AN EXCELLENT TREATISE OF CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS, WRITTEN FIRST in the French tongue by M. I de l'Espine, and translated into English by I Field for the comfort of afflicted consciences, very necessary and profitable to be read of all Christians, as well for establishing them in the true doctrine of justification, as also for enabling them to confute the false doctrine of all Papists and Heretics.  
ANCHORA SPEI   printer's or publisher's device 
Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautrollier dwelling in the Blackfriers. 1577.   

To the Reader.  
Lo here the joy of Christians all,  
laid up within this book:  
To teach the way that leads to life,  
whereon each man may look.  
It is not we, but it is he,  
that freely giveth life:  
That none but he, may praised be  
without gainsay or strife.   

TO THE VIRTUOUS AND MY VERY DEAR FRIEND THE LADY ELIzabeth Terwhitte I F. wisheth increase of godliness, and constancy in the true religion of Christ to the end and in the end.  
RIght worshipful, & my very good Lady, after I had perused this little treatise of Christian righteousness, as it was first written in the French tongue, I took great comfort in it & thought it to be very necessary, to be turned into English for the benefit of Christ's poor Church. I therefore as occasion served at convenient times, performed that I purposed, wherein I have studied to be as simple and plain (because of the unlearned) as possibly the matter & phrase of that tongue would suffer me. I am not ignorant what an hard thing it is to translate well, and contrariwise, how easy a thing it is for every carping Momus, or ignorant zoilus to find fault: but herein I shall as God shall assist me, arm myself with patience to bear whatsoever hath been, is, or shallbe laid upon me. This only shall comfort me, that I walk not before men, but before God: in whose presence I protest, that according to the simple knowledge he hath given me, I have dealt simply and sincerely. Of all vanities I esteem it the greatest, to hang upon the blasts of men's mouths. They that are that ways carried highest, and have not the testimony of good consciences, neither seek to approve themselves to God, to whom they must stand or fall, they shall find no comfort in it, in the day of death. It little availeth a man to be justified of the whole world, and to be condemned before God. Therefore God give us grace to walk as in his presence, that whatsoever we take in hand, it may be consecrated to him, & have an excellent blessing upon it. I have dedicated my labours herein, to your good Ladyship for sundry causes, though I deny not, but my meaning is to make them common to the church of God: first that they may be a testimony to all posterity of your forwardness, fidelity & sincerity in the religion of Christ jesus: Then, of my bounden duty and good will towards you. And I most humbly beseech you in the eyes and sight of the whole world, that you constantly and inviolably hold and keep that blessed hope of your best inheritance. And as God in mercy hath drawn you out of the sink and mire of Popery, and of the false worship of God (whereto, as to all other vices we are most apt by nature) to the true religion of Christ, so go forward, and most humbly and continually thank him for it. Acknowledge it the greatest benefit that ever in mercy he could have bestowed upon you. Beware of the world, that maketh lest account of this most excellent, and weighty thing. Study by all means to answer this holy & excellent calling, that your religion may shine as well in works as in words, in an holy conversation as in a sincere profession. Know assuredly that where the truth of God reigneth, there the kingdom of Satan decayeth, the strength of sin abateth, the pleasures of the flesh are restrained, & jesus Christ by the sceptre of his holy word & blessed spirit, continually worketh, to the daily mortifying of the outward man and quickening the inward, to the bridling & mastering of the affections of the mind: till it be renewed, reformed & changed into his holy obedience, and so by little and little be translated into his kingdom. And till this be brought to pass, you shall never feel what Christ's righteousness is (which is our only happiness) whereof this book so notably & comfortably entreateth. The Lord jesus open your heart, and give you understanding in all his mysteries, that you may see his great glory, till you may comprehend with all Saints the height, depth, width and length of his glorious righteousness, laying hold upon it through alively faith, and so be sealed up through him (as I doubt not but you are) to everlasting happiness, far you well most humbly from my poor house this second of November. 1577.  
Your good Ladyships bounden in the Lord. I F.   

AN EXCELLENT TREATISE, OF CHRISTIAN RIGHTEOUSNESS, Made by M. I de l'Espine Minister of the word of God, and newly put forth for the instruction and consolation of the children of God.  
THERE is not any one article in all our Christian Faith the knowledge whereof can be so healthful and necessary unto us, as this of Christian righteousness. 
Abacuc 2. 4  Now forasmuch as of this righteousness dependeth everlasting life, 
Rome 1. 17.  and of Faith dependeth this righteousness, 
Rom. 3. 24. and 15.  and of Faith cometh that knowledge which we have of the promises of our God, 
2. Cor. 1. 28.  and of jesus Christ, who is the only mean, that they are applied, and freely accomplished towards us, without having any respect to any of our works: It behoveth for the better understanding of all these things aright, that we lay them forth in order, & begin with the definition of Christian righteousness. 
The definition of the righteousness of the philosophers and schoolmen.  But it must be noted that in the holy Scripture the signification and use of this word (Righteousness) is far different from that which is usurped in the books of the philosophers and schoolmen: because they take righteousness, for a certain habit and quality, which being enclosed in our mind, inclineth us to live honestly, and in such sort to order the course of all our actions, that they be entirely conformable to reason, and to those rules that are set out unto us in the Law. A thing that we can not do perfectly, seeing that we are loaden and compassed about with so great infirmity, and for that our nature being so diseased and corrupted, it yrcketh us, and wholly turneth us, from the love, study and exercise of that which is good: and disposeth and stirreth us up to the quite contrary, to embrace and follow vice, with a marvelous will and readiness. Add hereunto, that we are driven and led in this case by many temptations and assaults, wherewith the flesh, the world and devil do continually assail us. Wherefore we must conclude, that in the whole world, there can never be found a righteous man if righteousness be to be measured according to that definition, which the philosophers have given: and that it be established, in a perfection of virtue, which we must more love, esteem and honour, than any other good, and apply our whole spirit, and all our understanding to attain to it, and possess it: without thinking at any time that this is any mean to make us to be accounted righteous before God, in whose presence and judgement all our works shall ever be found imperfect and damnable, 
job. 4. 18. & 9 3. & 25. 4.  if they be examined according to the rigour of his righteousness.  
To understand then what this Christian righteousness is, and in what it consisteth, it is meet to note, that Righteousness and judgement, are corelatyves, and for the better understanding of the one, it must be laid and joined with the other. 
Rom. 3. 4. 5.  The which thing may easily be observed in many places of the new Testament, where righteousness is joined with justification, and justification with righteousness. In such sort, 
What righteousness is.  that comparing these places one with on other, a man shall find that righteousness is no other thing but the mean whereby we are justified before the judgement seat of God. 
What justification is.  And that justification is nothing else but a release of our sins which we obtain there through the favour, and in the contemplation of the merit of jesus Christ, who hath there discharged us.  
But here it is to be noted, 
Many kinds of judgements.  that there are many kinds of judgements differing one from the other, that is to wit, there is the judgement of God: the judgement of the Law: the judgement of men, and of our own conscience: & we must know whether our own righteousness be sufficient to satisfy & answer to every one of these judgements, and whether the same in any of these, can stand us in steed to obtain an acquitement and deliverance of the accusations that are propounded by our enemies there against us.  
Concerning Gods judgement which is the first of the four, 
The judgement of God.  we must answer that it is impossible there, that we can defend us, if we have no other thing to bring forth and allege but our own innocency: forasmuch as our thoughts, our affections, our words, our actions, 
Psal. 39 6. 12.  & generally our whole life and nature being examined, it shallbe found that in man is nothing else but vanity, 
Psal. 51. 7. & 62. 10.  and to be short the very matter of death and damnation, for how can an evil tree bring forth any good fruit? & how can rotten and worm-eaten seed, 
Similitudes showing the corruption of man, & his unability to do good.  engender any thing, but like itself? In like manner how can a man from a poisoned & infected vessel draw one drop of good wine? let us conclude them, that we neither do, nor can do any thing, that can be able to sustain, the rigorous examination of the righteousness of God, and that in us and in our whole life there is nothing that can in this case defend & deliver us but his mercy alone. Because we are as the Prophet sayeth, 
Osee 2. 3.  a wilderness altogether covered with thistles, brambles, and briars, which are good for nothing, but to be burnt, 
In his book of confessions. 2 chap. 10.  and a very dunghill of corruption where there is nothing (as S. Augustine saith) but even the very sink and abundance of misery and filthiness.  
The beginning then of our righteousness is, 
The beginning of our righteousness is to know our unrighteousness.  that we accuse and condemn ourselves, and that we confess before God that (which he knoweth well enough) to wit that we are nothing but dust and corruption.  
The prodigal child being far from his father's house, 
The example of the prodigal child.  never thought that he could return thither or attain to righteousness and virtue, from which he was departed, but by the knowledge and feeling which he had of his faults, 
Luc 15. 18.  & the sure persuasion which he had conceived to confess them.  
The publican coming to the temple loaden and covered with vice & sin had remembrance of his vice and wretchedness, 
The second example of the publican, Luc 18. 13. 14.  which he with great grief and deep groanings confessed: whereupon it came to pass that he returned righteous into his own house.  
After David & holy Peter were fallen from God, 
3. Example of David and of Peter.  through a great unkindness & ignorance, as well from him, as from those graces, which they had received of his large liberality, 
2. Sa. 12. 13  had they any other mean to be reconciled unto him, 
Luc. 22. 62.  but by the acknowledgement & confession of their sins? whereupon we must conclude, that by this we must approach before God. And that there is nothing that doth more allure & knit us to him, than a penitent heart which (as S. Augustine saith) feeleth and continually complaineth for his sins and imperfections.  
This humility is not only the foundation of our righteousness (as john Chrisostome saith) but also of all our religion, 
The acknowledgement of our miseries is the foundation of our religion.  the which decayeth as soon as we begin to conceive any opinion of ourselves or of our own virtues. He (saith S. Augustine) will not be any longer of the body, that refuseth to be humble, and to make himself little with his head: for ordinarily as the valleys are more abundant and bring forth more fruit than do the mountains, 
A similitude showing the good that cometh of humility.  by reason that being more low, they receive more commodiously all the fatness which falleth and descendeth from the high hills: even so it behoveth that we be more low and humble in our own eyes, 
1. Sa. 15. 17  if we will, that God fulfil us with his graces: the which may find no place in us, if we presume any whit of our virtues. The same which Christ saith to those Scribes and Pharisees, when he saw them arrogant and presumptuous, and puffed up with a vain and false opinion, that they had conceived of their own righteousness: you justify yourselves before men, saith he to them: but God knoweth your hearts within, 
Luk. 16. 15.  before whom, they are most abominable, that are in greatest credit and reputation, in the world.  
Wherefore where there is any question concerning righteousness, 
Pride is quite contrary to our health.  we must diligently take heed that we be not like those that are sick of the dropsy, 
A similitude.  who by reason of the grossness of their bodies, seem to be in good estate: notwithstanding they be full of nothing but water and such evil humours, which in the end are the cause of their death.  
That then the outward appearance which we may have of any virtue do not abuse & deceive us, 
A similitude shewing that all the perfection that men in any wise may have, is nothing else but imperfection before God.  let us know that all the virtue, whereof we may be furnished, can no more endure before God, then wax before the fire. And as it can not be but that one pin or needle is enough to pierce a bladder, and to make all the wind therein enclosed, incontinently to come forth: even so it can not be, but that even a little tentatation is enough to draw the vizard from hypocrites, & to discover them to every one, who shall know, after that they shallbe sifted, that there was nothing but a colour and an imagination of all the reputation of righteousness & virtue, which they had gotten amongst men.  
Let us not make then any account of all the righteousness which can be in us, nor let us not bring it to the judgement of our God, to better our cause, or to win there by law any thing for us. Forasmuch as there was never any other cause of the ruin of the jews, nor any thing that overthrew them, and made them frustrate of the hope they had to attain to the righteousness which they pretended, 
Rom. 10. 3.  but the only presumptuous opinion they had conceived to be able to appear there, through their own righteousness.  
Now to the end we faule not headlong into the like danger and inconvenience, let us acknowledge and feel in ourselves, that we are not able to think one only good thought, 
2. Cor. 3. 5.  but let us be resolved in this, that all our ability is from the alone grace and bounty of our God. For all our glory (as S. Paul saith) is excluded, 
Rom. 3. 27. & 5. 2.  and we have not any thing in ourselves, whereof we may boast ourselves.  
For being naturally dead in sin as we are, 
Arguments to prove the corruption & unrighteousness of man, before God.  can we have any good motion or feeling? But it is certain that before our regeneration, and before we be called through the grace of God to the knowledge of him: we are blind and can not see any whit of the mysteries and secrets of God. Moreover, we are deaf and can not hear his voice: 
1. Cor. 2. 14.  we are sick of the palsy and impotent, 
Deut. 14. 4.  and not able to walk in his ways: 
Ezec. 11. 12. 19 and 36. 26.  we have an heart of stone. which bringeth forth no good affection: and a mouth full of bitterness and cursing, and we are as a grave within, from whence cometh nothing but stench and corruption: 
Rom. 3. 13.  to conclude, we are altogether dead, deprived of all good, in such sort, that we have not any good use of our reason. Let no man flatter himself (saith S. Augustine) forasmuch as we are nothing of ourselves but devils & Satan's: 
Augustine upon john.  that is to say of our own nature, we are enemies of God, of his honour, of his law, and of all virtue: and there is not any other difference betwixt us and Devils, but the only pity, which God hath unto us, and the gracious favour which he would show us. And although God have accepted of us, and that being received into his covenant, we are consecrated unto him to be his temple: notwithstanding all these great & incomprehensible favours which he hath showed us, we aught not utterly to abolish the remembrance which we aught always to have of our horrible corruption. The Scripture to the end to repress our presumption, & to let, that we forget not what is the corruption of our nature, putteth us continually in remembrance, 
joshua. 40. 6.  that we and all flesh are nothing but grass, worms meat, dust, and filth, as David saith that God knoweth us, 
Psa. 103. 14  & whereof we are made: and that to be brief, we are nothing but dust and putrefaction: yea that the greatest and goodliest of the whole world with all their commodity & beauty, 
Psa. 62. 10  which men worship, are nothing but vanity: and that if they were put into the balance to be weighed with nothing, nothing would be found heavier than they. Being then so noted in the Scripture, yea when we are so adorned and enriched with the great & precious gifts of our God: in what estimation shall we have righteousness and virtues whereof we think to have so great plenty?  
We do as merchants, 
A similitude to show the hypocrisy and misery of man.  who always praise and esteem their wares & merchandise more than they are worth: even so do we of our virtues: but when they are examined and prised by those which know them, as by the spirit of God and his Prophets, they are altogether as old rags, torn tied together & patched: & as old images new gilded over, the which outwardly have some glistering & show, but within are nothing but dust & dirt: or, as counterfeit money, which is of ill metal how goodly a print soever it have. 
Testimonies of the Scriptures, & Fathers to prove the unrighteousness of man before God.  All our righteousnesses saith Esay are as old rags, foul and loathsome to see. S. Paul albeit he walked in the law, without rebuke, and that he felt himself not culpable in any thing in his conscience nor willingly to have transgressed: yet notwithstanding he esteemeth his righteousness as dung. Daniel praying unto God, allegeth not his own righteousness & virtues, 
Philip. 3. 8.  neither the righteousness & virtues of his companion, 
Dan. 9 5.  to the end to cause God to incline, and to hear his prayers. Now (saith he) that we are before thy face, we can set nothing before thee, nor propound any thing on our part but shame and confusion. 
Augustine.  Cursed (saith Augustine) be all our righteousnesses, if they be judged without the mercy of God. 
Tertullian.  And Tertullian: All the good that we do (saith he) and all the righteousness and virtue which is in us, is nothing but shame and reproach.  
When they spoke these things, it was not without great reason, because there is no righteousness and virtue in us, which is not defiled & polluted with great vices. Also, there is not any faith, which is not mingled with an infinite number of doubts, errors and fond imaginations: nor likewise, any godliness which is not contaminate with innumerable scruples and superstitions. To conclude: all our wine (as Esay saith) is mingled with water, 
Esay. 1. 22.  and all our corn is full of darnel and dirt.  
Now if a man would boast of his strength and health, 
These similitudes and other following, show the beastly pride of them, that think to have in themselves wherewith all to stand before God.  and yet were subject to a thousand diseases: or of his knowledge, and yet were ignorant of all good learning: or of his riches, and yet were indebted and endangered to the whole world: would not every one mock him as an idiot and a fool? even so we aswell show our ignorance, and what slender understanding we have, when we will attribute any righteousness to ourselves, and boast ourselves in it, be it never so little.  
