A Second Parallel, Part 1 · Comparison 12
ARMINIANS.
BERTIVS, pag. 96. citeth Tertullian, Praescrip. c. 3. Estne hoc mirum, vt k probatus aliquis retro postea excidat? Saul bonus prae caeteris liuore postea euertitur. Salomon omni gratiâ & sapientiâ donatus à domino ad idololatriam à mulieribus inducitur, &c.
Bert. pag. 98. alledgeth l Cyprian. Epist. 7. Adhuc in saeculo sumus &c. As yet we are in the world &c. Parum est adipisci aliquid potuisse; plus est quod adeptus es posse seruare: sicut & fides ipsa, & natiuitas salutaris, non accepta, sed custodita vi…ificat. Nec statim consecutio, sed consummatio hominē Deo seruat, &c. Salomon denique & Saul & caeteri multi quamdiu in vijs domini ambulauerunt datam sibi gratiam tenere potuerunt; recedente ab ijs disciplinâ Dominicâ recessit & gratia &c.
Bert. pag. 99. 100. produceth Nazianzen: m Deus his quidē lumen est, illis autem ignis, &c. God is a light to some, but to others a fire, &c. Quid vero deprehendimus in Saul? Vnctus erat, & spiritum recepera…, …rat que tune spiritalis &c. Postea verò non totum se praebuit spiritui, ne que purè, sed in alium conuersus est virum, &c. What finde wee in Saul? Hee was anointed, and made partaker of the holy Spirit: yet for all that afterward he suffered not himselfe to bee wholly and entirely directed by the Spirit, nor became perfectly and sincerely another man.
Ber. pag. 101. citeth Augustine lib. 11. de Ciuitat. Dei, … 12. n The Saints though they are certaine of the reward of their perseuerance, yet are found to be vncertaine of their perseuerance.
Bert. pag. 102. August. de Correp. & Grat. cap. 5. o Si iam regeneratus & iustificatus in malam vitam suâ voluntate relabitur, certè non potest dicere, Non accepi: quia acceptam gratiam Dei suo in malum libero amisit arbitrio. If a regenerate and iustified man doth willingly relapse into an euill life, he cannot say, I hauehave not receiued; because he hath lost the grace of God, which he receiued by his owne will free to euill.
Bert. pag. 102. Prosper. Respons. 7. ad capit. Gallorum. p It is proued by many lamētable examples, That some of the regenerate in Christ Iesus forsaking faith and good manners, did fall away from God, and ended their wicked life in this their Auersion from him.
APPEALER.
ANswer to Gag. p. 166. citeth Tertullian, Praescript. c. 3. Et hoc mirum opinor? &c. As if it were a thing so strange, that any man k approued by God should afterward relapse from grace. Saul a man better than the rest was ouer-taken, & vndone at length through enuy. Dauid was a good man, & according vntounto the Lords heart, yet afterward guiltie of murther and adultery. Salomon endued with all grace and wisdome from the Lord, was by women brought ouer vntounto idolatry. For why? It was reserued vntounto the Sonne of God alone to be without sinne.
Answer to Gag, pag. 167. saith, l Cyprian is through for this point, Epist. 7. Parum est adipisci potuisse aliquid, &c. It is a small matter to obtaine any thing, it is a greater to keepe that which thou hast obtained, euen as faith it selfe, and that healthfull birth not receiued, but retained, doth quicken. Neither doth attaining, but consummation keepe a man for God &c. Salomon, and Saul, and many other, so long as they walked in the wayes of the Lord, could retaine the grace giuen them, but when the discipline or feare of the Lord departed from them, grace also departed.
Answer to Gag. pag. 168. saith thus; And in Nazianzen too, Apolog. ad Patrem, p. 37. who writeth thus of Saul, &c. m Anointed he was, & made partaker of the holy Spirit, and then at that time was spirituall, &c. yet for all that, because he suffered not himselfe to bee wholly and entirely directed by the Spirit, nor became perfectly, and sincerely another man; what need I relate the Tragicall end which he vnderunder-went?
Appeale, pag. 27. Augustine of the City of God, booke the eleuenth, chap. 12. n Licet sancti de suae perseuerantiae praemio certi funt, de ipsâ tamen perseuerantiâ suâ reperiuntur incerti, &c.
