subdue Sathan c. Written for the information and satisfaction of many mens mindes touching so weighty a matter but especially for the furthering of the Church of Scotlands full conformitie with that of England BY IAMES MAXVVELL Master of Artes c. PSAL. 122. verse 6. Pray for the peace of Ierusalem let them prosper that loue thee LONDON Printed by IOHN LEGATT Printer to the Vniuersitie of Cambridge 1617. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHERS IN GOD THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS HIS VERY GOOD LORDS AND OTHER LEARNED AND GRAVE PASTOVRS OF THE CHVRCH OF SCOTLAND IAMES MAXWELL WISHETH PEACE VNITIE AND CONCORD FROM THE GOD OF CONCORD AND PRINCE OF PEACE AND HVMBLY DEDICATETH FOR A TESTIMONIE OF HIS DVTY THIS PRESENT TREATISE OF CHRISTS DESCENDING INTO HELL A Demonstration of Christs Descending into Hell LIke as the dissensions and differences in matter of faith betwene Christian and Christian Greeke and Latine Papist and Protestant haue prooued the greatest scandall and offence to those that are without the bosome of the Church and the greatest hinderance of both Iewes and Gentiles conuersion vnto Christ that euer the hand of hell brought into the world or the diuell did deuise so the contentions and dissentions the diuisions and differences arising betweene Protestant and Protestant which haue a number of new denominations such as sorrow and shame will not so much as once suffer me to mention haue prooued questionlesse the greatest scandall of our reformed profession and the chiefest cause of many Papists auersenesse from Reformation And this may sufficiently appeare by their daily obiecting and hitting vs in the teeth with our diuisions and differences and telling vs that our Church is so farre denoide of Vnitie that euen the reformed subiects of one the same Soueraigne cannot be brought to an agreement in the matters and manner of Gods worship Witnesse say they there repugnant expositions vpon that article or particle of faith touching Christs descending into hell their discrepant doctrines touching the Princes ecclesiasticall power their generall auersenesse from Prelacie with their differences in matter of ceremonie Sacramentall Ministerie and Church-sernice And what other thing else say they can it be but a manifest token of a weake and ruinous Religion to say no worse when as the professours thereof Mat. 12.25 Mark 3.24.25 Luk. 11.17 can neither agree with other Christians nor yet with themselues according to that saying of our Sauiour Euery kingdome or house diuided against it selfe shall be brought to desolation For the preuenting of which euill and the remooning of which cursed scandall and cause of offence seeing that Almighty God hath raised vp our Soueraigne and endued him with a most diuine Spirit both for pregnancie and peaceablenesse far beyond all the other Princes of the earth yea and far beyond many professed diuines Isay 41 5 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 20 21 25. and that hee hath euen chosen our Iacob and taken him from the endes of the earth and called him before the chiefe thereof to speake with the Euangelicall Prophet Isay to be the chiefe instrument of so glorious a worke let vs in the consideration thereof both acknowledge the inestimablenesse of the blessing that Almightie God offereth vs by the hand of his seruant for Concord and Vnitie especially in the matters of God is an inestimable blessing vnto man and a thing most acceptable and agreable vnto God and let vs likewise acknowledge the fanourable prouidence of God towards vs disposing all things as for our greatest good so for our chiefe comfort and contentment in that he hath beene graciously pleased to picke out a King of the North to be the Bringer and Brocher of this blessing vnto vs according to that in the Prophet saying I haue raised vp from the North and he shall come Isay 41.25 from the East Sunne shall he call vpon my name and euen such a King of the North as hath loued vs so deerely as hee hath done and who would not for all the kingdomes of the world bring the Church of God or his owne natiue Country into any corrupt or dishonourable condition No I dare take it vpon my soule that it is his zeale and loue towards the glorie of God the honour and credite of our Country and the happie and more perfit constitution of our Church that hath set him a worke about so blessed a businesse as the working of a perfit agreement and full conformitie betweene the Churches of these two kingdomes For I suppose that no man is so far deuoide of comon sense but seeth sufficiētly how that both Pietie Policie Religion of Church and Reason of State doe require that Britaines which are the worshippers of one true God the seruants of one Sauiour the children of one Church and the subiects of one and the same Soueraigne should agree in all things belonging to Gods worship especially in all matters of faith such as is this present point of Christs descending into hell The which though all Christians doe professe to beleeue according to the letter yet we can not say that our verball or literall profession thereof is seconded with a solide consent in the meaning and sense For first the Papists vnderstand it of Christs descending in his soule to a certaine region or habitacle of hell called Limbus Patrum to deliuer the fathers an opinion voide of all good warrant for we shall make it more then apparant In our Latine disputation of the seate of soules both by Scripture and Doctors by authoritie and arguments that the soules of the beleeuing people vnder the law went not downe into any corner of hell for all that they can say to the contrary and though Zuinglius ioyne with them herein but to Paradise And as for our Protestant writers we see how some namely the Geneuians expound it of Christs suffering the sorrowes of hell in his soule before his death denying his descending in soule after death into hell to deliuer the faithfull from descending thither and to conquer and binde Sathan in his owne strongest holde though Mr. Caluin did not denie his foresaid locall descending after death but acknowledged it others expound it idly of Christs buriall others of his continuance in the graue vnder the power thereof for three daies others of his translating into the state of the dead and others most ridiculously haue deliuered that by the descending of Christs soule into hell is to bee vnderstood no other thing but the ascending thereof into heauen all which opinions are false fanaticall and friuolous and the doctrine of the Church of England and of some other reformed Protestants of Germanie is only orthodoxe and true to wit that our Sauiours soule beeing seuered from the Bodie which lay in the graue three daies went downe into the very loathsome dungeon of the damned for our sakes and not into any superiour Limbus Patrum as Papists do dreame partly to deliuer his elect children from descending thither and
descension and ascension are inferred necessarily of the Geneuian doctrine And as the word died in the Creede doth imply our Sauiours descending in soule to the house of death though not to dye for Christs soule could not dye but to ouercome death and to destroy the author of death the diuell as the Apostle speaketh so doth the word of suffering the like 1. Cor. 15.55 Heb. 2.14 For Christ suffered the greatest humiliation and deiection that could be for mans cause and therefore it behooued his soule to be humbled vnto hell and without this hee had not beene subiected to the highest degree of humiliation in his soule as hee was to bee answerably to the humiliation of his body which was in the highest degree euen vnto the death of the crosse like as for that cause God exalted him both in body and soule in the highest degree Philip. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. as the Apostle teacheth So that we see that Christs locall descending into hell is denied in no Creede but expressed in some and implied in all VII Seauenthly the locall descent of Christs soule into hell is confirmed by the common consent and constant profession of the Doctors of the primitiue Church in their Sermons Homilies Commentaries Expositions and Glosses vpon the places of Scripture aboue alleadged about twenty in number and vpon the Creede especially this article thereof as shall bee shewed more particularly in our Latine worke by the expresse testimonies of these three and forty Fathers Doctours and writers Hebrewes Greekes and Latines Thaddaeus Ignatius Iustinus Martyr Irenaeus Tertullianus Origines Cyprianus Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Hilarius Socrates Basilius Gregorius Nazianzenus Ambrosius Hieronimus Ruffinus Epiphanius Chrysostomus Augustinus Cassianus Caesarius Philippus Presbyter Cyrillus Primasius Euthymius Theodoretus Leo Vigilius Fulgentius Cassiodorus Beda Titus Bostrensis Didimus Ioannes Damascenus Theophylactus Oecumenius Bernardus Prudentius Petrus Chrysologus Rabbi Hoccadosh Rab. Simeon whereunto shal be added some sixe or seauen Councels as of Ephesus Chalcedon Alexandria Constantinople Toledo Arles and others So that if the Fathers of the Church haue any weight or authority amongst the Geneuians they shall soone see themselues in a manifest errour which God grant they may as soone amend VIII Eightly Christs locall descent into hell after death is confirmed by the ingenuous reception and subscription of the most part of learned protestant writers as we shall show in our Latine worke by the testimonies of some thirty to wit Luther Calum Peter Martyr Bullmger Pomeran Pellican Chytraeus Aepinus Bucer Illyricus Selneccer Lossius Hemingius Aretius Rulandus Marlerat Vrbanus Rhegius Lauater Vitus Theodorus Mylius Musculus Mollerus Westhemerus Heresbachius Felinus our countrimen Alexander Alesius or Aeleis Bishop Latimer and Robert Samuel Martyrs Deane Nowell Master Foxe with the reuerend Bishops and learned Doctors of Fngland in the time of King Edward the sixt and afterwards to this present day of the happy raigne of King Iames the sixt together with the whole Lutheran Protestants in Denmarke Norway Sweden Poland Boheme Hungary and other parts of Germany with some of those whome they call Caluinians as namely that most learned and iudicious Italian diuine Hieronymus Zanchius IX Ninethly the doctrine of Christs locall descending into hell is prooued by irrefragable reasons for first the doctrine of the Church of England doth illustrate commend and magnifie the loue of God towards mankinde where as the doctrine of Geneua obscureth ecclypseth and diminisheth it exceeding much For it is an argument of great loue that the Sonne of God would daigne to descend from his throne and seate of maiestie into this earth of vilitie and misery which is his foote-stoole but it is an argument of farre greater loue that for our sakes he would yet descēd lower euen so low as to take upon him the shape of a seruant and in that shape to suffer so shamefull a death as that vpon the crosse but it argueth the highest degree of loue that could bee in that for our sakes hee would descend so low as into the lowest hell the vile and loathsome dungeon of the damned to the end that we should not descend thither nor be damned Secondly the very Ground whereupon the Geneuians doe found their doctrine of Christs suffering the pangs of hell doth prooue pregnantly this very point which they denie of Christs descending into hell in his soule The ground is this It behooued the Mediatour of sinfull mankinde to suffer what was due to sinfull mankinde whereupon it followeth necessarily that he suffered the highest degree of humiliation to wit to be humbled vnto hell in his soule as his Bodie was humbled vnto the shame of the crosse the graue for sinfull mankinde had deserued this deiection and should haue beene humbled so farre for his sinfull and proud rebelling against God if our Redeemer had not humbled himselfe in our stead and for our sakes to exempt and deliuer vs from this ignominie Yea their very doctrine is contradictory to it selfe for they hold