He that is strong (saith jeremy) let him not boast and presume of his strength, 
jere. 9 23.  nor he that is wise of his wisdom, nor he that is rich of his riches, because that, if we consider what we have on the one side, we must mark what we lack on the other. And when all shallbe well cast, it shall be found that the expense will far surmount the receipt, and the debts are much greater, than the revenue. Moreover, all that is greatest under the Sun, and that which men most wonder at and worship in the world, 
Eccle. 4. 2. & 1. 1.  is nothing else (as Solomon sayeth) but vanity. Is there any thing so stable and durable, which is not mutable, transitory, and uncertain? what madness then is it to make so great a matter and so highly to esteem of ourselves, for things of so small value? we are oftentimes like to those that dream and wake again, 
A similitude.  who when they are a sleep think to have found some great treasure, and have a great joy in it: but after their wakening, they see that all is vanished like smoke, whereupon they vex & grieve themselves. Likewise when we think that we are righteous, this is a dream, which passeth through our spirits and vanisheth assoon as we are awake and are delivered from the darkness of ignorance, wherein we were a sleep and buried. S. Paul whilst he was ignorant, without a true and right knowledge of the law, 
An example in Paul before his conversion.  thought to be righteous, and feel't not sin any whit reigning in him, until that God by his grace, had illuminated him, & made his will by the law known unto him, & so consequently the lusts, & corruption that was in his nature. The which made him soon enough to forego the opinion which he had conceived of his own righteousness and virtues.  
After that we have well swept our chambers, 
another similitude.  it seemeth unto us that they are very clean. And yet notwithstanding, when the sun cometh, to enter there by the windows, we perceive straight ways by the beams an infinite deal of dust, which the philosophers call motes: even so oftentimes before we be well instructed in the law of God, if we be exempted from gross & palpable sins, such as are murders, whoredoms, thefts, we glory that we are perfect and innocent. But when our consciences come to be descried by the word of God, & that jesus Christ who is the light hath entered there by his spirit: then he maketh us to see by his beams an infinite number of faults and imperfections, which are hidden in our hearts, as are the serpents in their holes. 
Rom. 7. 7.  S. Paul saith that he never understood, that concupiscence was a vice, until he had seen in the law, that it was there forbidden. Yea, but had he not learned this in the school of Gamaliel, before his conversion? I grant, as concerning the outward bark and superficially. But he had not attained yet to the bottom, the which we can not do, until we have been in the school of jesus Christ, who in the law will make us truly to know both God and ourselves, even as the sun shining by his brightness maketh us to see itself, and all things with it.  
In the night by reason of the darkness spread upon the earth, 
another similitude.  all things are hid and covered: which causeth that we can not discern and discover the spots which we have in our faces: But when the light beginneth to appear, and that we take a glass, to behold ourselves therein: then they are discovered and show themselves: even so likewise during the time that we are covered with the darkness of ignorance, the vices that devil in us, are hidden there, and oftentimes we think, being leprous & deformed, that we are beautiful and perfect: but our eyes being open, and illuminate by the spirit and grace of our God, and taking the glass of the law, therein to behold the estate of our nature and our life: then we begin to know the great and grievous imperfections that are in us: and we at once lose the opinion which we had conceived before, of our owen righteousness and virtues.  
We are oftentimes like unto drounkardes who being overcharged with wine and meat, 
another similitude.  have no manner of knowledge or feeling of the case wherein they are, nor of any thing else, and yet having their face covered, and all to bewrayed with dirt, they can not perceive it until that their wine be drienched, and their brain delivered from those fumes and vapours whereby they were so letted, & darkened. We likewise, before we be regenerate, are in such sort besotted with a love that we bear to ourselves, and with a vain opinion that we have conceived of ourselves, that we know not the filthiness and villainies wherewith we are bewrayed. But when the light of the spirit and word of God begins to break forth unto us, we come by little and little to break and scatter those clouds, which were before our senses, and recovering the view of our reason, we begin to awake ourselves, and discover the pitiful and miserable estate wherein we are. And look as this knowledge groweth and increaseth in us, so much the more it augmenteth and increaseth the knowledge of our vices and imperfections. 
The patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles: in whom they sought their righteousness.  As we may see by experience in the fathers, who though they were notable and excellent personages, and marked with all notable virtues: yet notwithstanding they made no account of them: but contrariwise they confessed that they were the greatest sinners in the world as a man may see by those goodly confessions which the scripture mentioneth, to have been made of Abraham, Isaac, jacob, David, jeremy, Daniel, S. Paul, S. john, and generally of the whole Church: by which we would judge them to have been the most wicked men, which were upon the earth, if we knew not the humility, that was in them, and in what contempt they had themselves and their works, for the great knowledge they had of the law of God: the which engendered in them an other thing, to wit, the knowledge of the imperfection which was in them and in their life, when they came to measure it, according to the rule of the law, & brought all their thoughts, desires, words and actions, to be tried by the will and ordinance of God.  
We say in a common proverb, that such a one as thinketh himself in best health, carrieth death in his bosom. Which must not only be understood of the bodily health, but also of the health of the soul. 
A similitude taken of a common proverb.  For the diseases of the body are nothing so dangerous, as those of the soul: because that very many (albeit their hearts are full of distrusts, doubtings, errors, false opinions, ingratitudes, envies, revengements, darkness, ignorance, and other deadly diseases) nevertheless they think themselves in very good health, and that their righteousness is sufficient to enable them, to answer and satisfy the judgement of God. As that proud Pharisee, 
Luc 8. 11.  who in stead of humbling himself before God & confessing this faults to him setteth forth and extolleth his owen works, 
Mat. 19 20  in his prayer: And the Scribe that bragged, that he had accomplished the whole law: 
jere. 2. 23.  and the Synagogue, that boasted herself, of her owen innocency, and in that, that she had not sinned. Wherefore God caused complaint to be made against her, to convince her of hypocrisy, and of the sins, that she had forgotten, through negligence, and of the love, that she aught to have borne unto him.  
Although then that God doth not always discover our faults wholly unto us, he will not therefore that we make light of them: but if we do, he straight ways calleth us to a reckoning, and requireth them of us, and constraineth us to confess them unto him, that he may forgive us: to the end, that we may have occasion hereby, to acknowledge and set forth his great liberality. And this is all that he requireth and demandeth of us for having acquitted and discharged us of such a great and notable sum, wherein we were indebted to him. For look how much soever of the glory of any righteousness and virtue we attribute to our selves, so much we diminish of the bounty and liberality of our God, and we provoke him to jealousy, because we bear him not that love, nor reverence, that we own unto him, but do more love our owen honour then his. And even like as a husband loving his wife tenderly, 
A similitude.  (to make his affection known unto her, bestowing upon her many great presents of gold and costly jewels,) is very heavy if she dissemble the gifts which he hath bestowed upon her, and say she hath purchased them by her owen money: Even so God can in no wise be pleased with us, if we will conceal or else attribute to ourselves, the graces which he hath bestowed upon us, which he would have to be testimonies, tokens and demonstrations of the inviolable love and fidelity that he beareth unto us.  
Moses said unto the people of Israel, whilst they were yet in the wilderness: When thou shalt come into the land which God hath promised to thy fathers, and shalt have taken possession thereof, and peaceably enjoy the fruits and delicate things that it shall bring forth unto thee, 
Deut. 8. and 9  Take good heed that thou say not, that they strength and righteousness hath gotten all this: but acknowledge that God, by his only goodness and love which he beareth unto thee, hath showed these great benefits and favours to thee, without having any respect of thee, who wast a rebellious and idolatrous people, nor to thy works, which were altogether vicious and faulty: even so if God hath once brought us into his Church, let us beware that we say not that we have merited or gotten the graces that be there communicated unto us by our own industry: but let us continually confess our poverty and unworthiness, and acknowledge with the Apostle, that in that we are virtuous, we are so, by the mean of his only goodness: and then without all comparison we shallbe richer & happier, than we should be, if we would be so, by our own mean and by our own strength: much more I say by the liberality of our good God, who is much richer and more abundant to give unto us, than our own strength and force can purchase, or heap upon us. And we must persuade ourselves that God can do us more good in one moment, than we know how to desire or to compass by our travel or diligence, in ten millions of years.  
What cause then is there, 
Similitudes shewing that we have need to be justified by the only grace of God.  that we should not desire and labour to be more righteous by the grace of our God, then by our own virtue? A man shallbe a great deal more healthful that will be thoroughly governed by the regiment & counsel of some good and expert physicians, than he that will be lead altogether by his own appetite. A beast is a great deal better governed by man, than it can be by itself. A field, a vine, a tree, are in much better case, being tilled, cut and pruned by labourers and husbandmen, then if they were left to themselves. Bodies also being alone, and without any life, are blocks, but having the soul and life in them, they are applied and used to an infinite number of goodly and excellent actions: Whereby a man may easily perceive, that the inferior natures, to the end they may be well governed and ruled, have need of the government & guiding of the superior. Whence cometh it then, that in the matter of righteousness, we think that our reason and will have more might, than the grace of our God?  
There are certain glorious beasts, which brag that they have gotten that which they know, by their own only diligence, and without the help of any other master and teacher: and that they are no further bound, for the good they know, then to their own labour and travel. And also there be some others yet more proud and arrogant, who think themselves with power sufficiently enabled, to get all virtues by their own natural faculties: as Pelagius and all his sect, 
Pelagius & his sect.  who can not better show their arrogancy and ignorance, then in thus pleasing themselves, in them selves, and having in such estimation and admiration, the natural force and power, which they falsely attribute to themselves. The which is an evident sign, that they never knew themselves nor the strength of their own shoulders, in vaunting so of the weakness and poverty that is in them.  
But for our parts, if we desire to be clad with a righteousness, which is able to stand before the face of God, and to appear with assurance in his judgement, let us not seek it in ourselves, but let us seek it, and find it, in the only grace and mercy of our God. For (as S. Augustine sayeth) there is nothing within us, that can please and content him, but only that, which he hath put in us of his own goodness.  
Let us not then follow these proud spirits, which delight and content themselves in nothing but in their own works, & through a doting imagination accounting and esteeming them goodly and perfect, even as apes do their young ones: but contrariwise, let all that is in us, and all that we do, displease us, and let us be the first judges to condemn our selves and our works, forasmuch as the mean to come to righteousness, is to be able to approach with confidence, to the throne and judgement seat of our God, and continually to say with the holy Apostle: 
Rom. 7. 14.  I know that I am carnal and sold under sin: by means whereof I can in no wise approve that which I do. For I do the evil which displeaseth me, and can not do the good I love & desire to do, certainly, there is not in me, (that is to say in my flesh) any good thing. I see and feel continually in my members a law which fighteth against the law of my mind, and leadeth me captive to the law of sin which is in my members.  
O how this confession aught thoroughly to beat down the pride and arrogancy of those presumptuous ones, and stop up the mouths of all those that willbe justified by their own works and virtues! For it cometh from a vessel and instrument which God by spiritual favour had chosen from among all the men of the world, 
A notable consideration upon that Paul confesseth himself a miserable sinner.  and who even in those times of his ignorance lived in such sort according to the righteousness of the law, that he was blameless and unrebukable towards men. What a one than might he be (being regenerated, taken up into the third heaven, 
2 Cor. 12. 1.  where he had heard secrets, 
1. Cor. 3. 6.  which it was not lawful for him to utter, 
Galat. 2. 6.  & who had so greatly traveled in the work of the Lord to plant and to water his Church, 
2. Cor. 11. 5. 23.  that therein he passed and far out went all his companion. And to conclude, he gave place to none of them, neither in knowledge, nor in zeal, nor in high, and divine meditations, nor in diligence, nor in virtues, nor in any other thing which was agreeable to his vocation, for his good and upright walking therein. If then such a person did in such sort and so much humble himself, what aught we to do after him?  
Isaye, 
another example of the humility of isaiah, the excellent servant of God.  whose mouth and tongue was cleansed by one of the Cherubins, & was sent from before the face of God for this purpose: who also had exercised his ministery in the Church of God the space of three score years and more, and without ceasing day and night, was as a good watchman upon the wall to discover the coming of the enemies, 
isaiah 6. 6.  to the end that both himself, and those over whom he had charge might not be over taken through negligence: what saith he of himself? and in what place and degree doth he put himself? 
isaiah 46. 8.  Thou art (sayeth he to God) our Creator and we are nothing but earth and dust. All our righteousness is as filthy clouts, and we are all faded as a leaf, and our iniquities have carried us as the wind: there is none that calleth upon thy name, nor that stirreth up himself to say hold upon thee: For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us because of our iniquities. Aught not this confession to make all the glory and righteousness of these proud hypochrites, to blush for shame? Certainly the perfection which those imagine, deserveth not to be compared to the imperfection of those excellent servants of God, nor their fantastical riches and abundance to their poverty. For as much as the basest gold, 
A similitude against the righteousness of hypochrites  though it be rayed with some dirt, is always more precious, than the brightest lead that a man can find. Even so the righteousness of a Christian man, though it be defiled through many infirmities and imperfections, yet notwithstanding is more to be esteemed then all the righteousness of hypocrites and infidels.  
There is nothing better, 
The fruit of Christian humility.  then for a man to humble himself before God. Humility was the cause that the Caanitysh who was otherwise a dog, become a faithful woman, and that her faith was preferred, before the faith of all the people of God. Because there is no better mean, to lift us up, then to humble ourselves: to be wise, then to repute ourselves fools: to be strong, then to feel our one debility and weakness. And this S. Augustin confirming, sayeth, that all our strength is in humility, and that there is nothing more weak and frail than pride and presumption. 
A similitude of the proud and of the humble.  Forasmuch, as all proud persons stay themselves, upon their own strength, that is, stay upon a reed and upon the ice of one nights fresing: and are like unto smoke that mounteth up on high, and so in going up is scattered and cometh to nothing. But the humble man is as a rock or a square body, which is always stayed on which side soever it be turned, and there is no man (as sayeth that same good father) so hard to be healed, as he that thinketh himself to be hole: forasmuch as he always refuseth counsel of the physician, and will take no remedies, nor keep any good diet or government of himself, which should be meet and healthful for him. Even so likewise there is no man farther of from the righteousness of God, than he that hath some good opinion of himself. For such commonly are obstinate, and can not without great difficulty, be brought from the persuasion, which they have conceived of their own righteousness.  
There is then no greater presumption nor more dangerous in the world, 
Presumption very dangerous.  than this. For who soever presumeth so of his own strength & virtue, & that he can of himself become wise, he maketh himself equal with God. For there is none but God, which is of himself, and by nature wise, righteous, blessed and perfect. Men are not otherwise wise, then by learning and instruction: nor righteous, but by grace: nor happy, but by the fruition and participation of the sovereign good: If then a man will depend upon himself, and establish in himself the foundations of felicity and happiness, presuming that through the light & quickens of his own spirit, he can obtain wisdom, and by the power of his own will, righteousness and by the contentation and delight which he hath of his own virtues and actions, perfect felicity: certainly this man esteemeth himself to be like unto God. But those persons that have such an opinion, and presume so much of themselves, they are found in the end to come to short of their account: because it cometh to pass with them as it did to our fore fathers, who when they acknowledged not the honour which God had bestowed upon them, but went about to lift up themselves in an higher degree than he had set them, they fell at once headlong, and become like unto brute beasts: which thing happened to Nebucadnezar, 
Nebucadnezar punished for his pride.  who being become drunken and besides himself through the great victories and prosperities that he had gotten, 
Dan. 4. 22.  thought to mount up to heaven and to make himself equal with God: but contrary to his expectation, to beat down and break the idle thoughts and discourses of his heart (no otherwise then happened to them that builded the tower of Babel) God having at once discharged him of his authority, dignity and might, together with the love, obedience, fear, and fidelity of his subjects, friends and servants, in the end having made him like to wild beasts, with whom he lived, and did eat, and drink, as though they had been his familiars and companion: he was taught by experience what it was, and the danger thereof for an earthly man to seek to exalt himself, and to take upon him to be hail fellow with God: 
Exod. 20. 5.  forasmuch as he is geleous of his glory, and can not at any hand abide that his glory should be abased or diminished, without being kindled & provoked to revenge himself upon all those whom he findeth guilty of any such audacity and rashness. He would show us that we are bound unto God for all the good things we have, and that we own unto him therein faith and homage, and principally for those spiritual gifts of our goodness and felicity: so as he willbe accounted and confessed to be the chief cause and thauthor of that we are, afterwards for this that we are good, and to conclude for that we are blessed: and when so ever we will attribute any of these three things unto ourselves, or else refer that unto any other then to him, he can not abide it.  
