we are to do after the Pattern but cannot do up to the measure shewed in the Mount not for these nor yet without these can we have Entrance into the desired Rest. According to which we draw forth this Abridgment of our Belief and Practice In Sanctification we renounce all Our Sins In Justification we renounce all Our Graces In stead of this most holy Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. and for the Profession whereof Rome was spoken of throughout the World she has now introduced such a Doctrine of Works foreseen of Free-will of Works having Merits of several Sizes before and after Conversion of Works of Penance and Satisfaction of suffering to the last Mite in Purgatory of Indulgences Pardons and the like of Opus operatum or the very Doing the work in holy Duties as gets their Entertainment in the World by their Consistency with the Pope's Ends of Gain and Power and by their obviousness and sutableness to the proud Nature of Man 1. Bellarmine and the Rhemists go far when they tell us That the good Works of just Persons do merit Eternal Life Condignly not onely by reason of God's Covenant or Acceptation but also by reason of the Work it self 2. Maldonat a little more roughly affirms That we do as properly and truly Merit Rewards when with the Grace of God we do well as Punishments when we do ill So the Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks a Book full of cunning mistakes and slander gives us these as their Tenents That good Works do truly merit and deserve Grace in this World and Glory in the next That a Man may perfectly fulfil and keep all God's Commandments Which surely stands need of Bellarmine to help it out who hath this fine Phansie If says he I sin not when I love God no otherwise than in the first Degree of Love then I am not in strictness bound to love him more than so therefore if I do adde one farther degree of Love I love God more than I am bound to and perform an Act of Supererogation But we will think having so good a Warrant for it Math. 5. 17 18. and 22. 37 38. that we are obliged to Love the Lord our God with all our might The Terms of the Gospel do not at all alter or mollifie the Demands of the Law only it shews how they are fulfilled by Christ who having the Law transferred from us in our own persons unto his most sacred Person as Mediator performed for so it behoved him to do all Righteousness Matth. 3. became the End of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10. and makes his true Members just by his obedience Bernard tells us the Law even under the Gospel requires no less than Obedience Rectam according to Rule all that is prescribed and only what is prescribed Puram free from blemish in manner and measure Firmam steady for continuance without intermission A Yoak that neither we nor our Fathers are able to bear And August in Epist. 29. ad Heron. Charitas in aliis major in aliis minor in aliis nulla plenissima verò quae jam non potest augeri quamdiu hîc homo vivit in nemine est quamdiu autem augeri potest profectò illud quod minus est quà m debet ex vitio est The full Mystery of their Iniquity is held forth at large by the Audacious Vasquez pretending fully to know the minds of the Trent Fathers Thus That Good Works of Just Persons are of themselves without any Covenant or Acceptation worthy of the reward of Life Eternal and they have an equal value of Condignity to the obtaining of Everlasting Glory That no accession of Dignity doth come to the Works of the Just by the Merits or Person of Christ which the same Works should not have otherwise if they had been done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ That God's promise is annexed indeed to the Works of Just men yet it belongeth not to the Reason or Cause why they become Meritorious but cometh rather to the Works themselves which are already so That after Grace infused our Works are so perfectly Meritorious of Life that it cannot be denied them Therefore going on in Terms wherewith I am almost afraid to black my Paper says he In vain do we require a Continued Imputation of Christ's Merits or Justice after the receipt of inherent Grace Agreeable hereto is what he tells us farther They never request of God by the Merits of Christ that the reward of Eternal Life may be given to their worthy and meritorious Works but that by Christ Grace may be given them whereby they may be inabled worthily to merit that Reward That besides that Imputation of Christ's Merits for the obteining of Grace it 's not needful for atteining of Life in Heaven and from that time forward they do not expect any any other Imputation than what at first they did receive viz. Grace to keep the Commandments and thereby become just We will leave this man to his own Inventions when we have viewed him a while fallen foul upon both the Ancient and Modern Doctors because they run not with him to the same Excess in this business I cannot but wonder saith he at those ancient School-men whom I have named that thought so meanly of our inherent Justice as that they were afraid to ascribe thereto such a true Existency of Justice as must of its own Nature needs be pleasing to God But goes he on I do much more admire the later Divines who after the famous definition of the Council of Trent afford to the Just so diminutive an inherent Righteousness as hath not of it self power to wipe off the stains of sin unless they be eased or lightned by the favour and condonation of God They both adds he if they be well weighed do destroy the true Essence of inherent Justice which the Council so much set it self to hold forth and maintain This Confession or rather Complaint of the Jesuite might save us a labour of culling out the Testimonies of such Learned men as even through the Umbrage of Popery had Glimpses of so pure a Truth since he grants That if our Works before or without the Promise Covenant or Acceptation of God were not worthy and after such promise became worthy it would thence follow That to this Dignification arising from the Promise the Application and Imputation of Christ's Merits must of necessity intervene A thing it seems he is afraid to discover We are thus far of Vasquez his mind rather than of those other Romanists That the Promise of God does not affix any Condignity to the Works of the Regenerate by changing their Quality so as to render them in themselves Meritorious but whereas he will have them not need such Indulgence we know they need much more and the Tenour of God's Promise to be this That he will
look upon Christ our Mediatour who is the End or chief aim of the Law Rom. 10. 4. for it was given with a Design to drive us to him Gal. 3. 24. and is a Yoak which we nor our Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. and in Contemplation of that Righteousness he performed in our Nature for us by vertue of the Covenant of Grace deal with us and our Works so as the Imperfections which we acknowledge and bewail in them shall never come in sight Well-fare those men if they can for the Condignity of their Services It is enough for us under the sense of the Skars and Blemishes in our too often lame Obedience to look up to the Hills from whence cometh our Help and to shelter our selves under his Feathers who hath Healing in his Wings We will now hear what the old Fathers of the New I mean the Primitive Church will say to this business But let us take along with us the Advice of Vincentius Lirinensis who highly commends this way of confuting Errors yet with this Caveat Neither all ways nor all kinds are to be impugned after this manner but such only as are new and lately sprung whilst by the straitness of time they be hindred from falsifying the Rules of the ancient Faith and before their poyson spreading farther they attempt to corrupt the Writings of the Elders c. Which I mention not because I am diffident of their Testimony but to give you an hint that the Policy of Rome has been notorious in Curtaling Expunging Depraving the Fathers yea and foysting in new Matter to many of their Works Note again in what sence the word Merit often indeed occurring in their Writings before ever that Acception the Jesuits now have it in was dream'd of was used by them It Ordinarily imports no more when they say Merita than if they had said Opera and to merit no more than simply to attain unto or procure without any Relation at all to the Dignity either of the Person or the Work Thus St. Augustin saith Paul for his Persecutions and Blasphemies Merited to be made a vessel of Election and Cyprian Misericordiam merui I obtained Mercy So Gregory Paul when he went about to extinguish the name of our Redeemer upon Earth Merited to hear his Words from Heaven and lest you have a Conceit that he means of Paul's Works fore-seen See the same manner of Rhetorick concerning Adam's Sin O happy Sin that Merited to have such and so great a Redeemer meaning that gave the occasion of his Coming And now I am to acquaint you with a Secret has been hid from your Eyes by the Cunningness of those you build your Belief upon St. Chrysostome Cyprian Augustin and the rest will I think in my Conscience prove as arrant Hereticks as we For the first peremptorily affirms against Vasquez That no man can shew such a Conversation of life as may be worthy of the Kingdom but this Kingdom is wholly the Gift of God and in another place Although we did die a Thousand Deaths and perform all Vertuous Actions yet we should come far short of rendring any thing worthy of those honours which are conferr'd on us by God Take one more of his That one destitute of Works should be justified by Faith might perhaps seem well to be but that one adorned with Vertues and good Works should yet not be Justified by them but only by Faith is admirable Who would have thought good old Chrysostom had so much dissented from the reverend Society at Rhemes who teach us another Lesson That good Works are Meritorious and the very cause of Salvation so far as God should be unjust if he rendred not Heaven for them Take the next Testimony out of Gregory in the Original