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
and did apply it to the birth of Christ born of a most immaculate Virgin as a more punctual fulfilling of that sacred Prophesie then what before had hapned in the days of Ahaz But MARY as she was a Virgin a Virgin and the heir of the promise which was made to Eve and made to Eve when she was yet a Virgin though espoused to Adam so was she also a daughter if not an heir to all those blessings which God had promised unto David the heir as some suppose of the Royal Famiâ—y and thereby gave our Saviour an unquestioned title to the Realm of Iewry But this I take to be a supposition so ill grounded though I see great pains taken in defence thereof that I dare not lay any part of my building on it 'T is true the Iews who knew of his descent from David and greedily laid hold upon all occasions for the recovery of their lost liberties sought after him to make him King But this they did not on an opinion that he was the next heir unto the Crown but because they thought him best able to make good the Title For having seen him feed so many thousands of men with no more provision then only a few Barly loaves and two small fishes they presently conceived that he was able to raise victuals for a greater Army then could be possibly withstood by the powers of Rome The text and context make this plain to a Vulgar Reader For no sooner had the people beheld the miracle but presently they said of a truth this was the Prophet whom they did expect and if a Prophet and that Prophet whom they did expect then who more fit then he to be made their King Nor to say truth was our Redeemer a Descendent of the Royal line but the collateral line of David none of which ever claimed the Kingdome or the title of King or exercised any special power save Zorobabel only and that but temporary for the better setling of the people after the Captivity The Crown being entailed on Solomon and his posterity ended in Ieconiah the last King of that race on whom this curse was laid by the Lord himself that no man of his seed should prosper CHRIST therefore could not be of the seed of that wretched Prince because we know his work did prosper in his hands and that he is the Author of all prosperity both to Iew and Gentile And more then so the self same Prophet telleth us in the following chapter that the Lord would raise unto David a righteous branch a King which should both reign and prosper which is directly contradictory to that before whose name should be the Lord our righteousness and must be meant of Christ and of none but him Though Ioseph might naturally spring from this Ieconiah though it remain a question undecided to this very day whether Salathiel were his natural or adopted son yet this derives no title unto CHRIST our Saviour who was not of the seed of Ioseph though supposed his son Our Saviours own direct line by his Virgin-Mother was not from Solomon but Nathan the son of David of whom the holy Ghost saith nothing as concerning the Kingdome for Mary was the daughter of Heli the son of Matthat the son of Levi and so forth ascendendo till we come to Adam according as it is laid down in the third of Luke And this I call the line of Christ by his Virgin Mother on the authority of St. Augustine in some tracts of his the Author of the Book called De ortu Virginis extant amongst the works of Hierome and many late Writers of good credit besides the testimony of Rabbi Haccanas the son of Nehemiah a Doctor of great esteem amongst the Iews who telleth us that there was a Virgin in Bethlehem Iudah whose name was Mary the daughter of Heli of the kindred of Zerubbabel the son of Salathiel of the Tribe of Iudah who was betrothed to one Ioseph of the same kindred and Tribe Nor can I see to what end St. Luke writing after St. Matthew and having doubtless seen his Gospel should make another pedegree for Ioseph then was made already and that so different from it in the whole composure from Christ to David I take it therefore for a certain and undoubted truth that St. Luke reckoneth the descent of our Lord and Saviour by the line of his Mother the daughter of Heli Ioachim he is called in our Vulgar stories who is said to be the Father of Ioseph because he married his said daughter as Ioseph is there said to be the Father of Christ because he was husband to his Mother Some other difference there is in these two Genealogies as that St. Matthew goes no higher then Abraham and St. Luke followeth his as high as Adam the reason of the which is both plain and plausible For Matthew being himself a Iew and writing his Gospel originally in the Hebrew language for the instruction of that people could not bethink himself of a better way to gain upon them then to make proof that Christ our blessed Saviour was the Son of Abraham in whose seed the whole Nation did expect their blessedness And on the other side St. Luke being by birth a Gentile of the City of Antioch and so by consequence not within the Covenant which was made to Abraham carryeth on the descent of Christ as high as Adam who was the common Father both of Iews and Gentiles to shew that even the Gentiles were within the Covenant which was made in Paradise touching the restauration of lost man by the Promised seed For Maries birth and parentage I think this sufficient A little more may here be added of the title of Virgin because called in this Article the Virgin as by way of eminency The Virgin Mary saith the Article and not a Virgin known or called by the name of Mary Somewhat there is in this there is no doubt of that whether so much as many do from hence infer may be made a question That she continued still a Virgin after Christs nativity I am well resolved of notwithstanding all the cavils made against it by the Ebionites Helvidius Iovinian and the Eunomian Hereticks For who can think that Ioseph after such a revelation from the God of Heaven that she had conceived with childe of the holy Ghost should offer to converse with her in a conjugal manner or that the blessed Virgin if he had attempted it would have permitted that pure womb which had been made a Temple of the holy Ghost to be polluted and profaned with the lust of man The piety of both parties is a forcible argument to free them from an act so different from all sense of piety And yet Helvidius and his fellows had some Scripture for it for even the Devil could come in with his Scriptum est namely that passage in St. Matthew where it is said of Ioseph that he knew her not
