terris as St. Bernard hath it Who could be fitter to make us the Sons of God by adoption and grace then the word by which we were to be begotten unto life eternal or to repair the image of God decayed in us then he that was the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the expresse image of his Person Finally who more fit to settle the minds of men in a certain and undoubted perswasion of the truth of such things as are necessary to be believed and thereby bring us into the way of life everlasting then he that was the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us of himself in St. Iohns Gospell Vt homo fidentius ambularet ad veritatem ipsa veritas Dei filius homine assumpto constituit et fundavit fidem as St. Augustine hath it That man saith he might with more confidence travell in the wayes of truth the truth it self even the Son of God taking the nature of man upon him did plant and found that faith which we are to beleive By which it is apparent that it was most agreeable both to our condition and the nature of the word it self that he should take upon himself the office of a Mediator between God and Man but so that he was bound thereto by no necessity but only out of his meer love and goodness to that wretched Creature The Scriptures and the Fathers are expresse in this Walke in love saith the Apostle as Christ hath also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet smelling savour And anon after Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it And in pursuance of this love he took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. So that first out of his love and goodness towards us he offered himself to serve and suffer in our places and after out of the same love submitted himself unto the punishment which our sins deserved God not imposing this upon him by necessity of any inevitable decree but mercifully accepting his compassionate offer which did so powerfully conduce unto mans salvation and the most inexpressible honour of his only Son The sufferings of CHRIST in regard of man do take their value from his Person the excellency of which did prevail so far as to make the passion of one available for the sins of all But the merit of those sufferings in regard of himself is to be valued by that cheerful freedom with which he pleased to undergo them and had not been so acceptable nor effectual neither if they had not been voluntary For Fathers which affirm the same we need take no thought having both Reason and the Scriptures so expresly for it though this be universally the Doctrine of all Catholick wrirers some of whose words I shall recite and for the rest refer the Reader to their Books For the Greek Church thus saith Athanasius CHRIST seeing the goodness of his Father and his own sufficiency and power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was moved with compassion towards man and pitying our infirmities cloathed himself with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and willingly took up his cross and went uncompelled unto his death And thus St. Augustine for the Latâ—ne The Word saith he was made flesh by his own power and was born suffered died and rose again nulla necessitate sed voluntate potestate by no necessity laid upon him but meerly of his own good will and that authority which he had to dispose of himself See to this purpose the same Augustine in Psal. 8. de Trinit l. 4. c. 10. Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. 55. in Ioh. Hom. 82. Amb. in Psal. 118. Serm. 6. De Fide l. 2. c. 1. Hieron in Isai. cap. 3. in Psal. 68. Not to descend to those of the later Ages The passages being thus laid open we now proceed to the great work of the incarnation wherein the holy Ghost was to have his part that so none of the Heavenly powers might be wanting to the restauration of collapsed man That our Redeemers Incarnation in the Virgins womb was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost is positively affirmed in St. Matthews Gospel first in the way of an historical Narration Before they came together as man and wise she was found with childe of the holy Ghost ch l. 1. 18. and afterwards by way of declaration from an Angel of Heaven saying Ioseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the holy Ghost vers 20. Nor wanted there especial reason if at least any reasons may be given in matters of so high a nature why this miraculous Conception was committed rather to the holy Ghost then either acted by the sole power of God the Father or by the sole vertue of the Word who was aboundantly able to have wrought his own Incarnation For as the Word was pleased to offer himself to take humane flesh the better to accomplish the great work of the Worlds redemption and as God the Father knowing how unable poor man must be to work out his own salvation otherwise then by such a Saviour was graciously pleased to accept the offer so it seemed requisite that God the holy Ghost should prepare that flesh in which the Word of God was to be incarnate Besides the power of quickning and conferring fruitfulness is generally ascribed to the Spirit in the Book of God who therefore in the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitane Creed is called the Lord and giver of life For thus saith David for the Old Testament Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thus the son of David for the New Testament Spiritus est qui vivificat i. e. It is the Spirit that quickneth The holy Ghost then was the proper Agent in the Incarnation So St. Matthew tels us But for the manner and the means by which so wonderful a conception was brought to pass that we finde only in St. Luke The blessed Virgin as it seemed made a question of it how she should possibly conceive and bring forth a son considering that as yet she had not had the company of her husband Ioseph Quandoquidem virum non cognosco that is to say since as yet I do not know my husband for so I rather choose to read it then to translate it as it stands in our English Bibles seeing I know not a man For that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and Vir in Latine do sometimes signifie an Husband every Schoolboy knows and so the words are rendred in our English Bibles Ioh. 4.16 17 18. and in other places And
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
Divinity Reader in Heidelberg though he both useth approveth this distinction yet to my seeming takes not the tearms to be so different as the members of a good Division ought to be by the rules of Logick and indeed so confounds them one with another that we can hardly see where the difference lyeth For he confesseth in plain tearms fidem Iustificantem Historicam semper inse complecti that justifying faith doth always comprehend the Historical in it and that the faith of Miracles hath either Temporary or Historical faith always joyned unto it If so the difference between them must be very small consisting more in magis minus and such degrees of comparison then in any spiritual and formal difference and possibly it may fall out that the faith of miracles as they call it is rather an extraordinary gift or effect of faith then any distinct species or branch thereof First for Historical faith that faith whereby we do believe Ea vera esse quae in libris Prophetarum Evangelistarum tradita sunt by which we do believe those things for true which are contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as themselves define it I cannot see wherein it differeth from justifying or saving faith unless perhaps it be in the application which rather is an Act of faith then a species of it And 't is but a perhaps if that for in my mind Dr. Iackson reasoneth very well That our Faith is not to be counted unsound or non salvifical because Historical but rather oft-times therefore insufficient to some because not so fully Historical as it might be or in that our apprehension of divers matters related in Sacred stories is not so great so lively and sound as to equalize the utmost limits of some belief which yet may be fully comprehended under Historical assent there being no assent which can exceed the measure of that belief or credence which is due unto sacred Writers Which if it be on our parts as it ought to be to Gods general promises it will more forcibly more truly and naturally apply them to us in particular then we our selves can possibly do by beginning our faith at that particular application where indeed it must end For temporary faith they define that next to be an Assent unto the Doctrine of the Gospel accompanyed with joy and gladness and the outward profession of the same but such as lasteth but for a season and fades in time of persecution and affliction And this they ground upon that passage in our Saviours parable where it is said that He which receiveth the seed in stony places the same is he that receiveth the Word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a season For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word by and by he is offended But for my part I could never see any reason to perswade me yet that our Saviour in that Parable did purpose to represent unto our view the several kindes of Believers but the several kindes of hearers only many of which do hear the Word with divers ends and different purposes but only they which do so hear the Word of God as to bring forth the fruit of good living shall like the good grain in the following Parable be laid up at the last day in the barn of the Heavenly husbandman Or granting that they build this definition on a ground well laid yet I see nothing to the contrary but that the temporary faith which is there defined may be a true and lively faith and justifie the man that hath it in the sight of God though failing in the course of his Christian race he do not get the prize proposed unto them that win and hold out to the very end A temporary faith may justifie for the present time and bring forth many fruits of holiness and newness of life but it is faith with perseverance in the works of Piety which shall receive the Crown in the day of Judgement And if this Temporary faith be not saving also it is not in regard of it self that it wants any of those signs and tokens by which a saving faith is to be discerned but that the man that is endued or invested with it hath not the gift of perseverance but out of worldly fear or on by-respects makes shipwrack of his faith or casts it over-board in the storm as a thing unprofitable So that the difference between Temporary and Salvifical faith is not in any thing essential to the true nature of faith but only in duration which is accidental and extrinsical which make it no more a distinct species of faith or to fall short in any thing which true faith should have then that a man who dyeth in the flower of his youth wants any thing of being as compleat and perfect a man as he that lives unto the age of Methusalem That magis minus do not differre specie is an old rule in Logick And so Bucanus doth conclude to the point in hand though as professed and rigid a Calvinian as any other whatsoever affirming plainly Fidem languidam esse veram fidem that a weak and languishing faith is a true faith on this very reason Quia magis minus non variant rerum species as before is said Which rule if it hold good in the intension of Faith as to strength and weakness will certainly hold good in the extension of it also as to length and shortness of duration Last of all for the faith of Miracles or fides Miraculorum as they please to call it is defined by the said Vrsinus to be Donum singulare faciendi aliquod opus extraordinarium aut praedicendi certum eventum ex revelatione divina that is to say a singular gift of doing some extraordinary and supernatural work or foretelling things to come by divine Revelation But this considered as it ought is so far from being a distinct species of faith that it ought not to be called faith at all but is rather the effect of an eminent faith or some more extraordinary gift super-added to it For CHRIST our Saviour reckoneth it as the effect of a powerful faith saying to his Disciples when they seemed to complain because they could not cast the Devil out of a man who was brought before them that it was propter incredulitatem ipsorum by reason of their unbelief as our English reads it that it to say because their faith was yet but weak and newly planted not strong nor spiritful enough to effect such wonders And the Apostle reckoning up those gifts and graces of the holy Ghost which God bestowed upon his Church in her first plantations gives us this punctual list or catalogue of them saying that unto one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another is given Faith by
Deus in secula brnedictus as St. Paul calleth him in the 9. Chap. to the Romans vers 5. Deus in carne manifestatus God manifested in the flesh in the first to Timothy St. Iohn speakes home unto the point and doth more puzzle the Socinian and Arian hereticks then all the book of God besides In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning when was that When God created first the heaven and the earth when the earth was without forme and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep then the word was that is to say it had a perfect actuall being when all things else did but begin to be and having then an actual and a proper being it could not at that time nor at any time since begin to be but was and is and so continueth without ending In the beginning was the word what word that word by which the worlds were made as St. Paul hath it by whom all things were made saith St. Iohn and without which nothing was made saith the same Evangelist The word which after was made flesh and did dwel amongst us and by the brightnesse of his glory did declare himself to be the only begotten Son of the Father Ioh. 1. The expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 the image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 That word in the beginning was and was God the word the Son of God not by communication of grace but nature therefore the natural Son of God but so the Son of God his begotten Son as to be very God for the word was God The Word was God saith the Apostle not only by a participation of power or communiâ—ation of a more abundant measure of his graces in which respects some of the Sons of Men are called Gods in Scripture Ego dixi Dii estis saith the royal Psalmist but properly and truly God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very true God and the Son of God We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ who is the true God and the life eternal saith the same Apostle Here have we CHRIST the Son of God and CHRIST the true God both in one and what need further evidence in a point so clear Such further Topicks as are used for the proof hereof from the names given him in the Scripture the attributes and mighty workes ascribed unto him and the company of such texts in the book of God as being spoken of the Father in the old Testament are applyed in the new unto the Son I purposely forbear at present and shall content my self with such ample testimonies which CHRIST himself hath given to his own Divinity For though it be an unusual thing to admit a mans own testimony in his own cause according unto that of our Lord and Saviour If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true that is to say it would not passe for currant or be taken for truth yet when a man lyeth under any accusation he may then speak what he can in defence of himself and his testimony be allowed of towards his acquitment or justification And therefore Christ our Saviour being challenged by the Pharisees who were apt to cavil at his sayings for speaking in his own behalfe returned this answer Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Upon this ground then we proceed and though it be the last in order of our Saviours life yet we will first alleage that passage which happened in the high Priests hall on the day of his passion The high Priest finding no sufficient testimony for his condemnation resolved to put him to the oath of ex officio and therefore did adjure him by the living God to