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
the life and in all the other Articles of the belief being briefly handled thou wilt finde many excellent observations much comprized in few words And to conclude I wish that these precious truths were imprinted in our minds as well as in this book the which God grant Courteous Reader Farewell in the Lord Jesus W. F. The Key of Faith EVen as the river that watered Paradise was divided into four heads so in like manner is the doctrine of the Church to wit The Apostles Creed the Decalogue or ten Commandments the Lords Prayer and the Sacraments First we are to live in the Church by faith Secondly to come unto the rule of life by precepts Thirdly lest we faint we are to take heed by prayer and when notwithstanding all these we are yet weak we are to have recourse to the seals of grace which are the Sacraments First faith is necessary Without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 For the sum of faith is contained in the Apostles Creed or Symbol It is called a Symbol because it is a token or mark by which Christian Souldiers are discerned from others or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from contributing as if it were compiled and composed by the Apostles However it is said to be the Apostles because it comprehends the sum of the faith which the Apostles preach'd We are to search the Scriptures and to beleeve those things which are contained in them but above all the special and fundamental places which are simply necessary Lib. 6. confess cap. 6. S. Austin writes they are to be blamed not to be listened to if perhaps there be any such that should say How knowest thou that those books which are ministred to us by men are the minde of the onely true and unerring God for that for it self it is chiefly to be beleeved Notwithstanding there are enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evidences which evince and clear it that the Scripture is inspired from God whereof these are the most choice The authority of the writers who were in an extraordinary manner called and sent forth The majesty of the doctrine The amplitude and clearness of the miracles The truth of the prophesies The sanctity of the Bible nothing is here to be found dissonant to piety and truth nothing of contradiction And to add to this the sublimity of the mean style and the sublime humility To conclude the harmonious truth of either Testament that which lieth hid in the Old is manifest in the New But the Symbol or Creed it self which is taken out of the Scriptures containeth in it twelve Articles and is as it were the a A circle in heaven wherein the twelve Signs are zodiack of a Christian But these may be reduced to four parts The first concerning God the Father who hath made all things The second concerning God the Son who hath redeemed mankinde The third concerning the H. Ghost who hath sanctified the faithful The fourth concerning the Church and its priviledges which the Lord hath communicated to it But some one may say Object The works of the Trinity which have a reference to the creatures are undivided common to all the three Persons how cometh it then to pass that creation is attributed to the Father redemption to the Son sanctification to the H. Ghost This cometh to pass Answ not to exclude but to distinguish between the Persons and the order of their acting Omitting these let us come to the Articles themselves The first is I beleeve in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth It is said I beleeve not we beleeve because every one ought to have a special faith of his own explicit not implicit or taken upon trust We cannot see well with other mens eyes neither is it sufficient to have an opinion in divine matters The disputation of Gregory de Valentia is of no force Lib. 6. Analys fidei cap. 13. in which he thus asserts concerning a man that is not Theologically learned That if he prefer the Romish Church for its outward authority before the Reformed then God shall have nothing to object against this illiterate man in that most dreadful Tribunal for God doth not require of him this that he should come to the knowledge of the truth by searching into the doctrine since that he understands not Theological controversies These things saith he But let him say what he will every one certainly ought to hold the substance and saving sense of the Articles although not all the most difficult circumstances of questions from thence arising But now to beleeve is not onely to know and give assent to those things which are propounded in the Gospel but also to acquiesce and rest satisfied in them It is not all one to beleeve a God and to beleeve God and to beleeve in God In the two first senses sinners and devils do agree the third sense none attain to unless they be such who have faith formed in them in this manner to beleeve is to go into God by good works 3 Sent. Dist 23. saith the Master of the Sentences To beleeve a God is to know there is such a God To beleeve God is to confess that he is true but to beleeve in God requires application that he is my God There is a faith found that is not right There is a faith that is feigned and it is of the hypocrites the Apostle saith that the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 There is a kinde of dead faith and it is that of sinners or of those that are still in their sins Faith without works is dead Jam. 2.26 There is a kinde of weak faith and it is of the luke-warm Receive you him that is weak in the faith Rom. 14.1 There is likewise a little faith and it is of the fearful therefore Christ said O thou of little faith why doubtest thou Matth. 14.31 Hitherto we have treated concerning faith it self now concerning the objects of faith of which God is the principal whom not to know is death and whom to know is life And first it is to be demonstrated that God is This may be proved out of the book of Nature inasmuch as he is the Creator and out of the book of Scripture in that he is Creator Conserver and Redeemer Sum part 1 quaest 12. Art 7 God may be known although not comprehended as Aquinas saith These arguments that are drawn from nature do prove that there is a God which notwithstanding are common to Scripture also to wit the most beautiful order of the creatures as the heavens declare the glory of God Psal 19.1 the understanding of man the knowledges of principles and the knowledge of this principle That God is Rom. 1.19 the tremblings of consciences in sinners the rewards of good men the punishments of the wicked the political order the heroick vertues the invention of arts the prediction of
at the right hand of God thereby is shown the Majesty of Christ glorified therefore both of them are true in a diverse respect Besides some may argue after this manner The right hand of God is every where the humane nature sitteth at the right hand of God therefore it is every where But in this argumentation you are to say there are four terms as in this which follows The sea compasseth the whole world a certain city is situate by the sea therefore a certain city compasseth the whole world Neither also doth the uniting of two inseparable things require that wheresoever one is the other should be but onely that they are somewhere together and not at a distance This is evident in the soul and in the head which are united inseparably and yet not wheresoever the soul is there is the head when as the soul is in the feet where the head is not But let us give over this subject and be of good courage Christ sitteth at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us O how great a comfort is this Let us therefore embrace the Lord Jesus with our chiefest love and do his will so we shall be blessed when he shall come to judgement of which there is mention made in the next Article From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead That word From thence designs the place from whence the Judge shall come namely from heaven He shall come from thence whither the disciples saw him ascending Acts 1.9 10. And although the work of judgement may be assigned to every one of the Persons according to decree consent and authority yet the exercise of this visible act and the execution is committed to the Son as he is the Son of man As for that place Object Joh. 5.22 The Father judgeth no man to it we say thus He judgeth no man alone and without the Son Answ but by the Son Neither doth that of Christ in any wise contradict this when he saith Joh. 12.47 I came not to judge He speaks there concerning his first coming in the flesh in the which he came not to condemn the world but to save it and not of his second coming which is unto judgement Neither is that which is said of the Apostles that they shall judge the twelve tribes Matth. 19.28 and of the Saints that they shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.7 any let hereunto for this shall be done of them by way of approbation not of authority The end of Christs Advent or Coming is explained by the distribution of the subjects that he may judge both the quick and the dead under which terms all men altogether are comprehended who are said to be quick of dead in respect of that state which precedes the judgement The quick being they whom the last day of judgement shall surprize alive who in a moment shall be changed from a mortal condition to an immortal The dead those who from the beginning of the world have departed this life and before the last day shall be raised up at length by the trump of the Arch-angel and presented before the judgement-seat of Christ and the Angels are included also who kept not their first station Jude v. 6. and are therefore reserved in chains under darkness to the judgement of the great day 2 Pet. 2.4 It may be objected Object that the devil is now judged Joh. 16.11 and he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3.18 We answer Answ that this is done in part to wit in the word of God in their own consciences or in respect of the beginning of their punishment but they shall be judged afterwards in regard of the manifestation and promulgation of the judgement already made the exasperation of the punishment and the consummation of the torments both of body and soul The last judgement shall be set up that every one may receive what he hath done in his body whether it be good or evil and that the justice of God may be published to the praise of it Since God is just it is necessary that it be perfectly well with the good and godly and that the wicked and impious be for ever miserable this very thing is not done in this world therefore it is righteous to recompense to them who trouble the godly trouble and to you who are troubled rest when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 2 Thess 1.7 That there shall certainly be a judgement this we know against the Epicureans but the year moneth day and hour we know not no not the Angels in heaven Mark 13.32 The Fanaticks err who either out of an enthusiastical revelation or Arithmetical calculations and Astrological prognostications do set down the time when the judgement shall be but without a right judgement Let us in the mean time prepare our selves all our days and moments of our lives for the coming of Christ and let us take heed lest that day come upon us unawares and finde us unprepared The last day is hid from us that we might watch all our days it is always unknown that it may be always expected let therefore that terrible trumpet ever make this noise in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement The second part of the Creed was concerning the Son of God the third follows of the Holy Ghost I beleeve in the Holy Ghost We are to beleeve that the Holy Ghost is God and that he is the third Person of the Trinity equal to the Father and the Son in all perfection This is clear out of Sacred Writ and the doctrine of the Church which do render equal glory to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Yet it may be said Object that he who receives from another is not his equal But the Holy Ghost hath received something from the Father and the Son Ergó This is true of him who receiveth part from another Answ in time successively and by grace but the Holy Ghost received from the Father and the Son the whole essence from eternity and by nature Some may object that he that is sent is not equal to him that sendeth but this doth not hold where the mission or sending is by a voluntary consent He is called a Spirit because he is a spiritual essence and that by way of excellency because he is far above all created spirits It may be objected Object that the Father and the Son are by way of eminency Spirits and holy So they are indeed absolutely Answ and bynature but this is attributed to the Holy Spirit by appropriation as it were a characteristical note and because his proper office is to sanctifie the elect He breathes into our hearts good motions and he himself was breathed from the Father and the Son as from one principle or beginning and this is that which the Oriental or Eastern Fathers do teach when they say that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Son even as we