works rites or Ceremonies of the Law delivered them by Moses as Saint Paul hath not only taught us but irrefragably proved against them in several places of his Epistles For the summ of his Argument and force may truly be reduced to this form as it is laid down more largely in his third Chapter to the Galatians Judaizing after the embracing of the Gospel of Christ Galat. 3. That way whereby Abraham Isaack Jacob and the most holy and renowned Patriarchs of the Jewish Line were justified before God must needs be it which God chiefly intended for the Justification of their Posterity to whom all the promises of God were made through them But neither Abraham nor Isanck nor Jacob were Justified by the Law of Moses so religious and rigorously now insisted on The first part of this reason will be easily granted by the Jews because they were the principal of the Jewish nation and honoured by God above any that succeeded them and therefore undoubtedly Justified by God But that this justification could V. 17. not be according to or by the Law of Moses Saint Paul in the forecited Chapter apparently proves where he shews that the Law was four hundred and thirty years after Abraham And how could that which then had no being be a cause of justification of Abraham Again the accounting of Righteous before God is to be justified before God But Abraham was accounted Righteous before God by Faith and Galat. 3. 6. Gen. 16. 6. Gal. 3. v. 7. not by Law For so saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness Therefore They that are of Faith they are children of Abraham that is They who believed and live as did Abraham are Abrahams spiritual seed and heirs apparent of all the Promises made to him whereby all nations not the Jewish only should be blessed Furthermore No man could ever be Justified by that law but may rather be said to be condemned and cursed by it which he nor no man else did ever Deut. 27. 26. keep And the law saith expresly Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the Gal. 3. 10. words of this Law to do them which Confirming is well explained by the Apostle by Continuing For who ever by disobedience breaketh it cannot be said to confirm it or continue in it Now seeing all flesh failed more or less in the due observation thereof there must be provision otherwise made by God if so be he would have any saved It will perhaps be here said That God in such cases had appointed Sacrifices for expiations and reconciliations with him But against this not so much the Auctority as the Argument of the same Apostle makes in his Epistle to the Hebrews saying In those Sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins Heb. 10. once every year That is notwithstanding there were daily Sacrifices made according to the Law every day and upon special sins peculiar Sacrifices made by the offendor for an atonement yet every year to shew the insufficiencie of the Precedent Ceremonies mention was made of the sins of the People when the High Priest entred into the Holiest of Holie And the reason of this imperfection is given by the Author to the Hebrews when V. 4. he argueth First from the nature the Sacrifices themselves That it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins or as one of their own Prophets before him intimateth saying Wherewith shall I Mic. 6. 6. come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings and Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased 7. with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of oil Shall I give my first born for my transgression The fruit of my body for the sin of my Soul And so again in the book of the Psalms Sacrifices and offerings thou Psal 4. 6 7. didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened Burnt-offerings and sin-offerings hast thou not required Then said I Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me c. All which with many such like places do declare what esteem Good and Godly men had of the Legal Sacrifices that were but in themselves insufficient and unacceptable to Almighty God for either the expiating and satisfying for sins or the appeasing of God offended by the same and therefore some further remedie some more excellent means of reconcisiation were necessary And this appears from the ends of such Sacrifices instituted which principally were these First to declare a right that God had in all those Creatures which he had given man for his use and service Secondly to represent to man the guilt and punishment unto which he was subject by his sins as verily as that beast so slain and sacrificed before his eyes Thirdly to insinuate unto him the true means of becoming reconciled unto God offended which was A Second general end of the Old Law which was to prefigure the Messias and only true Saviour of the world who related not only to Abrahams seed but to all to whom the promise made to Abraham related viz. Gen. 22. 18. Galat. 3. 10. In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed And therefore if such an objection be made Wherefore serveth the Law if not to such Ends Saint Paul answereth thus It was added because of transgressions to whom the Promise was made Because of Transgression First by reason that the Oral Covenant made with Adam and renewed to Abraham suffice not of it self to contain man in his dutie without the additional statute committed to writing by Moses called signally The Law Secondly this became to them under it a rule and direction until such time as the seed to whom it was promised should come i. e. The fulness of the Gentiles to whom through Adam and Abraham both the Messias was promised Whence appeareth the vanitie of the Jews imagination supposing that God by an immutable decree had affixed the priviledges and benefits of the Gospel entirely to the Jews And this inferrs another argument used by Saint Paul against the perfection and perpetuity of the Jewish Law For nothing was promised to Abraham and his seed peculiarly but upon the Covenant of Circumcision But Abraham was not reputed righteous before God by vertue of Circumcision but being Righteous was Circumcised and all the principal Promises made to Abraham as the Father of the Faithful were before Circumcision as the historie in Genesis assures us and Saint Paul to the Romans argueth and concludes against the Jews They which are the children of the Flesh are not the Children of God that is in that respect or for that cause because they were lineally descended from Abrahams flesh and blood but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed i. e. They were the persons comprehended in the Covenant and promises made to