because there 's one word whose just force and Emphasis as it stands here our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in Judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus Injustos Non ergo in fletibus non in actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione confidamus When the day of Judgment or our Death shall come saith Hierom all hands shall fail because no work shall be found worthy of the Justice of God That is a known place of Augustin He viz. Christ is Sin as we are Justice not our own but God's not in our selves but in him as he is Sin not in himself but in us And remarkable that of Athanasius Impossibile est puritatem innocentiam in humana Natura exhiberi nisi Deus credatur in Carne fuisse qui Justitiam omni ex parte liberam in mundum introduxit Cujus quia participes sumus vivemus salvabimur Illud enim Non est justus in terra c. in Commune ad omnes pertinet Unde ex Coelo descendit qui immaculatam Justitiam ex se daturus erat No less this of Gregory Nyssenus in his Oration upon Beati qui esuriunt Justitiam It seems to me saith that Father That our Lord by mentioning Justice doth propose to the appetite of his hearers his own self who is made unto us Wisdom from God Justice Sanctification c. That Proverb Bernardus non videt omnia may perhaps be true yet in this Omne tulit punctum he has hit the right Nail on the Head and rivetted it in so strongly as not even the Teeth of Time shall be able to pull it out We find in him these words fit to be writ in Letters of Gold I will make mention of thy Righteousness only for even that is mine too to wit thou art made unto me Justice I need not fear but it will serve us both It is not a short Cloak that will not cover two c. We will here take lieve of these Stars of the first Magnitude and come to those of later Note in the Church's Constellation that lived after the light of this Doctrine had been clouded and set themselves to enquire how it came so and to deliver their opinions more distinctly and apposite to the present Question than the ancient Doctors could do who had finished their Course before the Corruption was discoverable or the Controversie started But take in as we pass another Instance or two out of the last named Doctor It 's necessary first of all to Believe That we cannot have remission of sins but by the Mercy or Condonation of God 2. Then That we cannot at all have any whit of good works unless he give it Lastly That by no good works we can merit Life Eternal Nisi gratis deâ—ur illa In another place thuâ— If we must speak properly of that which we call Merits they are certain Seminaries of Hope Incitements of Love Signs of secret Predestination the way to the Kingdom not the Cause of Reigning Dangerous is the way and dwelling of those that trust in
Carthage Canon 26. provides The Bishop of the first should not be termed Head or Prince of Priests And when afterwards Rome would needs challenge an authoritative Supremacy not from the Emperours Laws or Presence which indeed was the true foundation of all the preheminency the Antients do at any time give her but from St. Peter She should have remembred that St. Basil in his Epistle 32. gives to Alexandria and in his 50. to Antioch the better right Which yet he speaks not as conceding to any of the Seats of St. Peter's Infallibility or Supremacy over the Rest But to convince the Western great Pretenders by their own way of Argument as St. Paul does the denyers of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 29. having in his 10. left something of another nature for the Westerlings to chaw upon And in truth that smoaky Pride he there mentions could never ascend to its heighth or any fixation till in the midst of the distractions that fell upon the Empire the bargain was add fairly if you can struck up with Phocas that murthering Usurper of his Masters dignity and the possession continued by the weak Concessions upon strange Interests and Perswasions of some late converted and but lately Catechised Princes 8. The contradictory Sentences of Pope Sextus the Fifth and Clement the Eighth as to the use of their different Editions of the Bible The inconsistent results of Councils the First of Nice and those Later of Constance and Basil as to the Priests marrying and the Cup to the Laity That general one the Seventh of Constantinople as well as that of Frank ford compared with the Second of Nice as to the use of Images Nay the undoubted mistakes of the Roman Council approved by Nicholas the Second vide Daven de Jud. cap. 23. of that held at Neocaesaria confirmed by Leo the Fourth do clearly speak out thus much That Infallibility is not to be expected below the Moon During the great Arrian deluge several General Councils obtruded their Errours upon the World and at last Liberius subscribed to them whether through fear infirmity of old age tediousness of Banishment is not material done it was and what hath been may be 9. The Contests betwixt Councils and Popes for Superiority could never have hapned nor would so many learned men have militated with their Pens so freely on the Councils part if then or in the Ages before them the Popes Infallibilitie had been setled an Article yea the chief Article as now 't is held forth of the Christian Faith Nay sure those of Constance and Basil durst not have decreed themselves above the Pope 10. If his Holiness have indeed the undoubted Privilege of never erring Decision he might do well to exert its vertue in those Points of the Seat of Supremacy the power of the Will and the reason or ground of Merit Why will he suffer for want of clear speaking his own great Doctours to clash and the whole World to fluctuate in uncertainties and under dis-satisfactions 11. If we had lived when two or three Popes were up together each one Anathematizing the Adherents of his Antagonist which was once and more for a long time the case what course could we have taken to discern the infallible Head 12. Since Hieroine informs us Si authoritas quaeratur orbis major est urbe in his Epistle to Euagrius Printed at Basil Anno 1565. Since Cyprian assures us Pari omnes inter se fuisse authoritate Apostolos Tract de Simplicitate Praet Printed at Colen Anno 1544. neither was St. Peter himself if we consult his first Epistle Chap. 5. ver 2. and 3. at all ambitious of being Chief amongst his Fellow-Elders or a Lord over God's Heritage Since Amb. de Poen hath taught us to say Non habent Haereditatem Petri qui fidem Petri non habent But especially since we find the Bereans not only approved but commended for searching even in case of the Apostles own Doctrine the Scriptures whether these things were so we are bold to call them our Adversaries to that Test. And since the value of this Cardinal Point for no less than the whole Frame of their Religion as it is distinguished from ours turns with it must stand or fall according to the success of the several Controverted Heads I shall single out one which seems to me to be more considerable than any of the Rest and give a short but I hope a clear prospect into the grounds whereupon we build our Dissent from them in the great Doctrine of Justification And if that Church may be discovered to have trod awry in one particular the more than stupendious Fabrick of her Infallibility Mole ruet suâ must fall of it self Reflect then upon it under the notion for I desire rather to contract than widen our differences though I have not a few things to say against that congruous kind of merit which they 'l have to deserve the Grace which makes their after good works meritorious of that by them termed the second Justification that inherent Righteousness whereby they say they may perfectly fullfil and keep all Gods Commandements truly deserve Grace in this World and Glory in the next together with remission of sins Prog. of Catho lib. 2. cap. 21. which their Rhemists rather chuse to say is recompensed than rewarded because that word is sometimes applied to the Alms we bestow upon a meer Beggar who deserves nothing at our hands with eternal life Justly and equally answering to the weight and time of our travel a Debt but by no means a free gift on 1 Cor. 3. on 2 Tim. 4. In respect to which Vasquez is not afraid to affirm Post infusam Gratiam after Grace infused our Works are so perfectly meritorious of eternal life that it cannot in Justice be denied them Frustra igitur In vain therefore after such inherent Grace were it to expect a continued imputation or application by faith of Christ's merits Yea so violent is that Jesuite in propugning these audacious Expressions that he lets flie on all sides against both antient and modern Divines that flie not to the same height calling in the definitions of the Trent Council to bear witness That inherent Righteousness has of it self without being eased or lightned by the favour or condonation of God power enough to wipe off the staines of sin And to clear all he will have us to understand that they never request of God that by the merits of Christ the reward of life may be given to their worthy and meritorious Works but that Grace may by Christ be given them whereby they may be inabled worthily to merit that reward and that no Accession of dignity does come to the Works of the Just by the Merits or Person of Christ which should not have had if done by the same Grace bestowed by God alone without Christ. These are duri sermones hard of digestion and yet they would have us by one strenuous Act of implicit
