they do not believe contrary to the Faith of the Church It may be said that Baptism alone is sufficient to distinguish such implicit believers from Heathens which I grant as to the Essence or nature of Christianity but not to the Life and exercise of a Christian for that as St. Paul hath by his word and example certified us is by the Faith Col. 2. 20. of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us Therefore as I am so charitable to all well-disposed Christians to be perswaded there is no necessity for all to have either the like measure or manifestation of Faith in any one point of Faith our Saviour Christ requiring Faith but as a grain Math. 17. 20. of Mustard-seed sometimes so am I to all Churches as to be perswaded That they all require and that in all a some measure of Faith explicite as necessary to Salvation and that besides this Believing as the Church believes For in truth this is nopoint of Faith in the Actus Signatus or general notion though to believe the Church Catholick may be For who sees not a vast difference between believing the Church it self and believing what the Church believes And that may be compleated in believing the Being and Extent of it which is much short of the body of Faith which it receives and professes CHAP. XIV Of the Effects of True Faith in General Good Works Good Works to be distinguished from Perfect Works Actions good four wayes THere is a great difference between Good works and Perfect works For the first hath respect unto the thing done and the other unto the manner of doing it agreeable to all due forms and Circumstances And every work that is good is not Perfect though every work that is perfect must of necessity be Good And to the doing of a Good work there seems to be no more absolutely Act. 17. 11. Rom. 10. 17. Si Fidelis fecerit opus bonum hic ei prodest liberans eum a malis in illo saeculo ad percipiendum regnum coelesto magis autem ibi quam hîc Si autem Infidelis fecerit bonum opus hîc ei prodest opus ipsius hîc ei reddit Deus pro opere su◠In illo autem saeculo nihil ei prodest opus ipsius Opus imperfectum in Math. Hom. 26. required than that a man should act according to well informed and regulated reason and true affection So that the works of natural men may be good though heathens such as are Visiting the sick and relieving the poor defending the Fatherless and widow oppressed and especially such outward moral Acts as may be done by natural men tending to their Conversion and Salvation as willing hearing and equal judging of the doctrine of Faith even before actual Faith conceived for which St. Paul esteemed the Bereans praise worthy* So that they are not absolutely Splendid Sins for were it so they were by no means to be done and no man did well who before his Conversion went to hear Christ preach or gave any attentive ear to what St. Paul wrote or taught for want of Faith whereas we are taught by common reason as well as by St. Paul that Faith it self cometh by hearing of the word of God For how can any man possibly believe what he never heard of So then some duties and Acts are laudable and acceptable to God without Faith though not arising to the perfection of Evangelical Goodness by which a man pleaseth God and is acceptable unto him even to his Justification and Salvation There may therefore be distinguished a fourfould goodness in Actions 1. Natural when a man acteth agreeable to the perfection of the Rule of natural Beings as a man acteth agreeable to the perfection of the Rule of natural Beings as a man is said to walk well when he goes according to the nature of man and limps not nor halts and to write a good hand when his letters and words do answer exactly a Perfect Rule or Copie This Religion taketh no notice of at all 2. A man is said to do a Good Act when it is so morally and in its kind as tending to the honour of his Creator whose Instruments meer Moral men are in exercising his Paternal providence and to the benefit of others For it being the proper Character of God which is spoken of him by the Psalmist viz. Thou art Good and thou doest Good They whom God Psal 119. 68. chooseth and stirreth up to minister under him in good and useful things to the Communitie or any particular do that which is good however not absolute 3. There is a Religious or divine goodness in Actions which are done agreeable to the Revealed Will of God passing natures sagacitie or search And this is twofold Legal and Evangelical both exceeding the former but the one exceeded of the other viz. Legal of Evangelical Vere enim quando declinamus d malo facimus bonum quantum ad comparationem caeterorum hominum nolentium declinare à malo facere bonum dicuntur bona quae agimus quantum autem ad Veritatem secundum quod dic itur in hoc loco Quia unus est bonus bonum nostrum non est bonum Orig. Hom. 8. in Matthaeum For as Natural Acts are good done according to natures intention and institution by themselves but are not good compared with moral duty performed and moral Acts are Good in themselves but not so in respect of a Superiour Order and end of working instituted of God in his holy Law So are Legal Acts wrought according to Gods word given to the Israelites under that dispensation or Covenant as required of God and serving to those ends God propounded to himself and his people Wherefore it is that the Children of Israel revolting from God and forsaking that instituted worship of his Law are thus censured by the Prophet * Hos 8. 3. Hosea Israel hath cast off the thing that is good the enemie shall pursue him And St. Paul than whom no divine writer more opposes the Law occasion being offered yet giveth his suffrage †1 Tim. 1. 8. The Law is good if a man useth it Lawfully And the Gospel it self is not good unless used Lawfully Therefore were the works of the Law also good works within their bounds but not so compared with the Perfection of the Gospel but displeasing to God and pernicious to men who being delivered in the fulness of time by the coming of Christ from the Pedagogie and beggerly Elements of the Mosaical Law should presume to retain that vail which was done away in Christ and embrace those shadows the body Christ being present Hence it is that St. Paul as in many other places writing to the Corinthians speaketh thus at large The Letter killeth i. e. the Literal sense and observation of the 2 Cor. 3. 6. Old Law after the New became of force destroyeth rather than
end of all St. Pauls Epistles to the Romans to the Colossians to the Galatians to the Hebrews especially not excluding the other where he most expresly and zealously urges Faith against works and he shall soon perceive that his intention and drift is not absolutely to oppose works of Faith to the doctrine or Grace of Faith but the works of the Law which infirmer Christians newly entred into the Faith of Christ had so venerable an opinion of that they imagined Christ could profit nothing without the works either Ceremonial or Moral of the Law of Moses For whereas they for instance depended absolutely on Circumcision for their Justification and thought that without so sacred and solemn a Rite they could not be profited by Christ himself St. Paul on the other side resolutely and positively determineth thus Behold I Paul say unto you that if you be circumcised Gal. 5. 2. v. 4. Christ shall profit you nothing And presently after Christ is become of no effect unto you whosoever of you are Justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace Can any thing be more manifest then here it is that Grace is opposed to the Law And that to trust in that is to fall from Christ And when it followeth We through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by Faith is it not v. 5. as plain as need be that Faith is here taken for that doctrine and not Act of Faith whereby men are instructed in Christ believe in Christ adhere to him relinquishing the imperfect and antiquated doctrine of the Law and its practises which by St. Paul are all called Flesh in opposition to the spiritual worship of the Gospel as to the Philippians For we are the Circumcision Phil. 3. 3. which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Though I might also have confidence in the flesh c. 4. Rom. 3. 21. And to the Romans But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested that is surely now is the doctrine of Righteousness published through Christ without the Law being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all 22. 20. 27. and upon all that believe And verse the twentieth By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified c. And verse the twenty seventh the Anti thesis or opposition doth most evidently declare the Apostles intention Where is boasting then It is excluded By what Law Of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith The Law of Works then is the Law of Moses and the Law of Faith is the Law of Christ And to be Justified by Faith in Jesus of which immediately before is to be understood of the whole Covenant of Grace or Faith which is made to us in Christ Jesus and revealed in the Gospel as contradistinct to that Covenant of Works given by Moses and not of any special Grace or Act of Faith as Faith is sometimes distinguished from other Evangelical Graces It may be said that the works of the Law are excluded expresly and therefore no competition is to be made between them and Faith in the case of our Justification To which my answer is That though I grant that not only the works of the Law though moral do not Justifie but not the works of Faith of themselves yet I may confidently say None of these places commonly alleadged by the Exalters of Faith and Depressors of Good works to null the merits of works done even in Faith of Christ do according to the literal meaning really perform so much yet I rather choose to affirm That the works excluded by St. Paul are not works of the Law moral so much as Mosaical For the morality of the Old Law was not properly of Moses but the Ceremonial only and consequently the Law from these taking its denomination of Mosaical when works of the Law are mentioned in the New Testament we are to understand Mosaical Works rather than Moral but not at all works of Faith So that whatsoever is contended or pretended our being justified freely by Grace and justified again by Faith do Rom. 3. 24. Gal. 2. 16. not at all deny our Justification by works of Faith or that the efficiency of such a Faith is quite of another nature from that of works done in Faith But yet it is plain from the whole design of the Epistle of St. James the Quoniam haec opinio fuerit exerta sine operibus justificari hominem aliae Apostolicae Epistolae Petri Joannis Jacobi Judae contra eum maximâ— dirigunt intentionem ut vehementer astruant fidem sine operibus nihil prodesse c. Aug. de Fide Operibus c. 14. second Epistle of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude that divers of Old did so mistake St. Paul as of late dayes he hath been understood which moved St. Austin to say directly that these Epistles were on purpose contrived and published to obviate such a misconstruction of the Blessed Apostle as if he had intended when he often sayes We are Justified by Faith only a separate notion of Faith from works and effects of Faith which was far from him from whence we have a very compendious solid and clear reconciliation of St. James his Epistle especially with those of St. Paul For as is shewed already certain it is that it being his principal end to oppose and void the pretensions of the Jews to Justification without believing in Christ or as a more moderate sort of them weak in the Faith of Christ admitting no sufficiency in Christ to justifie them without a dash as least of Moses's Law he declared freely for an absolute sufficiency in the Faith of Christ to justify and save such as believe in him This doctrine of St. Paul was quite mistaken by some who supposed that the act of believing simpâ—y taken or the Grace of Faith specially used was it whereby they were in a certain way of being justified leaving out the fruits and effects of that lively Faith and making it a dead Faith as St. James calleth it who thus argueth against such a fond and dangerous presumption What doth it profit my brethren though a James 2. 14. 17. man say he hath Faith and have not works can Faith save him Faith without works is dead For the use and end of knowledge and Faith being only obedience and a life according to Faith what a monstrous and ridiculous thing would it be to divide the Cause from the effects proper to it But it is usually replied No God forbid we should divide Faith from good Works Where there is true justifying Faith there will be there must be good works and that for several other reasons but not for our Justification This is most true whereever there is a Justifying Faith there will be good Works but what do they there in order to
alledged more pregnantly proving the power of that fiducial Faith as I may so call it in order to the Justification of a man before God and yet it must here be granted That this trust is much different from the Faith contended for And that from hence or the like Texts not a different vertue in nature or kind though peradventure more effectual and prevalent is ascribed to it above other Graces in order to our Justification All which is no less true of our Sanctification than our Justification For we are altogether as much sanctified by Faith alone as we are justified by Faith alone or only as appeareth from the Scripture which saith That our hearts are John 15. 3. Acts 15. 9. purified by Faith So that in this much disputed Question I know no readier way of satisfying the fearful and dubious mind than by taking a due estimate of the power of a General or Particular Faith in reference to Fides nos à peccatis omnibus purgat mentes nostras illuminat Deo concliat Prosper ubi supr our Sanctification and judging alike of our Justification thereby For we are sanctified as freely by Grace as we are justified and as much by Faith too as Prosper before cited saith And therefore lastly in answer to divers places of the Ancients which are produced to confirm the modern sense of Justification by Faith alone I answer in a word That it is true their words seem to attest so much but their meaning was plainly no more than this That Faith many times doth justifie without Works that is any outward manifestation of their Faith by such fruits but never without inward acts of Repentance and Charity distinct from this special Faith nor without such a devotion to good Works which wants nothing but opportunity to exert them which is by an extraordinary Clemencie and Grace of God accepted for the thing it self This appears by the example by them given to manifest their meaning of the Thief on the Cross who was so justified and saved by Faith alone without good Works answerable thereunto because his sudden faith was prevented by sudden death Nevertheless That his Faith was so much alone as to exclude Repentance and such Graces as were competible to one in his condition from a proportionable concurrence to that effect is no where said nor intended by any of the Fathers whose judgment is of account in the Church of God CHAP. XXI A third Effect of Justifying Faith Assurance of our Salvation How far a man is bound to be sure of his Salvation and how far this assurance may be obtained The Reasons commonly drawn from Scripture proving the necessity of this assurance not sufficient c. ANother effect of Faith or at least consequence upon it hath the certainty or assurance of our Justification and Salvation been commonly reputed The better to understand which we must take as supposed and granted the difference between the Truth of a thing and Evidence of it or the Certainty that such a thing is and the knowledge that so it is So that the doubting of our Justification or Salvation doth not make the thing infallibly so but leaves us under fears and sometimes disconsolations But a competent remedy seems to me to be ready at hand if we consider that our opinion of our selves is no good conclusion against our selves but rather being founded in humility and disowning of our worth and righteousness an introduction to a comfortable hope in Gods mercy who hath begun at least the work of Grace in us by rendring us studious and anxious about his service and our salvation unless it could be proved which we shall see presently whether so or not out of the word of God that it is his will and direct command that we should have this assurance in us For as saint John saith Hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assurt 1 John 3. 19 20. our hearts before him For if our heart condem us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things i. e. the hearts and consciences of the children of God do frequently condemn them but their comfort is that God is greater than their hearts and doth not judge according to what opinion good or evil we have of our selves but according to his own Wiâ—dom and Grace So that it is no just inference at all I do not believe I shall be saved therefore I shall not be saved Nor this I do believe I shall not be saved therefore I shall not be saved Only they have great cause thus to argue and conclude against themselves who are wont on the contraâ—y to reason I believe I shall be saved therefore I shall be saved abusing and corrupting the Doctrine of Faith two wayes most dangerously First In making it the simple and direct cause or means unto Justification and then a reason of a Reflex act whereby they stand assured that they are so acquitted and justified before God But St. John in the former words cited reasons much otherwise For having in the 18. verse exhorted to and urged the duty of mutual Christian Charity he inferreth from thence in the 19. verse Hereby we know that we are of the truth c. i. e. from the Indication of Love and Charity to the Brethren â—ere is then an assurance and that before God and yet as we have seen there resteth and consisteth withall a diffidence and doubting as we have shewed The reconciliation of this seeming opposition doth lead us to a necessary distinction tending to the resolving of the principal Querie and it is between the State of Justification and the Act of Justification And again as to Assurance here spoken of It is one thing to be assured of our Justification and another of our Salvation as shall hereafter appear First then I hold it sufficiently demonstrable out of Scripture That a man may and every good Christian ought to be assured that he is in a state of being justified and saved likewise This we teach well in our Church Catechise in answer to this Question Doest not thou think that thou art bound to believe as they have promised for thee thus Yes verily and by Gods help so I will and I heartily thank our heavenly Father that he hath called me to this State of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Saviour Every Christian that in Baptism hath put on Christ and is entred into a Covenant of Grace with God is bound to believe assuredly that thereby he is in a state of Salvation and Justification For thereby God hath especially elected him to salvation of which Election the Scriptures chiefly if not only speak which are drawn to signife the Eternal Decree of God choosing not only men estranged from God to the Covenant of Grace but such as are first within the Covenant to an infallible Justification and Salvation This I say is rarely if at all intended by any of those many Texts of Scripture alledged to