body CHAP. VII Of the crucifying death and burial of the Lord JESUS CHRIST with the diquisition of all particulars incident thereunto THe death of Christ prefigured both in that of Abel and of Abels lamb The definition of a Sacrifice how abused by Bellarmine and on what design The Sacrifices of the Law how accounted expiatory Several resemblances between the Sacrifices of Christ and the legal sacrifices A parallel beawixt Christ and Isaac and betwixt Christ and the Brazen Serpent Calvins interpretation and the practise of the Papists much alike unsound How Christ is said to be made a curse The cruel intention of the Iews to prolong Christs miseries under the false disguise of pity Several sorts of Dereliction and in what sort our Saviour Christ complained that he was forsaken Whether Christ spake those words in his own Person or in the person of his members the Schoolmen in this point very sound and solid Why vinegar was given to Christ at the time of his passion The meaning of those words Consummatum est That the death of Christ is rather to be counted voluntary then either violent or natural and upon what reasons The death of Christ upon the Cross a full Propitiation for the sins of man both in the judgement of Scriptures and the Antient Fathers That Christ suffered not the death of the soul as impiously is affirmed by some The Eucharist ordained for a Sacrifice by our Lord and Saviour The Sacrifice or Oblation of Bread and Wine used antiently by that very name in the Church of Christ why called Commemorative and why an Eucharistical sacrifice and why the Sacrament of the Altar The Sacrifice asserted by the Antient Writers corrupted by the Church of Rome and piously restored by the Church of England St. Cyprian wrested by the Papists to defend their Mass. A parallel between the Peace-offerings and the blessed Eucharist The renting of the Vail at our Saviours passion what it might portend The Earthquake and Eclipse then happening testified out of Heathen writers The reconciliation of St. Mark and St. Iohn about the time and hour of our Saviours suffering Various opinions in that point and which most improbable Vniversality of redemption defended by the Church of England Both Sacraments how said to issue from our Saviours side The breaking of our Saviours body in the holy Eucharist how it agreeth with the not breaking of his bones The true and proper meaning of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certain considerations on our Saviours buriall and of the weekly fasting dayes thereupon occasioned That Iudas hanged himself made good from the antient Fathers against the new devise of Daniel Heinsius The fearfull and calamitous ends of Pontius Pilate Annas Cajaphas and the whole nation of the Iews CHAP. VIII Of the locall descent of Christ into hell Hades and inferi what they signifie in the best Greek and Latine authors and in the text of holy Scripture an examination and confutation of the contrary opinions CHrists descent into hell the first degree of his Exaltation and so esteemed by many of the antient Fathers The drift and project of this Chapter Severall Etymologies of the Greek word HADES The Greek word HADES used most commonly by the old Greek writers to signifie hell the place of torments sometimes to signifie Pluto the King of hell the word so used also by the sacred Penmen of the new Testament The faultinesse of our last translators in rendring the Greek HADES by the English grave 1 Cor. 15.55 c. contrary to the exposition of the best interpreters By HADES in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it is meant only hell in the opinion of all Greek writers of the elder and middle times The Latine word inferi whence derived and what it signifyeth Inferi generally used by the Antient writers for the place of torments not for the receptacles or repositories of the righteous souls The Greek word Hades generally rendered in the new Testament by the Latine inferi The meaning of these words viz. He descended into hell Grammatically gathered from the Premises Arguments for the locall descent of Christ into hell from St. Pauls words Rom. 10.6 7. and Ephes. 4.8 9 c. with the explication of both places The leading of captivity captive Ephes. 