to the whole Gospel as far as 't is sufficiently Revealed whereby Men believe Christ's Power his Precepts and his Promises too and acknowledge them to be good both in themselves and in respect to our selves the best and only means to conduct us to Heaven so that their Understanding inlightned by Faith discerns such an Excellency in Christ and in his Promises and Precepts and believes it so intirely and without reserve that it contemns all other things as the Apostle says Phil. 3.9 from whence follows the Obedience of Faith which is always accompanied with sincerity tho' not with perfect integrity which is desired and endeavoured for in this Life but attained only in Heaven See Mr. Baxter's Aphorisms of Justification Aphorism 69. pag. 261 and 262 c. But to the Faith of Miracles he asserts it with Calvin upon 1 Cor. 13.2 That it does not comprehend whole Christ but only his power in working Miracles so that it includes says our Author an assent to these three Propositions viz. 1. That God is of power to work Miracles 2. That he will be ready to assist those who believe and relie upon him with such a Miraculous Faith 3. That he will particularly assist me if supposed to have such a Miraculous Faith in working such or such a Miracle The first of these all Christians nay and all Men even by the Light of Nature know that know and believe God to be Almighty And as for the second Christians know it by the general promises to that purpose in the Gospel Matt. 17.20 Luke 17.6 John 14.13 c. But as for the third viz. That he will particularly assist John or Thomas or you or me says our Author in working such and such Miracles this depends on particular Revelation or Inspiration See Jac. ad Port. Bernatem in def Fid Orthod cont Christ Ostorrod cap. 30. pag. 377. Now therefore as all Faith must depend upon Authority and Divine Faith such as Miraculous Faith is upon Divine Authority and because this Miraculous Faith was not a Gift common to all Believers but a particular Gift and a particular sort of Faith as Gennadius apud Oecumen in 1 Cor. 13.2 pag. 465. Edit Graec. Veron 1532. Fred. Baldwin in 1 Cor. 13. pag. 687. Philip Melanchton Toleman Heshus Calvin and other Protestant Divines tell us as do likewise St. Chrysostome and the Greek Scholia and a Faith particularly relying on the Revelation of God's power and willingness to work such and such Miracles by such and such Persons and at such and such times only therefore this Faith must needs have a far different object from a true Justifying Faith And therefore being different from it in so many several respects as is proved and almost all the ways 't is possible for two habits to differ in it cannot but be plain that they differ more than in degree But to proceed to other proofs if saving faith and that of other miracles differ only in degree or as a Disposition and Habit our Author would demand which his Antagonist would have to be the habit or higher degree If it be answer'd That the faith of Miracles is the lower and saving faith the Habit or higher degree then it must follow that all that have saving faith have the faith of Miracles too because all Philosophers and Divines agree That when two Qualities differ only in degree the higher degree always includes the lower and consequently all the whole Vertue and natural or moral Activity of it and therefore that every Habit necessarily includes the Disposition leading to it from which it would follow that all that believe with saving faith must needs have the faith of miracles which being de facto false the premisses must needs be so too 2. That saving faith includes not the faith of miracles he further proves by our Saviour's giving his Apostles the power of working miracles a good while after their calling to the Apostolical Function and consequently after they had already received saving Grace as appears Matt. 10.1 Luke 9.1 3. But if it be said that faith of miracles is the higher degree and includes saving faith then says he it would follow that all that hare the faith of miracles must needs have saving faith too But that is contradicted by our Saviour as he has above proved as likewise by Aquinas and all other Sober Men both Papists and Protestants excepting only Becamus and a few other Servile Writers sworn Slaves to the Pope See Becan in Summ. Theol. Schol. and in Compend Man lib. 1. cap. 17. Pag. 336. Reas 4. Is drawn from the comparison of the Gift of Tongues and Prophesies which are acknowledged by the Schools and other Divines to be common Graces given for the common advantage of the whole Church and which yet differ so widely from saving faith that they have scarce any common Attribute in which they agree Reas 5. Here our Author being sensible that the main difficulty in this Question seems to consist in clearing of this doubt viz. Whether Temporary or Common Faith in Hypocrites