sanctified or cleansed from originall sin for if it had ever been sinfull it could not have been sanctified from sin without the blood of the covenant Heb. 9.22 and Ephe. 1.7 and so there must have been another Mediator beside himselfe which St Paul denieth 1 Tim. 2.5 there is but one Mediator even the Man Christ Jesus the High Priest who is in himselfe holy innocent and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. Mathe. But if Christs humane nature came from the blessed Virgin and from Adam he could not avoid the taint of sin no more then he could death Phila. We are to consider as I said before that sin cleaving not to substance alone but to persons and considering that he took no person of the Virgin but her substance which was immediately united to his Godhead in subsistence and only so made a person it will follow that though his substance yet his person was never in Adam and so never sinned in Adam and so never tainted with originall sin For as it could not be propagated by his manner of conception so neither could it be justly imputed to his person which was both God and man And for his death it was voluntary Death did not by his own power prevaile over him but he laid it down John 10.17 18. Nor did death fall upon him as a sinner but as the surety for sin Mathe. What effect worketh this conception for us Phila. 1. It hides the impurity of our conceptions from Gods anger because this satisfieth Gods justice for originall sin for the righteousnesse hereof is imputed to us and by it is constituted holinesse of nature for in this he was qualified with all habits of grace and vertue which by his spirit he powreth also upon us For this purpose he took an humane body because sacrifice and offerings would not satisfie Psal 40. and Heb. 10.5 2. This conception worketh a spirituall life and conception in us For our nature in him being conceived and quickned by the holy Ghost in the womb from thence proceeds the power of our regeneration from him that is the originall of spirituall life in our nature for the spirit that formed him in the womb doth beget us again to live in him and so doth justifie us before God from the evils that cleave to our nature Mathe. He is oftentimes called in the Gospell even by himselfe too the Son of man how then shall I conceive his conception to be more then humane Phila. His Conception and Birth are full of wonder yet may be discerned with distinction for it seems a new creation For as he was the Son of God no woman was his mother and as he was man he had no father He is called the Son of man because he took our nature of the blessed Virgins substance Yet he is called the Son of the most High Mat. 1. because he is the second person in the holy Trinity Which title is given to the nature assumed because it had no subsistence but in his person that was the naturall Son of God In which regard the blessed Virgin is called the mother of God not of his deity but of this union of God and man yet his person was not circumscribed in her womb though the humane nature was But as his body is heaven locally and is in the Word substantially and in the Sacrament mystically and in the heart of a beleever spiritually so it was in her body naturally Mathe. How am I to conceive of the birth of Christ Phila. He was born three waies of his Father of his Mother and in the mind of man Of his Father eternally of his Mother temporally and in mans mind spiritually For three things have relation to his birth Deity Flesh and Spirit Of his Father he is born God for ever of his Mother flesh once and in mans mind he is born Spirit figuratively often In respect of his divine nature he had a Father without a Mother in regard of the humane nature he had a Mother without a Father in respect of his spirituall nativity he hath both Father and Mother i. they that do his will Paul saith God was manifested in flesh 1. From the bosome of his Father in whom he was concealed 2. From the shadowes of the Law in which he was prefigured 3. From the womb of his Mother in which he was covered This was the greatest and the most gracious work considered in all the consequences of it as his death and resurrection which without this could not have been that ever God wrought who for these humiliations gave him a name above all names Jesus the Saviour Phil. 2.9 Which name although others had as well as he in the Old Testament yet they were but figures of him yea the name Jehovah signifieth but essence i. God as he is the author of being but Jesus signifieth God our well being a Saviour then which there is no other name of salvation given Act. It was the name of the eternall Word incarnate it contains in it the whole oeconomy of the work of redemption wherein the attributes of God are united wisedome justice peace Psal 85. mercy and truth This was well called his great work of a woman compassing a man And wonderfull great it was in effect For in the Creation God made man in his image and so earth was honoured but in Christs birth God made himselfe in our image and so heaven was debased In creation God made all without resistance he spake but the word and they were made Heb. 12. But in redemption he suffered contradictions of sinners against himselfe In this work he did both speak work and suffer speak graciously work wonderfully suffer unworthily In creation the Word made flesh but in Jesus our Redeemer John 1.3 the Word was made flesh John 1.14 In the creation God took man out of the earth and placed him in Paradise In the redemption he took man out of hell and placed him in heaven through Jesus the Saviour Mathe. What were the effects of his birth Phila. Many For among the heathen voices were heard saying that the great God was about to be born At Rome a woman was seen about the Sun having a child in her arms And the Sybil told Augustus the Emperour that that same child was greater then he and bade him to adore him He would never after be called Lord. The Temple of peace fell down at his birth because he brought better peace to the world The Oracles were all struck dumb by the birth of this eternall Word Jupiters Oak in Dodona was shaken the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter The Tripode in Delphis Nazi in Julian annotat Nomi the Laurell and fountain of Daphne and the ramfaced image of Jupiter Ammon could utter nothing so that one effect of Christs birth was Gods glory and Satans confusion But further another effect was the good mans peace and salvation For he was born to
glorious testimony of his roialty and Deity Phila. No God left him not without witnesse For Pilats superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded
own native language as the word you either because the Scripture useth the word thou or else because they think every man their fellow The books that some of their own have written shew enough of their simplicity Mathe. Are we not troubled with some of the old Pelagians Phila. There have been some long agoe that held some of the opinions of old Pelagius Britto the Welsh man alias Morgan Cond in the fift Council of Carthage and in others Pontanus Cat. Haeret. who lived in the time of the Emperour Theodosius the younger about the year 416. His followers of latter time are reckoned to hold many errors as 1. That Adam should have died by the course of nature though he had not sinned yet we find that God joins death to disobedience Gen. 2.17 So 2. They say Adams sin only hurt himselfe not his posteritie yet Paul saith otherwise Rom. 5.12 by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men because all men did partake of that one sin yea even those that never sinned as Adam did ver 14. i. actuallie but not originallie as children have no sin but that and yet die August Beza But therefore 3. These Pelagians denie originall sin in children but how then saith David in sin my mother conceived me Psal 51. and therefore originall sin is propagated by generation 4. They say the children of the faithfull though not baptized are saved and they shall enjoy everlasting life but not in heaven but Christ saith Joh. 3. that those which belong to Gods Kingdome must be baptized with water nor doth the Scripture set forth to us any third place between heaven and hell 5. They say that men are born in Adams perfection stature and age excepted yet sure they are not born in such integrity as Adam was made for then all would be equally wise and good when they come to age 6. They say men have free will by which they are enabled to do well without Gods grace yet saith Paul not I but the grace of God in me 7. Gods grace they say is obtained by the merit of our works yet Paul saith that they that are in the flesh cannot please God and therefore by naturall works they cannot merit grace 8. They say that the word grace in Scripture doth not signifie remission of sin or donation of the Holy Ghost but the doctrine of the Gospell But this is found otherwise for as there is the doctrine of faith Fides quam credimus fides quâ credimus which is preached Rom. 10.8 and the vertue of faith by which we beleeve it and are thereby justified Rom. 5.1 So the promulgation of the Gospell is a common grace afforded to many Tit. 2.11 teaching us to denie ungodlinesse and next by it is begot saving grace 1 Tim. 1.14 the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in me with faith and love which is in Jesus Christ 9. They say that faith is the knowledge of the Law and the Historie not any speciall work in us but then the faith of divels and good Christians are both alike Jam. 2.19.10 They say the Law is not impossible for a man to keep and it is satisfied by the externall obedience why then doth Paul say that by the work of the Law no man can be justified Rom. 3.20 yet he that can fulfill it may be justified by it and hath no need of Christ Gal. 3.12 So 11. They say that to pray for the conversion of sinners or for the Saints perseverance is vain because it is in the power of their own free will But surely the will of man hath not power to revive him though he had power to kill himselfe and therefore praier is very fit to be used for people unconverted and also for the godly because of their frailties therefore Christ bids us pray for our enemies and Paul boweth his knees dailie for the Ephesians c. 3.16 So 12. They slight the doctrin of predestination which is applauded by St Paul Rom. 8. and comfortable to Gods people Many other errors they hold not worth relating Mathe. But I hear of some called Independents and Levellers I would willingly know what they are Phila. Independants are those that set up a congregationall government which shall depend upon no other Church Synod nor Classis and though they be against the Bishops yet they would have in every Church Bishop-Independants and so many Parishes so many prelacies because they are Independant upon any other They are bred from Separatists and Brownists The first of them that I can hear of was one Mr Robinson who leaving Norwich turned a rigid Brownist at Leyden He dying many of his followers went from thence to New England and planted at Plymoth there and spread their errors by discourse and into old England by letters where they endeavor to set Church against Church and Conventicles against our Churches which they call steeple-houses which were at first set up for the honour of God and his service though abused by the Papists to superstition yet are they never the worse when they are returned to a right use for as there is no inherent righteousness in their wals so neither is inherent superstition in them It is true that Jehosaphat took away the high places and groves because God had appointed and a place was consecrated for his service 2 Chro. 17.6 and such high places and groves were forbidden But they just contrary to Jehosaphat pull down the consecrated places and set up high places in chambers and meet in the groves and woods God give them a right understanding in the use of Churches Beside this they set themselves to overthrow learning and to rob it of all maintainance and the ministers of all dues and yet ask wherein have we robbed God Mal. 3.8 where God answereth them in tithes and offerings which God thought a fit way to maintaine his Priests And Christ bids the Leper go shew himselfe to the Priest and pay his offering Mat. 8.4 And Paul found it was equity that as they which did wait on the Altar were partakers of the Altar So that it was Gods Ordinance that they that preach the Gospell should live on the Gospell 1 Cor. 9.13 14. Yet these like Julian the Apostate would rob the Church of maintainance that there might be no ministrie because they despise prophecie Again they allow no set forms of Praier no not Christs form and yet they will say St Pauls namely The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost c. Yet it hath ever been the practice of all true Churches Jewes and Christians to have set forms as well for the uniform consent of the people Rom. 15.6 in praier and in praise as also for the confining not of the spirit as they suppose but of their inconsiderate spirits to the words of truth and sobernesse Yet there was alwaies liberty enough to shew
his sufferings of more value then if all men and Angels had suffered and though his death were but temporary yet it is more then all mens suffering eternall damnation 1. That it stands with Gods justice to punish the just if he be surety for the unjust as a man may justly exact mony of a surety which he never had Mathe. Was death all that Christ suffered for us Phila. No his whole life was a crosse and martyrdome For his sufferings were privative and positive the privative concerned both natures his divine because it was voluntarily deprived of that glory joy and felicity which it had for it was eclipsed while he dwelt upon earth John 17.5 in a vaile of flesh and by the darknesse of mens hearts who did not apprehend his glory So to his humane nature did justly belong all joy and happinesse because he did perfectly keep Gods Law yet he did want it in the daies of his flesh for he was of no reputation Phil. 2.7 And this he suffered to bring us to perfect glory and to teach us to hate sin which darkens the beams of Christs glory and to be content to have our lives hidden in Christ as his was till he be revealed in glory and we with him Col. 3.3 4. He suffered also positively and that 1. In regard of evill imputed to him for Gods justice charged all mans sins upon him as if he himselfe had been guilty of them all 2 Cor. 5.21 he was made sin for us and bare our sins in his body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and therefore God cannot require us to answer for them also but we may live comfortably in holinesse 1 Pet. 2.24 and die in assurance of happinesse 2. He suffered positively in regard of evill inflicted upon him from his conception to his resurrection and all for us For the malediction of the Law laid upon us not only death but a wretched life and therefore he suffered both yet not sicknesse nor the pains of diseases which are not common to all the nature of man but speciall judgements upon some particular men But he suffered all the common miseries of mans nature which did concord to the free execution of his office of Redemption As 1. By the humility of his incarnation to be made a man Luke 2. Phil. 2. To come of mean parents and to be born in a stable and made of no account and reputation and this to expiate the arrogancy of our first parents who would be as God therefore he is put beneath the lowest condition of men So he hides the glory of his eternall birth by a temporary to purchase for us a spirituall and heavenly birth so to teach great men not to be proud of their birth but seek the new birth which is true honour and glory and to comfort the poor whose children have poor provision at their birth and Christ had lesse then they Again he was mightily debased from his birth to his death as by being forced to flye from his native Country to Aegypt to abolish Adams sin which exiled him from Paradise and to repurchase heaven for us and to comfort those godly by his example who suffer banishment Againe for thirty years together he lived obscurely under Joseph as if he had been the Carpenters son and so reputed no man acknowledging him either as the Son of God or the King of Israel or the worlds Saviour but was as a root springing out of a drie ground Isa 53.2 despised and rejected of men What need Gods children therefore be discontented if the world regard them not Christ was so used But these were but private sufferings the more publick began after his baptisme As 1. By being tempted of Satan Mat. 4. in the desart where he overcame the arch enemy of mankind in a single duell This was he led to by the spirit of God not by any lust of vain glory in himselfe that he might make our pilgrimage in this world safe and secure and that he having experience of his temptations might have sympathy of ours and be the more ready to help us Heb. 2.17 and shew us a way how to put the devil to flight even by quoting Scripture as he did which is indeed the sword of the spirit It teacheth us also to beware of being led into temptation by our lusts but let the spirit of God bring us to the combat and he will bring us off with honor as Christ was For he leads us not by seducement of deceit nor allureth us by inticements to evill or by perswasions to venture upon any sinfull way but doth actuate us to combate with those temptations which he foresees are laied for us that our vertues may be improved and God glorified by such probations of us So it may justly comfort us in all temptations that Christ having overcome the devill in our behalfe hath merited victory for us His next suffering was extream poverty and want of the comforts of this life Mat. 8.20 he had not where to lay his head He lived upon alms and borrowed an Asse And this was to make us rich 2 Cor. 8.9 yea to make our selves poor by our liberality to others 2 Cor. 8.9 and not to place our felicity in worldly things nor seek great matters for our selves but be content with the meanest estate Christ was as poor as any man Beside he had infirmities like us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 He hungred and thirsted though he was the bread and water of life and was weary though the way to life He was subject to anger sadnesse fear and sorrow and this was that he might merit strength for us and we be enabled in him Further he suffered extream disgrace from the Jewes for they denied his divinity his birth by a Virgin nor would receive him as their King and Saviour John 1.11 They reproached him also unjustly and accused him of blasphemy against God and of seducing the people Against the Magistrate with treason and sedition against his own soule as if he had been a conjurer so with gluttony and drunkennesse and a favourer of sinners by which means the people were offended in him Mark 6.3 All this fell upon him by the imputation of our sins who were guilty though he was innocent and therefore he spake but little in his own defence Also that he might deliver us from eternall shame and merit for us eternall glory and that we might be ashamed for his sake to suffer all reproaches Heb. 12.3 4. Beside he underwent many dangers of being cast down the clift of Nazareth headlong and of stoning by the Jewes All which he suffered as the fruits and effects of our sins and to save us from everlasting destruction But above all this he suffered his enemies to consult his death to be betraid by Judas to be denied by Peter to be forsaken by the rest And this he suffered for our perfidiousnesse in Adam our forsaking God and denying his
God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world
