their faces their eyes serued thē also for directing their feet otherwise so the onely eye of faith or onely faith as the eye of the soul beholdeth Christ of whom the serpent was but a figure therby only in him are we saued yet although in this regard alone it doth the deede yet is it not alone but continually accompanied with godlinesse all good woorks in so much that where we finde not good works it is bootlesse to seeke for faith for faith wil no where lodge or liue without works the mother cannot be without her daughers If you kill the children you kill the parent to So that chase away works faith will not tary after If a man wil say he retaineth her retaineth not her retinew well may he say so but in sooth veritie in steede of a iustifying faith he laieth hold on an vnprofitable deuelish faith a dead faith a verbal faith a shadow of faith a faith which he so calleth yet is not faith at all neither hath it any affinity with the iustifying faith which iustifieth alone yet is not alone as hath bene declared in manie wordes and happilie in mo then was needefull but onely for the simpler sort As there is a double taking of this word faith either true or verball so also is there a diuerse acception of this worde iustifying either for a beleeuing an apprehending the iustice of Christ imputed or for a declaration that we are such persons to the opinion of others by iust liuing which is a iustification before men Of the former meaning Sainct Paul doth argue the later sence S. Iames forceth and standeth most vpon For saith he I am a man and not God that seeth the heart I am but man shew me thy faith c. So that these Apostles Paule and Iames albeit they vse the same tearmes both of faith and iustifying yet because they treating in deede thinges diuerse they can not be sayde to varie when as they speake of sundrie matters and not both speciallie of one and the same thing though seeming so in tearmes For Sainct Paule treateth of one faith S. Iames of an other S. Paul of one iustification Sainct Iames of an other Sainct Paul vpon a certaine doctrine and Sainct Iames vppon a supposition If wee looke to heauen faith onely ascendeth thether or rather grace descendeth vnto faith in true maner of speaking Workes are left below who onely iustifie before men in earth For otherwise men can not tell who is iustified and who not but by workes But as onelie works do iustifie here so no doubt doth onely fayth there in respect of heauen The example of Abraham cleereth all Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.5 Gal. 3.6 and giueth great light hereunto Abraham beleeued God and it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse that is he was iustified before God by faith And then in offring his sonne was he called the friend of God and so iustified called and pronounced so And so was his iustice thoroughly completed and his faith in proofe perfited and allowed of In the former of imputation of righteousnesse Paule and Iames in expresse wordes both agree In the latter they disagree not For Paule speaketh not thereof but onelie Iames who vppon great occasions presseth the necessarie sequeles of a true faith and iustification to ensue before men straight vppon a iustification praecedent beefore God Wherupon as it were word for word and in sence he reasoneth thus If thine offences were pardoned in Christ thie sinnes remitted and Christes righteousnesse imputed that is wearest thou iustified by fayth before God it would follow necessarilie that thy fayth would shewe it selfe and thy deedes without would declare what thou art within and therebie shouldest thou be reputed a iust man and so be iustified before men also But hee that wanteth the necessarie consequences of such a cause maie it not be concluded that hee wanteth the cause it selfe In the Gospell there were that boasted of the line and race of Abraham But the children of Abraham that are in deede his children are a posteritie according to faith and not after the flesh Mat. 3.9 Wherefore saith our Sauiour vnto them If ye were the children of Abraham by fayth ye would do the workes of Abrahā as Abraham did No workers ergo no faithful childrē of his for all their vaunting For though workes made them not his children but faith yet where such works lacked Christ therupon reasoneth the wanting of faith it selfe And it is true both in the nature of the thinges and in the iudgement of the world Yet all this doeth not disproue that faith alone doth iustifie before God nether doth it inferre that workes do otherwise iustifie thē onely before mē by the necessity of due consequēt to insue Works haue their vses though not that vse one key wil not serue for euerie lock They shew our faith to mē they ar no parts of faith to make it vp they are good duties that follow of faith and so they iustifie no otherwise in the eyes of men the behoulders I am ouer long herin Touching the other example of Rahab the harlot what were her works she receiued preserued Iosues messengers therby was she iustified that is so reputed in the cāp This one fact could not make her iust But being iustified no doubt before by beleeuing in God opportunitie seruinge well shee declared what she was in giuinge such entertainement to the Lords seruāts Which storie well sheweth that God hath his where a mā would litle thinke euen in that cursed city Let no man despaire Rahab an inhabitante of wicked Iericho and she sometime an harlot is accepted but see withall she changeth her former life and of an harlot became the hostesse of Gods seruants Wherin I note an harlot was far frō meriting therefore as afterwardes her good workes are recorded so yet is not her former fault omitted both to shew what she obtained first by fauour and pardon of her fault and then in dutie what shee did is spoken of wherby she became knowen to the Lords people and this was her iustification ensuing vpon a beleefe that went in fauour before Wherby it appeared how S. Iames in these examples forced the vse of good workes not to iustifie before God but in seruice dutie and opinion of and to men Greater amplificatiōs may be brought by the skilfull in these cases to this purpose In effect this is all that either the Apostle meaneth or I can say vpon his meaning so much is plainly meant that though in some functions they may be diuersly occupied yet true faith and good workes euer meete togeather and ioyntly rest in the iustified man But maruelous are the aduersaries in their conceits Rhem. not 1. Cor. 13.13 For they imagine a faithfull man to be without all faithfull and good dealing as if they coulde finde vs out great springs without the issue of many waters or much
ver Serm. 15. Esai 50.1 for the Lord hath mercies Other merites Bernard hath none that is no merites in deede but as it is said in the Prophet that we must come and buy the waters of life freely that without mony which is in truth no buying no more is the other meriting The stipende of sinne is death properly that is true but is life euerlasting the stipend of merits Rom. 6.23 no the Apostle altereth the course of his speach Yet might he as easely haue so saide and most aunswerable to the tenour of his former saying if it had bene so but he saith euerlasting life is the gift of God Rhem. not 2. Tim. 4.8 a gift ergo not the stipende of deserte as they expresly terme it in these wordes good workes done by grace after the first Iustification be properly and truely meritorious fully worthy of euerlasting life And therupon heauen is the due stipend which God oweth to the persons so working by grace But S. Paul calleth euerlasting life a gift not a stipend as Austine well noteth these meÌ„ call it a iust stipend Now let the indifferent reader compare these contraries together he shall soone discerne the truth of them M. Harding a man that could set a faire shew vpon a foule cause presseth Har. detect lib. 5. cap. 12. Mat. 20.1 disputeth the parable mentioned in S. Matthew where the kingdome of God is likened to a maÌ„ that weÌ„t out early in the morning to hyre seruauntes into his vinearde some he hired at one houre some at an other some at the third others at the sixe some at the tenth and others at the eleuenth When euening came he gaue euerie one alike then they which came first and had borne the heat of the day the burden of the whole labour murmured because of the inequality of their pay One of theÌ„ was answered that he should take his peny wherefore he was hyred if the housholder would be more liberall to them that laboured lesse what was that to him that wrought more and longer time and yet perchaunce lesse then of dutie he should may not a man doe with his owne