their Merits dangerous because ruinous Thomas Waldensis our Compatriot and the others Contemporary professes his utter dislike of that saying That a man may by Merits be worthy of Heaven or this Grace or that Glory however loe here their rise certain Schoolmen had invented the Terms of Condignity and Congruity I do repute him adds he the more faithful Catholick and more sound Christian more consonant to the holy Scripture who doth simply deny such Merit and confesseth That no man Merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver As all the former Saints and whole Church until the late Schoolmen have written Here 's even enough to end withal yet wee 'l have one Instance more of our Truth but Romes falshood and departure from the Faith of her fore-fathers We will bring it thus Our Libraries were ordinarily stored with certain old Instructions and Consolations to be used to departing sick Persons out of which the Spanish Inquisitors thought fit to expunge these dangerous Interrogations Dost thou believe to come to Glory not by thine own Merits but by the Vertue and Merit of the Passion of our Lord Dost thou believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did die for our Salvation and that none can be saved by his own Merits or by any other Means but by the Merit of his Passion Uincentius his Rule now appears prudent when we have to deal with a sort of men that care not how they deal with old Records and endeavour all they can to make the Tongue of An. tiquity to have a Tangue of their Novelties and can frame new Decrees fathering them on old Councils as both hath and may be proved I shall shut up all with the result of two Assemblies and the astipulations of two Eminent Persons The Canons of Colen in a set meeting establish the Imputed Righteousness of Christ as the formal Cause of Justification We are Justified say they two ways The one and first of which is that absolute Righteousness of Christ not as it is clearly without us in him but as when it is whilst apprehended by Faith Imputed to us for Righteousness this very same so imputed is the chief and great Cause of our Justification This was much considering the time they lived in but better explained in that Colloquy of Ratisbon whose words are Though he who is Justified does receive inherent Justice yet a faithful Soul rests not upon that but only upon the Justice of Christ given to us without which there can clearly be no Justice at all I mention these being soon after the Reformation begun not as entirely Reformed but as such unto whom in this great point the light of Truth even to a good Degree could not be hid The next is a remarkable passage concerning Ernestus Arch-Bishop of Magdeburge witnessed by his own Chaplain Clement Schaw who was present at his Death about five years before Luther A Friar Minor offered him Consolation thus Take good heart most worthy Prince We do Communicate to your Excellence all the good works not only of our selves but of our whole Order and therefore doubt not but receiving them you shall appear before the Tribunal of God blessed and righteous He replied I do not desire your Works to any thing The Works of my Lord Christ must wholly do it On these I relie And Bellarmine himself who spent so much Time and Sweat in oppugning Imputed and propugning Inherent Grace under the Notion of Condign Merit was at last brought to say Propter incertitudinem c. For the uncertainty of our Works it is the safest to put all our Confidence in the sole Mercy and Bounty of God and relie upon Christ. Which totally unravels again the thinn wrought Covering he had before with other Jesuits patch'd up Thus have we followed this pure stream of living water through the Meanders of many Ages of several Constitutions even to the confines of our own Wherein if you look at the present outward face of things we may almost say the Enemy has got the upper hand Yet praise be to God We are not without many Eminent and Faithful Labourers in his Harvest who I hope will leave it upon Record that the Truth is not left without Witnesses And thus too if you take it as we say at the right End I have given you a Testimony that I am c. LETTER III. ARising from depending on and subservient to the Doctrine of Meritorious inherent Justice are all those Opinions of Free-will Satisfactions here and in Purgatory Prayer and Sacrifices for the Dead Indulgences and Vendable Pardons from the Extreme grossness whereof when he saw those goodly Advantages made the Wager in a Game at Dice Luther first took occasion to discountenance them We think they are but as super-structures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will all as Wood Hay Stubble perish and be consumed by that Fire the Spirit of Burning mentioned Isa. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 3. 13. And therefore waving them the next Point wherein I shall endeavour if it may so please God to rectifie your Judgment is that much Controverted business of the Sacraments Which are visible Signs of invisible Grace given and conferred unto us Instituted by Christ himself and ordained to be a means to Receive and a Seal to Confirm the same Let us review this Definition and draw from it some Observations in the words of a Learned Author Many things do here occurr which require a deep and serious Consideration by those who desire throughly to understand the Nature and Essential parts of Sacraments For first there must be a Conferrence of Grace of which the Sacraments are termed Seals yet this Conferrence of Grace is not causatively but instrumentally not Physically but Metaphysically in them Therefore those are not properly Sacraments which relate to any thing but matters of Religion By this Argument is Matrimony excluded from the List as not being in it self considered a Religious Work neither is any Grace at all conferred or exhibited thereby So that though Marriage doth Legitimate many one may say it self is but a Bastard Sacrament 2. Next these Signs of Grace ought to be subject to the Senses For so it seemed good to God by sensible and external things to lead by the hand as it were us who for the most part live by sense towards Intelligible Internal and Spiritual matters They must farther be visible and subject to the Eyes Hence Absolution and Ordination cannot fall within the number of Sacraments not having any visible Element or Material Sign Thirdly They are said to be ordained and instituted by Christ Signs they are by the Institution of him and not of their own nature He only who created the Elements can by his word make of them Sacraments nor is it from the choice of Men that the Signs become Sacraments but by the Ordinance of
once-enjoyed comforts thou wilt soon confess thy best pleasing or most gainful sin to have been full dear bought and that sweet condition of peace and joy in believing far to fetch So that thy self shall ever after be a witness That the Doctrine of Perseverance rightly understood brings along with it what is as proper to the repelling of sin as it is to the establishing of Consolation Since the fear of losing Gods favourable Aspect hath something more of terrible in it than the unconverted who never had any feeling of such matter can apprehend I will fold up this sheet with the words of St. John Whosoever is born of God sinneth not for his seed remaineth in him 1 Joh. 3. 9. And leave it to you to find out his meaning if it import any thing less than the being sealed unto the Day of Redemption Ephes. 1. 13. 4. 30. LETTER VIII HAving made some reflections upon those words of yours when in our last discourse we rambled over many things very immethodically you named a great and pious Doctor of the Protestant Church who from the Pulpit had long since told you that the difference betwixt the Papists and us lay principally in this That we believed not so much as they So great an inadvertencie was then upon me that I made but little reply not indeed reaching so far as to deduce any objection which might concern us from the Doctors words nor I dare answer for him did he dream of such an acception of them as might represent the choice betwixt the Religions any way indifferent But by the manner of your speech I have since conjectured you perhaps thought there might be some weight in a surmise which would flow from the assertion as if they went beyond us in credible things or that our belief consisting more in Negatives were not sure but it might come short of what it ought to be whilst theirs taking in all might be look'd upon as safe I hope the former Letters if you please to re-view them will give you some satisfaction and may serve to demonstrate that we who dare not go beyond the Pillars set up by God himself in the holy Scriptures to bound our Faith are in a far safer way and posture than they who leap over or trample them down at their pleasures And that if we leave not them till they forsake the guidance of Gods Word and primitive practice of his Church we run no hazard at all nor ought to find less esteem upon that score but do indeed shun and avoid the danger of Will-worship than which there is nothing more prejudicial to man nor more displeasing to God because of ill consequence to his Truth 1. We do know That no man is made a Believer without a freeness of Will that is he is not drawn up to Heaven whether he will or no and all along by meer compulsion or without acting in the Duty as the Papists with other adversaries of the Protestant Doctrine seem to mistake us But he is made a Believer by Gods Grace that frees the Will and inables it to act according to the motions of the Spirit and to follow him in the way of his Precepts Promises Threats and Exhortations But we acknowledge not That the will of man on which in its natural capacity the Apostle James hath fixt the Appellations of Sensual and Devilish can of it self chuse the better part being only help'd forward by some perswasions or probable inclinations such as the outward Preaching of the Word may effect till God by an act of Renovation without any compulsion other than such as wherewith the Soul cannot chuse but willingly go along so sweetly are his operations tempered and suitable to the disposition of the Will hath brought to pass a work which never would be effected but by his exceeding great and mighty power Ephes. 1. 18 19. 2. We do know That in the Lords-supper all Christ with all the benefits of his Life and Passion are not barely represented but really and truly yet spiritually exhibited to every Faithful Penitent Humble Charitable Communicant But we acknowledge not That all Receivers do in a corporal and carnal manner John 7. 