image of creatures Gen. 4.26 vid. R. Kim Rom. 1.23 Some to root out Gods revelation of himselfe to man by raising persecutions against those that professe it but especially against Christ and the Gospel which declares the manhood with God by Christs birth and mans redemption by Christs death And this argueth his first sin to be rebellion against the truth determined to be in due time manifested to the world Indeed Christ saith he did not abide in the truth nor indeed could abide it He did not abide in God who is truth it selfe nor in true obedience in which he was created nor in the truth determined concerning Christ to be mans Redeemer And indeed this seems to be truth from which he fell especially 1. Because Christ cals this Truth by way of eminence before Pilate saying I am come to witnesse the truth i. of Gods purpose and promise And he cals the Jewes the children of the Devill because they went about to destroy him and Judas a devill because he fell from him who was the Truth And because both refused to stand by his grace and favour as the Devill also did who hath ever been an opposer of this truth from the beginning as by preventing Adam of the sacramentall shadow of the tree of life and Cain of the comfort of true sacrifice both which were types of Christ And since that he made the Jewes to despise the figures of him Num. 21.56 in the Manna and Rock-water 1 Cor. 10.9 so he hath raised up many since Christs comming in the flesh to deny his Divinity or the truth of his Humanity Saviourship or justification power wisdome or holinesse And thus like the devill they love not that truth which was the actuall fulfilling of all the types law prophecies and promises in which regard it is said John 1. that Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ And I think the rather this was the main sin because neither he nor Judas never repented of it whom Christ called a devill for it is a sin cannot be repented of because committed directly against the method of God Christ and the Spirit of grace which is the only cause and means to true repentance So that he still setting himselfe like the Highest by designing to himselfe mans obedience and worship Mat. 4. sheweth his naturall pride 2. In seeking to destroy mans body and soule by tempting him to misbeleeve or disbeleeve his own redemption by Christ he sheweth his innate spight and envy 3. In striving to crosse Gods proceedings in nature or grace sheweth his rebellion from the beginning Mathe. But doth one devill do all this mischiefe in all men and all parts of the world at once this would argue a kind of infiniteness Phila. No sure for men are led aside by their own corruption and tempted of concupiscence to which the devill joins himselfe not only the Prince of Devils but some of his crew who are most fit to improve that temptation of a mans concupiscence Drusius quotations in lib. munus novum as we see one undertakes to seduce Ahab by becoming a lying spirit in the mouths of his Prophets Which was one of Pythons train whose way is by lies to delude people And the Scripture seems to intend some such thing by giving certain names to them as to some principall heads as Beelzebub whom the Jewes thought to be the Prince of Devils his name signifieth a master flie Jupiter Muscanius vide Clem. Alex. in protrept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Lord of flies Some say from his buzzing temptations which like flies swarm about us Others say because he drove away flies when the people sacrificed to him He is called the god of Ekron because they worshipped him So we find that God forbids consulting with familiar spirits Deut. 18.11 which in Hebrew is Schoel Aug. in 2. lib. de doct Christia cap. 23. and translated Python whom some writers take to be the head of that rank and order So we read of Belial a spirit of rebellion a vessell of wrath and ruine So of one Asmodeus a convincer and punisher Tobit 3.8 that strangled Sarahs seven husbands So of Satan who works deceits with Witches and Magitians and inflicts many miseries on mankind Revel as on Job c. 1. We read of another called Abaddon the master of misrule and confusion So of one Astaroth the chiefe head of all devilish accusations and so is all one with Diabolus the devill So we read of Mammon who tempteth to rapine and covetousnesse not that these only use such temptations for no doubt they officiate one for another and each faculty is imploied by each to mans ruine as the good Angels in their offices to mans good And it may be questioned whether these names signifie rather their persons or their faculties as Belemoh their beastly nature and Leviathan their vast increase in evill and Serpent their crafty folds windings and subtilties which Angels as they are dispersed in the world so they disperse their venome through the world Mathe. Doe they retain nothing of their created nature but evill Phila. Yes but they turn it all into evill They have their first knowledge and power but yet no farther then God permits them to use it for they are reserved like prisoners in chains by which they are confined For 1. They know not God with any comfort nor know his intentions nor his determinations whom he means to save or condemn for then it were in vain to tempt the one and needlesse to tempt the other Nor 2. Have they any certain knowledge of future events but make collections either from the stars or prophecies of Scripture or from mens temper or their actions and endeavors and therefore their answers in Oracles were dark and doubtfull as when he told the Pope he should die at Bethelem Sylvester it proved at a Monastery so called He told a King of England that he should not die till he had been at Jerusalem it proved that he died in a chamber so called Yet they beleeve and tremble because they fear justly they shall never enjoy the mercy they beleeve and because they do already feel partly the judgement ordained for them Againe they are stinted in their power they cannot do what they would Job was hedged in and till God opened a gap the devill could not invade him and when they are suffered to invade man yet are they subjected to the power of Christ and his Ministers Mathe. Are not these Angels in hell as yet Phila. No for had they been fixed to that sphere of punishment upon the fall they could neither have tempted Adam Aug. lib. 8. de civ dei c. 22. Jude 6. v. 17 nor us upon earth but they carry their hell about with them viz. the seat of damnation and the sense of Gods eternall displeasure Mathe. Where do you think Hell to be Phila. It is hard to say because the Scriptures do
Adam if he had not sinned Mathe. Whether is mans soule immortall Phila. Yea and it may be proved-first from the opposition that is between the life of a beast and a man A beasts life perisheth because it ends in the sensitive facultie whose organs being destroied their life is at an end for they cannot work beyond the sensitive faculty because they want reason and understanding Psal 32.9 Be not like the horse that hath no understanding or reason and you may see they have none because all creatures of the same kind work alike in all they do as the swallowes build all alike and the spiders weave all alike and beyond it they cannot proceed but mans operation is divers one from another Beside the desires of the creature is not to any eternity but to the present preservation of it selfe and it kind but mans desires reach higher So the delight of a beast is meerly in things sensuall and therefore it acteth only by the body because life is setled only in the blood Levit. 17.11 but man can delight in things beyond all sense naturall 1 Pet. 1.8 as to beleeve in Christ whom they have not yet seen And indeed if mans soule were not immortall then it might desire things beyond it selfe and so all its desires should be frustrate which is contrary to the end of natures operation who hath made nothing in vain and therefore whatsoever the soul doth naturally desire without sin is to be had either here or hereafter and therefore if the soule have a defire to be happy and free from misery or to have a being when the body is dissolved certainly it floweth from the immortality of its nature A shadowe whereof appears in mans desire to live in memory or in posterity in buildings or purchases Psal 49.12 and 2 Sam. 18.18 2. We find the soule to be incorporeall for it can comprehend things not only singular but universall and the kinds of all things 3. It is immortall that it may receive the justice of God which it hath not here for here the wicked flourish Ier. 12. as Dives did Luke 15. thou hadst thy pleasures and Lazarus pains 4. Beside it appears also by Gods covenant with his people it being everlasting they must also be so or else the covenant ceaseth to be but they never cease to exist as Mat. 22.32 all live to God he is God of the living of those soules that are bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 with the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 Mathe. How is the soul united to the body Phila. By Gods divine concurrence in generation which being mans form doth by its two faculties of sense and vegetation in forty daies prepare the matter to receive its quickning power and so body and soule make one person the soule being so united to it as that the body can neither live nor be called man without it And her being in the body is wonderfull not as a man in his house which will stand though the man go out nor as a spider in the web who setting in the center of it feeleth the touch of every cord But as the light diffuseth it selfe through the whole aire and is neither corrupted nor divided so is the soule whole in the whole body and whole in every part of it and as the Sun hath divers operations in divers parts of the world making spring in one place and harvest in another so doth the soule work diversly in our body by attraction decoction quickning and making us to grow And by this union doth only animate that body in which it is nor can it any other as some learned have thought Pythag. and the Jewes as John 1.21 For every body of the same kind is determined to his own soul nor can receive any other nor can the soul animat any other body but its own to which it is determined therefore when separated they long for their own bodies Rev. 6.10 Mathe. What is the Image of God in man Phila. Some qualities that have analogy and bear some likeness with God and that was holy knowledge righteousnesse and dominion For you must know that this image was not Gods personall image for that is Christ as Heb. 1.1 2. but his essentiall Image and therefore saith he let us make man after our image not my image i. the image of God in Trinity but by regeneration he shall be conformed to his personall image that is unto Christ as Rom. 8. those whom he foreknew them he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son 2. That this image consisted not in bodily shape for God hath none nor to his perfect image but that he was made according to Gods image formally that is to the example that God purposed in his mind nor was he obsignated and sealed with the holy spirit by the grace of perseverance for then he could not have fallen But he was created in holinesse negatively as being no way guilty of vain knowledge nor injustice nor to slavery subjected Therefore St Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. that he was made but a living soule i. possible to live ever and to get children to the same image but could not convey to them any quickning grace to make them certain of ever standing but the second Adam was made a quickning spirit to perform that Mathe. To what end did God make man thus Phila. Surely that he might glorifie him by having respect to him that made him like a circle which is a most perfect figure because it returns to the point from whence it was first deduced All good men are like this but those that run strait on from and return not are in the way to hell God crieth to us to return O Shulamite return because he being a most wise spirit thought fit among all the creatures to have one kind of understanding creature that might return to him by praise and honour of him not passively as the common creature sets forth his praise occasionally but actively and directly to give him the honour due unto his name with our heart tongue and life Mathe. If the soule hath no existence till by generation and by Gods concurrence it be united to the body what existence hath it after death when it is separated from the body I conceive not Phila. God having an immediate act in the souls production though by propagation it cannot be dissolved but by that power who gave it first a beginning Now though he for sin dissolveth the body which consisteth of naturall principles for a while till he reunites it again to the soule at the resurrection in a greater perfection yet we read not that he doth so to the souls but they live to him who is not the God of the dead but of the living souls which cannot die though congenerated with the body through Gods powerfull efficacy the parents mediating the union And therefore as it is a spirituall being it
He signified Christ in his innocent life and his death He never did his brother wrong yet he killed him and therefore Christ himselfe called that murther the blood of righteous Abel So though Christ did so many good works among the Jewes yet they would have stoned him and though they could not convince him of fin yet they crucified him whose blood notwithstanding speaks better things then the blood of Abel for that cried for revenge but Christs for remission The next is Henoch the seventh from Adam Henoch and so a sabbaticall person pointing out him in whom mankind must only rest as on the sabbath His name signified Taught or dedicated so Christ was taught of God in the humanity for he increased in wisedome and favour with God Exod. 21.6 Luke 2.52 and was dedicated to God as a perpetuall servant * Arias Mont. Pagnin Psal 40.6 7 8. mine eare hast thou bored so the word erithus signifies though the Apostle turn it and a body thou hast given me to shew how his body was to be given as a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 3.2 Againe Henoch was a Prophet Jude 14. so was Christ Henoch walked with God so did Christ * Cat. Arab. c. 20. fol. 27. a. Rabanus in Gen. 5. Jacob Brocard in Gen. 5. Henoch sorrowed three hundred years for Adams fall and Christ wept often but never laughed that the Scripture mentioneth Henoch was taken away of God and so Christ from death Henoch was no more seen nor shall Christ till he commeth to judgement The next was Melchisedeck after the flood Melchisedeck in his generation Heb. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Council Ephe. He signified or shadowed Christ in his generation name and office 1. In his generation being without father or mother or kindred without beginning of daies or end of life So said because his generation was very obscure nor committed to letters or the Genealogy in those times So Christ had no father as man nor mother as he was God yet the Council did rightly stile the blessed Virgin Mary the mother of God that is of the hypostaticall union not of his eternall generation she was the medium of uniting the manhood and Godhead together but no beginning of his subsisting in the Godhead which never had beginning of daies nor can have end of Being Yet who was this Melchisedecks father is hard to say Some say he was Shem the son of Noah But others say of one Heraclim the son of Phaleg who married Salathiel Vide Epipha and the Arabic Catenam the daughter of Gomer by whom he had this Melchisedeck 2. 2 In his Name His name signified the King of righteousnesse and as King of Salem it signified peace so Christ was both King of righteousness that was his name Jer. 23.6 and the King of peace Isa 9.6 because he wrought it Isa 53.5 by suffering chastisement for us he made peace through the blood of his crosse Col. 1.20 In which regard St Paul cals him our peace Eph. 1.14 and our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 So that as in his generation so in his name he shadowed Christ also For as Melchisedecks parents were unknown to that time so were Christs in his time for few beleeved his father was God or that his mother was a virgin And as Melchisedeck seemed to be without beginning or end of daies in respect of any expresse account given of it So Christ had no beginning in his divine nature nor no end of his Mediatorship for his Godhead and his manhood making one person never to be dissolved he is a Mediator without end yea he lived while his body was dead in the grave which he raised again by the eternall spirit And thus what was spoken of Melchisedeck respectively was fulfilled in Christ simply and fully So Melchisedeck was called King of righteousnesse and peace in regard 1. That he stood unchallenged of injustice in that time when the four Kings made war against the five Kings his neighbors for injustice and rebellion after twelve years subjection 2. Gen. 14.4 He was called King of peace not only because he was King of the City Salem afterward Jerusalem signifying peace but because he was in peace when all his neighbours were at wars round about him But Christ was King of both righteousnesse and peace radically universally and effectually in himselfe and in all beleevers 3. In his Office he was a King and a Priest King of that City Shalem 3. In Office which afterward was possessed of the Jebusites and called Jebushalem a disordered place after which it being inhabited by Israel and King David it was called Jerushalem the vision of peace and so a type of heaven He appeared like a King by his munificence when he brought forth bread and wine to Abrahams wearry troops Gen. 14.18 Chrys in Psal 106. Isid de Eccl. off l. 1. c. 18. Cyprian Basil Jerom. signifying Christs Sacrament of Bread and Wine given to all the faithfull to refresh them in their battels against spirituall enemies 2. He was a Priest to the most high God and so no idolatrous Priest He shewed himselfe a Priest in blessing Abraham and in receiving tithes of him So he shadowed forth him that was to be both King and Priest after his own order not of Aaron but of Melchisedeck Heb. 5.6 The next shadowe was Isaac whose name signified laughter Isaac Luke 2.10 and Christ was the joy of all people He was begot and born in Abrahams old age so was Christ in the latter daies and old age of the world Isaac was freely offered up by his father Heb. 1.1 Beda in Gen. 22.6 so Christ was freely given of God for the world Isaac carried the wood and Christ carried his crosse Isaac died not John 19.17 Heb. 11.9 Clem. Alex. paedag l. 1. c. 5. Greg. in 6. Hom. in Ezek. but Abraham received him from the Altar in a similitude i. of Christ For as he died not on the Altar so neither did Christ as he was the only begotten Son of God For his divinity could not die but was like the scape goat that went from the sight of men into the wildernesse or the land of sequestration while his humane nature like the Ram that died in Isaac's room was caught in the thorns of our sins signified by that crown of thorns put on his head Gen. 22.4 Isaac was delivered the third day after that he was voted to death so Christ was raised the third day after that he died The place of his deliverance was called by Abraham Jehovah jireh The Lord will provide in the mount so God on mount Calvary provided for us a sacrifice and a Saviour also These were shadowes of Christ before the Law Mathe. What other shadowes of Christ were under the Law Phila. The first Personall shadowe under the Law was Aaron whose name signifieth an high mountain So it is prophecied of Christ
