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 running 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 for Christs sake So people within the pale of the Church first hear the voice of their mother the
learning of the Aegyptians but their learning consisted rather in the hieroglyphick emblems then in letters And though there were Magicians and wise men among them before Josephs time Psal 105.21 Gen. 41.8 yet they are said to learn wisedome of Joseph and might also of the Patriarchs being in Aegypt four hundred years who had by tradition the sciences from Sheth which afterward might be called the learning of the Aegyptians who at that time had the Israelites in bondage and so took the name of learning to themselves But these books of Moses are most clearly divine and authentick declaring an history from the Creation for two thousand years forward with excellent revelation of divine oracles which teach men to know the true God 3. They be the word of God because it treateth of those works which are proper only to God and of which none can give evidence but the spirit of God and such as are inspired therewith As of the creation of the world the preservation and destruction of it the restauration of it again the qualifying of the Church with divine Oracles and religious services typicall and spirituall morall ceremoniall judiciall honouring it with unparalleld miracles declaring mans eternall redemption and by prophecies of the state of the Church to the worlds end Mathe. This proofe being taken only from Scripture will not suffice some who beleeve them not for their own sakes Phila. It is true such therefore may be confirmed of the truth of them from prophane writers who testifie of their truth and antiquity if they had rather beleeve such then the Scriptures themselves the Fathers or Ecclesiastick writers For many prophane Authors attest what is written in them as Homer and Plato and others Homer Plato Ovid. Hieron Aegypt Berosus Epolemus Plut. in l. ratio brutorum Vid Euseb l. 9. c. 34. de prop. Evangel Lactan. l. 4. c. 6. speak of the Creation others of the long lives of the Patriarchs as Ephorus and Alexander the historian before the flood others of the drowning of the world others of the Tower of Babel as Alydenus so Damascenus of Abrahams travels Plutarch of Noahs Dove so Pliny of Moses miracles Diodorus Siculus of Moses and Strabo with much reverence as well as Dionys Longinus The Sybils prophecied of mans Redeemer Suetonius in the life of Nero speaks of Christs miracles and Pliny of the wise mens star Macrobius of Herods massacring the infants of Bethelem Mathe. All this proves only the historicall part to be true Phila. If we beleeve the history to be a divine truth we cannot well doubt of the doctrinall part being interserted one with another and both of them equally attested by divine miracles both of Moses the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles which miracles being from the divine power would never have been produced to attest false doctrines in Scriptures therefore the Scriptures in doctrine as well as in history is the word of God But beside the rare modification of them sheweth them no lesse For though they transcend reason yet they deliver nothing contrary to right and pure reason nor any thing contrary in nature though things above nature Again the doctrinal part of them is agreeable to the nature of God is who Goodness Righteousnesse Love and Truth and Holinesse yea they discover to man all his secret corruptions which is the property only of God to do nor doth it in any thing contradict it selfe being rightly understood though written by divers men in divers ages and therfore surely were indited by that one eternall Spirit who is Unity in Verity as wel as Unity in Trinity Farther it shews man a way to be saved from sin and damnation without annihilating the Justice of God or making his mercy degenerate into fond pitty for want of satisfaction to his justice and this surpasseth the wisedome of Angels and men yea the effects of it are divine for it brings rest to a troubled mind which no book else can do and satisfieth mans knowledge in things worthy of faith and affords as much and more reason why we should beleeve them then any book beside Therefore the wisest and soberest men of all ages have consented to it and thousands of godly Martyrs have sealed it with their pious lives and constant deaths Vid. Martyrol Mathe. I pray give me some proofe that the Scriptures have as much reason and more to be beleeved then other writings Phila. 1. Because we can find no just exception against the Writers in regard of their abilities or their integrities and upon the same ground we beleeve all other Historiographers But if you say you know not whether those are the Authors of the books that are entitled to them as Moses and Paul I say you have as much reason to beleeve that as that any ancient writer is the Author of his own book 2. We may rather and ought rather to beleeve them then others not only because of the excellency of their matter as I said before but also because the Authors of them had no selfe interest in writing these books as either of gain or glory favor or the friendship of men nay they were content with labor and travell poverty and persecutions scorns and infamy misery and death Therefore certainly they be the Word of God Cyril 10. and so to be beleeved To call the Authors of them into question were to outdo Julian the Apostate who would not deny that Luc. Philo. and scoffing Lucian who did not deny Paul to be the Author of the second Epistle to the Corinthians twelfth chapter though he scoffs at his professed extasie Indeed they may challenge as much beleefe of their authors in this point as any writing both because they have been so successively delivered continually so mentioned and generally so acknowledged by all parties Mathe. Doth God declare himselfe in all the books of Scripture alike Phila. No but in some more historically as in the five books of Moses In some more my stically as in the Prophets In some more clearly as in the New Testament but in all instructively both for faith and manners perfectly and sufficiently Mathe. Why are some called Canonicall and some Apocryphall books Phila. They are called Canonicall which are the rule of faith and manners namely for us to beleeve and practice and they are numbred by the Church to begin with Genesis and to end with the Prophet Malachy for the Old Testament And the New Testament begins with St Matthew and ends with the Revelation of St John And all these are the subject of our faith but not all for our practice Mathe. Why so Phila. Because many precepts in it are temporall as the Ceremoniall Law some for the Jewes particular state only as the Judiciall Lawes the equity whereof we may observe though not according to the letter as we are bound to observe the charity which is the end of them though not the exact severity So many holy men had dispensation
who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such a labyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath a soule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr. Ã porta Biâ—l in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe. Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Quest 1 Phila. Yes First if there were
Church but at last they beleeve it for God the Fathers sake whose voice they find speak in Scripture which is the foundation of true faith being the last principle into which faith can be resolved Mathe. Are there any other reasons to prove God beside Scriptures Phila. None better then Scripture to them that beleeve it but because many beleeve not the Scriptures as the Heathen denie the whole Bible and the Jewes halfe of it namely the N. T. therefore reason must be found to convince such The heathen know not the true God and the Jews know not God in Christ and so one worships a false God and the other the true God but in a false manner And we need not scruple at reason in this point because God gave reason before Scriptures and holy Reason before holy Writ to divers men which lead them to Religion and therefore though it be well proved to us out of the Old Testament that there is a God of the Jewes whom the very Heathen feared 1 Sam. 4.7 8. And also out of the New Testament that to us there is but one true God of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 8.6 by whom are all things and we by him And beside we know that nothing can testifie better of the truth of Gods being then the truth of Gods writing yet for other mens sakes who beleeve not the Scriptures and yet by reason may be induced to beleeve them it is good to urge reasons Now the first reason to perswade men that there is a God is Because it seems written in the minds of all nations by a naturall impression or mentall presumption which forceth rather to worship any thing for a god then no god at all Rom. 2. Cic. de Nat. De. lib. 1. p. 198. Cic. lib. 1. Tusc pa. 112. Rom. 1.2 which sheweth the first Commandement written in their hearts that they shall acknowledge a god though what god it is they know not and so they worship divers things for gods which are not so From hence it is that some have worshipped Sun and Moon some worshipped Beasts Serpents some the Images of Men some Crocodiles some Devils under strange shapes of Satyrs whose upper part was manlike and the under part like a Goat the Aegyptians worship * Shor-apis an Oxe head the Bramenes of India worship the first thing they meet in the morning as the god of the day Orteli Cosm So in Baida they worship a piece of a red clout tied to a crosse-stick like a banner some worship a Crosse as the god of raine This may be some old traditions of the Crosse antiquated I would they that understand their language would bring that God to them whom they ignorantly worship as Paul did to the Athenians it would prove a happy voiage I know the Papists use some endeavours among them to little purpose till they have convinced their understanding and so they do but draw them from one superstition to another and can give as little reason for one as the other yea I beleeve the subtill Indian observing the Idolatry of the Papists think their own Religion to be as good as the Papists Mathe. How comes men to be so sottish Phila. Through ignorance and immoderate passions of love and fear For as through ignorance some worshipped Fortune and Vices as contumely and impudence as did the Athenians Clem. Rom. l. 5. Recog others Flora and Priapus as did the Romans some worshipped Nymphae and Hymen and Mons Veneris which words signifie the secret parts of womens bodies fo which they made gods and goddesses as some inamoured Gallants do of their mistresses And thus the Devill hath taught men to debase themselves even unto hell Isa 57.9 So by fear men