for because these termes are conuertible essentially they are so many severall demonstrations of the same thing as was shewed log chap. 18. n. 3. And so no lesse are all those arguments for proofe of this question which follow in cap. 13. against the Eternity of the World The inductive arguments of Cleanthes you shall finde in Tullie de Nat. Deorum lib. 2. and out of him in Philip Mornay Of the truenesse of Christian Religion cap. 1. and in Peter Moulin de Cognitione Dei and others a There was a time Time is commonly taken for a certain continuance measured by the motion of the heavens But here it signifies at large and improperlie as much as any lasting continuance or duration which may be thought distinguishable in Eternity b Contradictories Reason 2. The second part of Logonomia which I call Logicke written by mee among other reasons there mentioned was especially meant to be an helpe to them that needed helpe for the understanding of this booke And therefore for this and all such dark words you that need helpe must seeke it there and having read that booke diligently first and somewhat understood it you shall come better furnished to this booke or the like and let this note be sufficient for all such words of art as this c Therefore there is a God All these reasons conclude directly the being of that one onely true God whom we adore And as there was never any nation so barbarous which did not confesse some God one thing or other which their imaginations leade them unto So have few men been found so shamelesse as to deny it Yet if any such there be as Diagoras of Melos and Theodorus of Cyrene were said to be they shall be reckoned the principall hereticks against this conclusion Protagoras also shall goe in that number because he made it doubtfull whether there were Gods or no whom the Athenians did therefore banish and burnt his bookes The second sort is of Paynims and Idolaters who in stead of the true God worship false gods Idoles and devils Ephes 2.12 The third sort of Atheists are they who although they denie not God in their words and being overcome in their consciences cannot denie him yet in their actions and affections have no remembrance and regard of him These have the sentence of their judgement already pronounced upon them Psal 9.17 For whosoever prefers any thing before God and his feare either honour riches pleasure the favour of men or whatsoever else they set vp other gods and so forsake the true God and his Religion which had not power over their consciences to bind them to his feare For he that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seeke him Heb. 11.6 A fourth errour is of them who make the idoles of the heathens to be the same with the true God knowne and worshipped among the Hebrewes blessed therein above all people because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was their God Psal 144.15 147.20 You shall have their opinion delivered by Hermesianax translated by Mr. G. Sandys lib. 2. of his Relation Pluto Persephone Ceres Venus Love Triton Nereus Thetis Neptune and Iove Pan Iuno Vulcan He with th'awfull rod PHaebe and Archer Phaebus all one God And so all the Panim Idolaters in spight of their noses shall be worshippers of the true God But how agrees this with the truth of the Scripture Deut. 32.16.17 where strange Gods are called devils Psal 106.36.37 They served idols and offered unto devils 1 Cor. 10.20 The Gentiles sacrifice to devils and not to God But hath not this opinion gotten strength of late when we are taught to beleeve by Sanf Park de descensu sect 6.7 c. that these Heathenish devils had their names also from the glorious names of the true God And for this purpose we must of Elohim have Helion But if I should not be accessary to this folly I would aske why not rather of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elion especially seeing the interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 11. bind vs thereto from the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Strong and yet the fiction of the Sunnes horses proved out of Chrysost sect 7. would have fetcht it better and with lesse dishonour to God from Helias Will you have any more then of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shaddai take Dis So this rare Cabalist takes the Epithete of the blessed God Gen. 17.1 to the prince of their devils of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we read Jehova you shall have Iao Euios Phaebos Bacebos I and the Peruvian Hioh and of Adonai the lovely boy Adonis horresco referens And Anion the Brasilian devill and Kiwassa the idol of Virginia if they had thought on 't with as much likelihood But it is proved by the authority of the devill of Claros himselfe Cunctorum dicas supremum numeu Iao Hic tibi vere novo sit Iupiter Helius aestu Dis cum saevit hyems Autumno mollis Iao. And againe the Rhodian devill said asmuch Magnum Atten placate deum qui castus Adonis Euios est largiter opum pulcher Dionysus The devill is a Lyar from the beginning And I easily thinke that hee would and did helpe the Heathen to beleeve all Hesiods genealogy of the gods And that hee would as willingly suffer them to prophane the holy titles of the onely true God for their greater condemnation that would attribute them unto him But if the Heathens would falsely give these names to their * Deuils See Aug. de Civ D. lib. 9. cap. 23. Gods a Christian should avenge that unjust claime and not with such hard strayning thrust them upon them And how sticks this with their owne learning that Moses who was never called Iehova should bee Bacchus and the hill Sina the citty Nisa and Arabia the India to which Bacchus went Did any Geographer so describe the earth as to bring India into Arabia Father Ptolomie tels us that no part of India is neare to Sina by forty five degrees which of the Aequators longitude is two thousand seven hundred miles And the history of Alexander refutes this fancy Iust hist lib. 12. So Ioshua is sometimes Hercules sometime Apollo And Deos and Deus were used for any God indifferently but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 began to be restrained to the true God When where by whom in prose or in verse he lookt on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and did but thinke so Is not this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that shreeves himselfe to his wife Iuno for all his slipperie prancks with Danae Semele Latona and the rest Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that threatens to clapperclaw her Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that gaue her the strappado with two Anvils at her heeles Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet see how we are bound to beleeve it Ante haec tempora repertum non putamus qui
Accident see log chap. 21. n. 3. To this hee brings the reasons of Anselme The least inconveience is not possible to be in the Godhead but if the Son could beget another Son and He againe another Sonne c. the processe might be infinite But this is impossible Therefore the Sonne cannot beget no more than He can cease to bee a Sonne and to be begotten Againe He that cannot bee the Father cannot beget But the Sonne cannot bee the Father for so all difference and propriety of the Persons should bee taken away Therefore the Sonne begets not nor yet the Father begets any other Sonne Iohn 1.14 18. For as nothing of the Fatherhood can bee out of the Father so nothing of the Sonship can be out of the Son for so the production of the Sonne should not be perfect neither is the dignity of their essence anything abated hereby for that in every Person is onely one but in the Father it is called Fatherhood in the Sonne it is called Sonship and in the Holy Ghost it is called Procession And againe in his Sum. Theol. part 1. cap. 42. he proves there can be but one Father one Sonne and one Holy Ghost for such reasons as you may reade there and iudge of their force Moreover in the 4. booke cont Gent. cap. 13. he proposes this very objection almost in so many words and answers it thus The Sonne of God is also God yet not another God distering onely in this that Hee proceeds from the Father And if he be not any other God then also must there be one Power one understanding of them both So that the Sonne differs from the Father onely in this that hee proceeds from Him and this is the propriety of the Father that the Word proceeds from Him and of the Sonne that hee proceeds from the Father Neither is this any weakenesse in the Sonne that he begets not another Sonne because both the Father and the Sonne are as the same Deny so the same power one of begetting the other of being begotten which difference is onely in the relations And againe in the 26. chap. of the same booke he answers That hee that makes this objection ought to have considered that the Sonne of God is God not as begetting but onely as being begotten For the essence being one the difference betweene them must bee onely by that relation which is in their originall or procession Relation I say not that which is founded in quality for so there would bee unlikenesse nor that which is in quantity for so there would bee inequality in their being but that which is in action onely action I meane not transient wherein the Agent hath a prerogative of power on an outward subject to cause passion therein but immanent onely wherein that which is produced is coessentiall and coequall with the producer So that the difference is onely in the order of procession onely But I suppose such a learned Master as Osiander whos 's petits dare so boldly censure and set at nought whom they please could not bee ignorant what so great a Doctor as Thomas had so often answered It may be he held the answers insufficient yet he should have shewed the weakenesse thereof He held it not worth his paynes a carelesse answer But let us once more be bold to looke on this mighty Goliah a little nearer and try what cunning he hath at his weapon If the Father by the understanding of himselfe doth bring forth a Person like himselfe then the Sonne also and Holy Ghost by understanding themselves shall bring forth persons like themselves for otherwise they cannot be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or consubstantiall I denie the consequence and why because the reason thereof bindes mee to denie it for if the Persons bee consubstantiall that is of one and the same most simple being it is necessary first that the whole being be in everie Person for if the being bee divideable as Hierarcha and the Triformians thought then can it not be most simplie one Secondly that that one most simple being be likewise no other thing than the three Persons for if that infinite being might by the manifold actions of the understanding bee imparted by every one of those Persons to multiplie moe Persons then should they not bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arius granted that is not of one and the same but onelie of like being as Peter Iames and Iohn of which everie one hath the common abilitie of kinde to propagate his like But thus the being in the three Persons could not be individuall and one but the Father communicates his whole being to the Sonne so that there remaines no difference of being but of principall originall or begetting onely Moreover the consequence cannot follow but upon this most false supposition that there be divers intellections or severall workings of the Divine understanding in every Person whereas the understanding of God being his most simple being and that most individually one the action likewise of his understanding must bee but one most simple act of understanding infinitely and eternally for as hee cannot cease to bee so can hee not cease to understand at one action infinitely and eternally whatsoever is understandable in himselfe or his creature so that the Persons cannot have severall acts of understanding as accidents or proprieties nor yet can they bee any other thing than the severall termes properties or subsistences in that one infinite understanding as our Lord teacheth us John 5.19 The Sonne can doe nothing of himselfe save what he seeth the Father doe for whatsoever things he doth the same things also doth the Sonne like wise Thirdly this consequence doth not onely utterlie take away the distinction of persons as was shewed but would also thrust into the Divine understanding that which is utterly false and utterly impossible that contrary to the evidence of the Holie text for our Lord saith Iohn 10.15 As the Father knoweth me so know J the Father But it is certaine that the Father knoweth not any thing but as it is therefore not the Sonne but as the Sonne neither doth the Sonne know the Father but as the Father nor yet himselfe but as the Sonne therefore it being impossible for the Persons to understand themselves otherwise than they are it is not possible for the Sonne or the Holy Ghost by understanding themselves to become the Father and so to bring out other Persons as this lewd consequence would enforce But the ground of this mistaking which I tell you of for avoiding of the like cavils is this that they consider not the superexcellency of the Divine being but measure it by the short and scanty rules whereby they measure the creature It is true in things here below that according to those naturall causes wherby everie thing is brought forth so may it likewise bring forth the like because that strength or power is given thereto for the
speake are either such as concerne Himselfe or us Himselfe as that in His being He is a Spirit Eternall infinite in Wisedome c. In essence one in Persons three in His dispensation towards us that in the fulnesse of time the Eternall Sonne should dwell in the Tabernacle of our flesh that in our nature and for us he might make satisfaction for our sinne that we might be restored againe to the favour of God which wee had lost by our transgression and so have hope of the full enjoying of those benefits which come unto us thereby as the resurrection of our bodies and eternall life both in body and soule And because it was impossible for us to understand those things except God Himselfe had revealed them unto us therfore it was necessary that He should vouchsafe the certaine and immutable knowledge of them by His Holy Word 5. No Kingdome can bee ordered according to Iustice wherein the Lawes are not manifest and to bee knowne of every subject that will know them But Christ is that King that is to raigne in iustice Esay 32.1 Therefore it was necessary that the lawes and ordinances of His Kingdome which peculiarly is His Church should be so published that every one both small and great might take knowledge of them 6. No punishment is due but for some offence and where no law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 So no reward is due but either in justice for some merit above dutie as the merit of Christ on our behalfe or else in mercie by promise for the carefull performance of that which is due But neither duty nor punishment nor merit nor mercie can either appeare or be such where no law is Therefore it was necessary that God by His Word should both shew what duty He did require of us and what punishment was due to the breakers of His law and what reward was due to the observers as the law declares And moreover because no man in this state of corruption by originall sinne is able to performe the law of God as he ought in perfect righteousnesse Therefore it was also necessary in this impossibilitie on our parts to make it knowne how wee might bee delivered from the punishment by the mediation of another as the Gospel shewes 7. And because so great a benefit as the deliverance of mankind from the thraldome of the devill was never to bee forgotten therefore it was necessary not onely that the Church should bee prepared unto the expectation thereof and dayly put in mind by such lively signes as the sacrifices were the true meaning of which they were taught by the Prophets but also when the time came that the promises should bee fulfilled that the Church should be throughly informed and confirmed in the trueth thereof by the powerfull doctrine and glorious miracles which were done both by the authour and finisher of our faith and by those who were eye-witresses of all things which they testified to the world Therefore it was necessary that both before the comming of Christ the Church should be catechised unto Christ by the doctrine of the Law and the Prophets and after His comming bee fully instructed by the Apostles and Evangelists the Holy-Ghost evermore working in the hearts of the elect that the things which were taught should be beleeved § 3. Hath it indeede beene the practise of the devill by his principall agents the persecuters of the Church to deface the Holy Scripture and to put out their remembrance among men Histories affirme it Neither can the Father of lies hate any thing so much as the trueth nor the enemie of man-kind endeavour any thing so earnestly as to defact that by the knowledge whereof man may find the way to eternall life yet great was the trueth and prevailed Then by hereticks he would corrupt it but yet the trueth prevailed Then hee would keepe it from us in an unknowne tongue but yet the trueth appeared and every man may reade in his owne tongue the wonderfull workes of God English and Germanes and French and the rest yet the devill had one tricke more in his budget that seeing hee could neither deface nor corrupt nor conceale the bookes of Holy Scripture in a forraine tongue whose vulgar use is vanish't among men he would shuffle in other bookes among them that so we might not discerne the true Mother from the false And if any question grew about the Child traditions which wee must receive with equall affection of piety must decide it Strange Divinitie Did the Church deale thus of ancient time For you onely are wise you onely will be the people Shew the custome of the Church you claime to Fathers shew it from them Saint Athanasius in Synops. divides the bookes of the Old-Testament as wee into Canonicall and not Canonicall The Canonicall he accounts all as wee save Esther the not Canonicall he accounts the booke of Wisdome Esther Iudith and Tobit The books of the New-Testament all Canonicall hee numbers as wee the foure Gospels the Actes the seven Catholike Epistles fourteene of Saint Paul among which following Saint Peter Second Epistle 3.15 he puts that to the Hebrewes and the Revelation Epiphanius also Lib. de Mens pond accounts the Canonicall bookes as Athanasius but puts Esther among them he accounts Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus to be apocryphal Ierom. in Prol. Gal. accounts the Canonicall bookes of the Old-Testament as Epiphanius and as the manner of the Hebrewes was of old they count the books according to the number of the Hebrew letters 22. as the knops nuts or almonds on the golden candlestick were 22. for the Lamentations was one book with the prophesie of Ieremiah and the 12. small prophets made but one Booke and as five of their bookes were double that is Iude and Ruth 2. of Samuel 2. of Kings and 2. of Chron. Ezra and Nehem. in one booke so are 5. of their letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the end of words are thus written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in Summe they speake of their bookes altogether the Law and the Prophets as Luk. 16.29 and 31. and 24.27 Aces 24.14 and 26.22 and 28.23 And yet some-what more particularly the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes and this division of the bookes of the Holy Scripture our Lord also allowes Luke 24.44 But in this last division the bookes are numbred 24. first of Moses 2. Foure of the former Prophets as they call them Ioshua Iudges Samuel and Kings 3. Foure also of the later Prophets Esay Ieremie Ezechiel and the Booke of the 12. small Prophets 4. The Kethubim or holy writing contained 11. bookes the 5. Poeticall that is the Psalmes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Iob and the Canticles three which they called Megilloth volumes or rolles Ruth Lamentations and Esther among which the booke of Canticles is sometimes accounted and 2. halfe Chaldee which were last written Daniel Ezra with Nehemiah and the Chronicles And these holy writings they divided
from the other prophecies because they were not given either by dreame or by vision or by hearing a voice or in any extasie but were inspired by the Holy-Ghost immediately And according to this order of the bookes of the Holy Scripture divers Hebrew Bibles have bin lately printed as one by Plantin in Oct. another by Hutterus in Folio and others Now concerning the bookes of the New-Testament Saint Ierom ad Paulin. reckons them as wee And are not these Aramites strucke with blindnesse that print the Bible the decree of Trent and those prologues of Ierom before it that it may appeare how they set the Fathers at naught But for the full decision of this question let us looke unto the undoubted truth of the Scripture by the Scripture it selfe let us learne what is Scripture or the word of God 1. Therfore concerning the books of the New-Testament M. Luther accounted the Epistle of S. Iames to bee aridam stramineam dry as a Kix and his followers give their reasons against it 1. the seeming opposition which is betweene him and S. Paul in the question of justification by faith and by works 2. because hee teacheth not but supposeth onely that which is the sum of the Gospel that is the redemption of the world by the death of Christ as some men speake for Athanasius concerning the booke of Esther that none of the names of God are mentioned therein to which others answere that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mimmakom acher in Chap. 4. v. 14. is for sense in that place equivalent to any of the names of God which the prophet did there forbeare to remember because hee would not that any of the names of God should bee prophaned among the heathen with whom he lived So also Luther held the Revelation to be the writing of some well-meaning honest man but not Canonical Wherein I thinke the wonderfull wisdome and mercy of God appeared to hide the meaning of that booke from him lest he should be destroyed with pride when he should see himselfe and his ministery so alluded to therein But let Luther and his followers in this question thinke by themselues betweene us and the Church of Rome there is no difference both parties holding all the bookes of the New-Testament to be canonical The onely doubt is about the books which we call Apocryphal of unknowne and obscure Authors or strange doctrines delivered therein In which question the Canon or rule of the New-Testament is for us For concerning all the books of the Old-Testament the reason stands thus 1. All the oracles of God or Canonicall Scripture was received in the Church of the Iewes But none of the Apocryphall bookes were received in the Church of the Iewes Therefore none of the Apocryphall bookes are the Oracles of God The proposition is Saint Pauls and he accounts it as well hee may the first and chiefe preeminence of the Iew that unto them the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 The assumption is manifest for the Apocryphall bookes were extant onely in Greeke which language the Iewes never used in their holy seruices And although the booke of Ecclesiasticus were begun by the grand father in Hebrew yet was it augmented and finished in Greeke by the grand-child And although the first booke of the Maccabees were extant in Hebrew yet was it not therefore Canonicall no more than the second that was written in Greeke So the conclusion stands sure And if neither the Church before Christ received those Apocryphall bookes nor the ancient church since His suffering accounted them Canonicall for the Authour of the Sophisticate Cannons of the Apostles wee receive not upon what ground then should the Fathers of Trent presume to doe that which neither the Primitive Church or Fathers attempted before 2. Such another argument you have from Luke 24.27 where it is said that Christ beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things that were written concerning Himselfe So all the Scriptures are understood by the Law and the Prophets as I shewed before and yet for further explication it is added in verse 44. the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes For of all the Cethubim the booke of Psalmes was first and by a Synecdoche is put for all the rest Now to which of all these will you bring the Apocryphall bookes By the Law you understand the five Bookes of Moses which the Samaritanes and all the sects of the Iewish Religion except the hereticks called Nasacheans did receive The sects of the Sadduces and Samaritanes rejected the rest but the Church of the Iewes held all the Prophets both former and later with all the Kebuthim to bee holy Scripture but the Apocrypha are reckoned with none of these 3. A third argument from the holy Scripture against these apocryphals is from Revel 19.10 The testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of prophecie But in these apocryphals which the Iewes received not there is no prophecy no evident testimony of Iesus that was to come Therefore they are no witnesses of Him no word of His. And although in the fourth booke of that supposed Esdras there be mention of Iesus Christ Chap. 7.27 28. yet the false narration of things never done and other fictions See Master Brerew Enq. Chap. 13. have discredited those bookes so farre that the Papists themselves doe not mention them in their new Canon and vouchsafe them a place in the end of their Bibles onely lest they should be lost Object But the Fathers themselves call these bookes Canonicall Answer And our Church yeelds they are so in the meaning of the Fathers that is serving for rules of good life and vertue but not of faith as the holy Scriptures and that is the question betweene us and Trent § 4. Sect. 4 That the holy Scripture is abundantly sufficient to teach all things that belong to faith and godlinesse is manifest by the reasons brought for the proofe of the second question That it was necessary for us that God by His written Word should vouchsafe unto us the knowledge of His will 1. For how could either our hope and comfort in God be firme and sure if they were not grounded upon His holy promises that never faile 2. And if no man know the things of God but onely the Spirit of God how could we beleeve that which is to be beleeved of Him or hoped for our selues as the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of the Son the resurrection of the body c. but by the instruction of His holy Word 3. How could we have the true knowledge of sinne and the punishment thereof but by His Law whereby He hath taught us what duty we owe to Him to our neighbour and to our selues And if the holy Scripture doth thorowly instruct us in all things that we ought to doe or to beleeve is not the sufficiency and perfection thereof able to teach us how to be perfect in every good
this will nothing at all support those unwritten verities For it is utterly denyed and that according to reason and the word of God that any part of the holy Scripture is perished 1. For can we thinke that it stood with the goodnesse of God to give His Word to His Church for comfort and instruction and stood it not with His providence to preserue that Word that it should not perish but accomplish that thing for which it was sent Esay 55.11 But divers objections are brought hereto as you may see in the author G. Langf forenamed in the 4. § 1. The booke of the warres of IEHOVAH is mentioned Numb 21.14 but not extant Therefore some part of the holy Scripture is perished Answer It ought first to be manifest what this booke was but in briefe the bookes of the Chronicles of the Kings of Iudah and of the Kings of Israel are often mentioned in the bookes of Kings and Chronicles yet were not those bookes therefore holy Scripture written by the Prophets but rather by the Recorders or Secretaries of state appointed for that purpose as the histories of other kingdomes are or ought to be written and of this ranke may that booke mentioned by Moses seeme to be For it is not necessary that all writings mentioned in the holy Scripture should be holy Scripture For the Poets whose writings Saint Paul mentions were but Heathens and Iannes and Iambres as profane writers call him Mambres are no where mentioned in holy Scripture but onely 2 Tim. 3.8 2. A second doubt is from that which is in Ioshua 10.13 and 2 Sam. 1.18 where mention is made of the booke of Iasher whereto though some according to the interpretation of the word just or upright will have the sence of that text of Ioshua Is it not recorded by him whose writings are upright and true as it is said Iohn 21.24 This is the Disciple that testifieth these things and we know that his testimony is true yet because the booke is mentioned in times above 390. yeeres distant it seemes to me rather to be some Liger or booke of record wherein such memorable things were written by the appointment of their Synedrion as might serue for remembrance to future ages for that Synedrion or great Councill of 70. Elders instituted by God under Moses Numb 11. never failed so long as their state lasted 3. The writings of the Prophets themselues as of Nathan and Gad mentioned in 1 Chron. 29.29 of Ahia and Iddo 2 Chron. 9.29 of Iehu 2 Chron. 20.34 are utterly lost Answer Not so For as it is manifest that all the things written in the 2 of Sam. were done after his death so likewise may we very well thinke that both the bookes of Iudges and Ruth 2 of Samuel and the two bookes of Kings for some give the Chronicles wholly to Ezra were written by divers Prophets whom God raised up in all the ages of that Church to bee inditers of His Word and were as Saint Luke saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-witnesses of the things which they recorded and these Prophets here mentioned with others were the Authors of those bookes 4. But some texts are cited in the new Testament which are 1. not found in the old as that in Matth. 2.23 Hee shall be a Nazarite or else are 2. not found in the Author cited by which we may thinke that some booke of his is lost as that which S. Matthew cites out of Ieremy Chap. 2.17 is not found in all that booke 3. Moreover S. Paul remembers the word of our Lord Actes 20.35 which is no where extant beside 5. And the Epistle to the Laodiceans mentioned Coloss 4.16 is utterly lost For that schedule which is found here and there is rejected by every one as unworthily to be remembred by the Apostle 5. Iude likewise cites the prophecie of Henoch which is not found except in the Talmud Answere 1. Some referre that of Matth. 2.23 to Esay 11.1 The Branch that should grow out of the roote of Iesse But it is more fully verefyed in that which is written Iud. 13.5 Where Sampson the Figure that should begin to save Israel is a Nazarite unto God and Hee much more which is separate from sinners and should perfect the deliverance of all the Israel of God and the text cited by the Evangelist may not onely intend both these but whatsoever else either the Law or the Prophets understand by the figurative snow-white puritie of the Nazarites Lam. 4.7 and is therefore cited in the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the Prophets 2. The other citation in Saint Matthew where one Prophet is named by another doth not prove that any booke of Ieremiah is lost neither was it of any ignorance or forgetfulnesse in the Evangelist or yet mistaking of them that have copied out that booke but because that the seed of the Woman so long expected was now to come into the world it may be that Zachariah by interpretation Remember the Lord is now Ieremiah exalt the Lord who never ought to hee remembred without his praise especially in the performance of that inestimable benefit for man-kind 3. Concerning that which is cited by Saint Paul Actes 2.25 If he had that which he cites by the suggestion of the Holy-Ghost as wee may well thinke or that the saying of Christ was in fresh remembrance with them that heard it it is not therefore to bee concluded that S. Paul cites it out of any booke now lost seeing he might receive it from those Disciples which had heard it 4. And as to that Epistle to the Laodiceans it is but a common errour that S. Paul makes mention of any such but hee perswades the Colossians for the better understanding of some passages in the Epistle written to them to read the Epistle sent from Laodicea to him and that they of Laodicea should read that which he sent to the Colossians as containing doctrine and instruction fit for both the Churches to know and doe 5. And if Saint Iude were taught of God that Henoch had so prophecied though the prophecie were never written or if he cited it from any booke which went under the name of Henoch if nothing in the booke were Henoch's beside this prophecie Saint Iudes citing doth not make the booke Canonicall Scripture no more than S. Pauls citing the heathen Poets or if S. Iude had it onely by tradition that Henoch had so prophecied how doth it make for the question For it is not said that all things are false which are delivered by tradition but that in the matiers of the faith and doctrine of the Church those traditions have no force or credit which are contrary to the truth of God revealed in His Word 5. But it is yeelded that though some part of Scripture be lost yet that which remains is sufficient and containes all things necessary Answere Our Lord saith Luk. 10.42 That one thing is necessary which in Iohn 17.3 he
sacrae et ratter is Psal 87.1 Foundations as that it only is able only worthy to binde the conscience of a reasonable man whereas all other religions or rather false worships although examined in themselves onely by their owne principles are found to be false and against common sense what triumph is this of a Christian over all Heathens and misbeleevers that will they nill they if they will bee men and stand to reason they must confesse that the Christian religion is onely true And seeing the world hath beene called to the marriage of the Kings Son Luc. 14.16 c. First by the voyce of nature declaring the wisdome and power of God in the creature and that they that were so called would not come because their mindes were set on earthly things Secondly by the Law but the Iew who sought righteousnesse by the Law would try what his five yoke of oxen that is his keeping of the Ceremoniall Law contained in the five bookes of Moses could doe and so would be excused Thirdly by the Gospell but the carnall Gospeller and false Christian could not come because he is marryed to pleasure and worldly lusts what remaines but that they who are yet strangers and walke in the broad wayes of sinne and the by-paths of their owne inventions should by reason that servant of God bee compelled to come in And seeing the time cannot bee farre off that all the nations of the earth are to bee called to the knowledge of Christ For great shall his name be from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe of the same Psal 103.3 What hinders that the truth of Christ bee taught according to common reason whereto every man doth listen For it cannot bee but that all Idolatry and false worship all heresies and dissentions about Religion must then cease when the truth is taught in the evidence of that Spirit whereby every man is guided For as God made man reasonable so doth hee command nothing to bee done which in true reason is not the best nor require any thing to bee beleeved which in true reason is not most true You will say is there no difference then betweene faith and reason yes very great For Reason is busied in the proofe of some generall conclusion which is to bee held for a truth and so received of every man but faith is the application of that conclusion to a mans owne selfe As if it be concluded that because Christ being so conceived and so borne had no sin and therefore he suffered not death for himselfe but to save them that should beleeve on him faith applies this generall conclusion thus but I doe beleeve and therefore I shall be saved Now this application is not made by reason but by the speciall instruction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the beleever although it were inferred upon such a conclusion as was proved by reason I have not endevoured herein to heap up arguments by numbers but by weight and therfore have Ilet passe all reasons from forrein autority and all that were but likely onely and of small importance neither have I brought any one but such as seemed to mee sufficient of it selfe to confirme the question The reasons here used are for the most part from the goodnesse power wisdome and other dignities of God because the questions are concerning the things of God and no arguments can be of greater force and more immediate then such as are drawne from the verie being or immediate properties of the things in question they are handled by necessities and impossibilities to shew that all things that are and are not stand for the truth of the promises of God to us that by all meanes wee might have strong hope and comfort in Christ And though I sometimes bring one argument for divers conclusions yet it is not therefore of lesse force no more than a good toole is of lesse worth because it serves for divers uses I have studied for plainenes as much as I may and therfore have I sometimes handled the same reason both affirmatively and negatively that he that cannot take it with one hand might hold it with the other for that purpose also are divers reasons brought though all satisfying as I thinke yet perhaps all of every one not equally understood but he that understands all may upon these grounds or the like bring many other to the same purpose and give glorie to that infinite mercy which hath so fortified this glorious truth which hee hath bound us to beleeve with such walles bulwarkes ravelings and counterscarpes of reason that all the power of hell all the batterye of Atheists Turkes Iewes and other adversaries shall never bee able to overcome it And because a little light is soone lost if dispersed as in the Starres called Nebulosae and those of endlesse number and distance in the milkie way I have proposed the reasons together in as short and few words as I can that the light of the reason may more easilie appeare For oftentimes while men desire to enlarge themselves the reason vanishes into words The autorities of the sacred Text I bring as need is that the Christian may see whence the Article of faith in question is taken and whereon it is grounded and that in the proofe thereof I bring no other doctrine than the holy Scripture doth reach Let no man carrie my words or meaning awry for although in this search of causes and reasons other conclusions offered themselves yet I held it not meet to propose any other things than the holy Church of old thought fit to be held as sufficient for the saving faith of Christians conteined in the Creed which is called the Apostles as being gathered from their writings and that according to that order as it is therein delivered yet with such prefaces and notes as the necessitie of the things did drive me unto leaving those other things to the higher speculation of them whom God shall vouchsafe to enlighten for their further progresse from faith to faith from knowledge to knowledge till all the holie Church come to bee partakers of those things new and old that are kept for her in store when she shall come unto the fulnesse of the measure of the age of Christ that is the perfect knowledge of all those things which our Lord in his time taught his Disciples who were not able then to beare them till they had received the light of the holy Spirit from above If any man learned bee pleased to read in this booke let him forgive me the harshnesse of my speech being to teach the unlearned in English a language not taught that nicetie of words whereby to expresse the difference of things which I easilie hope he will doe because hee knowes that the infinite differences of things do much exceed the sharpnesse of our understanding and yet the subtiltie of mans understanding doth goe farre beyond the rudenesse and scarcitie of all words
