still cleanse us from all our sinnes from which in this life we are cleansed or can hope to be cleansed If we then receive remission of sinnes or purification from our sinnes in the Sacrament of the Eucharist as we alwaies doe when we receive it worthily we receive it not immediately by the sole serious remembrance of his death but by the present Efficacie or operation of his body which was given for us and of his Bloud which was shed for us 10. The reason why the bloud of Bulls and of Goats had no longer force or efficacie to cleanse men though but from sinnes against the Law of Ceremonies then whilest they were offered was because their bloud was corruptible bloud and did perish with the using But we are not redeemed saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 1. 18. with corruptible things as silver and Gold but with the pretious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish or without spot One part of the pretiousness of his bloud is that it is farr more incorruptible then silver gold or other pretious metall and the less corruptible any metall is the more pretious it is and the more pretious it is the more uncorruptible Though Christ then was truly mortal when he dyed for us yet the bloud that he shed forth for us at his death did not become like water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered again it did not vanish or consume as the bloud of Legal Sacrifices did as his Body so his Bloud was not to see or feel corruption not a drop of Bloud which was shed for us whether in the Garden or upon the Crosse but was the bloud of the Son of God but was shed by him as willing at this price to become the everlasting High Priest of our soules and not a drop of Bloud which was so shed did cease or shall ever cease to be the bloud of the Son of God His soule and body we know were disunited by death yet were neither of them disunited from his Godhead or Divine Person His Body whilest laid in the grave was still the Body of the Son of God as still retaining Personal Vnion with his Godhead So was his soule so was his Bloud the soule and Bloud of the Son of God as being indissolubly united to his Divine Person Though his bloud whilest it was shed or powred out did lose its Physical or Local Union with his body though one portion of it were divided from another yet no drop of it was divided from his infinite Person And that which the Romish Church would transferre unto each several crum of bread or drop of Wine in the Eucharist is Originally and properly true of the several drops or divisibilities of Christs Bloud which was shed for us whole Christ was in every one of them indivisibly in every one of them God was the Godhead was and is personally united to all of them 11. Whether all and every portion of his bloud which was then shed were by the power of the Godhead recollected and re-united to his Body as his Body was to his Soule at the resurrection See Chap 46. Numb 2. we cannot tell God knowes But this we know and believe that the self same bloud which was then shed whether it were gathered together again or remained dispersed whether it were re-united to his Glorifyed Body or divided from it is still united to the Fountain of Life to the Godhead in the Person of the Son And being united to this Fountain of Life who dwelleth in it as light within the body of the Sun it is of Efficacie everlasting it hath an immortal power or force to dissolve the Works of Satan in us as well those which he worketh in us after Baptism as before The Vertue of it to cleanse and purge us from our sinnes of what kind soever is at this day as soveraign as if it had been sprinkled upon our soules whilest it issued out of his body It is impossible it should lose its Vertue in or upon our soules unless vve first lose our Interest in it vvhich vve cannot lose but by abandoning the vvaies of light and polluting our soules vvith the Works of darkness For so long as we walk in the light the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God doth cleanse us from all our sins 12. 1 John 1. 7. This present Efficacie of Christs body and Bloud upon our soules or reall Communication of both I find as a truth unquestionable amongst the Antient Fathers and as a Catholick Confession The Modern Lutheran and the modern Romanist have fallen into their several Errors concerning Christs presence in the Sacrament from a common ignorance neither of them conceive nor are they vvilling to conceive hovv Christs body and bloud should have any Real Operation upon our soules unlesse they were so Locally present as they might Agere per contactum that is either so purge our soules by Oral Manducation as Physical Medicines do our bodies vvhich is the pretended use of Transubstantiation or so quicken our souls as svveet odours do the Animal spirits which were the most probable use of the Lutheran Consubstantiation Both the Lutheran and Papists avouch the Authoritie of the Ancient Church for their opinions but most injuriously For more then we have said or more than Calvin doth stiffely maintain against Zuinglius and other Sacramentaries cannot be inferred from any speeches of the truely Orthodoxal or Ancient Fathers They all agree that we are immediately cleansed and purifyed from our sinnes by the bloud of Christ That his humane Nature by the inhabitation of the Deitie is made to us the inexhaustible Fountain of life But about the particular manner how life is derived to us from his humane Nature as whether it sends its sweet influence upon our soules only from the heavenly Sanctuary wherein it dwells as in its Sphere or vvhether his bloud vvhich vvas shed for us may have more immediate Local presence vvith us they no way disagree because they in this kind abhorred curiositie of dispute As for Vbiquitie and Transubstantiation they are the two Monsters of modern times brought forth by ignorance and maintained only by Faction And thus much of the infinite value and everlasting Vertue of Christs Sacrifiâ—e in comparison of Legal Sacrifices The next Querie is How the everlasting Efficacie of his Sacrifice or of his Priesthood was prefigured by Legal Sacrifices or purifications for sin 13. The Legal sacrifices as all agree did generally foreshaddow Christs Onely and All-sufficient Sacrifice But in as much as they were corruptible and their vertue transient and by reason of their corruption and transient vertue were often to be reiterated they could not be so much as true shaddowes either of his offering of Himself once for all or of the everlasting vertue of his Onely Sacrifice once offered Their imperfection corruption or transient vertue did serve as foyles to set forth the glorie and splendor of his everlasting
against the moral Law of God So doth his Blood or operative Vertue of his Everlasting sacrifice consecrate or qualifie the Elements of Bread and Wine to purifie and cleanse our soules from such actual sinnes as after Baptism we have committed This perennal Efficacie or Operative Vertue of Christs Body and Blood consecrated once for all by the sacrifice of himself to be a perpetual purification for such as were to be consecrated Kings and Priests unto their God which was thus pictured by the former Legal or Mosaical Rites was more expressly foretold by the Prophet Zacharie For having in the twelfth Chap. ver 10. Prophesied of the piercing of the Son of Gods most pretious Body by the Jewes for which when God should open their eyes to see the truth they should lament and mourn he explicates the Use or End to which the Divine Providence had destinated this their malitious crueltie Chap. 13. 1. In that day there shall be a Fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness By this offering of himself Once for all by this opening of his pretious Side he hath consecrated all that are Sanctified and all that are sanctified are sanctified by it Yet not actually sanctified or actually consecrated by his Blood before it be sprinkled in our hearts by Faith And to instruct us that the Legal Water of separation or sprinkling did foreshadow the Blood of Christ the Apostle termes it The blood of sprinkling Heb. 12. 24. CHAP. LVI The Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice and the Use of his Priest-hood Two distinct several Things Wherein the Exercise of his Priest-hood doth consist How it was foreshaddowed Ordinaâ—ces effectual by vertue of Christs Presence Vertual Presence is a Real presence 1. SUch as deny the Everlasting Efficacie of Christs Sacrifice may be presumed likewise to deny the Vse of his Everlasting Priesthood Howbeit all such as grant the everlasting Efficacie of his Sacrifice cannot hence be concluded to admitt the everlasting use of his Priesthood For these be Two distinct Points of our Belief If Belief in Christs death or in the Everlasting Efficacie of his sacrifice were all that we are bound to believe we were not bound to acknowledge any other Act of his Priesthood besides the offering up of himself in Sacrifice But by this one Act of his Priesthood he was consecrated to be an Everlasting Priest And if he be an Everlasting Priest he still executes the Office or Function of an High Priest And it is our Dutie the Chief Point of our Religion to supplicate unto him as to The Onely High Priest of our Soules that he would make us partakers of his Everlasting Sacrifice as we say ex Officio by exercising the Office or Function of an High Priest The Question is Wherein the Function or exercise of his Priesthood doth consist To this we answer First Negatively That it doth not consist in the often offering up of himself by his Priests or Ministers here on Earth For if he were on Earth saith the Apostle Heb. 8. 4. he should not be a Priest This argues that he exerciseth his Priest-hood in the heavenly Sanctuary not in Temples made vvith hands So saith the Apostle more expresly Heb. 9. 24. Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High priest entreth into the holy place every year 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with bloud of others For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself The truth then is as you have heard before that Christ by his bloudy Sacrifice upon the Crosse was consecrated to be an Everlasting Priest And that this Consecration was not accomplished untill his Resurrection from the dead For it is not conceivable that he should be an Everlasting Priest before he became an Immortal man and by his rising c opened the Gate of Everlasting life After he was thus consecrated by death and by the resurrection from the dead to be an Everlasting Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck he was not to offer any sacrifice nor do we read that Melchizedeck offered any Wherein then did Melchizedecks Priesthood consist Only in the dignitie of Authoritative blessing See Book 9. Ch 9. and 11 He was saith Moses the Priest of the most high God and he blessed Abraham and said Blessed be Abraham of the most High God possessour of Heaven and Earth St. Cyril * See the note at the end of this Chapter in his Parallel betwixt Christ and Melchisedech speakes more expressly and reads the Text more punctually for the Opinion of Reformed Churches than we our selves for the most part doe 2. This exercise of Christs spiritual Priesthood in the heavenly Sanctuary was foreshaddowed by sundry services and sacrifices of the Law By that Solemn Attonement which the High Priest made in the most holy place and as we have often said by the sacrifice of the Red Heifer also Albeit that solemnitie did prefigure him likewise in the Act of his Consecration or designation to his heavenly Sanctuary This Heifer was slain by another without the Camp in Eleazars sight and yet Eleazar the Priest was to sprinkle the bloud of this sacrifice before the Tabernacle of the Congregation that is with his face towards the Sanctuary on which unless he did constantly look whilest he did sprinkle the bloud the service was frustrated as the Jews say This testifyed that the validity of this Act or the purification intended by it was to be expected from the Sanctuary Christ likewise was slain by the hands of sinful men without the City Heb. 9. 14. And yet though slain by them he offered himself by the eternal Spirit And whether by This eternal spirit or by his spirit as man or by both certain it is that by the Spirit he sprinkleth the bloud of the new Covenant upon us and prepareth a way for us to the heavenly Sanctuary As the people under the Law might not enter into the Congregation nor the Priests into the Sanctuary untill they had been purifyed from their uncleanness by the water of sprinkling so neither could we or any of Gods people have accesse unto the most holy Place or heavenly Sanctuary untill the way were prepared for us by the bloud of the Son of God nor untill we be sprinkled and purifyed with his Bloud Having therefore brethren boldnesse to enter into the holyest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vaile that is to say his flesh And having an high Priest over the house of God Let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our
will recover without further medicine From this Analogie or proportion betwixt the diseases of the Soul and of the body it is I take it that we are not injoyned to mortifie the Spirit For the Apostle supposeth that the Flesh being mortified the Cure is wrought without any peculiar Mortification of the Spirit distinct from it Or rather He supposed and knew that the mortification of the Flesh could not be wrought without Renovation or Quickening of the Spirit For though it be true which some Moralists say Mens deprecatur ad optima that The Spirit or Conscience doth as it were intreat and counsel Malefactors themselves unto that which is Good Yet the Spirit and Conscience of the best men before they be renewed by the Spirit of God doth perform this work but Weakly Sleightly or Cowardly And the Reason why the Spirit or Conscience of men of good men in respect of others is so defective in this performance of its proper Function is only because it is overborn or kept under or in part corrupted by Carnal Affections or contrary inclinations of the Body or flesh which for this Reason must be mortified Therefore the Apostle when He exhorts to put off the Old Man which is corrupt through the deceitfull Lusts injoynes them to be renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Ephe. 4. 22. 23. 10. There is a Twofold Mortification The One consists in the weakening deading or benumming of Carnal Affections or Desires The Other is alwayes wrought and perfected by a Positive Purification of the Heart or Fountain whence the Affections flow A man may cease to be unchast or Lascivious by age or other Casual Impotencie So may a man cease to be drunk by some disease or distast Another may cease to be Ambitious or have his Ambitious desires benummed or weakened as being either bereaved of opportunities to raise his Fortunes or disenabled to follow his Suites or hopes of Preferment Mortification is then perfect when the Affection it self is as it were rescued from the Carnal Desires or Delights wherein it was involved and is won or trayned to the Service of the Spirit CHAP. XXXIV Containing the Manner and Order of The Spirits Working or of Our Working by The Spirit 1. THe Question remaines How these Two sorts of mortification are wrought by The Spirit or by Vs To this Disquisition concerning the Cure of the Soul there is a Question very Pertinent amongst the Physitians of the Body Whether the Cure of mens Souls be wrought by Contraries or Symbolicals One sort sayes Omne Remedium fit per Contrarium The Others say Omne Remedium fit per Simile The Difference betwixt them may be easily reconciled with the Distinction of the Infirmities and Diseases which are to be cured or of the Subject whereunto the said Medicine may be said to be Like Dislike or Contrarie 2. The Medicine may be sometimes Contrarie to the Matter of the Disease but Like unto the Nature opposed Sometimes again the Medicine may be Contrary to the Nature but Agreeable with the matter of the Disease wherewith Nature is opposed Some Diseases properly consist in meer weaknesse of Nature or Languishment of Spirit and these must be cured per Simile by administration of such Diet or Receipts as may immediatly comfort the Fountain of Life which consists in Calido Humido in moderate heat and moysture As for this reason Hot-waters to men in Swounds are fittest and warm Brothes or Cordials to men otherwise Feeble or deprived of heat and moisture Other Diseases consist either in Excessive Heat or abundance of Blood and these must be cured by the Contrarie as by opening a Veine or by cooling Diet or medicines Too much fulnesse of Body cannot be holpen but by abstinence or Evacuation However both sorts of Physitians agree that when all is done Nature is the best Physitian and that is the best Physick which setts Nature Free to exercise her own strength or Strengthens her to expell noysom humours which cloy or molest her But oft times it so falls out that Nature cannot be thus freed of bad Humors which are setled in the Body without administration of some thing that is Contrary unto Nature but Consorteth so well with the Humors which oppresse her that Nature being inforced to expell this In-mate or New-Comer doth with the same force expell a secret or domestick Enemie which had associated himself unto it As sometimes the Law cannot proceed against secret Enemies of the state untill they be drawn to associate or joyn themselves to other apparent forrain Enemies with whom they perish or are expelled their Native Countrey together with them Again although the Conflict be alwaies most eager and keen between Natures most Contrarie yet that which every Contrarie Agent doth in the first place aym at is not utterly to destroy its Oppoâ—ite but to make it like it self albeit the one often come to destroy the other by seeking to make it grow like it self The heat of the fire doth not directly aym or strike at the cold in the water but seekes to communicate its own heat unto it and the heat produced in the water doth immediatly and directly expell the cold and at length consume the substance of water 3. For better explicating the Manner how both kinds of Mortification are wrought by the Spirit Or how they are wrought by the Spirit of God how by the spirit of man or by the spirit which is in Man Or how by Contraries How by Similitude we are in the First place to consider Three Estates or Conditions of Men How the Cure of the Soul is wrought in severall sorts or Conditions of men The First of the Natural Man that is of him which as yet is in no sort partaker of the spirit of God which hath had no touch or feeling of its Operation in him or upon him The Second is of men which have been partakers of the Spirit but as we say in Fieri not in Facto Such as feele the motions of Gods Spirit whilest it moves them that is they are partakers of its Motions or touches but not of its Residence in them or of any Permanent Impression made upon them The Third Sort is of men made partakers of the Spirit in Habit that is as the Apostle speakes they have the Spirit dwelling in them and are enlivened and enquickened by it The manner how Mortification is wrought in these Three severall sorts or Conditions of men by the Spirit is not the same In the First sort the Cure is Commonly Begun by the Contrary but alwaies Finished by Assimilation God sometimes weakens the inclinations of the natural man against his wil without Consent of his own Spirit Some men are prone to offend or to surfet of the flesh unto death by the abundance of health or too Lively plight of Body and these God in mercie sometimes visits with grievous sicknesses for preventing the diseases which would otherwise grow upon them