A great Acts. 6. 8. company of the Priests were obedient unto the Faith That is believed what was Preached by the Apostles And yet more expresly St. Pauls phrase to the Romans declares this where he saith But unto them that Rom. 2. 8. are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath For no man can so properly be said to Obey as to Believe a truth But that distinction of greatest moment to the illustrating of many obscurities and solving many doubts arising to Christian Readers out of the Scripture and especially St. Pauls Epistles is that of Faith into the Doctrine of Faith or Object and in sum the whole New Covenant as manifested in the New Testament And the Act and Grace of Faith in a true Believer The former is that which we are required to believe The latter signifies the inward propension to the receiving the things so manifested in the Gospel And is again subdivided into Faith complexly or generally taken and specially that as comprehending the whole duty of a true Believer and all Christian Graces flowing from that Fountain and built upon that Foundation This as distinct from the two other Theological Graces Hope and Charity of all which St. Paul treateth distinctly in his first Epistle to the Corinthians concluding his thirteenth 1 Cor. 13. 13. Chapter thus And now abideth Faith Hope and Charity And that Faith is taken for the Doctrine of Faith or of Christ revealed in the Gospel is Acts 6. 7. very plain and very necessary to be noted as in the place to the Romans even now touched where as Obedience is taken for the act of believing Faith is taken for the Gospel it self And in the same Book it is written that Felix sent for Paul and heard him concerning the Faith in Christ that Acts. 24. 24. suâ—â—â—y was the Gospel or Doctrine of Christ or through Christ And St. Paul to Timothy Now the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter times 1 Tim. 4. 1. some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils Where Doctrines of Devils is opposed to Faith the Doctrine of Christ And in the Acts Elimas is said to seek to turn away the Governour Acts. 13. 8. from the Faith And so Act. 14. 22. And Faith is not only so taken for the Gospel as opposed to Gentile but Jewish works and worship or the Law of Moses and that most frequently in St. Pauls Epistles as shall appear more plainly by and by In the mean time here preparing grounds for a more important disquisition it will not be amiss to note other supposed kinds of Faith of which four are vulgarly by modern Divines pitch't upon as of a quite different nature and form They are Historical Faith Temporarie Faith which last but for a season Miraculous Faith seen in working of miracles All which terms of Faith I without any more adoo grant to have ground in Scripture as so many distinct Acts but not kinds of Faith They are very unadvisedly distinguished as several Species because several events or effects they may be all brought under that of Justifying Faith not as Species under their Genus but as parts are reduced to the whole or degrees inferiour to the highest For undoubtedly Historical Faith as they call it whereby a man gives a general Credence or assent to what is delivered in Scripture is a degree and good step to that called Justifying Faith and there is no Justifying Faith without it And so are the Acts of a Temporary Faith and Miraculous Faith acts of a Justifying Faith For as for the temporariness or failing it distinguishes Christian Faith neither from Gentile nor Jewish belief nor true from false but only as to the Event that the one continues and comes to perfection and the other comes to untimely end Which puts no more difference between the Justifying and not Justifying Faith then the untimely death of a child does distinguish him from a man which is in growth not in nature according to which all good distinctions ought to be made For if nothing be wanting to the denominating this failing Faith a Justifying and saving Faith but duration how can they be thus reasonably distinguished And as to the Faith producing miracles it is the very same in nature with that which was required by our Saviour Christ to have miracles wrought upon them that were by him miraculously cured than which nothing occurs more frequently in the Gospels and is an act of Justifying Faith as supposing the belief of Christ according as the Gospel describes him which as it shall be shewed presantly is the true Justifying Faith For as Christ himselfe saith in St. Mark No man shall do a Mark 9. 39. Miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me So that by Faith in Christ such miracles being wrought who can denie it to be the effect of a Justifying Faith But that which may have deceived men is an opinion That what ever proceeds from a Justifying Faith must needs proceed from it as it justifies For in truth Miracles or the gift of the working them is not that which commends us to God to our justification but to men and Graces rather than Gifts both Sanctify and justify Yet this hinders not but Justifying Faith may be the spring from whence that Gift proceeds and so not opposite to it But it is here commonly said That Heathens and Reprobates may have the three sorts of Faith here opposed to Justifying Faith But I must crave leave to denie and declare their errour herein For It is a contradiction to say A man can so much as Historically believe all the Gospel and yet continue an Infidel The Devil therefore believing as St. James tells us for his words are much stood upon in this Case is no Infidel And yet he nor prophane Believers and reprobates are not true Christians not because they have nothing faithful in them but because this good ground and Justifying Faith Inchoate being as the Schools speak unformed and destitute of a proportion of Charity and obedience never increases to act or reap fruits of Righteousness which is to â—e Justified And Reprobates Faith may be true Faith so much as they have of it and so long as they hold it For God forbid that their Faith should make them Reprobates It is their want of Faith in perfection and perseverance that so distinguishes them For were not that Faith true real and and saving which they have or had they might be damned for having no Faith at all but they cannot be damned for not continuing and growing in that Faith as the Scriptures assure us some shall And no more at presant needs here be alledged than what St. Peter at large delivereth 1 Epistle C. 2. V. 13 14. 15. 20 c. Some add hereunto an Hypocritical Faith which indeed must needs be quite of another kind but what
it is no man can tell further then from the negative notion viz. That it is not true Faith and so no Justifying Faith but a shadow of it not the thing but the foremention'd Faiths are or may be real and Good but Hypocritical can never be so as Hypocritical But we shall conclude this Chapter with an other observation we conceive has occasion'd misbelief concerning Justifying Faith For it is too commonly believed That all Justifying Faith must and doth necessarily and actually Justify all in whom it is But that is not so but that is truly Justifying Faith which in its own nature tendeth thereunto though peradventure defeated of its effect For if natural causes have not alwayes their proper effects through outward impediments may it not be much rather the case of spiritual things which work not naturally but freely To the former distinctions of Faith may be well added another and that of Faith Explicite and Implicite much insisted on and therefore here to be considered And it cannot be neither is it denied but really such cases there are in which good Christians have not that plenitude of Faith desirable and in some cases necessarie For otherwise we must condemn the Faith of St. Peter himself so much commended by Christ himself Mat. 16. 16 17 18. when he openly professed the Deitie of our Saviour Christ For not long after Christ sharply rebuked him for his ignorance of this Passion of him Mat. 16. 23 saying Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me And so were the Disciples ignorant of the Resurrection of Christ and of the Ascension of Christ supposing his Kingdom should be rather a Temporal than Spiritual and eternal as appeareth by their Question Wilt thou at this time restore Act. 1. 6. again the Kingdom unto Israel And I make no doubt after so much evidence from the Histories of the Primitive times that many Eminently holy persons suffering martyrdome for Christ were very meanly seen and setled in divers of those Articles of Faith which have been since imposed as necessarie on the Church and indeed ought to be How this can be allowed is therefore to be inquired into And to this end First it must be determin'd what may be meant by Implicit and Explicit Faith That we call Explicit Faith which clearly distinctly and expresly believs an article of Faith or any divine truth revealed Implicit then must be such a Faith that believs obscurely and confusedly only Secondly it is necessarie to distinguish this distinction it self For Faith may be said to be Implicit either in respect of its object or of its Act. The First Impliciteness consisteth in this That a Christian believing some one material article of Faith clearly and expressly may be said to believe that which is included in that and necessarily follows from it As he that shall believe that Christ consisteth of a divine and humane nature may be said to believe that article contained as it were under it viz. That Christ had a humane will as well as divine though his ignorance be such as never to have particularly considered the same But the Act of Faith I call implicite is when a man being as they say a Christian or Believer at large and liking that Religion very well shall without search without knowledge of the principal points of Faith shuffle all together and conclude all as he thinks sufficiently in this That he believes as a good Christian or Catholick believes as the Church believes The First of these kinds of Faith must necessarily be allowed as good and laudable provided it be not accompanied with an affected ignorance or sloth hindering a mans proficiencie in the Extent and Intention or degrees of it For surely this means the Holy Scripture when it saith I have fed you with Milk and not with meat for hitherto ye were not able to bear it 1 Cor. 3. 2. 1 Cor. 2. 6. neither yet now are ye able And again Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect yet not the wisdom of this world c. Which intimate unto us That the servants of Christ imitating their Master herein did not presently pour forth all the several Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and of Faith but proceeding gradually laid first the foundation Christ Jesus and according to the capacitie of their Converts opened the rest more Explicitly afterward And I make no doubt but the obscure and narrow Faith of the unlearned being generally more sincere and firm than that of the knowing and inquisitive shall lead them to Heaven no less than that more ample Christs equal proceedings being such as not to require the same of all in quantitie of measure but of proportion to their state and his Gifts and Graces conferred on men But that other sort of Faith which satisfies it self with the sincerity and Catholickness of it and that it is of such a sort not attending to or endeavouring after any further illumination or information in the branches arising from that root we cannot see how men can speak reasonably or conscionably in the commendation of it or such who are owners of it can hope to receive any greater benefit than to be numbred amongst true Believers without the reward For it is expresly against Gods word which requireth that the Word of God should dwell in you richly in all wisdom c. And Col. 3. 16. Ignea res fies est ubicunque ociosa est non est Sed quemadmodum in lucerna oleum alit flammam ne extinguatur ita Charitatis opera fidem alunt ne deficiant Fides gignit bona opera Sed illa vicissim nutriunt Parentem Erasmus in Symbolum the reason hereof is because the obedience of Faith of which before is generally proportionable to the Faith it self from whence it springs How then can any man act as all men are tied with an universal obedience who know not nor believe what they are obliged to do but by that Faith which is wanting in them And rudely and effectedly to rest quietly under the immaginarie protection of believing as the Church believes may indeed keep men which is all commonly lookt after here from being Hereticks but it doth not secure them from being Heathens For what ever is said and pretended such ignorant persons do not believe as the Church believes For when the Church believes Expresly and they believe confusedly do they believe as the Church believes When the Church believes she knows what and they believe they know not what do they believe as the Church believes Lastly when the Church believes directly and positively things as they are propounded and these believe negatively that is no otherwise then the Church not oppositely to the sense of it do they believe as the Church believes May not a Heathen believe no otherwise then the Church and yet be an Heathen Nay the more naturally stupid and indocil men are the safer Catholicks they should be because
are intimated to us in these words of St. Paul which are vulgarly brought against us viz. Nevertheless the foundation of God 2 Tim. 2. 19. standeth sure having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity The first foundation of God is that which he hath layed in his assuring us that he will have a Church in despite of all Enemies and Persecuters which would destroy it The second is the seal to this Charter which relating to special persons is twofold The First That God knoweth who are his that is according to Scripture phrase owneth and asserteth the cause of those that are his and will never forsake them otherwise than he hath declared that is they not violating egregiously the Covenant on their parts The second is that which follows viz. Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity This is the seal set to the Covenant made by God which if not duly and proportionably to the favourableness of the Evangelical Covenant observed by man the seal of God avails but little to the benefit of a Christian A second conclusion may be That notwithstanding God hath no where enjoyned us under any forfeiture to obtain this assurance yet he requireth us to be alwayes so pressing and proficient in Faith and Holiness of Life that above his Capitulations or ordinary Promises made in his Word he may communicate his pleasure unto us and good-will concerning the particular salvation of us This hath been imparted unto divers and may again when it seems good to God But it is no Rule to us Thirdly A faithful Christian ought to endeavour the attaining to a strong and true degree of Hope by Gods grace and the working out of his Salvation with fear and trembling For St. John saith That a man may arrive to such a state of assurance as 't is called that considering and believing the undetermined mercy of God in the Gospel he may have confidence of Gods love towards him his own conscience not condemning him as St. John saith Beloved if our heart condemn us not then 1 John 3. 21. have we confidence towards God Lastly This sense serves much to the comfort and tranquility of the mind of scrupulous Christians more than the holding of a peremptory assurance of Salvation which they who require it cannot deny to be wanting to many faithful servants of God For when they consider that the want of this assurance is no indication or character of a Reprobate as some would make it and they must who bring it under precept and promise then are they heartened still to press towards holy and devout exercises believing that God not seeing nor judging as man judgeth nor as they of themselves but out of his incircumscribed mercie may accept them and have mercy on them And here properly doth that doctrine of Faith commended in the Articles of our Church as very comfortable take place viz. as that which when we have done all we must betake ourselves unto and which brings us neerest to God namely not that we believe we are justified for or because we believe we are freely but because Faith and trust in God as it is the first stone in our heavenly building so is it the crown and consummation of all when we disown and disavow all sufficiencie in ourselves or our most Christian Acts even Faith it self and trust in his mercy to be accepted under all our fears and reasonings to the contrary not manifestly violating the Covenant with God for which our own hearts and ordinary apprehensions may condemn us CHAP. XXII Of the Contrary to true Faith Apostasie Heresie and Atheism Their differences The Difficulty of judging aright of Heresie Two things constituting Heresie The Evil disposition of the mind and the falseness of the Matter How far and when Heresie destroyes Faith How far it destroyes the Nature of a Church THus having sufficiently treated of the most general and principal Effect of Faith before we leave this we are in reason to enquire into that which privatively relates to true Faith and that is Heresie What that is and wherein it consisteth For Heresie cannot properly be applyed to any but such who are of the Faith and in some degree belong to the Catholick Church wherein it is distinct from Atheism Apostasie and professed Infidelity For Infidelity though it carries with it in its name a sense which comprehends both Atheism and Apostasie yet use hath prevailed so far as to apply it only to such who do receive some Articles of the Christian Faith and them fundamental too though not as the Christians For Example Infidels may believe there is a God and that God but one and that there shall be a Resurrection of the Just and Unjust and Life everlasting either in misery or bliss yet being either wholly ignorant of or directly denying some fundamental Points of Faith as Christian they continue Infidels though not Atheists Neither can they be accounted Hereticks having never been of the Church nor initiated into or embraced the true Faith These are Negatively only related to the Church as Logicians say Dissimilary things relate one to another viz. A black thing to a white But Heresie is of a privative sense and an opposition to the true Catholick Faith with an Obligation not only taken from the matter of Faith it self to which all the world owe homage and obedience but from some extrinsecal formalities whereby some men more especially contract a relation to the Church of Christ And the first and most principal cause hereof is the solemn dedication which is made by ourselves or others we not oppugning it of us in the initiating Rite of Baptism wherein renunciation is openly made of all things persons and opinions contrary and inconsisting with that Doctrine we there submit unto and vow to observe This Dedication of us to Christ doth make and denominate us Christians and Catholicks according to the less ancient use of the word of which we shall hereafter speak Now according to the degree or manner of violating this most solemn and sacred Vow in Baptism are men said to be Apostates and Hereticks And an Apostates are Hereticks but not all Hereticks Apostates The principal difference consisteth in this 1. That the Apostate doth renounce even the first principles of Christian Faith as Christian And they are they which are expresly contained in the form of Baptism whereby he became a Christian 2. In a formal profession contrary to such Covenant made with God in Christ But Heresie doth not absolutely deny the Grounds of Christianity it self but whether by affected errour or invincible doth resolutely and firmly assert things contrary to true Doctrine But to give a precise definition of Heresie as St. Augustine of old so we find at this day very difficult and not to turn to the right hand or to the left not to make it too broad and wide
