Certain sermons, first preached, and after published at several times, by M. Thomas Gataker…Certaine sermons, first preached, and after published at severall times, by M. Thomas Gataker…

Lastly, he telleth us that^g there want not very grave Authors, who think that every good work of a just man endued with Charity, meriteth or deserveth life eternal. ^hWhich he thus far forth also subscribeth unto, if this condition be added, that not only the party doing it be endued with Charity, but the very work it self also do actually, or virtually at least proceed from Charity, and be done for Gods sake. So that not only the whole course and tenor of a godly mans life uprightly and religiously led, being laid altogether in one lump, but every particular such action of it, considered alone by it self, should by this their doctrine deserve no less than Heaven at Gods hands. And then belike so oft as they have done any good work merely for Gods sake, so oft have they deserved an Heaven at least of him. It were absurd and senseless for a sorry beggar to imagine (that I may use Bellarmines own comparison) that by weeding though a whole day in the Kings garden at White-hall, he had in regard of the worth of the work done by him, deserved an hundred Jacobuses, because his Majesty had promised for his days work to give him such wages.ⁱ Bellarmine himself will not deny it. But it were much more absurd for such an one to imagine, that for every weed that in ⟨p. 281⟩that his days work he had pulled up (were it done out of never so much love to his Sovereign) he had deserved, I say not an Earldom, or a Dukedom, but a Crown at least or a Kingdom. And yet is there far greater disproportion here between the work that we do, and the reward that we expect, than could there be between the work and the wages: Since that^k between finite and infinite there is no proportion at all. And therefore saith our Country-man Thomas of Walden, though no friend to Wycliffe; for he wrote professedly against him;^l What can we do that should be worthy of heavenly things, which the Apostle saith, that^m