Servator on us in the place thereof Concerning which St. Augustine hath this observation that antiently Salvator was no Latine word but was first devised by the Christians to express the greatness of the mercies which they had in Christ. For thus the Father Qui est Hebraice JESUS Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostra autem locutione Salvator Quod verbum Latina lingua non habebat sed habere poterat sicut potuit quando voluit Nay Cicero the great Master of the Roman elegancies doth himself confess that the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of too high a nature to be expressed by any one word of the Latine tongue For shewing how that Verres being Praetor in Syracusa the chief town in Sicily had caused himself to be entituled by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he addes immediately hoc ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit And thereupon he is compelled to use this Paraphrase or circumlocution Is est nimirum Soter qui salutem dedit i. e. He properly may be called Soter who is giver of health So that the Latine word Servator being insufficient to express the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the Hebrew IESVS the Christians of the first times were necessitated to devise some other and at last pitched upon Salvator which to this purpose hath been used by Arnobius l. 1. adv Gentes Ambros. in Luk. c. 2. Hieron in Ezek. c. 40. August de doctr Chr. l. 2. c. 13. contr Crescon l. 2. c. 1. besides the passages from Ruffinus and the same St. Augustine before alleadged So then the name of Iesus doth import a Saviour and the name of IESVS given to the Son of God intimates or implieth rather such a Saviour as shall save his people from their sins This differenceth IESVS our most blessed Saviour from all which bare that name in the times foregoing Iesus or Ioshua the son of Nun did only save the people from their temporal enemies but IESVS CHRIST the Son of the living God doth save us from the bonds of sin from our ghostly enemies IESVS the son of Iosedech the Priest of the Order of Aaron did only build up the material Altar in the holy Temple but IESVS the High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech not only buildeth up the spiritual Temple but is himself the very Altar which sanctifieth all those oblations which we make to God Iesus the son of Sirach hath no higher honour but that he was Author of the book called Ecclesiasticus a book not reckoned in the Canon of the holy Scripture but IESVS CHRIST the Son of God and the Virgin Mary not only is the subject of a great part of Scripture but even the Word it self and the very Canon by which we are to square all our lives and actions I am the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us in St. Iohn Look on him in all these capacities he is still a IESVS a Saviour of his people from their sins and wickednesses a builder of them up to a holy Temple fit for the habitation of the holy Ghost a bringer of them by the truth and way of righteousness unto the gates of life eternal a true IESVS still So properly a IESVS and so perfectly a Saviour to us that there is no salvation to be found in any other nor is there any other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby they must be saved but this name of IESVS Aâ— name if rightly pondered above every name and given him to this end by Almighty God that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in Heaven and earth and under the earth And there may be good reason besides Gods appointment why such a sign of reverence should be given to the very name not only a name above other names and therefore to be reverenced with the greater piety but as a pregnant testimony of that exaltation to which God hath advanced him above all other persons We bow the knee unto the persons of Kings and Princes And therefore Pharaoh when he purposed to honour Ioseph above all the Egyptians appointed certain Officers to cry before him saying bow the knee CHRIST had not been exalted more then Ioseph was had bowing of the knee been required to his Person only and therefore that there might appear some difference betwixt him and others the Lord requires it at his name And though the Angels in the heavens and the Spirits beneath have no knees to bow which is the principal objection of our Innovators against the reverent use of bowing at the Name of Iesus used and enjoyned to be used in the Church of England yet out of doubt the spirits of both kindes both in Heaven and Hell as they acknowledge a subjection to his Throne and Scepter so have they their peculiar ways such as are most agreeable to their several natures of yeilding the commanded reverence to his very Name Certain I am St. Ambrose understood the words in the literal sense where speaking of the several parts of the body of man he maketh the bowing at the name of JESUS the use and duty of the knee Flexibile genu quo prae caeteris Domini mitigatur offensa gratia provocatur Hoc enim patris summi erga filium donum est ut in nomine JESU omne genu curvetur The knee is flexible faith the Father whereby the anger of the Lord is mitigated and his grace obtained And with this gift did God the Father gratifie his beloved Son that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow Nor did St. Ambrose only so expound the Text and take it in the literal sense as the words import but as it is affirmed by our Reverend Andrews there is no antient Writer upon the place save he that turned all into Allegories but literally understands it and liketh well enough that we should actually perform it Conform unto which Exposition of the Antient Writers and the received usâ—ge of the Church of Christ it was religiously ordained by our first Reformers that Whensoever the Name of IESVS shall be pronounced in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of curâ—esie and uncovering of the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necesâ—aâ—ily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed Which being first established by the Queens Injunctions in the yeer 1559. was afterwards incorporated into the Canons of King Iames his reign And if of so long standing in the Church of England then sure no Innovation or new fancy taken up of late and bâ—t of laâ—e obtruded on the Church by some Popish Bishops as the Novators and Novatians of this present age the Enemies of Iesu-Worship as they idlely call it have been pleased to say And should we grant that this were no duty of
on Penelope by Mercury And is it not recorded in their most authentick Histories that Romulus the first King and founder of Rome was begotten by Mars upon the body of Rhea a Vestal Virgin Romulus a Marte genttus Rhea Silvia as Florus summarily reports it Had not the Lusitanians a race of Horses which they believed to be engendred by the winde the fancy growing from the knowledge of their excellent swiftness At this Lactantius toucheth in his Book of Institutes and makes it a convincing Argument in this case against the Gentiles who might as easily believe the miracle of the incarnation as give faith to that Quod si animalia quaedam vento aura concipere solere omnibus notum est cur quisquam mirum putet cum Spiritu Dei cui est facile quicquid velit gravatam Virginem esse dicimus No question but the Spirit of God might be conceived as operative as the winde or ayr But leaving these Romances of the antient Heathens though arguments good enough ad homines and beyond that they are not meant let us next look a while on the blessed Virgin who questionless did somewhat to advance the work and left it not wholly to the managing of the holy Ghost But what she did was rather from the strength of faith then nature For had she not believed she had never conceived And thereupon it is resolved by St. Augustine rightly Feliciorem Mariam esse percipiendo fidem Christi quam concipiendo carnem Christi that she was happier by believing then she was by conceiving though in that too pronounced the most blessed amongst women Now in the strengthning of this faith many things concurred as the authority of the Messenger who coming from the God of truth could not tell a lye the general expectation which the Iews had about this time of the Messiahs near approach the argument used by the Angel touching Gods Omnipotence with whom nothing was said to be impossible and so not this the instance of a like miracle wrought upon Elizabeth the wife of Zachary almost as old but altogether in the same case with Sarah who had conceived a son in her old age beyond the ordinary course of nature And to say truth these arguments were but necessary to beget belief to so great a miracle to which no former age could afford a parallel though that of Sarah came most nigh it And if that Sarah thought it such a matter of impossibility then to conceive and bear a son when it only ceased to be with her after the manner of women as the Text tels us that she did how much more justly might the Virgin think it an impossible thing for her to be conceived with childe and bring forth a Son and yet continue still a Virgin But at the last the strength of faith overcame all difficulties and by the chearfulness of her obedience she made a way for this great blessing which was coming towards her Behold the handmaid of the Lord Be it to me according unto thy word Which whether they were words of wishing that so it might be as St. Ambrose Venerable Beda and Euthymius think or of consent that so it should be as Ireneus and Damascen are of opinion certain it is that on the speaking of those words she did conceive Coelestial seed and in due time brought forth her Saviour As is affirmed by Irenaeus l. 1. c. 33. Tertullian in his book De Carne Christi Athanasius in his Oration De Sancta Deipara and divers others A work as of great efficacy unto our Salvation so of especial esteem in the Christian Church the day whereof called usually the Feast of the Annuntiation hath anciently been observed as an holy Festival as appears by several Homilies made upon this subject by Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus who lived in the year 230. and that of Athanasius in the time of Constantine A day of such high esteem amongst us in England that we begin our year from thence both in the vulgar estimate and all publick Instruments though in our Kalenders we begin with the first of Ianuary according to the custome of the antient Romans But here it may be asked why CHRIST should not be called the Son of the holy Ghost according to his humane nature considering that not St. Luke only ascribeth unto him the work of the Incarnation under the title of an overshadowing but that it is affirmed by St. Matthew in tearms more express that she the blessed Virgin Mother was found to be with child of the holy Ghost And he by whom a woman is conceived with childe is properly and naturally though not always legally for Pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant as the Lawyers tell us the right Father of it A consideration which prevailed so far with some of St. Hieromes time that they began to stumble upon this opinion but with no better reason in true Divinity then Christ may be affirmed to be the Father Almighty intended in the former Articles because creation is the work of the Father Almighty and it is written by St. Iohn that by him that is to say the Son all things were made For all things were so made by the Word as the Word was made flesh or incarnate by the holy Ghost God I mean God the first Person here as generally the Scripture doth where it speaks of God without limitation or restrictions acting by them those two great works which in the holy Text are to them ascribed yet by them not as Ministers subservient to him but co-working with him God saith St. Paul hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son whom he appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds God made the world though he made it by his Son to the end that all things being created by him might be also for him And so 't is also in the work of the incarnation God by his Spirit fructifying the Virgins womb and sanctifying the materials with which the Word which in the beginning was with God was to be invested to the intent that the Spirit might bear witness to us that he was the beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased And yet there is another reason why he should rather be called the Son of God then of the holy Ghost because he had a pre-existence before he was incarnate in the Virgins womb as he was the Word the Word which in the beginning was not only with God but was also God by an unspeakable way of emanation from the Father only as the Word is first conceived in the minde of man before it be uttered by the voyce For as the Son is to the Father so is the Word to the Minde The Son proles parentis the Word proles mentis saith the learned Andrews God therefore being an eternal everlasting Minde did before all beginnings of time produce the Word
