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
2. What Law is it whereby St. Paul affirms Rom. 3. 20. that no Flesh can be justified Even that Law which to other necessary uses he was careful to establish ver 31. by which cometh the knowledge of Sin Rom. 7. 7. which is holy just and good ver 12 Spiritual ver 14. Encomiums that cannot be given to the Ceremonial and therefore must be of force against that Doctrine whereby Justification is made to consist in either habitual or actual holiness all which is nothing but conformity to the Moral-Law too weak through the flesh for such an end 3. What sort of Grace is there designed where St. Paul having by all his preceding discourses thereto ascribed Justification subjoyns Rom. 6. this caution What then Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound It 's not at all possible or imaginable that any body how egregiously wicked or how stupidly gross and dull soever he were should be of opinion that by continuing in sin Grace inherent could abound By infallible deduction then it follows That the power of justifying is not by the Apostle left in the hands of such Grace but rests in that gratious imputation of Righteousness through Faith which makes our Salvation from one end to another the free gift of God as we find it contradistinguished to the wages of sin Rom. 6. 23. Let not any Romanist here think to come off by alleging that they hold the eternal punishments of sin to be remitted by the Sacrifice of Christ which being done there then remains their good deeds to merit glory in Heaven For pardon relates only to the person of the repenting sinner not at all unto the devious works so as to render legitimate what was in the commission criminal But the Law which takes no notice of Pardon remains unfulfilled by the party absolved still And a righteousness adequate to that must be found before we can claim the rewards of life Nor let them imagine the business is salved because some of them build the reason or ground of merit on the promise and acceptation of God for neither can they shew that ever God made his promise of such a Tenure nor yet will Vasquez and therein he pretends fully to know the mind of the Trent Council suffer that to pass as Catholick Doctrine for he tells us If our works be not of themselves before the Promise worthy and after the Promise do become worthy it must follow that for their dignification or to make them acceptable the Merit of Christ must needs intervene and be imputed Disp. 214. Chap. 6. That what I have delivered in this Point is the very Mind Sence and Precept of the English Church whereto I desire to approve and submit my self is manifest by her eleventh Article thus made up That we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholesome Doctrine referring us for farther explication to her Homilie of Salvation and there we are directed to the right Object of Faith as it justifies viz. Christ suffered death for us Christ fulfilled the Law for us As Utensils or a kind of hang-by's on to their main Point of Justification by the merit of works follow an whole Legion of vendible Pardons Indulgences Dispensations Termes which in the Primitive Church signified no more than certain relaxations of Penances imposed upon Delinquents and upon evident signs of their amendment mitigated to the persons yet living Whereas in the after practice of the Romanists they degenerated into such notorious superstition as applyed to the dead and into so great impiety as extended to the living that they have left skars upon the face of their Church which cannot pass for beauty-Spots Of this we have all Germany for a witness for not onely Luther from the extream grossness thereof when he saw those goodly advantages made the wagers in a game at Dice took occasion to write against them But the whole Imperial Dyet at Norimberg Anno 1522. gives them a chief place among their 100 grievances represented to the Popes Nuntio then amongst them So that we doubt not but we do well in accompting them but as superstructures reared with untempered Mortar which we are sure will as Wood Hay Stubble perish and not abide the fire that spirit of burning mentioned Isai. 4. 4. Matth. 3. 11. Cor. 3. 13. It will be worthy the while to hearlien perhaps with more attention than the Legate Franciscus Theregatus did for I do not find there was any present redress to the complaints of those Germans You shall have them then out of a Copie printed 141 years since and published by Authory faithfully done into English They usher in all the rest by this comprehensive one which might have indeed a great many in the belly of it And as we pass the threshold we cannot but take up this Note They fix the blame not upon the irregular exorbitant actings of some particular ill-governing Minister But the Preamble runs thus An hundred grievances of the sacred Roman Empire Princes and Nobles which they put up to his Holiness his Legate against the Roman Chair and the whole