and his Church that in the latest of daies the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 and all Nations shall flowe unto it So in the sixt age God did fulfill it by setting up Christ who being lift up drew all men to him for this little stone Dan. 2.34 grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth that is with his doctrin and Church He the highest for eminency and his Church by universality Aaron was chiefe Priest so was Christ but yet of a Kingly line which Aaron was not Aaron took not this office upon himselfe of his own will but was called of God so was Christ consecrated of God Heb. 5. â— and appointed to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck Aaron was washed and Christ unspotted holy harmlesse and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 He was anointed with holy oile and Christ with the holy spirit by which he was a sweet savour to God The next shadow is Joshua whose name in Hebrew is all one with Jesus in Greek Joshua as appeareth Heb. 4.8 in these words If Jesus that is Joshua had given them rest It signifieth a Saviour Mat. 1.21 Now this man did type forth Christ 1. Because he lead Israel to Canaan and was their Captain as Christ was the Prince of our salvation and therefore cals himselfe Ioshua 5.14 the Captain of the Lords hoste i. of all those that fight under his banner of the crosse and are not ashamed of their profession 2. He typed forth Christ by circumcising all that were to enter into the land so Christ doth all Christians by a circumcision spirituall putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ whose efficacy lieth hid in Baptisme Col. 2.11 12. which takes off the shame of our naturall Aegyptian bondage 3. He presented Christ who will one day dispossesse the earth of all wicked persons that the meek may possesse the earth promised Mat. 5.5 And as Peter saith we look for a new earth wherein dwels righteousnesse and in the mean time by the power of his death doth slay those Canaanites Origen Josh Lect. in Trop Perizites and Jebusites that are within us in part till he come again as God did once from mount Paran to Israel Deut. 33.2 from his holinesse and happinesse to divide the people Hab. 3.3 6. Jude 14. and then shall our spirituall enemies be trod down for ever The next was Sampson Sampson a word derived of Shemesh His Sun Indeed he shined more brightly then any of the deliverers so did Christ the Sun of righteousnesse above all Mal. 4.2 2. He was a Nazarite of Nazar because he was separated from common things as the Razor and Wine Num. 6.3 4 5. So Christ was Heb. 7.26 separate from sinners Rom. 12.2 so are all in Christ separate from the common course of the world for Christ was not called a Nazarite from the Town Nazareth where he lived except by mistake but from his calling ceremoniall to answer to Sampson his type For it is not to be found in the Prophets verbally that Christ should be called a Nazarite but in his personall type Sampson Judg. 13.15 And therefore St. Matthew rather alludes to the common mistake of the people that he should be called a man of Nazareth rather then to his ceremoniall office a Nazarite according to our English translation but in the Syriach it is Naisareth of Naisar to observe or keep as indeed the Nazarites did their vow with all strictnesse And so from the City the place of his dwelling the people fulfilled a prophecie unwittingly as well as Caiaphas and the souldier that pierced his side fulfilled that of Zach. 12.10 Yea Pilate himselfe cals him in his superscription Jesus that Nazarite in the Greek Nazarenus in loco in merito 1. sanctue vel mundus quia pecetum non ficit Isid Etym. lib. 7.2 he meaning the City But the Spirit that guided him intending the office ceremoniall of Christ of which Sampson was a figure prophetically spoken of in the book of Iudges and made good in Christ conceived at Nazareth Again the Spirit came not upon Sampson till he was a compleat man so Christ did not shew himselfe till thirty years of age and after Iohns Baptism Sampsons first victory was over a Lyon so Christs over Satan that roaring Lyon Mat. 4. Vid. Aug in Psal 70. that seeks whom to devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Then next he overcomes the Philistins First with the Jaw bone of an Asse So Christ by the despised simplicity of preaching overcame the world 1 Cor. 1.18 21. though the Preachers of it are derided and ridden of the world for it like Asses Secondly he rising from sleep carried away the gates of Azza upon his shoulders So did Christ rising from the grave carry away the gates of hell and death and lead captivity captive Thirdly he was taken in Dalilahs lap so was Christ in the bonds of poverty and weaknesse as the name Dalilah signifieth Sampsons lock was cut off and his strength decaied But Christ herein exceeded for he laied down his strength willingly by which he made the souldiers before fall backward John 18.6 and this out of love to his Church though an adulteresse Sampson was flouted Christ was mocked But at last Sampson at his death pulled down the house of Dagon upon their heads Judg. 17.30 and so slew more at his death then in all his life and so did Christ when he cried it is finished on the crosse and bowed his head then was sin death and hell quelled at once though not triumphed over till his resurrection The next type was Iehoshuah the High Priest to Iudah Iehoshuah after their return from Babylon at the rebuilding of the Temple Zach. 3.1 He is likened to a branch and a stone verse 8 9 10. and Christ is called the branch ver 8. and a stone laied before Jehoshuah so is Christ the corner stone laied before the Priests upon which they must build the Church Satan stood on the Priests right hand but was reproved so he thought to get the upper hand of Christ but was vanquished Iehoshuah was a brand pulled out of the fire so was Christ when he satisfied the consuming fire of Gods wrath saying It is finished He was clothed in filthy garments and so was Christ with our sins that knew no sin in himselfe Againe glorious garments were given him and those taken away so Christ having satisfied for our sins mortality is put off and glory and immortality put on The next type of Christ was Cyrus though an uncircumcised King Cyrus whom God calleth his shepherd Isa 44.28 and cap. 45.1 his anointed We are to observe 1. His Name 2. His Country 3. His Office His Name was Cyrus Compounded of Caph and Rosh which in Hebrew signifieth as an Head and so he
move Acts 17.28 and have being but especially the godly who are effectually baptized into those names which are three in one as the three rooms in one Ark. The divers creatures in the Ark shew the mixture of the Church visible consisting of reasonable and unreasonable clean and unclean wheat and tares good and bad And in that there were seven couples of clean and but one couple of unclean it shewes that reprobates have little to do in Gods true Church and though some yet are they nothing in comparison of those that are out of the Church visible So Noah being Master and Lord of all these might well type forth Christ under whose feet God hath put all things in subjection Psal 8. Mathe. What signification of Christ and his Church had Moses Tabernacle and Solomons Temple Phila. Very great and lively For 1. Moses Tabernacle was a type of the Church Catholick as it is militant wandring in this world and discontinuing from the Lord. Bed de tab lib. 1. c. 1. Chrys in Psa 5 And by Solomons Temple the Catholike Church triumphant in heaven which Churches though two in number are but one in Christian faith Both these viz. Tabernacle and Temple typed Christ First the Tabernacle did because Christ is said to dwell or pitch his Tabernacle as the Greek word signifieth in Joh. 1.18 so did the Temple too Beza in John 1.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore he said dissolve this Temple and I will build it again in three dayes meaning the Temple of his body Joh. 2.19 21. well so called being the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily Col. 2.9 even as the Tabernacle and Temple was sometimes filled with the glory of God Exod. 40.34 and 1 Kin. 8.10 And as these typed out Christ so they did the Church both in the whole body and the members of it 1. In the whole called the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 and Rev. 21.3 Now Jerusalem is called the Tabernacle of God because he meant to dwell with men by the Gospel ruling in their hearts as once he did in the Temple of old Jerusalem 2. In the members of it Therefore Eph. 2.21 they are called a Temple and ver 22. an habitation of God by the spirit and a Temple of the Holy Ghost Haymo in Rev. 21. 1 Cor. 6.19 whose greatnesse though the world cannot contain yet he is content to dwell in a contrite heart But beside if we consider the place where Moses received the platform of the Tabernacle it will be more clear Moses received it in Horeb which signifieth a drie desart as Sinai or Seneh a bush in which God at first appeared to him The dry desart signified the world wherein the Law of God is given The burning bush the fiery afflictions of the Church in this land of thorns The man Moses that was faithfull in all the work of the Tabernacle having received it from God did well represent Christ who received from the bosome of his Father what things he delivered for the rearing up of his Church and so was as Moses a Mediator between God and his people Exod. 35.30 34. The chiefe workmen typed out the Apostles that had their gifts by infusion as Bezaleel and Aholiab of Judah and Dan signifying praise and judgement and were indeed Arch-builders as 1 Cor. 3.10 and so to be esteemed of all men Those that were subordinate to them might prefigure out inferiour ministers of which every one must prove faithfull 1 Cor. 4.1 So the people offering typed forth those in after times under the Gospell that should freely give themselves first to God and then of their goods liberally for the upholding Gods Church and service so often prophecied of Psal 45.12 Psal 110.3 Psal 72.10 11. and Isa which was fulfilled by the Eastern Magi Mat. 2. and by the Primitive Converts Acts 2. And so also by the many indowments of the Church given by Princes and others who beleeved the Gospell Besides the time of setting up the Tabernacle and Temple had relation to Christs comming Exod. 24. for as that was set up by Moses in the seventh month and the Temple by Solomon in seven years 1 Kin. 6.37 38. and in the seven sevens of years the second Temple was finished So after seventy sevens of years Dan. 9.25 from the Angell Gabriels speech to Daniel Christ the Messiah came from heaven and took up an earthly temple of our nature laied it down by death for our sins and raised it up again for our justification upon which doctrine he hath built his Church of which the Jewish was but a shadow This may further be understood by the triple division of this Tabernacle and Temples rooms which were three Fist the Court. Secondly the holy place and the most holy The most holy place was divided from the holy by a vaile Heb. 9.3 Heb. 10.20 This vaile typed Christs flesh which like Moses vaile hid his glorious appearance from our dull sight But when his flesh was rent upon the crosse the vaile of his divine power appeared by renting the vail of the Temple making as it were a way for us to come to the mercy seat Heb. 9.5 for within this vaile it stood Mathe. What signification had the matter of the utensils of that house to the Church Christian Phila. Very much being shadowes of things to come Col. 2. Rab. Maurus in Ex. l. 3. c. 10. For the matter of the boords and pillars being either Shittim wood incorruptible by nature it typed forth Christs body which never saw corruption and the body of beleevers too to whom sin shall not be imputed and from whom at last all corruption shall be removed 1 Cor. 15.53 The silver sockets may figure faith which joineth Christ and the Church together The coverings Christs protection under which the Church doth alwaies shroud her selfe Mathe. And what may the rooms signifie Phila. Surely the most holy place might well figure out the heavens for in them is the true mercy seat and glorious cherubins Orig. in Exod. Bed de tab l. 2. c. 13. into which Christ entred once for all to appear before God for us Heb. 9.12 24. In type whereof the High Priest in the Law entred once a year but Christ once for ever to take possession for us till the vaile of the earth rent to give way to our bodies at the resurrection to take possession of the heavens most holy place The holy place signified the Church on earth Orig. in Lev. 16.12 who must here offer up praier and praise in the name of Christ till he come again and our sacrifice of obedience taught us by word and sacraments which requires us to offer our selves a living sacrifice to God Rom. 12.1 for which he hath made us Priests as well as Kings Rev. 1. ◠to suppresse our rebellious corruptions In regard whereof the Church is called holy as the heavens is the most
are to beleeve that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in regard that his humane nature was produced from the blessed Virgin by his power and united to the divine but assumed by the Son the second person upon the Holy Ghosts preparation of the Virgins seed and carrying it to the place of conception which Luke 1.42 is called the fruit of her womb that is the whole man or humane substance without the accident of sin which followeth only generation not this wonderfull conception Therefore our sin was to him imputed not by nature imparted and death therefore seized not upon him by necessity but he gave his life voluntarily and it was taken away violently by others sin not his own Mathe. What necessity was there that Christ should be conceived in so holy manner and what are the effects of it Phila. He must be conceived on his mothers part that he might be a man and so fit for a surety for us yet by the Holy Ghost that so the substance might be separated from the accident of originall sin by his power who in the moment of conception united it to the second person with whom it made but one person which was no person before though it consisted of a soule and body and so though it came from Adam and was originally in Adam yet it never sinned in Adam because it took not personality from Adam though it did nature which nature was made so holy by this union that it needed no other sanctification as other men do who are to be sanctified by the blood of the Covenant through the operation of the Holy Ghost which not being warily observed hath made many heresies For the Marcionites and Manicheans not well understanding the conception of his manhood supposed that Christ had an incorporeall body and only passed through the blessed Virgins body And Apollinaris thought Christ had no soule because he understood not how he could take sinfull flesh as Rom. 8.2 3. and not be sinfull and so he determined him to be but halfe a man and that his divinity supplied the place of the soule Others stumbling at the conception of the Holy Ghost say that in this Christs nature was sanctified by the Holy Ghost which cannot be but his humane nature by the Holy Ghost was separated in respect of the substance of it from the blessed Virgin Mary and in the same moment of conception was united to the second person and was holy in it selfe for if it needed sanctification it needed justification Now the effects of this conception and personall union are many As 1. A communication of those properties to Christs person which are in themselves only proper to either nature Mat. 9.6 as to say the Son of man can forgive sins which is proper to the divine nature so to aseend where he was before so to say when he was on earth that the Son of man is in heaven Iohn 6.62 and his blood is called the blood of God though proper only to man 2. Effect of this union was a reception of gifts in his body and soule for his body received the highest degree of perfection that any body could attain unto though it was not much revealed till his resurrection save in his transfiguration after which it became impassible and now shineth in heaven far brighter then any other creature doth or can do So upon his soule was poured knowledge and love beyond the measure in any creature by vertue of this union For his knowledge was such by the light of nature that he knew thereby all things that could be known by it not only by experience of some things but by reasoning he could tell all those things he had no experience of for his own sufferings he could tell all that we suffer Heb. 2.18 And in this wisedome he did grow and increase Luk. 2.52 and by this knowledge he knew more then any man Beside this Christ had a knowledge of infusion or revelation by which heavenly are understood by the light of grace By this he discerned spirituall things more clearly then any man Isa 11.2 for the spirit of wisedome and counsell understanding and knowledge did rest upon him Again he had the knowledge of vision to see God as the blessed do in heaven yet exceeding them all he being the cause of bringing men to this blessednesse and also because his soule is more neer to God by this union then any others are And as knowledge was poured out on him by this union so was divine charity more then upon all men either just or good Rom. 5.6 7. As for faith or hope he had them not farther then as to depend on God and expected those things he saw by the knowledge of vision for he both saw God and enjoied him But faith is an evidence of things not seen and hope argueth no present possession of things hoped for Next he had the grace of office by this union of both natures for hereby he was made a fit mediator between God and man to reconcile us to God yet so as that the actions of the divine and humane nature were not confounded but each nature performed what was proper to it selfe by the assistance of the other As the humane nature was given as a sacrifice for us but the divine nature made it acceptable being offered up by the eternal spirit which therefore might be rightly called the Altar which sanctified the gift rather then the crosse which only bore his body crucified Lastly he had the grace of honour and worship due to his humane nature as it was united to the divine in one person for alone and separated it cannot lawfully have divine worship given to it but so far as it is directed to him that is God and Man Mathe. What doth the knowledge hereof profit to a Christians life Phila. A Christians life consisting in the meditation comfort and practice of what Christ hath done This union may move us first to admire the work it selfe And secondly to consider the glory of God therein And thirdly what comfort redounds to us thereby 1. To admire this work in which both mortality and immortality meet in one person That the same person is uncreated and created without beginning and yet takes a beginning a man in nature and yet God manifested in flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 In his divine nature he makes man in the humane nature he delivers man Aug. The Son of God becomes the son of man not by changing what he was but assuming what he once was not taking what was ours yet not diminishing what was his for in this union the divine majesty did not consume the humane nor the humane diminish the divine This high mystery is rather to be beleeved then argued namely that it was then how it was Next we are to consider the glory of goodnesse and wisedome in this work 1. His goodnesse who not only gave nature to us in creation and grace to us by