And in this sense that of St. Ambrose with whose Expressions of this Mysterie many in our times have been altogether causelesly much offended when thou hadest overcome the sharpness of death thou didest open the kingdom of heaven to all Believers ought to be taken Nothing can be more plain or more Concludently proved from our Saviours own words and his Apostles Comments on them than this That The Kingdom of Heaven it self was not Erected was not established untill that Jesus whom the Jews had Crucifyed was made both Lord and Christ and placed as Man at the Right Hand of his Father 3. To dilate further upon this Point for this Present I dare not lest I should lose my way or forget to return to the other Parallel proposed to wit What heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary the first Part of the earthly Tabernacle or Court whereinto the ordinary Priests went every day did represent or foreshaddow I shall not trespass against any Article of Faith or Rule of interpreting Scriptures nor I hope offend any ingenuous Conscience by delivering my Opinion in a Point wherein the Scripture as I conceive is silent or which can neither be enforced upon Us as any part of Christian Belief nor be refuted by any Rule of Faith To my apprehension of our Apostles meaning Heb. 8. ver 5. That place or Mansion in the heavenly Tabernacle wherein Abraham Lazarus c. did rest before The Kingdom of heaven was set open to all Beleivers was That Place or Court which Atrium Sacerdotum the Court of the Priests in the first Tabernacle or in Salomons Temple did Picture out unto us Or if the soules of the Faithful were not admitted into That Place before Christs death we cannot allot a Lower or Outermer Mansion in heaven it self than that which Atrium Congregation is that is the Court of the Congregation in Salomons Temple whereinto the Congregation of Israel which were no Priests were admitted and taught by the Priests did represent However it be That heavenly Mansion or Sanctuary which in proportion truly answered to the Sanctuary or Court of Priests in the material Temple was no such happy Seat of Bliss before Christs Death as it was made by it For by his Bloud it was finally Consecrated or dedicated to be what now it is a True Temple which was the Second Parallel proposed CHAP. XLVI A Parallel betwixt the Rites of Dedicating the Tabernacle the Vessels c. with Bloud of Beasts And of Consecrating the Heavenly Places with the most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ 1. THe Place or Station for drawing this Parallel aright is Hebr. 9. Neither was the first Testament dedicated without Bloud For when Moses had spoken every Praecept to all the People according to the Law he took the bloud of Calves and of Goates with water and Scarlet wooll and Hyssop and sprinkled both the Book and all the people saying This is the bloud of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you Moreover he sprinkled with bloud both the Tabernacâ— and all the vessels of the Ministerie And almost all things are by the Law purged with Bloud and without shedding of bloud is no Remission Ver. 18 19 20 21 22. All this he speakes according to the plain Litteral Sense of the Law concerning the Purifying or Consecrating of the Earthly Tabernacle with its Vessels or Implements The Mystical Sense or meaning of the Matters of Fact or Practises performed by Moses and Aaron when they consecrated the first Tabernacle with the bloud of Bullocks and Goates c. is litterally explained unto us by this our Apostle in the verses following It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purifyed with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these ver 23. These words admit no Metaphors or Tropes but have their proper and Real Logical Sense The Argument is most punctually Concludent The Similitude or paterns of heavenly things were purified with bloud therefore the heavenly things themselves that is the Caelestial Tabernacles were to be purged and consecrated with the bloud of Christ our high Priest which is now entred into them for our Sanctification and final Redemption To inquire what should become of all our Saviours bloud whether shed in his Agonie or upon the Cross will seem I know A Curious Question specially to slothful Students in Divinitie On the otherside it would argue a drowsie Fancie either voluntarily to imagine or to be by others perswaded That his most Precious bloud being shed in such abundance should be like water spilt upon the ground either swallowed up by the dry earth or mingled with dust or dispersed by the heat of the Sun and resolved into vapours Seeing every drop of it was truly The bloud of God It can be no Sin to suppose nay to believe that All of it was by his death made as his Body now is Immortal that All of it was preserved entire and sincere and brought either by his own immediate power or by the Ministery of his holy Angels into those heavenly Sanctuaries which were to be CONSECRATED by it to be the Seats or Mansions of everlasting bliss unto all true Believers and thus brought in at the time of his Entrance into Paradise in soule though not in Body which was immediately after he had commended his Spirit unto his heavenly Father 2. If unto all that hath been said in this Argument I should further adde That the most precious bloud of the Son of God which was shed for the Ransom of our Sins in the Garden or upon the Cross and brought into the Celestial Tabernacle upon his death whether reunited to his Glorified Body or glorified in it self and preserved apart from his body doth still retain an everlasting Efficacy for the daily Purifying of our hearts and working Sanctification in us I presume the Intelligent or ingenuous Reader will interpret this Assertion rather for a Point of speculation not much thought upon by others than any Paradox or Heterodoxal Doctrine of my own Invention But of the true Vertual presence or Real Operation of the Body and Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ upon our Soules in so great distance as is between the most high and most holy Celestial Sanctuary and these material Temples here on earth wherein we Celebrate and Solemnize the memorie of his Death and passion more punctually and more fully if God shall be pleased to give leave In the 11. Book hereafter All which I have here affirmed or intimated will uncontrollably follow from our Apostles Doctrine in this Epistle and from other Passages of his Fellow Apostles To begin with that of Heb. 9. 11 c. Christ being come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the bloud of Goates and Calves but by his own bloud he entred in once into the holy place
rightly believe in him specially against such as duly administer his holy Sacraments may with its improvement be concludently inferred by the Tenents and daily Practises of that Church both which are as punctually and as fully contradictory to the Doctrine of the Author of this Epistle Chap. 9. and 10. and to many other principal Maxims of Christian Religion as any Doctrine Tenent or Practise can be one to another For the Law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually to make the Comers thereunto perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of Sins But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sinnes every year For it is not possible that the bloud of Bulls and Goates should take away sins c. Heb. 10. 1 2 3 4. By the which we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL. And every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sinnes But this man or rather this Priest after he had offered ONE SACRIFICE for sinnes for ever sat doâ—n on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Whereof the holy Ghost also is a witness to us for after that he had said before this is the Covenant that will make with them after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sinnes and iniquities will I remember no more Now where Remission of these is there is no more offering for Sin ver 10. to 18. 4. The force of our Apostles Inference and the very Pith of his Discourse throughout these Passages presented to the Readers View doth more punctually refute the Doctrine of the Romish Masse then it did the Contradicting Jews or other Blasphemers of Christs Name and Office either before or since this Divine Epistle was written The Pith and Marrow of all his Arguments consists in This That even the best of Legal Sacrifices or services were they bloudy or unbloudy were altogether Unsufficient to Purifie the Conscience could never take away sin Because They were to be Reiterated the best and most solemn of them every Year and many of them every Day others as oft as Casual Occasions did require Now if this Argument be Concludent as no Christian can denie it to be against the Jews which pleaded for the Sufficiencie of Legal Sacrifices it will conclude a fortiori or with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb 9. 14. against the absolute Perfection or Sufficiencie of our Saviours Sacrifice of Himself supposing that it should be as the Romanists teach Thus much it will inevitably inferre according to the Peremptory Canons of the Roman Church which plainly teach and under pain of damnation injoyn all Christians to believe that Christs Body and Bloud That very same Body that very same bloud which were once offered by himself upon the Crosse are daily offered by the Masle-Priest Or as if this were not enough to out-vie the Jewish Synagogue in the Sin of Contradiction to Christ they adde that every such offering is a propitiatorie Sacrifice as well for some that be dead as for the living And I think such Oblations as they make do the one sort as little good or as little harm as they doe the other unlesse they sollicite the Priest to make this kind of Attonement for them But to such Sollicitors or Executors of such Sollicitations both Doctrine and Practise must needs create as great danger as any Heresie or Branch of Contradicting Infidelitie hath done or can do to the mainteiners of it This Branch of the Roman Churches Doctrine doth as punctually Contradict that Fundamental Doctrine Heb. 9. 13. If the bloud of Bullocks and Goats c. as it doth the forecited Passages Heb. 10. 5. But the authorized practise of consecrating their Holy water for remission of sinnes and Sanctification is most palpably Contradictory to our Apostles meaning or to the meaning of the holy Spirit in that other Instance of the Water of Sprinkling wherein the Ashes of the Red Cow were Special Ingredients and gave the vertue and Tincture unto it for purifying men from such Legal uncleannesse as the best Ceremonies of the Law and This Water in special was Consecrated for The Law for the Consecrating This water and the Use or Ends for which it was Consecrated we have Numb 19. The mistaking of which place and the gross misse-use of the like water solemnly consecrated by that Canonical Authoritie which the Romish Church doth challenge â—ver all other Churches is set down in such plain terms that no honest hearted Roman Catholick specially of the English Scotish Netherlandish or German Nation if he be able to read the New Testament in his own Native Language but he will be either heartily sorry for Alexander the fifth who made this Canon or at least ashamed that their Forefathers should approve it or that it should be practised by their Instructers if they would permit them to have the reason of the Canon or Decree rightly translated into a Language which they understand The Canon with the Glosse upon it is here transcribed in the same words wherein it was first conceived and published In Decreti 3. part de Consecrat distinct 3. c. 20. prout habetur in Corpore Juris Canonici Jussu Gregorii 13. Lugd. impressâ— Anno 1618. 6. Sic se habet Glossa in hunc locum Aquam Sale Haec est decima pars distinct Secundùm Jo. de Fant CASUS Quaeritur cur aqua cum sale benedicatur Et respondetur ut ea homines aspersi sanctificentur Cum enim in vetere Testamento cinis vitulae sanctificabat sal per manum Helisaei Prophetae sanavit sterilitatem aquae multò magis aqua cum sale benedicta omnia conspersa purificat Aquam sale u ¶ Aquam Sale Quia per aquam confessio per salem amaritudo signatur morsio unde haec est mistura unde geminus procedit partus divisio sc delictorum ortus virtutum bonorum operum 32. q. 1. c. Cum renuntiatur Haec designata est per mistionem Judae qui confessio dicitur Hu stands for Hugo Card. Arch. for Archidiaconus su for supra in for infra Thamar quae amaritudo dicitur unde Phares divisio Zaran ortus geminus sc partus provenit H U. conspersam populis benedicimus ut eâ cuncti aspersi sanctificentur x ¶ Sanctificentur Quaeritur quomodo aqua benedicta dicatur populum sanctificare vel mundare ADDITIO Ad hoc potest responderi secundum id quod no Su. ea dist 2. c. Signum in
Means much available for strengthening of Faith or for repairing those decayes or ruines which the subtiltie of Satan works in our soules yet the Reiteration of the Sacrament of Baptism is neither Necessary nor allowable much lesse Commendable for such purposes And the Raritie or rather Singularitie of It was to my apprehension Emblematically prefigured by the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer or the Water of sprinkling which was Legally sanctified or consecrated by her Ashes The Law concerning this kind of Purification is not to be found I take it in Leviticus at least not in that sixteenth Chapter wherein the Law of the Sacrifice of attonement is punctually set down However the forementioned Glossarie upon the Romish Canon for consecrating Holy Water either through negligence See Chapt. 48 Num. 6. or ignorance or both avouch that place for it If the sacrifice of the Red Heifer had belonged unto the Feast of attonement it must have been reiterated once every year whereas the Hebrew Antiquaries affirm that this solemnitie was not used above tea times during all the time of the Law of the Tabernacle or Temple And whether it were so often used may be questioned because there is no Law or Precept for the Continuation of it but only for the use of the water of sprinkling being once consecrated by it so often as the occasion specified in the Law did require 2. But unlesse the frequent use of the water so mingled with the ashes did wast or exhaust the ashes of that one sacrifice which Eleazar not Aaron was commanded to offer These might have been preserved without putrifaction for a longer time then the Law of Ceremonies was to endure For Ashes as good Naturalists tell us being well kept are immortal or an Emblem of Immortalitie But it may be that as soon or as often as the Ashes of any such sacrifice were by frequent use of the water of sprinkling exhausted or wasted the Legal Priests were bound by the Law mentioned to offer another for consecrating the water of sprinkling whose use was to continue as long as the reason mentioned in the Law did indure 3. The chief use or End of the water of sprinkling mingled with the Ashes of this sacrifice was to purifie such as had made themselves Legally unclean or had casually fallen into such uncleanness One branch of this uncleanness was the touching or being touched by any Dead Corps And unto this use of the water of sprinkling mentioned Numb 19. 11. that of our Apostle Heb. 9. 14. hath special Reference more then Allusion How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from DEAD works That this Legal Sacrifice for sinne was an Exquisite Type of Christs Bloudy Death and sufferings or an exact picture of his bloud wherewith the heavenly Sanctuary or Holy places were purified although the bloud of this Legal sacrifice were not brought into the Earthly Sanctuary no good Writers which I have read either deny or question That the Water of sprinkling consecrated by the aspersion of the Ashes of this Legal Sacrifice did truely resemble the water of Baptism by which we are washed from sin and consecrated unto God as clean persons that is made members of his Church here on earth is so evident in it self that it needs no Paraphrase or Laborious Comment upon the fore-cited Law Yet to this purpose the learned Reader may find much pertinent matter in Chytraeus his Comments upon the Book of Numbers and in many others It will be more needful or better suiting with my intentions in this place to prevent the captious exceptions which some Anti-Papists have heretofore taken and now resume against the expressions of our Publick Liturgie in that Part of it which concerns the Administration of Baptism Almighty and everlasting God which of thy great mercie diddest save Noah and his Familie in the Ark from perishing by water and also diddest safely lead the children of Israel through the red sea figuring thereby thy holy Baptism and by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Iesus Christ diddest sanctifie the floud Iordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin We beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou wilt mercifully look upon these Children Sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they being delivered from thy wrath may be received into the Ark of Christs Church and being stedfast in faith joyful through hope and rooted in charity may so passe the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life there to reign with thee world Without end through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Seeing now dearly beloved Brethren that these Children be regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs Congregation let us give thanks unto God for these Benefits and with one accord make our prayers unto Almightie God that they may lead the rest of their life according to this beginning We yeild thee heartie thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own Child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation and humbly we beseech thee to grant that he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin that as he is made partaker of the death of thy Son so he may be partaker of his resurrection so that finally with the residue of thy holy congregation he may be Inheritor of thine everlasting Kingdom through Christ our Lord. Amen 4. It is no part of our Churches Doctrin or meaning that the washing or sprinkling infants bodyes with Consecrated water should take away sinnes by it's own immediate Vertue To affirm thus much implies as I conceive a Contradiction to that Apostolical doctrin The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven c. 1. Pet. 3. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further then thus That if this Sacrament of Baptism be duely administred the blood or bloody Sacrifice of Christ or which is all one the Influence of his spirit doth alwaies accompany or is Concurrent to this solemn Act. But whether this Influence of his spirit or Vertual presence of his body and blood be either immediatly or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party Baptized or have some vertual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soule of the partie Baptized whilest the water is poured upon him is Too Nice and curious a Question in this Age for sober Christians to debate or contend about It may suffice to beleive that this Sacramental pledge hath a Vertual Presence of Christs Blood or some Real