that Christ was to suffer the torments of hell in his soule and yet they will not haue him goe to hell which two assertions cannot well stand together for though that the soule may feele the horror or apprehend the feare terror of hell out of hel Psal 18.4 5 Mat. 26.37.38 39 42 46 Mar. 14.33 34 35 36 15 34 that our Sauiours soule did so in the garden and vpon the crosse according as the Prophet Dauid had prophesied of him saying the sorrowes of death and of hell haue compassed me about and as our Sauiour said of himselfe My soule is very heauy euen vnto the death and as the Euangelists doe testifie of him that hee began to waxe sorrowfull and grieuously troubled to bee afraid and in great beauinesse and euen in such an agonie vpon the apprehension of the fearefull cup of Gods wrath that he sweat drops of blood and afterwards cried out that he felt himselfe in a manner forsaken of his Father for our sakes for a while all which soule-suffering the Apostle Peter calleth by the name of the sorrowes of death and Dauid the sorrowes of hell though I say that our Sauiour suffered in his soule for our sakes these horrours and terrors of hell in the very garden and on the crosse yet he could not suffer the pangs paines or torments of hell without being in hell no more then one can enioy the ioyes of heauen out of heauen But the truth is that Christs soule was no more capable of those torments of hell then it was of desperation or damnation And though he descended into hell yet it was not to suffer torment but only the highest degree of humiliation and debasement and with all to begin his highest exaltation in the same very place where his lowest humiliation did end Thirdly the doctrine of the Church of England doth magnifie and set out the Maiestie of Christs victorie and conquest where as the doctrine
people and haue power of God to make lawes for the good both of church and common-wealth by sixe arguments Fifthly that kings are to be honourably and magnificently maintained and that God hath allotted them a certaine competent portion of their subiects goods Sixtly and lastly that Kings are endowed with a sacred immunity from all manner of coercion and censure spirituall or temporall at their subiects hands The which thing I procue against Romanes and Geneuians by seuenteene arguments And this is the summe of the first Booke which I most humbly commend vnto your maiesties patronage the other beeing onely a briefe of a certaine part of a larger worke I haue begun in Latine containeth a ten-fold probation of the doctrine of the Church of England touching our Sauicurs locall descending in his soule after death into the hell of the damned against the different and repugnant dostrines of Genenians and Romanes the which I do dedicate vnto the Reuerend prelats and pastors of the Church of Scotland The verity of which doctrin I do show confirme 1. by Typical prefiguration both personall and real 2. by propheticall praediction 3. by holy Scriptures pregnant historicall allusion 4. by Euangelicall asseueration 5. by apostolical explication 6 by all christians catholicall confession 7 by three fortie ancient doctors and fathers vnanime and harmonious profession besides some sixe or seauen Councels 8. by thirtie chiefe protestant writers ingenuous reception and subscription besides some particular reformed Churches 9. by irrefragable reason and demonstration 10. and lastly by the consideration of the diuers grosse absurdities impieties contradictions and ridiculous expositions that they haue committed which haue oppugned this auncient doctrine of the Church of England or dissented from the same And here I will likewise professe publikely that in case our precise Diuines can but shew as great variety and as good solidity of arguments and reasons euen for all their opinions ioyned together wherein they do dissent from the Church of England as I shall shew for this one point onely that I shall not be ashamed to retract my present opinions wherein I doe dissent from them and subscribe vnto theirs and so become as precise as euer I was knowne to bee once before And thus haue I briefly laid open vnto your Maiestie the summe and substance of these two little bookes which I haue written of late for the furthering of a perfit vniformity both in doctrine and discipline in the Churches of these two Kingdomes and euen for the perswading and enducing of my deere Countrey men to the reception of the auncient primitiue forme of Church such as it was in the dayes of glorious Constantine the great and during the purer time of the first fiue hundreth yeares which is one of your Maiesties most christian and commendable desires and designes worthy of the memorie and celebration of all succeding ages the which I pray the God of vnity and veritie that yee may as happily atchieue as yee doe holily wish it and worthily haue begunst That so the Church of Scotland may in your Maiesties blessed time receiue the consummation and accomplishment of her reformation from England like as from her shee had the inchoation or beginning thereof as our owne historie doth witnesse and that as the said Church hath already receiued of England their English Bible and Psalme-Booke so may she now likewise receiue her Liturgie or Seruice-booke with the whole rites and orders contained therein And though I be haply the first of my Countrey that euer wrote thus earnestly in defence of the Church of England yet let not my deere Countrey-men vnto whom God is my witnesse I doe dayly wish all manner of happinesse thinke that I haue done it out of any worldly respect to priuate profite benefit or benefice either already confered or hereafter to be confered vpon me by Prince or Prelate but out of a meere affection to verity and vnity to the pure primitiue Church The truth of which my protestation may hence appeare in part in that these ten yeere past that I haue liued in England I was at no time a Suter vnto your Maiestie nor yet beholding to any Bishop nor euer aimed at any benefice as being at this houre and intending to continue euer hereafter a Lay-man notwithstanding that the learned and reuerend Deane of Exeter Doctor Sutcliffe the nominated Prouost of that begunne Controuersial Colledge which beareth your Maiesties name hath chosen me to be a fellow and an Antiquary therof So that my deere countrymen shal haue no cause I hope to charge me with any preposterous affection or flattering humor in the behalfe of England seeing that I haue no purpose of aspiring to Church preferment amongst them who haue worthie Schollers enough of their owne and most complete Preachers to brooke their Benefices Neither shal the learned ministery of my country take it euill that a lay-man should thus meddle in Ecclesiastical matters if it shal please them to consider how that a lay-man may with greateringenuity indifferencie handle such an argument as this is then a Church-man who might happely be suspected offlatterie or fauour in the behalfe of one churches formemore then another that meerely for loue of preferment from the which kinde of suspicion one of my fashion is free And as for capacitie requisite in the handling of this argument I am content they should haue no better opinion of me then the course of my life and stadies in their owne good iudgement may challeng at their hands abreefe narration whereof I thought good by your Maiesties gracious leaue here to insert not out of any humour of ostentation but onely that it may thereby appeare that though I be a lay-man yet I haue spent a good part of my time in the study of diuinitie vnto the which I was knowne at home so much to haue addicted my selfe that at the age of 19. yeares and euen before I proceeded Master of Artes I was requested of some of our Ministery to preach by way of exercise And though I did refuse to condescend vnto their earnest desire proceeding from their good opinion of me for the which course I was not a little commended of that learned and renowned Diuine of good memorie Master Robert Rollock who disliked the vnripe forwardnesse of some young spirits howsoeuer otherwise of great towardnesse yet I ommitted not my priuate studie of diuinttie but followed the same assiduonsly being thereunto encouraged by the the foresaid Reuered Diuine who had diuerted me from my intended voyaege into Denmarke towards the famous and noble Philosopher and Astrologian Tycho Brahe with whom I thought to haue prosecuted my begun Mathematicall studies and so perswaded mee to finish my Academicall course in the learned Colledge of Edenburgh before I went to trauaile And there beeing past some seuenteene yeares since the time I proceeded Master of arts went beyond sea which was in the yeare 1601. I haue all this while
5 6 7 8. for the expressing of his owne inward action but the Spirit of God doth designe the outward act of signing for the expressing of his owne inward action of spirituall sealing as both Ezekiel in the olde Testament and Saint Iohn in the new doe witnesse and therefore the Church may and ought to vse the same outward act of signing Tenthly the Church is bound to declare and notifie the grace of Gods Spirit working in men and euen to make men as sensible of the workes of Gods Spirit in them as they can conueniently now it is one of the workes of Gods Spirit and a chiefe worke too to seale men in their soules inwardly and to stampe them as it were with the print of his Image vnto the day of redemption 2. Cor. 1.22 5.5 Ephes 1.13 4.30 as the Apostle speaketh and therefore for the Church to make men sensible of this internall and mysticall sealing of Gods Spirit by the meanes of such a conuenient and decent sensible signe as that of the Crosse though there were no particular mention at all made in the whole Scripture of any such externall gesture or act of signing on the fore-head must needes be lawful and commendable Eleuenthly by this Signe the Church putteth her children in minde of their owne miserie and of Gods mercy of Christs loue towards them and of their duty and affection towards him for his vnspeakeable loue and therefore it tendeth to edification Twelfthly this ceremonie was receiued and practised of the primitiue Church neither is there any ecclesiasticall writer or Father Greeke or Latine but maketh honourable mention of it as we shall shew particularly in our Commentaries of the persecution and peace of the Church and therefore we ought to vse it now if it were no more but to shew our conformitie with the primitiue Church for the daughter ought to follow the footesteps of her mother in all lawfull and commendable actions and ought not to depart from her otherwise shee shall both dishonour her mother and discredit her selfe And questionlesse the want of this primitiue ceremonie and others the like in some reformed Churches hath brought a most dangerous discredite vpon the reformation and made it obnoxious vnto the suspition and odious imputation of the same noueltie in the very substance which it carrieth amongst them in the out side circumstance And therfore those venerable Bishops that reformed the Church of England considering wisely with themselues how that men are so apt to censure of the inside by the outside especially in Church matters and to iudge of doctrine and pietie by the externall discipline and ceremonie retained stil the primitiue discipline and auncient ceremonies of that Church but banished the abuses And would to God the Church of Geneua had done the like for so our common aduersaries should not haue had so good and iust cause as they haue to hit them in the teeth with their noueltie as though their Church had newly crept or leapt out of the Leman nian lake or had beene conceiued of Caluin and borne of Beza Thirtenthly and lastly the enemies of the signe of the crosse can not bring so much as one good authoritie or probable argument for their opinion not the letter of the Scripture for they see that the letter fauoureth it both in the olde Testament and new not the sense of the Scripture as it hath beene deliuered by the fathers of the Church for