A Treatise of Justification, Title page – Preface
A TREATISE OF IVSTIFICATION.
BY GEORGE DOVVNAME, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY and Bishop of Dery.
IEREMIAH 23. 5, 6. I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and this is his name wherby he shall be called, Iehovah our righteousnesse.
2 CORINTH. 5. 21. Him that knew no sinne God made sinne for us that we might become the righteousnesse of God in him.
LONDON, Printed by Felix Kyngston for Nicolas Bourne, and are to be sold at his shop, at the South Entrance of the Royall Exchange. 1633.
REVERENDISSIMO IN CHRISTO PATRI AC DOMINO, D. GEORGIO ABBATO ARCHIEPISCOPO Cantuariensi dignissimo, totius Angliae Primati ac Metropolitae amplissimo
GEORGIVS DOVNAMVS EPISCOPVS DERENSIS HOC QVICQVID EST VOLVMINIS DE JVSTIFICATIONE Peccatoris, ceu grati Animi foreign summae que observantiae & amoris foreign dicat consecratque.
A Preface concerning the Apostasie of the now Church of Rome.
THis ensuing Treatise, as it cleareth the Doctrine of the Gospell in that high point concerning our title to the Kingdome of Heaven: so it helpeth to discover the Apostasie of the now Church of Rome from the faith. For though the Papists doe vaunt that their Church, meaning especially the See of Rome, is so farre from falling away from the faith, that it cannot fall into errours in matters of faith: yet they cannot deny, but that in the latter times,aIn novissimis …emporib. i. reg…ance Antichrist. Ansel…. in 1 Tim. 4. 1. Vid. Diatrib. de Anti…h. & part. 1. l. 3. c. 1. §. 3. and namely in the time of Antichrist, there should be a great defection from the faith, and as it were a Catholike Apostasie, whereof Antichrist was to bee the head. Of this Apostasie the holy Ghost hath prophesied in divers places of the Scriptures, as, 1 Tim. 4. 1. 2 Thess. 2. 3. Mat. 24. 24. Apoc. 13. 12, 14, 15, 16. And hath also set downe the notes and markes whereby they may bee knowne who make this Apostasie from the faith:
As 1.c1 Tim. 4. 1. 3. to forbid marriage,
2 To command abstinence from meates, both of them for religion and conscience sake.
3 Idolatry, for that is by spirituall fornication to fall from God. Psal. 73. 27. Hos. 1. 2. 9. 1. which by the Septuagint is thus expressed, Hos. 4. 12. foreign.
4. Ostentation of miracles, the proper badge of the Antichristian Apostasie in these latter times, 2 Thess. 2. 9. Mar. 24. 24. Apoc. 13. 14.
All which notes I have proved in my Latine Treatise of Antichrist, properly to agree to the now Church of Rome, the forbidding of marriage, and commanding abstinence from meates, part. 1. lib. 3. cap. 2. & 3. Idolatry, ibid. cap. 3. §. 5. Miracles, lib. 6. cap. 1. §. 5. whereby it is evident, that the new Church of Rome, hath made this Apostasie. Now let us consider, in what respects the Church of Rome is revolted from the faith. By faith in this question we understand, not the habit or grace of faith, but the Doctrine of faith, Non id quo creditur, dThis distinction is propounded by S. Augustine, de Trinit. lib. 13. c. 2. and by the master of the sentences. Sent. 3. dist. 23.not that by which we beleeve, sed illud quod creditur, bu… that which we doe beleeve. In which sense the word faith is often used both in the Scriptures, and also in the monuments of Ecclesiasticall writers. Now the Doctrine of faith is either generall or speciall. The generall are the whole canonicall Scriptures, or the written Word of God in generall, which is objectum fidei adaequatum, the even object, the rule and foundation of faith: so that whatsoever doctrine is contained in the Scriptures either expressely, or by necessary consequence, is to bee received as a doctrine of faith, and whatsoever is not so contained in the Scriptures, is not dogma fidei.
