Surely such men cannot truly say and yet they say it most of all men that they have the Spirit of God who are so far from the works of the Spirit And they are very far from the works of the Spirit unless hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividing and standing in parties heresies envyings murders and such like which the Apostle calleth works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19. may be discerned by some of the new lights to be the works of the Spirit It were a foul shame for any Minister of Christ to immix such a reproof as this in his Doctrine if it were not a fowler shame that some Christians have immixed such sins as these in their practise But those that have Saint John Baptists trust to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching of pennance must follow his example constantly speak the truth boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the Truths sake Thus did Saint Paul rebuke the Galatians when they were in the like distemper saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Amentes O ye mad men that are out of your wits or O Insentati O ye sottish and stupid men that are out of your senses who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth They would needs pretend to be reformers of the Gospel when indeed they were disturbers and destroyers of it for this reason the Apostle reproves them sharply as Apostates saying Who hath bewitched you and again Ye are fallen from grace And he also reproves them fitly as hypocrites calling them fools whilst they pretended to be wiser then all other Christian Churches because indeed they were too wise in their own fond conceits ever to attain unto true wisdom Excellently Saint Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To preach mild Doctrines to those that more need reproofs is rather to act the part of a jugler then of a Divine to be an enemy rather then to be a friend Our chief Master did not do so to his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but sometimes blesseth and sometimes reproveth them and he instanteth in Saint Peter to whom Christ upon the confession of his faith said Blessed art thou Simon Barjona but upon his carnal advice he said Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Greek a scandal unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16. 17. 23. O blessed Saviour still say to this kind of Satan that loves to get in among the Disciples Get thee behind me take away such scandalous Ministers out of thy Church who savour only the things of men whilst they pretend the things of God for such will often offend but never confess thee or if they do confess thee it is only that they may the more covertly and the more securely offend thee Real scandals they are not only to thy Ministry but also to thy self not only to thy Church but also to thy religion Thou hast shewed thy hatred of their sin in that thou hast so sharply rebuked it O now shew the love of their Function in not suffering that foul sin any longer to possess thy Ministers or to deceive thy people It is a question very well propounded by Alensis but better answered by him when he saith Vnde tam detestetur Dominus in Evangelio peccatum Hypocrisis Resp 1. ut notetur quanta debet esse detestatio Antichristi qui maxime per Hypocrisin decipiet 2. Quia hypocrita est contrarius operi Divino Dominus enim ordinat malum in bonum ille bonum convertit in malum 3. Quia contrarius est toti Trinitati c. His question is this Whence is it that our Lord doth in his Gospel shew so great a detestation of the sin of hypocrisie His answer is this 1. To shew men how they ought to detest Antichrist who will deceive them chiefly by hypocrisie 2. Because the hypocrite is directly opposite to God in working For God useth to turn evil into good but the hypocrite useth to turn good into evil 3. Because the hypocrite opposeth the whole Trinity The Father in seeking after his glory for the hypocrites aim is to glorifie himself The Son in not seeking after his truth for his whole life is a lie The Holy Ghost in not regarding his goodness for the hypocrite comes only to appear good but not to be so For this cause our Saviour intermingled sharp reproofs with his Doctrine when he had to do with hypocrites and so did his Apostle after him saying O ye foolish or mad or senseless Galatians who hath bewitched you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He varied the manner of his teaching according to the necessity of his Scholars sometimes burning and cutting where was a gangrene other times applying lenitives where was a green wound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So great a paroxysm shewed a very great distemper For as to be pettish for a trifle argues a poor degenerous spirit so not to be moved to anger and indignation when there is just occasion is the argument of a sleepy and sluggish if not of a sottish man And behold saith Saint Chrysostom Here was a sin greater then the rebuke could be a sin vast and mountanous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as not only separated but also estranged them from Christ A dangerous relapse or recidivation First because after a full knowledge of Christ a mercy denyed to others when bestowed on them For Saint Paul that went through the region of Galatia was forbidden to preach in Asia Act. 16. 6. Secondly because after a full confirmation in that knowledge for the same Saint Paul who had instructed them did also by way of an Episcopal visitation see how they followed his instructions He went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order strengthning all the Disciples Act. 18. 23. In such a case as this the Apostle of Christ could not the Ministers of Christ cannot be too zealous to shew men their apostacy from the Christian Religion and to vindicate the honour of Christ and of Christianity alwayes remembring that distinction of Alensis qui irascitur per vitium irascitur personae qui autem per zelum irascitur peccato Alensis par 2. qu. 139. m. 11. He that bids us be angry and sin not would have us angry only with sin And the rather because for so doing the Ministers have not only the practice of the Apostles as a president to justifie them but also the Doctrine of the Apostles as a precept to command them For this is the express command of the Text There are very unruly vain-talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped Tit. 1. 10 11. Must their mouths be stopped then surely such as Titus Bishops and Ministers must stop them for we cannot expect that God should again send his Angel and shut the Lions mouths as he did to Daniel And the way of stopping their mouths is by
take no delight in God For if he had delighted himself in the Law of God he would have delighted himself in the Church to which God committed and with which God intrusted his Law But he would not take delight in God and therefore God by way of retaliation will not take delight in him And this he may be sure of if God take no delight in him what ever he may do for a while in this world yet certainly in the next world he will take no delight in himself For he will then be so out of joint as never to be set again Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Isa 50. 11. A text that is to be expounded of Schismaticks in Iarchies opinion who thus begins to gloss it Behold all ye because saith he they did not hear the voice of his Prophets So we see that in his judgement the words concern those who would not hear the Church and we may read in them The sin and the punishment of Schismaticks Their sin is twofold they kindle a fire and compass themselves with sparks that is they are Incendiaries in Church and State and they love to be so And their punishment is also twofold 1. That in this life they are suffered to walk in the â—ight of their own false fire walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled q. d. Quum non acquiescaâ—â—â— igâ—â— sacro pergâ—tote in prophano vestro sed perituri tamen ut filii Aaronis Levit. 10. saith Trem. since you will not acquiesce and rest satisfied with the holy fire that came from God and with the true light thereof that is in his Church go walk in your own strange fire and after your own false lights but know you shall certainly perish as did the Sons of Aaron Lev. 10. where Nabad and Abihu for offering of strange fire were devoured by fire 2. That at the end of this life they are punished with everlasting death This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow as if he had said because ye will needs stand up in sin ye shall be sure to lie down in sorrow and ye shall so lie down in sorow as that ye shall never rise up in glory And we have little reason to wonder at this grievous punishment but less to doubt of it for every Schismatical spirit by putting it self out of the communion of Gods Church doth also put it self out of the communion of God himself For Christs Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ the eternal Son of God And if you ask what Church it must be answered That Church which is his body for that only can act by power and vertue of the Head If you farther ask what Church is his body It must be answered the Catholick Church that is to say the whole congregation of Christian people dispersed over the face of the whole earth For so doth Saint Paul plainly answer for us saying And he is the head of the body the Church Col. 1. 18. Not naming this or that particular Church but taking the whole body of Christian people for the body of Christ or for his Catholick Church For they are all united together in one communion and fellowship by the spirit of Christ even as all the members of the body are united in one communion by the soul So Aquinas Sicut in uno homine est una anima unum corpus tamen sunt diversa membra ipsius Ita Ecclesia Catholica est unum corpus habet diversa membra Anima autem quae hoc corpus vivificat est spiritus sanctus in opusc de symbol As in one man there is but one soul and one body although there be very may several members because they are all made one body by vertue of the soul which gives life to all so is the Catholick Church but one body although it consist of divers particular Churches as of so many members because they are all made one body by the spirit of God which quickens and enlivens them all So that no man can say any one particular Church is the Catholick Church excluding other Christian Churches without confining the spirit of God and dismembring the body of Christ which is little less then damnable blasphemy against the Spirit for he is infinite and therefore unconfinable and as damnable Schism against the Son of God for he hath made himself one with his Church and therefore to cut off any part of his Church from him is to cut him off from himself Let me rather rejoice that the spirit of God is not to be confined and the body of Christ is not to be dismembred for why should my eye be evil because he is good Why should I deny that mercy to others which God hath undeservedly bestowed on me Will he not say to me as Moses to Joshua Enviest thou for my sake Numb 11. 29. for what is it to deny the Holy Spirit to other Christians that are not of our own profession but enviously to wish that God would deny his spirit unto them Or what is it to say they are not of Christs body but malitiously to wish they were not so We may not then labour to bring back so much of Judaism into the world as to say now He hath not dealt so with any Nation neither have the heathen knowledge of his Laws Psal 147. 20. for we cannot say he hath restrained his Church to any one Nation or People since himself hath said that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 35. Be it therefore taken for granted that all the Christian Churches in the world do make up the Catholick Church of Christ and that it is so called not only for its accidental Catholicism which is universality of time place and person because it comprizeth all times all places all persons that is all conditions of men But also and much rather for its Essential or Substantial Catholicism which is universality of doctrine which all they do hold and maintain that are reputed or called Christians and that doctrine is called by Saint John This confession That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 John 4. 2. The Apostles scope and intention in that place is briefly to teach us how to try or examine the spirits that is the several doctrinâ—â— of religion that we may know who are true and who are false teachers and he tells us that whosoever teacheth that Jesus is the Christ that is the only founder and governour of the Church and Saviour of the world that mans doctrine is of God for it is not to be doubted
but he that acknowledgeth Christ for the teacher and governour of the Church is rightly instructed and established in the doctrine of Christianity Contrariwise he that acknowledgeth not this as he hath not Christ so he hath not God and as he professeth not the Christian Religion so he is to be looked upon as one that professeth a false religion And to this is agreeable the Imperial constitution in the first title of the Code Fides Catholica hoc est ut Patris Filii Spiritus sancti unam Deitatem sub pari Majestate sub pia Trinitate credamus Qui ita credunt Christiani Catholici appellantur The constitution determineth those only to be called Christian Catholicks who have and profess a right faith of the blessed Trinity for indeed none other are Christians and therefore no other can be Catholicks For he is not a Christian that hath not this faith of Christ that he is the eternal Son of God made man for our Redemption and he cannot have this saith who believes not the Trinity For he cannot believe Christ to be the Son of God who believes not God the Father and he cannot believe this Son of God made man who believes not God the Holy-Ghost for he was conceived of the Holy-Ghost that he might be born of a Virgin So that a right belief of Christ cannot be without a right belief of the blessed Trinity and therefore a right belief of the Trinity is very fitly called by Saint Athanasius The Catholik Faith and to be a Christian is to be a Catholick For Christ alone is the founder both of our religion and of our communion If he be truly taught amongst us then is God truly amongst us and we need neither misdoubt our Religion nor our communion for he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and the Son 2 John 9. but if he be not taught amongst us let us not deceive our selves for we cannot be without Christ but we must also be without God for whosoever denieth the son the same hath not the father 1 John 2. 23. So that as far as the Christian Church is extended so far the Catholick Church is extended and if you will yet farther ask what particular Church is now to be reputed most Christian or Catholick I must answer that Church wherein Christ is best taught and practised for we may not separate the practice from the doctrine of Christianity since the doctrine cannot be proved but from the practice according to that of Saint John Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments 1 John 2. 3. Wherefore that is to be accounted the truest Christian Church wherein the doctrine of Christ is most truly published accepted maintained and since the doctrine of Christ is not to be known but from the word of Christ no Christian Church can justly deny to submit its doctrine to the test and tryal of the word for so saith Saint Paul to the Ephesians ye are fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets that is the Old and the New Testament Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone Eph. 2. 19. 20. They could not have been taken for the houshold or Church of God if they had not been built upon the foundation of the Apostle◠and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone of such buildings and of no other For that which proves the Christian Church in general to be now the only true Catholick Church or body of Christ may not be denied to prove this or that Christian Church to be so in special which cannot be Tradition for that hath still varied in all Churches and at all times so that never yet any Church would be bound by its own Traditions for any long time and much less by the Traditions of another Church It remains then that only the word of Christ is able to make good that proof which word hath been generally acknowledged and received by all Churches That proves the Christian Church in general to be the only Catholick Church and may not be denyed to prove this or that Church to be so in special By that alone we prove the Christian Church to be the only Catholick against the misguided Jew by that alone we prove this or that particular Church to be more truly Catholick against the mistaken Christian And this proof Saint Paul teacheth us in all his Epistles proving out of the Old Testament that Christ alone was that Prophet who was to come into the world to bring both righteousness and salvation and consequently that no Religion but only the Christian was now any longer to be embraced or expected unless we would have a Religion that should continue without righteousness and end without salvation And if we will compare the second of the Galatians with the eleventh of the Acts we shall have more then a probable conjecture that it was by Saint Pauls advice that the Disciples were in Antioch first called Christians and the name of Nazarites by which they had been formerly known was quite laid aside because in that very City some of the Nazarites had endeavoured to mingle Judaism and Christianity into one Religion But this we are sure of that in the Epistle to the Hebrews the same Saint Paul for this argument being there so throughly canvased is proof enough alone to conclude him the author of that Epistle maketh it his whole business to shew that only in Christ and in his Gospel is fully revealed the will of God and the way of salvation But more particularly Heb. 9. 10. He sheweth that though the Church of the Jews was once the Catholick viz. till the time of reformation yet the Church of the Christians alone is so now which was indeed to continue and keep the spiritual but to reform and lay aside the carnal Ordinances Therefore this Christian Church still maintaineth communion with the Jewish Church in all Moral duties for no reformation of Gods making can put down a Moral duty or obligation either towards God or towards our neighbour as saith Saint Paul But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul Heb. 10. 39. Here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our turning Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumus substractionis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed fidei q. d. we are not of those who forsake or deny any one Moral Law enjoyned to the Jews for that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to draw backward to perdition but we are of those who profess a true and a lively faith in Christ the Messias promised to the fathers but exhibited to us for that 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what we have been taught by the Apostles and it is to go forward to salvation For it is indeed to outstrip
that spirit in the bond of peace Whence we may gather this Negative definition of a true Catholick that he is such a one who is neither Heretick nor Schismatick nor Hypocrite and this positive definition of a the Catholick Church that it is such a number Christians as profess the faith of Christ in Verity Unity and Sincerity in verity and so are distinguished from Hereticks in unity and so are distinguished from Schismaticks in sincerity and so are distinguished from Hypocrites And this is the Catholick Church perfectly and properly so called And of this Catholick Church are those words of Epiphanius to be understood at the end of Colorbasii or his thirty-fifth heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My dove my undefiledis but one saith Christ Cant. 6. 9. that is his holy spouse the Catholick Church called a dove for her mildness innocency and purity and called undefiled for the perfect grace and knowledge she hath received from God through our Saviour Christ by the holy Ghost But yet we must acknowledge that the Catholick Church commonly so called is of a larger signification then to express and of a larger extension then to comprize only these choice and selected Christians For all that outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ do make but one Catholick Church for as much as they all concur in the outward profession of faith in the same common Saviour and in the outward use of those means of Salvation which he hath appointed though they neither profess the faith so incorruptly as it was taught nor use the means so inoffensively as they were appointed And this Divinity That all Christians are incorporated into one body of Christ or one Catholick Church hath been taught us by Saint Paul who saith That he might reconcile both Jew and Gentiles unto God in one body Eph. 2 16. and again That the Gentiles should be of the same body Eph. 3. 6. that is to say of the same body externally by the same word and Sacraments and of the same body internally by the same spirit of Christ Wherefore the unity of this body of Christians as t is a visible body is from one thing and as t is a mystical body is from another For the unity of the Mystical body of Christ is only from the Holy-Ghost joining all the members together and each particular member to the Head But the unity of the visible body of Christ is from one Lord one Faith one Baptism all the members of the Church as t is visible being to be discerned and known by this character even by the outward profession of that truth and by the outward use of those means which Christ their common Lord and Saviour hath instituted and ordained for their Salvation Wherefore all men that have the profession of Christs saving truth and do practice the means of salvation must be acknowledged to belong to one Christian or to one Catholick Church as being sanctified by the profession of that truth and the use of those means though their ptofession be not so entire nor their practice so exact as it ought to be Whence the Apostle writing to the Corinthians though much over run with Heresie and Schism yet writeth on this manner Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1. 2. For in that they were of the Christian Church by the outward profession of Christs truth and the practice of his commands they were sanctified in Christ Jesus though some of them were Hereticks and denied the resurrection others were Schismaticks and denied the Apostles authority For even Hereticks and Schismaticks though they do not hold in verity and in unity the entire profession of Christs Truth yet are they of the Christian Church generally so called for that truth which they do hold and as far as they remain parts of the true Christian Church so far they may be a means of saving others either by preaching the word or administring the Sacraments though by reason of their Heresie and Schism they themselves without repentance are not in the state of Salvation And surely we cannot reasonably think that there were neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks in the Churches of Ephesus Philippi and Colosse and yet the same Apostle saith To the Saints which are at Ephesus Ephes 1. 1 To all the Saints which are at Philippi Phil. 1. 1. and to the Saints and faithfull brethren in Christ which are at Colosse Col. 1. 2. In all which Epistles doubtless Saint Paul writ to the visible body of the several Churches and sent his letters to the visible head of that body as Saint John did his epistles to the Angels of the several Churches Rev. 2. 13 and yet he called them Saints and faithfull brethren not that they were all really such but that they were indeed called of God to be such and if they were not so in their own inward affection t was their own fault He was sure they were so in their outward profession and therefore might justly be so called It was their parts to make good that glorious title not his part to forbear it for they were indeed sanctified through the outward profession of Christs saving Name and Truth and therefore he could not in charity but think and say they were also sanctified by the inward affection of the same Nor may any man suppose that the Apostle did send his directions and instructions to the mystical but to the Visible body of Christ unless he will say that the Apostle intended to bring confusion into the Church which for its singular order is called acies ordinata a well ordered army wherein not one man is suffered to be out of rank or that he intended to gratifie some proud contentious spirits by laying such grounds of schism and faction as might breed strifes and quarrels about the right of Church Government unto the worlds end For who can tell by looking in a mans forehead that he is one of the mystical body of Christ having communion with him through the Holy-Ghost whence it will follow that those who are best conceited of themselves will violently invade at least readily usurp the government of others and consequently pride and presumption will challenge universal jurisdiction for they who have so much pride as to say they are more neerly linked in communion with Christ then their brethren have seldome so much piety as to make good that saying Wherefore it is safest for men to believe that though the promises of grace chiefly concern the mystical yet the precepts chiefly concern the visible Church for as much as Christ hath intrusted that both with the doctrine and with the means of salvation with the ministry both of his Word and Sacraments For these are without question deposited with the visible Church though none are benefited by them so far as to attain Salvation but only those that are of the invisible Church or the mystical body of Christ But
and the beauties and excellencies of the Christian Religion making them to proclaim to all the world these three things concerning that Religion which they taught after this new manner 1. That Christian Religion is not opus naturae proceeding from the principles of nature for then they would have used the Method of nature who first planted it but opus gratiae The work of Grace and therefore they used the Method of grace 2. That Christian Religion must not be made opus artis matter of mans invention or institution for if it would not borrow so much as outward form or Method from the art of man there being no science in the world taught by such a Method as Divinity is in the Scriptures much less any inward matter or substance from it 3. That Christian Religion must be taken in the whole in credendis agendis in belief and practice both together for therefore did the Apostles teach it by praying to shew that we must learn it by practicing prayer it self being the best practice of Christianity Thus it is necessary that Christ should be the Alpha and Omega the first and the last in all our thoughts words and works for this is the end of all the Scripture and they who undervalue the Scripture seem not to know this end or not to regard it as saith Saint John But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name John 20. 31. as if he had said God gave us the Scriptures especially the New Testament for this end that we might glorifie Christ as the eternal Son of God and only Saviour of the world and that by so doing we might through him come to inherit eternal glory SECT 11. The sincerity of Christian communion is the bullwark of its authority and first to be regarded by every Christian Church as being the glory of her prosperity and comfort of her adversity such a sincere communion never to be deserted when once happily attained NO particular Christian Church advanceth our communion with Christ as such but only as Christian and therefore no particular Church can justly require another Church to communicate with it any farther then as t is truly Christian or Catholick for no further doth she her self keep communion with Christ And consequently where any Christian Church leaves Christ there other Churches may and must leave Her that is leave Her as to the communion in Her sin whereby she leaves Christ but not in Her righteousness whereby she still reteineth him for that were little less then in her to leave the communion of Christ For this profession of Saint Paul We are not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ 2 Cor. 2. 17. should be the profession of every Christian Church which desires to have other Churches joyn with her in her communion we do not corrupt the word of God and would not willingly pin corruptions upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non sumus mangones aut caupones Theologiae we play not the prolers or hucksters with our Divinity or with Gods word putting new dresses or false colours upon the Text or truth to make our own erroneous Doctrines the more passable and the less discernable or rather we do not mingle Gods truth with our own errors as false drawers mingle their wines for so saith Hesychius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated which corrupt is a Metaphor taken from those Vintners who corrupt and mingle their wines before they sell them A word that speaks much in little and may serve instead of a whole Sermon to the Preachers themselves For if they preach phansie they mingle water with this wine if they preach faction they mingle blood with it Lord forgive us these horrid mixtures and renew again amongst us thy miracle wrought in Cana of Galilee and once more turn our water into wine and suffer not us any more to turn that wine into blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome To corrupt wine is in effect to bastardize it which consideration should terrifie any Church that hath wittingly corrupted the word of truth seeing she hath thereby laboured as it were to bastardize the eternal Son of God Non cauponantur quia meram veritatem praedicant de Filio Dei nec ipsam quasi aqua falsitatis adulterant saith Saint Cyril of Alexandria Thes l. 12. cap. 3. They â—sc that are true and good Church-men do not corrupt the word because they speak nothing but the truth and do abhorr to adulterate Gods pure wine with their impure their puddle water No Church can be two careful about the sincerity of its Doctrine since the Apostle did not think he could be zealous enough about it And therefore he again immediately enforceth this same duty to the same effect though in other words seeing we have received this Ministry as we have received mercy we faint not but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in crastiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 1 2. His whole intent and purpose is to make them see his sincerity in preaching the Gospel of Christ thereby obliging every Christian Church which is the grand Apostle of its own nation openly to profess and much more conscionably to discharge the same sincerity for which accordingly he alledgeth two reasons First the incomparable worth and value of the Doctrine and therefore he saith this Ministry by way of excellency for that the Gospel was as far above the Law and much more above all other things as liberty and salvation are above thraldom and condemnation Secondly the indispensible obligation of his trust which God had laied upon him and therefore he saith as we have received mercy he calls it a mercy not a trust the more to endeer it to his own soul and to ours yet in that he saith he had received it he acknowledgeth the trust himself as one accountable according to his receipts for as he had received it from God so he was bound to deliver it to them without either alteration or addition or diminution according to his own former profession I delivered unto you that which I also received 1 Cor. 15. 3. q. d. If I could not prove the receipt I could not justifie the delivery Having alledged these two reasons for his sincere preaching of the Gospel he afterwards shews what it was preserved him in this sincerity and that was his magnanimity his innocency and his integrity First the undaunted courage of his heart we faint not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non deficimus we are not defective to our selves for want of perseverance nor to our duty for want of constancy For
those Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus were as much ordained and appointed by men as any can be of any Church till the worlds ends supposing they be rightly ordained to whom yet the Apostle saith Take heed unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act. 20. 28. For the ordination of Ministers though it is by man yet is it not of men but of God even as also is the Gospel which they are ordained to preach so that to resist them and their Doctrine is not to resist men but God so said he who first ordained Ministers of the Gospel and still assisteth them in their ministrations He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. How shall any man go on this errand without Gods sending when the eternal word himself would not preach till he was sent How shall any man despise those whom the Word hath sent and not despise the Word that sent them and the Father that sent the Word And how shall any man despise the Father and the Son and not grieve the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from them So impossible is it for any to despise the Church which God hath set over him and not sin against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For the argument is à minori ad majus if it be dangerous to despise one much more to despise all if to undervalue a Disciple much more an Apostle For as the Apostles had a greater trust then the 70. Disciples so hath every National Church which is as it were the grand Apostle of its Nation a greater trust then any particular Bishop or Presbyter of the same and the Church now hath that trust as the Apostles first had it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Saint Paul saith of himself but doubtless he saith it for more then himself that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God that is of God the Father 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Luke saith of him that t was God the Son even Jesus our blessed Saviour who called him to be an Apostle who said unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and who said of him He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Acts 9. 4 15. The same Saint Luke saith in another place that he was called to the Function of the Apostleship by the commandment of God the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them Which variety of expression doth not only verifie that common axiome of Divinity Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The works of the blessed Trinity in regard of any external product are indivisible so that what is externally done by one person is done by all But it doth also testifie the great trust which was laid upon every one of the Apostles in that he received his commission from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as this trust hath since been and still is derived to the Church so it hath been and is derived by the same glorious and blessed Trinity Whereby we see the large Exposition that is to be given to those words he that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. for it is all one as if it had been said he heareth God he heareth the Son of God he heareth the Spirit of God Wherefore supposing that this national Church wherein we live is as Gods Apostle to this Nation no sectary can justly pretend to God or Christ no Enthusiast can justly pretend to the Spirit of God and Christ why he should not hearken to the dictates and follow the directions of this Church which God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ hath set over him I find in the antient Calenders on the twenty sixth of May this Title Augustini Anglorum Apostoli The feast of Saint Augustine the Apostle of the English He was looked upon as one that had planted the Christian Faith amongst us and was therefore in the judgement of the Latine Church esteemed and called our Apostle I will not dispute the ground but only admit the Title for if one single Priest or Bishop was not unfitly called the Apostle of our Nation Then much more may a whole company of Bishops and Presbyters be so called and ought to be so esteemed who have more generally propagated more firmly established and more carefully preserved amongst us the true Christian Faith It is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. As if he had said no Embassadour can more justifie his trust and his authority by his Princes seal annexed to his Credential letters then I can justifie my Apostleship towards you in that by my preaching you have been converted to the Lord and are confirmed in him what Saint Paul was to the Corinthians in bringing them to the knowledge and to the communion of Christ to the knowledge of Christ by preaching the word to the communion of Christ by administring the Sacraments that our Church hath been and still is to us And therefore what Saint Paul said to the Crinthians that our Church may justly say to us Since these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you For the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord Though others may pretend they have some cause to doubt the trust and the authority of our Church as if she had not a true succession of Ministers which in truth is but a meer pretence or rather a cavil as the learned Mason hath sufficiently demonstrated and should be least objected by them who will have the whole Church depend upon the Pope and cannot deny that they have had many and long lived Anti-popes to disturb their succession yet sure we our selves can neither have cause nor pretence to doubt it since we cannot reasonably deny but our Church hath a true succession of Doctrine so that for us who have not only the speculative but also the practical the experimental knowledge of the Gospel unless we have been grosly wanting to our selves and impiously wanting to our Saviour for us I say to doubt of our Church is little other then to doubt of our Religion as if that either had not come from Christ or could not bring us to Christ and keep us with him For there can be no doubt of the Embassadours authority if there be no doubt of his Princes seal and if we our selves be not the seal of our Churches Apostleship in the Lord the fault is meerly our own t is because we would not
admit the stamp and impression of Christ upon our stony hearts t is because we have been as Iron when we should have been as wax and not having received nor desirous to receive the seal of our Lord do question the authority of his Embassadour of his Apostle not having in us the image of Christ do contemn the authority and forsake the communion of his Church For as the want of natural affection discovered the harlot not to have been the true mother of the child 1 King 3. 26. So the want of filial obedience discovereth us not to have been true children but by no means our Church to have been a false mother There is great reason and greater necessity why all true sons of this distressed and despised Church should now especially insist upon this Doctrine since at this time the contumacy of the children hath made disputable nay almost desperate the authority of the Mother Wherein as we have S. Pauls example to invite us so we have his authority to justifie us for questionless he did therefore so much magnifie his own Apostleship that we should learn to magnifie it much more Thus we find in the beginning of every Epistle so many large Encomiums and high commendations of his office as if he had taken that for his Text Rom. 11. 13. Quamdiu quidem ego sum gentium Apostolus ministerium meum honorificabo As long as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles I will magnifie mine office There needs but one instance for all Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of man neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead where Saint Chrysostome gives us this remarkable gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because they sc who went about to pervert the Galatians did undervalue his Doctrine saying it was from men but that S. Peters Doctrine was from Christ therefore in the first place he withstands that objection viz. by affirming that he was an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father as well as S. Peter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In that he saith he was not an Apostle of men he saith what was common to all the Ministers of the Gospel for both their authority of preaching and the doctrine which they preached was from heaven But in that he saith neither by man he saith what was proper only to the Apostles for our blessed Saviour did not call them by other men but only by himself We do not seek now for such an Apostleship in any Christian Church as is not by man we only say it is not of man and that is enough to procure sober mens attention and conscientious mens obedience for in that it is not of men it is clearly of God And as it was not arrogancy but necessity in Saint Paul which made him stand so much upon his authority so is it not the pride of the Clergy a string which they most harp upon who are most guilty of it but their duty which maketh them stand so stiffly for the authority of the Church Let him speak for both whose modesty and humility was greater then his learning and yet whose learning was greater in reality then our new Divines is now in shew or pretence and that was the late Bishop of Salisbury Bishop Davenant in his most excellent Commentary upon the Colossians where almost at the beginning sc in the fifth page you shall find these words Paulus non arrogantiae causa sed ne in detrimentum Ecclesiae vilesceret illius autoritas Apostolicam dignitatem sibi vendicat Ita etiam oportet in Ecclesiastica dignitate constitutos officii sui autoritatem atque existimationem tueri contra contemptores schismaticos Saint Paul doth not out of arrogancy challenge to himself the dignity and honour of an Apostle but for fear lest otherwise the Church of God should suffer detriment or loss by the contempt of his authority And so likewise it still behoveth those who are placed in Ecclesiastical dignity to maintain the repute and authority of their office against despisers and schismaticks And truly this is but a reasonable position both in regard of those in authority who do only maintain their own unless we will deny that to be their own which God hath so manifestly given them and in regard of those under authority who cannot be willing to obey what they are not desirous to maintain and yet must either obey or be guilty of hainous impiety such as now joyns them in communion with the Devil by their sin for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft 1 Sam. 15. 23. and without doubt all witches are the Devils communicants and such as will hereafter keep them in communion with the Devil by their punishment They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13. 2. And questionless it is a most reasonable probleme What communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6. 15 16. And yet a more reasonable demand I would not that ye who are Christians should have fellowship with Devils 1 Cor. 10. 20. Not in their sin for Christs sake not in their punishment for your own sakes Again there may be yet further alledged these reasons why we should zealously maintain and carefully obey the power and authority of our own particular Church 1. Because reverence and suspition cannot consist together and therefore I may not lightly suspect those whom I am bound to reverence such as are my spiritual Pastors and Teachers whom for this reason I may not lightly suspect in respect of their integrity much less of their authority 2. Because else there must be perplexitas facti a perplexity in point of fact that private men will not easily know with whom they are bound to keep their Christian Communion in the publick worship and service of God which yet is an undeniable and should be an undoubted duty of the Text. 3. Because else there must be perplexitas juris a perplexity in point of Law which is such a perplexity as God will not endure and man may not endure for then the conscience can never be at quiet when it must so keep one Law as to break another And that perplexity cannot be avoided if we allow two several Churches to have power from God to order and command the duties of our Religion for then they may lay upon us at the same time quite contrary commands and consequently whilst we are obeying the one we must be disobeying the other But it is past all dispute that our own Church hath power from God over us in matters of Religion because the Apostle saith expresly Obey them that have the rule over you Heb. 13. 17. Which cannot be understood of those who are at a distance from us in another Country because it follows For they watch for your souls as they that must give an account But t is against reason to say or think that