differ Specifically or Gradually only from Saving Faith in the Elect Before he comes to the proof of his assertion which is That they differ specifically desires us to consider 1. That by common Faith in Hypocrites he does not understand only a faith that is wholly false or dissembled but a real faith that includes both a true knowledge of and true assent to several Divine and Gospel Truths such as many Hypocrites have tho' it be not such as it should be 2. That this common faith though by some Divines commenting on those parables in Matt. 13.5 6 20 21. Luke 8 6. Mar. 4.5 16 17. it is called Temporary and by others Historical Faith as Zach. Vrsin in Explic. par 2. Quest 21. par 2. Cat. palat c. and Grot. in Matt. 13.21 yet it is but one and the same sort of faith and means only a faith that wants a just and durable foundation to preserve it against the assaults of strong Temptations and Persecutions 3. That he conceives this faith is not called Temporary as supposing it never endures till Death because he believes it often accompanies such Believers to the Grave that live and die in times of the Churches Prosperity but only because it is of a temper which would not have been of proof against Persecution had it hapned nor ever is when it does come From these Considerations he passes first to his Position which is That this Common Temporary or Historical faith be they different or but one and the same do differ more than gradually from saving faith called in Scripture the faith of the Elect unfeigned and an Effect of Christ's Regenerating Spirit in his true members See Bishop Vsher's Summ. Christian Relig. pag 179. Zach. Ursin par 2. Cat. in Explicat parag 2. Quaest 21. pag. 107. c Tit. 1.1 Primas Uticens in Tit. 1.1 Dion Carthus in loc 2 Tim. 1.5 Calvin Instit lib.
suffer no Hierarchical Ministers to come or pray with him but desir'd and had only Presbyterians about him Mr. Reynel signifying this to Mr. Roswel desires him to enquire the truth of this and signifie it to him whereupon he consults Mr. Pullen of Magdalen Hall who was my Lord's Houshold Chaplain with him in all his Sickness and at his Death and he assured him that the said Bishop as he liv'd so he died a true Son of the Church of England that no Presbyterian came near him in all his Sickness that besides his own Prayers private to himself there were in his Family no Prayers save those of the Church nor any but his own Chaplain to read them Besides Mr. Pullen gave him a part of the Bishop's last Will wherein within less than a Month before he died he gives an account of his thoughts in opposition to Papists and Puritans and this Sermon being the last which the Bishop writ with his own hand at the importunity of Mr. Roswel Dr. Sanderson permitted it to be printed to vindicate his Father's Honour and Judgment and to confute that lying Report and so that lie occasion'd the publishing this Truth Aâ—iquisque Malo fuit usus in illo Ita est Tho. Barlow Collegii Reginalis Praeses BUT partly because it may sufficiently confound the before mentioned Calumny against Bishop Sanderson and partly because his Religionary Professions in his last Will and Testaments contains somewhat like Prophetical matter in his mentioning his belief of the happy future state of our Church in a Conditional manner it is thought fit to print that part of his Will that concerneth the same as the same was lately faithfully transcribed out of his Will now remaining in the Registry of the Prerogative Court in London viz. AND here I do profess that as I have lived so I do desire and by the grace of God resolve to die in the Communion of the Catholick Church of Christ and a true Son of the Church of England which as it standeth by Law established to be both in Doctrine and Worship agreeable to the word of God is in the most Material points of both conformable to the Faith and Practice of the Godly Churches of Christ in the Primitive and purer times I do firmly believe this led so to do not so much from the force of Custom and Education to which the greatest part of Mankind owe their particular different perswasions in point of Religion as upon the clear evidence of truth and Reason after a serious and impartial examination of the grounds as well of Popery as Puritanism according to that measure of understanding and those opportunities which God hath afforded me And herein I am abundantly satisfied that the Schism which the Papists on the one hand and the superstition which the Puritans on the other hand lay to our charge are very justly chargeable upon themselves respectively Wherefore I humbly beseech Almighty God the Father of Mercies to preserve this Church by his Power and Providence in Truth Peace and Godliness evermore unto the Worlds end Which doubtless he will do if the wickedness and security of a sinful People and particularly those Sins that