which way he will out of this M. Harding reasoneth in sence this I will spin his argument as far as it can run The housholder is God the laborer is working in our vocation the penny is life euerlasting the housholder bid the murmuring laborer to be content with his hyre and take that which was his then was it his the price of his hyre is the penny for his labor and the penny is life euerlasting here is sufficient proofe for meriting I trow Rhem. not 1. Tim. 4.8 Mat. 25.27 Luc. 16.8 and so doth the Rhemish notes tell vs. But soft euery part of a parable is not a good proof for a doctrine in beleefe For so can I proue vsurie to be lawfull vnfaithfulnes to be laudable and all most what not In proper wordes without parable this is plaine we ought to serue the Lorde withall our strength and powers both of body and soule all the houres of the day that is all the dayes of our life and when eeuening is come and our life ended after all our labours in the vineyarde of the Churche militant We haue done but the duty that we ought and dew debt is no desart quae debuimus facere Luc. 17.10 fecimus This is plaine and true and shall we force some partes of a parable to proue it false But the householder saieth Take that is thine wherfore it was his what his that murmured his whose eye was naught repiners and enuious persons shall not inherite the kingdome of heauen the peny of saluation is not for such For such I say without repeÌ„tance much lesse for such as call for it of precise desert Nay the equalitie of a peny giuen a like to all doth euidentlie declare Ambros de vocat GeÌ„t lib. 1. cap. 5. that though their are diuersities in time of vocations which is the chief ende of the parable yet the reward standeth only vpon mercie which gaue to the last as to the first If all had gone by desert then the greatest labourer might duely haue required the greatest wages But I pray you are we hirelings naye we are sonnes and heires we looke not for a peny as of hire but yet we expect our penye and that of meere gift euen because our God may do with his owne what him please and he will in time bestow it vppon vs his owne euen for his Christes sake in whome alone we onely trust and not in our selues O this opinion will decay good workes meruelously and greatly encrease either idlenes or swarmes of euill liuers Why It was meruele then that Christ foresawe not the inconueuience when he gaue to the last as he gaue to the first In deede if we be vagabondes or lazy drones or if â—â—ke the greedy Zuytzer that will not fight but for his guilt it is an other matter But if we be sonnes and children we obey our father not to the end to merit but to shew all duty and because we are sonnes The difference then betwixt vs the aduersaries standeth on these points both they and we worke they to merit we to shew our duty they for hyre we for loue they as seruaÌ„ts we as sonnes they to purchase we because Christ hath purchased for vs life euerlasting they worke and seeke glory in their works we worke and glory only in Christ they worke talk of perfectioÌ„ we worke agnize our imperfections in working They if they do but a good deede if it be once done they stande vpon it walke and iet thereon though it be but the ice of one nights freezing we when we haue done all we say we are vnprofitable seruauntes Ios 7.21 We dare not burie our sinnes like Acham in the earth nor wrappe them in a sort of faire greene figleued distinctions we speake with the wordes and in the sence that Christ hath taught vs and in none other We runne we labour we fight we keepe the faith and yet not we but Christ in vs. And when we haue done all yet haue we done but our dutie and not deserued And this is our iudgement in few and plaine words concerning meriting wherein if we haue spoken euill let them conuict vs of error Ioh. 12.48 Act. 17.11 let the world bear witnes and the word be iudge How onely faith doth iustifie and saue IF then iustification come not by works nor saluation by merites what is the meane whereby both the one and the other is appreheÌ„ded First it hath ben clearly proued hetherto that there is no meriting without perfection likewise that perfectioÌ„ there can be none Act. 15.10 the yoke of the law being heuier then that the fathers strong shoulders could beare it vp therefore to great a burdeÌ„ for their children who came after and were weaker
and that not onely in respecte of the ceremoniall Lawe which Maister Stapleton supposeth but rather in regard of the Law of deeds Lib. 6. cap. 6 For their ceremonies were neither so many in number nor in obseruation so harde and how troublesome soeuer they were to the priesthod notwithstāding generally to the people were they both very few very easie to speak of But yet becaus by the ceremonies as namely the circumcision if they trusted therin they were become debtors of the whole Law therefore was the Law an insupportable yoke and whereby possibly came no perfection in consideration whereof S. Peter preacheth in the Actes that by grace in Iesus Christ through beleefe saluation is attained The hande of fauour reacheth it furth the hand of faith receaueth it offred and the spirite of adoption reposeth it in the hartes of beleuers and sealeth it fast vp in the assurance of a certaine hope against the day of euerlasting redemption Herein we leane not to a broken reede neither feeke we for moisture Iob. 6.20 as they that went to Tema and Scheba in the wildernes where the waters were dried vp we look not to trie balme out of the hard flint For worldly promotion commeth neither from the West nor from the East much lesse eternall saluation Onely by grace we beleeue to be saued and neither in parte The meaning of these words saith alone doth saue expoūded neither in whole by any thing else And this is our meaning when we saie Faith alone doth saue and iustifie that is we are wholely saued and solely iustified by God alone in whom we beleeue and neither by the preparations of nature nor by the libertie of will or else by the worthynes of any deedes as parts causes of our iustification our whole repose is onely in the mercie of the father that gaue vs his sonne and in the merit of the sonne that laid down his life to saue vs then when we were his enemies much more no doubt now saueth he vs when we are his frindes Phil. 1.29 by faith in him and that not for the dignity of faith For the merite of saluation resteth still in him the Sauiour and not in vs the persons saued And faith it selfe although it be no cause of procuring but a meane of receauing saluation yet is it also the gift of God who knoweth onely as Augustine speaketh how to giue to and not to take of his creatures and therfore we trust in him and onely in him And this is the doctrine of faith of al the faithfull of all ages of all places that it is onely faith that receaueth saluatiō that is in effect that God alone only he doth all as the sole cause of sauing the faithfull that they may beleeue stedfastly in him in him alone A while in these latter dayes corrupt times when the ruines of true doctrine were gretest with bold faces a sort of ignorāt vnreaden scriblers bore the world in hād that Solafides only faith was a mōster neuer born nor heard of til Luther forged it first Since being compeld to lay aside a litle their schoole brablers to take in hand the ancient fathers and old doctors wherunto they were skilfully directed by the learned of this last age their outcries that those wordes only faith in good record can not be found are well slaked At length euen M. Stapleton him selfe can cite redily Stapl. lib. 8. cap. 35. Hylary Origen Chrisostō Basile Austine others and he quoteth places in plaine pregnāt words as clear as cristall that onely faith doth iustifie But now when he hath foūd the words which were first found to his handes Rhem. not Iam. 2.24 both he out of him our M. of Rhemes reioine that the fathers neuer wrot thē in sensu Protestantum in the sence meaning that the Protestants take thē as if belike they were very like our Papists that somtime speake well and meane il not only of the Prince the laws in the common wealth but also of Christ of his grace of the scripture in the Church of God But cōcerning the point of this matter Only faith doth iustify So say we as sayd the fathers before vs many yeares ago their wordes be the same with ours and why not their sence First forsooth in saying that only faith doth iustifie is meant that the Lawe cannot iustifie without faith Doth then the Lawe iustifie with faith and faith togeather with the Lawe and doe the fathers meane so truely children woulde be more thē ashamed of such contradictions you let not most