tell them whether he were the Christ the Son of God to which our Saviour answered saying Thou hast said Which though it be equivalent to an affirmation yet to make sure work of it and put it out of doubt St. Marke hath given his answer in these positive termes Iesus said I am In which it is to be observed that when the high Priests put our Saviour to this dangerous question he spake not of the Son of God in that vulgar sense in which the just and righteous persons were called his sons but of the Son of God in the natural sense in which he could not verifie himself for the Son of God without including necessarily that he was also God As in the 5. Chap. of St. Iohn where our Saviour having said My Father worketh hitherto and I also work the incensed Iews intended him some present mischief not only because he had broken the Sabbath but had said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God And this appears yet further by the following words where it is said that the high Priest rent his clothes saying he hath spoken blasphemy and thereupon pronounced him to be guilty of death which vote they after prosecuted before Pontius Pilate affirming that he ought to die by the Law of Moses because he had made himself the Son of God Assuredly their meaning was that he had made himself the true and natural Son of God and not the Son of God by especial grace for otherwise they had not voted him to be guilty of death Nor had the high Priest rent his clothes if he had only taken upon himself the name of CHRIST or of the Messiah because that could not come within the compasse of Blasphemy For they knew well that the Messiah or the Christ was to come in the forme of man though with more outward pomp and glory as they supposed then our Saviour did and therefore though they might have condemned him of folly in that being a man of no reputation he had taken on himself the name of CHRIST they had no reason in the world to accuse him of Blaspheming the name of God Now that the Messiah was to come in the form of man being he was to come of the womans seed was a thing so perfectly resolved on that Eve immediately on the promise made that her seed should bruise the Serpents head supposed that Cain her first born was to be the man and therefore said upon his birth I have gotten a man or rather the man from the Lord Possedi virum ipsum Jehovah I have gotten a man even the Lord Jehovah as Fagius the learned Hebrician upon severall revises readeth it The like conceit possessed the Parents of Noah as many good Authours do conceive upon which ground they said when they gave him that name this same that is this son of ours shall comfort us concerning our work Nor had the very Iewes of our Saviours time sent to enquire of Iohn the Baptist
of them in their severall Commentaries on the text saying the same thing though in divers words And finally it is so interpreted by St. Augustine also Nec frustra fortasse non satis fuit ut diceret mors aut infernus sed utrumque dictum est c. that is to say Nor happily without cause did he not think it enough to say that death or hell divisively had cast up their dead but he nameth both death for the just who might only suffer death and not also hell hell for the wicked and unrighteous who were there to be punished Thus have we looked over all those places where the word Hades doth occurre in the new Testament except that one which is in question whereof more anon and finde it constantly both englished and interpreted by that of hell according as we commonly understand the word for the place of torments T is true the word admits of other notions amongst some Greek Authors But that makes nothing to us Christians who are to use it in that sense in which it is presented to us in the book of God interpreted and expounded by the Antient Fathers and the tradition of the Church For though the sacred Penmen of the new Testament writing in Greek were of necessity to use such words as they found ready to their hands yet they restrained them many times to some certain and particular meaning which they retain unto this day as words of Ecclesiastical use and signification Of this kinde are Ecclesia Evangelium Episcopus Presbyter Diaconus Martyr and the like which being words of a more general signification in their first original are now restrained to such particular notions as the first Preachers of the Gospel thought most fit to reserve them for Of this kind also is Diabolus which properly and originally did signifie no more then an Accuser but is now used by all writers both in Greek and Latine to denote the Devil And of this kind is Hades also which whatsoever it might signifie in some old Greek writers more then the Place or Region of hell or the Prince thereof is now restrained in general speech to signifie only hell it self or the house of torments the habitation of the Devill and his Angels But this we shall the better see by taking a short view of the use and signification of the word amongst the best and most approved of the old Greek Ecclesiastical writers And first Iosephus though no Christian yet one that very well understood the difference between heaven and hell telleth us of those whose souls were cleansed and favoured of God that they inhabit in the holiest places of heaven but that they whose hands wax mad against themselves or who laid hands upon themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their soules were to be received in the dark vaults of hell or Hades Theophilus the sixt B. of Antioch about 170. years after Christ citeth this verse out of the works of the Sibyls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they sacrificed to the Devils in hell or Hades In the same times lived Iustin Martyr who doth thus informe us After the soul saith he is departed from the body straightwayes there is a separation of the unjust from the just both being carryed by the Angels into places meet for them that is to say the souls of the just into Paradise where is the fellowship and sight of Angels and Arch-angels with a kind of beholding of Christ our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the souls of the unjust to places in hell or Hades of which it was said in Scripture unto Nebuchadnezzar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Hades below was stirred to meet him Isa. 14. And to this purpose he both citeth and alloweth those words of Plato where he affirmes that when death draweth near to any man then tales are told 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the things in Hades how he that here doth deal unjustly shall there be punished c. Next him Eusebius speaks thus in the person of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I see my descent to hell or Hades approach and the rebellion against me of the contrary powers which are enemies to God And that we may be sure to know what he means by Hades he tels us out of Plato in another place that the souls of wicked men departing hence immediately after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 endured the punishments of hell or Hades of their doings here After man was fallen saith Athanasius and by his fall death had prevailed from Adam to Christ the earth was accursed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hell or Hades opened Paradise shut up and heaven offended but after all things were delivered by Christ the earth received a blessing Paradise was opened 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades or hell did shrink for fear and heaven set open to all believers And in another place he speaketh of two severall mansions provided by Almighty God for the wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grave and Hades whereof one is to receive his body and the other his soul. St. Basil thus Death is not altogether evill except you speak of the death of a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. because that their departure hence is the beginning of their punishments in hell or Hades and besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evils which are in hell or Hades have not God for their cause but our selves c. And after shewing that Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up of the earth he addes that they were never a whit the better for this kind of punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for how could they be so that went down to Hades or hell but they made the rest wiser by their example Infinite more might be alleaged from the Fathers of the Eastern Church to shew that when they spake of Hades they meant nothing but hell and should be here produced were not these sufficient Only I shall make bold to add the evidence of two or three of the most eminent of the latter writers to shew that in all times and ages the word retained that notion only which had been given it in the Scriptures and the old Greek Fathers Thus then Cydonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that there is in Hades hell vengeance for all sinnes committed not only the consent of all wise men but the equity of the divine justice doth most fully prove Aeneas Gazaeus he comes next and he tels us this that he who in a private life committeth smal sins and laments them escapeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the punishments that are in Hades And finally Gregentius thus Christ took a rod out of the earth viz. his precious Crosse and stretching forth his hand struck all his enemies therewith and conquered them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that is to say Hades or hell death sin and that subtile serpent So
Article by their corrupt glosses and interpretations since the first wrestling of it from the native sense came principally and originally from the Church of Rome But far lesse reason had he to impose upon them a more grosse absurdity in making Calvin and Brentius both to deliver this interpretation of it that to descend into hell was nothing else but to be utterly annihilated and extinct â—or ever A folly shall I call it or a frenzie rather which never came within their dreams for as much as doth appear by their works and writings from whence the Cardinal must collect it Nor was the scene so well contrived as it should have been for the acting of this grand Imposture the book of Calvins which it cited for the proof thereof being that entituled Psychopannychia purposely written as appeareth by the Preface of it against the Anabaptists of those times by whom indeed that monstrous Paradox had been lately published This therefore being flung aside as a fraud or slander the first of those three new constructions which have been made of this descent into hell by the writers of the reformed Churches is that thereby the Authors of the Creed whosoever they were meant nothing but our Saviours burial Bucer I take it was the first though otherwise a moderate man and one not very apt to follow any new devise that puts this sense upon the Article Ad infernum descendere nil aliud est quam recendi corpus sub terra to deseend into hell saith he is nothing else but for the bodie to be buried under the ground And presently he gives this reason why he so expounds it Sheol enim pro quo in scripturis nos fere infernum legimus sepulchrum significat that the word Sheol in the Hebrew which in the Scriptures we interpret commonly by that of hell doth properly signifie the grave What the word Sheol signifyeth in the Hebrew tongue is not now the businesse but what was meant by the Apostles in the Greek word Hades by which St. Peter did translate it and that we proved before in the former Chapter to be meant literally of hell of the place of torments Or were it so that the word Hades might be used in some places to expresse the grave yet were it very improbable that descendere in infernum in this place of the Creed should signifie no more then to be buried And in my minde Calvin doth reason very strongly against this construction where he affirmes that what an unlikely thing it must needs be thought that in so short an Abstract of the Christian faith that of our Saviours burial should be twice expressed First in plain termes and after by a figurative Metaphorical speech Non est verisimile irrepere potuisse superfluam ejusmodi battologiam in compendium hoc ubi summatim quam fieri potuit paucissimus verbis praecipua fidei capita notantur So he judiciously and to the purpose But then withall I needs must say that though Calvin did reject this interpretation as inconsistent with the nature of so short a Summary having indeed a new devise of his own to set up in stead of it yet gave he much incouragement to others to expound it so who were too apt to learn from so great a Master For whereas in the old translation of the Psalmes of David which has so long been generally received in the Western Church the words ran thus Non derelinques animam meam in inferno i. e. thou shalt not leave my soul in hell Calvin in his translation was so bold as to change it thus Non deseres animam meam in sepulchro thou shalt not leave my soul in the grave or sepulchre and then by soul expounds himself to mean the whole person of David Which coming unto Bezas hands he saw no reason as indeed there was not but that he might make as bold with St. Peter in the book of the Acts as Calvin did with David in the book of Psalmes And therefore when he first put out his new translation of the new Testament he thus translated Peters words into Calvins meaning and made the passage to run thus in Terminis without any disguise Non relinques corpus meum in sepulchro i. e. thou shalt not leave my body in the grave nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption But after finding how great clamour he had raised thereby in the next edition of that work he retained in words the old translation Non relinques animam meam in inferno but in his Notes or Annotations on the same did declare expressely that by infernus there he did mean sepulchrum and by anima the whole person whether Christs or Davids and then the glosse upon the text must in brief be this Non relinques animam meam in inferno i. e. Non relinques corpus meum in sepulchro A glosse like that of Orleans which corrupts the text and brings into my minde that with which we use sometimes to jeare the old glossary on the Canon-laws Statuimus i. e. abrogamus that is to say we do ordain that is we annul or abrogate A glosse not much unlike unto that of Bellarmine and hard it is to say which of the two is most absurd who being asked this question by some Protestant Doctors viz. to whom the Pope should make complaint when offence is given him if he be so supreme in the Church of Christ as they say he is returns this answer thereunto Papa potest dicere Ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi the Pope may tell the Church that is himselfe And indeed this interpretation of the Article seemed as absurd as either of these two fine glosses insomuch that Beza lived to see it every were deserted in some parts exploded And now and long before these times as Aretius very well observeth Tota Ecclesia ubique terrarum c. The whole Church thoughout the world doth receive this Article all opposition notwithstanding Et diversum a sepultura recitat and doth recite it as a different point from that of the burial Now that which Calvin said in the former case touching the unlikelyhood and improbability that in so short a Summary of the Christian faith the same thing should be twice repeated first in plain terms and presently in the very next words in a figurative speech the same may be returned to a second construction made by some late Divines on the present Article Who willing to be singular and in a way by themselves and finding that it would not down amongst knowing men that Christs descent into hell should be all one with his burial have ransacked all the Hebrew Rabbines to finde out their conceptions on the Hebrew Sheol and all the old Greek Philosophers and antient Poets to finde what they intended by the Greek word Hades And having made a general muster of collections out of several Heathenish and Iewish writers extracted out of them this sense of the
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
