say an apple cometh from the root by the branch yet the root and branch are not two principles The pool ariseth from the river and the river from the fountain but the water of the fountain river and pool are all one and the same The Father as the fountain begetteth the Son as the river The Father and the Son as the fountain with the river breathe forth the Holy Ghost as it were a pool yet their essence is one and the same The late Grecians are accused because they think that the Holy Ghost did not proceed from the Son neither will I contend very much to excuse them but if their doctrine were with moderation explained perhaps the difference between them and us may seem to be in words and not in the thing it self And if any urge us more morosely that it is no where said that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Son we will not contend about the word if he be granted to be the Spirit of the Son no less then of the Father and to be sent from the Son as from the Father which is all one in sense as to proceed Neither do I beleeve that the Grecians will deny this Certainly this procession is done in an unspeakable manner and how it may be done is not for us to search over-curiously The Spirit is said to be Holy because he is essentially holy when as the Angels are so by the grace of creation beleevers by the grace of adoption And again he is said to be Holy because he is the Author of true or perfect holiness he is a quickening Spirit because he is the efficient cause of spiritual life in our souls The body is dead without the soul and the soul is dead without the Spirit Let us say with David O Lord renew a right spirit within us Psal 51.10 and so the short third part of the Creed is briefly explained The fourth follows I beleeve the holy Catholick Church I beleeve the Church was is shall be and that I am a lively member thereof I beleeve not in the Church the affiance of the heart is to be directed onely to God This Church is a company of men that are called who do embrace the word of God and that rightly use the Sacrament The Church is called Ecclesia from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to call forth The convention or meeting of Citizens amongst the Athenians who were called forth by the Cryer from the rest of the company to hear the judgement of the Senate had that name given them answerable to which there are a company of the faithful amongst Christians who by the preaching of the word are called out of the kingdom of the devil to hear Gods will and pleasure The Church is called holy because it is sanctified by the most precious bloud of Jesus because by his merits it is purified through the word sacrament and faith and because it is taken up in the holy exercises of Divine worship and Christian charity They are not true members of the Church who abroad in the world shine in sanctity and at home abound in iniquity nor those who are like to the lascivious Monks whose body is in the Quire and their minde in their chamber of whom Innocentius said of old In the night they embrace venery and in the morning they adore the Virgin From outward sanctity we cannot necessarily conclude the inward holiness of the Church But beloved be you holy within and without To be Saints and seem so is good to seem and not to be such is worst of all Feigned sanctity is double iniquity saith S. Austin To proceed The Church is called Catholick that is Universal This word is not written in the Scriptures but after the times of the Apostles it began to be used The Church is so called because it is gathered out of all kinds of men throughout the whole world and because it doth profess and approve of the Catholick doctrine of the Prophets of Christ and of the Apostles by an unanimous consent So Catholick is the same with Orthodox and it is opposite to heretical as it was first of all opposed to the Arrian heresie and to others not judging aright of the Trinity And they were called Catholicks who did follow the true doctrine of the Divinity of Christ as it was expounded by the Nicene Council This signification of Catholick is the most principal one Where there is not an universality of the faith there the universality of time and place is of no avail If any one should say that the Church of Rome is Catholick in respect of place Object It is a contradiction in the adject Answ because all and one do not agree The Universal and Individual the whole and the part Neither is the Romish Church Catholick in respect of the doctrine of it because it is foully fallen from the faith and fosters most grievous errours Neither doth that make for it that it is called Catholick For it is not enough to be so called but to be such We are not to look what is done but what ought to be done The Pontificians are called Catholicks by us but either according to their own opinion or ironically even as they call us the Reformed But ours is the true Catholick Church because the doctrine thereof was declared by the Apostles throughout the whole world and because it is entertained and received by men of all sorts because it was proposed in all ages although not in a like degree and for that it is consonant and agreeable to Holy Writ Let others please themselves in the beautiful shell of a name