falsly to father vpon those good men fathers of reuerend and godly memory For if faith doe iustifie alone as say they saie trulie then doubtles without the law doth it iustifie or if not without the law or if the law with it then not alone For whosoeuer doth any thing alone he doth it without the helpe of any other Wherfore faith iustifying alone doth it without the law or any thing else except perchaunce alone signify not alone which may be true in Rhemes Doway verely we that tarie at home rome not abroad neuer harde the like interpretatiō in any of our scholes Again only faith they say excludeth the works of natur as the vertues of the Gētiles in case of necessity wher time wāteth onely faith is sufficient nether are externall works required as of the theef on the cros Farther onely faith is opposed either to the misbeleef of heretiks or vnto the vnbe lefe of infidels likewise is it set vp against the pride of vaunting Phariseis also against the fonde busie curiositie of vaine heades In these sences only is only faith meant taken in the fathers Well if this were so what of all this for the first of all these last answers heaped vp together be it agreed vpō that faith alone doth iustifie without natures worke at all For so vpon good occasiō warrāt out of the word of god haue the fathers spokē so you seem to agnize that they haue Wel then be it cōcluded as an euerlasting truth that in the case of iustifying nature hath not to do at all And will you graunt this no not so why not so because as you dream faith alone doth iustify is as much to say as natur doth not iustify without faith but with faith it doth This was the former starting hole where faith alon was faith the law here faith alone is faith nature Verily this is not faith alone but sport alone for Satā but to vs that morn thirst for your saluatiō what a singuler grief is it to cōsider how mē that beare the name of Christians will needes be thus wilfully deceaued dauncing skipping vp downe in the netts of their own deuising thinke no man discerneth The fathers intend by this worde onely faith to exclude both the Law of
were loue so noble so cōpendious so effectuall a dispositiō therūto Lib. 8. c. 30. as M. Stapletō beareth vs in hand it is in her was Many sins were for giuen her because she loued The Greeke word doth signify therfor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aswel as because But they vrge the word because as a precedent cause But se the like euen in the same word we say this apple tree is a good tree why because it beareth good frute Yet is not the frute cause of the tré nor the goodnes of the apple cause of the good tree but indeed because the tré is good therefore it bringeth fruit according to his kind this is the proper natural cause but we in cōmō speech say it is a good tree because we tast the goodnesse in the frute But this kinde of cause is an after cause a cause in reasoning but no making cause as nether was Maries loue of her sins remitted But therefore she loued not that the dignity of her loue was precedēt to the pardon of her sins but hauing receiued fauour pardō cōsequētly her dutiful loue ensued therupō This appereth by that saying inserted to whō lesse is forgiuen he loueth lesse to whō more he loueth more Mary had many sinnes forgiuē her therfore she loued accordingly therfore Christ said i. cōcluded many sins wer forgiuē because she loued much This obiectiō hath bin answerd more thē 1000. times In a word I will shew that nether did she nor could she loue loue so entirly before her sins wer remitted For beig not in the state of grace what could her loue be but lust and no loue fancy and no true dilection a notorious sinner shee was and therefore verie farre from louing and nothing neare louing much aright They that loue God keepe his commaundementes so do not sinners then did not she Calleth M. Stapleton this a noble disposition God be mercifull vnto vs as he was to Marie that we may shew tokens of a true loue as she did not before but after the multitude of all our sinnes pardoned and done away in Iesus Christ our onely Sauiour The fairest argument of all other to the shewe is a conclusiō that S. Iames maketh and at the first sight woulde make a man thinke greatly making against the doctrin of onely faith where he sayth ye see then how a man is iustified of workes not of faith onely wheras notwithstanding S. Paule euerie where inculcateth nothing more then faith without workes Doubtles these noble Apostles are not contrarie the one to the other neither are the Scripturs as a house deuided in it selfe God forbid they should S. Paule teaching that we are saued by grace and therefore not by workes yet for that there were certaine vaine persons crept in among them he exhorteth withal that they should not receaue the grace of God in vaine Likwise when he had shewed that life euerlasting was the gift of God and therefore no purchase of works yet withall also he warneth them that they beware also howe they tourne the grace of God into wantonnesse As Sainct Paule is vehement in this case so vpō greater occasion S. Iames was most worthelie as earnest as Sainct Paule For whilest some heard that faith without workes did iustifie vnstable and vnlearned minded men as they were peruerting that Scripture as also other Scriptures to their owne damnation they bade adieu to all good deedes saying in theyr foolish hearts if faith without workes can saue we can beleeue that there is a God if onely faith will serue we can beleeue and what neede more And thus contenting thēselues in a generalitie of their profession of faith falslie so called litle reckoning was made how bad soeuer their conuersation were For remedie whereof S. Iames asketh what such a faith could auaile them for either it was no faith and so nothing worth or a deuils faith so worse then nothing Yet lest any imagin that S. Iames plainly simply graunteth a deuils faith to be faith mark further how he doth not For when he speaketh of faith in deede and properly in the first chapter he saith it is no waue that is to say no trembling leafe no shiuering reede fully in S. Paules meaning that it is an euidēt probatiō a certain stable grounded strong thing Wherfore S. Iames whē he likeneth this supposed faith to the quaking faith of deuilles he speaketh not properly but by comparison and meaneth an other matter then either himselfe speaketh of in his first chapter or else S. Paule elsewhere in his Epistles For properly he tearmeth this maner of faith a dead faith that is no faith at al. And this he proueth by asimilitude that as a man may argue that a bodie is not quicke but dead without the spirit that is without all spirituall motions life sence so is faith without works For faith appeareth quicke and liuely in her operations and working Yet not as the Papist dreameth that works are the soule of faith but I say as the spirit and vital breath of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherin it liketh well and greatly deliteth and manifestly sheweth it selfe For if a man be a faithfull man verilie also that man will liue vprightly walk honestly and do workes worthy of his faith not that faith is made of works but that where faith goeth before works euer folow after In so much that a man may well conclude a faithful man ergo fruitfull a fruteles mā ergo faithles Thou wilt say thou hast faith that is a verball faith nothing els Faith is not made of words but shewed in deeds As the Sūne is not without his beames no more is faith without her bright shining woorkes Yet the Sunne is not made of beames no more is faith of workes Yet may I well argue thus If it haue no beams it is no Sunne and so faith if it haue no workes well it may be called faith of vain men in truth it is not For the Christian fayth of saued men worketh euer in time conuenient by charitie Gal. 5.6 can not be idle For as by it and by it alone wee haue accesse to God and trust in his promises without all wauering embracing the benefits of Christs death and passion which is the chiefe dutie of faith so also where it lacketh roote in the good ground of godly hearts it bringeth out breaketh foorth into other frutes And those of sundry sorts to the vse of men according to the diuerse duties of discretion and charitie But still before God in the actiō of iustifying wherof Paul disputeth most faith alone doth al or rather receaueth all of God that doeth all In other respects she neuer is without her traine and as the eye and only the eye in beholding the serpent in the wildernes recouered the children of Israell and yet their eyes were not without the rest of the parts of
