if thou strangle thy sefe with the smal cords of vanitie Thou must therefore be contented to forgo those little ones a great beam will put out a mans eye so may a mote too a great flame may burn a house so may a small sparkle a cart-rope may strangle a man so may a small cord a sword will take away the life of the strongest man and so may a little pen-knife nay the point of a needle a Canon shot may murther a man so may the shot of a pocket dagg the deep Ocean may drown a man and so may a smal River It is even so with sin the Aegyptians were as surely drowned that laid dead on the shore as those that were overwhelmed in the deep so the least sinne without repentance drowns a man in the gulfe of perdition as well as the greatest and let me add this which is a most certain truth though at the first it may seeme a paradox that more are damned to Hell for little sinnnes then for great Why Because as it is not the falling into the fire that burnes a man to death but continuing in it nor the falling into the water that drownes a man but lying in it so it is not the falling into sin that damns a man for then all should be damned seeing all fall into sin but cotinuance in sinne and impenitencie A great sinne may prove veniall and a little sinne the same kindâ—n mortall exempli gratia oppression may be veniall and the least desire of another mans goods mortall actuall adulterie veniall and adulterie of the heart unlawfull desire mortall shedding of innocent blood veniall and unadvised anger mortal one of these wee find pardoned in David another in Zacheus the third in Manasses and pardoned they shall be to all such as truly repent and believe the Gospel but these being breaches of Gods law are in their own nature mortall and unlesse repentance follow them they are sure to bring death with them not that these are more grievous in their own nature then those or did more provoke Gods wrath the contrary is true in both but because they often find mercie when the other doe not because they are often accompanied with repentance when the other are not and it is not the greatnesse or littlenesse of the sinne that makes it mortall or venial but the continuance in it or forsaking of it he that continueth in his sin though never so small shall not prosper but he that forsaketh them though never so great shall finde mercie Now many that have been overtaken with grievous and crying sinnes having had the looking glasse of the Law laid before them have been humbled and upon their humiliation pardoned and so their mortall sinnes made venial whereas these lesse sinnes wherein men walke securely and never are truly humbled for them but blesse themselves with the fancie that they are free of many hainous crimes wherewith many others in the world are stained these these I say bring many milions to hell experience sheweth that many dangerous wounds being timely looked unto are cured whereas the least as a stab with an Aule or prickle of a black or prickle of a black thorn neglected may indanger a member if not life So the greatest sinne soundly and timely repented obtains pardon whereas the least neglected as if there were no danger because of it self not so dangerous brings death on the back of it Let then the men of this world who make a sport of sinne mince and qualifie and extenuate their greatest offences let them thinke themselves happie because they are not the greatest transgressors let them never have any Scriptures but such as sound Gods mercies in their mouthes but for thee Beloved Christian if thou look to find favour at the hands of the Almighty though after thy fals and slips thou art to meditate upon Gods mercies lest thou be swallowed up with over much heaviness yet before to keep thee from falling mediate upon his judgements and fierce wrath against the least transgressions lay them open before God that he may cover them condemn them that he may forgive them confesse them to be by nature mortall that by grace he may make them veniall Thus much concerning the second proposition the last proposition is against the Romish doctrine of traditions wee receive traditions say the Fathers of the Councell of Trent pertaining to faith and manners with like devotion and reverence that wee doe the books of the Old and New Testament they meane divine and Apostolicall traditions these wee reverence and receive as well as they viz. if they be expresly delivered in the Scripture or may by necessary consequence be thence proved this is not their meaning but such as are not written but only said to be delivered by Christ and his Apostles very well but seeing the ancient received some for divine and Apostolical which are not rejected even by the Church of Rome as abstaining from blood and that which is strangled praying toward the East c. How shall I know what traditions are divine and Apostolicall Bellarmine gives me a good rule that is without doubt an Apostolical tradition saith he that is taken for Apostolicall in those Churches where is a continued succession of Bishops from the Apostles where is that marrie onely in the Church of Rome Et ideo ex testimonio hujus solius Ecclesiae sumi potest certum indubitatum argumentum ad probandas Ecclesiasticas traditiones and therefore from the