of Justification Those terms Rom. 4. 5 6. of Justifying the Ungodly and of Imputing Righteousness without Works are not so to be taken as if God ever did or ever would save any Person who resolved to continue impious or contemn the practice of good Works but they stand in opposition to all conceit of any Justifying power in good Works and may teach us That no man's holiness can be such in this Life but he will at God's Tribunal stand in need of that Covering which St. Paul fetcheth out of the 32. Psal. and points out to us in ver 7. Ponder too ver 8. and tell me then whether you can conceal from your self the whole Plat-form of the Protestant Doctrine in this point For the not Imputing of Sins and the Imputing of Righteousness without Works make up the Whole of our Belief Secondly a Sinner is not Justified by Faith as it is a Quality which deserves remission of Guilt and the Glory of Heaven nor as it is by God's favourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law But it justifies only with reference to its Object Christ Faith being that Grace which the Soul makes use of to close in with him receive and imbrace the Promises by it we are ingrafted into that Olive-tree and are made Members of that glorious Head We do not here as some traduce us erect a Justification merely supposititious or state betwixt Christ and the Believer only an imaginary Relation But we hold the Interest we have in him to be of most real and true Participation Forasmuch as having by God's effectual and gratious Ordination taken upon him the Humane Nature so entirely put on he communicates by vertue of the Mystical Union through the Covenant whereto God the Father the Son and Man are Parties really his Satisfaction and Merits to all Believers Joh. 6. 27. Isa. 42. 1. Heb. 5. 4 5. Jer. 31. 31. Thus he who knew no Sin was made Sin for us and we not having any Righteousness in our selves are made the Righteousness of God in him Rom. 3. 26. Who rose again for our Justification as he died for our sins Thus he is the Justifier and thus the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10. 4. Let but Faith be the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things un-seen whereby we Receive and Imbrace as well as are Perswaded of the Promises Heb. 11. Suffer us but to draw Consolation by laying hold on the Hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. Let it be an Eying of Christ offering his Body shedding his Blood and fulfilling the Law perfectly as the Church of England speaks in the Homilies of Salvation very clearly Let it be a Fiducial Recumbence upon our Saviour in his whole Mediatorial Office which is certainly our Duty as well as Privilege And we desire no more Heb. 12. 1 2. The Free Gift which is said to come upon all men to the Justification of Life is held forth as the immediate Consequence and Effect of that exact and complete Justice which was in our Saviour Christ only and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used imports the very Act of Justifyng or judicially pronouncing Just and not infusion into the Soul of any Habit of Justice We have no obscure Intimation what Righteousness is able to appear before God in all those Places where the Scriptures treating of Man's Justification in his sight points out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of God affixing it to the very Person of Christ and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were only derived from him into the Regenerate Thirdly We are Justified by Faith in Opposition to the Righteousness of Works by fulfilling the Law in our own persons or else making Satisfaction for what we come short Paul's Disputations are levelled against the Moral Law as well as the Ceremonial for in the point of Justification he waves even that Law Rom. 7. 12 13. which he terms Holy and Just and Good and which to other uses he is careful to establish Here again if we consult the Original where the Righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us we may by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 4. never applied to that inherent Righteousness which is our Sanctification but to that Righteousness of Christ whereby he satisfied the utmost Demands of the Law be guided through the Labyrinth of Disputes to a right understanding of this Unum Necessarium wherein having expatiated a little more than the Brevity I at first proposed to my self would permit let me now represent to your view these three former heads copied out in Little 1. Faith is not an Empty Speculation but an Operative Grace of God's Spirit 2. The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both Perfect and Inherent The former in Christ the latter in us 3. The Righteousness which is our Sanctification is indeed Inherent but not Perfect And 1. Justificatio apprehensiva called often Justifying Faith is not properly Justification but an apprehension or knowledge of it 2. Justificatio Effectiva termed Causal Justification none but Christ can have a Claim unto 3. Justificatio declarativa is by St. James styled Justifying by Works as it is the manifestation or testimony of true Conversion Thus those Scriptures do sweetly agree which say we are Justified sometimes by Grace sometimes by Faith sometimes by Christ and that once by Works Let us do Evil that Good may come thereof Rom. 6. 1. was the Devil's Rhetorick in the mouths of licentious men to bring an obloquie upon St. Paul's Doctrine of free Grace But doubtless Satan is a more cunning Sophister than to frame an Argument of so much Inconsequence as to say Continue in Sin that inherent Grace may abound Whence I think we may not improbably conclude That nothing else is intended by all the preceding Discourse but the Gracious Act of Almighty God whereby he absolves a believing Sinner at the Tribunal of his Justice Pronouncing him Righteous acquitting and accepting him to Glory only for Christ's sake Thus when he had assigned to sin its proper Effect due Wages and Merit Death coming to speak of Life Eternal we find no such terms in his mouth but he suddenly cuts off the File of his Contexture and calls it Rom. 6. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Free Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is Justification by Remission of Sins there is Justification by having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us there is the Justification of Life or the Receiving that Crown of Life All these are laid up in the Person of Christ for the use of his Church and brought home to every true member by the hand of Faith There is too another Sort of Justification viz. At the Bar of Conscience and in Foro Humano by Works of Righteousness which
Law and Prophets 14. Augustine again in his 200. Epist. The Law says Thou shalt not covet and it says so not for that here we are absolutely able to perform that Command but to shew towards what our Endeavours are to bend themselves 15. Theophylact on Gal. 3. No man can do what is prescribed in the Law and by its Sentence he that does it not is accurst So it comes to be the Office of Faith to give the Blessing 16. To all such as esteem the Law so easie or possible to be fulfilled let me recommend Bishop Davenant's Treatise de Justitia Habituali Actuali and particularly the 49th Cap. 17. Hierom on 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ being offered for our Sins received the name of Sin that we might be made the Justice of God in him not our own nor in our selves 18. Origen on Rom. 6. 23. Well does the Apostle here continue the Metaphor he had before taken up that he might affirm Death the due pay of such as fight under the Standard of the King of Sin to be their Wages But it would have been as much unfit to say God gives Stipends to his Souldiers but a free Gift and Grace 19. Theodoret in Sophoniam cap. 3. The salvation of men dependeth upon God's mercy alone for we do not attain unto it as Wages And on this very place viz. Rom. 6. 23. his words are Hic non dicit Mercedem sed Gratiam 20. Lastly our venerable Country-man Bede on Psal. 23. And thus that the godly man shall be well rewarded non ex meritis sed ex sola gratia Anselm once our Archbishop has left behind him this great Truth inconsistent sure with those Rhemish Annotations I formerly touched or the bold dictates of Vasquez That if a man should serve God and that most fervently a thousand years he should not condignly merit to be half a day in the Kingdom of Heaven And more fully to our purpose in his Book de modo visitandi infirmos If Satan say thou hast deserved damnation answer thou I set Christ's death betwixt me and my evil merits and I offer his merits for that merit which I should have had but do want now Lest we should apprehend as the confident and diligent Factors for the Roman Cause could be content to have us that their Opinion in this Point had been derived to them through the long Current of 1600 years let us ponder the words of Thomas Waldensis who lived a man of great learning even when the thickness of this darkness began to overspread the face of the earth Tom. 3. de Sacram. He professeth his utter dislike of that saying A man may by merits be worthy of Heaven of this Grace or that Glory However says he lo here their rise certain Schoolmen have invented the Terms of Congruity and Condignity I do repute him adds he again the more faithful Catholick more sound Christian and more consonant to holy Scripture who does simply deny such merit And confesseth That no man merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver as all the former Saints and whole Church have written The same may be collected from Erasmus who may certainly pass for a sufficient witness in Matter of fact Epist. ad Stephanum Rhodricum From these premises we I hope may with safety and confidence after it is past for Law upon the venerable Bench of Primitive Antiquity and veritas truth is non quod antiquum not what had got a prevalence in our Grandfathers or Great-grand-fathers days but quod antiquissimum what from the beginning was so affirm That even now under the Gospel Justification cannot be absolved towards a Sinner but in the contemplation of Christ's Righteousness whereby he and none but he fully answered all the demands of the Law Nor is it any prejudice to our Cause at all that in the writings of the Latin Fathers the Terms Merita mereri and Justificationes do frequently occur since their importance with them for the most part is singly works not the desert of working but particular Acts of Justice and mereri to attain unto or procure as the way whereby not the cause wherefore the Reward of Heaven which is largely as well as clearly manifested by our Bishops Usher Davenant and Downham their true sence and meaning being not contrary but subordinate to our Doctrine We shall not fear therefore to say with St. Paul compare Rom. 4. 3. Ja. 2. 