belonging to the holy Communion be carefully maintained cap. 12. art 12. and upon this ground doth our Church think it fit to maintain kneeling rather then standing at the holy Communion the better to maintain and to improve that due reverence In a word we make that profession concerning this blessed Sacrament which the Primitive Christians made as it is recorded by Iustine Martyr towards the end of his second Apologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For we receive not these elements as common bread or as common wine But as by the Word of God Iesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate had both flesh and blood for our salvation So that food over which the Word that came from God hath prayed and given thanks whence our flesh and blood are nourished after it is changed we are taught in the flesh and blood of that Incarnate Iesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incarnati illius Iesu carnem sanguinem esse edocti sumus These words have been much urged both for Transubstantiation and for Consubstantiation but since they have been urged to prove both we may safely conclude they can prove neither Two proofs are taken from them The first is That he saith we receive it not as common bread but that proves it is bread though not common bread The second that he saith The bread is the flesh of the incarnate Jesus that is such flesh as Christ took in his incarnation But that proves it is not flesh under the appearance of bread or in conjunction with bread besides he saith Our flesh and blood are nourished by it but sure our flesh is nourished by bread not by the body of Christ that is only the nourishment of our souls And yet still though we embrace neither of these opinions we do most willingly profess with that holy Martyr That we receive these elements not as common bread nor as common wine but as the very flesh and blood of our incarnate Iesus And therefore we desire to use such reverence in receiving this holy Eucharist as may be suitable with this profession For what Saint Paul said would come to pass among the Corinthians upon a right use of Preaching will we hope much more come to pass amongst us upon a right use of Administring If there comes in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report That God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. He is not like to fall on his face whiles he seeth us either sit or stand Our outward reverence if used may convince and condemn him if not used will convince and condemn our selves For if he seeth us not true worshippers he will not think us true Believers We will therefore kneel that we may worship and we will therefore worship that we may make an Alient a true Believer and much more shew our selves to be true Believers CAP. III. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and retained by All the people of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the Rules of Conscience SECT I. Every particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Christian Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it THAT man cannot be truly said to believe the Communion of Saints who doth not labour to make himself one of that Communion This he cannot attempt without joyning himself to those who profess to know and to worship God in Christ and this he cannot attain without joyning himself to those who do truly so know and rightly so worship God So that although the Communion of Saints may be sought among all sorts of Christians yet is it not to be found but only among good Christians such as are publickly known to be true believers and right worshippers For Christian Communion is founded both in Doctrine and in Devotion In Doctrine to make men of one mind in Devotion to make men of one mouth And since Doctrine and Devotion are the two integral Parts of Religion the one â—anctifying the understanding the other sanctifying the will that so Religion may fully do its work in knitting or binding the whole soul unto God it is manifest that Christian Communion is founded in Christian Religion and the truest Christian Communion in the truest Christian Religion Accordingly every particular man is bound to joyn himself to that Church which doth profess the truest Christian Religion both in Doctrine and in Devotion that so he may embrace the truest Christian Communion And because all Churches do alike magnifie themselves and vilifie others it is necessary that in the choice of our Christian Communion we observe the Apostles general Axiom Not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10. 18. In the business of Religion and of eternal Salvation we may not rely upon our own judgements or the judgements of any other men but only upon the judgement and approbation of God who is the Author of Religion and the Giver of Salvation Therefore it is not for any man to be of this or that Church because it commendeth it self but because God commendeth it And where should we seek where can we find Gods commendation but in his word So it is plain I must choose my Church from Gods word or I can never be sure that God doth commend my choice and this consideration alone must needs make a conscientious man afraid of choosing that Church for the guide of his Communion which refuseth to take Gods word for the guide of her Religion For the Churches power concerning Religion in the Apostles times was but ministerial and how should it come in our times to be magisterial For so it is said Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every man 1 Cor. 3. 5. They are Ministers of your faith not Lords and Masters of it Nay in that they are Ministers it is evident they cannot be Masters of your Faith for there is a direct opposition between a Minister and a Master you are bound to have a special regard to their Ministry that you may believe but not to depend or rely upon their authority in your belief For thus hath Christ our Lord appointed That your Faith should come by the Churches Ministry but from his own Authority 〈…〉 And therefore you must go to his Church for your Communion that you may go to himself for your Religion Christs Church hath not a co-ordinate authority that she may command with Christ in matters of Religion for so she might also command against him but only a subordinace Authority to command in and for him in his name and for his
of the fourth Commandment who cryes up the Day but beats down the other adjuncts and also the very Duty of the Sabbath That Duty being to glorifie God in Christ by Publick worship for the Redemption of the world whereas they discountenance Liturgie and Festivals though both instituted in honour of our Redeemer Sect. 4. The sincerity of Christian Communion may be violated either Causally by a false Religion or Formally by an unjust separation Both violations are abominable The care which the primitive Christians used to avoid both by cleaving to the antient Creeds and Gloria Patri and also by their Communicatory Letters The reason of that care was that both Priest and People laboured only to serve Christ not to serve themselves of him The Touchstone to try all Churches is the Advancing Christ both in their Religion and in their Communion The Iustification of the Church of England Consisteth of three Chapters The first Chapter sheweth That the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the people of this Nation The secend Chapter sheweth That the same Church of England hath carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church The third Chapter sheweth That the Communion of the said Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by All the people of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the Rules of Conscience CAP. 1. That the Church of England is Gods Trustee for the Christian Religion as to the People of this Nation Sect. 1. CHrist delivered the Trust of his Word and Sacraments to his Apostles They delivered the same to Bishops and Presbyters their successors But the Apostles had an illimited their successors have a limited Trust The necessity of the succession of these Trustees to the worlds end yet is the succession of Doctrine more necessary then the succession of Persons Sect. 2. The Trust and nature of the Catholick Church best gathered from particular Churches The first part of their Trust is concerning the word of God Sect. 3. The second part of the Trust of particular Churches is concerning the people of God What that Trust is and how it comes to be derived to them is shewed from Saint Pauls speech Acts 20. to the particular Church of Ephesus and from Saint Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus and from other several Epistles of his to particular Churches Sect. 4. The third part of the Trust of particular Churches is concerning the worship of God The written Word of God is the Rule whereby they are to manage that Trust the readyest way to beget a Christian Communion among all Churches and a Christian Peace in each particular Church Sect. 5. The Prince as the Supreme Governor of the particular Church in his own dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes now are bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the due order of Religion among any People Sect. 6. The limitation both of the Princes and of the Priests Trust in matters of Religion That neither may deviate from the Law of God And that the Authority of the Churches Laws is most enfeebled by them who make least esteem of the Law of God casting the aspersions of obscurity and of uncertainty upon the Holy Scriptures Sect. 7. The Trust of each particular Church is sufficient for the Peoples salvation if she take heed to her self and to the Doctrine God hath given her in his written Word and in the antient Creeds of the Catholick Church Sect. 8. The Trust of particular Churches is immediately from God himself both in regard of the Magistrate and of the Minister That trust much stood upon in the Primitive times and ought to be so still because it is founded in the Holy Scriptures And that this Doctrine concerning the trust of particular Churches doth not Canton or dis-joynt the Catholick Church Sect. 9. What Trust is given to other particular Churches in the Holy Scriptures is also given to our particular Church of England from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That our Church is accordingly bound to magnifie her Trust and therefore we bound not to vilifie it And that it is both rational and religious to maintain the Trust and Authority of our own particular Church CAP. 2. That the Church of England hath most carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church Sect. 1. GODS intent in Trusting the Church with Religion was her Honour and Happiness which should cause our thankfulness to God and our reverent esteem of his Church Sect. 2. The Churches Trust concerning Religion is to see there be right Preaching Praying and Administring the Holy Sacraments Preaching belongs rather to the knowledge then to the worship of God and ought not to thrust out Praying which is the chiefest act of Gods worship and most regarded by him especially when many Pray in one Communion Sect. 3. Preaching is twofold either by Translating or by Expounding the Holy Scriptures The great excellency and necessity of both And that our Church is entrusted with both and cannot justly be charged as defective in either Sect. 4. Praying a greater part of the Churches Trust then Preaching The Church hath God the Fathers Precedent and Precept for making set forms of Prayer and shall answer for all the blemishes that may be in publick Prayers for want of a set form Sect. 5. The Church hath God the Sons Precedent and Precept for making set forms of Prayer and is accordingly obliged both to make and to use them Sect. 6. The Church hath God the Holy Ghosts Precedent and Precept for making and using set forms of Prayer Sect. 7. The Church hath Gods Promise for his blessing upon set forms of Prayer Sect. 8. The Church is obliged to make set forms of Prayer according to the Pattern of the Lords most holy Prayer that there be no Peccancy neither concerning the Object nor the Matter nor the Manner of publick Prayer and that our Church hath exactly followed that Pattern in hers and that other Churches ought to follow the same in their Liturgies A short Historical Narration concerning our Common-Prayer Book and the Anti-prayer book set up against it Sect. 9. Reformation not to be pretended against Religion The abolishing of Liturgie no part of a true Reformation That God hath not given any Church power to abolish Liturgie And that no Church ought to assume that power because Liturgie directly tends to the keeping of the third and of the fourth Commandments Sect. 10. Certainty is more to be regarded in the publick exercise of Religion then Variety Hence the Creed the Lords Prayer
and the Decalogue righteously taken into our Liturgie but unrighteously omitted by Innovators who vainly obtrude Variety to mens consciences instead of Certainty Sect. 11. The Gift of Prayer examined That it is not a Gift of sanctifying Grace That Prayer as a Duty is above Prayer as a Gift That the Spirit of Prayer is often without the Gift of Prayer and yet the Gift of Prayer is not perfect without the Spirit of it Those Christians who have attained the Gift of Prayer most compleatly that is joyntly with the Spirit of it are not thereby qualified to be the mouths of the Congregations Those Ministers who have not attained that Gift are not for that reason to be despised as not sufficiently qualified for the Ministry And those Ministers who have attained it may not for the exercising thereof be allowed to reject set forms of Prayer in their Congregations because set forms in publick are more for the Ministers and the Peoples good more for Gods glory and more agrecable with Gods command Sect. 12. Set forms and conceived Prayers compared together That set forms do better remedy all inconveniences and more establish the conscience Are not guilty of will-worship nor of quenching the Spirit nor of superstitious formalities and that it is less dangerous if not more Christian to discountenance the Gift then the Spirit of Prayer Sect. 13. That forms of publick Prayer are not to be disliked because they cannot or at least do not particularly provide either Deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or thanksgivings for their occasional mercies yet our Church not defective in occasionals though chiefly furnished with eternals The danger of contemning Religious forms of Prayer and gadding after conceived Prayers Sect. 14. The third and last part of the Churches Trust concerning Religion is touching the holy Sacraments wherein our Church is not faulty either in the number or in the administration of Them as exactly following our Saviours Institution Nor in the manner of Administring as following it with reverence CAP. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by all the People of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the rules of conscience Sect. 1. EVery particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it Sect. 2. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Doctrine free from Hereâ—ie and from the necessary cause thereof a false ground or foundation of faith That is Believeing upon the Authority of men instead of God Sect. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Devotion free from impiety either by corrupt Invocation or Adoration Sect. 4. That the Communion of the Church of England obligeth those in conscience who are members of that Church to retein â—â— and not to reject it much less to renounce it by no less then five Commandments of the Decalogue Errata PAge 7. line 4. read Menologie p. 26. l. 35. r. fatlest p. 34. l. 19. r Tria p. 39. l. 4. r. brightness p. 47. l. 3. r. ut p. 56. l. 28. r. They p. 60. l. 20. r. It is p. 61. l. 11. 12. r. likeness p. 66. l. 22. r. protension p. 77. l. 26. r. This p. 78. l. 28. dele not p. 82. l. 17. r. as p. 100. l. 23. r. He p. 101. l. 16. r. greater p. 105. l. 3. r. Turning p. 106. l. r. r. their p. 116. l. 32. dele that p. 120. l. 14. r. without p. 126. l. 36. r. Nor p. 148. l. 14. r. bring p. 150. l. 14. r. of p. 169. l. 1. r. we p. 178. l. 2. r. fully p. 178. l. 15. r. take p. 180 l. 1. r. iniquities p. 182. l. 32. r. affective p. 198. l. 22. r. before p. 208. l. 17. 1. Quid p. 208. l. 18. r. Nam p. 292. in the Contents l. 6. r. Them p. 319. l. 5. r. comely p. 345. l. 3. r. sound p. 415. l. 31. r. Then p. 449. l. 1. r. persection ibid. l. 31. r. such a division p. 549. l. 19. â— beats p. 634. l. 14. r. certainty p. 656. l. 30. r. unpremeditated p. 674. l. 5. r. Obsecration p. 680. l. 4. r. bind ibid. l. 5. r. hands Christ wellcomed in his Nativity CAP. I. The Motives of Christs welcome from God and from his Church both Triumphant and Militant SECT I. Christs image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire that Christ should be formed in us and that Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation IN the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost one God everlasting Blessed be the Holy and undivided Trinity world without end Amen I had once the image of God the Father in my creation and I soon lost it wherefore I now desire to have the image of God the Son in my Redemption which I may never lose O thou eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son vouchsafe to breath in my soul this breath of life that I may live eternally O thou who didst form the eternal Son of God in the womb of a pure Virgin be pleased also to form him in my impure and sinful heart That Christ being formed in me I may not be an Abortive to the life and light of righteousness Thy holy Apostle travelled as in birth till Christ was formed in the Galatians so doth thy holy Church travail as in birth til Christ be formed in me Oh then let the end of her travail be the beginning of my rest that my Saviour being formed in me I may be fitted and prepared for his salvation He once condescended to be made man for me Oh that he will now give me the benefit of that condescention and be made man in me That I may put on the Lord Jesus Christ even as he hath put on me That as he dwelleth in my flesh by a personal union so he may also dwell in my Spirit by a powerful Communion That as by dwelling in my flesh he emptied himself so by dwelling in my Spirit he may fill me For Christs emptiness is the Christians fulness He that filled Heaven and Earth from the beginning of the Creation did in the declining Age of Time Empty himself that he might fill us Them he filled with his Majesty but us with his Mercy And if his emptiness was our fulness what is his fulness but our glory If his fall was our rising what is his resurrection but our salvation If the humiliation of Christ was the riches of the world how much more his exaltation If he enriched us by his Poverty how much more will he enrich us by his Glory The Apostle can mention nothing but fulness when he treats of Christ emptiness Gal. 4. 4 5. SECT II. Christs
how God proceeded in primo secundo tertio quarto Instanti concerning Judas and makes Judas a sinner before he supposeth God to hate him at all and a final sinner before he supposeth God to hate him finally and we being all sinners by the same reason must needs also be under Gods hatred till he look on us in Christ the only ground and reason of his love According to which the learned Grotius saith Distinguenda sunt tua ut ita dicam momenta divinae Voluntatis circa hominem peccatorem We must distinguish as it were three Moments in Gods will concerning sinful man Grotius his Moment comes very neer to Scotus his instant Primum est ante Christi mortem The first moment is before the death and pason of Christ In this God is altogether angry Secundum est positâ jam Christi morte the second moment is after Christs satisfaction made In this God is willing to be reconciled Tertium est quum homo verâ fide in Christum credit Christus credentem Deo commendat The third Moment is after Christs satisfaction is actually laid hold on by a lively faith and Christ actually recommendeth the believer to his Father And in this Moment God is actually reconciled and well pleased with the sinner and gives him all the benefits if not the comforts of that reconciliation For Christ may be said to reconcile where he may not be said to recommend He is said in Saint Paul to reconcile the world unto God 2 Cor. 5. 19. But himself saith in Saint John he did not recommend the world unto God John 17. 9. I pray not for the world His reconciliation it seems concerns the whole nature of man but his recommendation concerns only the persons of some particular men even such as lay hold on his reconciliation by faith and repentance saying Lord I believe help my unbelief For there is a meritorious or potential and there is a personal or actual reconciliation wrought by Christ The potential reconciliation belongs to all mankind because it is founded on the infinite merit of Christs satisfaction But the actual reconciliation belongs only to the true believers because it is founded on the Application of that merit unto our souls Still the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is only in Christ God is well pleased in him for his own sake but in us only for his sake Excellently Zanch. lib. 4. de tribus Elohim cap. 1. glosseth upon those words Mat. 3. 17. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tria beneficia iis paucis verbis docet Pater per Christum nobis communicari dilectionis reconciliationis adoptionis seu regenerationis three blessings doth God the Father teach us in these few words to be communicated to us by Christ The blessing of dilection of reconciliation and of adoption or regeneration we beloved in him there is the dilection we sons in him there is the adoption we accepted in him there is the reconciliation And indeed the words added to this voice Hear ye him Mat. 17. 5. plainly shew that the voice it self came not for Christs sake but for ours that we might think our selves in him beloved and sons and such in whom God is well pleased The voice was from heaven and the comfort is heavenly Blessed be the God of heaven for them both And we beseech him to repeat this heavenly voice and to renew this Heavenly comfort by his own Holy Spirit unto our souls SECT VI. Gods love in Christ is not a fond love therefore he scourgeth whom he loveth The Christian Church not taught in the New Testament to expostulate for being scourged though she be crucified as Christ was between two thieves AS God loves us in order to our Saviour and therefore not causelesly so also he loves us in order to our salvation and therefore not fondly or preposterously Gods love is not a fond love◠for whom he loveth he chastneth but it is a saving love for when he chastneth he chastneth us for our good that we might be partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. He loves not like a fond mother who had rather venture to break her own heart then her childs stomack For God will make his sons by adoption like his Son by nature whom he most loved and yet he most scourged He will make those whom he intends to save like the Captain of their salvation by wearing a crown of thorns before he will make them like him by wearing a crown of Glory Hence happily it comes to pass that though we find many and great expostulations with God in the Old Testament concerning the persecutions of his Church as particularly Psalm 74. and Jer. the twelfth Yet we scarse find so much as a direct complaint which is much less then an expostulation concerning it in all the New Testament The reason is plain that the Christian Church might be taught by Christs Doctrine as well as by his Example not to look to fare better then her Master and sure she is she cannot fare worse Therefore is the Christian Church in a manner ashamed to say with David Psalm 74. 1. O God why hast thou cast us off for ever Since she knows the Son of God himself hath said my God my God why hast thou forsaken me or with the Prophet Jer. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements Since she knows Saint Peter hath said For the time is come that judgement must begin at the house of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. or again with the same Prophet Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Since Christ himself hath said this is your hour and the power of darkness Luke 22 53. Or lastly with the same Prophet Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously Since our blessed Saviour himself had a Traytor among his own Apostles and hath shewed us that true happiness consists not in having power to persecute but in having patience to be persecuted for righteousness sake Mat. 5. 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Christ himself was crucified between two theives and that 's reason enough why his Church should not greatly complain though she be crucified not only between but also by two thieves The one robbing God of his honour the other of his Patrimony Saint Paul hath given a hint of them both in one piece of a verse Rom. 2. 22. Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge For in truth Idolatry and Sacriledge have a long time been the two grand scourges of the Christian Church Idolatry whipping God out of his Temple to let in other petty Dieties and Sacriledge whipping him in it They that abhor the Sacriledge committing the Idolatry they that abhor the Idolatry committing the Sacriledge SECT VII Christs love to us that he would come from his Father to
us his hands to be stretched out to embrace us and his side to be pierced to send forth water and blood his two blessed Sacraments to cleanse and strengthen us by that same flesh was he made liable to suffering and in that same flesh did he actually suffer all those things which at first bought the purchase and which do still bring to us the joy of our salvation SECT III. True knowledge of and Faith in Christ is not without true knowledge of and Faith in the blessed Trinity That the Protestants Faith The great loveliness of Christ in the flesh as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God and man and the great mysteries of his two natures in one person KNowledge in the natural man exalts him above other men but knowledge in the good Christian who alwaies loves what he knows of Christ exalts him above himself By knowing natural truths I do improve my reason but by knowing supernatural truths I do also improve my Religion The improvement of my reason exalts me above other men but the improvement of my Religion exalts me above my self And what knowledge can improve my Religion but only the knowledge of Christ who is both the Author and the Finisher of my Faith Therefore let me ever say with Saint Paul I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3. 8. for indeed truly to know Christ in his person is truly to know the whole Christian Faith in the ground and substance of it For what is the ground or substance of our Christian Faith but that which Saint Paul hath set down 2 Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them which is in effect a short sum of the Apostles Creed for that treats of nothing but of God and of Christ reconciling us to God and of the benefits of that reconciliation the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Accordingly Aquinas makes it equally necessary to salvation to believe explicitly the mysterie of the blessed Trinity and to believe explicitly the mysterie of the incarnation of Christ 22 ae qu. 2. art 7. 8. There is an absolute necessity saith he of believing the Incarnation of Christ for that is the only way for a man to come to eternal blessedness because it is said Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And there is saith he as absolute a necessity of believing the blessed Trinity for the Incarnation of Christ cannot be explicitly believed without faith in the Trinity for we cannot believe that the Son of God did take our flesh upon him but we must acknowledge God the Father and God the Son and we cannot believe that he took this flesh of a Virgn by the operation of the Holy Spirit but we must acknowledge God the Holy Ghost so that truly to believe and confess the incarnation of Christ is truly to believe and confess God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Wherefore it was not an objection but a calumny in him that said of the Protestants For these good Gospellers have a faith and a justifying faith whereby they apprehend eternal life without Father Son and Holy Ghost without Christ and his Passion or any of those other matters which are rather subtile points of the Papists historical faith then of the lively justifying faith wherewith these Evangelical Brethren in all security are warranted of the certain favour of God in this life and assured glory in the next Reynolds against Whitaker p. 282. for no true Protestant doth believe and indeed no true Christian can believe that to be a true Faith in Christ which believes not the Holy and Undivided Trinity and all other Articles of the Apostles Creed For such a faith cannot justifie it self much less can it justifie the man that hath it wherefore Protestants do not dare not say That justifying Faith doth not believe the Trinity and Judgement to come as well as the Merits of Christ and the forgiveness of sins They only say the former truths are believed with the greater astonishment and admiration the latter truths with the greater affiance or affection but neither with a greater certainty or confidence then the other Fides ex ae quo assentit omnibus articulis fidei quoad certitudinem sed non quoad modum Faith doth equally assent to all the Articles of the Creed as to the certainty of assent though not as to the manner of assenting The sublim truth of the Trinity she believes with admiration the comfortable truths of Christs dying for sinners and the forgiveness of sins she believs with joy and consolation the dreadful truths of hell and judgement to come she believes with sorrow and contristation but all the truths contain'd in the Creed whether sublime or comfortable or dreadful she believeth with one and the same certainty or undoubted confidence And those who teach us that to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord is the proper act of justifying faith for to believe the forgiveness of sins is rather an effect then a cause of justification do not confine our justifying faith meerly to the belief of this one Article but do only profess that though true faith hath as many acts as objects and hath as many objects as supernatural truths revealed from God yet it justifies the sinner only by this one act of believing in Christ and relying wholly upon his merits and mediation Thus do we desire with Saint Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. But we dream not of a righteousness either by a vain or by a false faith either by a vain Faith that believes not entirely with affection or by a false faith that believes not truly without mistake or deception Wherefore Antitrinitarian and Antichristian may go for all one in the Protestants as well as in the Papists account for indeed they have alwaies gone for one in the account of the Catholike Church We have heard Aquinas speaking the sense of the Western let us now hear Damascene speaking the sense of the Eastern Churches for so he tels us in his third Book de Orthodox◠fide and fifth chapter That the two cheif heads of the Christian Faith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it treats only of God and the Doctrine of the incarnation of Christ which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it sets forth the wonderful dispensations of God about the salvation of men And these two heads he not only joins but also compares together in one chapter shewing wherein they agree and wherein they
and therefore sought after the very day of the moneth on which the Paschal Lamb had been slain and our Saviour had been crucified But the Gentile Converts kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Passeover in remembrance of Christs resurrection and therefore deferred their feast till the first day of the week that followed next after that day of the moneth So we see that both Churches agreed about the feast it self and thought themselves bound to observe a Passeover once a year and that they agreed also about the time of the year wherein it was to be observed their disagreement was only about the very day For the Churches of Asia had mistaken Saint Johns condescention to the Jew for an approbation to themselves as if because he had allowed this manner of celebrating the feast of the Passeover according to the known and received custom among the Iews he had also approved and by consequent established the same among the Christians The like mistake whereunto might also have been in other Eastern Churches concerning the Iewish Sabbath had they retained the observation of it with the same opinion of necessity For that the Sabbath was at first jointly observed with the Lords day by the Christian Churches appears from antient canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clement cap. 33. And Scaliger takes it for granted that those Churches were converted betimes which retained that old custom Quod Ethiopes sabbatum â—que ac Dominicum ab opere immune habent id non est argumentum Judaismi sed veteris Christianismi saith he lib. 7. de emend That the Churches of Aethiopia do keep Saturday a Holy-day as well as Sunday is not a proof that they are new Iews but that they have been old Christians The truth is the Apostles zeal busied and spent it self wholly upon duties not upon daies and so should ours They continued daily in the Temple Acts 2. 46. and again daily in the Temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Iesus Christ Acts 5 42. This daily preaching shewed their chief zeal was for duties not for daies and yet their every day doth not forbid their particular choice of one principal day for those holy purposes and performances at the same time for so we read Acts 20. 7. Vpon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them Here 's a particular day culled out from the rest of the week both for preaching the word and consequently for praying and for administring the holy Communion for so we may well expound the breaking of bread with some antient Interpreters though it be an ill inference that some of late have made from thence that they may lawfully leave out the other part of that blessed Sacrament By the same reason they might tell us that the Church hath authority to change the very form instituted in Baptism because we read in the Acts of the Apostles that many men were baptized in the name of the Lord Iesus Acts 8. 16. 19. 5. For without doubt if Christs institution may be dispensed withal in the one it may also in the other Sacrament and if not in the one then not in the other Wherefore it is ill arguing from a Synechdoche partis in dicto to a Synechdoche partis in facto from a part for the whole in speaking to a part for the whole in doing The bread may be named without the wine but it follows not therefore it may be given without it We may admit of half speeches but we must be sure of whole Sacraments For though words are not sacrilegious in putting a part for the whole because that is a right way of speaking yet works may be guilty of sacriledge by doing but a part for the whole because that is not a right way of working for in speaking we may follow the custome or practice of men but in doing we must follow the precept and prescription of God Nor can a man that wilfully transgresseth the institution of Christ be excused from infidelity if we will embrace as we cannot justly reject Aquinas his distinction Infidelis non ut habeus malam voluntatem circa finem Sc. Christum sed tamen ut deficiens in Electione mediorum quia non eligit quae sunt à Christo tradita a Christian may be an infidel not as erring about the end for he aims at Christ but yet as erring in the choice of the means when he followeth not those ways which Christ hath prescribed him And thus have they erred about the administration of the holy Eucharist who would be accounted very strict observers of the grand Christian Festivals although in truth they cannot keep a Festival in honour of Christ who falsely administer the Eucharist no more then they who Preach false Doctrine or use false devotions For it is evident from this practice of the Apostles that Christian Festivals ought to be celebrated by preaching the word and administring the holy Eucharist and much more by holy and religious prayers which may not be left out either in preaching of the word or in administring of the Sacrament unless we will not regard Gods blessing on the one nor his presence in the other Nay indeed holy and religious Prayers do in effect partake both of the word and of the Sacrament of the word as they are professions of our faith of the Sacrament as they are remembrances of our Saviour And it is accordingly observable that in all the collects of the Church there is in the first part of them a recognition or profession of some heavenly Doctrine which we are bound to believe as in the latter part there is a special remembrance of our blessed Saviour whom we are bound to honour alwayes concluding Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum through Jesus Christ our Lord so that false devotions that is not true in themselves or not true in his certain knowledge who useth them False Doctrine and false administration do all alike profane a Festival Nay Saint Paul thinks the Lords Day not sufficiently celebrated by words and Sacraments and prayers but he requires also the giving of alms Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store 1 Cor. 16. 2. And Saint Chrysostome tels us he chose such a day for it as could not but very much advance the duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He argues from the day to the duty bidding them consider what great mercies the Lord hath bestowed on them that very day for that alone would make them willingly and liberally shew mercy to his distressed members This was the antient practice of the primitive Christians to offer up their alms as well as their prayers to God upon those Festivals which they celebrated in a thankful remembrance of his mercies conveyed unto them by his Son and therefore they might beseech him mercifully to accept their alms as well as to receive