beene brought to beleeve if S. Augustine himselfe who had been among them and proves it by witnesses had not recorded it de Haeres Cap. 46. The filthines of the Gnosticks was yet more abhominable if it be possible to be true which they write will you account them Christians The Philosopher Plotinus no Christian Ennead 2. lib 9. intituled against the Gnosticks shewes the falshood of their opinions concerning the creating of the world and proves that in the government thereof their opinion was more wicked than that of Epicurus and though Simon the Sorcerer was baptised Acts. 8. yet when his gall of bitternesse had made him a professed enemie and father of all those heresies that followed will you count him a Christian Therefore you may with the Apostle say of these of Cerinthus of Carpocrates and of many of the rest They went out from us but they were not of us But because I am busied in things of more importance than this and yet the honour of the Christian name is no small matier I will most brieflie recount the contrarie opinions whether they be of the elder Philosophers or the later Hereticks as they have beene gathered by the most ancient among the Fathers Irenaus Epiphanius S. Augustine and others I say most briefly and onely for a taste that you may love the truth the better and adore that mercy which hath manifested it unto us And therefore I will not tell you of Varros thousands of gods nor trouble you needleslie with remembrance of those gods of the Heathen which you may reade in the holy Scripture and know better by Master Seldens just Commentarie de Djs Syris if you understand Latin § 2. Above fortle disagreeing opinions among the Philosophers concerning the gods are reckoned up by Cic. de natura Deorum lib. 1. of which some directly gainsay this conclusion of the Vnitie of the Godhead for although Antisthenes confessed there was but one God the God of all nature yet he added that there were divers Gods for divers peoples and countries Xenocrates said there were eight gods in the seven planets and one that ruled over all the Starres Anaximander held many gods and so many gods so many worlds but said that these gods were brought forth in time and after many ages dyed againe Alomeon seemed to acknowledge three gods inasmuch as he gives divinitie to the Sunne to the Moone and to the soule of man Xenophanes would have all that is infinite to be god whether in being or in working as he held the understanding Democritus would have all the Ideas or representations of things being and that understanding whence they proceed and mans understanding also to be gods The inconstancle of the Philosophers in their owne opinions brought us in yet more gods Cleanthes one while said the world was god sometime the soule whereby it was quickned and governed then againe the pure and uppermost ayre that compasseth the whole Globe of heaven and earth sometime the Starres other while reason as so the rest as you may heare hereafter And if the Philosophers the guides were blind it is no marvell though the blockish rout ran into all Idolatrie as they are described Wisd Chap. 14. But to suppose it reasonable to give honour to the memorie of the dead who where founders of cities or procurers of some great and publike good because they though dead were thought to favour and maintaine their owne endeavours or to be so unreasonable as to thinke with the Aegyptians that there was something divine in all those things by which they received any kinde of good and so to worship men horses birds serpents wolves dogs and cats See Iuvenall Sat. 15. Cic. de natura Deorum lib. 3. yet what could so mad the old Romanes not onely to allow all the hee gods and the shee gods of others but to consecrate imaginations as Victory Concord Peace yea and among these their owne plagues and punishments as the Ague Mildew and blasting ill fortune c Cic. loc cit § 3. But there was no opinion among all these more foolish than that which went out in the name of the Hereticks Cerdon first of all August cont advers leg Proph. l. 2. c. 12. said there were two gods one good whom they called Oeomazes and another stark naught whom they named Areimanius This opinion his scholer Marcion upheld but added * Tertullian who disputes against him in sive books hath it not nor Irenaeus and Augustine brings it doubtfully out of Epiphanius a third whom he called the Iust After that the Gnosticks reeal'd the opinion of the two gods with many additions The Manichees also followed this madnesse and added their fiction that the good God set upon the wicked god to have supprest him but in that conflict the powers of darkenesse tooke many parts of the good god prisoners and tyed them unto earthly matiers for the ransoming of which this good but verie weake god takes great thought but as these parts of his come to be eaten in the matiers wherein they are tyed by their Catharists or Puritanes they are parted from the impure matiers and so restored to the God againe Are these Hereticks are these Christians found you any thing like to this among the pure naturallists of the heathen Phil. Mornay de verit Christ Relig. Cap. 2. drawes this opinion of two gods by the autoritie of Plutarch de Iside Osiride First from Zoroaster and so among the Persians thence to the Manichees It is true that Manes their father was a Persian but it is manifest that Plutarch was most grosly deceived first in the circumstance of the time wherein hee mistakes about some foure thousand two hundred yeeres a great fault in an Historian for if Zoroaster lived in the reigne of Ninus as the best Records doe make him See Fra. Patr. in Zor about three hundred yeeres after the floud it will not be above eight hundred ninetie or nine hundred yeeres before the destruction of Troy which is put about the yeare of the world two thousand eight hundred fortie so that Plutarch who makes him to have lived five thousand yeares before the destruction of Troy makes him above two thousand yeeres elder than Adam Then in the substance of the matier the mistaking is nothing lesse for by the diligence of worthy men divers of those magicall oracles of Zoroaster who was the Sonne of Oromazes Plato Alcib 1. are come to light and printed at Paris in the yeare one thousand sixe hundred and seven and before that many more of them gathered out of the old autors by Fra. Patricius and printed at Venice 1593. and since that elsewhere By which it is apparent that Zoroaster held the mysterie of the Trinitie in Unitie of the Deitie and one Godabove all the Creator of all things who according to his owne goodnesse made every thing perfect and good as his words witnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For from the Fathers workmanship
of the infinitie of the power goodnesse and will of God would build up the infinite of the world at lest concerning the extension or space thereof And although the answers heretofore made to the arguments above may seeme to answer his reasons sufficiently yet I suppose you may better understand whatsoever is to bee said hereto if you have well perused that which is said in the second and eighth Chapter In the meane time you may doe well to remember who measured the water in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with his span Esay 40.12 And if all these things were made in number weight and measure Sap. 11.17 It may well follow that the world cannot be infinite in any of these 7. But the infinitie or uncertaintie of number hath most doubt because it is said Heb. 1.2 11.3 That God hath appointed Christ to bee heire of all things because that by him he made the Worlds But the word World answers to two words in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first signifies oftentimes the frame of the whole creature as in Matth. 25.34 but not alwayes for sometimes it signifies the world of the wicked onely as Iohn 14.17 sometimes of the elect onely as Iohn 3.17 sometime an age or time of the world and the people of that age as S. Peter 2. Epist 2.5 saith that God spared not the old world and againe 2. Pet. 3.6 The world that then was perished by waters to which meaning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in that text of Heb. 1.2 doth most directly answer So that the ages there spoken of may well receive interpretation by the dayes of the creation by which God foretold what should afterward come to passe as it is said Esay 46.10 and elsewhere * See Brocard◠Mystica in Gen. So then the first day of nature when darkenesse was upon the deepe signified that time when the wickednesse of man was great on the earth and the thoughts of his heart were onely evill continually And although they had the light of reason in them yet because they did not walke according to that light therefore God brought the floud upon the world of the ungodly The second day wherein was the division of the waters by the firmament of heaven meant that time when God separated his Church from the people of the world and parted them by the firmament of his Covenants first of circumcision given to Abraham afterward of the ceremoniall Law by Moses which worke of the second day is therefore not praised as good because the Law workes wrath Rom. 4.15 And because these ceremonies were not able to give life to the doers of the same for Moses might not bring Israel into the land of promise Deut. 34.4 Esay 66.3 Gal. 2.16 19. 30.10 The third day signifies the third age or state of the Church when the earth that is these worldly rites by the lively interpretation of the Prophets who unfolded their meaning and taught the people of their times to have hope in him that was to come brought forth the herbe and fruit tree yeelding seed unto everlasting life The fourth age of the Church was that time wherein the Sun or righteousnesse did shine and brought in that new light that true light which lightens every man that come into the world of his Church that Sun which gave shine unto the Moone the Apostolike Church and to the Stars those Doctors whose knowledge zeale and constancie gave light in that darke night of persecutions and heresie which did ensue And these and such other are the ages even untill the great Iubile of which the Apostle speakes in that place Heb. 1.2 which is brought for the proofe of many worlds So this Democritan fancie may vanish 8. Concerning the infinitie of multitude in the different species or kindes of things the Cabalists have an opinion that although they rise to an excessive number yet they must needs be definite and that according to the difference of words in all the possible change and joyning of the letters for if either the things were not different according to the signification of words or that the words had not their meaning according to the difference of things that wisdome who both made the things and gave words to expresse their differences should seeme disproportionable and wanting on one side or on the other neither could that word be verefied Gen. 2.19 which saith And whatsoever Adam called every living creature so was the name thereof The opinion is delivered in the booke which they call Iezirah the author of the tradition they make Abraham the Patriarch the description of Iuda an ancient Rabbine the collection of the number is of Fr. Georgius in his 244 Probl. tit 67. and this * You may see also the comment of Postellus on that booke and Archangels apologie of the Cabala pag. 548 c. is the number 1124002590827719680000. that is one thousand one hundred twentie foure millions of great millions two thousand five hundred and ninetie great millions eight hundred twenty seven thousand seven hundred and nineteene millions fixe hundred and fourescore thousand But although the possible combination of letters be so different as they make it yet the reason holds not for the actions and passions as well as the proprieties of things must be expressible with all the differences of times past present and to come and that either alone or with others Besides wordes expresse the defects of things the vices also and imaginations of the minde which are neither created beings nor alwayes true Moreover although Adam had power over all words yet it appeares not that hee had knowledge also of the nature and differences of the heavenly and spirituall creatures so that the words may perhaps fall short of the number of different beings But because they will not be out bidden they six this number to the combination of consonants it seemes for the different species to which if you adde the different vowels above or below as the manner of that writing is you shall have a number so great as may equall all the individuals of all the specialls that ever have beene or shall bee hereafter which by Patricius must needs be infinite for thus he reasons Panarch lib. 19. from three infinities essentiall potentiall and actuall a fourth infinite must needs proceed at least of number for otherwise the effect should not bee answerable to the cause The infinite essence hee supposes the Father the infinite power the Sonne and the infinite worker the Holy Ghost And by these three are three Trinities brought out of spirituall creatures or Angels as he by Psellus understands the Chaldaean wisdome whether well or ill it skils not much For we are taught Ioh. 1.3 That By the word all things were made and without him was nothing made that was made But to his reason Can an infinite Being bring forth an effect without
God spake in times past to the Fathers See Iacobi Brocardi praefat in interpretat Bib. fol. 25 26 c. if their doings and sufferings were not predictions of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that should follow How much better was that saying of the father The new Testament is hidden in the old and the Old is manifest in the New But you say by these allegoricall and mysticall sences of Agar and Sinai and the like any forrein sence may be concluded I Answer The Scriptures being to give us hope and comfort in Christ there is one rule for their interpretation which out of Saint Peter I remembred even now that the interpretation be to manifest the sufferings of Christ and thereby our deliverance from the punishment of our sinne or the glory of Christ and therewith the hopes that are laid up for us in heaven And what allegoricall mysticall or anagogicall sence soever is brought in beside this rule the rule of our holy faith is as easily thrust out as it is brought in And this is the true Cabala of the Scripture both old and new Troubled with all kinde of heresies The heresies or errors abont this truth of our Lord Christ incarnate are in briefe of three kindes The first concerning the person who was this Christ the second concerning His nature and being the third concerning the attributes or proprieties of his being The most ancient heresie concerning the person of the Messiah was that of the Herodians of whom you reade in the Gospell Matth. 22.16 Marke 3.6 These as Epiphanius remembers Panarii lib. 1. held that Herod the sonne of Antipater the Idumean was the true Christ promised to the Fathers because the scepter did utterlie cease from Iuda in his time but the gathering of the nations was not to Herod as Iacob prophesied so their heresie vanished Hitherto you may bring all those false glosses of the Iewes who turne the prophecies fulfilled in Christ to other persons as to Ezechiah to Zorobabel to Nehemiah to Iehoshua and to others as they thinke fittest to mocke of the holy oracles from the true Messiah as you may reade in Pet. Galat. lib. 4. cap. 17. and in the note b above But their greatest mistaking was in their counterfeit Messiah who from Numb 24.17 called himselfe Barchochab that is the sonne of the Starre of whom they were foretold by our Lord himselfe Iohn 5.43 If another shall come in his owne name him ye will receive But it cost them the destruction of their citie by Titus and so many miseries as ensued thereon Such another Barchoziba they had in the dayes of Adrian by whom after the slaughter of innumerable * persons They cite the author of the booke Iuchâ—sia for twice so many as went out of Egypt Postel de orbe cond writes 600000. of both these you may reade Galatin lib. 4. Cap. 21. they were utterlie chased out of their countrie and not so much as the name of their citie from his owne name called Aelia left unto them and thus have they lived in banishment ever since But the lewdnesse and follie of other succeeding hereticks did equall this of the Iewes And first that of Simon the Witch who gave out himselfe to bee the Christ which though Augustine affirme in so many words yet Tertullian and Epiphanius have onelie so much in effect that hee was that virtue and great power of God as you reade Acts 8.10 How great then was his schollar Menander who to all the falshood of his Master added this that hee was greater than Simon Epiphanius in Pan. The hereticks called the Sethians held that Christ which was borne of the Virgin Mary was no other then Seth named Gen. 4. the sonne of Adam The Ophites held that the Serpent which deceived Eve was Christ as Augustine saith but neither Irenaeus Tertullian nor Epiphanius affirme it But Augustines authoritie alone is sufficient to make us thinke that the Maniches held that the Serpent which taught Eve knowledge and came in the last dayes to save the soules of men must needs bee Christ But these sotteries were so sencelesse as that they neither lasted long nor spread farre But the enemie of mankinde would not suffer the fountaine of life the sincere doctrine of Christ to bee untroubled and therefore beside these heresies concerning the person who was that Christ promised to the Fathers hee brought into this faith which wee hold concerning Christ the sonne of the Virgin Mary such confusion of opinions concerning his nature and properties for his offices are in question now that Mahumed Alcoran Cap. 20. rejoyced in himselfe that hee was delivered from the opinions of the Christians so monstrous in themselves so contrarie one to another that the verie enemies of these heresies were in confusion thereabout and as here and there contrary one to another so sometime to themselves You may reade if you will the stories of the hereticks in the Fathers Irenaeus Epiphanius Theodoret Isidore Eusebius Ruffinus and other historians of the Church and in briefe he that gathered from them all the commentator on Aug. de haer I for avoiding of confusion will remember as occasion is the heresies under the name or names of the most famoused authors or defenders therof and that without respect either of the time wherein they lived or other opinions which they held beside for I write not the historie of the wars but the triumph onely of the Christian faith 1. The Monophysitae or hereticks which held but one onely nature in Christ were of divers families for Eutiches while hee went about to refute Nestorius who held as two natures so two persons in Christ confessed that Christ was of two natures God and man before the uniting of them both but after the union of them they became as one person so one nature because the manly being was utterlie swallowed up of the Divine and changed thereinto as a drop of vineger in the Sea doth utterly loose both the taste and being of vineger This the Armenians and Iacobites heretofore have held but now they are returned to the true faith Mr. Brerewoods Enquirie pag. 154. and page 173. Euagrius hist Ecclesiast lib. 4. Cap. 9 10 11. charges Anthimus Bishop of Constant Theod sius Bishop of Alexandria and Severus to have taught one onely nature in Christ but what or how he shewes not But you may finde in Theodotus the Reader Collect. lib. 2. that their heresie was one with this of Eutyches 2. Apollinaris as others Apollinarius contrarily upon that text of Iohn 1.14 The word became flesh held that in Christ the flesh and the word were consubstantiate or made one substance so that somewhat of the word was turned into flesh not remembring the interpretation which followes in the same place that the word made his tabernacle or dwelling in us 3. The Timotheans said That of the two natures thus united in Christ a third thing must result which is neither very God
