superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded as that no bone of him was broken and that his side was pierced and the like Phila.
can there be no ground for imputation and so it cannot passe but by propagation Mathe. But how prove you Christs soule not immediatly created Phila. Because he was to take mans nature body and soule that both by him might be redeemed Therefore he took whole humane nature of the blessed virgin as was promised The seed of the woman shal break the serpents head and Rom. 1.3 He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Beside if soules and so his soule were immediately created of God then Adams sin must be imputed to him as he was man as well as to us and so he should be a sinner but sin was not imputed to him but only reputed his And then if it came not by immediate creation then it came by formation in the womans seed as ours by propagation And if we understand it not thus that it was immediately formed in the first conception i. when the holy Ghost separated that part of the blessed Virgins seed for his Manhood to the soule whereof the divinity was immediatly united to the body This dilemma will trouble us namely that either his divine nature was united to a bruit body or else the body subsisted by it selfe our of the Divine nature Mathe. But if Christs humane nature were thus formed or propagated I see not yet how he can ever the more escape the taint of originall sin Phila. I suppose you beleeve that he was conceived by the holy Ghost and so the matter of his humane nature was sanctified and purged from that stain Mathe. I beleeve he was conceived by the holy Ghost yet I know not how to beleeve that that conception was sanctifying or purging away of sin from his humane nature nor his humane nature from sin but only a separation and consecration of that part of the blessed Virgins substance to that holy work and endowment of it with all graces fit thereunto For there can be no sanctification without a Mediatour and there is but one Mediator 1 Tim. 2.5 by whose blood all are cleansed from sin yea the holy Ghost cleanseth none but by his blood so that if Christs nature did need sanctification then it also needed a Mediatour and then he must be a Mediatour for himselfe which he could not be for a Mediatour is not a Mediatour of one Phila. You say true and have almost wound your selfe out of this labyrinth For indeed the holy Ghost in this conception did not cleanse Christs nature from sin but did separate that substance which was not sinfull from a sinfull person for a person only is sinfull substance is not Now Christ did not take her person but substance only leaving the accident of sin which adhereth only to a person and so though Christs nature were in Adam and so in the Virgin who was of that sinfull line yet his person was in neither for he was the eternall son of God who in that instant that the humane nature was conceived or separated by the holy Ghost from the blessed Virgin Mary did assume it into himselfe to be one person and thus his nature could never be tainted with originall sin for his humane nature before that was never a person and when it was a person it was propagated not after the ordinary and naturall way and so without sin Nay more the substance of his humane nature though it were sinfull subsisting in the blessed Virgins person yet so it could not be Christs because personality cannot be imparted but it was made his by separation from her by the holy Ghost and his own immediate assumption and so great is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 1.16 The not conceiving this rightly made the Marcionites and Manicheans say Christ had no true body and Apollinaris to say he had no humane soule Mathe. I thank you for these solutions but yet one thing stichs namely how the soule can be said to be immortall if it be propagated Phila. Consider that mortality proceeds not from generation so much as malediction of God for Adams sin who if he had not sinned his body might have been as immortall as the soule so that the propagation of the soule doth not make it meerly mortall but the act of Gods immediate power in the production of it makes it immortall because whatsoever is so produced cannot be dissolv'd but by the same power by which it first took life though the body may because it is bred only by the power of nature beside the soule is not made of any corporall matter and therefore is not corruptible though congenerate with the body Mathe. Now being somewhat satisfied about the soule I pray tell what principles are there to lead it to felicity Phila. Some principles there be which God hath given to nature and left in nature to seek felicity but as some know what happinesse is so others make no use of those principles Mathe. I pray what is felicity Phila. Mans soveraign and chiefest good consisteth in the enjoiment of God which confers to man concurrence of all good without any contrarieties which is opposed to that misery into which he is fallen by the first mans sin namely blindnesse of mind fondnesse of affection stubbornnesse of will inclineablenesse to all evill way wardnesse from all good for which cause we are subjected to vanity corruptibilitie all miseries of body and soul temporal and eternall death and damnation Now mans felicity is an estate contrary to all these After this many learned Philosophers searched but could not find it and why Because they knew not God from whom it proceeds and is the giver of it by redeeming man from all misery and from death to life by his free grace in Christ which is life eternall and true felicity to know aright John 17.3 Mathe. What principles lead thereunto Phila. Not the principles of nature only for they teach no further than there is a felicity but not what it is which made the Philosophers in such a labyrinth about it some placing it in pleasure some in poverty Vid. Varro some in knowledge some in riches some in honours as many people doe now For as some aim at no end or mark at all but like foolish children shoot their arrowes up in the aire some aim at a bad end in which can be no happinesse some at a seeming good which is not good in it selfe some at felicity in generall but go blindly and lamely about it wanting right leading principles The principles are such therefore as God hath revealed who is in himselfe the chiefest good and therefore can best ordaine the way whereby man may enjoy him This way is set down in the holy Scriptures for which Scriptures sake the world was made that so in time that might be revealed Polanus which in God was hidden at the beginning namely that Christ should come and redeem mankind from the wrath of God the slavery of Satan and the dominion of sin and death which
to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if