Alexander the Great hearing the rehearsal of the great victories and Conquests which Philippe his father had gotten and made, 
Alexander the Great an image of all ambitious princes.  was grieved, for that his father having so brought into subjection the whole country and bridled his enemies on every side, already he took from him all hope of doing any honourable or glorious thing: As he had borne himself in hand he would do, it so falling out that matter and occasion to employ himself, and his power failed him not. For this is the property of all valiant and noble Princes, to be aggrieved when they lose opportunity to make themselves esteemed and to win honour and renowen by their prowess, and that they are constrained to rest themselves and be idle at home in their house, as cowards miching and dastards. In so much, as there is nothing that they are more greedy of, than the glory and immortality of their names. Is it then any marvel if God who is altogether perfect, and in whom a man can not reprehend any thing, or desire any thing, should in such sort love his glory? seeing that sinful men are so desirous of theirs, if once they think to have any thing in them that is commendable. But as concerning us, we may not suffer ourselves to be vanquished or overmastered of any such passion, which (as S. Augustine sayeth) is the worst guide, and most dangerous counsellor, that we can choose, to rule and govern our actions by. And it is impossible but that we should obey this passion, when we are once submitted unto it, and become the slaves thereof.  
Wherefore that we may go safely, we must be maintained in a simple humility, not lifting up our hearts to high, but in such wise taming our appetites, 
A similitude showing the fruit of humility.  that we be like to little children that come from the nurse. They that go the plain way, are not in so great danger to fall as they which go upon the ridge of houses, or upon the top of some high mountain: Even so they that willbe modest and have no opinion of themselves, they go a great deal more safely and surely, than they which have a big heart, and lofty looks. For the way that leadeth to life is strait. And so is the gate whereby a man must enter there. Wherefore if we will pass thereat, we must not be so big and puffed up with an opinion of our selves: but we must be lean and spare, and we must not esteem more of ourselves than we are worth.  
Philo the jew writeth that the cause why leaven was forbidden the jews, 
An allegory of the leaven forbidden to the jews.  at the feast of the Passeover was, to give them to understand that by this prohibition, they had to keep themselves from the danger of pride and presumption, into which they do easily slide and fall, which have any opinion of themselves, puffing up themselves, thereby as the dough is with the leaven. Wherefore it is very requisite that we take good heed, in all our works, to follow that counsel which our Saviour Christ giveth touching our alms: to wit, that our left hand know not what our right hand doth. He would teach thereby, that we aught to be so virtuous, that our virtue be known to all the world, to the end to edify them which shall see it and know it: but of ourselves it must not be known, for fear that we knowing it, it engender some presumption in us, which might corrupt that foresaid virtue: like as the leaven soureth the dough wherein it is mingled. But this ambition, as it is masked and disguised, so it knoweth very well how to dissemble, and to flatter our appetites: so as we can hardly take heed to ourselves, yea though we study the best we can, to be humble: forasmuch as it stealeth unawares upon us, and shroudeth itself secretly within our heart, within which oftentimes it is found or ever we wist that it was entered. And this is the reason why S. Augustine sayeth, that all other sins are to be feared and fled indifferently of all persons: but the most perfect, and the best exercised and experienced in virtue aught principally to take heed of this rock. 
A similitude against ambition.  For, as worms engender sooner in a soft and tender wood, then in other that is more hard and knotty: and likewise as moths do breed sooner in fine will, then in course flocks: even so ambition sooner assaulteth an excellent and rare man in all kind of virtue, than an other which is not so virtuous.  
It is therefore very needful that we take good heed that we be not sleapy, neither become slothful, as it happened sometimes unto David, 
Psal. 30. 7.  as himself confesseth, saying: when I was in prosperity I thought I should never be shaken: The Lord having in such sort established me & underpropped me by his grace, so as I assured myself to be firm as the rock: but assoon as he had turned away his countenance and taken his spirit from me, I was found on the earth, and I began to know and feel my feebleness and infirmity. It is convenient therefore that we be vigilant to consider well all the means, and prevent all those ways by which we may be taken and deceived. 
A similitude against ambitious hypocrites.  There be some which are like to those that tug at the oar in a Galley. A man would judge seeing their manner of doing and how they stretch their arms forward, that they would go on and sail forth right: when with all their might they enforce themselves to draw backwards: even so being vain glorious, they will nevertheless persuade, that they have nothing in greater detestation then vain glory: when there is not any thing whereof they are more desirous and greedy. Such in times past were the Pharisees as are yet at this day the Priests and Monks of the Papacy, who have their hearts swollen and puffed up with ambition: 
To whom hypocrites may be resembled.  which they cloak and colour under the vizard and outward show of humility. These may be resembled to Antisthenes, who on a time walked in the common place at Athens, with a cloak all to torn and tottered, to the end that every one beholding him so appareled, 
Antisthenes' noted of hypocrisy by Socrates.  might judge that he did it through humility, and not for lack of goods, because he was a man well esteemed and of good reputation. But Socrates having discovered by the readiness and ripeness of his good spirit and judgement the hypocrisy of this philosopher, said all a loud, that he saw his ambition, through the holes of his cloak. Diogenes also entering on a time into Plato his chamber, and seeing his bed very finely made (because being of a civil, and gentleman like nature, he was neat, in his movables apparel, and gestures, and to be short, 
Plato noted of pride by Diogenes whom likewise he reproved for that offence  in all his conversation) he went and wallowed himself like a swine upon it, saying that he trampled down Plato's pride: but Plato answered readily, that this was done with a greater pride: whereby it may appear that there are many conterfaict humilities, serving for no other purpose but to abuse the simple, who can not beware of them.  
There be of them others, 
Humility in words.  who having a certain verbal humility in mouth only, say they presume not any thing of themselves, and that they would they were as clean from other sins as from that of ambition. And yet a man may easily know by their fetches, the great desire and greediness that they have of honours, seeking all the ways they can, to compass them, and piteously tormenting themselves, when they see they are frustrate of them. Add hereunto, that they desire to be flattered, and are never so well content as when they hear themselves extolled, and there own praises set out: contrariwise never so displeased, as when they see men hushed and say nothing praisworthy of them: or any manner of way to obscure them: Wherein they discover their notable hypocrisy, and show evidently, that they are liars, and accuse and condemn themselves: when they confess that they are teinted with other sins, and yet will be free from this of ambition. 
james 2. 10.  For (as S. james sayeth:) He that sinneth in one point of the law, he is guilty of all. Which thing every one may acknowledge in himself, if he will well examine the bottom, and secrets of his own conscience, and consider by piecemeal all the circumstances of every sin. For as among the virtues there is such a chain as entertaineth and embraceth each other, (as men that are in a round or that hold one an other by the hand) even so among vices there is such a conspiration as lightly they are never sundered one from the other. Whereupon we must think that we can not be guilty of any one vice but we must also in like manner be guilty of all the other.  
These than be not those humilities, (being counterfeit and bastardlike) that it becometh us to bring to the judgement of God, to defend us: forasmuch (as David sayeth) that the cause of all reprobates shall there be quite overthrown, and all their actions condemned, being strange from God. 
Gregory the divine.  But the true humility which God requireth, and which is necessary, for to make us appear with confidence before his face, is a true knowledge which we aught to have of ourselves, and which engendereth in us a true feeling of our vices and imperfectious, and causeth us to bewail and lament, to accuse and confess them before God: and maketh us always ashamed and confounded before his majesty: in such sor●●hat when we appear before him, we dare no more lift up our eyes to heaven, 
Luc 18. 14.  than that publican: but looking down to the earth we say with him: Lord be merciful to me poor and wretched sinner: 
Psal. 54. 4.  and with David: wash me O Lord from my iniquity, & cleanse me from all my sins. Also as he sayeth else where: 
Psal. 143. 2  Enter not into judgement with thy servant: For no man living shallbe justified in thy presence: and with Daniel: 
Dan. 9 5. 7.  O Lord to thee belongeth righteousness, and to us shame and confusion: for we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have been wicked and rebellious, and have always been contrary to thy commandments and judgements.  
With such an humility and confession, we may at all hours present ourselves before God, and be assured that he will not reject us from his presence: 
Psa. 51. 19  because (as David sayeth) he neither despiseth nor rejecteth sorrowful souls, hearts that are humbled and cast down, and penitent spirits. 
Isai 66. 2.  I say sayeth: upon whom shall the spirit of the Lord rest, but upon the humble, and upon him that trembleth at his word? 
S. Augustin.  S. Augustine sayeth: that men join themselves and seek out such as are their equales, 
Like will to his like.  and may match them in greatness, dignity and riches: but contrariwise God who is the sovereign in majesty and highness, he joineth himself to none, but to those that are humble and lowly in their own sight.  
Let us conclude then that there is nothing so necessary and expedient, 
The conclusion touching Christian humility.  as to humble and throw down ourselves, as hath been said. We see that reeds and young osyers', 
A similitude.  which bow and yield to the wind, abide stable for the time of the tempest, where as the great trees that seem to be so strong and so well rooted, can not resist the violence and force of a great wind, so as many times they are blown down, shivered and rooted up by the roots: even so there is none lost, condemned, destroyed and overthrown in the judgement of God: but he that will be there counted good, and will defend himself there with the virtue & strength of his own righteousness. For this is as a great thunder, 
Similitudes shewing what the thoughts of the faithful aught to be when they present themselves before God.  that never putteth forth his might but against things of resistance: but against any heap of earth, or against a wool pack, or some such other flexible & yielding substance, the blow is broken and it straight ways dieth. It is a great reproach and shame amongst men for a man to break and become bankeroute for worldly goods: but before God it is a great glory and honour, and we know not how to do any thing more profitable and honourable for us, than (as a man would say) to say the keys under the door, and to forsake all, confessing that we have no mean to pay, & to discharge ourselves towards his righteousness. We had need in this case to be like covetous men, who always think that they are poor, how great substance soever they have, because they have more regard to that they desire, than to that they have. Moreover, they think always (as the Poet sayeth) that their neighbour's vineyard & field is goodlier & more fruetful than theirs. We in like manner considering both ourselves, and the whole estate of our life, shall find that that which is maimed and wanting in us, is more than that which either we have or can have here in this world. Let us not think therefore to be rich before God, or that our neighbours are poorer than we, as the Pharisie thought and said: but let us be certain and resolved in this opinion, that before God we have not any thing whereof we make sure account: neither righteousness nor wisdom: nor virtue, that we may set out or allege before his judgement. And touching our neighbours we must always think, that we have so little, that we may not dare prefer or compare ourselves to any of them.  
Now being thus prepared to present ourselves before God, 
The second point showing that we must find though not in our selves, a perfect righteousness that may stand before God: & in what that righteousness consisteth.  to wit, through a right knowledge of ourselves, through an inward feeling of our vices and corruptions, and by an humble confession of our errors and imperfections, it is meet yet to seek out a righteousness, that we may bring it out there, and such a one as is not only sufficient so sustain the rigour and severity of that judgement: but also to obtain full forgiveness and justification of all sins and offences, and of all accusations which our adversaries can allege there against us: which we can not find in ourselves, nor in any mortal man as we have showed and declared before. 
Psal. 14. 1.  For all have gone astray, and are of themselves abominable before God, 
Rom. 3. 12.  there is not one that doth good no not one. 
Gene. 9 21.  Noah was drunk: 
Numb. 20. 24.  Moses murmured at the waters of Miribah: Abraham was an Idolater: David a murderer and adulterer: 
josua 24. 2.  S. Paul a persecutor of the Church: 
2. Sam. 11. 4  S. Peter denied jesus Christ: 
1. Tim. 1. 13  S. john with his brother james, 
john 18. 25  and the other Apostles were ambitious. 
Mat. 20. 20  To conclude, 
Luc 22. 24.  there was not any among all the fathers and Saints, that have been since the foundation of the world, to whom it hath not come to pass to commit some one notable fault or other in their life time, & who not continually acknowledged his great sins, as occasion hath been offered unto him. 
1. Cor. 1. 29.  So as no flesh hath whereof to boast itself or to glory before God, who hath shoot all men under sin and infidelity, 
Rom. 11. 32.  to the end, that he may have mercy on all, and that every one may acknowledge and confess, that his salvation in and through all, consisteth in the only grace and mercy of God.  
We must not therefore think to find the righteousness that we seek after, 
Our righteousness is in Christ jesus alone.  any where else, then in jesus Christ, of whom jeremy sayeth: his name is called the eternal, our Righteousness. 
1. Cor. 1. 30.  S. Paul sayeth, agreeably to the Prophet, that he was made our Righteousness, wisdom, sanctification and Redemption. 
Rom. 5. 19  And else where he sayeth: that as by one man's disobedience, many become sinners: so by the obedience of an other many shall become righteous. To what tendeth all that which is spoken of him in the scripture? 
Isai 53. 4.  to wit, that he hath paid our debts: 
Coloss. 1. 20.  that by him we are reconciled to God his father: 
2. Cor. 5. 19  that he hath obtained for us remission of our sins: that he is our resurrection and our life, 
john 11. 25  and our intercessor to the father, 
1. Tim. 2. 5.  that by his death and sacrifice, 
Isay 53. 5.  he hath pacified the wrath of his father against us: 
Apoc. 1. 6.  that he hath washed us in his blood: and by an infinite number of other excellent sentences that are set out unto us, and tend to no other end, but to make us know and to persuade us, that there is no other but he alone who is our righteousness, and the mean of our salvation and of our life.  
It is not then the law, 
Heb. 9 10.  nor any other ceremonies or sacrifices of goats, sheep, oxen and lambs, 
Tit. 3. 5.  nor yet any works and virtues that can justify us before God: but the only blood of jesus Christ, through which his testament and new covenant which he hath made with us, is passed, accorded, sealed and ratified. All things (sayeth he) are given unto me of God my father. 
Mat. 11. 27.  If we then will have all that is necessary for our happiness, as the favour of God, righteousness, life, light, the forgiveness of our sins, and the holy spirit to regenerate and sanctify us: we must address ourselves to Christ, 
john 6. 27.  forasmuch as it is he, whom the father hath chosen to be Treasureour and steward of all his graces. Moses by whom the law was published and delivered to the people, conducted them safely through the desert: but he brought them not to the place of their rest: 
josu 1. 6.  For that was joshua, who was a figure of jesus Christ, who made them pass over jordaine, to establish them in that possession and inheritance which God had promised unto their fathers.  
The law therefore may well lead us and teach us the way that we must take and walk in the midst of the darkness and wilderness of this world, 
The effect of the law toward the faithful.  like as some mark by the way sides, 
Similitudes  may well direct us, and show us which way to take: but the law can not give us strength and courage to go through, if we be weary, neither enable us to come to the place whither we go. 
Heb. 4. 8.  Likewise the law can not bring us to that rest, which God hath promised unto his elect: nor any other, but our great joshua, that is to say, jesus Christ our Lord, who only can do it, by his righteousness. Therefore S. Augustin said very well, 
S. Augustin upon S. john.  it is very necessary that we daily lift up our eyes on high, to behold that Serpent hanging dead on the Cross, to the end we may be preserved from the venom and biting of that serpent that is alive and reigning yet in the world. And in an other place he sayeth: this is the way in which we must walk, and the truth upon which we must rest, & the path in which we must go.  
When then we are once marching towards him, 
Christ is only the way the truth & life.  we aught not to fear but that going on in this way, and continuing therein, we shall come in the end to the goal and to the felicity, whither we bend ourselves. Forasmuch as this is a sure way which can not be stopped nor laid with thieves, nor drowned with any showers or floods of waters. Moreover, it is plain and straight and hath neither rocks nor blocks or any other lets which may make us stumble. It remaineth only then that when we are in this way, we keep ourselves there without standing still, or going backwards, or turning aside either to the right hand or the left: because we can no sooner leave it, nor depart in any other manner, but by and by we go astray, and are laid open to all kind of dangers: 
Similitudes  Even like as in winter we can no sooner be from the fire, but we are a cold, nor out of light but we enter into darkness: even so we can no sooner be parted from jesus Christ, who is our righteousness & our life, but straight way we are in sin and in death: forasmuch as he is the life that quickeneth us, the Sun that giveth us light, and the fire that warmeth, comforteth and refresheth all his members. As the moan hath no light but that it hath from the Sun, and as that light is little or great, as it is near or far of, in such sort that if it depart from it, it remaineth altogether obscure and dark: Even so in like manner the Church hath no light, righteousness, life, health, strength, and happiness, but that, which it hath pleased her husband jesus Christ to give unto her, because of that union and fellowship, which he hath with her. Wherefore if at any time she be separated from him, and that there be a divorce between her and her husband, there remaineth to her nothing but darkness, vice and wretchedness.  
