Selected quad for the lemma: work_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	good_a	merit_n	merit_v	6,691	5	10.7705	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19220	The Catholike moderator: or A moderate examination of the doctrine of the Protestants Prouing against the too rigid Catholikes of these times, and against the arguments especially, of that booke called, The answer to the Catholike apologie, that we, who are members of the Catholike, apostolike, & Roman Church, ought not to condeme the Protestants for heretikes, vntill further proofe be made. First written in French by a Catholike gentleman, and now faithfully translated. See the occasion of the name of Huguenots, after the translaters epistle.; Examen pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots. English	Constable, Henry, 1562-1613.; W. W., fl. 1623.	1623 (1623)	STC 5636.2; ESTC S109401	62,312	88

which the Catholikes call Inherent or Secondarie Righteousnesse But they say that they dare not build vpon it but onely vpon that Righteousnesse which being inherent in Christ is by Faith imputed to them Seeing then that this Righteousnesse of Christ is by generall consent acknowledged to bee most perfect though there may perhaps bee thought to be some errour in the Huguenots doctrine yet no danger can come of it Like as when a man laies hold on a strong bough he may very well be deceiued in fearing another may be too weake yet without doubt he cannot fall so long as he embraces that which cannot breake Next followes the Instrument by which we imbrace this Righteousnesse and that is Faith about the nature whereof the Huguenots seeme to him to hold another error For that They deny saies he that Grace may bee lost without the losse of Faith Which is but a meere cauill of his vpon the double signification of the word Faith For if we affirme That Faith is nothing else but to beleeue that God is so and so and that he hath done such and such things and to be briefe that all the Christian doctrine is most true the Huguenots will say with Saint Iames That the deuills also beleeue as much and that the deuills haue Faith though without Grace So that the Huguenots mistake is nothing but in the word for that they teach That the Faith of that man which is deuoid of Grace and Charitie merits not the honourable title of a Iustifying Faith and that such a Faith as this is but the Instrument onely by which we are iustified which is euer accompanied with Grace and followed by good Workes We affirme likewise That a Faith without Charitie is a Faith without Forme wherefore since the Forme is it which giues the Being to the thing it must needs follow That a perfect Faith can haue no Being without Charitie which Tenet is consented vnto both by the Huguenots and the Catholikes themselues onely we differ in termes the Huguenots calling Faith without Charity an Historicall or dead Faith and we a Faith without Forme O my God what a pittie it is to behold the simplicitie of our Christian Faith thus puzled about these quiddities There remaines now the Effects of our Iustification Good Workes By which euen we Catholikes say That a man is not made Iust but that being iustified before he increases in Righteousnesse That is of a Iust man hee becomes more Iust and being regenerate in the state of Grace He may as our Aduersarie saies fulfill the Law in such a sort that he may by it truly and properly merit eternall life But as for the fulfilling of the Law seeing the Huguenots doe their best to performe it although they may be thought to erre in confessing they cannot doe it yet hath our Sauiour himselfe promised free pardon for it in the Parable of the Sonne who refused to doe his Fathers will and yet did it To returne then to Merits by Workes the more accurate sort of Catholikes peremptorily deny that they are at all meritorious vnlesse they be dyed in the blood of Christ. And I assure my selfe that not one amongst ten thousand Catholikes vnderstands sufficiently the meaning of this phrase Workes dyed in the blood of Christ but simply and without other addition they will say That they are in good hope to merit heauen by their Workes So that we see there be three seuerall opinions touching this question The first is of the vulgar Catholikes who are more in number a thousand times and who simply affirme That they are indeed able to merit eternall life by their Good Workes The second is of the Huguenots who absolutely deny That Good Workes doe merit at all only say they God out of his pure Grace for the Loue of his Sonne grants them a recompence The third is the opinion of the Iesuites and the learned Catholikes who deny that any kinde of Workes doe of themselues merit but such onely as I said as are dyed in the blood of Chr●st Which opinion accords much better with the Huguenots doctrine then that of the vulgar Catholikes for a thing dyed is not altered in substance as Copper though gilded yet continues Copper still the tincture and the gilding making the thing onely fairer to the eye And so is it with our Workes which being by nature corrupt remaine corrupt still though dyed in the blood of Christ howbeit that the tincture and gilding makes them more pleasing vnto God and for the loue which hee beares to Christs blood to bee rewarded And if peraduenture they make conscience of vsing the word Merit let vs hearken to S. Bernard A man cannot saith he merit eternall life by any good works whatsoeuer And yet I trow that S. Bernard was in this no Huguenot For I well know that a Iesuite with some neat distinction can make him speake like a Catholike whatsoeuer his meaning was Let vs then but doe the Huguenots the like courtesie and make the same distinction in the interpretation of their Tenent as we would doe in the explication of S. Bernards and in this point they will proue as good Catholikes as S. Bernard or our selues The fourth point is Prayer to wit whether we ought to inuoke the Saints or not The difference betwixt vs lies in two points First whether we ought to direct our prayers vnto them the second whether they pray for vs. For the first this I say That the Catholikes themselues make two extremities to wit in the not inuoking them as the Huguenots doe and in honouring them too much which is to say in attributing to them that honour which is due only vnto God which the Schoolemen call Latria which whosoeuer does they themselues hold him for an Idolater Now the poore people which vnderstand not the Greeke nor what Latria meanes nor comprehends any other mediocritie than to adore right downe or not to adore at all goes to it bonafide and with as much deuotion adore our Lady and the other Saints as they doe God himselfe in such fashion as that very hardly euen in the iudgement of Catholikes can the Catholikes themselues herein auoid Idolatry As for the other extremitie those Catholikes that maintaine Inuocation of Saints teach only thus much That it is lawfull to inuoke them and not vnlawfull not to inuoke them So that there can come no great danger of it in following the Catholikes doctrine if true nor in following the Huguenots though erroneous The Huguenots say furthermore that we ought to honour them which we may very well doe without inuoking them As a Subiect may well honour his Soueraigne being absent though he neuer presented any petition to him in all his life As for the second point to wit whether they pray for vs or not I affirme that there be Huguenots that will confesse that they doe neither doth Caluin himselfe deny it only he saith that he troubles

