the earth and of the Nations brought their glory to the Lamb Rev. 21.24 26. and to the same purpose Rev. 17.14 19.6 and as among the Jewes so all the world over those that received not the commands of Christ and his doctrines of purity and perseverance were signally destroyed and they that did were preserved as a peculiar people unto him to live and continue in his obedience § 13. And this great successe on both sides among Jewes and Gentiles over all the world part of it historically true at the compiling of these articles and part of it prophetically true then and fulfilled afterward the subduing them either by the word of his mouth the preaching of the Gospel or by the word of his power the destructions which he sent among them was a most effectual argument a soveraign method to give authority to this faith which was thus prevailing and becomes the greatest instance of reproach to all libertine professors that they should not purifie their hearts by the faith when the most impure Idolaters were wrought on to doe so and a sad certain aboad to all such after the example of obstinate Infidels and impure Gnosticks of both present and future destructions § 14. The sixt and last stone in this foundation is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being received up in or with or into glory Christ's ascension or assumption to heaven being an irrefragable argument of conviction to the world that he died an innocent person Joh. 16.10 and consequently that what he taught was the will of God and 2 truth of heaven to which he was assumed after his testification of it To which when these two circumstances are superadded first that his assumption being in the sight of many was also solemnized by the presence of Angels and a voice from heaven Act. 1.9 10 11. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or with glory after a glorious manner and secondly that it was attended with the exercise of divine power both in the Church by the hands of the Apostles and their successors whom Christ had authorized to succeed him on the earth and in the world by executing visible judgments on his crucifiers c. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into glory or regal power this will be an article of great energie for the planting of Christian faith and purity in the world CHAP. VII The Faith in Baptisme § 1. WHat hath thus been set down as so many branches of fundamental belief and so of the mysterie of Godliness the ground of initiating or entring men into Christian life is more summarily compriz'd in the form of baptism the ceremony of this initiation instituted by Christ wherein all that were to be baptized were if of age first instructed in the doctrine and then received In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Which are the abbreviature of the larger Catalogue of doctrinals formerly taught and explained by the Catechist and those on which they that administred baptisme are commanded to superstruct all the duties of Christian life Mat. 28.20 teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you the authority of all and each the persons of the Trinity being purposely engaged on this one great interest and the gathering disciples and receiving of Proselytes over the world being design'd to this one grand end of introducing the practise of Christian virtues among men who doe therefore in baptisme sacramentally and federally i. e. under oath and solemnest vow as they believe any thing of these fundamental doctrines of God the Father Son and holy Ghost undertake the performance thereof and if they fail therein are the most faithlesse perjured persons in the world And certainly this method is in the designe as probable how improsperous soever the wickedness of men hath rendred the successe of it as any could have been invented to this end CHAP. VIII Of the Creeds in general and first of the Apostles Creed § 1. THE method now leads from the more compendious to the larger and fuller view of this foundation as it is set down in the Creeds of the Church and first in that which is called symbolum Apostolicum the Apostolick badge or mark a tessera or token of the Apostles having planted the Faith in any Church the known summarie of that belief which had been received from the Apostles § 2. For although in their Epistles which were all written to them which were Christians already there is not to be expected any complete Catalogue of those articles which they had every where taught because they were supposed by them to be sufficiently known and might briefly be referred to as such without any perfect enumeration yet in any city or region where the Apostles came to plant the faith it is the affirmation of the first writers of the Church as frequently appears in Tertullian Irenaeus c. and there is no reason of doubt of the truth of it that all those articles which were thought fit to be laid as the foundation of Christian life were by them distinctly delivered And this being a matter of fact of which as of the Canon of scripture or of this or that book in it only the records and stories of the first times are competent