have been brought against me, so that this my answer thereunto may likewise come) did both with one and the other, as Constantine with books containing querulous matter. Whether this be convenient to be wished or no, I cannot tell: but sith there can come nothing of contention, but the mutual waste of the parties contending, till a common enemy dance in the ashes of them both, I do wish heartily that the grave advice which Constantine gave for reuniting of his clergy so many times, upon some small occasions, in so lamentable sort divided; or rather the strict commandment of Christ unto his, that they should not be divided at all; may at the length, if it be his blessed will, prevail so far, at least in this corner of the Christian world, to the burying and quite forgetting of strife, together with the causes that have either bred it, or brought it up, that things of small moment never disjoin them, whom one God, one Lord, one faith, one Spirit, one baptism, bands of so great force, have linked; that a respective eye towards things wherewith we should not be disquieted, make us not, as through infirmity the very patriarchs themselves sometimes were, full gorged, unable to speak peaceably to their own brother. Finally, that no strife may ever be heard of again, but this, who shall hate strife most, who shall pursue peace and unity with swiftest paces.

OTH

TO THE

CHRISTIAN READER.

Lib. iv.

Annal.

Lib. i.

Hist.

WHEREAS many desirous of resolution in some points handled in this learned discourse, were earnest to have it copied out; to ease so many labours, it hath been thought most worthy and very necessary to be printed: that not only they might be satisfied, but the whole church also hereby edified. The rather, because it will free the author from the suspicion of some errors, which he hath been thought to have favoured. Who might well have answered with Cremutius in Tacitus, "Verba mea arguuntur; adeò factorum innocens sum." Certainly the event of that time wherein he lived, shewed that to be true which the same author spake of a worse, "Cui deerat inimicus, per amicos oppressus;" and that there is not "minus periculum ex magna fama, quàm ex mala." But he hath so quit himself, that all may see how, as it was said of Agricola, " Simul suis virtutibus, simul vitiis aliorum, Agricolæ. in ipsam gloriam præceps agebatur." Touching whom I will say no more, but that which my author said of the same man, gritatem, &c. in tanto viro referre, injuria virtutum fuerit." But as of all other his writings, so of this I will add that which Velleius spake in commendation of Piso, "Nemo fuit, qui magis quæ agenda erant curaret, sine ulla ostentatione agendi." So not doubting, good Christian reader, of thy assent herein, but wishing thy favourable acceptance of this work (which will be an inducement to set forth others of his learned labours), I take my leave, from Corpus Christi college in Oxford, the 6th of July, 1612.

In Vita

Lib. ii.

'

Thine in Christ Jesus,

"Inte

HENRY JACKSON.

A

LEARNED DISCOURSE

OF

JUSTIFICATION, WORKS,

AND HOW THE

FOUNDATION OF FAITH IS OVERTHROWN.

The wicked doth compass about the righteous: therefore perverse judgment doth proceed.-HABAK. i. 4.

FOR the better manifestation of the prophet's meaning in this place, we are, first, to consider "the wicked," of whom he saith, "that they compass about the righteous:" secondly, "the righteous" that are compassed about by them: and thirdly, that which is inferred; "therefore perverse judgment proceedeth." Touching the first, there are two kinds of wicked men, of whom in the fifth of the former to the Corinthians, the blessed apostle speaketh thus: "Do ye not judge them that are within; but God judgeth 1 Cor. them that are without." There are wicked, therefore, whom the v. 13. church may judge, and there are wicked whom God only judgeth: wicked within, and wicked without the walls of the church. If within the church, particular persons be apparently such, as cannot otherwise be reformed; the rule of the apostolical judgment is this, "Separate them from among you :" if whole assem- 2 Cor. blies, this, "Separate yourselves from among them: for what society hath light with darkness?" But the wicked, whom the prophet meaneth, were Babylonians, and therefore without. For which cause we have heard at large heretofore in what sort he urgeth God to judge them.

