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
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
the letter and Circumcision doe transgresse the Law that is those who have not those profitables helps and means as thou hast to enable to the performance of the Law condemn thee of negligence ingratitude and contempt by their endeavours to out goe thee in obedience yea who out-strip and out-goe the being destitute of these forces and therefore thou having but not using them art reproveable and inexeusable In summe no pious man will unne cessarily neglect the means of Piety as no good Husband the helps of thriving Every pious man will make use of assistances to grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ 2. It is the Duty of the Supreme Magistrate to provide that the outward Offices of Divine Worship and the holy Ordinances be duely and decently Celebrated and in ease of neglect by their Authority to enjoyn and command their Celebration For the Chief Magistrate is Utriusque Tabula Custos Vindex as appears from the Example of Hezekiab 2 Chron. 29.5.21 30.1 compared with 2 Kings 18.4.6 and of Moses Deut. 33.3.4.5 of Iosâ—uah Iosh 24.1 28. David 1 Chron. 15.4.16.43.23.2.3.6 So Solomon Iehoshaphat Nehemiah and so it was believed and received all along by the Christian Church as is obvious to all who have any knowledge in Ecclesiasticall Stories and Customes 3. Nature by it's suppositions doth conclude against us That we ought to Worship God The Egyptian Sciences brought Moses to the contemplation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Eternall Being if we may beleeve Saint Basill Hom. 54. ad adolescentes for Nature as blind as she is doth at long running find an Eternall Power and Being on which all things depend for their conservation because from it all derive their Being Creation and production conservation being nothing else but the same act of Creation in fluxu passing and going on from an instant to a duration and therefore of necessity there must be intercourse between God and Man the excellency of the Creation and Master-piece of all his works But Faith advances higher having received a nobler light from Heaven and discovers how to Worship God acceptably unto all well-pleasing and by such rites as may expresse our experience and thankfulnesse for former speciall favours and bespeak our hope and dependance for the future continuance of them and addition of better according to his exceeding precious Promises and this is indeed to Worship and keep a Passeover an holy Feast through Faith to God Nature discovers in grosse and darkly where Faith proposeth clearly and distinctly Nature might tell Moses a dark and dimne generall that God was the preserver of man-kind but Faith particularly assures him what Reason could not Eye that in one Night by a most terrible Execution an Angel would make a totall destruction of all the First-born in the spacious Country and among the numerous people of Egypt And further yet That in this so speedy and universall ruine of them he would distinguish the Habitations of the Israelites then mixed and sojourning among them by the effusion of the blood of a Lambe upon the Lintell c. This Moses beleeved and therefore kept the Passeover True Faith makes men devout holy to keep all Gods Ordinances and Institutions 4. Moses kept c. The Iews had their Passeover so have we ours 1 Cor. 5. For even Christ our Passeover is is Sacrificed for us Ecce Agnus Dei Behold the Lambo of God Iohn 1.29 They had an Altar so have we Heb. 13.10 We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle They a Circumcision so we Col. 2.11 In whom also ye are Circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ We a Baptisme so they 1 Cor. 10.2 And were all Baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and the Sea Christ the end of the Law to all Beleevers both Iews and Gentiles But of this formerly 5. Moses kept c. He Killed the Sacrifice and Feasted on it Here was both Sacrificium and Sacrum epulum alwayes in their Sacrificing they did Eat with Mirth and Festivity on some parts of the Sacrifice Exod. 18.12 Deut. 12.6 to the 16. 1 Sam. 9.12.13 When we keep our Passeover let us Feast and be joyfull before the Lord our King It is very meet right and our bounden Duty so to doe To appoint and observe a Fast and prohibit all Christian rejoycing and Feasting on our Passeover our great Festivall the Lords Day is to confound a Day of Humiliation and Thanksgiving and to oppose the practice of the Universall Church and hath by it been alwayes adjudged a Schisme Saint Faul hath otherwise ordered the matter 1 Cor. 5.8 Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickednesse but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth by his illution therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solemnly Feast saith Calvin Festum Celebremns so Erasmus keep the Feast make an holy day not for Heathenish sports but Heavenly Duties that as the Saints glorified have their Hallelujahs so we our Rejoycings Triumphs and Thanksgivings for the Resurrection of our Lord. 6. Lest the Destroyer c. They who are in great tribulation are for all that so respected by the all Wise God That the Destroyer of their Soules shall not touch them Psal 91.5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terrour