mankind from the wrath of God the slavery of Satan and the dominion of sin and death which rightly to know and beleeve leads to life eternall Mathe. How may one attain this knowledge Phila. By right understanding the holy Scriptures in its propositions and consequences Now the Scripture tels us that the first man sinned and so incurred the wrath of God upon himselfe and all his posterity Rom. 5. yet he so graciously promised him that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head i. ruine the policies and works of the Devill wrought in and against man Now from whence commeth this doth God intend to put up this wrong and passe it over then how can his justice be satisfied or if infinite justice must be satisfied by some suffering for that sin then who must undergo it If we look upon God as absolutely one without distinction then the offended must mediate with himselfe and so put up this offence yea the Father God must be the sufferer without any mediator Gnosticks or Patrispassiani But this cannot be for a mediator is not of one but God is one Gal. 3.20 yet infinite justice must be satisfied by an infinite person The scriptures therefore declare that in the Godhead there be three persons Father Son and holy Ghost Now though we cannot so well apprehend how the essence divine can mediate to it selfe for man yet we may conceive how one person can mediate to another and so that the Son who lay hid in the bosome of the Father before all time did consult and mediate with the Father about it We must therefore understand first That God made man as perfect as a creature rationall could be made saving only that he gave him not immutability which is a portion beyond created nature For the very Angels that stood once were yet mutable in themselves and they that stand now are not immutable in themselves though they be in their estate and the reason is they that fell chose to stand by their own naturall power without dependency upon God they that stood chose to stand by dependency upon the Archangell the Son of God the first born of every creature Colos 1.15 and of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named Eph. 3.15 these were the elect Angels Now as they stood by love so man must be recovered by faith in him Aug. Servans hos salvens illos that is the same Archangell and Son of God Jesus Christ who is the head of men and Angels Col. 1.18 creating both but preserving them and saving us from all the bitter effects of sin and leading us to eternall selicity by grace on earth to glory in heaven This is the way to felicity first To know God Then secondly my selfe and miserable condition and thirdly The remedy in Christ Mathe. How come men to wander so much in the seeking of it Phila. The reason of it is first The sin of Adam and Eve who sought to find the chief good in that which God the chiefe good prohibited Mans soule is troubled with a vertigo ever since and running round in a maze is not able to find the right object and if any time we come neer it yet like the Sun comming to his verticall point in the tropick we turn back to the old course Some men know nothing of felicity yet they aime at something they fansie to be good for them yea at a kind of immortality as in writing building or to practise Arts or Arms or purchasing and conquering all which are but shadowes of felicity and may keep our names alive while the soule may be damn'd as the body is dead Some are worse that place their felicity in carnall delights as in cating drinking Phil. 3.19 and wantonnesse which ends commonly in bitternesse shame and death Now though that felicity is thus divorsed by mans mistakings 〈…〉 ing round in a large circumference of mans vain apprehensions yet by serious consideration it may be reduced to one centrall point for when we have wearied our selves like Noah's Dove we must return to the Ark at last for rest and safety for only in God the soule takes rest Aratus for as we are the off-spring of God Acts 17.27 28. so he is not far from any of us and we may find him by nature if we would grope after him but especially by Scripture which teacheth us to know God in Christ for none can come to the father but by him otherwise we know not felicity at all or not rightly for as no man can divide a circle till he have found the center so neither the circumference of true felicity till we fix the foot of our affection in God like one foot of a compasse And as a man may find the center of a circle though he seeth it not so may one find God in the circumference of his works though he never saw him and felicity in Christ though he never yet knew it before Mathe. The knowledge of God being mans felicity it is not amisse to prove there is a God for he that commeth to God must beleeve that God is therefore I pray you prove to me there is a God Phila. I suppose you urge not this question because you doubt it but because you would have reason to satisfie others therein Therefore that there is a God fit to be known of all men I shall prove by reason for though Scriptures be enough to prove it to us that beleeve yet not to them who beleeve not therefore reason in this point is needfull for many will not beleeve unlesse their understanding be over-powred by miracle or revelation or by some extraordinary energeticall operation of God upon the soule they will not beleeve except their reason be convinced of the truth of Scriptures that they are of God and of divine revelation otherwise he thinks that his faith is but implicit or folded up in other mens beleefe or a weak yielding to antiquity or authority of Lawes and Customes without examination of their analogy and agreement with pure and primary reason and I beleeve if pure reason were not clouded by idlenesse ignorance or wilfulnesse it would prove a more impartiall judge of truth than the Pope himselfe who beleeves the Scripture by the ground of antiquity and forceth his conclusions drawn therefrom upon mens consciences by his own authority which men being made his vassals yield to any thing for quietnesse sake though themselves have no satisfaction therein From whence it is that most Christians profession of Religion is but either forced by fear of authority or voluntarily resigned up to another mans judgement or setled upon ones obstinate wilfulnesse neither which is saving faith For though we give some assent to Scriptures at first being moved by the authority of the Church to whom we owe respect and reverence as the people of Samaria first beleeved for the womans sake John 4.42 yet at last they beleeved
a mutual emanency one in the other and an eternall emanency one from the other for they be each in each Aug. de Trin. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him and the holy Spirit in both so they be all in each For the Son is in the bosome of the Father and the Father in the Image of the Son the holy Spirit in the breath of each and they both in his operations 3. All in each for one is possessed of the other 4. All in all the whole essence being in every person And yet 5. But one in all because all three are but one God And take heed of thinking therefore 1. That there is no God 2. That there be no persons in the God but only relations Socin Patrisp offices or dispensations For so we may count the Father to suffer not the Son for our redemption 3. That they be only like one another in substance Arri. Eunom Tritheit but not of the same substance or of an unlike substance but of one and the same substance And take heed of thinking they be three gods for there is but one God in essence though three persons in subsistence one God in being though three persons in the manner of that being Nor may you like the Mahometans acknowledge one God without persons or like the Indians denie the Son of God Mahom. Indians because then they say God must have a wife These people only understand carnall generation not spirituall and in what they know naturally therein they abuse themselves Jude ver 10. and speak evill of what they know not For they perceive not how the soule begets children namely the thoughts and words without female conjunction This high knowledge of God should teach us to admire him whom we cannot comprehend and therefore to serve him in faith fear and reverence Psal 2.11 especially in his Temple and service Psal 138. and so say with Job O Lord what I know not do thou teach me so that in thy knowledge I may find felicity We must not think this knowledge to be superfluous since it is life eternall to have it John 17.3 Mat. 16.18 and that Christ so much approved St Peter for acknowledging it I know all men cannot apprehend this alike yet if we desire that Christ would shew us the Father John 14.8 and that we may have his Spirit he will not denie it to him that asketh him especially if we lament for the losse of the excellent knowledge no doubt he will reveal so much of it to us as shall acquire eternall life Mathe. What means hath God given us to know him by Phila. Two means his Works and his Words His Works Natura naturans naturata and the book of Nature naturated by the power of God His Word is the book of Nature naturating i. of God himselfe without which revelation man cannot apprehend God at all or very darkly The reason whereof is 1. Because Adam seeking curious knowledge beyond the light which God gave him in nature he lost that light of God which by nature he had and despoiled himselfe of that image and character of God which God had impressed upon him and so fell into false conceptions of God in his generations and by himselfe into a more obscure apprehension of him in his time 2. This dark knowledge of God in man ariseth from the depravation of his affections which desires to know God sensibly as men behold Princes which cannot be in this world 1 Cor. 15. no more then flesh and blood can inherit heaven till it be mortified by death and fermented in the grave and refined at the resurrection Moses desire was exuberant to see Gods glory in visible appearance For though God was pleased to be represented by Angels in shapes of men in the Old Testament yet he hath no shape For to what will ye liken me saith God 3. Men being not read in Scriptures are oftentimes driven by some accidents in the world and change of times and strange events above or beside reason to think that either there is no God or else that God is not just Psal 37.36 Psal 73.1 2 3. Wisd 1.1 2. 4. Because we find all things fall alike to all and a naturall succession of things to be as they were alwaies so they think we are all born at adventure and all things come by nature or fortune 5. It comes by the devils craft deluding men with vanity and making them not to think of God and so bold to perpetrate horrible sins through blindnesse and hardnesse of heart whereas if they did but consider Gods waies and footsteps in Scripture in making all things and in disposing them to their severall ends and orders the rare knowledge given to man above other creatures the peace of his mind when he doth well the terrors of his conscience in doing ill the impression and stamp of Elohim upon his Magistrates whom he calleth Gods the strange vengeance following wicked men to them whom temporall Judges either do not or cannot punish Besides prodigious signs in heaven of future calamities So to see monstrous births terrible earthquakes which though they have naturall and second causes yet why they are not alwaies or oftner or not at all or in this place more then that must needs be the rule of some superiour power But yet nothing of all these leads us to the knowledge of God like the Scripture Mathe. Why so Phila. Because the Scriptures are the word of the true God of whom nothing can testifie better then his own word and truth therefore Christ saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Secondly because they clearly set forth God in his nature attributes and works Mathe. How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of the true God Phila. Because it alone doth treat primarily of that God who is Trinity in Unity three persons in one Godhead and of their relations one towards another and their operations in and towards man 2. Because it is the most ancient truth as the true God is the ancient of daies Now what is most ancient and first is true Moses writings are most ancient upon which the rest of the Bible is a comment and the New Testament is a perfect complement and is therefore called grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 because he brought to man by the Gospell the love and favour of God and brought the truth prophesied into fact and performance But this Moses is the ancientest writer Eupolem Masius whom some call Musaeus some Trismegistus as some have thought the Aegyptian Serapis to be a monument of Joseph Sure enough he was the oldest writer of divine Revelation if not of any other He lived in the time of Cecrops King of Athens Aug. The oldest writing the Greeks have is the wars of Troy which fell out in the time of Israels Judges which was three hundred