Abraham all which sufficiently nulls the Jews pretensions taken from their Law We now proceed to the Second general Head against them taken from their Messias CHAP. VI. The Vanity of the Jewish Religion shewed from the proofs of the true Messias long since come which are many BOth Jews and Christians agree that the Covenant made by God with Adam and Abraham was through the Messias But the difference between them is notwithstanding very great The Jews still expecting the Messias to come and the Christian believing it as the first Article of his Faith that he is actually come and hath delivered his Laws and performed all things prefigured and promised by the Law of Moses If this supposition of the Christian be not true then is the whole Bodie of his Faith a meer shadow and false And if the Messias be come then is the Religion of the Jew false and no better then a vain Superstition This therefore is diligently and Faithfully to be enquired into though with this Caution premised That it is a thing to be supposed no less and taken for granted in the Christian Religion that Christ the Messias is come then it is to be supposed to Religion in general that there is a God These following Circumstances evince the Messias to be come First the certain expiration of the time prefixed by the Holy Scriptures and the Jewish Doctors themselves for the coming of Christ The great Masters of the Jews affirm that the world shall continue six thousand years whereof two thousand are to go before the Law and two thousand should be under the Law of Moses and that in the fifth thousand year the Messias should Sixtus Senenfis Bibl. lib. 2. Genebr Chro. initio Vid. Rayl mundum Martini Pug. fidei Part. 2. cap. 6. come into the world Who these are and from whence they collect this is no place to shew here Genebrard Galatinus Raymundus Martini have done it and many of the Fathers receiving their tradition from them have spoken to that purpose But the Jews themselves do reckon from the Creation to this day above five thousand four hundred years and yet there is no appearance of a Messias for their turn So that being driven to this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremitie they have been constrained to take up this curse to secure their suspected Cause viz. Let the Spirit of all them be burst in pieces who compute times as Buxtorfe relates to us And if it be so as some Jews have Buxtorf Synagog cap. 3. Vid. Ray mundum Martini Pug. fidei Part. 2. cap. 6. phancied viz. That the Messias was born the same day their Temple was burnt at Jerusalem Where has he spent his time all this while Why doth he not appear to their deliverance They are wont to say It is for their sins In which I agree with them that indeed it is for their sins that they are never like to see that Messias whom they dream of because they rejected See Chrysostom Serm. 3. Against the Jews Tom. 6. p. 338 339. him who came to them as the true Messias Secondly The apt Analogie and correspondence between the Messias received by Christians and foretold by the ancient Prophets doth declare him come For instance that of Genesis That the seed of the woman should Gen. 3. Deut. 18. 15. break the Serpents head That in Deutronomie A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up of your brethren like unto me c. That of Esay the seventh and thirty fourth verse Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child Esa 7. 34. and they shall call his name Immanuel however modern Jews endeavour to pervert and corrupt that text That of the Psalmist The Lord said unto my Psal 110. Lord fit thou on my Right hand until I have made thine enemies thy footstool That of Micah And thou Bethlehem Judah art not the least amongst the Princes Mich. 5. 2. of Judah For out of thee shall come a Governour which shall rule my people Israel And many more like places are interpreted of the Jews themselves of the Messias And it being so whom have they to show now the time is past that many stand in competition with Christ our true Messias Thirdly several Events prove the Messias already come In Genesis it is Gen. 49. 10. Numb 24. 17. Esa 9. 6. Esa 4. 2. John 5. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius de Incarnatione Chrysostom Ser. 2. against the Jews p. 333 334. to 6. sheweth how that thrice they were cōfounded in attempting to rebuild their City and Temple said The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come c. And so in Numbers there shall come a Star out of Jacob and Scepter out of Israel And in Esay To us a Son is born to us a Child is given and the Government shall be upon his shoulders And by the same Prophet it is said In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious c. To which many other places might be added All which we urge not upon our own authority but the judgement of their ancient Rabbies especially that Famous Chaldee Paraphrast so applying them Now these can belong to none but him whom we acknowledge for the Messias Christ Jesus though diverse Impostors and false Christs have pretended to such Prophecies to the delusion and confusion of that unhappy and blind Nation as Christ truly foretold And however great varietie may be found amongst Learned Christians concerning the precise times wherein the said Predictions had their verification yet all unanimously agree that they are fulfilled the Jew in vain dissenting Fourthly the Destructions and Dissipations of that Nation and Church prove the truth of the Messias come For now so great obscurity and confusion are found in their best Records and especially their Genealogies upon which depend their assurance of their Messias that not knowing now them of the Tribe of Judah from them of any other Tribe and much less the Line of David from others They are not able to distinguish a vain pretender from a real heir of David and so must needs suspect all pretenders to be the Messias Fifthly by vertue of the Ancient Phophecies and promises made unto the Jews by their Predecessors their form of worship was to continue unto their Messias at least but nothing is more plain than that this is actually dissolved and that in the most material parts of it Their holy City Jerusalem their more Holy Temple in it and their most Holy Altar in that are all ruined and buried in oblivion and a Mock City built in opposition to that by Alius Adrian and from him called Aelia properly Sixthly The unparralell'd Judgments of God continually pursuing that Nation until the accomplishment of all things foretold by Christ and his Apostles concerning destruction to come upon them to the utmost confuteth their Expectations
distinct from Divine and Justifying Faith Of Faith Explicit and Implicit HAving thus spoken of the Rule of Christian Faith and its Auxiliary Tradition we are now to proceed to the Nature and Acts the Effects Subject and Object of it For as all Christian Religion is summed up in one Notion of Christian Faith so all Faith may be reduced unto the foresaid Heads Faith taken in its greatest extent containeth as well Humane as Divine And may be defined A firm assent of the mind to a thing reported And there are two things which principally incline the mind to believe The Evidence of the thing offered to the understanding or the Fidelity and Veracity of him that so delivers any thing unto us For if the thing be Fides est donum divinitùs infusum menti hominis quae citra ullam haesitantiam credit esse verissima quaecunque nobis Deus per utrumque Testtradidit ac promisit Erasm in Symbolum apparent in it self to our reasons or senses we presently believe it And if the thing be obscure and difficult to be discerned by us yet if we stand assured of the faithfulness of him that so reports it to us and his wisdom we yield assent thereunto But Faith properly Divine hath a twofold fountain so constituting and denominating it The Matter believed which is not common nor natural but spiritual and heavenly But more especially that Faith is Divine which is not produced in the soul of Man upon any natural reasons necessarily inferring the same but upon a superior motive inducing unto it that is Autoritie divine and because it hath declared and revealed so much unto us as St. Peter believing Christ to be the Son of God it is said Flesh and Boood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in heaven This Mat. 16. 