Epistle to the Romans be of sufficient force for their sense of Justification Then certainly an Argument from as express words in the Epistle to the Galatians will be as concluding for mine in which Epistle he also purposely states the same questions Gal. 3.11 The words are Gal. 3.11 That no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident for the Just shall live by faith Now to live I hope does not signifie to have ones sins forgiven him but to be Saved Therefore unless S. Paul include a right unto Salvation within the compass of Justification that Text might have been spared as nothing at all serving for his purpose Besides Is not Salvation as free as gracious as undeserved an act of God as Remission of sins Is it not as much for Christs sake that we are saved as that our sins are forgiven us Thus much for what I suppose is meant by Justification I will now as briefly and as perspicuously as I can without using Allegories and Metaphorical expressions with which this point is ordinarily much obscured shew you the combination of these two words in what sense I suppose S. Paul may use this proposition We are Justified by Faith without the Works of the Law 38. In the first place therefore I will lay down this Conclusion as an infallible safe foundation That if we have respect to the proper meritorious cause of our Justification we must not take Faith in that Proposition for any virtue or Grace inherent in us but only for the proper and principal object thereof Jesus Christ and his Merits And the meaning of that Proposition must be that we are not justified for the merits of any Righteousness in our selves whether Legal or Evangelical but only for the Obedience and Death of our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ Though this be most true yet I suppose that S. Paul in that proposition had not a respect to the Meritorious Cause of our Justification but to that Formal Condition required in us before we be Justified as I think may appear by that which follows 39. I told you even now that I would in this point purposely abstain from using Metaphors and Figurative Allusions and the reason is because I suppose and not without reasonable grounds that the stating of this point of Justification by Metaphors has made this Doctrine which is set down with greater light and perspicuity in holy Scripture than almost any other to be a Doctrine of the most Scholastical subtilty the fullest of shadows and clouds of all the rest For example In that fashion and dress of Divinity as it is now worn slic'd and mangled into Theses and Distinctions we find this point of our Justification thus express'd That Faith is therefore said to Justifie us because it is that which makes Christs righteousness ours it is as it were an instrument or hand whereby we receive lay hold on and apply Christ unto our selves Here 's nought but flowers of Rhetorick Figures and Metaphors which though they are capable of a good sense yet are very improper to state a Controversie withall 40. But let us examine them a little We must not say they conceive of Faith as if it were a Vertue or Grace or any part of Righteousness inherent in us For Faith as a Grace has no influence at all into our Justification Mark the Coherence of these things Faith is considered as an hand or an instrument in our Justification and yet for all it is a Hand it is nothing in or of us for it seems Hands are not parts of mens bodies Again Faith puts on Christ receives him layes hold upon him makes his righteousness ours and yet it does nothing for all that Besides How can Faith be properly call'd an instrument of Justification An Instrument is that which the principal Cause the Efficient makes use of in his operation Now Justification in this sense is an immanent internal action of God in which there is no co-operation of any other agent nor any real alteration wrought in man the object thereof Does God then use Faith as an instrument in producing the Act of Justification No but it is Instrumentum Passivum saith one That is a thing never heard of in nature before and the meaning is sure Faith certainly is something but what a kind of thing we know not By these means it comes to pass that the Doctrine of our Justification as some men have handled it is become as deep as unsearchable a mystery as that of the Trinity 41. Without question there is nothing can be more evident to a man that shall unpartially consider S. Paul's method in his discourse of Justification then that by Faith he intends some operative working grace in us For instance The Apostle proves that we Christians are to seek for Justification the same way that Abraham attained unto it namely by Faith for saith the Scripture in his quotation Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness What was that which was accounted to him His believing That is say some Christ who was the object of his Belief This is a forc'd interpretation certainly and which a Jew would never have been perswaded to But that Christ was not at all intended in that place it is evident for Abraham's belief there had respect to Gods promise made to him of giving him a Son in his old age and by that Son a Seed as innumerable as the stars in heaven as appears Gen. 15.4 5 6. whereas the Promise of Christ Gen. 15.4 5 6. Gen. 18.18 follows three Chapters after to wit Gen. 18.18 Again the Apostle in many places useth these words We are Justified by Faith in Christ and by the Faith of Jesus Christ which speeches of his will admit of no tolerable sense unless by Faith he intends some work or obedience perform'd by us This therefore being taken for granted that by Faith is meant some condition required at our hands and yet my former conclusion of our Justification only for the merits of Christ remaining firm we will in the next place consider what kind of obedience that of Faith is and in what sense it may be said to justifie us 42. What satisfaction I conceive may be given to this Quaery I will set down in this Assertion Assertion That since Justification even as it includes Remission of sins is that Promise to perform which unto us God has oblig'd himself in the New Covenant it must necessarily presuppose in the person to be so justified such an obedience as the Gospel requires namely first Repentance from dead works a conversion to a new obedience of those holy Moral Commands which are ratifi'd in the Gospel and a relying upon Christ as the only meritorious cause of our Justification and Salvation by a particular Evangelical Faith All this I say is pre-required in the person who is made capable of Justification either in the exercise or at least in
prohibited All which confirmeth your Majesties grave and learned Censure in your thinking the Geneva translation to be warst of all and that in the Marginal notes annexed to the Geneva translation some are very partial untrue seditious c. Lastly concerning the English translation the Puritans say Our translation of the Psalms comprized in our Book of Common-Prayer doth in addition substraction and alteration differ from the truth of the Hebrew in two hundred places at the least In so much as they do therefore profess to rest doubtful whether a man with a safe conscience may subscribe thereunto And M. Carlile saith of the English translators that they have depraved the sense obscured the truth and deceived the Ignorant that in many places they do detort the Scriptures from the right sense And that they shew themselves to love darkness more than light falshood more than truth And the Ministers of Lincoln-Diocess give their publique testimony terming the English Translation A Translation that taketh away from the Text that addeth to the Text and that sometime to the changing or obscuring of the meaning of the holy Ghost Not without cause therefore did your Majesty affirm that you could never see a Bible well Translated into English Thus farr the Author of the Protestants Apologie c. And I cannot forbear to mention in particular that famous corruption of Luther who in the Text where it is said Rom. 3. v. 28. We account a man to be justified by faith without the works of the Law in favour of Justification by faith alone translateth justified by faith ALONE As likewise the falsification of Zuinglius is no less notorious who in the Gospels of S. Matthew Marke and Luke and in S. Paul in place of This is my Body this is my Bloud translates This signifies my Body this signifies my Bloud And here let Protestants consider duely of these Points Salvation cannot be hoped for without true Faith Faith according to them relies upon Scripture alone Scripture must be delivered to most of them by the Translations Translations depend on the skill and honesty of men in whom nothing is more certain than a most certain possibility to err and no greater evidence of truth than that it is evident some of them embrace falshood by reason of their contrary Translations What then remaineth but that Truth Faith Salvation and All must in them rely upon a fallible and uncertain ground How many poor souls are lamentably seduced while from preaching Ministers they admire a multitude of Texts of divine Scripture but are indeed the false Translations and corruptions of erring men Let them therefore if they will be assured of true Scriptures flye to the alwayes visible Catholique Church against which the gates of hell can never so farr prevail as that she shall be permitted to deceive the Christian world with false Scriptures And Luther himself by unfortunate experience was at length forced to confess thus much saying If the Å¿ Li. cont Zuing. de verit corp Christ in Eucha world last longer it will be again necessary to receive the Decrees of Councels and to have recourse to them by reason of divers interpretations of Scripture which now raign On the contrary side the Translation approved by the Roman-Church is commended even by our Adversaries and D. Covell in particular saith that it was used in the Church one thousand t In his answer unto M. Joha Burges pag. 94. three hundred years ago and doubteth not to prefer u Ibid. that Translation before othâ—rs In so much that whereas the English-Translations be many and among themselves disagreeing he concludeth that of all those the approved Translation authorized by the Church of England is that which cometh nearest to the vulgar and is commonly called the Bishops Bible So that the truth of that Translation which we use must be the rule to judge of the goodness of their Bibles and therefore they are obliged to maintain our Translation if it were but for their own sake 17. But doth indeed the source of their manifold uncertainties stop here No The chiefest difficulty remains concerning the true meaning of Scripture for attaining whereof if Protestants had any certainty they could not disagree so hugely as they do Hence Mr. Hooker saith We are w In his Preface to his Books of Eccl. Politie Sect. 6.26 right sure of this that Nature Scripture and Experience have all taught the woâ—ld to seek for the ending of contentions by submitting it self unto some judicial and definiâ—ive sentence whereunto neither part that contendeth may under any pretence refuse to stand Doctor Fields words are remarkable to this purpose Seeing saith he the Controversies x In his Treatise of the Church in his Epistle dedicatory to the L. Archbishop of Religion in our timâ—s are grown in number so many and in nature to intricate that few have time and leisure fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which among all the societies in the world is that blessed company of holy ones that houshold of Faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the living God which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth that so they may imbrace her Communion follow her Directions and rest in her Judgement 18. And now that the true Interpretation of Scripture ought to be received from the Church it is also proved by what we have already demonstrated that she it is who must declare what Books be true Scripture wherein if she be assisted by the holy Ghost Why should we not believe her to be infallibly directed concerning the true meaning of them Let Protestants therefore either bring some proof out of Scripture that the Church is guided by the holy Ghost in discerning true Scripture and not in delivering the true sense thereof Or else give us leave to apply against them the argument which S. Augustine opposed to the Manicheans in these words I would not y Con. Ep. Fund cap. 5. believe the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church did move me Them therefore whom I obeyed saying Believe the Gospel why should I not obey saying to me Do not believe Manicheus Luther Calvin c. Choose what thou pleasest If thou shalt say Believe the Catholiques They warn me not to give any credit to you If therefore I believe them I cannot believe thee If thou say Do not believe the Catholiques thou shalt not do well in forcing me to the faith of Manicheus because by the Preaching of Catholiques I believed the Gospel it self If thou say You did well to believe them Catholiques commending the Gospel buâ— you did not well to believe them discommending Manicheus Dost thou think me so very foolish that without any reason at all I should believe what thou wilt and not believe what thou wilt not And do not Protestants perfectly resemble these men to whom
knowing Papist can promise himself any security or comfort from them We confess saith he the Church of Rome to be in some sense a true Church and her errors to some men not damnable we believe her Religion safe that is by Gods great mercy not damnable to some such as believe what they profess But we believe it not safe but very dangerous if not certainly damnable to such as profess it when they believe or if their hearts were upright and not perversly obstinate might believe the contrary Observe I pray you these restraining terms which formerly you have dissembled A true Church in some sense not damnable to some men a safe way that is by Gods great mercy not damnable to some And then seeing you have pretended these Confessions to be absolute which are thus plainly limited how can you avoid the imputation of an egregious Sophister You quarrel with the Doctor in the end of your Preface for using in his Book such ambiguous terms as these in some sort in some sense in some degree and desire him if he make any reply either to forbear them or to tell you roundly in what sort in what sense in what degree he understands these and the like mincing phrases But the truth is he hath not left them so ambiguous and undetermin'd as you pretend but told you plainly in what sense your Church may pass for a true Church viz. in regard we may hope that she retains those truths which are simply absolutely and indispensably necessary to Salvation which may suffice to bring those good souls to heaven who wanted means of discovering their errors this is the charitable construction in which you may pass for a Church And to what men your Religion may be safe and your errors not damnable viz. to such whom Ignorance may excuse and therefore he hath more cause to complain of you for quoting his words without those qualifications than you to find fault with him for using of them 30. That your Discourse in the 12 § presseth you as forcibly as Protestants I have shewed above I add here 1. Whereas you say that faith according to your rigid Calvinists is either so strong that once had it can never he lost or so more than weak and so much nothing that it can never be gotten That these are words without sense Never any Calvinist affirmed that faith was so weak and so much nothing that it can never be gotâ—en but it seems you wanted matter to make up your Antithesis and therefore were resolved to speak empty words rather than lose your figure Crimina rasis Librat in antithetis doctas posuisse Figuras Laudatur 2. That there is no Calvinist that will deny the Truth of this Proposition Christ died for all nor to subscribe to that sense of it which your Dominicans put upon it neither can you with coherence to the received Doctrin of your own Society deny that they as well as the Calvinists take away the distinction of sufficient and effectual grace and indeed hold none to be sufficient but only that which is effectual 3. Whereas you say They cannot make their calling certain by good works who do certainly believe that before any good works they are justified and justified by faith alone and by that faith whereby they certainly believe they are justified I answ There is no Protestant but believes that Faith Repentance and universal Obedience are necessary to the obtaining of Gods favour and eternal happiness This being granted the rest is but a speculative Controversie a Question about words which would quickly vanish but that men affect not to understand one another As if a company of Physitians were in consultation and should all agree that three medicines and no more were necessary for the recovery of the Patients health this were sufficient for his direction towards the recovery of his health though concerning the proper and specifical effects of these three medicines there should be amongst them as many differences as men So likewise being generally at accord that these three things Faith Hope and Charity are necessary to salvation so that whosoever wants any of them cannot obtain it and he which hath them all cannot fail of it is it not very evident that they are sufficiently agreed for mens directions to eternal Salvation And seeing Charity is a full comprehension of all good workes they requiring Charity as a necessary qualification in him that will be saved what sense is there in saying they cannot make their calling certain by good works They know what salvation is as well as you and have as much reason to desire it They believe it as heartily as you that there is no good work but shall have its proper reward and that there is no possibility of obtaining the eternal reward without good works and why then may not this Doctrin be a sufficient incitement and provocation unto good works 31. You say that they certainly believe that before any good works they are justified But this is a calumny There is no Protestant but requires to Justification Remission of sins and to Remission of sins they all require Repentance and Repentance I presume may not be denyed the name of a good work being indeed if it be rightly understood and according to the sense of the word in Scripture an effectual conversion from all sin to all holiness But though it be taken for meer Sorrow for sins past and a bare Purpose of amendment yet even this is a good work and therefore Protestants requiring this to Remission of sins and Remission of sins to Justification cannot with candor be pretended to believe that they are justified before any good work 32. You say They believe themselves justified by faith alone and that by that faith whereby they believe themselves justified Some peradventure do so but withal they believe that that faith which is alone and unaccompanied with sincere and universal obedience is to be esteem'd not faith but presumption and is at no hand sufficient to justification that though Charity be not imputed unto justification yet is it required as a necessary disposition in the person to be justified and that though in regard of the imperfection of it no man can be justified by it yet that on the other side no man can be justified without it So that upon the whole matter a man may truly and safely say that the Doctrin of these Protestants taken altogether is not a Doctrin of Liberty not a Doctrin that turns hope into presumtion and carnal security though it may justly be feared that many licentious persons taking it by halfes have made this wicked use of it For my part I do heartily wish that by publique Authority it were so ordered that no man should ever preach or print this Doctrin that Faith alone justifies unless he joyns this together with it that Universal Obedience is necessary to salvation And besides that those Chapters of Saint Paul which intreat of
