entituled actual The nature of which Birth-sin or Original sin is by the Church of England in her publick Articles defined to be the fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is ingendred of the Of-spring of Adam whereby man is very far gon from Original righteousness and inclined to evill In which description we may find the whole nature of it as first that it is a corruption of our nature and of the nature of every man descended from the Loyns of Adam Secondly That it is a departure from and even a loss or forfieture of that stock of Original Iustice wherewith the Lord enriched our first Father Adam and our selves in him And thirdly That it is an inclination unto evil to the works of wickedness by means whereof as afterwards the Article explains it self the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and both together do incur the indignation of God So that if we speak of Original sin formally it is the privation of those excellent gifts of divine Grace inabling us to know love serve honor and trust in God and to do the things that God delights in which Adam once had but did shortly lose If materially it is that habitual inclination which is found in men most averse from God carrying them to the inordinate love and desire of finite things of the creature more than the Creator which is so properly a sin that it makes guilty of condemnation the person whosoever it be in whom it is found And this habitual inclination to the inordinate love of the creature is named Concupiscence which being two-fold as Alensis notes it out of Hugo that is to say Concupiscentia spiritus a concupiscience of the spirit or superior and concupiscentia carnis a concupiscence of the flesh or inferior faculties the first of these is onely sin but the latter is both sin and punishment For what can be more consonant to the Rules of Iustice than that the Will refusing to be ordered by God and desiring what he would not have it should finde the inferior faculties rebellious against it self and inclinable to desire those things in a violent way which the Will would have to be declined Now that all of us from the womb are tainted with this original corruption and depravation of nature is manifest unto us by the Scriptures and by some Arguments derived from the practise of the Catholick Church countenanced and confirmed by the antient Doctors In Scripture first we find how passionately David makes complaint that he was shapen in wickedness and conceived in sin Where we may note in the Greek and Vulgar Latine it is in sins and wickednesses in the plural number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek in peccatis in iniquitatibus as the Latine hath it And that to shew us as Becanus hath right well observed Quod unum illud peccatum quasi fons sit aliorum that this one sin is as it were the Spring and Fountain from whence all others are derived Next St. Paul tels us in plain words that by the offence of one of this one man Adam Iudgement came upon all men to condemnation and Judgement could not come upon all or any were it not in regard of sin Not that all men in whom Original sin is found without the addition of Actual and Personal guiltiness are actually made subject unto condemnation and can expect no mercy at the hands of God but that they are all guilty of it should God deal extreamly and take the forfeiture of the Bond which we all entred into in our Father Adam Thus finde we in the same Apostle that we are by nature the children of wrath polluted and unclean from the very womb our very nature being so inclinable to the works of wickedness that it disposeth us to evil from the first conception and makes us subject to the wrath and displeasure of God Last of all we are told by the same Apostle for we will clog this point with no further evidence That the wages of sin is death that sin entred into the world and death by sin and that death passed upon all men for that all have sinned And thereupon we may conclude That wheresoever we behold a spectacle of death there was a receptacle of some sin Now we all know that death doth spare no more the Infant than the Elder man and that sometimes our children are deprived of life assoon almost as they enjoy it sometimes born dead and sometimes dead assoon as born Prima quae vitam dedit hora carpsit in the Poets language A wages no way due to Infants for their actual sins for actually as yet they have not offended and therefore there must needs be in them some original guilt some Birth-sin as the Article calls it which brings so quick a death upon them And this is further verified from the constant and continual practise of the Church of Christ which hath provided That the Sacrament of Baptism be conferred on Infants before they come unto the use of Speech or Reason yea and at some times and on some occasions as namely in cases of extremity and the danger of death to Christen them assoon as born For by so doing she did charitably and not unwarrantably conceive that they are received into the number of Gods children and in a state of good assurance which could not be so hopefully determined of them should they depart without the same And with this that of Origen doth agree exactly Si nihil esset in parvulis quod ad remissionem deberet indulgentiam pertinere gratia Baptismi superflua videretur Were there not something in an Infant which required forgiveness the Sacrament of Baptism were superfluously administred to him Upon which grounds the Church of England hath maintained the necessity of Baptism against the Sectaries of this age allowing it to be administred in private houses as oft as any danger or necessity doth require it of her A second thing we finde in the Churches practise and in the practise of particular persons of most note and evidence which serves exceeding fitly to confirm this point and that is That neither the Church in general doth celebrate the birth-day of the Saints departed but the day onely of their deaths nor any of the Saints themselves did solemnize the day of their own Nativity with Feasts and Triumphs First for the practise of the Church we may take this general rule once for all Non nativitatem sed mortem sanctorum ecclesia pretiosam judicat beatam That the Church reckoneth not the day of their birth but the death-day if I may so call it of the Saints to be blest and precious According unto that of the Royal Psalmist Right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Upon which grounds the word Natalis hath been used in the Martyrologies and other publick
conteret caput tuam she shall break thy head which many of their Commentators do refer to her that Bellarmine maketh at all no difference betwixt the Veneration which is due to her and that which doth belong unto Christ as man and finally that the vulgar sort in point of practise for needes such practise must ensue on such desperate doctrines do use to say so many Ave Maries for one single Pater noster hear day by day so many masses of our Ladies and not one of Christs adorn her images with all cost and cunning which mans wit can reach whilest his poor Statues stand neglected as not worth the looking after Wonder it is they have not practised on the Creed aud told us how the Apostles had mistook the matter when they drew it up and that it was not Jesus Christ but the Virgin Mary that suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucifyed dead and buryed for the sins of man Such are and such have been the most known repugnancies which have found entertainment in the Christian world touching the Priviledges and Prierogatives of this blessed woman Between these two extremes is the vertue placed which I perswade my self hath been most happily preserved in the Church of England retaining still two annual feasts instituted in the best times to her name and memory We gladly give her all the honour which is due unto her account her for the most blessed of all women a choice and most selected Temple of the holy Ghost and happiest instrument of mans good which hath descended simply from the loynes of Adam but dare not give her divine honour by erecting Altars to her service going in