given him, for the merits of Christ, who hath promised remission of sins to those that believe in him: and when he feels in himself new desires; so as, detesting evil and resisting the infirmity of his flesh, he is inwardly enkindled to an endeavour of good, although this desire of his be not yet perfect."

Thus they, in the voice of all Antiquity, and the then-present Church. Only the late Council of Trent hath created this opinion of Justification a point of faith.

SECT. 2.

Justification by Inherent Righteousness, against Scripture.

YET, if age were all the quarrel, it were but light: for, though newness in divine truths is a just cause of suspicion; yet, we do not so shut the hand of our munificent God, that he cannot bestow upon his Church new illuminations, in some parcels of formerlyhidden verities.

It is the charge both of their Canus and Cajetan *, that no man should detest a new sense of Scripture for this, that it differs from the ancient Doctors: for God hath not, say they, tied exposition of Scripture to their senses.

Yea, if we may believe Salmeron †, the later Divines are so much more quick-sighted; they, like the dwarf sitting on the giant's shoulder, overlook him, that is far taller than themselves.

This position of the Roman Church is not more new, than faulty. "Not so much novelty, as truth, convinceth heresies;" as Tertullian 1.

We had been silent, if we had not found this point, besides the lateness, erroneous; erroneous, both against Scripture and Reason.

Against Scripture, which every where teacheth, as, on the one side, the imperfection of our inherent righteousness; so, on the other, our perfect justification by the imputed righteousness of our Saviour, brought home to us by faith.

The former, Job saw from his dunghill: How should a man be justified before God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer onc of a thousand; Job ix. 2, 3. Whence it is, that wise Solomon asks, Who can say, My heart is clean; I am pure from sin? Prov. xx. 9. And, himself answers, There is not a just man upon earth, which doeth good and sinneth not; Eccl. vii. 20. a truth, which, besides his experience, he had learned of his father David; who could say, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, though a man after God's own heart; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified; cxliii. 2.

*Can. Loc. Com. 1. vii. c. 3. res. hæc de Cajet.

† Quo juniores, eo perspicatiores. Salmer. in Rom. v. Disput. 51.

Hæreses, non tam novitas, quàm veritas revincit. Tert. de Veland, Virgin.

and, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? Ps. cxxx. 3. For, We are all as an unclean thing (we, saith the Prophet Isaiah, including even himself) and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; Is. Ixiv. 6. And was it any better with the best Saints under the Gospel? I see, saith the Chosen Vessel, in my members, another law warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive to the law of sin which is in my members; Rom. vii. 23. So as, In many things, we sin all; James iii. 2. And, If we say that we have no sin, we do but deceive ourselves, and there is

no truth in us; 1 John i. 8.

The latter is the sum of St. Paul's Sermon at Antioch: Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you forgiveness of sins; and, by him, all, that believe, are justified; Acts xiii. 38, 39. They are justified: but how? Freely, by his grace; Rom. iii. 24. What Grace? Inherent in us, and working by us? No: By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast; Eph. ii. 8, 9. Works are ours: but this is righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, to all them that believe; Rom. iii. 22. And how doth this become ours? By his gracious imputation: Not to him that worketh, but believeth in him who justifieth the wicked, is his faith imputed for righteousness;

Rom. iv. 5.

Lo, it is not the act, not the habit of faith, that justifieth: it is he, that justifies the wicked, whom our faith makes ours, and our sin his: He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him; 2 Cor. v. 21. Lo, so were we made his righteousness, as he was made our sin. Imputation doeth both: it is that, which enfeoffs our sins upon Christ, and us in his righteousness; which both covers and redresses the imperfection of ours.

That distinction is clear and full: That I may be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the Law; but that, which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; Phil. iii. 9. St. Paul was a great Saint: he had a righteousness of his own; not as a Pharisee only, but as an Apostle; but that, which he dares not trust to, but forsakes, and cleaves to God's not that essential righteousness, which is in God, without all relation to us; nor that habit of justice, which was remaining in him; but that righteousness which is, of God, by faith made ours.

