have been eminent and highly exemplary for their piety and charity and patience shall have higher Priviledges more honourable and glorious rewards for their Portion This our Saviour declareth when he assureth That he that receiveth a Fropket quâ talis in the name of a Prophet or upon this account that he is a Prophet shall receive a more then ordinary a Prophets reward Mat. 10.41 that sure must be some speciall eminent reward over and above what God bestows on other men Which seems also to be implyed in that Prerogative Royall stated on the Apostles and setled on them Mat. 19.27.27 and Luke 22.28.29.30 for in both these places the peculiarity and eminency of the reward is expressed though the quality thereof be not For supposing the twelve Tribes to be in a condition of happinesse it will necessarily follow That they who fit upon twelve Thrones to Judge that is certainly to Rule and Govern them must be in an higher degree of dignity and preheminence then those over whom they are set whatsoever that dignity or preheminence be whether in the administration of Christs Church militant or triumphant the former of which St. Austin inclines to For as God hath declared against all unbeleevers and hypocrites Deut. 29.29.20 that he will put out their name from under Heaven make their memories to perish or to rot and stinke so for all sincere converts God hath assured an high glorious and honourable memory Deut. 26.10 Thus it is expressely reported of Jeshua Josh 6.27 and of David 2 Sam. 7.9 I have made thee a great name like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth Now as God doth honour his faithfull servants living and dying so doth the Church of God likewise There may be Idolatry and vanity in giving unto Saints present or departed that honour or any part or parcell thereof which is due to God alone as Invocation and Adoration It is but piety and duty to speak honourably of the worthy acts and sufferings of Saints deceased and keep them in perpetuall remembrance such honour have all his Saints to be commemorated by succeeding generations which it the certain ground of Christian solemne Festivities to praise God for raysing up such Instruments of his glory and his peoples good and to pray unto God that we may imitate their holy Faith and so to follow their holy examples that we may be pertakers with them of a joyfull resurrection Far he it from us not to allow them that which God hath granted the mention and memory of their holinesse and what the Church of God hath thus practised The Iewes when they make mention of any of their deceased Worthies use a Forme of honourable remembrance taken from that definitive Sentence of Solemon Prov. 10.7 Memoria justi sit ad benedictionem vel in benedictione The memory of the just is blessed and if we will rightly conceive what this blessednesse means or wherein this blessing consists The Septuagints Transtation will help to clear unto us for they thus resolve it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the memory of the just is with prayses And then the sense is obvious the memory of the just is blessed that is to be commemorated and remembred with prayses Thus Moses was remembred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their solemnt offices of prayse Eccl. 45.1 and so of these all or most of them Eccl. 46.11.12 and so of Judas Maceabeus 1 Macc. 3.7 Neither hath the Christian Church fallen short in this kind and that in the better and Primitive times witnesse their anniversary remembrances of the Saints departed their Festivall dayes their Panegyricks or commendatory Orations and that immemoriall custome when the holy Communion was Administred to commemorate the Patriarks Prophets Apostles Evangelists Confessors Martyrs and all this according to the Psalmists assertion Psal 112.16 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembranse and that both with God and man With God to reward with Man to celebrate with God to glorifie him with Man to declare his righteousnesse as they wrought or suffered for righteousnesse so it endureth for ever they attested and gave testimony to saving Truths the Truth shall give Evidence for them their Prayers and their Almes goe up for a memoriall before God But from hence to return we may observe where the strength of an Induction lyes not in some single seattered or dispersed prooses or instances but in a full body of them united together especially if an Induction be made use of in the concerns of Religion and Religious Truths and Observances For in this case those Truths and Observances are not sufficiently attested nor convincingly proposed which have onely the determination and approbation the good report of some one or more particular Churches because a Church of any one denomination is fallible hath no assurance that she may not sayle or that the Candle stick should not be removed from her no Nationall Church hath a Promise for a perpetuall existence that is though a Pure Holy Orthodoxe Catholique and Apostolicall Church at this time should continue so unto all successions and Ages in the same purity and perfections As for instance we may not