by Night nor for the Arrow that flyeth by Day for God limits his Power as he layes commands upon the Sea Hitherto shalt thou goe and no further Which is clear in Jobs case Job 1.12 And the Lord said unto Satan Behold all that he bath is in thy power onely upon himself put not forth thine hand So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. The Third Part. O Almighty God and Heavenly Father who gave thine onely Son to be our Passeover and to be Sacrificed for us as the Lambe of God Grant that we may keep the Peast continue the memory of that Sacrifice with a Sacramentaell Communion and solemne joy and Thanksgiving that so thou may be pleased by the effusion of the precious Blood of the Immaculate Lambe to wash and clense us from all unrighteousnesse that though our sins be as red as Scarlet yet being bathed in that Blood they may be white as Snow and by the power of the Death of thy Son redeem us from the strength and sting of Death and the Destroying Angell who bad the power of Death that he touch us not And lastly when the great Supper and Marryage of the Lambe shall come we may sit down with Abraham Isaae and Jacob to Feast and Banquet with them and the Assembly of Saints in Heaven before the Throne of God to all Eternity for our Passeovers sake by whom we are saved and for whom we blesse and prayse thee to whom with the holy Spirit be all Honour
and Glory Amen The ISRAELITES Passage Heb. 11.29 By Faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry Land which the Egyptians assaying to doe were Drowned HEre is another Passeover The former a Feast this a Journey The former Sacramentall this reall The former as a Memoriall of the Angels passing by Israel in the Egyptian Plague in this Israel passed from Egypt the Place of their Captivity and advanced towards Canaan the Land of their Inheritance For it was By Faith they passed through the Red Sea c. The First Part. The onely Terme or Particle which in this Passage needâ— Explication the rest being a plain Narrative of matter of Fact is that Relative they whether this take in it's circuit every individuall Israelite which passed or it relates onely to the Majority and greater number of the Passengers or it belongs onely to some few peculiar selected and approved Persons among them whose Faith found and procured a Passage for the residue It is true That in the greatest latitude and largest extent this they must not be understood of every single Israelite nor in the more restrained sense of the Major Part but it must be conceived in the most narrow and strictest acceptation for some select ones all Israel passed upon the credit and Faith of a few of them For though the Apostle expresse it at first with the universall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all passed 1 Cor. 10.1.5 yet to prevent mistakes he passeth an exception in that antithesis ver 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the many the majority of them could not passe for faithfull ones and be approved For for their insidelity they were overthrown in the Wildernesse all of them onely to make a number two were excepted Ioshuah and Caleb Numb 26.65 all the rest fell under Gods displeasure though God was pleased to accept the Faith of those two faithfull persons for and reward it with the Deliverance of the whole Collective Body The Second Part. 1. Faith is efficacious to Beleevets not onely in their personall capacities as they are single Beleevers but also in their Politick as members of a body See 2 Kings 22.19 Isay 65.8 I will spare a whole cluster for one or two servants of mine The Faith of a few a small few conduceth to the advantage of many of a little part two Persons conveys influence on the whole With God Denominatio non sumitur à majori sed à meliori parte as the first fruits consecrates the whole masse a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump so a few Saints makes a whole Church a Church of Saints though the many among them be wicked 1 Cor. 1.2 The Church of Corinth a Church of God though a mixed Church or else the Apostle had not taken cognizance of it nor censured those Tares among the Wheat For he professeth He had nothing to doe with them that are without Extra Ecclesiam 1 Cor. 5.12 though many haereticall many wicked contentions Schismaticks in that communion yet a Church of Saints cap. 1. ver 2. even the very incestuous judged by Saint Paul a Member of the Church else he had not judged him and his uncleannesse no way defiled the whole for he saith positively of the whole but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.11 even a Brother may be a Fornicator c. 1 Cor. 5.11 and so remaineth till censured by the Power of the Keyes and even then because Excommunication is not for Destruction but for Edification not for Excision of the Member but Medicine if he reform of a Brother from us he is become one of us not de novo being Created but Restored after his lapse and recovered 2. When the Faithfull are in straits not knowing which way to turn Faith directs and conducts them It saith Stand still see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 Thy Rod and thy Staffe they comfort me saith Dauid Psal 23.4 When Israel was pursued by Pharach and opposed by the Red Sea Faith made a way through the great depths And such