Charity mistaken, with the want whereof, Catholickes are vniustly charged for affirming, as they do with grief, that Protestancy vnrepented destroies salvation.

Of the intention of Catholicks when they say that Protestancy vnrepented de∣stroyes saluation, and how the speech is to be vnderstood. CHAPTER II.

THe intention therefore, wherwith Catholicks declare that Protestan∣cy vnrepented destroyes saluation, can∣not with any colour of reasō, be thought to proceed from want of Charity in them, but indeed from the religious and iust care they haue to awake men toward the sauing of theyr soules, in the right way; by procuring that they see, that they are to perish, if they continue in the wrong. And the good God of heauen doth best know, that when we speake to Prote∣stants in this kinde, our very hearts are sad, as considering how true it is, and how much it imports them to weigh it well; and that yet, the while, in steed of theyr proffiting by our aduice, they ma∣ligne vs for presenting it to them in the

best sorte we can.

Nay they calumniate not only our in∣tention, as hath bene sayd, by affirming that it proceeds in vs from want of Cha∣rity; but they charge vs withall, with taking the office of Almighty God out of his hands, by pronouncing iudgment v∣pon our fellow seruāts before their time; and in fine, that we make their Protestan∣cy to be as the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is not capable of any remission at the hands of God.

But the Case being well considered, will appeare to be ill put against vs, who are farre from being liable to such asper∣sions as these. Wee iudge not them or a∣ny other: for we know that we all must stand, or fall to our owne Master. We loue their persons, and we pitty them for their errors; and we proceed no o∣therwise towards them, then as towards creatures who are made after the image of Almighty God, and who were redee∣med by the death and Passion of our one∣ly Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ; and we pray and hope, that before they part out of this life, the merits of the said death & passion of our Blessed Lord may be ap∣plyed to theyr soules, by fayth and cha∣rity

and penance, & by those Sacramēts, and other conduits & meanes of conuey∣ing, and applying his grace, and spiri∣tual life to their soules, which are onely to be found in the bosome of the holy Catholicke Church. Without which Sa∣craments and other meanes, the merits and blood of Christ our Lord, though most apt and able in themselues, to saue a thousand millions of worlds, will ne∣uer saue any one soule. For in fine, the merits of our Lord, and the sinfull soules of men, be two extreames of great di∣stance from one another; & can neuer be brought to meet, but by such wayes and meanes, as the vnspeakeable power and wisedome & goodnes of Almighty God, hath found out for that purpose; and those meanes are they, which I haue al∣ready touched. For if the merit of our Blessed Sauiours death, were of it selfe to saue any one soule, without the appli∣cation thereof by the aforesaid meanes; no reason at all could be assigned, why any one soule should be lost; as yet the farre greatet part of soules is sure to be.

So that we speake not so much of Protestants in thy kind as of the profes∣sion of heresy which they follow, and

we iudge no more of them vpon this rea∣son, but that whilest they liue in that Re∣ligion, they estrange themselues from the right meanes of applying the merits of Christ our Lord to theyr soules, where∣by they might be saued. But yet we hope neuertheles, that God will haue so much mercy on many of them, before they dy, as to incorporate them into his mysticall body, which is his true Church, where∣by they may partake the influence of that mercy and grace, which is deriued from the head thereof Iesus Christ our Lord. And therefore it is plaine, that we make not Protestācy to be at a sinne against the Holy Ghost, which cannot be forgiuen, because it will not be repented; whereas Protestancy both may, and often is re∣pented of, and consequently forgiuen: & to the end that it may be so, we declare the grieuousnes of the sinne, and we pro∣cure by all the meanes, we can, to re∣moue the same.

Nay, we are so farre from accounting it a sinne against the Holy Ghost, as that by our saying that Protestancy vnrepen∣ted excludes saluatiō, we imploy no more, then meerly, that it is a mortall sinne. For whosoeuer dyes impenitent of any

one mortall sinne can neuer be saued,* 1.1 and whosoeuer shall with true penance be sory and depart from his Protestancy, though it be but in the last minute of his life, will be capable of saluation. So that we iudge not men in particular, concer∣ning their saluation of damnation; but yet on the other side, we must not be af∣rayd to affirme (though we are cordial∣ly sory for hauing cause to doe it) that they who dye impenitent either of Pro∣testancy, or any other sinne which de∣priues the soule of the grace of God, can∣not be saued. For such men as these, are iudged already in generall, by the mouth of God; but which of them in his parti∣cular, shall be taken before he dy out of that vnhappy hearde of goates, and pla∣ced in that blessed flocke of sheepe, by the hād of the good shepheard, we leaue to his owne vnsearcheable determinatiō. And therfore as we take not the office of Iudge out of his hand; because we can∣not come to know whether this or that particular sinner may not repent before he dye: so yet we may safely say, that a man, who liues in Protestancy, or any o∣ther mortall sinne; and who is so farre from repenting it (though he be sufficiēt∣ly

informed thereof) as that he will not so much as acknowledge it to be a sinne; and who, (for ought we know, or canne learne) did no way retract or reuerse it, so much, as at the hower of his death; de∣parts this life in a state which is greatly to be lamented: and withall that if he re∣pented himselfe as little of it indeede, & in the sight of God, as in our sight he see∣med to doe, there canne be no doubt with vs (so longe as we beleeue our Religion to be true) but that such a person dyed without saluation, as departing in the ob∣stinate profession of a different Religion, which we esteeme to be false. And the same must they also beleeue of vs, mutatis mutandis, if indeede they beleeue their owne Religion to be true Christian reli∣gion, of which Christ himselfe pronoun∣ced. Qui non crediderit condemnabitur.

Notes

• * 1.1

  S. Paul ad Ga∣lat.