testimonie of that Church onely may be taken a certain and infallible argument for proving of Apostolicall traditions This is the strongest stake that stands in the Popes hedge allow him this principle and he will be sure to win the field The Protestants have challenged the Romanists at three severall kinde of weapons Reason Antiquitie and Scripture The first they put off with their nice and aeriall distinctions the second when all other shifts have failed them they wipe oft with the wards of their expurgatorie indices wherein they deale with the ancient Fathers and some of their own side also as Terence in the Poet did with Prognâ— that is cut out their tongues that in future times they shall never be able to crie down Poperie when they are assaulted with the third which is the fittest that can be used to maintain Gods quarrell against his enemies being taken out of Davids Tower where hang a thousand shields and all the weapons of the strong men they put off this blow by their tradition yea but traditions are against the Word of God Ye shall add nothing unto that which I command you Deut. 4. Yea but traditions are the word of God though not written how prove you this because our Church holdeth them to be such Et quod nos volumus sanctum est as Tichonius the Donatist was wont to say Woe unto you yee Hypocrites for ye bind heavie burdens and lay them upon mens shoulders yee make the Law of
now and then check them will accuse them will condemne them yea when the world doth take little notice of it that which made Caligula to hide himself under his bed made Faelix to tremble and Nero to cry Ego nec amicum habeo nec inimicum I have so wickedly misdemeaned my selfe that I have neither friend to save me nor for to rid me out of my miserie And Pharaoh whose heart was harder then brass or the nether milstone to say I have sinned God is righteous but I and my people are wicked The storie of Theodoricus King of the Gothes is notable for this purpose When the Romans being backed by Symmachus and Boatrius two worthy men would not give leave to the Arrians to erect any churches where they might promulgat their blasphemous heresie against the son of God Theodorick sent for those two to Ticinum and there after he had for a time kept them in close prison and confiscated their goods commanded that they should both be executed Theodoricus was a man of that power that few could none would revenge the blood of these two famous men neither did God presently inflict any outward punishment upon him yet his guilty conscience would not suffer his sinne to sleepe for a little while after when the head of a fish was set before him on the Table he calling to minde how he had beheaded those two men thought that he saw the head of Symmachus with horrible jawes and fierie eyes threatning death and destruction unto him at the fight whereof being suddenly astonied and cast downe he willed his Servants to carry him to his bed where lying some short space after much sorrow of his offence he gave up the ghost And here another storie comes in my mind which I find recorded by Plutarch of one Bessus who had killed his father but so secretly that none knew of it as this Bessus was going to supper with some of his acquaintance finding a swallowes nest in the way he thrust it downe with his speare and killed the young swallowes when the rest reproved him for it telling him it argued a cruell mind to kill the innocent birds especially seeing they were not good for meat why should I not kill them said Bessus seeing they objected unto me that I had killed my Father hereupon he was examined before the Magistrate where he confessed the Fact and suffered condigne punishment The young Birds could not speake and yet his guilty conscience made him thinke that they cried to Heaven for vengeance here then wee may note another difference between the consciences of the godly and the wicked the wicked though their consciences be not so soon touched as the consciences of the godly yet when they once begin to feel their sinnes then they feel as it were daggers stabbing their hearts which seldome leave them before they be overwhelmed in the pit of desperation The children of God are said to have hearts of flesh and the wicked to have hearts of stone now the flesh will be easikly wounded and oftentimes quickly cured so Gods children are easily wounded with the feeling of their sinnes but as Pliny faith of the Harts that when they have eaten any poysonful hearb then they runne unto the hearb Cinara and by eating thereof are cured and when they are wounded with an arrow they have recourse unto the hearb Dictamnum by which they are healed So these when they feel the poyson of sinne working in their bowels then they runne unto the good Physitian of their soules which giveth them a potion of his blood to cure them when Satan that hunter of men hath wounded them with his poysonful arrowes they have recourse unto Christ who with a plaster of his merits healeth them A stone will hardly receive any characters but when they are once graven in then they stick fast and cannot easily be rased out nor will the characters of sinne be quickly graven in the sinners conscience but when they are once stamped in they remain for ever