pilgrimage to her shrines or powring forth our prayers unto her Finally we resolve with Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the blessed Virgin be had in reverence but God only worshipped let her possesse principal place in our good opinions so she have none in our devotions But it is time to leave the Mother and return again unto the Son Now that which in this Article is expressed by the present words Natus ex Virgine Maria that is to say born of the Virgin Mary in that of Nice is thus delivered and was made man Some Hereticks had formerly called this truth in question affirming that our Saviours body was not true and real but only an ayery and imaginary body as did the Marcionites others that he received not his humane being of the Virgin Mary but brought his body from the heavens and only passed thorow her womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as thorow a Conduit pipe as Valentinian as if our blessed Lord and Saviour had only borrowed for a time the shape of man therâ—in to act his woful tragedy on the publick Theatre of the world and made the Virgins womb his trying house And some again there were who did conceive his body to be free from passion maintaining that it was impassibilis and that he was not subject to those natural frailties and infirmities which are incident to the Sons of men by the ordinary course of nature To meet with these and other Hereticks of this kind the Fathers in the Nicene Councel expressed our Saviours being born of the Virgin Mary which every Heretick had wrested to his proper sense in words which might more fully signifie the truth and reality of his taking of our flesh upon him in words which were not capable of so many evasions declaring thus that being incarnate by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary factus est homo he was made man and consequently was made subject unto those infirmities which are inseparably annexed to our humane nature This that which positively is affirmed by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews where it is said that we have not such an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin The high Priest which God gave us in the time of the Gospel was to be such as those he gave unto his people in the time of the Law one who could have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself is compassed also with infirmities The difference only stood in this that our Saviours passions and infirmities were free from sin and neither did proceed from sin or incline him to it as do the passions and infirmities of men meerly natural which is the meaning of St. Paul in the place aforesaid where he affirmeth of our high Priest that he was tempted that is to say afflicted tryed and proved in all things like as we are save only that it was without sin or sinful motions And to this truth the Catholick Doctors of the Church do attest unanimously St. Ambrose thus CHRIST saith he took upon him not the shew but the truth and reality of the flesh what then Debuit ergo et dolorem suscipere ut vinceret tristitiam non excluderet he therefore was to have a sense of humane sorrowes that he might overcome them not exclude them only Fulgentius goes to work more plainly Nunc oftendendum est saith he c. Now must we shew that the passions of grief sorrow fear c. do properly pertain unto the soul and that our Saviour did endure them all in his humane soul ut veram totamâ— in se cum suis infirmitatibus hominis demonstraret suscepti substantiam that he might shew in himself the true and whole substance of man accompanied with its infirmities The fathers of the Greek Church do affirme the same When thon hearest saith Cyril that Christ wept feared and sorrowed acknowledge him to be a true man and ascribe these things to the nature of man for Christ took a mortal body subject to all the passions of nature sin alwayes excepted Which when he had affirmed in thesi he doth thus infer Et ita singulas passiones carnis c. Thus shalt thou finde all the passions or affections of the flesh to be stirred in Christ but without sin that being so stirred up they might be repressed and our nature reformed to the better But none of all the Antients state the point more clearly then Iohn Damascene in his 3. book De fide orthodoxa where he tels us this We confesse saith he that Christ did take unto him all natural and blamelesse passions for he assumed the whole man and all that pertained to man save sin Natural and blamelesse passions are those which are not properly in our power and whatsoever entred into mans life through the occasion of Adams sin as hunger thirst weaknesse labour weeping shunning of death fear agony whence came sweat with drops of bloud These things are in all men by nature and therefore Christ took all these to him that he might sanctifie them all With this agreeth the distinction of the latter Schoolmen who divide the
us and his ear still open to our prayers which he hath both the will and the power to grant so far forth as he seeth it fitting and expedient for us He suffered for our sins as he is our Priest forgives them as he is our God and mediates as our Head with his Heavenly Father for the remission of those sins which he suffered for The medicine for our sins was tempered in his precious blood and therein we behold him in his Priestly Office the application of this medicine was committed to the sons of men whom he by his Prophetical Office authorized unto it The dispensation of the mercy thereof still remains in God as an inseparable flower of the Regal Diadem for who can forgive sins but God alone said the Pharisees truly And this forgiveness of our sins as it is the greatest blessing God ca◠give us in this present life because it openeth us a door to eternal glory so is it placed here as the first in order of those signal benefits which do descend upon the Church from her Head Christ Iesus For we may hopefully conclude that since Christ was not onely pleased to die for our sins but doth intercede also with his Heavenly Father that we may have the benefit of his death and passion those prayers of his will make that death and passion efficacious to us in the forgiveness of those sins under which we languish With the like hope we may conclude from the self-same Topick That if we have our part in the first Resurrection that namely from the death of sin to the life of righteousness we shall be made partakers of the second also that namely from the death of nature to the life of glory For Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That where the Head is will the members be If therefore Christ our Head be risen from the grave of death the members shall be sure of a Resurrection If Christ our Head be glorified in his Fathers Kingdom the members in due time shall be glorified also So that as well the Article of the Forgiveness of sins as those of the Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting depend upon Christs being Head of this Mystical Body and that too in the method which is here proposed The forgiveness of sins being given us as a pledge or assurance that we shall have a joyful Resurrection in the day of judgment as that is but a way or passage to eternal life First then we are to speak of the Forgiveness of sins and therein we will first behold the whole body of sin in its own foul nature that so we may the better estimate the great mercies of God in the forgiveness of the same And for beholding the whole body of sin in its own foul nature we must first take notice That it pleased God in the beginning to exhibite to the world then but newly made a lively copy of himself a Creature fashioned ad similitudinem suam after his own Image saith the Text. In the creating of the which as he collected all the excellencies of inferior Creatures so did he also crown him with those heavenly graces with which he had before endued the most holy Angels that is to say a rectitude or clearness in his understanding whereby he was enabled to distinguish betwixt truth and error and with a freedom in his will in the choice of his own ways and counsels Ut suae faber esse possit fortunae That if he