Influence from his Body Concomitant though not Consubstantiated to it which is prefigured or signified by the washing or sprinkling the body with water 5. But it will be or rather is Objected but only by privat or some sawcy spirits That if the Doctrin of our Church were true and sound then all that be rightly Baptized should be undoubtedly saved being once washed or cleansed from their sinnes The Objection were of some force if the Church of England did hold or maintain such Doctrin or Tenets as they do which make or favour it to wit That the sins of the Elect only are remitted by Baptism or by the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood or That sins once remitted cannot be remitted afresh or that the Partie which is once pardoned for his sins before commited cannot afterwards be condemned The Orthodoxal Truth is That albeit the Original Sin of Children truly Baptized in the name of Christ or the Actual sins of young or elder men so Baptized and the sins of their forefathers so far as it concernes men of riper yeares to repent them of both be so truly remitted in Baptism that neither young men nor old may be Baptized again Yet the Astipulation of a good Conscience wherein the internal Baptism as St. Peter tells doth consist may and ought by the Law of God and of Christs Church to be reiterated And this Astipulation of every Christian male or femal though baptized after they have passed their Nonage for Civil contracts Though Baptisme may not be reiterated yet The Astipulation of a good Conscience or the Enquireing to God may dayly and must often be renewed ought to be resumed or re-acknowledged so often as they intend to receive the Sacramental pledges of Christs body and blood either privately or in the publick congregation But for all such as have been baptized in their Infancie the Personal Resumption or Ratification of that VOW which their Fathers and Mothers in God did make for them at the Sacred Laver is to be exacted of them Ore tenus in some publick Congregation before they can be lawfully admitted to be Publick Communicants of Christs Body and Blood 6. There is then no default or defect in the Church of England Doctrin or Lawes concerning Baptism No child or Infant Baptized may or ought to be admitted unto the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood before he have in his own person ratified that VOW which his Sureties or spiritual Guardians did make for him at the Sacred Font where Chrîst is as â—ruly present as at the Sacrament of the Altar as some term it or Confirmation of such as have been babaptized in their infancie But I dare not avouch so much for justifying the men unto whom the Execution of these Lawes is especially commended whether they be of Lower of higher or of the highest Rank It hath not been my hap to peruse very many Presentments of Church-Wardens or Inferiour Priests in Visitations Yet of those few or any whereof I have had some Cognizance I have observed but a very few or scarce remember any tendred against the Parents or such as were Sureties for Infants at the sacred Font for not bringing them at convenient times to be Confirmed or blessed by the Bishop of the Diocese or against inferiour Ministers for not Preparing those the Cure of whose soules was immediatly committed to them to receive the Confirmation of their Faith by the Benediction of the Diocesane much lesse against Diocesanes themselves for not executing their office in this Great Service of the Church either in their own Persons or by their Suffraganes 7. Whether the solemn Baptizing of all Infants which are the children of presumed Christian Parents throughout this Kingdom without solemn Astipulation that they shall at years of discretion personally ratifie their Vow in baptism in publick in such manner as the Church requires be not rather more Lawful or more tolerable then Expedient I leave it with all submission to the consideration of Higher Powers In the mean time I shall every day blesse my Lord God as for all others so in particular for this Great Blessing bestowed upon me that I was in a Convenient Age in a happy time and place presented by my Sureties in Baptism to ratifie the VOW which they made for me and to receive the Benediction of the Bishop of the Diocese being first instructed in the Churches Catechism by the Curate of the Parish from whose Lips though but a meer Grammar Scholer and one that knew better how to read an Homilie or to understand Hemingius or other Latine Postills then to make a Sermon in English I learned more good Lessons then I did from many popular Sermons and to this day remember more then men at this time of greater years shall find in many late applauded Catechisms CHAP. LI. Inordinate Libertie of Prophesying brought Errours into the Church disgrac'd and hindred the Reformation 1. ALbeit the Reverend Fathers of our Church and their Suffraganes should use all possible care and diligence for performing of all that is on their parts required yet without some better conformitie of Catechismâ— and reformation of such as write them or preach Doctrines conformable to them there is small hope that in such plentie of Preachers as now there are this work of the Lord should prosper half so well as it did in those TIMES and in those Dioceses wherein there were scarce ten able Preachers besides the Prebendaries of the Cathedral Church under whose Tuition in a manner the rest of the Clergie were I well remember and I cannot but remember it with joy of heart that the Synods in that Diocesse wherein I was bred did constantly examine the Licenced Readers how they had profited in learning by their Exercises which they did as duly exhibit unto the Chancellor Archdeacon c as they did their Orders or their Fees Such as had profited well were Licenced to Preach once a moneth or once a quarter having certain Books appointed from whose doctrine they should not swarve but for the most part translate The Authors then in most esteem were Melancthon Bullinger Hemingius especially in Postâ—ls and other Opuscula of his or other Writers who were most conformable to the Book of Homilies which were weekly read upon severe penaltie 2. But since the Libertie of Prophesying was taken up which came but lately into the Northern Parts unlesse it were in the Towns of Newcastle and Barwick wherein Knox Mackbray and Vdal had sown their Tares all things have gone so cross backward in our Church that I cannot call the Historie for these fortie years or more to mind or express my observations upon it but with a bleeding heart The First Declination from the Ancient Church was Concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ of which the forward Zelots or rigid Reformers of Popish merits did make more malitious and scandalous Vse upon Vse then the Papists themselves or other Hereticks did
reason then why the Body of Christ is not or ought not to be often offered is not because all our sinnes were actually remitted by the once offering of it or remitted before they were committed but because the substance or matter of the sacrifice is of the same force at this day to remit sinnes that it was of whilest it was offered For his humane nature was consecrated by death and by his bloody Passion to be a sacrifice of everlasting Vertue to be the continual propitiation for our sinnes 7 If either the actual sinnes of all men Christs Resurrection our baptism needless if sinnes be remitted before they be committed or the sinnes of the Elect in speciall had been so remitted by Christs death as some conceive they were that is absolutely pardoned before they were committed there had been no end or use of Christs Resurrection in respect of us no need of Baptism yet was Baptism from the hour of his resurrection necessarie unto all that did beleive in his death and resurrection The urgent and indispensable necessitie of Baptism especially in respect of actual beleivers is not any where more Emphatically intimated than in St. Peters Answer to the Jewes Whose hearts were pierc't with sorrow that they had been the causes of Christs death They in this stound or sting of Conscience demand Men and brethren what shall we do and Peter answered them Repent and be Baptized Every one of you In the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sinnes And they that gladly received the word were Baptized the same day Acts 2. 37 38 41. These men had been deeply tainted with sin not original onely but with sinnes actual of the worst kind guiltie they were in a high degree of the death of the Son of God yet had they as well their actual as their original sinnes remitted by Baptism It is then an unsound and imperfect Doctrin that sin original onely is taken away or remitted by Baptism for whatsoever sinnes are remitted or taken away by Christs death the same sins are in the same manner remitted and taken away by Baptism into his death actual sinnes are remitted in such as are guiltie of actual sinnes when they are baptized though onely sin Original be actually remitted in those which are not guiltie of actual sinnes as in Infants No mans sinnes are actually remitted before he be actually guilty of them 8. The Question is how either sin original is remitted or how any work of Satan is dissolved by Baptism And this Question in the General is righly resolved by saying They are remitted by faith But this general Resolytion sufficeth not unless we know the Object of our Faith in this particular Now the particular Object of our Faith of that faith by which sinnes whether by Baptism or otherwise are remitted is not our general Belief in Christ even our belief of Christ dying for us in particular will not suffice unlesse it include our Belief of the Everlasting Vertue of his bloudie Sacrifice and of his everlasting Priest-hood for purifying and cleansing our soules No sinnes be truly remitted unless they be remitted by the Office or exercise of his Priest-hood and whilest so remitted they are not remitted by any other Sacrifice then by the sole vertue of his body and bloud which he once offered for all for the sinnes of all It is not the Vertue or Efficacie of the consecrated water in which we were washed but the vertue of his Bloud which was once shed for us and which by Baptism is sprinkled upon us or communicated unto us which immediately cleanseth us from all our sinnes From this everlasting Vertue of this his bloudy Sacrifice Faith by the ministerie of baptism is immediatly gotten in such as had it not before And in such as have Faith before they be baptized the guilt of Actual sinns is remitted by the exercise or Act of Faith as it apprehends the everlasting