GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 67
But to root tlie superstitions mentioned out of the minds of men, to communicate unto them the knowledge of the righteousness of God, which is revealed from faith to faith, and thereby to deliver them from their bondage, fears, and distress, directing convinced sin- ners unto the only way of solid peace with God, did the first reformers labour so diligently in the declaration and vindication of the evangeli- cal doctrine of justification ; and God was with them. And it is worth our consideration, whether we should, on every cavil and sophism of men not so taught, not so employed, not so tried, not so owned of God as they were, and in whose writings there are not appearing such characters of luisdom, sound judgment, and deep experience, as in theirs, easily part with that doctrine of truth wherein alone they found peace unto their own souls, and whereby they were instrumen- tal to give liberty and peace ^Yith God unto the souls and consciences . of others innumerable, accompanied with the visible effects of holi- ness of life, and fruitfulness in the works of righteousness, unto the praise of God by Jesus Christ.
In my judgment, Luther spake the truth when he said, " Amisso articulo justificationis, simul amissa est tota doctrina Christiana.'' And I wish he had not been a true prophet, when he foretold that in the following ages the doctrine hereof would be again obscured ; the causes whereof I have elsewhere inquired into.
Some late writers, indeed, among the Protestants have endeavoured to reduce the controversy about justification with the Papists unto an appearance of a far less real difference than is usually judged to be in it. And a good work it is, no doubt, to pare off all unnecessary occasions of debate and differences in religion, provided we go not so near the quick as to let out any of its vital spirits. The way taken herein is, to proceed upon some concessions of the most sober among the Papists, in their ascriptions unto grace and the merit of Christ, on the one side; and the express judgment of the Protestants, variously delivered, of the necessity of good works to them that are justified, on the other. Besides, it appears that in different expressions which either partj;- adhere unto, as it were by tradition, the same things are in- deed intended. Among them who have laboured in this kind, Lu- dovicus le Blanc,^ for his perspicuity and plainness, his moderation and freedom from a contentious frame of spirit, is " pene solus legi dignus." He is like the ghost of Tiresias^ in this matter. But I
' A theologian who published, in 1663, a work entitled, " Disputationes qii£B- dam Historifeque Theologicse;" and in 1683 his "Theses Theologies in Acad. Sedanensi," were also published.— Ed.
- A blind seer, who lived at the time of the "War of the Seven against Thebos, and a prominent character in the n)ytliical liteiature of Greece. In the lower regions, his shade retained the faculty of perception, denied to the souls of other mortals. — Ed.
6iS ON JUSTIFICATION.
must needs say, that I have not seen the effect that might be desired of any such undertaking. For, when each party comes unto the in- terpretation of their own concessions, which is, " ex communi jure/' to be allowed unto them, and which they will be sure to do in com- pliance with their judgment on the substance of the doctrine wherein the main stress of the difference lies, the distance and breach continue as wide as ever they were. Nor is there the least ground towards peace obtained by any of our condescensions or compliances herein. For unless we can come up entirely unto the decrees and canons of the Council of Trent, wherein the doctrine of the Old and New Tes- tament is anathematized, they will make no other use of any man's compliances, but only to increase the clamour of differences among ourselves. I mention nothing of this nature to hinder any man from granting whatever he can or please unto them, without the prejudice of the substance of truths professed in the protestant churches; but only to intimate the uselessness of such concessions, in order unto peace and agreement with them, whilst they have a Procrustes' bed to lay us upon, and from whose size they will not recede.
Here and there one (not above three or four in all may be named, within this hundred and thirty years) in the Roman communion has owned our doctrine of justification, for the substance of it. So did Albertus Pighius, and the Antitagma Coloniense, as Bellarmine ac- knowledges. And what he says of Pighius is true, as we shall see afterward; the other I have not seen. Cardinal Contarinus, in a treatise of justification, written before, and published about the be- ginning of the Trent Council, delivereth himself in the favour of it. But upon the observation of what he had done, some say he was shortly after poisoned ; though I must confess I know not where they had the report.
But do what we can for the sake of peace, as too much cannot be done for it, with the safety of truth, it cannot be denied but that the doctrine of justification, as it works effectually in the church of Rome, is the foundation of many enormities among them, both in judgment and practice. They do not continue, I acknowledge, in that visible predominancy and rage as formerly, nor are the generality of the people in so much slavish bondage unto them as they were; but the streams of them do still issue from this corrupt fountain, unto the dangerous infection of the souls of men. For missatical expiatory sacrifices for the living and the dead, the necessity of auricular confession, with authoritative absolution, penances, pilgrimages, sacramentals, indulgences, commutations, works satisfactory and su- pererogatory, the merit and intercession of saints departed, with especial devotions and applications to this or that particular saint or angel, purgatory, yea, on the matter, the whole of monastic devotion,