us his hands to be stretched out to embrace us and his side to be pierced to send forth water and blood his two blessed Sacraments to cleanse and strengthen us by that same flesh was he made liable to suffering and in that same flesh did he actually suffer all those things which at first bought the purchase and which do still bring to us the joy of our salvation SECT III. True knowledge of and Faith in Christ is not without true knowledge of and Faith in the blessed Trinity That the Protestants Faith The great loveliness of Christ in the flesh as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God and man and the great mysteries of his two natures in one person KNowledge in the natural man exalts him above other men but knowledge in the good Christian who alwaies loves what he knows of Christ exalts him above himself By knowing natural truths I do improve my reason but by knowing supernatural truths I do also improve my Religion The improvement of my reason exalts me above other men but the improvement of my Religion exalts me above my self And what knowledge can improve my Religion but only the knowledge of Christ who is both the Author and the Finisher of my Faith Therefore let me ever say with Saint Paul I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3. 8. for indeed truly to know Christ in his person is truly to know the whole Christian Faith in the ground and substance of it For what is the ground or substance of our Christian Faith but that which Saint Paul hath set down 2 Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them which is in effect a short sum of the Apostles Creed for that treats of nothing but of God and of Christ reconciling us to God and of the benefits of that reconciliation the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Accordingly Aquinas makes it equally necessary to salvation to believe explicitly the mysterie of the blessed Trinity and to believe explicitly the mysterie of the incarnation of Christ 22 ae qu. 2. art 7. 8. There is an absolute necessity saith he of believing the Incarnation of Christ for that is the only way for a man to come to eternal blessedness because it is said Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And there is saith he as absolute a necessity of believing the blessed Trinity for the Incarnation of Christ cannot be explicitly believed without faith in the Trinity for we cannot believe that the Son of God did take our flesh upon him but we must acknowledge God the Father and God the Son and we cannot believe that he took this flesh of a Virgn by the operation of the Holy Spirit but we must acknowledge God the Holy Ghost so that truly to believe and confess the incarnation of Christ is truly to believe and confess God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Wherefore it was not an objection but a calumny in him that said of the Protestants For these good Gospellers have a faith and a justifying faith whereby they apprehend eternal life without Father Son and Holy Ghost without Christ and his Passion or any of those other matters which are rather subtile points of the Papists historical faith then of the lively justifying faith wherewith these Evangelical Brethren in all security are warranted of the certain favour of God in this life and assured glory in the next Reynolds against Whitaker p. 282. for no true Protestant doth believe and indeed no true Christian can believe that to be a true Faith in Christ which believes not the Holy and Undivided Trinity and all other Articles of the Apostles Creed For such a faith cannot justifie it self much less can it justifie the man that hath it wherefore Protestants do not dare not say That justifying Faith doth not believe the Trinity and Judgement to come as well as the Merits of Christ and the forgiveness of sins They only say the former truths are believed with the greater astonishment and admiration the latter truths with the greater affiance or affection but neither with a greater certainty or confidence then the other Fides ex ae quo assentit omnibus articulis fidei quoad certitudinem sed non quoad modum Faith doth equally assent to all the Articles of the Creed as to the certainty of assent though not as to the manner of assenting The sublim truth of the Trinity she believes with admiration the comfortable truths of Christs dying for sinners and the forgiveness of sins she believs with joy and consolation the dreadful truths of hell and judgement to come she believes with sorrow and contristation but all the truths contain'd in the Creed whether sublime or comfortable or dreadful she believeth with one and the same certainty or undoubted confidence And those who teach us that to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord is the proper act of justifying faith for to believe the forgiveness of sins is rather an effect then a cause of justification do not confine our justifying faith meerly to the belief of this one Article but do only profess that though true faith hath as many acts as objects and hath as many objects as supernatural truths revealed from God yet it justifies the sinner only by this one act of believing in Christ and relying wholly upon his merits and mediation Thus do we desire with Saint Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. But we dream not of a righteousness either by a vain or by a false faith either by a vain Faith that believes not entirely with affection or by a false faith that believes not truly without mistake or deception Wherefore Antitrinitarian and Antichristian may go for all one in the Protestants as well as in the Papists account for indeed they have alwaies gone for one in the account of the Catholike Church We have heard Aquinas speaking the sense of the Western let us now hear Damascene speaking the sense of the Eastern Churches for so he tels us in his third Book de Orthodox◠fide and fifth chapter That the two cheif heads of the Christian Faith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it treats only of God and the Doctrine of the incarnation of Christ which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it sets forth the wonderful dispensations of God about the salvation of men And these two heads he not only joins but also compares together in one chapter shewing wherein they agree and wherein they