the beginning made heaven and earth Mathe. Why may not one think that this world came by a revolution of things or else by some fatall necessity or else by chance Phila. Because there is no reason to ground such thoughts upon for till something was made out of nothing by creation there were no things to be the subject of revolution or if there were yet revolution runneth to confusion without a disposer to order those things Nor by fatall necessity for who should determine or impose that fatality but God who hath done what he pleased both in heaven and in earth and for whose pleasure all things are and were created Rev. 4. ult Nor did the world come by chance for no man can impute erection or making things to chance but rather destruction as death not birth Every house is builded by some man but he that made all things is God Heb. 3.4 For God first made the common matter of all things included in the first words of Moses Gen. 2.2 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void which the Poets called Chaos and the Philosophers The first matter Chehn Vabobu This was made by the effective word of God who is Being it selfe Heb. 11.3 who gave this fusion by his word which Chaos or fusion had no power in it selfe to produce any thing no more then an egge can make it selfe a chick without some heat added thereunto Therefore the Spirit of God moved or coured on the waters Gen. 1.3 who by its vertue made a perfect digestion of this heape bringing that into act which was before only in possibility by giving it life and form as an Hen by sitting on an egge produceth a living creature Omnia sub uno igne genita sunt Trisme For as he first made the universall matter so next he made out of that first things more generall as the elements then things more imperfect as things without life before things with life that the things that had life might feed on them which had not as beasts on the herbs and Adam on the fruits Mathe. What did God make first Phila. The Mahometans say the first thing that God made was a pen A simple conceit it may be their Prophet put in that to make them beleeve God have him a transcript of his mind for them This pen surely was his wisedome and power by which he did expresse his mind by his works and his first work was light not to give him light with whom is no darknesse but to give light to his works that they reflecting one upon the other might all glorifie him whose light is the life of men John 1. By this light contracting or dilating it selfe the evening and morning was measured till God on the fourth day made the light to know its center the Sun as he did make every herb before it grew in their center the earth Gen. 2.5 From whence come such divers occult qualities though many of them grew upon one turfe Mathe. When were the Angels created and in what numbers Phila. Their number no doubt is innumerable as Dan. 7.10 a thousand times ten thousand ministred to God And they were no doubt created with the third heavens Philo in Peri-Cosmo Job their habitation and that was made the first day Gen. 1.1 And therefore Job cals them the morning stars and the sons of God shouting for joy at the beginning And the Apostle cals them Angels of light 1 Cor. 12. And of these no doubt some were superiour some inferiour as may be perceived by their severall names in Scripture Isa 6.2 Gen. 3.25 1 Thes 4.16 Colos 1.16 Seraphims Cherubins Archangels Angels Thrones Principalities Powers Dominions none of which he made to help him in creating the world as Simon Magus and Cerinthus and other hereticks have taught and so brought in the worshipping of Angels confuted by St Paul Col. 2.18 But surely God made them the first witnesses of his works and to administer to the Church of God and hath imploied them in the highest matters of the Church except in matters of his own prerogative viz. the justification and sanctification and the donation of grace and the like And so the Law was given by the ministration of Angels Gal. 3.49 Dan. 12.1 Zach. 12.1 Drusius Zeza in Rev. 1.4 and Michael the Archangel stands for the Jewes Dan. 10.21 And Zachary tels us there were seven eies set upon one stone i. some say seven spirits watching and guarding the new Temple of which Zorobabel laid the first stone So Gabriel is sent to instruct Daniel in the Vision and to Zacharias about John Baptists birth Luke 1. and to the blessed Virgin Mary concerning Christs conception and birth So Raphael accompanied Tobias and Jerechmiel instructs Esdras Tobit 5.4 These were elect Angels not only by predestination but eminence Mathe. But all the Angels continued not in their created estate how came that Phila. In their fall appeared first the effect of Gods foreknowledge and decree for many of them kept not their first estate and so brought in the first mutability Their sin was pride rebellion and envy Pride in seeking to stand by their own created perfection Heb. 1.6 without dependency on the grace of the second person Col. 1.15 whom they were to worship as Gods first born The chiefe of these is shadowed out in Scripture under the name of Lucifer and his glory by Nebuchadnezzer and the King of Tyrus Isa 14.12 He drew to his faction many others who liked not the said dependency Zanc. de laps Angel And to this they were moved by envy say some finding either by diligent inspection into Gods work or else by revelation that Gods first born would be a medium of uniting a more inferiour creature then an Angell to himselfe 1 Tim. 3.16 seen of Angels and that all the Angels of God must worship that glorious Union Upon this they fall into rebellion against whom stood up Michael and his Angels and by the power of the highest drove them down to these lower regions where they are reserved in chains of darknesse in a dim and uncomfortable knowledge of God against the judgement of the great day In the mean time he ruleth as a Prince in the aire especially in the hearts of the disobedient for whom is prepared the blacknesse of darknesse for ever Mathe. How do you gather that this was their sin Phila. Because he not only continueth in the same but also hath endeavoured to draw men into the same sins of pride envy and rebellion as our first parents to be as gods and to envy to God their obedience and to rebell against Gods commandement Beside we see that he hath alwaies kept up the same sin among men by making men to set up Idolatry some to aspire to be worshipped and called Elohim or Lords some to debase God to the
before and after the flood But as the flood obliterated the memory of some so the confounding of languages left few worthy memory but some of the generation of Shem the son of Noah who preserved the first Language and Religion i. the Hebrew tongue and sacrifice as is supposed These Patriarchs that descended of Shem Gen. 8. the last of whom was Abraham after the confusion of languages and dispersion of the people collected in Shinar to build the Tower of Babel they travelled save so many of them as were at Shinar which Nimrod made his own seat to Vr of the Chaldees From whence God called Abram Gen. 12.1 to travell to Canaan who by faith obeyed God Heb. 11.8 not knowing whither he went He sojourned a while at Haran and then came to Canaan Gen. 12.5 after his father Terahs death With this Patriarch God afterward renewed the first promise of the blessed seed that was made to Adam for in Gen. 12.2 3. he tels him that he shall be a blessing and that to all the families of the earth To confirm this promise he first promiseth him a son Gen. 15.4 and then makes a covenant of Religion with him and seals it with circumcision Gen. 17.10 After this he more plainly discovers the promised seed to him First in the sacrifice of Isaac commanded and prevented by accepting a Raâ—â—â— in his stead Next by shewing a Type of Christs persecuted Church in Ismael mocking Isaac and then by banishing the bondmaid and her son who must not part the inheritance with the son of freedome Then again by shewing him in a vision the captivity of his seed in Aegypt a type of the Churches thraldom to the world for which God will judge the world Gen. 15.14 To this Patriarchs son Isaac God continueth the covenant and so to Jacob his son of whom came the twelve fathers of the Jewish nation who together with their families going to Aegypt in the famine were enthralled after the death of Joseph whom they had sold thither who proved an happy steward for them as well as the Aegyptians his benefit being forgotten by the following Kings of Aegypt they envied Israel and kept them in subjection and slavery which was a type of Christs Churches future troubles as Moses their deliverer foresaw Heb. 11.26 which made him endure affliction with them rather then enjoy the pleasures of Pharaohs Court By this Moses God renewed the covenant with those people of Israel after he had brought them out of Aegypt Exod. 19.5 adding thereto the ten Commandements and other Lawes and Ordinances for the forms of their Religion Heb. 9.1 All which did but set forth Christ to come in his holinesse righteousnesse and sufferings together with that equity and piety which his Church should practise under the Gospel Now the same covenant that God made with them at first was continued to them till Christ abolished the outward letter of it by his comming and set up the spirituall substance of it in the hearts of men This was prophecied before Christ came Ezek. 11.19 and that the Gentiles should be his people which before knew him not Hos 2. Rom. 9. This is the old and new Commandement 1 John 2.7 8. and must find obedience and operation on the hearts of severall men to the worlds end as it hath from the beginning 2. Gal. 4. The Types were shadowes of Christ and they were Chronologicall Personall or Sacramentall and when those shadowes were past our beloved came as the Church desired him Cant. 2.17 and the day-spring from an high did visit us Luke 1.78 as said old Zacharias The first Chronologicall shadowe was the number 6. and 7. For the six daies had a relation to six ages Chronology shadowes Rev. 10.7 Isid l. 3. c. 4. Beda and Rabanus in Gen. 1.2 Isid Etym. lib. 5. cap. 59. in which the mystery of God shall be finished and as Christ was Alpha the beginning of the creation of God in the first day and age so will be the Omega in the latter end of the sixt age which began with his Gospell and shall end with his glorious appearing to judgement The seventh day signified an eternall rest to which our Joshua Jesus should bring us Heb. 4.8 9 10. when all Sabbaths of daies months and years shall be passed being but shadowes of things to come the body whereof was Christ Col. 2.16 17. Which body as at his first comming put an end to all Jewish rites of the Law so at his second comming he shall put an end in the seventh age to all Christian service and nothing shall remain of all but love to God and Christ and we shall be like Angels neither give nor take in marriage Clem. Alex. in strom 6. therefore this seventh age is said to be without mother or issue 2. The Personall shadowes was first Adam 2 Personall shadowes and therefore Christ is called of Paul the second Adam 1 Cor. 15.45 and they were like in many things As 1. In being Gods image Gen. 1.27 in the image of God created he him And Heb. 1.2 3. Christ was the ingraven image of his fathers person 2. Woman was taken out of his side while he slept so the Church fram'd out of Christs death 3. He was in Paradise and Christ in glory in the heavens and the dresser of his Church 4. He was Lord of all the creatures so God put all things into subjection to Christ Eph. 1.22 that he might recover the dominion that Adam lost Thus naturally he signified Christ directly 1. Ex Congruo 2. Ex Congruo Adam Leo. in ser 18. de Pass 3 Ex Renato 2. He was like Christ oppositively for Adam was but a living soul Christ a quickning spirit In Adam all die in Christ all shall be made alive Both were of one flesh but not of one fact Adam was a sinner Christ only a surety 3. Adam shadowed Christ in renovation in supernaturall holinesse derived from heaven so that as in his created nature he shadowed him forth as God so in the state of renovation or reuniting to God he shadowed forth him that was God and man united by whom the image lost is recovered with great advantage Therefore Paul exhorts to put on the new man in righteousnesse and holinesse Eph. 4.24 that being we have lost the shadow of glory in nature we may recover that by grace which is far more substantiall Origen invisible incorporcall incorruptible and immortall Mathe. What profit is there in this knowledge of shadowes Phila. Very much for as the shadow of the diall directs to a substantiall knowledge namely as to know the degrees of the Sun in heaven so doth this shew us certain degrees of the Sun of righteousnesse in the Church Mathe. Then pray go on and shew me the rest of them Phila. As the first personall shadow of Christ was Adam so the second was Abel who was the third from Adam Abel
and his Church that in the latest of daies the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 and all Nations shall flowe unto it So in the sixt age God did fulfill it by setting up Christ who being lift up drew all men to him for this little stone Dan. 2.34 grew into a great mountain and filled the whole earth that is with his doctrin and Church He the highest for eminency and his Church by universality Aaron was chiefe Priest so was Christ but yet of a Kingly line which Aaron was not Aaron took not this office upon himselfe of his own will but was called of God so was Christ consecrated of God Heb. 5. â— and appointed to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck Aaron was washed and Christ unspotted holy harmlesse and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 He was anointed with holy oile and Christ with the holy spirit by which he was a sweet savour to God The next shadow is Joshua whose name in Hebrew is all one with Jesus in Greek Joshua as appeareth Heb. 4.8 in these words If Jesus that is Joshua had given them rest It signifieth a Saviour Mat. 1.21 Now this man did type forth Christ 1. Because he lead Israel to Canaan and was their Captain as Christ was the Prince of our salvation and therefore cals himselfe Ioshua 5.14 the Captain of the Lords hoste i. of all those that fight under his banner of the crosse and are not ashamed of their profession 2. He typed forth Christ by circumcising all that were to enter into the land so Christ doth all Christians by a circumcision spirituall putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ whose efficacy lieth hid in Baptisme Col. 2.11 12. which takes off the shame of our naturall Aegyptian bondage 3. He presented Christ who will one day dispossesse the earth of all wicked persons that the meek may possesse the earth promised Mat. 5.5 And as Peter saith we look for a new earth wherein dwels righteousnesse and in the mean time by the power of his death doth slay those Canaanites Origen Josh Lect. in Trop Perizites and Jebusites that are within us in part till he come again as God did once from mount Paran to Israel Deut. 33.2 from his holinesse and happinesse to divide the people Hab. 3.3 6. Jude 14. and then shall our spirituall enemies be trod down for ever The next was Sampson Sampson a word derived of Shemesh His Sun Indeed he shined more brightly then any of the deliverers so did Christ the Sun of righteousnesse above all Mal. 4.2 2. He was a Nazarite of Nazar because he was separated from common things as the Razor and Wine Num. 6.3 4 5. So Christ was Heb. 7.26 separate from sinners Rom. 12.2 so are all in Christ separate from the common course of the world for Christ was not called a Nazarite from the Town Nazareth where he lived except by mistake but from his calling ceremoniall to answer to Sampson his type For it is not to be found in the Prophets verbally that Christ should be called a Nazarite but in his personall type Sampson Judg. 13.15 And therefore St. Matthew rather alludes to the common mistake of the people that he should be called a man of Nazareth rather then to his ceremoniall office a Nazarite according to our English translation but in the Syriach it is Naisareth of Naisar to observe or keep as indeed the Nazarites did their vow with all strictnesse And so from the City the place of his dwelling the people fulfilled a prophecie unwittingly as well as Caiaphas and the souldier that pierced his side fulfilled that of Zach. 12.10 Yea Pilate himselfe cals him in his superscription Jesus that Nazarite in the Greek Nazarenus in loco in merito 1. sanctue vel mundus quia pecetum non ficit Isid Etym. lib. 7.2 he meaning the City But the Spirit that guided him intending the office ceremoniall of Christ of which Sampson was a figure prophetically spoken of in the book of Iudges and made good in Christ conceived at Nazareth Again the Spirit came not upon Sampson till he was a compleat man so Christ did not shew himselfe till thirty years of age and after Iohns Baptism Sampsons first victory was over a Lyon so Christs over Satan that roaring Lyon Mat. 4. Vid. Aug in Psal 70. that seeks whom to devour 1 Pet. 5.8 Then next he overcomes the Philistins First with the Jaw bone of an Asse So Christ by the despised simplicity of preaching overcame the world 1 Cor. 1.18 21. though the Preachers of it are derided and ridden of the world for it like Asses Secondly he rising from sleep carried away the gates of Azza upon his shoulders So did Christ rising from the grave carry away the gates of hell and death and lead captivity captive Thirdly he was taken in Dalilahs lap so was Christ in the bonds of poverty and weaknesse as the name Dalilah signifieth Sampsons lock was cut off and his strength decaied But Christ herein exceeded for he laied down his strength willingly by which he made the souldiers before fall backward John 18.6 and this out of love to his Church though an adulteresse Sampson was flouted Christ was mocked But at last Sampson at his death pulled down the house of Dagon upon their heads Judg. 17.30 and so slew more at his death then in all his life and so did Christ when he cried it is finished on the crosse and bowed his head then was sin death and hell quelled at once though not triumphed over till his resurrection The next type was Iehoshuah the High Priest to Iudah Iehoshuah after their return from Babylon at the rebuilding of the Temple Zach. 3.1 He is likened to a branch and a stone verse 8 9 10. and Christ is called the branch ver 8. and a stone laied before Jehoshuah so is Christ the corner stone laied before the Priests upon which they must build the Church Satan stood on the Priests right hand but was reproved so he thought to get the upper hand of Christ but was vanquished Iehoshuah was a brand pulled out of the fire so was Christ when he satisfied the consuming fire of Gods wrath saying It is finished He was clothed in filthy garments and so was Christ with our sins that knew no sin in himselfe Againe glorious garments were given him and those taken away so Christ having satisfied for our sins mortality is put off and glory and immortality put on The next type of Christ was Cyrus though an uncircumcised King Cyrus whom God calleth his shepherd Isa 44.28 and cap. 45.1 his anointed We are to observe 1. His Name 2. His Country 3. His Office His Name was Cyrus Compounded of Caph and Rosh which in Hebrew signifieth as an Head and so he
was a politicall head of Israels return from the captivity of Babylon which he decreed in the first year of his reign Ezra 1.1 In the Persian language it signified as a Sun to shew how he should out-shine all those shepherds with whom he was bred Just hist lib. 1. This name was put upon him by Gods secret ordinances 100. years at least before he was born Isa 45.3 Hisichyus Jo. Wolphius in Ezra however the Persian might give him that name in relation to the Sun whom they worshipped But God gives it from the rising of the Sun that they might know the God of Israel who had named him so long before Isa 45.56 And in his very name he shadow'd out Christ who was and is the head of his Churches deliverance from captivity of Babylon the confusion that Satan sin and death hath made yea he was that Sun of righteousnesse that did arise with healing in his wings as saith Malach. cap. 4. 2. He was by Country a Persian which word Persia is derived of Paras to divide as Daniel expounds Peres cap. 5.28 in relation to Cyrus the Persian who then with his Unkle Darius the Mede besieged Babylon who did afterward divide that Kingdome between them yea the Jewes from the Gentiles by sending them home to their native Country In this he was also a type of Christ who as by the power of his Godhead divided languages at Babel so by his Gospell hath separated beleevers from infidels so at last he will divide his sheep from the goats who took him by faith for their Shepherd and expecteth his comming as a King to divide the eternall inheritance among them 3. By his Calling Cyrus was both a Shepherd and a King First a Shepherd in his forlorn estate while he lay hid and secret and God cals him Cyrus my Shepherd Isa 44.28 Isa 45.1 and yet his anointed also and one that shall perform all his pleasure in building Jerusalem and laying the foundations of the Temple by sending back the Jewes thither 2 Chron. 36.23 John So was Christ the true Shepherd and King also of whom David in that kind was also a figure though Christs Kingdome was not worldly nor temporall but spirituall and so to be continued for ever in our hearts till his eternall Kingdome shall take place at the end of this world That this great King Cyrus in his releasing Israel was a figure of Christ it appeareth farther in that God did in his joint reign with Darius reveale to Daniel whose name signifieth the judgement of God the comming of the Messiah whose death should put an end to all the Jewes typicall sacrifices and should release the Israel of God from all legall bondage Dan. 9.21 24. and sinfull servility and Satans vassalage This message is revealed by Gabriel whose name signifieth Man-God in relation to his emploiment concerning Christ that was God and Man The time set for the accomplishing this great work is seventy weeks that is seventy sevens of years according to Gods account a day for a year Num. 14.34 And so Ezek. 4.5 6. this seventy sevens was to begin with the decree of Cyrus for rebuilding the Temple Dan. 9.25 and the whole summe of this seventy sevens is 490. years About the end of which time which he saith shall be 62. weeks the Messiah shall be cut off Dan 9.19 but not for himselfe that is after seven weeks viz. 49. Clem. Alex. strom 1. Dav. Chyt in John 2. years have been spent in building Ierusalems wals and the Temple there remaineth the other 72. weeks which is 434. years at the end whereof Christ by his death introduceth everlasting righteousnesse to them that beleeve upon it saying on the Crosse It is finished that is though sacrifice continued afterward till the destruction of Ierusalem by the Roman armies yet all sacrifice did now vertually cease Christ having offered up himselfe a sacrifice for all to signifie which the vaile of the Temple at that time rent miraculously Heb. 7.27 I know there be many contentions among Writers about the seventy sevens of weeks upon mistake of Gabriels speech to Daniel Others mistake it by cleaving too much to the Olympick computation But the Olympiad years are very uncertaine Onuph Com. lib. 1. faslor Pluts in initio Num. Po. some counting an Olympiad every fifth year some every fourth year As for those that conceive the seventy sevens ended with his birth or baptisme they are confuted because that put no end to sacrifice for Christ bid the Leper offer for his cleansing Nor did the desolation of the Temple