judges that Creed which is delivered down to us by the Antient Churches thus planted I mean those of the first three hundred years and by them entituled to the name the Apostles and expounded in the homilies of the Fathers some extant others mentioned by Ruffinus illustres tractatores which had gone before him in that work is in all reason to be deemed the summe of that Foundation Of this if any farther evidence be necessary it will be thus easily made up § 3. The time of forming the Nicene Creed and the occasion of it by way of opposition to those heresies which had then broken into the Church is known to every man Now before this was formed it is certain that all the Churches of the world both Eastern and Western had a form of confession of Faith which they had received from their immediate ancestors and they from the Apostles themselves § 4. And of this there is no place of doubting but that it was the very same which we now call the Apostles Creed not only because there was never any other assigned by any or affirmed to have had that general reception but because the testimonies of the Antients are expresly for this Ruffinus and Vigilius cont Eutychen testifie clearly for the Western Church and Ruffinus again and Cyrill of Jerusalem for the Eastern § 5. And Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra in the Great Councel of Nice a famous supporter of the true Faith and a great sufferer for it against the Arians at his taking his leave of Pope Julius leaves behinde him the Confession of his faith which saith he he had received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his predecessors in
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that people are composed to the greatest sobriety among whom the citizens stand in more fear of dispraise then of law supposing that state to be best qualified where virtue and every part of good living which laws are wont to prescribe hath acquired so great a credit and reputation among all that without fear of punishment from laws or Magistrates the very dread of shame and disgrace shall be able to contain all men within the bounds of exact living and awe them from admitting any thing which is foul or sinful To which purpose also is that of Hippodamus the Pythagorean that there be three causes of virtue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shame is the last of them of which saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. good customes are able to infuse a dread into all men that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well cultivated and make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have a reverence or pudicitious chaste fear of doing any thing which is ill And according to this prudential notion of these wise men of the world is this piece of Christian discipline instituted by our Saviour to deprive vice of its greatest temptation the praise of men to exalt and set up virtue the onely creditable thing and brand sin as infamous And if this of shame superadded to the former of losse and both being met together as the sinners portion here perfectly prefiguring the two saddest ingredients in hell deprivation of the blissful vision and confusion of face cannot prove efficacious and successful to the mortifying of unprofitable vice the Church doth then give over the patient as desperate pretends not to any farther methods of working on such obdurate sinners § 34. Nor indeed is it reasonable it should when beside the Foundation consisting of so many stones each of them elect and pretious chosen by the wisdome of heaven for this admirable work of reforming the most obdurate Jew or heathen this series and succession of so many powerful methods being farther prescribed by God and administred by the Church have found so discouraging a reception that nothing but the violence of storming or battery the course which God is forced to take for the destroying but cannot without changing the course of nature for the converting of sinners can hope or pretend to prove successful on them § 35. What hath been said of the wise disposition of God in preparing instituting this series of necessaries for the effecting this great work the reformation of mens lives the latter annext to the former each to adde weight and authority and to vindicate the contempts of the former might more largely be insisted on yet on a farther designe to give us a just value of that sacred office which Christ fixed in the Church in his Apostles and the Bishops their successors and honoured it and them in this especially that he hath put these weapons into their hands intrusted to and invested in them the Power of dispensing all these and by that means rendred them necessary to the planting and supporting a Church of vital Christians to the maintaining of pious practise in any community of Professors But this would soon swell this discourse beyond the limits designed to it § 36. All that is behinde will be by way of Comment on that part of the Church of England's charity which hath constantly called to God that he will inspire continually the