From the holy Scriptures, which God hath propounded to be the only rule of faith, they are revolted unto the doctrines & devices of men, by changing the rule of faith; which they have done divers wayes. For first, whereas the rule, the foundation, and chiefe principle of faith whereinto it is last resolved, is the authority of God speaking in the holy Scriptures; they have set up another rule, which is the authority of the Romane Church, and therein of the Pope; which they make the superioureVid. Diatrib. de Antichristo. lib. 4. c. 6. & 7. rule, from which the authority of the Scriptures themselves dependeth, and into which their faith is last resolved. For the Pope is, as they say, virtually the Church, and what they say in this kinde to magnifie the authority of the Church, is specially to bee under stood of the Pope, who onelyonly for sooth hath an infallible judgement, and not subject to errour, for, if you will beleeve them, a generall or oecumenicall Councell without the Pope may erre, but the Pope alone without a Councell cannot erre: yea, the authority of the Pope and Councell together, is no greater than the authority of the Pope alone, from whom all Councels have their authority, for ab arbi… pontificis tota gIdem l. 3. 6. 49.conciliorum authoritas pendet, quae tantam habent, quantam Papa indulget, and thus Bellarmine hDe …ont. Rom. lib. 4. cap. 3.denieth this assertion, aliquid majus est concilium cum pontifice, quam pontifex solus. If therefore the authoritie of the Church be greater than that of the Scriptures, as they teach, and if the authority of the Pope be absolutely above the Church universall, asiBellar. de Concil. li. 2. c. 17. Conc. Trid. sess 4. Pari pietatis affectu & reverentia suscipiunt ei venerantur. they also teach: then much more is the authoritie of the Pope above the Scriptures. Now whosoever taketh upon him authority above the Scriptures, which are the undoubted Word of God, hee is undoubtedly Antichrist; whose judgement to make (as the Papists plainely doe) the chiefe principle of faith, into which their faith is last resolved, is no better th…n to revoli from Christ to Antichrist.
Secondly, they change the rule of faith, by making their traditions, that is, such doctrines and observations as are taught and observed in the Church of Rome, having no ground nor warrant in the holy Scriptures, to bee the Word of God, the word unwritten, and a rule of faith: which also they doe not on…ly match with the holy Scriptures, but even in many respects preferre beforekCesteri Enchirid. cap. 1. Hutus praestantia multis par tib. …peral Scripturas. them, and acknowledge them to bee the morelCesler▪ ibid. entire and perfect rule of faith.
Thirdly, they have changed the rule of faith, by making those bookes canonicall, which all antiquity almost, yea, and all succeeding ages untill the Councell of Trent; following therein the judgement of Hierome, did hold Apochryphall, or at the most but Eeclesiasticall; which might bee read in the Church for morall instruction, but not as rules of faith.
Fourthly, they change the rule of faith, when in stead of the originall Text of the old and new Testaments, which were penned by the Prophets and Apostles themselves, they make a corrupt, and that sometimes a barbarous translation of I know not whom, to be the authentike text, and the rule of faith; preferring the vulgar Latine translation before the originall text, which the penmen of the holy Ghost did write.
Fifthly, they change the rule of faith, when in stead o… the true sense and m…aning of the holy Scriptures expounded by the Scriptures according to the analog…e of faith, they obtrude the sense given by the Church of Rome, and therein by the Pope, who is, as they say, the supreme and onelyonly authenticall interpreter of the Word, from whom it is not lawfull to dissent: So that in his sense any portion of the Scriptures, though obscure, must bee acknowledged the word of God; but urged in any other sense, it is the wordmHosius de expresso Dei verbo. of the Devill rather than the Word of God. Now it is the sense of the Scriptures, which is the Word of God rather than the letter, the sense being the soule and life of the letter. Non enim in legendo Scripturae, sed in intelligendo consistunt, saith Hierome, nContr. Luciferian. & in Gal. 1. ne que enim in Scripturarum verbis, Evangelium est, sed in sensuThe words, saith Bellarmine, oDe verbo non scripto. l. 4. c. 4.are as the sheath, the sense is the sword of the Spirit.