put an end to it for the Apostles had preached it down long before even from the death of Christ Beda de natura rerum cap. 9. which they durst not have done but that they knew Christ had put an end to all before But beside this man was a type of Christ by his edict sent forth for building the Temple for so Christ our great Shepherd Beda in Ezra cap. 1. our Head our Sun sent out his Apostles to build Temples to himselfe of living stones Yea he did figure out by his bounty towards the Temple what other Kings should do to Christs Church even offer their riches and glory to it Isa 60.6 Mathe. What Sacramentall shadowes were there of Christ Phila. The first was the tree of life in Paradise Gen. 2.9 which was a signe and Sacrament of life and termed of some writers Ju. and Ties mel in Annot. Rabaaus a visible Sacrament of invisible wisdome This was not forbidden Adam to taste of for none is excepted but the tree of knowledge as Eve her selfe confesseth Gen. 3. Lomb. lib. 1. dist 17. Beda in Gen. yet there was great difference between the eating of this tree and the rest for in this tree was a sacrament in the rest but only an aliment or nourishment And what was this sacramentall tree a sign of but only of Christ who is the true life of them that beleeve and a tree of life to all that lay hold upon him Pro. 3.18 who is the wisdome of the Father and is made wisedome to us This is the best tree in the Churches garden which is Gods Paradise And we shall find it so if Christ be so planted in our conscience that we forsake him not for that nice and curious knowledge which is but a cloak for our own evill dispositions and corruptions as all schisme and heresie is By this tree Adam was taught that life was Gods free gift before he sinned how much more now is it since we have sinned And if Adam had representative sacraments in the state of innocency how much more have we need of exhibitive sacraments to convey grace to us in the estate of nocency although the Swenkfeldians both old and new say we need neither Sacraments nor preaching The next Sacramentall shadow was Sacrifice Sacrifice A thing done by men by Gods appointment as
he was betraied into the hands of sinners and cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 and made his soule an offering for sin Isa 53.10 After sixty two weeks said Daniel shall Messiah be cut off but not for himselfe Dan. 9.25 26. that is if you mark the verses the Angel allots seven weeks for rebuilding of the Temple which is forty nine years reckoned of the Jewes but forty six years Iohn 2.20 because they reckoned not the first three years when the foundation was but laid by Cyrus his edict and the work staied again by Artaxerxes Longimanus Ezra 4.7 till they had got a second Edict Ezra 6.1 from Darius Nothus Then the Angell allots to the former seven weeks sixty two weeks more which is about 434. years in all 483. or thereabout in the end whereof Christ suffered on the crosse to make an end of sin and finish transgression and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse This scourging wounding and piercing was foreseen also by Isa 53.5 he was bruised for our iniquities and chastised for our peace And saith Zach. 12.12 they shall look on him whom they have pierced for a souldier pierced his side as well as others did his hands and feet when they nailed them to the crosse So his very carrying of his crosse John 19.34 was typed out by Isaac carrying the wood to sacrifice himself upon Gen. 22.9 10. And as Abraham stretched out his hand to slay his son so God loved the world that he gave his Son Iohn 3.16 and he himself became obedient to the death of the crosse Numb 21.9 And as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse for the curing of the people upon a pole John 12.32 John 14. so was Christ lift up on the crosse for the saving of us who were bitten by Satan and sin also So also his Resurrection had a type as Isaac taken from the Altar and restored safe and sound to Abraham the third day after that he was assigned to death Gen. 22.4 of whom it is said that Abraham received him again in a figure Heb. In what figure but only of him that was to come of his seed in whose death and resurrection all nations should be blessed So Ionah the first Prophet who lived in the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Kin. 14.25 and the first Prophet sent to the Gentiles to Niniveh who because he diverted to Tarsus was swallowed of a great fish in whose belly he remained till the third day after and for so long time the grave swallowed Christ but then he arose and so his flesh saw no corruption Psal 16. and that might well be without a miracle if the body be not accidentally corrupted before it be dead as in violent deaths commonly men are not Now Christ lay not in the grave above 40. hours and commonly dead bodies corrupt not til about seventy hours and this sheweth that he rose within three daies and so saw no corruption as the Psalmist said Psal 16. which is expounded plainly so by St Peter Acts 2.31 And as Isaiah had also foretold that the dead men should live and with Christs body they should come so they did Mat. 27.52 53. Thus Christ conquered death in his own Kingdome as said Hosea 13.14 and death had no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 because he was now swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.55 And thus as God spake to the great fish and it cast out Ionah on the dry land Jon. 2.10 so the temple of Christs body which the Jewes destroied he rebuilt in three daies And for his Ascension as it was prophecied so it was accomplished Eliah was a type of it 2 Kin. 2.11 being taken up in a fiery Chariot so Christ was taken up out of his disciples sight into heaven Luke 24.51 as was prophecied in Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended up on high and led captivity captive So he was taken away his disciples beholding it at first Acts 1.9 but after a cloud took him out of their sight And now he sits on Gods right hand foretold Psal 110.1 and averred in Mark 16.19 And from him the Holy Ghost like a most gracious rain from heaven hath fallen upon his Apostles Acts 2.15 16. and upon many thousands of beleevers as was foreprophecied Joel 2.18 and typed forth by the spirit of Eliah resting upon Elisha 2 Kin. 1.13 5. Even so God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts baptizing us with the Holy Ghost and as blessed fire from heaven giving some the gift of tongue Acts 2.4 others to prophecie some to teach others to learn and increase in faith and the love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Mathe. Now as you have shewed the Promises Types and Prophecies and history of Christs Conception Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension shew me also the mystery of godlinesse intended thereby in relation to Christians And first of all I desire to understand rightly his Conception for therein lieth a great mystery wherein our understanding is easily lost if we be not rightly directed For how can one person in the Trinity be conceived or become incarnate without the other two seeing the divine nature is not divided but is in each person totally Phila. The divine nature cannot be divided for substance but in the manner of subsistence it is distinguished For it is after one manner in the Father i. unbegotten After another manner in the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in him it is begotten i. communicated by divine generation After another manner in the Holy Ghost because proceeding from both John 15.16 Now we are to beleeve that the humane nature is assumed by the divine nature as considered only in the Son as he enjoieth it being the perfect image of the Father Heb. 1.1 2 3. and so being the naturall Son of God was most fit to be the son of man and so thereby restore the sons of men by adoption to be made the sons of God Yet we are to beleeve that all the Trinity had a hand in it John 1.12 for the Father wrought it by the holy Ghost but the Son only assumed it as three folks may make one garment and yet but one of the three wear it Mathe. But the Conception is applied to the Holy Ghost and so I am apt to beleeve that the Holy Ghost was his Father Phila. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost effectually not materially he caused it to be but gave not any matter out of himselfe to the nature of Christ so that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost uniting the natures divine and humane together Bernard Damascen not by generation but by institution and benediction and operation not spermatically as other fathers beget children So it is said Rom. 11.36 all things are of God yet not of his substance but by his power so that we
his sufferings of more value then if all men and Angels had suffered and though his death were but temporary yet it is more then all mens suffering eternall damnation 1. That it stands with Gods justice to punish the just if he be surety for the unjust as a man may justly exact mony of a surety which he never had Mathe. Was death all that Christ suffered for us Phila. No his whole life was a crosse and martyrdome For his sufferings were privative and positive the privative concerned both natures his divine because it was voluntarily deprived of that glory joy and felicity which it had for it was eclipsed while he dwelt upon earth John 17.5 in a vaile of flesh and by the darknesse of mens hearts who did not apprehend his glory So to his humane nature did justly belong all joy and happinesse because he did perfectly keep Gods Law yet he did want it in the daies of his flesh for he was of no reputation Phil. 2.7 And this he suffered to bring us to perfect glory and to teach us to hate sin which darkens the beams of Christs glory and to be content to have our lives hidden in Christ as his was till he be revealed in glory and we with him Col. 3.3 4. He suffered also positively and that 1. In regard of evill imputed to him for Gods justice charged all mans sins upon him as if he himselfe had been guilty of them all 2 Cor. 5.21 he was made sin for us and bare our sins in his body on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and therefore God cannot require us to answer for them also but we may live comfortably in holinesse 1 Pet. 2.24 and die in assurance of happinesse 2. He suffered positively in regard of evill inflicted upon him from his conception to his resurrection and all for us For the malediction of the Law laid upon us not only death but a wretched life and therefore he suffered both yet not sicknesse nor the pains of diseases which are not common to all the nature of man but speciall judgements upon some particular men But he suffered all the common miseries of mans nature which did concord to the free execution of his office of Redemption As 1. By the humility of his incarnation to be made a man Luke 2. Phil. 2. To come of mean parents and to be born in a stable and made of no account and reputation and this to expiate the arrogancy of our first parents who would be as God therefore he is put beneath the lowest condition of men So he hides the glory of his eternall birth by a temporary to purchase for us a spirituall and heavenly birth so to teach great men not to be proud of their birth but seek the new birth which is true honour and glory and to comfort the poor whose children have poor provision at their birth and Christ had lesse then they Again he was mightily debased from his birth to his death as by being forced to flye from his native Country to Aegypt to abolish Adams sin which exiled him from Paradise and to repurchase heaven for us and to comfort those godly by his example who suffer banishment Againe for thirty years together he lived obscurely under Joseph as if he had been the Carpenters son and so reputed no man acknowledging him either as the Son of God or the King of Israel or the worlds Saviour but was as a root springing out of a drie ground Isa 53.2 despised and rejected of men What need Gods children therefore be discontented if the world regard them not Christ was so used But these were but private sufferings the more publick began after his baptisme As 1. By being tempted of Satan Mat. 4. in the desart where he overcame the arch