21. That the best man living must expect Blessedness without Works by Faith alone and yet that Faith must not nor indeed can be alone in any good man For it is as infallibly true which St. James tells us cap. 2. That Works do in the sight of men and to our own Consciences justifie us supposed or mistaken Faith alone being dead and ineffectual can do nothing at all thereto How this goodly Building of condign merit or Justification by the desert of inherent Righteousness hath a very congruous foundation on the doctrine of Free-Will Alphonsus à Castro gives us to understand Lib. 7. de haeres when he says For this even because we consent to God's Monition when we might have dissented Wages are ow'n to us and from thence is our merit If by this Monition they intend but a bare ineffectual swasion and then leave Nature to determine in that work which is not brought to pass but by the mighty power of God Eph. 1. 19. the difference betwixt them and the Pelagians of old is sure but very minute and scarce perceptible The one though they would not hear of the energy of Grace yet acknowledge that Nature which they so much exalted was the gift and work of God The other though they seem to assign a kind of Grace to the Conversion of a sinner coarct its operation under such Terms as render the whole business in a manner the Fruit of a man 's own acquisition Three Questions there are very pertinent to this 〈◊〉 which being resolved are so determinative of the Point as leaves the Judgement no more room further to hesitate 1. What state the Father of the Faithful was in whenas St. Paul Rom. 4. assures us he was Justified without Works The Romanists allege that this is to be understood of Natural Works done before or without Faith Well but Abrahani was called of God and answered his call had received and imbraced the Promise Gen. 12. built an Altar and twice thereat invoked the Name of the Lord Gen. 13. had solemnly been blessed by Melchizedek Gen. 14. had a Testimony given by God that he was his particular care Gen. 15. had performed several Acts of Righteousness in Faith as is apparent from Heb. 11. 8 9. and was now about an hundred years old Rom. 4. 19. yet after all this of him it is spoken and by St. Paul drawn to general application That by Faith without Works this is without any consideration had on God's part to their merit he was Justified
habits and acts of righteousness which thou seemest to relye upon even thine own conscience will tell thee have been imperfect unconstant partial yea sometimes none at all but thy soul hath frequently been inslaved to contrary vices therefore thou must have something of more integrity a more immaculate and spotless obedience to present me withal and make out thy interest therein too before thy claim be just Now let us see what answer the Protestant Principles will put into our mouths and let the safer the truer the modester carry it Thus then Lord I know thy Law is holy just and good 't is likewise eternal by the righteousness of this Law Justification is to be had even yet as well as in the Covenant of works made with Adam before his fall onely here is the difference It 's now accepted in the hands of a Mediator The Lord our Righteousness who as surety of a better Covenant and as Head of his Body the Church hath fulfill'd the Law in its utmost Demands My faith my obedience my charity are all weak poor inconsiderable things Eternal life and the whole of my salvation from the one end to the other is purely a free gift Though I have had some Graces of thy Spirit in such a measure as have been a comfortable evidence that my heart was set aright to serve thee for without a conformity to thy Son in holiness begun in the life below no flesh may hope with joy to see thy face above yet I dare not I ought not to present these unto thee as the matter of my justification I have through thy mercy been sincere but it is in Christ only that I am compleat We do know That we ought to have in honour the Saints departed and not to think meanly of the Angels those ministring Spirits But we do not acknowledge that we ought to invocate them or direct our prayers or vows unto them much less place confidence in the wearing their Reliques or Pictures to prevent lightning sudden death c. 5. We do know That an high and profound reverence is due to Fathers Councils voice of the Church But we acknowledge not That any particular place or succession of men is exempt from all possibility of Error Nor that Rome keeps her first Principles 6. We do know That men of ungodly unstable contentious dispositions do not look upon the Bible without danger to their own souls and pervert many things therein to their destruction But we acknowledge not That therefore the sincere milk of the Word is to be lock'd up from those that might grow thereby Nor that meat is to be kept from the children because it is sometimes abused to excess and riot by dissolute and licentious men LETTER IX THat Person to me yet unknown whom you did some years since substitute to shape me an answer unto a few Lines I then hastily offered to your view cut his Work into a very uncourtly Mode and takes it for granted that I have not so much understanding as to know they would be understood to place the Condignity of Merit in works done by Grace not by Nature nor so much Learning as to English Opus Operatum For the first I would have both him and you to know that we oppose as to Justifying before God all Works both of Nature and Grace For certainly if we consider the Testimony alledged Rom. 4. by Paul out of Genesis 15. to prove that Abraham was not then Justified by Works it will appear he was long before that Regenerate and had sundry Works of Faith It was a Work of Faith that he followed God's call out of his Countrey Compare Gen. 12. 4. with Heb. 11. 8. Other Works of Piety and Love see recorded Gen. 12. 8. and 13. 8 9. and 14. 16 20. Yet none of these but after them all Gen. 15. Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness and he obtained the Promise that is saw Christ afar off and had his share in him not by Working but Believing And if Works merely Natural had been in Question why comes in the Example of Abraham rather than of Abimelech Socrates or the like That St. James meant not to reach beyond Justification in Foro Humano by that which he attributes to Works is evident from what he subjoyns ver 18. Shew me thy Faith by thy Works He denies a saving power only to such a Faith as is not Operative and to such a one neither do we ascribe any thing at all The two Apostles both instancing in him to confirm their seeming contrary assertions makes it evident they are to be referred to the several Tribunals of God and of Conscience But if he will give me lieve to mind him that the Franciscans in the Council of Trent were of opinion that Works done before Faith were truly meritorious in the sight of God and how Sir Kenelme Digby doubts not to say The old Philosophers without Christ for so we all know they were if any of them followed the Dictates of right Reason no Grace is there mentioned might attain Heaven it may abate his anger at the Expression I there used I have set my self to School again that I might improve my knowledge in the Romane as well as the Latine Tongue and have learnt from those Doctors at Trent That there are some actions which cause Grace not by the devotion of him that worketh or of him that does receive the work but by virtue of the work it self And That Prayers in absolution are only laudable not necessarily added to I absolve thee So making the Efficacie to flow ab Opere Operato Thus I conceive is to be understood what I have more than once read in their Books That to the merit of Prayer it suffices that the words be repeated but if a man have a particular request to put up it 's necessary the heart and affections accompany them in that desire I think now there 's no great difficulty in construing Opus operatum nor was I much out of the way when I applied it to their practice in their Sacraments I do not conclude that all those who delight to be styled Roman Catholicks making light of the latter appellation if not ushered in by the former are guilty of all this high Treason against God's Truth nor of Misprision of that Treason neither for I am confident very few of the Laity amongst them are privy to such bold Positions as are maintained by Vasquez with the now predominant Faction of the Jesuits and their adherents yet it were well they would consider whereunto their implicite credulity would lead them I once had from the mouth of a Romanist whose memory has all the reason in the world to be ever dear to me an expression wherewith I was much taken as neighbouring very near unto Truth and far from the malignity of some I have before cited When I insisted upon the Righteousness of Christ as our justification it was
suprà and by Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali Paul declares his whole Justification both in his first Conversion and in the time of his writing and at the Resurrection to be wholly absolved in Faith Phil. 3. 9. Disp. 222. cap. 3. If the Works of Righteousness which we have done must be our Justification though Grace received from above be conceived to enable us thereto yet are we under the Covenant of Do this wholly purely constantly and live Which if any man say he deceives himself 1 Jo. 1. 8 9 10. Bernard de Verbo Esa. Serm. 4. Disp. 204. cap. 2. The Phariseo himself by thanking God that he was not as other men may seem to acknowledge his works to have been from Grace infused yet we know how he was dismist Cap. 3. Primate of Ireland's Answer to the Jesuite In Tim. 1. 13. It is not said He has made us wise just and holy but He is made unto us Wisdom c. which is as if he had said He hath given himself unto us So Chrysost. on 1 Cor. 1. 30. Homil. 2. on Colof De Compunct Tom. 6. In Rom. 4. Hom. 8. * Viz. Abraham Annotat on Heb. 6. In Isa. lib. 17. Enchirid. cap. 41. Math. 5. 6. and 1 Cor. 1. 30. Expounded by Gregor Nyssen Serm. 61. in Cantic Quoted by the incomparable Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali cap. 28. fol. 369. Why must Jacob stand before his Father in the Garments of his elder Brother before he could have the blessing but to typifie the necessity of our being covered with Christ's righteousness who is the first born of his Father Serm. 1. de Annunciatione Tom. 3. de Sacra cap. 7. Primate of Ireland ut suprá Johannes Piâ—us the Bishop Interpreter of Mareus the Eremite rendring Not by the Proportion of works of Nature where the Original is Not by the Proportion of works of Faith is a gross falsifier Primate of Ireland pag. 502. Simpson of the Church Cent. 5. So Zosimus pretended a Decree of the Council of Nice which could never be found Davenant de Justit habituali cap. 29. Noted by Bellarmine himself lib. â—2 de Justifie cap. 1 2. pag. 124. Idem ut suprá Dr. Twisse his Resolutions of Conscience c. De Meritis bonorum operum Leofwin a Noble man gave two Towns in Essex to the Church of Ely to Expiate and make Satisfaction for the Murther of his own Mother Cambden fol. 440. The large English Impression So Alfrida the Relict of King Edgar built a Nunnery near Ambursbury haveing murthered Edward Cambden ut suprá fol. 254. The. Trent Faith is That Sacraments cause Grace not by the Devotion of him that worketh nor of him that receives the work but by virtue of the work it self Hist. of that Council fol. 230. Matrimony Absolution and Ordination Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments Primate of Ireland's answer to the Jesuit And since we find our Saviour himself Joh. 6. 