affections whiles we cry Abba Father But is the spirit therefore gone when the voice is gone or is the Holy Ghost no longer in our hearts then Abba Father is in our mouths For that must be our third Quere Whether the spirit may be in the heart believing while t is not in the mouth crying Abba Father as when Saint Peter who doubtless had the Spirit of God was so far from saying Abba Father that he denied the Son nay forswore him as if a simple denial had not been enough unless it had been seconded with oaths and curses which is our unhappy progress of Saviour-denial instead of self-denial I answer for Saint Peter that either the spirit was not quite gone from him or else soon returned unto him which appears by the speediness and by the entireness of his repentance in that he wept suddenly and he wept bitterly for he had a peculiar prayer and promise of Christ that his faith should not fail I answer for others of Gods adopted children as my late reverend and learned Diocesan taught me out of Saint Ambrose Deus nunquam rescindit donum Adoptionis God never cuts off his entaile if once adopted ever adopted and out of Biel Eos 〈…〉 qui à salute excidunt numquam fuisse filios dei per adoptionem All those who at last fall away from their salvation were never the children of God by adoption Bishop Davenant in his third determination or rather as Saint John taught them all three If they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 John 2. 19. But withal I must distinguish betwixt adoption and the state of adoption betwixt salvation and the state of salvation for there is salus status salutis salvation and the state of salvation as there is peccatum status peccati sin and the state of sin And the state of either is such as it is in relation to us and to our reception of it In actionibus humanis dicitur negotium aliquem statum habere secundum ordinem propriae dispositionis cum quadam immobilitate seu quiete 22ae 183. 1. in humane actions the state of a business shews the immoveableness of its disposition so the state of sin is a kind of immoveableness in sin and the state of Adoption is a kind of immoveableness in adoption But yet we men are not alike immoveable in both states because the state of sin is wholly of our own making and therefore may get some stability from us But the state of grace is wholly of our receiving not of our making and therefore loseth of its stability as also of its perfection from the mutable and sinfull condition of our persons Hence it is that though to be in sin is much less then to be in the state of sin yet to be in Adoption and Salvation is much more then to be in the state of either For though we can add to our own misery yet we can only diminish from Gods mercy For Adoption and Salvation are much greater in Gods giving then in our receiving and consequently the Adoption is greater then the state of Adoption and the salvation then the state of salvation according to the old rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received follows more the nature and condition of the receiver then of the giver And hence it is that even the adopted Sons of God have by fearfull failings and fallings made disputable for a time the state of their salvation though their salvation hath by Gods infinite goodness been made indisputable For there i◠no being at the same time in two contrary states that is to say in the state of sin and in the state of Grace and sure we are that t is no other then madness for any man to be in the hope who is not in the state of Salvation So that though we may truly say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the habit remains when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act is gone or cessant yet we may as truly say That Gods Elect are not saved only by habits and therefore the acts of grace if they have been expelled must necessarily return again either to keep or to put them in the state of salvation either to retain them in it or to restore them to it before they can be actually saved And in this sense may we expound Saint James his question What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say He hath faith and have not works can faith save him James 2. 14. As if he had said It is not the sleepy habit but the vigorous act of faith and of all other graces that brings a man to salvation And by this means we shall reconcile Saint James his works and Saint Pauls faith in the Doctrine of Justification For Saint James affirming that we are justified by works doth include faith in those works and Saint Paul affirming we are justified by faith doth include works in that faith both of them understanding a faith working by love Gal. 5. 