with these universal sanctions: Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom: but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And again, Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and it fell, and great was the full thereof. Now your church, notwithstanding all this, enervates, and in a manner dissolves and abrogates many of these precepts, teaching men that they are not laws for all Christians, but counsels of perfection, and matters of supererogation; that a man shall do well, if he do observe them, but he shall not sin, if he observe them not; that they are for them who aim at high places in heaven, who aspire with the two sons of Zebedee to the right hand or the left hand of Christ; but if a man will be content barely to go to heaven, and to be a doorkeeper in the house of God, especially if he will be content to taste of purgatory in the way, he may attain it at an easier purchase. Therefore the religion of your church is not so holy nor so good as the doctrine of Christ delivered in Scripture, and therefore not so likely to come from the fountain of holiness and goodness. 72. Lastly, if I follow your church for my guide, I shall do all one as if I should follow a company of blind men in a judgment of colours or in the choice of a way. For every unconsidering man is blind in that which he does not consider. Now what is your church but a company of unconsidering men, who comfort themselves because they are a great company together? but all of them, either out of idleness refuse the trouble of a severe trial of their religion, (as if heaven were not worth it,) or out of superstition fear the event of such a trial, that they may be scrupled, and staggered, and disquieted by it; and therefore, for the most part, do it not at all; or if they do it, they do it negligently and hypocritically, and perfunctorily, rather for the satisfaction of others than themselves; but certainly without indifference, without liberty of judgment, without a resolution to doubt of it, if upon examination the grounds of it prove uncertain, or to leave it, if they prove apparently false. My own experience assures me, that in this imputation I do you no injury; but it is very apparent to all men from your ranking" doubting of any part of your doctrine" among mortal sins. For from hence it follows, that seeing every man must resolve that he will never commit mortal sin, that he must never examine the grounds of it at at all, for fear he should be moved to doubt; or if he do, he must resolve that no motives, be they never so strong, shall move him to doubt, but that with his will and resolution he will uphold himself in a firm belief of your religion, though his reason and his understanding fail him. And seeing this is the condition of all those whom you esteem good catholics, who can deny but you are a company of men unwilling and afraid to understand, lest you should o good? that have eyes to see, and will not see, that have not the love of truth, (which is only to be known by an indifferent trial,) and therefore deserve to be given over to strong delusions; men that love darkness more than light in a word, that you are the blind leading the blind; and what prudence there can be in following such guides our Saviour hath taught us in saying, If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. 73. There remain unspoken to in this section some places out of St. Austin, and some sayings of Luther, wherein he confesses that in the papacy are many good things. But for the former, I have already considered, and returned the argument grounded on them. As for Luther's speeches, I told you, not long since, that we follow no private men, and regard not much what he says either against the church of Rome or for it, but what he proves. He was a man of a vehement spirit, and very often what he took in hand he did not do it, but overdo it. He that will justify all his speeches, especially such as he wrote in heat of opposition, I believe will have work enough. Yet in these sentences, though he overreach in the particulars, yet what he says in general we confess true, and conress with him, "that in the papacy are many good things,” which have come from them to us; but withal we say, there are many bad; neither do we think ourselves bound in prudence either to reject the good with the bad, or to retain the bad with the good, but rather conceive it a high point of wisdom to separate between the precious and the vile, to sever the good from the bad, and to put the good in vessels to be kept, and to cast the bad away; to try all things, and to hold to that which is good. 74. Ad § 32. Your next and last argument against the faith of protestants is, because "wanting certainty and prudence, it must also want the fourth condition, supernaturality. For that being a human persuasion, it is not in the essence of it supernatural; and being imprudent and rash, it cannot proceed from Divine motion, and so is not supernatural in respect of the cause from which it proceedeth." Answ. This little discourse stands wholly upon what went before, and therefore must fall together with it. I have proved the faith of protestants as certain and as prudent as the faith of papists; and therefore if these be certain grounds of supernaturality, our faith may have it as well as yours, I would here furthermore be informed, how you can assure us that your faith it not your persua sion or opinion, (for you make them all one,) that your church's doctrine is true? or if you grant it your persuasion, why is it not the persuasion of men, and, in respect of the subject of it, an human persuasion? I desire also to know, what sense there is in pretending that your persuasion is, not in regard of the object only and cause of it, but in the nature or essence of it, supernatural? Lastly, whereas you, that "being imprudent, it cannot come from Divine motion;" certainly by this reason, all they that believe your own religion, and cannot give a wise and sufficient reason for it, (as millions amongst you cannot,) must be condemned to have no supernatural faith; or if not, then without question nothing can hinder but that the imprudent faith of protestants may proceed from Divine motion, as well as the imprudent faith of papists. 