ANNOTATIONS CHAP. I.
10. By good vvorkes.] Here vve see, that Gods eternal predestination and election con∣sisteth vvith good vvorkes: yea that the certainty and effect thereof is procured by mans free vvill and good vvorkes, and that our vvel doing is a meane for vs to attaine to the effect of Gods predestination, that is, to life euerlasting. and therfore it is a desperate folly and a great signe of reprobate persons, to say, If I be predestinate, doe vvhat I vvil, I shal be saued. Nay, the Apostle saith, If thou hope to be one of the predestinate (for knovv it thou canst not) do vvel, that thou maist be the more assured to attaine to that thou hopest: or, make it sure by good vvorkes. The Protestāts in such cases not much liking these vvordes, by good vvorkes, though the latin haue it vniuersally, and some Greeke copies also, as Beza confesseth, leaue them out in their translations, by their vvonted pollicie.
15. After my decease also.] These vvordes though they may be easily altered by cōstruction into diuers senses not vntrue, yet the correspondēce of the partes of the sentēce going be∣fore and folovving, giue most plaine this meaning, that, as during his life he vvould not omit to put them in memorie of the things he taught them, so after his death (vvhich he knew should be shortly) he vvould not faile to endeuour that they might be mindeful of the same. Signifying that his care ouer them should not cease by death, & that by his inter∣cession before God after his departure, he vvould doe the same thing for them, that he did before in his life by teaching and preaching. This is the sense that the * Greeke Scholies speake of, and this is most proper to the text, and consonant to the old vse of this Apostle and other Apostolike Saincts and fathers of the primitiue Church.
S. Clement in his Epistle to S. Iames our Lordes brother, vvitnesseth, that S. Peter encouraging him to take after his decease the charge of the Apostolike Romane See, pro∣mised that after his departure he vvould not cease to pray for him & his flocke, thereby to ease him of his Pastoral burden. To. 1 Concil. ep. 1. S. Clem. in initio. And S. Leo the Great one of his successors in the said See, often attributeth the good administration and gouer∣nement thereof to S. Peters praiers and assistance: namely in these goodly vvorkes Ser 3 in anniuers. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 assumpt. ad Pontif. We are much bound (saith he) to giue thankes to our Lord and Redeemer Iesus Christ, that hath giuen so great povver to him vvhom he made the Prince of the vvhole Church: that if in our time also any thing be done vvel & be rightly ordered by vs, it is to be imputed to his vvorkes and his geuernement, to vvhom it vvas said, And thou being conuerted, confirme thy brethren: and to vvhom our Lord after his resurrection said thrise, leede my sheepe. Which novv also vvithout doubt the godly Pastor doth execute, confirming vs vvith his exhortations, and not ceasing to pray for vs, that vve be euercome vvith no tentation. &c.
Yea it vvas a common thing in the primitiue Church among the auncient Christians, and alvvaies since among the faithful, to make couenant in their life time, that vvhether of them vvent to heauen before the other, he should pray for his frende and fellovv yet aliue. See the Eccle∣siastical historie of the holy virgin and Martyr Potamiaena, promising at the houre of her Mar∣tyrdom, that after her death she vvould procure mercie of God to Basilides one of the souldiars that ledde her to execution, and so she did, Euseb. li. 6. c. 4. Also S. Cyprian ep. 57 in fine. Let vs, (saith he) pray mutually one for an other, and vvhether of vs tvvo shal by Gods elemencie be first called for, let his loue continue, and his praier not cease for his brethren and sisters in the vvorld. So said this holy Martyr at that time vvhen Christiās vvere so far from Caluinisme (vvhich abhorreth the praiers of Saincts & praying to them) that to be sure, they bargained before hād to haue the martyrs & other Saincts to pray for them. The same S. Cyprian also in his booke De disciplina & habitu virginum, in fine, after a godly exhortation made to the holy Virgins or Nonnes in his time, speaketh thus vnto them: Tantum tunc mementote nostri, cùm incipiet in vobis virginitas honorari. that is, Onely then haue vs in remembrance, vvhen your virginitie shal begin to be honoured. that is, after their departure. Vvhere he insinuateth the vse of the Catholike Church in keeping the festiual daies and other dueties tovvard the holy Virgins in heauen. S. Hierom also in the same manner speaketh to Helio∣dorus, saying, that vvhen he is once in heauen, then he vvil pray for him that exhorted and incited him to the blessed state of the Monastical life. Ep. 1. c. 2.
And so doth he speake to the vertuous matrone Paula after her death, desiring her to pray for him in his old age▪ affirming that she shal the more easily obtaine, the neeres she is novv ioyned to Christ in heauen, in Epitaph, Paule in fine. It vvere to long to report, hovv S. Augustine desireth to be holpen by S. Cyprians praiers (then and long before a Sainct in heauen) to the vnderstanding of the truth concerning the peace and regiment of the Church. li. 5 de Bapt. cont. Donatistas c. 17. And in an other place the same holy Doctor alleageth the said S. Cyprian saying, that great num∣bers