Efficacy of this sacrifice and by the prayer of faith and supplication unto our High Priest Faith then is as the mouth or appetite by which were receive this food of Life and is a good sign of health but it is the food itself received which must continue health and strengthen spiritual life in us and the food of life is no other then Christs Body and Bloud and it is our High Priest himself which must give us this food Baptism saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 20. doth save us what Baptism doth save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh yet this is the immediate effect of the water in baptism but the answer or stipulation of a good conscience towards God But how doth this kind of Baptism or this concomitant of Baptism save us The Apostle in the same place tells us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ The answer or stipulation of a good conscience includes an illumination of our spirits by the Spirit of God a qualification by which we are made sonnes of Light being before the sonnes of darkness But That by this qualification we become the sonnes of Light That this qualification is by baptism wrought in us That by this qualification however wrought in us we are saved from our sinnes All this is immediately from the vertue of Christs Resurrection That is as you have heard before he was consecrated by the sufferings of death to be an everlasting Priest and by his resurrection from death his body and bloud became an everlasting Propitiation for sinnes an inexhaustible Fountain of Grace by which we are purifyed from the dead works of sinne 9. It is true again that in the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud there is a propitiation for our sinnes because He is really present in it who is the propitiation for our sinnes But it no way hence followes that there is any propitiatorie sacrifice for sin in this Sacrament He becomes the propitiation for our sinnes he actually remits our sinnes not directly and immediately by the Elements of Bread and Wine nor by any other kind of Local Presence or Compresence with these Elements than is in Baptism The Orthodoxal Antients use the same Language for expressing his Presence in Baptism and in the Eucharist they stick not to say that Christ is present or Latent in the water as well as in the Elements of Bread and Wine Their meaning is that neither of these Elements or sensible substances can directly cleanse us from our sinnes by any vertue communicated unto them or inherent in them but only as they are pledges or assurances of Christs peculiar presence in them and of our true investiture in Christ by them We are not then to receive the Elements of bread and wine only in remembrance that Christ dyed for us but in remembrance or assurance likewise that his body which was once given for us doth by its everlasting Vertue preserve our bodies and souls unto everlasting Life and that his bloud which was but once shed for us doth
Sacrifice and most perfect offering Of all the Legal Sacrifices which present themselves unto my former observation or present memory there is one kind only which can beare the true shaddow or serve as a Modell of the Everlasting Efficacie of his onely Sacrifice once offered for all And that was the sacrifice of the Red Heifer Numb 19. and the Legal Use which GODS People under the Law were to make of Her Ashes The correspondencie between the effects of the Ashes of this sacrifice and of the blood of Christ is gathered by our Apostle Heb. 9. ver 13 14. If the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean sanctifâ—eth to the purification of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself to God purge your consciences from dead workes to serve the living God But wherein did this sacrifice picture out the Everlasting Efficacie of the Blood of the Son of God in more peculiar manner than other Legal sacrifices did 14. First in that all such as were legally unclean by touching a Corps or Grave by comming into a Tent wherein a Corps lay unburied or suffering the vessels in such a Tent to be uncovered were to be purified by the Water of Sprinkling which was qualified or consecrated to this purpose by the Ashes of the Red Cow or Heyfer and as often to be purified by this water as they should incurre this Legal uncleanness And yet the sacrifice of this beast was not to be offered so often as this people did incurre these Kinds of legal uncleanness Thus much is Evident from the practice of the Jewish Church during the time of the Law For this water of purification was often every year oft-times Every month to be sprinkled upon some one or other of this people oft-times upon one and the same man within one and the same year even as often as he should by chance or negligence incurre any of the former branches of uncleannesse Yet was not this sacrifice whose ashes were still to be mingled with the water of purification to be offered once Every year in every Age or in many Ages The Sacrifice of the Red Heyfer as the Jewes confesse was but nine times offered during the time of the Law Once by Eleazar Aarons Son in the wilderness And this sacrifice was not reiterated untill the destruction of Salomons Temple that is not during the space of a thousand yeares and more It was the Second Time offered by Ezra after this peoples Return from Captivitie and but seven times after unto the destruction of the second Temple And this Foolish Nation since that time hath not presumed to offer it but expects the offering of it the tenth time by their King Messias Thus is the faithless Synagogue by Gods providence the Keeper not of the Sacred Oracles onely written by Moses and the prophets but even of those Traditions which testifie the summe and truth of these Oracles to wit that this legal sacrifice amongst the rest was to be accomplished in their Messias He was indeed to set the Period to this legal Rite and to all the rest not by offering them after a Legal Rite or manner but by offering up himself instead of them all once for all in bloodie sacrifice in whose infinite Value and Everlasting Efficacie all other sacrifices or offerings for sin were so terminated or swallowed up as Land-rivers or currents of waters are in the sea But what circumstance have we from the written Text that this sacrifice was not to be so often offered as this people had occasion to use the water of sprinkling or the Ashes of this sacrifice to cleanse them from their former Legal pollutions Numb 19. It is said ver 9. that the Ashes should be laid up without the Camp in a cleane place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reserved or kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for the water of separation The Ashes were to be reserved not for this Generation onely present but for the use of Posteritie As Manna which was commanded in the same Character to be reserved in the Ark was the Type of Christ as he is the food of life or the bread which came down from heaven So were these Ashes as an Emblem of the Everlasting Efficacie or operative vertue of his sacrifice There is no Bodily substance under heaven which can be so true an Emblem or model of incorruption as Ashes are Being the Remainder of bodies perfectly dissolved or corrupted they are not capable of a second corruption And when it is said that the Ashes should be reserved for a water of separation the meaning is that one sacrifice might afford ashes enough to season or qualifie as many several vessels of water as this people for many generations should have occasion to use for Legal purification So it is said in the same ninth verse that the Reservation of these Ashes was a Purification for sin A purification not in Act onely or for one or two turnes but a Continual Purification or as a Treasurie or storehouse for making as many purifications or waters of sprinkling as this people had occasion to use And so Christ is said Heb. 1. 3. to have made a purification for our sinnes when he had by himself purged our sinnes saith our English he sate down on the right hand of the Majestie on high But the Translation under Correction comes somewhat short of the Original and the shorter it comes of it the more advantage it yeilds unto their opinion which think their sinnes were remitted and purged before they were actually committed The Apostles words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haveing made a Purification for sin he hath ascended into heaven The word Purification is not to be restrained to One Act or operation but includes or implies the Perpetual qualitie of himself or substance of his sacrifice being by this one Act consecrated to be a perpetual Fountain of purification As he did not onely make one propitiation for our sinnes So neither did he once actually purge us from our sinnes by offering up himself but still remaines the purification of our sinnes that is he doth still purifie and cleanse us from our sinnes as often as we seek by Faith and true repentance to be cleansed and purified by him 15. So then the Blood of the Legal Sacrifice or Heyfer did consecrate the Ashes to be as a Storehouse or treasury of legal purification and the Ashes thus consecrated by this sacrifice did hallow or consecrate the Water which was put into them to make actual purification as often as occasion required So did our High Priest by the One Sacrifice of Himself consecrate his Blood to be an inexhaustible Fountain of purification Evangelical And his Blood and Body thus consecrated once for all do consecrate or sanctifie the Water of Baptism to cleanse or wash Infants from sin Original and such as are of yeares when they are baptized from sinnes Actual
hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. He consecrated the Way it self by his Bloudy sacrifice upon the Cross from the very moment in which the Vail did rend asunder the door was opened and the Way prepared But we must be qualifyed for walking in this way and for entring into this heavenly Sanctuary by the present exercise of his everlasting Priesthood which is a Priesthood of blessing not of sacrifice And yet he blesseth us by communicating the vertue and efficacie of his Everlasting Sacrifice unto our soules This participation and this Blessing by it the full expiation of our sinnes we are to expect from his heavenly Sanctuary 3. See Book 9. Chapt 19. God saith the Apostle Hebrews 6. 17. willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutabilitie of his Counsel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interposed himself by an oath or word by word he mediated by an Oath The Tenor of this Oath as you have heard before was That he would requite Abraham as we say in kind * See Book 8. Chapt. 30. and Book 9. Chap. 17 That as Abraham was then willing to offer up his Son his only Son Isaac in bloudy sacrifice unto him So he would offer or give His Only Son for Abraham and for all such as should follow his Example of Faith and obedience It was in the same promise confirmed by oath implyed That This only Son of God should be the seed of Abraham that in this one seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed That for the derivation of this Blessing upon all the Nations upon earth this seed of Abraham should be made a Priest after the order of Melchisedek The hope in this Promise thus confirmed by oath to Abraham is by the Apostle in the same 6. Chap. ver 19. termed an Anchor of the soule Both sure and stedfast But why an Anchor sure and stedfast Because it entreth into that within the vaile to wit into the Heavenly Sanctuary which was prefigured by the Most Holy Place within the material Tabernacle or earthly Sanctuary into which none might come besides the high priest nor he saveing once a year and then not without Blood For he was to purifie or sanctifie it by the blood of the sacrifices which were offered without the Camp or Congregation upon the day of the Attonement And thus The Son of God being crucified without the City of Jerusalem did by his blood then shed enter into the heavenly Sanctuary and even purifie it by his blood Heb. 19. 23 24. But what doth our hope apprehend within the vail The Apostle tells us Heb. 6. 20. Even Jesus made an high priest after the order of Melchisedek that is an high priest to blesse us in the Name of the Most High God to make us blessed even blessed as the Sonnes of God or such as he himself as man is that is Kings and Priests unto our God That this his Priesthood is a Priesthood of Blessing and offereth the Blessing promised unto Abraham to all the Nations of the Earth aswell unto the Gentile as unto the Jew though in the first place unto the Jew St. Peter witnesseth Acts. 3. 25 26. Te are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham and in thy seed shall all the Kindreds of the Earth be Blessed Vnto you FIRST God having raysed up his Son Jesus sent him to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his Iniquities 4. Yet seeing he entred not into the heavenly Sanctuary without blood seeing he purified Even Heaven it self by his Blood We may not expect the Blessing promised unto Abraham otherwise than by the Vertue of his Blood nor may we expect that his Blood or Vertue of it should be communicated to us otherwise than by the Exercise or Office of his everlasting Priesthood unto which he was consecrated by his blood He now workes the like Cures in our soules by the Vertue of this Priesthood which he wrought in mens Bodies whilest he lived here on earth by the Vertue or presence of his Prophetical Function We may Baptize with water in his Name and with water sanctified by his blood yet unless he baptize with the spirit sent from his heavenly Sanctuary and say unto every one whome we Baptize as he did unto the Leper I will be thou clean our washing is but in vain our whole Action is but a Ceremonie We his Priests or ministers may upon Confession made unto us either in General or in Particular Absolve his people from their sinnes for this Authoritie he hath given us whose sinnes ye remitt they are remitted whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained Yet unless He by his spirit or sweet influence of Grace say unto the soule whom we Absolve as he some-times did unto the man sick of the Palsy Be of good chear thy sinnes be forgiven thee Our Absolution is but a Complement although without our Absolution he do not in this sort Absolve his people oftentimes from their sinnes We may Consecrate the Elements ofBread Wine and administer them so consecrated as Vndoubted Pledges of his Bodie and Blood by which the new Covenant was sealed and the General Pardon purchased Yet unless he grant some actual Influence of his spirit and suffer such Vertue to goe out from his Humane Nature now placed in his Sanctuarie as he once did unto the woman that was cured of her Issue of blood unless this Vertue do as immediately reach our Soules as it did her bodie we do not Really receive his Body and Blood with the Elements of Bread and Wine We do not so receive them as to have our sinnes remitted or dissolved by them we do not by receiving them become of his flesh and of his Bones We gain no degree of Real Vnion with him which is the Sole Use or fruit of his Real Presence Christ might be Locally Present as he was with many here on earth and yet not Really Present But with whomsoever he is Vertually Present that is to whomsoever he communicates the Influence of his Bodie and Blood by his spirit he is Really Present with them though Locally Absent from them Thus he was really present with the woman which was cured of her bloodie issue by touching the hemme of his garment But not so really present with the multitude that did throng and press upon him that were locally more present with him She did not desire so much as to touch his Bodie with her hand for she said in her self If I may but touch the Hemme of his garmennt I shall be whole And yet by our Saviours interpretation She did touch him more immediately than they which were neerer unto him which thrust or thronged him And the reason why she alone did more immediately touch him than any of the rest was because Vertue of healing did
goe out from him to her alone It is true then for our Saviour saith it her Faith did make her whole and yet she was made whole by the Vertue which went out from him this was the fruit or effect of her Faith or rather the Reward or Consequent of her Faith In like sort as many as are healed from their sinnes whether by the Sacrament of Baptism or the Eucharist are healed by Faith relatively or instrumentally Faith is as the mouth or organ by which we receive the medicine but it is the Vertual influence derived from the Body and Blood of Christ which properly or efficiently doth cure out soules and dissolve the works of Satan in us This woman as St. Matthew relates the storie had said within her self if I may but touch the hemme of his garment I shall be whole She wanted either the opportunitie or boldness to touch the fore-part of his garment or to come into his sight or presence Yet he then knew not onely that she had touched the Hemme of his garment but what she had said within herself and out of his knowledge of this her faith and humilitie he did pronounce and make her whole Now it is but one and the same Act of one and the same Divine Wisdom to know the hearts and secret thoughts of men a farre off and neere at hand And therefore a matter as easie for the Son of God or for the man Christ Jesus in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily though still remayning at the right hand of God to know the hearts and secret thoughts of all such as present themselves at his Table here on earth aswell as he knew the secret thoughts of this woman which came behind him What need then is there of his Bodily Presence in the Sacrament or of any other presence than the influence or emission of vertue from his heavenly Sanctuary unto our soules He hath left us the consecrated Elements of bread and wine to be unto us more than the hemme of his garment If we do but touch and tast them with the same faith by which this woman touched the hemme of his garment this our faith shall make us whole and stanch the running issues and cleanse or cure the leprous sores of our soules as perfectly as it did this womans issue of blood But of Christ's Presence with us Especially in the B. Sacrament of his Body and Blood we shall take occasion to speake somewhat more in Handling the Article of His Sitting at the Right-Hand of God which may perhaps give the Reader some degree of Satisfaction and Line out the Right Mean betwixt Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation or between the Romanist and the Lutheran at least between the Lutheran and other reformed Churches A Note relateing to the precedent Chapter First Paragraph or Number 1. Those words St. Cyrill in his Parallels c. I Conceive the Author meanes St. Cyrill's Comments or Strictures upon Genesis and in them This Place or These words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in These words his Eye was fixt upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exâ—ulit or proâ—ulit it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obtulit That is Melchisedek Brought out or Caryed forth not OFFERED Bread and Wine Cyrill Alex. Tom. 1. Glaphyrorum Lib 2. Paris Edit 1638. Fol. 47. To which I may adde that the same S. Cyrill in the same Book p. 62. Sayes That Melchizedek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. according to Sylburgius Suidas and Hesychius Procuravit Adornavit Exportavit Commeatum Commodavit not obtulit as Andr. Schotus translates it there And again p. 63. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. apportantem afferentem not offerentem as the same Schotus translates it also But it is the Roman Ingenie to Catch at this place So Maldonate to despight Calvin corrects the Magnifyed Vulgar Latin altering it to et erat Sacrificans but partially for his Criticism Being given it will amount to no more then erat ministrans See this Author 's 9. Book Chap. 10. Where he cites Philo Judaeus Lib. 2. S. leg Allegor Making Melchizedeks Bringing forth Bread and Wine not an Act of Pietie and Religion but of Hospitalitie Opposite to Ammons Churlish niggardliness who afforded not the posteritie of Abraham in their travel Bread and Water Though he that only reades this Author by Index is unworthy both of him and it and though the observant Reader may serve himself well of the Contents of the Chapters the Table of Texts of Scripture the Titles of every Page and the Marginal Breifes yet for his further Advantage is made this ensuing Table To which every Reader may adde what he pleases space being left for that purpose at the end of every Letter in the Alphabet A. A Aronical Priesthood farre inferior to Christ's 3268 c. Aaron see Priesthood Abraham in Gods promises to him assurance of faith to be sought 3267 Abrahams Bay 3256 Abraham see promise Active passive see Conversion Some Actions required in us that Grace may be created in us viz. To make us meere passives 3107. c 3115. 3143 These Actions or Endeavours necessary necessitate praecepti nâ—cessitate medii 3191 Adam like his Maker 3091 Adam God dealt not so hardly with him as some say he did 3015 Adam's first sin Actual and voluntarie 3101 Adam's Prerogatives Opinions about them Compatible contending not contradictory 3003. 3008 Adam's Righteousnesse not Supernatural 3004 3033 Church of Rome bound to maintain that it is supernatural 3004 Reformed Churches that it is not so 3005 Three inconveniences follow the Affirmamative ibid. Righteousness as connex to Gods Image in Adam as Rotunditie to a Sphere 3006 3178 Adams losse of Righteousness had a positive cause wrought a positive effect a wound many wounds in mans nature 3006 How Adam had been rewarded had he stood 3008 Neither Adams Fall nor standing necessary both possible ibid. 3009 He that sayes Adams fall was necessitated by Gods Decree lays more to Gods charge then we can truly lay to the Divelâ—s 3012 That God de facto did decree a mutual possibilitie of Adams Falling or not Falling demonstrated 3016 More of that point 3226 Whether he that sayes God decreed Adams Fall inevitably may be demonstrated to make God Author of sin 30â—0 Author of Sin see Sin Adams Inadvertencie and Evah her contempt let sin into the world 3008 The sinfulnesse of Adams sin wherein it did consist 3017 How Adams one sinfull Act could produce an Habit and more then an Habit 3017 3019 3029 c. Act see Obliquitie Adams first sin did pollute our Nature now our nature defiles our persons 3019 Admonitions vain where no freedom is 3129 Admonitions presuppose possibilities to good and evill 3246 Advocate his Office 3288 No Advocate pleades for pardon of sin already forgiven ibid. Aestunare res humanas norunt pauci 3001 Affections indifferent differenced by their Objects must be wonne to the Spirit 3125 Of Affections strange effects and alterations 3073
c. Betwixt affections calm and troubled a mighty difference ibid. Agar and Ishmael related unto by St. John Chap. 8. verse 36. 3070 Agencie Immanent and Transient 3087 Alexander P. the fifth his Canon for holy water 3264 Alexander Pheraeus weeping Ripe at a Tragoedie and yet a cruel man 3073 3145 Ambition 3063 3065 3076 3126 An Ambitious Error Infallibilitie 3067 St. Ambrose A Saying in him Ego non sum ego 3240 St. Ambrose his Rule for interpreting Scripture Fints Dicendorum Ratio Diâ—â—orum 3160 c. Anathema Maranatha Taken out of Enoch his Prophesie or Book 3171 Antedate pardons God never does 3283 See sins remitted Antichrist Eastern and Western 3262 Aquinas comes neere making God Author of sin 3012 Arts ought to have Artists for Judges 3014 Art See Rules Ashes the Emblem of Immortalitie 3270 3300 Eastern Antichrist The height of his Heresie some place in maintenance of the more then Fatal â—rrespective Decree by which all things Christs death not excepted be said to fall out inevitably 3266 Astipulation before Admission to the Lords Supper necessary 3272 St. Austins attempt to draw the middle Line betwixt Stoicism and Pelagianism 3081 Auricular confession abused by base Interrogatories 3026 St. Austins Saying about Gods accurate weighing the actions of men 3239 The Authors solemn Appeal 3279 God by some mens Consequences made Author of sin 2012 B. THough Baptism do not utterly kill original sin yet are Children by Baptism in such measure regenerated as is needfull to save them if they dye Infants 3100 Life Spiritual created in Baptized Infants 3114 Sinne may revive in Baptized Infants 3158 St. Basils saying about that Point 3159 By baptism we are translated from Sons of Wrath to be Children of God 3158 Baptismal Grace denyed restrained 3174 Baptismal vow the first thing Children are to consider at their arrival at the use of Reason 3100 To null the Benefit of Baptism is a great sinne 3115 Baptism See Regeneration No Infant Reprobate at the hower of Baptism 3167 Analogie betwixt Baptism and the water of Sprinkling mixt with the Ashes of the red Heifer 3300 Singularitie of Baptism typifyed in the rarity of the Rite of that Heifer 3270 c. How Sin is remitted by Baptism 3296 Christs most Efficacious presence in Baptism 3296 Baptism needles if sins be Remitted before committed 3295 The Church of Englands Doctrine of Baptism 3272 Baptism a Sacramental Consecration to fight against Flesh c. 3101 A Bear enraged with Crimson or Scarlet colour did teare a woman in pieces 3027 Becanus's dispute with Paraeus 3012 Belief a Term divisible 3073 Believers in part may fall away 3072 c. Bellarmin as harsh as Piscator or Zuinglius about the Author of sin 3012 Berith well translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3259 Beza's inference against Origen right 3225 Beza's mistake 3226 the fallacie that caused it 3232 3237 Bloud of Christ shed not spilt immortal brought into the heavenly Sanctuary daily purifyes us 3258 3297 c. Christs Body and Bloud vertually present really operative 3258 3296 c. 3303 c. Christs Bloud See Parallels The bloud of Buls c. inefficacious because corruptible 3297 Bodin his resolution 3184 The Body of man must be sanctifyed also 3118 Bodies the nature of the fight with our own Bodies 3102 c. St. Pauls method in Fighting with his Bodie 3103 Bosom or Bay of Abraham 3256 Bruits Their rare docilities 3133 c. Mr. Burtons Accusation of the Authour with his addition 3174 c. Busbequius's Discourse with Chiaussus a Turke 3181 C. CArdan's Apothegm 3001 Calavius his craft 3074 3145 Calvin Calvinists Canisius 3012 Called a Grammatical Passive Real Passive 3278 Caleb Joshua Israelites Gods dealing with them a Type how he deales with Christians 3150 Canon for holy water Text mistaken 3264 c. 3270 In Canonem incidere how men punish themselves 3163 3170 3171 3173 Cain Corah Balaam their Sentence a Ruled Case 3169 c. Cathedrals their good use 327â— c. A Catholick confession Reall Communication of Christs Body and Bloud 3298 A caveat for Confidents 3244 Cathari followers of Novatianus and Novatus 3291 Cause See Obliquitie See Relation Charitie of the Heathens 3125 c. Chemnitius his Rule 3017 Children at their first arrival at the use of Reason must reflect upon their Baptismal vow 3100 upon what else 3130 3146 Children See Baptism See Regeneration Circumcision Loath'd whilest commanded Longed for when it was forbidden 3026 Christ dyed for all 3172 Christ See Bloud Sacrifice Priesthood Christians may serve Bacchus Venus Pluto as much as the Heathens did 3060 Church Primitive denyed two favours to Revolters 3282 Church present not bound by precedents of the antienter Church in meere matters of Fact 3282 Ceremonies See Sacrifice Certaintie of our State in Grace how to examine it 3103 c. Certaintie good grounds of it 3104 3278 Clergie their Obligation their Armes 3025 Two great conquests of Satan gotten over the Church by the device of Infallibilitie 3067 Commutatio poenae favorabilis in Sacrifices 3293 Confirmation or Benediction Episcopal Sadly neglected 3273 Conscience Synteresis what c. 2118 c. Conscience purifyed by the Spirit of God directs the Affections 3127 Consubstantiation the pretence for it 3298 Controversies betwixt Jesuites and Dominicans Lutherans and Zuinglians Arminians and Gomarists their sad effects 3129 Two seeming contradictories 3237 Contingencie as possible to be decreed by God as necessitie 3016 Contingens defined divided 3088 Conversion Man meerly Passive in most degrees of it 3106 c. Yet active in some sort that he may therein be though a meere yet a towardly passive 3108 c. 3128 Conversion what unregenerate men are to do before it 3115 3143 3216 3219 3221 In conversion how Free-wil Co-operates with Gods Spirit the manner inexplicable 3112 Whether conversion be ex operibus praevisis 3112 c. To set men right into the work of Conversion the main work of the Ministerie 3219 Covenant of the Eye Pericles guessed at it 3142 New Covenant the condition of men under it 3292 c. New Covenant See Legal Confession abused 3026 Covetousness 3063 3098 3126 A malapert Courtier 3227 Creatura rationalis an dari possit in totum impeccabilis 3007 The Question restrained to Angels and Men ibid. It begets a second Question whether creatures ever secured from all possibilitie of sinning be capable of reward ibid. All things created ex nihilo 3113 c. Creation ex termino praeviso non ex causa 3113 Creatures Inanimate Vegetant Sensitive Rational differenced 3082 c. Their several natural capacities 3132 c. Criticism of some sawcie Grammarian about Berith 3259 Maldonate's Criticism about Cohen in opposition to Calvin 3305 Crotonian Reformation wrought by Pythagoras 3137 Ill Custom the force of it 3055. 3085 The crosness of our Nature 3024 c. St. Cyprians saying 3002. 3018. D. DAvus his Discourse with his Master distinction of the Romans 3056 c. Decree irrespective and