stand with the infinity of his goodnesse I answer Base or vile and excellent are onely words of Comparison And if all things created were excellent alike then could nothing at all bee excellent But because it is necessary for the beauty of the whole frame of the creature that there bee difference of degrees in greater or lesse excellencie therefore are these things which have fewer degrees of perfection in them called meane or vile though not truly and indeed such For there is nothing so meane or base but as it is being it is a proofe and image of His being who created it and so though not of it selfe yet in it selfe is exceeding good Gen. 1.31 And if the order of Nature be well marked as we know that the whole Creature was brought out of not being into the meanest and first degree of being which was water Gen. 1.2 2 Pet. 3.5 so all the excellency that is in the creature is but by addition of one degree of perfection unto another which perfections taken together with their cause and originall are in their many differences first being then life after sence fourthly Reason as in a man Fifthly understanding by the onely sight of the being as in the Angels the sixth is of the received power of the Mediatour Ioh. 17.2 Eph. 1.20.21.22 Heb. 1.2 that runnes into infinity the seventh is Infinity it selfe in the simplicity of selfe being beyond which is nothing But whether these perfections of the creature come into it by addition as I have spoken or that it be so raised from nothing immediately into those perfections which it hath it is necessary that these differences of degrees be therein that that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 3.10 that manifold wisdome of God may be manifest in the Creature In which creature how perfect soever in it selfe no degree can bee found so excellent but that it must differ infinitely on the one side from the perfection of the Creator not none so meane but that on the other side it must differ infinitely from not being I meane that not being which it had of it selfe and in it selfe for in him it had an eternall being being eternally foreseene and appointed in him § 3. But in things that are ill you thinke this answer will not serve For though you can bee content to thinke that the glory of the divine wisdome is nothing abated in the beholding of things no not in their present being how differing soever in their degrees of perfection as it is said Psal 113.5 Who is like unto Iehova our God that lifteth up Himselfe high to sit that abaseth Himselfe low to see in the heavens and in the earth no more then the lustre and shine of the Sunne is more or lesse cleere whether it light upon the beautifull hill of Libanus or Carmell or the dirty land of Cabul yet if he know also things that are ill and that his knowledge be a causing or creating knowledge it cannot bee avoyded but that he must also be the cause of ill I answer Ill is of three kindes one naturall whereby every thing is subjected to some other thing contrary thereto whereby it may be corrupted for the destruction of that particular being that some other thing may be raised thereout according to the possibilitie of the matter and the manner of the corrupting Hitherto we may bring poysons and all those things that we call hurtfull and ill because if they be not rightly used they are harmefull to our kind which are not simply ill but onely accidentally seeing that if they be rightly used they may be helpefull to our nature as it appeares in the trocisks of the vipers flesh and other medicines as Physicke teaches So these things of themselves naturally good may be ill that is good causes of ill effects as riches and authority things civilly indifferent may bee ill if abused to pride idlenesse and the oppression of others The second kinde of ill is that of punishment which cannot justly be termed ill if you consider the use and benefit thereof as S. Paul hath taught Heb. 12. from ver 5. to ver 12. For neither can wisdome be in things civill or morall but with the judgement of good and bad neither is that judgement in the discerning of good and ill ought worth if the good be not praised and rewarded and the ill punished So that without justice and mercie in reward and punishment neither wisdome nor goodnesse can be either perfect or praised Therefore this kinde of ill because it is just that the ill-doer should beare the burden of his owne desert is no way ill but onely in the smart of the guilty sufferer deserving it So these two kindes of ill onely so called for some respects though in themselves necessary and therefore good will easily bee acknowledged to be from God The maine question therefore is onely about that ill of ills which is sinne for sinne both in regard of the effect which is punishment and in it selfe the deserving cause thereof and much more taking occasion by the Law holy and good to worke death in the sinner must needs be exceedingly sinfull as it is concluded Rom. 7.11.13 And because it is as certainely and necessarily true that sinne is sinne and ill is ill as it is that good is good and that the knowledge of the truth in every thing is in the perfection of the understanding it cannot bee but that all ill and sinne is perfectly knowne unto the infinite wisedome Moreover whether ill be onely a privation or taking away of that good which ought to bee in the creature or whether it bee any thing of very being therein it is necessarie that the infinite wisdome know all manner of beings both according to their perfections and all their possibilities and defects But concerning the manner of this knowledge the Doctâ—rs say That because the very being of ill you remember what ill I speake of is nothing else but the privation of that goodnesse which ought to be in the creature it is knowne of God onely by the contrary goodnesse as by the dâ—finition that is to say to be a defect or privation of goodnesse Neither is it any defect in the divine knowledge to know that which is onely a def ct by the contrarie perfection seeing nothing can be knowne further then according to that being which it hath And therefore they say further See Thâ—m Aquin. and his Comment lib. 1. Cap 71. and lib 3. Cap. 4 5 6 c. contra Gentes That ill inasmuch as it is such is in the number of things not being and that of things not being there can be no cause efficient but deficient and privative onely For every agent workes as fâ—rre forth as it is in actuall being to bring forth something into acte or perfection and that to a good end so that ill comes into effect by accident beside the purpose and intent of the doer Ah blessed Origen hath thy
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mud For so the conclusion of earth and water is best understood and fittest for generation of earthly things as Ovid delivers the opinion and cleeres it by comparison of the overflowing Nilus Metam lib. 1. All other Creatures tooke their different birth And figures from the voluntary Earth When her cold moisture with the Sunne did sweat And Slimy Marishes grew big with heat So when seven mouthed Nyle forsakes the plaine Anantient channel doth his streames containe And late left slime the heavenly warmth doth feele Men sundry shapes beneath the sod reveile Some new begun and some to halfe doe grow That halfe alive the rest but earth below But Moses Gen. 1. delivers it unto us in the parts active and passive heaven and earth which yet before their division were both of water as it is manifest in that place and 2. Pet. 3.5 According hereunto Homer Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and after him Thales affirmes the first matier of all things to be water But the opinions of the lesse reckoning are those that are found amongst the heretickes of the Christians For all the Philosophers and Poets of the heathen which held not the eternity of the world acknowledged God the authour of the world under one name or other but Simon Magus and with him Menander said that the Angels were the makers of the world Saturnius gives the honour unto seven Angels alone whom he makes the Creators of the world without the consent or knowledge of God Carpocrates and the Priscillianists affirmed that the world was made by certaine inferiour Angels among whom the devill was chiefe workemaster Valentinus gave it out that a devil which was begotten of the thirtieth Aiâ—â—n begot other devils and these Sonnes of Avengles made the world and mischiefe and sinne are in the world not through the wickednâ—sse and free will of man but even by the very creation of the world it selfe The Nicholaitanes tel us of Angels the makers of the world and that Barbelo who was ruler of the eight Sphere was overseer of the works His mothers name was Yaldaboth But I have not read so farre in heraldry as to tell you who was his Dad nor of what house his mother came nor yet whether his fellow workemen were good or bad Angels The Gnosticks of the two Gods which they make as you have heard before make the ill God the creator of the world which though it appeare not either by Irenaeus Clement Tertullian Epiphanius or by S. Augustine yet it is plaine by Plotinus Aenead 2. lib. 9 who writes against their opinions and this in particular Marcion made three creators one good another bad and another betweene them whom they called Iust So you see how all these hereticks had madded themselves and their followers in their opinions concerning the Creator of all things Others erred concerning some parts of the creature onely as the Seleucians and Hermians or Hermâ—genians beside their errour of the worlds matier coeternall with God denyed that God created the soules of men but would have them created by the Angels of fyer and Spirit contrary to that which is in Gen. 2.7 Esay 57.16 1 Pet. 4.9 That God is the faithfull Creator of the soule The Priscillianists said that the soules of men were of the same substance and nature with God and being by him sent downe from heaven the devill met with them by the way and sowed them as seed in the flesh whereupon it must follow either that the being of God is divisible into infinite partes or that there is but one onely soule of all men and both wayes unavoydably that God at least in part of Himselfe must be subject to Sinne and so that either He must need a Saviour or by His owne law bee subject to eternall death This is the fruite of heresie The Patricians denyed God to be the Creator of the body of man and gave that honour to the devill contrary to that which is in Gen. 2. v. 7. and v. 21.22 yea and so detested the flesh as that to be out of the body some of them killed themselves The Paternians said that the lower parts of the body it seemes onely those that are affixed thereto for generations sake that flesh which the law so often commands to be washed were made by the devil and thereupon tooke occasion to live in filthinesse and lust contrary to the Commandement of God The Marcionites and Manichees said that wickednesse and ill was partly from God and partly from the matier of the world Florinus and his followers said that things were created ill according to their substances contrary to the Scripture Gen. 1.31 But contrarily the Coluthians would not have God the Author of ill no not that of punishment which neverthelesse the Scripture teaches Esay 45.7 and 54.16 Amos. 3.6 Some also of the heretickes followed the opinions of the ancient Philosophers as they that were called Aquei that of Thales and said that water was the matier of the would but yet eternall and not created The Audian and Manichean hereticks instead of Aristotles eternals brought in darkenesse fire and water you might bring hither their foolish thoughts concerning the transplantation of soules and such like questions but there will bee fitter place thereto in the article of everlasting life And because these upstart weenings are so witlesse as they are false I will not vouchsafe to inquire into their reasons the onely authority of the holy Scripture is sufficient to grinde them all to dust and to bring that dust to nought at all But least any man contrary to the truth of God be overswayed with the reasons of the Philosophers it will not be unfit to examine and answer them 1. And first concerning the reasons of the Platonicks that the matier of the world should therefore be eternall because it is simple and uncompounded I answer That it is but petitio principii or a taking of that which is not granted for it is utterlie denied that there was ever such matier as they suppose utterly informed I say according to the Sacred Philosophie that when water the first matier of all things was created darknesse or confusion was upon the face of the deepe but yet with that water under that confusion was concreated all manner of formes which afterward were all brought forth out of the possibilitie of the matier so that matier was impregnate or great with all kinde of formes which afterward were made to appeare for otherwise could not the effect bee answerable to the cause if hee being in himselfe the Jdeas or formes of all beings had not brought forth the first matier full fraught with all materiall formes by which afterwards according to the disposition of their naturall causes the different kindes of things were informed And therefore here also are all things said by him to have beene made at once And although in the workes of the fifth day the