Appeale pag. 27. For the Tenet of Antiquitie I cannot be challenged. Saint Augustine, and after him Saint Prosper, affirme more than M. Montague hitherto hath done. Saint August. lib. 1. de Bon. Perseuer. cap. 6. Si autem regeneratus & iustificatus in malam vitam suâ voluntate relabitur, non potest dicere non accepi; quia acceptam Gratiam Dei suo in malum libero amisit arbitrio.
Appeale p. 27. Prosper Resp. 7. ad ca. Gallorum. p Ex Regeneratis in Christo Iesu, quosdam Relictâ Fide, & pijs moribus, APOSTATARE A DEO, & impiam vitam in suâ AVERSIONE …inire, multis (quod dolendum est) probatur exemplis.
k To the place alledged out of Tertullian, wee answer: First, The Appealer falsly translates the words of Tertullian, whose words are not (probatus (à Deo) a man approued (by God:) but simply (probatus) that is, a man approued, or well thought of; as probatus Author, an approued Author, or generally well esteemed. And that by (probatus) he meant not approued by God, his words following in the same Chapter seeme to me to make euident, his words are about seuen lines after, Tu vt homo extrinsecus vnumquem que nosti; putas quod vides, vides autem quous que oculos habes, sed oculi sunt Domini alti; Homo in faciem, Deus in praecordia contemplatur; ideo cognoscit Dominus qui sint eius. Thou as man knowest eueryevery man by the outside, thou thinkest that to be which thou seest; thou seest as farre as thou hast eyes, but the Lords eyes are high: man looketh on the face, God beholdeth the heart; therefore the Lord knoweth who are his. Secondly, the instances of Tertullian are of a different kinde. Saul and Salomon were not alike: Salomon a glorious type of Christ; Saul rather of Antichrist. Salomon is called by the holy Ghost Iedidiah, beloued of God. Saul neuer was so called: Saul therefore might fall totally, and finally; but for Salomon wee resolue with the Reuerend and excellently learned Bishop of Sarisbury in the words of Tertullian himselfe; …obert Abbot in Diatribam Tho…sand. Tertullian. de fugd.Salomon in lapsu gratiam fidei remisit, actum intermisit, habitum non amisit; motum que fuit in co spiritualis vitae robur, non amotum; concussum, non excussum: There was in Salomons fall a remission or abatement of the grace of faith, an intermission of the act, not an amission of the habit; the strength and vigour of his spirituall life was moued in him, not remoued: shaken, but not shaken out, or quite lost, Tertullian speakes of Peter, but it may be applied as well to Dauid and Salomon, who are not said here to hauehave lost grace totally, and finally, but to hauehave fallen into grieuous sinnes, the one into adultery, the other into idolatry. And, notwithstanding Dauids fall, that hee retained the Spirit of Grace in him, it is manifest out of that prayer of his in the 51. Psalme, Renoua spiritum rectum intra me, Renew a right Spirit within me, vers. 10. Spiritum sanctum ne recipias àme; Take not thy holy Spirit from me, vers. 11. Establish me with thy free Spirit, vers. 12. These prayers of that holy Prophet shew, that Dauid in his grieuous fall lost the comfort of Gods Spirit, vers. 12. and the free and quickning motions thereof: and therefore he humbly desires a renouation, and confirmation of the Spirit, but not a new donation thereof. That, which he prayes to God not to take from him, certainly he had in some degree, when he so prayed, Take not thy Spirit from me. As for Salomons recouery after his fall, we hauehave the testimonies of Gregory of Neocaesarea, Cyril of Ierusalem, Hilary, Ierome, Ambrose, Aquinas, Bonauenture, Hugo Cardinalis, Petrus Comestor, Paulus Burgensis, Carthusian, Soto, Genebrard, Serarius, Delrius, Lorinus, and many other cited to our hands by Caleb Dalichampius student in Scedan, in his booke intituled Vinditiae Salomonis. Lastly, this place of Tertullian, de praescript. cap. 3. If it had beene entirely cited by the Appealer, would hauehave vtterly ouerthrown that, for which it is cited. If those words (nemo autem Christianus, alledged by the Appealer) nisi qui ad finem perseuerauerit; That no man is a Christian, but he that perseueres to the end) wound not the Appealers Tenet; yet the words following in the end of this very Chapter cut the very throat thereof: Miramur de Ecclesijs eius si à quibusdam deseruntur, quum ea nos ostendunt Christianos, quae patimur ad exemplumipsius Christi: ex nobis, inquit, prodierunt, sed non fuerunt ex nobis; si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent vti que nobiscum. Maruell we if some forsake the Churches of Christ, whereas those those things which we suffer after the example of Christ doe manifest vsus to be Christians: They went out from vsus, but they were not of vsus: for if they had beene of vsus, they would no doubt hauehave continued with vsus, saith Saint Iohn, 1 Epist. 2. 19. In this allegation, as many other in his booke, the Appealer resembles the Cappuchin Friers; who, when they hauehave gathered great store of meat at rich mens doores, I know not out of what blinde superstition, they eat the worst, and leaue the best, and daintiest meat, and vain-gloriously put it into the Almes-box, and giuegive it to beggers at the doore.