75. And thus having weighed your whole discourse, and found it altogether lighter than vanity, why should I not invert your conclusion, and say, Seeing you have not proved that whatsoever errs against any one point of faith loseth all Divine faith; nor that any error whatsoever, concerning that which by the parties litigant may be esteemed a matter of faith, is a grievous sin; it follows not at all, that when two men hold different doctrines concerning religion, that but one can be saved? Not that I deny but that the sentence of St. Chrysostom, with which you conclude this chapter, may in a good sense be true; for ofttimes by "the faith" is meant only that doctrine which is " necessary to salvation ;" and to say, that salvation may be had without any the least thing which is necessary to salvation, implies a repugnance, and destroys itself. Besides, not to believe all necessary points, and to believe none at all, is for the purpose of salvation all one; and therefore he that does so may justly be said to destroy the gospel of Christ, seeing he makes it ineffectual to the end for which it was intended, the salvation of men's souls. But why you should conceive that all differences about religion are concerning matters of faith, in this high notion of the word, for that I conceive no reason. CHAPTER VII. lu reyard of the precept of charity towards one's self, protestants ar in a state of sin, as long as they remain separated from the Roman Church. I. "THAT due order is to be observed in the theological virtue of charity, whereby we are directed to prefer some objects before others, is a truth taught by all divines, and declared in these words of Holy Scripture, He hath ordered charity in me. The reason whereof is, because the infinite goodness of God, which is the formal object or motive of charity, and for which all other things are loved, is differently participated by different objects; and therefore the love we bear to them for God's sake must accordingly be unequal. In the virtue of faith, the case is far otherwise; because all the objects or points which we believe do equally participate the Divine testimony or revelation, for which we believe alike all things propounded for such. For it is as impossible for God to speak an untruth in a small as in a great matter. And this is the ground for which we have so often affirmed, that any least error against faith is injurious to God, and destructive of salvation. 2. "This order in charity may be considered, towards God, our own soul, the soul of our neighbour, our own life or goods, and the life or goods of our neighbour. God is to be beloved above all things, both objective, (as the divines speak,) that is, we must wish or desire to God a good more great, perfect, and noble, than to any or all other things; namely, all that indeed he is, a nature infinite, independent, immense, &c.; and also appretiativé, that is, that we must sooner leave what good soever, than leave and abandon him. In the other objects of charity, of which I spake, this order is to be kept: we may, bnt are not bound to prefer the life and goods of our neighbour before our own: we are bound to prefer the soul of our nighbour before our own temporal goods or life, if he happen to be in extreme spiritual necessity, and that we by our assistance can succour him, according to the saying of St. John,† In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath yielded his life for us: and we ought to yield our life for our brethren. And St. Augustin likewise saith‡ A Christian will not doubt to lose his own temporal life for the eternal life of his neighbour. Lastly, we are to prefer the spirit ual good of our own soul, before both the spiritual and temporal good of our neighbour, because as charity doth of its own nature chiefly incline the person in whom it resides to love God, and to Cant. ii. 4. + I Joan. iii. 16. De Mendas cap. vi. be united with him, so of itself it inclines him to procure those things whereby the said union with God is effected, rather to himself than to others. And from hence it follows, that in things necessary to salvation, no man ought in any case, or in any respect whatsoever, to prefer the spiritual good either of any par ticular person or of the whole world before his own soul, according to those words of our blessed Saviour,* What doth it avail a man, if he gain the whole world, and sustain the damage of his own soul? And therefore (to come to our present purpose) it is directly against the order of charity, or against charity as it hath a reference to ourselves, which divines call charitas propria, to adventure either the omitting of any means necessary to salvation, or the committing of any thing repugnant to it, for whatsoever respect; and consequently, if by living out of the Roman church we put ourselves in hazard either to want something necessarily required to salvation, or else to perform some act against it, we commit a most grievous sin against the virtue of charity, as it respects ourselves, and so cannot hope for salvation without repentance. 3. "Now of things necessary to salvation there are two sorts, according to the doctrine of all divines. Some things, say they, are necessary to salvation, necessitate præcepti, necessary only because they are commanded; for, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.* In which kind of things, as probable ignorance of the law or of the commandment doth excuse the party from all faulty breach thereof, so likewise doth it not exclude salvation in case of ignorance. Some other things are said to be necessary to salvation, necessitate medii, finis or salutis; because they are means appointed by God to attain our end of eternal salvation, in so strict a manner, that it were presumption to hope for salvation without them. And as the former means are said to be necessary because they are commanded, so the latter are commonly said to be commanded because they are necessary; that is, although there were no other special precept concerning them, yet supposing they be once appointed as means absolutely necessary to salvation, there cannot but arise an obligation of procuring to have them, in virtue of that universal precept of charity which obligeth every man to procure the salvation of his own soul. In this sort, 'Divine infallible faith' is necessary to salvation; as likewise repentance of every deadly sin, and in the doctrine of catholics, baptism in re, that is, 'in act,' to children, and for those who are come to the use of reason, in voto, or hearty desire, when they cannot have it in act. And as baptism is necessary for remission of original and actual sin committed before it, so the sacrament of confession or penance is necessary in re, or in voto, in act or desire, for the remission of mortal sins. committed after baptism. The minister of which sacrament of penance being necessarily a true priest, true ordination is necessary in the church of God for remission of sins by this sacrament, as also for other ends not belonging to our present purpose. From hence it riseth, that no ignorance or impossibility |