this blessed Spirit on the particular Members of his Congregation that is to say the joyning of the Saints together in an holy Communion the free remission of our sins in this present life resurrection of the body after death and the uniting again of Soul and Body unto life eternal This is the sum and method of the following Articles and these we shall pursue in their order beginning first with that of the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance I implore to guide me in the waies of Truth that so the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be alwayes acceptable in the sight of God the Lord my strength and my Redeemer But because the word or notion of the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various signification in the Book of God we will first look upon it in those significations and then conclude on that which is chiefly pertinent to the intent and purpose of the present Article For certainly the Orators Rule is both good and useful viz. Prius dividenda antequam definienda sit oratio That we must first distinguish of the Termes in all Propositions before we come unto a positive definition of them According to which Rule if we search the Scripture we shall there find that the Holy Ghost is first taken personaliter or essentialiter for the third person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity We find him in this sense in the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour as the principal Agent in that Work The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Luk. 1.35 And in his Baptism descending on him like a Dove to fit him and prepare him for the Prophetical Office he was then to exercise And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luk. 3.22 From which descent St. Peter telleth us that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and that from thenceforth he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil In the next place the Holy Ghost is used in Scripture to signifie the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit as in Act. 2. where it is said of the Apostles that they were all filled with the holy Ghost ver 4. not with his essence or his person but with the impressions of the Spirit the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost such as the Gift of Tongues mentioned in the following words The Gift of the Holy Ghost as it is called expresly Ver. 38. Thus read we also that the holy Ghost was given by the hands of Peter Act. 8.17 18. And by the hands of Paul Act. 19.6 In which we read that when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and Prophesied which last words are a commentary upon those before and shew that by the holy Ghost which did come upon them is meant the Gift of Tongues and the power of Prophecying both which the holy Ghost then conferred upon them And lastly it is taken not onely for the ability of doing Miracles as speaking with strange Tongues Prophecying curing of Diseases and the like to these but for the Authority and Power which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people As when Christ breathed on his Apostles and said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that is to say Receive ye an holy and spiritual power over the soules of men a part whereof consisteth in the remitting and retaining of sins mentioned in the words next following and serving as a Comment to explaine the former In which respect the Holy Ghost said unto certain of the Elders in the Church of Antioch Segregate mihi Barnabam Saulum Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 It is the Holy Ghost which cals it is his work to which they were called and therefore separate mihi separate to me may not unfitly be expounded to my Work and Ministery and consequently to the authority and power which belongs unto it Which being premised the meaning of the Article will in briefe be this That we beleeve not onely that there is such a person as the Holy Ghost in the Oeconomy of the blessed Trinity though that be principally intended but that he doth so distribute and dispose of his Gifts and Graces as most conduceth to the edification of the Church of Christ. But this I cannot couch in a clearer way as to the sense and doctrine of the Church of England than in the words of Bishop Iewel who doth thus expresse it Credimus spiritum sanctum qui est tertia persona in sacra Triadi illum verum esse Deum c. i. e. we beleeve that the Holy Ghost who is the Third Person in the holy Trinity is very God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding both from the Father and the Son by an unspeakable means and unknowne to man and that it is his property to mollifie and soften mans heart when he is once received thereinto either by the wholesome Preaching of the Gospel or by any other way that he doth give men light and guide them to the knowledge of God to the wayes of truth to newnesse of life and to everlasting hope of salvation This being the sum of that which is to be beleeved of the Holy Ghost both for his Person and his Office we will first look upon his Person on his Property or Office afterwards And yet before we come unto his Person I mean his Nature and his Essence We will first look a little on the quid Nominis the name by which he is expressed in the Book of God In the Original he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a double Article as Luk. 3.22 in Latine Spiritus sanctus or the Holy Spirit but generally in our English Idiom the Holy Ghost The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to breath and is the same with the Latine Spiro from whence comes Spiritus or the Spirit a name not given as I suppose because he doth proceed from the Father or the Son or both in the way of breathing though Christ be said to breath upon his Apostles when he said receive the Holy Ghost but because the breath being in it selfe an incorporeal substance and that which is the great preservative of all living creatures it got the name first of Spiritus vitae we read it in our English the breath of life Gen. 11.7 and afterwards came to be the name of all unbodyed incorporeal essences For thus is God said to be a Spirit God is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 The Angels are called Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 the Soule of man is called his Spirit let us cleanse our selves saith the Apostle from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit that is of the body and
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
f. 387. for consorti r. consortio f. 401. f. in their baptism r. in their infancy before baptism f. 414. f. most high Ghost r. most high God f. 391. f. Syrius r. Syria f. 396. f. a siquidem r. siquidem f. 397. f. Arminians r. Armenians f. 398 f. convenientem r. convenientium f. 416. f dum quo r. cum quo f. suppetas r. suppetias f. 456. f. declanative r. declarative f. 453. f an evitable r. unevitable f. 471. f. inventute r. injuventute f. 495. f. which continual r. with continual THE SUMME OF Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical CONTAINED IN THE Apostles CREED Or reducible to it IN THREE BOOKS By PETER HEYLYN 1 Joh. 5.7 There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Seile over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1654. A PREFACE To the following Work CONCERNING The ANTIQVITY AVTHORITY OF THE CREED CALLED THE Apostles CREED With Answer to the chief Objections which are made against it The Drift and Project of the WORK IT was a saying of St. Ambrose Unus unum fecit qui unitatis ejus haberet imaginem that God made only one in the first beginning after the likenesse or similitude of his own unity The creation of the World was the pattern of Man Man of the Church the Almighty of all Being one himself or rather being unity he bestowed upon the World not a being only but his blessing with it that being it should be but one One in the generall comprehension of parts and therefore by the Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latines call it universum a name of multitude indeed but of a multitude united Universi qui in uno loco versi say the old Grammarians One also in opposition unto numbers and so maintained by Aristotle in his first De Coelo against the errors of Empedocles and Democritus two old Philosophers Now as he made the world but one after the similitude of himself so out of the world and according to that pattern created he man Made by the Lord according to his own image and made but one because the Lord was so that made him because the world was so out of which he was taken The severall parts and members in him do but commend the unity of the whole Compositum for though they are many members yet but one body saith St. Paul Which mutuall resemblance and agreement as it occasioned many of the old Philosophers to call man an Abridgement of the world so might it no lesse justly have occasioned others to style the world an inlargement of man Nay more then this seeing that only man was without an helper the Lord resolved to make one for him and to make her out of his own body only that so he might preserve still the former unity Nor stayed he here but he did give her unto man to be one flesh with him that to the unity of Original he might add the union of affections Magnum mysterium saith the Apostle but I Speak only as he did touching Christ and the Church For this Creation of the woman as St. Augustine tells us was a most perfect type of the birth and being of the Church of Christ Christum enim et Ecclesiam tali facto jam tunc prophetari oportebat The woman was created out of the side of man at such time as the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall upon him the Church was also taken out of the wounded side of Christ being cast into a deeper sleep then that of Adam And as the woman was one body both in the composition of her parts and one with Adam both in the union of love and unity of being so is it also with the Church She is at perfect union with him in the union of her affections being marryed unto him for ever one with him in the unity of her original for we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bone and lastly one in the consent and harmony of all her parts acknowledging one Lord one Faith one Baptisme For though the Church consisted in those early days both of Iews and Gentiles Greeks and Barbarians bond and free men not alone of different countries but of different natures yet being all incorporated into that society of men which we call the Church they make but one body only as St. Paul hath testifyed And whence proceeds that unity of this visible body but in that uniformity which all those severall persons have which belong unto it by reason of that one Lord whose servants they do all professe themselves to be that one Faith of which they do all make confession and that one Baptisme wherewith they are initiated into that society the outward and uniforme profession of these three things which appertain to the very essence of Christianity being necessarily required of each Christian man Christians they neither are nor can be who call not Christ their Lord and Master From hence it came that first in Antioch and afterwards throughout all the world all who were of the visible Church were called Christians Autor nominis ejus Christus saith Cornelius Tacitus But the bare calling of CHRIST IESVS our Lord and Master is not enough to prove us to be Christians unlesse that we do also embrace that Faith which he delivered to his Apostles and was by them delivered unto all the world And though we are not reckoned members of this visible Church till we receive admittance by the door of Baptisme yet is the door of Baptisme opened unto none untill they make profession of their faith in Christ. It is not honestie of life nor morall righteousnesse which gives denomination to a Christian although the want thereof doth exclude from heaven because they are not proper unto Christian men as they are Christians but do concern them as they are men The moral Law was given to mankinde in the state of nature and after promulgated to the Iews in more solemn manner Hence was it that so many of the antient Gentiles not to say any thing of the Iews before the coming of our Saviour were eminent in so many parts of moral vertue But for the acts of Faith whereby we do confesse that IESVS CHRIST is Lord of all things and willingly believe all those sacred truths which he came to publish to the world and by confession of the which we carry as it were a key to the door of Baptisme that is the proper badge and cognizance of a Christian man by which it is made known unto all the world both to what Lord he appertaineth and by what means he was admitted for a member of his house and family Which faith or rather the doctrines of which faith being first delivered by our Saviour with this comfort and reward annexed that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have life