Eve in the beginning was created of the flesh, 
Gen. 2. 23.  bone, 
Ephes. 5. 30  and blood of her husband: even so the Church is regenerated by the participation that she hath with the flesh of jesus Christ, 
The regeneration of the church.  through the sacrificing whereof she was redeemed, washed & purged from all filthiness in his blood, and through the participation of his bones was fortified and maintained against all tentation. For he who in the beginning was the author of our life, he is likewise now the author of our good life. And we must not think that there are two diverse beginnings of our being and righteousness. For he himself that hath made us men, hath also made us Christians: and as in the beginning he created us and made us of nothing: even so afterwards, he regenerated us, being nothing, but vanity, the children of wrath and malediction: and when we were worse than nothing he choose us and that before we were conceived and borne: he hath called us when as rebellious servants to masters, we fled from him: when we turned our backs to him: he justified us being sinners, sanctified us being profane and polluted, raised us up being dead: And will also glorify us although we be yet altogether covered with ignominy and corruption: whereupon a man may infer that, 
S. Cyprian.  which S. Cyprian sayeth is very true: that in our salvation we must glory in nothing. For there is not any thing of ours, and which we should not confess to be wholly from God.  
If we will examine this thoroughly, 
The confutation of their error which say that it is in our own power to dispose ourselves to receive our salvation, when God offereth it unto us.  and consider it in every part, we shall confess the truth, what soever the schoolmen prate & babble, that of ourselves we can dispose ourselves to receive our salvation when soever God offereth it unto us. It is so far of that it can be true, that quite contrary we are then wholly turned away, and resist against it with all our power. Which thing may plainly appear by the example of S. Paul, who was called and led by jesus Christ, as it were by strong hand to his sheep fold, even then, when he was going to Damascus, 
Acts 9 5.  being carried with a deadly hatred, and inflamed with fury to persecute and utterly to root out (if he could) the memory of his name. There is nothing more certain, than that S. Augustine saith that all they that labour and sweat under the heavy burden of this flesh, 
S. Augustin  and complain of this miserable life, they have but one only consolation and hope, that is to say, that jesus Christ is their Mediator & their righteousness. By reason whereof when he made his entrance into the midst of jerusalem, all that went before and behind him cried out with one voice, Hosanna, etc. that is to say▪ Save us O son of David our Saviour. To the end to show that there was never good man neither before nor after his coming which did hope to be saved by any other means, then only through his righteousness and obedience. 
S. Augustin  And therefore S. Augustine sayeth, that all the Saints, since Abel unto john baptist, and after the Apostles, unto the end of the world aught not to be praised but in him, and not in themselves. In so much that the first have said, 
Psal. 34. 3.  My soul shall rejoice in the Lord: and those that came after have said in like manner: 
1. Cor. 15. 10.  By grace I am that I am: and all in general say: That whosoever will glory he must glory in God.  
And in very truth this is he that hath borne the wool and the fleece, 
The perfection and righteousness of jesus Christ.  of which was spun this cloth, wherewith we must be clad, that we may be shrouded against heats, cold, and other injuries of heaven. All you (sayeth the Apostle) which are baptized in Christ, have put on Christ. 
Gal. 3. 27.  This is that king, who for the adorning of the Queen his spouse hath made for her rich and sumptuous robes, 
Psal. 45. 14  as the Psalmist sayeth: 
Ezec. 16. 9  Which thing Ezechiell showeth also more clearly: I have washed thee with water, yea I have washed away thy blood from thee, in which thou wast altogether polluted: I have anointed thee with oil, and clothed thee also with broidered work, and have set a crown of Gold upon thy head: and I have decked thee with gold and silver, that thou mightest be very beautiful. All that same long Alegorie, which he useth there in the 16. of his prophesy, is to no other end, but to extol the righteousness of jesus Christ, with which the Church is appareled and adorned: with those other precious gifts, graces and blessings, wherewith she is altogether covered and replenished. And as there is nothing, more unclean than she, when she is naked: so is there nothing more beautiful than she, when she is decked in the livery and colour of her husband. For than hath she a special grace, that makes her very amiable, delightful, and in passing good liking to God himself: Moreover, being so clothed in this rob of innocency, all that was foul in her, and which disfigured her, is in such sort covered and defaced, that there appeareth no more uncleanness in any part of her, because jesus Christ (as S. Augustine sayeth) is as a sponge which wipeth us & cleanseth us from all our filthiness, which he taketh in exchange for the beauty, righteousness, and perfection, which he communicateth unto us: Wherein we aught to acknowledge and to adore this great and incomparable love which he beareth us, and which he hath truly and in effect showed unto us, heaping upon us at the day of our marriage so great and precious joys: although he receive nothing of us in dowry, but old baggage altogether covered with thick and filthy dirt: to wit, even our imperfections and iniquities.  
We receive then, in doing this thing two great commodities of his righteousness, 
Christ delivereth us from death, and giveth us eternal life.  which serve us for two purposes: to wit first to draw us out from the mire and clay wherein we were buried: to deck us with goodly robes wherewith we are clad to make us beautiful: that is to say, to deliver us from the malediction and curse, wherinto we were fallen: and then on the other side to bless us and to bring us into favour with God his father, to draw us back from poverty, and to enrich us: to raise us up from death, and to give us life: to draw us from hell, and to make us mount up into heaven. Even as jesus Christ on the one part hath delivered us from fear, terror and torment of conscience, sparring and shutting up hell gates: so on the other he hath set us in a certain and undoubted hope of everlasting life, and of a blessed rest, opening his paradise unto us. 
Apoc. 1. 18.  This is that, which is said of him in the scripture: that he keepeth the keys of death and of life: the one, to make fast and shut up the gate, which was always open to swallow us up and devour us: and the other, to open unto us the kingdom of heaven, which was always locked and shut against us. By mean whereof at his death the vail that let the entrance into the Sanctuary was broken and cleft into two parts: 
Mat. 27. 51.  to the end that that way might be made open for us, and that every one might have a mean and liberty to come unto God, and to present themselves before him with confidence. This is the cause that Paul writing to the Hebrews said: 
Heb. 9 10.  that by his flesh he hath prepared a way for us to heaven, to attain unto life. Forasmuch as he hath in that flesh rendered unto God for us perfect obedience: and by his death hath satisfied his righteousness for our sins, obtaining for us by this means, the forgiveness of our sins, and through this remission righteousness, and by righteousness the grace and favour of God, and by Grace, life: in such sort as we may now present ourselves to him in all assurance: 
Isay 33. 14.  who before was as a consuming fire, to consume us and bring us to nothing etc.: but now by the means of jesus Christ is a shadow to relieve and refresh us again. 
By jesus Christ alone we have access unto God the father.   
This is the reason for which jesus Christ was figured by the ladder which jacob saw when he steeped, whereupon the glory of God rested itself. 
Gen. 28. 12.  Forasmuch as in the humanity of Christ dwelled the fullness of the Divinity bodily, 
Coloss. 2. 9  because by it God descendeth down unto us: Even as jesus Christ having taken our humanity, 
Isai 7. 8.  was called Emmanuel, which is as much to say as God is with us, so also we through him mount up as it were by degrees to heaven, 
Mat. 1. 23.  where our conversation is, 
Philip. 3. 10.  & whereof at this day we are Citizens & of the household of God. 
Ephes. 2. 19  Being then very God and very man of two diverse natures, the one divine and the other humane, which are conjoined and united together inseparably, without any confusion or division: in that he is God, we must go unto him to be in safety, and to live happily: and on the other side in that he is man, he is the way by which we must march on to attain to everlasting life. 
S. Augustin  So then we must go to jesus Christ that is God, by jesus Christ that is man, by the word that is made flesh, to the word which was in the beginning with God, and by the bread which men eat unto the bread which Angels eat.  
And there is no need that we seek for any other but him, 
All our felicity consisteth in Christ alone  whether it be to rest ourselves in, or to lead and direct us thither. For being God, he is the sovereign God, and the end whereunto all our appetites and desires aught to be directed. And when we are come thither, there is the place where we must rest and altogether repose ourselves: forasmuch as he is perfect and replenished with all virtue & righteousness, which he communicateth unto us, by means of that communion and fellowship that we have with him. To conclude then, he is the way that must lead us to our felicity, and the only mean to make us attain thither. When we are washed with his blood, this is it that preserveth us from that destroyer, this is the cloud that shroudeth us from being burned & consumed with the extreme heat of the wrath of God, and the liberty whereinto we must retire from the fury of the enemy that pursueth so hard after us. To be short, this is the gate of salvation and the haven where we must harborre and save ourselves in the time of tempest.  
This is the cloak under which we may obtain the blessing of God, 
We obtain through Christ the blessing of God.  as jacob obtained that of his father Isaake, being disguised with the apparel of his elder brother Esau. And as the high Priest never appeared before the face of God, 
Gen. 27. 19  without his holy embroidered garments, his Ephod, 
Exod. 28. 2.  his rob, and his other priestly apparel, without which he could not find any favour when he appeared in his presence: Even so (to follow the truth of this figure) we aught never to present ourselves before God (if we will be accepted and received of him,) but we must be clothed and decked with the righteousness and innocency of his son: wherewith if we be once covered, we need not fear that we shall be rejected and despised of him, or that there is any enemy whosoever he be, that hath any power to hurt us. For such armour can defend us even from the wrath of God itself, against which no other thing can resist.  
It is written that Alexander having conceived a great hatred against the city of jerusalem, 
joseph lib. 11. de antiqui. judaic. cap. 8.  was fully resolved utterly to destroy it, because that laying siege to the city of Tyr the inhabitants of jerusalem had refused to help him with victuals and other munition which he had demanded of them. Now after that he had taken Tire, he marched forth with all his army against jerusalem, with full purpose utterly to destroy it. The which thing when the high Priest named jaddus understood, he appareled himself with the holy garments of the high Priest, and so presented himself before Alexander, who upon the sudden, when he saw him in this habit, alighted from his horse, and bowed his knees before jaddus, and reverenced him, and showed him great honours, and great love to the country, and gave great gifts to the temple. Now if an enemy so furious and terrible were so suddenly appeased, at the only sight of this high Priest so appareled (who was but a figure of jesus Christ:) what shall it be when jesus Christ shall appear in his glory and all his members with him, clad and covered with his righteousness, and showing themselves to all the world, in such and so magnifical and glorious apparel? Shall not the devils and hell bow their knees then for fear when they shall see him in his majesty and in such excellent glory?  
Let us conclude then that being garnished and covered with the righteousness of jesus Christ, we can have no lack of strength and might to vanquish and overcome our enemies, nor of any other thing that may make us perfectly happy what soever. 
S. Ambrose.  As S. Ambrose writeth very elegantly, in his second book of Virginity, that jesus Christ is unto us, all in all things: If we be sick, he is our physician: If we have an Ague, and that we are altered, he is our fountain: If we be laden with iniquity, he is our righteousness: If we be weak and wearied, he is our strength: If we fear death, he is our life: If we desire to mount up to heaven, he is our ladder: If we have been darkness, he is our light: If we have houngred, he is our bread and nourishment. Whereupon we may perceive and know the great riches and commodities that jesus Christ bringeth unto all them that possess him.  
Now having showed that there is no other righteousness, 
The third point showing in whom the justice of God is, and how a man may obtain it.  but the righteousness of Christ, which can be sufficient to bear the rigour of the judgement of God, and that may enable us to appear and answer there: it remaineth now that we declare upon what matter it worketh and where it resteth & dwelleth: how it may be obtained: and in what sort a man may assure himself of it: finally, having obtained it, what fruits it bringeth forth in us.  
First the righteousness of Christ hath two principal parts, 
The righteousness of Christ hath two parts.  to wit justification, and Sanctification, that is to say: when it is communicated unto us, although that before we were the wickedest in the world, and guilty of death before God, and moreover, that our nature was altogether corrupted and teynted in every part of it: 
How we are justified.  notwithstanding all this, we are holden and reputed for righteous before God, and are allowed and received of him for his children and heirs, when we are provided of this righteousness, and when we are clothed with it, he giveth us his holy spirit, to lead us and conduct us (as a schoolmaster doth his children) and for to sanctify, instruct and strengthen us in all his ways. And that this is true. S. Paul writeth, 
Rom. 4. 22.  not only that it was said of Abraham that his faith was counted to him for righteousness: but also that we shallbe accounted righteous before God, as he was, if we believe in jesus Christ: Also, God was in Christ and reconciled the world to himself, 
2. Cor. 5. 19  not imputing their sins unto them. And joining both these parts together in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, he said to them speaking of their life, that they had been altogether led in wickedness, and were dissolute in all kind of mischief: but that they were now washed, 
1. Cor. 6. 11.  justified and sanctified in the name of jesus Christ, and through the spirit of God.  
Now if we will know by what mean this is done, 
We are justified and sanctified by the righteousness & holiness of Christ.  we must note, that being united by faith in our Lord jesus Christ, and graffed in him, (as members in their body,) that he is then become our head, and we are joined to him as the husband to his wife. By means whereof he chargeth himself with all our debts, 
The first reason.  and appointeth himself to be the answer and pledge for us, to the end he may pay all for us and thoroughly acquit us of all, that we are indebted and bound for, offering himself to satisfy the righteousness of God, by his own death, to the which death we were bound by reason of our sins: 
Galat. 3. 13  and to deliver us by his Cross, from the curse, to which we were likewise subject, for having disobeyed the will of God, and broken his law, in a thousand and a thousands things: he hath also razed out our disobedience, 
Rom. 5. 19  by his obedience, which being so perfect & accomplished in all points, he hath supplied and made amends for all our faults and imperfections, and for the duty wherewith we were bound to God with all our might, being his creatures, children and servants. The death then which jesus Christ hath suffered, the sacrifice which he hath offered, the curse which he hath borne, & the obedience that he hath rendered: all this was done in our name, and for our discharge, and is received before the judgement of God, for acquittal in full payment and discharge of all our debts, in such sort that no more can be demanded again of us, he having through his innocency fully satisfied that promise which he had made for us. Behold the first reason, why the righteousness of jesus Christ is imputed unto us and accepted of God in his judgement.  
The second reason is, 
2. Reason.  that being knit and united together by marriage, 
Ephe. 5. 30.  both we and he are but one body and one flesh: and there is a mutual communion between us. And as he participateth with our afflictions, miseries, poverties and infirmities, so when we are persecuted by tyrants, he complaineth with us and lamenteth our adversities and sorrows, likewise, when we are hungry, sick, diseased, in prison, etc. he beareth and endureth all our calamities with us. We also on the contrary part are partakers of all his benefits, graces and gifts which his father hath bestowed upon him: and in general, of all that he hath done and suffered for our salvation and redemption: we are anointed, as he was, with the oil of his holy spirit: we are dead and buried with him, and we are raised up and carried into heaven with him where we are set at the right hand of God his father, 
Rom. 6. 4.  as he is. 
Coloss. 3. 1.  We are inheritors together with him, 
Ephe. 2. 22.  and we have part in his glory, in his rest & in all his felicity, 
Rom. 8. 17.  by mean of his righteousness, obedience & innocency, of all which through his grace we are made partakers. Also, of his death, sacrifice and satisfaction. And to conclude, 
A similitude.  as merchants which are of one company & become partners, are partakers alike of all the profits and damages which grow of their merchandise: even so jesus Christ, by reason of that society we have together with him, giveth us a part, and we likewise give him, of all that we have and possess. The difference that is in this, is, that the gains & losses, that come of the traffic that is exercised amongst men is equal and common amongst them all, but here we gather up all the fruits that arise of the righteousness of jesus Christ: he on the contrary part taketh upon him, and chargeth himself with all the damages and losses that came of our disobedience.  