participation of his Image but gives himself both to us and for us in nature to us in death for us Then consider Gods wisdome in contriving a way to save mankind who by sin against God was lost and coming so in debt to God none ought to pay it but man that had offended and yet none could pay such an infinite debt but God Upon this the attributes of God seem at variance His wisedome would save him his mercy would damn him His wisedome moderates and finds a way whereby what man could not pay in nature he might in person For God assumes manhood in the unity of the person and so satisfieth himselfe upon which the attributes are reconciled Psal 85.10 mercy and truth met righteousness and peace kissed each other For the offence which was infinite in regard of the object God was satisfied by the infinitenesse of the subjected surety Christ Again this union teacheth us in practice to be like him in our selves and to one another In our selves to partake of him that hath stooped so low to partake of us If he of our properties then we should desire much more to partake of his graces So we should desire to be like him one towards another not pleasing our selves but rather our neighbours for their good to edification Rom. 15.1 2. that the same mind may be in us which was also in Christ Phil. 2.4 5. From this union we may receive also much comfort As that our nature is taken into the society of God in Trinity by which our nature is not only highly honoured but comforted in all distresses because he took our whole nature with all our infirmities sin only excepted and therefore as he can help us because he is God so he will because he is man and so one of us So it will encourage us to pray and to made our wants known unto God who certainly will deny us nothing fit for us because Christ in our nature pleads for us yea how can we despair of glory since he became the Son of man that we may be the sons of God Mathe. I conceive then that this Conception of Christ by the holy Ghost was a production of humane nature from the blessed Virgin Mary and uniting of it to the second person assuming it But had she no part in this conception Phila. Yes but her part was more spirituall then naturall For she first received the blessed message by the ear from the good Angell Gabriel as a counterpoison to the first temptation that Eve received from the devill 2. She conceived it in her heart to be the blessed will of God by faith 3. She resolved to be obedient to it though she knew not how it could be 4. She contributed of her naturall substance to that divine and effectuall operation of the holy Ghost by whose power she was overshadowed and that part of her substance conveyed to the vessell of conception in regard whereof Christ was called the fruit of her womb Luke 1.42 So that as Adam was asleep while Eve was formed so blessed Mary was as it were overclouded while the humane nature of Christ was by the Holy Ghost united to and assumed by the Son of God Mathe. It is hard to conceive this point 1. In regard of the manner how he was conceived by the Holy Ghost 2. In regard of what she conceived 3. In regard of Christ conceived whether according to the divine essence Phila. Therefore you are to understand and beleeve that in regard of the matter conceived it was Christ man but in regard of the person conceived it was the second person in Trinity the Son of God Luke 1.35 whom Isa calleth Immanuel not that the blessed Virgin gave the divine nature to Christ though she was a mean of uniting the two natures but the Son of God received the humane nature in her womb 2. In regard of the manner how by the holy Ghost it is not utterable farther then the production of the substance of humane nature from her and uniting of both natures in one person i. Christ which he did not as a father though as a divine agent For he did it not materially by giving any thing out of himselfe but effectually according to divine appointment 3. In regard of Christ conceived Bern. whether according to the divine essence It is true that every person in the Trinity hath the whole divine essence but in a severall manner of subsisting For the first person hath it as the Father the second as the Son Now Christ is said to take the humane not according to the essentiality of the Godhead but the personality and subsistence of the Son or second person or else he could not be a mediator between two because the essence of God is but one Gal. 3.20 Mathe. Whether did not sin cleave to this conception for it is said he was made sin for us Phila. He was made sin for us 1. By imputation because our sins were charged upon him 2. Because he was made a sacrifice for sin so some sacrifices were called sin offerings Lev. 4.34 but he had no sin in his nature for he was not in Adam in respect of propagation by which originall sin is conveyed but in respect only of humane substance so that though he was from him as others are yet not by him as others are for he came into the world by this wonderfull conception by the Holy Ghost and a woman without man Which woman though a sinner in her personall subsistence as comming by generation from Adam yet her meer naturall substance simply considered out of that subsistence cannot be called sinfull which substance was only taken of Christ into his person and the accident of sin left cleaving to her own person of which Christ cleareth her as being her Redeemer And this appears more plain if we consider that neither actions nor affections though called sinfull as they proceed from the person of man yet are not sinfull in themselves much lesse is meer substance so neither can a part of mans substance be sinfull if not the totall but his person only And thus Christs nature stands cleer of being infected with originall sin in it self though separated and consecrated by the Holy Ghost for Christs assumption thereof So that the old Hereticks the Manicheans and Marcionites had they rightly apprehended this conception might have avoided the error of thinking that Christ had only an incorporeall body from which only passed through the blessed Virgins body thereby to avoid the stain of originall sin Nor Apollinaris need not have denied Christ an humane soule and feign the Deity to supply that place to avoid the same taint Nor the Papists need not say to avoid Christs sinfull conception that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin for then her parents must be so too and theirs also and so up to Adam which is absurd to think Nor need some think that Christs humane nature by this conception was
truth and beleeving the devill Farther a bitter agony seized upon him in the garden Mat. 26.38 not for fear of death but of the tyranny of sin death and the devill which they had got over mankind Next the great ingratitude of the most part of mankind the dispersion of little flocks the scandall they might take at his death the sad ruine of the Jewes which he foresaw and the wrath of God for mans sin of which now he began to have a sense as being surety for us And all this he suffered without any perturbation of sinfull passion And this was done surely to expiate our sinfull fears and doubts and to encourage us in any terrors that arise from a troubled conscience though they put us into great agonies But these were not all his sufferings For he suffered 1. By the consultation of his adversaries the Priests Scribes and Pharisees who when they should have been preparing for the Passeover they were consulting how to take away the true Paschall Lambs life and would have done it at that time but that they feared the people more then they feared God 2. He suffered by the treason of Judas one of his own disciples whom he made steward of his family and had washed those feet that were so apt to shed his blood And this he suffered 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled that foretold it Psal and Joh. 13.8 2. To beware of coverousnesse which will make a man even to betray Christ at any rate 3. To fore warn Ministers of all others to take heed of being corrupted this way lest they become like salt that hath lost his savour 4. To teach us to beware of sin under what pretense soever For it is likely that Iudas did not intend to have Christ killed but only to get the mony supposing that he would make an escape which may be argued from that that he was so troubled when he saw he was condemned Also to beware of the smallest beginnings of sin For at the first Iudas his sin was but discontent that he loft the gain of Mary her ointment and she justified in her deed By this the devill entred his heart that he resolved to sell the anointed because he could not sell the ointment His next suffering was by being apprehended by wicked hands to unloose the hold of sin and Satan from us and in a garden to expiate the sin committed in Paradise Then bound to unloose the bands of wickednesse and the works of the devill Then toffed from pillar to post from one High Priest to another Then abused by the souldiers and Jewes Luke 22. who buffeted that face which the holy Patriarchs and Prophers longed to behold Cant. 8.1 And scoffed at his prophecying which never failed But it is no wonder if they that had scorned the Prophet of the Lord did also scoffe the Lord of the Prophets This was done to him to expiate our sinne of mocking God as if he could not see and our losing of his glorious image yet he would not die in a tumult but was solemnly brought before the Judge and there falsely accused to free us from his that accuseth the brethren And received sentence of death unjustly to save us from the sentence of Gods condemnation So he was charged with sedition and blasphemy to free us by his attonement from the guilt of high treason against God To all which he answered not saving to the High Priest that he was the Son of God because he conjured him by the name of God to tell him And to Pilate that he was a King though his Kingdome was not of this world that he might leave the Jewes without excuse and take away the occasion from Pilate of justly condemning him and to fulfill the Scripture Isa 53.7 that he was like a sheep dumb before the shearer and to comfort his people that they have a King in Sion though he regardeth not worldly glory Mathe. Methinks he doth not answer very plainly to Pilate and Herod nothing at all I pray what was the reason Phila. He said he was a King but such an one that meant not to stickle for worldly glory which seemeth strange because God had promised to give him the throne of David Luke 1.32 33. and that he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever but that is meant not literally but spiritually which teacheth not to expect that true Religion should stand in outward glory but pray that the eies of our understanding being opened we may see wherein consists the glory of Christs Kingdome Eph. 1.19 Col. 3.2 and therefore to employ our selves about heavenly things and not earthly things for our trading consisteth in such commodities as appeareth Phil. 3.20 for he never promised any great earthly possessions to his followers as that Impostor Mabomet did but exhorted them to seek the preferments of his spirituall Kingdome 2. He said he came to bear witnesse of the truth which though Pilate scoffed at it saying what is truth yet it was a truth for not submitting to which the Devill was cast down and all men are damned that wil not beleeve it viz. that all creatures that are capable of eternall happinesse must attain to it by dependance upon the Son of God by which we are informed what poor entertainment truth finds in the world that Christ is fain to descend from heaven to avouch it Therefore let us receive the truth with all respect and stand for it to the death for so we shall prove our selves of the truth and to be his subjects Now he would say no more to Pilate in his defence lest he should seem to endeavor to prevent the sentence of death By which silence he satisfieth God for our lavish tongues and that he might meritoriously plead for us in heaven Nor would he confesse himselfe the Son of God to Pilate because Pilate was uncapable of the doctrine of the Trinity and also because it was no time now to reveal his Deity but to die in his humanity This filence did so amaze Pilate that he sought to save him or at least to put his condemnation over to others And therefore first offers to the Jewes to judge him by their law Iohn 18.31 which they refusing brought to passe what Christ had sortold viz. what death he should die namely the Romane death of the Crosse by which we may see that all the policy of men cannot disappoint the purpose of God in his childrens sufferings Upon their refusing Pilate sends him to Herod who set him at naught with his men of war because he would not speak to Herod nor shew any miracle before him Luk. 23.8 9 10 thereby shewing how little he esteemed of Herods greatnesse that would not feed the lightnesse and vanity of his mind by casting his pearls before such a swine This scorn of Herod and his souldiers he suffered that we might be esteemed of God and his holy army of Angels Herod finding
no fault in him Luke 23.15 yet he sends back to Pilate and in scorn of his claim to a Kingdom puts him on a white robe proper to the Princes of Galilee But what he did in jest God ratifieth in earnest approving him to be his King Psal 2. and the pure Immaculate Lamb of God Now Pilate seeing he could not way shift it off matcheth Christ with a most notorious offender and murtherer called Barrabas and offered them their custome to let them loose a prisoner at that Feast of the Passeover which should be one of them two supposing they would have chosen the most innocent of the two But they mad with envy at Christ refused the Lord of Life and chose a murtherer to be given them for which they themselves forty years after were murthered at the siege of Ierusalem for they preferred a robber before him who thought it no robbery to be equall with God Phil. 2. This was to expiate our fin who preferred the Devill that was a murtherer from the beginning before God blessed for ever In which sin they continue to this day that chuse the company of wicked persons before Gods children Next Pilate useth another most unjust policy who finding no fault in him yet would have him scourged in the common Hall and also mocked by the souldiers in hope to make the Jewes relent when they beheld the man who was of their own nation so hardly used by Gentiles But nothing would soften their flinty and adamantine hearts but the blood of this innocent Kid. These scourges he suffered 1 Pet. 2.24 to deliver us from the eternall scourge of God and to sanctifie all his temporall scourges to us and to teach us to suffer patiently if we be beaten undeservedly Pilate at last being overcome by the clamors of the people and their threatnings that if he let Christ go he was not Caesars friend condemns him to be crucified which was lamentable yet comfortable for now did God give sentence upon our fins and condemned sin in Christs flesh Rom. 8.3 and therefore we need not fear condemnation at the last day of judgement Mathe. I read that he suffered many things beside but I desire to know the meaning of them Phila. Pilate having condemned him he was scorned and scoffed by the souldiers with a painfull crown of thorns a reedy scepter and a purple robe and saluted King of the Jewes in jest But God made it all good to him when he made this rejected stone the head of the corner In the mean time it did argue the blindnesse of the world who cannot judge of the glory of Christs Kingdome and therefore make a scorn of it because it consists much in tribulation But this suffering was that he might expiate the scorns and injuries that we have done to God and spitting in his face by foule blasphemies And stripped he was to restore unto us the garments of righteousnesse which in Adam we had lost Clothed in red to sulfill the prophecie Isa 63.1 which hath relation to his blood as well as his robe Crowned with thorns to merit for us a crown of glory A reed he had to shew that by that weak scepter he could break the serpents head They took off his purple robe again which shewed that one day his Kingdome of grace should take an end 1 Cor. 15. And his own garments were put on again which shewed that at last he would be clothed with his own righteousnesse as with a cloak far more glorious then all worldly ornaments Next they carry him out to be crucified and make him carry his own crosse till he fainted under it In this he answered to Isaac his type who carried the wood Gen. 23.6 upon which he should be offered Also to shew that he took the curse of the Law upon his own shoulders It is true that they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry it but this was that God will send us some help in afflictions and that we must be content to bear a part in Christs crosse for as Christs afflictions are theirs by imputation Col. 1.24 so theirs are Christs by sympatheticall affection Beside I beleeve he suffered some griefe at the womens lamenting him and therefore bids them not weep for him that was dying but the Jewes that were living upon whom and their children horrible destruction should fall according to their own vote His blood be upon us and our children For if it be thus done in the green tree what shall be done with the dry if judgement begin at the house of God where shall the ungodly appear for if such suffer from men how much more shall the wicked suffer from God Next he comes to Golgotha where he was to be crucified signifying the place of a scull not because Adams scull was found there as some write for I suppose his scull was as hard to be known as Moses body of late pretended to be found but rather it was so called from the sculs and dead bones of malefactors there executed whose stench no doubt was offence to him but to us a blessing for he thereby justifieth us in the place of condemned persons and so delivers us from the place of eternall judgement Thus he suffered without Jerusalem as one unfit for mens society and like the sin-offering for the people was burnt without the camp Lev. 6.30 This teacheth us that here we must look for no abiding City Heb. 3.14 and therefore we must be content to go to him without the gate Heb. 13.13 bearing his reproach that though we be cast out of earthly Jerusalem yet we may possesse the heavenly through him that hath delivered us from the defilement of the dead things of this Golgotha and presents us pure to serve the living God Now being there he was offered wine mingled with myrrhe Mark 15.23 by some well-wishers it may be to make him lesse sensible of pain but he would not drink that which might any way diminish his pains which he desired to suffer to the utmost However it was changed by the malice of the Jewes and souldiers into vinegar mingled with gall Mat. 27.34 of which he tasted but would not drink By this cup he paied for our inordinate appetites and gluttony in the forbidden fruit and sheweth how little comfort we must look for in this world which commonly addeth sorrow to sorrow gall to vinegar as we have added sin to sin All this being suffered they nailed him hand and foot to the Cross And this to shew 1. That he was the Messiah promised John 2.28 Also that by this accursed death he might derive the curse of the Law upon himselfe that we might have the blessing Gal. 3.13 Also that we might be so fixed to his Crosse by love that we might not serve that sin which by his Crosse he hath abolished And further that the hand writing of the Law might be cancelled Col. 2.14 that our sins might be no more remembred
so that Christ is to be considered as a propitiatory Sacrifice Priest and Altar Priest he was everlasting Heb. 7.24 A Sacrifice he was in his manhood not Eucharisticall but expiatory offered up whole like the Holocaust for sin which was burned up to ashes by the fire of Gods wrath And his Godhead was the spirituall Altar called the eternall spirit by which he offered up himselfe Heb. 9.14 yet the Crosse might be taken as a materiall Altar upon which his body was laid for though the Altar sanctifieth the gift as it is the utensill of Gods instistution yet he that sanctifieth himselfe may sanctifie the Altar too by his own oblation the fruit whereof made a blessed attonement by the sweet savour thereof Eph. 5.2 for all those that are crucified with him by crossing their own corrupt natures and that look upon Christ by faith as on the brazen Serpent that cured the people Iohn 3.14 and also to consecrate themselves to God as a living sacrifice to his service Rom. 12.1 Mathe. I pray shew me the reasons why he was crucified in such a manner Phila. He was crucified naked to satisfie for Adams losing the garment of innocence and might uncloath us of mortality of which the skins given to Adam for cloathing was an Emblem and cloath us with his merits also that he and we might enter into heaven naked as Adam did into earthly paradise so to comfort us that when the world and death strips us naked of all we have to suffer it joyfully for we shall find a cloathing from heaven 2 Cor. 5.4 when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and therefore to be content in the mean time Lignum mortis Lignum vitae that the world be crucified to us and we to the world Again he was fastned to the wood that death might be driven out of the world by a tree as it came in by a tree and life brought back to us again He was laied on the crosse as Isaac on the wood and nailed as foretold Psal 22.17 they digged my hands and my feet also that all bils and bonds of law against us might be nailed with him to his Crosse 1 Pet. 2.14 Then he was lifted up that he might carry our sins from the earth and conquer the spirits that rule in the aire Col. 2.15 He was crucified with his hands spread as reaching them out to embrace both Jewes and Gentiles that are not a gainsaying people His blood was shed on the Crosse to answer all the sacrifices of the Law without which there had been no remission Heb. 9.18 whereas it is now an universall medicine for all our soules languishing 1 John 17. and obtaineth for us eternall redemption Heb. 9.12 Beside he was crucified between two theeves 1. Because it was foretold that he should be reckoned among the transgressors 2. Esa 53.12 That he might sanctifie the death of repenting malefactors for his death in effect was to be divided among sinners of whom at last he would be Judge while some stand on his right hand and some on his left as the bad and repenting Theefe hung Now while he hung on the Crosse alive he suffered beside the paine 1. The division of his garments and casting lots on his vesture as was prophecied Psal 22.19 2. To shew that his very enemies should partake of his graces 3. Into four parts to shew that his good grace should edifie the four parts of the world So the not dividing his other coat shewed that his righteousnesse should be applied whole to every beleever And the casting lots for it argued that no man had his merits by their deserving but by the meer gift of God Col. 1.12 who disposeth of the Lot To all which misery they added derision Mat. 27.39 wagging their heads and upbraiding him with his words of destroying and building the Temple in three daies Yet it was truth in his sense of his resurrection ut praedixit sit revixit and mocking at his miracles saying he saved others but himselfe he cannot save Others mocked at his trust in God Others at his praiers as if he called upon Elias to save him which he suffered that we might know the abominableness of our sins that heaped such contempt upon the Son of God Also that we might be delivered from the scorn of this world and enjoy the comfort of our repute from God and a good conscience Heb. 12.3 without reviling the world again Nay more they blasphemed God as if he could not deliver him as the wicked said Psal 22. with whom they join issue and so condemn themselves to be of the wicked crew even like theeves who also did the same But beside all this he suffered great torments both in body and mind In body by hanging on the Crosse by his nailed hands and feet so that his heart might be rightly said to be melted like wax Psal 22.15 This was undergone to satisfie for our despising the threatning and the power of God in punishing those sins we had committed in the body also to free us from eternall torments and to sanctifie whatsoever pains we suffer in the body by diseases or from persecutors So he suffered anguish in soule when he cried out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which some writers take to be meant of his descending into hell for now God seemed to desert him by deferring his deliverance and by withdrawing from his humane nature the divine support of comfort that he being sensible of them we might be delivered from them by his meritorious suffering them Yet we are not to conceive that the divine nature of the Sonne did forsake the humane but that the union was obscured or eclipsed nor that God the Father forsook him quite but permitted his humane nature as surety to feele what was due to the principall And this first confutes those that think he suffered not in soule though the Prophet say he made his soule an offering for sin And if not in soule his bitter cry argued more impatience then the Martyrs had It also may comfort men in their distresse of mind since Christ was forsaken for a time and surely it should work in us a feare of sin that made God thus to deale with his only Son whom he spared not being only the principall how terrible will he be against unrepenting sinners whom he will forforsake for ever and to make us consider with commiseration those that are troubled in mind a wounded spirit who can bear No wonder if many of them cry out they be damn'd of whom we are to judge charitably since Christ complains of Gods forsaking him through fear whom yet he calleth his God by faith Lastly he through paine suffereth thirst and they to adde to his misery gave him vinegar and so they fulfilled the Scripture Psalm 69.22 and he compleated our redemption saying it is finished Mathe. But did he only suffer on the crosse without any