satisfied and therefore when God speaketh somtimes they look to the right hande somtimes on the lefte sometimes before and sometimes behind somtimes into thēselues when they shold onelie and stedfastlie direct theyr hope and faith to God alone that will not faile Psal 78 Can God prepare a table in the wildernesse Can he giue them bread Or is he able to prouide flesh for his people For his people being in nomber so manie thousandes bread and flesh in the wildernesse a place so barren and voide of plentie These and the like promises either temporall or eternall are vnlikely in the eyes of flesh that are dull of sight And no maruell For might we perceaue neare at hand the way and the meanes then were there no triall of Faith nor exercise of hope For faith and hope are of thinges that are not seene But when the matter passeth our reache and we iudge it not possible then is God glorified if we beleeue And to this end concerning your exāples are vsed the wordes Siforte if happely by Daniell to Nabuchadnezzer Peter to Simon Magus in their exhortations to equitie almes deedes prayers or in the like cases not that anie should beleeue and beleeuing remaine doubtfull of the remission of their sinnes but that forecasting the difficulty of such a great chāge to be made in their cōuersion they should be rauished with a longing desire thereafter and be enflamed the more and so if it were possible beleeue and in beleeuing then no more to doubt VVhen this will not serue 1. Cor. 4.4 you bring foorth the example of Paule whome you saie doubted and durst not iudge himselfe VVee shall consider the circumstances of your allegation and of the text it selfe There were amongst the Corinthians that by odious and friuolouse comparisons facciouslie held some with some some with others as if Christ were deuided in the ministration of his seruauntes and of Paule a preciouse vessel of chiefe choise they estemed lesse then either his office required or was expedient for their saluation VVhom Paule in effect schooleth on this wise for mine own part as I am not altogether carelesse so yet I passe not greatly to be iudged of you Nay I iudge not my self much lesse should you And albeit I know nothing by my selfe concerning my ministerie for therof was the question yet am I not therin in this he saith not in any thing else but in this I am not iustified He that iudgeth is the Lorde Therefore iudge not you and that before the time of iudgemēt Now I aske wherin and why Paule would not iudge him selfe He speketh of his function and therein to claime that which some of them gaue to some that deserued happilie litle or lesse then he in such sort in so high a degree he told them flat albeit he were better then the best and not guilty to him selfe of default in this behalfe yet he would not iudge nor iustifie him selfe VVhy for iudgement belongeth to an other person and to an other time and not to be vsurped either of thē or of him by the way of deciding definitiuely like a iudge But God whose waies are not mans waies and who seeth farther into man then man into him selfe in that day shall lighten things that were hid in darknesse make the councels of hearts manifest And then shall euery man haue praise of God which last words of praise to be had then ar no trembling words of a doutfull minde but a ioyfull good remembrance full of comfort of an infallible expectation And all this vpon occasion against them 2. Cor. 10.12 that woulde needes in contempt of Sainct Paul set the garland vpon their heades that were least worthie to weare it if all were knowne as one day it shall appeare Lib. 9. cap. 6 But Maister Stapleton and before him the censure of Collon Andradius Hosius and others our new notes nowe Rhem. notes 1. Cor. 44. vrge this S. Paule would not iudge nor iustifie him selfe and who is comparable to Paule ergo there is no iudgement now no certainty of consciēce in this world But stay know vpon a particular in one kind you may not infer wel no not a generall in the same kinde much lesse comprehend those things that are of another sort For not out of a generality of one sort may you inferre a particuler in an other kind Wherfore of the vncertainty of all mens facts God examining them in the day of triall you may not conclude the vnstablenesse of faith which is of another propertie and founded not in workes but on God himselfe which can not fail If I wold iustifie my selfe saith holy Iob mine own mouth shall condemne me Iob. If I were perfit he shall iudge me wicked In consideration of works worthinesse of deedes Iob renounceth all and standeth in feare therein to com to the touchstone Malac. 3.6 For there can be no certainty built vpon the sand of them But in consideratiō of hope in God he will trust in him though he kill him and concerning the life to come he staggereth not at all but is most assured I knowe my Redeemer liueth So Paule when he had treated of saluation Iob. how it depended vppon God shutteth vp the whole matter with full assurance of a thorough perswasion that neither death which is a bitter hearb to many nor life which most men much loue nor celestiall spirites nor the greatest powers of heauen nor height Rom. 8 nor depth nor things present nor thinges to come nor any creature shal be of ability to seuer him from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus the Lorde For in him is the roote of all blisse and the sure bonde and certaine seale of this assurance The wordes of Scripture herein are so plain so vehement so resolute that they can be neuer aunswered without infinite shifting Let the reader turne to the viij chapter of the Epistle to the Romaines and consider what goeth before and what cometh after 38. ver with begineth with certus sum I am sure as their owne translations are And withall to the places where ar mencioned the obsignation the crie the pledge the earnest penie of the spirit in the faithfull c. and then let him on Gods name iudge of all that hath bene or shall be brought either of the aduersaries or else of vs. First of all the chapter of Trent doth nothing but rage and storme at the matter Conc. Trid. as the maner of it is euer in so much that as a man may knowe a Lion by his pawe or a bird by her fethers so is that councell discerned by nothing more then by banning and cursing Controu Ratisb lib. 2 Pigghius better bethinketh him selfe calleth his wittes about him or rather calleth a coūsell of all his fancies and at length deuiseth foure aunswers and neuer a one against that we teach 1 Either S.
A FRVITEFVLL AND BRIEFE DISCOVRSE IN TWO BOOKES THE ONE OF NATVRE THE OTHER OF GRACE WITH conuenient aunswer to the enemies of Grace vpon incident occasions offered by the late Rhemish notes in their new translation of the new Testament others Made by IOHN PRIME fellow of New Colledge in Oxford 1. Cor. 10.15 I speake as vnto them which haue vnderstanding iudge ye what I say Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautrollier for George Bishop 1583. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE S. FRAVNCIS WALSINGHAM KNIGHT chiefe Secretarie to her Maiesty Chancellor of the order one of her highnesse priuye Counsell all grace and peace in Christ Iesus NOW a long time there hath bene no lesse learned then large writing in our English tong touching the iust confutatiō of sundrie pointes in poperie specially of their priuat Masse Praiers in a strāge language Transsubstantiation the real presence the Supremacie and the like But all this while concerning the Nature of man and of the Grace of God of Free will in nature of concupiscence in the regenerate of meritoriouse perfection faith works the whole substance of iustification the aduersaries haue brought vs hitherto no great matter Of late in their English Rhemish notes as the great mistresse and in M. Martins discouery as the handmaide therunto for so he tearmeth his book there is somwhat said shifts deuised The most of al that may seme materiall is borrowed of M. Stapletons dictates their controuersie reader at Doway In regard whereof in som other respects in this discours I haue dealt more with him then with any Latine writer else yet so that the greatest benefit therof may redound to thē that haue greatest neede and can not happily so well vnderstand the Latine tong from whence most of their slights are first deriued now put foorth into English scholies smal pamphlets Wherin if this my doing shall displease M. Stapleton more then he would or I wish as perhaps it maye may it please him for they of Rhemes are otherwise like to be occupied wast vagaries set apart euen as in the sight of God without fraud ambiguitie plainly directly and shortly to oppose as him liketh for more triall herein and he shall soone perceaue that the seruaunts of truth will not be ashamed in due sorte by replie to declare whose seruauntes they are The whole book of his lectures in conueniēt time shal be answered if God will by a most godly learned and painefull father In the meane season right honourable sir this present dutie which I haue performed without recitall of farther circunstances in many wordes alwayes troublesome to greater affaires I offer in most hūble maner I may to your honours fauourable experienced protection The Lord God blesse and preserue your honours person your vertuouse Ladie your godlie cares and counsels all in Christ Iesus alwayes Your honours most hūble and bounden IOHN PRIME THE CHIEFE POINTS HANDLED IN THE 1. BOOKE 1. Of the fall of Adam and of originall sinne in his posteritie pag. 1 2. Of the blindnesse of mans vnderstanding pag. 4 3. Of the frowardnesse of his will pag. 6 4. Of the sinne of concupiscence yet remaining euen in the regenerate pag. 9 5. At large of the whole question of free-will and of the naturall mans impossibilitie to obserue the Law pag. 15 THE PRINCIPAL MATTERS TREATED IN THE second booke 1. Of the freenesse of the Lords graciouse loue and fauour pag. 41 2. Against curiositie in the search of vnsearchable misteries pag. 43 3. Of election vocation and reprobation and of a contented knowledge therin pag. 46 4. Of iustification the fullnesse freenesse and comfort therof pag. 61 5. Of righteousnesse by imputation of inherent iustice pag. 64 6. Of the regenerate mans imperfection to fulfill the Lawe exactlie pag. 75 7. Of the question of merites and that there is no deseruing at Gods handes pag. 95 8. How onely faith doth iustifie pag. 115 9. Of the most comfortable doctrine of the certaintie of saluatiō by fayth and hope to be in euerie man particularly touching him selfe pag. 141 10. Of sanctification and the meanes therunto in this life pag. 176 11. Of glorification in the life to come and of due sobrietie in questions therin of some moued pag. 192 A SHORTE DISCOVRSE OF NATVRE AND GRACE AND FIRST OF NATVRE CORRVPTED LIBER I. IN the discourse of the qualities of humane nature corrupted Mans creation we can not but lay the falt in man where we find it and not in God where we finde it not For aboue all thinges it is a trueth most certaine Gen. 1 that in the beginning God created all things in their kinde good but man he made the perfection of all his workes and therfore most perfitly good in dignity litle inferiour to the Angels in authoritie Lord of the world by right the inheritour of life eternall in all resemblances of diuine properties in holinesse and righteousnesse like himself Thus he framed man at the first For only lo sayth the wiseman this haue I found out Eccles 7.31 that God made man righteouse That is sound of bodie sincere in soule and perfect in both And yet anon after this his so excellent a condition by creation there ensued a maruelouse alteration Mans fall Pet. Lomb li. 2. dist 25 both in his body subiected to corruption and also in his soule so strangely blasted that the better qualities therof all were quite rased out and cleane defaced The story is plaine and knowen in all the world how Satan assaulted Eue The propagatiō of sin Gen. 3 and Eue entised her husband to consent to eate who in disobedience did eate of the forbidden frute and thereby he being no priuat man Rom. 5.12 Concil An rasic Mileuit can 2 but the roote and head and first of all posteritie succeeding from race to race along in and from him though not personally then whē men yet were not yet properly enough in the guilte of sinne we all became sinners and nowe eche man in his owne person is polluted with the staine therof Eph. 2 3 Iob. 25.4 by a naturall and therefore by a most necessary propagation of sinne one from another For nature can not but necessarily worke alwayes after one the same fashion in all things naturally like cometh of like in qualities many times worse in kind alwayes the same insomuch that the children of Adam well may they be worse better then their father from whom they came they can not be Wherin for to view how bad we be making as it were an anatomy of our selues we may apart consider eche parte of the whole man seuerallie by it selfe Concerning the bodie first in generall Sin in the body and euery part therof Esay 1.6 may not the prophets words be auouched of the naturall man literally as they lie From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no sound
as the Papist doth say God doth not commaund impossible things Yes sayth Augustine and sheweth the end why to hūble men to teach thē the goodnes of the forgiuer also their duty in crauing forgiuenesse of the Lorde The same Augustine some where doth also in as expresse words as may be Augustine auouch that the Lawe is possible True But withall it is woorth the laboure the while to obserue in so learned a doctour some certaine circumstances the better to attaine to the true meaning of his doctrine that the bare name of such a father cary no mā away If he did simply say so yet the foundation of our beleefe is not grounded on man Ep. ad Hier 19. ad Vincen Don. 48. as Augustine him selfe sheweth full well in nombers of places But concerning the present question Augustine was farre enough from a Papisticall pride in an imagined ability of humane perfection When his auditors waxed slack weary of well doing yet because sinne is neuer without a shift they vsed to say that they wold do this or that but could not do according to Augustins exhortations For example I can not loue mine enemies sayth one I can not refraine my selfe from drinking sayth an other I must needes be drunke especially when such or such a personage enforceth me Austin replieth Nolle in cul pa est nostra Serm. de Temp. 232 non posse praetenditur O sinfull man whē thou wilt not thou pretēdest that thou canst not do thy duety either in louing thy neighbour or in forgoing thy lusts God that giueth more grace then so to his children knoweth best what thou canst do and that so idle and friuolouse excuses wil not serue Neither doth Austin argue the plenarie fulfilling of the whole Law exactly in all points but onely endeuouring to perswade to charitable dealing sayth though thou canst not do this or that fast sell all c. Yet canst thou not loue canst thou not haue charitie whereby I gather as out of him so elsewhere out of other writers The Law is not impossible in part but in perfection that this word impossible is not taken for an impossibilitie in euerie kinde of degree which no wise man will yeeld vnto For albeit we can not possibly be so perfit in the same equality as is required yet a desire by imitation and in some degree by grace may be and is in vs Clem. Alex. poedag lib. 1 cap. 6 Virg. aen l. ◠as it is in the Poet of the sonne that followeth his father though he could not keepe pace with him Sequitúr que Patrem non passibus aequis we may follow though we can not or runne cheeke by cheeke as the prouerb is iumpe so fast or iust so farre as is commaunded yet no wise man dare call this that perfection that the Papist would haue But the nature of man is like the lazie houswife that when she had more to do thē she knew she cold wel dispatch taketh and sitteth her down letteth al vndone farther from meriting For imperfection meriteth nothing but craueth pardon because of default But we will go on in precise tearmes to speake of merites As grace is free can not stand with merits so merites deserue and need not grace if they be merits The East and west will sooner meete together then grace and merits wil meete together and agree in one in the saluation of man For if thou wilt be saued by the one thou canst not by the other Neither maist thou part stakes betwixt them both For the Apostle taketh away desert before he establisheth fauour and grace M. Stapleton singeth in a quite contrary tune to this Lib. 10. c. 2 and telleth vs in plaine and shrill wordes that the inheritance of saluation albeit the very word inheritance might haue taught him an other lesson is giuen to the sonnes of God not because they are sonnes freely by fauour but because they are his good children neither yet because they are good but withall because they are children and good As if partly we inherit by fayth wherby we are his children and partly by workes which must make vs good and whereby in great part we deserue which Austin sheweth to be no safe way I aske this question by the waie maie we be good yet not his children or can we be his children and yet consequentlie not good What God hath coupled why doeth M. Stapletons vaine strength