we had rather obtain the kernel of the thing Hitherto concerning the Church now let us treat something of the Communion of Saints in the Church Communion is a relation between two or more having something common Saints are the members of the Church which are said to be holy either for the imputation of Christs righteousness or their begun conformity to the law or for their separation from the world The communion of Saints is the common possession and interest which the members of the Church have amongst themselves in Christ their Head and all his benefits and gifts This communion therefore consists First in the union of the members of the Church with their Head Christ which is not the subsistence of the body of Christ within our bodies but the inhabitation of the same Spirit And truly they are three yea four times blessed whose fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ concerning which Saint John speaketh in his first Epistle chap. 1. verse 3. Good God what a noble association is this What is more desireable in this life then to have perfect amity with God the Father and Christ by faith by hope by reciprocal love by mutual colloquies obsequiousness joy by the communication of good things as it is between a father and an adopted son between the bridegroom and the
sinner as the selling of Joseph or the crucifying of Christ We answer that this is done in a diverse respect it is attributed to the sinner as it is an evil work but to God as it is a good one This is the reason of that common simile of a hors-man riding on a lame horse its halting or lameness proceeds not from the hors-man but from the horse it self Joseph's brethren sold him out of malice God permitted this out of mercy lest he should have been slain for his own glory and for the great advantage and profit of his servant The Jews crucified Christ out of ill-will God the Father permitted this out of his greatest good will towards men Judas betrayed Christ out of covetousness our heavenly Father out of love They err who affirm that God doth incline and force the will of the wicked to commit great and grievous sins to have formed man in his mothers womb with a perversness of nature and a necessity of sinning or to this end to have created Esau to lead a wicked life or to move a thief to kill the innocent and him that is not prepared to die This is most certain that God doth not approve of wickedness neither is he the cause of it yet all things subject themselves to his providence all his creatures rational or irrational all events good or evil But his principal care is of his elect His providence in respect of them is most special We should do well therefore to be patient in adversity thankful in prosperity and hope for the future For our God is omnipotent good and true Hitherto of the first part of the Creed the second follows which is concerning faith in Christ in these words And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord c. The second Person is true God not mere man otherwise he were not the object of our faith He is called Jesus in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Saviour because he saveth his people Jeschuah Jehoscuah Matth. 1.21 This name JESUS is honey in the mouth melody in the ear a jubile or rejoycing in the heart Others have had this name Joshua a Captain or Leader and Joshua the High Priest But they by the imposition of men Jesus by the denunciation of an Angel Those were saviours by a figure and typically but Jesus truly and in his own nature They brought corporal good things and Jesus spiritual They were ministers or servants He the Master Jesus is a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superlatively He alone saveth excluding the creatures There is no other name given under heaven whereby they may be saved Acts 4.12 He saveth from the evil of sin and from the evil of punishment the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth let therefore every faithful soul rejoyce and say O Jesu be thou to me a Jesus or Saviour Secondly our Mediator is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unctus anointed à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo to anoint but in Hebrew he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as he hath his Hebrew name Jeschuah Maschiach because he was to be the Saviour of the Jews so he hath his Greek name Christ because he was to be the Saviour of the Greeks that is of the Gentiles and other nations for all the Gentiles were called Grecians as S. Epist 200. Austin saith because from the time of Alexander the Great the Greeks having the rule almost over all nations did propagate their tongue together with their Empire As the Prophets Priests and Kings were wont to be anointed so likewise Christ was anointed although not in regard of the signe outwardly and ceremonially yet in respect of the thing signified inwardly and really He was anointed because he was ordained to the office of a Mediator and endued with gifts for the accomplishing of the same work of this duty The bestowing of gifts was in reference to his humane nature the ordination to his office was according to either nature Christ was anointed to be a Prophet and a Teacher who should make known the will of his Father