to him as were his Disciples for whom he there particularly prays the argument would be of the greater force but it is not so any more then it is true in all respects what Christ saith of himself in St. Matthew I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel So Matth. 15. 24. that as Christ before his resurrection shewed himself very nice how he dealt the Word of Life to the Gentiles so might he at the same time declare a more special desire of the salvation of his elected Servants than of others For we know which is another answer how the Scripture frequently by a note of Denyal doth not intend an absolute exclusion of a thing but comparative only as where God says I will have mercy and not sacrifice Christ prayed not for the world so intensly and particularly or at that time Therefore he prayed not at all is no good consequence And no more is that which is made from an adequateness of the Death of Christ to the actual application of the merits of the same death by such intercession as Prayer So that though Christ did not actually pray for all yet he might dye for all according to the distinction of a twofold Quantum in Medico est sâ—nare merit aegrotum Ipse se interimit qui pâ—aecepta Medici â—â—servare non vult Aug. in Joan. cap. 3. 17. Exhibition of Christ abovesaid For Christ was exhibited as an efficacious Means of Salvation and as an efficacious Cure A precious Antidote or Salve is in its own nature and the intention of the Compounder equally operative and effectual to all Persons in like manner affected All men naturally were involved in the same evil alike affected and infected And Christs Death and Passion alike soveraign to all persons and ordained for all And the difference in the first Case and the second is only in the actual Application thereof For as many as receive that are certainly cured And the Scripture tells us As many as receive him Christ to them gave John 1. 12. he power to become the Sons of God to them that believe in his name Therefore the main enquiry is much more about the difference and variety outward then in the means it self And how and whence it comes to pass that the Death and Passion of Christ are so applyed to one above another that to one they become actually efficacious and to another in aptitude and general institution only If in answer to this doubt we shall say That by Faith and Repentance we are made partakers of Christ we shall answer most truly but not sufficiently because the same difficulty returns upon us How some believe and embrace Christ and are made partakers of his benefits and not others seeing so great salvation is tendered to all Here it is absolutely necessary to take in the Grace of God and his free love towards Mankind in some sense at least by all that will be accounted Christians and not by wisdome make void the Cross of Christ For supposing that God hath made a free and general Covenant with Mankind which Covenant neither is nor can as it is a Covenant be simple and inconditionate so far as nothing should be required thereby of Man to the being capable of the benefit of it it will of necessity follow that the knowledge of this Covenant of Grace must be had by such as receive any benefit thereby For else how is it possible that they should fulfill in any manner the Condition required were it no more than some will make it to receive it by Faith without any more ado then to believe themselves into Gods Grace and Favour by a tacite internal act And this and no more being supposed that such love and gracious purpose for which no natural Cause can be found out to certifie or satisfie any man in the truth thereof were ordained for any specially it must be known by Revelation and not Ratiocination And all extraordinary Revelations besides and above what Nature can discover are purely Acts of Grace and not of Work And therefore why God doth reveal his Gospel to one people or person and not to another can have no other original Cause then the Beneplacitum Good pleasure of God as is plainly Matth. 11. 27. affirmed by Christ himself Neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him And before I thank v. 25. thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid those things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes And in St. Peters Matth. 16. 11 1 Cor. 2 14. case Flesh and bloud hath not revealed this unto thee And St. Paul saith The Natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned From whence it is manifest that though God hath decreed the Salvation of a man by Christ yet this general intention cannot possibly take effect without a super-added Act of Free Grace whereby this Reparation is made known Again it follows That there is no obligation upon God antecedent to his own will and inclination moving him to reveal the same and that only out of Congruity not of Justice or Necessity as supposing a decree given to Man which would be wholly unprofitable and vain without such revelation But why one Man or Nation should be blessed with this gift rather than another there is not so much as congruity to be fairly alledged or reasonably offered And as this is the first act of God on the understanding of Man towards his restitution so is the second act of Man flowing mixtly from his Will and Understanding both altogether owing to Gods Grace and that is believing what before he knew For that this is necessary no doubt can be made or that this is the true cause of being profited or not by Christ St. Paul thus writing For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them Hebr. 4. 2. but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it This diversity is very great but what is the cause of it is not agreed upon For if any shall say It comes from the difference found in Christ as Mediatour he is known to be mistaken by what is said If any one shall say It proceeds from the will and free Election of Man he falls into a worse absurdity for the will of man as free acts or works nothing at all but as determined either by its self or by some other And if by it self either simply and absolutely or joyntly with another cause And this cause must be either taken from somewhat outward as the object duly propounded or inward by way of efficiencie But it cannot be any outward object presenting it self only as a final cause which hath only a moral and not natural influence For if it be demanded to what end such an inward act of the will
to them not only because it is a Liturgy prescribed but because it is too long and painful or that which prayes what it pleases and as long and short as it pleases and with what lazy crude matter it pleases never more troubling themselves or being sollicitous what or how they shall pray extemporary than he is or needs be that reads all out of the book And surely it is less trouble thus to pray without book than with it to any man that will give his mind to it or will boldly enough offer at it And for their Sermons what have they in them to commend them for elaborate or the Speaker of them for laborious Have they not fallen into admiration of one kind of order and method in preaching and which with so much Superstition they cleave to as neither to care nor dare to vary that half their Sermons are made before they begin For the Form they have constantly by them and that shall serve for all texts and occasions whatever and that brings the matter in naturally almost and so neither their invention nor memory are so pained or hard put to it that they should need to boast much of their painful Preaching Surely then it must be their preaching twice a day that they have to trust to for being accounted deservedly painful Preachers But if we consider how they that preach twice spread and beat out their metal and so slip it into two pieces we shall perceive we have but two Six pences for a Shilling which may make more noise and number but weigh no more than one And in truth upon tryal considering likewise what constant Repetitions and Introductions they make to their second Sermon it will be found that to pass to a new subject on Afternoons by Catechizing and treating for half an hour on the principal heads of Christian doctrine and worship as it is more profitable and to the edification of the Generality who are not puff'd up in their fleshly mind with the name of preaching and the place from whence it comes the Pulpit which is their High Altar so is it more difficult to the Performer of it Now these things being so that there is as much work cut out by order of the Church for Ministers to finish as ordinarily one mans strength of Body and Spirit can go through with not prejudicing the health of him which God no ways requires how spiteful and groundless is that charge viz. That we have a lazy Ministry which they promise to out do when they are uppermost If these Rules and Prescriptions of the Church which will certainly keep him from Idleness that observes them more than their Discipline will be not practised as becometh themselves that accuse are in fault chiefly who have shamefully traduced and opposed the same and to gratifie whom negligence hath been countenanced too far in these things And so are they whoever they be that can content themselves with the titles dignitys and profits of Governors of the Church and withdraw themselves from their bounden duty and service to it in seeing better execution done I know their Apology is the strong hand of the Adversary opposing their endeavors in that behalf which would have justifyed and vindicated them much more than now it doth if they had not given evidence of their little sincerity and zeal for Religion in those things which were free and easie for them to do and for which they might have thanks on all sides But Prudence forsooth hath been so infinitely cryed up and magnified and that consisting chiefly in doing nothing and offending no body but God Almighty that Piety and zeal are no better then incivility and Pragmatiqueness the Rule most sacredly observed by them being this We do not do it therefore it ought not or need not be done And thus while we are doubting what Government we should have and how we should be ruled are we made subject to the Triumvirate of Pride Folly and Laziness nothing being done without their consent and approbation But this belongs more properly to the next place CHAP. XVII The Fifth General head wherein the Exercise of the Worship of God doth consist Obedience That Obedience is the end of the Law and Gospel both That the service of God principally consisteth therein Of Obedience to God and the Church The Reasons and Necessity of Obedience to our Spiritual as well as Civil Governors The frivolous cavills of Sectaries noted The Severity of the ancient and latter Greek Church in requiring Obedience The Folly of Pretenders to Obedience to the Church and wilfully slight her Canons and Laws more material than are Ceremonies THE Third and last General head wherein consisteth the proper worship of God is Obedience The distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot the Philosopher of Practise into Acts and Facts holdeth very good in Religion as well as Nature or Morality For besides the Contemplative part which imploies it self in the knowledg and consideration of the doctrine of Faith there must of necessity be a Practical or Operative Part which is the end of the former as is apparent out of holy Scriptures as well as books of Philosophers For we read in Deuteronomy how that Obedience was the end of the Deut. 4. 5. Commandments given to the Israelites Behold I have taught you Statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the Land whither ye go to possess it Keep therefore and do them for this 6. is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of all Nations And in the beginning of the fifth Chapter propounding the Law and Commandements given them by God it followeth That thou mightest fear the Lord Chap. 6. 1 2. thy God and keep all his Statutes and Commandements which I command thee Thou and thy Son and thy Sons Son all the dayes of thy life and that thy dayes may be prolonged Hear therefore O Israel and observe to do it that it may be well with thee Which condition and injunction is constantly annexed unto the Promises of Life and Salvation in the Gospel We read indeed frequently of being justifyed by Faith and saved by Faith and in what sense we have explained in its proper place viz. as it implies the works and fruits of Faith together with the acts of believing and no otherwise which is plainly affirmed by the Apostle to the Hebrews speaking Heb. 5. 9. of Christ our High Priest who being made perfect he became the author of Salvation to all them that obey him Sometimes Obedience is in Scripture put for believing it self because Faith is a principal act of the will bowing and yielding to God assent as in the Acts of the Apostles We are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God Acts. 5. 32. hath given to them that obey him That is surely to them that did believe that testimony
distinct from Divine and Justifying Faith Of Faith Explicit and Implicit HAving thus spoken of the Rule of Christian Faith and its Auxiliary Tradition we are now to proceed to the Nature and Acts the Effects Subject and Object of it For as all Christian Religion is summed up in one Notion of Christian Faith so all Faith may be reduced unto the foresaid Heads Faith taken in its greatest extent containeth as well Humane as Divine And may be defined A firm assent of the mind to a thing reported And there are two things which principally incline the mind to believe The Evidence of the thing offered to the understanding or the Fidelity and Veracity of him that so delivers any thing unto us For if the thing be Fides est donum divinitùs infusum menti hominis quae citra ullam haesitantiam credit esse verissima quaecunque nobis Deus per utrumque Testtradidit ac promisit Erasm in Symbolum apparent in it self to our reasons or senses we presently believe it And if the thing be obscure and difficult to be discerned by us yet if we stand assured of the faithfulness of him that so reports it to us and his wisdom we yield assent thereunto But Faith properly Divine hath a twofold fountain so constituting and denominating it The Matter believed which is not common nor natural but spiritual and heavenly But more especially that Faith is Divine which is not produced in the soul of Man upon any natural reasons necessarily inferring the same but upon a superior motive inducing unto it that is Autoritie divine and because it hath declared and revealed so much unto us as St. Peter believing Christ to be the Son of God it is said Flesh and Boood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven This Mat. 16. 17. was a divine Faith upon a double respect 1. by reason of the object Christ a divine person 2. by reason of the Cause God by whose power he believed the same it not being in the power of flesh and blood any natural reason to convince the judgement so far as absolutely to believe That Christ was so the Son of God so that to be revealed is that which makes the Faith properly divine and not the divine object or thing believed For as it hath been observed by others any thing natural and which by natural reason may be demonstrated and so must be believed by a natural Faith being also commended unto us upon divine autority or revelation may be also believed by a divine Faith That there is an invisible Deity is clearly demonstrable from the visible things of this World and accordingly may and ought to be believed upon the warrant of natural reason it self as St. Paul teacheth us saying The Invisible things of him from the Creation of the Rom. 1. 20. world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse That is If God had not revealed all this yet men ought to believe this out of sense and reason but this hinders not but this very thing should become an article of our Creed also and so because it is revealed Form in us a divine Faith But we must be aware of an ambiguity in Revelation which may mislead us For sometimes Revelation is used for the thing revealed And sometimes for the Act Revealing that which we call now The Revelation of St John and in truth all Scriptures as we have them now are the things God did reveal unto his servants but the Act whereby they were revealed or the Act revealing this to them ended with the persons receiving them And this is no superfluous or curious observation because of a received maxim in the Schools That without a supernatural act we cannot give due assent unto a supernatural object nor believe truths revealed by God without a super added aid of Grace illuminating and inclining the mind to assent thereto From whence doth follow That of all divine Faith is most properly if not only divine which doth believe that such things are Revealed of God and not That which supposes them to have been revealed by God and that he said so as is expressed unto us doth believe For this latter even any natural man and greatest infidel in the world would believe who believes there is a God it being included and implied in the very notion of a Deity that God cannot lie or deceive or affirm a thing to be which is not But the Christian Faith mounts much higher then Heathens and by the Grace of God believes that God hath Revealed such things wherein consists his Christian Faith The first thing then a true believer indeed must believe is That the Scriptures are the word of God and this as it is the most fundamental so is it most difficult of all to one not educated in the Faith of Christians because it neither can be proved by Scripture nor whatevermen who promise nothing less in their presumptuous methods then clear demonstrations may say and argue by Tradition The Scriptures though not testimonie of it self yet matter and manner may induce and Tradition fortifie that but the Crown of all true Christian Faith must be set on by Gods Grace A Second thing in order is when we believe that God hath spoken such things that we believe the things themselves so delivered to us of God For though as is said any rational heathen may well do this yet many a Christian doth it not For The foo◠not in knowledge so much as practise 〈◊〉 14. ◠◠Ti◠◠9. hath said in his heart there is no God saith the Psalmist and St. Paul that many out of an evil conscience have made Shipwrack of their Faith which really once they had A third degree of Christian Faith is When not onely we believe that God hath revealed his Law unto us and what he hath so revealed to be most faithful true and holy but obey the same For in Scripture Faith is taken for Obedience and Obedience for Faith as in the famous instance of Abraham who is said to believe God and that his Faith was counted for Righteousness And why is Abraham said to believe God so signally Because he was perswaded that God bade him offer up his Son unto him No but because he did it by Faith as is witnessed in the Epistle to the Hebrews And this acceptation of Faith is much confirmed by the contrary Heb. 11. 17. speech of Scripture in whose sense they who obey not God are commonly said not to believe him as in the Book of Deuteronomie Deut. 9. 23. Likewise when the Lord sent unto you from Kadesh-Barnea saying Go up and possess the Land which I have given you then ye rebelled against the Commandement of the Lord your God and believed him not nor hearkened unto his voice And therefore in the Acts of the Apostles it is said