Thus hath the Church of Rome revolted from the generall doctrine of faith, which is the written word of God, or the holy Canonicall Scriptures.
The speciall doctrines of faith are the severall articles taught in the Scriptures; which are the speciall objects of faith, either quae justificat onelyonly, or qua justificat. The justifying faith belee…h all the articles and doctrines of faith which are taught in the Word of God, but the peculiar object of faith, quatenus justificat, is the doctrine of the Gospell.
As touching the speciall doctrines of Christian faith, there are divers bundreds of errors wherein the Church of Rome hath revolted from the faith, not at once, but at dive…s times and by degrees. The number whereof is so great, as that Popery, or the Catholicisme of Papi…ts may justly bee called the Catholike Apostasie.
But from the peculiar doctrine of faith, quatenus justificat, which is the doctrine of the Gospell concerning justification by faith in Christ alone, the Church of Rome chiefly erreth, as I have shewed in this Treatise; and by their Antichristian doctrine in this point they are revolted from the Gospell, which is*Rom. 10. 8. Verbum fidei, the Word or Doctrine of faith, they are fallen from the comfortable doctrine of this grace, and to them Christ is made of none effect, as I havepSee lib. 7. c. 3. §. 9, 10, 11, 12. proved.
This assertion concerning the Apost…sie of the now Church of Rome, I …ppose as an antidote against the poison of their impudently depraved article concerning the Catholike Church, wherein there is a double imposture or poyso…, both in respect of the object, and also of the act of faith; which two in every article of the Creed are to be considered. For first, in respect of the object, whereas the Apostles Creed hath The holy Catholike Church, they understand the Catholike RomaneqSee the learned work called the Grand imposture. Church, the mother, for so…th, and mistresse of all Churches; which they call …atholike, not as it is one particular Church, as every Orthodox Church was wont to bee called, as the Catholike Church ofrApud Euseb. lib. 4▪ cap. 15. Smyrna, &c. but as it comprehendeth all particular Churches which live in Communion with, and in subjection to the See of Rome, all which are, as they say, but one Church, because they are subject to one visible head the Pope of Rome. And they adde that out of this communion with the See of Rome, and without this subjection to the Pope of Rome, as the universall Bishop, there is no salvation. With this one n…t they co…y-catch those seduced soules, which either they draw to their side, or detaine in Communion with them. Howheit, it is a most shamelesse imposture.
For first, can it bee imagined, that the Apostles by Catholike understood the Romane Church, which, when they composed the Creede, was not extant, nor for divers yeeres after. No doubt the Apostles meant that Church which then had a being, and whereof themselves were members, which also had been from the beginning of the world, and was to continue for ever, viz. the universall company of the Elect: and that is the meaning of the word Catholike.
Secondly for the first sixe hundred yeares the Bishop of Rome did not challenge unto hims…lse the Title or authority of universall Bishop, but was onelyonly the Archbishop or Patriarch of Rome, unto whom the foure other Patriarches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Ierusalem, were no more subject, than hee to them, every one of them having the primacy within their severall Patriarchicall jurisdictions. And although after the grant of the Tyrant Phocas in the yeare sixe hundred seven, the Pope challenged for himselfe to be the universall Bishop, and for his See to be the head of all Churches: yet by the Greeke, and other Churches, which were, and are the better and greater part of Christendome, this claime never was, nor is at this day acknowledged. All which Churches notwithstanding wherein were innumerable Saints and Martyrs, and the most holy Fathe…s of the Church, by this Romish article are most wic…edly and schi…matically excluded from Salvation, because they acknowledged no subjection to the See of Rome. But if the now Church of Rome be the Apostaticall Church, having revolted from the ancient Religion of Christians by their id…latry, will-worship, and supers…ition, and from the Ancien… faith of Christians contained generally in the holy Canonicall Scriptures, and more particularly in the Gospell, as by other almost innumerable errours of Popery, so more especially by those which I confute in this booke: and if the head of this Catholike Apostasie, that is to say, the Pope, be Antichrist; then let all Christians, who have any care of their soules, consider, whether it bee safe for them to live in the Communion of that Sect, and in subjection to that See, where they must have the apostaticall Church, even the whore of Babylon to be their mother, from whom they are commanded to separate, Apoc. 18. 4. and the Antichrist to be their father, their head, their universall Bishop, who prevaileth in them onelyonly that perish, 2 Thes. 2. 10.