enemy of mankind in a single duell This was he led to by the spirit of God not by any lust of vain glory in himselfe that he might make our pilgrimage in this world safe and secure and that he having experience of his temptations might have sympathy of ours and be the more ready to help us Heb. 2.17 and shew us a way how to put the devil to flight even by quoting Scripture as he did which is indeed the sword of the spirit It teacheth us also to beware of being led into temptation by our lusts but let the spirit of God bring us to the combat and he will bring us off with honor as Christ was For he leads us not by seducement of deceit nor allureth us by inticements to evill or by perswasions to venture upon any sinfull way but doth actuate us to combate with those temptations which he foresees are laied for us that our vertues may be improved and God glorified by such probations of us So it may justly comfort us in all temptations that Christ having overcome the devill in our behalfe hath merited victory for us His next suffering was extream poverty and want of the comforts of this life Mat. 8.20 he had not where to lay his head He lived upon alms and borrowed an Asse And this was to make us rich 2 Cor. 8.9 yea to make our selves poor by our liberality to others 2 Cor. 8.9 and not to place our felicity in worldly things nor seek great matters for our selves but be content with the meanest estate Christ was as poor as any man Beside he had infirmities like us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 He hungred and thirsted though he was the bread and water of life and was weary though the way to life He was subject to anger sadnesse fear and sorrow and this was that he might merit strength for us and we be enabled in him Further he suffered extream disgrace from the Jewes for they denied his divinity his birth by a Virgin nor would receive him as their King and Saviour John 1.11 They reproached him also unjustly and accused him of blasphemy against God and of seducing the people Against the Magistrate with treason and sedition against his own soule as if he had been a conjurer so with gluttony and drunkennesse and a favourer of sinners by which means the people were offended in him Mark 6.3 All this fell upon him by the imputation of our sins who were guilty though he was innocent and therefore he spake but little in his own defence Also that he might deliver us from eternall shame and merit for us eternall glory and that we might be ashamed for his sake to suffer all reproaches Heb. 12.3 4. Beside he underwent many dangers of being cast down the clift of Nazareth headlong and of stoning by the Jewes All which he suffered as the fruits and effects of our sins and to save us from everlasting destruction But above all this he suffered his enemies to consult his death to be betraid by Judas to be denied by Peter to be forsaken by the rest And this he suffered for our perfidiousnesse in Adam our forsaking God and denying his
truth and beleeving the devill Farther a bitter agony seized upon him in the garden Mat. 26.38 not for fear of death but of the tyranny of sin death and the devill which they had got over mankind Next the great ingratitude of the most part of mankind the dispersion of little flocks the scandall they might take at his death the sad ruine of the Jewes which he foresaw and the wrath of God for mans sin of which now he began to have a sense as being surety for us And all this he suffered without any perturbation of sinfull passion And this was done surely to expiate our sinfull fears and doubts and to encourage us in any terrors that arise from a troubled conscience though they put us into great agonies But these were not all his sufferings For he suffered 1. By the consultation of his adversaries the Priests Scribes and Pharisees who when they should have been preparing for the Passeover they were consulting how to take away the true Paschall Lambs life and would have done it at that time but that they feared the people more then they feared God 2. He suffered by the treason of Judas one of his own disciples whom he made steward of his family and had washed those feet that were so apt to shed his blood And this he suffered 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled that foretold it Psal and Joh. 13.8 2. To beware of coverousnesse which will make a man even to betray Christ at any rate 3. To fore warn Ministers of all others to take heed of being corrupted this way lest they become like salt that hath lost his savour 4. To teach us to beware of sin under what pretense soever For it is likely that Iudas did not intend to have Christ killed but only to get the mony supposing that he would make an escape which may be argued from that that he was so troubled when he saw he was condemned Also to beware of the smallest beginnings of sin For at the first Iudas his sin was but discontent that he loft the gain of Mary her ointment and she justified in her deed By this the devill entred his heart that he resolved to sell the anointed because he could not sell the ointment His next suffering was by being apprehended by wicked hands to unloose the hold of sin and Satan from us and in a garden to expiate the sin committed in Paradise Then bound to unloose the bands of wickednesse and the works of the devill Then toffed from pillar to post from one High Priest to another Then abused by the souldiers and Jewes Luke 22. who buffeted that face which the holy Patriarchs and Prophers longed to behold Cant. 8.1 And scoffed at his prophecying which never failed But it is no wonder if they that had scorned the Prophet of the Lord did also scoffe the Lord of the Prophets This was done to him to expiate our sinne of mocking God as if he could not see and our losing of his glorious image yet he would not die in a tumult but was solemnly brought before the Judge and there falsely accused to free us from his that accuseth the brethren And received sentence of death unjustly to save us from the sentence of Gods condemnation So he was charged with sedition and blasphemy to free us by his attonement from the guilt of high treason against God To all which he answered not saving to the High Priest that he was the Son of God because he conjured him by the name of God to tell him And to Pilate that he was a King though his Kingdome was not of this world that he might leave the Jewes without excuse and take away the occasion from Pilate of justly condemning him and to fulfill the Scripture Isa 53.7 that he was like a sheep dumb before the shearer and to comfort his people that they have a King in Sion though he regardeth not worldly glory Mathe. Methinks he doth not answer very plainly to Pilate and Herod nothing at all I pray what was the reason Phila. He said he was a King but such an one that meant not to stickle for worldly glory which seemeth strange because God had promised to give him the throne of David Luke 1.32 33. and that he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever but that is meant not literally but spiritually which teacheth not to expect that true Religion should stand in outward glory but pray that the eies of our understanding being opened we may see wherein consists the glory of Christs Kingdome Eph. 1.19 Col. 3.2 and therefore to employ our selves about heavenly things and not earthly things for our trading consisteth in such commodities as appeareth Phil. 3.20 for he never promised any great earthly possessions to his followers as that Impostor Mabomet did but exhorted them to seek the preferments of his spirituall Kingdome 2. He said he came to bear witnesse of the truth which though Pilate scoffed at it saying what is truth yet it was a truth for not submitting to which the Devill was cast down and all men are damned that wil not beleeve it viz. that all creatures that are capable of eternall happinesse must attain to it by dependance upon the Son of God by which we are informed what poor entertainment truth finds in the world that Christ is fain to descend from heaven to avouch it Therefore let us receive the truth with all respect and stand for it to the death for so we shall prove our selves of the truth and to be his subjects Now he would say no more to Pilate in his defence lest he should seem to endeavor to prevent the sentence of death By which silence he satisfieth God for our lavish tongues and that he might meritoriously plead for us in heaven Nor would he confesse himselfe the Son of God to Pilate because Pilate was uncapable of the doctrine of the Trinity and also because it was no time now to reveal his Deity but to die in his humanity This filence did so amaze Pilate that he sought to save him or at least to put his condemnation over to others And therefore first offers to the Jewes to judge him by their law Iohn 18.31 which they refusing brought to passe what Christ had sortold viz. what death he should die namely the Romane death of the Crosse by which we may see that all the policy of men cannot disappoint the purpose of God in his childrens sufferings Upon their refusing Pilate sends him to Herod who set him at naught with his men of war because he would not speak to Herod nor shew any miracle before him Luk. 23.8 9 10 thereby shewing how little he esteemed of Herods greatnesse that would not feed the lightnesse and vanity of his mind by casting his pearls before such a swine This scorn of Herod and his souldiers he suffered that we might be esteemed of God and his holy army of Angels Herod finding
no fault in him Luke 23.15 yet he sends back to Pilate and in scorn of his claim to a Kingdom puts him on a white robe proper to the Princes of Galilee But what he did in jest God ratifieth in earnest approving him to be his King Psal 2. and the pure Immaculate Lamb of God Now Pilate seeing he could not way shift it off matcheth Christ with a most notorious offender and murtherer called Barrabas and offered them their custome to let them loose a prisoner at that Feast of the Passeover which should be one of them two supposing they would have chosen the most innocent of the two But they mad with envy at Christ refused the Lord of Life and chose a murtherer to be given them for which they themselves forty years after were murthered at the siege of Ierusalem for they preferred a robber before him who thought it no robbery to be equall with God Phil. 2. This was to expiate our fin who preferred the Devill that was a murtherer from the beginning before God blessed for ever In which sin they continue to this day that chuse the company of wicked persons before Gods children Next Pilate useth another most unjust policy who finding no fault in him yet would have him scourged in the common Hall and also mocked by the souldiers in hope to make the Jewes relent when they beheld the man who was of their own nation so hardly used by Gentiles But nothing would soften their flinty and adamantine hearts but the blood of this innocent Kid. These scourges he suffered 1 Pet. 2.24 to deliver us from the eternall scourge of God and to sanctifie all his temporall scourges to us and to teach us to suffer patiently if we be beaten undeservedly Pilate at last being overcome by the clamors of the people and their threatnings that if he let Christ go he was not Caesars friend condemns him to be crucified which was lamentable yet comfortable for now did God give sentence upon our fins and condemned sin in Christs flesh Rom. 8.3 and therefore we need not fear condemnation at the last day of judgement Mathe. I read that he suffered many things beside but I desire to know the meaning of them Phila. Pilate having condemned him he was scorned and scoffed by the souldiers with a painfull crown of thorns a reedy scepter and a purple robe and saluted King of the Jewes in jest But God made it all good to him when he made this rejected stone the head of the corner In the mean time it did argue the blindnesse of the world who cannot judge of the glory of Christs Kingdome and therefore make a scorn of it because it consists much in tribulation But this suffering was that he might expiate the scorns and injuries that we have done to God and spitting in his face by foule blasphemies And stripped he was to restore unto us the garments of righteousnesse