worshipped Serpents and Crocodiles and other hurtfull creatures as the Indians do the Devill for fear he should harm them others worshipped the Images of both under certain shapes called Telesmes which were made to defend them from something they feared So Love erected strange Idols As those that passionately desired to preserve the memory of their friends did after their death set up an Image of them which in processe became a sanctuary for offenders Dioph. Laced in Antiq. as did the Image of Synophanes son which he set up in love of his memory to which Image his servants offered incense and did fly to it for pardon of their offended master and upon reliefe would offer it gifts of thankfulnesse From hence came superstition the end whereof was Cicero that their friends might be superstites or survivors when they were dead that is kept in memory after death So Ninus set up the Image of Belus his father in his new built City Niniveh which became a sanctuary to all kind of offenders and in processe of time came to be religious worship Sophocles which even some heathen Poets confuted From Belus came Baal so often named in Scripture signifying Lord as Baal-Sephon Exod. 14.1 the Lord of the watch Tower and Baal Berith the Lord of the Covenant Judg. 8.33 and Baal-zebub the Lord of flies Dan. 3.1 And it is very likely that Nebuchadnezzars golden Image Dan. 2.38 was to be a memoriall of himselfe because Daniel had told him that he was the head of Gold but God crossed his purpose by the delivering of the three children from the fiery furnace However his Babylonians set up their god Bel which is very likely that they had brought from the Assyrians by conquest Mathe. But in what times did this false worship arise Phila. Certainly it arose first in Cain's posterity of whom it is said Gen. 4.26 Then began men to call on the name of the Lord where the Hebrew word huchar signifieth to prophane as Num. 30.2 And Jewish Rabbies so take it R. D. Kimchi though the Chaldee Paraphrase doth not for they say that then they began to call men by the name of gods and lords and placed the souls of their famous men in the stars and called the images here on earth by the name of god and began to give them divine worship This being a prophaning of that true Religion which was held in the family of Sheth you find in the fifth of Genesis men are ranked into two sorts sons of God and sons or daughters of men but when these sons of God of the line of Sheth married with the daughters of men which were of Cain and became infected with their Idolatry god drowned the world Yet this Idolatry ceased not but after the flood it began again in the race of Nimrod Belus and Ninus who were all Idolized by their followers placing their souls among the stars and erecting their Images here upon earth to which when they did sacrifice they beleeved that thereby the souls departed Elat in Symp. were called to their Images and took cognisance of their cases and then like patrons sollicited them before
in those times which is not competent with us Abraham to make his halfe sister his wife Iacob to have many wives which is not competent with other ages Mal. 2.15 and therefore reproved by the Prophet So neither are those actions imitable which many were agitated to by zeal and fervour of spirit for Gods cause as that of Moses to excite one brother to slay another nor that of Phineas in transferring Zimri and Cosbi for what actions are exorbitant from common Law are not to be made exemplar Mathe. What may we judge of those that are called Apocryphall books Ph. We are to think them as helps to understand Scripture in many places especially Solomon Wisd and Eccl. Judith Tobie Esdras Mac. and to know the State of the Jewes before the Prophet Malachies time in their captivity and after it also And so neither to contemn them nor yet to build our faith upon all things there written as the Church of Rome injoineth people to do under penalty of a curse as we are to beleeve the Canonicall Scriptures Conc. Trid. but to trie what analogy they hold with truth and so make use of them as in Heb. 11.35 takes an instance of faith from the mother of seven sons 2 Machab. 7.7 Mathe. Some make doubt of the Scriptures Canonicalness because they say there be more books in the world then we have inserted in our Bibles and all that we have in our account Canonicall are not thought to be so Phila. You need not trouble your selfe with that but rather make an holy use of that we have by building our selves up in our holy faith and thank God that he hath reserved for us by his Church a copy of sacred writ sufficient for our salvation which is written that we may beleeve and the rest lost or left out John 21.25 that we may not look after more then is necessary The Jewes reckoned but 22 books of the old Testament we find more Joseph cent Appion Vid. Concil Lao. de lib. Canon Magd. cent 4. fol. 838. c. 4. yet they contained as much as we have but their compiling differed from ours And these were consigned by Ezra the scribe after the return from Babylon in the time of Hagge Zachary and Malachy all in Hebrew Which tongue though it be a good signe of Canonicall Scripture yet it is not the only signe for many of the Apocryphall books were so written at first as Ecclesiasticus seems to be by the Preface a book of great worth and next sure to the Wisedome of Solomon So Tobit and the fourth of Esdras but rather the consignation of the Jewish Church and their continuall receipt of them for such Atha in Synop. So some write of more Psalms of David then 150. but if we should admit of more I feare it would encourage many selfe conceited men to make Psalms too under pretence that they had the spirit of God as well as David as did some in the Councill of Laodicea Conc. Lao. ut supra c. 59. and urged for it Ioel 2. your sons and daughters shall prophecy which Council excludes or at least omits the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalyps yet it reckons 14 Epistles of St Pauls of which that to the Colossians must be one or else there is but 13. Kirstonius in Arab. notes on the Evangel Calv. vid. Bod. method hist c. 7. And why the Apocalyps was left out it may be was because more lately written and divulged except the Councill were of their minds who reckoned it Apocrypha or theirs who slighted it as Ambrese did Persius the Satyrist because of its obscurity We read also of the Gospell of St Thomas and St Bartholomew all which is nothing to us so long as we know that our old Testament and the Jewes agree together still and are the same they were in the time of Christ And for the New Testament we have those that have been generally received as Orthodoxall by the Church and for 1300 years together consigned as Canonicall by the Councils as Nice Laodicea and Carthage Mathe. But whether have not the Iewes corrupted the old Testament Phila. 1. Aug. They would not certainly out of envy to the Gentiles rob their own posterity of the truth Philo. Beside they held it as a sin inexpiable so to do Polanus leb 1. cap. 37. and would die an hundred deaths rather then change one jot of them They know also that the world was created for the Scriptures sake and therefore the world would be turned to a chaos ere they should be altered and so they were faithfull trustees Rom. 3.2 But 2. They could not do it for there was so many Copies dispersed by reason of their dispersion over the world that it was impossible to corrupt it Bellarm. Beside certainly God would not suffer that to be corrupted by which he meant to save the world and therefore Christ said Luke 16.17 that not one iota should perish till heaven and earth passed away Mat. 5.18 And 3. They did not for then they would above all other places expunged or altered those that related to Christ as Esa 7. ver 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive Gnalemah Bethulah not a young woman for that had been no wonder nor worth the world Behold So Esa 9.6 To us a child is born and a Son is given called Wonderfull c. Nor did they deface his passion though they deformed him foreprophecied so clearly Esa 53. Bellarm. Which words in their own language do more forcibly convince the Jewes then the Vulgar Latine doth as in Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son Nesheku Bar. i. embrace Christ not Discipline And therefore certainly the Old Testament was not corrupted by the Jewes 4. Our Saviour never charged them with corrupting the Text but only with misunderstanding or mis-interpreting nor any of the Fathers in their writing against them Just Marr. except one for wronging the Septuagints translation So that it is void of corruption however in the reading there may be some variation yet no deprvation of the Copy Mathe. But methinks they deliver things impossible and some things contradictory and some things in them seem doubtfull in regard of difference of text and margent in the old Testament and diversity of readings in the new Phila. Not things impossible to him whose word it is who to his works requires our faith more then our understandings else his works did not exceed magitians 2. Nor is there any contradictions in them if you observe the rule of contradictions which must be a assertion of the same thing at the same time according to the same part notion or apprehension You must know therefore that there is a vast difference between Scriptures and other books For they do not omit somethings out of mis-knowledge as other books do nor at all contradict themselves but sometimes things are omitted for mystery sake as Moses a
