be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit for Christ is God And it were also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity which is this That the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us to revive our souls now from the death of sin to revive our bodies hereafter from the death of the grave the Apostle plainly attributeth thr Resurrection of the soul from sin and of the body from death only to the dwelling of Christs Spirit in us Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righeeousness there 's the resurrection of the soul from sin and again ver 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you There 's the resurrection of the body from death And this is also from the Spirit that dwelleth in us as well as the other the Spirit of Christ raiseth the soul from sin the Spirit of Christ raiseth the body from death so that to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ is to deny both our Regeneration and our Resurrection Wherefore this being of so dangerous a consequence The Master of the sentences would not impute this Tenent to the Greek Church as if they denyed the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son though they would not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son but only who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified But he saith plainly that the Greek Church did agree with the Latine Church concerning that Article of Faith in sense though not in words Sensu nobis conveniunt dum aiunt Spiritum Sanctum esse Patris Filii They agree with us in the sense whilst they say that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son only we speak a little more plainly saying who proceedeth from the Father and the Son nor are we to be blamed saith he for adding to the Creed much less to be anathematized because our addition is not of a contrary assertion but of a necessary interpretation Nos enim non praedicamus contrarium sed addimus quod deerat ideoque non subjecti anathemati Lomb. 1. Sent. Dist 11. He is more careful to justifie his own Church for adding to the Creed then to condemn the Greek Church for not allowing that addition But his Scholars are not so moderate for Aquinas taxes Damascene of Nestorianism in the case and saith he was carried away with the Schism of the Greeks Damascenus sequitur errorem Nestorii Quod Sp. S. non procedit à Filio quia fuit tempore quo incepit illud Schisma Graecorum Aqu. 3. par qu. 36. art 2. ad 3. And Bonaventure is yet much mor fierce when he saith that the Greek Church denyed this article out of ignorance pride and perverseness Graecos negâsse hunc articulum ex ignorantiâ superbiâ pertinaciâ Bonav in lib. 1. sent dist 11. Three unmerciful words from a Church-mans mouth against a whole Church and surely altogether underserved For the Greek Church always acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be consubstantial with the Son as well as with the Father as appears by the Confession of Faith exhibited by Charisius in the Council of Ephesus in the sixth Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of truth the comforter being of the same essence or substance with the Father and the Son which plainly shews the Greek Church did not deny the article though they were loth to change their Creed wherein they found it was thus expressed Who proceedeth from the Father no mention at all made of the Son For this is their own profession in the Council of Florence in the 25. Session 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Creed from seven general Councils and weneither add thereto nor take therefrom And t is evident that the Latine Church it self did a long time demurr about this addition of Filioque to the Greek Creeds Nay Leo the third did strongly oppose it and that not only Papally in his Chair but also Episcopally in his Chancel for he did absolutely refuse this addition when he was thereto intreated by Charles the great and did set up the Creed over the Altar at Rome without it nor did Filioque get into the Article till the time of Benedict the seventh saith Binius in Syn. Constant which was above nine hundred and fifty years after Christ and about six hundred years after the divulging of that Creed But without doubt the Addition it self is to be justified for it was not Additio corrumpentium Symbolum sed perficientium as saith Bonaventure not an addition to corrupt the Creed but to perfect it or rather an explication not an addition as Bellarmine seems to distinguish Explicatio Doctrine non additio contrarii but the manner of maintaining it seems altogether unjustifiable For those of the Latine Church shewed little temper and as little charity in rejecting the Greek Church for hereticks which was trampled on enough by Turks and needed not Christians to help tread it more under foot for not admitting the same addition meerly because they thought themselves under the curse which the Latines are willing to put off by a distinction if they should recede but one tittle or syllable from the language of their own Creeds But this it seems was the fault of the Greek Church which hath been ever since accounted damnable Schism in all other Churches they could not swallow much less digest that crude position Ad summum Pontificem pertinet fidei Symbolum ordinare It belongs to the Pope to order and dispose of the Creeds A position so unreasonable that Aquinas himself the greatest Master of reason among all the Schoolmen is fain to fly to Gratians decree to fetch a proof for it and that proof depends altogether upon the Authority of some few Popes who were very partial Judges in their own cause This is clear that the objection about Athanasius his Creed doth so puzzle him that he is fain in effect to say his Creed is no Creed because he cannot find the Popes hand was in the making of it Athanasius non composuit manifestationem fidei per modum Symboli sed per modum cuiusdam Doctrin◠Athanasius did not set out this manifestation of the faith as a Creed but as a Doctrinal institution notwithstanding the very title of it in Greek is the same which is prefixed to the Apostles Creed and the Latine Church calleth it Symbolum Athanasii unto this day It is not suitable with my purpose and much less with my desire
communicating of himself Praesens autem est in quantum praesentat seu praesentem facit beatitudinem quae est in ipso in habitu tantum ut in parvulis in affectu tantum ut in adultis in habitu effectu et intellectu ut in beatis saith that excellent Schoolman Alensis par 3. qu. 61. God is then present with the soul when he represents unto it his own blessedness either in habit or disposition as in children that know him not and yet love him or in desire or affection as to men that know him and love him or in a habit desire and comprehension as to the blessed souls that not only know and love but also enjoy him So that according to the degrees of Gods presence are also the degrees of his communion where his presence is incompleat and imperfect as in grace there his communion is so too where his presence is compleat and perfect as in glory there so also is his communion But it is best for us to examine the effects of our communion with God in the presence of his grace that so we the more may undoubtedly attain to a communion with him in the presence of his glory And these effects are excellently set down in few words by the Casuists saying Spirituale bonum Divinum consistit in amicitia inter Deum hominem ac per hoc in consentire conversari convivere colloqui cum Deo The blessing of the soul consists in this that a man hath friendship or communion with God and consequently that he lives for him by consent lives to him by conversation lives with him by cohabitation lives in him by contentation I will briefly explain them all that the good Christian may know his own happiness in that he is called to live in this communion by vertue whereof First he lives for God by consent Fiat volunt as tuaâ— Thy will be done is a petition twice sanctified unto us by our Saviours own lips in two several prayers One of them taught us by his Doctrine in the Mount Mat. 6. So that we cannot contemn his prayer but we must also contemn his Sermon The other taught us by his practice or example Mat. 26. 42. where he made but one speech yet three prayers he prayed the third time saying the same words ver 44 It was one and the same expression of his voice it was not one and the same elevation of his soul therefore he prayed the third time though he spake but his first words We place the gift of prayer in the volubility of our tongues our Saviour placed it in the groans of his heart He prayed thrice in the same words we use many words scarce pray at all It is the heart that pants it not the tongue that chants it out when we truly say Thy will be done Conformitas in volito formali must be in all our desires where in volito materiali cannot be Here was a conformity of our Saviours will with Gods will in what he desired formally in his intention though a seeming non-formity in what he desired materially in his expression And so it must ever be with us For we are most sure that in this case the Non Conformist cannot be a good Christian but the want of conformity is the want of Christianity The second effect of this communion is that the good Christian lives to God by conversation T is a pleasant contemplation of Aquinas that local distance is no impediment in the Angels conversing one with another or speaking one to the other because that is a meer intellectual operation In loquutione Angelorum nullum impedimentum praestat localis distantia quia est mere intellectualis operatio Aqu. 1. par qu. 107. art 4. But t is a much more comfortable assertion of the Apostle that the distance of heaven from earth cannot hinder the conversation of man with God for so much he plainly asserteth when he saith For our conversation is in heaven for whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 20. In which words the Apostle affordeth us three observations concerning the heavenly conversation of good Christians 1. that it is nothing else but a serious study and exercise of Christian piety in imitation of Christ to whom they are always lifting up their eyes and their hearts 2. that they only are true Christians who firmly and constantly exercise this piety for they only have true faith in Christ they only have a firm hope of immortality 3. that we have all two great Motives for this exercise the one is that Christ our Saviour on whom all our hopes rely and in whom all our joys are fixed is in heaven thefore what have we to do on earth The other is that the same Christ will at the last day come from heaven to judge us according to the works that we have done therefore if we will have a favourable judgement we must have an innocent conversation Conversation is but a frequent conversion and requires our often turning to God by our repentance as we often turn away from him by our sins The third effect of this communion is that he lives with God by cohabitation I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Saint Paul by this losing his life did indeed save it had he kept his life in himself he might have lost it by a temporal a spiritual an eternal death for he would have been subject to the separation of his body from his soul of his soul from grace and of his soul and body from God But having lost his life in himself that he might keep it in his Saviour he keeps it for ever He keeps his natural life which else he could not but lose for his dissolution is not to him a death but only a change making good his We shall all be changed even before the last day for he had a change only when others had a death Our departure hence if looked upon as a change is our greatest consolation for it must needs be much for the better because our corruptible shall thereby put on incorruption our mortal shall put on immortality But if looked upon as a death must needs be our greatest horror and confusion for that can only tell us of the destroying not of the amending or bettering our present state and condition He keeps also his spiritual life so continuing as moreover improving it His soul being more knit and united with grace then before which is the spiritual life the union of the soul with grace for though we suppose it the same grace yet the soul must needs be united to it the more neerly and the more firmly the longer it abides in the communion of Christ the fountain of grace But we may well suppose the good Christian to grow
rise again to newness of life This is the happy estate we acknowledge God conveyed unto us in our Baptism for other visible conveyance there is none when he made us Christians for then he gave us the right of calling him Father and we by saying unto him Our Father do beseech him to confirm this sâ—me happy estate unto us in making us good Christians But how shall those that are bad Christians and cannot be assured of the adoption of sons as having defiled themselves since their Baptism say unto God Our Father I answer if they heartily repent and desire to be adopted and to become children of God they may say so by virtue of their desire though they have not yet actually received the inward seal and have actually defaced the outward seal of their adoption wherefore those only have no right to their Pater noster but do hypocritically and falsly say the Lords Prayer who neither are the children of God by adoption nor desire to be so But those that heartily desire to be adopted supposing they have been baptized may rightly and truly say to God Our Father because they are accepted as sons in Christ though not in themselves I will rise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned saith the Prodigal Son Luk. 14. 18. He was not yet risen he was not yet gone he did only desire and resolve to rise and go to him and this desire and resolution gives him a right of calling God Our Father as if he had still continued a dutiful son our blessed Saviour teaching us in that chapter both by his Doctrine and by his example that God is ready to receive sinners when they truly desire to draw neer to him The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured at the example but they were ashamed to murmur at the Doctrine The lost sheep and the lost groat had opened their eyes but the lost son was enough to open their hearts the lost sheep and the lost groat had made way in their apprehensions for the receiving of the lost son when he returned to his Father but the lost son was enough to make way in their hearts for their own returning that they also might be received they were convinced that there was joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ver 10. And they were ashamed least what was the Angels joy should be thought their sorrow Therefore though they were still enemies to their own souls in not embracing this Doctrine yet they were ashamed to shew themselves enemies to other mens souls in gainsaying it nay indeed to shew themselves enemies to God himself who must be excluded out of heaven or he cannot be excluded out of thy joy for it is said ver 6. Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth And our Saviour having taught us to say to God Our Father which art in heaven will not have us exclude him out of this joy which is proper to those in heaven nay indeed the parable directly includes him in it ver 32. T was meet that we should make merry and be glad and without doubt God is so well pleased in the righteousness of his Son that he joyes to see penitent sinners made righteous in him and willingly bestowes upon them his righteousness when with unfeigned lips and penitent hearts they call upon him for it For as through Christs satisfaction they have a right to the adoption of Sons so also through his intercession which is always ready to accompany his own prayer they are sure to obtain that right if they continue heartily praying for themselves that so they may have the benefit of his intercession For as far as we are made partakers of Christ so far can we truly in his merit and with his Spirit say unto God Our Father For the right of filiation belongs Originally to Christ and but dirivatively to us He is the Son of God in himself we are the Sons of God in and through him and t is happy for us that we are so for else we could not but fear the loss of our adoption as often as we did find the loss of our obedience For there can be no assurance of such an adoption as shall last till we be instated in our inheritance from our selves but only from our Saviour Christ God indeed is pleased to call good men his sons but none was ever called the Son of God with this promise and Prerogative that God alwaies was and alwaies would be his Father but only Christ or else Saint Pauls Argument would lose much of its strength when he proves our Saviour Christ to be above all the Angels because God had not said to any of them but had said only to him Thou art my Son And again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son For Angels and men are so the Sons of God as to be his Sons in Christ not in themselves and therefore no sooner nor no longer his sons then they were and are in Christ For which cause we can be no farther sure of our adoption in Christ then we are sure of our conjunction and communion with him and that not of a corporal conjunction in the same flesh but of a spiritual conjunction in the same Spirit For our corporal conjunction with Christ doth not only make us capable of being adopted in him but it is our spiritual conjunction with him that gives unto us the seal and benefit of our adoption whereby we are joyned with Christ in the same mystical body here and shall be joyned with him in the same glorious body hereafter Thus may every good Christian saith with Saint Paul Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain to me to live is Christ because I am now with him in the communion of the same Mystical body to me to die is gain because I shall hereafter be with him in the communion of the same glorious body There needs no dissolution for my union with Christ in the same mystical body but only of my sinful being the dissolution of sin from my soul but for my union with Christ in the same glorious body there needs also a dissolution of my natural being a dissolution of my soul from my body I will then labour for that union with my blessed Saviour in my life which will keep me from the fear of my own dissolution at my death For I shall not make a right use of his corporal union with me unless I lay it for the ground and rise of my spiritual union with him whereby to be united with my Saviour not only in the same natural but also in the same mystical body inchoately in his Church militant consummately in his Church Triumphant And this is the way for me so to welcom the Son of God in his Nativity as much more to see and enjoy him in his immortality Amen Christ
not find So should every one of us keep the feast of our Christian Passeover cleanse our vessels from the leaven of all sin and wickedness then search the corners of our hearts to find it out then burn and consume what we have found then detest and abandon what we cannot find crying out with a hearty sorrow and repentance never to be repented of Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal 19. 12. Secret not only to others but also to my self He that so heartily repents of the sins he knows not doth much more repent of those he knows And indeed the Paschal Lamb might not be eaten without bitter herbs nor can Christ be received without sorrow and bitterness of Spirit so as to become the nourishment of our souls and those men are grosly mistaken who think they can receive him by faith alone without repentance for who dares preach Christ otherwise then he preached himself and that was by repentance So saith the Evangelist Jesus began to preach and to say Repent Mat. 4. 17. We cannot phansie but we may weep our selves into our Saviours mercy nor can we truly rely upon his righteousness by faith till we have first bewailed our own unrighteousness by repentance And indeed the strange faith that some of late have desired and devised and therefore devised because they desired it of being in Christ whiles they be in malice injustice disobedience profaneness perversness and other such like grievous sins is much like the strange woman spoken of in the Proverbs Her lips drop as a honey-comb and her mouth is sweeter then oyl but her end is bitter as wormwood Porv. 5. 3 4. for such a faith begins in honey and oyl promising salvation with much sweetness and smoothness but its end is as bitter as wormwood for it bringeth death and damnation upon the soul Sixthly and lastly The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten whole and to be eaten only by the circumcised So Christ is to be taken whole in all the Doctrines of the Christian faith That which he hath commanded is as necessary to salvation as that which he hath promised and we may not expect to inherit his promises if we neglect and disobey his commands not a bone of his natural body was broken by the Jew nor may a bone of his spiritual or of his mystical body be broken by the Christian They brake the legs of the malefactors who were not yet dead but they brake not the legs of Christ Saint John 19. so may the Magistrate break the legs and stop the proceedings of malefactors especially if they be not yet dead to their sins by a hearty repentance and amendment of life but he may not break the legs of Christ or crush any of those whom Christ hath appointed to be the supporters of Christianity Again we must remember that unless the Jew was circumcised he had no right to eat of the Paschal Lamb So we Christians may not hope to receive Christ unless we be spiritually circumcised in our ears and in our hearts in our ears to hear his voice in our hearts to obey it Else it were possible for us so to receive God the Son as to resist God the Holy Ghost for so saith Saint Stephen Act. 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost The uncircumcised in hearts and ears cannot be the receivers of Christ because they are the resisters of his Spirit because they resist the Holy Ghost SECT IV. The great vertue of this Propitiation and the great goodness wisdom justice and power of God in finding it for us and giving it to us WHere shall a good Christian look for comfort but in the Word of comfort what word of comfort like that which proceeded immediately from the Comforter And what text so comfortable in that word as that which assures us not only of God the Holy Ghost but also of God the Son to be our Assistant and Advocate to intercede for us For we may have the assistance of the Holy Ghost and yet say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when we seriously consider how often we have deserved to be forsaken But there is nothing to discomfit or dismay an offender though his offences be never so many and great if he may be sure that his Judge will be his friend to absolve and to acquit him Now we all believe that the Son of God is to be our Judge and therefore must needs be most rejoyced with that saying that assures us he will be our friend in the Judgement and that saying is recorded 1 John 2. 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous No greater friend to a poor Client that hath a bad cause then a good Advocate to plead for him unless it be a favourable and friendly Judge to absolve him And behold the Penitent sinner hath here both these joyned in one for the same Christ that is his Advocate to plead for him is also his Judge to absolve him And therefore he is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Comforter the same title which is given to the Holy Ghost John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only an Advocate but also a Comforter The Spirit of God is both the Son of God is both to the true Penitent The Spirit is our Advocate to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. And he is our Comforter to assist us in our Temptations and to stengthen us against them And so also is the Son our Advocate to make intercession for us with the Father And our Comforter in that the Father will not refuse nay more cannot resist his intercession For the same Christ who is the Advocate to plead for penitent sinners is also the propitiation for their sins to make good his own Plea as it followeth and he is the propitiation for our sins So that as he is our Advocate to undertake our cause so he is our Comforter to assist and to deliver our souls by one and the same Plea defending us against the Devil who will busily accuse us and delivering us from the fear of hell which will be ready to receive us in that he is our Advocate to plead for us before him and to prevail for us with him who alone is able to destroy both body and soul in hell So that our blessed Saviour is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both senses as it signifies an Advocate and as it signifies a Comforter and indeed in one and the same respect as he is our Mediator is he both our Advocate and our Comforter Our Advocate to plead our cause our Comforter to rescue and to free our persons Wherefore we may with reverence and without derogation to the Spirit of
the difference of opinion concerning this sacrifice such was also the difference in the ordination of those men who were appointed to offer it For the manner of ordination in the Greek Church supposed the man ordained only as a Minister to the administration of the sacrament for the Bishop that ordained him put the consecrated bread into his hand saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Take this holy thing committed to your charge and keep it till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he will call you to an account how you have disâ—osed of it This man so ordained had delivered to him the Trust and charge only of a Sacrament But the manner of ordination in the Latine Church supposeth the man ordained as a Priest to the offering of a Sacrifice for the Bishop that ordained him put the Communion plate and chalice into his hand saying Accipe potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo Missamque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis in nomine Domini c. Receive the power of offering a Sacrifice to God and of celebrating the Mass both for the quick and the dead in the name of our Lord c. And agreeable to this is the benediction of the Presbyters after this ordination in the same Church Benedictio Dei omnipotentis Patris filii spiritus Sancti descendat su er vos ut sitis benedicti in ordine sacerdotali oâ—feratis placabiles hostias pro peccatis atque offensionibus populi c. The blessing of God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost descend upon you that you may be blessed in the order of Priests and offer acceptable sacrifices for the sins and offences of the People Pontifical Rom. Venetiis editum An. 1561. This man so ordained had delivered to him the trust and charge not of a Sacrament but of a sacrifice But in the ordination of the Church of England and some other Protestant Churches the Bishop saith to him that he ordains Receive the Holy-Ghost whose sins you forgive they are forgiven whose sins you retain they are retained but be thou a faithfull dispencer of the word of God and of his holy sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost This man so ordained hath delivered unto him the trust and charge of no sacrifice but only of the Sacraments and also of the word and it were to be wished that those whom it nothing concerns would neither invade nor disturb this trust especially since it is so exactly agreeable with the Text which in all the new Testament hath not recommended to the Church the trust and charge of a Sacrifice but only of the Word and Sacraments And it can be no shame for us to confess that in the judgement of our Church the holy Eucharist is a Sacrament not a Sacrifice unless it be in a mystical sense a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving or in a figurative sense a commemoration or representation of a sacrifice but by no means a repetition of Christs corporal sacrifice since the Apostle hath expresly said concerning that We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. According to which our Church doth believe and profess in different words the very same truth saying That Christ made upon the cross by his one oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and I will ever rejoice in this belief and profession since he that hath made a full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world hath not left his father unsatisfied only for my sins CAP. IV. Christ admired in his Application SECT I. Christ in his Propitiation and Satisfaction doth not benefit us without a particular Application TRuly to know Christ is truly to know the whole Christian Faith as hath been said For truly to know Christ in his person is to know the Christian Faith in the ground or substance of it And truly to know Christ in his Propitiation Satisfaction Application is to know the Christian Faith in the power or vertue of it Accordingly Saint Paul is not content to know Christ only in his Person saying that I may know him but he will also know him in his Propitiation Satisfaction and Application saying and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 10. To know Christ in the power of his resurrection is to know him in his propitiation for he was delivered for our offences and raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. To know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings is to know him in his satisfaction whereby he slaked body for body soul for soul in our stead that he might satisfie for all the sins both of our bodies and of our souls And to know Christ so as to be made conformable to his death is to know him in his Application for we cannot apply the merit of his death till we be conformed to it by dying unto sin and rising again to newness of life for the Application of Faith doth no less require that man apply himself to God by holâ—ness of conversation then that he apply God unto himself by strength of perswasion And truly the one cannot be without the other since it is impossible for that man to lay hold on Gods promise of mercy who looks not after the conditions on which it is promised to wit a hearty repentance of his sins and an amendment of his sinful life for Gods promises of mercy are not made to all sinners but only to penitent sinners so that where is no true repentance there can be no true faith and where is true repentance there cannot be too much for if man perform his part of the Covenant of grace he may assure himself that God will perform his part nay he must assure himself so unless he will remain in the state of infidelity For a true and lively faith is a full perswasion of the heart grounded upon the promises of God that whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered for the salvation of man he hath done and suffered for me as well as for others And I must never be satisfied with my self nor think I am in a good state or condition till I have gotten such a faith as will give me such a perswasion For the satisfaction of Christ in general will afford me but little comfort without the application thereof in particular to mine own soul Wherefore my labour must be to put my self in such a condition that though I cannot but think my self unworthy of the invaluable blessing of this satisfaction yet I may not think much less make my self uncapable of it SECT II. The ground of that application iâ— Christs threefold conjunction with us in his person in his nature and in his office from which proceedeth the marriage of the soul with Christ I