4. and the spoiling of principalities and powers Col. 2.15 used by the antients as arguments for Christs descent into hell the like proved by St Peters argument Act. 2.27 c. the pains of death mentioned vers 2.24 in the latter editions of that book the very same with the pains of hell in some antient copies The Locall descent of Christ into hell proved by the constant and successive testimonies of the old Greek Fathers and by the general current of the Latine writers together with the reasons which induced him to it Considerations on this point viz. whether Christ by his descent into hell delivered thence the souls of such holy men as either dyed under or before the Law Bullengers moderation in it 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 THe Doctrine of the Church of England touching the local descent of Christ into Hell delivered in the book of Articles in the book of Homilies and Catechismes publickly allowed The errour of Mr. Rogers in that point charged upon the Church The Doctrine of a locall descent defended by the most eminent writers in the Protestant Churches and of some of the Reformed also The first objection against the locall descent viz. that there was no such clause in the old Creed or Symbol of the Church of Rome The second objection that our Saviour went on the day of his passion with the Theef to Paradise The third objection that Christ at the instant of his death commended his soul into the hands of God the Father The pertinency and profitablenesse of the locall descent declared and stated and freed from all the Cavils which are made against it The false construction of this Article by our Masters in the Church of Rome Brentius and Calvin falsly charged by Bellarmine The Article of Christs descent by whom first made the same with his burial the inconvenience of that sense and the absurdities of Beza in indevoring to make it good The new devise which makes the descent into hell to be nothing else but a continuance for three days in the state of death proposed and answered A Theologicall Dictionary necessary for young Divines The Author and progresse of the new opinion touching the suffering of hell paines in our Saviours soul. A particular of the torments in hell that is to say remorse of conscience 2. rejection from the favour of God 3. despaire of Gods mercy 4. the fiery flames there being That none of all these could finde place in our Saviours soul. The blasphemy of some who teach that Christ descended into hell to suffer there the torments of
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
thing in property they could call their own but were indeed a people of so extreme a poverty that they no more needed the helps of God or man then the Beasts of the field Fennis mira feritas foeda paupertas non arma non equi non penates as he tels us there And more then so they had attained saith he to the hardest point Vt ne voto quidem opus sit that they had no need nor use of prayers to the gods on high For what need they make supplication to the gods and goddesses for blessings on their Corn and their Wine or Oyl who neither sowed nor planted nor used any husbandry What should they do with houshold gods who had no houses but the Earth only for their bed and the Heavens for the Canopy And yet perhaps these Fenni were not altogether without the knowledge of GOD or to be counted absolute Atheists more then the barbarous people of other new discovered Countries but that they had this Character bestowed upon them because they shewed less signs of any Religion then those Nations did with whom the Romanes had had longer acquaintance and so were more experienced in their rites and customes And of all men that flourished before Tullies time there were none stigmatized with the brand of Atheism but only Diagoras Melius and Protagoras the Cyrenaean to whom some added Enhemerus the Tegaean also Of the two first indeed it is said by Lactantius Protagoras deos in dubium vocavit Diagoras exclusit that Protagoras first called the beeing of the gods in question and that Diagoras was the first who denyed it absolutely who therefore was surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Atheist as Minutius hath it And yet perhaps it will be found upon further search that neither of the three did doubt or deny this truth that there was a God but that they got this ill repute amongst the Gentiles for scoffing and deriding those Idol-gods whom their neighbors worshipped For of Diagoras it is said that when he cast the Statua of Hercules into the fire he did it with this scoffe or jeere In hoc decimo tertio agone mihi inservias that he should serve him now in that thirteenth labor as he had done Eurystheus in the other twelve And as well known is that of Protagoras also who is said to have thus mocked at the Idolatries of the old Egyptians Si dii sunt cur plangitis si mortui cur adoratis i. e. If they be gods why do you lament them for in the rites and sacrifices of the goddess Isis they used to make great lamentations if dead why do you then adore them As for the third man Euhemerus for these were all of note who stand thus accused he was accounted guilty of Atheism for no other reason but because he had composed an history of the birth lives and actions of the Heathen gods proving that they had been no other then some famous men whose Statua's had been turned to Idols and themselves worshipped by the people in tract of time for some powers Divine Which book of his Lactantius and some others of the Primitive Writers do make very good use of in their discourses with and against the Gentiles 'T is true that on those grounds and on those occasions which are spoken of by Enhemerus the greatest part of the old Heroes as Saturn Iupiter Apollo Neptune Mars Hercules and the rest of that infinite rabble became by degrees to have divine honours conferred upon them And 't is as true that the Egyptians worshipped Apis in the form of an Oxe or the Oxe rather under the name of Apis as being of greatest use to them in the course of their tillage and so they did also Leekes and Onions and divers other of the fruits of the Earth also by which they lived and some strange creatures also which they dreaded most quis nescit qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colat as the Poet hath it As true it is that other Nations worshipped the Sun and Moon and all the rest on the heavenly bodies unto whose glorious light and influences they thought