endevour to hale and rent a sunder If wee be not sonnes then are we naught nether posibly can we be good by any working For all good works before they deserue the name of good are first halowed in Christ sprinkled with his bloud wrought by his Spirit and offred in his name vpon the alter of faith as proceeding from his deare children or else they be naught and being naught they can make nothing better Act. 15.9 But we be once his sonns by faith which pufieth the hart and indueth with his spirit which sanctifieth the soule how can we be but good And now being his sonnes by a vouchsafed priuiledge not of desert but of adoptiō thē ar we also heirs coheirs with Christ in this life here both to do wel that 〈◊〉 graciouse a father may be glorified in his children and many times to suffer euill 〈◊〉 the worlds hands Rhem. notes Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with Christ in heauen which is a condition expressed in S. Paule not as a cause precedent to make vs sonnes and so heirs but as a consequent of duetie because we are sonnes and heires that therfore we ow all duety and in reason must being members be correspondent aunswerable to the head that in the ende we may enioye most freely the performance of what so euer was in most free maner before promised For as the promis was fre at the first so the performance being greater and more comfortable in the effect can not be lesse free in the end then was the promise at the first offered The greatnesse of saluation in our state to be glorified after the consummation of all thinges cometh afterward in due place to be spokē of In the meane time to shew how litle such so infinit a blessing can be worthely and of desert attained vnto is thereby manifest because that glory is infinit and the desert if it were desert yet were it finit For the glorie is eternall and the merit temporall the one ended in a small momentary time the other euerlasting without end in so much that wheras there is with out all dout no proportiō nor comparison of equality betwixt the desert and the thing deserued who can auouch that he can deserue or who dare say I merit or I purchase with the rustie monie of mine owne fraile workes the glorious crown of euerlasting saluation euen as a hireling or a iourney man doth his wages As in bargains there is no euen buying or selling
the verie receauing and vsage of them doth after a sort soile them so that there can be no claime of worthinesse by them at all Now as for seruāts to be profitable to thēselues is a strange shift and I wil not spend labor to confute that which common experiēce doth detest For who will count him a profitable seruaunte that is profitable to him selfe and not to his master It were better for man to enter low into him selfe and to common with his own soule in these and to common with his own soule in these cases especially that so nearly concerne the soule Iud. 16.5 and as Dalila relied in Samsons bosome to knowe where his strength lay euen so neuer to leaue of till he hath traced foūd out his own weaknes in good things his strength in sinne and then shall he the better be able to sit in iudgement and giue sentence vpon him selfe no dout against the merites of man with the mercie of God in whose sight otherwise no flesh euer shal be iustified or profitable vnto him selfe in that respect The Papistes do but daly and play with Gods iudgements The Prophet is plaine and speaketh from a conscience well enformed that in the sight of God none shal be iustified None that is to say none before grace saith a chiefe Papist But Hosius and out of him Stapleton and others like not that For Dauid a man according to Gods own harte and therfore in state of grace yet sayd he of himselfe and that none in the Lords sight shal be iustified For that which is right in the sight of man because his eyesight may be deceaued yet therein Gods sight can not be deceaued He seeth the inwards searcheth and soundeth the bottome of secreat 1. Ioh. 1.8 and vnknowen sinnes Wherein if flesh will flatter it selfe and lie and say it hath no sinne yet God hath an eye that perceth farther and a stretched out arme and he will reach his hand into the cocatrice nest and plucke thence and display abroade the serpent that lurketh and lodgeth in the den of a dead and rotten conscience that hath no feeling nor sence of stinging sins For in his sight hidden faultes shall not so scape and therefore it is good praying euer Clense vs O Lorde euē vs they people from our secrete offences we know confesse that no flesh can be iustified in thy sight But I know not what M. Sapleton and Hosius meane to labour to proue that this saying of Dauid Stapl. lib. 6. cap. 1. Hos lib. conf ca. 73. is spoken by waie of comparison and that in his sight is in cōparison of God him self For doth God in iudgemēt meane to compare vs to himselfe and so to condemne vs Yet what gaine they by this we confesse this is true whether it be the natural meaning of this text or no. For in comparison of the sunne in his strength what is a candle or a starre or all the starres of the skie in cōparison of the almighty what is man at his presence the mountaines melt the earth doth shake the verie Angels are not clean in his sight how much lesse flesh blood that dwelleth in houses of clay and whose foundation is but morter All this is true But one truth is not contrarie to an other None shal be iustified before grace It is true None shal be iustified in comparison of God it is true to And it is most true also that Dauid sayeth Ierome expoundeth that not onely in comparison Hierom. in Ier. 13. cap. VVhere he termeth this their exposition the expositiō of heretiques and of the patrons of heretiques but also in the knowledge of God in his sight no flesh shal be iustified And all these truthes proue this one truth that none shal be iustified by their merites neither before nor after grace but altogether by grace which worketh not onely at the first all and afterward somewhat but beginneth all continueth in all and endeth all in all if they wil be iustified in deede This is S. Pauls doctrine throughout all his Epistles who sheweth that God worketh in vs both to will and to worke to the ende that we may will effectually Phil. 2.13 and all for his owne good will he worketh in vs to will I aske then where is free will he worketh in vs to worke thē I aske where are merits he worketh in vs to will and to worke and all and thē I aske where is any thing in man It is not in the willer nor in the runner but of God that taketh mercie Rom. 9. It is not in the willer and then I aske once againe where is free will it is not in the runner and then where are workes and worthines of workes If it be replyed that therefore the Apostle saith it is not in the runner nor in the willer but in the mercie of God Rhem. not Rom. cap. 9.16 vers because it is not onely in either of both these but in them and withall in the mercie of God to then see if it be so the sentence will be true if we turne it backward thus by the same reason It is not in the mercie of God but in the runner and in the willer because as the Papist saith al is not in mercie but part in mercie and part in fee will part in workes part in merits and therefore they may aswell say it is not in mercie but in merits in workes will and well deseruing The aduersaries would seeme to fauour much catholicke wordes and catholicke manner of speaking Was there euer Catholicke or Christian vnder heauen that spake thus as they in effect doe that our saluation is not of God that taketh mercy but in deserts The name of merit in Canoni scripture is not only not cōmonly vsed as they now can say but no where found Rhem. not 1. Cor. 3.8 the nature of meriting is flat against all scriptures And must yet merits be set vp in euē place with mercy or rather displace mercy quit For S Paul teacheth Rom. 11. that works mercy cā not stand togeather in respect of glory trulie no more then could Dagon and the Arke in the temple of the Philistines Establish mercie and let fall I say not the vse but the glorie of workes set vp works what neede mercie set them vp I meane in the throne of meriting Austine mentioneth the name of merits Aug. epist 105. Barnard saith he is not without his merits but both in an other meaning thē the Papist meaneth For a merit with Augustine is no other matter thē good works meerly proceding from the spirit of God done in faith and onely accepted by mercie then rewarded and so crowned and neither as issuing out of free will nor as equall mate conioyned with grace neither in working perfite not in value deseruing Bernard saith that he hath merites Bar. in Ps Qui habitat de 14.
