vs expresly that the two tables written with the finger of God contained all the wordes which the Lord spake to them in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly Fiftly God commanded that the king of the Israelies so soone as he should be established in his throne should write out the Deutronomie or law repeated in a book according to the example which the priests of the Leuiticall tribe should giue him that he might meditate therein all the dayes of his life Sixtly Iosue made a couenant with the people and gaue them a law in Sichem and wrote all the wordes in the booke of the law VVhich words were nothing else but a repetition of the couenant written by Moses which couenant Iosue was commanded to obserue so strictly that he might neither decline to the right hand nor to the left And the same law contained all those precepts ceremonies and iudgements which God commanded Moses to teach the people of Israel Locus secundus Ne addas quicquam verbis eius Dei ne forte arguat te inueniaris mendax Thou must ad nothing to Gods words lest he reprooue thee and thou be found a lier This text Saint Hierome vnderstandeth of the holy scriptures to which no man may ad any thing bee it more be it lesse The scriptures therefore are most perfect and absoute and containe euery doctrine needfull for vs to know Locus tertius Ad legem magis ad testimonium Quod si non dixerint iuxta verbum hoc non erit eis matutina lux To the law and to the testimonie If they speake not according to this word there is no matutine or true light in them Loe they that refuse to be taught of Gods prophet who is the mouth of God and seeke helpe at the dead which is the illusion of Satan are here reprooued as men void of knowledge and as blind leaders of the blind And withall they are charged to seeke remedie in the word of God where his will is declared They and wee must euer in all doubts and difficulties haue continuall recourse to the law of God which law is here tearmed the testimonie because it is the testification of Gods will toward man because there is set downe what God requireth of vs because we may find in it whatsoeuer is necessarie for vs to know For the Prophet ioyneth the testimonie with the law not as a thing distinct from it but as an explication of the same As if he had said yee must in all doubts haue recourse to the law of God because it is the testimonie of his holy will Saint Hierome yeeldeth the like sense and interpretation of this place these are his wordes Si vultis nosse quae dubia sunt magis vae legi testimonijs tradite scripturarum Quia si noluerit vestra congregatio verbum domini quoerere non habebit lucē veritatis sed versabitur in erroris tenebris If ye will know the things that are doubtfull ye must haue recourse to the law and to the testimonies of the scriptures For if your people will not seeke Gods word they cannot attaine the light of truth but shall walke in the darknesse of errour Locus quartus Mementote legis Mosis serui mei quam mandaui ei in Horeb ad omnem Israel Remember the law of Moses my seruant which I commanded to him in Horeb to all Israel Marke these wordes seriously because they proue euidently the question now in hand For this Malachias being the last of Gods Prophets and foreseeing by the spirit of God that the Israelites should bee without Prophets a long time euen till the comming of Christ doth here exhort them diligently to be mindfull of the law of Moses As if he should say the time is at hand when ye shall be destitute of Prophets and therefore yee must marke well what the law saith and doe according to the prescript rule thereof But what is the reason why hee maketh no mention of the Prophets doubtlesse because all things as you haue already heard are fully comprised in the written word of the law For although the law and the Prophets were vntill Iohn the one foretelling Christs comming by word the other by tipes and figures yet was the doctrine of the Prophets nothing else in deede but an explication of the law and consequently Malachie willing the Israelites to remember the law of Moses doth thereby sufficiently insinuat the doctrine of the Prophets as who are nothing else but the interpreters of Moses For from the law they might neither turne to the right hand nor to the left That the law containeth the whole Christian doctrine necessarie vnto saluation two famous popish doctors Lyra and Dionisius Carthusianus doe testifie whose wordes shall be alledged expresly when I come to the places of the new testament Ex nouo Testamento Locus primus Haec scripta sunt c. These are written that you may beleeue that Iesus is Christ the sonne of God and that in beleeuing yee might haue life through his name Here the reader must obserue seriously with me that this Gospell was written after all other scriptures of the old and new testament euen when the canon of the scriptures was complet perfect and fully accomplished viz. almost an hundred yeeres after Christ ascention into heauen about the fourteenth yeere of the raigne of Domitianus then emperour VVhich obseruation being well marked all the sottish cauils of the papists will easilie be auoided Now let vs see how the auntient fathers doe vnderstand this place of scripture Saint Cyrill hath