37 38. tear their Redeemer with their teeth since the Sacramental way of locution in the Old Testament leads us to the true understanding of This is my body in the New Compare Gen. 17. 10 11. Exod. 12. 11. with John 6. 47 48. 63. We do know That the act of Justification passeth not upon the Soul without a work of Sanctification in the Soul That good works are of such necessity in the business of Justification that there can be no Justification where the practice of them is contemned That the good works of the Regenerate so far as they are good and the product of Gods own Spirit are not displeasing to him nor of their own nature sin yet that in regard of much imperfection which the best of men will confess is adherent to their works in this life we take a safe course not to place confidence or set any value upon them but on him who is the Lord our Righteousness and our Advocate with the Father Jer. 23. 6. 1 John 2. 1. But we acknowledge not That the good works of just persons do truly merit and deserve Grace in this world and glory in the next Nor that such good works are of themselves without any Covenant or acceptation on God's part worthy of Eternal Life and have an equal value of condignity to the obtaining of everlasting Glory Nor that that is the just stipend crown or recompence answering to the weight and time of our labours rather than a free gift Nor that no accession of Dignity comes to the works of the Just by the Merit or Person of Christ which they should not have if they were done by the same Grace bestowed liberally by God alone without Christ Nor that it 's vain after Grace received or infused to expect a continued imputation of Christs Righteousness According to the best Definitions of that Grace which the Romanist allow to be procured for us by Christ their plea for Heaven must run after this manner Lord by the strength of that Grace which because thou didst foresee I would use it well thou hast extended to me I have so performed my duty in doing or suffering for thee as thou canst not in justice deny me for that the Kingdom of Heaven See the Rhemish Annotations upon 2 Tim. 4. 8. 1 Cor. 3. 8. But let them consider what Reply they could make if God should enter the lists with them and say I have a Law that requires perfect unerring universal constant perpetual obedience a Law that exacts Truth in the inward parts that is a discerner of the thoughts and spirit that is not satisfied without the whole heart I have said not one jot or tittle of it shall pass away till all be fulfilled Matth. 5. 17 18. 22. 37 38. These
habits and acts of righteousness which thou seemest to relye upon even thine own conscience will tell thee have been imperfect unconstant partial yea sometimes none at all but thy soul hath frequently been inslaved to contrary vices therefore thou must have something of more integrity a more immaculate and spotless obedience to present me withal and make out thy interest therein too before thy claim be just Now let us see what answer the Protestant Principles will put into our mouths and let the safer the truer the modester carry it Thus then Lord I know thy Law is holy just and good 't is likewise eternal by the righteousness of this Law Justification is to be had even yet as well as in the Covenant of works made with Adam before his fall onely here is the difference It 's now accepted in the hands of a Mediator The Lord our Righteousness who as surety of a better Covenant and as Head of his Body the Church hath fulfill'd the Law in its utmost Demands My faith my obedience my charity are all weak poor inconsiderable things Eternal life and the whole of my salvation from the one end to the other is purely a free gift Though I have had some Graces of thy Spirit in such a measure as have been a comfortable evidence that my heart was set aright to serve thee for without a conformity to thy Son in holiness begun in the life below no flesh may hope with joy to see thy face above yet I dare not I ought not to present these unto thee as the matter of my justification I have through thy mercy been sincere but it is in Christ only that I am compleat We do know That we ought to have in honour the Saints departed and not to think meanly of the Angels those ministring Spirits But we do not acknowledge that we ought to invocate them or direct our prayers or vows unto them much less place confidence in the wearing their Reliques or Pictures to prevent lightning sudden death c. 5. We do know That an high and profound reverence is due to Fathers Councils voice of the Church But we acknowledge not That any particular place or succession of men is exempt from all possibility of Error Nor that Rome keeps her first Principles 6. We do know That men of ungodly unstable contentious dispositions do not look upon the Bible without danger to their own souls and pervert many things therein to their destruction But we acknowledge not That therefore the sincere milk of the Word is to be lock'd up from those that might grow thereby Nor that meat is to be kept from the children because it is sometimes abused to excess and riot by dissolute and licentious men LETTER IX THat Person to me yet unknown whom you did some years since substitute to shape me an answer unto a few Lines I then hastily offered to your view cut his Work into a very uncourtly Mode and takes it for granted that I have not so much understanding as to know they would be understood to place the Condignity of Merit in works done by Grace not by Nature nor so much Learning as to English Opus Operatum For the first I would have both him and you to know that we oppose as to Justifying before God all Works both of Nature and Grace For certainly if we consider the Testimony alledged Rom. 4. by Paul out of Genesis 15. to prove that Abraham was not then Justified by Works it will appear he was long before that Regenerate and had sundry Works of Faith It was a Work of Faith that he followed God's call out of his Countrey Compare Gen. 12. 4. with Heb. 11. 8. Other Works of Piety and Love see recorded Gen. 12. 8. and 13. 8 9. and 14. 16 20. Yet none of these but after them all Gen. 15. Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness and he obtained the Promise that is saw Christ afar off and had his share in him not by Working but Believing And if Works merely Natural had been in Question why comes in the Example of Abraham rather than of Abimelech Socrates or the like That St. James meant not to reach beyond Justification in Foro Humano by that which he attributes to Works is evident from what he subjoyns ver 18. Shew me thy Faith by thy Works He denies a saving power only to such a Faith as is not Operative and to such a one neither do we ascribe any thing at all The two Apostles both instancing in him to confirm their seeming contrary assertions makes it evident they are to be referred to the several Tribunals of God and of Conscience But if he will give me lieve to mind him that the Franciscans in the Council of Trent were of opinion that Works done before Faith were truly meritorious in the sight of God and how Sir Kenelme Digby doubts not to say The old Philosophers without Christ for so we all know they were if any of them followed the Dictates of right Reason no Grace is there mentioned might attain Heaven it may abate his anger at the Expression I there used I have set my self to School again that I might improve my knowledge in the Romane as well as the Latine Tongue and have learnt from those Doctors at Trent That there are some actions which cause Grace not by the devotion of him that worketh or of him that does receive the work but by virtue of the work it self And That Prayers in absolution are only laudable not necessarily added to I absolve thee So making the Efficacie to flow ab Opere Operato Thus I conceive is to be understood what I have more than once read in their Books That to the merit of Prayer it suffices that the words be repeated but if a man have a particular request to put up it 's necessary the heart and affections accompany them in that desire I think now there 's no great difficulty in construing Opus operatum nor was I much out of the way when I applied it to their practice in their Sacraments I do not conclude that all those who delight to be styled Roman Catholicks making light of the latter appellation if not ushered in by the former are guilty of all this high Treason against God's Truth nor of Misprision of that Treason neither for I am confident very few of the Laity amongst them are privy to such bold Positions as are maintained by Vasquez with the now predominant Faction of the Jesuits and their adherents yet it were well they would consider whereunto their implicite credulity would lead them I once had from the mouth of a Romanist whose memory has all the reason in the world to be ever dear to me an expression wherewith I was much taken as neighbouring very near unto Truth and far from the malignity of some I have before cited When I insisted upon the Righteousness of Christ as our justification it was