no eternall happinesse God had made man in vain with so vast a mind which no finite thing can satisfie and then there must be a way to this happinesse or else that happinesse is ordained in vain also for man Mathe. Some think it is not necessary to know any more happiness then nature sheweth and dictates to us Phila. Nature sheweth in part that felicity which is necessary for man to know but not fully but as in the wrong end of an optick glass which makes things appear farther off or lesse then they are or else sheweth us a false felicity as in a magnifying or multiplying glasse wherein it appeareth bigger or more then it is all which sheweth there is an happinesse though nature mistakes it or cannot perfectly shew it though it be necessary for us to know it Mathe. How prove you it is necessary for us to know it Phila. 1. Because I have a soule capable of such a knowledge nor is an industrious soule quiet till it find either it or something like it wherein it may find a rest and content Therefore the spirit of a man is the candle of God to search hidden secrets Pro. 20.27 yea even the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by desire a man having separated himselfe seeks and intermedleth with all wisedome Pro. 18.1 2. Because man is made for it God intended him for happinesse For as the world was made that God might be revealed so God was revealed that man might know him which is felicity God sought to bring man to it first by obedience wherein he failing thereby shewing the mutability of created nature God next set before him the object of beleeving viz. his promise of Christ to know whom in God is life eternall John 17.3 and felicity 3. Because man is a future not only a present creature for he hath a soul which will be existent after death in joy or sorrow and therefore necessary for him to know felicity and to avoid misery Mathe. How prove you that he hath such a soule Phila. From our immortall desires to live either in memory or posterity for ever which argueth the immortall nature of the soule though it be deceived in the choise of it by placing immortality where it is not So Absalom set up his monumentall pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 and some call their lands after their own names Psa 49.12 and men desire tombs which argueth a desire of perpetuall life No creature hath this desire but man for things without life desire to preserve themselves in their particular being Secundum numerum pronunc Vid. Scor. Dist 94. and beasts desire the continuance of their kind only for the present time but man desires a perpetuall being included in no bounds 2. Because it hath a kind of infinit apprehension comprehending singular things and universall things and the kinds of all things which argueth an immortall nature 3. Because God hath made a perpetuall covenant with man Numb 18.19 and therefore the soul hath a continuall being in or out of the body else is the Covenant ended But God is not the God of the dead Mat. 22.32.33 but of the living for all do live to him therefore he cals himselfe the God of the Patriarchs after their death Exod. 3.6 so some in scripture are said to be gathered to their fathers in peace though slaine as 2 Chron. 35. as good Josiah But it is meant to the spirit of the Fathers which were at rest and peace with God bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 among the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 4. Because men undergo losse and crosse and death without cause joifully which were madnesse if the soule were not immortall and expected after death some felicity to enjoy 1 Cor. 15.19 But many love not their lives that they may find them hereafter Mar. 8.35 5. Because God in the last judgement may shew himselfe just as Gen. 18.23 for in this world good men suffer and evill men flourish Psal 37. Psal 71.2 3. so Jer. 12.1 yet it is but to fat them for the slaughter Jer. 12.3 Therefore the soule is immortall that every man may find the justice of God at last 6. The learned heathen did acknowledge this Arist Cic. Tusc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling the soul the first motion as if it were the beginning of motion so by their letting an Eagle flie aloft when the bodies of their Heroes were put into the funerall fires It is true that the Scripture saith the soul that sinneth that shall die but the meaning is not that the soul shall be dissolved in his essentiall life but in the relative life to God-ward by whose goodness and mercy it obtaineth an eternall felicity Mathe. But how can I prove that it hath any existence after the death of the body Phila. Because it is distinguished in this by all wise men from the souls or life of bruits for the spirit of a man goeth upward and the spirit of a beast goeth downward Eccles 3.21 And again Eccles 12.7 the dust shall return to the earth and the spirit to God that gave it which returning to God signifies the souls immortality Psallus that is as God alwaies is so the soule is subsisting with God for if the soule be immortall it cannot wax old Phocylid but must live ever so that you must denie the soule to be immortall or else grant that it never dieth But the old Chaldeans and Egyptians shall rise against such Christians whose precept was that a man should make haste to the light and splendors of the Father and to seek Paradise which is the splendid and cleer region of the soule Trismegistus confirms the perpetuall being of the soul Cic. Tusc Pythagoras saith as much and Tully from him Epictetus saith we are the kinsmen of God and return from whence we came Plat. in Phaed. Comment Mor. Zill Hisp in Plat. Plato is more clear then any And St Paul himselfe makes use of Aratus in the Acts saying We are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 But beside Christ gives us greater light in the point John 3.36 saying He that beleeveth in me hath life eternall and to the thief he said This day thou shalt be with me when as that day both their bodies were dead 2 Cor. 5.1 So St Paul saith We know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building of God in the heavens He doth not say when this house shall be repaired as at the resurrection but so soon as it is dissolved So in the fifth verse saith he When we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and therefore are willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord therefore he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ And St Stephen praieth God to receive his spirit But beside all this if we beleeve that any who were raised from death in Scripture
but temporary yet it is more then all mens suffering eternall damnation 1. That it stands with Gods justice to punish the just if he be surety for the unjust as a man may justly exact mony of a surety which he never had Mathe. Was death all that Christ suffered for us Phila. No his whole life was a crosse and martyrdome For his sufferings were privative and positive the privative concerned both natures his divine because it was voluntarily deprived of that glory joy and felicity which it had for it was eclipsed while he dwelt upon earth John 17.5 in a vaile of flesh and by the darknesse of mens hearts who did not apprehend his glory So to his humane nature did justly belong all joy and happinesse because he did perfectly keep Gods Law yet he did want it in the daies of his flesh for he was of no reputation Phil. 2.7 And this he suffered to bring us to perfect glory and to teach us to hate sin which darkens the beams of Christs glory and to be content to have our lives hidden in Christ as his was till he be revealed in glory and we with him Col. 3.3 4. He suffered also positively and that 1. In regard of evill imputed to him for Gods justice charged all mans sins upon him as if he himselfe had been guilty of them all 2 Cor. 5.21 he was made sin for us and bare our sins in his body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and therefore God cannot require us to answer for them also but we may live comfortably in holinesse 1 Pet. 2.24 and die in assurance of happinesse 2. He suffered positively