Ecclesiastical Order Anno 1522. First This is not the least nor the last to be mentioned that many things are prohibited many things imposed by humane constitutions which are not commanded or forbid by any Divine Precept Of such sort are The innumerable obstacles invented for the prohibition of Marriage drawn through so many degrees of affinity and consanguinity The injunction to forbear meats which God notwithstanding has created indifferently for the use of Man and the Apostle so teacheth They may be taken with thanksgiving These and the like stand in force till money which thus makes the same thing lawful to rich and criminal to poor procure a Dispensation By the casting of such illegal nets not only a vast quantity of Treasure is caught in Germany and hoysted over the Alpes but a most unreasonable iniquity is exercised upon persons equal in Christianity Whence arises great scandal and heart-burning whilst the less able sort do find themselves intrapped and held fast only because they have not those Thornes of the Gospel riches as Christ more than once terms them 2. Of the same stamp are the proceedings as to set times for marriage done it must not be at such and such seasons that is to say if the parties think to do 't for nothing though in the mean time both Ecclesiasticks and Seculars live most luxuriously but if Coyn enough appear that makes all pass into just and right this likewise is a cunning pick-lock to the German Coffers 3. They tell him how long this unsupportable burthen has laid upon their backs that Whensoever some Church is pretended to be in building at Rome or an expedition to be made against the Turk then under the notion of a pious Contribution the very bottom of the German bags must be turned out and what is more considerable by these Impostures managed by a sort of Preachers for
Scandal at them every time I read the Tenth chap. of S. Matthew since I am there told what is through the fault of Gain-sayers an ordinary Consequence of the Truths presence Perfect Unity in Opinion is the Privilege of Minds triumphant above and the Churches of the Apostles themselves were some of Paul some of Cephas c. If you will strain at a Gnat because you hear there are dissentions amongst us and yet swallow such a Camel as this That the Creed of every Christian must be resolved into the present Dictates of the Roman Church and that you ought not to question whether she tread in the good old Paths a shift that some of her Champions are driven to I must confess I am at a stand what to say to you But let us by one particular make a ghess what her posture hath been in the rest The Fathers of the first five Centuries may I think with a safe Confidence be affirmed to have intended nothing by their Merita but such a Title to the Recompence of Reward as is plainly co-incident in its meaning with our expectation of that Crown which God the Righteous Judge hath laid up against the last day for them that have finished their Course and kept the Faith therefore are they well called by some Certain Seminaries of Hope And they were so far from any thought of a Proportionate value or Condignity as they every where speak against it When the high-soaring Schoolmen hatcht that Opinion since fledg'd and much improved by the industrious care of the Jesuits with their adherents how unhandsome it appeared to men of sober minds you may observe from that place of Erasmus given you before two others the next Epistle shall acquaint you with and abundance more cited by the Primate of Ireland and Davenant in the Point We will here lay together the Judgment of Theodoret and Cyril of Alexandria with the late Positions of the Rhemists then judge whether there be such a Consonancy and Identitie betwixt Antiquity and Rome at this day as is pretended The former tells us that the Salvation of men depends upon the sole Mercy of God For we do not obtain it as a Reward and Wages of our Righteousness but it is the Gift of God's goodness The Crowns do excel the Fights the Rewards are not to be compared with the Labours c. And therefore says he the Apostle called those things that are looked for not Wages but Glory Rom. 8. 18. and again not Wages but Grace Rom. 6. 23. Although a man should perform the most absolute Righteousness Things Eternal do not answer Temporal Labours in equal poyse The same is Cyril's mind too for he tells us The Crown doth much surpass the pains which we take Not a paying a price for labour but pouring out the riches of his goodness saith Prosper Well now hear the Rhemists in another Note All good works done by God's grace after the first Justification be truly and properly Meritorious and fully worthy of Everlasting life and thereupon Heaven is the just Stipend Crown or Recompence which God by his Justice oweth to the Persons so working by his Grace c. And in another place they therefore will have us to think that the word Reward which in our English may signifie a voluntary or bountiful Gift is not expressive enough of the Original which they will render better by a very Stipend that the hired Workman or Journey-man covenanteth to have of him whose work he doth and is a thing equally and justly answering to the weight and time of his Travels rather than a free Gift But let them answer St. Paul who calls it so Rom. 6. 23. and it were their best in their next Edition of their Expurgatory Indexes to wipe out such pestilent places of former Writers as will not suffer them to hugg their Diana in quietness Thus you may discern in part how unsafe it will be to take up Religion upon trust without laying the several poynts thereof to the Square of Gods word a course which the Commendation fixed upon the Bereans may incourage all men unto and which I do God willing intend to make the Subject of some future Letters LETTER II. ALthough it be an old received Truth That Discords in Religion are the most bitter and for the most part prosecuted with most violence I shall desire to contract rather than widen the Differences betwixt us and leaving the Out-works which fortifie our Cause in other points we hold in Opposition to the Roman Church to stand a while upon their own Guard set my self at present to the defence of that which is most oppugned by Papists against which the Jesuites have raised their fiercest Batteries I mean our Doctrine of Justification Our answers are so Consonant in the first Quaere that one would think we were almost agreed and Dispute at an end for this Maxim is as I conceive imbraced on both sides We are saved by Grace But alas they have framed such strange Comments and affixed so perverse a Definition to the nature of their Grace as will and must needs keep us at a grand and perpetual distance Forasmuch as I have observed most of the Objections brought in against us to arise merely from a mis-understanding of that Faith to which only we dare trust our Justification I will in the first Place sub-joyn it's Nature and Office in three Propositions First the Faith we desire to establish is not a bare Opinion is not a mere Notion but it is a Grace a purifying a cleansing reforming Grace of God's Spirit And though the Principal and main Act of Faith be an Accepting Receiving and Resting upon Christ alone for Justification by vertue of the Covenant Yet they who are Effectually called and Regenerate have a new heart Created in them and are farther Really and Personally sanctified the Dominion of the whole Body of Sin destroyed the several Lusts thereof by degrees mortified and they more and more strengthned in all saving Graces to the practice of true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Nor do we say that good Works done by such an one are of their own Nature sins as we are slanderously reported to do No so far as they are good they are the Product of God's own Spirit and he approves them But because of a mixture of Imperfections adhering to the best of men in this Life and their Works We think they are no better than the Reeds of Egypt which if a man lean on them with hopes of Justice from them will break and wound his sides We are Justified by Faith alone without Works Not that Works are separated from Faith or can be But only excluded from the Act of Justifying A Dead Faith cannot Justifie a Living Faith cannot be Idle The Concurrence of Works is Certain their Agreement Amiable in the Life of one Justified Yet their Contrariety irreconcileable in the procurement
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
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
Credulity to down with them and to suspend our whole Belief upon the most imperious dictates of their supposed infallible Church But we have not so learned Christ. And as to my part after a long and diligent search whereto never any could be more ingaged than my self I despair of ever finding any more sure or near way to Heaven Than by renouncing in Sanctification all my Sins 1 John 8. 3. Justification all my Graces Dan. 9. 18. Than by having unfeigned Repentance towards God Acts 20. 21. Faith towards Christ Isaiah 64. 6. Matth. 5. 17 18. Matth. 22. 36 37. Luke 10. 27 28. Rom. 3. 31. We find that Law which had it not been weak through the flesh should have given Life both declared and established Expounded too we find it by Bernard de verb. Es. Serm. 4. who reminds us That it requires even yet Obedientiam rectam according to the Rule all that is only what is prescribed puram free from all blemish in manner and measure firmam steady and without any intermission Chrysostome upon 2 Cor. 5. holds out as requisite to our Justification a Righteousness wherein there must not be either Spot or Stain The Law thus applied and understood is still before God's Tribunal the Matter of our Justification and there to be pleaded but where to be found If we confine our search to within our selves and fall seriously to ponder our best Works either of Nature or by Grace we shall find it a Yoak which we no more than our Fathers were are not able to bear Hath God any where discovered that he has drawn off something from its expectation in order to its giving us Justice in his sight upon more facile Terms I think not If then a fulfilled Law and that the same was first given must be presented to God for our Justification that we may appear faultless before the presence of his Glory Jude ver 24. Where may we seek it and not lose our labour Let them that have a mind look amongst the Rubbish of their Performances whilst we with a thankfully-humble boldness do contemplate What it is Dan. 9. 