Vniversal Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord and grant that all they that doe confesse his holy name may agree in the truth of his holy word and live in unity and godly love A Prayer O Most gracious Lord God the Creator of all things but of men and all mankinde a tender compassionate father in Jesus Christ thou that hast enlarged thy designes and purposes of grace and mercy as the bowels and blood-shedding of thy Son with an earnest desire that every weak or sinfull man should partake of that abysse that infinite treasure of thy bounty Thou that hast bequeathed to us that Legacie and example of a sacred inviolate Peace a large diffusive charity We meekly beseech thee to overshadow with thy heavenly grace the souls of all men over all the world O Lord thou lover of souls to bring home to the acknowledgment and embraces of thy Son all that are yet strangers to that profession and in whatsoever any of us who have already received that mercy from thee may be any way useful or instrumental to that so glorious end to direct and incline our hearts toward it to work in us all an holy zeal to thy name and tender bowels to all those whose eternity is concerned in it O give us a true serious full comprehension and value of that one great interest of others as well as our selves shew us the meanest of us some way to contribute toward it if it be but our daily affectionate prayers for the enlarging of thy kingdome and the care of approving all our actions so as may most effectually attract all to this profession And for all those that have already that glorious name of thy Son called upon them blessed Lord that they may at length according to the many engagements of their profession depart from iniquity that that holy city that new Jerusalem may at length according to thy promise descend from heaven prepared as a bride adorned for the husband Christ that that tabernacle of God with men may be illustriously visible among us that we may be a peculiar people and thou our God inhabiting in power among us that we which have so long professed thee and been instructed by thee may no longer content our selves with that form of knowledge which so often engenders strife contentions animosities separating and condemning one another and that most unchristian detestable guilt of blood but endevour and earnestly contend for the uniform effectual practise of all the precepts of thy Son the fruits and power of all Godliness that all the Princes and people of Christendome the Pastors and sheep of thy fold may at length in some degree walk worthy of that light and that warmth that knowledge and those graces that the sun of righteousness with healing in his wings hath so long poured out upon us Lord purge powerfully work out of all hearts that profaneness and Atheisticalness those sacrilegious thirsts and enormous violations of all that is holy those unpeaceable rebellious mutinous and withall tyrannizing cruell spirits those prides and haughtinesses judging and condemning defaming and despising of others those unlimited ambitions and covetings joyned with the invasion and violation of others rights those most reproachful excesses and abominable impurities which to the shame of our unreformed obdurate hearts doe still remain unmortified unsubdued among us but above all those infamous hypocrisies of suborning religion to be the engine of advancing our secular designes or the disguise to conceal the foulest intentions
Doctrines among the Romanists The doctrine of Infallibility †Subditos illi Papae simpliciter obligari ad credendum adeò irrationabile blasphemiae plenum est ut etiam quacunque haeresi pestilentius inveniatur that subjects should be absolutely and simply bound to believe the Pope is so irrational and full of blasphemy that it is found more pestilent then any heresie whatsoever Wesselus Groningens de dignit potest Eccl c. 1. written about 200 years since Valdè periclitaretur vita justi si penderet ex vitâ Papae Wesselus Groningens de dignit potest Eccl c. 1. the life of a just man would be in very great hazard if it depended on the life of the Pope Summorum Pontificum plerique pestilenter erraverunt c. Most of the Popes have erred pestilently Wesselus Groningens de dign potest Eccl c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What amulet hath the Pope to preserve him from denying God in his words who so oft doth it in works Nilus de prim p. 57. Of the Pope †de Primatu p. 57. The ill effects of it The perswasion of the Solifidian The Doctrine of Faith being a full perswasion Ostructive to good life The pretended use of good life to the justifying of our Faith vain in four respects The First The second The third The fourth The Jew's premature perswasion of his good estate The Christians The Fiduciarie's ground Christ's dying for none but the Elect. Two farther obstructions to good life Of Faiths being defined by Reliance The Error of it The danger of obstructing good life Universal Redemption the doctrine of Scripture Of the Creeds The Nicene The Apostolick Of the Church of England in the Catechism In the Cōmunion services In the Articles The ill consequences of the denying it In the reducing a vitious Christian In comforting a disconsolate Christian The Article of our Church The doctrine of irrespective decrees Takes off the force 1. of Promises 2. of Terrors 3. of Commands Of Gratitude The doctrine of God's predetermining all events Of preordering Of God's predetermining his own will Of Gods Prescience The doctrine of Predetermination noxious to Practise Revealed and secret will Sin is not nothing The distinction betwixt the act and the obliquitie †Noct Att l. 6. c. 2. li. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †de Fato l. 6. c. 2. Concerning the descent of the Spirit Gods method in his Church Teachers and learners All that comes out of the heart is not from God Jam. 5.15.17 Mat. 15.18 19. The belief of it a very noxious error Worse then the fallacie of the heathen Oracles Or idolatrous Mysteries Of Repentance Dangerousness of mistakes in it Misunderstanding Rom. 7. †Annot in Rom 7. Dangers of it Wishes of repentance Sorrow that they doe not wish Deferring Repentance to Death-bed †Of Death-bed Repentance Mistake of Sorrow for Repentance Three kindes of necessaries Morally necessary to this end What the Universal Church of Christ hath thought thus Necessary 1. Baptisme Of Infants Benefits of that The first The second The third The fourth Catechizing Confirmation The first part thereof The second The Lord's Supper In five considerations The first The second The third The fourth The fift The frequency of Receiving it The use of Liturgie The use of Liturgie Of Preaching Visitation of the Sick Spiritual Conference The power of the Keyes * Stobaeus ser 41. p. 268. †li. de Republ This the last Ecclesiastical means The necessity of Governors in the Church The Conclusion A Prayer
attestation given from heaven by voice to all that he should ever teach § 6. 2dly Such was the Spirit 's leading him into the wilderness Mat. ch 4. to subject him to the Devil's examination and thereby to give grounds of conviction to him and those infernal powers that he was the son of God § 7. 3dly Such was his power of doing miracles works of that nature as were by all acknowledged to be above the power of men or devils and only works of the Spirit of God Thus was his curing of Leprosie of which the King of Israel saith Am I a God that this man sends to me to recover a man of his Leprosie 1 Kin. 5.7 and which the Jewes proverbially called the finger of God and is therefore said to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a testimony unto them Mat. 8.4 an evidence of his divinity Thus the giving sight to him that was born blinde which since the world began had not been heard of to be done by any Joh. 9.32 Thus the raising of Lazarus and others and at last his own resurrection from the grave All which being wrought by the Spirit of God and being not otherwise possible to be done by any were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judicial way of approving his Commission from God and his doctrine against all gainsayers and so most eminently tends to the impressing the necessity of that reformation which he came to publish § 8. 4thly Such was the descent of the Spirit on the Apostles authorizing them witnesses of the resurrection and preachers of all that truth and will of God which Christ had in his life revealed to them which consequently gave an attestation to all that the Apostles should teach being thus led by the Spirit into all truth and so was of especiall concernment to the planting of a Church and enforcing that reformation of lives which the Apostles pressed on all that would not be ruined eternally § 9. The third branch of this mysterious divine way of working piety on earth is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being seen by Angels i. e. his divine power discerned and acknowledged and adored by Angels themselves both good and bad by the good 1. at his birth Lu. 2.13 2dly when after his temptation and fasting they came and ministred unto him Mat. 4.12 3dly in the trouble and agonie of his soul before his death Joh. 12.29 Lu. 22.43 4thly at and after his resurrection Mat. 28.2 And by the bad both when he was tempted and when he cast them out of their possessions obeying his command dreading his power and believing and confessing him the son of God most high and when immediately upon his birth the oracles which had before so flourished among the heathens began to droop and decay and from giving responses in Verse descended to Prose and within a while were utterly silenced Which as it was a most regular means to bring all sorts of men heathens as well as Jewes to reformation of all vices those especially which they were formerly taught in their Idolatrous worships and were enslaved to them unwillingly by the tyrannie of those false Gods or devils which required to be thus worshipped Rom. 8.20 and so continued to doe till they were cast out of their Temples so was it an huge obligation on all men to receive and obey him whom the very devils believed and trembled at and a testimonie of the greatest force in the mouth of a whole Province of his greatest enemies