Circumcision John VII 22. Such was the Law of mourning for the dead so much in force at giving the Law that upon the death of Aarons sons it was necessary that a Law should presently come forth incerdicting the Priests to mourne for them upon paine of death the rest of the people remaining under that Law Though Aaron thereupon excuses himself that they did not feast upon the sinne offering upon that day of mourning and is accepted Levit. X. 5 to 19. This the Law introduceth not but was in force under the Fathers as wee see Gen. L. 2 10. XXVII 41. The same is to be said of the seven dayes in which Marriages were celebrated under the Law as wee see in Sampson Judg. XIV 12 15 17. which is doubled Tobâ— VIII 22. no where introduced by the Law no more than the seven dayes or seventy dayes or thirty dayes of mourning Gen. L. 2. Deut. XXXIV 8. The like of answering adjurations which the Law Levit. V. 1. presupposes as also Prov. XXIX 24. as a duty then received that if a man conjure all that know any thing of his businesse to declare what they know all that heare him stand bound to declare their knowledge in it For for this cause it is that the Law supposing him guilty of perjury that conceals his knowledge in that case makes him liable to the sacrifice for expiâ—tion of perjury as you may see Levit. V. 1. And by virtue of this custome among Gods people not onely stood they bound to answer the High Priest as our Lord answers Caâ—aphas Mat. XXVI 63. or the King 1 Kings XXII 18. 2 Chron. XVIII 15. Jos VII 19. Job IX 24. but also private men in the Coâ—â— where their cause was hearing adjuring all that were present to testifie their knowledge in their causes if wee believe the Jewes Constitutions In like maner wee have nothing ordained in the Law that Tithes should be payed or that it should be lawfull or acceptable to God to consecrate any other part of their goods to the service of God or to make Vowes of abstinence from things otherwise lawfull But wee have it determined by the Law what kindes shall be Tithable what Vowes shall stand good what sacrifice shall be offered by him that transgresses his Vow how every thing that a man freely consecrates to the service of God shall be valued in money Levit. XXVII 1-30 Psal XV. 4. Gen. XIV 20. XXVIII 22. Numb XVIII 29. The like is to be said of many other Lawes which being in the Old Testament mentioned as in force by custome and no where introduced by the Lawes of Moses must be presumed to descend by Tradition from the Fathers Which hee that believes as it cannot be doubted must of necessity acknowledge that not onely the principles and grounds of spiritual and inward obedience to God for Gods sake but also the precepts wherein it consists are rather presupposed by the Law than introduced by it And therefore may well be said to be translated out of the Law of Nature into Moses Law when they are mentioned by it Though hereunto I must adde this That they had not onely the doctrine of their Fathers afore the Law to introduce and to regulate this inward obedience but also the Prophets under the Law The intent of whose Office was not onely to reclaime them from Idol to their own true God but also to instruct them wherein consisted not so much that civil and outward observation of his Law which it promiseth to reward with temporal happinesse in the Land of Promise as that spiritual and inward obedience to God from which they might conceive competent ground of hope toward the world to come Every man knows how ready they were to fall from God all the time whereof wee have the records in the Scriptures before the Captivity of Babylon After that time wee do not finde that ever they â—ell to the worship of Idols but wee finde abundantly by the reproofs of the Scribes and Pharisees by our Lord in the Gospels that the next sinne to it of Superstition and Hypocrisie was soon come in insâ—eaâ— of it When by the outward observation of the Ceremonial and Judicial Lawes they promised themselves the favor of God and the reward of the world to come As by paying Tithes precisely Mat. XXIII 23. Luc. XI 42. XVIII 12. by washing their hands and vessels according to the Tradition of their Predecssors Mar. VII 4 8. Mat. XXIII 25 26. Luc. XI 39. by punctually observing the Sabbath Mat. XII 1-12 Mar. II. 23-28 Luc. VII 1-9 XIII 10-16 XIV 1-5 Joh. V. 9 inlarging their Phylacteries and fringes Mat. XXIII 5. by many things more which are to be read up and down the Gospels This disease could not have been reproved by our Lord by the testimony of the Prophet Esay Mat. XV. 9. Mar. VII 7. Esa XXIX 13. had it not taken root even before the Captivity when as yet they were so subject to fall to the worship of false Gods Therefore wee finde the reproof of this superstitious and hypocritical confidence in the Sacrifices which they thought to bribe God with and other outward performances of the Law to be the ordinary work of the most part of the Prophets David Psal XL. 7 12. Psal L. 8-13 LI. 18. The Prophet Samuel 1 Sam. XV. 22. The Prophet Esay of Sacrifices and Festivals Esa I. 11-20 Of their Fasts Esa LVIII 3-10 Of their serving God by Traditions Esa XXIX 13. The Prophet Jeremy that God required not Sacrifices but obedience Jer. VII 21 22 23. and concerning patience and hope in the afflictions which hee sendeth Lam. III. 25-33 The Prophet Hosea in the Calves of our lips Hos XIV 2. The Prophet Micah when hee teacheth what they should come before God with Micah VI. 6 7 8. The Prophet Zachary of celebrating their Fasts Zac. VII 3-10 VIII 16 19. In fine all the Prophets in their instructions and exhortations to the inward obedience of God in spirit and in truth have showed themselves true fore-runners of our Lord Christ and his Apostles Not onely in preaching the principal intent of the Law to be the same which the Gospel pretends to covenant for but in suffering as well for this as for reproving Idolaters at the hands of those that taught for doctrines the Traditions of men the like things as our Lord and his Apostles suffered for the same cause at the hands of the Scribes and Pharisees First then the acknowledgment of one God that disposeth of all things and knowes the secrets of all hearts expresly covenanted for by Moses Law by consequence of right reason infers the duty of spiritual obedience to him in all his commands Secondly the Fathers before the Law had delivered the Prophets after the Law did preach the same no lesse than they did the acknowledgment of the true God but more principally than the outward observation of the Ceremonial or Civil precept of it Therefore there might
supposeth that there is no means but the Gospel to save us But if wee be saved by believing the Gospel wee may be saved not believing that which the Church teacheth without it For that which the Gospel obligeth us to believe unto salvation it is agreed already that wee cannot be saved without believing it Suppose now the Church to continue till the last day not as one visible Body but broken into pieces as wee see it so that alwaies there remain a number of good Christians for whether or no they that communicate not with the Church of Rome may be good Christians is the thing in question not to be taken for truth without proving shall the gates of hell be said to prevail against the Church all that while Besides Grotius expounds those words to signifie no more but this That death and the grave which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell in the stile of the Old Testament signifies shall never prevail over Christians That is that they shall rise again And I suppose it is not so evident that this exposition is false as that the Gospel is true As for the Keyes of Christs Kingdom let him that saith they argue Infallibility say also that they cannot be abused But hee will have more shame if not more sense than to say it The Thessalonians received the Gospel as the Word of God because they supposed it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which God sent them newes of Would they therefore have received the decrees of the Church with the same reverence not supposing them the Word of God till some body prove it But suppose the promises made S. Peter to import as much as the power of the Apostles is it as evident that the present Pope succeeds S. Peter as that Christianity is from God That hee succeeds him in the full right of that Power which is given the Apostles Certainly wheresoever two or three are assembled in the name of Christ there is not the Infallibility of the Church Therefore it cannot be founded upon the promises made to all Assemblies of Christians as Christians It is very probable that the Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem had a revelation upon the place signifying how they should order the mater in question because there are many instances in the Scriptures of inspirations at the very Assemblies of Gods people as I have showed in the Right of the Church Therefore it is not evident that all Councils may say the like Therefore they cannot presume that the Holy Ghost will lead them into all truth whatsoever they take a humor to determine because it was promised that hee should lead the Apostles into all truth concerning our common Christianity But if the Church be the pillar and foundation that upholdeth the truth then must that truth first be evidenced for truth before the effect of the Churches office in upholding it as pillars uphold an house can appear The exhortations of the Apostles 1 Thess V. 14 15. Hebr. XIII 7 17. to yield obedience to the Rulers of the Church are certainly pertinent to this purpose But it is evident that this obedience is limitable by the grounds and substance of Christianity delivered afore as it is evident that all Power of the present Church presupposeth our common Christianity As for the obedience required in the Old Testament to the Governors of the Synagogue and Priests confirmed by our Lord Mat. XXIII 2. I am very willing to grant the Church all Power in decreeing for truth that can appear to have belonged to the Rulers of the Synagogue because I am secure that those who could put malefactors to death as they could were not therefore able to tye men to believe that which they say to be true But the great subtilty is the Prophesie of Caiaphas John XI 48-52 who because High Priest could not but truly determine that our Lord must die least the people should perish even in resolving to crucifie him Indeed at the beginning God was wont to conduct his people by Oracles of Urim and Tummim in the High Priests brest-plate And though this was ceased under the second Temple as wee have reason to believe the Jewes yet was it no marvail that God should use the High Priests tongue to declare that secret which himself understood not being the Person by whom hee had used to direct his people in former ages But hee that from hence concludes the Church infallible must first maintain that Caiaphas erred not in crucifying our Lord Christ Now if it be said that the consent of all Christians though not as members of the Church because as yet it appeareth not that the Church is a Corporation and hath members determines the sense of these Scriptures to signifie Infallibility which they may but do not necessarily signifie Let him consider the disputes that succeeded in the Church upon the decree of the Great Council at Nicaea the breaches that have succeeded upon the decrees of Ephesus and Chalcedon the division between the Greek and the Latine Church between the Reformation and the Church of Rome For is it imaginable that all Christians holding as firmly as their Christianity that the acts of the Pope and a Council that is the greater part of the present Church is to be believed as much as the Scriptures not onely the decree of Nicaea should be disputed again but breaches should succeed rather than admit their decrees retaining the common profession of Christianity What disputes there have been betwixt the Court of Rome and the Paris Doctors whether it be the act of the Pope or of a General Council that obligeth the belief of the Church is as notorious to the world as that they are not yet decided And yet the whole question is disputed onely concerning the Western Church The East which acknowledgeth not the Pope appeareth not in the claim of this Infallibility were both East and West joyned in one and the same Council Now among them that maintain the Pope it is not agreed what acts of the Pope they must be that shall oblige the Church to believe as it believes the Scriptures For it is argued that Popes have decreed Heresie Liberius Honorius Vigilius and perhaps others And though I stand not to prove I may presume that the contrary is not so evident as our common Christianity or the Scriptures And that some of them have held Heresie seems granted without dispute Is it then as evident as our common Christianity what act of the Pope obliges us to believe That hee cannot decree that error to be held by others which it is granted himself holdeth Besides how many things are requisite to make a true Pope whose Power unlesse it be conveyed by the 〈◊〉 act of those that are able to give it the acts thereof will be void which it does not appear that the present Pope is qualified with as it appeareth that the Scriptures are true And may not the same question be
