your gods that made not the heavens and the earth shall perish Mathe. Of what did he make the world Phila. Of nothing and that not of nothing privatively as an Idol is said to be nothing in the world 1 Cor. 8.4 i. hath no divinity in it Nor of a comparative nothing as Esa 40.15 The whole world is nothing in comparison of God but he created all of nothing negatively and simply i. he had nothing to make all but his word only And he only can bring a thing to nothing when he pleaseth to substract his divine influx as Psal 90.3 So he can only turn one substance into another without naturall preparation as water into wine John 2. and Lots wife into a pillar of salt Gen. 19. Therefore Satan to trie Christs divinity would have him to turn stones into bread So God only can give forms to things Gen. 1.2 3. to which purpose his spirit was said to move upon the waters So he only gives life preserves and restores it Therefore to God we attribute three creations 1. To make all of nothing 2. When he makes that good which was perfectly evil Gen. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 51. Create in me a new heart 3. When he shall restore all men at the Resurrection Mathe. In what form did God make the world and into what parts Phila. Certainly round so Psal 93.1 He hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved And this roundnesse is sphericall not like a round trencher but like a ball as appeareth now by experience though thought otherwise in former times The parts in generall are heaven and earth the one including the other For the earth and sea making one globe hangeth in the aire upon nothing Job 26.7 Not as the Poets think weighed with its own weight But because as Job saith God stretched out the North upon the empty place By North Ovid. Metam lib. 1. Thahava understanding not so much the Northern part but that magneticall vigor which God hath impressed upon that vast circumference in which the earth hangeth which vigor figuratively is called the North because though it attracted all the parts of the Chaos to the center of the North and South Poles yet the North Pole hath the more magnetick vertue which vertue is of such power in both Poles that if the earth could be remembred from them yet it will thither again like a needle removed from the Load-star Thus God hath hung this huge globe upon no basis nor sustentation for the sea runs in the earths channell and the earth hangs meerly by a magnetick attraction and meridionall projection without any prop at all Mathe. Whether might not the world have been made better Phila. Not in respect of the totall though in regard of some parts for every part was good though not one part so good as another but all being made God saw that it was so very good as it could not be mended So in respect of some particular men it were better they were born Noble or rich yet in regard of the totall corporation of men in which all cannot be alike it is better for them to be as they are It is sufficient that God makes all good though not all in the same height of goodnesse Mathe. To what use is the heaven and the stars Phila. For the nourishing of the inferiour creatures in the aire earth and sea by their influences For God therefore hath included the inferiour globe in the heavens upon whose highest extream circle he sitteth Psal 68.32 and by his providence in nature nourisheth this great egg causing a perpetuall generation and production of creatures therein The stars serve to give light to measure time by their motion to divide seasons to give life to plants as say some of the Hebrew Doctors that every herb hath its mazal or star Mathe. Have they not power in mens Nativities and Fortunes Phila. The Scriptures deliver to us no such thing save what is said And it is fit we rest therein and not to thrust our selves into things of uncertainty as Colos 2.18 some did about the worship of Angels for what power can they have more then over the bodie of man as to encline his mind to this or that since man is endued with free will and subjected to education which is more powerfull then stars as we see in some Socrates marked out by nature to some vices which good tutoring preventeth Therefore surely as judiciall Astrology is doubtfull so it cannot be lawfull 1. Because it imputes that to the stars which God hath not endowed them withall 2. Because it hath no evidence of divine writ 3. The authors of it were men of no sound judgement or Religion as the old Aegyptians Chaldeans Babylonians or Arabians Nor doth God any where in Scripture commend it to his people either for knowledge or practise and yet were it fit for them surely God would not grudge it them as the devill insinuated to Eve about the tree of knowledge But we find it forbidden under the names of a planetary or an observer of times as if one day were good and another bad Deut. 18.10 and God hath denied his people to consult with Astrologians and punished them for being furnished with sooth-saiers from the East and proclaimed himselfe to be one that frustrateth the tokens of the lyars and maketh the Diviners mad and chargeth his people that they should not be afraid of the signs of heaven as the heathen were Hor. Ode babylonios tentare numeros And indeed some of the ancient heathen Poets have thought it ridiculous to cast figures or to try nativities And the Primitive Christians in token of their conversion to Christ burnt their books of curious Arts. Beside some of great knowledge in it yet will not practise it and they that have done it have run into high presumption As he that supposed that Christs disputing so young with the Doctors was caused by the Planet Jupiter being in his ascendent and Libra the cause of his justice and righteousnesse Thus they make Jacobs star subject to Planets which if he were he had needed no other star to be created purposely for his nativity Beside Mat. 2. it renders the providence of God but vain to be depended upon if the influence of the stars necessitates us to good or evill Also it makes void the crosse of Christ if a man could be exempted from it by the benignity of his stars So it prevents our devotion and waiting on God by faith and hope which God requireth in all those that are in covenant with him Besides stars are things meerly materiall consisting of light and heat and not things spiritually animated by either Angels as Trithemius and others thought who counted seven elect Angels to be the praefects of the seven planets The old Poets like the heathen before them thought Philo. Biblius Diodorus Plat. de defect Orac. that the