The third reason, 
3. Reason.  for which the righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us, 
Ephes. 1. 2.  is, that being knit to him, as the members of a body are to their head (the which, by means of this conjunction receive thence one influence which giveth them life, and distributeth to each their motions & senses according as is fit for their nature, and as is requisite for their actions) we receive from him as S. Paul sayeth, our life, our nourishment, our growth, our force and strength: for the enabling and disposing of us to do those good works that belong unto our vocation. And by reason of this conjunction there is such an union betwixt him and us, that as he communicateth with us in our afflictions: so we likewise on the other side communicate with him, in his riches: we are righteous by his righteousness, we are acquitted by his satisfaction, we are quickened to life by his death, and obey God through his obedience. 
A similitude.  And even as in a natural body, the power that the eye hath to see, serveth more to the use of the other members then for itself because that seeing and marking them all it is watchful rightly to guide them and to direct every one of their actions, not being able in the mean time to see themselves, nor to serve itself: even so the righteousness, innocency & obedience of Christ jesus, stand us in more stead than him, seeing that notwithstanding he had all these things, and it was in his nature, life, and whole conversation absolute and perfect, yet for all this, he was condemned and crucified. We on the contrary part albeit his righteousness, innocency, and obedience be only imputed unto us, yet for all that, by means of this imputation we are absolved, justified and discharged of all our sins, and of all accusations that all our enemies can bring against us.  
The other part of the righteousness of jesus Christ consisteth in the sanctification not only of us but also of our works. 
The 2. part of the righteousness of Christ.  For although that there is not (as Paul saith) any fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, 
2. Cor. 6. 14.  between light and darkness, between the temple of God and Idols: yet for all this, when jesus Christ will join us with himself, and will choose us and consecrated us, to the end to devil in us, as in his temple: 
S. Augustin  he sanctifieth us first by his spirit & prepareth the house where he will devil. And because it is over straight to entertain so great a lord, he enlargeth it: and whereas it is old and ruinous, he repaireth it and buildeth it new again: whereas it is stinking and full of filth, he sweepeth and cleanseth it. And to be brief, where as it is naked and unfurnished, he furnisheth and decketh it. And even as, when he would be borne of the Virgin Marie, and before he would be lodged in her womb, he sent his servants before him, that is to say, his spirit, to the end to take it up for him and to set his mark there: so also when he willbe conceived in our hearts, and be borne of us, he prepareth and regenerateth us before, sanctifying the place where he will make his abode.  
Now this sanctification consisteth in four points. 
The sanctification of the faithful consisteth in 4. points.  The first is, that we feel and confess our sins, and that we accuse, condemn, and detest ourselves before God as miserable and accursed in all points. 
1. Hatred & detestation of evil.  The second is, that we have a settled zeal and fervent affection to the study and exercise of good works, searching out, 
2. A love and endeavour to good.  with all diligence, all the means & ways to apply ourselves to good: and shuming on the contrary, 
3. Resistance against temptations.  all the things that may turn us away from it. The third is, that we fight courageously against all the desires and concupiscences of our flesh, and that we be strong and resolved against all the other temptations of the devil and the world, whether it be that we are sweetly enticed or flattered thereunto, or violently drawn and enforced. And that we be not cold and white lyvered in these combats, but hardy, vigilant, and attentive to espy and to take all occasions, 
4. Continual invocation for God's favour.  whereby we may resist, and vanquish all our enemies. The fourth is, that as we continually sin, so we also as often diligently pray unto God, that it will please him of his great mercy to pardon our offences. And as the people of Israel, going through the deserts, had to sight oftentimes against the serpents, and when they were stung and smitten by them, for to be preserved from the venom and from death, they lifted up their eyes toward the brazen serpent that Moses had set up amidst their tents, by sight whereof they were healed: we in like manner fight against our concupiscences, if it come to pass at any time that they give us any blow, to the end that this stripe may not be deadly unto us, we must lift up our eyes towards jesus Christ hanging upon the Cross, and beseech him that he would forgive us all our trespasses. 
What it is, to apply a man's self to good works.   
Now when it is said that to show our sanctification by the effect we must apply our selves to good works, it may not be understand that it is enough to exercise ourselves in one or in two, leaving the rest behind: as many do, who do not take nor use the word of God, but in that only where it is agreeable and may be referred (they think) to their appetite: but it is needful to embrace it wholly, and not to think that we can do our duty in any sort whatsoever, unless we enforce ourselves to keep all the commandments of God, without omitting the lest point or title thereof. Even like as to be healthy in our bodies, 
A similitude.  it is not enough, not to have the plague or a pleurisy, but generally to be free from all diseases: even so to be holy in our souls, we must be clean from all spots and defilings: and we must take the whole law of God, as an universal rule of all our thoughts, affections, words and deeds, to the end to keep it from point to point, and not to omit any thing which is there commanded us. 
A similitude.  And what would it profit in a city, diligently to watch at one gate and to keep it shut against the enemy, if in mean while all the rest stood wide open to him? even so likewise it is to no purpose to keep ourselves from one vice, unless we make account, and conscience to abondon ourselves from all others: like as amongst archers (as sayeth Aristotle) there is but one only mark whereto they must direct their arrows to shoot well, and yet many means to miss and shoot short: so is there but one only holiness, whereunto we must aspire, which is a settled desire, fully resolved wholly to obey God. But there are many kinds of vices and means to disobey him, and to withstand his william. We conclude then, that to be applied to good works, it must not be done to halves, but perfectly & without exception to take care and endeavour to keep all that God commandeth.  
But here a question must be resolved, 
Of the perfection of works.  and that is: that if to do our duty, and to satisfy the will of God, we must be perfect in every kind of virtue. And we can not otherwise be Saints and Christians, unless we have in perfection all the points of holiness. The Philosophers and schoolmen, 
The opinion of the philosophers & schoolmen.  they say that this is necessary, and that a man can not be said to be virtuous unless he have attained to the fullness and perfection of all virtues: But the scriptures & the ancient fathers they speak otherwise. 
Sentences of the scriptures and ancient doctors.  For S. Paul sayeth, that the mind is accepted according to that it hath: that is to say, 
3. Cor. 8. 12.  that we are accepted of God when we employ that portion and measure of power and strength which he hath given unto us to the end to do well, and he is contented with that, although we lag somewhat behind, and in a great sort of things come very short of that end and perfection, which is propounded and set out unto us in the law. And the self-same Apostle confesseth, that he had nothing, but that same only will: 
Rom. 7. 18.  To will is present with me (sayeth he:) but I find no mean to perform that which is good. Abraham sacrificed his son, 
Gen. 22. 16.  no otherwise then in effect, & he had nothing but the same will which was imputed unto him, as if he had accomplished all that was commanded him. So as God himself witnesseth of him, saying: Forasmuch as thou hast done this thing, and to obey me hast not spared thine only son, I will bless thee and multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven. jesus Christ shall say unto his elect, which shall be on his right hand in the day of judgement: 
Mat. 25. 34  Come ye blessed of my father: inherit ye the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. Forasmuch as when I was hungry ye gave me meat, etc. This is certain that among the elect, there was some who being holden in poverty, or for lack of ability, or by some other let, did not that, which Christ shall say there they did, which things themselves confess not to have done in the same place alleged: And yet for all this, it shallbe said unto all, not because all have done those things, but because they had a will to do them. Moreover, if in respect of vice, the will only be enough to convince and condemn a man, and that he is accounted an adulterer before the judgement of God, who hath only looked on his neighbour's wife to lust after her: and that he is also reputed a manqueller, that hateth his brother: even so likewise in respect of good works we must not doubt but the good will, and desire we have to perform them is accepted and approved of God though always the effects follow not so soon and so excellent as we desire.  
As touching the ancient fathers, they say the self same thing, 
S. Ambrose.  S. Ambrose upon S. Luke, affirmeth that the righteousness of a Christian man consisteth more in the will, then in the work, and that it aught rather be measured by the affection then by the effect. But in the book which he hath written De fuga mundi, he sayeth, it is a hard thing for one to keep himself wholly from vanity, and that it is impossible altogether to departed from it, otherwise then in will and desire alone. 
S. Augustin  S. Augustine upon the first Epistle of john sayeth: that the whole life of a Christian is no other thing but an holy desire and good will: And in his 9 book of the Trinity, he hath a saying serving to this purpose worthy to be noted: He (sayeth he) that knoweth righteousness and loveth it perfectly, that man is righteous, notwithstanding that outwardly he hath not yet showed by his works, in any sort, that good affection of his heart. To conclude, look where and how often so ever God hath commended unto us the study and keeping of his law, he doth it always in these terms: Thou shalt take heed to do those things which I command thee: To give us to understand that the principal point that he requires of us, is, that we have a desire to please him, and a ready good will to do that, which he hath commanded us according to that grace and strength that he hath given us, which is the thing that he most esteemeth in us. As we see a father a great deal more to content himself with that his son doth, be it never so little, then of all that his servant can do: because he esteemeth their works not according to their greatness, or the pain and time that they have spent in doing them: but according to the will and readiness which they have that do them.  
We must then conclude, that the holiness of a Christian man, the duty & diligence which maketh him to employ those graces that he hath received of God, to profit in his fear, and continually to better himself in the exercise & grougth of good works, are imperfect in many respects. 
jeronim.  And as S. jerom sayeth: the perfection of all the righteousness that is in the flesh is maimed: & to be perfect it is necessary that we acknowledge, confess, and feel with an inward feeling, that we are imperfect. S. Augustine confirmeth the same, 
S. Augustin  saying: that a righteous man's virtue may be said to be perfect with this condition, that his perfection consisteth in having the knowledge of his imperfection, and in making humble confession thereof before God. And how soever there be great lack in us in this point, & that our righteousnesses are as unperfect beginnings in this world: yet nevertheless, we must not think that he will reject and deny them: For he is not as other creditors rigorous and not to be entreated, who will not be contented with him that is bound before they be paid and satisfied the uttermost farthing: but he is gentle and gracious, and is pleased with us, when we deny not our debts, and will not excuse ourselves in this, that we are not able to pay: but without all dissimulation or constraint, we frankly and freely confess, showing him the desire we have to satisfy him, which yet we can not do (by reason of our poverty) and therefore humbly beseech him that he will take in good part that little we have, and offering that unto him, which he hath given us of his own special grace.  
When we thus submit ourselves wholly unto him, and pray him to use such favour and gentleness as shall please him towards us, we likewise bearing and showing such a sincerity and uprightness towards him in the affairs we have to do, there is no doubt but he will in like manner take in good part that little which we present unto him: and that both we and our works (how imperfect so ever they are) shall be accepted and approved of him, in the favour of his son, as if they were perfect, and absolute in every point. 
A similitude showing that god rejecteth not his children though they be imperfect.  For a father casteth not away his children, because they are sick, croak backed, blind, or maimed of hand or foot, or otherwise counterfeit and imperfect: but handleth them more tenderly, & dealeth more softly with them, then with the others, respecting their debility and feebleness. We cast not away wine though it have lies or grounds, nor gold how soever it be covered with dirt. A husband man refuseth not land, though it be overgrown with brambles and briars: but will use the greater diligence to stock it and to plough it, hoping with his diligence, that it will bring forth fruit plentifully: God likewise will not refuse and put us away, because he seeth many imperfections and infirmities in us, nay rather that is an occasion, that he will take the greater pity upon us: 
Psal. 103. 13.  as David sayeth: Albeit (sayeth S. Ambrose) the light be oftentimes hidden by a cloud, 
S. Ambrose.  which is carried before the sun, yet therefore it is not quite put out. And the sun ceaseth not to be the sun, though his beams be stopped, and can not pierce unto us: even so likewise howsoever our faith oftentimes be disfigured, and corrupted by many errors, doubtings and distrusts: it is not therefore quite choked, 
Two notable questions.  and we leave not to be faithful for these imperfections.  
But before I end this matter, it is meet, that we yet handle two points: 
1. Why God accepteth the imperfect works of his children.  one of which, is the reason, why our holiness is acceptable unto God, and the service which we do unto him, seeing both the one and the other are imperfect: and seeing in his law he rejecteth all the sacrifices, 
2. Why the faithful are not perfectly regenerated in this world.  which had in them any imperfection at all. The other point is concerning the cause wherefore he regenerating & sanctifying us by his holy spirit, hath yet left such an heap of vices and imperfections in us, and so much corruption in our nature and life, which notwithstanding all the diligence and labour we can, to correct and mortify it, yet we can not come any thing ●eare, to be wholly delivered and exempt from it. 
An answer to the first question.  Touching the first of these two points, there are two reasons, for which our virtues and works are approved & accepted before God, how imperfect so ever they be. One is, because jesus Christ hath covered and taken them under the cloak of his righteousness, assoon as we are united and knit unto him: so as no such spot appeareth in us that can offend God. And for that he is our Mediator towards God his father, we see God no otherwise then in him and by him: As the father in like manner will not see nor behold us other where then in jesus Christ, & through his humanity as members and parts of his body. And this is the cause that maketh us to appear altogether other than we are: 
Similitudes  For even like as looking aside through any glass, be it blue or yellow or of any other colour, all the things we see seem to us to be of the colour of the glass, through which we did behold them: So God also beholding and looking upon us in his son, we seem to him to be of his colour, and we have the appearance and brightness of his innocency and righteousness: which causeth that in seeing and touching us, he thinketh he seeth & toucheth his own natural Son. As Isaac speaking to jacob his younger son, and feeling his neck and hands, thought it had been Esau his eldest son. The other reason is, that the grace of God's spirit, being mingled with our works, our works derive & fetch from thence their greatest dignity, beauty, 
A similitude.  estimation & free strength, as when we mingle water with wine in a cup or in a glass, that which is taken in there is called wine, though water be mingled with it: and albeit there be more water than wine (as it may be) yet that which is the more principal and most precious part of all, beareth the name: even so the works which we do by the grace of God, be it that they have a great many spots and imperfections, as they proceed from us, yet for all that, they hold always the name and reputation of him, who is their principal author.  
Concerning the second point, 
An answer to the second question.  which is to know the reason why God doth not wholly regenerate and sanctify us, from the first hour that he calleth us to his knowledge: seeing that all his works are perfect, and that the law requireth of us, that we should be holy as he is holy: that is to say, that we should be wholly and perfectly holy. We must mark, in very deed, that our regeneration and sanctification are works of God which are perfect and absolute, as all that he doth is: But this perfection is successive or by degrees. As we see that it is in many of his creatures. 
Similitudes  Seed cast into the earth doth not by and by sprout, increase and come to his perfection: but by space and length of time, it attaineth to his perfection and ripeness, in that season that God hath appointed. A tree likewise, is not perfect assoon as it is planted. An infant is not straight ways upon the sudden assoon as it is conceived in the womb of his mother, become a man but with time: even so we are not all at the first dash regenerated. But this regeneration riseth by degrees, and being once begun, than it proceedeth fair and softly by little and little increasing every day, till we come to everlasting life in the heavens. And in that God delighteth so to regenerate and entirely to reform us, to make us altogether new creatures, 
Three reasons why God differreth to regenerate us perfectly.  he doth it for three great and weighty reasons. First, because he would humble us, forasmuch as being naturally inclined to presume to much of ourselves, we have great need that this pride be kept under: and that this mischievous inclination which we have to such manner of arrogancy should be digged up and rooted out of our hearts: which thing God doth after that he hath adopted us leaving us subject to many miseries and diseases, aswell of the body as of the mind, to the end that by this mean we should be barred from lifting up ourselves in any opinion and admiration of ourselves, and that we should not speak more biggely and proudly than we aught: and herein he maketh of a poison, a remedy and preservative against the poison that is in our nature: as we see by experience to be done in the confection of treacle. For even like as of the flesh of the viper men make a sovereign and excellent remedy against the biting of them: 
Similitudes full of great consolation.  even so God maketh of those infirmities that remain in us after our regeneration, and which of themselves are deadly and damnable sins before him, an healthful remedy to correct and repress the other vices & diseases, which are a great deal more pernicious: as is arrogancy and vain confidence of ourselves, contempt and forgetfulness of God, and such other like pestilences which would kill us suddenly, if they were not speedily prevented. Which thing our good God doth, who knowing the danger wherein we are, as a good father is more careful for our good & salvation than we ourselves. By mean whereof, he preventeth and cutteth of the way that leadeth to the danger of death (wherein otherwise we are) by these afflictions & diseases, which always putteth us in mind and setteth this medicine before our eyes, driving us to search after him & to require aid at his hands. He dealeth with us, as a judge in some criminal process, who will give an enlargement, but yet with condition, or as they say with a quousque, that is, till the time that he calleth it back, and putteth him in his former estate wherein he was before, if it happen that he fall into any new fault again. The judges do this to keep them always in fear and diligence, to do their duty, and to stop them from taking to great liberty. God likewise doth so with us, when he will pardon our sins and set us at liberty, leaving us notwithstanding a great sort of infirmities and imperfections, which may always serve him, to charge us, and for matter to call us to a reckoning, when we would wind out of that bondage, and boast ourselves abroad of the goodliness of our reason and loyalty.  