17. was a divine Faith upon a double respect 1. by reason of the object Christ a divine person 2. by reason of the Cause God by whose power he believed the same it not being in the power of flesh and blood any natural reason to convince the judgement so far as absolutely to believe That Christ was so the Son of God so that to be revealed is that which makes the Faith properly divine and not the divine object or thing believed For as it hath been observed by others any thing natural and which by natural reason may be demonstrated and so must be believed by a natural Faith being also commended unto us upon divine autority or revelation may be also believed by a divine Faith That there is an invisible Deity is clearly demonstrable from the visible things of this World and accordingly may and ought to be believed upon the warrant of natural reason it self as St. Paul teacheth us saying The Invisible things of him from the Creation of the Rom. 1. 20. world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse That is If God had not revealed all this yet men ought to believe this out of sense and reason but this hinders not but this very thing should become an article of our Creed also and so because it is revealed Form in us a divine Faith But we must be aware of an ambiguity in Revelation which may mislead us For sometimes Revelation is used for the thing revealed And sometimes for the Act Revealing that which we call now The Revelation of St John and in truth all Scriptures as we have them now are the things God did reveal unto his servants but the Act whereby they were revealed or the Act revealing this to them ended with the persons receiving them And this is no superfluous or curious observation because of a received maxim in the Schools That without a supernatural act we cannot give due assent unto a supernatural object nor believe truths revealed by God without a super added aid of Grace illuminating and inclining the mind to assent thereto From whence doth follow That of all divine Faith is most properly if not only divine which doth believe that such things are Revealed of God and not That which supposes them to have been revealed by God and that he said so as is expressed unto us doth believe For this latter even any natural man and greatest infidel in the world would believe who believes there is a God it being included and implied in the very notion of a Deity that God cannot lie or deceive or affirm a thing to be which is not But the Christian Faith mounts much higher then Heathens and by the Grace of God believes that God hath Revealed such things wherein consists his Christian Faith The first thing then a true believer indeed must believe is That the Scriptures are the word of God and this as it is the most fundamental so is it most difficult of all to one not educated in the Faith of Christians because it neither can be proved by Scripture nor whatevermen who promise nothing less in their presumptuous methods then clear demonstrations may say and argue by Tradition The Scriptures though not testimonie of it self yet matter and manner may induce and Tradition fortifie that but the Crown of all true Christian Faith must be set on by Gods Grace A Second thing in order is when we believe that God hath spoken such things that we believe the things themselves so delivered to us of God For though as is said any rational heathen may well do this yet many a Christian doth it not For The foo◠not in knowledge so much as practise 〈◊〉 14. ◠◠Ti◠◠9. hath said in his heart there is no God saith the Psalmist and St. Paul that many out of an evil conscience have made Shipwrack of their Faith which really once they had A third degree of Christian Faith is When not onely we believe that God hath revealed his Law unto us and what he hath so revealed to be most faithful true and holy but obey the same For in Scripture Faith is taken for Obedience and Obedience for Faith as in the famous instance of Abraham who is said to believe God and that his Faith was counted for Righteousness And why is Abraham said to believe God so signally Because he was perswaded that God bade him offer up his Son unto him No but because he did it by Faith as is witnessed in the Epistle to the Hebrews And this acceptation of Faith is much confirmed by the contrary Heb. 11. 17. speech of Scripture in whose sense they who obey not God are commonly said not to believe him as in the Book of Deuteronomie Deut. 9. 23. Likewise when the Lord sent unto you from Kadesh-Barnea saying Go up and possess the Land which I have given you then ye rebelled against the Commandement of the Lord your God and believed him not nor hearkened unto his voice And therefore in the Acts of the Apostles it is said
prove the same they meaning no more then Gods Election to the state of Grace that is the Faith and Profession of the Gospel Whence it is that the persons so called and converted to Christ are by St. Paul called the Election as Rom. 9. 11. For the children being not yet born neither having done good Rom. 9. 11. or evil that the purpose of God according to Election might stand not of works but of him that calleth Here the purpose of God is distinguished from the election of God meaning That what God had before-time purposed and resolved on he in time executed in electing the younger and relinquishing the elder and that rather from his own Free-will then my difference in the Persons so elected inducing him thereunto And so Chapt. 11. v. 5. The remnant according to his election is the remnant elected Chap. 11. v. 5. 7. 28. And again verse 7. he saith The election hath obtained And verse 28. Touching the election they are beloved In which three places it is to me plain That by election St. Paul doth mean the Persons elected from Jewish Superstition to Christian Profession As St. Peter also useth the same word saying of the Jewish Converts Elected together with you And 1 Pet. 5. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Matth. 24. 22 24 32. and several other places in which nothing more is intended by the Holy Ghost than they who were in outward communion of Faith So that being sure of a mans Election as every ordinary Christian is he becomes in proportionable manner surâ— of his Justification and Salvation that is sure that the Faith he professes is altogether sufficient to lead him infallibly to salvation which neither the Religion of the Jew or Gentile can assure him of Yet to the reapinâ— of the fruit hereof it must alwayes be supposed That such conditionâ— as God requires on the Party stipulating be not wanting Now of this sort of Assurance I make no doubt but the word of God is more genuinely interpreted and applyed than of that personal assurance peculiar to some who frame another notion of being elected which is of being signally chosen out of the former Elect to an infallible assurance of their Justification and Salvation which though I willingly grant o be true viz. That God hath his peculiar ones amongst Christians too as Christians amongst Heathen yet I find little or nothing spoken of under the said Appellations of Elect Elected Election in Scripture but of the first sense generally My appeal shall be to the indifferent judge by laying the testimonies before him which are principally these many coming nothing near the point St. Paul saith to the Romans of Abraham That he did not doubt of the promise of God through unbelief but was strong Rom. 4. 