themselves so much heholding Which may be used as a further and most invincible argument to prove that the knowledge of this truth that there was a God was naturally ingraffed in the souls of all men and that this natural inclination was so powerful in them that they rather would have any gods then none at all and therefore made themselves such gods as came next to hand worshipping STOCKS and Stones and Leekes and Onyons and whatsoever else their blinde fancies dictated And this I take it gave the hint to Democritus first and after him to Epicurus and the whole Sect of the Stoicks to set up FATE and Fortune in the place of the Gods or otherwise to invest dame Nature with the powers of a Deity For finding that the biass of all sorts of people inclined them strongly to believe that there was a God they were content to let the gods hold their place in Heaven but then they robbed them of their power or supreme providence in governing the World and ordering the affairs thereof And this was the disease of Davids fool in the Book of Psalms who used to say in his heart that there was no God Not that he was so very a fool as to think there was no God at all but that he thought the God of Heaven was so far above him and so imployed in matters of an higher nature as neither to take care or notice of the things beneath Which therefore he◠as Democritus and the Epicureans after did ascribed to Chance and Fortune or to Fate and Nature And as it seems this errour in the time of the Poet Iuvenal found such a general entertainment amongst the Romanes that he thought fit to tax it in his Satyres thus Sunt qui Fortunae jam casibus omnia ponunt Et Mundum nullo credunt Rectore moveri Natura volvente vices lucis anni Atque ideo intrepide quaecunque Altaria jurant That is to say Some think the World by slippery chance doth slide That days and years run round without more guide Then Natures Rule From whence without all fear Of Gods or men they by all Altars swear But howsoever this opinion carrying a less shew of impiety then that of Diagoras and Protagoras had done before became more generally to be received among the Gentiles yet in effect in rather changed then bettered the state of the question And though it did not strike down all the gods at a blow yet by degrees it lessened their authority amongst the people and brought them to depend wholly upon chance and fortune or on fate and destiny that in the end there might be no other God thought of none of the Heavenly Powers be sued to or adored at all Which plainly was their aim as St. Austin telleth us where notwithstanding their pretences he
till she had brought forth her first born son A first born son say they doth imply a second and his not knowing her till then doth tacitly import that he knew her afterwards And this they fortifie with that in the 6. of Mark where not only Iames and Iuda and Ioses and Simon are called his Brethren but his sisters also are affirmed to be then alive But the answer unto these Objections was made long ago St. Hierome in his tractate against Helvidius having fully canvassed them For first the first begotten or first born doth imply no second that being first not which hath other things coming after it but which hath nothing going before it Et primus ante quem nullus as the Father hath it And this appears most evidently by the law of Moses by which the first born of every creature was to be offered unto God The first born not in reference unto those that are to come after for then the owner of a flock or herd of cattel might have put off the sacrifice or oblation of the first born of his sheep or kine til he were sure to have a new increase in the place thereof which the Law by no means would permit And thus we say in common speech that Queen Iane Seymour dyed of her first childe and that King Edward the fift was murdered in the first year of his reign where past all doubt neither Iane Seymour had more children nor King Edward reigned more years then the first alone And for the argument from the word until or donec peperit in the Latine it implyes no such matter as is thence collected the word not having always such an influence as to imply a thing done after because not before When Christ promised his Disciples to be with them alwayes till the end of the world think we his meaning was to forsake them then that they should neither be with him nor he with them I trow no man of wit will say it And when the Lord said unto his CHRIST Sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool may we conclude that when death the last enemy shall be overcome that he shall sit no longer at the Lords right hand I hope none dare think it More instances of this kind might be easily had to shew the weaknesse of this inference were not these sufficient And for the Brothers and Sisters mentioned by St. Marke either they were Iosephs children by a former wife as Irenaeus and likewise all the Greek Fathers downwards St. Hilarie and St. Ambrose amongst the Latines are of opinion or else his nearest kinsmen as St. Hierome thinks which in the Idiom of the Iews were accounted Brethren But on the other side our great Masters in the Church of Rome will not only have her to continue a Virgin post partum after the birth as to the purity of her minde but also in partu in the birth as to the integrity of her body Durand one of their chief Schoolmen will needs have it so not thinking it a sufficient honour to her to be still a Virgin non solum carentia experientiae delectationis Venereae not only by an inexperience of all fleshly pleasure sed etiam membri corporalis integritate but in the clausure of her womb the dotres whereof as they conceive were not opened by it And unto this most of the