as that no bone of him was broken and that his side was pierced and the like Phila. No doubt but every particular consequent of his death hath some mystery in it Exod. 12.46 As 1. In that a bone of him was not broken to shew that he was the true paschall Lamb sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.6 answering to the Jewes Passeover which was so to be handled Exod. 12.46 So his side was pierced with a spear by a souldier John 19.34 First to fulfill Scripture Zach. 12.10 they shall look on him whom they have pierced Also to answer to Adam whose side was opened when Eve was formed so was Christ when the Church Christian was to be framed So the water and blood that issued from that wound was both miraculous and mysticall 1. Miraculous that the water contained in the pericardium about the heart was not dried up with the anguish that he endured and by the heat of the heart in that extremity 2. It was mysticall shewing the difference between him and his forerunners Moses shewed a bodily deliverance of Israel by water of the red sea Joshua by Jordan John the Baptist shewed a spirituall deliverance by water in baptisme but Christ was he that came by water and blood 1 Iohn 5.7 8. By water of sanctification to wash us from the stain of sin and by the blood of expiation to make attonement with God for the guilt of sin So the earthquake shewed his divine power by which he made the earth do him homage though man would not whereby the senslesse creature condemned the stupidity of men As also it foreshewed how the doctrin of his death should shake all worldly ordinances So the renting of the rocks shewed how the doctrin of his death should rent the hearts of men the godly hearts by sorrow the wicked by horror yea the confession of the Centurion that he was the Son of God shewed Christs power that though his Disciples forsook him yet he raised up pagans to acknowledge him Mathe. Why was he buried Phila. First that the Scripture might be fulfilled Esa 53.9 and that being buried might be known to be dead and also might overcome death in his own den and might bury our sins with him from the sight of God who are buried with him by baptisme Col. 2.12 and might take away from us the horror of the grave yea no doubt also to teach Christians to bury each other decently as those that have a part in Christs death and in the hope of his resurrection He was buried in a known place that his buriall might not be doubted of and neer to the City Jerusalem which signified the vision of peace that men may know our rest came by him who bore the chastisement of our peace He was laied to rest in a garden because troubles arose from sin committed in a garden And his sepulchre was in a rock to shew that our stony hearts must be digged before Christ can lodge there And it was a new sepulchre to shew that his rest place is only in that heart that is made new And in this no man was ever laid lest some should say it was some other man that rose or that he rose by vertue of some holy man there buried as 2 Kin. 13.21 So he was buried another mans sepulchre to shew that no grave belonged to him because he was no sinner and that therefore he was buried for other men not for himselfe and that graves are propërly made for sinners not for him that was their Saviour Mathe. But why is the Evangelist so diligent to give notice of all the circumstances of his buriall Phila. He makes mention of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus now because they doe now a more worthy work then ever before to shew that God will honor them that honor Christ by which we may be encouraged in well doing Now was that prophecie fulfilled that he made his grave with the wicked and the rich The wicked was Pilate whose leave was craved and those malefactors that lay buried not far off And the rich were these two Senators who shew more Christian courage for Christ now dead and insulted over by his enemies then when he triumphed by his miracles So should we to his members in the depth of their adversity They are the most noble Christians that will shew themselves to the Church friends in her tribulation and to Christ professors in persecution This argued the powerfull working of God in these who hid their profession for fear of the Jewes and now are more bold then the best of his Disciples It is dangerous censuring of men for though some seem good and are not so others seem bad and yet are good even as some are wiser then they seem so others seem wiser then they are But you will object that if they were so zealous they need not have asked Pilates leave to do so charitable a work Now the Evangelists set this down to shew that there might be the lesse doubt made of his death because the Judge gave leave to bury him Also that though they knew God could mollifie the heart of Pilate of himselfe to command his buriall yet Joseph thought fit to shew his respect to authority by asking his leave Zeale without discretion is like sacrifice without salt not accepted with God Having obtained leave they perform it hastily because it was the preparation to the sabbath to teach all men to do their necessary occasions before that yea that our outward solemnitie though it favour of charity yet must not obstruct piety Also they did it openly to take away all suspicion of fraud in his buriall And they did it costly to teach us that we must spare neither labor nor cost to serve Christ living or dead in himselfe or in his members He was wrapped in fine linnen to argue his innocence and with spices to shew the sweet memoriall of the blessed and what a sweet odour should arise from his buriall in the hearts of all beleevers But yet he was not imbalmed not only because the time was too short to do it but because we should know that his body needed nothing to preserve it but Christs own divine power and also to prevent any cavill as that he was thereby preserved from corruption Now it is noted that this was done after the manner of the Jewes buryings to shew us that customes may be observed Mat. 27.59 Heb. Goler being not forbidden in Scripture It is said they rowled a great stone to the mouth of the sepulchre not only to secure his body from any vile usage but that the glory of Christ might the more appear in removing this stone when he rose yea the women being there had a mystery in it namely yâ—â— shew how God can make the weakest strong enough to stand against the enemies of Christ by an open profession of him as the watching and sealing up of the sepulchre did but the more manifest his resurrection
pain of death and they burned all books save the Bible One Cniperdolling his vain Prophet Mutus scabit mutum said that God had revealed to him that Iohn should be King of the world and should destroy the Princes of the world by a mighty army but spare the simple multitude and such as would imbrace righteousnesse and that he should send forth twenty eight Apostles to convert the world to Anabaptisme And Iohn himselfe pretending to awake out of a trance seemed dumb like Zacharias wrote in tables that it was the will of God that twelve men of his naming should govern the City and that a man might marry as many wives as he pleased and he beheaded some that opposed it He himselfe took fifteen and many of these brethren upon this ordinance lay with the hansomest women without marriage or contract He was called King of New Ierusalem and proclaimed King of Zion But his Apostles were executed as seditious persons and he and his Prophet were hanged in iron chains upon the high steeple of St Lambert after Munster was taken 1535. being besieged halfe a year The madnesse of this man was strange for one of his wives pitying the distresse of the City he cut off her head himself in the market place Sleid. 154. And another time at his great feast to which another false Prophet had called Thuscocuvar had excited him as being sent from God he accused a man of treason and cut off his head and returning administred the communion with those bloody hands But for all he took on him the title of a King yet this shewed him a Butcher as the stealing the Churches rich vestments and making them into robes for himselfe argued he had been a Tailor After Iohns death the Anabaptists chose another King Hort. p. 74. who killed his wife in a wood that he might quietly lie with her daughter and killed a poor wench lest she should discover him This man had his house well stored with Church-plate He and his Treasurer were burned After him succeeds Iohn Cordwainer John Cordwainer Cornelius Appleman Ch. Nelles p. 52 55 56. John Wilhelms and then Cornelius Appleman both which were executed at Brussels as the Captains of theeves and committers of sacriledge Then Iohn Wilhelms executed also at Vtrecht He wrote a book in defence of Polygamy and affirmed that to rob the ungodly was no sin and that the land belonged to Jesus Christ and his disciples He had one and twenty wives some mother and daughter and some sisters daughters He was burned It is lamentable to behold these peoples hypocrisie Sleidan Bullinger They pretended nothing at first but holinesse humility and honesty They used no swearing nor obscene speech yet being once got aloft they broke all lawes of humanity and honesty so they would bear no office Hortensius Gastius yet at last would be Kings They said it was unlawfull for a Christian man to bear arms or punish offenders yet they made nothing of murdering many you may read more of them in divers authors Of this sect was David Georgius in Holland who said he was Jesus Christ David Georg and held many other wicked errors He fled out of the Low Countries to Basil and very covertly dispersed his errors but being dead they were revealed and by the Councill of Basil his bones were digged up and burned in detestation of his blasphemies Mathe. What be the common received opinions of these men and your judgement of them Phila. You are to understand that their opinions in divers times and places varied they not holding alwaies the same Anabapt opinions But their opinion first and last are neither fit for Church Commonwealth nor Families First not for the Church for they have affirmed that Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary yet they can shew no other save her and for that the Scriptures prophecie that he should come of a woman Gen. 3. and of Davids line Psal 132.11 and that woman should be a virgin Isaiah the 7. and that her name was Mary saith Luke cap. 1. and yet she could not be his mother if he had noâ— taken flesh of her nor our flesh have any hope of eternall life These are worse Christians then Turks Bulling adver Anab. fol. 6. for they beleeve he was so born but these curse the flesh of the Virgin and so deny Christ to be come in the flesh 2 Ioh. v. 7.2 they say in Moravia that Christ was not true God but only better gifted then other men yet St Iohn saith The Word was God Joh. 1.1 and Christ said he and his Father were one Joh. 10. and he that sees him seeth the Father Iohn 24.9 10. Michael Servetus a Spaniard held the same who was burnt in Geneva And Valentinus Gentilis who called the Creed of Athanasius the Creed of Satanasius he was justly executed at Berne Thirdly they hold we are not saved by faith but by the works of charity and affliction yet Christ saith we obtain eternall life by beleeving on him Iohn 3.16 So Paul Rom. 3.24 28. for afflictions they are either punishments of sin or Gods corrections but no causes of justification or salvation But the blood of Christ only clenseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1. and by him only we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 And fourthly they deny originall sin because Christ hath taken away the sins of the world but that is the penalty not the being of it So they say that children doing neither good nor evill are under grace and without sin But then how comes death to lay hold on them Rom. 5.14 and cap. 6.23 And therefore fifthly they may well deny baptisme to them if they have no originall sin But Christ said let little children come to me and yet none can tell how they should come but by this Ordinance Sixthly they rebaptize people which is no where commanded in Scripture nor allowed by the Church nor the imperiall lawes which put them to death that did or suffered it to be done Seventhly they expect a Kingdome by some called the fist Monarchy wherein they hope to reign alone and destroy the ungodly This savours of carnall and worldly wisdome for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18. but is spirituall so is the meat and drink of it Rom. so are the weapons of it 2 Cor. 10. Nor can they reign alone and kill all the ungodly unlesse they kill themselves too But both must grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. These people do but furbush the old error of the Chiliasts or Millenaries who said the Saints must raign 1000 yeers on the earth before the last judgement who were by the Church condemned above 1000 yeers since Eighthly they say with the old Pelagians that man by his own free will can do all that God hath commanded or else God gave his law in vain nor would he punish delinquents if he had not given them
First to avoid the Pharisees snare laied to catch him either as a contemner of Moses Law if he had not concluded her worthy of death or a usurper of Judicature if he had authoritatively condemned her he therefore evades it by putting them in mind of their own sins I know some of them do farther object that we read of none in the New Testament that took secular offices upon them yet that will not prove there was none It is sufficient that we read of men in great office called to Christianity and yet do not read that they left their offices for all that but as St Paul adviseth that every man continue in that wherein he was called as the Eunuch Nicodemus Theophilus a great man of Antioch Publius the governor of Malta Sergius Paulus the Deputy of Paphos Erastus the Chamberlaine But if there were none such to be found yet Christ subjecting himself to Caesars tribute and Pilates judgement argueth magistracy lawfull enough To confirm you farther herein you may observe the practice of magistracy and the approbation of the office in the Confessions and Articles of all Christian Churches Mathe. Have these been only the disturbers of the Protestant Religion in England Phila. No I beleeve you hear of many more abroad yet all of them hold somewhat of the Anabaptists opinions or the Papists Mathe. I have heard of Brownists Separatists Arminians Socinians Familists soul-Sleepers Millenaries Levellers Independents Seekers and Shakers of whom I desire to be informed Phila. The Brownists next to the Anabaptists Brownists have much troubled the Church They are called so of one Robert Brown who was School-master of the Free School of St Olaves in Soathwark Vid. Mr Giffords Treause and dreamed like a Donatist of a singular separated Church from the Catholick and imagined he must erect it or separate from the English Church Mr Fox that writ the Martyrologie lookt upon him as one that would set the Church on fire vet he found followers and preached to them in a gravell pit about Islington He departed our of England but returned again and repented and died a member of the Church of England and Parson of a Church in Northampton-shire and if I mistake not was called A-Church and if so then he that would be of no Church died Parson of A-Church But he had poisoned many which proved Separatists not only from the Church of England and all other reformed Churches but even one from another as the two Johnsons did Prophane Schismat p. 60. the younger libelling upon the Elder in print with many opprobries the elder cursed his brother and father with all the curses of Gods book This separation they confirmed with excommunications nor would Francis be reconciled to his father at his death but sent him even to his grave with the curse These in their separation agree with the old Donatists and new Anabaptists in conceiving that they be only the true Church and that the Gospell is preached no where nor by any truly but themselves and therefore will receive the Communion with no other and they that have gifts may preach and that in the Church there ought to be a parity and will not serve God in Churches because they have been defiled with Popery as if the Babylonish garment and the gold of Jericho may not be consecrate to God though it have been to an Idoll since the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof We are by nature worse then any Church can be made yet God accounts us holy when we are dedicated to him St Paul did not think himselfe the worse defiled because he sailed in the ship called Castor and Pollux two of the heathens gods They will not say the Lords Praier nor endure spirituall governors nor allow paiment of tithes though God did and neither Christ nor his Apostles gainsaid it 1 Cor. 11.8 Nor do they love any ancient customes of the Church as Fonts nor Churches themselves which they call steeple houses nor bels nor Organs It may be they would be called together like the Turks by a Crier on the top of their Meschilis or as some Sects have been by a great Horn. Or had rather sing out of tune then be directed to make a comely symphony I have read of a people that love to do the best things in the worst manner Herodot hist as to make their morter with their hands and mould their bread with their feet They are very erroneous about Gods attributes accounting some of them not essentiall as that love is not of the being of God but that the same love is also in us 1 John yet St John saith that God is love Yet are they very uncharitable in not suffering husband and wife to forgive each other a fault of incontinence though willing to live together but will excommunicate the innocent party if the or she do forgive Yet sure God gives such an example Jer. 3.1 in a higher case of mercy in himselfe though he alloweth not that a woman divorced and marrying another should be received again of the first husband but sheweth that he having not divorced the Church of Israel he would receive her again though she had spiritually committed adultery with Idols They be extreme virulent railers upon our Church and all her Rites so you may know their spirit by their tongues and from whence it is fiered They magnifie their own Sect as Simon Magus was by the Samaritans to be the great power of God Proph. Schism p. 76. but I leave them to canvasse one another as Mr John doth Mr Robinson and and his Deacon whom he cals Noddies Nabalites Doegs Pharisees Shimeites c. They also pretend Scripture for that which Scripture never allowed as to have ordination and excommunication by the multitude that the people should chuse their Pastor that a Pastor and a Doctor distinct in office should belong to every Assembly They avoid our Congregations as prophane Proph. Schism of the Brownists p. 20. p. 27 30.39 but let who will look into their prophanenesse and equivocations to excuse wickednesse and let him forsake the English Church if he can Their singing is confused and yet not every day a new song and so the spirit is confin'd in their Psalms for which they condemn set forms of praiâ—r Their prophecying is but censuring other Churches sometimes applauding Sâ— Mr Simson complains of Mr A nsw Church and sometime contradicting one another and by that have been divided into divers sorts and called by divers names as Barronists Wilkinsonians Johnsonians Ainsworthians Robinsonians They have been noted to be extream in correction of their servant-maids yea The story of Stedley and Mansfeld their wives with as much undecency as severity But I will not trouble my selfe nor you with such relations but rather desire you to take heed of Schisme and Heresie 1. Because of the evill of it in it selfe 2. Because of the punishment God hath