20 21. in saith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform How far this is beside the matter every sober man will easily see that shall consider seriously That these Promises were made directly and expresly to Abrahams person and not in common with other persons And can any man be so unadvised as to conclude That because Abraham having such a particular and personal Promise made to him by God and indeed absolute and inconditionate that he should have a Son by Sarah his wife which he believed and without staggering was assured of therefore they who have no such personal assurances given of God but only general and alwayes conditional of their Justification and Life Everlasting can be in like manner assured of the same or ought to believe that they shall be saved as much as Abraham did that God would send him a Son as he promised The sum of Gods infallible Promise to Christians is this in St. Matthew He that believeth Matth. 16. 1â— and is baptized shall be saved where it must of necessity be granted that Believing is a very comprehensive word according to our distinction of Faith above given and consequently that it cannot be so evident to a man that he believeth according to the Tenour and intent of the Covenant of Grace as it was to Abraham that God himself made such a Promise to him and therefore hath not the like footing for his Faith assuring him that he believeth aright as that he should have a Son when his common sense told him that God had promised he should It is said that Faith is opposite to doubting For Christ said to Peter Matth. 14. 31. O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt This is very true and therefore we say It is no article or object of our Faith to believe that we shall be infallibly saved but it is rather an object of our Fear and more properly of our Hope For though it be said in the Apostles Creed I believe the remission or forgiveness of sgins it is not meant that any man should thereby stand obliged to believe as an Article of Faith the actual forgiveness of his own sins but that his own sins and all other Christian peoples are remissible and that in the Catholick Church there is forgiveness to all that repent and believe And this is no more then that General Assurance that by being baptized we are in a state of Salvation as is above-said To multiply many Texts to infer this from Gods faithfulness who promiseth and from his gifts being without repentance and such like are not worth their time that use them nor would it be worth mine to examine them any farther then to say That they are a great deal too large to have any particular relation to a mans personal state As if God must needs change if a man falls from his stedfast purpose Or God when he in his own counsel determines to save any man infallibly must inseparably annex thereunto this Evidence of his will to the Party any more then it is necessary that all men who leave others their Estates should tell them so much and require at their hands that they make no question of the same under the penalty of forfeiting all The surest grounds therefore for this seem to be taken from revelation which no Christian can absolutely oppose For not only may God but God hath revealed this to others by the testimony of his Spirit or other sufficient Evidence for to beget an assurance But two exceptions are made against this way the one That the dispute is only about the Ordinary dispensations common to all true believers The other That these places alledged prove no more than the common Justification of believers and their Adoption As for instance John 1. 12. As many as received him John 1. 12. to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even as many as believe in his name Here say they believing is put for receiving so that true faith receiveth Christ and this it doth by a particular application of general promises unto a mans self Therefore a man ought to be
who talk of Aquaquula a Little water as if for want of that God should suffer a soul to perish or for want of a Little morsel of bread and a drop or two of wine men should perish everlastingly As if it were not a mercy of God to save some and that by the contemptiblest things in the world and such as his illuminable power and wisdom should choose rather than rigour in binding us to them or to be authours of our own ruin But to protract a disputation to prove that the efficacy of the Sacraments can arise from the Work it self thinking thereby that it must follow that they are not at all efficacious as some very learned men have done is rather to be pitied than persecuted For no otherwise do we ascribe vertue to them Ex opere Operato but as it is opposit to Opus operantis meaning that the instrumental things the Sacraments have not their sufficiencie or efficiencie from the Instrumental Persons the Ministers of them but that these doing the work required of them by the Ordainer the efficacie follows and yet not absolutely from the work but from the will of God CHAP. XXXIV Of the distinction of Sacraments into Legal and Evangelical Of the Covenants necessary to Sacraments The true difference between the Old and New Covenant The Agreement between Christ and Moses The Agreements and differences between the Law and the Gospel MORE contention hath afflicted the Church of God in the disquisition of the number than nature of the Sacraments First then for methods sake We shall divide them into Legal and Evangelical Legal Sacraments were those outward Signs and Rites which God ordained to Abraham and his Seed as Instances and Notices of the Covenant made between him and them And therefore it will not be improper nor unseasonable to interrupt a little the immediate prosecution of the Sacraments and treat of the Covenants God hath made with man as well New as Old seeing all the Sacraments as well Jewish as Christian relate to those Covenants A Covenant is nothing else but an Agreement solemnly made between two distinct Parties with Conditions mutually to be observed as in that between Laban and Jacob That the one should not pass over that leap to the Gen. 31. 52. other for harm So likewise between God and Man a Stipulation and Restipulation is made that the one should perform the part of a Patron and Lord and the other of a faithful Servant to him This Covenant is but twofold in general however it be diversified according to the several occasions of revealing the same The first was properly a Covenant of Nature the second of Grace The Covenant of Nature was first made with Adam at his creation wherein was bestowed on him not only such Faculties and Perfections of Being as necessarily tended to the natural perfection of man but super-added certain supernatural Graces which might dispose him with facility to fulfill the Law and Will of God Notwithstanding which he disobeying God forfeited those more special aids and accomplishments and so dissolved that Covenant God proceeded not upon faithless man according to the rigour of his Justice but out of his free inscrutable favour inclined to renew a Covenant with him again and that was in a third Person not with false man immediately as before And this Person through whom he thus covenant a second time with man was the Man Christ Jesus and then these three are no more Covenants really Yet because this second of sending his Son as a Mediatour between God and Man had such different Forms and Faces upon it according to the several Oeconomies or Dispensations it pleased God to make to man it is often in holy Scripture distinguished into the Old Covenant and the New As by St. Paul to the Galatians saying These Gal. 4. 