mankind from the wrath of God the slavery of Satan and the dominion of sin and death which rightly to know and beleeve leads to life eternall Mathe. How may one attain this knowledge Phila. By right understanding the holy Scriptures in its propositions and consequences Now the Scripture tels us that the first man sinned and so incurred the wrath of God upon himselfe and all his posterity Rom. 5. yet he so graciously promised him that the seed of the woman should break the serpents head i. ruine the policies and works of the Devill wrought in and against man Now from whence commeth this doth God intend to put up this wrong and passe it over then how can his justice be satisfied or if infinite justice must be satisfied by some suffering for that sin then who must undergo it If we look upon God as absolutely one without distinction then the offended must mediate with himselfe and so put up this offence yea the Father God must be the sufferer without any mediator Gnosticks or Patrispassiani But this cannot be for a mediator is not of one but God is one Gal. 3.20 yet infinite justice must be satisfied by an infinite person The scriptures therefore declare that in the Godhead there be three persons Father Son and holy Ghost Now though we cannot so well apprehend how the essence divine can mediate to it selfe for man yet we may conceive how one person can mediate to another and so that the Son who lay hid in the bosome of the Father before all time did consult and mediate with the Father about it We must therefore understand first That God made man as perfect as a creature rationall could be made saving only that he gave him not immutability which is a portion beyond created nature For the very Angels that stood once were yet mutable in themselves and they that stand now are not immutable in themselves though they be in their estate and the reason is they that fell chose to stand by their own naturall power without dependency upon God they that stood chose to stand by dependency upon the Archangell the Son of God the first born of every creature Colos 1.15 and of whom the whole family of heaven and earth is named Eph. 3.15 these were the elect Angels Now as they stood by love so man must be recovered by faith in him Aug. Servans hos salvens illos that is the same Archangell and Son of God Jesus Christ who is the head of men and Angels Col. 1.18 creating both but preserving them and saving us from all the bitter effects of sin and leading us to eternall selicity by grace on earth to glory in heaven This is the way to felicity first To know God Then secondly my selfe and miserable condition and thirdly The remedy in Christ Mathe. How come men to wander so much in the seeking of it Phila. The reason of it is first The sin of Adam and Eve who sought to find the chief good in that which God the chiefe good prohibited Mans soule is troubled with a vertigo ever since and running round in a maze is not able to find the right object and if any time we come neer it yet like the Sun comming to his verticall point in the tropick we turn back to the old course Some men know nothing of felicity yet they aime at something they fansie to be good for them yea at a kind of immortality as in writing building or to practise Arts or Arms or purchasing and conquering all which are but shadowes of felicity and may keep our names alive while the soule may be damn'd as the body is dead Some are worse that place their felicity in carnall delights as in cating drinking Phil. 3.19 and wantonnesse which ends commonly in bitternesse shame and death Now though that felicity is thus divorsed by mans mistakings 〈…〉 ing round in a large circumference of mans vain apprehensions yet by serious consideration it may be reduced to one centrall point for when we have wearied our selves like Noah's Dove we must return to the Ark at last for rest and safety for only in God the soule takes rest Aratus for as we are the off-spring of God Acts 17.27 28. so he is not far from any of us and we may find him by nature if we would grope after him but especially by Scripture which teacheth us to know God in Christ for none can come to the father but by him otherwise we know not felicity at all or not rightly for as no man can divide a circle till he have found the center so neither the circumference of true felicity till we fix the foot of our affection in God like one foot of a compasse And as a man may find the center of a circle though he seeth it not so may one find God in the circumference of his works though he never saw him and felicity in Christ though he never yet knew it before Mathe. The knowledge of God being mans felicity it is not amisse to prove there is a God for he that commeth to God must beleeve that God is therefore I pray you prove to me there is a God Phila. I suppose you urge not this question because you doubt it but because you would have reason to satisfie others therein Therefore that there is a God fit to be known of all men I shall prove by reason for though Scriptures be enough to prove it to us that beleeve yet not to them who beleeve not therefore reason in this point is needfull for many will not beleeve unlesse their understanding be over-powred by miracle or revelation or by some extraordinary energeticall operation of God upon the soule they will not beleeve except their reason be convinced of the truth of Scriptures that they are of God and of divine revelation otherwise he thinks that his faith is but implicit or folded up in other mens beleefe or a weak yielding to antiquity or authority of Lawes and Customes without examination of their analogy and agreement with pure and primary reason and I beleeve if pure reason were not clouded by idlenesse ignorance or wilfulnesse it would prove a more impartiall judge of truth than the Pope himselfe who beleeves the Scripture by the ground of antiquity and forceth his conclusions drawn therefrom upon mens consciences by his own authority which men being made his vassals yield to any thing for quietnesse sake though themselves have no satisfaction therein From whence it is that most Christians profession of Religion is but either forced by fear of authority or voluntarily resigned up to another mans judgement or setled upon ones obstinate wilfulnesse neither which is saving faith For though we give some assent to Scriptures at first being moved by the authority of the Church to whom we owe respect and reverence as the people of Samaria first beleeved for the womans sake John 4.42 yet at last they beleeved
he is infinitely willing to do right as to reward the good and punish the evill So his mercy because he is infinitely willing and ready to pitty the miserable Jer. 33.11 So his wrath because he is inclinable in his will to punish sinners So his purity sheweth his will is bent to love holinesse but to hate all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit 4. His power sheweth that he is infinitely endowed with efficacious faculty to do whatsoever he will for there is no limit to his power but his will Therefore we cannot doubt of his promise or despaire in adversity Psal since his will is to help and his power followeth his will Mathe. How may we consider of God before the world in which he revealed himselfe to man Phila. God before the world lay hid both in his essence and subsistence yet being a Trinity coessentiall in Unity with afflux but determined in time to shew himselfe to be Unity in Trinity by emanation and by energeticall operations in nature grace and glory the Father appearing as the fountain of nature the Son as the fountain of grace and the Holy Ghost of glory both in giving the earnest of it and then working us to the consummation of it so that God is to be considered absolutely in essence and unity relatively in subsistence and coessentiality In consideration of which subsistency I conceive that the world by these divine persons was contrived the being preserving and translating of nature which nature consisted of intellectuall creatures as Angels and of rationall creatures as men and of bruits as the sensitive of vegetatives as plants and of other entities and realities