The second reason is, 
The 2. reason.  because he would correct our ingratitude, which is a vice as natural to us as presumption. For there is nothing, into which we fall so easily, as into the forgetfulness of God and of his benefits, which we have received of him, especially when we are at ease and in prosperity, which maketh us wanton, and bereaveth us oftentimes of our senses and understanding, which is an other of the most pernicious vices that can be and provoketh the heavy wrath and judgement of God against us. And this is the cause, why he leaveth us always in such necessity to the end he may meet with such an inconvenience and give us occasion to seek after him. 
A similitude showing the wisdom of God in governing those that he his.  Again he doth us not all the good he will do, at one clap, fearing lest that we would utterly abandon and lose it. And herein he doth as a father of an household well advised, who at the first dash doth not much advance his servants: but doth for them by little and little, the better always to put them in comfort and hope to receive advantage at last, to the end that by this mean, they may be holden in service, and not depart from his house: even so, God during the time that we are in this world, giveth us more hope, than he doth benefits (and yet it is plain that the graces that he bestoweth upon us are infinite) for fear least that if he should make us great and rich at once, and should give us out of hand all the good that he keepeth in store for us, it would make us to abandon his service, as we see sometimes it happened to the jews by this occasion. 
jere. 22. 21.  As God reproacheth them by his prophet jeremy: I spoke unto thee when thou wast in prosperity, but thou saidest, I will not hear: this hath been thy custom and manner from thy youth, etc.  
The third reason, 
The third reason.  why God doth not at once defend & fortify us and that throughout, when he hath regenerated us, is, to the end that those infirmities which yet remain in us after our regeneration, should serve to exercise us, and to keep us from slothfulness and sleeping. 
S. Ambrose.  For having (as S. Ambrose sayeth) a rob or garment which is all to torn and unsewed, and which for this cause had need to be amended, we must occupy ourselves in repairing and amending the same: and must avoid by this mean slothfulness and idleness. Moreover, being so exercised we grow more strong and able to fight against the flesh and against all other enemies. Which thing was answered to S. Paul (when he desired to be delivered from that prick of the flesh that so continually troubled him) that he aught to content himself with the grace of God which is sufficient: 
2. Cor. 12. 9  the strength whereof showeth itself more in our infirmities then in our prosperities. Mark then that our diseases and afflictions stand us in stead and greatly profit us, when we suffer and bear them patiently, and we aught to content ourselves with the only will of God that sendeth them, and likewise we must way that the end of these imperfections, which he hath yet left in us after that he hath regenerate us, is, to keep us in obedience, and to bridle us, that we do not stumble and go astray. For even like as to be wise, it behoveth us to be fools (as S. Paul sayeth) and to the end we may see more clearly (as jesus Christ sayeth) to be blind: 
1. Cor. 3. 18.  even so that we may be perfect we must be imperfect, 
john 9 41.  and that we have fowl and dirty feet, it is to keep us occupied in washing them.  
Having now handled these two parts of Christ's righteousness, 
The 4. point where the righteousness of Christ is to be found.  it followeth necessarily to be known, what the matter is whereupon this righteousness worketh, where it resteth and is to be found either in him or in us. Where as the Sorbonicall sophisters say that we can not be otherwise righteous, then by the righteousness that is in us: we say clean contrary, to wit, that the righteousness which we must have to escape the judgement of God, is not in us, but in jesus Christ. 
2. Cor. 5. 21.  As S. Paul sayeth, that he was made sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. If we will therefore rightly understand, how his righteousness is attributed unto us, we must know in what respect our sin is attributed unto him: forasmuch as there is the like reason of the one, as there is of the other. But it is very certain that our sins were never effectually in jesus Christ: who being conceived by the holy Ghost was always holy, innocent, clean, and without spot: but our sins were only imputed unto him, 
Heb. 7. 26.  to the end that he should bear the punishment of them for us. In like manner, his righteousness is not essentially in us. For to what degree soever, of holiness or virtue we be come unto in this life, there is notwithstanding always in us a great many of disordered and unruly affections: in our understanding a great many of evil thoughts: in our mouths a great many of evil words: in our works a great many of imperfections and indirect dealings: in all our life there is so much corruption and filthiness, that of itself it is abominable and stinking in the sight of God. Whereupon a man may well know, that such a righteousness as that is that was in the son of God, neither dwelleth nor remaineth essentially in us, but only by imputation: to the end that thereby we may receive the reward. 
Coloss. 3. 3  And altogether like (as S. Paul sayeth) that our life is hid in him, and must not be revealed, till the time that he shall appear in glory: even so is our righteousness, the which appeareth not clearly enough, by reason of our imperfections, no more than our life doth by reason of our mortality and corruption, till the day that God shall appear in judgement in the person of his son.  
This is the reason why this righteousness is compared to a rob, 
The righteousness of the faithful compared to a rob.  according to that which is said in the Psalm: that the priests should be clothed with righteousness. For as a rob is not borne with us, 
Psal. 132.  and we have it not from our mother's womb as we have our skin: & it is not fastened to our bodies as the skins of beasts: even so likewise neither is the righteousness wherewith we are covered, as with a long rob, to the end that our imperfections may not be perceived. And this is a great benefit and mercy that God hath done and bestowed upon us, in that he hath not assigned it to ourselves nor put it over in our own hands, but hath provided a steward, to whom he hath delivered it in trust: forasmuch as we are so ill adviced, and so ill husbands, that had we once the ordering of it ourselves, the devil by his sleights and convayaunces would soon beguile us. For if our fore fathers who were so wise & endued with so many excellent graces, could not keep safely that original righteousness for so small a time, (wherewith they were adorned from the beginning) and were notable to preserve themselves for so little a while from the crafty fetches and snares of Satan, but that they lost it: What may happen unto us, which are not so wise as they were, if we should have the keys and charge of so great and precious a treasure, as is the righteousness of the Son of God?  
It is a great commodity and very good for a tree, 
diverse similitudes showing that it is not necessary that Christ his righteousness should be essentially in us.  that the life and sap thereof lieth hid in the root: For this is the mean to defend, and preserve it from the storms and frosts of the winter: even so is it for our profit, that our life and our righteousness are in jesus Christ, who is our foundation and root. For being locked up in so sure a place, it shall be preserved and kept for us against all those that would rob us or snatch it away from us by treason or violence. We see that kings and great lords, they neither meddle nor deal with any money, but they leave their revenues in the hands of their treasurers and receivers to dispose of them, contenting themselves when they have any need, or other affairs, to be purveyed and provided for, of that which is necessary: what need then is there that we should have our goods in our own hands, seeing that we shall lack nothing, that is needful for us? We have the grace of God, we are his children and consequently his heirs: we are enlightened, guided, strengthened, and comforted by his spirit: we are citizens of his kingdom, and servants of his household: to be short, we have all the profits, rents and commodities that grow of his righteousness: what would we desire more? Is it not enough that we gather the fruit of a tree, and that it always remain in his place, and that we carry it not away with us? In like manner also we must content ourselves to be partakers of the fruits of Christ his righteousness, albeit it be not essentially in us: but only by imputation, and in as much as through his only mercy it is bestowed upon us.  
But here a doubt may be moved, 
How we may be righteous by the righteousness of an other.  by the righteousness of an other, seeing that this is a personal quality, which can not be communicated to an other, no more than health, wisdom, strength and beauty. Now can I be otherwise in health, then by the health that resteth effectually in my body: how can it be then, that I should be righteous, by the righteousness, that dwelleth in an other? We must answer that this is done by imputation: And as a man may be acquitted of his creditor, 
The similitude of the debtor, acquitted by an other.  by the payment which some shall make of his own money in the name of the debtor: even so we may be righteous, by the righteousness of an other, when he is accepted in our name, as that is of jesus Christ, when we are united and knit unto him. All the members of the body without the eye, 
The similitude of the members of the body enlightened by the eye.  are altogether blind of themselves, and yet notwithstanding, they cease not every day to do their duties rightly. The feet go without stumbling, the hands without offending: in such sort that each one of them is led in his work by the light of the eye which illuminateth & directeth them: and as the sight of the eye is communicated to all the members of the body, who see by it and in it: even so we in like manner are profited by the righteousness of jesus Christ, which is imparted with us, as the sight of the eye with the members, to the end that we may use it in the judgement of God, there to be acquitted and justified, and pronounced altogether innocent and discharged from all our faults and offences.  
Now let us come to the other point, 
The first point showing by what mean, we may appropriate to ourselves the righteousness of Christ jesus.  which is, to know by what mean we may obtain this righteousness, and appropriate it to ourselves. The only mean is Faith as we may know by many places of the scripture. For S. Paul sayeth that the righteousness of God is by faith. Also: that righteousness is revealed in the Gospel, and communicated by faith. And in an other place: 
Rom. 1. 17.  being justified by faith, we have peace in our conscience. 
Rom. 5. 1.  And the Prophet also sayeth: 
Abac. 2. 4.  That the righteous man shall live by faith. And jesus Christ, in the word whereupon we altogether rest, 
john 3. 5.  sayeth: that who soever believeth in him, shall not come into judgement. And to them always that were sick, and were healed, he saith commonly, that their faith had saved them, to the end to teach us that faith is the mean, 
Faith is the only mean to fasten us to Christ, & obtain his righteousness.  which is necessary to obtain not only righteousness, but also the adoption of children, the undeserved favour, and blessing of our God, and generally all the benefits of jesus Christ. And altogether like as we apprehend colours by the sight, & sounds by the ear: even so we apprehend by Faith God's promises, in which he offereth life unto us and all other his graces. 
S. Ambrose.  As Ambrose sayeth: Faith is such a virtue and of so great strength, that it obtaineth all that God hath promised us we believing in him.  
But when we speak so of Faith, we understand not by this name a bore opinion which we may have of the truth or a simple persuasion and consent, 
What that justifying Faith is.  whereby we allow all that is contained in the scripture: but we understand by this Faith a lively apprehension of the truth of God's promises, and an assurance of his grace and favour in jesus Christ. Also, a full confidence that is sufficient to bear all the temptations, that can be laid upon us, and to beat down death, the devil, and all the gates of hell, and further to set itself against wrath, in the judgement and malediction of God, the which it turneth from us as a tempest & storm when we are threatened. Now when we erst said that the law containeth the promises of God, and in them his undeserved favour and grace, as the eye doth the colour, and the ear the sound, and the other senses their proper object: we understand this of the assurance and certainty only, and not of any carnal feeling. For the things that we believe, they can not be felt with the hand, nor seen with the eye, nor by any reason, or other sense of man be comprehended, and yet nevertheless they are more certain, than the things that we feel, because our senses may be deceived. As the eye which will judge a piece of wood in the water to be crooked, although it be very straight: But Faith when it is once grounded, & resteth itself upon the word of God, it is assured of all that is therein taught, and specially it embraceth jesus Christ and draweth from him everlasting life.  
And albeit that oftentimes, considering the estate & disposition of those matters, it seemeth to us that all things go quite backwards, contrary to that which God hath promised unto us: yet notwithstanding, in this case we must believe, 
Rom. 4. 18.  (as S. Paul sayeth) in hope against hope, and in no wise doubt, but his promises shallbe accomplished. For sooner shall heaven, earth, and all the world perish, than the lest jot of that which God hath promised us, and which is proceeded from his mouth, fail to be fully & wholly accomplished in his time. When our reason then, or sense will doubt of that which God hath said, or unsay and murmur against it, or any manner of way, distrust his promises, we must resist and set ourselves manfully with all our might against it, as Abraham did: and stay ourselves (as he did) wholly upon this, that God alway hath both will, and might to perform what soever he hath promised.  
And when we come to consider the corruption and vice of our nature, the rebellion of our will against the will of God, our infirmities & imperfections, our distrust also that we have oftentimes of his love, and other doubts that we make of his providence, 
How we must behave ourselves in temptations.  we must not then doubt, but that our faith is mightily assailed, and that we have to fight wonderful sharp and dangerous combats: but that we may avoid them, it is needful (as in all other temptations) to keep ourselves always to the word of God, and to make it a buckler against all that the devil, our reason, and sense can allege against his will, and those promises that he hath made unto us. 
S. Augustin  We must (as S. Augustine sayeth) shut our eyes from all that we may see, and from all considerations that may turn us away or fear us: and open our ears, only to hear and meditate upon that which God sayeth. And if on the one side considering the things that are present, we perceive ourselves a falling, & ready to be cast headlong into any distrust, we must on the other side for to comfort ourselves, behold jesus Christ, of whom we are members & sheep of his pasture, & we must oppose his righteousness against our vices, his life against our death: his obedience against our rebellion, his favours & rich grace against our wretchedness and poverty, his satisfaction against our debts, his mercy against our misery, his strength against our weakness and temptations, his merit and intercession, against all the accusations & informations which the law, our conscience and the devil himself can bring forth and allege against us: always thinking, that where sin aboundeth, there grace yet more aboundeth, & hath far more strength to save us then sin hath to condemn us. 
A similitude.  We must do, as they that go up into an high tower, who looking downwards & seeing the depth are afraid to fall, and that they may be the more sure they lay hold of the rails: even so must we always lean upon the righteousness and death of jesus Christ, and strengthen ourselves in that, to the end we may be preserved from falling down.  
Now having spoken of the mean whereby a man may say hold of the righteousness of Christ, 
Three questions depending of the former point.  and of the quality of Faith that apprehendeth the same: it remaineth yet, that we speak of three things. The first, whether that for the laying hold upon that righteousness, it be necessary that Faith be perfect. Then afterwards, whether it must be, that it must be clean from all vices: and lastly whether, it having been once received in our hearts, we can lose it afterwards, and be deprived of it.  
As concerning the first point, 
1. To wit, whether faith must be perfect for the apprehending of jesus Christ.  to wit, of the perfection of the law, it is impossible that ever we can attain it: in as much as we are compassed about with a mortal body, which is so gross and so slavish, and which fighteth without ceasing against the spirit, when it would lift up itself into any heavenly meditation: moreover, having such an heap of darknesses and false opinions in our senses and understanding, it is impossible that ever we should have any perfect knowledge of God, what diligence, pain or travel so ever we took to get it: having in like manner a heart entangled with so great passions and lusts which drives us hither and thither, to all vain affections, in such sort, that by reason hereof, we can not love God perfectly and so consequently have any perfect confidence in him: because confidence followeth love, even like as love followeth knowledge.  
The knowledge therefore and confidence that we have of God being imperfect, which are the two parts of Faith, it followeth hereof, that it can not be perfect, & that we have need continually to beg at God's hand, that he will augment it in us, and day by day stir us up in the meditation of his promises, which is the true mean to nourrish, increase, and augment Faith. And whereto serve exhortations, prayers, Sacraments, and such other exercises, if our Faith could be perfect here? seeing that all these are not ordained & fostered in the Church, to any other purpose, then to fortify, and increase the knowledge, zeal and affection of the faithful.  
Now let us come to the second point. 
2. Point whether Faith must be clean from all vices.  Seeing that our Faith is never perfect in this world, but is always mingled with an infinite number of infirmities which always remain in us, in such sort as there is none can say his heart is clean from all sin: and that we have need in respect of this, to beg of God in our prayers, that he will pardon us our offences, and making the confession of our Faith, to say: I believe the remission of sins: Notwithstanding all this that, as yet our faith is very weak & defiled with many imperfections, nevertheless it ceaseth not, to lay hold upon that, that it shall please God to bestow upon it. Not otherwise (for examples sake) them as a little child who with his little hands, 
A similitude of the force and strength of Faith.  or a poor man with his rugged, and scabby hands refuse not to take bread and other alms, that a man will bestow upon them, aswell as if they were greater and whole. Altogether like as diseases that are universal through out the whole body, 
another similitude.  (as is a burning ague) though they weaken all the parts of the same and specially the stomach, more than all the rest: yet nevertheless hinder not but that it may take a medicine, yea rather the disease is an occasion unto it to provoke it to take it: even so also it aught to be so far of, that the weakness of our Faith should keep us from embracing righteousness and the other benefits of jesus Christ, that it must prepare and dispose us to the contrary: 
Luc. 5. 35.  According to which jesus Christ sayeth to the Pharisees who thought themselves to be righteous, that he came not for their sakes, but to call sinners: adding the reason, to wit that they that are sick have need of the physician. And even like as our diseases and infirmities let not but that our faith, be it never so weak, is yet capable of the graces of God, & of all the righteousness of his son: even so the littleness of faith maketh it not less capable to be able to apprehended and embrace that righteousness: 
another similitude.  And like as altogether the Apple of the eye which is so little, and yet, for all that can apprehended the light of the Sun which is spread over all the horizon, yea and the Sun itself which is far greater, and more ample than all the earth: even so the eye of faith, albeit that it be very small, yet it ceaseth not to lay hold of the Sun of righteousness, together with his light, justice and other gifts, which are as great and as many in number.  