24. two are the two Covenants The one from Mount Sinai the other from Mount Sion or Jerusalem And to the Hebrews If the first Covenant Hebr. 8. 7. had been faultless then should no place have been found for the second Where he spake of the Covenant of Moses and that of the Gospel But there was a more early Covenant made with Abraham when God promised to him the Land of Canaan and to his Seed But both these agree in the same in that they are tearmed Covenants of Works not that they were so made that they only required working and the second part believing which was under the Gospel For this Covenant made with Abraham and Moses peculiarly to the Israelites did suppose the first solemn Covenant of Faith in the promised Seed of the Woman which should break the Serpents head And therefore this was not another from that but as a Codicil annext in order to some special Promises and Priviledges made over to the Seed of Abraham upon tearms not common to all mankind Such as were temporal blessings and particularly the inheritance of the Land of Canaan But that which is often called the New Covenant or the Covenant of the Gospel is according to the substance of an ancienter date than that made either with Abraham or Moses being the same which was made with Adam the second time in Paradise But is called the New Covenant because it appeared but newly in respect of its dress and clearer revelation at Christs appearing And therefore St. John excellently expresses this when he seemeth to speak on both sides saying Brethren I write no new Commandment to you but an old Commandment 1 Joh. 2. 7 8. which ye had from the beginning the old Commandment is the Word which ye have heard from the beginning Again a new Commandment I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you signifying unto us in what sense the Gospel was new and in what Old It was new in comparison of the more conspicuous manifestation of it it was old in respect of its Ordination For to this end the Apostle to the Colossians speaking of the Gospel calleth it the Mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations Coloss 1. 26. but now is made manifest to his Saints c. But the nature of this Covenant and the vulgar confusions made in treating of the Old and New will more clearly appear from a short consideration of the Agreement and Differences between these two Covenants And the first Agreement is that we now have insinuated that the substance of them both was the same Secondly they agree in their Author For contrary to some ancient Hereticks the same God was the Author of the Old who was Author of the New Law Thirdly they agree in the Principal Minister and Mediatour of both which was Christ Jesus who is therefore said to be the same yesterday to day and for ever because Hebr. 13. 8. both before the Law and under the Law and after the Law of Moses Christ was the same Mediatour Fourthly they were one as to their end which next to
on him It was a sign likewise that his Seed were specially chosen to Gods favour to inherit that promised Land and many other temporal blessings which no wayes concerned other Nations It might have likewise many other moral purposes which are ingeniously sought out and largely prosecuted by others and especially Postillers 'T is true that many Nations observed this Rite of Circumcision but not by the appointment of God nor by their own invention but as transmitted to them from such who either descended from Abraham or received it from him Neither was it to such of the Nature of a Sacrament because not given them of God and having no promises annext to that Act in them but only as in Abraham For the Covenant that God made with mankind which we have call'd the Covenant of Works in opposition to that of Faith in Christ made after the Fall was made to Adam and all his for ever though all the Posterity of Adam reaped not the like visible benefit from it And this second Covenant received several additions according to the several Revelations it pleased God to make unto some part of mankind above others and that with Abraham and his Seed The first eminent Act of God was to Abraham himself when he gave him the Promise that the Messias should descend from him and gave him the sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Rom. 4. 11. Faith which he had being uncircumcised c. Now what Faith was that which Abraham had before he was circumcised Not that which moved him to offer his Son Isaac to God and yet believe that he should inherit the blessings promised to him but it was that Faith which he had in the more ancient and general promise with Adam concerning the Messias For otherwise the Apostles argument to prove that we are justified by Faith and not by works of the Law would not hold good which in effect is this The same way that the Patriarchs and particularly your Father Abraham was justified the same way must ye be justifid too but Abraham was not justified by the works of the Law but by Faith in Christ v. 10 11 12 13. And this appeareth plainly For if Abraham were justified before the Law and before Circumcision then surely Circumcision and the works of the Law could not avail to his Justification For how was Faith reckoned to Abraham for righteousness In circumcision or in uncircumcision not in circumcision but in uncircumcision And he received the sign of Circumcision as a seal of the Righteousness of the Faith he had being yet uncircumcised From whence it appeareth That what Covenant was made with Abraham by Circumcision was not absolutely a new Covenant but a special Priviledge and Interest given to him in that long before made with Adam after his breaking the first Covenant of Obedience and Works And thus we see the nature and end of the first Sacrament given to the Jews before Christ Circumcision And the second Sacrament of Note was much of the same nature as not being given to make an absolute generally new Covenant with Mankind but only to signifie the peculiar Right that People had to the general Covenants above others that as Gods First-born sons of all Nations they should have a double portion of that Grace which was common otherwise to all And farther an addition of Temporal blessings was made sure to them by it upon the due observation of those Rites and Laws given them And this blessing was twofold hereby signified First that passed in delivering them so eminently and miraculously from the destroying Angel who killed the First-born of the Aegyptians and brought them from that tedious and grievous bondage by which they were oppressed And therefore it was called the Passover The second consisted in an Assurance of the promised Possessions in the Land of Canaan Now besides these litteral significations and ends there were two other Spiritually intimated by them relating to the Gospel and its Services And they were the remission of sins in Baptism and the right to heaven and bliss after death by the participation of the means of Salvation the Mannah of his Word and the Sacraments of