these wordes Non omnia quae Dominus fecit conscripta sunt sed quae scribentes tam ad mores quam ad dogmata sufficere putarunt vt recta fide operibus ad regnum coelorum perueniamus All things which our Lord did are not written but those things onely which the writers deemed sufficient as well for manners as for doctrine that by a right faith and good life we may attaine the kingdome of heauen Saint Austen hath these wordes Cum multa fecisset dominus non omnia scripta sunt electa sunt antem quae scriberentur que saluti credentium sufficere videbantur VVhen our Lord had done many things all were not written but so much was chosen out to be written as was thought to be sufficient for the saluation of the faithfull Loe gentle reader so much is comprised in the holy scriptures as is necessarie for our saluation as well in those things which concerne our life and manners as in things concerning faith and doctrine VVhich if the papists will graunt vs they may keepe their vnwritten traditions vntill Gods people haue need thereof For I see not why they should enforce vs to admit them except they were necessarie either for faith or at the least for good maners both which notwithstanding
confutation of his worthy workes is alreadie vndertaken and to bee published if it shall bee thought necessarie Thus doth the Iesuit write By whose wordes it is very apparant cleere and euident that they haue beene many yeeres buzzing about some answere either to all or some one of my bookes but neuer yet durst aduenture to frame any answere to any one of the said bookes and to publish it to the view of the world Their silence in not answering my said bookes hath reclaimed many a man from their popish faction and therefore would they gladly haue the the world to thinke that they are in mind to answere my said bookes but they seeme to meane nothing lesse in deed and why hee telleth vs forsooth That the confutation which hath beene long vndertaken must be published but with this addition If it shall be thought necessarie What a iest is this the Iesuits and Seminarie priests haue consulted now for the space of eight yeeres and aboue and haue all that time deuised how to frame some colourable answere at the least to all or some of the said bookes and in the end of the yeere 1602 haue vndertaken the confutation of my worthy workes as they scornefully tearme them but for all that cannot yet tell whether it be expedient to publish the said confutation or no. Are these men the great Statists of the world are these men the skilfull Polititians that must manage all Europe are these our learned Diuines are these they indeed vpon whose doctrin and guiding all Lay-papists do depend and on their shoulders do hang their soules and saluation doubtlesse they may preach this goodly sermon to wise men but onely noddies and starke fooles will beleeue them In regard hereof most dread Soueraigne and because I greatly desire once during my life to receiue answere to some part of my labours published against our English Iesuited papists that so wee may valianly fight the combat my selfe so hauing occasion to reply vpon their answere which would bee to mee melle fauo dulcius I haue compiled and couched in a small roome a fewe distinct articles for answere whereunto I once againe challenge Robert Persons that traitorous Iesuit George Blackwell that seditious and late start-vp archpriest and all other English Iesuits Seminarie priests and Iesuited papists whosoeuer and wheresoeuer ioyntly and seuerally daring them all ioyntly and euerie one of them seuerally to answere either all my bookes or some one of them or these few articles or at least to confesse plainely that they cannot answere because I hold and defend the truth These my late studies most gratious Soueraigne I haue presumed to dedicate vnto your Maiestie in congratulation of your most happie raigne ouer vs whom God of his great mercie hath raised vp in our greatest necessitie to continue his holy Gospell among vs and to abolish all idolatrie and superstition out of his Church It is not such a present I confesse as beseemeth your most royall excellencie yet such a one as my small talent is able to affoord I most humbly beseech your Highnesse for to accept it as our Lord Iesus Christ did accept the two mytes of the poore widdow and withall for to protect and patronize the same against the traitorous Iesuits and Iesuited papists within your Maiesties Realmes who seeke by might and maine as I am credibly informed not onely to impaire my good fame and name with their malicious tongues but also to take away my life with their bloodie hands The Almightie blesse your Maiestie with long prosperous and happie raigne in this world and with euerlasting life in the world to come Amen From my studie this fourteenth of Ianuarie 1603. Your Maiesties loyall subiect and faithfull seruant Thomas Bell. To all English Iesuits Seminarie priests and Iesuited papists in England Scotland or wheresoeuer els I Haue written many times at large in larger volumes heartily and instantlie desiring to haue receiued some answere from you either from all ioyntly or from some of you seuerallie In my first booke published in the yeare 1593 I promised to yeeld if any of you could conuince me