The blindnesse of mans vnderstanding.

THe natural mā perceiueth not the things that ar of God,1. Cor. 2.14 because they ar spirituall & he naturall: and therfore in Gods matters [Page 5]he is not onely weake sighted, but quite blind.Gen. 19.11 The case of the Sodomits that groped as men in the darke, and could not find Lots door is one with the cōditiō of the vnregene rat, who seeth not the way, verily seketh not, certainly findeth not the doore that leadeth & openeth vnto heauē. For in our selues we are not only darkned, but darknesse:1. Pet. 2.9 Ioh. 1.5 & can darknes cōprehēd the light? If the blind lead the blind, the one falleth vnder, & the other vpon, but both into the dike. If that which shold be thine eye to thine affectiōs be dark how peruerse also is the wilfulnes of all thy lusts? But he that beleeueth not, but resteth only in the imagined puritie of naturalls, as the Pelagians, or is in some good liking of natures habilitie, as is the Semipelagian the Papist, he seeth nothing, cōceiueth nothing, vnderstandeth nothing as he should,Stapl. de v­niuer. iustif. doctr. lib. 2 cap. 10 neither is he capable of heauēly thoughts. For seme he neuer so mighty, potent, politik, wise, dis­crete, honest in all kinde of honestye, yet because he hath not faith the true roote of godlinesse, those fruites that he can beare, things faire in shew, yet in truth they are but bastard fruits, and vnpleasant to a good tast. For without faith and a sure confidence that we do wel,Rom. 14.23 Heb. 11.6 which procedeth of a true faith in [Page 6]God,Philip. 1.29 it is impossible to please the Lord. And this faith is not of natur but of grace as shall be shewed afterwards. For natur being tho­roughly poisoned bringeth foorth nothing but poyson; & who fedeth theron, fedeth on poyson, eateth & drinketh foolishnes, and is nourished with folly, crawleth vpon his bel­lie, & groueleth vpon the earth like the sin­full serpent.

The wisdom of the world is foolishnes in Gods iudgement, who knoweth best what is true wisedome,1. Cor. 1.19 Esay. 29.14 Ierem. 5.5. and hath pronounced, that the prudency of the prudent, & worldly wise men he will reproue, because they and he agree not in any one part, neither in the entrance, end, or midway of any one action. Our wayes are not his wayes.Esay. 55.8 Psal. 99.8 Our inuentiōs prouoke him to wrath, our deuises are diuers and contrarie, and therfore not for him.

The peruersnes & frowardnes of mans will.

NOw if the mind be ignorant & vnskilfull in that, that is to be wished for, how can the wil, which taketh all her instructiō thēce rightly desire she can not tell what? Doth a­ny man ame at the marke he neuer sawe? or desire the thing, he neuer heard of? Christ our Sauiour told the woman of Samaria,Ioh. 4.10 if she knew with whom she talked, she would [Page 7]craue the waters of life of him, but therfore she begged thē not, because she knew him not, and could not tell, neither what, nor of whō to ask. The very philosopher could tech his scholers, and common experience doth testifie the same, [...]. that no man loueth or lon­geth for the thing he neuer loked vpon. And howe litle insight, or rather how perfectlie blind by nature we are, is alreadie shewed.

Farther, no man naturally wisheth for a­ny thing, but he hath not only an insight, but also a delight therin, and it is gratefull to his nature, & pleasant in his eyes, or at the least so supposed either in comparison of some­what else, or in som sort or other so reputed.

Herupon I will suppose an impossibilitie, that man hath a cleare eye in that great mi­sterie of godlines,1. Tim. 3.16 which the Apostle descri­beth and which is the ground of all know­ledge. But I aske, how is he pleased, how is he delighted therwith?

Be wee Greekes reckoned the wisest of the Gentils or Iewes once the people & pe­culiar chosen of God? The mistery of Christ crucified to either of these, is either marue­lous folly, or wonderfull offensiue, & to both of them alike, if God in iustice leaue them to them selues, the preaching of the Gospell,1. Cor. 1.23 [Page 8]which shold be the odor of life, if they could beleeue, loue, and embrace it, is becom a sa­uour that they cānot brook, a sauor of death to death euerlasting, & in fine they perish in their sinnes, wherin their faithles natur toke such delight.

Wherfore if a naturall man, & an vnbele­uer, would beare good men in hand, that na­turs case is not so hard:Orth. expl. lib. 3 if Andradius the cō ­mentator of the Coūcell of Trent, as being priuy to their secret meaning, herein speake neuer so honourablie of the state of heathen men to be saued without Christ: if Pigghius or the schole of Colen,Contro. Ra­tisb. 1 Dial. 2 Sarc. in dist. Schol. Doct or all the scholemen in the world, wold qualify or alay the strēgth of sinne, with vaine reasoning, and fond but gay distinctions as they think of conueniency & congruity &c. What is to be done? touch these faire apples of Gomorrha with the fin­ger of the holy Ghost,Aug. de Ci­uit. Dei lib. 21. c. 5 & they wil fal straight all to dust. Or be it, that the wine that the harlot offreth be strong, the spice of distin­ctiōs sweet, the harlot subtil, her alluremēts many, fine, & forcible, yet the truth is stron­ger, and wholsomer,1. Esd. 4.4 will and must preuaile.

In flesh dwelleth no good, so saith the spirit of God.Rom. 7.18 Wherupon without contradictiō it followeth, if no good, no degree of good [Page 9]at al, ether spark of knowledg, or inclinatiō of will, or ability to reach out hand towards the receiuing of any good. For euē the good willingnesse which is graunted by grace, is hindred by nature as much as in her lieth.

Therefore the old man must be quite put of, the old leuen cleane purged out, our lusts not proined, but digged vp by the rootes, & throwne away, our flesh crucified, & of our selues altogeather denied. O Israel howe long wilt thou tarie in a strange lande, woo woorth the man that delighteth in his natu­rall corruption: O sinfull flesh happie is he that taketh thy yong children, I meane the very beginnings, euen the concupiscences and first motions to sinne and dasheth them against the stones, or smothereth them in their cradle, or killeth them in their mothers wombe. For of flesh can come no good, & happie is he that maketh away a rebellious euill.

Concupiscens is verie sinne in whom soeuer.

ANd euen these by name are full of euill naught and wicked, and very sinnes, al­though they come not to age, and thou cō ­sent not vnto them, euen in the regenerate mā it is so, much more so in the naturall. So [Page 10]speaketh S. Augustine in plaine tearmes in handling one of the Psalmes,Non illis consentis, &c. Aug. in Psalm. 75. whom I the rather here mention because he is much al­leaged to the contrary very vnskilfully, and chiefly for that our late Cēsurer sticketh not to vaunt and bragge of S. Augustine, and that Maister Charke hath neither shew nor syllable in this case out of him.

If thou be a scholler I referre thee to the place coted in the margent:Defen. of the cens. pag. 133. if thou art but onely exercised in the worde of God, the scripture alone may content thine humble minde,M. Traue. in his aun­swer to the epist. suppl. p. 252. Rom. 5. and instructe thy conscience most aboundantly.

It is forbidden in the Law, we being new borne in Christ are bidden to pray against it. S. Paul doth sigh in respect of it, & cal­leth it sinne, I trow, properlie enough when he saith it is the body of sinne, and bonde of death: although men that followe their lust,Conc. Trid. Sess. 5. dec. 1. write neuer so hotly in defence of luste, saying that S. Paul spake not properly, and cursing all them that say the contrarie.

S. Paul saw many things in heauen,2. Cor. 12.4. that he might not vtter on earth, but the sinne he spake against, was an inhabitour in the tabernacle of his body, and within his bo­some, he felt the sting thereof sharpe, and [Page 11]could not but complaine, how truely, how properly, and with how conuenient words, they that haue S. Paules spirit, sence, and feeling, can say with teares and vtter with griefe.

S. Iames when he would cleare God of sinne, he saith, God tempteth no man:Iam. 1.13. as who would say, if he did, then were the case altered.C oncupis­cence a mo­ther sinne. But euery man (it is generally & in particuler true) euerie man is tempted of his owne lusts. This is the spring, the roote, the cause of sinne, which issueth out into di­uerse streames, & is deduced into sundrie branches by consent, & then it is called cō ­monly and named sinne amongst men, who otherwise iudge not but by the externall acte. And then also, (which in deede is S. Augustines meaning) God is more prouo­ked to wrath,Tom. 7. &c. & without repentance fore­prised counteth man quoad reatum crimen & regnum peccati, more guiltie, and blame­able, and thrauld to sinne then, when by cō ­senting to the sway of his sinnefull lusts, he is caried away wilfully with the streame of them.

But S. Paul considering the waight of sin, as before Gods exact iudgemēt in the merit thereof, sheweth that whereas we ought to [Page 12]serue and loue him with all our powers, the least defect in the least part whether habitually or actually in the nature of sin is perfit sinne,Rhem. no­tes: Rom. 7. vers. 7. expressely against the commaunde­ment of the Lawe. But we will goe on a li­tle, and reason with them.

Concupiscence tempteth, haleth backe from good, and helpeth forward to euill. This is without question. Nowe whether thou consent or dissent, that is somwhat to the will, it is nothing to the luste, except to make it more manifest, if thou consent, and if thou dissent,Rhem. not. in Iam. cap. 1. vers. 15. yet in the nature of sinne it is neuerthelesse sinnefull, though it be stayed in the first degree.

But if I be not deceiued, concupiscence of nature corrupted, whereof I principally speake or in whom soeuer, ioyntly and in­diuisibly importeth always a cōsent withall immediatly ensuing.

To lust, to desire, to will, for doctrine and exhortions sake well they may be distingui­shed, I can not see how they may be sepera­ted or staied, if we had rather hew at some bowe of them, then strike at the roote.

The children of darkenesse are wise in their generation,Matt. 16.2. in naturall causes or sig­nes to foresee a tempest, in pollicie to fore­cast [Page 13]the woorst, to stop the beginnings, to giue no place, no not a litle to the raging sea. Why do we not the like? why are not spirituall harmes discerned and preuented?

M. Harding in some sort vseth a vaine de­fence of an vnchast toleratiō of the steewes at Rome,Confut. of the Apol. pag. 16 2. Deiect. lib. 5. cap. 4. Censur. of M. Ch. ar­tic. 3. and Defence p. 113. Dist. 34. Fra­ternitatis. by reason of the hotnes of the coū ­trie, as if Italie were hotter then Iurie which is not so, or if it were, what then? and for concupiscence he and his breathern haue since written much. But doth the Lawe of God melt away with the heat of either na­tions or nature, of places or men?

Me thinketh after so great light spread into the worlde, after so long debating though of sundrie other sorie quaestions for the Church against the scriptures, for works & merits against faith, and mercie for igno­rance against knowledge,Stapel. lib. 3. Epist. to the LL. of the Conc. yet men shoulde not come to this point to be so badly affe­cted, and to excuse them, when they are oppug­ned. Verily if they had either conscience or remorse, their learning should not be thus abused, ad prostituted by open writing to maintaine sinnefull lust.

The midwiues in Aegypt preserued the children of Israell,Exod. 1.17 it was well done: if the [Page 14]midwiues of Israell would destroy the chil­dren of Aegypt it were better: and if the bōd mother with her brats were quite cast out and banished, it were best of all, if God so would: but concupiscence the mother, and the first motions, and peruerse will to sinne as twinnes that come of her, together with froward mindes, that foster vp both mother & daughters can hardly or neuer be voyded in this vale of sinners, & proctors for sin: yea the perfitest men are imperfit, the cleanest vnclean vntil the euening,Isych. lib. 5. in Leuit. cap. 15. which as Isychiꝰ alludeth, is till men in repentance agnize & craue pardon for ther faults, which shall be accomplished to the full in the euening, that is, in the end of the world.

Yet if in the meane season we suffer na­turall corruptions & cōcupiscences to haue their motions,Suddaine motions entangle a man before a man can deliberate vpon them Rhem. not. 7. Rom. v. 15. motiōs naturally moue their foote forwarde, and cannot stand at a staie, and will seeke incontinētly to prouoke cō ­sent & wil, & these once ioyning all in one, the hole man is become bound, head and hart, hand and foote: his head can not de­uise, his hart desire to doe, or any member execute a good dutie.

And thus is man by these meanes subie­cted, made a seruaunt, captiued, and kept [Page 15]prisoner, and as a slaue solde vnto and vn­der sinne.

The whole question of free will hande­led at large.

THis being thus,Osor. de Iust. lib. 7. we can not but maruaile what our aduersaries meane, when they crie out amaine, we are free, we are free. Are they mad, or do they dreame thus of a free­dome in so great subiection of libertie, in the middest of captiuitie and extreame bondage? As if a man could or would looke for health in sicknes, for life in death,Eph. 1.2. for the liuing amongst the dead. For naturally we are not onely sicke, but also dead & bu­ried in sin. And I pray you, what sense, what abilitie, what will is there in a dead man, to perceiue, desire, or endeuour to be reuiued?

But stay: are men blocks say they and stones? yea a great deale worse. For timber and stones lift not vppe themselues against the carpenter, and mason: but man though he be dead from righteousnes, yet he liueth and is quicke, and full of agilitie in all euill, herein he hath a will free enough,Fulgent. de incar. Chr. 19. cap. as it were a streame running downe an hill, and yet not properly free, being thrawled to sinne, as Augustine vsing the word (free) seemeth [Page 16]to correct himselfe by and by vppon it.Serm. 13. de verbis Ap. Male agimus li­bera volū ­tate, quan­quam non libera, sed serua ad peccatum. Conc. Au­rasic. can. 7. For concerning godlines his will is wounded, & maimed▪ it can neither looke vp, lift vp hād, or stirre foote to goodnes, it was lost long agoe and is not now to be found.

Yet when God giueth grace, and inspi­reth from aboue, we are without compari­son farre better then the senslesse matter, but all this is else whence, that we are thus enabled but to receiue the printe of his spirite.

I will take away your stonie harte, saith the Lorde in his Prophetes,Ezech. 36.26. first he taketh a­way that which is ours, that he may giue that which is his. Before this, if a stone may boast of his softnes, then may we, if not the stone, then neither we. For our hartes are all of stone and ragge, wherefore I will giue you a newe harte. This is more then to re­new the olde, and this will he doe, and whē he hath done so, then he will write his awe in our hartes, and make vs to walke in his wayes.

Create within me a new hart, Psal. 51.11. The Prophet Dauid prayed, and if he prayed a better prayer then the sonnes of Zebedy,Marc. 10.38. that is, he knew for what in truth and veritie, and for the thing he wanted, then is it plaine that [Page 17]our hart (for this is not Dauids case alone) must be created, as if it were not at all. And then obserue that, that which is to be created is neither of counsell nor consent in a freenes of good will to the creator, or in a willingnesse towards his own cre­ation. For how can it be, before it be fra­med first, and haue his being?

God often telleth vs and we ought al­wayes to agnize that he doth all, and we nothing in good things. He it is that pre­uenteth with his grace, prepareth by his word, enclyneth vs by his spirite, & wor­keth both the beginning, & the ende, and the continuance of our good conuersion at the first,Obiections of the ad­uersaries aunswered. and conuersation in his lawes euer afterwards, notwithstanding all qua­relings to the contrarie.

In the beginning say they when God had made mā,Eccl. 15.14. Stapl. lib. 4. cap. 3. he left him in the hand of his counsell, gaue him his commaundements & precepts: if thou wilt, thou shalt obserue the commandements, & testifie thy good will. Water and fire, good and euil I, life & death are set before him: he may stretch furth his hande to either, as he list, & li­keth best. All this is true.

In the beginning the case was so. But [Page 18]this is not the question, what man in the beginning by creation could, but what by nature now he can do. He is a fonde Phy­sition that to comfort his paciente, can say nothing but this, this man once had a sound body, and a perfit constitution: it was in him to haue liued long. The dis­eased commeth to the art of Phisicke, and seeketh helpe, not because he was once whole, but for that he is nowe sicke.

I will shew in a word or two by an ea­sie similitude, how sillely they conclude out of that place: I haue this or that put into my hande, I may holde it fast or let it go. Here is a choice, a free will, but when once I haue let go mine holdfast, or wilful­ly thrown away that which I held before, shall I still say,August. de Natur. & Gra. contra Pelag. cap. 53. my hands are full, whē I haue emptied them? or when I haue woū ­ded mine owne armes and handes in such sort, so that they are not able to reach furth themselues, & now being vnapt & vnfit to apprehend, or receiue any thing else but infirmities, because these were otherwise, therefore shall I presumptuously conclude they are so? In Paradise it was so with vs: ergo, it is so also in other places. What Logicke doth reason after this fashion? it [Page 19]was, ergo it is. It was in Paradise, ergo elsewhere. God cast man out of Paradise,Gen. 3.24. and at the east side of the garden of Eden, he set the Cherubines (his Angels) with a shaking naked sword in terrible maner to keepe man frō entring to, & so frō eating of the tree of life. Where is now, reach furth thine hand to death, & vnto life, &c. wher­as he is barred frō the better which is life.

In cōsidering this place of Iesus the son of Syrach,Cap. 15.14. & also beholding the canonical scriptures wherein the auncient blisfulnes of man is described, as his agilitie of body, his habilitie of minde, perfection in both. I know not howe, I cannot but recorde a prophane storie or two. Milo Crotoniata when in his weake old age he beheld such as himselfe had bene,Cic. in Cat. Maio. yong men mightily contending at some exercise of strength, he cast his eye, and looked vpon himselfe, wept & saide: These armes were armes once, but now they are drie and dead, & are not. Likewise Alexander the great at one time whē he had cut but his finger,Plutar. de discrimen. amici & ae­dulator. & at other times perceiuing his affectiōs subiect to choler, lust, & the like faults, though his flatterets bore him still in hand, that he was a gods son, & a god in deede, he tolde [Page 20]them, no: the gods were not wont to bleede with paine, & liue at pleasure fan­cifully as himselfe did.

These stories neede litle application, if we consider our weakenesse, and con­ceiue aright of our infirmities, these flatte­ring colours, that want the oyle of Gods truth, wherewith they labour to paint out our deformednes to Godwarde, woulde soone be washed away and come to no­thing.

The best and fayrest shewe at the first sight for free will is that of water and fire, life & death, good & bad, set before man­kinde in Adam. But looke vpon the place directlie, albeit it be not Canonicall scrip­ture, and therefore not sufficient to in­forme thy faith,Hiero. prae­fat. in libr. Solom. Idem ad Le tam. Ruff. in expositi­one in Symb. or to be alleadged in a doubtfull matter, looke vpon it with a sin­gle eye, and by way of comparison consi­der thereby thine owne power. In the place thou shalt finde the first worde [...], in the beginning, to referre thee to an other time, as hath bene declared, and as Augustine doth shewe,Hyp. lib. 3. cap. 11. Stapl. lib. 2. cap. 15. Iosu. 7.19. and the wiser Papists see well enough, and of thyselfe (O fraile and mortall man) speake the truth, & shame the Diuel, and so conse­quently [Page 21]glorifie God. And if thou hast but a sparke of humblenes, thou wilt fran­ckely confesse that thou art farre from the libertie which these wordes importe.

And as for vs what can it auaile vs to debase mans corruption, if it were as good or better then they make it? haue we not equally our partes therein as well as they? If our fieldes had no blasted corne, our gardens no weedes, our garmēts no spots, our trees no shriueled apples, if our flesh were spirite, and not flesh, our wisedome right, and our will free, what harme can the protestant take for yeelding to these things, if they were true?

Onely we know, that the friends of na­ture are enemies to grace,2. Cor. 3.5. and that all our sufficiencie or aptnes is of God: and there­fore nothing, but insufficiencie in man. And this being known, shall it not be ac­knowledged? or may we ioyne with them that are at variance with God in his word, which teacheth a quite contrary lesson, shewing that the very frame of mās hart is only euill alwayes. only euill: Gen. 6.5. therfore perfitly naught & in no part good: alwayes euill: er­go neuer good, & therfore extreamly bad, whether we respect the nature of sinne, or [Page 22]continuance in sinning.

Moses hath the like place in sounde of words to that out of Ecclesiast.Deut. 30. much alle­adged, & in euerie particular circumstance vrged & driuen further then the Prophete meaneth, or in truthe can be maintained. where, of the commaundement, which in Deut. is cōmaunded, it is protested before heauen & earth, that it is not hid from the people, or far of in heauen or beyonde the sea, but neare vnto thē, in their mouth, & in their hart, life & death, blessing & cur­sing are set before the people, & they cō ­maunded, & exhorted to chuse life.

Here, say free will men, here is an electiō or choice, a free wil. Choose life: neither is the matter hard to do, life & death, cursed­nes & blisse are set before vs, it is in vs to receaue either. & reason so: say they: for if we might not dissent, or consent, but were at a point, to what ende serueth the exhor­tation? or if we coulde not consent to good (which is the harder thing) why are we commaūded to choose life, to embrace it, and to consent thereunto, and to doe accordingly.

In all this. I note three thinges, that the aduersary would inferre, first a knowledge [Page 23]of the Lawe, then a will to receiue it, and thirdly an abilitie to put it in practise.1 A knowledge he proueth by these wordes it is neere thee, not aboue thee, nor beyonde thy reach, not distant in place, thy mouth can talk thereof, thy harte meditate there­upon.2 A will he sheweth because of the worde choose. An abylity,3 for that these meanes are to the ende, the Law be done,Discou. of haer. transl. cap. 10. obeyed, executed, and put in vre: vt facias illud. M. Gregorie Martins great skill in grammer, can vrge this matter no farther.

All this being graunted, the presump­tuous Papist is neuer the neare his purpose, to proue a free will, or any other abi­litie in the naturall man. For first God speaketh to a people, whome he had chosen, and called, and whom he had cul­led out of all the rest of the partes of the worlde.

A long time (who knoweth not this?) God was chieflie worshipped amongst a few, in the familie of Abraham & his race,4. Esd. 5.23 that vinearde only was his, allother trees were the trees of a forsake forest. He toke and selected frō out of al the multituds of men, that only peculiar people, whō he lo­ued & gaue a law, his statutes & ordināces [Page 24]he made known vnto them:Psal. 147.20. Matth. 15.26. to other na­tions he did not so. The childrens bread was made for children, whō he had made his children, and not for dogges. No vn­circumcised person, no Cananitish foote might treade within his courts. But of this his people not only the heads, elders, and officers,Deut. 29.11 but also the drawer of water, and wood cleauer, were such, as vnto whō the Lord reueiled himselfe in familier maner. And hence commeth the knowledge that is here spoken of, & hence also is the wil­lingnes of a good choise, when God by the hande of his spirite did circumcise ther hartes, paring away the obstinacie of na­ture, & enduing them with faith,Deut. 30.6. embra­cing Christ, & so in him fulfilling all that is required.

And thus doth S. Paul expoūd this text (the word is neere thee, &c.) calling it the word of faith which was preached in the Gos­pell. Rom. 10.8. And so we graunt,Ihon. 8.36. that whō God doth teach, they ar skilfull, whō the sonne doth set at libertie, they ar free, and who haue Christ haue all that is Christs, the satisfa­ction of the father, the fulfilling of the law, & what euer else. Let vs beare this yoke, Rhem. not. Mat. 11.30 it is sweete: take we vp this burden it is light, [Page 25]sweete and light are they to them that are in Christ.

But why are these very things also exa­cted euen of all without difference,Stapl. 4. lib. cap. 3. as may appeare by other Scriptures, if yet some, & the most, and all whom nature ruleth, be so blind, so vnwilling, & vnable to do accor­dingly as is commaunded? or wherfore are there such faire rewards, generallie to all proposed, if in some certain it lye not, to go so far furth as to thinke a good thought, or to will well, much lesse to runne out the rase, & to winne the crowne of their sal­uation?

One aunswere will serue for both these demaunds.The sub­stāce of the Law was giuē to Adam though not written till Moses time Mar. 12.30. & 31 Although the Lawe were not written, till Moses time, yet was it giuen to Adam and to all in him at the first, as to loue God aboue all thinges, and his neighbour as him selfe. Which is an abridgement of the decalogue. Then might the commaū ­dement haue bin obeyed, and the reward obtayned. Afterward when it was to be writtē, no reason it should be lesse perfite, then God made it, because man became by his owne default more vnperfite then God made him, speciallie whereas yet, there remaine most euident, and excellent [Page 26]endes, and frutes thereof, as to knowe our dutie,Gal. 3.24 though we can not do it, & therby to endeuour to finde that else where, that is not in our selues. And when we see that we are out of the way, which leadeth to the rewarde of life, we may by Christes helpe compasse it an other way, and come to the same end in him.

They say a dronken man hath a desire to seeme sober, when his feete can not ca­ry his bodie. There is no dronkennesse like to that, which commeth by the wine of pride in vaine men. Wherefore to represse this naturall vanitie in all, & to keepe vs in a sober opiniō of our selues, God giueth vs a perfit lawe to measure our imperfe­ctions by.

For otherwise wee presume to touche heauen with our finger, till we see the di­stance. What burden can not our sholders beare, till we fele the waight? Eagles eyes haue we till we looke into the sonne: we seeme gould til the touchstone reproue vs, straight, til the rule telleth vs the contrarie: like sores that seeme to be sound till they be deepelie searched.

The younge man in the Gospell though that the keeping of the Lawe [Page 27]was but a tricke of youth.Mat. 19.20 All this haue I done from my youth vpwarde: But our Sa­uiour as a skillefull Phisition, touching the vaine that went directly to his heart,Aug. Serm. de Temp. 124 bade him to go and sell all that he had, and to followe him, and the case was straight altered, and his hypocrisie dis­played.

And in deede these are singuler vses of the law wel expounded, and fitly applied,Endes and good vses wherunto the Lawe serueth. both to conuince infirmitie, to accurse sinne, and also to discouer dissimulation, to root out ignorance, to bring a knowledge and a feeling that we haue offended, to breede in vs humilitie, and to leade vs to Christ, and being nowe in Christ, that it may be a rule of liuing well to vs who euer we be: and if we be publike persons, that wee make our Lawes all according to the Lords Law. And albeit we cannot attaine to perfection, yet the imitation thereof in his owne children he accepteth. Neither is it reason whether in the regenerate, or in the vnregenerate, that the Law should be such, as might be perfourmed of anie, ei­ther as it were a mark set vp, where euery man may hit it. For the leuell of our acti­ons must be straight, though our deedes [Page 28]be croked, the balance euen, though our workes deceiptfull, and the glasse cleare, though the face that looketh into it, haue his naturall deformitie. And wheras they argue, that therefore man hath free will to good, because it is commaunded, they may make the same reason also, that man naturally without grace may fulfill the whole Lawe, in worke as well as in will, if he will. For the one is commaunded as expressely as the other.

It is manifest, that our abilitie or inabi­litie is nothing to or fro, to the commaun­dement of God. Neither is his commaun­dement any thing to our ablenesse or ina­bilitie. VVhether I can or can not pay my detter, my dettes are due: whether they be required or not demaūded, they are equal­ly still in the same nature of dette. And though by negligence or other casualtie, I become bankerout, yet my hand writing and promises stand in their full force and strength.