that have neither of the former faculties Now those things that wanted those faculties of Will and Understanding they needed nothing but his providence to preserve them in being or to change them as they waxed old But as he determined to make natures intellectuall and rationall consisting of will and understanding so he determined that either he must be made absolute to stand by their own innate power which none can do but the Creator or else they must be forcibly supported by his power to stand against the naturall liberty of their will and this had been to stand whether they would or no which had not been an estate competible to an intellectuall rationall and voluntary service requisite to such a creature Therefore the most wise God intended before the world to make Angels and men Bern. Non in tuto sed in cauto not in a secure but cautionary estate not in absolute stedfast glory but in designation to it i. conditionally they kept their created estate but foreseeing that this cautionary estate must necessarily depend upon the freewill of that creature and that freewill would sway them to depend on themselves or somewhat else beside the Creator for happinesse he consults how some of them at least might be saved to glorifie him and be glorified of him This consultation was concluded by the eternall Son of God by an eternall covenant with the Father 1 Pet. 1.20 that those intellectuall and rationall creatures which shall depend upon his grace and favour shall be preserved in their estates as they were created or else redeemed if they fall from it This stipulation is accepted of the Father and he is set as the first born of every creature Colos 1.15 not that he was first created himselfe as Arrius thought but set so in regard of excellence of priority by eternall generation Colos 1.16 and of superiority the whole family of heaven and earth depending upon him for creation and the creature intellectuall and rationall for adoption So Rom. 8.29 he is called the first born among many brethren Now the Covenant being made and the whole family of heaven being created by him and for him he is first proposed to the Angels for their worship and dependency Lucifer and his complices and faction Heb. 1.6 liked independency better and chose rather to stand by their own created perfection From whence arose the battell of Michael and his Angels Revel against the Dragon and his Angels which St John saw had been and would be to the end of the world in a mysticall sense and that in time he should be cast out of the heaven of the Church as he was once out of the heaven of the blessed The other Angels stood by depending on favour and grace and doing to him as to their chiefe Lord sute and service and these are called the Elect Angels 1 Tim. 5.21 because God in his Son elected them to be conserved by him These Angels are at his disposition and therefore are said to be sent forth as ministring spirits to the heirs of salvation Heb. 1.24 Mathe. Whether are all Angels of one and the same degree Phila. No for they have divers names given them Col. 1.16 thrones dominions principalities and powers So Angels and Archangels Cherubins and Seraphins which argueth divers degrees or offices Trithem Cor. Agrip. Some learned men have written that God hath committed the ordering of the world to seven chiefe Angels especially as he hath subjected natural bodies to the seven planets in chiefe Indeed we read of such in Scripture Dan. 10. Luke 1. as Michael and Gabriel who saluted the blessed Virgin Mary And St John in Rev. 1. wisheth the Church welfare and peace from the seven spirits before Gods throne which doth not lead us to worship them but only that we may wish health to the Church from God Drus Beza Not. in N. T. and all the instruments he useth to that purpose Mathe. What determined God of man before the world Phila. Surely as the Son of God did stipulate with the Father to be the conservator of Angels so also that he would redeem mankind if he fel. This was the mystery hid from ages Col. 1.26 and Rom. 16.25 from the beginning of the world performed toward the end of the world when Christ in due time died for the ungodly which St Paul tels Titus was the hope of eternal life Tit. 1.2 which God who cannot lie hath promised before the world began If you ask to whom God could then promise it I say it was promised reciprocally of the Father to the Son by acceptation of the Sons offer of himselfe to satisfie for those that were elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father 1 Pet. 1.1 Mathe. What use may we make of this knowledge Phila. To labor to know God who knew us before we were and gave us so full a perfection in Adam as a creature was capable of and foreseeing that we being left in the hands of our own will we would chuse our own way yet he before the world by an eternall covenant with his blessed Son in his bosome ordained a means to save us by a full and plenteous redemption that so if we could not be happy by obeying yet we might by
sanctified or cleansed from originall sin for if it had ever been sinfull it could not have been sanctified from sin without the blood of the covenant Heb. 9.22 and Ephe. 1.7 and so there must have been another Mediator beside himselfe which St Paul denieth 1 Tim. 2.5 there is but one Mediator even the Man Christ Jesus the High Priest who is in himselfe holy innocent and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. Mathe. But if Christs humane nature came from the blessed Virgin and from Adam he could not avoid the taint of sin no more then he could death Phila. We are to consider as I said before that sin cleaving not to substance alone but to persons and considering that he took no person of the Virgin but her substance which was immediately united to his Godhead in subsistence and only so made a person it will follow that though his substance yet his person was never in Adam and so never sinned in Adam and so never tainted with originall sin For as it could not be propagated by his manner of conception so neither could it be justly imputed to his person which was both God and man And for his death it was voluntary Death did not by his own power prevaile over him but he laid it down John 10.17 18. Nor did death fall upon him as a sinner but as the surety for sin Mathe. What effect worketh this conception for us Phila. 