was said out of Austin formerly that whosoever contradicted that which was there delivered Aut haereticus aut a Christi fide alienus was either an Heretick or an Infidel If none of these particulars may be justly quarrelled it must be then that the Apostles thought not fit to commit it to writing but left it to depend on tradition only And yet St. Augustine saith the same Catholica fides in Symbolo nota fidelibus memoriaeque mandata c. The Catholick faith contained in the Creed saith he so well known to all faithful people and by them committed unto memory is comprehended in as narrow a compass as the nature of it will bear St. Hierome no great friend of Ruffines as I said before is more plain then he who tels us that the Symbolum of our faith and hope delivered by Tradition from the Apostles Non scribitur in charta atramento sed in tabulis cordis was not committed in those times to ink and paper but writ in the tables of mens hearts Irenaeus cals it in plain tearms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Greek word for Tradition and Tertullian fetcheth it as high as from the first creating of the Gospel Hanc regulam ab initio Evangelii decurrisse as expressely he Compare these passages of Irenaeus and Tertullian whereof the first conversed with Polycarpus the Apostles Scholar with that which is told us by Ruffinus of Majores nostri that the relation which he makes came from the Tradition of their forefathers and we shall finde as strong as constant and as universal a Tradition for the antiquity and authority of the Creed in question as for the keeping of the Lords-Day or the baptizing of Infants and it may be also for the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture And yet behold two witnesses of more antiquity then Irenaeus and Tertullian The first Ignatius one of the Apostles scholars and successour unto St. Peter in the See of Antioch who summeth up those Articles which concern the knowledge of CHRIST IESVS in his incarnation birth and sufferings under Pontius Pilate his death and descending into Hell his rising on the third day c. as they stand in order in the Creed The second is Thaddeus whom St. Thomas the Apostle sent to Abgarus the King or Toparch of Edessa within few years after the death of our Redeemer who being to instruct that people in the Christian faith gives them the sum and abstract of it in the same words and method as concerning CHRIST in which we finde them in the Creed at this very day Nor shall I fear to fare the worse amongst knowing men for relying so far upon Traditions as if a gap were hereby opened for increase of Popery For there are many sorts of Traditions allowed of and received by the Protestant Doctors such as have laboured learnedly for the beating down of Popery and all Popish superstitions of what kinde soever Chemnitius that learned and laborious Canvasser of the Councel of Trent alloweth of six kindes of Tradition to be held in the Church with whom agreeth our learned Field in his fourth book of the Church and 20. chapter Of these he maketh the first kinde to be the Gospel it self delivered first by the Apostles viva voce by preaching conference and such ways of lively expressions Et postea literis consignata and after committed unto writing as they saw occasion The second is of such things as at first depend on the authority and approbation of the Church but after win credit of themselves and yeild sufficient satisfaction unto all men of their divine infallible truths contained in them and of this kinde is that Tradition which hath transmitted to us from time to time the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture The third is that which Irenaeus and Tertullian speak of and that saith he is the transmission of those Articles of the Christian faith quos Symbolum Apostolicum complectitur which are contained in the Apostles Creed or Symbol The fourth touching the Catholick sense and interpretation of the Word of God derived to us by the works and studies of the FATHERS by them received from the Apostles and recommended to posterity The fifth kinde is of such things as have been in continual practise whereof there is neither precept nor example in the holy Scripture though the grounds reasons and causes of such practise be therein contained of which sort is the Baptism of Infants and the keeping of the Lords-Day or first day of the week for which there is no manifest command in the Book of God but by way of probable deduction only The sixt and last sort is de quibusdam vetustis ritibus of many antient rites and customs which in regard of their Antiquity are usually referred unto the Apostles of which kind there were many in the Primitive times but alterable and dispensable according to the circumstances of times and persons And of this kinde are those Traditions spoken of in our Book of Articles where it is said that it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like in that at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversity of countreys times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word So that the question between us and the Church of Rome is not in this as many ignorant men are made believe wheâ—her there be or not any such Traditions as justly can derive themselves from the Apostles or whether such Traditions be to be admitted in a Church well constituted I know no moderate understanding Protestant who makes doubt of either The question briefly stated is no more but this that is to say whether the Traditions which the Church of Rome doth pretend unto be Apostolical or not Now for the finding out of such Traditions as are truly and undoubtedly Apostolical there are but these two rules to be considered the first St. Austins and is this Quod universa tenet Ecclesia that whatsoever the Church holdeth and hath alwayes held from time to time not being decreed in any Councel may justly be believed to proceed from no other ground then Apostolical authority The second rule is this and that 's a late learned Protestants that whatsoever all or the most famous and renowned in all Ages or at the least in divers ages have constantly delivered as from them that went before them no man gainsaying or doubting of it without check or censure that also is to be believed to be an Apostolical Tradition By which two rules if we do measure the Traditions of the Church of Rome such as they did ordain in the Councel of Trent to be imbraced and entertained pari pietatis affectu with the like ardor of affection as the written Word What will become of prayer for the dead and Purgatory the Invocation of the Saints departed the worshipping of Images adoration
from the sight of men And if the wise Gentile could affirme so sadly nunquam minus solum esse quam cum solus esset that he was never lesse alone then when he was by himself what need can any rational man suppose in Almighty God of having more company then himself in If this suffice not for an answer to that needlesse demand What God did before he made the World let him take that of Augustine on the like occasion who being troubbled with this curious and impertinent question is said to have returned this answer Curiosis fabricare inferos that he made Hell for all such troublesome and idle Questionists But it pleased God at last when it seemed best unto his infinite and eternal wisdome to create the World and all things visible and invisible in the same contained A point so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it And as the Scripture tels us that God made the World so do they also tell us this that because he made the World he is therefore God For thus saith David in the Psalms The Lord is great and very greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all Gods As for the Gods of the Heathen they are but Idols but it is the Lord which made the Heavens Where plainly the strength of Davids argument to prove the Lord to be God doth consist in this because it was he only not the gods of the Heathen which created the World The like we also finde in the Prophet Ieremy The Lord saith he is the true God he is the living God and an everlasting King and the Nations shall not be able to abide his indignation Thus shall ye say unto them The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens He hath made the Earth by his power and established the World by his wisdome and hath stretched out the Heavens by his discretion In which two verses of the Prophet we have proof sufficient first that God made the World by his power and wisdome and secondly that this making of the World by his power and wisdome doth difference or distinguish him from the gods of the Heathen of whom it is affirmed expressely that they were so far from being able to make Heaven and Earth that they should perish from the Earth and from under Heaven But what need Scripture be produced to assert that truth which is so backed by the authority of the Learned Gentiles whose understandings were so fully convinced by the inspection of the Book of nature especially by that part of it which did acquaint them with the nature of the Heavenly Bodies that they concluded to themselves without further evidence that the Authour of this great Book was the only God and that he only was that great invisible power which did deserve that Soveraign title And this Pythagoras one of the first founders of Philosopie amongst the Grecians who in all probability had never seen the works of Moses as Plato and those that followed after are supposed to have done doth most significantly averre in these following verses which are preserved in Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which may be thus paraphased in our English tongue He that will say I am a Power divine A God besides that one let him first make A world like this and say that this is mine Before he to himself that title take For the next point that God the Father Almighty did create the World it is a truth so clear and evident in the Book of God that he must needs reject the Scripture who makes question of it it being not only told us in the holy Scriptures that God made the World but also when he made it and upon what reasons with all the other circumstances which concern the same The very first words of Gods book if we look no further are in themselves sufficient to confirme this point In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth As Moses so the royal Psalmist He laid the foundations of the Earth and covered it with the deep as it were with a garment and spreadeth out the Heavens like a curtain He made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that therein is And so the whole Colledge of the Apostles when they were joyned together in their prayers to God Lord said they thou art God which made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is Made it but how not with his hands assuredly there is no such matter The whole World though it be an house and the house of God cum Deo totus mundus sit und domus said the Christian Oratour yet it is properly to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands How then He made it only by his word Dixit et facta sunt He spake the word and they were made saith the sweet finger of Israel There went no greater paines to the Worlds creation then a Dixit Deus And this not only said by Moses but by David too Verbo Domini coeli firmatī sunt et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum i. e. By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth In which it is to be observed that though the creation of the World be generally ascribed unto God the Father yet both the Son and the holy Ghost had their parts therein Verbo Domini by the word of the Lord were the Heavens made saith the Prophet David In the beginning was the Word All things were made by him and without him was nothing made saith St. Iohn the Apostle The Spirit of God moved upon the waters saith Moses in the Book of the Law and Spiritu oris ejus by breath of his mouth were all the hosts of Heaven created saith David in the book of Psalmes Made by his word but yet not made together in one instant of time to teach us men deliberation in our words and actions and to set forth unto us both his power and wisdome His power he manifested in the Method of the worlds creat on in that he did produce what effects he pleased without the help of natural causes in giving light unto the World before he had created the Sun and Moon making the earth fruitfull and to bring forth plants without the motion or influence of the Heavenly bodies And for his wisdome he expressed in as high a degree in that he did not create the Beasts of the field before he had provided them of fodder and sufficient herbage nor made man after his own image before he had finished his whole work filled his house and furnished it with all things necessary both for life and pleasures
of mankinde and a necessity was laid upon them to obey his pleasure Nec quicquam est in Angelis nisi parendi necessitas said Lactantius truly And so far we have all things clear from the holy Scriptures But if we will beleeve the learned as I think we may there is no signal punishment of ungodly people ascribed to God in the old Testament but what was executed by the ministry of these blessed spirits except some other means and ministers be expresly named That great and universal deluge in the time of Noah was questionless the work of Almighty God I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth Gen. 6.17 But this was done by the ministery and service of the holy Angels Ministerio Angelorum saith Torniellus whom he employed in breaking up the fountaines of the great deep and opening the cataracts of Heaven for the destruction of that wicked unrepenting people Thus when it is affirmed in the 14. of Exodus that the Lord looked into the hoste of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and overthrew them in the midst of the Sea v. 24.27 Non intelligendum est de Deo sed de Angelo qui erat in nube we must not understand it of the Lord himself as Tostatus hath it but only of the Angel or ministring spirit of whose being in the cloud we had heard before And when we read that in the battail of the five Kings against the Israelites the Lord cast down great stones upon them from Heaven Iosh. 10. it is not to be thought saith he Quod Deus mitteret sed Angelus jubente Deo that this was done by Gods own hand but by the holy Angels at the Lords appointment The like may be affirmed of those other acts of power and punishment whereof we finde such frequent mention in the book of God which though they be ascribed to God as the principall Agent yet were they generally effected by his holy Angels as the means and instruments But the most proper office of the holy Angels is not for punishment but preservation not for correction of the wicked but for protection of the just and righteous person That 's the chief part of their imployment the office which they most delight in and God accordingly both hath and doeth employ them so from time to time For by the ministery of his Angels did he deliver Ismael from the extremity of thirst Daniel from the fury of hunger Lot from the fire and trembling Isaac from the sword our infant Saviour from one Herod his chief Apostle from another all of them from that common prison into the which they had been cast by the Priests and Pharisees But these were only personal and particular graces Look we on such as were more publick on such as did concern his whole people generally and we shall finde an Angel of he Lord incamping between the hoste of Egypt and the house of Israel to make good the passage at their backs till they were gotten on the other side of the Sea another Angel marching in the front of their Armies as soon as they had entred the land of Canaan and he the Captain of the Lords hostes Princeps exercituum Dei as the vulgar readeth it but whether Michael Gabriel or who else it was the Rabbins may dispute at leasure and to them I leave it Moreover that wall of waters which they had upon each side of them when they passed thorow the Sea as upon dry ground facta est a Deo per Angelos exequentes that was the work of Angels also directed and imployed by Almighty