so that they may be read in this book in the day of judgement Thus have I proved that sinne is a burthen unto the sinners conscience a doctrine if ever in these dayes most needful to be urged where in the practise of the greater part doth seem to crosse the truth of that which hath been delivered It was an old complaint of one that there was in his dayes multum scientiae but parum conscientiae much science but little conscience another of later years doth aggravate the complaint and saith that in his time the two first syllables con and sci were taken away and nothing remained but the latter end of the word entia pure beings without knowledge or honesty the complaint is too true at this time conscience seemeth to be banished from most men and knowledge from may so that nothing is left but the metaphysical notion entia mere beings pure naturalists They lade themselves with sinne as a cart is loaden with sheaves and yet they feel no weight It is storied of Milo of Croton that accustoming himself every day to carry a calfe into the fields he was able to hear it when it became an oxe and these have so accustomed themselves to lesser sinnes that great and terrible sinne seem not a whit burdensome unto their consciences There is a story of Mithridates King of Pontus that he had so used himselfe to take poyson that in fine his stomack would digest it as well as wholsome meat and these men have so inured themselves to feed upon sinne as the monkie doth upon the spider that they make as good nay more reckoning of it then the best meats wherewith their soules should be fed unto eternal life wretched and unhappy men which have their consciences so feared that they cannot feel their sinnes Verily Pharaoh and Cain and Judas and Caligula shall arise against these at the day of Judgement and shall condemn them Those sinnes which they drink with greedinesse even as the beast drinketh water will one day prove like Ratsbane to poyson them they will prove like Johns book which was sweet as honey in the mouth but bitter in his belly or like the head of Polypus which is sweet in eating but afterward it causeth fearful dreams they will in the end sting like a Serpent and bitelike a Cockatrice let them not say to their soules peace peace when there is no peace for there is no peace saith my God unto the wicked When they promise unto themselves most security when they shall say with the fool in the Paâ—able eat and take thy pastime even then shall sorrow come upon them as travail upon a woman with child when they shall carouze in their golden cups and enjoy their greatest pleasure then shall their sinnes like that palm of an hand Dan. 5. Write such a lesson in their consciences that it will make their countenance changed and their thoughts troubled and the joynts of their loynes loosed
Heathen knowledge of his Laws he that prohibits to cast Pearls before Swine and to give that which is holie to Doggs he that brings a drought upon one City when he makes it raine upon another he that commands Paul to Preach in Macedonia and forbids him to Preach in Asia shewes plainly that he is not tyed in any obligation to offer so much as the internall meanes of Salvation to all but of those many that are called few are chosen Matth. 20. Will ye have a type of it six hundred thousand are called out of Aegypt but onely two of them enter into the promised Land Three and twenty thousand are called to fight against Midian but onely three hundred are chosen Jud. 7. Gideons Fleece is wet when the whole Earth is dry Eight persons are saved in the Ark when the whole World that would not hearken unto the Preacher of righteousness is drowned five Cities are burned only three Soules that believed God and fled unto the Hills were preserved The Seed falls foure waies out of the Sowers hand some amongst Thornes and that is choaked some amongst stones and that is withered some by the way side and that is devoured scarce the fourth part falling into good ground is preserved Christ hath a little Flock but the Devill hath a Kingdome nay a world of Kingdomes All these are mine He lyed but in some sort his speech was true he is the Prince of this World he drives the whole World in a drift before him as a Butcher doth his Flock to the Shambles Christ catcheth here a Sheep and there another out of Satans Drove to make up to himselfe a little Flock he hath the Vintage Christ hath the Gleanings as the scattered Grapes when the Vintage is ended and as the after shaking of an Olive Tree here a Berry and there a Berry on the outmost boughs Isa 24. 