l To the place of Saint Cyprian Epist. 7. we answer: First, that Saint Cyprian in that Epistle exhorts Rogatianus, and other Confessors, to perseuere in the profession of their holy faith, & therefore this place is brought obtorto collo, for Apostasie. His words are, immediatly before the words alledged by the Appealer and Bertius, Danda opera est, vt post haec initia, ad incrementa quoque veniatur, & consummetur in vobis, quod iam foelicibus rudimentis esse coepistis; You must vse diligence, that after these beginnings you may proceed, and that may be perfected in you which is happily begun. Secondly, we answer: Cyprian saith, that Saul and Salomon lost the grace which was giuen them, but expresseth not what grace he meant; whether gratiam gratis datam, or gratiam gratum facientem; whether the grace of illumination only, or of sanctification; whether the spirit of Prophecie, or of Gouernment, or of Regeneration. Thirdly, whether he meaneth grace of wisdome, or grace of holinesse, ordinary, or extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; hee saith not that the Spirit or grace departed from them totally or finally: and therefore this shaft is not onelyonly blunt in it selfe, but also falls very short of the marke. Lastly, Saint Cyprian, as he perseuered himselfe a constant Martyr to the end, so is he a great patron of the perseuerance of Saints. In his booke against Nouatia… of the Vnity of the Church, he sets a marke vponupon backsliders, to distinguish them from good men and true beleeuers: Nemo aestimet bonos de Ecclesiâ posse decedere, Let no man imagine that good men can (marke the word Posse) depart from the true Church: Triticum non rapit ventus, nec arborem solidâ radice fundatam procella subuertit; inanes paleae tempestate iactantur, inualidae arbores turbinis incursione euertuntur: The wind doth not blow away corne, neither doth a storme ouerturne a tree deepely and strongly rooted; it is emptie chaffe that the wind scattereth, and they are weake and rotten trees that are ouerthrowne in a storme. In this sweet straine Saint Cyprian playeth on his Master Tertullians Key; Tertullian. de praescript. c. 3.Auolent quantum volent paleae leuis fidei quocun que afflatu tentationum, eo purior mass a frumenti in horrea domini reponetur. Let the Chaffe, that is, men of light beleefe, be blowne or flie away with eueryevery puffe of temptation, by this meanes Gods floore is purged and cleansed. I maruell none of this Chaffe flew in Bertius eyes, to make him misse his way to Paris; who destitute of better arguments for Apostasie, became himselfe an example of Apostafie; but the best is, before his departure he was knowne to be no Saint. He went away from vsus, because he was not of vsus, for if he had beene of vsus, he would without doubt hauehave remained with vsus, according to the words of Saint Iohn, 1 Epist. 2. alledged by Tertullian and Saint Cyprian in both passages.
m To the place alledged out of Nazianzen, we answer: Virgil. Aenead. 4.That it is like Didoes sword wherewith shee pierced her owne bowels; Non hos quaesitum munus in vsus. If Bertius, who only tasted Nazianzens waters in a muddy streame; or the Appealer, who hath drunke deepely of them in the pure fountaine, had searched diligently thorow all the writings of that profound Diuine for a testimony against themselues, they could hardly meet with a more pregnant. Because Saul, saith this holy Father, became not purely and sincerely another man, nor gaue himselfe wholly and entirely to be directed by the Spirit, he came to a fearefull end. Hypocrites therefore, and such as are not sincerely conuerted, and truly regenerate, may fall away: not they, who wholly and entirely yeeld themselues to the guidance of Gods Spirit; not they who by an vnfained conuersion become perfectly and sincerely other men. To the former, as saith this Father, God is a light, to the latter he is a fire: the former he enlightneth only; the latter he heateth also, melteth their heart, purgeth them from all their drosse. Or, if that eloquent Father take light in the good sense, and fire in the worse, then his meaning is, that as the word of God is a sauour of life vntounto life in them that are saued, and a sauour of death vntounto death in them that perish; so God himselfe is a Comfortable light to the true children of light, but a consuming fire to Hypocrites, and Apostatates, and all such as hauehave fellowship with the vnfruitfull works of darknesse, much more those who vtterly forsake God, and consult with the Deuill, as Saul did; and others of that his desperat resolution: Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta mouebo. I will make a league with Death, and couenant with Hell.