was content that all this adoe all these pompous Tragical businesses should be performed 16. But what saith the Scripture If there had been a Law which could have given life Christ should have died without cause And thereupon our Apostle in Rom. 3.25 saith Rom. 3.25 that God hath set forth his Son to be a propitiation through faith in his Bloud to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be Just That is lest by the forbearance of God who since the foundation of the world had shewed no sufficient example of his hatred and indignation unto sin as also to shew there was a reason sufficient to move him to remit the sins of many his chosen servants before Christ He hath now at last evidently expressed unto the world his righteousness to wit his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by condemning sin and revenging himself upon it in the person of his beloved innocent Son 17. And lest all this stir should seem to have been kept only to give us satisfaction and to create in us a great opinion and conceit of his righteousness The Apostle clearly saith He did all this to declare at this time his righteousness that he might be Just Which otherwise it seems he could not have been But I am resolved to quit my self abruptly and even sullenly of those questions and betake my self more closely to the matter in hand 18. What therefore is the effect and fruit which accrews even to the elect of God by virtue of Christs satisfaction humiliation and death precisely considered and excluding the power and virtue of his Resurrection and glorious life Why Reconciliation to God Justification or remission of sins and finally Salvation both of body and soul But is there any remission of sins without Faith Shall we not only exclude Works from Justification but Faith also God forbid For so we should not only contradict the grounds of Gods holy Word but also rase and destroy the very foundations of the second Covenant 19. For answer We must consider our Reconciliation under a twofold state according to the Distinction of the Reverend and learned Dr Davenant Bishop of Salisbury 1. Either as it is Applicabilis not yet actually conferr'd Or 2. as Applicata particularly sealed and confirm'd to us by a lively Faith For the understanding of which we must know that in Christs death there was not only an abolishing of the old Covenant of Works the Hand-Writing which was against us which Christ nailed unto his Cross as S. Paul saith Col. 1. delivering us from the curse and obligation thereof But also there was a new gracious Covenant or which is a word expressing greater comfort to us a new Will or Testament made wherein Christ hath bequeathed unto us many glorious Legacies which we shall undoubtedly receive when we shall have performed the Conditions when we shall be found qualified so as he requires of us 20. Till which Conditions be performed by the power of Gods Spirit assisting us all that we obtain by the death of Christ is this That first whereas God by reason of sin was implacably angry with us would by no means accept of any reconciliation with us would hearken to no conditions Now by virtue of Christs death and satisfaction he is graciously pleased to admit of Composition the former aversation and inexorableness is taken away or to speak more significantly in S. Paul's language Eph. 2.16 Enmity is slain Secondly that whereas before we were liable to be tried before the throne of his exact severe rigorous Justice and bound to the performance of Conditions by reason of our own contracted weakness become intolerable nay impossible unto us we are released of that obligation and though not utterly free'd from all manner of conditions yet tyed to such as are not only possible but by the help of his Spirit which inwardly disposeth and co-operateth with us with ease and pleasure to be performed Besides which we have a throne of Equity and Grace to appear before Mercy is exalted above even against Justice it rejoyceth against Judgement it is become the higher Court and hath the priviledges of a Superiour Court that Appeals may be made from the Inferiour Court of Justice to that of Mercy and favour Nay more whereas before we were justly delivered into the power of Satan now being reconciled to God by the Bloud of Christ we are as it is in Col. 1.13 delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son 21 All this and more if it were the business of this time to be punctual in discovering all hath Christ wrought for us being aliens and strangers yea enemies afar off without God in the world Yet for all this that Christ hath merited thus much for us and more notwithstanding take away the power of Christs Resurrection and Life take away the influence of his Holy Spirit whereby we are regenerated and made new Creatures and we are yet in the Gall of bitterness and Bond of iniquity For though as it is Heb. 10.19 we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. liberty and free leave to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus though there be a way made open yet walk we cannot we are not able to set forwards into it as long as we are bound and fettered with our sins though there be an access to the throne of Grace yet it is only for them which are sanctified 22. And therefore what dangerous consequences do attend that Doctrine which teacheth That immediately upon the death of Christ all our sins are actually forgiven us and we effectually reconciled But because another employment is required by this time I will out of many make use of two Reasons only to destroy that Doctrine whereof the one is taken from the nature of the second Covenant the other from the necessity of Christs Resurrection 23. For the first If we that is the Elect of God for I am resolved to have to do with none else at this time be effectually reconciled to God by vertue of Christs death having obtain'd a full perfect remission of all our sins why are we frighted or to say truly injured with new Covenants why are we seeing our Debts are paid to the utmost farthing the Creditor's demands exactly satisfied the Obligation cancell'd why then are we made believe that we are not quite out of danger nay that unless we our selves out of our own stock pay some charges and duties extraordinarily and by the Bye inforced upon us All the former payments how valuable soever shall become fruitless and we to remain accomptable for the whole debt 24. But it may be and that seems most likely there is no such thing indeed as a new Covenant Promises and Threatnings are only a prety kind of Rhetorical device which God is pleased to
to be a messenger or intelligencer to discover unto us what Christ alone hath purchased for us 47. But I forbear to enlarge my self further in this point and indeed I have already done too much wrong to the honour and dignity of this Feast not only in mixing the business of Good-Friday with it as I did in my former part but also as I now have done in taking in the matter and imployment of Whitsuntide too Suffice it therefore that the sending of the Holy Ghost was an especial exercise of that power which was given Christ at his Resurrection by the influence and virtue whereof we do restrain and appropriate the merit of his Death to our own good and benefit 48. Now I would not be mistaken as if I said that the Resurrection of Christ precisely taken for that individual action whereby he was restored to life and glory was then effectual and powerful to produce those admirable effects For that being a Transient action past and finished many hundred years since can very improperly be termed capable of having such effects ascribed to it as have since and shall to the end of the world be wrought in Gods Elect. Therefore S. Paul shall be mine Interpreter in Rom. 5.10 saying If when we were enemies Rom. 5.10 we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life that is By that glorious Life which began at his Resurrection 49. For as in the matter of Satisfaction we ascribe our reconciliation to his Death especially yet not excluding his former Obedience and Humiliation but naming that as being the complement and perfection terminating whatsoever went before So likewise in Christs exaltation though there were divers degrees and ascents and stages of it yet we especially take notice of his Resurrection because in that Christ took his rise as it were and was then a Bridegroom coming out of his chamber Psal 19. rejoycing as a Gyant to run his race His goings out indeed were from the Grave but his Circuit is to the ends of Heaven and nothing is hid from his heat and virtue He illuminates every man that cometh into the world He was made saith S. Paul a quickning Spirit cherishing actuating and informing us with life and motion By the influence and power of his life he undergoes as it were a second Incarnation living and dwelling in our hearts by his Grace and reigning powerfully in our souls by Faith 50. And hereby he even shares his Kingdom his Power and his Victory with us For saith S. John This is the victory whereby ye overcome the world even your Faith Christ is not content only to destroy in us the works of darkness to dispel the clouds of ignorance and errour or to rectifie the crookedness and perverseness of our wills neither yet to implant in us a heavie unactive sleepy harmlesness a dull lethargick innocence but withal indues us Justitiâ germinante with a fruitful budding righteousness and works in us in the expression of S. Paul both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a patient unwearied hope 1 Thess 1.3 not hasty nor discontented with expecting and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a painful laborious love and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a working sprightful victorious Faith whereby we violently lay hold on the promises And in this sense the same Apostle saith that as Christ died for our sins Rom. 4.24 so he rose again for our Justification that is one chief end of Christs Resurrection in respect of us was to work in us a lively faith whereby we might be justified and acquitted from our sins 51. And yet the Power of Christs Life leaves us not here neither Nay all this is performed only to make us capable of greater blessings yet Tertul. de Res carnis For by our sanctification and new-birth we are saith Tertullian Restitutioni inaugurati destin'd and consecrated to a glorious Resurrection Hereupon S. John calls holiness the first Resurrection whereby sin is destroy'd And it is a pawn of the second whereby Death also shall be swallowed up in victory By the first the sting of the Serpent is taken away which is sin as S. Paul saith The sting of death is sin And when the sting is gone the Serpent cannot long out live it for by the second Resurrection that also is destroyed 52. But you will say How is Death destroyed Do not all men dye Do not all men see corruption You may as well ask How is sin destroyed For have not all men sinned and come short of the glory of God Nay Do not all men sin how righteous soever And if they were rewarded according to their own demerits would they not all come short of the glory of God Most certainly true Therefore to say the truth As yet neither Sin nor Death are destroy'd but only the Dominion of Sin and the Victory of the Grave And thereupon the Apostle contemplating the conquering power of Christ at his Resurrection saith not Oh Death or Oh Grave where are you for a little travel would serve the turn to assoyl that question 1. Cor. 15.55 But Oh Death where is thy sting How comes it to pass that thy poyson is not so keen and mortal as it hath been that it is so easily though not expell'd yet tempered and corrected by the healing Bezoartical virtue of Grace And thou Oh Grave where is thy victory Though thou hast given thine adversary the foyl though thou hast gotten him under thee yet thou shalt never be able to detain him long For behold a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He will ransack the most private reserved corners of thy Treasury and though thou mayest consume and devour our bodies yet he will force thee to vomit and disgorge them again he will not leave one portion one morsel of them in thy stomach and entrails 53. I know the ingenuous and learned Pareus because he would not suffer any portion of the merit of Christ's Death to be extended and meant to the ungodly or that He by the fruit of his Passion should obtain any power over them will therefore consequently exclude them from the efficacy and power of his Resurrection and Life He will not allow them to be raised by the power of Christ but only by the Justice of God to their own condemnation So that by his reckoning the great business and work of the last day shall not wholly lye upon Christ's hands to perform but shall be parted and shared between the Power of Christ and the Justice of God 54. I am confidently perswaded S. Paul in this point was not of his mind when he saith As in Adam all have dyed so by Christ shall all All without exception be made alive again And As by man came death so by Man also cometh the Resurrection of the Dead Indeed I wonder Pareus would not likewise find some shift to exclude
it self but in comparison with those twinkling cloudy stars of Jewish Ordinances and that once glorious but now eclipsed light the Law of Works since then this is the day which the Lord hath made for us we will rejoyce and be glad in it and we will be ready to hearken especially to any thing that shall be spoken concerning our Epiphany concerning that blessed light for many ages removed out of our sight and as on this day beginning to appear in our Horizon 3. The words of my Text I find so full and swelling with expression so fruitful and abounding in rich sense that I am almost sorry I have said so much of them to fit them to this day But in recompence I will spare the labour of shewing their dependance and connexion with the preceding part of the Epistle and consider them as a loose severed Thesis In which is contain'd not only the sum and extract of this Epistle but likewise of Christian Religion in general in opposition both to the Mosaical Law given to the Jews and the Law of Works call'd also the Moral Natural Law which from the beginning of the world hath been assented to and written in the hearts of all mankind The sense of which words if they were inlarg'd may be this We Christians by the tenour and prescript of our Religion expect the hope of Righteousness i. the reward which we hope for by righteousness not as those vain Teachers newly sprung up among you Galatians would have us by obedience unto the carnal Ceremonial Law of Moses but through the Spirit i. by a spiritual worship neither by performing the old Covenant of works which we are not able to fulfil but by faith by such an obedience as is prescribed unto us in the Gospel We through the Spirit wait c. 4. In these words then which comprehend the compleat essence of the Covenant of Grace we may consider First the conditions on mans part required in these words through the Spirit and by Faith Secondly upon the performance of our duty there follows Gods promise or the condition which God will make good unto us and that is the hope of Righteousness or Justification In the former part namely the obedience which is required from us Christians we may consider it first in opposition to the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit which import that it is not such an outward carnal obedience as Moses his Law required but an internal Spiritual worship of the heart and soul Secondly the opposition of this new Covenant to the old Covenant of Works in these words by Faith which signifie that we do not hope for salvation by the works of the Law but by the Righteousness of Faith or the Gospel In the second General we may likewise observe first the nature of Justification which comprehends the promises which God has been pleased to propose to us as the reward of our obedience Secondly the interest which we Christians in this life after we have perform'd our duties may have in these promises which is Hope express'd in these words We wait for the hope c. Of these 5. First then of the Covenant of Grace as it is distinguish'd from the Mosaical Law by these words through the Spirit Where we will consider the nature of the Jewish Law and wherein it is distinguish'd from the Christian When Almighty God with a high hand and a stretched out arm had rescued the people of Israel from the Aegyptian slavery and brought them in safety into the Wilderness intending then to settle and reduce them into good order and government himself and by common voluntary consent they all agree to submit themselves to whatsoever laws he shall prescribe unto them as we find Exod. 19. from 3d to the 9th verse Exod. 19.3 c. Judg. 8. So that afterwards Judg. 8. when the people after an unexpected glorious victory obtain'd by Gideon would have made him a King and have setled the government in his house No V. 23. saith Gideon v. 23. I will not rule over you neither shall my Son rule over you The Lord shall rule over you And likewise afterward when Samuel complained to God of the perverseness of the people who were weary of his government and would have a King as the Nations round about them had Thou art deceived saith God It is my government that they are weary of They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me and now are risen up in rebellion against me to depose me from that Dominion which with their free consents I assumed For which intolerable base ingratitude of that Nation in his wrath he gives them a King he appoints his Successour which revenged those injuries and indignities offered to Almighty God to the uttermost upon them 6. Now during the time of Gods reign over them never any King was so careful to provide wholesome laws both for Church and Common-wealth as He was Insomuch as he bids them look about and consider the nations round about them If ever any people was furnished with Laws and Ordinances of such equity and righteousness as theirs were which Laws because they were ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator namely Moses are commonly called by the name of the Mosaical Law and are penned down at large by him in his last four Books 7. The Precepts and prohibitions of this Law are of several natures For some duties therein enjoyn'd are such as in their own natures have an intrinsecal essential goodness and righteousness in them and the contrary to them are in themselves evil and would have been so though they had never been expresly prohibited Such are especially the 10. Words or Precepts written by Gods own finger in the two Tables of stone Other Precepts concern matters of their own nature indifferent and are only to be termed good because they were commanded by a positive divine Law such are the Ceremonial Washings Purifications Sacrifices c. A third sort are of a mixt nature the objects of which are for the most part things in their own nature good or evil but yet the circumstances annex'd unto them are meerly arbitrary and alterable as namely those things which are commanded or forbidden by that which is commonly called the Judicial Law for example The Law of fourfold Restitution of things stollen Theft of its own nature is evil and deserves punishment But that the punishment thereof should be such a kind of Restitution is not in it self necessary but may be chang'd either into a corporal punishment or it may be into a civil death according as those who have the government of Kingdoms and States shall think fit and convenient for the dispositions of the times wherein they live as we see by experience in the practise of our own Kingdoms For the due execution of which Laws and punishment of transgressours God appointed Judges and Rulers and where they failed through want of care or partiality himself