13. For this cause as if it were too much that Christs Church should be called a Flock it is elsewhere called a Houshold Eph. 2. Gal. 6. This is too large a name and therefore is it limited in a House there be Vessels of honour and Vessels of dishonour the former onely are Christs the other he leaves to Satan there be Sons in an house and there be Servants Christ makes challenge to none but Sons and Daughters the reason is plaine the way to Hell is a broad way they may go by thousands to it there is roome for Foot and Horse and Cart and Coach and all it is plaine and pleasant no hedges to keep passengers in no mire to withhold them no blocks to stop and hinder their passage But the way to Heaven like that described by Livie to Tempe in Thessalie is but one single narrow craggy path all that go that way must as neer as may be tread in the footsteps of him that is gone before Viz. Christ There is the sharp thorny hedge of the Law to pale them in and the fiery Cherubs to affray them and the blade of a Sword shaken to discourage them and the mire and clay of tribulation to keep their legs as it were in the stocks and many blocks and stops doth Satan cast before them to bring them to the ground and when thou art come to the gate it is but like a needles eye If thou be puffed up with luxury and drunkennesse thou must empty thy selfe If thou bee swelled with pride and ambition thou must humble thy selfe If thou be loaden with the drosse and trash of this world thou must disburthen thy selfe thou must pull downe thy top-mast and strike saile and become slender and little and nothing in thine own eyes or thou shalt never finde entrance This being thus I much wonder why either Bellarmine or the most impudent and brazen-faced Divine that ever the Roman Church bred should not blush to place multitude and a glorious visibility of Professors amongst the infallible marks of the true Church which if they prove I will not say to be proper and inseparable marks the mark which Bellarmine aimes at but to carrie so much as a shew of probability I dare boldly inferr that neither Abraham nor any of the Patriarchs nor Elias nor any of the Prophets nor Athanasius nor any of the Orthodoxall Bishops of that time nor Christ nor any of his Apostles were of the true Church all of which had multitude and glorious visibility of Professors as strongly against them as the Romanists can prove it to be on their side Where was this multitude and visibility when Abraham and his Wife were Pilgrims in Aegypt and Canaan and had not so much as a child to leave behind them where when Elias complained that he was left alone that small remnant which God had reserved to himselfe being so hid that they were unknown to Elias himself though a principall member of the Church Where when the Prophet complained that not a righteous man could be found in Jerusalem Jer. 5. 1. Where when Christ first began to preach and made choise of 12. Apostles for this purpose one of which proved a thief Where in the time of the Arian persecution when to use Hieroms words the whole world groaned and wondered to see her selfe become an Arian When this plague spread over the whole Christian world and infected two Bishops of Rome and was strengthened by ten severall Councels in which the decrees of the Nicene Synod were repealed When whole burthen of the Church in respect of men lay upon the shoulders of Athanasius and a few other forlorn Bishops which endured either imprisonment or banishment or otherwise hid themselves and durst not shew their faces By this which hath been spoken as it is evident that this note of multitude notes nothing or if any thing the contrary to Bellarmines note So is it also as cleare that that glorious shew of visibility of which these Thrasoes make such great boast neither makes their cause good nor hurts ours Where was the Protestants Church for divers hundreds of years before Martin Luthers dayes many there were not of that Church true there needed not Christs flock is little gloriously conspicuous it was not true for neither was that needfull Where was this great multitude of Believers and glorious splendor of Professors when the Prophet complained that he was left alone When Esay exclaimed That from the sole of the foote to the crowne of the head there was nothing but bruises and putrified sores Isa 1. When all Jerusalem was troubled about the birth of Christ when the Christians groaned under the ten bloody persecutions inflicted by the Pagans and under the eleventh caused by the Arians As in those times so in the times before Martin Luther the western Church was at a low ebbe and the Moon did suffer almost a totall Eclipse No marvail seeing it was foretold that there should be an apostacy 2 Thes 2. And that the second Beast should cause all both great and small rich and poor free and bond
fulfilled the Commandements of God yet wantest thou one thing for that work which must merit must be Opus indebitum Now obedience to every branch of Gods law is a debt which we are owing to God by the law of creation and God may say to every one of us as Paul said to Philemon Thou owest to mee even thine owne selfe Doth a Master thank that servant which did that which he was commanded to do I trow not so likewise When yee have done all things which were commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have but done that which was our duty to do Inutilis servus vocatur saith Austin qui omnia fecit quia nihil fecit ultra id quod debuit And Theophylact upon that place The servant if he work not is worthy of many stripes and when he has wrought let him be contented with this that he hath escaped stripes 3. That work by which thou must merit must be thine own but thy good works if thou look to the first cause are not so Quid habes quod non accipisti 1 Cor. 4. It s God that worketh both the will and the deed Phil. 2. 13. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 13. So then put case thou couldst fulfill the law and it were not a payment of debt yet is no merit due to thee but to him whose they are Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Every good and perfect gift comes from above even from the father of lights And Deus sua dona non nostra merita coronat 4. Admit it were in thy power to fulfill the law that it were no debt that thy works were wholly thine and God had no part in them this is not enough there must be some proportion between the work and the reward or no proper merit Now between thy best works and the Kingdome of heaven promised to Christs little flock there is not that proportion that is Inter stillam muriae mare Aegeum as Tullie speaks between the light of a candle and the light of the Sunne between the least grane of sand that lies on the Sea-shore and the highest heaven as shall presently appear 5. Last of all that thy work may merit at Gods hands some profit or honour must thereby accrue to him But my goodnesse saith David O Lord reacheth not unto thee but to the saints that are on the earth If thou be righteous saith Elihu what givest thou to God or what receiveth he at thine hand Job 35. Who hath given unto him first Rom. 11. 35. All these five things are requisite for the merit of works but not onely some but all of them are wanting to our best works and therefore we must with the Scriptures ascribe our whole salvation to the grace of God and acknowledge nothing inherent in us to be the prime cause of all his graces but his owne good will and pleasure I count the afflictions of this world not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. And in another place he tells us That wee deserve hell for our evill workes The wages of sinne is death but not heaven for our good deeds and sufferings but of Gods bounty and mercie Eternall life is the gift of God Rom. 6. Not by the works of righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie he saved us Tit. 3. And ye are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. And how doth he prove that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works because Ei qui operatur merces non imputatur secundū gratiam sed secundum debitum And if Abraham had been justified by works he had wherein to rejoyce but not with God Rom. 3. These are places of Scripture and let me build upon this occasion to produce an assertion which once I brought upon another point which some that I see here present were pleased to except against as savouring of blasphemy though the words excepted against were none of mine but of Justin Martyr who lived above 1400. years agoe and confidently brought by him in his discourse with Tryphon a Jew if any I will not say Pelagian or Arminian or Papist but if all the Fathers of the Primitive Church if all the ancient Councels if Moses and all the Prophets if Paul and all the Apostles if an Angel from heaven nay if God himself these are the words of Justin the Martyr should deliver any doctrine repugnant to that which is contained in this booke I would not believe him Agreeable unto these places of Scripture was the doctrine of the ancient Church Gratia evacuatur si non gratis donatur sed meritis redditur Aug. Epist 105. Non dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo And in a third place Non pro merito quidem accipimus vitam aeternam sed tantum pro gratia Tract 3. in Ioh. And thus have I confirmed my proposition by reason by Scriptures and by the testimonie of the Church and Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus contra scripturas nemo Christianus senserit as a Father saith Unto all these might be added if it were needfull the confession of the learnedst of our Adversaries let our Enemies be Judges who cry down this blasphemous doctrine of Merit God saith one of them doth punish Citra condignum but rewards Vltra condignum and Scotus as Bellar confesseth holds that Bona opera ex gratia procedentia non sunt meritoria ex condigno sed tantum ratione pacti acceptationis divinae And of the same opinion saith he were other of the old Schoolmen and of the new Writers Andreas Vega. Ferus as in many other points between us the Pontificians so in this he is as sound a Catholique and as good a Protestant as Calvin himselfe or any that hath written on this subject in Math. cap. 20. vers 8. Gratis promisit gratis reddit si dei gratiam favorē conservare vis nulla meritorum tnorum mentionem facito And in Acts 15. Qui docet in operibus confidere is negat Christi meritum sufficere Both which places many others of the same Author their Index Expurgatorius hath wiped out using him the ancient fathers as Tereus dealt with Progne who cut out her tongue lest she shold tel the truth Yea and Bellarmine himselfe after he hath spent seventeen leaves in defence of merit of works and scrapt and catcht and drawn in by the shoulders whatsoever he could out of the Scriptures or ancine Fathers for colouring that Tenent at length brings this Orthodoxall conclusion with which I will conclude this point Very Orthodoxall indeed if two letters be transposed Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae let it be Propter certitudinem propriae injustitiae propter periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate