6.27 For him hath the Father sealed The second is his blessing of it whereby he by the recitall of the promises and praiers conceiued to that ende doth actually separate the bread and wine receiued from their common vnto an holy vse This doth seale that action of God by which he did in the fulnesse of time send Christ to performe the office of a Mediatour vnto the which he was fore-ordained The third is the breaking of the bread and powring out of the wine this doth seale the passion of Christ by which he verely vpon the crosse was both in soule and bodie bruised for our transgressions The fourth is his distributing of the bread and wine into the hands of the communicants This sealeth the action of God offering Christ vnto all yea to the hypocrites but giuing him indeede vnto the faithful for the daily encrease of their faith and repentance The action of the receiuer is double The first is his taking the bread and wine in his hand This sealeth a spirituall action of the receiuer namely his apprehension of Christ by the hand of faith Ioh. 1. 1â— The second is his eating of the bread and drinking of the wine to the nourishment of his bodie This sealeth his application of Christ by faith that the feeling of his true vnion and communion with Christ may daily be encreased 1. Cor. 11.16 The cuppe of blessing which we blesse is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we breake is it not the communion of the bodie of Christ That doctrine of Transubstantiation which teacheth that the bread is turned into the very bodie of Christ and the wine into his blood is a very fable the reasons why are these I. In the first institution of the Supper which was before Christ his passion the bodie of Christ was then eaten as alreadie crucified Now how the bodie of Christ crucified should after a corporall manner be eaten he himselfe being not as yet crucified it is impossible to imagine II. The bread after the consecration is distributed into parts but the whole bodie of Christ is receiued of euery singular communicant III. The bread is the communion of Christs bodie therefore not his very bodie IV. By this meanes the bodie of Christ should not onely be made of the substance of the Virgin Marie but also of the bakers bread V. Let the bread wine be kept for a time and the bread will mould and the wine turne to vineger after the consecration by which we may conclude that there did remaine the substaÌ„ce of bread and wine VI. This opinion quite ouerthroweth the sacramentall vnion namely the proportion which is betwixt the signe and the thing signed Thâ— lâ—ke may be said of the Lutherans Consubstantiation whereby they bâ—â—re men in hand that there is a coexistence by which the bodie of Christ is eithâ—â— in or with or about the bread Against this these reasons may suffice I. The â—hoâ—â—â—ction of the Supper is done in remembrance of Christ now what 〈…〉 f the bodie of Christ were really present II. Act. 3.21 Whom the heauens 〈◊〉 containe vntill the time that all things be restored III. This is an essential propertie of euery magnitude and therfore of the bodie of Christ to be in one place and circumscribed or compassed of one place IV. If that Christs bodie were eaten corporally then should the wicked as well as the faithfull be partakers of the flesh of Christ but to eate his flesh is to beleeue in him and to haue eternall life V. It were very absurd to thinke that Christ sitting amongst his Disciples did with his owne hands take his owne bodie and giue it wholly to each of his Disciples Such as will in an holy sort prepare themselues to celebrate the Lords Supper must haue First a knowledge of God and of mans fall and of the promised restauration into the couenant by Christ. 1. Cor. 11.26 So often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke of this cuppe ye shew the death of the Lord till he come 29. and discerne his bodie Secondly true faith in Christ for euery man receiueth so much as he beleeueth he receiueth Heb. 4.2 For vnto vs was the Gospel preached as also vnto them but the word that they heard profited not them because it was not mixed with faith in those that heard it Furthermore true repentance of their sinnes Esai 66.3 He that killeth a bullocke as if he slue a man he that sacrificeth a sheepe as if he cut off a dogges necke he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swines blood he that remembreth incense as if he blessed an idol yea they haue chosen their owne waies and their soule delighteth in their abominations Psal. 26.6 I wash mine hands in innocency O Lord and so come before thine altar Thirdly renued faith and repentance for daily and new sinnes committed vpon infirmitie because euery new sinne requireth a new act both of repentance and faith this renouation must be seene by our reconciliation of our selues to our neighbours for iniuries and wrongs Mat. 5.23 If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee 24. Leaue thy gift before the altar and goe first be reconciled to thy brother then come and offer thy gift If thou canst come furnished with these things abstaine not from the Lords table by reaâ—â—n of thy many infirmities If being thus prepared thou feelest that thou hast a corrupt and rebellious heart know this that then thou art well disposed to the Lords table wheÌ„ thou art liuely touched with a sense of thy crooked disposition Luk. 4.18 The spirit of the Lord is vpon me because he hath annointed me that I should preach the Gospell to the poore he hath sent me that I should heale the broken hearted that I should preach deliuerance to the captiues and recouering of sight to the blind that I should set at libertie them that are bruised Mat. 15.24 He answered and said I am not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel The Lords Supper is a medicine to the diseased and languishing soule and therefore men must as well seeke to purifie and heale their hearts in it as to bring pure and sounde hearts vnto it If thou feele in thy selfe some great defect and want of faith pray vnto god earnestly that he will vouchfafe to increase it Mark 9.24 The father of the child crying with teares said Lord I beleeue helpe mine vnbeleefe If thou canst not doe this thy selfe vse the aide of the faithfull which may by their faith carrie thee as men did the sicke of the palsie vpon their sholders and laid him before Christ. Mark 2.3 If thou come not furnished on this maner to the Lords table thou shalt be adiudged guiltie of the bodie and blood of Christ as he is guiltie of high treason who doth counterfeit or clip the Princes coyne 1. Cor. 11.27 He
how shall he not with him giue vs all things also And touching it sundrie points must be considered The first is what is meant by this giuing Ans. It is an action or worke of God the Father by the holy ghost whereby Christ as redeemer in the appointed time is really communicated to al ordained to saluation in such manner that they may truely say that Christ himselfe withall his benefits is theirs both in respect of right thereto and in respect of all fruit redounding thence and that as truely as any man may say that house and land giuen him of his ancetours is his owne both to possesse and to vse The second point is what is the very thing giuen Answ. Whole Christ God and man is giuen because his humanitie without his godhead or the godhead without the humanitie doth not reconcile vs to God Yet in this giuing there must be a diuers consideration had of the two natures of Christâ— for the communication of the godhead is merely energeticall that is onely in respect of operation in that it doth make the manhood personally vnited vnto it to be propitiatorie for our sinnes and meritorious of life eternall And to auouch any communication of the godhead in respect of essence were to bring in the heresie of the Maniches and to maintaine a composition and a commixtion of our natures with the nature of God Againe in the manhood of Christ wee must distinguish betweene the subiect it selfe the substance of body and soule and the blessings in the subiect which tend to our saluation And the communication of the aforsaid manhood is in respect of both without separation for no man can receiue sauing vertue from Christ vnlesse first of all he receiue Christ himselfe as no man can haue the treasure hid in the fielde vnlesse first of all he haue the fielde and no man can be nourished by meate and drinke vnlesse first of all he receiue the substance of both And this is the cause why not onely in the preaching of the worde but also in the institution of the Lords supper expresse mention is made not onely of Christs merit but also of his verie bodie and blood whereby the whole humanitie is signified as appeares by that place where it is said that the Word was made flesh And though the flesh of it selfe profit nothing as S. Iohn saith yet as it is ioyned to the godhead of the sonne and doth subsist in his person it receiueth thence quickening vertue to reuiue and renue all those to whome it shall be giuen Lastly among the blessings that are stored vp in the manhood of Christ for our saluation some are giuen vnto vs by imputation as when wee are iustified by the righteousnesse indeede inherent in his manhoode but imputed vnto vs some by infusion as when holinesse is wrought in our heartes by the spirit as a fruite of that holinesse which is in the manhood of Christ and deriued from it as the light of one candle from another The third point is in what manner Christ is giuen vnto vs. Ans. God the father giueth Christ vnto his Church not in any earthly or bodily manner as when a king bestoweth a gift with his owne hand and putteth it into the hand of his subiect but the manner is altogether celestiall and spirituall partly because it is brought to passe by the meere diuine operation of the holy Ghost partly because in respect of vs this gift is receiued by an instrument which is supernaturall namely faith whereby we lay hold on and applie vnto our selues the Euangelicall promises And this manner of giuing may be conceiued thus A man that neuer stirred foote out of England holds and enioyes land in Turkie but how comes it to be his Thus the Emperour was willing and content to bestow it and the man for his part as willing to accept and receiue it and by this meanes that which at the first was the Emperours by mutuall consent becomes the mans In the same manner God the Father hath made an Euangelicall couenant with his Church in which of his mercie he hath made a graunt of his owne sonne vnto vs with righteousnesse and life euerlasting in him and we againe by his grace accept of this graunt and receiue the same by faith thus by mutuall consent according to the tenour of the couenant any repentant sinner may truly say though I now haue mine aboad vpon earth and Christ in respect of his manhood be locally in heauen yet is he truly mine to haue and to enioy his bodie is mine his blood is mine As for the giuing receiuing of the bodie blood of Christ in bodily manner which the Papists maintaine in auouching the reall transubstantiation of bread and wine in the sacrament into the bodie and blood of Christ and the Lutherans also in teaching that his bodie and blood is substantially either in or with or vnder the bread and wine is an erroneous conceit flat opposite to sundrie points of the Cbristian faith For Christ to this very houre retaineth still the essence and essentiall properties of a true bodie and we beleeue that really and visibly he ascended into heauen and there abides till his second comming to the last iudgement who then hauing but common reason would imagine a communication of the bodie of Christ pent vp in the element of bread and conueyed into our bodies by the mouth and stomacke The third point is whether we are not lords of Christ he being thus giuen vnto vs. Ans. No for this donation is not single but mutuall As Christ is giuen to vs so we againe are giuen to Christ as he himselfe saith Those whome thou hast giuen me Father I haue kept And we are giuen vnto him in that our bodies and soules are made his not onely as he is God but also as he is our redeemer and our sinnes with the guilt thereof are made his by imputation and the punishment thereof is wholly laid vpon him This is all the dowrie which the Church beeing the spouse of Christ hath brought vnto him The fifth point is how any man in particular may know that Christ is giuen vnto him of the Father Ans. When God giues Christ to man he withall giues man grace and power to receiue Christ and to apprehend him with all his benefits and this we doe when we vtterly renounce our selues this world and all things therein bewaile our sinnes past resting on the death of Christ for the pardon of them al and as it were with both the armes of faith catching holde vpon him in all estates both in life and death When the heart of any man is truely disposed and inclined to doe these and the like things wee may truely say that God hath giuen him grace to receiue Christ. The second thing required to make vs one with Christ is the Mysticall vnion which is a Coniunction wherby Christ his Church are actually coupled
the head to the foote and the throat also cut yet so as life is still remaining wee may better thinke their foule errours considered and their worship of God which is nothing els but a mixture of Iudaisme and Paganisme that it is a rotten and dead corpes voide of spirituall life And therefore we haue seuered our selues from the Church of Rome vpon iust cause neither are we schismaticks in so doing but they rather because the ground and the proper cause of the schisme is in them As for the assâ—mbliâ—s of Anabaptists Libertines Antinomies Tritheits Arrians Samosateâ—â—â—ns they are no churches of God but conspiracies of moÌ„strous heretickes iudâ—â—â—lly condemned in the primitiue Church and againe by the malice of Satan â—â—â—ued and reuiued in this age The same we are to thinke and say of the Familiâ— of loue As for the Churches of Germanie commonly called the Churches of the Lutheranes they are to be reputed of vs as the true churches of God Though their Angustane Confession haue not satisfied the expectation of other Reformed Churches yet haue they all the same enemies in matter of religion doe alike confesse the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost and of the office of the Mediatour of faith and good workes of the Word the Church and the Magistrate are all of one iudgement They differ indeede from vs in the question of the sacrament but it is no sufficient cause to induce vs to holde them as no Church for that there is a true or reall receiuing of the bodie and blood of Christ in the Lords supper we al agree and we ioyntly confesse that Christ is there present so farre forth that he doth truely feede vs with his verie bodie and bloode to eternall life and all the controuersie lies in the manner of receiuing we contenting our selues with that spirituall receiuing which is by the hand of faith they adding thereto the corporall whereby they imagine theÌ„selues to receiue Christ with the hand and mouth of the bodie And though to maintaine this their opinion they be constrained to turne the ascension of Christ into a disparition whereby his bodie beeing visible becomes inuisible yet in the maine points we agree that Christ ascended into heauen that he entred into his kingdome in our name and for vs that we are gouerned and preserued by his power and might and that whatsoeuer good thing we haue or doe proceedes wholly from the grace of his spirit Indeede the opinion of the Vbiquitie of the bodie of Christ reuiueth the condemned heresies of Eutiches and Nestorius and it ouerturneth by necessarie consequent most of the articles of faith but that was priuate to some men as Brentius and others and was not receiued of whole churches and whereas the men were godly learned and we are vncerten with what affection and how long they held this errour we rest our selues in condemning it leauing the persons to God Againe Popish Transustantiation and Lutherian Consubstantiation are both against the trueth of the manhood of Christ yet with great difference Transubstantiation is slatte against an article of faith for if Christs body be made of bread and his blood of wine which must needes bee if there be a conuersion of the one into the other then was not he conceiued and borne of the virgine Marie for it cannot both be made of bakers breade and of the substance of the virgin Againe it abolisheth the outward signe in the Lords supper as also the analogie betweene the signe and the thing signified and so ouerturnes the sacrament but Consubstantiation doth not so neither doeth it ouerturne the substance of any article of Religion but onely a maine point of Philosophie which is that A bodie doth occupie onely one place at once Furthermore the Churches of Helvetia and Savoie and the free citties of Fraunce and the lowe Countries and Scotland are to bee reuerenced as the true Churches of God as their confession make manifest And no lesse must we thinke of our owne Churches in England and Ireland For wee holde beleeue and maintaine and preach the true faith that is the ancient doctrine of saluation by Christ taught and published by the Prophets and Apostles as the booke of the articles of faith agreed vpon in open Parliament doe fully shewe and withall now we are and haue beene readie to testifie this our faith by venturing our liues euen in the cause of religion against forraigne power and especially the Spaniard and hereupon all the Churches in Europe giue vnto vs the hand of fellowship And whereas sundrie among vs that separate and indeede excommunicate themselues giue out that there is no Church in England no Ministers no Sacraments their peremptorie asseuerations wanting sufficient ground are but as paper-shot They alleadge that our assemblies are full of grieuous blottes and enormities Ans. The defects and corruptions of Churches must be distinguished and they bee either in doctrine or manners Againe corruptions in doctrine must further be distinguished some of them are errours indeede but beside the foundation and some errours directly against the foundation and these ouerturne all religion whereas the former doe not Nowe it can not be shewed that in our Churches is taught any one errour that raseth the foundation and consequently annihillateth the truth of Gods Church Indeed there is controuersie among vs touching the point of Ecclesiastical regiment but marke in what manner We all ioyntly agree in the substance of the regiment confessing freely that there must bee preaching of the word administration of the Sacraments according to the institution and the vse of the Power of the Keyes in admonitions suspensions excommunications the difference betweene vs is onely touching the persons and the manner of putting this gouernment in exequution and therfore men on both parts though both hold not the trueth in this point yet because both holde Christ the foundation they still remaine brethren and true members of Christ. As for corruptions in manners they make not a Church to be no church but a badde church When as the wicked Scribes and Pharises sitting in Moses chaire taught the things which he had written the people are commanded to heare them and to doe the things which they say not doing the things which they doe And whereas it is said that wee hold Christ in worde and denie him indeede that is answered thus deniall of Christ is double either in iudgement or in fact deniall in iudgement ioyned with obstinacie makes a Christian to be no christian deniall in fact the iudgement still remaining sound makes not a man to be no christian but a badde christian When the Iewes had crucified the Lord of life they still remained a Church if any vpon earth and notwithstanding this their fact the Apostles acknowledged that the couenaÌ„t the promises stil belonged vnto theÌ„ they neuer made any separation from their Synagogues till such time as they had bin sufficiently coÌ„uicted by the Apostolicall
worship God in by or at any image for this is the thing which as I haue prooued before the second commandement forbiddeth And the fact of the Israelites Exod. 32. in worshipping the golden calfe is condemned as flat idolatrie albeit they worshipped not the calfe but God in the calfe for v. 5. Aaron saith Tomorrow shall bee the solemnitie of Iehouah whereby he doth giue vs to vnderstand that the calfe was but a signe of Iehouah whome they worshipped Obiect It seemes the Israelites worshipped the calfe For Aaron saith v. 4. These bee thy Gods O Israel that brought thee out of Egypt Ans. Aarons meaning is nothing else but that the golden calfe was a signe of the presence of the true God And the name of the thing signified is giuen to the signe as vpon a stage he is called a king that represents the king And Augustine saith that images are woont to be called by the names of things whereof they are images as the counterfeit of Samuel is called Samuel And we must not esteeme them all as madde men to thinke that a calfe made of their earings beeing but one or two daies old should bee the God that brought them out of Egypt with a mightie hand many daies before And these are the points of difference touching images wherein we must stand at variance for euer with the Church of Rome For they â—rre in the foundation of religion making indeed an idol of the true God and worshipping another Christ then we doe vnder new tearmes maintaining the idolatrie of the heathen And therefore haue we departed from them and so must we still doe because they are Idolaters as I haue prooued The X. point Of reall presence Our Consent I. We hold and beleeue a presence of Christs bodie and blood in the sacrament of the Lords supper and that no fained but a true and reall presence which must be considered two waies first in respect of the signes secondly in respect of the communicants For the first we hold and teach that Christs bodie and blood are truely present with the bread and wine beeing signes in the Sacrament but how not in respect of place or coexistence but by sacramentall relation on this manner When a word is vttered the sound comes to the eare and at the same instant the thing signified comes to the mind and thus by relation the word and the thing spoken of are both present togither Euen so at the Lords table bread and wine must not be considered barely as subsistaÌ„ces and creatures but as outward signes in relation to the bodie and blood of Christ and this relation arising from the very institution of the Sacrament standes in this that when the elements of bread and wine are present to the hand and to the mouth of the receiuer at the very same time the bodie and blood of Christ are presented to the minde thus and no otherwise is Christ truely present with the signes The second presence is in respect of the communicants to whose beleeuing hearts he is also really present It will bee said what kind of presence is this Ans. Such as the communion in the sacrament is â—uch is the presence and by the communion must we iudge of the presence Nowe the communion is on this manner God the father according to the tenour of the Euangelicall couenant gives Christ in this sacrament as really and truely as any thing can bee giuen to man not by part and peecemeale as wee say but whole Christ God and man on this sort In Christ there be two natures the godheadâ— manhood The godhead is not giuen in regard of substance or essence but only in regard of efficacie merits operatioÌ„ coÌ„ceiued thence to the manhood And further in this sacrament Christs whole manhood is giuen both bodie and soule in this order First of all is giuen the very manhood in respect of substance and that really secondly the merits and benefits thereof as namely the satisfaction performed by and in the manhood to the iustice of God And thus the intire manhood with the benefits thereof are giuen wholly and ioyntly togither For the two dislinct signes of bread and wine signifie not two distinct giuings of the bodie apart and the blood apart but the full and perfect nourishment of our soules Againe the benefits of Christs manhood are diuersly giuen some by imputation which is an action of God accepting that which is done by Christ as done by vs and thus it hath pleased God to giue the passion of Christ and his obedience Some againe are giuen by a kind of propagation which I cannot fitly expresse in tearmes but I resemble it thus As one candle is lighted by another and one torch or candle-light is conueied to twentie candles euen so the inherent righteousnes of euery beleeuer is deriued from the storehouse of righteousnesse which is in the manhood of Christ for the righteousnes of all the members is but the fruit thereof euen as the naturall corruption in all mankinde is but a fruit of that originall sinne which was in Adam Thus we see howe God for his part giues Christ and that really To proceede when God giues Christ he giues withall at the same time the spirit of Christ which spirit creates in the heart of the receiuer the instrument of true faith by which the heart doeth really receiue Christ giuen of God by resting vpon the promise which God hath made that he will giue Christ and his righteousnesse to euery true beleeuer Now then when God giues Christ with his benefits man for his part by faith receiues the same as they are giuen there riseth that vnion which is betweene euery good receiuer and Christ himselfe Which vnioÌ„ is not forged but a reall true and neere coniunction nearer then which none is or can be because it is made by a solemne giuing and receiuing that passeth betweene God and man as also by the bond of one and the same spirit To come then to the point considering there is a reall vnion and consequently a reall communion betweene vs and Christ as I haue prooued there must needes bee such a kind of presence wherein Christ is truely and really present to the heart of him that receiues the sacrament in faith And thus farre doe wee consent with the Romish Church touching reall presence The dissent We differ not touching the presence it selfe but onely in the maner of presence For though we hold a reall presence of Christs bodie and blood in the sacrament yet doe we not take it to be locall bodily or substantiall but spirituall and mysticall to the signes by sacramentall relation and to the communicants by faith alone On the contrarie the Church of Rome maintaines transubstantiation that is a locall bodily and substantiall presence of Christs bodie and blood by a change and conuersion of the bread and wine into the said bodie and blood Our reasons I. This corporall presence ouerturnes sundrie articles
of faith For we beleeue that the bodie of Christ was made of the pure substance of the Virgin Marie and that but once namely when he was conceiued by the holy Ghost and borne But this cannot stand if the bodie of Christ be made of bread and his blood of wine as they must needs be if there be no succession or annihilation but a reall conuersion of substances in the sacrament vnlesse we must beleeue contrarieties that his bodie was made of the substance of the Virgin not of the Virgin made once and not once but often Againe if his bodie and blood be vnder the formes of bread and wine then is he not as yet ascended into heauen but remaines still among vs. Neither can hee be said to come frō heauen at the day of iudgement for hee that must come thence to iudge the quicke and dead must be absent from the earth And this was the auncient faith Augustine saith that Christ according to his maiestie and prouidence and grace is present with vs to the ende of the world but according to his assumed flesh he is not alwaies with vs. Cyril saith He is absent in bodie and present in vertue whereby all things are gouerned Vigilius saith That he is gone from vs according to his humanitie he hath left vs in his humanitie in the forme of a seruant absent from vs when his flesh was on earth it was not in heauen being on earth hee was not in heauen and being now in heauen he is not on earth Fulgentius saith One and the same Christ according to his humane substance was absent from heauen whē he was on earth and left the earth when he ascended into heauen Reason II. This bodily presence ouerturnes the nature of a true bodie whose common nature or essentiall propertie it is to haue length breadth thicknes which beeing taken away a bodie is no more a bodie And by reason of these three dimensions a bodie can occupie but one place at once as Aristotle said the propertie of a bodie is to be seated in some place so as a mā may say where it is They therefore that hold the bodie of Christ to be in many places at once doe make it no bodie at all but rather a spirit and that infinit They alleadge that God is almightie that is true indeede but in this and like matters we must not dispute what God can do but what he wil doe And I say further because god is omnipotent therfore there be some things which he cannot do as for him to denie himselfe to lie to make the parts of a contradiction to be both true at the same time To come to the point if God should make the very body of Christ to be in many places at once he should make it to be no bodie while it remaines a bodie and to be circumscribed in some one place and not circumscribed because it is in many places at the same time to be visible in heauen and inuisible in the sacrament and thus should he make contradictions to be true which to doe is against his nature and argues rather impotēcie then power Augustine saith to this purpose If he could lie deceiue he deceiued deale vniustly he should not be omnipotent And Therefore hee is omnipotent because he can not doe these things Againe He is called omnipotent◠by doing that which he will and not by doing that which he will not which if it should befall him he should not be omnipotent Reason III. Transubstantiation ouerturnes the very supper of the Lord. For in euery sacrament there must be a signe a thing signified and a proportion or relation betweene them both But popish reall presence takes al away for when the bread is really turned into Christs bodie and the wine into his bloode then the signe is abolished and there remaines nothing but the outwarde formes or appearance of breade and wine Againe it abolisheth the endes of the sacrament whereof one is to remember Christ till his comming againe who beeing present in the sacrament bodily needes not to bee remembred because helpes of remembrance are of things absent Another ende is to nourish the soule vnto eternall life but by transubstantiation the principall feeding is of the bodie and not of the soule which is onely fed with spirituall foode for though the bodie may be bettered by the food of the soule yet can not the soule be fedde with bodily foode Reason IV. In the sacrament the bodie of Christ is receiued as it was crucified his blood as it was shed vpon the crosse but now at this time Christs bodie crucified remaines still as a bodie but not as a bodie crucified because the act of crucifying is ceased Therefore it is faith alone that makes Christ crucified to be present vnto vs in the sacrament Againe that blood which ran out of the feete and hands and side of Christ vpon the crosse was not gathered vp againe and put into the veines nay the collection was needles because after the resurrection he liued no more a naturall but a spirituall life none knowes what is become of this blood The Papist therefore can not say it is present vnder the forme of wine locally and we may better say it is receiued spiritually by faith whose propertie is to giue a being to things which are not Reason V. 1. Cor. 10.3 The fathers of the old testament did eate the same spirituall meate and drinke the same spirituall drinke for they dranke of the rocke which was Christ. Now they could not eate his bodie which was crucified or drinke his blood shedde bodily but by faith because then his bodie and blood were not in nature The Papists make answer that the fathers did eate the same meate and drinke the same spirituall drinke with themselues not with vs. But their answer is against the text For the Apostles intent is to prooue that the Iewes were euery way equall to the Corinthians because they did eate the same spirituall meate and dranke the same spirituall drinke with the Corinthians otherwise his reason prooues not the point which he hath in hand namely that the Israelites were nothing inferiour to the Corinthians Reason VI. And it is said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath so it may be saide that the sacrament of the Lords supper was made for man and not man for it and therefore man is more excellent then the sacrament But if the signes of bread and wine be really turned into the bodie and blood of Christ then is the sacrament infinitely better then man who in his best estate is onely ioyned to Christ and made a member of his mysticall bodie whereas the bread and wine are made very Christ. But the sacrament or outward elements indeede are not better then man the end beeing alwaies better then the thing ordained to the ende It remaines therefore that Christs presence is not corporall