spirit of Christ hee is none of Christs So hee had premised Rom. V. 1-5 Being justified by Faith wee have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ together with the joy of hope by the love of God poured out in our hearts through the Spirit of God which is in us The Kingdome of God consisting in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. XIV 17. If it be here objected that the Grace of the Holy Ghost is necessary to bring a man to Christianity and therefore cannot suppose it Supposing this for the present but not granting it because it is in controversie and must be resolved by the grounds which wee seek It will be easie to distinguish between the grace of the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy Ghost For hee that is converted to believe the truth of Christianity may acknowledge it to be of Grace but must not presume of the gift of the Holy Ghost that it is bestowed on him for his own till his conversion be complete by undertaking the profession of Christianity If it be further alleged that Cornelius and his company received the Holy Ghost before they were baptized The answer is ready from that maxime of Law That every exception against a Rule establishes the Rule in cases not excepted Cornelius no Jew but converted from Idols to worship the true God under the promises which the Jewes expected with his company of the same Faith being in the state of Gods grace upon that account receives the Holy Ghost before Baptisme because God knew him ready to undertake the profession of Christianity so soon as it could appear to be commanded by God And this for the satisfaction of S. Peter and the Jewes in that secret which hereby begâ—n to be declared that the Gentiles as well as the Jewes belonged to the Church It is true the graces of the Holy Ghost are of two kindes For some of them are given for the benefit and salvation of those in whom they are Some for the benefit and edification of the Church And it is true that both kindes are meant and expressed by these Scriptures But it is no lesse true that neither of them is to be had but supposing the truth of Christianity and of the Scriptures For the first kinde is granted to none but those that imbrace Christianity with a sincere intention of living according to that which they professe Being indeed the help that God by his Gospel promises and allowes them to go thorough with that high and difficult profession which they undertake Wee see the Apostles forsake their Lord and make a doubt of his resurrection before the coming of the Holy Ghost Whom having received they are ready to professe Christ in the midst of utmost dangers And S. John as hee giveth the reason why the righteous sin not because their â—eed abideth in them that is the word of the Gospel by which they were ingendred anew to be Christians 1 John III. 9. So hee giveth the reason why they were not to be seduced by the Heresies of that time because the unction which they had received from the Holy One taught them to know all things 1 John II. 20 27. Thus the Unction of the Spirit supposes the seed of the Word and the seed of the Word inferres the Unction of the Spirit And as when the Word of God came to the Prophets they were withall possessed by Gods Spirit moving them to deliver it to the people So when the word of Faith is established in the heart of a Christian as David saith the Spirit of God possesseth him with an inclination both to professe it and to live according to it As for the second kinde it is true they are granted to those that are not heires of Gods promises as it appeares by the instances of Saul surprised with the Spirit of Prophesie when hee intended the death of David 1 Sam. XIX 23 24. Of those that have prophesied and cast out Devils and done miracles in our Lords name to whom hee shall say I know you not Mat. VII 22 23. Of Caiaphas who prophesied of our Lords death when hee was compassing of it John XI 49 -52. And of Balaam in the last place as all know But as the former kinde supposeth true Christianity in him that hath it so doth this correspondently suppose the profession of it as under the old Law the profession of the true God The tryal of a Prophet under the Law was not the doing of a miracle alone If hee seduced from God in stead of taking him for Gods messenger they were to put him to death Deut. XIII 1-5 So the tryal was the doing of a miracle under the profession of the true God Under the Gospel No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus anathema nor can any man call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. XII 3. Supposing that a man speaketh such things as must come either from Gods Spirit or from evil Spirits the tryal is whether hee professe Christ or not And 1 John IV. 2 3. Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus come in the flesh to be Christ is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ that is come in the flesh is not of God Every Spirit that is every inspiration which a man of himself cannot have God will not have his people so tempted that under the profession of the true Religion the Devils instruments should have power to work miracles to seduce them from it Upon these terms prophesied Saul under the Law and upon the same terms prophesied those under the Gospel whom our Lord will not own having done miracles in his name As for Caiaphas it doth not appear that hee spoke those words whereby S. John saith hee prophened of our Lords death by revelation or inspiration from God For the reason is given why hee prophened because hee was High Priest that year Now when the High Priests declared Gods orders to his ancient people there is no appearance that they were inspired by revelation with that which they declared But that putting on the Pontifical robes Gods will appeared by the brest-plate of Urim and Tummim though now wee know not how Accordingly to were Caiaphas his words ordered this gift being ceased many ages afore as to containe a Prophesie of our Lords death by Gods intent but without his But Balaams case is farre otherwise Arnobius advers Gent. I. tells us that Magicians in their operations met with contrary Gods whom hee calls Antitheos that would not suffer them to proceed Balaam met with the true God and knew him to be so and all his Inchantments controlable by him and yet sacrifices to false Gods that by their help hee might curse Gods people In this case Balaam though commanded as a subject is not as a friend inspired by God when God forces him to speak what hee would not If any man then resolve the credit of the Scripture into the
Church in time perhaps they may declare I have not hitherto understood Shall I say there is not sufficient argument for the sense of the Church in the Gospels It is no part of my meaning Shall I therefore say it is clear of it selfe in the Gospels that is to say by the sayings and doings of our Lord recorded in the Gospels Doth not our Lord plainly make himself equal to the Father John V. 17-23 Doth hee not answer again being questioned for this John X. 33 34 35. by the words of David spoken of meer men Psal LXXXIII 6. I have said yee are Gods Doth hee not say plainly again My Father is greater than I John XIV 28 Which things as it is plain by argument that they may stand with the sense of the Church so that those arguments are plain of themselves to all understandings is as much as to say That a seeming contradiction argues an intent in our Lord that all men should see the resolution of it Again that all that will be saved by our Lord Christ must take up his Crosse and professe him to the death is plaine by the Gospels But so long as the Disciples might and did believe that they should raigne with our Lord in his Kingdome over that people which should destroy their enemies was the intent of suffering death for Christ to raign with him in heaven plaine by the Gospels That the Law should stand for ever is it not plainly delivered by our Lord in the Gospel and is it not as plainly of the necessity of salvation to believe that wee are saved by the Gospel and not by the Law I appeal to S. Pauls Epistles Though I dispute not whether this be abrogating the Law as Divines commonly speak or derogating from it Certainly though I know not whether the Socinians would be content with the Leviathan that no thing be thought necessary to salvation to be believed but that our Lord is the Christ Yet I know they would be astonished to hear that hee who believes that and lives according to the Lawes of his Soveraign hath done the duty of a Christian and may challenge his share in the kingdome of heaven for it But this I must not dispute further in this place Onely here I must answer his reasons out of the Scripture and show you upon what a weak pinne hee hath hung all this waight Christ is the foundation 1 Cor. III. 11. Mat. XVI 18. which all the Gospels pretend to induce us to believe John XX. 31. as also the exhortations of the Apostles Acts XVII 2 3 6. by this the good thief was saved believing onely our Lord anointed by God to his Kingdome Luke XXIII 42. Everlasting life is to be had by believing this and the Scripture because it witnesseth this John V. 39. and XVII 3. XI 26 27. Which is all blown away with this breath That hee that admits our Lord to be the Christ cannot refuse any part of his doctrine And therefore salvation is justly imputed to that which whoso receiveth shall be bound to admit and undergo whatsoever his salvation requireth This is eternal life to know thee the onely God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John XVII 3. These things are written that yee may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing yee may have life John XX. 31. How have life believing Because hee that believes will be baptized and hee that is baptized must undertake to live as Christ teacheth professing to believe in the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost which believing in Christ coming from the Father to send the Holy Ghost implieth And therefore the Eunuch Acts VIII 36 37. is baptized