But now let us handle the last of the foresaid three points, 
3. Whether the elect can loose their faith.  that is to say: whether Faith being once received into our hearts, we can utterly afterwards lose, and forego it. For if having once received it, we can not be assured to keep it constantly to the end, we shall always be in doubt of our salvation. But if we be once persuaded and resolved in this point, that having been inspired by the spirit of God in our hearts, it will still there abide, and devil there for ever: this persuasion will always keep our spirits quiet and contented, and they shall always be joyful, yea in the midst of all temptations that may assail us. Wherefore it is very necessary for us to mark, and diligently to imprint in our minds, all the places of the holy scripture, in which God hath assured us of the continuance and perseverance of his grace and favour towards us, and of keeping us in the faith, and giving of all the other gifts that he will communicate upon us. As in the first place, this testimony of S. Paul would be marked, 
Rom. 8.  which sayeth: that Faith is joined with election, and so by consequence founded upon the counsel and will of God which is everlasting & immutable: Then afterwards that place of the romans where it is said: 
Rom. 11. 29  That the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, that is to say, irrevocable, when he hath once given them unto us. Also, 
Mat. 13. 12  that which is said in S. Matthew: That to him that hath, it shall be given. If then, we have by God's grace, Faith and the gifts of the spirit, let us be certain that they shall remain still with us, and look by the self same grace that they were freely bestowed upon us, by the same they shall be kept and increased. Also there is an other place of the Apostle, 
Rom. 8. 30.  that all they which were predestinate to life shall afterward be called, justified, and in the end glorified: If these four points, wherein is contained the whole sum of the salvation of God his children be so chained in order one to the other, by an immutable decree of God: we must conclude, that as our election is sure, stable & permanent, so also are the other effects that do necessarily follow it: Also that which S. john sayeth in his first Epistle: 
1. john 5. 18.  that he that is borne of God sinneth not, and the wicked toucheth him not, Also: that goodly protestation that the Apostle maketh for himself and all the faithful, 
Rom. 8. 38.  with so great assurance. I am (saith he) certain, that there is neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor things high, nor things low, nor any creature, that shallbe able to separate us from the love of God which is in jesus Christ our Lord. 
john 14. 23.  Also, that which jesus Christ sayeth to his disciples: If any man love me he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come unto him and devil with him. Whereupon we may note that he sayeth not, We will visit him, and so depart again, as many times we see friends do visit one an other: but he sayeth, we will abide with him: which is as much to say: We will hold ourselves to him, and devil continually with him, without ever departing from him.  
By all these places, and many more which might be rehearsed out of the scripture, it appeareth plainly that faith being once given us of God, it shall never be quite taken away from us, and so by consequence neither the grace of God, which always followeth it. And although it seem oftentimes for dead, as it was in David, when he committed so great and heinous sins one after an other: yet for all that, there remained always in his heart, a certain remnant of it, which for a time was hid as fire is under the Ashes. And like as when it is raked up it showeth not his brightness nor heat outwardly, until it be unraked and kindled in a flame: even so, it oftentimes falleth out with our faith, which is hidden and covered with many vices, which the most holiest Saints of God themselves do many times commit (even as to fall into diseases) the which continueth, till it please God to stir us up a new by his spirit, and to light us again, even like as when a candle is put out. We must judge then of our faith, as of a tree, which in wiuter seemeth to be dead, because it hath no fruit nor leaves nor any outward appearance of life: and yet notwithstanding it ceaseth not to live, & showeth that life, that was hidden within, outwardly, in the springe time, bringing forth flowers and leaves, and taking again his goodly hew: in so much as the sap and strength which keepte itself enclosed in the root during the time of the cold, spreadeth itself throughout all the branches, to make them green and fresh again: Even so likewise is it of Faith, which seemeth oftentimes to be quite dead in us, when it bringeth not forth any sense or feeling neither of God, nor of his promises, nor of his commandments or threatenings: And showeth not itself by any other wonted effect. Notwithstanding this, it is alive in us, and the life of it hath his being in jesus Christ in whom it is engraffed & planted. And as the strength of this root can neither be frozen nor dead: even so neither can the Faith of a Christian which is so deeply grounded within be altogether extinguished and dead being the root of all immortality, from whence it fetcheth his life.  
But before we end this matter, 
How the righteousness of jesus Christ may be distributed to all the faithful.  it is needful to consider one wonderful thing, to wit, how the righteousness of Christ, which is one only, may be also entirely distributed to every one of his members, without being divided and sundered in any respect.  
To answer this point, a man may say of it, as certain Philosophers have said of the soul of man, 
A similitude of the soul.  which is wholly throughout the whole body, and in every part a like: even so is the righteousness of jesus Christ, wholly in the body of the whole church, as the soul, to give it life and to maintain it. Then is it altogether, in every of the particular members, to make them strong, whole, stout and of courage to do all their offices and duties. The which thing a man may understand by two similitudes, one is of the voice, which being heard of a great many persons, is in such sort received of every one of them, 
Similitudes of the voice & the face.  provided that they be attentive, that the same is wholly understood, without being divided or sundered in any respect. The other similitude is of the face which may be received in many glasses, and wholly represented to all, without any division or separation of the same.  
Let us conclude then that a faithful man through faith embraceth the whole righteousness and all the fruits of the sacrifice of jesus Christ: and that, for this cause he can not be condemned or accursed before God's judgement, no more than his head with whom he is in separably knit & united. When any man is fallen into the water where he is up even to the chin, if he cannot be hurt, as long as his head is above the water: although that all the members and parts of his body be drowned and foundered: so also we cannot be stifled or hurt in the depths of death, 
A similitude.  seeing that jesus Christ our head, is always lift up above those depths, & for that upon the life and health of him depends the health and salvation of all his members.  
Now it is time to show by what signs and marks we may know, 
How we may know whether jesus Christ devil in us or no?  whether we possess jesus Christ, and whether he devil in us and we in him. S. Paul sayeth to the Romans: that being justified by Faith, we have peace in our souls: 
Rom. 5. 1.  which is an undoubted token that Christ dwelleth in our hearts, that is to say: when we feel there tranquillity and rest, and that we begin to be peaceable in our consciences: torments, bitings, anguishes, terrors and distrusts there ceasing: and when in the stead of all these, there cometh in place, joy, pleasure, consolation, and as it were a common feast where all rejoice. For then jesus Christ liveth in us and we in him: to wit, when all our thoughts, our meditations, our works and our delights, do carry us to him, as to the mark: And when we set him out to ourselves, to be our only glory, honour, riches, treasure, and the ground of all our hopes: and that we hold him as our chief and sovereign good, that is to say: when we neither know, desire, or seek after any other but him: and that we are enlightened, by his light and spirit, are made wise through his wisdom, and strong through his strength, and rich through his blessings, and righteous through his innocency, and blessed through his grace and favour: & when we will have no other master to teach us, nor other light to lead us, nor other sight to direct us, nor other truth to deliver us, nor other life to quicken us, nor other king to govern and defend us, nor other mediator to reconcile us, and make us at one with God, nor other advocate to plead our cause in his judgement, nor other gate to enter in at to his kingdom, nor to make us there rejoice of the perfect and full felicity, which he hath reserved & kept for his elect. And in general, when we neither seek, nor will have other fountain to quench our thirst, nor to satisfy our desires. See then how jesus Christ liveth in us and we in him.  
It is very true that the feeling, 
The perplexities and doubts that are in the spiritual life of the faithful.  which we have of all these things, is not always a like and the same in us. For as much as we are not always a like disposed, at one time as at an other: and we have not always a like desire to see or to hear the word of God, or to read it, or to confer with our brethren, which are more advanced in the knowledge and zeal of the service of God than we are. And likewise the spirit of God doth not touch and stir us up always a like. And this is the cause that in our faith, as in all other qualities, there is some time more and some time less, and that oftentimes it is more strong & lively, and then some times again more remiss and faint. 
A similitude.  For altogether like as we see that water is more hot or cold, according as it is near or far of from the fire: even so is it with us, according as we are more or less exercised in the word, and driven by God's spirit, we have more or less zeal and affection. And altogether like as the disposition of the body followeth the quality and temperature of the air, elements and exercises, to which we give ourselves: even so according to the places where we live, and the nourishment that we there take, is the estate of our souls and consciences. But be it that water be sometime hot and sometime cold, and that it change his qualities, sometimes one way, sometimes an other, yet is it always water: even so the man that is elect after his regeneration, is always faithful, how so ever in that he is the child of Adam, he be sometimes inclined to evil, and that his faith is not always in one and the self same estate, and that he is not always accompanied with the like zeal and affection. For oftentimes it cometh to pass that we feel jesus Christ to stir and move himself in us, and by and by after, we have no manner of feeling at all: but therefore he ceaseth not to devil in us, no more than our souls do to devil in our bodies when we sleep, although in sleeping we neither feel them, nor any of their operations. A woman who hath conceived and beareth in her womb a young child, feeleth it not always stir, notwithstanding when she hath felt it once or twice, she doubteth not but she is with child: even so it cometh to pass that we have not a continual feeling of jesus Christ, to assure us that he dwelleth in us and we in him: but it sufficeth that we have him when occasion serveth.  
There are some also that feel and taste in some sort the righteousness of jesus Christ: but on the other side they have a far greater feeling of their sins, which oftentimes maketh them to fear that they are not in God his favour. Concerning this point we must note, that we more feel that which is evil, then that which is good. For as we see by experience, we feel the calamities and miseries of war more than the fruits and pleasures of peace, & the griefs of diseases, more than the quietness of health, & the hardness of poverty, more than the profits and commodities of abundance & riches: by reason whereof we aught not much to marvel, if we feel the stingings and pricks of sin a great deal more than the consolations of the righteousness of jesus Christ: seeing that sin dwelleth in us & not righteousness, which thing is in cause that the one is more sensible than the other: Notwithstanding for all this we must not think, that sin is greater and stronger than righteousness, or that it can in any respect be compared unto it, or can be more able to condemn and destroy us, than the righteousness of jesus Christ and the grace of God is, 
A similitude.  to justify and save us. We have some times in the top of a finger, some pain or grief, which we feel a great deal more than the health that is all over the rest of the body, yea though it be much greater than the pain of our finger. Wherefore we must not esteem the greatness or the strength, whether it be of righteousness or sin, according to that feeling we have: because the one is always more sensible than the other: and specially for as much as we embrace righteousness only by faith which is of those things that are not outward and sensible.  
There are others also that feel nothing else but their sins: 
A remedy against the ●entation of the continual feeling of our sin only.  and therefore they live in continual fear and distrust, where out they can not wind themselves, having no taste at all of the grace and righteousness of jesus Christ, nor of any other mean, whereby it is granted unto us. Which thing (of a truth) is very dangerous: and they which feel themselves in such case aught earnestly to pray unto God, that it will please him to quicken them up, and to warm them through his spirit. And on their part it behoveth that they give themselves oftentimes to read and to meditate upon his promises, and that they frequent the Church, and hear exhortations, with the greatest attention they can, for as much as Faith is engendered by hearing. And although it come to pass that they do all these things without any great affection, 
A similitude showing that we must not be discouraged though we find not always in ourselves that good desire and taste that we aught to have, of the word of God.  yet must they not therefore think, that they are altogether unprofitable unto them, no more than a man that taketh bread and meat when he taketh and eateth it, without any great appetite. For although that he have not such a pleasure in eating, as if he were well an houngred: notwithstanding, that which he receiveth, ceaseth not to profit and sustain him, as we see in sickness: even so do prayers and other Christian exercises, to which such cold persons do give themselves. And how so ever they make them without any great zeal, yet for all that they cease not to profit them. And in every thing that cometh to pass, how soever it be that they feel their sins, they declare thereby that they are not altogether dead, nor utterly deprived of life, and that therefore it only remaineth for them to search the means how to encourage themselves, and to do even as a man would do to fire, when it is out, which when he will kindle again, he bloweth it, or to a lamp to which a man putteth oil when the light is going out.  
There are other some which neither have feeling of righteousness nor of their sins, 
A remedy against the spiritual blockishness or lack of feeling.  and these are altogether blockish, not thinking any whit of their safety, nor regarding to harken unto anything that is spoken, taught or showed to them for their help and recovery. Such diseases are very dangerous as are to man's body Apoplexies, 
Apoplexia is a disease engendered of cold humours, that taketh away a man's senses and feeling.  the falling sickness, Palseyes' and such other which are altogether cold, kill the natural heat, and choking all the senses. All that we can do for these, is to pray unto God to heal them, as he did the man sick of the Palseye, and that he will restore to them the use of their senses, that they may feel aswell the burden and wait of their sins, as also the consolation of his grace.  
The last point, 
The last point is of the effects of this righteousness in us after regeneration & that containeth 4. parts.  that we have to entreat of is of the effects, that this righteousness bringeth forth in us after our regeneration: whereof there are four principal parts.  
The first is of the mortification of the flesh: The second of the confession of Faith. The third of prayers: and the last, of charity.  
Mortification of the flesh consisteth in this, that we suffer not sin to reign in us: but courageously fight against all the concupiscences thereof, 
1. The mortification of the flesh.  obeying the spirit of the law of God, and groaning continually under the burden of our infirmities, crying to God without ceasing, that in this case he will make an end, and provide for us.  
Confession consisteth in this, 
2. The confession of Faith.  that we publish the means of our salvation, and that we witness it openly and evidently by our works and words, at all times when occasion is offered unto us: without being hindered through the fear of any danger what soever.  
As concerning prayers, 
3. Prayers.  it is necessary that evening and morning, before and after meat, and in the beginning and ending of all our works, we pray unto God and praise him, begging that in our prayers which he hath commanded us to axe, and promised to give unto us, with full Faith and assurance to obtain them: which we must ground upon his grace and promises, and upon the merit and intercession of jesus Christ our alone Mediator.  
As touching love, 
4. Charity.  first of all it is required that we love God with all our heart, with all our strength and with all our understanding, and then our neighbour as ourself, the which love of our neighbour that it may be right it must be referred to that love of God in such wise that it be the rule and measure thereof, and likewise of all other our affections.  
Now in observing of these four points, we must first take heed that we be not dull and slothful to do our endeavour therein. The which thing that we may avoid, we must seek out with all diligence every occasion to apply ourselves thereto, and take heed to avoid those things which may turn us away from it. Then afterwards we must beware that in no wise we distrust the grace of God, nor the service that we offer up unto him, but that we be certainly persuaded, that we together with our works, shallbe acceptable unto him, through grace, That having this persuasion we may go faithfully & cheerfully forward in our vocation.  
And finally, that we take good heed to ourselves, 
We must avoid presumption & an opinion of our selves.  that above all things we be not presumptuous. And to the end, to keep us from it, it is not enough, that we have no opinion of ourselves nor of our works: but as it is written in the Psalm: we must not desire any thing that is to high for us, 
Psal. 131. 1  but be content with that portion and measure of grace, that it hath pleased God to bestow upon us, and we must apply ourselves according to that power and mean that he hath given us: As S. Peter sayeth: 
1. Pet. 4. 10  Let every man as he hath received the gift, minister the same one to an other as a good husband and steward of the graces and gifts of God. For if we have received but two tallentes, and will make as great traffic with them, as he that hath received five, this is a presumption before God, who hath measured out and proportioned his gifts to our capacity, and requireth of profits and gains according to the quantity of those graces & gifts which he hath bestowed upon us.  