1. It hides the impurity of our conceptions from Gods anger because this satisfieth Gods justice for originall sin for the righteousnesse hereof is imputed to us and by it is constituted holinesse of nature for in this he was qualified with all habits of grace and vertue which by his spirit he powreth also upon us For this purpose he took an humane body because sacrifice and offerings would not satisfie Psal 40. and Heb. 10.5 2. This conception worketh a spirituall life and conception in us For our nature in him being conceived and quickned by the holy Ghost in the womb from thence proceeds the power of our regeneration from him that is the originall of spirituall life in our nature for the spirit that formed him in the womb doth beget us again to live in him and so doth justifie us before God from the evils that cleave to our nature Mathe. He is oftentimes called in the Gospell even by himselfe too the Son of man how then shall I conceive his conception to be more then humane Phila. His Conception and Birth are full of wonder yet may be discerned with distinction for it seems a new creation For as he was the Son of God no woman was his mother and as he was man he had no father He is called the Son of man because he took our nature of the blessed Virgins substance Yet he is called the Son of the most High Mat. 1. because he is the second person in the holy Trinity Which title is given to the nature assumed because it had no subsistence but in his person that was the naturall Son of God In which regard the blessed Virgin is called the mother of God not of his deity but of this union of God and man yet his person was not circumscribed in her womb though the humane nature was But as his body is heaven locally and is in the Word substantially and in the Sacrament mystically and in the heart of a beleever spiritually so it was in her body naturally Mathe. How am I to conceive of the birth of Christ Phila. He was born three waies of his Father of his Mother and in the mind of man Of his Father eternally of his Mother temporally and in mans mind spiritually For three things have relation to his birth Deity Flesh and Spirit Of his Father he is born God for ever of his Mother flesh once and in mans mind he is born Spirit figuratively often In respect of his divine nature he had a Father without a Mother in regard of the humane nature he had a Mother without a Father in respect of his spirituall nativity he hath both Father and Mother i. they that do his will Paul saith God was manifested in flesh 1. From the bosome of his Father in whom he was concealed 2. From the shadowes of the Law in which he was prefigured 3. From the womb of his Mother in which he was covered This was the greatest and the most gracious work considered in all the consequences of it as his death and resurrection which without this could not have been that ever God wrought who for these humiliations gave him a name above all names Jesus the Saviour Phil. 2.9 Which name although others had as well as he in the Old Testament yet they were but figures of him yea the name Jehovah signifieth but essence i. God as he is the author of being but Jesus signifieth God our well being a Saviour then which there is no other name of salvation given Act. It was the name of the eternall Word incarnate it contains in it the whole oeconomy of the work of redemption wherein the attributes of God are united wisedome justice peace Psal 85. mercy and truth This was well called his great work of a woman compassing a man And wonderfull great it was in effect For in the Creation God made man in his image and so earth was honoured but in Christs birth God made himselfe in our image and so heaven was debased In creation God made all without resistance he spake but the word and they were made Heb. 12. But in redemption he suffered contradictions of sinners against himselfe In this work he did both speak work and suffer speak graciously work wonderfully suffer unworthily In creation the Word made flesh but in Jesus our Redeemer John 1.3 the Word was made flesh John 1.14 In the creation God took man out of the earth and placed him in Paradise In the redemption he took man out of hell and placed him in heaven through Jesus the Saviour Mathe. What were the effects of his birth Phila. Many For among the heathen voices were heard saying that the great God was about to be born At Rome a woman was seen about the Sun having a child in her arms And the Sybil told Augustus the Emperour that that same child was greater then he and bade him to adore him He would never after be called Lord. The Temple of peace fell down at his birth because he brought better peace to the world The Oracles were all struck dumb by the birth of this eternall Word Jupiters Oak in Dodona was shaken the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter The Tripode in Delphis Nazi in Julian annotat Nomi the Laurell and fountain of Daphne and the ramfaced image of Jupiter Ammon could utter nothing so that one effect of Christs birth was Gods glory and Satans confusion But further another effect was the good mans peace and salvation For he was born to
bring both to passe 1. His salvation being he was born to be a King a Priest and a Prophet by which three offices he could effect all that belonged to mans salvation To deliver as a King to instruct him as a Prophet Acts 4.12 to purge him from sin as a Priest 2. To bring him to peace with God above him and to peace about him with Angels and men to peace within him in his conscience and to peace belowe him for hell cannot hurt him though it would all which may be gathered from the Angels song Luke 2.14 But to the wicked it brought judgement even to make them stumble and fall Luke 2.34 because he brought light and men loved darknesse rather John 3.19 Beside nothing about his birth but had some effectuall signification for he was born at Bethelem the house of bread to shew that in effect he should be the bread of the houshold of faith So born in the fulnesse of time when the Church was at the lowest ebbe and no hope on earth was left for it to effect faith in the Church that God could help when all help in man was past So he was born poor and thereby not only made us rich but also taught us with him to trample upon world pomp and glory since by lying in the manger he procured us an heavenly mansion And the very publishing of his birth unto the wisemen and simple shepherds to Gentiles and Jewes to Anna as well as Simeon shewed that his birth should take effect on Jewes and Greeks learned and simple male and female and all should be one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.21 Mathe. I pray tell me how could Christ suffer being God and man 2. Why he so suffered and what is the effect of it upon us Phila. For the first Quere how Christ suffered We understand that though the sufferings of Christ belonged to his whole person and so is attributed to both natures yet only to the humane nature sensibly and to the divine relatively For the divine nature cannot suffer being immutable nor die being immortall yet as his person consisteth of both natures his sufferings belonged to both For the word divine was not severed from the humane nature neither in his birth nor suffering Nor was the nature inviolable hurt by the sufferings of the nature passible no more then the beams of the Sun that shineth on a tree is wounded by the Axe that felleth the tree And thus we are to understand those phrases Acts 20.28 that God redeemed the Church with his blood and 2 Cor. 2.8 the Lord of Glory was crucified 2. The reason why he suffered for us as it was not casuall but by divine providence the drops of his cup were measured by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God And this was so 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled Luke 24.26 27. and God found true of his word just in all his waies not sparing his own Son being but surety for us how can wilfull sinners expect to escape Gods wrath 2. That he might revive the pattern of patience almost decaied and lost and leave it to us to imitate 1 Pet. 2.21 That we might be consecrated by affliction as he the Prince of our salvation was 3. That he might deliver us from the bondage of the ceremoniall Law Gal. 3.13 Also that he being made sensible of our sufferings might become a more mercifull High Priest to us and more apt to succour us in temptations Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 Beside he suffered that he might reconcile us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 by being made an expiation for us and condemning our sins in his flesh Isa 53.5 and Rom. 8.3 For if one died for all then are all dead to that fault for which he died so that our disease of sin is cured by the mediation of his passion and by the speciall vertue of his Ordinances operating in us by the Holy Ghosts application of Christs sufferings to us Lastly that we might being sprinkled with his blood enter within the vaile namely into heaven the Holy of Holies from whence for sin we are shut out as well as out of paradise Mathe. What use may we make of this Phila. 