are so rife and seem daily to increase among us of Vnthankfulness Riot and Sacriledge do not tempt his Patience to the contrary And I also humbly further beseech him that it would please him to give unto our Gracious Soveraign the Reverend Bishops and the Parliament timely to consider the great dangers that visibly threaten this Church in point of Religion by the late great increase of Popery and in point of Revenue by Sacrilegious Enclosures and to provide such wholsome and effectual Remedies as may prevent the same before it be too late The Substance of a Letter written by the same late Pious and Learned Prelate Bishop Barlow to the Clergy of his Diâ—cess upon occasion of an Order of the Quarter Sessions for the County of Bedford held at Ampthill in the said County in the 36th Year of the Reign of the late King Charles the Second Annoque Dom. 1684. For the prosecution of the Laws against Dissenters ALL the Compliance our moderate Spirited Prelate could be brought to in reference to that sharp Order was only in this Letter to represent to his Clergy That since it is an evident Truth that all Subjects both by the indispensable Law of Nature and Scripture are obliged to obey the power establish'd over them by God and that most particularly in things more immediately relating to the great and important Concerns of God's Glory and the Salvation of their own Souls and that by the Prudent and Pious Care of our Government a Godly Form and Liturgy of God's Publick Worship had been provided and establish'd both by our Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws which accordingly require all people to resort to their respective Parish Churches and to communicate there with the Congregation in Prayers Receiving the Sacrament and hearing the word And since the said Liturgy had not only been for many years received by our Church with little or no opposition till the late unfortunate times of Rebellion and Confusion but had been likewise approved and commended by the most Learned and Pious Divines in Foreign Protestant Churches and so religiously priz'd and esteem'd by the Renowned Protestant Martyrs in Queen Mary's days that one of their greatest Complaints was that they were deprived of the Benefit of that Liturgy-Book and that since the rejection of it and the disobeying the Laws that injoyn it makes our Dissenters evidently Schismatical in their separation from our Church-Communion as shall says he if God please be in convenient time made further to appear and that for those Reasons it was not only convenient but necessary that our good Laws should be executed both for the preservation of the publick Peace and Vnity and the Benefit even of the Dissenters themselves for that afflictio dat intellectum and it was probable their Sufferings by the execution of our just Laws and the blâ—ssing of God upon them might bring them to a sense of their duty and a desire to perform it Therefore for the attaining of those good ends he requires all his said Clergy of his Diocess within the abovesaid County to publish the above mentioned Order the next Sunday after it should be tendred them and diligently to advance the design of it according to the several particular Directions in the said Order prescribed and both by Preaching and Catechising to take away all excuses for their ignorance to instruct their People in their Duty to God and their King with his Prayer for a Blessing upon their Endeavours in which he concludes this Letter signing himself Their Affectionate Friend Brother and Diocesan Thomas Lincoln FINIS Books newly published printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey THe History of the Famous Edist of Nantes containing an account of all the Persecutions which in France have befallen those Protestants who
to which you refer me I must to this Query say 1. That I find not any Commentary of Calvin tho' he has writ on the Pentateuch on that Verse or Chapter 2. The Jews Rabbies even Maimonides the most Learned of them as Ainsworth on that place tells you expound that place of all the Inhabitants which were guilty of Idolatry both the Seducers and Seduced but none else Only the goods of those in the City who were not Idolatees were to be burnt as well as the goods of the Idolaters 3. When you inquire of Luther's Judgment on the same Text I can only say 1. That Luther has not writ any Commentary on Deuteronomy 2. Whether he do occasionally explain that Text in any of his other Works I do not remember 3. For putting the Hereticks to death as such that is meerly as Hereticks 1. The Donatists in St. Augustin's time first put those to death which did not consent to their Opinions 2. The Papists universally agree in this that Hereticks that is all who do not believe as they do must be put to death 3. Calvin and the Senate of Geneva put (a) Vide Calvinum Libro in Servetum