that he was what he assumed to be the Messias of the world who if he were not received by consent and readily obeyed would erect his kingdome in the destruction of those enemies an essay of which was thus shewn on the Prince of darkness avenge and utterly consume the adversaries § 10. The fourth is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being preached among the Gentiles or Idolatrous nations of the world The message brought by him from heaven was proclaimed not only to the Jewes but both by himself and by the Apostles to all the Gentiles those that till then had lived in all villanie and impietie and yet had now by Christ's mercy tendred them upon Reformation and thereby is all encouragement afforded to the greatest sinners to forsake and amend their lives and by God's mercifull pardon to the times of their ignorance and forepass'd sins a passage opened to life and eternitie for all that will make use of it and this is the greatest engagement to doe so and not to forfeit and lose so pretious an opportunity § 11. The fift branch is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his being believed on in the world the faith of Christ received by many both Jewes and Gentiles Of that people of the Jewes a most stubborn obdurate people that had killed the prophets and stoned them that were sent some considerable number repented and came in upon Christ's preaching about three thousand were added to the Faith at one sermon Act. 2.42 before the Apostles going out from Jerusalem which wants but a seventh part of being half the number of those reserved ones of the whole kingdome of the ten tribes in Elijah's time which had secretly kept out of that Idol-Baal-worship and so proportionably at other sermons so that Act. 20.21 we hear of many myriads of believing Jewes and taking out of these the Gnostick heretical party an hundred forty four thousand sealed out of the twelve tribes as faithful servants of God which had received the faith of Christ and brought forth fruit accordingly Rev. 7. and that though but a small number in proportion to the greater that remained obstinate yet above twenty times as many as they in Elijah's time And when the greater multitude was so terribly destroyed then the believers of that nation were the onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or remnant of it and in a manner that whole people by the conversion of some and slaughter of the rest were soon after though not at the time of the Apostles resolving on this depositum reduced to the Faith and became Christian § 12. And for the Gentiles they were contained in the number of those which were present at that sermon Act. 2.11 and no doubt some of them were wrought on by it as even in Christ's time the Gentiles faith is magnified for great and above the size of what he had found in Israel and they were peculiarly the violent that took the kingdome of heaven by force whilest the children of the Kingdome neglected and were cast out of it And soon after the Apostles going out and preaching to all nations they willingly received the Faith and forsook their Idols and within a while all Asia Act. 19. by St Paul's preaching and other whole nations by each of the other Apostles and at length the whole Roman Empire became Christian and the kingdomes of the world became the kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ Revel 11.15 and the Kings of
affixt to it by some Romanists and pay this ready obedience to it into the same snare of heresie or Impiety or both § 4. For of this we have too frequent experience how hard it is to dispossesse a Romanist of any doctrine or practise of that present Church for which he hath no grounds either in Antiquity or Scripture or Rational deductions from either but the contrary to all these as long as he hath that one hold or fortresse his perswasion of the Infallibility of that Church which teacheth or prescribeth it And indeed it were as unreasonable for us to accuse or wonder at this constancy in particular superstructed errors be they never so many whilst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this first great comprehensive falsity is maintained as to disclaim the conclusion when the premises that duly induce it are embraced And then that other errors and guilts of the highest nature neither are nor shall be entertained by those that are thus qualified for them must sure be a felicity to which this doctrine hath no way intitled them and that for which they can have no security for one hour but by renouncing that principle which equally obligeth to the belief of truths and falshoods embracing of commendable and vitious practises worshipping of Christ in Heaven and under the species of bread the son and of the mother of God when they are once received and proposed to them by that Church § 5. But in stead of any fuller view of these I shall mention some few of those which our closer and later experience hath made most familiar to us and given us reason to look on with a quickness of sense and dread but those such as being not entred into the Confessions of any national Church are not properly