his Promises Baptism and the Holy Eucharist CHAP. XXXVI Of the Evangelical Sacraments Of the various application of the name Sacrament Two Sacraments Vnivocally so called under the Gospel only The others Equivocally Five conditions of a Sacrament Of the reputed Sacraments of Orders Matrimony and Extream Vnction in particular AS under the Old Testament There were some special Sacraments and properly so called besides many others which by mens interpretation rather than Gods Institution were so called as the Tree of Life in Paradise Noahs Ark Passing through the Red Sea the Brasen Serpent and the like so also under the Gospel as St. Paul saith There are Gods many and Lords many but to us there is but one God So are there Sacraments many and many Sacramental things but to us there are but two Sacraments properly so called Baptism and the Eucharist or Supper of the Lord. Therefore purposing to speak of all the reputed as well as real Sacraments of the Gospel because though not Sacraments yet very Sacred and deserving well to be understood we shall divide them into equivocal or improper and univocal or proper Sacraments Of the former rank we make Orders sacred Matrimony Penitence or Repentance Confirmation and extream Unction Of the latter sort are Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Now to understand the just reason of this discrimination between Sacraments it is necessary that we pitch upon some general Definition of a true Sacrament by which as a Light and Rule the False are to be examined and judged And therefore shall resume our Definition before laid down of a Sacrament A Sacrament is a visible sign instituted by God to produce an invisible grace in the soul of man which we have already defended But if men will religiously contend about words it cannot be denyed That many of the Ancient and Holy Fathers and the perpetual language of the Church have accustomed themselves to call many more things than Two or Seven or perhaps Seven times seven Sacraments because they do contain something sacred and mysterious in them but yet amount not to the perfection either of our received two Sacraments or perhaps of the other five And so long as men hold to the true and real Sacraments and have the due use of them it matters not much if they give the Name Praelect de Sacram. Qu. 6. c. 1. Sacrament unto those things which are not worthy of it as Whitaker hath well said But the Reasons against more than two Sacraments in the proper sense may be these First That we read not of the institution of any more than two by God or Christ in the New Testament and of these two clear evidence there is found as may more fully be seen when we come to treat of them Nay
but they were the intermediate effects of the stock of Grace treasured up in the Soul and exhorting and improving it self by the continual supplie of the Spirit of Christ according to the * Mat. 25. 16. doctrine of St. Paul to the Corinthians saying Insomuch that we desired Titus that as he had begun so he would also finish in you the same Grace also Therefore as ye abound in every thing in Faith in utterance in knowledge and v. 7. in all diligence and in your love to us see that ye abound in this Grace also Of this influence of Christs Spirit to the augmentation of Grace in the hearts of the true believers speaketh the same Apostle to the Colossians thus The Col. 2. 19. Head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God Sanctification then may be described The Grace of God infused into the Soul of a Sinner and purifying it by Faith as Justification is the reputation and acceptation of a person for Just by almighty God through the intuition of the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ And yet more distinctly to declare their mutual agreement and difference it will conduce much to the due understanding of them both First then Justification and Sanctification agree in their Subject The true believer the same person who is Sanctified being also Justified and he that is Justified being Sanctified also For so saith the prophet Nahum of him The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked Nahum 1. 3. And when we find St. Paul affirming the contrary in appearance viz. that God justifieth the ungodly we are to understand him to speak not in Rom. 4. 5. Sensu composito in such manner that he is justified while he is so ungodly but in Sensu diviso a distinct sense and season as if it had been said Him that was once ungodly as he seems to interpret himself in his Epistle to the Corinthians where having spoken of the many abominations men were subject to he saith And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are 1 Cor. 6. 11. Sanctified but ye are Justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Secondly Justification and Sanctification agree in their foundation which is at least inchoate and initial holiness For though no mans inherent holiness arises so high as to denominate him truly Just or holy for its own sake yet both to Sanctification and Justification is necessarily required some preparatorie and imperfect holiness consisting principally in the Conversion of the mind to God from sin Thirdly both Sanctification and Justification are alike owing to Faith as their immediate Cause next under Gods Spirit as may be gathered from the prayer of Christ for his disciples Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is Joh. 17 17. truth That is the doctrine of Faith received To which Faith the effect of Sanctification is ascribed by St. Peter in the Acts whereby the Act. 15. 9. hearts of the Gentile were purified or Sanctified Fourthly they are both equally imputed unto us through the Righteousness of Christ Therefore saith St. Paul to the Corinthians To them that are Sanctified in Christ Jesus And 1 Cor. 1. 2. Heb. 10. 29. to the Hebrews it is said We are Sanctified by the blood of the Covenant So that no less are we Sanctified then Justified by Christs death and merits and the imputation of them But on the other side they are distinct in some formalities such as these may be for First the immediate cause of our Sanctification is in holy Scripture imputed to the operation and influence of the Holy Spirit as our Justification is more properly attributed to Christ the mediator between God and man As appeareth from St. Pauls words to the Thessalonians But we are bound to give thanks alwayes for you brethren beloved of the Lord 2 Thes 2. 13. because God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth And St. Peter Elect according 1 Pet. 1. 2. to the foreknowledge of God the Father and Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience Thirdly Justification looketh backward being an absolution of the guilty from sins formerly committed and holding him Just but no man is justified actually from sins which hereafter he may fall into But Sanctification relates chiefly to the time future For not only is a sinner by the Spirit of Regeneration and Sanctification purged from the old Leaven of sin and malice but he becometh a New Lump and unleavened 1 Cor. 5. 7. Rom. 6. 13. and whereas he hath yielded his members as Instruments of unrighteousness unto sin he doth yield himself unto God as those that are alive from the dead And old things are done away in him and all things become new And whosoever is 1 Joh. 3. 