2. Now concerning the righteous, there neither is, nor ever was, any mere natural man absolutely righteous in himself, that is to say, void of all unrighteousness, of all sin. We dare not except, no, not the blessed Virgin herself, of whom although we say with

vi. 7.

a

St. Augustine, for the honour's sake which we owe to our Lord and Saviour Christ, we are not willing in this cause, to move any question of his mother; yet forasmuch as the schools of Rome have made it a question, we may answer with Eusebius Emissenus, who speaketh of her, and to her in this effect: "Thou didst by special prerogative nine months together entertain within the closet of thy flesh the hope of all the ends of the earth, the honour of the world, the common joy of men. He, from whom all things had their beginning, had his beginning from thee; of thy body he took the blood which was to be shed for the life of the world; of thee he took that which even for thee he paid." "A peccati enim veteris nexu, per se non est immunis ipsa genitrix redemptoris:b The mother of the Redeemer himself, is not otherwise loosed from the bond of ancient sin, than by redemption." If Christ have paid a ransom for all, even for her, it followeth, that all, without exception, were captives. If one have died for all, then all were dead in sin; all sinful, therefore, none absolutely righteous in themselves; but we are absolutely righteous in Christ. The world then must shew a righteous man, otherwise it is not able to shew a man that is perfectly righteous: "Christ is made to us wisdom, justice, sanctification, and redemption:" wisdom, because he hath revealed his Father's will: justice, because he hath offered up himself a sacrifice for sin: sanctification, because he hath given us his Spirit: redemption, because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his children out of the bands of corruption into liberty which is glorious. How Christ is made wisdom, and how redemption, it may be declared when occasion serveth; but how Christ is made the righteousness of men, we are now to declare.

3. There is a glorifying righteousness of men in the world to come: as there is a justifying and sanctifying righteousness here. The righteousness, wherewith we shall be clothed in the world to come, is both perfect and inherent. That whereby here we are justified is perfect, but not inherent. That whereby we are sanctified is inherent, but not perfect. This openeth a way to the understanding of that grand question, which hangeth yet in controversy between us and the church of Rome, about the matter of justifying righteousness.

a Or whosoever it be, that was the author of those homilies, that go under his

name.

b Knowing how the schoolmen hold this question, some critical wits may perhaps half suspect that these two words, per se, are inmates. But if the place which they have be their own, their sense can be none other than that which I have given them by a paraphrastical interpretation.

4. First, although they imagine that the mother of our Lord and Saviour. Jesus Christ were for his honour, and by his special protection, preserved clean from all sin, yet touching the rest, they teach as we do, that infants, that never did actually offend, have their natures defiled, destitute of justice, averted from God; that in making man righteous, none do efficiently work with God but God. They teach as we do, that unto justice no man ever attained, but by the merits of Jesus Christ. They teach as we do, that although Christ as God be the efficient, as man the meritorious cause of our justice; yet in us also there is something required. God is the cause of our natural life; in him we live : but he quickeneth not the body without the soul in the body. Christ hath merited to make us just: but as a medicine which is made for health, doth not heal by being made, but by being applied; so, by the merits of Christ there can be no justification, without the application of his merit. Thus far we join hands with the church of Rome.

b

tween the

5. Wherein then do we disagree? We disagree about the na- The difture and essence of the medicine whereby Christ cureth our dis- ference be ease; about the manner of applying it; about the number, and papists and the power of means, which God requireth in us for the effectual us about justificaapplying thereof to our soul's comfort. When they are required to tion. shew what the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified, they answer, that it is a Divine spiritual quality; which quality received into the soul, doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God: and, secondly, endue it with power to bring forth such works, as they do that are born of him; even as the soul of man being joined to his body, doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable creatures; and, secondly, enable him to perform the natural functions which are proper to his kind; that it maketh the soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God, in regard whereof it is termed grace; that it purgeth, purifieth, and washeth out, all the stains and pollutions of sins; that by it, through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from

a They teach as we do, that God doth justify the soul of man alone, without any coeffective cause of justice. Deus sine medio coeffectivo animam justificat. Casal. de quadripart. just. lib. vi. c. Idem. lib. iii. c. 9.

b Tho. Aquin. 1. 2. quæst. 100. Gratia gratum faciens, id est, justificans est in anima quiddam reale et positivum, qualitas quædam (art. ii. concl.) supernaturalis, non eadem cum virtute infusa, ut magister; sed aliquid (art. iii.) præter virtutes infusas, fidem, spem, charitatem; habitudo, quædam (art. iii. ad. 3.) quæ præsupponitur in virtutibus istis sicut earum principium et radix, essentiam animæ tanquam subjectum occupat, non potentias, sed ab ipsa (art. iv. ad 1.) effluunt virtutes in potentias animæ, per quas potentiæ moventur ad actus. Plur. vid. quæst. 113. de Justificatione.