enim est Constantini M. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non solum hebdomadem post Pascha sed antecedentem excipit ab opere faciendo sed de posteriore hebdomade usus tantum obtinuit The sum of all is this Because Easter weeke was the first weeke in the year and the dayes of that week were all accounted and kept holy and accordingly were thus computed the first second third fourths fifth holy day Hence it is that the same computation still hold of the days in the other weeks throughout the whole year that instead of the first second third fourth and fifth day it is said the first second third fourth and fifth holy-day For the Emperour Constantine the great made a Law that all Easter week and the week before it should be kept as one Holy-day And though in our age this Law holds only of Easter week yet we have some footsteps of that observation still in the week before it for our Church appoints Epistles and Gospels for every day of the week before Easter and most Churches beyond the seas still call it the holy week and some make it so For which Religious practice it is not to be doubted but the Church of Christ hath warrant enough from that Text Mark 14. 8. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my body for the burying or rather to anoint her self for my body to prepare her self for to receive the Holy Eucharist and to celebrate the Resurrection Wherefore it is evident that in the judgement of the first and best Christians Easter day was a greater Sunday then any other all the year after it even as the Sabboth of the Passover was in the Jews account a greater Sabboth then any other of all the year nor was this judgement any way superstitious but truely Religious since we find it authorized by the Text saying for that Sabboth day was an high day John 19. 32. as if he had said that Sabboth day was higher then any other Sabbath because the Passover was joyned with it I will not then quarrel with the Church for preferring one Sunday before another since she observeth them all as holy to the same Lord there was the Holy of Holyes in the Sanctuary without any disparagement to the rest of the Temple The Paschal Sabbath was a high day and yet the other Sabbaths not put down the lower By taking off the opinion of holiness I see much profaness and irreligion in all respects which makes me conclude that though the Church should proclaim Holy Holy Holy never so much before the place and time of Gods worship yet all would be little enough to beget the love and practice of holiness in the worshippers SECT VI. That the Lords day which is observed weekly is to be observed in memory of our Saviours Resurrection and hath a double sanctification one by relation to its duâ—y which is publickly to serve God and to give him thanks for our Redemption by Christ and is the principal The other by institution as consecrated to this duty and is the less principal That the Antisabbatarian Doctrine which advanceth duties above days is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching and makes most for the true observation of the Sabbath which yet is more properly called the Lords Day then the Sabbath WE may not pass by that memorable Canon in the Council of Trullo cap. 66. which hath these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the Holy Festival of the Resurrection of Christ our God untill the New Lords Day all true believers ought to go to Church and there uncessantly praise God in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual songs T is worth our notice that the Fathers of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holden in the Emperours Pallace called Easter day it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Resurrection day but the Sunday after it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The New Lords day not simply the Lords Day of its self or by its own virtue but as it was a repetition or renovation of the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the day of our Lords Resurrection For to say it was called the New Lords Day because of the renewing by Baptism which antiently was administred at that time is not satisfactory for besides that other Sundays must have been called New as well as that upon the same account to wit those of Easter and Pentecost it is manifest that Baptism cannot justly cause any Sunday to be called the Lords day and therefore surely not the New Lords day Whence it follows that if this Sunday was called the New Lords Day as renewing the day of our Lords Resurrection this and all other Sundayes do belong unto the Lord chiefly upon this account that they are memorials of his Resurrection So that though the Law of the Sabbath as well as of other things came by Moses yet the grace and truth of it came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. And for this reason was the Sabbath translated from its own day to our Lords Day that the Law of Moses might give place to the grace and truth of Jesus Christ and happily for that cause amongst others hath the Church appointed some annual memorials of the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ to be solemnized as so many Sabbaths least we should think that in this weekly memorial she did rather follow the Law given by Moses then the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ And doubtless when we have said all that we can there can be no entire keeping of a Sabbath from Moses but only from Christ because in him alone the soul may seek for rest and in him alone is sure to find it For as the souls trouble is from sin so her rest is from the expiation and forgiveness of sins Therefore as her trouble is from her self so her rest is from her Saviour Saint Paul hath taught us both together in his Sermon and our own Church in her Anthymn of the Resurrection For seeing that by man came death by man also commeth the Resurrection of the dead for as by Adam all men do dye so by Christ all men shall be restored to life By man came death by Adam all men do die There 's the souls trouble from her sin for the wages of sin is death By man commeth the Resurrection of the dead by Christ all men shall be restored to life there 's the souls rest or Sabbath from her Saviour for the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we will needs gainsay the Judgement of our own Church to set up the Sabbath instead of the Lords day yet we may not gainsay the Doctrine of Saint Paul which requires us to set up the Lords day instead of the Sabbath so that if we will needs borrow the name from Moses yet we can have the thing it self only from Christ for it is not Moses but Christ which can give the
to examine the other exigencies which this excellent Divine is put to that he may gratifie his Church by seeking to make good this Tenent but sure other Churches look upon it as an invasion of their Christian liberty and as a Doctrine which cannot pretend to Christian verity or antiquity though it may fondly pretend to some external unity T is certain the Greek Church took it for a Novelty and therefore would not admit this position as a dispensation from the Anathemas denounced by the two Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon against such as should presume to alter the former Creeds And yet in truth the alteration was more in word then in sense and the Greek Church had the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son in their Faith though not in their Creed And this appears plainly by Simeon the Metaphrast who lived about the year eight hundred and fifty after Christ neer the same time with Walefridus Strabo yet useth these words in the Greek Menology on October 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Lord Christ is Ascended into heaven and returned to his Fathers throne and from thence hath sent down the Holy Spirit which proceedeth from himself upon his Disciples He saith in his Faith the Spirit proceeded from the Son though neither he nor any of his Church would change their Creed to say so And upon this ground the Western Churches may still retain the use of Athanasius his Creed in their Liturgies notwithstanding the addition of Filioque without cutting off the Greek Church from the hope of salvation though they allow not that addition because the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is also in their Faith according to the sense though not according to the words of the Article And to speak the plain truth in this controversie concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father the animosity was greater betwixt the Greek and Latine Church then the disagreement the quarrel larger then the difference And thus much Scotus ingenuously confesseth in these words Sed forte si duo sapientes unus Graecus aâ—ter Latinus uterque verus amator veritatis non propriae dictionis de hac visa contrarietate disquirerent pateret utique tandem ipsam contrarietatem non esse veraciter realem sicut est vocalis Alioquin vel ipsi Graeci vel nos Latini sumus verè haeretici Sed quis audet Johannem Damascenum Basilium Gregorium Theologum Nazianzenum Cyrillum similes patres Graecos arguere haereseos Quis iterum argueret haereseos B. Hieronymum Augustinum Aâ—ibrosium Hilarium consimiles Latinos Verisimile igitur est quod non subest dictis verbis contrariis contrariorum Sanctorum sententia discors Scotus in 1. Sent. dist 11 qu. 1. But happily if two wise men the one of the Greek the other of the Latine Church did enquire concerning this seeming contrariety and both of them would prefer the truth above their own words or expressions they might in time find that this is but a verbal not a real controversie For if it be real either the Greeks or the Latines must needs be hereticks But who shall dare to accuse Damascene or Basil or Gregory the Divine or Gregory Nazianzene or Cyril and the rest of the Greek Fathers of heresie Again who dares take Saint Hierom Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose Saint Hilary and the rest of the Latine Fathers for hereticks It is therefore most probable that in these contrary expressions was no contrary sense but they both meant one and the same truth concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost Thus far Scotus and indeed no less appears in the Council of Florence where from the twentyeth Session to the twenty fifth exclusively is a long disputation betwixt Johannes Provincialis for the Latine Church and Marcus Ephesius for the Greek Church And the Ephesian professing that the Spirit did proceed from the Father by the Son the Provincial confesseth it was in effect the same as from the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That by is here as much as from saith Johannes Concil Flor. Sessione 24. For the Father begetting and the Son begotten and the Holy Ghost proceeding being all confessedly coequal and coeternal whether it be said the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son or from the Father by the Son the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity is uncorrupt and inviolable for the three distinct persons with their three distinct properties are believed in one God none afore or after none greater or lesser then other In personis proprietas in essentia unitas in Majestate aequalitas property in the persons unity in the essence equality in the Majesty of the Godhead being no less acknowledged and believed by the Greek then by the Latine Fathers which is the short confession of the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity For it is manifest that the Greeks who denyed not the Son to be consubstantial with the Father could not exclude him in the procession of the Holy Ghost Wherefore we must needs reject that harsh and heavy doom which Bellarmine hath left upon record against the Grecians Ac ut intelligant causam exitii sui esse pertinaciam in errore de processione Sp. S. in ipsis â—eriis Sp. S. capta fuit Constantinopolis à Turmay understand the cause of their destruction to be their pertinacy in their error concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost in the very Festival of the Holy Ghost that is at Whitsontide was Constantinople their cheif City taken by the Turks This he thinks he hath sufficiently proved but the learned Scaliger thinks no man can sufficiently prove and laments this Queen Regent of the East in these words ut cujus calamitas ignorari non potest dies calamitatis ignoretur And though he incline to their opinion who said that City was besieged the morrow after Easter and taken upon the day of Pentecost yet he concludes it dangerous to determine so much Sed periculosum est haec definire De anno quidem non dubito fuisse 1452. sed de mense delibero utrum sc mense Maii an mense Aprilis capta fuerit Scal. lib. 5. de emend temp He dares not define the month whether it were in April or in May and sure Whitsontide cannot fall in April much less the week or the day he sayes t is dangerous to assert it was taken in Whitsontide but sure it is dangerous to assert it with so much uncharitableness against a whole Church whose ruine should be thought on with pitty not with insolency However though the assertion it self be true yet the argument is fitter for a Souldier then for a Divine to appeal to the success of the sword for the justification of the cause and will much better advance Turcism which hath full six parts then Christianity which in all the several professions of it hath but five parts of thirty in the known habitable world
that the more it busieth the head the less it setleth and establisheth the heart wherefore if that benediction was Apostolical The Lord Jesus Christ himself stablish you in every good word 2 Thes 2. 17 Then this practice must be Apostatical which doth unstablish and unsettle the People in their Prayers the very best words Then was Egypt in a sad case when the locusts did eat up what the hail and thunder had left Exod. 10. And is it not so with Israel when locusts out of the bottomless pit devour that small pittance of Religion which the hail that is their own chill and frozen dispositions or the thunder and lightning that is the tempestuous terrours and troubles of war had left in the Peoples hearts When God suffers such devourers of piety and Religion to come into a land he either looks upon it as Egypt or t is to be feared he intends to make it so The death of the first born is then sure not far off and the drowning of all the rest is not like to belong after it For what can we expect but that the read sea even a sea of blood should cover us all when we persecute the Israel of God for desiring to serve him and say unto those who are zealous for such prayers as they know are either in Gods word or agreeable with it ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord Exod. 5. 17. as if Praying in known and approved forms were rather a pretence for idleness then a help to devotion This is not only to reproach the Church for teaching us to pray by her Liturgies but also to reproach God himself for teaching the Church to pray by his Scriptures and by this argument we may throw away not only the dictates of the Church but also the dictates of the Spirit of God Sure this is not the part of Christians by one and the same wicked practice to oppose both the authority and the doctrine of Christ the authority of Christ in his Church the doctrine of Christ in his word They pretend to have the spirit of God but yet contemn the word of God They will needs have the spirit of his Son in their hearts and yet care not to have the language of his Son in their mouths giving their Pater noster a quietus est a writ of ease as if the Holy spirit had supplied the servants above the son and taught us better prayers then it had taught our Saviour or as if it were not one and the same spirit that once directed him and still directeth us to call upon the Father Doubless such men cannot take it unkindly that we abstain from communicating with their prayers since they by rejecting the Lords own holy prayer do at the same time reject commnnion not only with all the servants but also with the Spirit and with the Son of God for the Servants of God alwayes used it the Spirit of God indited it the Son of God commanded it T is no wonder if such men be not only Sacrilegious but also perswade themselves there is no such sin as sacriledge and consequently that whatsoever hath been consecrated to Gods Holy name is still unholy and prophane though it hath been conscrated according to Gods own express command in the fourth commandment which is the commandment of consecrations and requires the sanctification of place and of persons and of our substance to Gods publike worship as well as of time Time cannot be sanctified or kept holy to Gods publick worship without these And besides we find these also expresly commanded in other parts of the Bible and since they are all commanded for one and the same end we must reduce the Texts concerning them to one and the same commandment for the ten commandments are Decem summa genera as it were ten predicaments or ten general heads to which is to be reduced whatsoever is commanded as a moral duty in the whole word of God wherefore since it is a moral duty that men should publikely and solemnly call upon the name of God and time alone without place and persons and the maintenance of these cannot serve for the discharge of that duty we must allow the rest of these outward requisites to be commanded in this of time And consequently what of all these alike was common and unholy before it was sanctified to Gods publike worship being once sanctified thereunto is made peculiar and proper to God and therefore to rob or pillage or take away any of these is sacrilegiously to invade Gods property which is a sin of so heavy a burden to press down the soul that the Apostle hath put it in the scale against Idolatry and seems to make this at least to balance if not to out-weigh the other Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Rom. 2. 22. The argument would be of little consequence if Sacriledge were not a sin at least equal to Idolatry And truly so it is whatever we please to think or to make of it For whereas there are two kinds of Idolatry the one to take an Idol for God the other to make God himself for an Idol the sacrilegious person is in effect guilty of them both For it is impossible that any man should rob God if he did not make money his God there 's taking the Idol for God or if he did not take God for one to be mocked rather then worshipped there 's taking God for an Idol And t is no wonder if they can do all this who can contemn the Lords most holy prayer for the three first petitions of that prayer contain all the Duty of the first table and the least part we can shew of dutifullness is to pray that we may be dutifull and consequently he that will not say Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name cannot be troubled at that Sin of Sacriledge whose property it is to invade and profane all that is dedicated to the hallowing of the name of God For they that can swallow the Camel have little reason to strain at the gnat they that can be guilty of the greater cannot stick at the lesser Sacriledge they that can rob God of his publike worship cannot easily make any scruple of robbing his Church and to take away such publike prayers as do undoubtedly glorifie the name of God what is it else but to rob God of his worship or of the honour due unto his name For he that doth forbid us to take his name in vain doth withall command us to glorifie his name and consequently to make use of such forms of prayer and of praise as we are sure do most glorifie him These forms being accordingly made for the honour of God after the rule of the two first and in obedience to the third Commandment are set apart for this use in obedience to the fourth and to take away these forms is in effect to
due time which is best for my soul either now to hear thy voice as a sheep to my salvation or hereafter to hear it as a goat to my condemnation Thou hast said My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me John 10. 27. Which is thy voice Lord that we may hear it And where wilt thou be that we may follow thee Is not thy voice in thy Word art not thou in thy Church How then do those men hear thy voice that neglect thy word How do they follow thee that run away from thy Church Surely he is no good sheep that doth this and therefore Christ is none of his shepherd He careth not to answer one that is either a Wolf or a Divel either a Wolf for his bloody cruelty or a Divel for his continued Apostacy or if he do answer such a one it shall be only as he did once answer Judas Iscariot who was both a Wolf and a Divel with a Tu dixisti Thou hast said Mat. 26. 25. An answer tending to nothing but to his conviction or to his condemnation He that hath persecuted or betrayed his Saviour if he say unto him Master is it I shall soon find such an answer returned to him in his own guilty conscience Thou hast said an answer tending only to his conviction or to his condemnation But the answer which our blessed Saviour was pleased to return to Saint Jude the Confessor was of another strain for it was a gracious answer for his instruction a satisfactory answer for his contentation If Christ made so great a distinction betwixt two of the same communion and of the same order no wonder if he still make so great a distinction betwixt those that will not be of the same Church who regard neither the Doctrine of Christ nor the communion of Christians Judas the traytor had not yet forsaken Christs Communion yet was not benefited by his teaching because he regarded not his Doctrine Judas the Confessor that he might be sure to be well taught by him readily embraced his Doctrine and resolved never to forsake his Communion And hence it was that our Saviour Christ returned to him a gracious answer for his instruction teaching him that great Mysterie of the manifestation of the Son of God in the soul of man Nay yet more a satisfactory answer for his contentation assuring him that he would thus manifest himself unto him The manifestation of Christ unto the soul is a great mysterie and a greater mercy the mysterie instructs the soul but the mercy contents it And well it may for t is no less then eternal life In qua quidem manifestatione vita aeterna consistit as saith Aquinas in which manifestation of Christ unto the soul consisteth eternal life and he proveth his saying from John 17. 3. And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Aquin. 22. qu. 24. art 12. So then if I will enjoy eternal life I must first know it if I will know eternal life I must know Christ If I will know Christ I must not disesteem his Doctrine or discountenance his communion for if I do either though I live never so long among Christians yet I am like never to come to the state of true Christianity SECT II. Many Christians not so careful of their spiritual as of their temporal estate or condition The State of true Christianity is not external in the profession but internal in the love of Christ which will make us hate all sin No malicious man can be in the state of true Christianity The ground of true Christian charity generally abused to most unchristian uncharitableness charity is more safely mistaken then not maintained IF men were as zealous to look after their spiritual as they are to look after their temporal state the earth would be less filled with sin and heaven would be more filled with Saints But we are generally careless to know the state and condition of our souls because we are generally careless to make it such as might be worth our knowing Hence that sad Epiphonema from our Saviours own mouth so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Luke 12. 21. That is so very a fool is he in the account of the eternal wisdom though perhaps he be wise in his own account who is carefull of his Mammon and careless of his God who takes so much pains about his body so little about his soul who is so busie in contriving of his temporal but thinks not at all of his eternal welfare Hence it is that men so easily betake themselves to that profession of the Chrisâ—ian Religion which makes most for their temporal advantages though it much disadvantage them in their spiritual condition and thereby declare themselves not to be in the state of true Christianity for that would make them prefer the love of Christ above all worldly interest whatsoever But we need not have to do with the several professions of the Christian Religion in this case for the state of true Christianity is not to profess but to love Christ and we are then truly in the state of salvation when we truly love our Saviour And this plainly appears by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Ephesians and in them to us where he saith Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Ephes 5. 1 2. To be followers of God and to be his dear children and to walk in love are put for one and the ame thing And what love is here meant but the love of Christ who so dearly loved us as to give himself for us and therefore may justly require our entirest love And if we entirely love him we will be sure not to love what he hateth nor to hate what he loveth and consequently not to abide in any sin either of commission or of omission for to be wilfully guilty of a sin of commission is to love what Christ hateth and to be wilfully guilty of a sin of omission is to hate what Christ loveth and either of these is enough to keep a man from being a good Christian Therefore saith the Psalmist O ye that love the Lord see that ye hate the thing which is evil Psalm 97. 10. For ye cannot love him unless ye hate what he hateth he hateth every thing that is evil whether it be evil by omission or by commission The state of salvation consists so much of love that t is not possible for an uncharitable and much less for a malicious man to be in that state but either he must forgoe his malice or he must forgoe his salvation for God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him John 4. 16. No man can be in the state of salvation who hath not communion with God and there is no having communion with
preached by Paul and Silas because they found it agreeable with the written Word These were more noble in that they searched the Scriptures whether those things were so therefore many of them believed Acts 17. 11 12. And sure we are to go in the same way they did go unless we can prove that either the Scripture is now less Dogmatical then it was in those days or the Church more Apostolical And there is great Reason for it as well as great Religion For we plainly see that the Church is much ordered according to the will of man but weare sure the word was wholy ordered according to the will of God For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1. 21. We must say the same of the New what he saith of the Old Testament for as came the Prophecy of old time so also came the Gospel in the latter times not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost And from hence we must conclude the Authority of the Scripture to be the highest authority that can be in setling and establishing the Christian Religion For if the Prophets and Apostles did not only speak but also write as they were moved by the Holy Ghost it must needs follow that the doctrine of the Church must have its force and weight from their doctrine but their doctrine from it self as that which came directly and immediately from the Holy Ghost the infallible Spirit of God which best knew his mind as being his own Spirit and hath most truly derived his mind and meaning to us as being his infallible Spirit So it is evident The Scripture is no less to teach the Church then the Church is to teach the People according to that irrefragable determination of their irrefragable Doctor Si enim aliquis asserit aliquid quod non sit determinatum in sacra Scriptura vel quod non sequatur directe ex fide mortaliter peccat quia se constieuit supra Deum Judex enim est supra id de quo debet judicare Qui ergo suâ authoritate asserit aliquid de Deo ponit se supra Deum quia judicat de Deo Haec est superbia Intellectus quam prohibet Apostolus Rom. 12. Non plus sapere quà m oportet sapere sed sapere ad sobrietatem Alensis par 1. qu. 68. mem 1. ar 2. If any Doctor and consequently if any Church which is but a company of Doctors doth positively affirm any thing as matter of Faith or Religion which is is not directly determined in the holy Scriptures or doth not inevitably follow from the Faith therein revealed he sinneth mortally because he exalteth himself above God For the Judge is above that of which he is to judge Therefore he who without warrant from God positively asserteth any thing of God putteth himself above God in that he judgeth of God which is the Spiritual pride forbidden by the Apostle Rom. 12. 3. Be not wise above what is required but be wise to Sobriety Therefore surely the Church cannot teach that as a Doctrine of Christianity which she hath not learned of Christ and where hath she learned of Christ but in his Word SECT IV. That the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only doth Christ teach by his word which the Church is bound to translate that the People may understand it and by his spirit which teacheth both infallibly and irresistibly That the state of true Christianity is not confined to any one particular Church for that Christ teacheth more or less in all Christian Churches and yet this is no ground for Sectaries to run from the Church THE state of Christianity as it came by our Saviour Christ in being so also in knowing It hath its being from his merit its knowing from his word whence it follows by undeniable consequence that the state of true Christianity is to be learned only in the Church of Christ for there only is the word of Christ by which he teacheth to mens conviction there only is the Spirit of Christ by which he teacheth to mens Conversion For the voice must needs proceed from the body and the Church is his body Col. 1. 24. therefore it is to be feared that those who care not to be of the body either do not hear his voice or do not much profit by hearing it For it is not to be doubted but Christ hath intrusted his Church with his word as appears Rom 3. 2. Vnto them were commited the oracles of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were intrusted with the oracles of God The Jewish Church with the Oracles of the Old Testament and the Christian Church with the oracles of the new And this precious Talent was intrusted with the Church not to be wrapped up in a Napkin but to be imployed to Gods glory the peoples good for so we find that the law and the Prophets were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Acts 13. 15. 27. And by the same reason the Christian Church is still bound to take care that the Gospel or New Testament be also read in our Churches which because it cannot in the original tongue wherein it was written to the Edification of the people the Church is bound to translate it into such languages as the people do understand that she may not be defective in her trust which is to use the word of God most for Gods glory and for his peoples good And that Church doth in this particular best discharge her trust which sets forth the word of God in the truest and fittest translation not rigidly according to the words in all places but yet exactly according to the sense for neither doth Christ himself nor his holy Apostles cite the Old Testament so much according to the words as according to the sense And if men had no other obligation to their Church but only this That they could not know what God had said in his holy word unless their Church had taught them yet this alone if rightly weighed would keep them both from Heresie and from Schism from Heresie in receding from that doctrine which came from God and from Schism in receding from that communion wherein they were first made partakers of that doctrine This is certain the Text saith plainly The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved Acts 2. 47. which would never have been written if to depart from the doctrine or to be out of the communion of the Church were the ready way of Salvation Therefore as S. Peter once said to our blessed Saviour so ought all good Christians still to say unto his Church for rightly translating the word of Christ Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life John 6. 68. for without question God did
not put it in the power and will of his Church to give unto his people the words of eternal life that they should run away either from her doctrine or from her communion The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. Sweet Jesus make the dead to hear thy voice for the living do little less then scorn it And this document or instruction as it much concerns the word preached so it much more concerns the word written which hath alwayes in all ages and in all Churches been taught more incorruptly and more impartially by Translations then by Expositions For in Translations men generally follow Gods truth but in expositions they too too often follow their own inventions if not their own interests Thus have men little reason to depart from the Church because therein Christ teacheth by his word and yet much less because he therein teacheth by his spirit for it is clear that the spirit goeth along with the word in that Saint Stephen saith unto the Jews Ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. When as they had only resisted the words of the Prophets Therefore we may confidently and comfortably affirm that they who carefully observe and conscionably obey Gods holy Ordinances in his Churchâ— will be able at the last day to say unto him not as Sectaries and wanderers will be able to say Thou hast taught in our streets Lake 13. 26. to whom he will answer I tell you I know you not whence you are depart me from all ye workers of iniquity ver 27. but Thou hast taught in our hearts for I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And indeed this doctrine concerning the state of true Christianity and the knowledge of that state and the comfort of that knowledge is a most heavenly doctrine and therefore can have its teacher only from heaven The teaching Priest is not enough to instruct us in it but we need also The teaching God Miserable was the condition of Israel to have been without a teaching Priest but irrecoverable would have been their misery had they been also without a teaching God had not the Spirit of God come upon Azariah to teach them 2 Chron 15. 1. 3. Man may teach us the way of Gods statutes and we may never keep that way at all but if God once teach it us we shall noâ— only keep it but we shall also keep it unto the end Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Psal 119. 33. Thus hath Saint John said And ye need not that any man teach you but as the same annointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 John 2. 27. His intent is not that they to whom he writ should despise his teaching he is only willing to commend them to a far better teacher for the Apostle might teach them and yet they might not abide either in the Church or in the truth but if the Annointing if the Spirit did teach them they were sure to abide both in him and in his doctrine for ever And therefore saith holy Job who teacheth like him Job 36. 22. Though he be not the only teacher for man teacheth with him yet he is the only irresistible and infallible teacher for man teacheth not like him He is the only infallible teacher because he convinceth the understanding he is the only irresistible teacher because he converteth the will teaching us by the representation of himself unto our Souls as the chiefest good from which we cannot turn away and against which we will not resist For God teacheth the soul by his own presence revealing unto it himself and his everlasting blessedness saith Alensis against which the will of man cannot resist in the judgement of some Philosophy and therefore the scoff of irresistible Grace must needs be far from the Judgement of sound Divinity The Church in the Collect for Whitsunday sheweth both the infallibility and the irresistibility of Gods teaching he teacheth irresistibly in that he teacheth the Heart which useth to make resistance against all teaching of the ear unless it self be taught in the first place wherefore none can be an irresistible Teacher but he that can teach the heart he teacheth also infallibly in that he teacheth by the light of his holy Spirit wherefore none can be an infallible teacher but he that teacheth by the Holy Ghost God which hast taught the hearts of thy faithfull people by sending to them the light of thy holy Spirit Here 's a teacher that subdues my perversness and makes me willing to learn in that he teacheth my heart here 's a teacher that enlightens my darkness and makes me able to learn in that he teacheth by the light of his holy spirit And the doctrines which he teacheth are agreeable with the manner of his teaching Recta sapere in ejus consolatione gaudere To have a right judgement in all things that is in all things of Salvation as if you would say to have a right judgement in the state of true Christianity and of your being in that state and evermore to rejoyce in his holy comforts as if you would say to comfort your self against all temptations and taibulations that you have such a right judgement Let me never uâ—dervalue much less forsake that School wherein this heavenly master is pleased to teach for fear I should lose both the right judgement and the Holy comfort which he is pleased to bestow upon his Scholars And let me not doubt but this Church wherein I have been trained up is a part of that school since it hath taught me nothing that is either Antichristian or unchristian for where I cannot deny the doctrine of Christ I may not doubt of the spirit of Christ Wherefore it is a false and an envious principle of divinity which some have so much improved of late to the advantage of their Church but to the disadvantage of Religion if at least any Christian Church can be advanced by that doctrine by which the Christian Religion is depressed and disparaged That our Saviour Christ hath set up one chair from which he would have all the world to take the documents and determinations of Christianity For the state of true Christianity is not to be confined to any one Church since the author and teacher of it is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. The Apostle proves that God vouchsafed his Grace to the Gentiles no less then to the Jews by this argument is he the God of the Jews only is he not also the God of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. 29. and again There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him
in their hearts And he dwelleth in their hearts by faith not a faith that commeth from their own Spirits but a faith that commeth from Gods Spirit A faith that cometh from our own spirits strengthneth only the outer man but a faith that cometh from Gods spirit strengthneth the inner man That faith is strong only in perswasion but this faith is strong in affection That faith is strong in phansie but this faith is strong in love even in that love which is the fulfilling of the Law loving the body for the heads sake loving the head for his own sake loving the Church for Christ and loving Christ for himself such a faith as this proceeding from the Spirit of God cannot but afford us a real communion with the Son of God and having a real communion with Christ as with our head we shall never delight in separations and divisions from the Church which is his body SECT IV. Christian communion beginneth with the Church but endeth with Christ both in the word and Sacraments and Prayers and that the Church is bound in all these to advance not to hinder our Communion with Christ either by denying the people the use of the Scriptures or by teaching them superstitious prayers as to Saints and Angels wherein Christ neither can nor will communicate with men The ready way to have communion with Christ is by peace and holiness and wherein that communion chiefly consisteth TRue Christian communion beginneth with the Church as with the body of Christ but endeth with Christ himself as with the head God hath joyned those two together let not man put them asunder Nor is it the intent of this discourse to divide this Christian communion into two several communions by reason determining or defining ratione ratiocinata because the body cannot subsist without the head but only by reason discussing or debating ratione ratiocinante because the head is different from the body And every good Christian is to take notice that though he may consider this communion severally yet he may not persue and embrace it so For he cannot have actual communion with Christ unless he have actual communion with his Church no more then he can have communion with the head unless he have also communion with the body yet may he not rest satisfied in his communion with the body the Church of Christ till they come thereby to have communion with the head even with Christ himself For our Christian communion is much like Jacobs ladder the lower part whereof was set upon the earth but the top of it reached up to heaven And behold the Lord stood above at the top of it Gen. 28. 12 13. So is our Christian communion The lower part of it is with the Church the body of Christ here on earth but the upper part or top of it is with Christ in heaven And we cannot say that our Christian communion is a true communion unless Christ be at the end of it as for example in hearing the word read and preached we at first communicate with the Church which speaketh to the outward man but we hear it not profitably to our salvation unless we at last communicate also with Christ speaking by his Spirit unto our souls or to the inward man Paedogogus est Jesus Our teacher is Jesus was thought by Clemens of Alexandria a fit subject both to fill and to name his books of Christian Institutions v. lib. 1. Paedag. cap. 9. For as the Church teacheth the people so also Christ teacheth them much more and the Churches paedagogy iâ— or should be to bring them unto Christ not to make them rest only upon their own teaching for soul-saving truths nor is this Doctrine any disparagement to the Church no more then Saint Pauls was to the Law when he said The Law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. 24. Nay indeed it is the greatest honour of the Church as it was of the Law that God is pleased to use her teaching as a means or instrument to bring us unto Christ That as the Church teacheth us by explaining saving truths to our understandings so Christ may teach us by imprinting the same truths in our wills and affections therefore the Church should above all things take heed of offering those truths in her explanations which she cannot believe nor wish that Christ should ratifie by his impressions such as are all those Doctrines which are the inventions of men and not the institutions of Christ And forasmuch as it cannot be denied that Christ teacheth more powerfully by his own word then by ours it is evident that the Holy Scriptures may not be denied to the people in their own tongue by that Church which will labour to advance their communion with Christ and as evident that the people are not bound to communicate with that Church which will not labour to advance this the highest and greatest part of their Christian communion Again in receiving the holy Eucharist we must not only communicate with the Priest exhibiting unto us the bread and wine but also and much rather with Christ himself exhibiting unto us his most precious body blood or we shall receive but half a Sacrament and enjoy but a half communion This is Saint Pauls Divinity The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 1 Co. 10. 16. We bless the Cup and we break the bread therefore you must communicate with us which we could not say if we did refuse to do either for we could not desire you to relinquish your communion with Christs institution to follow ours But the Cup which we bless and the bread which we break is the communion of the blood and body of Christ therefore you must not communicate chiefly and much less only with us but also and much rather with Christ himself Lastly Thus is it also in our prayers we are bound in our praying to communicate not only with the Church as the body but also with Christ as the head and consequently the Church is bound to use no other prayers then such as may be agreeable with Christs communion and available by Christs intercession For if we pray out of his communion we cannot hope to obtain what we pray for by virtue of his intercession And this I conceive was one main reason why publick Liturgies were at first established in the Church that Christians might know before hand the terms of their communion and be assured in their own hearts that no other prayers should be offered unto them then such wherein Christ himself would joyn with them in intercession which assurance during the extraordinary effusions of the Spirit was grounded upon the infallibility of their persons who prayed but when it could no longer be grounded upon the infallibility of the persons that prayed then it was thought fit it should be
