The Proof of the Second Argument

The proposition is certain: because, as long as any man has his conscience to accuse him of sin before God, he is in a state of damnation, as Saint John says: If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. And this is peculiar and proper to the elect children of God, to receive these gifts and graces from God, the enjoying of which brings peace of conscience. True it is indeed, that reprobates receive many graces and gifts at God's hand, but they are no other than such as may be joined with the trembling of the conscience, as the devil is said to believe, but withal to tremble.

The Assumption (namely, that the religion of the Church of Rome cannot pacify the conscience) may be easily proved in this way.

A man whose conscience must be truly quieted, must first of all be truly humbled. Come to me (says our Savior Christ) all you who are wearied and burdened, and I will ease you (Matthew 11:28). Whereby it appears, that they who are to have their consciences refreshed in Christ, must first of all be afflicted with the sense of God's judgment: indeed they must be pressed down toward hell with the weight and burden of their sins, that they may see it, and from their hearts confess it, that in themselves there is no way to escape damnation. The good Physician, Christ Jesus, cannot heal us before he has lanced our wounds to the very bottom: he can never find any of his sheep before they be quite lost: he never pours into us the living waters of his spirit, before we be barren and dry ground void of all moisture: and that man must condemn himself, that would not have Christ to pronounce sentence of damnation against him.

Now this true humiliation of a sinner cannot be wrought in any man's heart by the religion of the Church of Rome. True and sound humiliation is wrought by two means: first by making a man to see the greatness of his sin and wickedness: secondly, by making him to acknowledge, that he is destitute, and quite bereft of all goodness. For if a man either sees not the greatness of his sin, or has confidence of any thing in himself, he cannot be humbled: but neither of these two things are performed in the Church of Rome. As touching the first, the Roman religion is so far from amplifying and enlarging the greatness of men's sins that it does extenuate them, and lessen them out of measure, for it makes some sins to be venial when as the least sin that can be against God's law, deserves damnation, it teaches that lesser sins are done away by a humble accusation of a man's self, by saying the Lord's prayer, by knocking upon the breast, and by such like: that greater sins may be done away by alms deeds, and such like satisfactions. But how can any sin be great, that may be done away with such easy and slight means. Furthermore it teaches, that evil thoughts and desires, and motions of the heart without consent are no sins: and this opinion cuts off all true humiliation: for Paul never repented, before he understood the meaning of the last commandment, and perceived thereby, that the desires and lusts of his heart, to which he did not yield his consent, were sins damnable before God, and knowing this, he then saw himself to be most miserable, and renouncing his own righteousness, he sought for righteousness in Christ. Lastly it teaches, that original sin is done away in Baptism, and that it is the least sin of all other. What is this but to extenuate man's corruption, for when the root of corruption is taken away, and it is made so little a sin, actual sins cannot be taken for such heinous matters.

And for the second point, the Church of Rome does far too much extol the power of man, and his natural strength. It says, that all actions of men unregenerate are not sins, and that original sin needs no repentance, that a man has some free will to do spiritual things, that a man by mere nature may love God above all things, fear God, believe in Christ, if we respect the very act of the work, that the Gentiles might gather out of Philosophy knowledge sufficient for salvation, that a man without the help of the Holy Ghost may perform things acceptable to God, that the mind of man understands of itself many things which are spiritual and heavenly, that a man regenerate may fulfill the whole law of God: that a man may prepare himself to receive grace, and to merit grace at God's hands: that he may do works of Supererogation, etc. By this it appears that the church of Rome ascribes too much to the nature of man, which is only and altogether evil, dead in sin, chained up in miserable bondage under Satan the prince of darkness: and therefore it is evident, that all the preaching that is used in that Church will not humble a sinner, and make him deny himself, and therefore their preaching may perhaps benumb a corrupt conscience and make it secure, but it cannot pacify the troubled conscience, nor disquiet it by the threatenings of the law, that by the promises of the Gospel it may be quieted.

Again this religion teaches, that a man must doubt of his salvation as long as he is in this life: behold a rack or gibbet erected by the church of Rome, for the tormenting of tender consciences, for when a man doubts of his salvation, he also doubts of God's love and mercy to him: and he who doubts of God's love, cannot love God again: for how can any man love him of whose good will he doubts: and when a man has not the love of God in him, he has no grace in him, and therefore his conscience must needs be defiled, and void of true peace, indeed, he must needs be a wicked man, and that saying of Solomon must needs agree to him: The wicked flees when no man pursues (by reason of the guiltiness of his conscience) but the godly is bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1).

Again, Blessed is the man (says David) whose sins are pardoned: where he makes remission of sins to be true felicity. Now there is no true felicity but that which is enjoyed, and felicity cannot be enjoyed unless it is felt, and it cannot be felt unless a man know himself to be in possession of it, and a man cannot know himself to be in possession of it if he doubts whether he has it or not. Therefore this doubting of the remission of sins is contrary to true felicity, and is nothing else but a torment of the conscience. For a man cannot doubt whether his sins be pardoned or not, but right away — if his conscience is not seared with a hot iron — the very thought of his sin will strike a great fear into him: for the fear of eternal death, and the horror of God's judgments will come to his remembrance, the consideration of which is most terrible. Undoubtedly, this religion must needs be comfortless. Alas, poor men as we are, we are no better than passengers in this world, our way is in the middle of the sea, where we can have no sure footing at all, and which way soever we cast our eyes, we see nothing but water, even opening itself to devour us alive. The Devil and our rebellious flesh raise up against us infinite thousands of tempests and storms to overthrow us. But behold, God of his great and endless mercy has brought us to Christ, as to a sure anchor hold: he bids us to undo our cables, and fling up our anchors within the veil, and fasten them in Christ. We do it as we are commanded, but a sister of ours — I mean the Church of Rome — passing in the ship with us (as it seems) who has long taken upon her to rule the helm, deals too too unkindly with us: she unlooses our anchors, and cuts in pieces our cables. She tells us that we may not presume to fasten our anchor on the rock: she will have us freely to rove in the middle of the sea in the greatest fogs, and the most fearful tempests that be. If we shall follow her advice, we must needs look for a shipwreck, for the least flaw of wind shall overturn us, and our poor souls shall be plunged in the gulfs of hell.

Lastly, justification by works causes trouble and disquietness to the conscience. No man's conscience can be appeased before God's wrath is appeased, and God's wrath cannot be appeased by any works: for the best works the regenerate can do are imperfect, and are stained with some blemish of corruption, as may appear both in the prophet Isaiah, and in Paul, both of whom had a great disliking of that good which they did, because it was mingled with sin. And again, every man is bound by duty to keep the whole law, so that if a man could keep it perfectly, he should do no more than that which he is by duty enjoined to do. Therefore he who looks to merit eternal life at God's hand by keeping the law trusts but to a broken staff, and is like the bankrupt who will pay one debt by another: for by his sin, every man is indebted to the Lord, and is bound to answer to the Lord the full punishment of all his sins. This debt, the Papist says we may discharge by obedience to the law — that is, by a new debt — which we are as well bound to pay to our God as the former.

To end this point, let a man look to be saved by works, and therefore let a man employ himself to do the best works he can, yet he shall never come to know when he has done sufficient to satisfy God's wrath. And this uncertainty, all his life — but especially in the hour of death — must needs disquiet him. And truly, when a man shall have done many thousand works, yet his heart can never be at quiet, as it appears in the young man, who though he had labored all his life to fulfill the law, thereby to be saved, yet distrusting all his doings, he asks further of our Savior Christ what he might do to be saved.

Furthermore, it is the doctrine of the Church of Rome that there is nothing in the regenerate that God can hate: and that they are inwardly pure, and without spot. A doctrine that will make any Christian conscience despair: for if a man shall fall to examine himself, he shall find that he is sold under sin, compassed about by sin, and he shall see his particular sins to be as the hairs of his head. At the sight and feeling of which, he shall find that there is much matter in him worthy of hatred and damnation too. He being in this case will begin to doubt whether he is the child of God or not, and persevering in this doubting, he shall be driven to despair of God's love towards him, considering that he cannot find any such purity in himself as the doctrine of the Church of Rome requires. Lastly, experience itself teaches that the Romish religion can bring no peace to the conscience: in that some, for the maintaining of it, have despaired. As Frances Spira, who against his own conscience having abjured the truth and subscribed to the doctrine of the Romish Church, most fearfully despaired of his salvation. Which could not have been if that doctrine had been agreeable to God's word, which is spirit and life to the receiver. For the same cause, Latomus, a doctor of Louvain, despaired, crying that he was damned because he had opposed himself to the known truth. This also befell Gardiner at his death, as the book of Acts and Monuments declares.