63. affirming that the flesh profiteth nothing I shall not at all fear to say We ought to be satisfied with a spiritual Manducation Idem ibidem Qui discordat à Christo nec Carnem ejus manducat nec Sanguinem bibit c. Prosper ex Aug. Sent. 341. Tract 26. This must needs be a figurative speech why then not the other Epist. 23. Quaest. 37. in Levit Upon Matth. 15. Primate of Ireland pag. 67 68 69 70 In the time of Innocent 3. who made Otho Emperour and put by Frederick left to his Care by Henry his Father Simpson's Hist. fol. 371. Fol. 44. c. Davenant in Col. â—â— naturâ amore nobis conjunctior Tome 3. câ—nra Hâ—lvidium Origen bids us not to doubt but when we commit our selves to him who is God over all through Jesus Christ and desire of him the help and protection of those ministring Spirits that do his pleasure they shall all be propitious unto us In Col. 2. 18. Recorded by Famianus Strada de Bello Belgico Strada de Bello Belgico Letter 1. Psalt Bonavent Edict Paris 1596. Tom 5. in Rom. 1. See many more and very pregnant proofs in the Primate of Ireland p. 377. c. In Josue Hom. 16. Idem ibidem pag. 239. St. Hierom assures that the power of Miracles may be permitted to them that profess not the truth of the Gospel In Epist. ad Galat. Tom. 9. Tertullian in Praescriptionibus cap. 24. Du Moulin in his accomplishment of the Prophecies De cura pro mortuis cap. 10. De Lazaro conc pag. 235 236. Primate of Ireland pag. 396. How common is the conceipt now that departed souls do appear Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis Theclae cap. 10. Idem cap. 21. Idem cap. 24. all quoted by the Primate of Ireland in his Answer to the Jesuit pag. 397. Chapt. 9. pag. 337. Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge pag. 504. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. cap. 4. prope finem Epist. ad Johan de Hierusalym Tom. 1. Oper. Hieronym Epist 60. He had sure been instructed out of such Catechisms who refused to shoot at Buts on May day because it was he said a dear holy day and yet I found him the next Lords day with others at Slide-Groat Upon Tho. in his 3d. part quoted by the Primate pag. 499. De Bello Belgico lib. 5. Allen's Antidote pag. 13. Lib. 4. Cap. 26. Lib. 6. cap 24. In his Prefaces before the Kings and Proverbs De Civitate Dei In his Scholastical Hist. c. Epist. to the Reader Chrysost. upon 2 Cor. Homil. 13. Sin is not a Being but rather a defect of what should Be and hath for its efficient Cause nothing but a deficient Will Preston of Converting Grace pag. 15. If our Saviour knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the same means as Chorazin and Bethsaida would have repented what can be said but their Final impenitencie was according to God's Will The Fall of Adam was not praeter Voluntatem Dei that were to make a lame Providence nor contra that were to make a weak Omnipotence but it was juxta and that leaves all the Attributes of God wrapt up by his Wisdom in their full power Augustin John 5. 21. That is the Will of the Creature failing in Obedience Mr. Case in a Sermon on Rom. 8. 28. And this is it which frees our Doctrine from all danger of working in men a secure or careless Presumption as it is no less ignorantly than maliciously aspersed by some since our evidence doth so much consist in the sincerity tho not in the perfection of Obedience Election may at length come to be known and thence assurance but Reprobation never Mr. Sheffeild Primate of Ireland in an Epistle publisht by Dr. Bernard Mr. Birkbeck in his Protestants Evidence Man is not active but passive in regeneration In repentance man is the doer complies with God in it and turns himself Ephes. 2. 1. Phil. 2. 13. That power of God which subjects a man to Christ comes not by moral perswasion only or violent impulses but is tempered to the disposition of the Will Lib. de gratia libero arbitr cap. 27. Mr. Gurnal's Christian in Compleat Armour part 2. pag. 526 527. 530. De Praedest Sanctorum Cyrus who was Christus Domini and therein but a shadow of Christus Dominus in this manner published his Proclamation Who is amongst you of all his people the Lord his God be with him let him go up Ezra 1. 3. Now they alone did follow this Call whose Spirits God had raised to go up But could those that stay'd still behind plead any thing but their love of slavery and idleness why they also went not up Vers. 5. This instance is by the Primate of Ireland brought in and applyed to our purpose in a Letter published by Doctor Bernard Jer. 32. 40. Rom. 8. 15 16. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes. 1. 14. 1 John 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 15. Jude vers 1. A late Treatise published by Mr. Calamy Doctor Sibbs at Grays Inn Chappel Vasquez Disput. Sasbout upon the place confesseth it 's meant of Abraham's second Justification that is of his Works done in Faith See Selater pag. 29. Or the Eyes and Judgments of others History of that Council fol. 197. In his Observations upon Religio Medici History of that Council fol. 237. Fol. 349. Faith does not consist in a belief that we do believe but in an affiance bottomed upon such Trials as Scripture holds out Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 80. For we will expect from them proofs both full and legitimate beyond those usually brought Ambrose on Rom. 1.
Scandal at them every time I read the Tenth chap. of S. Matthew since I am there told what is through the fault of Gain-sayers an ordinary Consequence of the Truths presence Perfect Unity in Opinion is the Privilege of Minds triumphant above and the Churches of the Apostles themselves were some of Paul some of Cephas c. If you will strain at a Gnat because you hear there are dissentions amongst us and yet swallow such a Camel as this That the Creed of every Christian must be resolved into the present Dictates of the Roman Church and that you ought not to question whether she tread in the good old Paths a shift that some of her Champions are driven to I must confess I am at a stand what to say to you But let us by one particular make a ghess what her posture hath been in the rest The Fathers of the first five Centuries may I think with a safe Confidence be affirmed to have intended nothing by their Merita but such a Title to the Recompence of Reward as is plainly co-incident in its meaning with our expectation of that Crown which God the Righteous Judge hath laid up against the last day for them that have finished their Course and kept the Faith therefore are they well called by some Certain Seminaries of Hope And they were so far from any thought of a Proportionate value or Condignity as they every where speak against it When the high-soaring Schoolmen hatcht that Opinion since fledg'd and much improved by the industrious care of the Jesuits with their adherents how unhandsome it appeared to men of sober minds you may observe from that place of Erasmus given you before two others the next Epistle shall acquaint you with and abundance more cited by the Primate of Ireland and Davenant in the Point We will here lay together the Judgment of Theodoret and Cyril of Alexandria with the late Positions of the Rhemists then judge whether there be such a Consonancy and Identitie betwixt Antiquity and Rome at this day as is pretended The former tells us that the Salvation of men depends upon the sole Mercy of God For we do not obtain it as a Reward and Wages of our Righteousness but it is the Gift of God's goodness The Crowns do excel the Fights the Rewards are not to be compared with the Labours c. And therefore says he the Apostle called those things that are looked for not Wages but Glory Rom. 8. 18. and again not Wages but Grace Rom. 6. 23. Although a man should perform the most absolute Righteousness Things Eternal do not answer Temporal Labours in equal poyse The same is Cyril's mind too for he tells us The Crown doth much surpass the pains which we take Not a paying a price for labour but pouring out the riches of his goodness saith Prosper Well now hear the Rhemists in another Note All good works done by God's grace after the first Justification be truly and properly Meritorious and fully worthy of Everlasting life and thereupon Heaven is the just Stipend Crown or Recompence which God by his Justice oweth to the Persons so working by his Grace c. And in another place they therefore will have us to think that the word Reward which in our English may signifie a voluntary or bountiful Gift is not expressive enough of the Original which they will render better by a very Stipend that the hired Workman or Journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the weight and time of his Travels rather than a free Gift But let them answer St. Paul who calls it so Rom. 6. 