1. It teacheth that those sufferings have relation only to the Son not to the Father nor to the Holy Ghost 2. To wonder at this gracious work that the Son of God should be condemned by the sons of men that righteousnesse it selfe should be condemned by the unrighteous that the God of order should be corrected with rods that the nower of God should be weakned salvation wounded and life killed Also to think on the hatefulnesse of sin that brings God to suffering and to be pitifully affected with the sufferings of such an eminent person yet to wax strong in faith because such an one hath made satisfaction 1 John 3.7 and to be ready to suffer from wicked men because he did so Heb. 12.3 and 1 Pet. 2.18 And farther to distinguish rightly for whom he suffered It was not for all but for all the elect therefore Mat. 26.28 it is said his blood is shed for many for Christ will not know some Mat. 7.23 Nor did he pray for the world but for those that God gave him out of the world So he gave his life for his sheep not for goats nor swine for his righteousnesse extends to all them that beleeve Rom. 3.22 As those were only cured that looked on the brazen serpent and turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 and are ruled by the voice of this Shepherd and are conformed to his Image by afflictions and that dedicate their lives and services to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 All which should make us 1. To be affected with his love which was never paralleld The just died for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 whereas few or none will die for a just man Rom. 5.7 but he for us which were ungodly yea his enemies Rom. 5.10 and never sought to him for any kindnesse much lesse thought of such a kindnesse that Piety would be scourged for impious man Wisdome derided for fools â— Truth denied for lyars Justice condemned for unjust men Life to die for dead men 2. To be ready to suffec for him or for one another 1 John 3.16 And 3. To plead his sufferings before God against our sins and satans accusations and not to feare but that seeing such a price is paid for our reconcilement that God will save us being reconciled Rom. 5.10 And 4. Being this sweet Passeover is sacrificed for us to purge away the old leaven of malice and wickednesse and all corruptions and become a new lump full of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Mathe. How can the suffering of one satisfie for the sins of many and how is it just in God to punish the righteous for the unrighteous Phila. His suffering is a sufficient satisfaction for all because of the dignity of his person God and Man which made
glorious testimony of his roialty and Deity Phila. No God left him not without witnesse For Pilats superscription Jesus that Nazarene that King of the Jewes God would not it should be altered being a plain affirmation of his glory which otherwise Pilate might possibly have done as well as to crucifie him at their importunity Now in that God doth thus acknowledge his name Jesus upon the Crosse he thereby testified that he accepted him for our Saviour as Jesus signifieth Mat. 1.22 and will not deny those that beleeve on him yea God exalts him in that name which the Jewes despised so that he will honour those whom the world reproacheth yea he will have him now known to be that King his first born higher then the Kings of the earth and at this time of his disgrace too to shew his Kingdome stands not in outward observation nor is his roialty lost by outward abasements for even now like a King he paied the blood-roiall-ransome for his elect even among the Jewes themselves of whose repenting people he was King by whose power they were converted Acts 2. This title was written in the three generall known languages to shew that every tongue should confesse to his glory of Jesus Phil. 3.11 when the Gospell should be preached to the nations This title Pilate would not alter in one tittle to shew that we should not lose one jot of the faith of Christ and indeed whosoever doth it or suffers it to be done by Hereticks or Sectaries are worse then Pilate himselfe Again God honoured him by making nature suffer an eclipse of darknesse as if to shew the Sun of righteousnesse did now set and that the Jewes should be left in blindnesse and all others that did not beleeve in him Also that nature abhorred the fact and that God hereby did threaten the sins of men as Joel 2.10 and that he that now suffered was more then a man for whose sake such a miracle was wrought Next he was glorified by one of the malefactors conversion and confession which shewed Christs power and mercy and justice his power that he did and could work on him in the midst of his anguish his mercy that he would save one at the last gasp that none may despaire and his justice that he would save but one that none might presume upon late repentance Lastly he was glorified by the vaile of the most holy place rending of it selfe which shewed that God did now abhor the Jewes Temple and dissolve their religious rites and utterly rejected them for rejecting Christ his Son And that now we have free accesse to the mercy seat Heb. 4.16 Aequaliter pater arca calestis Helv. Yea heaven is set open to us which before was shut against sinners of Jewes and Gentiles but now open to both Mathe. But what necessiâ—y uas there of Christs death Phila. First to satisfie Gods justice who determined death to be the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 Christ therefore being mans surety Rom. 8.3 and taking on him the similitude of our sinfull flesh God condemns sin in his flesh by putting him to death and satisfieth his justice for all the elect by one who though he was but one yet being both God and Man his death is of infinite price to make satisfaction to Gods infinite justice who had told the first Adam that if he eat of the forbidden fruit he should die that day And that day he became mortall Rom. 5.12 for then death began to seize upon him and all his posterity But Christ comming in Adams stopped the issue of spirituall death by the merit of his death And this he did also to fulfill the prophecies of himself Esa 63.7 that he should be lead as a sheep to the slaughter as also to ratifie the New Testament which was as his last will whereby he grants by covenant with God all the blessed Legacies of spirituall and eternall happinesse to his Church Heb. 9.15 which Testament is of no force without the death of the Testator Also that he might destroy the power that death and the devill had over us Heb. 2.14 even to bring us under eternall death which death though he never