God as the learned Abulensis notets it Which also is affirmed by the Iewish Doctors of the dividing of the waters of Iordan to make the like safe passage for them into the promised land the land of Canaan The like saith Peter Martyr a learned Protestant touching the raysing of the Syrians from before Samaria when the Lord made them hear the noise of Cariots and the noise of horse-men that it was ministerio Angelorum effected by the ministery of the holy Angels whom God imployed in saving that distressed people from the hands of their enemies And by an Angel or at least an angelical vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a dream or Oracle delivered to them in their sleep as Eusebius telleth us did he forwarne the Christians dwelling in the land of Palestine to remove thence to Pella a small town of Syria and so preserved them from the spoyle and fury of the Roman Armies This was Gods way of preservation in the times before us and it is his way of preservation in all ages since GOD is the same God now as then his holy Angels no lesse diligent in their attendance on us then they have been formerly Let us but make our selves by our faith and piety worthy to be accounted the Sons of God and the heires of salvation and doubt we not of the assistance of these ministring spirits in all essaies of personall or publick dangers T is true the apparitions of the Angels in these late times have been very rare not many instances to be found in our choycest Histories But then it is as true withall one of the most eternall truths of holy Scripture that the Angel of the Lord encampeth about all them that fear him and delivereth them Whether we see or see them not it comes all to one and so resolved by Clemens of Alexandria an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord saith he doth still preserve us by the ministery of his holy Angels though we behold them not in any visible shape as the antients did And to say truth this general protection of the Angels is a point so clear so undeniable in true Divinity that he must needs renounce the Scripture which makes question of it Some difference indeed hath been about Angel-gardians and the particular protection which we have from them to whom God hath committed the tuition of our severall persons And yet even this if we make Scripture to be judge according to the exposition of the antient Writers will prove a point as clear and as undeniable as that of the protection which we have in general For Origen who lived in the third century from our Saviours birth reckoneth it for a tenet of undoubted truth and generally imbraced in the Christian Church long before his time that all Gods children from their birth or at least their Baptisme had their angel-keepers Lactantius speaks more generally as of all mankind Ad tutelam generis humani misit Angelos though possibly he might mean no otherwise then did the other Catholick writers of the times he lived in and those who followed close in the age succeeding St. Basil in Psal. 33. and Psal. 58. St. Chrysost. on the 18. of Matthew The Authour of the Imperfect work Hom. 40. Theodoret in l. 5. divinorum Decretorum do
did begin so he hath continued there being almost no sin committed which he tempts not to For though it be possible enough that men may sin without the temptation of the Devil by reason of the infirmity of the flesh and the concupiscences of several lusts which they bear about them yet commonly the Devil hath a part in all temptations and either findeth matter in us to work upon or stirreth up the dead seeds of sin which do lie raked up in our hearts like embers or fire in ashes For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications theâ—is and the like foul acts as Christ himself hath told us in S. Matthews Gospel And every one is tempted as St. Iames affirmeth when he is inticed and drawn aside of his own concupiscence So that the matter of sin lieth within our selves the Devil doth but actuate and inform that matter and reduce the powers thereof into overt act co-operating to the sin but causing directly the temptation Between the temptation of the Devil and the act of sin there must go a consent of heart and an inclining of the will to the sin presented and this is mans own act who is free to evil and is not necessitatâ—d to consent to the evil motion the over-ruling of mans will being Gods Prerogative though possibly he have not present grace enough to foil the temptation The Devil may present to us such a pleasant object though under other notions then that of sin which he knows like enough to work on our humane frailty and work upon us as he doth by all subtile suggestions to consent unto it And though he cannot force us unto such consent yet in regard he seldom faileth by his cunning practises of gaining that consent which he cannot force not only the temptation but the sin it self is often times ascribed unto him in the holy Scripture Thus it is said that Satan provoked David to number Israel 1 Chron. 21.1 that the Devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master Ioh. 13.2 that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie against the holy Ghost Act. 5.3 And in the same respects it is that he is so often called the Tempter as Matth. 4.3 1 Thes. 3.5 And the Apostle speaking unto married people adviseth them not to be long asunder but to come together again that Satan tempt them not for their incontinency 1 Cor. 7.5 Upon this diligence of Satan to tempt men to sin and his well husbanding of all advantages which are presented to him to promote that work it was not only the opinion of some learned Gentiles but of some of the antient Christians also that every man had his evil Angel which did continually attend upon him to tempt him to the works of sin and the deeds of darkness For the Christians Cassianus telleth us quod unicuique nostrum duo cohaereant Angeli i. e. bonus malus that is to say that unto every one of us there adheres two Angels a good and an evil For the good Angel he brings proof indeed from the holy Scripture but for the adhaesion of the evil Angel he relyeth principally on the Book called Pastor which always counted an Apocryphal book in the judgement of the Catholick Church makes me suspect the Tenet for Apocryphal also And yet some think that St. Paul doth allude unto this opinion where he telleth us of an Angelus Satanae that lay heavy on him a messenger of Satan as our English reads it which was given to buffet him But for the Gentiles it is clear that they so opined Lactantius reporting it as their opinion quod singulis hominibus adhaereant that every one had his Daemon or his evil Angel attending on him whom they worshipped by the name of their proper Genii And for his general affirmation I consent unto him In his particular proof I must needs dissent For amongst others of his proofs he hath that of Socrates qui circa se assiduum Daemona Ioquebatur qui sibi puero adhaesisset cujus arbitrio nutu vitae 〈◊〉 regereâ—ur who used to speak of a certain Daemon who was always about him and had accompanyed him from his childhood by whose direction and appointment his whole life was ordered The same Tertullian telleth us of him Apologet. c. 37. and Minutius Felix in his Dialogue But notwithstanding the authority of these learned men I rather think that this Angel whom they call Daemonium was his Angel-Guardian then any of the damned and malignant crew such as were properly called Daemons the life of Socrates being too full of moral vertue to be directed by the counsels of an evil Angel For though I cannot grant as before I said that every man how wicked and unjust soever whether he be Iew or Gentile Turk or Infidel hath his Angel-Guardian which is the now received opinion of the Roman Schools yet that few selected ones among the Gentiles such as Socrates was who led their lives according to the Rules of Vertue and died as he did in defence of the only God against those many Idols which the Heathen worshipped might by Gods special grace have their Angel-Guardians I am not willing to deny And now I am fallen upon these Daemons I must take notice of another of the Devils practises which did as much promote his Kingdom of darkness as any temptation unto sin of what kinde soever I mean the raising of these Daemons into the rank and reputation of Celestial Deities and speaking by them in the mouths of the Heathen Oracles For by this means they gained on earth what they lost in Heaven and though they could not make themselves equal to God in power and greatness while they continued in the Heavens yet they found ways to be adored as God by poor ignorant people whose souls they had seduced to that wretched blindeness Of these Lactantius telleth us that they were called Daemones i. e peritos rerum scios from their general knowledge which the word Daemon doth import in the Greek Original that they had a Soveraign Prince amongst them whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Prince of Devils that counterfeiting first the persons of deceased Kings they aim to be worshipped in their Statua's and became so impudent at last Vt Dei nomen sibi deorum cultum vendicabant that they challenged to themselves the name of God and the divine worship which of right did belong unto it And to train up the people in this blinde Idolatry having first taught them to adore the images of some famous men whom they had caused to be entituled by the name of Deities sub statuis imaginibus consecratis delitescunt they shrouded themselves within their consecrated shrines and Images and from thence gave out Oracles touching things to come and sometimes so possessed the breasts of their Priests and Votaries that they did seem to be inspired with
in other things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is the end of the Law saith he because the justifiâ—ation of man which the Law undertook but could not accomplish was perfected and made good by Christ. And secondly both Christ may be said to be the end of the Law and the Law to bring men unto Christ because as Musculus well observeth the Law convincing men of sin exacting a righteousnesse of them which it doth not enable them to performe and again threatning and condemning them for the want thereof Nihil aliud agit quam quod ad Christum ducit per quem justificemur gratis doth lead them as it were by the hand to Christ by whose grace they are freely justifyed In a word our Saviour Christ is said to be the end of the Law and the Law to be a School-master to bring men to Christ because the whole Mosaical oeconomie which in one word is called The Law was for that end and purpose given unto the Iewes that it might instruct them touching the Messiah who was then to come and that in time they might be trained up and prepared to receive him and with him that more perfect forme of life and worship which he should establish at his coming And this is that which was intended by the Writers of the Primitive times when they tell us that the Law was nothing else but the Gospel masked the Gospel nothing else but the Law revealed or the vail taken away from the face of Moses Such passages in the books of the old Testament which relate to Christ before his coming in the flesh were so dark and difficult that those who were well exercised in the law of God and made it their study day and night might very well have asked this question as the Eunuch did Of whom I pray thee speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man But when the Gospel came to be preached and published and that our Saviour had fulfilled all things which were spoken of him by the Prophets then was it easie to discern even by vulgar wits that the whole doctrine of the Gospel was contained in the Law and every thing concerning Christ either fore-shadowed or fore-signifyed in Types and Prophesies To bring this business to an end that both the Patriarchs and the Iews did rely on God for the accomplishment of his promise touching their salvation I do nothing doubt there being such evident testimonies of it from the first to the last I have waited for thy salvation O Lord saith the Patriarch Iacob long before the Law And almost at the expiration or last breath thereof it is said of Simeon that he waited for the consolation of Israel of Anna the old Prophetesse that she spake of CHRIST to all them that looked for redemption in Hierusalem but that they were acquainted with the means and method which God did purpose to make use of in so great a work or did rely on Christ to come for their justification as the Scripture no where saith it for ought I can finde so is there no reason to believe it for ought I can see What then perhaps will some men say had the Iews no advantages of their neighbouring Nations in matters which pertained to eternal life Yes certainly much every way For to the Israelites saith St. Paul pertained the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the Promises Theirs also were the Fathers and of them according to the flesh was Christ to come The Psalmist hath contracted these prerogatives of the house of Israel into somewhat a more narrow compasse He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and ordinances unto Israel And then he addes He hath not dealt so with any Nations neither have the Heathen knowledge of his lawes Here was Prerogative enough the communion of his word the publication of his Law the Covenant made with those of the seed of Abraham and thereby their Adoption to eternal life and most unquestionably true it must be thought that there was no Nation under heaven to whom the ordinary means of salvation had been offered with so free an hand as it been to those of Iudah But yet the Psalmist doth not say that God was known only amongst the Iews or that he had not revealed so much of himself unto other Nations as to let them have a tast of his love and goodness or that he had not left them any knowledge of his Law at all for their directions in the way of life and godlyness For first besides the light of nature whith is given to every man that comes into the world and by the which the most barbarous people are instructed that there is a God they could not choose but know him in his very workes The heavens declaring the glory of God and the firmament shewing his handy-work as the Psalmist hath it His power and goodness they had tasted in their severall times in that he gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filled their hearts with food and gladness as the Apostle pleaded it to them of Lystra And for the Law the Apostle telleth us this expresly that the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law and having not the Law are a Law to themselves which shewes the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But yet they had not such a knowledge either of God himself or the Law of God or any such ordinary outward means to attain the same as God had given at the same time to the house of Israel For they not only had the Law in writing which the Gentiles had not but they had the writings of the Prophets as a comment on it and more then so an ordinance or command from the Lord himself for the publick reading of the Law before them once in every year that they might hear and learn and fear the Lord their God and observe all the things of the Law to do them Greater advantages then these could no people have to bring them up in the assurance of eternal life which if all of them did not attain unto they had no reason to complain that God had been wanting unto them for what could he have done to his vineyard which he did not do but that they were wanting to themselves and made no profit by the Talent which the Lord had given them Reperies eos prius deseruisse quam desertos esse as in another case but of the same people said the Christian Advocate Yet notwithstanding the advantages which this people had the Gentiles were not left so destitute of all outward means to bring them to the knowledge of God as to be capable of excuse in their sins and wickedness though