23. and it were their best in their next Edition of their Expurgatory Indexes to wipe out such pestilent places of former Writers as will not suffer them to hugg their Diana in quietness Thus you may discern in part how unsafe it will be to take up Religion upon trust without laying the several poynts thereof to the Square of Gods word a course which the Commendation fixed upon the Bereans may incourage all men unto and which I do God willing intend to make the Subject of some future Letters LETTER II. ALthough it be an old received Truth That Discords in Religion are the most bitter and for the most part prosecuted with most violence I shall desire to contract rather than widen the Differences betwixt us and leaving the Out-works which fortifie our Cause in other points we hold in Opposition to the Roman Church to stand a while upon their own Guard set my self at present to the defence of that which is most oppugned by Papists against which the Jesuites have raised their fiercest Batteries I mean our Doctrine of Justification Our answers are so Consonant in the first Quaere that one would think we were almost agreed and Dispute at an end for this Maxim is as I conceive imbraced on both sides We are saved by Grace But alas they have framed such strange Comments and affixed so perverse a Definition to the nature of their Grace as will and must needs keep us at a grand and perpetual distance Forasmuch as I have observed most of the Objections brought in against us to arise merely from a mis-understanding of that Faith to which only we dare trust our Justification I will in the first Place sub-joyn it's Nature and Office in three Propositions First the Faith we desire to establish is not a bare Opinion is not a mere Notion but it is a Grace a purifying a cleansing reforming Grace of God's Spirit And though the Principal and main Act of Faith be an Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification by vertue of the Covenant Yet they who are Effectually called and Regenerate have a new heart Created in them and are farther Really and Personally sanctified the Dominion of the whole Body of Sin destroyed the several Lusts thereof by degrees mortified and they more and more strengthned in all saving Graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Nor do we say that good Works done by such an one are of their own Nature sins as we are slanderously reported to do No so far as they are good they are the Product of God's own Spirit and he approves them But because of a mixture of Imperfections adhering to the best of men in this Life and their Works We think they are no better than the Reeds of Egypt which if a man lean on them with hopes of Justice from them will break and wound his sides We are Justified by Faith alone without Works Not that Works are separated from Faith or can be But only excluded from the Act of Justifying A Dead Faith cannot Justifie a Living Faith cannot be Idle The Concurrence of Works is Certain their Agreement Amiable in the Life of one Justified Yet their Contrariety irreconcileable in the procurement
we are to do after the Pattern but cannot do up to the measure shewed in the Mount not for these nor yet without these can we have Entrance into the desired Rest. According to which we draw forth this Abridgment of our Belief and Practice In Sanctification we renounce all Our Sins In Justification we renounce all Our Graces In stead of this most holy Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and for the Profession whereof Rome was spoken of throughout the World she has now introduced such a Doctrine of Works foreseen of Free-will of Works having Merits of several Sizes before and after Conversion of Works of Penance and Satisfaction of suffering to the last Mite in Purgatory of Indulgences Pardons and the like of Opus operatum or the very Doing the work in holy Duties as gets their Entertainment in the World by their Consistency with the Pope's Ends of Gain and Power and by their obviousness and sutableness to the proud Nature of Man 1. Bellarmine and the Rhemists go far when they tell us That the good Works of just Persons do merit Eternal Life Condignly not onely by reason of God's Covenant or Acceptation but also by reason of the Work it self 2. Maldonat a little more roughly affirms That we do as properly and truly Merit Rewards when with the Grace of God we do well as Punishments when we do ill So the Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks a Book full of cunning mistakes and slander gives us these as their Tenents That good Works do truly merit and deserve Grace in this World and Glory in the next That a Man may perfectly fulfil and keep all God's Commandments Which surely stands need of Bellarmine to help it out who hath this fine Phansie If says he I sin not when I love God no otherwise than in the first Degree of Love then I am not in strictness bound to love him more than so therefore if I do adde one farther degree of Love I love God more than I am bound to and perform an Act of Supererogation But we will think having so good a Warrant for it Math. 5. 17 18. and 22. 37 38. that we are obliged to Love the Lord our God with all our might The Terms of the Gospel do not at all alter or mollifie the Demands of the Law only it shews how they are fulfilled by Christ who having the Law transferred from us in our own persons unto his most sacred Person as Mediator performed for so it behoved him to do all Righteousness Matth. 3. became the End of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10. and makes his true Members just by his obedience Bernard tells us the Law even under the Gospel requires no less than Obedience Rectam according to Rule all that is prescribed and only what is prescribed Puram free from blemish in manner and measure Firmam steady for continuance without intermission A Yoak that neither we nor our Fathers are able to bear And August in Epist. 29. ad Heron. Charitas in aliis major in aliis minor in aliis nulla plenissima verò quae jam non potest augeri quamdiu hîc homo vivit in nemine est quamdiu autem augeri potest profectò illud quod minus est quà m debet ex vitio est The full Mystery of their Iniquity is held forth at large by the Audacious Vasquez pretending fully to know the minds of the Trent Fathers Thus That Good Works of Just Persons are of themselves without any Covenant or Acceptation worthy of the reward of Life Eternal and they have an equal value of Condignity to the obtaining of Everlasting Glory That no accession of Dignity doth come to the Works of the Just by the Merits or Person of Christ which the same Works should not have otherwise if they had been done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ That God's promise is annexed indeed to the Works of Just men yet it belongeth not to the Reason or Cause why they become Meritorious but cometh rather to the Works themselves which are already so That after Grace infused our Works are so perfectly Meritorious of Life that it cannot be denied them Therefore going on in Terms wherewith I am almost afraid to black my Paper says he In vain do we require a Continued Imputation of Christ's Merits or Justice after the receipt of inherent Grace Agreeable hereto is what he tells us farther They never request of God by the Merits of Christ that the reward of Eternal Life may be given to their worthy and meritorious Works but that by Christ Grace may be given them whereby they may be inabled worthily to merit that Reward That besides that Imputation of Christ's Merits for the obteining of Grace it 's not needful for atteining of Life in Heaven and from that time forward they do not expect any any other Imputation than what at first they did receive viz. Grace to keep the Commandments and thereby become just We will leave this man to his own Inventions when we have viewed him a while fallen foul upon both the Ancient and Modern Doctors because they run not with him to the same Excess in this business I cannot but wonder saith he at those ancient School-men whom I have named that thought so meanly of our inherent Justice as that they were afraid to ascribe thereto such a true Existency of Justice as must of its own Nature needs be pleasing to God But goes he on I do much more admire the later Divines who after the famous definition of the Council of Trent afford to the Just so diminutive an inherent Righteousness as hath not of it self power to wipe off the stains of sin unless they be eased or lightned by the favour and condonation of God They both adds he if they be well weighed do destroy the true Essence of inherent Justice which the Council so much set it self to hold forth and maintain This Confession or rather Complaint of the Jesuite might save us a labour of culling out the Testimonies of such Learned men as even through the Umbrage of Popery had Glimpses of so pure a Truth since he grants That if our Works before or without the Promise Covenant or Acceptation of God were not worthy and after such promise became worthy it would thence follow That to this Dignification arising from the Promise the Application and Imputation of Christ's Merits must of necessity intervene A thing it seems he is afraid to discover We are thus far of Vasquez his mind rather than of those other Romanists That the Promise of God does not affix any Condignity to the Works of the Regenerate by changing their Quality so as to render them in themselves Meritorious but whereas he will have them not need such Indulgence we know they need much more and the Tenour of God's Promise to be this That he will
look upon Christ our Mediatour who is the End or chief aim of the Law Rom. 10. 4. for it was given with a Design to drive us to him Gal. 3. 24. and is a Yoak which we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. and in Contemplation of that Righteousness he performed in our Nature for us by vertue of the Covenant of Grace deal with us and our Works so as the Imperfections which we acknowledge and bewail in them shall never come in sight Well-fare those men if they can for the Condignity of their Services It is enough for us under the sense of the Skars and Blemishes in our too often lame Obedience to look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Help and to shelter our selves under his Feathers who hath Healing in his Wings We will now hear what the old Fathers of the New I mean the Primitive Church will say to this business But let us take along with us the Advice of Vincentius Lirinensis who highly commends this way of confuting Errors yet with this Caveat Neither all ways nor all kinds are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung whilst by the straitness of time they be hindred from falsifying the Rules of the ancient Faith and before their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the Writings of the Elders c. Which I mention not because I am diffident of their Testimony but to give you an hint that the Policy of Rome has been notorious in Curtaling Expunging Depraving the Fathers yea and foysting in new Matter to many of their Works Note again in what sence the word Merit often indeed occurring in their Writings before ever that Acception the Jesuits now have it in was dream'd of was used by them It Ordinarily imports no more when they say Merita than if they had said Opera and to merit no more than simply to attain unto or procure without any Relation at all to the Dignity either of the Person or the Work Thus St. Augustin saith Paul for his Persecutions and Blasphemies Merited to be made a vessel of Election and Cyprian Misericordiam merui I obtained Mercy So Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon Earth Merited to hear his Words from Heaven and lest you have a Conceit that he means of Paul's Works fore-seen See the same manner of Rhetorick concerning Adam's Sin O happy Sin that Merited to have such and so great a Redeemer meaning that gave the occasion of his Coming And now I am to acquaint you with a Secret has been hid from your Eyes by the Cunningness of those you build your Belief upon St. Chrysostome Cyprian Augustin and the rest will I think in my Conscience prove as arrant Hereticks as we For the first peremptorily affirms against Vasquez That no man can shew such a Conversation of life as may be worthy of the Kingdom but this Kingdom is wholly the Gift of God and in another place Although we did die a Thousand Deaths and perform all Vertuous Actions yet we should come far short of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferr'd on us by God Take one more of his That one destitute of Works should be justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be but that one adorned with Vertues and good Works should yet not be Justified by them but only by Faith is admirable Who would have thought good old Chrysostom had so much dissented from the reverend Society at Rhemes who teach us another Lesson That good Works are Meritorious and the very cause of Salvation so far as God should be unjust if he rendred not Heaven for them Take the next Testimony out of Gregory in the Original because there 's one word whose just force and Emphasis as it stands here our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in Judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus Injustos Non ergo in fletibus non in actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione confidamus When the day of Judgment or our Death shall come saith Hierom all hands shall fail because no work shall be found worthy of the Justice of God That is a known place of Augustin He viz. Christ is Sin as we are Justice not our own but God's not in our selves but in him as he is Sin not in himself but in us And remarkable that of Athanasius Impossibile est puritatem innocentiam in humana Natura exhiberi nisi Deus credatur in Carne fuisse qui Justitiam omni ex parte liberam in mundum introduxit Cujus quia participes sumus vivemus salvabimur Illud enim Non est justus in terra c. in Commune ad omnes pertinet Unde ex Coelo descendit qui immaculatam Justitiam ex se daturus erat No less this of Gregory Nyssenus in his Oration upon Beati qui esuriunt Justitiam It seems to me saith that Father That our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us Wisdom from God Justice Sanctification c. That Proverb Bernardus non videt omnia may perhaps be true yet in this Omne tulit punctum he has hit the right Nail on the Head and rivetted it in so strongly as not even the Teeth of Time shall be able to pull it out We find in him these words fit to be writ in Letters of Gold I will make mention of thy Righteousness only for even that is mine too to wit thou art made unto me Justice I need not fear but it will serve us both It is not a short Cloak that will not cover two c. We will here take lieve of these Stars of the first Magnitude and come to those of later Note in the Church's Constellation that lived after the light of this Doctrine had been clouded and set themselves to enquire how it came so and to deliver their opinions more distinctly and apposite to the present Question than the ancient Doctors could do who had finished their Course before the Corruption was discoverable or the Controversie started But take in as we pass another Instance or two out of the last named Doctor It 's necessary first of all to Believe That we cannot have remission of sins but by the Mercy or Condonation of God 2. Then That we cannot at all have any whit of good works unless he give it Lastly That by no good works we can merit Life Eternal Nisi gratis deâ—ur illa In another place thuâ— If we must speak properly of that which we call Merits they are certain Seminaries of Hope Incitements of Love Signs of secret Predestination the way to the Kingdom not the Cause of Reigning Dangerous is the way and dwelling of those that trust in
once-enjoyed comforts thou wilt soon confess thy best pleasing or most gainful sin to have been full dear bought and that sweet condition of peace and joy in believing far to fetch So that thy self shall ever after be a witness That the Doctrine of Perseverance rightly understood brings along with it what is as proper to the repelling of sin as it is to the establishing of Consolation Since the fear of losing Gods favourable Aspect hath something more of terrible in it than the unconverted who never had any feeling of such matter can apprehend I will fold up this sheet with the words of St. John Whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. And leave it to you to find out his meaning if it import any thing less than the being sealed unto the Day of Redemption Ephes. 1. 13. 4. 30. LETTER VIII HAving made some reflections upon those words of yours when in our last discourse we rambled over many things very immethodically you named a great and pious Doctor of the Protestant Church who from the Pulpit had long since told you that the difference betwixt the Papists and us lay principally in this That we believed not so much as they So great an inadvertencie was then upon me that I made but little reply not indeed reaching so far as to deduce any objection which might concern us from the Doctors words nor I dare answer for him did he dream of such an acception of them as might represent the choice betwixt the Religions any way indifferent But by the manner of your speech I have since conjectured you perhaps thought there might be some weight in a surmise which would flow from the assertion as if they went beyond us in credible things or that our belief consisting more in Negatives were not sure but it might come short of what it ought to be whilst theirs taking in all might be look'd upon as safe I hope the former Letters if you please to re-view them will give you some satisfaction and may serve to demonstrate that we who dare not go beyond the Pillars set up by God himself in the holy Scriptures to bound our Faith are in a far safer way and posture than they who leap over or trample them down at their pleasures And that if we leave not them till they forsake the guidance of Gods Word and primitive practice of his Church we run no hazard at all nor ought to find less esteem upon that score but do indeed shun and avoid the danger of Will-worship than which there is nothing more prejudicial to man nor more displeasing to God because of ill consequence to his Truth 1. We do know That no man is made a Believer without a freeness of Will that is he is not drawn up to Heaven whether he will or no and all along by meer compulsion or without acting in the Duty as the Papists with other adversaries of the Protestant Doctrine seem to mistake us But he is made a Believer by Gods Grace that frees the Will and inables it to act according to the motions of the Spirit and to follow him in the way of his Precepts Promises Threats and Exhortations But we acknowledge not That the will of man on which in its natural capacity the Apostle James hath fixt the Appellations of Sensual and Devilish can of it self chuse the better part being only help'd forward by some perswasions or probable inclinations such as the outward Preaching of the Word may effect till God by an act of Renovation without any compulsion other than such as wherewith the Soul cannot chuse but willingly go along so sweetly are his operations tempered and suitable to the disposition of the Will hath brought to pass a work which never would be effected but by his exceeding great and mighty power Ephes. 1. 18 19. 2. We do know That in the Lords-supper all Christ with all the benefits of his Life and Passion are not barely represented but really and truly yet spiritually exhibited to every Faithful Penitent Humble Charitable Communicant But we acknowledge not That all Receivers do in a corporal and carnal manner John 7. 37 38. tear their Redeemer with their teeth since the Sacramental way of locution in the Old Testament leads us to the true understanding of This is my body in the New Compare Gen. 17. 10 11. Exod. 12. 11. with John 6. 47 48. 63. We do know That the act of Justification passeth not upon the Soul without a work of Sanctification in the Soul That good works are of such necessity in the business of Justification that there can be no Justification where the practice of them is contemned That the good works of the Regenerate so far as they are good and the product of Gods own Spirit are not displeasing to him nor of their own nature sin yet that in regard of much imperfection which the best of men will confess is adherent to their works in this life we take a safe course not to place confidence or set any value upon them but on him who is the Lord our Righteousness and our Advocate with the Father Jer. 23. 6. 1 John 2. 1. But we acknowledge not That the good works of just persons do truly merit and deserve Grace in this world and glory in the next Nor that such good works are of themselves without any Covenant or acceptation on God's part worthy of Eternal Life and have an equal value of condignity to the obtaining of everlasting Glory Nor that that is the just stipend crown or recompence answering to the weight and time of our labours rather than a free gift Nor that no accession of Dignity comes to the works of the Just by the Merit or Person of Christ which they should not have if they were done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ Nor that it 's vain after Grace received or infused to expect a continued imputation of Christs Righteousness According to the best Definitions of that Grace which the Romanist allow to be procured for us by Christ their plea for Heaven must run after this manner Lord by the strength of that Grace which because thou didst foresee I would use it well thou hast extended to me I have so performed my duty in doing or suffering for thee as thou canst not in justice deny me for that the Kingdom of Heaven See the Rhemish Annotations upon 2 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 3. 8. But let them consider what Reply they could make if God should enter the lists with them and say I have a Law that requires perfect unerring universal constant perpetual obedience a Law that exacts Truth in the inward parts that is a discerner of the thoughts and spirit that is not satisfied without the whole heart I have said not one jot or tittle of it shall pass away till all be fulfilled Matth. 5. 17 18. 22. 37 38. These
Carthage Canon 26. provides The Bishop of the first should not be termed Head or Prince of Priests And when afterwards Rome would needs challenge an authoritative Supremacy not from the Emperours Laws or Presence which indeed was the true foundation of all the preheminency the Antients do at any time give her but from St. Peter She should have remembred that St. Basil in his Epistle 32. gives to Alexandria and in his 50. to Antioch the better right Which yet he speaks not as conceding to any of the Seats of St. Peter's Infallibility or Supremacy over the Rest But to convince the Western great Pretenders by their own way of Argument as St. Paul does the denyers of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 29. having in his 10. left something of another nature for the Westerlings to chaw upon And in truth that smoaky Pride he there mentions could never ascend to its heighth or any fixation till in the midst of the distractions that fell upon the Empire the bargain was add fairly if you can struck up with Phocas that murthering Usurper of his Masters dignity and the possession continued by the weak Concessions upon strange Interests and Perswasions of some late converted and but lately Catechised Princes 8. The contradictory Sentences of Pope Sextus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth as to the use of their different Editions of the Bible The inconsistent results of Councils the First of Nice and those Later of Constance and Basil as to the Priests marrying and the Cup to the Laity That general one the Seventh of Constantinople as well as that of Frank ford compared with the Second of Nice as to the use of Images Nay the undoubted mistakes of the Roman Council approved by Nicholas the Second vide Daven de Jud. cap. 23. of that held at Neocaesaria confirmed by Leo the Fourth do clearly speak out thus much That Infallibility is not to be expected below the Moon During the great Arrian deluge several General Councils obtruded their Errours upon the World and at last Liberius subscribed to them whether through fear infirmity of old age tediousness of Banishment is not material done it was and what hath been may be 9. The Contests betwixt Councils and Popes for Superiority could never have hapned nor would so many learned men have militated with their Pens so freely on the Councils part if then or in the Ages before them the Popes Infallibilitie had been setled an Article yea the chief Article as now 't is held forth of the Christian Faith Nay sure those of Constance and Basil durst not have decreed themselves above the Pope 10. If his Holiness have indeed the undoubted Privilege of never erring Decision he might do well to exert its vertue in those Points of the Seat of Supremacy the power of the Will and the reason or ground of Merit Why will he suffer for want of clear speaking his own great Doctours to clash and the whole World to fluctuate in uncertainties and under dis-satisfactions 11. If we had lived when two or three Popes were up together each one Anathematizing the Adherents of his Antagonist which was once and more for a long time the case what course could we have taken to discern the infallible Head 12. Since Hieroine informs us Si authoritas quaeratur orbis major est urbe in his Epistle to Euagrius Printed at Basil Anno 1565. Since Cyprian assures us Pari omnes inter se fuisse authoritate Apostolos Tract de Simplicitate Praet Printed at Colen Anno 1544. neither was St. Peter himself if we consult his first Epistle Chap. 5. ver 2. and 3. at all ambitious of being Chief amongst his Fellow-Elders or a Lord over God's Heritage Since Amb. de Poen hath taught us to say Non habent Haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent But especially since we find the Bereans not only approved but commended for searching even in case of the Apostles own Doctrine the Scriptures whether these things were so we are bold to call them our Adversaries to that Test. And since the value of this Cardinal Point for no less than the whole Frame of their Religion as it is distinguished from ours turns with it must stand or fall according to the success of the several Controverted Heads I shall single out one which seems to me to be more considerable than any of the Rest and give a short but I hope a clear prospect into the grounds whereupon we build our Dissent from them in the great Doctrine of Justification And if that Church may be discovered to have trod awry in one particular the more than stupendious Fabrick of her Infallibility Mole ruet suâ must fall of it self Reflect then upon it under the notion for I desire rather to contract than widen our differences though I have not a few things to say against that congruous kind of merit which they 'l have to deserve the Grace which makes their after good works meritorious of that by them termed the second Justification that inherent Righteousness whereby they say they may perfectly fullfil and keep all Gods Commandements truly deserve Grace in this World and Glory in the next together with remission of sins Prog. of Catho lib. 2. cap. 21. which their Rhemists rather chuse to say is recompensed than rewarded because that word is sometimes applied to the Alms we bestow upon a meer Beggar who deserves nothing at our hands with eternal life Justly and equally answering to the weight and time of our travel a Debt but by no means a free gift on 1 Cor. 3. on 2 Tim. 4. In respect to which Vasquez is not afraid to affirm Post infusam Gratiam after Grace infused our Works are so perfectly meritorious of eternal life that it cannot in Justice be denied them Frustra igitur In vain therefore after such inherent Grace were it to expect a continued imputation or application by faith of Christ's merits Yea so violent is that Jesuite in propugning these audacious Expressions that he lets flie on all sides against both antient and modern Divines that flie not to the same height calling in the definitions of the Trent Council to bear witness That inherent Righteousness has of it self without being eased or lightned by the favour or condonation of God power enough to wipe off the staines of sin And to clear all he will have us to understand that they never request of God that by the merits of Christ the reward of life may be given to their worthy and meritorious Works but that Grace may by Christ be given them whereby they may be inabled worthily to merit that reward and that no Accession of dignity does come to the Works of the Just by the Merits or Person of Christ which should not have had if done by the same Grace bestowed by God alone without Christ. These are duri sermones hard of digestion and yet they would have us by one strenuous Act of implicit
Credulity to down with them and to suspend our whole Belief upon the most imperious dictates of their supposed infallible Church But we have not so learned Christ. And as to my part after a long and diligent search whereto never any could be more ingaged than my self I despair of ever finding any more sure or near way to Heaven Than by renouncing in Sanctification all my Sins 1 John 8. 3. Justification all my Graces Dan. 9. 18. Than by having unfeigned Repentance towards God Acts 20. 21. Faith towards Christ Isaiah 64. 6. Matth. 5. 17 18. Matth. 22. 36 37. Luke 10. 27 28. Rom. 3. 31. We find that Law which had it not been weak through the flesh should have given Life both declared and established Expounded too we find it by Bernard de verb. Es. Serm. 4. who reminds us That it requires even yet Obedientiam rectam according to the Rule all that is only what is prescribed puram free from all blemish in manner and measure firmam steady and without any intermission Chrysostome upon 2 Cor. 5. holds out as requisite to our Justification a Righteousness wherein there must not be either Spot or Stain The Law thus applied and understood is still before God's Tribunal the Matter of our Justification and there to be pleaded but where to be found If we confine our search to within our selves and fall seriously to ponder our best Works either of Nature or by Grace we shall find it a Yoak which we no more than our Fathers were are not able to bear Hath God any where discovered that he has drawn off something from its expectation in order to its giving us Justice in his sight upon more facile Terms I think not If then a fulfilled Law and that the same was first given must be presented to God for our Justification that we may appear faultless before the presence of his Glory Jude ver 24. Where may we seek it and not lose our labour Let them that have a mind look amongst the Rubbish of their Performances whilst we with a thankfully-humble boldness do contemplate What it is Dan. 9. 24. Jer. 23. 6. Rom. 10. 4. Isai. 45. 25. 46. 13. Where Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5. 17. Col. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 5. 11. How had Joh. 3. 14 15. Rom. 3. 22. Gal. 3. 24. Phil. 3. 9. Let us now call in some Evidence and enquire whether the Protestant Cause be so altogether unbefriended by Antiquity as some of our Adversaries are desirous the World should believe And 1. what we meet with in Athanasius We find Tom. 2. That the fulfilling of the Law wrought by the first fruits Christ is imputed to the whole Lump 2. Gregory upon Ezek. Hom. 8. I will give it you in the Original because there is one Word the just force and importance whereof our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus injustos Non in Fletibus non in Actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione considamus 3. Chrysostom upon 1 Cor. 1. 30. It is not said he made us Wise Just and Holy but he is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Justification c. Upon Rom. 10. There is no cause thou shouldest fear as a Transgressor of the Law if thou believest in Christ because thou hast fulfilled it and received a far greater Righteousness 4. Basil. de Humil. Hom. 51. This is perfect and full rejoycing in God when a man boasts not of his righteousness but knows himself void of true Sanctity yet justified by Faith 5. Gregory Nyssen on those words of our Saviour Beati qui esuriant justitiam It seems to me saith he that our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us wisdom from God Justice c. 6. Another from Chrysostom upon Rom. 4. That one destitute of Works should be Justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be But that one adorned with vertues and good works should yet be justified not by them but by Faith only is admirable 7. Bernard who every where gives us clear glimpses of this light lets it shine broad out in his 61. Sermon on Canticles where he calls us under shelter of that Long Large Eternal Righteousness of Christ professing He will make mention of that only And why must not Jacob attain the blessing without the garments of his Elder Brother but to impart to us the knowledge that we must have ingress into Heaven no otherwise than under the Tegument of Christ's Merits I may well says he again Ep. 190. call my self Just but 't is by his Christ's Justice and what 's that even Christ the end of the Law for Righteousness to all Believers It is not a short Cloak adds he further that cannot cover two 8. Besides Augustin's Non nobis and his Sicut found and usually observed in his Peruse his 45th Sermon de Temp. and you will find by him that it 's the fulness of Vertue which the Law means when it says Thou shalt not Covet then adds he after this manner It cannot be fulfilled 9. But Sedulius on Rom. 10. shews how it may saying Perfectionem Legis habet qui credit in Christo. 10. Both Irenaeus and Augustine do most clearly design that particular Act and Office of Faith which respects our Saviour whilest they expound John 3. 14. 11. Ambrose de vita beata lib. 2. cap. 2. upon these words Odoratus est odorem vestimentorum Peradventure he saith it 's meant that we are not justified by Works but by Faith because the weakness of our Flesh is an impediment to our Works but the Excellency of Faith doth cover the errors of them 12. As we begun so we will end though it were easie to bring a whole Cloud of reverend Authors to attest this thing with Athanasius de incarnatione Verbi It's impossible that Purity and Innocence can be exhibited in humane Nature unless it be believed that God was in the Flesh who brought into the World a Justice free from all sin Because we are made partakers Hujus render it how you will of him or of this we shall live and be saved For illud non est justus in terra adds he belongs equally to us all and for that reason he descended from Heaven who was to impart Righteousness ex se out of himself These proofs are not cited in order of time as they were writ but in course as they seemed best to make out what I have said before in this Point 13. Ambrose upon Rom. 10. He that believes on Christ hath attained the perfection of the Law For seeing of old none were to be justified by the Law because none fulfilled it otherwise than by hoping in Christ promised Faith is introduced to believe the Law fulfilled That all things else laid aside Faith might satisfie both for the