suffered himself yet prevents it in us by the worthinesse of his person suffering externall death for us that beleeve upon his precious death which is of more value for one houre then the eternall death of all men in the world And so by this means he hath given us an antidote against the reigning power of sin that it shall not have dominion over us Rom. 6.14 but that by the vertue of his death we might die to sin Rom. 6.2 and that he might purchase life for the world of his elect who by the doctrine of his death receive the seed of eternall life and become the seed of Christ Esa 53.10 Mathe. But how did Christ die in his natures or in his person Phila. Herein you must beware what you conceive for if you think he died in both natures divine and humane or in his whole person as God and man you erre from the faith and prophane his divinity therefore you are to beleeve that though the flesh of Christ only died in respect of the nature that died yet this death having relation to the eternall word by union the Lord of life and glory may be said relatively to suffer in which respect his blood is called the blood of God Acts 20.28 Therefore though death made a separation of his humane soule from his humane body yet both ever subsisted in the divine nature firmly united For if there had been a new manner of subsisting then Christ must be conceived to have two persons as well as two natures Mathe. How shall I reconcile St Paul who saith Christ was slain towards the end of the world Heb. 9.26 and St John saith he was slaine from the beginning of the world Rev. 13.8 Phila. He was actually slain toward the end of the world namely in the year of the world Scalig. 3982. and in the 34. year of his age and on Friday the fifth day of our week which that year was the fifteenth day of the Jewes month called Nisan which that year was the seventh day of our April as some account yea at the ninth hour of that day the time of the evening sacrifice Mat. 27.46 But he was flain from the beginning of the world in Gods determination Gen. 3.15 for all that beleeved on him to come to whom his death proved as efficacious as the composition of a surety doth enlarge a debter out of prison though the debt be not paied a long time after Thus Christ was slain from the beginning in type of Abel slain by Cain and in all the sacrifices offered for sin which were as evidences to the faithfull of things not then seen Mathe. But the Evangelists take notice of many occurrences in his death of which I can find no great reason nor mystery infolded
of offence for though Isaiah had foretold them that he should be as a root out of a dry ground and they see no beauty in him to delight the sense yet they looked for him as one to come in outward glory and to be a worldly King and deliverer which God intended not 3. His birth was poor and private little taken notice of so that he escaping with his parent into Egypt by the warning of an Angell to avoid the massacre of Herod and returning afterward into Galilee and dwelling in Nazareth they had easily forgot that he was born at Bethelem and out of Nazareth they expected no good John 1.46 neither any Prophet 4. When he appeared among them because he was no sectary as Pharisee Sadducee they all envied him and slandered both his doctrine as if contrary to Moses and his miracles as if done by the power of the devill And so by their malice and the unjust judgement of Pilate brought him to the ignominious death of the crosse so unwittingly fulfilling the determinate counsell of God 5. Acts. Epiph. l. 1. tom 1. H. 15. They set the traditions of the Elders above Scripture 6. Some of them abolished Moses Law or his five books so did the Nasorites Some studied to add to the Scriptures as the Chasidim after the captivity Joseph antiq 1. â—â— c. 15. Luke 10.57 and would be holier then the Law required From these did spring the Pharisees some rejected all the Scriptures save the books of Moses as did the Sadducees and denied both Angels Spirits and the Resurrection and therefore confuted by Christ not out of the Prophets Jansen concor in Mat. 23. Eman. Sâ— in hunc locum Maldonat Ferus Aug. in tract 46. in Joh. but of those books they held for Canonicall Mat. 22.32 Thus heresie crept into Moses chaire as the Pope hath brought into Peters yet Christ saith because the Scribes and Pharisees sate in Moses chair he bids the people do as they say that is so far as they teach Moses for by Moses chair is meant his doctrine not his office and the people had a rule to try it by for the Jews kept the Old Testament entire Mathe. What punishment did God inflict upon them for this Phila. He took away from them Scepter and Myter Kingship and Priesthood and the very face of a Commonwealth about forty years after Christs death by Vespasian and Titus with their Roman army as was foretold by Daniel Dan 9.26 27. The occasion whereof was they having been conquered by the Romans and governed by their Deputies and they carrying an hard hand upon them they rebelled as Florus who succeeded after Faelix Festus and Albinus was so avaritious that he took out of the treasury of the Temple sixteen talents of silver and when the Jewes murmured at it he permitted the souldiers to slay and spoil the Citizens of Jerusalem at pleasure and scourged and crucified Jews of noble birth Here their refusing Christ and chusing Barabbas a murtherer began to be revenged and the scourging and crucifying Christ to be retaliated and his blood to fall upon their children This was the ground of that war that ruined Jerusalem at last But not only this was the cause but God gave them up to an obstinate mind for their malice against Christ and the prophecie began to take upon them Zac. 11.9 which Zachariah foretold I will not feed you that which dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat the flesh of each other Zach. 11.15 The two staves of beauty and bands were broken and the instruments of a foolish shepherd were assumed The Ecclesiastick offices were disposed according to the pleasure of the Roman Deputies Valerius Gratus Pontius Pilate and Vitellius in the reign of Tiberius in whose eighteenth year Christ was crucified Againe to hasten their ruine Caius Caligula succeeding Tiberius would have his image set up in the Jewes Temple which though the Jewes zealous of their Religion would rather die then suffer yet it excited the Emperors malice the more which though it was unjust in him yet was it just with God to make him an instrument to punish them who were more afraid to defile their Temple of stone then to destroy the body of Christ in whom dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily After him succeeded Claudius in whose time 20000. of them were slain by crouding and treading one another in narrow places for fear of Cumanus souldiers who came but to keep the peace because they began to murmure much and the insolencie of a souldier which shewed his privities in the porch of the Temple After him succeeded Domitius Nero Joseph antiq l. 20. c. 6. in whose time a certain Egyptian feigning himselfe to be a Prophet drew four thousand men after him whom Faelix Hensen killed and scattered Acts 21.34 In this Emperors daies Florus aforesaid much pilled and oppressed them After this Domitius divers contended for the Empire as Galba Otto Vitellius Vid. Orati Reg. Agrip. contra Rebel in