chargeable either on Papists or Protestants but on particular dogmatizers on both parties From whom the doctrines being infusible into all it will be more necessary to forewarn all of the danger of them § 6. Such is first the perswasion of the Solifidians that all religion consists in believing aright that the being of Orthodox as that is opposed to erroneous opinions is all that is on our part required to render our condition safe and our persons acceptable in the sight of God § 7. This is a perswasion frequently observable in those that are forward to separate from all who differ in matters of Doctrine from them who place sanctity in their opinions as generally hereticks doe and make the dissents of other men the characters of animal carnal Gospellers And the influence of this on the matter in hand the superstructing Christian life upon our Faith is most evident For if we should give that perswasion of theirs the greatest advantage and suppose the doctrines in the belief of which they place so much efficacie to be these very fundamental Doctrines which this Discourse hath defined and specified yet in case the believing of those aright be conceived the one and onely necessary to salvation it is evident that the superstructing of good life the thing to which those doctrines relate and in respect of which they are styled Fundamental is ipso facto become unnecessary § 8. For when it shall be once resolved that Orthodox opinions are able to secure men of God's favour and that being assumed as a principle the search of them being a work of the brain shall generally be discernible as Aristotle observes of the study of the Mathematicks to have nothing repugnant to passions in it and when those articles of belief are conveyed to us with such evidence that we have no temptation to doubt of the truth of them what argument is there remaining to any rational man which can move him so superfluously and unnecessarily to set upon that more laborious and ungrateful task of mortifying lusts of subduing of passions of combating and overcoming the world of offering violence to his importunate vigorous carnal appetites If he that is to be baptized might be admitted to that state of justified Christians and therein to a right of inheriting the kingdome of heaven by a profession of the Articles of his Creed and an undoubted perswasion and belief of the truth of them what an impertinent tyrannie were it to increase his burthen to refuse and delay his admission till he should undertake the whole vow of forsaking the Devil and all his works of keeping God's holy will and commandements and walking in the same all the daies of his life What use even of Prayer of the Sacraments of Charity of Faith it self in any other notion but that wherein he considers it and thinks himself assuredly possessed of it § 9. The issue is clear the Solifidian looks upon his Faith or Articles of his belief as the intire structure not as the Rudiments or Foundation as the utmost accomplishment and end and not only as the first elements of his task and so this Perswasion of his most unhappily but most regularly obstructs and intercepts the building any more upon it which if he conceived himself no farther advanced then the laying a few stones a bare Foundation he would rationally think himself engaged and obliged to prosecute to a farre greater perfection § 10. Hitherto we have considered this perswasion of the Solifidian at the best and fairest advantage and supposed the Opinions on which he so relies to be the true Christian Apostolical and Fundamental Opinions But if we should proceed farther and consider how many other opinions there are abroad in the world which being neither Fundamental nor Apostolical nor arrived so farre as to any fair probability of truth doe yet pretend to be the only sanctified necessary doctrines and such as every man that believes them is a pure Christian professor and whosoever questions or examines the truth of them is to be look'd on as a carnal Gospeller whose arguments though never so unanswerable are to be resisted as so many temptations and many of these in their own nature over and above this Pharisaical opinion of the sanctitie of them very apt to intermit our watch to slacken our diligence to give a Supersedeas to industrie it would be most evident that the Solifidian's perswasions doe most directly and immediately resist God's principal design in revealing his truths obstruct the superstructure of Christian life on this Foundation § 11. But I shall not inlarge on the mention of these any farther then they are likely to fall under some other head of this insuing discourse Mean while it is worth remembring what Epiphanius observes of the Primitive times that wickedness was the only heresie that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impious and pious living divided the whole Christian world into Erroneous and Orthodox by which we are advertised how farre we are from performing the engagements of our Christianity if we insist so passionately or so intently on the truth of our beliefs as not to proceed to as vigorous a pursuit of