brought upon such Mathe. I pray let me know that Phila. First Heresie and Schisme is a greater sin against humane society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it
wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if he had so little knowledge in the tongues and Arts. Socin Respons ad Defi. Puccii p. 49. One book handles the authority of Scripture the other handleth the cause for which the Gospell of Christ is to be beleeved The error of this Socinus was spread far in Sarmatia and Transylvania Silesia Lituania Mathe. What were their errors Phila. That there is no naturall knowledge leading a man to a beliefe of a Deity contrary to Paul who saith that the invisible things of God are seen by things created Rom. 1.20 and that the Gentiles do by nature the things written in Gods law Rom. 2.14 So they say Christ is not God and yet they give him divine worship and so make him an Idol and themselves Idolaters So they deny the Godhead of Jesus Christ which forfeits their own Christianity and overthroweth Christian Religion and all divine honour due to Christ from men This was the heresie of Samosatenus Bishop of Antiochia of whom you have heard already How can these men be called Christians who deny the office of Christ No marvell though they refuse to be baptized in the name of the Trinitie if they denie with Sabellius two persons in the Trinitie for they say Christ is not trulie God Iohn 8.58 yet Paul saith he was in the form of God Phil. 2.6 and the character of his glorie Heb. 1.2 and in him dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 So they say that the Holy Ghost is not God and so Macedonius held who was justlie condemned by the second generall Council of Constantinople in the year 386. But if the Holie Ghost be not God why doth St. Iohn rank him as equall to the Father and Son 1 Iohn 5.7 Again they say the Incarnation of Christ is repugnant to reason which I have formerlie disproved and that it is not fullie proved in Scripture yet St Iohn tels us that the Word became flesh Iohn 1.14 So they say that Christ did not by his death satisfie for our sins yet it is said that he is the propitiation for our sins and that is all one 1 Iohn 2.2 So they say it is against Scripture to beleeve three persons in the Godhead and yet Christ institutes baptisme to be given in the three names of Father Son and Holie Ghost So they say man was not created in originall righteousnesse yet Solomon saith God made man upright but he hath sought inventions So they say that the old Testament is not necessarie for a Christian man yet Christ saith Moses spake of him Iohn 5.46 and the men of Berea searched the old Testament to prove the truth of the new Acts 17.11 These are very dangerous errors because they overthrow the foundation of Christian faith namely Christs satisfaction for us and plainlie Antichristian in denying Christ to be God And also they denie the person of the Holie Ghost They confound faith and works together They say the Law is imperfect and yet that man is justified by the works of the Law not by the law of faith Rom. 3.27 Also that the soule of man hath no subsistence after death whereby it apprehendeth joy or sorrowes and so consequently they may denie heaven and hell as things only imaginarie They stand much upon reason and would subject not only Fathers and Councils but also the Scriptures to it and so every man doth like the Pope in being the judge of all by his own reason Beside they are tied in a knot with Arminians and Anabaptists concerning the power of magistrates and are one as lawlesse as the other And the Papists are well pleased with them because they perceive them to do their work for them in rooting out all Protestant Magistrates and Ministers Mathe. What Achans beside have troubled our Israel Phila. The Antitrinitarians Antitrinitarians who hold opinions against the Holie Trinitie and scraped up the old Heresie of Arrius denying Christ to be God and with the Socinians denie the Trinitie of persons and that the eternall generation of the Son is against truth contrary to Micah 5.2 whose goings out have been from everlasting And they say Christ is called God not in regard of his divine essence but his dominion yet Christ saith I and my Father are one Iohn 10.30 So they denie the Holie Ghost to be God yet St Peter told Ananias when he lied to the Holie Ghost that he lied not to man but to God Acts 5.3 These by some Writers though first sprung up in Polonia 1593 are called Legatinarians from one Legate who for obstinate holding these opinions was burned in Smithfield March 18. Anno 1611. and after him in April following another was burned at Leichfield for the same heresie Mathe. I hear also of men called Millenaries who pretend to antiquity and would prove their opinions from Scripture I pray what are their opinions Phila. They are a branch of the Anabaptists in some of their opinions Millenaries Their antiquitie is fetched from Cerinthus a Jew who lived about the 96 year after Christ in the time of Domitian who held with Ebion that Jesus was only begotten of Ioseph and Mary and that he was not Christ born but that Christ came upon him at his Baptisme in the form of a Dove and that Jesus suffered but that Christ fled away whom St Iohn confuteth in his Gospell John 1. This man pretended revelations from Angels and held that eternall life was here upon earth and that after the resurrection Christs Kingdome should be on the earth and that his subjects should eat and drink marry and keep holy daies and offer sacrifice and that this should last a thousand years Into which error also Papias fell Euseb l. 3. c. 36 the Bishop of Hierapolis for want of observing the Apostles writings So did Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France both men of great authority in their times Iren. l. 5. cont Valent. namely in the first hundred years after Christ So in the reign of Galienus Nepos and his followers called Nepotiani affirmed from Rev. 20. 5 6. that the godly should rise before the wicked and should live with Christ upon the earth in abundance of all earthly pleasures Eus l. 7. c. 22. But if that text be taken literally those godly must be beheaded and so dead first and then rise againe yea and Christ must be come first These were convinced by Coracion Eus l. 7. c. 23. But our latter Millenaries exceed all those before them in error for they will not stay till Christ come or those godly be raised Oh that men would study dark mysteries lesse and divine duty more the Kingdome of Christ lesus would be the better obtained but say that Christs Kingdome must be set up out of hand to promote which alll the ungodly must be slain that the meek may inherit the earth in
the works of mortification till we have crucified the old man and even wounded sin to death by becomming to us the spirit of judgement and burning Esa 4.4 both to condemn our selves and to consume our drosse therefore it continually lusteth against the flesh and makes our hearts to rise against sin Gal. 3. as it doth against any thing we hate and if at any time we yeeld to the flesh this good spirit becomes like a voice behind calling to us that we are out of the way Esa 30.21 by daily good motions and checks of conscience and by baptizing us with fire Mat. 3.11 inflaming our hearts with an holy revenge upon sin and with a love to all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth Then next he doth infuse divine graces into the heart which are like so many letters commendatory of us to God as faith to beleeve above reason naturall as Abraham did Rom. 4.17 and without any visible means Heb. 11.1 so also he worketh in us love to God by which we tender the pleasure of God above all things in doing and suffering of which we are never ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by this holy spirit which he hath given us Rom. 5.5 and makes us wait by hope for the righteousnesse to be revealed Gal. 5.5 with longing and sighing Rom. 8.23 and praying by the spirit of supplication poured by him upon us Zac. 12.11 and never leaves till he hath made us partakers of the divine nature resembling God in selfe-contentment though we be shut out of the worlds society and in being in love with good men that are begotten of God 1 John 5.1 therefore he is called the spirit of love Rom. 15.30 and in wisedome Mar. 13.11 whereby the elect discern those mysteries which none knoweth but God and they for they are not discerned by others 1 Cor. 2.14 and also in transforming them into the practise of those things they hear and beleeve by this spirit from one glorious grace to another 2 Cor. 3.18 and this through the sanctification of obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 by which he gives us comfort by giving us peace of conscience and joy in assurance of remission and freedome from the guilt of sin in which respect he is called the comforter John 16.7 and so he is but especially in the times of affliction wherein he gives them such tastes of heavenly glory as makes them to contemn all earthly things and rejoice in tribulations Rom. 5.4 because this spirit of glory resteth upon them 1 Pet. 4.14 Thus he goeth alwaies with the elect working in them a spirituall strength to persevere though sometimes they be like smoking flax almost choked in their sad melancholy fumes or like bruised reeds that have no strength then doth he establish the inward man Eph. 3.16 by nourishing the seeds of grace sown in our drie ground by his sweet dew from above Esa 44.3 and by his secret and powerfull assistance in the times of triall 2 Cor. 12.9 bearing witnesse to them that they are the sons of God for all their crosses in this world Rom. 8.15 which he sealeth to them by the promises beleeved concerning Christ and himselfe Eph. 1.13 All which considered we should make much of this spirit and not grieve it nor quench it Not grieve it by acting without it by our own sensuall desires and separating our selves from the societies where he doth affoord his gracious dispensations Jud. 19. or do not acknowledge his power in giving them skill and abilities to perform their severall places and callings nor asking counsell of him or direction from him Esa 30.1 but rather despise it even in his ordinances 1 Thes 4.8 and turn their ear from it as Neh. 9.20 30. and harden their hearts against it Zac. 7.12 and rebell against his doctrine and so grieve him in his ministers Esa 63.10 and Acts 7.51 as St Stephen told the Jewes yea to tempt him by venturing to try whether he will punish them or no as Ananias and Saphira did Acts 5.9 by all which they shew that whatsoever portion of the spirit they have received yet it is in vain Also we must not quench it as some do fire by casting on water or withdrawing that which should feed it â— Tim. 1.6 or lose it as we do springs for want of endeavor to draw or pump them And this men do when after they have had some taste of heavenly gifts in remorse for sin or some joifull apprehensions of Gods promises yet they fall away and having begun in the spirit yet end in the flesh Gal. 3. So when they fall into grosse sins after calling to grace they cause the Holy one to cease from them in his operation for a time and so lose the joy which formerly they found in Gods service So do they discourage the spirit of their Teachers so that they cannot do their work with joy but griefe Heb. 13.17 Thus by living in known sins they sad the spirit which would seale them to the day of redemption Eph. 4.30 which may possibly conduce to the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost if these be not repented of Mathe. I pray declare to me that sin as plain as you can Phila. It is a wilfull and totall falling away from the grounds and true beginnings of Christ and from that spirituall fellowship which one hath had with the people of God therein after ones illumination and outward sanctification contemning the Gospell and despighting the methods and operations of the Holy Ghost without repentance even to death All this may be gathered from Heb. 6.4 5 6. and Heb. 10.25 26 27. But this must be rightly understood As first that he must be one inlightned with some competent knowledge in true religion and sanctified by outward calling at least to the covenant of grace Heb. 10.29 and the seals thereof though not sanctified by saving grace which shewes it selfe by true repentance from all sin and by relying on Christ by faith for his salvation So next he must wilfully apostate Heb. 10.26 as it were without temptation not as David by lust or Peter by feare yea it must be a totall falling from all parts of truth which may possibly over-power his nature by the terrors of the law Also he must despise the Gospell and even loath the way of salvation by Christ and scorne the Gospel which is the meanes of sanctification and hath in some manner worked formerly upon himselfe some change of mind and manners Besides he must offer some despight by blasphemie and persecution and that not of ignorance as Paul did but of desperate malice and that not only to the person of the holy as many have done to the person of the Father and Son by many presumptuous sins but to the work of grace and operating power of the Holy Ghost in us by which God commeth more neer to us then in other things or to his power shewed outwardly for approving
Gospel-truth So the Pharisees blasphemed the miracles of Christ saying that they were wrought by Beelzebub Mat. 12.24 whereas be did them by the spirit of God ver 28. by which they were convinced both what and from whence he was Joh. 7.28 Again this sin must be continued in without remorse which sometimes maketh men despair of mercy when they reflect upon the greatnesse of their sins which men may doe though they never committed this sin yet this sin is continued unto death as appeared in Julian the Apostate without any repentance and therefore is called the sin unto death 1 John 5.16 and the sin unpardonable by our Saviour Mat. 12.13 not because it exceeds Gods mercy or the merits of Christ but because it prevents and disappoints the application of them for want of faith and repentance they having apostated in their very heart which is the place where faith and charity should be rooted although they do not alwaies shew it outwardly Heb. 3.12 Mathe. How may one be sure to escape this sin Phila. First let him examine himselfe whether he have the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.9 and we may know it by its lusting against the flesh and making our heart to rise against sin Gal. 5.17 Next it begets in us a pleasant taste of things that are of a spirituall nature for of our selves we have spirituall foul palates like people in feavers Rom. 8.5 that makes them distaste what is good Next it stirs us up to mortifie sin and all evill concupiscence Rom. 8.13 and then it gives us victory over sin by making us free from the law of sin by the law of the spirit of life Rom. 8.2 so that the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse Rom. 8.10 by which the heart is circumcised as well as the outward man or the outward manners Rom. 8.29 Beside this spirit doth transform us into the image of holinesse from one glorious grace to another as he hears them related in Gods word wherein we behold the glory of God 2 Cor. 3.18 also it makes us glorifie God in the very fires of affliction because his love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Rom. 5.5 and when a man findeth that he hath the Holy Ghost then let him beware of those sins that are forerunners of this As first the forsaking of that means by which they were once enlightned as the Jewes did the ministry of John the Baptist who was a burning and a shining light and for a while they rejoiced in his light but after fell away So take heed of affecting mens praises more then Gods and of a common alienation of the mind from goodnesse and of evill actions without temptations of envy at godly men and misinterpretations of their good words and works If they have any sense of these sins break off the course of them lest you proceed to the contempt of the operation of this good spirit but rather behave themselves as those that partake of the spirit Gal. 5.25 by bringing forth the fruits of the spirit Gal. 5.22 as love joy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance c. by which they are known to be his Church Mathe. What mean you by the Church Phil. This word Church is to be considered nominally locally and personally The word or name Ecclesia the Church was used among the Athenians for an assembly of Citizens called together out of the common multitude by name by a publick Crier to hear the decrees of the Senate which word is used by the Apostle to signifie the Church Christian which also signifieth a company of people called together by the voice of Gods ministers out of the rude world and kingdome of Satan to hear the Gospell revealed from Heaven But the word Church is derived of the Greek word that signifieth Lord from which word Kyriake or Kyrios Lord comes the Scotch word Kirk and our word Church 2. This word is taken for a place of holy assemblies to meet in about the service of God so 1 Cor. 11.18 when you come together in the Church which though not it may be such as ours is yet being a place set apart for such an use he cals it the Church And such places the Christians had from the Primitive times which being the place that conteined those that were the living Churches of God namely faithfull Christians the place so conteining in a figurative form of speech Aug. Q. 57. in Levit. is called by the name of the people contained therein which ancient writers have not feared to call holy places in regard of their separation to holy uses and therefore as Christ did not allow common things to be set or carried through the Temple so the ancients did not like that holy services that concerned generall meetings should be done in common places or houses Basil in Rug. comp explic Q. respo 310. except dedicated to holy uses urging that in 1 Cor. 11. to forbid common eating in the Church and the holy banquet in a private house That the word Church hath been used for place it appears by all that have anciently written on the 1 Cor. 11. or commented thereupon Sedul Com. Câ—â—yâ—ost Theodo And indeed there were such places from the beginning of the Gospels reception even from the time of the Apostles to the Emperor Constantines time Called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three hundred years after Christ though they were no stately structures but at first some upper rooms in houses which some devout Christians dedicated to divine worship Bede de locit sanct â—â— 3. c. 3. the first of which was thought to be that upper chamber where Christ kept his last supper and where the holy spirit descended upon the Apostles where they had assembled before and where Christ had twice appeared to them on the first daies of the week John 20. In this place it seems the Apostles met often upon weighty occasions as in the choice of the seven Deacons Hieron Ep. 27. and there was the first Councill held about circumcising the Gentiles Acts 15.6 And this place some called the chamber of Sion and the upper Church of the Apostles Cyril Hieroso which place seemed to be sufficiently consecrated by the presence of Christ in the celebration of the holy mystery of his Sacrament Psal 50.2 so that from Sion God appeared in perfect beauty and the Gospel went forth from Sion as the Law from Sinai And we need not make doubt of this when we consider how men sold their possessions and then laied them down at the Apostles feet who no doubt with such money would purchase some place for Christian-assembly and rather this then any other being first sanctified by Christs institution of his last supper there and therefore some take this place for that house where the Apostles sate together when the Holy Ghost fell upon them Acts