Boniface the third had got the title of universall Bishop they began to break out into strange opinions and manners as that the Chair of Rome was infallible as you see in Pope Agatho his decree and excommunicating Emperours and suffering them to kisse his feet as did Pope Constantine the first and others Condemning Priests marriage and setting up the the service of the Church in Latine as did Nicolaus the first and that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed should be perpetually observed as did Stephanus the fifth and setting up the Masse Purgatory Pilgrimages adoration of images invocation of Saints and transubstantiation and setting themselves above generall Councils in determinations of faith so that no decree or Canon could passe without the Popes approbation They getting thus aloft suppressed all that withstood their tenets From hence it came that the true Religion became eclipsed yet some God raised up in every age who wrote against both their pride and errors though by reason of the over ruling power of the Church of Rome they could not so plainly appear as in the time of Luther and afterwards For Basilius Magnus writes to the Bishops of the West that if they held themselves to be the head yet they could not say to the feet Bas transmar Ep. 77. About the 4th century of years I have no need of you which plainly reproved the Popes usurping supremacy as well as do the Protestants Gregory Nyssâ—n wrote against Pilgrimages to Jerusalem Mount Olivet and Bethelem saying that Pilgrimages from carnall lusts to the righteousnesse of God is acceptable to him Hist Magd. cent 4. cap. 10. and not pilgrimages from Cappadocia to Palestina and that no rewards will be given in the life to come but for such things which are done by the command of God so the Protestants hold also So Hilarius the Bishop of Arls opposed Leo Bishop of Rome by acknowledging that the Bishop of Rome had no dominion over the Churches of France For which though they accused him as a usurper yet he nothing regarded the Popes curses but went to Rome Leo ad Gal. Epis Ep. 77. 89. and to the Popes face maintained that Christ did not appoint Peter to be head over the rest of the Apostles nor had the Pope from Peter any such power so hold the Protestants So the Councill of Constantinople called by the Emperour Constantinus Copronymus deposed and excommunicated Germanus the Patriarch of that City for allowing the worshipping of images which sin also the Protestants abhor Serenus the Bishop of Marsieles in France brake down all images in the Church of his Diocesse more then 1000. yeers past so the Protestants So Albertus Gallus and Clement and Sampson Scotish men said Hist Magd. cent 8. cap. 10. that the Pope of Rome was the author of lies a disturber of the Christian peace a corrupter and a deceiver of the people and for this suffered bonds and imprisonment in France by the procurement of Pope Zacharias So the Protestants hold So Claudius Thurinensis cast down images and abolished the worshipping of the crosse out of his Diocesse of Thurin by Piedmont and said they might as well worship the Asse upon which Christ did ride and said that he was not to be accounted an Apostolike Bishop that sate in the Apostolike Chair but he that performed the Apostolike Office So think the Protestants Theophilactus Bishop of Bulgaria writ that Antichrist would spring up in the decay of the Roman Empire and called the marriage of Priests honourable and a step to Church government So held St Paul 1 Tim. 3.4 5. So the Protestants hold Berengarius a Deacon at Argiers writ against the popish opinion of transubstantiation or conversion of the bread and wine in the Sacrament into the very body and blood of Christ But he following the opinion of Augustine and Joannes Scotus he was condemned unheard by a Councill called at Rome by Pope Leo the ninth for an heretick Whose opinion the Protestants also do hold Radulphus Patriarch of Antiochia refused to be subject to the Pope of Rome saying that Antiochia was the ancient Chair of St Peter and therefore had a prerogative above Rome So think the Protestants if St Peters being Bishop of a place can give prerogative Arnulphus in his preaching Opus Tripart much reproved the Roman Clergy for their lewd lives of the number of holy daies spent rather in lawlesse pleasures then devotions and against the number of begging Fryers and the unchast behaviour of Church-men He was drowned by them in the night as is reported About this time sprung up Waldus of whom you have heard formerly His opinions be these following 1. That the Scriptures are only to be beleeved in matters of faith and contain all things necessary for faith and manners 2. That Christ is the only Mediator and that Saints are not to be invoked 3. He held traditions not necessary to salvation and denied Purgatory and Masses sung for the dead 4. That constrained fast daies and making difference of meats superfluous holy daies variety of superstitious orders of Priests and Monks Friers and Nuns hallowing of creatures vowes and also pilgrims and humane ceremonies were to be abolished and that no degrees should be received into the Church but Bishops Priests and Deacons 5. They denied the Popes supremacy over other Churches States and Governments 6. That the Church of Rome is spiritual Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and rejected the Popes pardons and allowed the marriages of Priests 7. And that they that hear the true word of God and beleeve it are the true Church 8. And that the Communion was to be eaten and not reserved for shew or worship For which opinions they endured persecutions of Pope Alexander the third who excited all Christian Princes to persecute them with fire and sword all which the Protestants hold for which they also have been persecuted as shall appear Hildebertus also abhorred the pride of Rome and said that Rome if it had no Rulers or at least such as did not violate the faith Bernard Abbot of Claravell held free justification by Christs merits and thought that all Christian people had conspired against Christ and that those were the chiefe persecutors that had the highest places in the Church So thought Protestants Nichetes Bishop of Nicomedia held against Anselmus Bishop of Havelburgh that the Pope was not the principall Bishop and that the power of binding and loosing was not given to Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles even as they all received graces alike on the day of Pentecost Act 2. So hold the Protestants About 1300. yeers after Christ 1300. true Religion began to be much darkened by schoole disputations by many that followed school disputations and Peter Lombards Sentences as Albertus Magnus Aquinas Alexander de Ales and Scotus called Dunce of the Town in Scotland where he was born but of a most subtile wit But God still stirred
encouraged the souldiers to kill the rest of the protestants who made havock and killed man woman and child which they could find crying that wicked seed of the protestants should be quite rooted out So all those that attended in the Louver about the King of Navar and the Prince of Condie were commanded to disarm and go forth where they were all slain The King of Navar and the Prince were both brought before the King and threatned to be slain except they would renounce their Religion The King of Navar desired the King to remember the friendship made up between them The Prince of Condie more stoutly said he would not renounce his Religion for fear of his life Some protestants that were lodged in the Fobers of St Germane escaped by flight The Prince of Condie and the King of Navar by perswasion of Rozarius an apostate preacher fell away from the Reformed Religion for a time but afterward that Rozarius repented and testified it to the Prince of Condie This massacre of Paris put to the sword about 10000. people And in Lions and other places within one month 20000. more It was so cruell that many would not beleeve it others colour it over with lies of treason plotted by the protestants Canagnius and Briguemald and some Noble men protestants were tortured for to extort somewhat but they died in the faith and truth and confessed no matter of treason Mathe. Was not the Reformed Religion now extinguished in France Phila. No for though their chiefe Leaders were murthered yet there were certain Towns which were full of protestants as Rochel Mountalban Nimes and Sarsarre Rochel was besieged by the King both by sea and land 1573. in December and endured till June God helped the poor by abundance of fish The fish Surdonnes which were never seen before nor since Liberty of Religion was granted to them and conditions of peace and to their associate Towns Sarsarre was also besieged even to famine yet the people continued firm in Religion but on conditions of peace resigned the Town This King of France died in May 1574. Charls the 9th dieth and much blood issued from many parts of his body as a remembrance of his bloody life Henry the third his brother who was chosen King of Poland Henry the 3d succeedeth succeeded him and was ill affected to the protestants yet at last they obtained another act of pacification and liberty to exercise their Religion in all places save in Paris and some adjacent places They were also declared to be capable of places at Court and places of Judicature and all judgements passed against them were null'd But when they required security for this many waies were offered but the Deputies for the protestants rejected all The Queen Mother said Is not the word of a King sufficient security One did answer No by St Bartholmew Madam for then was the massacre So they had at last eight Towns delivered to them six years for security and the pacification was proclaimed all over the Country May 1576. Mathe. How fared the cause of Religion now in other Countries Phila. The Citizens of Magdenburg Magdenb obtained by the intercession of the Duke of Saxony and the Elector of Brandenburg free exercise of Religion by license of their Archbishop according to the confession of Ausburg called also the Augustan Confession And in 1606. the Embassadors from the Hungarians came to Vienna Hungarians and obtained Articles of peace and that they should use their liberty of conscience throughout all Hungary wherein no Religion should be admitted but the Roman Catholick Lutheran and the Calvinist So likewise about 1608. the Protestants of Austria being denied the free exercise of Religion took up arms but within a little while obtained peace Protestants of Austria Bohemia So in Bohemia the next year following the Protestants stood upon their guard fearing the Roman Catholicks but the Protestants and Catholicks finding the Jesuites to be occasion of these combustions agreed in peace and the Protestants had freedome of Religion and Churches allowed them to preach in their native language Mathe. Did the Protestants in France enjoy the peace concluded in May 1576 Phila. No for still their enemies sollicited the King to break peace with the Protestants and finding him unwilling they assembled at Perone Nemours and Nancy about 1576. and made a league to root out the Protestants because the Protestants did not yield up their cautionary Towns after six yeers expired whereas they had obtained of the King a longer time But the death of Alanzon the Kings brother dying in the Low Countries and the King having no issue and therefore they feared the King of Navars succession made them extream mad upon this League Now the King also perceived that the Leaguers aimed at his life and crown and to set up whom they pleased to succeed him and this he did upon good grounds 1. Because libels were scattered about Paris to his dishonor 2. Because the Duke of Guise raised an army and was made generall of it 3. Because they carried the war rather towards Paris then the Protestant Towns These things put him in so great fear that he desired the Queen Mother to procure the Duke to lay down arms and he would give him any part of his Realm to let him live in peace This made the Leaguers to ask high requests and securities so that the Protestants were prohibited to exercise their religion and to turn Papists or else to depart the Realm Upon this the King of Navar began to oppose himselfe with the Prince of Condy and the Duke Mommerancy And yet although the King of France and the Leaguers were united yet the Pope excommunicates him and declares him uncapable of the Kingdome There came also Embassadors from the Electors of Germany to desire his favour toward the Protestants who received no contenting answer and returned Then the Duke of Guise fearing invasion of France by the Rutters advised the King to set quickly upon the Protestants army under the command of the King of Navar but were discomfited at Contras However the Pope much extolled the Duke of Guise and the preachers of France advanced him above the King with which he was so puffed up that he came to the King at Soissons and after to Paris intending to make him grant many unreasonable requests against his own honor and for the utter ruine of the Protestants which raised such troubles in Paris that the King fled to Chartnesse and to Roan meditating revenge yet he resolves to join with the Leaguers rather then the Protestants and therefore the Protestants could not be heard at Bloyes by the Parliament though the Duke of Guise was there slaine when they petitioned for restoration to their Religion Goods and Liberty But the Leaguers ceased not till they had procucured a declaration from the King and the Assembly to disable the King of Navar from succession to the Crown of France The