from the sight of men And if the wise Gentile could affirme so sadly nunquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset that he was never lesse alone then when he was by himself what need can any rational man suppose in Almighty God of having more company then himself in If this suffice not for an answer to that needlesse demand What God did before he made the World let him take that of Augustine on the like occasion who being troubbled with this curious and impertinent question is said to have returned this answer Curiosis fabricare inferos that he made Hell for all such troublesome and idle Questionists But it pleased God at last when it seemed best unto his infinite and eternal wisdome to create the World and all things visible and invisible in the same contained A point so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it And as the Scripture tels us that God made the World so do they also tell us this that because he made the World he is therefore God For thus saith David in the Psalms The Lord is great and very greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods As for the Gods of the Heathen they are but Idols but it is the Lord which made the Heavens Where plainly the strength of Davids argument to prove the Lord to be God doth consist in this because it was he only not the gods of the Heathen which created the World The like we also finde in the Prophet Ieremy The Lord saith he is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his power and established the World by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion In which two verses of the Prophet we have proof sufficient first that God made the World by his power and wisdome and secondly that this making of the World by his power and wisdome doth difference or distinguish him from the gods of the Heathen of whom it is affirmed expressely that they were so far from being able to make Heaven and Earth that they should perish from the Earth and from under Heaven But what need Scripture be produced to assert that truth which is so backed by the authority of the Learned Gentiles whose understandings were so fully convinced by the inspection of the Book of nature especially by that part of it which did acquaint them with the nature of the Heavenly Bodies that they concluded to themselves without further evidence that the Authour of this great Book was the only God and that he only was that great invisible power which did deserve that Soveraign title And this Pythagoras one of the first founders of Philosopie amongst the Grecians who in all probability had never seen the works of Moses as Plato and those that followed after are supposed to have done doth most significantly averre in these following verses which are preserved in Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be thus paraphased in our English tongue He that will say I am a Power divine A God besides that one let him first make A world like this and say that this is mine Before he to himself that title take For the next point that God the Father Almighty did create the World it is a truth so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it it being not only told us in the holy Scriptures that God made the World but also when he made it and upon what reasons with all the other circumstances which concern the same The very first words of Gods book if we look no further are in themselves sufficient to confirme this point In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth As Moses so the royal Psalmist He laid the foundations of the Earth and covered it with the deep as it were with a garment and spreadeth out the Heavens like a curtain He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is And so the whole Colledge of the Apostles when they were joyned together in their prayers to God Lord said they thou art God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Made it but how not with his hands assuredly there is no such matter The whole World though it be an house and the house of God cum Deo totus mundus sit und domus said the Christian Oratour yet it is properly to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands How then He made it only by his word Dixit et facta sunt He spake the word and they were made saith the sweet finger of Israel There went no greater paines to the Worlds creation then a Dixit Deus And this not only said by Moses but by David too Verbo Domini coeli firmatī sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum i. e. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth In which it is to be observed that though the creation of the World be generally ascribed unto God the Father yet both the Son and the holy Ghost had their parts therein Verbo Domini by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made saith the Prophet David In the beginning was the Word All things were made by him and without him was nothing made saith St. Iohn the Apostle The Spirit of God moved upon the waters saith Moses in the Book of the Law and Spiritu oris ejus by breath of his mouth were all the hosts of Heaven created saith David in the book of Psalmes Made by his word but yet not made together in one instant of time to teach us men deliberation in our words and actions and to set forth unto us both his power and wisdome His power he manifested in the Method of the worlds creat on in that he did produce what effects he pleased without the help of natural causes in giving light unto the World before he had created the Sun and Moon making the earth fruitfull and to bring forth plants without the motion or influence of the Heavenly bodies And for his wisdome he expressed in as high a degree in that he did not create the Beasts of the field before he had provided them of fodder and sufficient herbage nor made man after his own image before he had finished his whole work filled his house and furnished it with all things necessary both for life and pleasures
of which we shall speak more anon the Prophet doth enforme us of the heavenly hostes that thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him Not that he doth intend by this to define their number as if they were not more in number then are there set down but to put down such a vast number Quo majorem multitudinem humanus sermo explicare nequeat saith St. Hierome rightly greater then which could not be cast up by mans Arithmetick The several ministries which they undergoe that numberlesse number of persons whom they do attend on were proof enough of this were there no proof else But because commonly such vast and infinite multitudes are apt to run into confusions except they be restrained by some rule and order it pleased God to divide his Angels into several ranks to make them differing in degree that so there being a subordination in the Heavenly hierarchy the danger of confusion might be best avoided Nine different orders there are reckoned of these ministring spirits the one superiour to another that is to say Angels Archangels Vertues Powers Dominations Principalities Thrones Cherubim and Seraphim which different names are not only or originally in the works of Dionysius the Areopagite as it is most generally supposed but in the book of God Of Angels we read often in the holy Scripture of Archangels 1 Thess. 4 16. of the Churubims Gen. 3.24 and of the Seraphims Isa. 6.2 The rest we finde thus mustred in St. Pauls Epistles first where he telleth us that God hath set our Saviour Christ at his own right hand far above all Principality and Power and Might the Latine reades virtutes Vertues and Dominions and every name that is named not only in this world but in that to come Ephes. 1.21 And after where he reckoneth up the orders of the blessed Angels amongst the works of the Creation saying that by him CHRIST all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1.16 Out of which places I collect First that these several words are not used by the Apostle to signifie the same one thing but are the several names of some different things why else should it follow after this recital Et super omne nomen quod nominatur and above every name that is named And secondly that these several names do serve to signifie and distinguish those several orders into which God hath ranked those Celestial spirits Of this saith Cassianus briefly Apostolus per ordinem numerans that the Apostle marshalled them in their proper order But Hierom reckoning up the particular orders doth resolve more fully Sine causa diversitatem nominum esse ubi non est diversitas meritorum i. e. that there is no reason why there should be such diversities of names if there were not some diversity also of estates and qualities And thereupon he doeth infer Archangelum aliorum minorum c. that an Archangel must be chief over other Angels and that the Powers and Dominions must needs have some subordinate unto their command on whom to exercise that power and dominion which is vested in them Nay he compareth them to an Army and are they not in plain terms called the Heavenly hoste Lu. 2.13 in which are Generals Collonels Captaines reliquus militiae ordos and other officers and Souldiers of inferior note If any aske how St. Paul came to know the names of these different orders and it seems some had asked the question in St. Hieroms time he answereth De traditionibus Hebraeorum that he had it by tradition from the Hebrew Doctors and possibly it might be so considering he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel one of the most learned of the Rabbies But in my minde it might be better answered thus That St. Paul being rapt up into the third heaven which never any of the holy pen-men was but he had opportunity to see more and to commit more to writing touching this particular then any Prophet or Apostle had before or since More might be said in maintenance of this division of the Angels into severall orders had I or list or leasure to insist upon it or purposed to make that the principall which was intended for an Accessary unto this discourse That which I mainly do intend is to set forth the ministry of these blessed spirits in reference unto the will of God and the weal of Man His Ministers they are Psal. 104. and therefore called ministring spirits Heb. 1.14 but commonly sent out by Almighty God to minister unto the necessities of poor mortall man to those especially who shall be heires of salvation as St. Paul hath told us His Ministers they are and therefore to be used by him as he sees occasion in his affaires of greatest moment in none more frequently then such as do relate to the sons of men either in point of punishment or of preservation whether it be in reference to their temporal or eternal being In both respects the Angels are the Ministers of the Court of Heaven the ordinary officers or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Almighty Iudge and bound to execute the mandates which are issued thence whether mens sins be ripe for vengeance or that affliction and repentance make them fit for mercy First in the way of temporal punishment it is most clear and evident in the book of God that he sent down his Angels with a full commission to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah two rich populous Cities after they had so long abused his patience and their own prosperities and that he sent his evill Angels amongst the Egyptians when neither signes nor wonders would prevail upon them by whom he gave their life over unto the pestilence slew the first born in all their dwellings and finally overwhelmed them in the red Sea or Sea of Edom Where note they are called mali Angeli or evill Angels not that they were so in themselves but ab effectit from the evils which they brought on that perishing people as Bellarmine and Lorinus two very learned Iesuites have right well observed Thus do we also read of a destroying Angel by whom according to the will and command of God no fewer then 70000. Israelites were consumed in an instant when once they boasted in their numbers and did presume too much on the Arme of flesh and of another which went out and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians no lesse then 185000. persons after they had blasphemed the Lord and put a scorne upon the holy one of Israel Not to say any thing of Herod who when he had beheaded Iames imprisoned Peter and troubled certain of the Church was miserably smitten by an Angel and consumed by wormes It pleased GOD to employ them in those acts of vengeance though well affected in themselves to the good