In like manner our strength by sinne is lesse then it was, but our duetie is the same that it was euer. For Adams fall, and mens faultes, rather binde straighter, then set ei­ther him or vs at greater libertie. As it is [Page 29]commonly seene in men, that grow in det further and further, when they begin once to breake but a litle.

Among diuerse presentes,Dion. Nicae in vita Augusti. that were brought to Augustus by the ambassadours of India, there was presented vnto him a man without shoulders. How that should be, the historiographer saith he can not see onely he reporteth a report. Verilye I see thus much in the viewe of our a duersaries arguments, that their reasons haue neither shoulders to hold vp their head, nor feete to go or stand vpō, albeit they would seme to present them to the Church of God, as perfit and preciouse iewels.

We are commaunded to pay our detts:Stapl. lib. 4 cap. 3. therfore we can pay them: we are exhorted therunto, and promised our generall ac­quittance, if we so do, and are threatned if we do not,Mat. 18.26. ergo we are able to discharge the tenne thousand talents! the reason will not holde. The parable of the detter tea­cheth vs a better way to craue forgiuenes: and a man of common sense, can see and say that this reasoning wanteth reason.

The partridge gathereth an hoord of o­ther birds eggs, sitteth vpon thē,Ier. 17.11 & hatch­eth them: but when they are flushe they [Page 30]fly a way frō her: for they know that of right they belong not to the partridge: sembla­bly the Papist, gleaneth arguments some­times out of the Canonicall Scripture though seldome, sometimes by drift of his owne wit, when they are hatched, & come to light, they fly away from him, or stand him in litle stead, or rather make against, then for him. In the Lordes commaunde­ments we learne our duetie, in his punish­ments we feel the correction of our sinne­full demerits, and in his rewards proposed we record wherunto we were created, and agnize from whence we fell: And because we finde an impossibilitie in the Law,Rom. 8.3 Iob. 14 4 and no remedie in nature, we do not as men re­die to be drowned, catch at euery straw, that cannot help, but appeale to the throne of grace, and lay handfast only vppon his endlesse fauour, and euerlasting mercie, that exceedeth all his works.

I dwell vpon their chiefe places and rea­sons of theirs, longer then the intent of a briefe treatise may seeme to permit. The rather, because one of our late writers da­reth auouche,Alen. apol. of E [...]ngl. Se­mi. c. 5. p. 59 (with what face, let the world iudge) that in our shew of aunswer we further their cause rather then our own: we [Page 31]only looke backward a little, and barke, and fly from the light, and bay at them. As if this were all, that might be done in a mater of truth. And such are their crakes of victo­rie, in disputing &c. But I gesse few of thē can speake better, then the most & best of them haue written. Neither is it likely they canne do more in the valleyes, then in the mountaines, I mean they can not do more with their tongs & disputes now, thē their betters haue hertofore done with their pen & writing.By the bysh of Sarū. M. Nowell. D. Calfild & others. Wherin they haue receaued ful & iust answer. VVherfore no cause of fe are for all their in finit and intolerable vauntes.

For mine owne part (I speake the truth & ly not euē before Christ, that witnessed a good witnesse vnder Pontius Pilate) as in few I haue declared mans vndoubted im­perfection out of the word of God,Hosius con­tra Brent. prolo. Mart Eisen. de Eccl. vind. Pigg. Hie­rarch. Sand Monar. vis. Stapl. de doct. pr. &c. so in reading the aduersaries bookes & namely touching this matter of mans corruption, I finde that as all their labour elswhere tē ­deth only to the aduancing of human pōp vnder the name of the church, so vnder the title of nature they contend chiefly for the setting vp of man & flesh, in extenuating original sinne, in excusing concupiscēce, in praising the works of infidels, in vpholding [Page 32]the wisedom and will of corruption.

To speake of all that hath bene latelie written,Stapl. de v­niuers. Iusti ficationis doctr. 1582 were to generall. The las that I haue seene, and the largest is Maister Sta­pleton, whom I quote often in the margēt. The man I remember to haue bene of the Colledge, wherof my selfe am now. In re­spect whereof, and in Christian charitie I wish him the best. And if Samuell may a­wake Elie,1. Sam. 2.23 if the younger may warne the elder, to that end I haue thus called vppon him, and pulled him by the sleeue, that he go not away in a sleepe.

He knoweth Elie suffred his children to breake his owne necke. Verily the fancies and affections, that are bred in & of man, if he cocker them vp, they will bring him to a worse end then Elies was, or if he cor­rect & beat them lightly but with a fether, this will not amend the children of Belial, or the sonnes of Adam.

Elie demaunded of his sonnes, why did they such & such things? Do no more my sonnes, it is no good report, that I heare of you, which is, that you make the Lordes people to trespasse: yet more thē speaking roughly, he did not: but let them haue their ful fourth in sinne: as if he had chidde them [Page 33]with his toung, and stroked them fayrely on the head with his hand. Wherfore God denounceth that he loued his children a­boue him, and therefore he woulde do a thing in Israell wherof whosoeuer should heare, his two eares should tingle at it. So the Papist can not but confesse & say: The issue & ofspring of nature corrupt, can not be but corrupt. As the mother sinne is, so are the daughters of sinne. Of a thistle a prick, of a bramble commeth a bryer. And namely as concupiscence in the vnrege­nerat man for some causes must needes be sinne:Stapl. lib. 3 cap. 3 so in the regenerate no good report there goeth of it, neither yet of mans wise­dome nor of his will.

The Papist can chide a little on this fa­shion, but yet the naturall man will honor his children, and make of him selfe more thē of his maker. For he telleth euery man (to speake a word of that,Suprae pa. 9. which in order was touched before) albeit concupiscence be euill and sinne, yet is it not so properly, and in precise maner of speaking, but on­ly because she leadeth the way to sinne, & as it were causeth the Lordes people to transgresse.Stap. l. 4. c. 5 Likewise mans wisedome is darknesse for sooth in the Gentils, and his [Page 34]will stonie and obstinate, that is, say they, onely depraued.

Fie vpon such fondnesse, fie maister Sta­pleton. If our willes were onely depraued, and but some way prone to euill, and not perfitly imperfit, and past all good, had the holy Ghost no softer wordes to shewe the imbecillity therof, but by stone and brasse, and yron &c. And S. Paul when he telleth the Ephesians, that they were once dark­nesse, in deed they were Gentils, what thē? what doth that distinction help? The vnre­generat mans father is an Amorite,Ezech. 16.3 and his mother an Hittit, & all men are Gentils, or in as bad case as any man may be, if they be respected in them selues, not lightned by his spirit, & instructed by grace. And as for concupiscēce is it sin only, because she tē ­pteth, & not in proper termes of speaking?

A foolish woman & a sinneful is descri­bed in Solomon to be troublefom.Prou. 9.13 She is ignorant, and knoweth nothing, sitteth at the dore of her house, & entiseth them that passe by out of the right way. These pro­perties proue the sinnefulnes of the womā sufficiently & properly. All which appeare to be in the concupiscēce of man. The one is as ignorāt, & as busie as the other. Only [Page 35]the one prouoketh openly, & sitteth at her dore & allureth to her, the other lurketh in thy bosom, and therfore is the more dan­gerouse, and neuer the lesse sinnefull, but to all purposes to be taken as a natural sin­ner. But hereof before more at large.

These figg leaues then, fetcht out of the orchard of mans braine, will not couer be­tweene God & vs.Lib. 1. cap. 4 Your selfe M. Stapleton and others begin to mislike, both certaine schoolmen, and certaine late writers, for falsly maintayning naturs ability in prepa­ring her selfe meritoriously toward God, & ingeniously you confesse the hissing out of the opinion of merits de congruo, of deserts of conueniency. God graūt that as he hath be­gunne that good work, so he vouchsafe to make it perfit in you more & more in great measure, that you may see and detest the length & breadth & infinit deepenesse of mans naturall transgressions: and likewise with ioy of heart embrace the Lordes vn­speakeable mercy reuealed & giuen in the onely and sole Sauiour of the world Iesus Christ the righteouse. Amen.

Dauid was better,1. Sa. 17.47 2. Sam. 11.2 when he kept his fa­thers sheepe, then when he got the King­dom. If the sinne of Adam were lesse, and [Page 36]namely if the powers of mā were more, & his will of greater abilitie, & more orderly, then I haue proued it to be, yet I gesse it were good that an horse should not know his strength. What need we flatter a wan­ton & a way ward thing, which is thē best, when it is most kept short, and naturally it is neuer good, but alwayes naught?

When God intended to take iust reuēg­ment of vnthākful men,Rom. 1.24. that became vaine in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were full of darknesse, what did he? He gaue them ouer to their own lusts, that is to say, to their own will and wilfulnesse.

This grieuous punishment had not bin great,August. 6 Tract. in E­pish. Ioh. if the flexiblenesse & towardnesse of their wills had bin so good, or but so indif­ferently il, or els inclinable, & ready or free to receiue, either good or euill, or able to consent, when grace is offred, which is the verie hinge in deede,Stap. l. 4. c. 1. wheron the question of free will most dependeth.

Nowe but to consent to good is a good thing, hast thou this cōsent? what hast thou that thou hast not receaued,1. Cor. 4.7. & if thou hast receaued of an other, then is it not in thy selfe. Againe no goodnesse groweth out of the earth, but descendeth from aboue. And [Page 37]againe flesh & bloud,Mat. 16.17 doth neither reueale nor receaue any good, but is enimity to all good, & therfore cannot cōsent (which is a point of frindship therunto) Nay in the regenerat,Cic. de amic the flesh still lusteth against the spirit, which we haue receaued, and there­fore doubtlesse in the vnregenerat it much more doubtlesse in the vnregenerat it much more dissenteth before grace be receaued, & lesse embraceth it when it is offred.

When his graces are generallie offred, man is recusant by natur, shutteth his eyes, claspeth his hands, & is altogether auerse in heart, but yet whom God taketh & cho­seth effectually, he turneth their hearts, as he did the Purple sellers heart in the Acts,Act. 16.14 Act. 9.18 haleth and smiteth Paule downe from his horse, doth away the scales from his eyes, & worketh mightely the conuersiō of thē, that shalbe saued, and this he maketh men willing to receaue that, which before they wilfully refused: & herupō to imagin this willingnes to be of man, because at length by Gods gift it is in man, is a vain imagina­tiō to giue that to man which is Gods gift, as M. Stapletō doth, saying,Stap. l. 4. c. 4 that capacity of good things is of natur, and actiuity of Grace. No. bothe the beginning & the end, both capablenes & agilitie, to will & to work is of him.

[Page 38] Fulgentius was troubled with the like fancifull men,Fulg. de in­car. Christ. cap. 24 that thought, that because we were enabled by God to good, therfor we ar also able of our selues. The cōsequēt is naught. For as the flesh of mā hath no fe­ling and sense of it selfe, but the soule doth giue it life & sense, & so it may haue both: so man may (God so working in him) be wel willing, but the life & soule of this wil­lingnes, is the mere & sole mercy of God.

The wisdom of the Lord,Prouer. 9.1 in the book of prouerbs whō he possessed from all begin­ninges hath built here an house & hewed out her pillers &c. This bilding & house is his Church & chosen. Now euē as an hous can not rere vp it self, so is it with man, ne­ther the first stone, nor any part, of it selfe cā it selfe lay or set in the frame. And as the carpēter choseth his timber, the mason his stone, the potter his clay, and not contra­riwise, the clay his potter, the stone his ma­son, the timber his workman, the house her bilder, so God choseth the Church, not the Church him. That is a true word. I haue chosen you & not you me. Ioh. 15.16 in any kind of choice.

A wrāgler may stretch a similitude far­ther then may stand with christian humili­tie. As the carpenter in deed chooseth out [...] [Page 39]tree out of the wood, & worketh it alone, yet he chooseth the fayrest, the fittest, and the straightest, because these qualities ar in the timber: So God chooseth of men, the best qualified by nature, because of natu­ralles, that were in them first. No not so. He knoweth (who foreknoweth al things) no doubt what persons will best serue his building, who ar fittest, who vnfit. But ther for ar sōe fit, because he maketh thē fit? For otherwise by natur we are vtterly vnfit all.

And to demonstrate that all standeth v­pon mere choise, he chooseth the weak to cō ­found the strong, the simple to confute the wise, 1 Cor. 1.23 Iohos. 6.20 as it were the blast of hornes to ouerthrow the mighty walled city Iericho. He chooseth the least likely, & the most vnwilling to shew that neither in mans will or any part of his corrupt natur else, is ought to this purpose.

But of this his exceding mercy, fauor, & free grace more in speciall in the processe following.

Hetherto in the plenarie view of man both within & without, in body & soule, in whole and in part, appeareth nothing since his fal, but misery, bondage, pollutiō, vncleannes, darknes, confusiō, frowardnes, obstinacy, rebellion, and (in a worde) per­fit [Page 40]sinne & corruption. God looketh down frō heauen vpon all the children of men in earth, & findeth not any one, cōsidered as he is in his own nature,Psalm. 14.2 with whome it fa­reth better then hath bene declared.

Against curiositie in the search of vn­searchable misteries.

The translatours of the English Testa­ment at Rhemes tell vs, that the conside­ration of the place in S. Paul,Curiositie in Gods matters. wherein are set furth plainely Gods eternall predesti­nation, purpose, loue, &c. both hath bene alwayes, & in this age is a gulfe wherin ma­ny proud persons haue worthely perished. [Page 44]Proude persons? what then? we graunt. For pride will haue a fall in the playnest ground, and further when they say, these misteries of Christian faith ought to be re­uerenced of all men with all humilitie, & not to be sought out, or disputed vpō with presumptuouse boldnes: verely presump­tion, rashnes, and all boldnes we detest, as much as they, but they in thus saying insinuate an other matter: & faine would they haue Christian men to tremble and starte backe for feare, or else with a light foote to trip ouer that altogeather, which the spirite of God doth stande so much vpon.

Secret things belong vnto the Lord, but things reuealed to vs & our children for e­uer, in which sentēce of scripture we may see that there are secreats of two sorts, ei­ther still secret like the round ring,2. Esd. 5.42 whose beginning and ending are in it selfe, and knowen onely to the maker: or there are secretes reuealed to the children of men, the meditation and studie whereof apper­taineth to vs. According to this the Apo­stle speaketh the will of the Lord, who hath knowen, 1. Cor. 2.16. that he might instruct him? We haue the minde of Christ, the former of these [Page 45]sayinges must be left to God, the latter of these do belong to vs.

Augustine findeth faulte with curiouse heades, and bold mindes,In Psal. 8. whom he re­sembleth to fishe, that plunge themselues in ouer deepe questions and that walke in the pathes of the bottomlesse seas, in mat­ters to excellent for their knowledge. And truely who that modest is, and hath lear­ned to be wise with sobrietie, doth not vt­terly mislike and condemne the fact of the Bethshemites prying into the Arke, or the like pressing into hidden misteries?1. Sam. 6.19. Is not he an vnwise man that when he may safe­ly vpon the pauement go in and out in the Lordes courtes, yet hath a fancie to trie, whether he can get vp and trace it vpon the high pinacles of the temple? and yet because the pinacles are as ornamentes to set furth the maiestie and the glorie of the building, and builder, who dare hudwinck mens eyes, that they may not veiw the thinges that are therfore set in sight that they may be seene?

These fiue chiefe pointes (which I in­tende some of them to touch, some of thē to treat of more largely, and of them all reuerently to speake) are they aboue mē ­cioned, [Page 46]our Election, Vocation, Iustification, Sanctification, and Glorification.

These misteries verely are as holy as the mountaine,Exo. 19.23. Exod. 3.5. wherein God himselfe ap­peared, and as the ground, whereon Mo­ses stood. Wherefore aboue all thinges first put we of our showes, I meane all pro­phane cogitations, terrene and earthlie thoughtes, while we stād vpon these mat­ters, while we consider these his graces, & secreats in his worde reuealed in this be­halfe.

Of Election, Vocation, and Reprobation.

THat God electeth some vnto saluation before the beginning of the worlde:Election. some and therefore not all, before the be­ginning of the worlde, and therefore not for the desert of them, who then were not, (which also the verie name of Election doth import) is so manifest, that the Apo­stle demaundeth in vehement maner: who art thou,Rom. 9.20. that wilt dispute hereof, and rea­son to the contrarie, and gather absurdities therupō, as if the case were not so? Wher­in also it may be demaūded: who art thou that coynest distinctiōs to shift of the free­nes of the Lords choise? and darest thou a­uouch [Page 47]that albeit he chooseth before all worlds, yet he chooseth not freely, but for workes foreseene, and likewise refuseth? S. Paule is amased at the matter, and ado­reth the Lords both certaine and secrete mercies, and iustice herein, and canst thou distinguish with ease?

Touching our vocation both inwardly by the finger of his spirite,Vocation. and externally by the outward deliuerie of his word effe­ctually to certaine, and not so to some cer­taine, is no lesse plaine by our Sauiours prayer in S. Matthew,Matth. 11.25. I giue thankes O fa­ther, Lord of heauen and earth, because thou hast hid these thinges from the wise and men of vnderstanding, & hast opened them to chil­dren. It is so O father, because thy good will is such.

Wherein I obserue three points,1 first thanks to the father, then for what things,2 and thirdly why the father him selfe was induced,3 or rather vouchsaued to bestowe his benefits vpon some & why not in like sorte vpon all.

1. I thanke thee O father, or I confesse,1. Thanke­fulnes. Serm. de di­uersis 3. all is one. For, as Augustine sayeth, they are very meanely learned, that know not that there is a confession of prayse and [Page 48]thankesgiuing, aswell as of sinnes. Christ thanketh his father, of whom Christians may learne to be thankeful for themselues, for shall he pray for vs, and not we for our selues: or shall he be thankefull in our be­halfe, and shall not we also be thankefull in our owne cause?

If one grape waxe ripe and red,Vuáque cō ­specta liuo­rem ducit abvua. they say that the grape ouer that, doth ripen the faster, and take colour the sooner. It behoueth vs that are greene, and sowre, considering the example of Christ, and his sweetenes to grow in grace & like thank­fulnes to our God, confessing alwayes, frō what spring are deriued our waters, or ra­ther from what sea they issue, or rather from what heauen, or rather how from the father of heauen and earth they descend vpon vs,Gen. 18.27 which are but dust and ashes.

He giueth vs all that we haue: onely he reserueth the prayse of all vnto him selfe.Esa. 42.8. He is the freest Landlorde, that may be, fa­ther of heauen and earth, and Lord of all, and we his seruauntes and the workemā ­ship of his handes. Yet he suffreth vs to haue and enioy freely the frute and vse of all, yeelding him and paying nothing but this, that we acknowledge and confesse [Page 49]that we holde of him and that we are his tenantes.

2. In speciall, for what is our Sauiour thus thankefull vnto his father?2. For VVhat. Because he had hid the secreats and treasures of the Gospell, from the wise and learnedmen, and had reuealed them vnto babes. Consider your vocation saith S. Paul,1. Cor. 1.26. not many wise men after the flesh, not many mightie, not many noble are called, I adde, were cho­sen. For whom he calleth in time, those he forechoose before all times, and whom he calleth not at al, no maner of way, those he neuer chose.

What then? is all learning & wisedom vtterly condemned hereby, or are the ba­ser and weaker sort onely called, are wo­men and weauers and beggers and yonge students to be admitted to the search and vnderstanding of holy writ?

We knowe & professe, that these haue soules to saue, & are bought with as deare a price, as the best doctors and rich men are. There is no kinde of good learning but we commend it in the highest degree of due commendation: and yet withall we say: Godlines is great learning. Act. 18. [...]4. Apollos was eloquent, but his might was in the [Page 50]scriptures. We dispise not the inferiour: we preferre the greater gifts. Notwith­standing both eloquence, and all other whatsoeuer excellent qualities of either natures wisedome, or good arts, &c. ex­cept the person qualified with them be also endued with faith from aboue, they rather be occasions of euill in him then otherwise, greatly encreasing his greater condemnation.

If Agar can be content to obey Sara,1. Sam. 3.1. Reuel. 4.10. if our wisedome can submit it selfe to the Lordes wisedome, if our learning will serue as Samuel did in the temple, if the potent and mightie man subiect his scepter and crowne, if he can stoope and fall before the throne of God, these former quali­ties are sanctified, and God accepteth them in the persons, whom he accepteth in faith. Not many wise welthy or mighty, the scripture saith not, Not anie are cal­led.

Because it is commonly seene, that A­gar will contend with her mistresse, the Graecian presumeth of Learning, the sub­tle head of his policies not meanely me­naged: therefore of the vsuall practise, and not howe it goeth better in some speci­alities [Page 51]the scripture sheweth. For God woulde haue all (of all sortes) saued,1. Tim. 2.4. and yet I say not all in generall without anie restraint. For who then coulde resist his will, if he will so haue it? Or why are any dāned, if he will haue all to be saued with­out exception? The Lords mercie is aboue all his workes, and the sinnefull workes of man can not be greater to his owne con­demnation, then the mercie of God to saluation, if God would so haue it in all. Notwithstanding the commaundementes are giuen forth in generall. Likewise the exhortations are vttered to all, grace o­penly offered, and publickly proclaimed. Many are called, and yet few are choosen. i. inwardly touched,Matth. 20.16. and well accepted of the Lorde. According to this generall of­fer, there is somewhat, that may be sayde for the iust, and deserued commendation of many, because al obey not their calling, all receiue not their saluation profered. And yet the conditionall will of God to haue all saued, if all would, is but a fancie. For many seeke with endeuour, which is more then a wil, to enter the straight gate,Luc. 13.24. & shal not be able. Truely none shalbe sa­ued, but whom God will, whom he will [Page 52]indurate, his hart is hardned, as Pharaoes was. But most miserable were the condi­tion of mans saluation, if it hung vpon his owne mutable, fraile and froward will.

Origen thinketh,August. de ciuit. Dei lib. 21. cap. 17. perchaunce vpon oc­casion of this saying, God will haue all sa­ued, that it will followe, that all and eue­rie one whosoeuer euen the verie diuels, fi­nally and one day shall be saued in the ende. Concerning Origen it is well sayed that where he wrote well, no man wrote better: and where euill (and therefore not euer well: and in this, verie badlye) no man writeth worse, so manifestly against the Scriptures, and so fondly beside the v­niuersall, catholike and Christian faith,Epist. ad A­lexandr. touching the euerlasting damnation of the damned, either spirites or men, in so much that him selfe else where was faine to ex­cuse him selfe therein, and likewise vtter­ly to detest the errour.

What sence then beareth that sentence: God will haue all men saued? The Apostles meaning is not hard. God will haue all sa­ued, that is to say, of all sortes some, (as I sayed before) and therefore expressely by name, he willeth that prayers be made for magistrates, and for men in authoritie, a­mong [Page 53]whom also he hath his chosen.Act. 10.34. Nei­ther doth he respect any person, in regard of sexe, place, time, degrees, and the like externall circumstances. For though not all, & euery one of these sorts, yet out of all these he calleth some, and those not for any speciall properties naturally in them more then in the rest, that are not called.

In the dayes of Elias when Achab had sold him selfe vnder sinne,1. King. 19.10. and the people adored Baal,Rom. 11.5. and Idolatrie getting the vp­per hand was openly practised in Israell, the Prophet complaining thereof, & that himselfe was left all alone, receaued aun­swer of comfort frō the Lord, that he had left 7000. that neuer had bowed knee to Baal. Wherupon Augustine doth well ob­serue, & the text is pregnant to proue, that these who were reserued,Aug. de bo­no perseue. cap. 7. left not them selues to the Lorde, but reliqui mihi, I left them to my selfe saith the Lord. For it is he alone, qui facit vt & accessamus ad eum: Sic & ne recessamus ab eo: Our first accesse to him is by him: and also that we recoyle not from him, relapse and fal away againe, but to perseuere to the end is a worke of God, & not of our selues.

[Page 54] M. Allen in his Apologie of the semina­ries assureth himselfe that no wise man can be a Protestāt 23 yeares,In the Apol of the Semi. and in epist. ad. Greg. 13 before his booke of the Sacraments and sacri­fice. or anie long time togeather, & yet he seeth the contrary & is greeued thereat. But suppose that our religion were false, & his superstitiō right, doth it yet go by worldly wisedom, wher­of he speaketh? Or are our Rabbies & ma­sters of Rhemes ignorāt of this, that thogh God hath his kings & Queenes, & worthy, noble and learned men,Esa. 49.23. as foster fathers, & nurse mothers, & good instruments in and of his church, yet many times (& may I not say, most often?) the lettered, the prudent, the politicke, the mighty, the noble, & the wise of this worlde are shut out of doores with God, neither are they able by natural reasons, or morall experience to discerne no not a falshood in the principall points of true Christianitie. Wherefore God gi­ueth entrance to poore and simple babes, and litle ones, the lest of all their tribes, and smallest of account in their fathers house.

Humilitie a necessarie vertue.As in plūpes & wels, where men drawe water, frō deepe places, the bucket descen­deth low, that the water may be brought vp: so they that are to receiue the waters [Page 55]of Gods graces proceding frō the depth of his endlesse mercy in a true & an vnfained humility must descēd ful low. For the low­ly of hart, & meek of mind, he only filleth: The rich, which are rich but not in God, thee proud & presumptuous ar sent empty away, & the poore receiue the Gospel, strā gers frō the east come to see Christ, & simple sheepehards are they that heare & cary the first tidings of his bearth. This hath bē the Lords vsage & dealing from the begining. The yonger breathern ar preferred before the elder, the weake before the strong, the simple before the wise, the vnlettered before them that loue to be saluted as ve­nerable Rabbies in long & side gownes, at the corners of the streets & in opē places. So was Moses preferred before Pharao, the afflicted Israelits before their hard taskmasters, & the poore widow of Sarepta before all Israell, so was Peter the fisherman, and not Pilate the iudge, Paul the tētmaker & neither Tertullus the orator nor Nero the Emperour: And as Daniel the child was e­steemed before Darius princes, so he chu­seth & he calleth, such as those children were in the ouen, humble & innocent men & none other. But first he maketh them as [Page 56]children and babes, that they may be (not because they are alreadie) aunswerable to his euerlasting choise in their effectuall calling, and (as it were) first he mollifi­eth the wax & then after a sort he imprin­teth his own image in them afresh, which once also they, aswell as others had de­faced.

For naturally as hath bene declared in the former treatise, what was there in one, that was not in an other, and in all a­like? What was there in Abraham, that was not in Nacor? what in the Iewes, that was not in the Gētiles? Before God called them, and not the Gentiles, all alike with­out exception we are detained in the selfe same darkenes of minde, and disobediēce of will. And afterward when the natu­rall oliue, not naturall by nature, but right by choise and calling, began to waxe wild againe, when of children they became a bastard, a froward, and a peruerse nation, God left them to them selues, he gaue thē ouer to their corrupt nature, and with­drew his grace, whereby they were a righ­teous seede. And nowe the best among them were worse than others, the scribe than the ignorant, the pharisee farre worse [Page 57]than the publicane.Act. 4.6 For these most resisted the preaching of the Gospel. And this was the iust iudgement of God, that rather o­pened the eyes of the simple amongest them, then of the greater personages. In the one appeareth his grace, in the other his iustice: which doth the more set out his grace, & in respect of both Christ giueth thanks to the Father,Ps. 145.17 who is to be praysed in all his workes, and worshipped in al his wayes.