6. though Saint James comprehend the faith in the works as the cause in the effect Saint Paul comprehend the works in the faith as the effect in the cause And Saint James as justly urgeth the necessity of works against hypocrites who deceived themselves with a vain pretence of faith in Christ and so did not look after the righteousness of works as Saint Paul urged the necessity of faith against the Pharisees who trusting to the righteousness of the Law did not at all look after the righteousness of Christ Both Saint James and Saint Paul will have us justified by Christs righteousness for no other righteousness can acquit and absolve us before God only they differently express the instrumental cause of our Justification which is faith working by love for whereas that faith hath a twofold act actum confidendi obediendi An act of believing and an act of working Saint Paul rather insists upon the act of believing because he had to deal with Pharisaical Jews who rejected the Gospel and thought they could live according to the rule of the Law But Saint James rather insists upon the act of working because he had to deal with Hypocritical Christians who abused the Gospel of Christ to lawless licentiousness of living And therefore in Saint James his Divinity it is as great an absurdity to suppose true faith without its proper act of working and consequently by the rule of analogie to suppose the habit of righteousness without the exercise of righteousness as to suppose true faith and righteousness without salvation For the act of working being as essential to a justifying faith as the act of believing He that will go about to separate true faith from working may as well go about to separate it from believing and as well make faith no faith as make it no working faith But how this faith sheweth its work in those who are carried away with any
the diffusion of his glory he hath prepared a mansion for us with him by the diffusion of his grace he hath prepared a mansion in us for himself O the immortal comfort of a good Christian and the more immortal glory of the Christian Religion shew me a comfort like to the comfort of a good Christian who is already in his head ascended into heaven shew me a glory like to the glory of the Christian Religion which hath him alone for its author for its head who sitteth on the right hand of God Ask the Jew he will tell you he left his Prophet upon Mount Nebo Ask the Turk he will tell you his Pcophet was left at Meca Ask other Religions they will tell you they know not what is become of their Prophets It is only the Christian Religion that can say it had such a Prophet as now sitteth at the right hand of God A Prophet who taught not a religion without righteousness as is the Religion of Turks and Heathens nor a Religion with Righteousness but which could not make men righteous as was the Religion of the Jews But a Religion with Righteousness to shew it self righteous and a righteousness with Religion to make us so For the law which was the rule of righteousness came by Moses but grace which maketh righteous came only by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. By this He still dwelleth in us even now that he is farthest from us which is so invaluable a blessing that it cannot be valued till it be enjoyed and when it is enjoyed it is found invaluable For the soul of man cannot but have a wretched dwelling in the body and a more wretched dwelling out of it unless Christ have a dwelling in the soul It is the glory of men above Angels that Christ dweleth in their flesh It is the glory of good Christians above other men that Christ dwelleth in their spirits By his grace he dweleth with us and in us by our faith and love we dwell with him in him nor shall this dwelling ever be destroyed it shall only be enlarged when what is now of grace shall hereafter be of glory There is so inseparable an union betwixt Christ and the good Christian that as the Christian cannot be in the state of Grace without Christ so Christ not fully in the state of glory without him The head thinks himself not in honour whiles the members are in dishonour and therefore our head being ascended into heaven makes it his work to draw us the members of his mystical body thither after him For we are united unto Christ by a threefold cord that is not easily broken First by the tie of Election God having chosen us in him before the foundation of the world having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. Secondly by the tie of incarnation wherein he took our flesh unto himself Thirdly by the tie of Inspiration wherein he hath given his Spirit unto us All which have begot so inseparable an union betwixt the Son of God and the sons of men by a golden chain reaching from heaven to earth that Saint Paul speaks of the good Christians as of those who are already in glory with Christ And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. He looks on them not only as having jus ad rem but also as having jus in re not only as claiming but also as possessing their heavenly inheritance O that we would be so careful or could be so happy as not to abuse those mercies which we cannot deserve O that we would lift up our souls truly and entirely unto the Lord then would our hearts be where our treasure is at the right hand of God For we may not be in heaven by our perswasions whiles we are either in earth by our affections or in hell by our dispositions How can we see our Saviour at Gods right hand whiles Satan stands at ours making us to butcher his servants to deface his Sanctuary to discountenance