more easie it was to bee kept so much the sorer punishment did Adam deserve for the breach thereof And thus did that murtherer of mankinde by the sinne of our first Parents set open a doore for the Iustice of God to breake out upon them being now liable to eternall punishment yet did they not hereby bring on their owne punishment alone inasmuch as all their children are made lyable with them to the same condemnation § 2. It may seeme a needlesse question to aske how long Adam stood in his innocency but because opinions have beene about the time of his fall wherein they have differed from the first day of his Creation to three yeers and an halfe betweene which others have thought a weeke some tenne dayes or seventeene at most others halfe a yeare Lidg de Emend temp Omitting conjectures it will not be unfit to examine it by reason and Scripture which hath not left us without a guide and instruction in any doubt that may be moved therein The Hebrewes compare Adam to an oxe that had horns and no hoofs by which they meant he had no strength at all to walk in the commandements of God but assoone as he was created he pushed rebelliously against his ordinance The ordinances of God over and aboue the preheminences which He gave him in his creation were three Marriage for the due propagation of mans naturall life Gen. 2.24 the law of the tree of knowledge the figure of the life of grace ch 2.17 and the Sabbath the assurance of the life of glory For it were a witlesse thing to think that God sanctified that day for his owne use but for man to meditate in the workes of God and for remembrance of his hopes to come Adams transgression was against the second but it will appeare by the circumstances of the other two when that transgression was committed Adam was created a perfect man in the prime and chiefe of his strength and accordingly received that blessing to bring forth fruit and multiply Now if Adam according to that blessing had in his innocency endeavoured the propagation of mankind it cannot be supposed that God who had immediately before given him that blessing to multiply would immediately have taken it away againe And that act of Adam not being in vaine that first sonne of Adam must have bin holy and without the taint of originall sinne although the parents had sinned afterward before it was borne For that staine of originall sinne comes from the conception Psal 51.5 not by the birth But no such holy seed of Adam is mentioned nor none such could bee For the Lord looked downe from heaven upon the sonnes of Adam and they were altogether become filthy Psal 14.3 Now if Adam were created such as hee was aske any lusty young man how many nights hee would allow to his beloved and most beautifull Bride in her virginity and give so many to Adam before hee sinned So then it may seeme that wee may take that Storie of the Scripture concerning Adam thus Adam being made in the morning that God might give him experience of the excellencie of that estate wherein he was created brought the Beastes and Birds before him and gave him the Lordship over them all which that hee might exercise as he ought hee gave him perfect understanding of their nature and power of words whereby to expresse their nature and to command them For as Adam named every thing so was the name thereof But that man might know that hee was for a more noble end than to live among beasts Hee tooke him and put him in the Garden of delight furnished with fruits for every season and gave him power to eate of all excepting the forbidden tree At noone that heavie sleepe fell on him in which the woman was made out of his side Hee awaking the marriage was solemnized and the woman by her husband diligently warned to forbeare to eate or to touch the forbidden fruit But while she wandred from her Husband to chuse fruit to her liking for it is manifest that her Husband was not with her when shee was deceived 1 Tim. 2.14 shee was encountred by the devill possessing the Serpent and drawn into sinne and this about the ninth hower or three of the clocke in the afternoone as all the sacrifices of the Law and that sacrifice for sinne whereby the workes of the devill were destroyed doe sufficiently witnes Matth. 27.46 50. Thus man being in honor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bal yalin could not continue a night but by his sinne became subiect to death as the beasts that perish Psal 49.12 The heresie of Pelagius was like a Serpent with many heads of which this was one that Adam was created mortall and though hee had not sinned yet should he have died not for the merit or punishment of his sinne but for the condition or state of his creation for being made of the elements which in everie elementall body may be separated and in their simple being are changed one into another it cannot be thought said hee that Adams state could be more continuall than that from whence hee had his beginning Besides having in his innocencie need of meate to restore the decay of his body his body cannot be supposed immortall but the answer is easie For that immortality depended on the soule which should not have parted from the body but should have ever been able to uphold the body without corruption sicknes or death And although any particular change had beene in the body yet should it not have beene in the whole no more than that corruption or change which is in the simple elements therefore Adam in his innocencie was immortall absolutely inasmuch as his immortall soule should never have forsaken his body but he was mortall onely on condition if he did sinne So mortalitie was the punishment of his sinne but that which is put upon a man as a punishment can no way belong unto him in the state of his innocencie But it is plaine that death was inflicted on him for his sinne for why should it be said to him In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Gen. 2.17 if by the necessitie of his creation hee should have dyed though he had not eaten CHAP. XVII That by the sinne of Adam the whole race of mankinde is corrupted and made liable to everlasting death both of bodie and soule ANother error of Pelagius was that Adam by his sin did hurt himselfe alone but that his posteritie were no way tainted thereby with any originall sinne nor brought in danger of eternall death which as it is contrary to the autority of the holy Scripture so do they thereby put an absolute necessitie on the justice of God to admit those infants that never commited any actuall sin into eternall happines whereby as the mercie of God so also the death of Christ as far as he should be a Saviour to them is utterly in
vaine for what need they mercie or Mediatour who for their owne worthinesse must enter into everlasting life yet this poyson the Socinians of late have lick't up as a restorative which heresie with other of theirs you may reade in Wentsel a Budowees pag. 232. 233. But as Adam had received originall righteousnesse so by his sinne did he lose what he had received and that not for himselfe alone but also for his posteritie for hee being that common person in whom the whole race of mankinde was whatsoever gifts or graces God gave unto him hee gave them as a king to him and his for ever if hee as a faithfull liege-man should performe those services that were belonging to that state wherein he was infeoffed but if hâ—e performed not that service whereto hee was bound then must he also forfeit that estate for him and his for ever And because contraries are knowne each by other as a crooked line by a straight it may easilie appeare what that originall sinne is whereto all the sonnes of Adam were made lyable by his offence for if Adam were created in originall righteousnesse so that hee had power both to know and to doe that which was pleasing to God and a freedome of his will to continue or not to continue in that state and without any of those conditions he could not be perfect then must it needs follow that by that sin of his both he and his posterity are deprived both of that knowledge of the will of God of the knowedge of the creature also and of all abilitie to doe or will any thing as of our selves that maybe pleasing in his sight for as that originall righteousnesse had with it not onely an innocencie harmelesnesse or freedome from sinne but likewise a positive strength to doe that which was good so likewise that originall sinne brought with it a corruption of the understanding a frowardnesse of the will a heavinesse or unablenesse to all good and more than that a concupiscence or ill desire leading the minde captive unto sinne for contrarie causes must have contrarie effects so as God had created that first righteousnesse in the heart of man so when man did willingly forsake his service and of himselfe betooke himselfe to the service of his enemie the devill for to whomsoever a man doth yeeld himselfe to obey his servant he is to whom hee doth obey the devill not onely willingly entertained this new come guest whose service he so much longed for but also gave him his livery and infected his heart with contrarie conditions that he might never after be fit for the entertainment of his former Lord. For of contraries about the same subject one must of necessitie be therein as light or darkenesse in the ayer health or sicknesse in the bodie sight or blindnesse in the eye so that in stead of the former vertues wherby the Spirit of grace did guide mans heart to God he is now not only utterly disabled to doe that whereto his conscience tels him he is bound but also become a thrall of Satan to be guided and governed according to his will And this wretched and sinfull estate with the guiltinesse or obligation unto the punishment thereof which is the death both of bodie and soule is that originall sinne wherein every one of Adams children is conceived and borne and for which he is subject unto death for so was the sentence that in what day hee sinned he should die the death And though Adam instantly did not finde himselfe to die yet by the â—ust sentence of the Law and justice of God did he finde himselfe spiritually dead that is destitute of the grace of God and that strength which he had to doe his will and therefore subject to this necessitie that he must die at last and so in an estate contrarie to that in which he was created neither ought it to seeme strange or unjust that God should punish this sinne of Adam in his posteritie also for as it was personall in respect of himselfe to make himselfe liable to the wrath of God so his naturall gifts being lost and corrupted the contrarie qualities brought in in stead thereof became a naturall contagion to all his posteritie There is heere some little question whether this ignorance frowardnesse heavinesse and concupiscence before spoken of be the effects of originall sinne the wounds of nature as the schooles call them or the sinne it selfe But as their contraries were in originall justice as the parts or as the poperties or as the effects thereof so must these be in originall sinne to mee they seeme to bee that spirituall death that was threatned to Adam and so the present punishment of that sinne and in them that are not renewed to the life of grace the assurance of that further punishment that shall come upon the soule hereafter Let us not stay in needlesse questions but looke to the proofes of our conclusion for by the knowledge of originall righteousnesse it will appeare what these things are 1. Because nothing can bring forth naturally any other thing than such as it selfe is If Adam were in himselfe corrupted as hath beene shewed Chap. 16. hee could not beget any other children but such as were corrupted And forasmuch as all men in justice are accounted as one man in respect of the common nature whereof they are all partakers it is just with God to punish all men alike for their common corruption from which no man can say his heart is cleane for doth any man forbeare to kill an adder though he never yet stung any man or beast I thinke not but because the whole nature of adders is venimous therefore will he kill him 2. It cannot stand with the justice of God to punish any one with death who is not lyable to that punishment for some offence Now the sinne of those infants who from their birth are carried to their grave not being any actuall sinne to which any election or consent of the minde could come it is plaine that they are punished for their originall sin And concerning them that have lived to take an account of their owne wayes there needs no other proofe than the testimony of every mans conscience whether they finde not the law of sinne in themselves warring against themselves and leading them captive unto sinne contrarie to the law of their own minds This is that burthen under which the Saints doe groan so as that they hate themselves therfore and desire to be delivered from this bodie of death Rom. 7.18 c. And why of death because the wages of sinne wrought in the body is death Rom. 6.23 yet not of the body onely but of the soule also both in regard of this inbred contagion that bitter root and of that consent which it gives to sinne that I say nothing of them who through custome follow sinne with greedinesse 3. Every creature naturally continues in that estate and followes those things whereto