2. What Law is it whereby St. Paul affirms Rom. 3. 20. that no Flesh can be justified Even that Law which to other necessary uses he was careful to establish ver 31. by which cometh the knowledge of Sin Rom. 7. 7. which is holy just and good ver 12 Spiritual ver 14. Encomiums that cannot be given to the Ceremonial and therefore must be of force against that Doctrine whereby Justification is made to consist in either habitual or actual holiness all which is nothing but conformity to the Moral-Law too weak through the flesh for such an end 3. What sort of Grace is there designed where St. Paul having by all his preceding discourses thereto ascribed Justification subjoyns Rom. 6. this caution What then Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound It 's not at all possible or imaginable that any body how egregiously wicked or how stupidly gross and dull soever he were should be of opinion that by continuing in sin Grace inherent could abound By infallible deduction then it follows That the power of justifying is not by the Apostle left in the hands of such Grace but rests in that gratious imputation of Righteousness through Faith which makes our Salvation from one end to another the free gift of God as we find it contradistinguished to the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Let not any Romanist here think to come off by alleging that they hold the eternal punishments of sin to be remitted by the Sacrifice of Christ which being done there then remains their good deeds to merit glory in Heaven For pardon relates only to the person of the repenting sinner not at all unto the devious works so as to render legitimate what was in the commission criminal But the Law which takes no notice of Pardon remains unfulfilled by the party absolved still And a righteousness adequate to that must be found before we can claim the rewards of life Nor let them imagine the business is salved because some of them build the reason or ground of merit on the promise and acceptation of God for neither can they shew that ever God made his promise of such a Tenure nor yet will Vasquez and therein he pretends fully to know the mind of the Trent Council suffer that to pass as Catholick Doctrine for he tells us If our works be not of themselves before the Promise worthy and after the Promise do become worthy it must follow that for their dignification or to make them acceptable the Merit of Christ must needs intervene and be imputed Disp. 214. Chap. 6. That what I have delivered in this Point is the very Mind Sence and Precept of the English Church whereto I desire to approve and submit my self is manifest by her eleventh Article thus made up That we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholesome Doctrine referring us for farther explication to her Homilie of Salvation and there we are directed to the right Object of Faith as it justifies viz. Christ suffered death for us Christ fulfilled the Law for us As Utensils or a kind of hang-by's on to their main Point of Justification by the merit of works follow an whole Legion of vendible Pardons Indulgences Dispensations Termes which in the Primitive Church signified no more than certain relaxations of Penances imposed upon Delinquents and upon evident signs of their amendment mitigated to the persons yet living Whereas in the after practice of the Romanists they degenerated into such notorious superstition as applyed to the dead and into so great impiety as extended to the living that they have left skars upon the face of their Church which cannot pass for beauty-Spots Of this we have all Germany for a witness for not onely Luther from the extream grossness thereof when he saw those goodly advantages made the wagers in a game at Dice took occasion to write against them But the whole Imperial Dyet at Norimberg Anno 1522. gives them a chief place among their 100 grievances represented to the Popes Nuntio then amongst them So that we doubt not but we do well in accompting them but as superstructures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will as Wood Hay Stubble perish and not abide the fire that spirit of burning mentioned Isai. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. Cor. 3. 13. It will be worthy the while to hearlien perhaps with more attention than the Legate Franciscus Theregatus did for I do not find there was any present redress to the complaints of those Germans You shall have them then out of a Copie printed 141 years since and published by Authory faithfully done into English They usher in all the rest by this comprehensive one which might have indeed a great many in the belly of it And as we pass the threshold we cannot but take up this Note They fix the blame not upon the irregular exorbitant actings of some particular ill-governing Minister But the Preamble runs thus An hundred grievances of the sacred Roman Empire Princes and Nobles which they put up to his Holiness his Legate against the Roman Chair and the whole Ecclesiastical Order Anno 1522. First This is not the least nor the last to be mentioned that many things are prohibited many things imposed by humane constitutions which are not commanded or forbid by any Divine Precept Of such sort are The innumerable obstacles invented for the prohibition of Marriage drawn through so many degrees of affinity and consanguinity The injunction to forbear meats which God notwithstanding has created indifferently for the use of Man and the Apostle so teacheth They may be taken with thanksgiving These and the like stand in force till money which thus makes the same thing lawful to rich and criminal to poor procure a Dispensation By the casting of such illegal nets not only a vast quantity of Treasure is caught in Germany and hoysted over the Alpes but a most unreasonable iniquity is exercised upon persons equal in Christianity Whence arises great scandal and heart-burning whilst the less able sort do find themselves intrapped and held fast only because they have not those Thornes of the Gospel riches as Christ more than once terms them 2. Of the same stamp are the proceedings as to set times for marriage done it must not be at such and such seasons that is to say if the parties think to do 't for nothing though in the mean time both Ecclesiasticks and Seculars live most luxuriously but if Coyn enough appear that makes all pass into just and right this likewise is a cunning pick-lock to the German Coffers 3. They tell him how long this unsupportable burthen has laid upon their backs that Whensoever some Church is pretended to be in building at Rome or an expedition to be made against the Turk then under the notion of a pious Contribution the very bottom of the German bags must be turned out and what is more considerable by these Impostures managed by a sort of Preachers for
sixth Carthaginian Council so stifly have opposed Zosymus then Bishop of Rome and his successour Boniface till at last they evidenced his pretensions to be false by the attestation which Cyrillus Bishop of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople gave to the Nicene Canons The Pope had his Deputy at the Council of Basil Its Decrees together with those of Constance confirmed by Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Anno 1449. ratified by Nicholas 5. In them the Authority of a Council is set above the Pope and he is subjected to it This is certainly to them a very pungent Dilemma Either let them confess that a Council confirmed by the Pope may err or let the Decrees pass for Catholick Doctrine For our parts we think we can bring an infallible instance from this Council I mean of Constance that they may err Since in that very Decree which they dared to make against the Communion in both kinds they acknowledge that they went against the first Institution But the Jesuites now at last for what reason they know best will after all this poother have the whole privilege fitted to the narrow dimensions of the Pope's Breast Bellarmine lib. 2. de Conc. cap. 12. 18. Thus at last all Councils must be brought back to the Bishop of Rome's Examination that what he approves may pass what he is not satisfied in may fall to the ground Gregory de Valentia Ann. lib. 8. cap. 3. Thus the Pope indeed ought to use all good means and diligence to find out Truth But whether doth he so or no If he undertake to determine in a Controversie he always does it infallibly This is well and soundly to the purpose yet before they do vest him with that Prerogative or ascertain it to him they put such conditionary Qualifications upon him he must be duly elected whereto abundance of odd things must concur he must not openly nor in his heart which no body can ever understand be a favourer of Heresie and the like as 't is the hardest thing in the World to know when it is fix'd and therefore no competent ground-work to rear our Faith upon Popery has its several Depths wherein the Members of the Romish Communion however they would bear others in hand and divers of them may themselves believe that there 's nothing but Unity among them are more or less immers'd Yet from a concession made by their daring Vasquez though not made with any design of reconciliation but upon grounds that must perpetuate the Breach I can methinks bring the most of our English Papists and a great part of their more ancient and more modest Writers within the comprehension of true though not in all regards sound Belief That bold Jesuite where he so eagerly contends for the condigne Merit of Works done by infused Grace and scorns to derive it from any Covenant or Acceptation on God's part made thus argues And indeed the consequence is very strong though the use he would make of it be very impertinent His words are If our Works were not of themselves before any Promise worthy but became so by vertue of a Promise the Merits of Christ must necessarily be applied and imputed to bring such Dignification to them Quaest. 