great Rabbins of that Church do full wel agree Assuredly these men with a little help might in time come to be of the Turkes opinion who out of a Reverent esteem which they have of Christ will not conceive him to be born or begotten according to the course of nature but that the Virgin did conceive him by the smell of a Rose and after bare him at her brests But herein they run crosse to the antient Writers who though they constantly maintained the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of Christ yet such a corporal integrity in the act of Child-birth as these men idly dream of did they never hold Tertullian very aptly noteth that she was Virgo a viro non virgo a partu a Virgin in respect that she knew not man and yet no Virgin in regard of her bearing a child which though it were conceived in a wonderful manner yet ipse patefacti corporis lege he came into the world by the open way Pamelius in his notes accounts this and some other passages to this purpose amongst the Paradoxes of Tertullian So doth Rhenanus too a more modern censurer and yet confesseth that St. Ambrose was of this opinion so was St. Hierome too in his second Book against the Pelagians who holds that Christ first opened those secret passages though he after shut them up again According to the judgment of which antient writers for those which followed them in time varyed somewhat from them it is the common resolution of the Protestant Schooles that though Christ when he was born of his Virgin Mother opened the passages of her womb as all children do yet she continued still a Virgin because her mind was free from the thoughts of lust and that she had conceived of the holy Ghost nay that he may more properly be said to have opened the womb of Mary his mother then any other first born do because he found it shut at the time of his birth which the first born of the sons of men do not And being it is confessed by the greatest Schoolmen that there may be an opening of the womb without the losse of Virginity as in the cure of some diseases or on such an accident of which St. Augustine speakes in his first book De Civit. dei c. 18. I should much wonder at the stiffenesse of the Papists in it but that I know they lay it for a ground work of their doctrine of transubstantiation and the local being of his body in more places at a time then one by taking from it all the properties of a naturall body But to say truth they well may free Christs body from the bands of nature when they have freed his mother from the bands of sin not from the sins only of an higher nature but even from slight and veniall sins as they use to call them nor yet from actual sins only but original also To what this great exemption tends we shall see anon In the mean time we may take notice that this exemption from the guilt of original sin is but a new opinion taken up of late and not yet generally agreed on amongst them there having been great conflicts about this priviledge between Scotus and the Franciscans on the one side Aquinas and the Dominicans on the other But in the end the devotions of the common people being strongly bent unto the service of our Lady the Franciscans carryed it Sixtus the 4. who had been formerly of that Order not only ratifying by his Buls their doctrine of her
and some of them perhaps reduced to their primitive dust is more then probable for the text speaks of them as of men which had long been dead Now why a glorifyed soul should be re-united to a corrupt and putrefyed although new raised body unlesse it were to raise that body also to a share of glory I plainly must confesse I can see no reason Some of the Saints then as his Souldiers did attend this Pomp I take that for granted And I conceive it probable for I goe no further that every Saint or Souldier had his Crown or Coronet bestowed upon them by their Generall in testimony that they had fought a good fight against sinne and Satan For though in common course the Saints and servants of the Lord shall not have their Crowns untill the generall day of judgment yet here in this particular case it might be otherwise by speciall priviledge and extraordinary dispensation Next to the Saints and Souldiers look we on the Captives of whom the Psalmist and St. Paul both do expressely speak Duxit captivam captivitatem He led captivity captive saith the holy Scripture But who these captives were and what this captivity will aske a little more paines to declare aright though somewhat hath been said in this point before We shewed you in our Commentaries on the former Articles that by the unanimous consent of all the Fathers our Saviour spoyled the Principalities and powers of hell when he went down thither and there took captive both the Devill and his evill Angels The shewing of them openly and triumphing over them the leading of them captive when they were so taken that doubtlesse was the work of another day that was the work of the Ascension When he ascended up on high then not before he led them captive and when he led them captive then he triumphed over them The victory he obtained before now he made his triumph The great Battel which Paulus Aemilius won of Perseus the Macedonian did shrewdly shake the main foundations of his power and Empire the victory was not perfected nor the Realme subdued and made a Tributary Province of the state of Rome untill the King himself was taken in the Isle of Samothrace to which he had retired as his strongest hold immediately on his defeat near the City of Pidna The triumph followed not till after when he made his entrie into Rome the imperiall City the miserable King and all the flower of his Nobility being led like Captives in their chaines and doomed unto perpetuall prison And this