which in Adam we had lost Clothed in red to sulfill the prophecie Isa 63.1 which hath relation to his blood as well as his robe Crowned with thorns to merit for us a crown of glory A reed he had to shew that by that weak scepter he could break the serpents head They took off his purple robe again which shewed that one day his Kingdome of grace should take an end 1 Cor. 15. And his own garments were put on again which shewed that at last he would be clothed with his own righteousnesse as with a cloak far more glorious then all worldly ornaments Next they carry him out to be crucified and make him carry his own crosse till he fainted under it In this he answered to Isaac his type who carried the wood Gen. 23.6 upon which he should be offered Also to shew that he took the curse of the Law upon his own shoulders It is true that they compelled Simon of Cyrene to carry it but this was that God will send us some help in afflictions and that we must be content to bear a part in Christs crosse for as Christs afflictions are theirs by imputation Col. 1.24 so theirs are Christs by sympatheticall affection Beside I beleeve he suffered some griefe at the womens lamenting him and therefore bids them not weep for him that was dying but the Jewes that were living upon whom and their children horrible destruction should fall according to their own vote His blood be upon us and our children For if it be thus done in the green tree what shall be done with the dry if judgement begin at the house of God where shall the ungodly appear for if such suffer from men how much more shall the wicked suffer from God Next he comes to Golgotha where he was to be crucified signifying the place of a scull not because Adams scull was found there as some write for I suppose his scull was as hard to be known as Moses body of late pretended to be found but rather it was so called from the sculs and dead bones of malefactors there executed whose stench no doubt was offence to him but to us a blessing for he thereby justifieth us in the place of condemned persons and so delivers us from the place of eternall judgement Thus he suffered without Jerusalem as one unfit for mens society and like the sin-offering for the people was burnt without the camp Lev. 6.30 This teacheth us that here we must look for no abiding City Heb. 3.14 and therefore we must be content to go to him without the gate Heb. 13.13 bearing his reproach that though we be cast out of earthly Jerusalem yet we may possesse the heavenly through him that hath delivered us from the defilement of the dead things of this Golgotha and presents us pure to serve the living God Now being there he was offered wine mingled with myrrhe Mark 15.23 by some well-wishers it may be to make him lesse sensible of pain but he would not drink that which might any way diminish his pains which he desired to suffer to the utmost However it was changed by the malice of the Jewes and souldiers into vinegar mingled with gall Mat. 27.34 of which he tasted but would not drink By this cup he paied for our inordinate appetites and gluttony in the forbidden fruit and sheweth how little comfort we must look for in this world which commonly addeth sorrow to sorrow gall to vinegar as we have added sin to sin All this being suffered they nailed him hand and foot to the Cross And this to shew 1. That he was the Messiah promised John 2.28 Also that by this accursed death he might derive the curse of the Law upon himselfe that we might have the blessing Gal. 3.13 Also that we might be so fixed to his Crosse by love that we might not serve that sin which by his Crosse he hath abolished And further that the hand writing of the Law might be cancelled Col. 2.14 that our sins might be no more remembred
so that Christ is to be considered as a propitiatory Sacrifice Priest and Altar Priest he was everlasting Heb. 7.24 A Sacrifice he was in his manhood not Eucharisticall but expiatory offered up whole like the Holocaust for sin which was burned up to ashes by the fire of Gods wrath And his Godhead was the spirituall Altar called the eternall spirit by which he offered up himselfe Heb. 9.14 yet the Crosse might be taken as a materiall Altar upon which his body was laid for though the Altar sanctifieth the gift as it is the utensill of Gods instistution yet he that sanctifieth himselfe may sanctifie the Altar too by his own oblation the fruit whereof made a blessed attonement by the sweet savour thereof Eph. 5.2 for all those that are crucified with him by crossing their own corrupt natures and that look upon Christ by faith as on the brazen Serpent that cured the people Iohn 3.14 and also to consecrate themselves to God as a living sacrifice to his service Rom. 12.1 Mathe. I pray shew me the reasons why he was crucified in such a manner Phila. He was crucified naked to satisfie for Adams losing the garment of innocence and might uncloath us of mortality of which the skins given to Adam for cloathing was an Emblem and cloath us with his merits also that he and we might enter into heaven naked as Adam did into earthly paradise so to comfort us that when the world and death strips us naked of all we have to suffer it joyfully for we shall find a cloathing from heaven 2 Cor. 5.4 when mortality shall be swallowed up of life and therefore to be content in the mean time Lignum mortis Lignum vitae that the world be crucified to us and we to the world Again he was fastned to the wood that death might be driven out of the world by a tree as it came in by a tree and life brought back to us again He was laied on the crosse as Isaac on the wood and nailed as foretold Psal 22.17 they digged my hands and my feet also that all bils and bonds of law against us might be nailed with him to his Crosse 1 Pet. 2.14 Then he was lifted up that he might carry our sins from the earth and conquer the spirits that rule in the aire Col. 2.15 He was crucified with his hands spread as reaching them out to embrace both Jewes and Gentiles that are not a gainsaying people His blood was shed on the Crosse to answer all the sacrifices of the Law without which there had been no remission Heb. 9.18 whereas it is now an universall medicine for all our soules languishing 1 John 17. and obtaineth for us eternall redemption Heb. 9.12 Beside he was crucified between two theeves 1. Because it was foretold that he should be reckoned among the transgressors 2. Esa 53.12 That he might sanctifie the death of repenting malefactors for his death in effect was to be divided among sinners of whom at last he would be Judge while some stand on his right hand and some on his left as the bad and repenting Theefe hung Now while he hung on the Crosse alive he suffered beside the paine 1. The division of his garments and casting lots on his vesture as was prophecied Psal 22.19 2. To shew that his very enemies should partake of his graces 3. Into four parts to shew that his good grace should edifie the four parts of the world So the not dividing his other coat shewed that his righteousnesse should be applied whole to every beleever And the casting lots for it argued that no man had his merits by their deserving but by the meer gift of God Col. 1.12 who disposeth of the Lot To all which misery they added derision Mat. 27.39 wagging their heads and upbraiding him with his words of destroying and building the Temple in three daies Yet it was truth in his sense of his resurrection ut praedixit sit revixit and mocking at his miracles saying he saved others but himselfe he cannot save Others mocked at his trust in God Others at his praiers as if he called upon Elias to save him which he suffered that we might know the abominableness of our sins that heaped such contempt upon the Son of God Also that we might be delivered from the scorn of this world and enjoy the comfort of our repute from God and a good conscience Heb. 12.3 without reviling the world again Nay more they blasphemed God as if he could not deliver him as the wicked said Psal 22. with whom they join issue and so condemn themselves to be of the wicked crew even like theeves who also did the same But beside all this he suffered great torments both in body and mind In body by hanging on the Crosse by his nailed hands and feet so that his heart might be rightly said to be melted like wax Psal 22.15 This was undergone to satisfie for our despising the threatning and the power of God in punishing those sins we had committed in the body also to free us from eternall torments and to sanctifie whatsoever pains we suffer in the body by diseases or from persecutors So he suffered anguish in soule when he cried out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which some writers take to be meant of his descending into hell for now God seemed to desert him by deferring his deliverance and by withdrawing from his humane nature the divine support of comfort that he being sensible of them we might be delivered from them by his meritorious suffering them Yet we are not to conceive that the divine nature of the Sonne did forsake the humane but that the union was obscured or eclipsed nor that God the Father forsook him quite but permitted his humane nature as surety to feele what was due to the principall And this first confutes those that think he suffered not in soule though the Prophet say he made his soule an offering for sin And if not in soule his bitter cry argued more impatience then the Martyrs had It also may comfort men in their distresse of mind since Christ was forsaken for a time and surely it should work in us a feare of sin that made God thus to deale with his only Son whom he spared not being only the principall how terrible will he be against unrepenting sinners whom he will forforsake for ever and to make us consider with commiseration those that are troubled in mind a wounded spirit who can bear No wonder if many of them cry out they be damn'd of whom we are to judge charitably since Christ complains of Gods forsaking him through fear whom yet he calleth his God by faith Lastly he through paine suffereth thirst and they to adde to his misery gave him vinegar and so they fulfilled the Scripture Psalm 69.22 and he compleated our redemption saying it is finished Mathe. But did he only suffer on the crosse without any
glorious testimony of his roialty and Deity Phila. No God left him not without witnesse For Pilats superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded
pain of death and they burned all books save the Bible One Cniperdolling his vain Prophet Mutus scabit mutum said that God had revealed to him that Iohn should be King of the world and should destroy the Princes of the world by a mighty army but spare the simple multitude and such as would imbrace righteousnesse and that he should send forth twenty eight Apostles to convert the world to Anabaptisme And Iohn himselfe pretending to awake out of a trance seemed dumb like Zacharias wrote in tables that it was the will of God that twelve men of his naming should govern the City and that a man might marry as many wives as he pleased and he beheaded some that opposed it He himselfe took fifteen and many of these brethren upon this ordinance lay with the hansomest women without marriage or contract He was called King of New Ierusalem and proclaimed King of Zion But his Apostles were executed as seditious persons and he and his Prophet were hanged in iron chains upon the high steeple of St Lambert after Munster was taken 1535. being besieged halfe a year The madnesse of this man was strange for one of his wives pitying the distresse of the City he cut off her head himself in the market place Sleid. 154. And another time at his great feast to which another false Prophet had called Thuscocuvar had excited him as being sent from God he accused a man of treason and cut off his head and returning administred the communion with those bloody hands But for all he took on him the title of a King yet this shewed him a Butcher as the stealing the Churches rich vestments and making them into robes for himselfe argued he had been a Tailor After Iohns death the Anabaptists chose another King Hort. p. 74. who killed his wife in a wood that he might quietly lie with her daughter and killed a poor wench lest she should discover him This man had his house well stored with Church-plate He and his Treasurer were burned After him succeeds Iohn Cordwainer John Cordwainer Cornelius Appleman Ch. Nelles p. 52 55 56. John Wilhelms and then Cornelius Appleman both which were executed at Brussels as the Captains of theeves and committers of sacriledge Then Iohn Wilhelms executed also at Vtrecht He wrote a book in defence of Polygamy and affirmed that to rob the ungodly was no sin and that the land belonged to Jesus Christ and his disciples He had one and twenty wives some mother and daughter and some sisters daughters He was burned It is lamentable to behold these peoples hypocrisie Sleidan Bullinger They pretended nothing at first but holinesse humility and honesty They used no swearing nor obscene speech yet being once got aloft they broke all lawes of humanity and honesty so they would bear no office Hortensius Gastius yet at last would be Kings They said it was unlawfull for a Christian man to bear arms or punish offenders yet they made nothing of murdering many you may read more of them in divers authors Of this sect was David Georgius in Holland who said he was Jesus Christ David Georg and held many other wicked errors He fled out of the Low Countries to Basil and very covertly dispersed his errors but being dead they were revealed and by the Councill of Basil his bones were digged up and burned in detestation of his blasphemies Mathe. What be the common received opinions of these men and your judgement of them Phila. You are to understand that their opinions in divers times and places varied they not holding alwaies the same Anabapt opinions But their opinion first and last are neither fit for Church Commonwealth nor Families First not for the Church for they have affirmed that Christ did not take flesh of the Virgin Mary yet they can shew no other save her and for that the Scriptures prophecie that he should come of a woman Gen. 3. and of Davids line Psal 132.11 and that woman should be a virgin Isaiah the 7. and that her name was Mary saith Luke cap. 1. and yet she could not be his mother if he had noâ— taken flesh of her nor our flesh have any hope of eternall life These are worse Christians then Turks Bulling adver Anab. fol. 6. for they beleeve he was so born but these curse the flesh of the Virgin and so deny Christ to be come in the flesh 2 Ioh. v. 7.2 they say in Moravia that Christ was not true God but only better gifted then other men yet St Iohn saith The Word was God Joh. 1.1 and Christ said he and his Father were one Joh. 10. and he that sees him seeth the Father Iohn 24.9 10. Michael Servetus a Spaniard held the same who was burnt in Geneva And Valentinus Gentilis who called the Creed of Athanasius the Creed of Satanasius he was justly executed at Berne Thirdly they hold we are not saved by faith but by the works of charity and affliction yet Christ saith we obtain eternall life by beleeving on him Iohn 3.16 So Paul Rom. 3.24 28. for afflictions they are either punishments of sin or Gods corrections but no causes of justification or salvation But the blood of Christ only clenseth us from all sin 1 Iohn 1. and by him only we have peace with God Rom. 5.1 And fourthly they deny originall sin because Christ hath taken away the sins of the world but that is the penalty not the being of it So they say that children doing neither good nor evill are under grace and without sin But then how comes death to lay hold on them Rom. 5.14 and cap. 6.23 And therefore fifthly they may well deny baptisme to them if they have no originall sin But Christ said let little children come to me and yet none can tell how they should come but by this Ordinance Sixthly they rebaptize people which is no where commanded in Scripture nor allowed by the Church nor the imperiall lawes which put them to death that did or suffered it to be done Seventhly they expect a Kingdome by some called the fist Monarchy wherein they hope to reign alone and destroy the ungodly This savours of carnall and worldly wisdome for Christs Kingdome is not of this world Iohn 18. but is spirituall so is the meat and drink of it Rom. so are the weapons of it 2 Cor. 10. Nor can they reign alone and kill all the ungodly unlesse they kill themselves too But both must grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. These people do but furbush the old error of the Chiliasts or Millenaries who said the Saints must raign 1000 yeers on the earth before the last judgement who were by the Church condemned above 1000 yeers since Eighthly they say with the old Pelagians that man by his own free will can do all that God hath commanded or else God gave his law in vain nor would he punish delinquents if he had not given them
bound to take the Law as a rule of his conversation But why did not then Christ abolish the Law as well as fulfill it Mat. 5.17 or why doth the Apostle say that he doth not by his preaching up faith to justifie a man Rom. 3.31 make void the Law but establish it surely by accepting it for a rule of an holy life though not either to justifie or condemn us but to walk according to it out of love to righteousnesse Rom. 7.22 Again 18. They say a man is not bound to pray except the spirit moveth him yet Paul saith pray continually and Peter bids us be sober and watch to praier as if it were a duty and if we look upon it as a duty then we are to do it without expecting farther incitation by immediat infusions So they say that the spirit works in hypocrites by gifts and graces but in Gods children immediatly but then they need not take heed it seems to the sure word of prophecy as saith St Peter which he prefers for the Churches establishment before that of revelation calling it a more sure word of prophecy 2 Pet. 18 19. So they pretend that a Minister that hath not this new light cannot edifie them that have it I wonder then how the Apostles edified the Church who had not this new light or dark lanthorn rather of vaine opinions for I have shewed you that they are contrary to the Apostles doctrins or if their light were the most saving grace of God yet a man that hath it not may edify others by preaching salvation to others though himselfe be a castaway So they say no Christian ought to be prest to the duties of holinesse This is to make the world beleeve that there is no need of preaching 2 Tim. 4.2 yet St Paul bids Timothy to preach in season and out of season and Titus to rebuke and exhort with all authority Tit. 2.15 Mathe. What other Sects troubled the Protestant Church Phila. The Arminians revived the heresie of Pelagius Britto who lived in the daies of the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius who held that men by nature might fulfill the whole Law of God and denied originall sin and said that men were sinners by imitation only of Adams not by carnall propagation contrary to Psal 51. And that children had no need of baptisme for remission of sin and that the Godly men in Scripture that confessed their sins did it for example sake rather then out of guiltinesse whom St Augustine sufficiently confutes and their tenets were condemned by the fift Councill of Carthage in the year 419. as hereticall Also by the Milevitane Councill in Numidia The patron of the Arminians was one Jacobus Arminius professor of Divinity at Leyden in the Low Countries in the year 1605. his followers are called Remonstrants Now as Pelagius being driven from Rome came into England and infected it with his errors though by the travels of Germanus Altisidorensis and Palladius sent hither by Caelestinus Bishop of Rome the land was freed from his poison So Arminius infected England by his writings and his well-wishers such as Conradus Vorstius but was reasonably well stopt by the diligence of King James in sending over certain learned and grave Divines to the Synod of Dort Yet neverthelesse these errors have found many favourers in England though they are against Scriptures and the Articles of the Church of England As concerning prepestination they deny it by saying that it is only the will of God to save them that beleeve and persevere and that there is no other decree of election contrary to Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved and Eph. 1.4 he hath chosen us to salvation before the foundation of the world So Ro. 8.30 whom he hath predestinated them he hath also called So they say election is of faith not of persons but Paul saith God hath called us according to his purpose in Christ before the world 4. That election of us to faith presupposeth in us honesty and humility and a disposition to eternall life whereas it is election that causeth such vertues and not they election Ephes 2.3 4. for by nature we are only given to fulfill the will of the flesh and are by nature the children of wrath as well as others but God who is rich in mercy Rom. 9.11 hath quickned us c. for election is not of works but of him that calleth for he loved us first 1 John 4.10 So 5. They say election is not unchangeable but a man may withstand Gods decree Mat. 24.24 but Christ saith the elect cannot be seduced for Christ loseth not those that are given to him John 6.39 and therefore the chaine holds from election to glorification Rom. 8.30 which certainly is the joy of Gods people that their names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 and therefore none can charge them nor condemn them Rom. 8.33 So 6. They make election generall which is a contradiction Rom. 9.18 God hath mercy on whom he will And to some it is given to know the mysteries of Christs Kingdome not to others Mat. 13.11 to babes and not to the worldly wise Mat. 11.15 16. Mathe. What farther errors hold these Arminians Phila. They say that the cause why God sends his Gospell to one people and not to another is not only Gods good pleasure but because one nation is more worthy then another Deu. 10.14 15 yet Moses told Israel that God chose their fathers out of meer love And Christ said that Chorazin and Bethsaida were a worse people then those of Tyre and Zidon Mat. 11.21 So they say that God ordained Christ to die without any certaine determination of saving any particular man or people Isa 53.10 yet Isaiah saith that when he shall make his soul an offering for sin that he shall see his seed And Christ saith I know my sheep and I lay down my life for my sheep So they teach that God did not intend to establish a new Covenant of grace with man by Christs blood but to make any covenant with man whatsoever either of works or grace But Christ is called the surety of a better estament than was before viz. of works Heb. 7.22 whereby we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of Christ So they say that all are received into grace and favor alike in the Gospel-covenant and none shall be condemned for originall sin and yet Christ saith I pray not for the world but for those thou hast given me out of the world They say also that God confers equally the benefits of Christs death to men but the cause why some men have them and not others is by reason of their free will chusing it and not of Gods singular gift of mercy effectually working thereunto yet St Paul saith it is not in him that willeth or runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So they say Christ died not for those whom
God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world
