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. 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
of our sinnefull demerits and in his rewards proposed we record wherunto we were created and agnize from whence we fell And because we finde an impossibilitie in the Law Rom. 8.3 Iob. 14 4 and no remedie in nature we do not as men redie to be drowned catch at euery straw that cannot help but appeale to the throne of grace and lay handfast only vppon his endlesse fauour and euerlasting mercie that exceedeth all his works I dwell vpon their chiefe places and reasons of theirs longer then the intent of a briefe treatise may seeme to permit The rather because one of our late writers dareth auouche Alen. apol of Eâ—ngl Semi c. 5. p. 59 with what face let the world iudge that in our shew of aunswer we further their cause rather then our own we only looke backward a little and barke and fly from the light and bay at them As if this were all that might be done in a mater of truth And such are their crakes of victorie in disputing c. But I gesse few of theÌ„ can speake better then the most best of them haue written Neither is it likely they canne do more in the valleyes then in the mountaines I mean they can not do more with their tongs disputes now theÌ„ their betters haue hertofore done with their pen writing By the bysh of SaruÌ„ M. Nowell D. Calfild others Wherin they haue receaued ful iust answer VVherfore no cause of fe are for all their in finit and intolerable vauntes For mine owne part I speake the truth ly not eueÌ„ before Christ that witnessed a good witnesse vnder Pontius Pilate as in few I haue declared mans vndoubted imperfection out of the word of God Hosius contra Brent prolo Mart Eisen de Eccl. vind Pigg Hierarch Sand Monar vis Stapl. de doct pr. c. so in reading the aduersaries bookes namely touching this matter of mans corruption I finde that as all their labour elswhere teÌ„deth only to the aduancing of human poÌ„p vnder the name of the church so vnder the title of nature they contend chiefly for the setting vp of man flesh in extenuating original sinne in excusing concupisceÌ„ce in praising the works of infidels in vpholding the wisedom and will of corruption To speake of all that hath bene latelie written Stapl. de vniuers Iusti ficationis doctr 1582 were to generall The las that I haue seene and the largest is Maister Stapleton whom I quote often in the margeÌ„t The man I remember to haue bene of the Colledge wherof my selfe am now In respect whereof and in Christian charitie I wish him the best And if Samuell may awake Elie 1. Sam. 2.23 if the younger may warne the elder to that end I haue thus called vppon him and pulled him by the sleeue that he go not away in a sleepe He knoweth Elie suffred his children to breake his owne necke Verily the fancies and affections that are bred in of man if he cocker them vp they will bring him to a worse end then Elies was or if he correct beat them lightly but with a fether this will not amend the children of Belial or the sonnes of Adam Elie demaunded of his sonnes why did they such such things Do no more my sonnes it is no good report that I heare of you which is that you make the Lordes people to trespasse yet more theÌ„ speaking roughly he did not but let them haue their ful fourth in sinne as if he had chidde them with his toung and stroked them fayrely on the head with his hand Wherfore God denounceth that he loued his children aboue him and therefore he woulde do a thing in Israell wherof whosoeuer should heare his two eares should tingle at it So the Papist can not but confesse say The issue ofspring of nature corrupt can not be but corrupt As the mother sinne is so are the daughters of sinne Of a thistle a prick of a bramble commeth a bryer And namely as concupiscence in the vnregenerat man for some causes must needes be sinne Stapl. lib. 3 cap. 3 so in the regenerate no good report there goeth of it neither yet of mans wisedome nor of his will The Papist can chide a little on this fashion but yet the naturall man will honor his children and make of him selfe more theÌ„ of his maker For he telleth euery man to speake a word of that Suprae pa. 9. which in order was touched before albeit concupiscence be euill and sinne yet is it not so properly and in precise maner of speaking but only because she leadeth the way to sinne as it were causeth the Lordes people to transgresse Stap. l. 4. c. 5 Likewise mans wisedome is darknesse for sooth in the Gentils and his will stonie and obstinate that is say they onely depraued Fie vpon such fondnesse fie maister Stapleton If our willes were onely depraued and but some way prone to euill and not perfitly imperfit and past all good had the holy Ghost no softer wordes to shewe the imbecillity therof but by stone and brasse and yron c. And S. Paul when he telleth the Ephesians that they were once darknesse in deed they were Gentils what theÌ„ what doth that distinction help The vnregenerat mans father is an Amorite Ezech. 