upon this Faith as others into it Acts II. 38. VIII 16. XIX 5. The belief of the Creation of the world of Providence the Resurrection and Judgment to come not being introduced by Christianity but found in force among the Jewes when our Lord came So that limitation by which the Leviathan inlargeth his sense of that which the believing of our Lord to be the Christ implieth is not worth a straw It is not onely necessary to salvation to believe all that the Messias was to be or to do to be verified and to have been done by our Lord Jesus Unlesse we believe that wee are to believe and to do whatsoever hee taught us to believe and to do And that as I have showed is not determinable by any means but that which Christ by himself or by his Apostles hath provided us neither whether so or not and much lesse whether necessary to salvation or not That which hath been alleged to show That the substance of Christianity necessary to the salvation of all under the Gospel is not clearly contained in the Old Testament nor in the sayings and doings of our Lord related by the Evangelists Holds not in the writings of the Apostles For being directed to Christians already reduced into Churches constituted upon supposition of the knowledge and profession of Christianity there is no reason why they should be sparing in declaring the truth of it to those to whom they write True it is and evident by their writings that they used great reservation in declaring to those that were of Jewes become Christians the discharge of their obligation to Moses Law But whatsoever their proceeding was in that case not onely the reason of the truth but also the reason of that proceeding is clearly declared by their writings But if all their writings suppose in them to whom they write knowledge sufficient for the salvation of all Christians and none of them pretend to lay down the summe and substance of that whereof the salvation of all Christians requireth the knowledge evident it is that the perfection of none of them nor the whole Scriptures consisting of them and those which wee have spoken of hitherto requireth that they clearly contain all that is necessary to the salvation of all Christians For the Perfection of every writing consisteth in the sufficience of it for the purpose to which it is intended If therefore the occasions of the Apostles writings and so the purpose of them evidently express not an intent to lay down clearly to all understandings the whole substance of that which is sufficient to render all Christians capable of salvation as evidently neither any nor all of them do then neither doth the perfection not sufficience nor clearnesse of the Apostles writings require that all things necessary to the salvation of all be clear in them to all understandings For let no man object That they were all of them necessary to the salvation of all or most of them to whom they were sent Unless it could be said That whatsoever was necessary to the salvation of those to whom the Apostles writ is necessary to the salvation of all Christians Which so long as there is a difference between necessity of means and necessity of precept That is between that which is necessary to the common
himself because hee expresses not so much of his meaning For my part as I found it necessary so I finde it sufficient to have quoted these opinions and reasons advanced against the right of the Church because I finde they oblige mee to digg sor a foundation upon which as the true ground of that right which the Church claimeth I may be inabled to dissolve whatsoever reasons wit and learning impregnated by passion or interest can invent to contradict the same Here then I must have recourse to a position which some men will count hazardous others prejudicial to Christianity according as their prejudices or engagements may work But will appear in truth to them that shall take the pains to look through the consequences of it in the resolution of Controversies which divide the Church to concern the interest of Christianity and the peace of the Church more thâ—n any point whatsoever that is not of the Foundation of Faith In as much as there is no question that is started or can be started as the case is now with the Church so as to call in question the peace and unity thereof but the interpretation of the old Testâ—ment or some part of it in relation and correspondence to the New Testament will be ingaged in it Concerning which the position that I intend to advance is this That by the Law of Moses and the Covenant between God and the people of Israel upon it nothing at all was expresly contracted concerning everlasting life and the happinesse of the world to come Not that I intend to say That there was not at that time sufficient ground for a man to be competently perswaded of his right to it or sufficient means to come to the knowledge of that ground for hee that should say this could not give account how the Fathers should attain salvation under the Law which I finde all that maintain the truth of Christianity against the Jews so obliged to do that without it they must give up the game But that the thing contracted for between God and the people of Israel by the mediation of Moses was the Land of Promise That is to say that they should be a free people and injoy their own Lawes in the possession of it upon condition of imbracing and observing such Lawes as God should give As for the kingdome of heaven which the Gospel of Christ preacheth the hope of it was so mystically intimated that there was sufficient cause to imbrace it even then but not propounded as the condition upon which God offered to contract with them as hee doth with Christians And this though I cannot say that the Church hath at anytime expressed to be a part of the Rule of Faith yet that the Church hath alwaies implicitely admitted it for a part of the reason of Faith which wee call Divinity I must and do maintain Before I come to prove this I will here propound one objection because it seems to contain the force of all that is to be said against it For when our Lord sayes Mat. XIX 19. If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandements When hee resolves the great commandements of the Law to be the love of God above all things and of our neighbor as of our selves Mat. XXII 36. In fine wheresoever hee derives the duties of Christianity from the Law of Moses hee seems to suppose and so do his Apostles that the same life everlasting which hee promiseth by the Gospel was proposed by the Law as the reward for observing it And indeed what can the Gospel was propound for a more suitable way or meanes to salvation than the love of God and man in that order which the Law of God appointeth It is not for nothing that S. Augustine observeth The first commandement of the Decalogue to acknowledge God and the last not to covet that which is another mans to contain in them the utmost office of a Christian And all Divines have distributed the precepts of Moses Law into Moral as well as Judicial and Ceremonial The Moral precepts containing in them no lesse than the duties of Christianity when they are done with such an intent as God who by giving Moses Law declareth himself to see the most inward of the heart requireth Here in the first place supposing that God entring into Covenant with that people intended to establish their Civil Government by the Law of Moses I will proceed to argue that all Civil Lawes that are not contrary to the Law of Nature and the actions by them injoyned or prohibited may be done or not done for two several reasons For if there be reason enough for the Nations that know not God nor ground their Lawes upon any presumption of his will or expectation of good or evil from him to unite themselves in Civil Society then is their reason enough for them to observe the Lawes upon which the benefit of Civil Society is to be had though they suppose not themselvs obliged by God to them nor to oblige God by keeping them And if it be evident that all Civil Lawes not contrary to the Lawes of God and Nature do come from God as Civil Society doth it will be as evident that the keeping of them in that regard and for that consideration is obedience to God The Jewes Civil Law hath this privilege above the Civil Lawes of other Nations to be gronnded upon those acts whereby God revealing himself for their freedom by Moses tendereth them the Land promised to their Fathers upon the Covenant they then had with God upon condition of undertaking the Lawes which hee should give them for the future And no reason can deny that this was sufficient to convince them that God required of them not onely the work which the Law specified but that it be done in consideration of his will and in reference to his honor and service Though on the other side it is not necessary to grant that so much is expressed by the Civil Law of that Nation expresly tending to their Civil freedome and happinesse in the possession of the Land of Promise It cannot be doubted that the immortality of the soul and the reward of good and bad after death was received among that people from and before the time of receiving the Law Otherwise how should the Patriarchs obtain it which the maintainance of Christianity requireth that they did obtain It is also evident by the Scriptures that the same conversation which Christ and his Apostles preached was extant in the lives and actions of the Fathers before the Law Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Job Moses and the rest as the Fathers of the Church are wont to argue against the Jewes that Christianity is more ancient than Judaisme It is also manifest that the same conversation was extant and to be seen under the Law in the lives of the Prophets and their Disciples by the words of our Lord to the Scribes and Pharisees Mat. XXIII 29-36 when hee
in Horeb. Then repeating the summe of what they had seen since their coming out of Aegypt as to move them to imbrace Gods Covenant Wherefore saith hee yee shall observe the termes of this Covenant and do them that yee may prosper in whatsoever you do And so contesting the whole Assembly that they and their posterity must by transgressing come under the curse which it is inacted with thus expresses the summe of it That hee may settle thee to himself for a people and hee be thy God as hee hath said to thee and as hee hath sworn to Abraham Isaac and Jacob thy Fathers To whom hee had expresly sworn to give the Land of Promise and therefore so determined the expresse sense and intent of being their God For to expound what it means for them to have God for their God and hee them for his people it followes that if any of them return from the Lord to the Gods of the Aegyptians and other Nations they shall incurre the curse which the Covenant is inacted with that the Land being turned into salt and brimstone shall not be to be sown nor spring nor grasse grow but be like Sodome and Gomorra and Seboim which the Lord overthrew in his wrath Hereupon hee begins the XXX Chapter thus And it shall come to passe that when all these things are lefallen tâ—â—e and thou shalt call them to minde among all Nations to which God shall have driven thee and return to the Lord thy God And the rest whereby God promises that hee will be intreated of his people and turn the said curses from them upon their enemies Remitting plainly him that will understand what those are to that which went afore from cap. XXVI 16 XXVII XXVIII XXIX which hee that will peruse may trust his own senses whether they speak of life everlasting or of the Land of Promise And indeed the whole book of Deuteronomy containing nothing else but the repetition and continuation of what