Paulus Burgensis, who expounding those words of David, "Thy mercy, O Lord, is in heaven," or, reacheth unto the heavens, writeth thus: "No man according to the common law can merit by condignity the glory of heaven. Whence the apostle saith in the eighth chapter to the Romans, that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us. And so it is manifest that in heaven most of all the mercy of God shineth forth in the blessed." The other is Thomas Walden, who living in England the same time that the other did in Spain, professeth plainly his dislike of that saying: "that' a man by his merits is worthy of the kingdom of heaven, or this grace or that glory; howsoever certain schoolmen, that they might so speak, had invented the terms of condignity and congruity." But "Im repute him," saith he, "the sounder divine, the more faithful Catholic, and more consonant with the holy Scriptures, who doth simply deny such merit, and with the qualification of the apostle and of the Scriptures, confesseth, that simply no man meriteth the kingdom of heaven, but by the grace of God or will of the giver; as" all the former saints, until the late schoolmen, and the universal Church hath written." Out of which words of his you may further observe both the time when, and the persons by whom this innovation was made in these latter days of the Church; i Psalm 36. ver. 5. * Gloriam cœlestem nullus de condigno secundum legem communem meretur. Unde apostolus ad Rom. cap. 8. Non sunt condigna passiones hujus seculi ad futuram gloriam, quæ revelabitur in nobis ; et sic manifestum est, quod in cœlo maxime relucet misericordia Dei in beatis. Paul. Burgens. addit. ad Lyran. in Psal. 35. Quod homo ex meritis est dignus regno cœlorum, aut hac gratia vel illa gloria, quamvis quidam scholastici invenerunt ad hoc dicendum terminos de condigno et congruo. Waldens. tom. 3. de sacramentalib. tit. 1. cap. 7. Reputo igitur saniorem theologum, fideliorem catholicum, et scripturis sanctis magis concordem; qui tale meritum simpliciter abnegat, et cum modificatione apostoli et scripturarum concedit quia simpliciter quis non meretur regnum cœlorum, sed ex gratia Dei aut voluntate largitoris. Ibid. "Sicut omnes sancti priores usque ad recentes scholasticos et communis scripsit Ecclesia. Ibid. namely, that the late schoolmen were they that corrupted the ancient doctrine of the Church, and to that end devised their new terms of the merit of congruity and condignity. I say, in these latter days; because if we look unto higher times, Walden himself in that same place doth affirm, that it was a branch of the Pelagian heresy" to hold, "that according to the measure of meritorious works God will reward a man so meriting." Neither indeed can this proud generation of merit-mongers be derived from a more proper stock, than from the old, either Pelagians or Catharists. For as these do now a days. maintain, that they do "work? by their own free will, and thereby deserve their salvation:" so was this wont to be a part of Pelagius his song: "No man shall take away from me the power of free will, lest if God be my helper in my works, the reward be not due to me, but to him that did work in me." And to "glory of their merits," was a special property noted in the Catharists or ancient Puritans who standing thus upon their own purity, do thereby declare, as Cassiodorus noteth", "that they have no portion with the holy Church, which professeth that her sins are many." Nay, "while these men call themselves Puritans," saith Epiphanius, "by this very ground they prove themselves to be impure; for whosoever pronounceth himself to be pure, doth therein absolutely condemn himself to be impure." For, as St. Hierome in this : • Pelagiana est hæresis; quod Deus secundum mensuram operum meritoriorum præmiabit hominem sic merentem. Waldens. tom. 3. de sacrament. tit. 1. cap. 17. P Rhemists annot. in Rom. cap. 9. ver. 14. ¶ Mihi nullus auferre poterit liberi arbitrii potestatem: ne si in operibus meis Deus adjutor extiterit, non mihi debeatur merces, sed ei qui in me operatus. Pelag. apud Hieronym. in dialog. advers. Pelag. lib. 1. Gloriantes de suis meritis. Isidor. lib. 8. Origin. cap. 5. de Catharis. • Et memoria reconde, quod Ecclesia dicit pro parte membrorum, copiosa sua esse peccata: ut qui se prædicant esse mundos (sicut Catharistæ) intelligant se portionem cum sancta ecclesia non habere. Cassiador. in Psal. 24. · Οὗτοι ἑαυτοὺς φήσαντες καθαροὺς, ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἀκαθάρ τους ἑαυτοὺς ἀποτελοῦσι, πᾶς γὰρ ὁ ἑαυτὸν ἀποφῶνας καθαρὸν, ἀκάθαρ TOV AVTOV TEXEIWG KUTÉKPIVE. Epiphan. hæres. 59. pag. 499. case disputeth against the Pelagians, and so against the Puritan and Pelagian Romanists, "then" are we righteous when we confess ourselves to be sinners; and our righteousness consisteth not in our own merits, but in God's mercy;" with whose resolution against them we will now conclude this point against their new offspring; that "the" righteous are saved, not by their own merit, but by God's clemency." And thus have I gone over all the particular articles propounded by our challenger: and performed therein more a great deal, than he required at my hands. That which he desired in the name of his fellows was, that we would allege but "any one text of Scripture, which condemneth any of the above written points." He hath now presented unto him not texts of Scripture only, but testimonies of the fathers also, justifying our dissent from them not in one but in all those points, wherein he was so confident that "they of our side that had read the fathers could well testify," that all antiquity did in judgment concur with the now Church of Rome. And if he look into every one of them more nearly, he may perhaps find, that we are not such strangers to the original and first breedings of these Romish errors, as he did imagine. It now remaineth on his part, that he make good what he hath undertaken: namely, that for the confirmation of all the above mentioned points of his religion, he produce both good and certain grounds out of the sacred Scriptures, and the general consent likewise of the saints and fathers of the primitive Church. Wherein, as I advise him to spare his pains in labouring to prove those things, which he seeth me before hand readily to have yielded unto: so I wish him also not to forget his own "Tunc ergo justi sumus, quando nos peccatores fatemur: et justitia nostra non ex proprio merito, sed ex Dei consistit misericordia. Hieron. dialog. advers. Pelag. lib. 1. w Pro nihilo (inquit) salvos faciet cos: haud dubium quin justos, qui non proprio merito, sed Dei salvantur elementia. Id. ibid. lib. 2. |