conclude this observation to be a Catholique observation or an observation of Faith because the Roman Church practiseth and under curse or Anathema exacts or imposeth the observation thereof For though some of her observations and determinations in that kind may be truely Cotholique yet we are not so to esteem them barely upon her report but because she holds them in communi with the Catholique Church For that the Roman and Catholique are convertible we are not bound to beleeve because the Romanists beleeve so and give us their word for it we may lawfully demand their proofes and till these he convincingly and cogently produced we may lawfully leave them to the poor fallacy of begging the Question Neither may we resolve this Tenet of the Romanists is de fide an Article of the Christian Faith because they hold and maintain it and obtrudes the beleefe thereof under the sentence of Excommunication both because they are not the onely Catholiques that is assertors of the Catholique Faith their Church is not the Catholique Church but of a confined limited Communion and Iurisdiction And for them to pretend and assume their Church to be the Catholique without proofe is still to beg the Question and because every particular and so that Church may erre and de facte hath erred as well in her Tenets as Observations and departed from Catholique Verities as well as Practises But now if the Tenet be demonstrated to a Tenet of the Catholique Church truely so called that is all these the people of God beleevers of all Ages have thus taught and beleeved taught and practised this demonstration engages and commands our perswasion and obedience For it is not imaginable that all these being qualified as the all these here in these words constant practisers and faithfull sufferers for their beleife
proofes are Catholique or not Or how we may know whether this Doctrine or Observation be truely Catholique such as these all have acknowledged and wherein this Universality consists And the rather because it is confessed both by the Romanists and Reformed That that Church which can evidence it to hold that Faith once delivered to the Saints without Haereticall Innovation or Schismaticall Violation is undoubtedly the true Church of God And it is further acknowledged by the Reformed De meliori notae of the best Ranke That the Title Catholique doth most properly and fitly expresse whether Christian or Christian Societies which hold the common Faith without particular divisions from the maine body of Christianity in opposition to all Heretikes and Schismaticks But since the Church is divided and rent by Heresie and Schisme To whom should this Title be rightly appropriated or who can be truely called Catholique but they who agree and joyne with these all Apostles Fathers Martyrs for what the Patriarkes and the rest were to the Hebrews the Apostles and their Successors are the same to us Beleevers the maine Body of Christians the Universall Church And for this we must have recourse to that approved Rule of Vincentius Lyrinensis lib. cont Haret cap. 3. Magnopere curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditam est hoe est etenim vere propriè Catholicum We are to take care that we hold that which hath been beleeved by all in all places and at all times for that is truely Catholique which Rule in effect is no more but this that which should direct a Christian or Christian company in their examination of the Catholique Truth or Points of Faith is the consenting Testimony of the Universall Church truely such and that by this Rule is that which is Universall in all respects in respect of Persons Place and Time and even the strength of this Apostolicall Induction depends on these considerations all your beleeving Ancestors have acted and suffered at all times from Abel downwards to the present times and of all Places in Chaldea and Egypt as well as in Palestine And these respects we shall declare as followeth 1. The Testimony which is truely Universall must be so in respect of Persons not as if there were not in the Church such who diffented from the generally beleeved Truths But this consideration respects either the Universall of the livers of the first Ages bearing Testimony that such or such a Doctrine was from the Apostles Preachings delivered to all Churches by them Planted or their generall uniforme Testimony herein without any considerable dissenters producible for even such Testimony is worthy of beleife and hath been deemed and is sufficient for the rejection of any new Doctrine Bibl. Patr. Tom. 1. pag. 30. c. pag. 275. for as the generall consent and practise of all Nations to adore and set up a Deity as Divine Power some one or other hath been and is an Argument of force and efficacy against the Atheists which have appeared in any Age inasmuch as nothing besides the ingraffed Notion of a Deity or Divine Power could have inclined so many severall Nations of such severall tempers and dispositions of such contrary Principles in other cases of such severall Educations and civill Government to affect and practise that duty of Adoration or Worshipping some Deity even so