but spirituall Againe in the supper of the Lord euery beleeuer receiueth whole Christ God and man though not the godhead now by this carnall eating we receiue not whole Christ but onely a part of his manhood and therefore in the sacrament there is no carnall eating and consequently no bodily presence Reason VII The iudgement of the auncient Church Theodoret saith The same Christ who called his naturall bodie foode and bread who also called himselfe a vine he vouchsafed the visible signes the name of his owne bodie not chaunging nature but putting grace to nature whereby he meanes consecration And The mysticall signes after sanctification loose not their proper nature For they remaine in their first nature and keepe their first figure and forme and as before may be touched and seene and that which they are made is vnderstood beleeued adored Gelasius saith Bread and wine passe into the substance of the bodie blood of Christ yet so as the substance or nature of bread and wine ceaseth not And they are turned into the diuine substance yet the bread and wine remaine still in the propertie of their nature Lumbard saith If it be asked what conuersion this is whether formall or substantiall or of an other kind I am not able to define And that the fathers held not transubstantiatioÌ„ I proue it by sundrie reasons First they vsed in former times to burne with fire that which remained after the administration of the Lords supper Secondly by the sacramentall vnion of the bread and wine with the bodie and blood of Christ they vsed to confirme the personall vnion of the manhood of Christ with the godhead against heretickes which argument they would not haue vsed if they had beleeued a popish reall presence Thirdly it was a custome in Constantinople that if many parts of the sacrament remained after the administration thereof was ended that young children should be sent for from the schoole to eate them who neuerthelesse were barred the Lords table And this argues plainely that the Church in those daies tooke the bread after the administration was ended for common bread Againe it was once an order in the Romane Church that the wine should be consecrated by dipping into it bread which had beene consecrated But this order cannot stand with the reall presence in which the bread is turned both into the bodie and blood Nicholaus Cabasilas saith After he hath vsed some speech to the people hee erects their mindes and lifâ—s their thoughts from earth and saith Sursum corda Let vs lift vp our hearts let vs thinke on things aboue and not on things that are vpon the earth They consent say that they lift vp their hearts thither where is their treasure and where Christ sits at the right hand of his father Obiections of Papists I. Their first reason is Ioh. 6.55 My flesh is meat indeede and my blood is drinke indeede therefore say they Christs body must be eaten with the mouth and his blood drunke accordingly Ans. The chapter must beâ— vnderstood of a spirituall eating of Christ his bodie is meate indeed but spirituall meate his blood spirituall drink to be receiued not by the mouth but by faith This is the very point that Christ here intends to prooue namely that to beleeue in him is to eate his flesh and to drinke his blood are all one Againe this chapter must not be vnderstood of that speciall eating of Christ in the sacrament for it is said generally v. 53. Except ye eate the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood ye haue no life in you and if these very wordes which are the substance of the chapter must be vnderstood of a sacramentall eating no man before the coÌ„ming of Christ was saued for none did bodily eate or drinke his bodie or blood considering it was not then existing in nature but onely was present to the beleeuing heart by faith II. Obiect An other argument is taken from the words of the institution This is my bodie Ans. These words must not be vnderstood properly but by a figure his bodie beeing put for the signe and seale of his body It is obiected that when any make their last wills and testaments they speake as plainely as they can now in this supper Christ ratifies his last will and testament therefore he spake plainely without any figure Ans. Christ here speaketh plainely and by a figure also for it hath beene alwaies the vsual manner of the Lord in speaking of the sacraments to giue the name of the thing signified to the signe as Gen. 17. 10. circumcision is called the couenant of God and in the next verse in the way of exposition the signe of the couenant And Exod. 12. 11. the paschall lambe is called the angels passing by or ouer the houses of the Israelites whereas indeede it was but a signe thereof and 1. Cor. 10.4 The rock was Christ. 1. Cor. 5.7 The passeouer was Christ. And the like phrase is to bee founde in the institution of this sacrameÌ„t concerning the cup which the Papists theÌ„selues confesse to be figuratiue when it is said Luk. 22. This cup is the newe testament in my blood that is a signe seale and pledge thereof Againe the time when these words were spoken must be considered and it was before the passion of Christ whereas yet his bodie was not crucified nor his blood shed and consequently neither of them could bee receiued in bodily manner but by faith alone Againe Christ was not onely the author but the minister of this sacrament at the time of institution thereof and if the bread had beene truely turned into his bodie and the wine into his blood Christ with his own hands should haue taken his owne bodie and blood and haue giuen it to his disciples nay which is more he should with his owne hands haue taken his owne flesh and drunken his owne blood and haue eaten himselfe For Christ himselfe did eate the bread and drinke the wine that he might with his owne person consecrate his last supper as he had consecrated baptisme before And if these words should be properly vnderstood euery man should bee a manslaier in his eating of Christ. Lastly by means of popish real presence it comes to passe that our bodies should be nourished by naked qualities without any substance which in all philosophie is false and erronious To help this and the like absurdities some Papists make nine wonders in the sacrament The first that Christs bodie is in the Eucharist in as large a quantitie as he was vpon the crosseâ— and is now in heauen yet excludes not the quantitie of the bread The second that there be accidents without a subiect The third that bread is turned into the body of Christ yet is not the matter of the bodie nor resolued to nothing The fourth that the bodie increaseth not by consecration of many hosts and is not diminished by often
is that euery seruant of God must take heede howe hee trauels into such countries where Popish religion is stablished least hee partakes in the sinnes and punishments thereof Indeede to goe vpon ambassage to any place or to trauell for this end that wee may performe the necessarie duties for our speciall or generall callings is not vnlawefull but to trauell out of the precincts of the chnrch onely for pleasures sake and to see strange fashions hath no warrant And hence it is that many men which goe forth in good order well minded come home with crased consciences The best traueller of all is he that liuing at home or abroad can goe out of himselfe and depart from his owne sinnes and corruptions by true repentance FINIS An aduertisement to all fauourers of the Romane religion shewing that the said religion is against the Catholike principles and grounds of the Catechisme GReat is the number of them that embrace the religion of the present Church of Rome beeing deceiued by the glorious titles of Vniuersalitie Antiquitie Succession And no doubt though some be wilfully blinded yet many deuoted this waie neuer sawe any other trueth Nowe of them and the rest I desire this fauour that they will but weigh and ponder with theÌ„selues this one thing which I will nowe offer to their considerations and that is That the Romane religion now stablished by the councell of Trent is in the principall points thereof against the grounds of the Catechisme that haue beene agreed vpon euer since the daies of the Apostles by all Churches These groundes are foure the first is the Apostles Creed the second is the decalogue or tenne commandements the third is the forme of praier called the Lords praier the fourth is the Institution of the two Sacraments baptisme and the Lords supper 1. Cor. 11.23 That I may in some order manifest this which I say I will begin with the Symbole or Creed And first of all it must bee considered that some of the principall doctrines beleeued in the Church of Rome are that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is the vicar of Christ and the head of the Catholike church that there is a fire of purgatorie after this life that images of God and Saints are to be placed in Churches and worshipped that praier is to bee made to Saints departed their interceffion to be required that there is a propitiatorie sacrifice daily oâ—â—ered in the masse for the sinnes of the quicke the dead These points are of that moment that without them the Romane religion caÌ„not stand and in the councel of Trent the curse Anathema is pronounced vpon all such as denie these or any of them And yet marke the Apostles Creede which hath bin thought to containe all necessarie points in religion to bee beleeued and hath therefore beene called the kay rule of faith this creed I say hath not any of these points nor the Expositions made thereof by the auncient fathers nor any other Creede or confession of faith made by any councel or Church for the space of many hundred yeares This is a plaine proofe to any indifferent man that these be new articles of faith neuer knowne in the Apostolike Church that the fathers councels could not find any such articles of faith in the books of the old and new testament Answer is made that all these points of doctrine are beleeued vnder the article I beleeue the Catholike Church the meaning whereof they wil haue to be this I beleeue all things which the Catholicke church holdeth and teacheth to be beleeued If this bee as they say we must needes beleeue in the Church that is put our confidence in the Church for the manifestation and the certentie of all doctrines necessarie to saluation and thus the eternal trueth of God the Creatour shall depend on the determination of the creature and the written word of God in this respect is made vnsufficient as though it had not plainely reuealed all points of doctrine pertaining to saluation And the ancient Churches haue beene farre ouerseene that did not propound the former points to be beleeued as articles of faith but left them to these latter times 2. In this Creede to beleeue in God and to beleeue the Church are distinguished To beleeue in is pertaining to the Creatour to beleeue to the creature as Ruffinus hath noted when he saith that by this preposition in the Creatour is distinguished from the creature and things pertaining to God from things pertaining to men And Augustine saith It must be knowne that we must beleeue the Church and not beleeue in the Church because the Church is not God but the house of God Hence it followes that we must not beleeue in the Saints nor put our confidence in our workes as the learned Papists teach Therfore Eusebius saith We ought of right to beleeue Peter and Paul but to beleeue in Peter and Paul that is to giue to the seruants the honour of the Lord we ought not And Cyprian saith He doth not beleeue in God which doeth not place in him alone the trust of his whole felicitie 3. The article conceiued by the holy Ghost is ouerturned by the transubstaÌ„tiation of bread and wine in the masse into the bodie and blood of Christ. For here wee are taught to confesse the true and perpetuall incarnation of Christ beginning in his conception and neuer ending afterward and wee acknowledge the trueth of his manhood and that his bodie hath the essentiall properties of a true body standing of flesh bone hauing quaÌ„titie figure dimeÌ„sions namly length breadth thicknes hauing part out of part as head out of feet feet out of head being also circuÌ„scribed visible touchable in a word it hath al things in it which by order of creatioÌ„ beloÌ„g to a body It wil be said that the bodie of Christ may remaine a true bodie yet be altered in respect of some qualities as namely circumscription But I say againe that locall circumscription can no way be seuered from a bodie it remaining a bodie For to be circumscribed in place is an essentiall propertie of euery quantitie and quantitie is the common essence of euery bodie And therefore a bodie in respect of his quantitie must needs be circumscribed in one place This was the iudgement of Leo when hee said The â—odie of Christ is by no meanes out of the trueth of our bodâ—â— And Augustine when he said Onely God in Christ so comes that he doth not departâ—â—o returnes that he doth not leaue vs but man according to bodie is in place and goes out of the same place and when he shall come vnto another place he is not in that place whence he comes To helpe the matter they vse to distinguish thus Christs bodie in respect of the whole essence thereof may be in many places but not in respect of the whole quantitie whereby it is only in one place But as I haue
say first Christ and then his graces because no man receiueth grace frō Christ vnlesse he be made truely partaker of his very bodie and blood euen as no man can by right reape any fruite of the ground whereof first hee hath no iust title and interest The action about Christ is spirituall and is either the action of God or of Faith The action of God is either the offering or the Application of Christ his graces to the faithfull The action of faith is the consideration desire apprehension and receiuing of Christ in the lawefull vse of the Sacrament Thus much of the parts of a Sacrament nowe followeth the vnion of the parts This sacramentall vnion I. is not naturall according to the place for there is no mutation of the signe into the thing signed neither is the thing signed either included in or fastened vpon the signe But II. it is respectiue because there is a certaine agreement and proportion of the externall things with the internall and of the actions of one with the actions of the other whereby it commeth to passe that the signes as it were certaine visible wordes incurring into the externall senses doe by a certaine proportionable resemblance drawe a Christian mind to the consideration of the things signified to be applied This mutuall and as I may say sacramentall relation is the cause of so many figuratiue speeches and metonymies which are vsed as when one thing in the Sacrament is put for another As I. The signe is vsed for the thing signified Exod. 12. 11. Ye shall eate it namely the Lambe in hast for it is the Lords passeouer Ioh. 6. 52. I am the liuing bread which came downe from heauen if any eate of this breade he shall liue for euer and the bread which I will giue is my flesh which I will giue for the life of the world 1. Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passeouer is sacrificed for vs. 1. Cor. 10.17 We that are many are one bread and one bodie because we are all partakers of one bread II. The name of the thing signified is giuen to the signe as The bread is Christs bodie the cuppe is Christs blood 1. Cor. 11.24 Math. 26.28 III. The effect of the thing signified is giuen to the signe as Circumcision is a couenant Gen. 17. 10. Act. 7.8 The cup is the new Testament in Christs blood Luk. 22.16 Baptisme is the washing of the new birth Tit. 3.5 IV. That which properly belōgeth to the signe is attributed to the thing signified Deut. 10.16 Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts Ioh. 6.53 Vnlesse ye eate the flesh of the sonne of man and drinke his blood ye shall haue no life in you The end why a Sacrament was ordained is I. for the better confirmation of our faith for by it as by certaine pledges giuen God of his great mercie doth as it were binde himselfe vnto vs. Now a Sacrament doth confirme our faith not by any inherēt or proper power it hath in it selfe as hath a soueraigne medecine receiued by a patient the which whether a man sleepe or wake it confirmeth his strength but rather by reasoning and vsing the signes when the holy Ghost shall frame in our hearts such a conclusion as this All such as are conuerted rightly vsing the Sacraments shall receiue Christ and his graces But I am conuerted and either now doe or before haue rightly vsed the Sacraments Therefore I shall receiue Christ and his graces II. That it might be a badge and note of that profession by which the true Church of God is distinguished from other congregations III. That it might be a meane to preserue and spread abroad the doctrine of the Gospel IV. It serueth to binde the faithfull that they doe continue both loyall and gratefull to their Lord God V. It is the bond of mutuall amitie betwixt the faithfull How a Sacrament is necessarie to saluation The couenant of Grace is absolutely necessarie to saluation for it comprehending Christ Iesus the very substance of the Couenant man must necessarily either receiue it or perish eternally but a Sacrament is not absolutely necessarie but onely as it is a prop and stay for faith to leane vpon For it cannot entitle vs into the inheritance of the sonnes of God as the couenant doth but onely by reason of faith going before it doth seale that which before was bestowed vpon vs. As we see in humane contracts the bond ariseth from the mutuall consent of the parties but the instrument or bill and the setting to of the seale they doe not make but rather confirme the bond mutually before made the which mutuall consent remaining firme the contract standeth still in force though the instrument or seale be wanting Therefore the want of a Sacrament doth not condemne but the contempt is that which will condemne a man The want of a Sacrament is when we are iustly hindred from the receiuing of the same as when one is preuented by death or liueth in such a place where he cannot receiue the Sacrament And as for the neglect of a Sacrament albeit it be a very grieuous sinne yet is it such an one as for which he that is heartily penitent for the same may well hope for pardon The holy vse of a Sacrament is when such as are truly conuerted doe vse those rites which God hath prescribed vnto their true ends in the receiuing of a Sacrament Therefore I. the reprobate though God offer the whole Sacrament vnto them yet they receiue the signes alone without the things signified by the signes because the signe without the right vse thereof is not a Sacrament to the receiuer of it So Paul saith Rom. 2. 25. Circumcision verely is profitable if thou keepe the Law but if thou be a transgressour of the Law thy circumcision is made vncircumcision And Augustine hath this saying If thou receiue it carnally yet ceaseth it not to be spirituall though to thee it be not so II. The Elect as yet not conuerted to the Lord doe receiue in like manner the bare signes without the thing signified yet so as that that Sacrament shall in them afterward haue his good effect For the Sacrament receiued before a mans conuersion is afterward to the penitent both ratified and becommeth profitable and that vse of the Sacrament which before was vtterly vnlawfull doth then become very lawfull III. The Elect alreadie conuerted doe to their saluation receiue both the signe and the thing signified together yet so as that for their vnworthie receiuing thereof the which commeth to passe by reason of their manifold infirmities and relapses into sinne they are subiect vnto temporall punishments The difference betwixt a Sacrament and a Sacrifice is in a Sacrament God bestoweth his graces vpon vs but in a sacrifice we returne vnto God faith and obedience There are many differences betwixt the Sacraments of the Old testament and these of the New I. They were many these but few II. They pointed at Christ
The Sacramentall vnion of the parts of baptisme is on this sort The element of water whereby the vncleannesse of the body is purified by a most conuenient proportion shadoweth out the blood of Christ and by the figure Synecdoche taking the part for the whole whole Christ. 1. Ioh. 1.7 And the blood of Iesus Christ clenseth vs from all sinne The action of the Minister is his washing of the partie baptized with the element of water This sealeth and confirmeth a double action of God I. The engrafting or incorporating of the baptized into Christ. Gal. 3.27 As many as are baptized into Christ haue put on Christ. 1. Cor. 12.13 By one spirit we are all baptized into one bodie II. Our spirituall regeneration Tit. 3.5 Not by the workes of righteousnes which we had done but according to his mercie he saued vs by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost Of washing there be three parts The putting into the water the continuance in the water and the comming out of the water The putting into or the sprinkling of water doth ratifie I. the shedding of the blood of Christ for the remission of all our sinnes and the imputation of his righteousnesse Act. 22.16 Arise and be baptized and wash away thy siâ—nes in calling on the name of the Lord. 1. Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are iustified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the spirit of our God II. The mortification of sinne by the power of Christs death Rom. 6.3 Know ye not that all we which haue beene baptized into Iesus Christ haue beene baptized into his death 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroied that henceforth we should not serue sinne for he that is dead is freed from sinne The continuance in the water it noteth the buriall of sinne namely a continuall increase of mortification by the power both of Christ his death and buriall Rom. 6.4 We are buried then with him by baptisme into his death The comming out of the water doth confirme our spiritual viâ—ification to newnesse of life in all holinesse and iustice the which we attaine vnto by the power of Christs resurrection Rom. 6. 4. Like as Christ was raised vp from the dead by the glorie of the Father so we also should walke in newnesse of life 5. For if we be graffed with him to the similitude of his death euen so shall we be to the similitude of the resurrection The action of the partie to be baptized is two-fold The first is to offer himselfe to be baptized before the minister and that in the presence of the congregation This signifieth that he doth consecrate himselfe vnto the Lord and that he vtterly renounceth the flesh the world and the diuell 1. Pet. 3.21 To the which also the figure which now saueth vs euen baptisme agreeth not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but in that a good conscience maketh request vnto God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ. The second is to receiue the externall washing by water this signifieth that the partie baptized doth receiue the internall washing which is by the blood of Christ or at the least that it is offered vnto him Rebaptizing is at no hand to be admitted for as in naturall generation man is once onely borne so must he be in the spiritual regeneration Therfore they that are baptized of a minister which is an heretike not yet degraded from that calling if the externall forme of administration be obserued must not be baptized againe of the Church of God especially if after baptisme they haue beene made partakers of the Lords Supper onely they ought to be instructed in the true faith Euseb. Eccles. hist. lib. 7. c. 8. saith There was in our Prouince an ancient professour of the faith yea before I was created Bishop nay before my predecessour Heraclas who when he was present at the baptisme of some heard what questions they were asked what answer they returned forthwith came weeping vnto me and humbling himselfe before me confessed that he was baptized by an heretike yet in regard of that administration which he saw in our Church he accouÌ„ted that no baptisme in that the confession there vsed was fraught with blasphemies This also he added that he was for this offence so sore grieued that he durst not so much as lift vp his eyes to heauen wherefore he most earnestly besought me that â—e might be clensed and purified with the baptisme of our Church and so receiue the gift of the holy Ghost The which notwithstanding I durst not presume to administer but said it was sufficient for him that he had beene so long a professour amongst vs that at the receit of the Lords Supper he answered Amen These things I told him were of force enough to purge him And therefore I aduised him to rest himselfe in his former faith and conscience alreadie sufficiently purified especially in that he so long was partaker with vs in the Sacraments Aug. lib. 3. c. 2. contra Petil. literas The right vse of baptisme is this When inwardly in thine heart thou sensibly feelest that through the heat of concupiscence thou art mooued to commit some sinne then beginne to haue some holy meditation of that solemne vow which thou diddest make to God in baptisme Againe if through infirmitie thou fallest once or often into some sinne stil haue recourse vnto baptisme that there thou maist receiue courage to thy soule For although baptisme be but once onely administred yet that once testifieth that all mans sinnes past present and to come are washed away 1. Pet. 3.20 Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Therefore baptisme may be truly tearmed the Sacrament of repentance and as it were a board to swimme vpon when a man shall feare the shipwracke of his soule Mark 1.4 1. Tim. 1.19 Rom. 6.4,6 Last of all see thou neuer rest till such time as thou haue a feeling of that renuing power signified in baptisme namly the power of Christs death mortifying sinne and the vertue of his resurrection in the renouation of the Spirit CHAP. 34. Of the Lords Supper THe Lords Supper is a Sacrament wherewith in the signes of bread and wine such as are engraffed into Christ are in him daily in a spirituall manner nourished to eternall life 1. Cor. 11.23,24,25 Rom. 6.5 The proportion of the parts of the Lords Supper is on this wife The Elements of bread and wine are signes and seales of the bodie and blood of Christ. The action of the Minister is a note of Gods action The Ministers action is fourefold The first is his taking the bread and wine into his owne handes this doth seale the action of God the Father by which he from all eternitie did separate and elect his Sonne to performe the duetie of a Mediatour betwixt God and man Ioh.
that eateth this bread and drinketh this cuppe vnworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of Christ. But such as feele not theÌ„selues penitent they neither can come to the Lords table without repentance least they eate and drink their own damnation neither must they deferre repentance by which they may come least they procure to themselues finall destruction CHAP. 35. Of the degrees of executing Gods decree of Election VVE haue hitherto declared the outward meanes whereby Gods decree is executed Now follow the degrees of executing the same The degrees are in number two The loue of God and the declaration of his loue Eph. 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherwith he hath made vs accepted in his blood 9. And hath opened vnto vs the mysterie of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in him Gods loue is that whereby God doth freely loue all such as are chosen in Christ Iesus though in themselues altogither corrupt 1. Ioh. 4. 19. Wee loued him because he loued vs first Rom. 5.8 God setteth out his loue towards vs seeing that while we were yet sinners Christ died for vs. 10. For if when wee were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his sonne much more wee beeing reconciled shall be saued by his life The declaration of gods loue is two-fold The first towards infants elected to saluation the second towards men of riper yeares The declaration of Gods loue towards infants is on this manner Infants alreadie elected albeit they in the wombe of their mother before they were borne or presently after depart this life they I say being after a secret and vnspeakable manner by Gods spirit engraffed into Christ obtaine eternall saluation 1. Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit wee are all baptized into one bodie whether Iewes or Grecians bond or free and haue beene all made to drinke into one spirit Luk. 1. 35. The Angell answered and said vnto her The holy Ghost shall come vpon thee and the power of the most High shall ouershadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be borne of thee shall be called the sonne of God 41. And it came to passe as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Marie the babe sprang in her bellie and Elizabeth was filled with the holy Ghost 64. And his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loosed and he spake and praised Godâ— 80. And the child grewe waxed strong in spirit Iere. 1.5 Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee and before thou camest out of the wombe I sanctified thee I call the manner of infants saluation secret and vnspeakable because I. they want actuall faith to receiue Christ for actuall faith necessarily presupposeth a knowledge of Gods free promise the which he that beleeueth doth applie vnto himselfe but this infants cannot any waies possibly performe And surely if infants should haue faith actually they generally either loâ—e it when they come to mens estate or at least shew no signes thereof both which they could not doe if before they had receiued actuall faith Nay we see that in those of riper yeares there are not so much as the shadowes or sparkes of faith to bee seene before they be called by the preaching of the Gospell II. Infants are said to be regenerated onely in regard of their internall qualities and inclinations not in regard of any motions or actions of the minde will or affections And therefore they want those terrors of conscience which come before repentance as occasions thereof in such as are of riper yeares of discretion Againe they are not troubled with that conflict and combate betwixt the flesh and the spirit wherewith those faithfull ones that are of more yeares are marueilously exercised CHAP. 36. Concerning the first degree of the declaration of Gods loue THe declaration of Gods loue in those of yeres of discretion hath especially foure degrees Rom. 8.30 1. Cor. 1.30 The first degree is an effectuall calling whereby a sinner being seuered froÌ„ the world is entertained into Gods familie Eph. 2.17 And came and preached peace vnto you which were a farre off and to them that were neere 19. Nowe therfore ye are no more strangers and forrainers but citizens with the Saints and of the â—oushold of God Of this there be two parts The first is Election which is a seperation of a sinner from the cursed estate of all mankind Ioh. 15.19 If ye were of the world the world would loue his own but because ye are not of the world but I haue chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you The second is the reciprocall donation or free gift of God the Father whereby he bestoweth the sinfull man to be saued vpon Christ and Christ againe actually most effectually vpon that sinfull man so that he may boldly saâ—e this thing namely Christ both God and man is mine and I for my benefit and vse enioy the same The like we see in wedlocke The husband saith this woman is my wife whome her parents haue giuen vnto men so that shee being fully mine I may both haue her and gouerne her Againe the woman may say this man is mine husband who hath bestowed himselfe vpon me doth cherish me as his wife Rom. 8.32 He spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs. Esa. 9.6 Vnto vs a child is born vnto vs a son is giuen Ioh. 17.2 Thou hast giuen him power vpon all flesh that he should giue eternall life to all theÌ„ whome thou hast giuen him 6. I haue declared thy name to the men which thou gauest me out of the world thine they were and thou gauest them me and they kept thy worde 7. Nowe they know that all things whatsoeuer thou hast giuen me are of thee Ioh. 10.29 My father which gaue them me is greater then all and none is able to take them out of my fathers hands Hence commeth that admirable vnion or coniunctioÌ„ which is the ingraffing of such as are to be saued into Christ and their growing vp togither with him so that after a peculiar manner Christ is made the head and euery repentant sinner a member of his mysticall bodie Ioh. 17.20 I pray not for these alone but for them also which shall beleeue in me through their word 21. That they all may be one as thou O father art in me and I in thee euen that they may be also one in vs. Eph. 2.20 We are members of his bodie of his flesh and of his bones Ioh. 25.1 I am that true vine and my father is the husbandman 2. Euery branch that beareth not fruit in me he taketh away and euery one that beareth fruite he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruite Eph. 2. 20. Built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles â—hose corner stone is Iesus Christ himselfe 21. In whoÌ„ all the building coupled togither groweth vnto an holy temple in the Lord. 22.