either to haue alleadged any writer corruptlie or to haue quoted any place guilefullie or to haue charged any author falslie since that time I haue challenged you againe and againe to answere me but Ne gry quidem will be had no answere can you make or dare you make In regard hereof I haue at this present compiled a few articles couched in a small roome challenging you once againe to frame the best answere you can vnto the same if you can sieceerelie and trulie confute these articles or any one of my former bookes I promise herewith and I protest before God to performe it to subscribe vnto your doctrine If you therefore shall refuse to answere me because you cannot for if you can you will vndoubtedlie performe it all wise men which haue any care of their saluation will without all peraduenture after notice hereof made knowen vnto them crie Fie vpon you and your religion Answere therefore ô papists if ye can if ye cannot so doe then repent for shame and yeeld vnto the truth Farewell THE FIRST ARTICLE of the falsely so supposed soueraignetie of the Bishop of Rome YOu Papists tell vs that your Pope the Bishop of Rome is aboue all powers and potentates on earth that he can depose kings and emperours from their royall thrones and translate their empires and regalities at his good will and pleasure But this doctrine is false absurd and nothing els but a meere fable and consequently late Romish religion consisteth of meere falshoods fables and flat leasings The proposition the Iesuit Bellarmine that late Romish Cardinall setteth downe in these words Si ergo princeps aliquis ex oue aut ariete fiat lupus id est ex Christiano fiat haereticus poterit pastor ecclesiae eum arcere per excommunicationem simul iubere populo ne eum sequantur ac proinde priuare eum dominio in subditos If therefore any prince of a sheepe or ramme become a wolfe that is to say of a Christian be made an heretick then the pastors of the Church the Pope forsooth may driue him away by excommunication and withall commaund the people not to obey him and therfore depriue him of his dominion ouer his subiects Thus we see that when any prince is not or ceaseth to be a Papist for that with this Iesuiticall Cardinall and all others of his brood is to be an hereticke then the Pope forsooth may depose such a prince from his royall scepter and absolue his subiects from their alleageance to him This is the common doctrine of all Iesuited papists as I haue proued in my anatomie of Popish tyrannie The assumption is prooued by the flat testimonie of their famous Pope Gregorie the great in these words Ego quidem iussioni subiectus eandem legem per diuersas terrarum partes transmittifeci quia
negligence or of ignorance corrupt the innocencie of the law of Nature which we all receiue in the Protoplast Adam S. Ambrose in another place iumpeth with Bede in these words Non discreuit concupiscentiam hanc à peccato sed miscuit hoc significans quia cum nec suspicio quidem esset istud non licerè apud deum cognoui inquit esse peccatum Sub sua persona quasi generalem agit causam Lexitaque concupiscentiam prohibet quae propterea quod oblectamento est non putabatur esse peccatum He hath not discerned this concupiscence from sinne but hath coupled it with sinne signifying thereby that when there was not so much as any suspition that this thing was not lawfull before God I knew saith he that it is sinne Vnder his own person he pleadeth as it were the generall cause The law therefore forbiddeth concupiscence which because it delighteth seemeth not to be sinne Thus writeth S. Ambrose whose words cannot possibly be vnderstood of any other concupiscence than of that which is inuoluntarie and originall Thirdly that their owne vulgar Latine text which the late councell of Trent preferreth before both the Hebrew and the Greeke and commandeth all papists to vse it as authenticall and none other hath the word iniquitas in both places and doth call as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ininiquitie these are the expresse words omnis iniquitas peccatum est All iniquitie is sinne Loe their owne translation to which all papists are tied as a Beare to a stake doth flatlie confound them all and saith plainelie and expressely That euerie iniquitie is a sinne And yet the papists of Rhemes bluntishly and impudently defend the contrarie crying out with open mouthes That some iniquitie is not sinne The truth is this that they are driuen to a non plus and cannot tell in the world what to say against this doctrine of concupiscence in the regenerate For both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is truly and fitly tearmed iniquitas or iniquitie VVhich but that I studie to be briefe I could shew by a thousand testimonies out of S. Austen S. Ambrose and S. Bede Answere therefore ô papist if ye can or if ye dare not because ye cannot then reclaime your selues and yeeld vnto the truth for shame I challenge you and adiure you if your hearts faile you not and if your owne consciences condemne you not to send me an answere to this short challenge which I haue compiled very briefely so once to prouoke you to the open combat which I haue now many years expected at your hands and could neuer yet find so much courage in any of you all