Do not find any desert in man that entitled him to a property in the creature but sure none can be found to entitle him to have a property in the Creator Yet he that saith unto his Saviour as Saint Thomas did My God and my Lord seems to claim a property in him For how can a man assume or apply that unto himself in which he hath no property Wherefore it is necessary that we examine how Christ is made ours that so we may see the ground both of our property and of this application I say then that Christ is ours in a threefold respect because of a threefold conjunction of Christ with us in his nature in his person and in his office First Christ is ours in his nature by a real conjunction having taken our nature upon him and in that respect he is ours as we are men and he hath bestowed on all mankind a greater capacity of his Grace then otherwise they would have had by reason of their corrupt nature for which cause the Evangelical Promises which God maketh to man in Christ are universal as excluding none because Christ hath taken the nature of all but yet conditional as including only those who repent and believe the Gospel for no others make a right use or attain the end of Christs Merits and Mercies Secondly Christ is ours in his person by a voluntary conjunction having taken our sin upon him as our surety or pledge for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. 4. And in that respect he is ours as we are Christians and hath bestowed on us the knowledge of his grace though very many of us by our own infidelity and impenitency make but a little and a bad use of that knowledge Thirdly Christ is ours in his office by a mystical conjunction such as is between a King and his Subjects both making but one mystical body and in that respect Christ is ours only as we are good Christians and hath bestowed on us the communion or rather the communication of his grace incorporating nay more inspiriting us as his members into himself And this is the happiest conjunction that we can have with Christ whiles we live here on earth To be one with him in the same mystical body or in the same actual communion not only external of his nature or of his person as many are that are little benefited thereby but also to be one with him in the same actual internal Communion of his grace to the inestimable benefit of our souls which are first sanctified and at last saved by this communicating with Christ For all the priviledges and blessings of his Regal of his Prophetical of his Sacerdotal function of his power as King of his instruction as Prophet of his sacrifice or intercession as Priest are made ours by this blessed conjunction according to that comfortable assertion of the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All are yours and ye are Christs for the words are not spoken consequutive sed causaliter not by way of consequence but by way of causality and accordingly import this sense All are therefore yours because ye are Christs Ye are Christs and Christ is yours and he being All in All in and through him All is yours but without him All is nothing and you are worse then nothing O then let me so rejoyce for his coming to me in the body as much more to desire and long for his coming to me in the soul That as the Lord of all is joyned with me in one flesh so I may be joyned with him in one Spirit that I may dwell in him and he may dwell in me for ever There is a mutual In-being betwixt Christ and every good Christian saith Saint Bernard even as betwixt Christ and God As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and therefore Father and Son make but one essentially So Christ is in the good Christian and the good Christian is in Christ and therefore Christ and the good Christian make but one mystically If either the Father were not in the Son or the Son were not in the Father they could not be perfectly one by essential Unity And if either Christ be not in the Christian or the Christian be not in Christ they cannot be one by mystical Unity Sic igitur Anima cui adherere Deo bonum est non ante se existimet ipsi perfecte unitam nisi quum illum in se se in illo manentem persenserit Bern. Serm. 71. super Cant. Therefore let not the soul which is happy only through her union with Christ think her self perfectly united unto him till she perceive that he so dwelleth and abideth in her as that she also dwelleth and abideth in him and desireth so to dwell and abide for ever O happy soul that is thus wedded to her Saviour by a spiritual marriage for man and wife are not more nearly and more indissolubly joyned together by being one flesh then Christ and the Christian soul by being one Spirit Vere Spiritualis sanctique connubii contractus est iste Parum dixi contractus complexus est Complexus plane ubi idem velle nolle idem unum facit spiritum â— duobus This is more then a spiritual contract it is a compleat marriage when the same will being in two persons shall make them both but one Spirit So the same Saint Bernard and so likewise saith Saint Paul He that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6 17. Then let me be joyned to him that I may be one spirit with him and that my spirit may be his rather then mine own For mine own spirit will be death to me because of sin but his spirit will be life to me because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. In my self I can see nothing but sin and death In my Saviour I see both righteousness and life righteousness to deliver me from sin and life to deliver me from death Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Isa 61. 10. A fit Epithalamium to celebrate this spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian wherein though the Angels be ready to make up the Chorus yet the devout soul her self alone sings the song There is joy in them but much more in us for this marriage because we have such a wedding garment bestowed on us as expells the fear both of a Divorce and of a Dissolution the first of which may be the second of which must be in all other marriages They may be under a divorce by sin they must be under a dissolution by death But the marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian if it be once indeed truly consummated is under neither for the blessed Bridegroom of souls bestows both righteousness and salvation upon all those who
are espoused unto him Such a righteousness as will keep off sin from causing a Divorce He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness such a salvation as will keep off death from causing a dissolution in their marriage He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for neither shall my sins disturb this joy since I am covered with his righteousness nor shall my death diminish it since I am cloathed with his salvation To him be glory for this righteousness and for this salvation for evermore Amen Christ adored in his Resurrection CAP. I. That Christ is to be adored chiefly in his Resurrection SECT I. The resurrection of Christ the grand cause of joy to Christià ns but strongly opposed by the Jews whose Commentaries are not to be followed on those texts which concern our Saviour Christ though even those texts have not been corrupted by them WHat is the sorrow of the soul for sin we may partly see by every true penitent who cannot but say for his sins as our Saviour once said for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to the death Mat. 26. 38. But what is the sorrow of the soul for death the wages of sin God make us such true penitents that we may never see for if we are so unfit by reason of our impatience and so unable by râ—â—son of our infirmity to pass over the momentary sorâ—oâ—â— of the earth it must needs fill our souls with astonishment and confusion but once seriously to think of the sorrows the everlasting sorrows of hell Wherefore most welcom to the Christian soul is that joy which delivers it from this sorrow and that is the joy of Christs resurrection whereby we have been delivered from the sting and mischief of the temporal from the pangs horrours of the eternal death Accordingly it hath been observed by Christian Chronologers that our blessed Saviour did rise from the dead on that very same day of the year on which Moses and the children of Israel had almost two thousand years before passed safely through the red Sea And indeed as their deliverance by Moses from the Egyptians was a type of our deliverance by Christ from our spiritual bondage so their joy may well be in our hearts and their Song in our mouths only heightned by a greater measure of thankfulness and of thanksgiving for as much as ours hath of the two been infinitely the greater deliverance Therefore let me say as they did but let me say it with a more thankfull heart and with a more cheerfull voice for greater is my duty though lesser is my ability I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously Exod. 15. 1. Never was so glorious a triumph as this which triumphed over the grave that devours all this worlds triumphs nay over Hell which makes the bare memory of them odious and detestable either that they were gained unjustly or used immoderately or abused intemperately The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my Salvation ver 2. What can my soul say more what should it say less for being delivered from the pangs and horrours of the temporal and eternal death but that the Lord is my Song for being my strength to rescue and to redeem me much more for being my salvation to receive me and to crown me Again Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders ver 11. Let me but think of the Son of God dying for my sins and rising from the dead to make me righteous and I must needs say he was glorious in holiness and ought to be fearfull in praises for doing such wonders as to bring glory out of shame holiness out of Sin and life out of death Lastly Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation ver 13. All those Saints that did rise from the dead when our Saviour Christ arose to go along with him into heaven and all those Saints that shall rise hereafter by vertue of his resurrection to follow him thither can say no more then this to express their joy and thankfulness Thou hast led us forth from the grave thou hast redeemed us from death thou hast guided us in thy strength to thy holy habitation there to see and bless and enjoy thee for ever So that those late Hebr. Criticks are too much in love with the glosses of the Jews who oppose them against the Judgement of the whole Catholick Church that they may enervate one of the soundest proofs of the Resurrection that is to be found in all the Old Testament And that proof is Job 19. 25 26 27. I know that my redeemer liveth and that I shall rise out of the earth at the last day and shall be covered again with my skin and shall see God in my flesh Yea and my self shall behold him not with other but with these same eyes Words so expresly spoken of the resurrection that the Church hath thought fit to use them at the burial of the dead as the chiefest comfort and consolation against death yet upon these words thus saith the Learned Mercer Nostri ferè omnes tam veteres quà m recentiores hunc versiculum cum duobus sequentibus ad resurrectionem referunt sâ—d ego cum Hebraeis aliter accipio Quod si de resurrectione futura hic loqueretur Job non erant haud dubie id praetermissuri Hebraei qui ipsi resurrectionem credunt At ne unum quidem ex sex aut septem Hebraeorum commentariis invenies qui eò referat Almost all Christian writers ancient and modern do expound these three verses of the Resurrection but I with the Jews do expound them otherwise For if Job had here spoken of the resurrection to come doubtless the Hebrew doctors would not have pretermitted it in their Commentaries since they also believed this Doctrine but in six or seven of their Expositors there is not one that expounds these words of the resurrection This reason is unsound in it self and therefore unsatisfactory in its Proof For the Jewish expositors labour after nothing more then not to see Christ in the Old Testament And their Doctors knowing that the Christians did believe and profess the Resurrection of the dead by vertue of Christs resurrection had rather leave the doctrine of the resurrection out of their glosses then allow it to be by vertue of our blessed Saviour whom their fathers had crucified and whom themselves not only hated but also accursed and blasphemed every day Thus Saint Mathew tells us plainly that the Jews gave the Souldiers mony to say that our Saviours disciples came by night and stole him away And they that were so willing to put a lye in other mens mouths were as