16.3 and his mother an Hittit all men are Gentils or in as bad case as any man may be if they be respected in them selues not lightned by his spirit instructed by grace And as for concupisceÌ„ce is it sin only because she teÌ„pteth not in proper termes of speaking A foolish woman a sinneful is described in Solomon to be troublefom Prou. 9.13 She is ignorant and knoweth nothing sitteth at the dore of her house entiseth them that passe by out of the right way These properties proue the sinnefulnes of the womaÌ„ sufficiently properly All which appeare to be in the concupisceÌ„ce of man The one is as ignoraÌ„t as busie as the other Only the one prouoketh openly sitteth at her dore allureth to her the other lurketh in thy bosom and therfore is the more dangerouse and neuer the lesse sinnefull but to all purposes to be taken as a natural sinner But hereof before more at large These figg leaues then fetcht out of the orchard of mans braine will not couer betweene God vs. Lib. 1. cap. 4 Your selfe M. Stapleton and others begin to mislike both certaine schoolmen and certaine late writers for falsly maintayning naturs ability in preparing her selfe meritoriously toward God ingeniously you confesse the hissing out of the opinion of merits de congruo of deserts of conueniency God grauÌ„t that as he hath begunne that good work so he vouchsafe to make it perfit in you more more in great measure that you may see and detest the length breadth infinit deepenesse of mans naturall transgressions and
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
preached in the Gospell Rom. 10.8 And so we graunt Ihon. 8.36 that whō God doth teach they ar skilfull whō the sonne doth set at libertie they ar free and who haue Christ haue all that is Christs the satisfaction of the father the fulfilling of the law what euer else Let vs beare this yoke Rhem. not Mat. 11.30 it is sweete take we vp this burden it is light sweete and light are they to them that are in Christ But why are these very things also exacted euen of all without difference Stapl. 4. lib. cap. 3. as may appeare by other Scriptures if yet some the most and all whom nature ruleth be so blind so vnwilling vnable to do accordingly as is commaunded or wherfore are there such faire rewards generallie to all proposed if in some certain it lye not to go so far furth as to thinke a good thought or to will well much lesse to runne out the rase to winne the crowne of their saluation One aunswere will serue for both these demaunds The substāce of the Law was giuē to Adam though not written till Moses time Mar. 12.30 31 Although the Lawe were not written till Moses time yet was it giuen to Adam and to all in him at the first as to loue God aboue all thinges and his neighbour as him selfe Which is an abridgement of the decalogue Then might the commaūdement haue bin obeyed and the reward obtayned Afterward when it was to be writtē no reason it should be lesse perfite then God made it because man became by his owne default more vnperfite then God made him speciallie whereas yet there remaine most euident and excellent endes and frutes thereof as to knowe our dutie Gal. 3.24 though we can not do it therby to endeuour to finde that else where that is not in our selues And when we see that we are out of the way which leadeth to the rewarde of life we may by Christes helpe compasse it an other way and come to the same end in him They say a dronken man hath a desire to seeme sober when his feete can not cary his bodie There is no dronkennesse like to that which commeth by the wine of pride in vaine men Wherefore to represse this naturall vanitie in all to keepe vs in a sober opiniō of our selues God giueth vs a perfit lawe to measure our imperfections by For otherwise wee presume to touche heauen with our finger till we see the distance What burden can not our sholders beare till we fele the waight Eagles eyes haue we till we looke into the sonne we seeme gould til the touchstone reproue vs straight til the rule telleth vs the contrarie like sores that seeme to be sound till they be deepelie searched The younge man in the Gospell though that the keeping of the Lawe was but a tricke of youth Mat. 19.20 All this haue I done from my youth vpwarde But our Sauiour as a skillefull Phisition touching the vaine that went directly to his heart Aug. Serm. de Temp. 124 bade him to go and sell all that he had and to followe him and the case was straight altered and his hypocrisie displayed And in deede these are singuler vses of the law wel expounded and fitly applied Endes and good vses wherunto the Lawe serueth both to conuince infirmitie to accurse sinne and also to discouer dissimulation to root out ignorance to bring a knowledge and a feeling that we haue offended to breede in vs humilitie and to leade vs to Christ and being nowe in Christ that it may be a rule of liuing well to vs who euer we be and if we be publike persons that wee make our Lawes all according to the Lords Law And albeit we cannot attaine to perfection yet the imitation thereof in his owne children he accepteth Neither is it reason whether in the regenerate or in the vnregenerate that the Law should be such as might be perfourmed of anie either as it were a mark set vp where euery man may hit it For the leuell of our actions must be straight though our deedes be croked the balance euen though our workes deceiptfull and the glasse cleare though the face that looketh into it haue his naturall deformitie And wheras they argue that therefore man hath free will to good because it is commaunded they may make the same reason also that man naturally without grace may fulfill the whole Lawe in worke as well as in will if he will For the one is commaunded as expressely as the other It is manifest that our abilitie or inabilitie is nothing to or fro to the commaundement of God Neither is his commaundement any thing to our ablenesse or inabilitie VVhether I can or can not pay my detter my dettes are due whether they be required or not demaūded they are equally still in the same nature of dette And though by negligence or other casualtie I become bankerout yet my hand writing and promises stand in their full force and strength In like manner our strength by sinne is lesse then it was but our duetie is the same that it was euer For Adams fall and mens faultes rather binde straighter then set either him or vs at greater libertie As it is commonly seene in men that grow in det further and further when they begin once to breake but a litle Among diuerse presentes Dion Nicae in vita Augusti that were brought to Augustus by the ambassadours of India there was presented vnto him a man without shoulders How that should be the historiographer saith he can not see onely he reporteth a report Verilye I see thus much in the viewe of our a duersaries arguments that their reasons haue neither shoulders to hold vp their head nor feete to go or stand vpō albeit they would seme to present them to the Church of God as perfit and preciouse iewels We are commaunded to pay our detts Stapl. lib. 4 cap. 3. therfore we can pay them we are exhorted therunto and promised our generall acquittance if we so do and are threatned if we do not Mat. 18.26 ergo we are able to discharge the tenne thousand talents the reason will not holde The parable of the detter teacheth vs a better way to craue forgiuenes and a man of common sense can see and say that this reasoning wanteth reason The partridge gathereth an hoord of other birds eggs sitteth vpon thē Ier. 17.11 hatcheth them but when they are flushe they fly a way frō her for they know that of right they belong not to the partridge semblably the Papist gleaneth arguments sometimes out of the Canonicall Scripture though seldome sometimes by drift of his owne wit when they are hatched come to light they fly away from him or stand him in litle stead or rather make against then for him In the Lordes commaundements we learne our duetie in his punishments we feel the correction
Christianity the key of religion the peace of consciēce the water that allayeth the whirl winds and tempests of a troubled soule the wine that gladdeth the heauie hart and the oyle that cheereth the countenance of the sorowful man that droupeth and hangeth head as the bulrush in remorse of his offences are contained herein and depende vpon this happie and heauenly doctrine of our free iustification in Christ Iesu The parts of iustification The partes whereof properly taken to be are but two the remission of sinnes and imputation of righteousnesse the sinnes are ours the righteousnesse Christes The remitting of them vnto vs and the imputing of that which is none of ours are freely bestowed by speciall fauour vpon the faithfull and so of sinners and vniust we are reputed iust and become saued soules for Christes sake Of the righteousnesse of Christ imputed vnto and not inherent in a Christian man FArther fitlie to declare how far remission of sinnes stretcheth and in