society then murther for that destroieth but some men but Heresie and Schisme destroieth or endeavoureth to destroy the Church 2. Murther can but destroy the body but this the soule Murther destroies only naturall life but this destroieth life spirituall and eternall Beside Heresie rents a man from the truth and Schisme from the communion of the Church and so breaks the bond of unity and charity by which God is forsaken as well as the Church and if they think to maintain these rents they have made from the Church of England to be lawfull let them tell you what Church hath lesse error or lesse evill manners and yet maintains none either by her doctrine or authority I beleeve they will find even the Church of Corinth and many of the Churches of lesser Asia to be guilty of greater error and worse manners then the Church of England was when they separated from it and yet Paul cals one the Church of God and Christ in the Revelation doth call the other Churches yet these men while they condemn the Church of England of tyranny they have been more cruell to themselves by separation then the Church could be or was by excommunication Mathe. I pray before you tell me of their punishments let me know what other kind of Sectaries have vexed the Church Phila. Papists when they were in authority they persecuted the Church when they were supprest Papists then secretly they corrupt the Church By Papists I mean not the old before the Trent Councill or rather Conventicle begun in the year 1546. in the time of Pope Paulus the third though they were bad enough but the Papists that sprung up since because they have brought in new errors as other new Sectaries have done As 1. Concerning free will that it works by it selfe with grace in our conversion though the Apostle saith that the naturall man receiveth not the things of God 2. 1 Cor. 2.14 They say originall sin is quite taken away in baptisme so that it ceaseth to be sin yet St. Paul saith that when he doth that which is evill it is by sin that dwelleth in him Rom. 7.17 So they hold that the certainty of salvation depends only upon hope not on faith contrary to John 1.12 saying Christ gave them power to be made the sons of God that beleeved on his name They say the merit of Christs death and obedience is our satisfaction not our righteousnesse but Paul saith he was made to us righteousnesse and made sin for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him So they say we are justified by a generall faith of apprehension by which we beleeve the Scriptures to be true but Paul saith by a particular faith of application of Christ and all his merits to our selves as Gal. 2.20 who died for me and gave himselfe for me So they say a man is not justified by faith alone but by other vertues but Paul saith we are justified by faith without the deeds of the Law for indeed good works do but justifie our faith not us nor do they justifie us as a cause but are signs and fruits of our justification So they say a man may merit at Gods hands because God hath promised to reward us and Christ hath deserved that out works should merit but Paul refuseth all for Christs merits and desireth only to be found in him Phil. 3.9 and not in his own righteousnesse So they say that Christ hath satisfied for our sins and eternall punishment belonging to them but the temporall we must satisfie in this world or in purgatory It is true we must satisfie men for wrongs done this is but a civill satisfaction So we must fatisfie the Church by some testimony of repentance if we have offended the Church but we know of none we can make to God but only in Christ and for purgatory after life we find none in Scripture but beleeve as death leaves us so judgement finds us So they talk much of traditions to be beleeved as necessary to salvation because the Apostle bids the Thessalonians to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught 2 Thes 2.14 whether by word or by our Epistle But then they ought to prove to us that the traditions which they would have us receive are such as were delivered of Christ to his Apostles or from the Apostles to the Church 2 Tim. 3.16 or else give us leave only to hold that the Scriptures alone hold forth to us all things necessary to salvation So they hold vowes of things not commanded are a part of Gods worship such as is a vowed single life wilfull poverty and blind regular obedience which destroy Christian Liberty and therefore till they prove such things commanded in Scripture they must give us leave to hold only our vow in baptisme and to reject the other as humane inventions of seducing spirits spoken against 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. So they hold the worshipping of images to be a religious work but that is forbidden in the second Commandement which they have taken away and divided the tenth into two Pascha Raubertus first sets it forth in lib de Corp. Christi sang cap 14. Ioannes Diaconus in vita Grego 1. Legend of Simeon Metaphrastes in vit Arsenii the better to bring the people to image-worshipping So they hold Christ to be bodily present in the Communion Bread and Wine a strange opinion which was at first but at School-Question afterward maintained by tales and fictions of Christ appearing in the Sacrament like a little child A shamefull opinion to subject Christ to orall eating and gutturall swallo wing True it is that Christ is really there present in a spirituall and mysticall manner in a Sacramentall relation to the signs and by faith to the beleeving receivers yet I know the Church of Rome hath peremptorily condemned them for hereticks that would not hold the bodily presence For Pope Leo the ninth and Victor the second and Nicolaus the second called Councils against Berengarius who had disproved it by Aug. and Scotus Yet Pope Innocent the third in his Conventicle of Lateran gave it the name of Transubstantiation and ratified the doctrine thereof and hath been the destruction of many a godly Martyrs life in the time of Queen Mary So they call the Lords Supper a sacrifice which they call the Masse and it serves for the quick and dead with them But it is not properly so called but only as it is a memoriall of Christs offering up himselfe or because then we do in Christ offer up our selves a living sacrifice or because we make an offering at that time for the Minister and the poor So they make fasting it selfe a part of Gods worship Rom. 14.17 whereas the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meat or drink nor in fasting from it though temperance is a good vertue in a Christian but to set up a necessity of formall fasting as a piece of
Religion or to set fasting in absteining from flesh for conscience sake and yet at the same time to eat that which is far more delicious is meer hypocrisie yet we agree in the end of fasting that it is profitable to make the soule more attentive in Gods service that the rebelliousnesse of our flesh may be subdued and to professe our unworthinesse of Gods creatures and to testifie in humiliation for the aversion of judgements which we either feele or fear So they teach that a man may not only do all the Commandements of God but also do more than they require which they call works of supererrogation But it is said that by nature we are not subject to the law neither indeed can be Rom. 8.7 and by grace we cannot do it of our selves but Christ is the end of the Law to them that beleeve and so we do the law only by faith in Christ Gal. 2.16 and thereby are justifi'd Again they adore and worship Saints and yet they know not what knowledge the Saints have of them Isa 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel doth not acknowledge us said Isaiah We may have a reverend remembrance of them and give God thanks for their patterns and lights of godlinesse to us and we ought to imitate their examples but to give them civill worship now they are absent is simplenesse and to give them religious worship is idolatry I know they pretend they intercede for us and present mens praiers to God which if it could be proved it might perswade some men to give them a petition in speciall as to a Kings favourite to prefer our suits But we know of no mediator between God and man but the man Christ Jesus So they say that if one beleeve the generall points of faith it is enough we are for the doctrins built thereupon to believe as the Church believes which beliefe is called implicit faith It is true that at first we do assent to truth out of respect and regard to the Church that relates it as the Samaritans did believe at first for the womans sake but at last for Christs sake So they hold praying for the dead John 4.42 because they hold also there is a purgatory where men are purged by pains which satisfie for veniall sins and for their temporall punishment of their mortall sins But we know of but one satisfaction for sin the least of which we cannot be freed from but by the infinite merit of the blood of Jesus Christ therefore no particular man being dead can lawfully be praied for because he is determined of God in his condition So they hold the Pope supreme over all causes and persons Kings and Bishops and all because he was they say Peters successor yet Peter was not Bishop of Rome and so his succession is surreptitious nor would the