August de Civitate Dei lib. 10. Cap. 22. 2. God might seeme towards man an accepter of persons and towards the Angels that sinned severe and mercilesse if hee should condemne them to the paynes of eternall fire and yet accept man to mercy when no satisfaction had beene made for mans sinne in the nature that had sinned But both these things are utterly impossible and against the justice of God therefore the punishment of the sinne of man must be borne in the nature of man 3. The iust Law and sentence of the most wise Lawmaker and just judge ought to stand sure and inviolable But the sentence of death was decreed and pronounced against man if hee sinned Gen. 2.17 Therefore by man is the expiation and satisfaction to bee made for sinne 4. Every restoring of any want or corruption in nature must be by that which is of the same kinde as if any flesh in man be rotten the member is not made whole againe but by the supply of sound flesh in stead thereof If a bone be broken the breach is not made up with a sticke nor a cut sinew by a catlin so the nature of man being corrupted by the disobedience of one could not be restored againe but by the obedience of one in whom the nature of man being restored all that are partakers of his in corruption may also be partakers of his immortalitie because mans nature doth not now stand absolutely condemned in Gods justice as before 5. This argument the Apostle urgeth 1. Cor. 15.21 For since by man came death by man also came the resurrection of the dead And againe Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many bee made righteous You may yet see more reasons for this conclusion in the Chapter next following CHAP. XXI That the Mediatour for the sinne of man must bee God THat the Angels in glorie with such perfections as they had should sinne malitiously when there was no tempter makes their sinne without excuse and them in justice unpardonable and although the sinne of man in comparison of theirs may seeme much lesse and more pardonable in respect of that low estate of mens creation in comparison of the Angels that his sinne was not malitious nor without a Tempter yet when it is well thought on how hatefull a thing to God sinne is how His pure eyes cannot behold ungodlinesse and wrong how his infinite iustice is violate thereby and what iealousie so glorious and infinite a being ought to have of his owne honour so set at nought by so base and unworthie a thing as man who also by that sinne of his disordered the whole creature so farre forth as it was for his use and made it subject to vanitie and corruption it may well appeare of what man infinite difficultie it was to restore man to that favour and grace from which hee had fallen For in beings of which one is finite the other infinite there must bee an infinite difference and if they bee of contrarie conditions the one pure and righteous the other sinnefull and impure that contrarietie must needs likewise be infinite and an infinite contrarietie can no way be accorded or reconciled but by an infinite concord which cannot be but in Him which is partaker both of the finite and infinite being And because it hath before appeared chap. 18. That man was to be restored to the favour of God and to be reconciled againe unto him it must follow necessarily that this peacemaker must be both God and man For infinitie is with the greatest greatnesse of being and containes all the extremities thereof and such is the Being of God but the Creature being finite is set at an infinite distance from that which is infinite and therefore in a lessenesse of being as having no being at all of it selfe but only imparted by that infinite being from which degree of participation if it fall as man did by his sinne it still falls unto a further lessenesse or badnesse of estate and so becomes utterly desperate except it be upheld as man was by that hope The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head And seeing the greatest greatnesse of being and the least littlenesse of being cannot bee accorded but by an equalitie of being which cannot bee but in that which doth equally participate both of that greatnesse and that littlenesse that is essentially therefore it is most necessarie that our gracious Mediatour bee essentially both God and man which will yet further appeare by these reasons that follow 1. That all mankinde by the sinne of Adam is deprived of the favour and glorie of God hath beene proved in the 17. Chapter and that there is a restoring of mankinde was shewed in the 18. Chap. Now if it bee not in the power of man or of any other finite being to restore man being fallen into the favour of God it followes of necessitie that the Mediatour or restorer must bee God But the first was abundantly proved in the 19. Chapter Ergo the second followes of necessitie 2. For every infinite offence an infinite amends must needs bee made or else there is no satisfaction The sinne of man was an infinite offence See Chap. 19. Answ to the 1. Object But an infinite amends could not be made by a finite creature Ergo the Mediatour for the sinne of man must bee God And although God cannot suffer at all yet because the punishment due to man for sinne was more than any man was able to beare it was necessarie that the manhood in that conflict should bee upheld by the Godhead that the sinne being balanced by the punishment the worthinesse of the person might make the suffering of infinite merit for the sinnes of of the whole world 3. No effect can bee eternall but by a cause that is eternall for whatsoever is this or that by accident must of necessitie be made such by that which is such of it selfe But the restoring of man is to an estate of life and happinesse which is to bee eternall as it will further appeare in the Article of Everlasting life therefore it is necessarie that it bee wrought by a cause which is also eternall But it is proved that nothing can bee eternall but God alone therefore the restorer of mankinde must be God 4. The enemie of mans everlasting salvation is the devill a most powerfull enemie whose power is yet greater against man because he pleades the justice of God against sinners therefore it was necessarie that the authour and finisher of our salvation should bee God and man that he might be able both to satisfie the infinite justice and by a greater power of his owne to withstand the great power of the devill 5. Contrarie causes must have contrarie effects and so contrarie effects must have contrarie causes and one of these is ever knowne and discerned by the other so that man by his sinne being subject
a man Colos 1.13.14 God hath delivered us from the power of darkenesse and hath translated us into the kingdome of his deare Sonne in whom wee have redemption through his blood Col. 2.9 In Christ dwelleth the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily 1. Tim. 3.16 Great is the mysterie of Godlinesse God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up to glorie 1. Iohn 4.14 Whosoever shall confesse that Iesus is the Sonne of God God dwelleth in him â—nd hee in God By which texts it is plaine that the Saviour of mankind must bee both man and God dwelling in man and the second person of the holy Trinitie which we call the Sonne Notes a THe subject no other than the termes For the understanding of this see my second part of Logonomia Introduct Sect. 4. numb 11. b Hee tooke on him the humanitie If it bee most true which is said Col. 1.19 that all fulnesse should dwell in him yea all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodilie how can it bee but that if Christ dwell in our flesh all the persons likewise must bee incarnate For all the Persons together make but one infinite fulnesse of the Deitie And therefore 1. Tim. 3.16 it is spoken without any distinction of Persons that God was manifest in the flesh Answer To become man was a personall proprietie of the Sonne of God for the incarnation was not of the Godhead wherein the Persons are one but of that subsistence according to which the three Persons are distinguished So that as in the Trinitie there be three persons in one nature so in the mysterie of the incarnation there is one person in two natures Now why the person of the Sonne and none other could become man the reasons before doe make it plaine And although it bee most true that all the Persons together are but one God in the infinitie or fulnesse of the Deitie yet is it as true that the infinite fulnesse of the Deitie is in all and every person alike as the fulnesse or perfection of mankinde is in every man equally Neither is that in Tim. spoken without distinction of the persons for it followes immediately He was justified in the Spirit What is that but that the Spirit of God the holy Ghost did justifie his doctrine and Gospell as most true in causing the hearts of all the faithfull to beleeve it But it is most manifest that the witnesse is neither the thing witnessed nor the person in whose behalfe the witnesse is given Neither was this witnesse of the Holy Ghost onely but also of the Father from heaven 2. Peter 4.17 1. Iohn 5.9 10 11. Compare herewith if you please the note g on Chap. 24. § 9. Object 1. In the end of which Chapter you may see other objections fully answered Our Lord. CHAP. XXIIII That this Jesus the Sonne of the Virgin Mary whom the Christian faith confesseth is the Saviour of the world THat reverend and fearfull name of God is a name of glory but the word Lord importeth the title of that right which he hath in his creature And how justly this belongs to our Lord Christ may appeare by that interest which he hath in us â—oth by thâ— right of our creation and of our redemptiâ—n and of all the benefits which we hope thereby What right he â—ath in us for our creation it hath appeared in that wee are his workemanship Chap. 13. § 9. Now it remaineth that we make it manifest that he alone is our Mediatour and that besides him there is no other for if the Saviour of the world must of necessitie be man that hee might satisfie the justice of God for the sinne of man as we have proved Chap. 20. and likewise that he must be God that hee may be able to heare and to save all them that come unto him as was manifest Chap. 21. and that the Sonne of God tooke on him our flesh that by him the love of God might be manifest to the creature as it was proved Chap. 23. If there can be but one Sonne of God as it was shewed Chap. 12. and the note thereto it must follow of necessity that there can be but one onely Saviour of mankinde which Saviour is our Lord Iesus the Sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary as it is further manifest by these reasons following 1. It is necessary that all the dignities of God bee magnified in the creature according to the uttermost greatnesse which they can have therein But if this Iesus whom we confesse be the Saviour of the world then all the dignities of God are magnified according to the uttermost extent of greatnesse which it is possible they should have in the creature and that without any abatement or lâ—sning in any one of them for his mercy is magnified to the uttermost in pardoning the sins of many for the merit of one his justice and love in this that he spared not his only Son but gave him to death for a satisfaction for the sin of mankinde his glory in that â—he creature once sinfull and mortall is made partaker of glorie and immortality his wisdome that out of the greatest ill the destructi n of the creature by the malice of the devill he hath brought the greatest good that is the exaltation of the creature beyond that state of happinesse wherein it was created Chap. 18. § 2. and so in the rest But if this Iesus bee not the Saviour of the world as the Iewes affirme if when that other Bar-Coziba of theirs shall come he preach the same doctrine and doe the same glorious miracles which our Lord hath done though it be impossible that God should suffer the world to be so mocked then the same most high and glorious truth should bee both preached and confirmed by a most false and lying Prophet who should professe himselfe the Saviour of the world and was not yet neverthelesse seeing our Lord was the authour and manifester of that truth he shall have the honour to be beleeved and the falshood shall dwell with that other to come But if he shall preach any other doctrine than this which wee have received then neither can the dignities of God bee magnified in his greatest and most excellent worke in the creature that is in the salvation of mankinde as was shewed before neither can his Scriptures bee of absolute authority when another manner of Saviour shall come than they have described unto us but both these things are utterly impossible and therefore this Iesus whom the Christian faith confesseth to be our Lord is the Saviour of the world and beside him there is no other 2. If this Iesus whom wee acknowledge bee the Saviour of the world then the expectation of the most excellent and virtuous men is quieted and at rest in the assurance of his heavenly promise But if this bee not hee but that the Saviour is yet to
to Him alone For though she hold other Churches her sisters called faithfull and beloved and esteemes of their true Pastors and Doctors as beautifull and shining lights yet followes shee nothing of any mans because it is his whether Luther or Calvin or any other but Christ her Lord alone doth she follow according to his owne rule My sheepe heare my voice a stranger will they not follow for they know not the voice of strangers But therfore as I said before so doe I still professe that if this Church upon any light from God shall hereafter declare the meaning of this Article otherwayes than I have done I forsake my selfe to follow her so far as she shall follow Christ And if any faithfull man be otherwise minded concerning the meaning of this Article then I have shewed yet doe not I therefore hold him of another Church or faith so long as he doth hold fast the foundation one God and one Mediator betweene God and man the man Iesus Christ For the Kingdome of God is not in the excellency of knowledge much lesse in wilfulnesse of opinion in matier of doubt but in joy and peace and comfort of the Holy-Ghost while a man doth those things which he knowes in himselfe he is bound to performe ARTICLE V. ⧠The third day Hee rose againe from the dead CHAP. XXIX THe sufferings of Christ were fulfilled as wee have seene now it followes that wee see the glories that should follow after of which the first is His triumph over death by His resurrection from the dead set against that in the Article before Hee was dead and buried And although by His death He is said to have triumphed over the principalities and powers of death and hell in His Crosse Col. 2.15 that is by the power and vertue of His merit as a champion by His valour and courage in the field overcame His enemie yet the actuall manifestation of His triumph was not solemnized till by His resurrection the power and glory of His victory did appeare But it may here be asked How Christ our Lord is said to have risen againe seeing Saint Paul saith Rom. 6.4 That Hee was raysed againe by the glory of the Father To which the answere is easily returned that Christ our Lord by His owne active power as He was God raised Himselfe from the dead and as man by a passive or received power was raised againe as He said of Himselfe Iohn 10.18 I have power to lay downe my life of my selfe and I have power to take it up againe This commandement have I received from my Father For for this end was it necessary that our Mediatour should be both God and man in one Person that that which was not fit nor possible for the God-head might bee endured in the humanity as those things which concerned His death and suâ—fering and that which was impossible to His pure humanâ—â—â— might yet therein be perfected by His divinitie as Saint Paul saith Rom. 1.3.4 that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to bee the Sonne of God by His resurrection from the dead But there is a great difference betweene the state or manner of His being before His death and after His resurrection For although the unitie of the humanitâ—e with the God-â—ead were alwayeâ— before in and after His death the same yet was not that unitie alwayes manifested in the same glory