what maner precisely Christs righteousnes is rekoned ours requireth the lōger stay herin because the aduersaries haue enwrapped hedged in the matter round about with thorns that an vnwary hād can hardly cōe to the truth without dāger of pricking For of remission of sins Stap. li. 5. et lib. 7. ca. 10 they haue made a rasing out of sin quite as if no sinne remained at al after baptisme of imputation Rhe. Note Ro. c. 4. ver 7.8 they make a very imprinting of a perfit righteousnes in vs in both pointes erring very wide frō the truth For albeit the guilt of sinne be remitted and that no sinne hath any such sting as can wounde to death euerlasting Yet the full abolishing of sinne is not in this life but after death in the life to com And albeit vpon our effectual calling faith in Christ which is the gift of God straight way in conuenient time frameth a new by grace in Christ all our thoughts Phil. 3.29 Concil Mileuit can 3 proineth our lusts schooleth our affections and ordereth a right the whole race of our life to a better course and likewise although it be truly said Christ dwelleth in vs and we are his holy temples that we haue in vs his righteousnes his because it procedeth frō his spirit when we beleeue rightly liue accordingly yet that righteousnes whereby we are iustified is resident onely in the person of Christ is not inherent at all in vs for this were to make vs not onely his faithfull seruants and obedient children which is our dutie and must be so but to make our selues very Christes Sauiours of our selues And. ortho expl li 6. ca de iustific if not in whole at the entrie of the first receauing him yet in the chiefest perfection therof in the end of our iustification purchasing it to be really inherent and perfit in vs by meanes of deserts The later Papistes Rhem. not 2. Rom. especially since the councell of Trent haue most mistaken our iustification which when thy haue graūted it to be fre calling it a first free iustification yet by glozing to fro therupon haue much also impayred the freenesse therof and then in iustification which is but one being verie ill vnderstood as the mad-man thinketh he seeth two moones for one they haue found out another in thē selues Stap. lib. 10 cap. 2 Iustificatio imporiat ius ad vitā aeternam which being made vp of good workes must present them iust before the tribunall seate of God and deserueth euer lasting life this they call a 2. iustificatiō Verily we for our parts can not but ingeniously protest confesse we haue not so learned Christ and herein nothing can comfort vs more thē this that we haue not bene brought vp in the schoole of Trēt by Andradius or as auditors at M. Stapletōs feet at Doway or els at Rhemes vnder our late translatours there Our righteousnes is Christ We are iust in him not in our selues For his sake our sinnes are not imputed Coloss 1.20 but his innocencie is imputed In him it hath pleased the Father to be reconciled Eph. 1.7 And so ar al iustified freely by grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesus both is in him by his means But I say which is in him inherētly not cleauing to vs. For the truth is the womā is clad with the Sun in the reuelatiō that is to say Reuel 12.1 the church is couered with the righteousnes of Christ the Son of God But as a garment sticketh not to the body no more doth the perfectiō of Christ cleue or stick in the person of any Christiā neither is he or his righteousnes 1. Tim. 2.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a righteousnesse in any degree in this life perfit imparted or gotten or purchased by any way of cōmixture confusiō but he only is ours by imputatiō the pay ransom of our dets though we personally defray and pay no farthing therūto The sonnes of men that meant to build a tower that should reach to heauen when they all spake one language euery one vnderstāding his fellow in the same tongue their worke went forward For an vnderstanding consent is much to farther either the euil intents of the wicked or the godly indeuours of the good Wherefore the Lord descēded cōfoūded their tongues that they might not all speake with one lippe and language and so was their building interrupted and it came to nothing the place receauing a fit name Babell of a deserued confusion Our aduersaries whilest they nestle them selues agreeably together in an opinion as it were legions of vncleane spirites in the bosoms of the simple they beguile the soner the moe But in this their building wherby they would pile vp merits works of deserts morter thē together in the lande of their owne flesh the top whereof should reache vp to heauen the Lorde coulde not suffer suche proude