enim est Constantini M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum hebdomadem post Pascha sed antecedentem excipit ab opere faciendo sed de posteriore hebdomade usus tantum obtinuit The sum of all is this Because Easter weeke was the first weeke in the year and the dayes of that week were all accounted and kept holy and accordingly were thus computed the first second third fourths fifth holy day Hence it is that the same computation still hold of the days in the other weeks throughout the whole year that instead of the first second third fourth and fifth day it is said the first second third fourth and fifth holy-day For the Emperour Constantine the great made a Law that all Easter week and the week before it should be kept as one Holy-day And though in our age this Law holds only of Easter week yet we have some footsteps of that observation still in the week before it for our Church appoints Epistles and Gospels for every day of the week before Easter and most Churches beyond the seas still call it the holy week and some make it so For which Religious practice it is not to be doubted but the Church of Christ hath warrant enough from that Text Mark 14. 8. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my body for the burying or rather to anoint her self for my body to prepare her self for to receive the Holy Eucharist and to celebrate the Resurrection Wherefore it is evident that in the judgement of the first and best Christians Easter day was a greater Sunday then any other all the year after it even as the Sabboth of the Passover was in the Jews account a greater Sabboth then any other of all the year nor was this judgement any way superstitious but truely Religious since we find it authorized by the Text saying for that Sabboth day was an high day John 19. 32. as if he had said that Sabboth day was higher then any other Sabbath because the Passover was joyned with it I will not then quarrel with the Church for preferring one Sunday before another since she observeth them all as holy to the same Lord there was the Holy of Holyes in the Sanctuary without any disparagement to the rest of the Temple The Paschal Sabbath was a high day and yet the other Sabbaths not put down the lower By taking off the opinion of holiness I see much profaness and irreligion in all respects which makes me conclude that though the Church should proclaim Holy Holy Holy never so much before the place and time of Gods worship yet all would be little enough to beget the love and practice of holiness in the worshippers SECT VI. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection and hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duâ—y which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our Redemption by Christ and is the principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords Day then the Sabbath WE may not pass by that memorable Canon in the Council of Trullo cap. 66. which hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Holy Festival of the Resurrection of Christ our God untill the New Lords Day all true believers ought to go to Church and there uncessantly praise God in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs T is worth our notice that the Fathers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holden in the Emperours Pallace called Easter day it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection day but the Sunday after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Lords day not simply the Lords Day of its self or by its own virtue but as it was a repetition or renovation of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the day of our Lords Resurrection For to say it was called the New Lords Day because of the renewing by Baptism which antiently was administred at that time is not satisfactory for besides that other Sundays must have been called New as well as that upon the same account to wit those of Easter and Pentecost it is manifest that Baptism cannot justly cause any Sunday to be called the Lords day and therefore surely not the New Lords day Whence it follows that if this Sunday was called the New Lords Day as renewing the day of our Lords Resurrection this and all other Sundayes do belong unto the Lord chiefly upon this account that they are memorials of his Resurrection So that though the Law of the Sabbath as well as of other things came by Moses yet the grace and truth of it came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. And for this reason was the Sabbath translated from its own day to our Lords Day that the Law of Moses might give place to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and happily for that cause amongst others hath the Church appointed some annual memorials of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ to be solemnized as so many Sabbaths least we should think that in this weekly memorial she did rather follow the Law given by Moses then the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ And doubtless when we have said all that we can there can be no entire keeping of a Sabbath from Moses but only from Christ because in him alone the soul may seek for rest and in him alone is sure to find it For as the souls trouble is from sin so her rest is from the expiation and forgiveness of sins Therefore as her trouble is from her self so her rest is from her Saviour Saint Paul hath taught us both together in his Sermon and our own Church in her Anthymn of the Resurrection For seeing that by man came death by man also commeth the Resurrection of the dead for as by Adam all men do dye so by Christ all men shall be restored to life By man came death by Adam all men do die There 's the souls trouble from her sin for the wages of sin is death By man commeth the Resurrection of the dead by Christ all men shall be restored to life there 's the souls rest or Sabbath from her Saviour for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we will needs gainsay the Judgement of our own Church to set up the Sabbath instead of the Lords day yet we may not gainsay the Doctrine of Saint Paul which requires us to set up the Lords day instead of the Sabbath so that if we will needs borrow the name from Moses yet we can have the thing it self only from Christ for it is not Moses but Christ which can give the
and necessary in regard of the Jews to keep them in obedience and from idolatry as circumcision sacrificing of beasts the distinction of meats and the rigorous observation of the Sabbath But the Christian Religion requires nothing of us save what is usefull and necessary in it self though it were not commanded as it requires us not to circumcise the foresking of our flesh but of our hearts not to keep a Sabbath by the external rest of the body ceasing from motion but by the internal rest of the soul ceasing from sin and taking its repose in God Not to offer the blood of bullocks but to be ready to offer our own blood for Gods glory not to abstain from certain kinds of meats but to use them all with sobriety for the chastisement of the body and sometimes to use none at all for the advantage of the soul And whereas other Religions have too much of Mammon in them to teach men to forsake their estates ours teacheth us to forsake our selves nor if I had the tongue of men and Angels were I able to express the incomparable purity of that faith whereby we are taught to hope in God not only above hope but also against it in the midst of death to hope for life in the extremity of Justice to hope for mercy and so wholly to trust God with our souls as not to hope for salvation but only to glorifie him thereby desiring his glory equally with our own eternal bliss or rather above it Nor if I had a Seraphins quill were I able to delineate the purity of that worship which teacheth us to pray for nothing but in relation to the honour and with subordination to the will of God and to rest secure in the deniall of temporal blessings whiles we rely upon the promises of those which are eternal This being such a purity as is above our Praise and yet required to come under our Practice plainly sheweth that our Religion is too much above our selves either to proceed from our own understanding or to depend upon our own wills and consequently that God alone was the first founder and is still the Master-builder and defender of it Nor doth our Christian Religion teach us this admirable purity and holiness only in conversing with our God but also in conversing with our selves not only in our duty towards God but also in our duty towards our neighbour Do but consider the ordinary offices of humanity and the Christian Religion will shew you there is some thing of Divinity in those offices for that teacheth you to relieve your brother not only as a member of your own body having the same flesh and blood with your self which is according to the office of humanity but also to relieve him as a member of your Saviours body as a member of God the Son as a temple of God the Holy-Ghost which adds something of divinity to that office Humanitas quà m sit proprium hominis ipsum nomen indicat shew the offices of Humanity to another man for your own sake because you are a man unless you would be accounted a beast was a forcible argument for men to be curteous and friendly one to another before Christ came in the flesh But now that argument must be strained to a higher pitch and we must say shew the offices of humanity to another man for the Son of Gods sake because you are a Christian unless you would be accounted not a beast but a devil So undeniable is the argument of the Christian Religion for the practise of Charity So inexcusable are Christians above other men for the practice of uncharitableness For surely we cannot deny but this doctrine of doing good to all and hurt to none for Christs sake is nowhere to be found but among Christians though their practise in this yron age of the hard-hearted world hath much disagreed from this doctrine As for the Turks religion it was born in the camp smells of the camp lives by the camp it was brought in by the sword savours of the sword is preserved and propagated by the Sword And yet in this respect shame it is to say it but the shame is theirs of whom it may be truly said many Christians are of late turned Turks So that the black-mouthed calumnie of Calvino-Turcismus is in this sense a Truth and the retaliation of that by Papismo-Turcismus is in this sense not to be thought a calumnie for both Protestants and Papists as much as they have of cutting of purses and cutting of throats in their late inhumane rapines and butcheries so much they have of Turcism not of Christianity For that hath said If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12. 20. That is strive to make thine enemy thy friend by overcoming evil with good but in no case to make thy friend and much less thy God thine enemy by overcoming good with evil And indeed this mild voice is only the voice of the Christian religion For even the Jew who came neerest to God and his goodness did nevertheless say An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and thou shalt love thy neighbour but hate thine enemy T is only the Christians hath learned this lesson from the mouth of their master Love your enemies blâ—ss them that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 42. As much then as love is above hatred blessing above cursing forgiving above reviling relieving above revenging and praying above persecuting or in one word heaven above hell so much is the Christians Religion above all other religions in the offices of humanity or in the conversation of man with man Again look upon the conversation of man with woman and you shall find the Christian is taught and the good Christian doth practice a greater chastity in his marriage then other men look after in their virginity He knows he is bound to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God 1 Thes 4. 1. and therefore will take heed of making his remedy his disease of adding oyle to the fire of provoking that lust of concupiscence which he should banish and expel for what he retains of lust that he loses of sanctification and honour in his body and of the knowledge of God in his soul This chast consideration being grounded in the hearts of good Christians will either keep them innocent or make them penitent whereas other men that know not this Doctrine or regard it not do let loose the rains of their concupiscence and are further from chastity in their virginity then these men are in their marriage For the one follow the Apostles advice It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. The other
doth not love those who do not love him and they do not love him who do not keep his commandments This is such a Doctrine as our Saviour did not think he could teach too much and therefore sure we cannot learn enough If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. and ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. Love is the inchoation of friendship and that is not shewed without some obedience If ye love me keep my Commandments But friendship is the consummation of love and that is not shewed without an universal obedience Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you he that will be thus universally obedient must be sure to interpret all Christs commands after the true rules of Logical supposition that an universal Affirmative must hold in every particular as thou shalt love thy neigbbour as thy self must reach to all mankind and to all offices of love thou shalt honour thy father must reach to all our governours and to all offices of reverence and honour We may not leave out any one particular either of the subject or of the predicate but we shall make a false supposition in Logick and a false interpretation in Divinity And so on the other side that an universal negative must hold in no one particular as do no wrong bindeth us to our good behaviour not only in our wordâ— and deeds but also in our very thoughts and that in regard of all men whatsoever and much more in regard of those to whom we have been obliged either for natural or civil or spiritual benefits So that if I have but an uncharitable thought of any man living I do him wrong but I do my self more wrong in sinning against this Commandment Wherefore though other men be never so confident of their own innocency yet will I weigh my self in this ballance for this is the ballance of the sanctuary and I am sure God will one day weigh me in it that seeing I have many wayes been a delinquent for want of obedience I may not accumulate my delinquencies by want of repentance For this I cannot but see that if Zaccheus had not at last been as willing to give and to restore as he was at first to take away he would not easily have gotten that comfortable saying from our Saviours own lips to which all the comforts of this world are comfortless This day is salvation come to this house for so much as he also is the son of Abraham Luke 19. 9. And let not my profit be the impediment of my piety for what is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Mat. 16. 26. I know that my Saviour hath given his blood in exchange for my soul that he might redeem it from death and damnation and therefore as I will love my soul above my estate because it was redeemed at so great a price so I will love my Saviour above my soul because he paid that price for my redemption to make me of an enemy a servant of a servant a friend that I might not only be in his love but also abide in it Therefore I will offer my soul to him to do whatsoever he commandeth me for I cannot hope to be confirmed in his love as his friend unless I be desirous to offer unto him this universal obedience or at least be sorry that I have not offered or cannor offer it A little of this affection will more strengthen my faith in Christ then my greatest perswasion can strengthen it And I shall more truly know my Saviour by devoting my will then my understanding to him by obeying his law then by studying it Therefore I will pray the Lord to make me increase and abound in love to the end he may establish my heart unblameable in holiness 1 Thes 3. 