A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

there is no end of your altercations about it; the terms of it being horrid, uncouth, strangers to Scripture and the ancient Church, of an arbitrary signification, about which men may with probabilities contend to the worlds end, and yet the very soul and life of your Doctrine of Merit lies in it. Some ascribe Merit of Congruity to works before Grace, and of Condignity to them done in a state of Grace; some, Merit of Congruity to them, done by Grace, and Merit of Condignity they utterly exclude: Some give Grace and the Promise a place in Merit; some so explain it, that they can have no place at all therein. Generally in your Books of Devotion, when you have to do with God, you begin to bethink your selves, and speak much more humbly and modestly, than you do when you endeavour to dispute subtly and quell your Adversaries, And I am ⟨p. 32⟩not without hope, that many of you do personally believe as to your own particular concernments, far better than when you doctrinally express your selves, when you contend with us: As when that famous Emperor Charles the fist, after all his bustles in and about Religion, came to die in his retirement, he expressly renounced all merit of works, as a proud figment, and gave up himself to the sole Grace and Mercy of God in Jesus Christ, on whose purchase of Heaven for him, he alone relied. Toto pectori in Deum revolutus sic ratiocinabatur, saith the renowned Thuanus, Hist. lib. 21. see quidem indignum esse qui propriis meritis regnum Caelorum obtineret; sed Dominum Deum suum qui illud duplici jure obtinuit, & patris haereditate, & passionis merito, altero contentum esse, alterum sibi donare, ex cujus dono illud sibi merito vindicet, hacque, fiducia fretus minime confundatur; neque enim oleum misericordiae, nisi in vase fiducia pony: hanc homines fiducium esse à se deficientis & innitentis Domino suo, alioqui propriis meritis fidere non fidei esse, sed perfidiae; peccata remitti per Dei indulgentiam, ideoque credere nos debere, peccata deleri non posse, nisi ab eo, cuisoli peccavimus. & in quem peccatum non cadit, per quem solum nobis peccata condonantur. Words worthy of a lasting memory, which they will not fail of where they are recorded. Casting himself, saith that excellent Historian, with his whole soul upon God, he thus reasoned;

there is no end of your altercations about it; the termes of it being horrid, uncouth, strangers to Scripture and the antient Church, of an arbitrary signification, about which men may with probabilities contend to the worlds end, and yet the very soul and life of your Doctrine of Merit lies in it. Some ascribe Merit of Congruity to works before Grace, and of Condignity to them done in a state of Grace; some, Merit of Congruity to them, done by Grace, and Merit of Condignity they utterly exclude: Some give Grace and the Promise a place in Merit; some so explain it, that they can have no place at all therein. Generally in your Books of Devotion, when you have to do with God, you begin to bethink your selves, and speak much more humbly and modestly, than you do when you endeavour to dispute subtilly and quell your Adversaries, And I am