Greek Church ever acknowledge the Pope of Rome to be supreme but only the Bishop of the chiefe See because Rome was the imperiall City So they say that Sacraments do not only represent to us Christ and his benefits and instruments whereby God conveies them to us but also that they have a physicall force to give grace and also that the very administration giveth grace as it is a work done which doth much invade Gods prorogative So they make repentance a meritorious cause of remission of sin but how can a temporall penance or a finite sorrow merit for an infinite transgression let them shew that and they shall make many an Esau glad and a sullen Ahab to rejoice The next turbulent people are the Papists called Jesuits Jesuits Their order began in the time of Pope Vrban the fift Their patron or founder was Ignatius Loyala a Spanish souldier they pretend to Visions and Revelations like the Anabaptists and say that the Virgin Mary appeared to this Ignatius with Jesus in her arms and perswaded him to erect this order upon which it seems they call themselves Jesuites though they supplant his Gospell wheresoever they come This order was confirmed by Pope Paul the third and Pope Gregory the thirteenth gave them a place in Rome to build them a Collegde which cost a vast sum of monie Some say 25 tun of gold They have a Governor called their Generall who hath power to command them what he please and they respect his commands as divine oracles and to send abroad his Emissaries who transform themselves like Proteus into all shapes of professions to do mischiefe Their errors are very destructive to policie and piety for they hold the oath of allegiance unlawfull but lawfull to lay violent hands on Kings and Princes Vid. Mariana adv Anticot if the Pope do but frown upon them by his curse or excommunication They say that the Pope is only a Bishop by divine right and that all Bishops hold their power and office from him But some Cardinals and Bishops that be Papists Vid. Hist of the Councill of Trent are not of that mind but hold just contrary These are by their learning the chiefe maintainers of Antichrist and all its abominations Index Expurg and have corrupted the writings of the Fathers and makes them speak what they list They have been the fathers of all foule plots and treasons the most vile cozening imposters that ever were as you may read of their presenting the head of a dead man to the King of the Georgians Hist of Grego Hieromonachus 1626. making him to beleeve that it was his mothers head who was taken and slain by the Persians because she spake against Mahomet Another disturber of the Churches peace in these latter times were the Familists Familists whose patron or founder was David George of Delfe who called himselfe John of Bridges and affirmed that he was the true David that should restore the Kingdome to Israel That the Scriptures were only to keep men in order till his comming but he was able by his doctrine to save those that would beleeve him and that he was the right Messias and that the spirit of Christ was given to him and that the Church of Christ must not be built up by patience and suffering but meeknesse and love and that whosoever spoke against his doctrine should never be forgiven He died in August 1556. though he had promised he should never die After him appeared Henry Nicolas born at Amstelrodam in Holland who maintained the same doctrine in his own name He was called the New man or the Holy nature Vid. Disco of Anab. errors p. 89. They teach that Adams state of perfection may be attained in this life and that all of their Family of Love are as innocent as ever Adam was and that the resurrection of the body is fulfilled in them and they acknowledge no other like Hymeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.17 His followers accounted him the Son of God that was to come to judge the world and whosoever obeieth not his doctrine shall
blind Mathe. What be their errors Phila. 1. That the morall Law is of no use to beleevers not so much as a rule of life or examination and yet Christ preacheth it and presseth it Mat. 5. and more closely then ever it was before even to rectifie the spirit and passions as well as the outward manners So they say that it is as possible for Christ to sin as a child of God But as Christ did never sin so now being glorified it is impossible he should but we have sinned and though regenerate yet so long as we carry about this body of flesh in some things we shall offend but not to condemnation So they say that a child of God ought not to ask pardon for sin and it is blasphemy so to do But I will trust Christ before them who taught us to say Forgive us our trespasses Vid. Cypr. in Dom. Orat. and will imitate David who did ask God forgivenesse as you find Psal 25. and Psal 51. So they say God doth not chasten any of his children for sin but yet sin is the moving cause and subject of Gods punishments though not alwaies the finall cause of Gods chastisements but rather for probation of faith and patience If these doctrins were true these men may sin by authority and no conscience being made of sin who would deal with them but upon good security These doctrins opening so easie a way to heaven it is no wonder but they have many followers For they say that in conversion a mans soule hath no operations but the spirit of God only instead of them yet Christ opened his disciples understandings to apprehend the Scriptures Luk. 24.45 So they say that the soul may be united with Christ and yet he an hypocrite yet he that hath the new man is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.24 So they say that a man must take no notiee of sin or repentance yet David doth Psal 51. Also that it is a damnable error to make sanctification an evidence of justification yet St Paul saith otherwise Rom. 8.1.30 namely Vid. Mr. Wels his tract that such walk after the spirit and those that are justified are glorified i. sanctified which is the inchoation of glory Mathe. How may one farther discover them Phila. As a Familist is best discovered by trying whether he will abjure Henry Nicolas and his doctrine so may Antinomians by certain phrases which they commonly use and by other teners which they hold very strange and dangerous which I have not yet told you Mathe. I pray what are they Phila. 1. That the Law or preaching of it is of no use to drive us to Christ yet Paul cals it a Schoolmaster to that purpose 2. That a man is justified without faith and that from eternity yet Paul saith we are justified by faith and so have peace with God Rom. 8.1 We know God justifieth his people in his purpose from all eternity but it is conveied to them in time actually by their faith 3. That we are united to Christ by the work of the spirit without any act of ours yet Paul exhorts us to give up our selves to God Rom. 12.1 and saith that we work together with God 4. That a man is not Christs till he have full assurance yet David sometime was beside the rock Psal 41. and Paul was buffeted 2 Cor. 12. And 5. That the witnesse of the spirit is without any respect to the word or concurrence with it But then how shall I try the spirit whether it be good or bad Paul saith beleeve not every spirit then I must trie it or else beleeve it or censure it without triall and if I must try it I must have a rule to try it by and that must be the word or nothing 6. When a man hath this witnesse of the spirit he never doubts yet David did Psal 37. Psal 71. And 7. Assurance must not be questioned though one commit murder or adultery yet David praied for the spirit after those sins committed Psal 51. This doctrine will make a bold sinner and a presumptuous insurer of himselfe So 8. They say that sanctification is no evidence of a mans good estate yet Paul saith that holinesse is the end of our calling and if so then holinesse is an evidence that I am effectually called 9. They say that to see I have no grace will give me comfort yet St Paul finds no comfort seeing in his flesh he found no good thing but rather crieth out upon himselfe O miserable man Rom. 7. yea they say to take comfort at the sight of any grace is legall and yet grace came not by the Law John 1. but by Jesus Christ and so it is evangelicall to find Gospell grace in us and to take comfort in it 10. They say that an hypocrite may have the same grace that Adam had in his innocency yet most conclude that Adam was created in Gods image which consisted in righteousnesse and true holinesse which two qualities no hypocrite can have So 11. They say there is no difference between the graces of the Saints and hypocrites yet Iob saith the hope of the hypocrite is like the web of the spider spun out of their own phantasie and easily removed so is not the hope of the Saints for it is woven out of Gods promises which makes the Saints so settle upon an everlasting foundation So 12. They say that all grace is in Christ as in the proper subject of it and that we have none in us as if Christ beleeves and Christ loves for us 2 Tim. 1.5 yet Paul finds faith in Timothy and Christ supposeth love to be in his disciples when he said if you love me keep my Commandements Iohn 14.15 So 13. They say Christ is the new creature yet Paul saith 2 Cor. 5.17 he that is in Christ is a new creature So 14. They hold that God loveth a man never the more for his holinesse nor the lesse for his wickednesse but Moses tels us otherwise saying God had respect to Abels offering not to Cains So 15. That sin in a child of God must not trouble him but surely then David might have saved much sorrow expressed in his penitential Psalms and Christs affirmation of the Angels rejoycing at a sinners repenting may be dis-believed for they rejoyce not at our doing amiss So 16. Trouble of conscience for sin shews one under the covenant of works yet Paul commends godly sorrow in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.9 who were believers But what if such trouble of minde do argue one sometimes under the spirit of bondage or the law of works yet this may be a means to make us sigh the more after freedome and doth commonly bring his children to Sion by Sinai to freedome by bondage Rom. 8.15 So 17. They say a Christian is not bound to take the Law as a rule of his conversation But why did not then Christ abolish the Law as well as