n To the passages alledged out of Saint Augustine we answer most willingly, we desire to heare none rather than Saint Augustine speake in this Cause: Neuer had the Church of God since the Apostle Saint Paul, a more valiant and resolute Champion of Grace, than Saint Augustine. As Tully spake of the ancient Rhetoritians, Cicero de ….Potius ex arte quàm de arte scripserunt, They rather wrote out of art, than of the art: So may it be truly said of Saint Augustines workes against the Pelagians, non tam de gratiâ, quàm ex gratiâ scripsisse videtur, That he wrote rather and spake from grace, than of grace, so full of grace are his lips, and pen in this argument of Grace. I could easily point to many places in the Workes of this holy Father, especially those extant in his seuenth Tome, …Vbi nō seclusa aliqua aquula, sed vniuersum flumen erumpit, Where there runnes not a small riuelet, but a maine streame of this water of the grace of perseuerance springing to euerlasting life. Verily Saint Augustine so professedly and strongly opposeth both the Pelagian, Demi-pelagian, and now Arminian errors, that as Pelagius himselfe in a Synod at Ierusalem being pressed with Saint Augustines Reasons and Authorities, Or…sius in Apolog. … Pelagius contempt… de Augustino esset loqu…ru…s. Cor…inus … Tilen…. Bertius praefat. ad Lactor…m.which he was not able to answer, sought to vilifie and slighten his Person. So Arnoldus Coru. & Bertius rather goe about to discredit, than satisfie the Authoritie of this Prime Father Non est standū hâc in parte Authoritati Augustini, We are not to stand to y• Authority of Austin in this point, saith Arnoldꝰ. Quid quod Augustinꝰ ipse alijs per Africā Ecclesijs viuꝰ videns que sententiā suam nō probauit? Quid quod ipse à se dissentit Augustinꝰ, vt Augustinū citanti nihil sit promptius quàm Augustinū ipsum opponere? Austin, saith Bertius, by his life time made not good his opinion to the Churches of Africa: He dissents frō himselfe, in so much y• nothing is more easie than to oppose Augustine to Augustine. This lesson they both learned frō Arminius their Master, as Coruinus, mali corui malum ouum, D…fens. Se… tent. Armi…ij de Pr…dest.acknowledgeth, pag. 205. Puto Arminium non illibenter tibi concessurum fuisse, hâc in parte Augustinum vobiscum facere; ita tamen vt varium eum esse dixisset, & inconstantem in sententiâ suâ enuntiandâ. Cicer. in ….But Plato, Instar millium; Saint Augustine is more worth than a thousand, nay all the Arminians: whose Workes, as they hauehave already deuoured all the workes of the Pelagians and Semi-pelagians, so I hope will in time deuoure also all the Arminians workes, as Aarons Rod did the Magicians. Durum telum necessitas, ignoscite; Meere necessitie droue Arminius and his Schollers to this desperate answer. Authologia Epigram.The Fox in the Greeke Epigrammatist, when hee could not reach the grapes, at which his mouth watered, comforted himselfe, saying, foreign, It is no great matter though I cannot reach them, these grapes are but sowre fruit. As sowre as they are, Bertius and the Appealer snatch at one, or two; namely, the two passages before alledged by them. August. de …. Dei lib. 11. cap. 12. D… Corrept. & Grat. c. 5.To the first we answer, It toucheth not the state of the present question; The state of Saints in Grace may be sure enough, yet they not alwaies assured of it. There is a certitude of the subiect, and a certitude of the obiect, that which now is in debate, is not the certitude of the subiect, whether the Regenerate are assured in themselues of their Perseuerance; but the certitude of the obiect, whether their perseuerance in it selfe be certaine. This distinction is acknowledged generally by those Interpreters who comment on that of Saint Peter, … 1. 10.Make your election sure: that is, say they, to your selues, and your own hearts, not in it selfe, nor in respect of God, For the foundation of God standeth sure, 2 Tim. 2. 19.hauing this Seale, The Lord knoweth who are his: neither can any thing done by man adde strength to Gods decree. But because our assurance of Election, and the state of Adoption, and Grace, and perseuerance in the same, is partly from the testimony of the Spirit within vsus, and partly from the effects of Grace, to wit, the fruits of righteousnesse; and because when we grieue the Spirit of God, hee withdraweth his Spirit for a time, and thereby both the testimony of the Spirit is silent for the time, & the effects of Grace cease; Saint Augustine humbly and truly professeth, that the Saints, albeit they are certaine of the reward of their perseuerance, yet are found vncertaine of their perseuerance it selfe; Quis cum hominum se in actione, profectu que iustitiae vsus que in finem perseueraturum sciet? They are certaine, certitudine fidei, by the assurance of faith, but not certaine, certitudine scientiae, & experientiae, by the certainty of knowledge and experience, as Bucer acutely distinguisheth: Bucer. lib. Concord.they are certaine of perseuerance in it selfe; yet they are found, that is, you may finde them in that state by reason of some fearfull temptation, not certaine in themselues; nay sometimes they in themselues receiue the sentence of death, to humble them, and make them pray with sighes and groanes which cannot be expressed, Restore vntounto me the ioy of saluation, and vphold me with thy free Spirit, Psal. 51. 12. Lastly, there is a double perseuerance:
1. A perseuerance in a course of sanctity vntounto the end, without any interruption or stop, when a childe of God goeth still forward, and neuer is cast backe, but continueth, as Saint Augustine speaketh, In actione profectu que iustitiae; Still in the action and progresse of righteousnesse: and of such perseuerance the Saints are not certaine in this life.
2. A perseuerance vntounto the end, yet not without some interruption and going back also for a time, but without any totall or finall back-sliding; and of such perseuerance a Saint of God may and ought to be assured.
o To the place alledged by Bertius out of the fifth Chapter of Saint Augustine de Corrept. & Gratia, and by the Appealer out of Saint Augustine de bono Perseuerant. cap. 6. we answer: That the words are not found in the places quoted. Yet Saint Augustine in other places hath such words: But his meaning is very plaine; He speakes of a temporary faith and common grace, Aug. de Corrept. & Grat. cap. ….not a iustifying faith, and sauing grace. His owne words are, Let it not moue vsus that God giueth not some of his children perseuerance; Absit enim vt ita esset, si de illi… praedestinatis essent, & secundùm propositum vocatis, qui verè sunt filij promissionis; God forbid that it should be so, if they were of the Predestinate, and those which are called according to purpose, which truly are the children of promise. And a little after, Rursus quidam, qui filij Dei propter susceptam vel temporaliter gratiam dicuntur à nobis, nec sunt tamen Deo; de quibus ait Iohannes, ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; hoc est, & quando videbantur in nobis, non erant ex nobis, & tanquam …i diceretur vnde id ostendis, quòd si fuissent inquit ex nobis, permansissent nobiscum. Againe some, who are called by vsus the sonnes of God, in respect of the temporall grace they hauehave receiued, are not so vntounto God: of whom Saint Iohn saith, They went out from vsus, but were not of vsus; that is, and when they were seene amongst vsus, they were not of vsus. And as if it were obiected to him, Whence doest thou shew that? For if they had beene, saith he, of vsus, they would hauehave remained with vsus. In the same booke, De Corrept. & Gratiâ, Horum fides, quae per dilectionem operatur, profecto aut omnino non deficit, aut si qui sunt quorum deficit, reparatur antequam vita ista finiatur; & delet â quae intercurrerat iniquitate vsus que in finem perseuer antia deputatur. Qui verò perseueraturi non sunt, ac sic à fide Christianâ & conuersatione lapsuri sunt, vt tales eos vitae huius finis inueniat proculdubio nec illo tempore quo benè pie que viuunt in isto numero computandi sunt. The faith of these men which worketh by louelove verily either faileth not at all, or if it faile in any, it is repaired againe before this life ends; and the wickednesse which comes betweene being blotted out, it is reputed for perseuerance to the end. But those who perseuere not, but so fall from Christian faith and conuersation, that the end of this life findes them such, without doubt they were not to be accounted in that number, no not then, when they liued well and godly. And Chapter 9. Qui non habuerunt perseuerantiam, sicut non verè discipuli Christi, ita nec verè filij Dei fuerunt, etiam quando esse videbantur, & ita vocabantur: Those who had not perseuerance, as they were not truly disciples of Christ, so neither were they truly the sonnes of God, no not when they seemed to be so, and called so. In producing testimonies of Saint Augustine, Inopem me copia facit, Store is a sore vntounto me; I will content my selfe onelyonly with such passages as offer themselues vntounto me in that very booke and chapter cited by the Appealer for the contrary. August. de bono Perseuerant. cap. ….Thus the Chapter begins, These brethren, as you write, (He speaketh of the Demipelagians, and Massilians, against whom Prosper and Hilary had made a remonstrance vntounto him) will not yeeld that such perseuerance should be taught, which cannot be lost by contumacie; where they doe not well obserue what they say; for we speake of perseuerance to the end; which if it be giuen, the partie to whom it is giuen perseueres to the end. Multi eam possunt habere, nullus amittere: hoc Dei donum suppliciter emereri potest, sed cum datum fuerit amitti contumaciter non potest. Quomodo enim potest amitti, per quod fit, vt non amittatur etiam quod posset amitti? Many may hauehave perseuerance, none can lose it; this gift of God may be gained by humble prayer, but once giuen cannot be lost by contumacy. For how can that be lost, which makes, that what otherwise might be lost cannot be lost? I pitie here the Appealers ill hap, who like the Miser in the Greeke Epigram, that going to the place where hee thought he laid vp his treasure safe, found there no treasure, but a rope wherewith he stopt his wind-pipe.