Thus, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ; Rom. v. 1. For what can break that peace, but our sins? and those are remitted: for, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God, that justifies; Rom. viii. 33. And, in that remission, is grounded our reconciliation: for, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins unto them; 2 Cor. v. 19: but, contrarily, imputing to them his own righteousness, and their faith for righteousness; v. 21,

We conclude then, that a man is justified by faith; Rom. iii. 28. And, Blessed is he, to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works.

Blessed are they, whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Rom. iv. 6, 7.

Let the vain sophistry of carnal minds deceive itself with idle subtleties, and seek to elude the plain truth of God with shifts of wit: we bless God for so clear a light; and dare cast our souls upon this sure evidence of God, attended with the perpetual attestation of his ancient Church.

SECT. 3.

Justification by Inherent Righteousness, against Reason.

LASTLY, Reason itself fights against them.

Nothing can formally make us just, but that, which is perfect in itselft. How should it give, what it hath not? Now our inherent righteousness, at the best, is, in this life, defective. Nostra si qua est humilis &c: "Our poor justice," saith Bernard ‡, "if we have any, it is true, but it is not pure: for, how should it be pure, where we cannot but be faulty?" Thus he. The challenge is unanswerable.

To those, that say they can keep God's Law, let me give St. Jerome's answer to his Ctesiphon §, Profer quis impleverit; "Shew me the man that hath done it:" for, as that Father, elsewhere ||, "In thy sight shall none living be justified: He said not, no man;' but, none living; not Evangelists, not Angels, not Thrones, not Dominions." "If thou shalt mark the iniquities even of thine elect,' saith St. Bernard ¶, "who shall abide it?" To say now, that " our actual justice, which is imperfect through the admixtion of venial sins, ceaseth not to be both true, and, in a sort, perfect justice**," is, to say, there may be an unjust justice, or a just injustice; that even muddy water is clear, or a leprous face beautiful.

Besides, all experience evinceth our wants. For, as it is St. Austin's true observation, "He, that is renewed from day to day, is not all renewed; and, so much as he is not renewed, so much he must needs be in his old corruption." And, as he speaks to his Jerome of the degrees of charity ††, "There is, in some, more; in some less; in some, none at all: but the fullest measure, which can receive no increase, is not to be found in any man while he lives here: and, so long as it may be increased; surely, that which

* Ad hæc vide Gen. xv. 6. Isa. xlv. 25. 1. 8. liii. 11. Rom. iii. 20, 26, 30. iv. 2, 3, 9, 16. v. 9, 18, 19. viii. 1. x. 5, 10. 1 Cor. iv. 4. Gal. ii. 16. iii. 6, 11, 22, 24.

Non majus est creare cœlum et terram, quàm peccatores justificare. Gers. Tract. sup. Magnificat. 10.

Bern. de Verbis Is. Ser. 5.

Hier. de Filio Prodigo.

Hier. ad Ctesiphontem.

¶ Bern. in Cant. Ser. 73.

** Justitia actualis imperfecta &c. non desinit tamen esse vera justitia, et, suo quodam modo, perfecta. Bell. de Justif. 1. ii. c. 14.

+ Aug. ad Hier. Ep. 29.

is less than it ought, is faulty: from which faultiness, it must needs follow, that there is no just man upon earth, which doeth good and sinneth not; and thence, in God's sight, shall none living be justified." Thus he.

To the very last hour, our prayer must be, Forgive us our trespasses. Our very daily endeavour, therefore, of increasing our renovation, convinceth us sufficiently of imperfection; and the imperfection of our regeneration, convinceth the impossibility of Justification by such inherent righteousness.

In short, therefore, since this doctrine of the Roman Church is both new and erroneous, against Scripture and Reason, we have justly refused to receive it into our belief; and, for such refusal, are unjustly ejected.

CHAP. II.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF MERIT.

