AN ENLARGEMENT OF A FORMER CATECHISME, WHICH CONTAINED IN BRIEFE the grounds and principles of Christian Religion.
That shewed what we ought to beleeve, this upon what ground we ought so to beleeve, both which are necesseary in the faith of every Christian.
Gathered at the first, and since enlarged by D. V. for the benefit of such as are but Novices in the Schoole of Christ.
LONDON, Printed by T. and R. Cotes, for S. Enderby, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes head Alley, at the signe of the Starre. 1641.
The Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion.
The first Part.
Question. WHo made you?
Answ. God.
Q, How is that proved?
A. Out of the first Chapter of Genesis, the seven and twentieth verse, where it is said, God made man in his owne Jmage: and out of the hundreth Psalm at the 3 ver. Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us.
Q. How many Gods are there?
A. One.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the second Chapter of Saint Iames, the ninetéenth verse, Thou beleevest that there is one God, thou doest well.
Q. How many persons in the Godhead?
A. Thrée.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the first Epistle of S. Iohn, the fift Chapter, the seventh verse, There are three that beare record in heaven, and these three are one.
Q. Which be those three persons?
A. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the former words of S. John: where he saith, There are three that beare record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
Q. Wherefore did God make you?
A. To serve him.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the hundreth Psalme, where Gods making us, and our serving of God are both ioyned together, giving us to understand thus much, that therefore we should serve God, because hée made us, and therefore he made us, that we should serve him. The words are these: Serve the Lord with gladnesse, come before his presence with singing: Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us. And to the same purpose speakes Salomon [Page 5] in the booke of Ecclesiastes, the last chapter, the last verse save one: Let us heare the conclusion of the whole matter: Feare God, and keepe his Commandements, for this is the whole duty of man.
Q. How will God be served?
A. According to his will revealed in his Word.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the nine and twentieth of Deuteronomie, the last words: The secret things belong to the Lord our God: but the things revealed belong to us and our children for ever, that we may doe them. And out of the sixt Chapter of Micha at the eight verse, where the Prophet saith plainely: That God hath shewed us what is good, and what he requires of us.
Q. Where, in what part of Gods word specially is this will of God revealed?
A. In the ten Commandements.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because the ten Commandements are divers times in Scripture called the Testimonies of the Lord, as in the sixth of Deuteronomie, the seventéenth verse: Ye shall diligently keepe the Commandements of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes. Where the same [Page 6] things that he cals Commandements, he cals testimonies also because God doth therein testifie and declare unto us what he would have us to doe.
Q. Rehearse the ten Commandements
A. God spake these words and said, &c.
Q. What doe you learne out of the foure first Commandements?
A. My Duty towards God.
Q. What doe you learne out of the six last Commandements?
A. My duty towards my Neighbour, that is, how to carry my selfe both towards my selfe, and also towards others.
Q. How is it proved that this is the substance of those things that are required of us in the ten Commandements?
A. By the words of our Saviour in the two and twentieth Chapter of Saint Matthew, at the seven and thirtieth verse and so forward: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soule, and with all thy minde: This is the first and great Commandement, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy selfe: On these two Commandements hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Q. Can you keepe all these Commandements?
A. No.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the twentieth Chapter of the Proverbes, at the ninth verse: Who can say I have made my heart cleane, I am pure from my sinne? And out of the third Chapter of Saint Iames, and the second vers. In many things we offend all. Besides this is sufficiently proved to every man, by his owne dayly experience, if he doe observe and take héed to his wayes.
Q. Did God make you thus?
A. No.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the seventh of Ecclesiastes, and the last verse, God made man righteous.
Q. How comes it to passe then that you cannot keepe the Commandements?
A. By the fall of Adam and Eve.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the twelfth verse, where the Apostle saith thus, By one man sin entred into the world. That one man, is Adam, who was tempted by Eve, and the world is all mankind that came of them, so that the Apostles meaning is, that by that meanes wée are all become sinfull, [Page 8] and therefore breake the Commandements of God.
Q. Who were Adam and Eve?
A. The first man and woman that God made, and having made them, hée ioyned them together in marriage.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the second Chapter of Genesis: for concerning Adam, it is sayd in the seventh verse of that Chapter: The Lord God formed Man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soule. And concerning Eve, it is sayd in the two and twentieth verse of the same Chapter. The rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made a woman; There is the making of them both, in the beginning when God created the world. Then concerning their ioyning together in marriage, it is sayd in the two and twentieth verse also, that God brought the woman to the man
Q. Wherein did they fall?
A. In eating the forbidden fruite.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the third Chapter of Genesis and the seventéenth verse, where God chargeth Adam, that he had hearkned to the voyce of his wife, in eating of the [Page 9] trée, of which he commanded him that he should not eate thereof. There it is expressly sayd, that the man did eate of the forbidden fruite, but the womans eating thereof is understood.