was most necessary to introduce and perswâ—de this renewing of the Covenant whether wee judge of the premises by the conclusion or of the conclusion by the premises wee shall â—inde no more thâ—n what I have said Now the whole XXV of Leviticus being nothing else but an exhortation and warning to keep the Law propounded before the camp removed from Mount Sinai as you have it XXVI 46 Had any such thing as eternal life been covenanted for of necessity the arguments there used must have been drawn from thence But you shall finde no more than concernes the Land of Promise The effect of this reason is not to argue a negative from Scripture That is to say this is not recorded in the Scripture not in this or that part of the Scripture therefore not true But to argue from the common reason of all men and the visible nature of the businesse then in hand that what was not then expressed for a condition of that Covenant which is related to have been struck between God and the Israelites cannot be presumed to have been an expresse condition of it For by interpretation from not onely the conversation of the Fathers but the doctrine of the Prophets and the preaching of the Gospel I grant that it is the principal intent which the Law intimateth though not expresseth One particular precept of the Law I must not omit It is that of Lev. V. 1-5 which appointeth the same sacrifice to be offered for legal uncleannesse as for perjury Now it is to be considered that legal uncleannesse is not a thing forbidden by the Law but is contracted by observing the Law as Tobits uncleannesse which made him lye out of the house and occasioned his blindenesse by burying the dead Tobit III. 11. being indeed an outward accident coming to passe without any inclination of mans will to it and therefore not imputable If therefore the same means of expiating that which is not forbidden by the Law expiate such a sin as perjury let any man understand how by this Law expiation is made for the guilt of perjury whereby every Christian believes hee becomes lyable to everlasting death when by the same expiation is made not for sinne but for a legal incapacity of conversing with Gods people or coming to the Tabernacle Another is that of Prayer negatively For who will believe that the spiritual reward of everlasting life is promised by the Covenant of the Law which does not so much as command the spiritual service of Prayer as the Jewes themselves observe Maimoni in the beginning of the Titles of Prayer and Blessings that Prayer is commanded onely by the precept of the Law Deut. VI. 13. X. 20. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him The Lord thy God shalt thou fear and him serve And those Blessings in which so much of their Religion consists onely by Deut. VIII 10. And when thou hast eaten and art full then shalt thou blesse the Lord thy God for the good Land which hee hath given thee Out of these texts their Elders they say have taken occasion to prescribe the kindes and measure and circumstances of their Prayers and Blessings And truly when there is so much in the Law of their Festivals and Sabbaths and Sacrifices and so little of the spiritual duties which God is to be served with and was served with even under the Law It is impossible to give a reason of it unlesse wee say that as the Gospel was yet to be a secret to the spiritual service of God which under it was to be required was not under the Law to be covenanted for that is expressed And here I am not to forget the Sect of Sadducees which though it denyed the reward after death yet notwithstanding was not onely tolerated among the Jewes but also in such Power that I have showed in another place that during the time mentioned by the Acts of the Apostles it had authority in all publick maters of the Nation under the Romanes For if they that denied the Resurrection expresly renounced the Law by renouncing the expresse condition of it it will be impossible to say how they that renounced the Law should manage that Power of governing their own people by the Law which was reserved to the Nation by the Romanes Indeed when Idolatry prevailed the precepts which punished that sinne by death of necessity were superâ—eded for the time But when after the Captivity some denied the life to come others expected it from the literal and carnal observation of the Law both maintaining themselves under the Law and by it it might be signified by the Law as our Savior proves the Resurrection Mat. XXII 23. Mar. XII 18. Luc. XX. 27. but had it been covenanted for impudence would not have had wherewith to maintaine the contrary acknowledging the Law And therefore I agree that when our Lord sayes Search the Scriptures for in them yee think yee have eternal life John V. 39. This think is a term of abatement
Signifying that they expected salvation by the Law which indeed is not to be had but by his Gospel which the Law intimateth and involveth Yee think yee have it so as indeed yee have it not In the next place consider wee a while the Writings of the Prophets that is all that followes the Law in the Old Testament and wee shall finde there such intimations of the world to come such instruction to that conversation by which it is attained as may show that it was not covenanted for though attainable by Gods dispensation of that time That which wee reade in the Propher Esay XXVI 19. Thy dead shall live my carkasses shall arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast forth the Gyants is the very picture of the Resurrection which Christians believe But what it signifies there let the consequence of the Scripture witnesse which showes it by the beginning of the Chapter to be part of a Song which should be sung in the Land of Judab at that day That is at such time as God having afflicted his people according to the Prophesies going afore should restore them again as hee prophesies there and afterwards The Vision of dry bones which the Prophet Ezekiel XXXIII saw upon the breathing of God clothed with flesh and skin to rise againe manifestly foretells the return of the Jewes from Captivity to be a Nation againe But â—o that it cannot be denied that S. Hilary had reason to call him several times the Prophet of the Resurrection for it Nor must wee make any other account of Daniel who having prophesied of the miseries that were to befall the Jewes especially under Antiochus Epiphanes and their deliverances in the end sets forth the glory and ignominy of those that had stuck to their Law till death or fallen from it after they had their freedom under the Maccabees by the figure of rising from the dead XII 1 2. For having first said at that time thy people shall escape whosoever is written in the book Which time is that persecution under Epiphanes when hee adds incontinently And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to everlasting reproach and shame And teachers shall sbine as the shine of the sky and those that make many righteous as the starres for ever and ever I say this following immediately it cannot stand with common sense that it should not concerne the same times and persons Though wee allow it a competent argument that the Prophet which sets forth the deliverance of that people in such termes understood the Resurrection of the dead well enough and intended by using the same to make way for Christianity that professes it But the words of S. Job XIX 25. are more questionable I know saith hee that my Redeemer liveth and shall stand upon the earth at last And after they have pierced this my skin I shall see God out of my flesh But if wee compare this with what hath been hitherto produced out of the Prophets it will not seem probable that the Resurrection which they so darkly intimated should be so plainly preached either before the Law when Job lived or under the Law when the book of Job is said to have been penned And truly hee that perswaded himself that God would deliver him out of his present affliction might well say I know that my Redeemer liveth And hee that saith XLII 5. By the hearing of the eare I had heard of thee but now doth mine eye see thee might say to the same purpose that hee should see God standing at length upon the earth after that his skin had been pierced with sores Consider now those passages of the Prophets whereby they declare how they are moved to question Gods providence by seeing the righteous afflicted and the wicked to flourish in this world Psal LXXIII 2-20 Jer. XII 1 2. Mal. III. 13-18 besides all the discourses of this point in Job Ecclesiastes and elsewhere It is plaine every Christian can answer this out of the principles of his profession by saying That God reserves his full account to the day of judgment in the mean time maintaining sufficient evidence of his providence by the account which hee takes of some sinnes in this world And had this been a part of the old Covenant it had been no lesse ready for every one to answer with What saith David When I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I the end of those men Forsooth thou settest them in slippery places and castest them down to ruine How came they to desolation in a moment they came to an end by terrors As when a man awakes out of a dreame Lord when thou awakest thou shalt scorn the image of them Is there any thing in all this to determine whether in this world or in the world to come Though the consequence be good not in this world therefore in the world to come What saith Jeremy And thou O Lord knowest mee and triest my heart before thee Pluck them out as sheep to be slain and consecrate them to the day of slaughter What saith Malachi They shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts when I store up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his son that serveth him And yee shall again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not All this is true to those that are in Covenant with God as the temporal promises are true even in this life and therefore expresses not the world to come whatsoever may be inferred by the foresaid consequence And truly Ecclesiastes is so farre from expressing the answer that Christianity maketh to this objection as to give some men occasion to imagine that it alloweth the world to come no more than the lives of worldly men do own it And all the obscurity of the book of Job will never be resolved without acknowledging that this truth was then a secret which the Prophets knew but preached it so sparingly and with such good husbandry which the Greek Fathers use to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the hope of proficience by their Doctrine in their hearers did require The same account is to be had of the Prophet Habakkuk II. 3-14 where hee proposeth the difference between the Chaldeans and Israelites in these termes Behold the soul that is exalted is not right in him But the just shall live by faith And concludes See is not this of the Lord of Hosts And the people shall labor for fire and the Nations be weary for nothing For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas Which all the Prophets will witnesse to signifie the restoring of the people of God to the destruction of Idolatry and their enimies Idolaters No where is this truth more