this objection she might make not out of any disbelief of the Angels words for being then as faulty as old Zachary was she had been as punishable since God is no respecter of persons nor that she had vowed chastity as the Papists say and Gregory Nyssen doth report from an unknown Author whose history he doth confess to be Apocryphal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are for then she had done very ill to betroth herself unto an husband the vow of Chastity being inconsistent with the state of Matrimony But this she did because the Angel seemed to speak of her Conception as a thing instantly to be done and then in fieri at the least as Logicians phrase it and she though then betrothed to Ioseph was a Virgin still for the Text saith it was before they came together and more then so there was perhaps some part of the time remaining which usually intervened amongst the Iews betwixt the first Espousals and the consummation of the marriage But this bar was easily removed For it followeth that the Angel answered and said The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee The holy Ghost shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it that is to say the holy Ghost shall fall upon thee like rain into a fleece of wooll or like the dew of heaven upon a barren and thirstie land where no moisture is and make thee no less fruitful without help of man then was the Virgin Earth in its first integrity when no outward or extrinsecal moysture had yet fallen upon it but that there went up a mist only out of the very bowels thereof and watered the whole face of the ground And the power of the most High shall overshadow thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek and cover thee with the wings of his quickning virtue as the Hen doth Egges when she brings forth young To make this matter plainer yet we shall illustrate it by two Texts of holy Scripture equal to this both in the wonder and the agent In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And in the second of the same Book we read that God created man out of the dust of the earth vers 7. In each of these there is a subject some matter such as it was to be wrought upon that confused mixture of Earth and waters to be disposed into a world the dust and Atoms of that world to be contrived into a man The fashioning and accomplishment of which great works both of them seeming as impossible to sense and reason as the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb is in the Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost The Spirit of God saith Moses moved upon the face of the waters Hence the digestion of that matter fashioned into that goodly fabrick of Heaven and Earth which we so visibly behold with such admiration God breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae from whence the Animation and soul of man This action then ascribed unto the holy Ghost which St. Luke calleth a supervenience or a coming upon and an obumbration or over-shadowing is likely to have been much of the same nature with that of moving in the first and that of breathing in the 2. of Genesis Gods Spirit as it breatheth where it listeth so can it quicken where it pleaseth Some there have been if Maldonate do report them rightly Qui turpe aliquid hoc loco somniant who have made some impure construction of this holy Text most impudently affirming Spiritum sanctum ad modum viri cum Maria concubuisse I abhor to English it but who they were he either was afraid or ashamed to tell us No doubt but they were some of the Romish party For had such a blasphemous and ungodly saying dropped from the mouth or pen of a Protestant all Christendome had been told of his name and Nation And therefore certainly this quidam whom he spares to name must be some such good fellow of the Catholick faction as Fryer Albert of the frock as they use to call him Of whom I remember I have read in some of their Authors that being a great Votary of the blessed Virgins she appeared nightly to him in her bodily shape espoused her self to him by a ring and suffered himself to converse with her in familiar manner Insomuch as he might say in the Poets language Contrectatque sinus forsitan oseula jungit He dallied with her Paps And kissed her too perhaps But I do ill to mingle these impurities with this sacred argument if the unmasking of the obscoenities of those great Professors of vowed chastity do not plead my pardon And yet I cannot choose but adde that these lazy lives of some of the Monks and Fryers have carryed them so far into spiritual fornications or rather into contemplative lusts that many of them have fancied to themselves such unclean commixtures as that of Fryer Albert with the blessed Virgin To what end else served those large Faculties which were given unto Tekelius a Dominican Fryer when he was sent to publish the pardons or Indulgences of Pope Leo the tenth in the upper Germany Who spared not to affirm even in common Alehouses that by his Buls he had authority to absolve any man whatsoever Etiamsi Virginem matrem vitiaverit though he had vitiated or deflowred the Virgin Mother as Sleidan tels the storie in his book of Commentaries I know that in the later Editions of this Author as in that of Colen printed An. .... the words are changed to Virginem aut matrein a maid or a mother and so to mend the matter they have marred the sense For what need such large faculties as Tekelius bragged of for pardoning fornication or Adultery for the deflowring of a Virgin or lying with another mans wife which every ordinary Priest can absolve of course Besides in the first Edition of that Author printed at ..... An. .... it is plainly Virginem Matrem the Virgin Mother And so 't is in an old English Translation of him printed at London and la Veirge Mere as plainly in a French Translation printed at Geneva An. 1574. Marvail it is that Maldonate hath not undergone the like castigation whose Quidam whatsoever he was offended more against the Majesty of the holy Ghost then Tekel did save that the Popes authority was concerned in it against the modesty and piety of the Virgin Mary To return therefore where I left as I abominate the impieties of these Romish Votaries so neither can I approve the conceit of Estius though otherwise a very learned and sound Expositor of holy Scripture where the interest of the Church of Rome
is not concerned who by the power of the most High understands here the very person of God the Son and by this over-shadowing of the blessed Virgin his voluntary Incarnation in her sanctified womb His words are these Per virtutem Altissimi intelligi ipsum Dei Filium qui est virtus brachium potentia Patris quique obumbraturus significatur Virginem illapsu suo in uterum Virginis per occultum Incarnationis mysterium But by his leave I cannot herein yeild unto his opinion though Chrysostom and Gregory for the antient Writers Beda and Damascene for the Authors of the middle times do seem to contenance it For not St. Augustine only as himself confesseth and Euthymius a good writer also are against him in it but the plain text and context of the holy Scripture which makes the quickning of the womb of this blessed Virgin to be the work only of one Agent though it be expressed by different titles Nor are such repetitions strange or extraordinary in the Book of God nor can it give any colour to distinguish the power of the most High from the holy Ghost as if they were two different Agents unless we can distinguish the Lord our God from him that dweleth in the Heavens because we finde them both together in the 2. Psalm He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision And though it cannot be denyed but that the Son of God is the very power and strength of his Father yet himself doth give this very name of power to the holy Ghost For when he commanded the Apostles to abide in the City of Hierusalem donec induantur virtute ex alto i. e. until they were â—ndued with power from on high what else did he intend thereby but that they should continue there until they were endued with the holy Ghost Of which see Act. 2.4 Besides if this opinion should be once admitted we must exclude the holy Ghâ—st from having any thing to do in so great a mysterie and so not only bring the Creed under an Expurgatorius Index but the Scripture too Letting this therefore stand for a truth undeniable that the over-shadowing as the Text calleth it of the blessed Virgin was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost let us next see whether the nature of the miracle be not agreeable to the operatioâ—s of the holy Spirit or such as may not be admitted for a truth undoubted by equal and indifferent men though they be not Christians nor take it up upon the credit of the Word of God And first that of it self it is agreeable to the operations of the Spirit the course of his Divine power in the works of nature doth expresly manifest For as in the spiritual regeneration though it be Paul that planteth and Apollo that watereth yet it is God who gives the increase without whose blessing on their labours their labours will prove fruitless and ineffectual so also in the act of carnal generation though the man and woman do their parts for the pro creation of children yet if the quickning Spirit of God do not bless them in it and stir up the emplastick virtue of the natural seed they may go childless to their graves It is the Spirit which quickneth what the womb doth breed And therefore in my minde Lactantius noted very well Hominem non Patrem esse sed generandi Ministrum that man was nothing but the instrument which the Lord did use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that goodly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children It is the Spirit of God as the Scripture tels us which first gave form unto the world from whence that known passage of the Poet Spiritus intus alit had its first Original of which we have made use in our former book And if the chief work or rather the principal part in the work of nature in the ordinary course of Generation and first production of the Word may be ascribed as most undoubtedly it must unto the powerful influence of this quickning Spirit with how much more assurance may he be entituled to the Incarnation of the Word to which one sex only did contribute and that the weakest without the mutual help and co-operation of the seed of man Nor is the greatness of the Miracle so beyond belief but that there is sufficient in the holy Scripture to convince the Iew and in the writings of the Poets to perswade the Gentiles to the admission of this truth and consequently to confirm all good Christians in it Out of the Virgin-Earth did God first make Adam and out of Virgin Adam he created Eve Adam first made without the help of man or woman and Eve made after out of Adam who had no wife but this which was made out of him Why might not then the blessed Virgin be as capable of conceiving a Son by the sole power and influence of the holy Ghost without help of man as Adam was of being Father unto Eve by the self same power without the use of a woman Without a Mother Eve without Father CHRIST Adam without both Father and Mother but all the handy-work of God by the holy Spirit Equivalent in effect to the creation of Adam and the production of Eve was the birth of Isaac conceived by Sarah when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women by consequence as indisposed to the act of conception as if she had been still a Virgin or which is more then that under years of marriage The strength that Sarah had to bring forth that Son was not natural to her for she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the age of childe-bearing as the Text informs us but a strength supernatural given from God on high and therefore called a received strength she received strength to conceive seed Heb. 11.11 because not naturally her own but received extraordinarily from God As Isaac was in many things a Type of CHRIST so in no one thing more exactly then that he was the only Son or the dearly beloved Son of his Father begotten on a woman past the time of her age whose dead womb could not but by such a miracle be revived again To this the Iews most cheerfully do give assent boasting themselves to be the children of Abraham by this very venter What reason have they then not to yeild to this but that they resolved not to yeild to reason Next for the Gentiles do we not finde it in their Poets that Venus was ingendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth and influence of the Sun that Pallas issued from Ioves brain and Bacchus from the thigh of Iupiter Do we not read that most of their Heroes so much famed of old were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures as Hercules on Alcmena by Iupiter Phaeton on Clymene by Phoebus and Paâ—
general rule but hath some exceptions so this hath one exception and but only one there being one only place in the new Testament where Hades is translated otherwise in the vulgar Latine that namely 1 Cor. 15.55 where it is rendred mors or death Of which no reason can be given unlesse perhaps he fell upon some such Greek copies as Eusebius did wherein the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was twice repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. O death where is thy sting O death where is thy victory To which I do incline the rather because the reading of the Latine is exceeding antient ubi est mors aculeus tuus ubi est mors contentio tua where we finde also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. strife for victory occurring in Tertullian Cyprian and others of the antient writers So that the word Hades being used throughout the whole new Testament to signifie the place of torments and inferi or infernus by the old Latine translatour to expresse that word it must needs be that inferi and infernus throughout the Testament and with most Ecclesiastical Authors since the translating of it must signifie the self-same place which we English usually call the name of Hell These things premised we shall the better be inabled to discern what the meaning is of Christs descent into hell whether the words import any local descent or only something analogical and proportionable to it That the Apostles and Evangelists did first commit the sacred monuments of the faith which they left behind them to the Greek tongue as being then of an extent more universall then that of the Romans and the Iews is a thing past question unlesse perhaps St. Matthews Gospel was first written in the Hebrew language as St. Ierome and some other learned men have been of opinion And therefore it is more then probable that they delivered this brief Abstract of the Christian faith which we call the Creed in the same tongue also in which they did communicate those Oracles of eternal life Which granted as I think no question will be made thereof what else can follow thereupon but that the word Hades in the Creed must be taken in the self-same sense in which we finde it generally used not one place excepted in the whole new Testament those very men whose writings make up a great part of the said new Testament contributing their severall Articles to make up the Creed And then what else can be supposed to be the meaning of Christs descent into hell but that he locally went down which is the ordinary meaning of the word descend and went down to the place of torments which in the common course of speech is generally designed by the name of hell Or if the Creed were first compiled and published in the Latine tongue the same conclusion must needs follow from the former premisses the Latine inferi or infernus as before was proved signifying the very same with the Greek word Hades and that imparting nothing else according to the Ecclesiastical notion but the English Hell Besides the Apostles purposely intended this and whosoever else we shall please to think were the Authors of it did intend the same to lay down plainly and methodically according to the understanding of the vulgar sort that which they thought most fitting to comprise in this short Compendium Nor can it enter into the belief of any man endued with ordinary sense and reason that the Apostles having before made use of those vulgar phrases was crucifyed dead and buried in the literal sense which every Artizan and