2. As touching the act of faith, their coozenage in respect thereof is worse, if worse may be. For where the Apostles Creed hath Credo sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam, they understand this article, as if the words were not, Credo Ecclesiam, I beleeve that there is a Catholike Church, and that there is a Communion of Saints the members of that Church, &c, but credo Ecclesiae, or in Ecclesiam, I give credit to the Church, or I beleeve in the Church, making the Church (whereby they understand the now Church of Rome) not onelyonly the materiall, but also formall object of faith, in which they beleeve, and for which they beleeve whatsoever it beleeveth, or propoundeth to be beleeved. And in this exposition they are growne so impudent, as that they say,sGerdon. contrv. 1. c. 27. that the Church Catholike, (meaning the now Romane Church) is the very principle of our faith for which we are to beleeve the holy Scriptures, and all other articles; that it is the chiefe pri…ciple, wheron the authority of the Scriptures dependeth, and the last principle into which their faith is to bee resolved: thattIbid. in this article is summarily contained the whole Word of God, not onelyonly written, but also unwritten: that Christ propounded unto us the whole Word of God, when he commanded us to heare the Church, Mat. 18. 17. Luk. 10. 16. and (which surpasseth all impudencie) that the FathersuIbid. …. 3. sometimes in this sence do say, that all the doctrines of faith are contained in the holy Scriptures, to wit, as in a generall principle, quatenus illae monent credendum esse Ecclesiae, in that they admonish that the Church is to be b…leeved in all things. And further that the implicite faith, which is implied in this one article, I beleeve the Romane Church, and wh…tsoever that Church beleeveth, or propoundeth to be beleeved, is the most*Hosius de authorit. Scripturae. lib. 3. entire faith and most safe, not onelyonly for the lay people, though they know or beleeve no more, but also for the learned. For whom it is not so safe, when Satan contendeth with them, to defend their faith by the Scriptures, as to professe onelyonly that they beleeve as the Church beleeveth.
But indeed this implicite faith, whereby men doe beleeve or professe themselves to beleeve as the Church of Rome, and therein the Pope beleeveth or propoundeth to be beleev…d acknowledging him to be the principle, yea the chiefe, and last principle into which there is ultima resolutio fidei, upon which the authority of the Scriptures dependeth, is to take upon them the very marke of the beast,xVid. Diatrib. de Antichristo. part. 1. lib. 6. c. 4. §. 9. and to revolt from Christ to Antichrist: which is the miserable condition of all resolute Papists. For Antichrist prevaileth in them only that perish, whose names are not written in the booke of life. See Mat. 24. 24. 2 Thess. 2. 10. Apoc. 14. 9, 10, 11. and 17. 8.
Let not therefore the popish priests and Iesuits, the Emissaries of Antichrist, like egregious imposters terrifie any longer the people with these bug-beares, that there is no salvation but in the communion with the Church of Rome, and in subjection under the Pope; untill they have proved, which they will never be able to doe, that their Church is not Apostaticall, and that their Pope, who is the head of the Catholike Apostasie, is not, as about twelve yeeres ago… I proved him to be, Antichrist. To conclude, let the popish Rabbins either vindicate their Church from Apostasie, and their Pope from Antichristianisme, or else for ever hereafter hold their peace.