To proue that he hath gone this waye, and wrought these workes, blinded some eyes and opened some, stopped and hard­ned some eares and heartes, and (as the Scripture saith) circumcised and mollified som by his especiall grace, is so cleare, that if there were nothing els, but our Sauiours thankes for the same,Reprobatiō. what needeth far­ther proofes?3 VVhy?

3. Nowe but why doth God so?Ioh. 12.40 elect some, and reiect som, cleare some eyes, do out and darken some? Great cause why it should be so. Euen so great, as is the wise­dom of the eternall God, who prouideth, that neither the willer, nor the runner,Rom. 9.16 do any thing, but him selfe taking mer­cie doth all in all, in the saluation of his [Page 58]saincts, to the end, that the branches beare not the roote, but the roote the branches, that whosoeuer reioyceth, may reioyce in the Lord, and his good pleasure.

Yet all this rather concerneth his ele­ction and good choise in some, but whie doth he reprobate any? why are not cer­taine as effectually called as others?

Who art thou that doest thus, why it & quarel it with God?Iob. 9.4 May the vessel reason with the potter?Esay. 10.15 the axe with the carpen­ter? the saw with him that draweth it? dare any seruant pry into all the councels of his masters closet? cāst thou folow & track the way of the fish in the waters, of the foule in the air? If thou cāst do impossible things then maist thou see and discern things also inuisible. For there is the like impossibility in both. If God shold do equallie well to all, then were he after a sort so much the lesse to be praised of some for his benefites more in speciall,Aug. de do­no perseuer. cap. 12 Mat. 20.15 and singularly to them, then to others. Neither yet is there any ini­quitie in so doing. For may he not do with his owne what he will, and that without mans witting? why? may he not illuminate what eye he list, lighten which candle he pleaseth, or shoot away what arrow he is [Page 59]disposed, without thy certaine knowledge of his secret counsels in his most iust do­inges?

In this curiositie of searching farther, thē may stand with the sobriety of creatures in the Creators workes, a man may aswel de­maunde, why all in the fielde is not pure corne, & no chaffe, why trees beare leues at all, and not all frute, why there ar aswell frogges as fish in the pond, as well goates, that will not heare, as sheep that heare his voice in the fold of Christ? Christ the se­cond person in Trinitie adoreth the coun­cell of his Father herin, and confesseth that the reason of this is this: So it is, because it pleaseth thee o father so. The Papist drea­meth of a better will in some, then in som, and that maketh much as he thinketh to the matter. I aske: will darknesse willing­ly become light, will weedes be corne, goates, sheepe, will thornes be vines and beare grapes?Aug. de verb. Apost. Serm. 2. Vi­olentia fit cordi &c Doth the natural man sauor of the things of God? would a wound be handled? can the flesh yeild to the spirit? would sleepe be awakned? Doth the dead in sinne, that wanteth sense of a better life, desire to be reuiued any one more then an other. But herof before. All are earthly by [Page 60]nature, hated by desert, condemned by iu­stice, and reprobate in them selues. Whie yet some are by grace beloued, saued by mercy, vouchsafed heauen by adoption, chosen in Christ, called to the Gospel, and receaue it willingly, the highest roundle in the ladder, that man may ascend vnto, is the Lordes owne pleasure, and this, that contented Christ, must content Christians.

For the condemnation of the wicked,Prou. 16.4 there is more then sufficient desert in the reprobate, and albeit thou heare that God also is agent therin, yet beware thou ima­gin euill in the Lord, who as the Sun shi­neth into dark places, and is not darkned, and likewise as the raine moisteth the euil tree, and therfore it beareth his vnhappie, & a bitter frute: but mark: in that it beareth frut it cōmeth of the moisture: in that it beareth euill frute, it commeth of his own na­ture, and therefore worthely calleth for the axe to be cut downe, and iustly deserueth to be throwen into the fire: And know this that in one & the same action diuerse may be agents, & they diuersly to be tearmed, their intents and ends purposed, and also meanes in proceding being diuerse, accor­ding as the persons are diuersly better or [Page 61]worse either affected, or skild: euen as the keeper (as Seneca saith in an other case) many times hath his prisoner linckt to his girdle or hand wrest,Senec. lib. 2. epist. 5 and so they two maie be detayned both in one chaine, notwith­standing the keeper be an innocent man, and a necessarie officer, and the prisoner a very Barabbas, and an vnprofitable mem­ber of the common wealth. I end this mat­ter without farther debating. God hath to do, and sucketh out his owne glorie out of all things, especially he sheweth his good­nesse to his Saints, and his iustice vpon sin­ners. To fele the one is a heauē on earth, to find out the other altogether by reasoning is vtterly beyond the reach of flesh. Quod lego, credo: non autem discutio. What thou readest that beleeue, & go no nearer, ether to the fire for feare of burning, or farther in to water, for feare of a whirle poole. Walk in thy vocatiō, folow the threed of thy calling, cōtend by orderly meanes to the end, God hath prefixed to the faithful in Christ his Sonne and thy Sauiour.

Of iustification, the fullnesse and freenes ther­of, and the comfort that cometh therby.

THe free pardon for sinne, and the suffi­cient ransom therof concurre alwayes [Page 62]and meete euer in the iustified man. For whom the Lord forgiueth, to them also he giueth the possession of his Sonne, in whō all are made righteous, and without whom none shalbe iustified. And when he doeth the one, he doth the other, & both ioyntly in full mercie.

M. Stapleton saith no, but sheweth no reason nor glimse,Lib. 7. ca. 10. or shew of reason to the contrary, but this: that because our iustifi­cation stādeth not in remissiō of sins alone, therefore remission of sinnes inferreth not the imputation of righteousnes by Christ, as coherent with it, & don also by God: as if the Lord in his doings wold worke fiue dayes him selfe, and leaue the finishing & perfectiō of that which he had so carfully and gratiously begun, to be accomplished the sixt day, or at leasure by some others. But his eye seeth not, that therfore in deed are our sinnes remitted, because Christ is imputed, and that neither are these forgi­uen, but to whom Christ is giuen first and in order before, though both without di­stinction of time are giuen together to the faithfull man.

The Phisitians speak of a body neutrall,Corpus [...]. neither whole nor sicke, because they wāt [Page 63]a name to expresse the sickenesse by. Truly by true diuinitie we haue no such either bodies or soules. Either wee be whole or sicke, quick in Christ, or dead in sinne, ei­ther iustified by him, or still remayning in our old corruptiō. There is no middle stay,Mat. 12.30 either we gather with him, or we scatter. All are to be sorted, either among the ri­ghteous or vnrighteous, holy or prophane, sonnes or bastards. As in the day of doome or generall iudgement, all shall be either sheepe or goates, corne or chaffe: when the iudge shall haue but a right or left, no third hand, to bid these go vnto, who haue their sinnes pardoned, and yet (as is fay­ned) are voide of iustice in their Sauiour. Then that blessednesse wherof Dauid speaketh, Blessed are they, Psal. 32.1 whose sinnes are not imputed, and whose iniquities are couered, shall be either vtterly denied men, or in full de­liuered, so pronounced by the Prophet, be­cause of the not imputing of their sinnes, which cannot but imply the imputation of righteousnesse by Christ withall,The d ctrin of forgiue­nesse of sins in Christ most comfortable. which is the couering of sinne.

This blessednesse most happy must bee sought for euer, til it be fully foūd out here, and perfitly enioyed in heauen. So wee [Page 64]preach and so we beleue, and this we pray for: the glad yeare, the acceptable time, the release of dets, the remission of sinnes, & the imputation of Christ with his me­rits. Verily, the very hinge of Christianity, the key of religion, the peace of consciēce, the water that allayeth the whirl winds and tempests of a troubled soule, the wine that gladdeth the heauie hart, and the oyle that cheereth the countenance of the sorowful man that droupeth, and hangeth head as the bulrush in remorse of his offences, are contained herein, and depende vpon this happie and heauenly doctrine, of our free iustification in Christ Iesu.The parts of iustifica­tion. The partes whereof properly taken to be are but two: the remission of sinnes, and imputation of righteousnesse: the sinnes are ours, the righteousnesse Christes. The remitting of them vnto vs, and the imputing of that which is none of ours, are freely bestowed by speciall fauour vpon the faithfull: and so of sinners and vniust, we are reputed iust, and become saued soules for Christes sake.

Of the righteousnesse of Christ imputed vnto, and not inherent in a Chri­stian man.

FArther, fitlie to declare how far remis­sion of sinnes stretcheth, and in what maner precisely Christs righteousnes is rekoned ours, requireth the lōger stay herin, because the aduersaries haue enwrapped, & hedged in the matter round about with thorns, that an vnwary hād can hardly cōe to the truth without dāger of pricking. For of remission of sins,Stap. li. 5. et lib. 7. ca. 10 they haue made a rasing out of sin quite, as if no sinne remained at al after baptisme: & of imputation,Rhe. Note. Ro. c. 4. ver. 7.8 they make a very imprinting of a perfit righteousnes in vs: in both pointes erring very wide frō the truth. For albeit the guilt of sinne be remitted, and that no sinne hath any such sting, as can wounde to death euerlasting: Yet the full abolishing of sinne is not in this life, but after death in the life to com. And albeit vpon our effectual calling, faith in Christ (which is the gift of God) straight way in conuenient time frameth a new by grace in Christ all our thoughts,Phil. 3.29 Concil. Mi­leuit. can. 3 proineth our lusts, schooleth our affections, and or­dereth a right the whole race of our life to a better course, and likewise although it be truly said Christ dwelleth in vs and we are his holy temples, & that we haue in vs his righteousnes, his, because it procedeth frō [Page 66]his spirit, when we beleeue rightly & liue accordingly, yet that righteousnes where­by we are iustified, is resident onely in the person of Christ, & is not inherent at all in vs, for this were to make vs not onely his faithfull seruants, and obedient children, which is our dutie and must be so: but to make our selues very Christes & Sauiours of our selues,And. ortho. expl. li 6. ca de iustific. if not in whole at the entrie of the first receauing him, yet in the chie­fest perfection therof, in the end of our iu­stification, purchasing it to be really inhe­rent and perfit in vs by meanes of deserts.

The later Papistes,Rhem. not. 2. Rom. especially since the councell of Trent haue most mistaken our iustification, which when thy haue graū ­ted it to be fre, calling it a first free iustifi­cation, yet by glozing to & fro therupon, haue much also impayred the freenesse therof, and then in iustification, which is but one, being verie ill vnderstood (as the mad-man thinketh he seeth two moones for one) they haue found out another in thē selues,Stap. lib. 10 cap. 2 Iustificatio imporiat ius ad vitā aeternam. which being made vp of good workes, must present them iust before the tribunall seate of God, and deserueth euer lasting life, & this they call a 2. iustificatiō.

Verily we for our parts can not but in­geniously [Page 67]protest & confesse: we haue not so learned Christ, and herein nothing can comfort vs more thē this, that we haue not bene brought vp in the schoole of Trēt by Andradius, or as auditors at M. Stapletōs feet at Doway, or els at Rhemes vnder our late translatours there.

Our righteousnes is Christ. We are iust in him, not in our selues. For his sake our sinnes are not imputed,Coloss. 1.20 but his innocencie is imputed. In him it hath pleased the Fa­ther to be reconciled.Eph. 1.7 And so ar al iustified freely by grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesus, both is in him, & by his means. But I say which is in him in­herētly, & not cleauing to vs. For the truth is, the womā is clad with the Sun in the re­uelatiō: that is to say:Reuel. 12.1 the church is couered with the righteousnes of Christ, the Son of God. But as a garment sticketh not to the body, no more doth the perfectiō of Christ cleue or stick in the person of any Christiā neither is he, or his righteousnes,1. Tim. 2.6 [...]. or a righ­teousnesse in any degree in this life perfit imparted, or gotten, or purchased by any way of cōmixture & confusiō, but he only is ours by imputatiō, the pay & ransom of our dets, though we personally defray and pay no farthing therūto.

[Page 68] The sonnes of men that meant to build a tower that should reach to heauen, when they all spake one language, euery one vn­derstāding his fellow in the same tongue, their worke went forward. For an vnder­standing consent is much to farther, either the euil intents of the wicked, or the god­ly indeuours of the good. Wherefore the Lord descēded & cōfoūded their tongues, that they might not all speake with one lippe and language, and so was their buil­ding interrupted, and it came to nothing, the place receauing a fit name (Babell) of a deserued confusion. Our aduersaries, whi­lest they nestle them selues, agreeably to­gether in an opinion as it were legions of vncleane spirites in the bosoms of the sim­ple, they beguile the soner, & the moe. But in this their building, wherby they would pile vp merits & works of deserts, & mor­ter thē together, in the lande of their owne flesh, the top whereof should reache vp to heauen, the Lorde coulde not suffer suche proude giantes so vngraciously to impaire his glory, & to haue their foorth, but by his prouidence hath descended, and diuided their languages, among them selues. One saith one thing, another sayth another [Page 69]thing. Pigghius a chiefe master workman with his felowes, & M. Stapletō a fine buil­der after the newer fashion with his mates, can not agree together about the founda­tiō of the worke. Pigghius wil haue works preparatory, & deferring the grace of God,Lib. 7. cap. 9 to be the ground work. M. Stapletō liketh not that so well. Againe which way the frame should rise, and vpon what pillers it should rest, they vary more. M. Stapleton would haue mans righteousnes to rely and be in & vpon mā himself. Piggh. being better skild, in this cause of more remors & hū blenes of mind misliketh that, & shewes by manifest demonstrations it must be other­wise. Yet Pigghius good aduise largelye layed foorth in this respect in his bookes, could not be heard in the conuent of Trēt, amongst whom if any were wiser & better then others, they were least regarded,Sess. 6. cā. 11 and soonest reiected. But whether it were by reading M. Caluin, & in him the Scriptures of God fitly and forcibly applied, or other­wise God opening his heart by what and whom as instrumentall meanes I can not tel, certainly Pigghius letteth not to speak the truth in plain tearmes, & concludeth it with euident & like sound reasons. M. Sta­pleton [Page 70]notwithstanding still buildeth his tower of Babel, without lime and sand, or rather vppon the sand of fraile and weake man, the fall whereof can not chuse but be great in the day of triall.

Very well & wisely (saith Pigghius) we are taught being void of righteousnesse to seeke it,Controuers. Ratisb. 2 extranos without our selues, in illo in him, in Christ. Wherin if it be demaūded how & by what right I cā be righteous by the righteousnes that is in an other:Iohn. 15.14 Rom. 5.19 A rule of the Law & a good rea­son in Phi­losophy. Arist. Eth. l. 3. c. 3. That what a man doth by another, after a sort he doth by himselfe, and it is so accepted, except euer where a personall per­formance is required. It is easily aunswered: by the right of friendship, wherūto Christ hath vouchsafed to accept vs, cōmunicating, & laying all that he hath in cōmon vnto vs his frinds. And as by one mans disobedience many were made sin­ners, euen in the guilt of sinne, then whilest they were but yet in the loines of Adam: so by one man cometh righteousnes vpon al: and albeit we and his person be distinct, yet that which he the head hath paied for vs the members of his misticall body is as sufficient, as if we the members had payd it our selues. And a great deal better it is, that such treasures should be kept rather in the hands of a strong and safe keeper, then of them who once had bene prodigal childrē & might be again, if their patrimony were [Page 71]deliuered them nowe in as ample or more ample maner then it was at the first.

This is once: harm there can com none by this doctrin, but good: For as the iustice and mercy of God, hereby is the more per­fitly established, so our righteousnesse is as well obtained, & likewise better cōfirmed in Christ our elder brother, vnder whose perfumed, & most fragrant & sweet attire, & in whose absolut perfection we appeare perfit before God, & receaue the blessing, as Iacob did in Esawes garments, & not in his owne, at his father Isaaks hands:Gen. 27.27 Ambr. de Iacob. & vita beat. lib. 2. cap. 2 Gen. 27.1 which story S. Ambr. & others by way of all usiō cōueniently alleadge to this very purpose, of mans iustification before the Lord.

Yea, but God is not like Isaak in his old age, whē his eyes were dimme, that he will take one brother for an other, or impute ri­ghteousnes to a mā that is not righteous.

In deede when we shew, both by the naturall propriety, and common vse of the word Iustifiyng: that it doth not import any imprinting or an indument of any quality in a man, but an absolutiō, as in iudgemēts & in the cōsistories of men, so before God,Stap. 2. prol in 5. lib. when we are absolued, the reply is made, that God will not absolue the vnrighte­ouse man, and that he discerneth, who [Page 72]are who, well enough.

And who denieth this? we knowe and acknowledge, that so great is the ielousie of our God, that he will not suffer the vn­godly to take his * couenāt in their mouths much lesse to enioy his blessings.Psal. 5.16 * No vn­cleane thing shall enter the holy citie,Reu. 21.27 the workers of iniquitie shall not come nigh him,Luc. 13.27 for his face is against them, to roote them out. Thine eyes are cleare o Lord, & thou canst not behold iniquitie.Psal. 5.6

But what shall we say then? Shall I say, we are righteouse, & that we haue no sin? Of sanctification shalbe spoken afterward which they blinde & confound with iusti­fication.1. Ioh. 1.10 If we say we haue (not onely haue had) but yet haue no sin, our tongues will faulter, for our harts can teach vs a contra­ry lesson:1. Ioh. 3.20 or if our hearts be a sleepe, God is greater then our harts. If he enter iudge­ment not with his enemies,Psal. 130 but with his seruants, who shal abide it? who can aun­swer one for a thousand?Iob. 9.3 who shal appear innocent, & be pronounced righteouse.

The case is waighty, & requireth diligēt attention. If we confesse our vnworthines, health may seeme to be far frō sinners. For the wicked shal come to nought, yea and [Page 73]their hope shall perish. If thou darest de­ny thine vnrighteousnes, then art thou the more past grace, and the deeper in sinne. And yet as whē the Patriarks had throwē their brother into the pit, they went aside,Gen. 37.25 and without remorse fell to their meate, afterward their old sinne, & vnkinde dea­ling, came fresh to their minde, so the fat hart that can not feele when he sinneth, and how he woundeth his soule in sinne­ing, the time shall come when it shall haue a liuely and a bleeding sense thereof,VVisd. 5.3. and a sentence accordingly.

Then, belike, whether we feele and cō ­fesse our vnrighteousnes, or else bragge & presume of a righteousnes, all is one. No, not so, for happie are they, that findeing their infinite defects, & innumerall wants, nakednes of good, and guilt of sinne, ther­by come to that grace and wisedom, by grace to seeke for supply of better things, and helps in him, that is able and sufficiēt in this behalfe. Wherein an humble ag­nition of sundrie our imperfections vnfai­nedly made from the hart, and truly in res­pect of trespasses ineuitably committed e­uen of the best men, doth not repugne or withstand, but establish, as I saide before, [Page 74]and meruelously settle in mens hartes, and greatly set furth and commend the righte­ousnes and grace of God, whereby we obtaine in Christ, that which is not in our selues: perfit wisedom, true holynes, entire righteousnes, and euerlasting redemptiō. For look what he our mediator surely did in our names, and for our sakes, that the Lord accepteth as done to him selfe, by vs conditionally, that we still rely vpon him, trust in his mercies, embrace the promises, renounce our selues, and leane to Christ.

The Prophet Esay foretold what Christs office shoulde be,Esay. 50.11 and was to do: that he should iustify many, and by what meanes, by bearing & sustaining their sinnes, which he did vpon the crosse, when he made due payment for them & full purchase of that holynes, which he began at his birth, and continued in the hole race of his life, and finished with his death, but declared more apparantly by his rising againe. As the A­postle speaketh to the Romanes:Rom 4.25. He died for our sinnes, and rose againe for our iustifi­cation. Who as in earth taking our nature vpon him, became the mediator between God and man, so also now still in heauen, he is remayning an intercessour for vs, to [Page 75]the father in our needes and necessities whatsoeuer. And this his continuall inter­cession for vs, amongest other things doth manifestly declare, that which a good Christians conscience doth oft tell him of, euery night, whē he goeth to bed, & euery morning when he riseth, and euery houre when he thinketh on his so many duties, that he oweth to the Lord, that question­lesse he hath not such a righteousnes in him, as euery sinneful Papist prateth of, but in deede in account before God, hath no more true goodnes, then proud men can haue, and howe much that can be, let the hūble iudge. But towching perfection or imperfectiō of righteousnes more distinct­ly it shalbe saide in that which followeth.

Of the regenerate mans imperfection, yet re­maining, and of an impossibilitie of the ex­act keeping of the law.

Ovr Sauiour preferreth common strum­pets,Mat. 25.31 Luc. 15.3. prophane Publicanes, and grosse sinners before proud Pharisaicall boasters. Yea the very Pelagiā in shew is better thē the hauty Pharisey, though also somuch the worse, because in words he is more modest confessing his vnworthines, & yet in harte [Page 76]beleeuing the contrarie, and recknoning of a naturall perfection, and of a fautlesse integritie. But who taught him to make a diuorse betwixt his tung & his harte? if his hart be pure, why dissemble his lips? if his lips speak truth, why doth his hart dissent? The Lord resisteth the proude in hart, and the lying lipps he will destroy.Psal. 12.3. This fine tricke of hypocrisie, the Papist hath bo­rowed of the Pelagian. For they be of great familiaritie, and neare kinne, and therfore may be bold one with an other.

Aske any Papist, one or other, whether he thinke himselfe righteous or no: he wil say no, and deny it with open protestatiō. Aske him what he thinketh of an other, he wil answer if a man will contend, & ende­uour thereunto, the Lawe is not so harde, but it may be done and fulfilled:VVorkes of supereroga­tion. Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 9.16. nay he will go farther and defend a greater perfe­ction to be in Friers, Monkes, Iesuits &c. then God either of his wisedom could, or of his iustice would commaund in his law. But aske the Prophets, Esaie, Daniel, and Dauid,Psal. 31.6. Daniel. 9.7 Esa. 64.6. what their iudgement is, and these because they are of an other spirite, will make a diuerse aunswer: that there is not a Sainte, but doth pray to be pardoned, [Page 77]shame and confusion belongeth to all, the verie righteousnes of man is as a stayned cloth.

Vnto these last wordes out of the Pro­phet Esaie,Lib. 6. cap. 22. Maister Stapleton agnizeth, that: Now adayes the writers of his owne side, haue aunswered, admodum varie, ve­ry variously. But is it possible? I had thoght Papists could not haue iarred, or varied on iot one from an other: for so they can falsly brag. I graunt the spirit of an interpreter may be examined, & iudged by others.1. Cor. 14.32. For men are men, and being diuerse, because all haue not all truth in such measure and knowledge of euery circumstance, they may write diuerslly. But what is the cause of this their so great varietie in a matter not hard? Verely,Bert. de pro pri. verb. lib. 18. cap. 68. no meruaile if you run sidelong, and a slant (like a hare down an hill) or, to and fro, some one way, some an other, and not furth out right and dire­ctly all, when you come near a text, that maketh after you, and in pursuit can not but ouertake, and quite ouerthrow your errors.

To omit all others, because you omitte them to, how take you, M. Stapleton, the Prophets meaning to be? Marry, that their [Page 78]former righteousnes in the corrupt times vnder Achaz & Manas. was stayned with their latter vnrighteousnes, thē aboūding, not that the wordes concerne the workes of the Iewes, that were good then, or may be applyed to the righteousnes of Chri­stians now, and that the Prophet speaking as of himselfe among others withall, doth but after the maner of Preachers reprehē ­ding the peoples vices seeme to include them selues with the rest, howbeit, they be free from such popular enormities.

So you say maister Stapleton, and a mā would thinke to the purpose altogeather, if he see no more then you doe, or no far­ther then you are disposed to shew him. The Prophet doth not preache but pray in this place, and he giueth furth the con­fession of the whole Churche, as may clearly appeare by these wordes.Esai. 64. vers. 8.9. &c. O Lorde we are all thy people, &c. It is true, that they had not onely stained, but changed their righteousnes into vnrighteousnes, the place of iustice into a lodge of murtherers, their wine into water, their goulde into drosse, &c. Yet in the Prophetes prayer there was more then this. For the Lorde being prouoked to iust wrath, by vniust [Page 79]dealinges, as he will punish their grosser faultes, so will he not pardon, the imper­fections of their best vertues, except they be content in humilitie to prostrate them­selues, & confesse their own vnworthines, not onely when they openly sinne, but al­so when they seeme to do well, & to serue him most.Iob. 9.28. So Iob a iust man, yet feareth nothing more thē his works: & Esay knoweth with how true wordes, he conceiueth his prayer.

Let not M. Stapleton reply herein also, that Esay includeth himselfe generally in tearmes, and not in truth. For a man can­not abide a false rich begger, specially if he knew him to be rich, and yet heare him to protest his pouerty, & crauing reliefe, & nedeth none. But howsoeuer man may be deceaued, or perswaded with the hypocri­sie & fained teares of importunate dissem­blers, certainly God will not be mocked. As we beleeue, so must we pray, & so did Esay, whose praier is therfore written, that it might be a pattern to all posterity, to beleeue, pray & confesse in like maner.

Neither doth the exāples, of Noe, Iob, Zac. & the like disproue that which we auouch, that the righteousnes of the best being [Page 80]exactly tried at the touchstone of the Lawe, shalbe found drossie, impure, and euen as a defiled garment, which is not cleansed, but with that sope which pur­geth all. And woe worth them who euer, that seek to admixe their own sweat, with the blood of Christ.

Noah was a iust man,No [...]. that is, was iusti­fied in expectation of the Messias to come, and very iust was he in comparison of the iniquities of the old worlde, vnto whom he was a preacher of righteousnes and godly life,Genes. 6.8. but the Arke that he made was a tipe of his saluation to be sought for in Christ, for whose sake he founde grace & fauour in the eyes of God.

Likewise Iobs confidence was not in him selfe,Iob. but in that he certainely knew that his redeemer liued in whome also he should be reuiued, & whereas somewhere he pleadeth his innocency, what sicke mā being extreamely affected hath not now and then an extraordinary pang? Yet Iob, as he complaineth of his griefe and hea­uy sorowe, so withall he maketh confes­sion of his greeuous sinnes, (which are, we know aswell the causes often of sorow & sicknesse, as the instruments of triall) and [Page 81]in plea of his innocencie he doth it not a­gainst God, but against his enemies, as likewise in respect of the foly of his vnwise frinds, who like miserable & vnskilful Phisitians, misapplied their phisik, otherwise good enough, he tearmeth them, as they well deserued. And whē he appealeth to the holy throne of God. What doth he? he laieth furth the ground of his harte vn­fained, because he defied the hypocrisie wherewith they falsly charged him.

