full consent) they cannot bring death upon the doers of them. Wherefore to conclude this point into which Master Higgons digresseth after his idle manner, and to send him back to the matter he hath in hand; I say, that there is no contradiction between any assertion of mine and the articles of religion agreed on in the Convocation: and farther add, that there is no papist of judgment and consideration that can possibly dissent from us in this point, touching the constant perseverance of the elect and chosen servants of God called according to purpose, and their never wholly falling from grace. For first, they all agree together with us, that they cannot finally depart away. Secondly, that some good motions and affections will ever remain in them, after they have been once seasoned with the liquor of renewing and sanctifying grace1. Thirdly, that they lose not their right to the rewards which God, in the covenant of mercy, promised to their former virtuous and good endeavours, nor the benefit of their repenting from dead works formerly repented of when they fall into sin, though they can make no use thereof while they continue in such an estate of sin. For, saith Scotus2, as a man that hath much owing unto him upon good assurances, and is possessed of things of good value, being excommunicated or outlawed, still retaineth the interest and right to all things that formerly he had, though he can make no use thereof; nor by course of law force them to do him right that go about to do him wrong, nor recover that which is due unto him, if it be detained from him; but all prosecution of his right is suspended till he procure himself to be freed from the sentence of excommunication or outlawry: so the remission of original sin, the right to eternal life obtained in baptism, the force and virtue of former repentance and conversion from sins past, and the right to the rewards of actions of virtue formerly done, remain still in the elect and chosen, called according to purpose, when they fall into grievous sins tyrannizing over them, though during the time of their being in such grievous sins the actual claim to the benefit of these things, and the enjoying of them, be suspended; which upon their repentance for those particular sins that caused such suspension, is revived and set afoot again in such sort, that the 1 Hugo de S. Vict. de Sacram. Fid. Lib. II. Part. 13. cap. 12. 2 In Quart. Sent. Dist. 22. qu. 1. Art. 2. [Tom. Ix. p. 457.] repentance past sufficeth for remission of former sins, and the good actions past shall have their rewards. So that a man elect and chosen of God, and called according to purpose, that hath done good and virtuous actions, though they be deadened in him for the present by some grievous sin, yet still they remain in divine acceptation, and he still retaineth the right and title he had to the reward of eternal life, promised to those works of virtue done by him, though he can make no actual claim to the same while he remaineth in such an estate of sin; but after that such sin shall cease and be repented of, he recovereth not a new right or title, but a new claim by virtue of the old title. Wherefore if it be demanded, whether David and Peter, when they fell into those grievous sins of uncleanness and abnegation of Christ, continued in a state of justification? we answer, that they did in respect of the remission of their sins, and the title they got to eternal life in their first conversion, which they lost not by those their sins committed afterwards: for the remission of all their former sins, whereof before they had repented, remained still, and God's acceptation of them to eternal life, notwithstanding these sins, upon the condition of leaving them, together with his purpose of rewarding their well-doings; but in respect of the actual claim to eternal good things, they were not as men once justified are, notwithstanding lesser sins, which though they cause a dislike, yet neither extinguish the right, nor suspend the claim to eternal life. Thus, having run through all those passages of Master Higgons his book that any way concern me, I leave him to bethink himself, whether he had any reason to traduce me in such sort as he hath done; and remit the wrongs he hath done me without cause to the righteous judgment of God, to whom he must stand or fall. THE END OF THE FIRST PART. [FIELD, IV.] 28 THE SECOND PART, CONCERNING THE AUTHOR OF THE "TREATISE OF THE H AVING answered the frivolous objections of Master Hig gons, I will leave him; and pass from him to his friend and colleague, the author of the "Treatise of the Grounds of the Old and New Religion;" who also is pleased, in his idle discourses, to take some exceptions against that which I have written. But because he is a very obscure author, and such a one as the world taketh little notice of, I will not much trouble myself about him, nor take so much pains in discovering his weakness, as I have done in dismasking the new convert, a man, as it seemeth, of more esteem. Yet that the world may see what goodly stuff it is that these nameless and apocryphal book-makers daily vent amongst our seduced countrymen, I will briefly and cursorily take a view of all such passages of his treatise as any way concern me. Amongst which the first that offereth itself to our view is in his preface to the reader1, where he citeth with great allowance and approbation that which I have in my epistle dedicatory: That all men must carefully seek out which is the true Church, that so they may embrace her communion, follow her directions, and rest in her judgment: but presently chargeth me, that in my Fourth Book following, I "bereave her of almost all such prerogatives" as I formerly yielded unto her; so that men may not safely follow her directions, nor rest in her judgment, in that I say, that "General councils may err in matters of greatest consequence," and "free the Church herself from error only in certain principal points and articles of Christian religion," and not generally in all. This is a bad beginning, being a most shameless untruth. 