in regard of evill inflicted upon him from his conception to his resurrection and all for us For the malediction of the Law laid upon us not only death but a wretched life and therefore he suffered both yet not sicknesse nor the pains of diseases which are not common to all the nature of man but speciall judgements upon some particular men But he suffered all the common miseries of mans nature which did concord to the free execution of his office of Redemption As 1. By the humility of his incarnation to be made a man Luke 2. Phil. 2. To come of mean parents and to be born in a stable and made of no account and reputation and this to expiate the arrogancy of our first parents who would be as God therefore he is put beneath the lowest condition of men So he hides the glory of his eternall birth by a temporary to purchase for us a spirituall and heavenly birth so to teach great men not to be proud of their birth but seek the new birth which is true honour and glory and to comfort the poor whose children have poor provision at their birth and Christ had lesse then they Again he was mightily debased from his birth to his death as by being forced to flye from his native Country to Aegypt to abolish Adams sin which exiled him from Paradise and to repurchase heaven for us and to comfort those godly by his example who suffer banishment Againe for thirty years together he lived obscurely under Joseph as if he had been the Carpenters son and so reputed no man acknowledging him either as the Son of God or the King of Israel or the worlds Saviour but was as a root springing out of a drie ground Isa 53.2 despised and rejected of men What need Gods children therefore be discontented if the world regard them not Christ was so used But these were but private sufferings the more publick began after his baptisme As 1. By being tempted of Satan Mat. 4. in the desart where he overcame the arch enemy of mankind in a single duell This was he led to by the spirit of God not by any lust of vain glory in himselfe that he might make our pilgrimage in this world safe and secure and that he having experience of his temptations might have sympathy of ours and be the more ready to help us Heb. 2.17 and shew us a way how to put the devil to flight even by quoting Scripture as he did which is indeed the sword of the spirit It teacheth us also to beware of being led into temptation by our lusts but let the spirit of God bring us to the combat and he will bring us off with honor as Christ was For he leads us not by seducement of deceit nor allureth us by inticements to evill or by perswasions to venture upon any sinfull way but doth actuate us to combate with those temptations which he foresees are laied for us that our vertues may be improved and God glorified by such probations of us So it may justly comfort us in all temptations that Christ having overcome the devill in our behalfe hath merited victory for us His next suffering was extream poverty and want of the comforts of this life Mat. 8.20 he had not where to lay his head He lived upon alms and borrowed an Asse And this was to make us rich 2 Cor. 8.9 yea to make our selves poor by our liberality to others 2 Cor. 8.9 and not to place our felicity in worldly things nor seek great matters for our selves but be content with the meanest estate Christ was as poor as any man Beside he had infirmities like us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 He hungred and thirsted though he was the bread and water of life and was weary though the way to life He was subject to anger sadnesse fear and sorrow and this was that he might merit strength for us and we be enabled in him Further he suffered extream disgrace from the Jewes for they denied his divinity his birth by a Virgin nor would receive him as their King and Saviour John 1.11 They reproached him also unjustly and accused him of blasphemy against God and of seducing the people Against the Magistrate with treason and sedition against his own soule as if he had been a conjurer so with gluttony and drunkennesse and a favourer of sinners by which means the people were offended in him Mark 6.3 All this fell upon him by the imputation of our sins who were guilty though he was innocent and therefore he spake but little in his own defence Also that he might deliver us from eternall shame and merit for us eternall glory and that we might be ashamed for his sake to suffer all reproaches Heb. 12.3 4. Beside he underwent many dangers of being cast down the clift of Nazareth headlong and of stoning by the Jewes All which he suffered as the fruits and effects of our sins and to save us from everlasting destruction But above all this he suffered his enemies to consult his death to be betraid by Judas to be denied by Peter to be forsaken by the rest And this he suffered for our perfidiousnesse in Adam our forsaking God and denying his truth and beleeving the devill Farther a bitter agony seized upon him in the garden Mat. 26.38 not
for fear of death but of the tyranny of sin death and the devill which they had got over mankind Next the great ingratitude of the most part of mankind the dispersion of little flocks the scandall they might take at his death the sad ruine of the Jewes which he foresaw and the wrath of God for mans sin of which now he began to have a sense as being surety for us And all this he suffered without any perturbation of sinfull passion And this was done surely to expiate our sinfull fears and doubts and to encourage us in any terrors that arise from a troubled conscience though they put us into great agonies But these were not all his sufferings For he suffered 1. By the consultation of his adversaries the Priests Scribes and Pharisees who when they should have been preparing for the Passeover they were consulting how to take away the true Paschall Lambs life and would have done it at that time but that they feared the people more then they feared God 2. He suffered by the treason of Judas one of his own disciples whom he made steward of his family and had washed those feet that were so apt to shed his blood And this he suffered 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled that foretold it Psal and Joh. 13.8 2. To beware of coverousnesse which will make a man even to betray Christ at any rate 3. To fore warn Ministers of all others to take heed of being corrupted this way lest they become like salt that hath lost his savour 4. To teach us to beware of sin under what pretense soever For it is likely that Iudas did not intend to have Christ killed but only to get the mony supposing that he would make an escape which may be argued from that that he was so troubled when he saw he was condemned Also to beware of the smallest beginnings of sin For at the first Iudas his sin was but discontent that he loft the gain of Mary her ointment and she justified in her deed By this the devill entred his heart that he resolved to sell the anointed because he could not sell the ointment His next suffering was by being apprehended by wicked hands to unloose the hold of sin and Satan from us and in a garden to expiate the sin committed in Paradise Then bound to unloose the bands of wickednesse and the works of the devill Then toffed from pillar to post from one High Priest to another Then abused by the souldiers and Jewes Luke 22. who buffeted that face which the holy Patriarchs and Prophers longed to behold Cant. 8.1 And scoffed at his prophecying which never failed But it is no wonder if they that had scorned the Prophet of the Lord did also scoffe the Lord of the Prophets This was done to him to expiate our sinne of mocking God as if he could not see and our losing of his glorious image yet he would not die in a tumult but was solemnly brought before the Judge and there falsely accused to free us from his that accuseth the brethren And received sentence of death unjustly to save us from the sentence of Gods condemnation So he was charged with sedition and blasphemy to free us by his attonement from the guilt of high treason against God To all which he answered not saving to the High Priest that he was the Son of God because he conjured him by the name of God to tell him And to Pilate that he was a King though his Kingdome was not of this world that he might leave the Jewes without excuse and take away the occasion from Pilate of justly condemning him and to fulfill the Scripture Isa 53.7 that he was like a sheep dumb before the shearer and to comfort his people that they have a King in Sion though he regardeth not worldly glory Mathe. Methinks he doth not answer very plainly to Pilate and Herod nothing at all I pray what was the reason Phila. He said he was a King but such an one that meant not to stickle for worldly glory which seemeth strange because God had promised to give him the throne of David Luke 1.32 33. and that he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever but that is meant not literally but spiritually which teacheth not to expect that true Religion should stand in outward glory but pray that the eies of our understanding being opened we may see wherein consists the glory of Christs Kingdome Eph. 1.19 Col. 3.2 and therefore to employ our selves about heavenly things and not earthly things for our trading consisteth in such commodities as appeareth Phil. 3.20 for he never promised any great earthly possessions to his followers as that Impostor Mabomet did but exhorted them to seek the preferments of his spirituall Kingdome 2. He said he came to bear witnesse of the truth which though Pilate scoffed at it saying what is truth yet it was a truth for not submitting to which the Devill was cast down and all men are damned that wil not beleeve it viz. that all creatures that are capable of eternall happinesse must attain to it by dependance upon the Son of God by which we are informed what poor entertainment truth finds in the world that Christ is fain to descend from heaven to avouch it Therefore let us receive the truth with all respect and stand for it to the death for so we shall prove our selves of the truth and to be his subjects Now he would say no more to Pilate in his defence lest he should seem to endeavor to prevent the sentence of death By which silence he satisfieth God for our lavish tongues and that he might meritoriously plead for us in heaven Nor would he confesse himselfe the Son of God to Pilate because Pilate was uncapable of the doctrine of the Trinity and also because it was no time now to reveal his Deity but to die in his humanity This filence did so amaze Pilate that he sought to save him or at least to put his condemnation over to others And therefore first offers to the Jewes to judge him by their law Iohn 18.31 which they refusing brought to passe what Christ had sortold viz. what death he should die namely the Romane death of the Crosse by which we may see that all the policy of men cannot disappoint the purpose of God in his childrens sufferings Upon their refusing Pilate sends him to Herod who set him at naught with his men of war because he would not speak to Herod nor shew any miracle before him Luk. 23.8 9 10 thereby shewing how little he esteemed of Herods greatnesse that would not feed the lightnesse and vanity of his mind by casting his pearls before such a swine This scorn of Herod and his souldiers he suffered that we might be esteemed of God and his holy army of Angels Herod finding no fault in him Luke 23.15 yet he sends back to Pilate and in scorn of his claim to
everlasting Heb. 7.24 A Sacrifice he was in his manhood not Eucharisticall but expiatory offered up whole like the Holocaust for sin which was burned up to ashes by the fire of Gods wrath And his Godhead was the spirituall Altar called the eternall spirit by which he offered up himselfe Heb. 9.14 yet the Crosse might be taken as a materiall Altar upon which his body was laid for though the Altar sanctifieth the gift as it is the utensill of Gods instistution yet he that sanctifieth himselfe may sanctifie the Altar too by his own oblation the fruit whereof made a blessed attonement by the sweet savour thereof Eph. 5.2 for all those that are crucified with him by crossing their own corrupt natures and that look upon Christ by faith as on the brazen Serpent that cured the people Iohn 3.14 and also to consecrate themselves to God as a living sacrifice to his service Rom. 12.1 Mathe. I pray shew me the reasons why he was erucified in such a manner Phila. He was crucified naked to satisfie for Adams losing the garment of innocence and might uncloath us of mortality of which the skins given to Adam for cloathing was an Emblem and cloath us with his merits also that he and we might enter into heaven naked as Adam did into earthly paradise so to comfort us that when the world and death strips us naked of all we have to suffer it joyfully for we shall find a cloathing from heaven 2 Cor. 5.4 when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and therefore to be content in the mean time Lignum mortis Lignum vitae that the world be crucified to us and we to the world Again he was fastned to the wood that death might be driven out of the world by a tree as it came in by a tree and life brought back to us again He was laied on the crosse as Isaac on the wood and nailed as foretold Psal 22.17 they digged my hands and my feet also that all bils and bonds of law against us might be nailed with him to his Crosse 1 Pet. 2.14 Then he was lifted up that he might carry our sins from the earth and conquer the spirits that rule in the aire Col. 2.15 He was crucified with his hands spread as reaching them out to embrace both Jewes and Gentiles that are not a gainsaying people His blood was shed on the Crosse to answer all the sacrifices of the Law without which there had been no remission Heb. 9.18 whereas it is now an universall medicine for all our soules languishing 1 John 17. and obtaineth for us eternall redemption Heb. 9.12 Beside he was crucified between two theeves 1. Because it was foretold that he should be reckoned among the transgressors 2. Esa 53.12 That he might sanctifie the death of repenting malefactors for his death in effect was to be divided among sinners of whom at last he would be Judge while some stand on his right hand and some on his left as the bad and repenting Theefe hung Now while he hung on the Crosse alive he suffered beside the paine 1. The division of his garments and casting lots on his vesture as was prophecied Psal 22.19 2. To shew that his very enemies should partake of his graces 3. Into four parts to shew that his good grace should edifie the four parts of the world So the not dividing his other coat shewed that his righteousnesse should be applied whole to every beleever And the casting lots for it argued that no man had his merits by their deserving but by the meer gift of God Col. 1.12 who disposeth of the Lot To all which misery they added derision Mat. 27.39 wagging their heads and upbraiding him with his words of destroying and building the Temple in three daies Yet it was truth in his sense of his resurrection ut praedixit sit revixit and mocking at his miracles saying he saved others but himselfe he cannot save Others mocked at his trust in God Others at his praiers as if he called upon Elias to save him which he suffered that we might know the abominableness of our sins that heaped such contempt upon the Son of God Also that we might be delivered from the scorn of this world and enjoy the comfort of our repute from God and a good conscience Heb. 12.3 without reviling the world again Nay more they blasphemed God as if he could not deliver him as the wicked said Psal 22. with whom they join issue and so condemn themselves to be of the wicked crew even like theeves who also did the same But beside all this he suffered great torments both in body and mind In body by hanging on the Crosse by his nailed hands and feet so that his heart might be rightly said to be melted like wax Psal 22.15 This was undergone to satisfie for our despising the threatning and the power of God in punishing those sins we had committed in the body also to free us from eternall torments and to sanctifie whatsoever pains we suffer in the body by diseases or from persecutors So he suffered anguish in soule when he cried out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which some writers take to be meant of his descending into hell for now God seemed to desert him by deferring his deliverance and by withdrawing from his humane nature the divine support of comfort that he being sensible of them we might be delivered from them by his meritorious suffering them Yet we are not to conceive that the divine nature of the Sonne did forsake the humane but that the union was obscured or eclipsed nor that God the Father forsook him quite but permitted his humane nature as surety to feele what was due to the principall And this first confutes those that think he suffered not in soule though the Prophet say he made his soule an offering for sin And if not in soule his bitter cry argued more impatience then the Martyrs had It also may comfort men in their distresse of mind since Christ was forsaken for a time and surely it should work in us a feare of sin that made God thus to deale with his only Son whom he spared not being only the principall how terrible will he be against unrepenting sinners whom he will forforsake for ever and to make us consider with commiseration those that are troubled in mind a wounded spirit who can bear No wonder if many of them cry out they be damn'd of whom we are to judge charitably since Christ complains of Gods forsaking him through fear whom yet he calleth his God by faith Lastly he through paine suffereth thirst and they to adde to his misery gave him vinegar and so they fulfilled the Scripture Psalm 69.22 and he compleated our redemption saying it is finished Mathe. But did he only suffer on the crosse without any glorious testimony of his roialty and Deity Phila. No God left him not without witnesse For Pilats
lying in the grave three daies was to answer to Ionas his type in the whales belly and to make good the prophecie of Hosea 6.2 after two daies he will revive us and the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his sight But you will say he did not lie in the grave three whole daies and nights yet according to the Jewish account he might be said so to do for a day is reckoned by evening and morning Now the former evening and Good Friday on which he was buried made the first day then Friday evening and the Sabbath following made the second day and the Sabbath evening and the next morning of his Resurrection was the third day It may be you may think it strange that Christ would lie in the grave on the Sabbath day but this he did to shew the work of redemption was finished and therefore he rested the seventh day as God was said to do after the six daies work of creation Also to shew that with him was buried the ceremoniall part of the Sabbath namely the seventh day formerly appointed And surely the first Christians so understood it and therefore they kept their holy meeting afterward upon the first day of the week Rev. 1. which St Iohn called the Lords day Now in all this time Christs body corrupted not First because he was without sin which is the cause of corruption and therefore he was preserved by the power of God Psal 16.10 Beside men that die violent deaths are not so apt to corrupt as those that die of diseases by which they are partly corrupted before they are dead otherwise a dead body may possibly be without corruption sixty hours and upwards and Christ was dead not much above forty and so might justly be said not to see corruption By all which he gave us a pledge of an eternall sabbath of rest and that our bodies after death should rise incorruptible And this doctrin of Christs buriall is full of comfort and instruction Of comfort because that now this storm of Gods anger is allaied by our Jonas being cast into this whales belly of the grave which by his body is fanctified for us It teacheth us also to bury our sins with Christ Rom. 6.4 and there let them lie as dead carcasses separated from us for ever and grow loathsome and at last wear out of memory in respect of either by affection or practice and we may live to newnesse of life by vertue of Christs resurrection Mathe. But before I enquire of you the mystery of Christs resurrection I pray resolve me what you think of Christs descending into hell which is an Article of that Creed commonly called the Apostles and in that of Athanasius but not in the Nicene Creed nor in any other that I know Phila. You put a Question of great controversie yet of more then needs if the phrase of hell were rightly understood For in the Old Testament it hath two names given to it namely 1. The congregation of the dead Pro. 21.16 according to which translation it may be understood for the grave and if it be translated word for word with the Hebrew then it may be taken for the depths of water In caetu Riphaim or Gigantum in which the rebell giants of the old world were drowned which Job calleth Sheol infernus or the low place Job 26.7 and so doth David Sheol Psal 16.10 which is translated the grave Afterward about the captivity it is called Tophet or Gehinnom Gebenna which are only words borrowed from that execrable place in the vallie of Hinnom where the Jews burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch i. the devill to expresse hell which they beleeved to be a place of torment This term or word held long among the Jewes and Christ used it as the vulgar expression in his time Mat. 5.22 yet Luke 16.23 he useth another word as it is in the Greek text namely Hades which there signifieth hell for it is said Hades the rich man was in hell in torments But it is taken oftner for the grave and the condition of men deceased as Gen. 42.38 Iob 7.9 Psal â—â— â— Pro. 23.14 Acts 2.31 1 Cor. 15.55 and most plainly Rev. 20.13 death and Hades i. the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire Now see how Christ may be said to descend into these for into the grave he had descended and therefore it need not be said again in relation thereunto that he descended into hell If taken for the waters what should he do there 1 Pet. 3.19 except you will suppose that he went to preach to the rebellious