was the resolution of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32.7.8 Be strong and couragious be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him for there be moe with us then with him With him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to sight our Battels And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah King of Iudah Faith opened the belly of the Whale and found Ionas a passage thence Ionah 2. It opened the Iron Gates of the Prison Acts 12. and discovered to Peter a way to escape The Vallyes and Mountains shall be divided into Rivers and Fountains for Beleevers Isay 41.18 and these Rivers shall be for passes and safeties Isay 4.1.2.3 God will suspend the activity of the Elements that the fire burneth them not Dan. 3. the waters drown them not as here God stilloth the madnesse of the people the noyse of their waves Psal 65.7 Isay 17.12 stoppeth their fury that they prevail not and like the enraged Sea overflow not and swallow all up for so these mighty waters would doe if like the Sea they were not bounded 3. They passed and their Passage was smooth and plain they passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by dry Land to re-mind us 1. That to the Almighty all wayes are equally feasible and easie the Night and the Day Sea and Land are both alike he hath the same power over both he can provide for his people in the Wildernesse as well as Canaan Thou which hast shewed me saith David Psal 71.19.20 great and sore troubles I shall have thy passe and safe conduct for thou shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the Earth 2. That the whole Universe is absolutely and arbitrarily subject to the Almighty our God is in Heaven and he saith the Psalmist hath done whatsoever pleased him in the Earth the Sea and the great deeps Iob extends his Soveraignty and Supreme Jurisdiction beyond the circuit of the Sun and Moon to every quarter and corner part and parcell of the worlds great frame Iob 26.6.7.8.9.10.11.12 God is every where and his power ruleth over all Mountains and Vallies Deserts and Champania's if we be Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile he will provide for us in the one as well as the other Patria est ubiâ—â—nque vir fortis sedem eligerit was the determination of an honest Heathen It is far more certain every place is a pleasant comfortable and acceptable seat to a sincere Christian for the all wise God who ruleth all is his God and Guide he will never fail nor forsake them who put their trust in him Psal 125.1.2.3 4. The Egyptians made the like attempt yet they had not the same successe their assault and enterprize proved fatall so experimented is that of David Psal 11.5.6 The Lord tryeth the Righteous they have their tryalls and shall first have
so in an ordinary saving Faith a little if sound will receive a blessing to encrease and multiply a power to remove evill habits out of the soule contracted by evill Education or Example by naturall corruption or complyance with sinfull customes and plant and seed holinesse there which if it be diligently manured and managed all tares weeded out as they bud will fructifie to maturity We have a promise for it Mat. 25.29 Habenti dabitur to him that Husbands well even the least Talent he shall receive an addition and a plentifull one too for he shall have abundance upon every improvement shall receive more that he shall have over-plus a sufficient stock of grace to employ and turn his hand with and serve all his uses 3. Rahab a Cananite a stranger from the Covenant of Promise an Alien from the Common-wealth of Israel is now admitted and received into that Society and Communion and made partaker of the same Grace and Hope with Abraham and Sarah by her Faith She was one of the Primitiae Gentium an earnest of the after calling of the Gentiles that they should be no more strangers and forreiners but fellow Citizens Ephes 2.3 an exact discovery of that great Mistery of Christ that the Gentiles should he fellow heires and of the same Body c. And so it is expresly mentioned of this Rahab That she became an Israelite indeed Iosh 6.25 where she is said to dwell in Israel untill this day for she was Allied to the noblest descent and extraction being Married to Salmon who begat Boaz of Rachab Mat. 1.5 the Progenitors of David and of whom Christ came according to the Flesh So that here we may affirmatively conclude with Saint Peter Acts 10.34.35 Of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons But in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him And with Saint Peter 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandements of God And Gal. 5.6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avayleth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by love 4. Rahab beleeved and therefore separated her self from the company and communion of her hardened fellow Citizens and joyned her self to the society of Gods people and yet she was none of those sensuall separatists spoken of by Saint Jude 19. who walked not with the Church of God but after their own ungodly lusts heaping to themselves Teachers choosing and carving for themselves without the Order of Gods Church and taking them on heaps either confusedly or unsatisfactorily when they have their own choice being never contented put