scripto in Commentariis in Titum Servetus an Arrian to death And Beza (b) Inter Opera Bezae Tâ—m 1. pag. 85. Edit Genevae 1582. justifies the fact in his Tract De Haereticis à Magistratu puniendis where he cites Melanchton Bullinger Capito and many more Protestants who he says were of the same Opinion 4. But the Church of England did never put any Papists to death though Hereticks and Idolaters and it is publickly affirmed and justified in a Book called Justitia Legum Anglicarum c. And for my part I should not be willing that any Heretick should be punished with death unless he joyn with his Heresie blasphemy of God or disloyalty against the King or some sins against the Law of Nature evidently punishable by the Civil Magistrate for the preservation of the Publick Peace and Safety of the Common-wealth I am Sir Your most obliged faithful Friend and Servant Thomas Lincolne Buckden Feb. 26. 1628. Bishop Sanderson 5. ad Populum 1 Tim. 4.3 4 5. 3. Commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving c. 4. For every Creature of God is good and not to be refused if it be received with Thanksgiving 5. For it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer FOR the real and true meaning of this passage of the Apostle 't is evident he condemns two Errors in those Apostates from the Faith which should appear in the latter days 1. Their forbidding Marriage of which I shall say nothing at present 2. Their commanding to abstain from Meats For this second particular we are further to consider two things 1. What Meats they were from which those Apostates were commanded to abstain and the Text tells us that it was Meats which God had created to be received or eaten with Thanksgiving 2. The ground or occasion why the Apostle condemns this in the Apostates is because every Creature of God is good and not to be refused if received or eaten with Thanksgiving Now the most Judicious Bishop Sanderson my dear deceased Friend from this general ground that EVERY Creature of God is good seems to infer that there are no Creatures in the World excepted but every one might be received or eaten with Thanksgiving Now this consequence seems to me not good nor rational nor is it possible to conclude the lawfulness of the use of every Creature from the goodness of it in it self and for those ends for which by the infinite power and wisdom of God they were created For 't is most certain that every Creature without an exception is good but then it will not follow that every Creature without an exception may lawfully be received and used for meat In the Text the Apostle condemns the Apostates from the Faith for commanding to abstain from meats which God created to be received or eaten This was their Errour and Tyranny to forbid men the use of those Creatures for their food which God had created and given them for that very use and end 3. And upon this ground it is that the 4th verse neither is nor can be meant universally that every Creature of God without exception is good and not to be refused if received with Thanksgiving but with this limitation every Creature which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving is good and not to be refused for otherwise if the proposition be taken universally 't is evidently untrue for when the Apostle writ the first Epistle to Timothy there were many Creatures which tho' good in themselves and for the end they were made were never created by God for Man's food and nourishment nor were to be received with Thanksgiving nor could be sanctified by Prayer I instance in 1. Venenatis 2. Prohibitis 1. In Venenatis it is certain that amongst God's Creatures which are all good both in themselves and for the ends for which they were created there were included Serpents Rattle-Snakes c. which are venemous and to humane Nature pernicious which were never created for Man's food nor to be received with Thanksgiving nor to be sanctified by Prayer 2. In Prohibitis 't is also certain that when the Apostle writ this Epistle to Timothy there werh several of God's good Creatures which by Divine Law were prohibited to be receiv'd at all and therefore not to be receiv'd or eaten That this may appear 1. 'T is generally agreed that St. Paul writ this Epistle Anno Christi 52. when that Excellent person Bishop Sanderson thinks that by the liberty our blessed Saviour had purchas'd for us every Creature of God was good and might without sin or scruple of Conscience be receiv'd with Thanksgiving 2. 'T is also generally agreed that the Decree of the Apostles Act. 15.28 29. was made Anno Christi 50 or 51. secundum computationem veram wherein things offered to Idols blood and things strangled are expresly forbid to the Gentile Christians and therefore might not be receiv'd and eaten Anno Christi 52. when St. Paul writ that Epistle being by a Divine Law prohibited a little before Anno Christi 50 or 51 The Obligation of which Law continued long after the time of St. Paul's writing to Timothy as appears by express Texts 1. Act. 21.25 By what James Bishop of Jerusalem tells St. Paul which was Anno Christi 58. So that then notwithstanding that every Creature of God was good yet neither things offered to Idols nor blood nor things strangled could lawfully be eaten 2. Revel 2.14 20. Where eating things offered to Idols is by our blessed Saviour condemned as a sin which was 45 years after St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy which was Anno Christi 52. and St. John Anno Christi 97. To say nothing of the Universal Consent of the Christian World for above