used in the Church Now this baptisme is the first mark of a visible Christian who next is discovered by those works which baptisme requireth of him namely to forsake worldly lusts and vanities the devill and all his wicked designs and to live soberly righteously and godly in the sight of all men this is to be a visible Christian and a company thus qualified make a visible assembly and being setled by the Regiment of Pastors and necessary Officers for governing them they are called a visible Church constituted Mathe. What be the marks of an invisible Christian by which he may know himselfe to be of the true invisible Church and then I shall desire some satisfaction in the outward government of the Church Phila. The marks of an invisible Christian by which he knoweth himselfe to belong to salvation in Christ are vocation adoption regeneration justification and sanctification and a certain hope of eternall glory built upon his beleefe in Christ which is the ground of his hope Now vocation is not that by which God cals men in common by the Word and Sacraments but a divine vertue wrought in our hearts thereby through the Holy Ghost by which we are moved from our corrupt and sinful condition to a supernaturall life in Christ to whom being united as to our head are justified by faith sanctified by repentance to Gods glory and a mans owne salvation This is an act of Gods free good wil to his elect therfore is both efficacious unchangeable Rom. 11.29 and therefore this grace of calling is not universal but belongeth only to those whom God foreknew and elected Rom. 8.30 and whom Christ hath redeemed only we may know that we are called if our hearts be stirred up to praise God for it 1 Pet. 2.9 and pray to be established in it 1 Pet. 5.10 and to live a godly life Eph. 4.1 aiming at eternall glory that we may be found blamelesse 1 Thes 5.23 The next mark is adoption a most gracious benefit of God whereby he receives us that are strangers from him for Christs sake to be his children and makes us with him to become heirs of heaven and eternall life Eph. 1.5 Col. 1.21 by which we are incouraged to call God Father Chrys hom in Psal 150. Rom. 8. and confesse that we have received and hope to receive all graces and favours from him This grace is begun in this life in those who receive Christ by faith John 1.12 in whom it appeareth they are sons but yet it appeareth not what they shall be 1 Joh. but that shall be perfected at the resurrection for which perfect adoption we sigh longing for the redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.23 Now we know that we are adopted by the liberty which God hath given us not only from the servitude and bondage of the law which exacts that of us which we cannot do and from the service under the dominion of sin Rom. 6. and from humane traditions and worldly rudiments Col. 2. but also from that human fear of serving God so that we can serve him with a free and ready mind as Luke 1.74 he having delivered us and so we delight in the law of God after the inward man and can come boldly to the throne of grace to make our wants known to God our Father The next note is regeneration a blessed benefit of God whereby he restoreth our corrupt nature to his own image by the Holy Ghost and the incorruptible seed of his Word 1 Pet. 1.23 This is the effect of a most blessed marriage where God is the Father mans eare is the wife the seed is the word the heart is the womb and the regenerate soule is the child which is bred with sighing and brought forth with sorrowes but great joy at the delivery But as it groweth it is like Jacob in great conflict with Esau namely the flesh as you see Rom. 7. both dwell in one house but Jacob the spirit alwaies gets the upper hand both in the blessing and in the birthright yet with great reluctation in this till we are freed by death and the flesh glorified at the resurrection The effects of this regeneration is 1. A love to God that begot us above all things and love to them that are begotten as we are 1 Joh. 2. Avoiding of sin 1 John 5.18 he that is born of God sinneth not but keepeth himselfe namely he sinneth not willingly wilfully delightfully despitefully against the rule of grace not continually not to death and by vertue of Christs resurrection leadeth a new life Rom. 6.4 and 1 Pet. 1.3 and therefore through Christ God seeth no sin in him to condemn him however he doth to correct him Rom. 8. for it is Christ that justifieth who can condemn The next note whereby one may know himselfe to be of the Church invisible is justification which signifieth as much as to make just as to purifie is to make pure The word is not found in any of the old and purest Latine authors but is taken up by divers to expresse the Hebrew and Greek terms Tsadhick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a just man Now a man is said to be made just by infusion or by plea. By infusion when the habit or quality of justice is put into one as into Adam by creation and so men by regeneration in some degree and thus one may be said to be formerly or inherently just yet to justifie signifieth somewhat else 2. A man may be justified by plea as he that accuseth one makes him unjust Esa 5.23 so he that by plea doth vindicate him hath made him an honest man Job 9.20 that is to be esteemed or reputed so as the ancient authors doe interpret the word Hesichius Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that in this case we are rather to lean to the common use of the word then to the sound arising from the notation for Psal 119.4 8. the law is called by the interpreter justifications not because they justifie a man but because they declare him just that doth them because he hath done according to those statutes So a Judge condemning a malefactor is not by that act made formally or inherently just but approved just by that law which he hath executed But this declaration of a mans justice is not justification for that takes place upon accusation only if Adam had not sinned he might have been commended and declared to be just and innocent yet not properly justified So wisedome is said to be justified by her children Mat. 11.19 i. vindicated to be just against all the cavils of wicked men by the apology that her children make in her defence Some men therefore are justified yet not inherently just as when a fault is charged and acknowledged and satisfaction pleaded or sufficient amends is made to the party offended and so freedome from punishment is merited and the fault therefore as it were
First to men so that is honor we prefer before our selves those whom we ought and as much as we ought and so by humility candor and modesty we destroy pride and hypocrisie So we must be ready to benefit all men out of the sincere affection of charity Heb. 13.1 2. because the end why God gives his benefits is that they may be bestowed for the common good of the Church as God bestoweth his providence in common among good and bad and we know not fully who are good and who may not be made good by our charity they all bearing outwardly to us the same image of God and the similitude of Christs members Now secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God standeth in these two things First in an equanimity and a fair construction of mind in all actions and state of life Secondly in bearing the crosse aright The first of these appears in our being subject to Gods will in all things and in shunning ambition and covetousnesse and expect prosperity only from God depending only upon him and not desire riches or honours without him or out of him and therefore to follow no wicked arts to compasse them but to cast all the burden and care of them only upon him and so not envy any mans prosperity but commit all accidents of life to Gods will as afflictions diseases and poverty and the death of friends and to bear all with patience Secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God stands in the right carriage of the cross and a moderate bearing of that adversity which God sends upon us by what hand soever it be outwardly afflicted Mat. 5.4 and so obtain the blessing of the mourners comfort which causeth us though troubled yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire persecuted yet not forsaken cast down but not destroied 2 Cor. 4.8 9. This is done first by considering how the glory of God is illustrated by freeing his people from it as 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and how we are taught to hate both sin the devill the world and the flesh John 15.19 and to serve God not for worldly pleasure and advantage but for his own sake Rom. 5.5 And secondly it is done by considering the comforts of the crosse which are First that God hath purposed and appointed all the sufferings of the Church and neither men nor devils can add to them one jot more then he hath determined John 19.11 Acts 4.28 And secondly that our sins are forgiven us in Christ with whom and for whom we suffer 2 Tim. 2.12 if we suffer for a good conscience which makes the event of the crosse happy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. and gives us hope of an eternall reward by the example of Christ Phil. 2.9 and of the Saints Heb. 11.2 who by faith and patience obtained a good report because they suffered for righteousnesse Mat. 5.10 The next businesse of a Christian life is to meditate on the life to come as those that behold things promised afar off and seek another country beside and above this world Heb. 11.13 14. This meditation includeth a contempt of the world as of riches honours pleasure and of death which like physick doth evacuate many evill humours by considering the various afflictions of this life and that all the joy and pleasures of it are but momentany and yet hinder us from imploying the mind about heaven though themselves have in them neither continuance nor contentment they neither satisfie nor sanctifie us but are like painted reeds gay vanities without but hollow within though we run after them as children after butter flies and get a fall by following and some hurt by heedlesse pursuing them And this contempt of the world would be the more seriously performed if we consider that here we are exiles from home i. from heaven 2 Cor. 5.9 and therefore we should have a most serious and joifull desire of the life to come which would make us either value death as nothing or else look upon it as Christ hath made it namely an entrance into life and a freeing us from our step-mother the world by delivering us to the heavenly Jerusalem which is the mother of us all Indeed if we do not thus the common creature shames us who sigh and grone to be delivered Rom. 8.19 And the heathen wise men and Philosophers thought it their glory to contemn death yet I do not say that this life or the things thereof are altogether to be detested for they are the blessings of God and testimonies of his good will to help through this wildernesse of sin but so far to contemn them as they make us obnoxius to sin Therefore the third part of a Christian life is to make a right use of those that God hath afforded us in this life In this case we must mark the right use and abuse of those things The right use is to make them serve our necessity not superfluity and to increase our delight in and praise to God Psal 104.1 15. and so tasting thou maist see how good the Lord is The abuse when first we exceed our measure and incline to extreams God makes our cup overflow and we make it overflow us Or secondly when we are too abstemious in denying to our selves the lawfull use of the creatures which God hath given us to lead us to acknowledge the bounty of the Creator The one way we make our belly our God Phil. 3.19 The other are too superstitious as were the Essens Col. 2.21 the one through too much love of the creature doth extinguish the meditation of the life to come and the other doth frustrate the favor of God offered to him in this life of both which faults we must give an account especially we being of the true Catholick Church which teacheth the right use of these things and are well understood by those that are of the communion of Saints Mathe. What mean you by the Catholike Church and whether is it alwaies in the same state Then I desire to know what the communion of Saints is and next what kind of government this Church hath alwaies had and allowed Phila. By the Catholick Church I mean that which is intended in the Creed which I beleeve to be though I beleeve not in it as I do in the holy Trinity yet that it is and ever will be while the world endureth notwithstanding all the power of Satan Mat. 16.10 And of this Church we are to beleeve that we are members and professe our selves to be joined thereunto and to live and die members thereof Now this Catholike Church is the City of the living God or a company of holy men who by the free election of God are called to union with Christ God and man to life eternall as well those soules that are triumphant in heaven as those people that are militant here on earth Col. 1.18 of all which Christ is the head for I reckon not Angels to be of the Church but
impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ
before and after the flood But as the flood obliterated the memory of some so the confounding of languages left few worthy memory but some of the generation of Shem the son of Noah who preserved the first Language and Religion i. the Hebrew tongue and sacrifice as is supposed These Patriarchs that descended of Shem Gen. 8. the last of whom was Abraham after the confusion of languages and dispersion of the people collected in Shinar to build the Tower of Babel they travelled save so many of them as were at Shinar which Nimrod made his own seat to Vr of the Chaldees From whence God called Abram Gen. 12.1 to travell to Canaan who by faith obeyed God Heb. 11.8 not knowing whither he went He sojourned a while at Haran and then came to Canaan Gen. 12.5 after his father Terahs death With this Patriarch God afterward renewed the first promise of the blessed seed that was made to Adam for in Gen. 12.2 3. he tels him that he shall be a blessing and that to all the families of the earth To confirm this promise he first promiseth him a son Gen. 15.4 and then makes a covenant of Religion with him and seals it with circumcision Gen. 17.10 After this he more plainly discovers the promised seed to him First in the sacrifice of Isaac commanded and prevented by accepting a Raâ—â—â— in his stead Next by shewing a Type of Christs persecuted Church in Ismael mocking Isaac and then by banishing the bondmaid and her son who must not part the inheritance with the son of freedome Then again by shewing him in a vision the captivity of his seed in Aegypt a type of the Churches thraldom to the world for which God will judge the world Gen. 15.14 To this Patriarchs son Isaac God continueth the covenant and so to Jacob his son of whom came the twelve fathers of the Jewish nation who together with their families going to Aegypt in the famine were enthralled after the death of Joseph whom they had sold thither who proved an happy steward for them as well as the Aegyptians his benefit being forgotten by the following Kings of Aegypt they envied Israel and kept them in subjection and slavery which was a type of Christs Churches future troubles as Moses their deliverer foresaw Heb. 11.26 which made him endure affliction with them rather then enjoy the pleasures of Pharaohs Court By this Moses God renewed the covenant with those people of Israel after he had brought them out of Aegypt Exod. 19.5 adding thereto the ten Commandements and other Lawes and Ordinances for the forms of their Religion Heb. 9.1 All which did but set forth Christ to come in his holinesse righteousnesse and sufferings together with that equity and piety which his Church should practise under the Gospel Now the same covenant that God made with them at first was continued to them till Christ abolished the outward letter of it by his comming and set up the spirituall substance of it in the hearts of men This was prophecied before Christ came Ezek. 11.19 and that the Gentiles should be his people which before knew him not Hos 2. Rom. 9. This is the old and new Commandement 1 John 2.7 8. and must find obedience and operation on the hearts of severall men to the worlds end as it hath from the beginning 2. Gal. 4. The Types were shadowes of Christ and they were Chronologicall Personall or Sacramentall and when those shadowes were past our beloved came as the Church desired him Cant. 2.17 and the day-spring from an high did visit us Luke 1.78 as said old Zacharias The first Chronologicall shadowe was the number 6. and 7. For the six daies had a relation to six ages Chronology shadowes Rev. 10.7 Isid l. 3. c. 4. Beda and Rabanus in Gen. 1.2 Isid Etym. lib. 5. cap. 59. in which the mystery of God shall be finished and as Christ was Alpha the beginning of the creation of God in the first day and age so will be the Omega in the latter end of the sixt age which began with his Gospell and shall end with his glorious appearing to judgement The seventh day signified an eternall rest to which our Joshua Jesus should bring us Heb. 4.8 9 10. when all Sabbaths of daies months and years shall be passed being but shadowes of things to come the body whereof was Christ Col. 2.16 17. Which body as at his first comming put an end to all Jewish rites of the Law so at his second comming he shall put an end in the seventh age to all Christian service and nothing shall remain of all but love to God and Christ and we shall be like Angels neither give nor take in marriage Clem. Alex. in strom 6. therefore this seventh age is said to be without mother or issue 2. The Personall shadowes was first Adam 2 Personall shadowes and therefore Christ is called of Paul the second Adam 1 Cor. 15.45 and they were like in many things As 1. In being Gods image Gen. 1.27 in the image of God created he him And Heb. 1.2 3. Christ was the ingraven image of his fathers person 2. Woman was taken out of his side while he slept so the Church fram'd out of Christs death 3. He was in Paradise and Christ in glory in the heavens and the dresser of his Church 4. He was Lord of all the creatures so God put all things into subjection to Christ Eph. 1.22 that he might recover the dominion that Adam lost Thus naturally he signified Christ directly 1. Ex Congruo 2. Ex Congruo Adam Leo. in ser 18. de Pass 3 Ex Renato 2. He was like Christ oppositively for Adam was but a living soul Christ a quickning spirit In Adam all die in Christ all shall be made alive Both were of one flesh but not of one fact Adam was a sinner Christ only a surety 3. Adam shadowed Christ in renovation in supernaturall holinesse derived from heaven so that as in his created nature he shadowed him forth as God so in the state of renovation or reuniting to God he shadowed forth him that was God and man united by whom the image lost is recovered with great advantage Therefore Paul exhorts to put on the new man in righteousnesse and holinesse Eph. 4.24 that being we have lost the shadow of glory in nature we may recover that by grace which is far more substantiall Origen invisible incorporcall incorruptible and immortall Mathe. What profit is there in this knowledge of shadowes Phila. Very much for as the shadow of the diall directs to a substantiall knowledge namely as to know the degrees of the Sun in heaven so doth this shew us certain degrees of the Sun of righteousnesse in the Church Mathe. Then pray go on and shew me the rest of them Phila. As the first personall shadow of Christ was Adam so the second was Abel who was the third from Adam Abel