praeparatione cordis in a full resolution of the heart and entire disposition of the mind So that though God be the sole proper Efficient Cause and Christ as Mediatour the sole proper Meritorious Cause of our Justification yet these inherent dispositions are exacted on our part as causae sine quibus non as necessary conditions to be found in us before God will perform this great work freely and graciously towards us and only for the Merits of Christ 43. This Assertion may Reas 1 I suppose be demonstrated first from the nature of a Covenant For unless there be pre-required conditions on man's part to be perform'd before God will proportion his reward the very nature of a Covenant is destroy'd And it will not boot to answer that though there be no qualifications required in a man before he obtain Remission of sins yet they are to be found in us before we be made capable of Salvation For as I have shew'd before Sol. 1 Salvation is as properly a gracious Act of Mercy as free and undeserved a gift as truly bestowed on us only for the Merits of Christ as Remission of sins and therefore may as well consist without any change in us as the former And secondly If that proposition of S. Paul We are Justified by Faith Sol. 2 without the works of the Law exclude all conditions to be perform'd by man If it exclude not only the righteousness of the Law which indeed it doth but the obedience of Faith or the Gospel likewise from being necessary dispositions in us before we receive remission of sins Then another saying of his parallel to this will exclude as well the necessity of an Evangelical Obedience to our salvation For saith S. Paul Eph. 2.8 Eph. 2.8 By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of Works lest any man should boast Put I hope no man will be so unchristian-like as to exclude the necessity of our good works to salvation for all this saying of S. Paul therefore they may as well be pre-required to Remission of sins notwithstanding the former place 44. Secondly Reas 2 If there be no necessity of any pre-disposition in us before Remission of sins then a man may have his sins forgiven him and so become a person accepted of God whilest he is a person unregenerate unsanctified whilest he is dead in trespasses and sins Eph. 2.1 c. whilest he walks according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whilest he has his conversation in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind being notwithstanding his Justification a child of wrath as much as the profanest heathen though the veriest reprobate in the world lastly though he be no child of Abraham according to faith that is not having in him that faith which was imputed to Abraham for righteousness Now whether this Divinity be consonant to Gods Word let your own consciences be Judges 45. A third Argument to prove the Truth of the former Assertion Reas 3 shall be taken from several Texts of Scripture where Justification even as it is taken for Remission of sins is ascribed to other virtues besides Faith whether it be taken for a particular virtue or for the object thereof For example Our Saviour saith expresly Mat. 12.37 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned where we see Justification is taken in that proper sense in which we maintain it against the Papists Again If you forgive men their trespasses Mat. 6.14 45. your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Again our Saviour speaking concerning Mary saith Her sins are forgiven her because she loved much Luk. 7.47 If the time or your patience could suffer me Reas 4 I might add a fourth Reason to prove my former Assertion which is the clearness and evidence of agreement and reconciliation between S. Paul and S. James in this point upon these grounds without any new invented Justification before men which is a conceit taken up by some men only to shift off an Adversary's argument which otherwise would press them too hard they think for S. Paul's Faith taken for the obedience of the Gospel would easily accord with S. James his holy and undefiled Religion before God Jam. 1.27 or works which is all one And S. James would be S. Paul's expositour without any injury or detraction at all from the merits of Christ or Gods free and undeserved mercy to us in him But I must hasten 46. The full meaning then of S. Paul's Proposition We are justified by Faith and not by the works of the Law and by consequence the state of the whole controversie of Justification in brief may be this That if we consider the efficient cause of our Justification it is only God which Justifies if that for which we are justified that is the meritorious cause thereof it is not for any thing in our selves but only for the obedience and satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour that God will Justifie us But if we have respect to what kind of Conditions are to be found in us before Christ will suffer us to be made partakers of the benefit of his Merits then we must say that we are not justified by such a Righteousness so perfect absolute and complete as the Law of Works does require but by the righteousness of the Gospel by a Righteousness proportionable to that Grace which God is pleased to bestow on us not by the perfection but sincerity of our obedience to the New Covenant And the Apostle's main argument will serve to prove this to any understanding most undeniably S. Paul has demonstrated that if we consider the rigour of the Law all men both Jews and Gentiles are concluded under sin and most necessarily obnoxious to Gods wrath Which Reason of his would not be at all prevailing unless by works of the Law he intended only such a perfect obedience as the Law requires which by reason of mans weakness is become impossible unto him For it might easily be reply'd upon him thus We confess no man can fulfil the Law but the conditions of the Gospel are not only possible but by the assistance of Gods Spirit easie to be performed so that though for this reason the former Righteousness be excluded from our Justification not only quoad meritum but also quoad praesentiam yet the later Evangelical Righteousness is excluded from our Justification only quoad Meritum 47. But I perceive an Objection ready to assault me and I will impartially assist the force and strength thereof against my self with all the advantage I can It is to this purpose When men are disputing in the Schools or discoursing in the Pulpit they
whom you question first in point of learning and sufficiency and then in point of conscience and honesty as prevaricating in the Religion which they profess and inclining to Popery Their Learning you say consists only in some superficial talent of preaching languages and elocution and not in any deep knowledge of Philosophy especially of Metaphysicks and much less of that most solid profitable subtile and O rem ridiculam Cato jocosam succinct method of School-Divinity Wherein you have discovered in your self the true Genius and spirit of detraction For taking advantage from that wherein Envy it self cannot deny but they are very eminent and which requires great sufficiency of substantial learning you disparage them as insufficient in all things else As if forsooth because they dispute not eternally Utrum Chimaera bombinans in vacuo possit comedere secundas intentiones Whether a Million of Angels may not sit upon a Needle 's point Because they fill not their brains with notions that signifie nothing to the utter extermination of all reason and common sense and spend not an Age in weaving and unweaving subtile Cobwebs fitter to catch flyes than Souls therefore they have no deep knowledge in the Acroamatical part of Learning But I have too much honoured the poorness of this detraction to take notice of it 20. The other Part of your accusation strikes deeper and is more considerable And that tels us that Protestantism waxeth weary of it self that the Professors of it they especially of greatest worth learning and authority love Temper and Moderation and are at this time more unresolved where to fasten than at the infancy of their Church That Their Churches begin to look with a new face Their walls to speak a new language Their Doctrine to be altered in many things for which their Progenitors forsook the then Visible Church of Christ For example The Pope not Antichrist Prayer for the dead Limbus Patrum Pictures That the Church hath Authority in determining Controversies of Faith and to Interpret Scripture about Freewil Predestination Universal Grace That all our works are not sins Merit of good works Inherent Justice Faith alone doth not justifie Charity to be preferred before knowledge Traditions Commandments possible to be kept That their thirty nine Articles are patient nay ambitious of some sense wherein they may seem Catholique That to alledge the necessity of wife and children in these dayes is but a weak plea for a married Minister to compass a Benefice That Calvinism is at length accounted Heresie and little less than Treason That men in talk and writing use willingly the once fearful names of Priests and Altars That they are now put in mind that for exposition of Scripture they are by Canon bound to follow the Fathers which if they do with sincerity it is easie to tell what doom will pass against Protestants seeing by the confession of Protestants the Fathers are on the Papists side which the Answerer to some so clearly demonstrated that they remained convinced In fine as the Samaritans saw in the Disciples countenances that they meant to go to Jerusalem so you pretend it is even legible in the fore-heads of these men that they are even going nay making haste to Rome Which scurrilous Libel void of all truth discretion and honesty what effect it may have wrought what credit it may have gained with credulous Papists who dream what they desire and believe their own dreams or with ill-affected jealous and weak Protestants I cannot tell But one thing I dare boldly say that you your self did never believe it 21. For did you indeed conceive or had any probable hope that such men as you describe men of worth of learning and authority too were friends and favourers of your Religion and inclinable to your Party Can any imagine that you would proclaim it and bid the world take heed of them Sic notus Ulysses Do we know the Jesuits no better than so What are they turned prevaricators against their own Faction Are they likely men to betray and expose their own Agents and Instruments and to awaken the eyes of Jealousie and to raise the clamor of the people against them Certainly your Zeal to the See of Rome testified by your fourth Vow of special obedience to the Pope proper to your Order and your cunning carriage of all affairs for the greater advantage and advancement of that See are clear demonstrations that if you had thought thus you would never have said so The truth is they that run to extreams in opposition against you they that pull down your infallibility and set up their own they that declaim against your tyranny and exercise it themselves over others are the Adversaries that give you greatest advantage and such as you love to deal with whereas upon men of temper and moderation such as will oppose nothing because you maintain it but will draw as neer to you that they may draw you to them as the truth will suffer them such as require of Christians to believe only in Christ and will damn no Man nor Doctrine without express and certain warrant from God upon such as these you know not how to fasten but if you chance to have conference with any such which yet as much as possibly you can you avoid and decline you are very speedily put to silence and see the indefensible weakness of your cause laid open to all men And this I verily believe is the true reason that you thus rave and rage against them as foreseeing your time of prevailing or even of subsisting would be short if other Adversaries gave you no more advantage than they do 22. In which perswasion also I am much confirmed by consideration of the silliness and poorness of those Suggestions and partly of the apparent vanity and falshood of them which you offer in justification of this wicked Calumny For what if out devotion towards God out of a desire that he should be worshipped as in Spirit and truth in the first place so also in the beauty of holiness what if out of fear that too much simplicity and nakedness in the publique Service of God may beget in the ordinary sort of men a dull and stupid irreverence and out of hope that the outward state and glory of it being well-disposed and wisely moderated may ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto God's Soveraign Majesty and Power what if out of a perswasion and desire that Papists may be won over to us the sooner by the removing of this scandall out of their way and out of an holy jealousie that the weaker sort of Protestants might be the easier seduced to them by the magnificence and pomp of their Church-service in case it were not removed I say What if out of these considerations the Governours of our Church more of late than formerly have set themselves to adorn and beautifie the places where God's Honour dwels and
to make them as heaven-like as they can with earthly ornaments Is this a sign that they are warping towards Popery Is this devotion in the Church of England an argument that she is coming over to the Church of Rome Sir Edwin Sands I presume every man will grant had no inclination that way yet he forty years since highly commended this part of devotion in Papists and makes no scruple of proposing it to the imitation of Protestants Little thinking that they who would follow his counsel and endeavour to take away this disparagement of Protestants and this glorying of Papists should have been censured for it as making way and inclining to Popery His words to this purpose are excellent words and because they shew plainly that what is now practised was approved by zealous Protestants so long ago I will here set them down 23. This one thing I cannot but highly commend in that sort and order They spare nothing which either cast can perform in enriching or skill in adorning the Temple of God or to set out his Service with the greatest pompe and magnificence that can be devised And although for the most part much basenesse and childishnesse is predominant in the Masters and Contrivers of their Ceremonies yet this outward state and glory being well disposed doth ingender quicken increase and nourish the inward reverence respect and devotion which is due unto Soveraign Majesty and Power And although I am not ignorant that many men well reputed have embraced the thrifty opinion of that Disciple who thought all to be wasted that was bestowed upon Christ in that sort and that it were much better bestowed upon him or the poor yet with an eye perhaps that themselves would be his quarter-Almoners notwithstanding I must confesse it will never sink into my heart that in proportion of reason the allowance for furnishing out of the service of God should be measured by the scant and strict rule of meer necessity a proportion so low that nature to other most bountiful in matter of necessity hath not failed no not the most ignoble creatures of the world and that for our selves no measure of heaping but the most we can get no rule of expence but to the utmost pompe we list Or that God himself had so enriched the lower parts of the world with such wonderfull varieties of beauty and glory that they might serve only to the pampering of mortall man in his pride and that in the Service of the high Creator Lord and Giver the outward glory of whose higher pallace may appear by the very lamps that we see so far off burning gloriously in it only the simpler baser cheaper lesse noble lesse beautiful lesse glorious things should be imployed Especially seeing as in Princes Courts so in the Service of God also this outward state and glory being well disposed doth as I have said ingender quicken increase and nourish thâ—â—ward reverence respect and devotion which is due to so Soveraign Majesty and Power Which those whom the use thereof cannot perswade unto would easily by the want of it be brought to confesse for which cause I crave leave to be excused by them herein if in Zeal to the common Lord of all I choose rather to commend the vertue of an enemy than to flatter the vice and imbecillity of a friend And so much for this matter 24. Again what if the names of Priests and Altars so frequent in the ancient Fathers though not in the now Popish sense be now resumed and more commonly used in England than of late times they were that so the colourable argument of their conformity which is but nominal with the ancient Church and our inconformity which the Governours of the Church would not have so much as nominal may be taken away from them and the Church of England may be put in a state in this regard more justifiable against the Romane than formerly it was being hereby enabled to say to Papists whensoever these names are objected we also use the names of Priests and Altars and yet believe neither the corporal Presence nor any Proper and propitiatory Sacrifice 25. What if Protestants be now put in minde that for exposition of Scripture they are bound by a Canon to follow the ancient Fathers which whosoever doth with sincerity it is utterly impossible he should be a Papist And it is most falsly said by you that you know that to some Protestants I clearly demonstrated or ever so much as undertook or went about to demonstrate the contrary What if the Centurists be censured somewhat roundly by a Protestant Divine for aâ—â—ming that the keeping of the Lord's day was a thing indifferent for two hundred years Is there in all this or any part of it any kind of proof of this scandalous Calumny 26. As for the points of Doctrine wherein you pretend that these Divines begin of late to falter and to comply with the Church of Rome upon a due examination of particulars it will presently appear First that part of them always have been and now are held constantly one way by them as the Authority of the Church in determining Controversies of faith though not the infallibility of it That there is Inherent Justice though so imperfect that it cannot justifie That there are Traditions though none necessary That charity is to be preferred before knowledge That good Works are not properly meritorious And lastly that Faith alone justifies though that faith justifies not which is alone And secondly for the remainder that they every one of them have been anciently without breach of charity disputed among Protestants such for example were the Questions about the Pope's being the Antichrist The lawfulness of some kind of prayers for the dead The Estate of the Fathers Souls before Christ's Ascension Freewill Predestination Universal grace The possibility of keeping God's Commandments The use of Pictures in the Church Wherein that there hath been anciently diversity of opinion amongst Protestants it is justified to my hand by a Witness with you beyond exception even your great friend M. Breerly whose care exactness and fidelity you say in your Preface is so extraordinary great Consult him therefore Tract 3. Sect. 7. of his Apology And in the 9 10 11 14 24 26 27 37. Subdivisions of that Section you shall see as in a mirror your self proved an egregious Calumniator for charging Protestants with innovation and inclining to Popery under pretence forsooth that their Doctrine begins of late to be altered in these points Whereas M. Breerly will inform you They have been anciently and even from the beginning of the Reformation controverted amongst them though perhaps the stream and current of their Doctors run one way and only some brook or rivulet of them the other 27. And thus my Friends I suppose are clearly vindicated from your scandals and calumnies It remains now that in the last place I bring my self fairly off from your foul aspersions that so my Person may