Biretti the Italian in the Talents of Dissimulation after he had inveigled your vertuous young Kinswoman according to the forementioned Expressions of Bishop Taylor to marry her very Soul to him and to have her Heart bound up in his did in the Marriage by the Minister and all the Subsequent Acts of the Ratifications of it intend nothing of consent to Marriage and did throughout only intend to debauch her I think a Compensation for your Kinswoman's Dammage ought to be made For according to the Expression used in some Declarations at Common Law by a Woman suing for Dammages there viz. Per quod Maritagium amisit Your Kinswoman's being hindred in future Marriage with another person is obvious to any one's Thoughts and because the commencing a Suit and exhibiting her Libell there will bring the Facts before mentioned the more into the eyes and ears and tongues of the World I account that the weight of her Dammages will not be so great before a Suit begins as it will be afterwards This is all I have to say at present of this Matter I remain Sir Your very Humble Servant P. P. A Divine in the Bishop of Lincoln's Dioces afterward writing to his Lordship to request his Judgment in point of Conscience about the Marriage of Mr. P. and Mrs. C. the Bishop under his hand return'd him the following Answer viz. Mr. Bewerrin I Received your Letter with the Papers you sent with it and this comes with my Love and Due Respects to return my Thanks for your Kindness and Civility to me express'd in it What you say of my willingness to assist my Brethren of the Clergy is true I am and according to my Ability and Duty ever shall be willing to assist them in all their Concerns Spiritual or Temporal Concerning the Case of Mr. Ps. Marriage I am of Sir P. Petts Opinion But if you or any of Mr. P.'s Friends be of the contrary Opinion If I may have their Reasons for it I shall if they be cogent and conclusive submit and subscribe them But if not I shall take them for Objections and endeavour to answer them You in your Letter desire me to state the Case which I cannot clearly and fully do with satisfaction to my self or others unless I have the Reasons of both Parties concern'd which as yet I have not had The very troublesome Circumstances I am now in will not permit me to study the Case with that diligence it requires but if I may have the Reasons against Sir P. Petts Opinion I shall take time to state the Case I can only add That I am Buckden June 6. 1691. Your loving Friend and Brother Thomas Lincolniensis A Letter asserting the King 's not being by Scripture prohibited to pardon Murther Sir I Have received yours and for the Objection Gen. 9.6 He that sheds Mans Blood by Man shall his blood be shed I shall say a few things and leave them to your better judgment and consideration 1. It is certain that there were three Persons and but three which could oblige all the World with positive Laws 1. Adam 2. Noah who were both Capita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Fathers call them Monarchs of the whole World 3. Our blessed Saviour Those three persons had power to make Positive Laws to oblige the whole World 2. What Laws Adam or Noah made who in their times were Fathers of the whole World obliged all their posterity 3. What ever positive Laws God gave to Adam or Noah those Laws did bind them and all the World 4. That God did give any positive Law to Adam to punish Murder with Death we read not nay we read but of two Murderers in the time before the Flood Cain and Lamech and of Cain it was Gods express (a) Gen. 4.15 will that he should not be put to Death though it was a most horrid Murther for killing Abel and for (b) Gen. 4.23.24 Lamech we have nothing in Scripture that he was punish'd with Death or that God had then before the Flood given any positive Law to make Murther Capital 5. But to Noah God did by a positive Law make Death the punishment of Murther and this Law bound him and all his posterity to whom it was sufficiently published as it is to us in Scripture 6. So that he who sheds Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed That 's the punishment God has appointed for Murther the Murtherers