govern of of Judea but Augustus made him King and the Senate confirmed it Now was the full time for Shiloh to come and set up another Kingdome that never should have end For he began with death where all Empires do end and riseth again in despite of death and so reigneth over the quick and the dead which Kingdome is everlasting and never shall end as God promised David Mathe. But what necessity is it that Christ should be born of a Virgin Phila. I say First It was so And secondly It must needs be so First it was so you may see in the Prophet Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and if he had meant a young woman Betuloth the Hebrew word given of Rebekah signifying one ripe for marriage or Ishah a virago a match for a man as was given of Adam to Eve might have served Alamoth is writ with ס clausum so Jaâ—ob called him Sbiloh the son of the Secundine which belongs not to a man 1 John and not Alamoth a covered virgin And indeed such an one she must be that he may be of womans seed not mans Nay more that he may be a fit Redeemer For if we suppose man a sinner against an infinite God either he must be subjected to infinite wrath or satisfie that wrath some other way If a man doubt that he be a sinner and so deceive himselfe by conceiving that sins are nothing but mans properties and inclinations which beasts have and yet sin not let him consider that meer nature will do nothing to destroy it selfe Prov. 1. though depraved nature will An horse drinks no more then will do him good but man will In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird yet men are caught by that they know and which they wilfully offend This argueth something of sin by which we remain not in the honor of our creation but became worse then the beasts that perish Now for this sin all men must suffer eternall wrath except God can be satisfied Now Angels cannot for they be not of our kind or if they were they be so many severall personalities as there are Angels and as the sin of one taints not anothers nature except there be a personall consent so neither can one merit for another though there be consent And for the other creatures irrationall they cannot because they are of lesse value then mans nature The blood of buls and of goats and sheep Heb. 10.4 5. and birds though sacrificed yet that was not to satisfie but to shew what man deserved and in reference to a more full satisfaction to be done in due time For which cause God dispensed with such sacrifice for a time Heb. 9.22 for mans relative instruction that without bloodshedding could be no remission Therefore this redemption must be made by a man because that man had offended so in the old law a brother must redeem But he must be more then a man too for no man that is meerly a man can redeem his brother out of Gods hand of justice Psal so then he must be one that is equivalent with God that the sword of justice must be exercised upon Zach. 13.7 Awake Osword against him that is my fellow Therefore if he must be a man then he must not be begotten by the ordinary way of generation by man and woman for then he is a sinner in the first conception Psal 51. and so had need of a Redeemer himselfe Nor by a man only for nature hath denied conception breeding and bearing to a man Then he must of necessity be made of a woman without a man and then she must needs be a virgin and though this Virgin her selfe came of a sinfull line yet sin being but an accident is left and the substance of her was only taken and immediately united to the divine nature by the power of the Holy Ghost so making both natures one person by which he becomes so meritorious a Redeemer for all mankind Mathe. What Prophecies are there of his Death Resurrection and Ascension Phila. Not to trouble you with heathen oracles or the prophecies of those twelve Exotick women the Sybils though such be enough to confute the heathens who deny Christ and have been used by some ancient Doctors to that purpose yet because I would that your faith should neither be diabolicall nor historicall but divine I shall only commend Scripture to you Therefore as his Nativity was prophecied by Jacob Gen. 49.10 under the name of Shiloh and fulfilled Mat. 2.1 in the daies of Herod the King And the place of his birth prophecied by Micah Mic. 5.2 Thou Bethelem Ephrata out of thee shall come the Ruler of Israel i. the Israel of God in a spirituall sense and government Rom. 9 6. for all are not Israel that are of Israel by nature no more then they are Jewes that are so outwardly by Nation or Country Rom. 2.28 Which prophecy of Micah was fulfilled Mat. 2.1 when Jesus was born at Bethelem And the condition of his Mother prophecied by Isaiah 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive fulfilled also Luke 1.27 The Angell Gabriel was sent to a Virgin called Mary espoused to Joseph but not carnally known by him Mat. 1.25 yea his very name Immanuel was foretold by Isaiah which was the name of union God united to man Isa 7.14 and so the beleevers as it is said should call or apprehend him Mat. 1.23 But in regard of the effect of his redemption his Mother should call his name Jesus Mat. 1.21 and so she did Luke 2.21 And thus as Isaiah said cap. 9.6 To us a child is born and to us a Son is given Luke 2.7 so to us he was born Luke 2.11 that was wonder by his wisdome and miracles the everlasting Father by his divine essence not subsistence and the Prince of peace by his reconciliation of God and man And this birth of his was not only sanctified by circumcision on the eight day Luke 1.21 as Isaacs figure was Gen. 21.4 but also it was graced by a star foretold by Balaam Num. 24.17 and fulfilled Mat. 2.9 which conducted the wise men out of the East to Jerusalem and then to Bethelem where they worshipped him and offered precious things to him which was foretold Psal 45.12 the rich among the people shall do thee homage and the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift And Kings shall bring presents to thee Psal 68.29 And the Kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts Psal 72.10 And to him shall be given of the gold of Arabia Psal 72.15 and all this was fulfilled Mat. 2.11 when those great wise men of the East did worship him and offer to him gold incense and myrrhe So also was his death prophecied of First by God himselfe Christs death Luke 22.53 in Gen. 3.15 saying to the serpent thou shalt bruise his heel And this was done by the power of darknesse when
he was betraied into the hands of sinners and cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 and made his soule an offering for sin Isa 53.10 After sixty two weeks said Daniel shall Messiah be cut off but not for himselfe Dan. 9.25 26. that is if you mark the verses the Angel allots seven weeks for rebuilding of the Temple which is forty nine years reckoned of the Jewes but forty six years Iohn 2.20 because they reckoned not the first three years when the foundation was but laid by Cyrus his edict and the work staied again by Artaxerxes Longimanus Ezra 4.7 till they had got a second Edict Ezra 6.1 from Darius Nothus Then the Angell allots to the former seven weeks sixty two weeks more which is about 434. years in all 483. or thereabout in the end whereof Christ suffered on the crosse to make an end of sin and finish transgression and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse This scourging wounding and piercing was foreseen also by Isa 53.5 he was bruised for our iniquities and chastised for our peace And saith Zach. 12.12 they shall look on him whom they have pierced for a souldier pierced his side as well as others did his hands and feet when they nailed them to the crosse So his very carrying of his crosse John 19.34 was typed out by Isaac carrying the wood to sacrifice himself upon Gen. 22.9 10. And as Abraham stretched out his hand to slay his son so God loved the world that he gave his Son Iohn 3.16 and he himself became obedient to the death of the crosse Numb 21.9 And as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse for the curing of the people upon a pole John 12.32 John 14. so was Christ lift up on the crosse for the saving of us who were bitten by Satan and sin also So also his Resurrection had a type as Isaac taken from the Altar and restored safe and sound to Abraham the third day after that he was assigned to death Gen. 22.4 of whom it is said that Abraham received him again in a figure Heb. In what figure but only of him that was to come of his seed in whose death and resurrection all nations should be blessed So Ionah the first Prophet who lived in the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Kin. 14.25 and the first Prophet sent to the Gentiles to Niniveh who because he diverted to Tarsus was swallowed of a great fish in whose belly he remained till the third day after and for so long time the grave swallowed Christ but then he arose and so his flesh saw no corruption Psal 16. and that might well be without a miracle if the body be not accidentally corrupted before it be dead as in violent deaths commonly men are not Now Christ lay not in the grave above 40. hours and commonly dead bodies corrupt not til about seventy hours and this sheweth that he rose within three daies and so saw no corruption as the Psalmist said Psal 16. which is expounded plainly so by St Peter Acts 2.31 And as Isaiah had also foretold that the dead men should live and with Christs body they should come so they did Mat. 27.52 53. Thus Christ conquered death in his own Kingdome as said Hosea 13.14 and death had no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 because he was now swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.55 And thus as God spake to the great fish and it cast out Ionah on the dry land Jon. 2.10 so the temple of Christs body which the Jewes destroied he rebuilt in three daies And for his Ascension as it was prophecied so it was accomplished Eliah was a type of it 2 Kin. 2.11 being taken up in a fiery Chariot so Christ was taken up out of his disciples sight into heaven Luke 24.51 as was prophecied in Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended up on high and led captivity captive So he was taken away his disciples beholding it at first Acts 1.9 but after a cloud took him out of their sight And now he sits on Gods right hand foretold Psal 110.1 and averred in Mark 16.19 And from him the Holy Ghost like a most gracious rain from heaven hath fallen upon his Apostles Acts 2.15 16. and upon many thousands of beleevers as was foreprophecied Joel 2.18 and typed forth by the spirit of Eliah resting upon Elisha 2 Kin. 1.13 5. Even so God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts baptizing us with the Holy Ghost and as blessed fire from heaven giving some the gift of tongue Acts 2.4 others to prophecie some to teach others to learn and increase in faith and the love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Mathe. Now as you have shewed the Promises Types and Prophecies and history of Christs Conception Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension shew me also the mystery of godlinesse intended thereby in relation to Christians And first of all I desire to understand rightly his Conception for therein lieth a great mystery wherein our understanding is easily lost if we be not rightly directed For how can one person in the Trinity be conceived or become incarnate without the other two seeing the divine nature is not divided but is in each person totally Phila. The divine nature cannot be divided for substance but in the manner of subsistence it is distinguished For it is after one manner in the Father i. unbegotten After another manner in the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in him it is begotten i. communicated by divine generation After another manner in the Holy Ghost because proceeding from both John 15.16 Now we are to beleeve that the humane nature is assumed by the divine nature as considered only in the Son as he enjoieth it being the perfect image of the Father Heb. 1.1 2 3. and so being the naturall Son of God was most fit to be the son of man and so thereby restore the sons of men by adoption to be made the sons of God Yet we are to beleeve that all the Trinity had a hand in it John 1.12 for the Father wrought it by the holy Ghost but the Son only assumed it as three folks may make one garment and yet but one of the three wear it Mathe. But the Conception is applied to the Holy Ghost and so I am apt to beleeve that the Holy Ghost was his Father Phila. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost effectually not materially he caused it to be but gave not any matter out of himselfe to the nature of Christ so that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost uniting the natures divine and humane together Bernard Damascen not by generation but by institution and benediction and operation not spermatically as other fathers beget children So it is said Rom. 11.36 all things are of God yet not of his substance but by his power so that we
the Father was acknowledged by his creation and providence so the Son of God might be worshipped for his redemption and the Holy Ghost be known by his operating in us the blessed ends that God intended in our creation and the effects of Christs redemption that so the office of Christ as a King Priest and Prophet may be set forth by our faith and obedience to the same Of this holy and orderly state God made Israel a type Esa 51.15 16. when he did that which Esay makes repetition of saying I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand namely I kept thee in thy going through the wildernesse to Canaan that I might plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth that is that I might make thee a state consisting of superiours and inferiours as a body politick and say to Sion thou art my people And as he made them into Prince Priest and people under the Law so certainly he did not intend to leave the Gospell people to disorder and confusion and therefore he made Kings nursing fathers and Apostles Bishops and Presbyters to instruct and people to be ruled and instructed as I have already declared it remaineth to shew what effects in the mystery of godlinesse the blessed spirit worketh on Christs redeemed people called the Church Mathe. That I desire to know Phila. First it worketh in Christs Church people outward and inward holy worship The outward consisteth in places utensils and gestures fit for divine service The inward consists in an holy heart and life answerable thereunto which is wrought in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost the third person in the most holy Trinity Mathe. What am I to conceive and beleeve of the Holy Ghost since I find little speech of him in the Creed save only in one article or two at most Phila. Though you find little speech of him as you do of the name of the Father and the Son yet all those Articles of the Creed that follow from beleeving in the Holy Ghost do relate to him and to his operations upon the object thereof which is the holy Catholick Church which he sanctifieth by making in it the communion of Saints and sealing to it the remission of sin and bestowing upon it the power of the blessed resurrection and the felicity of eternall life And insomuch as we are taught to beleeve in the Holy Ghost as well as in the Father and the Son that word in doth intimate to us 1. That he is God as well as the Father and Son or else we may not beleeve upon him But we find that we are to be baptized into his name together with the Father and the Son Mat. 28.29 2. That he proceedeth from the Father and the Son and therefore called the Spirit of the Father and the Son Of the Father John 15.26 and of the Son Rom. 8.9 and procedeth from the Son in that he breathed him upon his disciples John 20.22 and yet is a distinct person from them both as appeareth Mat. 3.17 where the Father speaketh and the Holy Ghost descended and the Sun submitted his humane nature to baptisme and yet he is equall to the Father and the Son and therefore divine worship is due to him as to them Therefore it is fit that we know him in his nature and operations Mathe. I pray declare them to me Phila. I shall first he is eternall and was before the world Gen. 1.2 and cannot alter his nature and condition So secondly he is immense and so every where present Psal 139.7 and therefore he is at hand alwaies to give us his help and assistance Again he is omnipotent Rom. 15.19 all wonders and miracles were done by him and therefore he is able to deliver us and make us for ever most happy as well as he is omniscient knowing all our wants Acts 10.19 1 Cor. 2.10 Now for his effects they are either common or proper common to all creatures or all men To all creatures as in the creation when the spirit of God cowred on the waters and earth mixed together not yet separated as an hen sitting on egs thereby qualifying that chaos to take severall forms Gen. 1.2 which spirit also garnished the heavens Job 26.13 and is still sent forth to continue the creature by production and generation Psal 104.30 which kind of operation is common also to all men Job 33.4 the spirit of the Lord hath made me and not only so but the same spirit giveth inventions to men of Arts and Sciences as to Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 31.3 so to write excellent things for the common use of men so to qualifie Ministers with the gifts of prophecy and preaching and tongues yet not all with saving grace mat 7.22 So many men have illumination to discern of some doctrines of faith by drawing off the vaile that hangs before other mens eies though without application to themselves or correspondent practice of such knowledge Heb. 6.4 5. they have a taste but no delight nor digestion for it neither takes them from the love of the world nor makes them the more to love God or goodnesse yea and in other men he works restraining grace to forbear some foule sins as Abimelech to forbear Sarah Gen. 20.6 yea and to do some laudable actions contrary to their disposition 1 Sam. 10.10 when Saul prophecied which was so strange to the people that it became a proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets This restraining grace God giveth the wicked not sur their own but for the Churches sake who would by them otherwise in their lusts be basely defiled or utterly destroied Now there be other operations and effects of the spirit proper to the elect and some of them are generall and some particular the generall are the conception of Christ and the qualification of his humane nature to make it fir for the great work of redemption of the elect Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach glad tidings c. which spirit he received without measure John 3.34 The second generall work is his dwelling in the elect by which they are made a temple for God 2 Cor. 6.10 and built together for Gods habitation Eph. 2.22 Also regeneration of them whereby they are washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Then next he uniteth the elect into one mysticall body by faith and love in the bond of peace Beside Eph. 4.3 he hath particular operations in the singular persons of the elect as first he works in them liberty from the power of sin and ability to subdue the corruption in nature which neither naturall reason not morall prudence can do but where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.13 because the law of the spirit of life hath made us free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 And this the spirit doth by exercising of us in