Spirit and in Truth LUDOVIC I have willingly heard bost yesterday and to day your discourses Federic and I have learned out of them many things whereof I was Ignorant and that especially moved me which you shewed that God commands nothing which cannot be done For I was perswaded before as is it commonly heard and taught that we are not able to Obey God's Precepts which perswasion surely that I may confess the truth to you Federic made me slack in my obedience so that I never put my whole strength toward it FEDERIC And I have found the same by my Experience Ludovic nor could I apply my self truly and seriously to obey before I did believe it possible for us to obey Whence I learned the force and vertue of Faith For Faith drives a man to the study and resolution to obey To which study afterward when aid from Heaven is added a man is enabled to do what he believes possible to be done by him and so is saved by obeying as before he was lost by disobeying But 't is a small matter to believe obedience is possible unless you know also the way by which you may be able to obey without which obedience no man can be saved I would have you assure your self Ludovic ours and others Disputations are that I say no worse unprofitable except they bring us to obedience and to the new man Lud. These things are true Federic therefore to the End I may reap some profit from our Conference I entreat you shew me by what way I may be able to obey God since by this your Speech of the possibility of it I have conceived a desire of Obeying Fed. O my Ludovic would to God I my self were truly obedient that I might lead you to obedience as it were by the hand Now it cannot be that I should lead you further then I have gone my self Lud. Yet I believe and methinks I see it that you have made further progress than I wherefore pray shew me the way at least so far as you have proceeded Fed. I will gladly do it Ludovic as I am able God being my Guide But I fear least the difficulty and roughness of the way may deter you Lud. Be not afraid I hope I am ready for all things though difficult so that I may come whither I desire Fed. I pray God to confirm in you this Will and bring you to perfection To begin therefore Do you know what the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews hath Written That without Faith it is impossible to please God Lud. I know it Fed. Therefore it is first of all necessary that you believe in God if you will be saved Lud. Go on therefore Federic to other things for as to Faith I have ever from my Child-hood believed in God and truly I think there be very few if any at all which do not believe in God Fed. Indeed that is easie to be said and so they are commonly perswaded but I fear least it be said rather rashly and of custom than sincerely For I sometime also have believed the same both of my self and others but when I came to Examine I saw how far I was absent from it Lud. Do you think then that I have not Faith Fed. Ludovic I do not think that you have no Faith but I think you have so little that it cannot be truly called Faith or such as can save you And I pray be not offended For having said you are ready for all things though difficult it is fit you should suffer this first that I may shew you have not that wherewith you suppose your self to abound And indeed the first step to the knowledg of the Truth is to unlearn Error otherwise there will be no place for good Seed where all is full of Thorns Well then that we may examine your Faith When you were a Child Ludovic did you believe in your Father Lud. What do you mean by believing in my Father Fed. To have him truly for your Father and depend wholly upon him Lud. I did believe in him certainly Fed. Therefore if you had need of any thing as Shoes or Coat or Bread you did run to him alone and doubted not at all of his good Will toward you Lud. No more than I
did of my own Fed. Then if any ill happened to you you look't only to him Lud. I did so Fed. And if he promised you any thing you doubted not of his fidelity and performance Lud. No more than if I had the thing promised in my own possession Fed. You were then not follicitous about his Office but your own only Lud. You say true Fed. Moreover if he either commanded you any thing or did any thing himself whereof you being a Child knew not the reason or which seemed to you absurd nevertheless you did it and not doubtingly enquired into his doing Lud. It is so indeed For when at a time were brought fresh Grapes and he bad me tread them with my Feet it seemed to me absurd to tread upon such fair and good Grapes which I would rather have been preferred to eat But because it was my Father I thought he commanded not without a cause therefore I obeyed Also when my Father sometime pruned his Vines and Grafted Trees it seem'd absurd and unreasonable to me that the Branches were cut off which nature had made and which seemed fit to bring forth Fruit. But allways this thought was in my mind unless this were good my Father would not do it Fed. Now let us come to God You say you believe in God your Father and so you call upon him Our Father which art in Heaven It is right therefore that you should certainly depend no less on him than you depended on your Father Therefore if you want any thing do you fly to God alone nor doubt at all but he will bountifully supply you with all things Why do you stick at it Why do you not answer Ludovic Confess the truth nor let a vain carnal fear move you which is wont to keep men from confessing their faults because they are afraid least he to whom they are to be confessed be alienated in mind from them as