of mankinde and a necessity was laid upon them to obey his pleasure Nec quicquam est in Angelis nisi parendi necessitas said Lactantius truly And so far we have all things clear from the holy Scriptures But if we will beleeve the learned as I think we may there is no signal punishment of ungodly people ascribed to God in the old Testament but what was executed by the ministry of these blessed spirits except some other means and ministers be expresly named That great and universal deluge in the time of Noah was questionless the work of Almighty God I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth Gen. 6.17 But this was done by the ministery and service of the holy Angels Ministerio Angelorum saith Torniellus whom he employed in breaking up the fountaines of the great deep and opening the cataracts of Heaven for the destruction of that wicked unrepenting people Thus when it is affirmed in the 14. of Exodus that the Lord looked into the hoste of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and overthrew them in the midst of the Sea v. 24.27 Non intelligendum est de Deo sed de Angelo qui erat in nube we must not understand it of the Lord himself as Tostatus hath it but only of the Angel or ministring spirit of whose being in the cloud we had heard before And when we read that in the battail of the five Kings against the Israelites the Lord cast down great stones upon them from Heaven Iosh. 10. it is not to be thought saith he Quod Deus mitteret sed Angelus jubente Deo that this was done by Gods own hand but by the holy Angels at the Lords appointment The like may be affirmed of those other acts of power and punishment whereof we finde such frequent mention in the book of God which though they be ascribed to God as the principall Agent yet were they generally effected by his holy Angels as the means and instruments But the most proper office of the holy Angels is not for punishment but preservation not for correction of the wicked but for protection of the just and righteous person That 's the chief part of their imployment the office which they most delight in and God accordingly both hath and doeth employ them so from time to time For by the ministery of his Angels did he deliver Ismael from the extremity of thirst Daniel from the fury of hunger Lot from the fire and trembling Isaac from the sword our infant Saviour from one Herod his chief Apostle from another all of them from that common prison into the which they had been cast by the Priests and Pharisees But these were only personal and particular graces Look we on such as were more publick on such as did concern his whole people generally and we shall finde an Angel of he Lord incamping between the hoste of Egypt and the house of Israel to make good the passage at their backs till they were gotten on the other side of the Sea another Angel marching in the front of their Armies as soon as they had entred the land of Canaan and he the Captain of the Lords hostes Princeps exercituum Dei as the vulgar readeth it but whether Michael Gabriel or who else it was the Rabbins may dispute at leasure and to them I leave it Moreover that wall of waters which they had upon each side of them when they passed thorow the Sea as upon dry ground facta est a Deo per Angelos exequentes that was the work of Angels also directed and imployed by Almighty God as the learned Abulensis notets it Which also is affirmed by the Iewish Doctors of the dividing of the waters of Iordan to make the like safe passage for them into the promised land the land of Canaan The like saith Peter Martyr a learned Protestant touching the raysing of the Syrians from before Samaria when the Lord made them hear the noise of Cariots and the noise of horse-men that it was ministerio Angelorum effected by the ministery of the holy Angels whom God imployed in saving that distressed people from the hands of their enemies And by an Angel or at least an angelical vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a dream or Oracle delivered to them in their sleep as Eusebius telleth us did he forwarne the Christians dwelling in the land of Palestine to remove thence to Pella a small town of Syria and so preserved them from the spoyle and fury of the Roman Armies This was Gods way of preservation in the times before us and it is his way of preservation in all ages since GOD is the same God now as then his holy Angels no lesse diligent in their attendance on us then they have been formerly Let us but make our selves by our faith and piety worthy to be accounted the Sons of God and the heires of salvation and doubt we not of the assistance of these ministring spirits in all essaies of personall or publick dangers T is true the apparitions of the Angels in these late times have been very rare not many instances to be found in our choycest Histories But then it is as true withall one of the most eternall truths of holy Scripture that the Angel of the Lord encampeth about all them that fear him and delivereth them Whether we see or see them not it comes all to one and so resolved by Clemens of Alexandria an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord saith he doth still preserve us by the ministery of his holy Angels though we behold them not in any visible shape as the antients did And to say truth this general protection of the Angels is a point so clear so undeniable in true Divinity that he must needs renounce the Scripture which makes question of it Some difference indeed hath been about Angel-gardians and the particular protection which we have from them to whom God hath committed the tuition of our severall persons And yet even this if we make Scripture to be judge according to the exposition of the antient Writers will prove a point as clear and as undeniable as that of the protection which we have in general For Origen who lived in the third century from our Saviours birth reckoneth it for a tenet of undoubted truth and generally imbraced in the Christian Church long before his time that all Gods children from their birth or at least their Baptisme had their angel-keepers Lactantius speaks more generally as of all mankind Ad tutelam generis humani misit Angelos though possibly he might mean no otherwise then did the other Catholick writers of the times he lived in and those who followed close in the age succeeding St. Basil in Psal. 33. and Psal. 58. St. Chrysost. on the 18. of Matthew The Authour of the Imperfect work Hom. 40. Theodoret in l. 5. divinorum Decretorum do
the Text as I think we need not yet might it give the Church a justifiable ground of commanding such a duty to all Christian people To the end that by those outward ceremonies and gestures their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord IESVS CHRIST the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the world in whom alone all the graces mercies and promises of God to mankinde for this life and the life to come are fully and wholly comprehended Which is the end proposed and published by the Church of England as appears plainly by the 18. Canon An. 1603. As IESVS is the name of our Lord and Saviour his personal and proper name by which he was distinguished from the rest of his Fathers kindred â—o CHRIST is added thereunto both in the holy Scriptures and the present Creed to denote his offices Christus non proprium nomen est sed nuncupatiâ— potestatis regni CHRIST saith Lactantius is no proper name but a name of power and principality It signifieth properly an anointed and is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to anoint and was used by the old Grecians for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a word of the same signification but more common use And so the word is used by Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. they washed and then anointed themselves with oyl The Hebrew word Messiah corresponds to this as appears evidently by that passage in St. Iohns Gospel where Andrew telleth his brother Simon this most joyful news viz. We have found the Messias which being interpreted is the CHRIST And ' â—is no wonder if Andrew ran with so much joy to acquaint his brother with the news for by the name of the Messiah the Iews had long expected the performance of the promise which God made to David that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore But the word CHRIST implyes more yet then a name of Soveraignty For though Kings antiently were anointed as is plain by examples of the Saul 1 Sam. 10.1 2 Sam. 2.4 yet not only they The High Priest also was anointed For it is said of Moses that he powred the anointing oyl upon Aarons head and anointed him to sanctifie him And so the Prophet seems to be in the Book of Kings where Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat to be the Prophet in his room Vngebantur Reges Sacerdotes Prophetae saith a learned Writer and each of these respectively in their several places might be called Christus Domini the Lords anointed or the Lords Christ but our Redeemer after a more peculiar manner was Christus Dominus the Lord Christ or the Lord anointed And certainly there was good reason why the Name of CHRIST should be applyed to him in another manner then it had been to any in the times before he being the one and only Person in whom the Offices of King Priest and Prophet had ever met before that time Although those Offices had formerly met double in the self same person Mâ—lchisedech a King and Priest Samuel a Prophet and a Priest David a Prophet and a King Yet never did all three concur but in him alone and so no perfect CHRIST but he A Priest he was after the order of Melchisedech Psal. 110. vers 4. A Prophet to be heard when Moses should hold his peace Deut. 18.18 A King to be raised out of Davids seed who should reign and prosper and execute judgement and justice in the earth Ier. 23 5. By his Priesthood to purge expiate and save us from our sins for which he was to be the Propitiation By his Prophetical Office to illuminate and save us from the by-pathes of errour and to guide our feet in the way of peace By his Kingdom or his Regal power to prescribe us laws protect us from our enemies and make us at the last partakers of his heavenly Kingdome Ieremies King Davids Priest Moses Prophet but in each and all respects the CHRIST Not that he was anointed with material oyl as were the Kings and Priests in the Old Testament but with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. 45.7 but with the Spirit of the Lord wherewith he was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek Esai 61.1 which he applyed unto himself Luk. 4.18.21 anointed with the holy Ghost and with power as St. Peter telleth us Act. 10.38 Anointed then he was to those several Offices and in that the CHRIST But how he doth perform these Offices and at what times he was inaugurated to the same shall be declared in the course of the following Articles which relate to him save that we shall refer the Execution of the Prophetical function to the Article of the holy Ghost by the effusion of whose gifts on the Pastors and Ministers of the holy Church it is most powerfully discharged The Name of CHRIST as it is commonly added unto that of IESVS to denote his Offices so in a sort it is communicated unto those whom he hath chosen to himselfe for a royal Priesthood a chosen generation a peculiar people and for that reason honoured with the name of Christians And the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch saith the book of the Acts. Called Christians what by chance I believe not that The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Original hath more in it then so We have the same word in the second of St. Matthews Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the Wise men that came from the East to worship CHRIST and there we render it that they were warned by God warned by him in a dream not to goe to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in this place of the Acts must have some reference to God and seems to intimate at least if not fully evidence that they took not this name upon themselves but by Gods direction The Iews had formerly called them Nazarites as the Mahometans do still in the way of reproach And though the Disciples were neither ashamed nor afraid of any ignominy which was put upon them for the sake of their Lord and Master yet they conceived it far more honorable to him into whose heavenly house and family they were adopted to own themselves by that name which might most entitle them to all those priviledges which did acrew uuto them in the right of Adoption A caution to which God more specially might encline their hearts that his dear CHRIST might look upon them as his own to whom he gave the unction or anointing of the holy Spirit The anointing which ye have received of him saith the beloved Disciple abideth in you and ye need not that any men teach you That God had a directing hand in it the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth perswade me which intimates at