the same purpose a Wisdome increated and a Wisedome created and although Arius affirmed as Postellus That Christ was a creature but not as one of the creatures made but not as one of other things that were made c. and therefore concluded that he held the same faith with the Church and detracted nothing from the glory of Christ when hee called him the first and chiefe creature Epiph. haeres 69. yet Postellus whether he were indeed ignorant of it or whether he dissembled his knowledge makes no mention thereof lest the name Arius might discredit the position although the difference betweene Arius and Postellus be as much as from the East to the West For though Arius held the increated Wisdome or Word to be in the Trinity yet he could not yeeld to this that that Wisdome tooke flesh and became that Saviour to whom we confesse And this was the businesse betweene him and the right meaning Fathers But Postellus held that the created Wisdome that first borne of every creature which in the fulnesse of time tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and in that flesh made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world was hee in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead did dwell Now by the rule of our faith both the extremities are yeelded unto that Christ is God blessed above all and that he is man as hath beene proved But this is now to be examined whether it be necessary to the beeing of our mediatour that hee be that first creature of God created before all times and ages of the world by whom all other things were afterwards made in their due times and are governed as Postellus affirmed The Authorities which Postellus brings are either forraine or else out of the holy Scripture you shall first see them of the first kind with their exceptions then his reasons with their answers and lastly those enforcements which are by him and may beside bee brought from the Word of truth 1. First he saith he is urged to the declaration of this truth by the Spirit of Christ pag. 1 3 7 c. but I say these enthusiasmes and revelations are a common claime not onely to them that speake the truth from God as the holy Prophets say Thus saith the Lord but also to them that vent their owne fantasies and heresies in stead of the truth The second authority is that of the Abisine Church which commonly they call of Presbyter Iohn out of whose Creed he cites for his purpose thus much Pag. 24. 25. We beleeve in the name of the holy Trimty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost who is one Lord three names one Deity three Faces one Similitude the conjunction of the three persons is equall in their Godhead one Kingdome one Throne one Iudge one Love one Word one Spirit But there is a Word of the Father a Word of the Soune and a Word of the Holy Ghost and the Son is the same Word And the Word was with God and with the Holy Ghost and with himselfe without any defect or division the Sonne of the Father the Sonne of himselfe and the beginning of himselfe Where in the first Article you see that Church acknowledges the Trinitie of Persons in the unitie of the Deity according to that faith which wee beleeve The second Article But there is a Word of the Father c. is altogether a declaration of this created Word of Sonne of God by whom all the holy Scriptures were given and inspired as Postel speakes But concerning that Church though Postel to make the authority thereof without exception say it was never troubled with any heresie yet it is not unlikely to have nursed that arch-heretick Arius whom all writers account to be a Lybian Besides it is manifest that they are all Monothelites and so farre forth Iacobites or Eutychians that they condemne the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon for determining two natures to be in Christ Moreover what their learning is like to be you may judge by this that their inferiour Church Ministers and Monkes must live by their labor having no other maintenance nor being suffered to crave almes see Mr Brerewoods Enquiry Chap. 23. 21. a state of the Ministery whereto our sacrilegious patrons and detainers of those livings rightly called Impropriations because they belong most improperly to them that unjustly withhold them from the Church would bring our Church unto But see whereto this want of maintenance hath brought that Church which in the time of the Nicene Councell was of so great regard that their Patriarch had the seventh place in all generall Councels yet now as I have read have they of late yeares beene compelled to send to Rome to beg a religion and teachers from them And this is the Authority of that Church But you will say their Creed is ancient and of authority I say though it be as ancient as Arius yet what wit or judgement was in this to put such a point into their Creed which they themselves by Postels owne confession doe not understand If it were necessary to beleeve it other Churches would not have omitted it if not necessary why was it brought into their Creed But the ancient Paraphrasts Anchelus and Ionathan are without exception and where the Text is And the Lord spake unto Moses they explaine it thus And the Lord spake unto Moses by his word which all the old Interpreters and especially Rambam understand to be spoken of the created Word of God that Word of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost or the Divinitie which is appliable to the created beeings Pag. 24. The Cabalists also concurre with this interpretation and therefore call him the inferiour VVisdome the Throne of Glory the house of the Sanctuary the heaven of heavens united to eternity the superiour habitation in which God dwels for ever as his body is the inferiour habitation after he was incarnate the great Steward of the house of God who according to the eternall decree brings forth every thing in due time And these as I remember are all the authorities which Postellus cites except you will add this that whereas he writes to the Councell of Trent they of the Councell being called for other purposes did not at all passe any censure of the booke or this position which is the maine point therein You may add to these authorities many other and first out of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach Chap. 1. vers 4 5. Wisdome hath beene created before all things and the understanding of Prudence from everlasting The VVord of God most high is the fountaine of wisdome c. which agrees with that in the Creed before that hee is the VVord of the Sonne and the beginning of himselfe And againe verse 9. The Lord created her and saw her and numbred her And Chap. 24.8 9. He that made me caused me to rest he created me from the beginning before the world and I shall never faile And this authority
be apprehended the Angels had beene created in vaine for neither had they enjoyed happinesse when they could have no sight of God in whom alone blessednesse is nor yet God had perfected his praise in them when they could not see and praise the Divine Majestie And againe to the same purpose pag. 118. Seeing mans understanding above all other things desires and searches the knowledge of the truth and that not onely in things below during this life but most of all being separate in the eternall and infinite goodnesse wisdome and other dignities of God wherein above all other things it takes most joy it is necessarie that it may come unto the knowledge of that truth by such a mean as is proportionable and fit thereto for otherwise the desire were in vaine if it could never bee brought to effect Therefore seeing our understanding cannot behold the infinite being it selfe it is necessarie that it behold it in the Mediatour a created being and proportionable to our understanding and this may seeme to bee that which our Lord saith of himselfe Iohn 14.6 No man commeth to the Father but by me See Iohn 1.18 and againe Luke 10.22 No man knoweth the Father but the Sonne and he to whom the Sonne will reveale him For answer to this doubt you must remember that which was said to the last objection concerning the being of things equivalently and eminently for your easier understanding I will cleere it further Things be they naturall or artificiall are either actually in that being which they have whether it be substantiall or accidentall as Plato to bee a man to bee a Philosopher this sword to bee of Steele well tempered two foot and nine inches long or else potentially and so they are in their proper principles and causes before they come to actuall being and these causes are either next as the Steele out of which the sword was forged the Smith that made it the fire that softned it the hammer the grindstone and such like instruments or else the causes are further and further off from the effect as iron which was fined to steele the stone out of which the yron was molten the quicksilver and Sulphure which were congealed into that stone the earth and water of which they had their beginning Postel put things potentially in the Angels but ill for they can be but in the order of efficients at most Thirdly things are said to be in their ideas or separate formes eminently as the model of a house in the minde of the builder or as the forme of the sword was in the minde or understanding of the Smith when he first purposed to make it Fourthly things are equivalently in that common cause wherein all other things of the same kinde may be as in an Organ or Virginall all manner of tunes all concords and discords are which are possible to bee made or conceived by any Musician so in the minde of the Smith all the objects of Smithery locks guns swords and the like are equivalently though as yet hee hath not thought or purposed any one in particular Now from these common things enlarge your understanding to those respects that are fit to be betweene things sensible and the unsearchable Trinity All things are in God the Father equivalently because in that infinite being of his all the possibility of being is founded of all things I say that have beene or shall be eternally But because his being is actuall with all the dignities of being actually for other wise it were not infinite if it might be more excellent than it is therefore doth hee in his glorious Sonne understand both himselfe in his actuall being and actually all things that are by his being possible to bee so that the ideas or formes of all things are actually present with him eternally and actually understood as it is said Psal 139.16 In thy booke all my members were written when as yet there was none of them Wherefore it must follow that that Word which is the character or expresse image of the Father bee also the image of all other things whatsoever so that all the ideas of all things possible to be must bee in the Sonne eminently that is according to their ideas or particular formes understood and determined as the idea or imagination of the sword is in the minde of the Smith actually assoone as the Smith hath resolved to make it thus although the sword it selfe be not actually till it bee made And as these ideas are the first causes of things so by reason of the concurrence of the will with the understanding are they the most powerfull for the bringing of those things whose Ideas they are into effect for from that idea of the sword in the Smith it is that he kindles the fire softens his steele forges it grindes it forbushes it and makes it at last a perfect sword And therefore though it bee true That the Sonne doth nothing of himselfe saving what hee hath seene with the Father Iohn 5 19. Yet because the ideas of all things are actually in him it is as true that in him through him for him and by him are all things and in him all things consist See Chap. 13. § 9. eminently or in the cleere distinction of their severall formes for otherwise the wisdome were not infinite if the formes were in confusion and not eminent and apparent in their most cleare differences and determinations of the times and limits when and how the things themselves whose formes they are should actually be If then the ideas of all things be in the Sonne actually what necessitie is there of any created Mediatour when the Son of God might by any of these Ideas which are actually in him manifest himselfe either to Angels or to men was not then that image of the manly being in him in which he did delight to dwell with the sonnes of men Prov. 8.31 according to which he created Adam in which hee manifested himselfe to the Fathers to Abraham to Moses to the Prophets And although for sundrie purposes knowne to his wisdome he manifested himselfe in other formes of a smoking furace when hee entred into covenant with Abraham his friend Gen. 15.17 of a living fire that consumed not the bush to Moses Ex. 3.2.6 of a still soft voice to Eliah 1 King 19.12 or the like yet none of these formes were uncouth or forreine to him So that in what forme soever he vouchsafed to shew himselfe to the Angels in that might they behold the invisible God and be abundantly blessed thereby but since the time that the faithfull have beheld him with that Crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals the day of the joy and gladnesse of his heart Cant. 3.11 He is to be seene both of Angels and men eternally and onely in the Tabernacle of our flesh and the glory of God is manifest onely in the face of Iesus Christ And as this I thinke is
body which should againe have beene scattered into that from whence it was taken as Apelles affirmed so had it beene to no end to take a body and therein to suffer the darkning of His divine glory if by that body no benefit had redounded to the creature But if you desire moe reasons hereto they that are brought in the Chapter for His suffering crucifying death and buryall may give you full satisfaction So the â—rrours that are yet remaining about the suffering of Christ are two one of the Theopaschites who held that the God-head of Christ did suffer while His body was nayled on the Crosse Aug. de Haer. Cap. 73. The other of the Patrispassians such as Praxeas and Sabellius who because they thought that as the Father and the Son were but one substance so were they likewise but one Person and therefore they affirmed that God the Father was incarnate and suffered Aug. de Haer. Cap. 41. But the former of these is sufficiently reproved by the doctrine of the 9. Cha. For if God be not any kind of matier nor a compound nor a formed body nor subject to any accident but that His being be most simple and pure as was there shewed by every one of these circumstances it will follow necessarily that God cannot suffer The later is refuted by all the reasons of the 11. and 23. Chapters And if you hold not your selfe satisfied by that which is brought in those Chapters and the answeres to the reasons of Sabellius Note d on Chap. 11. You may doe well to read Epiph. Haer. 57. and Tertullian against Praxeas For this very question whether God the Father was incarnate and suffered is the Argument of that Booke b That by His partaking of our sufferings He might c. It may heere not vnsitly be demanded for what causes Christ the Holy one of God should die for vs and how that death becomes availeable to free vs from the power of sinne of death and hell For answere Wee must first put that which was the first and principall cause of our salvation the eternall purpose of God which He purposed in Iesus Christ our Lord Ephe. 3.11 See Actes 2.23 And this not for any graces or workes fore-seene in us But according to the good pleasure of His owne will Ephe. 1.5 For He hath saved us and called us with an Holy calling not according to our workes but according to His owne purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began 2. Tim. 1.9 And he that puts any outward cause or good workes fore-seene in us whereby God might bee moved to chuse us takes away the chiefe glory of his grace and makes him to bee lesse good So then the first cause of all the causes and meanes of our salvation in Christ is the free mercy and purpose of God the Father which because it is the first it must needes also be the chiefe cause seeing all other cames worke to that end to which they are ordered and guided by the first And because the Son doth nothing of Himselfe but what things soever He seeth the Father doe those also doth the Sonne likewise Iohn 5.19 Therefore secondly did the Sonne according to that eternall purpose of the Father offer Himselfe vnto His Father for man as a ransome and satisfaction for their sinne as it is said Psal 40.7 Loe I come in the volume of the Booke it is written of mee to doe thy will O God Heb. 10.7 For in Him onely is God well pleased Matth. 