9. thus born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Fourthly to the Act of our Justification the will of man doth not necessarily concurr though it dissents not but is rather passive than Active but to our Sanctification is absolutely required the co-operation of the will and affections of man with the Grace of God in all those who have attained unto the use of reason For indeed by baptism Infants are so far Sanctified as to be freed from that hereditarie evil incident unto them which their will concurred not to but to actual Sanctification from those evils our wills did freely consent actual concurrence of our wills is necessary Fifthly Our Justification is entire and absolute at once no man being partly Justified and partly not Justified though he be partly Just and partly unjust or unholy But no man in this Life is so perfectly Sanctified as that there wants not somewhat to consummate the same because Justification being altogether the Act of God and not at all of Man God may and doth wholly and freely remit the guilt of sin to the penitent offendor But Man being also concerned in the Sanctification of himself his acts are imperfect and defective so that the effect it self partakes of the same and so Sanctification continues imperfect And it is not all at once but answerable to our natural man proceedeth by degrees Until we all come Eph 4. 13. in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ which fulness of stature is that we are to hope for and enjoy only in heaven Lastly to search no farther into this point before Justification there must of necessity goe some degree of Sanctification even in the opinion of such as contend most rigorously for freeness of Justification for to make Justification altogether
thus spoken of the Political Power of the Church which we so call because it imitates that which is so more properly called in directing the visible Body of the Church to its proper end as the Pilot doth the ship to its proper Haven and hath both Visible Acts and Effects We are now to treat of that Power We in distinction to that other do call Mystical because the End and Effect thereof is not outward or visible but inward spiritual and Mysterious and therefore also call it Sacramental Sacrament and Mystery being the same in the Original Phrase of the New Testament For to the Church as they are more peculiarly called who are Officers in the same doth it of Right appertain to celebrate these Mysteries Wherefore first we shall speak of the Sacraments in General as the manner is and then in Particular The word Sacrament is rather of Gentile than Christian original there being no word in the New Testament proper to it but the vulgar Translation Sacramentum est invisibilis gratiae invisibilis forma ita ut ejus similitudinemgerat et causa existat Gulielmus Antissiodorensis Sum. Lib. 4. Cap. 1. thinking fit to render Mystery Sacrament in Latin the Antienter Latin Church hath made use of it to express certain Mysterious Rites of sacred and necessary use in the Church of God about which word so long since received no contention ought to be had The Nature Number Minister and Use of them deserving principal enquiry A Sacrament is defin'd as is commonly known by St. Augustine a Visible sign of an Invisible Grace which being taken rigorously seemeth not to comprehend the whole nature of it therefore Antissiodorensis would have its defect supplied thus A Sacrament is a visible form of an Invisible Grace whereof it is also the Cause But considering the many and sharp disputes upon this subject I suppose it may be more fully described to be A visible sign ordained by God to produce an invisible effect of Grace in the soul of Man This definition may be collected from the several parts of it contained in the word of God as first from St. Paul to the Romans speaking of Circumcision a prime Sacrament given by God to Abraham and his seed And he received the sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness Rom. 4. 11. of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised For there are three special properties of a Sacrament commonly acknowledged To Signifie To Seal To Effect Grace but in strickness of speech these make but two Acts. For either a Thing doth barely signify and declare another or it concurreth to the being of another where things are Related one to another For seals are no more than signs binding more firmly to the fulfilling of the contents of an Instrument or Conveyance For as in such Cases the Free good will of the Donour is the only cause of an inheritance given the Instrument of Conveyance consisting of so many words are the signs of the inward will the seals are but signs of the signs of words that is an assurance that what was signified in the said Instrument should hold good And the Actual Delivery of this is the immediate Cause of entring into possession or enjoyment of this Gift In like manner The word of God promising his Graces to us signifies the will of God to that end The Sacraments superadded do likewise sensibly signifie unto us the earnest God is in when he made promises unto us as Seals And the actual exhibiting of these signs or seals on Gods Part by his Proxy or Ministers and the due receiving of them on our Part do put us into a fruition of those things which were so signified and promised First then They must be a sign that is a Representation of a thing and not the thing it self and that to add to our knowledge and Faith for if there were no agreement between the thing signifying and the thing signified the word of God alone had sufficed to that end Secondly they must be ordained of God For if no man in common justice can give away another mans estate but the true owner of it how should it be possible or equal or credible that any other besides God himself the Owner of his graces should by instruments of his own forging convey such heavenly benefits to mankind which properly belong to God This were supream folly and presumption to attempt Or can any man know Gods mind or methods of working before he hath revealed them Therefore it is said that God gave Abraham the Sign and Seal of Circumcision Thirdly they must rather be ordained Arbitrarily of God and by special Institution then Naturally least the Free Grace of God therein contained should suffer and the effect be ascribed rather to natural than supernatural Causes For though the cutting off of the foreskin of the flesh by explication intimate the cutting off of the filth of the Soul yet naturally it could not be so well understood And God might if he had pleased ordained the cutting off of the tip of the ear to serve the same ends And so in baptism Water doth naturally cleanse bodily filthiness but without notice given of Gods will and grace it could never have been believed possible to affect the soul and purify it Fourthly as there must be some agreement between the thing signifying and signified there must also be a real difference in their nature For nothing in nature or reason can signify it self because nothing can be clearer than it self For when a thing is obvious to our senses or otherwise apparent Sicut Signum et res ipsa aliquando possint esse diversa ita saepenumero et in multis eadem esse possunt Tunstal 9. de Eucharistia fol 16. we do not say we have a sign of such a thing but the thing it self Yet this most certain Rule is sought to be bafled and overthrown by Cavillers who would bring in their false doctrine of the Eucharist and would shew from bread on a Stall or Cloath which signifies bread and Cloath as well as is bread and Cloath that the same body of Christ may be a sign of it self But their attempts in their Instance fail them because that Bread which is exposed to be sold or that Cloath is not a sign of it self viz. That it is cloath or bread but is so only but it is only a sign that either it is to be sold which is quite another thing from Cloath it self or it is a sign of other cloath which doth not appear And so the body of Christ in the Eucharist is not a sign of that Body which doth appear but of that which doth not appear And therefore a Fifth condition of a Sacrament is That it should visibly signify something invisible and spiritual Lastly that Sacraments are to be not only significant or which comes to the same Sealing but efficacious in themselves upon the souls of men which may deserve further explication