but they were the intermediate effects of the stock of Grace treasured up in the Soul and exhorting and improving it self by the continual supplie of the Spirit of Christ according to the * Mat. 25. 16. doctrine of St. Paul to the Corinthians saying Insomuch that we desired Titus that as he had begun so he would also finish in you the same Grace also Therefore as ye abound in every thing in Faith in utterance in knowledge and v. 7. in all diligence and in your love to us see that ye abound in this Grace also Of this influence of Christs Spirit to the augmentation of Grace in the hearts of the true believers speaketh the same Apostle to the Colossians thus The Col. 2. 19. Head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God Sanctification then may be described The Grace of God infused into the Soul of a Sinner and purifying it by Faith as Justification is the reputation and acceptation of a person for Just by almighty God through the intuition of the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ And yet more distinctly to declare their mutual agreement and difference it will conduce much to the due understanding of them both First then Justification and Sanctification agree in their Subject The true believer the same person who is Sanctified being also Justified and he that is Justified being Sanctified also For so saith the prophet Nahum of him The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked Nahum 1. 3. And when we find St. Paul affirming the contrary in appearance viz. that God justifieth the ungodly we are to understand him to speak not in Rom. 4. 5. Sensu composito in such manner that he is justified while he is so ungodly but in Sensu diviso a distinct sense and season as if it had been said Him that was once ungodly as he seems to interpret himself in his Epistle to the Corinthians where having spoken of the many abominations men were subject to he saith And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are 1 Cor. 6. 11. Sanctified but ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Secondly Justification and Sanctification agree in their foundation which is at least inchoate and initial holiness For though no mans inherent holiness arises so high as to denominate him truly Just or holy for its own sake yet both to Sanctification and Justification is necessarily required some preparatorie and imperfect holiness consisting principally in the Conversion of the mind to God from sin Thirdly both Sanctification and Justification are alike owing to Faith as their immediate Cause next under Gods Spirit as may be gathered from the prayer of Christ for his disciples Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is Joh. 17 17. truth That is the doctrine of Faith received To which Faith the effect of Sanctification is ascribed by St. Peter in the Acts whereby the Act. 15. 9. hearts of the Gentile were purified or Sanctified Fourthly they are both equally imputed unto us through the Righteousness of Christ Therefore saith St. Paul to the Corinthians To them that are Sanctified in Christ Jesus And 1 Cor. 1. 2. Heb. 10. 29. to the Hebrews it is said We are Sanctified by the blood of the Covenant So that no less are we Sanctified then Justified by Christs death and merits and the imputation of them But on the other side they are distinct in some formalities such as these may be for First the immediate cause of our Sanctification is in holy Scripture imputed to the operation and influence of the Holy Spirit as our Justification is more properly attributed to Christ the mediator between God and man As appeareth from St. Pauls words to the Thessalonians But we are bound to give thanks alwayes for you brethren beloved of the Lord 2 Thes 2. 13. because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth And St. Peter Elect according 1 Pet. 1. 2. to the foreknowledge of God the Father and Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience Thirdly Justification looketh backward being an absolution of the guilty from sins formerly committed and holding him Just but no man is justified actually from sins which hereafter he may fall into But Sanctification relates chiefly to the time future For not only is a sinner by the Spirit of Regeneration and Sanctification purged from the old Leaven of sin and malice but he becometh a New Lump and unleavened 1 Cor. 5. 7. Rom. 6. 13. and whereas he hath yielded his members as Instruments of unrighteousness unto sin he doth yield himself unto God as those that are alive from the dead And old things are done away in him and all things become new And whosoever is 1 Joh. 3. 9. thus born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Fourthly to the Act of our Justification the will of man doth not necessarily concurr though it dissents not but is rather passive than Active but to our Sanctification is absolutely required the co-operation of the will and affections of man with the Grace of God in all those who have attained unto the use of reason For indeed by baptism Infants are so far Sanctified as to be freed from that hereditarie evil incident unto them which their will concurred not to but to actual Sanctification from those evils our wills did freely consent actual concurrence of our wills is necessary Fifthly Our Justification is entire and absolute at once no man being partly Justified and partly not Justified though he be partly Just and partly unjust or unholy But no man in this Life is so perfectly Sanctified as that there wants not somewhat to consummate the same because Justification being altogether the Act of God and not at all of Man God may and doth wholly and freely remit the guilt of sin to the penitent offendor But Man being also concerned in the Sanctification of himself his acts are imperfect and defective so that the effect it self partakes of the same and so Sanctification continues imperfect And it is not all at once but answerable to our natural man proceedeth by degrees Until we all come Eph 4. 13. in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ which fulness of stature is that we are to hope for and enjoy only in heaven Lastly to search no farther into this point before Justification there must of necessity goe some degree of Sanctification even in the opinion of such as contend most rigorously for freeness of Justification for to make Justification altogether
inconditionate and absolute on mans part is to blaspheme the immutable Justice of God and withall destroy the use of Faith in order to our Justification For it is impossible any thing bearing the name of a cause or condition as Faith certainly doth when we say We are Justified by â—aith should be posteriour to the thing it so relates unto The promise indeed of pardon and Justification of a sinner is actually made to those who do not actualâ—y believe and repent but promise answerably and covenant to believe and repent Non enim ut fâ—â—â— eat ignis cal facit sed quia fervet Nâ—c ideo benâ— currit roâ—a ut rotunda sâ—t sed quia rotunda Aâ—g ad Simplic Qu. 1. but the Execution and performance of this promise is not made before there be an actual fulfilling of our Covenant with God But then on the other side there must be perfect Justification before there can be that perfect Sanctification which we all aspire unto and God expects from us For then are we truly Sanctified when our works are holy and acceptable unto to God which they are not untill they proceed from a person so far Justified as to be accepted of God Whence may be resolved that doubt about Gods acceptation of the person for the works sake or the work for the persons sake For wisely and truly did the wife of Manoah inferr Gods acceptation of their sacrifice from the favour and grace he bore unto their persons and at the same time prove the favour God bore to their persons from the Acceptance of their sacrifice saying If the Lord were pleased to kil us he Judg. 13. 23. would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these That God therefore accepted their Burnt-offering it is a sign he approved their persons but the reason antecedent of Gods acceptation of their sacrifice was because he first approved their persons And yet notwithstanding the goodness of the person is the original of the goodness of the work nothing hinders but the goodness of the work may add value favour and estimation unto the person As to use Luthers comparison and others after and before him the tree bears the fruit and not the fruit the tree And the goodness of the tree is the cause of the goodness of the fruit and not the goodness of the fruit the cause of the goodness of the tree Yet the fruit doth procure an esteem and valuation from the owner to the tree and endears it to him to the cultivating the ground and dressing it and conferring much more on that than others In like manner the Person Sanctified and Justified produces good works and not those good works him but some actions accompanied with Gods grace antecedent and inferiour to the fruit it self Yet doth the fruit of good Works add much of esteem and honour from God to such a person and render him capable of an excellent reward for St. Paul to the Philippians assureth them and us when he saith I desire fruit that may abound to your account Phil. 2. 7. CHAP. XVIII Of Justification as an Effect of Faith and Good Works Justification and Justice to be distinguished and How The several Causes of our Justification Being in Christ the Principal Cause What it is to be in Christ The means and manner of being in Christ. TO the informing our selves aright in the much controverted point of Justification which whether it be a proper effect of Good works or not doth certainly bear such a relation â—o them as may well claim this place to be treated of it seemeth very expedient after we have distinguished and illustrated it by Sanctification explained to proceed to distinguish it likewise from Justice For as Righteousness or holiness the ground of Sanctification is to be distinguished from Sanctification it self so is Justice the ground to be distinguished from Justification its complement and perfect on This being omitted or confusedly delivered by diverse hath been no small cause of great obscurities For Righteousness or Justice seems to be nothing else but an exact agreement of a mans actions in general to the true Rule of Acting and that Rule is the Law or word of God For he that offends not against that is undoubtedly a Just man of himself by his own works and needs nothing but Justice to declare and ackowledg him for such no mercy nor favour As that thing which agrees with the square or Rule is perfect But notwithstanding such supposed perfect conformitie to the Law of God be perfect righteousness yet is not this to be Justified Neither can any man in Religion be said more to Justifie himself than in civil cases where it is plainly one thing to be innocent and to be an accurate unreproveable observer of the Law in all things and to have sentence pronounced in his behalf that so indeed he really is For this is only to Justifie him though in pleading his own case in clearing and vindicating himself a man is vulgarly said to Justifie himself And no otherwise if we will keep to the safe way of proper and strict speaking is it in Religion Supposing that which never happen'd since Christ that a man should have so punctually observed every small as well as great precept of Gods Law that no exception could be taken against him yet is he not hereby Justified though he may be said to be the true Cause of his Justification and that he hath merited it Which St. Paul seems to implie unto us saying For I know 1 Cor. 4. 4. nothing by my self yet am I not hereby Justified For in truth Justification is an act of God only as Judge no less then author of his own Laws upon the intuition of due Conformitie to it or Satisfaction of it And as a man may possibly be just and yet never be Justified taking things abstractly so may a man be unjust and guilty and yet be justified doth not the word of God as well as common reason and experience certifie so much He that Justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the Just even Prov. 17. 15. they both are abomination unto the Lord. This then surely may be No man then can be justified by himself or any Act or Acts of him no not through Christ But though he cannot thus Judicially and formally Justifie himself it is not so repugnant to reason or Scripture to be said Materially and Causally to act towards his Justification Nay he cannot come up to the rigour of the Rule nor excel so far in Justice and holiness as to demand at Gods hands his absolving sentence yet that he cannot contribute towards it is not only false but dangerous doctrine leading men into a sloathfull despondencie and despair so that they shall do nothing at all because they cannot do all that is required of
Justice But to arrive in this doubtful and perplexed way to the right end of this Dispute it will be necessarie to pass briefly through all the several Causes of our Justification and so much the rather because divers before have so done and failed in their Divinity because of a mistake in Logick in miscalling Causes And first we must know otherwise then some have taught That the Material Cause of our Justification is not the graces in us nor the pardon without us nor remission of sins nor obedience of Christ nor of our selves but the person justified is the subject of Justification For who with good sense can say Our sins are justified our good works are Justified Acts. 13. 3â— True it is St. Paul saith by him Christ all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be Justified by the Law of Moses Shewing hereby that we are Justified from our sins but not that our sins are Justified And so where St. James speaks so often of which hereafter that we are Justified by Works he intendeth not to say our Works are Justified For t is the person not the qualities of him that is Justified And if any speak otherwise they must be helpt out by recurring to Figurative not proper speaking In such cases as these if ever we would judge aright we must hold as precisely as can be to propriety of speech About the Final cause of our Justification I find nothing singular but in common with all the Acts of God towards man and all the Actions of Man towards God viz The glory of God Neither is there any difference of parties herein But concerning the Formal Cause of our Justification before God some discord is found yea concerning a Formal Cause in General what it is and wherein it consisteth which is very necessarie to be understood to attain to the true notion of being Formally Justified A Formal Cause then is that whereby a thing is what it is subsists in it self and is distinguished from other things being always essential and intrinsecal to the thing so by it constituted that it cannot be so much as conceived without it and cannot possibly but be with it This whether artificial or not I weigh not much but is a true description of that Cause For instance sake A man is a man properly by his soul and not by his body his soul being his Inward form and as it is impossible that he should be so without it so is it impossible but that he should be so with it whatever outward visible defects or imperfections may appear otherwise So in the present cause it must necessarily be that the Formal Cause of our Justification be intrinsecal to the Justified person and that not being that he should not be justified Contrary to what some have affirmed upon this occasion who from an instance of an Eclipse would show that the formal Cause is not alwayes intrinsecal to that which it formeth For say they as it should seem by the autority of Zabarel In an Eclipse of the Sun the Moon interposing is the formal Cause of the Darkness of the Earth and yet it is not intrinsecal to it but separate But the mistake is plain that the Moon being not the cause of the earth it self but of the darkness of the earth only it is not the Formal Cause of that and so may be extrinsecal to it and intrinsecal to the darkness as the formal cause but whether this be so or not we are here only to show that no cause formal can be external to the thing of which it is the form and by consequence that nothing without us can be the formal cause of our Justification or that whereby we are denominated Just before God So that neither Christ nor his merits do render us so Justified And therefore they who to magnifie the mistery of our Justification do object to themselves How a man can be Just by the justice of another and how righteous by another persons righteousness any more than a man can hear with another mans ears or see with another mans eyes do tie such a knot as they can by no means loose For in plain truth neither the one nor the other can formally be But they may say As it is Christs righteousness indeed and rests only in him so we cannot be said to be justified formally by it but as it is made ours especially by Faith and is applied unto us so we may be formally Justified by it To which I say that if that individual formal Righteousness which is in Christ were by any means so transferred formally unto us and infused into us that we should in like manner possess it as did Christ then indeed the argument would hold very good that by such application we were Justified formally by Christs righteousness but no such thing will be granted neither is any such thing needfull For though the Scripture saith directly that Christ is The Lord our Phil. 3. 