24. Jer. 23. 6. Rom. 10. 4. Isai. 45. 25. 46. 13. Where Col. 1. 19. Joh. 1. 16. Rom. 5. 17. Col. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 5. 11. How had Joh. 3. 14 15. Rom. 3. 22. Gal. 3. 24. Phil. 3. 9. Let us now call in some Evidence and enquire whether the Protestant Cause be so altogether unbefriended by Antiquity as some of our Adversaries are desirous the World should believe And 1. what we meet with in Athanasius We find Tom. 2. That the fulfilling of the Law wrought by the first fruits Christ is imputed to the whole Lump 2. Gregory upon Ezek. Hom. 8. I will give it you in the Original because there is one Word the just force and importance whereof our English can I think but hardly reach Justus noster Advocatus nos defendet in judicio quia nosmetipsos cognoscimus accusamus injustos Non in Fletibus non in Actionibus nostris sed in Advocati nostri Allegatione considamus 3. Chrysostom upon 1 Cor. 1. 30. It is not said he made us Wise Just and Holy but he is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Justification c. Upon Rom. 10. There is no cause thou shouldest fear as a Transgressor of the Law if thou believest in Christ because thou hast fulfilled it and received a far greater Righteousness 4. Basil. de Humil. Hom. 51. This is perfect and full rejoycing in God when a man boasts not of his righteousness but knows himself void of true Sanctity yet justified by Faith 5. Gregory Nyssen on those words of our Saviour Beati qui esuriant justitiam It seems to me saith he 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 c. 6. Another from Chrysostom upon Rom. 4. 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 be justified not by them but by Faith only is admirable 7. Bernard who every where gives us clear glimpses of this light lets it shine broad out in his 61. Sermon on Canticles where he calls us under shelter of that Long Large Eternal Righteousness of Christ professing He will make mention of that only And why must not Jacob attain the blessing without the garments of his Elder Brother but to impart to us the knowledge that we must have ingress into Heaven no otherwise than under the Tegument of Christ's Merits I may well says he again Ep. 190. call my self Just but 't is by his Christ's Justice and what 's that even Christ the end of the Law for Righteousness to all Believers It is not a short Cloak adds he further that cannot cover two 8. Besides Augustin's Non nobis and his Sicut found and usually observed in his Peruse his 45th Sermon de Temp. and you will find by him that it 's the fulness of Vertue which the Law means when it says Thou shalt not Covet then adds he after this manner It cannot be fulfilled 9. But Sedulius on Rom. 10. shews how it may saying Perfectionem Legis habet qui credit in Christo. 10. Both Irenaeus and Augustine do most clearly design that particular Act and Office of Faith which respects our Saviour whilest they expound John 3. 14. 11. Ambrose de vita beata lib. 2. cap. 2. upon these words Odoratus est odorem vestimentorum Peradventure he saith it 's meant that we are not justified by Works but by Faith because the weakness of our Flesh is an impediment to our Works but the Excellency of Faith doth cover the errors of them 12. As we begun so we will end though it were easie to bring a whole Cloud of reverend Authors to attest this thing with Athanasius de incarnatione Verbi It's impossible that Purity and Innocence can be exhibited in humane Nature unless it be believed that God was in the Flesh who brought into the World a Justice free from all sin Because we are made partakers Hujus render it how you will of him or of this we shall live and be saved For illud non est justus in terra adds he belongs equally to us all and for that reason he descended from Heaven who was to impart Righteousness ex se out of himself These proofs are not cited in order of time as they were writ but in course as they seemed best to make out what I have said before in this Point 13. Ambrose upon Rom. 10. He that believes on Christ hath attained the perfection of the Law For seeing of old none were to be justified by the Law because none fulfilled it otherwise than by hoping in Christ promised Faith is introduced to believe the Law fulfilled That all things else laid aside Faith might satisfie both for the
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
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