all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 2. 14. thereby decâ—aring unto us as it were the two integral parts of our Christian communion Peace and Holiness and the reason why we should embrace them both even that we may come to the beatifical vision follow peace with all men that you may have communion with Gods Church and follow holiness that you may have communion with God himself for if you leave out either of these or leave following either of these you cannot see the Lord We that follow peace with no men not so much as with our selves how shall we see God we that follow holiness in no kind at least conscientiously but only contentiously pretending to set it up in some one commandment that we may the more plausibly beat it down in all the rest how shall we see God Let all unpeacefull and unholy men for surely they go both together though holiness hath of late been made a pretence for breaking the peace here see the danger of their perversness that hereafter they feel not the mischief of it those who neither follow peace nor holiness and yet pretend their eyes are open so as to see God more then all the world besides For it is a sad thing so to see God as not to come neer him Dives could do so in hell He could see Abrahams bosome though he could not get neer it for it was afar off saith the Text Luke 16. 23. T is a sad thing to have a Vision of God without a fruition but t is an impossible thing to have a fruition without a communion Excellently Alensis asks this question Per quid est unio membrorum in corpore Ecclesiae By what is it that good Christians are joined together or the faithfull are united as members in the body of the Church and he thus answers it Per unam perfectionem una enim est perfectio in capite Christo in omnibus Sanctis sc Spiritus sanctus ex quo est nobis communio Trinitatis et per unam dispositionem sc Fide spe charitate opere nam Idem credunt Idem appetunt seu volunt Idem expectant Idem imitantur Par. 3. q. 12. m. 2. art 3. Christ and good Christians are all united together by one Perfection and by one Disposition By one perfection for there is the same perfection in Christ the head and in all the Saints which are his body to wit the Holy-Ghost which joins them both in communion with the blessed Trinity and by one Disposition to wit in Faith Hope Charity and Works for they all believe the same thing viz. The first truth All desire the same thing viz. The chiefest good All expect the same thing viz. Eternal bliss All imitate the same thing viz. The pattern or example of holiness and hence it is that they all are of the same communion SECT V. That the Catholick Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ as his body That the whole Christian Church is this Catholick Church and that it is known to be so by the word of Christ and how a particular Church may be sure to keep communion with the Catholick Church HE that truly desires communion with God cannot but highly esteem and zealously pursue the actual communion with his Church because the Church is appointed to bring and lead him unto God And this was the reason of that antient saying Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus Out of the Church there is no hope of Salvation that is out of the Catholick Church which is the body of Christ So that for any man not to be a member of that body is in effect to be a limb of the devil and fewel for hell which consideration made Saint Cyprian break out into that pathetical expostulation Vbi ex qua â—ui nâ—tus est qui filius Ecclesiae non est ut habere quis possit Deum Patrem ante Ecclesiam matrem Saint Cypr. Epist and Pompeium Where of whom or to whom is he born who is not â— Son of the Church that he should have God for his father who hath not the Church for his mother And this doctrine not only many very good Christian Divines but also the Jewish Doctors have enforced as a duty of the Text from these words of Solomon My Son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 1. 8. for say they by Father is here meant God the Father almighty and by Mother is here meant the Church which teacheth us the word of God Thus Solomon Jarchi glosseth that Text my Son hear the instruction of thy father that is saith he Hear the Instruction which God blessed for ever gave to Moses partly in writing partly by word of mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And forsake not the Law of thy mother that is saith he forsake not the Law of the Church or the Congregation of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the interpretations of the Scribes which are as it were a hedge of the Law And doubtless he that will not hearken to the Churches instruction will not hearken to Gods instruction and he that will not hearken to Gods instruction cannot hope for Gods communion which made the Prophet Jeremiah to say Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6. 8. T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut non laxetur anima mea à te lest my Soul be loosed or disjointed from thee the same word saith Rabbi David that is used about the hollow of Jacobs thigh being out of joint and the signification of it is the removing of a thing out of its place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may gather that the communion of faithful Souls with God is like the knitting of the joints in the bodies of men and as a member when it is out of joint affords great pain but no use to the man as long as it is dislocated So is it with the Soul whiles it is out of Gods communion it is subject to very much horrour and great anguish but is not capable of any good motion or inclination Consider what it is to put thy soul out of joint before thou play the Ephraimite starting aside like a broken bow from the communion of God in his Church for if the dislocation of a joint be so painfull because of the distention of the parts what pangs and horrours must needs accompany a disjointed Soul that is distended upon the wrack of an evil and a troubled conscience Accordingly Rabbi David thus glosseth the Prophets words Be thou instructed O Jerusalem for if thou wilt not be instructed my good-will shal be separated from thee that I will take no delight in thee A dismal judgement for a Separatist that God will be separated from him and take no delight in him but the reason is because he would needs be separated from God and
the Jews in their own Moral Law whilst we establish not our own righteousness but submit our selves to the rightâ—â—usness of God acknowledging that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. but by no means for unrighteousness that is for the acceptance of our obedience but not for the abolition of it Thus we Christians still keep communion with the Jews in all Moral duties and as for Ceremonials the Jews themselves cannot deny but they are bound to alter their own communion For the abolition of all ceremonial or typical worship was foretold to them even at the first institution of it by Moses himself saying And the Lord said I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Deut. 18. 18 19. And as this abolition of the Ceremonial worship was foretold to the Jews at the first institution so was it also believed by them at the first reception thereof For hence alone was it that they found no fault with their Prophets after Moses though they found them dispensing with the Law of Moses nay plainly acting against it in the exercise of their typical or ceremonial worship as for example neither they of Hierusalem nor of Samaria quarrelled with Eliah for gathering Israel together to offer sacrifice upon Mount Carmel 1 King 18. 19. Though Moses had flatly commanded That all should bring their offerings to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation Levit. 17. 2 3 4. Here it is plain the Ceremonial worship was changed without any quarrel at all in that backsliding and therefore quarrelsome and contentious age of the Church of the Jews which could scarce have been had they not received that same worship with some belief of its future change and had not their Prophets confirmed them in that belief foreshewing as it were by particular changes introduced by them the universal change that should one day be introduced by the Messiah their last and greatest Prophet And this general change wrought by our Saviour Christ is so proved to us Christians that we cannot so much as doubt it and much less deny it For those very words of Moses that foreshewed the change A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear in all things are quoted by Saint Peter as fulfilled in Christ Acts 3. 22. And again he saith v. 24. That all the Prophets from Samuel and those that follow after which words justifie the Jews division of the Prophets into the former and latter Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put the latter Prophets in as good credit as the former against the Samaritanes and as many have spoken have likewise foretold of these dayes All the Prophets like so many lines from the circumference in the centre meet together in Christ so that the written word of God not only is the undoubted and therefore should be the undeniable ground of all Religion but also of the very Christian Religion nor may we endeavour to prove the establishment of the Christian Religion by unwritten Traditions no more then the Apostles did prove the change of the Jewish Religion by them They alledged the written word for the introduction we for the establishment of our Christian Religion The old Testament so exactly agreeing with the new and both old and new so exactly agreeing and corresponding in Christ that there can be no doubt left of the truth of Christianity Hence Saint Paul will have us make so sure of our Religion that though an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel we should not be ready to believe but to accurse him Gal. 1 8. And Saint John saith the same in effect If there come any to you and bring not this doctrine sc that whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed 2 John 9 10. Si quis venit ad vos If any come unto you t is all one whether the substantive be an Angel or a man for that divinity was not yet in fashion Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona virtutes malas nisi velit contra conscientiam peccare Bellar. lib. 4. de Pontif. cap. 5. That if the Pope should err by commanding sins and forbidding vertues The Church were bound to believe that sins were good and vertues were evil unless she would sin against her conscience Op. Ac ne forte contra conscientiam agat tenetur credere bonum esse quod ille praecipit malum quod ille prohibet And least the Church should do any thing against her conscience she is bound to believe that to be good which the Pope commandeth and that to be evil which he forbiddeth A strange assertion as if God had put all his Divine Truths whether speculative or practical for if the one the other also under the possibility of mans lawfull contradiction and all our consciences under the power of his controul nor is there any remedy for this mischeivous consequence by translating this pretended Infallibility from his person to his chair nor from his chair to his Church for we may justly suppose or rather must necessarily believe that Saint Johns words are as well to be understood and interpreted of a whole Church as of single man since there is the same reason of both for a Church is but a congregation of men and false doctrine hath no less of falsity though it hath less of excuse in a Church then in any particular man But we must more then believe this Truth if it be possible That the Gospel is to sway our faith above and against all authorities to the contrary whatsoever by the force of Saint Pauls reason For if not the authority of the Church triumphant then surely not of the Church militant may be allowed to weaken our faith in the doctrine or in the Gospel of Christ If not an Angel from heaven then sure not a man upon the earth And great pity it is but greater shame that the faction and humour of some men should endeavour to shake not only the dictates of nature in putting vertue and vice under mans determination but also the very foundation of supernatural Truth the written Word of God thereby thinking the more to establish the pillar of supernatural truth the Church of God whereas indeed they do the more shake that too For we are all most sure that the Scriptures came incorrupt from the mouth of God and therefore if there be now any corruptions in them they are of mans not of Gods creating And
consequently if the Scriptures have in any wise lost their authority they have lost it by the Church and it were a wonder if the Church should cause the Scriptures to lose their authority and yet keep her own We will then take it for granted that the Catholick Church cannot be fully and infallibly proved to be Christian but only by the Holy Scriptures and that she her self seeks for no other and cannot find a better proof And from hence it must neede follow that every particular Church as far as it is truly Christian is willing to submit it self to be tryed by the written Word of God and that if nothing but true Cbristianity had gotten into the Church men would never have withdrawn their necks and much less their hearts from that known and certain tryal for that all the world is not able to prove any thing that is unwritten whether it be Tradition or Revelation to be the undoubted Word of God but only as far as it is agreeable with what is written according to that admirable Rule delivered by Saint Athanasius who having been vexed by the Arrian hereticks above forty years together hath taught us how best to confute that and all other heresie saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Epist de decretis Nic. Synodi ad finem There are much more exact and perfect proofs of the divine truth to be taken from the Scripture alone then all the whole world beside is able to afford us wherefore it must needs follow again that the best way for a particular Church to keep communion with the Catholick Church is to keep close to the Scriptures wherein alone are revealed those Truths the bare profession whereof makes a Church and the entire profession whereof makes it truly Catholick That Curch which hath the written Word of God for the foundation of her faith and practice is sure to have communion with all good Christians in what she truly believeth and practiseth according to that word And in case she deviate through humane error or infirmity in some particular deductions yet that deviation or mistake shall not overthrow her faith because it is sure and certain in the foundation and consequently shall not break off her communion with Christ the head nor with the Catholick Church his body because that same holy Spirit on whose dictates she relies is the sole author and maintainer of that communion whereas if a Church should believe all the Articles of the Christian faith upon any other ground then that of Divine revelation which we cannot now be assured of but only from the written Word of God as she could not have a true Divine saith not being grounded upon a Divine foundation so she could not in that faith have communion with those Christian Churches who allowed no other ground of their belief And such were all the Christian Churches of the Primitive times for though Saint Athanasius in the place fore-alledged doth on the Arrians behalf bring in an objection against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not being used in the Text and therefore not to be used concerning Christ for that we may not speak otherwise of him then he in his word hath spoken of himself yet he alloweth this very objection to be according to his own heart and sure he was a very good Chatholike and enforceth it with the reason afore cited That the most exact proofs of Divine truths were to be taken from the Scriptures and withal avoweth that those about Eusebius who was a chief upholder of the Arrians were such egregious turn-cotes and cavillers that the Bishops assembled in the Council of Nice were in a manner compelled more clearly to expound those words of the text which did immediately strike at the root of their heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it appears that the Nicene Fathers did assume to themselves only the power of Exposition in matters of faith not of Addition or of Invention They did expound that more clearly which they found in the Scriptures and in the Apostles Creed they did not ad or invent that which they found not As they were expounders they might and did hold communion with the Catholike Church whereof they were then the Representative which did wholly rely up-the word of God for all the Doctrines of faith whereas if they had taken upon them to be Inventers they must have forsaken the main ground of Christian communion the undoubted word of Christ and have been the authors of a faction and of a division And for this cause we see that in that famous Council of Chalcedon wherein were assembled six hundred Christian Bishops The Holy Gospel was placed in the midst of them as that on which they relyed and to which they appealed in all their determinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words found in the first action of that Council The most holy and most pure Gospel being set before them And Baronius tells us that the same had been done before in the Council of Nice and gives the reason why it was done out of Saint Cyril who saith thus concerning the Council of Ephesus Christum assessorem capitis loco adjunxit venerandum enim Evangelium in throno collocavit tantum non in aures sacerdotum clamans Justum judicium judicate Liber igitur ille in sede regia collocatus divinam prae se ferebat personam secundum illud Psalmi Deus stetit in synagoga Deorum in medio autem Deos dijudicat They looked upon Christ as head or president of their assembly for they placed his holy Gospel on a throne amongst them that it might represent the person of God the Judge of all men and they placed it in the midst that all might cast their eyes upon it and be afraid in the presence of their Judge to pass an unrighteous judgement Thus saith the Psalmist God stood in the midst of the congregation of Gods and he that was in the midst judged the other Gods Baron An. 325. num 66. And the same saith Binius in his notes upon the Council of Ephesus In medio Patrum consessu sedem enm Evangelio collocarunt cujus intuitu omnes admonerentur Christum omnium inspectorem ac judicem adesse Synodique praesidem agere In the midst of the fathers of the Ephesine Council was the Holy Gospel placed on a throne that all the Fathers seeing it might be admonished of Christs own presence to overlook them as their Judge and to overawe them as president of their Council and he saith no more then is truth for that form of adjuration mentioned by Fidus the Bishop of Joppe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom we beseech and adjure by the Holy Gospel here set before us Council Eph. par 2. act 1. doth plainly witness as much although at the first session of the Bishops there is no mention of the Holy Gospels being placed among them as was afterwards at the first session of the Council of Chalcedon But
t is plain that the New Testament was not only before their eyes but also within their hearts for they proved all their several Doctrines out of it particularly this position that Christ is God by the union of the manhood with the God-head they proved 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Apostle Saint Pauls writings among which is also reckoned up the Epistle to the Hebrews 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Epistles general of Saint Peter Saint John Saint Jude 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the Gospels peculiarly so called Concil Ephes par 1. And t is most evident that the Doctrines delivered by the four first general Councils in their Creeds are all plainly to be proved by the Scriptures so that we may easily grant that they placed the Holy Gospel in the midst of their Synods as it were to make protestation that they intended to obtrude no other faith to the world then what they had met with there and could prove from thence and consequently not to desire other mens communion with them in their Doctrines further then themselves had in the same Doctrines communion with the Holy Ghost Wherefore this is the ready way for every particular Church to be sure to keep communion with the Catholick Church in her Doctrine to adhere stedfastly to the written Word of God which is the only indisputable ground of that Doctrine For this Word alone sheweth that the Jews in Moral worship had communion with Christians and that both the Jews then had and Christians now have in the same worship communion with Christ They have Moses and the Prophets saith our blessed Saviour let them hear them Luke 6. 29. And again If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead ver 31. We Christians have not only Moses and the Prophets but also the Apostles for the foundation of our Churches and as we are sure that Moses and the Prophets were delivered incorrupt to our first Fathers for else our Saviour Christ would not have appealed unto them but rather have reproved the Jews for corrupting them so ought we to be sure that the Apostles are now delivered as incorrupt unto us unless we will say that the Christian Church hath been less faithful then the Jewish Synagogue in keeping the Text and by so saying quite disannul her authority in expounding it and so cut our selves off from one of the best means of our salvation Why thou should not these writings of Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles which are the only proof of our Churches be also the grand establishment of our communion For as t is the faith that makes the Church so t is the agreement in the Faith that makes the communion of the Church truely Christian Accordingly our own Church hath taught us to pray most exquisitely for this Christian communion in these words Beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord and to grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy word and live in unity and godly love A prayer so full of true Christian affection that its Christianity will acquit it from Novelty though it be scarce to be found in any antient Greek or Latine Liturgie for it setteth forth true Christian communion in all its four causes in its efficient cause the Spirit of truth unity and concord in its material cause the universal Church in its formal cause the agreement in the truth of Gods holy Word and in its final cause to live in unity and godly love How can any man that heartily saith this prayer be either an Heretick by willingly sinning against the truth of Gods Word or a schismatick by wilfully sinning against the unity of Gods Church We may conclude then That all the several Christian Churches in the world which have been are and shall be do concur together as members to make up the body of Christ or the Catholick Church and that all of them as Christian are joyned together though thousand of miles and years asunder in one outward communion by agreeing in the same word of Christ and in one inward communion by enjoying the same Spirit of Christ The outward communion joyns the members to the body and I would to God that they were not so much disjoyned and disjoynted The inward communion joyns the body to the head and I bless God that in that respect there can be no disjunction T is dangerous to be a separatist from the first but t is damnable to be a separatist from the second communion to communicate with Gods most holy Spirit in Gods most holy Word is the most sure and ready way to communicate with the Catholick Church aud that will keep us from being hereticks for no heretick as such doth communicate either with Gods Word or with Gods Spirit To communicate with the Catholick Church is the most sure and ready way to communicate with Christ himself and that will keep us from being Schismaticks for no Schismatick as such doth communicate with Christ either in his body or in himself But still we must remember that communion with the Word and with the Church is nothing worth without communion with Christ and with the Spirit and that will keep us from being hypocrites For no hypocrite doth communicate with Christ and with his Spirit either in his word or in his Church And we have need in these dangerous times of all three cautions for never was there any Heresie without a Schism and seldome is there any desperate Schism without most damnable hypocrisie SECT VI. The Catholick Church properly so called hath in it neither Herereticks Schismaticks nor Hypocrites but commonly so called comprizeth all those Christians who outwardly embrace the truth and worship of Christ That our own particular Church keeping communion with the Catholick requires our communion by the authority of the Catholick Church The authority and Trust of particular National Churches from Scripture and Councils A sober and a pious resolution not to sin against the authority of the Church by willfull Schism and the reasons of that resolution THE special number of right believing and therefore righteously doing Christians in all the several Churches of the Christian world which communicate in all things wherein Christians should is alone truly and properly named the Catholick Church because it consisteth of them only that without addition diminution alteration or innovation in matter of doctrine hold the common faith once delivered to the Saints so that t is impossible for them to be Hereticks And without all particular or private division or â—actâ—on retain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace so that t is impossible for them to be either Hypocrites or Schismaticks they cannot be hypocrites because they have the spirit of God and they cannot be Schismaticks because they hold the unity of
God the searcher of hearts hath reserved the knowledge of the invisible Church only to himself and requireth all Christians to join in communion with that visible Church wherein they live if so be that therein is preserved the outward sincere profession of Gods truth and worship and the right administration of his Sacraments which is a condition not to be excepted against unles we will deny men the use of reason there only where they most want it in the choice of their religion and yet allow it in the choice of their Church and think it enough for them to serve God according to the dictates of others consciences when we are sure they shall be acquitted or condemned in the last judgement according to the dictates of their own Wherefore we must allow an outward sincere profession of Gods truth and word and a right administration of his Sacraments to the constitution of that visible Church which obligeth us to her communion as a member of the true Catholick Church And if we cannot make it appear out of the written Word of God that our own Church is faulty in either of these we may not forsake her communion since by vertue of these she is to us instead of the Catholick Church and by authority of the Catholick Church bindeth us to her communion For if we acknowledge our Church to be Catholick in her profession which we are bound to do unless we can prove the contrary we must also acknowledge her to be Catholick in her obligation because where is unquestionable purity there must be unquestionable Authority unless we will say that Religion is a matter of indifferency and leaves men at their liberty either to practice or to despise it as they please This was not the opinion of the Primitive Christians of whom it is said And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Acts 2. 42. They thought themselves bound to continue stedâ—astly in that communion wherein was a sincere profession of Gods truth and worship here expressed by doctrine and Prayers and a right administration of the Sacraments here expressed by breaking of bread And so must we likewise think our selves bound to continue stedfastly in their Communion who succeed the Apostles in the publick exercise of the same religious duties or deny that this Scripture was written for our learning So that unless it be evident to us that the Church wherein we live is faulty either in doctrine or in Prayers or in administration of the Sacraments we may not recede from her communion without being guilty of schism and faction and then Saint Augustine unless you will say Fulgentius was the author of that book will tell us our doom in these words Firmissime tene nullatenus dubites non solùm omnes Paganos sed etiam omnes Judaeos Haereticos atque Schismaticos qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam praesentem finiunt vitam in ignem aeternum ituros qui paratus est diabolo angelis ejus Aug. de fide ad Patr. Daph. c. 38. You must firmly believe and in no wise doubt that not only all Pagans but also all Jews and Hereticks and Schismaticks who end this present life out of the communion of the Catholick Church shall go into that eternal fire which was prepared for the Devil and his Angels For he that willfully lives and dies out of the communion of his own Church being a true member of the Catholick lives and dies at least in the perverse disposition of his soul out of the communion of the Catholick Church and consequently lives and dies in the state of damnation so neerly doth it concern every Christian not to break communion with his own Church unadvisedly and undeservedly for that is in effect to break communion with the Catholick Church but to try the Spirits whether they are of God and to know there is no warrantable disobedience of that command Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace unless it be evident That the Spirit is not of God And yet even in that case men ought to be very cautelous and wary that they so forsake the communion of the Church as not to disturb the peace of it for that was all that those seven thousand did who bowed not their knee to Baal in the general defection of the Church of Israel 1 King 19. 18. And that is all we are bound to do in the like case if we will have Gods mark set upon us to preserve us from wrath in the day of wrath for so saith the Prophet Ezekiel Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof sc of Jerusalem Ezech. 9. 4. Sighing and crying for those abominations we cannot help is enough to discharge us from the guilt of them and this may be done if not without making of a noise yet sure without making of any tumult And this is according to Saint Augustines advice Misericorditer corripiat homo quod potest quod autem non potest patienter ferat dilectione gemat atque lugeat donec aut ille desuper emen det corrigat aut usque ad mâ—ssem differat eradicare zizania palâ—am ventilare ut tamen securi de salute sua bonae spei Christiani inter desperatos quos corripere non valent in unitate versentur auferant malum à seipsis id est ut in ipsis non inveniatur quod in moribus aliorum eis displicet Aug. lib. 3. contra Parmen cap. 2. Let every man correct what he can with mildness and what he cannot let him bear with patience And let him sigh and mourn in love till God from above amend what is amiss or at the harvest pluck up the tares and blow away the chaff yet that Christians who have a good hope may without danger of their own salvation live in unity among those desperate wretches whom they cannot amend let every man reform one that he may not find that in himself which he dislikes in another This is the safest way for every particular man to be sure not to be out of the communion of the Catholick Church and yet not to be in the corruptions of his own Church For he that sighs for the abominations shews he loves Gods truth and he that only sighs shews he loves his neighbours peace His love to Gods truth will keep him in the actual communion of the Catholick Church his love to his neighbours peace will not let him violate the communion of his own Church although he refuse to communicate in its corruptions It is not to be doubted but holy David all the while he lived in Sauls house or was afterwards driven from Jerusalem was under the affliction and temptation of evil company yet he saith of himself I have walked in my integrity I have not sate with vain persons neither will I go
in with dissemblers I have hated the congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked and he thus makes good that saying For thy loving kindness is ever before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth Psalm 26. His communion with God kept him from the corruptions of those unrighteous men he could not avoid and kept him in the communion of those righteous men he could not enjoy Though his conversation might be in Gath or Ascalon yet his communion was in Jerusalem when the Ark was there as it is said ver 8. Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth Therefore make sure of thy communion with God by faith and repentance and holiness of life and doubt not of thy communion with his Catholick Church though thou live amongst Infidels or amongst such Christians as are fallen into Infidelity and so having denyed the faith are worse then those who never embraced it For no private man is entrusted with the external communion of his own Church nor shall he be called to an account for the sins of it if he partake not in those sins but he is intrusted with the internal communion of his own soul and for that he must look to give a strict account to the maker and lover and Judge of souls But this admonition which only concerns private men may not be extended to whole national Churches which have power given them of God to rectifie what is amiss among themselves either in Doctrine or worship or Sacraments and are accountable to God for not rectifying it so that if there be any notorious defect in either much more in all of these they that are not bound to obey other men have no pretence of excuse if they obey not God in ordering themselves exactly according to his known and undoubted word And this is evident by Saint Pauls Epistles to particular Churches and Saint Johns orders to the seven several Churches of Asia to all which were sent distinct instructions and reproofs which sheweth that every one of them was bound to follow those instructions they had received from God without expecting new orders from some general Superintendent over them all and was justly reproved for not following them And this is the Judgement of the Catholick Church in the first Council of Nice in the sixth Canon which will have the priviledges and dignities and authorities of all Churches inviolably preserved for so much is comprized in these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The same Judgemen is again repeated and reinforced in the first Council of Constantinople Can. 2. which forbids the confounding of Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and leaves every several proviâ—ce by a Synod in it self to administer and order its own â—…s The same is again more fully repeated and reinforced in the first Council of Ephesus Can. 8. which will have particular Churches keep their own rights and priviledges lest they should unawares lose the liberty purchased for them by the blood of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Council of Chalcedon Can. 19 enjoyns provincial Synods twice a year to rectifie and dispose all emergencies whatsoever in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So we find this is the judgement of the Catholick Church in the four first general Councils and therefore all the world is not able to prove this practice of our Church to be Anticatholick For I willingly pass by other Churches in the case with whom I am not bound to keep external communion and plead only for this Church where of God in mercy hath made me a happy member though an unworthy Minister For if Saint Paul would not judge those men that were without much less may any of us judge those Churches that are within And truly it is enough for our satisfaction and too much for our desert that though other Churches pretend more some to the purity others to the practice of Religion yet generally they have performed less Though some rigid Zelots press nothing so much as a circumcision of all rites and ceremonies other Pharisaical professors can boast of the yoke which they have put upon the neck of their Disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear yet we cannot find any sufficient reason why we should not answer them both in Saint Peters words we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Act. 15. 11. For we have this reason of our belief because the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is truly and clearly set forth in the Doctrine of this our Church t is our shame and sin not our Churches if it be not also in our practice and Saint Paul hath taught us that this is the doctrine which most constituteth and therefore most edifieth a Christian Church For thus much do those words import to the Colossians And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable aâ—d unreproveable in his sight if ye continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard Col. 1. 21 22 2â— T is the Churches part to preach unto us the hope of the Gospel or the Doctrine of our being reconciled to God in Christ where this Doctrine is rightly published accepted and maintained there is without doubt a true Christian Church there is communion with Christ and if he will present us holy unblameable unreproveable in his sight for continuing in this faith grounded and setled we can have little cause but no excuse for leaving that Church whereinis the profession of this faith for as every particular Christian Church may lawfully preserve its own liberty against the incroachment of other Chuuches so it must necessarily preserve its authority against the insolencies of its own people The case is notorious concerning Vzziah when he went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the Altar of incense that Azariah with the Priests withstood him saying it pertaineth not to thee Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the sons of Aaron that are consecrated to burn incense Go out of the sanctuary for thou hast trespassed neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God 2 Chron. 27. 17 18. And great is the approbation which the Spirit of God giveth to this Azariah for so doing saying He it is that hath executed the Priests office in the Temple 1 Chron. 6. 10. As if none had been high Priest but he who so couragiously maintained the authority of the Priest-hood and this is R. Davids gloss upon the words He was not the first Priest of Solomons Temple for that was Zadok nor was he the only high Priest for there were many others both before and after him but our Rabbies say because
Halleluiah doth not close a part of a Hymn but breaks off a doctrinal exhortation surely not to distract our attentions but to enflame our affections and to possess our souls wholly with the joy and love of Christ without which neither our praying nor our preaching is acceptable unto God or available unto us And the Church seemeth to have borrowed this practice from the Apostles for it is much to be observed that Saint Paul delivers not any one Doctrine of the Christian verity without his Halleluiah that is without a peculiar doxology to God in Christ So in his Epistle to the Romans 1. 8. First I thank my God through Jesus Christ So to the Corinthians 1. 1. 4. I thank my God alwayes on your behalf So to the Galatians 1. 5. To God and our Father be glory for ever and ever Amen So to the Ephesians 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ And so in the rest of his Epistles Nay he doth not only prefix his Halleluiah and lay it as the foundation and bottom of his work but he doth also familiarly interweave it whilst he is working as it were some choice and eminent thred to checquer and adorn the whole piece Thus in the Doctrine of Christian regeneration Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord speaks little or nothing to the argument but more to the soul of him that earnestly desires truly to understand it then the tongue of men and Angels is able to express Thus also in the Doctrine of the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ are such words as do more then perswade the belief they do also enforce the love of that Christian truth which of it self is able to make not only one Foelix but also all mankinde to quake and tremble For Christ raising us from the death by vertue of his resurrection will also uphold us in the judgement by vertue of his satisfaction Lastly thus also in the Doctrine of Christian patience and preseverance concerning our being strengthned with might by the Spirit of God in the inward man and Christs dwelling in our hearts by faith and our own being rooted and grounded in love Ephes 3. He begins with prayer to God before it ver 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he ends with praises after it ver 21. Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Which manner of teaching by prayer and praise must needs make a deeper impression upon the soul then all the arguments of Logick or perswasions of Rhetorick that have been or can be invented by the art of man And indeed the same is also the Method of Saint Peter and of the rest of the Apostles to intermingle prayers and praises to God in all their writings and may not unfitly be called the Method of grace And Alensis gives this reason for it Alius est modus scientiae ad informationem affectus secundum pietatem Alius ad informationem intellectus secundum veritatem Alex. Ale qu. 1. mem 4. There is one method of teaching the will how to embrace piety another method of teaching the understanding how to embrace truth For the understanding is best informed by the evidence of demonstration but the will is best enflamed by the power of devotion And again sunt principia veritatis ut veritatis sunt principia veritatis ut bonitatis There are principles of truth which are to be learned as they are true and there are principles of truth which are to be learned as they are good other sciences proceed from principles of truth which are to be learned as they are true because their truth is most notoriously evident But Divinity proceeds from principles of truth which are to be learned as they are good because their goodness is more notoriously evident then their truth Vnde hec scientia magis est virtutis quam Artis sapientia magis quam scientia magis enim consistit virtute efficacia quam in contemplatione notitia Alen. ibid. in respon 2. Therefore is Divinity rather a science of power then of Art and consequently rather a Sapience then a Science for both in its being and in its knowing it consists more of virtue and power then of contemplation or knowledge Accordingly the Apostle himself saith Alensis professeth that his preaching was not with enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. which is such a demonstration as is more fitted to the will then to the understanding because it hath more of piety then of evidence mans wisdom teaching the understanding but Gods wisdom rather teaching the will and affections The one working more upon the head but the other working more upon the heart And therefore the Method which Gods wisdom useth in teaching man is not unfitly called the Method of grace For it is a Method that neither nature nor Art can teach us but only the Spirit of Grace and is accordingly used in no other science but only in Divinity In teaching other sciences he that should break out into a prayer or ejulation would either forget his principle or mistake his conclusion But in teaching Divinity this is the only way to strengthen both our memories against forgetfulness and our judgements against mistakes Here it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod demonstrandum erat nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod faciendum erat but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod orandum erat Not what we can shew nor what we can do but what we can pray makes us the best proficients in the School of Christ For doubtless we may best learn soul-saving Divinity in the way the Apostles taught it that is by intermingling prayers and praises with our endeavours since this is the only way to learn Christ for Christ cannot be learned till he be received and cannot be received in a soul not prepared by piety and devotion to entertain him This occasioned that expression of Saint Paul As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him Col. 2. 6. In other sciences we need learn but the Doctrine that is taught no matter for the author that teacheth it But in Christian Divinity we must learn and receive Christ the author or we cannot rightly learn and receive the Doctrine Haec cloquentia quaedam est Doctrinae salutaris movendo affectus discentium accommodata saith Saint Augustine Epist 119. ad Januarium Whence we may gather the true definition of Christian eloquence It is that which most moveth our affections and raiseth them up to Christ this is the reason why the Apostles used this new kind of method in their writings not for the want of knowledge but for the abundance of love and charity which was wholly enamored on Christ
thus Aquinas finds out two virtues to strengthen a man in any good enterprize or great undertaking the first is perseverance to encourage him against the difficulties that arise from the long continuance of the work the second is constancy to encourage him against any outward impediments in working Saint Paul professeth both in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we faint not either for the remisness of our own spirits or for the intenseness of other mens oppositions The word is used of both that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Luke 18. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to faint because of inward weakness or imbecillity agan I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations Eph. 3. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to faint because of outward difficulties or oppositions Secondly the unspotted innocency of his life we have renounced the hidden things of dishenesty He did so heartily detest any thing that was against religion and righteousness that though he might do it never so secretly yet he would not as abhorring not only what was notorious and obvious to other mens consciences but also what was injurious to his own Thirdly the unfeigned integrity of his mind not walking in craftiness neither handling the word of God deceitfully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non ambulantes in astutia not using sophistry where he should use simplicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omne faciens qui quidlibet ex quolibet facere potest one that can make any thing of any thing This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will never agree together T is ill iugling in temporal but worse in spiritual matters I may not use art in mis-rendring or mis-interpreting the word of man and much less the word of God and therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor handling the word of God deceitfully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Basil in Psal 14. every better thing when it is mingled with a worse is handled deceitfully so is Gods word when it is mingled with mans inventions or false glosses But this is not that is all intimated in the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore saith the Vulgar Latine adulterantes verbum Dei adulterating the word of God They who handle the word of God deceitfully are guilty of spiritual adultery Beza goes yet farther falsantes Sermonem Dei falsifying the word of God They who handle the word of God deceitfully are guilty of diabolical fasifications And is it proper for the spouse of Christ to play the whore for the Church of God to imitate the Devill He was a lyar from the beginning let him only be the lyar unto the end for is it just that any Church should alledge the word of God for her authority which cares not to alledge it for her sincerity it is without doubt the Churches part first to make good her sincerity by renouncing the hidden things of dishonesty and not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth commending her self to every mans conscience in the sight of God And then after that to stand upon her authority unless she will profess to be more selfish then Christian to be more zealous for her own then for Christs interest and to be more desirous of making proselytes unto her self then unto her Saviour For t is only the manifestation of Gods truth can commend a Church to mens consciences though the manifestation of pompe and prosperity may too much commend it to their opinions And what is the Churches glory but to commend her self to mens consciences that men may commend their own Consciences to God For do I now perswade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Gal. 1. 10. If a Christian Church shall not be servant of Christ who else will care to do him service and she cannot be Christs servant by seeking to please men in condescending to their humors but God in cleaving stedfastly to his truth If she do this she will keep her sincerity which is her chiefest glory and if she keep her sincerity she cannot lose her authority For a Church that with Saint Paul by the manifestation of the truth commendeth her self to every mans conscience in the sight of God may say with the same Saint Paul If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor 4. 3 4. In such a case there is no want of Authority in the Church but want of conscience in the men she hath to deal withal For she commends her self to their consciences which is an act of the highest authority But they have no conscience left to regard her doctrine in the manifestation of Gods truth and that makes them not regard her authority though speaking in Gods name And the reason is because they will not be governed by the God of the world above but by the God of this world below whereby they come to lose themselves and the internal light of reason and the external light of Religion For he calleth them lost blind and unbelievers and concludeth them lost because they willfully continue in their blindness and in their unbelief He complains not that he had lost his authority for the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ was able to dispell all mists of errour and to reprove and reproâ—ch all works of darkness But he complaines that they had lost their consciences and were so blinded with their own interests that they would not see this light though it shined most gloriously unto them So is it with each true Christian Church she can never lose her Authority whiles she preserves her sincerity well she may lsoe her actual jurisdiction because men may lose their consciences which should make them obey but she cannot lose her habitual jurisdiction because she hath not lost Gods truth which claimeth their obedience Thus we find the Church complaining in the Prophet Micah 1. Of her small number that she was as the grape-gleanings of the vintage 2. Of the general corruption that the good man was perished out of the earth and those who were left in it did evil with both hands earnestly 3. Of unsufferable inhumanity the best of them is as a briar the most upright is sharper then a thorn-hedge and 4. Of a most abominable Schism and faction that the Son dishonoured his Father the daughter did rise up against her mother and that a mans enemies were those of his own house yet even in that complaint she comforteth her self in God and triumpheth over her enemies Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me there 's her comfort
Thus hath holy Zachary taught us to sing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel and hath given this reason of that song For he hath visited and redeemed his people Luke 1. 68. That we may assure our selves it is not superstition but good Religion agreeable with the end of the fourth Commandment which teacheth us to celebrate the memorials both of his Visitation that he came to visit us in great humility and of his redemption that he hath redeemed us in great mercy and will consummate that Redemption in greater glory nor may we think that the letter of this Commandment was to restrain the end of it or the Sabbath was to confine the publike worship of Christ no more then we may think that God gave the Law to restrain the Gospel or set up the practice of Judaism for a time to confine the practice of Christianity for ever we may not so put our necks under the yoke of Jewish bondage in the Circumstances and much less in the substance of our Religion The proportion of time allotted the Jew for his publike worship may admonish the Christian to give no less must not regulate him to give no more to God For Religion first brings men to God then binds them to God and that Religion which brings them neerest binds them fastest The Jews Religion brought and bound him to God as to the author of nature and called for much praise The Christians Religion brings and binds him to God as to the Author of Grace and calleth for more praise The Angels Religion brings and binds them to God as the author of glory and calleth for all Praises The Christians Religion though betwixt that of the Jews and that of the Angels yet comes neerer to that of the Angels and therefore may not look backwards to Nature but must look forwards to glory The Author of nature did bid the Jews first number dayes saying For in six dayes the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it There the day called for the duty But the Author of Grace hath bid the Christian first number Duties teaching him to say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 7. 25. Here the Duty calleth for the Day and bidding us think God will not let us be stiâ—ted to one day in seven for our thanksgivings For though nature be under the measure and government of Time yet Grace is only under the measure and government of Eternity Wherefore any day that tells me of the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God in him shall tell me also of the Communion of the Holy Ghost to give thanks to God the Son for his Grace and to God the Father for his love nor dare I so undervalue the duty of thankfullness which I owe to my blessed Saviour for my redemption from sin and death as to tarry till the next Sabbath before I say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord And this I am sure though men may deny me thus to keep the Sabbath on earth yet God will not deny me thus to keep the Sabbath in Heaven and the more they may hinder me thus to keep it in earth the more should my soul be filled with desires and longings to keep it so in Heaven SECT IV. The sincerity of Christian communion may be broken either causally by a false Religion or formally by an unjust separation Both breaches are abominable The care which the Primitive Christians used to avoid both by cleaving to the ancient Creeds and the Gloria Patri and also by their communicatory letters The reason of that care was that both Priest and People laboured only to serve Christ not to serve themselves of him The Touchstone to try all Churches is from advancing the glory of Christ both in their Religion and in their communion AS the Communion of Saints is commanded in the fourth Commandment which requires all men to communicate in those doctrines of faith and duties of life which God hath called them to profess and practise in and by his Church So the Religion of Saints is commanded in the three first Commandments which do teach the Doctrines and Duties of that communion For as God hath not left his people to make their own communion so neither hath he left his Church to make her own Religion He first saith Let all things be done then let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. He first provides the doctrines then regulates the Prophets or the Preachers first takes care for the order of Religion then takes care for the order of Communion He first taught his Church how to invocate and implore his mercy how to reverence and adore his Majesty how to acknowledge his Authority and glorifie his holy name in worship in word in Sacraments and after that how to order assemblies and publick meetings for these Invocations for these adorations for these acknowledgements or glorifications And hence it is that Christian Religion bids all men first look after Gods authority in his word then after Gods authority in his Church So that no Church can be obliged by the obedience which she oweth to the Christian Faith to communicate with that Church which absolutely refuseth to have the doctrines and duties of its communion regulated and ordered by the known and undoubted written word of God because every man ought first to choose his Religion whereby to have communion with Christ then the Profession or exercise of it whereby to have communion with Christs Church And by consequent for any company of men to advance themselves against the word is to incurre Saint Pauls censure If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing but dâ—ating about questions and strifes of words And those men which have incurred Saint Pauls censure cannot be acquitted from Saint Pauls sentence From such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. In such a case the breach of Christian communion is to be imputed to those who consent not to the words of Christ for if they break off from Christ it is no sin can be no shame in others to break off from them For the Apostle saith expresly from such withdraw thy self So that it is evident the breach of Christian Communion may be causal in a false Religion as well as formal in an unjust separation And all the world is not able to excuse the formal unless it be from the causal breach since no man can have a pretence to leave the Church unless it be to cleave to Christ to forsake the Christian communion unless it be to follow the Christian Religion Therefore where Religion is most sincerely kept there communion is most sinfully and most shamefully broken For if the Church hath indeed taught us the right Invocation
oppose them in their praying and preaching in his name And accordingly we find when they would needs oppose them such an answer returned as could not but make them condemn themselves for that opposition Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. And this Answer was given by the Apostles that it might serve as a Ruled case for their Successors to the worlds end whom God hath constituted his Trustees for his publick worship That his name may be rightly invocated and adored his word rightly preached his Sacraments rightly and duly administred and who are bound to lose not only their livelyhoods but also their lives rather then to forsake or betray their Trust And if they are bound thus to stick to the Truth then surely the people are bound to stick to them that they may all be one sheep-fold under one shepherd and as it were one Diocess under one and the same Bishop of their souls Saint Paul did not think his authority confined with his Person when being a prisoner at Rome he did write to Philemon at Coloss calling upon him for the effectual communication of his faith ver 6. and telling him that he was to be Ministred unto in the bonds of the Gospel ver 13. and requiring him to put some wrongs and losses upon his account ver 18. and all upon this ground Thou owest unto me even thine own self besides ver 19. Is not the Church to us what Saint Paul was to Philemon Since by her Ministry God hath called us to the knowledge of his Truth and to Faith in his Son or can we indeed owe even our own selves to her and not be bound to pay our best acknowledgements by effectually communicating in her devotions diligently ministring to her necessities patiently suffering in her losses readily obeying her commands constantly persisting in her Doctrine and continually praying for her deliverance If we deny these acknowledgements to that Church to the which we owe them all because we do own even our own selves besides shall we not shew our selves untrue in denying our debt as well as unjust in denying our duty For a true Christian Church cannot lose her right of obliging us to her communion because she is in Bonds with Saint Paul or in persecution with the other Apostles since it is evident that the precept of Heb. 13. 17. Obedite praepositis vestris Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls c. was given to the people when the Apostles were all grievously persecuted and was carefully observed during the unhappy time of the ten first Persecutions And the reason as we may guess was this that the Church required the peoples communion upon no other terms then Christ himself had required it So that to break communion with the Church had been then to break communion with Christ and this appears from that profession of faith which was made by the Fifth General Council the second of Constantinople in the third collation as it is set forth by Binius in these words Confitemur fidem tenere praedicare ab initio donatam à magno Deo Salvatore nostro Jesu Christo Sanctis Apostolis ab illis in universo mundo praedicatam quam Sancti Patres confessi sunt explanaverunt Sanctis Ecclesiis tradiderunt maxime qui in Sanctis quatuor Synodis convenerunt quos per omnia in omnibus sequimur c. We profess our selves to hold and preach that faith which was at first given from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ to the holy Apostles and by them preached in all the world which faith the holy fathers did confess and explain and deliver to the Churches most especially those who met in the four first general Councils whom we exactly follow in all things And again Et omnia quae à praedictis Sanctis quatuor Conciliis sicut praedictum est pro una eademque fide definita sunt suscipimus omnes condemnatos praedictis Sanctis quatuor conciliis tanquam condemnatos anathematizatos habemus una cum aliis haereâ—icis And we receive all those Definitions or Determinations concerning the Christian Faith which have been delivered by the four first general Councils and all that were condemned and accursed by them we condemn and accurse as we do all other Hereticks If this confession was Catholick in that general Council how is it since that time Schismatical in us And if they were Catholicks who cleaved to the Apostles Creed and to the Creeds of the four first Councils which had none of those additional Articles that have since made the breach in Christs Church and are like to continue it to the worlds end if they themselves continue so long for there will be still many consciencious men who cannot take that for Christian Doctrine which they find not in the Word of Christ nor that for Christian practice which they find rejected by his Word I say if they were Catholicks who cleaved to the Apostles Creed and to the explanations thereof the Creeds of the four first Councils which are accordingly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expositions of the Faith sc of that faith in the Apostles Creed why are not we Catholicks too who profess and maintain the same Faith And if we be Catholicks how are they not Hereticks who willfully oppose our Doctrine how are they not Schismaticks who maliciously recede from our communion And surely it will be hard to prove that the Primitive Christians did for the first six hundred years after Christ reject any men much less Churches from their communion as Hereticks who did make profession of the Catholick Faith according to the Creeds delivered by the four first Councils That moderation professed by Saint Cyprian in the third Council of Carthage was followed by the Catholick Church long after his time Superest ut de hac ipsare quid singuli sentiamus proferamus neminem judicantes aut à jure communionis aliquem si diversum senserit amoventes It remains that we declare our opinions concerning this business but so as to condemn none for being of a contrary opinion nor for that reason thrusting him out of our Christian communion The cause they met about was the rebaptizing of those who had been baptized by Hereticks wherein though the Catholick Church hath rejected their Determination yet it hath alwayes followed their moderation suffering particular Churches in those Doctrines which did not immediately corrupt the faith to continue in their different opinions or different expressions and yet to be of one and the same Christian communion And this appears from the first Nicene Council which denounceth Anathema only against the Arrians who denyed the Divinity of Christ being contented to establish the Canons about Ecclesiastical order and government with lesser punishments in so much that Athanasius plainly saith Patres Nicenos
divinae gratiae Symbolum This wise and wholsome Creed of the divine Grace was sufficient for the knowledge and confirmation of Godliness They both highly extoll this Creed as a peculiar Testimony of Gods grace to his Church and as an exact Breviary of the Christian Religion containing the whole summe of saving faith saith the one of Godliness saith the other Council and what can be wanting to that Christian Communion which hath in it true faith Godliness or how can we be wanting to such a communion and not be wanting to the Christian Religion But the council at Chalcedon gives this reason why they account the Constantinopolitan Creed a perfect Breviary of the Christian Religion for so they mean when they say it is sufficient both for the knowledge and Proof of Godliness saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Patre enim Filio spiritu sancto perfectionem docet ac domini nostri inhumanationem fideliter accipientibus repraesentat For it teacheth perfectly the knowledge of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and plainly representeth to all that will receive it with faith the mysterie of our Lords incarnation or Inhumanation And indeed under these heads are all the mysteries of our Christian Religion briefly contained though not fully explained and therefore when this Council of Chalcedon had used all exactness of care and diligence in the further explication of such Truths concerning our Saviour Christ which the perverseness of Hereticks had made disputable though it could not make doubtfull Shewing that two compleat Natures in him made but one Person it was high time in their opinion to put an end to the making of any more new Creeds and accordingly they forbid all men either to speak or write or make or think or teach a new faith for these are their own words at the end of their fift Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His igitur cum omni undique exacta cura diligentia à nobis dispositis definivit sancta universalis Synodus alteram Fidem nulli licere proferre aut conscribere vel componere aut sentire aut alios docere I will not here argue how they can answer this Prohibition who have since added twelve new Articles to the Creed as it was delivered by the Council of Constantinople and have obliged all that will be Ministers of their Church to swear all that will be members of their Church to profess to live and dye in the belief of those additional no less then of the other Articles as the only true Catholick Faith by which men may be saved it is enough for my present purpose and it may be enough for others future certainty and constancy in their Religion that all the Christians that were saved for one thousand and five hundred years after Christ were saved without the necessary belief of those additional articles And it is clear that the Church of Rome her self denyed not anciently her communion to other Churches if so be they professed and maintained only that faith which was declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church for so Optatus Milevitanus testifieth that all the Churches of the world did hold communion among themselves and with the Church of Rome by vertue of their communicatory letters His words are these lib. 2. contra Parm. c. 7. Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio Formatarum in una communionis societate concordat with whom having named Siricius then Bishop of Rome we and all the Christian world besides do by vertue of our communicatory letters accord in one fellowship or communion But in those communicatory letters was contained nothing save only the confession of the Catholick Faith as it had been declared in the known and received Creeds of the universal Church saith Bishop Davenant in that small but excellent piece of his old age called Sententia de pace inter Evangelicos procuranda And we may gather as much not only from the Epistles of several Bishops in several Synods but also from the unhappy fate of those two Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia which both consisted of Orthodox Bishops and yet for want of communicatory letters were at last brought to subscribe the Arrian heresie For all the Bishops of the East gathered at Seleucia did presently agree to the true faith and sent the Emperour notice of their agreement And among the numerous company of the Western Bishops at Ariminum above four hundered held the Truth scarce 80. opposed it yet the Arrians abusing each Synod with perswasions that the other had yielded saith incomparable Hooker surprized both which we may say they could never have done had each Synod acquainted the other with their assents to the Nicene Faith by communicatory letters This Faith then was and still is ground enough to all Christian Churches for their communion one with another in doctrine And Prayers and Sacraments according to this faith are also ground enough for their communion in worship or devotion so that if all Christian Churches Believed and prayed and administred exactly according to the rule of this Faith it would not be possible for any man to be a Schismatick in denying his communion without first being a Heretick in denying his Religion For if I am required to call only upon him in whom I have believed and to do this only in remembrance of him on whom I am bound to call how can I deny my communion either in Prayers or in Sacraments to any Christian Church and not deny the faith that hath been taught me by the Catholick Church This seems to have been the ground of Christian communion in Saint Basils dayes who in his seventy eighth Epistle which is a confesâ—ion of his faith saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We must be baptized as we have received from the Lord We must believe as we are baptized and we must give glory as we have believed Glorifying the Father Son and Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But we must abstain from their communion who are not of this Faith as being open Blasphemers In that he saith we must abstain from the communion of those that are blasphemers it is evident he will not have us abstain from the communion of those who are true believers and right worshippers For where the Baptism and consequently the other Sacrament is according to Christs institution and the faith is according to the Baptism and the glory is according to the Faith there not to joyn in Communion at least in vote and desire is so a peice of desperate schism as it is also a point of damnable heresie for it comes neer their Sect of whom the Apostle hath said Denying the Lord that bought them by reason of whom the way of Truth is evil spoken 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And upon this account the Gloria Patri was so much looked after by the primitive Christians in their publick worship as being a right Profession of Faith in the Trinity
have an universal Trust Nay the Text bids us say the quite contrary for Saint Paul thus writeth to Titus For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting or that are yet left undone and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Tit. 1. 5. He limits Titus his commission and much more the rest of the Ministers that were under him to that people only which was in Crete and leaves him not to take the particular care of any other People or Nation they were to have other Trustees appointed for them Again The same Saint Paul writeth thus to Timothy I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine 1 Tim. 1. 3. Where it is as plain that Saint Timothies Trust was confined only to the people of the Church of Ephesus and that he was Gods chiefest Trustee though he was not Gods only Trustee for that people because the same Saint Paul saith to all the Presbyters of the same Church Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Acts 20. 28. where it is evident whose Trustees they were for he saith The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops and what was their trust for he saith Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock to feed the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so to feed as t is also to govern or to guide for so doth a shepheard his sheep Pascere saith Beza to feed Regere saith the Vulgar Latine to govern the word requires both and accordingly their trust is not only to feed their Flocks but also to govern them Here is a commission not only for Doctrine but also for Discipline and this commission is given only to the Presbyters or Doctors of the Church of Ephesus He sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church ver 17. If you ask what Elders T is plain by their office what they were even such as were to answer for the blood of those who perished in their sins if they did not teach repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ For so the Apostle argues for himself I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ver 20. I testified Repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ ver 21. I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God ver 25. Wherefore I take you to record this day That I am pure from the blood of all men ver 26. He alludes without doubt to those words of Ezekiel Because thou hast not given him warning he shall die in his sin but his blood will I require at thine hand Ezek. 3. 20. So that Saint Paul gave this commission only to such Elders as were to succeed him in his office of preaching and governing or in the Ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God ver 24. Thâ—se Elders he appointed his Successors in the Church of Ephesus when he was now quite to be taken from thence and by the same appointment hath established the succession of the Ministry in all other Churches For as the Apostles observing the first day of the week for the publick worship of Christ hath made it necessary for all Christian Churches to observe the same day for their publick worship to the worlds End so their appointing the Ministers as their Successors for the discharge of that publick worship hath much more laid upon all Churches the necessity of a successive Ministry yet Saint Paul looks upon the succession of Persons without a succession of Doctrine as a poor evidence and a poorer priviledge of a Christian Church because he saith Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them v. 30. In that he saith Of your own selves shall men arise he plainly sheweth they should have a succession of Persons but in that he saith speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them he as plainly sheweth they should in that succession of persons not have a succession of Doctrine T is a miserable condition when men shall put asunder those two which God hath joyned together but if we will needs phansie for God forbid we make or fear much more that we should suffer for the division better it were for the succession to be divided from the Ministry then for the Ministry to be divided from the Doctrine For the Ministry is necessary for the Doctrine but the Doctrine is necessary for it self And those Churches which most pretend an uninterrupted and an undoubted succession in their Ministry yet would be loth to be no surer of their Doctrine then they are of their Ministry For all the world cannot make them have more then a Moral certainty of the succession of their Ministers whereas they cannot be good Christians if they have not a Theological certainty of the succession of their Doctrine for he that believes the truth not knowing it to be true and to have proceeded from the God of truth is not formally but only materially a true Believer and leaves himself in a capacity if he doth not put himself into a disposition to believe a lye For by the same reason that he can bestow his Faith upon an uncertainty He may also bestow it upon a Falsity SECT II. The trust and nature of the Catholick Church best gathered from particular Churches the first part of their Trust is concerning the Word of God HE that would not miss or lose his way to the Sea had best follow the conduct of some particular River and he that would not be mistaken in his judgement concerning the Catholick Church were best guide himself by the consideration and the observation of particular Churches Vniversalia priora sunt particularibus ordine naturae Particularia Vniversalibus â—rdine Doctrinae Universals are before particulars in the order of nature but particulars are before universals in the order of Doctrine wherefore we must first enquire into the nature of particular Churches if we would fully understand the nature of the Catholick or universal Church For as Universals have no subsistence in themselves but only in their Individuals so neither hath the universal Church any actual subsistence but only in particular Churches And as we rightly understand an universal by abstracting it from the conditions and imperfections of the individiuals and taking only the perfections of the same So shall we rightly understand the Catholick Church by abstracting it from the imperfections of particular Churches and imputing to it only their excellencies and perfections Thus though I see lameness in one man blindness in another perversness in a third ignorance in a fourth and falseness in all yet I consider
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 18. They are holy and religious books but yet are not reckoned among the Canonical Scriptures because they were not deposited in the Ark So the Books of the New Testament were known to come from God in that they were deposited in the Ark that is to say in his Church And hence it was that the Epistle of Saint James and some others though they were not at first generally received in all Churches yet were they no longer questioned after once it was made appear by the Testimony of those Churches where the Authentick Copies of them had been deposited that they had been indicted by some Apostle or approved by some Apostolical man till then they were questioned in regard of their Authors if not in regard of their Authority but after that they were questioned in regard of neither so great a confidence did God repose in particular Churches that it is evident he entrusted them with his own Word to keep it to witness it and to explain it as the Church of the Jews with the Old Testament which Church though it were Catholick or universal in its Doctrine yet was it meerly particular or national in its extent for he shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and ordinances unto Israel he had not dealt so with any Nation neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws Psalm 147. ver 19 20. And several Churches of the Christians with several parts of the New Testament as the Church of Rome with that Epistle sent to the Romans and the Church of Corinth with those two Epistles sent to the Corinthians and so of the rest And as for the seven Catholick or general Epistles commonly so called they had the title of Catholick or general Epistles not because they were sent to no particular Churches but because they were sent to many as Saint Peters to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappodocia Asia and Bythinia which being not directed particularly to one of these was therefore called a general Epistle as belonging to them all not because it was sent at large to all of them for so perchance it might have been received by none but because it was to be communicated to all unless that we had rather say that these Epistles were called Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they were sent of purpose to confute some new risen Hereticks or Schismaticks particularly the Solifidean Heresie and the itch of separation either from ambition or covetousness or perversness as may appear by the arguments of the said Epistles however those also were at first deposited with some particular Churches and hence it was that some of them were sooner generally received then others even those which had been at first deposited with the more eminent Churches Thus we see the trust of particular Churches and in them the trust of the Catholick Church concerning the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eis credita sunt eloquia Dei They were entrusted with the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. that is they were entrusted to keep them and to witness them but Saint Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am entrusted with a dispensation sc of the same Oracles speaks more that they were also entrusted to explain them and we cannot deny the continuance of this trust unto the Worlds end unless we will affirm that God hath laid aside the care both of us and of his Church neither regarding the salvation of our souls nor the authority and continuance of his own Church and so by consequent exterminate out of our Creed as well as out of the world the Catholick Church and the communion of Saints and by consequent deprive our selves of the forgiveness of sins the Resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting SECT III. The second part of the Trust of Particular Churches is concerning the people of God What that Trust is and how it comes to be derived to them is shewed from Saint Pauls speech Acts 20. to the particular Church of Ephesus and from Saint Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus and from other several Epistles of his to particular Churches GOD is very angry with a man when he Trusts his soul in his own hands for then he leaves him exposed to the Temptations of his own concupiscence to the errours of his own ignorance to the slips and stumblings of his own infirmity to the precipices and downfalls of his own presumption and to the bondage and thraldom of his own corruption Therefore we justly extoll the power and goodness of God in our preservation no less then in our Creation and himself thinks it no less honourable to keep a soul then to make it and therefore Saint Paul calleth him God our Saviour thrice in one Epistle By the Commandment of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 1. 1. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2. 3. We trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men specially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4. 10. Which if it had been observed by the transcribers of some private Manuscripts one would not have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ Another would not have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God our Father and Jesus Christ for this variety of reading proceeded questionless from that opinion which some held That the name of Saviour belonged only to the person of Christ because it is palpable that in the Authentick Copy of the Greek Church as it is in Saint Chrysostome and of the Latine Church as it is in the Edition of Sixtus Quintus the words are read as Beza records them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ where God the Father is plainly called our Saviour because he is the chief and principal cause of our salvation For it is the Fathers mercy that saveth us though the Sons merit and we could not have received should not have embraced the merit of the Son had it not been for the mercy of the Father Therefore the same Apostle as delighted with this expression saith again according to the commandmnnt of God our Saviour Tit. 1. 3. being willing to ascribe to the Father no less then to the Son the Honour and glory of our salvation Behold all souls are mine saith God himself Ezek. 18. 4. and Rabbi David gives us this gloss upon the words All souls belong to me and I have given them bodies of flesh to guide and lead after me and I do delight in their life not in their death for they are mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umiccebodi nigzaru and they were taken from mine own Glory q. d. They are mine and I care not to lose them They were parts of mine own glory and I am willing to glorifie them they were at first springs and branches of mine own Tree even the Tree of life and I am desirous to engraft them in that Tree