sanctifier and comforter Lastly the high priest had a plate on his forehead and therein was engrauen the holines of Iehouah this signified the holines of Christ for as he is God he is holines it selfe and as he is man he is most holy beeing sanctified by the holy Ghost for this ende that he might couer our sinnes and vnrighteousnes with his righteousnes and holy obedience The second order of priesthood is the order of Melchisedeck of which order Christ was as Dauid saith Thou art a priest for euer after the order of Melchisedeck and that in two speciall respects I. Melchisedeck was both a priest and a king so was Christ. II. Melchisedeck had neither father nor mother because his historie is set downe with mention of neither so likewise Christ as he is God had no mother and as he is man he had no father The Papists auouch Christ to be a priest of this order in a new respect in that as Melchisedeck offered bread and wine when Abraham came from the slaughter of the Kings so say they Christ in his last supper did offer his owne bodie blood vnder the formes of bread and wine But this is a friuolous deuice of theirs for if we read Hebr. 7. where this point is handled there is no comparison at all made of their two sacrifices but the resemblances before named are set downe in which person is compared with pâ—rson Againe it is not said in Genesis that Melchisedeck offered sacrifice but that he brought forth bread and wine and made a feast to Abraham and his companie And if Christ should be of the order of Melchisedeck in regard of the offering of bread and wine yet would this make much against the Papists For Melchisedeck brought forth true bread and true wine but in the sacrifice of the masse there is no true bread nor true wine but as they say the reall bodie and blood of Christ vnder the forme of bread and wine The fourth point is whether there be any more reall priests of the newe Testament beside Christ or no Ans. In the old testament there were many priests one following another in continuall succession but of the new Testament there is one onely reall priest Christ Jesus God and man and no more as the author of the Hebrewes saith because he endureth for euer he hath an euerlasting priesthoode and the word translated euerlasting signifieth such a priesthood which can not passe from him to any other as the priesthood of Aaron did And therefore the priesthood of Christ is so tied to his owne person that none can haue the same but he neither man nor angel nor any other creature no not the Father nor the holy Ghost But the factours of the church of Rome will say that Christ may haue men to be his deputies in his stead to offer sacrifice Ans. We must consider Christ two waies I. as he is God II. as he is Mediatour As he is God with the father and with the holy Ghost he hath Kings and Magistrates to be his deputies on earth and therefore they are called Elohim that is gods But as he is Mediatour and so consequently a priest and a King he hath neither deputie nor vicegerent neither king to rule in his stead ouer his Church nor priest to offer sacrifice for him nay he hath no Prophet to be his deputie as he is the doctour of the Church And therefore he saith to his disciples be not called doctors for one is your doctor Indeed he hath his ministers to teach men his wil but a deputie to offer sacrifice in his stead he hath not And therefore we may with good conscience abhorre the massing priesthood of the church of Rome as a thing fetched froÌ„ the bottom of hell and their massing priests as instruments of Satan holding this for a very truth that we haue but one onely priest euen Christ himselfe God and man Indeede all Christians are priests to offer vp spirituall sacrifice but it is the propertie of Christ alone to offer an outward and reall sacrifice vnto God now in the new Testament Thus much of the first point who is the priest The second followeth what is the sacrifice Answ. The sacrifice is Christ as he is man or the manhoode of Christ crucified As the priest is both God and man so the sacrifice is man not God So it is saide we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Iesus Christ. Touching this sacrifice sundrie questions are to be skanned The first what kind of sacrifice it was Ans. In the old testament there were two kinde of sacrifices one propitiatorie which serued to satisfie for sinne the other eucharisticall for praise and thanksgiuing Now the sacrifice of Christ was a sacrifice propitiatorie specially prefigured by the typical sacrifice called the whole burnt offering for as it was all consumed to ashes vpon the altar and turned into smoke so the fire of Gods wrath did seaze vpon Christ on the crosse and did consume him as it were to nothing to make vs something Secondly when Noe offered an whole burnt offering after the flood it is saide God smelled a sauour of rest not because he was delighted with the smell of the sacrifice but because he approoued his faith in Christ. And hereby was figured that Christ vpon the crosse was an offering a sacrifice of a sweete smelling sauour vnto God because God was well pleased therewith Now whereas Christ was content wholly to offer vp himselfe to appease the wrath of his father for vs it must teach vs to giue our bodies and soules as holy liuing and acceptable sacrifices wholly dedicating them to the seruice of God The second question is how oft Christ offered himselfe Ans. Once onely and no more This must be held as a principle of diuinitie With once offering hath he consecrated for euer them that are sanctified and againe Christ was once offered to take away the sinnes of many And it serueth to ouerthrow the abominable sacrifice of the masse in which the true bodie and blood of Christ is offered vnder the formes of bread and wine really and substantially as they say for the remission of the sinnes of the quicke and the dead and that continually but if this vnbloodie sacrifice of Christ be good then it is either the continuing of that which was begunne on the crosse by Christ himselfe or the iteration of it by the masse priest Now let Papists chuse whether of these two they will if they say it is the continuing of the sacrifice of Christ then they speake outragious blasphemie for it is in effect to say that Christs sacriâ—ice was not perfect but onely begun on the crosse and must be accomplished by the masse priest to the end of the world If they affirme the second that it is an iteration of Christs sacrifice then also they speake blasphemie for hereby they make
set vp his Sacrament as a signe vpon a high hill whence it may be seene on euery side farre and neere to call againe them that be runne away And with this Sacrament he as it were clocketh to them as a hen doth for her chickens to gather them vnder the wings of his mercy and hath commaunded his Sacrament to be had iâ—â— continuall vse to put vs in minde of his continuall mercie laid vp for vs in Christ blood and to witneâ—â—e and teâ—tifie it vnto them and to be the seale thereof For the Sacrament doth much more liuely print the faith and make it sinke downe into the heart then doe bare wordes onely Now when the words of the testament and promises are spoken ouer the bread this my bodie that was broken for you this is my bloode that was shed for you they confirme the faith but much more when the Saâ—rament is seene with the eies and the bread broken the wine powred out looked on yet more when I taste it smell it As you see when a man maketh a promise vnto another with light words betweene themselues and so they departed he to whome the promise is made beginneth to doubt whether the other spake earnestly or mocked and doubteth whether he will remmber his promise to abide by it or no. But when any man speaketh with aduisemeÌ„t the words are more credible if he sweare it confirmeth the thing more and yet the more if he strike hands if he giue earnest if hee call record if he giue hand writing seale it so is he the more and more beleeued for the heart gathereth lo he spake with aduisement deliberation and good sadnesse he clapped hands called record and put to his hand and seale the man cannot be so faint without the feare of God as to denie all this shame shall make him abide his promise though hee were such a man as I could not compell him if hee would denie it And thus we dispute god sent his sonne in our nature made him feele our infirmities and named his name Iesus that is a Sauiour because he should saue his people from their sinnes and after his death he sent his Apostles to preach these glad tydings to thrust them in at the eares of vs set vp a Sacrament of them to testifie them and to seale them and to thrust them in not at the eares onely by rehearsing the promises of the testament ouer its neither at our eies only in beholding it but beat them in through our feeling tasting and smelling also and to be repeated daiely and to be ministred to vs. He would not thinke we make halfe so much a do with vs if he loued vs not and would not haue his Sacrament to be a witnesse and testimonie betweene him and vs to confirme the faith of his promises that wee should not doubt in them when we looke on the seales of his obligations wherewith he hath bouÌ„d himselfe and this to keepe the promises and couenants better in mind and to make them the more deepely to sinke into our hearts and bee more earnestly regarded Timoth. Considering that this which you say is too plaine great shame it is that there is such neglect of the Sacrament as there is and that it is so seldome vsed but surely want of faith and the securitie which ouerspreadeth this our countrie is the cause of it the Lord if it be his will remooue the same Now let me heare a little how you lead your life and haue your conuersation among men Euseb. I haue my conuersation among men as sincere as I can in righteousnes and holines which is after Gods commandements our Sauiour saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your father which is in heauen Timoth. It is but a dim light which we can carrie before men and small are our good workes and to be esteemed of no value if wee were preachers or rich men or noble men then we might saue soules giue good counsell helpe many by your almes but you and I are poore men of base birth and of lowe degree how can we then doe any good workes Euseb. As touching good workes by that measure of knowledge that god hath giuen me I thinke that all workes are good which are done according to the obedience of Gods law in faith and with thanksgiuing to God and with a minde desirous of his glorie alone and I thinke that I or any man els in doing them please God whatsoeuer I doe within the lawe of God as when I make water And trust me if either wind or water were stopped I should feele what a pretious thing it were to doe either of both and what thankes ought to bee giuen God therefore Moreouer I put no difference betweene workes but whatsoeuer commeth into my hands that I doe as time place and occasion giueth and according to my degree For as touching to please God there is no worke better then other God looketh not first on my workes as the worlde doth or as though he had neede of them but God looketh first on my heart what faith I haue to his word how I beleeue him trust him and howe I loue him for his mercie that he hath shewed to me hee looketh with what heart I worke and not what I worke how I accept the degree he hath put me in not of what degree I am Let vs take example You are a minister and preach the word I am a kitchin boy and wash my masters dishes Of the Ministery harke what the Apostle saith If I preach I haue naught to reioice in for necessity is put vpon me If I preach not the gospel as who should say God hath made me so woe is to me if I preach not If I do it willingly saith he then I haue my reward that is then I am sure that Gods spirit is in me and that I am elect to eternall life If I doe it against my will the office is committed to me that is I doe it not of loue to God but to get a liuing thereby and for a worldly purpose and had rather otherwise liue then doe I that office which God hath put vpon me but doe not please God So then if you preached not or in preaching had not your heart aright you minisâ—er the office and they that haue the spirit of God heare his word yea though it were spoken by an Asse and the woe belongeth to you but and if you preach willingly with a true heart and conscience to God then you shall feele the earnest of eternal life and the working of the spirit of God in you and your preaching is a good worke in you Now I that minister in the kitchin and am but a kitchin boy receiue all things at the hand of God know that God hath put me in such an office submit my selfe to his wil and serue my master not as a
vs our debts and to it we say Amen that is that our petitions shall without doubt be graunted vnto vs. Aug. serm de Temp. 182. And here note that the Church of Rome in the doctrine of iustification by faith cuts off the principall part and propertie thereof For in iustifying faith two things are required first Knowledge reuealed in the word touching the meanes of saluation secondly an Applying of things knowne vnto our selues which some call affiance Nowe the first they acknowledge but the second which is the very substance and principall part thereof they denie III. Reason The iudgement of the auncient Church August I demande nowe doest thou beleeue in Christ O sinner Thou saiest I beleeue What beleeuest thou that all thy sinnes may freely be pardoned in him Thou hast that which thou beleeuest Bernard The Apostle thinketh that a man is iustified freely by faith If thou beleeuest that thy sinnes cannot bee remitted but by him alone against whome they were committed but goe further and beleeue this too that by him thy sinnes are forgiuen thee This is the testimonie which the holy Ghost giueth in the heart saying thy sinnes are forgiuen thee Cyprian God promiseth thee immortalitie when thou goest out of this world and doest thou doubt This is indeed not to know God and this is for a member of the Church in the house of faith not to haue faith If wee beleeue in Christ let vs beleeue his wordes and promises and wee shall neuer die and shall come to Christ with ioyfull securitie with him to raigne for euer The II. difference touching faith in the act of iustification is this The Papist saith we are iustified by faith because it disposeth a sinner to his iustification after this manner By faith saith he the mind of man is inlightened in the knowledge of the lawe and gospell knowledge stirs vp a feare of hell with a consideration of the promise of happines as also the loue feare of God hope of life eternall Now when the heart is thus prepared God infuseth the habit of charitie other vertues wherby a sinner is iustified before god We say otherwise that faith iustifieth because it is a supernaturall Instrument created by God in the heart of man at his conuersion whereby he apprehendeth and receiueth Christs righteousnes for his iustification In this their doctrine is a twofold error I. that they make faith which iustifieth to goe before iustification it selfe both â—or order of nature as also for time whereas by the worde of God at the very instant when any man beleeueth first he is then iustified and sanctified For he that beleeueth eateth and drinketh the bodie and blood of Christ and is alreadie passed from death to life Ioh. 6.54 The second is that faith beeing nothing else with them but an illumination of the minde stirreth vp the will which beeing mooued helped causeth in the heart many spirituall motions and thereby disposeth man to his future iustification But this indeed is as much as if we should say that dead men onely helped can prepare themselues to their future resurrection For we are all by nature dead in sinne and therefore must not onely be inlightened in mind but also renued in will before we can so much as wil or desire that which is good Nowe we as I haue said teach otherwise that faith iustifieth as it is an instrument to apprehend and apply Christ with his obedience which is the matter of our iustification This is the trueth I prooue it thus In the couenant of grace two things must be considered the substance thereof and the condition The substance of the couenant is that righteousnes and life euerlasting is giuen to Gods Church and people by Christ. The condition is that we for our parts are by faith to receiue the foresaid benefits and this condition is by grace as well as the substance Now then that we may attaine to saluation by Christ he must be giuen vnto vs really as he is propounded in the tenour of the foresaid couenant And for the giuing of Christ God hath appointed speciall ordinances as the preaching of the word and the administration oâ—â—â—e Sacraments The word preached is the power of God to saluation to euery one that beleeues and the end of the sacraments is to communicate Christ with all his benefits to them that come to be partakers thereof as is most plainely to be seene in the supper of the Lord in which the giuing of bread and wine to the seuerall communicants is a pledge and signe of Gods particular giuing of Christs bodie and blood with all his merits vnto them And this giuing on Gods part cannot be effectuall without receiuing on our parts and therfore faith must needes be an instrument or hand to receiue that which God giueth that we may find comfort by this giuing The III. difference concerning faith is this the Papist saith that a man is iustified by faith yet not by faith alone but also by other vertues as hope loue the feare of God c. The reasons which are brought to maintaine their opinion are of no moment I. Reason Luke 7.47 Many sinnes are forgiuen her because shee loued much Whence they gather that the woman here spoken of was iustified and had the pardon of sinnes by loue Ans. In this text loue is not made an impulsiue cause to mooue God to pardon her sinnes but onely a figne to shew and manifest that God had alreadie pardoned them Like to this is the place of Iohn who saith 1. Ioh. 3. 14. We are translated from death to life because wee loue the brethreÌ„ where loue is no cause of the chaÌ„ge but a signe consequent therof II. Reason Gal. 5.6 Neither circumcision nor vncircumeision auaileth any thing but faith that worketh by loue Hence they gather that faith doeth iustifie togither with loue Ans. The propertie of true faith is to apprehend and receiue something vnto it selfe and loue that goes alwaies with faith as a fruite and an vnseparable companion thereof is of another nature For it doeth not receiue in but as it were giue out it selfe in all the duties of the first and second table towards God and man and this thing faith by it selfe cannot doe and therefore Paul saieth that faith worketh by loue The hand hath a propertie to reach out it selfe to lay hold of any thing and to recâ—â—ue a gift but the hand hath no propertie to cut a peece of wood of it selfe without saw or knife or some like instrument yet by help of theÌ„ it can either deuide or cut Euen so it is the nature of faith to goe out of it selfe to receiue Christ into the heart as for the duties of the first and second table faith cannot of it selfe bring them forth no more then the hand can deuide or cut yet ioyne loue to faith then can it practise duties commended concerning God and man
the Encratitae Be mindfull be loued children not to bring images into the Church nor set them in the places where the Saints are buried but alwaies carie God in your hearts neither let them be suffered in any common house for it is not meete that a Christian should be occupied by the eyes but by the meditation of the minde Arguments of the Papists The reasons which they vse to defend their opinions are these I. In Salomons temple were erected Cherubins which were images of Angels on the Mercieseat where God was worshipped and thereby was resembled the maiestie of God therefore it is lawfull to make images to resemble God Answ. They were erected byâ— speciall commaundement from God who prescribed the very forme of them and the place where they must be set and thereby Moses had a warrant to make them otherwise he had sinned let them shew the like warrant for their images if they can Secondly the Cheâ—ubins were placed in the holy of holies in the most inward place of the Temple and consequently were remooued from the sight of the people who onely heard of them and none but the high priest saw them and that but once a yeare And the Cherubins without the vayle though they were to be seene yet were they not to be worshipped Exod. 20.4 Therfore they serue nothing at all to iustifie the images of the church of Rome Obiect II. God appeared in the forme of a man to Abraham Gen. 18. 1 13. and to Daniel who saw the auncient of daies sitting on a throne Dan. 9. Now as God appeared so may he be resembled therefore say they it is lawfull to resemble God in the forme of a man or any like image in which he shewed himselfe to men Ans. In this reason the proposition is false for God may appeare in whatsoeuer forme it pleaseth his maiestie yet doth it not follow that man should therefore resemble God in those formes man hauing no libertie to resemble him in any forme at all vnlesse he be commaunded so to doe Againe when God appeared in the forme of a man that forme was a signe of Gods presence onely for the time when God appeared and no longer as the bread and wine in the Sacrament are signes of Christs bodie and blood not for euer but for the time of administration for afterward they become againe as common bread and wine And when the holy Ghost appeared in the likenes of a doue that likenes was a signe of his presence no longer then the holy Ghost so appeared And therfore he that would in these formes represent the Trinitie doth greatly dishonour God and doe that for which he hath no warrant Obiect III. Man is the image of God but it is lawfull to paint a man and therefore to make the image of God Ans. A very cauill for first a man cannot be painted as he is the image of God which stands in the spirituall gifts of righteousnes and true holines Againe the image of a man may be painted for ciuill or historicall vse but to paint any man for this end to represent God or in the way of religion that we may the better remember and worship God it is vnlawfull Other reasons which they vse are of small moment and therfore I omit them II. Differ They teach and maintaine that images of God and of Saints may be worshipped with religious worship specially the crucifix For Thomas of Watering saith Seeing the crosse doth represent Christ who died vpon a crosse and is to be worshipped with diuine honour it followeth that the crosse is to be worshipped so too We on the contrarie holde they may not Our principall ground is the second commaundement which containeth two parts the first forbiddeth the making of images to resemble the true God the second forbids the worshipping of them or God in them in these words Thou shalt not bow downe to them Now there can be no worship done to any thing lesse then the bending of the knee Againe the brasen serpent was a type or image of Christ crucified Ioh. 3.14 appointed by God himselfe yet when the people burned incense to it 2. King 18.4 Hezekias brake it in pieces and is therefore commended And when the deuill bad our Sauiour Christ but to bowe downe the knee vnto him and he would giue him the whole worlde Christ reiects his offer saying Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue Math. 4. 10. Againe it is lawefull for one man to worship another with ciuill worship but to worship man with religious honour is vnlawefull For all religious worship is prescribed in the first table and the honour due to man is onely prescribed in the second table and the first commandement thereof Honour thy father which honour is therefore ciuill and not religious Now the meanest man that can be is a more excellent image of God then all the images of God or of Saints that are deuised by men Augustine and long after him Gregorie in plaine tearmes denieth images to be adored The Papists defend their opinions by these reasons I. Psal. 99.5 Cast downe your selues before his footestoole Ans. The wordes are thus to be read Bowe at his footestoole that is at the Arke and Mercyseat for there he hath made a promise of his presence the words therefore say not bow to the Arke but to God at the Arke II. Obiect Exod. 3.5 God said to Moses Stand afar off and put off thy shoes for the place is holy Nowe if holy places must be reuerenced then much more holy images as the crosse of Christ and such like Ans. God commaunded the ceremony of putting off the shoes that he might thereby strike Moses with a religious reuerence not of the place but of his own maiestie whose presence made the place holy Let them shewe the like warrant for images III. Obiect It is lawefull to kneele downe to a chaire of estate in the absence of the king or Queene therefore much more to the images of God of Saints in heauen glorified beeing absent from vs. Answer To kneele to the chaire of estate is no more but a ciuil testimonie or signe of ciuill reuerence by which all good subiects when occasion is offered shewe their loyaltie and subiection to their lawfull princes And this kneeling beeing on this manner and to no other ende hath sufficient warrant in the worde of God But kneeling to the image of any Saint departed is religious and consequently more then ciuill worship as the Papists themselues confesse The argument then prooueth nothing vnlesse they wil keepe themselues to one and the same kind of worship III. Differ The Papists also teach that God may be lawfully worshipped in images in which he hath appeared vnto men as the Father in the image of an old man the sonne in the image of a man crucified and the holy Ghost in the likenes of a doue c. But we hold it vnlawefull to
receiuing The fifth that the bodie of Christ is vnder many consecrated hosts The sixt that when the host is deuided the body of Christ is not deuided but vnder euery part thereof is whole Christ. The seuenth that when the priest holds the host in his hand the bodie of Christ is not felt by it selfe nor seene but the formes of bread and wine The eight that when the formes of bread and wine cease the body and blood of Christ ceaseth also to be there The ninth that the accidents of bread and wine haue the same effects with the bread and wine it selfe which are to nourish and filâ— On this manner it shall be easie for any man to defend the most absurd opinion that is or can be if he may haue libertie to answer the arguments alleadged to the contrarie by wonders To conclude seeing there is a reall communion in the sacrament between Christ and euery beleeuing heart our dutie therefore is to bestowe our hearts on Christ endeauouring to loue him and to reioyce in him and to long after him aboue all things all our affiance must be in him with him wee beeing now on earth must haue our conuersation in heauen And this is the true reall presence which the auncient Church of God hath commended vnto vs for in all these liturgies these wordes are vsed and are yet extant in the Popish masse Lift vp your hearts we lift them vp vnto the lord By which words the communicants were admonished to direct their mindes and their faith to Christ sitting at the right hand of God Thus said Augustine If we celebrate the ascension of the Lord with deuotion let vs ascend with him lift vp our hearts Againe they which are alreadie risen with Christ in faith and hope are inuited to the great table of heauen to the table of Angels where is the bread The eleuenth point Of the sacrifice in the Lords Supper which the Papists call the sacrifice of the Masse Touching this point first I will set downe what must bee vnderstood by the name Sacrifice A sacrifice is taken properly or improperly Properly it is a sacred or solemne action in which man offereth and consecrateth some outward bodily thing vnto God for this end to please and honour him thereby Thus all the sacrifices of the old testament and the oblation of Christ vpon the crosse in the new testament are sacrifices Improperly that is onely by the way of resemblance the duties of the morall lawe are called sacrifices And in handling this question I vnderstand a sacrifice both properly and improperly by way of resemblance Our Consent Our consent I propound in two conclusions Conclus I. That the supper of the Lord is a sacrifice and may truly be so called as it hath beene in former ages and that in three respects I. Because it is a memoriall of the reall sacrifice of Christ vpon the crosse and containes withall a thanksgiuing to God for the same which thanksgiuing is the sacrifice and calues of our lips Heb. 13.15 II. Because euery communicant doth there present himselfe bodie and soule a liuing holy and acceptable sacrifice vnto God For as in this sacrament god giues vnto vs Christ with his benefits so we answerable giue vp our selues vnto God as seruants to walke in the practise of all dutifull obedience III. It is called a sacrifice in respect of that which was ioyned with the sacrament namely the almes giuen to the poore as a testimonie of our thankefulnes vnto God And in this regard also the ancient fathers haue called the sacrament an vnbloodie sacrifice the table an altar the ministers priests the whole action an oblation not to God but to the congregation and not by the priest alone but by the people A canon of a certaine Councell saith Wee decree that euery Lords daie the oblation of the altar be offered of euery man and woman both for bread and wine And Augustine saith that women offer a sacrifice at the altar of the Lord that it might be offered by the priest to God And vsually in auncient writers the communion of the whole bodie of the congregation is called the sacrifice or oblation Conclus II. That the very bodie of Christ is offered in the Lords supper For as wee take the bread to be the body of Christ sacramentally by resemblance and no otherwise so the breaking of bread is sacramentally the sacrificing or offering of Christ vpon the crosse And thus the fathers haue termed the Eucharist an immolation of Chrtst because it is a commemoration of his sacrifice vpon the crosse Aug. Epist. 23. Neither doeth he he which saith Christ was offered For if sacraments had not the resemblance of things whereof they are sacraments they should in no wise be sacraments but from a resemblance they often take their names Againe Christ is sacrificed in the last supper in regard of the faith of the communicants which makes a thing past and done as present Augustine saith When we beleeue in Christ he is offered for vs daily And Christ is then slaine for euery one when hee beleeues that he is slaine for him Ambrose saith Christ is sacrificed daily in the mindes of beleeuers as vpon an altar Hierome saith He is alwaies offered to the beleeuers II. The difference They make the Eucharist to be a reall externall or bodily sacrifice offered vnto God holding and teaching that the minister is a priest properly that in this sacrament he offers Christs bodie and blood to God the father really and properly vnder the formes of bread and wine We acknowledge no real outward or bodily sacrifice for the remission of sinnes but onely Christs oblation on the crosse once offered Here is the maine difference between vs touching this point and it is of that waight and moment that they stifly maintaining their opinion as they doe can be no Church of God For this point raseth the foundation to the very bottom And that it may the better appeare that we auouch the trueth first I will confirme our doctrine by scripture and secondly confute the reasons which they bring for themselues III. Our reasons Reason I. Heb. 9,15 and 26. and c. 10.10 The holy Ghost saith Christ offered himselfe but once Therefore not often and thus there can be no reall or bodily offering of his bodie and blood in the sacrament of his supper the text is plaine The Papists answer thus The sacrifice of Christ say they is one for substance yet in regard of the manner of offering it is either bloody or vnbloodie and the holy ghost speakes onely of the bloodie sacrifice of Christ which was indeede offered but once Ans. But the author of this epistle takes it for graunted that the sacrifice of Christ is onely one and that bloodie sacrifice For he saith Heb. 9.25 Christ did not offer himselfe often as the high priests did and v. 26. For then he must haue often suffered since
is plainely ouerthrowne the excuse which they make that they worshippe not images but God and Saints in images for neither God nor the Saints doe acknowledge this kinde of honour but they abhorre it Whence it followes necessarily that they worship nothing beside the image or the deuise of their owne braine in which they faine to themselues such a god as will be worshipped and receiue our praiers at images It will be saide that the Papists doe no otherwise tie the worship and inuocation of God to images then God tied himselfe to the sanctuarie and the temple of Salomon And I say againe it was the will of God that he would shew his presence and be worshipped at the Sanctuarie and the Iewes had the warrant of Gods word for it but we haue no like warrant either by promise or commandement to tie Gods presence to an image or crucifix Againe reason yet further may discouer their idolatrie They which worship they know not what worship an idol but the Papists worship they know not what I prooue it thus To the consecration of the host there is required the intention of the Priest at the least vertually as they say and if this be true it followes that none of them can come to the Masse or pray in faith but he must alwaies doubt of that which is lifted vp by the hands of the priest in the masse whether it be bread or the bodie and blood of Christ. For none can haue any certentie of the intention of the priest in consecrating this bread and this wine but rather may haue a iust occasion of doubting by reason of the common ignorance and loosenesse of life in such persons Thirdly the commaundement touching the Sabbath giues a libertie to worke sixe daies in the ordinarie affaires of our callings and this libertie cannot be repealed by any creature The Church of Rome therefore erreth in that it prescribeth set and ordinarie festiuall daies not onely to God but also to Saints inioyning them as straitly and with as much solemnitie to be obserued as the Sabbath of the Lord. Fourthly the third commaundement or as they say the fourth inioynes children to obey father and mother in all things specially in matters of moment as in their marriage and choice of their callings and that euen to death and yet the church of Rome against the intent of this commaundement allowes that clandestine marriages and the vowe of religion shall be in force though they be without and against the consent of wise and carefull parents Fiftly the last commandement of lust forbiddes the first motions to sinne that are before consent I prooue it thus Lusting is forbidden in the former commandements as well as in the last yea lusting that is ioyned with consent as in the commandement Thou shalt not commit adulterie is forbidden lusting after our neighbours wife in the next lusting after our neighbours goods c. Now if the last commandement also forbid no more but lust with consent it is confounded with the rest and by this meanes there shall not be ten distinct words or commandements which to say is absurd it remaines therefore that the lust here forbidden goes before consent Againe the Philosophers knew that lust with consent was euill euen by the light of nature but Paul a learned Pharise and therefore more then a Philosopher knew not lust to be sinne that is forbidden in this commandement Rom. 7. Lust therefore that is forbidden here is without consent Wicked then is the doctrine of the Romane Church teaching that in euery mortall sinne is required an act commaÌ„ded of the will and hence they say many thoughts against faith and vncleane imaginations are no sinnes 6 Lastly the words of the second commandement And shew mercie to thousands on them that loue me and keepe my commandements ouerthrowes all humane merits For if the reward be giuen of mercie to them that keepe the law it is not giuen for the merit of the worke done To come to the third part of the Catechisme the Lords praier is a most absolute and perfect forme of praier For which cause it was called of Tertullian The breuiarie of the Gospel and Coelestinus saith the law of praying is the law of beleeuing and the law of working Now in this prayer we are taught to direct our praiers to God alone Our father c. and that onely in the name and mediation of Christ. For God is our father onely by Christ. It is needelesse therefore to vse any inuocation of Saints or to make them our mediatours of intercession vnto God and it is sufficient if we pray onely vnto God in the name of Christ alone 2 In the fourth petition we say thus Giue vs our daily bread In which words we acknowledge that euery morsell of bread is the meere gift of God What madnes then is it for vs to thinke that we should merit the kingdome of heauen by works that can not merit so much as bread 3 In the next petition Forgiue vs our debts foure opinions of the Romane religion are directly ouerthrowne The first is concerning humane Satisfactions For the child of God is here after his conuersion taught to humble himselfe day by day and to pray for the pardon of his daily sinnes now to make satisfaction and to sue for pardon be contrarie The second opinion here ouerthrowne is touching merits For we doe acknowledge our selues to be debters vnto God yea bankrupts and that beside the maine summe of many thousand talents we daily increase the debt therefore we can not possibly merit any of the blessings of God It is meere madnes to thinke that they which cannot pay their debts but rather increase them day by day should deferue or purchase any of the goods of the creditours or the pardoÌ„ of their debts if any fauour be shewed theÌ„ it comes of meere goodwil without the least desert In a word this must be thought vpon that if all we can doe will not keep vs froÌ„ increasing the maine summe of our debt much lesâ—e shall we be able by any merit to diminish the same By good right therfore do al gods seruaÌ„ts caâ—t downe themselues and pray Forgiue vs our debts The third opinion is that punishment may be retained the fault beeing wholly remitted but this can not stand for here sinne is called our debt because by nature we owe vnto God obedience and for the defect of this paiment we further owe vnto him the forfiture of punishment Sinne then is called our debt in respect of the punishment And therefore when we pray for the pardon of sinne we require the pardon not onely of fault but of the whole punishment And when a debt is pardoned it is absurd to thinke that the least paiment should remaine The fourth opinion is that a man in this life may fulfill the law whereas in this place euery seruant of God is taught to aske a daily pardon for the breach of the