Q. What is the forbidden fruite?
A. When God had made Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden which is commonly called Paradise, and gave them liberty to eate of every trée of the Garden excepting one.
Q. What is the forbidden fruite?
A. First, that God placed Adam in Paradise, that is proved out of the second Chapter of Genesis, at the fiftéenth verse; And the Lord God tooke the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dresse it, and to keepe it.
Secondly, that God placed Eve in Paradise also, that is proved because shée was Adams wife, and man and wife are to live together: and it is sayd in the third Chapter of Genesis and the eight verse, that she as well as Adam heard the voyce, of the Lord walking in the Garden.
Thirdly, that God gave them liberty to eate of every trée in the Garden save one, that is proved out of the second of Genesis, the sixtéenth and seventéenth [Page 10] verses: And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eate, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evill thou shalt not eate thereof: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye. This being spoken to the man, concernes the woman also: for we may not thinke that the woman had any more liberty for her eating than the man for his
Q. If God placed them in Paradise, and gave them libertie to eate of every tree of the garden excepting one, what of this?
A. They did eate of this trée, and that was their sinne.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First that they did eate of that trée, is plainely set downe in the third Chapter of Genesis at the sixt verse. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she tooke of the fruite thereof, and did eate and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eate.
Secondly, that this was their sinne, that is plaine, because it was contrary to the Commandement which God gave them.
Q. What is that to us if Adam and Eve sinned?
A. Yes, their sinne is our sinne, and their fall is our fall
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans at the twelfth verse: By one man sinne entred into the world, and death by sinne, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. The Apostle saith that all have sinned: now it cannot be truely sayd of any sinne that all young and old without exception sinned, but onely of that sinne which Adam and Eve committed in eating of the forbidden fruite.
Q. But doe we partake with Adam and Eve onely in this sinne, and not in other?
A. From this first sinne, which they committed, procéedes naturall corruption, both in them and us, which naturall corruption, consists not onely in the want of holinesse and righteousnesse, which God bestowed upon us in our first creation: but also in an inclination to all evill, and a backwardnesse to every thing that is good, and this naturall corruption is the cause of all other sinnes.
Q. How is this proved, that from that first sinne proceedes naturall corruption, and from that, other particular sinnes?
A. Because that the Apostle saith in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the ninetéenth verse, that By Adams disobedience we were made sinners. We did not onely sinne in Adam, but by that sinne or disobedience we are become sinners or sinfull.
Q. What danger followes upon this, that God gives us a Law to keepe, and we are so sinfull that we cannot keepe it?
A. The curse of God.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because it is sayd in the seven and twentieth Chapter of Deuteronomie and the last verse: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them.
Q. Doth this curse of God concerne us onely so long as we live?
A. No, but the curse of God is upon us in death, and after death also.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because the Apostle saith in the sixt Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans the last verse, that the wages of sinne is death, not onely temporall death, which is the parting of the soule and the body, but also eternall death which followeth after: and this is plaine, because in the same place he speakes of eternall life, [Page 13] and brings it in as a contrary to death: The wages of sinne is death, but the gift of God is eternall life.
The second part.
Q. Is there any meanes to escape this curse?
A. Yes, by Iesus Christ.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because in the Epistle to the Galathians, the third Chapter, the thirtéenth verse, the Apostle saith thus: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.
Q. Who is Jesus Christ?
A. He is the onely Sonne of God.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because in the third Chapter of S. Johns Gospell at the sixtéenth vers, Iesus Christ speaks thus of himself: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.
Q. Is Jesus Christ onely God?
A. No, he is both God and man.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because in the third of Saint Johns Gospell, at the thirtéenth and fourtéenth verses, and in many other places, Iesus Christ cals himselfe the Sonne of man.
Q. How did he being God become man?
A. He tooke flesh of the blessed Virgin Marie.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because Mary is called the mother of Iesus Christ, and the Angell sayd of her, That she shall bring forth a Son, and call his Name Iesus, in the first of Matthew the eightéenth and the one and twentieth verses.
Q. What hath Jesus Christ done for us?
A. He dyed for our sinnes, and fulfilled the whole Law.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First, he dyed for our sinnes, so saith the Apostle in the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and the last verse, and because his death had béene to little purpose, unlesse he had risen againe from the dead, therefore he joynes his resurrection with his death: He was delivered for our offences, and was raised againe for our justification.