have reason that observe the terms of the Law Deut. XXI 5. every cause and every plague shall be according to their mouth inferring that all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which wee may translate doctrines but must understand that which the Greek calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or decrees must come out of their mouth Siphri 243. Pesicta Zoterta fol. 91. col 4. and instanding in the causes to be purged by the ashes of the Red Cow Num. XIX not as if none could sprinkle those ashes but a Priest which is otherwise ruled by Num. XIX 17. to be any man that was clean but because they could not be burnt but by a Priest Num. XIX 3. which is by their Law any Priest Maimoni in that Title I. 11 12. and because part of them was set aside for Priests to purifie with as another part for other Israelites Maim III. 4. So in the causes concerning Wives questioned by their Husbands being jealous by the Law of Num. V. 15. the causes of murther for which an Heifer was to be killed by breaking her neck Deut. XXI 5. And in the plagues of men houses and clothes Deut. XXIV 8. none of which could be decided without a Priest In this regard it seems to mee the Prophet sayes The Priests lips shall preserve knowledge and they shall require the Law at his mouth for hee is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Mal. II. 7. and in termes Deut. XXX 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall teach Jacob thy Judgments and Israel thy Lawes According to the other Law Deut. XVII 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to the doctrines that they shall teach thee Another Power in that people is that of Prophets which seemeth to be founded upon the Law of Deut. XVIII 20 21 22. where having commanded that the Prophet which should succeed Moses be obeyed as Moses the Law proceedeth to charge them to put to death whosoever should prophesie in the name of strange Gods And then giving a rule whereby to discern between a true and a false Prophet seems to intimate the authority of Prophets Which was so very great in that people that the Kings themselves were to obey them so long as they had the reputation of true Prophets whereupon wee see how they reprove them Elias Ahab 1 Kings XVIII 17. Elisha the King of Israel 2 Kings VI. 33. John Baptist and our Lord Christ Herod Mat. XIV 4. Luc. XIII 32. though when their reputation could by faction be questioned â—o often were they questioned condemned and killed for the messages they brought in Gods name as the Apostle saith Heb. XI 37. and as it befell our Lord Christ Nay further that when they taught that any particular Law should cease for the time they were to be obeyed as Elias commanded to offer sacrifice in another place than at Jerusalem 1 Kings XVIII 17. contrary to the Law of Levit. XV. 2-9 the Temple being then on foot Whereby it appeareth that the Prophets had their authority immediately from God not depending so much as upon his Law further than as the acknowledgment of the authority of it to come from God was a necessary condition to the receiving of them for Prophets as I said asore Seeing the mater thereof might cease to oblige if they should declare the will of God to be such The Commonwealth then of Israel subsisting by divine right that is by the appointment of God giving them freedome and the command of themselves upon condition of undertaking the Law not onely the Kingdom which is the form of Government limited by the Soveraigne Power placed in one person whether by the permission of God or his appointment together with the Ministers thereof Judges and Magistrates and Officers but also the Priestly and Prophetical Office must be understood to stand by the same title As for the Church which wee have seen to be the spiritual Israel of God and maintain to be one visible body by virtue of undertaking the Covenant of Grace which the Gospel tendreth It is manifest that the King thereof is the Lord Christ who professeth not to govern it by his bodily presence but by the Law of his Word and by the invisible presence of his Spirit which was to commence upon his departure That being here hee appointed XII Apostles as Patriarchs thereof under him as the XII Princes of the Tribes were under Moses and LXX Disciples or Apostles of an inferior rank under himself also as they under Moses But for the dispatch of such businesse concerning his Kingdom as that which neither the Captains of Thousands and Hundreds who were ordained Judges before the LXX were ordained to assist Moses neither after them the Judges of particular Cities that succeeded them could decide And shall wee not conclude all this correspondence to be as competent an argument as wee are to expect for the New Testament in the Old for the constitution of the Church in the institution of the Synagogue To wit that seeing wee see God hath appointed our Lord Christ hee his XII Apostles and LXX Disciples his ministers in governing of it that hee intended it a visible body to which the visible right of governing the same might be conveyed by the reasonable voluntary act of those in whom placing the power hee must needs place the right of propagating the same in his own absence One point indeed of difference there is wherein wee should abuse our selves too much to seek for any correspondence between the Synagogue and the Church For wee suppose the intent of God to have been that the Law should oblige one people but the Gospel all that are to attain salvation out of all people so that there is no particular seat of Gods worship according to the Gospel to which all Christians are bound to resort as Jerusalem was the seat of Gods worship which all Jewes were to resort to And wee suppose our Lord Christ to be in heaven where the Princes of Israel and the LXX Elders cannot be present to assist him with their ministery Therefore wee cannot imagine that hee appointed his LXX Disciples for a standing Assembly as under the Law But to be dispersed all over the world where Christian people should be though united by the same Rule which all should follow for the preserving of Christendom in unity Let no man therefore any more imagine that the title by which any Power is held or pretended to be held in the Church can be derived from that right which the Priesthood held under the Law So as from thence to inferre that the Power which the Priesthood had not under the Law is not under the Gospel to be ascribed unto the Church as it is the Church For I do of my own accord allege that seeing the Priesthood was purely ceremonial to figure that expiation of sin which Christ should bring to passe and therefore to expire when it was brought to passe it is not possible to imagine that any right
it smelled so ranck that I conceived my self bound to cry out upon the venene that may be so closely couched under the words But to those that believe the truth of Christianity arguments from the mystical sense of the Old Testament must not seem contemptible those of our Lord Christ and his Apostles being such provided that the correspondence between the Law and the Gospel be preserved upon the right ground and in the right grain Provided also that no more waight be laid upon them than they are able to bear To wit no more than wee can lay upon the Law of Moses in proving the truth of Christianity Which if wee premise not the miracles of our Lord Christ and his Apostles done to witnesse their commission from God together with the excellence of Christianity above Judaisme even in the ballance of reason If wee make not good and constant correspondence between both wheresoever the ground of that correspondence takes place wee allege a reason that needs a reason to defend it But if wee do that wee imprest all the miracles done by Moses to introduce the Law to depose for the truth of the Gospel Wee furnish our selves of a magazine of argument in all points of Christianity to convince those who have received it what the conâ—â—itution of Gods ancient people and the truth then on foot will inferre upon the correspondence which they are supposed to hold with Christianity and with the Church I do then freely grant that Excommunication stood not immediately by Gods Law among Gods ancient people though by that Power which Gods Law had vested on them that first introduced it Were it Esdras by commission from the King of Persia as to the Power that inforced it with means to constraine though by the Law as to his Title before and against other men by the Law or whosoever it were besides But I will allege evidence for it after the return from Captivity which to my knowledge hath not hitherto been alleged Namely that which is called in the Greek Bible the third Book of Maccabees where it is râ—lated that when some of the Jewes at Alexandria had obeyed the Edict of Ptolomee Philometor commanâ—ing to worship an Idol which hee had set up the rest of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abhorred those of them that had turned Aposâ—â—â—es and condeâ—ned â—â—em as enemies to the Nation depriving them of mutual conversation and the henefit of it III. 25. Upon the consideration of which passage I easâ—ly conclude that of 1 Macc. XIV 38. not to be well understood nâ—â— translâ—ted where it is said that Razias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying indeed that in the â—orâ—er times under Antiochus Epiphanes when so many Jewes departed from their Law hee had brought in the decree of not mixing Judaisme That is to say that hee had been the means of passing a decree that those who stuck to their profession should not commâ—nicate with the Apoâ—â—ates These things were done by virtue of the Law against the will of their Soveraignes and therefore Philometor complaines of them for it 3 Macc. III. 16. but it is by virtue of his decree being his subjects that they put them to death aftâ—rwards VII 8 9 10. I do also grant that the putting of a man out of the Synagogue which I admit to have come in by the act of those men who nâ—verthâ—lesse had their authority originally from that act of God which made them a people under those Lawes imported a great abatement of the temporal privilege of each Jewes estate in as much as it is evident that whosoever was banished the conversation of Jewes in whole or in part was at the same rate abated the privilege of a Jew which they held by the declaration of their Soveraignes to maintain them in the use of their own Lawes For the privilege which a man holdeth among his people whereof hee is a native will appeare of what consequence it is when hee comes to live among strangers But I do not therefore yield that to be excommunicate out of the Church by the original constitution thereof and the Law of God imports the abatement of any secular privilege Because of the difference between the Synagogue and the Church which God appointed to be gathered out of all Nations under the condition of bearing Christs Crosse For such a company refusing their Communion to such as they exclude can neither prejudice their persons goods nor fame which being doubtfull to the world so long as they professe the Religion which the world owns not returns by consequence when they quit that Religion to return to the Religion of the State Rather as the Leviathan truly sayes they make themselves liable to all the persecution that may be brought upon them by such as think they have had ill measure by being put out of the Church Now to that which is argued That because the Christians went for Jewes among the Gentiles at the beginning of Christianity injoying Jewes privileges and thereby the exercise of their Religion therefore the Excommunications used by them must needs be such as were in force among the Jewes according to Moses Law that is by the Power which it establisheth The answer is by denying the consequence The reason this The Christians at the beginning communicated with the Jewes in that service of God which they used as well in the Temple as in the Synagogue How should they have opportunity to make them acquainted with the Gospel otherwise But as sometimes they assembled secretly among themselves for fear of the Jewes Acts XII 12. John XIX 38. so also besides those Offices which they served God with among the Jewes in the Temple or in the Synagogue they acknowledged others which they held themselves bound to and for which they retired themselves from the Jewes Acts I. 13. II. 42 46. III. 23. V. 42. VI. 2. The ground of their Communion with the Jewes Christians know to have been the hope of winning them to be Christians lasting while that hope should continue the ground of serving God in their own Assemblies the obligation of Christianity for ever to continue In regard of the conversation and communion which they held with the Jewes whether Civil or Religious they were subject to be excommunicated by the Jewes That is part of our Lords Prophesie John XVI 2. They shall put you out of their Synagogues Nay the time cometh that whoso killeth you shall think that hee doth God service But whatsoever the effect of these Excommunications might be being driven and confined in a maner to the Communion of the Church by being excluded or at least abridged the Communion of the Synagogue must they not needs forfeit their Communion by not fulfilling the condition by which they held it Or could they forfeit it upon other gronnds or to other effect than those upon which and to which they held it Indeed I will not undertake to give you many Scripture examples of Excommunications