giantes so vngraciously to impaire his glory to haue their foorth but by his prouidence hath descended and diuided their languages among them selues One saith one thing another sayth another thing Pigghius a chiefe master workman with his felowes M. Stapletō a fine builder after the newer fashion with his mates can not agree together about the foundatiō of the worke Pigghius wil haue works preparatory deferring the grace of God Lib. 7. cap. 9 to be the ground work M. Stapletō liketh not that so well Againe which way the frame should rise and vpon what pillers it should rest they vary more M. Stapleton would haue mans righteousnes to rely and be in vpon mā himself Piggh. being better skild in this cause of more remors hūblenes of mind misliketh that shewes by manifest demonstrations it must be otherwise Yet Pigghius good aduise largelye layed foorth in this respect in his bookes could not be heard in the conuent of
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
but where a peny worth is to be had for a penie and a peny is a peny worth so properly there is no desert but where there is an aunswerable rate in deseruing which because it can not possibly be betweene vs men God betweene God mans saluation farewell merites as they are properly taken Improperly howe the word may be taken in sundry of the fathers is not directly to the point of the question concerning the prise desert woorth and valour of workes and the nature of merites Rhem. not 1. Cor. 3.8 as the Papistes take the name of merites Wherfore with much a do M. Stapleton against the haire and perforce can not chuse but graūt that in deede there is no equality in the former respects as we be mē but yet as we be Christiā mē he saith there is an equalitie and his reasons be these because the adopted sonns heritage be it neuer so great Stap. lib. 10 cap. 2 as he thinketh exceedeth not the worthinesse of the person adopted and againe he imagineth that the Sonne is no farther bound then the Father will require being once sonnes by grace thē De nostro meremur we merit of our selues There is neuer a true worde in all this proud folly for what should I call it else First the adopted sonne as before his adoption he deserued not the inheritāce be it neuer so litle so being adopted into a large inheritance his No-desert is thereby the more manifested and ought a great deale the more openly of the adopted son to be proclaimed Moreouer if the father would not require ought but could contēt him selfe with slender thanks what then because the father is thus content is the son the lesse bound not rather the bond doubled the sonne the deeper indetted his dutie increased in the highest degree of al thankfulnesse The naturall sonne can yeild no equall recompence to his naturall parents how much more then is the adopted child beholding As for that vile and presumptuouse saying that men ar sonnes by grace then de nostro saued by works be it farre frō Christian hūble minds For shal a man begin with Christ end in him self or begin with the Gospell end with Moses Arist The end of euery thing is the perfectiō therof but are our works so perfit perfiter then grace doth God but the first least part and are our selues authors causers finishers of the chiefest the latest the greatest partes who would think that the cloth of righteousnesse were thus patched vp of some small peece of purple died in the bloud of Christ and all the rest to be made of mans own ragges Cost it so litle to redeeme sinners why did the holy man feare his workes as nothing more was he like the simple bird that ducketh at the barn door where the door is high enough and no feare of hurting her head No. Iob was well aduised in his saying For might or did he merit why did he feare But therfore he feared because he knewe that he could not merit demerit he could a iust cōdemnation if he should relie vpō the worthinesse of his owne workes And therfore he feared the lightnesse and insufficiencie therof and leaned onely to a better stay to the mercy of God and to the merites of Christ his Redeemer which should buie out and pay for the vnworthinesse that otherwise was in his workes I neuer find the aduersary without som shift Rhem. not 1. Cor. 3.8 But of all trickes that is most fond an impudent folly Quicquuid in rei veritate habeāt tamen c. whereby they say that Iob and Iobs like did merite yet would they not glorie in their merites professing euer in wordes the contrarie as who wold say in plaine speech man might glorie Sta. l. 5. c. 17. hauing sufficient matter of merites to glorie in yet of curtesie would not but was content to yeild the glory to God to whome forsooth otherwise in