off one to day and another to morrow and so if possible in infinitum and all this from a malignant humor an itching in the eare 2 Tim. 4.3 nor those Pharisaicall separatists who divide themselves from the Body of Christ either upon a vain supposition of Pride that they are holier and the rest prophaner and therefore Procul ô proeul ite come not neer them stand far from them or upon as bad of uncharitablenesse as if the Congregation were not holy and they good soules are afraid to receive infection from it as if the true service of the true God could be unholy and poysonous because some of the servants in that duty are false and wicked For how can their supposed ir-reall it matters not in this case but I will suppose it reall nakednesse touch and defile me when I abhor it for it self piety it and pray against it in them and I onely joyn and communicate with them in that which is confessedly good But she was an holy separatist who forsook the service of false Gods and betook her self to the Worship of the true God her Idolatrous Worship she exchanged for the true and divided not from the Cananites quasi homines as men but from their sins For doubtlesse she desired and wished their conversion and it is a most just and lawfull separation to depart from all iniquity and to keep themselves unspotted from the World James 1.27 Rev. 18.4 And I heard another Voyce from Heaven saying Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues 2 Cor. 6.14.15.16.17 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbeleevers for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darknesse And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that beleeveth with an Infidell And what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols for ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will rective you and such was her separation whereas dayly experience doth evidence That the other humerous separatists are the greatest manuonists designers plotters and contrivers for the World in the whole World and the greediest unsatiable pursuers of the things of the World devourers not onely of Widows Houses but of Kingdoms Inheritances holy things mixing and confounding all with most Heathenish Worldly Policies not considering that the love of this World is enmity with God 5. It was Rahab the Heathen the Gentile house-wife who was the Harlot Rahab the Beleever the Convert is joyned to an Israelite in chast and holy Wedlock Fornication is a Work of the Flesh a pollution of our Bodies Marriage is honourable in all Those may justly suspect their Faith and distrust their conversion who indulge and allow themselves in those unclean satisfactions of the Flesh and Heathenish pollutions Reade that one Law of God Deut. 23.17.18 There shall be no Whore of the Daughters of Israel nor a Sodomite of the Seâ—t of Israel Thou shalt not bring the hire of a Whore or the price of a Dog into the House of the Lord thy God for any Vow for even both these are an abomination unto the Lord thy God Consider what Saint Paul presseth 1 Cor. 6.15.16.17.18 Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Member of an Harlot God forbid What know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one Body for two saith he shall be one Flesh But he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit c. And remember that direfull judgement Revel 21.8 But the fear full and unbeleeving and the abominable and murderers and whoremâ—ngers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all lyar shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death 6 Rahab beleeved and was saved True Faith is the saving grace Infidelity the damnable sin because Faith is alwayes attended with Obedience Infidelity is still followed with Impenitency Indeed Faith and Obedience like Hippocrates Twins
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
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
Confessions and Registers Catechismes and Testimonies of their fore-fathers Faith and their own to the Councell of Nice upon diligent search and inquiry found it contrary to the generall belelfe of the whole Chuch since the first Plantation He who would take the pains for further satisfaction herein let him consult St. Austin lib. 7. de Baptis cont Den. c. 53. Nobis tutum est in c. l. 2. c. 4. Quomodo potait c. 2. In respect of Place for if the Doctrine have not received a good report from all Places it is not qualified for a Catholique inasmuch as the same Faith which was delivered and received in one Place in any Apostolike Plantation was likewise found in all other Plantations it being one and the same Faith which all the Apostles taught all the World over the same in Germany Britaine France which was in Spaine Affricke and Egypt the middle World and in Asia and the whole Orient or East of the World even as the same Sun shines through them all And to this Tertullian gives his Testimony at large lib. de Praefeript advers Haeret. cap. 20. Statim igitur Apostoli c. Presently therefore the Apostles having testified the Faith first in Judea according to their Commission they took their Journey over the World and promulgated the same Doctrine of the Faith to the Nations c. whereunto accords fully his follower Saint Cyprian lib. de Vnitate Eccl. Ecclesia Domini luce perfusa c. The