his Religion to defile or despise his Ordinances to deceive his people to destroy his inheritance How can we believe him to be making intercession for us whiles we care not to make intercession for our selves or at least wise use such extravagant prayers wherein we cannot justly expect much less judiciously hope he should make intercession with us Be it the priviledge of faith to have an eye to be able to see Christ but of devotion to keep that eye alwaies open actually to behold and look upon him for which cause some have thought that prayer was the proper act of justifying faith men then most especially believing in Christ when they are praying to him So that to oppose or disturb the exercise of well-grounded and well-settled devotions under pretence of reforming them is to put out the eye of faith whiles we pretend to take off the film that it may see the clearer For the precious talent of faith must neither be wrapped up in a Napkin nor indiscreetly managed if we expect it should enrich our souls with heavenly and immortal comforts but must be diligently and discreetly imployed in judicious as well as in fervent pravers and praises to Almighty God that so we may fight the good fight of faith by defending and maintaining not only the truth of the Gospel but also our profession and practise of that truth Saint Paul requires both alike of his Scholar and in him of us 1. Tim. 6. 12. Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses Saint Timothy had not only embraced the Christian faith in general but had also in particular professed a good profession thereof before many witnesses and Saint Paul binds him as well as he had bound himself to make it good Else as many as had been witnesses of his profession must have been Judges and Condemners of his revolt And doubtless God having exalted our Saviour Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion Eph. 1. 20 21. hath sufficiently declared That we should so exalt and advance the Christian Religion whereby we seek to glorifie his Son in earth as the Father hath glorified him in heaven that neither principality nor power nor might nor dominion here on earth for those in heaven will not endeavour it should be able to remove us from the truth of Christ either in its belief or in its practise no more then they can remove Christ himself from sitting at the right hand of God And we most humbly beseech thee O blessed Saviour who hast conquered all things to conquer also our inconstancies that we may perfectly and without all doubt believe in thee and shew the sincerity of our faith by
mente super Altare offero quam in primo publico consistorio solenniter repetam Concil Basil sess 40. I made this digression only to shew That unless the Holy Scriptures be taken for the foundation of our faith we are like to have none For a general Council is not this foundation saith Bellarmine The Pope is not say these two Councils and the Pope himself swears on their side So Bellarmine defines against the Councils the Councils define against the Pope and the Pope not only defines but also swears against himself And we conceive that Saint Paul defined against them all when he said He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 31. and again That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. T is only Gods truth which can be the foundation of our faith whether propounded by the Scriptures or by the Church as saith Aquinas Formale objectum Fidei est veritas prima secundum quod manifestatur in Scripturis sacris Doctrina Ecclesiae quae procedit ex veritate prima The formal object of faith is the first truth according as it is manifested in the holy Scriptures and in the doctrine of the Church which proceedeth from the first truth He is willing to take in the Church but he is not willing to leave out the Scriptures nay indeed he preferreth the Scriptures above the Church in the manifestation of Gods truth when he saith Doctrina Ecclesiae quae procedit ex veritate prima in Scripturis sacris manifestata 22ae qu. 5. art 3. c. The Doctrine of the Church which proceedeth from the first truth manifested in the holy Scriptures So that according to Aquinas Gods truth first cometh to the Scriptures from them to the Church That truth the Scriptures propound to the Church by way of definition That same truth the Church propoundeth to us by way of declaration Shall we think the declaration may overthrow the definition of truth or the Church may overthrow the Scripture This were in effect to allow that we as Christians do glory in men more then in God and that our faith in Christ doth more stand in the wisdom of man then in the power of God Such a foundation of faith as this which relyes upon man is laid upon the sand or upon grass For all flesh is grass But the foundation of faith which relyes upon the Scriptures is laid upon a Rock The word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. 24 25. This foundation which is laid upon Gods word is as firm and as infallible as God himself for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2. Tim. 3. 