vitious or have them in less esteem You are in no such danger with me For I cannot be alienated from any one for those vices which I see heretofore in my self and deplore them and I doubt not they are in others unless they have already gone through the way which certainly you and I have not gone through Neither will I esteem you the less if you confess with your mouth before a Friend what I know you confess in your mind already Lud. O my Federic I am asham'd to confess but shame is to be swallowed I truly am oft and very vehemently sollicitous and anxious about necessary things least Bread or Wine or other things faile me especially when I see I have little Money remaining and have no ready way to get more Money Fed. But if you have your Purse full or if you have any ready way of supply then you have no sollicitude at all or surely less Lud. It is so Fed. You trust therefore to your Money or to your Industry more than to God Lud. It is so certainly Fed. But when you were a child you trusted your Father only Lud. Yes Fed. You see now you do not believe in God but in your Money and in your industry I think these words seem to you violent that you can't deny and yet doubt or are ashamed so quickly to confess But compel your self Ludovic many things are to be learned which lye hid in our hearts and we must come to the very root unless that be plucked out we cannot be safe Let us proceed In adversity what say you Ludovic is not your mind somewhat troubled Lud. Yes very much I am not patient in adversity and turn my mind every way to all human remedies Fed. What do you concerning things promised God hath promised you that he will supply you with all necessaries for life If you first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Do you certainly believe his promise so that you are no more doubtful of his truth than you were of your Fathers in your Childhood Lud. Truly I am very short of it Fed. But if Henricus Rotenfeldius your neighbor a Rich man and as he is accounted an honest man had promised you three hundred Growns you would for some years be freed from that sollicitude Lud. Yes Fed. Now God hath promised you not three hundred Crowns but all things necessary and you distrust and are sollicitous Lud. You say true Fed. Therefore you believe in God less than in I will not say your Father but Henrieus Rotenfeldius Lud. I am forced to confess the Truth Fed. And yet men may either through their falsehood or inability not stand to their promises neither of which falls upon God Wherefore by your distrust in God you falsly accuse him either of want of Truth or want of Power Lud. 'T is true Fed. But if you do not trust God for the food of your body who hath never yet failed you can you trust him for a blessed and Eternal life whereof as yet you have never tasted For weigh the matter thus If the King should now send a Messenger to you by whom he would adopt you to be his Son and you believed it in what manner would you behave your self Lud. Verily I should value all that I have as nothing and as here a stranger have my mind already at Court. For such a thing happened to me in my Youth Being in a very mean condition I was called into the Family of a certain Noble and Wealthy man Whereupon I found my mind so changed that I had no such thoughts as I had formerly nor was troubled with any such care and sollicitude as before yea when money was to be sent me from my Parents I sent them word they need not send it for I should henceforth want no money In short I formed in my mind the bravery of the House and place and persons where I should dwell which yet I had never seen Fed. I believe you Ludovic for I have had the like experience in my self But what if you had not believed that messenger Lud. I had continued in the same state I was in Fed. And what if one had seen you remaining in that state would he not easily have affirmed you did not believe the Messenger Lud. Easily Fed. Now let us come to the purpose God hath promis'd to those that love Him such good things as neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor the Heart of man comprehended Let us Ludovic confess the truth here also Should we not if we did verily believe this promise be so carried in our minds to Heav'n that no earthly care should trouble us no sollicitude or vexation touch us Lud. Yes certainly Fed. Now when we rejoyce in gain grieve in loss are sorely affected and dejected with disgrace exult and are glad of honor and pleasure all which are earthly things is not this a plain Argument that we do not believe Gods promises but cleave to an earthly inheritance Lud. It is Fed. What if God should
I will give you Examples If one should say that the Goods of Christians ought to be common whether would more readily believe this the Rich or the Poor Lud. The poor Fed. Why Lud. Because the poor should loose nothing by it but rather gain Fed. What would the Rich Lud. They would hardly or not at all believe it because thereby they should become poorer which they would not Fed. What if one denyed Souls to be delivered out of Purgatory by saying Mass Whether would more hardly believe it the Priests or the Lay Lud. The Priests because by that opinion their profit would be diminished Fed. What if one should say Usury is unlawful to Christians could that be perswaded to them that live and grow Rich by Usury Lud. Scarcely Fed. And what if a man Teach this Doctrine that men are not to be put to death for Religion whether would be more apt to believe it They that have Authority with the Magistrate and are themselves Divines and persecute or desire to persecute others or they