again And this gloss of the Jewish Doctor is agreeable with the best Christian Doctrine For it is Saint Pauls argugument for the Justification of the Christian as well as of the Jew from whence he proves that Justification cannot be by the Law because the Law was given only to the Jew That God is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews Rom. 3. 29. And it is the same Saint Pauls argument for the salvation of the Christian as well as of the Jew For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him Rom. 10. 12. according to that of the wise man But thou sparest all for they are thine O Lord thou lover of souls Wisd 11. 26. The Text saith Gods supream Dominion over all is the reason why he is willing to shew mercy unto all and how shall we say his Dominion over all is the reason that he hath excluded much the greatest part from mercy Let us seriously consider this and we will never quarrel with our Church for teaching us this prayer That is may please thee to have mercy upon all men For in truth God himself is Originally the general Pastor of souls according to that of the Psalmist The Lord is my Shephard therefore can I lack nothing A Psalm made concerning all Israel saith Kimchi that they should say so when they go out of captivity we need not change but only rectifie his gloss by extending it to all the Israel of God and to their going out of spiritual captivity the bondage of sin and Satan for all the souls that go out of this captivity have God for their Shephard to guide them to feed them to protect them thus is God himself originally the general Pastor of souls and all others that take care of souls are but his Substitutes and Curates For he hath imparted this cure immediately to his Son whence he is called the Shephard and Bishop of our souls 1. Pet. 2. 3. But mediately by his Son unto his Ministers for so it is averred from Christs own mouth as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world John 17. 18. viz. To take the charge and care of souls And every true Church of Christ may borrow these words from her Masters mouth should speak them with his zeal and justifie them with his constancy To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth John 18. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I should be a witness to the truth and if need required also a Martyr for it the first in the affection of my soul the latter also in the preparation of it A witness I am in the best times may be a Martyr in the worst a witness when men love the truth a Martyr when they oppose it They are first enemies to the truth before they can be enemies to me as it follows Every one that is of truth heareth my voice and by the Rule of conversion every one that heareth not my voice is not of the truth But the less they will hear my voice the more they shall feel thy hand the less they will let me speak for the truth the more the truth will cry out against them they may bring the Martyrdom upon me but they will bring the destruction only upon themselves So saith Saint Peter There shall be false teachers by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of What then shall they therefore be able to destroy Gods Church the witness of his truth and the Martyr for it no they shall destroy only themselves as it is said in the same place and bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. But as for the Church that shall be preserved though so as by fire as just Lot was delivered when Sodom was destroyed verse 7. Whence is inferred this Doctrinal conclusion for the strengthning of our Faith for the establishing of our Hope for the inflaming of our Piety and for the encreasing of our Patience The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations ver 9. All the persecutions that can befall the godly though they are others sins yet they are only their temptations and they that have the zeal to pray not to be led into temptation shall atleast have this benefit of their prayers not to be left in but to be led out of them They may be thought to be in captivity but they are not for the truth shall make them free John 8. 32. They may be thought to be in death but they are not For he that is their Truth is also their Life John 14. 6. They will not be false to the Truth and the Truth cannot be false to them they bear witness to the Truth not only for Gods sake to obey his command and for their own sakes to discharge their consciences but also for the peoples sake to save their souls For the same must be the Trustees for Gods Truth and for the peoples souls because there is no way to save their souls but by his Truth And therefore Saint Paul telleth the Church of Ephesus Acts 20. that he had discharged his Trust concerning their souls by teaching them the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth for saith he I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you ver 20. Whence it is evident he preached the whole Truth And again But have shewed you and have taught you publickly and from house to house Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ver 20. 21. Whence it is evident he preached nothing but the Truth nothing but the right practical Truth such as concerned the good ordering of this present life by repentance towards God nothing but the right speculative Truth such as concerned the knowledge and enjoyment of the life to come by Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ We see by Saint Pauls example what is to be the chief Doctrine of every particular Christian Church which succeedeth him in the same Trust and care of souls even Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and consequently the Church is most truly Apostolical which most incorruptly preacheth this doctrine of faith and repentance and most zealously practiseth what it preacheth Nor may such a Church be dismayed that by this means she is like to have many enemies even as many enemies as there are Pharisees and Sadduces in the whole world ready either to deride the Repentance or to corrupt and deny the Faith for so was Saint Paul assured that bonds and afflictions did abide him v. 23. yet he plainly answereth and thereby teacheth every one who succeedeth him in the same Trust what to answer But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and
particular charge that so the burden might be the less but the care might be the greater the Ministers might have the lesser trouble but the people might have the greater benefit from whence it may be collected that the Bishops were Gods principal Trustees and that the inferior Ministers were only taken into part of their Trust And this is suitable with that saying of Theodorete recited by Oecumenius in the argument of the Epistle to Timothy That though Saint Paul had other Scholars or Disciples as Silas and Luke yet he writ Epistles only to Timothy and Titus because he had then entrusted them two with several Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the others he yet detained with himself And it is Conradus Vorstius his observation that Saint Paul makes it his business in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus to draw the exact picture of a true Christian Bishop and that he useth singular skill and industry in elaborating that draught Et sane in his Epistolis ac nominatim in illa priore ad Timotheum singularis quaedam Apostoli industria solicitudo elucet quippe collegam ac filium suum subinde studiose obsecrantis imo obtestantis per omnia sacra adiurantis nunc blandis promissionibus allicientis nunc minaciter territantis nunc suo nunc Christi exemplo provocantis ut modis omnibus tostatum faciat quà m sit ardua res inculpatum agere Episcopum quantaque pernicies humanae vitae sit parum sincerus Dominici gregis Custos Vorst Arg. Ep. ad Tim. Sometimes he earnestly entreateth Timothy for his own sake sometimes he humbly beseecheth him for Gods sake sometimes he adjureth sometimes he promiseth sometimes he threatneth sometimes he perswadeth and even provoketh him by his own and by Christs example that so he might testifie to all the world how great was the charge which a Bishop had from God to be faithfull in his vocation and that if he proved unfaithfull how great was the mischief he might do unto Gods Church And Oecumenius gathereth as much meerly from those three words used by Saint Paul in his benediction to Titus Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus-Christ our Saviour Tit. 1. 3. for saith he Saint Paul very fitly wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace to Titus being the Teacher and Governour of that Church for unless he was resolved to steer by these he was sure to endanger the sinking of the ship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God have mercy upon those covetous ambitious and contentious Ministers whose covetousness ambition and contentiousness hath made them expell Grace Mercy and Peace that they might pull down Gods and set up their own Government How can it be hoped that such men should approve themselves Gratious Mercifull or peaceable Governours For how can covetousness consist with Grace Ambition with Mercy Contention with Peace and how miserable are those people like to be who are like to be governed without Grace Mercy and Peace Thus I have shewed the Trust of the two particular Churches of Ephesus and of Crete whose first governours immediately after the Apostles are nominated licensed and instructed by the Text and these two are precedents sufficient for all particular Churches to the worlds end happily more sufficient precedents then are left in all the new Testament concerning any other external adjunct of Religion For if all Scripture be profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good Works 2 Tim. 3. 16 17. then surely much more that the Church of God may be perfect For if Saint Pauls proof be undeniable that because God took care of an Oxe he much more took care of a Minister 1 Cor. 9. 10. then can we not deny but the proof is as undeniable that because he took care of one particular minister he much more took care of all Ministers if he were so carefull to instruct one man of God as Timothy or Titus then much more was he carefull to instruct all the men of God that is to say his whole Church which is doubtless accordingly to be guided by these Instructions unless we can prove that since that time she hath received any other or that God hath repented of these and is willing to let his word as we are to let our Oaths grow out of date And indeed what can we desire to know concerning Gods Trustees in behalf of our souls which we may not easily know from either of these two Epistles For we know that God the Father hath said All souls are mine Ezek. 18. 4. and therefore we are sure that none can claim and consequently none should take the care of any soul but by commission from him This commission he immediately gave to his only Son with a promise that it should conduce to the Salvation of those souls which should hear his voice I am the good shephard my sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternal life saith Christ John 10. 14 27 29. but this was by power given him from his Father as t is said All power is given unto me Mat. 28. and therefore when he was not yet pleased to own or at least not to exercise this power he said to the mother of Zebedees children It is not mine to give Mat. 20. 23. But however the promise concerning this power is no where so clearly signified as in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus so we find 2 Tim. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus He derives his own commission for taking the care of souls from Christ Christs commission from God Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God And he shews the end of that commission was the salvation of those souls According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus Again Tit. 1. 1 2. Paul a Servant of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ there 's the proof of his commission in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began there ' s the end of his commission God promised eternal life before the world began to whom could he promise it but to his Son coaeternal with himself and for whom did he promise it but for those who should be his hearkening to him believing in him relying on him and supported by him This was the comfortable end of Saint Pauls commission and therefore we have great reason to look after the sure proof of it And that we find particularly in these Epistles First as it was given from Christ to him and Secondly as it was to be derived from him to others even to the worlds end For although there is great Truth in that rule Delegatus non potest Delegare He that hath a Trust or power himself only by Delegation cannot orderly delegate the same to another and greater
the Law of man hath taken care of all these so much more hath the Law of God taken care of them and most of all in Gods own worship Here the Holy Spirit will have 1. Persons rightly ordered prescribing the decent behaviour both of men and women from the first verse of the eleventh Chapter to the sixteenth 2. Things rightly ordered prescribing the right administration of the holy Eucharist from the sixteenth verse to the end of the Chapter Lastly actions rightly ordered prescribing the right use of Spiritual gifts and Functions in the twelfth thirteeenth and fourteenth Chapters In respect of all these it is the Apostles injunction to the Corinthians and the Churches injunction to us Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ as my Church must submit to Christs authority in the exercise of Religion to avoid superstition so I must submit to my Churches authority to avoid faction and confusion For what my Church requires by vertue of his command I cannot disobey without contempt of his authority Excellently Aquinas Majores sive perfecti soli Deo inhaerent cujus est immutabilis bonitas qui et si inhaereant suis praelatis non inhaerent illis nisi in quantum illi inhaerent Christo secundum illud Imitatores mei estote sicut Ego Christi 22. qu. 43. art 5. c. Those that are firmly grounded and to be called perfect Christians do in all things cleave to Christ himself and stick fast to him whose goodness is unchangeable and therefore so is also their will and resolution for though they rely upon the Church which Christ hath set over them yet they relye upon their Church as that relyeth upon Christ according to that of Saint Paul Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ Every good Christian man relies immediately upon Christ for his Religion and much more every good Christian Church can you not deny me to be a Major in this case and will you needs make my Church a Minor Am I of ripe years and must my Church be under age must I relye upon Christ and must not my Church much rather relye upon him There cannot be a greater impudence then for one man to perswade another to leave Christ and stick to him unless it be for one Church to perswade another to do the same And are not they perswaded to leave Christ who are perswaded to leave the Holy Scriptures that they may stick to uncertain Traditions For where is Christ to be certainly followed but in his undoubted word How then can any Church forsake Christs written word and pretend to follow him Saint Paul cares not to be so authentical and yet doubtless had more authority then those that are so He praiseth the Corinthians for keeping the Ordinances or Traditions as he had delivered them 1 Cor. 11. 2. but he professeth he had delivered no other then what he had received For I delivered unto you that which I also received 1 Cor. 15. 3. Nay in the same Chapter wherein he praiseth them for keeping what he had delivered he averreth that he had delivered what he had received ver 23. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you nor is it reasonable we should imagine the Apostle of Christ would stand more upon his own then his Masters honour or would have praised the Corinthians for remembring him in all things if so be he had so grosly forgotten himself as not to have remembred his Master and who hath made a Church above an Apostle Therefore we may be sure that the Traditions Saint Paul gave the Corinthians were such as had been given him and we could scarce be sure of this were not the same Traditions still given us and consequently we cannot part with the least degree of this certainty but we must part with the best and greatest reason of our praise for what is or can be the praise of any Church but that she remembers the Apostles in all things and keeps the Traditions as they delivered them unto her so that upon the certainty of the Traditions depends the Fidelity of the Church and those Churches must needs approve themselves to be most faithfull which can make the surest proof of their Traditions that they are indeed truly Apostolical now it is evident that the written word is so acknowledged by all Churches but the unwritten word is not so and t is observable that those who stand most upon the credit of unwritten Traditions yet are of late very willing to endeavour to prove most of the Doctrines and practices depending thereupon by some Texts of the undoubted written word surely not to gratifie their adversaries who refused the other but themselves who look upon these as the much better and surer proofs Wherefore the holy Scriptures which are the only proof that the Church hath a Trust from God concerning his Worship are the only Rule by which she can either conscionably or acceptably discharge that Trust Conscionably in offering nothing to mens consciences but what God hath offered Acceptably in offering nothing unto God but what himself hath required and if every particular Church did exactly follow this Rule none could detest the Communion of another without detesting the communion of God himself For this is the Apostles own determination I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed 1 Cor. 12. 3. that is doth accurse or detest any thing that is truly of the Christian Religion for that is little other then to detest and accurse Christ Jesus himself Men may bestow their hearts as they please about Ceremonies and formalities and happily be charged only with indiscretion but not so about real forms of worship not so about sound and solid prayers unless they will also be charged with irreligion For if the prayer which is used by any Christian Church doth truly honour Jesus no other Church can detest her communion in that prayer without detesting Jesus himself Therefore it is not from the Spirit of God but from our own spirits that we dislike any thing which truly belongs to Jesus whether in his Doctrine or in his worship and consequently what is exactly agreeable with the known Word of Jesus is also exactly agreeable with his will and accordingly all Churches are bound to agree in that though they may disagree about other matters Therefore let every Church faithfully discharge her Trust about the worship of God and there may be a hope of a Christian agreement among all Churches for then those that shall disagree from the rest will prove themselves either Antichristian or unchristian either Antichristian as being against Christ or unchristian as being without him either faulty for having a false or faulty for not having a true worship of Christ For a true and laudable worship cannot but challenge our communion either actually in our corporal presence if we live among such good Christians as have
quantum Reges sunt si in suo regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae ad divinam religionem Aug. lib. 3. contra Cres cap. 51. Kings when they are in any error make laws for that error against the Truth When they are in the Truth they make laws for the truth against error So good men are tried by wicked laws and wicked men are mended by good laws King Nebuchodonosor being yet in his perversness made a law for his image to be worshipped But being himself amended made as severe a law that the true God should not be blasphemed For in this thing Kings do God service as Kings according to his own command if in their dominions they require what is good and forbid what is evil and that not only in regard of humane society but also in regard of Divine Religion Thus he plainly affirmed Kings to be Gods Trustees not only in regard of the second but also of the first Table of the Decalogue though as long as they remained wicked Kings they did only abuse their Trust So likewise Saint Ambrose in his Commentaries upon Luke 5. calleth it magnum spirituale documentum a great and spiritual point of Divinity whereby Christians are taught subjection to the higher powers not to break the constitutions of their earthly Princes and he proves it to be so for that Christ himself paid tribute The argument is irrefragable from Christ to the Christian from the Son of God to the servant of God If he shewed his obedience who can give us leave to be disobedient or pardon us for being so So likewise Saint Chrysostom in his Commentaries upon the Romans cap. 13. tells us that Saint Paul requireth Priests and Monks to be subject as well as other men in that he saith Let every soul be subject to the higher power yea though thou wert an Apostle saith he or an Evangelist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For subjection doth not overthrow but rather establish Religion And so likewise Saint Gregory doth often in his Epistles call Mauritius the Emperour his Lord yea in his very chair he doth in effect determine for the lawfulness of that appellation sending this for a decretal to the Bishops of Sicily Legem quam piissimus Imperator dedit vestrae studui fraternitati transmittere The Law which the most Religious Emperour hath given I was careful to send to you And why was he so careful to send it but that they should be as careful to obey it Grat. Dist 53. c. 1. I could easily heap up more quotations of the antient Divines but that the testimonies of these four Doctors of the Church are more then sufficient to prove this was in their dayes the Churches Doctrine And if it were so then t is not for the credit of our Churches to say Now it is not so nor for the credit of our Religion to say it should not be so For we see plainly that Jehosaphat who was in great esteem with Gods Prophet Elisha 2. Reg. 3. 14. and with God himself 2 Chron. 19. 3. though he left the Priests to discharge their own office yet he thought the external Polity both Civil and Ecclesiastical within the reach and compass of his Regal power And accordingly he constituted not only Zebadiah the Ruler of the house of Judah his chief commissioner for all the Kings matters but also Amariah the chief Priest his chief commissioner for all the matters of the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 11. And Constantine the great and after him Theodosius Martian Justinian and other Christian Emperours followed his example in so much that the whole Civil Law especially in the Code and in the Novels containeth many several Laws and constitutions both concerning Ecclesiastical persons and causes that is to say concerning the whole discipline of the Church And this is a Truth which no true Civilian can or will deny Nay yet more no true Canonist though of late their mouths have been most open against Princes can or will deny this Truth unless he resolve to leave the Church that he may flatter the Court of Rome and not only to go against the antient Canons but also against his own Master Gratian the father of Canonists For he brings in Pope Pelagius professing to Childebertus the King that he was bound by the Word of God to be obedient to his Laws Quibus sc legibus nos etiam subditos esse sacrae Scripturae praecipiunt Grat. causa 25. qu. 1. cap. 10. And the gloss cannot but take notice of it saying Argum. quod Papa subest Imperatori This is an argument that the Pope is subject to the Emperour But because the gloss is willing to elude this Argument by saying that this subjection goes no further then paying of tribute it is not amiss to shew that Gratian himself in another place extends it generally to all the Imperial Laws For in that very distinction wherein he pleadeth for the civil constitutions to be under the Ecclesiastical sc Dist 10. he produceth some signal testimonies and proofs that even after the decay of the Empire and the translating it to the Germans the Emperours notwithstanding had made Laws concerning the Church and the Popes themselves had professed their obedience to those Laws I will instance but in one which is in the ninth Chapter of that distinction wherein Leo the fourth Bishop of Rome thus writeeth to Lotharius the third Emperour of the Germans for he was the son of Lodowick the son of Charls the great De capitulis vel praeceptis imperialibus vestris vestrorumque Pontificum praedecessorum irrefragabiliter custodiendis quantum valuimâ—s valemus Christo propitio nunc in aevum nos conservaturos modis omnibus profitemur As concerning your Imperial constitutions and those of the High Priests your predecessors we know they are undeniably to be observed and profess that we now do and with Christs help ever will by all means observe them The new Commentator upon the Decree as it is published by the authority of Gregory the thirteenth from the word Pontificum in this Epistle of Leo being applied to the Emperours maketh this collection that the Emperours established no constitutions in cases of Religion without the advice of their Bishops which is a very true just and reasonable assertion for doubtless they were bound to look after the advice of their Divines in matters of the Church no less then after the advice of their Lawyers in matters of the Commonwealth even as the Kings of Judah had done before them for even David himself in ordering the Levites followed the advice of Gad the Kings Seer and of Nathan the Prophet 2 Chron. 29. 25. But he taketh it for granted that the Emperours did make and establish such constitutions and that when they were made not only the people of Italy but also the Popes of Rome themselves did obey them For saith he these
we may be souldiers under Christs banner I say if this trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle So likewise you except ye utter by the tongue words easie to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak into the air 1 Cor. 14. 8 9. The Argument hath as much force against the Spirit of God as against the Ministers of God if he hath no uttered significant words hath he not spoken into the air For shame let us leave off such objections least we indeed force him to speak into the air whiles he intends and desires to speak unto our stony hearts So little doth it become any Divine to set the Law of the Church in a competition with the law of God much less in a perfection above it as if that were plain and sure this were uncertain and obscure For mens consciences must first be directed before they can be obliged and therefore to suppose Gods law to be defective in its direction is to make it defective in its obligation And if Gods law be imperfect how can the Churches law be perfect either to direct or to oblige our consciences The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul Psalm 19. 7. If it were not for its own perfection it could not produce our conversion nor can we oppose the perfection of Gods law without opposing the conversion of our own souls Therefore we must above all things be carefull to vindicate the Rule of our Religion if we would engage mens consciences to receive it and much more to practise it for it is impossible they should be religious without their consciences and much more against them He that searcheth the heart may not be served without the heart and he that most requiquireth the Heart in his service will not be served against the the Heart Therefore every man must worship God with the knowledge of his understanding and with the consent of his will and consequently we may not deny That there is evidence of Truth in the rule of Gods worship to iustruct the understanding and certainty of goodness in it to fix and settle the will i. e. to establish the heart unless we will have men Religious either without their consciences for want of knowledge or against their consciences for want of consent For if a man doth the best act of Religion without his conscience that act is to him little less then brutish if against his conscience t is to him less then damnable and therefore we have great reason to abominate such a Tenent as may either suppose a man to be a Brute in his Religion by acting without his conscience or suppose a man to be a Devil in his Religion by acting against his conscience SECT VII The trust of each particular Church is sufficient for the peoples salvation if she take heed to her self and to the Doctrine God hath given her in his written word and in the antient Creeds of the Catholick Church OUR blessed Saviour bidding us seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Mat. 6. 33. plainly sheweth that we have no hopes of finding Gods righteousness and much less of enjoying it till we have found out Gods Kingdom and are become faithful subjects of the same And what is Gods Kingdom but his Church wherein he exerciseth dominion in the hearts of his faithful people having established his Throne upon these two pillars of Truth and Holiness by Truth enlightning their understandings by Holiness inflaming their wills and affections and sanctifying their lives and conversations so that it is no hard matter to find out the Kingdom of God and to distinguish it from all the Kingdoms of the world since it is to be discerned by its Truth and by its Holiness For it is Truth and Holiness that makes a Church though it is power and pomp that makes a state There is no coming to Gods Kingdom but by these no tarrying in it but with these no going from it but by forsaking these so that any Christian people or nation in the world may thus plead for it self Tell me not of departing from the Church of Christ unless you can shew me wherein I have departed from Truth and Holiness which two make and constitute his Church If I believe all the Articles of Faith as he hath revealed them and practise all the duties of life as he hath commanded them sure I am though you may deny me yours yet my Saviour will not deny me his Communion though you may not esteem me a member of yours yet he will esteem me a member of his Body This is all that Saint Paul requires to the constitution of a Christian Church when he saith Rom. 10. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness there 's the truth most chiefly fixed in the heart and with the mouth confession is mad unto salvation there 's the holiness most chiefly expressed by the mouth Again Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed there 's the truth received by Faith And Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved there 's the holiness exercised by prayer shall he believe and shall he call upon the name of the Lord and not belong unto the Lord here Shall he not be ashamed shall he be saved and not belong to the Lord hereafter And what else is the Church but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which belongeth to the Lord here whilst Militant hereafter when Triumphant And how shall any people that believeth and calleth upon the Lord be excluded from belonging to the Lord or from being his Church when it is said so generally Whosoever believeth on him and whosoever shall call upon his name Therefore in every Nation that believeth on Christ and calleth on his name for they are inseparable the faith is not without the confession the belief is not without the prayer the truth is not without the holiness Christ hath his Church and that Church hath the means of salvation Faith and prayer or truth and holiness and the promise of salvation 1. Privatively He shall not be ashamed 2. Positively He shall be saved and we cannot deny it the salvation it self without detracting from Gods mercy which hath made good the means and from Gods truth which will make good the promise And therefore Saint Paul having planted a particular Church in Ephesus saith concerning the Presbyters there The Holy Ghost had made them Overseers of that people Act. 20. 28. He could have said no more of himself and of his fellow-Apostles who had an extraordinary calling but that the Holy Ghost had made them overseers and he saith no less of those Ministers who had only an ordinary calling And what doth he intimate by saying so But that the Ephesians had still the same hopes and means of salvation as before whilst himself instructed and governed them For that the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life could and
would give them life by his ordinary as well as by his extraordinary Ministers For we cannot but say that those are words of eternal truth as well as of eternal comfort Psal 73. 1. Truly God is loving unto Israel even unto such as are of a clean heart for there is no doubt of Gods being loving unto Israel no more then of Israels being of a clean heart If they be of a clean heart they must be of Gods Israel though they may be of several Tribes And if they be of Gods Israel they are sure of Gods love He will here guide them with his counsel and hereafter receive them with glory For he sanctifieth them by his Truth that he may save them by his mercy And accordingly S. Paul saith to Timothy Take heed unto thy self and unto the Doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee 1 Tim 4. 16. Thereby shewing he had left the people of Ephesus sufficient means of being saved in that he had left them an infallible doctrine though he had not left them an infallible Doctor For if Timothy by taking heed unto himself and to the Doctrine he had received was able to save both himself and those who were committed to his charge t is evident the people of Ephesus had no more need in Gods account of an infallible Bishop to teach them then they had of an impeccable Bishop to govern them and indeed infallibility cannot be in the understanding without impeccability in the will since the will doth necessarily follow the last dictate of the understanding and it self being depraved may corrupt and deprave both the first and the last dictate of it Nay yet more lest we should make light account of the authority of particular Churches because we can neither prove nor believe their infallibility any more then we can their impeccability we find plainly that S. Paul calleth the particular Church of Ephesus even that Church with which Timothy was entrusted and in which he was taught by this Epistle how to behave himself The house of God the pillar and ground of the truth 1 Tim 3. 35. Though we may justly and should willingly infer that if a particular Church by cleaving to the word of Truth deserved to be called the pillar and ground of Truth then sure the Universal Church much more For so the argument will proceed à minore ad majus If one Minister shall be able to teach the saving Truth whilst he swerves neither to the right hand nor to the left from the word of Truth then much more a whole National Church and most of all the Catholike and Universal Church that is diffused over all Nations if she carefully attend and stedfastly cleave to that same word of Truth And if any man think this condition unnecessary let him consider that those four general Councils which Saint Gregory received as four Gospels did set the Bible upon a Throne in the midst of their assembly appealing to it for all their Doctrines and proving by it all their determinations which if all other general Councils at least so reputed had done since that time well we might have had fewer Articles but certainly we must have had a surer Creed and a founder faith nor can we deny but some provincial Councils by cleaving to the Text have more truly shewed themselves the pillars of Truth then some reputed general Councils that have forsaken it as the Council of Gangra which had in it but thirteen Bishops yet suppressed no less then twenty Schismatical opinions together whereas the Council of Constance that consisted almost of all Nations making light regard of Christs institution and order concerning the Eucharist though it ended the Schism of the Popes yet it began such a Schism in the Church as is like to continue to the worlds end for surely there will alwaies be some conscionable men who will prefer the Institution of Christ in his own Sacrament above the constitution of a Council and who will think there can be no Schism either less curable or more damnable then that which dares set up the pretended authority of the Church against the undoubted Authority of Christ This is most certain Saint Paul took it for granted that the Church of Ephesus was instructed in the whole Doctrine of the Scriptures for in the first Chapter he mentions both the Law and the Gospel and that she also followed those instructions before he called her the house of God the pillar and ground of Truth For indeed the first part of every Churches Trust is the Word of God which she is entrusted withal in a threefold respect 1. That she should keep it 2. That she should expound it 3. That she should obey it Wherefore those men who of late have cavilled at the written Word thereby thinking to resolve all Religion into the Authority of the Church have in truth taken a direct course to resolve the Authority of the Church into nothing For if the Church hath not been Gods faithful Trustee in keeping the substance or letter of his word who can think her faithful in expounding the sense or in observing the commands of the same And so then farewell to the Churches faithfulness and consequently to her authority which is grounded chiefly upon her faithfulness For it is as just an exception now as it was in the Apostles times Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Act. 4. 19. The intent of your arguments against the Scriptures is to advise us not to hearken unto God that we might only hearken unto you But the reason and force of your arguments will certainly â—eep us from hearkning unto you because they make it evident that you have not hearkned unto God Nay you have set light by his Word that you might not hearken unto him But this argument is good only against the men not against the cause and it is therefore best when it is against the worst men Those who have least hearkned to Gods voice have given the greatest cause to others not to hearken unto their voices And if they will needs be angry with us let them consider that God is first angry with them and therefore they ought to be angry with themselves For they took not only a very impious but also a very indiscreet way by vilifying the authority of Gods word to magnifie the authority of their own And yet to speak the plain truth this is rather to be called a cavil then an argument For let all the Original Bibles be examined both of the Papists and of the Protestant Churches we shall find them all exactly agreeing in one Hebrew and Greek Text and their disagreement to be only in their several glosses and Translations in so much that all these parts of Christendom would soon be of one and the same profession as well as they are of one and the same