saith the Historian was interpulcherrimos the happiest and most stately triumph that the Roman people ever saw the victory having also been of the greatest consequence So in this case The first main Battell after some previous skirmishes and velitations which our Redeemer sought with Satan was upon the Crosse in which he seemed for a time to have had the worse But it was only for a time For by his death saith the Apostle he overcame him which had power of death which was the Devill That was the first great blow which the Devill had But the victory was not perfected nor the Empire of the Prince of darknesse broke in pieces and brought under the command of the Son of man till he mastred hell it self and forced the Devill and his Angels in their strongest hold Then came he to demand his triumph at the hands of God who received him into heaven with the greatest glory that ever had been seen by the heavenly Citizens the Devill and rest of the powers of hell being led bound in chaines in triumphant wise whom he flung off as soon as he approached near the gates of Heaven and hath ever since reserved in chains under darknesse to the judgment of the great and terrible day If you will see this triumph set down more at large we have it in the 13. of the Prophet Hosea and out of him in St. Pauls first to the Corinthians death led captive without his sting Hell broken and defaced like the picture of a conquered City the strength of sinne the Law rent and fastned to his Crosse ensigne-wise the Serpents head broken and so born before him as was Goliahs head by David when he came from the victory Never so great a victory such a glorious triumph as that of Christ in his Ascension when having spoyled the Principalities and powers of hell he led this captivity captive in his march to Heaven making a shew of them openly unto men and Angels and triumphing over them in semet ipso in his own person saith the vulgar Reddunt inferna victorem superna suscipiunt triumphantem Hell restored him back a Conquerour and Heaven received him a Triumpher as faith St. Angustine happily if the work be his But there were other Captives which adorned this triumph besides the Devill and his Angels even the sons of men The Devill first began the war with our Father Adam foyled him in Paradise and made him of a Prince to become a Prisoner a slave to his own lusts and and loose affections And he prevailed so far upon his posterity that he brought all mankinde in a manner under his dominion their sins and wickednesses being grown unto such an height that God repented him at last of mans creation It angred him saith the text at the very heart David complained in his time that there was none that did good no not one and when the son of David came upon the Theatre he found the seed of Abraham so degenerated that they were become the slaves of Satan at best the children of the Devill as himself affirmed In this estate we were the whole race of man when with a mighty hand and an outstretched arme our Saviour Christ encountred with the powers of darknesse and subdued them all By this great victory of Christ over sin and Satan the Devill was not only taken and made a Captive but all mankinde even that captivity which was captive under him became his Prisoners jure belli even by the common law of war as being before part of the Devils goods of his train and vassalage So true is that of Aristotle in his book of Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those which are taken in the warres are in the power and at the pleasure of the Conquerour The Fathers many of them look this way directly but none more plainly to this purpose then Dorotheus an old Orthodox writer and he states it thus What means saith he the leading of captivitie captive And then he answereth It meaneth that by Adams transgression the enemie had made us all captives and held us in subjection and that Christ took us again out of the enemies hands and conquered him who kept us captive So that the case of mankinde in this double captivitie was like that of Lot whom the five Kings when they took Sodom carried Prisoner with them Lot was then Captive to those Kings
which were dead already that by their merits they might finde success of their prayers unto him And in another place he determineth positively for the matter of fact that though the Saints are prayed to now in the times of the Gospel Ante adventum Christi non invocabantur yet were they not prayed unto or invocated till the coming of Christ. Finding no better comfort for them in the Old Testament let us next follow them to the New in which the Texts most stood upon to confirm their doctrine are in the 15 of St. Luke In the seventeenth verse we read it thus I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth And in the tenth I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth These are the Texts which make most for them and these God knows make very little to the purpose For first according to the Exposition of some Antient writers the hundred sheep mentioned in our Saviours Parable represent the whole body of the Elect both Men and Angels whereof the ninety nine were the holy Angels continuing in their first integrity the stray sheep all mankinde which was lost in Adam for whose recovery the Son of God that good Shepherd Iohn 10.10 did suffer death upon the Cross and so accomplished the great work of mans redemption For this see Hilary on St. Matth. Can. 18. Chrysologus Serm. 168. Titus Bostrensis on the place Isidore in his Book of Allegories not to descend to later Writers though Cajetan and others of the Romish party might be here alleged Which Exposition if admitted overthrows the project for then no more can be inferred from those Texts