that are contrary to them Lud. They that are contrary to them For I have known some Divines who when they wanted that Authority and were infested for Religion have taught that for Religion no man ought to be infested the same having gotten Wealth and Authority have both taught and done quite otherwise Fed. You see then that self-love is an impediment of Faith That is men do not easily believe what is contrary to that they love Lud. I see it clearly Fed. Let us now consider if the same be the Impediment of our Faith in Christ In the Institution of Christ there be Histories Promises Precepts Almost all believe the Histories and Promises wherein no duty of man is required nor do any Controversies among Christians arise whether Christ hath done the things that are related of him in Holy Writ or hath promised the things that are therein contained But the Precepts why do so few believe them Lud. Do fewer believe the Precepts than the History or Promises Fed. Do you doubt First that which the Masters are wont to teach in General touching Gods commands that they are not delivered that we should keep them but that we should acknowledge our infirmity what is it else then to derogate Faith from his commands and not to believe them For when the Lord hath said All things are possible to him that believeth And St. Paul I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me Certainly whosoever doth not only not obey the Precepts but believes it impossible for them to be obeyed he does not truly believe the Precepts Whence it follows that how few soever they are that obey the Precepts and they are very few so few they are that believe the Precepts Lud. But that which you say All things are possible to him that believeth seems to have been spoken not of obedience but of miracles Fed. 'T was spoken in General of all the works of Faith which we have discoursed of before alledging that place out of the Epistle to the Hebrews The Saints by Faith have subdued Kingdoms wrought righteousness For to work righteousness certainly is the act of Faith Moreover if it were Gods pleasure that by Faith miracles might be wrought which yet are not necessary to mans Salvation much more would he have obedience to his commands possible by the same Faith since without obedience man cannot be saved and besides it being not more difficult to obey than to do miracles and to obey being the duty of all Believers to do miracles not of all as afore we have demonstrated Lud. These things are true Federic but there remains one thing which I desire you to Explain for me You have said before that almost all believe the History not the Precepts But if men did believe the whole History of Christ and especially the Resurrection the rest also as I think would be believed No doubt if men did believe that Jesus Christ is Risen they would believe withal that he is truly the Son of God and so believe all his sayings likewise For this cause St. John saith These things are Written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that Believing ye might have life through his Name Fed. When I deny that they believe his Precepts I would not have it so taken as if they believe not that he hath given Precepts and given them well as is worthy of the Son of God but whereas they believe the things he hath commanded either not possible to be done or not necessary or else interpret them amiss and according to their own will not according to the mind of Christ I say they do not believe his Precepts that is not believe them well Which that you may the more easily understand I will bring an example When God having brought the Israelites out of Egypt commanded them to invade the Land of Canaan did they believe God commanded it Lud. Yes surely otherwise they would never have sent their Spies into Canaan Fed. Why then did they not obey Lud. Because they did not hope the Canaanites could be overcome nor think that God had brought them out of Egypt to possess Canaan but miserably to perish in the Wilderness Fed. Therefore they did not believe Gods commands according to Gods mind when his mind was that they should invade and subdue the Canaanites Lud. You say the truth Fed. Therefore they did not believe well Lud. Not well Fed. Are they then to be called Believers or Unbelievers Lud. Vnbelievers in that respect Fed. Directly Unbelievers Ludovic for God calls them Unbelievers in these words Numbers 14. How long will this people provoke me And how long will it be e're they believe me for all the signs which I have shewed amongst them Now if these be rightly named Unbelievers they may also by the same reason be called so and said not to believe the Precepts of Christ who interpret them no better than these Israelites did the commands of God For Christ hath shewed us as many miracles as Moses them as seriously commands us to subdue our sins as they were commanded to subdue the Canaanites nor are we less contumelious and diffident in respect of Christ if when he commands us and promiseth strength we deny it possible to subdue our sins then they were in respect of God while they deny it possible to subdue the Canaanites nor do we less offend against the mind of Christ while we say what Christ commanded he did not command with a meaning that it should be done or be possible then they while they drew the meaning of God another way from the sense of his plain words Wherefore in that I deny them to believe the precepts of Christ I do them no wrong As to the place of St. John cited by you it is to be understood as if one had said then to the Israelites God hath done those miracles for you in Egypt that ye may