Ploughman nay even women and children could not but understand at the first hearing should then come in with a descent into hell not to be understood in a literal sense as the words usually import in common speech but in a meaning too abstruse and difficult for all vulgar wits beyond the reach of ordinary apprehensions Assuredly it was never the Apostles meaning that they for whose use principally they compiled the Creed and in whose language it was written which soever it was should not be able to conceive the true sense of their words without the help of a Lexicon or having diligent recourse unto the Criticks and Philosophers of their severall Languages But because Arguments of this nature may perhaps be said not to be demonstrative and that men will not readily let goe their hold-fast upon probabilities we will proceed another way and setch the truth of this assertion that Christ descended into hell in a literal sense from the authority and text of holy Scripture Most sure it is that there is nothing comprehended in the Creed but what is to be found in the book of God either in termes expresse as the greatest part of them are or else by necessary and undeniable consequence And both these wayes we doubt not but we shall be able to assert this Article First in the way of necessary undeniable consequence it may be pleaded from that place of St. Paul to the Romans where it is said The righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend up into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead For the expounding of which words we first take notice that the two interrogatives are equivalent to these general negatives none can ascend up into heaven none can descend into the deep And then the meaning will be this that if none can ascend to heaven nor descend down into the deep then not Christ himself which to affirme were plainly and directly contrary unto the righteousnesse of faith So that it is a main ground of the Christian faith that Christ descended into the deep and into such a deep as hath some proportion to his ascension into heaven which possibly can be no other then the deeps of hell And hereunto agree Interpreters both old and new For thus Theophylact Stagger not saith St. Paul nor cast this doubtingly in thy mind how Christ descended from heaven or how after death he arose from the deep again id est ex abditissimo profundissimo loco that is to say from the deepest and most hidden place And why was hell called Hades amongst the Greeks but quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dark hidden and unseen as before was said More plainly Mart. Bucer for the late writers thus The Apostle acknowledgeth this question to be a denial of Christ and that he draweth Christ down from heaven who admitteth this doubt It is evident that the deep is taken pro infernis Hell and in this sense the Apostle seemeth to use this word the deep for he addeth that is to bring back Christ from the dead to wit to account his descent to hell to be void and his victory over death and hell Gehenna of none effect So then
of death Why then do they denie it unto this of Christ Not because they did not think it possible but because they would not have it believed It stood not with their interesse and private ends to have it passe for currant with the common people Our Saviour Christ had been too diligent as they thought in the discharge of his great office in the discovery and anatomizing of their corruptions and impieties and they were loath to have his doctrine justifyed by so great a miracle Rather then so to save their superstitions they will lose themselves Non tam de suis Religionibus bene meriti quam de se male Now as the Iews believed the Scripture relating the occurrences of the ages past so gave they as full credit to them foretelling things which were to come which is our last sort of proofs delivered from the old Testament in the way of Prophecie And first we meet with that of David in the book of Psalmes viz. Thou shall not leave my soul in hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holy One to see corruption A priviledge which did not appertain at all to David who was dead and buried and had seen corruption his Sepulchre which continued till our Saviours time being nothing but a glorious emptinesse therefore by him or rather by the holy Spirit speaking in him intended to our Lord and Saviour the fruit and glorie of his loynes A matter in it self so clear and evident that when St. Peter pressed it home as a proof and evidence relating to the resurrection of the son of David those very Iews who had so wilfully cryed down this truth had nothing to oppose against it Thus also did Isaiah prophecie concerning him that the Lord would break him and make him subject to infirmities making his soul to be an offering for sin but yet withall that notwithstanding this he would prolong his dayes and the work of the Lord should prosper in his hands as the Iews could not but perceive that indeed it did But most exactly that of Hosea in whom we do not only finde the substance of this resurrection prophecied but the very Circumstances Come saith the Prophet Let us return unto the Lord for he hath spoyled us and he will heal us he hath wounded us and he will binde us up After two days will he revive us and the third day will he raise us up and we shall live in his sight A text so plain and evident to the present purpose though possibly entended by the Prophet of some speedy deliverance which by his mouth the Lord was pleased to promise to the house of Iudah that as it clearly doth foretell of a Resurrection so the accomplishment thereof in the man Christ Iesus might serve abundantly to convince the most stubborn Iew that it was principally meant and foretold of him Impleta in plerisque Prophetarum vaticinia c. The undeniable fulfilling of so many Scriptures might very well perswade men not possessed with prejudice first that our Saviour CRRIST did rise again according to the holy Scriptures and secondly that because he rose again according to the holy Scriptures that therefore he was CHRIST the Saviour We come next in order to this miracle not as foreshadowed in types or foretold in Prophecies or otherwise exemplifyed in the book of God but as accomplished in its time and left upon record in the Evangelists And here we will not beg the Iews to assent unto our Gospell but our proofs Themselves had seen our Saviour raise his dead friend Lazarus from the stench of the grave after he had been dead four days and began to putrifie They also knew as well as any of his own Disciples that he had formerly restored from death to life the widowes son of Naim and the daughter of Iairus How then can they denie him power to work the like miracle on himself At least why might not God be able to restore him unto the benefit of life again by whose ministery if not also power the benefit of life was restored to others True it is that had this mighty work of wonder been done in a corner or in some darke and solitary descent there might have been suspicion of imposture conceived against it But God well knew with what a wilfull generation he had to do what opposition he was like to finde in the promulgation of this Gospell For this cause as he made choice of a great and mighty City for the stage or Theatre whereon to act this work of wonder so did he also take a time in which that mighty City was most full and populous even the feast of the Passeover A time in which not only those which were Iews by birth resorted thither for the solemnizing of that festival but even such Proselytes of every nation under heaven as were daily added to the Covenant Once I am sure that Cestius a Roman President numbring the people which came thither to observe this Feast found them to be two millions and 700000 souls all clean and purifyed fit for the legall eating of the Paschal Lamb. God certainly had thus disposed it in his heavenly wisdome that so the tidings of the resurrection might with a swifter wing flie over all the parts of the world then known and with more ease prepare the people for salvation Which circumstance considered rightly as it ought to be were of it self sufficient to convince the Iews of a most obstinate incredulity who seeing could not choose but see yet would not perceive Ampla civitas ampla persona rem quaerentes latere non sinit as St. Austin hath it But the malice of that people will not so be satisfyed For when the Lord was risen as he had foretold them the Souldiers must first be corrupted to accuse the Disciples of Felonie and when that failed themselves are ever forwards to condemn them of folly The Lord had often signifyed unto them that the third day he would be raised from the dead that the Temple of his body should be destroyed and in three days built up again and they were resolute if strength and cunning could prevail to defeat him of the glory of his resurrection Upon this ground they had a warrant from the Governour to make sure the Sepulchre to place a watch about it and to seal the stone But when the dawning of the third day and the relation of the Souldiers had proclaimed the miracle they then gave money to the Souldiers to say and if need were to swear that his Disciples came by night and stole him away whilest they slept Dormientes testes adhibent as said St. Augustine of them in the way of scorne This is the most they have to trust to and this report as it seems clearly by the text did hold long amongst them but this if well considered is both false and foolish Never was accusation worse contrived then this For first
other on his left when he came to his Kingdome Sedere ad dextram alicujus est proximam ab eo dignitatem sedere autem ad sinistram secundum dignitatis locum obtinere as Estius states it very rightly So that by sitting at the right hand in the holy Scriptures we are to understand the next place of power and dignity to him upon whose right hand they are said to sit and intimates the same or the like authority as Pharaoh gave to Ioseph in the Book of Genesis when he made him ride in the second Chariot that he had constituted him the Ruler of al the land of Egypt But then this sitting at the right hand is to be understood as before I said of sitting at the right hand of great Princes only for it is otherwise with men of inferiour quality and that according to the custome of several Countries For antiently amongst the Romans when two only meâ— or sate together the more unworthy person sate or stood on the right hand of the other as Antonius Nebrissensis very well observeth The reason as I take it was because that in the rites of Augurie the flying or appearing of the birds of divination on the left hand did signifie good luck and prosperous success in their intendments Hence that of Tully A sinistra cornice ratum firmum Augurium fieri and that of the twelve Tables to the same effect Ave sinistra populi Magister estâ— And 't is the custome at this day in some parts of Italy for the more worthy person to go on the left hand of the other because thereby he is made master of the other mans sword But if there were more then two in company the best man always used to place himself in the midst that he might seeme to be protected on all sides from the hands of his enemies And this Minutius witnesseth in his elegant Dialogue where seating himself in the midst betwixt Octavius and Cecilius he said he did it to this end as the use then was ut me ex tribus medium ambitione lateris protegerent So Salust telleth us of Hiempsal that he placed himself on the right hand of Adherbal Ne medius ex tribus quod apud Numidas honori ducitur Jugurtha foret because he would not leave Jugurth in the middle place which in that Country was esteemed for the highest honour But leaving other Countries and inferior persons to their own customes and conditions certain it is that it was otherwise with great Princes and amongst the Iews in whose esteem the right hand was the better and more worthy place the sitting at the right hand of a Prince or Potentate accounted for the greatest favour How much an higher honour and a greater favour must it then be thought to sit on the right hand of God the Father Almighty the King of Kings and Lord of Lords from whom all Princes of the earth had received their Scepters Which honour that we may the better estimate and put no less a value then it ought to have we will consider in the next place what is meant by the Right hand of God and then proceed unto the honour done to our Lord and Saviour in his advancement to a place so great and glorious And first I take it for a thing granted by all Orthodox Christians that the word is not to be taken literally that God hath any hands either right or left That were to fall into the Heresie of the Anthropomorphites who because they found it written in the book of Genesis that God made man after his own Image would needs make God to be after the image of man and gave him hands and mouth and eyes and all other members But therein of the two the Heathen was the better Christian who told us ad divinam imaginem propius accedere humanam virtutem quam figuram that men resembled the Divine Image of God more then in their vertues then their making more in the endowments of the minde then in the structure of their bodies So that as often as we meet with such expressions in the Book of God we must conceive that God doth frame his speech unto our capacities and speaketh unto us after the manner of men that so we may the easier apprehend his meaning Which being premised once for all the right hand of God will be found to signifie either his power and dignity or his love and goodness That the right hand is the hand of strength will I think be granted And that it is the hand of love besides the ordinary form of salutation by taking and giving the right hand with those whom we affect most cordially is evident in holy Scripture For in the Old Testament the Patriarch Iacob called that son whom he loved most tenderly by the name of Benjamin that is the son of his right hand And the same Iacob when he intended to bestow the more excellent blessing on Ephraim Ioseph youngest son he laid his right hand upon his head and his left hand on the head of Manasseh which was the elder And this he did wittingly saith the Text to signifie that though Manasseh should become a great people yet that his younger brother should be greater then he Thus also in the New Testament we meet with dextra societatis the right hand of fellowship which the three chief Apostles gave to Paul and Barnabas Which whether it was to testifie by that outward sign the mutual correspondency and good consent which was between them or to establish the agreement then at that time made that Paul and Barnabas should preach the Gospel to the Heathen and the others unto those of the Circumcision is not much material though possibly it might be in both respects for the right hand was antiently aswell the pledge of truth and fidelity as of love and friendship the joyning of the right hands in the making of Leagues Iungamus foedera dextra as one Poet data dextera quondam as another hath it being of ordinary use amongst most Nations To bring this home unto our purpose the right hand being of it self and of common usage the hand of power and love the hand of friendship and fidelity it followeth that by the right hand of Almighty God we must mean some or all of these either his mighty power or his eminent goodness or his fidelity in performing of his word and promises That the right hand of God is used to denote his power is evident by many several passages in the Royal Psalmist The right hand of the Loud saith he hath the preheminence the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass And in another of the Psalms With his own right hand and with his holy arm hath he gotten to himself the victory Assuredly those victories and great acts he speaks of were all of them acheived by the power of God the right hand of the