full right in whole it did not so directly duly appertain so that if good men were not beneficiall and fauorable in this behalfe the glory of God were and might be much diminished and greatly impayred if euery one would but chalenge his owne and take his due Our Sauiour Christ schooleth his disciples after an other fashion Luc. 17.7 telling thē that when they had done all if yet they could that was commaunded them yet should they say that they were improfitable seruants Sta. l. 5. c. 17 What say so and not think so that were hypocrisie Say so it were not true that were a ly therfore sinne Say so for modesties sake There is no modestie no humilitie against and without the trueth yet say so Why Psal 16 doth God stand in neede of mans glozing No. he needeth not our best workes But why do not the Papistes then say so much Why say they not flat without stāmering that they ar vnprofitable seruants Nay why say they that they ar deseruers what they are they wil not redily say what they are not they bragge or at the least pretend that they are As things especially spirituall are in their owne nature so must we conceaue of them or else we conceaue amisse Esay 5.20 And as we conceaue so must we confesse of thē and speake by them Wherfore doubtlesse of our selues what euer boasters patter in pride to the contrarie we must both conceaue humbly and confesse truly plainly that we are in respect of meriting but vnprofitable seruants It is graunted of all partes that God hath ordayned that man should be profitable to man and one commodiouse to an other ech man lending his help helping hand to his neighbour wherin yet because fraile flesh somtimes in the duties many times in the degrees of charity offēdeth we ar to craue pardon euen in this respect also But when we speake of meriting with God Rhem. not Luc. 17.10 we must shew that we are profitable to him or else of him we merit not profitably to our selues as our new notes would haue it but that is impossible For what profit taketh the spring by him that tasteth of the waters that issue from the spring Aug. de ciu Dei l. 10. c. 5 or the Sunne by the eye that seeth by the Sunnes light Or God by our works which proceede from him selfe and therefore if yet they be profitable to him yet are they not properly ours and so not profitable to him as from vs deseruing of him but as his owne to him selfe Rhem. notes 2. Tim. 4.8 and therefore not woorth thankes at our handes much lesse vailable to merit truly properly as they speake and truly in that they but passe thorough vs they take some kinde of our imperfection along with them in so much that albeit God the giuer be perfit and his giftes clean notwithstanding mans vncleane and leprouse hand in
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
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
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
they selfe but giue it me Prouer. 23. bestowe it not vpon pleasures which fester nor vpon meates wherin is excesse nor vpon riches which will take the wings of the eagle soone fly away nor in honours which man enioying becam a beast nor in any corruptible vain thing vnder heauen Giue me thy harte sayth the wisedome of God and he will teach thee to vnderstand and follow righteousnes and iudgement and equitie euerie good path And as for riches honor pleasures c. know this godlines is great riches and as the highest honor as the true and perfit pleasure what not that good is Direction in the way of sanctification out of the word of God and by his spirite And now for directiō herein in the way of godlynes whō should we rather follow then God him selfe c. not the vaine wordes of others but as the Apostle aduiseth walking as the children of the light bringing furth the fruites of the spirite Wherin we may note that to vaine words we must oppose the worde of God and that the fruites of the spirite are specified to be good works to teach vs from whēce good workes come The one sometimes is distinguished frō somtimes conteined vnder the other The word serueth to direct in the right way and whereby we discern who are out of the right way The spirit is Christes vicar on earth and as Christ him selfe the sonne of righteousnes and the day star in our hartes a consuming fire of all distrust and burning vp the very rootes of disobedience and of all the stumbling blockes in the world The one of these lightly is neuer receaued without the other For the worde is vnprofitable without the Spirit The Spirit of God leadeth into all truth The things of God no man knoweth but the Spirit of God But yet the Spirit of Christ to them that haue age and opportunitie neuer commeth but with