16. And this is the foundation of our faith not as Protestants but as Christians we vindicate it as Protestants but we hold it as Christians For no Christian Church or Council did lay any other foundation of faith before that unhappy Council of Trent which began not till the year of our Lord 1545. and ended not till the year 1563. All the cavils that have been raised against the holy Scriptures have been raised since that time to the great dishonour of Christ the great disturbance of Christendom the great discontent of good Christians the great disadvantage of the Christian Faith For the foundation cannot possibly give that firmness to the building which is not in it self therefore there cannot be a greater disadvantage to the Christian Faith then to ground it upon an infirm and an unsure foundation And such a foundation is the word of man instead of the word of God For he that believeth the most Divine truths only upon humane authority can have but an humane an infirm an uncertain Faith Therefore Divine truths must be believed upon Divine authority that we may have a Divine faith concerning them For t is absurd in Reason impious in Religion to have but a humane faith of Divine Truths because the habit and act are infinitely unproportionable to the Object For there may be a twofold errour in our faith the one materially when we believe what God hath not revealed And so they only are erroneous in the faith who believe falsities or uncertainties The other formally when we believe what God hath revealed but not upon the authority of his revelation and so they also may be erroneous in the faith who believe the most sure and certain Truths The ready way to avoid both these errors is to take the written word of God for the foundation of our faith wherein we are sure to meet with Gods truth or verity for the matter of our belief and with Gods Authority or Testimony for the cause of our believing And since our Church teacheth this and no other faith no man can say she is guilty of Heresie that will not make himself guilty of Blasphemy For the Communion of our Church is free from Heresie not only Materially in that she believes no untruths or uncertainties but also Formally in that she believeth Gods truths upon Gods own authority So that to call such a faith Heresie which is wholly of God and through God must needs be blasphemy For my part I confess that I do not see how I can be sufficiently thankful to God for making me a member of such a Communion and therefore am sure I cannot be too zealous for it nor too constant in it A Communion which neither hath Heresie in the Doctrine of faith nor the cause of Heresie in the foundation of faith And truly to be rid of Heresie in its self and in its cause are both very great blessing but yet the latter is the greater of the two For a true reason of believing which rids us from Heresie in its cause may partly excuse even a falsity in the belief when a man believes what is not true because he thinks God hath revealed it But a false reason of believing can scarce justifie a truth in the belief when a man believes what is true but not upon the authority of Gods revelation The one desires to be a true believer in a false article the other resolves to be a false believer in a true article of faith The one in the cause of his faith believes the truth whilst in the doctrine of it he believes an errour the other in the cause of his faith believes an errour for every man is a lyar and may suggest a lye whilst in the Doctrine of it he believes a truth the one in the uprightness of his heart cleaves to God when in his mouth he departs from him the other in the perversness of his heart departs from God when in his lips he draws neer unto him The uprightness of heart makes the one a true man in his errour as S. Cyprian in his false Tenent of rebaptiz ation the perversness of heart makes the other a false man in his truth as
of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal THE Apostle establishing our Christian liberty doth much more establish our Christian Piety Rom. 14. He establisheth our liberty ver 6. placing daies and meats in the same rank of indifferency neither of them in it self ought to be reputed a matter of Religion But withal he doth much more establish our Christian Piety ver 7. 8. That both daies and meats daies wherein and meats whereby we live are to be observed or not observed as shall most conduce to his Glory by whom we do and to whom we should all live He overthrows a legal or Iewish observation of daies for themselves because that was a typical worship But he establisheth an evangelical or Christian observation of daies for duties because that is a real and moral part of Gods service For he that so regardeth a day regardeth not it but the Lord And he that so regardeth it not being thereunto called by that authority which God hath set over him were best take heed lest it be thought that he regardeth not the Lord He was best take heed lest he give occasion of scandal or spiritual ruine to his brother whilst he gives him occasion to think that God is not worth the regarding or that those are given to superstition who do most zealously regard him For he that doth this may chance have the milstone in his heart to harden him but sure he must have the milstone about his neck to drown him SECT VIII To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to the Jews keeping them from Christianity PER scandalum laeditur proximus in mente ut per homicidium in corpore per furtum in possessione saith the School-man Alensis par 2. qu. ibi m. 1. Scandal wrongs my neighbour in his mind as murder wrongs him in his body and theft wrongs him in his possession and therefore I have great reason to take heed of being scandalous as to take heed of being a murderer or a thief And truly I cannot see but that our Saviours determination concerning scandal reacheth this very case Mat. 18. 6. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea For tell me do they not believe in Christ who set apart a time of purpose to make Profession of their Belief in him And if they do believe in him how will you answer your scandalizing and offending them whiles they are professing or rather indeed practising that their belief or your scandalizing others whiles you keep them from the same Christian Practice and Profession Wherefore it can hardly be denyed but this is really a scandal or an offence to Christians because it is a way to cause some of them to forget or to forsake our Saviour Christ But surely it is a down-right stumbling-block to the Jews to keep them from embracing the Christian Religion For the main thing needful to their conversion is to prove the Messiah is already come in the flesh which the Jews will take for granted is denyed if not disproved by them who will not allow themselves nor others to celebrate the memorial of his coming for the whole course of their Religion taught them to acknowledge the receipt of far lesser blessings with much more solemn memorials as the receipt of the Law with the celebration of Pentecost So that whatsoever may be urged for serving God in Spirit in Truth to make Christians become sincere worshippers yet we had need keep up an outward solemn service and worship of Christ to make Jews become Christians For it is not imaginable they should leave the outward decency and order that they are bound to use in their own Synagogues according to the whole purport of their own Law to come to the slovenliness and Indecency that may be found in some Christian Churches under the pretence of the purity of our Gospel SECT IX The Jews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaness especially that Profaness or Irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ IT is much to be lamented that Christians who are bound to do what is in them to convert the Jews should so far scandalize them either by Idolatry or by Profaness as to hinder their conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Jew in his Disputation with the Christian in the second Nicen Council in the sift Action I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you worship Images And is it not as great a scandal if they shall be able to say I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you do not worship God or at least do not worship him with fear and reverence as God Or That you refuse to worship Christ whom you would have me believe to be the Son of God For is it not an act of Religious worship in Moses his Law to dedicate daies to the worship of God If then we deny the Dedication of daies to the worship of Christ How shall we perswade the Jews that we do indeed worship him as our God It is to be feared if we shall do so they will rather think us turning Jews then that themselves will think of turning Christians SECT X. That those Christians who oppose Christmas-Day do give occasion to other Good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion SInce it is the ground of our Christian Religion That all Gods gifts and mercies to mankind do concenter together in Christ it is scarce possible those Christians should be thought truly religious who make it their work to oppose the publick worship of Christ on that very day wherein as Christ he was first capable of being publickly worshipped They that are Jews may think well of this for they denying him to be the Son of God will easily deny that he is to be worshipped But sure good Christians cannot think well of it who are taught to glorifie God in Christ and much more for Christ To glorifie God in Christ is our Religion To glorifie God for Christ is our salvation Religio est motus creaturae rationalis ad Deum ut ad primum principium ultimum finem Christus autem ut Homo est via per quam fit hic motus saith Aquinas 22â— qu. 81. Religion is a motion of the reasonable creature to God as to its first beginning and to its last end But Christ as man is the way wheâ—ein the reasonable creature thus moveth so that once forget Christ as man and you shall soon forget all religion Saint Bernard tells us of a threefold coming of Christ the first was in the infirmity of his flesh to redeem us the second in the power of his spirit to sanctifie us the third in the glory of his majesty to judge us I will thankfully receive him as my Redeemer that I may securely
as Master Brerewood hath demonstrated in his enquiries cap. 14. SECT II. That the coming of the Holy Ghost for the communicating of Christ after an extraordinary manner is not now to be expected That preaching and praying with the Spirit come not by infusiâ—ns Enthusiasts are the worst separatists and the greatest blasphemers guilty of the worst kind of sacriledge and Idolatry in robbing God of his publike worship after such a manner as he hath commanded and idolizing their own pretended gifts SInce it is an undoubted truth that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ we may not doubt but his coming unto men alwayes was and still is of purpose to communicate Christ unto them either after an extraordinary manner by immediate infusions and revelations as to the Prophets and Apostles or after an ordinary manner by habitual improvements and assistances as at this day For the extraordinary manner of his coming and the extraordinary manner of his communicating Christ to men by immediate infusions or revelations did both cease together And we may truly say concerning those miraculous and extraordinary dispensations of the spirit what Saint Paul hath said concerning tongues one of the