MERIT OF GOOD WORKS. 203
merito, — altero contentum esse, alterum sibi donare, ex ciijus dono illud sibi merito vindicet, hacque fidncia fretus minime confundatur; neque enim oleum misericordise, nisi in vase fiducia3 poni. Hanc bominis tiduciam esse a se deficientis et innitentis Domino suo, — alioqui propriis meritis fidere non fidei esse, sed perfidise, — peccata remitti per Dei indulgentiam, ideoque credere nos debere, peccata deleri non posse, nisi ab eo cui soli peccavimus, et in quern peccatum non cadit, per quern solum nobis peccata condonantur." Words worthy of a lasting memory ; which they will not fail of where they are recorded ! " Casting himself," saith that excellent historian, " with his whole soul upon God, he thus reasoned : That for his part he was, on the account of any merits of his own, unworthy to obtain the kingdom of heaven; but his Lord and God, who hath a double right luito it, — one by inheritance of his Father, the other by the merit of his own passion, — contented himself with the one, granted the other unto him : by whose grant he rightly (or deservedly) laid claim thereunto ; and, resting in this faith or confidence, he was not confounded; for the oil of mercy is not poured but into the vessel of faith. This is the faith or confidence of a man fainting or despairing in himself, and resting on his Lord, — and otherwise to trust to our own merits is not an act of faith, but of infidelity or perfidiousness, — that sins are forgiven by the mercy of God; and that therefore we ought to believe that sins cannot be blotted out or forgiven but by him against whom we have sinned, who sinneth not, and by whom alone oiu' sins are pardoned." This, sir, is the faith of Protestants in reference unto the merit of works, which that wise and mighty em- peror, after all his military actings against them, found the only safe anchor for his soul " in extremis," his only relief against crying out,
with Hadrian, — -
" Animula vagula, blandula, Hospes, comesque corporis, Quffi nvinc abibis in loca ? Pallidula, frigida, nudula, Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos."
— the only antidote against despair, the only stay of a soul when once entering the lists of eternity. And I am persuaded that many of you fix on the same principles as to your hope and expectation of life and immortality. And to what purpose, I pray you, do you trouble the world Vvith an ojnnion, wherein you can find no benefit, when, if true, you should principally expect to be relieved and sup- ported by it? But he that looks to find solid peace and consolation in this world, or a blessed entrance into another, on any other grounds than those expressed by that dying emperor, will find himself de- ceived. Sir, you will one day find that our own works or merits, purgatory, the snffrage of your church, or any parts of it, when we
204 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
are dead, the smplusage of tlie works or merits of other sinners, are pitiful things to come into competition with the blood of Christ and pardoning mercy in him. I confess the inquisition made a shift to destroy Constantine, who was confessor to the emperor, and assisted him unto his departure. And king Philip took care that his son Charles should not live in the faith wherein his father Charles died ; whereby merit, or our own righteousness, prevailed at court. But, as I said, I am persuaded that when many of you are in cold blood, and think more of God than of Protestants, and of your last account than of your present arguments, you begin to believe that mercy and the righteousness of Christ will be a better- plea, as to your own particu- lar concernments, at the last day. Seeing, therefore, that Protestants teach the necessity of good works, uj)on the cogent principles I minded you of in my "Animadversions," I suppose it might not be amiss in you to surcease from troubling them about their merit which few of you are agreed about, and which, as I would willingly hope, none of you dare trust unto. You have, I suj)pose, been minded before now of the .conclusion made in this matter by your great champion Bellarmine, lib. v., De Justificat., cap. 7. " Propter," saith he, " incertitudinem proprise justitise, et jDcriculum inanis glorise, tutissimum est, fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia et benignitate reponere ;" — " Because of the uncertainty of our own righteousness, and the danger of vain-glory, it is the safest course to place all our confidence in the alone mercy and benignity of God:" wherein, if I mistake not, he disclaimeth all that he had subtilely dis- puted before about the merit of works. And he appears to have been in good earnest in this conclusion, seeing he made such use of it himself, in particular, at the close of all his disputes and days ; pray- ing, in his last will and testament, that God would deal with him, not as " sestimator meriti," " a judge of his merit;" but " largitor veniae," " a merciful pardoner;" Vit. Bell, per Sylvestr. a Pet. San. Impress. Antuerpise, 1631. And why is this the safest course? Cer- tainly it must be because God hath appointed it and revealed it so to he ; for on no other ground can any course towards heaven be ac- counted safe. And if this be the way of his appointment, that Ave should trust to his mercy alone in Christ Jesus, — let them that will be so minded, notwithstanding all persuasions to the contrary, as to trust to their own merit, take heed lest they find, when it is too late, that they have steered a course not so safe as they expected. And so I desire your excuse for this diversion, the design of it being only to discover one reason of your failing in morality, in aflrrming me to have said that which you knew well enough I did not, — which is this, that you stood in a slippery place as to the point of faith which you were asserting, being not instructed how to speak constantly and