1 2. Disp. 3. cap. 6. Now for such among them as do owne a Tenent that will undeniably fetch in the Merits of Christ though it be not in a way so explicit as is proper for the raising the Soul to those discoveries of strong Consolation which may flow from the Doctrine rightly understood I dare not but be so charitable as to think That if they joyned a sincere Piety to that measure of Faith they shall have their share in the Resurrection of the Just at the last Day Their Notions seem as to this great business to run into disorder upon a supposition That the Merits of Christ are applied to the Works not to the Persons of the Regenerate To sift therefore these things a little Consider 1. That the gratious Condonation whereby God is pleased not to animadvert the Obliquities nor the gratuitous acceptation which he vouchsafes to our best Actions can neither of them relate to the Works themselves nor have such influence upon them as to render them now Legitimate which were before Anomious Will any body say or think That those illegal proceedings whereof many in England were guilty ceased to be Treason as soon as the King's Grace had by the Act of Oblivion quitted their Persons from punishment Though God in like manner through the greatness of his mercy do let all our guilt pass into the Land of forgetfulness yet there is an holy just good eternal exceeding broad Law which must not pass away till all be fulfilled which requires the whole heart and reaches the very inmost thoughts Notwithstanding Remission this Law remains unfulfilled still and poor Dust and Ashes in whose hands through the weakness of the Flesh it fail'd of its End would be left groveling on this side heaven if the glorious light of the Gospel did not manifest a new way thither not by patching up or ekeing out the rags of our Works but by putting on us the Garments of our elder Brother and by directing us when we plead with our Maker for the blessing to make mention of his Righteousness only The clearest intimation of this is had from Jer. 23. 6. and 33. 16. laid together where the Spouse and her Heavenly Bridegroom are united and put together under one Appellation He shall be called yea and She shall be called too THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS 'T is prodigiously strange it should seem strange to any that there should be a Communication betwixt the Head and the Members such as may derive the fulness which is in the one purposely for that end unto the other see Colos. 1. 19. John 1. 16. Colos. 2. 9. 10. especially when they admit of a Communication of the Members one with another by Supererrogation whereof Scripture is absolutely silent Of Prayer to Saints THE Agents for the Church of Rome who have indeed a singular Dexterity in adapting their Discourses to the frame of the times wherein and to the temper of the persons wherewith they are conversant do think fit to assault this Generation train'd up to a deplorable inadvertency through the unsetledness and discomposure which lately was upon us by mincing or veiling those Doctrines and Practices most lyable to exception putting upon them such a varnish as may look best to the eyes of transient slight beholders Thus they bear us in hand that the Adoration paid by them to Saints and Angels is an innocent humble safe thing whereby they only bespeak and who will not desire to make a friend in the Court those favourites of Heaven to be on their side If this were all yet since we are sure that he with whom we have to do perfectly discerns all the desires all the necessities of his Supplicants a Prerogative no Potentate on Earth is capable of
be led away by the prevalencie of certain stupendious works done by such as were nevertheless great Impostors Revel 13. 13 14 15. We read again of some that were casters out of Devils yet followed not Christ Mark 9. 38 39. And if we should follow them into Doctrines which are without the concurrence of his Word whether this be the case or no betwixt Rome and us may be decided elsewhere we might easily go astray St. Augustine tell us cap 8. de Civit. Dei He that yet requires wonders in order to his believing is himself a great wonder And this leads us on to enquire after Historical discoveries 2. Whence it will not be hard to learn what the Church in times ancient enough held as to this question It was evidently the opinion of old that the ordinarie working of Miracles ceased when the Apostles deceased That they were of use to allure Heathens and Unbelievers then but not to be expected or singly relyed on for the determination of a controverted Point where Christianty has already been setled That they have been done by some persons in justification of their Tenents when Truth was not on that side That they may indeed soberly be eyed as a concurrent Testimony where it pleases God they happen for establishment of a Truth contained in the Scriptures but not for the Introduction of any belief or practice without or against it As to the former of these Gregory commonly called the Great Bishop of Rome about an 600 hath affirmed That as watering to young Plants is necessary but not to rooted Oakes so Miracles to the infant Church but not when grown up Hom. in Evang. 43. And St. Augustine about two Ages before makes a wonder not only at but of those that pinn'd their faith on wonders That reverend African has taught me to say after him Against the Miracle-mungers he meant the Donatists the Lord hath made me cautious by saying In the last times false Prophets shall arise and shall shew signs and wonders but take heed behold I have told you Tom. 29. Tract 13. in Jo. Mark 13. 22 23 24. The false Prophets there said to do signs and wonders were not to be Ethnicks without Christ but only to obtrude false Christs or a fallacious way to him What need we say more than what we have full and clear authority for 1 Cor. 14. 22. signs are not to them that do believe but to them that believe not That great wonders have been done or at least undeniably urged by some that had not right on their side may visibly be made good from the Testimony of Bede who informs us that the argument from Miracle-working was very rife on both parts in that grand contest about the time of celebrating Easter lib. 2. cap. 15. 16 29. This may serve as to the two first enquiries and so let us pass to the third Disquisition viz. by Reason 3. I would know since sundry other miraculous operations as well as casting out Devils are enumerated in Mark 16. and said to accompany those that were sent why do not our Romish Priests appropriate and take to themselves all the rest as well as that domination over unclean Spirits Let us hear them having never been taught speak with strange Tongues let us see them unhurt touch all sorts of venomous Creatures c. let them shew us that immediately and infallibly they can cure all manner of Diseases For I see not any differences in the Grant in the intentional end or in the time of continuance Again the Promise may seem made to all true Believers not restrain'd to Priests only and it 's more than probable that those Exorcists Mark 9. 38. were not in Orders Why then do they monopolize it and think themselves as sure of it as the Coats on their backs We acknowledge there was in the infant-Churches a sort of Faith sometimes found even amongst miss-believers which was productive of admirable events not of Satan's operation neither This Faith having for its object only that essential Attribute of God his Power and relying thereon by a strenuous Act of Credence particular to that business impetrated frequently then and may peradventure do so yet sometimes wonderful things at his hands though neither the Person nor the Cause stood upon a right foot St. Augustine not denying but the Hereticks of his time might do true Miracles I mean things strange beyond understanding forbore not though to dehort his people from listening to them upon that accompt as may be seen Tract de Unit. Eccles. cap. 9. Tom. 7. Why may not we also though we should see wonders done even such as are mentioned Revel 13. bring them to the Test of Gods Word and require proof from thence that those Doctrines designed for establishment thereby are true 4. But let us in the last place do what we can to see through the darkness of their practice And seriously we can hardly be brought to think that to out the Devil of his hold is the common usual effect of their Sprinklings Fumings Crossings of their Beatings with the Priestly stole repetitions of Latin Words c. since we find not any of all these used by Christ nor instituted to any such end Again we must not nor can forget what palpable collusions and deceipts they have been found to use in almost every place where they met with any body that durst but peep under the veil they at such times do hang before the eyes of the vulgar Let the boy of Bilson as yet I think living a Shooemaker in Northhampton speak And it is not so very long ago about a dozen years since a most gross cheat of this sort was re-acted and fully discover'd at New-Castle upon Tine But whoever shall peruse the twenty fourth Chapter of Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to Cardinal Perron as it 's publisht Anno 1662. cannot certainly but discover what he ought to think and how to demean himself upon such Rancounters What shall we conceive of their giving a solemn Oath to Satan and then questioning him about controverted Points as they did in the case of the Boy of Bilson Oh! he would tear he told them or made signs thereof a dying Protestant but a good that is in their sence a Roman Catholick departing he would be as quiet as a Lamb. Does not this smell rank of design Spectatum admissi A Conjecture how it is come to pass that the Church of Rome hath partly been plundered and partly has cheated her self of so much Primitive Truth THe bitter Contests which had arose and for some Ages continued betwixt the Orthodox and Manacheean Pelagian but especially the Arrian Hereticks had now alienated the minds of men one from another interrupted the correspondences they used formerly to hold and so shaken the Foundations laid by the first Master-Builders when the sudden rise of the Sarazen in the East and the violent rushings of other Barbarians upon the Western Empire had either induced or