principal effects thereof They were for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. and therefore were to continue and remain no longer then signes and wonders that is till the preaching or publishing of the Gospel or till the planting and setling the Christian Religion For Saint Peter plainly sheweth in the second of the Acts That this Prophecy of Joel In the last dayes saith God I will your out of my spirit upon all flesh was fulfilled in the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles that these were the last dayes meant by that Prophet and therefore after those dayes men were not to expect any more such extraordinary dispensations Wherefore those that will now preach or pray by the Spirit may not rely upon infusions for which they have no warrant but must betake themselves diligently to read and consider the word of God that so they may have the assistance of the Spirit of God For they that go about to separate the Spirit from the Word are the most abominable Separists that ever were or can be in the world because they endeavour to separate God from himself for Gods word is Gods truth and Gods truth is himself Be it then taken for granted which may not be doubted it cannot be denyed that they are very wicked Separatists who separate man from man for they fill the world with sedition and privy conspiracy They yet worse Separatists who separate man from God for they fill the world with false doctrine and heresie But yet still they are the worst Separatists of all who separate God from God that is Gods Spirit from Gods Word for they fill the world with hardness of heart contempt of Gods Word and Commandment which is the ready way to make men first impenitent and then unpardonable and what more can be said of the sin against the Holy Ghost Yet these three separations do so naturally and necessarily spring from one another that they may be accounted themselves inseparable For the sedition begets the heresie and the heresie begets the hardness of heart separating man from man by sedition will separate man from God by heresie and that will also in a short time endeavour to separate God from himself by contempt of his Word and Commandments What an unhappy age do we live in wherein men think they do God good service to run away from his Word by pretending to his Spirit But this is the wit of wickedness the order of disorder the method of atheism that the persons of the holy and undivided Trinity should be sinned against by succession and blasphemed in the same order that they are to be confessed first the Father secondly the Son and thirdly the Holy Ghost For under the Law men were generally given to Idolatry took an Idol for God and so more immediately sinned against God the Father he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself Under the first times of the Gospel men were generally addicted to Arrianism denying the Divinity of Christ and so more immediately sinned against God the Son for he is God of God But in these latter times of the Gospel for so it is to be feared our sins have made them men are generally addicted to cry up their own phansies for the dictates of the Spirit and so more immediately sin against God the Holy Ghost not considering how unconscionable a thing it is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption and how impossible a thing it is for those not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God who constantly blaspheme him and what an unsufferable blasphemy it is to entitle those rude and crude impertinencies to the Holy Spirit which few sober men can hear with patience and no zealous man can hear with profit and no conscientious man can hear with piety Well may such a worship profit some men by exercising their patience but yet it scarce deserves the name of worship because it doth not rather exercise their piety so that we must confess that such pretenders to the Spirit are the greatest enemies of the Spirit and whilst they would be thought the best reformers are in truth the worst blasphemers for as much as they impute those imprudencies and indescretions or rather impieties and irreligions for imprudencies in the service of God are impieties and indiscretions are irreligions to Gods Holy Spirit which are meerly their own vaiâ— imaginations and carnal inventions and in the mean time reject and disesteem those prayers and praises which are the undoubted dâ—ctates of that same Holy Spirit as if they rather hindred then helped us to cry Abba Father what is this but in effect to blaspheme God instead of blessing him for giving us so many admirable forms of prayer and praise in the holy Scriptures and for giving us a Church to teach us to pray exactly according to that pattern in the Mount according to those patterns of prayers and praises whâ—ch came immediately either from God the Son or from God the Holy Ghost What is this but in effect to distract and to hinder men instead of setling and helping them in their Religion whilst they are made beleive that nothing is truly from the spirit of prayer but what is new and unknown to them whereby they are taught first to contemn the known prayers of the Church and then the known prayers of the Scriptures for that the spirit is as much confined by the one as by the other and to hunt after novelty instead of certainty which is a way to exercise the phansie before the conscience because the conscience first tries the spirits then follows them 1 John 4. 1. but the phansie first follows the spirits and never at all tries them A way