spirits that were there imprisoned for their disobedience in the daies of Noah But how he went and when and wherefore how whether in soule or body or both then in what time whether before he rose or afterward and why whether to preach for their conversion or to confirm their damnation would be resolved or whether he went thither to suffer any thing or to triumph surely not to suffer for us for on the crosse all his sufferings were finished nor to triumph for that he did upon his crosse Col. 2.14 15. Beside we are to consider where Hell should be if Christ descended locally thither for we conceive it to be a place ordained for the devill and his angels and wicked men Now if the Devill and his be not yet confined thither what should Christ descend thither for either to confirm damnation or to triumph over them that were not there Now that they are not yet confined to the place appointed is plain because St Paul calleth him the Prince that ruleth in the aire because yet they have great liberty in tempting men Also because the devill besought Christ not to torment him before the time And because both St Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 and St Iude ver 6. say that they are as yet only reserved in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day Just Mart. Iren. l. 5. c. 26. Hieron in 6. cap. Ephes Drusius Aug. lib. de civit dei l. 8. c. 22 23. And so held the fathers of the first 400. yeers after Christ St Peter in his second Epistle the second chapter the ninth and seventeenth verses saith so of wicked people Therefore some writers of great account have said that from the earth to the firmament is not a meer empty space but full of spirits which were cast down from the high heavens into these lower parts of the aire as into a prison till the last judgement together with other wicked of their society Now descension cannot properly be applied to the aire but rather ascention Therefore by Christs descending into hell we may as I judge safely understand those inward sorrowes which he suffered in his agony in the garden and on the crosse which pressed him to cry so bitterly my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which internall sorrowes were as neer
more than Apollos Temple at Delphos could which after this was destroied by thunder and earthquakes Theo. l. 3. c. 11. as if God meant to put an end to Judaisme and to Heathenisme and to set up Christianity And though the Emperor Julian out of hatred to Christianity Sozom. lib. 5. c. 19 20. permitted the Jewes to re-edifie their Temple yet God by storms and tempests earthquakes and fire flashing out of the earth resisted it Mathe. They being thus destroied and their Religion expunged among what people did God then plant his Church and true Religion Phila. Among Christians of what Nation soever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which you read Acts 2.5 there were sojourners at Jerusalem Jewes devout men of all nations which were not Jewes by Country but rather by profession and yet Jewes by blood but dispersed abroad called men of Israel Acts 2.22 39. yet others were there and therefore ver 10. called proselytes and Act. 17.4 worshipping Greeks or Gentiles Now these * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proselytes were such as disclaimed heathenisme and joined themselves to the Jewes They were of two sorts 1. A Proselyte of the Covenant or of Righteousnesse 2. Of the gate Deut. 14.21 The first subjected himselfe to Circumcision and to all the Law of Moses and therefore was admitted to the Jewish society and priviledges even to stand in the first Court of the Temple where the Lay-people of the Jewes assembled to worship The second sort subjecting themselves only to Noahs seven precepts which were 1. To renounce all Idolatry Schindler in Pentaglot p. 1530. 2. To worship the true God that created all things 3. Not to murther 4. To forbear all unlawfull copulations 5. To abstaine from theft 6. To do * Iren. l. 3. c. 12 to doe as they would be done unto justice and judgement on malefactors 7. To refraine from eating like Canibals flesh with blood as any member torn from living creatures of which sort of proselytes as is thought was Naaman the Syrian the Eunuch and Cornelius These were not admitted into the Jewes Court of the Temple as the other proselytes were but stood in the Court of the Gentiles which was separated from the other by a little low wall after the second Temple was built In this place they suffered beasts and birds to be sold for the use of the Temple to sacrifice and thought it a place fit enough for such proselyts to worship God in among the unclean Maâ—k 7.11 But Christ comming thither drives out those market men and calleth even that place his house of praier where these despised Gentiles were allotted their place of worship So beginning there to break down the partition wall between Jew and Gentile alluded to by St Paul Eph. 2.13 15. making way for one to come as neer the throne of grace as another Here was the first sign of admission of the Gentiles to worship God in Oratories as well as the Jewes in their Temple Court by Christs acceptation Againe we find these Gentiles called worshippers of God as in Acts 17.4 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so far as they were lead by the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets by which they were lead to the hope of eternall life and the expectation of Christ which knowledge made the Gospel find the more easie passage into their hearts upon the Apostles preaching and expounding the Prophets to them concerning Christs Death and Resurrection or else we must suppose them to be miraculously converted so many thousands at once without their Will and Understanding and so could give no reason of their faith and beleefe These latter proselytes received the Gospell with great joy and of these converts Christ built his New Testaments Church by the ministry of his Apostles through preaching which he confirmed by signs and wonders Acts 15.10 For when it was questioned whether the Gentiles that beleeved or should beleeve should conform to circumcision or not it was concluded by St Peter that no such burden should be laid upon them Acts 10.28 because he had received no such order from God in his vision at Ioppa from whence he was immediately sent to Cornelius an uncircumcised proselyte between whom and Jewes God put no difference Acts 15.9 but purified their hearts by faith and gave them also the Holy Ghost Acts 15.8 9. to whom also St Iames assented Acts 15.19 God therefore did most wisely dispose that the comming down of the Holy Ghost should be at that time when Jewes and Proselytes were assembled from all parts round about Canaan to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost at Ierusalem that so they being converted might upon their return home disperse the same to others These both Jewes and worshipping Gentiles no doubt were the first founders and dispersers of Christian Religion and it may be the Apostle thought they were no farther bound to preach to the Gentiles but to these only that came from the adjacent places from every nation But God made it appear otherwise to Peter Paul and Silas who were by the spirit separated and sent to that purpose to the remote Gentiles Mathe. What visible association were there of the Gospell people at first beside conversion of people Phila. The first was of the Apostles and Disciples Acts 1.13 14. together with the mother of Jesus and other women after Christ was taken from them into heaven Unto these more were added ver 15. then the number was 120. These being assembled in an upper room in Jerusalem after praier Peter stood up and advised to chuse one in the place of Judas Iscariot which lot fell upon Matthias Acts 1.15 26. When they had thus filled up the number of the twelve Apostles their next meeting was upon the day of Pentecost a Feast of the Jewes Levit. 23.11 15. called a Feast of weeks or fifty daies begun on the sixteenth day of Nisan or the second of the Passeover or the morrow after the Feast of the Passeover which was the fifteenth as the killing of the Passeover was on the fourteenth of the same month at even On this sixteenth day they were to offer a sheafe of their first corn and the Priest was to wave or shake it before the Lord. Upon which day Christ the first fruits of the dead rose out of the grave with an earthquake This feast ended with the offering of two waved loaves as a sign at the finishing of harvest at the end of fifty daies So Christ having compleated the harvest of mans redemption and presented himselfe in both natures divine and humane to God as intercessor he sent upon his Apostles the holy Ghost with plenty of celestiall gifts to feed and sustain his Church In respect of which candid gifts of sight it was stiled rightly Whitsunday and the Christians were clothed in white garments Their next association was in the Temple at praier time and at breaking of bread in their houses
up some to maintain the cause of his truth As Arnoldus de nova villa a Spaniard who held in his time That the devill had seduced the world from the truth of Christ That the faith then commonly taught was the faith of devils That Christian people were led by the Pope to hell That the Cloisters had no charity and falsified the doctrine of Christ That the Ministers did not well to mix Philosophy with Divinity That masses are not to be celebrated nor that Priests ought to sacrifice for the dead All which the Protestants hold Gulielmus de Sancto Amore a Master of the University of Paris applied all the texts of Scripture that make against Antichrist to the Pope and his Clergy and proved the Friers to be false Prophets and writ against their wilfull poverty shewing that Christ when he said Mat. 19.21 Go and sell all thou hast and give it to the poor did not intend actuall but habituall poverty namely that we should not impoverish our selves when no need requireth but that in our affections we should be ready so to do when the confession of Christ and his glory shall require it that then we be ready to leave all for his sake So say the Protestants also But this man was condemned for an heretick and exiled and his books burnt So Laurence an English man and a Master of Paris 1300. and Peter John a Minorite and Robertus Gallus a Dominican Frier wrote that the Pope was Antichrist and Rome was great Babylon and that the Pope was an Idoll that had eies but would not see the abominations of his Church for desire of riches So the Protestants hold likewise Robert Gostred Bishop of Lincoln would not admit at the Popes command for an Italian boy to be one of the Prebends of his Church but writ to him that it was a devilish sin to defraud the people of the preaching of the Word by setting those in place that could not perform the Ministeriall office but only take the milke and wooll of Christs sheep He prophecied in his sicknesse that the Church should not be delivered from Romes Aegyptian bondage but by a bloody sword So think the Protestants Marsilius Patavinus affirmed that the Pope had not authority over other Bishops much lesse over the Emperour 1400. lib. defens pacis and that the Pope and the Clergy should be subject to Magistrates and that the head of the Church is Christ and that he never appointed any Vicar to be universall head thereof that Bishops ought to be chosen by the Clergy and that the marriage of Priests is lawfull and that St Peter was never at Rome that the Church of Rome is a den of theeves and that Popish doctrine leads to eternall death So hold the Protestants also Michael Cesenas Provinciall of the Grey Friers writ against the Popes pride and supremacy and cals him Antichrist and Rome Babylon the great whore drunk with the blood of the Saints that there were two Churches one of the wicked very flourishing wherein the Pope reigned the other of godly men afflicted over whom Christ reigned So hold the Protestants This man had many followers The Pope cursed him and burned many of them as they did also the Protestants John Wickliffe a Professor of Divinity in Oxford in King Edward the thirds time wrote many learned books of Logick and Philosophy Morality and Divinity and of the speculative Art He discovered the error of the Papists about Sacraments and so made himselfe many enemies But he had many friends and followers beyond the seas as John Huss and Jerome of Prague In whose defence fifty four Nobles of Moravia writ sharp reprehending the popish party for taxing Bohemia and Moravia with heresie Mr Moor. And many Nobles of England about the year 1385. did maintain Wickliffs doctrine namely Lord Montague Lord Clifford Earle of Salisbury Lord Latimer and Nevill Mathe. What were the points of Wickliffs doctrine Phila. That the substance of bread and wine remained in the Sacrament of the Altar after the words of consecration 2. That it is not found that Christ instituted or confirmed a Masse 3. That it is presumption to affirm that the children of the faithfull dying unbaptized are damned 4. That in St Pauls time there were but two orders of Clerks namely Elders and Deacons 5. That the causes of divorcement for spirituall consanguinity or affinity are not founded on the Scriptures 6. That he which is in the Church most serviceable and humble is Christ neerest Vicar in the Church militant 7. That if extrme or corporall unction were a Sacrament neither Christ nor his Apostles would have omitted it 8. That whatsoever the Pope commandeth without a cleare deduction from the Scriptures is to be accounted hereticall 9. That it is folly to beleeve the Popes pardons 10. That it is not necessary to beleeve the Church of Rome to be the supreme head of other Churches 11. That a Priest may preach the Word of God with authority from the Pope 12. That the Church of Rome is the synagogue of Satan nor is the Pope the Vicar of Christ nor of his Apostles 13. That if any man enter into a private Religion he is made thereby the more unfit to serve God The Protestants follow these positions John Huss the Bohemian followeth Wickliffe in time and doctrine for which he was burnt by the Councill of Constance though he was promised safe conduct His great offence was that he appealed to Jesus Christ which they took for a contempt of the Apostolike See Some report of this good Martyr that though they burnt the Goose for so Huss signifieth yet out of his ashes should rise a Swan so Luther signifieth that should trouble them worse then he had done So Luther did indeed Jerom of Prague died also as did John Huss about the year 1415. Hieronymus Savonarala an Italian Monk was a great adversary to the popish Clergy yet preaching nothing but the plain word of God as touching 1. The free justification in Christ through faith 2. That the communion ought to be administred in both kinds 3. That popish pardons were of no effect 4. Denied the Popes supremacy 5. Preached against the filthinesse of the Cardinals and Clergy 6. That the Keies were not only given to Peter 7. That the Pope did neither follow the life nor doctrine of Christ and that he attributed more to his own pardons then to Christs merits and therefore was Antichrist 8. That the Popes excommunications are not to be feared and he that doth fear them is excommunicated of God 9. That auricular confession is not necessary All which he stood unto with two Friers who were all three hanged openly and then burned And now began the Art of Printing which did ruine the Pope more then preaching Martin Luther was by the speciall providence of God called forth to fight the cause of truth against the Pope even out of the Cloister of Augustinian Friers in the
will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ saith he that beleeveth not shall be damned And what forbids us to beleeve that being God worketh without means upon
fulfill it Mat. 5.17 or why doth the Apostle say that he doth not by his preaching up faith to justifie a man Rom. 3.31 make void the Law but establish it surely by accepting it for a rule of an holy life though not either to justifie or condemn us but to walk according to it out of love to righteousnesse Rom. 7.22 Again 18. They say a man is not bound to pray except the spirit moveth him yet Paul saith pray continually and Peter bids us be sober and watch to praier as if it were a duty and if we look upon it as a duty then we are to do it without expecting farther incitation by immediat infusions So they say that the spirit works in hypocrites by gifts and graces but in Gods children immediatly but then they need not take heed it seems to the sure word of prophecy as saith St Peter which he prefers for the Churches establishment before that of revelation calling it a more sure word of prophecy 2 Pet. 18 19. So they pretend that a Minister that hath not this new light cannot edifie them that have it I wonder then how the Apostles edified the Church who had not this new light or dark lanthorn rather of vaine opinions for I have shewed you that they are contrary to the Apostles doctrins or if their light were the most saving grace of God yet a man that hath it not may edify others by preaching salvation to others though himselfe be a castaway So they say no Christian ought to be prest to the duties of holinesse This is to make the world beleeve that there is no need of preaching 2 Tim. 4.2 yet St Paul bids Timothy to preach in season and out of season and Titus to rebuke and exhort with all authority Tit. 2.15 Mathe. What other Sects troubled the Protestant Church Phila. The Arminians revived the heresie of Pelagius Britto who lived in the daies of the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius who held that men by nature might fulfill the whole Law of God and denied originall sin and said that men were sinners by imitation only of Adams not by carnall propagation contrary to Psal 51. And that children had no need of baptisme for remission of sin and that the Godly men in Scripture that confessed their sins did it for example sake rather then out of guiltinesse whom St Augustine sufficiently confutes and their tenets were condemned by the fift Councill of Carthage in the year 419. as hereticall Also by the Milevitane Councill in Numidia The patron of the Arminians was one Jacobus Arminius professor of Divinity at Leyden in the Low Countries in the year 1605. his followers are called Remonstrants Now as Pelagius being driven from Rome came into England and infected it with his errors though by the travels of Germanus Altisidorensis and Palladius sent hither by Caelestinus Bishop of Rome the land was freed from his poison So Arminius infected England by his writings and his well-wishers such as Conradus Vorstius but was reasonably well stopt by the diligence of King James in sending over certain learned and grave Divines to the Synod of Dort Yet neverthelesse these errors have found many favourers in England though they are against Scriptures and the Articles of the Church of England As concerning prepestination they deny it by saying that it is only the will of God to save them that beleeve and persevere and that there is no other decree of election contrary to Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved and Eph. 1.4 he hath chosen us to salvation before the foundation of the world So Ro. 8.30 whom he hath predestinated them he hath also called So they say election is of faith not of persons but Paul saith God hath called us according to his purpose in Christ before the world 4. That election of us to faith presupposeth in us honesty and humility and a disposition to eternall life whereas it is election that causeth such vertues and not they election Ephes 2.3 4. for by nature we are only given to fulfill the will of the flesh and are by nature the children of wrath as well as others but God who is rich in mercy Rom. 9.11 hath quickned us c. for election is not of works but of him that calleth for he loved us first 1 John 4.10 So 5. They say election is not unchangeable but a man may withstand Gods decree Mat. 24.24 but Christ saith the elect cannot be seduced for Christ loseth not those that are given to him John 6.39 and therefore the chaine holds from election to glorification Rom. 8.30 which certainly is the joy of Gods people that their names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 and therefore none can charge them nor condemn them Rom. 8.33 So 6. They make election generall which is a contradiction Rom. 9.18 God hath mercy on whom he will And to some it is given to know the mysteries of Christs Kingdome not to others Mat. 13.11 to babes and not to the worldly wise Mat. 11.15 16. Mathe. What farther errors hold these Arminians Phila. They say that the cause why God sends his Gospell to one people and not to another is not only Gods good pleasure but because one nation is more worthy then another Deu. 10.14 15 yet Moses told Israel that God chose their fathers out of meer love And Christ said that Chorazin and Bethsaida were a worse people then those of Tyre and Zidon Mat. 11.21 So they say that God ordained Christ to die without any certaine determination of saving any particular man or people Isa 53.10 yet Isaiah saith that when he shall make his soul an offering for sin that he shall see his seed And Christ saith I know my sheep and I lay down my life for my sheep So they teach that God did not intend to establish a new Covenant of grace with man by Christs blood but to make any covenant with man whatsoever either of works or grace But Christ is called the surety of a better estament than was before viz. of works Heb. 7.22 whereby we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of Christ So they say that all are received into grace and favor alike in the Gospel-covenant and none shall be condemned for originall sin and yet Christ saith I pray not for the world but for those thou hast given me out of the world They say also that God confers equally the benefits of Christs death to men but the cause why some men have them and not others is by reason of their free will chusing it and not of Gods singular gift of mercy effectually working thereunto yet St Paul saith it is not in him that willeth or runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So they say Christ died not for those whom God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen