in the strength of it often So that some ascribed more then was fit others lesse then they ought imputing al to a stoical and fatall necessitie Now that we may truly vnderstand the ignorance or mistaking wherof hath bin the ground of your exception in this third article what good things man of himselfe may do or know without the grace of God we are taught first that all actions are of three sorts naturall which are common to man with the brute beasts as to eate sleepe and such like which appertaine to his naturall life Secondly ciuill which we call politicall or morall humane actions as to buie sel to learne anie art and to conclude any other action which concerneth the politick or priuate society of man Thirdly those which belong to the kingdome of God to a perfect happy and true Christian life as to repent vs of our sinnes to beleeue in God to call vppon him to obeie his voice to liue after his precepts and such like now the question is what grace and power is requisite to man to performe any or all these Where we must obserue that some men how properlie I know not make the grace of God to be threefold First that generall motion and action diuine of which Saint Paule saith in him we liue we moue and haue our beeing This the Schoolemen call a generall ouerflowing and of the late writers especially of Luther it is called the action of the omnipotency and this grace is common to all that are within that compas to be called creatures Secondly there is a grace of God which is a special fauor of God by the which he bestoweth and deuideth his gifts and morall vertues both to the faithfull and vnfaithfull as pleaseth him To the faithfull that hauing the helpe afterward of a better light they may serue to be meanes of their saluation to the vnfaithfull for speciall vses and manifold in the society of man and to make themselues in the end without excuse Such were those gifts in the Romans and others of the heathen of iustice fortitude temperance prudence which they thought were from nature but we acknowledge to be from the speciall fauour of God for as being so truth is but one and by whom soeuer it is done or spoken it proceedeth from the Holy-ghost and therefore I both maruaile at those who make an opposition betwixt this light of nature and the scripture being both from one fountaine though running in diuers streames and that some men peeuishly refuse the excellentest truthes of heathen learning seeing euen in them these haue proceeded from the Holy-ghost Thirdly there is a grace of regeneration or the grace of Christ without which there can bee nothing performed of man truly good for saith our Sauiour Without me you can doe nothing and Saint Paule Not I but the grace of God which is with me so that this must be the perfection of the other two which is powerfull to mans saluation not rasing out that which before was but finishing that which before was imperfect The two first induing man with a passiue power as the schoolemen call it which though actually it can doe nothing yet it is fit to performe that which it hath no repugnancy in his owne nature to resist as wood can be made fire which water cannot The last only affoording that actual power which maketh him capable of the supernaturall worke so that it is true in diuinity that the possibility to haue faith is from nature but to haue it it is of grace as Saint Austin and Prosper hold neither of them vnderstanding an actuall hauing of faith without the grace of regeneration This made the Fathers in their sermons to the people to stirre them vp to prayer and good workes to tell them often that wee can loue God and doe good workes whereunto they only ment that we had a passiue power which stocks and brute beasts haue not Now for the actiue power wee hold that man hath not this in naturall things without the generall helpe of God and in morall actions or the learning of artes not with that generall helpe onely which hath bin some mens error but from a more speciall and peculiar grace the weakenes of those common notions of good and euill iust and vniust left in our nature by a newe impression after sin is for the most part such that they can hardly discerne any thing no not in arts vnlesse they be inlightned from aboue And therfore that Numa amongst the Romans Solon amongst the Athenians Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians and that many other amongst the Gentiles were wise and in that kinde vertuous was not so much from nature as from a speciall grace whose morall workes saith Saint Austin were good in their office and action but not in their end This argument he very learnedly handleth against Iulian the Pelagian where he concludeth two thinges that there can be no true vertues or truly chast workes in infidels and that those works whatsoeuer they are are not from nature but from a speciall grace the hauing whereof though it serue not of it selfe to saluation yet we are not afraid to affirme that the want of these doe ordinarily exclude from saluation Iustice fortitude temperance prudence being the effects of the same grace but lesse powerfully working faith hope and charity only taught by a supernaturall truth So that though the light of nature teach a truth necessary to saluation without the scripture yet it teacheth no knowledge which is not conteined in holy scripture the