should forsake that station wherein God had placed him he might impute it unto none but his wretched-self It is true God said unto him in the way of Caution That in what day soever he did eat of the fruit forbidden he should die the death But he had neither undertaken to preserve him that he should not eat and so by consequence not sin much less had he ordained him to that end and purpose that he should eat thereof and so die for ever And true it is that God fore-knew from before all eternity unto what end this Liberty of man would come and therefore had provided a most excellent remedy for the restoring of lapsed man to his grace and favor Yet was not this foreknowledge in Almighty God that so it would be either a cause or a necessity or so much as an occasion that so it should be And it is therefore a good rule of Iustin Martyr seconded by Origen and divers others of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Prescience of God say they is not cause or reason why things come to pass but because these and these things shall so come to pass therefore God fore-knows them So that God dealt no otherwise in this case with our Father Adam than did the Father in the Parable with his younger son gave him that portion of his goods which fell to his share and after left him to himself And as the Prodigal childe being an ill husband on the stock which his Father gave him did quickly waste the same by his riotous living suffered the extremities of cold and hunger and was fain to cast himself again on his Fathers goodness so man not using well that stock which the Lord had given him gave himself over to the Epicurism of his eye and appetite By means whereof he lost those excellent endowments of his first Creation was shamefully thrust out of Paradise without hope of return and in conclusion fain to cast himself on the mercies of God as well for his subsistence here as his salvation hereafter The story of mans fall makes this plain enough and wholly frees Almighty God from having any hand or counsel in so sad a ruine For there we finde how God created him after his own Image placed him in Paradise commanded him not to meddle with the Tree of good and evil threatned that in case he did eat thereof he should surely die and lastly with what grievous punishments he did chastise him for violating that Commandment All which had been too like a Pageant if God had laid upon him a necessity of sin and death and made him to no other end as some teach us now but by his fall to set the greater estimate on his own rich mercies So excellently true is that of Ecclesiasticus though the Author of it be Apocryphal That God made man in the begining and left him in the hands of his own counsels And this is the unanimous doctrine of the New Testament also where it is said That by man came death and that not onely of the body but of the soul 1 Cor. 15.21 That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners Vers. 19. That all die in Adam Vers. 22. And in a word That no man ought to say when he is tempted that he is tempred of God for God tempteth no man but every
the Protestant Doctors Yet true it is for magna veritas praevalebit that some and those of no small name in such Protestant Churches as would be thought a pattern unto all the rest have given too just a ground for so great a scandal And well it were they had observed that Caution in their Publick Writings which Caesar looked for in his Wife and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they had been as free from the suspition of it as the crime it self For howsoever they affirm it not in termes expresse which was the desperate boldness of that Florinus yet they come very near it to a tantamont by way of necessary consequence and deduction which was the Artifice of Bardesanes and Priscillian For if God before all eternity as they plainly say did purpose and decree the fall of our Father Adam Vt sua defectione periret Adam in the words of Calvin there was in Adam a necessity of committing sin because the Lord had so decreed it If without consideration of the sin of man he hath by his determinate sentence ordained so many millions of men to everlasting damnation and that too necessariò inevitabiliter as they please to phrase it he must needs pre-ordain them to sin also there being as themselves confess no way unto the end but by the means And then what can the wicked and impenitent do but ascribe all their sins to God by whose enevitable Will they were lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated unto death and so by consequence to sin For thus Lyconides in Plautus pleaded for himself when he deflowred old Euclios daughter Deus mihi impulsor fuit is me ad illam illexit It was Gods doing none of his that he was so vicious I hope I need not press this further or shew the true or real difference between the laying the burthen of our sins upon Christ our Savior as the Iews theirs upon the Scape-Goat by Gods own appointment and laying the whole blame and guilt of them on our own affections He is but ill trained up in the School of Piety who will not take upon himself the blame of his own transgressions and fly to God onely on the hopes of pardon And yet I shall make bold to add and indeed the rather that they who first did broach this Doctrine of the necessity and decree of Adams fall and consequently making God the prime Author of sin confess they have no warrant for it in the Holy Scripture For whereas some objected upon Gods behalf disertis verbis non extare that the decree of Adams fall had no foundation in the express words of Holy Writ Calvin returns no other Answer than a Quasi vero as if saith he God made and created man the most exact peece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his end Nay himself calls it for a farewel horrible decretum a cruel and horrible Decree as indeed it is A cruel and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many millions to destruction and consequently unto sin that he might destroy them If then the introduction of the body of sin came by no other means but by man alone and that the charging of it upon Gods Decrees have no foundation in the Scriptures If it run cross unto the constant current of Antiquity and that the like Errâ—neous and Blasphemous Tenets were reckoned of as Heresies by the Antient Fathers If it be founded onely on the ipse dixit or the why nots and Quasi veros of a private man and by him reckoned for an horrible and cruel Decree Nay more if it be contrary to the Word of God and increase of Piety and tend apparently to the dishonor of God and bolstring wicked men in their sinful courses then certainly we may conclude that God could have no hand in this woful Tragedie that man alone is Author of his own calamity and can accuse himself onely and his own affections for giving way to those temptations which brought sin upon him and not upon himself alone but his whole Posterity For if we look into the Scripture we find that sin did not content it self with the person of Adam as if it had been a sufficient victory to have brought him under unless in him his whole Race and Off-spring which were then radically and potentially in the loyns of Adam had been infected also with the same contagion For Adam is not here considered as a private person who was to stand or fall to himself alone without occasioning either good or evill unto any more than in way of imitation of his great Example But as the stock of all mankinde who were to have a share in his weal or woe For being the original and root as before was said of all mankind descended from him whom he did represent at his first Creation he did receive that stock of righteousness which God gave unto him not for himself onely and his own particular benefit had he used it well but as the common Patrimony and Inheritance of himself and his And having so improvidently lost both himself and it by yeelding to the motions of that flesh which he was to govern he lost it not onely for himself when he came under the attainture which the Law brought on him but he did wholly forfeit it for himself and them his Race or Off-spring which were then