sixth Carthaginian Council so stifly have opposed Zosymus then Bishop of Rome and his successour Boniface till at last they evidenced his pretensions to be false by the attestation which Cyrillus Bishop of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople gave to the Nicene Canons The Pope had his Deputy at the Council of Basil Its Decrees together with those of Constance confirmed by Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Anno 1449. ratified by Nicholas 5. In them the Authority of a Council is set above the Pope and he is subjected to it This is certainly to them a very pungent Dilemma Either let them confess that a Council confirmed by the Pope may err or let the Decrees pass for Catholick Doctrine For our parts we think we can bring an infallible instance from this Council I mean of Constance that they may err Since in that very Decree which they dared to make against the Communion in both kinds they acknowledge that they went against the first Institution But the Jesuites now at last for what reason they know best will after all this poother have the whole privilege fitted to the narrow dimensions of the Pope's Breast Bellarmine lib. 2. de Conc. cap. 12. 18. Thus at last all Councils must be brought back to the Bishop of Rome's Examination that what he approves may pass what he is not satisfied in may fall to the ground Gregory de Valentia Ann. lib. 8. cap. 3. Thus the Pope indeed ought to use all good means and diligence to find out Truth But whether doth he so or no If he undertake to determine in a Controversie he always does it infallibly This is well and soundly to the purpose yet before they do vest him with that Prerogative or ascertain it to him they put such conditionary Qualifications upon him he must be duly elected whereto abundance of odd things must concur he must not openly nor in his heart which no body can ever understand be a favourer of Heresie and the like as 't is the hardest thing in the World to know when it is fix'd and therefore no competent ground-work to rear our Faith upon Popery has its several Depths wherein the Members of the Romish Communion however they would bear others in hand and divers of them may themselves believe that there 's nothing but Unity among them are more or less immers'd Yet from a concession made by their daring Vasquez though not made with any design of reconciliation but upon grounds that must perpetuate the Breach I can methinks bring the most of our English Papists and a great part of their more ancient and more modest Writers within the comprehension of true though not in all regards sound Belief That bold Jesuite where he so eagerly contends for the condigne Merit of Works done by infused Grace and scorns to derive it from any Covenant or Acceptation on God's part made thus argues And indeed the consequence is very strong though the use he would make of it be very impertinent His words are If our Works were not of themselves before any Promise worthy but became so by vertue of a Promise the Merits of Christ must necessarily be applied and imputed to bring such Dignification to them Quaest. 1 2. Disp. 3. cap. 6. Now for such among them as do owne a Tenent that will undeniably fetch in the Merits of Christ though it be not in a way so explicit as is proper for the raising the Soul to those discoveries of strong Consolation which may flow from the Doctrine rightly understood I dare not but be so charitable as to think That if they joyned a sincere Piety to that measure of Faith they shall have their share in the Resurrection of the Just at the last Day Their Notions seem as to this great business to run into disorder upon a supposition That the Merits of Christ are applied to the Works not to the Persons of the Regenerate To sift therefore these things a little Consider 1. That the gratious Condonation whereby God is pleased not to animadvert the Obliquities nor the gratuitous acceptation which he vouchsafes to our best Actions can neither of them relate to the Works themselves nor have such influence upon them as to render them now Legitimate which were before Anomious Will any body say or think That those illegal proceedings whereof many in England were guilty ceased to be Treason as soon as the King's Grace had by the Act of Oblivion quitted their Persons from punishment Though God in like manner through the greatness of his mercy do let all our guilt pass into the Land of forgetfulness yet there is an holy just good eternal exceeding broad Law which must not pass away till all be fulfilled which requires the whole heart and reaches the very inmost thoughts Notwithstanding Remission this Law remains unfulfilled still and poor Dust and Ashes in whose hands through the weakness of the Flesh it fail'd of its End would be left groveling on this side heaven if the glorious light of the Gospel did not manifest a new way thither not by patching up or ekeing out the rags of our Works but by putting on us the Garments of our elder Brother and by directing us when we plead with our Maker for the blessing to make mention of his Righteousness only The clearest intimation of this is had from Jer. 23. 6. and 33. 16. laid together where the Spouse and her Heavenly Bridegroom are united and put together under one Appellation He shall be called yea and She shall be called too THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS 'T is prodigiously strange it should seem strange to any that there should be a Communication betwixt the Head and the Members such as may derive the fulness which is in the one purposely for that end unto the other see Colos. 1. 19. John 1. 16. Colos. 2. 9. 10. especially when they admit of a Communication of the Members one with another by Supererrogation whereof Scripture is absolutely silent Of Prayer to Saints THE Agents for the Church of Rome who have indeed a singular Dexterity in adapting their Discourses to the frame of the times wherein and to the temper of the persons wherewith they are conversant do think fit to assault this Generation train'd up to a deplorable inadvertency through the unsetledness and discomposure which lately was upon us by mincing or veiling those Doctrines and Practices most lyable to exception putting upon them such a varnish as may look best to the eyes of transient slight beholders Thus they bear us in hand that the Adoration paid by them to Saints and Angels is an innocent humble safe thing whereby they only bespeak and who will not desire to make a friend in the Court those favourites of Heaven to be on their side If this were all yet since we are sure that he with whom we have to do perfectly discerns all the desires all the necessities of his Supplicants a Prerogative no Potentate on Earth is capable of
of Justification Those terms Rom. 4. 5 6. of Justifying the Ungodly and of Imputing Righteousness without Works are not so to be taken as if God ever did or ever would save any Person who resolved to continue impious or contemn the practice of good Works but they stand in opposition to all conceit of any Justifying power in good Works and may teach us That no man's holiness can be such in this Life but he will at God's Tribunal stand in need of that Covering which St. Paul fetcheth out of the 32. Psal. and points out to us in ver 7. Ponder too ver 8. and tell me then whether you can conceal from your self the whole Plat-form of the Protestant Doctrine in this point For the not Imputing of Sins and the Imputing of Righteousness without Works make up the Whole of our Belief Secondly a Sinner is not Justified by Faith as it is a Quality which deserves remission of Guilt and the Glory of Heaven nor as it is by God's favourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law But it justifies only with reference to its Object Christ Faith being that Grace which the Soul makes use of to close in with him receive and imbrace the Promises by it we are ingrafted into that Olive-tree and are made Members of that glorious Head We do not here as some traduce us erect a Justification merely supposititious or state betwixt Christ and the Believer only an imaginary Relation But we hold the Interest we have in him to be of most real and true Participation Forasmuch as having by God's effectual and gratious Ordination taken upon him the Humane Nature so entirely put on he communicates by vertue of the Mystical Union through the Covenant whereto God the Father the Son and Man are Parties really his Satisfaction and Merits to all Believers Joh. 6. 27. Isa. 42. 1. Heb. 5. 4 5. Jer. 31. 31. Thus he who knew no Sin was made Sin for us and we not having any Righteousness in our selves are made the Righteousness of God in him Rom. 3. 26. Who rose again for our Justification as he died for our sins Thus he is the Justifier and thus the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10. 4. Let but Faith be the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things un-seen whereby we Receive and Imbrace as well as are Perswaded of the Promises Heb. 11. Suffer us but to draw Consolation by laying hold on the Hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. Let it be an Eying of Christ offering his Body shedding his Blood and fulfilling the Law perfectly as the Church of England speaks in the Homilies of Salvation very clearly Let it be a Fiducial Recumbence upon our Saviour in his whole Mediatorial Office which is certainly our Duty as well as Privilege And we desire no more Heb. 12. 1 2. The Free Gift which is said to come upon all men to the Justification of Life is held forth as the immediate Consequence and Effect of that exact and complete Justice which was in our Saviour Christ only and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used imports the very Act of Justifyng or judicially pronouncing Just and not infusion into the Soul of any Habit of Justice We have no obscure Intimation what Righteousness is able to appear before God in all those Places where the Scriptures treating of Man's Justification in his sight points out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of God affixing it to the very Person of Christ and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were only derived from him into the Regenerate Thirdly We are Justified by Faith in Opposition to the Righteousness of Works by fulfilling the Law in our own persons or else making Satisfaction for what we come short Paul's Disputations are levelled against the Moral Law as well as the Ceremonial for in the point of Justification he waves even that Law Rom. 7. 