law Answer is made that our daily sinnes are veniall and not against the law but beside the law But this which they say is against the petition for a debt that comes by forfiture is against the bond or obligation Now euery sinne is a debt causing the forfiture of punishment and therefore is not beside but directly against the law 4 In this clause as we forgiue our debters it is taken for graunted that we may certenly know that we are in loue and charitie with men when we make reconciliation why then may not we know certenly that we repent and beleeue and are reconciled to God which all Romane Catholikes denie 5 In the last wordes and lead vs not into temptation we pray not that God should free vs from temptation for it is otherwhiles good to be tempted Psal. 26.1 but that we be not left to the malice of Sathan and held captiue of the temptation for here to be lead into temptation and to be deliuered are opposed Now hence I gather that he which is the child of God truly iustified and sanctified shall neuer fall wholly and finally from the grace of God and I conclude on this manner That which we aske according to the will of God shall be graunted 1. Ioh. 5. but this the child of God asketh that he might neuer be wholly forsaken of his father and left captiue in temptation This therfore shall be graunted 6 This clause Amen signifies a speciall faith touching all the former petitions that they shall be graunted and therefore a speciall faith concerning remission of sinnes which the Romane Church denieth To come to the last place to the Institution of the sacrament of the Lords Supper 1. Cor. 11.23 In which first of all the Reall presence is by many circumstances ouerthrowne Out of the wordes he tooke and brake it is plaine that that which Christ tooke was not his bodie because he can not be saide with his owne hands to haue taken held and broken himselfe but the very bread Againe Christ said not vnder the forme of bread or in bread but This that is bread is my bodie 3. Bread was not giuen for vs but onely the bodie of Christ and in this first institution the bodie of Christ was not really giuen to death 4. The cup is the new testament by a figure why may not the bread be the bodie of Christ by a figure also 5. Christ did eate the supper but not him selfe 6. We are bidden to doe it till he come Christ then is not bodily present 7. Christ biddes the bread to be eaten in a remembrance of him but signes of remembrance are of things absent 8. If the Popish reall presence be granted then the bodie and blood of Christ are either seuered or ioyned together If seuered then Christ is still crucified If ioyned together then the bread is both the bodie and blood of Christ whereas the institution saith the bread is the bodie and the wine is the blood 2 Againe here is condemned the administration of the saâ—ramâ—nt vnder one onely kind For the commandement of Christ is Drinke ye all of this Mat. 26.27 And this commaundement is rehearsed to the Church of Corinth in these wordes Doe this as oft as ye drinke in remembrance of me v. 25. And no power can reuerse this commandement because it was established by the soueraigne head of the Church These fewe lines as also the former treatise I offer to the vew and reading of them that fauour the Romane religion willing them with patience to coÌ„sider this one thing that their religion if it were Catholike and Apostolike as they pretende it could not be contrarie so much as in one point to the groundes of all Catechismes that haue beene vsed in all Churches confessing the name of Christ euer since the Apostles daies And whereas it crosseth the said groundes in sundrie points of doctrine as I haue prooued it is a plaine argument that the present Romane religion is degenerate I write not this despising or hating their persons for their religion but wishing vnfainedly their conuersion in this world and their saluation in the world to come FINIS THE FOVNDATION OF CHRISTIAN RELIgion gathered into sixe Principles And it is to be learned of ignorant people that they may be fit to heare Sermons with profit and to receiue the Lords Supper with comfort Psalme 119. 30. The entrance into thy words sheweth light and giueth vnderstanding to the simple Printed for I.L. and I.P. 1600. To all ignorant people that desire to be instructed POore people your manner is to sooth vp your selues as though yee were in a most happie estate but if the matter come to a iust triall it will fall out farre otherwise For you lead your liues in great ignorance as may appeare by these your common opinions which follow 1 That faith is a mans good meaning and his good seruing of God 2 That God is serued by the rehearsing of the ten Commandements the Lords prayer and the Creede 3 That ye haue beleeued in Christ euer since you could remember 4 That it is pitie he should liue which doth any whit doubt of his saluation 5 That none can tell whether he shall be saued or no certainely 〈◊〉 that all men must be of a good beleefe 6 That howsoeuer a man liue yet if he call vpon God on his death-bed and say Lord haue mercie vpon me and so goe away like a lambe he is certainely saued 7 That if any be strangely visited he is either taken with a Planet or bewitched 8 That a man may lawfully sweare when he speakes nothing but the truth and sweares by nothing but that which is good as by his faith or troth 9 That a Preacher is a good man no longer then he is in the pulpit They thinke all like themselues 10 That a man may repent when he will because the Scripture saith At what time soeuer a sinner doth repent him of his sinne c. 11 That it is an easier thing to please God then to please our neighbour 12 That ye can keepe the commandements as well as God will giue you leaue 13 That it is the safest to doe in Religion as most doe 14 That merrie ballads and books as Scogin Bevis of Southampton c. are good to driue away time and to remooue heart-quames 15 That ye can serue God with all your hearts that ye would be sory els 16 That a man neede not heare so many sermons except he could followe them better 17 That a man which commeth at no sermons may as well beleeue as he which heares all the sermons in the world 18 That ye know all the Preacher can tell you For he can say nothing but that euery man is a sinner that we must loue our neighbours as our selues that euery man must be saued by Christ and all this ye can tell as well as he 19 That it was a good world when the olde Religion was because
3.14 As Moses lifted vp the serpent in the wildernesse so must the sonne of man be lift vp 15. That who so beleeueth in him should not perish but haue euerlasting life Act. 10.43 To him also giue all the Prephets witnes that through his name all that beleeue in him shall receiue remission of sinnes The ende and vse of the Gospell is first to manifest that righteousnesse in Christ whereby the whole law is fully satisfied saluation attained Secondly it is the instrument and as it were the conduit pipe of the holy ghost to fashion and deriue faith into the soule by which faith they which beleeue doe as with an hand apprehend Christs righteousnes Rom. 1.16 I am not ashamed of the gospell of Christ for it is the power of God to saluation to as many as beleeue to the Iewe first and then to the Grecian 17. For the iustice of God is reuealed by it from faith to faith Ioh. 6. 33. It is the spirit which quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words which I speake are spirit and life 1. Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolinesse of preaching to saue such as beleeue The Gospell preached is in the flourishing estate of Christs Church that ordinarie meanes to beget faith but in the ruinous estate of the same when as by apostasie the foundations thereof are shaken and the cleere light of the word is darkened then this word read or repeated yea the very sound thereof beeing but once heard is by the assistance of Gods spirit extraordinarily effectuall to them whome God will haue called out of that great darkenesse into his exceeding light Rom. 10.14 How shall they call on him in whome they haue not beleeued and how shall they beleeue in him of whome they haue not heard And howe shall they heare without a preacher Act. 11.19 And they which were scattered abroad because of the affliction that arose about Steuen walked throughout till they came to Phenice and Cyprus and Antiochia preaching the worde to no man but to the Iewes onely 30. Nowe some of them were men of Cyprus and of Cyrene which when thâ—y were come into Antiochia spake vnto the Grecians and preached the Lord Iesus 21. And the hand of the Lord was with them so that a great number beleeued and turned vnto the Lord. Ioh. 4. 28. The woman then left her water pot and went her way into the city and said to the men 29. Come and see a man which hath told me all things that euer I did Is not he the Christ then they went out of the citty and came vnto him 39. Now many of the Samaritans beleeued in him for the saying of the woman which testified He hath tolde me all things that euer I did 41. And many moe beleeued because of his own word 42. And they said vnto the woman Nowe we beleeue not because of thy saying for we haue heard him our selues and knowe that this is indeede the Christ the Sauiour of the world Rom. 10.18 I demaunde haue they not heard no doubt their sounde went out through all the earth and their wordes into the endes of the world Thus we may see how many of our forefathers ancestors in the midst of popery obtained eternall life Reuel 12. 17. The dragon was wroth with the woman and went and made warre with the remnant of her seede which kept the commandements of God and haue the testimonie of Iesus Christ. Rom. 11.4 What saith the diuine Oracles I haue reserued to me seuen thousand men which neuer bowed knee to Baal CHAP. 32. Of the Sacraments THus much of the preaching of the word now follow the appendants to the same namely the Sacraments A Sacrament is that whereby Christ and his sauing graces are by certaine externall rites signified exhibited and sealed to a Christian man Rom. 4.11 He receiued the signe of circumcision as the seale of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had when he was circumcised Gen. 7.11 Ye shall circumcise the foreskin of your flesh and it shall bee a signe of the couenant betweene me and you God alone is the author of a Sacrament for the signe cannot confirme any thing at all but by the consent and promise of him at whose handes the benefit promised must be receiued Therefore God it is alone which appointed â—ignes of grace in whose alone power it is to bestowe grace And God did make a Sacrament by the sacramentall word as Augustine witnesseth saying Let the word come to the element and there is made a Sacrament The sacramentall word is the word of institution the which God after a seuerall manner hath set downe in each Sacrament Of the worde there are two parts the commandement and the promise The commandement is by which Christ appointeth the administration of the Sacraments and the receiuing of the same As in Baptisme Goe into the whole world baptizing them in the Name c. In the Lords Supper Take eate drinke doe ye this The promise is the other part of the institution whereby God ordained elements that they might be instruments and seales of his grace As in Baptisme I baptize thee in the name of the father of the sonne and of the holy Ghost In the Supper This is my body giuen for you and This this is my blood of the new Testament Therefore this word in the administration of the Sacrament ought to be pronounced distinctly and aloud yea and as occasion serueth explained also to the ende that all they to whome the commandement and promise appertaineth may knowe and vnderstand the same And hence it is very plaine that the ministers impietie doth not make a nullitie of the Sacrament neither doth it any whit hinder a worthy receiuer no more then the pietie of a good minister can profite an vnworthy receiuer because all the efficacie and worthines therof dependeth onely vpon Gods institution if so be that be obserued The parts of a Sacrament are the Signe and the Thing of the Sacrament The signe is either the matter sensible or the Action conuersant about the same The matter sensible is vsually called the signe The mutation of the signe is not naturall by changing the substance of the thing but respectiue that is onely in regard of the vse For it is seuered from a common to an holy vse Therfore there is not any such either force or efficacie of making vs holy inherent or tied vnto the externall signes as there is naturally in bathes to purifie corrupt diseases but all such efficacie is wholly appropriate to the holy Spirit yet so as it is an inseperable companion of true faith and repentance and to such as turne vnto the Lord is together with the signe exhibited Whence it commeth to passe that by Gods ordinance a certaine fignification of grace and sealing thereof agreeth to the signe The thing of the Sacrament is either Christ his graces which concerne our saluation or the action conuersant about Christ. I
to Christ is in bearing afflictions Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the vertue of his resurrection and the fellowship of his afflictions to be made conformable to his death V. To doe good workes Eph. 2. 10. Wee are his workemanship created in Christ Iesus to doe good workes which God hath ordained that we should walke in them Thus much concerning Theologie AN EXCELLENT TREATISE of comforting such as are troubled about their Predestination Taken out of the second answer of M. Beza to D. Andreas in the act of their Colloquie at Mompelgart c. VNlesse saith D. Andreas regeneratioÌ„ be alwaies vnited to baptisme and remaineth in such as are baptized howe should the troubled consciences of those be eased and coÌ„forted who because they feele not in themselues any good motions of gods holy spirit finde none other refuge but the Word and Sacraments especially the Sacrament of Baptisme Now this remedie would be of small force except it be opposed against those imaginations which the diuell casteth into a troubled heart yea except it taught such that God is greater then our heart who in Baptisme hath not onely offered vs the adoption of sonnes but hath indeede bestowed the same vpon vs as it is said by Christ Hee that beleeueth and is baptized shall be saued And by Paul Ye which are baptized haue put on Christ. Dauid beeing armed with the like comfort from his circumcision feared not to ioyne battell with that great giant Goliah and if this were not so it must needs followe that Baptisme were nothing els but an idle ceremonie and also the persons of the Trinitie would be thought lyars Wherefore those afflicted men when Satan assaulteth them must resist him with these wordes Depart from me Satan thou hast neither part nor portion in the inheritance of my soule because I am baptized in the Name of the holy Trinitie and so am truely made the sonne of God by adoption And are these the strong weapons which so many times and in so many wordes haue beene obiected against me by D. Andreas and whereby he hath gotten the victorie But because this his reason is somewhat intricate I will explaine it after this sort First for the place of Scripture which he alleadgeth namely that God is greater then our hearts It is so farre from comforting an afflicted conscience that it will rather driue him to deâ—paire Neither doth Iohn 1. epist. 3.20 make mention of it to ease such as are in despaire shewing vnto them by that sentence the greatnes of Gods mercies but rather that he might therby euen bruise in peeces the hearts of proude persons when they consider the greatnesse of Gods maiestie And for the other place when as a man doubteth of his saluation and feeleth no testimonies of faith in himselfe for such an one wee here speake of what comfort thinke you can hee haue in these wordes Hee that beleeueth and is baptized shall be saued For hee would rather reason contrarily thus I indeede am baptized yet for al that I beleeue not and therefore my Baptisme is not auaileable I must needes be condemned For the saying of August in his treatise vpon Ioh. 6. is verie true who speaking of Simon Magus saith What good did it to him to be baptized bragge not therefore saith he that thou art baptized as though that were sufficient for thee to inherit the kingdome of heauen As for the place of Paul Gal. 3. I shewed plainely before how D. Andreas did violently wrest it to his purpose Neither are his reasons taken from the absurditie that would follow of more force then the former albeit he maketh them especiall pillars to vnderproppe the truth of his cause For I pray you is God of lesse truth because his truth is neglected and derided of them that contemne it Is the ceremonie of Baptisme therefore in vaine because some refuse the grace offered in Baptisme others if we may beleeue D. Andreas reiect that grace when they haue receiued it What Is not the Gospel therfore the power of God to saluation because it is to such as beleeue not the sauour of death to eternall death May not the Supper of the Lord be a pledge of Gods couenant because so may abuse these holy signes or as D. Andreas is of opinion the very bodie and blood of our Sauiour Christ And that I may reason from that which is true in the experience of euery childe can the Sunne be saide to be without light because they which are blinde and asleepe haue no benefit by the light thereof neither such as shut their eyes so close that they will not enioy the comfort of the light But amongst all this one is most childish that Dâ— Andreas will make this his principall argument namely that in vaine did men thus tempted flie at all vnto Baptisme vnlesse we conclude with him that all such as are baptized are in Baptisme adopted the sonnes of God For first if this were a good consequent from baptisme it were in vaine for such an afflicted conscience to gather vnto himselfe a testimonie from the word of God and the other Sacrament of the Lords Supper vnlesse we make all those to be in like sort regenerate and adopted vnto whome the word of God is preached and the Lords supper administred either of which for D. Andreas to affirme is a bold vntruth But to omit this what if we graunt this which D. Andreas requireth concerning Baptisme may not for all that any that is so tempted by Satans pollicie refell this great comforter by his owne argument after this sort I will grant D. Andreas your question suppose I haue beene baptized and adopted the sonne of God yet seeing you teach that the grace of God is not so sure but that I may fal froÌ„ the same as indeed I feele that I haue grieuously fallen what doe you now els but lift me vp with one hand to heauen and with the other cast me downe into hell What meane you therefore to teach me those things which are so farre from easing me as that contrarily they doe more and more lay out vnto me mine abominable and vngratefull heart See now what sure consolation consciences grieuously afflicted may reape by this doctrine of their comforter D. Andreas Now if any be desirous to know what spirituall comfort is most meete to be ministred vnto consciences so troubled I will shew them that which is grounded vpon a sure foundation and which I my selfe haue often found to be true in mine owne experience the which also I purpose to handle more largely for the benefit of the Christian reader First therefore we teach contrarily to that which D. Andreas doth most falsly obiect against vs that the eternall decree or as Paul speaketh the purpose of God must not be sought in the bottomlesse counsel of God but rather in the manifestation of it namely in his vocation by the Word and Sacraments This I speake of such as are
bredde and borne with them I adde that this is a gift supernaturall not onely because it is aboue that corrupt nature in which we are borne but also because it is aboue that pure nature in which our first parents were created For in the state of innocencie they wanted this faith neither had they then any neede of faith in the same God as he is Messias but this faith is a new grace of God added to regeneration after the fall and first prescribed and taught in the couenant of grace And by this one thing faith differeth from the rest of the gifts of God as the feare of God the loue of God the loue of our brethrē c. for these were in mans nature before the fall and after it when it pleaseth God to call vs they are but renewed but iustifying faith admits no renuing For the first ingrafting of it into the heart in the conuersion of a sinner after his fall The place and seate of faith as I thinke is the minde of man not the will for it stands in a kind of particular knowledge or perswasion and there is no perswasion but in the minde Paul saith indeede that we beleeue with the heart Rom. 10. but by the heart he vnderstands the soule without limitation to any part Some doe place faith in the minde and partly in the will because it hath two parts knowledge and affiance but it seemes not greatly to stand with reason that one particular and single grace should be seated in diuerse parts or faculties of the soules The forme of faith is to apprehend the promise Gal. 3. 14. that we might receiue the promise of the spirit through faith and Ioh. 1.12 to receiue Christ and to beleeue are put one for another and to beleeue is to eate and drinke the bodie and blood of Christ. To apprehend properly is an action of the hand of man which laies hold of a thing and pulls it to himselfe and by resemblāce it agrees to faith which is the hand of the soule receiuing and applying the sauing promise This apprehension of faith is not performed by any affection of the will but by a certen and particular perswasion whereby a man is resolued that the promise of saluation belongs vnto him Which perswasion is wrought in the minde by the holy Ghost 1. Cor. 2.12 And by this the promise which is generall is applied particularly to one subiect By this one action sauing faith differeth from all other kindes of faith From historicall for it wanteth all apprehension and standeth onely in a generall assent From temporarie faith which though it make a man to professe the Gospell and to reioyce in the same yet doth it not throughly applie Christ with his benefits For it neuer brings with it any thorough touch of conscience or liuely sense of Gods grace in the heart And the same may be said of the rest The principall and maine obiect of this faith is the sauing promise God so loued the world that he gaue his onely begotten sonne that whosoeuer beleeues in him shall not perish but haue euerlasting life But some will say Christ is commonly said to be the obiect of faith Ans. In effect it is all one to say the sauing promise and Christ promised who is the substance of the couenant Christ then as he is set forth vnto vs in the word Sacraments is the obiect of faith And here certaine questions offer themselues to be skanned The first What is that particular thing which faith apprehendeth Answ. Faith apprehendeth whole Christ God and man For his godhead without his manhoode and his manhoode without his godhead doth not reconcile vs to God Yet this which I say must be conceiued with some distinction according to the difference of his two natures His godhead is apprehended not in respect of his essence or nature but in respect of his efficacie manifested in the manhood whereby the obedience thereof is made meritorious before God as for his manhoode it is apprehended both in respect of the substance or thing it selfe and also in respect of the efficacie and benefits thereof The second In what order faith apprehends Christ Answ. First of all it apprehendes the very bodie and bloode of Christ and then in the second place the vertue and benefits of his bodie and blood as a man that would feele in his bodie the vertue of meate and drinke must first of all receiue the substance thereof To goe forward Besides this mayne promise which concernes righteousnesse and life euerlasting in Christ there be other particular promises touching strength in temptations comfort in afflictions and such like which depend on the former and they also are the obiect of iustifying faith and with the very same faith we beleeue them wherewith we beleeue our saluation Thus Abraham by the same faith wherewith he was iustified beleeued that he should haue a sonne in his olde age Rom. 4.19,22 And Noe by that faith whereby he was made heyre of righteousnes beleeued that he and his familie should be preserued in the floode this conclusion beeing alwaies laide downe that To whome God giues Christ to them also he giues all things needefull for this life or the life to come in and by Christ. And hereupon it comes to passe that in our prayers besides the desire of things promised we must bring faith whereby we must be certenly perswaded that God will graunt vs such things as he hath promised and this faith is not a newe kind or distinct faith from iustifying faith Thus we see plainly what sauing faith is Whereas some are of opinion that faith is an affiance or confidence that seemes to be otherwise for it is a fruit of faith and indeede no man can put any confidence in God till he be first of all perswaded of Gods mercie in Christ towards him Some againe are of minde that loue is the very nature and forme of faith but it is otherwise For as confidence in God so also loue is an effect which proceedeth from faith 1. Tim. 1.5 The ende of the law is loue from a pure heart and good conscience and faith vnfained And in nature they differ greatly Christ is the fountaine of the waters of life Faith in the heart is as the pipes and leads that receiue in and hold the water and loue in some part is as the cocke of the conduit that lets out the water to euery commer The propertie of the hand is to hold and of it selfe it can not cut yet by a knife or other instrument put into the hand it cuts the hand of the soule is faith and his propertie is to apprehend Christ with all his benefits and by it selfe it can doe nothing else yet ioyne loue vnto it and by loue it will be effectuall in all good duties Now to proceede further first we are to consider how faith is wrought secondly what be the differences of it For the first faith is
spirit the answer is that the spirit signifies the minde whereby men conceiue and vnderstand such things as may be vnderstood and the soule is there taken for the will and affections and therefore these twaine are not two parts but onely two distinct faculties of one and the same soule The bodie of man at the first was formed by God of clay or of the dust of the earth not to be the graue of the bodie as Plato said but to be an excellent and most fit instrument to put in execution the powers and faculties of the soule And howsoeuer in it selfe considered it is mortall because it is compoūded of contrarie natures called Elements yet by the appointment and blessing of God in the creation it became immortall till the fall of man As for the soule it is no accidentarie qualitie but a spirituall and inuisible essence or nature subsisting by it selfe Which plainely appeares in that the soules of men haue beeing and continuance as well forth of the bodies of men as in the same and are as well subiect to torments as the bodie is And whereas we can and doe put in practise sundrie actions of life sense motion vnderstanding we doe it onely by the power and vertue of the soule Hence ariseth the difference betweene the soules of men and beasts The soules of men are substances but the soules of other creatures seeme not to be substances because they haue no beeing out of the bodies in which they are but rather they are certaine peculiar qualities arising of the matter of the bodie and vanishing with it And it may be for this cause that the soule of the beast is said to be in the blood whereas the like is not said of the soule of man And though mens soules be spirits as angels are yet a difference must be made For angels can not be vnited with bodies so as both shall make one whole and entire person whereas mens soules may yea the soule coupled with the bodie is not onely the moouer of the bodie but the principall cause that makes man to be a man The beginning of the soule is not of the essence of God vnlesse we will make euery mans soule to be God neither doth it spring of the soule of the parents for the soule can no more beget a soule then an angel can beget an angel And Adam is called a liuing soule and not a quickning soule And earthly fathers are called the fathers of our bodies and not of our soules It remaines therefore as beeing most agreeable to the Scriptures that the soules of men are then created by God of nothing when they are infused into the bodie And though the soule◠of men haue a beginning yet they haue no end but are eternall And when they are saide to die it is not because they cease at any time to subsist or haue beeing in nature but because they cease to be righteous or to haue fellowship with God Whereas our bodies are Gods workemanship we must glorifie him in our bodies and all the actions of bodie and soule our eating and drinking our liuing and dying must be referred to his glorie yea we must not hurt or abuse our bodies but present them as holy and liuing sacrifices vnto God And whereas God made vs of the dust of the earth we are not to glorie and boast our selues but rather to take occasion to praise the great goodnesse of God that hath vouchsafed to honour vs beeing but dust and ashes And after that man is created what is his life alas it is nothing but a little breath stoppe his mouth and his nostrells and he is but a dead man By this we are put in minde to consider of our fraile and vncerten estate and to lay aside all confidence in our selues and for this cause the Prophet Esay teacheth vs to haue no confidence in man because his breath is in his nostrills Againe let vs marke the frame and shape of mans bodie All other creatures goe with their bodies and eyes to the ground-ward but man was made to goe vpright and whereas all other creatures haue but foure muscles to turne their eyes round about man hath a fifth to pull his eyes vp to heauen-ward Now what doth this teach vs surely that howsoeuer we seeke for other things yet first of all and aboue all we should seeke for the kingdome of heauen and the righteousnesse thereof and that our whole desire should be set to enioy the blessed estate of Gods children in heauen Secondly it teacheth vs in receiuing Gods creatures to returne thankfulnes vnto God by lifting vp the heart to heauen for the same These are very needfull and profitable lessons in these daies for most men indeede goe vpright but looke into their liues and they might as well goe on all foure for in their conuersation they set their whole hearts vpon the earth as the beast doth and their eyes vpon the things of this world hereby they doe abase themselues and deface their bodies and beeing men make themselues as beasts we shall see great numbers of men that runne and ride from place to place to prouide for the bodie but to seeke the kingdome of heauen where their soules should dwell after this life in ioy for euer they wil not stirre one foote Thirdly mans bodie by creation was made a temple framed by Gods owne hands for himselfe to dwell in therefore our dutie is to keepe our bodies pure and cleane and not to suffer them to be instruments wherby to practise the sinne of the heart If a man had a faire house wherein he must entertaine a prince and should make hereof a swinestie or a stable would not all men say that he did greatly abuse both the house and the prince euen so mans bodie beeing at the first made a pallace for the euerliuing God if a man shall abuse it by drunkennesse swearing lying fornication or any vncleannesse he doth make it in stead of a temple for the holy Ghost to be a stie or stable for the deuill For the more filthie a mans bodie is the more fit it is to be a dwelling place for sinne and Sathan Fourthly man by creation was made a goodly creature in the blessed image of God but by Adams fall men lost the same and are now become the deformed children of wrath our dutie therefore is to labour to get againe our first image and indeauour our selues to become newe creatures If a noble man should staine his blood by treason after his death the posteritie will neuer be at rest till they haue got away that spot Man by Adams fall is become a limm of the deuill a rebell and traytor against Gods maiestie and this is the state of euery one of vs by nature we are at enmitie with God and therfore we ought to labour aboue all things in the world to be restored in Christ to our first estate and perfection that
sheepe of the house of Israel Christ Iesus came to poure oile into our woundes Christ came to set them at libertie which are in prison and to place them in freedome that are in bondage Now a man cannot poure oile into a wound before there be a wound or before it be opened and we feele the smart of it And how can wee be set at libertie by Christ except we feele our selues to be in bondage vnder hell death and damnation When the Disciples of Christ were vpon the sea in a great tempest they cried Master saue vs we perish So no man can hartily say I beleeue Iesus Christ to be my Sauiour before he feele that in himselfe he is vtterly lost and cast away without his helpe But after that we perceiue our selues to be in danger and to be ouerwhelmed in the sea of the wrath of God then we crie out with the disciples Lord Iesus saue vs we perish Many protestants in these daies hold Christ to be their Sauiour but it is onely formably from the teeth outward and no further for they were neuer touched with the sense of their spirituall miserie that they might say with Daniel Shame and confusion belongeth vnto vs and with the Publicane I am a sinner Lord be mercifull to me And therefore the conclusion is this that if we will haue Christ to be our Sauiour we must first beleeue that in our selues we are vtterly lost and so must that place be vnderstood where Christ saith he is not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel that is to those which in their owne sense and feeling are lost in themselues Secondly if Christ be a Sauiour then we must acknowledge him to bee so But howe shall we doe this I answer Thus A man is taken to be a skilful Phisition by this that many patients come vnto him and seeke for helpe at his hands And so should it be with Christ. But alas the case is otherwise Euery man can talke of Christ but fewe acknowledge him to be a Sauiour by seeking to him for their saluation because they iudge themselues righteous and feele not themselues to stand in need of the helpe of Christ. Nay which is more If a man be knowne that can cure straunge diseases men will seeke to him by sea and land and sell both goods and landes to get helpe at his hands Euen so if men were perswaded that Christ were a perfect Sauiour and that they were sicke and vtterly vnable to be saued without him they would neuer rest nor be in quiet but seeke vnto him for his help and crie with Dauid O Lord say vnto my soule that thou art my saluation The womaÌ„ that was diseased with an issue of blood came behinde our Sauiour Christ and when shee had but touched him shee was healed In the same maner if we shal seeke to come to Christ and doe but touch his pretious bodie and bloode by the hand of faith the issues the bleeding wounds of our soules shall be dried vp When a man that had beene sicke eight and thirtie yeres was come to the poole of Bethesda he was faine to lie there vncured because when the angel troubled the water euermore some stept before him but if we will seeke to Christ for the saluation of our soules no man shall preuent vs or steppe before vs. And if we finde our selues to be so laden with the burden of our sinnes that we can not drawe neere vnto him let vs then doe as the palsie man did he got foure men to carrie him on their shoulders to the place where Christ was and when they could not by reason of the prease of people enter into the house they opened the roofe and let him downe in his bed by cordes to Christ that hee might be healed And so let vs vse the helpe of such as be godly that by their instructions and consolations they may as it were put to their shoulders and by their praiers as with cordes bring vs to Christ that we may receiue eternall saluation beeing otherwise dead in sinne and subiect to damnation Lastly whereas Ioseph and Marie gaue this name not at their owne pleasure but at the appointment of God himselfe this ministers a good instruction to all parents touching the naming of their children when they are baptised that they are with care and deliberation to giue conuenient names vnto them which may put them in minde of duties either to God or men This is worthie of our obseruation for many care not howe they name their children yea it is at this day and euer hath beene that some giue such names to them as that at the very rehearsing thereof laughter ensueth But this ought not to be so for the name is giuen vnto children at the time of their baptisme in the presence of God of his Church and angels euen then when they are to be entred into the Church of God and that in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy ghost therefore though we doe not place religion in titles or names yet neuerthelesse a wise godly choice in this matter is to be had that the names imposed may be in steade of instructions and admonitions to the parties named and for this cause in the olde Testament names were giuen either by propheticall instinct or according to the euent of things which came to passe about the time of the birth of children or they were borrowed from the holy ancetours to put the posteritie in mind to follow their steps And thus much of the duties Now followe the consolations that Gods Church people râ—ape from this that the sonne of god is our Sauiour WheÌ„ as all mankind was included vnder sin and condemnation then the Lord had mercy vpon vs and gaue vnto man the couenant of grace in which he promised that his owne sonne should be our redeemer This is a great and vnspeakable comfort as may appeare in that the angels so greatly reioiced herein wheÌ„ Christ was born Behold say they I bring you tidings of great ioy that shall be to all the people that is that vnto you is borne in the citie of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the lord Now if they reioice thus exceedingly at Christs birth who was not their Sauiour because they stood not in need to be redeemed then much more ought the Church of God to reioyce herein whome it doth principally concerne and no maruel for if we had wanted this blessed Sauiour it had bin better to haue bin a bruit beast or any other creâ—ture then a man for the death of a beast is the ende of his woe but the death of a man without a Sauiour is the beginning of endlesse miserie Satan and his angels are fallen and haue no Sauiour but when man was fallen God of his mercie dealt not so with him but gaue his owne sonne to restore him to a better