necessary to Salvation are as clear as those under the Old But this is not so clear as Circumcision To which we answer That this is as true taking in the whole manifestation of Gods will For the clearness of the Sacraments enjoyned in the Old Testament do conduce to the clearness of them signified by them And there needs nothing more be said for the clearing of the necessity of these than to admit them to have succeeded those two in the Old Testament And we find not such necessity particularly imposed upon us of receiving the Eucharist as was upon the Israelites of receiving the Paschal Lamb but general necessity without determination of time or place the Gospel expresseth unto us upon the hope of salvation which is sufficient The vertue and Efficacie of this Sacrament above-touched proves this farther but it needs it self be proved according to those extravagant opinions brought by Modern Divines into the Church that it is only a seal of our Faith and eternal Favour of God in Predestinating us to Glory As if First all according to their judgements that were baptized were ordained to Glory and this were assured them by that Seal Or Secondly that God had Predestinated any to Life without the necessary means to it Or that remission of sins Actual and the expiation of Original were not necessary to the entring into Life or that God had so simply and absolutely ordained us to heaven that he had not ordained these two as Means to obtain Perkins on Gal. 2. v. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod Haret Fabul 5. c. 2. this For what can be a more horrible prophanation of this Sacrament then to say with one upon the Galatians We are born Christians if our Parents believe and not made so in Baptism Which is contrary to the Doctrine of our Catechism and the whole stream of Primitive Doctors of the Church from whom we may Gather this threefold Effect of Baptism First it is not only a sign as the same Persons say of our Covenant but it is the Covenant it self made between God and Man For God indeed doth make a Promise but he maketh no Covenant otherwise than by Baptism God made a Promise to Abraham that his seed should be blessed before Circumcision but he made no Covenant with him but by Circumcision nor is any actually in the Covenant of Faith but by being baptized Doth not the Scripture expresly say that God gave Abraham the Covenant of Act. 7. 8. Circumcision Circumcision then was not only a Sign of that Covenant though that it were but an Essential part of it Circumcision therefore was a sign in a twofold sense First in respect of the Covenant under the Law as words whereof the Covenant consists are signs of the Will of the Covenanters to the ear and works outward are in like manner signs of the same to the Eye which sort of signs are not distinct from the thing it signifies For God Covenanted with Abraham that he should use those Ceremonies Now this outward visible Covenant was a sign of an inward and invisible relating to the righteousness of Faith as St. Paul saith of Abraham And he received the Sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness Rom 4. 11. of Faith So that is the Second way in which Circumcision may be said to be a sign viz. As the whole Sacramental Covenant of which it was a part signified the Covenant of Faith into which we are entred by Baptism as the Jews into the other by Circumcision A Second effect of Baptism is to wash away all sins as well Original as Actual of which that Prophesie of Zacharie is generally understood In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and Zechar. 13. 1. to the inhabitants of Jerusalem For sin and for uncleanness To which St. Paul agrees in his Epistle to the Ephesians speaking of the Church That Eph. 5. 26. he might sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word Where the Word sanctifieth the Water and the water sanctifieth the Person which it can no otherwise do then by washing off the sins of the Soul As St. Peter hath it Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer 1 Pet. 3. 21. of a good Conscience towards God That is at the time of baptism whereby the filth of the Spirit necessarily implied to make up the correspondence is put away And St. Paul telleth the Corinthians They were washed 1 Cor. 6. they were Sanctified viz. By Baptism But whether Original sin be so far extinguished in the baptized as no more remains should be found is much doubted to which we briefly and clearly answer from the distinction of Sins For sometimes the Cause of sin is termed sin Sometime the Effect of Sin is called Sin whereas Sin is properly the Evil Act it self or the omission of an act due from us Original Sin in us is not so properly called Sin as it was in Adam who actually sinned and that with a consent of his own will But it is rather the Effect of his Actual transgression which doth originally adhere to us and is called sin upon this threefold account First because it is the necessary effect or consequence of Adams Sin as we find Moses to speak in Deuteronomy And I took your sin the Calfe which ye made The Calfe was the fruit of their Sin and Deut. 9. 21. not their sin it self So is that evil Effect the Sin Original because it is the evil consequence of it Secondly It is Sin because it doth partake of the nature of sin in one of the principal parts making up sin They are two The Obliquity of the Act or Deformity and disagreement to the accurate Law of God and the disobedience of the will and pravity thereof This latter original sin as it was actual in Adam had as well as the former but so is it not with us There can be no such disobedience in the Will where there is no Will. There is no will in Infants besides the remote faculty it self and therefore all sin yea all humane acts requiring consent of the Will original sin cannot be sin in this sense But taking sin for a dissonancy from 1 Joh. 3. 4. the Law and Rule as St. John doth and that conformity as is justly required by the Law certainly that Original depravation and corruption found generally in our natures at our first entrance into the World may truly be called sin because it makes us to differ so much from that God made us and intended us to be Thirdly Original sin hath this likewise denominating it sin that it is the cause of sin that original inclination to sin being that which moves us all unto the actual commission of sin which St. Paul surely aimeth at where he saith Now then it is no more I that do Rom. 7. 17. it but sin that dwelleth in