VVherefore to seale vp the veritie of this article as an vndoubted truth I will here adde for the complement as amost delicat post-past to satisfie the longing appetites of the Iesuit Parsons the arch priest Blackwell and all the traiterous crew of that Iesuited brotherhood the flat testimonie of their saint Thomas Aquinas whose doctrine they are bound to defend beleeue and approue and may not in any case refuse or denie the same these are his expresse words Dicendū quod illud quod homo facit sine deliberatione rationisnon perfectè ipse facit quia nihil operatur ibi id quod est principale in homine vnde non est perfectè actus humanus per consequens non potest esse perfectè actus virtutis vel peccati sed aliquid imperfectum ingenere horum Vnde talis motus sensualitatis rationem perueniens est peccatum veniale quod est quiddam imperfectum in genere peccati VVe must answere that that which man doth without the deliberation of reason he doth it not perfectly because that which is the chiefest in man worketh nothing there wherefore it is not perfectly mans act and consequently it cannot be perfectly the act of vertue or of sinne but some vnperfect thing in this kind VVhereupon it commeth that such a motion of sensualitie preuenting reason is a veniall sinne which is a certaine imperfect thing in the nature of sinne Thus writeth Aquinas out of whose words I note these important obseruations First that this Aquinas is a popish canonized saint Secondly that for his great learning he was surnamed Doctor Angelicus The Angelicall Doctor Thirdly that Pope Vrbanus the fourth and Pope Innocentius the fift did so admire and reuerence the excellent learning of this famous schoole-doctor who was a learned clarke indeed that they confirmed his doctrine for authenticall and gaue it the first place after the canonicall Scripture Fourthly that this great doctor so highly renowned in the Romish church that no papist may denie or gainesay that which he hath written graunteeth freely teacheth plainely and auoucheth constantly that the inordinate motion of sensualitie which goeth before reason is properly a sinne though but a veniall sinne as he tearmeth it For it is one thing to be a sinne perfectly another thing to be a sinne properly A veniall and little sinne is as well and as truly a sinne as a mortall and great sinne as the papists tearme them For he is as truly and properly a theefe that stealeth a lambe or a goose as he that stealeth an oxe or a horse though not a theefe in so high degree For mortall and veniall sinnes as the papists tearm them doe onely differ Secundum magis minus according to more and lesse But in truth euery sinne is mortall as I haue alreadie proued in my booke of Motiues Answer ô papists if ye can if not repent for shame The fift Article Of the condigne so supposed merite of workes THe papists either of ignorance or of malice doe most vnchristianlie slander the professors of Christs Gospell as though they were enemies to good workes when in deed they both thinke preach and write more Christianly more religiously and more sincerely than the papists doe of and concerning godlie actions and good workes In regard hereof before I come to the maine point of that which I purpose to oppugne in this article I graunt first of all that though good workes neither doe nor can goe before iustification yet they euer follow as the fruits follow the tree the persons that are freely iustified by Gods mercie in Christ Iesus for his merits and condigne deserts I graunt secondly that though good workes goe not before iustification yet doe they so necessarilie goe before saluation that no man without them can attaine eternall life when possibilitie is graunted to doe them I graunt thirdly that good workes are the true effects of predestination by which the children of God make their saluation sure vnto themselues and manifest vnto the world Yet this notwithstanding I hold constantlie beleeue stedfastly and affirme Christianlie that albeit good workes are the effects of predestination and necessarie fruits of faith and iustification yet neither are they the cause of predestination nor of iustification neither
doe they or can they merit ex condigno eternall life or glorie I say merit ex condigno because I willingly graunt with the auntient writers and holie fathers that good workes in a godly sense may be said to merit that is to say to impetrate fauour and reward at Gods hands for his mercie and promise sake who hath promised not to leaue vnrewarded so much as one cup of cold water giuen in his name but they can neuer truly be said to merite for any worthinesse or condigne desert of the works that are done Against which last part I contend with the papists at this present and namely against the late decree of the late Romish Counsell of Trent whose expresse wordes are these Si quis dixerit hominis iustificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei vt non sint etiam bona ipsius iustificati merita aut ipsum iustificatum bonis operibus quae ab eo per Dei gratiam Iesu Christi meritum cuius membrum viuum est fiunt non verè mereri augmentum gratiae vitam aeternam ipsius vitae aeternae si tamen in gratia decesserit consecutionem atque etiam gloriae augmentum anathema sit If