Secondly, that he fulfilled the whole Law, that may be proved by the comparison which the Apostle makes betwéene Adam and Christ, in the fift chapter of that Epistle to the Romans, and the ninetéenth verse: As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of [Page 15] one shall many be made righteous. Where by the disobedience of Adam, we must understand that which hee did contrary to the commandement, and therefore by the obedience of Christ, we must understand that which he did according to the Commandement.
Q. How do you lay hold upon Christ?
A. By a lively faith.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the third chapter and the seventeenth verse, Christ is sayd to dwell in our hearts by faith.
Q. Rehearse the articles of your faith.
A. I beléeve in God the Father Almightie, &c.
Q. What is faith?
A. A perswasion of my heart, that what Iesus Christ hath done or suffered for the Salvation of mankind, he did it for me as well as for any other.
Q. How is it proved that the nature of faith consists herein?
A. The ground of this is in those words of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galathians, the second Chapter, the twentieth verse, where he speakes thus: I live by faith in thee Sonne of God, who loved [Page 16] me, and gave himselfe for me.
Q. What is the speciall fruite of faith?
A. Repentance.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the very nature of repentance.
Q. Why, what is repentance?
A. It is a turning from our sinnes, and a returning to God, whom by our sins we had forsaken.
Q How doe you prove that this is the nature of repentance?
A. Out of the Prophesie of Isaiah, the five and fiftieth chapter the seventh verse, Let the wicked forsake his w [...]y, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him returne unto the Lord. In these words the Prophet preacheth the doctrine of repentance, while he calls upon them to turne from their wicked wayes, and to turne to the Lord. And so in the former Epistle to the Thessalonians the first chapter & ninth vers, the Apostle sets out their repentance in these words, that They turned to God from idols, to serve the true and living God.
Q. But if this be the nature of repentance, doth it follow thence that it is a fruite of faith?
A. Yes, for that that moves a man to [Page 17] repent is this, that hee beléeves he shall finde mercie, and obtaine pardon upon his repentance. And this is plain by the manner of the Prophets enforcing this duty of repentance: for in the five and fiftieth Chapter of Isaiah, and the seventh verse, When the Prophet had exhorted them to forsake their wicked wayes, and to turne to the Lord (wherein consists the nature of repentance) presently he brings in this reason, that God will have mercie upon them, and abundantly pardon them. Now the reason that doth move a man to practise any duty, must first be apprehended and beleeved, before he practise the duty it selfe: and therefore a man must first beleeve, and have a perswasion of Gods mercie, before he doth or can repent.
Q. What meanes be there to get faith, and to increase it when we have it?
A. The meanes are these three: first, the hearing and reading of the word of God,
Q. What meane you by the word of God?
A. The canonicall books of the old and new Testament.
Q. How doe you prove that this is a meanes to beget faith?
A. Because the Apostle saith in the tenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and the seventéenth verse, that Faith commeth by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Q. What is the second meanes?
A. Prayer is the second meanes.
Q. How doe you prove that?
A. Because it is the meanes that our Saviour Christ hath taught us, for the obtaining of any good thing at Gods hand: for these be the words of our Saviour in the seventh Chapter of Matthew at the seventh verse: Aske and it shall be given you, and againe in the eleventh verse of that Chapter: If ye that are evill can give to your children good gifts, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that aske him?
Q. What is the best forme of prayer?
A. Our Father which art in heaven, &c.
Q. To whom do you make that prayer?
A. To God.
Q. How doe you prove that?
A. Because there is none whom wee can call, Our Father which art in heaven, but onely God.
Q. How many petitions are there in this prayer?
A. Six.
Q. Which be the first three?
A. Hallowed be thy Name, that is one, thy Kingdome come, that is two, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, there are the thrée first petitions.
Q. What doe you pray for in these petitions?
A. Such things as concerne the glory of God.
Q. How doe you prove that?
A. Out of the forme of the words, thy name, thy kingdome, thy will, &c.
Q. Which be the other three petitions?
A. Give us this day our daily bread, that is one, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespasse against us, that is two, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evill, there are the thrée last petitions.
Q. What do you pray for in these three petitions?
A. Such things as concerne ourselves and our neighbours, our good and theirs, both for body and soule.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First, the words be plaine enough, wée doe not say, give me, and forgive me, and leade not me, &c. but give us, and forgive [Page 20] us, and lead not us, &c. Therefore we pray for our brethren as well as for our selves.
Secondly: And as wee pray for bread which concernes the body so also for the forgivenesse of our sinnes, and strength against temptation; which concernes the soule.
Q. Why doe you make these petitions to God, rather than to any other?
A. Because it belongs to him to hea [...] our prayers, and grant our requests, in that he is our King; he is able to doe it, in regard of his power: and that hee should doe this for us, it makes for his glory.
Q. How is it proved that you make these petitions to God, rather than to any other upon this ground?
A. Out of the last words, where this reason is given, why we make the former petitions to God: For thine is the Kingdome, the power, and the glory for ever.
Q. But doth not our Saviour teach us to give thankes to God for good things received, as well as to pray for what wee would have?
A. Yes, and this he doth in these last words also: for they are not onely a reason of the former petitions, but doe containe [Page 21] in them a thanksgiving also.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First, because that thanksgiving is a part of prayer, and our Saviour would not leave out such a necessary part of prayer, when he did purposely teach them to pray.
Secondly, because we reade in the former booke of Chronicles the nine and twentieth Chapter, at the eleventh verse, that David gives thankes to God in the like words. Blessed be thou O Lord God of Israel our Father for ever and ever: Thine O Lord is greatnesse, and power, and glory, and victory, and praise: For all that is in heaven and in earth are thine, thine is the Kingdome O Lord. Here in Davids thanksgiving the Kingdome, and power, and glory of God are mentioned.
Q. What is the meaning of the last word, Amen.
A. It is the conclusion of the prayer, and it signifieth our faith and our desire touching that we have prayed for, as if we should say, what I have prayed for, I desire it may come to passe, I beléeve it shall come to passe, and thus I set up my rest, and shut up my prayers.
Q. How doe you prove that this is the [Page 22] meaning of Amen in this place?
A. Because so it is to be understood generally in the end of our prayers, and so it is used in the two and twentieth Chapter of the Revelation at the last verse save one, where when our Saviour Christ had promised to come quickly to Iudgement, S. Iohn answers, Amen, and then hée expounds this by two things, Even so, and then Come Lord Iesus, the former whereof, shewes his beliefe, the later his desire.
Q. What is the third meanes that may be used for the obtaining of faith?
A. The third meanes is the use of the Sacraments.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because for this end they were ordained of God, as may appeare, if we consider the nature of them.
Q. Why, what is the nature of a Sacrament?
A. It is a signe and a seale of that covenant of grace which God hath made with his Church.
Q. How doe you prove that this is the nature of a Sacrament?
A. Out of the seventeenth of Genesis, where God made a Covenant with Abraham and his seed, and gives them circumcision [Page 23] to be a signe of this Covenant, and a seale to confirme the same: and hereunto agree the words of the Apostle, in the fourth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the eleventh verse, where he saith, that Abraham received the signe of circumcision, the seale of the righteousnesse of faith.
Q. What is the Covenant of grace which God hath made with his Church?
A. This is the tenor of the Covenant, that Whosoever beleeveth in Christ Iesus, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Q. How doe you prove that this is the substance of the Covenant of grace?
A. Out of the tenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, where he compares the Covenant of grace with the Covenant of workes, and shewes wherein the Covenant of grace doth consist, at the ninth verse: If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus, and shalt beleeve in thine heart, that God raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Q. How many Sacraments are there?
A. Two, and no more.
Q. How doe you prove that?
A. Because to these two onely doth agree that which hath béen said concerning [Page 24] the nature of a Sacrament.
Q. Which be those two Sacraments?
A. Baptisme and the Lords Supper.
Q. What is signified and sealed unto us in Baptisme?
A. That as the water washeth away the soyle of the body, so doth the bloud of Iesus Christ wash away our sinnes.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the two and twentieth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, where Ananias speaks thus to Paul at the sixtéenth verse: Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sinnes: where these two being joyned together, baptizing and washing away of sinne, the one shewes what is meant by the other, that by the outward baptizing and washing with water, is signified the washing away of our sinnes.
Q. What is signified and sealed unto us in the Lords Supper?
A. That as the bread and wine doe nourish our bodies, so doth the body and bloud of Iesus Christ nourish our soules and bodies to everlasting life.
Q. How do you prove that this is signified & sealed unto us in the Lords supper?
A. Because when our Saviour first ordained this Sacrament, in the six and [Page 25] twentieth Chapter of S. Matthew, at the six and twentieth and eight and twentieth verses, he utters these words, when he giveth the bread and the wine, saying: This is my body, and againe, this is my bloud, thereby shewing, that every worthy receiver doth not only receive the bread and wine, but the bod [...] and bloud of Chist also, and that the re [...]iving of the bread and wine, doth seale unto them the receiving of the other.
The third part.
Q. Who are they that shall have everlasting life?
A. The godly.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the five and twentieth chapter of S. Matthew, the last verse, where it is said, the righteous shall goe into life eternall.
Q. When shall they have this life eternall?
A. At the end of the world,
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the former Chapter, the five and twentieth of Saint Matthew, for that that is there spoken of the righteous, and their going into eternall [Page 26] life, is thus to be understood. For in the foure and twentieth Chapter at the third verse, the Disciples of our Saviour asked him, what signe there should be at the end of the world: and hereupon our Saviour speaks of the end of the world, and what shall fall out then, both in the foure and twentieth and five and twentieth chapter, and amongst the rest this is one thing, That the righteous shall goe into eternall life.
Q. Shall not the righteous have eternall life before the end of the world?
A. Yes, in part when they die, for their bodies shall be laid in the grave, but their soules shall goe to heaven, and there enioy eternall life.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First, that the bodies of Gods children shall bée laid in the grave, that is plaine by experience.
Secondly, that their soules shall goe to heaven, and there enioy eternall life, that is plaine out of the words of the Apostle, in the later Epistle to the Corinthians, the fifth Chapter, the beginning of it: Wee know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed, we have a building given of God, an house not made with hands, but eternall in the heavens.
Q What shall become of the wicked when they die?
A. Their bodies shall bée laid in the grave, but their soules shall be in a place of torment.
Q. How is that proved?
A. First, for the bodies that is plaine by experience.
Secondly, for their soules, that may be proved out of the words of our Saviour, in the seventh chapter of S. Matthew at the 13. verse, where he saith, That the broad woy leadeth to destruction: now the wicked walk in that way, and when they die they come to the end of that way, and therefore though their bodies lie in the grave, yet their soules meet with destruction.
Both these wee may see fulfilled upon the wicked rich man in the sixtéenth of Saint Luke, the two and twentieth and thrée and twentieth verses, where it is said, The rich man died and was buried, there is the bestowing of his body, then it is added, that he was in hell in torments, that is to be understood of his soule.
Q. How long shall the bodies of the godly and the wicked lie in the grave?
A. Till the end of the world.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the fifth Chapter of Saint John, the eight and twentieth verse, where our Saviour saith, That the houre shall come; in the which all that are dead in the graves shall heare his voyce, and shall come forth, both they that have done good, and they that have done evill.
Q. What shall become of them then?
A. Every body shall be joyned to his owne soule, and raised up againe.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the former words of our Saviour, for he saith, They that are in the grave shall heare his voyce, therefore the soules shall bée joyned to their bodies, otherwise they could not bée so properly said to heare: and then hée saith further, they shall come forth, that is, they shall be raised up out of the grave.
Q. When the bodies of the godly and the wicked are joyned to their soules, what shall become of them then?
A. They shall come to Iudgement.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the Epistle to the Romans, the fouretéenth Chapter, the tenth verse, We shall all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ.
Q. Who shall judge them?
A. Iesus Christ.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the former words, and so all so out of the later Epistle to the Corinthians, the fifth Chapter, and the tenth verse: We must all appeare before the judgement seat of Iesus Christ.
Q, How shall Christ judge us?
A. According to our workes.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the former place, where it is said: We must all appeare before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, that every man may receive the things which he hath done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or evill.
Q. What is the meaning of that, when you say that Jesus Christ shall judge us according to our workes?
A. The meaning is, that they that have done well, shall goe into life everlasting, and they that have done evill, shall goe to everlasting condemnation.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Out of the fifth Chapter of S. Iohns Gospel, the nine and twentieth verse, where our Saviour saith thus: They that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evill to [Page 30] the resurrection of condemnation.
Q. Are we saved for our works, or for our faith in Christ?
A. For our faith.
Q. How is that proved?
A. Because it is plainly said in the third Chapter of S. Iohns Gospel, That he that beleeveth on the Sonne hath everlasting life: and the Apostle saith as plainly, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, the second Chapter, and the eighth verse, By grace ye are saved through faith, and then he addes, not of your selves, not of workes.
A. Why then will Jesus Christ judge us according to our workes?
A. Because our workes are more manifest and apparant than our faith.
Q. How doe you prove that our works are more manifest than our faith?
A. That is plaine, because our faith is within in the heart, but our works, many of them are outward.
Q. How doe you prove that upon this ground, because our works are more manifest than our faith, that therefore Christ shall judge us according to our works?
A. Because the day of iudgement is a day, wherein God will not onely be iust in rewarding the goodly and punishing [Page 31] the wicked, but hée will make this his iustice to appeare to the whole world, men and Angels, and therefore in the Episte to the Romans, the second Chapter, the fifth verse, the Apostle cals this day, A day of the declaration of just judgement of God.
Soli Deo laus & gloria.