Priest saith he is the same with a Bishop but it was afterwards ordained throughout the world that one should be made choice of aboue the rest for the auoiding of Schisme Howbeit he confesseth that Bishops are superior to Priests by Custome rather then by diuine Ordination The fourth point wherein he saith that the Huguenots doe imitate the ancient Heretikes is concerning Mariage and Virginity which is but a meere calumny for the Huguenots affirme not with Iouinian That mariage is simply equall to virginity but onely in such a sense as Saint Augustine speakes it who sayes that he dares not prefer the virginity of S. Iohn before the mariage of Abraham Nor with Vigilantius that it is vnlawfull to make a Priest vnlesse he were first maried but with that holy man Paphnutius that it is lawfull for a Priest to be maried Touching the Merits and rewards of the Saints I cannot tell what he would say for if he meanes by it That the Saints receiue a recompence of their good workes the Huguenots wil agree to it but if he meanes it of workes of supererrogation laid vp as they say in the treasury of the Church and applied by the Popes Indulgences vnto the soules of other men the Catholikes will say that the Church liued in the same ignorance for the first thousand yeares that the Huguenots now doe for it is not long since that for the benefit and aduancement of the Pope God first reuealed this treasure which had lyen hid so long and the most gainfull commoditie of Indulgences also Now as for Reliques I say that euen the same Saint Hierome who wrote against Vigilantius for taking exception to the Reliques of Saints doth yet in the same booke against Vigilantius allow of the Eues of Saints howbeit for certaine abuses committed in the night of the said Eues which they called the Vigils the Catholikes themselues haue forbidden them And now fast onely vpon the Eues although the dayes doe still retaine the names of Eues So then we must either grant that the catholikes are condemned by Saint Hierome as wel as the Huguenots or else that the abuse of things causes them to be thought blame worthy at one time and not at another So that we must not consider whether the Huguenots agree with Vigilantius in the taking exception to Reliques but whether there bee not now more abuse in the worshipping of them then in Saint Hieromes time For the Huguenots doe not now simply except against Reliques insomuch that I haue heard diuers Huguenots say That if they could bee certaine that they had any ancient monument of our Sauiour or of his Apostles they would make very pretious esteeme of them and farre more then of any antique medall or other antiquity of the old Romanes By greater reason then doe they honour their persons although they doe not inuoke them being dead for that say they themselues forbade it whilest they liued So that if we will proue the Huguenots to be enemies to the honour of the Apostles wee must proue out of their writings That such was their will to be inuocated Else will the Huguenots tell vs That they haue the Saints in more honour then the Catholikes in that they haue such a care to obserue their precepts now after their deaths It being euident That that child who is most carefull to performe his last will and testament loues hid deceased father best then if he should onely keepe his picture by him The eight and last opinion of the ancient Heretikes is the Election of meats Whereunto the Huguenots will giue the same answer as to the former obiections viz. that it was vnlawfull in those times to find fault with the election of meats and yet lawfull to condemne it now The reason is for that it was then an order onely without enforcing of the conscience to obserue it And if any man reply That they now in the Church doe but the same and that it is onely the meaner sort of people that account one meat holier then another and that the better learned Catholikes hold that the sin of eating flesh vpon dayes whereon it is forbidden is onely in regard of the ordinance and not in regard of the nature of the meats Whence comes it then that Durandus that great defender of the ceremonies of our Church makes vse of this reason to confirme abstinence from eating of flesh namely That fish is a more holy meat for that in the time of Noahs flood God cursed the earth and the creatures that it brought forth but not the waters See here now the ancient heresies reuiued as he saith by the Huguenots but he is in the wrong for that they ought not to be ranked amongst the Heretikes vntill such time as we haue made proofe how that the Church of Rome doth not onely agree with the Primitiue in the same things but also in the very circumstances of the things for those things which are of themselues ceremonies are also of themselues indifferent and it is the right vse or abuse of them which makes them lawfull or vnlawfull So that by consequence it may be at this time lawfull and at another time vnlawfull to take exceptions to them Euen as it was not lawfull to breake the brazen Serpent whilest it was a Sacrament but necessary to breake it when it became an Idoll CAP. 4. That the Councell of Trent is not lawfull WEE are come at last thankes bee to God to the holy Councell of Trent a Councell whereof our Aduersary had need to make good account for that the proofes drawne from the former Councells concerned only two or three questions and those also rather probable coniectures then proofes But as for the Councell of Trent that openly confutes all the heresies now maintained by the Huguenots by reason whereof our Aduersarie toyles himselfe more in the defence of that then in any other question whatsoeuer albeit hee vses not any proofes to confirme it but answers onely to the obiections of the Catholike Apologie which I find to bee three in number The first is That the Pope did therein take vpon him the office both of Iudge and Partie and that himselfe conuoked the Councell and sat President in it The second is That those who sought the reformation could not bee heard in it The third that for as much as the Huguenots are able to alledge diuers nullities both in the forme and also in the definitions of the said Councell wee are not bound to accept of the ordinances thereof without examination of them For as much as S. Iohn hath commanded vs to try the Spirits To the first Obiection That the Pope was both Iudge and Party he answers That the Pope ought not to lose his right of calling Councells and of being President in them for that hee had obtained this right 1500 yeares before The Huguenots can easily cut him off 500 yeres of his time In all which