not justly be condemned by another Church much less opposed or deserted by her own state For that such a Church is without doubt Gods Trustee and hath not been faulty in the discharge of her Trust and may not be hindred or molested in dischaging it SECT VIII The Trust of particular Churches is immediately from God himself both in regard of the Magistrate and of the Minister That Trust much stood upon in the Primitive times and ought to be so still because it is founded on the holy Scriptures And that this Doctrine concerning the Trust of particular Churches doth not canton or disjoynt the Catholick Church T IS no hard matter to prove That particular Churches are Gods immediate Trustees though they have but a limited Trust For else will follow the greatest absurdity that can be imagined and much greater that may be granted viz. That God hath left the blood of his Son the dictates of his Spirit the honour of his name exposed to all the contempts and prophanations and corruptions of perverse and ignorant and wicked men if he hath not entrusted them all with some such persons who are bound to see them neither prophaned nor contemned nor corrupted And who were those his Trustees at first but only his Apostles and who have they been ever since but their Successors Bishops and Ministers Take heed unto the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Acts 20. 28. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy Trust 1 Tim. 6. 20. The Minister whether Bishop or Priest is immediately intrusted with the care of souls and with those truths and administrations which directly concern the soul For the civil Magistrate though he be Christian yet is not capable of discharging the spiritual part of this Trust being not called of God as was Aaron to do the office of a Priest though he be called of God as was Moses to have power and dominion over Priests For in that he is governour of the State he is also governour of the Church which is in and within the State and in that he is governour of the Church he must needs have his share in the Trust of the Church concerning Religion as far as Religion is liable to the government of the State sc to be ordered protected and defended by it For as God at first used the extraordinary power of miracles to maintain his word and Sacraments and to strike the opposers and profaners of them either with death or with other corporal punishments as S. Paul saith of the Corinthians For this cause many are weakly and sick among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. sc because of your profaning the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ So in process of time he was pleased to use the ordinary power of the Civil Magistrate for the same purposes never leaving himself without witness having given a directive and spiritual power to the Ministery a coactive and external power to the Magistracy for the suppressing of wickedness and vice and for the promoting of true Religion and Virtue Therefore both Magistracy and Ministery have the immediate Trust of Religion and God hath commanded both to assist hath allowed neither to oppose the other in the execution of his Trust Both are obliged to see there be a right exercise of Religion the one to perform it the other to countenance and protect it And both have their Trust immediately from God and this is that which I call the Trust of particular Churches nor is it to be imagined That if God had given the Trust of all Churches to some general Vicar of his who derived his power immediately from him and was to derive the same to others but that he would have given some notice of this universal Trustee that others might not invade this Trust without his leave much less manage it without his Authority yet this he was willing to plead for who said Petrus Paulo dedit licentiam praedicandi Gl. in Grat. Dist 11. cap. 11. that Saint Peter gave Saint Paul a licence to preach and that Authoritate Domini by Gods own command who said Acts 13. Sepatate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them He will needs bring Saint Peter from Jerusalem to Antioch of purpose to lay his hands on Saint Paul though the Holy-Ghost reckons up these particular men who were bid do that work and reckons not Saint Peter among them nay though Saint Paul himself plainly tels us that he had Preached full three years before he once saw Saint Peter Gal. 1. 17 18. and then was fain to go up to Jerusalem not to Antioch to see him and only to see him not to receive commission or Instruction from him So Saint Chrysostome upon the words Gal. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He wanted Peter for nothing but being equal in honour with him that I may say no more now yet he went up to him as to his Superiour and his Ancient And he tell us this of purpose saith he that we should not think the ensuing reprehension proceeded either out of hatred or envy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it is plain he loved the man and respected him more then any other of the Apostles for he saith Other of the Apostles saw I none Yet he did but go to see him not to learn of him much less to receive spiritual power from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did but see him I did not learn of him saith the same Saint Chrysostome And indeed it is scarce imaginable that Saint Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven the proper dwelling place of God to hear unspeakable words to be Tongue-tied on earth by any man so as not to be able to preach without his License Nay on the contrary it is clearly evident from the Holy Scriptures and from all Antiquity that not only Saint Paul but also all the other Apostles did Preach the Gospel found Churches ordain Bishops excommunicate offenders without any delegation from Saint Peter only by their own immediate Authority And it is also evident that they all derived their Authority to their several Churches after them and that those several Churches did very much insist upon that authority which they could not lawfully have done had it not been derived to them by the Apostles Thus Saint Cyprian pleads for his Church of Carthage Ne quisquam se Episcopum Episcoporum constituat aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigat quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit quà m nec ipse possit alterum judicare Neither let any man make himself a Bishop of Bishops nor by his tyrannical threats seek to compell his collegues to be his Vassals since every Bishop hath his own native liberty and power to determine for himself as one that may neither Iudge his fellow-Bishop
nor be Judged by him Where we may safely enough admit of Baronius his own gloss An. 258. nu 42. out of Saint Augustine and yet not enervate the Validity of the Text Opinor inquit utique in his questionibus quae nondum eliquantissima perspectione discussa sunt id sc concessum esse I suppose they had such power and liberty only in those questions as were not yet fully discussed or determined And again Liberum faciebat quaerendi arbitrium ut examinata veritas penderetur Saint Cyprian therefore allowed them this liberty and power in common That the Truth might be the better discovered amongst them Take either or both Glosses t is evident that neither Saint Cyprian nor Saint Augustine did think That God had shut up all Truth in one Bishops breast or put all power into one Bishops hand But that the several Bishops of several Churches had by the blessing of God both ability to discern the Truth and Authority to publish and to establish it And this was the deliberate determination of the whole Council of Carthage in the year four hundred eighty five to which not only two hundered and thirty Affrican Bishops subscribed but also three Legates from the Bishop of Rome Faustinus Philippus and Asellus in these numerical words Prudentissime justissimeque Niceni Patres providerunt quaecunque negotia in suis locis ubi â—rta essent finienda nec unicuique Provinciae gratiam spiritus sancti defuturam quâ aequitas à Christi Sacerdotibus prudenter videatur constantissime teneatur The Nicene fathers did most judiciously and most justly provide that all controversies should be ended where they were begun For that the Grace of the Holy Ghost would be wanting to no Christian province whereby the Ministers of Christ belonging to that same Province should be enabled beth wisely to see what was just and equall and constantly to hold and to maintain it This Canon saith Goldastus was subscribed by three of the Popes own Legates but sure we are it was subscribed by all the Africane Bishops then present and sent in a letter to Pope Celestine which letter is inserted by Binius as the 105. Chapter of the Africane Council under Boniface and Celestine Tom. 1. Concil par 1. p. 757. edit Colon. Accordingly the same Council in 92. Canon constituteth and ordaineth That a Presbyter or Deacon being aggrieved by his own Bshop should appeal to the neighbouring Bishops or to the Primate or to an Africane Council but by no means to any Bishop out of their own Territories Ad transmarina autem qui putaverit appellandum à nullo intra Africam in communionem suscipiatur But if any shall appeal to countries abroad or beyond the Seas for his redress let no Bishop in Africa admit him to his communion The most reasonable Canon that could be made if particular Churches had their authority immediately from God to appoint those who were aggrieved their remedy at home But if not the most unreasonable to deny them to seek for remedy abroad Surely if we examine the Text we shall find very much spoken in the behalf of particular Churches For even our Saviour Christ himself appointed each particular Church to be judge of every person that lived within its Jurisdiction If thy brother shall trespass against thee tell it unto the Church Mat. 18. 15 17. What Church but that wherein thy brother liveth with thee not another Church wherein he liveth not for then our Saviour would certainly have named that other Church which since he hath not done we must understand this injured man 's own Church or else leave the peace of Christians under very great difficulties and greater uncertainties to this proof taken out of the first let us add another out of the last book of the new Testament Our blessed Saviour sends to the seven Churches which are in Asia Rev. 1. 11 and blames the Angels of them all severally for the several misdemeanors which he had seen in them which plainly shews that those several Angels had their several Trusts and as plainly proves that the doctrine concerning the Trust of particular Churches doth in no wise canton or dismember or disunite the Catholick Church for it is of Christs own teaching who is the head and may not be thought to canton or dismember or disunite his own body Saint Paul likewise sent seven several Epistles to seven several particular Christian Churches as to the Church of Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Philippi Colosse and Thessalonica allowing and confirming the particular authority and Trust of those several particular Churches and yet by no means dividing or disjointing the Catholick Church Whence we may justly infer that what Trust God at first gave to the particular Church of Rome Corinth Galatia and the rest the same he still giveth to other particular Churches and yet without the least division or disunion of this Catholick Church They were all several particular Churches in regard of their trust and jurisdiction they were all but one Catholick Church in regard of their Faith communion neither of them was opposed against the other in that they were accounted as so many several Churches neither of them was advanced above the other that they should all be united into one Church As it was said of the Church of Rome That your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world Rom. 1. 8. so it was likewise said of the Church of Thessalonica In every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad 1 Thes 1. 8. So that this argument can give no more Supremacy to the one Church then to the other and since there cannot possibly be two supreams this Text is very ill urged to prove the Church of Romes supremacy For ought then that can be gathered from these Epistles all the seven Churches were equally Gods Trustees and by consequent all others as well as they not one of them entruâ—ed above the rest and much less with the rest Each to give an account both to God and men for it self not one for All Nay Saint Paul hath taught us a reproof which may justly be used against any particular Church that will needs make it self too authentical above other Churches in that he saith to the Corinthians What came the word of God out from you or came it unto you only 1 Cor. 14. 36. Were you the first founders of the Christian Religion or are you the only Partakers of it was all Religion from you or is there no Religion but with you unless you can make good either one or both of these you may not take upon you to be the only Masters in Gods Israel but must allow others also to be taught of God to have their Religion from him and to have their Communion with him and what is that else but to be a true Christian Church to be called out of the world to Christ the Son of God by Religion to abide and dwell with him by
Bishops and Presbyters in Italy shall give an account for souls in England and as much against reason to say or think that souls in England shall not give an account for their disobedience And as this Position concerning the Authority of our own particular Church is reasonable so is it also religious For this is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians Though you have ten thousand instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me 1 Cor. 4. 15 16. Whence we cannot but collect this dogmatical conclusion That this Church which hath begotten us in Christ claimeth our obedience in Christ and to renounce that obedience is in effect to renounce our being made Christians And as no other Church can truly say to us I have begotten you through the Gospel so no other Church can justly say unto us Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me To sum up all in one word This Doctrine concerning the acknowledging and obeying the authority of mine own Church being both rational and religious I dare not wilfully oppose it for fear of sinning against the God within me that is to say mine own conscience which will certainly by a most terrible and just remorse vindicate the violated dictates of Reason And much more for fear of sinning against the God without me Father Son and Holy Ghost which will certainly by a more terrible and just vengeance at the last day vindicate the violated dictates of Religion CAP. II. That the Church of England hath most carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church SECT I. Gods intent in trusting his Church with Religion was her honour and happiness which should cause our thankfulness to God and our reverend esteem of his Church IT is a great honour to be trusted and as great a happiness to discharge a Trust Accordingly God entrusting his Church with Religion did intend her both honour and happiness Honour with men happiness with himself Honour in earth and happiness in heaven wherein we cannot but admire the goodness and Justice and liberality and mercy of God His Goodness in that he communicateth to his Church his own most excellent property even a will and desire that all men should be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1. Tim. 2. 4. His Justice in that he giveth abilities proportionable to that desire enabling his Church to promote the salvation of men and to bring them unto that heavenly knowledge his Liberality in that he giveth this desire and those abilities meerly of his free grace to enrich our souls not himself And lastly his Mercy in that by giving this desire these abilities and these riches he expelleth our natural defects arising from errour and ignorance whereby we do walk in the false and cannot find out the true way and prepareth us for that bliss and glory which is above nature who can think of this goodness of this Justice of this liberality of this mercy and not say with the Psalmist Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is withâ—n me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities which saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness Psalm 103. 1 2 3 4. For it is his goodness that he forgiveth sin and healeth infirmities his Justice that he forgiveth only the penitent sinners and healeth only those who are broken in heart His mercy that he saveth our life from destruction and his liberality that he crowneth us with mercy and loving-kindness Accordingly he hath commanded his Church to teach especially the Doctrine of Faith to set forth his goodness by which he is reconciled The Doctrine of Repentance to set forth his Justice which hath been satisfied The Doctrine of Free Grace to set forth his mercy in saving us from destruction The Doctrine of eternal glory to set forth his liberality in crowning us with loving kindness O my soul consider the immortal comfort of these heavenly Truths and look upon thy Church which teacheth them as the daughter of immortality as the mother of comfort and as the Bride of the King of Heaven Then wilt thou no more be contentedly without thy Church then thou canst be comfortably without these Doctrines Then wilt thou say with the Psalmist I am fearfully and wonderfully made but with thy self I am more fearfully and wonderfully saved Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psalm 139. 13. I am much amazed at thy great care and providence over my body but much more at thy great care and providence over my soul Thou madest use of my carnal Parents to make me communicating to them as far as they were capable the honour of my Creation Thou makest use of my spiritual Parents to save me communicating to them as far as they are capable the honour of my salvation should I be a monster of nature if I dishonoured the one and shall I not be a monster of grace if I dishonour the other Didst thou confer on them the Dignity of Causality by thy goodness that I should cast upon them the indignity of contumacy by my undutifulness Can I indeed truly honour thee the Principal and dishonour thy Church the instrumental cause of my salvation Thou laid'st thine hand upon me to make me but thou laid'st thine heart upon me to save me O make me wholly to fix my heart upon thee my Saviour and upon thy salvation Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy book were all my members written wstilst thou madest my Body But thine eyes would not see my sinfulness nor my imperfections and thou didst blot all my transgressions out of thy Book that thou mightst save my soul Therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels unto me O God Psalm 139. 17. Dear are thy counsels about my Creation much dearer are thy counsels about my Redemption Counsels they were till thou wert pleased to reveal them by thy Church Since therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels I beseech thee suffer me not to say How cheap is thy Counsellor SECT II. The Churches Trust concerning Religion is to see there be right Preaching Praying and Administring the holy Sacraments That preaching belongs rather to the knowledge then to the worship of God and ought not to thrust out Praying which is the chiefest act of Gods worship and most regarded by him especially when many pray in one communion CHristian Religion teacheth us to know and worship God as is agreeable to his Glory and profitable for our salvation So that the Churches trust concerning the Christian Religion is reducible to these two heads the knowledge and the worship of God And because the Church is trusted with the
it is most strictly commanded by the word of God what can be said more for the excellency of it Then that it is most highly commended by the Son of God I shall only crave leave to add that our own Church rightly judged of this necessity and excellency and as rightly conformed her practice to her Judgement in taking so great care that we should have an exact Translation of the Holy Scriptures and many eminent Expositions of the same so that no People in the world have greater means of knowing God then we have which is the first work of the Christian Religion to teach us to know God All our fault is we have not Affections and Actions answerable to our knowledge which is the second work of Christian Religion to teach us to love and honour God and if our Church hath as faithfully discharged her Trust in this as in the other we shall have great reason to bless God and not the least reason to dislike our Church For what can she teach us more then Christ and the Christian Religion hath taught her which is to know and to worship God If our Church hath thus been our Mistress to bring us unto Piety then much more ought she to be our Mother to keep us in our Duty So shall we not be ungodly without being Monsters of Christians nor undutifull without being Monsters of Men and much less shall we easily suffer our Undutifulness to be the cause of our Ungodliness for we cannot be Undutifull in kicking and spurning against the true Christian communion wherein we are taught to know and worship God but we must also be ungodly in kicking and spurning against the true Christian Religion which consisteth in that knowledge and worship though much more in the worship then in the knowledge and accordingly we hope it will appear that our own Church which hath been so carefull to teach us to know God hath been much more carefull to teach us to worship him for as in the knowledge of him standeth our eternal life so in the worship of him is indeed the very inchoation and anticipation of eternity SECT IV. Praying a greater part of the Churches Trust then preaching The Church hath God the Fathers Precedent and Precept for making set forms of prayer and shall answer for all the blemishes that may be in publick prayers for want of a set form THE Church teacheth us to know God by Preaching but she teacheth us to worship God by praying And accordingly we cannot but think praying a much greater part of her Trust then preaching because though it be a very great happiness truly to know God yet is it a much greater happiness truly to worship him And if the Church be bound to take care that there be no false doctrine in the Pulpit much more there be no absurd prayers at the Desque For the Sermons men naturally hear as Judges letting their discretion go before their Affection But prayers men naturally hear as Communicants letting their affection go before their discretion so that false worship in praying is much more dangerous and may be much more mischievous then false Doctrine in preaching for it is like an unsuspected infection most probable to spread further to sink deeper and to tarry longer Again false worship in praying doth infinitely more dishonour God then false Doctrine in preaching because it more immediately dishonoreth him that is to say not only in his truth by heresie but also in his very nature and essence by blasphemy For though a man may preach blasphemy as well as pray it yet he that preacheth blasphemy blasphemeth God only to men but he that prayeth blasphemy blasphemeth God to his own face Wherefore the Church must needs take a most special care of prayer if she desire to discharge her trust either in regard of God or Man in regard of God as she is obliged to shew forth his glory in regard of men as she is obliged to promote their salvation And indeed for so doing the Church hath very good Precedent and Precept and Promise Her Precedent is God her Precept and Promise are from God Her Precedent is God who having taught so many heavenly forms of prayer in his holy word did in the very act of teaching them as it were cry out to his Church Vade fac similiter Go then and do likewise For if the Jews examples of sin were registred for our instruction as the Apostle plainly affirmeth 1 Cor. 10 11. then much more Gods example of Righteousness And he that commanded Moses to do all things exactly according to the pattern shewed in the Mount when as yet he shewed him but only the out side and the out-works of the Tabernacle doth much more command his Church exactly to follow his example since he hath been pleased to shew her the very inside and marrow of Religion aad therefore if the Tabernable then surely much more the service of the Tabernacle is to be framed and ordered according to his pattern Thus much for Precedent but for Precept we have much more First in the Old Testament God commanded the children of Israel to bring pure Oyl Olive beaten for the light to cause the lamps to burn continually Lev. 24. 2. This command reacheth us for he that would have well beaten Oyl for his lamp will not be contented with extempore effusions but will have well studied and elaborated expressions for his homage unless we will say he did more regard their Typical then he doth our real worship Again God threatned the children of Israel That if they walked at all adventures with him he would bring plagues upon them according to their sins Lev. 26. 21. For so it is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keri for Bekari in Accidente If you walk with me by chance or by accident and so Tremelius renders it Si ambulaveritis mecum temere If ye walk with me rashly or unadvisedly This threat likewise reacheth us and then especially when we most walk with God that is in the exercise of our Religion we must there be sure to do nothing at adventures nothing rashly nothing unadvisedly for unadvisedness in this case is ungodliness and if our prayers be turned into Provocations what shall we have left to make our Atonement But you will say these are rather consequents then arguments I answer if they were so yet they ought to be regarded for God forbiddeth those actions which are sinfull in their consequences and not only in their concomitances but indeed we have choice enough of direct Arguments for so Moses is commanded to speak to Aaron and his sons saying On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gratious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace Numb 6. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coh tebaracu sic benedicatis so ye
and idle and did not suffer them to exercise their gifts do we think the Levites would have so readily and so gladly obeyed them or that they would have forsaken the words of David and of Asaph the Seer to cleave to their own words or that God would have been well pleased with the Kingand Princes for giving such questions grounded upon a Text of holy Scripture as may well stumble if not frighten our consciences therefore Tutior pars must be our solution t is best chosing the safer part that which puts no questions admits no scruples that which we are sure pleaseth God and therefore cannot disturb much less distress our consciences Solomon Jarchi upon this place tells us the very Psalm which the Levites were commanded to sing which he quoteth by the first words of it as the Jews do all parts of the Hebrew Text and they are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hodu leadonai kirau bishemo Confitemini Domino invocate in nomen ejus O give thanks unto the Lord and call upon his name and he alledgeth for his assertion that he finds it so written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sicut scriptum est supra which is the best allegation that Divines can bring and t is a shame that herein the Jewish have out-gone the Christian Divines citing that place of 1 Chron. 16. 7. Then on that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren And that Psalm is nothing else but a great part of the 105. Psalm the whole 96. Psalm the first verse of the 107. and the two last verses of the 106. Psalm which is a very good precedent for the making of Liturgies out of several parts of the Text but must be a precept to make no other Liturgies save such as may be justified by the Text and indeed such Liturgies need no other justification which can alledge for themselves the precedent and the precept of God the Holy Ghost SECT VII The Church hath Gods promise for his blessing upon set forms of prayer T IS not to be imagined that God who hath exalted his written word above the Revelations of Angels Gal. 1. 8. will endure it to be brought under the imaginations of men If not their Revelations then surely not our imaginations can be a sufficient ground of Christian certainty in any point of Doctrine and much less in any practice of Devotion All must be reduced to the written word or all will be reduced to uncertainties Therefore when I go to Church I must be so sure of my going on Gods Errand that not a Prophets saying An Angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord saying bring him back with thee into thine house that he may eat bread and drink water 1 King 13. 18. ought to divert me out of my way unless I will venture to be slain by that roaring lion which goeth up and down seeking whom he may devour Sure I am that a form of prayer prescribed by Gods Church exactly according to Gods word is from God and as sure that whilst I am using that I am going on Gods Errand therefore I may not hearken to any Prophet that will offer to bring me into his own house that I may eat of his bread which may fill my mouth with gravel or drink of his water which is but in some broken cistern I may not depart from Gods house to go into his house nor leave that bread which I am sure is substantial wholesome food to eat of his dow-baked unleavened cake nor leave the waters of life to drink of his puddle water And though I will hope better things yet I may not leave a certainty for an uncertainty and not fear lest a promise being left of entring into his rest I should seem to come short of it for want of faith in my journey or for want of truth at my Journies end which doubtless is the case of all those who go upon uncertainties in matters of Religion who rather think they do God good service then are sure of it and gad about to change their way because they do not know assuredly they are in the right way For my part I must desire to be sure of the practical as well as of the speculative part of my Religion of what I do as well as of what I believe of my Churches devotions as well as of my Churches doctrine For if I lose my certainty I cannot keep my faith and if I do not keep my faith I cannot well lay hold of Gods promises and much less shall I attain them For his promises are made only to believers and believers are only such as go upon certainties Some uncertainty may be in opinion but none in Faith and may I not be ashamed to say I serve God in opinion and how can I serve him in Faith when I go to joyn in such a prayer as I cannot be sure will be directed to God and much less will be accepted of him But what do I speak of my shame in going without Faith to Gods publick worship is it not rather my Churches shame to which God hath committed the charge of his worship and the care of my faith Is not this promise made to the Church Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18. 20. And doth not this promise directly concern common or publick prayer Surely Saint Chrysostome so understood it in that excellent prayer of his which our Church hath borrowed from him as indeed it hath borrowed the true devotions both of Greek and Latine Church but the superstitions of neither Almighty God which hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications unto thee and dost promise that when two or three be gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests c. It is of thy grace that we meet together with one accord to make our common supplications or prayers but it is upon thy promise that we pray for the comfort of our meeting that thou wilt grant us our requests for thou dost promise that when two or three be gathered together in thy name thou wilt grant their requests We must be sure that we have obeyed thy precept in being gathered together in thy name or we cannot be sure we shall obtain thy promise that thou wilt be in the midst of us and grant us our requests Upon the certainty of the precept depends the certainty of the promise upon our being met in thy name depends thy being present at our meeting So we must be sure of thy Name or we cannot be sure of thy presence and we cannot well be sure of thy name unless we be first sure of our prayers and consequently it is necessary for us to make sure of our prayers if we desire to make sure of Gods Promises according to that heavenly prayer of our own Church
For if any reason may be given why ungifted men should be thought not sufficiently qualified for the Ministry or set Prayers not sufficiently qualified for gifted men That reason must relate either to God or to the People or to the Ministers But they who consult with their consciences before they speak and then speak according to the result of those consultations are not afraid to averr That in all these respects it is most requisite that the publick worship of God should not rely upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed and discharged by constant set forms of Prayer not by uncertain and much less by premeditated effusions 1. In respect of God whose name is by set forms glorified more truly because they are deliberate and judicious more zealously because they are propper and efficacious more univerly because they are known to all both as judicious and as efficacious And what can be desired more in Gods publick worship then that it be truly Christian in it self without heresie truly Christian in us without hypocrisie and truly Christian in us all without singularity For if it be so it will certainly not be defective either for want of truth and verity or for want of zeal and sincerity which are both to be in it as it is a duty of Christian Religion Nor yet for want of extent or universality which is to be in it as it is a duty of Christian Communion 2. It is requisite that the publick worship of God should not rely upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed by constant set forms of prayer in regard of the people because they are thereby more truly edified being edified in their understandings not led on hood-winckt by an implicite saith to blind obedience in the greatest performances of Religion Being edified in their wills not distracted by attention when they should be united in affection for the soul being finite cannot be wholly busied in the one but it must partly neglect the other And also being edified in their memories for by often hearing the same prayers they are taught to pray when their occasions will not permit them to resort to the house of prayer In a word being edified in their consciences in that they are taught and inured to come to the holy work of Religion not as Judges to make them proud and censorious nor as spies to make them peevish and captious but as communicants to make them devout and Religious For whilst the Minister is praying what the people know not beforehand they are in truth but as Judges unless you will have them resign their souls upon uncertainties But whilst they are praying with him in a known form of prayer they are certainly as Communicants Therefore it is an unsufferable injury to the people to be tied to speak to God in prayer only by the mouth of their Minister First because it doth not satisfie their consciences which cannot be satisfied but with certainty as well as piety for though the will or affection may assent to a desire in a prayer not known before yet not with the same full assent as if it had been known partly because the soul is assenting whilst it is praying and so what it bestows upon one act it takes from the other and partly because the soul cannot assent so fully nor so firmly upon the suddain as it can upon deliberation not so fully because not upon the same evidence not so firmly because not upon the same assurance of faith Secondly because it doth disturb if not destroy their Communion with Christ which is the chief end that Christians ought to aim at in all their prayers For not being sure that their prayer will be such as to joyn their Saviour with them in the same intercession they cannot be sure it will be such as to joyn them with their Saviour in the same Communion and so they are in danger of losing both the benefit and the comfort of all their publick prayers for the benefit of them depends altogether upon Christs intercession the comfort of them depends altogether upon Christs Communion Thirdly because it doth disturb if not destroy their Communion one with another which destructive way ought to be most carefully avoided and most hatefully detested by all good Christians For next to the breach of piety in Religion they ought to abominate the breach of charity in Communion For love and concord is the very soul of Christianity By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another Joh. 13. 35. And it was the Characteristical note of the first and best Christians And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul Act. 4. 32. And doubtless nothing doth more immediately nor more powerfully conduce to unity in affection then unity in Religion Wherefore since the same common devotions are the most effectual means to produce and to preserve this unity they who are implacable enemies to the one cannot be cordial friends to the other It is reported of Julian the Apostate that after he had conceived an inveterate hatred against the Christians he had no readier way to execute his hatred against them but by endeavouring to make them hate one another And so gathering the most dissenting Christian Bishops and the most factious of the people into his own Palace he advised them to lay aside all Civil discords and to keep the peace of the State but every one securely to follow his own Religion without any regard to the peace of the Church Vt civilibus discordiis consopitis suae quisque Religioni sâ—rviret intrepidus saith Ammianâ—s Marcellinus But what his intent was by this advice Saint Augustine as a Divine more clearly explaineth then their Historian Eo modo â—â—â—abat Christianorum nomen posse perire de terris si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat inâ—ideret sacrilegas dissensiones liberas esse permitteret He thought that by this means the very name of Christians would perish from the earth if according to his envy against the Church from which he had fallen he should permit the Priests and the people a free liberty of sacrilegious dissentions If we turn this Thesis into an Hypothesis it may not be amiss to say that a free liberty of maintaining what doctrines and of exercising what Devotions every man thinks fit is a liberty of sacrilegious dissentions for consent in Doctrine and in devotion commonly go together and this is indeed a sacrilegious liberty because it robs God of his chiefest glory even of his publick worship and Gods Church of her best Patrimony even of her truth and peace Which may be a liberty of mans taking but sure not of Gods giving for Gods intent in giving us a written word was that all Christians might have the grounds of One Religion And his intent in giving so many patterns of prayer in