fulfill it Mat. 5.17 or why doth the Apostle say that he doth not by his preaching up faith to justifie a man Rom. 3.31 make void the Law but establish it surely by accepting it for a rule of an holy life though not either to justifie or condemn us but to walk according to it out of love to righteousnesse Rom. 7.22 Again 18. They say a man is not bound to pray except the spirit moveth him yet Paul saith pray continually and Peter bids us be sober and watch to praier as if it were a duty and if we look upon it as a duty then we are to do it without expecting farther incitation by immediat infusions So they say that the spirit works in hypocrites by gifts and graces but in Gods children immediatly but then they need not take heed it seems to the sure word of prophecy as saith St Peter which he prefers for the Churches establishment before that of revelation calling it a more sure word of prophecy 2 Pet. 18 19. So they pretend that a Minister that hath not this new light cannot edifie them that have it I wonder then how the Apostles edified the Church who had not this new light or dark lanthorn rather of vaine opinions for I have shewed you that they are contrary to the Apostles doctrins or if their light were the most saving grace of God yet a man that hath it not may edify others by preaching salvation to others though himselfe be a castaway So they say no Christian ought to be prest to the duties of holinesse This is to make the world beleeve that there is no need of preaching 2 Tim. 4.2 yet St Paul bids Timothy to preach in season and out of season and Titus to rebuke and exhort with all authority Tit. 2.15 Mathe. What other Sects troubled the Protestant Church Phila. The Arminians revived the heresie of Pelagius Britto who lived in the daies of the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius who held that men by nature might fulfill the whole Law of God and denied originall sin and said that men were sinners by imitation only of Adams not by carnall propagation contrary to Psal 51. And that children had no need of baptisme for remission of sin and that the Godly men in Scripture that confessed their sins did it for example sake rather then out of guiltinesse whom St Augustine sufficiently confutes and their tenets were condemned by the fift Councill of Carthage in the year 419. as hereticall Also by the Milevitane Councill in Numidia The patron of the Arminians was one Jacobus Arminius professor of Divinity at Leyden in the Low Countries in the year 1605. his followers are called Remonstrants Now as Pelagius being driven from Rome came into England and infected it with his errors though by the travels of Germanus Altisidorensis and Palladius sent hither by Caelestinus Bishop of Rome the land was freed from his poison So Arminius infected England by his writings and his well-wishers such as Conradus Vorstius but was reasonably well stopt by the diligence of King James in sending over certain learned and grave Divines to the Synod of Dort Yet neverthelesse these errors have found many favourers in England though they are against Scriptures and the Articles of the Church of England As concerning prepestination they deny it by saying that it is only the will of God to save them that beleeve and persevere and that there is no other decree of election contrary to Acts 13.48 as many as were ordained to eternall life beleeved and Eph. 1.4 he hath chosen us to salvation before the foundation of the world So Ro. 8.30 whom he hath predestinated them he hath also called So they say election is of faith not of persons but Paul saith God hath called us according to his purpose in Christ before the world 4. That election of us to faith presupposeth in us honesty and humility and a disposition to eternall life whereas it is election that causeth such vertues and not they election Ephes 2.3 4. for by nature we are only given to fulfill the will of the flesh and are by nature the children of wrath as well as others but God who is rich in mercy Rom. 9.11 hath quickned us c. for election is not of works but of him that calleth for he loved us first 1 John 4.10 So 5. They say election is not unchangeable but a man may withstand Gods decree Mat. 24.24 but Christ saith the elect cannot be seduced for Christ loseth not those that are given to him John 6.39 and therefore the chaine holds from election to glorification Rom. 8.30 which certainly is the joy of Gods people that their names are written in heaven Luke 10.20 and therefore none can charge them nor condemn them Rom. 8.33 So 6. They make election generall which is a contradiction Rom. 9.18 God hath mercy on whom he will And to some it is given to know the mysteries of Christs Kingdome not to others Mat. 13.11 to babes and not to the worldly wise Mat. 11.15 16. Mathe. What farther errors hold these Arminians Phila. They say that the cause why God sends his Gospell to one people and not to another is not only Gods good pleasure but because one nation is more worthy then another Deu. 10.14 15 yet Moses told Israel that God chose their fathers out of meer love And Christ said that Chorazin and Bethsaida were a worse people then those of Tyre and Zidon Mat. 11.21 So they say that God ordained Christ to die without any certaine determination of saving any particular man or people Isa 53.10 yet Isaiah saith that when he shall make his soul an offering for sin that he shall see his seed And Christ saith I know my sheep and I lay down my life for my sheep So they teach that God did not intend to establish a new Covenant of grace with man by Christs blood but to make any covenant with man whatsoever either of works or grace But Christ is called the surety of a better estament than was before viz. of works Heb. 7.22 whereby we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption of Christ So they say that all are received into grace and favor alike in the Gospel-covenant and none shall be condemned for originall sin and yet Christ saith I pray not for the world but for those thou hast given me out of the world They say also that God confers equally the benefits of Christs death to men but the cause why some men have them and not others is by reason of their free will chusing it and not of Gods singular gift of mercy effectually working thereunto yet St Paul saith it is not in him that willeth or runneth but in God that sheweth mercy So they say Christ died not for those whom God loved and chose to eternall life because they had no need of it But they perceive not that they were chosen
to salvation in Christ not out of him nor without him Eph. 1.4 And they forget that Paul said that he was loved and yet Christ was given for him too Gal. 2.20 So they say that originall sin is not sufficient in it selfe to condemn all mankind nor yet to deserve temporall or eternall death yet it is said that by one man sin entred and death passed upon all men yea more that the fault came upon all men to condemnation Rom. 5.12 18. So they say that holinesse and righteousnesse was not placed in mans will in his creation and therefore he could not lose it in his fall But this is against Scripture for Ephes 4.24 Paul doth parallel the new man to the old and shewes that by Christ man regaineth what was lost in Adam righteousnesse and holinesse They say also that by spirituall death no spirituall gift was separated from the will and therefore it being never corrupted if the understanding be enlightned it can assume her freedome to chuse or refuse any good offred to it It seems then our parents did not sin willingly ignorantly they could not they knew the command so then if neither willingly nor ignorantly then they sinned not at all So they say a regenerate man is not dead in sin but can hunger after righteousnesse yet St Paul saith otherwise Eph. 2.1 you hath he quickned who were dead in sins and trespasses They say also that a man may use the light of nature so well that thereby he may obtain saving grace but we know neither how grace can flow from nature whereby we may use the light of nature so well nor how nature can deserve grace but is rather by divine dispensation nor doth God efficaciously affoord to every man nor people alike the same means of faith and repentance as Psal 147.19 Acts 16.6 So they say that God in mans conversion doth infuse no new qualities or habits into his wil contrary to Isa 44.3 I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy off-spring and he promiseth a new heart Ezek. 36.26 Psal 51. which David praieth for So they say God only is a morall agent perswading to conversion but the Church doth acknowledge his attractive power Cant. 1. draw me So God saith by Ezekiel that he will take away the stony heart and change the condition of it So they say that it is in mans power to be or not to be regenerate for a man may resist the power of Gods grace but how then do we beleeve according to the mighty working of his power Eph. 1.19 or how doth God fulfill all the pleasure of his goodnesse and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 So they say that Gods grace in conversion doth not prevent or go before the act of mans will but free will and grace are co-workers But surely God hath preventing grace as well as assisting grace which a man receiveth 1 Cor. 4.7 and which worketh in us to will and to do before we have any inclination either to will or do But besides all this they do much erre in the doctrine of perseverance for they say that perseverance of the faithfull is not an effect of election nor any gift of God purchased by the death of Christ yet Christ makes it depend upon election when he saith that the Elect cannot possibly be deluded and that he hath laied down his life for the sheep viz. that they might by patience and continuance in well doing attain eternall life Rom. 2.7 and so nothing might be laid to the charge of Gods elect but they say the regenerate may totally and finally fall away from their justifying faith and that some of them do so fall that they perish everlastingly but if Christ died for us while we were yet sinners much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.8 for he that is born of God sinneth not i. to condemnation because Gods seed remaineth in him 1 John 3 9. So Christ giveth eternall life to his sheep and they cannot perish John 10.28 yet these men say that one regenerate may sin to death 1 John 5.18 yet St John denieth it we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not i. that sin unto death there spoken of So they say that we cannot be certain of future perseverance without revelation yet St John testifieth that we may know he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3.24 So they say that assurance of salvation makes men neglect godlinesse yet surely he that hath this hope purifieth himselfe the more 1 John 3.2 3. So they say that temporary faith differeth not from justifying faith but only in continuance but yet Christ makes great difference of them Mat. 13. by their rooting and fructifying So they think it strange that a man should be new born spiritually as Nicodemus but those that are to be saved are born anew 1 Pet. 1.23 not of corruptible seed but incorruptible So they teach that Christ never praied for the infallible perseverance of the faithfull yet Christ told Peter that he had praied for him that his faith fail not Luk. 