12.18 And this is that Eternall Gospel of the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the World Apoc. 13.8 For through the Eternall Spirit did He offer Himselfe without spot vnto God But if this offer of our Redeemer who offered Himselfe for vs had not beene accepted of His Father then had it beene of no availe for us Therefore in the third place it must appeare that God did accept this Sacrifice of His Sonne which is manifest first by this That it was the disposition and purpose of God Himselfe as was shewed in the first place and as it is said Heb. 10.10 By the will of God are wee sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all Neither was God in this reconciliation of man-kind a willer or disposer onely but a worker also of our Redemption For God was in Christ reconciling the World vnto himselfe not imputing their trespasses vnto them 2. Cor. 5.19 If God then be for us who can be against us If He Iustifie who can condemne us who have the decree and will of God for our Iustification the offer and acceptance of Christ both God and man for our ransome and reconciliation and that offer was made by the eternall Spirit And this Spirit also beareth witnesse to our Spirit that wee are the sonnes of God Rom. 8.16 The second cause concernes the justice of God by which our Lord Christ died for vs. And it stond in this that He according to the will of His Father became our surety Hebr. 7.22 and bound Himselfe to make satisfaction for the sin of man which maâ— himselfe could not doe as it hath beene manifest before Chap. 19. Now iâ— this satisfaction of Christ the infinite Iustice was accorded with the infinite Love of God to the creature The infinite love appeared as was said before first in this that the Sonne was called and appointed to the performance of this glorious worke Hebr. 5. verse 4 5.10 Then in this that being performed it was accepted in our name and for our everlasting happinesse as it is said Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that He gave His onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth Him should not perish but have everlasting life The infinite Iustice was manifest in this that the satisfaction of Christ was a full and perfect satisfaction according to the rigour of Iustice and that both in respect of the infinite value thereof and of the punishment which our Mediator endured The infinite value of the satisfaction was first in the Person that offered it For as the grieuousnesse of the injurie exceeded by the worthinesse of the Person of the Father that was offended So the value of the satisfaction exceeded by the worthinesse of the Sonne that maâ—e the amends And because the honour which was done to God herein is valued according to the worthinesse of the Person which worthinesse in Christ is essentiall unto him not accidentall as that of Aaron therfore the satisfaction also is essentially infinite and therefore abundantly sufficient in respect of the Person that did fulfill it For the satisfaction to an infinite Iustice was as fully made by the Person of the Sonne an infinite being than if the creature being finite even all Angels and men had suffered the torments of hell eternally Secondly the infinite value of the satisfaction appeares in the worthinesse of the thing that was offered For our Mediator having no greater nor better
1. Sect. 1 Concerning the first it is an irrefragable argument that the Scriptures were given of God because the Prophecies in them which were before-hand concerning things to come were such perfect declarations of them as that they may rather seeme to be Histories then Prophecies Take for instance that promise to Abraham that his seed should possesse Canaan after 430. yeeres and accordingly in the selfe same day Exod. 12.40 41. were they brought out of Egypt Or the promise of Iudahs Kingdome foretold by Iacob Gen. 49.8 9 10. Of Iosia and Cyrus prophecied by name the one above 300. yeeres the other above 100. yeeres before he was borne Of the captivity of that nation and destruction of Ierusalem foretold by Daniel For seeing God alone is infinite in His wisedome and that all His workes are foreknowne to Him alone therefore can He alone declare from the beginning what shall come to passe at the last as He saith of Himselfe Isa 42.9 whereas the Angels being finite both in their wisedome and knowledge know nothing of things to come but either by speciall revelation as Gabriel foretold the birth of Iohn Baptist or by the Prophecies of the Scripture or by observation of naturall causes in their long and subtile experiences And therefore it came to passe that all the devils that mocked the heathen by their Oracles were so uncertaine in their answeres except they were informed by some of the meanes spoken of As the devil gave a certaine answere to Alexander concerning his expedition against Darius because he knew what the Decree of God was by the Prophecie of Daniel Chap. 8. 2. Another Argument that the Scriptures were given by the Holy-Ghost is that admirable consent of all the Doctrines contained therein which are delivered with that certaintie of Truth and Knowledge with that authority and power over the soule of the faithfull Reader and that in so simple and plaine a manner of writing as no other whereas in mens writings the unsetlednesse of their judgement their ignorance and doubtfull suppositions especially when they speake of their owne as seldome they doe justifies the holy Text Rome 1.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professing to teach they shew their folly 3. Moreover the Argument or things contained in the holy Scriptures doth manifest the Author thereof the Writers for the most part shewing their Commission Thus saith the Lord and Paul an Apostle not by man but by Iesus Christ and God the Father Then the purport or intent of the Commission We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God And this under such conditions as none but God alone is able to performe of acceptance eternall life or refusall eternall fire 4. The glorious and mighty workes which Almighty God gave especially to the first Writers of the Law and of the Gospel to doe and those miracles whereby He continually justified the trueth thereof the wonderous preservation and deliverances of the professors as of Daniel c. And the balefull confusion of the adversaries of the Trueth contained in the Scriptures in all ages approve that God alone is the Author thereof 5. The hatred of the devil and his continuall endeavours either utterly to deface the Bookes of the holy Scripture or upon pretext of obscurity and danger of Heresie not to reade them And againe the providence of God in preserving those Bookes and the love and delight which He hath begotten in the hearts of His Saints to reade and understand them are no lesse proofe that these holy Scriptures are the Word of God and the Testimony of His eternall Truth 6. The extraordinary calling of many of the Pen-men of the holy Bookes and the enabling of them being simple and unlettered men to write and to preach those high Mysteries which none of the Princes of this world did understand as of Amos among the Herdmen of Peter Iames and Iohn and the other of the twelve Apostles shew that the Author of that Truth and their Bookes was God alone 7. The great 1. Antiquity of the Bookes of the Law preserved so long uncorrupted for in comparison of Moses almost all the writings of the heathen all their religions and many of their Gods are but upstarts and things of yesterday 2. The great simplieity and sincerity of the Writers who sought not their own praise nor concealed their owne faults and imperfections 3. The consent of the Church which receiued the Scriptures as the word of God 4. The consent of forraine Histories writing of the same things with such uncertaintie and untruth as time and heare-say use to bring into History as of Berosus Herodotus Strabo Trogus and others are a manifest proofe that the true records of the same things are the writings which God Himselfe did dictate to Moses and the Prophets which followed after him For none but God did truely know the creation of the world and none among men did certainely record the universall flood the Tower of Babel the actes of Abraham Iacob Ioseph Moses Ioshua and others So that if the devill might vaunt as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did indite and Homer did write In the perfection of truth might the Holy Spirit of God say as it is recorded 2. Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God And 1. Pet. 1.21 Prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy-Ghost 6. And if wee beleeve that the writings of Historians and Poets and other profane Authors are indeed theirs under whose names they goe shall wee not much rather beleeve that they are the writings of God Himselfe that goe under His Name especially seeing wee know that Hee is a jealous God and neither would suffer His authority to bee abused to falshood neither would Hee give His Church to bee ever seduced by lyars and false prophets § 2. Sect. 2 And these holy Oracles God of His Goodnesse and Mercy would have to bee written from whence by their excellencie above all other they are called Scriptures or Writings 1. First that wee through patience and comfort of these Scriptures might have firme and sure hope in God and His promises Rom. 15.4 2. Secondly that nothing through mans infirmity might be forgotten of all that which ought to be in continuall remembrance 3. Lest by the wickednesse of men and the subtilty of the devil inciting them thereto the holy Doctrine of God might be corrupted from the native and true meaning and so new Doctrines and new Religions brought in in stead of that Service which we owe onely to God and that according to His owne revealed Will and Word 4. No man knoweth the thoughts of a man but onely that spirit of a man which is within him much lesse can any know the things of God but onely the holy Spirit of God The things of God of which I
confesseth to bee this To know the Father the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom he hath sent and according to the necessitie of this one thing the 3. Chapter of Gen. with the 53. of Esay and any one of the Gospels might seeme sufficient And in this sufficiencie onely wee dwell hither-unto But because S. Peter saith 1. Epistle 1.11 that the inquest of the Prophets was not onely concerning the saluation of the soule but likewise what times and what manner of times they should be wherein the sufferings of Christ should bee fulfilled and the glories which should follow thereupon and because both the sufferings of Christ and his glories are to be accomplished not onely in Himselfe but also in His Church as they were prefigured in all the types that were of Him in the Church under the Law and that God the Lord doth nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His seruants the Prophets Amos 3.7 when wee shall grow past milke and be able to digest stronger meat when wee shall understand how the Law and the Prophets are to be fulfilled to every jod and title contained in them Matth. 5.17.18 when wee shall be able to apply every text to the proper time and meaning according to the perfection of the uttermost understanding thereof then shall we see that the Law of the Lord is a perfect Law and His Statutes and judgements are sweeter then honey and the honey combe then shall the Church see and know that nothing in the whole body of the Holy Scripture is either superfluous or that any word letter or prick therein might bee missing § 5. Sect. 5 That the Scriptures are come unto us as they were at first delivered to the Church by the Prophets and Apostles that were the Pen-men thereof it may be manifest by those reasons which are brought for proofe of the former question 1. For if God who is praysed for His trueth in that Hee hath magnified His Word above all His Name Psal 138.2 hath not preserved His Scripture intyer from the corruption of man from the alteration addition or taking away that they might make what comfort or certaine instruction can wee have thereby What assurance of hope by those promises of which wee are not sure whether they be the promises of God or the imaginations of men Thus the end for which God of His goodns gave those Scriptures should be frustrate and man in that incertainty nothing furthered toward eternall life Thus the Church should fayle in the duty and faithfull performance of that trust which she owes unto God in preserving that treasure which was committed to her charge and safe keeping But these things are not to be granted And therefore the Scriptures are come unto us in that integrity or purity in which they were at first delivered to the Church they of the old Testament in the Hebrew tongue they of the new in Greeke 2. The constant consent of all the doctrines and promises contained in the Scriptures the efficacie and power of that Spirit which is manifest in the deliverie thereof are evident proofes that the Scripture is still in that purity in which God gave it unto the Church And although God in those Scriptures have vouchsafed to apply Himselfe to our understanding and as a nurse to lisp with her infant yet so much is the foolishnesse of God wiser than man and the weaknesse of God stronger than men 1. Cor. 1.25 as that it is still manifest in the whole body of the holy writ that nothing of humane drosse is mixt there-with but that His Word is still as before pure as silver that hath beene tryed seven times in the fire 3. This fire is that dampish smother-fire of heresies which the devill did kindle among his brands among whom though some rejected the authority of sundry bookes of Holy Scripture as Marcion and others some corrupted the sence thereof by Allegories and forraine interpretations as the Origenists See Augustin de Gen. ad literam others by wresting it from the native sence to the supportance of their owne heresies yet the Church which continued faithfull in the doctrine of God constantly with-stood all these attempts and ever maintained the sincerity as of the doctrine so of the Holy Scripture on which it was founded And because the Scripture is either of the old or of the new Testament it is fit to speake to each of them in particular 4. And first concerning the old Testament it is manifest that the Church of Israel whose hope was set on that Messiah that was to come had no cause to corrupt the text of the holy writ but according to the promises which they had in the Law and in the Prophets the expositors thereof so to hope that He should be such a deliverer and Saviour as was promised by which hope they were bound to preserue the Scripture in all integrity that they might see the full accomplishment thereof when He was come 5. Beside the Priests whose lips should preserue knowledge and at whose mouth they should seeke the Law Mal. 2.7 there was from Samuel unto the dayes of Ezra a perpetuall succession of Prophets who could not in any wayes have endured so great a corruption uncontrouled as that the Word of the Lord should be changed or depraved And although the Scriptures before the time of Ezra had beene corrupted yet he being a Prophet a Priest and a perfect scribe of the Law of the Lord and of the Statutes of Israel that had prepared his heart to teach the Law of God and His statutes and judgements Ezra 7. who changed the forme of their Chaldean or Samaritane letters for those which are now in use hee I say would have taken away all such corruptions or changes as had come to the Holy Scripture if it might bee imagined that any could come in the time of the Prophets that were before as far as the diversitie of Copies gave them light Of the Israelites care in writing the Scriptures and of the Masôreth 6. MOreover that exceeding care and diligence which the Scribes were to use in writing is sufficient proofe that the bookes of the old Testament are come to us in that purity in which the Church received them which care how great it ought to bee you may see by that which their Doctors have recorded Henry Ainsworth Aduertisement n. 3. cites out of Rambam Sopher Torah Chap. 7. and 10. thus much If the booke of the Law doe want but one letter or have one letter too much if one letter touch another if the forme of any letter be corrupted if the word which is full be written defective or that full which is defective if the word of the margent be written in the line or that of the line in the margent the Booke is not allowable to bee read in the Synagogue neither hath it the holinesse of the Booke of the Law at all but is a booke on which Children may learne To this