knowledge as to think himselfe fit to recall the Lawes of his Country and give new Laws to the Church of God in it is not ashamed to admit that the reason why the Idolatries of Israelites were so odious to God was because he had not commanded them by the Scriptures As if God had never forbade them to worship Idols by the Scriptures For otherwise he could not have inferred by the words of the Prophet that a Christian ought to do nothing without a Text of Scripture to warrant it much lesse to admit any Law of the Church without such evidence Which had it been granted him with power to give the Church such Laws he could not have proceeded without demanding this exception that those which Cartwright should make without any such warrant might be counted godly and religious but these which the Church superstitious CHAP. XXVII Why it was death to transgress the determinations of the Jews Consistory and what power this argueth in the Church A difference between the authority of the Apostles and that of the Church The being of the Church to the worlds end with power of the Keyes makes it not infallible Obedience to Superiors and the Pillar of truth inferre it not IT will not be more difficult to show how the true sense of all those Scriptures which are alleadged towards the infallibility of the Church concurs to make good the terms upon which I have resolved the dispute in hand For having showed that the Law of Moses was given the Jews for the condition of holding the land of promise they ruling as well their civil communion as the service they tendred to God according to it I will demand but one thing more from the general experience of all civill people which is this That no form of Laws can be propounded to any community of men whatsoever so as to serve it without further determining and limiting of such things as time and the occurrences of time shall discover to be undetermined by that Law and therefore questionable So that Moses Law though given by God who foresaw whatsoever could become questionable concerning the mater of his Law yet because given for the civil Law of the people must needs be given liable to want such limitations as the occurrences of time should make requisite Neither can the truth hereof be better evidenced then by showing the course which God by the Law hath taken for the ending of all such disputes arising upon the Law I do therefore not onely grant but insist upon this that the power established by the law of Deut. XVII 8 -12 extendeth to all maner of debates arising upon occasion of any recept of Moses Law and to the determining of them by limiting those things which the leter of the Law had not expressed I do likewise grant that death is allotted for a penalty to whosoever should not conform to any such determination and the practice of the Law according to it And I do find so much reason for it that I do not understand how possibly that people should subsist and by consequence the Law which made them that people in practice of it without such a provision as this An opinion of the intent and meaning of God in the practice of any precept being sufficient to divide that people into parties not to be reconciled but by the voice of God either upon the occasion or by the Law warranting the sentence of those whom he authorizeth to declare what he requireth of his people Setting aside for the present to dispute whether it be the Priests alone or the Priests with the chiefe of the People in whom this Power is vested by the Law as for the present I dispute not who the persons are in whom the power of Church maters rests in behalf of the Church it is plainly by this Law a capitall crime to teach and do contrary to what the publick Power of that People should determine concerning the intent and practice of any Precept of that Law And therefore accordingly I grant insist that in the new Israel of God according to the Spirit which is the Church of Christ there is and ought to be a Power of putting out of the fellowship of the same any man that shall not stand to the resolution which legally is able to conclude it For without such a Power it cannot be imagined how the unity thereof should subsist seeing that there can be no community in which debates shall not arise about those things wherein they communicate I grant further and insist that he who is justly put out of the Church though meerly for violating the unity thereof by disobeying that just order which unites it is thereby condemned to the death of the world to come As he that teaches and does contrary to the sentence of that power that concludes the Synagogue is put out of this Notwithstanding as many other crimes besides this are capitall by the law of Moses so there be many other causes both of faith and of life by which a man forfeits his interest both in the world to come and in the communion of the Church But if any man argue that because a man forfeits the Communion of the Church by disobeying the determination thereof therefore all the determinations thereof are infallibly true and obliging by virtue of Gods Law I shall deny the consequence by virtue of that very Law of Deut. XVII 8 -12 upon which this Argument is grounded For whereas it makes disobedience a capital crime there are other Laws that suppose a breach of the Law even in following the determinations of that power which it establisheth At least if we admit the practice of those Jews that follow the Talmud in those precepts of Levit. VI. 13 -21 Numb XV. 21 -26 which indeed cannot reasonably be otherwise understood How should the Congregation offer sacrifices to expiate that ignorance wherein all were involved but as those that had power to make wrong determinations should expiate that ignorance which the Congregation by following had incursed Neither saith our Lord any lesse in the Gospel though in a mater of greater consequence when having condemned them that transgressed Gods commandment for the Tradition of their Predecessors Mat. XV. 5-10 Mar. VII 8-12 neverthelesse he commands them to observe and do all such things as the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses Chair should command Mat. XXIII 2. to wit because the authority of Moses his Chair presupposed the Law of God but extended not to nullifie any part of it In like maner the authority of the Church presupposing the truth of Christianity the profession whereof makes Christians the Body whereof is the Church It is not possible that it should reach so farre as to warrant any man to believe that which those grounds upon which the truth of Christianity stands cannot evidence to be true I say not that the Church cannot determine what shall be taught and received in such disputes as
fiat dilectissimi filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi Which oblation thou O God wee pray thee vouchsafe to make in all respects blessed imputable accountable reasonable and acceptable That it may become to us the body and bloud of thy well-beloved Son our Lord Christ Jesus Then after the Institution Jube haec perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum in conspectu divinae Majestatis tuae Ut quotquot ex hoc altaris participatione sacrosanctum filii tui corpus sanguinem sumpâ—erimus omni benedictione coelesti gratia repleamur Command them to be carried by the hands of thy holy Angel unto thine Altar that is above before thy divine Majesty that as many of us as shall receive the holy body and bloud of thy Son by this communion of the Altar may be filled with all heavenly benediction and grace These two parts of this Prayer are joyned into one in most of those Forms which I have named whether before the rehersal of the institution or after it Onely in those many Forms which the Maronites Missal containeth the rehersal of the institution comes immediately after the Peace Which was in the Apostles time that Kisse of Peace which they command going immediately before the Deacons warning to lift up hearts to the Consecrating of the Eucharist Though those words are not now found in any of these Syriack forms For after the institution is rehearsed it is easie to observe that there followes constantly though not immediately but interposing some other Prayers a Prayer to the same effect with these two But in two several formes For in all of them saving two or three which pray that the Elements may become the body and bloud of Christ to the Salvation of those that receive by the Holy Ghost coming down upon them Prayer is made that this body and this bloud of Christ may be to the Salvation of the Receivers Which may be understood to signifie the effect of both these Prayers in so few words But it may also be understood to signifie that whosoever framed them conceived the consecration to be made by the rehersal of the institution premised Which if I did believe I should not think them ancient but contrived at Rome where they are printed upon the doctrine of the School now in vogue For in all formes besides the effect of these prayers is to be found without excepting any of those which wee may have any confidence of that they are come intire to our hands I demand then whether I have reason to attribute the force of consecrating the Eucharist upon which the Sacramental presence of the body and bloud of Christ depends to the recital of what Christ said or did at his celebrating the Eucharist or instituting it for the future Or to the Prayer which all Christians have made and all either do make or should make to the expresse purpose of obtaining this Sacramental as well as spiritual presence Hear how Justine describes the action Apolog. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having done our Prayers wee salute one another with a kisse Then as I said that the Peace was next before the Consecration is offered to the cheif of the Brethren bread and a cup of water and wine mixed Which hee takes and sends up praise and glory to the Father of all through the name of the Son and Holy Ghost Giving thanks at large that wee are vouchsafed these things at his hands To wit the means which God used to reclame Man-kind under the Law of nature and Moses and lastly the coming of Christ and his death and the institution of the Eucharist Who having finished his Thanks-giving and Prayers for the making of the Elements the body and bloud of Christ by the Holy Ghost all the people present follow with an acclamation saying Amen Afterwards hee calls the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The food which thanks hath been given for by the prayer of that word which came from him That is which our Lord Christ appointed the Eucharist to be consecrated with when hee commanded his Disciples to do that which hee had done So Origen in Mat. XV. calls the Eucharist Panem verbo Dei per obsecrationem sanctificatum Bread sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer And contra Celsum VIII Oblatos panes edimus corpus sanctum quoddam per preces factos Wee eat the bread that was offered made a kinde of holy body by prayer Not that which is grounded upon that Word of God by which his creatures are our nourishment as Justine saith afterwards that Christians blesse God by the Son and Holy Ghost for all the food they take but that Word of Christ whereby hee commanded to do that which hee had done S. Cyril of Jerusalem Catech. Mystag III. saith That the bread is no more common bread after the calling of the Holy Ghost upon it Because hee saith afterwards Cat. Myst V. that the Church prayes God to send the Holy Ghost upon the Elements to make them the body and bloud of Christ As I said So S. Basil calls the form of Consecration which I showed you hee affirms to come by Tradition from the Apostles as here I maintaiu it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The words of invocation To wit whereby wee call for the Holy Ghost to come upon the elements and consecrate them de Spiritu Sancto cap. XXVII S. Gregory Nyssene de vitâ Mosis saith the bread is sanctified by the Word of God which is his Son But to say further by what means hee adds in virtue of the blessing To wit which the Church consecrates the Eucharist with as our Lord did Optatus describes the Altars or Communion Tables which the Donatists broke For they were of wood not of stone Quo Deus omnipotens invocatus sit quo postulatus descendit Spiritus Sanctus On which almighty God was called to come down On which the Holy Ghost upon demand did come down S. Jerome describes the dignity of Priests Epist LXXXV Ad quorum preces corpus Christi sanguisque conficitur At whose prayers the Body and Bloud of Christ is made To wit by God And in Sophoniae III. Impiè agunt in legem putantes Eucharistiam imprecantis facere verba non vitam Et necessariam esse tantùm solennem Orationem non Sacerdotum merita They transgresse the Law of Christ thinking that the Eucharist is made by the words not the life of him that prayes over it And that only the customary prayer not the works of the Priest are requisite In fine as often as you reade mysticam precem or mysticam benedictionem when there is speech of the Eucharist in the Fathers be assured that which here I maintain is there understood True it is Irenaeus V. 2. affirmeth that the Bread and the Wine receiving or admitting the Word of God accipientia become the Eucharist of the Body and Bloud of Christ But what word this is hee
communicate every day Though it were easy to show how the rest of the Fathers agree or disagree therewith For that supposeth the dayly celebration of the Eucharist whereas who ever heard of daily preaching all over the ancient Church For that the order thereof was to assemble for the praises of God Prayer and for instruction by reading the scripture more frequently then the boldest pulpit man could preach Neither is it questionable for mater of fact nor for the consequence in obliging them that would reform and not destroy to follow the example supposing the premises One thing more I desire may be considered All the affectation of preciseness in keeping the Lords day willnever induce any people indued with their senses to doe that which the Jewes by the Law of the Sabbath whilst it was in force stood obliged to doe Namely to dresse their meate the day before that so neither themselves nor their servants might he obliged to violate the rest of the Sabbath If this precept oblige Christians to heare preaching for the means of salvation how are servants dispensed with to be absent from preaching who cannot be dispensed with for resting on the sabbath For though Christian servants may dresse meate on the Lords day Yet as they are not dispensed with for serving God on the Lords day so if the service of God on the Lords day necessarily requires preaching they must be also preached to on the Lords day But if being catechized in their Christianity they may serve God by praying and Praising God and by heareing the instruction of the scripture read advance in the duties of Christianity then may they doe the duty of Christans to God at Church as well as to their masters at home the duty of Christian servants without heareing sermons on the Lords day In a point so unlimited wherein a private mans opinion is not to be Law I find no better ground for reasonable termes then that which the practice of the Chatholike Church reported by Gennadius intimates For it is not to be gathered from Gennadâ—uâ— that there was meanes to receive the Eucharist every day every where because neither can it be imagined that there was ever any time since the Empire turned Christian when there was meanes for all Christians to be present at it much lesse to communicate On the other side the relation of Gennadius supposing that the celebration of the Eucharist was maintayned when preaching neither was nor could be maintained it followeth that by the Custome of the Catholike Church Lords days and festivals the celebration whereof all Christians were alwaies concerned in are to be kept by celebrating the Eucharist when they cannot be kept by preaching and hearing sermons And that there can be no better order that God may be served by all sorts of Christians then where there is provision and where the custome is that all Christians may communicate on Lords daies and Festivales and when for reasons left to themselves they doe not communicate they may with their spirits as well as their bodies asist the celebration of it Remitting the custome which Gennadius his resolution supposes the celebrating the Eucharist every day to the greater Churches of the more populous Cities and Places But whereas the Apostolicall forme of divine service makes the sermon a part of it And at Corinth S. Paul orders many of those spirituall Graces to concurr to that worke which at assemblies on extraordinary occasions was somtimes practised by the primitive Churches as I have showed there it were too great wrong to common sense to extend this to all assemblies of Christians in villages and not consistent either with the necessities of the world or the interest of Christianity in frequenting those offices most which are principall in Gods service Laying downe then that tyranny which constraines all that have cure of soules to speake by the Glasse every Lords day twice which shuts all the service of God out of dores saving a prayer to usher it in and out The interest of Christianity will require that at and with the celebration of the Eucharist all Christians be taught the common dutys of Christians by them who are to answer for their Soules Not to please the eare with sharpnesse in reasoning or eloquence in language but to convince all sorts what conversation the attaining of Gods kingdome requires of them who believe that he made the world that he sent our Lord Christ to redeem it that by his spirit he brings all to confesse and show themselves Christians and in fine that by our Lord Christ he shall adjudge those that doe so to everlasting life and those that doe otherwise to everlasting death For the rest it is not my purpose to undervalue the labours of S. Chrysostome S. Austinâ— Origen S. Gregory or whosoever they are ancient or moderne that have laboured the instruction of their people even by expounding them the Scriptures out of the Pulpit supposing they expound them within the rule of our common faith But upon the account in hand onely I say that if they withdraw Christian people from serving God by those offices which the order of the Church makes requisite according to the premises which I am sure enough none of the ancients ever did their laboures are not for the common edification of the Church but for maintayning of parties in the Church The celebration of Lords daies and Festivales and times of fasting necessarily furnishes opportunitie both for all Curates to furnish their people with that instruction which they owe them as answerable for their soules and for those whom God hath furnished with more then ordinary graces of knowledg or utterance to advance our common Christianity by advancing the knowledge of Christians in the scriptures But the office of a Pastor necessarily requireth an exact understanding of the nature of humane actions in maters of Christianity whether concerning believing or working not to be attained without the study as well as the experience of a mans whole life And therefore to oblige them who are to provide necessary foode for the soules of their flock to be alwaies gathering the flowers of the scripturers to make them nosegayes of will be to starve them for the want of that knowledge which the common salvation of all necessarily requires that the more curious may have entertainement of quelques choses And therefore for the rest Christian people are to think themselves obliged to come to Church to serve God by prayer and the prayses of God to learn instruction out of the scriptures by hearing meditating upon the lessons of them on far many more houres and daies and occasions then there can be for preaching of Sermons CHAP. XXV Idolatry presupposeth an immagination that there is more Gods then one Objections out of the scripture that it is the worship of a true God under an Image the Originall of worshipping the elements of the world The Devil And Images Of the Idolatry of the
whereby they thought they held their estate whether of this world or the hope they might have of the world to come For my opinion obligeth me not to say that Idolatry was commanded by this law of Jeroboam or practised by all that conformed to it But that though not expresly commanded yet it followed by necessary consequence upon the introducing of the Law Not by consequence of naturall necessity from that which the terms thereof imported but by that necessity which the Schoole calls morall when the common discretion of men that are able to judge in such matters evidences that supposing such a Law it must needs and will come to passe CHAP. XXVI The Place or rather the State of happy and miserable Soules otherwise understood by Gods people before Christs ascension then after it What the Apocalypse what the rest of the Apostles declare Onely Martyrs before Gods Throne Of the sight of God I Come now to the nicest point if I mistake not of all that occasions the present Controversies and divisions of the Western Church the state of soules departed with the profession of Christianity till the day of Judgement The resolution whereof that which remaines concerning the publick service of God the order and circumstances of the same must presuppose This resolution must procede upon supposition of that which the first book hath declared concerning the knowledge of the Resurrection and the world to come under the Old Testament and the reservation and good husbandry in declaring it which is used in the writings of it The consideration whereof mightily commendeth the wisdome and judgment of the ancient Church in proposing the bookes which we call Apocrypha for the instruction of the Ca echumeni or learners of Christianity For these are they in which the Resurrection and the world to