first of these respects the blessed Angels have the title of the sons of God Where wast thou saith the Lord in the book of Iob when I laid the foundation of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy The sons of God that is to say the holy Angels Per filios Dei Angeli intelliguntur saith the learned Estius on the place And so St. Augustine doth determine who hereupon inferreth that the Angels were created before the stars and not after the six days were finished as some it seems had taught in the times before him Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta sunt autem sydera die quarto as he most rationally concludes from this very text In this respect also the Saints in glory are called the sons or children of God and said to be equall to the Angels in St. Lukes Gospell not that they have all the prerogatives and properties which the Angels have sed quod mori non possunt saith the text but because they are become immortall and no longer subject as before to the stroke of death In the last meaning of the word though all the Saints and holy men of God may be called his children because they are adopted to the right of sons and made co-heires with CHRIST their most blessed Saviour yet is the title more appliable to the Prophets of God at least appliable unto them after a more peculiar manner then unto any others of the children of men I have said saith David ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most High Of whom here speaks the Psalmist of Gods people generally or only of some chosen and select vessels Not of Gods people generally there 's no doubt of that though both St. Augustine and St. Cyril seem to look that way but of some few particulars only as Euthymius and some others with more reason thinke And those particulars must either be the Princes and Judges of the earth who are called Gods by way of participation because they do participate of his power in government or else the Prophets of the Lord who are called Gods and the sons or children of the most High by way of communication because God doth communicate and impart to them his more secret purposes that they might make them known to the sons of men Them he called Gods as Christ our Saviour doth expound it then whom none better understood the meaning of the royal Psalmist ad quos sermo dei factus est i. e. to whom the word of the Lord came as our English reads it And what more common in the Scripture then this forme of speech factum est verbum Domini c. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah Isa. 38.4 The word of the Lord came to Ieremiah Ier. 1.2 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.3 et sie de caeteris If then such men to whom the word of the Lord came might justly be entituled by the name of Gods and called the sons of the most High assuredly there was not any of the children of men which could with greater reason look to be so called then the holy Prophets And yet in none of these respects abstracted from an higher consideration is CHRIST our Saviour here called by the name of the Son of God or so intended in this Creed For Angel he was none in the proper signification of the word though called the Angel of the Covenant in the way of Metaphore Nor did he take the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham as St. Paul tels us to the Hebrews We may not think so meanly of him as to ranke him only in the list of the Saints departed it being through the merits of his death and passion that the Saints are made partakers of the glories of heaven and put into an estate of immortality T is true indeed he was a Prophet the Prophet promised to succeed in the place of Moses that Prophet in the way of excellence in the first of Iohn v. 21 25. But then withall as himself telleth us of Iohn the Baptist he was more then a Prophet that word which came unto the Prophets in the times of old and to whom all the Prophets did bear witness for the times to come A King indeed he is even the King of Kings though not considered in that notion here upon the earth nor looked on in that title in the present Article Or if we could reduce him unto any of these yet take him as an Angel or a Saint departed or a King or Prophet every of which have the name of Sons in the book of God he could not be his only Son the only begotten Son of God the Father Almighty who hath so many Saints and Angels so many Kings and Prophets which are called his Sons It must needs follow hereupon that IESVS CHRIST our Lord is the Son of God by a more divine and near relation then hath been hitherto delivered And hereunto both God and Man the Angels and internal spirits give sufficient testimony The Lord from heaven procliamed him at his Baptisme and Transfiguration to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And Peter on the earth having made this acknowledgement and confession saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God received this confirmation from our Saviours mouth that flesh and bloud had not revealed it unto him but that it came from God the Father which is in Heaven The Angel Gabriel when he brought the newes of his incarnation foretold his mother that he should be called the Son of God the Son of the most High in a former verse And a whole Legion of unclean Spirits in the man possessed joynes both of these together in this compellation IESVS thou Son of God most high A thing not worthy so much noise and ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner then any of the sons of men who either lived with him or had gone before him had there not been something in it extraordinary which might entitle him unto so sublime and divine a priviledge Though Iohn the Baptist were a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yet we do not finde that the Devils stood in awe of him for Iohn the Baptist did no miracles or looked upon him in the wilderness as the Son of God To which of all the holy Angels as St. Paul disputes it did the Lord say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And who can shew us any King but him that was the Son of God as well as of David whom God the Lord advanced to so high an honour as to cause him to sit down at his own right hand till his enemies were made his footstoole Though Angels Kings and Prophets were the sons
is not concerned who by the power of the most High understands here the very person of God the Son and by this over-shadowing of the blessed Virgin his voluntary Incarnation in her sanctified womb His words are these Per virtutem Altissimi intelligi ipsum Dei Filium qui est virtus brachium potentia Patris quique obumbraturus significatur Virginem illapsu suo in uterum Virginis per occultum Incarnationis mysterium But by his leave I cannot herein yeild unto his opinion though Chrysostom and Gregory for the antient Writers Beda and Damascene for the Authors of the middle times do seem to contenance it For not St. Augustine only as himself confesseth and Euthymius a good writer also are against him in it but the plain text and context of the holy Scripture which makes the quickning of the womb of this blessed Virgin to be the work only of one Agent though it be expressed by different titles Nor are such repetitions strange or extraordinary in the Book of God nor can it give any colour to distinguish the power of the most High from the holy Ghost as if they were two different Agents unless we can distinguish the Lord our God from him that dweleth in the Heavens because we finde them both together in the 2. Psalm He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision And though it cannot be denyed but that the Son of God is the very power and strength of his Father yet himself doth give this very name of power to the holy Ghost For when he commanded the Apostles to abide in the City of Hierusalem donec induantur virtute ex alto i. e. until they were â—ndued with power from on high what else did he intend thereby but that they should continue there until they were endued with the holy Ghost Of which see Act. 2.4 Besides if this opinion should be once admitted we must exclude the holy Ghâ—st from having any thing to do in so great a mysterie and so not only bring the Creed under an Expurgatorius Index but the Scripture too Letting this therefore stand for a truth undeniable that the over-shadowing as the Text calleth it of the blessed Virgin was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost let us next see whether the nature of the miracle be not agreeable to the operatioâ—s of the holy Spirit or such as may not be admitted for a truth undoubted by equal and indifferent men though they be not Christians nor take it up upon the credit of the Word of God And first that of it self it is agreeable to the operations of the Spirit the course of his Divine power in the works of nature doth expresly manifest For as in the spiritual regeneration though it be Paul that planteth and Apollo that watereth yet it is God who gives the increase without whose blessing on their labours their labours will prove fruitless and ineffectual so also in the act of carnal generation though the man and woman do their parts for the pro creation of children yet if the quickning Spirit of God do not bless them in it and stir up the emplastick virtue of the natural seed they may go childless to their graves It is the Spirit which quickneth what the womb doth breed And therefore in my minde Lactantius noted very well Hominem non Patrem esse sed generandi Ministrum that man was nothing but the instrument which the Lord did use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that goodly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children It is the Spirit of God as the Scripture tels us which first gave form unto the world from whence that known passage of the Poet Spiritus intus alit had its first Original of which we have made use in our former book And if the chief work or rather the principal part in the work of nature in the ordinary course of Generation and first production of the Word may be ascribed as most undoubtedly it must unto the powerful influence of this quickning Spirit with how much more assurance may he be entituled to the Incarnation of the Word to which one sex only did contribute and that the weakest without the mutual help and co-operation of the seed of man Nor is the greatness of the Miracle so beyond belief but that there is sufficient in the holy Scripture to convince the Iew and in the writings of the Poets to perswade the Gentiles to the admission of this truth and consequently to confirm all good Christians in it Out of the Virgin-Earth did God first make Adam and out of Virgin Adam he created Eve Adam first made without the help of man or woman and Eve made after out of Adam who had no wife but this which was made out of him Why might not then the blessed Virgin be as capable of conceiving a Son by the sole power and influence of the holy Ghost without help of man as Adam was of being Father unto Eve by the self same power without the use of a woman Without a Mother Eve without Father CHRIST Adam without both Father and Mother but all the handy-work of God by the holy Spirit Equivalent in effect to the creation of Adam and the production of Eve was the birth of Isaac conceived by Sarah when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women by consequence as indisposed to the act of conception as if she had been still a Virgin or which is more then that under years of marriage The strength that Sarah had to bring forth that Son was not natural to her for she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the age of childe-bearing as the Text informs us but a strength supernatural given from God on high and therefore called a received strength she received strength to conceive seed Heb. 11.11 because not naturally her own but received extraordinarily from God As Isaac was in many things a Type of CHRIST so in no one thing more exactly then that he was the only Son or the dearly beloved Son of his Father begotten on a woman past the time of her age whose dead womb could not but by such a miracle be revived again To this the Iews most cheerfully do give assent boasting themselves to be the children of Abraham by this very venter What reason have they then not to yeild to this but that they resolved not to yeild to reason Next for the Gentiles do we not finde it in their Poets that Venus was ingendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth and influence of the Sun that Pallas issued from Ioves brain and Bacchus from the thigh of Iupiter Do we not read that most of their Heroes so much famed of old were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures as Hercules on Alcmena by Iupiter Phaeton on Clymene by Phoebus and Paâ—