Protestants in a long discourse transcribed out of the Protestant's Apology That their Translations of the Scripture are very different and by each other mutually condemned Luther 's Translation by Zwinglius and others That of the Zwinglians by Luther The Translation of Oecolampadius by the Divines of Basil that of Castalio by Beza That of Beza by Castalio That of Calvin by Carolus Molinaeus That of Geneva by M. Parks and King James And lastly One of our Translations by the Puritans 59. All which might have been as justly objected against that great variety of Translations extant in the Primitive Church and made use of by the Fathers and Doctors of it For which I desire not that my word but S. Austin's may be taken They which have translated the Scriptures out of the Hebrew into Greek may be numbred but the Latin Interpreters are innumerable For whensoever any one in the first times of Christianity met with a Greek Bible and seemed to himself to have some ability in both Languages he presently ventured upon an Interpretation So He in his second Book of Christian doctrine Cap. 11. Of all these that which was called the Italian Translation was esteemed best so we may learn from the same S. Austin in Chap. 15. of the same Book Amongst all these interpretations saith he let the Italian be preferred for it keeps closer to the Letter and is perspicuous in the sense Yet so far was the Church of that time from presuming upon the absolute purity and perfection even of this best Translation that S. Hierom thought it necessary to make a new Translation of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew Fountain which himself testifies in his Book de Viris illustribus and to correct the Vulgar version of the New Testament according to the truth of the Original Greek amending many errors which had crept into it whether by the mistake of the Author or the negligence of the Transcribers which work he undertook and performed at the request of Damasus Bishop of Rome You constrain me saith he to make a new work of an old that after the Copies of the Scriptures have been dispersed through the whole World I should sit as it were an Arbitrator amongst them and because they vary among themselves should determine what are those things in them which consent with the Greek verity And after Therefore this present Preface promises the four Gospels only corrected by collation with Greek Copies But that they might not be very dissonant from the custom of the Latin reading I have so tempered with my stile the Translation of the Ancients that those things amended which did seem to change the sense other things I have suffered to remain as they were So that in this matter Protestants must either stand or fall with the Primitive Church 60. The Corruption that you charge Luther with and the falsification that you impute to Zwinglius What have we to do with them Or why may not we as justly lay to your charge the Errours which Lyranus or Paulus Brugensis or Laurentius Valla or Cajetan or Erasmus or Arias Montanus or Augustus Nebiensis or Pagnine have committed in their Translations 61. Which yet I say not as if these Translations of Luther and Zwinglius were absolutely indefensible for what such great difference is there between Faith without the Works of the Law and Faith alone without the Works of the Law Or why does not Without Alone signifie all one with Alone Without Consider the matter a little better and observe the use of these phrases of speech in our ordinary talk and perhaps you will begin to doubt whether you had sufficient ground for this invective And then for Zwinglius if it be true as they say it is that the language our Saviour spake in had no such word as Tosignifie but used always to be in stead of it as it is certain the Scripture does in an hundred places then this Translation which you so declaim against will prove no falsification in Zwinglius but a calumny in you 62. But the faith of Protestants relies upon Scripture alone Scripture is delivered to most of them by Translations Translations depend upon the skill and honesty of Men who certainly may err because they are Men and certainly do err at least some of them because their Translations are contrary It seems then the Faith and consequently the Salvation of Protestants relies upon fallible and uncertain grounds 63. This Objection though it may seem to do you great service for the present yet I fear you will repent the time that ever you urged it against us as a fault that we make mens salvation depend upon uncertainties For the Objection returns upon you many ways as first thus The salvation of many millions of Papists as they suppose and teach depends upon their having the Sacrament of Pennance truly administred unto them This again upon the Minister's being a true Priest That such or such a man is Priest not himself much less any other can have any possible certainty for it depends upon a great many contingent and uncertain supposals He that will pretend to be certain of it must undertake to know for a certain all these things that follow 64. First That he was baptized with due matter Secondly with the due form of words which he cannot know unless he were both present and attentive Thirdly he must know that he was baptized with due Intention and that is that the Minister of his Baptism was not a secret Jew nor a Moor nor an Atheist of all which kinds I fear experience gives you just cause to fear that Italy and Spain have Priests not a few but a Christian in heart as well as Profession otherwise believing the Sacrament to be nothing in giving it he could intend to give nothing nor a Samosatenian nor an Arrian but one that was capable of having due intention from which they that believe not the Doctrine of the Trinity are excluded by you And lastly That he was neither drunk nor distracted at the administration of the Sacrament nor our of negligence or malice omitted his intention 65. Fourthly he must undertake to know that the Bishop which ordained him Priest ordained him compleatly with due Matter Form and Intention and consequently that he again was neither Jew nor Moor nor Atheist nor liable to any such exception as is unconsistent with due Intention in giving the Sacrament of Orders 66. Fifthly he must undertake to know that the Bishop which made him Priest was a Priest himself for your Rule is Nihil dat quod non habet And consequently that there was again none of the former nullities in his Baptism which might make him incapable of Ordination nor no invalidity in his Ordination but a true Priest to ordain him again the requisite matter and form and due intention all concurring 67. Lastly he must pretend to know the same of him that made him Priest and him that made Him
Customs of the Church he that does not see sees nothing Especially considering the catching and contagious nature of this sin and how fast ill weeds spread and how true and experimented that Rule is of the Historian Exempla non consistunt ubi incipiunt sed quamlibet in tenuem recepta tramitem latissimè evagandi sibi faciunt potestatem Nay that some such superstition had not already even in S. Austin's time prevailed so far as to be Consuetudine universae Ecclesiae roboratum Who can doubt that considers that the practice of Communicating Infants had even then got the credit and authority not only of an universal Custom but also of an Apostolique Tradition 48. But you will say notwithstanding all this S. Austin here warrants us that the Church can never either approve or dissemble or practise any thing against Faith or good life and so long you may rest securely upon it Yea but the same S. Austin tels us in the same place That the Church may tolerate humane presumptions and vain superstitions and those urged more severely than the Commandments of God And whether superstition be a sin or no I appeal to our Saviour's words before cited and to the consent of your Schoolmen Besides if we consider it rightly we shall find that the Church is not truly said only to tolerate these things but rather that a part and far the lesser tolerated and dissembled them in silence and a part and a far greater publiquely avowed and practised them and urged them upon others with great violence and yet continued still a part of the Church Now why the whole Church might not continue the Church and yet do so as well as a part of the Church might continue a part of it and yet do so I desire you to inform me 49. But now after all this ado what if S. Austin says not this which is pretended of the Church viz. That she neither approves nor dissembles nor practises any thing against Faith or good life but only of good men in the Church Certainly though some Copies read as you would have it yet you should not have dissembled that others read the place otherwise viz. Eccclesia multa tolerat tamen quae sunt contra Fidem bonam vitam nec bonus approbat c. The Church tolerates many things and yet what is against Faith or good life a good man will neither approve nor dissemble nor practise 50. Ad § 17. That Abraham begat Isaac is a point very far from being Fundamental and yet I hope you will grant that Protestants believing Scripture to be the Word of God may be certain enough of the truth and certainty of it For what if they say that the Catholique Church and much more themselves may possibly err in some unfundamental points is it therefore consequent they can be certain of none such What if a wiser man than I may mistake the sense of some obscure place of Aristotle may I not therefore without any arrogance or inconsequence conceive my certain that I understand him in some plain places which carry their sense before them And then for Points Fundamental to what purpose do you say That we must first know what they be before we can be assured that we cannot err in understanding the Scriptures when we pretend not at all to any assurance that we cannot err but only to a sufficient certainty that we do not err but rightly understand those things that are plain whether Fundamental or not Fundamental That God is and is a Rewarder of them that seek him That there is no salvation but by faith in Christ That by Repentance from dead works and Faith in Christ Remission of sins may be obtained That there shall be a Resurrection of the Body These we conceive both true because the Scripture says so and Truths Fundamental because they are necessary parts of the Gospel whereof our Saviour says Qui non crediderit damnabitur All which we either learn from Scripture immediately or learn of those that learn it of Scripture so that neither Learned nor Unlearned pretend to know these things independently of Scripture And therefore in imputing this to us you cannot excuse your self from having done us a palpable injury 51. Ad § 18. And I urge you as mainly as you urge D. Potter and other Protestants that you tell us that all the Traditions and all the Definitions of the Church are Fundamental points and we cannot wrest from you a list in particular of all such Traditions and Definitions without which no man can tell whether or no he err in points fundamental and be capable of Salvation For I hope erring in our fundamentals is no more exclusive of Salvation than erring in yours And which is most lamentable instead of giving us such a Catalogue you also fall to wrangle among your selves about the making of it Some of you as I have said above holding some things to be matters of Faith which others deny to be so 52. Ad § 19. I answer That these differences between Protestants concerning Errors damnable and not damnable Truths fundamental and not-fundamental may be easily reconciled For either the Errour they speak of may be purely and simply involuntary or it may be in respect of the cause of it voluntary If the cause of it be some voluntary and avoidable fault the Error is it self sinful and consequently in its own nature damnable As if by negligence in seeking the Truth by unwillingness to find it by pride by obstinacy by desiring that Religion should be true which sutes best with my ends by fear of mens ill opinion or any other wordly fear or any other wordly hope I betray my self to any error contrary to any divine revealed Truth that Error may be justly styled a sin and consequently of it self to such a one damnable But if I be guilty of none of these faults but be desirous to know the Truth and diligent in seeking it and advise not at all with flesh and blood about the choice of my opinions but only with God and that Reason that he hath given me if I be thus qualified and yet through humane infirmity fall into error that error cannot be damnable Again the party erring may be conceived either to die with contrition for all his sins known and unknown or without it If he die without it this errour in it self damnable will be likewise so unto him If he die with contrition as his error can be no impediment but he may his errour though in it self damnable to him according to your doctrine will not prove so And therefore some of those Authors whom you quote speaking of Errors whereunto men were betrayed or wherein they were kept by their Fault or Vice or Passion as for the most part men are Others speaking of them as errors simply and purely involuntary and the effects of humane infirmity some as they were retracted by Contrition to use your own phrase
Creed were faithfully summed and contracted and not one pretermitted altered or mistaken unless we undoubtedly know that the Apostles composed the Creed and that they intended to contract all Fundamental Points of Faith into it or at least that the Church of their times for it seemeth you doubt whether indeed it were composed by the Apostles themselves did understand the Apostles aright and that the Church of their times did intend that the Creed should contain all Fundamental Points For if the Church may err in Points not Fundamental may she not also err in the particulars which I have specified Can you shew it to be a Fundamental Point of Faith that the Apostles intended to comprize all Points of Faith necessary to Salvation in the Creed Your self say no more than that it is very (c) Pag. 241. probable which is far from reaching to a Fundamental Point of Faith Your probability is grounded upon the Judgment of Antiquity and even of the Roman Doctors as you say in the same place But if the Catholique Church may err what certainty can you expect from Antiquity or Doctors Scripture is your total Rule of Faith Cite therefore some Text of Scripture to prove that the Apostles or the Church of their times composed the Creed and composed it with a purpose that it should contain all Fundamental Points of Faith Which being impossible to be done you must for the Creed it self relie upon the infallibility of the Church 4. Moreover the Creed consisteth not so much in the words as in their sense and meaning All such as pretend to the name of Christians recite the Creed and yet many have erred fundamentally as well against the Articles of the Creed as other Points of Faith It is then very frivolous to say The Creed containes all Fundamental Points without specifying both in what sense the Articles of the Creed be true and also in what true sense they be fundamental For both these taskes you are to perform who teach that all Truth is not Fundamental and you do but delude the ignorant when you say that the Creed (d) Pag. 216. taken in a Catholique e sense comprehendeth all Points Fundamental because with you all Catholique sense is not Fundamental for so it were necessary to Salvation that all Christians should know the whole Scripture wherein every least Point hath a Catholique sense Or if by Catholique sense you understand that sense which is so universally to be known and believed by all that whosoever fails therein cannot be saved you trifle and say no more than this All Points of the Creed in a sense necessary to Salvation are necessary to Salvation Or All Points Fundamental are Fundamental After this manner it were an easie thing to make many true Prognostications by saying it will certainly rain when it raineth You say the Creed (f) Pag. 216. was opened and explaind in some parts in the Creeds of Nice c. But how shall we understand the other parts not explained in those Creeds 5. For what Article in the Creed is more Fundamental or may seem more clear than that wherein we believe JESUS CHRIST to be the Mediatour Redeemer and Saviour of Man-kind and the Founder and Foundation of a Catholique Church expressed in the Creed And yet about this Article how many different Doctrins are there not only of old Heretiques as Arius Nestorius Eutiches c. but also Protestants partly against Catholiques and partly against one another For the said main Article of Christ's being the only Saviour of the world c. according to different senses of disagreeing Sects doth involve these and many other such questions That Faith in JESUS CHRIST doth justifie alone that Sacraments have no efficiency in Justification That Baptism doth not avail Infants for Salvation unless they have an Act of Faith That there is no Sacerdotal Absolution from sinnes That good works proceeding from God's grace are not meritorious That there can be no Satisfaction for the temporal punishment due to sin after the guilt or offence is pardoned No Purgatory No prayers for the dead No Sacrifice of the Masse No Invocation No Mediation or Intercession of Saints No inherent Justice No supream Pastor yea no Bishop by divine Ordinance No Real presence No Transubstantiation with divers others And why Because forsooth these Doctrins derogate from the Titles of Mediator Redeemer Advocate Foundation c. Yea and are against the truth of our Saviours humane nature if we believe divers Protestants writing against Transubstantiation Let then any judicious man consider whether D. Potter or others do really satisfie when they send men to the Creed for a perfect Catalogue to distinguish Points Fundamental from those which they say are not Fundamental If he will speak indeed to some purpose let him say This Article is understood in this sense and in this sense it is fundamental That other is to be understood in such a meaning yet according to that meaning it is not so fundamental but that men may disagree and deny it without damnation But it were no policie for any Protestant to deal so plainly 6. But to what end should we use many arguments Even your selfe are forced to limit your own Doctrin and come to say that the Creed is a perfect Catalogue of Fundamental Points taken as it was further opened and explained in some parts by occasion of emergent Heresies in the other Catholique Creeds of Nice Constantinople (g) Pag. 216. Ephesus Chalcedon and Athanasius But this explication or restriction overthroweth your assertion For as the Apostles Creed was not to us a sufficient Catalogue till it was explained by the first Councel nor then till it was declared by another c. So now also as new Heresies may arise it will need particular explanation against such emergent errors and so it is not yet nor ever will be of it self alone a particular Catalogue sufficient to distinguish betwixt fundamental and not fundamental points 7. I come to the second part That the Creed doth not contain all main and principal Points of Faith And to the end we may not strive about things either granted by us both or nothing concerning the point in question I must premise these Observations 8. First That it cannot be denyed but that the Creed is most full and complete to that purpose for which the holy Apostles inspired by God meant that it should serve and in that manner as they did intend it which was not to comprehend all particular Points of Faith but such general heads as were most befitting and requisite for preaching the Faith of Christ to Jews and Gentiles and might be briefly and compendiously set down and easily learned and remembred And therefore in respect of Gentiles the Creed doth mention God as Creator of all things and for both Jews and Gentiles the Trinity the Messias and Saviour his birth life death resurrection and glory from whom they were to hope remission of sinnes