our nature tooke our infirmities also it is a wonderfull comfort vnto Gods Church for it shewes that he is not only a Sauiour but also a very compassionate and pitiful Sauiour As the holy Ghost saith In all thinges it became Christ to be like vnto his brethren that hee might be mercifull and a faithfull high priest in things concerning God Let a man be sicke of a grieuous disease and let a friend come that hath beene troubled with the very same disease he will presently shewe more compassion then twentie others and so Christ hauing felt in his owne soule and bodie the anguish and the manifold perplexities that we feele in our temptations and afflictiōs hath his bowels as it were yearning towards vs euermore being prest and readie to releeue vs in all our miseries In the daies of his flesh he wept ouer Ierusalem when he sawe it a farre off because shee continued in her olde sinnes and did not knowe the time of her visitation and no doubt though now he be exalted in glorie in heauen yet his compassion to his poore members vpon earth is no whit diminished Now we come to speake of the Incarnation more particularly the creed yet further expresseth it by two parts the first is the conception of Christ in these words Conceiued by the holy ghost the second is his birth in the words following Borne of the virgine Marie The conception of Christ is set downe with his efficient cause the Holy Ghost as the angel said to Ioseph Feare not to take Marie for thy wife for that which is conceiued in her is of the holy ghost Here it may be demanded why the conception of Christ should be ascribed to the Holy Ghost alone which is common to all the persons in Trinitie as all other such actions are Ans. It is not done to exclude the Father or the Sonne himselfe from this worke but to signifie that it comes of the free gift and grace of God which commonly is tearmed by the holy ghost that the manhood of Christ beeing but a creature should be aduanced to this dignitie that it should become a part of the Sonne of God And againe the Holy Ghost is the author of this conception in a speciall manner for the father and the sonne did cause it by the holy Ghost from them both immediately In the conception of Christ we must obserue and consider three thinges The framing of the manhood the sanctifying of it and the personall vnion of the manhood with the Godhead And howsoeuer I distinguish these three for orders sake yet must we know and remember that they are all wrought at one and the same instant of time For when the holy Ghost frames and sanctifies the manhood in the wombe of the Virgin at the very same moment it is receiued into the vnitie of the second person In the framing of Christs manhood two things must be considered the matter and the maner The matter of his bodie was the very flesh and blood of the virgin Marie otherwise he could not haue beene the sonne of Dauid of Abraham and Adam according to the flesh As for his soule it was not deriued from the soule of the virgin Marie as a part thereof but it was made as the soules of all other men be that is of nothing by the very power of God and placed in the bodie both of them from the first moment of their beeing hauing their subsistance in the person of the sonne And here we must take heed of two opinions the first is of the Anabaptists which holde that the flesh of Christ came downe from heauen and passed through the virgin Marie as through a pipe without taking any substance from her the places which they alleadge for the purpose are manifestly abused For whereas Christ saith of himselfe that he descended from heauen his speech must be vnderstoode in respect of his Godhead which may be said in some sort to descend in that it was made manifest in the manhood here vpon earth And whereas Paul calleth him heauenly and the Lord from heauen it is not in respect of the substance of his bodie but in respect of the glorious qualities which he receiued after this resurrection The other opinion is of the Papists that hold the bread in the sacrament to be turned substantially into the bodie of Christ which thing if it be true then the bodie of Christ is made of bread kneaded and tempered by the hand of the baker and not of the substance of the virgin Marie As for the manner of the making and framing of the humane nature of Christ it was miraculous not by generation according to the ordinarie course of nature but by an extraordinary operation of the holy Ghost aboue nature and for this cause it is not within the compasse of mans reason either to conceiue or to expresse the manner and order of this conception The Angel ascribes two actions to the holy Ghost in this great worke the one to come vpon the virgin Marie the other to ouershadow her by the first is signified the extraordinarie worke of the holy Ghost in fashioning the humane nature of Christ for so much the phrase elsewhere importeth The second signifieth that the holy Ghost did as it were cast a cloud ouer her to teach vs that we should not search ouer much into the mysterie of the Incarnation It may be obiected against this which hath bin said that if Christ be in this manner conceiued by the holy Ghost then the holy Ghost shall be father to Christ and Christ his sonne Answ. The reason is not good For he that is a father is not a bare efficient cause but one which in the effecting of any thing conferres the matter vnto it from himselfe whereof it shall be made Now the holy Ghost did not minister any matter vnto Christ from his own substance but did onely as it were take the masse and lumpe of mans nature from the bodie of the virgin Marie and without ordinarie generation made it the bodie of Christ as Basil saith Christ was conceiued not of the substance but of the power not by any generation but by the appointment and benediction of the holy Ghost The second point in the conception is the sanctifying of that masse or lumpe which was to be the manhood of Christ. And that was done vpon speciall cause first that it might be ioyned to the person of the Sonne which could not haue beene if it had beene defiled with sinne Secondly Christ was a Sauiour as he is both God and man now then beeing man if he had beene sinnefull himselfe he could not haue saued others but should haue stoode in neede of a Sauiour for himselfe This sanctification hath two parts the first is the stay and stoppage of the propagation of originall sinne and of the guilt of Adams sinne which was on this manner God in the beginning set downe
who begin their artificiall day as I said at the sunne rising The fourth and last point is the order and whole proceding of Christs execution which may be reduced to foure heades the I. his going to execution the II. his crucifying the III. his death the IV. the consequents of his death Againe in his going to execution we may consider many points The first that he is brought out of Ierusalem as a malefactour For the old and ancient custome of the Iewes was to put those whome they iudged to be notorious offenders to death without their teâ—ts when they wandered in the wildernesse and without the walls of Ierusalem least they should any way be defiled with their blood And this fell out by the speciall prouidence of God that that might be fulfilled in Christ which was prefigured in the sacrifices of the old testament when the bodies of beasts were not eaten of the priests but burnt without the campe therefore saith the holy Ghost euen Iesus that hee might sanctifie the people with his owne blood suffered without the gates Hence may all Christians learne to knowe their owne estate and condition first in this worlde they must looke to be accounted the ofscouring of the earth and the filth of the word as the Apostle saith and wee must all prepare our selues to beare this estate They that will be Gods children must not look to be better accepted of in the world then Christ was Secondly by this euery one of vs must learne to bee content to vse this worlde as straungers and pilgrimes beeing euery daie and houre and readie to leaue the same For if Christ the sonne of God himselfe was brought out of Ierusalem as not beeing worthie to haue his aboade there then must euery christian man looke much more for the like extremitie And therefore it is not good for vs to haue our hearts tied to the world and to seeke alwaies to be approoued of the same for that argueth that we are not like to Christ but we must rather doe as poore pilgrimes in straunge countries and that is onely to looke for safe conduct thorough the miseries in this world hauing in the meane season our hearts wills and affections set on the kingdome which is in heauen The second thing is that Christ was made to beare his owne crosse for so it seemes the manner of the Romans was to deale with malefactours And this must put vs in minde of that notable lesson which Christ himselfe taught his disciples namely that if any man will be his disciple hee must denie himselfe take vp his owne crosse dâ—ily and followe him where by the crosse we must vnderstand that portion of affliction which god hath alotted to euery one of his children for there is no child of God to whome he hath not measured out as it were some bitter cup of miserie in this life And therefore Paul saith Nowe reioice I in my suffering for you and fulfill the rest of the fuâ—ferings of Christ in my fleâ—â— By Christs sufferings he meaneth not the passion of Christ but the sufferings of the bodie of Christ that is the Church whereof Christ is the head Moreouer we must suffer as he did that daily because as one day followeth another so one crosse comes in the necke of another And whereas Christ beares the crosse that was laid on him by the handes of the souldiers it must teach vs not to pull crosses vpon our selues but waite til God lay them on vs and when that time comes we must willingly bend our shoulders stoope downe and take them vp whether they be in bodie or in soule and that euery daie if it be Gods will so long as we liue and by this shall we most notably resemble our Sauiour Christ. Thirdly when Christ had carried his crosse so long til he could carrie it no longer by reason of the faintnesse of his bodie which came by buffets whippings and manifold other iniuries then the souldiers meeting with one SimoÌ„ of Cyrene a stranger made him to beare the crosse where we are put in mind that if we faint in the way and be weariâ—ed with the burden of our affâ—â—ctions God will giue good issue and send as it were some Simon of Cyrene to helpe vs and to be our comforter The fourth point is that when Christ was carrying his owne crosse and was nowe passing on towards Golgotha certaine women met him and pitying his case wept for him but Christ answered them and said Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for me but for your selues and your children c. By this we are first of all taught to pitie the state of those that be in affliction and miserie especially those that be the children of God as the Apostle exhorteth vs saying Remember them that are in bondes as though you were bound with them and them that are in affliction as though you were afflicted with them In this lande by Gods especiall blessing we haue enioied the Gospell of Christ with peace a long time whereas other countries and churches are in great distresse some wallowe in palpable ignorance and superstition others haue libertie to enioy the Gospell and want teachers and some haue both the word and teachers yet want peace and are in continuall persecution Nowe when we that haue the Gospel with peace doe heare of these miseries in our neighbour churches wee ought to bee mooued with compassion towards them as though wee our selues were in the same afflictions Secondly whereas Christ saith Weepe not for me but for your selues he doth teach vs to take occasion by other mens miseries to bewaile our owne estate to turne our worldly griefes into godly sorrowe for our sinnes which causeth vs rather to weepe for our offences theÌ„ for our friends although euen this may also be done in a godly maner When a man by bleeding at the nose is brought into danger of his life the Phisitian lets him bloode in another place as in the arme and turnes the course of the blood another waie to saue his life so must we turne our worldly sorrowes for losse of goods or friendes to a godly sorrowe for our offences against God for as S. Paul saith Godly sorrowe causeth repentance vnto saluation not to be repented of but worldly sorrow causeth death The fift point is that when Christ was brought to the place of execution they gaue him vineger to drinke mingled with mirrhe and gall some say it was to intoxicate his braine and to take away his senses and memorie If this be true we may here behold in the Iewes a most wicked part that at the point of death when they were to take away the life of Christ they for their partes had no care of his soule For this is a dutie to be obserued of all magistrates that when they are to execute malefactors they must haue a speciall regard to the good and saluation
came forth of Christs side which signifieth the inward washing away of sinne and the purging of the heart by Christs blood which also is and was signified by the outward washing of the bodie with water in baptisme The third witnes he calls blood alluding to the blood that issued out of Christs side whereby is signified the expiation or satisfaction made to Gods iustice for mans sinne The same vse had the ceremoniall sprinkling in the old testament typically signifying the sprinkling of Christs blood Now these three witnesses are not to be sought for in heauen but euery Christian man must search for them in his owne heart and conscience and there shall he finde them in some measure And this water and blood flowing out of the side of Christ beeing now dead signifieth that he is our iustification and sanctification euen after his death and that out of his death springs our life and therfore as Eue was made of a ribbe taken out of the side of Adam so springs the Church out of the blood that flowes out of the side of the second Adam Hauing thus intreated of Christs execution let vs now come to the last point namely the excellencie of Christs passion cōsisting in these two points I. a Sacrifice II. a triumph For the first when Christ died he offered a propitiatorie and reall sacrifice to his father and herein his death and passion differeth from the sufferings and deaths of all men whatsoeuer In this sacrifice we must consider foure things I. who was the priest II. what was the sacrifice III. what was the altar IV. the time wherein this sacrifice was offered The priest was Christ himselfe as the author of the epistles to the Hebrewes prooues at large from the third chap. to the 9. and of him we are to consider these foure points The first what is the office of Christs priesthood Ans. The office of Christs priesthood stands in three things I. to teach doctrine and therefore he is called the high priest of our profession that is of the Gospel which we professe because he is the author and Doctour of the same II. to offer vp himselfe vnto his father in the behalf of man for the appeasing of his wrath for sinne III. to make request or intercession to God the father that he would accept the sacrifice which he offered on the crosse for vs. The second point is According to which nature he was a priest whether in his manhood or in his godhead or both togither Ans. The office of his priesthood is performed by him according to both his natures and therefore he is a priest not as the Papists would haue him according to his manhood onely but as he is both God and man for as he is a Mediatour so is he a priest but Christ is a Mediatour according to both natures each nature doing that which is peculiar to it conferring something to the worke of redemption and therfore he is a priest as he is both God and man The third point After what order he is a priest Ans. The Scripture mentioneth two orders of priests the order of Leui and the order of Melchisedeck Christ was not a priest after the order of Aaron and yet notwithstanding in that priesthood were many notable rites whereby the priesthoode of our Sauiour Christ was resembled and we may note fiue especially First in the annointing of the high priests as of Aaron and his sonnes after him oile was poured on his head and it ran down to the very edge of his garments whereby was signified that Christ the true high priest was annointed with the oyle of gladnesse aboue his fellowes that is that his manhoode was filled with the gifts and graces of God both in measure number and degree aboue all men and angels Secondly the sumptuous and gorgious apparell which the high Priest put on when he came into the sanctuarie was a signe of the rich and glorious robe of Christs righteousnesse which is the puritie and integritie of his humane nature and of his life Thirdly the speciall parts of the high Priests attire were first the Ephod the two shoulders whereof had two onyx stones whereon were engrauen the names of the twelue tribes of Israel sixe names on the one stone and sixe on the other as stones of remembrance of the children of Israel to God ward secondly the brestplate of iudgement like the worke of the Ephod wherein were set twelue stones according to the names of the children of Israel grauen as signets euery one after his name Now by these two ornaments were figured two things in Christ by the first that he carries all the Elect on his shoulders and supports them by his spirit so lōg as they are in this world against the world the flesh and the deuill By the second that Christ our high priest beeing now in his sanctuarie in heauen hath in memorie all the Elect their very names are written as it were in tables of gold before his face and he hath an especiall loue vnto them and care ouer them Vpon this ground the church in the Canticles praies on this manner Set me as a seale on thy heart and as a signe◠vpon thy arme And indeede this is a matter of comfort vnto vs all that Christ hath our seuerall names written in pretious stones before his face though he be now in heauen and we on earth and that the particular estate of euery one of vs is both knowne and regarded of him Againe God gaue to Moses the Vrim and Thummim which was put on the breastplate of the high priest when he was to aske counsell from God of things vnknowne before the mercie seat whence God gaue answer What the Vrim and Thummim was it is not knowne and it is like it was not made by any art of man but giuen by God and how it was vsed we can not tell but yet the signification of the words affoardeth matter of meditation Vrim signifies lights and Thummim signifies perfections And by this a further matter was prefigured in Christ who hath the perfit Vrim and Thummim in his breast first because in him are hidde all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge secondly because he reueales to his Church out of his word such things as none can know but the children of God as Dauid saith The secret of the Lord is reuealed to them that feare him And for this cause the spirit of Christ is called the spirit of wisdome and reuelation and the spirit of God whereby we know the things that are giuen vnto vs of God as namely our election vocation iustification and sanctification in this life and our eternall glorification after this life yea to euery member of Christ within his Church he giues a speciall spirit of reuelation out of the word whereby he may know that God the father is his father the sonne the redeemer his redeemer and the holy Ghost his
it also an imperfit sacrifice because it is repeated and iterated for vpon this ground doth the author to the Hebrues prooue that the sacrifices of the old testament were imperfit because they were daily offered And whereas they say there be two kinds of sacrifices one bloody once onely offered vpon the crosse the other vnbloody which is daily offered I answer that this distinction hath no ground out of Gods word neither was it knowne to the holy Ghost who saith that without blood there is no remission of sinnes The third question is what is the fruit of this sacrifice Ans. The whole effect thereof is contained in these foure things I. the oblation of Christ purgeth the beleeuer from all his sinnes whether they be originall or actuall so it is said If we walke in the light we haue fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his sonne purgeth vs from all sinne whether they be sinnes of omission in regard of our duties or of commission in doing euill II. the oblation serueth for the iustifying of a sinner before God as Paul saith We are iustified by his blood and are reconciled to God by his death This being here remembred that in the passion of Christ we include his legall obedience whereby he fulfilled the law for vs. III. the oblation of Christ serues to purge mens consciences from dead workes How much more then shall the blood of Christ which through the eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serue the liuing God IV. the oblation of Christ procures vs libertie to enter to heauen By the blood of Christ Iesus we may be bold to enter into the holy place by the new and liuing way which he hath prepared for vs through the vaile that is his flesh By our sinnes there is a partition wall made betweene God and vs but Christ by offering himselfe vpon the crosse hath beaten downe this wall opened heauen and as it were trained the way with his owne blood whereby we may enter into the kingdome of God and without the which we can not enter in at all The last questioÌ„ is how this sacrifice may be applied to vs. Ans. The meanes of applying this sacrifice be two I. the hand of God which offereth II. the hand of the beleeuer that receiueth the sacrifice offered The hand of God wherby he offereth vnto vs his benefit is the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments baptisme and the Lords supper and wheresoeuer these his holy ordinances are rightly administred and put in practise there the Lord puts forth his hand vnto vs and offereth most freely the vertue and benefit of the death of Christ. And then in the next place commeth the hand of the beleeuer which is faith in the heart which when God offereth doth apprehend and receiue the thing offered and make it ours The third thing to be spoken of is the altar whereon Christ offered himselfe The altar was not the crosse but rather the godhead of Christ. He was both the priest the sacrifice and the altar the sacrifice as he is man the priest as he is both God and man the altar as he is God The propertie of an altar is to sanctifie the sacrifice as Christ saith ye fooles and blind whether is greater the offering or the altar that sanctifieth the offering Now Christ as he is God sanctifieth himselfe as he was man and therefore saith he for their sakes sanctifie I my selfe by doing two things I. by setting apart the manhood to be a sacrifice vnto his father for our sinnes II. by giuing to this sacrifice merit or efficacie to deserue at Gods hands remission of our sinnes the manhood of Christ without the Godhead hath no vertue nor efficacie in it selfe to be a meritorious sacrifice and therefore the dignitie and excellencie which it hath is deriued thence As for the chalkie and stonie altars of the Church of Rome they are nothing els but the toyes of mans braine Christ himselfe is the onely reall altar of the new testament And in stead of altars which were vnder the law we haue now the Lords table wheron we celebrate the Sacrament of his bodie and blood to shew forth his death till he come The fourth point is concerning the time of Christs oblation which he himselfe calleth the acceptable yeare of the Lord alluding vnto an other yere vnder the law called the yeare of Iubile which was euery fiftie yeare among the Iewes in which at the sound of a trumpet all that had set or sold their possessions receiued them againe all that were bondmen were then set at libertie This Iubile was but a figure of that perfect deliuerance which was to be obtained by Christs passion which was not temporarie deliuerance for euery fiftie yeare but an eternall freedome from the bondage of sinne hell death and condemnation And the preaching of the word is the trumpet sounded which proclaimeth vnto vs freedome from the kingdome of darknes and inuites vs to come and dwell in perfect peace with Christ himselfe Well if the yeare of perpetuall Iubile be now come in what a wretched estate all our loose and blind people that esteeme nothing of that libertie which is offered to them but choose rather to liue in their sinnes and in bondage vnder Satan and condemnation then to be at freedome in Christ. Now follow the vses which are to be made of the sacrifice of Christ. The prophet Aggai saith that the second temple built by Zorubbabel was nothing in beautie vnto the first which was built by Salomon and the reason is plaine for as the Iewes write it wanted fiue things which the first teÌ„ple had I. the appearing of the presence of god at the mercie seat between the two Cherubims II. the Vrim and Thummim on the breast-plate of the high priest III. the inspiration of the holy Ghost vpon extraordinarie Prophets IIII. the Arke of the Couenant for that was lost in the captiuitie V. fire from heauen to burne the sacrifices Yet for all this the Prophet afterward saith The glorie of the last House shall be greater then the first Now it may be demanded how both these sayings can stand together Ans. We are to know that the second Temple was standing in the time when Christ was crucified for our â—innes and it was the sacrifice of Christ which gaue glorie and dignitie to the second temple though otherwise for building and outward ornaments it was farre inferiour to the first And by this we are taught that if we would bring glorie vnto our owne selues vnto our houses and kindred either before God or before men we must labour to be partakers of the sacrifice of Christ and the sprinkling of his blood to purge our hearts This is the thing that brings renowne both to place and person how base soeuer we be in the eyes
of the world Secondly all oblations and meate offerings were sprinkled with salt and euery sacrifice of propitiation which was to be burned to ashes was first salted and hereby two things were signified The first that euery one of vs in our selues are loathsome or vile in the sight of God like vnto stinking carrion or raw-flesh kept long vnpoudered A dead and rotten carkeise is loathsome vnto vs but we in our selues are a thousand times more loathsome vnto God The second that we are as it were salted and made sauorie and acceptable to God by the vertue of the sacrifice of Christ vpon the crosse Our dutie then is to labour that we may feele in our selues the biting and sharpnes of the oblation of Christ to wast and consume the superfluities of sinne and the corruptions of our natures And we must withall indeauour that the whole course of our liues and our speech it selfe be gratious and poured with salt least God at length spue vs out of his mouth To this ende hath God appointed his ministers to be the salt of the earth that by their ministerie they might apply the death of Christ and season the people And it hath pleased God to be sprinkle this land with more plentie of this salt then hath beene heretofore But alas small is the number of them that giue any relish of their good seasoning The more lamentable is their case For as flesh that cannot be seasoned with salt putrifies so men that cannot bee sweetned and changed by the sacrifice of Christ doe rot and perish in their sinnes The waters that ishued from vnder the threshold of the Sancturie when they came into the dead sea the waters thereof were holesome but myrie places and marishes which could not be seasoned were made saltpits Now these waters are the preching of the gospel of Chrtst which flowing through all the parts of this I le if it doe not season change our nation it shal make it as places of nettles saltpits at length be an occasion of the eternal curse of god Thirdly Christs priesthood serues to make euery one of vs also to be priests And being priests we must likewise haue our sacrifice and our altar Our sacrifice is the cleane offering which is the lifting vp of pure handes to God without wrath or doubting in our prayers also our bodies and soules our hearts and affections the workes of our liues and the workes of our callings all which must be dedicated to the seruice of god for his glorie and the good of his Church The altar wheron wee must offer our sacrifice is Christ our redeemer both God and man because by the vertue of his death as with sweete odours he perfumes all our obedience and makes it acceptable to God The ministers of the Gospell are also in this manner priests as Paul insinuateth when hee calleth the Gentiles his offering vnto God And the preaching of the word is as it were a sacrificing knife wherby the old Adam must be killed in vs we made an holy acceptable sweete smelling oblation vnto God sanctified by the holy Ghost Therefore euerie one that heareth Gods worde preached and taught must indeauour that by the profitable hearing thereof his sinnes and whole nature may be subdued and killed as the beast was slaine sacrificed vpon the altar by the hand of the Leuite Lastly the exhortation of the holy ghost must here be considered Seeing saith he we haue an high priest which is ouer the house of god let vs draw neere with a true heart in assurance of faith sprinkled in our hearts from an euill conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water the meaning of the wordes is this that if Christ haue offered such a sacrifice of such value and price which procureth pardon of sinne iustification sanctification and redemption then we must labour to be partakers of it to haue our bodies and soules purified and clensed by his blood and sanctified throughout by the holy ghost that thereby we may be made fitte to doe sacrifice acceptable to God in Christ. This is the vse which the Apostle maketh of the doctrine of Christs priesthood in that place which also euery man should apply vnto himselfe for why should we liue in our sinnes and wicked waies euery houre incurring the danger of Gods iudgements seeing Christ hath offered such a sacrifice whereby we may be purged and clensed and at length freed from all woe and miserie Thus much of Christs sacrifice now followes his triumph vpon the crosse That Christ did triumph when he was vpon the crosse it is plainly set downe by the Apostle Paul where he saieth that putting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against vs which was contrarie to vs he euen tooke it out of the way and fastened it vpon the crosse and hath spoiled the principalities and powers and hath made shewe of them openly and hath triumphed ouer â—hem in the same crosse This triumph is set forth by signes and testimonies of two sorts I. By signes of his glorie and maiestie II. By signes of his victorie on the crosse The signes of his glorie and maiestie are principally seuen The first is the title set ouer his head vpon the crosse Iesus of Nazareth king of the Iewes The ende why titles were set ouer the heads of malefactours was that the beholders might knowe the cause of the punishment and bee admonished to take heede of like offences and be stirred vp to a dislike of the parties executed for their offences And therfore no doubt Pilate wrote the title of Christ for the aggrauating of his cause and that with his owne hand Yet marke the straunge euent that followed for when Pilate was about to write the superscription God did so gouerne and ouer-rule both his heart and hand that in stead of noting some crime he sets downe a most glorious and worthie title calling him Iesus of Nazareth king of the Iewes which wordes containe the very summe and pith of the whole gospel of Christ deliuered by the Patriarches and prophets from age to age We must not thinke that Pilate did this of any good minde or vpon any loue or fauour that he bare to Christ but onely as he was guided and ouerruled by the power of God for the aduancement of the honour and glorie of Christ. The like did Caiphas who though a sworne enemie to Christ yet he vttered a prophecy of him saying that it was necessarie that one should die for the people not that he had any intent to prophecy but because the Lord vsed him as an instrument to publish his trueth And when Balaam for the wages of vnrighteousnesse would haue cursed the Lords people for his life he could not nay all his cursings were turned into blessings By this then it appeares that it is not possible for any man doe what he can to stoppe the course of
these wordes The third day hee arose againe from the deade c. And of it wee are first to speake in generall then in particular according to the seuerall degrees thereof In generall the exaltation of Christ is that glorious or happie estate into which Christ entred after he had wrought the worke of our redemption vpon the crosse And hee was exalted according to both natures in regard of his godhead and also of his manhoode The exaltation of the godhead of Christ was the manifestation of the glorie of his godhead in the manhoode Some will peraduenture demaunde howe Christs godhead can bee exalted seeing it admits no alteration at all Answere In it selfe it cannot bee exalted yet beeing considered as it is ioyned with the manhoode into one person in this respect it may bee said to bee exalted and therefore I say the exaltation of Christs godhead is the manifestation of the glorie thereof in the manhood For though Christ from his incarnation was both God and man and his godhead all that time dwelt in his manhood yet from his birth vnto his death the same godhead did little shewe it selfe and in the time of his suffering did as it were lie hidde vnder the vaile of his flesh as the soule doth in the bodie when a man is sleeping that thereby in his humane nature he might suffer the curse of the lawe and accomplish the worke of redemption for vs in the loâ—e and base estate of a seruant But after this worke was finished hee began by degrees to make manifest the power of his Godhead in his manhood And in this respect his godhead may be said to be exalted The exaltation of Christs humanitie stood in two things The first that he laid downe all the infirmities of mans nature which he carried about him so long as hee was in the state of a seruant in that he ceased to be wearie hungrie thirstie c. Here it may be demanded whether the wounds and skars remaine in the bodie of Christ nowe after it is glorified Ans. Some thinke that they doe remaine as testimonies of that victorie which Christ obtained of his and our enemies and that they are no deformitie to the glorious bodie of the Lord but are themselues also in him in some vnspeakable manner glorified But indeede it rather seemes to be a trueth to say that they are quite abolished because they were a part of that ignominious and base estate in which our Sauiour was vpon the crosse which after his entrance into glorie he laid aside And if it may be thought that the woundes in the handes and feete of Christ remaine to bee seene euen to the last iudgement why may we not in the same manner thinke that the veines of his bodie remaine emptied of their blood because it was shed vpon the crosse The second thing required in the exaltation of Christs manhood is that both his bodie and soule were beutified and adorned with all qualities of glorie His mind was inriched with as much knowledge vnderstanding as can possibly befall any creature more in measure then all men angels haue and the same is to be said of the graces of the spirit in his will and affections his bodie also was incorruptible it was made a shining bodie a resemblance whereof some of his disciples sawe in the mount and it was indued with agilitie to mooue as well vpward as downewardâ— as may appeare by the ascension of his bodie into heauen which was not caused by constraint or by any violent motion but by a propertie agreeing to all bodies glorified Yet in the exaltation of Christs manhood we must remember two caueats first that hee did neuer lay aside the essentiall properties of a true bodie as length breadth thicknes visibilitie locallitie which is to be in one place at once and no more but keepeth all these stil because they serue for the being of his bodie Secondly we must remember that the gifts of glorie in Christs bodie are not infinite but finite for his humane nature beeing but a creature and therefore finite could not receiue infinite graces and gifts of glorie And hence it is more then manifest that the opinion of those men is false which hold that Christs bodie glorified is omnipotent and infinit euery way able to doe whatsoeuer he wil for this is to make a creature to be the Creator Thus much of Christs exaltation in generall Nowe let vs come to the degrees thereof as they are noted in the Creed which are in number three I. He rose againe the third day II. He ascended into heauen III. He sitteth at the right hand of God the father almightie In the handling of Christs resurrection wee must consider these points I. why Christ ought to rise againe II. the manner of his rising III. the time when he rose IV. the place where V. the vses therof For the first it was necessarie that Christ should rise againe and that for three especiall causes First that hereby he might shewe to all the people of God that he had fully ouercome death For else if Christ had not risen howe should we haue beene perswaded in our consciences that he had made a ful perfect satisfaction for vs nay rather we should haue reasoned thus Christ is not risen therfore he hath not ouercome death but death hath ouercome him Secondly Christ which died was the sonne of God therefore the author of life it selfe and for this cause it was neither meete nor possible for him to be holden of death but hee must needes rise from death to life Thirdly Christs priesthood hath two parts one to make satisfaction for sinne by his one onely sacrifice vpon the crosse the other to apply the vertue of this sacrifice vnto euery beleeuer Now he offered the sacrifice for sinne vpon the crosse before the last pang of his death and in dying satisfied the iustice of God and therefore beeing dead must needes rise againe to performe the second part of his priesthood namely to apply the vertue thereof vnto all that shall truely beleeue in him and to make intercession in heauen vnto his father for vs here on earth And thus much of the first point Nowe to come to the manner of Christs resurrection fiue things are to be considered in it The first that Christ rose againe not as euery priuate man doth but as a publike person representing all men that are to come to life eternall For as in his passion so also in his resurrection he stood in our roome and place and therfore when he rose from death we al yea the whole Church rose in him and togither with him And this point not considered we doe not conceiue aright of Christs resurrection neither can we reape sound comfort by it The second is that Christ himselfe and no other for him did by his owne power raise himselfe to life This was the thing which he meant when hee said Destroy