Zachary & Elizabeth.So Zachary & Elyzabeth a iust couple, paterns of godlines to all, and namely to all, that are in holy state of wedlocke, and a most faire example, for ministers, & mi­nisters wiues, both for the lawfulnes of their mariage, and also for their vpright li­uing therein, notwithstanding that condi­tion of life. For these both though maried, yet were they,Rhem. not. in Luc. cap. 1. vers. 6. Stapl. lib. 6. cap. 13. Iust before God and walked in all the commaundementes and iustifications of the Lord without repoofe. Which is as great a commendation as may be attributed to man. Iust before God: walking in all the cō ­maundements (morall) and ordinances (ce­remoniall) without reproof. And verely at the first blush these wordes cary a great shew of an absolute perfection against all, [Page 82]that hetherto hath bene auouched. For, these two are saide to be iust, and we hold speaking strictly, no man is iust. These ar tearmed iust before God, and we teach that no flesh shalbe iustified in his sight of right in it selfe. These are here comm­mended to haue walked in all the hestes of God without reproofe, & we shew that this much was fulfilled onely and solely of Christ.

The solution and ful aunswer of all this, hath bene well made of many, and not ve­rie long since in writing by sundrie lear­ned,Fox. Ser. de Christ. cruc. L. Tomson against Feck. &c. and godly men. I will but dippe the same cloth in the same die againe, because still our aduersaries cease not to obscure & deface the true colour thereof as much as in them lieth. And first, these were iust before God, not because God could not, but because God would not find fault with them.Psa. 130.3 For if thou obserue what is done amis, O Lorde, who shall abide it? shall iust Za­chary? or is not Zacharies distrustfulnes recorded, and therfore the vse of his toūg taken away for a time? or may we thinke diffidence & distrustfulnes to be no faulte? or if he offended but in this one fault alon, was he not euen for that one faulte in the [Page 83]rigour of iustice made an offender of the whole law?Iam. 2.10. but how then saith the scrip­ture, that Zachary was iust? no doubt, not if God should haue measured the righteous­nes of Zacharie, by the rule of the law, and yet no doubt was he a iust mā as Iob & so accepted,Iob. 1.1. Gen. 5.22. and walking with God as E­noch in the Lordes sight, in singlenes of minde and not in an harte, and an hart: but in sinceritie, that is to say, before God, and that in all the commaundementes, ende­vouring the obseruation of all without ex­ception, and not specially keeping some and omitting the rest, as if a man woulde warde a gate of the city, and suffer all o­ther places els voide without their watch: neither is (all) so taken, as if al had ben sim­ [...]ly perfourmed to the full: For he offen­ded in parte, as is plaine, in not beleeuing the message from God, and it is said, they walked, which doth somewhat argue that they were but in the way, and not at their journeyes ende, whereunto they con­ [...]ended one warde, reuerentlie before God, and carefullie before men without reproofe.

And in this their iorneie to passe a­way the way, and the tediousnes thereof [Page 84]Zachary singeth a ioyfull song concerning the Lordes mercifull visitation and his de­liuerie from the handes of our enemies, & of remission of sins, & of a strong saluation in the house of Dauid to be purchased by Christ, to Christians, & not by Christians to thē selues. And Zachary was verie well exercised & skilfull in such ditties, & in none other but these. For whereas he was a Priest, his vse and dewty was to offer for sinnes, both for the peoples, and for his owne first.Epist. 95. ad Sext. Which thing (sayth Augu­stine) some seeme little to consider, who vrged Zacharies example in like sorte, as the Papistes doe, vnto whom he aunswe­red then,Rhem. not. Rom. cap. 3. vers. 10. as we do to the Papistes nowe adding withall, as Augustine doeth, that the sacrifices of Christiane prayers: For­giue vs trespasses, importeth remnāts of im­perfections in Christians, euen as the old oblations did in the Iewes, both priest and people, till this our imperfection in this world be chaunged into perfection in the world to come. And although some be iu­ster thē some, as gold cōpared with drosse, or siluer with tinne, or gold with golde, or siluer with siluer, that is to say the good with the bad, or the good with the good, [...] [Page 85]or the best among thēselues, or though all in commō whom God vouchsafeth fauor & pardō may be called iust, because they are iustified, and reputed so, & acquited in Christ, yet this being well considered, that men after grace receaued, they haue recea­ued but a measure of grace, is it not a folly to dream of perfection? The Philosopher could tell them, that that is perfit,Arist. lib. 1. de coel. cap. 1. which wanteth nothing. But how many and how great are the defects euen of the best? And then if the strong men faile what shall the weake do? If the horsemē yeeld & fly, shal the footmen vndertake the battle, & win the field? If God finde imperfections in his chiefest Saincts, & deerest frinds, & louing [...]est children, in Abel, Enoch,August. de Natur. & Grac. cap. 36. Rhem. not. Mat. 19.21 Lib. 6. cap. 6 Melchisedeck Abrahā, & the like: a great number of whō ar reckned vp by name in Augustine. Shall a begging frier, or an idle monke, or a sedi­tious Iesuit vaunt of perfection before the Lord. To help out the matter M. Stapleton doth distinguish of perfectiōs, though not perfit, yet perfit in suo genere, & suo modo, in their kinde & after their owne maner. In deede so may they be perfit in the hiest degree, in their own kinde, & after their own fashion, that is to say, perfitly bad, & so [Page 86]much the worse, as they more presume of a good perfection. But that imperfection in one kind, should naturally be a true perfection & yet vnperfit in the same, is verie strāge & a monstrous speach in our eares. What? not after a sort? nor in his kinde? no southly. For Pelagius might thē, euē as tru­ly haue answered with such kind of distin­ctiōs for the perfectiō of his pure naturals, that they were perfit in their kinde. So mā ­gle a man, & cut of the chief parts, head & all, & yet you may say it is a perfit body in that kinde, as in such a case it may be. But where is Aristotels definitiō: there is no­thing perfit, that wāteth his parts? Yet be­cause we build not vpō mē, what doth the word of God require? all our soule, all the body, all the powers & faculties of both. If ought be wāting in either, there wanteth that perfection, that the law requireth and Christ commaundeth: Be you perfit euen as your father is perfit. This is the mark, ende­uoring toward it, shooting faire, or com­ming neare is no perfectiō, except by way of comparison to thē that are stark naught, or worse then they. For the lawe requireth more, & our duty is greater then so, they reply, no, not so, as though no more were [Page 87]exacted, then personally of our selues can be performed, or else that there is an exēp­tion from such exactnes.

The sick womā in the Gospell,Mar. 5.26. the more she went to physick, the worse she was: so an error, the more it is defēded, the bigger it groweth. And so it fareth, with these that would be their owne sauiours & shut out Christ. First they striue for a perfectiō: when that is disproued, they would be per­fit with an imperfectiō at the least, & whē we shewe, that that is a meere toy, as they meane it, then they say God requireth no more at our handes, then we can do. Now whether God doth so, or no, in processe yet a litle further shalbe considered, albeit hereof hath ben sufficiētly debated before.

Our Sauiour Christ, that iustly coulde, vniustly would not, & neuer falsly vpbrai­ded, the people whom he loued so tender­ly,Ioh. 7.19. obiected vnto them, the breach of the Lawe: Did not Moses giue you a Lawe, but none of you kept the Law? and least he should seeme to touch som & those of the wickedder sort onely, & not all in generall the best amongest them are not excepted: None of you doth the lawe. None. Or be it (which I take [...]pperly to be the meaning of [Page 88]the place) Christ speaketh onely to the iust reproch of the vngodly, and no mer­uail. For the godly agnize their imperfe­ctions most willingly, but the godles stād at staues end with God, & plead, not guil­tie, against their own conscience. Where­fore in speciall were such rather to be con­uinced of sin, then those that in humblenes of minde, confessed, they were sinners, and craued pardon for their sins. Yet in respect of either the voluntarie confession of one sort, or the pretended hypocrisie of the o­ther, reprehended of Christ, it is more then manifest, that the law was trāsgressed of al.

But this was De non facto: they did it not: but might they not haue done the law? or if they being naught, could not doe well, coulde not their betters, or can not the best performe the law?

I woulde be loth to call that, or them impure or polluted,Act. 10.15. or any way imperfite, whom God hath sanctified, and perfited in his sonne. But this is not the question, what we are reputed to do in Christ: nei­ther shoulde this be the question, whether by the spirite of God and grace through Christ, we can fulfill the Lawe.Rom. 11. For the Lawe exacteth full obedience proceeding [Page 89]as from our selues, if we once seeke to be iustified thereby. Yet because our aduer­saries cal that now only into controuersie, what man can do by the helpe of grace, thereby at least to maintaine somewhat in them selues, as if they would say, that they could swimme if they were held vp by the chinne, and they can keepe the law,Rhe. notes Ro. c. 8. v. 4. by the grace of Christ, and spirit of God. I confesse by the grace of God we are that we are, & the grace of God is not in vaine in his own children: yet not in so full mea­sure, or rather without measure, as it was in Christ, who onely was able to vnder­take that, that no man euer hath done else, or shall do herafter, or can do at any time. For if it were otherwise, what singuler thing ascribe we more to him, then to som other? A greater matter then the fulfilling of the Law is hardly found. Therfore they set the birth, and life, & passion, & person of Christ, at a very small, & vile prise, that make no more accompt therof, then to be as it were but a paire of oares to conuey vs somewhat the easilier thither,August, de verb. Apost 13 whither happely with more leasure, and som grea­ter laboure wee might come at length, wherunto in deede we can neuer attaine, [Page 90]but by him, and by him alone, as an who­ly agent therin.

M. Stapleton demaundeth thus much: whether grace & power diuine, haue not that force, as to remoue that our olde cor­ruption, which was contracted and drawn from Adam, and likewise to restore againe the perfection that was at the first? where­unto his own simpering answer is such that it seemeth to burn his lips in the vtterance of certaine allegations out of Austine and Ierome. For both of these are more for vs, he knoweth full well, then for him in all their discourses hereof, if they be wel way­ed and wisely considered. Who disputing to and fro, do rather precisely teach the o­mnipotent ability of God, then exactly de­fine, that man is or may be, or certainly e­uer ether was or shal be of such a perfectiō in this life. M. Stapleton him selfe, doth but say,Hierom. Non abhorret Ieronimus ab ista sentētia: Ieromes stomake doth scant serue him to tast of M. Stapletons corrupt viandes.

The Law is possible, and the Law is im­possible, two contrary sentences in sound, and yet they both true in som sence, as the two cherubins sitting opposit ech to other yet both looking into the propitiatory: so [Page 91]these sentences though seeming contrary, yet respect either, a known truth in diuini­ty. If we cōsider man either in his first crea­tion, or in his glorified estate after this life,The sub­stāce of the Law remai­neth in force euē in the next life. the Law was possible, and shalbe easie. By the way if any aske whether Moses Lawe shall serue in the world to come, I am of opinion in substance, as of louing God aboue all things, and others as our selues, it shalbe the same, though not in circum­stances which must needes suffer alteratiō, with the change of the whole world. Then againe the Law is possible to be done, for it was done of Christ. And againe in some sort it may be sayd to be possible, and done of Christians, for God deputeth all to be done, when he forgiueth all that is not dōe. But the Pelagian thought him selfe a trim man, when he could say as the Papist doth say, God doth not commaund impossible things. Yes (sayth Augustine,) and shew­eth the end why, to hūble men, & to teach thē the goodnes of the forgiuer, & also their duty in crauing forgiuenesse of the Lorde.

The same Augustine some where doth also in as expresse words as may be,Augustine auouch that the Lawe is possible. True. But with­all it is woorth the laboure the while to [Page 92]obserue in so learned a doctour some cer­taine circumstances, the better to attaine to the true meaning of his doctrine, that the bare name of such a father cary no mā away. If he did simply say so, yet the foun­dation of our beleefe is not grounded on man,Ep. ad Hier 19. ad Vin­cen. Don. 48. as Augustine him selfe sheweth full well in nombers of places. But concerning the present question, Augustine was farre enough from a Papisticall pride in an ima­gined ability of humane perfection. When his auditors waxed slack, & weary of well doing, & yet because sinne is neuer with­out a shift, they vsed to say: that they wold do this or that, but could not do according to Augustins exhortations. For example. I can not loue mine enemies, sayth one, I can not refraine my selfe from drinking, sayth an other, I must needes be drunke, especially when such or such a personage enforceth me: Austin replieth: Nolle in cul pa est nostra, Serm. de Temp. 232 & non posse praetenditur. O sin­full man whē thou wilt not, thou pretēdest that thou canst not do thy duety, either in louing thy neighbour, or in forgoing thy lusts. God that giueth more grace then so to his children, knoweth best, what thou canst do, and that so idle, and friuolouse [Page 93]excuses wil not serue. Neither doth Austin argue the plenarie fulfilling of the whole Law exactly in all points, but onely ende­uouring to perswade to charitable dea­ling, sayth, though thou canst not do this or that, fast, sell all, &c. Yet canst thou not loue? canst thou not haue charitie? where­by I gather, as out of him so elsewhere out of other writers,The Law is not impossi­ble in part, but in per­fection. that this word impossible is not taken for an impossibilitie in euerie kinde of degree, which no wise man will yeeld vnto. For albeit we can not possibly be so perfit in the same equality as is required, yet a desire by imitation, and in some degree by grace may be and is in vs:Clem. Alex. poedag. lib. 1 cap. 6 Virg. aen. l. [...] as it is in the Poet of the sonne that followeth his father, though he could not keepe pace with him: Sequitúr que Patrem non passibus aequis: we may follow, though we can not or runne cheeke by cheeke, (as the pro­uerb is) iumpe so fast, or iust so farre, as is commaunded: yet no wise man dare call this that perfection that the Papist would haue.

But the nature of man is like the lazie houswife, that when she had more to do thē she knew she cold wel dispatch, taketh and sitteth her down, & letteth al vndone. [...] [Page 96]farther, from meriting. For imperfection meriteth nothing, but craueth pardon, be­cause of default.

But we will go on in precise tearmes to speake of merites. As grace is free, & can not stand with merits, so merites deserue, and need not grace, if they be merits. The East and west, will sooner meete together, then grace and merits wil meete together and agree in one in the saluation of man. For if thou wilt be saued by the one, thou canst not by the other. Neither maist thou part stakes betwixt them both. For the A­postle taketh away desert, before he esta­blisheth fauour and grace.

M. Stapleton singeth in a quite contra­ry tune to this:Lib. 10. c. 2 and telleth vs in plaine and shrill wordes, that the inheritance of sal­uation (albeit the very word inheritance might haue taught him an other lesson) is giuen to the sonnes of God, not because they are sonnes (freely by fauour) but be­cause they are his good children: neither yet because they are good, but (withall) because they are children and good. As if partly we inherit by fayth, wherby we are his children, and partly by workes, which must make vs good, and whereby in great [Page 97]part we deserue, which Austin sheweth to be no safe way.

I aske this question by the waie: maie we be good, & yet not his children, or can we be his children, and yet consequentlie not good? What God hath coupled, why doeth M. Stapletons vaine strength ende­vour to hale, and rent a sunder? If wee be not sonnes, then are we naught, nether pos­ibly can we be good by any working. For all good works, before they deserue the name of good, are first halowed in Christ, sprinkled with his bloud, wrought by his Spirit, and offred in his name vpon the al­ter of faith, as proceeding from his deare children, or else they be naught, and being naught, they can make nothing better.Act. 15.9 But we be once his sonns by faith, which pu­fieth the hart, and indueth with his spirit, which sanctifieth the soule, how can we be but good? And now being his sonnes by a vouchsafed priuiledge, not of desert but of adoptiō, thē ar we also heirs, coheirs with Christ, in this life here both to do wel, that [...] graciouse a father may be glorified in his children, and many times to suffer euill [...] the worlds hands,Rhem. notes Rom. 8.17 that we may be glori­fied with Christ in heauen, which is a con­dition [Page 98]expressed in S. Paule not as a cause precedent to make vs sonnes, and so heirs, but as a consequent of duetie, because we are sonnes, and heires, that therfore we ow all duety, and in reason must, being mem­bers be correspondent, & aunswerable to the head, that in the ende we may enioye most freely the performance of what so e­uer was in most free maner before promi­sed. For as the promis was fre at the first, so the performance being greater and more comfortable in the effect, can not be lesse free in the end, then was the promise at the first offered.

The greatnesse of saluation in our state to be glorified after the consummation of all thinges cometh afterward in due place to be spokē of. In the meane time to shew how litle such so infinit a blessing can be worthely and of desert attained vnto, is thereby manifest, because that glory is in­finit, and the desert, if it were desert, yet were it finit. For the glorie is eternall, and the merit temporall, the one ended in a small momentary time, the other euerla­sting without end, in so much that wheras there is with out all dout, no proportiō nor comparison of equality betwixt the desert [Page 99]and the thing deserued, who can auouch that he can deserue, or who dare say, I me­rit, or I purchase with the rustie monie of mine owne fraile workes, the glorious crown of euerlasting saluation, euen as a hireling or a iourney man doth his wages?

As in bargains there is no euen buying or selling, but where a peny worth is to be had for a penie, and a peny is a peny worth: so properly there is no desert, but where there is an aunswerable rate in deseruing, which because it can not possibly be be­tweene vs men & God, betweene God & mans saluation, farewell merites, as they are properly taken. Improperly howe the word may be taken in sundry of the fathers is not directly to the point of the question concerning the prise, desert, woorth and valour, of workes and the nature of me­rites,Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 3.8 as the Papistes take the name of me­rites.

Wherfore with much a do M. Stapleton against the haire, and perforce, can not chuse but graūt, that in deede there is no e­quality in the former respects as we be mē, but yet as we be Christiā mē, he saith there is an equalitie and his reasons be these: be­cause the adopted sonns heritage be it ne­uer [Page 100]so great,Stap. lib. 10 cap. 2 (as he thinketh) exceedeth not the worthinesse of the person adopted:2 and againe he imagineth that the Sonne is no farther bound then the Father will re­quire:3 & being once sonnes by grace, thē De nostro meremur, we merit of our selues.

There is neuer a true worde in all this proud folly: for what should I call it else?

1 First, the adopted sonne, as before his a­doption he deserued not the inheritāce be it neuer so litle, so being adopted into a large inheritance, his No-desert is thereby the more manifested, and ought a great deale the more openly of the adopted son to be proclaimed. Moreouer if the father would not require ought,2 but could contēt him selfe with slender thanks, what then? because the father is thus content, is the son the lesse bound, & not rather the bond doubled, & the sonne the deeper indetted & his dutie increased in the highest degree of al thankfulnesse? The naturall sonne can yeild no equall recompence to his naturall parents: how much more then is the adop­ted child beholding?3 As for that vile and presumptuouse saying, that men ar sonnes by grace, & then de nostro saued, by works, be it farre frō Christian, & hūble minds. For [Page 101]shal a man begin with Christ & end in him self, or begin with the Gospell & end with Moses?Arist. The end of euery thing is the perfectiō therof: but are our works so perfit, perfiter then grace? doth God but the first, & least part, and are our selues authors, causers, & finishers, of the chiefest, the latest, & the greatest partes? who would think that the cloth of righteousnesse were thus patched vp of some small peece of purple died in the bloud of Christ, and all the rest to be made of mans own ragges? Cost it so litle to redeeme sinners? why did the holy man feare his workes as nothing more? was he like the simple bird, that ducketh at the barn door, where the door is high enough, and no feare of hurting her head? No. Iob was well aduised in his saying. For might or did he merit, why did he feare? But ther­fore he feared because he knewe that he could not merit, demerit he could a iust cō demnation, if he should relie vpō the wor­thinesse of his owne workes. And therfore he feared the lightnesse and insufficiencie therof, and leaned onely to a better stay, to the mercy of God, and to the merites of Christ his Redeemer, which should buie out and pay for the vnworthinesse that o­therwise [Page 102]was in his workes.

I neuer find the aduersary without som shift.Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 3.8. But of all trickes, that is most fond, & an impudent folly,Quicquuid in rei veri­tate habeāt tamen &c. whereby they say that Iob, and Iobs like did merite, yet would they not glorie in their merites, professing euer in wordes the contrarie, as who wold say in plaine speech man might glorie,Sta. l. 5. c. 17. ha­uing sufficient matter of merites to glorie in, yet of curtesie would not, but was con­tent to yeild the glory to God: to whome forsooth otherwise in full right, & in whole it did not so directly, & duly appertain: so that if good men were not beneficiall and fauorable in this behalfe, the glory of God were and might be much diminished, and greatly impayred, if euery one would but chalenge his owne and take his due.

Our Sauiour Christ schooleth his disci­ples after an other fashion,Luc. 17.7. telling thē, that when they had done all (if yet they could) that was commaunded them, yet should they say that they were improfitable ser­uants.Sta. l. 5. c. 17 What? say so, and not think so? that were hypocrisie. Say so, & it were not true? that were a ly, & therfore sinne. Say so, for modesties sake? There is no modestie, no humilitie against and without the trueth, [Page 103]yet say so. Why?Psal. 16 doth God stand in neede of mans glozing? No. he needeth not our best workes. But why do not the Papistes then say so much? Why say they not flat, without stāmering that they ar vnprofita­ble seruants? Nay, why say they that they ar deseruers? what they are, they wil not re­dily say: what they are not, they bragge, or at the least pretend that they are.

As things (especially spirituall) are in their owne nature, so must we conceaue of them, or else we conceaue amisse.Esay 5.20 And as we conceaue, so must we confesse of thē and speake by them. Wherfore doubtlesse of our selues (what euer boasters patter in pride to the contrarie) we must both con­ceaue humbly, and confesse truly & plain­ly that we are in respect of meriting, but vnprofitable seruants.

It is graunted of all partes, that God hath ordayned, that man should be profi­table to man, and one commodiouse to an other, ech man lending his help, & helping hand to his neighbour, wherin yet because fraile flesh somtimes in the duties & many times in the degrees of charity offēdeth, we ar to craue pardon, euen in this respect al­so. But when we speake of meriting with [Page 104]God,Rhem. not. Luc. 17.10. we must shew that we are profitable to him, or else of him we merit not profi­tably to our selues, as our new notes would haue it, but that is impossible. For what profit taketh the spring by him that tasteth of the waters that issue from the spring,Aug. de ciu Dei. l. 10. c. 5 or the Sunne by the eye, that seeth by the Sunnes light? Or God by our works, which proceede from him selfe, and therefore if yet they be profitable to him, yet are they not properly ours, and so not profitable to him as from vs deseruing of him, but as his owne to him selfe:Rhem. notes 2. Tim. 4.8. and therefore not woorth thankes at our handes, much lesse vailable to merit truly & properly as they speake, and truly in that they but passe thorough vs, they take some kinde of our imperfection along with them, in so much, that albeit God the giuer be perfit, and his giftes clean, notwithstanding mans vncleane and leprouse hand in the verie receauing and vsage of them doth after a sort soile them, so that there can be no claime of worthinesse by them at all. Now as for seruāts to be profitable to thēselues, is a strange shift, and I wil not spend labor to confute that which common experiēce doth detest. For who will count him a pro­fitable [Page 75]seruaunte, that is profitable to him selfe and not to his master.

It were better for man to enter low in­to him selfe, and to common with his own soule in these, and to common with his own soule in these cases especially that so nearly concerne the soule,Iud. 16.5. and as Dalila relied in Samsons bosome to knowe where his strength lay, euen so neuer to leaue of till he hath traced & foūd out, his own weak­nes in good things, & his strength in sinne, and then shall he the better be able to sit in iudgement, and giue sentence vpon him selfe, no dout against the merites of man with the mercie of God, in whose sight o­therwise no flesh euer shalbe iustified, or profitable vnto him selfe in that respect.

The Papistes do but daly and play with Gods iudgements. The Prophet is plaine, and speaketh from a conscience well en­formed, that in the sight of God none shal­be iustified: None, that is to say, none be­fore grace, saith a chiefe Papist. But Hosi­us, and out of him Stapleton, and others like not that: For Dauid a man according to Gods own harte, and therfore in state of grace, yet sayd he of himselfe, and that none in the Lords sight shalbe iustified. For that which is right in the sight of man [Page 106](because his eyesight may be deceaued) yet therein Gods sight can not be decea­ued. He seeth the inwards, searcheth, and soundeth the bottome of secreat,1. Ioh. 1.8. and vn­knowen sinnes. Wherein if flesh will flat­ter it selfe, and lie, and say it hath no sinne, yet God hath an eye that perceth farther, and a stretched out arme, and he will reach his hand into the cocatrice nest, and plucke thence, and display abroade the serpent that lurketh and lodgeth in the den of a dead and rotten conscience, that hath no feeling nor sence of stinging sins. For in his sight hidden faultes shall not so scape, and therefore it is good praying e­uer: Clense vs, O Lorde, euē vs they peo­ple, from our secrete offences: we know & confesse, that no flesh can be iustified in thy sight.

But I know not what M. Sapleton and Hosius meane to labour to proue that this saying of Dauid,Stapl. lib. 6. cap. 1. Hos. lib. conf. ca. 73. is spoken by waie of comparison, and that in his sight, is in cōparison of God him self. For doth God in iudgemēt meane to compare vs to him­selfe, and so to condemne vs? Yet what gaine they by this? we confesse this is true, whether it be the natural meaning of [Page 107]this text or no. For in comparison of the sunne in his strength, what is a candle or a starre, or all the starres of the skie? in cō ­parison of the almighty what is man? at his presence the mountaines melt, the earth doth shake, the verie Angels are not clean in his sight, how much lesse flesh & blood, that dwelleth in houses of clay, and whose foundation is but morter? All this is true. But one truth is not contrarie to an other. None shalbe iustified before grace. It is true. None shalbe iustified in compari­son of God, it is true to. And it is most true also that Dauid sayeth, & Ierome ex­poundeth, that not onely in comparison,Hierom. in Ier. 13. cap. VVhere he termeth this their exposition the exposi­tiō of here­tiques and of the pa­trons of he­retiques. but also in the knowledge of God in his sight, no flesh shalbe iustified. And all these truthes proue this one truth, that none shalbe iustified by their merites nei­ther before nor after grace, but altogether by grace, which worketh not onely at the first all and afterward somewhat, but be­ginneth all, continueth in all, and endeth all in all if they wilbe iustified in deede.

This is S. Pauls doctrine throughout all his Epistles, who sheweth that God wor­keth in vs both to will and to worke to the ende that we may will effectually,Phil. 2.13. and all [Page 108]for his owne good will he worketh in vs to will. I aske then where is free will? he worketh in vs to worke: thē I aske where are merits? he worketh in vs to will and to worke, and all: and thē I aske, where is any thing in man?

It is not in the willer, nor in the runner, but of God that taketh mercie.Rom. 9. It is not in the willer, and then I aske once againe, where is free will? it is not in the runner, and then where are workes, and worthi­nes of workes? If it be replyed that there­fore the Apostle, saith it is not in the run­ner nor in the willer, but in the mercie of God,Rhem. not. Rom. cap. 9.16. vers. because it is not onely in either of both these, but in them and withall in the mercie of God to: then see, if it be so, the sentence will be true, if we turne it back­ward thus by the same reason: It is not in the mercie of God, but in the runner, and in the willer, because as the Papist saith: al is not in mercie, but part in mercie, and part in fee will, part in workes, part in me­rits, and therefore they may aswell say: it is not in mercie but in merits, in workes, will, and well deseruing.