radically in his Loins being involved with him in the same perdition For as the Scripture saith of Levi that he paid Tithes in Abraham unto Melchisedech because he was in the Loyns of Abraham when Melchisedech met him so may we also say in the present case that all men sinned and lost themselves in our Father Adam because they were all of them in the Loyns of Adam when he lost himself The Scripture saith not onely that sin came to man or fell on him onely as if the power thereof had terminated in that one mans person on whom it first did come or fall but that it came by man as a Pipe or Conduit by which it passed also unto others By one man sin entred into the world saith the Apostle to the Romans By man came death saith the Apostle to the Corinthians that is to say By that one man our Father Adam both sin and death found opportunity to enter on his whole posterity Et per Adamum ex quo omnes mortales originem ducunt dicitur peccatum introiisse as it is in Origen This sin thus miserably derived from our father Adam we call Original sin or the Birth-sin as in the Ninth Article of the Church of England A sin because it is a taint or stain in the soul of man by which we are adjudged impure in the sight of God The Birth-sin or Original sin as being naturally and originally inherent in the very birth and therein different from the sins of our own committing which for distinction sake are
did begin so he hath continued there being almost no sin committed which he tempts not to For though it be possible enough that men may sin without the temptation of the Devil by reason of the infirmity of the flesh and the concupiscences of several lusts which they bear about them yet commonly the Devil hath a part in all temptations and either findeth matter in us to work upon or stirreth up the dead seeds of sin which do lie raked up in our hearts like embers or fire in ashes For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications theâ—is and the like foul acts as Christ himself hath told us in S. Matthews Gospel And every one is tempted as St. Iames affirmeth when he is inticed and drawn aside of his own concupiscence So that the matter of sin lieth within our selves the Devil doth but actuate and inform that matter and reduce the powers thereof into overt act co-operating to the sin but causing directly the temptation Between the temptation of the Devil and the act of sin there must go a consent of heart and an inclining of the will to the sin presented and this is mans own act who is free to evil and is not necessitatâ—d to consent to the evil motion the over-ruling of mans will being Gods Prerogative though possibly he have not present grace enough to foil the temptation The Devil may present to us such a pleasant object though under other notions then that of sin which he knows like enough to work on our humane frailty and work upon us as he doth by all subtile suggestions to consent unto it And though he cannot force us unto such consent yet in regard he seldom faileth by his cunning practises of gaining that consent which he cannot force not only the temptation but the sin it self is often times ascribed unto him in the holy Scripture Thus it is said that Satan provoked David to number Israel 1 Chron. 21.1 that the Devil put it into the heart of Judas to betray his Master Ioh. 13.2 that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie against the holy Ghost Act. 5.3 And in the same respects it is that he is so often called the Tempter as Matth. 4.3 1 Thes. 3.5 And the Apostle speaking unto married people adviseth them not to be long asunder but to come together again that Satan tempt them not for their incontinency 1 Cor. 7.5 Upon this diligence of Satan to tempt men to sin and his well husbanding of all advantages which are presented to him to promote that work it was not only the opinion of some learned Gentiles but of some of the antient Christians also that every man had his evil Angel which did continually attend upon him to tempt him to the works of sin and the deeds of darkness For the Christians Cassianus telleth us quod unicuique nostrum duo cohaereant Angeli i. e. bonus malus that is to say that unto every one of us there adheres two Angels a good and an evil For the good Angel he brings proof indeed from the holy Scripture but for the adhaesion of the evil Angel he relyeth principally on the Book called Pastor which always counted an Apocryphal book in the judgement of the Catholick Church makes me suspect the Tenet for Apocryphal also And yet some think that St. Paul doth allude unto this opinion where he telleth us of an Angelus Satanae that lay heavy on him a messenger of Satan as our English reads it which was given to buffet him But for the Gentiles it is clear that they so opined Lactantius reporting it as their opinion quod singulis hominibus adhaereant that every one had his Daemon or his evil Angel attending on him whom they worshipped by the name of their proper Genii And for his general affirmation I consent unto him In his particular proof I must needs dissent For amongst others of his proofs he hath that of Socrates qui circa se assiduum Daemona Ioquebatur qui sibi puero adhaesisset cujus arbitrio nutu vitae 〈◊〉 regereâ—ur who used to speak of a certain Daemon who was always about him and had accompanyed him from his childhood by whose direction and appointment his whole life was ordered The same Tertullian telleth us of him Apologet. c. 37. and Minutius Felix in his Dialogue But notwithstanding the authority of these learned men I rather think that this Angel whom they call Daemonium was his Angel-Guardian then any of the damned and malignant crew such as were properly called Daemons the life of Socrates being too full of moral vertue to be directed by the counsels of an evil Angel For though I cannot grant as before I said that every man how wicked and unjust soever whether he be Iew or Gentile Turk or Infidel hath his Angel-Guardian which is the now received opinion of the Roman Schools yet that few selected ones among the Gentiles such as Socrates was who led their lives according to the Rules of Vertue and died as he did in defence of the only God against those many Idols which the Heathen worshipped might by Gods special grace have their Angel-Guardians I am not willing to deny And now I am fallen upon these Daemons I must take notice of another of the Devils practises which did as much promote his Kingdom of darkness as any temptation unto sin of what kinde soever I mean the raising of these Daemons into the rank and reputation of Celestial Deities and speaking by them in the mouths of the Heathen Oracles For by this means they gained on earth what they lost in Heaven and though they could not make themselves equal to God in power and greatness while they continued in the Heavens yet they found ways to be adored as God by poor ignorant people whose souls they had seduced to that wretched blindeness Of these Lactantius telleth us that they were called Daemones i. e peritos rerum scios from their general knowledge which the word Daemon doth import in the Greek Original that they had a Soveraign Prince amongst them whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Prince of Devils that counterfeiting first the persons of deceased Kings they aim to be worshipped in their Statua's and became so impudent at last Vt Dei nomen sibi deorum cultum vendicabant that they challenged to themselves the name of God and the divine worship which of right did belong unto it And to train up the people in this blinde Idolatry having first taught them to adore the images of some famous men whom they had caused to be entituled by the name of Deities sub statuis imaginibus consecratis delitescunt they shrouded themselves within their consecrated shrines and Images and from thence gave out Oracles touching things to come and sometimes so possessed the breasts of their Priests and Votaries that they did seem to be inspired with
unto certain ends And of this kind saith he was the death of the Crosse with all the wofull torments concurring with it which simply Christ shunned and declined but respectively to the end proposed did embrace it cheerfully So far and to this purpose and effect the said Reverend and Learned Doctor This being declared and the point thus stated by the Schoolmen we will next see how this agreeth with the sense of all the antient and orthodox writers who have delivered us their conceptions of this prayer of Christs And first saith Origen CHRIST taking to him the nature of mans flesh retained all the properties thereof according to which he prayed in this place that the cup might passe from him It is the property of every faithfull man to be unwilling to suffer any pain especially that tendeth unto death because he is a man and hath flesh about him but if God so will then to be content even against that will of his own because he is faithful There is also another exposition of this place which is this If it be possible that all these good things may come to effect without my passion which otherwise shall come by my death then let this passion passe from me but not otherwise And Athanasius thus As by death Christ abolished death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all humane miseries by suffering them as a man so by his fear he took away our fear and made men no longer to fear death But Cyril of Alexandria next Quando formidasse mortem videtur ut homo dicebat c. When Christ seemed to fear death he said as a man Father let this cup passe from me for though as a man he abhorred death yet as a man he refused not to performe the will of his Father and of himself being the word of God Then Beda thus agreeably to the sense of his Predecessors if death may die without my death in the flesh let this cup passe from me but because this will not otherwise be thy will be done not mine Then Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These words saith he proceeded from a naturall fear for as a man CHRIST would have had the cup to passe Next him Euthymius Zigabenus thus As a man Christ said if it be possible i. e. so far as it is possible and in saying yet not as I will but as thou wilt he teacheth that we must follow the will of God though nature reclaime And in the close of all Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is incident to the nature of man to fear death for death entred besides or against nature and therefore nature flyeth death And in another place The common fear of mans nature Christ cured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consuming it in himself and making it obedient to the will of God In which concurrent testimonies of the antient writers we have not only the full grounds of that distinction of the Schoolmen touching the superior and inferior Reason and the severall and adequate acts of each but also of the observation of Hugo de Sancto Victore and of those severall respects and reasons in which Christ may be said both to decline death and to embrace it But being there is so much speech amongst them of a naturall fears or the fears incident to nature we will once more repair unto the Schoolmen and enquire of them both what his natural fear was and in what respect it was he feared as also how this fear of his may be reconciled both with the will of God and his knowledg of it First then they say that natural fear ariseth in these three respects that is to say first in respect of things that cannot be avoided neither by resistance and incounter nor by flying from them secondly in respect of such things as may be escaped or overcome with a kind of uncertainty of event and danger of the issue thirdly in respect of such as may be escaped or overcome without any uncertainty of the event or issue but not without great conflict and extremity of labour Then they declare what things they were which Christ did fear and in what sort he feared them For first say they he feared death and the stroke of the justice of God his Father sitting on his tribunal or judgment seat to punish the sins of men for which he stood forth that day to answer and secondly he feared also that everlasting destruction which was due to mankind for those sins And finally they resolve it thus that the former of these two he feared as things impossible to be escaped in respect of the resolution and purpose of his heavenly Father which was that by his satisfactory death and sufferings and no other way man should be ransomed and delivered from the power of Satan and that he feared the latter that is to say declined it as a thing he knew he should escape without all doubt or uncertainty of the event though not without conflicting with the temptations of the Devil and the enduring of many bitter and grievous pangs which in that conflict might befall him Which resolution of the Schoolmen not only shews the reasons of CHRISTS natural fear but addes withall another reason why he was so amazed and sorrowfull and also why he prayed so long and with so great fervencie that the cup which was prepared for him might have passed over him And to say truth it must be somewhat more then the consideration and apprehension of a bodily death which could so much work upon our Saviour considering with how much gallantrie so many of the primitive Martyrs have defyed their torments and mounted on the scaffold with so clear a confidence as if they had not been to have suffered death but behold a Triumph And therefore first it may be said that besides the natural fear of death which is incident to the Saints of God however gallantly resolved to contemn the force of it by the assistance and support of the holy Spirit which he could not avoid and the avoidable fear of everlasting destruction which might be for a season presented to him he was to undergoe the whole wrath of God for the sins of mankind A wrath so infinite and just so far exceeding the strength and reach of mans nature to endure that our earthly infirmity to which for our sakes he submitted himself cannot conceive nor comprehend the greatnesse of it nor think upon the power thereof without fear and horror CHRIST saith a reverend and learned Prelate of this Church was not only to suffer that which in his Person should be thought sufficient in the righteous judgment of God to appease his anger and purge our sins but he was further to see and behold from what he delivered us even from the wrath to come For how should the price and force of his death be known unto him if he were ignorant what dreadfull and terrible vengeance was prepared
to the woman And the third was in reference to the Elect that Satan might see he had now no right no not so much as to their bodies which Christ hereafter would be pleased to restore to life Mr. Nowel as before we saw gives three other reasons that is to say First that the souls of the faithlesse might perceive the condemnation of their unbelief to be just and righteous Secondly that Satan the chief Prince of hell might see all the power of his tyranny to be weakned and broken nay utterly ruined And thirdly that the dead who in their life time believed in Christ might perceive the work of their Redemption to be now finished and finde the force and fruit thereof with most certain comfort But against this it is objected that Christ obtained this victory against hell and Satan and all the benefits redounding to the godly by it by his death and passion on the Crosse and therefore it was needlesse that on those occasions which seem most considerable in this businesse he should make a journey unto hell To which it is replyed two wayes First that it belongeth not to us to know the depth of Gods counsels and the reasons of Christs doings in every thing as if we were to call him to a strict account of all his actions and that considering how the Scriptures do so clearly testifie that his soul was not left in hell we are not to reject this clause either as superfluous or impertinent although we cannot tell precisely the main end and purpose why he was pleased to descend thither And secondly that though the victory against Hell and Satan was perfected upon the Crosse yet the manifestation of the same to the souls of the damned and the triumph which was due upon it over Satan and all the powers of darknesse was not