12 13. which he terms Holy and Just and Good and which to other uses he is careful to establish Here again if we consult the Original where the Righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us we may by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 4. never applied to that inherent Righteousness which is our Sanctification but to that Righteousness of Christ whereby he satisfied the utmost Demands of the Law be guided through the Labyrinth of Disputes to a right understanding of this Unum Necessarium wherein having expatiated a little more than the Brevity I at first proposed to my self would permit let me now represent to your view these three former heads copied out in Little 1. Faith is not an Empty Speculation but an Operative Grace of God's Spirit 2. The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both Perfect and Inherent The former in Christ the latter in us 3. The Righteousness which is our Sanctification is indeed Inherent but not Perfect And 1. Justificatio apprehensiva called often Justifying Faith is not properly Justification but an apprehension or knowledge of it 2. Justificatio Effectiva termed Causal Justification none but Christ can have a Claim unto 3. Justificatio declarativa is by St. James styled Justifying by Works as it is the manifestation or testimony of true Conversion Thus those Scriptures do sweetly agree which say we are Justified sometimes by Grace sometimes by Faith sometimes by Christ and that once by Works Let us do Evil that Good may come thereof Rom. 6. 1. was the Devil's Rhetorick in the mouths of licentious men to bring an obloquie upon St. Paul's Doctrine of free Grace But doubtless Satan is a more cunning Sophister than to frame an Argument of so much Inconsequence as to say Continue in Sin that inherent Grace may abound Whence I think we may not improbably conclude That nothing else is intended by all the preceding Discourse but the Gracious Act of Almighty God whereby he absolves a believing Sinner at the Tribunal of his Justice Pronouncing him Righteous acquitting and accepting him to Glory only for Christ's sake Thus when he had assigned to sin its proper Effect due Wages and Merit Death coming to speak of Life Eternal we find no such terms in his mouth but he suddenly cuts off the File of his Contexture and calls it Rom. 6. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Free Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is Justification by Remission of Sins there is Justification by having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us there is the Justification of Life or the Receiving that Crown of Life All these are laid up in the Person of Christ for the use of his Church and brought home to every true member by the hand of Faith There is too another Sort of Justification viz. At the Bar of Conscience and in Foro Humano by Works of Righteousness which
Law and Prophets 14. Augustine again in his 200. Epist. The Law says Thou shalt not covet and it says so not for that here we are absolutely able to perform that Command but to shew towards what our Endeavours are to bend themselves 15. Theophylact on Gal. 3. No man can do what is prescribed in the Law and by its Sentence he that does it not is accurst So it comes to be the Office of Faith to give the Blessing 16. To all such as esteem the Law so easie or possible to be fulfilled let me recommend Bishop Davenant's Treatise de Justitia Habituali Actuali and particularly the 49th Cap. 17. Hierom on 2 Cor. 5. 21. Christ being offered for our Sins received the name of Sin that we might be made the Justice of God in him not our own nor in our selves 18. Origen on Rom. 6. 23. Well does the Apostle here continue the Metaphor he had before taken up that he might affirm Death the due pay of such as fight under the Standard of the King of Sin to be their Wages But it would have been as much unfit to say God gives Stipends to his Souldiers but a free Gift and Grace 19. Theodoret in Sophoniam cap. 3. The salvation of men dependeth upon God's mercy alone for we do not attain unto it as Wages And on this very place viz. Rom. 6. 23. his words are Hic non dicit Mercedem sed Gratiam 20. Lastly our venerable Country-man Bede on Psal. 23. And thus that the godly man shall be well rewarded non ex meritis sed ex sola gratia Anselm once our Archbishop has left behind him this great Truth inconsistent sure with those Rhemish Annotations I formerly touched or the bold dictates of Vasquez That if a man should serve God and that most fervently a thousand years he should not condignly merit to be half a day in the Kingdom of Heaven And more fully to our purpose in his Book de modo visitandi infirmos If Satan say thou hast deserved damnation answer thou I set Christ's death betwixt me and my evil merits and I offer his merits for that merit which I should have had but do want now Lest we should apprehend as the confident and diligent Factors for the Roman Cause could be content to have us that their Opinion in this Point had been derived to them through the long Current of 1600 years let us ponder the words of Thomas Waldensis who lived a man of great learning even when the thickness of this darkness began to overspread the face of the earth Tom. 3. de Sacram. He professeth his utter dislike of that saying A man may by merits be worthy of Heaven of this Grace or that Glory However says he lo here their rise certain Schoolmen have invented the Terms of Congruity and Condignity I do repute him adds he again the more faithful Catholick more sound Christian and more consonant to holy Scripture who does simply deny such merit And confesseth That no man merits Heaven but by the Grace of God or will of the Giver as all the former Saints and whole Church have written The same may be collected from Erasmus who may certainly pass for a sufficient witness in Matter of fact Epist. ad Stephanum Rhodricum From these premises we I hope may with safety and confidence after it is past for Law upon the venerable Bench of Primitive Antiquity and veritas truth is non quod antiquum not what had got a prevalence in our Grandfathers or Great-grand-fathers days but quod antiquissimum what from the beginning was so affirm That even now under the Gospel Justification cannot be absolved towards a Sinner but in the contemplation of Christ's Righteousness whereby he and none but he fully answered all the demands of the Law Nor is it any prejudice to our Cause at all that in the writings of the Latin Fathers the Terms Merita mereri and Justificationes do frequently occur since their importance with them for the most part is singly works not the desert of working but particular Acts of Justice and mereri to attain unto or procure as the way whereby not the cause wherefore the Reward of Heaven which is largely as well as clearly manifested by our Bishops Usher Davenant and Downham their true sence and meaning being not contrary but subordinate to our Doctrine We shall not fear therefore to say with St. Paul compare Rom. 4. 3. Ja. 2. 21. That the best man living must expect Blessedness without Works by Faith alone and yet that Faith must not nor indeed can be alone in any good man For it is as infallibly true which St. James tells us cap. 2. That Works do in the sight of men and to our own Consciences justifie us supposed or mistaken Faith alone being dead and ineffectual can do nothing at all thereto How this goodly Building of condign merit or Justification by the desert of inherent Righteousness hath a very congruous foundation on the doctrine of Free-Will Alphonsus à Castro gives us to understand Lib. 7. de haeres when he says For this even because we consent to God's Monition when we might have dissented Wages are ow'n to us and from thence is our merit If by this Monition they intend but a bare ineffectual swasion and then leave Nature to determine in that work which is not brought to pass but by the mighty power of God Eph. 1. 19. the difference betwixt them and the Pelagians of old is sure but very minute and scarce perceptible The one though they would not hear of the energy of Grace yet acknowledge that Nature which they so much exalted was the gift and work of God The other though they seem to assign a kind of Grace to the Conversion of a sinner coarct its operation under such Terms as render the whole business in a manner the Fruit of a man 's own acquisition Three Questions there are very pertinent to this 〈◊〉 which being resolved are so determinative of the Point as leaves the Judgement no more room further to hesitate 1. What state the Father of the Faithful was in whenas St. Paul Rom. 4. assures us he was Justified without Works The Romanists allege that this is to be understood of Natural Works done before or without Faith Well but Abrahani was called of God and answered his call had received and imbraced the Promise Gen. 12. built an Altar and twice thereat invoked the Name of the Lord Gen. 13. had solemnly been blessed by Melchizedek Gen. 14. had a Testimony given by God that he was his particular care Gen. 15. had performed several Acts of Righteousness in Faith as is apparent from Heb. 11. 8 9. and was now about an hundred years old Rom. 4. 19. yet after all this of him it is spoken and by St. Paul drawn to general application That by Faith without Works this is without any consideration had on God's part to their merit he was Justified
it is absolutely necessary so far as means or opportunities are given to be much in exercise of such good works and vertues as are contrary to the vices we were formerly given up unto both to ascertain peace at home and to cause others to say of us as 't was said of Mary Magdalen Our sins that were many are shewn to be remitted for we love much But if Queen Alfrida or Leofwin who were both deep dyed in bloud guiltiness give liberally to build Monasteries under a belief that by the merit of the work they might leave this world in safety and escape the punishment due to those crimes after dissolution or that the Prayers there to be ratled over by the living Monks should merit remission for them being already dead There was sure an horrible indignity offered to our great High-Priest who by once offering himself hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified Heb. 10. 12 14. There 's no doubt but it 's universally a duty to curb the flesh to keep under the body and so to bridle the appetite as to bring them under the yoke of obedience yet if any Monk Anchorite or other person whereof you may see many Examples in Matth. Paris should macerate his carcase and deny himself all use of wholesome food till he becomes fit for nothing but Enthusiastical dosings at last when he felt the infallible prodromes of approaching death engaging the whole Convent to flea him unmercifully with Rods from a conceipt that merely for such Penances here he should escape wrath to come or deserve a greater degree of Glory what can we say or think but that he was in a manner Felo de se and that the best he shall at any time hear from the Great Judge will be Who required this at thy hands For the real presence but not Transubstantiation I Perceive by my Saviours own Words recorded Joh. 6. 23. that I am under an absolute necessity of eating his Flesh and drinking his Bloud In the first place having therefore considered of how great concern it is to arrive at the true meaning of them I do humbly supplicate the Divine Majesty in St. Augustine's phrase that he will give me ever to think comprehend speak of and to go about that great Mystery so as may be best pleasing to him and most expedient for my soul. His own Paraphrase on what he had said cannot deceive me in the sence I ought to give them I dare believe since he so told his inquisitive Disciples vers 63. that the life of them is wrapt up in a spiritual acception And since he declares vers 35. after he had termed himself the Bread of Life that whoso cometh to him which is the peculiar act of Faith Joh. 1. 12. shall never hunger and attributes most clearly in pursuit still of the same Metaphor the quenching of thirst to believing as well in that place as in Joh. 7. 37 38 39. I can doubt no more concerning the matter He takes not off their amazement nor gives stop to their murmurs vers 61. by assuring them That though they were to see him ascend up where he was before yet they were ere long to have him corporally present in the form of Bread upon ten thousand Altars at once nay in the very jaws of every person how wicked soever that comes but to eat there He does not I say make his return at this rate but instructs them how to spiritualize the whole business in their apprehensions as is evident from vers 62 63. Neither would any thing obscure or difficult be found in the words of institution afterwards for besides that Christ had as we see in this Chapter informed and pre-instructed his hearers there was almost nothing among the Jews which had Type or significancie in it but was expressed in this manner Circumcision the Pascal Lamb Manna the Rock were all sufficiently known to carry the names of those things they did but adumbrate If we may believe St. Augustine in Psal. 98. with the most holy Sacrament Not the flesh which was crucified is carnally eaten but the vertues of that flesh are really eaten by the Soul in such manner as the soul can eat that is spiritually by her affections and other immanent real Acts or internal Operations Of Images ALL that dust wherewith the Church of Rome would blear our eyes in reference to the use of Images is easily blown away by the breath of that one Text Deut. 4. 15 which plainly speaks no less than that it is mainly the mind and intent of God by the second Commandment severely to prohibite all representations of him in his worship The well-meaning Papist makes perhaps full accompt that he worships not the Image but God or some Saint by the Image But let them know that most of their great Doctors have determined it lawful yea absolutely necessary to terminate a religious worship in the Image it self and that even it is to be worshipped with the same sort of Devotion as is due to the Anti-Type For instance If it be the Image of a Saint I must adore it with Doulia If of God with Latria In this doughty dispute they have been so keen and eager as whoever notes it can be no more surely of opinion that Romanists are more than Protestants at unity amongst themselves Since I have so good an Author for what I am about to say as Della Villa that noble Roman let none be offended if I insert here a pleasant shall I say or deplorable story however it will evince that there is abundance of grossness in the vulgar practice Thus it was Upon the Persian Gulph as I remember and not very many years since the Portugnise Ship he had taken his passage in was in great stress and imminent danger the Mariners having now no confidence in the Sails or Rudder ply'd St. Anthony with their Orasons and Vows but all in vain the storm still rages at last they tyed the Image to the main Mast and whipt it most grievously because they said he would often do what they required of him for blows when he could not be prevailed with by supplications Of Miracles COncerning which and more especially the dispossession of Daemoniacks our present Romanists are got to so great a degree of confident boasting that no place almost is free from the noise We ought to regulate and bound our Notions By The light of Scripture By The light of History By The light of Reason By The darkness of their practice 1. In the Book of God we have a direct Prohibition we must not make them the sole or principal rule of our Faith yea not though the sign or wonder should come to pass Deut. 13. 1 2. We have farther a clear caution that we expose not by too easie a credulity our selves to such deceptions Mark 13. 22. Matth. 24. 11. We have too an evident Declaration that it should so fall out the greatest part of the Earths inhabitants should
Rome who neither know the Truth nor can endure to be taught it If this be the case and I were to chuse a Religion I do seriously think I might close in with any now upon the face of the earth that does not in plain Terms deny the Lord who bought us less timorously than with Rome I am somewhat confident and do hold it for a great Truth which I speak neither timorously nor temerariously That the Arrian Heresie and the Turkish Arms which pull'd all other things where they came down lifted up the Pope by accident and Divine Permission into his Chair For the Eastern Prelates and men of Eminency being under persecutions at home had a safe retreit into the West And therefore made that Patriarch their Asylum In order to which or by way of gratitude for benefits received they often made the frame of their addressive Epistles to consist of complemental Elogies these being no more than what the kindness and hospitality wherewith they had been entertained did seem to deserve were yet due only to the Persons then sitting at the Stern nor farther intended But afterwards cunningly made use of and represented to the Credulous World for the Popes Advantage One Observation more and I have done The Church of Rome or at least her darling Sons the Jesuites will have the Pomise of Christ That the holy Spirit shall lead his People into all Truth to be suspended unto that very Moment wherein their Bishop shall assent to the Results of a Council and the performance to depend on this Contingency amongst a many more whether he will at all confirm them or no Then at last they judge them infallible when the Pope either present or absent signifies his pleasure so to declare them Well! But Liberius as above hinted himself confirmed the Arrian Conclusions of the Council at Sermium And the Pope had his Deputies at Basil and Constance those Decrees were confirmed by the Apostolick Letters of Eugenius Yet I suppose few Romanists will grant these were infallible And I think we may continue our Opinion upon good ground That the Roman Bishop's Vote is but a sandy Foundation to build our Faith upon I shall last of all request you not to refuse your joyning with me in those Words of our and I think too of your Liturgy That Almighty God will Grant All who Confess his holy Name may agree in the Truth of his holy Word and Zion become a quiet Habitation FINIS To the most Reverend the right Reverend Prelates and all the Learned Clergie in this Kingdom THat I have without a word of command presum'd to engage in this war-fare requires I confess a submiss Apologie but since I go upon that general Precept which bids us be ready to give a reason of our faith and it is as importunately demanded now as if never any thing had been done by your worthy Predecessors for the Protestant Cause I will not despair of Pardon There may be need I fear not onely of the Chariots and Horse-men but of the Infantry too amongst whom he desires but to trail a Pike who is Your just Adorer and humble servant Christopher Wyvill FINIS Rom. 11. 20. Mr. Reynolds upon the 110. Psal. Morney Lord du Plessys The saine du Plessys Lib. 2. de Trinitate Lib. sexto Gregory on the 5. Penitent Psal. Vid. the Primate of Ireland's Answer to a Jesuit's Challenge In Sacriloquio quando in singulari numero fundamentum dicitur Nullus alius nisi Christus designatur Greg. lib. 28. in Cap. Josuae 6. Gal. 2. 7. The Jews and such as were Circumcised Vide Bunting his Itinerarie in the Travels of St. Peter Jesuites and their followers * Europe for more than 40. years was almost equally divided in their judgments as well as in cruel hatred one part against the other about the Right of Clement and Urbane 6. to the Infallible Chair The Authors of France painted to the life pag. 16. * For if ordinary Priests could do such things what submissions could be thought enough towards the supreme Bishop as Men were then learning to call him Ep. fol. 885. Fol. 859. A further strange Instance of this I shall hereafter give you Doctor Chalanours Unde Zir. in a The Primate of Ireland lib. citato has their names Chalanours Credo Eccles. pag. 215. Primate of Ireland as before Strongly disputed every way as may be seen in Bellarmine de Concil Eccles Milit. Yet he boldly resolves all by the Determinations of Trent Eugenius was deposed by a General Council and it was declared impossible for those to be saved that held him Pope Yet he continued in by force and from him is the so much vaunted of Succession Baxter's Winding sheet pag. 10. Sundry General Councils obtruded Arianism upon the World and Liberius Bishop of Rome confirmed it Davenant de Judice Normâ Fidei cap. 21. fol. 125. The calling of Councils formerly was the right of the Emperour undeniably now usurped by the Pope That he had no such universal Dominion may strongly be proved out of Sir Roger Twisden's Vindication of the Church of England cap. 2. By the Abbot of Bangor's Reply to Augustin the Monk who demanded their obedience Gelasius the Pope said The Sacrament without the Cup is a grand Sacrilege but half Communion What means the present bussle in France betwixt the Jansenists and Jesuits about Efficacious grace and the next power Bernard of Clareval de Grat. liber Arbitr Theodoret in Sophon cap. 3. Say not this means Natural works only for the contrary is evident Hom. Paschal 4. Annot. upon 2 Tim. 4 8. Upon 1 Cor. 3. 8. * With them it is nothing else but an Ability to perform in our own persons after we have received to believe the Word of God such obedience to the Law as for that we become righteous and deserve by equal Compensation the Kingdom of Heaven Mr. Allen. Justifying Faith is When a man does practically believe the two great Doctrines of Justification and Sanctification Paul the Apostle in the terms of toward God Repentance and Faith toward Christ clearly points out this Office of Faith Acts 20. 21. It 's strange how those that hold a Treasury of Saints Merits can term our Doctrine of Imputation an empty Speculation For Is there a Communion of the Members one with another and not with the Head Bearing by Imputation and no otherwise the Iniquities of us all Finis Legis Christus omni Credenti Bernard ad Innoc. 190. Davenant de Justitia habituali fol. 373. Davenant ut supra cap. 28. How insincerely the the Rhemists do render this place see in Dr. Fulk De Justifie lib. 5. cap. 17. The Arguments are good against all Works Upon Ezech. 18. 20. Progeny of Cathol c. lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 86. Lib. 2. de Monach. cap. 13. Rom. 8. 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. Bernard de Verb. Esa. Serm. 4. In his Com. Disp. 214. cited by the Primate of Ireland ut
suprà and by Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali Paul declares his whole Justification both in his first Conversion and in the time of his writing and at the Resurrection to be wholly absolved in Faith Phil. 3. 9. Disp. 222. cap. 3. If the Works of Righteousness which we have done must be our Justification though Grace received from above be conceived to enable us thereto yet are we under the Covenant of Do this wholly purely constantly and live Which if any man say he deceives himself 1 Jo. 1. 8 9 10. Bernard de Verbo Esa. Serm. 4. Disp. 204. cap. 2. The Phariseo himself by thanking God that he was not as other men may seem to acknowledge his works to have been from Grace infused yet we know how he was dismist Cap. 3. Primate of Ireland's Answer to the Jesuite In Tim. 1. 13. It is not said He has made us wise just and holy but He is made unto us Wisdom c. which is as if he had said He hath given himself unto us So Chrysost. on 1 Cor. 1. 30. Homil. 2. on Colof De Compunct Tom. 6. In Rom. 4. Hom. 8. * Viz. Abraham Annotat on Heb. 6. In Isa. lib. 17. Enchirid. cap. 41. Math. 5. 6. and 1 Cor. 1. 30. Expounded by Gregor Nyssen Serm. 61. in Cantic Quoted by the incomparable Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali cap. 28. fol. 369. Why must Jacob stand before his Father in the Garments of his elder Brother before he could have the blessing but to typifie the necessity of our being covered with Christ's righteousness who is the first born of his Father Serm. 1. de Annunciatione Tom. 3. de Sacra cap. 7. Primate of Ireland ut suprá Johannes Piâ—us the Bishop Interpreter of Mareus the Eremite rendring Not by the Proportion of works of Nature where the Original is Not by the Proportion of works of Faith is a gross falsifier Primate of Ireland pag. 502. Simpson of the Church Cent. 5. So Zosimus pretended a Decree of the Council of Nice which could never be found Davenant de Justit habituali cap. 29. Noted by Bellarmine himself lib. â—2 de Justifie cap. 1 2. pag. 124. Idem ut suprá Dr. Twisse his Resolutions of Conscience c. De Meritis bonorum operum Leofwin a Noble man gave two Towns in Essex to the Church of Ely to Expiate and make Satisfaction for the Murther of his own Mother Cambden fol. 440. The large English Impression So Alfrida the Relict of King Edgar built a Nunnery near Ambursbury haveing murthered Edward Cambden ut suprá fol. 254. The. Trent Faith is That Sacraments cause Grace not by the Devotion of him that worketh nor of him that receives the work but by virtue of the work it self Hist. of that Council fol. 230. Matrimony Absolution and Ordination Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments Primate of Ireland's answer to the Jesuit And since we find our Saviour himself Joh. 6. 63. affirming that the flesh profiteth nothing I shall not at all fear to say We ought to be satisfied with a spiritual Manducation Idem ibidem Qui discordat à Christo nec Carnem ejus manducat nec Sanguinem bibit c. Prosper ex Aug. Sent. 341. Tract 26. This must needs be a figurative speech why then not the other Epist. 23. Quaest. 37. in Levit Upon Matth. 15. Primate of Ireland pag. 67 68 69 70 In the time of Innocent 3. who made Otho Emperour and put by Frederick left to his Care by Henry his Father Simpson's Hist. fol. 371. Fol. 44. c. Davenant in Col. â—â— naturâ amore nobis conjunctior Tome 3. câ—nra Hâ—lvidium Origen bids us not to doubt but when we commit our selves to him who is God over all through Jesus Christ and desire of him the help and protection of those ministring Spirits that do his pleasure they shall all be propitious unto us In Col. 2. 18. Recorded by Famianus Strada de Bello Belgico Strada de Bello Belgico Letter 1. Psalt Bonavent Edict Paris 1596. Tom 5. in Rom. 1. See many more and very pregnant proofs in the Primate of Ireland p. 377. c. In Josue Hom. 16. Idem ibidem pag. 239. St. Hierom assures that the power of Miracles may be permitted to them that profess not the truth of the Gospel In Epist. ad Galat. Tom. 9. Tertullian in Praescriptionibus cap. 24. Du Moulin in his accomplishment of the Prophecies De cura pro mortuis cap. 10. De Lazaro conc pag. 235 236. Primate of Ireland pag. 396. How common is the conceipt now that departed souls do appear Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis Theclae cap. 10. Idem cap. 21. Idem cap. 24. all quoted by the Primate of Ireland in his Answer to the Jesuit pag. 397. Chapt. 9. pag. 337. Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge pag. 504. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. cap. 4. prope finem Epist. ad Johan de Hierusalym Tom. 1. Oper. Hieronym Epist 60. He had sure been instructed out of such Catechisms who refused to shoot at Buts on May day because it was he said a dear holy day and yet I found him the next Lords day with others at Slide-Groat Upon Tho. in his 3d. part quoted by the Primate pag. 499. De Bello Belgico lib. 5. Allen's Antidote pag. 13. Lib. 4. Cap. 26. Lib. 6. cap 24. In his Prefaces before the Kings and Proverbs De Civitate Dei In his Scholastical Hist. c. Epist. to the Reader Chrysost. upon 2 Cor. Homil. 13. Sin is not a Being but rather a defect of what should Be and hath for its efficient Cause nothing but a deficient Will Preston of Converting Grace pag. 15. If our Saviour knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the same means as Chorazin and Bethsaida would have repented what can be said but their Final impenitencie was according to God's Will The Fall of Adam was not praeter Voluntatem Dei that were to make a lame Providence nor contra that were to make a weak Omnipotence but it was juxta and that leaves all the Attributes of God wrapt up by his Wisdom in their full power Augustin John 5. 21. That is the Will of the Creature failing in Obedience Mr. Case in a Sermon on Rom. 8. 28. And this is it which frees our Doctrine from all danger of working in men a secure or careless Presumption as it is no less ignorantly than maliciously aspersed by some since our evidence doth so much consist in the sincerity tho not in the perfection of Obedience Election may at length come to be known and thence assurance but Reprobation never Mr. Sheffeild Primate of Ireland in an Epistle publisht by Dr. Bernard Mr. Birkbeck in his Protestants Evidence Man is not active but passive in regeneration In repentance man is the doer complies with God in it and turns himself Ephes. 2. 1. Phil. 2. 13. That power of God which subjects a man to Christ comes not by moral perswasion only or violent impulses but is tempered to the disposition of the Will Lib. de gratia libero arbitr cap. 27. Mr. Gurnal's Christian in Compleat Armour part 2. pag. 526 527. 530. De Praedest Sanctorum Cyrus who was Christus Domini and therein but a shadow of Christus Dominus in this manner published his Proclamation Who is amongst you of all his people the Lord his God be with him let him go up Ezra 1. 3. Now they alone did follow this Call whose Spirits God had raised to go up But could those that stay'd still behind plead any thing but their love of slavery and idleness why they also went not up Vers. 5. This instance is by the Primate of Ireland brought in and applyed to our purpose in a Letter published by Doctor Bernard Jer. 32. 40. Rom. 8. 15 16. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes. 1. 14. 1 John 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 15. Jude vers 1. A late Treatise published by Mr. Calamy Doctor Sibbs at Grays Inn Chappel Vasquez Disput. Sasbout upon the place confesseth it 's meant of Abraham's second Justification that is of his Works done in Faith See Selater pag. 29. Or the Eyes and Judgments of others History of that Council fol. 197. In his Observations upon Religio Medici History of that Council fol. 237. Fol. 349. Faith does not consist in a belief that we do believe but in an affiance bottomed upon such Trials as Scripture holds out Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 80. For we will expect from them proofs both full and legitimate beyond those usually brought Ambrose on Rom. 1.