they know that they are all for it and as for reasons deriued from the light of nature or Scripture from Theologie or Philosophie Diuinitie or humanitie they can bring none worth the hearing for I haue read diligently their bookes and was once a Puritane my selfe except it bee this one The Church of Rome hath abused the signe of the crosse and therefore the reformed Church ought to forbeare it least wee should seeme to fauour or follow their abuses But I wonder but they should remember better that olde maxime abusus non tollit vsum some folkes abusing of a thing doth not hinder or let but that others may vse it aright And doe they not thinke that the Church of Rome doth abuse praying and preaching and Churches and pulpits and kneeling and Godfathers and Godmothers aswell as crossing and yet we doe not forbeare these things because of their abuse neither is there any reason why we should doe so but rather great reason to the contrary The Church of Rome doth abuse ceremonies therfore the reformed Church ought to vse them aright to the end that in so doing shee may both show her selfe like and conforme vnto her Mother the Primitiue Church and by her good example doe what shee can out of Christian charity to reforme and amend her straying sister the deformed Romish Church And so I end this my plaine disputation for the signe of the crosse in Baptisme beseeching my countrymen to take it in good part euen for his sake that suffered vpon the Crosse The Church of England more heauen like for honour of the Ministery Sect. 21. Eightly the Church of England is liker then the Geneuian to the heauenly Church in the dignitie and honourable estate of the Ministerie In heauen Gods Ministers are honoured with the holiest stile of Priests and with the highest stile of Princes for as vnder the highest of Priests they are Priests so vnder the highest of Princes they are Princes And therefore we reade in the Reuelation how that blessed Saint Iohn calleth the Bishops of the seauen Churches by the honourable stiles of Kings and Angels Reuel a. 1.4 5 6 2. 3. 5.3 9 10 12 13 14 7 10 12 8 3.4 and the foure and twentie Elders doe magnifie the Lambe for making them vnto God Kings and Priests to raigne or rule vpon the earth Answerably whereunto in the Church of England the reuerend Fathers of the Church are graced by the Soueraigne Prince representing the Lambe and the Lyon of the tribe of Iudah with the honourable title and dignitie of Lords and Barons And good reason surely seeing that the Gouernours of the Church vnder the Gospell are to be rather more then lesse honoured then were the Gouernours of the Church vnder the law in so farre as the Ministerie of the Gospell is much more honourable and glorious then that of the law 2. Cor. 3.7 8 9 10 11. as the Apostle expressely auoucheth And that the Ministers and Gouernours of the Church vnder the olde Testament were called by honourable titles it may appeare in that Moses a prophet Exod. 3. 4 16 18 1. Sam. 1.3.9 15 7 8 9 10 15 16 17 Deut. 17 8 9 10 11 12 2. Chron. 17 7 19 8 9.10 11 Ezech. 44 24 1. Sam. 1.9.14 15 16 17 18 26 4 18 1. King 17 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20.21 22 23 24 18 3 4 7 9 12 13 2. King 1.13 14 4
of Geneua doth obscure and diminish the Maiestie thereof For who knoweth not but that it is a greater glorie for a King or Captaine to vanquish and conquer his enemie in his owne kingdome and to make his enemies owne pallace his prison then to doe it elsewhere Wherefore seeing our Sauiour atchieued the greatest and the most glorious conquest that euer was and triumphed the most magnificently Mat. 12.29 we must needs beleeue that he did it in Sathans the strong ones owne house castle and kingdome as it is in the Gospell and as the Church of England together with the Primitiue doth beleeue and teach and not that he did it out of hell or on the crosse as they iargon at Geneua X. Tenthly and lastly the veritie of the Church of Englands doctrine touching our Sauiours descending into hell may appeare by the contradictions oppositions and dissentions and fanaticall expositions of such as haue oppugned it or dissented from it some expounding those words hee descended into hell of our Sauiours buriall others of his detention in the graue and the most part of his suffering the paines and torments of hell in the garden and on the crosse some haue expounded it of his translating into the state of the dead and some haue beene so fanaticall as to say that his descending into hell meaneth no other matter but the ascending of his soule into heauen after death And as some of them haue most vnlearnedly and ridiculously vnderstood heauen by hell in the Creed and ascending by descending which is all one with the taking water for fire or God for the diuell so haue they as vnlearnedly and ridiculously construed diuers other places of Scripture In the sixteene Psalme by the Hebrew word NEPHESH Psal 16 10. Act. 2.27 and in the second of the Actes by the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which doe signifie the soule they vnderstand the body which is the contrary part and the other halfe of man a thing that no learning diuine or humane will suffer And though a man perhaps might excuse such a simple or single Ignoramus as this yet how can he excuse it when it is doubled for those Geneuians will haue the word soule to signifie the body and a dead body which in all learning diuine or humane signifieth alwaies a liuing substance and either the principall part which is the soule and that properly or else the whole person figuratiuely And as these admirable Metamorphosers of Geneua turne in one place hell into heauen and descending into ascending euen blacke into white and in another place Christs liuing soule they turne into his dead Body so doe they turne hell into the graue for the Hebrew word SHEOL and the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doe properly and principally signifie hell as the learned in these languages doe well know and as we shall show particularly otherwhere by alleadging the testimonies of the best Hebricians and Grecians but especially when the word of Soule is thereunto annexed as it is in the sixteenth Psalme and in the second of the Actes they do translate Graue and not Hell which is not only the secondary and improper signification of those two words but also quite repugnant to those texts of Scripture wherein mention is made of the conditiō of Christs soule For though it be true that the said two words doe sometimes signifie the graue yet it is but secondarily and improperly and when the word of Body or flesh is ioyned thereunto but neuer when the word of Soule is annexed as it is in those two places of Scripture and because they see the absurditie that should insue of saying that Christs soule should be buried in a graue therefore for preuenting one absurditie they runne into another for as they turne hell into graue so doe they Christs liuing soule into his dead body the most blockish and stockish abusing of Scripture that euer was heard tell off yea more the most impious for in so doing they ioyne with the professed enemies of Christ both Iewes Arrian and Apollinarian Heretickes For first such Geneuian expositors ioyne with the Iewes who as Aepinus the Protestant Superintendent of Hamburge writeth vpon the sixteenth Psalme to ouerthrow the certainty of our faith concerning Christs descension into hell and his resurrection did by the word soule vnderstand life though it bee not so bad nor so farre fetcht as Bezas dead bodie and by the word hell they vnderstand graue as the Geneuians doe And next they ioyne and iumpe with the old Arrian and Apollinarian Heretickes which denied our Sauiours true humane soule and therefore vnderstood those Scriptures as the Geneuians doe and not as the orthodoxe fathers vnderstood them that out of those Scriptures refuted their fooleries as Athanasius Theodoretus Epiphanius Cyprianus Augustinus Fulgentius Hieronymus Ambrosius Philippus Presbyter Ruffinus Cassiodorus Euthymius Beda Petrus Chrysologus and others whom the Church of England doth follow all which shall be God-willing particularly prooued in our Latine worke And the Geneuians doe ioyne with the same Apollinarian heretickes in vnderstanding by the Spirit of Christ in the third chapter of the first Epistle of Saint Peter 1. Pet. 3.18.19 his Diuinitie or God-head and not his humane Spirit though the other halfe of his humanitie to wit his flesh bee there mentioned with it like as in the same text they turne Christs person into Noahs and Christs preaching in Spirit vnto dead mens spirits after his passion into Noahs preaching in body vnto liuing men many hundreth yeares before the passion and incarnation Where note how that contrary to all learning diuine and humane they expound the word Spirit of a liuing man and not of the soule of one deceased And in the same absurd manner they turne Christs wrastling vpon the crosse into triumphing and make him to sing his owne triumph before his full and absolute victorie Finally as in expounding the Gospel they turne the heart or middle of the earth into a Tombe Math. 12.40 27.60 which was not so much as within the foreskin if I may so speake of the earth so in expounding the Epistle they turne the lower or lowest parts of the earth Eph. 4.8.9 whereinto our Sauiours soule descended into the vpmost parts or surface of the earth where in body hee conuersed when hee was vpon earth So that they turning thus vpside downe both in Gospell and Epistle as they doe we haue as little cause to iumpe or ioyne with Geneua in this point as wee haue to runne with Rome for the finding out of their fanaticall Limbus Patrum And thus I haue by a ten-fold probation cleered the truth of the doctrine of the Church of England touching our Sauiours descending into hell and haue with all dispelled the cloudes and mistes both of Romane and Geneuian opinions For as it is most certaine that our Sauiours soule did after death descend into hell which our Geneuians doe most vnlearnedly and
giuen my minde wholly to good letters and aswell diuine as humane For three yeares of the said space I spent in the priuate studie of Philosophy in considering of the more noble and choice questions that haue beene mooued or disputed by the followers of Aristotle but especially of diuine Plato vnto whom I was alwayes more deuoted and of the renowned Aegyptian Philosopher Hermes Trismegistus following therein the example of those foure famous Italian Philosophers Franciscus Ioannes Picus Mirandula Marsilius Ficinus Franciscus Patricius Other three years I spent in reading and pondering the Church questions and controuersies of our time as they haue beene learnedly and diligently debated on both hands by diuers great Diuines of these dayes One yeare I spent in perusing some fourty treatises discourses commentaries and consuitations written by some of the more moderate and ingenuous tending to pacification Fiue yeares I spent in reading and perusing some of the choicest bookes of the Doctors of the Church Greekes and Latines and of the more renowned amongst the Schoole-men and other fiue I spent in perusing politicall and historicall workes penned by diuers authors especially Italians and Germans together with the Genealogies of the Kings and Princes of Christendome And for some clearer euidence and proofe of this studious pastime besides some ten little things already published in english most part vpon diuine and morall arguments namely the Looking glasse of grace and glory the Treasure of tranquillity the Mirrour of religious men godly Matrons the Golden art or the right way of enriching the Game of concord and vnion admirable Prophecies of 24. famous Romane catholikes touching the deformation and reformation of Rome two Pamphlets containing some seauen short Poems in honour of your Maiestie and your noble children together with these two present Treatises written of late in defence of the Church of Englands discipline and doctrine besides these ten little exercises I say I haue written diuers things in Latine vpon Philosophicall Historicall and Politicall arguments but most of all vpon Theologicall points for being once a follower of the most precise sort and euen a professed Puritane as they tearme it I began at nineteene yeares of age to write in Latine two bookes against Poperie one of the which I haue entituled of the admirable Antipathie or contrariety of Theologie and Papalogie or of Gods word and the Popes Wherein I point forth the oppositions contradictions betweene the Scripture and the Romane doctrine from the beginning of the Bible vnto the end thereof going thorow euery chapter of both Testaments answerable whereunto I haue deuided the said worke into two parts the first containing an hundred and fourty nine Sections the second an hundred and thirty and it hath bin seene and well liked of some learned Schollers The other is a description of the Tyrannie which was to be exercised vpon the militant Church according to the tenure of the two noble prophesies of Daniel and Saint Iohn where I doe entreat of the authors instruments duration beginning manner and ending of those great troubles and doe compare the opinions of writers together touching the foresaid circumstances with the reasons thereof a worke of no small labour consisting of eighteene large Sections or Chapters and was by me dedicated vnto the Church and Colledge of Edenburgh where I tooke my degree and therefore I sent it home out of France with my Coosin M. William Maxwell of Kauens to be presented accordingly though as I vnderstood since it was the fortune of my Booke to fall into the hands of M. Iohn Welshe then a famous Preacher in those parts who borrowed the same for a few daies but not deliuering it againe carried the same away with him into France and hath kept it vntill this houre I haue likewise written in Latine another Booke called Romase redarguens or Rome rebuking and reproouing her selfe Wherein I doe prooue by the expresse Testimonies of Popes Cardinals Archbishops Bishops Monkes Friers Prophets Prophetesses Schoolemen and Cell-women of the Church of Rome that shee standeth in need of reformation against the contrary assertion of the learned Iesuite Martinus Becanus The Propheticall part if so I may call it of which worke I did publish of late in English a Booke containing a collection of more then an hundred strange Prophesies vtteredin former times touching the deformation and reformation of Rome by twenty foure famous Romane-Catholikes whereof some twelue haue beene canonized for Saints to wit seauen men and fiue women I haue likewise written a disputation or disquisition touching the seate of Sathan whether it was to be in the North as the Romish Doctors doe holde or in the South where I prooue against the Romane Doctors by Scripture and nature by Theologie and Astrologie by Philosophie and Historie how that the North is absolutely the most diuine eminent and excellent the very seate of God and not of Sathan and the chiefe receptacle of his Church Another disputation and disquisition I haue written touching the seate of soules where I refute the Popish opinions of Purgatory Limbus Patrum Limbus infantium and the like hollow habitations of soules within the earth and I doe show that the ancient Fathers knewne more places but three at most as the Greekes doe at this day Paradise Heauen and Hell In the same I doe refute the erroneous opinions of Romanes and Geneuians Papists and Puritanes touching our Sauiours descending into hell and prooue the doctrine of the Church of England touching that article to be only orthodoxe a briefe of which part of that Booke I haue here published in English And in the same larger worke I do defend the saluation of Salomons soule against Cardinall Bellarmine and others iumping with him in that vnprobable and vncharitable opinion Another disputation I haue written in Latine vpon the Inuocation of Saints against the Romane Knight of Saint Peter Gaspar Scioppius against whose allegations of Scripture and probations fetcht from thence I who am a layman like himselfe howsoeuer inferiour for humane letters and titles doe employ some 28. arguments fetcht not only from Scriptures but also from Greeke and Latine Fathers besides Philosophers Poets and Historians and the same Methode and manner of probation I doe vse in a certaine Theologicall and Historicall Plea against the learned Iesuite Iames Gretser for the preheminence of the Emperour and Kings aboue Popes Patriarkes Archbishops and Bishops and generally of all Priests and for their mixt condition of Ecclesiasticall and ciuill Lastly I haue written a Treatise called Catholico-Iacobus Catholico Britannus wherein I do demonstrate the true Catholicisme of Britaines and doe euidently prooue that your Maiestie and your subiects haue all those things that Gods word requireth to make men true Christians and Catholikes against the contrary assertion of the learned French Archbishop Cardinall Iames Perron The which two Treatises last mentioned written in defence of King Iames and this Church against two learned and famous Romane
Catholikes of the name of Iames by your Maiesties subiect and seruant of the same Name shall be God willing shortly published for the first laïck fruits of that begunne Colledge which beareth the name of King Iames whereof I am to bee a Fellow The which premisses beeing considered I hope the more easily to gaine the Church of Scotlands good opinion and that they shall not charge me with incapacitie to handle such a weighty argument as this hauing written so much in matters belonging to Church and Religion To be briefe thus haue I spent these seuenteene yeares yeares of my priuate obscure life since I proceeded Master of Artes and went beyond sea in giuing my selfe to studie and contemplation endeauouring to know much and to contentation in no wise coueting after much and to Temperance and Continency Whereof I take the all-knowing God and his chaste Angels to witnes And now these my poore labours such as they are I most humbly lay downe at your Royal feet begging your Maiesties most honourable patronage and acceptance and in praying the God of Vnitie and Veritie to giue them a blessing for the furthering of your most Christian desire and glorious designe so that we may euen in your owne happie daies see with our eyes the full accomplishment thereof to the glorie of his name the comfort of his Church the good of great Britaine and your Maiesties eternall honour So prayeth daily YOVR MAIESTIES Most humble subiect and seruant and euen the grandchilde of your most Noble Grandmothers and Mothers household seruant William Maxwell sonne to the Laird of Kirkonnell and in his life man at armes to the most Christian King IAMES MAXVVELL THE CONTENTS OF THESE TWO BOOKES 1 THat Vnitie and Concord in matters belonging to Gods Worship amongst Christians especially Protestants and more especially amongst Britaines both for reason of Church and reason of State is to bee by all meanes desired and endeauoured Sect. 1.2.3 2. That one Churches constitution is more perfit and complete then anothers and that the lesse perfit ought to cōforme it selfe vnto the more perfit Sect. 4.5 3. That the constitution of the Church of England is much more perfit then an Geneuian whatsoeuer or wheresoeuer Sect. 6. 4. That the Church of England is more Diuine and God-like in the supreme Gouernor the Soueraigne Prince then the Geneuian Sect. 7.8 5. That the Kingly power is immediately from God and not from man as both Romanes and Geneuians doe hold prooued by eight testimonies of Scripture and three irrefragable arguments Sect. 9. 6. That the kingly dignitie is absolutely greater then the priestly and of all other the diuinest contrary to the opinion of Romanes and Geneuians prooued by eight arguments Sect. 10. 7. That Kings are not meere lay-men but mixt of an ecclesiasticall and secular condition contrary to the opinion of Romanes Geneuians prooued by three arguments ten examples of Kings that haue exercised spirituall power for the good of the Church Sect. 11. 8. That Kings are Law-giuers to their people and haue power of God to make lawes for the good both of Church and Common-weale prooued by sixe arguments Sect. 12. 9. That Kings are to be honourable and magnificently maintained and that God hath allotted them a certaine portion of their subiects goods Sect. 13. 10. That Kings are indued with a Sacred immunitie from all manner of coercion and censure spirituall or temporall at their subiects hands prooued against Romanes and Geneuians by 17. arguments Sect. 14. 11. That the Church of England is more Angelicall or Angel-like in her secondary Gouernours of Archbishops and Bishops Sect. 15. 12. That their is an imparitie or inequalitie amongst Gods Ministers in the Church triumphant in heauen and that their hath beene alwaies the like imparitie in the Church militant on earth first vnder the Law then vnder the Gospel and aswell in the time of Christ and his Apostles as of their successours Sect. 15. 13. That the Church of England is more heauen-like for holinesse where the conueniency of holydaies besides the Sunday is prooued and demonstrated by vnanswerable arguments Sect. 16. 14. That the Church of England is more heauen-like then the Geneuian for humble reuerence where the conueniencie of the gestures of standing vp at the reading of the Gospel capping or bowing at the name of Iesus of kneeling at the rehearsing of the Law and especially at the receiuing of the holy Sacrament is declared and prooued Sect. 17. 15. That the Church of England is more heauen-like then the Geneuian for harmonie where the conueniency of Church-musicke consisting of voices and organes and other instruments is declared Sect. 18. 16 That the Church of England is more heauen-like then the Geneuian for habite where the conueniencie and decencie of Church-habites as of the Surplisse and Rotchet is prooued Sect. 19. 17. That the Church of England is more Heauen-like then the Geneuian for locall decencie Church-implements conueniency Church-seruice solemnitie and sacrament all ceremony where the conueniencie of a Font or the Ministration of Baptisme and of a standing Table for the celebration of the Lords Supper is declared and the vse of the ceremonie of the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme prooued most lawful and commendable by 13. arguments Sec. 20. 18. That the Church of England is more heauen-like then the Geneuian for honour of the Ministerie where the lawfulnesse of the stile of Priest amongst the Ministers of the Gospel and likewise of the stile of Lord conferred on the reuerend Gonernours of the Church is declared and the Geneuian-church gouernors of Lay-elders prooued to be a thing vnlawfull and absurd Sect. 21. 19. That the maintenance of the Ministerie is more diuine heauen-like and honourable in the church of England then in the Geneuian where the perpetuall maintenance of Tithes is prooued and the Geneuian sinne of sacriledge exagitated and shewed to be more hainous then heathenish Idolatrie Sect. 21. 20. The diuersitie and repugnancie of the opinions of diuines touching our Sauiours descending into hell breifly propounded Tract 2. 21. The doctrine of the church of England touching the foresaid point demonstrated to be only orthodoxall by a Ten-folde probation Tract 2. A Primitiue patterne for the Church of Scotland Sect. 1. VNitie and Concord amongst Christians especially amongst Protestants or reformed professours but more especially amongst Britaines Psal 133.1 2 3. Ioh. 17 20 21 22 23. 1. Pet. 3.8 Heb. 12.14 as they that are the worshippers of one and the same true God the seruants of one and the same only Sauiour Iesus Christ the children of one Church and the subiects of one and the same Soueraigne is in the iudgement of all them that are truely wise of all other things most to bee desired and endeauoured as a thing most pleasing to God and most profitable to man Sect. 2. Vnitie and Concord is to bee desired and endeauoured in all things but especially in those things Psal 122.6 Rom.
1. Tim. 6 15. Mat. 28 18 1. Cor 15 25 26 27. Philip. 2 8 9 10 11 Heb 2 7 8 9 10 17 18. Reuela 1.5 19.16 the greatest glory and dignitie in heauen is the Kingly and the highest title or stile that is giuen to God in the old Testament or to our Sauiour Christ in the new is to be called a King a King of glory a King for euer a great King aboue all Gods the King almightie a king of Gods the Prince of the Kings of the earth the Lord of Lords the king of Saints and King of Kings and thus is he called foure times in the booke of the diuine Reuelation which is questionles the greatest and highest stile that Christ hath and by many degrees greater and higher then his priestly stile of high priest after the order of Melchisedech for this stile hee had on earth in the state of his humility wheras he was not an actual king vntill he rose ascended into heauen and receiued all power in heauen and earth as the Soueraigne King of both at the hands of his Father according as both Gospell and Epistle do testifie Wherefore also the kingly dignitie is the greatest on earth and such as do represent Christ in his kingly dignitie as Christian kings doe are greater and more eminent then those that represent him in his Priestly dignitie Mat. 22 23 Dan 2 34 45. 1. Pet. 2.17 that is then Priests Bishops Archbishops or Patriarkes Eightly and lastly the honour of the king is commanded next vnto the honour of Godin holy Scripture Giue vnto God the things which are Gods and giue vnto Caesar the things which are Casurs saith our great Caesar who as Daniel speaketh is the Stone that was without hand cut of the mountaine of the blessed Virgine Mary and euen the corner stone of the Church Feare God honour the King saith Saint Peter another stone yea Ioh. 1.42 Galat. 2 9. Psal 118 22 Isay 28 16. Mat. 21.42 Mark 12 10. Luk. 20.17 Act. 4.11 Rom. 9.33 1. Pet. 2 7. Ioh. 1.42 Galat. 2.9 a pillar and chiefe stone of the Church whome I wish the Pope may immitate in this and all other Christian duties To be briefe for in our royal controuersies and disputations wee doe handle this question more accurately and employe besides Scriptures the fathers Greeks and Latines the Schoolemen Philosophers Polititians Poets and Historians both sacred and prophane to prooue the truth of this point against the ilearned Iesuit Iames Gretser in the creation of Salomon â—t is said that the people bowed downe their heads and worshipped the Lord and the King So that it is more then manifest that the King is the person next vnto God in power dignitie honour and authoritie 1. Chron 29 20. and thersore greater and higher then the greatest and highest priest of them all Sect. 11. The third lesson that we learne hence to wit That kings are not lay-men but of a mixt condition in that kings are called Gods is that Kings are called of God to be nursing Fathers vnto the Church and haue a special power about the things of God and consequently that they are not meere lay-men as both Iesuits and Geneuians Papists and Puritans doe holde but of a mixt condition partly Ecclesiasticall and partly ciuill or secular as in our latine workbefore named shal be largely proued both by Theology by Philosophy history For the present I say that the truth her of is apparent in Scripture by precept made vnto Kings by the practise of kings vnder the law and by Prophesie of Kings to be fulfilled vnder the Gospell And first it doth appeare by precept in that Kings are enioyned in the Scripture to make themselues able for the mannaging of the things of God Deut. 17 18 19. Psal 2 10 Wise 6 1. Ioh. 10 34. for they are enioyned to study Gods word diligently to reade in his Law continually to bee wise and learned exceedingly and therefore our Sauiour teacheth vs that Kings are called Gods because the word of God was giuen vnto them meaning Principally and to the end that they might gouerne Church and commonwealth according to God and for God as his vicares or deputies on earth Secondly it doth appeare by the practise of Kings vnder the law Exod. 39 43. Iosh 3 6 22 1.6 2. Sam. 5 6 21 6 12. 1. Kings 2 27 35 5 5. 8.14 15 10 22. 2. King 18 4 23 4.5 24 21 22 23 24 25. 1. Chron. 13 1 2 3. 15 1 2 3.4 11 16. 2. Chron 15 8 9 10 16 17 6 7 8 9 10 19 8. 20 3 24 4.5 6 7 8 29 4 5 11 15 18 21 25 27 30 31 31 2.10 11. 1. King 2.27 35 2. Chron. 19 11. Isay 49 22 23. and not onely of those that were both Princes and Prophets as were Moses Dauid and Salomen but also of those that were meere Princes without the Propheticall gift such as were Ioshnah Asa Ichosaphat Ioash Ezekiah Iosias Manasses they haue coÌ„man ded the Priests yea euen the chiefe priests to doe the parts of their office and appointed them to their courses and charges they haue placed and displaced the high Priests themselues they haue suppressed Idolatrie remoued and deposed yea put to death Idolatrous Priests broken downe the Idols restored religion to her purity assembled both the priests to bring vp the arke of the Lord and the people to celebrate the passeouer and to serue God haue read the law publikely in the audience of the people proclaimed fasts prayed for them and blessed them likewise in the house of the Lord. Thirdly the Ecclesiasticall power of Princes doth appeare by prophesie for the Euangelicall Prophet Isay when hee foretolde the conuersion of the Kings of the gentiles to the Christian faith he likewise prophesied of their Ecclesiasticall place and power of being Nursing Fathers vnto the Church saying Thus saith the Lord God beholde I will lift vp mine hand to the Gentiles and set vp my standard to the people and they shall bring thy sonnes meaning the Churches children in their armes and thy Daughters shall bee carried vpon their shoulders and Kings shall bee thy nursing Fathers and Queenes shall be thy nurses And in our Latine worke of royall Controuersies we shall show how this Prophesie hath beene accomplished in the person of Christian Princes Kings and Emperours and how they haue exercised that part of the Ecclesiasticall power which standeth in the supreame gouernment of the Church To wit that they haue made lawes of ecclesiasticall matters and for the confirmation of faith haue tried matters of heresie punished heretickes rooted out suppressed I dolatry exhorted and conuerted nations to the Christian faith instituted Bishops and sent them to preach placed pastours in the Church called councells and presided in the same Sect. 12 The fourth thing that wee learne of this stile
supreame Gouernour thereof vpon earth which is the King whom God himselfe hath called by the name of God as hee that hath his royall power immediately from God and not from man contrary to the opinion of Romanes and Geneuians and whose dignity is absolutely the greatest and diuinest of all other and much more eminent then the Priestly contrary to the opinion of the same and whose person and power is mixt of ecclesiasticall and ciuill as he that is not a meere lay-man contrary to the opinion of them likewise and whose Maiestie and dignitie is inuiolable and not liable to any kinde of censure or punishment at the hands of man spirituall or temporall otherwise then both Romanes and Geneuians would make vs beleeue in all which points for all their iumping together they erre most grossely and the Church of England holdeth or thodoxally Now in the next place wee shall prooue the perfection of the same Church by shewing how that she is more Angelicall or Angel-like in respect of the secondary Gouernours of the Church and consequently liker vnto Gods Church in heauen then any Geneuian Church is For like as in the Church of God in heauen God himselfe gouerneth soueraignely and supreamely as Monarch and King and the Archangells doe gouerne the inferiour Angels secondarily as Senatours and the twenty foure crowned Elders which are of the blessed Spirits of men doe gouerne the inferiour spirits as we may learne by some ten chapters of the Reuelation and as all ancient Diuines doe deliuer so in the Church of England the Soueraigne Prince as God and for God doth gouerne it supreamely vpon earth and secondarily the Archbishops Colloss 1.16 1. Thess 4.16 as Archangels doe preside aboue the Bishops which againe as Angels and so are they called in the same Diuine Reuelation seuen times in two chapters doe gouerne the inferiour Ministers of the Word and Sacraments and these againe like vnto those more perfit spirits or soules of men Reuela 45 7 8 9 12 14 15 16 19. cap. Reuel 2.1 8 12 18 3 1 7 14 doe gouerne the lay multitude of men and women So that the Anglicane or English Church is more Angelicall or Angel-like then the Geneuian is which admitteth no such Angelicall distinction and order of Ministers for there they are equall and neither like the Angels in heauen which haue their chiefe Princes Dan. 10.13 12.1 Juâ—e vers 9. Reuel 12.7 Colos 1.16 Reuel 9.11 12.7 and their inferiours as namely Michael the Archangel and his Angels euen Thrones Domimons Principalities Powers as the Apostle speaketh nor like the Diuels in hell which are better ordered as hauing a distinction of degrees for the Angel-king of the bottomlesse pit otherwise called the Dragon hath many blacke Angels vnder him whence it followeth that the Anglicane Church as being the more Angelicall or Angel-like is perfiter then the Geneuian by farre And truly I can not wonder inough of this paritie of theirs from whence they had it for it is more then manifest that they had it not from heauen nor yet from hell as hath beene before shewed belike they haue learned it of the Grashoppers that leape about the banks of the Lemannian lake for they haue no King yet goe they forth all by bands saith Salomon From the Church of God vnder the law they had it not for they had their high Priests their principall or chiefe Priests and their inferiour Priests Exod. 28. Leuit. 8. Numb 3. 4 8 18 1. Chron. 9. 15 16 24 25 26 2. King 23. Nehem. 12. Heb. 5 5 6 10 Mat. 10 1 2 28 16 Mark 3.14 6 7 Luk. 6 13 9 1 Act. 1.22 16 2 14 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 5 6 14 15 16 17 19 1 2 3 4 5 7 Cor. 12.28 29. Ephes 4.11.12 and likewise among the Leuites some were superiours and some inferiours some were as Lords and chiefe Fathers and other some as sonnes and followers Nor had they their paritie and equalitie of Church Ministers from the Church of God vnder the Gospell such as it was in the daies of Christ and his Apostles for our Sauiour himselfe was as the high Priest the Apostles as the chiefe Priests the seuenty Disciples as the inferiour Priests and the Deacons as the Leuites and no man that hath his right wittes will say that the Apostles Prophets Euangelists and Pastours mentioned by the Apostle Paul as ordained of God in the Church were all equall in dignitie and office Neither had they their paritie of pastours from the Church such as it was after the Apostles daies for within the first fiue hundreth yeares we read in the Ecclesiasticall histories how that the Church was gouerned by Patriarkes and Arch bishops representing the twelue Apostles and by Bishops representing the Euangelists Yea in the very Apostles daies there were Bishops which had vnder them inferiour Pastours as S. Iames Bishop of lerusalem S. Peter Bishop of Antioch S. Paul Bishop of Rome S. Marke Bishop of Alexandria and if we will not beleeue the Ecclesiasticall historie of the Primitiue Church yet let vs beleeue the Epistles of the Apostle Paul who enstileth Timothie the Euangelist 2. Tim. 4. Tit. 3. 1. Tim. 5.22 Tit. 1 5 the first Bishop of the Church of Ephesus and Titus another Euangelist first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians and testifieth that by vertue of their function they did ordaine presbyters or inferiour pastours in those Churches for ordination argueth demonstratiuely the superioritie of the ordainer and the inferioritie of the ordained Act. 20 17 18 1. Tim. 3.1 2 5.17 19 Tit. 1 5.6 7 and without such inequalitie their can bee neither ordination nor order And though it be true that in the Scripture the names of Bishop and Presbyter or Pastour be taken indifferently for one and the same office yet that doth argue only that euery Pastor or Presbyter is and may bee called a Bishop in respect of his people or parish ouer which hee is placed so that he may bee called a Bishop aboue the Laitie but it doth not argue that their were no superiour Bishops aboue those Bishops of the Laitie to ordaine order and direct them which were Bishops of a more eminent degree and distinct from the other these Bishops Presbyters and Pastours aboue the Clergie and those Bishops Presbyters and Pastours aboue the Laitie and consequently inferiour vnto the former wherefore I could wish that learned men would not leane so much as they doe to that argument taken from the indifferencie of those two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seeing the question and controuersie is not verball but reall for the question is not if all the Ministers of the Church may be called by the common name of Pastor Presbyter and Bishop but if all those that are called by the common name ought to bee
of equall dignitie and authoritie or whether or no there ought to bee amongst the multitude of Ministers some superiours to gouerne and some inferiours to be gouerned for good orders sake and to bee called for distinctions sake by different names applying or appropriating the common name of Bishop to the superiour and the common name of Presbyter Priest or Pastour to the inferiour And truly in the time of my owne Puritanisme and Geneuisme I was wont to presse this verball argument asmuch as any man to prooue thereby the paritie of pastours and there is not another argument to that purpose worth a pinne but in the end I found it both fallacious and friuolous for in the Scriptures Kings Apostles Act. 6. Rom. 13 4 1. Cor. 4 1. Colosi 1.25 1. Thess 3.2 1. Tim. 3.8.12 Prophets Euangelists Pastours and Deacous are called by the common name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ministers or seruants of God and yet their Ministrations and seruices are not of the same nature nor of equall dignitie and the two names of presbyter or elder beeing referred to office and not to age and of Gouernour or Ruler or Ouerseer are conucrtible for euery Elder is a Gouernour and euery Gouernour is on Elder and yet the Elderships and Gouernments are distinct Numb 11 16.17 Ezra 10.8 Luk. 22.66 Act. 20.17 for some are called Lay-elders or elders of the people to wit in temporal matters and those were the Magistrates of the lewish Common-wealth and others are called Elders of the Church to wit Gouernours of the people in spirituall matters as Ministers of the Word and Sacraments so that both the one and the other were Elders and Gouernours and yet they were of different and distinct kindes the one temporall Elders and Gouernours of the people in the Common-weale the other spirituall Elders and Gouernours of the same people in the Church and semblably these spiritual Gouernours of the Church and Ministers of the word both Bishops and Presbyters or Priests are called by the common name of Presbyters Priests and Elders and likewise by the common name of Episcopi Bishops Superintendents or Ouerseers and yet they differ both in the obiect of their office and in their degree for the one are cheife Priests Elders of the Church and the other are inferiour Priests and Elders of the same Church the one are Bishops Superintendents and Ouerseers of the Laitie or people in spirituall things but the other are Bishops Superintendents and Ouerseers of the Clergie as well as of the Laitie and of their inferiour priests and pastours aswell as of the people in the same spirituall things In a word the Church of God being the best ordered Body that can be behoued to consist of Superiours to gouerne and of Inferiours to bee gouerned to wit of these two rankes Clergie and Laitte and as the Laitie was to bee gouerned by the Clergie as the children by the fathers and schollers by their masters so the Clergie being a great multitude was to haue order and gouernement in it selfe and therfore behoued to consist of superiours and inferiours likewise And to these ouerseers of the Church were assigned different names and titles for distinctions sake the Ouerseers or Rulers of the Church in the quarters of the world were called Patriarkes the Ouerseer and Ruler of the Church of a whole kingdome was called a Primate the Ouerseers and Rulers of the Clergie or Church in the seuerall Prouinces of a kingdome were called Archbishops and the Ouerseers or Rulers of the same Clergie in a diocesse or shiere were called Bishops like as the Ouerseers of the Laitie or people in a parish were called Presbyters Priests or Pastours for in the last Section of this worke wherein we doe entreate more at large of the honourable titles and maintenance of the ministerie we show likewise how that the Ministers of the Gospel ought not to disclaime the honourable stile and title of Priests Thus we see how that there must needs bee imparitie and inequalitie amongst Ministers except wee meane to make them a multitude without order and gouernment or else giue them from Geneua Lay-gouernours for amongst them the Elders of the Church which bee lay men being more in number to passe ouer their Lay-deacons doe gouerne the Ministers beeing the smaller number iudge and censure them both in life and doctrine and so are they well serued because they refused to bee gouerned by men of their owne order to wit by Bishops therefore God hath giuen them ouer to bee deluded derided debased and dishonoured by the Lay gouernment of those whom they ought to gouerne and rule as the Shepheard his sheepe the father his children the schoolemaster his schollers for amongst the Geneuians it is quite contrary where the Lay-elders as being more in number doe ouer-rule the Ministers as hath beene said But thankes bee vnto Almighty God for raising vp a Iacob from the North Isay 41.8 9 25. Reuel 1.20 12.7 and calling him from the endes of the earth to doe him seruice in restoring of his Church in the North to the ancient Angelicall forme and in banishing out of it the Grashopper-gouernment of Geneua and let all Britaines North and South Prouerb 30.27 euen as many as doe loue the likenesse of Ierusalems Angels better then of Geneuian Grashoppers say Amen Sect. 16 Thirdly the Church of England is more like the Church in heauen for holinesse then the Geneuian is The Church of England more heauen-like for holines Isay 6.1 2 3 Reul 4. 5.8 12.13 7.15 for in heauen the Angels and blessed Spirits keepe euery day holy incessantly praising God and saying holy holy holy is the Lord of hostes the whole world is full of his glory so saith the euangelicall Prophet Isay in the old Testament diuine S. Iohn in the new saith that they cease not day nor night to say and to sing holy holy holy Lord God almighty which was and which is and which is to come that they serue him day and night in his Temple saying Praise and honour and glory and power bee vnto him that sitteth vpon the throne and vnto the Lambe for euer more and the foure said Amen Now the Church of England is farre holier then the Geneuian because the Geneuians are not so holy as the Iewes were nor haue not so many holy dayes as they had for besides the two and fifty Sabbaths of the yeare Exod. 12.14 15 16 17 18. 13.6.7 20.8 9 10. 23.12 14 15 16 17. 38.18 Deut. 16. Ester 9.17 18 19 21 26 27 28 29. 30 31. 1. Machab. 4.43 44 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59. which are the Geneuian holy dayes they had other holy dayes and festiuities which they did obserue as of the Passeouer of the first fruites of Tabernacles and of Purim instituted by Queene Ester and Mordecai and of the dedication of the Altar instituted by Machabaeus But the English like
and almost necessarie to vse that gesture which doth most signifie and declare and vsually accompanie the greatest humilitie and reuerence and what other gesture can this bee but kneeling which is more reuerent then standing like as this is more reuerent then sitting and therefore Saint Iohn sawe the foure and twenty Elders first sitting vpon seates then rising and standing Reuel 4.4 10. 5.6 7 8 14 and after that falling downe or kneeling before the Lambe in imitation whereof all good Christians ought to kneele before the holy Lambe when they receiue his blessed body as it were out of his owne heauenly hands for the spirituall foode of their soules which do assuredly feede vpon his flesh by faith in a mysticall spirituall and sacramentall manner Againe I aske of our Geneuites if it be not lawfull to thanke God in receiuing of the Sacrament of thanksgiuing which I thinke wil not be denied In the next place I aske if it bee not lawfull to vse in our thanksgiuing the gesture that the seruants of God haue alwaies vsed in their other religious thanksgiuings and if not why shall that gesture which is lawfull in all other religious thanksgiuings bee vnlawfull in this and if it be lawfull in this aswell as in all other then let them shew me what other gesture it was but kneeling and if kneeling be the fittest gesture for the expressing of a most humble thanksgiuing such as we should offer vnto God in this Sacrament of thanksgiuing then why doe we not kneele with the Church of England rather then sitte or stand after the homely yea vnholy and vnhumble manner of Geneua Sect. 18. Fifthly The Church of England more heanen-like for harmonie Reuel 5.8 9. 14.2 3. 15.2 3 4. 19. the Church of England is more like the Church of God in heauen for heauenly harmonie then the Geneuian is for in Gods Church in heauen those holy and vnspotted Priests are painted out in seauen or eight places of the Reuelation singing new songs vnto God in most melodious manner both with voices and instruments and namely with Harpes and answerable thereunto in the English Church wee haue the harmonious consort and musicall concord of voices and instruments especially of Organes in the praising of God with Hymnes Psalmes and songs The which kinde of musicall instrument beeing as it were animated with the melodie of Singing-mens voices doth most of all other represent that which Saint Iohn heard in heauen like a voyce of a great multitude and as the voyce of many waters and as the voyce of strong thundrings saying and singing HALLELVIAH Of the which my sticall musicke I shall God willing deliuer many notable considerations and most comfortable Contemplations in our worke called Dies Domini And there I shal prooue both by Scriptures and Fathers authoritie and by irrefragable reasons euidencie the lawfulnesse and commendablenesse of the musicall consent of voyces and instruments in the seruice of God and that the alternatiue Church singing of the Quire diuided into two parts is conformable vnto the manner of the heauenly Churches musicke as may be gathered out of the prophecie of Isay who in his vision of the maiestie of God and his glorious Seraphims Isay 6.1 2 3 saith that one cryed to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of Hostes the whole world is full of his glory And truley the Doctours of the Church and other ecclesiasticall writers doe witnesse in expresse words as shall be shewed in our said worke that the first Christians were wont to sitte one for against another as wee see they doe now adaies in the Quire and to inuite or cohort alternatiuely or by turnes one another to the praising of God by singing of Psalmes So that I cannot but wonder how our Geneuians can say any thing against so auncient and christian a custome or yet against the vsing of some instruments in the singing of Psalmes especially when as the word Psalme doth signifie either the melodie of the instrument or Organ alone or else the harmonie of the instrumentall noise and the musicall voice going together so that indeed there cannot be a Psalme there may well be a Song without an instruments sound and if we haue our Psalmes originally from Ierusalem and not from Rome from the Prophet Dauid and not from the Pope why may we not with the same Dauid vse in struments and organes especially when as the Spirit of God by him exhorteth men thereunto so often in the same Booke of the Psalmes which wee reade and sing euery day in our Churches yea with such an exhortation hee shutteth vp his Psalmes saying Praise ye him with Virginals and Organes Psal 150.4 1. Cor. 14 26 Ephes 5.18 19 20 Coloss 3.16 And that we might know that the praising of God vpon instruments was not a meere lewish Ceremonie and to last only vntill the comming of Christ and no longer the Apostle Saint Paul writing to the Corinthians sheweth that the Christians in his time in their assemblies were wont to sing Psalmes that is to say to ioyne the melodie of instruments with spirituall hymnes and songs for somuch doth the word Psalme in Greeke signifie and therefore the same Apostle distinguished betweene Psalmes and Songs both in his Epistle to the Ephesians and in his Epistle to the Colossians where hee exhorteth the faithfull to the melodious singing of Psalmes Hymnes and Spirituall Songs But if neither the example of king Dauid and the Church of Ierusalem both in King Dauids time and Saint Iames the first Bishop thereof nor the practise of the Primitiue Church within the first 500. yeares can induce vs to a liking of this kinde of Church musicke and of Organs melody yet let this mooue vs to like it that the Pope doth dislike it for otherwise hee would not want Organs in his chappel as he doth whereof I gather this new argument in fauour of Organs at least for the Kings Chappell If it be fit that our Kings Chappell bee vnlike vnto the Popes then is it fit that their bee Organs in our Kings Chappel for there are none in the Popes but the former is fit at least in the opinion of Puritaines and Precisians which would faine wee were vnlike the Pope in each indifferent thing and therefore the latter is fit likewise Sect. 19. Sixtly The Church of England more heauen-like for habite as the English Church is more heauenly for harmonie and therein resembleth neerer the Church of God and Angels then the Geneuian doth so is shee more heauenly for habite The ministers of the triumphant Church euen those blessed spirits that doe offer vp incessantly the sweet incense and sacrifice of praise vnto God are said to bee suted in pure white linnen as wee may reade in the Reuelation in some ten or eleuen places in sixe seuerall chapters Reuel 3.4 5.18 4 4 6 11 7 9 13 14 15 6 19 8 14 Dan.
10.5 12.6 Ezech. 9.2.3 Mat. 28.1 2.3 Mark 16.5 Iohn 20 12 besides that the Angels when euer they assumed humane shapes alwaies appeared in white as we may reade often both in the old and new Testament For this colour hath beene in all ages and in all Churches thought the most comely and conuenient to bee vsed in the doing of diuine seruice and the most sutable to sanctitie puritie and glorie Answerably whereunto in the Church of England our Euangelicall ministers when they doe diuine seruice or celebrate the Sacraments both for distinction and decencie and likewise for a signification of puritie and sanctitie doe put on a white linnen garment commonly called a Surplisse and the Bishop beareth and weareth a white Rotchet where as our Geneuians are all for Baals and Beelzebubs blacke and had rather bee in habite like hell then heauen rather like the Angels of the bottomlesse pit which dwell in darkenesse and whose loathsome liuerie is blackenesse then like the Angels of Paradise which dwell in brightnesse and whose liuerie is light and whiter then the finest and purest laune But white say they must bee abandoned because it hath bin abused in Poperie and by the like reason blacke should be forborne because Baals priests haue abused it to idolatrie and had the name of Chemarims 2. King 23.5 Hos 10.5 because they wore blacke garments or Goneuagownes in their ministration witnesse the very Geneua note it selfe vpon the place marked in the margine But it is a thing resolued amongst all the iudicious and wise that the abuse of a thing doth not take away the right vse thereof and that the children of the Church are not tied to bee vnlike vnto the very enemies of it Reuel 13.11 and idolaters in euery thing For wee may reade in the Reuelation how that Christ and Antichrist are to resemble one another in some things for the Beast is said to haue two hornes like vnto the Lambe 2. Cor. 11.13 14 15. Mat. 7 15 10 16. And S. Paul vnto the Corinthians telleth vs that Sathan will be like vnto the Angels of light in some things and his false Apostles and Ministers will be like vnto the Apostles and Ministers of Christ and in the Gospell of S. Matthew the Apostles and Ministers of Christ are likened to sheepe and the very false Prophets will bee like them in somethings for they come in sheepes cloathing So that both Gospell and Epistle besides prophesie may teach the Ministers of Christ not to forsake their owne liuerie which is white wherin they resemble God and his Angels and the blessed spirits because that others perhaps doe abuse it yea rather because that some doe so the Ministers of Christ ought to vse it still to the end that by their example such as doe abuse it may be brought to vse it aright and so should we doe in other ceremonies of the like nature Sect. 20. Seuenthly The Church of England more heauen-like for locall decencie Churchimplements conueniencie church-seruice solemnity sacramentall ceremony Reuelat. 3.12 7.15 11 1 2 19 14 15 17 15 5 6 8 16 1 7 17 21 Psal 45 13 14 Isay 60 13 17. Reuel 4.1 2 3 4 5 9 10 5 1 6 7 11 13. the Church of England is liker the Church that is in heauen then the Geneuian is in locall decencie Church-implements conueniencie in Church-seruice solemnitie and in sacramentall ceremonie And this is true whether we looke vnto the costlinesse and comelinesse of the Churches of England which are much liker that stately Temple and glorious golden citie new Ierusalem described in the Reuelation then are the base contemptible buildings after the Geneuian forme For wee must remember how that though the Church bee all glorious within yet all her glorie is not within but a good part of it is without or to be seene and discerned by the eye as the royall Prophet teacheth and the Euangelicall Prophet testifieth foretelling that God was to haue his house and the place of his feete amongst Christians to be glorious both for matter and manner structure and furniture Or whether we looke more particularly vnto the splendour and magnificence of the Kings Chappel much like vnto that stately Throne which blessed S. Iohn saw set in heauen for the almightie King to sit on or yet of the Cathedrall Churches the Seas of the reuerend Bishops much like vnto those foure and twentie seates round about the throne whereon the foure and twentie Princely and Priestly Elders doe sit or whether wee looke vnto the conueniencie of the seates of the Quire in each Cathedrall Church appointed for the holy singing men to sit in who like vnto those holy Elders and the yonger Quiristers againe like vnto those Harping Virgines which follow the Lambe and doe sing most sweetly before the throne and the Elders both ioyning their melodious voices together make a sweete consort and send forth Psalmes and Songs of praise vnto him that sitteth vpon the throne and vnto the Lambe to bee lauded for euermore And as the hearts of these our singing Elders and Virgin-yongers are like those Harpes of God which Saint Iohn saw in the hands of the Elders and yongers in heauen so the holy heauenly and harmonious anthemes and accents of these Harpes or Hearts beeing strung and tuned by Gods owne finger conioyned with the musicall and artificial thunder of our Church-organes do most resemble the heauenly harmonie which Saint Iohn heard as the sound of many waters and as the sound of strong thunderings and as the voice of harpes harping with their harpes and singing and saying HALLELVIAH the which kinde of harmonie such Geneuian eares as can not endure heere on earth had best to stay still about the brinkes of the Lemannian lake and hold as farre from heauen as they possibly can for what a gods name should they doe in heauen except they loued heauens harmonie euen our Churches musicall melodie better then they doe And as our comely Churches doe resemble the corners courts and chambers of the stately Temple that Saint Iohn saw opened in heauen our Kings Chappel the heauenly Kings throne our Cathedrall Churches those Princely and Priestly Elders seates our harmonious Organes those heauenly harpes which Saint Iohn saw in the hands of those skilfull Quiristers some like olde men and some like yong boyes and so well resembled by ours and as our Quiristers Psalmes and Songs doe resemble their new songs Reuelat. 8. 9. 10 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and as they are most like one another in their white habites heauenly HALLELVIAHS so doe our Church-belles and chimes resemble those Angelicall trumpets and thunders seauen in number which blessed Saint Iohn heard our Church-Bible answereth to that great sealed Booke our Seruice and Psalme-booke to that little opened booke our Euangelicall Priests reading of the Bible to the Lambes reading and vnsealing of that sealed
1 2 16 27 28 37 5 15 16 17 18 8 9 12 Act. 10.25 16.24 25 26 27 28 29 Gen 40.8 41 14 15 16 25 40 41 42 43 44 Dan. 2.28 29 30 36 48 49 5 29 6 1 2 3. Psal 45.9 13 16 was likewise a Prince Eli and Samuel Priests were Princes and Iudges and the Priests iudged of some ciuill causes together with the other temporall Iudges The chiefe Priests which taught the people of Iuda are called Princes whom King Iehesophat had appointed to be Iudges vnder him both in ecclessiastical and temporal causes as betweene blood and blood betweene law and precept statutes and iudgements Anna called Eli the the chiefe Priest her Lord the widdow of Zarepta the widdow of Bethel the Shunamite Gentlewoman Obadiah King Achabs steward the good Captaine sent by King Ahaziah Naeamen the King of Syrta his Generall Hazael one of the Princes of Benhadad King of Aram did all of them honour the chiefe Prophets of God Eliah and Elisha with the stile of Lords and bowed before them And so did Cornelius the Captaine and likewise the Iaylor to the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul to passe ouer that Ioseph a Patriarke and a Prophet of the Church was likewise a chiefe Prince vnder the King of Egypt euen the next vnto the King Daniel another chiefe Prophet of the Church was likewise a Prince and the next person to the King of Babel Nebuchadnezzar and his three fellowes Shadrach Messach and Abednego were made Gouernours ouer the Prouinces of Babel and the same Prophet Daniel was by King Belshazzar made the third Ruler in the kingdome and by King Darius the first and chiefe Ruler ouer the whole kingdome And the Prophet Dauid prophecying of the splendour and dignitie of the Fathers of the Church vnder the Gospel vseth these words In stead of thy Fathers shall thy Children be thou shalt make them Princes through all the earth meaning that of the Children of the Church there should be chosen such as should bee Fathers and Rulers of the Church as arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops which should bee honoured throughout the whole Christian world as Lords and Princes For the holy Prophet as hee describeth typically Christ as the King of the Catholike Church and none but he to be King and the Church as the Queene and Spouse of this King so doth be signifie vnto vs that the Princes of this King and kingdome are the Rulers and Gouernours of the Church aboue named which of the Children of the Church should bee made Fathers of the Church and should be honoured as Princes as hath binsaid And this prophesie is most cleerly accōplished and verified in the Church of England not of Geneua nor any Geneuian vnto whose Ministers God hath not graunted so much honour as they who haue vnhappily dishonoured and debased themselues in bringing in their Lay-elders to bee Church gouernours in stead of the Bishops I say they haue debased themselues most ridiculously because that they haue submitted themselues who should be as Fathers and Schoolemasters vnto their owne children and Schollers for by those Lay-elders they are elected they are iudged and censured in matters both of life and doctrine they are suspended or remooued from their ministerie and yet they are but meere Lay-men generally voide of learning as being for the most part tradesmen and artificers and some country gentlemen So that there is as great disorder in the Geneuian Church and as grosse absurditie as if the children should command their Fathers in the house or the Schollers correct their Masters in the Schoole or as if the Sheepe should pull the pastorall crooke out of their Sheepheards hand And though that our Geneuians do deriue their Lay-elders and Eldership from the Synedrie of the Iewes for I graunt them with all my heart that the chiefe perfections of the Iewish Church ought to bee found in the Christian Church which thing if they vnderstood well they should see their grosse errours yet I must tel them that they haue nothing like but the name For first the Iewish Elders were inferiour magistrates ordained primarily by the Soueraigne and chiefest magistrate Moses to assist him in matters of Iudgemēt Numbers 11.16 17 Ezr. 10.8 Luk. 22.66 Act. 5.27 wheras the Geneuiā are not Iudges or any such publike persons appointed by the Prince but priuate persons picked out of the Parish by the Preacher and some other with him Secondly the Iewish Elders iudged and censured the Laitie and therefore were called the Elders of the people wheras the Geneuiā presume to censure correct their Clergie Thirdly and lastly the Iewish Elders concurred with the Princes of the Priests as their assistants or officers in matters of iudgement and debate but the Geneuian haue no Princes of Priests Deut. 17.8.9.10.11 12,2 Chron. 19 8 9 10.11 Ezech. 44.4 or Prince-Church gouernours as Primates Archbishops or Bishops to giue assistance vnto whereby it doth appeare that the Iudges and Iustices of Peace in England are like those Elders of the Iewes especially the Iudges of Ecclesiasticall courts called by the names of Chancellour Commissary Deane of the Arches Officiall and the like and in no wise the Elders after the Geneuian forme Moreouer as the Ministers of the heauenly Church are called Priests so are the Ministers of the Church of England honoured Reuel 4.8 9 10.11 5 8 7 10 12 8 3 4 Heb. 13.15 Hos 14.3 with the same holy title and stile Those Angelicall Priests doe offer vp vnto God the spirituall sacrifice of prayer and praise and answerably thereunto our English Euangelicall Priests offer vnto God the like spirituall sacrifice as the Apostle prescribeth saying Let vs therefore by him offer the sacrifice of praise alwaies to God that is the fruite of the lippes which confesse his name Publike prayer and praise is a sacrifice and therfore the Minister that offereth it is a Priest neither could he blesse publikely the people except hee were a Priest for Church-benediction is a part of the Priests function nor yet Minister any of the two Sacraments in both which there is a spirituall sacrifice for by Baptisme our bodies and soules are offered vnto God by the hand of his Priest Rom. 12.1 Mat. 26.27.28 29 30. 28 19 Ioh. 6.32 33 41 51 Reue l. 2 17 a reasonable and liuing sacrifice and in the Eucharist or Sacrament of the Lords Supper he offereth vnto God in our name the spirituall sacrifice of thankesgiuing for giuing the substance of his blessed body both corporally for vs a bloodie sacrifice vpon the crosse and spiritually vnto vs in the Sacrament of bread wine and euen for feeding of vs in a my sticall and supernaturall manner with his flesh which is that hidden Manna of heauen Reuel 1.4 5 6 5.10 Heb. 7.15 17 21 24 26 28 8 1 2 3. promised in the Reuelation to those that ouercome To bee briefe the blessed Apostle
Saint Iohn writing vnto the Angels or Bishops of the seauen Churches of Asia calleth them Priests like as the foure and twentie Elders in heauen doe call themselues Priests and Iesus Christ himselfe is called a Priest yea more an high or chiefe Priest and consequently must haue inferiour Priests vnder him And such are the Ministers of the Gospell in England the which stile whilest our Genenians cannot endure no more then the white Surplisse and the artificiall singing I wonder what they meane to do in heauen where Saint Iohn saw so many Priests so many white habits and heard such harmonie and musicall melodie Now the honourable titles that God hath vouchsafed his Ministers doe show that it is his will Deut. 10 9 12 19 24 23 25 Numb 18.12 13 17 18 19 20 21 2 23 24 1. Cor. 9.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Heb. 10. 1. Tim. 5.17 18 they should haue a more honourable maintenance then Geneua doth allow them in their beggarly contributions The Priests and Ministers of the Gospell haue succeeded into the roome of the legall Priests and Ministers of the Tabernacle and therefore they haue succeeded to their maintenance and so much the more because these serue him in a more excellent manner then the other did And if hee would not haue his Ministers to begge vnder the law or yet to depend vpon popular beneuolences shall wee thinke that hee would haue his Ministers vnder the Gospell to be subiect to such a beggarly condition Euery prouident wise master prouideth for his houshold and seruants Leuit. 27.30 31 32. Deut. 12.17 18 19 14 22 23 27 29 26 Numb 18. Nehem. 10.35 36 37 38 39. Iosh 13.14 33. 2. Chron. 31.4 5 6 7 8 Ezech. 44 28 29 30 2. Tim. 2.6 Luk. 10.2.7 1. Tim. 5.18 Mat. 9.37 38. wherefore it followeth that God who is the most prouident and wise Master of all other hath prouided for the maintenance of his houshold seruants and we know none other but first fruites and tithes all labourers haue certaine standing wages the Ministers of the Gospell are Gods labourers therefore they ought to haue their standing wages likewise and wee read of none other except first fruites and tithes And therefore we see how our Sauiour forbiddeth his Apostles to goe from house to house telling them that the workeman is worthy of his hire And truly if hee would not haue his Apostles to goe from house to house euen in that time when tithes were withholden from them by the Iewish clergie shall we thinke that now when the Iewish clergie is abolished he would haue his Ministers of the Gospell to goe from house to house or yet to send from house to house to begge the peoples beneuolences Those that withheld from Christs Apostles and Ministers the duty of first fruites and tithes were such as persecuted both them and Christ and crucified him in the end Deut. 10 9 12 19 14 23.29 2. Chron. 31.4 Prouerb 3.9 10. and such God spoiling Gospellers as doe now adaies withhold the Church-rents from Churchmen what doe they else but persecute Gods Ministers and crucifie Christ daily in his members The ends of paying first fruites and tithes vnto Gods Priests are perpetuall to wit that the Ministers of God may bee maintained and not forsaken but more and more encouraged in the seruice of God that God may be honoured with our riches and acknowledged to bee our great Land-lord and good Lord that we may learne to feare the Lord and that hee may blesse vs in all the workes of our hands that so our store may be increased and our barnes filled with abundance are not Christians Gods tenants farmers and vassals as well as were the Iewes and doe we not hold all that we haue of God as well as they and are we not bound to pay our annuall rents vnto God as duly and truly as they and what reason haue Christians to forsake their Ministers more then the Iewes had and doe not the one deserue aswell to bee liberally maintained and encouraged in their worke as the other and haue not Christians as great cause to learne to feare God as the Iewes had finally doe not Christians desire as earnestly as the Iewes did to be blessed in the workes of their hands and in the encrease of their store wherefore it followeth necessarily that we Christians must pay our Tithes as truly and duly as did the Iewes 1. Tim. 5 17 18. 1. Cor. 9.7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. And therefore the blessed Apostle as he commendeth vnto Christians the honourable and liberall maintenance of the Mininistery right diligently writing to the Corinthians and euen prooueth by the law of Moses the right that the Ministers of the Gospell haue vnto our carnall things and euen vnto such carnall things as both Moses doth prescribe in his Law and the Apostle himselfe doth mention entreating of this matter comprehending them vnder these two kinds the fruits of the field and the flockes of the fold so writing to the Galathians he enioyneth in expresse words Heb 13.7 Galat. 6.6 euery one that is taught in the word to make him that hath taught him partaker of all his goods The people must giue a part of their goods vnto their Pastours as the Apostle prescribeth and all doe acknowledge to be reasonable now this part must either be equall vnto the Leuiticall part or greater then it or else smaller To giue them a smaller were a most vnreasonable indiscretion and a more then beastly ingratitude and if they will not nor cannot bestow a greater such as indeed it ought to be 2 Cor. 3.6 7 8 9 10 11. for looke how farre the ministerie of the Gospell is more excellent then that of the law so much the more ample and liberall ought to be the maintenance of the Ministers of the Gospell then was that of the Ministers of the Tabernacle yet at least for shame they must giue an equall portion with that of the legall Priests Lastly to shut vp this our reasoning for the perpetuitie of tithes for the honourable maintenance of Christs seruants for hereof wee haue written more amply in a worke published some fewe yeares agoe called the Golden art or the right way of Enriching dedicated to the two most famous and royall Cities of these two kingdoms I say that the holy Scripture setteth downe the paying of these yearely Church-rents amongst morall duties and accounteth of Sacriledge not as if it were the transgression of a ceremoniall ordinance but euen the violation of a morall law Will a man spoyle his Gods saith the Lord God by his Prophet Malachie yet ye haue spoyled me in tithes and in offerings Malacha 3 8. Prouerb 3.9 10 20.25 Honour the Lord saith Solomon with thy riches and with the first fruites of all thine encrease so shall thy barnes bee filled with abundance and thy presse shall burst with new
partly to binde Sathan in chaines of darkenesse and to triumph ouer him in his strongest hold The which doctrine is verified and iustified both by Scriptures authoritie and Churches testimony euen both by Gods word and mans First by typicall prefiguration secondly by propheticall prediction thirdly by pregnant historicall allusion fourthly by euangelicall explication and application fiftly by apostolicall asseueration sixtly by all ancient Christians common and Catholike confession seuenthly by Primitiue Doctors consent vnanime profession eightly by the most part of learned Protestants ingenuous reception subscription ninthly by irrefragable reason and demonstration tenthly and lastly by the consideration of such opposions dissentions and contradictions as the oppugners of our Sauiours locall descending haue fallen into about this point and of the absurde vnlearned and ridiculous yea impious expositions that the Genenians haue deuised of such Scriptures as do most cleerly euince the truth of this article The impiousnesse of which their doctrine shall appeare by our showing how in some things they doe iumpe with the Iewish enemies and opposers of the Messias his suffering death and descending into hell to destroy the author of death and in some things with the ancient Hereticks Arrians and Apollinarians which did denie our Sauiours humane reasonable soule and therefore did expound those places of Scripture wherin mention is made of the beeing of our Sauiours soule in hell after his death in the same manner that the Geneuians and other vpstarts haue done of the preciser sort Whereas the Doctors of the Primitiue Church which oppugned those heretickes did expound them as the Church of England I meane the reuerend Bishops and other learned Doctors thereof that haue beene since the daies of King Edward the sixt of famous memorie vntill this present time of the happie raigne of our most learned and religious Soueraigne King Iames the sixt Which being well considered the Church of Scotland shall see how that they haue a thousand times better reason for them to ioyne with the Church of England and with the ancient orthodoxe and true Catholike Christians then to iumpe with the new Geneuians or any of the condemned hereticks in the expounding such places of Scripture I. And first I say that there is in the Scripture Gen. 37.24 Ionah 1.17 2.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 typicall prefiguration both personall and reall of our Sauiours descending into hell namely Iosephs putting into the pit without water by his brethren mentioned in the 37. chapter of Genesis and Ionah his being in the belly of the Whale in the midst of the sea three daies three nights as it is in the first and second chapters of his prophesie And therein our Sauiour himselfe affirmeth that Ionah was a type or figure of him and that his foresaid condition was a figure or signe of his owne being after death in the hart of the earth Mat. 12.39.40 as it is in the twelfth of S. Matthewes Gospell for as Ionas saith our Sauiour was three daies and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three daies and three nights in the bea rt of the earth The which cannot be vnderstood of our Sauiours buriall as our Geneuians would make vs beleeue for his graue was not neere the heart of the earth nor Christs body was not in the belly of the earth but both were in the head face or top of the earth and not within it but without it for it was a tombe hewen out of a rocke as it is in the Gospell and so those words of Ionah were verified in the person of Iesus really Mat. 27.60 Out of the belly of hell cried I and againe Thou hast brought vp my soule from the pit for as Ionab was in the middest of danger without danger in the bottome of the sea without being drowned so was our Redeemer Iesus in the middest of danger without danger and euen in the bottome of the fiery pit without being burned or consumed thereby as Ionah was in the belly of the Whale without being destroyed so was Iesus his soule in Leuiathans belly which is hell without being deuoured of Leuiathan the roaring and denouring Lyon And as Ionah as brought vp from the bottome of the sea so was Iesus his soule brought vp from the bottome of the pit wherein is no water but all fire and is so deepe that it is said to bee without bottome And as Iosephs being in that pit without water and Ionahs being in the Whales belly and in the bottome of the sea were personall types and prefigurations of our Sauiours beeing in hell so haue we in the Scripture reall types and prefigurations thereof for as the bloody Sacrifices of the law did shaddow out our Sauiours bloody sacrificing of his blessed Body vpon the Crosse for our sins in which doing he shut vp all those bodily and bloody sacrifices with a solemne Consummatum est saying it is finished so the burnt offerings of the law did fore shew how our Sauiour should offer his soule for an holocaust or burnt offering Ioh. 19.30 according as the Euangelical Prophet Isay had fore tolde saying in the fiftie three chapter He was taken out from prison and from iudgement and was cut out of the land of the liuing for the transgression of my people was he plagued Isay 53.8 9 10.11.12 hee made his graue with the wicked and with the rich in his death though he had done no wickednesse and hee shall make his soule an offering for sinne c. Hee shall diuide the spoile with the strong because hee had powred out his soule vnto death In which words the Prophet pointeth out our Sauiours imprisonment araignement iudgement execution the crucifying and burying of his bodie which was the bloody sacrifice that put an end vnto all bloody sacrifices with his powring out of his soule vnto death and making it an offering for sinne to wit a burnt offering Where obserue well that though our Sauiour offered his very soule to be a burnt offering for the expiation of the sinnes of our soules as hee had done before his bodie for a bloody sacrifice to expiate the sinnes of our bodies yet had not the flames of hel any power thereupon in which respect the three children were a type of him in their walking in the midst of the seuen times hote fiery furnace Dan. 3.21 22 23 24 25 26 27 6 16 22 23 without any hurt as it is in the third of Daniel Yea Daniel himselfe being in the Lyons den without any harme as it is in the sixt chapter was a type and figure of our Sauiours conquering condition in hell that though hee had offered the Lambe of his blessed body to the shambles of the shame full and accursed crosse to be slaine and the Turtleedoue of his diuine soule to the hote furnace to be burnt such burning loue he bare vs yet could not hell fire take any hold