eyes of his people did he establish him in the office of the high Priest saying Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech That so it was in his advancement to the throne of his father David shall be made evident in the course of these present Commentaries when we shall look upon him as invested with the regal power And that it was so in his establishment in the Sacerdotal shall be made evident by the testimony of the great Apostle whose words here presently ensue Christ saith he glorifyed not himself to be made the high Priest but he that said unto him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee did confer it on him As he saith also in another place Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech that is to say that from the day and moment of the resurrection at what time the fiâ—st of the two Prophecies were fulfilled which God delivered by the mouth of the Psalmist saying Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee was our Redeemer to begin the execution of the high Priests office after the order of Meschisedech And this appeares to be the meaning of the Apostle in the present place by the words ensuing For presently on the recitall of the words before recited viz. Thou art a Priest after the order of Melchisedech he addes of Christ that in the dayes of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death if he had so pleased But finding his Fathers resolution to the contrary he learned obedience though a Son by that which he suffered and finally that being perfect or rather consecrated for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth import most properly he was made the Authour of eternall salvation unto all those that obey him and was called or publickly declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech And to say truth had not the Scriptures been so clear in the proof hereof yet necessary consequence grounded upon comparing of one text with another and that applied according to the principles of natural reason would evince it for us The Priesthood of Melchiseâ—ech as the Scripture telleth us was an everlasting or eternall Priesthood Thou art a Priest for ever for no shorter term and therefore of necessity to be exercised and enjoyed by one who must be as eternal as the office is and yet a man and taken from amongst the Sons of men to offer gilts and sacrifices for the sins of the people But such our Saviour was not take him as a man though otherwise more qualifyed and prepared then any for so high an office untill he had so crushed and broken all the powers of death that death had now no longer title to him or dominion over him which doubtlesse was performed at the resurrection And therefore then and not before when all the ceremonies of his consecration were fulfilled in order did he begin to exercise the function of an endlesse everlasting Priesthood after the order of Melchisedech The order of Melchisedech that comes after next And touching that we will examine these three things 1. Who Melchisedech was 2. Wherein his high Priesthood did consist 3. In what the Parallel doth stand between Christ and him Concerning the first point who and what he was hath been a great dispute amongst learned men some thinking that he could not be a mortal man and therefore must needs be either the holy Ghost or else the Son of God then appearing to Abraham in the likenesse and similitude of an earthly Prince The last is most eagerly defended by P. Cunaeus a very learned man and a great Philosopher in his book de Republ. Hebraeorum The reason of this difficulty and his errour are those words of St. Paul where he describeth Melchisedech to be without father without mother without descent having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life And this thought he can be no other then the Son of God Others with greater probability both of proof and reason declare him to be Sem the third son of Noah out of whose loins our father Abraham was descended and this opinion hath found most acceptance generally amongst the learned though some of very eminent parts do opine the contrary But whether he were Sem or not or rather some petty King of the Land of Canaan who went forth to congratulate Abraham upon his returne they are much troubled to apply the negative character which St. Paul hath given us to any upon whom they desire to fasten The best and clearest resolution of the doubt which I yet have met with is that Meschisedech whosoever he was is said to be without father and mother in the same sense as he is after said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translators render without descent of which his being without father or mother is one branch or member And he is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. without genealogy and not without descent as our English reads because he hath no predecessour either father or mother amongst the rest of the Patriarks whose Genealogies are recorded in the book of God And in this sense as he is said to have no beginning of dayes because the time of his birth is no were remembred so is he also said to have no end of his life because neither the time of his death nor the succession of any after him in his two great offices is specifyed upon the Registers of sacred writ And yet if the Catena Arabica be of any credit we have heard more news of late touching this great man then hath been till of late made known in these Western parts For in their Marginal notes on the 10. of Genesis they say of Phaleg of whom we finde mention vers 25. And this Phaleg was the Father of Heraclim the Father of Melchisedech But in the Chapter going before his Generation is set down in this formal pedegree viz. Melchisedech was the son of Heraclim the son of Phaleg the son of Eber And his Mothers name was Salathiel the daughter of Gomer the son of Japhet the son of Noah And Heraclim the son of Eber maried his wife Salathiel and she was with child and brought forth a son and called his name Melchisedech that is the King of righteousnesse called also the King of Peace By this account Melchisedech was the sixth from Sem and Cousen german unto Serug who was Abrahams Grandfather and being of the linage and house of Sem might well confer that blessing on his Cousen Abraham which had been given to Sem by their father Noah And then one of the greatest arguments to prove Melâ—hisedech to be Sem that namely which is borrowed from the forme and manner of the blessing which he gave to Abraham will be answered easily And were this true as I can hardly reckon it
this blessed Spirit on the particular Members of his Congregation that is to say the joyning of the Saints together in an holy Communion the free remission of our sins in this present life resurrection of the body after death and the uniting again of Soul and Body unto life eternal This is the sum and method of the following Articles and these we shall pursue in their order beginning first with that of the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance I implore to guide me in the waies of Truth that so the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be alwayes acceptable in the sight of God the Lord my strength and my Redeemer But because the word or notion of the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various signification in the Book of God we will first look upon it in those significations and then conclude on that which is chiefly pertinent to the intent and purpose of the present Article For certainly the Orators Rule is both good and useful viz. Prius dividenda antequam definienda sit oratio That we must first distinguish of the Termes in all Propositions before we come unto a positive definition of them According to which Rule if we search the Scripture we shall there find that the Holy Ghost is first taken personaliter or essentialiter for the third person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity We find him in this sense in the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour as the principal Agent in that Work The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Luk. 1.35 And in his Baptism descending on him like a Dove to fit him and prepare him for the Prophetical Office he was then to exercise And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luk. 3.22 From which descent St. Peter telleth us that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and that from thenceforth he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil In the next place the Holy Ghost is used in Scripture to signifie the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit as in Act. 2. where it is said of the Apostles that they were all filled with the holy Ghost ver 4. not with his essence or his person but with the impressions of the Spirit the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost such as the Gift of Tongues mentioned in the following words The Gift of the Holy Ghost as it is called expresly Ver. 38. Thus read we also that the holy Ghost was given by the hands of Peter Act. 8.17 18. And by the hands of Paul Act. 19.6 In which we read that when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and Prophesied which last words are a commentary upon those before and shew that by the holy Ghost which did come upon them is meant the Gift of Tongues and the power of Prophecying both which the holy Ghost then conferred upon them And lastly it is taken not onely for the ability of doing Miracles as speaking with strange Tongues Prophecying curing of Diseases and the like to these but for the Authority and Power which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people As when Christ breathed on his Apostles and said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that is to say Receive ye an holy and spiritual power over the soules of men a part whereof consisteth in the remitting and retaining of sins mentioned in the words next following and serving as a Comment to explaine the former In which respect the Holy Ghost said unto certain of the Elders in the Church of Antioch Segregate mihi Barnabam Saulum Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 It is the Holy Ghost which cals it is his work to which they were called and therefore separate mihi separate to me may not unfitly be expounded to my Work and Ministery and consequently to the authority and power which belongs unto it Which being premised the meaning of the Article will in briefe be this That we beleeve not onely that there is such a person as the Holy Ghost in the Oeconomy of the blessed Trinity though that be principally intended but that he doth so distribute and dispose of his Gifts and Graces as most conduceth to the edification of the Church of Christ. But this I cannot couch in a clearer way as to the sense and doctrine of the Church of England than in the words of Bishop Iewel who doth thus expresse it Credimus spiritum sanctum qui est tertia persona in sacra Triadi illum verum esse Deum c. i. e. we beleeve that the Holy Ghost who is the Third Person in the holy Trinity is very God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding both from the Father and the Son by an unspeakable means and unknowne to man and that it is his property to mollifie and soften mans heart when he is once received thereinto either by the wholesome Preaching of the Gospel or by any other way that he doth give men light and guide them to the knowledge of God to the wayes of truth to newnesse of life and to everlasting hope of salvation This being the sum of that which is to be beleeved of the Holy Ghost both for his Person and his Office we will first look upon his Person on his Property or Office afterwards And yet before we come unto his Person I mean his Nature and his Essence We will first look a little on the quid Nominis the name by which he is expressed in the Book of God In the Original he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a double Article as Luk. 3.22 in Latine Spiritus sanctus or the Holy Spirit but generally in our English Idiom the Holy Ghost The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to breath and is the same with the Latine Spiro from whence comes Spiritus or the Spirit a name not given as I suppose because he doth proceed from the Father or the Son or both in the way of breathing though Christ be said to breath upon his Apostles when he said receive the Holy Ghost but because the breath being in it selfe an incorporeal substance and that which is the great preservative of all living creatures it got the name first of Spiritus vitae we read it in our English the breath of life Gen. 11.7 and afterwards came to be the name of all unbodyed incorporeal essences For thus is God said to be a Spirit God is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 The Angels are called Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 the Soule of man is called his Spirit let us cleanse our selves saith the Apostle from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit that is of the body and
16. And since it is not another thing to say The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and the Son than that he is or proceeds from the Father and the Son in this they seem to agree with us in eandem fidei sententiam on the same doctrine of Faith though they differ in words Thus also Rob. Grosthead the learned and renowned Bishop of Lincoln as he is cited by Scotus a famous Schoolman delivereth his opinion touching this great Controversie The Grecians saith he are of opinion that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Son but that he proceedeth not from the Son but from the Father onely yet by the Son which opinion seemeth to be contrary to ours But happily if two wise and understanding men the one of the Greek Church and the other of the Latine both lovers of the truth and not of their own expressions did meet to consider of this seeming contrariety it would in the end appear Ipsam contrarietatem non esse veraciter realem sicut est vocalis That the difference is not real but verbal onely Azorius the great Casuist goeth further yet and upon due examination of the state of the Question not onely freeth the Greeks from Heresie but from Schism also By consequence the Church of Rome hath run into the greater and more grievous error in condemning every Maundy Thursday in their Bulla Coenae the whole Eastern Churches which for ought any of her own more sober children are able to discern on deliberation are fully as Orthodox as her self in the truth of Doctrine and more agreeable to antiquity in their forms of Speech For if we please to look into the Antient Writers we shall finde Tertullian saying very positively Spiritum non aliunde quam à Patre per filium which is the very same with that of Damascen before delivered And Ierom though a stout maintainer of the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son also yet doth he sometimes fall upon this expression Spiritus à Patre egreditur propter naturae societatem à filio mittitur That he proceedeth from the Father and is sent by the Son which none of the Greek Church will deny But if we look upon the Fathers of the Eastern Churches we shall finde not onely private men as Basil Nazianzen Nyssen Cyril not to descend so low as Damascen to make no mention of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Son at all but a whole Synod of 180 Prelates gathered together in the second General Council at Constantinople to be silent in it though purposely assembled to suppress the Heresie of Macedonius who had denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost For in the Constantinopolitan Creed according as it stands in all old Records the Fathers having ratified the Nicene Creed added these words for the declaring of their Faith in the Holy Ghost viz. I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of Life who proceedeth from the Father who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets No word in this of his proceeding from the Son And though this Creed was afterwards continued in the Council of Ephesus yet so far was that Council from altering any thing which had been formerly delivered as to this paâ—ticular that it imposed a curse on those who should adde unto it And so it stood a long time in the Christian Church possessing that part in the Publick Liturgies which it still retaineth But in some tract of time some Spanish Bishops in