Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A77667
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Meditations and disquisitions upon the creed. By Sr. Richard Baker Knight
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Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.
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1646
(1646)
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Wing B510A; ESTC R231982
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69,816
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250
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MEDITATIONS AND Disquisitions UPON THE CREED BY Sr. RICHARD BAKER Knight LONDON Printed by IOHN DAVVSON for Francis Eglessield at the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard 1646. TO THE GENEROVS and worthy of much honour THOMAS BAKER of FREZINGFIELD in the County of Suffolke ESQVIRE Most honoured Cosin IT is not the propinquity of bloud that is between us It is not the great Obligation in which I stand bound unto you which yet were causes of themselves sufficient but it is the generousnesse of your minde that make me desirous to consecrate something t◠the memory of your Name for thoug◠your owne vertue will preserve it sufficiently yet my affection is not satisfied without bearing a part in it that being my selfe but a whithered bough may expresse my joy in so flourishing branch of our Family as your selfe is And now I know not whether I ma◠account you young in regard of your fer yeares or Old in regard of your muc◠experience having spent Twelve year together a longer time then Vlysses in travelling over the most flourishing parts of Christendome where having spent your time in so noble 〈◊〉 manner as Report delivers you cannot chuse but be returned home Vir pau◠corum hominum more compleat in good parts then to have man Peeres But to leave this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having heretofore written Meditations upon the Lords Prayer J have now adventured to doe the like upon the Creede which Treatise as J Dedicate to your Name so my selfe to your Service and remaine Devoted to you in all true Love and Affection Richard Baker MEDITATIONS AND DISQVISITIONS Vpon the CREEDE IT seemes that in laying the Foundation of CHRISTS Church where many Proselytes were to be admitted this forme of Beliefe was first penned to the end that they which would be admitted into the Church should first professe the Beliefe of these Articles and these being beleeved were thought to bee sufficient to shew the professed Faith of an Orthodoxe Christian But whether the Apostles themselves were the Penners of it as some have thought or whether some other out of the Apostles Doctrine as the most conceive is not much materiall to be examined It is sufficient for us to know that it is received by a Generall consent of the whole Church And although the Article of Christs Descending into Hell hath for some time in some Churches not been received yet this is no more then hath befallen some parts of the holy Scripture it selfe For the Epistle to the Hebrewes and the Epistle of Saint Iude and some other now generally received have for some time in some Churches not beene admitted But howsoever former times have had some scruple about this Article yet wee must admit it now without scruple unlesse we will make scruple also to admit the Article of beleeving the Holy Catholike Church seeing the Holy Catholike Church hath long since admitted it into our Creede as an Article necessary to be beleeved of every Christian man And it seems to containe a Breviate of those things which of a Christian man are Credenda to be Beleeved as the Ten Commandements a Breviate of things that are Agenda to be done and the Lords Prayer a Breviat of things that are Oranda to be Prayed for which Three as they differ not much in the number of their Articles so they seeme to have a great coherence one with another For what wee Beleeve that wee have reason to doe and what we are to doe that we have just cause to Pray for to be enabled to doe That whilst our Beleeving is manifested by our doing and our doing prospered by our Praying The man of God may bee made perfect in every good worke If wee should doe as much as wee are commanded to doe and not beleeve as much as we are taught to beleeve that doing would doe us little good and if wee should beleeve as much as wee are taught to beleeve and not doe as much as wee are commanded to doe that beleeving would doe us lesse good Then onely will the benefit of both of them accrew unto us when Beleefe is joyned with Action and Faith with good Workes without which conjunction there may be Leaves but there will bee no Fruit. For if we should do the Commandements and not beleeve this Creed our Profession would want the Basis and if beleeve this Creede and not doe the Commandements it would want the Coronis And so these Articles are the fundamentals of that which is to be beleeved of a Christian but the fundamentals of that which is to be done of a Christian are the Commandements in the Law and in the Gospell Both which Fundamentals must be joyned together to make up the building of our salvation And this summe or Breviate of beliefe which wee call our Creede consists of two parts Personae Res First the Persons in whom wee must beleeve and then the things which we must beleeve The persons in whom to beleeve are three God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons and one God Blessed for ever The things which we are to beleeve are five of which the two first which are The holy Catholique Church and the Communion of Saints as they heere stand next to the Holy Ghost so most properly they relate to the Holy Ghost He being the fountaine of Sanctification of which these two are streames The next two which are the Forgivenesse of sinnes and the Resurrection of the Body seeme properly to referre to God the Sonne in whose merits as Man all sinnes are forgiven and by the power of whose Rising as God and man shall be our Resurrection And then the last which is the Life Everlasting most properly relates to God the Father He being the Author of Life In whom we al live move and have our being shal have our eternal being And this is the Coherence Personarum Rerū of the Persons in whom to beleeve and of the Things which we are to beleeve If wee should know in whom to beleeve and not know what to beleeve we should want our lesson and if we should know what to beleeve and not know in whom to beleeve we should want our Teacher and therefore to make both perfect both are heere exprest and exprest so punctually that nothing can be added either to make it plainer or to make it fuller And heere it may not be amisse for the credit of our Creede before we goe further to shew that all the Articles of it are contained in the holy Scripture and to bring some place of Scripture for a Testimoniall of each of them that it may appeare wee ground not our Beliefe upon Quagmires of uncertainetie but that wee have firme ground to stand upon and it will be a worke not long in doing The first Article is the subject of the whole Bible all tending to make us beleeve in God The next Article is the subject of the whole Gospell all tending to