MERIT is next: wherein the Council of Trent* is no less peremp tory: "If any man shall say, that the good works of a man justified do not truly merit eternal life, let him be Anathema."

It is easy for error to shroud itself under the ambiguity of words. The word Merit hath been of large use with the Ancients, who would have abhorred the present sense. With them, it sounded no other than obtaining, or impetration †: not, as now, earning in the way of condign wages; as if there were an equality of due proportion betwixt our works and heaven, without all respects of pact, promise, favour; according to the bold comment of Sotus, Tollet, Pe rerius, Costerus, Weston, and the rest of that strain.

SECT. 1.

The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit.

FAR, far was the gracious humility of the Ancient Saints from this so high a presumption.

Let St. Basil speak for his fellows. Eternal rest remains for those, who, in this life, have lawfully striven: &nal' ¿Qɛínua, &c. not for

*Conc. Trid. sess. 6. c. 16. can. 32. Si quis &c. augmentum gratiæ, vitam æternam, et ipsius vitæ æternæ consecutionem, Anathema sit, &c.

to fælix culpa, que talem meruit habere salvatorem! Ecclesia canit in benedictione Cerei. Salm. in 1 Tim. i. Apostoli à suis civibus occidi meruerunt. Aug. in Ps. xxxv. Major est mea iniquitas, quàm ut veniam merear. Gen, iii Vulg. Tral. vid. Mort. Appel.

Manet sempiterna requies &c. Basil in Ps. cxiv. & xal' optiλnua tüd ἔργων, &c.

the merits of their deeds, but of the grace of that most munificent God, in which they have trusted."

Why did I name one, when they all, with full consent, as Cassander witnesseth *, profess to repose themselves wholly upon the mere mercy of God, and merit of Christ; with an humble renunciation of all worthiness in their own works?

Yea, that unpartial author derives this doctrine, even through the lower ages of the Schoolmen and later writers; Thomas of Aquine, Durand, Adrian de Trajecto (afterwards Pope), Clictoveus; and delivers it for the voice of the then present Church †.

And, before him, Thomas Waldensis, the great champion of Pope Martin against the miscalled heretics of his own name, professes him the sounder Divine and truer Catholic, which simply denies any such merit; and ascribes all to the mere grace of God,

and the will of the Giver.

What should I need to darken the air with a cloud of witnesses; their Gregory Ariminensis, their Brugensis, Marsilius, Pighius, Eckius, Ferus, Stella, Faber Stapulensis?

Let their famous preacher, Royard, shut up all §. Quid igitur is, qui Merita prætendit, &c: "Whosoever he be, that pretends his Merits, what doth he else, but deserve hell by his works?"

Let Bellarmin's tutissimum est, &c. ground itself upon St. Bernard's experimental resolution: Periculosa habitatio est, &c: "Perilous is their dwelling-place, who trust in their own Merits;" perilous, because ruinous.

All these, and many more, teach this; not as their own doctrine, but as their Church's. Either they and the Church, whose voice they are, are heretics, with us; or we orthodox, with them; and they and we, with the Ancients.

The novelty of this Roman Doctrine is accompanied with error, against Scripture, against Reason.

SECT. 2.

The Doctrine of Merit against Scripture.

THAT God doth graciously accept and munificently recompense our good works, even with an incomprehensible glory, we doubt not, we deny not; but this, either out of the riches of his mercy or the justice of his promise: but, that we can earn this at his hands, out of the intrinsical worthiness of our acts, is a challenge too high for flesh and blood; yea, for the angels of heaven.

* Veteres omnes, summo consensu, tradunt, &c. Cassand. Consult. de Bonis Quæst.

+ Neque ab hac &c. Scholastici Scriptores, et recentiores Ecclesiastici &c. Tho. Wald. tom. 6. sacr. Tit. i. c. 7. Thom. Wald. præclarus Wicklifistarum impugnator. Andr. Vega. 1. vii. de Causis Justif. c. 24.

Royard. tom. 5 Dominic. 11. post Pentecost.