his corporall presence as before but rather to seeke for his spirituall presence by faith considering he was shortly to ascend to his father For this cause when he appeared to his disciples he staied not long with them at any time but onely to manifest himselfe vnto them thereby to prooue the certentie of his resurrection This prohibition shewes first of all that it is but a fond thing to delight in the outward picture and portraiture of Christ as the Iesuits doe who stand much vpon his outward forme and lineaments Secondly it ouerthroweth the popish crucifixes and all the carued and molten images of Christ wherein the Papists worship him For corporall presence is not now required therefore spiritual worship onely must be giuen vnto him Thirdly it ouerthrowes the reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament Many are of minde that they can not receiue Christ except they eate and drinke his bodie and blood corporally but it is not much materiall whether we touch him with the bodily hand or no so be it we apprehend him spiritually by faith Lastly as we must not haue earthly considerations of Christ so must we on the contrarie labour for the spirituall hand of faith which may reach vp it selfe to heauen and there lay hold on him This is the very thing which Christ insinuateth vnto Marie in saying Touch me not And Saint Paul saith Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we had knowne Christ after the flesh yet now know we him no more that is we know him no more as a man liuing among vs and therefore he addeth If any man be in Christ he is a new creature and this new creation is not by the bodily presence of Christ but by the apprehension of faith The second appearance was to Marie Magdalen and to the other Marie as they were going from the graue to tell his disciples at which time Christ meeteth them and bids them goe tell his brethren that he is risen againe And whereas Christ sendeth women to his disciples he purposed hereby to check them for their vnbeleefe For these women forsooke him not at his death but stood by and saw him suffer and when he was buried they came to embalme him but all this while what became of Christs disciples Surely Peter denied him and all the rest fled away euen Iames and Iohn the sonnes of thunder saue that Iohn stood aloofe to behold his death Hereupon Christ to make them ashamed of their fault sendeth these women vnto them to publish that to them which they by their calling ought aboue all other to haue published Secondly this teacheth that whereas Christ buildeth his kingdome and publisheth his Gospell by Apostles Euangelists Pastours teachers he can if it so please him performe the same by other meanes In this his second appearance he vsed weake and silly women to publish his resurrection and thereby shewes that he is not bound to the ordinarie meanes which now he vseth Thirdly he sent them to his disciples to shew that howsoeuer they had dealt vnfaithfully with him by forsaking him and denying him yet he had not quite forsaken them but if they would repent and beleeue he would receiue them into his loue and fauour againe and therefore calleth them his brethren saying Goe and tell my brethren This teacheth vs a good lesson that howsoeuer our sinnes past are to humble vs in regard of our selues yet must they not cut vs off or dismay vs from seeking to Christ yea euen then when we are laden with the burden of them we must come vnto him and he will ease vs. Fourthly whereas silly women are sent to teach Christs disciples which were schollers brought vp in his owne schoole we are admonished that superioritie in place and calling must not hinder vs sometime to heare and to be taught of our inferiours Iob saith he neuer refused the counsell of his seruant and Naaman the Syrian obeyed the counsell of a silly maide which aduised him to goe to the Prophet of the Lord in Samaria to be cured of his leprosie and when he had bin with the Prophet he obeyed the counsell of his seruant that perswaded him to doe all the Prophet has saide Wash and be cleane Now after that the women are come to the disciples and make relation of Christs resurrection the text saith Their wordes seemed as fained things vnto them neither beleeued they them Hence we learne two things the first that men of themselues can not beleeue the doctrine of Christian religion it is a hard matter for a man to beleeue sundrie things in the worke of creation The temporall deliuerance of the children of Israel seemed to them as a dreame and the resurrection of Christ euen to Christs owne disciples seemed a faigned thing The second that it is an hard thing truly and vnfainedly to beleeue the points of religion Disciples brought vp in the schoole of Christ and often catechised in this very point of Christs resurrection yet dull are they to beleeue it This confuteth condemneth our carnall gospellers that make it the lightest and easiest thing that can be to beleeue in Christ and therefore they say their faith is so strong that they would not for all the world doubt of gods mercie whereas indeede they are deceiued and haue no faith at all but blinde presumption The third appearance was on this maner As two of Christs disciples were going from Ierusalem to Emmaus about threescore furlongs and talked togither of all the things that were done Iesus drew neare and talked with them but their eyes were holden that they could not know him and as they went he communed with them and prooued out of the Scripture his resurrection expounding vnto them all things that were written of him then they made him stay with them and their eyes were opened and they knew him by breaking of bread but he was taken out of their sight In this notable appearance we may obserue these foure points The first that Christ held their eyes that they could not know him they saw a man indeed but who he was they could not tel By this it is more thē manifest that the vse of our outward senses as seeing feeling smelling c. is supplied vnto vs continually by the power of Christ and therefore euen in these things we must acknowledge the continuall goodnesse of God Now if one man can not so much as discerne another but by the blessing of Christ then shall we neuer be able to discerne the way of life from the way of death without him and therefore we must pray vnto God that he would giue vs his holy spirit to inlighten the eyes of our vnderstanding whereby we may be able to see and know the way that leadeth vnto life and also to walke in the same The second that as Christ was in expounding the Scriptures vnto them their hearts burned within them By this we learne that
of God not only bridling sinne in vs but also mortifying and killing the same Indeed both of them are the good gifts of Gods spirit but yet the mortification of sinne is the chiefest being an effectuall signe of grace and proper to the elect The fifth grace and gift of the holy Ghost is to heare and receiue the word of God with ioy In the parable of the sower one kind of badde ground are they which when they haue heard receiue the worde with ioy And this is that which the authour of the Hebrues calls the the tasting of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come We knowe that there is great difference betweene tasting of meate and eating of it They that sit down at the table do both tast and eate but they that dresse the meate do onely see and taste thereof so it is at the Lords table Many there be that haue this gift truely both to tast and eate of the bodie and blood of Christ offered in the word and Sacraments and some againe doe onely taste and feele the sweetnesse of them and reioice therein but yet are not indeede partakers thereof Nowe if this be so then all those which heare the word of God must take heede how they heare and labour to finde these two things in themselues by hearing I. that in heart and conscience they be throughly touched and humbled for their sinnes II. that they be certenly assured of the fauour and loue of God in Christ and that the sweete promises of the Gospel doe belong to them and in consideration hereof they must make conscience of all sinne both in thought worde and deed through the whole course of their liues And this kind of hearing bringeth that ioy which vanisheth not away Thus much of the benefits of the holy Ghost common to all men both good and badde nowe followe such as are proper to the elect all which may be reduced vnto one namely the inhabitation of the spirit whereby the elect are the temples of the holy Ghost who is said to dwell in men not in respect of substance for the whole nature of the holy Ghost cannot be comprised in the bodie or soule of man but in respect of a particular operation and this dwelling standes in two things The first that the holy Ghost doth abide in them not for a time onely but for euer for the word dwelling noteth perpetuitie Secondly that the holy Ghost hath the full disposition of the heart as whē a man commeth to dwell in an house whereof he is lord he hath libertie to gouerne it after his owne will Nowe this disposition of the hearts of the faithfull by the holy Ghost stands in fiue special and notable gifts euery one worthie our obseruation The first is a certen knowledge of a mans owne reconciliation to God in Christ. As it is said in Esai By his knowledge my righteous seruant shall iustifie many And Christ saith This is life eternall that they knowe thee to be the onely verie God and whome thou hast sent Iesus Christ. This knowledge is not generall for then the deuils might be saued but it is particular whereby a man knoweth God the father to be his father and Christ the redeemer to bee his redeemer and the holy Ghost to bee his sanctifier and comforter And it is a speciall worke of the holy Ghost as Paul saith The spirit of God beareth witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God And we haue receiued the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are giuen vnto vs of God The second gift is regeneration whereby a man of a limme of the deuill is made a member of Christ and of a child of Satan whome euery one of vs by nature doe as liuely resemble as any man doeth his owne parent is made the child of God Except a man saith our Sauiour Christ be borne againe by water and the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Iohn Baptist in saying that Christ baptized with the holy Ghost and fire compares the spirit of god to fire and water To fire for two causes I. as it is the nature of fire to warme the body that is benummed and frozen with colde so when a man is benummed and frozen in sinne yea when he is euen starke dead in sinne it is the property of the Holy Ghost to warme and quicken his heart and to reuiue him II. Fire doth purge and eate out the drosse from the good mettall now there is no drosse nor canker that hath so deepely eaten into any mettall as sinne into the nature of man and therefore the Holy Ghost is as fire to purge and eate out the hidden corruptions of sinne out of the rebellious heart of man Againe the holy Ghost is compared to cleare water for two causes I. man by nature is as drie wood without sappe and the property of the holy Ghost is as water to supple and to put sap of grace into the dead and rotten heart of man II. the propertie of water is to clense and purifie the filth of the bodie euen so the holy Ghost doth spiritually wash away our sinnes which are the filth of our nature and this is the second benefit of the Holy Ghost By this we are taught that he which would enter into the kingdome of God and haue the Holy Ghost to dwell in him must labour to feele the worke of regeneration by the same spirit and if a man would knowe whether hee haue this worke wrought in him or no let him marke what Saint Paul saith They that are of the spirit sauour the things that are of the spirit but they that liue after the flesh sauour the things of the flesh If therefore a man haue his heart continually affected with that which is truely good either more or lesse it is a certaine token that his wicked nature is changed and he regenerate but contrariwise if his heart be alwaies set on the pleasures of sinne and the things of this world hee may iustly suspect himselfe that he is not regenerated As for example if a man haue all his minde set vpon drinking and gulling in of wine and strong drink hauing little delight nor pleasure in any thing els it argues a carnall minde vnregenerate because it affects the things of the flesh and so of the rest And on the contrarie he that hath his minde affected with a desire to doe the will of God in practising the workes of charitie and religion he I say hath a spirituall and a renued heart and is regenerate by the holy Ghost The third worke of the holy Ghost is to gouerne the hearts of the elect this may be called spirituall regiment A man that dwelleth in a house of his owne orders and gouerns it according to his own will euen so the holy ghost gouerns all them in whome he dwelleth as Paul saith
that by reason of this confusion men can not possibly rise with their owne bodies Ans. Howesoeuer this is impossible with men yet it is possible with God For he that in the beginning was able to create all things of nothing is much more able to make euery mans bodie at the resurrection of his owne matter and to distinguish the dust of mens bodies from the dust of beasts and the dust of one mans bodie from another The goldsmith by his art can sunder diuers mettals one frō another some men out of one mettall can drawe another why then should we thinke it vnpossible for the almightie God to doe the like It may bee further obiected thus A man is eaten by a woolfe the woolfe is eaten by a Lyon the Lyon by the foules of the aire the foules of the aire eaten againe by men againe one man is eaten of another as it is vsuall among the Cannibals Nowe the bodie of that man which is turned into so many substances especially into the bodie of another man cannot rise againe and if the one doeth the other doeth not Ans. This reason is but a cauill of mans braine for wee must not thinke that whatsoeuer entreth into the bodie and is turned into the substance thereof must rise againe and become a part of the bodie at the daie of iudgement but euery man shall then haue so much substance of his owne as shall make his bodie to be entire and perfect though another mans flesh once eaten bee no part thereof Againe it is vrged that because flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdome of God therefore the bodies of men shall not rise againe Ans. By flesh and blood is not meant the bodies of men simply but the bodies of men as they are in weaknesse without glorie subiect to corruption For flesh and blood in Scripture signifies sometime the originall sinne and corruption of nature and sometime mans nature subiect to miseries and infirmities or the bodie in corruption before it be glorified and so it must bee vnderstood in this place Lastly it is obiected that Salomon saith The condition of the children of men and the condition of beasts are euen as one condition Nowe beasts rise not againe after this life and therefore there is no resurrection of men Ans. In that place Salomon expoundeth himselfe They are like in dying for so he saith as the one dieth so dieth the other he speaketh not of their estate after death The second point to be considered is the cause of the resurrection In mankind we must consider two parts the Elect and the Reprobate and they both shall rise againe at the day of iudgement but by diuers causes The godly haue one cause of their resurrection and the vngodly another The cause why the godly rise againe is the resurrection of Christ yea it is the proper cause which procureth and effecteth their resurrection In the scripture Adam and Christ are compared togither and Christ is called the second Adam these were two rootes The first Adam was the roote of al mankinde and he conueieth sinne and by sinne death to all that sprang of him Christ onely excepted the second Adam which is the roote of all the Elect conueieth life both in bodie and soule to all that are vnited to him and by the vertue of his resurrection they shal rise againe after this life For looke as the power of the godhead of Christ when he was dead in the graue raised his bodie the third day so shall the same power of Christ his godhead conuey it selfe vnto all the faithfull which euen in death remaine vnited vnto him and raise them vp at the last daie And for this cause Christ is called a quickening spirit Nowe the cause why the wicked rise againe is not the vertue of Christs resurrection but the vertue of Gods curse set downe in his word In the daie that thou shalt eate of the tree of the knowledge of good and euill thou shalt die the death that is a double death both of bodie and soule And therefore they arise onely by the power of Christ as hee is a iudge that this sentence may be verified on them and that they may suffer both in bodie and soule eternall punishment in hell fire Furthermore S. Iohn setteth downe the outward meanes whereby the dead shal be raised namely the voice of Christ The houre shall come saith he in which all that are in the graues shall heare his voice and they shall come forth For as hee created all things by his word so at the day of iudgement by the same voice all shall be raised againe This may bee a good reason to mooue vs to heare the ministers of God reuerently for that which they teach is the very word of God and therefore we are to pray that it may be as effectuall in raising vs vp from the graue of sinne in this life as it shall bee after this life in raising vs vp from the graue of death vnto iudgement Thirdly we are to consider what manner of bodies shall rise at the last day Ans. The same bodies for substance this Iob knew well when he said I shall see him at the last daie in my flesh whome I my selfe shall see and none other for me with these same eies Neuerthelesse the bodies of the elect shall be altered in qualitie being made incorruptible and filled with glorie The last point to be considered is the ende why these bodies shall rise againe The principall end which God intendeth is his owne glorie in the manifestation of his iustice and mercie Nowe at the last daie when all men shall be raised to iudgement by the voice of Christ the godly to life and the wicked to condemnation there shal be a full manifestation both of his mercy and iustice and therefore by consequent a full manifestation of his glorie Thus much for the doctrines touching the Resurrection now followe the vses First it serueth wonderfully for the comfort of all Christian hearts Dauid speaking not onely of Christ but also of himselfe saith most notably Mine heart is glad my tongue reioiceth and my flesh also doth rest in hope Why so For saith he thou shalt not leaue my soule in graue neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption Though the daies of this life be daies of woe and miserie yet the day of the resurrection shall bee vnto all the children of God a time of reioicing and felicitie as Peter saith it is the time of refreshing Whosoeuer is now an hungred shall then eate and be filled with the fruite of the tree of life and whosoeuer is now naked shall be then cloathed with the white garments dipped in the blood of the Lambe and whosoeuer is nowe lame shall haue all his members restored perfectly And as this daie is ioyfull to the godly so on the contrarie it is a daie of woe and
swallowed vp of ouermuch heauines And further he giueth an other reason which followeth least Sathan should circumuent vs for we are not ignorant of his enterprises And indeede common experience sheweth the same that when any man is most weake then Sathan most of all bestirreth himselfe to worke his confusion The third is that all men which are humbled haue not like measure of sorrowe but some more some lesse Iob felt the hand of God in exceeding great measure when he cried O that my griefe were well weyed and my miseries were laide together in the ballance for it would he now heauier then the sand of the sea therefore my wordes are now swallowed vp for the arrowes of the Almightie are in me and the venome thereof doth drinke vp my spirit and the terrours of God fight against me The same did Ezechias when on his death-bed he said He brake all my bones like a Lyon and like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter I did mourne like a doue c. Contrariwise the theefe vpon the crosse and Lydia in her conuersion neuer felt any such measure of griefe for it is said of her that God opened her heart to be attentiue to that which Paul spake and presently after shee intertained Paul and Silas chearefully in her house which shee could not haue done if shee had beene pressed downe with any great measure of sorrowe neither are any to dislike themselues because they are not so much humbled as they see some others for God in great wisdome giueth to euery one which are to be saued that which is conuenient for their estate And it is often seene in a festered sore that the corruption is let out as well with the pricking of a small pinne as with the wide lance of a raser XII The fourth thing in true humiliation is an holy desperation which is when a man is wholly out of all hope euer to attaine saluation by any strength or goodnesse of his owne speaking and thinking more vily of himselfe then any other can doe and heartily acknowledging himselfe to haue deserued not one onely but euen tenne thousand damnations in hell fire with the deuill and his angels This was in Paul when he said of himselfe that he was the chiefe of all sinners This was in Daniel when in the name of the people of Israel he praied and said O Lord righteousnesse belongeth vnto thee and to vs open shame as appeareth this day c. The same was in the prodigall childe who saide Father I haue sinned against heauen and against thee and I am no more worthie to be called thy sonne Lastly it was in Ezra who saide O my God I am confounded and ashamed to lift vp mine eyes vnto thee my God for our iniquities are increased ouer our head and our trespasse is growne vp vnto the heauen XIII Many are of opinion that this sorrow for sinne is nothing else but a melancholike passion but in trueth the thing is farre otherwise as may appeare in the example of Dauid who by all coniectures was least troubled with melancholie and yet neuer any tasted more deepely of the sorrnw and feeling of Gods anger for sinne then he did as the booke of Psalmes declareth And if any desire to knowe the difference they are to be discerned thus Sorrowe for sinne may be where health reason senses memorie and all are sound but Melancholike passions are where the bodie is vnsound and the reason senses memorie dulled and troubled Secondly sorrow for sinne is not cured by any phisicke but onely by the sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ Melancholike passions are remooued by Phisicke diet musicke and such like Thirdly sorrow for sinne riseth of the anger of God that woundeth and pierceth the conscience but Melancholike passions rise only of meere imaginations strōgly conceiued in the braine Lastly these passions are long in breeding and come by litle and little but the sorrow for sinne vsually commeth on a sudden as lightening into a house And yet howesoeuer they are differing it must bee acknowledged that they may both concurre together so that the same man which is troubled with Melancholie may feele also the anger of God for sinne XIIII Thus it appeareth howe God maketh the heart fit to receiue faith in the next place it is to be considered howe the Lord causeth faith to spring and to breede in the humbled heart For the effecting of this so blessed a worke God worketh foure things in the heart First when a man is seriously humbled vnder the burden of his sinne the Lord by his spirit makes him lift vp himselfe to consider and to ponder most diligently the great mercie of God offered vnto him in Christ Iesus After the consideration of gods mercie in Christ he comes in the second place to see feele and from his heart to acknowledge himselfe to stand in neede of Christ and to stand in neede of euery drop of his most precious blood Thirdly the Lord stirreth vp in his heart a vehemēt desire and longing after Christ and his merits this desire is compared to thirst which is not onely the feeling of the drinesse of the stomacke but also a vehement appetite after drinke and Dauid fitly expresseth it when he saith I stretched forth my handes vnto thee my soule desireth after thee as the thirstie land Lastly◠after this desire he beginnes to pray not for any worldly benefit but onely for the forgiuenesse of his sinnes crying with the poore Publican O God be mercifull to me a sinner Nowe this praier it is made not for one day onely but continually from day to day not with the lippes but with greater sighes grones of the heart then that they can be expressed with the tongue Now after these desires and praiers for Gods mercie ariseth in the heart a liuely assurance of the forgiuenesse of sinne For God who cannot lie hath made his promise Knocke it shall be opened and againe Before they call I will answere and while they speake I will heare Therefore when an humbled sinner comes crying and knocking at his mercie gate for the forgiuenesse of sinne either then or shortly after the Lord worketh in his heart a liuely assurance thereof And whereas he thirsted in his heart beeing scorched with the heat of Gods displeasure beating vpon his conscience Christ Iesus giueth him to drinke of the well of the water of life freely and hauing drunken thereof hee shall neuer be more a thirst but shall haue in him a fountaine of water springing vp into euerlasting life XV. For the better vnderstanding of this that God worketh sauing faith in the heart of man after this manner it must be obserued that a sinner is compared to a sick man oft in the Scriptures And therefore the curing of a disease fitly resembleth the curing of sinne A man that
Christs wine seller shall fall into a swowne and not feele any refreshing there Yet the beleeuer is not to be dismayd if he feele not alwaies comfort presently after the Sacrament A sicke man feeles no comfort or nourishment when he eateth meate and yet it preserueth his life So the weake christian though he feele himselfe not nourished at the Sacrament by Christs bodie and blood yet he shall see in time that his soule shall be preserued thereby vnto euerlasting life Furthermore when a christian feeleth no comfort by the Sacrament let him then humble himselfe before the Lord more heartily then euer before confessing his sinnes and praying for increase of grace and then he shall feele the fruit of the Sacrament XLIX The third worke is a relieuing of the poore brethren in Christ proceeding of a brotherly kindnes towards them This is a speciall worke not to be done to all men alike as Saint Paul saith Doe good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of faith Directions for this matter are the faithfull of Hierusalem Who were all in one place and had all things common namely in vse And they sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as euery one had neede Also the brethren at Corinth in their extreame pouertie relieued the churches of Macedonia liberally not onely according to their power but also straining theÌ„selues beyond their power Yea this reliefe must goe further euen to the bestowing of a mans life if neede so require as Saint Iohn saith Hereby we haue perceiued loue that he laid downe his life for vs therefore we ought also to lay downe our liues for the brethren L. The fourth worke is true praier and Saint Luke setteth out the faithfull the children of God by this description That they call on the name of the lord As on the contrarie it is said of the wicked That they call not vpon God The true Christian calleth on the Lord in truth For the spirit of adoption which is the spirit of prayer is his Schoolemaster to teach him to doe it In praier he is thus disposed first before he praieth he is stricken with some feare and reuerence in regard of Gods maiestie for he considereth that praier is a familiar talking with God Secondly he is inwardly touched with a liuely feeling of his owne wants but especially he is vexed and grieued at his owne sinne and rebellion and this sense of his miserie is as a spurre to quicken his benummed heart Thirdly he humbleth himselfe before his God and laieth open his heart before the Lord shewing a feruent and longing desire to obtaine those things of which he findeth an extreame want in himselfe as the Prophet Dauid did whose desire was like the yawning of the drie ground and this proceedeth from the spirit of God which stirreth vp groanings in the heart which a man oftentimes for his life cannot expresse Fourthly when he maketh his request he doubteth not but by faith he beleeueth that God will grant his requests which he maketh according to his word The ground of his perswasion is double the first is Christ Iesus by whose merits as he hath obtained remission of sinnes so he looketh to obtaine all things else The other ground is the comfortable promises of God which he hath made that he will heare them who truely call vpon him Fiftly he praieth not for a brunt or two but he continueth in praier And although God seeme not to heare him at the first yet hee patiently waiteth on the Lord and still calleth vpon him LI. The fift worke is to walke in some lawefull calling with painefulnesse and vprightnesse so that in performing all the duties of it a man may keepe a good conscience before God and men Thus Dauid determined to walke in the gouernment of his house and kingdome I will doe wisely saith he in the perfect way till thou commest to me I will walke in the vprightnesse of mine heart in the middest of mine house I will set no wicked thing before mine eies I hate the work of them that fall away it shall not cleaue vnto me This sinceritie of Dauids behauiour in his calling made him bolde to offer himselfe to be tried not onely by men but much more by the Lord God himselfe and to bee punished accordingly Iudge me O Lord saith he for I haue walked in mine innocencie Prooue me O Lord and trie me examine my reines and mine heart So vpright and cleere was he in all his doings LII Thus much of faith and the benefits that come by faith Nowe followeth the spirituall exercise of a Christian in his manifold temptations which are in this life inseparable companions of grace The reason is because the deuil hateth Christ with a deadly hatred and sheweth this hatred in a continual persecution of his members as Saint Iohn saith the dragon was wroth with the woman and went and made warre with the remnant of her seede which kept the commandements of god and haue the testimonie of Iesus Christ. Now therfore as soone as Christ Iesus beginneth to shewe any token of his loue to any man the deuil contrariwise sheweth forth his enmitie and stirs vp his fellow champions the flesh and the world to warre against him for his confusion And furthermore the Lord in great wisdome permits temptations to the last ende of a Christian man life to trie his faith to purge him of sinne to humble him and to make him depend of his Maiestie to quicken and reuiue the graces of his spirit which otherwise would be dead and decay LIII The temptations of a Christian are specially sixe The first is when inwardly in his heart he is drawn away and intised by his owne concupiscence vnto any sinne The Christians exercise in temptation is a fight and battell betwixt the flesh and the spirit And this fighting standeth in foure things First the flesh stirs vp euil thoughts and desires as a burning furnace continually sendeth vp smoake and sparkes of fire and it eggeth a man forward to euil words and deeds according to that of S. Marke For from within euen from the heart of a man proceede euill thouâ—hts adulteries fornications murders thefâ—s couetousnesse wickednesse deceit vnâ—leannes a wicked eye backbiting pride foolishnesse II. The flesh hindereth and choketh the good motions and desires of the heart as Paul saith I see another law in my members rebelling against the lawe of my minde and leading me captiue to the lawe of sinne which is in my members Againe the same flesh mingleth euery good motion and desire with some corruptions so that the godly mislike the best thing they doe Esay saith of his owne and the peoples righteousnesse that it is but a menstruous cloute The praiers of the Saints must be
he is neuer saued according to that of Saint Iames sinne beeing perfited bringeth forth death The fift reason Eternall life is a thing desired of all men yet none shall be made partakers of it but the true christian and the glorious estate of this life would mooue any man to be a christian First of all they which haue eternall life are freed from all paines sicknesses infirmities hunger thirst cold wearines from all sinne as anger forgetfulnes ignorance from hell death damnation Sathan and from euery thing that causeth miserie according to that of Saint Iohn And God wil wipe away al teares from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow neither crying neither shall there be any more paine for the first things are passed Secondly the faithfull shall be in the presence of Gods maiesâ—ie in heauen there to behold his face that is his glorie as our Sauiour Christ saith Father I will that they which thou hast giuen me be with me euen where I am that they may behold my glorie which thou hast giuen me And Dauid saith In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for euermore Thirdly they shall haue such an excellent communion with God that he shall be vnto them all in all For in the ende of the world when the whole number of the elect is accomplished Christ shall present them to his father and as he is Mediatour he shall cease to be a King a Priest a Prophet for though the efficacie of his offices be euerlasting yet the execution of them shall cease as Paul saith Then shall be the ende when he hath deliuered vp the kingdome to God euen the father when he hath put downe all rule all authoritie and power Againe among the elect there shall not be king subiect father mother child master seruaÌ„t noble ignoble rich poore liuing dead Some will say what then shall be I answer one glorious and euerlasting God the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost shall be in all the elect all that heart can wish and desire Men shall not be in darknes neither shall they need the light of the Sunne Moone or Starres God himselfe immediatly shall be their light as Iohn saith And the citie hath no neede of the Sunne neither of the Moone to shine in it for the glorie of God doth light it and the Lambe is the light of it Men shall not then neede meate drinke cloathing sleepe recreation fire shade respiration or any other such like but God himselfe immediately shall be their life and all things concerning life by Christ. Which Iohn signifieth when he saith that he saw a pure riuer of water of life cleere as chrystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lambe there beeing by either side of it the tree of life which bare two manner of fruits and gaue fruit euery moneth And whereas God is continually to be worshipped in heauen they neede no other tabernacle or temple thereunto but God himselfe shall be their temple as Iohn saith I sawe no temple therein for the Lord God almightie and the Lambe are the temple of it Fourthly from this glorious communion which is between God and Christ as he is man and all the Saints which are his members there ariseth an vnspeakable ioy and gladnes wherewith they are filled Dauid saith that Gods children shall be satisfied with the fatnes of his house and that he shal giue them drinke out of the riuers of his pleasures This ioy vndoubtedly is infinite and the saints are not onely replenished with it but they are also swallowed vp of it as with an huge and infinite sea of waters as may appeare in Peter who at the transfiguration of Christ was so rauished out of measure with ioy at the sight of it that he quite forgot himselfe saying to Christ Master it is good beeing here let vs make three Tabernacles one for thee one for Moses and another for Elias Lastly out of this communion ariseth a perfect loue of God whereby the Saints loue God with all their hearts with all their soules and strength and this loue sheweth it selfe in that they are eternally occupied in worshipping God by singing of songs of praise thanksgiuing vnto him Now then seeing the kingdome of heauen is so glorious and none can haue it but the true Christian let all men account the best things in this world as drosse and dung so that they may obtaine Christ and his righteousnes The last reason is the endlesse loue of Iesus Christ shewed in his death and passion Thou art by nature the childe of wrath and vengeance Sathan hath wounded thee with many a deadly wound of sinne thou liest bleeding at the heart and art like to die eternally Thou beeing in this estate there is no man on earth no Saint in heauen no Angel no creature at all is able to helpe thee Christ onely was able he therefore came downe from heauen and became man for this cause to work thy deliuerance Furthermore in the curing of the wound of sinne no hearb no water no plaister no physicke can doe thee any good onely the bodie and blood of Christ is soueraigne for this matter being stieped in the wrath of God He therefore subiected himselfe to the death euen the death of the crosse vpon which he suffered the wrath of God due to the sin of manâ—ind of his owne heart blood he tempered for them a soueraigne medicine to heale all thy woundes and sores Nowe therefore despise not this mercie seeke vnto Christ lay open all thy sores pray him that hee would vouchsafe thee if it be but one drop of his blood theÌ„ he wil come vnto thee by his holy spirit he will wash and supple thy woundes in his blood and bind them vp He is the tree of life the leaues whereof heale the nations If thou get but one leafe of him thou art well it will heale thee and restore thy dead soule that thou maist liue eternally in the kingdome of heauen If this reason will not mooue thee to be a Christian thy case is desperate It is the best reason that Peter could vse to this purpose As obedient children saith hee fashion not your selues vnto the former lusts of your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all maner of conuersation His reason followeth Knowing that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as siluer and gold from your vaine conuersation receiued by the tradition of the Fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as a Lambe vndefiled and without spot Thus much haue I spoken to the worldling who in his heart makes no more account of Christ then of his old shooes and who had rather bee without Christ then be without his pigges with the Gaderens Nowe for the true Christians I haue