We have said in the beginning that the second judgement whereto we must answer concerning our righteousness, 
The second judgement where we must answer concerning our righteousness.  is that of the law, which is no other thing then the seat of God's righteousness, to which it is impossible for us of ourselves to satisfy, and we have neither works, thoughts, words, nor affections but they are to be condemned of God, if process be made out there for us, & we be to be judged in this court: 
Gal. 3. 10.  as S. Paul sayeth that all they which are under the law, 
2. Cor. 3. 7.  are under the Curse: and in an other place, 
Psal. 143. 2  he calleth the law the Minister of Death. And David speaking to God sayeth: Enter not into judgement with thy servant: For no man living shallbe justified in thy sight: 
Psal. 130. 3  Also in an other place he sayeth: O Lord if thou look upon our iniquities, who shall stand in thy judgement? For as much as this judgement is so entire, where all things are examined, in such sort, from point to point, that the brightness and light of the moon and stars, the righteousness and innocency of the Angels, shall hardly escape from being rejected and censured, 
job 25. 5.  as job saith. How then shall we be able to answer there, 
job 4. 18.  and what means shall we allege for our justification, that we may escape? 
Rom. 2. 12.  S. Paul saith, They that have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law. But seeing that they shall be condemned by the law, who have transgressed it: what shall we do then? we can answer and allege many things for our defence.  
First we can avoid this judgement and rid ourselves from it demanding to be sent before the throne of God's mercy: 
The way how to be delivered from the judgement and malediction of the law.  forasmuch as being free and delivered, we are not any longer under the law, but under grace: so as Moses is not now any more our judge but jesus Christ: to whom the father hath given authority and judgement. 
Galat. 4. 7.  Moreover mercy (as S. james sayeth) is above righteousness: 
john 5. 22.  which is as an inferior and lower court, 
jam. 1. 13.  from which we may appeal to that high and great court of God his mercy: wherein jesus Christ is set down and keepeth the highest place as chief presidente. And as it is he that is our advocate, so we are assured that he will give us a discharge in our favour. Wherefore if the law, Moses and the righteousness of God do condemn us, we must not therefore be afraid: forasmuch as this is such a simple sentence, as we may at all times appeal from it. To conclude, the law is as a receiver, which taketh account of our debts, which is so hard and rigorous that by no entreaty it will remit and pardon any thing of that we own, and will make us to pay to the uttermost farthing: But the Lord is he that stayeth & closeth up the count, to wit jesus Christ, being (contrary to the law) good, gracious and liberal, entreating us with all gentleness, neither demanding any thing of us but that which we be able to pay, and furnishing us himself with that which we lack, and acquitting us of his mere liberality of the overplus, so that presently it may be supplied in him.  
Furthermore we may yet allege in this judgement, that the law can not make our process: but jesus Christ, and the mercy of God be our assessors, who moderate judgement in such sort, that not only it can not be hurtful unto us, but very healthful for us. As the judgement of the woman taken in adultery, the figure thereof: 
john 8. 3. An allegory of our exemption from the judgement of the law by jesus Christ.  who being threatened before jesus Christ, by the Pharisees, who maintained that by the law of Moses she aught to be stoned to death, was notwithstanding all that they could allege, sent away by jesus Christ, without her accusers, or any others that were in their company, once interposing to hurt her in any sort what so ever: Only jesus Christ saith unto her, that hence forward she must take heed that she sinned no more: and so that condemnation which the ministers of the law had pronounced against her, was by Christ, turned into a simple admonition and instruction. A thing that aught well to be marked, 
The use of the law towards the faithful.  to the end we may understand what aught now a days to be the true use of the law towards the faithful: which condemneth them no more to death as it was wont, but teacheth and instructeth them of their duty, exhorteth them to that, and reproveth, and procureth, by all means so to direct, and bring them on, as they may be sufficiently enabled to go to the school of jesus Christ.  
The law and jesus Christ in like manner are as a Physician and surgeon, 
A comparison & difference of the law & the Gospel.  coming to a sick man to heal him. The surgeon openeth the vein, and taketh away blood from him, not to the end to make him to die, but as a remedy, appointed for the recovery of his health and safety. The law also pierceth our impostume, & sometimes maketh a great hole in it: but neither to the end to kill us, nor to hurt us: but to bring us into a good order, to the end we may be the more easily healed. Those sentences then, that the law pronounceth against us, they are profitable for us, for as much as they awaken us and make us to look to ourselves and to our affairs, and to be more diligent to search out the means whereby to bring us into good order.  
The last bulwark that we can set against the judgement of the law, 
The third mean, or defence against the judgement of the law.  is that jesus Christ hath fulfilled the same for us, as he himself witnesseth: that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. Which thing S. Paul also confirmeth saying: 
Mar. 5. 17.  that Christ is the accomplishment of the law in righteousness to all believers. 
Rom. 10. 4.  Wherefore we be not, in any wife subject to death, nor to the curse, that the law hath pronounced against them, that have transgressed it, seeing we are the members of jesus Christ, and that we have kept and fulfilled it in him. And as in Adam we were made sinners through disobedience: even so being incorporated into jesus Christ, we are righteous through his obedience: and so consequently exempt from the jurisdiction and power of the law: which can not exercise the authority, it hath to condemn us, but against them, that transgress, and are rebellious against it. When therefore we endeavour ourselves, to do our duty, to mortify, through his spirit the works of the flesh, there is not any condemnation to us, nor to all them that are in jesus Christ, who are by a lively Faith united to him, 
Rom. 8. 1.  engraffed & incorporated into his righteousness.  
The third kind of judgement whereof we spoke in the beginning of our division is the judgement of men: 
The third judgement against us, to wit, the judgement of men and of the remedies of the same.  which commonly is more corrupt and unjust, by reason of their ignorance & false opinions, which they conceive & frame in their own understanding: and likewise because of their passions and desires, which often times drive and carry them headlong contrary to their wil Wherefore we must not trouble ourselves much to satisfy that, especially in matters that appertain to religion and conscience. As in the doctrine of salvation, which we must not take from any other, but from the spirit of God, nor search for it any where else but in the law and the Gospel: where all is taught by the writings of the Prophets and Apostles. Wherefore there is no other rule of our Faith and obedience, but the only will of God, that is to say we aught not to believe any thing, as concerning our salvation, but that which he hath promised in his holy Gospel, nor do any thing for his service, but that which he hath commanded and ordained in his law. And when so ever it be found, that men will be so rash either to add, 
Our faith must not depend upon others.  or to diminish, or to altar any thing in the word of God, there a man may judge, and surely persuade himself of such, that they are false teachers and prophets: and so likewise of them that believe & submit themselves unto such by whom they are abused and deceived. This is the reason why S. Paul sayeth, that if he would please men, he should not be the servant of jesus Christ. And in an other place: If an Angel from heaven should teach any other Gospel then that jesus Christ and his Apostles have published, 
Gal. 1. 8. 10  that he would account him accursed. It is therefore needful to be taught that in these things, belonging to the honour and service of God, and to the salvation and rest of our souls, we rest ourselves altogether upon the scripture, and thereto bend ourselves as to the only mark, that we neither hast to much forward, nor lag to much behind. And further that we hang not upon the judgement of men, as whereby we may either be justified or condemned.  
Saint Paul writing to the Corinthians sayeth: 
1. Cor. 4. 3. 4. etc.  I pass little to be judged of you, or of the judgement of men, not I judge not my own self: forasmuch as I know myself not to be culpable in any thing, yet am I not thereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time, before the Lord come, who will bring all things to light, manifesting the things that are hid, and all the counsels and affections of the heart: them shall every one be praised of God. Hereby he would teach us not much to esteem the judgement of men be it in good or evil, because they are vain of their own nature, and if they praise us, this aught not to puff us up, or to increase the opinion we have of ourselves. Also if they dispraise or condemn us, we aught not therein to discourage ourselves having the spirit of God, his word and our own conscience, to sustain and justify us.  
We are at this day excommunicated of the Pope, and condemned and rejected from his presence and of the most part of men: and principally of them, who are in greatest estimation and credit of knowledge and wisdom, notwithstanding concerning the Pope, we aught to make no reckoning of him nor of all the sentences that he can pronounce and thunder out against us. For he is the enemy of jesus Christ, and consequently Antichrist: and an enemy of the light, forasmuch as all his works are evil: and of the truth, being the first Ambassador and minister of lying: and to conclude, an utter enemy to the salvation of men, and of the honour of God. Also he is the son of perdition, to cast away and to destroy all those, which will depend on his authority, and willbe brought to his opinion touching the estate and salvation of their conscience. Is not this he which beareth the name of blasphemy upon his forehead, 
Apoc. 13. 1.  to show that he would be the protector? It is not therefore to be marveled at, if he condemn and hold those for heretics, which love the honour of God, and employ themselves to advance the kingdom of jesus Christ.  
As concerning the great and wise men of this world we aught not also to discourage ourselves, if they set themselves with all their strength against the truth, whereof they have no knowledge as jesus Christ sayeth: 
Mat. 11. 25.  that his father hath hid from the great and wise of the world, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and hath revealed them to little ones. According to which S. Paul sayeth: 
1. Cor. 1. 23.  that he preached jesus Christ crucified, which was an offence to the jews, and foolishness to the Grecians: alleging that which is written in Esaie: 
jasy 29. 14.  I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will cast away the understanding of the prudent. And adjoining that same question. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made the wisdom of this world foolishness? jeremy sayeth also, 
jere. 5. 5.  seeing the people to make no account of his word: I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them. For they have known the way of the Lord, which the people knew not. But these also have broken the yoke, and have banded themselves together to speak against the word of God, as the others. All these places serve to show unto us, that God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise. And hereof it is, that we see now a days that the greatest men and they that are of most reputation in the world, do most obstinately resist the truth: and show by word and effects, that they are most blind in God his matters, taking darkness for light, sour for sweet, and sweet for sour.  
Now as the greatness and authority of men aught not to astonish us, nor any whit to move us, so also, neither the number and multitude of them. 
Mat. 7. 13.  Forasmuch as the way that leadeth to destruction is broad, and is chosen of the greatest number of persons who enter there, and go on in it because that men are naturally inclined to embrace errors and lies, and their is none, but the elect of God which believe and love the truth: who are a little number (as jesus Christ sayeth) in respect of the reprobate.  
We conclude then, that to the end we be righteous it is not needful that we satisfy men, nor conform ourselves to their judgement, in matters that concern the honour and service of almighty God, & the estate of the conscience: wherein oftentimes they err, because they leave the word of God which is the only way whereby by a man may well and rightly judge and define of these two points, and betake themselves to the judgement and definition of their own opinions and phantaseis, which are for the most part fond and ridiculous.  
There are two things in which we may apply ourselves to man's judgement, 
Of the use of civil & politic things.  that is to say, to things merely civil & politic, and to things indifferent. For it must not be that a faithful man be partial in policy, neither that he violate the public peace, as long as he may keep it & maintain it without offence to God, or trouble to the quiet of his conscience. But it behoveth that he obey the ordinances of the Magistrate, and keep the statutes, laws & customs of the country where he dwelleth, carefully watching that he give no occasion of offence, nor suspicion that he will innovate or altar any thing in the estate and policy of the common wealth.  
As concerning things indifferent, 
Of the use of things indifferent.  we must follow the counsel of S. Augustine writing to januarius: 
S. Augustin  that when the thing that is commanded of men is not contrary to Faith, nor to good customs, we must hold them for indifferent, & not gain stand in any thing what so ever: to the end to keep peace with those with whom we are conversant. For which cause Vitcor Bishop of Rome, was sharply reproved by Ireneus & other ancient fathers: because that for the diversity of ceremonies, which they kept in the celebration of Easter, he had separated his Church from the Communion of the east churches. The which thing was attributed unto him for great presumption and arrogancy, that he would go about, to subject all Churches to the Customs and ceremonies which were observed in his: and for having renounced the common confederation, in which he aught to have abidden united and fast knit, and not to have broken the chain of charity, which aught to have locked together alike all the members of the universal Church.  
The last judgement to which we must answer, 
The fourth & last judgement, which is that of the conscience.  is that of our conscience, which either ministereth unto us great consolations, or else great torments, according as it is either evil or well disposed. For we may say that a pure conscience, is a paradise, which we may have in this world: 
A good conscience is a paradise in this world.  forasmuch as there is not any thing which can bring us greater peace & contentment, be it in prosperity or in adversity. Even like as the body when it is in good health, is strong and able to bear the great storms & cold of winter, 
A similitude.  and likewise the excessive and untemperate heat of the summer: even so a conscience that is whole, & fully resolved, can bear stoutly all accidents, without yielding or shrinking under the burden and weight of any thing what so ever may happen unto it. 
An evil conscience a hell.  Contrariwise an evil and sick conscience is a very hell, and there is nothing in the world that may more vex & torment us. And as a good conscience is as sugar to sweeten and mollify all our affections: even so the other is as sharp vinegar, which soureth & troubleth all our joys and consolations: And moreover as the one is sufficient to resist all temptations: even so the other is soft, cowardly & vanquished assoon as it is assailed. It is necessary therefore that as we are curious in looking to the health of our bodies, observing for that purpose, the diet and government that is delivered & appointed by the physician unto us, & contrariwise abstaining from all those meats, & excess which may offend & altar our health: even so that we have the same desire and care to preserve that health of our souls, marking diligently all the rules and ordinances of good life, which God the most high and sovereign physician hath appointed us, and taking heed on the other side, to avoid and shun that, which he hath prohibited and forbidden us.  
Let us consider a little, what great pleasure and joy a man may have, who returning home after a long journey into his own house, findeth there his wife, who cometh to take him about the neck, and embraceth him, kissing and making much of him: doth not this make him by and by to forget all his travel which he hath endured in his journey? as contrariwise, if he should found his wife after his return brawling, riotous, froward, & who in stead of comforting him, would all manner of ways vex & torment him, would not this increase and double his pains and torments which he hath suffered by the way? Even such is the estate of the conscience. Although that our enemies commit a thousand outrages, violences & villainies against us: If we returning from ourselves, and entering into our own conscience, found there one with a cheerful & merry countenance, which doth comfort and content us, it maketh us in a moment to forget all our enemies. But on the other side, if it be nought, it weryeth us in such sort, that we shall not found any house worse than our own, nor any place where we may worse quiet our selves, 
Isai 28. 20.  then with ourselves. isaiah saith: that an evil conscience is as a straight bed, 
A fine similitude.  in which a man can not stretch himself, nor turn himself at pleasure. It is an hard thing for a man there to sleep well and to rest quietly: Likewise a man which hath a festered conscience, he can not find any place or condition to content him, & which is not altogether to straight for him. This is the cause that David so often prayeth to God that he will set his imprisoned heart at large, 
Psal. 4. 2.  that is to say, that he will show him this favour, that he may always have a sound & upright conscience.  
Now to the end we may have such a conscience, 
The way to have a good conscience.  it behoveth that it be will founded: & that it may be well founded, it is requisite that the only word of God be the foundation thereof: so as we make no conscience, but to do those things that God hath forbidden & to leave undone those things that he hath commanded. For as much as he that will stretch out his conscience beyond this, knoweth not how to save himself, but that ranging beyond the bounds of God's word, he must have infinite scruples, which shall vex him continually. And to be short, there is nothing in the world more pernicious, nor more to be feared, then to confounded the conscience about such imaginations, or about the commandments & traditions of men.  
But here must be noted that the conscience & the peace of conscience are things diverse, 
A difference betwixt the conscience and the peace of conscience.  and that they have diverse foundations. For the conscience (as hath been already declared) is ruled by the law, that is to say, by the commandments, & forbiddings of God. But the peace of conscience, hath for his foundation the Gospel, 
jesus Christ only hath satisfied the judgement of our conscience.  the promises, the grace of jesus Christ & his righteousness. And as there is no other mean to answer to the judgement of God, but the righteousness & innocency of jesus Christ: even so is it he alone which can stand us in stead to satisfy the judgement of our consciences. For if we look unto our works we have our consciences straight way vexed & disquieted with fear & distrust of not having done our duty, in not obeying God, nor keeping of his commandments, as we were bound: which was the cause that S. Paul said, 
1. Cor. 4. 4.  that he felt himself not culpable of any thing, but yet for this, he thought himself not justified: to give us to understand: that there is nothing that can pacify our conscience, but the only righteousness of jesus Christ, & not our own, which is always imperfect & defiled with many filths of our concupiscence, & by reason hereof cannot content our heart, nor make us to take any pleasure in many of those things we have done or left undone: but the blood, wounds & death, and the side of jesus Christ opened (as S. Bernard saith) is that, which pacifieth the conscience, when as it would thus torment & persecute us: Behold the freedom & refuge we have, where we may retire to safety. To conclude then and here to make an end of this treatise, the righteousness of jesus Christ, is the only mean, whereby we are justified before the judgement of God, of the law, of men, and of the conscience.  
FINIS.