Joseph who were soon cut off and Vespasian chosen Emperour In whose time the Jewes refused to offer sacrifice for Caesars happinesse formerly and usually done Now began this calamity to grow apace for 50000. of them were slain at Alexandria 10000. at Damascus Joseph de bellâ— Jud. Prodigious signs appeared both in heaven and earth foreshewing desolation A comet like a sword hung over Jerusalem a years space A clear light about the Altar at midnight and the great brazen gate of the Temple opened of it selfe Chariots of fire were seen compassing Towns Voices were heard in the Temple admonishing people to be gone The Jewes notwithstanding were hardned Euseb l. 3. c. 3. but the Christians there departed as corn separated from the chaffe before the fire of destruction came Vespasian with his son Titus with an army of 60000. having first subdued many of the Jewes rebellious Towns at last gave order to besiege Jerusalem which he left to his son Titus to subdue and himselfe returned to Rome Titus besieged it at the time of the Passeover when the City was most full of people who being terrified by the sword of the Roman without and the seditious within the City was brought to great misery by famine and contagion of the dead wanting buriall women were forced to eat their children At last the City was taken and the Temple ruined the people some crucified others ript up in hope to find gold in their bellies others sold as slaves for thirty a penny as they valued Christ but at thirty pence others carried captive and devoured by wild beasts at the triumphs of Vespasian Thus God rewarded them that regarded not his Son so that destruction came on them to the uttermost for since that time they never had the face of a Church nor State but are scattered and hated of all nations And in token
followers accounted him the Son of God that was to come to judge the world and whosoever obeieth not his doctrine shall be rooted out and that their Family of Love shall possesse the earth and their posterity shall remain for ever He made himselfe a greater light then Christ and said that in his light Christ was perfected and that he was codeified in God and God hominified in him and this they count the everlasting Gospell spoken of Rev. 11.15 They said the speech of Christ was made good in H.N. I must walk to day and to morrow Luke 13.32 and the third day I shall be perfected that is by to day is meant the time of Christ by to morrow the time of the Romish Religion and by the third day the time of H.N. and his Family If you demand how this Sect came into England I answer by those that translated the book of David George called the Wonder Book and H. N. his book called the Gospell of the Kingdome So did one Christopher Viret a Joiner in Southwark in Queen Maries daies translated some of them out of Dutch into English If you desire to know more of their blasphemous and abominable errors you may read their confession set down by Mr Knewstub and Henock Claphams book Mr Knewstub Conf. called the error of the right hand and of the left They be made up of many heresies their conversation is full of uncleannesse they partake with the old Adamites of whom St Augustine writeth who in their Conventicles or Paradice made warm by stoves they exercise the rites of their religion in praying hearing of sermons Lamb. Horten. p. 53. Gaftius p. 222. and receiving the Communion all naked both men and women Some of these have begun to practice their naked truth as they call it here in England since the year 1642. Mathe. But it may be Sir I shall not find these books and so shall not be able to discover them when they speake and therefore I pray tell me some of their errors which you can remember Phil. They say every one of their congregation is as perfect as Christ Familists opinions or else he is a devill the latter part whereof I do believe Also that it is lawfull to do whatsoever the higher power commands though it be against Gods command Herein they perform blind obedience like Papists and the Jesuits Novices If a man do so how doth he forsake his father and mother for Christ Or why said the Apostles to the higher powers that it was more fit to obey God then man So they affirm that in saying God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost we acknowledge three Gods not perceiving we call them so because they are all but one God in essence 1 John 5.7 though three distinct persons Here they smell of the old heresie of Noetians that held there was but one person in the Godhead as the Socinians do now They say there is no other heaven nor hell than in this world among us What place then is that to which Christ is gone before to prepare for us or that fire foretold of Christ into which wicked men must depart So that they are not bound to give alms but to their own Sect yet St Paul saith do good to all So that there ought to be no contrary both to the Law and Gospell practice in all ages that there was a world before Adams time this is to be wise above what is written So that they ought not to bury their dead because it is said let the dead bury their dead Mat. 8.22 which he spake not as to have the dead neglected nor despising those that did that charitable work but to warn him that he out of too much care of worldly ceremonies neglect not the blessed state of life to which Christ called him saying follow me Also that they need not say Davids praiers because they have no sin but St John saith 1 John such deceive themselves and the truth is not in them But farther they have blasphemous opinions concerning God as that God hath no other Deity in himselfe but such as men partake of in this life 2 Pet. 1.4 Indeed we are said to partake of the divine nature but that is not by the participation of equality but of quality both of grace and glory not of the divine essence but the holy disposition or conditions thereof So they hold that Christ is not a person God and man but an estate or condition in men common to them only who have received the doctrine of Henry Nicholas So they say that Adam was all that God was and God all that Adam was as if God communicated his whole essence to Adam as to Christ which no man can well beleeve Again they would have none baptized till they be thirty yeers old Indeed Christ was not nor could not till there was one sent to baptize namely John the Baptist They say there was no truth preached since the Apostles times yes even that which they have often heard but perverted because they did not entertain it in a love thereof and so God hath given them up to delusions So they affirm that the resurrection of the body is only a rising from sin and wickednesse But St John tels us of another Rev. 20.5 6. Rev. 20.6 as well as St Paul in the 1 Cor. 15. They account marriage whoredome where the parties married have not true faith Yet surely it is more holy then the copulation of H. N. with the three women in his house clothed all alike and called his Wife Sister and Cousin which Cousin falling sick confessed that he had made unlawfull use of her body and made her beleeve she should never die The Governor hearing of it came to apprehend him but the unclean bird was fled so the Governor seized on his nest in the yeer 1556. even when H. N. was fifty seven yeers of age Knewstub p. 15.27 older than wiser As for their high conceits of H. N. that he could no more erre then Christ and of their great opinions of their illuminated elders I refer you to authors Knewstub p. 15.27 Mathe. Who else hath disturbed the Protestant Church Phila. The Antinomians so called Antinomians because they hold that there is no use of the Law under the Gospel Some say the first author of this Sect was one John Agricola of Isleby who set forth his opinions 1535. But the first that appeared here was John Eaton Curate of St Katherine Colemans Parish in London He writ the book called the Hony-comb wherein he endeavors to prove that God does not nor cannot see any sin in justified people That he seeth no sin to condemn them for is most true as Num. 23.21 He beheld no iniquity in Jacob to bring him under the curse yet he saw enough in Israel to punish them in the wildernesse To think otherwise is to take part with the
wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if he had so little knowledge in the tongues and Arts. Socin Respons ad Defi. Puccii p. 49. One book handles the authority of Scripture the other handleth the cause for which the Gospell of Christ is to be beleeved The error of this Socinus was spread far in Sarmatia and Transylvania Silesia Lituania Mathe. What were their errors Phila. That there is no naturall knowledge leading a man to a beliefe of a Deity contrary to Paul who saith that the invisible things of God are seen by things created Rom. 1.20 and that the Gentiles do by nature the things written in Gods law Rom. 2.14 So they say Christ is not God and yet they give him divine worship and so make him an Idol and themselves Idolaters So they deny the Godhead of Jesus Christ which forfeits their own Christianity and overthroweth Christian Religion and all divine honour due to Christ from men This was the heresie of Samosatenus Bishop of Antiochia of whom you have heard already How can these men be called Christians who deny the office of Christ No marvell though they refuse to be baptized in the name of the Trinitie if they denie with Sabellius two persons in the Trinitie for they say Christ is not trulie God Iohn 8.58 yet Paul saith he was in the form of God Phil. 2.6 and the character of his glorie Heb. 1.2 and in him dwelt the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 So they say that the Holy Ghost is not God and so Macedonius held who was justlie condemned by the second generall Council of Constantinople in the year 386. But if the Holie Ghost be not God why doth St. Iohn rank him as equall to the Father and Son 1 Iohn 5.7 Again they say the Incarnation of Christ is repugnant to reason which I have formerlie disproved and that it is not fullie proved in Scripture yet St Iohn tels us that the Word became flesh Iohn 1.14 So they say that Christ did not by his death satisfie for our sins yet it is said that he is the propitiation for our sins and that is all one 1 Iohn 2.2 So they say it is against Scripture to beleeve three persons in the Godhead and yet Christ institutes baptisme to be given in the three names of Father Son and Holie Ghost So they say man was not created in originall righteousnesse yet Solomon saith God made man upright but he hath sought inventions So they say that the old Testament is not necessarie for a Christian man yet Christ saith Moses spake of him Iohn 5.46 and the men of Berea searched the old Testament to prove the truth of the new Acts 17.11 These are very dangerous errors because they overthrow the foundation of Christian faith namely Christs satisfaction for us and plainlie Antichristian in denying Christ to be God And also they denie the person of the Holie Ghost They confound faith and works together They say the Law is imperfect and yet that man is justified by the works of the Law not by the law of faith Rom. 3.27 Also that the soule of man hath no subsistence after death whereby it apprehendeth joy or sorrowes and so consequently they may denie heaven and hell as things only imaginarie They stand much upon reason and would subject not only Fathers and Councils but also the Scriptures to it and so every man doth like the Pope in being the judge of all by his own reason Beside they are tied in a knot with Arminians and Anabaptists concerning the power of magistrates and are one as lawlesse as the other And the Papists are well pleased with them because they perceive them to do their work for them in rooting out all Protestant Magistrates and Ministers Mathe. What Achans beside have troubled our Israel Phila. The Antitrinitarians Antitrinitarians who hold opinions against the Holie Trinitie and scraped up the old Heresie of Arrius denying Christ to be God and with the Socinians denie the Trinitie of persons and that the eternall generation of the Son is against truth contrary to Micah 5.2 whose goings out have been from everlasting And they say Christ is called God not in regard of his divine essence but his dominion yet Christ saith I and my Father are one Iohn 10.30 So they denie the Holie Ghost to be God yet St Peter told Ananias when he lied to the Holie Ghost that he lied not to man but to God Acts 5.3 These by some Writers though first sprung up in Polonia 1593 are called Legatinarians from one Legate who for obstinate holding these opinions was burned in Smithfield March 18. Anno 1611. and after him in April following another was burned at Leichfield for the same heresie Mathe. I hear also of men called Millenaries who pretend to antiquity and would prove their opinions from Scripture I pray what are their opinions Phila. They are a branch of the Anabaptists in some of their opinions Millenaries Their antiquitie is fetched from Cerinthus a Jew who lived about the 96 year after Christ in the time of Domitian who held with Ebion that Jesus was only begotten of Ioseph and Mary and that he was not Christ born but that Christ came upon him at his Baptisme in the form of a Dove and that Jesus suffered but that Christ fled away whom St Iohn confuteth in his Gospell John 1. This man pretended revelations from Angels and held that eternall life was here upon earth and that after the resurrection Christs Kingdome should be on the earth and that his subjects should eat and drink marry and keep holy daies and offer sacrifice and that this should last a thousand years Into which error also Papias fell Euseb l. 3. c. 36 the Bishop of Hierapolis for want of observing the Apostles writings So did Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France both men of great authority in their times Iren. l. 5. cont Valent. namely in the first hundred years after Christ So in the reign of Galienus Nepos and his followers called Nepotiani affirmed from Rev. 20. 5 6. that the godly should rise before the wicked and should live with Christ upon the earth in abundance of all earthly pleasures Eus l. 7. c. 22. But if that text be taken literally those godly must be beheaded and so dead first and then rise againe yea and Christ must be come first These were convinced by Coracion Eus l. 7. c. 23. But our latter Millenaries exceed all those before them in error for they will not stay till Christ come or those godly be raised Oh that men would study dark mysteries lesse and divine duty more the Kingdome of Christ lesus would be the better obtained but say that Christs Kingdome must be set up out of hand to promote which alll the ungodly must be slain that the meek may inherit the earth in