First to men so that is honor we prefer before our selves those whom we ought and as much as we ought and so by humility candor and modesty we destroy pride and hypocrisie So we must be ready to benefit all men out of the sincere affection of charity Heb. 13.1 2. because the end why God gives his benefits is that they may be bestowed for the common good of the Church as God bestoweth his providence in common among good and bad and we know not fully who are good and who may not be made good by our charity they all bearing outwardly to us the same image of God and the similitude of Christs members Now secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God standeth in these two things First in an equanimity and a fair construction of mind in all actions and state of life Secondly in bearing the crosse aright The first of these appears in our being subject to Gods will in all things and in shunning ambition and covetousnesse and expect prosperity only from God depending only upon him and not desire riches or honours without him or out of him and therefore to follow no wicked arts to compasse them but to cast all the burden and care of them only upon him and so not envy any mans prosperity but commit all accidents of life to Gods will as afflictions diseases and poverty and the death of friends and to bear all with patience Secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God stands in the right carriage of the cross and a moderate bearing of that adversity which God sends upon us by what hand soever it be outwardly afflicted Mat. 5.4 and so obtain the blessing of the mourners comfort which causeth us though troubled yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire persecuted yet not forsaken cast down but not destroied 2 Cor. 4.8 9. This is done first by considering how the glory of God is illustrated by freeing his people from it as 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and how we are taught to hate both sin the devill the world and the flesh John 15.19 and to serve God not for worldly pleasure and advantage but for his own sake Rom. 5.5 And secondly it is done by considering the comforts of the crosse which are First that God hath purposed and appointed all the sufferings of the Church and neither men nor devils can add to them one jot more then he hath determined John 19.11 Acts 4.28 And secondly that our sins are forgiven us in Christ with whom and for whom we suffer 2 Tim. 2.12 if we suffer for a good conscience which makes the event of the crosse happy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. and gives us hope of an eternall reward by the example of Christ Phil. 2.9 and of the Saints Heb. 11.2 who by faith and patience obtained a good report because they suffered for righteousnesse Mat. 5.10 The next businesse of a Christian life is to meditate on the life to come as those that behold things promised afar off and seek another country beside and above this world Heb. 11.13 14. This meditation includeth a contempt of the world as of riches honours pleasure and of death which like physick doth evacuate many evill humours by considering the various afflictions of this life and that all the joy and pleasures of it are but momentany and yet hinder us from imploying the mind about heaven though themselves have in them neither continuance nor contentment they neither satisfie nor sanctifie us but are like painted reeds gay vanities without but hollow within though we run after them as children after butter flies and get a fall by following and some hurt by heedlesse pursuing them And this contempt of the world would be the more seriously performed if we consider that here we are exiles from home i. from heaven 2 Cor. 5.9 and therefore we should have a most serious and joifull desire of the life to come which would make us either value death as nothing or else look upon it as Christ hath made it namely an entrance into life and a freeing us from our step-mother the world by delivering us to the heavenly Jerusalem which is the mother of us all Indeed if we do not thus the common creature shames us who sigh and grone to be delivered Rom. 8.19 And the heathen wise men and Philosophers thought it their glory to contemn death yet I do not say that this life or the things thereof are altogether to be detested for they are the blessings of God and testimonies of his good will to help through this wildernesse of sin but so far to contemn them as they make us obnoxius to sin Therefore the third part of a Christian life is to make a right use of those that God hath afforded us in this life In this case we must mark the right use and abuse of those things The right use is to make them serve our necessity not superfluity and to increase our delight in and praise to God Psal 104.1 15. and so tasting thou maist see how good the Lord is The abuse when first we exceed our measure and incline to extreams God makes our cup overflow and we make it overflow us Or secondly when we are too abstemious in denying to our selves the lawfull use of the creatures which God hath given us to lead us to acknowledge the bounty of the Creator The one way we make our belly our God Phil. 3.19 The other are too superstitious as were the Essens Col. 2.21 the one through too much love of the creature doth extinguish the meditation of the life to come and the other doth frustrate the favor of God offered to him in this life of both which faults we must give an account especially we being of the true Catholick Church which teacheth the right use of these things and are well understood by those that are of the communion of Saints Mathe. What mean you by the Catholike Church and whether is it alwaies in the same state Then I desire to know what the communion of Saints is and next what kind of government this Church hath alwaies had and allowed Phila. By the Catholick Church I mean that which is intended in the Creed which I beleeve to be though I beleeve not in it as I do in the holy Trinity yet that it is and ever will be while the world endureth notwithstanding all the power of Satan Mat. 16.10 And of this Church we are to beleeve that we are members and professe our selves to be joined thereunto and to live and die members thereof Now this Catholike Church is the City of the living God or a company of holy men who by the free election of God are called to union with Christ God and man to life eternall as well those soules that are triumphant in heaven as those people that are militant here on earth Col. 1.18 of all which Christ is the head for I reckon not Angels to be of the Church but
both because it is meer matter and sin of a spirituall nature which cannot taint meer passive matter then can there be no ground for imputation and so it cannot passe but by propagation Mathe. But how prove you Christs soule not immediatly created Phila. Because he was to take mans nature body and soule that both by him might be redeemed Therefore he took whole humane nature of the blessed virgin as was promised The seed of the woman shal break the serpents head and Rom. 1.3 He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Beside if soules and so his soule were immediately created of God then Adams sin must be imputed to him as he was man as well as to us and so he should be a sinner but sin was not imputed to him but only reputed his And then if it came not by immediate creation then it came by formation in the womans seed as ours by propagation And if we understand it not thus that it was immediately formed in the first conception i. when the holy Ghost separated that part of the blessed Virgins seed for his Manhood to the soule whereof the divinity was immediatly united to the body This dilemma will trouble us namely that either his divine nature was united to a bruit body or else the body subsisted by it selfe our of the Divine nature Mathe. But if Christs humane nature were thus formed or propagated I see not yet how he can ever the more escape the taint of originall sin Phila. I suppose you beleeve that he was conceived by the holy Ghost and so the matter of his humane nature was sanctified and purged from that stain Mathe. I beleeve he was conceived by the holy Ghost yet I know not how to beleeve that that conception was sanctifying or purging away of sin from his humane nature nor his humane nature from sin but only a separation and consecration of that part of the blessed Virgins substance to that holy work and endowment of it with all graces sit thereunto For there can be no sanctification without a Mediatour and there is but one Mediator 1 Tim. 2.5 by whose blood all are cleansed from sin yea the holy Ghost cleanseth none but by his blood so that if Christs nature did need sanctification then it also needed a Mediatour and then he must be a Mediatour for himselfe which he could not be for a Mediatour is not a Mediatour of one Phila. You say true and have almost wound your selfe out of this labyrinth For indeed the holy Ghost in this conception did not cleanse Christs nature from sin but did separate that substance which was not sinfull from a sinfull person for a person only is sinfull substance is not Now Christ did not take her person but substance only leaving the accident of sin which adhereth only to a person and so though Christs nature were in Adam and so in the Virgin who was of that sinfull line yet his person was in neither for he was the eternall son of God who in that instant that the humane nature was conceived or separated by the holy Ghost from the blessed Virgin Mary did assume it into himselfe to be one person and thus his nature could never be tainted with originall sin for his humane nature before that was never a person and when it was a person it was propagated not after the ordinary and naturall way and so without sin Nay more the substance of his humane nature though it were sinfull subsisting in the blessed Virgins person yet so it could not be Christs because personality cannot be imparted but it was made his by separation from her by the holy Ghost and his own immediate assumption and so great is the mystery of Godlinesse 1 Tim. 1.16 The not conceiving this rightly made the Marcionites and Manicheans say Christ had no true body and Apollinaris to say he had no humane soule Mathe. I thank you for these solutions but yet one thing stichs namely how the soule can be said to be immortall if it be propagated Phila. Consider that mortality proceeds not from generation so much as malediction of God for Adams sin who if he had not sinned his body might have been as immortall as the soule so that the propagation of the soule doth not make it meerly mortall but the act of Gods immediate power in the production of it makes it immortall because whatsoever is so produced cannot be dissolv'd but by the same power by which it first took life though the body may because it is bred only by the power of nature beside the soule is not made of any corporall matter and therefore is not corruptible though congenerate with the body Mathe. Now being somewhat satisfied about the soule I pray tell what principles are there to lead it to felicity Phila. Some principles there be which God hath given to nature and left in nature to seek felicity but as some know what happinesse is so others make no use of those principles Mathe. I pray what is felicity Phila. Mans soveraign and chiefest good consisteth in the enjoiment of God which confers to man concurrence of all good without any contrarieties which is opposed to that misery into which he is fallen by the first mans sin namely blindnesse of mind fondnesse of affection stubbornnesse of will inclineablenesse to all evill way wardnesse from all good for which cause we are subjected to vanity corruptibilitie all miseries of body and soul temporal and eternall death and damnation Now mans felicity is an estate contrary to all these After this many learned Philosophers searched but could not find it and why Because they knew not God from whom it proceeds and is the giver of it by redeeming man from all misery and from death to life by his free grace in Christ which is life eternall and true felicity to know aright John 17.3 Mathe. What principles lead thereunto Phila. Not the principles of nature only for they teach no further than there is a felicity but not what it is which made the Philosophers in such a labyrinth about it some placing it in pleasure some in poverty Vid. Varro some in knowledge some in riches some in honours as many people doe now For as some aim at no end or mark at all but like foolish children shoot their arrowes up in the aire some aim at a bad end in which can be no happinesse some at a seeming good which is not good in it selfe some at felicity in generall but go blindly and lamely about it wanting right leading principles The principles are such therefore as God hath revealed who is in himselfe the chiefest good and therefore can best ordaine the way whereby man may enjoy him This way is set down in the holy Scriptures for which Scriptures sake the world was made that so in time that might be revealed 〈◊〉 which in God was hidden at the beginning namely that Christ should come and redeem