22.32 So for his Disciples Joh. 17.11 and not only for them but for all that should beleeve by their word Iohn 17.20 Mathe. What other Sectaries troubled us Phila. The Socinians Socinians who were the followers of those two Italians of Siena in the Dukedome of Florence namely Laelius Socinus and his Nephew Faustus The Unckle declared his opinions to Calvin by Letters the Nephew divulged them in publike writings It is a mixture of many heresies namely of the Ebionites Arrians Photinians Samosatenians and Sabellians Servetians and Antitrinitarians For after the execution of Servetus the Spaniard who was burnt at Geneva for his blasphemy 1553. in affirming that only God the Father was the true God and that neither the Son nor the holy Ghost is eternall God but that the Son was a creature and had his beginning of existence when God created the world Many sucked up his venome as Valentinus Gentilis who printed his blasphemies and called Athanasius his Creed Satanasius Creed who suffered death in the Town of Berne yet he had some associates in his bad opinions as Georgius Blandrata a Physitian Matheus Gibraldus a Lawyer and Paulus Alciatus And in the year 1557. Laelius Socinus shewed himselfe a favourer both of Servetus and Valentinus He had by his Letters and travels done much harm in Poland and other places before namely from 1551. unto 1557. and so forward though closely and subtilly enough untill 1562. in which year he died about the age of 37. His Nephew Faustus fled out of Italy to Lyons in France seeing that his Unckle Cornelius was apprehended together with others who have scattered his poison in the world wrapt up in Laelius his notes This Faustus writ two books though no great scholar as he confesseth to Puccius if
of Babylon who like Daniels stone put all the former monarchies down by setting up a new spirituall kingdome in mens hearts to which even Kings themselves should be subject Now when he came he found the Church of the Jewes in much confusion by Sects and schismes of Pharisees and Sadduces Herodians and few that would entertain his doctrine yet some there was that were his disciples and followers whom having converted by preaching and confirmed by miracles and given his Sacraments as seals of his New Testament he suffered death by the Jewes envy and the unjust judgement of Pilate for mans redemption as hath been declared and rose the third day after for our justification and about 40 daies after having instructed and confirmed them in the rule of his spirit all kingdome in the Church he ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Ghost down upon them who were with the rest of his disciples his visible Church which they mightily increased by their travels among the Gentiles after the Jewes had persecuted and despised the Gospel Mathe. Where was now the visible Church Phila. It was translated to the Gentiles who were before without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel Eph. 2.12 strangers from the covenant of promise and had no hope but were without God in the world destitute of all good and possessed with all evill though convinced of a godhead by nature Rom. 1.19 but rightly knew him not some said that he was One of himselfe another that the world was his son so that when they came to worship God Orph. in 1 Sect. de Deo Tresmig in Pimaud c. 9. they did it by idols as I have told you seeking God downward in the creature by which they should have been led upward to God yet God of his infinite mercy takes this wild Olive and plants it upon the stock of the Jew Jesus the root and off-spring of David that they might be the children of Abraham by living in the faith of Abraham which is rightly to be a true visible Christian whether Jew or Gentile Mathe. Wherein consisted Abrahams faith Phila. In beleeving that God would raise up one out of his seed in whom mankind should be blessed even Jesus Christ whose sufferings were signified by sacrifice without which analogicall relation they could never have savoured sweetly with God And as beleeved on Christ to come so Christians beleeve on the same Christ passed And this beliefe is the essentiall being of a true Christian that is a trusting upon Christ by faith for perfect redemption And this is that makes the difference between the visible and invisible Christian for the visible or externall Christian is one that partaketh of the visible priviledges of the Church as Word and Sacraments but not of the invisible graces thereof they hear and understand not they receive but perceive not they read but beleeve not they beleeve literally not spiritually they conceive but do not produce Christ but abortively But the other Christian is not only visible by profession and participation of the common rites of the Church but is also a partaker of the invisible graces offered and conveied under those outward mysteries of the Church by the grace of faith which only justifieth him to Godward Jam. and produceth good works whereby he is justified in his faith with man and approved a true visible Christian But God requires only faith to justifie before him Orig. in Rom. 3. cap. for the Lord required not of the penitent theefe what before he had wrought nor did expect what work he should fulfill after he beleeved but being justified by the confession of his faith in Christ our Saviour joined him as a companion with himselfe being now ready to enter into Paradise And that this is the essentiall being of a true Christian these Authors following will manifest namely that such invisible Christians are justified before God by faith Rom. 3. without the deeds of the Law so saith Ignat. in Epi. ad Ephes Justin in dial cum Tryphon Clem. Alex. in strom 7. Aug. ad Bonif. l. 3. c. 5. Chrysost in Genes hom 26. Ambr. in Rom. 3. Basil mag de humilitate Victor Antiochenus in Marc. 5. Raban in Ecclum c. â— Remigius in Psal 29. Idiota c. 6. de conflictione carnis animae Giselbert in alterc c. 8. Theoph. in Rom. 10. Bern. serm 3. de adventu dom Rupertus in lib. 7. in Joh. c. 7. Foleng in Psal 2. Fulgent ad Monim l. 1. Honorius in spec Ecclus de nat dom Ferus in 1 p. pass dom Aquin. in Lect. 4. super Gal. 3. sic in Rom. 3. All these hold with St Paul Rom. 3. and c. 10. with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation Therefore the Primitive Church baptized after such confession was made as Abraham was circumcised after he beleeved Rom. 4.11 yet Isaac was circumcised and all the children of Israel at eight daies old except when they travelled through the wildernesse into the faith of Abraham So the children of Christians were baptized into the faith of their converted parents Cypr. â—p 59. See the bapt of the Church of Geneva printed 1641. they beleeving in their parents in whom as infants they had only sinned and for whom their parents beleeved as well as for themselves And though this practice be not set down in the Scripture by verball command yet considering that Christ gave some commandements by voice to his disciples touching things pertaining to the kingdome of God Act. 1.2 3. And this practice being of so great antiquity in that kingdome of God i. that is the Church we need not make doubt of it except we will be contentious against the Churches custome See Hookers Eccles Politic. lib. 1. sect 14. Dr Field on the Church l. 4.30 1 Cor. 11.16 which ought to over-rule mens fancies and stand as a law to quiet conscience because the Church is directed by the same spirit that gave the Scriptures 1 of Thes 4.8 and therefore Paul exhorts them to keep the traditions they had been taught either by word or by Epistle And that baptizing of infants was an Apostolicall tradition may be gathered both from Councils and Fathers as I have in part declared and of which you may read farther in Aug. l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. So Orig. Com. in 6. Rom. Cypr. Epi. ad Fidum Concil Cartha and Concil Melivitan doth curse those that deny baptisme to children See also Irenaeus in his 2. lib. cant Heres c. 39. And if it were so anciently practised and no direct time set down when it began we may well conceive that it was delivered to the Church by by the Apostles and not taken from the Pope who did not apeare many hundred years after baptisme of children was used in the Church Now this baptisme is the first mark of a visible Christian who next is discovered by those works which
having not the spirit that lusteth against the flesh Gal. 5.17 whereas in the members of the Church militant Christ liveth by the holy spirit deriving to them sense life and spirituall motion Nor do we number hypocrites to be of the Church militant though in the visible Church by partaking of the doctrine and Sacraments because they want those vertues and graces which proves one to be a member of the mysticall body of Christ as faith to apprehend Christ the head and foundation and to be united to him and therefore can bear no fruit in him but must be taken away Iohn 15.2 though they be in Church visible which Church the Papists only acknowledging may well hold that the true Church is alwaies visible Mathe. Why is it not so Phila. You are to consider that the tearm or word Church is diversly understood First for the universall company of beleevers and so it is invisible and therefore it is said in the Creed I beleeve the holy Catholike Church now faith is the evidence of things not seen Secondly Church is taken for a company of men in particular places professing one and the same true religion and so it is visible Again if you take the Church in the externall form of it namely for a company of men met together to perform Church duties so the Church is visible but if you take it in its internall form consisting in efficacious calling and faith so it is invisible for it is hard to judge who hath these graces Therefore certainly neither the whole Catholick Church nor all that part of it called militant is visible But some part of the Church militant hath and is but yet is not necessary to be alwaies visible but may possibly lie hid and unappearing at some times Aug. in lib. 5. cont Donat. c. 17 Rev. 13.13 14 In which regard the Church is called a garden inclosed and a fountain sealed Cant. 4.11 and the weapons of her warfare to be spirituall 2 Cor. 10.4 When Antichrist reigned over the world where was then the Church visible surely fled like the woman Rev. 12.16 into some solitary place as Eliah was forced to do by Iesabel 1 Kin. 19.10 Indeed there hath been and I fear will be again when our Sun will be darkned and her Moon will not give her light and our Stars fall from the Churches heaven And when you see the abomination of heresies schisme and libertinisme set up in Gods Temple let him that is in Christianity fly to the Scripture for there you shall only find what the true Church is namely certain people called at divers houres some at the first some at the second others at the third So at the beginning middle and end of the world and not all alike at all times sometimes clouded sometimes more resplendent so that it is not alwaies visible nor alwaies alike visible Mathe. Whether is the visible Church subject to defects or errors Phila. Yes for Adam and Eve fell in Paradise and afterward the world was so wicked that the Church remained only in Noahs family And after God had chosen the people of Israel to be his Church they worshipped the golden Calfe and for that and other sins we find them left without Religion Priest or Law 2 Chron. 