the word The Anabaptist The Atheist The Papist There are three especial enemies of this word of God and therfore enemies to the rule of goodnesse and to the leuell of all sanctimonie The first is the fantasticall Anabaptist that dreameth of Reuelations the second is the wilfull Atheist that thinketh the worde of God to be to troublesome it hindreth his fancies it forbiddeth his delightes and stoppeth all the bathes of his vaine pleasure it talketh to much of sanctification The third enemie is the wilie Papist subtiller then all the beasts of the earth beside he knoweth his coine is adulterate and therefore he feareth the touchstone his chaffe wolde not be winnowed And no maruaile For wold false prophets be sifted or vaine spirites be brought to their triall Wherefore the man of sinne goeth about to disswade mē from hearing and reading this worke of God and in steede of the waters of the Scriptures they haue digged vp puddles of wilworshiping and such like mud fitter for the horse and camel then for Christian souls in roome of the light of Gods word they haue substituted false mocklights of their owne in place of virgin wax they haue giuen vs tallow in roome of a candle they haue reached vs a snuffe the candle of the Lords word they haue detained vnder a bed or a bushell that the faithfull men might neuer knowe what they did nor discerne what they beleeued As if to beleue well were to beleue a mā knew not what or to liue wel were to liue in ignorance and to do the works of darknesse And yet they pretend great reason for all this and so did he that said of one that could be mad with reason I can not debate the controuersie I shall but touch a reason or two The worde is vncertaine the worde is obscure ergo not to be read and heard absolutely of all c. Vncertaine I know not what is blasphemie if this be not Where in what place dare they thus speake in the Church of God before whome before the Congregation of Saintes The word is as a candle which giueth light both to the house and sheweth withall what it selfe is is it then vncertaine but it is obscure So you saie We aske to whom we aunswere to them that perish It is harder somwhere then in some to stir vp thine attention therfore it is commaunded Search the Scriptur dig for wisedome seek for knowledge as after siluer and gold Be it that it be obscure Yet as that saying in great part is most false so is the reason most faultie The candle burneth dimme therfore toppe it It is a good argument There is a knotte in the weeke therfore open it that the light may haue easier entrance It is a fit reason But the candle burneth obscurely therefore put it out or throw it away or anie such like cōclusion is starke naught Yea the more obscure the Scripture is the more it must be laboured the more incessantlie studied because it is that wherein we knowe is life euerlasting and the way of life which is sanctification To let go them that will not heare vs seeke after this waye there are of those that seeke sundrie sortes Some seeke onlie to the end they maie be knowen to be verie skilfull men in good thinges this is an ambitiouse vanitie some only to know this is fond curiositie some to enstruct them selues this is true wisedome and some to edifie others and this is perfit charitie The two former sorts are naught the two later holy and good For true religion and perfit holinesse is made neither of bragging wordes or peeuish fancies but this is true deuotion to visit the sicke the widow the fatherlesse to keepe a mans selfe blameles from the soile of the world He that neuer saw hony may talke think how sweete a thing it is but he that tasteth therof can better tell what a gratious tast it hath in deede Again there ar others that though they cared litle for seeking them selues yet are they content to let others alone with such matters But all their care is as they are caried awaye with some conceit or other They rise vp early in the morning and go to bed late and eate their bread in great care to compasse purposes But alas what meane they Suppose thou be a Monarch a noble a marchant man or what thou wilt if thou gaine all and lose a good conscience and thereby thy soule thy losse is greater then thy gaine Thou art a iollie fellow in thy countrie a king of a welthie land a peere in a Realme thou canst preuent foes ioyne in with mighty friends al the sheaues of the field must bow to thé the Sunne and the Moone must stoupe at thie presence or if thou be a meaner man as of a towne and corporation thou canst cudgell and compasse matters conuey things at pleasure or if thou be a priuate occupier or a man of trade thou canst buy cheape and sell deare all these