of Scripture but that there is great joy in the Court of Heaven and in particular amongst the blessed Angels for the redemption or recovery of lost man by Christ. But waving the advantage of this Exposition and granting that those Texts relate to particular persons yet all that can be logically inferred from hence is That the Saints and Angels do know some things and at some times which are done here upon the Earth namely so often and so much as God of his especial grace doth reveal unto them This is all and this we will not grutch them for observe the Inference Our Saviour as his use was spake in Parables even in the Parables of the lost sheep the lost groat and the Prodigal Son A certain man having a flock consisting of an hundred sheep doth lose one of the hundred and after long search made doth finde it and bring it back unto the Fold A certain woman is supposed having a little stock of ten peeces of silver to lose one of her peeces and after great pains taken to meet with it again On this they call together their friends and neighbors and say unto them Rejoyce with us for we have found the sheep and the peece of silver which was lately lost So then unless the man and woman in our Saviours Parable had pleased to call their friends together and imparted to them the finding of the lost sheep and the lost peece of silver the friends and neighbors might have been so far from shewing any great joy at the recovery that possibly they might have never heard of the loss If so then certainly it cannot be inferred from hence that the Saints and Angels which are the friends and neighbors of those several Parables are privy to our wants on Earth by course and ordinary dispensation but onely this that some things and at some times are imparted to them by their God by way of grace and extraordinary revelation No Protestant as I conceive so void of Reason as to make question of the one no Papist hitherto so cunning as to prove the other This though it seem to be a very bold and venturous Assertion may very easily be made good though we should use no other medium for the proof thereof than their own difference and disagreement in the manner of it A difference or contrariety indeed so great and admirable that fire and water will more easily be reconciled than their opinions Five several ways have been invented by the Schoolmen and those that since have travelled in the controversies of the present times by which to make the Saints acquainted with our state on Earth some false others blasphemous and the rest so doubtful that there is no belief to be given unto them no building to be laid on such weak foundations The first of these opinions is Quod sint ubique praesentes that they are present every where in all parts of the world and so no strangers either to our words or actions But this besides the want of sufficient proof doth trench too much on the Prerogative and Attributes of Almighty God there being no power Omni-present but is also infinite and Omni-presence so peculiar unto God himself that the Gentiles chalenged the Christians of the Primitive times for ascribing to their God that privilege whereof both Iupiter himself and all the Topical gods of Nations were conceived uncapable Discurrentem scilicet eum volunt ubique praesentem as Cecilius prest it in the Dialogue The second is That they are made acquainted with the passages of this present world Sanctis mortuis atque Angelis internuntiis by the information of such Saints as were daily added to their number and the relation of those Angels which by Gods appointment pitch their Tents about us Which though it be conjectural onely and is proposed without any proof at all yet for as much as comes within the knowledge of those Saints and Angels we should lose nothing of our ground if we closed in with them But then there are many Prayers and Vows which we make to God that go no further than the heart and do not finde a vent by the tongue at all The Spirit making intercession for us as St. Paul affirmeth with groanings that cannot be expressed which onely he that searcheth the heart saith the same Apostle can take notice of No Saint nor Angel being privy to the groans of the Spirit Some therefore are so far transported beyond the bounds of piety and Christian prudence as in the third place to make the blessed Saints and Angels acquainted with our very thoughts A fancy very prejudicial to the Majesty of Almighty God and indeed as dangerous as blasphemous the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the searcher of the hearts and reins being proper onely unto God It is God alone that knoweth the heart Acts 15.8 He that searcheth the heart Rom. 8.27 That trieth the heart 1 Thes. 2.4 Which searcheth both the reins and hearts Apoc. 2.23 A high Prerogative not given by any of the Gentiles to their supream deities and therefore quarrelled at in the Primitive Christians because by them ascribed to the Lord their God Et Deum illum suum in