any shall say that the good workes of the iustified man are so the gifts of God that they be not also the good merites of him that is iustified or that the iustified man by his good workes which he doth by the grace of God and merit of Christ Iesus whose liuely member he is doth not truly merit the increase of grace eternall life and the consequution of the same eternall life if he shal depart hence in grace and also the augment of glory let him be accursed Here we see the flat doctrine of the Romish Church which whosoeuer will not beleeue stedfastly must bee damned euerlastingly and with fire and faggot bee sent packing speedily Yet that this doctrine is most absurd in it selfe most blaphemous against the free mercie of God and most iniurious to the inestimable merits of our Lord Iesus I vndertake by Gods assistance to prooue by such cleere and euident demonstrations as shal be able to satisfie all indifferent readers and to put the papists to silence for euer in this behalfe The first reason drawne from the holy Scriptures THe first place of holy scripture is conteined in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the gift of God is life euerlasting in Christ Iesus our Lord. This text of scripture doth plainely conuince that life eternall cannot be condignely atchieued by the workes of man for being the free gift of God it can no way be due to the merite of mans worke The Rhemists to extenuate the cleerenesse of this text and as it were to hide and conceale the euidencie thereof doe translate for the Gift of God the Grace of God following their old vulgar Latin edition VVhich translation though in this place it mae be admitted yet doth it not sufficiently expresse the efficacie of the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a gift freely bestowed for which respect their owne famous linguist Arias Montanus who was the onely man chosen as most sufficient for the translation of the old testament out of the Hebrew and of the new out of Greeke and imployed by the king of Spaine for that onlie end did not translate gratia but donatio not grace but donation or free gift Now let vs see and view the iudgement of the holy fathers vpon this portion of holy writ Saint Theodoret hath these wordes Hic non dicit mercedem sed gratiam est enim Dei donum vita aeterna si quis enim summam absolutam iustitiam praestiterit temporalibus laboribus aeterna in aequilibrio non respondent He saith no there reward but grace for eternal life is the gift of God For although one could performe the highest and absolute iustice yet eternall ioyes being weighed with temporall labours are nothing answerable Saint Chrysostome hath these wordes Non eundem seruat oppositorum ordinem Non enim dicit merces benefactorum vestrorum vita aeterna sed donum Dei vita aeterna vt ostenderet quod non proprijs viribus liberati sint neque debitum aut merces aut laborum sit retributio sed omnia illa ex diuino munere gratuitò acceperint He doth not obserue the same order of opposites For he saith not eternall life is the reward of your good workes but eternall life is the gift of God that he might shew that they are not deliuered by their owne strength or vertues and that it is not a debt or a wages or a retribution of labours but that they haue receiued all those things freely of the gift of God Origen writeth thus vpon the same wordes Deum verò non erat dignum militibus suis stipendia quasi debitum alique dare sed donum gratiam quae est vita aeterna in Christo Iesu domino nostro But it was not a thing worthy beseeming God to giue stipends to his souldiers as a due debt or wage but to bestow on them a gift or free grace which is eternall life in Christ Iesus our Lord. Saint Ambrose hath these wordes Sicut enim sequentes peccatum acquirunt mortem ita sequentes gratium Dei id est fidem Christi quae donat peccata babebunt vitam aeternam For as they that follow sinne gaine death so they that follow the grace of Christ that is the faith of Christ which forgiueth sinnes shall haue eternall life Theophilact hath these wordes Gratiam autem non mercedem dixit à Deo futurum perinde ac si inquiat non enim laborum accipitis premia sed per gratiam fiunt haec omnia in Christo Iesu qui haec operatur factitat He said grace not wages was to come from God as if he should say for ye receiue not rewards of labours but all these things are done by grace in Christ Iesus who worketh and doth them Anselmus and Photius haue the same wordes in effect which I omit in regard of breuitie By these manifold testimonies of the holy fathers the doctrine which I defend is cleere and euident viz. that eternall life is the free gift of God and is not merited or purchased by desert of man that eternall life is not a due debt a deserued wages or retribution of mans labours but proceedeth wholy and solie of the free mercy and grace of God that mans workes waighed in the ballance with the ioyes of heauen are nothing at all answerable vnto them To which fathers I will add the verdict of Paulus Burgensis a verie famous popish Spanish Bishop These are his wordes Noluit ergo dicere stipendium iustitiae vita aeterna sed maluit dicere gratia Dei vita aeterna quia eadem merita quibus redditur non a nobis sunt sed in nobis à Deo facta sunt