Church having received light from her Lord diffused and spread abroad his beames farr and wide Vnum tamen lumen est and yet it is the same light which is in every Church thus diffused And the same Tertullian seconds this also in his following Chapter Si haec ita sint c. making this deduction if these things be thus then it is plain Every Doctrine which agrees with the Apostolicall Churches as the Roman Ephesian Antiochian Alexandrian Hierosolymitan the Mothers in respect of the Daughter Churches Metropoles originals whence the Faith sprung forth and issued is to be adjudged true as holding that which the Churches received from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God Reliquam vere omnem Doctrinam de mendacio prajudicandum c. and that all other Doctrine is under the prejudice of being false which is contrary to the truth of the Churches of the Apostles of Christ of God And so again in the 36. and 37. Chapters of the same Book where he proves they are onely the true Charches of Christ who follow the Faith of those Mother Apostolicall Churches 3. In respect of Time not as if the true Faith had in all Ages been Universally received for then Haeresie had never prevailed and got the upper hand for Arrianisme did so in Constantine his time and the Goths and Vandals Arrian Princes Ruled in the West and Anastasius the Emperour of the East was an Eutychian Heretike but that this or that was received in the first or purest and though in after ages by one or more it was opposed and oppressed yet even then there were such who by having recourse to the first Ages have discovered these guilty of novelty and have constantly asserted proved and vindicated the ancient Doctrines and Christianly suffered for them and so by little and little the Church at last recovered and gained the possession of her former Doctrines That then which by diligent search is to be found in the Monuments and Testimonies of the first Age for that is truely so called Antiquity hath this qualification but that which is of latter date falls short of it that is a new Faith which commenced since the Faith was once delivered to the Saints and so that Church which hath not the consent of Primitive Antiquity is in respect of those Doctrines wherein she varieth from it and doth stand convicted of Heresie and Schisme because it is not part of the Depositum Quod tibi creditum non quod à te inventum Vin. Lyr. cap. 27. For no man or Society of men ought to commend any thing as a point of Faith to Posterity which cannot be evidenced from Antiquity derived from the Apostles times a proficiency or growth in Faith there ought to be so it be in eodem genere in the same kinds issuing from the same root but all addition of after inventions are the notes of Heresie and Schisme And having thus far proceeded let us see what Doctrines or Observations or some of them may deserve or can challenge this Testimony of these all or all the Christian Churches so that we may conclude this to be the Faith and usage of the Universall Church of Christ and for the credenda alwayes supposing the sacred Scriptures which is the most certain and safe Rule both for Credenda and Agenda points of Faith and practise as having obtained the highest report from these all nothing so universally attested and approved as they it will be hard to prove or produce an universall Testimony for any Doctrine or Point of Faith besides those which are contained in the Creed nay indeed impossible inasmuch as this hath the repute of an abridgement or full Epitome of all Fundamentall Truths necessary to be known or beleeved by all Christians to salvation composed by the Apostles themselves for the preservation of the unity of the Faith nothing but this hath Primitive Antiquity and full consent of all called generally Regula fidei una sola immobilis irreformabilis the one onely immoveable and unreformable Rule of Faith that all might have a short summe of those things which are of meer beleife and are dispersedly contained in the Scripture So Valentia himselfe 1. 2. Dist 1. qu. 2. p. 4. in fin and so probably conceived to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.13 That forme breviate or summary of wholesome words or sound Doctrine that depositum or trust Timothy received 1 Tim. 6.20 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 common Faith Tit. 1.4 Pufillis magnisque communis Aug. Ep. 57. ad Dard. See Davenant in lib. De pace inter Evangelices procuranda pag. 9.10 c. Et in adhortatione cap. 7. throughout And for the agenda these either immediately relate to the worship of God or the Discipline and Government of his Church And supposing the Scriptures as the standing Law both for matters of Faith and Practise Use which is the best Interpreter of the Law is the best Directory for our Practise and when the Texts of holy Scripture are in these eases interpreted by the perpetuall practise of the Church according to the premised considerations then the Interpretation is the more authentique and worthy beleise and the proofes grounded thereupon more cogent and convincing according to that determination of the Nicone Councill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customes stand in strength of this kind is the observation of the Lords day Whereupon it is Observed by that Noble and Learned