we were disobliged from performance of any duty or the eschewing of any vice unless it be expressed in the ten Commandements For to omit the precepts of receiving Sacraments which belong to practice or manners and yet are not contained in the Decalogue there are many sins even against the law of nature and light of reason which are not contained in the ten Commandements except only by similitude analogie reduction or some such way For example 〈◊〉 we find not expressed in the Decalogue either divers sins as Gluttony Drunkenness Pride Sloth Covetuousness in desiring either things superfluous or with too much greediness or divers of our chiefe obligations as Obedience to Princes and all Superiours not only Ecclesiastical but also Civil whose laws Luther Melancthon Calvin and some other Protestants do dangerously affirme not to oblige in conscience and yet these men think they know the ten Commandements as likwise divers Protestants defend Usury to be lawful and the many Treatises of Civilians Canonists and Casuists are witnesses that divers sins against the light of reason and Law of nature are not distinctly expressed in the ten Commandements although when by others diligence they are found unlawful they may be reduced to some of the Commandements and yet not so evidently and particularly but that divers do it in divers manners 12. My third Observation is That our present question being Whether or no the Creed contain so fully all Fundamental Points of Faith that whosoever do not agree in all and every one of those Fundamental Articles cannot have the same substance of Faith nor hope of Salvation if I can produce one or more Points nor contained in the Creed in which if two do not agree both of them cannot expect to be saved I shall have performed as much as I intend and D. Potter must seek out some other Catalogue for Points Fundamental than the Creed Neither is it material to the said purpose whether such Fundamental Points rest only in knowledge and speculation or belief or else be farther referred to work and practice For the habit o◠vertue of Faith which inclineth and enableth us to believe both speculative and practical verities is of one and the self same nature and essence For example by the same Faith whereby I speculatively believe there is a God I likewise believe that he is to be adored served and loved which belong to practice The reason is because the Formal Object or motive for which I yeeld assent to those different sorts of material objects is the same in both to wit the revelation or Word of God Where by the way I note that if the Unity or Distinction and nature of Faith were to be taken from the diversity of things revealed by one faith I should believe speculative verities and by another such as tend to practice which I doubt whether D. Potter himself will admit 13. Hence it followeth that whosoever denyeth any one main practical revealed truth is no lesse an Heretique than if he should deny a Point resting in belief alone So that when D Potter to avoid our argument that all Fundamental Points are not contained in the Creed because in it there is no mention of the Sacraments which yet are Points of so main importance that Protestants make the due administration of them to be necessary and essential to constiture a Church answereth that the Sacraments are to be (p) Pag. 235. reckoned rather among the Agenda of the Church than the Credenda they are rather Divine Rites and Ceremonies than Doctrins he either grants what we affirm or in effect sayes Of two kinds of revealed Truths which are necessary to be believed the Creed contains one sort only ergo it contains all kind of revealed Truths necessary to be believed Our question is not de nomine but re not what be called Points of Faith or of Practice but what Points indeed be necessarily to be believed whether they be termed Agenda or Credenda especially the chiefest part of Christian perfection consisting more in Action than in barren Speculation in good works than bare belief in doing than knowing And there are no less contentions concerning practical than speculative truths as Sacraments obtaining remission of sin Invocation of Saints Prayers for dead Adoration of Christ in the Sacrament and many other all which do so much the more import as on them beside right belief doth also depend our practice and the ordering of our life Though D. Potter could therefore give us as he will never be able to do a minute and exact Catalogue of all Truths to be believed that would not make me able enough to know whether or no I have Faith sufficient for Salvation till he also did bring in a particular List of all believed Truths which tend to practice declaring which of them be fundamental which not that so every man might know whether he be not in some Damnable Error for some Article of Faith which farther might give influence into Damnable works 14. These Observations being premised I come to prove that the Creed doth not contain all Points of Faith necessary to be known and believed And to omit that in general it doth not tell us what Points be fundamental or not fundamental which in the way of Protestants is most necessary to be known in particular there is no mention of the greatest evils from which mans calamity proceeded I mean the sin of the Angels of Adam and of Original sin in us nor of the greatest Good from which we expect all good to wit the necessity of Grace for all works tending to piety Nay there is no mention of Angels good or bad The meaning of that most general head Oportet accedentem c. It behoves (q) Heb. 11.6 him that comes to God to believe that He is and is a Remunerator is questioned by the denial of Merit which makes God a Giver but not a Rewarder It is not expressed whether the Article of Remission of sins be understood by Faith alone or else may admit the efficiency of Sacraments There is no mention of Ecclesiastical Apostolical Divine Traditions one way or other or of holy Scriptures in general and much less of every Book in particular nor of the Name Nature Number Effects Matter Forme Minister Intention Necessity of Sacraments and yet the due Administration of Sacraments is with Protestants an essential Note of the Church There is nothing for Baptism of Children nor against Re-baptization There is no mention in favour or against the Sacrifice of the Mass or Power in the Church to institute Rites Holy dayes c. and to inflict Excommunication or other Censures or Priesthood Bishops and the whole Ecclesiastical Hierarchy which are very Fundamental Points of S. Peters Primacie which to Calvin seemeth a fundamental error not of the possibility or impossibility to keep God's Commandements of the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and Sonne of Purgatory or Prayer for the
the former sort are not contained in the Creed yet all of the latter sort may be As for your Distinction between Heresies that have been and Heresies that are and Heresies that may be I have already proved it vain and that whatsoever may be an Heresie that is so and whatsoever is so that alwayes hath been so ever since the publication of the Gospel of Christ The Doctrine of your Church may like a Snow-ball increase with rowling and again if you please melt away and decrease But as Christ Jesus so his Gospel is yesterday and today and the same for ever 38. Our Saviour sending his Apostles to preach gave them no other Commission than this Go teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy-Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you These were the bounds of their Commission If your Church have any larger or if she have a Commission at large to teach what she pleaseth and call it the Gospel of Christ let her produce her Letters-patents from heaven for it But if this be all you have then must you give me leave to esteem it both great sacriledge in you to forbid any thing be it never so small or ceremonious which Christ hath commanded as the receiving of the Communion in both kinds and as high a degree of presumption to enjoyn men to believe that there are or can be any other Fundamental Articles of the Gospel of Christ then what Christ himself commanded his Apostles to teach all men or any damnable Heresies but such as are plainly repugnant to these prime Verities 39. Ad § 16 17. The saying of the most learned Prelate and excellent man the Arch-Bishop of Armach is only related by D. Potter p. 155. and not applauded though the truth is both the Man deserves as much applause as any man and his saying as much as any saying it being as great and as good a Truth and as necessary for these miserable times as possibly can be uttered For this is most certain and I believe you will easily grant it that to reduce Christians to Unity of Communion there are but two ways that may be conceived probable The one by taking away diversity of Opinions touching matters of Religion The other by shewing that the diversity of Opinions which is among the several Sects of Christians ought to be no hinderance to their Unity in Communion 40. Now the former of these is not to be hoped for without a miracle unless that could be done which is impossible to be performed though it be often pretended that is unless it could be made evident to all men that God hath appointed some visible Judge of Controversies to whose judgement all men are to submit themselves What then remains but that the other way must be taken Christians must be taught to set a higher value upon these high Points of Faith and Obedience wherein they agree than upon these matters of less moment wherein they differ and understand that agreement in those ought to be more effectual to joyn them in one Communion than their difference in other things of less moment to divide them When I say in one Communion I mean in a common Profession of those Articles of Faith wherein all consent A joynt-worship of God after such a way as all esteem lawful and a mutual performance of all those works of Charity which Christians owe one to another And to such a Communion what better inducement could be thought of than to demonstrate that what was universally believed of al Christians if it were joyned with a love of truth and with holy obedience was sufficient to bring men to heaven For why should men be more rigid then God Why should any error exclude any man from the Churches Communion which will not deprive him of eternal Salvation Now that Christians do generally agree in all those Points of Doctrin which are necessary to Salvation it is apparent because they agree with one accord in believing all those Books of the Old New Testament which in the Church were never doubted of to be the undoubted Word of God And it is so certain that in all these Books all necessary Doctrins are evidently contained that of all the four Evangelists this is very probable but of S. Luke most apparent that in every one of their Books they have comprehended the whole substance of the Gospel of Christ For what reason can be imagined that any of them should leave out any thing which he knew to be necessary and yet as apparently all of them have done put in many things which they knew to be only profitable and not necessary What wise and honest man that were now to write the Gospel of Christ would do so great a work of God after such a negligent fashion Suppose Xaverius had been to write the Gospel of Christ for the Indians think you he would have left out any Fundamental Doctrin of it If not I must beseech you to conceive as well of S. Matthew and S. Mark and S. Luke and S. John as you do of Xaverius Besides if every one of them have not in them all necessary Doctrins how have they complyed with their own design which was as the Titles of their Books shew to write the Gospel of Christ and not a part of it Or how have they not deceived us in giving them such Titles By the whole Gospel of Christ I understand not the whole History of Christ but all that makes up the Covenant between God and man Now if this be wholly contained in the Gospel of S. Mark and S. John I believe every considering man will be inclinable to believe that then without doubt it is contained with the advantage of many other profitable things in the larger Gospels of S. Matthew and S. Luke And that S. Mark 's Gospel wants no necessary Article of this Covenant I presume you will not deny if you believe Irenaeus when he says Matthew to the Hebrews in their tongue published the Scripture of the Gospel When Peter and Paul did preach the Gospel and found the Church or a Church at Rome or of Rome and after their departure Mark the scholar of Peter delivered to us in writing those things which had been preached by Peter and Luke and the follower of Paul compiled in a Book the Gospel which was preached by him And afterwards John residing in Asia in the City of Ephesus did himself also set forth a Gospel 41. In which words of Irenaeus it is remarkable that they are spoken by him against some Heretiques that pretended as you know who do now adays that some necessary Doctrins of the Gospel were unwritten and that out of the Scriptures truth he must mean sufficient truth cannot be found by those which know not Tradition Against whom to say that part of the Gospel which was preached by Peter was written by S. Mark and some other
ours by your own confession is safe whereas we hold that in yours there is no hope of salvation Therefore you may and ought to imbrace ours This is our Argument◠And if the Dominicans and Jesuits did say one to another as we say you then one of them might with good consequence press the other to believe his opinion You have still the hard fortune to be beaten with your own weapon 12. It remaineth then that both in regard of Faith and Charity Protestants are obliged to unite themselves with the Church of Rome And I may adde also in regard of the Theological Vertue of Hope without which none can hope to be saved and which you want either by excess of Confidence or defect 〈◊〉 Despaire not unlike to your Faith which I shewed to be either deficient in Certainty or excessive in Evidence as likewise according to the rigid Calvinists it is either so strong that once had it can never be lost or so more than weak and so much nothing that it can never be gotten For the true Theological Hope of Christians is a Hope which keeps a mean between Presumption and Desperation which moves us to work our salvation with fear and trembling which conducts us to make sure our salvation by good works as holy Scripture adviseth But contrarily Protestants do either exclude Hope by Despair with the Doctrin That our Saviour died not for all and that such want grace sufficient to salvation or else by vain Presumption grounded upon a fantastical perswasion that they are Predestinate which Faith must exclude all fear and trembling Neither can they make their Calling certain by good works who do certainly believe that before any good works they are justified and justified even by Faith alone and by that Faith whereby they certainly believe they are justified Which point some Protestants do expresly affirm to be the soul of the Church the principal Origin of salvation of all other points of Doctrin the chiefest and weightiest as already I have noted Chap. 3. n. 19. And if some Protestants do now relent from the rigour of the foresaid doctrin we must affirm that at least some of them want the Theological Vertue of Hope yea that none of them can have true Hope while they hope to be saved in the Communion of those who defend such doctrins as do directly overthrow all true Christian Hope And for as much as concerns Faith we must also inferr that they want Unity therein and consequently have none at all by their disagreement about the soul of the Church the principal Origin of salvation of all other points of Doctrin the chiefest and weightiest And if you want true Faith you must by consequence want Hope or if you hold that this point is not to be so indivisible on either side but that it hath latitude sufficient to imbrace all parties without prejudice to their salvation notwithstanding that your Brethren hold it to be the soul of the Church c. I must repeat what I have said heretofore that even by this Example it is cleer you cannot agree what points be fundamental And so to whatsoever answer you fly I press you in the same manner and say that you have no Certainty whether you agree in fundamental points or Unity and substance of Faith which cannot stand with difference in fundamentals And so upon the whole matter I leave it to be considered whether Want of Charity can be justly charged on us because we affirm that they cannot without repentance be saved who want of all other the most necessary means to salvation which are the three Theological Vertues FAITH HOPE and CHARITY 13. And now I end this first part having as I conceive complyed with my first design in that measure which Time Commodity scarcity of Books and my own small Abilities could afford which was to shew that Amongst men of different Religions one side only can be saved For since there must be some infallible Means to decide all Controversies concerning Religion and to propound truth revealed by Almighty God and this means can be no other but the Visible Church of Christ which at the time of Luther's appearance was only the Church of Rome and such as agreed with her We must conclude that whosoever opposeth himself to her definitions or forsaketh her Communion doth resist God himself whose Spouse she is and whose divine truth she propounds and therefore becomes guilty of Schism and Heresie which since Luther his Associates and Protestants have done and still continue to do it is not Want of Charity but abundance of evident cause that forceth us to declare this necessary Truth PROTESTANCY UNREPENTED DESTROIES SALVATION The ANSWER to the SEVENTH CHAPTER That Protestants are not bound by the Charity which they owe to themselves to re-unite themselves to the Roman-Church THE first four Paragraphs of this Chapter are wholly spent in an unnecessary introduction unto a truth which I presume never was nor will be by any man in his right wits either denyed or question'd and that is That every man in Wisdom and Charity to himself is to take the safest way to his eternal Salvation 2. The sift and sixt are nothing in a manner but references to discourses already answered by me and confuted in their proper places 3. The seventh eighth ninth tenth and eleventh have no other foundation but this false pretence That we confess the Roman Church free from damnable error 4. In the twelfth there is something that has some probability to perswade some Protestants to forsake some of their opinions or others to leave their communion but to prove Protestants in general to be in the state of sin while they remain separate from the Roman Church there is not one word or syllable and besides whatsoever argument there is in it for any purpose it may be as forcibly return'd upon Papists as it is urg'd against Protestants in as much as all Papists either hold the doctrin of Predetermination and absolute Election or communicate with those that do hold it Now from this doctrin what is more prone and obvious than for every natural man without Gods especial preventing grace to make this practical collection Either I am elected or not elected If I be no impiety possible can ever damne me If not no possible industry can ever save me Now whether this disjunctive perswasion be not as likely as any doctrin of any Protestants to extinguish Christian hope and filiall fear and to lead some men to dispaire others to presumption all to a wretchless and impious life I desire you ingeniously to inform mee and if you deny it assure your self you shall be contradicted and confuted by men of your own Religion and your own Society and taught at length this charitable Doctrin that though mens opinions may be charg'd with the absurd consequencs which naturally flow from them yet the men themselves are not I mean if they perceive not the consequence of these