The aduersaries would seeme to fauour much catholicke wordes, and catholicke [Page 109]manner of speaking. Was there euer Ca­tholicke or Christian vnder heauen that spake thus, as they in effect doe, that our saluation is not of God, that taketh mercy, but in deserts?

The name of merit in Canoni. scripture is not only not cōmonly vsed (as they now can say) but no where found,Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 3.8. the nature of meriting is flat against all scriptures. And must yet merits be set vp in euē place, with mercy? or rather displace mercy quit? For S Paul teacheth,Rom. 11. that works & mercy cā not stand togeather in respect of glory: trulie no more then could Dagon and the Arke in the temple of the Philistines. Establish mercie, and let fall, (I say not the vse) but the glorie of workes: set vp works, & what neede mercie? set them vp I meane in the throne of meriting.

Austine mentioneth the name of merits:Aug. epist. 105. Barnard saith he is not without his merits, but both in an other meaning, thē the Pa­pist meaneth. For a merit with Augustine is no other matter, thē good works, meer­ly proceding from the spirit of God, done in faith, and onely accepted by mercie, & then rewarded, and so crowned, and nei­ther as issuing out of free will, nor as e­quall [Page 110]mate, conioyned with grace, neither in working perfite, not in value deser­uing Bernard saith that he hath merites:Bar. in Ps. Qui habi­tat. de 14. ver. Serm. 15. Esai. 50.1. for the Lord hath mercies. Other merites Bernard hath none, that is, no merites in deede, but as it is said in the Prophet, that we must come and buy the waters of life freely, & that without mony: which is in truth no buying, no more is the other me­riting. The stipende of sinne is death pro­perly: that is true, but is life euerlasting, the stipend of merits?Rom. 6.23. no: the Apostle alte­reth the course of his speach. Yet might he as easely haue so saide, and most aun­swerable to the tenour of his former say­ing if it had bene so, but he saith, euerla­sting life is the gift of God, Rhem. not. 2. Tim. 4.8. a gift, ergo not the stipende of deserte, as they expresly terme it in these wordes: good workes done by grace after the first Iustification, be pro­perly, and truely meritorious fully wor­thy of euerlasting life. And therupon hea­uen is the due stipend which God oweth to the persons so working by grace. But S. Paul calleth euerlasting life a gift, & not a stipend as Austine well noteth: these mē call it a iust stipend. Now let the indiffe­rent reader compare these contraries to­gether [Page 111]& he shall soone discerne the truth of them.

M. Harding a man that could set a faire shew vpon a foule cause, presseth,Har. detect. lib. 5. cap. 12. Mat. 20.1. & dis­puteth the parable mentioned in S. Mat­thew, where the kingdome of God is like­ned to a mā that wēt out early in the mor­ning, to hyre seruauntes into his vinearde: some he hired at one houre, some at an other, some at the third, others at the sixe, some at the tenth, and others at the ele­uenth. When euening came he gaue e­uerie one alike, & then they which came first, and had borne the heat of the day, & the burden of the whole labour, murmu­red, because of the inequality of their pay. One of thē was answered, that he should take his peny, wherefore he was hyred, & if the housholder would be more liberall to them that laboured lesse, what was that to him, that wrought more and longer time, and yet perchaunce lesse then of du­tie he should, may not a man doe with his owne, which way he will? out of this M. Harding reasoneth in sence this: (I will spin his argument as far as it can run). The housholder is God, the laborer is working in our vocation, the penny is life euerla­sting, [Page 112]the housholder bid the murmuring laborer to be content with his hyre, and take that, which was his: then was it his: the price of his hyre is the penny for his labor, and the penny is life euerla­sting, here is sufficient proofe, for meri­ting, I trow,Rhem. not. 1. Tim. 4.8. Mat. 25.27 Luc. 16.8. and so doth the Rhemish no­tes tell vs. But soft, euery part of a parable is not a good proof for a doctrine in be­leefe. For so can I proue vsurie to be law­full, vnfaithfulnes to be laudable, and all most, what not? In proper wordes, with­out parable this is plaine, we ought to serue the Lorde withall our strength, and powers both of body and soule, all the houres of the day, that is, all the dayes of our life, and when eeuening is come and our life ended, after all our labours in the vineyarde of the Churche mili­tant, We haue done but the duty that we ought, and dew debt is no desart: quae de­buimus facere, Luc. 17.10. fecimus. This is plaine and true, and shall we force some partes of a parable to proue it false? But the house­holder saieth: Take that is thine: wherfore it was his, what? his that murmured, his whose eye was naught? repiners, and en­uious persons shall not inherite the king­dome [Page 113]of heauen, the peny of saluation is not for such. For such I say, without repē ­tance, much lesse for such as call for it of precise desert. Nay the equalitie of a peny giuen a like to all, doth euidentlie de­clare,Ambros. de vocat. Gēt. lib. 1. cap. 5. that though their are diuersities in time of vocations, which is the chief ende of the parable, yet the reward standeth on­ly vpon mercie, which gaue to the last as to the first. If all had gone by desert, then the greatest labourer, might duely haue re­quired the greatest wages. But I pray you, are we hirelings? naye, we are sonnes and heires: we looke not for a peny, as of hire, but yet we expect our penye, and that of meere gift, euen because our God may do with his owne what him please: and he will in time bestow it vppon vs his owne, euen for his Christes sake, in whome alone we onely trust, and not in our selues.

O, this opinion will decay good workes meruelously, and greatly encrease either idlenes, or swarmes of euill liuers. Why? It was meruele then that Christ foresawe not the inconueuience, when he gaue to the last as he gaue to the first. In deede if we be vagabondes, or lazy drones, or if [...]ke the greedy Zuytzer that will not fight [Page 114]but for his guilt, it is an other matter. But if we be sonnes and children, we obey our father not to the end to merit but to shew all duty, and because we are sonnes.

The difference then betwixt vs & the aduersaries standeth on these points, both they and we worke, they to merit, we to shew our duty: they for hyre, we for loue, they as seruāts, we as sonnes, they to pur­chase, & we because Christ hath purcha­sed for vs life euerlasting, they worke and seeke glory in their works, we worke and glory only in Christ, they worke & talk of perfectiō, we worke, & agnize our imper­fections in working. They if they do but a good deede, if it be once done, they stande vpon it, walke and iet thereon, though it be but the ice of one nights freezing, we when we haue done all, we say we are vn­profitable seruauntes.Ios. 7.21. We dare not bu­rie our sinnes like Acham in the earth, nor wrappe them in a sort of faire greene fig­leued distinctions: we speake with the wordes and in the sence, that Christ hath taught vs, and in none other. We runne, we labour, we fight, we keepe the faith, and yet not we, but Christ in vs. And when we haue done all, yet haue we done [Page 115]but our dutie, and not deserued. And this is our iudgement in few and plaine words concerning meriting: wherein if we haue spoken euill, let them conuict vs of error,Ioh. 12.48. Act. 17.11. let the world bear witnes, and the word be iudge.

How onely faith doth iustifie and saue.

IF then iustification come not by works, nor saluation by merites, what is the meane whereby both the one and the o­ther is apprehēded? First it hath ben clearly proued hetherto, that there is no meriting without perfection, & likewise that perfe­ctiō there can be none,Act. 15.10. the yoke of the law being heuier, then that the fathers strong shoulders could beare it vp: & therefore to great a burdē for their children, who came after and were weaker: and that not one­ly in respecte of the ceremoniall Lawe, (which Maister Stapleton supposeth) but rather in regard of the Law of deeds.Lib. 6. cap. 6 For their ceremonies were neither so many in number, nor in obseruation so harde: and how troublesome soeuer they were to the priesthod, notwithstāding generally to the people were they both very few, & very easie, to speak of. But yet becaus by the ceremonies, [Page 116]as namely the circumcision, if they trusted therin, they were become debtors of the whole Law, therefore was the Law an insupportable yoke, and whereby pos­sibly came no perfection, in consideration whereof S. Peter preacheth in the Actes, that by grace in Iesus Christ, through be­leefe saluation is attained. The hande of fauour reacheth it furth, the hand of faith receaueth it offred, and the spirite of adop­tion reposeth it in the hartes of beleuers, and sealeth it fast vp in the assurance of a certaine hope against the day of euerla­sting redemption.

Herein we leane not to a broken reede, neither feeke we for moisture,Iob. 6.20. as they that went to Tema and Scheba, in the wilder­nes, where the waters were dried vp: we look not to trie balme out of the hard flint. For worldly promotion commeth neither from the West nor from the East, much lesse eternall saluation. Onely by grace we beleeue to be saued, and neither in parte,The mea­ning of these words saith alone doth saue expoūded. neither in whole by any thing else. And this is our meaning, when we saie: Faith alone doth saue, and iustifie: that is: we are wholely saued, and solely iustified by God alone, in whom we beleeue and nei­ther [Page 117]by the preparations of nature, nor by the libertie of will, or else by the worthy­nes of any deedes as parts & causes of our iustification, our whole repose is onely in the mercie of the father, that gaue vs his sonne, and in the merit of the sonne that laid down his life to saue vs then, when we were his enemies, & much more no doubt, now saueth he vs when we are his frindes,Phil. 1.29. by faith in him, and that not for the digni­ty of faith. For the merite of saluation re­steth still in him the Sauiour, and not in vs the persons saued. And faith it selfe al­though it be no cause of procuring, but a meane of receauing saluation, yet is it al­so the gift of God, who knoweth onely, (as Augustine speaketh) how to giue to, and not to take of his creatures, and ther­fore, we trust in him, and onely in him. And this is the doctrine of faith, & of al the faithfull of all ages, & of all places, that it is onely faith, that receaueth saluatiō, that is in effect, that God alone & only he doth all as the sole cause of sauing the faithfull, that they may beleeue stedfastly in him, & in him alone.

A while in these latter dayes & corrupt times, when the ruines of true doctrine [Page 118]were gretest, with bold faces a sort of igno­rāt & vnreaden scriblers bore the world in hād, that Solafides, only faith was a mōster neuer born, nor heard of til Luther forged it first. Since, being compeld to lay aside a litle their schoole brablers, & to take in hand the ancient fathers, and old doctors, wherunto they were skilfully directed, by the learned of this last age, their outcries, that those wordes (only faith) in good re­cord can not be found, are well slaked.

At length euen M. Stapleton him selfe, can cite redily,Stapl. lib. 8. cap. 35. Hylary, Origen, Chrisostō, Basile, Austine, & others, and he quoteth places in plaine & pregnāt words as clear as cristall that onely faith doth iustifie. But now when he hath foūd, the words which were first found to his handes:Rhem. not. Iam. 2.24 both he & out of him our M. of Rhemes reioine: that the fathers neuer wrot thē in sensu Prote­stantum, in the sence & meaning that the Protestants take thē: as if belike, they were very like our Papists, that somtime speake well, and meane il, not only of the Prince, & the laws in the common wealth, but al­so of Christ, of his grace, & of the scripture in the Church of God. But cōcerning the point of this matter: Only faith doth iustify. [Page 119]So say we, as sayd the fathers before vs ma­ny yeares ago, their wordes be the same with ours, and why not their sence? First forsooth in saying that only faith doth iusti­fie, is meant that the Lawe cannot iustifie without faith. Doth then the Lawe iusti­fie with faith, and faith togeather with the Lawe? and doe the fathers meane so? truely children woulde be more thē asha­med of such contradictions, you let not most falsly to father vpon those good men & fathers of reuerend and godly memory. For if faith doe iustifie alone as say they, & saie trulie, then doubtles without the law doth it iustifie, or if not without the law, or if the law with it, then not alone. For who­soeuer doth any thing alone, he doth it without the helpe of any other. Wherfore faith iustifying alone doth it without the law, or any thing else except perchaunce alone signify not alone, which may be true in Rhemes, & Doway, verely we that tarie at home, & rome not abroad, neuer harde the like interpretatiō in any of our scholes

Again only faith (they say) excludeth the works of natur, as the vertues of the Gēti­les, & in case of necessity wher time wāteth onely faith is sufficient, nether are externall [Page 120]works required, as of the theef on the cros. Farther, onely faith is opposed either to the misbeleef of heretiks, or vnto the vnbe lefe of infidels, likewise is it set vp against the pride of vaunting Phariseis, & also a­gainst the fonde busie curiositie of vaine heades. In these sences only, is only faith meant & taken in the fathers. Well, if this were so, what of all this? for the first of all these last answers heaped vp together, be it agreed vpō, that faith alone doth iustifie, without natures worke at all. For so vpon good occasiō & warrāt out of the word of god, haue the fathers spokē, & so you seem to agnize that they haue. Wel then, be it cōcluded as an euerlasting truth, that in the case of iustifying, nature hath not to do at all. And will you graunt this? no not so, & why not so? because (as you dream) faith a­lone doth iustify, is as much to say, as natur doth not iustify without faith, but with faith it doth. This was the former starting hole: where faith alon was faith & the law, & here faith alone is faith & nature. Veri­ly this is not faith alone, but sport alone for Satā: but to vs that morn & thirst for your saluatiō, what a singuler grief is it to cōsi­der how mē that beare the name of Chri­stians [Page 121]will needes be thus wilfully decea­ued, dauncing & skipping vp & downe in the netts of their own deuising, & thinke no man discerneth. The fathers intend by this worde onely faith to exclude both the Law of Moses and the Law of nature. But they conclude all together, & include the workes of the one and the other within faith. Call ye me this excluding? then to go on with the rest, you say when some of the Fathers by onely faith exclude, pride, infidelitie, heresie, and curiositie, you may as well say, verum est, without faith: & yet notwithstanding conioyne them altoge­ther faith and infidelitie, faith and pride, faith and heresie, faith and curiositie, ma­king vp (as it were) a Daniels image of cō ­trarie mettals,Dan. 2.33 that can not possibly cleaue or hang together. But if excluding be in­cluding, you may say and conclude what you will, and distinguish at pleasure, and defend with ease, and all is well, speciallie if you get but fauourable readers, that can and will thinke what soeuer cometh from beyond seas must needes go for good. Not withstanding that the simple may see the childish fondnesse, and the extreame falsi­tie of this so absurd dealing, I will shew it [Page 122]then in the like reason: I would haue a gar­ment made onely of cloath, meaning by onely cloath to exclude stitching, lacing, & facing with silk: shall the Taylor come, & stitch, lace and face my garment, & face me out, that when I willed it to be made of cloth alone, that without cloth forsooth, I wold not haue it stitcht, laced & faced: but with cloth I would. Verily it had need be a very brode cloth, that cā couer ouer al this follie, it is so brode: and a verie cunning, not a Taylor but a Rhetorician, or rather a Magician that must perswade me so, and so bewitch a man against all sense & rea­son in the world.

As for the theef, that was saued by faith alone without externall workes alleadged by the Fathers, that doth verie well proue that faith alone in sauing doeth the deede,Ambros. in Rom. 3 and not workes. For the way to heauen is but single, and one & the same to all. The thiefe was saued and entered Paradise by faith onely: therefore also must all so do, if they will enter. For God will not saue some by him selfe in mercie, and saue o­thers by them selues, partlie in mercie, and partlie by their owne workes. If the thiefe had liued longer time he should & would [Page 123]haue liued well: but his beleeuing was the wing that caried him vp, and the key that opened the doore of heauen. When time wanteth not, onely faith excludeth not ei­ther workes or the goodnesse of woorkes in earth, but the meritoriouse deseruing by workes with God in heauen, and here­by both in heauen and in earth the free mercie and grace of God is beleeued, em­braced, and gloriouslie set foorth, by this most excellent confession of onely faith, whereby we agnize the gift, the free gift of God according to his purpose, promis, fauour, grace, and mere mercie.

In the storie of the Gospell in particu­lar, by examples thus much is prooued, and where onely faith is named, exacted, and cōmended euen in bodily cares, much more in ghostly causes of the soule, where our Sauiour doth not so much respect the teares of some, or in others their feare and trembling, nor their crying & calling after him, but their faith, and the greatnesse of their faith.Mat. 9.22 Luc. 7.50 Mat. 15.28 Luc. 8.50 Thy faith hath made the whole Thy faith hath saued thee. O woman great is thy faith. I haue not found so great faith in Israell. And in the eight of Luke, and fifte of Mark. Beleeue onlie. Onely marke [Page 124]that. And withall marke, if you will the Papists doubling answer herunto.Rhem. not. Mar. 5.36 Onelie beleeue, that is either especially, or only in cases of bodily diseases. What? I pray you why say you or and or? If onely be not on­ly but especially and principally, then say so. Or if onely be onely, then say so, and houer not vp and down like the birde that was sent out of the ark,Gen. 8.9 and could not find where to set her foote. But in deed neither is onely, especially, neither is onely, onely in bodily sicknesse alone, as shall plainelie appear. And therfore herein ye haue made vs not onely one lye alone, but two lowde lyes, and those together without taking breath one vpon an anothers head. For, as for the first, was Christ like your Phisitian, that biddeth his pacient be of good cheere and onely haue a good heart, yet withall a good diet must be kept, and potions re­ceiued, as thinges more requisite? O M. Allen, and M. Martin, and who euer else had finger in that your late gewgawe translation: was there, I say not were there other things, but was there any one thing, not onely more requisite, but in equall de­gree as necessarie as faith?Luc. 8.44 For woulde Christ require the lesse, and omit the more [Page 125]necessarie? or if many things were to be re­quired, woulde he say, onely beleeue. No. when all other helpes fayled, then they came to our Sauiour. And therefore other helpes being preternecessarie he wel requi­red thē wholy to put their trust in him: not that he could not cure, yea reuiue without their beleeuing that he could, but that du­tie would he haue at their hands, and only that in such respects.

Wherefore when this former shift ser­ued not the turne, you added, though onely fayth be requisite and nothing else, yet that concerned the healing of the body, & not the sauing of the soule. Of healing the bodie I graunt: but withall of sauing the soule, that these words are not spoken, is not so easilie proued. For Christ Iesus the Sauiour both of bodie & soule, most prin­cipally saueth the most principall part, & therefore to shew what, & how alone he worketh specially in recuring their soules diseased with sinne, view those miraculous cures done so euidently vpon their bodies. Wherfore by conuenient reason it follow­eth, if faith alone be required in thē, much rather in the other, wherein consisteth the greater cure in vs, and whence ariseth the [Page 126]greater glorie to him selfe that cureth.

Contrarie to this in the example of Ma­ry Magdalen somewhat is brought foorth as who therfore had her sinnes forgiuen,Rhem. not. Luc. 7.50 because she loued much. So that loue also was required, & not faith alone. Consider we the story a litle for our better vnderstā ­ding: wherin it is said to her: Thy faith hath saued thee, go in peace. & a litle before both of & to her: Many sinnes are forgiuē, because she loued much. Our of which I obserue 4. notes, remission of sinns, peace of cōscience faith embracing saluation, & due loue en­suing therupō. Peace of mind cometh after ward in place to be spoken of. The sole mean of receiuing remissiō is faith, the on­ly cause of remitting is mercy. For other­wise remission were no remissiō. And were not faith the only meane, but her loue also as the Rhemish note is: Christ whē he said: Thy faith hath saued the, he shold haue said nay thy loue & thy faith, or thy faith & thy loue haue saued thee: especially were loue so noble, & so cōpendious, & so effectuall a dis­positiō therūto,Lib. 8. c. 30. as M. Stapletō beareth vs in hand it is, & in her was, Many sins were for giuen her, because she loued. The Greeke word doth signify therfor, [...] aswel as because [Page 127]But they vrge the word because, as a prece­dent cause. But se the like euen in the same word: we say, this apple tree is a good tree. why? because it beareth good frute. Yet is not the frute cause of the tré, nor the good­nes of the apple cause of the good tree, but indeed because the tré is good, therefore it bringeth fruit according to his kind, & this is the proper natural cause, but we in cōmō speech say it is a good tree because we tast the goodnesse in the frute. But this kinde of cause is an after cause & a cause in reason­ing, but no making cause as nether was Ma­ries loue, of her sins remitted. But therefore she loued, not that the dignity of her loue was precedēt to the pardon of her sins, but hauing receiued fauour & pardō, cōsequētly her dutiful loue ensued therupō. This appereth by that saying inserted: to whō lesse is forgiuen, he loueth lesse, to whō more, he loueth more. Mary had many sinnes forgiuē her, & therfore she loued accordingly: & therfore Christ said. i. cōcluded, many sins wer forgi­uē because she loued much. This obiectiō hath bin answerd more thē 1000. times. In a word I will shew that nether did she, nor could she, loue & loue so entirly, before her sins wer remitted. For beig not in the state [Page 128]of grace, what could her loue be but lust, and no loue, fancy and no true dilection? a notorious sinner shee was, and therefore verie farre from louing, and nothing neare louing much aright. They that loue God, keepe his commaundementes: so do not sin­ners: then did not she. Calleth M. Staple­ton this a noble disposition? God be mer­cifull vnto vs, as he was to Marie, that we may shew tokens of a true loue, as she did, not before, but after the multitude of all our sinnes pardoned, and done away in Ie­sus Christ our onely Sauiour.

The fairest argument of all other to the shewe is a conclusiō that S. Iames maketh: and at the first sight, woulde make a man thinke, greatly making against the doctrin of onely faith, where he sayth: ye see then how a man is iustified of workes & not of faith onely. wheras notwithstanding S. Paule e­uerie where inculcateth nothing more then faith without workes. Doubtles these noble Apostles are not contrarie the one to the other: neither are the Scripturs as a house deuided in it selfe. God forbid they should.

S. Paule teaching that we are saued by grace, and therefore not by workes, yet for [Page 129]that there were certaine vaine persons crept in among them, he exhorteth withal that they should not receaue the grace of God in vaine. Likwise, when he had she­wed, that life euerlasting was the gift of God, and therefore no purchase of works, yet withall also he warneth them, that they beware also howe they tourne the grace of God into wantonnesse. As Sainct Paule is vehement in this case, so vpō grea­ter occasion S. Iames was most worthelie as earnest as Sainct Paule.

For whilest some heard that faith with­out workes did iustifie (vnstable and vn­learned minded men, as they were) per­uerting that Scripture, as also, other Scrip­tures to their owne damnation, they bade adieu to all good deedes, saying in theyr foolish hearts, if faith without workes can saue, we can beleeue, that there is a God: & if onely faith will serue, we can beleeue, and what neede more? And thus conten­ting thēselues in a generalitie of their pro­fession of faith, falslie so called, litle recko­ning was made, how bad soeuer their con­uersation were.

For remedie whereof S. Iames asketh, what such a faith could auaile them? for ei­ther [Page 130]it was no faith and so nothing worth: or a deuils faith, & so worse then nothing. Yet lest any imagin that S. Iames plainly & simply graunteth a deuils faith to be faith, mark further how he doth not. For when he speaketh of faith in deede, and proper­ly in the first chapter, he saith it is no waue that is to say, no trembling leafe, no shiue­ring reede, fully in S. Paules meaning that it is an euidēt probatiō, & a certain, stable, grounded, strong thing. Wherfore S. Iames whē he likeneth this supposed faith to the quaking faith of deuilles, he speaketh not properly but by comparison, and meaneth an other matter, then either himselfe spea­keth of in his first chapter, or else S. Paule elsewhere in his Epistles. For properly he tearmeth this maner of faith a dead faith, that is, no faith at al. And this he proueth by asimilitude: that as a man may argue that a bodie is not quicke but dead, without the spirit, that is, without all spirituall motions, life & sence, so is faith without works. For faith appeareth quicke and liuely in her o­perations and working. Yet not, as the Pa­pist dreameth, that works are the soule of faith, but I say as the spirit and vital breath of faith, [...]. wherin it liketh well, and greatly [Page 131]deliteth, and manifestly sheweth it selfe. For if a man be a faithfull man, verilie also that man will liue vprightly, & walk hone­stly, and do workes worthy of his faith, not that faith is made of works, but that where faith goeth before, works euer folow after. In so much that a man may well conclude, a faithful man, ergo fruitfull, a fruteles mā, ergo faithles. Thou wilt say, thou hast faith. that is a verball faith, & nothing els. Faith is not made of words, but shewed in deeds. As the Sūne is not without his beames, no more is faith without her bright shining woorkes. Yet the Sunne is not made of beames: no more is faith of workes. Yet may I well argue thus. If it haue no beams, it is no Sunne, and so faith, if it haue no workes, well it may be called faith of vain men, in truth it is not. For the Christian fayth of saued men, worketh euer in time conuenient by charitie, Gal. 5.6 & can not be idle.

For as by it, and by it alone wee haue accesse to God, and trust in his promises, without all wauering embracing the be­nefits of Christs death and passion, which is the chiefe dutie of faith, so also where it lacketh roote in the good ground of godly hearts, it bringeth out, & breaketh foorth [Page 132]into other frutes. And those of sundry sorts to the vse of men according to the diuerse duties of discretion and charitie. But still before God in the actiō of iustifying, wher­of Paul disputeth most, faith alone doth al, or rather receaueth all of God that doeth all. In other respects she neuer is without her traine, and as the eye and only the eye in beholding the serpent in the wildernes, recouered the children of Israell, and yet their eyes were not without the rest of the parts of their faces, & their eyes serued thē also, for directing their feet otherwise, so the onely eye of faith, or onely faith as the eye of the soul beholdeth Christ of whom the serpent was but a figure, & therby on­ly in him are we saued, yet although in this regard alone it doth the deede, yet is it not alone, but continually accompanied with godlinesse, & all good woorks, in so much that where we finde not good works, it is bootlesse to seeke for faith, for faith wil no where lodge or liue without works: the mother cannot be without her daughers. If you kill the children, you kill the parent to. So that chase away works, & faith will not tary after. If a man wil say, he retaineth her, & retaineth not her retinew, well may he [Page 133]say so, but in sooth & veritie, in steede of a iustifying faith he laieth hold on an vnpro­fitable deuelish faith, a dead faith, a verbal faith, a shadow of faith, a faith which he so calleth, yet is not faith at all, neither hath it any affinity with the iustifying faith, which iustifieth alone, yet is not alone, as hath bene declared in manie wordes and hap­pilie in mo then was needefull, but onely for the simpler sort.

As there is a double taking of this word faith, either true or verball, so also is there a diuerse acception of this worde iustifying, either for a beleeuing & an apprehending the iustice of Christ imputed, or for a de­claration that we are such persons to the opinion of others by iust liuing, which is a iustification before men. Of the former meaning Sainct Paul doth argue, the later sence S. Iames forceth and standeth most vpon. For saith he, I am a man (and not God) that seeth the heart. I am but man shew me thy faith &c. So that these Apostles, Paule and Iames, albeit they vse the same tearmes, both of faith and iustifying, yet because they treating in deede thinges diuerse, they can not be sayde, to varie, when as they speake of sundrie matters, [Page 134]and not both speciallie of one, and the same thing, though seeming so in tearmes. For Sainct Paule treateth of one faith, & S. Iames of an other: S. Paul of one iustifica­tion, Sainct Iames of an other. Sainct Paul vpon a certaine doctrine, and Sainct Iames vppon a supposition.

If wee looke to heauen, faith onely as­cendeth thether, or rather grace descen­deth vnto faith in true maner of speaking. Workes are left below, who onely iustifie before men in earth. For otherwise men can not tell who is iustified, and who not, but by workes. But as onelie works do iu­stifie here, so no doubt doth onely fayth there in respect of heauen.

The example of Abraham cleereth all,Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.5 Gal. 3.6 and giueth great light hereunto. Abra­ham beleeued God, and it was impu­ted vnto him for righteousnesse. (that is) he was iustified before God by faith. And then in offring his sonne was he called the friend of God, and so iustified, called, and pronounced so. And so was his iustice tho­roughly completed, and his faith in proofe perfited and allowed of. In the former of imputation of righteousnesse, Paule and Iames in expresse wordes, both agree. In [Page 135]the latter they disagree not. For Paule speaketh not thereof, but onelie Iames, who vppon great occasions presseth the necessarie sequeles of a true faith, and iu­stification to ensue, before men, straight vppon a iustification praecedent beefore God. Wherupon as it were word for word, and in sence he reasoneth thus: If thine offences were pardoned in Christ, thie sinnes remitted, and Christes righteous­nesse imputed: that is, wearest thou iusti­fied by fayth before God, it would follow necessarilie, that thy fayth would shewe it selfe, and thy deedes without, would de­clare what thou art within, and therebie shouldest thou be reputed a iust man, and so be iustified before men also. But hee that wanteth the necessarie consequen­ces of such a cause, maie it not be con­cluded, that hee wanteth the cause it selfe?

In the Gospell there were that boasted of the line and race of Abraham. But the children of Abraham, that are in deede his children are a posteritie according to faith, and not after the flesh.Mat. 3.9 Wherefore saith our Sauiour vnto them. If ye were the children of Abraham by fayth, ye would do the workes of Abrahā, as Abraham did. [Page 136]No workers, ergo no faithful childrē of his for all their vaunting. For though workes made them not his children, but faith, yet where such works lacked, Christ therupon reasoneth the wanting of faith it selfe. And it is true both in the nature of the thinges, and in the iudgement of the world. Yet all this doeth not disproue, that faith alone doth iustifie before God, nether doth it in­ferre, that workes do otherwise iustifie thē onely before mē, & by the necessity of due consequēt to insue. Works haue their vses, though not that vse: one key wil not serue for euerie lock. They shew our faith to mē, they ar no parts of faith to make it vp, they are good duties that follow of faith, and so they iustifie & no otherwise, in the eyes of men the behoulders. I am ouer long herin.

Touching the other example of Rahab the harlot: what were her works? she recei­ued & preserued Iosues messengers: ther­by was she iustified, that is so reputed in the cāp. This one fact could not make her iust. But being iustified no doubt before by beleeuing in God, opportunitie ser­uinge well, shee declared what she was in giuinge such entertainement to the Lords seruāts. Which storie well sheweth, [Page 137]that God hath his where a mā would litle thinke, euen in that cursed city. Let no man despaire. Rahab an inhabitante of wicked Iericho, and she sometime an har­lot is accepted, but see withall she chan­geth her former life, and of an harlot be­came the hostesse of Gods seruants. Wherin I note: an harlot was far frō meriting & therefore as afterwardes her good workes are recorded, so yet is not her former fault omitted, both to shew what she obtained first by fauour and pardon of her fault, and then in dutie what shee did is spoken of, wherby she became knowen to the Lords people, and this was her iustification en­suing vpon a beleefe that went in fauour before. Wherby it appeared how S. Iames in these examples forced the vse of good workes not to iustifie before God, but in seruice, dutie, and opinion of and to men.

Greater amplificatiōs may be brought, by the skilfull in these cases, to this pur­pose. In effect, this is all that either the Apostle meaneth, or I can say vpon his meaning: & so much is plainly meant, that though in some functions they may be di­uersly occupied, yet true faith, and good workes euer meete togeather, and ioynt­ly [Page 138]rest in the iustified man.

But maruelous are the aduersaries in their conceits.Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 13.13 For they imagine a faithfull man to be without all faithfull and good dealing, as if they coulde finde vs out great springs without the issue of many waters, or much water without any moisture, or a burning fire without his heat. We may di­stinguishe matters in their natures by tea­ching, although we find them not sundred in the persons in whom we find them. And we do vsually distinguish faith and works, but in the faithfull they are neuer found a­part: & therefore we do not separate them there. So that contrary to that, which som­times we are charged withall, we euer set forth a faith adorned with vertues, and not make a naked faith stript out of her attire, & still we tell them faith neither is nor can be foūd alone in the man iustified, as hath bene proued at large, in the examination of the place of Iames.

But they to disproue this, labour by all meanes possibly,Rhem. not. 1. Cor. 13.13 & in speciall they alleadg S. Paul to the Corinth. in whom say they, faith is seuered from loue, and if from loue, then from all good works, true, if frō loue. For all good works are summarily comprehēded [Page 139]hēded in loue, which therfore is said to be the fulfilling of the lawe, because it is of a greater span, cōtaining the works both of the first and secōd table in louing God a­boue al things, & our neighbour as our self. Then if faith be separated from loue, thē al­so from other works. Now that from loue it may be seuered, S. Paul speaketh say they in his owne person: If I had all faith, and had not loue, &c. ergo all faith may be had without loue.

S. Paul as he had faith, so was he not void of loue, whose loue was so great that he had care of all cōgregatiōs,1. Cor. 11.28. Supposing doth not e­uer proue the thing supposed. & therefore he doth but onely put a case, nether is it generally grāted, that al faith doth signify all faith in al kindes, but in some one kinde all the degrees of that faith. And herein many iudge that S. Paul meaneth a mira­culous faith, & not the iustifying, because he saith, If I had all faith, so that I could re­moue mountaines, that is all such faith, and yet had not loue, &c. But if this be the sense, then doth it not import that the iustifying faith may lacke loue, but the miraculous faith, if yet it proue so much. Whether S. Paul meane a miraculous faith, or no, or whether a miraculous faith (let it be a [Page 140]faith) can be seuered from the iustifying or no, I will not greatlie striue. There is no edificatiō in multiplying of imperti­nent questiōs. This must be cōsidered wel, that the Apostle sayth not down right, he hath faith, and that he hath not loue, but If I had faith. Nowe I trust they will not proue matters with ifs and ands. Our Sa­uiour said touching the beloued Disciple what if he woulde that he shoulde tarie still till his comming?Ioh. 21.23. vpon this conditio­nall (if) an error was straight spread a­broad, that Iohn shoulde not die. In like manner S. Paul also saith, If I spake with the tunges of men, 1. Cor. 13.1. and of Angells, &c. You will not go about hereby I trust, to proue that the Apostle had a verie Angels toūg, or that Angels had tunges. S. Paule ma­keth supposels, and thereupon he setteth furth the excellent commendatiō of loue, which verely in sundrie points is far more commēdable then faith it selfe, in so much that a man may vse the Poets wordes in a better mater, O matre pulchra filia pulchrior? A beawtifull mother faith,Horat. a fayrer daugh­ter loue. But S. Paule doth no where dis­ioyne them, but concluding the praises of loue, saith: there are three that remaine [Page 141](togeather) Faith, Hope, & Charitie: faith beleeuing in the promises, hope looking, and longing for them, charitie louing the promiset, and in him and for his sake lo­uing all that is to be beloued. Of all these the last is the greatest, what? in iustifying? no. S. Paul debateth the matter to the cō ­trarie euerie where. Wherein then? in the multitude of other duties, and for the euer­lasting durance therof both in this world, and also in the world to come. For when knowledge shall cease, & faith shall haue his date, and hope shalbe expired in the lease of this life, in the life to come remai­neth loue. And this is all that the Apostle meaneth, which neither confuteth the a­donnes of faith in her proper office of iusti­fying, neither yet doth it any way cōfirme, that in other respectes she can be alone in the man iustified. And thus much of only faith, and yet of faith that is neuer alone.

Of the certaintie of grace and saluation by faith & hope in euerie particular man.

NOwe then being iustified by faith,Rom. 5.1. we haue peace toward God, through our Lord Iesus Christ. For so the Apostle in­ferreth to the Romaines vpon former de­bating [Page 142]of the selfe same truth vpon the self same groundes of iustification, whereof we spake last. So that necessarily the man iustified by his faith, by faith also hath he the good fruites, that growe vp withall. i. peace with his God, quiet in his soule, and firme possessiō of assured saluatiō in a cer­taine hope.

Whereof M. Stapletō speaking with the same spirite, that Tertullus did in the Acts,Act. 24.2. tearmeth this doctrine a pestilent, & a per­nicious teaching, tēding only to presump­tiō, pride, & security. M. Stapl. you speake your pleasure out of the aboundance of a choloricke harte. If we presume, God be praised,Presumere de gratia Christi non est arrogan­tia, sed fides. Aug. Serm. 28. de ver. dom. 2. Sam. 6.14. we presume not of our selues as you do, and if we be proude of Gods euer­lasting fauour, it is a godly pride, and in se­curitie thereof we leape, and daunce with an holy ioy, as Dauid did before the arke, thogh you like Michaol deride vs as fooles & reproch vs therfore. Sir, ill words do nei­ther proue a good matter, nor disproue a bad. Wherfore to let passe the rage of your heate, let vs a litle consider the weight of certaine reasons you would seeme to pro­duce: you say, the certainty of saluation by faith is common to sundrie heretikes,1 Lib. 9. cap. 9. con­trary [Page 143]to the feare of God,2 3 4 repugnant to the order of praying, and against the nature of the Sacraments.

1. The first of your foure allegations is that heretikes also assure them selues in a vaine perswasion that their opinions are most true, & that thereby they shal attaine euerlasting blis, & yet be deceaued, & ther fore that there is no certaine saluation by faith. We speake of the faithfull, & you of heretiks, we of faith, & you of fancie, we of a verity & the truth, & you of a pertinacy in pretēding truth. And how then can you conclude from the one against the other? notwithstāding,The abuse of thinges doth not a­bolish the necessarie & good v­sage of thē. if heretiks could be faith­full, & also heretikes, which is impossble, yet being by faith well perswaded, suppose they were hereticks withall, we must not refuse the good they haue, because in o­ther respects they be not good. For then belike (I will vse an easie example & but one) when the Philistines tooke away the Lordes arke, & had it in their keeping, be­cause the Philistins haue it, Israel shoulde not long to haue it againe, or when it was brought home, receue with ioy. But in very deed vnbeleuers, & perfect heretiks in ca­pital pointes, as they haue no faith, so haue [Page 144]they not the good perswasion of the end of faith, 1. Pet. 1.9. which is saluatiō of their soules. For they shall neuer be able, either to take frō vs, or to kepe in thē selues the arke of a quiet cō ­sciēce. And albeit they be suffred somtimes to reioyce in the light for a season, and to grow greene in the filde, yet all this is but a glimse, and in the ende to their greater sorrow, as it were by a slender tast, to let them know what perfit ioyes the faithfull man feeleth in him selfe, and feedeth on in his soule to euerlasting life. But now if your saying concerning the perswasion of heretickes were true, yet were your reason naught, but your saying being false, your reason is to to bad.

2. Secondly you say that this persuasiō is contrarie to the feare of God, verily we teach, and no men more either with better words in speaking, or in more due man­ner in thinking rightly of the fear of God, that it is the roote of all wisedom, and whē we woulde expresse the enormities of any place or persons, we speake with the scri­pture, and as Abraham and Dauid did, and as we take it, with the wordes of greatest dispraise:Gen 20.11 Psal. 36.1. The feare of God is not in this place, or the feare of God is not before their eyes. [Page 145]Wherfore we exhort them to stand in aw, and sinne not. The feare of God expelleth sinne. Mater timidi nunquam plorat: the ti­merouse childe is warie in all his wayes & loth to venter further, then is behoouefull, and therefore seldom causeth the carefull mother to wet her eye for him.

But we speake of the feare of God in his children,The diuers acception of the word Feare. Mal. 1.6. & his feare in them is twofold: ei­ther a reuerence of the worthinesse of his omnipotent maiestie: If I be your father, where is my loue? If I be your Lord, where is my feare? or else the feare of God is taken for the dreading of his iustice against sinne & iniquitie:Prou. 3.7. Feare God & depart from euill. But these & the like feares, which are law­ful & profitable, & are required, certes, the certainty of faith doth establish them and they it.

There are other feares of other sortes: a feare of the enemy, a feare of mans power, [...] feare of death, hell, & damnation, &c. in regard wherof we teach on this wise. Fear [...]our owne captaine, feare not thine, and his enemy. I will not feare, what man can do to me. Haue a confidence, Ioh. 16.33. 1. Ioh. 5.4. I haue conquered the world, saith Christ. This is your victorie euen your faith, which ouercommeth not in [Page 146]one or two skirmishes, or cōquereth some one part, but getteth the vpper hād of the whole worlde. Wherefore quite your selues like mē, & trust in the Lord. O death where is thy sting? Hell gates shal not preuaile a­gainst you, There is no condēnatiō to thē, that are in Christ Iesus. If God be with vs, what can be against vs? & why should we feare any thing but him? & yet not him otherwise then before I shewed, not as the dog the whip: the slaue his maister, or the thiefe the gallowes, but as an honorable Lord, a reuerēd father, & a iust but a good God withall. Whom we must serue (as Za­charies song is) in al respects in holynes & righteousnes al the dayes of our life, with­out seruile feare: nothing distrusting least happily he shoulde not keepe promises where he once promiseth. For this kinde of feare of all others directly oppugneth hope, & hope it, is flat against faith, & faith against it. If you meane such a feare, we graunt faith is cōtrarie to it, and laboreth still more & more to root it out. This we graunt. Faine woulde we heare what you or any of yours cā say herein, without dal­lying in the diuerse acceptiōs of the word (feare) directly to the contrarie.

[Page 147] 3. In the third place you say, the assurāce of faith ouerthroweth the vse of praying. For what need mā pray that he be not lead into temptation, if his faith be assured that he shall be saued notwithstanding temptation? O M. Stapleton, wil you tēpt God? The Lordes determination, cōcer­ning the endes in thinges doth not take a­way meanes and duties in the mid way of perfourming all that is commaunded to man. My life is fixt, and the boundes & limits therof certaine: Shall I therfore in reson therof refuse ordinary meat & drink, and dayly food, or physick in time of sic­nes? what a folly were it, beside an extream fault, contēning the Lords ordināce? Like­wise God suffreth no man to be tempted aboue measure.1. Cor. 10.13 Therefore because there is a measure set, shall no man power furth his prayers in that respect. Paul teacheth a better way. Pray alwaies, & Christ willeth: Watch & pray that ye enter not into tempta­tion. And yet none can not be tempted nei­ther with inward, nor outward temptation aboue his measure, & how thē doth the ce­rtainty of Gods defence therin abolish mās duty, that he should not pray therfor?Iam. 1.6. I pray shew vs more at large, or rather briefly in [Page 148]plainer maner if you cā. We teach no prayer is good but that which is made in faith & why thē doth the certainty of faith take away the office of praying.

4. In the last & fourth place, you say the certainty of faith peruerteth the doctrine of the Sacramēts. Well, I see either you do not see, which is grosse ignorāce, or of a frowardnes you wil not vnderstand what we mean by the assurāce of faith. We tell you, our saluatiō is built vpon a sure groūd, the Lord doth know who are his, & they who are the Lords, they know they are his. This is a firme foundation: the scripture & wri­ting of the house of Israel, that the faithful are registred in the booke of life, & this as­suredly we doe beleeue. But that there be no other helps to assure our faith we neuer denied. For herein as the word is a known writing to vs, so the sacramēts are the seals to double our assurāce, as Pharao saw two dreames to ascertaine him one thing,Gen. 51.25 nei­ther doth the assurāce that must be by faith destroy the helps that farther that assurāce in faith, nay the assurāce that shold be ther­in is proued the rather by the helps therto.

But now as we haue hard your tale (M. Stapl.) so giue vs a litle leasure to shew our [Page 149]own euidēces for our own selues. It is God that promiseth, & al his promises ar yea & amen. Then if he promise why should we doubt? againe the spirit doth testifie to our spirit, that we are his children. Shall we extinguish the spirit, & abādon these motiōs? again if we be faithful, faith is no waue, no watrish slippery matter (as Nazianz. word is) & why thē should we not be assured?In Orat. de Pasc. if we be Christs house, we hold fast,Heb. 3.6. the glo­ry & confidence of hope, but if confidēce, then no doubting, if glory & gladnes then no paine, & so no feare, much lesse dispair. The Papist doubteth not to say he can me­rite, and why shoulde we more doubt in faith to beleeue and with mouth to con­fesse, to the glorie of God that we haue founde mercie? Forsooth they say, be­cause debt is certaine and mercie is vncer­taine: and when a thing is deserued, it may be chalēged. They say well: for debt is certaine, if it be due debt, and if it be lawfully demaunded, it must be payed without question. To the confutation of which proude folly, I haue spoken suffici­entlie before in the question of meriting. Concerning mercie, and the vncertaintie thereof, if we speake of man, that can [Page 150]change his minde, and whose will is va­riable, it is true. But God is alwayes the same, his giftes are without repentance, whom he loueth he loueth vnto the ende, and yet if his mercie were kept in secret, in his owne bosom, and not made known to the sonnes of men, they might be vn­certaine. But being solemnly made by promise, fayrely drawen furth in auten­tick scripture, openly published by pro­clamation, and preaching, confirmed by the oth of him that can not lie, ratified by the best rites that can be deuised, sealed with holy sacramentes, and with the holy ghost, and after all this fully finished by will and testament, why shoulde we yet doubt, as if the matter were not certaine enough?

You reply,Lib. 9. c. 10.1 that all this assurance is ge­nerall and condicionall, generall & there­fore not sure in particuler,2 condicionall, & therefore vncertaine depending vpon a doubtful expectation. I wil aunswer both these cauils.

1. First, as for generall supposels with­out their truth in particulars it is a meere toye in Philosophie, and in Diuinitie it hath no sence. For God doth not pro­mise [Page]generally at auentures, katch who catch can, but directly & in speciall to all that receaue.

As soundes & colours are open abroad in the aire, and yet in the sences of hearing and seeing are made particular, and in spe­ciall both harde, and seene, so Gods pro­mises are vttered generally to all, but of the receauers, and beleeuers are they par­ticularly apprehended, or else not apprehē ded at all. For generall apprehensions are dreames & no apprehending. If I beleeue remission of sins in a cōmon generality & no more, without special applicatiō to my self, what availeth that: Wherefore Christ saith: My sonne haue a confidence: thy sins are forgiuen thee. Hold fast that,Matth. 9.2. for there is the comfort, and there ariseth the certainty of faith and hope. And generall promises why are they made to all, but to the end they may be beleeued of euery one in spe­ciall?

If a mortal Prince vnder seale & writing proclaime a generall pardon, there is no subiect that hath offended, but wold craue a particularitie in the generall, litle doub­ting therof for the safty of himselfe & par­dō of his offence: or were he wise, or in his [Page 152]wits that when the prince had pardoned all that woulde receaue the pardon, not­withstanding woulde stande amazed di­strusting still whether he be one of the number, of that all which should be par­doned in special? If thou be a scholler, I say to thee in thine own tearmes, when thou hearest a generall Maior out of the worde of God, examine whether thou canst finde the minor in thine own conscience, and then doubt not, but the conclusion will follow necessarily vpon thine owne selfe. As for example for the simplers ca­pacitie: all beleeuers shall be saued: art thou a beleeuer? then conclude, thou shalt be saued.

2. The other cauill was, that these promises were made vnder cōdition & in some meaning, your saying is not a­misse. For the promises are made with condicion, If we beleeue, and if we be­leeue not, be the promises neuer so ge­nerall, yet the [...]e can neuer profitte vnbe­leeuers. Euen as when the Sunne is in his greatest strength as bright, as bright maie be, yet the blinde man receaue­eth neither light, nor comforte, for all that: so be the promises neuer so fayre [Page 153]cleare, and large, yet if the eye of faith be wanting, the faithlesse infidel hath no benefit by all this.Esay. 7.9 Wherefore the Pro­phet Esay foretold Ahaz specially of this fault and defect of faith: If you beleeue not, you shall not be established. Wee mislike not this condition. But you meane that Gods promises are cōdicional in an other sence, and that not onely in respect of them, to whom the promises are intended,God is not changed nether in es­sence nor else in his purposes & doings. but on Gods part that maketh the promise, as if he reserued an alteratiō to be made if need were. Which assertion and speech is perfit blasphemie, flat against Sainct Paule, that sayth, Gods gifts are without repentance and therfore absolute, and so not condicionall: and full contrarie to S. Iames that saith, that there is no variablenesse,Iam. 1.7 nor shadow of turning, with the father of lights, that is, of turning now vp, now downe, nowe rising, now falling, now one way, now an other, of promising and vnpromising, &c. our God omniscient that made the eye, seeth, & forseeth all at the first view what is best, so that he need not appoint with cō dition to change his minde, and repeale his purposes, vppon better deuise or ad­uise, afterward taken. What he determi­neth [Page 154]shal stand, and what he promiseth, he will perfourme. I am God, and am not chan­ged. Whence followeth a good argument, if he could be changed, he were not God, I saye, if he could be changed, either in the essence of his being, either in the de­crees and purposes of his own deuising.

Common Philosophie taught the Heathen that principle, Eternall thinges suffer not contrarie passions. And shall Christians imagine the Eternall God to bee subiecte to varieties, that stand vp­pon the ficklenesse of vncertaine condi­tions? Heauen and earth shall passe, but neither God nor his worde, which is as firme as is him selfe shall passe. And how then sayeth Maister Stapleton, Gods pro­mises are so condicionall, as that they maie bee vncertayne in respecte of God that promiseth? And doeth he not know but thus much, that the greatest diffe­rence betweene the faithfull and faithlesse man consisteth herein, that the godly ha­uing receaued of God any promise, are thereby resolued, that comming he will come, & shew his sauing health in time cō ­uenient. For he is righteouse & neuer disa­pointeth any, that trust in him: but the [Page 155]wicked, are not so satisfied, and therefore when God speaketh, somtimes they look to the right hande, somtimes on the lefte, sometimes before, and sometimes behind, somtimes into thēselues, when they shold onelie and stedfastlie direct theyr hope and faith to God alone that will not faile?Psal. 78 Can God prepare a table in the wilder­nesse? Can he giue them bread? Or is he able to prouide flesh for his people? For his people, being in nomber so manie thousandes? bread and flesh in the wilder­nesse, a place so barren and voide of plen­tie? These and the like promises either temporall or eternall, are vnlikely in the eyes of flesh that are dull of sight. And no maruell. For might we perceaue neare at hand the way, and the meanes, then were there no triall of Faith, nor exercise of hope. For faith and hope are of thinges that are not seene. But when the matter passeth our reache, and we iudge it not possible, then is God glorified, if we be­leeue.

And to this end, concerning your exā ­ples are vsed the wordes: Siforte: if hap­pely, by Daniell to Nabuchadnezzer, & Peter to Simon Magus in their exhorta­tions, [Page 156]to equitie, almes deedes, prayers, or in the like cases: not that anie should be­leeue, and beleeuing remaine doubtfull, of the remission of their sinnes, but that fore­casting the difficulty of such a great chāge to be made in their cōuersion, they should be rauished with a longing desire there­after, and be enflamed the more, and so if it were possible beleeue, and in beleeuing then no more to doubt.

VVhen this will not serue,1. Cor. 4.4 you bring foorth the example of Paule, whome you saie doubted and durst not iudge himselfe. VVee shall consider the circumstances of your allegation, and of the text it selfe. There were amongst the Corinthians, that by odious and friuolouse comparisons fac­ciouslie held some with some, some with others, as if Christ were deuided in the mi­nistration of his seruauntes, and of Paule a preciouse vessel of chiefe choise, they este­med lesse then either his office required, or was expedient for their saluation. VVhom Paule in effect schooleth on this wise: for mine own part as I am not altogether care­lesse, so yet I passe not greatly to be iudged of you. Nay I iudge not my self much lesse should you. And albeit I know nothing by [Page 157]my selfe concerning my ministerie (for therof was the question) yet am I not ther­in in this, he saith not, in any thing else, but in this I am not iustified. He that iud­geth is the Lorde. Therefore iudge not you, and that before the time of iudgemēt. Now I aske wherin and why Paule would not iudge him selfe? He speketh of his fun­ction, and therein to claime that which some of them gaue to some that deserued happilie litle or lesse then he, in such sort & in so high a degree, he told them flat, albeit he were better then the best, and not guil­ty to him selfe of default in this behalfe, yet he would not iudge nor iustifie him selfe. VVhy? for iudgement belongeth to an o­ther person, and to an other time, and not to be vsurped either of thē or of him, by the way of deciding definitiuely like a iudge. But God whose waies are not mans waies, and who seeth farther into man, then man into him selfe, in that day shall lighten things, that were hid in darknesse, & make the councels of hearts manifest, And then shall euery man haue praise of God: which last words of praise to be had then, ar no trem­bling words of a doutfull minde, but a ioy­full good remembrance full of comfort, & [Page 158]of an infallible expectation. And all this v­pon occasion against them,2. Cor. 10.12 that woulde needes in contempt of Sainct Paul set the garland vpon their heades, that were least worthie to weare it, if all were knowne, as one day it shall appeare.Lib. 9. cap. 6 But Maister Sta­pleton and before him the censure of Col­lon, Andradius, Hosius and others, & our new notes nowe,Rhem. notes 1. Cor. 44. vrge this: S. Paule would not iudge, nor iustifie him selfe: and who is comparable to Paule? ergo there is no iudgement now, no certainty of consciēce in this world. But stay & know, vpon a par­ticular in one kind, you may not infer wel, no not a generall in the same kinde: much lesse comprehend those things, that are of another sort. For not out of a generality of one sort, may you inferre a particuler in an other kind. Wherfore of the vncertainty of all mens facts, God examining them in the day of triall, you may not conclude the vn­stablenesse of faith, which is of another propertie, and founded, not in workes, but on God himselfe, which can not fail. If I wold iustifie my selfe (saith holy Iob) mine own mouth shall condemne me:Iob. If I were per­fit, he shall iudge me wicked. In conside­ration of works & worthinesse of deedes. [Page 159]Iob renounceth all, and standeth in feare therein to com to the touchstone.Malac. 3.6 For there can be no certainty built vpon the sand of them. But in consideratiō of hope in God, he will trust in him, though he kill him: and concerning the life to come, he stag­gereth not at all, but is most assured: I knowe my Redeemer liueth. So Paule when he had treated of saluation,Iob. how it depen­ded vppon God, shutteth vp the whole matter, with full assurance of a thorough perswasion, that neither death, which is a bitter hearb to many, nor life which most men much loue, nor celestiall spirites, nor the greatest powers of heauen, nor height,Rom. 8 nor depth, nor things present, nor thinges to come, nor any creature shalbe of ability to seuer him from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus the Lorde. For in him is the roote, of all blisse, and the sure bonde, and certaine seale of this assurance. The wordes of Scripture herein are so plain, so vehement, so resolute, that they can be ne­uer aunswered without infinite shifting. Let the reader turne to the viij. chapter of the Epistle to the Romaines, and consider what goeth before and what cometh after, 38. ver. with begineth with certus sum, I am [Page 160]sure, as their owne translations are. And withall to the places, where ar mencioned the obsignation, the crie, the pledge, the earnest penie of the spirit in the faithfull, &c. and then let him on Gods name iudge of all that hath bene or shall be brought, either of the aduersaries, or else of vs.

First of all, the chapter of Trent doth no­thing but rage and storme at the matter,Conc. Trid. as the maner of it is euer, in so much that as a man may knowe a Lion by his pawe, or a bird by her fethers, so is that councell dis­cerned by nothing more then by banning and cursing.Controu. Ratisb. lib. 2 Pigghius better bethinketh him selfe, & calleth his wittes about him, or rather calleth a coūsell of all his fancies, and at length deuiseth foure aunswers and neuer a one against that we teach.1 Either S. Paule spake not of all the faithfull, or not of euerie faith,2 3 or not of him selfe at all times,4 or, but of him selfe with condition if he him selfe perseuered.

1. Not of all the faithfull? yes. For those who were predestinate before all times, called and iustified in time, God also had glorified, (saith Paule) wherupon I note, both the word (Those) to comprehend al, that shall be saued and glorified, and then [Page 161]that the Apostle saith: you hath God glo­rified, vsing the preter tence, because of the certaintie of that which shal folow as surely, as if it were alreadie past. And personal­ly beginning with him selfe, I am sure, he endeth, with shall seuer vs, including o­thers, aswell as him selfe. And elswhere he saith generallie, writing to a whole church proue your selfe, whether you be in faith or no, 1. Cor. 13.5 Know you not that Christ is in you, except ye be castawayes, counting it a great absurdity in Christianitie, not to be assured in parti­culer knowledge of euery mans own state.

2. Secondly Paule speaketh not of eue­rie faith. Doth he speake of a true faith? of such a faith wee meane. The pretiouse fayth of the Sainctes which is like in all. But let vs agree vppon this, that there is a certaintie by some fayth. Wherein as you agree with vs, meaning a good faith, so yet you disagree both with the coūsel of Trēt, and likewise with Lyndan a great stickler on your side, who auoucheth that the cer­tainetie of euerlasting life, quae est ex fide, which is by faith, neuer happened,Lind. panop lib. 3. ca. 21 non mo­do Christianis omnibus verè credentibus, sed nec ipsis Apostolis in hac vita vnquam. Not onely not to Christiās truly beleeuing, but [Page 162]not to the Apostles themselues at any time in this life. Yet wee had rather take Pig­ghius graūt, being reasonably vnderstood, & so leaue Lindan to them, that like him better.

3. Thirdly Paul doth not speake of him selfe, howe he felt him selfe at all times. Perhaps so, and yet no man knoweth what was in Paule, but the spirit of Paule that was in him. We denie not but that the de­grees of faiths assurance may be variable, not onely in diuerse men, but in one & the same man at diuers times. Yet more or lesse in a degre doth not abolish the nature of faith, nor quite extinguish her propernecessarie qualities, wherof assurāce is the chief. Which though it be eclipsed as it were by an interposition, sometimes of grosse and heauie flesh, which the best carie about with them, yet in the end faith wil returne to her course, shewe her face, and breake out againe, neither can she be euer frustrat of the effect of assurance. For sorowe maie lodge with vs for a night, but mirth will re­turne in the morning.

As the wicked may feele some ioye a while, that they may haue a greater feeling of sorrowe in the end: so sometimes the [Page 163]godlie maye suffer euen the anguish, and terroures, as it were of cast awayes, there­bie afterwardes to encrease their ioyes the more. And this is a sure doctrine wor­thie to be embraced of all, that albeit wee stumble, yet he will not suffer his to fall, or if to fall, not finallie to fall awaye, if God wound he will heale, if he kill, he will reuiue, and if he breake downe the walles of thy faith, that they seme to shake and totter, and fall, doubt not, he wil build them vp, he wil turne all to the good of his children, and if he darken thine eye, that is fixed vpon him selfe, be assured he will not do it out, neither will he take his holie spirit from the holy and faithfull, as he did the Spirit of the Regiment and fortitude from Saule. No, though he bring thee to hell, he will not leaue thee there. Why then? What if faith be much assaulted, and sometimes brought into narrower straightes then some, God knoweth best howe long it is best to hold his own vppon the rack, & it is the teachers dutie, and it is Sainct Paules endeuour thereby to giue out doctrine of comfort, and not therebie to empaire the faithfull mans assurance as Pigghius doth.

[Page 164] 4. Fourthly he saith Sainct Paules faith, & confidēce is with condition of his owne perseuering to the end, if he perseuered. No For without ifs as of douting, though not without condition of duetie, the Apostle proueth that God will not alter, nor discō ­tinue his euerlasting fauour to his dear children, and in the recitall of sundry thinges, he saith that neither thinges present, nor things to come would disioyne Gods loue. Wherefore in respect of the future time to come, he religiouslie is most confident of Gods goodnesse, and his own finall salua­tiō. Wherin to end, thus brieflie we se Pig­ghius obiections are litle worth.

Now let vs heare how Master Stapletō can helpe out the matter.Lib. 9. c. 13 Who being in­structed of the Colonistes saith, that when Sainct Paul said, he was sure (for that place troubleth them much, and if they coulde answer that, they would wrangle in like maner with other scriptures as they could) by his assurance he meaneth a certain kind of hope not certaine any otherwise thē but as a charitable man may and must morally conceaue one of an other, as Paul himselfe did of Timothie, and of the Romans. This is straunge and inopinable. For did not [Page 165]Paule know him selfe better, then he knew others, or if he did (as do doubt he did) did not his greater knowledg therin assure him selfe more of him selfe then of others.Rhem. not. Rom. 8.38 The men of Rhemes to perswade vs herein say, the Greek word [...] doth import on­ly a probable perswasion: & yet they could not but fumble in their tale, & adde withal that which they foūd in Hosius, that the A­postle might haue some speciall extraordi­nary reuelation, but they see euidently that the Apostle in that place speaketh of no reuelations, but of ordinarie doctrine to the Romanes, or if he had a reuelation special, it maketh more for his owne assuraunce, and nothing against the assuraunce of o­thers. Wherefore they seeme to fancie the other opinion more, that Sainct Paule was but probablie perswaded, and vncer­tainly certaine. I might alleadg that where their vulgar Latin is certus sum, I am sure, or certaine. Hierom vseth, I am confident.Gr. Mar. di seo. cap. 12 For that this assurance was not a probabili­tie, but a certaintie, and a confidence, which is more. But let vs rather reason the matter. Is Paule perswaded, and but pro­bably perswaded? A man would thinke the Apostles perswasiō in such a case were [Page 166]sure enough a very standing light, & no fa­ding flash, as it were of lightning.

Yong scholers are taught and it is true, that there are probabilities of sundry sorts, either wherunto a man may answer indif­ferentlie yea or no, because of the vnapa­rent notice of them, for they may be or theye may not be, and whether parte a man holdeth, it skilleth litle. For both parts maye be mainetayned with like reasons. If they meane such a probabilitie to be in Sainct Paule, he that defied boeth high and lowe, will little passe for such drea­ming coniecturals, in respect of his know­ledge of the marke that he shotte at, or of the infallible means to attaine therūto.

There are probabilities of an other kind absque formidine oppositi, prooued and ap­proued without feare and doubting of the contrarie vppon due triall, and iuste exa­mination premised. If you meane, (but you are farre from so good a meaning,) such a probable perswasion, you hitte vp­pon the Apostles meaning, who vppon former discourse is certaine and most cer­taine, and vppon the best certainties well perswaded. For thus he argueth, If God be with vs, who can be against vs, with vs [Page 167]by his election, vocation, iustification, &c. who can be against vs? who shall laie to the charge of his chosen? who shall con­demne, who seuer? and reckoning manie hard assaults, yet against all, he is sure that the elect, that is, the faithfull in all these be­come more then conquerours [...]. more then conquerours, & common con­querors, whom they haue throughly con­quered, they are not probably nor halfe a feard of them, and then commeth in his perswasion, I am perswaded, I am certain, I am sure, I am confident. Take which in­terpretation they wil, vpon the proofs pre­mised, that neither principalities nor pow­ers (and therefore not a sort of vncertaine Papisticall distinctions) can remoue from the eternal loue of God in Christ the lord. But were our saluation no more certaine, then are their answers, then were their an­swers somewhat, and our saluation verie vncertaine.

As for the old obiection out of the book of the Preacher,Eccl. 9.2 it hath bene aunswe­red, and washed cleane out longe ago. In deede Maister Stapleton hath latelye done the part of a diligent Papist,Lib. 9. cap. 8 that seeketh all meanes to deceaue him selfe, [Page 168]and sauing that hee wanteth the oyle of truth, he hath set a fewe fresh colours ther­on, then euer yet I could set eye on in anie other, as I well remember, facing vs out that Salomon first putteth it downe gene­rallie, that there is no certaintie, and that al things are vncertain, & that man know­eth not whether he bee in case of loue or hatred. And wheras we shewe out of the text, that it is ment that there is no certain­tie touching the euent of our affaires, he telleth vs that that is a seconde sayinge, and a particuler confirmation, and no re­straint of the former generall vnto such casualtyes as maye beefall a man either in this life, or in the kinde of his death. A­gaine where wee euidentlye proue that a man maye assure him selfe of the hatred of God (who hateth sinners) if he be a sinner. And therefore where Salomon sayeth a man knoweth not whether he be hated or no, he respecteth necessari­lie not the sence and touch of an inwarde conscience, either of the loue of God, if he be faythfull, or of his hatred, if he be sinnefull, and faythlesse, Maister Sta­pleton sayeth, the certaynetie of loue, and hatred are not a like, and there­fore [Page 169]that there is mention made of hatred, because when a mā beginneth to questio whether he be to be beleeued straight waie in that verie moment, he misdee­meth whether he be not worthy of hatred also.

Vnto all this I aunswer brieflie. But in the meane season well we perceiue that, (as the wiseman sayth) a dead flie maie marre the good smell of the sweete oint­ment, so a cursed gloze may corrupt the fairest text. But I answer and aske: are all thinges detained in an vncertainty? he that sayth all, seemeth verily to excepte nothing, and nether can any thing be ex­empted, which is subiect to that all, which he meaneth that saith al. But that al things should be vncertaine with euer (either in sence, or in faith, whereof Chrysostom saith, though sense may be deceaued,Orat. 9. in 10. c. Heb. yet can not faith) is farre from Solomons thoughtes in this place. So that he ma­keth no absolute generall saying, and then afterwarde commeth in with a particular matter of externall euentes, he proueth a generall vncertaintie thereof and in that kinde, and yeldeth the cause why, which must needes be as large as the effects, and [Page 170]the cause of like compasse with the effects, eo quod, because all thinges fall out alike to the iust and vniust, to the good, and to the bad, &c. And verely this is onely the wise mans intent to shewe the vanitie of mortal euents vnder the sun, & therwithal to teach mē not to decide by the outward face of things concerning Gods fauor. For had he meāt to speake generally without exception of any thing, or specially to ex­clude the assurāce of faith, a particular alle­gation of the euēts of afflictiōs or the like, had bene but a colde cōclusiō or a slender proof. Wherfore (M. Stapl.) if you will argue an vncertainetie of faith, which we denie, and disproue the certainety there­of, which we affirme, you must shewe an vncertaintie to be in God the promiser, or in the holy Ghost the confirmer, or in the like groundes, whereupon we build, and not dispute of common euents, which fall out indifferently to the one, and the other, either good or bad, and sometimes in hea­uier sort, as it may seeme to the godly, thē to the wicked man. For among the good the best, or among the best, the very best: or among the bad the better, and the lesse bad may be in the same case outwardly, as [Page 171]may be the worst. Whereof onely, Solo­mon treateth, and not in generall against al knowledg. For if he meane that nothing cā be known, how knew he that he knew nothing? But we know of Solomōs know ledge the scriptures speake much, & that of M. Stapletons vncertainty in know­ledge, and no assurance in faith, they are altogeather silent, and speake nothing at all, no more then they do of that which he telleth vs verie impertinentlie to the text in Solomon, that when a man examineth his state, whether he be in the loue of God immediatly euer the doubt of hatred com­meth alwayes to minde. What fraile flesh will doe, is not our question. What faith ought to do is that, which we cōtend for. But if flesh doubt, yet must faith resolue all doubt. Thy flesh will suggest & bring in­to thy memorie thy many sinnes, but incō ­tinētly thy faith must recorde the mercies of God, that are more in number, & grea­ter in value, and most certaine to this vse to pardon and remit sinnes. The worlde doth storme, the flesh oppresse, the Di­uell ly in waite, yet the Christian which is foūded on the rock which is Christ, cā not fall. Bernard saith well, Ego fidenter, quod [Page 172]ex me mihi deest; Bern. Serm. 61. super Cant. vsurpo mihi ex visceribus Domini. Looke what is wanting of my self vnto myselfe, with confidence I vsurpe that vnto my selfe, out of the bowels of the Lorde. An excellent sentence full of cōfort, and speciall confidence. M. Staple­ton would qualifie it, but can not, & ther­fore thought it better to misreporte it o­therwise then he found it in Bernard him selfe,Lib. 9.14. and first of all he misquoteth the place 6. for 61. but that may be the neg­ligence of his Printer, and so woulde I ea­sily thinke, if there were no ill dealing o­therwise. Secondly he sayth this confi­dence is taken not for a confidence, but so farre furth, as it is opposed to an astonish­ment, as if when I did a thing confidently, I did it only not with astonishmēt. Wher­as a man astonished is past doing, but do­ing confidentlie, is doing, and doing with great boldnes. Thirdly for fidenter he saith fideliter, changing Bernardes worde, and fourthly he saith fideliter-dico, as if Bernard spake of faithfull speaking, and not of cō ­fident vsurping and taking, specially in the singuler number ego, I, and properly mi­hi, to my selfe, take from the bowels of Christ, what is wanting to my selfe. The [Page 173]reasons of this his assurance Bernard yel­deth elswhere,Serm. 3. de frag. septē. vpon three strōg cōsidera­tiōs, of the loue of Gods adoptiō, the truth of his promisse, and abilitie to performe, and thē he pronounceth that he knoweth whom to beleeue, & in beleeuing how to be assured.

In truth, if we either rest or reckon of your selues, so as M. Stapleton requi­reth, we cast the anker of our hope in an vnstable place, and not vpward into hea­uen, (as the Apostle teacheth) and then no meruaile, if hope be no hope, & fayth, not faith. For what scripture euer teach­eth vs to hope or beleeue in our selues? Ac­cursed is he that maketh flesh his arme, or putteth his trust in man, either in himselfe or in an other man: in him selfe, for that is a daungerous pride, in an other, that is as Augustines word is, an inordinate humili­tie: inordinate humilis non leuatur, Hom. 84. de temp. periculose superbus praecipitatur, The proude man wil hurle down himselfe hedlong, but the in­ordinate humble no man can hold vppe. Wherefore pride, dispaire, and folly be far from vs. Our hope, faith, and helpe, is on­ly in the name of the Lorde. We are asha­med of our selues, & of men like our selues, [Page 174]but not of the hope, which is in vs toward him.

The matter is weightie, yet would I be loth to be ouer long, I will ende with remembrance of a storie out of the booke of Nombers,Numb. 13. where Iosue sent certaine to suruaie the lande of Chanaan, who vpon their returne, reported of the good­nes of the lande much, but more of the strength of the people, of the crueltie of the inhabitants, of their stature like giāts, and in comparison that Israell were but grashoppers, their towns meruelously de­fensed, and that euerie way it was impos­sible to goe vp, and preuaile against it. But Caleb, whom the Lorde had indued with a better spirite comforted the people on the contrarie side and saide cheerful­lie: Come let vs go vppe, vndoubtedlie we shall possesse it, litle considering the strength of the people, or their crueltie, or the wals of ther cities, but onely re­sted vpon the promises of God, and there­in he stayed him selfe, and would oft haue stilled Israell. Semblably notwithstāding the force of all the worlde, the difficulties of flesh and bloude, the subtelties of sinne, the arguments that certaine aduersaries [Page 175]like Iosues spies make against vs, yet if we haue Iosues faith, we must relie vpon the Lorde, and in the ende we shall obtaine a better land, then the land of Chanaan, e­uen the land of the liuing, with the liuing God.

He that somtime doubteth may remē ­ber he is a mā, but because he is also a faith full man, he must not cōtinue therein but shake away distrust, & cōquere al doubts, & be well armed with the shild of faith a­gainst all assalts. The faithles they are at an other pointe, & they ame vncertainly without a marke, beat the aire, bath them­selues in the pleasures of the worlde for a while, & in the end they dy as they liued, they liued without hope, & perish euerla­stingly. But we who are beleuers, & know we ar beleuers (as August. speaketh). For faith is no fancy, as we are risen againe in newnes of life in this life, so shall we be receaued againe to life eternall in the life to come, our conuersation and trafficke is aboue, our hartes are set on heauen & hea­uenlie thinges, we are frindes with God, distance of place, diuersities of periles, and doubtes of daungers can not disioyne or cause distrust, for we also shall finally dye [Page 176]as we liued, we liued in his feare, and re­uerence, we dye in his faith: he is our God, God, and therefore able: our God, and therefore willing to bring his promises all to passe one daie, and in the meane season there can happen nothing neither inwardly, nor outwardely, but it may be patientlie borne, quietly dis­gested, and with suffrance passed ouer, knowing alwayes (as the Prophet saith) that the time shall come, either in this worlde, or in the worlde to come, when all shall confesse: verily of a truth, there is frute for the righteous, doubtles there is a God,Psal. 58.11 that iudgeth the earth. The teeth of the cruell, the iawes of the Lion, the ar­rowes, and all the argumentes of proude imaginations shall come to nothing, & we shal certainely be saued.

Of sanctification in this life and the meanes of direction therein,

ACcording to the order, which I pro­posed to my self to shew furth the fre­nes of Gods grace, and fauour, it remaine­eth in this place next to speake of sanctifi­cation. For albeit S. Paul maketh it no ex­presse linke of that chaine wherein God [Page 177]doth all in all: and wherewith out of al cō ­trouersie, there can be nothing in man, yet where he speaketh of mās duty to God, he shewethe euer necessarilie, that they who are iustified by faith in Christ, are like­wise sanctified by his spirite. For being manumitted or freed from sinn by Christ, we are there withall made the seruaunts of God to bring furth fruts vnto sanctificatiō.

Their owne Roffensis saw somewhat when he sayde: fides iustificat ante partum. Stapl. lib. 8. cap. 31. Illyr. in cla. par. 2. tract 6. Faith is the mother, works of sanctificatiō are the children. The mother doth iusti­fie in order before the children be borne, and then shee bringeth furth a godly of­spring, who like good childrē cherish their mother, and comfort her with naturall re­spect againe.

That no man mistake me, it woulde be obserued, that the word sanctification is ta­ken, either for iustification in Christ, who is our wisedome, our righteousnes, & san­ctification, or else for holynes of life in Christiās, who hauing receaued the spirit of adoption, & a measure of grace, are san­ctified, renued in their minds, & reformed in their liues, dying to the world, & liuing vnto God. Both these sanctificatiōs, ar ours [Page 178]For Christ is ours, & therfore his holines & his righteousnes are ours also. But there is a differēce betwixt that which is in Christ being perfit in nature, precedēt in order, & made ours but by imputation, and be­tweene our sanctification, which is im­perfit in it selfe, issuing from his goodnes, and really inherent in our selues. The one is receaued by faith, the other cōsisteth in good works as of piety toward God, of vp right dealing with mē, & of tēperate vsage of our own persons, of faith in Gods pro­mises, of hope in his mercies, of louing his goodnes, of zeale in religion, of praysing his name, of cōtinuance in prayers, of con­fession of sinnes, of seuerity against vice, of encrease in vertues, of paciēce in troubles, of goodnes towards al men, of meditation of death, of spirituall ioy & intentiue expe­ctation of the ioyes to come. I am not to debate particulars, with intēt to dilate any thing. For that is not my purpose, and the rather because looke what hath bene spo­ken of many the former matters, may with ease, or else without great labour be appli­ed to this present argument.

Philosophers make a differēce of bodies. & it is euident in sense, howe some bodies [Page 179]are grosse & darke, as wood & stone, some cleare and lightsome, & perspicuous, that a mā may see through them, of which sort, are the aire, fire, christall, common glasse, oyld paper, and the like. Whereunto I may resemble the outward actions of man, ei­ther his words or deeds. For through these a mā doth as it wer through a glas window look into a mans minde, frō whence as frō a spring both words & deeds do issue. I be­leeue, & therefore I spake saith Dauid. Will you know a iustified man? look whe­ther he be sanctified & holy according to so holy a calling: will you know the good­nes of the tree? trie whether he bring furth according to his kinde as it is in Moses.

In the second of Kings,Genes. 1.2. Reg. 1. king Ahaziah fel through a lettasse window from his vp­per chamber, & therby fel into an extream sicknes. He calleth for his seruāts, sendeth certaine of them to go & enquire of Beel­zebub the idole of the Ekron concerning the recouery and euent of his disease. Vpō this the Angel of the Lord appeareth vnto the Prophet Elias, and willeth him to goe and to meete Ahazias seruaunts & to say vnto thē: Is it not because there is no God in Israell, that he seeketh to belzebub? &c. [Page 180]Wherefore of Ahaziah the Lord saith: He shall not come down from the bed that he went vp into but shall die the death. E­lias doth the message to the seruauntes, the seruauntes returne to their king: he museth at their suddaine returne, declara­tion is made what befell. The king de­maundeth what maner of man it was, that met them? they shew him, that he was an hearie man, girded with lether. Then saide he straight, It is Helias the Thesbite.

Out of this story sundry instructiōs may be gathered. First that as the oxe doth eat vppe the thistle, so may the axe ouerthrow the oke. i. as the poore sinfull people shall surely be punished, so the vnsanctified mightie man shall not euer escape. Againe in destresses sinnefull men seeke for sim­ple helps, and not vnto God the God of help, & al to no purpose, but to their grea­ter hurt. Where as the holy man knoweth that our very heares, our teares, our names ar in accoūpt with our almighty Iehouah, our heares are in his register, our teares in his bottle, our names in his kooke. But the purpose, why I record the story, principal­ly is, to shew howe readily Ahaziah did gesse by the Prophets attire, that it was E­lias, [Page 181]& therby, by this exāple to declare, not that the hearines of our apparell, because happily therwas some singuler thing in E­lias attire, as likwise in Iohn Bapt. apparel, which was an other Elias, but that our at­tire & apparell in most modest maner ge­nerally be seemely, & that all our behaui­our be such either in gate, words, or deeds, that whē report is made therof, a man may straight auouch, verily there is a Christian.

There is no doubt, but dissimulation is spun now adayes of so fine a thread, that it is hard to discerne who is who. Gardiner could make a booke of true obedience, & Bōner made the preface therto, & now we lack not, & if time serued (as God forbid) we should haue experience, that we want nether subtle Gardiners, nor cruel Bonars. But because some can semble to be that they are not, & dissemble to seeme to be what they are, therefore yet may not the godly cease both to be in deede, and pro­fesse to be also true professors. Coloures can not long cōtinue. A grape may ketch, or hang vpon a brier, it groweth onely & naturally vpon the vine. Dissimulation is like Hermogines learning,Volater. lib. 15. very towardly to shew a while, but after a while it becam [Page 182]flush and flue away: wheras the sincere ho­ly man groweth still from faith to faith, frō strength to strength, from vertue to vertue, till he become a perfit man in Christ Iesus, knowing that this is the will of God, euen his sanctification.2. Thes. 4.3.

And were there nothing else but the wil of God, & his cōmandemēt in this behalf, yet were this alone cause sufficient, that we offer vp the sacrifice of our obedience to our God, & we should be holy, because he is holy, who hath commanded vs so to be,Ier. 35.14. euen as the children of Ionadab, the sonne of Rechab obeyed their father, and abstained from wine, because their father, so commaunded them, but infinite are the reasons that should moue vs to a godly life as not only his commandements therunto, but the inhibitiō of the cōtrary, denūtiatiō of penalty, if we liue ill, or promise of re­ward if we liue well: the hindrāce of Gods glory & the hurt to common weals, by the one, the edification of many by the other. Exāples of good mē to be followed, who were honorable mē in their generatiōs, & wel reported in their times as Enoch, Noe Abraham, and many moe, or the effect of sinne vpon sinners, that threw Adam out [Page 183]of paradise, turned Nebuchadnezzer into a beast, and Iudas into a Diuel, slue kings, ouerthrew thousandes, swallowed vp re­bels, drowned Pharao & all his host, burnt vp whole cities, and wasted nations. But what shall I stand to reckon vp reasons, to proue that day hath light, & that the night is darke, that vertue is good and vice is naught, or that the one ought to be em­braced, and the other auoided? For, he is farre gone, and past cōmon sense, that wil not confesse all this. Howbeit in the pra­ctise of doing, it falleth out cleane con­trarie. And the reason thereof, I take to be in them that haue any knowledge (for to speake of the wilfull ignorant it is boot­lesse) because their knowledge occupieth onely some small roome in their braines, but hath no firme possession of the harte. My sonne giue me thy hart (saith God by the pen of Solomon.) Keepe it not they selfe but giue it me,Prouer. 23. bestowe it not vpon plea­sures which fester, nor vpon meates wher­in is excesse, nor vpon riches, which will take the wings of the eagle & soone fly a­way, nor in honours, which man enioying becam a beast, nor in any corruptible vain thing vnder heauen. Giue me thy harte, [Page 184]sayth the wisedome of God, and he will teach thee to vnderstand and follow righ­teousnes, and iudgement, and equitie, & euerie good path. And as for riches, honor, pleasures, &c. know this, godlines is great riches, and as the highest honor, & as the true and perfit pleasure, & what not that good is?

Direction in the way of sanctifi­cation out of the word of God and by his spi­rite.And now for directiō herein in the way of godlynes, whō should we rather follow then God him selfe? &c. & not the vaine wordes of others, but (as the Apostle adui­seth) walking as the children of the light, bringing furth the fruites of the spirite. Wherin we may note that to vaine words we must oppose the worde of God, and that the fruites of the spirite are specified to be good works, to teach vs from whēce good workes come. The one sometimes is distinguished frō, somtimes conteined vn­der the other. The word serueth to direct in the right way, and whereby we discern who are out of the right way. The spirit is Christes vicar on earth: and as Christ him selfe the sonne of righteousnes, and the day star in our hartes, a consuming fire of all distrust, and burning vp the ve­ry rootes of disobedience, and of all the [Page 185]stumbling blockes in the world. The one of these lightly is neuer receaued without the other. For the worde is vnprofitable without the Spirit. The Spirit of God lea­deth into all truth. The things of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. But yet the Spirit of Christ to them that haue age and opportunitie neuer commeth but with the word.