difference only being in this that the light of nature doth not teach all that the scripture doth but that the scripture teacheth all more perfectly which is taught by the light of nature heerein only neither excluded as vnnecessarie the one being subordinate to the other and both meanes of the same thing To conclude then this point wee hold being warranted by holy truth that the scriptures are the perfect measure and rule of faith and that without Christ we cannot be compleat and yet for all this that nature so inlightened teacheth those morall vertues without which is no ordinary saluation but we say not that matters and cases of saluation bee determined by any other lawe then warranted by holy scripture or that we are or can be iustified by any other then in Christ by faith without the workes of the lawe for there is no other name which is giuen vnder heauen amongst men by which we must be saued The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnes vnto him for except a man bee borne againe hee cannot see the kingdome of heauen ARTICLE IIII. Holy scriptures aboue the Church THough the vnthankefulnes of man be without excuse euen from the brightnes that riseth from looking vpon al the creatures which with their beames shineth into the darkest corners
that naked faith c. In these assertions which in my opinion are repugnant to our Church and in the best construction make but a harsh sound what do you else but discouer y e error which they of the Church of Rome by a mistaking haue thought vs to hold as though it were our doctrine that wee could be iustified by a faith that were meerely naked Luther striuing to shew how litle our works did in the merit of mans saluation speaketh somewhat harshly when he saith Faith without before we haue charitie doth iustifie And in another place both which are not vniustly called in question by those of the Church of Rome he saith Faith vnles it be without euen the least good works doth not iustify nay it is no faith But M. Calum speaketh in this better then either Luther or you Faith alone iustifieth but not that faith which is alone For if our Church held a naked faith which none that were wise euer did might not all the world iustly accuse vs as enemies to good works The most of the learned in Germany held a necessitie of good works not a necessitie of effecting but a necessitie of presence for we are saued doubtlesse by grace but hauing yeers we cannot ordinarily be saued vnles we haue good works For faith which we teach to iustifie is not void of good works as Doctor Fulke answereth to the Rhemes obiection And therfore in another place he saith the elect are alwayes fruitfull of good works From hence seeing faith hath no assurance for itselfe either to God or to maÌ„ we exhort in our sermons to good works we perswade to humiliation by fasting weeping which are if they be truly penitent meanes to blot out sin thorough Gods vnspeakable and vndeserued mercie For as Saint Paul saith Godly sorrow causeth repentance vnto saluation not to be repented of And therefore saith Saint Hierom fasting and sackcloth are the armor of repentaÌ„ce And y e men please God by fasting saith D Fulk as Anna Tobie Iudith Hester we doubt nothing at all while we vse it to the right end allowed of God that is huÌ„bling of our selues chastising of our bodies that it might bee more obedient to the Spirit and feruent in prayer Nay our solemne fasts are as M. Hooker saith the splendor and outward glorie of our religion forcible witnesses of ancient truth prouocations to the exercise of all piâ—tie shadowes of our endlesse felicitie in heauen and euerlasting records and memorials vpon earth which it is great pitie it is so much neglected because euen therein they which cannot be drawne to harken vnto what we teach might onely by looking vpon that we do in a maner reade whatsoeuer we beleeue Now that he saith the attainement vnto anie gratious benefit of Gods vnspeakable and vndeserued mercie the phrase of antiquitie hath called by the name of Merit this is that wherein you desire to be resolued And surely he hath read little who is ignorant that the heathen Masters of the Latine tongue and the Fathers for antiquitie nearest vnto those times haue vsed the word Merit far in another sence then that whereunto the violence of some coÌ„structions haue wrested it at this day And Aquinas himselfe vnderstandeth by the name of â—urit not a worke not due which should deserue a reward but a worke which mercifully and by the goodnes of God a reward followeth The phrase of the Latine doth properly make one to merit of another and as it were to bind him to him who doth any thing which pleaseth and delighteth him for whom it is done Thus that place in the epistle to the Hebrues To do good and to distribute forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased Where they of Rhemes following the Latine promeretur say promerited shewing that they meant nothing els in ancient time by merit but that delight allowance and contentment which God taketh in those good things we do and so rewardeth them And Doctor Fulke confesseth that Primasius who was Saint Austins scholler vsed the same word promeretur as it was taken amongst the vulgar at that day farre differing from the sense wherein it is nowe vsed Thus much briefly may serue for answer in this point that faith is not alone though alone it iustifie that though a man sinne if he repent his faith may saue him that there are vses nay excellent vses of good works though they do not saue vs and last of all if posteritie had not corrupted the word merit that we would not be afraid to speake in the phrase of antiquitie and call our vertuous attainment by mercie of grace by the name of merit ARTICLE VII The vertue of works AS goodnesse so truth being but one whatsoeuer is opposite be it neuer so carefully obserued in the course of a long streame at the last foldeth it selfe in a contradiction For falshood hath no more strength to proue a truth then truth hath weaknesse to beget a lie Then the ground of all true assertions concurring immoueably in that one first truth of which all other inferior are but branches whatsoeuer goeth about to disproue that must of necessitie in his owne parts bee diuers and imply a contrarietie seeing it laboureth to infring the certainty of that which eternally and vnchangeably is but one Hence commeth it that vnskilfull men the grounds of whose opinions are but the vncertainties of their owne ignorance are thought to want memorie whilest they contradict themselues when indeed the defect is in iudgment which caÌ„not make truth the ground of their knowledge from which if they swarue neuer so little they doe not sooner oppugne others then crosse themselues truth admitting no coherence of contrarieties seeing it selfe is but onely one From this hath proceeded that ouersight of a great number who speaking first against a truth vttered by others come at length to speake euen directly against themselues Thus you that in the former Article disputed of faith naked and destitute of all good works make your next step to those good works that do accompany faith Where I vnderstand not but perhaps you do why you call them good if they arise not naturally out of faith or why you call that faith naked which is accompanied with these good works But doubtlesse there being a morall goodnes euen where there is want of supernatural light and the most certaine token of that goodnes being if the general perswasion of all men do so account it it can not chuse but seeme strange that the approbation of these should in your opinion be applied to those works that are done out of faith after man is iustified seeing there is a good as M. Hooker saith that doth follow vnto all things by obseruing the course of their nature yet naturall agents cannot obtaine either reward or punishment for amongst creatures in this world only mans obseruation of the law of his nature because he
proceeding of the holy Ghost as the Schoolemen obserue is threefold one vnspeakeable and eternal whereby the holy Ghost eternally and without time proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne the other temporall when he is sent from the Father and the Son to sanctifie the elect Of this latter proceeding saith Beza is that place vnderstood which you peremptorily alleage for to proue the first So then we say for our answer to this cauill that as yet we see not expresse literall mention of these points but that they are truly and soundly collected by the Church we neither doe can or dare deny secondly that the deniall of expresse literall mention ought not to make any scruple in the minds of weake Christians concerning these articles the substance wherof are plaine scripture though for the words we finde not as yet any expresse literall mention nor last of all as you seeme to feare it can be no vnderpropping to the traditions of the Church of Rome which if they can proue with the like necessary collection out of the holy scripture we are readie to imbrace them with all our hearts In the meane time we account it a wrong to haue an article of our faith for want of expresse literall mention out of scripture to be compared to traditions of that kinde for which in scripture there is no warrant at all To conclude then this article we say that in the Trinitie there is that Identity of essence that it admitteth equality but not plurality the Father is one the Sonne another the Holy-Ghost another but not another thing For that thing that they all are is this one thing that they are one God So that Saint Austin saith I and my Father are one heere both the words of the sentence one are in that he saith one he freeth thee from Arrius and in that he saith are hee freeth thee from Sabellius For are hee would not say of one and one he would not say of diuers for euery person hath his owne substance which no other besides hath although there be others besides which are of the same substance For the persons of the Godhead by reason of the vnity of their substance doe as necessarily remaine one within another as they are of necessitie to be distinguished one frō another because two are the issue of one and one the ofspring of the other two only of three one not growing out of any other For sith they all are but one God in number one indiuisible essence or substance their distinction cannot possiblie admit separation the Father therefore is in the Sonne and the Son in him they both in the Spirit and the Spirit in both them He that can saith Austine conceiue let him comprehend it but hee that cannot let him beleeue and pray that that which hee beleeueth he may truly vnderstand ARTICLE III. Whether the holy Scriptures containe all things necessarie to saluation TWo things are requisite to mans better life a faith to beleeue what he ought a knowledge to comprehend what hee must beleeue For saith our Sauiour in this is eternal life to know thee to be the only verie God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. Because therefore the want of this knowledge is the cause of all iniquitie amongst men as contrariwise the verie ground of all our happinesse and the seed of whatsoeuer perfect vertue groweth from vs is a right opinion touching things diuine this kind of knowledge wee may iustly set downe for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth to his people and our dutie of receiuing this at his mercifull hands for the first of those religious offices wherewith wee publikely honour him on earth Now our Church holdeth and wee most willingly confesse that the scripture is the true ground of all that holily we beleeue But yet for all that not the onely meanes concerning God of all that profitably wee know For that new impression made into our nature euē by the hand of the Almightie after the first sinne and the wise beholding of his excellent workmanship in the making of all his creatures are two volumes wherein wee may read though not directly the mercy of that power that hath saued vs yet the greatnes and the might of that hand that hath first made vs which though it be not all that we must beleeue yet it is not the least part of that which we ought to know For this as it maketh vs without excuse so it serueth euen to leade vs to a better knowledge and vntill it be perfect to vtter out of the light of nature those voices which may argue vs though not to be sonnes for by this we cannot crie Abba Father yet to be reasonable creatures of that power which we do adore this made Euripides in Troas and manie of the heathen to vtter those prayers which had they beene offered vp in Christ had not bin vnbeseeming a good Christian so that though the Scriptures containe all things which are necessarie to saluation and that our chiefest direction is from them yet we are not affraid to confesse that there is besides a light of nature not altogether vnprofitable the insufficiencie whereof is by the light of Scripture fully and perfectly supplied and that both these together as Master Hooker affirmeth which you mislike doe serue in such full sort that they both iointly not seuerally either of them be so compleat that vnto euerlasting felicity we need not the knowledge of any thing more then of these two I cannot but maruaile that men indued with reason should finde anie thing in this assertion which in the hardest construction might be wrested as detracting frō the sufficiency of the holy scripture And only for this cause by reason that we reade darkly by the light of nature those first elements out of a naturall knowledge which by the accesse of a better teacher serue afterward for the full perfecting of that knowledge which is requisite to mans saluation For as the schoolemen say man standeth in need of a threefold lawe to a morall vprightnes setting aside that righteousnes requisit for his heauenly country First an eternall law which Saint Austin calleth the cheifest reason secondly naturall last of all humane vnto which if we adde that man ouer and besides these is in an ordination to a supernaturall ende then it is manifest that to make him a heauenly Citizen there is requisite a fourth lawe which man must learne to obei◠out of the holy scripture But as in the greatest and fairest buildings euen those stones that lye lowest are of an vse not be contemned though peraduenture not comparable to those last exquisite perfections by which the worke is finished so euen the light of nature for the acting of morall vertues hath his vse though not absolutely compleat to make vs Christians And therefore in the nature of mans will the very Philosophers did seldome erre but
the free will both being the rationall power of desiring but that the one respecteth the end and then it is called will the other respecteth the meanes and then it is called free-will So the same power of vnderstanding as it respecteth the first principles is called vnderstanding as it respecteth the conclusion which is gathered by a discourse from the principles it is called reason Now this reason concerning things doubtful hath naturally in it selfe a way to both opposites but leaneth to that for the most part wherunto either appetite ignorance or grace sway it So that though freely and without constraint it follow naturally the wisedome of the flesh yet without a supernaturall grace the wisedome of the flesh is enmitie against God For it is not subiect to the lawe of God neither indeed can be This being duly weighed with vnderstanding and considered of with a charitable humilitie such as the cause requireth euery man may see notwithstanding your accusation that our Church in this neither differeth from the truth nor Master Hooker at all from our Church ARTICLE VI. Of Faith and Works WHere charity hath not power enough to guide reason there malice out of ignorance is able to make conclusions against sense For the eies being blinded which naturally are to perform the best offices of seeing the colours that are discerned otherwise are litle better then the false errors of a troubled fancy For where the light is darkenes how great must that darkenes be To attaine by a supernaturall power to that felicity which is an acte of the greatest mercy as infinite numbers faile in the thing so there are not a few which vtterly mistake the meanes And whilest all that are Christians acknowledge it to be a grace eager contentions are stirred vp whether it be imputed or inherent in vs. And seeing in this acte of iustification by the consent of all man doth receiue from God what he hath the question is what vertue must be in that hand to inable weakenes to receiue such strength and how that faith must be accompanied that is able to clothe our soules with the righteousnes of anothers merit Heere we haue aduersaries whom peraduenture we mistake as they mistake vs making as in other points a misconstruction to be the ground of a great difference and the strongest opposition to arise from hence that nether part is willing to vnderstand each other Heere if we should but discouer the least meanes of reconcilement some hasty spirits would not stick to accuse vs as more then partiall and that treacherouslie we sought to betray the cause In that we purpose to set downe what truth warranteth in this behalfe it is rather to free him from suspition whom you doe accuse then that hee in that wherein you accuse him any way standeth in neede of our weake defence If man rightly value but the merit of the Sonne of God and how so humble and innocent obedience to so lowe a state must needes in iustice make a full satisfaction for so great a sin he cannot chuse but confesse that onely for the merit of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ through faith and not for works and our merits we are accounted righteous before God If the soule of man did serue only to giue him being in this life then things appertaining to this life would cōtent him as we see they doe other creatures which creatures inioying those things by which they liue they doe seeke no further but in this contentation doe shew a kinde of acknowledgement that there is no higher good which any way doth belong vnto them With man it is far otherwise for although all inferiour things were in the possession of one yet he would euer with a desire thirst for some thing aboue all those so that nature euen in this life doth claime a perfection higher and more diuine then any thing in it selfe which man must receiue in the reward now rewards doe alwaies presuppose such duties performed as are rewardable our naturall meanes vnto blessednesse are our workes nor is it possible that nature should euer finde any other way to saluation but only this Yet seeing that no man can say since the foundation of the world that his workes are pure but that all flesh is guilty of that for which God hath threatned eternally to punish there resteth either no way vnto saluation or a way which must needs be supernatural and aboue mans reach Had Adam continued in his first estate mans absolute righteousnes and integrity in all his actions had bin the way of life to him and to all his posterity though peraduenture not in so large a manner as heauenly felicity doth import the possession whereof euen the least moment were too abundant a retribution Yet now we fayling in that which was our dutie it were a thing impossible in nature to obtaine the other The light of nature is neuer able to find out any way of obtaining the reward of blisse but by performing exactly the works of righteousnes Therfore God hath prepared a supernaturall way namely that we doe beleeue not that God doth require nothing vnto happines at the hands of men as Maister Hooker sayth sauing only a naked faith for Hope Charity we may not exclude but that without faith all other things are as nothing this being the grounde of those other diuine vertues The principall obiect of faith is that eternall verity which hath discouered the treasures of hidden wisdome in Christ the highest obiect of hope is that euerlasting goodnes which in Christ doth quicken the dead the final obiect of charity is that incōprehensible beauty which shineth in the countenance of Christ the Son of the liuing God The first beginneth heere with a weake apprehension of things not seene and endeth in the beholding of God in the world to come The second beginneth heere with a trembling expectation of things far remoued and as yet but only heard of and endeth with a reall and actuall fruition of that which no toong is able to expresse The third beginneth heere with a weake inclination of hart towards him vnto whom we are not able to approch and endeth with an endles vnion the mystery wherof is higher then the reach of the thoughts of men And howsoeuer the apprehension of that righteousnesse wherby man is iustified be properly but the worke of one yet we dare not neither doe any learned in our Church make faith to be naked of other vertues and therefore it is so much the more strange that you follow the error which our aduersaries haue accused vs for as though it were an opinion holden by our Church In this article against Maister Hooker you say that God requireth no more at the hands of men vnto happinesse then a naked beleefe And a little after We claime nothing by any dutie we do or can do or any vertue which wee find in our selues but onely by