the eighth Council of Toledo added the clause à filioque and made it to run thus in their publick Formulas who proceedeth from the Father and the Son The French not long after followed their example but still the Church of Rome adhered to the old expression Whereupon Charls the Great commanded a Council of his Prelates to be held at Aken Aquisgranum it is called in Latine to consider somewhat better of this addition and caused some of them to be sent to Pope Leo the third to have his opinion in the matter who was so far from giving any allowance unto the addition that he perswaded them to leave it out by little and little And nor content to give this Counsel unto them for fear lest the addition might creep in at Rome he caused the Constantinopolitan Creed to be fairly written out on a Table of Silver and placed it behinde the Altar of St. Peter to the end it might remain unto posterity as a lasting Monument of the true Faith which he professed The like distast did Iohn the eighth declare against this addition in a Letter by him written unto Photius Patriark of Constantinople in which he gives him to understand not onely that they had no such addition in the Church of Rome but that he did condemn them who were Authors of it adding withal That as he was careful for his part to cause all the Bishops of the West to be so perswaded of it as he was himself so that he did not think it reasonable that any should be violently constrained to leave out the addition But after in the yeer 883 Pope Nicholas the first caused this clause à filioque to be added also to the Creed in all the Churches under the Command and Jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome and from thence-forwards did they brand the Greek Churches with the brand of Heresie for not admitting that clause to the Antient Creeds which they themselves had added of their own Authority without the consent of the Eastern Churches or so much as the pretence of a General Council But as my Lord of Canterbury hath right well observed in his learned Answer unto Fisher It is an hard thing to adde and anathematize too And yet to that height of uncharitableness did they come at last that whereas it was the miserable fortune of Constantinople to be taken by the Turks upon Whitsunday being the Festival of the coming of the Holy Ghost this was given out to be a just judgment on them from the Almighty for thinking so erroneously of his Blessed Spirit as if it might not be concluded in as good form of Logick That sure the Knights of Rhodes had in their lives and actions denied Christ who bought them because that Town and all the Iland was taken by the Turks upon Christmas-day or that the People of Chios had denied and abnegated the Resurrection of our Saviour who redeemed them because that Town and therewith all the Iland also was taken by the said Turks upon Easter-day I have now done with so much of the present Article as relates unto the Person of the Holy Ghost which is the first signification of the term or notion as it is taken personaliter and essentialiter We must next look upon the word as it is used to signifie in the Book of God the gifts and graces of the
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
this plea as a sorry shift which onely seemed to be excogitated for the present pinch If any ask me Where the Church was before Luthers time I answer generally First That if the Church had failed in these North-west parts of the world as indeed it did not yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South the Greeks Nestorians Melchites Abassins with divers others with whom the first Reformers might have held communion though differing from them in some points of inferior moment And secondly I answer more particularly that our Church was before Luther where it hath been since in Germany France England Italy yea and Rome it self A sick Church then but since by Gods grace brought to more perfect health a corrupt Church then but since reformed of those particular abuses both in life and doctrine which seemed most offensive That the Church of Rome is a true Church though not the true Church no sober Protestant will deny Iunius grants it in his Book De Ecclesia cap. 19. and so doth Dr. Whitakers also Cont. 2. Qu. 3. cap. 2. as great an enemy as any of the Romish factions The like doth Dr. Raynolds in his fifth Thesis though he deny it as he might to be either the Catholick Church it self as they vainly boast or any found member of the same Nay even the very Separatists do not grutch them that as Francis Iohnson in his Treatise called A Christian Plea Printed 1627. pag. 123 c. A true Church in the verity of essence as the Church is a company of men which profess the Faith of Christ and are baptized into his Name but neither Orthodox in all points of doctrine nor sound or justifiable in all points of practise And a true Church in reference to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith which they maintain as constantly and defend as strongly against the several Hereticks and Sectaries of this present age as any Doctor of the Protestant or Reformed Churches though in the Superstructures they are faln aside from the received opinions of the Catholick Church A true Church too in which Salvation may be had for why should we deny the possibility of their salvation who have been the chief instruments of ours saith judicious Hooker by those especially who ignorantly follow their blinde guides and do not pertinaciously embrace any Popish error either against their Science or against their Conscience Of whom as of the greatest numbers in the Church of Christ we may very safely say with Augustine Coeteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit i. e. That amongst ordinary men it is not the vivacity of understanding but the simplicity of believing which makes them safe Of this Church were the Protestants Members before they did withdraw themselves from the errors of it before by this their separating from the errors of it they were schismatically expelled and thrust out of the communion of the Church of Rome by those which had the conduct of the affairs thereof in the beginning of that breach And from this Church do we of the Church of England derive immediately our interess in Christ by the door of Baptism the Body of the holy Scriptures the Hierarchy or Publick Government our Liturgy and Solemn Forms of Administration not as originally theirs but as derived to them from the Primitive times and by them transmitted unto us This Bristo doth acknowledge in his Book of Motives and this we think it no reproach unto our Religion to acknowledge also That Aphorism of King Iames of most famous memory deserving to be writ in Letters of Gold viz. That no Church under colour of Reformation for of that he speaketh ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony than she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Iesus Christ our Lord and Head And yet I know not how it hath come to pass but so it is that instead of reforming of an old Church which is all we did the building of a new Church will we nill we is by some Zelots of boâ—h sides obtruded on us Whereas the case if rightly stated is but like that of a sick and wounded man that had long lien weltering in his own blood or languishing under a tedious burden of diseases and afterwards by Gods great mercy and the skilful dâ—ligence of honest Chirurgions and Physitians is at the last restored to his former health No new man in this case created that is Gods sole privilege but the old man cured No new Church founded in the other that belongs to Christ but the old Reformed When Hezekiah purged the Temple and other godly Kings and Princes of the Land of Iudah did reform Religion as we know they did Neither did the one erect a new Temple or the others frame a new Religion but onely rectified in both what they found amiss And so it was also in the Reformation of the Church of Rome further than which we need not go to look where our Church was before Luthers time or to finde out that constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ which hath been hitherto the subject of this Disquisition But put the case the worst that may be and let it be supposed this once That the Church of Rome had so apostated from the Faith of Christ that it ceased to be a Church at all both in name and nature yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South all of them visible no doubt as they still continue which constantly maintained all those several Truths that had been banished and exploded in the Church of Rome For that the Vniversal Church should so fall away as to teach any doctrine contrary to the Faith and Gospel is plainly to the promise made by Christ our Saviour It is true indeed Christ hath not bound himself nor annexed his spirit so inseparably to a National or Provincial Church but that it may fall at last unto such desperate and dangerous Errors as finally may cut it off as an unsound Member from the residue of the Body Mystical The Candlestick may be removed as well out of any Church as from that of Ephesus if wilfully they put out the light which shined amongst them and so it is determined by the Church of England As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch hath erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith saith the Nineteenth Article But so it is not with the Universal the Body Collective of Gods people the Church essential nor can it be colourably inferred though it be the best Argument of Dr. Raynolds to evince his Thesis that because many of those who are outwardly called and some of the Elect themselves many of the Flock and some of the Pastors and that not
autem quem nihil latet omnium enim merita novit promerendum suffragatore non est opus sed mente devota Vbicunque enim talis ei loquutus fuerit respondebit illi that is to say We therefore have recourse to Kings by Lords and Courtiers because the King is but a man and knows not whom to trust with the Publick Government But to obtain the favor of God from whom nothing is hid for he knoweth what every man deserveth we need no other spokesman than a pious soul with which whosoever comes unto him shall graciously be both heard and answered by him In the next place We grant that in some cases as before is said some of the Saints do pray for some of us in particular but yet we do not think as the Papists do that there is any ordinary way to give them notice of our wants or make them privy unto our necessities If so then it is in vain for us to make our Prayers to them who can neither hear us nor know in any Ordinary way what we pray for to them And so far it is granted by the greatest Champions of the adverse party Si non cognoscant nostr◠orationes videtur otiosum supervacaneum ad ipsos orare saith their great Schoolman Fr. Suares Now that the Saints departed have no knowledge of our wants or wills conceive me still of any ordinary way of communication is evident by that passage in the Prophet Isaiah Abraham saith he is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledge us If so if Abraham himself to whom the promises were made and Israel the father of all the Tribes were ignorant of the affairs of that very people which descended from them what knowledge then should we conceive in the Saints departed after so many ages as have intervened since the death of most of them concerning us and our affairs who are so very strangers to their Blood and Families But lest perhaps it may be thought that the Communion of the Saints supplieth that defect or that the Saints of the New Testament are invested with a greater privilege than were the Patriarcks of the old It is assured us by St. Augustine that they know nothing of our actions or of our occasions Spiritus defunctorum non videre quaecunque eveniunt aut aguntur in ista vita hominum as that Father hath it More positive and particular is St. Ierome in it who speaking of Nepotianus hath this notable passage viz. Quicquid dixero quia ille non audit mutum videtur cum quo loqui non possumus de eo loquinon desinamus i. e. Whatsoever I shall speak doth but seem as dumb because Nepotian doth not hear me and therefore since I can no more speak with him I will be the longer in speaking of him And though the Fathers in their Funeral and Anniversary Orations which they made in honor of the Saints and at the Tombs of the Martyrs make many Rhetorical compellations of them and Apostrophes to them to which the Popish Invocation of Saints owes much of its Original as the learned Primate of Armagh very well observeth yet was it but with ifs and ands as in that of Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hear saith he O thou soul of renowned Constantine if thou have any sense or notion of these affairs And now at last the point is brought unto an issue By them of Rome it is supposed that there is knowledge in the Saints departed of all things hapning in the Earth that they take notice of our prayers are privy unto our necessities and therefore that it were a Solecism in the way of piety not to address unto them our Petitions We stand on the defensive part and so reply upon them with an Absque hoc Sans ceo no such matter verily Let them prove this and if they prove not this sufficiently then they prove just nothing and we will either be non-suted and acknowledge judgment or yeeld so far at lest unto them that though this praying unto Saints be the furthest way about yet we may think it possibly the next way home And first out of the Old Testament they produce Iacob and Moses to give in evidence on their side Reverend men against whom we shall not take exception Of Iacob it is said That in his Benediction of the sons of Ioseph he used these words And let my name be named on them or called on by them as the Margin of our last translation and the name of my Father Abraham and Isaac And Moses saith the Text besought the Lord his God and said Remember Abraham and Isaac and Jacob thy servants unto whom thou swarest by thine own self To both which Texts the one being but an Exemplification of the other onely this Answer is returned by Calvin Iudaeos patres suos ad ferendas sibi suppetias non implorasse c. That Moses and the sons of Ioseph and the other Iews did not in these and other places of this nature make any prayers to Abraham Isaac or Iacob but onely did desire of God to call to minde the Covenant he had made with them and in them to and with their whole posterity which though it satisfie very fully as to the objection yet we will go to work in another manner and against this and all the other Testimonies which they either have produced already or shall produce hereafter to the point in hand out of the Books of the Old Testament shall save unto our selves the benefit of exception exception not against their persons but against their evidence For in the opinion of the Papists the Patriarcks all of them were in Limbo Patrum before the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour in the retired and secret Caverns of the Earth debarred from all access to Almighty God from all commerce and traffick with us mortal men in as much want of Heavenly comforts as those by them supposed to be in Purgatory though in far less pain The truth or probability of this opinion I dispute not here having declared my self in that point already All that I shall from hence infer be it true or false is That according to their own Divinity the Fathers before Christs Resurrection could very ill sollicite the affairs of the Iews their children as being not till then admitted to the Court and presence of the Lord Almighty nor yet possessed though sure enough at last of their own felicities Bellarmine that great master of Controversies hath resolved it so Because saith he the Saints and other holy men who died before Christ came in the flesh did not enter into Heaven did not see God nor could by any Ordinary means understand the prayers of those who sued unto them therefore it was not used in the Old Testament to say Holy Abraham pray for me but men prayed by themselves for themselves to God and alleged the merits of the Saints
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said