the Unanimous consent of distinct Churches agreeing in any Point of Faith or that this was an Apostolicall depositum tradition derived from the Apostles and their followers is a pregnant Argument to any impartiall understanding man of great force against Heretikes and Hereticall dissenters who as Atheists desciverunt à natura have Apostated and fallen away from Nature and the Law of Nature and Nations So these desciverunt à veritate have forsaken the way of Truth the Doctrine of Christ and his Churches for their conviction and confutation and for the confirmation of all consenters and adhaerents to that universall agreement inasmuch as nothing besides the evidence of Truth delivered unto the Christian World by Christ and his Apostles could have kept so many severall Churches in the unity of the same Faith and in this case every particular Church is a competent and authenticke witnesse of every other Church and so of the Catholique Church her integrity and fidelity in servando depositum in carefull preserving the Truth committed to their speciall trust And to presse this more fully as it cannot be a prejudice to any Rule or Custome grounded on the Law of Nations because their have some dissenters though otherwise generally received allowed and practised so neither can it be any prejudice to any Rule or Observation grounded on the Law of Christ because some have opposed and contradicted though generally averred beleeved and conformed unto by all Christians And as it doth not follow this is not a Law of Nature viz. That there is a God and that God to be Worshipped or Nations because some have spoken against it and acted too so doth it not follow this is not the Discipline of Christ because some nominall Christians have adjudged otherwise this is not the common Faith because some stragler or wanderer hath either wilfully deserted it or unwarily fallen out of it this is not that delivered to the Saints because some who deliver themselves Saints and would be called so have not liked it or that it is not the Catholique Faith because some who have usurped and would engrosse the Title have so determined contrary to the generality of all Beleevers But then as the Civilians speak In re consensia emnium Genttum Lex Naturae putanda est The consent of all Nations is to be esteemed the Law of Nature And Quod naturalis ratis inter omnes homines constituit id apud omnes peraequè â—â—stoditur vocaturque jus Gentium That which naturall reason doth constitute among all men is observed by all alike and termed the Law of Nations not as though every individuall thus did constitute and consent for many have depraved Nature and transgresse naturall right so here the common consent of all Churches that this is Apostolicall Tradition or depositum though every single member doe not concurr But the Common Law or Custome of the World in which three circumstances are to be considered Antiquity Continuance and Generality and thus as Nature is immutable in abstracto but not in concreto it is not changed it is often transgressed so Faith is immutable in it selfe semper eadem but men often chop and change it that is violate it To give you an instance to cleare this the fuller yet Arrius sprung an Heresie had many adhaerents and those of great power and parts yet is that Doctrine which he broached justly adjudged contrary to the Catholique Faith professed in the Church of God inasmuch as the severall distinct Visible Churches of the Christian World by unanimous consent communicating and exhititing their severall
the honestum that the tryall of your Faith might be precious c. 1 Pet. 1.7 The Apostles adjudged their sufferings honourable Acts 5.41 and therefore they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name Add to this they consorm us to Christ our Head the Prince of sufferings who by his sufferings hath sanctified and enobled all ours but they are most of all of the utile they are infinitely profitable to prevent the greatest evills and to procure and secure the greatest good and if they be in some degree all these both joyous and honourable and profitable then also they must be eligible not simply and absolutely for so they are not because mala poenae evills for sin or the evills of punishment contrary to Nature but comparatively and upon supposition not as the matter of our first but second and sometimes better choyce when they are received as Medicines taken as tryalls of the most eminent graces of humility contentation meeknesse stedfastnesse and Faith and when managed to the use and exercise of these or when applyed as assurances of after felicities and thus even Death it selfe may be desired as a determination of humane imperfections and miseries as an Introduction to a new and more excellent life Thus Elias prayed that God would take away his life 1 Kings 19.4 not positively or peremptorily for he fled for it's safety but conditionally rather then Baal should seem to prevaile against God rather then he see the whole designe of Ahab and Jezabell acted with all sury and cruelty upon the Prophets of the Lord. And Saint Paul knew not what to chuse in that strait Life or Death yet his desire was rather to depart because thereby he should obtain to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and we long to be cloathed c. 2 Cor. 5.4 and we are willing rather to be absent in the body and to be present with the Lord ver 8. And this was the case of Moses his choyce it was not through passion but with deliberation with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather the act was neither purely voluntary nor involuntary but mixt as Patients take bitter Pills and Potions rather then they will languish and consume suffer one part of the body to be Cauterized or amputated and cut off rather then the whole perish as Mariners in a Storme at Sea will rather lose their goods then lives and Moses did this the rather because he esteemed his and their sufferings the sufferings of Christ Q. But how were they the sufferings or reproch of Christ Was Christ then exhibited in the flesh Or could he suffer who had no flesh to suffer in Or could Pharaoh reproch him whom he knew not whose Person was without his reach and no way subject to his power A. Doubtlesse their sufferings here have the appellation of the reproch of Christ upon the same account that Saint Pauls reproches are stiled the afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 for as Christ could not suffer personally before he assumed our Nature and took our flesh so neither was it possible for him to suffer after the Resurrection of his Flesh and that his Body was Glorified For on the Crosse his sufferings had their determination and period with that Consummatum est It is finished Iohn 19.30 And Saint Paul tells us Christ being raysed from the Dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 and if not Death then no penalties or miseries which are but either the Harbingers and Fore-runners or Attendants and Followers of Death So that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one Christ before his Incarnation and after his Glorification suffers and is reproched not in his Personall capacity as he was during his residence on Earth but in his politick capacity and in this consideration he was from all Eternity Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever and he suffers and did alwayes suffer when any part of his Body suffereth As therefore in Moses and his Hebrews Christ mysticall was reproched so in Saint Paul and the then Church of Christ he was mystically afflicted Christ ever did and now doth suffer in his Members he ever did and still doth count their afflictions his own God did so Isay 63.9 and still doth so witnesse that Voyce from Heaven Acts 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me uttered by Christ and ver 5. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest in his Members For he that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2.8 for he is the Head of his Body the Church and the Head is sensible of the sufferings of the Body nay the Church is expresly called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ He saith not Ita Christi but Ita Christ us unum Christum appellans caput corpus Aug. de pecc mer. lib. 1. cap. 31. so is Christ so is the whole consisting of Head and Members the denomination is taken not from the subordinate Members of the Body but from the supreme the Head so is Christ that is Christ mististicall And that this is the genuine meaning of this place may be concluded from that we find expressed Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made He saith not And to Seeds as of many but as of one And to thy Seed which is Christ And therefore this most significantly and comfortably doth denote and ascertain unto us that close union and conjunction betwixt Christ the Head and the Church his Bady and from thence results that sympathy and compassion of Christ in the sufferings and injuries of his people and servants Now that the beleeving Hebrews for otherwise this would not have been argumentative to them had also this perswasion there are besides the fore-mentioned two places in the Old Testament convincingly to demonstrate it That place where David in spirit called Christ Lord Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord c. My Lord indeed fiducially and obedientially but not exclusively for it is plain he was Lord over the Collective Body the whole Israel of God a Ruling Lord over his People whereof David was but one though a Chiefe one And as David thus gives us an account of his Faith That he expected a Messias and beleeved that that Messias was the Head of the People the Lord of the aggregated of Israel so he assures us that that persuasion was a part of the Jewish Creed for that whole Israel esteemed and adjudged that all projects and defignes to prosecute and oppresse the Peoof God were conspiracies and associations against the Lord and against his Anoynted Psal 2.2 Moses therefore did chuse both Religiously and Prudently because he esteemed his and his Brethrens sufferings the reproch of Christ a choice not of Faction but Faith because of a state
Hearts and affections with Peace that when he shall return to make inquisition for blood transgression and sin we may by him and that league and Covenant of Peace concluded with thee in him be delivered from wrath to come and for him receive forgivenesse of sins and Inheritance among them who are sanctified by Faith in him O let us not have our portion with unbeleevers nor our part with the disobedient for then we shall certainly perish but think upon us O Lord for good that we may be saved with that remnant who have their Robes washed and whitned in the blood of the Lambe who have separated themselves from the children of Belial and Table of Devills and keep themselves unspotted from the World and so both they and we may be presented in our Bodies our Soules and Spirits holy blamelesse and undefiled at the comming of our Lord. Holy God keep as from the contagion of sin and sinners preserve us in thy truth and love in the Vnity and Communion of thy one true holy Catholique Church that having the Seale of Gods Servants in our Forcheads we may cry and sing eternally Salvation to our God who fitteth on the Throne and to the Lambe Amen The CONCLUSION Heb. 11. from the 32. verse to the end of the Chapter And what shall I say more for the time would faile me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Sampson and of Iephthah of David also and Samuel and of the Prophets Who through Faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousnes obtained promises stopped the mouthes of Lyons c. THe Apostle now coms to a Conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a preâ—â—â—on cutting short his Discourse and cursorily casting up the residue of the Faithfull which were to be inserted in this Catalogue even all the Succession of Beleevers who lived from the time of the Judges ruling under God in Israel till that present Age wherein he Wrote to these Hebrews nominating onely some shortly touching their works and patience intimating onely and hinting at others by their acts and sufferings by which we may guesse and conjecture at their Names and Persons And having thus compleated his Designe and Canon he gives a full Testimoniall and Certificate of approbation in the two last Verses both of these thus in the close either expressed or alluded to and of those foregoing whom he had honoured with a larger Narrative and more distinctly and aithfully insisted on and more amply commended I shall therefore here leave my former Method in the respective Observance of the Apostle and summarily and briefly run over these subsequent Examples and Presidents of Faith as they lye here in their severall order contracted and so follow his Abridgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the words following in course And what shall I more say If these Hebrews be of tractable and teachable Spirits enough is said already to establish and strengthen them in the holy Faith and what needs more then enough sufficient is said what is more is ex abundantia The time would faile me c. An Hyperbolicall expreson importing thus much So numerous is the company of the Faithfull Ancients and so many their Faithfull Actions in the holy Registery that a full enumeration of them and what is Recorded of and concerning them would exceed the bulk of an Epistolar Exhortation and Remonstrance and rise into a large and exact History These here mentioned will serve strongly to make good the Induction and thereby prove the Position Faith is the substance of things hoped the evidence of things not seen c. and therefore it is unnecessary altogether to enlarge further and therefore also take them more succinctly and compendiously Thus your Painters being to deliniate a Croude or a Thronged Multitude doe not take them whole and in full but draws them out by the Pole and presents you nothing but the tops and crowns of their Heads amassing their bulks altogether Gideon whose faithfull expedition is Recorded Judges 6. and 7. whose stratagem with the number of three hundred men struck a Panick fear into the numerous Mideanitish Army that they Fled and killed each other Baracks Prowesse and Faith was manifested That with a small inconsiderable Body he durst encounter and did totally Rout the vast and well-provided Army of Sisera King Iabins Captain Generall Iudges 4. and 5. Samson follows whose Faith was greater then his admired and renowned strength admired it was because it lay in those excrescences of his Body his Heires which in other Men are of the least use and most weaknesse Renowned it was to a Proverb and deservedly for without any offensive or defensive Weapons by his bare Arme of Flesh he tore in pieces a Lyon like a Kid Iudges 14.5.6 when his Hands were bound he brake the Cords like scorched Flax and being loosed with the law-bone of an Asse flew a thousand Men Iudges 15.14 c. when he was Beseiged and immured by the Philistines he carried away the Gates of the City with the two Posts Barr and all Iudges 16.3 and by leaning upon the two middle Pillart of the House the whole Fabrick dissolved Iudges 16.30 Iephthah is the last mentioned of the Iudges though he was before Samson as Barack was before Gideon who notwithstanding was first here nominated You may finde the History of his Resolution and Noble Attempts against the Ammonites in the defence of Israel Iudges 11. I shall referre you to the Text and leave them after a not very impertinent Digression and two Practicall Observations The Digression aimes at a Fact of Samsons and Iephtha's and depends on these following Quaeries 1. Whether Samson in that his last mentioned Enterprize was not Felo de se guilty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of selfe-murder which not onely the Rule of Faith but reason it selfe condemns as sinfull and unnaturall Arist lib. 5. Eth. cap. 11 But to wave some mens conjectures Saint Augustines Answer seems to me most cleare who accounts this inter beroica an extraordinary act proceeding from an extraordinary motion of Gods Spirit in no wise or case imitable For saith he lib. 1. de Civitate Dei cap. 21. Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat he had a secret or private Order for it And more fully cap. 26. of that Book Non humanitas deceptus sed divinitus jussus nec arrans sed obediens It was not a crime but duty in him And he adds this reason Cum Deus jubet seque jubere sine ullis ambagibus intimat quis obedientiam in crimen vocet quis obsequium pietatis accuset If God command and clearly intimates his command this supersedes the guilt and absolves it from disobedience 2. Concerning Iephtha's Vow Whether it in it selfe were rash Whether he executed this rash Vow and in the Execution thereof did sin against the Law of God This in Saint Augustines judgement is Magna ad dijudicandum difficilima Quaestio Tom. 4. quaest sup Iud. lib. 7. cap. 49. a great
French Protestant Du. Pless lib. 1. de Missa cap. 3. That the Apostles retained the pure worship and service of God used in the Synagogue of the Jews as far as they contradicted not the Dispensation under Christ and so though they changed the Sacrifices and the Sabbath Christ being the substance shadowed by them and the Lords Day being appointed to succeed this yet the service it selfe in other particulars did continue and this appears to be the practise of the Jews for we find their Confession saith he Mat. 3.6 Mar. 1.5 Acts 13.38 their Lessons Acts 15.21 Acts 13.14 Luke 4.18 Their Psalmes and Hymnes Eph. 5. Col. 3. Their Sermons and other such holy Offices Et primi Christiani huie Officis se accommedarunt id lib. 1. Demiss cap. 4. the first Christians confirmed hereunto c. So also the Observation of the Anniversary Festivalls of the Church of Baptizing Infants and after their Confirmation The admission of separated Persons to the Calling of the Ministery by imposition of Hands The different Offices of those so called and separated by the known Titles of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and this according to the received Doctrine of the Universall Church for 1500. Years without any considerable opposition in Church censures and that these were such practises of the Universall Church these all who have gone before us in the Profession of that holy Discipline of out Lord Jesus hath been abundantly proved out of their Testimonies and Records And from these premised Grounds we may take an estimate what Church or Churches holds the truest and most perfect correspondence with the Catholicke Certainly they who glory most in that Attribute and Title have the least Reason and Right both because they have not the good report of these all nor the Testimony of the Universall Church for their Doctrines which they maintain and also because the Universall Church hath defined against their Innovations both in Faith and Practise Witnesse the Decree of the Councill of Ephesus the third of those foure which are generally received for undoubted Generall Councills which runs thus Nemini licere c. It should not be lawfull for any to Produce Write or Compose any Beleise beside that which was establisht by the Fathers at Nice and that c. Can. 7 And so Conc. Floren. Sess 10 Now they who would Engrosse and Monopolize this Title have changed the Apostolicall Creed by making a new one which holds no Analogy with the old Apostles Creed all which their superadditions are extrinsecall to that Rule of Faith and so no parts of the Christian Religion And this New Creed which they made is ratified by Bulla Pii 4. super forma juramenti professionis fidei thus mixing the Tares of their own inventions and policies with the Wheat of Gods Word and corrupting the masse or lump of holy Faith by the leven of the new additions And their practise is as grosse and un-Christian in dividing the Apostolicall Communion by Excommunicating full three parts of the holy Catholicke Apostolike Church That Church which holds the one Catholike Faith holy and undefiled holds the truest conformity with the Catholike which the Roman Church at present doth not because she hath defiled the Old Faith with New Doctrines for which she neither hath the consent of Antiquity nor of the Universall Church of this Age and those Churches which either in part or in whole admit not the Apostles Creed or oppose any truth therein contained or any of the Explications thereof by the foure first Generall Conncells are justly adjudged Hereticall and so is the opposing any practise which is truely and genuinely Apostolicall and so received by the Universall Church in all Ages hereticall and a voluntary separation from the Communion of that Church which requires nothing for matter of Faith but the Apostolicall Creeds according to the Decree of the Councell of Ephesus and nothing in point of practise but the observations of the Catholike Church since the Apostles Ages the known Worship and Service of God in the use of Liturgies Prayer the Word and Sacraments the standing Government in the distinct and severall Orders and Officers thereof and the exercise of Ecclesiastique Discipline is directly Schismaticall as tending to the breach of the Catholique Communion dividing that body into two opposite parts which should be whole one and entire so that according to the sore going Grounds which are confessed by the Roman party and so will be evidence and proofe against them the English Reformed Church cannot be guilty of Heresie because She holds the Apostolicall Creed without addition or diminution The Romish Synagogue or Court is truely and properly Hereticall and Schismaticall too inasmuch as she hath Composed a New Creed and so made an addition to the standing Rule of Faith and hath obtruded the beleife thereof to all other Christians under pain of damnation And again the Reformed English Church cannot be guilty of Schisme because she holds Communion with the whole Church in all her ancient Apostolicall Catholike usages and customes and disclaims all which are not so as to her practise but condemns not nor censures any other particular Church further then by Apologizing and defending her selfe to be truely Apostolicall and if herein she be wanting to her selfe yet she can produce the Testimony and good report for her Apostolicalnesse of the best Reformed Churches and indeed the Universall Church of this Age. But I have extended this digression further then I intended or may be adjudged by others convenient and pertinent But sure I am not so far as the weight and importance of the subject doth deserve for in such subjects there should not be à nonnulla desiderantur somewhat more expected and yet here much more might be added A good report and a good name is better then precious oyntment and nothing entitles a particular person to that but his own Faith he is too flat and Stoicall nay Cynicall who cares not what others report concerning him especially if those others be in number of these all men of good report and fame It is true a good man will not be offended at a rayling cursing Shimei an evill man reporting false evill things yet a good man will endeavour to keep his credit with good men as well as a good Conscience to himselfe For ordinarily as Tacitus observes and it was well observed by an ingenious Person that it is pitty St. Augustine said it not Contemptu famae contemnuntur virtutes they that neglect the good opinion of others neglect those vertues which should produce and beget that good opinion Therefore St. Hierome protests to abhorr that Paratum de trivia that vulgar dunghill language I care not what all the world sayes so long as my own Conscience checkes me not for we unlesse we will be debaucht must study not onely to be but to appear also vertuous Let your light saith our Saviour Mat. 5.16 so shine before men and we must follow
the Disciples blessed Because their Eyes saw c. Luke 10.23.24 And Saint Paul tells us God manifest in the flesh is the great Mystery of godlinesse 1 Tim. 3.16 Yet under submission to greater judgements I conceive this not so full and home as to give desired satisfaction to a punctuall examiner nor so pertinent to the Apostles Text for though Christ who was perfected here himself Heb. 7.28 and did perfect for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 1 Pet. 1.11.12 did come to perfect what stood need thereof Yet somewhat more then Christs Incarnation is required to our perfection and our perfection did not solely not properly consist in Christs comming but by those acts and sufferings he was fitted and prepared for by assuming our flesh And now we will consider the fourth The fourth is that of St. Chrysostome and some Ancients and followed also by some later Expositors They obtained not the promises that is the Resurrection of the flesh And so this falls in this respect with the second the onely difference being this That the second supposed not the separated soules to be in Heaven this supposes them in Heaven but to receive the complement of blisse at the day of the Resurrection of all flesh which is the perfection of the whole Church every particular member who as before at the day of their death had a private pardon so at that day shall further obtain a publique promulgation thereof whose soules though they be in a condition of blessednesse yet till then they want their Consummatum est the consummation of this blessednesse both extensivè in respect of their intire state the body not till then being reunited to the soule and probably intensivè too in respect of measures and degrees of blisse the soule not till then having so cleare a Vision of God as it shall have hereafter as may appear by those prementioned places Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.7.8 and this we Pray for when we say Thy Kingdome come or Come Lord Iesus come quickly Or with our Mother the Church That we and all other departed in the Faith of thy holy name may have our perfect consummation of blessednesse in thine everlasting Kingdom So that with these the provision here made and the perfection here assigned is not present but future To which purpose it is observable there is a two-fold provision or perfection of the Body the Church One as I may terme it meritorious which was the perfect oblation of our Redeemer and so this perfection and provision here was procured and purchased by the price of his blood on the Crosse The other is formall and finall which is the seizure and possession of that purchase and the happy consequent thereof the advancement of our being into the highest pitch of perfection and excellency our nature is capable of and this we obtain not till the last day when both Soules and Bodies shall be compleatly glorified with Christ our Head The former is the perfection of the means The latter of the End And that this latter is here understood we have these Reasons to perswade 1. The designe of the Apostle in this Chapter which was not to administer comsort to their Soules against the guilt of sin and terrors of a tender Conscience for he had happily perfected this work in the fore-going Chapters but strengthen and comfort them against those miseries and calamities they endured for the Name of Christ And the ground of this comfort he setcheth from their hope of glory and reward at the last Heb. 10.34.36 and 38. ver and ver 1. of this Chapter confirmed and illustrated by the Faith of the Patriarks ver 16. and of Moses ver 26. all which shew that the felicity here presented to them in opposition to and remedy for their present calamities was a future eternall felicity 2. The expression here used seems also to imply this for he hath qualified this promise by stiling it a promise belonging to our profession to our patience to the recompence of reward cap. 10. ver 23.25.35 and 36. and this relates not to his first comming but to his last when he shall settle his Church in the possession of his glorious Kingdom and is formally expressed the obtaining of a better Resurrection ver 38. of this Chapter Beza Annot. on Iohn 14.3 3. Other places of Scripture ascribes the perfection and grounds the chiefe hope of the Church on the Resurrection and the word here used perfected is in Iohn 17.23 used to denote the most eminent and full felicity and the Resurrection is called therefore the hope of the promise Acts 23.6 and 24.15 but most clearly Acts 26.6.7.8 ver and so the hope of Israel not to him so called in his person onely but to all the Posterity of Israel that is all the true Israelites and upon this account God stiles himselfe the God of Abraham ver 16. of this Chapter because by this Abraham yet lives for God is not the God of c. and thus these all are expectants not enjoyers probationers not possessors for these all look for but they obtained not yet hereafter shall 4. We have a further confirmation of this from these following Reasons 1. Man is a compound of Scule and Body and so man the suppositum cannot be perfected whilst they are both separated but is to receive his perfection when they both shall be united and this cannot be till the Resurrection 2. The Covenant of Grace is made to the whole man so that the Scripture comparatively seems not to esteeme of that felicity which the separated Soule enjoyes in Heaven because 1. One part of man all that intervall is under the power of the last Enemy Death 2. The happinesses of the Soule shall probably be both multiplyed and heightened at the re-union of the separated parts by a super-addition of glory or degrees thereof Rev. 19.6.7.8 Acts 3.21 then shall be the time of refreshing of restitution then these all and all we since shall be perfected actuall partakers of that fulness of Glory which is promised and provided for the whole Body of Beleevers There is a fifth conjecture which I lately met with in a Learned and judicious Interpreter The perfection here was to have the Promise made to Abraham Gen. 22.17 made good to them in the utmost extent The Iewish Church was persecuted and destroyed the Christian may be persecuted cannot be destroyed that is the Candlestick may be removed the Candle cannot be extinguished the Kingdom of God may be translated it cannot be conquered But I prefer the fourth and leave the whole to Gods blessing The Prayer O God of all goodnesse who hast abundantly furnished us with matter of Prayse with a rich treasure of Grace in Jesus Christ make us followers of him and of these all and all those who have fought the good fight of Faith that we may follow also their holy Faith and with them be partakers of a glorious Resurrection to have our perfect consummation and blisse in thy Heavenly Kingdom Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen Amen Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Amen FINIS