that we see that not alone the sacred penmen of the new Testament written first in Greek but also all the Ecclesiasticall writers of the Greek Church when they speak of Hades intend not any thing thereby but hell the place prepared for the Devils and the damned souls Let us next see whether the Fathers of the Latine or Western Church have any other meaning when they speak of inferi or infernum for they use both words by which they do expound Hades or translate it rather as often as they chance to meet it And first for the Quid nominis take it thus from Augustine Inferi eo quod infra sunt the inferi are so called saith he because they are below in the parts beneath And somewhat to this purpose saith Lactantius also Nihil terra inferius humilius nisi mors inferi that there is nothing lower then the earth but death and inferi From infra the root or theme the Fathers do derive infernus of which thus St. Hierome Inferiora terrarum infernus accipitur the lower parts of the earth are called infernus to which our Saviour did descend Which as it sheweth that infernus was derived from inferius and so by consequence from infra as the word inferi was before so it directs us also where to finde the place And this he doth elsewhere also saying Simul discimus quod infernus sub terra sit and in another place quod autem infernus in inferiore parte terrae sit in both that it is under the earth and in the lowermost parts thereof Tertullian also saith the same as to the situation of it Habes regionem inferûm subterraneam credere we are to believe that the region of inferi is under the earth affirming also that it is in visceribus terrae abstrusa profunditas a bottomlesse pit in the very bowels of the earth In this there is no difference amongst the Antients in the nature or meaning of the word there is For by Tertullian the word inferi is taken for a place under the earth whither the souls of good and bad descend after death the good to a kind of refreshing the bad to punishments affirming for a certain truth or rather pronouncing so ex tripode for so the word Constituimus imports omnem animam apud inferos sequestrari in diem domini that the soul of every man is kept in Inferi till the day of the Lord. Which as it was a fancy private to himself after his lapse into the heresie of Montanus so he received no countenance in it from the rest of the Fathers by whom it is unanimously agreed upon that the souls of all good Christians are received into Paradise 'T is true indeed that Hierome seemeth to incline to the same opinion where speaking of the difference between death and inferi he saith that death is that whereby the soul is separated from the body infernus in quo animae includuntur sive in refrigerio sive in poenis and that infernus is the place wherein the souls of men are kept either in some refreshments or else in punishments Which seems to be the same with that which Tertullian had affirmed before but it doth but seem so For when he speaketh of inferi or infernus in this extension of the word he relates only to the times before the coming of our Saviour and his victory over death and hell and not at all unto the times of the Gospell For thus he doth explain himself in another place Solomon speaketh thus saith he because before the coming of our Saviour omnia pariter ad inferos ducerentur all were alike carryed to the inferi or the places below and that thereupon it was that Job complained how both the godly and the wicked were detained in inferno whereunto this expression tendeth we shall see hereafter The same he saith in his notes or Comment upon another Chapter of the same book of Solomons affirming plainly ante adventum Domini omnes quamvis sanctos inferni lege detentos that before the coming of the Lord all men how just and holy soever were detained under the Law of infernus But then immedately he addeth that since the resurrection of Christ the case is otherwise and that the souls of righteous men nequaquam inferno teneantur are by no means to be supposed to be detained in infernus and this he proveth from that of the Apostle saying I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and he that is with Christ saith he is not held in infernus So that whatsoever he conceived of infernus before Christs coming the truth of which opinion we dispute not here t is plain that since the resurrection he leaves it for a place appointed to the wicked only there to be held in everlasting pains and torments And so elsewhere he doth define it Infernus locus suppliciorum cruciatuum est in quo videter dives purpuratus that is to say infernus is the place of punishments and torments where the richman clothed in purple was seen by Lazarus Nay even Tertullian though he had made himself an inferi of his own devising acknowledgeth the prison which the Gospel speaketh of Mat. 5.24 25. to be no other then this inferi and therefore certainly not the receptacle both for good and bad the just and unjust But none of all the Antients states this point more clearly then divine St. Augustine who looking more judiciously into the businesse doth affirme expresly Frist Of the inferi or place it self nusquam scripturarum in bono appellatos potui invenire that he could never find any place of Scripture in which the word inferi was taken in any good sense Secondly that he could never finde that the place was called inferi y ubi justorum animae requiescunt where the souls of the righteous were at rest Thirdly that past all peradventure since the descent of Christ into hell boni fideles prorsus inferos nesciunt the godly believers are acquainted with no such place And last of all Non nisi poenalia recte intelligi per inferna that infernus can be taken for nothing rightly but the place of punishments And in this sense according unto these restrictions and explanations have the words inferi and infernus been since used in most Orthodox writers and in that sense still used by the old translatour of the new Testament into Latine as often as he meeteth with the Greek Hades And so St. Ambrose also doth interpret or expound the same where saying that according to the Theologie of the old Philosophers the souls of men severed from their bodies went unto Hades he gives this glosse upon the word id est locum qui non videtur quem locum latine infernum dicimus that is to say a place unseen which in Latine we do call infernus But as there is no
nought else but the Port of Salvation which whether it were formerly in the heavens above an apud Inferos or in the places under the earth I determine not Yea I had rather be still ignorant of it then rashly to pronounce of that which I finde not expressed in the Scripture In these things as I will not be too curious so neither will I define any thing therein nor will I contend with any man about this matter It shall suffice me to understand and confess that the godly of the Old Testament were in a certain place of rest and not in torments before the Ascension of Christ although I know not what nor where it was So he with great both piety and Christian modesty and with him I shut up this dispute CHAP. IX The Doctrine of the Church of England touching Christs descent into Hell asserted from all contrary opinions which are here examined and disproved THus have we seen the doctrine of the Primitive Church touching the Article of Christs descent into hell so much disputed or indeed rather quarrelled in these later times Let us next look upon the Doctrine of of this Church of England which in this point as in all the rest which are in controversie doth tread exactly in the steps of most pure Antiquity And if we search into the publick monuments and records thereof we shall finde this doctrine of Christs local descent into hell to have been retained and established amongst many other Catholick verities ever since the first beginning of her Reformation For in the Synod of the year 1552. being the fourth year of King Edward the sixt it was declared and averred for the publick doctrine of this Church to be embraced by all the members of the same that the body of Christ until his Resurrection lay in the grave but that his soul being breathed out was with the spirits in prison or hell and preached to them as the place of Peter doth witness saying For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison c. 1 Pet. 3.18 19. But being the Articles of that year were set out in Latine take them according as they stand in the Original Nam corpus usque ad Resurrectionem in sepulchro jacuit Spiritus ab illo emissus cum spiritibus qui in Carcere sive in Inferno detinebantur fuit illisque praedicavit ut testatur Petri locus c. So also in the year 1562. When Q. Elizabeth was somewhat setled in her state she caused her Clergy to be called together in a Synodical way to the intent they might agree upon a Body or Book of Articles for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the establishing of consent touching true Religion Who being met and having agreed upon the two first Articles touching Faith in the holy Trinity and the Word or Son of God which was made very man and having declared in this second that Christ who is very God and very man did truly suffer and was crucified dead and buryed to reconcile us to his Father addes for the title of the third of the going down of Christ into hell Which being an entire Article of it self runs thus in terminis viz. As Christ dyed for us and was buried so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell Which Article with the rest being publickly agreed upon and passed in the Convocations of both Provinces and confirmed under the broad Seal as the law required became the publick authorized Doctrine of this Church of England and afterwards received such countenance in the high Court of Parliament that there was a statute made unto this purpose that all who were to be admitted unto any Benefice with cure of souls or unto any holy Orders should publickly subscribe the same in the presence of the Bishop or Ordinary The like care was also taken after for subscribing to it by all such who were matriculated in either of the Universities or admitted into any Colledge or Hall or to any Academical degree whatsoever and so it stands unto this day confirmed and countenanced by as high and great authority aâ— the power of the Prince the Canons of the Church and the Sanctions of the Civil State can give it Nor stands it only on Record in the Book of Articles but is thus touched in the Book of Homilies specified and approved of for godly and wholesome Doctrine by those Articles and ratified and confirmed together with them Thus hath his Resurrection saith the Homilie wrought for us life and and righteousness He passed through death and hell to the intent to put us in good hope that by his strength we shall do the same He paid the ransome of sin that it should not be laid to our charge He destroyed the Devil and all his tyranny and openly triumphed over him and took away from him all his captives and hath raised and set them with himself among the heavenly Citizens above So far the Homily There was also published in the beginning of the said Queens Reign a Catechisme writ in Latine by Mr. Alexander Nowel Dean of Pauls and publickly authorized to be taught in all the Grammar Schooles of this kingdome though not by such a sacred and supreme authority as the books of Articles and Homilies had been before in which the doctrine of Christs descent into hell is thus delivered viz. That as Christs body was laid in the Bowels of the earth so his soul separated from his body descended ad inferos to hell and with all the force and efficacie of his death so pierced unto the dead atque inferos adeo ipsos and even to the spirits in hell that the souls of the unfaithful perceived the condemnation of their infidelity to be most sharp and just ipseque inferorum Princeps Satan and Satan himself the Prince of hell saw all the power of his tyranny and of darknesse to be weakned broken and destroyed and contrariwise the dead who whilest they lived believed in Christ understood the work of their Redemption to be performed and felt the fruit and force thereof with a most sweet and certain comfort So that the doctrine of Christs descent into hell being thus positively delivered in the Articles and Homilies and Catechisme publickly authorized to be taught in Schools and being thus solemnly confirmed and countenanced both by Laws and Canons and by the subscriptions of all the Clergie and other learned men of this Realm of England how great must we conceive the impudence to be of the Romish Gagger who charged this upon this Church that we denie the descent of Christ into hell Nor do I wonder lesse at the improvidence of those who were then in authority in licensing Mr. Rogers comment on this Book