p To the place alledged out of Prosper, Respons. 7. ad Capit. Gallorum, we answer: First, that Saint Prosper, Saint Augustines faithfull Scholler and great admirer, in the passage alledged concurreth with him. Both of them in words seeme to affirme, August. de Corrept. & Grat. c. ….That a regenerate and iustified man may fall by his free-will into foule and enormous sinnes, and die in them: but lest any should stumble at this sentence vnawares, Saint Augustine in the ninth chapter of the same booke giues them warning, and most plainly declares his meaning: Appellamus eos electos Christi discipulos & Dei filios, quia sic appellandi sunt, quos regeneratos piè viuere cernimus; sed tunc verè sunt quod appellantur, si manserint in eo propter quod sic appellantur. Si autem perseuerantiam non habent, id est, in eo quod caeperunt esse non manent, non verè appellantur, quod appellantur, & non sunt: apud eum enim hoc non sunt, cui notum est quod futuri sunt. We call all those chosen disciples of Christ, and sonnes of God, because those whom we see liue godly, and are regenerate, are to be so called; but then are they truly that which they are called, if they remaine in that, for which they are so called. But if they hauehave not perseuerance, that is, if they remaine not in that which they began to be, they are not truly called that which they are called, and are not; for they are not so to him, who knoweth what they will be. Secondly, Saint Prosper, with Saint Hilary, made a ioynt relation to Saint Augustine of the Demipelagian and Massilian errors, and desired Saint Augustines assistance against them. Of these one was, (as their Epistles to Saint Augustine make it manifest.) Nulli dari perseuerantiam talem à quâ non permittitur praeuaricari, sed à quâ possit suâ voluntate deficere, There is no such perseuerance giuen to any man, from which he is not suffered to reuolt; but such from which a man may by his free-will fall away. Against which I oppose that sentence of Saint Augustine, as a fortresse impregnable: Aug. de Corrept. & Grat. cap. ….An audebis dicere, etiam rogante Christo ne deficeret fides Petri, defecturam fuisse, si Petrus eam deficere voluisset? quasi aliud Petrus vllo modo vellet, quàm pro illo Christus rogasset, vt vellet. Nam quis ignorat tunc fuisse perituram fidem Petri, si ea quae fidelis erat voluntas ipsa deficeret, sed quia praeparatur voluntas à Domino, ideo pro illo Christi non possit esse inanis oratio. Quando rogauit ergone fides eius deficeret, quid aliud rogauit nisi vt haberet in fide liberrimam, fortissimam, inuictissimam, perseuerantissimam voluntatem? Ecce quemadmodum secundum gratiam Dei, non contra eam libertas defenditur voluntatis: voluntas quippe humana non libertate consequitur gratiam, sed gratia potius libertatem, & vt perseueret delectabilem perpetuitatem, & insuperabilem fortitudinem. When Christ prayed for the faith of Peter that it might not faile, what other thing did he aske, but that he might hauehave a most free, a most resolute, a most vnconquerable, a most perseuering will in the faith? Behold how the freedome of the will is defended by vsus according to Gods grace not against it: for the will of man doth not by her freedome obtaine grace, but by grace freedome, and a delightfull perpetuitie, and inuincible power to perseuere.