not beseeming him a sinne of all other to be detested Reasons I. A blasphemer is viler then the rest of the creatures for they praise God in their kind and shew forth his power goodnesse and wisdome but he dishonoureth God in his wretched speech II. He is as the madde dogge that flieth in his masters face who keepeth him and giueth him bread III. Custome in blasâ—hemies sheweth a man to be the child of the deuill and no child of God as yet A father lying on his death bedde called the three children to him which he kept and told them that one only of them was his owne sonne and that the rest were onely brought vp by him therefore vnto him he gaue all his goods but which of these was his naturall sonne he would not in any wise declare When he was deade euery one of the three children pleaded that he was the sonne and therefore that the goods were his The matter beeing brought before a Iudge could not be ended but the Iudge was constrained to take this course he caused the dead corpes of the father to be set vp against a tree and commaunded the three sonnes to take bowes and arrowes and to shoote against their father and to see who could come neerest the heart The first and second did shoote at their father and did hiâ—â—e him the third was angrie with both the other through naturall affection of a child to a father and refused to shoote This done the Iudge gaue sentence that the two first were no sonnes but the third onely and that he should haue the goods The like triall may be vsed to know who be Gods children Such persons with whome blaspheming is rife are very deuills incarnate and the children of the deuill who rende God in pieces and shoote him through with their darts as it is said of the Egyptian when he blasphemed that he smote or pierced through Gods Name Magistrates and rulers seuerally punish such as shall abuse their names and they doe it iustly how much more then should blasphemers of Gods name escape without great punishment Againe here we must be warned to take heede of that customable swearing and also of periurie It is a very straunge sinne for the periuried person doth not onely sinne himselfe but withall he endeauoureth to intangle God in the same sinne with himselfe Further take heede least thou dost either make or recite the iests which are contriued out of the phrases of Scripture which are very many and very vsually rehearsed in companie The oyle wherewith the tabernacle and the arke of the Testament and the Priests were annointed was holy and therefore no man might put it to any other vses as to annoint his owne flesh therewith or to make the like vnto it Pilate a poore Painym when he heard the name of the Sonne of God was afraid and we much more ought to tremble at the word of God not to make our selues merrie with it And therefore the scoffing of Iulian the Apostata is very fearefull who was wont to reach Christians boxes on the eare and withall bid them turne the other and obey their masters commandement Whosoeuer shall smite thee on the right cheeke turne to him the other also And he denied pay and like reward to his souldiers that were Christians because he said he would make them fit for the kingdome of heauen considering that Christ had said Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of heauen Here also men must learne to take heede of all maner of charmes and enchantments which commonly are nothing els but words of Scripture or such like vsed for the curing of paines and diseases both in men and beasts As for example the first words of S. Iohns Gospel In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God c. are vsed to be written in a paper and hung about mens necks to cure agues But the truth is such kind of practises are deuillish Patrons of charmes hold that in such words as are either diuine or barbarous is much efficacie But whence is this efficacie from God from men or from the deuill If it shall be saide from God we must know that the word vsed in holy manner is the instrument of God to conuey vnto vs spirituall blessings as faith regeneration repentance but it doth not serue to bring vnto vs corporall health Well then belike words take vertue from the speaker and are made powerfull by the streÌ„gth of his imagination Indeed of this opinion are some Phisitians as Avicenna and Paracelsus who thinke that phantasie is like to the sunne which worketh on all things to which his beames doe come and the latter that by imagination miracles may be wrought But this opinion is fond and the reasons alledged for it are without weight For imaginations are no things but shadows of things And as an image of a man in a glasse hath no power in it but onely serues to resemble and represent the bodie of a man so it is with the phantasie and conceit of the mind and no otherwise And if imagination haue any force it is onely within the spirits and humours of a mans own bodie but to giue force to worke in the bodies of others it can not no more then the shadow of one bodie can ordinarily cure the bodie of another on which it lighteth Wherefore words vsed in the way of bodily cure be they in themselues neuer so good are no better then the deuills sacraments and when they are vsed of blinde people he it is that comming vnder hand worketh the cure and by turning himselfe into an angel of light deludes theÌ„ But it were better for a man to die a thousand times then to vse such remedies which in curing the bodie destroy the soule Lastly auoide all imprecations and cursings either against men or other creatures for God in iudgement to punish such cursed speaking often brings to passe such imprecations as may appeare in the Iewes who at the arraignment of Christ cried saying His blood be vpon vs and vpon our children which imprecation is verified vpon them till this day At Newburge in Germanie a certaine mother cursed her sonne saying Get thee away I would thou mightest neuer come againe aliue the very same day he went into the water and was drowned Againe a mother brought her child to the Vniuersitie of Wittenberge by reason he was possessed with an vncleane spirit beeing demaunded how it came to passe shee answered in the hearing of many that in her anger shee said The deuill take thee and thereupon presently the child was possessed And in our countrey men often wish the plague the poxe the pestilence to their children their seruants their cattell and often it falls out accordingly In the daies of king Edward certaine English souldiers as I am certenly informed by a witnesse then present being by a tempest cast vpon the sands on the
restore Ans. Let him acknowledge the fault and God will accept the will for thee deede As Paul sayeth in the like case If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to that which a man hath and not according to that which a man hath not Quest. When a man by restoring shall discredit himselfe howe shall he restore and keep his credit Ans. Let him if the thing to be restored be of small moment make choice of some faithfull or honest friend who may deliuer the thing in the behalfe of the partie concealing his name Quest. Howe if the parties bee dead Ans. Let him restore to the heires and successors if there be none let him restore to God that is the Church and the poore IV. Case of teares VVHether doth repentance alwaies goe with teares or not Answer No For verie pride and hypocrisie will drawe foorth teares And some there are that can weep for their sins in the presence of others whereas being alone they neither will nor can Some againe are of that constitution of bodie that they haue teares at commaund And a godly man with drie cheekes may mourne to God for his sinnes and intreat for pardon and reâ—â—ue iâ— Yet in all occasions of deeper griefe for sin teares will follow vnles men haue stonie flinty hearts And yet againe though the greatest cause of sorrowe be offered the softest heart that is sheds not teares at the first but afterwards it wil. When the bodie receiues a deepe wounde at the first ye shall see nothing but a white line or dint made in the flesh without any blood staie but a while then comes blood from the wound in great aboundance So at the first the minde is astonished giues no teares but after some respite or consideratioÌ„ teares follow V. Case of death VVHether the repentant sinner can alwaies shewe himselfe comfortable on his death bed Ans. Though the comfort of Gods spirit shal neuer be abolished from his heart yet he can not alwaies testifie it For he may die of a burning ague and by reason of the extremitie of his fits bee troubled with idlenesse of head and breake out into raging speeches and blasphemies Likewise he may die of a sicknesse in the braine and be troubled with grieuous convulsions so as his mouth shall be writhen to his eares his necke turned behind him and the verie place where he lies shall shake through his treÌ„bling as daily experience will testifie Neither is any to thinke this straunge for Salomon saith All things in outward matters come alike to all and the same condition is to the iust and to the wicked to the good and to the pure and to the polluted and to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not CHAP. XII Of the contraries to Repentance COntrary to repentance is Impenitencie whereby men continue in one estate neither sorrowing for sinne nor turning from it It is one of the most grieuous iudgements that is if it be final For as a sicke man then is most sicke when he feeles the least sicknes and saith he is well so miserable man is in most miserie when he feeles no miserie and thinkes himselfe in good estate This sin befalls them that iudge themselues righteous needing no repentance As the Pharises in the daies of Christ the Catharists in the primitiue Church the Anabaptists in our age Adde vnto these such as haue hardened their hearts so as they can discerne betweene good and euill nor tremble at Gods iudgements but rather fret rage against them till God in his wrath either destroy them or cast them to final despaire As it befell Iulian the Apostata who died blaspheming and casting his owne blood into the aire Betweene the two extreames Repentance and Impenitencie is placed couÌ„terfeit repentance For the wicked nature of man can dissemble and counterfeit Gods grace as the Lord complaines of the Iewes Her rebellious sister Iudah hath not returned vnto me with her whole heart but fainedly saith the Lord Ier. 3.10 Counterfeit repentance is either ceremoniall or desperat Ceremoniall wheÌ„ meÌ„ repeÌ„t in outward shew but not in the truth of heart As Saul Then said Saul to Samuel I haue sinned for I haue transgressed the commandemeÌ„ts of the Lord thy words because I feared the people and obeyed their voice Now therfore I pray thee take a way my sin turne again with me that I may worship the Lord c. Again I haue sinned but honour me I pray thee before thâ— elders of my people Of Ahab When Ahab heard these words he rent his cloathes and put on sackcloath and fasted and went softly And the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me Dissembled repentance may be discerned because men after a time returne to their old byas againe Pharao king of Egypt saide vnto Moses and Aaron Pray vnto the Lord that he may take away the frogges from me and from my people And When Egypt was smitten with hayle he said I haue now sinned and the Lord is righteous but I and my people are wicked Pray yee vnto the Lord that there be no more mightie thunders and hayle Again troubled with grashoppers he saide I haue sinned against the Lord your God and against you and now forgiue me my sinne onely this once c. Now marke the issue of all when Pharao saw that he had rest giuen him he hardened his heart and hearkened not vnto them as the Lord had said This is the ordinarie and common repentance that most men practise in the world Desperate repentance commonly called Penitencie is when a man hauing onely Gods iudgements before his eyes is smitten with horror of conscience and wanting assurance of Gods mercie despaires finally This was Iudas repentance who when he had brought againe the thirtie pieces of siluer confessed his fault and went and hanged himselfe CHAP. XIII Of corruptions in the doctrine of Repentance THe Church of Rome at this day hath corrupted the ancient doctrine of Repentance beeing one of the speciall points of religion The corruptions are specially sixe The first that they make repentance or penance to be a sacrament which cannot be because it wants an outward signe And though some say that the words which the priest rehearseth in absolution are the signe yet that can not be because the signe must be not onely audible but also visible The second that a sinner hath in him a naturall disposition which beeing stirred vp by Gods preuenting grace he may and can worke together with Gods spirit in his owne repentance But indeed all our repentance is to be ascribed to Gods grace wholly The soule of man is not weake but starke dead in sinne and therefore it can no more prepare it selfe to repentance then the bodie beeing dead in the graue can dispose it selfe to the last resurrection The third corruption that contrition in
I shall merit eternall life for my fidelitie in my ministerie But blessed be God which brought to my mind such Scriptures wherby I might quench the fierie darts of the deuill which were What hast thou that thou hast not receiued and By the grace of God I am that I am and not I but the grace of God in me and thus beeing vanquished he departed When thou art tempted of Satan and sees no way to escape euen plainely close vp thine eyes and answer nothing but commend thy cause to God This is a principall point of Christian wisdom which we must follow in the houre of death If thy flesh tremble and feare to enter into another life and doubt of saluation if thou yeeld to these things thou hurtest thy selfe therefore close thine eyes as before and say with S. Stephen Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit and then certenly Christ will come vnto thee with all his Angels and be the guider of thy way Luther A DECLARATION OF THE TRVE MANNER OF KNOVVING Christ crucified Galat. 6.14 God forbid that I should reioyce but in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ c. PRINTED BY IOHN LEGAT PRINTER to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1600. To the Reader IT is the common sinne of men at this day and that in the very places of learning that Christ crucified is not knowne as he ought The right knowledge of whome is not to make often mention of his death and passion and to call him our Sauiour or to handle the whole mysterie of God incarnate soundly and learnedly though that be a worthie gift of God but first of all by the consideration of the passion to be touched with an inward and a liuely feeling of our sinnes for which our Redeemer suffered the pangs of hell and to grow to a through dislike of our selues and our liues past for them and from the groūd of the heart to purpose a reformation and a conformitie with Christ in all good duties that concerne man secondly in the Passion as in a myrrour to behold and in beholding to labour to comprehend the length the breadth the height the depth of the loue of the Father that gaue his owne deare Sonne to death and the goodnes of the Sonne that loued his enemies more then himselfe that our hearts might be rooted and grounded in the same loue and be further inflamed to loue God againe To further this true manner of knowing Christ crucified I haue penned these few lines read them at thy leisure and haue care to put them in practise otherwise thou art but an enemie of the crosse of Christ though thou professe his name neuer so much Ian. 3. 1596. W. Perkins Of the right knowledge of Christ crucified IT is the most excellent and worthy part of diuine wisdome to know Christ crucified The Prophet Esai saith The knowledge of thy righteous seruāt that is Christ crucified shall iustifie many And Christ himselfe saith This is life eternall to know thee the onely God and whome thou hast sent Iesus Christ. And Paul saith I haue decreeed to know nothing among you but Iesus Christ and him crucified Againe God forbid that I should reioyce in any thing but in the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ. Again I thinke all things but losse for the excellent knowledge sake of Christ Iesus my Lord and doe iudge them but dung that I might win Christ. In the right way of knowing Christ crucified two points must be considered one how Man for his part is to know Christ the other how he is to be knowne of man Touching the first Man must know Christ not generally and confusedly but by a liuely powerfull and operatiue knowledge for otherwise the deuils themselues know Christ. In this knowledge three things are required The first is notice or consideration whereby thou must conceiue in minde vnderstand and seriously bethinke thy selfe of Christ as he is reuealed in the historie of the Gospel and as he is offered to thy particular person in the ministerie of the word and Sacraments And that this consideration may not be dead and idle in thee two things must be done first thou must labour to feele thy selfe to stand in neede of Christ crucified yea to stand in excessiue neede euen of the very least drop of his blood for the washing away of thy sinnes And vnlesse tho◠throughly feelest thy selfe to want all that goodnes and grace that is in Christ and that thou euen standest in extreame neede of his passion thou shalt neuer learne or teach Christ in deede and truth The second thing is with the vnderstanding of the doctrine of Christ to ioyne thirsting whereby man in his very soule and spirit longs after the participation of Christ and saith in this case as Sampson said Giue me water I die for thirst The second part of knowledge is application whereby thou must know beleeue not onely that Christ was crucified but that he was crucified for thee for thee I say in particular Here two rules must be remembred and practised One that Christ on the crosse was thy pledge and suretie in particular that he then stood in thy very roome and place in which thou thy selfe in thine owne person shouldest haue stood that thy very personall and particular sinnes were imputed and applied to him that he stoode guiltie as a malefactour for them and suffered the very pangs of hell and that his sufferings are as much in acceptation with God as if thou haddest borne the curse of the law in thine owne person eternally The holding and beleeuing of this point is the very foundation of religion as also of the Church of God Therefore in any wise be carefull to applie Christ crucified to thy selfe and as Elizeus when he would reuiue the childe of the Shunamite went vp and lay vpon him and put his mouth vpon his mouth and his hands vpon his hands his eyes vpon his eyes and stretched himselfe vpon him euen so if thou wouldest be reuiued to euerlasting life thou must by faith as it were set thy selfe vpon the crosse of Christ and applie thy handes to his hands thy feete to his feete and thy sinnefull heart to his bleeding heart and content not thy selfe with Thomas to put thy finger into his side but euen diue and plunge thy selfe wholly both bodie and soule into the woundes and blood of Christ. This will make thee to crie with Thomas and say My Lord my God and this is to be crucified with Christ. And yet doe not content thy selfe with this but by faith also descend with Christ from the crosse to the graue and burie thy selfe in the very buriall of Christ and then looke as the dead souldier tumbled into the graue of Elizeus was made aliue at the very touching of his bodie so shalt thou by a spirituall touching of Christ dead and buried be quickned to life euerlasting The second rule is
most notable meanes to breede repentance and reformation of life in time to come For when wee begin to thinke that Christ crucified by suffering the first and second death hath procured vnto vs remission of all our sinnes past and freed vs from hellâ— death and damnation then if there be but a sparke of grace in vs we begin to be of another mind and to reason thus with our selues What hath the Lord bin thus mercifull vnto me that am in my selfe but a firebrand of hell as to free me from deserued destruction to receiue me to fauour in Christ yea no doubt he hath his name be blessed therefore I will not therefore sinne any more as I haue done but rather indeauour hereafter to keep my selfe from euery euill way And thus faith purifies both heart and life Thirdly when thou art in any paine of bodie or sickenes thinke how light these are compared to the agonie and bloodie sweat to the crown of thornes and nailes of Christ. When thou art wronged in worde or deede by any man turne thine eie to the crosse consider howe meekely he suffered all abuses for the most part in silence praied for them that crucified him When thou art tempted with pride or vaine-glorie consider how for thy proper sins Christ was despised and mocked and condemned among theeues When anger and desire of reuenge inflame thine heart think how Christ gaue himself to death to saue his enemies euen then when they did most cruelly intreat him shed his blood and by these meditations specially if they be mingled with faith thy minde shall be eased Thus we see how Christ crucified is to be known and hence ariseth a threefold knowledge one of God the second of our neighbours the third of our selues Touching the first if we would know the true God aright and know him to our sahiation we must knowe him only in Christ crucified God in himselfe and his owne maiestie is inuisible not onely to the eies of the bodie but also to the vere minds of men and he is reuealed to vs only in Christ in whom he is to be seene as in a glasse For in Christ he setteth forth and giues his iustice goodnes wisdome and himselfe wholly vnto vs. For this cause he is called the brightnes of the glorie and the ingrauen forme of the person of the father Heb. 1. 3. and the image of the inuisible God Coloss. 1.15 Therfore we must not know god and seeke him any where else but in Christ and whatsoeuer out of Christ comes vnto vs in the name of God is a flat idol of mans braine As for our neighbours those especially that are of Christs Church they are to be known of vs on this manner When we are to doâ— any dutie vnto them we must not barely respect their persons but Christ crucified in them them in Christ. When Paul persecuted such as called on the name of Christ he theÌ„ fâ—om heaueÌ„ cried Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Here then let this be marked that when the poore comes to vs for releefe it is Christ that comes to our dores and saith I am hungrie I am thirstie I am naked and let the bowels of compassion be in vs towards them as towards Christ vnles we wil heare that fearefull sentence in the day of iudgement Go ye cursed into hell c. I was hungrie and ye fed me not I was naked and ye did not cloath me c. Thirdly the right knowledge of our selues ariseth of the knowledge of Christ crucified in whom and by whome we come to know fiue speciall things of our selues The first how grieuous our sinnes are and therefore howe miserable we are in regard of them If we consider our offences in themselues as they are in vs we may soone be deceiued because the conscience being corrupted often erreth in giuing testimonie and by that meanes maketh sinne to appeare lesse then it is indeede But if sinne be considered in the death passion of Christ whereof it was the cause and the vilenes thereof measured by the vnspeakable torments endured by the sonne of God and if the greatnesse of the offence of man be esteemed by the endlesse satisfaction made to the iustice of God the least sinne that is will appeare to bee a sinne indeed and that most grieuous and ougly Therefore Christ crucified must bee vsed of vs as a myrrour or looking glasse in which we may fully take a view of our wretchednes and miserie and what we are by nature For such as the passion of Christ was in the eies of men such is our passion or condition in the eies of God and that which wicked men did to Christ the same doeth sinne and Satan to our very soules The second point is that men beleeuing in Christ are not their owne or lords of themselues but wholly both bodie and soule belong to Christ in that they were giuen to him of God the father and he hath purchased them with his owne blood 1. Cor. 3. Ye are Christs and Christs Gods Hence it commeth to passe which is not to be forgotten that Christ esteemeth all the crosses and afflictions of his people as his own proper afflictions Hence againe we must learne to giue vp our selues both in body and soule to the honour and seruice of Christ whose we are The third is that euery true beleeuer not as he is a man but as hee is a newe man or a Christian hath his being and subsisting from Christ We are members of his bodie of his flesh and of his bone Eph. 5.30 In which words Paul alludes to the speech of Adam Gen. 3. Thou art bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh thereby he teacheth that as Eue was made of a ribbe taken out of the side of Adam so doeth the whole church of God and euery man regenerate spring and arise out of the blood that streamed from the heart and side of Christ crucified The fourth is that all good workes done of vs proceede from the vertue and merit of Christ crucified he is the cause of them in vs and we are the causes of them in and by him Without me saith he ye can do nothing and Euery branch that beareth no fruite in me marke well he saith in me he taketh away Ioh. 15.2 The fift point is that we owe vnto Christ an endles debt For he was crucified onely as our suretie and pledge in the spectacle of his passion we must consider our selues as the chiefe debters and that the very discharge of our debt that is the sinnes which are inherent in vs were the proper cause of all the endles paines and torments that Christ endured that he might set vs most miserable bankrupts at libertie from hell death and damnation For this his vnspeakable goodnes if we doe but once thinke of it seriously we must needs confesse that we owe our selues our soules and bodies and all that we haue as a
in the Lord. When thou readest that in the garden he praied lying groueling on his face sweating water and blood beginne to thinke seriously what an vnspeakable measure of Gods wrath was vpon thy blessed Sauiour that did prostrate his bodie vpon the earth and cause the blood to follow and thinke that thy sinnes must needes be most heynous that brought such bloodie and grieuous paines vpon him Also thinke it a very shame for thee to carrie thy head to heauen with haughtie lookes to wallow in thy pleasures and to draw the innocent blood of thy poore brethren by oppression and deceit for whome Christ sweat water and blood and take an occasion from Christs agonie to lay aside the pride of thy heart to be ashamed of thy selfe to grieue in heart yea euen to bleede for thine owne offences casting downe and humbling thy selfe with Ezra saying O my God I am confounded and ashamed to lift vp mine eyes vnto thee my God for mine iniquities are increased and my trespasse is growne vp into heauen When thou readest that Christ was taken and bound thinke that thy very sinnes brought him into the power of his enemies and were the very bondes wherewith he was tyed thinke that thou shouldest haue beene bound in the very same manner vnlesse he had beene a suretie and pledge for thee thinke also that thou in the selfe â—ame manner art bound and tied with the chaynes of thine owne sinnes and that by nature thy will affections and whole spirit is tied and chained to the will of the deuill so as thou canst doe nothing but that which he willeth lastly thinke and beleeue that the bondes of Christ serue to purchase thy libertie from hell death and damnation When thou hearest that he was brought before Annas and Caiaphas thinke it was meete that thy suretie and pledge who was to suffer the condemnation due vnto thee should by the high Priest as by the mouth of God be condemned and woonder at this that the very coessentiall and eternall Sonne of God euen the very soueraigne Iudge of the world stands to be iudged and that by wicked men perswading thy selfe that this so great confusion comes of thy sinnes Whereupon beeing further amazed at thy fearefull estate humble thy selfe in dust and ashes and pray God so to soften thy stonie heart that thou maiest turne to him and by true faith lay hold on Christ who hath thus exceedingly abased himselfe that his ignominie may be thy glorie and his arraignment thy perfect absolution When thou readest that Barrabas the murderer was preferred before Christ though he exceeded both men and Angels in holinesse thinke it was to manifest his innocencie and that thy very sinnes pulled vpon him this shamefull reproch and in that for thy cause he was esteemed worse then Barrabas thinke of thy selfe as a most heynous and wretched sinner and as Paul saith the head of all sinners When thou readest that he was openly and iudicially condemned to the cursed death of the crosse consider what is the wrath and furie of God against sinne and what is his great and infinite mercie to sinners and in this spectacle looke vpon thy selfe and with grones of heart crie out and say O good God what settest thou heare before mine eyes I euen I haue sinned I am guiltie and worthie of damnation Whence comes this chaunge that thy blessed sonne is in my roome but of thy vnspeakable mercie Wretch that I am how haue I forgotten my selfe and thee also my God O sonne of God how long hast thou abased thy selfe for me Therefore giue me grace O God that beholding mine owne estate in the person of my Sauiour thus condemned I may detest and loath my sinnes that are the cause thereof and by a liuely faith imbrace that absolution which thou offerest me in him who was condemned in my stead and roome O Iesu Christ Sauiour of the world giue me thy holy and blessed Spirit that I may iudge my selfe and be as vile and base in mine owne eyes as thou wast vile before the Iewes also vnite me vnto thee by the same spirit that in thee I may be as worthie to be accepted before God as I am worthie in my selfe to be detested for my sinnes When thou readest that he was clad in purple and crowned with thornes mocked and spit vpon behold the euerlasting shame that is due vnto thee and be ashamed of thy selfe in this point conforme thy self to Christ be content as he was to be reproched abused and despised so it be for a good cause When thou readest that before his crucifying he was stript of al his cloathes thinke it was that he beeing naked might beare thy shame on the crosse and with his most pretious and rich nakednesse couer thy deformitie When thou readest the complaint of Christ that he was forsaken of his father consider how he suffered the pangs and torments of hell as thy pledge and surety Learne by his vnspeakable torments what a fearefull thing it is to sinne against God and begin to renounce thy selfe and detest thy sinnes and to walke as a child of light according to the measure of grace receiued When thou commest to die set before thine eyes Christ in the midst of all his torments on the crosse in beholding of which spectacle to thy endlesse comfort thou shalt see a paradise in the middest of hell God the father reconciled vnto thee thy Sauiour reaching out his hands vnto thee to receiue thy soule vnto him and his crosse as a ladder to aduance it to eternall glorie Wheras he cried aloud with a strong voice at the point of death it was to shew that he died willingly without violence or constraint from any creature and that if it had so pleased him he could haue freed himselfe from death and haue cast his very enemies to the very bottom of hell When thou readest that he commended his soule into the handes of his Father consider that thy soule also so be it thou wilt beleeue in him is deliuered vp into the hands of God and shall be preserued against the rage and malice of all thine enemies and hereupon thou maist be bolde to commend thy spirit into the hands of God the father When thou readest of his death consider that thy sinnes were the cause of it and that thou shouldest haue suffered the same eternally vnlesse the sonne of God had come in thy roome againe consider his death as a ransome and apprehend the same by faith as the meanes of thy life for by death Christ hath wounded both the first and second death and hath made his crosse to be a throne or tribunall seate of iudgement against all his and thine enemies When thou readest of the trembling of the earth at the death of Christ thinke with thy selfe it did in his kind as it were grone vnder the burden of the sinnes of men in the world and by his motion then it signified that euen
as giue themselues to swearing want religion and good conscience and that those families in which there is rifenesse of oathes abandon all care of religion and banish God out of their houses And indeede it is a very hard thing for the common swearer to auoide common periurie If we see a man hold vp his hand at the barre of an earthly iudge wee pitie him and are sorrie for him oh then why doe we not pittie blasphemers and common swearers For with God they are no better then rebels that hold vp their hands at the barre of his iudgement seat as guiltie malefactours Exod 20.7 Augustine saith well They that worship stocks stones feare to sweare fasly by stones and doest thou not feare God that is present God that liueth God that knoweth God that taketh reuenge of contemners but of bad custome when thou art beleeued thou swearest when none requires it thou swearest and when men cannot abide it thou swearest Thus much of an Oath nowe followes a promise which is either to God or man the first is called a vowe the second a single promise A vowe is taken three waies First generally for a promise of morall obedience and this vowe is first made in Baptisme and continued in the Lords supper as also in the spirituall exercises of inuocation and repentance It is called of Peter 1. epist. 3.21 the stipulation which a good conscience makes to God This kinde of vowe bindes all and euery member of the Church of God And the not keeping of it is the common sinne of the world for most men make not conscience to performe that which they haue promised to God in Baptisme and therefore their Baptisme is become vnto them the sacrifice of fooles Eccl. 4.17 But considering we are bound in conscience by this vow let vs hereafter indeauour to be as good as our word and that shall bee when we begin to die to our sinnes and rise to newnesse of life There is no man almost but will seeme to haue care to keepe touch with men what a shame is it then for vs not to keepe couenant with God Againe a vowe is taken for a promise of ceremoniall obedience whereof read Num. 6. and 30. and Leuit. 27. This vow is peculiar to the old testament and did not bind all men but onely such as had peculiar occasion to vow and thereupon bound themselues as the Nazarites and others Thirdly a vowe is taken for the performance of some outward and bodily exercises taken vp of a mans owne accord as beeing things in a mans owne libertie without any commandement of god as the keeping of set times of fast of praying or reading the performance of set taskes almes giuing abstinence from certaine meates and drinkes in the vse whereof through our own weaknesse we feare any occasion of sinne And this kind of vowe is more peculiar to the new testament dieth but alwaies lies gnawing and grabbling and pulling at the heart of man Mark 9.24 causeth more paine and anguish then any disease in the world can doe The time when conscience performes these actions is not before the sinne or in the act of sinning but especially after the sinne is done and past Reason I. Before a man sinneth the deuill doth extenuate the fault and make sinne to be no sinne II. Corrupt affections doe for a time so blind and ouercast iudgment that it doeth not see or at the least consider what is good or badde till afterward Neither doth conscience accuse and condemne onely for time present but also long after a thing is done The consciences of Iosephs brethren accused them 2â— yeares after they had sold him into Egypt Gen. 42.21 The effect of the accusing and condemning conscience is to stirre vp sundrie passions and motions in the heart but specially these fiue The first is shame which is an affection of the heart whereby a man is grieued and displeased with himselfe that he hath done any euill and this shame sheweth it selfe by the rising of the blood from the heart to the face Yet wee must here remember that euen such as haue the pardon of their sinnes and are not guiltie may be ashamed and blush Rom. 6. 21. What fruite had ye in those things whereat yee nowe blush or hee ashamed Yet for all this euen those which are most guiltie may be without all shame Ier. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay nay they were not ashamed neither could they haue any shame because they are growne to some great height in sinne Eph 4.18 The second passion is sadnes and sorrowe which is commonly thought to be nothing else but melancholie but betweene them twaine there is great difference Sorrow that comes by melancholy ariseth only of that humour annoying the bodie but this other sorrow ariseth of a mans sinnes for which his coÌ„science accuseth him Melancholly may be cured by physicke this sorrow can not be cured by any thing but by the blood of Christ. The third is feare in causing whereof conscience is very forcible If a man had all the delights and pleasures that heart can wish they can not doe him any good if conscience be guiltie Belshazzar when hee was in the middest of all his delights and sawe the hand writing vpon the wall his countenance changed his thoughts troubled him his ioynts loosed and his knees smote togither Dan. 5.9 Yea the guiltie conscience will make a man afraid if hee see but a worme peepe out of the ground or a silly creature to goe crosse his way or if hee see but his owne shadow on a suddain or if he doe but forecast an euil with himselfe Prou. 28.1 The wicked flieth when no man pursueth him Terrours of conscience when they are more vehement cause other passions in the body as exceeding heate like that which is in the fitte of an ague the rising of the entralls towardes the mouth and souning as experience hath often shewed And the writer of the booke of wisdome saith truely cap. 17.10 It is a fearefull thing when malice is condemned by her owne testimony and a conscience that is touched doeth euer forecast cruell things For feare â—â— nothing else but the betraying of the succours that reason offereth c. they that did endure the might that was intollerable c. sometimes were troubled with monstrous visions and sometimes they swouned as though their owne soules should betray them for a sudden feare not looked for came vpon them The fourth is desperation whereby a man through the vehement and constant accusation of his conscience comes to be out of all hope of the pardon of his sinnes This made Saul Achitophel and Iudas to hang themselues this makes many in these daies to doe the like as appeareth by the declarations of such as haue beene preuented when they were about to hang or drowne theÌ„selues or to cut their owne throates The last is a perturbation or disquietnesse of the