justification by faith without the works of the Law were never read in the Church but when the 13. Chapter of the 1. Epistle to the Corinth concerning the absolute necessity of Charity should be to prevent misprision read together with them 33. Whereas you say that some Protestants do expresly affirm the former point to be the soul of the Church c. and therefore they must want the Theological vertue of Hope and that none can have true hope while they hope to be saved in their communion I answ They have great reason to believe the Doctrin of justification by faith only a point of great weight and importance if it be rightly understood that is they have reason to esteem it a principal and necessary duty of a Christian to place his hope of justification and salvation not in the perfection of his own righteousness which if it be imperfect will not justifie but only in the mercies of God through Christs satisfaction and yet notwithstanding this nay the rather for this may preserve themselves in the right temper of good Christians which is a happy mixture and sweet composition of confidence and fear If this Doctrin be otherwise expounded than I have here expounded I will not undertake the justification of it only I will say that which I may do truly that I never knew any Protestant such a soli-sidian but that he did believe these divine truths That he must make his calling certain by good works That he must work out his salvation with Fear and Trembling and that while he does not so he can have no well grounded hope of Salvation I say I never met with any who did not believe these divine Truths and that with a more firm and a more unshaken assent than he does that himself is predestinate and that he is justified by believing himself justified I never met with any such who if he saw there were a necessity to do either would not rather forgoe his belief of these Doctrins than the former these which he sees disputed and contradicted and opposed with a great multitude of very potent Arguments than those which being the express words of Scripture whosoever should call into question could not with any modesty pretend to the title of Christian And therefore there is no reason but we may believe that their full assurance of the former Doctrin doth very well qualifie their perswasion of the later and that the former as also the lives of may of them do sufficiently testifie are more effectual to temper their hope and to keep it at a stay of a filial and modest assurance of Gods favour built upon the conscience of his love and fear than the later can be to swell and puffe them up into vain confidence and ungrounded presumption This reason joyn'd with our experience of the honest and religious conversation of many men of this opinion is a sufficient ground for Charity to hope well of their Hope and to assure our selves that it cannot be offensive but rather most acceptable to God if notwithstanding this diversity of opinion we embrace each other with the strict embraces of love and communion To you and your Church we leave it to separate Christians from the Church and to proscribe them from heaven upon trivial and trifling causes As for our selves we conceive a charitable judgement of our Bretheren and their errors though untrue much more pleasing to God than a true judgement if it be uncharitable and therefore shall alwayes choose if we do err to err on the milder and more merciful part and rather to retain those in our Communion which deserve to be ejected than eject those that deserve to be retain'd 34. Lastly whereas you say that seeing Protestants differ about the point of Justification you must needs inferre that they want Unity in faith and consequently all faith and then that they cannot agree what points are fundamentall I answer to the first of these inferences that as well might you inferre it upon Victor Bishop of Rome and Polycrates upon Stephen Bishop of Rome and Saint Cyprian in asmuch as it is undeniably evident that what one of those esteemed necessary to salvation the other esteemed not so But points of Doctrin as all other things are as they are and not as they are esteemed neither can a necessary point be made unnecessary by being so accounted nor an unnecessary point be made necessary by being overvalued But as the ancient Philosophers whose different opinions about the Soule of man you may read in Aristotle de anima and Cicero's Tusculan Questions notwithstanding their divers opinions touching the nature of the soule yet all of them had soules and soules of the same nature Or as those Physitians who dispute whether the Brain or Heart be the principall part of a man yet all of them have brains and have hearts and herein agree sufficiently So likewise though some Protestants esteem that Doctrine the soule of the Church which others do not so highly value yet this hinders not but that which is indeed the soule of the Church may be in both sorts of them And though one account that a necessary truth which others account neither necessary nor perhaps true yet this notwithstanding in those truths which are truly and really necessary they may all agree For no Argument can be more sophistical than this They differ in some points which they esteem necessary Therefore they differ in some that indeed and in truth are so 35. Now as concerning the other Inference That they cannot agree what points are fundamental I have said and prov'd formerly that there is no such necessity as you imagine or pretend that men should certainly know what is and what is not fundamental They that believe all things plainly delivered in Scripture believe all things fundamental and are at sufficient Unity in matters of Faith though they cannot precisely and exactly distinguish between what is fundamental and what is profitable nay though by error they mistake some vain or perhaps some hurtful opinions for necessary and fundamental Truths C 3. Sect. 54. alibi Besides I have shewed above that as Protestants do not agree for you over-reach in saying they cannot touching what points are fundamental so neither do you agree what points are defin'd and so to be accounted and what are not nay nor concerning the subject in which God hath placed this pretended Authority of defining some of you setling it in the Pope himself though alone without a Councel Others in a Councel though divided from the Pope Others only in the conjunction of Councel and Pope Others not in this neither but in the acceptation of the present Church Universal Lastly others not attributing it to this neither but only to the perpetual Succession of the Church of all ages of which divided Company it is very evident and undeniable that every former may be and are obliged to hold many things defin'd and therefore
of the expression of this Atheism viz. not in words or opinion to deny God but which is worse in the carriage and course of our life to allow him his Attributes and yet not to fear him not to stand in awe of his power which he acknowledgeth to be infinite to distrust his Providence to sleight his Promises neglect his Threatnings which is in effect as much as in him lyeth to tear and ravish from him all his glorious Attributes by living as if God himself were less powerful less wise then himself improvident not deserving so much fear of his power or respect to his command as he would perform to a wretched mortal man that is a little richer or in some place of Authority above him 10. I need travel no further for a division to my own Text Here we may observe likewise First The cause of Atheism and by consequence all the abominable impieties that follow in the Psalm and that is Ignorance Indiscretion Inconsiderance expressed in the person of Nabal The Fool Secondly We have the expression of it not by word of mouth or writing but per motum cordis by the inclination of the heart or affections 11. In the prosecution of the former part which may very well take up and spend this Hour-glass I shall proceed thus First I will consider wherein this folly consists and that is not so much in an utter ignorance of God and his holy Word as a not making a good use of it when it is known a suffering it to lye dead to swim unprofitably in the brain without any fruit thereof in the reformation of ones life and conversation And there I will shew you The extream folly for a man to seek to increase his knowledge of his Master's will without a desire and resolution to increase proportionably in a serious active performance thereof Secondly I will propose to your consideration the extream unavoidable danger and increase of guilt that knowledge without practice brings with it To both which considerations I shall severally annex Applications to the Consciences of you my Hearers and so spend out my time 12. Now I take it for granted that I have hit right in declaring wherein the folly of Nabal in my Text consists namely in an unfruitful knowledg a knowledg that lies fallow is not exercised which if it were not allowed me I would only referr my self for proof unto some of David's Psalms and almost all his Sons Proverbs I should sin against the plenty of matter in my Text more worth our consideration if I should enlarge my self in this point Only one place of David shall suffice and that is in Psal 111.10 where he repeats that old divine Proverb made by God himself Psal 111.10 the Lord knows how long since and by him delivered to man as Job telleth us ch 28. v. 28. The Psalmists words are these The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter 13. I do not now exclude Ignorance from making up some part of this Fool but because the other piece of extream desperate folly is rather the sin of these days namely a barren uneffectual Knowledge Therefore I shall rather insist upon it Yet by the way I shall not fail to discover to you the danger of the other too 14. It is a pretty Observation that the Author of the Narration of the English Seminary founded in Rome has concerning the Method and Order the Devil has used in assailing and disturbing the peace and quiet of the Church with Heresies and Schisms He began saith he with the first Article of our Creed concerning one God the Father Almighty Creatour of Heaven and Earth against which in the first 300. years he armed the Simonians Menandrians Basilidians Valentinians Marcionites Manichees and Gnosticks After the 300th year he opposed the second Article concerning the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ by his beloved Servants the Noetians Sabellians Paullians Photinians and Arrians After the four hundreth year he sought to undermine the fourth fifth sixth and seventh Articles of the Incarnation Passion Resurrection Ascension and the second coming to Judgment by the Heresies of Nestorius Theodorus Eutyches Dioscorus Cnapheus Sergius c. After the eight hundred and sixtieth he assailed the eighth Article concerning the Holy-Ghost by the Heresie and Schism of the Greek Church Lastly since the year one thousand till these times his business and craft has especially expressed it self in seeking to subvert the ninth and tenth concerning the Holy Catholique Church and forgiveness of sins by the aid and Ministery of the Pontificians Anabaptists Familists and the like And with the deceipts and snares of these his cunning Ministers hath he entangled the greatest part of the now Christian world 15. But our blessed and gracious God be praised for it we and some with us have escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler the Net was broken and we were delivered The whole Doctrine of Christian Faith is restored to the Primitive lustre and integrity Nay more which is a greater happiness then God ever created to those his chosen good servants which lived in the Infancy of the Church the profession of a pure unspotted Religion is so far from being dangerous or infamous that we have the Sword of the Civil Magistrate the power and inforcement of the Laws and Statutes to maintain this our precious Faith without stain and undefiled against all Heretical and Schismatical oppugners thereof 16. If ever we forget the goodness and mercy of God in this our deliverance then let our tongues cleave to the roof of our mouths Nay if in our Songs of joyfulness and melody we remember not our escape wherewith the Lord snatched us out of Egypt and our victorious passage through a Red-Sea of Bloud and Ruin Thou O Lord wilt not hear our prayers 27. It was a seasonable admonition that the Apostle Saint Paul gave to other Gentiles after such a glorious victory and deliverance as this of our's Be not high-minded but fear Rom. 11.20 Heresie is not the only Engine that Satan is furnished with to assault and infest the Church of Christ neither is it the most dangerous He has the cunning to destroy Foundations and make no use of Heresie in the work neither You would wonder how it should be possible for the Devil to make an Orthodox Christian one perfect and studyed in all the Points of the Creed and one that can for a need maintain the Truth thereof against all gain-sayers I say it would seem strange for the Devil to make such a one to destroy and utterly demolish the very Foundations of his Faith and yet not at all to alter his opinions neither Yet that it is not only a possible contrivance but too too ordinary and familiar in these times woful Experience hath made it evident 18. The Art and cunning whereby this great work of the Devil 's is brought
they were freed from this curse into which the poor ignorant people fell How cunningly have these fooss layed a snare for their own lives 26. Alas What could the poor people think when they heard their Doctors and Magistrates men that were gods to them that sate in Moses Chair condemned of such extream folly and indiscretion What will become of us might they say if the Pharisees from whom all that we know is but a thin thrifty gleaning have so many Woes denounc'd against them for want of spiritual knowledge 27. Certain it was There were many poor souls whom the Pharisees kept out of Heaven for company Our Saviour tells them so much Ye neither go into Heaven your selves nor suffer others to go in But they were such as they had infected with their Leaven Such as made those rotten superstructions which those great Doctors built upon the Word foundations of their Faith and Hope And as certain it is that many there were upon whom God out of his gracious favour and mercy had not bestowed such piercing brains and enquiring heads as to make them acquainted with their dangerous Opinions and Traditions They were such as made better use of that little knowledg they had than to vent it in discourse or in maintaining Opinions and Tenents against the Church They heard the Word with an humble honest heart submitting themselves wholly to it and restored their Faith to its proper seat the Heart and Affections and it was fruitful in their lives and practise The wisdom of Solomon himself as long as he gave himself to Idolarty and Luxury was folly and madness to the discretion and prudence of these poor despised people 28. Thus you see The Fool that in my Text is so madd as to say There is no God may have wit enough to understand more nay in the opinion of the world may make a silly fool of him that has laid up in his heart unvaluable treasures of spiritual wisdom and knowledg And therefore the Latin Translation following St. Paul might more significantly have styled him Imprudens than Insipiens For the wisdom which is according to Godliness doth most exactly answer to that Prudence which moral Philosophers make a general over-ruling Vertue to give bounds and limits to all our Actions and to find out a temper and mean wherein we ought to walk And therefore a most learned Divine of our Church yet alive knew very well what he said when he desin'd our Faith to be A spiritual Prudence Implying that Faith bears the same office and sway in the life and practise of a Christian as Prudence of a moral honest man 29. Now saith Aristotle there may be many intemperate youthful dissolute spirits which may have an admirable piercing discerning judgment in speculative Sciences as the Mathematicks Metaphysicks and the like because the dwelling upon such contemplations does not at all cross or trouble those rude untamed passions and affections of theirs yea they may be cunning in the speculative knowledg of vertues But all this while they are notwithstanding utterly invincibly imprudent because Prudence requires not only a good discerning judgment and apprehension but a serenity and calmness in the passions 30. Therefore the same Philosopher does worthily reprehend some Ancients who called all vertues Sciences and said that each particular vertue was a several Art requiring only an enlightning or informing of the Reason and Understanding which any for a little cost and small pains-taking in frequenting the learned Lectures of Philosophers need not doubt but easily to obtain 31. This conceit of so learned a man does very well deserve our prosecution And it will not be at all swerving from the business in hand Therefore I shall shew you how the Moralist by the force of natural Reason hath framed to himself a Divinity and Religion resembling both in method and many substantial parts the glorious learning of a Christian I told you the fore-named Doctor did very well to call our Faith or Assent to supernatural Mysteries A spiritual Prudence 32. Now besides moral prudence nay before the moralist can make any use thereof or exercise it in the work of any vertue there is required another general Vertue which the Philosopher calls Universal Justice which is nothing else but a sobriety and temper in the affections whereby they are subdued and captiv'd unto well inform'd Reason So that whatsoever it commands to be done there is no rebellion no unwillingness in the Passions but they proceed readily to execution though it be never so distasteful to sense 33. Now how well does this express the nature of Charity for What else is Love but a sweet breathing of the Holy Spirit upon our Passions whereby the Holy Ghost does as it did in the beginning of Genesis incubare aquis move by a cherishing quieting vertue upon the Sea of our Passions Did not the same Spirit come to Eliah in a soft whisper He walks not in Turbine in a strong wind to raise a Tempest in our Affections Now when we have received this ipsissiman Dei particulam as Plato said of the Soul this shred or portion of the Holy Spirit which is Charity how evenly and temperately do we behave our selves to God and all the world besides How willingly and obediently do we submit our selves to the performance of whatsoever Faith out of Gods Word doth enjoyn us 34. But yet the Analogy and proportion between these two is more evident and observable That Universal Justice is no particular singular vertue neither hath it any particular singular object As other vertues have For example Temperance or Abstinence which hath to do with sensual delights and pleasures and none else But when it is determined to and fastens on the object of a particular vertue it is converted into and incorporates with that very vertue for example If I do exercise this general Habit of observing a mean and temper in things that concern diet or sensual pleasures it becomes Abstinence if upon objects of terrour it becomes Fortitude or Magnanimity Just so is it with Charity For 35. Charity is a vertue which never goes alone and is busied in solitary places being reserved and excluded from the society and communion of other Graces But it is that which seasons gives life and efficacy to all the rest without which if it were possible for me to enjoy all the Graces that the bountiful hand of God ever showred upon reasonable Creature yet if St. Paul speak truth I should be nothing worth It is that which fulfils all the Commandements This is evident to all that shall but sleightly and in haste read over 1 Cor. 13. beginning with vers 4. and so onwards 1 Cor. 13.4 c. where we may behold almost all the vertues that can be named enwrapped in one vertue of Charity and Love according to the several Acts thereof chang'd and transform'd into so many several Graces It suffereth long and so 't is Longanimity It is kind