of death Why then do they denie it unto this of Christ Not because they did not think it possible but because they would not have it believed It stood not with their interesse and private ends to have it passe for currant with the common people Our Saviour Christ had been too diligent as they thought in the discharge of his great office in the discovery and anatomizing of their corruptions and impieties and they were loath to have his doctrine justifyed by so great a miracle Rather then so to save their superstitions they will lose themselves Non tam de suis Religionibus bene meriti quam de se male Now as the Iews believed the Scripture relating the occurrences of the ages past so gave they as full credit to them foretelling things which were to come which is our last sort of proofs delivered from the old Testament in the way of Prophecie And first we meet with that of David in the book of Psalmes viz. Thou shall not leave my soul in hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption A priviledge which did not appertain at all to David who was dead and buried and had seen corruption his Sepulchre which continued till our Saviours time being nothing but a glorious emptinesse therefore by him or rather by the holy Spirit speaking in him intended to our Lord and Saviour the fruit and glorie of his loynes A matter in it self so clear and evident that when St. Peter pressed it home as a proof and evidence relating to the resurrection of the son of David those very Iews who had so wilfully cryed down this truth had nothing to oppose against it Thus also did Isaiah prophecie concerning him that the Lord would break him and make him subject to infirmities making his soul to be an offering for sin but yet withall that notwithstanding this he would prolong his dayes and the work of the Lord should prosper in his hands as the Iews could not but perceive that indeed it did But most exactly that of Hosea in whom we do not only finde the substance of this resurrection prophecied but the very Circumstances Come saith the Prophet Let us return unto the Lord for he hath spoyled us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will binde us up After two days will he revive us and the third day will he raise us up and we shall live in his sight A text so plain and evident to the present purpose though possibly entended by the Prophet of some speedy deliverance which by his mouth the Lord was pleased to promise to the house of Iudah that as it clearly doth foretell of a Resurrection so the accomplishment thereof in the man Christ Iesus might serve abundantly to convince the most stubborn Iew that it was principally meant and foretold of him Impleta in plerisque Prophetarum vaticinia c. The undeniable fulfilling of so many Scriptures might very well perswade men not possessed with prejudice first that our Saviour CRRIST did rise again according to the holy Scriptures and secondly that because he rose again according to the holy Scriptures that therefore he was CHRIST the Saviour We come next in order to this miracle not as foreshadowed in types or foretold in Prophecies or otherwise exemplifyed in the book of God but as accomplished in its time and left upon record in the Evangelists And here we will not beg the Iews to assent unto our Gospell but our proofs Themselves had seen our Saviour raise his dead friend Lazarus from the stench of the grave after he had been dead four days and began to putrifie They also knew as well as any of his own Disciples that he had formerly restored from death to life the widowes son of Naim and the daughter of Iairus How then can they denie him power to work the like miracle on himself At least why might not God be able to restore him unto the benefit of life again by whose ministery if not also power the benefit of life was restored to others True it is that had this mighty work of wonder been done in a corner or in some darke and solitary descent there might have been suspicion of imposture conceived against it But God well knew with what a wilfull generation he had to do what opposition he was like to finde in the promulgation of this Gospell For this cause as he made choice of a great and mighty City for the stage or Theatre whereon to act this work of wonder so did he also take a time in which that mighty City was most full and populous even the feast of the Passeover A time in which not only those which were Iews by birth resorted thither for the solemnizing of that festival but even such Proselytes of every nation under heaven as were daily added to the Covenant Once I am sure that Cestius a Roman President numbring the people which came thither to observe this Feast found them to be two millions and 700000 souls all clean and purifyed fit for the legall eating of the Paschal Lamb. God certainly had thus disposed it in his heavenly wisdome that so the tidings of the resurrection might with a swifter wing flie over all the parts of the world then known and with more ease prepare the people for salvation Which circumstance considered rightly as it ought to be were of it self sufficient to convince the Iews of a most obstinate incredulity who seeing could not choose but see yet would not perceive Ampla civitas ampla persona rem quaerentes latere non sinit as St. Austin hath it But the malice of that people will not so be satisfyed For when the Lord was risen as he had foretold them the Souldiers must first be corrupted to accuse the Disciples of Felonie and when that failed themselves are ever forwards to condemn them of folly The Lord had often signifyed unto them that the third day he would be raised from the dead that the Temple of his body should be destroyed and in three days built up again and they were resolute if strength and cunning could prevail to defeat him of the glory of his resurrection Upon this ground they had a warrant from the Governour to make sure the Sepulchre to place a watch about it and to seal the stone But when the dawning of the third day and the relation of the Souldiers had proclaimed the miracle they then gave money to the Souldiers to say and if need were to swear that his Disciples came by night and stole him away whilest they slept Dormientes testes adhibent as said St. Augustine of them in the way of scorne This is the most they have to trust to and this report as it seems clearly by the text did hold long amongst them but this if well considered is both false and foolish Never was accusation worse contrived then this For first
yet take him in perfecta gloriae suae exhibitione in the full and perfect manifestation of of his glorious Majesty and then he may be said most truly to have his habitation in the Heaven of Heavens For thus the Prophet Moses in the Book of Deuteronomie Looke down from Heaven thy holy habitation 26.15 Thus David in the Psalms The Lords seat is on high from the place of his dwelling he beholdeth all things Psal. 112. Thus Solomon the Son of David Hear thou from Heaven thy dwelling place 1 King chap. 8. Finally thus the Prophet Isaiah Look down from Heaven the habitation of thine happiness and of thy glory Chap. 63. He is no Christian I dare say who will stick at this And this bâ—ing granted I consider that in a place of such immensitie as the Heaven of Heavens in a large house wherein there are so many Mansions as our Saviour telleth us the Lord hath chosen one place above all the rest in which to fix his Throne and advance his Scepter and shew himself in all the Majesty of his Glory to the Saints and Angels For as the Lord was present in all parts of the Temple but most effectually in the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Ark was kept and into which none entred but the High Priest only was thought fit to enter so though his dwelling be in Heaven in all parts thereof all which may properly be called his Court or Imperial Palace yet hath he placed his Throne in that part of Heaven which the Apostle by allusion calleth the Holy of Holies where the Ark of his incomprehensible Majesty is most conspicuous to be seen and into which none but our High Priest IESVS CHRIST was permitted to enter Of all the Apostles only two were so highly favoured as to be carried in the Spirit into Heaven above where they not only heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are impossible for a man to utter though he could speak with all the tongues both of men and Angels but saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the invisible things of God which never mortal man had beheld before and both of them describe God sitting on a Throne St. Iohn most copiously thus Immediately saith he I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne Ver. 2. About the Throne were four and twenty seats for the four and twenty Elders vers 4. and out of it proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voyces vers 5. And when the time came and the Q. was given the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the Throne and worshipped and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive glory and honour and power because thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure sake they are and were created vers 10 11. more to this purpose doth occur in the following Chapter And last of all I do consider that though the Throne Imperial of Almighty God hath neither a right side or a left as indeed it hath not yet seeing that our Saviour is ascended in his natural body and hath his left hand and his right hand like to other bodies it will be logically inferred that our Redeemer sitting by the Throne of God with his left hand next unto the Throne in true propriety of speech without Trope or figure may be said to sit at the right hand of God or on the right hand of the Throne of God which comes all to one St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heaven and had a glimpse at least if not a full and perfect sight of the heavenly glories hath it so expressely where he affirms that our Redeemer the Author and finisher of our faith having endured the Cross and despised the shame is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn intimates as much when he tels us as it were from the mouth of Christ in these very words To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and have sitten with my Father in his Throne Where plainly Christ our Saviour sitting in the same Throne wiâ—h Almighty God as St. Iohn expressely saith he doth may properly be said to sit at the right hand of God in regard that the left hand of his natural body was in site nearest to the splendour of his heavenly Majesty for otherwise God must be said to sit on the right hand of Christ. The like may be affirmed of St. Stephen also where it is said that being full of the holy Ghost that is to say transported from himself by the holy Spirit he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God In which we have the glory of God conspicuoâ—sly manifested in his Royal Throne and Iesus standing at the right hand of the Throne or at the right hand of God take which phrase you will and standing either as an Advocate to plead for his afflicted servants or as a suiter in behalf of the Proto-martyr or as General in chief ready to march against the enemies of his best beloved So far we may consider of the literal sense of this branch of the Article without any derogation â—rom the Majesty of God the Father and much unto the honour of our Lord and Saviour and without any prejudice unto faith and piety And in such Cases as I take it the best way is to stand to this good old Rule that where the literal sense of holy Scripture doth hold an analogy and correspondence with the Rule of Faith it is to be preferred before any other But whether this be so or not for I propose it only as a consideration I have delivered freely my opinion in it and have delivered it no otherwise then as my opinion to which I never was so wedded but that a clearer judgement might at any time divorce me from it My opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As mine I have no reason to impose them upon other men or seek to captivate their understanding and make it subject to my sense And as opinions I am not bound to adhere to them my self but lawfully may change and vary according to that light and evidence of holy truth which either shall or may be given unto me In matters doctrinal concluded and delivered by the Church my Mother I willingly submit my self unto her Decisions Where I am left at large to my own election I shall as willingly take leave to dissent from others as others I am sure will take and on Gods name let them to dissent from me This was the amicable temper of the Fathers in the Primitive times which more preserved the Church both in peace and unity then all the Canons of Councils and Edicts of Princes to that purpose were of