blood shall be shed by Man But then 1. Not by every Man but by the Magistrate No private Man has or ever had power to put any Man to Death though he never so much deserv'd it that the Magistrate only had power to do 2. Nor could every Murtherer be put to Death by that Law given to Noah and so to the World in him for if Noah or any supream power had committed Murther he could not be put to Death 1. Because he had no superior who had power to punish him 2. Because he could not punish himself by taking away his own Life so that all that this Text proves is this The Magistrate might and regularly ought to punish Murther with Death But that the supream power who could not by that Law be punished himself might not in some Cases all Circumstances considered pardon a Murtherer this Law proves not either in express terms or by any good Consequence And this I am the more apt to believe 1. Because it is most certain that there were circumstances and reasons for which our most just God pardon'd Cain as to the punishment by Death so there may be in some Cases such Circumstances which may be just reasons for supream powers who are Gods Vice-gerents to pardon Murther 2. Because I find in Scripture that above 500. years after the giving that Law to Noah Simeon and Levi Jacobs Sons cruelly (a) Gen. 34.25 Murthered the Shechemites and yet were pardon'd neither Jacob nor Isaac who was then (b) Gen. 35.29 living those two excellent and most pious persons executed that Law upon them which had they believ'd it obligatory they would certainly have done As to what you say concerning the Opinions of our own and Foreign Divines in this Case I know there are different Opinions as in other Cases there are and I shall neither trouble you nor my self with them It is not Opinions but Reason which should guide us to the belief of any Conclusion and I believe that there are evident Reasons for the truth I have asserted and then if you tell me of 20. who say otherwise unless they bring good Reason for what they say I shall not much regard them Buckden Jan. 29. 1684. Your most obliged thankful and faithful Servant Thomas Lincolne An Account of Guymenius his Famous or rather Infamous Book apologizing for the Jesuits Tenets about Morals Sir I Received yours and with my Love and Service return my Thanks For what You inquire concerning Amadaeus Guymenius whether he was a
the begâ—tting but believing Abraham For to all and only these were the promises made Gal. 3.16 29. And all these are call'd the Fathers Rom. 15.8 to confirm the promises made unto the Fathers Acts. 26.6 There is mention of the Gospel or promise made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to Abraham and his Seed 2. The Question speaks of these Fathers under the Old Covenant As to the Nature of a Covenant the word in the Hebrew is Benith coming from a word that signifies not as properly to create but to order and institute It s Nature is Artificially explain'd by Schielder and others and especially Buxtorfe in that Learned Work of his of Thirty Years And so what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is among the Hellenists and Faedus or Pactum among the Latinists Calvin the Lawyer and Schardius and Nebrissensis may be Consulted in their juridical Glossarys on the words Pactum and Faedus and Mynsinger and Sckneidwin on Instit lib. 3. Tit. 14. De Obligationibus may be usefully apply'd to for the Nature of Pactions and especially Grotius to name no more on the 1 of Mat. p. 1 2. This then is the thing we say that the Fathers or the Faithful who lived under the Oeconomy of the Law obtained the Salvation of their Souls by means of our Saviours Death Now here we shall demonstrate it distinctly in thesi ex parte Rei that the Fathers had Salvation by Christ's means and likewise in Hypothesi ex parte modi how they had it Now when we say the Fathers had Salvation by means of Christ it is confessed by all that they went to Heaven after their Deaths but whether by the Mercy of God or his absolute benignity their Sins were forgiven or for the merits of Christ is not so clear to all neither among all those Christians who have given up their names to Christ is it look'd on as a piece of Catholick truth for it appears out of the Racovian Catechism that the Socinians deny it and the Socinians argue from Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake c. that therefore they had forgiveness only on the account of the Divine benignity without any respect to the Death of Christ But to shew that they obtained forgiveness by Christs means we may refer to Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved But they will tell us That was true from the time the Apostle said so But I shall mind them of the foregoing Verse this is the Stone which was set at nought of you Builders which is become the Head of the Corner and that the