9. righteousness and St. Paul desireth to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith Yet we are not to understand hereby that the formal righteousness of Christ becomes our formal Righteousness but that he is by the Gospel he revealed unto us the teacher of Righteousness and that far different from that Righteousness of the Law which St. Paul calls his own as that which he brought with him to Christ and he is Justification is neither but a certain action in God applied unto us or a certain respect or relation whereby we ar acquit of our sins and accepted to life everlasting Perkins Gal 2. 16. Rom. 8. 30. the Prime Cause of our Righteousness sending his holy Spirit unto us and by his merits appeasing the wrath of God and satisfying his Justice for us all which is not the formal cause of our Righteousness or Justification For neither is that formal righteousness in us which is inherent Righteousness the formal Cause of our Justification But our Justification formal is an Act of God terminating in Man whereby he is absolved from all guilt reputed Just and accepted to Grace and favour with God When God hath actually passed this divine free and gracious sentence upon a sinner then and not before is he formally Justified This is the end and consummation of all differences between God and man and the initiating him into all saving Grace here and Glory hereafter as St. Paul writing to the Romans witnesseth in these words Whom he predestinated them he also called and whom he called them he also Justified and whom he justified them he also glorified CHAP. XIX Of the Efficient Cause of Justification IT remains therefore now that we proceed to the means causes and motives inducing God Almighty thus to Justifie Man a sinner whom he might rather condemn for his unrighteousness And these as
many and divers in kind as they are may all be reduced unto the Efficient causes so often mistaken for the formal And truly to proceed herein regularly and clearly we must begin with the Cause of all Causes God himself For though Christ be the Cause of all Causes visible and in the actual administration and execution yet he is not the first but subordinate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys Hom. 27. in Joan. Cause of Mans reconciliation to God his Justification and Salvation For as holy Chrysostom divinely and sublimely enquiring into the reason that might incline God to restore Man being fallen and lost by his Apostasy from God unto a state of bliss again to admit of any terms of Reconciliation with him determines it it is nothing but the divine Philanthropie of God his free undeserved unscrutable love towards man springing as it were from his own breast beginning within himself and of himself absolutely irrespectively to any outward motives but to show as St. Paul saith He would have mercie on whom he would have mercie and he Rom. 9. 15. would have compassion on whom he would have compassion and because as the Psalmist hath it Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he in heaven Psal 135. 6. and in earth in the seas and in all deep places He pleased to leave the fallen Angels and he pleased to restore fallen man and that because it so pleased him For not so much as any consideration of Christ could dispose him to decree so favourably on the behalf of man but first this decree passed and then followed the determination of the means most convenient thereunto which was to send his son to give him to be Incarnate and to be the great and powerful Mediator between God and Man mighty to save Christ then was that which in general moved God Externaly to the Justification of Man after he had conceived of himself a purpose to reconcile man to himself as S. Paul clearly asserteth in his second Epistle to the Corinthians All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself 2 Cor. 5. 18. by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing 19. their trespasses unto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation And more particularly elsewhere he describeth unto us the several parts of our reconciliation to God saying But of him are ye in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1. 30. who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness Sanctification and redemption Therefore it is that so often in Scripture Christ is called a Gal. 3. 20. Heb. 8. 6. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 9. 15. Heb. 12. 24. Mediator between God and man for the bringing to pass and causing to take effect the General decree of God for the redemption of Mankind For through Christ we were by God predestinated as is taught us by St. Paul to the Ephesians Having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ unto himself according to the good pleasure of his will Where Eph. 1. 5. we see plainly that Christ was not the Cause that we were predestinated in Christ but the Good pleasure of his Absolute will Again we were called in Christ as St. Jude implieth saying To them that are sanctified Jud. 1. by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called And as we are called and sanctified so certainly are we justified freely by Christ And there is nothing more requisite for us to be fully justified in the presence of God then to be made partakers of Christ and as St. Paul saith To be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the Law Phil. 3. 9. whether of Nature or Moses but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith From whence and several other texts of Holy Scripture testifying the absolute necessity of Christ to the Justifying and saving of us it appeareth that nothing can be more contrary to the Eternal purpose of saving man through Christ yea nothing indeed more tidiculous then to but imagine that there can be any Act in man contradistinct from Christ and not receiving all its worth and vertue from Christ which can avail any thing towards the salvation or Justification of him Or that a man being grafted into Christ and partaking of his graces and merits can fail of being accepted of God unto Justification and salvation For as St. Paul saith to the Romans All have sinned and come short Rom. 3. 23 24 25. of the glory of God Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God c. Now there are three things in General which truly denominate us to be in Christ and partakers of him To be partakers of the benefit of his Passion satisfying for us To be partakers of his spirit and graces thereof renewing and sanctifying us and thirdly to be partakers of his Intercession before God on our behalf For as the Scripture tells us He ever liveth to make intercession for us And this Heb. 7. 25. his intercession an Act of his Sacerdotal office is it whereby Christ properly meriteth for us For the Passion of Christ doth sufficiently discharge us of our former Obligations and obnoxiousness to the Law of God and the punishments therein denounced against the contemners and violaters thereof and so may be said having fully satisfied all the Law justly demanded of us to have merited pardon and remission of what is passed doth not thereupon entitle us to any graces or blessings from God but yet putteth us into a capacity of them but the actual collation of them is rather owing unto the uncessant mediation of him before God in behalf of us And this the Scripture intends when it saith We have a great high Priest Heb. 4. 14. that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the son of God And thus we have made a second step towards the clearing our Justification in its Efficient Causes viz That it is wholly effected by Christ made righteousness sanctification and Redemption unto us But a third thing and that of no mean necessity and difficulty both is behind how we come to be so entirely partakers of Christ how Christ so becomes ours as that God should upon the intuition hereof freely Justifie us For as St. Austin hath observed of the giving of the Holy spirit of God to those that ask aright whereas none can ask aright but by the Holy spirit herein is a great mysterie that a man can be said to be capable of the Spirit before he hath the Spirit In like manner can no man be said to be capable of Christ and
may reconcile many otherwise contrary opinions found amongst the Ancient Fathers sometimes ascribing much of the Ecclesiastical Power to Christian Emperours and sometimes calling the same in question The Church of England so far as she hath declared herself herein seemeth to take the mean way and follow herein the Prescriptions of the Old Testament and the Precedents of Christian Emperors found in the Antient Church under the Gospel and doth profess to be the due of our Kings as much as ever any Kings upon earth to sway in Ecclesiastical matters In execution of which power as there was alwayes approbation moderated according to the customes of the Church so was there always Opposition when the bounds were exceeded And undoubtedly true is That we are taught by our Church to acknowledge That whatever in Church Constitutions and Canons Church of England Can. 2. matters was the Right of Jewish Kings or Christian Emperours of Old is so now the Right of our Kings But some not content herewith have out of the Title of Head given at the first attempts of Reformation to our King and made by acts of State Hereditary to his successors drawn an argument to prove all that power which rested in the Church to be devolved on the Kings of this Nation But this hath ever been disowned and disclaimed in such a large sense by themselves as appears by Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and an Act of Parliament in confirmation whereof I shall here only recite the opinion or testimony of Bishop Jewel in his view of Pius Quintus his seditious Bull Bishop Jewel against the Bull of Pius 5th against her in these his own word Where is the called Supream Head Peruse the Acts of Parliament the Records the Rolls and the Writs of Chancery or Exchequer which pass in her Graces name Where is she ever called Supream Head of the Church No No brethren she refuseth it she would not have it nor be so called Why then doth Christs Vicar blaze and spread abroad so gross an untruth c. This was her Judgement and modesty then when there was greatest cause to apprehend some such thing and what she thought of it I never could learn was ever otherwise interpreted by her Successors For notwithstanding that according to the most ancient and undoubted Rights of this Emperial Crown our Kings are supream Governors of the Church as well as State yet never was it expounded of the Church as they were Ecclesiastical but as they were of Civil capacity For herein differeth the Right of Kings according to our Reformation from that of Roman Perswasion That Clergy men becoming Sons of the Church in more especial manner than they of the Laity are not thereby exempted from the Civil Power either in matter of propertie or Criminalness But the Roman Church so far exalted and extended their Ecclesiastical Power as to withdraw such Persons and their Cases civil from Civil cognizance and judgement and assume it to themselves And this the Pope claiming very injuriously as Head of the Church To root up this usurpation Henry the eight null'd that his pretence and took the title to himself intending nothing more then to vindicate his Prerogative in that particular For though it cannot be denied that many and great Priviledges to this effect have been of Old granted by Christian Emperours to eminent Bishops to judge of their own Sons as they were called within themselves yet did they never claim this as a Native Right of the Church or Christianity but as an act of Grace from the Civil Power And though the Church following therein the Councel of St. Paul to go to Law rather before 1 Cor. 6. 1. the Just than unjust and that Christians should rather determine Causes of differences amongst themselves by arbitration than scandalously apply themselves to the Judgement Seat of Heathen did ever endeavour to determine business within it self and yet more especially the Clergy Yet they never denied a Right in Civil Autority to call them in question upon misdemeanours or to decide their Cases of Civil nature And for the other of Divine nature or purely Ecclesiastical Princes never expected or desired to intermeddle therewith This the Roman Deputy of Achaia Gallio understood not to concern his Juridical power when Act. 18. he refused to be a Judge of such matters as were esteemed Religious though in that violence was offered to the body of St. Paul before his face he might and ought to have shewn his Autority But when the Soveraign Power became Christian it was not thought unlawful at all nor scandalous to address themselves to it for decision of Controversies And this is it which is intended to be demanded now by our Kings in their Supremacy in Cases Ecclesiastical and Civil and acknowledged by the Clergy of this Church to be his due without that servile way of seeking leave from the Bishop of Rome or any under him Onely where it may be showed that Peculiar Grants of Exemptions from the common course of Justice have been made by Princes to the Clergy of the Church may it not seem equal that they should enjoy the benefit of them as well as others in other Cases But nothing is more unreasonable or intollerable then the impudence of those spitefully and malitiously bent against the Religion professed in our Church who argue from the Kings Supremacy over the Church such an absolute dominion there as they will by no means acknowledge due to him in the State If by Acts of Parliament a thing be confirmed to the Commonwealth it is lookt on as inviolable by the King and unalterable without the like solemn Revocation as was the Constitution But by vertue of the Ancient Right of the Crown they would have it believed the King may at his pleasure alter such solemn Acts made in behalf of the Church Without the concurrence of the Three Estates nothing is lookt upon as a standing Law to the Civil State but by vertue of this Supremacy Ecclesiastical they would have it believed that without any more ado without consent or counsel of the Church he may make what alteration of Religion he pleases which was never heard or dreamt of Yea and whereas not only his Civil but Ecclesiastical Power always acknowledged the Bounds of common benefit and extended not to destruction they would have it thought that he may when he pleaseth by vertue of such Headship destroy the Body of the Church and Religion and leave none at all so far at least as the withdrawing of all secular aid and advantage do hasten its ruine But they will not be of this opinion any longer than they have brought about their mischievous purposes Surely St. Paul who had 1 Cor. 5. 12. nothing to do at all with State matters and could not touch one that was without the Church by Ecclesiastical censure was as much the Head of the Church as ever any Prince in Christendom doth expressly declare that whatsoever
28. 19. and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which plainly distinguishes three Persons And Take heed saith St. Paul in the Acts therefore unto your Acts 20. 28. selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud Here we have two persons distinct expressed The Holy Ghost whose act of making Overseers doth infer an Agent and that Agent a Person And in that it is said God purchased the Church with his bloud there is an express Character of Christ in his Passion to whom is expresly given the title of God for that God the Father died nor Christ as God though Christ God is manifest Now of God the Father no Christian can make doubt after so many manifest Texts expressing the same And Rom. 9. v. 5. Whose Rom. 9. 5. are the Fathers and of whom concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever The Scholie of Socinus and his followers being meerly cavillous and forced contrary to common reading The Confession likewise of Thomas upon the Miracle wrought by Christ proveth the Deity of Christ crying out My God and my Lord. And in the Epistle to the Colossians Joâ— 20. v. 28. Col. 2. 9. the God-head is said to dwell in Christ bodily i. e. in opposition to figuratively or improperly To these bare Testimonies add we these rational proofs from the Attributes proper to God given to Christ 1. Eternity Micah 5. 2. His goings-out are from everlasting 2. Omnipotence Micah Joh. 3. 31. Joh. 3. 31. He that cometh from above is above all but only God is above all An instance likewise of Christs Omnipotency is given us by St. Paul to the Philippians where speaking of Christ he saith Who shall change our vile Phil. 3. 21. body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself 3. Immensity another property of God is given to Christ Mat. 18. 20. Where he promiseth Where two or three shall be gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst of them which is not possible for him that is not God Christs Church being in all places diffused 4 Divine worship given to Christ implies a divine nature in him but both Old and New Testaments agree herein that Christ the Messias is to be worshipped In the Psalms thus it Psal 72. is written of him Yea all Kings shall fall down before him and all Nations shall worship him And in the second Psalm David adviseth to kiss the Son Psal 2. that is worship him lest he be angry and ye perish from the right way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Now we know the same Psalmist saith Put not your trust in Princes Psal 146. 3. nor in any Son of man in whom there is no help And believing in Christ is a special part of worship but this is required by Christ of his Disciples saying Ye believe in God believe also in me Prayer likewise is made to Joh. 14. 1. Acts 7. Christ by St. Stephen for in the Acts it is written how Stephen was stoned calâ—ing upon Christ and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit The third Person in the holy Trinity is the holy Ghost which we have shewed in part that the learnedest of the ancient Jews were not ignorant of though more obscurely delivered in the Old Testament than in the New The first thing then we are to prove is That the holy Ghost is a Person for that it is there needs no other proof than the words themselves so often used in Scripture And that it subsists personally and not only as an Act or Grace will appear from these two general heads The Acts of it an the Attributes given to it And first In what sense the Scriptures use evil Spirit in the same sense may it be said to use the good Spirit but evil Spirit is frequently used for a Person who is the author of mischief to mankind and therefore the good Spirit must be a Person the author of 1 Joh. 4. 6. Rom. 11. 8. Eph. 2. 2. 1 Sam. 16. 14. 2 Chron. 18. 20 21. good to man We read in Scripture of a Spirit of error and the Spirit of slumber and the Spirit of disobedience and of an evil Spirit that possessed Saul and of a lying Spirit that entred into and moved the false Prophets and in the New Testament as well as humane Authors of divers who have been infested with evil Spirits Now all these were real and personal Subsistences and therefore in parity of reason so should the good Spirit of which we so often read both in the Old and New Testament under the appellation of the Spirit of the Lord as the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the waters at the beginning and the Spirit of the Lord fell upon such persons And if it be here replyed That we are to understand the good Spirits after the same manner we understand the evil and that the evil Spirits being evil Angels the good Spirit should be good Angels only We answer not denying That Spirit may be so used in Scripture divers times and that by the same parity of reason that it is insinuated unto us that the evil Spirit hath one Prince and chief amongst them called Lucifer so the good Spirits have one supreme over them that good Spirit of God Secondly That where Scripture speaks of Spirit absolutely there the divine Spirit is constantly to be understood as St. Hierome hath observed Again We read from the Acts of the Spirit as interceding for us being Rom 8. 26. Eph. 4. 30. Mat. 3. 16. grieved and descending upon Christ in a bodily shape at his Baptism and Christs speech to his Disciples saying in St. John I will ask the Father and he shall give you another Comforter Christ was the one Comforter not only by his Graces but personal presence among his Disciples and answerable to this must the holy Spirit be also here promised And that this divine Person is distinct from the other appeareth from the general Doctrine of the Trinity above and specially out of St. Matthew where Christ saith Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Mat. 28. and of the Son and of the holy Ghost which must imply a distinction And St. John Chap. 1. He that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto Joh. 1. 33. me Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the holy Ghost And so Joh. 14. 16. Joh. 15. 26. From the same place of St. Matthew appeareth the equality of all these three Persons and especially from the immediate operation the Spirit had upon Christ who was God and Man for of it Isaiah thus
How can any man be said to be afflicted for his loss of a great empire or riches unless he knew that he once was possessed of them or they were at least his by Right How can any pain trouble a man which he feels not And if he feels it not how can it be a punishment to him And to this I add the Scripture saying God made man according to his own Image in Genesis Gen. 1. 26. Jam. 3. 9. and in St. James's Epistle After the similitude of God How is it less than blasphemous that a sinful guilty creature such as man must needs be having a wicked Spirit put into him should be said to be according to Gods Image or likeness And how can it consist with the Scripture elsewhere saying God made man upright but they have found out many inventions Eccles 7. 29. For though the Evil Spirit supposed to be put into man were the Author of its own wickedness yet when once that was so wicked for to put it into man is to make man wicked Now this Image of God so much spoken of in Scripture and treated of by Divines to the great honour of Man we may understand to consist in these five things Principally 1. Wisdom and Knowledg 2. Liberty of Will 3. Justice and Holiness 4. Immortality 5. Dominion For when we speak of the Image of God in Man we must be sure not to confound it with that proper to Christ the Image of God For first that of man was made as we have heard that of God Christ was neither made nor created but begotten and that not by way of Carnal Generation but purely divine and Spiritual Secondly That was as well Eternal in respect of what is past as what was to come But the Image of God in Man only everlasting as to the future time Thirdly That of Christ was immediate but that of Man mediate So that he is not the Image of God but as he is the Image of his more express and Natural Image Christ and that first as is said in Wisdom Christ being primarily called the Wisdom of his Father and deriving of the same to us For as St. John saith Of John 1. 16 his fulness have all received and Grace for Grace And God creating all things through his Natural Word his Son signified by that Metaphorical word expressed in the Book of Genesis did in particular through him communicate that Wisdom unto Adam which he excelled in at his first Institution whereby it was natural to him to understand the natures of all Creatures Earthly as well from their Causes from whence they proceeded as from their effects proceeding from them which latter is the principal means of attaining that remainder and as it were ruins of a more perfect Body of knowledg in Adam which we are capable of in the state we now are And not only Natural things but Supernatural also as God and the Holy Spirits were much more perfectly known to him than to us So that the knowledg of the First man exceeded all after him Christ the Second Adam only excepted in these three things First in the manner of enjoying that knowledg which he had it being not acquired by tedious and experimental discursiveness observations or reasoning within himself but by a divine illumination which was not given him after the manner of Revelations given by God to some of his eminent Servants transiently not to continue or to descend to others but it was by way of a connatural habit which should have passed to his posterity Secondly the object of this knowledg or extent of it transcended that of Man now adayes stretching it self to heavenly as well as Earthly things and the minuter things lying hid from us Thirdly It differed in the manner and perfection as being more accurate and less Fallible than ours The Second thing shining eminently in Adam was Liberty of will whereby he resembled his Creatour who is the only absolute and Free Agent For there was no natural inclination nor temptation in him to err or offend in choosing the Evil and refusing Good according to that of Syracides God himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his Councel c. Leaving it equally in his power and choice to turn to the Eccles 15. 14. Right hand or to the Left to stand or fall And not only freely to do what he did though propelled thereunto but freely to Act or not to act which is the perfectest and most proper freedom of all From this twofold perfection of the Understanding and Will arose a Third which was perfect Innocency and Holiness which by some is called Original Justice and by others Original Grace both ayming at the same thing For Original Justice or Righteousness it may be called because it was not acquired but connatural and simultaneous to the Being of Man Again It was Grace because though it pleased God to create man with it yet he might also have created him without it and it was separable from him and so not intrinsick to his very nature Which is yet thus further to be understood that it were most absurd and blasphemous to believe that God could make a man a sinner without any precedent or concurrent act of his own will or without this original innocency and Justice for as nothing but God can proceed immediately and directly from Gods hand so neither could man as he was the effect of God be any otherwise than Good This then may be called his natural and Original Justice and Goodness and Original Grace also in some sense because though all the works of God must needs be good as his yet man for example might not have been so perfect either in his understanding and will and yet have retained innocency And this was the Grace of God Besides which may probably be asserted another Grace which to the bare stock of Nature thus put together by God superadded a more special and Free Grace called though not very properly the Grace of Sanctification not as it is in us purifying and restoring us in some competent manner to what hath been decayed or depraved by the fraud and power of the Devil in us or our own vile hearts and affections but by way of Preservation preventing the evils and dangers unto which we were subject Now this as it is called Grace because it was not necessarily due to nature So was it called Natural or Original because God conserred the same at our first being and would so have continued it had we not abused and forfeited the same And from hence sprang a Fourth beam of the bright Image of God in man viz. Immortality as an appendage to the said Natural Justice and a reward of the perseverence in it For God saying In the day thou eatest Gen. 2. 17. thereof the tree of the knowledg of Good and Evil Thou shalt surely die did imply that so long as he persevered in due
be at all or doth God give him possession of Glory before he gives him capacity The summe of what I am to say is this That First Gods Providence ordaineth that man shall be and then ordaineth that he shall be of such a condition and to such an end and then he giveth him an actual Being and then according to the state he is found in brings him to his proper end and not in that unnatural preposterous and irrational method determines him absolutely to an end before he determines his Being at all And those places of Scripture alledged to defend this presumption do rather overthrow it as that amongst others The children being not yet born Rom. 9. 11 12. neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her The elder shall serve the younger I readily here grant a parity between Gods electing to spiritual and temporal ends which this argument supposeth but I do not grant That it was Gods purpose that the elder should serve the younger before it was his purpose that they both should be or that the execution of this Decree did not depend upon the execution of means leading unto it So that when it is said God first as man ordains the end and then the means conducing unto it it is true only when it relates to the end of the Ordainer not of the thing ordained which hath its end really distinct from that general one Man propoundeth to himself profit and then ordains some proper means tending to it He purposes to make a Statue and then purposes to make him a Tool proper to that piece of work He purposes indeed first that such work shall be done by a Tool but he doth not purpose that this individual Tool shall do it before it hath a Being So God first purposeth his Glory as the ultimate end next he decreeth that man shall contribute to that end in the several methods of accomplishing it but he doth not purpose that any individual man as Jacob and Esau shall proceed this way or that way before he hath conceived a purpose to give them a Being And thus farre of the first part of Gods Providence in ordaining acts of Grace and Mercy CHAP. XII Of Gods Providence in the reprobation and damnation of Man Preterition is without any cause personal but the corruption of the Mass of humane Nature Damnation alwayes supposes Sin AS the former proceedings of God with mankind declared his Mercy so do these here celebrate his Dominion and Justice in order to the Creature And as St. Chrysostome well observes in a certain Homily As in a well-ordered City it is as necessary there should be Prisons and places of Execution as places of honour and bountiful rewards propounded so is it in the world Gods wisdom nay Chrysostome in another place sayes his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysost Homil. 7. Antioch mercy is as truly seen in ordaining Hell as Heaven in that upon the thoughts of its torments many are reduced to sober and good life whom vertue or promises of happiness would not reclaim But here we are to consider the manner and reason of Gods severity towards his Creature in these two formidable acts of his just Providence Before we can make any tolerable description of which it will be very necessary to distinguish them For the total neglect hereof as with the author of Gods Love to Mankind in the very entrance of his Book confounding miserably these two or the mistake in the due division which error Petavius falls into where he tells us Divines are commonly wont Petavius Dogmat Theolog. l. 9. c. 9. To. 1. to make a two fold Reprobation One negative as they call it which is as much as Praeterition or not electing The other Reprobation is Positive whereby he not only passes by those persons and relinquishes them but also adjudges them to eternal punishment And this displeases him so far as to the ground of it that he strains hard by the help of Tertullian to make this a branch of Marcions Heresie but in vain for the things are in themselves really and worthily by many learned Divines distinguished but who are they that bungle so in the framing of such a distinction I believe he no more can than he doth tell Reprobation we do indeed make Positive and Negative but we make Damnation none of them for we may distinguish a two-fold act in God and in Man the one opposed to good wanting in the object to be chosen and that may be called Reprobation or refusal Negative which refuses the object either upon meer absolute pleasure or some such absence or want of good which might make it eligible The other is more Positive when there is found somewhat in the object which addeth unto the want of good the presence of evil opposite and odious unto the chooser Now taking Reprobation as it is opposed to Predestination as some do then as they say Predestination supposeth nothing in the object to move God to ordain a thing simply or respectively to such an end So may it be said of Reprobation that it necessarily supposes nothing in the object causing God to turn from it whereupon Picus Mirandola determines thus according to Thomas A reason may be Joan. Picus Mirandol Coâ—â—lus 6. secund Thom. given from the divine goodness of the Predestination of some and the Reprobation of others and the divine will is the only reason that those he rejects and chooses others unto glory This may well be allowed from the supream and absolute dominion of G d over all things so far especially as may amount to a denial of beatitude to the Creature capable of it and a withdrawing of not only the Grace but common influence of God from the Creature upon which it should return from whence it came to nothing But it grates hard upon the natural goodness of God to affirm that the divine will should indulge so much to its absolute Soveraignty as no cause preceding to conceive an hatred or indignation against the work of its own hands as to sentence it directly to everlasting or indeed momentany pains seeing God cannot be unjust or properly cruel one moment any more than he can be eternally Neither can he unreasonably afflict the body or damnifie a man in his estate any more than he can punish the soul in Hell Of all these therefore the Question is but one What ground can be assigned of Gods pleasure or rather displeasure herein To this therefore according to the distinction mentioned answer may be That of the negative will of God seen in Preterition or not electing some to some high ends which we also call here negative Reprobation no reason can be given or ought to be sought out of Gods divine will as Picus hath rightly determined But as commonly it is seen when the Master of the
made of being raised again and of a Resurrection which as is said must relate to the Body fallen And in the same Book He that offered Chap. 12. 43. for the dead is commended in that he was mindful of the Resurrection But none convince us more of a Catholick opinion amongst the Jews received doubtless as a Tradition from their Fathers and supposed to their more express prescriptions in Gods worship then that of Martha to Christ I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day And now-a-dayes John 11. 24. the Jews are so well settled in the Doctrine of the Resurrection that they envie the faith of it to any but themselves saying as Buxtorf hath it Buxt Synag cap. 3. There are four things which the Isralites have from God in especial manner above other Nations The Land of Canaaenan The Law Prophesie and The Resurrection of the Dead But in my judgment St. Paul puts it out of all question that the Jews believed of old a Resurrection and that of the Body of which we now speak For thus in the Acts of the Apostles he Acts 24. 15. speaks And have hope towards God which they themselves also allow that there shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust And this Doctrine seemed so essential to St. Paul that without it all Christian Faith were lost as appears out of that most sublime and eloquent Chapter concerning it to the Corinthians where first he layes down his 1 Cor. 15. ground of Christian Faith Christs Death and Resurrection as that upon which all other Articles are founded and without which all preaching and v. 2. all Faith would be in vain And from hence he infers at least a possibility that our bodies being of flesh and bloud of the same nature shall also rise again And that Christs Resurrection was but as the first fruits to the harvest 20. or vintage which in order must necessarily follow And having asserted and confirmed the truth he answers the objections which may seem to disprove it which method we here choose briefly to imitate and follow 35 c. Tertul. Adver Marc. l. 5. c. 9. And first we argue from the term Resurrection which must needs imply somewhat fallen or dossolved as is said as Tertullian against Marcion doth affirm Secondly From the Example of Christ the exemplary cause of our Resurrection For according to St. Pauls disputation at large there is the v. 12 13. same reason for the Resurrection of us as of Christ But Christs body was raised up in that individual substance that was laid in the Grave and therefore must ours likewise And this is it which is affirmed and promised by the Apostle to the Thessalonians For if we believe that Jesus dyed 1 Thess 4. 14. and rose again even us also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him And no doubt can be made but Christ had flesh and bloud after his Resurrection the signs and marks show'd to that purpose convincing not only incredulous Thomas but all of like difficulty of Faith Luke 24. 19. John 20. 27. Thirdly It appeareth from the comparison made by St. Paul to the Corinthians As in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive But 1 Cor. 15. 22 23. every one in his own order c. But in Adam all men died corporally therefore in Christ shall all be raised corporally or in their own bodies as Tertullian Tertull. ubi supra Fourthly If immortality be promised to this body then must this body arise and not another But to this mortal body is promised immortality therefore it must rise because there is no imaginable way to have that verified but by a Resurrection And St. Paul saith This corruptible must put on ib. v. 53. incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality And what can we suppose the Apostle aimed at in those words but his own flesh and others And how shall they that are in the Graves hear Christs voice as he saith in St. John unless they be raised by him John 5. 28. Sixthly An argument may be drawn from the truth and justice of God copiously prosecuted by the ancient Fathers and their Followers grounding themselves upon the word of God which saith We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every man may receive the things done in his 2 Cor. 5. 10. body according to that he hath done whether it be good or evil But without Iniquuâ— enim Deus si non per id punitur quis aut juvatur per quod operatus est Id. Tert. cap. 12. the Resurrection of the body this distribution of Justice cannot be made And so what will become of those new and bold Philosophers and their Dogmes unchristian who liberally grant and this is more than we have reason to expect from them that there shall be a special time of Restitution of all things and so the soul shall enter again into a body but not that individual substance which before was united to it but yet one making the same individual Person which was before And how so Why the Form according to Aristotle is all and all as to the constituting the same thing and therefore it alone can denominate a man the same though the matter be various But how then can it be said with any truth that every man shall give an account for what he hath done in such a body when according to this sacrilegious phansie it is not the same but another body Lastly Such as was the Resurrection of men miraculously wrought in the Old and New Testament is to be the Resurrection in substance the last day But the child raised by Elisah and that other by Elisha And the 1 Kings 17. 23 2 Kings 4. 34. cap. 13. 21. Matth. 27. 52. man rising to life who was cast upon the bones of Elisha and all those raised by Christ in his life time and at his death When the dead bodies of the Saints arose out of their graves arose all in their bodies in which they dyed Therefore surely such is our Resurrection to be Now because there remain some sore objections to be cleared before Faith can have its perfect work on Christian minds I shall not expatiate contrary to my general purpose to answer all but only that which is all and that out of St. Chrysostomes words thus rendered But there are some Christ in 1 Thess Sern 7. Eth. saith he that disbelieve this thing because they are ignorant of God For pray tell me which is the easier of the two to bring a thing out of nothing or to restore again things that have been dissolved But what say they They say such a man hath suffered shipwrack and is drown'd and so fallen many fishes have devour'd him and every one hath eat some part of those fishes Afterward of those very
is nothing but Examples and they not peculiar to that day From whence I would conclude no more than this That the true ground of dedicating a day to the Service of God is to be fetch'd from the light of Nature in which all Nations religious consent but the ground of keeping the Seventh Day as Chrys Homil. 12. pag. 542. Antioch the Seventh was meerly Mosaical and Judaical as Chrysostome also hath well gathered from the reason annexed unto it For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth and rested the Seventh day whereas saith he God hath given us no reason why we should not commit Murder or Adultery c. because the command is so agreeable to nature Again the ground of keeping that Seventh Day which we do is to be taken wholly from Christian Principles Thirdly the form or manner of observing that Day is to be taken from the Prescriptions of the Apostles so far as they stand recorded in the New Testament and from Apostolical practises shining successively in the following Ages of the Churches Yet not so as if it were not lawful for this Age of the Church to keep it more strictly and sacredly than did the very first Age of the Church and some following it and the rather because it is certain that the Primitive Christians did keep two days Festival in one week to the honour of God the ancient Seventh Day of the Jews and the newly instituted day of the Christians as might here be made apparent Centur. 1. l. 2. cap. 6. But I shall here only add the judgment of the Magdeburgenses concerning the first Century of years where they write thus Mention is made of the Lords Day Apocaâ— 1. 7. but at what time Christians separated themselves from the Jews and began to rest on the Lords Day is no where mentioned in Records but that some rested on the Lords Day and some on the Saturday in this Age the contentions in the following Age do witness Thus they And for the Translation they speak of to be made of the Service of God from the Saturday to the Sunday they speak altogether without the Book of God or of the ancient Historians of the Church For that had had little of Christianity in it and could serve to no end so much as to spite and reproach the Jews as Calvin hath noted For it had made indeed both against the Jews and Christians too Them to have the precise command of God to them so directly violated These to retain the same thing which could not consist with Christianity imposed upon them with the Circumstance of time only varied For they who speak of Translation of a thing cannot mean here the natural day it self translated or more properly adjourned to the First nor can they mean the worship of that day transmitted to this For that was Judaical and Antichristian And if neither of these can be allowed what mean they to talk of changing or translating of one day to another And why do they not speak the truth roundly and dare to say That Christians instituted the First Day of the week in commemoration of the Benefits they received by Christ without any consideration at all of any command in the Old Testament and that it was a cessation of the Jewish Sabbath and an introduction of a Christian quite of another nature And that so it is appeareth from the concessions made by the greatest defenders of a Sabbatical Lords Day which I shall here contract as necessary to satisfie the Scruples and Doubts bred by careless handlers of this subject Things temporary in the Sabbath are these saith Mr. Perkins First the Jew might not go forth on the Sabbath day or take any journey or do any Perkins Cases of Conscien lib. 2. cap. 16. other business of his own Exod. 16. 29. 2. He might not kindle a fire on the Sabbath day Exod. 25. 3. 3. Nor carry a burden Jerem. 13. 21. These things are temporary altogether and do not concern the times of the New Testament c. Secondly It was temporary and ceremonial as it was a special sign between God and his People of the blessings that were propounded and promised in the Covenant Exod. 31. 13. Thirdly The set Day namely the Seventh was temporary Deut. 5. 14. Numb 28. 9 10. Fourthly That it was to be observed in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt Deut. 5. 15. Thus he of things not moral in the Fifth Commandment Now hear we what he accounts Moral They are these three First a Day of Rest This we also account Moral but not so much by the Fourth Commandment as by a Superiour Law as we have said and so of the Second That it be sanctified and of the Third That a Seventh Day should be sanctified to an holy rest is meerly craved and believed before it be proved from any text of Scripture Yea in his following Discourse he granteth that St. Paul wrought with Aquila and Priscilla on the Sundays and observed the Jews Sabbath out of Acts 18. 3 4. but he adds That it was out of Charity and necessity of the Salvation of them with whom he so conversed and answereth secondly That though he did not keep the Sabbath he meaneth the Lords Day for he constantly calls the Lords Day The Sabbath and too many have imitated his phrase publickly he might privately He might indeed but such privacie of which we have no knowledge can be no Rule or Law to us It is said by Perkins in another place and by his blind Followers That Perkins his Digest or Harmony p. 766. Vol. 2. the Sabbath of the Old world is the Seventh Day from the Creation which was consecrated for Divine Service in Paradise before the Fall And from hence they have drawn an argument for the Morality and that worthily could it be proved what they presume But others that have sifted the matter more Curcelleus diatrib de Sabbato c. 6. narrowly and accurately deliver the contrary for a certain truth viz. That the first Sabbath observed by the Jews in the Desart was not reckoned from the beginning of the creation but from the day in which Manna was first rain'd down as may be seen out of Exod. 16. v. 4 5 13. which two are supposed to meet together but upon no good foundation But this is certain that we find a breach of the Sabbath and severe punishment executed upon the breakers of it before the promulgation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinah But to this the best argument I find for the Antiquity of it it is well answered That the same reason is for the Antiquity of the Tabernacle too which most certainly was not made till a long time after the first mention we have of it For Exod. 33. 7. Moses is said to take the Tabernacle and pitch it without the Camp whenas the history following relateth the particular materials and form and solemn erection of it to be
most sincerely to worship only that true God though possibly they should err in the object yet the crime of Idolatry cannot cleave unto them and especially when we hear them so solemnly and zealously protest against worshipping any Creature what ever we can possibly instance in as God The vanity of this protestation we may have occasion to discover by and by Now we call in question the foundation of all and that is their distinction of Formal and Material Idolatry upon this fourfold account First that if it were reasonable it were notwithstanding altogether superfluous For what more can be honestly implied hereby than was of old in that distinction of Ignorantia facti and Juris Ignorance of the thing done and Ignorance of the Law against which this fact is committed Ignorance that such a Law there is which prohibits divine or supream worship to be given to the Creature no man can plead but Ignorance of actual Idolatry in such kind of worship as by error and false supposition is committed a man may possibly alledge and that colourably Now what can they make Formal Idolatry but such a Divine Worship as is given to that which is not God knowingly and willingly And what else do they mean by Material Idolatry but Divine Worship falsely applied to that which by nature is not capable of it as not God though it be really believed to be God And what is this else but Ignorance of the fact And if so what makes this new Invented distinction here of Formal and Material Idolatry Secondly this distinction is very rudely and ignorantly made against the Rules of Logick I know there is nothing more ordinary than to distinguish a thing and consider it Materially and Formally but there never was received any such division as good which made Matter and Form of the same thing distinct Kinds or made Parts several Species A man may be considered according to his Matter or according to his Form but who ever went about to divide human nature or humanity into a Formal Man and a Material Man Or to take an instance nearer to our purpose of Adultery A man may consider it in its Formality and Materiality but no advised man can divide Adultery into Formal and Material For the general Rule makes against all such attempts which tells us that nothing can be or subsist without its form so that either there is no Adultery or Idolatry at all or it must be as well Formal as Material unless we would be so vain and ridiculous to call them Formal as we sometimes do a Formal Man when he is phantastical and affected or we should use the term Formal for that which doth appear in all its outward formalities as we before distinguished Schisme into Formal and Real or Material or Vertual and Formal And in this sense the contrary sense is much more true For in exhibiting outward worship in Divine manner unto that which is not God all the formalities of Idolatry do appear what ever the intention which doth not appear may be It will here doubtless be said that in that common case put by Casuists of a Man who companies with a woman in a conjugal way stedfastly and unfainedly believing that she is his own lawful wife doth commit material adultery but not formal and so in Idolatry as the case may be put But I make no doubt to affirm that such an Act of Adultery so far as it is Adultery and such Idolatry so far as it is Idolatry are both Formal as well as Material and the only difference between them and those they call Formal consists only in Ignorance or knowledge of the Fact done For either such Acts are sins or not sins If not sins then neither Formal nor Material Adultery or Idolatry if they be sins to what can they be reduced but to Adultery and Idolatry And that when they have the most favourable circumstances they are sinful Parisiensis thus clearly determines If a Si quis mulierem cagnoscat non suam pro uxore vel adoret Luciferum c. Gulielm Parisiensis de Leg. c. 21. man knows a woman not his own for his own wife or worships Lucifer instead of Christ he sins because God would have turn'd away his heart from such a great Evil if his sins hindered not which he had before committed Thus he So that the issue of this question comes truly to that which some Romanists acknowledge that all Idolatry derives it self originally from the understanding though it be an Act of the will principally and that it is because a man knows not actually what he does when he commits Idolatry For surely unless to grant something to quarrellers which prejudices little our Cause we except some prodigious persons and desperate no man worships what he is perswaded is not God with supream worship and so consequently no man commits wilful Idolatry And therefore the only equal way of estimating the Criminalness of Idolatry is from the measure of knowledge in man and the means of discerning an Increated from a Created Object of Worship It is therefore to very little purpose that the Arch-bishop of spalato and after him Forbes Bishop of Edinburge and after them other very learned men of these present days alledge in excuse of Papists from Idolatry in the Mass when they accept of their detestation of worshiping Bread or any thing Created but only God For 't is no demonstration or proof at all that they do not do it because they say they do not do it For here are two contrary suppositions made by contrary Parties The one holds that the natural bodies of the Eucharistical Elements are not present nor have any being the other holds that they are there as really as ever Again both agree that they worship that which is there what ever it be therefore deny they it a thousand times they have nothing to save themselves from the actual adoration of those Creatures but a supposition that they are not there but our opinion affirming positively that there they are no man of us can hold opinion that they worship not the Creature and Maimonides More Neboc Part. 1. c. 71. so are not Idolatrous For as Maimonides quotes Themistius the Philosopher speaking well Natura rerum nonsequitur opiniones hominum sed opiniones hominum debent sequi naturam rerum The Nature of things do not follow the perswasions of men but the perswasions or opinions of men ought to follow Nature That is not only Idolatry which men are perswaded is Idolatry but that which in it self is so though men be perswaded of the contrary yea though they mean nothing less then to commit Idolatry as will appear from Tannerus in this his explication of Idolatry Adamus Tanâ—erus Theologiae Scâ—olast Tom. 3. Disput 5. Qâ—aest 7. Dub. 1. num 2. He is judged saith he to give Divine Worship to the Creature who directly and expresly or indirectly and implicitely intendeth to beget
have from the matter it self divided the Commandments so that Four which relate principally to God should be placed in the First Table and Six in the Second which seems to be most rational though no less arbitrary than the other There are likewise among the Jews who agree not in the very matter it self of the Ten Commandments For some as the Talmudists and others following them do make that we call properly The Proaem or Preface I am the Lord thy God to be part of the First Commandment which is denyed by Aberbenel and others of them as well as most of us For this Proposition or Sentence I am the Lord thy God is as we say properly Enunciative or Indicative or purely affirmative and not Imperative or Commanding as all Precepts must be which are so properly called The First Commandment therefore is this Thou shalt have no other Gods §. I. but me Where it is first to be observed that almost thorow the whole Decalogue some variety in words is to be found in Exodus and in Deuteromy the Fifth where it is repeated The Reason whereof Grotius thinks to be this That here Moses did set down or rather took precisely what was spoken or written by the Angel but in Deuteronomy he rehearses the same himself without such absolute Punctualities of words or expressions and yet must we not dare to say or believe that Moses transgressed his own Rule given by God in the Fourth Chapter before viz. Ye shall not adde unto Deut. 4. 2. the word which I command you neither shall ye diminish ought from it that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you So that it is a vain Scholie some would give us upon that and such like Texts of Scripture that nothing at all must be added to Gods word more than we find the Letter to require For undoubtedly such speeches mean no more than that we should do or say neither more or less to overthrow the intention of God in his Commandments For otherwise all the large and far fetched senses devised and applyed by the precise Masters and Mistakers of that Rule to each particular Precept in the Decalogue would be found either Superstitious or Sacrilegious inventions though not inconsistent with the Analogy of Faith Furthermore Laws are of two sorts generally Affirmative or Negative In the Negative of which this is one the ordinary method of explication is first to declare those sins of Commission which are prohibited and then the Duties Graces and Vertues which are there implicitly required on the contrary this being one general Rule of expounding the Decalogue that where any vice or sin is forbidden there the contrary vertue is commanded And on the other side Where any vertue or holy act is required there the contrary vice or evil is interdicted As for Example Here it is forbidden that we should have or make or worship any other God but the one true God therefore on the contrary there is an implicite injunction duly and faithfully to serve that one true God And though the sense Negative is most current and general through the whole Decalogue yet were the Affirmative duties they which God principally aimed at and intended For Negatives do not make us holy to God in themselves but only as they are necessary introductions and good beginnings to the more perfect performance of Positive Duties It would avail a man very little towards the fulfilâ—ing of this First Commandment not to worship more Gods than one for so he mâ—ght worship none at all and be a greater offender than the Idolater that worships many We are therefore in the first place to enquire what are those Vertues and Graces God commands and so shall we more readiâ—y and easily conceive what errours and sins we are hereby commanded to avoid Some of both sorts we shall here instance in to make more compleat that rude and imperfect account given above of the Acts of Obedience and Holiness owing from every good Christian to God but as in a Table rather than in a Treatise The Supposition then that this first Precept requires of us the true worship of God doth infer all that train of Graces thereunto necessary which are commonly reduced to these three Theological Vertues Faith Hope and Charity Of the nature of Faith as well in General as Particular have we spoken largely in the first Part Yet rather in a speculative than practical or obediential way which is proper to this place By the duty of Faith then it is first required that we should have a competent knowledge of God and of his will for some knowledge must of necessity go before Faith There is a twofold knowledge One of simple apprehension or intelligence and this must go before Faith For how Rom. 10. 14. saith St. Paul shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard It is impossible a man should worship God before he believes there is a God And impossible he should believe there is a God before he hath some notion or apprehension of a God either by hearing which is the ordinary way or by some inward suggestion And therefore we read that Paul inquiring of the Acts 19. 2. Novices in Christianity at Ephesus Have ye received the Holy Ghost they answered We have not as yet heard whether there be an Holy Ghost or no. And there is another knowledge of Assurance which assurance is caused in Humane Sciences by an orderly and necessary connexion of natural causes one with another but in Divine matters by Faith which causes that or greater perswasion than any outward artificial Demonstrations And therefore both the encrease of our knowledge and the encrease and strengthning of our Faith are much required by this Precept according as we have the Scriptures more particularly advising us and that by St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 5. And beside all this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance c. And so in his first Epistle 1 Pet. 2. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 4. Taste and see how good the Lord is And St. Paul to Timothy God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth And infinite other places Next to knowledge of God seems to be the fear of God according as Acts 9. 39. the Scripture hath it And the Churches were edified walking in the fear of the Lord. Next to Fear comes Repentance and Sorrow for sins past then Renovation or that properly called Obedience in Newness of Life with many others not here to be insisted on The second Grace is Hope which excites to walk and act according to the Gospel from the consideration of the many Promises and upon the intuitiâ—n of an excellent reward to follow certainly the fulfilling the will of God Of which we have spoken in treating of Gods works Lastly Charity with its retinue of Divine Graces is required
our Saviour Christ informs us in the Gospel extending it to all in common civil society with us And as in the preceding Commandments God required that we should not wrong our Neighbour in evil acts or deeds so here doth he prohibit us from doing him any wrong in word Which word is primarily meant of wrong in Judgment when men are called to testifie to the truth of a matter they by no means should deliver against their Neighbour what is false which may be done three wayes First by false accusations and charges of facts or crimes not committed contrary to Gods word Lev. 19. 16. Thou Lev. 19. 16. Accusatorum lemeritas tribus medis detegitur tribus poenis suljicitur Aut enim calumniantur aut proevaricantur aut tereiversantur c. Annot. in Grot. Par. 2. Cau. 2. Q. 3. Lev. 19. 15. shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people neither shal s thou stand against the bloud of thy Neighbour I am the Lord. And this false dealing in Judgment may be committed three wayes as the Annotatour on Gratian hath observed For false Accusers saith he either slander by bringing false crimes or prevaricate by concealing true crimes or commit tergiversation in quite relinquishing the charge All which are enemies to justice and truth here commanded A second offence in Judgment is in the person of a Witness to affirm a falsity or deny a truth A third is to give a wrong sentence in the office and place of a Judge forbidden by God so severely and frequently and particularly in Leviticus Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honour the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy Neighbour And in common conversation men offend against this Law several wayes Prov. 22. Eccle. 10. 11. Differunt susurratio detractio in fine Nam principalis intentio detractoris est famam proximi denigrare Susarronis autem intentio principalis est illum cui sie invidet per mala quae de eo dicit ab amicitiâ— altorum separare Gerson de 7 Viriis Capitalib 1. By detraction or defamation of our Neighbour whereby properly a man endeavours to lessen and bring to nothing the worthy parts or deeds of him and to amplifie and aggravate his faults and failings to the diminution of his reputation But Solomon tells us A good name is better than precious oyntment Of him likewise we read in Ecclesiastes Surely the serpent will bite without inchantment and a babler is no better He smiteth stingeth woundeth and destroyeth as a Serpent or Adder before he be discovered and hath his name as he doth the office of the old Serpent who hath the name of Devil in the Greek and Latin Tongues from his mischievous slaundering of God and Man He differeth from the Talebearer or Susurro of which before as Gerson observeth in the end For the chief end of the Detractour or Slaunderer is to slur the reputation of his Nighbour But the chief end of the Whisperer or Talebearer is to alienate him whom he envies from the esteem and friendship of another by the evil he speaks of him Which seems to be grounded on Solomon Proverb 16. 28. A froward man soweth strife and a whisperer separateth chief friends And the same more fully and particularly by Solomon Prov. 6. v. 14. declaring how God hateth him that soweth discord and v. 19. A false witness that speaketh lies and him that soweth discord among brethren Another sort of offenders are on the contrary Flatterers and Dissemblers with God or Man whose lips are all oyl and their hearts gall and vinegar or if they should not intend any great mischief directly yet by idle and unreasonable soft and smooth language they corrupt and poyson the minds of their hearers with a vain opinion of themselves to the conceiving of Pride and bringing forth folly and running into so many evils which an open enemy could not have brought upon them Of these therefore speaketh Solomon also Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of Prov. 27. 6. an enemy are deceitful But of all flattery none so abominable to God or pernicious to Man as that of Religion in soothing men up in wicked known sins for some special quality or singularity of believing and worshipping which upon tryal will not all prove worth a straws end whenas the most material parts of Religion as Humility Charity Unity Obedience of unquestionable worth and excellencie are trampled on as of no use or rather hinderances to sinister and vile ends Murmurers likewise and Complainers may well be brought under the lash of this Law who upon every frivolous and light exception or defect in their Governours are restless unquiet discontented envious mutinous factious and given to alienate the hearts of the Inferiours from their Superiours by suggesting many groundless fears and suspicions and putting in Caveats against them and all this while with very specious pretexts of zeal for truth and the publick good As did Dathan Corah and Abiram against Moses and Aaron as did Aaron and Miriam against Moses and as did Absolom against David and sometimes the whole Congregation of Israel against their Governours which one would have thought being the body of the People which some make the true Supream Power might have passed for Right and Reasonable St. Paul knowing that the Light and Faith of the Gospel seldom masters mens corrupt natures and inclinations so far as to secure them in innocencie from such evils advertises Christians from their examples to beware of such sins saying Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed 1 Cor. 10. 10. of the destroyer And such are they also who raise false reports and raise or spread false news of no small consequence many times without any tolerable grounds But last of all to this belongs the sin of Lying in general even when it is not accompanied with the mischiefs aforesaid of Detraction or Slandering A lye saith St. Augustine well Est falsa significatio cum voluntate fallendi is Aug. de Menda ad Consen cap. 12. Quantum in ipse est mentitur ille qui dicit verum quod putat falsum Quantum enim ad animum ejus attinet quia nen quod sit hoc dicit non verum dicit quamvis verum inveniatur esse quod dicit nec ullo modo liber est a mendacio qui ore nesciens verum loquitur sciens autem voluntate mentâ—tur Id. Enchirid. cap. 18. a false signification with an intent to deceive Where we must first distinguish between Lying and Telling a Lye He that tells a lye may not lye but speak truth for it may be true that such a lye as is reported was told but to lye it is not necessary a man should make a lye for it suffices he tells that for truth which he either knows or believes to be false
though it were invented by another yea though it should prove true Again this signification may as well be in work act or sign outward whereby such a thing is commonly understood and is intended should be the signifier of his mind and in such manner be so taken as if that thing were which really is not For otherwise a man could not lye to a deaf man which certainly he may as Qui sic loquitur ut credit etsi vera non lâ—quitur fideliter lâ—quitur qui autem non credit quae loquitur â—tsi vera loquitur infideiter lâ—quitur Aug Ep. 135. Item Enchiridio ad Laurentium cap. 18. well as to a blind man And yet farther Not every thing that we say of and from our selves as true is a lye though it be false Why because according to this definition a man must willingly and studiously design the belief of what is false to make it a proper lye For if he believes sincerely he speaks truth and intends no otherwise to be credited by another he doth not lye saith Austin any more than he steals who taketh that which belongs to another man as his own presuming without fraud or wilful errour that it is so or he committeth adultery who contrary to his intentions and will useth another woman as his wife Yet may all these partake of the sin of their respective kinds when that due and sober attention is neglected which may inform a man better for if there are offered unto him competent means of knowing the truth and judging more faithfully and these not being worthily improved the errour doth redoung to the will and that weak and general intention can neither excuse from a lye or Adultery or Idolatry Lastly not the intention of telling a lye doth absolutely constitute a lyer but the intention and will to be believed as true For of the Three kinds of Lyes frequent amongst Schoolmen and other The Officious Lye The Pernicious Lye and The Merry and Jesting Lye The Two first are alwayes Lyes properly taken The Second alwayes and without all doubt evil The first may in some cases be commendable as killing of a man may be when the ground is just and the case deserves death one may be put to death by another with the warrant of legal Authority And that a man may not deceive that man whom he may lawfully kill wants proof I mean by a simple lye wherein the Name of God is not used or taken in vain For though such case may be put in which a man may ruin him with a lye whom he may slay with the sword or strangle with an halter being lawfully required yet must not God be so far abused or his sacred Name prophaned as to be brought to attest a falsity We find none of those holy or eminent persons in Scripture that are brought for to authorize lying who committed this great errour I shall by an Instance out Nisi salubri mendacio Consul fugere hostes ab cornâ— altero clamitans concitasset aciem c. Livius lib. 2. of Livie express my meaning who tells us that the Volscians and the Romans being in fight the Roman army began to give way and turn their backs and all had like to have been lost had not the Consul by a saving Lye cryed out aloud from the other Wing and said That the Enemies fled and were running away and thereby encouraged his Army to fall on again with greater violence and so get the victory And if to destroy a man may not the same be done to save a Life and that a mans own no prejudice thereby happening to others It will be said A man must not commit a sin to save his life And to this it will be answered by granting all is said But they who defend such an officious lye do deny it under those Aug. ad Consent Tom. 4. cap. 9. De Mendacio Pro salute quorundam mentimur Peccatum ergo est sâ—d ventale quâ—d benevolentia excusat Aug in Enchiridio ad Laurent cap. 22. Circumstances to be a Sin Augustine in the Treatise above mentioned affirmeth a Lye to be lawful to the end thereby the evil carnal pollution may be avoided scarce otherwise And no man more rigorous than he and he scarce less constant in any thing then that For in the Third Chapter of the said Treatise he declares That in no case a lye is to be endured for the good event it may have And yet in his Enchiridion he saith We lye for the safety of some men It is therefore a sin but a venial one which good meaning excuses What Austine meant by a Venial sin is not very clear but that he extended it not so far as moderne Divines is to me clear But in his Ennarration of the Sixth Psalm he directly holds that Jocosum Mendacium is not a sin which is certain y the truth when a man doth not speak a thing to the end he may be be ieved but for recreation This may come under the reprehension of Saint Paul to the Ephesians advising that Neither filthiness Ephes 5. 4. nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient should be used but rather giving of thanks but not as the particular sin of lying of which we now speak But Mr. Perkins would prove such lying in jest a sin 1. Because though it Perkins on Galat. ch 1. v. 20. hurts not our neighbour yet it is to the hurt and prejudice of truth This is new too subtile seeing Truth abstractly taken is inviolable invulnerable as God himself is who is Truth And therefore truth is then only wronged when some person is wronged for want of Truth and Justice Darkness doth not hurt the light but such persons only or things as are bereaved of it But thus to tell a lye is to tell a pernicious lye which plainly was St. Austins mind who saith Omnis autem qui mentitur ea contra id quod animo sentit loquitur Id ib. 2. He saith But men are deceived hereby But first we so limit the innocencie of Jocular Lyes that they be not spoken seriously or with any intention to deceive Secondly He himself grants it lawful to deceive by dissimulation or simulation of what is not intended in some cases as in the case of God threatning the abolition of the Israelites Exod. 32. v. 10. And of Joshuah counterfeiting a flight before Ay Josh 8. 5 6. and of Physicians deceiving averse and unruly Patients And how can this possibly stand with that opinion 3. He that tells a lye hurts himself though it be for the good of others for when he speaks the truth indeed he is less believed This is true when a man tells a lye indeed but not when he professes not to speak truth 4. There ought to be a conformity between the speech and mind which is not when a lye is uttered This rule fails in many cases For if a man minds or intends