come and the happy state of righteous soules after death is plainly and without circumstance first set forth I need not here repeat the seven Maccabees and their mother professing to dy for Gods Law in confidence of Resurrection to the world to come 2 Mac. VII 9 11 23 36. nor the Apostle Ebr. XI 35-38 testifying the same of them and the rest that lived or died in their case But I must not omit the Wisdom of Solomon the subject whereof as I said afore is to commend the Law of God to the Gentiles that in stead of persecuting Gods people they might learn the worship of the onely true God For this he doth by this argument that those who persecute Gods people think there remains no life after this but shall find that the righteous were at rest as soone at they were dead and in the day of judgement shall triumph over their enemies Wisdome II. III. 1-8 V From hence proceeding to show how the wisdome of Gods people derives it selfe from Gods wisdome who so strangely delivered them from the persecutions of Pharaoh and the Egyptians for a warning to those that might undertake the like In particular the Kings of Egypt under whom this was writ and the Jewes most used the Greek The Wisdome of Jesus the sonne of Sirach pretending to lay down those rules of righteous conversation which the study of the Law the off-spring of Gods Wisdome had furnished him with is not so copious in this point though the precepts of inward and spirituall obedience and service of God from the heart which he delivers throughout can by no meanes be parted from the hope of the world to come being grounded upon nothing else And he proposeth it plainly from the beginning when he saith He that feareth God it shall go well with him in the end and at the day of his death he shall be blessed The very additions to Daniel are a bulwarke to the Faith of the Church when it appeares that the happinesse of righteous soules after death is not taken up by any blind tradition among Christians but before Christianity expressed for the sense of Daniels fellows in those words of their hymne O ye spirits and souls of the righteous blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnify him for ever And whatsoever we may make of the second book of Maccabees the antiquity of it will alwayes be evidence that the principall author of it Jason of Cyrene could never have been either so senselesse or so impudent as to impose upon his nation that prayers or sacrifices were used by them in regard of the resurrection if they believed not the being and sense of humane souls after death 2 Mac. XII 43. Proceed we to those passages concerning this point which the Gospell afford us and consider how well they agree herewith I will not here dispute that our Lord intended to relate a thing that really was come to passe but to propose a parable or resemblance of that which might and did come to passe when he said Luke XVI 19 There was a certaine rich man that was clad with fine linnen and purple and made good chear every day But I will presume upon this That no man that meanes not to make a mockery of the Scriptures will indure that our Lord should represent unto us in such terms as we are able to bear that which falls out to righteous and wicked soules after death if there were no such thing as sense and capacity of pleasure and paine in souls departed according to that which they do here I will also propose to consideration the description of the place whereby he represents unto us the different estate of those whom it receiveth And in Hell lifting up his eyes being in torments he sees Abraham from afarre and Lazarus in his bosome And afterwards And besides all this between us and you there is a great gappe fixed so that those who would passe from hence cannot nor may they passe from thence to us For I perceive it is swallowed for Gospell amongst us that Dives being in Hell saw Lazarus in the third heavens Whereas the Scripture saith onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the invisible place of good and bad â—oules For so the processe of the Parable obliges us to understand it Sâ—â—ing it would be somewhat strange to understand that gappe wherewith the place of happy soules is here described to be parted from the place of torments to be the earth and all that is between the third heavens and it The Jewes at this time as we see by the Gospell believing according to the testimonies alleged that righteous soules were in rest and pleasure and happinesse wicked in misery and torments called the place or state of those torments Gehenna from the valley of the sonnes of Hinnom neer Jerusalem where those that of old time sacrificed their children to devils burnt them with fire The horror of which place it appears was taken up for a resemblance fit to represent the torment of the wicked soules after death In like manner Gods people being sensible of Gods mercy in using meanes to bring them back to the ancient inheritance
driven out of paradise If you call the same Jerusalem it will appeare why the place of the damned is called Gehenna which was the place without Jerusalem where those that were sacrificed to the Idoles of Canaan were consumed with horrible tortures of fire The Scripture of the old Testament yeeldeth not the name but the true interpretation of it In the meane time though our Lord by carying the thiefe into Paradise show that it continues not shut yet continues it no lesse secret no better knowne then it is knowne where Adam first dwelt It is strange that the bosome of Abraham should signifie the same He is acknowledged the Father of the faithfull by Jewes as well as Christians His hospitality is recounted in the scripture The kingdome of God which his people then expected is proposed by our Lord in dâ—vers passages of the Gospell under the figure of an entertainement as an expression then familiar to his people It is no marvaile that it should be called Abrahams bosome from whom the faith that purchaseth it hath so eminent a beginning though the Fathers before Abraham be there One thing we must note A vast gap wee see between it and the flames where Dives was tormented But where the partition is fixed so little is determined by the words of the scripture that whether both within the earth or one within the earth the other in the heavens or whether both without this visible world as of the place of the damned some argue with great probability from the darkenesse that is without in the Gospell no rule of â—aith determines And therefore whether the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the parable useth Luke XVI 23. when the rich man lifts up his eyes in Hell and sees Lazarus in Abrahams bosome whether it comprehend the bosome of Abraham as well as the place of torments no Rule of faith determineth For as it manifestly signifyeth the place of the damned in the scripture which it is manifest Gods people must needs distinguish by the scripture is the place where they were sure by the scripture that God would punish his and their enemies So comprehending also the place of righteous soules nor distinguished from the other to Gods people by the ancient scriptures how should the signification of it be restrained here For as the Hethen so Josephus also manifestly extendeth it to the place of righteous as well as wicked soules after death For when he saies that de Bello Jud. II. 12. the Saduces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and rewards of the World to come under the one name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he comprises both estates which the rest of Gods people attributed then to good and bad The Pharises he saies Antiq. XVIII 2. maintaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punishments and honors under the earth And that as it followeth for ever which is as much as if he had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because those things which were thought to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things under the earth Again of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And agreeing with the Greekes they affirme that good soules are assigned a seate beyond the Ocean in a place not grieved with raine or snow or heate but alwaies refreshed with a milde West wind blowing from the Ocean But the evill ones they assigne a darke and stormy nooke full of torments without ceasing And yet in an other place he saith they assigne them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most holy place of the Heavens So little ground is there for the distinct signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sense of those to whom our Lord spoke It behoveth us therefore to acknowledge the victory of our Lord Christ and his triumph over the Devill and all the damned which S. Paul as in the text quoted out of the Epâ—stle to the Ephesians he ascribeth to the Ascension of our Lord according to the Psalme which he alleageth so Col. II. 15. to the Crosse when he saith Spoiling principalities and powers he made open show of them triumphing over them in it by it or upon it to wit his Crosse to which he had said just afore that he nayled the hand writing which was against us This victory and triumph belongs to the rule of faith and the beliefe of it to the substance of Christianity because by vertue of it we have reconciliation with God and the rest of that which the Gospell promiseth But that it should be performed by the descent of Christs soule into the place of the damned being begun upon the Crosse and finished at the ascension as the necessity of our redemption requireth not so no Rule of Faith will oblige to believe There is great appearance that the devil did not understand the effect of it till our Lord rose againe as Ignatius saith that he understood not the the birth of the blessed Virgine Pilates Wives dream is a signe that doubting of the consequence he would have hindred that which by Judas he did procure He thought himself Lord of mankind because for sin they were condemned to death That by the death of Christ this condemnation was to be voided possibly he might not understand till Christ rose againe Though the soules of the Fathers were delivered out of his Power before the death of Christ yet might he not understand that by virtue of it Our Lord saith John XIV 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me Because he found nothing of his owne that is of sinne in Christ Though he had nothing to do with Christ in justice seeing in deed he had meanes to swallow him and might not know that the swallowing of him would oblige him to render his interest in all that should escape with him is it a marvaile that he swallowed him being a murtherer from the beginning Thus farre I have owned the reason of our redemption against Socinus Which if it be true the victory of Christ was declared that is the triumph begunne at his rising againe And therefore it is no way prejudiciall to the common Faith which I know some have imagined that our Lord Christ having been in Paradise with the good thiefe or in the bosome of Abraham with Lazarus till Easter day morning when he was to rise againe went from thence in his humane soul to the place of the damned to declare to the devil that by laying violent hands on him who had not sinned he had lost not onely the Fathers but all that should believe at the preaching of the Gospel For herein the triumph of his victory upon the Crosse consisteth But the substance of this ceremony being so fully provided for by the death of his Crosse and by his riâ—ing againe in virtue of it that he who believeth it not should be thought to come short of believing all that which it is necessary to salvation to believe seemeth to me