wrought upon are meerly befool'd by the Devil or rather by themselves for so I told you that Saint James says And for an example I propos'd the learned Pharisees who for all their learning and knowledg in the Scripture yet our Saviour denounceth eight several Woes against them for being Fools and blind Guides So that the Fool in hand was not oppos'd to a Learned man but to a Prudent man And therefore a worthy Doctor of our Church did well define Faith to be A spiritual Prudence that is a knowledg sought out only for practise And there I compared Faith with moral Prudence and the fruit thereof Charity with the vertue of Universal Justice Therefore lest the very Heathen should rise up in judgment against us for not doing so much with the help and advantage of Gods Word as they could without it I did and do beseech you not to content your selves with meer knowing and hearing with only a conceit of Faith without Works for that was an ancient Heresie in the Nicolaitans whom God by name professeth an Hatred to as Eusebius tells us And for an effectual motive I told you how at the last great Tryal you shall not be catechis'd How well you can say your Creed or how many Catechisms without Book but How fruitful in works of Charity your Faith hath been And so I come to the second member of the First General namely the consideration how dangerous and grievous a burden Knowledg will be where it is fruitless and ineffectual of which briefly 43. I will once again repeat that divine sentence of the Psalmist in Psal 111.10 The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom Psal 111.10 and a good understanding have all they that do thereafter i.e. Till a man put his knowledg in practise he is so farr from being a good man that he is scarse a man hath not the understanding of a man till he do till he fall a work he was wiser a great deal before he gained his knowledg Knowledg alone is a goodly purchase in the mean time It is so worthy a purchase that as it should seem by our Saviours account till a man have obtained some competency in knowledg he hath gotten no right to the Kingdom of Darkness and Hell 44. For certainly no man can justly challenge damnation but he that is burdened with Sin Now he that hath no knowledg but is utterly blind in his understanding hath no sin that is in comparison the words are Joh. 9.39 c. And Jesus said for judgment I am come into this world Joh. 9.39 c. that they which see not might see and that they which see might be made blind Not as if Christ did imprint or inflict blindness upon any man but only occasionally that is those which walk in darkness and love it when the light comes upon them and discovers their wandring they hate it and turn their eyes from it and become more perversly and obstinately blind In the same sense that St. Paul saith Rom. 7. Sin taking occasion by the Law becomes more sinful whil'st sin is not oppos'd it goes on in its course quietly but when the Commandement comes and discovers and rebukes it it becomes furious and abominable and much more raging and violent 45. There follows Vers 40. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him Are we blind also There is nothing in the world that a Pharisee can with less patience endure than to hear any intimation given that he may be suspected of folly And therefore they were not so sensible or conceited of some wrong received when our Saviour call'd them Generation of Vipers as they are when their wisdom and discretion are call'd in question Witness this answer when no man spake to them they suspiciously demand whether Christ in his last words meant them or no. But what answers our Saviour 46. Jesus said unto them Vers 41. If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say We see therefore your sin remaineth As if he had said So little shall this supposed knowledg and wisdom that ye have profit you that you shall curse the time that ever you saw the holy Word of God and wish that all the Sermons that ever you heard all the gracious Invitations and sweet Promises which God by the ministery of his Servants the Prophets hath sent unto you had been sentences of some horrible death and torments from the mouth of a severe Judg. For your sins which otherwise had not been so insupportable now by your abusing the knowledg which God hath given you by your wilful contempt of those many invitations which have continually sounded in your ears are become as a Mountain upon you to crush you into powder You have hang'd a Milstone about your own necks which shall irrecoverably sink you into the bottomless comfortless pit whereas otherwise there might have been some hope of escape 47. And yet for all this let not any one favour and cherish himself in this conceipt That he thanks God he is ignorant enough that a very little practise will serve his turn his knowledg is not so much that it should put him to too great a labour in expressing it in the course of his life For whosoever he be that dares entertain or give way to such a thought as this is Let him be sure that if he do not know so much as God requires at his hands especially now that God hath sealed up the Scripture-Canon now that the whole Will of God is revealed this very ignorance alone will be a thousand weights to fasten him on the earth to make him sure for ever ascending to God in whom there is no darkness at all 48. For it is not so with an ignorant man as it is with one that is blind who if he will be sure not to tempt God by venturing and rushing forward in paths unknown unto him may live as long and as safe as he that is most quick-sighted No Ignorance alone though it be not active and fruitful in works of darkness is crime enough For with what colour of reason will such a one expect the reward of the Just Such a one will not doubt but that the Gates of Heaven are barr'd against the sottish blind ignorant Heathen to whom God never revealed any part of his Will yet himself may fare well enough Is not this a degree beyond madness it self What does such a one think that because he lives among religious people and such as are well acquainted with the way to Heaven that himself shall be sure to go for company Does he make no doubt of his part in the Resurrection of the Just because he was born in England or in such a year of our Lord when the Gospel flourished Nay shall it not be much more tolerable for the worst of the Heathen than for a such a man 49. For if the Heathen were left
the whole Scripture except it be in a History or where the quotation is mentioned Therefore surely it may be pertinent and sometimes useful even in the Church to have Atheism discovered to have this Doctrin preach'd and re-preach'd it was so in David's times and it shall go hard but we shall shew that we our selves though never so wise and learn'd and knowing in our own opinion yet that we also ought not to take it to heart if sometimes we be suspected and challenged of Atheism 10. That Temptation which the Devil found hard enough for himself even when he was an Angel of Light namely Ero similis Altissimo I shall be like the most Highest Now that it is his Office and employment to become a Tempter He has since scarce ever varied At the first exercise of his Trade with his first customers Adam and Eve he begun with it Ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. And if we shall unpartially examin our own thoughts we shall find almost in every suggestion at least some degree and tincture of Atheism either we do exalt and Deifie our own selves or else we do dishonour and in a manner degrade Almighty God deposing him from that soveraignty and sway which he ought to exercise in our Hearts and Consciences 11. This I say is true in some measure in all temptations in all sins whatsoever there is some quantity of Atheism though the sins be but of an ordinary size and rank But this is not that which I would now stand upon It concerns me to show that though men be never so Orthodox in their Opinions though they pretend to never so much zeal of the Truth which they profess yet unless that Divine Truth be powerful and perswasive enough to the performance and practise of such Duties as bear a natural resemblance and proportion unto it They that make such a Profession of Gods Truth do but flatter themselves they only think they believe but indeed and in truth there is no such thing as Faith in them For we must know that there is no Divine Truth so utterly speculative but that there naturally and infallibly flows and results from it as necessarily as warmth from light a Duty to be practis'd and put in execution Insomuch that it is impossible for a man to be truly perswaded of the one but he shall infallibly be perswaded to the other 1 Joh 2 4. So that he which saith He knoweth God and keepeth not his Commandements is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him And this I shall endeavour to confirm by Induction examining the truth and reality of our assent to the chief Fundamental Points of our Religion by our practises answerable thereto and concluding that where the latter is not to be found it is but a vain perswasion and phantastical illusion for a man to think he hath the former 12. But in the first place that we may be the better able and without interruption proceed in this design'd course I will first remove an Objection which may seem to prevail against that which hath been spoken to this effect Object Jam. 11.19 The Devils as Saint James saith believe and tremble They do indeed assent unto the Truth of all the mysteries of our Salvation In the place of St. James they acknowledg One God In Matth. 8.28 they acknowledg the second Article of our Faith allowing Christ to be Son of God And the like may be said of the others following And yet if we examin their practise How absolutely contradicting and warring is it with their profession Therefore it may seem that where there is a firm assent to Divine Truths there may consist with it a contrary repugnant practise 13. For answer therefore we must know Sol. that the Assent which the Devil gives to the Revelations of God is extreamly different from that belief which is exacted of us Christians and which every one of us though never so vitious and irreligious would gladly perswade our selves that we allow unto Gods Word For though for example the Devils acknowledge the Precepts and Commandements of God to be Holy and Just and Good and most fit to be observed As likewise that to those who sincerely and without Hypocrisie shall perform these Commandements of God Heb. 11.1 the promises of God shall be Yea and Amen they shall infallibly attain those joys which exceed mans understanding to comprehend Yet these things to them are only as a Tale which is told or rather they are to them occasion of horrour and gnashing of Teeth that there should be such glorious comfortable things which do nothing concern them and of malice and hatred to those who have an interest in them and are in a fair possibility of attaining unto them And therefore no marvail if such a Faith as this be barren and unfruitful of Good Works Whereas our Faith saith St. Paul is the substance of things hoped for of things which concern us we do not only acknowledg that the Precepts of God are good but also necessarily to be performed by us and that the promises of God are not only desireable in themselves but also that being such they were revealed for our sakes and are infallibly destin'd unto us when we shall have performed such conditions as may by the assistance of God be executed by us even with ease and pleasure Now wheresoever such perswasions as these are it is impossible even if the Devils themselves could be supposed capable of them but that there should accompany them earnest and serious endeavours not to come short of the Glory of God This difficulty therefore being dissolved I shall persue the examination of our belief of the Foundations of our Religion by the fruits and issues of it in the practises of our lives 14. We will begin with some of Gods Attributes Whosoever thou art that professest thy self a Christian thou believest that God whom thou servest is present every where both in Heaven and Earth insomuch that it is altogether impossible for thee to exclude him from thy company wheresoever thou goest he will pursue thee Though thou shouldst cloath thy self with darkness as it were with a garment the darkness would be to Him as the Noon-day And though it were possible for thee to deceive the eyes and observation of Men and Angels yea even of thine own Conscience yet to him thou wouldst be open and transparent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were Dissected and having thy very Entrails exposed to his sight 15. Thou canst hide therefore nothing which thou doest from his eyes he taketh notice of every word which thou speakest he hears even the very whispering of thy thoughts And all this thou sayest thou acknowledgest Out of thy own mouth shalt thou be condemned thou wicked Servant Darest thou then make thy Master a witness of thy Rebellion and Disobedience When thou art about the fulfilling of any of thine ungodly lusts thou retirest thy self from company
For whereas before he was allowed no Authority no not in Israel At his Resurrection he obtains the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession Now it would be a hard undertaking taking to describe the limits and borders of Christ's Kingdom as also to define the Polity whereby it is administred Therefore leaving the most glorious part of it which is in Heaven undiscovered we find in Holy Scripture that according to the several dispositions and qualifications of men here on earth He hath both a Scepter of righteousness to govern and protect his faithful subjects and servants and a rod of Iron to break the wicked in pieces like a potter's vessel And though the greatest part of the world will acknowledge no subjection to Christ's Kingdom notwithstanding this does not take away his authority over them no more than the murmuting and rebellion of the Israelites did depose Moses their Governour But there will come a time when that Prophetical Parable of his shall be resolved and interpreted to their confusion when he shall indeed say Where are those my enemies which would not have me to reign over them Bring them hither and slay them before me 40. But the most eminent and notorious exercise of Christs Dominion is seen in the rule over his Church which he purchased with his own Bloud Now the first business he took in hand presently upon his Resurrection when all power and dominion was given him was to give commission and authority to his Embassadours the Apostles and Disciples to make known to the world that so great salvation which he had wrought at his Passion Now though the Apostles were sufficiently authorised by vertue of that Commission which Christ gave them in those words As my Father sent me so send I you Notwithstanding they were not to put this authority presently in practise but to wait for the sending of the Holy Ghost which Christ before had promised them That by his virtue and influence they might be furnished with abilities to go through with that great employment of reconciling the world unto God by subduing mens understandings to the truth and obedience of the Gospel 41. We read in the Gospel of S. John that during the life which Christ lived in the flesh the Holy Ghost was not sent and the reason is added Because the Son of man was not yet glorified The strength and vigour of which reason doth excellently illustrate the point in hand For the sending of the Holy Ghost was one of the most glorious acts of Christs Kingly Office and the most powerful means of advancing his Kingdom Therefore in the daies of his humiliation whilest he lived in the form of a servant before he had purchased to himself a Church by his own Bloud his Humane Nature obtain'd no right of dominion and power over Mankind For till we were redeemed from the power and subjection of the Devil and sin by the merit of Christs Death we were none of Christs subjects but servants and slaves sold under sin and Satan 42. So that it being necessary that the Son of man should not only pay a price and ransome for our Redemption by his Death but also that the same Son of man and none else should actually and powerfully vindicate his elect from the bondage they were in and effectually apply his merits and satisfaction to their souls and consciences Till he was in S. Paul's words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.9 For the suffering of death crown'd with glory and honour He according to his Humane Nature and that was the only instrument whereby our Salvation was to be wrought had no power of sending the Holy Ghost 43. And indeed till Reconciliation was made by his Death to what purpose should the Holy Ghost be sent What business or employment could we find for him on earth You will say to work grace and new obedience in us I confess that is a work worthy the Majesty and goodness of Gods holy Spirit But yet suppose all this had been wrought in us put case our hearts were sprinkled from an evil conscience and that we were renewed in the spirits of our minds Perhaps all this might procure us a more tolerable cool place and climate in Hell But without Christ it would be far from advantaging us toward our salvation for alas though we should turn never so holy never so vertuous and reformed what satisfaction or recompence could we make for our former sins and iniquities God knows it must cost more to redeem a soul therefore we must let that alone for ever we must take heed of ever medling in that office we must let it alone to him even Jesus Christ who alone is able to be at that cost 44. But I might have spared all these suppositions For as excluding Christ there is no satisfaction no hope of redemption for us so excluding Christs satisfaction he hath no power or authority as Man of sending the Holy Ghost thereby to work in us an ability of performing the conditions of the second Covenant and by consequence of making us capable of the fruit and benefit of his satisfaction Therefore blessed be God the Father for the great glory which he gave unto Christ And blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ for meriting and purchasing that Glory at so dear a rate And blessed be the Holy Spirit who when Christ who is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone did send him would be content to come down and dwell among us 45. We find in Holy Scripture that our Salvation is ascribed to all the Three Persons of the blessed Trinity though in several respects To the Father who accepts of Christs Satisfaction and offereth pardon of all our sins To the Son who merited and procured Reconciliation for his elect faithful servants And to the Holy Ghost the Comforter who being sent by the Son worketh in us power to perform the conditions of the New Covenant thereby qualifying us for receiving actual remission of our sins and a right to that glorious Inheritance purchased for us 46. And from hence may appear How full of danger the former Doctrine which teacheth that actual remission of sins is procured to Gods Elect immediately by Christs death and how dishonourable it is to the Spirit of Grace excluding him from having any concurrence or efficacy in our Salvation For if this should be true the powerful working of the Holy Spirit can in no sense concern either our Justification or everlasting happiness For how can it be said that the Holy Spirit doth co-operate to our Salvation since all our good and happiness was procured by Christs death not only before but without all manner of respect had to our Regeneration and Sanctification by the power of the blessed Spirit Therefore by this Doctrine if we be any thing at all beholding to the Holy Spirit it is only for this that he is pleased now and then by fits