to be a High Priest and a Priest that by the sacrifice of his body he might redeem us and that he might always intercede for us to be a King that he might guide us by his word and Spirit This is our duty then that by the odour of his ointments we should run after him Draw thou us O Lord Jesus and we shall run after thee From Christ we are called Christians and this name was first given them at Antioch Act. 11.26 Of his fulness we have all received and he hath made us kings and priests to God our Father We are kings that we should fight against Satan the world yea and against our selves Fortior est qui se quà m qui fortissima vincit He 's stronger that subdues himself by far Then he that conquers greatest walls by war We are Priests that we may sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise prayer contrition alms righteousness and in fine serve him in all things appertaining to a Christian life We are Prophets that we may know God and knowing him we may truly profess him that we may be Christians not onely in outward profession but also by inward communion that we may be members of the Church not onely in appearance but also in reality and truth As for the remaining titles of our Mediator He is next of all called the Son of God He was his Son according to the Divine nature being light of light and God of God And according to the humane nature after the common manner in respect of creation and after a special manner in respect of conception The Son is the onely begotten for he hath no brethren according to eternal generation nor according to his extraordinary conception yet the elect are called Christs brethren by reason of the Fathers adoption and likeness of humane nature for their liberality charity and for some kinde of conformity they have with Christ Besides our Mediator is called Lord. Lord was a title of the Emperours so high that Cesar Augustus would not be so called as Dio and Tertullian testifie deeming himself to be unworthy of so great a name It seems he did this by Divine instinct that that glorious Title being untouch'd might remain to the onely Son of God The King of kings and Lord of lords who straight after came into the world But at this time the Turks call their Emperour the great Lord and the Tartarians Persians and others of the East countrey Sultan that is Lord. Jesus is our Lord by right of creation because all things were made by him Col. 1.16 by right of redemption which we have through his bloud Col. 1.14 By right of principality for he is the head of all principality and power Col. 2.10 By right of preserving his unto salvation for he giveth life eternal to his sheep Joh. 10.28
reason of the justice of God Sin is an offence or injuring of him who is mans Summum bonum or highest good and therefore to be expiated by the greatest punishment he therefore that was our surety was to taste of death by reason of the truth of God who spake concerning the fruit of the forbidden tree in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 It behoved Christ to die for the fulfilling of the prophesies and by reason of the prediction of Christ himself concerning his death Joh. 12.33 For the confirmation of the Testament of his grace which was to be performed by the death of the Son of God Heb. 9.6 From the death of Christ as it were out of a fountain floweth our redemption hence primarily is justification Rom. 8.34 hence regeneration or the restauration of corrupt nature our old man is destroyed by the power of Christs death and sanctification is obtained the death of Christ doth much weaken original sin in a Christian and although the death of Christ be past yet to this present time it doth mortifie our sins because its vertue and efficacy endureth for ever If so be that we apply this universal remedy of the heavenly chief Physician to our hearts Let us therefore with the Apostle exult for joy and say a Mors mortis morti mortem mors morte redemit O death where is thy sting c. 1 Cor. 15.55 This bondage of death Jesus undertook that he might procure unto us the liberty of eternal life True real death seiz'd upon him that we might attain to true life saith S. Ambrose But if Christ died for us Object why then must we die Answ We answer Our death is no satisfaction for sins but an admonition to us of the reliques of sin inherent in us a cleansing us from them and a passage into eternal life Holiness is the end of our redemption let us not then indulge our selves in pleasures The most sweet Jesus vouchsafed to die for our sins and because of this his unspeakable love we should rather choose to die then to rush into sin But oh the misery of it most holy Jesu how few mortals are so affected with sorrow for the dolours of thy death that they love holiness of life and piety Christ laid down his life for his friends yea for his enemies let us in like manner love others if occasion require which thing the most holy Apostle S. John urgeth in his 1 epist ch 3. v. 16. This love is heartily to be wished but can hardly be expected from a sort of men too too cruel To conclude death to beleevers is nothing but a disguised thing to scare them let us therefore be faithful unto death and not afraid to die Hitherto of the death of Christ his burial follows The