Church in Scripture is compared to a Building and of which Christ being the Corner Stone both Jews and Gentiles meet in him and that according to Eph. 2.20 21. they come under the notion of Fellow Citizens with the Saints and of the Household of God and are built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Corner Stone in whom all the Building fittly framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord. But yet to make it more clear if it be possible If the Death of Christ did give Redemption and Remission of Sins in the Old Testament then the People of God had Salvation by this means But they had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Redemption as saith the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 9.15 And for this Cause he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of Death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the promise of Eternal Inheritance Two things are very clear from this place of Scripture First That Christ did procure for the Fathers that lived under the Old Testament Redemption from their Sins Secondly That he did procure an Eternal Inheritance for them which was the thing to be proved Now as to the place out of Isaiah of Gods blotting out Transgressions for his own names sake and therefore not for Christ's I deny the Consequence For that doth not exclude Christs merits but the persons whose Sins are there forgiven And thus God may be still said in the New Testament to pardon our Sins for his names sake And so 't is said Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things God now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnia nobis gratificatur i. e. gratis dat scilicet ex parte nostri non Christi qui pretio numerato captos nos è captivitate liberaverat For this you may see Lud. Lucium contra Michael Gittichium de Satisfact Christi in solutione arg 3. p. 27. Having shewn that the Fathers were saved by Christ ex parte Rei we shall now shew it in Hypothesis and by the special means by which the Fathers did gain Salvation by Christ And here we say 1. That they might gain Salvation by Christ First By being purely passive in receiving it without exerting any Act of Faith as Infants are saved by Christ But Secondly We say the Fathers under the Law were active in obtaining Salvation by Christ and that they did believe on Christ and did apply to themselves what Christ should merit The Socinians say they were justified by Faith but by Faith in God and not in his Son But that the truth may more plainly appear I shall lay down this Conclusion and prove it That the Saints under the Law did obtain Salvation by Faith in Christ Here we may Consider the Saints as such who were notae eminentioris as Abraham David and the Prophets or notae inferioris ut è plebe indocti literarum rudes and we may likewise Consider Faith as twofold I mean Faith in Christ First Explicit by which Christ is directly known in himself and is expresly believed Second Implicit by which Christ is not expresly known and believed but only implicitly and by Consequence Cum ex uno in thesi directè cognito creditoque sequitur Christum in hyyothesi implicitè esse creditum So he who believes that God will by means disposed by his Providence procure his Salvation though he knows not what those means are may be said implicitly to believe on Christ as the primary of those means Now here we say that the Saints of more eminent note did explicitly believe on Christ as their Redeemer This is asserted both by Papists and Protestants As we may see out of Canus Relect. part 2. p. 753. Becanus Tractat. de Analog V. N. Testamenti cap. 2. Q. 7. Lombard L. Sent. 3. Dist 25. Hooperus Glocestrensis in Symbolum Art 69. Rivet in Isag ad Sacram Script cap. 27. Cunaeus de Repub. Judaeor lib. 3. c. 9. I shall now shew that those Holy Men of Eminent note
under the Old Testament did know Christ and believe on him and were by Faith Justified and Saved This is manifest out of Scripture either by express Words or Consequences clearly deduced from it For this you may consult Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believes in him shall obtain Remission of Sins Now it must necessarily follow That the Prophets did know him of whom they gave that Testimony For this you may see what St. Paul saith Acts 26 22. Having therefore obtain'd help of God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come And if you ask whence they knew this the first of St. Peter 1.10 11. abundantly shews Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who Prophecyed of the Grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time the Spirit which was in them did signifie when it testified beforehand the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow For this likewise you may consult St. Luke 24.25 26 27. Then he said to them O Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his