the first Gospell that was written of Christ was that of Saint Matthew which was not writteÌ„ til eight years after Christs death the other much later especially that of Saint John which was not written till thirty yeares after and therefore the Creede no doubt was delivered if not in forme as now it is at least in substance as now it is long before any Gospell was written And may it not bee further said that this Creed seemes to have been penned when Religion was first translated from Judaisme to Christianitie and therefore that there are no other Articles in it then such as are in opposition to the doctrine of the Jewes by introducing in their place the Christian beliefe For by the Article of beleeving in God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost we utterly renounce the doctrine of the Jewes who acknowledge no Trinity of Persons in the Deity By beleeving the Incarnation of the Sonne of God Christ Jesus and his passion under Pontius Pilate we renounce the doctrine of the Jewes who teach that the true Messias is not yet come By beleeving the Holy Catholike Church wee renounce the opinion of the Jewes who thought that the Church of God was bounded onely within Canaan and that no Church could be holy but that of Israel By beleeving the Communion of Saints we renounce the doctrine of the Jewes by which a Jew indeed would take no usury for money of a Jew but to any of another Nation they would use oppression to the very grinding of their faces By beleeving the forgivenesse of sinnes we renounce the Pharisees Justification by workes and sticke onely to the Publicanes Justification by Faith O God be mercifull to me a sinner By beleeving the Resurrection of the Body we renounce the errour of the Sadduces whom Christ confuted by this argument Have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaak and the God of Jakob God is not the God of the dead but of the living By beleeving the life everlasting we renounce the opinion of the Jewes who depended onely upon temporall benefits and the blessings of this life and as for the life to come were as carelesse of it as ignorant And now seeing all the Articles of this Creed are in opposition to the doctrin of the Jewes what marveile that in it there is no Article for beleeving the Scriptures wheÌ„ as concerning the Scriptures that were then there was no opposition beweene the Christians and them It may with more reason bee demanded why in these Articles of beliefe there is no mention made of the Sacraments seeing Baptism and the Lords Supper were ordained by Christ himself and are things so necessary to be beleeved But is it not that of Baptisme Christ said Goe teach all Nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost and of the Eucharist he said Doe this in remembrance of me and so both these are things of Action which wee must not onely beleeve but doe and therefore fitter placed Inter agenda amongst the records of things to be done then Inter credenda amongst the Articles of things to be beleeved The Catholike Church is no sooner founded The Communion of Saints but the Communion of Saints followes presently upon it as was seene at the Pentecost after Châ—ists Ascending when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles in cloven Tongues for then were present of all Nations under Heaven who it seemes made the representative body of the Catholike Church and then being all of one accord and having all things in common and distributing to every one as they had need they acted the Article we here beleeve If there were not a Communion of S t s the wicked should be more charitable then the godly for among the wicked there are leagues and confederacies and they hold together for the common good and oftentimes their lives are engaged for one another and if the wicked doe this the godly certainely will doe it much more and this makes me to beleeve assuredly The Communion of Saints But are there Saints then on earth Are not all men living sinners and can sinners be Saints Indeed not Saints by Canonization of men but by the Canonization of the Holy Spirit Not Saints in perfection but in Inchoation called Saints as Saint Paul saith because called to be Saints as having their Names written in the Booke of God in Heaven But we must here take heed of the Anabaptists Communion of Saints For by their Communion no man should have any thing in private but all should be in common and so none should be richer or poorer then another which would make Christs Praediction directly false where hee saith The poore yee shall have alwaies with you and would make all these exhortations voide Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Charge them which are rich in this world that they be ready to give and glad to destribute Give Alme of thy goods and never turne thy face from any poore man But indeed this Communion is in part exprest by Saint Paul where he saith Doe good to all men but especially to those of the houshold of Faith For the being of one houshold implies plainely a common provision for al the house but implies withall a disparity of estates Indeede the first flowre that growes in the Garden of the Catholike Church is the Communion of Saints which as it begins in the Militant so it continues in the Triumphant Church Continues there when the other flowres are withered and gone For when Faith and Hope shall be no more yet Charity shall continue and not onely continue but be then most flourishing and if we did not beleeve the Communion of Saints wee could not truely say Our Father in the Lords Prayer for in saying Our Father wee professe this Communion But for the better understanding of this Article It may bee conceived that there are Saints on Earth and Saints in Heaven and this Article containes the Communion of them both both of the Saints on earth between themselves and of the Saints in Earth and Heaven with one another What though they bee farre distant and asunder Are not the feet so from the head are not the hands so from the heart Yet if there were not a relation and correspondencie betweene them neither the feet would bee able to move nor the hands to stirre and perhaps not the head in many things to doe his Office And this Communion consists either in Assistance or in Love but in Assistance for a time in Love for ever For as the Saints in Heaven assist us by praying that wee may so leade our lives in this life that we may come to bee admitted into their Societie in the next So we assist the Saints in Heaven by praying that the suite