this absurd conceit that they are not in danger of the wrath of God though they offend And the opinion of our common people is hereunto answerable who thinke that if they haue a good meaning and doe no man hurt God will haue them excused both in this life and in the day of iudgement The third is a iust and serious examination of the conscience by the law that we may see what is our estáte before God And this is a dutie vpon which the Prophets stand very much Lam. 3.40 Man suffereth for his sinne let vs search and trie our hearts and turne againe to the Lord. Zeph. 2. 1. Fanne your selues fanne you O nation not worthie to be beloued In making examination we must specially take notice of that which doth now lie or may hereafter lie vpon the conscience And after due examination hath beene made a man comes to a knowledge of his sinnes in particular and of his wretched and miserable estate When one enters into his house at midnight he findes or sees nothing out of order but let him come in the day time when the sunne shineth and he shall then espie many faults in the house and the very motes that flie vp and downe so let a man search his heart in the ignorance and blindnesse of his minde he will straightway thinke all is well but let him once begin to search himselfe with the light and lanterne of the law and he shall finde many foule corners in his heart and heapes of sinnes in his life The fourth is a sorrow in respect of the punishment of sinne arising of the three former actions And though this sorrow be no grace for it befals as well the wicked as the godly yet may it be an occasion of grace because by the apprehension of Gods anger we come to the apprehensioÌ„ of his mercie And it is better that conscience should grieue wound vs do his worst against vs in this life while remedie may be had then after this life when remedy is past Thus much of preparation now follows the remedie and the application of it The remedie is nothing else but the blood or the merits of Christ who specially in conscience felt the wrath of God as when he said My soule is heauie vnto death and his agonie was not so much a paine and torment in bodie as the apprehension of the feare and anger of God in conscience and when the holy Ghost saith That he offered vnto God praiers with strong cries and was heard from feare he directly notes the distresse and anguish of his most holy conscience for our sinnes And as the blood of Christ is an all-sufficient remedie so is it also the alone remedie of all the sores and wounds of conscience For nothing can stanch or stay the terrrours of conscience but the blood of the immaculate lambe of God nothing can satisfie the iudgement of the conscience much lesse the most seuere iudgement of God but the onely satisfaction of Christ. In the application of the remedie two things are required the Gospell preached and faith the Gospell is the hand of God that offereth grace to vs and faith is our hand whereby we receiue it That we indeede by faith receiue Christ with all his benefits we must put in practise two lessons The first is vnfainedly to humble our selues before God for all our wants breaches and wounds in conscience which beeing vnto vs a paradise of God by our default we haue made as it were a little hell within vs. This humiliation is the beginning of all grace and religion pride and good conscience can neuer goe togither And such as haue knowledge in religion and many other good gifts without humiliation are but vnbridled vnmortified and vnreformed peâ—sons This humiliation containes in it two duties the first is confession of our sinnes especially of those that he vpon our consciences wherewith must be ioyned the accusing and condemning of our selues for then we put conscience out of office and dispatch that labour before our God in this life which conscience would performe to our eternall damnation after this life The second dutie is Deprecation which is a kind of praier made with groanes and desires of heart in which we intreat for nothing but for pardon of our sinnes and that for Christs sake til such time as the conscience be pacified To this humiliation standing on these two parts excellent promises of grace and life euerlasting are made Prou. 28. 13. He that hideth his sinnes shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercie 1. Ioh. 1.6 If we acknowledge our sinnes he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our sinnes and to clense vs from all vnrighteousnes Luk. 1.35 He hath fiâ—led the hungrie with good things and sent the rich emptie away Which are also verified by experience in sundrie examples â— Sam. 12.13 Dauid said to Nathan I haue sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to Dauid The Lord also hath put away thy sinne 2. Chr. 33.43 When Manasses was in tribulation he praied to the Lord his God and huÌ„bled himselfe greatly before the God of his fathers and praied vnto him and God heard his praier Luk. 23.43 And the thiefe said to Iesus Lord remember me when thou commest to thy kingdome Then Iesus said vnto him Verely I say vnto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise By these and many other places it appeares that when a man doth truly humble himselfe before God he is at that instant reconciled to God and hath the pardon of his sinnes in heauen and shall afterward haue the assurance thereof in his owne conscience The second lesson is when we are touched in conscience for our sinnes not to yeeld to naturall doubtings and distrust but to resist the same and to indeauour by Gods grace to resolue our selues that the promises of saluation by Christ belong to vs particularly because to doe thus much is the very commandement of God The third thing is the reformation of conscience which is when it doth cease to accuse and terrifie and begins to excuse and testifie vnto vs by the holy Ghost that we are the children of God and haue the pardon of our sinnes And this it will doe after that men haue seriously humbled themselues and praied earnestly and constantly with sighes and grones of spirit for reconciliation with God in Christ. For then the Lord will send downe his spirit into the conscience by a sweete and heauenly testimonie to assure vs that we are at peace with God Thus we see how good conscience is gotten and because it is so pretious a iewell I wish all persons that as yet neuer laboured to get good conscience now to begin Reasons to induce men thereto may be these I. you seeke daie and night from yere to yere for honours riches and pleasures which ye must leaue behind you much more therefore ought you to seeke for renewed
forth his best hearers as eaters of his bodie and drinkers of his blood and thirdly he intends to prooue this conclusion that to eate his bodie and to drinke his blood and to beleeue in him are all one Now then if Christ be as foode and if to eate and drinke the bodie and blood of Christ be to beleeue in him then must there be a proportion betweene eating and beleeuing Looke then as there can be no eating without taking or receiuing of meate so no beleeuing in Christ without a spirituall receiuing apprehending of him And as the bodie hath his hand mouth and stomacke whereby it taketh receiueth and digesteth meat for the nourishment of euery part so likewise in the soule there is a faith which is both hand mouth and stomacke to apprehend receiue apply Christ all his merits for the nourishment of the soule And Paul saith yet more plainly that through faith we receiue the promise of the spirit Now as the propertie of apprehending applying of Christ belōgeth to faith so it agreeth not to hope loue confidence or any other gift or grace of God But first by faith we must apprehend Christ apply him to our selues before we can haue any hope or confidence in him And this applying seems not to be done by any affection of the will but by a supernaturall act of the mind which is to acknowledge set downe and beleeue that remission of sins and life euerlasting by the merit of Christ belong to vs particularly To this which I haue said agreeth Augustine Tract 25. on Ioh. Why preparest thou teeth and belly beleeue and thou hast eaten and Tract 50. How shall I reach my hand into heauen that I may hold him sitting there Send vp thy faith and thou laiest hold on him And Bernard saith homil in Cant. 76. Where hee is thou canst not come nowe yet goe to followe him and seeke him beleeue and thou hast found him for to beleeue is to finde Chrysost. on Mark Homil. 10. Let vs beleeue and wee see Iesus present before vs. Ambr. on Luk. lib. 6. c. 8. By faith Christ is touched by faith Christ is seene Tertul. de resur car Hee must be chewed by vnderstanding and be digested by faith Reason II. Whatsoeuer the holy Ghost testifieth vnto vs that we may yea that we must certenly by faith beleeue but the holy Ghost doeth particularly testifie vnto vs our adoption the remission of our sinnes and the saluation of our soules and therefore we may and must particularly and certainly by faith beleeue the same The first part of this reason is true and cannot be denied of any The second part is prooued thus Saint Paul saith Rom. 8.15 Wee haue not receiued the spirit of bondage to feare but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father adding further that the same spirit beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Where the Apostle maketh two witnesses of our adoption the spirit of God and our spirits that is the conscience sanctified by the holy Ghost The Papists to elude this reason alleadge that the spirit of God doth indeede witnesse of our adoption by some comfortable feelings of Gods loue and fauour being such as are weak and oftentimes deceitfull But by their leaues the testimony of the spirit is more then a bare sense or feeling of Gods grace for it is called the pledge and earnest of Gods spirit in our hearts 2. Cor. 1.22 and therfore it is fit to take away all occasion of doubting of our saluation as in a bargaine the earnest is giuen betweene the parties to put all out of question Bernard saith that the testimonie of the spirit is a most sure testimonie epist. 107. Reason III. That which we must pray for by Gods commandement that we must beleeue but euery man is to pray for the pardon of his owne sinnes and for life euerlasting of this there is no question therefore hee is bound to beleeue the same The proposition is most of all doubtfull but it is prooued thus In euery petition there must bee two things a desire of the things wee aske and a particular faith whereby we beleeue that the thing wee aske shall be giuen vnto vs. So Christ saith Whatsoeuer ye desire when you pray beleeue that you shall haue it and it shall be giuen vnto you And S. Iohn further noteth out of this particular faith calling it our assurance that God will giue vnto vs whatsoeuer we aske according to his will And hence it is that in euery petition there must be two grounds a commandement to warrant vs in making a petition and a promise to assure vs of the accomplishment thereof And vpon both these followes necessarily an application of the things which we aske to our selues Reason IV. Whatsoeuer God commandeth in the Gospell that a man must and can performe but God in the Gospell commaundeth vs to beleeue the pardon of our owne sinnes and life euerlasting and therefore wee must beleeue thus much and may be assured thereof This proposition is plaine by the distinction of the commandements of the lawe and of the Gospell The commandements of the lawe shew vs what we must doe but minister no power to performe the thing to be done but the doctrine and commandements of the gospel doe otherwise and therefore they are called spirit and life God with the cōmandement giuing grace that the thing prescribed may be done Now this is a commandement of the Gospell to beleeue remission of sinnes for it was the substance of Christs ministerie repent beleeue the Gospell And that is not generally to beleeue that Christ is a Sauiour and that the promises made in him are true for so the deuills beleeue with trembling but it is particularly to beleeue that Christ is my Sauiour and that the promises of saluation in Christ belong in speciall to me as Saint Iohn saith This is his commandement that we beleeue in the name of Iesus Christ nowe to beleeue in Christ is to put confidence in him which none can do vnles he be first assured of his loue and fauour And therefore in as much as wee are inioyned to put our confidence in Christ wee are also ioyned to beleeue our reconciliation with him which standeth in the remission of our sinnes and our acceptation to life euerlasting Reason V. Whereas the Papists teach that a man may be assured of his saluation by hope euen hence it follows that he may be vnfallibly assured therof For the propertie of true and liuely hope is neuer to make a man ashamed Rom. 5.5 And true hope followeth faith presupposeth certaintie of faith◠neither can any man truly hope for his saluation vnlesse by faith he be certenly assured thereof in some measure The Popish doctors make exception to these reasons on this maner First they say it cannot be prooued that a man is as certain of his saluation by
the foundation of the world but nowe in the ende he hath appeared once to put away sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe and v. 22. without shedding of blood is no remission of sinnes By these words it is plaine that the scripture neuer knewe the twofold manner of sacrificing of Christ. And euery distinction in diuinity not founded in the written word is but a forgerie of mans braine And this distinction be good how shal the reason of the Apostle stand He did not offer himselfe but once because he suffered but once Reason II. The Romish Church holds that the sacrifice in the Lords supper is all one for substance with the sacrifice which hee offered on the crosse if that be so then the sacrifice in the Eucharist must either be a continuance of that sacrifice which was begun on the crosse or els an alteration or repitition of it Now let them choose of these twaine which they will if they say it is a continuance of the sacrifice on the crosse Christ beeing but the beginner and the priest the finisher thereof they make it imperfect for to continue a thing till it be accomplished is to bring perfection vnto it but Christs sacrifice on the crosse was then fully perfected as by his owne testimonie appeares when he saide Consummatum est it is finished Againe if they say it is a repetition of Christs sacrifice thus also they make it imperfect for that is the reason which the holy Ghost vseth to prooue that the sacrifices of the old testament were imperfect because they were repeated Reason III. A reall and outward sacrifice in a sacrament is against the nature of a sacrament and especially the supper of the Lord for one ende thereof is to keepe in memorie the sacrifice of Christ. Now euery remembrance must be of a thing absent past and done and if Christ be daily and really sacrificed the sacrament is no fit memoriall of his sacrifice Againe the principal ende for which the sacrament was ordained is that God might giue and we receiue Christ with his benefits and therefore to giue and take to eate and drinke are here the principall actions Now in a reall sacrifice God doth not giue Christ the priest receiue him of God but coÌ„trariwise he giues offers Christ vnto God and God receiues some thing of vs. To helpe the matter they say that this sacrifice serues not properly to make any satisfaction to God but rather to applie vnto vs the satisfaction of Christ beeing alreadie made But this answer sâ—ill maketh against the nature of a sacrament in which God giues Christ vnto vs whereas in a sacrifice God receiues from man and man giues something to God a sacrifice therefore is no fit meanes to applie any thing vnto vs that is giuen of God Reason IV. Hebr. 7.24,25 The holy Ghost makes a difference betweene Christ the high priest of the new testament and all Leuiticall priests in this that they were many one succeeding another but he is onely one hauing an eternall priesthood which cannot passe from him to any other Now if this difference be good then Christ alone in his owne very person must be the priest of the new testament and no other with or vnder him otherwise in the new testament there should be more priests in number then in the old If they say that the whole action remaines in the person of Christ and that the priest is but an instrument vnder him as they say I say againe it is false because the whole oblation is acted or done by the priest himselfe and he which doth all is more then a bare instrument Reason V. If the priest doe offer to God Christs reall bodie and bloode for the pardon of our sinnes then man is become a mediatour betweene God and Christ. Now the Church of Rome saith that the priest in his masse is a priest properly and his sacrifice a reall sacrifice differing onely in the manner of offering from the sacrifice of Christ vpon the crosse and in the very canon of the masse they insinuate thus much when they request God to accept their gifts and offerings namely Christ himselfe offered as he did the sacâ—ifices of Abel and Noe. Now it is absurd to thinke that any creature should be a mediatour betweene Christ and God Therefore Christ can not possibly be offered by any creature vnto God Reason VI. The iudgement of the auncient Church A certaine Councill held at Toledo in Spaine reprooueth the Ministers that they offered sacrifice often the same day without the holy communion The wordes of the Canon are these Relation is made vnto vs that certaine priests doe not so many times receiue the grace of the holy communion as they offer sacrifices in one day but in one day if they offer many sacrifices to God in all the oblations they suspend themselues from the communion Here marke that the sacrifices in auncient Masses were nothing else but formes of diuine seruice because none did communicate no not the priest himselfe And in an other Councill the name of the Masse is put onely for a forme of praier It hath pleased vs that prayers supplications Masses which shall be allowed in the Councill be vsed Aâ—d in this sense it is taken when speach is vsed of the making or compounding of Masses for the sacrifice propitiatorie of the bodie and blood of Christ admits no composition Abbat Paschasius saith Because we sinne daily Christ is sacrificed for vs mystically and his Passion is giuen in mysterie These his wordes are against the reall sacrifice but yet he expoundes himselfe more plainely cap. 10. The blood is drunke in mysterie spiritually and it is all spirituall which we eate c. 12. The priest distributes to euery one not as much as the outward â—ight giueth but as much as faith receiueth cap. 13. The full similitude is outwardly and the immaculate flesh of the lambe is faith inwardly that the truth be not wanting to the sacrament and it be not ridiculous to Pagans that we drinke the blood of a killed man cap. 6. One eates the flesh of Christ spiritually and drinkes his blood another seemes to receiue not so much as a morsell of bread from the hand of the priest his reason is because they come vnprepared Now then considering in all these places he makes no receiuing but spirituall neither doth he make any sacrifice but spirituall IV. Obiections of Papists I. Gen. 14. v. 18. When Abraham was comming from the slaughter of the Kings Melchizedech mette him and brought forth bread and wine and he was a priest of the most high God Now this bread and wine say they he brought forth to offer for a sacrifice because it is said he was a priest of the most high God and they reason thus Christ was a priest after the order of Melchizedek therefore as Melchizedek offered bread and wine so Christ vnder the formes of bread and wine offers himselfe in sacrifice
vnto God Ans. Melchizedek was no type of Christ in regard of the acte of sacrificing but in regard of his person and things pertaining thereto which all are fully expounded Hebr. 7. the summe whereof is this I. Melchizedeck was both king and priest so was Christ. II. He was a prince of peace and righteousnesse so was Christ. III. He had neither father nor mother because the scripture in setting downe his history makes no mention either of beginning or ending of his daies and so Christ had neither father nor mother no father as he was man no mother as he was God IV. Melchizedek being greater thē Abraham blessed him Christ by vertue of his priesthood blesseth that is iustifieth sanctifieth all those that be of the faith of Abrahā In these things onely standes the resemblance and not in the offering of bread and wine Againe the ende of bringing forth the bread and wine was not to make a sacrifice but to refresh Abraham and his seruants that came from the slaughter of the Kings And he is called here a priest of the most high God not in regard of any sacrifice but in consideration of his blessing of Abraham as the order of the words teacheth And he was the priest of the most high God and therefore he blessed him Thirdly though it were graunted that he brought forth bread and wine to offer in sacrifice yet will it not follow that in the sacrament Christ himselfe is to be offered vnto God vnder the naked formes of bread and wine Melchizedeks bread and wine were absurd types of no-bread and no-wine or of formes of bread and wine in the Sacrament II. Obiect The paschall lambe was both a sacrifice and a sacrament now the Eucharist comes in roome thereof Ans. The paschall lambe was a sacrament but no sacrifice Indeede Christ saith to his disciples Goe and prepare a place to sacrifice the Passeouer in Mark 14.12 but the words to offer or to sacrifice doe often signifie no more but to kill As when Iacob and Laban made a couenant it is saide Iacob sacrificed beasts and called his brethren to eate bread Gen. 31.54 Which words must not be vnderstood of killing for sacrifice but of killing for a feast because he could not in good conscience inuite them to his sacrifice that were out of the couenant beeing as they were of another religion secondly it may be called a sacrifice because it was killed after the maner of a sacrifice Thirdly when Saul sought his fathers asses and asked for the Seer a maide bids him goe vp in hast for saith shee there is an offering of the people this day in the high place 1. Sam. 9. 12. where the feast that was kept in Rama is called a sacrifice in all likelihood because at the beginning thereof the priest offered a sacrifice to God and so the Passeouer may be called a sacrifice because sacrifices were offered within the compasse of the appointed feast or solemnitie of the Passeouer and yet the thing it selfe was no more a sacrifice then the feast in Rama was Againe if it were graunted that the Passeouer was both it will not make much against vs for the supper of the Lord succeedes the Passeouer onely in regard of the maine ende thereof which is the increase of our communion with Christ. III. Obiect Malac. I.II. The prophet foretelleth of a cleane sacrifice that shall be in the new testament and that say they is the sacrifice of the Masse Ans. This place must be vnderstood of a spirituall sacrifice as we shall plainely perceiue if we compare it with 1. Tim. 2.8 where the meaning of the prophet is fitly expounded I will saith Paul that men pray in all places lifting vp pure hands without wrath or doubting And this is the cleane sacrifice of the Gētiles Thus Iustin Martyr saith That supplicatiōs and thanksgiuings are the onely perfect sacrifices pleasing God and that Christians haue learned to offer them alone And Tertullian saith We sacrifice for the health of the Emperour as God hath commanded with pure praier And Ireneus saith that this cleane offering to be offered in euery place is the praiers of the Saints IV. Obiect Hebr. 13.10 We haue an altar whereof they may not eate◠which serue in the tabernacle Now say they if we haue an altar then we must needes haue a priest and also a reall sacrifice Ans. Here is meant not a bodily but a spirituall altar because the altar is opposed to the materiall Tabernacle and what is meant thereby is expressed in the next verse i◠which he prooues that we haue an altar The bodies of the beasts whose blood was brought into the holy place by the high priest for sinne were burnt without the campe so Christ Iesus that he might sanctifie the people with his owne blood suffered without the gate Now lay the reason or proofe to the thing that is prooued and we must needes vnderstand Christ himselfe who was both the altar the priest and the sacrifice V. Obiect Lastly they say where alteration is both of law and couenant there must needes be a new priest and a new sacrifice But in the new testament there is alteration both of law and couenant and therfore there is both new priest and new sacrifice Ans. All may be graunted in the new testamēt there is both new priest and sacrifice yet not any popish priest but onely Christ himselfe both God and man The sacrifice also is Christ as he is man and the altar Christ as he is God who in the new testament offered himselfe a sacrifice to his Father for the sinnes of the world For though he were the lambe of God slaine from the beginning of the world in regard of the purpose of God in regard of the value of his merit and in regard of faith which maketh things to come as present yet was he not actually offered till the fulnes of time came and once offering of himselfe he remaineth a priest for euer and all other priests beside him are superfluous his one offering once offered beeing all-sufficient The twelfth point Of fasting Our consent Our consent may be set downe in three conclusions I. We doe not condemne fasting but maintaine three sorts thereof to wit a morall ciuill and a religious fast The first being morall is a practise of sobrietie or temperance when as in the vse of meates and drinkes the appetite is restrained that it doe not exceede moderation And this must be vsed of all Christians in the whole course of their liues The second beeing ciuill is when vpon some particular and politicke considerations men abstaine from certaine meates as in this our common-wealth the Law inioynes vs to abstaine from flesh meate at certaine seasons of the yeare for these speciall endes to preserue the breed of cattell and to maintaine the calling of the fisherman The third namely a religious fast is when the duties of religion as the exercise of
is eaten his owne flesh which he was to giue for the life of the worlde and what can be said more of the Lords supper Augustine saith that beleeuers are partakers of the bodie and blood of Christ in baptisme and Hierome to Edibia that in baptisme we eate and drinke the body and blood of Christ. If thus much may be said of baptisme why may it not also be said of the word preached Again Hierom vpon Ecclesiastes saith It is profitable to be filled with the bodie of Christ and drinke his blood not onely in mysterie but in knowledge of holy Scripture Nowe vpon this it followes that seeing the worke done in the word preached conferres not grace neither doth the worke done in the sacrament conferre any grace Reason II. Math. 3.11 I baptize you with water to repentance but he that cōmeth after me is stronger then I hee shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire Hence it is manifest that grace in the sacrament proceedes not from any action in the sacrament for Iohn though he doe not disioyne himselfe his action from Christ and the action of his spirit yet doth he distinguish thē plainely in number persons and effect To this purpose Paul who had said of the Galathians that he trauelled of them and beget them by the Gospell saith of himselfe that he is not any thing not onely as hee was a man but as hee was a faithfull Apostle thereby excluding the whole Euangelicall ministerie wherof the Sacrament is a part from the least part of diuine operation or efficacy in conferring of grace Reason III. The blessed Angels nay the very flesh of the sonne of God hath not any quickning vertue from it selfe but all this efficacie or vertue is in and from the godhead of the sonne who by meanes of the flesh apprehended by faith deriueth heauenly and spirituall life from himselfe to the members Now if there be no efficacie in the flesh of Christ but by reason of the hypostatical vnion how shall bodily actions about bodily elements conferre grace immediatly Reason IV. Paul Rom. 4. stands much vpon this to prooue that iustification by faith is not conferred by the sacraments And from the circumstance of time he gathereth that Abraham was first iustified and then afterward receiued circumcision the signe and seale of his righteousnes Nowe we knowe that the generall condition of all sacraments is one and the same and that baptisme succeeded circumcision And what can be more plaine then the example of Cornelius Act. 10. who before Peter came vnto him had the commendation of the feare of God and was indued with the spirit of praier and afterward when Peter by preaching opened more fully the way of the Lord hee and the rest receiued the holy Ghost And after all this they were baptised Now if they receiued the holy Ghost before baptisme then they receiued remission of sinnes and were iustified before baptisme V. Reason The iudgement of the Church Basil. If there bee any grace in the water it is not from the nature of the water but from the presence of the spirit Hierome saith Man giues water but God giues the holy Ghost Augustine saide Water toucheth the bodie and washeth the heart but he shewes his meaning else where There is one water saith he of the sacrament another of the spirit the water of the Sacrament is visible the water of the spirit inuisible That washeth the bodie and signifieth what is done in the soule By this the soule is purged and healed Obiect Remission of sinnes regeneration and saluation is ascribed to the sacrament of baptisme Act. 22.21 Eph. 5. Gal. 3.27 Tit. 2. Ans. Saluation and remission of sinnes is ascribed to baptisme and the Lords supper as to the word which is the power of God to saluation to all that beleeue and that as they are instruments of the holy ghost to signifie zeale and exhibite to the beleeuing minde the foresaid benefits but indeede the proper instrument whereby saluation is apprehended is faith and sacraments are but proppes of faith furthering saluation two waies first because by their signification they helpe to nourish and preserue faith secondly because they seale grace and saluation to vs yea God giues grace and saluation when we vse them well so be it we beleeue the word of promise made to the sacrament whereof also they are seales And thus we keepe the middle way neither giuing too much nor too little to the sacraments The XX. point Of sauing faith or the way to life Our Consent Conclus I. They teach it to bee the propertie of faith to beleeue the whole whole word of God and especially the redemption of mankind by Christ. Conclus II. They auouch that they beleeue looke to be saued by Christ and by Christ alone and by the meere mercy of God in Christ. Conclus III. Thirdly the most learned among them hold confesse that the obedience of Christ is imputed vnto them for the satisfaction of the lawe and for their reconciliation with God Conclus IV. They auouch that they put their whole trust and confidence in Christ and in the meere mercy of God for their saluation Concl. V. Lastly they hold that euery man must apply the promise of life euerlasting by Christ vnto himselfe and this they grant we are bound to doe And in these fiue points doe they and we agree at least in shewe of wordes By the auouching of the fiue conclusions papists may easily escape the handes of many magistrates And vnlesse the mysterie of popish doctrine bee well known any common man may easily be deceiued take such for good protestants that are but popish priests To this end therefore that we may the better discerne their guile I will shew wherein they faile in each of their conclusions and wherein they differ from vs. The difference Touching the first conclusion they beleeue indeed all the written word of God and more then all for they also beleeue the bookes Apocryphal which antiquitie for many hundred yeares hath excluded from the canon yea they beleeue vnwritten traditions receiued as they say from Councills the writings of the Fathers and the determinations of the Church making them also of equall credit with the written worde of God giuen by inspiration of the spirit Now we for our parts despise not the Apocrypha as namely the books of the Machabees Ecclesiasticus and the rest but wee reuerence them in all conuenient manner preferring them before any other bookes of men in that they haue beene approoued by an vniuersall consent of the Church yet wee thinke them not meete to bee receiued into the Canon of holy scripture and therfore not to be beleeued but as they are cōsenting with the written word And for this our doing we haue directiō from Athanasius Origen Hierom and the Councel of Laodicea As for the vnwriten Traditions they come not within the compasse of our faith neither can
Gospell is vpon condition of mens faith and repentance and that men are deceiued touching their owne faith and repentance and therefore faile in applying the word vnto themselues Ans. Indeede this manner of applying is false in all hypocrites heretickes and vnrepentant persons for they applie vpon carnall presumption and not by faith Neuerthelesse it is true in all the Elect hauing the spirit of grace and praier for when God in the ministerie of the word beeing his owne ordinance saith Seeke ye my face the heart of Gods children truly answereth O Lord I wil seeke thy face Psal. 17.8 And when God shall say Thou art my people they shall say againe The Lord is my God Zach. 13.6 And it is a truth of God that he which beleeueth knoweth that he beleeueth and he that truly repenteth knoweth that be repeÌ„teth vnles it be in the beginning of our conuersion in the time of distresse and temptation Otherwise what thankfulnesse can there be for grace receiued Obiect II. It is no article of the Creede that a man must beleeue his owne saluation and therefore no man is bound thereto Ans. By this argument it apâ—â—â—res plainely that the very pillars of the Church of Rome doe not vnderstand the Creede for in that which is commonly called the Apostles Creede euery article implieth in it this particular faith And in the first article I beleeue in God are three things contained the first to beleeue that there is a God the second to beleeue the same God to be my God the third to put my confidence in him for my saluation and so much containe the other articles which are concerning God When Thomas said Ioh. 20.28 My God Christ answered Thou hast beleeued Thomas Where we see that to beleeue in God is to beleeue God to be our God And Psal. 78. 22. to beleeue in God and to put trust in him are all one They beleeued not in God and trusted not in his helpe And the articles concerning Remission of sinnes and Life euerlasting do include and we in them acknowledge our speciall faith concerning our owne saluation For to beleeue this or that is to beleeue there is such a thing and that the same thing belongs to me as when Dauid said I should haue fainted except I had beleeued to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the liuing Psal. 27.13 It is answered that in those articles wee onely professe our selues to beleeue remission of sinnes and life euerlasting to be vouchsafed to the people Church of God Ans. This indeede is the exposition of many but it standes not with common reason For if that bee all the faith that is there confessed the deuill hath as good a faith as we He knoweth and beleeueth that there is a God that this God imparteth remission of sinnes and life euerlasting to his church And to the end that wee beeing Gods children may in faith goe beyond all the deuills in hell we must further beleeue that remission of sinnes and life euerlasting belongs vnto vs and vnlesse we doe particularly apply the said articles vnto our selues we shall little or nothing differ from the deuill in making confession of faith Obiect III. We are taught to pray for the pardon of our sinnes day by day Matth. 6.12 and all this were needlesse if we could bee assured of pardon in this life Answ. The fourth petition must be vnderstood not so much of our olde debts or sinnes as of our present and newe sinnes for as we goe on from daie to daie so we adde sinne to sinne and for the pardon of them must wee humble our selues and pray I answer againe that wee pray for the pardon of our sinnes not because we haue no assurance thereof but because our assurance is weake and small wee growe on from grace to grace in Christ as children doe to mans estate by little and little The heart of euery beleeuer is like a vessell with a narrow necke which beeing cast into the sea is not filled at the first but by reason of the straight passage receiueth water drop by drop God giueth vnto vs in Christ euen a sea of mercie but the same on our parts is apprehended and receiued onely by little and litte as faith groweth from age to age and this is the cause why men hauing assurance pray for more Our reasons to the contrarie Reason I. The first reason may be taken from the nature of faith on this manner True faith is both an vnfallible assurance and a particular assurance of the remission of sinnes and of life euerlasting And therefore by this faith a man may be certenly and particularly assured of the remission of sinnes and life euerlasting That this reason may bee of sorce two things must be prooued first that true faith is a certaine assurance of Gods mercie to that partie in whome it is Secondly that faith is a particular assurance thereof For the first that faith is a certaine assurance Christ saith to Peter Mat. 14.31 O thou of litle faith wherefore didst thou doubt Where he maketh an opposition betweene faith and doubting whereby giuing vs directly to vnderstand that to be certen and to giue assurance is of the nature of faith Rom. 4.20.22 Paul saith of Abraham that he did not doubt of the promise of God through vnbeleefe but vvas strengthened in faith and gaue glory to God being fully assured that he which had promised was able to doe it where I obserue first that doubting is made a fruit of vnbeleefe and therefore vnfallible certentie and assurance being contrarie to doubting must needes proceede from true faith considering that coÌ„trarie effects come of contrarie causes and contrarie causes produce contrary effects SecoÌ„dly I note that the strength of Abrahams faith did stand in fulnes of assurance for the text saith he was strengthened in the faith being fully assured and againe Heb. 11.1 true sauing faith is said to be the ground and subsistance of things hoped for the euidence or demonstration of things that are not seene but faith can be no ground or euidence of things vnlesse it bee for nature certenty it selfe and thus the first point is manifest The second that sauing faith is a particular assurance is prooued by this that the propertie of faith is to apprehend and apply the promise and the thing promised Christ with his benefits Ioh. 1.12 As many saieth S. Iohn as receiued him to them hee gaue power to be the sonnes of god namely to them that beleeue in his name In these words to beleeue in Christ and to receiue Christ are put for one and the same thing Nowe to receiue Christ is to apprehend and apply him with all his benefits vnto our selues as he is offered in the promises of the gospell For in the sixt chapter following first of all he sets forth himselfe not onely as a Redeemer generally but also as the bread of life and the water of life secondly he sets