and excellency For in the first state while He bare our infirmities His body was subiect to hunger cold wearinesse death and other accidents of a naturall body His soule also though according to the principall or first acts endued with the excellencie of reason and knowledge yet according to the second acts or practise not knowing the grave of Lazarus the day of Iudgement c. In the second state also His body was deprived of sence and life His soule of the proper habitation But in His resurrection His body was raysed immortall spirituall 1. Cor. 15.44.45 glorious and as in all the perfection of grace and compassion on us so with the fulnesse of Wisedome and Knowledge to see our miseries and to make intercession for us according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. Now concerning the trueth of this Article that our Lord Iesus rose againe from the dead though it be most powerfully witnessed by God Himselfe by Angels and men as you may read yet because the authoritie of the Scriptures wherin those things are recorded is set at nought by Iewes Turkes Infidels Hereticks and such God lesse people let not us endeavour to leade them like sheepe that follow their shepherd but drive them like asses with the cudgell of reason And as Saint Peter Actes 2.24 takes his first argument from the impossibility of not performing those things which are contained in the Scripture so our arguments shall be from the impossibilities in reason 1. It hath been prooved before that man was created innocent Chapter 15. That by his sinne he became subiect to death Chapter 16. That there is a restoring to a better estate Chapter 18. And that the restorer of mankind must be both God and man Chapter 20. and 21. Then that this restorer was Iesus our Lord the Sonne of the Virgin Mary Chapter 24. who by His sufferings and death made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world Whence I argue thus For the greatest good that can be done for mankind the greatest ill may not be rewarded for that were unjust with God The greatest good that could come to mankind was the ransoming of man from eternall death both of the body and soule The greatest ill and basenesse is to be left continually in the state of death wherein if Christ had still continued then had He suffered the greatest ill for the greatest good which could bee performed But this was impossible Therefore our Lord did rise againe from the dead 2. If Christ who sinned not should have borne the punishment of sinne that is to be subject to the power of death yea when the satisfaction was fully ended then should His obedience to God the Father have beene not onely without reward but also for the satisfaction of the justice God had He suffered from God I speake after the manner of men extreame injustice who had neither sinne of His owne for which He should suffer and had fully satisfied for their sinnes whose surety He was But this was utterly impossible For he that fulfilleth the Law shall live therein Levit. 18.5 ergo It was necessary that Christ having fulfilled the Law Iohn 19.30 Luk. 24.44 should rise againe 3. If Christ after His suffering and death had not risen againe then had He not prooved Himselfe to be the Saviour of the world seeing none would have beleeved Him to be able to give life unto others that was not able to quicken Himselfe So His suffering had beene in vaine and His satisfaction if not beleeved should have beene to
condemne thee yet God is greater then thy conscience and knoweth all things 1 Iohn 3.20 Objection 1. It is not long agoe that certaine men from the mint of their owne braine sought to give out a coyne under their owne stampe That we are not justified by the active righteousnesse of Christ but by that which was passive onely and another like this That we are not bound to the obseruation of the Law delivered by Moses either Iudiciall Ceremoniall or Morall But because this coyne had not the publike stampe it was accounted false and therefore this last argument of yours which drawes so neere to their last position may seeme to be fallacious The Law defended not the innocent ergo it cannot condemne the guilty Who knowes not that the just Law was most unjustly wrested against our Saviour that Hee ought to die because He said Hee was the Sonne of God when as in the case of treason against Caesar upon His owne interpretation He was acquited by the Romane deputy Answere So He was pronounced innocent against all their other objections and yet His innocency saved Him not Yet His case was a reserved case in as much as He was no private man but even the Head of His Church who had set Himselfe to answere for all His members and therefore when the Law protected not Him who was innocent above all men and for all men it condemned it selfe as unable to give life and therefore the conclusion is good that it is not of any power to condemne any of them who were condemned in Him that was innocent But that I may answere more particularly I say that I am farre from these men in both their opinions For although the things which our Lord did so farre forth as wee can imitate them are examples for us yet not onely for example but also for our justification that the law of perfect righteousnesse being fulfilled for us wee might bee freed from the curse of the Law Moreover by that active righteousnesse which our Saviour performed He was able to save all that come unto God by Him whereas if it might be supposed that God and man in one person could sinne as the devill tempted Him then His suffering had beene onely sufficient for Himselfe whereas now His death was meritorious for all For as that supposed sinne had beene infinite both in respect of the person against whom and the person by whom it had beene done being an infinite Person so must it have had an infinite satisfaction So all that Christ had merited by His death had beene available onely for Himselfe but now being offered a Lambe without spot His sacrifice is sufficient for all that come unto God by Him Then for that other opinion that wee are not bound to the fulfilling of the Law it is most false For though the Iudiciall were peculiar to Israels common wealth and the ceremoniall Law served onely till the substance was exhibited yet the morall Law in regard of the eternall Iustice and equitie thereof as the law of nature may not be broken without sinne nay so much more straightly are wee bound to the performance thereof as the thoughts are more unruly than the actions otherwise what meant those interpretations of the Law Matth. 5. and elsewhere fetch 't from the innermost meaning of Iustice which binds the very thoughts It hath beene said to them of old c. But I say unto you Love your enemies and whosoever lusts hath committed adultery in his heart c. Is not our Lord a sufficient Law-giver for His Church Doe they take away sinne out of the world and so make void the death of Christ For where no Law is there is no sinne imputed Rom. 5.13 I confesse that the Law hath no power over them that are in Christ to eternall death because it was insufficient to protect His innocent life although the keeping of the Law if it were exact might claime to eternall life But the works of the Law and faith in Christ are by Saint Paul set in direct opposition in this argument of justification See Rom. 3. from verse 20. c. And Galatians Chapter 3. But yet though obedience cannot bring life eternall to the doer of the Law because the Law is perfect our obedience imperfect yet sinne brings deserved death upon the sinner whereby their vanitie appeares which hoâ—d the keeping of the law not necessary and likewise the trueth of the former conclusion that seeing the keeping of the law gave not life to our Lord that fulfilled it neither can the breach of the Law bring condemnation to them that are in Him to whom there is no condemnation Rom. 8.1 Object 2 Object 2. But seeing the merit of Christ is infinite and He being both God and mâ—n of infinite woâ—thinesse above the creature and for this purpose appearing that He might take away the sinnes of the world how comes it to passe that after the sacrifice for sin is offered yet both sinne and death the punishment thereof doe still remaine Answere It was an easie thing for God utterly to have abolished death after that by sinne it had entered into the world so that neither the body should have died the naturall death nor the soule the spirituall death of ignorance and pleasure in sinne nor both together the death eternall But yet God would let both sin and death remaine and that for foure reasons especially First that the justice of His most righteous sentence might stand In the day that thou eatest of that tree of the knowledge of good and ill thou shalt die the death 2. That the infinitie of His wisedome and goodnesse might appeare that as death by sinne had entered into the world so by death he might destroy sinne that whereas the devill which had the power of death sought to deprive man of life and glory He might take the weapon out of the hand of that Egyptian and as Benajah kill him with his owne speare and by death bring man to everlasting glory 3. That man might see the greatnesse of the benefit and willingly conforme himselfe to follow Christ through the paines of death and honour of the grave seeing God hath called and predestinated us to be like the image of His Son 4. The devills fell by pride and least man should grow proud therefore is sinne and death left with him to humble him thereby So that to the faithfull the condition of death onely is changed For whereas justice would that man should die because the sentence of death had proceeded against him And mercy would not the death of a sinner Wisedome decided it that death should bee made the way to everlasting life and so both Iustice and mercy might have what they desired Object 3 Objâ—ct 3. But how is sinne said to be forgiven when both sinne and the punishment doe still remaine Answere The meaning and purpose of this Article of our faith is that wee stedfastly beleeve the forgivenesse of our
imputed because there was yet no law whereby shee was subjected to her husband was that shee gave not firme credit to the word of her husband delivering the commandement of God but that shee suffered her selfe to bee withdrawne by the craft of the devill speaking in the serpent but that his sinne was in this that hee did unaduisedly eat that which the woman gave him not minding what it was as he pleads for himselfe before Him with whom he could not lye The woman gave me of the tree and I did eate And thus was there mercy reserved for man both in regard of that weake estate wherein hee was created in comparison of the Angels and in respect of the quality and measure of his sinne and of the meanes whereby he was drawne thereto whereas the Angels that kept not their first estate but wilfully sinned against God for their three sinnes and for foure could never finde any place of repentance But it is said Iob. 31.33 If I have covered my sinne as Adam By which it seemes his sinne was more than he confessed I answer The word Adam there used and so the word Enoch in divers places of Scripture doe signifie man in his sinnefull and wretched estate indefinitely as Psal 8.4 144.3 Iehovah what is Adam that thou knowest him the Sonne of Enoch that thou makest any account of him And therefore divers good translations reade that text of Iob If I have covered my sinne as Man who doth commonly excuse his sinne and lessen his offence But of what sort soever the sin of man was it is most certaine that he did sinne 1. For as the effect is manifest by the cause so the cause appeares by the effect Now death is the wages of sinne Rom. 6.23 so then sinne is the cause of that punishment And every punishment is for some offence But it is manifest that Adam was punished even unto death it selfe For otherwise hee had lived untill now and hereafter Therefore it is manifest Adam sinned 2. It is proved before that all the creature was good and upright in every kinde and that man was the prime and chiefe of all the visible creature and therefore that hee was created for the most excellent end which is to bee happy in Him who is the chiefest good of which happinesse hee could not have fayled if he had continued in the state of his creation For every thing ordained for an end by a cause that is powerfull thereto must bee furnished with meanes sufficient for the attainement of that end But it is manifest that Adam hath failed of that happinesse by the utter losse of life and present being Therefore hee continued hee continued not in the state of his creation but sinned against his Creator 3. Death is the punishment of some great offence in the reasonable creature who is able to make a difference betweene good ill But it is manifest that Adam was not created sinfull and therefore not subjâ—ct to death And againe it is manifest that that state of Adâ—m was changed because he is dead But that change was not made by God because it was contrary to his ordinance neither could it bee made by enforcement of any outward meanes For then Adam had not beene made sinfull thereby Therefore it was made by the willing act of Adam himselfe and hee thereby subjected to Sinne. 4. Nothing can be so inseparably in the whole off-spring which is not first in the originall as the fruit cannot be wholly poysonous if the root or stem bee not first infected But it is learned by lamentable experience that the whole masse of mankinde is wholly sinfull and corrupted and that no man can say his heart is cleane therefore it must needs bee that the root or originall from whence they are descended which wee have already proved to have beene one wis sinnefull and corrupt 5. Man with much care and government in his youth with much heed and warinesse in his owne carriage is hardly at last brought unto a course of a vertuous life and that not without many wicked desires and sinfull deedes But if the first man had not corrupted his nature all vertue and that alone had been naturall to all men But experience shewes the contrary Therefore Adam sinned and therby corrupted his whole nature But you will say If that sinne of Adam were onely a sinne of ignorance and that in so small a thing as the eating of an apple the punishment of death and that both of body and soule can no way seeme to be proportionable For shall not the judge of all the world doe right And if the least sinne deserve the greatest punishment what punishment can be left for the greatest sinne or shall wee say as the Stoiâ—ks taught that all sinnes are equall I answer That sinnes compared one with another are truly said to be lesser or greater one than another For it is a lesse sinne to thinke ill of a man undeservedly than to hate him And that than to maime him and that than to murder him and that than to defame him For most of these degrees hold in them all those sinnes that are under it So that as the Stoickes truely said every later exceeds by the multitude of sinnes that are therein Yet is there no sinne in it selfe how little soever it seeme but in the rigor of Gods Iustice deserves more punishment than al that which the sinner can beare because of his greatnesse who is dishonoured thereby For the greater any person is the greater is the offence whereby he is dishonoured As for a word of scorne spoken by a meane man against his equall a small acknowledgment may make amends for which offence against a Peere a Scandalum Magnatum may be brought and if it had beene spoken to the dishonour of the king it might iustly bee accounted high treason in the speaker How great then may wee hold that offence to be which is against the Majesty of God before whom all the nations of the earth are not so much as the drop from a bucket falling into a mighty river Es. c. 40.15.2 Moreover every commandement of his being a rule of infinite Iustice an infinite Iustice is offended by the breach therof And what satisfaction can a finite creature make to an infinite Iustice that is offended but because it cannot beare a punishment intensivè infinite or infinite in quantity therefore it is iust that it should beare it extensivè in the infinity of Continuance Now as it was necessary that God should givâ— a law unto man that he might evermore acknowledge that duty and obedience which he ought to his Creator so having enabled him both in body and soule to performe his law which was also so easie a burthen as that it stood not in doing any thing but onely in the forbearance of one fruit among a million it was most necessary that God in His iustice should require that breach of His law Which law the
of the whole world could make it But lest wee should not conceive sufficiently thereof the bookes of the Kings and Chronicles doe enlarge our understandings by the imployment of almost two hundred thousand men for seven yeeres and â—o halfe by the descriptions of the materials and their preparation the roofe â—â—ing set with precious stones the walles overlaid yea the very pavement and hinges of the doores being of pure gold so that no historie remembers the like building both for cost and workmanship Now what this second Temple builâ— by a small band of poore captives in all but fortie two thousand three hundred sixtie beside their servants a wretched number of seven thousand three hundred thirtie seven and that in a desolate countrey amidst so many enemies that hindred their building was like to bee in comparison of Salomons every man may easily conjecture And therefore this Prophet saith Chap. 2 3. That this new built house in comparison of the former was nothing as you may further see Ez. 2.12 13. Was this house then more excellent in respect of the ornament or priviledges God promises by his prophet Chap. 1. v. 8. that he would take pleasure in it and that hee would be glorified Where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ecabd by the want of the letter ×” which in number signifieth five and in sence would be translated I will glorifie it is supposed by the Rabins to intend the want of five things in this latter Temple which were in the former First the Ark with the covering and Cherubims secondly the fire from heaven thirdly Shecinah or the Divine presence manifested in the oracle Levit. 16.2 Numb 7.89 1 King 6.5 Fourthly the holy Ghost which spake not by any Prophet after this Darius in whose dayes the Temple was built fifthly the Vrim and Thumâ—nim And this many of our learned doe embrace as you may reade everywhere but Pet. Galat. lib. 4. Chap. 9. cites the booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yoma or of dayes interpreting the five things to be First the Arke as before secondly the pot of Manna thirdly the oyle of anointing fourthly the rod of Aaron fiftly the box with the offering of the Phlistines by the side of the Arke But the author of that booke was too carelesse as it is apparent 1 King 8.9 2 Chron. 5.10 where it is directly affirmed that nothing was in the Arke but onely the two tables of the Law And is it likely that the offering of the heathen should bee brought into the most holy place before Christ had entred thereinto But howsoever seeing by all confession it appeareth that this house was not to bee compared with that of Salomon either in outward beautie or in riches or in outward holinesse being so often and grievously profaned by Heliodorus the agent of Selencus then by his brother Epiphanes who set the image of Iupiter in the Temple of God and enforced the Iewes to forsake their Religion after by Pompey by Crassus and others or in the other high and heavenly ornaments and priveleges the glory thereof must needs consist in this that the Lord of glory the Messiah and Saviour of the world would glorifie that Temple with his presence and in that Temple preach peace with God by his owne satisfaction for the sinnes of the world You may reade hereto Ioh. 8.12 to the end and chap. 10.23 to 40. and 18.20 And thus the substance being more excellent than the shadowes and Christ by his suffering having finished the ceremoniall Law in the time while this house did stand according to this prophecie it is necessarie that this Iesus be the promised Messiah seeing this house stood but fourtie yeeres the time of repentance and no more after the death of our Lord. e Haggai 2.7.8 Yet one little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth the Sea and the dry land And I will move all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts Marfilius Ficinus de Rel. Christ cap. 27. interprets this place too slackly according to the letter onely understanding by the shaking of the heavens that Starre which conducted the wisemen at the birth of Christ and a supposed Ecclips at his death The Evangelists tell us of a darkenesse over all that land but no author of sufficient credit avowes any Ecclipse of the Sunne in the full Moone when * See praef Iac. Christ in Cat. Palast pag. 2â— the Passeover was kept by the shaking of the earth he understands that eâ—â—thquake at the suffering of Christ and another mentioned by Iosephus Hiâ—â—â—rto also he brings the taxing of all the Roman provinces by Augustus Luke 2. and the rebellion of Iudas of Galilee mentioned Acts 5.37 By the moving of the Sea hee meanes the miracle spoken of Mar. 4.35 and Iohn 6.16 to 22. when by his word our Lord commanded the winds and seas and they obeyed him And if this interpretation had rested with Ficinus by profession a Physician by sect a Platonick I had said nothing but seeing other profest Divines and they not of the least account doe follow him herein as Crocius aforesaid I thought it fit to cleare this text rather by that interpretation which the Apostle makes hereof Heb. 12.26 27. which is directly to this purpose for which I cite it where by the shaking is signified the removing of those things that are shaken that they which are not shaken may remaine Now the whole drift of that Epistle is to prove that the Law had but the shadowes of things to come but the body was Christ Therefore by the heaven understand the Ecclesiasticall estate of the Iewes as it was ordered under the Law and at Christs suffering utterly finished for the Law made nothing perfect but was onely the bringing in of a better hope Heb. 7.19 and Chap. 8. all By the earth understand the civill policie which was likewise so shaken by the Romans that they had not power to put any man to death Iohn 18.31 And after by Adrian were they utterly scattered from being a people These things then being thus shaken and by the shaking removed the sacrifice of Christ and his kingdome must remaine that he may be yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 13.8 that is before the Law and under the Law and after the Law the onely Mediatour betweene God and man And as it was with the Iewes so likewise the inhabitants of the Islands of the Sea and of the maine land were to bee shaken that they might forsake their service of dumbe idoles to serve the living God Acts 14.15 1. Cor. 12.2 that so our Lord might bee the desire and joy of all nations and the Scripture fulfilled which saith Rejoyce thou barren that bearest not breake forth in joy thou that travellest not for the desolate Church of the Gentiles hath many moe children than shee the Synagogue of the Iewes
doe necessarily follow the nature and being of any thing is to destroy the thing it selfe so that to deny either the divine or humane will of Christ were to make him an unsufficient mediator and is directly contrary to that scripture which is Luke 22.42 Father not my will but thine be done 4. From whence Iordanus Brunus a Neapolitan in my time in Oxford would inforce a more wicked conclusion That Christ was a sinner because His will was not in every respect answerable to the will of God And because that which comes into the wicked imagination of one may proove a stumbling blocke to another I will by the way remove this out of the way Therfore I answer That because man knowes not nor may presume to know what the secret will of God is hee may in the freedome of his owne Will will desire pray for and indeavor any thing which is not contrarie to the revealed will of God and that without sinne especially in such things as stand with the naturall desire of all the creature in the preservation of it selfe in the present being which it hath As a sicke man without sinne may use diet medicine and prayer for recovery although God in His secret will have determined he shall dye Davids purpose to build the Temple though against the purpose of God was so well accepted of God as that he thereupon received the promise of a perpetuall succession even till Christ the eternall king to come of his seed 2 Sam. 7.11 to 16. Nay when Hezekiah had heard the sentence of death from God Himselfe by the voice of his Prophet Esay 38. was his prayer and his teares accounted sinnefull which God did so far accept as that he confirmed his petition by a miracle And although our Saviour knew himselfe to have come into the world that He should dye for the sinnes of the world yet might he without sinne pray unto His Father to save Him from that houre John 17.17 especially divers figures affording that hope was not Isaak in the very stroake of death rescued by the voice from heaven when the Ram was offered up in his stead Gen. 22. was not the scape goate Leu. 16.21.22 on which all the iniquities and sinnes of the sons of Israel were put sent away alive into the wildernesse But wherein was this repugnancy of his will to the will of God Not my will but thine be done He denyed his owne will he laid downe not onely his life but even the desire of life that he might performe the will of his Father so that the true conclusions which arise from hence or the like places are these first seing all men naturally desire to live and would not bee unclothed that is would not die 2 Cor. 5.4 but rather that our mortality might be swallowed up of life as it shall be with them who are found alive at the comming of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.51 and 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. Christ our Saviour was truly man both in the nature and all the naturall properties of a man contrarie to the heresie of Eutyches and the Monothelites of which you may reade further if you will in Thom. Aquinas contra Gent. lib 4. Cap. 36. Secondly and because every pure and meerely naturall propertie is concreated with the thing whose property it is and that the desire of life is naturally in every thing which hath life and that without sinne lest â—e that put this desire in the creature should be supposed a cause of sinne it was â—o sinne iâ— our Saviour to desire life upon that condition contrary to the folly and falshood of Brunus Thirdly seeing that God the Father so loved the world as that he refused to accept the prayer of his owne beloved Sonne when hee besought him with strong crying and teares for life but would give him to that most bitter death for us what confidence and assurance of life may wee have when the price of our redemption is paid and hee our Redeemer restored unto life for if while we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Sonne how much more being reconciled shall we bee saved by his life Rom. 5.10 ARTICLE III. ⧠VVhich was conceived by the Holy-Ghost CHAP. XXV ALthough it were said to Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed so that the Humanity of Christ was in Abraham and the fathers originally and so descended unto Him yet you may not thinke that any determinate * You may see the contrary opinion in Galatin lib. 7. cap. 3. matter descended from Abraham or the rest of which the Manhood of Christ was to be made peculiarly no more then the manhood of all others that descended from them And as no more so no lesse was He in the loynes of Abraham then the other Israelites But yet with this difference That whereas all other men being borne according to the law of concupiscence are subject to originall sinne from both the parents a Hee being not so borne was not subject thereto And because He was not borne according to the flesh but according to the promise according to the Law of the eternall life that is of the eternall Father onely on the one side without a mother and so of His mother onely on the other side without a father Therefore was He as not subject to sinne so not tithed in Abraham when he gave tithes of all unto Melchizedek Genes 14.20 as Levi was Hebr. 7.9 10. for tithes are an acknowledgment of sinne in him that is tithed and a confession that he needs a mediator unto God But Christ being a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek did therefore in Melchizedek receive tithes of Abraham and by Melchizedek blessed him with whom He had before-hand established His promise Gen. 12.2 3. Now when the fulnesse of time came that this promise of God should bee fulfilled the blessed Virgin Mary being sanctified by the Holy-Ghost unto holinesse of life and puritie of affections was so highly favoured and accepted of God as that in her tender yeeres for they write that shee was not above fourteene yeeres at the message of the Angel shee was vouchsafed worthy to bee the mother of the Saviour of the World Her heart being therefore purified by the Holy-Ghost to beleeve the promise of God made to her by the Angel and by him to bee perswaded of the possibilitie thereof Hee wrought in her also a free consent thereto a full submission to the will of God and a desire of the performance of the promise Reade Luke 1. from 28. to 39. Thus according to the nature of the Holy Spirit she first conceived her sonne in her Spirit or understanding and holy desires then by the working of the Holy Spirit that seed which is the originall of man-kinde was sanctified separate and sequestred into the place of naturall generation and the Eternall Son invested therein that according to the time