The Ana­baptist. The A­theist. The PapistThere are three especial enemies of this word of God, and therfore enemies to the rule of goodnesse, and to the leuell of all sanctimonie. The first is the fantasticall A­nabaptist, that dreameth of Reuelations: the second is the wilfull Atheist, that thin­keth the worde of God to be to trouble­some, it hindreth his fancies, it forbiddeth his delightes, and stoppeth all the bathes of his vaine pleasure, it talketh to much of sanctification. The third enemie is the wi­lie Papist subtiller then all the beasts of the earth beside, he knoweth his coine is adul­terate, and therefore he feareth the touch­stone, his chaffe wolde not be winnowed. And no maruaile. For wold false prophets be sifted, or vaine spirites be brought to their triall? Wherefore the man of sinne goeth about to disswade mē from hearing, [Page 186]and reading this worke of God, and in steede of the waters of the Scriptures they haue digged vp puddles of wilworshiping and such like mud, fitter for the horse and camel, then for Christian souls: & in roome of the light of Gods word they haue sub­stituted false & mocklights of their owne, in place of virgin wax, they haue giuen vs tallow, in roome of a candle, they haue rea­ched vs a snuffe, & the candle of the Lords word, they haue detained, vnder a bed or a bushell, that the faithfull men might neuer knowe what they did, nor discerne what they beleeued. As if to beleue well, were to beleue a mā knew not what, or to liue wel, were to liue in ignorance, and to do the works of darknesse. And yet they pretend great reason for all this, and so did he, that said of one that could be mad with reason. I can not debate the controuersie, I shall but touch a reason or two. The worde is vncertaine, the worde is obscure, ergo not to be read and heard absolutely of all, &c. Vncertaine? I know not what is blasphe­mie, if this be not. Where & in what place dare they thus speake? in the Church of God? before whome? before the Congre­gation of Saintes? The word is as a candle, [Page 187]which giueth light both to the house, and sheweth withall what it selfe is, & is it then vncertaine? but it is obscure. So you saie. We aske to whom? we aunswere to them, that perish. It is harder somwhere then in some, to stir vp thine attention, & therfore it is commaunded, Search the Scriptur, dig for wisedome, seek for knowledge as after siluer and gold. Be it that it be obscure. Yet as that saying in great part is most false, so is the reason most faultie. The candle bur­neth dimme, therfore toppe it. It is a good argument. There is a knotte in the weeke, therfore open it, that the light may haue easier entrance. It is a fit reason. But the candle burneth obscurely, therefore put it out, or throw it away, or anie such like cō ­clusion is starke naught. Yea the more ob­scure the Scripture is, the more it must be laboured, & the more incessantlie studied, because it is that, wherein we knowe is life euerlasting, and the way of life which is sanctification.

To let go them that will not heare vs, seeke after this waye, there are of those, that seeke sundrie sortes. Some seeke on­lie to the end they maie be knowen, to be verie skilfull men in good thinges: [Page 188]this is an ambitiouse vanitie, some only to know: this is fond curiositie, some to en­struct them selues: this is true wisedome, and some to edifie others, and this is perfit charitie. The two former sorts are naught, the two later holy and good. For true reli­gion and perfit holinesse, is made neither of bragging wordes or peeuish fancies: but this is true deuotion, to visit the sicke, the widow, the fatherlesse, & to keepe a mans selfe blameles from the soile of the world. He that neuer saw hony may talke & think how sweete a thing it is: but he that tasteth therof, can better tell what a gratious tast it hath in deede.

Again there ar others that though they cared litle for seeking them selues, yet are they content to let others alone with such matters. But all their care is as they are ca­ried awaye with some conceit or other. They rise vp early in the morning, and go to bed late, and eate their bread in great care to compasse purposes. But alas what meane they? Suppose thou be a Monarch, a noble, a marchant man, or what thou wilt, if thou gaine all, and lose a good con­science, and thereby thy soule, thy losse is greater, then thy gaine. Thou art a iollie [Page 189]fellow in thy countrie, a king of a welthie land, a peere in a Realme, thou canst pre­uent foes, & ioyne in with mighty friends, al the sheaues of the field must bow to thé, the Sunne and the Moone must stoupe at thie presence: or if thou be a meaner man as of a towne and corporation, thou canst cudgell, and compasse matters, & conuey things at pleasure, or if thou be a priuate occupier or a man of trade, thou canst buy cheape, and sell deare, all these and the like are but miserable comforts in the day of death or iudgment. One sanctified soule then will be more worth, then innumera­ble sinners. O Lorde sanctifie them and vs with a liuely vnderstanding of thy trueth. Thy word is the truth, teach vs, O Lorde, good wayes therin, that we may know & do thy will.

I will record a storie: Dauid being cer­tified of Saules death among his lamenta­tions he breaketh foorth on this wise:2. Sam. 1 O, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streetes of Ascalō, lest the daughters of the Philistines reioyce, lest the children of the vncircumcised triumph. Gath and Askalō were of the chiefe cities of the vncircum­cised. Dauid wisheth, that Saules death [Page 190]might be concealed from them: that it might not be told to the enemies of Saul, and of God. With like affection it is to be desired, that ether there wer no Sauls at al, or that they might die either obscurely, or liue otherwise then to the slaunder of the profession they seeme to be of, but in truth are not. They that haue dwelt or dwell in Gath, & Askalon, in Louain, Doway, Rōe, or Rhemes, the enemies of vs, of our Land, and of our God, wilbe glad to hear that he which is reckoned a iustified man by faith, were yet a prophane person like Esau in the race of his life. The streame of sinne is strong, and carieth the world with it, but he that thinketh he standeth, let him take heede he fall not. If a piller fall, the house is in daunger, if a mightie tree fall, it bea­reth downe manie bowes and sprigges with it. O, what a shame were it for anie that haue begun in the spirit to ende in the flesh, to reioyce in the light and afterward to loue darknes more then light, to receiue as it were a portion of faith, and then to mispend it? The children of the vncircum­cised will make great triumphes, when they shall heare hereof, supposing they haue gayned much, when they can finde [Page 191]a man that hath fallen from his God: but to the godlie what sorrowe is like to this, where such euentes are found? Wherefore let euerie man looke to his wayes, & stand to his watch, that he offend not God, nei­ther that he giue place to Sathan, cause, of ioy to the aduersarie, or of griefe to the godly, that he defile not him selfe, driue a­way the spirit, receaue the word in vaine, stayne his profession, and that he be not like the Asse and Mule, that carieth on his backe, wheate, or breade, or wine, and yet eateth onelie chaffe, and drinketh nothing but water. To carie the name of a Christian is little woorth, except you feede on the properties of Christianity, & expresse them in a good life. For not to talke of Christ, but to liue in Christ, is in­deede to be a Christian, vnto whom it may & shold be said, as it was vnto Mary: thou shalt beare a sonne, and thou shalt call his name Iesus. For they that heare Goddes word with pure affection,Luc. 8.22 and bring foorth the frutes of the spirit, they are as it were, Christes brethren and as deare as his mo­ther, and after a sort his verie mother, as in the wōb of whose faith Christ is concei­ued, and in whose holie life Christ is spiri­tually [Page 192]born into the world dayly. And this is true sanctification, allwayes to be per­fourmed in vs, taught in the word, imprin­ted by the Spirit, graūted of God through the merites of Christ, in whose name we pray euer, to be sanctified more and more continually. And euē as Anna praied that God would giue her a man child, and she would giue him the Lord againe, so wee pray that God will make vs his holy adop­ted children. But the benefit of this holi­nesse and of this adoption, as likewise of our creation, when we were not, & of our iustification, when we were naught, and of all things else, as he giueth them vs, so we must giue them him againe, & render all the praise, to him alone the onely giuer of all good giftes, who is to be blessed for euer, both for all and of all. So be it.

Of Glorification in the life to come, and of so­briety in certaine questions that are moued therein.

WHen sanctification endeth in this life, then glorification entreth, & taketh his beginning for the life to come. And then when we shall haue escaped all the ginnes of mortalitie, when the times of [Page 193]temptation shall be passed ouer, when the streame of this world shall haue quite rūne out his course: then this corruption of ours shalbe endued with incorruption, the olde Phoenix shall be renewed: and euen as Moses did put his leprouse hande into his bosome,Exod. 4.7 and pulleth it foorth a cleane and a sound hande: so this fraile flesh of ours, that is sowen in dishonour,1. Cor. 15 and must rotte in the mould of the earth, shall yet rise againe in honour with great perfectiō in that gloriouse day.

Sainct Paul sheweth that there were a­mongst the Philippians,Phil. 3 that walked much amisse, in number manie, in conditions earthly minded men, seruants to their bel­lie, and enemies to the crosse of Christ, & therfore in fine whose iust end was to haue an heauie doome, & a deserued damnati­on. But speaking of him selfe and of the godlie he saith: our consolation is in hea­uen, from whence we looke for a Sauiour, euen the Lord Iesus, who shall change our vile bodies, that they maie be like his glo­riouse bodie according to the working, wherebie he is able to subdue all thinges vnto him selfe. Wherein these four points are expressely set downe:1 the conuersation [Page 194]of Christians to be heauēlie,2 their expecta­tion to be of Christes appearing in the cloudes,3 the glorification to be euen of our verie bodies, and because no man should doubt of the issue thereof, after he had set downe the former three, in the fourth place mencion is made,4 of the om­nipotent power of God.Reu. 14.13. Wherefore with­out all question as the spirit saith in the re­uelation, Blessed are they that die in the Lorde, for they neither frie nor freese, as the Papistes suppose, in purgatorie, but rest from their labours. Nowe to die in the Lorde, is to die, either in his cause, & qua­rell for righteousnesse sake, or otherwise in his faith and feare, and in the course of their calling. And to die is to be dissol­ued,Eccl. 12.7 the bodie to the earth, from whence it was taken, and the soule to be rendred in­to the hands of God that gaue it.

Thy dead (saith Esay).Esay 26 O Lorde shall liue, euen as my body shal they rise againe Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust. For thy dewe is as the dewe of herbs, and the earth shall cast vp her dead. Not that all the dead, but that the Lords dead shall liue the second life. And not who dye in their sinnes and in olde Adam, but who [Page 195]die in the Lorde, and who liued in Christ, and Christ in them, and die in Christ,Mar. 12.24 Mat. 22.29 and in the Lord, They shall rise in glorie. Let no man be deceaued, as were the Saddu­ceis, and Libertines, and as nowe is the whole familie of loue. The dewe of Gods power is as the dewe of herbes. Herbes ap­peare not in winter time. The dewe from heauen softeneth the ground, doth awaie the frost, & openeth the earth, & the herbs spring againe, and flourish a fresh. Like­wise the moisture of Gods omnipotencie and power diuine, will cause & commaūd the earth to giue an account of her dead, to yeild foorth the bodies of his Saincts, that they may liue. Euen as my bodie (saith the Prophet) and putteth the matter out of doubt, pointeth to his owne bodie, & pro­ueth the restitution of Gods people from banishment by this infallible argument, teaching that because they doubted not of this the greater, they should beleeue the lesse which was their restitution.

So in Ezechiell the people seemed to be in a dead and desperate case,Ezech. 37 as if their verie bones were dryed vp, their hope gone, and them selues cleane out of God sheweth in a vision, to the Prophet; [Page 196]a plaine fielde, full of dead bones: hee will giue them senewes, flesh shall growe ouer them, and he will call the dead, out of their sepulchers. And by this, god meaneth that he will restore his people, and conuey them home, euen as if they were taught & well knew, he would reuiue the dead.

The Articles of our Crede touching the resurrection and life eternall is most large­ly proued by Sainct Paule to the Corin­thians.1. Cor. 15 But Christ confuteth the Saduceis sufficientlie with this,Mat. 22.32 Mar. 12.26 that God is the God of Abraham, Isaak, and Iacob. And that God is the God of the liuing, and not of the dead. Of them that liue, and therefore are, and not of them that liue not, and therefore are not, and of them that shall liue, in whole and not onelie in part. And it is spoken in the present tence, of the li­uing, as well for the certaintie of the bo­dies rising, as for the assured being of the soule in the meane season in the handes of God. And herein concerning the soule (for of the bodie I haue said sufficiently) what becommeth of it when man is dissolued: I can not but maruel what M. Bristow mea­neth to mencion,Reply to D. Fulk cap. 8 part 2 that there be many texts to make it probable, that not any one en­treth [Page 197]into heauē, no not since Christs time, till the generall resurrection.Bez. li. The­ol. Epist. 2 Epist. Al these pro­babilities are aunswered by a learned man of our own age in perfit maner particuler­ly vpon occasion, & heare I reade it need­lesse to trouble the simple with imperti­nent disputes.Immediatly vpō the de­parture out of this mor­talitie the soule is re­ceaued into the ioyes of heauen. Luc. 23.43 2. Cor. 12.2 It may suffise them to know that while we are in this bodie, we are pil­grimes from the Lorde, ergo not, so when the tabernacle therof shall be layed aside. But then we shall be as it was saide to the theefe, euen in the day therof with Christ in Paradise. And what is Paradise, but heauen? for so Sainct Paule when he tal­keth that he was taken vp into Paradise, he tearmeth it the thirde heauen. Euerie man sayth Austine, sleepeth with his cause, and shall rise with his cause. But in the middle time, as in our common sleeping, some sleepe quietly, some haue heauy and sorrowfull dreames: so when we go into the common bed of the earth with our bo­dies, yet our soul hath her rest with a sense of ioye, or hath a feeling of sorrowefull paines. Habent omnes animae, Tract. in Iohn. 49 quum de secu­lo hoc exierint &c. All soules when they de­part out of this worlde (straight) they haue their diuerse places of receipt, if [Page 198]they be good, they haue ioy: if they bee naught, they haue torment, and when the generall resurrection shall be, the ioye of the good shall be more ample, and the torments of the wicked more grieuouse, when with their bodies also they shall be tormented, and this is onelie the differēce. Wherfore in the hour of death, let no faith full man doubt, but that he hath a present entrance into heauen, and that he shall be with Christ there, and that he may praie, looking vpward into heauen, both with Christ and with Steeuen: Into thy handes O God I commend my spirit. O Lorde Ie­sus receaue my spirit.

And this is a kinde of glorification, which shall be consummated after the consumption of all thinges. In the meane time while wee yet remaine in this world, there are dueties to be done, and euerie man hath his talentes, fewe or manie, or at least one,Mat. 25.14 and that one he may not hide in a napkin, like the idle man, nor digge it in the earth, where it may rust, much lesse throwe it to the dunghill, that is be­stow it vpon bad and vile vses.

The noble man is gone into a farre countrey, the maister to a wedding: but [Page 199]they will certainelie returne againe, but when, that is vncertaine, whether at the first, seconde, thirde, or fourth watche,VVhy the comming of Christ is not specially in the circum­stances of time cer­tainely known. whether in the euening, or at the dawning of the day: and therefore is so vncertaine, the rather to excite thy care, and stirre vp thy diligence, to prouoke thy watchful­nesse, to set thee alwayes in a continuall expectation, both of his comming particu­lerlie to thee, and in generall to iudge the world.

But if thou like the euill seruaunt saye, tushe the Lorde differreth to come, and being absent can not see what is done a­misse, and cruelly shalt misuse thy fellow seruauntes, or riotouslie mispend thy mai­sters substance, wasting all in wantonnesse and excesse, liuing in pleasure, and fatting thy selfe, as in the day of great slaughter and much feasting, & shall common with thy soule, after this maner: O my soul take thy rest, this iolitie will not faile, this case on earth is euerlasting: behold suddenlie when thou thinkest least,Luc. 12.46 this night be­fore euer the morning can come, death is at thy doore, thie dayes are numbred, thy deeds are waighed, thy doom is come, and thy soule shall departe, not onely this [Page 200]life and so an end, but shalbe sundred from the nomber of the liuing with God, and shall liue in torments euerlastinglie with Satan and his angels without end

Nay rather let vs imitate the faithful­nesse of Sainct Paule, who in respect of o­thers, & namely of his brethrē the Iewes, what a continuall sorrowe conceaued he, howe hartie was his desire, howe feruent his prayers in their behalfe? Yea, he had care of all congregations. Who is weake and I am not affected? Who is offended, and I not grieued? And in respect of him selfe he ranne his race, he kept the faith, he fought a good fight, & knew that there was a crowne reposed for him. And be­cause wee may not thinke, that this tou­cheth onely Sainct Paule,2. Tim. 4 he addeth, not onelie for me, but vnto all, that loue, and therefore looke for Christes comming, e­uen with loynes girded, that is with di­ligence, and with lightes in their hands, that is, with skill, as it is in the Gos­pell.

But hee that in steede of running his race, shall sit him downe lazilie, or diuert before he come to the goale, or in steede of keeping, shall make shipwracke of the [Page 201]faith, and in steed of fighting, shall striue vnlawfully, there is laide vppe also a re­warde for such, euen the reward of iniqui­tie, and when he litle thinketh, the day of the Lord shall come vppon him, much like to a theefe in the night, and as the tra­vell of a woman, suddainlie in the twinck­ling of an eye, and then he shall be sent in­to his owne place, as Iudas was, when he hung him selfe. But as for the godly,Act. 12.5. we hope and pray for prepared mindes, and though by infirmitie we sleepe, euē as the wise virgins did, yet we shall not sleepe to death,Mat. 25.2. or without oyle in our lamps as did the foolish.

Naturall men can iudge the face of the euening, if it be red, they saie we shall haue a faire day, if the morning red, we shall haue raine, & it is true, if the figtree or the mulbery sproute furth their leaues, euerie one knoweth, sommer is nigh. We are to discerne naturall euentes by natu­rall signes. Haue we no skill (I trust we haue as many as be spirituall) in spirituall matters?

In the last times & waines of the world, men shall attentiuely harken to spirites of errour, the doctrine of Deuils shalbe spred [Page 202]abroade and be taught, mariages and the lawfull vse of meates as a matter of conscience shalbe interdicted. Antichrist shall sitte in the holy place, and as Austine sayth according to the Greke text,Aug. de ciuit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 19. in tem­plo Dei, and shall chalenge him selfe to be the Church of God. Know we not what these thinges meane. [...]

I will go a litle farther, and come from matters in religion vnto mens manners. Charitie shall waxe colde,1. Thes. 2.4 iniquitie shal­be rife and ab [...]nd, and almost run ouer all the world like Noes flood, men shalbe selfelouers, there shalbe warres and ru­mors of warres in euery corner, skant faith shalbe found in the earth except here and there, as it were an eare or two left after haruest. Is there nothing to be looked for vppon consideration of this? verily al­most there remayneth not any signe to be fulfilled, but the Sunne to be darke­ned, or the Moone loose her light, and that the starres droppe from heauen, and the verie celestiall powers be shaken and remoued. The euening is red, yea blood red, wil not the morrow therefore be fair, and ioyfull to all the godly? Lift vp your heades, ye that mourne, for your redemp­tion [Page 203]draweth neere. Yea, the morning is red also, and shall not a tempest ouer­take the wicked? Cloudes like wool­packs houer ouer our heads, and thicken in euerie coast, the haruest of the worlde is white, and calleth for a sickle. The end of all is at hande, yea the endes of the worlde are come vppon vs. Life eter­nall is the gifte of God, and euen anone he will make full deliuerie thereof. Eue­rie man shall receaue his peny, his palme into his handes, his crowne of life for his head, the white garmente that neuer soyleth, the euerlasting foode, that ne­uer perisheth, the waters that neuer fayle, the candle that neuer goeth out shall e­uen anone be deliuered vnto all. They who sowed a winde, shall reap a whirle­winde, but they that sowed in iustice shall reape mercie, they who gathered Manna on the six day, shall rest on the se­uenth. They that sowed in teares shall reape in ioy, and their ioy shall no man take from them.

As the Geometrician by the measure of Hercules foot, proportionally coniectured of the stature of the whole bodie, so by humaine similitudes we may conceaue [Page 204]somewhat of those ioyes, and that glorie, which in this day shalbe accōplished, but perfitlie to the full to set them furth, be­cause they are not yet reuealed, it passeth all wordes, all writinges, all imaginations of all the tunges, or pens, or harts of mor­tall men.

Wherfore the questiō that some moue of higher or lower,The que­stion of e­qualitie or inequalitie of glory not much ma­teriall to faith and godlines. greater degrees of more glorie, in some then in some in the day of glorie is to no great purpose. For in the highest degree, there is no difference of degrees, or if so, yet our glorie shall be so much, as we will either desire, or can containe. And what neede further reasoning in a matter not taught in the scriptures? wherfore both in this and all the like que­stions, I aunswer with the wordes that the woman of Samaria vsed to and of our Sa­uiour. The wel is deepe and I haue no ves­sel to draw vp such water.Ioh. 4.11.

Concerning a question, that in this place is much moued by some, & throughly resolued by none that I know,VVhether we shall know on another in the next life. I will say what I thinke, and the rather to take a­way the question if it may be then to de­cide it.

Vpon the apparition of Moses and Elias [Page 205]in mount Tabor in our Sauiours transfigu­ration, it hath bene thought of some, that in our glorified state we shall know and be knowen one of an other. But by the way I wil first giue a more necessary note because of occasion of Moses appearing. Moses was buried, no man coulde tell where, but yet here he appeared.Dei Where­upon ariseth a comfortable consideratiō, that though man can not tel what becom­meth of mēs bodies & the bodies of many Matters, that are throwen to the lions, de­uoured of dogges, cast into Sequana, or thrown into the sea, burnt to ashes, &c. Yet God knoweth, and as he made Moses here to appeare, so here after the bodies and soules of all his afflicted Saincts, shall appeare at his second cōming, euen at the blast of the trumpet.

Now for the question how could those be knowen & discerned? there were ma­ny hundred yeares between Elias time, & Peters, and Iohns, who were with Christ in the mount, and there was a thousande yeares betwixt Moses time and theirs, and if there were but an age difference, yet howe coulde they be knowen at the first blush? and then if they being before vn­knowen [Page 206]were so soone knowen in this but transfiguration, how much rather shal we knowe them in our glorification, with whō we were acquainted, of whose bones we were bones, of whose flesh we ar flesh, & of whose race we descēded, whose kindnes we loued, whose loue in all manner of godly familiaritie & tender friendship we enioyed.

For this, that Moses and Elias were discerned the text setteth down, howe they were discerned it setteth not downe. A simple aunswer is easiest and truest as I take it. God who made the apparition to Peter and Iohn, gaue vnto Peter and Iohn the knowledge to discerne who they were that appeared, whether he will giue them the like knowledge in the life to come because the scripture is silent, I dare not definitiuely say or argue to or fro.

Farther it is reasoned: Adam in his in­nocencie straight way, notwithstanding he were asleepe, when Eué was taken out of his side, yet he knew, who Eué was: sem­blably, when this corruption shall put on incorruption, when sinnefulnes shal chāge for innocency, like to or else more perfitte then Adams in Paradise, when our know­ledge [Page 207]in part shall be made perfit, and our charity intended to an higher degree and extēded to more in number, then we may, if know the things that we knewe not be­fore, much more know the things, and re­cognize the persons we knew once.

I will not dispute against this opinion, much, for peraduenture it may be true.

Farther it is reasoned, that if the damned spirite of the richman in hell, notwithstan­ding the great distance & chaos betwixt, could discerne Lazarus & Abrahā in hea­uē, that the soules of the iust and perfit mē shal much more see with a clearer eye the society of all, but especially certaine in the cytie of the Saincts.

I will not answer this to be parabolical, & that euery part of a parable doth not e­uer proue euery matter, that it may be fit­ted vnto. For it may be that this very part thus vrged, is not of a thing altogether im­possible.

But that which I shall shortly remem­ber by occasion of the question moued, is most true, and much to be considered.

First it is true that death is a passage in­to a better life to all that beleue, a doore, & entrance into heauen, a redy meanes to be [Page 208]with Christ, and not where Christ is one­ly (for Christ according to his Godhead is excluded no place) but with Christ, and in Paradise are they, who die a corporall death, but yet liue vnto Christ. And then this being throughly considered it doth lenifie such natural passions as are incidēt to the sonnes of Adā, it maketh the bitter cup to haue a sweete tast, it breedeth a de­sire to be dissolued, and a longing to be at our long and last home. For the things here are nothing to the thinges there: yet are we hardly induced to leaue them, and herein they serue & loue vs most, and we them.

But let vs consider, when we die, we depart from the world, and therefore from worldly affections also we should depart, and betake our selues wholly to a better habitation, and vtterly to haue nothing to do, with the things that are done vnder the sunne after the dispositiō of our house and temporalities, as Esaie exhorted the king.

A wet eye and an affectionate minde doth neither discerne aright, nor iudge vprightly in this case, and when we should be rauished with the loue of his face, to [Page 209]whom we go, we looke backward, whe­ther we shall see the faces of our old frinds any more.

In the resurrection they neither marry nor are maried, mariage is the neerest con­iunction amongest men. But then the res­pects of mā & wife shalbe swalowed vp as it were a candle put out at the rising of the Sunne. Therefore the affections toward father and mother, children and kinred, of consanguinitie and blood of affinitie or amity which are lesse, shal also cease then. For they will either hinder somewhat, or doe much hurte in the quietnes of our passage.

I reade of one Rotholdus (of whome Sigibert doth write) a man of name, and a Duke, when he shoulde be baptised, he would knowe whether there were moe in heauen or in hell, and what acquaintance he had in either place, was not this a great folly?

In the second booke of Samuel Dauid maketh offer to an old aged man Barzelai,2. Sam. 19. that elswhen, had shewed him kindnes, & that now God had blessed Dauid, and had brought him to the kingdome, he woulde requite the old man, and offered him that [Page 210]he should goe with him, & be in his court at Ierusalem. But Barzelay on the other side maketh a contrarie request vnto Da­uid, that he may returne to Gilead, and dy in his own countrie, and be buried in the graues of his auncestors, and as for anie pleasure that he could take in the kings pa­lace, he said he was ouerspent and worne, his sense of tasting was gone, & so of hea­ring, the voyce of the singers and the court musicke did not affect the old man.

In the storie we see a contentation in the aged man, and also a loue to his coun­try whereby he preferred Gilead before Ierusalem. I do not altogeather discom­mend euery point in his affection. But, by application, if I may speake, there are o­uer many Barzelaies now a dayes both in their liues, and in their deathes. They are so long time accustomed to the worse, that they disdaine the better, they cannot tast the truth, they will not heare the mu­sicke of the charmer, charme he neuer so cunningly. They began in superstition, they haue long continued in error, and they will needes be buried in the idolatrie of their forefathers, and they will go whe­ther they thinke they haue most acquain­tance. [Page 211]But true religion goeth neither by the most, nor by those that seeme to be most neere a man commonly.

In our life, the worde is our direction, the spirit our guide. In our death we must, as we resigne our bodyly substance vnto godly vses, and our bodies for a time, into the bosome of the earth, so without more adoe, & without forecasting of doubts, or scruples, of curious, fancifull or affectio­nat questioning must we wholy yeeld vp our soules vnto God our father a safe kee­per of them vnto the gloriouse resurrectiō in Christ Iesu, to whom with the holy spirite three persons, and one euer­liuing God be euerlasting praise, Amen.