12 13. For himself hath told me If any man will do his will he shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of God John 7. 17. That is he and he only shall have an experimental knowledge of Religion that it will bring him to God who labours to do the will of God such a man shall know that Christ is the way the truth and the life and that the Christian Religion is the way to Christ not only by a speculative knowledge which swims in his brain and may be ejected thence by arguments of Sophistry but also by an effective knowledge which sinks into his heart and which he will keep as carefully and as faithfully as he will keep his heart Thus to know Christ is truly to have him manifested in our souls and this manifestation is not gotten so much by speculation as by practice not so much by knowing Gods will as by doing it For it is undeniable by Saint Pauls argument Gal. 3. 1. That though Jesus Christ were evidently set forth crucified among the Galatians yet it was before their eyes only not in their hearts whilst they obeyed not the truth And that the Jews had not known Christ though he had stretched out his hands unto them all the day long because they were still a disobedient and a gainsaying people Rom. 10. 20 21. And Saint John saith expresly hereby we do know that we do know him if we keep his Commandments 1 John 2. 3. Telling us of a twofold knowledge of God and of Christ the one inefficacious to salvation such as hypocrites may have who know God but glorifie him not as God Rom. 1. 21. or who profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. The other is a saving knowledge of God and of Christ such as only good Christians can have who keep his Commandments for this knowledge is joyned with obedience and that is the cheif ground of its assurance hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments A man may have some evidence of faith without obedience but he cannot have the assurance of faith without it Whence we may gather that the true knowledge of God is not that which enables a man to talk sublimely of his essence or to talk confidently of his secrets but that which knows him in his precepts and in his promises seriously obeying the one no less then truly relying on the other And only he that thus knows God knows him truly to salvation because he only knows him truly in his Saviour and only he so knows God as to love him because only he knows him in the Son of his love Thirdly it may be demanded whether the Jews before the comming of Christ had the same love of God that we Christians now have since they seem not to have had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ I answer yes they had the same love of God for they had the same knowledge or manifestation of Christ
prayers for it was the curse of Judas Let his prayer be turned into sin and I dare not venter to bring that curse upon my self For I that now ask pardon for the sins of my prayers if I make my prayers more sinful then my infirmities do make them for me what shall I have left whereby to ask pardon for the sinfulness of my sins I will therefore ever give God humble and hearty thanks that he hath caused me to be educated in a Church which hath taught me to make my addresses to him only in and by his Son and I wil never cease so to make my addresses to him in behalf of that distressed and oppressed Church For he that hath given us the parable of the importunate widow to this end that we should alwaies pray and not faint will certainly hear our prayers and the prayers of his Church that is now a widow and therefore brought to the state of widow-hood and desolation because we her sons have hitherto been so slothful and sluggish in our prayers suffering them infinitely to out-strip us in the practise who came far short of us in the purity of Devotion and not shewing that zeal towards the eternal Son of God which others have shewed and do still shew towards their petty Deities This our abominable neglect or rather contempt of God hath made him jealous and his jealousie hath made him for a while cast us off but we hope he will not cast us off for ever even for his Truths sake for his mercies sake for his names sake yea though we have slighted his Truth abused his mercy and blasphemed his most Holy name by throwing away our Prayers with as much fury as if Truth had been a lye Invocation had Superstition and Piety had been Idolatry yet we will still hope that he will not cast us away for ever for his Sons sake because in him he is well pleased though with us he be most justly displeased For in him alone in his merits in his righteousness in his intercession have we called and do call for grace and mercy and therefore cannot doubt but in him and for his sake we shall be heard at last and relieved and shall see the salvation of our God For the unrighteous Judge himself could say Though I fear not God nor regard man yet because this widow troubleth me I will avenge her least by her continual coming she weary me Much more shall the righteous Judge say so Yea O Lord we know that thou fearest not thine enemies but yet regardest thy servants and therefore we thy most unworthy servants will never leave troubling thee with our continual addresses nor wearying thee with our daily prayers till thou arise and maintain thine own cause and either avenge our injuries or vindicate our innocency If our Church was once thy Spouse she is now thy widow O let not her nor us for her cry any longer in vain to thee But we beseech thee to avenge her of all her enemies not by confounding but by converting them For this will be a vengeance worthy of thy Justice and of thy Mercy both together when thou shalt indeed destroy the sin but yet save the sinners However we cannot but profess our selves so well assured of the truth of our Religion whiles we adore and worship thee only in thy beloved Son that though all the world discountenance yet we dare not discontinue much less forsake it And though for our many and grievous sins thou still suffer us to be eaten up like sheep and sellest thy people for nought and makest us to be rebuked of our neighbours and to be laughed to scorn and had in derision of them that are round about us yet we will not forget thee nor behave our selves frowardly much less falsly in thy Covenant nor suffer our hearts to be turned nor our steps to decline from thy way Yea though thou still more and more smite us into the place of Dragons creatures that are both mischievous and venemous and cover us not only with the shadow but even with the body of death yet we will ever resolve and we beseech thee to confirm and consummate our resolution not to forget the name of our God nor to stretch out or hold up our hands to any strang God For thou hast told us This is life eternal that we might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17. 3. Lord we desire so to know thee as to love thee so to love thee as to worship thee so to worship thee as to glorifie thee so to glorifie thee in this world as to be glorified by thee in the world to come Thou hast commanded us to forsake all to follow thee Lord make us readily to obey this command that we may so follow thee as at last to come to thee to be with thee and to abide in thee for ever For those who saw thy Son but in tpyes and figures have taught us this lesson of sincerity and of constancy not to be careful to answer any of our adversaries in this matter but readily and chearfully to say Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us and he will in his good time deliver us But if not be it known unto all the world that we will not worship the images which our Fathers have set up nor the imaginations which our children are now setting up for our God is too spiritual to be worshipped with images and too substantial to be worshipped with imaginations He is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Joh. 4. 24. His worship hath too much of Spirit to consist in images and too much of Truth to consist in imaginations Wherefore we knowing that our worship of God is both in Spirit and in Truth are sorry to see that any should oppose it for it is prodigious as well as odious for any Christian to oppose the glory of Christ but will not give them that occasion of joy to see that their opposition should make us forsake it For he that hath said Seek ye after God and your soul shall live Psal 69. 33. hath taught us to say in our Doctrine What shall we do with a Religion that seeks after any but God since our soul cannot live in any but in him and much more hath he taught us to say in our devotion Lord we make our prayer unto thee in an acceptable time Hear us O God in the multitude of thy mercies even in the truth of thy salvation Psalm 69. which is a prayer in times of persecution for the cause of Religion For as long as we make our prayers only to thee O Lord we are sure that we do pray in the truth of our Religion and therefore may not doubt but thou wilt at length hear our prayers in the truth of thy salvation and that for our blessed Saviours sake to whom with the Father and
so that we should then see the thoughts of one anothers hearts looking through one anothers breasts were there no other obstacle to hinder us but only the grosness of the flesh according to that position of the Angelical Doctor Cogitatio unius hominis non cognoscitur ab â—alio propter duplex impedimentum sc propter grossitiem corporis propter voluntatem claudentem sua secreta primum obstaculum tolletur in resurrectione nec est in angelis sed secundum impedimentum remanebit post resurrectionem est modò in angelis 1. p. qu. 57. art 4. ad 1. There are now two impediments of knowing mans thoughts one from his body another from his will The first shall be quite taken away in the resurrection and then men shall be like Angels have nothing to keep their thoughts secret but only their own wills of not revealing them Thirdly Our bodies after the Resurrection shall be nimble active and powerful without any weakness For as the soul will move wholly with God so the body will move wholly with the soul and as there will be no impotency in the soul to hinder it from following God so there will be no impotency in the body to keep it from following the motions of the soul Fourthly and lastly they shall also be spiritual and subtle without any sluggishness Now I have almost a carnal soul but then I shall have a spiritual body Now I have a gross spirit but then I shall have a subtle and active flesh why should I not long for that minute which will take away my weakness and sluggishness and cloath me with power and activity in immortal glory So we see that this first miracle the conquest over earth in our Saviours natural body shall in due time be accomplished also in his mystical body For we men shall be partakers of it after the last Resurrection from the death of the body nay we are already in some sort partakers of it after the first Resurrection from the death of sin For as many as are truly regenerated have already even in their flesh in some weak degree this incorruption this glory this activity this spirituality They are not subject to so much corruption as formerly in their conversation for that is reformed nor to so much grosness of heart for that is refined and moves towards heaven nor to so much weakness for they are able nor to so much dulness and sluggishness for they are willing through the grace of God to run the way of his commandments A blessed miracle this to be considered but much more to be enjoyed the first miracle in our Saviours Ascention the conquest over earth in his body And yet we have Another miracle The conquest over heaven in his soul in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was received up Heaven it self as it were stooping down to carry and to receive him up Christ had conquered heaven in his humiliation by the fervency of his prayer making an Angel Minister unto him Luk. 22. 43. So that t is no wonder if he conquered heaven in his exaltation making a bright cloud to minister unto him For though his glorified body needed no fiery charet as Eliahs did because he ascended by his own power into heaven yet he was received by a cloud out of his Apostles sight to shew that even heaven it self was ready to minister to his Ascention This ministerial assistance of the creature not derogating from the power but proclaiming the goodness of the creator according to that determination of the school Non propter defectum suae virtutis sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis ut dignitatem causalitatis etiam creaturis communicet God makes use of his creatures in many things not for the defect of his power but for the abundance of his goodness that he may communicate to them the honour of doing good one unto another whiles he himself is the only true Efficient cause of doing good to all But here the honour was so much the greater by how much the need was the less for though the creatures may one need another yet the Creator himself hath need of none and our Saviour in making use of this cloud did only shew unto us that he could have commanded heaven it self if he had so pleased to receive him up as well as to receive him in Thus did the kingdom of heaven first suffer violence from Christ himself and now from every good Christian Mat. 11. 12. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence the violent take it by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus not by contentious wranglings and disputes but by the constancy of an upright life and by uncessant prayers do we get the conquest over heaven many men do now mistake this violence whiles they seek to invade the kingdom of Grace using the sword of the flesh not of the Spirit to set up religion forcing other mens faith and consciences but neglecting their own whereas the violence should indeed be offered to the kingdom of glory every man should now invade that by the strength of his Faith since Christ hath opened it to all believers For nothing is or can be a good Christians treasure but only Christ not to be kept from him by the most watchfull Sentinel not to be taken from him by the most merciless plunderer or the most deceitfull sequestrator and therefoe where his only treasure is there will his heart be also even at the right hand of God This makes him alwayes pressing into the wounds of Christ who sitteth there for in his wounds there is a place to hide his soul from Vengeance and there is blood to wash his soul from sin This is indeed the violence of faith but this violence is more safe in affection then in perswasion for our affection may without doubt carry us up to heaven after our blessed Saviour but our perswasion cannot Therefore a faith which is strong in perswasion and not in affection is but as a dream which soon vanisheth and the image of Christ which is imprinted in us by such a faith cannot but vanish with it So dangerous a thing is it to put asunder those two which God hath joined together in A true and lively faith Perswasion and affection Israel himself could not so prevail with God though he had his name of Israel from prevailing with God T is true he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me there 's the strength of his faith in its perswasion But t is as true that he wept and made Supplications Hosea 12. 4. there 's the strength of his faith in its affection T was both together made him Israel and not the one without the other Thus is the true strength of faith set down by the Prophet David Psal 73. 24. It is good for me to hold me fast by God to put my trust in the Lord God there