heard which feign that the old Fathers did onely look for transitory promises Of this opinion also was that wretched Servetus who thought no otherwise of the people of the house of Israel quam de aliquo porcorum grege than other men would do of an herd of Swine whom he conceived the Lord did fatten in the Land of Canaan Citra ullam spem coelestis immortalitatis Without breeding them in any hopes of the life eternal And against him doth Calvin who hath given us this knowledge of him intend his whole tenth Chapter of his second Book of Institutions Nor do I find but that our Masters in the Church of Rome like it well enough though they keep more aloof in the tendrie of it For neither doth Prateolus nor Alphonsus à Castro nor any other of their Writers for ought I can finde in reckoning up the errors of the Anabaptists or of Servetus and his followers account this for one nor do they give such efficacy to the Iewish Sacraments as to confer Grace or spiritual gifts on them that were partakers of them And Harding telleth us in plain terms That the body is not raised to eternal life but by the real and substantial eating of the flesh of Christ Which were it so as Bishop Iewel well observeth what life could Abraham Isaac and Iacob and other holy Patriarchs and Prophets have which were before the coming of Christ and therefore could not really and substantially eat his flesh Must we not needs conclude by this strange Divinity that they have no life but are dead for ever without any hope of resurrection unto Life everlasting But what need such deductions though most clear and evident when one of their infallible and Authentick Records speaks it out so plainly that every ordinary understanding cannot but perceive it I mean the Roman Catechism published by the order and authority of the Council of Trent The Authors whereof abusing the authority of St. Augustine in his Comment on the 77th Psalm will have the Iewish Church to be called the Synagogue Quia pecudum more quibus magis congregari convenit terrena tantum caduca bona spectarent i. e. Because like brute beasts who properly are said to be congregated or gathered together for so the word Synagogue doth import they sought after nothing but transitory and temporal things Than which no Anabaptist in the world could have spoke more plainly A Tenet very contrary to plain Texts of Scripture which speak no otherwise of the Patriarchs Prophets and other holy men of God which lived before and under the Law than of those to whom pertained the adoption of Sons and the glory and the service of God and the same Promises which are made to us who live under the Gospel For doth not God say to our Father Abraham that he was both his shield and his great reward his shield or his Protector as the Vulgar reads it to save him from all danger in this present world and his exceeding great reward in the world to come And doth not Iob whose history was writ by the hand of Moses as it is generally conceived by men of learning profess a more than ordinary confidence in the Resurrection and of his seeing God with those very eyes which were to be consumed with worms Doth not the Royall Psalmist tell us of himself that he did verily beleeve to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living And doth not the Prophet tell us of the blessed Land where men live for ever that the eye hath not seen nor the ear heard neither can the heart of man conceive those things which God hath prepared for them that love him Sufficient evidence to prove that as well in the Old Testament as in the New Everlasting Life is offered to mankinde by God according to the Doctrine of this Church of England It is true the Promises of Everlasting Life to us which live under the Gospel are delivered in more clear expressions than those which were delivered to our Fathers which lived under the Law for which we have the greater cause to give thanks to God who speaks so plainly to us without Tropes and Figures without Types and Ceremonies the shadows of those things which we have in substance For what can be more plain than that of our Lord and Saviour saying That the righteous shall go into life everlasting Matth. 25.46 That they which do forsake all for his sake shall in the world to come have eternal life Mark 10.30 That whosoever believeth in the onely begotten Son of God shall not perish but have life everlasting John 3.6 That he which hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal Chap. 12.25 Or what can be more plain than those words of St. Paul in the first to Timothy advising us That we lay up in store for our selves a good foundation against the time to come that we may lay hold on eternal life Chap. 6.19 Or those to Titus That being justified by his grace we shall be made heirs according to the hopes of life eternal Chap. 3.7 Or that in the second to the Corinthians We know that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Chap. 5.1 Finally What can be more plain than that of St. Peter assuring us That by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead we are begotten again to an inheritance immortal undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens 1 Pet. 5.3 4. Or that in the same Epistle where he telleth his Presbyters That if they feed the flock of Christ committed to them when the chief Shepherd shall appear they shall receive immarcessibilem coronam gloriae an immarcessible Crown of glory or a Crown of glory which withereth not as our English reads it Chap. 5.4 How much more might be added from the Revelations and other passages of the New Testament where the same thing is either figuratively expressed or easily inferred by logical and necessary consequences but that I was to shew that eternal life was promised unto those who lived under the Law although not every where nor altogether in such clear expressions as it is held forth unto us who live under the Gospel As clear are those expressions also which do set forth the nature and condition of this life to come as those which do deliver the eternity and duration of it For in some places it is called the joy of the Lord Enter into thy masters joy Matth. 25.5 Where there is fulness of joy and at his right hand there is pleasure for evermore as the Psalmist hath it Et nunquam turbata quies gaudia firma in the Poets language Sometimes it is called a Kingdom and a Crown of glory A Kingdom by our Saviour in St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 25.5 A Crown of glory by St. Paul