2 Pag. 5. 1 Pag. 4. For in the places cited by him, I lay down these propositions: first, that the Church, including in it all faithful ones since Christ appeared in the flesh, is absolutely free from all error and ignorance of divine things. Secondly, that the Church, including all those believers that are and have been since the apostles' times, is simply free from all error, though happily not from all ignorance. Thirdly, that the Church, including only the believers living at one time in the world, is free not only from error in such things as men are precisely bound expressly to know and believe, but from pertinaciously erring in any thing that any way pertaineth to Christian faith and religion. Fourthly, that we must simply and absolutely, without all doubt or question, follow the directions, and rest in the judgment of the Church, in either of the two former senses. Fifthly, that we must listen to the determinations of the present Church, as to the instructions of our elders, and fatherly admonitions and directions: but not so as to the things contained in Scripture, or believed by the whole universal Church that hath been ever since the apostles' times. Because, as Waldensis noteth, the Church whose faith never faileth is not any particular Church, as that of Africa, or Rome, but the universal Church: neither that universal Church which may be gathered together in a general council, which is found sometimes to have erred; but that which dispersed through the world from the baptism of John, continueth to our times. Sixthly, that in the judgment of Waldensis', the fathers successively are more certain judges in matters of faith than a general council of bishops, though it be in a sort the highest court of the Church, as the treatiser saith. All these propositions are found in Waldensis, who wrote with good allowance of pope Martin the Fifth and the whole consistory of cardinals; so that the treatiser cannot charge me with any wrong offered to the Church, in bereaving her of her due prerogatives, but he must condemn him also, and blame the pope and his cardinals for commending the writings of such a man to the world as good, profitable, and containing nothing contrary to the catholic verity, that forgot himself so far as to bereave the Church of almost all her prerogatives: which he cannot do, but he must condemn. Vincentius Lirinensis, likewise a man beyond all exception, 1 Doct. Fid. Lib. II. Art. 2. cap. 19. [Tom. I. p. 199.] who absolutely concurreth in judgment with Waldensis touching these points: assuring us', that the state of the present Church at sometimes may be such as that we must be forced to fly to the judgment of antiquity, if we desire to find any certain direction. "A judgment of right discerning," saith Ockam, "there is ever found in the Church, seeing there are always some right believers; but a right judgment of men, by their power of jurisdiction maintaining truth, and suppressing error, may be wanting." Nay, that sometimes there was no such judgment in the Church, it is most evident: for Vincentius Lirinensis saith, the Arian heresy infected not some part only, but almost the whole Christian world, so that almost all the bishops of the Latin Church were misled by force or fraud. Yea Athanasius and Hierome report3, that Liberius, bishop of Rome, was carried away in that tempestuous whirlwind, and subscribed to heresy: so that there was no set tribunal on earth in those days to the determinations whereof it was safe to stand. (A TREATISE, &c. Preface, § 2.) In the next place, the treatiser chargeth me, that whereas Luther defendeth that infants in baptism actually believe, I" endeavour to wrest his words to habitual faith;" which sense, he saith, Luther's discourses will not admit; and for proof hereof referreth the reader to certain places in Luther, and to the positions of his followers: but as Festus said unto Paul5, "Thou hast appealed to Cæsar, to Cæsar shalt thou go;" 1 Contra Hær. Novat. cap. 6. [Max. Bibl. Vet. Patr. Tom. vii. p. 251.] 2 "In ecclesia militante est certum judicium, quantum ad ea quæ necesse est credere explicite ad salutem æternam consequendam ; quia semper usque ad finem mundi erunt aliqui catholici, qui tali modo in vera fide explicite permanebunt. Sed circa illa quæ non sunt necessaria explicite credere, non est necesse quod semper in ecclesia militante sit tale judiciam."-Ockam. Dialog. Part. I. Lib. v. cap. 28. [p. 497. Goldast. Monarch. Sacr. Rom. Imp. Francof. 1614.] 3 Athanas. in Epist. ad Solitar. Vit. Agent. [al. Hist. Arian. Tom. I. p. 368.] Hier. in Catal. Script. Eccles. in Fortunatiano. [al. de Viris Illustr. cap. 97. Tom. II. col. 917.] |