Glory And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself It being thus clear that they did know Christ it remains to be proved that they did believe on him and I shall urge this Argument for it viz. Those who by Christ did gain the Life that is opposed to Spiritual Death they were justify'd by Faith in Christ for Faith in Christ is our Spiritual Life and Righteousness but the Fathers and Prophets under the Old Testament did through Christ gain the Life that is opposed to Spiritual Death Ergo c. For this see 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And Rom. 5. from the 12th Verse to the end of the Chapter the Apostle doth by an accurate and long kind of Argumentation shew that Spiritual Death came from Adam to all his Posterity and Spiritual Life by Christ to all his Seed and Servants v. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men unto Justification of Life So that as Death came from Adam to all who were obnoxious to Death under any Covenant whatsoever so Life came by Christ to all who were Born again under what Covenant soever The which appears from the 3d. Chapter of the Romans v. 21 22 23. But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Here he applys the Righteousness of Christ to all that are Justified whether they lived under the Law or under the Gospel He speaks there expresly of Abraham and the Jews as well as of the Holy Men then in being This might be more largely shewed from innumerable places of Scripture But it remains now that we should speak of those of inferiour note or the plebs And here first the Mster of the Sentences l. 3. dist 25. as likewise all his followers of whom a Catalogue is to be found in Johannes Martinez de Repalda ad dict dist Qu. 4. doth thus conclude the thing Simplices indocti e plebe homines sub antiquo foedere in Christum credebant fide solum implicitâ Nam quia ex se minus capaces erant ideo majoribus credendo inhaerebant quibus fidem suam quasi committebant But for this he brings a ridiculous Argument out of the 1st of Job The Oxen were ploughing and the Asses feeding besides them By the Asses he tells us are meant the simplices indocti and so with him the Clergy-men are taken for Oxes and the Layety for Asses But Secondly we say that the Common People of old in the Days of the Old Testament did live Religiously and did believe on Christ fide explicitâ I here call it fidem explicitam but not distinctam For they knew that Christ or the Messias would come to redeem the House of Israel some time or other but in what Age or how or by what means they did not guess And of many other Circumstances that did concern Christ's Person and Office they were ignorant All such things the Prophets themselves did not know distinctly and much less the Layety That the generality of the People had an expectation of Christ we see out of St. John the 4th where the Woman of Samaria saith I know that the Messias will come and when he is come he will tell us all things She was an ordinary kind of Woman a Samaritan and an Adulteress and yet she saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and knew the Messias would come And v. 29. she saith Come see a Man which told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ Speaking of Christ as a thing known among them And not only the Jews who lived in Christ's Age did entertain general Notions of a Christ but they did so in antienter Ages whence Malachy the 3d and the 1st about 100 Years before Christ was born mention is made of the Angel of the Covenant which Angel the Jews did Interpret to be Christ So Rabbi David Kimchi cited by Grotius on this place where Grotius doth subjoyn this That the Messias would come all the Jews before Christ's time did firmly believe The which Grotius doth shew out of the 2d of Haggai and in his Annotations on St. Matthew more at large And Holy Men before Christ's time were Christians though not called so Consult Genebrard's Chronologia Hebraeorum Paris 1600. where p. 59. there is a Tract de Christo cui titulus Scripturae in quibus Chaldaeus Paraphrastes interjecit Nomen Messiae c. There is there in p. 75. Explicatio Symboli Judaici per doctissimum R. Mosem Maimonidem where in the 12th Article 't is said Jubemur credere tempus dierum Messiae illumque amare extollere juxta id quod nuntiatum est per Prophetas omnes Quicunque autem de eo dubitat insimulat universam legem quae Messiam sperare jubet See more concerning this in Euseb Demonsir Evangelic l. 1. c. 5. Ecclesia Authoritatem habet in Controversiis fidei I shall here first explain the terms and then deduce and prove some Theses First for the word Ecclesia it doth signifie 1st Congregationem Concionem seu Conventum eumque duplicem 1. Civilem 2. Sacrum In the former signification we do not only find it used by Thucydides Halicarnasceus and other such Writers