all will-worship in his service though proceeding out of never so good intentions because it is without and therefore against his Commission And if it were an act of profanation and provocation to uphold his Ark without his leave when it was shaken what is it to help shake it or rather to throw it down I pray God speedily make such men to see how much they have out-gone Vzzah in their sin and therefore cannot come short of him in their punishment For he that struck Vzzah with a corporal can strike them with a spiritual death and except they repent will undoubtedly so strike them unless it may be feared he hath already so stricken them because they have not repented To affront Christ in his Priest-hood whereby he reconciled man to God is the ready way to lose the benefit of that reconciliation He will not have his Priestly office invaded by Angels much less will he have it invaded by men He will not let Angels preach his Gospel least their preaching should beget uncertainties whiles the Devils might come and preach among them And much less will he have men that are not called of God to preach his Gospel because their preaching can beget nothing but Impieties whiles the Devils may come and preach in them He will have no other witnesses of his truth but such as are of his own choice For thus he declared his own will and hath never since reversed that declaration Acts 10. 40 41. Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God He would then have his choice and select witnesses and would not entrust his Sacred Mysteries with all in common least they should be neglected of all But he chose such men for his witnesses as should rather lay down their lives then the profession of the Christian Faith And we cannot reasonably deny but that he still hath his choice witnesses whom he hath entrusted with his truth whom he hath enabled to discharge that trust whom he will call to a strict account for not discharging it so that we must say God is still pleased to shew his Son openly as he did then not to all the people but only to some chosen witnesses And he will have the people still to depend upon those witnesses to be instructed and informed in the Sacred truths concerning his Son or in the mysteries of the Christian Religion And the gadding humour which now possesseth the people to run from Gods witnesses is the ready way for them to fall into all kinds of false Doctrine and heresie and that will in a short time bring them to hardness of heart and contempt of Gods word and commandments especially since they are not now taught to pray against it but rather to expell and revile such heavenly prayers And thus we plainly see that the more Christs Ministers have of late been hindred from being the witnesses of his saving Truth the more they have been forced to be the witnesses of this sad Truth even of the encreasing of Heresies and hardnesses in his people And though they may be denyed to be Christs witnesses to the people for their conversion yet they cannot be denyed to be his witnesses against the people for their condemnation Jesu God what an infinite misery is it for thy Ministers to be such witnesses and yet infinitely more miserable are thy people in that thy Ministers must bear thee such witness Surely when thou didst first say And ye shall be witnesses unto me unto the uttermost parts of the earth Acts 1. 8. thou didst intend a succession of witnesses whereby the uttermost parts of the earth should come to hear of thee and that no sort of men should stop their mouthes from testifying or witnessing concerning thee nor stop their own ears against their testimony And doubtless Saint Peter advising the Elders to feed the flock of God under so many introductive perswasions That he was also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed 1 Pet. 5. 1. did use that strain which is called by Rhetoritians Titulus argumentosus a title that hath as many arguments as words for an Elder is fit for the office of looking to others and may not neglect his office a witness of Christs sufferings may not shrink from his testimony unless he will betray his trust And a partaker of Christs glory may not renege that blessed Communion unless he will betray his own soul T is true that his first witnesses forsook him and fled Mar. 14. 50. and one of them also denyed him yet after his resurrection he neither upbraids the one nor the other as if they had been scandalous Ministers but pitties their infirmities and encourages and confirms them in their Ministry They had parted with him before his death but would not part with him again after his resurrection till he was taken away from them For they found it sadness enough unto their souls that they had forsook him once and durst not so much as go out of his sight for fear they should be tempted to forsake him again Good God what a deep sadness would possess if not over-whelm our guilty consciences should we but seriously consider how often we have out of meer peevishness forsaken our blessed Saviour Running away from him in his Nativity Passion Resurrection for we look upon Sunday more as the Sabbath then as the Lords day and Ascention as if either these Festivals did not invite us to converse with Christ or conversing with Christ were not the best platform and exactest practise of Christianity Then all the Disciples forsook him and fled saith Saint Matthew Mat. 26. 56. Then that is when they were possessed with carnal fear but we forsake him meerly out of spiritual pride and presumption and we forsake him in his Authority in his Church and in his Ordinances as if we needed no good examples to move us no instructions to inform us no directions to guide us no duties to sanctifie us no affections to inflame us God grant that we come not at last to think that we need not no Word to govern us and no Christ to save us Then the Disciples forsook him and fled In this we can be as good Disciples as the best in forsaking our blessed Saviour and in flying from him but not so in returning and in cleaving unto him again Alfonsus is so bold as to say that during the time of our blessed Saviours Passion till his Resurrection true faith remained only in the blessed Virgin And this seems not to have been his private opinion for the Missale ad usum Sarum gives this for the main reason why chiefly on Saturday or the seventh day of the week there called the Sabbath day as indeed in all other antient Missals or Liturgies the office made in honour of the Virgin Mary is appointed to be said Quia
yet he will not forsake us for ever The Psalmist that asks the question Will the Lord absent himself for ever and will he be no more intreated Is his mercy clean gone for ever and is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore Hath God forgotten to be gracious and will he shut up his loving kindness in displeasure Answers it negatively in that he checks himself for asking it saying It is mine own infirmity Psalm 77. 8 9 10. And agreeable to this Doctrine is that distinction of the Schools desertio explorationis Poenae There is a twofold spiritual desertion a Desertion of tryal and of punishment by the first God may and often doth withdraw his presence from his best servants to prove them but not by the second to punish them taking punishment properly not as the chastisement of a loving Father but as the vengeance of an angry Judge Thus saith the Evangelist Jesus having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end John 13. 1. If he had not loved them he would never have come to them and loving them to the end how shall he depart from them And lest we should think this peculiarly spoken of the Apostles contrary to that rule of Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed where we may plainly see that the Scripture though it often is but particular in the occasion yet is alwayes universal in the instruction I say lest we should think this occasionally spoken of the Apostles Saint Paul saith it also Doctrinally of all others whom God hath been pleased to call to his communion Who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 8. And he gives the reason of his Doctrine in the next verse God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord as if he had said he hath converted you and he will confirm you not for a while but unto the end and the reason is because he is faithful He hath called you to the fellowship or the communion of his Son Jesus Christ and he will keep and confirm you in it unto the end He forsakes not the fellowship which himself hath ordained for he is faithful He hath ordained that you should have fellowship with him in his Son and he is so faithful to his own ordination that he gives his Holy Spirit to call you to and keep you in that fellowship to the intent you may be joyned with him in the communion of grace till he bring you to the communion of glory So that the fault is wholly our own if God make not his perpetual abode with us after once he is come unto us T is because either we do not stick to our Saviour the Son of his love or because we do stick to our sins which he cannot love For he will not constantly abide either with an unfaithful or with an unfruitful soul The unfaithfull soul forsakes his communion the unfrui tfll soul forgets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Children are the bond of Wedlock Nay God saith so too Now this time will my husband be joyned unto me because I have born him three sons Gen. 29. 34. Therefore was his name called Levi The Levite had his name from conjunction for shame let him not be the author of separation And again yet more fully God hath endued me with a good dowry now will my husband dwell with me because I have born him six sons and she called his name Zebulon Gen. 30. 20. Zebulon id est donum cohabitationis saith Tremelius Donatum filium ad conciliandam cohabitationem viri a pledge or pawn of the husbands dwelling with his wife and delighting in her society So is it also in the Spiritual Matrimony in the Marriage of the soul with Christ That he may betroth us unto himself for ever he doth betroth us in righteousness and judgement in loving-kindness and in mercies and in faithfulness Hos 2. There is righteousness and faithfulness as well as there is loving-kindness and mercy in this blessed wedlock Righteousness and faithfulness required on our parts as well as loving-kindness and mercies on his part and we must take heed of losing the righteousness and the faithfulness for fear we should lose the loving-kindness and the mercies Gratia est habitus mentis totius vit◠ordinativus Grace is a habit of the mind ordering the whole life saith Alensis par 3. qu. 61. m. 2. In what but in righteousness Grace ordereth the whole life in righteousness will not suffer any part of it to be spent in unrighteousness so likewise saith Saint Paul Grace reigneth through righteousness to eternal life Rom. 5. 21. Take away the righteousness take away the reign of grace take away the reign of grace and farewell to the reign of glory unless you will look for glory without eternal life O blessed Jesus who art the only guest and joy of religious souls I confess that I am not worthy thou shouldest once come under my roof yet I beseech thee to make me fit for thine everlasting abode That I being faithfull and fruitfull in all righteousness unto the death may receive of thee a Crown of life who didst dye for my sins and rise again for my Justification and now sittest on the right hand of God making intercession for me Thou hast been the Mediator of this blessed communion betwixt God and my soul O be thou also the preserver of it that in it and for it I may bless and praise thee with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Christ reteined in the true Christian Communion Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. 17 18. Nec Haereticus pertinet ad Ecclesiam Catholicam quae diligit Deum Nec Schismaticus quoniam diligit Proximum Aug. de fide Symbolo cap. 10. Neither doth a Heretick belong to the Catholick Church because she loves God nor a Schismatick because she loves her neighbour The Prooem Christian Communion is to be considered in its Authority in its Excellency and in its Sincerity GReat are the divisions of wicked and ungodly men whilst at first they run away from God and as great are their distractions when at last they run away from one another It is their sin that they will needs be at enmity with God it is their punishment that they cannot but be at enmity among themselves This small Treatise endeavours either to keep us from this great misery or to recover us out of
69. super Cantic Si sensero aperiri mihi sensum ut intelligâ—m Scripturas aut uberiores desursum influere animo meditationum imbres non ambigo sponsum adesse Verbi siquidem hae copiae sunt de plenitudine ejus ista accipimus If I perceive my understanding opened to understand the Scripture or the influence and distillation of heavenly meditations upon my soul I cannot doubt but the Bridegroom is at hand for these are the armies that the word doth march withall and it is from his fulness that my soul is thus filled The second proof of our communion with Christ is this that we continue and abide in his love and this is a consequent of the former as it is said ver 10. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love No keeping of his commandments no abiding in his love Wherefore the Solifidian is in a dangerous condition who seeks not to joyn obedience to his faith For he abides not in the love of Christ and how then can he expect that Christ should interpose his death and passion betwixt the judgement of God and his sinful soul since that interposition is clearly the greatest effect that can be of Christs love Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends John 15. 13. Our blessed Saviour dyed for his enemies but none shall have the benefit of his death in the day of Judgement but only his friends and none are his friends but they that abide in his love and none abide in his love but they that keep his commandments if not by their righteousness yet at least by their repentance The third proof of our communion with Christ is this that his joy remaineth in us ver 11. These things have I spoken unto you sc the things that belong to your abiding in me that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Lord what a mercy is it that thy joy doth come unto us much more that it doth remain in us And from whence coâ—â—â—h thy joy but from the testimony of thy Holy Spirit that thou hast reconciled us unto the Father and from the testimony of our own consciences that we do not abide in any sin to hinder the comfort and hazard the fruit of that reconciliation This is the very joy of the Holy Ghost a joy not heard of but amongst Christian a joy not found but amongst good Christians who have the Spirit of Christ witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that they suffer with him that they may be also glorified together Rom. 8. 16 17. T is not all the losses of the earth can discourage those who are the heirs of heaven t is not all the sufferings of this world can dismay those who have the joy of the next world because they know they can be losers and sufferers only for a time but they are sure they shall have gain and glory for ever SECT II. That our communion with Christ is as our participation of Christ exteral or internal The one may be the communion of hypocrites the other only of good Christians The way to be a good Christian in a bad Church NO man can hope to be wise without wisdom righteous without righteousness holy without holiness true without truth or to see without light or to live without life And therefore no man can hope to be wise righteous holy true or to see or to live without Christ for he of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification 1 Cor. 1. 30. and he alone is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world John 1. 9. and he alone is the truth and the life John 14. 6. Therefore we must have Communion with him or we cannot have wisdom righteousness sanctification truth light or life from him But how can we have communion with Christ since He is in heaven and we are on earth I answer as we can partake of him so we can communicate with him For participation and communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in Saint Pauls language equipollent one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae participatio quae communio are set down as terms convertible 2 Cor. 6. 14. So far therefore as we participate of Christ so far forth we communicate with Christ If we participate of him only externally whether in his Word or in his Sacraments we communicate with him only externally If we participate of him internally we communicate also with him internally according to that excellent determination of that irrefragable Doctor upon this question An mali pertineant ad unionem capitis cum corpore Ecclesiae whether wicked men belong to that Union of the Church wherein Christ as head is united with the body which question he determines in the negative saying thus Mali quidem sunt in unitate Ecclesiae dummodo habent fidem rectam ut zizania cum tritico Mat. 13. sed non sunt in unitate corporis Ecclesiae sunt ergo de Ecclesia sed non de corpore Ecclesiae nam ut in corpore humano est unio membrorum duplex sc materialis per nervos formalis per vitam sic in corpore Ecclesiae est duplex unio membrorum una quasi materialis quae est per fidem alia formalis quae est per charitatem Alâ—n. par 3. qu. 12. m. 2. ar 3. Wicked men are in the Unity of the Church as long as they profess the true faith as the tares are with the wheat Mat. 13. But they are not in the unity of the body of the Church therefore they are of the Church but not of the body of the Church For as in the body of a man there is a twofold Union of the members to wit a material union by nerves ligaments and a formal union by spirit and life so in the body of the Church there is a twofold union of the members the one as it were a material union in the outward profession of the same Christian Faith the other a formal union in the inward affection and love of that Faith which they profess And hence is that distinction of Aquinas for Stapleton and the later writers have it from him Quidam sunt de Ecclesiae numero tantum quidam merito numero Some men are members of the Christian Church only in their number or in their persons some also in their merit or in their Dispositions some men partake of the Word and Sacraments only with their ears and with their mouths but others partake of them also with their hearts as it is said of the blessed Virgin-mother She kept all these sayings in her heart Luke 2. 51. the one we may say are Christs external the other his internal communicants And the Apostle in the same place useth three other
in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked and he thus makes good that saying For thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psalm 26. His communion with God kept him from the corruptions of those unrighteous men he could not avoid and kept him in the communion of those righteous men he could not enjoy Though his conversation might be in Gath or Ascalon yet his communion was in Jerusalem when the Ark was there as it is said ver 8. Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth Therefore make sure of thy communion with God by faith and repentance and holiness of life and doubt not of thy communion with his Catholick Church though thou live amongst Infidels or amongst such Christians as are fallen into Infidelity and so having denyed the faith are worse then those who never embraced it For no private man is entrusted with the external communion of his own Church nor shall he be called to an account for the sins of it if he partake not in those sins but he is intrusted with the internal communion of his own soul and for that he must look to give a strict account to the maker and lover and Judge of souls But this admonition which only concerns private men may not be extended to whole national Churches which have power given them of God to rectifie what is amiss among themselves either in Doctrine or worship or Sacraments and are accountable to God for not rectifying it so that if there be any notorious defect in either much more in all of these they that are not bound to obey other men have no pretence of excuse if they obey not God in ordering themselves exactly according to his known and undoubted word And this is evident by Saint Pauls Epistles to particular Churches and Saint Johns orders to the seven several Churches of Asia to all which were sent distinct instructions and reproofs which sheweth that every one of them was bound to follow those instructions they had received from God without expecting new orders from some general Superintendent over them all and was justly reproved for not following them And this is the Judgement of the Catholick Church in the first Council of Nice in the sixth Canon which will have the priviledges and dignities and authorities of all Churches inviolably preserved for so much is comprized in these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same Judgemen is again repeated and reinforced in the first Council of Constantinople Can. 2. which forbids the confounding of Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and leaves every several proviâ—ce by a Synod in it self to administer and order its own â—…s The same is again more fully repeated and reinforced in the first Council of Ephesus Can. 8. which will have particular Churches keep their own rights and priviledges lest they should unawares lose the liberty purchased for them by the blood of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Council of Chalcedon Can. 19 enjoyns provincial Synods twice a year to rectifie and dispose all emergencies whatsoever in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So we find this is the judgement of the Catholick Church in the four first general Councils and therefore all the world is not able to prove this practice of our Church to be Anticatholick For I willingly pass by other Churches in the case with whom I am not bound to keep external communion and plead only for this Church where of God in mercy hath made me a happy member though an unworthy Minister For if Saint Paul would not judge those men that were without much less may any of us judge those Churches that are within And truly it is enough for our satisfaction and too much for our desert that though other Churches pretend more some to the purity others to the practice of Religion yet generally they have performed less Though some rigid Zelots press nothing so much as a circumcision of all rites and ceremonies other Pharisaical professors can boast of the yoke which they have put upon the neck of their Disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear yet we cannot find any sufficient reason why we should not answer them both in Saint Peters words we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Act. 15. 11. For we have this reason of our belief because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly and clearly set forth in the Doctrine of this our Church t is our shame and sin not our Churches if it be not also in our practice and Saint Paul hath taught us that this is the doctrine which most constituteth and therefore most edifieth a Christian Church For thus much do those words import to the Colossians And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable aâ—d unreproveable in his sight if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard Col. 1. 21 22 2â— T is the Churches part to preach unto us the hope of the Gospel or the Doctrine of our being reconciled to God in Christ where this Doctrine is rightly published accepted and maintained there is without doubt a true Christian Church there is communion with Christ and if he will present us holy unblameable unreproveable in his sight for continuing in this faith grounded and setled we can have little cause but no excuse for leaving that Church whereinis the profession of this faith for as every particular Christian Church may lawfully preserve its own liberty against the incroachment of other Chuuches so it must necessarily preserve its authority against the insolencies of its own people The case is notorious concerning Vzziah when he went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the Altar of incense that Azariah with the Priests withstood him saying it pertaineth not to thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense Go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God 2 Chron. 27. 17 18. And great is the approbation which the Spirit of God giveth to this Azariah for so doing saying He it is that hath executed the Priests office in the Temple 1 Chron. 6. 10. As if none had been high Priest but he who so couragiously maintained the authority of the Priest-hood and this is R. Davids gloss upon the words He was not the first Priest of Solomons Temple for that was Zadok nor was he the only high Priest for there were many others both before and after him but our Rabbies say because
but to have an Anticatholick Spirit in a Catholick Church will make me a Schismatick even in the communion of Saints Therefore Christianus Catholicus Christian Catholick is the Title I desire to assume and will labour to justifie the one may be as my proper the other as my common name the one shewing what I am in my person the other shewing what I am in my communion For I cannot but think Lactantius his pen borrowed inke from heaven when it dropped down this admirable observation Christiani esse desierunt qui Christi nomine amisso humana externa vocabula induerunt Lact. de vera sap cap. 30. They have left off to be Christians who have left off the name of Christ that they may call themselves by other mens external names For indeed all other names are Notes and causes of division t is only the name of Christ is the note and cause of communion amongst Christians This is truely the voice of a dove that hath no gall and me thinks I see the Holy Ghost still appearing in this Dove Sure I am there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but only the name of Christ Acts 4. 12. and why should I then either desire a name that cannot shew my Religion or desire a Religion that cannot bring me salvation SECT II. The excellency of Christian communion as holding of Christ and fom him having Immortality piety verity and charity and of the proper place company and author of this communion THE Communion of men is frequently broken off by faction in their life or necessarily broken off by dissolution in their death But the communion of Christians is altogether indissolvable for it endures no faction to separate the members from the body it incurs no dissolution to separate the body from the Head Other communions are cut off and destroyed by by death but this is confirmed and enlarged by it and the reason is because he is the Head of this communion who is the first born from the dead So saith Saint Paul He is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. And indeed this is the greatest excellency of our Christian communion that it not only begins but also continues with Christ and that in his twofold exaâ—tation in his exaltation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he had by nature as the beginning coaeternal and coaequal with his Father and in his exaltation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he had by dispensation as the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. An excellent communion indeed that is grounded upon eternity both à parte ante for he is the beginning and à parte post for he is the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. And such is the communion of all good Christians with Christ and surely no other can have communion with him for they were joined with Christ in one election before the beginning of the world as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Eph. 1. 4. and shall be joined with him in one Salvation after the end of it Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17. 24. The first communion we have with our Saviour as he is the beginning the second as he is the first born from the dead Hence it is that the Apostle Saint Paul so exceedingly labours in all his Epistles first to make us sensible of then to make us thankfull for this great mercy For this Method he observes in all his Epistles making it his business first to shew us the blessings we have in Christ then to exhort us to the practice of true Christianity But more particularly in those Epistles which he writ in his captivity at Rome immediately before his death which he purposely divideth as it were into these two parts one of doctrine another of application As for example In his Epistle to the Ephesians he spends the three first chapters wholly in doctrine declaring the benefits we have by Christ and the three last chapters wholly in application exhorting us to shew our selves dutifull and thankfull Christians So again in his Epistle to the Colossians all his labour in the two first chapters is to shew us what blessings we have in Christ what prepared in our election what exhibited in our redemption what consummated in our salvation and in the two last chapters what thankfulness we are obliged to for so great blessings exhorting us accordingly by all holiness of life that we may approve our selves to be truly thankfull In both which arguments he is so zealous that he takes many whole sentences out of his Epistle to the Ephesians and repeats them again though a little shorter in his Epistle to the Colossians as neither afraid to pen his Sermons though he preached by the spirit nor yet to preach the same Sermon twice for in truth his Epistle to the Colossians is little other then an Epitome or compendium of that to the Ephesians He had heard by Epaphras that the Colossians were setled and established in the communion of Christ cap. 1. vers 8. and that made him write this Epistle to keep them still in that communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Sain Chrysost Saint Paul writ three Epistles to those Churches which he had not then seen that to the Romans that to the Hebrews and this to the Colossians which Church it is probable he never saw at all and accordingly professeth he had a great conflict for them because they had not seen his face in the flesh Col. 2. 1. His intent was to shew he would be with them in his affection though he could not be with them in his person accordingly he gives this reason for his writing to the Colossians which may likewise serve for his writing to those other Churches that though he was not one of their company yet he was one of their Communion saying For though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ Col. 2. 5. He openly professeth himself one of their communion yet I am with you in the spirit and sheweth the cause why he was so willing to communicate with them because of their order and the stedfastness of their faith in Christ Good God what a strange course have we taken of late to make all good Christians which are and must be of Saint Pauls mind to abhor our communion who neither care for order nor for stedfastness but instead of order do embrace confusion instead of stedfastness do eagerly pursue inconstancy who neither have order in the practice nor stedfastness in the profession of our religion who pretend to faith in Christ but shew no stedfastness in our faith So that t is much to
bind If we break one of those bonds asunder how shall we be held by the other If we cast away Religion what do we talk of communion it is more just to call it a conspiracy If we cast away communion what do we pretend Religion it is more just to call it an apostacy Let both Religion and Communion be truely for the honour of Christ or let neither be called Christian For indeed this is the only true touchstone whereby we may try which Churches are the dross of Christendom and which are the gold of it they who most labour to glorifie Christ are the best Christians according that short but pithy prayer of the Latine Church Et quia tuum est quod credimus tuum sit omne quod vivimus Orat. in Sabbato quatuor temporum quadragesimae And because that all our Faith is from thee grant that all our Life may be for thee and to thee All our faith is from Christ all our life must be to Christ or we shall live infidels though in belief Christians Therefore they who most labour to glorifie Christ both by their Faith and by their life are undoubtedly the best Christians They who most labour to glorifie him as King to be ruled by his government as Prophet to be guided by his Word as Priest to be reconciled by his satisfaction they are clearly the best Christians and they who are defective in any of these as they less glorifie Christ so have they less the purity and truth of Christianity Great is the preeminence of Christians above other men that they know Christ but greater is their preeminence above other Christians that they glorifie him agreeably to their knowledge such are truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The faithful in Saint Chrysostomes sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christians are called the Faithful not only for trusting in God but also for being trusted by him in that they have been entrusted with those mysteries of Christ which not the Angels themselves did know before them They were accordingly best take heed they do not betray that trust which they did not could not deserve and they will certainly betray it if once they seek to take the preeminence to themselves and not give it to their Saviour We may not judge some of the antient Churches for so doing because they were swallowed up by an Earth-quake soon after they had received Christianity as Coloss Laodicea and Hâ—erapolis in the reign of Nero saith Orasius But we most look carefully to our selves that we may not do so who dayly hear many amongst us saying We are of Paul others we are of Cephas others we are of Apollos meerly to divide the Church and others saying We are of Christ meerly to contemn it For they intend not to advance our Saviour but to debase his Ministers not to come neerer Christ but only to run further from his Church I say we must look carefully to our selves leâ—t some such dreadful Earthquake swallow us up also who have provoked heaven wearied earth and therefore may justly go down quick into hell or lest we be swallowed up by the Earth without an Earth quake as were Corah Dathan and Abiram who were the first notorious authors of divisions in the people of God and themselves perished by a strange division for saith the Text The ground clave asunder that was under them Numb 16. 31. And the ground is still cleaving asunder under us in so much that it is to be feared That the Earth the sons of the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filii terrae as the Text calls them Psalm 49. 2. the lowest and meanest of the people will at last quite swallow up both Moses and Aaron that is all authority and preeminence both Civil and Ecclesiastical This we are sure of the only way for the Kings and Potentates of this world to keep their own authority is by it to defend and maintain the authority of Christ who is the blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6. 15. nor is it just they should look to have any preeminence without and much less against him whose proper right it is in all things to have the preeminence Col. 1. 18. Therefore give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness in despite of all your new lights and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lords flock is carried away captive Jer. 13. 16 17. Carried away captive from the communion of the Lord to the divisions and distractions of his enemies A captivity beyond that of Babylon because of a confusion beyond that of Babel for there only tongues but here minds and spirits also are confounded O sweet Jesus restore again to thy communion those that have departed from it retain and confirm those that still abide and continue in it Thou blessed Mediator betwixt God and Angels and men and by that thy mediation the blessed author to the Angels of union to men of reunion to both Angels and men of communion with the everliving God be pleased so to joyn all Christians in one communion here on earth that thou mayst joyn them all in one communion hereafter in heaven even that eternal and most blessed communion wherein thou our Head now livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God world without end Amen Deo Trin-uni gloria THE IVSTIFICATION OF THE Church of England According to the true principles of Christian Religion and Communion consisting of three Chapters The first Chapter sheweth that the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the people of this Nation The second Chapter sheweth that the same Church of England hath carefully discharged that Trust as a most Christian or most Catholick Church The third Chapter sheweth that the Communion of the said Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by all the people of that Nation but unconscionably declined or deserted by any of them I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1. 6 7. I would they were even cut off which trouble you Gal. 5. 12. LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1658. The Preface to the Iudicious and unprejudicate Reader I Hope it will not be said I seek to justifie a Church which is not for the truth and righteousness whereby it was a Church are the same they ever were or that I seek to justifie a Church which ought not to be for no man can shew a better truth and righteousness whereby to make a better Church Till
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 18. They are holy and religious books but yet are not reckoned among the Canonical Scriptures because they were not deposited in the Ark So the Books of the New Testament were known to come from God in that they were deposited in the Ark that is to say in his Church And hence it was that the Epistle of Saint James and some others though they were not at first generally received in all Churches yet were they no longer questioned after once it was made appear by the Testimony of those Churches where the Authentick Copies of them had been deposited that they had been indicted by some Apostle or approved by some Apostolical man till then they were questioned in regard of their Authors if not in regard of their Authority but after that they were questioned in regard of neither so great a confidence did God repose in particular Churches that it is evident he entrusted them with his own Word to keep it to witness it and to explain it as the Church of the Jews with the Old Testament which Church though it were Catholick or universal in its Doctrine yet was it meerly particular or national in its extent for he shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and ordinances unto Israel he had not dealt so with any Nation neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws Psalm 147. ver 19 20. And several Churches of the Christians with several parts of the New Testament as the Church of Rome with that Epistle sent to the Romans and the Church of Corinth with those two Epistles sent to the Corinthians and so of the rest And as for the seven Catholick or general Epistles commonly so called they had the title of Catholick or general Epistles not because they were sent to no particular Churches but because they were sent to many as Saint Peters to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappodocia Asia and Bythinia which being not directed particularly to one of these was therefore called a general Epistle as belonging to them all not because it was sent at large to all of them for so perchance it might have been received by none but because it was to be communicated to all unless that we had rather say that these Epistles were called Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were sent of purpose to confute some new risen Hereticks or Schismaticks particularly the Solifidean Heresie and the itch of separation either from ambition or covetousness or perversness as may appear by the arguments of the said Epistles however those also were at first deposited with some particular Churches and hence it was that some of them were sooner generally received then others even those which had been at first deposited with the more eminent Churches Thus we see the trust of particular Churches and in them the trust of the Catholick Church concerning the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eis credita sunt eloquia Dei They were entrusted with the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. that is they were entrusted to keep them and to witness them but Saint Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am entrusted with a dispensation sc of the same Oracles speaks more that they were also entrusted to explain them and we cannot deny the continuance of this trust unto the Worlds end unless we will affirm that God hath laid aside the care both of us and of his Church neither regarding the salvation of our souls nor the authority and continuance of his own Church and so by consequent exterminate out of our Creed as well as out of the world the Catholick Church and the communion of Saints and by consequent deprive our selves of the forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting SECT III. The second part of the Trust of Particular Churches is concerning the people of God What that Trust is and how it comes to be derived to them is shewed from Saint Pauls speech Acts 20. to the particular Church of Ephesus and from Saint Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus and from other several Epistles of his to particular Churches GOD is very angry with a man when he Trusts his soul in his own hands for then he leaves him exposed to the Temptations of his own concupiscence to the errours of his own ignorance to the slips and stumblings of his own infirmity to the precipices and downfalls of his own presumption and to the bondage and thraldom of his own corruption Therefore we justly extoll the power and goodness of God in our preservation no less then in our Creation and himself thinks it no less honourable to keep a soul then to make it and therefore Saint Paul calleth him God our Saviour thrice in one Epistle By the Commandment of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 1. 1. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2. 3. We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. Which if it had been observed by the transcribers of some private Manuscripts one would not have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ Another would not have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God our Father and Jesus Christ for this variety of reading proceeded questionless from that opinion which some held That the name of Saviour belonged only to the person of Christ because it is palpable that in the Authentick Copy of the Greek Church as it is in Saint Chrysostome and of the Latine Church as it is in the Edition of Sixtus Quintus the words are read as Beza records them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ where God the Father is plainly called our Saviour because he is the chief and principal cause of our salvation For it is the Fathers mercy that saveth us though the Sons merit and we could not have received should not have embraced the merit of the Son had it not been for the mercy of the Father Therefore the same Apostle as delighted with this expression saith again according to the commandmnnt of God our Saviour Tit. 1. 3. being willing to ascribe to the Father no less then to the Son the Honour and glory of our salvation Behold all souls are mine saith God himself Ezek. 18. 4. and Rabbi David gives us this gloss upon the words All souls belong to me and I have given them bodies of flesh to guide and lead after me and I do delight in their life not in their death for they are mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umiccebodi nigzaru and they were taken from mine own Glory q. d. They are mine and I care not to lose them They were parts of mine own glory and I am willing to glorifie them they were at first springs and branches of mine own Tree even the Tree of life and I am desirous to engraft them in that Tree