that written word was that all Christians might have the grounds of One Communion And the right way of edification for all Churches is certainly to lay their foundation upon these grounds which God hath given them that is to establish a set form of Doctrine whereby to maintain the Truth of Religion and a set form of devotion whereby to maintain the Peace of Communion 3. It is requisite that the publick worship of God should not relie upon the personal abilities of the Ministers in praying but should be performed by constant set forms of prayer in regard of the Ministers themselves that they be not led into temptation either through pride vilifying others or through vain glory magnifying themselves and that they be not led into sin particularly the sins of heresie and schism which are desperate sins in private men but damnable sins in Ministers yet must needs be incident to those who rely upon their own gifts in praying more then upon Gods or their Churches prayers For if their gift forsake them as who dares promise its certain continuance they may easily fall into an erroneous expression which rather then recant they may as stiffly maintain by perverse argumentation there 's the danger of heresie And if they abuse their gift they may easily fall into the humour and love of ostentation and so scorn to be regulated and confined by their Church upholding their abominable ostentation by a more abominable separation there 's the danger of schism Besides such men commonly refuse to tie themselves so precisely to any particular form of words though it be of their own making but they may sometimes add alwayes alter according as any emergen occasion offered or affection suggested shall require so that they can never truly say with the Psalmist Paratum cor meum Deus Paratum cor meum O God my heart is ready my heart is ready which yet the Psalmist thought twice worth his saying sc Psal 57. ver 7. Psal 108. ver 1. And much less can they say O God my tongue is ready my tongue is ready though that be the readiness they most labour for and most glory in for every new affection may unsettle their heart and every new phansie may unsettle their tongue so that either the heart must be false to its own preparation because it may be changed by a new affection or the tongue must be false to the heart because it may take a new expression I have a very good precedent though a bad occasion to put the gift of prayer in the lowest forms of Gods gifts that concern the exercise of Religion For Saint Paul in effect hath done it before me who put diversitie of tongues not only after the gift of healing but also after helps in government 1 Cor. 12. 28. or helps and governments that is lay-Elders and Deacons if some late glosses may be embraced and surely the gift of prayer must come under the gift of tongues as comprehended in it or come below the gift of tongues as outpassed by it so I may well put it below the Desk when Saint Paul according to them puts it below the poor mens Box And Saint Chrysostome gives this reason for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost hom 29. 32. in Corinth Because they thought so highly of themselves for the gift of tongues therefore Saint Paul alwayes nameth that in the last place after all the rest There is the same reason now why Saint Pauls Successors in the Ministry should do the like concerning the gift of prayer yet I would have laid my hand upon my mouth before I would have spoken so unkindly to or of my brethren were it not to make them lay their hands upon their hearts before they speak so confidently nay indeed so uncomely to Our Father For as it were better my tongue should cleave to the roof of my mouth then I should disparage the gift of prayer so it were better their tongues should cleave to the roofs of their mouths then they should abuse that gift either to ostentation or to faction or which is yet worse to Irreligion For by such abuse not only man is grosly deceived but also God is grievously dishonoured Doubtless he that bids both Priests and people keep their feet when they go to the house of God that they may be more ready to hear then to give the sacrifices of fools doth much more bid the Priests keep their hearts and their mouths that they may not tempt the people to give the fools sacrifice for want either of such affections or of such expressions as may truly be fit to be offered upon Gods Altar And this is plain from the ensuing words Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God Eccles 5. 1. 2. Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al Tebahal gnal Pica ne feâ—tines super tuo ore Do not make haste upon your mouth Here may easily be much more haste then good speed For your mouth may make haste upon your heart uttering what is scarce yet suggested and you may make haste upon your mouth uttering what is scarce yet digested The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bahal is sometimes to be fearful sometimes to be hasty and thence signifies to make such haste as men use to make in frights when fear hath wholly surprized their wits And such a haste as goes without wit perchance without fear too for men who are audacious are seldom timorous is in a mans own house great imprudence but in Gods house t is moreover great impiety And let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God The better to keep us from the haste of the tongue he disswades us from the haste of the heart for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh therefore if the heart be fraught with hasty affections the tongue will soon be fraught with hasty expressions For he that will permit his heart to love without deliberation will also permit his mouth to speak without it since it is very easie for the heart to come into the mouth when once the assent is come into the heart Therefore he saith Let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing though utterance belongs properly to the mouth the reason is because if the heart hath once spoken it within the mouth will hardly refrain from speaking it without Accordingly the Psalmist when he prayed set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of â—y lips he did also pray Incline not mine heart to any evil thing Psal 141. 3 4. for there could be no watch set upon his mouth unless it were first set upon his heart And indeed here is such a reason alledged as is enough to set a watch both upon all our mouths and upon all our hearts in that it is said For God is in heaven thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few Were he on earth with thee
certainly hold much more in Gods Church Militant then in Gods State Militant Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defie the armies of the living God 1 Sam. 17. 26. They say we discountenance the Gift of Prayer we know we do not only we prefer the Gift of Prayer in the Church above the Gift of Prayer in particular Ministers or the Gift of Prayer as it is exercised to edification above the same gift as it is or may be exercised to ostentation wherein we follow Saint Pauls Doctrine who dehorteth the Ministers of his time from arrogancy in the use of their spiritual gifts first from the efficient cause of those gifts that they have them not from themselves but from God As God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Secondly from the final cause of those Gifts that they have them not for themselves but for their neighbours not for ostentation but for edification So we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another Rom. 12. 3 5. And we say moreover it is more Christian to discountenance the Gift then the Spirit of Prayer For the Gift may be and often is meerly from natural or from customary abilities But the Spirit of Prayer is only from the Grace of God And it is unjust and ungodly That either nature or custom should dare stand in competition with Grace and much more in defiance against it 1. Whereas now a daies if some grave and sober Minister say Prayers either of Gods or of the Churches making though he say them with a most firm attention and a most devout affection yet his person is disregarded his function disparaged his prayers despised 2. But if some meer novice perchance a meer lay-man tumble out his own extemporary thoughts scarce fit to be esteemed or called prayers though with more readiness of expression then holiness of affection yet he is presently admired as one strangely assisted by the Spirit and the People are in effect taught to say with them of Lycaonia concerning such Enthusiasts The Gods are come down to us in the likeness of men Acts 14. 11. Thus is the Spirit of Prayer and with it the grace of God vilified in the one whiles nothing but the Gift of Prayer and with it custom or perchance only nature is magnified in the other For natural parts in attaining that gift do go beyond all acquired abilities so that nature is exalted but studie as well as Grace is debased by it for it is clear that where natural abilities of Phansie and confidence and volubility are wanting all the pains that men can take in searching the Scriptures and all the documents they can get by searching them will not enable them to attain this gift So little Religion is there in our late advancing the Gift of prayer by depressing the Spirit of prayer and yet only upon this mistake I might have said upon this mischief hath it come to pass That the Personal abilities of men have been accepted and approved in Gods own service not only without but also against Gods own Commission SECT XIII That forms of publick Prayer are not to be disliked because they cannot or at least do not particularly provide either Deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or Thanksgivings for their occasional mercies yet our Church not defective in Occasionals though chiefly furnished with Eternals The danger of contemning religious forms of Prayer and gadding after conceived Prayers NO man ought to pretend the Spirit of God either for rejecting Gods authority in his Church or forbear disobeying Gods command in his holy word And if these two may bear the sway set forms of Prayer will justly claim the preheminence in Gods publick worship above all conceived Prayers whatsoever yet there is one main Plea why Ministers should labour to attain the gift of Prayer and that is That they may be able to speak where commonly their Church is silent and as need shall require either make deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or thanksgivings for their occasional mercies And yet even in this respect The gift of Prayer may be more safely used upon premeditation then without it For supposing a Minister furnished with abilities of expressing himself readily and fitly upon all emergencies yet there being at least a possibility of miscarriage in his suddain effusions and those miscarriages which intervene in prayer being doubtless unsufferable if not unpardonable it would scarce be prudent if it were pious in such a man to adventure himself wholly upon his extemporary faculty But even in such a case either to form his Prayer in his mind if he have time or to use some form already in his memory if he have not So that his Prayer though it may seem conceived in regard of the Occasion yet will be little other then formed in regard of the premeditation But this by way of Caution in the use of the Gift As for the Gift it self be it said not only by way of Concession but also of Congratulation that in this respect and for this end it is to be most chiefly desired and may be most profitably exercised by any Minister so that in regard meerly of this ministration we may not unfitly apply unto such Ministers as have this Gift that eulogie of Saint Paul Qui benè ministraverint gradum bonum sibi acquirent multam fiduciam in fide quae est in Christo Jesu 1 Tim. 3. 13. They that have ministred well shall purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the Faith which is in Christ Jesus No doubt but they have ministred and do minister very well who minister to the people of God in their corporal and much more in their spiritual necessities and such Ministers do purchase to themselves a good Degree in the Ministry and a great boldness in the Faith only they were best take heed That they turn not this great boldness in their faith to a greater boldness in their Ministry For boldness in their faith may be commended when boldness in their Ministry may be justly condemned And they will turn the boldness of their faith into the boldness of their Ministry if they minister though in this excellent kind not as Demetrius who had a good report of all men and of the truth it self but as Diotrephes who loved to have the preheminence prating against others with malicious words and not only casting the Brethren out of the Church but also casting the Church out of the Nation under pretence of the want of this Gift For which intolerable pride and presumption not only an Apostle of Christ but also a meer heathen Poet will one day rise up Judgement against them who maketh Agamemnon say thus of Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ilid α. If so be the Gods have made him a most famous warriour Have they therefore licenced him to reproach other men If God Almighty hath
Apostles rule Hold fast that which is good is not to be observed in all good but only in the very best The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of Truth Eccles 12. â—10 If he that preacheth ought to seek for acceptable words that is words sutable both to the matters he speaks of and the persons he speaks to then much more he that prayeth since praying ought to be more carefully provided and more conscionably performed then preaching For in preaching a man speaks to men but in praying a man speaks to God And for this cause the Church thinks it her duty to provide for us acceptable words in praying whilst she leaves us to provide our own acceptable words in preaching The Prophet Hosea exhorteth the Israelites to take with them words and turn to the Lord Hos 14. 2. He asks not Gold nor Silver not burnt offerings saith Rabbi David but good words from you that with them you will confess your sins and return unto the Lord with all your heart and not only with your lips Here t is plain by his Gloss that the Prophet enjoyns a form of confession and bids them take good words that they may have good hearts nay t is plain by the Text it self for those good words or that form of confession is particularly expressed as well as enjoyned in the next words Say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously But it were in vain to pray unto God to receive us graciously if we did pray ungraciously therefore taking with us words according to Gods command in Hosea must needs well agree with the Spirit of grace and of supplications according to his promise in Zechariah Zech. 12. 10. And as the Papists do vainly arrogate and more vainly appropriated the Title of Religion to their monastical vows so the Enthusiasts do as vainly arrogate and more vainly appropriate the Title of the Spirit to their phantastical prayers and good Protestants have no more reason to think they want these prayers to make them spiritual then that they want those vows to make them Religious I do not discourage or discountenance any particular mans gifts for I do heartily wish as Moses did I would to God all the Lords people were Prophets but I must needs profess that he which ascended on high led captivity captive to give gifts unto men hath given the greatest gifts where he hath given the greatest promises and he hath given greater promises to his Church then to any member or Minster of the same If I follow the Church making use of the gift of prayer which God hath given her I do that which God hath required of me For the Church hath commission from God to teach me to pray or that of Luk. 11. 1. was not written for our instruction But if I follow any other mans gifts who hath not that commission I may justly fear that God who will one day say to him Who hath required this at your hands for making such prayers will not say much less to me for hearing them As for that slight objection of deadness formality men are subject to more from set forms then from conceived prayers t is in its consequence a blasphemy against the holy Scriptures for it reacheth the prayers penned there by the Holy Ghost as well as penned here by the Church so that I hope none will blame me for calling the objection slight now I have proved it wicked For how is it possible for any man to say that prayer by book is flat and dead without undervaluing all the prayers in the holy Bible and contemning the very Book of books Let him next say Evangelium Atramentarium away with this Inkie-Gospel but withal let him know that he cannot thus turn Enthusiast unless he will first turn Papist So he shall turn to the worse for his person and he cannot depend upon suggestions instead of books but he must turn prayer from being an act of Reason nay from being an act of Faith to be an act of phansie if not of faction And so he shall turn to the worse also for his prayers yet all this while we cannot but take notice that our adversaries are very hard put to it for an accusation when they are fain to fetch it from our hearts which they cannot know should not judge dealing with us as some of the Rabbies dealt with Job for when the Text had said of him In all this Job sinned not with his lips as we doubt not but it doth also in effect say of our Church concerning her Common Prayers two of them sc Ralbag and Jarchi are pleased to add this gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abal belibbo Chata But yet sure he sinned in his heart To conclude a set form of Doctrine we must have or be Heretical A set form of Discipline we must have or be irregular and why not also have a set form of devotion or be irreligious for we cannot well be unanimously Religious without a set form of publick prayer and the want of unanimity will soon beget the want of Religion for God is love and therefore we cannot be without love but we must be without God and consequently men cannot be long without true charity but they will also be without true piety And as for making the Common Prayer Book an Idol if it be not an objection of great impiety by calling true Religion Idolatry yet it is an argument of great absurdity because it may cast the Bible must cast the Sabbath out of the Church For men may Idolize one good Book as well as another so the Bible may go ere long but some have already Idolized the Sabbath so that must stay no longer I do the rather instance upon this latter for that it comes neerest our present case 1. Because publick prayer is the duty of the Sabbath and that ought to be publick in its substance that is in its matter and form as well as in its Accidents that is time place and persons 2. Because the same Method is to be observed in words as in time Gods consecration is to be the rule of ours in them both he hath consecrated we may what he hath consecrated we must he hath said make holy we may he hath said make holy the Sabbath day we must he hath said when ye pray say thus we must he hath said after this manner therefore pray we may Had he not given us that latitude we might not have taken it but must have only used such prayers in his publick worship as his holy Spirit had left us in the holy Scriptures Now he hath given this latitude we must make the best use of it by making and using such prayers as we know are after this manner though not in these Words we have as great need of set forms of prayers to find our tongues as of set forms of Laws to bind our heads to
glory Thus Aristotle lib. 6. Eth. cap. ult ingeniously answereth their objection who would make Prudence to be above Sapience because Prudence commandeth Sapience and he answereth it by this distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illius causa praecipit non autem illi Prudence commands for Sapience but not over her we are willing to look upon Christs Church as upon the best Prudence in the world but withall we must look upon Christ himself as the only Sapience the only true and eternal wisdom and accordingly say That the Church commandeth for Christ but not over him He that commandeth over another is certainly his superiour but he that commandeth for another is not so but rather his inferiour As Physick commandeth or prescribeth for health and therefore in that regard is not superiour but inferiour to health being made subservient to its recovery or continuance And if we will not allow this distinction we must according to Aristotle affirm the state or Common-wealth to be above God himself for she prescribeth his worship and if we will allow it we may not deny the Church to be under him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle wherefore if it be absurd in the judgement of a heathen to allow the civil state a power eminent above or equal with the false Gods because she commandeth their worship Then much more ought it to be absurd in the judgement of a Christian to allow the Ecclesiastical State a power eminent above or equal with the true God meerly upon the ground and reason of the same command Yet on the other side as Prudence ought to prescribe for Sapience so the Church ought to prescribe for Christ And as he that neglecteth the particular prescriptions of Prudence is the further from attaining the general dictates of Sapience So he that neglecteth the particular directions of Christs Church is the farther from apprehending the General instructions of Christs Word I must then take both Christs Word and Christs Church for my guides in the choice of my Christian Communion His Word for my guide that I be not guilty of superstition His Church for my guide that I be not guilty of Faction And having taken these two guides either I shall meet with no objections from mine own conscience and it is no matter what I meet with from other mens tongues against my Religion or I shall meet with very good solutions to answer them As for example Let this be the Catechism concerning my Religion Quest 1. Vpon what authority do you profess your Religion Answ Upon the highest authority in heaven and in earth the authority of God and of his Church The authority of God for 't is consonant to his word as my Rule The authority of Gods Church for 't is consonant to her Practice as my Example Quest 2. Do you think that you are bound to ground your Religion upon this twofold authority Answ I do especially as to the publick exercise or profession of it For without the first I shall have superstition instead of Religion without the second I shall have faction instead of Communion Quest 3. How can you prove that your particular Church hath authority from God to order you in the outward exercise of Religion Answ By the same proofs of the Text which prove any Church whatsoever to have that authority For Christs commission to Saint Peter Feed my sheep John 20. 16. is by him derived unto other Pastors Feed the Flock of God which is among you 1 Pet. 5. 2. He saith not Feed that part of my flock which is among you to help or to assist me but Feed the Flock of God to honour and obey him And he saith the flock of God which is among you to shew that the flocks needed no more look abroad for their Pastors then the Pastors needed look abroad for their flocks since they were actually one among the other And yet if the words had been less punctual they had not been less prevalent For feed the flock of God must alike concern all Churches since no prophesie or command of the Scripture is of any private interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. and therefore this command must alike concern all Churches Quest 4. What need you look after the Authority of God in the choice or practice of your Religion is not his Church allotted you for your only guide Answ No it is not for my Religion though it be for my Communion For if I serve God with a blind obedience I cannot serve him with my conscience and that is no other then a blind obedience to serve him upon anothers not upon his own command They that would perswade me to this should make the ninth Article of the Apostles Creed the First and teach me to say I believe the holy Catholick Church before I say I believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For all the world cannot deny but my belief in God is the only ground of all my Faith even as my love of God is the only ground of all my obedience And since all Religion consists in faith and obedience well I may look upon my Church as the conveyance but I must look upon God only as the Donor and Giver or the Author of my Religion SECT II. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Doctrine free from Heresie and from the necessary cause thereof a false ground or foundation of Faith that is Believing upon the Authority of man instead of God I had little Reason and should have less Religion to be true to my Church if my Church were not true to my Saviour the eternal Truth Therefore I must needs acquit my Church from Heresie that I may keep my self from Apostasie For if she hath fallen away from Christ I might lawfully fall away from her at least internally by with-drawing my affection which ought to be fixed upon Gods Truth if not externally by with-drawing my person which ought not to disturb the Churches Peace Let me see then how my Church hath kept Gods Truth that I may learn how to keep my Church And herein I cannot but perswade my self that what our blessed Saviour once spake to those Jews which believed on him he still speaketh to us Christians who profess the same belief If ye continue in my word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free John 8. 31 32. And by the rule of contraries If we continue not in his word then are we not his Disciples in deed but only in shew and we shall not know the Truth and the Truth shall not make us free Therefore no Church can boast of being his Disciple which doth not continue in his Word that she may continue in his Truth And in this respect I cannot but continue in my Church that I may continue both in his Word and in his Truth because I see she hath continued in both so that the Truth
mente super Altare offero quam in primo publico consistorio solenniter repetam Concil Basil sess 40. I made this digression only to shew That unless the Holy Scriptures be taken for the foundation of our faith we are like to have none For a general Council is not this foundation saith Bellarmine The Pope is not say these two Councils and the Pope himself swears on their side So Bellarmine defines against the Councils the Councils define against the Pope and the Pope not only defines but also swears against himself And we conceive that Saint Paul defined against them all when he said He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. 31. and again That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. T is only Gods truth which can be the foundation of our faith whether propounded by the Scriptures or by the Church as saith Aquinas Formale objectum Fidei est veritas prima secundum quod manifestatur in Scripturis sacris Doctrina Ecclesiae quae procedit ex veritate prima The formal object of faith is the first truth according as it is manifested in the holy Scriptures and in the doctrine of the Church which proceedeth from the first truth He is willing to take in the Church but he is not willing to leave out the Scriptures nay indeed he preferreth the Scriptures above the Church in the manifestation of Gods truth when he saith Doctrina Ecclesiae quae procedit ex veritate prima in Scripturis sacris manifestata 22ae qu. 5. art 3. c. The Doctrine of the Church which proceedeth from the first truth manifested in the holy Scriptures So that according to Aquinas Gods truth first cometh to the Scriptures from them to the Church That truth the Scriptures propound to the Church by way of definition That same truth the Church propoundeth to us by way of declaration Shall we think the declaration may overthrow the definition of truth or the Church may overthrow the Scripture This were in effect to allow that we as Christians do glory in men more then in God and that our faith in Christ doth more stand in the wisdom of man then in the power of God Such a foundation of faith as this which relyes upon man is laid upon the sand or upon grass For all flesh is grass But the foundation of faith which relyes upon the Scriptures is laid upon a Rock The word of the Lord endureth for ever and this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you 1 Pet. 1. 24 25. This foundation which is laid upon Gods word is as firm and as infallible as God himself for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2. Tim. 3. 16. And this is the foundation of our faith not as Protestants but as Christians we vindicate it as Protestants but we hold it as Christians For no Christian Church or Council did lay any other foundation of faith before that unhappy Council of Trent which began not till the year of our Lord 1545. and ended not till the year 1563. All the cavils that have been raised against the holy Scriptures have been raised since that time to the great dishonour of Christ the great disturbance of Christendom the great discontent of good Christians the great disadvantage of the Christian Faith For the foundation cannot possibly give that firmness to the building which is not in it self therefore there cannot be a greater disadvantage to the Christian Faith then to ground it upon an infirm and an unsure foundation And such a foundation is the word of man instead of the word of God For he that believeth the most Divine truths only upon humane authority can have but an humane an infirm an uncertain Faith Therefore Divine truths must be believed upon Divine authority that we may have a Divine faith concerning them For t is absurd in Reason impious in Religion to have but a humane faith of Divine Truths because the habit and act are infinitely unproportionable to the Object For there may be a twofold errour in our faith the one materially when we believe what God hath not revealed And so they only are erroneous in the faith who believe falsities or uncertainties The other formally when we believe what God hath revealed but not upon the authority of his revelation and so they also may be erroneous in the faith who believe the most sure and certain Truths The ready way to avoid both these errors is to take the written word of God for the foundation of our faith wherein we are sure to meet with Gods truth or verity for the matter of our belief and with Gods Authority or Testimony for the cause of our believing And since our Church teacheth this and no other faith no man can say she is guilty of Heresie that will not make himself guilty of Blasphemy For the Communion of our Church is free from Heresie not only Materially in that she believes no untruths or uncertainties but also Formally in that she believeth Gods truths upon Gods own authority So that to call such a faith Heresie which is wholly of God and through God must needs be blasphemy For my part I confess that I do not see how I can be sufficiently thankful to God for making me a member of such a Communion and therefore am sure I cannot be too zealous for it nor too constant in it A Communion which neither hath Heresie in the Doctrine of faith nor the cause of Heresie in the foundation of faith And truly to be rid of Heresie in its self and in its cause are both very great blessing but yet the latter is the greater of the two For a true reason of believing which rids us from Heresie in its cause may partly excuse even a falsity in the belief when a man believes what is not true because he thinks God hath revealed it But a false reason of believing can scarce justifie a truth in the belief when a man believes what is true but not upon the authority of Gods revelation The one desires to be a true believer in a false article the other resolves to be a false believer in a true article of faith The one in the cause of his faith believes the truth whilst in the doctrine of it he believes an errour the other in the cause of his faith believes an errour for every man is a lyar and may suggest a lye whilst in the Doctrine of it he believes a truth the one in the uprightness of his heart cleaves to God when in his mouth he departs from him the other in the perversness of his heart departs from God when in his lips he draws neer unto him The uprightness of heart makes the one a true man in his errour as S. Cyprian in his false Tenent of rebaptiz ation the perversness of heart makes the other a false man in his truth as
Tertullian in any true doctrine which he maintained after he attributed more to Montanus then to the Holy Ghost A faith which is unsound in its Doctrine but sound in its foundation is so explicitely false in its profession as that t is implicitely true in its affection and the truth which is in its affection may recover must restrain the untruth which is in its profession So that such a man may say with Saint Augustine Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo I may be erroneous I will not be an Heretick but a faith which is unsound in its foundation though it be sound in Doctrine is so explicitely true in its profession as that t is implicitely false in its affection the falseness which is in its affection may destroy must diminish the truth which is in its profession so that we may justly say of such a man he may not be erroneous and yet he must be an Heretick because he believes truth not upon the authority of the first truth but upon that authority which may teach him a lye instead of truth that is upon that authority which is not in fallible and therefore must beget in him a fallible may beget in him a false faith SECT III. That the communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in devotion free from impiety either by corrupt Invocation or Adoration THE choice as well as the Duty of Religion being enjoined in the three first commandments concerning its internal acts in the first concerning its external reverence in the second concerning its external profession in the third and the choice as well as the Duty of communion being enjoyned in the fourth Commandment t is evident that every man is bound first to make choice of his Religion then of his Communion first to make sure that his worship of God be true and right before he communicate in the publick exercise of that worship This is the Method Saint Paul commended in the Macedonians and therefore commandeth in us saying They first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave themselves first to the Lord in the choice of their Religion then to us his Church in the choice of their Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome fulfilling the Laws of God and also by charity being linked and joyned to us So that in his gloss the faith is before the charity the Law of Religion before the bond of Communion And so he explaineth these words by the will of God to shew they gave themselves unto him not for his own sake but for Gods sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They gave themselves to us not through any humane affection but for the Divine command therein following Gods will not their own If this were the Method they observed in giving of their substance then much more in giving of their souls they gave themselves first to God then to his Church so must we And consequently we must be sure the Communion of our Church is truly Christian in devotion as well as in Doctrine that we may give our selves to our Church and conscionably joyn in her Communion And when we are sure of this we must give our selves to our Church and to her Communion by the will of God For it is the will of God that we should keep his Commandments in that order which he hath given them and consequently nothing but the apparent breach of the three first Commandments concerning Religion can enervate the obligation of the fourth concerning Communion or of the fifth concerning Obedience And I am clearly bound to my Church both by the fourth Commandment to embrace her Communion and by the fifth Commandment to obey her authority unless I can prove that she hath disobeyed God in setting up a false Religion against the three first Commandments For truly there can scarce be a false or superstitious publick worship without the united breach of all the three first Commandments for what prayer is against the first Commandment in the Object invocated is against the second Commandment in the gesture accompanying against the third in the words expressing that invocation For as with the heart man believeth according to the first so with the body man worshippeth according to the second and with the tongue man confesseth according to the third Commandment Wherefore if the faith be false the adoration and the confession cannot be true As for example in that prayer to the blessed Virgin Tuspes certa miserorum Verè mater orphanorum Tu levamen oppressorum medicamen infirmorum Omnibus es Omnia Te rogamus voto pari laude digna singulari ut errantes in hoc mari nos in portu salutari Tâ—asistat gratia Amen Sequentia in conceptione B. Mariae There is a false faith in believing that of the blessed Virgin which is true only of God particularly that she is all in all which the Apostle peculiarly saith of God 1 Cor. 15. 28. and reason it self bids us say of him only for what is it to be all in all but to be wisdom righteousness sanctification redemption and salvation which are the immediate effects or effluencies and emanations of omnisciency omnipotency and al-sufficiency And as there is in this superstitious prayer a false faith against the first so there is also a false adoration against the second a false profession against the third Commandment and we can do no less in right to Religion then charge such prayers as these both with idolatry and with blasphemy and till those that use them can justifie their Religion and t is palpable from their very composures such prayers have been of no long use in the Church they cannot in justice claim our Communion Therefore it is a singular blessing which we enjoy that we have no other object of our publick prayers but God alone in whom we may must believe as our Almighty Creator and Al-merciful Saviour for there is no other way to keep us from idolatry and from blasphemy in praying since the Apostles question is so propounded as to be declared unanswerable How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10. 14. Where it is evident that faith is made the only ground of invocation and consequently since we can believe only in God we ought to pray only to God For when the Apostle speaks only of God saying The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed t is rather for Sophisters then for Divines to bring in the Saints as his fellow-sharers either in the faith or in the invocation unless we could also bring them in to be his fellow-sharers in the Lordship for because men have faith in God as Lord over all and as rich unto all that call upon him that is because
in relation to the people to those who have a great number to countenance any insolency and as great a power to continue it and to say it in the name of God is to say that which if it doth not make the people tractable will certainly make them inexcusable And this Saint Paul saith so frequently that we are bound to look upon it as his common dialect and therefore as our own special duty I will instance only in that Text which as it allows the necessity of Ecclesiastical Discipline so it allayes the severity of it for these times though they most shew the want or necessity of Church government yet will they least endure the severity of the same And that Text is in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians the third Chapter 14. and 15. Verses And if any men obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed yet count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother T is without all doubt and therefore should be without all dispute that these words were not written occasionally but âoctrinally and consequently contain in them such a precept as now at this time concerns us no less then it did at that time concern the Thessalonians And our Church is no less intrusted with this precept then theirs was and as much bound to execute this command of observing admonishing avoiding such as obey not the Apostles Word or Doctrine whether by his own Epistles or by the Churches Sermons Whether by his writing or by her speaking whether by his Hand or by her mouth What remains then if I obey not but wilfully persist in disobeying the Apostles Doctrine taught me by this Church which God hath set over me but that I look upon my self as one excommunicated by this Canon of the Holy Ghost and consequently as one whose sins are bound and retained in heaven though possibly not so much as taken notice of here on Earth And therefore I have great reason to fear that sentence which a Bishop of this Church hath recorded upon this very Text though now I see no visible Judge to pronounce it In nomine Dei c. In the name of the living God and of Jesus Christ before whom I stand and before whom all flesh shall appear by the authority of his word and by the power of the Holy Ghost I divide thee from the fellowship of the Gospel and declare that thou art no more a member of the body of Christ Thy name is put out of the book of life Thou hast no part in the life to come thou art not in Christ and Christ is departed from thee I deliver thee to Satan the Prince of darkness thy reward shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone Thou shalt starve and wither and not abide The Grace of God is taken out of thy Heart The face of the Lord is against all them that do evil they shall not taste of his mercy Bishop Jewel in his Commentary on 2 Thes 3. This is a sentence that I have reason to fear if I be disobedient to the Doctrine and bid defiance to the worship of Almighty God which I have learned in this Church For rather then the Synagogue of Satan shall be confounded with the Church of God Christ himself will re-assume that Power which he hath given to his Ministers he will become the judge rather then obstinate sinners shall want the sentence of condemnation Nay it is to be feared that he is become the Judge already and hath moreover ratified his own sentence for surely men are divided from the fellowship of the Gospel Christ is departed from them and the grace of God is taken out of their hearts when they altogether delight in divisions and are as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine nay carried away with all deceivableness of unrighteousnesness because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And indeed men are first generally carried away by the deceivableness of unrighteousness and after that by the deceivableness of untruth The deceivableness of unrighteousness will not let them receive the love of the truth and then the deceivableness of untruth will not let them retein the Doctrine of it as it follows For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2. 11 12. They first have pleasure in unrighteousness and will not believe the truth and from thence proceed to have pleasure in untruth that they may defend and maintain their unrighteousness First they will not give themselves to believe the truth then God gives them to belielieve a lye First they contemn those whom God hath sent then God sends them strong delusions First they believe not the truth because they have pleasure in their sins then they believe a lye that they may perish in their sins O the unspeakable mercy of God who hath given us this warning to day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts O the impartial Justice of God who hath given us this doom that if we hear not his voice to day we shall harden our hearts to morrow Let us consider how the Primitive Christians obeyed their spiritual guides and we shall never want the Method and much less lose the zeal of our obedience We will never let it be said that we have lived so many years to understand our Religion now mean to live the rest of our dayes to abandon it alwayes remembring that heavenly contemplation of the Angelical Doctor Ratio Aeternitatis consequitur Immutabilitatem sicut ratio temporis consequitur motum 1 par qu. 10. art 2. Eternity is founded upon unchangeableness as time is founded upon change Therefore we cannot lay a greater reproach upon Religion then to think or to shew it changeable as if it rather belonged to time then to eternity Secondly this obligation which binds us to our spiritual Pastors and Guides hath not lost its force of binding us because of the duty to which we are bound which is the publick practice of Religion A duty which we cannot perform without the direction of the Church for without that when we come together every one will have a Psalm a Doctrine a tongue a revelation an interpretation 1 Cor. 14 26. yet a duty which we cannot wilfully neglect without the danger if not the damnation of our souls For this comes neer that damnable sin of spiritual slothfulness which regards not Communion with God and he that regards not communion with God here how can he hope for the fruition of God hereafter T is the common course of men now to say are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better then all the Waters of Israel may I not wash in them aud be clean