Spirit beateth let us next take it by the hand or rather by his handy works For some there be who do confess Christ with their mouths but yet deny him in their works The Spirit of God is very active and wheresoever it is it will soon be working if it do not work it is no Spirit For usque adeo proprium est spiritui operari ut nisi operetur non sit as the Father hath it So natural it is for the Spirit to bring forth good works that if it do not so then it is no Spirit These Works St. Paul calls plainly The fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace gentleness goodness and the rest that follow Which as they are planted in the Soul may be called the Graces but as they are manifested in our actions the Fruits of the Spirit to shew us that it is a dead spirit which brings forth no fruits even as it is a dead faith in St. Iames his judgement which brings forth no works In a word as it was in the generation of our Saviour Christ so it is also in the regeneration of a Christian man both wrought by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost But these being chiefly matters practical are beyond my purpose Proceed we then to such as are more Doctrinal which is the proper subject of my undertaking from this acception of the word in which the Holy Ghost is taken for those gifts and graces which out of his great bounty he bestoweth upon us to that wherein it signifieth The Power and Calling which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people That in this sense the word is taken we have shewn before and are now come to shew how it is performed by what authority and what gifts discharged and executed The office of teaching in the Church doth properly belong to Christ the Prophet of the New Testament of whom Moses prophecied Deut. 13.15 As both St. Peter and St. Stephen do affirm expresly A Prophet whom all the people were to hear in every thing which he was pleased to say unto them and that commanded under such a terrible commination that every Soul which would not hear the voice of that Prophet was to be destroyed from amongst the people Yet though it were an office proper to our Lord and Saviour so proper that he seemed to affect it more than either the Priesthood or the Kingdom He entred not upon the same until he had received some visible designation from the Holy Ghost That he took not on him to discharge his Prophetical Function till after he was baptized by Iohn in Iordan is evident by course and order of the Evangelical story Not that his Baptism could confer any power upon him or give him an authority which before he had not for without doubt the lesser is blessed of the greater as St. Paul affirmeth and Iohn confessed himself so much less than Christ as that he was not worthy to untie his shooe but that as man he did receive this power from the Holy Ghost descending on him at that time in a bodily shape and withal giving him that Sacred Vnction whereby he was inaugurated to so high an office And to this Unction of the Spirit doth he himself refer the power he had to Preach the Gospel and to discharge all other parts of that weighty Function and that too in the very first Sermon which he ever preached to give the people notice that he preached not without lawful calling or exercised a power which belonged not to him For entering into the Synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath day he took the Book and fell upon that place of the Prophet Isaiah where it is said The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering sight unto the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable yeer of the Lord Which having read he closed the Book and said unto them This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears That he did preach by vertue of some unction from the holy Spirit is evident by his own Application of the Text by which he gave his Auditors to understand That he did not undertake the office of his own head onely but by the motion and impulsion of the Holy Ghost by whom he was abundantly furnished with all requisite gifts which might prepare him thereunto Non meo proprio privatoque sed divino spiritu missus sum eo actus eo impulsus eo plenus ad praedicandum Evangelium venio as the learned Iesuite glosseth on it But if you ask where or at what time he received this unction we must send you for an Answer to St. Ieroms Commentary on those words of the Prophet where we shall finde Expletum esse hanc unctionem illo tempore quando baptizatus est in Jordane Spiritus sanctus in specie Columbae descendit super eum maenfit in illo That is to say This unction or anointing was performed or fulfilled at that time when he was baptized by Iohn in Iordan and the Holy Ghost descended on him in the shape of a Dove and remained with him Nor doth St. Ierom stand alone in this Exposition Irenaeus Athanasius â—uffinus Augustine and Prosper all of them Antient Writers and of great renown concurring with him in the same And to this unction or anointing at the time of his Baptism St. Peter questionless alludeth where preaching to Cornelius and his Family he lets them know how God anointed IESUS of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power who from that time forwards not before went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil In which place by the anointing with the Holy Ghost I understand the furnishing of the Man CHRIST JESUS Iuxta dispensationem carnis assumptae as St. Ierom hath it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which were requisite and fit to qualifie him for the undertaking By power the Calling and Authority which that Unction gave him to preach the Gospel and do the rest of those good works which properly did pertain to his Ministration But that both gifts and power were conferred upon him by the descension of the Spirit at the time of his Baptism to which St. Peter doth allude I have Maldonate concurring in opinion with me saying Loquitur Petrus de Baptismo Johannis quem Christus susceperat postquam à Spiritu sancto unctum fuisse significat This Office as our Saviour was pleased to execute in his own Person as long as he sojourned with us here upon the Earth so being to withdraw himself from the sight of man he thought it requisit to make choice of some to be about him who might
first of the Evangelical Scriptures was the Epistle Decretory which we finde in the fifteenth of the Acts and that was countenanced by a visum est spiritui sancto i. e. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost And when St. Paul writ his Epistle unto those of Corinth for fear he might be thought by that factious people to injoyn any thing upon them without very good warrant he vouched the Spirit of God for his Author in it They preached the Gospel first to others as Christ did to them by word of mouth that being the more speedy way to promote the Work But being they could not live to the end of the world and that the purest waters will corrupt at last by passing through muddy or polluted Chanels they thought it best to leave so much thereof in writing as might serve in all succeeding Ages for the Rule of Faith Postea vero per voluntatem Dei in Scripturis nobis Evangelium tradiderunt firmamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram as in Irenaeus A man might marvel why St. Iohn should give that testimony to the Gospel which was writ by him that it was written to the end That men might believe that JESUS is the CHRIST the Son of God and that believing they might have Faith through his Name considering that none of the rest of the Evangelists say the like of theirs or why he thundred at the end of his Revelation that most fearful curse against all those who should presume to adde anything to the words of that Book or take any thing from it being a course that none of all the sacred Pen-men had took but he But when I call to minde the Spirit by which Iohn was guided and the time in which those Books of his were first put in writing methinks the marvel is took off without more ado For seeing that his Gospel was writ after all the rest as is generally affirmed by all the Antients those words relate not as I guess to his own Book onely but to the whole Body of the Evangelical History now perfectly composed and finished for otherwise how impertinent had it been for him to say That IESVS did many other signs in the presence of his Disciples which were not written in that Book if he had spoken those words of his own Book onely Considering that he had neither written of the signs done in the way to Emaus mentioned by St. Luke or his appearing to the eleven in a Mountain of Galilee which St. Matthew speaks of or his Ascension into Heaven which St. Mark relateth which every vulgar Reader could not chuse but know The like I do conceive of those words of his in the Revelation viz. That they relate not to that Book alone but to the whole body of the Bible St. Iohn being the Survivor of that glorious company on whom the Holy Ghost descended in the Feast of Pentecost and the Apocalypse the last of those Sacred Volumes which were dictated by the Spirit of God for the use of his Church and now make up the Body of the holy Scriptures God had now said as much by the mouths and pens of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles as he conceived sufficient for our salvation and so closed up the Canon of the Scriptures as St. Augustine telleth Deus quantum satis esse judicavit locutus Scripturam condidit as his own words are which certainly God had not done nor the Evangelist declared nor St. Augustine said had not the Scripture been a sufficient rule able to make us wise unto salvation and thoroughly furnished unto all good works Which being so it cannot but be a great dishonor to the Scripture and consequently to the Spirit of God who is Author of it to have it called as many of the Papists do Atramentariam Scripturam Plumbeam Regulam Literam Mortuam that is to say An Ink-horn Text a Leaden Rule and a Dead Letter Pighius for one as I remember gives it all these Titles or to affirm That it hath no authority in the Church of Christ but what it borroweth from the Pope without whose approbation it were scarce more estimable than the Fables of Aesop which was one of the blasphemous speeches of Wolf Hermannus or that is not a sufficient means to gain Souls to Christ or to instruct the Church in all duties necessary to salvation without the adding of Traditional Doctrines neither in terminis extant in the Book of God nor yet derived from thence by good Logical inference which is the general Tenet of the Church of Rome or that to make the Canon of the Scripture compleat and absolute the Church as it hath added to it already the Apocryphal Writings so may it adde and authorize for the Word of God the Decretals of the Antient Popes and their own Canon Law as some of the Professors of it have not sticked to say So strongly are they byassed with their private interess and a desire of carrying on their faction in the Church of Christ as to place the holy Spirit where he doth not move in their Traditions in Apochryphal and meer Humane writings and not to see and honor him where indeed he is in the holy Scriptures Of the Authority Sufficiency and Perspicuity of which holy Scriptures I do not purpose at the present any debate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a work more fit for another place and such as of it self would require a Volume onely I say that if the written Word be no rule at all but as it hath authority from the Church which it is to direct and then not an entire but a partial rule like a Noune Adjective in Grammar which cannot stand by it self but requireth somewhat else to be joyned with it in Construction and that too so obscure and difficult that men of ordinary wits cannot profit by it and therefore must not be permitted to consult the same the Holy Ghost might very well have spared his pains of speaking by the Prophets in the time of the Law or guiding the pens of the Apostles in the time of the Gospel and the great Body of the Scripture had been the most impertinent and imperfect peece the most unable to attain to the end it aims at that was ever writ in any Science since the world began Which what an horrid blasphemy it must needs be thought against the majesty and wisdom of the holy Spirit let any sober Christian judge And yet as horrid as those blasphemies may be thought to be some of the most profest enemies of the Church of Rome and such as think that the further they depart from Rome they are the nearer to Christ have faln upon the like if not worse extravagancies For to say nothing of the Anabaptists and that new brood of Sectaries which now swarms amongst us whom I look on onely as a company of Fanatical Spirits did not Cartwright and the rest of our new
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said