Moses and the Law of nature But they conclude all together include the workes of the one and the other within faith Call ye me this excluding then to go on with the rest you say when some of the Fathers by onely faith exclude pride infidelitie heresie and curiositie you may as well say verum est without faith yet notwithstanding conioyne them altogether faith and infidelitie faith and pride faith and heresie faith and curiositie making vp as it were a Daniels image of cōtrarie mettals Dan. 2.33 that can not possibly cleaue or hang together But if excluding be including you may say and conclude what you will and distinguish at pleasure and defend with ease and all is well speciallie if you get but fauourable readers that can and will thinke what soeuer cometh from beyond seas must needes go for good Not withstanding that the simple may see the childish fondnesse and the extreame falsitie of this so absurd dealing I will shew it then in the like reason I would haue a garment made onely of cloath meaning by onely cloath to exclude stitching lacing facing with silk shall the Taylor come stitch lace and face my garment face me out that when I willed it to be made of cloth alone that without cloth forsooth I wold not haue it stitcht laced faced but with cloth I would Verily it had need be a very brode cloth that cā couer ouer al this follie it is so brode and a verie cunning not a Taylor but a Rhetorician or rather a Magician that must perswade me so and so bewitch a man against all sense reason in the world As for the theef that was saued by faith alone without externall workes alleadged by the Fathers that doth verie well proue that faith alone in sauing doeth the deede Ambros in Rom. 3 and not workes For the way to heauen is but single and one the same to all The thiefe was saued and entered Paradise by faith onely therefore also must all so do if they will enter For God will not saue some by him selfe in mercie and saue others by them selues partlie in mercie and partlie by their owne workes If the thiefe had liued longer time he should would haue liued well but his beleeuing was the wing that caried him vp and the key that opened the doore of heauen When time wanteth not onely faith excludeth not either workes or the goodnesse of woorkes in earth but the meritoriouse deseruing by workes with God in heauen and hereby both in heauen and in earth the free mercie and grace of God is beleeued embraced and gloriouslie set foorth by this most excellent confession of onely faith whereby we agnize the gift the free gift of God according to his purpose promis fauour grace and mere mercie In the storie of the Gospell in particular by examples thus much is prooued and where onely faith is named exacted and cōmended euen in bodily cares much more in ghostly causes of the soule where our Sauiour doth not so much respect the teares of some or in others their feare and trembling nor their crying calling after him but their faith and the greatnesse of their faith Mat. 9.22 Luc. 7.50 Mat. 15.28 Luc. 8.50 Thy faith hath made the whole Thy faith hath saued thee O woman great is thy faith I haue not found so great faith in Israell And in the eight of Luke and fifte of Mark. Beleeue onlie Onely marke that And withall marke if you will the Papists doubling answer herunto Rhem. not Mar. 5.36 Onelie beleeue that is either especially or only in cases of bodily diseases What I pray you why say you or and or If onely be not only but especially and principally then say so Or if onely be onely then say so and houer not vp and down like the birde that was sent out of the ark Gen. 8.9 and could not find where to set her foote But in deed neither is onely especially neither is onely onely in bodily sicknesse alone as shall plainelie appear And therfore herein ye haue made vs not onely one lye alone but two lowde lyes and those together without taking breath one vpon an anothers head For as for the first was Christ like your Phisitian that biddeth his pacient be of good cheere and onely haue a good heart yet withall a good diet must be kept and potions receiued as thinges more requisite O M. Allen and M. Martin and who euer else had finger in that your late gewgawe translation was there I say not were there other things but was there any one thing not onely more requisite but in equall degree as necessarie as faith Luc. 8.44 For woulde Christ require the lesse and omit the more necessarie or if many things were to be required woulde he say onely beleeue No. when all other helpes fayled then they came to our Sauiour And therefore other helpes being preternecessarie he wel required thē wholy to put their trust in him not that he could not cure yea reuiue without their beleeuing that he could but that dutie would he haue at their hands and only that in such respects Wherefore when this former shift serued not the turne you added though onely fayth be requisite and nothing else yet that concerned the healing of the body not the sauing of the soule Of healing the bodie I graunt but withall of sauing the soule that these words are not spoken is not so easilie proued For Christ Iesus the Sauiour both of bodie soule most principally saueth the most principall part therefore to shew what how alone he worketh specially in recuring their soules diseased with sinne view those miraculous cures done so euidently vpon their bodies Wherfore by conuenient reason it followeth if faith alone be required in thē much rather in the other wherein consisteth the greater cure in vs and whence ariseth the greater glorie to him selfe that cureth Contrarie to this in the example of Mary Magdalen somewhat is brought foorth as who therfore had her sinnes forgiuen Rhem. not Luc. 7.50 because she loued much So that loue also was required not faith alone Consider we the story a litle for our better vnderstāding wherin it is said to her Thy faith hath saued thee go in peace a litle before both of to her Many sinnes are forgiuē because she loued much Our of which I obserue 4. notes remission of sinns peace of cōscience faith embracing saluation due loue ensuing therupō Peace of mind cometh after ward in place to be spoken of The sole mean of receiuing remissiō is faith the only cause of remitting is mercy For otherwise remission were no remissiō And were not faith the only meane but her loue also as the Rhemish note is Christ whē he said Thy faith hath saued the he shold haue said nay thy loue thy faith or thy faith thy loue haue saued thee especially
water without any moisture or a burning fire without his heat We may distinguishe matters in their natures by teaching although we find them not sundred in the persons in whom we find them And we do vsually distinguish faith and works but in the faithfull they are neuer found apart therefore we do not separate them there So that contrary to that which somtimes we are charged withall we euer set forth a faith adorned with vertues and not make a naked faith stript out of her attire still we tell them faith neither is nor can be foūd alone in the man iustified as hath bene proued at large in the examination of the place of Iames. But they to disproue this labour by all meanes possibly Rhem. not 1. Cor. 13.13 in speciall they alleadg S. Paul to the Corinth in whom say they faith is seuered from loue and if from loue then from all good works true if frō loue For all good works are summarily comprehēded hēded in loue which therfore is said to be the fulfilling of the lawe because it is of a greater span cōtaining the works both of the first and secōd table in louing God aboue al things our neighbour as our self Then if faith be separated from loue thē also from other works Now that from loue it may be seuered S. Paul speaketh say they in his owne person If I had all faith and had not loue c. ergo all faith may be had without loue S. Paul as he had faith so was he not void of loue whose loue was so great that he had care of all cōgregatiōs 1. Cor. 11.28 Supposing doth not euer proue the thing supposed therefore he doth but onely put a case nether is it generally grāted that al faith doth signify all faith in al kindes but in some one kinde all the degrees of that faith And herein many iudge that S. Paul meaneth a miraculous faith not the iustifying because he saith If I had all faith so that I could remoue mountaines that is all such faith and yet had not loue c. But if this be the sense then doth it not import that the iustifying faith may lacke loue but the miraculous faith if yet it proue so much Whether S. Paul meane a miraculous faith or no or whether a miraculous faith let it be a faith can be seuered from the iustifying or no I will not greatlie striue There is no edificatiō in multiplying of impertinent questiōs This must be cōsidered wel that the Apostle sayth not down right he hath faith and that he hath not loue but If I had faith Nowe I trust they will not proue matters with ifs and ands Our Sauiour said touching the beloued Disciple what if he woulde that he shoulde tarie still till his comming Ioh. 21.23 vpon this conditionall if an error was straight spread abroad that Iohn shoulde not die In like manner S. Paul also saith If I spake with the tunges of men 1. Cor. 13.1 and of Angells c. You will not go about hereby I trust to proue that the Apostle had a verie Angels toūg or that Angels had tunges S. Paule maketh supposels and thereupon he setteth furth the excellent commendatiō of loue which verely in sundrie points is far more commēdable then faith it selfe in so much that a man may vse the Poets wordes in a better mater O matre pulchra filia pulchrior A beawtifull mother faith Horat. a