wash't his hands Matth. 27.24 And was He innocent and just most vnjust and wicked Iudge ought not a Iudge aswell to defend and deliver the innocent as to punish the wicked If He be innocent Why doest thou most unrighteous Iudge betray the innocent to the power of His accusers Take yee Him and iudge Him after your owne Law Iohn 18.31 If He be innocent Why doest thou torture Him with scourges and thornes and the mockery of a purple robe Iohn 19.1 2 c. Why doest thou deliver Him to the will of His enemies Luke 23.35 Thus the wicked play in the credit and welfare of the righteous and account it no sinne if they can have any pretext to say they are innocent Thus our Lord was denyed His right to His Kingdome Luke 19.14 betrayed by His rebellious Subjects His life was set at nought to save a murderer vnjustly accused stript of His clothing And beside all this of losse which He endured He suffered all that paine and punishment which they could bring upon Him As first His base and scornefull apprehension as of a thiefe in the night 2. His being hurried from place to place from Iudge to Iudge 3. The most unjust sentences of Blasphemy of Treason of Death 4. His Buffeting Mocking Whipping Crowning with all kind of contempt and scorne and 5. That by a most unjust Iudge who still profest Him innocent He was betrayed to the will of His adversaries to be Crucified 6. And yet because nothing could glut the gorges of those bloody Priests in the agonyes of death behold a fresh onset of Scorne and Reviling Matth. 27 41. 7. Neither will the abjects be left out with their Gall and Vinegar 8. No nor yet the theeves in the same condemnation with their upbraidings O man of sorrowes and contradiction Behold and see all you that passe by if there were ever any sorrow like unto that which was done unto Him wherewith the Lord afflicted Him in the day of His fierce anger Yet were all these things but small afflictions in comparison of this that God had withdrawne the light of His comforts from Him For this cause alone were His roarings powred out My God my God why hast thou fo saken mee Yet may it not be thought but that He was still one with the Person of the God-head and that not onely in His agony on the Crosse but in death also when His soule was parted from the body So that although there was a dissolution in nature of the Soule and the Body yet the unity of the Man-hood with the God-head was still saved in the Person of the God-head See Acts 2.27 But although this acte of Pilate in himselfe was most unjust yet in God the Father whose Person Pilate in that iudgement did represent the act was most righteous and just That Pilate in his Iudgement represented God the Father it is manifest not onely by this That all power is of God Rom. 13.1 but even in this very case by that which our Saviour answered unto Pilate Thou couldest have no power at all against mee except it were given thee from above Iohn 19.11 In this act therefore of Pilate God did summon and judge the whole world to answere for their sinnes And because euery mouth was stopped and the whole world was found subject to the judgement and wrath of God for their sinne therefore was it necessary that the condemnation and punishment should fall on Him to the full that had set Himselfe to answere for us lest no flesh should be saved So through His sufferings as we were condemned in Him by Him are we also saved But it comes now to be enquired Why our Sauiour should be condemned to a death so infamous as to be 2 Crucified THere were foure kinds of death appointed for Malefactors by the Law of God Stoning Burning the Sword Hanging by the necke The particular offences you may finde gathered from the Hebrew Doctors by Henry Ainsw on Exod. 21.12 And although Hanging amongst all those was accounted the most easie death yet on that kind of death was the curse pronounced as you see Deut. 21.22 But if they that committed the least sinnes and therefore suffred the most easie death were accursed as the adulterer c. how much more they which sinned in higher degrees and were judged worthy of greater punishment This kind of death by nailing to a Crosse more cruell then any appointed by the Law of God was in common use among the Romanes after their first Kings especially for their slaves See M. T. Cic orat pro Rab perduell and Lips de Cruce lib. 1. cap. 12. over whom every Lord had power and vsed to crucifie them for theft and especially for running away After it grew in use for the baser sort of malefactors though free-men as theeues and such like and for their provincialls And when the lawlesse power of the Emperours had made all slaues then they that called themselues Free-men and Citizens of Rome were also crucified at the will of the Emperours as you may see Lips de Cruce lib. cap. 15. et lib. 2. cap. 7. But although this kinde of nayling on the tree by which our Lord did dye was not in use among the Iewes as Lip de Cruce lib. 1. cap. 11. supposes unduly confounding the staking strangling on a Gibbet or bough and nayling on a Crosse yet by the interpretation of S. Paul Gal. 3 13. did the curse directly belong to this suffering of Christ wherein He was made a Curse for vs. Now among those reasons why our Saviour should dye by this most vile and infamous death of the Crosse The first shall bee even from thence because it was most base and shamefull For seeing man-kind by his sinne had forsaken God his just and lawfull Lord and made himselfe a slaue to the Divell what manner of death but the most vile and shamefull could He be judged worthy of that had so falsly and basely transgressed And therefore was it necessary that He who had made Himselfe mans surety and put Himselfe in his stead to beare his punishment should also die by the most infamous death of the Crosse the punishment of slaves that had run away from their Lords 2. It is fit and necessary that the Sonne of God should be exalted to the highest degree of glory The greatest glory is not due but to the greatest humility The lowest degree of humility that can be is to be subject to the most shamefull death Therefore that our Lord the Sonne of God might be exalted to the highest degree of glory it was necessary that He should first be abased to the death of the Crosse Neither is this an argument of amplification but founded in the rules of the infinite Iustice and therefore urged by Saint Paul Philip. 2. verse 8 9 10. He humbled Himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Therefore God hath exalted Him and given Him the Name which is
above every Name that every tongue should confesse that Christ is Iehova 3. And seeing He suffered under the power of the Romanes it was necessary that He should die by that manner of death which was most usuall with the Romanes which for their seruants and provincialls was the Crosse And although it seemed unto Pilate himselfe an unworthy death for Him Shall I crucifie your King Yet nothing could content His enemies but Crucifie Him Crucifie Him And because our Lord had no such priuiledge to plead for Himselfe that He was a free man of Rome as Saint Paul did Act. 16.37 22.25 29. 25.11 and so lost his head by the sword Therefore He must needs endure that bitter and accursed death of the Crosse 4. The tree through the craft of the devill was unto man-kind a cause of sinne Therefore lest the tree which was created good might become a curse to him for whom it was created and thereby the end of the creation might be perverted it seemed fit to the Wisedome of God that as the tree had beene an instrument in the worke of mans condemnation it should also bee an instrument in the worke of his redemption that man by his wound might also bee healed And therefore that our ransome should bee payed on the Crosse 5. Man by his sinne had made himselfe subject to the curse of the Law Therefore that the promise to Abraham That in his seed all the Nations of the earth should bee blessed Gen. 12.3 might come vpon them it was necessary that the curse should fall vpon that promised seed in whom they were to bee blessed as Saint Paul doth argue Gal. 3.13 and 14. 6. This crucifying of our Lord was prefigured diverslie in the Law as by the Serpent in the Wildernesse if you compare Numb 21.8 with Iohn 3.14 Moses also spreading out his hands in the forme of the Crosse overcame Amalec by his prayer Exod. 17.11 But aboue all other figures that glorious Type of Christ Samson who should begin to save Israel Iud 14.5 most liuely figured our Saviour on the Crosse when he laid his hands upon the Pillars and slew more at his death than he had done in all his life Iud. 16.30 So our Lord the Authour and Finisher of our Salvation though by His Preaching and His miracles He had shaken the Kingdome of the Devill yet by His death upon the Crosse He did triumph over all the power of hell Col. 2.15 David Psal 22.16 prophesies plainely of the wounds wherewith He was pierced in His hands and His feet when He was nailed to the Crosse as the Prophet Zechary Chap. 12.10 of that wound which through His side they made in His heart I the Lord will powre vpon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the Spirit of Grace and supplicatior and they shall looke upon mee whom they have pierced And thus according to the Prophesies that were before was our Saviour crucified as you reade in the Gospel 3. Dead VVEe see IESVS made a little lower then the Angels for the suffering of death that He by the Grace of God should taste of death for every man Heb. 2.9 All the reasons for His crucifying confirme thus much And for this cause was Hee conceived and borne that He might redeeme His people from their sinnes The arguments also of the 19. Chapter of the 21.22 and 23. come all to this centre that Christ our Lord and onely Redeemer must die for our sinne 1. For seeing man by his sinne had made himselfe subject unto death according to the just sentence Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die it was necessary that He that had made Himselfe our surety Heb. 7.22 and taken our sinne upon him Esay 52. should die for our sinne 2. It was necessary that the highest degree of obedience should bee in him in whom was also the perfection of Sonne-ship But all the perfection of Son-ship was in Christ both that which is Eternall and that which is in time as hath appeared Therefore also the perfection of obedience But there can be no degree of obedience beyond this that a sonne should die at the will of his father Therefore it was necessary that our Lord should die For God so loved the world that He gave his onely begotten Sonne to die that the world by him might bee saved But because it was impossible that He in his Eternall being should be subject to death therfore was it necessary that He should bee incarnate that Hâ—e should bee conceived of the Holy-Ghost and be borne of a Virgin as it hath beene prooved 3. If Isaac the shadow were content to die at the will of His Father how much more ought Christ the substance to fulfill the will of His Father 4. The manifestation of the infinite dignities of God the Father is the proper and peculiar office of the Son See Iohn 17.6 and 26. And how could either the infinite Iustice or Mercy or Love of God the Father toward His creature or His honour in the creature bee better manifested than in the death of that Son For although it were farre from Injustice to punish the innocent for the wicked when He had set Himselfe to answere for the sinnes of the world yet was it the uttermost the most severe and eminent Iustice that possibly could bee to lay upon Him in whom there was no sinne neither was there any guile found in His mouth the burden of vs all to breake him for our sinnes to multiplie His sorrowes and at once to deprive Him of all the comforts of God and life it selfe for our offences Neither could the Mercy or love of God toward His creature be greater than this that when wee were enemies yet spared He not His owne Sonne to worke our reconciliation Neither can the honour of God be more magnified by the creature than for that mercy and love which he hath shewed toward the creature in the Eternall Glory and happinesse which He hath reserved for it through the satisfaction of his Son And because these things could not possibly be brought to passe otherwayes than by the death of the Sonne of God therefore was it necessary that He should die 5. Of contrary effects the immediate causes must needs bee contrary The greatest delight and joy which the naturall man hath is to follow his sinfull lusts Therefore the recovery or restoring of man from his sinfull state cannot bee but by the suffering of the greatest sorrow that is of death 6. The obedience and sufferings of Him who was to make satisfaction for the disobedience and rebellion of all man-kind could not possibly be either exceeded or equalled But if our Lord had not died a most bitter and cruell death in those torments which He endured both in his soule and body then had His sufferings beene equalled if not exceeded by many of the holy Martyrs who for their love and faith in God endured most bitter and exquisite torments Heb.