purpose you may take that which you read in Shickard Prodrom in Bechinah happerushim Disp 1. cited out of the booke Sopherim Chap. 1. Halach 1.4 5. by which you may see with what a superstitious care if any care could be too much they regarded the writing of the Booke of the Law wherein nothing might bee blotted nothing scrap't out neither might they write it in any Parchment or Velam but such as was of the skinnes of cleane beasts in Parchment one the fleshie side in Velam on that side which had the haire And if this ordinance were changed they read not in it And this was the manner Because the lines being written in length according to the bredth of the skinne as in an Indenture might bee troubleous to finde they divide the skinne into certaine pages which in Iere. 30.23 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dlathoth which wee interpret leaves because they were like the leaves of a doore and may fitly bee termed pages neither was it lawfull to write it with a coale or with Inke wherein was either Gum or Coperas and all this say they by the Tradition of Moses on mount Sin ai Then with what respect they used the Booke being written you may see in Oseh Torah Chap. 3. Halach 10. and in Anthony Margaritha a converted Iew in his booke of the Iewish faith and others They touch it not but with washed hands neither doe they take the rolle by the midst but by the margent and that onely with the right hand for which they bring Deut. 33.2 At His right hand was a fiery Law No man may lay it on His knees nor leane upon it when he reads nor read it as other writings c. lest the holy Bookes grow into contempt no man may sit upon the fourme or bed on which it lyes nor lay it towards the beds feet nor lay other bookes upon it and their reason for that the whole Law is holy and that every letter therein containes infinite wisdome and that God hath more care of the Letters and Syllables of the Law then of the starres of heaven And that this care was not onely of the bookes of the Law but likewise of all the holy Scripture of the old Testament indifferently you may know by that infinite diligence of the Masôrites who to the intent that the purity of all the holy Text might be preserued intier numbred in the whole Bible the Verses the Words the Letters and of them the common and the finall and what verse what word and letter was the midst of every booke and among the Letters they noted how many times every one was found in every booke if any one were bigger or lesse then the due proportion or higher then the rest or pointed extraordinarily what holem was with vau and what without it what hirick was written with jod and what not what space was more what lesse betweene the paragraphs when two words were to be read as one when one as two when the letters in the midst of a word should be transposed and that which was in the end of one word to be put to the beginning of another with many such obseruations which you may read in Shickard cited before De Masôreth pag. 45. c. So that no corruption or alteration could come into the text of the old Testament but by these rules of the Masôreth it might be easily detected Neither is this Masôreth wonderfull onely for the infinite diligence and paines that was used in the compiling thereof but also venerable for the Authors which by the authorities of the Hebrewes were Ezra and the Prophets of his time which were called the men of the great Synagogue or more truely the great men of the Synagogue Haggai Zachary Malachy Daniel Hananiah Misheel Azariah Nehemiah Mardoche Zorobabel and of the most wise and learned among the rest to the number of 120. For this could not be the worke of one man or of one age And although the succession of the Synagogue still continued in some sort yet by reason of the many warres and troubles after their returne from Babylon even untill the last ruine of their nation by Adrian about the yeere after the death of Christ one hundred this worke was often at a stand and not fully finished till about the yeere five hundred and tenne after the Incarnation Whereupon those Masôrites are by some unduely thought to bee the first Authors of that worke 6. Also the whole Art of the Kabalists in high esteeme among the Hebrewes above all others without this purity of the holy Text were either nothing worth or rather in it selfe nothing at all But the argument from hence to proove the purity of the Scripture among the common sort for whom I write would not be easie to be understood Therefore I referre them that are desirous to know further hereof to the author forenamed pag. 60. c. to Iohn Reuchlin and others that have written of that Art For by this which I have already said I thinke it is cleare to him that is not wilfully blind how farre it was from the Church of the Iewes to offer any sacriledge to the Booke of God who with such infinite paines and care have wall'd in that holy ground lest beasts should breake into it 7. 1. And for further proofe that the Hebrewes were the faithfull Library keepers of that booke as Saint Augustine calls them you may take the testimony of Saint Paul 1 Tim. 3.15 where hee calls the Church the pillar and stay of Faith not that in an implicite and ignorant faith we should hold it sufficient to beleeve as the Church beleeves but because the Church had evermore truely and faithfully preserued and followed the trueth of God revealed in His Word as it had received it from Him at the first And if this be true of the Church in generall it must needs be most true of that most ancient and publike Church first chosen from all nations by whom the Name of the Lord should be called upon from whom the word of the Lord was to proceed to other nations Esay 2.3 whereas the Church of the Gentiles was then so lately called as that it could give no proofe of it selfe to be worthy of such honourable titles 2. Moreover in the second Epistle to Tim. 3.15 he saith That the Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto saluation through the faith which is in Christ But how shall we be assured of this if we be not first perswaded that they are free from corruption 3. And why should our Lord send us to search the Scriptures which were then onely the Old Testament there to find eternall life if in stead of the trueth of God we should there find the falshood of men See Luke 16.29 31. and Iohn 5.39 4. And that which is above all proofe is that testimony which our Lord Himselfe gave to the teachers of that people who are accused of such treason against God For
He reprooving their faults and shewing how the Law did bind the thoughts and intents of the heart as you may read Mat. 5. Lu. 6.27 and elsewhere yet doth neither He nor any of His Apostles at any time lay this sinne to their charge that they had corrupted the Word of God otherwayes then by their traditions or by their peruerse interpretation thereof but rather commands His hearers to follow that which they taught sitting in the Chaire of Moses that is teaching according to the Law as Moses delivered it which they could not doe if it were corrupted from that purity which it had at the first And they that are acquitted by such a Iudge ought certainely to be held free by all them that reverence His judgement 5. Now among these were many who did beleeve besides many thousands of other Iewes which were obedient to the faith as it is manifest Act. 6.7 and 21.20 And moreover the Christians of the Gentiles having with that glorious gift of the Holy-Ghost received the gift of tongues as you may reade Ast. 10.45 and 19.6 and 1 Cor. 1.7 were able both to understand the Scriptures in their native language the Hebrew tongue and also able to judge if any falsifying of the Text had beene made by all which it is manifest that neither the beleeving Iewes would have offered nor the Gentiles have received any mans forgery for the trueth of God and so it is manifest that the Iewes were the faithfull keepers of those holy Treasures Objections against the purity of the Old Testament of Keri and Cethib and by the way of Mishna and Talmud Object 1. BVt it is plaine by Galatinus lib. 1. cap. 8. that many corruptions which they call ticcun Sopherim Obiect 1 or corrections of the Scribes have crept into the Hebrew Text. Answer The Sopherim named of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saphar which signifies to tell or number doeth especially meane those Masôrites of which I spake even now for their exceeding diligence in numbring the Letters as I spake And this objection is brought in by two or three of those later Iewes which they call Talmudijm For there be three sects of them that the greatest who beside the Scriptures hold the doctrine of the Talmud to be authenticall The second is of them who hold all the Scriptures of the Old Testament only to be of full authority The third who hold onely the fiue books of Moses to be held and beleeved as I spake before of the Samaritans What this degenerate brood of the Talmudists hold of the Scripture you may perceive by their homely comparison cited by Shickard pag. 6. The text of the Bible is like water the Mishna as wine the Talmud as condite and againe see the like blasphemie The Law is like salt the Mishna like pepper and the Talmud like spices and blessed is he that spends his time in the Talmud so that he doe not utterly forget the Bible nor the Mishna And of these worthies are they that make the objection who as they hate our holy Faith and inly enuy that knowledge which the Christians have whereby to uphold it against their impudency so would they shake the foundation thereof by making the Scripture to be full of uncertainety Object 2. Object 2 I but some learned among the Christians side with them Answer T is true that to make the vulgar translation onely authenticall and that subject to the Popes correction that he might be Lord of our faith and bring in a new gospel more profitable for him as he endeavoured by the Francifcans See Ia. Vsher de success Eccles cap. 9. Galatinus Lindanus and some other Papists sway with the degenerate Apellits but others more learned then they in the Romane Church hold with us the integrity and purity of the holy Scriptures in those languages wherein they were writ as you may read in G. Langford § 5. But wherein is this corruption Galatinus loco citato brings it to three heads The first is the changing one letter for another The second in changing the pricks or vowells The third in their Keries or marginall readings for the Cethib or word written in the line And these changes they make say they not out of any ill meaning to corrupt the Text but to cleare the meaning thereof to their understanding But can any meaning be worse then to adulterate the trueth of God◠you may see what he meanes in the rest by the first example which he brings in Mal. 1. vers 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hippachtem otho ye snuffed at it that is you grudged to offer that which was good for a sacrifice where some for otho at it would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 othi at Mee saith the Lord because God Himselfe was grudged at when for the good they offered that which was naught But cursed be the deceiver which hath that which is good and offers that which is naught to God And thrice cursed be the ravenous impropriator that takes away all and leaves nothing for God Of the change of words by reason of the vowels he brings onely two examples one out of 2 Sam. 16.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beeini which Pagnin translates ad afflictionem meam or mine affliction as Hutterus makes it of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 anah to afflict but Montanus of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ain an eye and turnes it in oculum meum upon mine eye as the Targum translates it the teares of mine eye and this is the Keri or reading in the margent for that in the line 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beeuni but nothing of this will serue Galatinus but he from his Talmudists will have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beeino The Lord will looke on his affliction quite contrary to Davids meaning when Shimei vaunted over him But both this and the other example which he brings are of those Keries or marginall words which are read in stead of the words in the text so his division should have had but two parts Of these Keries as Elias Levita saith he told them more then once or twice there be in all the Old Testament 848. of which many belong onely to the first grammar of that language as if in English you should write When you be come together and in the margent write Yee are 2. Some words are for cleaning the sence and are as short commentaries upon the Text. 3. Some for avoiding of words harsh to the eare as when the Prophet in indignation or mockage or tyed to relate anothers speech uses such termes as seeme needfull to be sweetned by other more usuall words You may take an example of both these 2. Kings 18.27 where the Prophet as a faithfull Historian repeating the words of Rabshakeh hath that which hee spake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leecol eth chorathā ulishtoth eth Sheyenayehem immacem which our English translates that they may eate their owne dung and drinke their owne pisse with you the
word choraiham their dung hath the derivation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chor that hole from which it comes out and the word Sheyenaiyehem their changes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shanah to change meanes their urine which they should drinke and pisse out and then drinke in againe whereby the railing Rab-scaeb would be as bitter as he could But for the first of these the margent hath a more mannerly word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dzoatham that which comes from them and for the second by way of exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meimei raghleihem the water at their feete and these are read for the words in the line Translators have little or nothing to doe with the Keries of the first kind in them of the last they usually take the word in the margent In the second kind they take the word in the line or that in the margent indifferently because the Keries or marginall words are both of the ancient Iewes and learned Christians held to be of divine authoritie as they in the text as you may see it made manifest by Henry Ainsworth's Aduertisement n. 7. where by sundry examples he shewes that the word which in one Prophet is put in the margent is by another put in the text Moreover the most ancient translators even from the 70. which were almost 300. yeeres before Christ if that which is now extant be any remnant of it and that Chaldee of Ionathan who is said to have beene the disciple of Hillel which lived as some write 100. yeeres before Christ and all that have followed after these have translated sometime after the margent somtime after the line often-times have noted both as you may see in many instances in the place cited And that which is above all the Pen-men of the new Testament use in some places the word of the margent for that in the line So that Galatinus with his late Rabbins may still sleepe upon the pillow of their owne dreame For nothing of the Talmud was gathered together till about the yeere of Christ 150. when one Rabbi Iudas compiled into one volume the expositions on the law and the Prophets which other Doctors had written some before some after Christ which Booke hee called Mishna a copie or second reading and divided it into Six Sedarim or orders Some 200. yeeres or more after him Rabbi Iohanan or Iohn gathered the Talmud or Doctrinall of Ierusalem out of the writings of such Rabbins as wrote after the other and this Talmud is but a commentary on the former Mishna After him likewise about the yeere of Christ 500. Rabbi Asse made a further collection of the Babylonian Talmud of speciall use among the Iewes Both these Talmuds are full of fables and idle fictions to the depravation of the trueth of God But about the yeere 1200. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon thence called Ra M Ba M and Maimoni gathered out that which was good and any way availeable for understanding the rites and ceremonies of the Law and left out those fooleries of which the Talmuds were full and therefore Postellus said rightly of him that hee is Instar omnium For further knowledge of which things you may read Galatinus H. Ainsworth Shickard P. Ricius and others Now if neither the Talmud nor the Mishna were extant of so long time after Christ how could the writings there cited being in private hands bring in any publike corruption into the text of the Scripture which long time before that had beene delivered safe and intire into the hands of the Church of the Gentiles But although it be yeelded unto that either the Masôrites or the Talmudists or the Cabalists by any private notes of theirs or their expositions have corrupted either the text or native meaning thereof yet doth it not therefore follow that the Nation of the Iewes have accepted these corruptions much lesse that they hold them of divine authoritie as they doe the marginall Keries and yet much lesse can it be made to appeare that the Translators of the Christians have at any time accepted of any such notes no more then we heretofore accounted the notes on the Geneva Bibles to bee Canonicall Scripture But you will aske when those Keries or marginall readings for they are alwayes read for the Cethib or word written in the text came to the Holy Scripture Answere The most voyces are for Ezra that he having care of the Ecclesiasticall policie and especially of the integritie of the Holy Scripture in conferring the copies and the differences among them noted such as hee thought fittest and that the Copies might not differ any more began that Masôreth of which I spake But Galatinus Lib. 1. Cap. 8. saith that this is a lewd lie of the later Iewes for then they should not have beene called corrections of the Scribes but of Ezra yet hee confesseth that they were long before the time of Christ seeing Ionathan the Author of the Chaldean translation doth often-times translate according to the margine yet will he not have Ezra the Author of them for then he durst not I thinke so saucily refuse them or for them the Cethib as errours and corruptions of the text as hee doth But Shikkard as he cites the common consent of the ancient Hebrewes puts it constantly upon Ezra That with much care and diligence he got divers copies of the Scripture compared them with those that were authenticall and noted them as you heard 1. But if there were any copies that were authenticall what needed this superfluous diligence 2. Beside what could 70. yeeres of the captivitie doe to corrupt so many copies when they had in the captivitie so many Prophets As Daniel Ezechiel Ezra beside so many worthies as you read of in Daniel and Ezra and Ieremiah among them that were left at home Especially seeing a copie may continue many seuenty of yeeres as you read in Rambam of one of 700. yeres in his time and Cunaeus cites the Chronicle called Iuchasin concerning a Bible written by Hillel betweene whose times were 900. yeeres and yet more the learned Patrick Young assures us of a beautifull Copie of the whole Scripture written by Tecla in the time of the first Councell of Nice at this time extant in his Majesties Library Praef. in epist. Clementis ad Curinthios 3. And that which is most of all to proove that Ezra was no Author of the Keries in the Bookes of the Scripture written before his time is this That as almost none of the Scripture written before him so none of the Bookes after the captivitie except perhaps Malachi are without them Did not Ezra Daniel Zachary Haggai know their owne meaning Were they not able to expresse it Yes You will say then what needed those Keries in their Bookes of the Chronicles and those that beare their owne names written by themselues I speake not this to uphold that fancie of Galatinus that these corruptions of the Scripture as he the admirer of himselfe
ignorantly termes them were made by the Iewes after Ezra and before the time of our Lord for could such treason be wrought against God and His trueth as to peruert His straight waies and His words and would not His Sonne who ever honoured the Father and did that which was pleasing in His sight so much as reprove it not once say sinne no more Nor doe I say it to contradict them who could find no Critick of the books of the Bible before Ezra but to justifie the trueth That the Prophets by the revelation of that Spirit by which they wrote were every one of them the authors of those Keries or notes in their owne bookes as the Doctors in Talmud Babeli in Nedarim or treaties of vowes Chap. 4. fol. 37. b. affirme The word read and not written that is the Keries which are read from the margine and not written in the text and written and not read are the tradition of Moses from mount Sinai and they explaine it so Moses received in Sinai and so delivered it to Israel An example or two by the way will guide us well It is said Gal. 3.19 That the Law was ordained by Angels as ministring Spirits by the divine appointment to Moses the Mediator of the old Covenant He received it by voice and although the eare doth judge of words as the mouth doth taste the meate yet where the meaning of the words was doubtfull there is was necessary for him so to write as in Exod. 21.8 the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo not and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo to himselfe have no difference at all in found but onely in sence Our last translation followes the margine If she please not her master who hath betrothed her unto himselfe others thus If shee be ill in the eyes of her master that he doth not betroth her c. The sence is every way excellent and the Law most just and who shall presume to understand the Law better than Gods owne Secretary that writ it or to alter that hee hath written So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieish in Gen. 36.5 and 14. is in the margin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ieush and is so written in the line verse 18. In verse 40. Duke Aluah is in 1. Chron. 1.51 Duke Aljah and Aluah in the margine I brought before the reasons which are alledged for the marginall readings and now you call for a reason of the difference in the text For if say you the text bee not faulty what needes the wordes in the margine If the margine bee right then mend the text Answere Neither the one nor the other is faulty but both of God and if matier of knowledge or instruction or comfort be in one which is not manifest in the other why should God want of His praise Or the Church be deprived of that benefit which it might receive by both when God shall vouchsafe to make the meaning of both to be fully knowne Moreover the letters of the Hebrew tongue are all numerall letters and He that in His infinite wisedome made all things in number waight and measure doth also governe all things in number waight and measure to bring forth every thing in their appointed times and places And seeing He doth nothing which he doth not reveile to His seruants the Prophets and that it is necessary that the Scripture be fulfilled in every perfection as of the things to bee done so of the numbers of times and persons whom they doe concerne Therefore although wee cannot yet see how these things should be yet when the time is come that every secret shall be knowne Matth. 10.26 Then shall the Church glorifie God in this behalfe The number of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 390 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 386. So the words with their consignificant numbers are taken into their places as they fit the prophecies there intended And for this cause as Menahem declares it it is not lawfull to write the bookes of the Law which are for the use of the Synagogue which with so great solemnitie are shewne to all the people on expiation-day with the vowels or pricks because all possibilitie of understanding and interpretation may bee conceived by the substantiall letters of the words which by the vowels might be tyed to one onely meaning If you see this explained by the Scripture it selfe you will both beleeve understand it better Take then that word of Ps 16.10 Thou shalt not give thine Holy one to see corruption which text in Act. 2.27 and else-where is brought to prove the resurrection of Christ before His body should be corrupted in the grave and is applied unto Him peculiarly as to the Prince of our peace and the Author of our full redemption from sinne and death and therefore is the word with the vowels onely of the singular number Yet because therein as Plantin and the best printed copies expresse it is a jod ◠which without the vowels may bee read as a plurall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chasideica thy holy ones for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chafideca thy holy one thereby is secretly a hope given to the faithfull that they shall not for ever dwell under corruption but that by the vertue of His resurrection they shall rise againe as Saint Paul saith Ephes 2.5 6. That God hath quickned us together with Christ and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus And againe 1 Thes 4.14 If we beleeve that Iesus died and rose againe even so them also which sleepe in Iesus will God bring with Him For the dead in Christ shall rise first vers 16. but the rest of the dead in Saint Iohns vision Revel 20.5 lived not till the 1000. yeeres were finished And this I thinke is sufficient to shew that the Scriptures of the Old Testament are come unto us as they were at first delivered to the Church in the Hebrew tongue 8. Concerning the integrity of the New Testament lesse question will be if we shall first put that which must needs be yeelded unto that through the diversity of copies and carelessenesse of the writers divers differences are found But although in that booke set out in folio by Robert Stephan 1550. the differences I thinke are not fewer then the divers readings in the Old Testament yet are they not such as make any change of the sence at all except such as all will confesse to be the fault of the writer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.11 and these are very seldome found Then concerning that which some others bring for the vulgar edition of the Latine to be authenticall if upon better view they will be content where it is faulty or doubtfull to examine and correct it by the Greeke copy we shall not need to spend any time about it So the onely opposition is from Mahumed who although he speakes more then can be look't for
from an aduersary concerning Christ and commends His disciples and other penne-men of the New Testament as men Holy True and Faithfull followers of their Master yet he saith that the Christians which were after them corrupted their writings And that it may appeare what spirit set this mutinous souldier a worke he denies that which is the ground and foundation of our redemption saying That Christ was neither the Sonne of God nor yet that He was crucified for us See Cusa Cribr Alchoran lib. 1. cap. 3. I have already prooved that our Mediator must be God Chap. 21. And likewise that our Saviour was crucified for us Chap. 27. N. 2. And if the reasons there delivered be of force to proove the conclusions then doe they sufficiently refute this falshood of Mahumed and if this Forger had wit to understand it we say no other thing of Christ when according to the Scriptures we call Him the Sonne of God then Mahumed himselfe saith when according to the selfe same Scriptures he calls Him the word of God For though Sonne in the Scripture be of large signification As sonnes of the quiver for arrowes Lam. 3.13 Sonnes of Sion that is citizens there Psal 149.2 Sonnes of the wedding-such chamber that is the bridegroomes friends Matth. 9.15 and many such like in which the word may seeme to bee vsed metaphorically yet is the word properly and truely spoken of every effect that is homogeneous although there be no generation betweene a male and a female as the branches are the daughters of the Vine Gen. 49.22 and the sparks are truely called the sonnes of the cole Iob 5.7 So in that which the mind or understanding of man doth view the name thereof the word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ratio under which it is conceived and the expression thereof is likewise the Son of the understanding and much more in that eternall and infinite understanding of God in the view of His owne being shall the character or actuall expression of that infinite being be truely called the Word or Sonne of God 1. But it cannot be true which Mahumed saith concerning the writings of the Apostles that they are corrupted For as in all other so in the particulars the Testaments doe both agree and it hath been prooved before that the bookes of the Old Testament doe still remaine in their integrity 2. Neither can the trueth in these two points concerning Christ which had been professed 600 yeeres almost before Mahumed was borne which so many Christians in all their persecutions had so constantly sealed unto with so many thousands of their bloods shed in every corner of the world be defaced by a new devised forgery of Mahumed 3. Moreover what can be more absurd and witlesse then to say or thinke that the Christians would falsify the Scriptures in these two points for which above all other things their Religion was hated by the Infidels and themselues so deadly persecuted because they held Him to be God that had died as a man and affirmed that He had risen againe whom they confessed to have died on the Crosse Neither doth he accuse the Christians in these two things only but also that they had defaced his name and memory out of that promise which our Lord made to His disciples concerning the Holy-Ghost For Mahumed would be he by whom they should be led into all trueth Mars Fic de Christ Rel. cap. 36. and out of him Hugo Grocius de Rel Christ lib. 6. But Mahound you never declared what things should come as the promise of the Holy-Ghost doth stand For as you disclaime miracles so where you speake beside the text of the Scripture you utter onely your owne errours 2. Moreover this promise was made to the Apostles and to bee fulfilled in them especially by whose ministery the word was to proceed from Sion among the Gentiles which was never promised to be preached by Mahumed or his theeues of Arabia 3. Beside that glorious gift of the Holy-Ghost the manifestation whereof by speaking with tongues and working miracles had ceased in the Church long before Mahumed was borne insomuch that Aug. 200 yeeres before him had profest that he that would not then beleeve without a miracle Magnum ipse miraculum est And therefore that tricke of the whispering Dove the lie of the Camel that spake to him in the night and that piece of the Moone that dropt into his sleeve as they came too late as they were to no end and without witnesses so are they against his owne profession that he came not with miracles 4. And againe if our Lord had made any such promise as might concerne him the Christians who ever reverenced His word were bound by that promise to reverence the memorie of Mahumed and to expect what further light or manifestation of the trueth hee would bring to the Church But his doctrine brings in againe those weake and beggerly rudiments of the law circumcision and the difference of meats directly contrary to Christ and the doctrine of His Apostles who teach the fulfilling and utter abrogating of all these ceremonies by Christ And yet in those ceremonies of meats and drinkes there is such a dissension about Wine as that his followers cannot agree unto this day His doctrine of many wives though tollerated for a time by Moses in in that hard-hearted people of the Iewes yet is contrary to the doctrine of the Prophets Mal. 2.14 15. of Christ and His Apostles By all which things it may appeare that Mahumed ran when he was not sent which he himselfe if his sencelesse followers could see it doth confesse in that he doth utterly forbid them to question any thing in his Alchoran or to dispute about his religion but to follow it in blind obedience And whether the wares be counterfeit which you must buy unseene every man may judge And these reasons against Mahumed in particular with the rest that are against Simon Magus and his competitors in the Note on Chap. 23. § 1. are sufficient to proove that our Lord made no such promise of Mahumed to come as he did dreame and therefore that the Scriptures of the Apostles are not corrupted either to forestall his doctrine or to deface his memory 9. And yet more particularly to free the writings of the Apostles from this Mahumetan slaunder take that word of God Himselfe which is in Iohn 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word This word of the Apostles cannot be understood onely of that word which they spake unto the people but much more of all the Scriptures of the New Testament which should be left in writing to the Church by which in all ages of the Church since their time children were to be begotten unto God through a lively faith by which they should apprehend the satisfaction of Christ and so have an entrance unto God by Him And seeing that in all ages
since the Apostles we find the effect of our Mediators prayer that their writings have beene that Word by which the faithfull have beleeved on Him and so hath done and still doth that worke for which it was sent thereby are we sure that it is their word their owne word as they delivered it not corrupted or sophisticate by any device of man for any purpose or intent as that false prophet doth pretend And that you may see how great the trueth is and how it prevailes take out of Ficinus in the said 36. cap. what this Mahumed confesseth of himselfe whereby you may see how betweene his arrogance and his ignorance the trueth doth shew it selfe He confesseth that he neither had done any miracle nor none could doe That he was pure man and no more That he could give no pardon for sinne That he would not be call'd upon or worshipped And although in his madnesse he pretended himselfe to be a messenger sent from God and inspir'd by Him and that he was the Holy-Ghost yet when his raving fit was off hee confest that hee was ignorant of many things and that there were somethings in his bookes of the trueth of which there might be doubt and whosoever shall worship one God and live honestly whether he be Iew Christian or Sarazen shall have mercy from God What is then the preferment of his Alchoran before the holy Scriptures or why shall wee forsake our most holy guide whom he confesseth to be the breath and word of God and to have the next place unto God in heaven that we may become circumcised and abstaine from Swines-flesh and wine and enjoy fleshly pleasure with many wives if nothing of all this give us any furtherance to eternall life 10. To end this question I will bring this only argument which for substance is indifferent to both the Testaments the circumstances only differing If the writings of the holy Scriptures be corrupted either those corruptions must come in by little and little into the copies of the Scripture while they were dispersed by writing or else all at once If they came in by little and little then the books that had beene written without those faults might bee patternes to correct the fualty by and so the text might bee still preserved pure as wee find it was done when Printing flourished under the managing of learned men in those copies of the Greeke Testament printed at Compludo and at Paris To suppose they came in all at once is against all reason and possibilitie of experience I have shewed that till the time of Christ and his Apostles the Old-Testament was pure and can it be supposed that all the Churches of the Iewes in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithinia 1. Pet. 1. nay all the twelue tribes in the Cities of the Medes in places so distant should conspire to such an act for which they were perswaded they should goe downe irrecoverably to hell Can the imputation of a base Iewe or two in a thing of so great importance to the disgrace of their owne Nation without any proofe of the thing naming of the place time or Persons against all possibilitie of trueth sticke so fast as that no nitre can be able to wash it off To say that the Christians of the Gentiles ever endeavoured to corrupt the Hebrew text hath yet more impossibilities For during the time of the gift of tongues no such crime might touch them and after that none among them no not the Fathers themselues except perhaps Origen or Hierom had so much skill in Hebrew as to be able to corrupt it Beside the whole nation of the Iewes would have opposed it and as they detest our religion and faith so had they had just cause to brand us with infamy for that endeavour and to proclaime our folly which should corrupt that in the sincerity of which alone is the assurance of our hope So the Hebrew text remaines intier And concerning the New-Testament written in Greeke it was so suddainely dispersed among the converts of the Gentiles and that while some of the Apostles were yet liuing that there could be no possibilitie of any corruption to come unto the text by any common consent And because that our Lord was to be made a light unto the Gentiles and a salvation unto the ends of the earth Actes 13.47 Therefore were the bookes of the New-Testament also Translated into many languages even in the birth and infancie of the Church of the Gentiles as you may read in Aug. de Doctr. Chr. lib. 2. Cap. 5. in Chrys hom 1. in Iohn who also translated the Scriptures for the Armenians as Hierom for the Dalmatians his countrey-men I said many languages because they name the Indian Ethiopian Persian Syrian Egyptian Sarmatian Scythian but Theodoret De Graec. affect cur lib. 5. saith into all languages which were in use And if it might be put that the Greeke copies were corrupted yet these Translations being our of them while they were intire would detect the corruption But all these Translations among the Christians though differing in some points one from another as the Nestorians Euticheans c. doe still agree in the substance of the meaning and shew the purity of that fountaine from whence they flowed And there is none of these translations or Fathers here named but were before Mahumed of a Christian became a renegado at least 200. yeeres All which things being put together it will be manifest that neither the falshood of the Iewes nor the forgery of Mahumed have any shew of trueth but that the Holy Scriptures both of the old and new Testament are still in their purity as the Church received them Of the Scriptures easinesse to bee understood § 6. THat comparison of the Prophet Psalme 36. that the judgements of God are like a great deepe was by a Father fitly and wittily applyed to the Scripture to bee as a sea in which the Elephant may swim but yet with Shallowes in which the Lambe may wade And although David prayed that God would teach him the wonderfull things of His Law yet hee honours it for this that it is perfect that it hath power to convert the soule that it is sure that it makes the simple wise Psal 19.7 And therefore are they not the messengers of Christ but rather the ministers of Satan who under any pretext of falling into heresie of hardnesse to be understood or the like with-hold the laytie from the reading of the Scriptures It is not denied but that many things therein are hard to be understood yet that one thing which is needfull Luk. 10.42 That mystery of the knowledge of Christ which was kept secret since the world began is now made manifest by the Scriptures of the Prophets to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25.26 1. For seeing the instruction of God must be of all such things as are above our knowledge and yet of such things as are most
truenesse of his Religion because he finds no familiar reason to perswade but onely the racke of authorities to constraine him to acknowledge it may perhaps bee hereby satisfied and finde comfort and that they who are already strong may by this overplus triumph in the goodnesse of God who requires them to beleeve no more then they may by that understanding which hee hath given them bee perswaded of I have for their sakes who may reape benefit thereby neglected all froward Censurers not guilty unto my selfe of any offence which I can commit in making it publike Such as it is accept kinde Sir as a parcell of that assertion which may hereafter follow of every Article of our Christian faith if God shall vouchsafe me understanding leisure and maintenance thereto I therefore offer it unto you both because I know you are diligent in reading of bookes of good argument and because I have none other meanes whereby to shew my selfe thankefull for your manifold kindnesses and your love London this 20. of April 1601. Your loving and assured friend A. G. THE TREATISE THough many things discouraged mee to write unto you of this Argument in such sort as I intend considering that neither your daily reading of the Scripture neither the perswasion of learned Divines can moove you to accord unto the truth though by manifest testimony of Scripture they conuince your heresie and most of all that God hath left you to beleeve that lying spirit of Antichrist who denyeth that Iesus is that Christ Yet neverthelesse having some hope that God of His goodnesse will at last pull you as a brand out of the fire and quench you with the dew of His grace that you may grow in the knowledge of His Sonne I will as briefly as I can lay downe some few reasons of that faith which every one that will be saved must hold Whereby if I perswade you nothing yet shall I obtain thus much that you who neither beleeved His word nor yet opened your eyes to see the light of reasonable understanding shall at last confesse that His word and judgments are holy and true But before I come to the point let me first perswade you that although the knowledge of the holy Trinity be one of the most high mysteries which can be knowne or beleeved and that it is the only worke of the Holy-Ghost to worke this faith and knowledge in the heart of man yet neverthelesse God hath not left us destitute of meanes whereby to come to this faith and knowledge but hath also with His word given us a reasonable soule and understanding whereby to grow in the knowledge of Himselfe and His will For when Adam was created he had given unto him all perfect knowledge meete for him Now God who created the world for no other purpose then the manifestation of His owne glory might not leave that creature without understanding of the Godhead who being by nature and creation the most excellent in this visible world was made for that purpose especially above all other to set foorth His praise and to call on Him Now how could he doe this if he knew Him not But I thinke that seeing it is said that man was created in the jmage of God you will not deny that man before his fall had much more perfect understanding of the Godhead then it is possible for him to have till he come to know even as he is known but that by sin you may say this knowledge was lost not lost but corrupted only even as mans will For then it should follow that we were inferior to bruit beasts who have in them a sensible knowledge meete for that end whereto they were created Furthermore it is not possible that mans sinne should frustrate the end which God intended in His creation but it is manifest that man was created to know and honour the Creator Againe seeing in Christ all things consist he being ordained of the Father before all worlds in whom the world should be both created and restored It is plaine that this light of our understanding both proceedeth from Him and is restored in Him as it is said Iohn 1. He is that light that lightneth euery man that cometh into the world not onely His chosen with knowledge of His saving trueth but even generally every man with reasonable understanding whereby we may know whatsoever is to bee knowne of God and how even by the workes of God as it is plainely concluded Rom. 1 19 20. Therefore are they not to bee heard who hold any thing without the compasse of Faith which is without the compasse of Knowledge For Faith ought so to be grounded on Knowledge as Hope is grounded upon Faith So that as Faith Hebr. 11.1 is said to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eviction or proofe of things hoped for though they be not seene so may I say that Knowledge is the proofe of things which are beleeved For Faith is nothing else but the Conclusion of a particular Syllogisme drawne from the Conclusion of an universall which the knowledge of God had concluded as it is manifest Iam. 2.19 and Hebr. 11.3 By conference of which two places it appeareth that this knowledge of which I speake this Historicall Faith as to beleeve that there is one God which made all things of nought is onely such a knowledge as the devils and wicked men have but to beleeve and have confidence in this God is that particular conclusion and that faith which causeth us to have hope in His promises Therefore said Christ Have Faith in God that is strive to know God that knowing you may have faith and beleeve in Him And wee see that in these things where a bare faith without knowledge might seeme to be most required because as a man would thinke there were no reason to be given of them namely concerning the maintenance of this life and the resurrection to the life to come both Christ and His Apostles use no other reasons but such as every reasonable man may easily bee perswaded by though authorities of Scripture were not wanting to both purposes as it is manifest Matth. 6. and 1. Cor. 15. Yea Paul at Athens or wheresoever hee perswaded the worship of the true God among the Gentiles hee perswaded not by authoritie of Scripture which amongst them had beene very weake but by such arguments as they knew to bee sufficient even in themselues If these things were not so how then could the Gentiles which knew not the Scriptures be without excuse for their ignorance of God Therefore I conclude that there is nothing which is beleeved but it may also be knowen Now knowledge we know is ingendered by such principles as have trueth in them the which is evident of it selfe So that by plaine and reasonable understanding a man may know whatsoever he beleeveth You will say To what purpose then serue the Scriptures I answere That God infinite in goodnesse hath together with this
which I spake of before are in the Essence of God alone Now our spirituall consolation whereof the Holy-Ghost is said to be the Beginner is but an emanation or effluence from that Being which he himselfe is as the light of the Sun doth illuminate every bright body exposed to His light and yet imparteth not His being thereto You will againe object that Eternitie hath no beginning nor ending how then can Christ be both eternall and begun and how againe can He be equall to the Father whereas He being begotten of the Father the Father hath a prioritie before Him I answere that this beginning is that production or begetting which I before declared to have beene heretofore no other then it is now and shall be eternally as the Sun hath brought forth light since His creation and shall still bring forth light till the worlds dissolution For this action of God whereby He begetteth His Sonne is not a transient action to cause a passion in the subject and a repassion in the agent for in such the subject of necessitie should have beene existent before the action but this action is immanent and therefore of necessitie of the same nature with the same agent which agent because it is eternall therefore the production is also eternall and consequently the product and so of necessitie very God But you must ever remember what difference I made between the action of God infinite in power and therefore able to actuate the object and the immanent actions of our minde Now for the Prioritie or Posterioritie you may object I grant there is Prioritie among the Persons of the Godhead but of what kind not of Being for their Essence is one therein is none afore or after another neither is any one of the Trinitie more or lesse God then another not of time for they are all one Eternitie not of dignitie for they are all one Infinitie and the Sonne Himselfe being very God thinketh it no robberie to be equall with God But yet there is Prioritie and that of order onely for the Father is in order before the Sonne because the Sonne is begotten of the Father and the Sonne likewise is before the Holy-Ghost because the Holy-Ghost is the mutuall love betweene the Father and the Sonne and so proceeding from them both I will make a comparison unmeet for the matier of which I speak for to whom shall wee liken the Highest but yet meete to helpe your understanding When a man doth dreame and imagine things which are not there is you know the phantasie the phantasme or thing imagined or dreamed and the phansying or working of the phantasie about that object Now these three are all of one nature and are one after another onely in order and not in time For the particular phantasie of such an object is before the object and makes it to have an intentionall being then the object being the discourse of the phantasie followeth in order which neverthelesse was in time as soone as it obseruing ever the cautions that are to be obserued Thus have I very briefly showen not many reasons but rather how many reasons may be showen for this Christian assertion yet have I showen ynough to perswade any reasonable man to yeeld meekely unto the truth of that doctrine which is so evident both in the Booke of God and in every faithfull and true Christian mans confession and according to that discourse which is evident to every mans understanding Now give me leave to speake a little to those arguments which have throwen the most learned of the Iewes headlong to the feete of Christ to make them acknowledge that the Messiah must be both God and man I will not herein doe any thing contrary to that which in the beginning I protested that is not to compell you by authoritie of Scripture but to intreat you by reasonable perswasion to encline your eare to the truth But because I may not without injury to the cause leave altogether out such manifest proofe and without injurie also to your selfe who might thinke that I went about to sophisticate a true seeming untruth which would not abide the touch I will onely intend my finger to some very few of many thousands of axioms of the Scripture for this purpose and leave you to make the conclusion by your selfe hoping that the Iewes example may provoke you to follow them so far forth as they have followed the truth Exo. 13.21 it is said The Lord went before them c. Chap. 14.19 The Angel of God which went before them removed where Christ the Angel of the Covenant is called The Lord Iehovah Againe Exo. 15.3 The Lord is a man of warre His name is Iehovah therfore Christ is God and man who by this conflict upon the Crosse triumphed over Death and Hell as it is written in the Gospel The booke of the warres of the Lord. Againe Esay 9.6 Vnto us a childe is borne there is His Manhood and unto us a Sonne is given and they shall call His Name The mighty God And Esay 35. v. 4. Your God will come and save you Iere. 23.5 c. I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch and a King shall raigne and this is the Name whereby they shall call Him The Lord our righteousnesse And Ier. 33. v. 16. Iudah shall be saved and He that shall save her is the Lord our Righteousnesse Where the Name used is that great Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iehovah which is never given to any creature Zac. 9.9 proves Him God and man What shall I cite unto you that of the 2. Psalme Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee which place with many moe is brought in the Epistle to the Hebrewes to this purpose which is your question These authorities the Thalmudists who sticke onely to the killing letter and apparant sense of the law hold sufficient to put this matter out of doubt Now if leaving this outward sence of the Scripture wee should desire to know what is the quickening spirit thereof and should ransacke the treasuries of the Cabalists remembring that place of our Saviour Mat. 5.18 One jod or tittle of the Law shall not passe till all be fulfilled and should examine the question by the letters and pricks of the Scripture wee should more easily find an enterance then an end thereto Yet for a taste take onely the first three words of the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bereshith bara elohim which may not unfitly be thus turned In the beginning they the mighty God created And of that againe take the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bereshith and see what it may signifie by that part of the Cabala which they call Notariacon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b. the first letter of ben signifieth the Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. the first of ruach signifies the Holy-Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a. the beginning of av is the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s.
food whereof Adam and his faithfull children which overcome may eate and live for ever Revel 2.7 Thus you may see how the Word became flesh and dwelt among us You may see that riddle of the Angel to Esdras 2. Booke chap. 5. v. 37. expounded The image of that Word from which and whereto the Bookes of both the Testaments doe sound You may see what confidence we may have in that promise of Christ who in the dayes of His flesh said Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my Name He will give it you Ioh. 16.23 But after His Ascension the miracles that are to be done in that Name are more wonderfull Mark. 16.17 And againe He that beleeveth in me greater workes then these shall He doe for I goe to the Father Behold the mysterie of it cause it to ascend and describe that circle whose centre is every where whose circumference is no where Now are the superior and inferior conduit-pipes soudered together as the Hebrues speake now the higher influences the Spirit and Graces of God are not given by measure and the refluences so great as that Whosoever beleeveth out of His belly shall arise fountaines of living water springing up unto eternall life O glorious Name O sacred Mystery by which you may well perceive that there is greater Vnitie betweene the Deitie and the Humanitie then by any words of Contiguitie or Continuitie may be expressed You may well perceive how according to that place of the 89. Psal He the first borne or as Ioh. saith Chap. 1. The onely begotten of the Father is made higher then the Kings of the earth Here is our righteousnesse our sanctification and redemption complete here is our adoption and reward our consolation our life and religion our reverence and our feare yet our joy and boldnesse all in all The presence of God I am not able to give due honour thereunto My thoughts are swallowed up when I consider the other great mysteries which this one letter doth import the mysterie of the triple world the mysterie of mercy and of Iustice of Election and Reprobation of that great Iubile or Sabbath of Sabbaths when that which is above shall againe descend to restore the creature from corruption and change into that nimietie or excesse of Goodnes wherein it was created But these things are therfore here to be omitted because the discourse therof were long and because they are rather consequents then premises to the question To tell you at once and to make an end of this argument The whole Nation of the learned Iewes confesse that the Messiah should be called by this great Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To which purpose there are besides these which have beene brought many places of Scripture which in the Hebrue veritie are most direct though by our translations they might seeme somewhat harsh They hold I say that He must be both God and Man and in a word there is nothing which wee Christians doe affirme concerning our Lord but the evidence of Scripture doth compell them to confesse it Onely they differ in this from us whether This Iesus be that Christ that should come into the world though this also be a thing not questionable as you may learne of Daniel 9. vers 24 25 26. and 2. Esd 7. verse 28.29 Although the common error and expectation of the Iewes was of a terrestriall Monarchie yet the best learned of them agree that the Kingdome of Christ is not of this world For they remember that place in the Testament of Iacob The Scepter shall not depart from Iuda till Shiloh come By which it followes that when Messiah shall come there should be no more shew of an earthly kingdome That of Zach. 9.9 is as direct Ierusalem behold thy King commeth unto thee poore They remeber also that in the 21. Ps I am a worme and noman a shame of men and the contempt of the people And that also of Esay 53. He hath neither forme nor beauty when we see Him there shall be no forme that we should desire Him He is despised and rejected of men c. Reade the whole Chapter and the Psalme compare them with the histories of His Passion and behold Him on the Crosse in the horror of His anguish and extreame perplexity But you will say what is this Iudaisme in the letters of His Name for argument to prove that He is God Is it more then if we should write the Name of Christ with the last letter thereof capital ChrisT because it may represent the Crosse or else the two last letters so interlaced that they may have reference to the Serpent in the wildernesse because that was also a figure of CHRIST Though I had here to answere for the Cabala of every of the 72. languages of the Confusion yet I say onely thus If after all this that I have said you will still be contentious I have no such custome but I am well content that either thus or by any other meanes a ChrisTian man should hold that in perpetuall memory which is his Ioy his Victory his Crowne his happinesse in this world and in the world to come Were it to any purpose to make you know what the ancient Philosophers who knew not the Scriptures have thought of this matier all speaking this one thing which the light that God hath given to mankind did make them know although they concealed their intendement by divers names Yet Hermes called Him plainely the Sonne of God Zoroaster the Vnderstanding of His Father Pythagoras Wisedome as Paul and Solomon every where and particularly Prou. 8. and in the booke of that title Parmenides named him The Sphere of Vnderstanding Orpheus termed him Pallas to the same effect as the other if you know the fable and yet hee speakes more plainely to the Trinitie in his Hymnes of the Night of the Heaven and of the Ayre Platoes separate Idea's meane nothing else and in summe as many of the Philosophers as were worth any thing were not ignorant of this thing But I feare these authorities are with you of little worth yet have I brought them that you may see how wee are furnished with all kind of proofes and how you do contemne all maner of testimony If this which I have said perswade you to look better to the foundation of your faith it is sufficient if it perswade you nothing then have I done contrary to the Commandement which forbiddeth to cast pearles before swine But yet I hope that God will not suffer you to be led any longer by that spirit of Antichrist against which S. Iohn doth so often warne us For I doe you to wit that this your heresie is no new thing but even as ancient as the Apostles time For the reason of Iohns writing of his Gospel was to prove the Godhead of Christ against the Hereticks that denied it in His own time And truely I maruell that you who have received this heresie from the rotten bones