and could not be performed but in hell alone We shewed you this before from Zanchius a moderate and learned man where he affirmeth according to the mind of the best interpreters that though those enemies were vanquished on the Crosse by Christ yet the triumph for the same was not performed untill he forced and entred the kingdome of hell as a glorious Conquerour Nay more then so Christs victory over death and hell if Athanasius may be credited as I think he may was of too great moment and importance to be dispatched in one place and by one act only Therefore saith he As Christ performed the condemnation of sin on the Earth the abolition of the curse on the Crosse and the redemption of corruption in the grave so he accomplished the dissolution of death in hell omnia loca permeans that going unto every place he might in every place work mans salvation So that Christs victory not being compleat as this Father thinketh and the triumph due upon the victory not to be celebrated any where so properly as in hell it self the antients did not hold his descent into hell to be very necessary for the godly but much unto the honour and glory of our blessed Saviour and to that end joyned it together with the Article of his resurrection as being the first part of his exaltation For as George Mylius a learned Lutheran very well observeth there are two things to be considered in the Article of Christs descent into hell First that it was no metaphorical but a true and real descent whereby our Saviour did descend to the lower parts of the earth Eph. 4. ipsasque damnatorum sedes even to the mansions of the damned and secondly that this Article is no part of his passion and humiliation but of his victory and triumph So then the Article standing as it did in all antient Copies notwithstanding all these vain assaults and the doctrine in the same contained being neither impossible or impertinent as it was pretended the next attempt made by the Adversaries of the same was to put such a sense or senses on it as might make it either useless to the Church of Christ or inconsistent with that meaning in which it had been taken generally by the Catholick Church And though the Cardinal would very fain impose this project on the Protestant Doctors and make them the first Authors of those devises by which the true meaning of this Article hath been impugned and the Article it self as good as cast out of the Creed yet by his leave he must ascribe this practise if it were a practise to his great Masters and Dictators in the Schools of Rome For sure it is Durandus one of their great School men before Luthers time denied expressely that the soul of Christ descended into hell secundum substantiam suam really and according to the substance of it but doth restrain the same ad effectus quosdam according to some certain effects and influences as the illuminating and beatifying of the Saints in Limbo Thus much the Cardinal himself doth confess ingenuously and against that opinion of Durandus doth put up this Thesis viz. Animam Christi proprie reipsa descendisse ad inferos that is to say that the soul of Christ really and in very deed did descend into hell which he confirmes by many strong and weighty reasons And sure it is that before him Aquinas himself the great Master of the Roman Schooles did put such a sense upon the Article as utterly disagreeth with that of the Antient Fathers whose doctrines they would make us weak men believe they do so tenaciously if not pertinaciously imbrace and defend For whereas the Fathers do maintain a descent into hell and do expound themselves that they mean by hell the place and mansions of the damned Aquinas states the question thus that Christ descended only unto Limbus patrum according to a real presence secundum realem praesentiam as his words there are and to all other places of the infernal pit secundum effectus tantum only according to the influence and effects thereof And in this point he hath been so close followed by the most part of the Schoolmen that Bellarmine conceived it neither fit nor safe to run directly and expresly against the stream and therefore goeth no further then probabile est that in most likelihood our Saviours soul descended really to all parts of hell So that although the current of Antiquity run an other way and that the Fathers do deliver it for a Catholick verity that the soul of Christ did really and locally descend to all parts of hell even to the mansions of the damned as before was said yet if Aquinas and the Schoolmen like their own way better 't is but probable at the most a matter of probability only and no more then so Such is the great respect they bear after all their brags to the traditions of the Fathers Which being so the Cardinal had but little reason to impose it on the leading men of the reformed Churches that they perverted the true meaning of the
alone Who when he findes his heavenly Father troubled with our perversness our high hand of sinning and ready to execute vengeance on us for our great misdeeds doth interpose the merit of his death and passion shews him the print of the Thorns in his sacred head his hands and feet boared through with nayls and his side pierced with the spear At sight whereof Gods heavy anger fals away and his wrath is pacified and he lays by the instruments of his rage and vengeance Tela reponuntur manibus fabricata Cyclopum as the Poet hath it and he resolves to tarry a little longer and expect the amendment of his people An Office from the which our High Priest never can desist whilest there are men upon the world to provoke God to anger and though we dare not say of him as St. Paul did of himself that he dyeth daily yet we may safely say and make it the rejoycing which we have in CHRIST IESVS our Lord that the merit of his death and passion are daily hourly nay continually presented by him to the view and consideration of Almighty God A point of no mean consolation to us whilest we are subject to the sins and lusts which we bear about us in the flesh and cannot otherwise be excused from them but by changing our mortal into immortality And this is that which was prefigured in the Law of Moses by the High Priests entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum which was parted with a vail or traverse Curtain from the rest of the Temple to make atonement with the Lord for the peoples sins The parallel stands thus between them First none might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum or the holiest of all but the High Priest only Levit. 16.3 So Christ our High Priest and none but he hath entred into the holy places not made with hands to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Secondly as the veil of the Temple was lifted up or drawn aside to make room for the High Priest to enter into it so did the vail of the Temple rent in sunder at the very instant when the soul of our High Priest did depart from his body and enter the Celestial Sanctuary Mattb. 27. Thirdly the High Priest was apparelled in his Priestly vestments Levit. 16.10 and so our Saviour is described in the Rev. 13.13 Fourthly the High Priest entred into the Sanctuary but once a year which was upon the Feast of the Expiation Exod. 30.10 So did Christ enter once into the holy place which was upon the day of his death and passion whereon he obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 And last of all as the High Priest made an offering for the sins of the people though it were only of the bloud of Calves and Goats before he went within the veil Levit. 16.12 15. which bloud he was to sprinkle on the Mercy-seat vers 14 15. and thereby made atonement in the holy place for all the Congregation of Israel vers 17. So before Christ our High Priest entred into the Heaven of glories he made an offering of himself Heb. 9.25 and by his own bloud entred into the holy places vers 12. which bloud of his that is to say the merits of it he sprinkleth on the Mercy-seat of Almighty God and thereby doth avert him from his displeasure and reconcile him daily to poor sinful man Which Parallel thus made we may the better understand St. Pauls drift and meaning in comparing the High Priests together and the excellency of Christs Priesthood above that of Aaron The Priests saith he i. e. those of inferiour order went into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God But into the second went the High Priest alone once every year not without bloud which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people But Christ being made an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands neither by the bloud of Goats and Calves but by his one bloud did he enter into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us Not that he should offer himself often as the High Priest entred into the holy place every year with the bloud of others but that being offered once a sacrifice for sin he might for ever sit at the right hand of God chap. 10. ver 12. to appear in the sight of God for us unto our Salvation and to make intercession for us Thus standeth the case with our High Priest in the point of Sacrifice in which as in the other Offices of offering up our prayers to God interceding for us and pouring down his blessings on us he doth perform the Office or Function of an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech But there is yet one Argument more that St. Paul brings in proof of Melchisedechs Priesthood which is that he tithed Abraham or took Tithes of him Heb. 7.2 9. And if we prove not this also of our Saviour Christ the parallel betwixt him and Melchisedech will not be complete nor his high Priesthood so asserted as it ought to be But herein the Apostle will not fail us neither affording us two arguments to make good this point the one derived from the eternity of our Saviours Priesthood the other from the Prerogative which Melchisedech had in this particular above Aaron and the sons of Levi. The first stands thus Melchisedech took Tithes of Abraham in his own right as Priest of the most high God whose Priesthood being everlasting in the Person of Christ for he hath an unchangeable Priesthood vers 24. the right of taking Tithes is inherent in him on the meer taking on himself of Melchisedechs function I mean in being made a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech And this is that to which St. Paul alludeth saying Here men that die receive Tithes that is to say Here in the land of Canaan by the Law of Moses the Priests and Levites of our Nation being mortal men and subject to the stroke of death aswell as we do receive tithes of us to shew that we acknowledge them to be our Superiours in their place and Ministery But there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth His meaning is that when Melchisedech received Tithes of Abraham he received them as a Type of our Saviour Christ who now liveth with God and by his Resurrection did make known that he liveth for ever and lived to execute the Office of a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech He then of whom it is witnessed that he liveth receiveth Tithes or hath at least a right and title to receive them in regard of his unchangeable and eternal Priesthood But he receiveth them not in person having transferred all his interests in them and title to them upon the Ministers of his Gospel No otherwise then God conferred the Tithes of the land
to the water but the institution nor to the Sacramental water of it self alone but to the holy Spirit which is active in it Et ipsi soli hujus efficienciae privilegium manet to which belongeth the prerogative in this great effect For as the Spirit of God moving upon the waters of the great Abyss did out of that imperfect matter produce the world so the same Spirit moving on the waters of Baptism doth by its mighty power produce a regenerate Creature From hence it is that in the setting forth of so great a work the water and the Spirit are oft joyned together as in St. Iohn Except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in St. Paul accrrding to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And in St. Iohns Epistle also There be three that bear witness on the earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood And if the Spirit go along with the Waters of Baptism as we see them joyned together in the holy Scripture no question but it will be made effectual to the work intended which is the washing away of sins whether smal or great whether Original or Actual of what sort soever For proof whereof besides what hath been said of this Point already let us behold the practise of the Primitive times when the Discipline of the Church was grown so severe that some were hardly admitted at all unto publick Penance others removed from the communion of the Church for three four or seven years together and sometimes as the quality of the sin appeared for the whole time of their lives A Discipline which the Church used onely towards those which had given up their names in baptism to be visible members of that body whereof Christ was Head and that made more unpleasing to most sort of men upon the growth and spreading of the Novatian Heresie who mistaking the Apostles meaning declared all those to be uncapable of mercy who sinned after Baptism and therefore neither would admit them unto publick penance nor otherwise restore them to the Churches peace of whom St. Cyprian thus complaineth Sic obstinatos esse quosdam ut dandam non putent lapsis poenitentiam And though the Orthodox party did abominate these Novatian rigors yet were they too strait-laced towards those who fell into any publick or notorious sin after they had received the Sacrament of Regeneration it being conceived that after Baptism major in sordibus delictorum reatus as it is in Augustine the smalest sins seemed greater than indeed they were Upon this ground and an assurance which they had that all their sins whatever were expunged in Baptism it was the custom of too many to defer their Baptism till the hour of their death or till they lay so far past hope on the bed of sickness that nothing but the stroke of death was to be expected Thus doth the Story tell us of the Emperor Constantine that in extremo vitae die when he was even brought to the point of death he was baptized in Nicomedia by the hands of Eusebius the like of Theodosius a most pious Prince upon these grounds St. Austine did defer his baptism a long time together that so he might more freely enjoy those pleasures to which he was addicted in his younger years On the like fear of such relapses as were censured so severely in those rigid times he put off the baptizing of Adeodatus his own natural Son till he came to thirteen years of age at what time the severity of the Church began to slaken or rather the good Fathers judgement was then changed to the better on the right understanding of the use and nature of that holy Sacrament A custom as ill taken up so as much condemned and subject to the Churches censures when occasion served those which were so baptized and escaped from death whom they called Clinici because they were baptized on the bed of sickness being disabled by the Canons from the holy Ministery But whether censured or not censured it comes all to one as to the point I have in hand which was to shew that in the practise and opinion of those elder times the Sacrament of Baptism was held to be the general plaster for all manner of sins and though sometimes deferred till the hour of death on the occasion and mistakes before remembred yet then most earnestly desired ad delenda erratu illa quae quoniam mortales erant admiserant as the Historian saith of the Emperor Constantine for expiating of those sins which they had committed But on the other side as some did purposely defer it till the time of their death out of too great a fear of the Church's censures and a desire to injoy the pleasures of sin yet a little longer so others and those the generality of the people of God out of a greater care of their childrens safety procured it to be administred unto them in their â—endrest infancy almost as soon as they were born And this they did on very pious and prudential considerations though there be no express command nor positive precept for it in the holy Scripture for when we read that we were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal. 51.5 that all men are by nature the children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 and that except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.5 What Parent can so far put off all natural affections as not to bring his child to baptism especially if there be any danger of death as soon as all things fitting can be had in readiness for that ministration And though there be no positive precept nor express command for Infant-baptism in the holy Scripture it is sufficient ground for the Church to go on if it be proved to be an Apostolical practise and that it is at least an Apostolical practise there will appear sufficient evidence to any man not prepossessed with prejudice and mis-perswasions For when we finde particular mention of the baptizing of whole housholds as of that of Lydia Act. 16.15 of the Gaoler vers 33. of the same Chapter and of Stephanus 2 Cor. 1.16 Either we must exclude children from being part of the houshold which were very absurd or else admit them with the rest to this holy Sacrament But because many exceptions have been made against these instances some thinking it possible enough that those housholds had no children in them as we see many families in great Towns and Cities where no Infants are others restraining the administration of Baptism unto such of the houshold as by giving testimony of their Faith and Repentance were made capable of it we must for further proof make use of a Rule in Law and back that Rule of Law by a practical Maxim delivered by the
against Gods Elect. That they do compass the earth to seduce poor man we have it in the book of Iob where he is said to go to and fro in the earth to walk up and down in it and that he wandereth in the ayr we are told by St. Paul by whom he is called the Prince of the power of the ayr But that he was cast down into Hell besides those places of the Old Testament produced before we are assured by St. Peter and that they are reserved there in chains like prisoners is affirmed expressely by St. Iude Not in material chains we conceive not so but that they are restrained by the power of God and are so bridled and tyed up by his mighty hand that they are neither masters of their own abilities nor have the liberty of acting what they would themselves but only so far forth as he shall permit as is most clear and manifest in the case of Iob. And from thence came no doubt this Proverbial speech that the Devil cannot go beyond his chain And though they feel some part of that dreadful torment to which they are reserved in the house of darkness yet is it but initium dolorum or the beginning of sorrows compared with those they are to suffer in the world to come In this regard the Devils did not only cry out against Christ our Saviour that he was come to torment them before their â—ime Mat. 8.29 but they did so abominate the conceit of the bottomeless Pit that they most earnestly besought him Ne imperaret ut in Abyssum irent not to command them down to that deep Abysse Luk. 8.31 Praesentia Salvatoris est tormentum Daemonum Our Saviours presence saith St. Hierom was the Devils torment who seeing him upon the earth when they looked not for him ad judicandos se venisse crederent conceived that he was come to bring them to judgement And to say truth it is no marvel that they were so afflicted at the sight of our Saviour considering that they knew full well that howsoever he might bring Salvation to the sons of men yet for themselves they were uncapable of that mercy and were to have no part in the Worlds Redemption The reasons of which so great difference as the Schoolmen think are these especially First because the Angels fell of themselves but man at the suggestion or perswasion of others Et levius est alienamente peccaffe quam propria as S. Augustine hath it 2. The Angels in the height of their pride fought to be like God in Omnipotencie which is an incommunicable property of the Divine Nature and cannot be imparted unto any other but man desired to be like him only in Omniscience or in the general knowledge of things created which may be communicated to a creature as to the humane â—oul of Christ. Thirdly the Angels were immaterial intellectual Spirits inhabiting in the presence of God and the light of his countenance and therefore could not sin by errour or misperswasion but with an high hand and affected malice which comes neerest to the sin against the holy Ghost and so irremissible but man was placed by God in a place remote left to the frailty of his own will and wanted many of those opportunities for persisting in Grace which the others had Fourthly because the Angels are not by propagation from one another but were created all at once so that of Angels some might fall and others might stand and that though many did apostate yet still innumerable of them held their first estate but men descend by generation from one stock or root and therefore the first man falling and corrupting his nature derived the same corruption upon all his race so that if God had not appointed a Redemption for man he had utterly lost one of the most excellent creatures that ever he made Fiftly the Angels have the fulness of intellectual light and when they take view of any thing they see all which doth pertain unto it and thereupon go on with such resolution that they neither alter nor repent but man who findeth one thing after another and one thing out of another dislikes upon consideration what before he liked and so repents him of the evil which he had committed Sixthly because there is a time prefixt both to men and Angels after which there is no possibility of bettering their estate and altering their condition whether good or bad which is the hour of death in man and unto Angels was the first deliberate action either good or evil after which declaration of themselves unto them that fell there was no hope of grace or of restitution For hoc est Angelis Casus quod hominibus mors that which in man is death was this fall to the Angels as most truly Damascene Finally the Angels had all advantages of nature condition place abilities and were most readily prepared and fitted for their immediate and everlasting glorification whereas man was to pass through many uncertainties to tarry a long life here in this present World and after to expect till the general Judgement before he was to be admitted to eternal Glories In some or all of these respects Christ did not take upon him the nature of Angels nor effect any thing at all towards their Redemption but he took on him the seed of Abraham that so the heirs of Abrahams faith might be made heirs also of the Promises of eternal life So that these Angels being desperate of their own Salvation and stomaching that a creature made of dust and ashes should be adopted to those glories from which they fell have laboured ever since to seduce poor man to the like apostasie and plunge him in the gulf of the same perdition Et solatium perditionis suae perdendis Hominibus operantur saith Lactantius truly This to effect as the same Lactantius there affirmeth per totam terram vagantur they have dispersed themselves over all the World and as mankinde did increase and propagate so had they still their Instruments and Emissaries to work upon the frailty of that perishing creature by all means imaginable The principal and proper Ministery of these evil Angels whom we will hereafter call by the name of Devils is to tempt men to sin and to this end they improve all their power and those opportunities which sinful man is apt to give them And to this trade they fell assoon as the World began working upon the frailty of Eve by a beautiful fruit but more by feeding her with a possibility of being made like to God himself and by her means corrupting the pure soul of Adam to the like transgression In this regard from this foul murder perpetrated on the soul of Adam which he made subject by this means to the death of sin and consequently to the death of the body also our Saviour calleth him Homicidam ab initio a murderer from the beginning Ioh. 8.34 And as he