68.20 That to Him belonged the issues of death both to passe out of death Himselfe and also to bring out His from thence Esay also Chap. 53. after He had declared His sufferings and death proves His resurrection by His dividing the spoile with the strong Our Lord also foretold His resurrection Himselfe in Mat. 12.49 and Luk. 18.33 and the b infidelity of Thomas made it certaine unto all Vpon all which texts we may firmely conclude with Saint Peter that it was impossible that our Lord should be held in the bands of death 8. And why the third day was appointed for His resurrection a reason or two are rendered Hee rose not before that none might doubt but that He was certainely dead See the 27. chap. for His death and buriall Neither was it fit to deferre the resurrection longer lest the faith and hope of His Disciples should faile Who trusted that it was Hee that should have redeemed Israel Luke 24.21 9. As Christ was man that He might suffer death Chapter 20. so was He also God the Lord and giver of life Chapter 21. But it was unreasonable that He which is one Person with the Author of life should be subject to death longer then that it might appeare that He was certainely dead and that by His owne life and power He had overcome death Therefore our Lord rose againe the third day from the dead 10. Although by the unseparable union of the humanity with the Person of the Deity the body of our Lord might have beene preserved uncorrupted for if the devills have power to preserue mans bodie uncorrupted for nine dayes Hom Iliad Ω or for a longer time as it appeares in the bodies of the Witches that die not by the justice of the Law much more might the body of the Lord have been preserued Yet because in Him and by His death the whole state of nature was to be restored the soule of Christ returned againe to the body before corruption in the course of nature could seaze on it 11. The signe of Ionas did prophesie as much Matth. 12.40 and Hosea in plaine and direct words Chap. 6.2 After two dayes He will revive us and in the third day He will raise up and we shall live in His sight For in as much as Christ our Lord doth now appeare in the presence of God for us we also are said to have risen with Him Colos 3.1 The word of Christ Himselfe is plaine to this purpose that He would rise againe Matth. 17.23 and 20.19 and Ioh. 2.19 and that even in the understanding of His aduersaries Matth. 27.63 And that it was the same Saviour that had suffered for us who rose againe from the dead the circumstances of the place doe make it evident For therefore was He buryed in a new tombe hewen out of a rocke wherein never any one had been laid because the hard-hearted and brazen-faced Iewes might have no pretext to say That any other had risen in His stead Notes a THen had it beene impossible that any of His beleevers c. Concerning the resurrection of the dead fitter place to speake will bee in the Article following Chapter 38. Here it shall bee sufficient to remember that the beleevers onely are raised up by the vertue and merit of Christs resurrection as it is said Iohn 11.25 but that the rest that shall be raised up in the last day shall rise by the power of the Father that according to the rule of Iustice and that sentence upon Adam and all his seed In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death they may re eive according as their workes shall bee b The infidelitie of Thomas made it certaine unto all God that brings light out of darknesse used the unbeliefe of Thomas for a most evident proofe of the resurrection of Christ so that although he would not beleeve the testimonies of so many witnesses as had seene him alive yet his owne tryalls according to his owne manner of proofe by his finger put into the print of the nayles and his hand thrust in his side might make him to beleeve yet was nothing of all this of any availe to them that aâ—e without For as Epiphanius nor obscurely signifies Haer. 28. and Aug. De Haer. cap. 8. directly affirmes Cerinthus that Hereticke and hiâ— followers tâ—ught that Christ was onely man and consequently that He was not yet risen from the dead But both the proposition Matth. 13.55 and the conclusion Matth. 28. fâ—om verse 11. to 16. were made by the blind-hearted Iewes before our Lords ascension and still is it their errour unto this day But if no man could doe those miracles that He did ex ept God were with Him Iohn 3.2 If God alone doth know the heart If God alone can forgive sinnes Mark 2.7 8. then their seared consciences were bound by their owne words to acknowledge that He was God Yet because they ever resisted the Holy-Ghost Actes 7.51 that their conclusion might stand that He was not risen from the dead therefore with large money hyred they the Souldiers that had watched knowne well to bee takers that they should say that His Disciples had stollen Him away whiâ—e they slept But this foule lie stinks to him that hath but halfe a nose 1. For if they slept indeed how could they say His Disciples stole Him rather then that Hee rose agaiâ—e of Himselfe 2. Besides when the Disciples themselves did not beleeve nor when they heard it understood that it was poss ble that He should rise againe Mark 9.10 and 31. Luk. 18.34 no nor yet after it was come to passe could they beleeve them that had seene Him Mark 16.11 and 13. to what end should they be the auctors of such a device 3. Moreover all other circumstances are against it For if they had stollen Him away wherefore should they offer themselves the second time to a needlesse danger as you reade Iohn 20.4 c. 4. Wherefore left they the fine linnen wherein He was wrapped which either respect to the corpes or covetousnesse or haste or feare of the souldiers or all together would not have given them time to plucke off when all places were full of feare the earth it selfe trembling and quaking Matth. 28.2 5. Beside all this the Priests having such power of themselves such favour from Pilate why did they not call the Apostles in question for the fact That the whole trueth if it were as they said might have appeared and wouâ—d easily by their wit and greatnesse have beene fish't out of silly fishers if they should have gone about to conceale it But male verum examinat omnis Corruptus Iudex And because they knew well enoâ—gh that by their further questioning the trueth of God and their lie would bee manifest to all therefore neither then nor at any time afterward durst they endeavour to disproove this trueth to which God Himselfe with so great power of miraâ—les and wonders and gifts
fully proved unto you that this race and state of man-kind and the world with him must come to an end take with you a reason or two and thinke on them 1. It hath already beene shewed Chap. 13. that no kind of infinitie either of continuance of power of number c. can belong unto the world or to the creatures therein contained from whence the present doubt is easily assoyled 2. Also it hath beene proved before Chap. 15. that man was created innocent and our miserable experience shewes that wee are now subject to sinne and the punishment thereof death It hath likewise appeared that there is a restoring of man-kind to a better life than that in which man was created which cannot be but in the perfection of the whole man both in body and soule as it will appeare further in the 38. Chapter But it is impossible that a finite matier should be sufficient for infinite bodies yet if the race and generation of man-kind should have no end then their bodies must needs be infinite which because it is impossible therefore the generation of mankind must have an end 3. The generation of man-kind is either by chance and fortune and so it cannot be continuall either before or after or else it is naturall and so it must needs bee for some end For every motion hath an end when it is come to that period or bound wherein it doth rest otherwise nature should worke in vaine which cannot stand with that wisedome which gave power unto nature and prescribed unto it how it should worke and proposed to what end But if the generation of man-kind be infinite then it is impossible that ever it should come unto that uttermost end for which it was ordained For although these and the millions of men that have beene and are shall arive unto that end for which they were created yet they that are to come in infinitie cannot all be brought to that end which is finite and determined Therefore the generation of man-kind must needs be finite 4. If there shall not be an end of the generation of men then there can be no differences among them as to bee vertuous and vitious wise and fooles good and bad c. But this is most false and contrary to experience yet the former consequence is necessary For it being put as the reasons before partly shew and partly suppose that every man shall have his owne body and his owne soule yet if the matier whereof their bodies shall be made bee finite it will be impossible that infinite bodies be made thereof If it be infinite yet an infinite number of bodies will bee answerable thereto So that if the number of Wise-men be infinite there will be no matier for the bodies of fooles if that number of fooles bee infinite there will be no matier for the bodies of the wise if both be infinite yet one infinitie of matier cannot be sufficient for two infinities of bodies if both bee finite then have wee that wee sought for and the generation of men must of necessity have an end 5. Nothing that is infinite can consist of parts that are finite for these being termes contradictory and most opposed cannot be the originall one of another But every particular man in this supposed infinitie of the generation of men is finite in his being in his continuance and in every other circumstance of his being So this infinitie in every of the parts thereof must be finite and measurable to a time that is finite and so must have an end or if to avoid this end wee must suppose that the time must be infinite yet so an infinite measure must be necessary to measure those parts that are finite But this is impossible and therefore the generation of men must needs be finite And if the generation of man-kind must have an end then also all this creature which was made for his sake for after him the continuance thereof should be to no use but neither the worke of God nor of Nature His servant can be in vaine Therefore the generation of man-kind is finite Sect. 5 § 5. But you will say if every man immediately after death receive the sentence of joy or punishment everlasting what needs any such generall Iudgement as wee understand in the Creed Answere 1. If the body being the instrument of all the workes of the soule should not partake with the soule in the reward to those workes then the justice of God should not bee perfect Therefore for the manifestation of the justice of God it is necessary first that there be a resurrection of the body then that there be a judgement that as men have done either good or bad in their bodies so in their bodies they may receive their reward And this answere shall be the first argument against those mockers that say where is the promise of His comming 2. If all men must rise againe with their bodies that they may receive according to that which they have done in their bodies then it is necessary that there bee an examination of those workes which they have done And this examination of every mans works with the execution of that sentence that followes thereon is that which wee call the generall Iudgement But the first is necessary as it will appeare in that Article of the Resurrection Therefore also that there bee a judgement of the quicke and the dead 3. Neither can there be any severing of the godly from the wicked nor discerning or comparing of their different workes nor any assignement of a reward answerable thereto but by a judgement wherein all are assembled But all these things are necessary to be First that the sheepe may find themselues freed from the violence and injury of the goats who in all the time of this world have push't them on the sides have eaten up their pasture and troden the residue under their feete Ezech. 34.18 c. Compare herewith 2. Pet. 2.8.9 Secondly that the commandements of God first written in the heart of every man then expressed in the tables of stone and at last most lively interpreted by Christ Himselfe Matth. 5. may be found to bee most just when the doers of the Law are rewarded and the breakers punished Neither is it sufficient that every mans deeds be discussed in the particular judgement at his death for so neither their deeds nor rewards nor the causes of them should be knowne unto all Therefore it is necessary that there be a generall judgement 4. If there be not a generall judgement wherein the deeds of all men shall be tryed and rewarded then the hope of all vertuous men should be vtterly void and their obedience to the Commandements of Meeknesse and Patience without reward See Matth. 5.43 and Luk. 6.27 28 c. So also the promises of Christ should faile of their trueth and performance See Matth. 5.10 but these things are impossible So also vertue should have no aduantage above