fayrer daughter loue But S. Paule doth no where disioyne them but concluding the praises of loue saith there are three that remaine togeather Faith Hope Charitie faith beleeuing in the promises hope looking and longing for them charitie louing the promiset and in him and for his sake louing all that is to be beloued Of all these the last is the greatest what in iustifying no. S. Paul debateth the matter to the cōtrarie euerie where Wherein then in the multitude of other duties and for the euerlasting durance therof both in this world and also in the world to come For when knowledge shall cease faith shall haue his date and hope shal be expired in the lease of this life in the life to come remaineth loue And this is all that the Apostle meaneth which neither confuteth the adonnes of faith in her proper office of iustifying neither yet doth it any way cōfirme that in other respectes she can be alone in the man iustified And thus much of only faith and yet of faith that is neuer alone Of the certaintie of grace and saluation by faith hope in euerie particular man NOwe then being iustified by faith Rom. 5.1 we haue peace toward God through our Lord Iesus Christ For so the Apostle inferreth to the Romaines vpon former debating of the selfe same truth vpon the self same groundes of iustification whereof we spake last So that necessarily the man iustified by his faith by faith also hath he the good fruites that growe vp withall i. peace with his God quiet in his soule and firme possessiō of assured saluatiō in a certaine hope Whereof M. Stapletō speaking with the same spirite that Tertullus did in the Acts Act. 24.2 tearmeth this doctrine a pestilent a pernicious teaching tēding only to presumptiō pride security M. Stapl. you speake your pleasure out of the aboundance of a choloricke harte If we presume God be praised Presumere de gratia Christi non est arrogantia sed fides Aug. Serm. 28. de ver dom 2. Sam. 6.14 we presume not of our selues as you do and if we be proude of Gods euerlasting fauour it is a godly pride and in securitie thereof we leape and daunce with an holy ioy as Dauid did before the arke thogh you like Michaol deride vs as fooles reproch vs therfore Sir ill words do neither proue a good matter nor disproue a bad Wherfore to let passe the rage of your heate let vs a litle consider the weight of certaine reasons you would seeme to produce you say the certainty of saluation by faith is common to sundrie heretikes 1 Lib. 9. cap. 9. contrary to the feare of God 2 3 4 repugnant to the order of praying and against the nature of the Sacraments 1. The first of your foure allegations is that heretikes also assure them selues in a vaine perswasion that their opinions are most true that thereby they shal attaine euerlasting blis yet be deceaued ther fore that there is no certaine saluation by faith We speake of the faithfull you of heretiks we of faith you of fancie we of a verity the truth you of a pertinacy in pretēding truth And how then can you conclude from the one against the other notwithstāding The abuse of thinges doth not abolish the necessarie good vsage of thē if heretiks could be faithfull also heretikes which is impossble yet being by faith well perswaded suppose
differēce betwixt that which is in Christ being perfit in nature precedēt in order made ours but by imputation and betweene our sanctification which is imperfit in it selfe issuing from his goodnes and really inherent in our selues The one is receaued by faith the other cōsisteth in good works as of piety toward God of vp right dealing with mē of tēperate vsage of our own persons of faith in Gods promises of hope in his mercies of louing his goodnes of zeale in religion of praysing his name of cōtinuance in prayers of confession of sinnes of seuerity against vice of encrease in vertues of paciēce in troubles of goodnes towards al men of meditation of death of spirituall ioy intentiue expectation of the ioyes to come I am not to debate particulars with intēt to dilate any thing For that is not my purpose and the rather because looke what hath bene spoken of many the former matters may with ease or else without great labour be applied to this present argument Philosophers make a differēce of bodies it is euident in sense howe some bodies are grosse darke as wood stone some cleare and lightsome perspicuous that a mā may see through them of which sort are the aire fire christall common glasse oyld paper and the like Whereunto I may resemble the outward actions of man either his words or deeds For through these a mā doth as it wer through a glas window look into a mans minde frō whence as frō a spring both words deeds do issue I beleeue therefore I spake saith Dauid Will you know a iustified man look whether he be sanctified holy according to so holy a calling will you know the goodnes of the tree trie whether he bring furth according to his kinde as it is in Moses In the second of Kings Genes 1.2 Reg. 1. king Ahaziah fel through a lettasse window from his vpper chamber therby fel into an extream sicknes He calleth for his seruāts sendeth certaine of them to go enquire of Beelzebub the idole of the Ekron concerning the recouery and euent of his disease Vpō this the Angel of the Lord appeareth vnto the Prophet Elias and willeth him to goe and to meete Ahazias seruaunts to say vnto thē Is it not because there is no God in Israell that he seeketh to belzebub c. Wherefore of Ahaziah the Lord saith He shall not come down from the bed that he went vp into but shall die the death Elias doth the message to the seruauntes the seruauntes returne to their king he museth at their suddaine returne declaration is made what befell The king demaundeth what maner of man it was that met them they shew him that he was an hearie man girded with lether Then saide he straight It is Helias the Thesbite Out of this story sundry instructiōs may be gathered First that as the oxe doth eat vppe the thistle so may the axe ouerthrow the oke i. as the poore sinfull people shall surely be punished so the vnsanctified mightie man shall not euer escape Againe in destresses sinnefull men seeke for simple helps and not vnto God the God of help al to no purpose but to their greater hurt Where as the holy man knoweth that our very heares our teares our names ar in accoūpt with our almighty Iehouah our heares are in his register our teares in his bottle our names in his kooke But the purpose why I record the story principally is to shew howe readily Ahaziah did gesse by the Prophets attire that it was Elias therby by this exāple to declare not that the hearines of our apparell because happily therwas some singuler thing in Elias attire as likwise in Iohn Bapt. apparel which was an other Elias but that our attire apparell in most modest maner generally be seemely that all our behauiour be such either in gate words or deeds that whē report is made therof a man may straight auouch verily there is a Christian There is no doubt but dissimulation is spun now adayes of so fine a thread that it is hard to discerne who is who Gardiner could make a booke of true obedience Bōner made the preface therto now we lack not if time serued as God forbid we should haue experience that we want nether subtle Gardiners nor cruel Bonars But because some can semble to be that they are not dissemble to seeme to be what they are therefore yet may not the godly cease both to be in deede and professe to be also true professors Coloures can not long cōtinue A grape may ketch or hang vpon a brier it groweth onely naturally vpon the vine Dissimulation is like Hermogines learning Volater lib. 15. very towardly to shew a while but after a while it becam flush and flue away wheras the sincere holy man groweth still from faith to faith frō strength to strength from vertue to vertue till he become a perfit man in Christ Iesus knowing that this is the will of God euen his sanctification 2. Thes 4.3 And were there nothing else but the wil of God his cōmandemēt in this behalf yet were this alone cause sufficient that we offer vp the sacrifice of our obedience to our God we should be holy because he is holy who hath commanded vs so to be Ier. 35.14 euen as the children of Ionadab the sonne of Rechab obeyed their father and abstained from wine because their father so commaunded them but infinite are the reasons that should moue vs to a godly life as not only his commandements therunto but the inhibitiō of the cōtrary denūtiatiō of penalty if we liue ill or promise of reward if we liue well the hindrāce of Gods glory the hurt to common weals by the one the edification of many by the other Exāples of good mē to be followed who were honorable mē in their generatiōs wel reported in their times as Enoch Noe Abraham and many moe or the effect of sinne vpon sinners that threw Adam out of paradise turned Nebuchadnezzer into a beast and Iudas into a Diuel slue kings ouerthrew thousandes swallowed vp rebels drowned Pharao all his host burnt vp whole cities and wasted nations But what shall I stand to reckon vp reasons to proue that day hath light that the night is darke that vertue is good and vice is naught or that the one ought to be embraced and the other auoided For he is farre gone and past cōmon sense that wil not confesse all this Howbeit in the practise of doing it falleth out cleane contrarie And the reason thereof I take to be in them that haue any knowledge for to speake of the wilfull ignorant it is bootlesse because their knowledge occupieth onely some small roome in their braines but hath no firme possession of the harte My sonne giue me thy hart saith God by the pen of Solomon Keepe it not