out of the Gospel 24. And therefore it was a sullen ill-natured fellow he in the Parable I mean which received the one talent and without all question a shameless lyar though I fear there be many who are not very averse from his opinion who with an impudent face durst tell God He was austere reaping where he had not sown and gathering where he had not scattered And though he spake this with the same confidence that his Proselytes do in these our daies not as a probable opinion but as a thing that he is assured of for sayes he I know thee that thou art austere c. Yet I beseech you believe him not No no Our God is a gracious God and requires of us no more than we are able to do He does not expect Faith and Repentance and Good Works where he has given no abilities to perform them Nay doth not God by his Prophet tell us and Christ repeats it in his Parable that he is so far from that that after several years labour bestowed on his vineyard and yet no fruit issuing yet he was content to expect one year longer even till he had done so much that no more could be done he is at a stay and asks What he could have done more 25. It were therefore very fit and convenient that we should at least in our own hearts silence and stifle such opinions concerning God as these are And believe that he is a well-wisher to us when he bestows any means upon us whereby we may do good Otherwise we shall without any comfort or courage heartlesly and even sleepily go about the performing of what Christ here counsels us to If you will not believe me upon my word take the mans own confession sayes he When I had once entertain'd this perswasion that God would expect a more yielding plentiful harvest fruitful beyond that proportion of seed which he gave me to sow I was affraid Horrour and uncomfortable thoughts seiz'd upon me and I went and hid my talent in a Napkin I e'en sate still resolv'd to put all to an adventure and to expect what God would do with me for alas how bootless and to no purpose would my weak endeavours be to procure the favour of such a God that would not be content but with a great deal more than lay in my power to perform 26. 'T is true indeed Christ told him that though he had had such an unworthy prejudicial conceipt of him yet that even from thence he might have been mov'd to have made the best and most advantageous use of that Talent which God had bestow'd on him for sayes Christ If thou knewest I was austere why didst thou not therefore put my money into the exchangers hands and trade with it that I might have receiv'd mine own with increase Why didst thou not at the least do thy best to give satisfaction to thy hard austere master God forbid that I should doubt but that there are thousands who though it may be have entertain'd this mans opinion and conceipt of God yet make better use of it than he did But yet the mans own confession shews what ordinarily and naturally is the fruit and issue of it 27. That therefore which God sowes among you is Riches but yet Riches most improperly so called that which he scatters and strews abroad is the Mammon of unrighteousness Now he which soweth saith the Apostle soweth in hope and he which scattereth scattereth in hope But what gain or interest what a kind of harvest does God hope for after this his Seeds time why just such another as the same Apostle speaks of 1 Cor. 15. where he discourses upon the Resurrection and glorious change of these our bodies 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. They are sowen saith he in corruption but are raised in incorruption they are sowen in dishonour but are raised in glory they are sowen in weakness but are raised in power they are sowen natural bodies but are raised spiritual heavenly bodies In like manner God sowes among you those Riches which himself most disgracefully calls the Mammon of unrighteousness in hope that he may reap the true Riches He scatters among you such small trifles that many even Heathen-men have been content to want for the empty acrial reward of fame nay that some of them have been content to cast away in an humour and these small things he scatters abroad in hope that he may gather what think you the everlasting salvation of your souls and bodies And is this that harsh austere Master 28. Indeed if God were such a person as some men have given him out for if he should scatter abroad his Riches as snares on purpose to fetter and entangle men with them If he should bestow upon any this Mammon of unrighteousness with an intent and resolution that it should become unto them the Mammon of unrighteousness indeed that it should make them indispos'd and uncapable of attaining unto the true riches there might be some plea for them to fasten so injurious an accusation upon God But can the Judge of all the earth deal so with his servants Can he which is Goodness and Mercy it self He who rejoyces to stile himself The Preserver of men Can he be so cruelly bountiful to his creatures as by heaping upon them the vanishing unsatisfying blessings of this life thereby to fat and cherish them against the day of slaughter and destruction God forbid 29. I confess notwithstanding that such persons there may be upon whom God may in his wrath showr down Blessings and Riches in his fierce displeasure But they are only such as by living in a continual habitual practise of undervaluing and contemning the daily offers of Grace and favour have already condemn'd themselves and seal'd themselves unto the day of destruction and such an one was Pharaoh concerning whom God himself testifies saying For this reason I have raised thee up Exod. 9.16 that I might shew my power in thee and that my Name might he declared throughout all the Earth that is Since by thy continual Rebellions thou hast judged thy self unworthy of life for this reason I have raised thee up I have kept thee alive and preserv'd thee that none of my former plagues should sweep thee away that at last by an utter destruction of thee together with the whole strength and flower of thy Kingdom I may be glorified throughout the whole world But I will leave discoursing and come nearer unto you in the serious application of Christs counsel here 30. It is the property of Riches saith the Wise-man to gather many friends Prou. 19.4 Those who are above others in wealth and power shall presently be furnish'd with friends more then they can well know what to do withall But such friends are not concern'd at all in our Saviour's advice in my Text The friends here intended are such who are not here to restore again unto you in the same coin that they received
and come short of the glory of God Thus much for the Law of Works 29. The state of mankind without Christ being so deplored so out of al hope as I told you Almighty God out of his infinite mercy and goodness by his unspeakable wisdom found out an attonement accepting of the voluntary exinanition and humiliation of his dearly beloved Son who submitted himself to be made flesh to all our natural infirmities sin only excepted and at last to dye that ignominious accursed death of the Cross for the Redemption of mankind Who in his death made a Covenant with his Father that those and only those who would be willing to submit themselves to the obedience of a new Law which he would prescribe unto mankind should for the merits of his obedience and death be justified in the sight of God have their sins forgiven them and be made heirs of everlasting glory Now that Christ's death was in order of Nature before the giving of the Gospel is I think evident by those words of St. Paul Heb. 9.16 17. where comparing the old Covenant of the Jews with that of Christ he saith Where a Testament is Heb. 9.16.16 there must of necessity be the death of the Testatour for a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwisâ— it is of no strength at all while the Testatour liveth whereupon neither the first Covenant was dedicated without bloud It was necessary therefore saith he ver 23. that the patterns of things in heaven should be purified with these i. e. with the bloud of Beasts but the heavenly things themselves with better things than those namely with the bloud of Christ 30. Which Covenant of Christ call'd in Scripture the New-Covenant the Covenant of Grace the grace of God the Law of Faith according to the nature of all Covenants being made between two parties at the least requires conditions on both sides to be perform'd and being a Covenant of Promise the conditions on man's part must necessarily go before otherwise they are no conditions at all Now man's duty is comprehended by St. Paul in this word Faith and God's promise in the word Justification And thus farr we have proceeded upon sure grounds for we have plain express words of Scripture for that which hath been said But the main difficulty remains behind and that is the true sense and meaning of these two words Faith and Justification and what respect and dependance they have one of the other Which difficulty by Gods assistance and with your Christian charitable patience I will now endeavour to dissolve 31. For the first therefore which is Faith we may consider it in several respects to wit first as referring us to and denoting the principal object of Evangelical Faith which is Christ Now if Faith be meant in this sense as by many good Writers of our Reformed Churches it is understood then the meaning of that so often repeated saying of St. Paul We are justified by Faith without the works of the Law must be We are justifi'd only for the obedience of Christ and not for our righteousness of the Law which is certainly a most Catholick Orthodox sense and not to be deny'd by any Christian though I doubt it does not express all that St. Paul intended in that Proposition Secondly Faith signifies the Act or exercise or duty of Faith as it comprehends all Evangelical Obedience call'd by St. Paul The Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 Rom. 16.26 4.13 9.13 10.6 The Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4 13. 9.13 10.6 And it is an inherent grace or vertue wrought in us by the powerful operation of God's Spirit Or thirdly Rom. 10.9 it may be taken for the Doctrin of Faith call'd also by him the Word of Faith Act. 20.32 Gal. 3.2 Rom. 3.27 Rom. 10.8 and the Word of Gods Grace Act. 20.32 and the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 In which sense as if he meant the Word St. Paul may seem to resolve us Rom. 3.27 where he saith that boasting is excluded by the Law of Faith which words are extant in the very heat of the controversie of Justification Now these senses of Faith if they be apply'd to that conclusion of St. Paul We are justified by Faith come all to one pass for in effect it is all one to say We are justifi'd by our Obedience or Righteousness of Faith and to say We are justifi'd by the Gospel which prescribes that Obedience As on the contrary to say We are justifi'd by the Law or by works prescribed by the Law is all one There is a fourth acception of Faith taken for the single Habit or Grace of Faith and apply'd to this proposition only of all Christians that I have heard of by the Belgick Remonstrants which being a new invented fancy and therefore unwarrantable yet I shall hereafter have occasion it may be to say something of it 31. St. Paul's Proposition I am perswaded excludes none of these senses it is capeble of them all But before I shew you how they may consist together I will in the first place declare of what nature that righteousness is which God by vertue of his New Covenant requires at our hands before he will make good his promise unto us First then God requires at our hands a sincere Obedience unto the substance of all Moral duties of the Old Covenant and that by the Gospel And this obedience is so necessary that it is impossible any man should be saved without it The pressing of this Doctrine takes up by much the greatest part of the Evangelical Writings Now that these Duties are not enforc'd upon us as conditions of the Old Covenant of Works is evident because by Christ we are freed from the Obligation of the Old Covenant God forbids that we should have a thought of expecting the hope of righteousness upon those terms For that Covenant will not admit of any imperfection in our works and then in what a miserable case are we There is no hope for us unless some course be taken that not only our imperfections but our sins and those of a high nature be pass'd by and overlook'd by Almighty God as if He had lost his eyes to see them or his memory to remember them 32. The substance then of the Moral Law is enjoyn'd us by the New-Covenant but with what difference I shall shew you presently And hereupon it is that our Saviour saith to the Pharisees who were willing to make any mis-construction of his Doctrine Think you that I am come to destroy the Law I by all means say we God forbid else for unless the old Law be destroy'd we are undone as long as that is alive we are dead If the Law of Works have its natural force still woe be to us Therefore that must not be Christ's meaning His intent is as if he should say Think you that I am come to destroy the righteousness of the Law to dis-oblige men from
the necessity of being good holy and vertuous No by no means I am not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it The righteousness of the Law according to the substance thereof shall be as necessarily required by vertue of that New Covenant which I preach unto you and to which I exhort you all to submit your selves as ever it was by the Old Covenant only because of your weakness and infirmity I will abate the rigour of it Those who notwithstanding my offer of Grace and Pardon upon such easie conditions as I prescribe will yet continue in an habitual state of profaneness and irreligion shall be as culpable nay ten times more miserable than if they never had heard of me for their wilful neglecting so great salvation It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Law to fail For God would be no looser by the annihilation of the world whereas if any part of the Moral Law should expire the very beams and rayes of Gods essential goodness should be darkened and destroy'd 33. In like manner saith St. Paul Rom. 11. ult Rom. 3. ult Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Now if a succeeding Covenant establisheth any part of a Precedent especially if there be any alteration made in the conditions established all obligation whatsoever is taken from the Old Covenant and those conditions are in force only by vertue of the New When the Norman Conquerour was pleas'd to establish and confirm to the English some of the ancient Saxons Laws Are those Laws then become in force as they are Saxon No for the Authority of the Saxons the Authors of those Laws is supposed to be extinguished and therefore no power remains in them to look to the execution of them But by the confirmation of the Norman they are become indeed Norman Laws and are now in force not because they were first made by the Saxons but only by vertue of the succeeding power of the Norman line So likewise when the Gospel enjoyns the substance of the same duties which the old Covenant of Works required Are we Christians enforc'd to the obedience of them because they are duties of the Law By no means But only because our Saviour and only Law-maker Jesus Christ commands the same in the Law of Faith 34. Thus far the New Covenant is in some terms of agreement with the Old inasmuch as the same Moral duties are enjoyn'd in them both as parts of the conditions of both But the difference herein is That the Law commands a precise exact fulfilling of these Precepts as I told you before which the Gospel descending to our infirmities remits and qualifies much For in the Gospel he is accounted to fulfil the moral Precepts that obeys them according to that measure of Grace which God is pleas'd to allow him that obeys God though not with a perfect yet with a sincere upright heart that when he is overcome with a temptation to sin continues not in it but recovers himself to his former righteousness by Repentance and new Obedience Thus much then for the moral Precepts and with what difference they are commanded in the Old and New Covenant 35. In the second place there is another part of Evangelical Obedience which is purely Evangelical and which has no commerce nor reference at all to the Law and that is the Grace of Repentance For saith St. Paul Act. 17 30. Act. 17.30 But now that is by the Gospel God commands all men every where to repent Now Repentance implies a serious consideration and acknowledgment of that miserable estate whereunto our sins have brought us and hereupon an hearty unfeigned sorrow for them a perfect hatred and detestation of them inferring a full peremptory resolution to break them off and interrupt the course of them by new obedience This I say is an obedience purely Evangelical The Law of Works did not at all meddle with it neither indeed could it The Law condemns a man assoon as ever he is guilty of the breach thereof and makes no promise at all of Remission of sins upon Repentance but rather quite excludes it Yet from the grace of Repentance we may gather a forcible argument to make good that which before we spoke concerning the Renewing of the Moral Precepts in the New Covenant For no reasonable man can deny that Repentance is absolutely necessary before a man can be Justified Now what is that for which for example a new converted Heathen repents but the breach of the Moral Law therefore by this necessity of Repentance he acknowledgeth and so do we that by such sins he was excluded from all hope of being Justified Now it were absurd for a man to say that any thing excludes a man from being capable of receiving the promises of a Covenant but only the breaking of the conditions thereof 36. The third part of Evangelical Righteousness is Faith not Moral but Christian which is A relying upon Christ as the only meritorious cause of whatsoever benefit we obtain by the new Covenant It being for his sake both that God bestowes upon us grace whereby we are enabled to perform his will and after we have done our duty that he will freely and not as wages bestow upon us the reward thereof There is another virtue Evangelical which is Hope but of that I must speak in my last point And thus I have gone through the Conditions required on mans part in the New Covenant all which I suppose are implyed in this word Faith which being taken in so general a sense may I conceive be thus not improperly defined viz. To be a receiving and embracing of the Promises made unto us in Christ upon the terms and conditions proposed in the Gospel 37. Now follow the conditions on Gods part comprehended in these words The hope of Righteousness which are equivalent to the term of Justification the nature whereof I shall now endeavour to discover Justification I suppose imports the whole Treasure of blessings and favours which God who is rich in mercy will freely bestow on those whom he accepts as Righteous for his beloved Son our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ his sake which are first Remission of sins and an interest unto the Joyes of heaven in this life and a full consummation both of Grace and Glory in the life to come Some I know think that S. Paul when he discourses of Justification thereby intends only Remission of sins And the ground of this opinion is taken from S. Paul quoting those words of David Rom. 4.6 7 8. when he states the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 4.6 7 8. where he saith that David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin But if this Argument out of the