vice or rather should be no vertue at all when there were no difference in the reward Nay rather vertue should be vice and and vice vertue and every man the more wicked violent and bold he were should be so much the more vertuous and blessed in as much as by violence and cruelty he might without feare bring his purposes to passe to the hurt of others although it were onely to please himselfe But all these things are impossible and utterly against the truth and Iustice of God Therefore there shall be a generall judgement wherein the deeds of all men shall be tryed and rewarded 5. That which was threatned from the beginning by God Himselfe must of necessity come to passe at the last But the judgment was threatned to Adam the common father of us all and in him against us all because we were all in him originally that upon the breach of the commandement of God Gen. 2.17 we should be lyable to death both of body and soule Neither was this onely threatned at the beginning but ever since written as it were by the finger of God in every mans heart their owne consciences accusing or excusing them in the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Iesus Christ Rom. 2.15 16. Therefore there shall be a judgement 6. It is necessary that the judgements of God done in this world doe appeare to be just For shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right Genes 18.25 But many of His judgements are yet hid and unknowne and of them that are knowne yet the faithfull doe not alwayes see the reason thereof and so the praise which is due unto God for His justice therein is lost But it is necessary that the equity and justice of God be manifest to all that His workes may be magnified and He acknowledged to be just in His words and pure in His judgements Psal 51.4 Therefore it is necessary that there be a revelation of the righteous judgement of God in the world to come 7. No perfect judgement can be made of any tâ—ing till the full end thereof doe appeare so that although the lire of man be ended and a particular judgement passed upon him yet because many things succeed in the time to come which depend upon those things which he hath done in his life therefore it is necessary that there be a finall judgement at the last day when those dependances also shall have an end For in respect of these dependances a man may bee said to live after his body is dead and that in divers respects As in his fame either good or bad which oftentimes is very false but at the last judgement the trueth shall appeare then in his writings as the holy Prophets and the Apostles live in those Oracles which the Holy-Ghost gave out by them So Arius and other Heretickes live yet in those venomous opinions which they broached and other vaine people doe hold after them So parents live by the example of their life to the instruction or corruption of their children Maxima debetur pueris reverentia So by their correction and precepts to them in the feare and nurture of the Lord or by the neglect thereof to their destruction Doe you not heare me ye foolish and wicked parents know you not yet that you shall answere for that wickednesse of your children which they shall doe through your default And if there be any other way whereby a man may be said to live as in the furthering of good lawes So a man lives in his buildings or in the havocke of that estate which his Ancestors disposed to the use of his children in new fashions daily devised worse and worse and if there be any other thing which remaines for example either good or bad after death it is necessary that it be enquired of and rewarded in the last judgement 8. If there be not a generall judgement in which the blessednesse of the faithfull both in soule and body shall be perfected then 〈…〉 the sufferings of Christ and those glories that followed thereon should be to no end seeing He being in Himselfe God blessed above all neither suffered nor did any of all that which was wrought in His manhood for any increase of happines to Himselfe for that was impossible but that the benefit thereof might be manifest in us But this cannot be till the generall judgement For then shall the wicked see that there is a reward for the righteous Then shall they know that there is a God that judgeth the earth Psalm 58.11 Reade hereto Wisd Chap. 5. 9. All the dignities of God have heretofore beene proved to be infinite therefore also His justice which should be defective if it had not given a perfect rule according to which all judgements ought to be guided and if it did not examine all judgements thereby to ratifie or cancell them And because not onely the administration of publike justice is with judgement but also every particular action whereto the will doth consent therefore it is necessary that there be an universall judgement wherein all judgements and actions of men shall be examined and rewarded From this justice also it followeth that it ought to be well with the good and ill with the wicked And because for the most part it falles out contrary in this life therefore it is necessary so to be in the life to come See 2 Thess 1.5 6 7. 10 And because judgement is not fully executed according to justice in this world upon many offenders in great and grievous and hidden sinnes and that especially on great persons who live as they list oppresse others and hold themselues beyond the compasse of all lawes And moreover because in this state of mortality man is not able to endure that punishment which is due to His sinne therefore is it necessary in the justice of God that such sinnes being not repented of should be openly and fully punished in the world to come as it is said Esay 30.33 Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared He hath made it deepe and large the pyle thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a streame of brimstone doth kindle it Therefore there shall be a generall judgement 11. And if you will admit of an argument inductive it may easily be admitted that there shall be a generall judgement at the end of the world by that severity which God hath so often shewed and doth shew against sinners to put men in remembrance of that great day As the drowning of the world for their cruelty in the dayes of Noah The overthrow of Sodom for their unnaturall lust The captivity of Ierusalem by Nebuchadnezzar for their idolatry And at last the utter casting off of that nation for their unbeliefe The publike calamities of Plague Warres Earthquakes and overflowings of Waters to the overthrowing of Cities and Countreys famine and death every houre attending on
to whom wee are often betrayed by our owne wicked imagination ye doth He not forsake us for ever but when wee see our selves to have no strength of our selues to stand in the least temptation and so have learned not to trust in our selves but in the living God and to desire His helpe then doth He returne and comfort us in all the troubles of our mind and even in death it selfe makes us more than conquerors Oh what is man that thou shouldest take such tender care of Him or the sonne of sinfull flesh that thou shouldest so visit him Now it is impossible that any created Spirit at one time in all places of the world and that ever since God created man upon the earth even unto the last man that shall be borne should worke these different effects in the hearts of all Gods children And therefore the Holy-Ghost is God And His witnesse in our hearts that wee are the sonnes of God is an eternall trueth and such as hath neither falshood nor doubt nor double meaning Sect. 2 § 2. 1. But you will say if the word Spirit belong essentially to all the Persons of the God-head and that they bee all holinesse it selfe as it is said Es 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hostes how is it here appropriated to the third Person Is not the difference of Persons taken away hereby seeing every one is a Holy Spirit I answere That in this place as in many other texts of Holy Scripture the words Holy Spirit are taken relatively or Personally as they meane that third Person of the Holy Trinity with that relation of procession which He hath from the Father and the Son as it was shewed Chap. 11. Re. 8. 2. But it is said Iohn 7.39 That the Holy-Ghost was not yet which takes away His eternity and so His God-head Answere Tropes and figures are usuall in every language though not minded by the vulgar sort So here is a Metonymia or taking of the author for the gifts of divers tongues miracles prophecie and such like and these gifts were not yet given as it followes in the text because that Iesus was not yet glorified that it might appeare to all that these were His gifts who was before crucified Compare herewith Iohn 16.7 Ephe. 4.8 and 11. 1. Cor. 12.8 c. 3. a If the procession of the Holy-Ghost bee perfect from the Father then doth Hee not proceed from the Sonne or if it be necessary that He proceede from the Sonne also then must there bee in Him something of composition of superaddition or the like whereby His being should not be most simple which were to denie Him to be God So also the procession from the first principle not being perfect would argue a defect therein Answere This is as if you should reason thus If the way betweene Thebes and Athens be the ready way from Thebes to Athens then can it not be the way from Athens to Thebes But I say that the procession emanation or out-flowing of the Holy-Ghost from the Father is most perfect infinite and eternall as from that being from which the procession is actively as the action of understanding is in and yet from the mind which doth understand as from the active principle But the procession or emanation of the Holy-Ghost from the Sonne is likewise infinite and eternall as from the passive principle as the understanding is from that object which is understood And so the procession of the Holy-Ghost is perfect infinite and eternall both from the Father and the Sonne And because all this is in the God-head onely for I speake not now of those graces and mercies which are from God upon the creature therefore it is necessary that the Holy-Ghost be God blessed above all infinitely and eternally one being with the Father and the Sonne You will heere aske me what the difference is betweene generation whereby the Sonne is from the Father and procession whereby the Holy-Ghost is from the Father and the Son If I confesse that I can neither speake nor conceive it you must hold me excused For in those things that are not lawfull nor possible for the creature to know it is not fit to enquire But you may remember that heretofore although we concluded according to the rule of trueth the Holy Scripture that all the Persons in the Holy Trinitie were in their absolute being one yet by the same rule and the enforcement of reason we were compelled to yeeld unto the Father as concerning His Personal being the precedence of originall as being that fountaine of life and glory from which the other Persons doe proceede And because our Lord Iesus is the expresse Image of the Father Heb. 1.3 whose procession or going forth is from eternity Mich. 5.2 and He by the stile of the Holy Scripture called the Sonne of God Psal 2.7 therefore doe wee attribute unto Him as concerning His Personall being the word of generation or being begotten yet in respect of His absolute essence wherein He is one with the Father He is also called the everlasting Father Esay 9.6 But because all things in the Godhead are in the infinitie of perfection and that the being of the Holy-Ghost is alike both from the Father and the Son and that no perfect being hath two Fathers therefore is His personall being said to be rather by procession then by generation Sect. 3 § 3. And because this Article is the last in our Creed whereby we confesse our faith in the holy Trinity it will not be unfit to take up in briefe that which we have spoken hereunto at large It is manifest unto all reason that nothing can be a cause and yet not be for that would bring a contradiction which the understanding of the foole of fooles I meane the Atheist could not endure that a thing that hath no manner of being should bee of such powerfull being as that it should cause either it selfe or another thing to be And because we see that divers things are which could not cause themselues to be when they were not it followes necessarily that there were causes of their being and that all their causes did worke as they were ordered and mooved by their first cause which seeing it is the cause of all beings must of it selfe not onely be but also have power both to be of it selfe and also to moove all other causes to worke to their determinate ends And this most excellent and first being the cause of all other is that which we call God in whom you see the first thing which we can understand is to be but that eternally because there is nothing before Him which might give Him His being and infinitely because there was nothing which could put any bounds to His being The next thing that we can understand of God is that He hath power both to be and to worke but no worke or action can be but in that which hath both actuall being and