bodies of the dead ought to be decently buried They are esteemed inhumane who neglect this Amongst these were the Lotophagi Historici Geographici passim a people of Africa who cast the bodies of their friends into the sea The Sabeans who threw the carcases of kings amongst dung-hils The Scythians who to honour those whom they loved did in their banquets devour their dead carcases The Hyrcanians who gave them to dogs or wilde beasts All these are detestable But although the death of Christ were ignominious yet his burial was very honourable For he was buried by men of quality Nicodemus a great Lawyer and Joseph a Counceller and Citizen of Jerusalem These were disciples before but secretly now they appear openly so great was the vertue of his passion Moreover many noble and religious women helped forward this work The honour of his burial is evident also by other circumstances his body was embalmed with abundance of spices and wrapped in costly fine linen Christ was buried in a new sepulchre hewn out of a rock lest that if another should have been buried there another might have been said to have risen as the Fathers note The New man would be buried in a new sepulchre and in a garden that his body might be sowen there and bring forth the fruit of resurrection That as in a garden Adams sin was committed so in a garden it might be expiated and satisfied for As his nativity was from the unstained bed or chamber of a Virgin so likewise his burial might not be defiled by any dead body He would be buried in another mans sepulchre that as he was born in another mans house so being dead he might lie in a grave that was another mans And he would not have a proper burial place or sepulchre of his own who had no proper cause of death in himself The sepulchre of Christ was a place of the chiefest devotion S. Jerom speaking of Paula saith That at her entrance into the sepulchre of the Lord she kissed the stone and the very place where Christ had lien The pilgrimage to this glorious sepulchre hath been most famous from all parts of the world The Turk a most malicious enemy getteth much profit by the visitation of the place which for this cause or for fear of punishment he hath not yet destroyed I think it not necessary for us to take so long a journey we may meditate on this matter more safely at home And although there is appointed a solemn procession at Lovain for the memory of Christs burial where the blessed Virgin and other women sorrowfully following the dead corps are wont to be represented yet we doubt not but that a pious soul may perform this without such pomp or ostentation Christ was buried that the types of the Old Testament might be fulfilled to wit that of Jonah and others As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale so Christ foretold concerning himself Matth. 12.40 Besides he was buried that it might appear that he was truly dead and that we might know that our sepulchres are sanctified by his being buried no more to be horrid places but sweet and quiet chambers in which we may rest until we shall be raised up hence our burying places are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 places for the dead to rest or sleep in We therefore being buried with Christ by baptism into his death ought to walk in newness of life Rom. 6. v. 4. where the Apostle alludes to a rite of baptism which was by plunging for his body who was baptized in this manner was in a sort buried in the waters And they that were baptized were wont to be thus plunged thrice in the waters by an allegorical similitude to represent Christ dead and three days immersed or drowned in the Sepulchre But S. Chrysostom saith the tropological meaning of it was to signifie that as Christ by his corporal death is dead unto this world so we likewise by a spiritual death should die to the same world and to sin its lord and king and with a purpose to lead a new life as Tertullian expounds it Let
bride I beseech you therefore by the plentiful effusion of the bloud of Jesus on the Cross that ye walk with God or have your conversation with God not in the darkness of unbelief or of sin but in the light of faith grace and vertue God by his nature is light void of darkness if ye would be joyned to him ye must of necessity bid adieu to darkness and your delightful sins The second part of this communion is the union of the members of the Church between themselves We being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another saith the Doctor of the Gentiles Rom. 12.5 and from thence the holy man doth infer golden or precious precepts amongst some other these Let love be without dissimulation Communicate or distribute to the necessity of the Saints rejoyce with them that rejoyce weep with them that weep be of the same minde one towards another as if he should say I would have such a sympathy or fellow-feeling among you Christians as to be equally affected both with the good and evil things of all whether in prosperity or adversity Beloved Auditors yeeld ye obedience to these admonitions of the Apostle Be ye endued with humanity or brotherly love charity meekness bounty let it be a shame to Academians who ought to be more rational creatures then others to be given to anger brawlings envyings disobediences evil-speaking inhumanity and revenge shun these vices which become not the Students of humane learning and after the examples of the Christians of the Primitive Church Be ye of one heart and of one minde Acts 4.32 And if ye shall forgive others the injuries that are offered unto you by them ye shall also obtain remission of sins from your heavenly Father The which is treated of in the following words I beleeve the remission of sins Forgiveness of sins is the will or good pleasure of God whereby he forgiveth beleevers both the sin and the punishment due to sin for Christs merits sake Yea their most enormous sins shall be forgiven for it is repugnant to the infinite goodness of God to be overcome by any humane wickedness He doth injury to God that despaireth of his mercy rightly Saint Augustine against those words of Cain Genes 4. Mine iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven After this manner saith he Thou lyest Cain for the goodness of God is greater then the iniquity of all men and elsewhere he hath written That greater is the mercy of God then the misery of all men Verily it is a most excellent speech of his unto God in his meditations Although O Lord I have committed that for which thou mayest condemn me yet thou hast not lost that whereby thou mayest save me It is most true for if a sinner do repent the Lord will not remember his iniquities Let the wicked forsake his way and turn again unto the Lord and the Lord will have mercy on him Isai 55.7 In God there is omnipotent mercy and merciful omnipotency such is the benignity of his omnipotency and the omnipotency of his benignity that there is nothing that he will not or cannot forgive a beleeving soul yea oftentimes beyond remission God bestows most abounding grace What cannot repentance do Who in the secular state sinned more enormously then Paul Who in the religious more out of measure then Peter Yet they by repentance did not onely attain to the ministery but also the magistery of holiness But to explain this Article more fully We must know that God is the principal efficient cause of remission He alone can forgive sins primarily or by chief authority But the Priests or Ministers of the Church are onely administring causes as they are messengers of the Divine forgiveness God onely of himself forgiveth sins because he cleanseth the soul from the inward blemish or stain and releaseth it from the debt of eternal death but he hath not granted this to the Priest to them notwithstanding he hath given the power of loosing and binding that is by shewing them they are loosed and bound 4 Sent. Dist 18. as Lombard writes Some may say Object that it is not agreeable with the justice of God to forgive sin and not to punish it This is true Answ if he punish it neither in the sinner nor in another to wit the surety But God hath punished sin in Christ Some may object again that it is an unjust thing to punish the innocent for the offender We answer It is not if the innocent party offer himself spontaneously to punishment if he can go through it and get out of it and if this tend to the glory of God and the salvation of men all which conditions do meet very well in Christ It may be further objected that this remission of God is not freely bestowed because satisfaction was required to the forgiveness of sin But we say the satisfaction required was not made by us but by another If we be urged still that he who on such condition forgiveth doth not forgive freely It may be answered It is true unless the party that requires it doth also give the satisfaction But God the Father hath given his Son that he might satisfie for us Hitherto Of the remission of sins the resurrection of the body or flesh followeth Credo resurrectionem carnis I beleeve the resurrection of the body or flesh It is a very difficult thing to understand by the sense or perception of corrupt reason how or in what manner the same body should rise again after so many transmutations and be reunited to the same soul And therefore many in the Areopagus derided Paul when they heard of the resurrection of the dead yet by the light of faith it is most clearly manifest that there shall be such a resurrection It will not be difficult to them to beleeve this who do beleeve that with God there is nothing difficult the restitution of the body or flesh is by far easier then its first constitution or forming It is of lesser concernment by much to restore that which hath been then to make that which never had any being He which could make all things out of nothing can easily raise again our bodies out of something to wit restore them out of the dust of the earth and why should we admire that that could be born again which hath had a being when as we behold that to have a being which never had any before Holy Job in the Old Testament an Evangelical man before the Gospel doubted not of this thing I know saith he that my Redeemer liveth and after that worms shall consume this body of mine yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and not another Job 19.25 Thy dead men shall live saith Isaiah to the Lord together with my dead body shall they arise chap. 26. verse 19. And in the New Testament the Lord Jesus John 5.28 doth most apparently attest the