5. and their Temple ruin'd and themselves dispersed Christ saith that faith shal hardly be found on the earth 2 Thes 2. and St Paul prophecieth of a generall apostacy So in the time of Athanasius the Christian world was over-run with Arianisme only Athanasius stood for Christ that he was of the same substance with the Father But he was but one man and one man could not make a Church so that the Church as well as the Moon may suffer an eclipse especially when the sword shall awake against the shepherd Zach. 13.7 and he shall be smitten and the sheep scattered So likewise the visible Church may erre not the Church Catholick and universall for truth could not be found then upon earth nor any visible militant Church for then they have no truth to fight for But the visible Church as it consisteth of its outward matter and form namely of a company of men exercised about Ecclesiasticall matters may erre and so it did before the Law in the time of the Patriarks and under the Law as the Church of Israel and since the Law For the visible Church of the Jewes persecuted the Christians and the Disciples were all offended and stumbled at Christs sufferings and hardly beleeved at first his resurrection yea and after it erred about his Kingdome Acts 1.6 which they thought should be earthly So they doubted a while about the calling of the Gentiles Acts 10.20 cap. 11.2 So we find the Church of the Corinths full of division 1 Cor. 1.11 and schismes and doubts of the resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. 15. and the Church of Galatia falling back to Judaisme by circumcision Gal. 5.1 2 3. Yea all the Eastern Churches as wel as the seven Churches of the lesser Asia have had their errors and remaine in some as the Papists say even till now Yea generall Councils have not been free for one hath disallowed what the other hath allowed and both cannot therefore be true As the Councill of Franckford broke down the Images in Churches Aug. lib. de unita Eccles c. 3. which the second Councill of Nice restored and so many others did one contradict another which sheweth the Churches imperfection and that it stands not with her nature to be free from error for then if she did once erre she could be no longer a Church Therefore the Church of Rome if it be a visible Church can chalenge no such prerogative especially since Antichrist sitteth there as chiefe governor Hier. in Epist Rustic since which time by avarice the Law is perished from the Priest and vision from the Prophet Mathe. I pray tell me the notes of a true visible Church Phila. I suppose you mean particular Churches in severall nations For the universall Catholike Church is rather to be beleeved then seen as is implied in that Article of the Creed I beleeve the holy Catholike Church There be therefore three notes of a true visible Church First a sincere preaching of the Word Secondly a pure dispensation of Sacraments And thirdly a right administration of discipline These are the notes of a true Church though all of them are not sound alwaies and at the same time in a Church As the Jewes for forty years in the wildernesse wanted circumcision so sometime some ministers may possibly through ignorance infirmity or fear or to please greatnesse depart from sincere doctrine and so by the dragons taile many stars are cast to the earth and by some of them the waters are made bitter Rev. 8.11 yet may it be a true Church so long as the discession from pure doctrine is not generall So a Church may by ministers neglect want Sacraments and by the tyranny
will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ saith he that beleeveth not shall be damned And what forbids us to beleeve that being God worketh without means upon
some may not also into the children of Christians by his preventing grace convey so much seminall grace as may make them capable passively at least of this Sacrament of entrance Beside why may they not be admitted upon their parents faith as well as Christ cured some for the faith of others as the Palsey man and the woman of Canaans daughter and the centurions servant especially they having only sinned in their parents I see not but the imputation of their parents faith may possibly remove that which is imputed for the parents fact through that means which God in Christ hath ordained and so as they sin by another so in this case they may beleeve by another that as the malady is brought upon him without his will so without his will it may be healed Cypr Ep. 59. for no doubt the grace of God in Christ aboundeth above the guilt of Adams sin Rom. 5.15 16 17 18. and so the ordinance of Baptisme required and applied by the faith of the parents answereth to the ordinance of imputation of guilt for the parents fact and so Gods waies are equall that he may be justified in his doings and clear when he is judged By all which it may be collected beside from the ancient custome of the Church which is not to be despised that parents may without fear and in faith bring their children to baptisme Mathe. But how shall I resolve the fearfull in mind about their refraining to the Lords Supper Phila. Their fears may be good or bad If they be good as fear of their unworthinesse as Job feared all his works they be the fitter guests for this Table whose precious viands is able to remove that cold Systole of fear and bring forth the warm Diastole of faith both which those that have the spirit of God do breath at certaine times Psal 119.131 this may be a filiall fear of offending God by their unworthinesse But a despairing fear is bad as if Christ would cast thee away when thou commest to him and so is a panick fear when thou canst give no account of it so is an erroneous fear of taking the Communion in a mixt assembly because I have not a certain good character of all present or do certainly know that some of them are not so strict and conscientious livers as they ought to be For it is true that many are not to be admitted as the unbaptized and those that are ignorant of the grounds of religion and of the mystery of this holy Sacrament and some are to be sequestred from it as Adam from the tree of life lest he prophane it and as the leprous out of the camp lest they infect others so are obstinate and scandalous men and inordinate walkers Mat. 1â— 1â— 2 Thes 3. pertinacious hereticks wilfull schismaticks are to be suspended and they that neglect to do it if it be in their power do highly offend God But now let the fearfull consider whether they consent or allow of the one sin or the other if not he need not fear or whether it be in his power to separat those vile from the precious if not let it content him that God hath given him an heart to grieve for the disorder or if thou hast power to separate one from the other thou must be carefull that you mistake not the wicked for the just lest while you fear to beguilty of spilling the blood of Christ yet thou bringest the blood of some of his flock upon thee because thou takest from them the food allowed them by their Shepherd Consider therefore your fear to receive in a mixt assembly whether it proceed not from selfe conceit that you are more holy then others or that you may be defiled by them or that it is sinfull to accompany with such at the Communion and search if you can find any prohibition for it or reprehension in Scripture for so doing you may find prohibition of mixing with scandalous Christians company in common society and at meat not in sacred things 1 Cor. 5.11 So in 2 Thes 3.14 they are bidden to have no company with those that obeied not the Apostles words in that Epistle that was that Christians should walk orderly and laboriously in their callings So then they must forbear the company of such in common conversation not at the Lords Table for were it fit that the whole Church should forbear the Communion because of a wicked person there present surely nay but rather imitate Christs Disciples who did not avoid receiving the Lords Supper because Judas was there Luke 22.21 Neither did Christ forbid him because though inwardly bad enough yet be was not convicted of it and Christ not comming then as a judge would not censure him If we therefore look not narrowly into this feare it will make us neglect the duty we owe to God and the benefit God offers to us because another man doth not do his as he ought Aug. ex Cyp. lib de lapsis which is a thing disallowed by ancient Churches and Doctors namely that one is defiled with those mens sins that come unworthily to the Lords Table Mathe. How may one become a fit communicant of the Lords Supper Phila. The New Testament sets down two rules Christ bids us do it in remembrance of him St Paul bids us to examine our selves and shewes the danger of the neglect that it incurs judgement and the reason of that danger because for want of examination we discern not the Lords body By all which we may find what is the duty of a true communicant which no doubt consists in a right knowledge of the mystery of it and a true faith in the application of it both which to examine is our preparation Therefore we are to consider First the thing it selfe Secondly the relation that it hath to Christ Thirdly the end of it Fourthly the fitnesse of a receiver The thing it selfe is a visible earnest of an invisible good expected by faith in Christ to whom we have right through his word of which the Sacrament is a seale In this Christ hath shewed his abundant love that he would not only make himselfe visible to us by taking our nature but also humble himselfe to our sense of tasting and feeling that we may not only see but taste and handle the word of life so that though he be gone far from us and above us in the union hypostaticall having taken our manhood into God yet he is with us by an union sacramentall that we may take him into our selves and by vertue thereof be transformed to his likenesse in righteousnesse and holinesse The next thing to consider is the relation the Sacrament hath to Christ First in the elements Secondly the actions of the receiver The elements are mean and plain bread and wine the common food of the poorest man in that Country where it was first instituted But the element is made excellent by the institutor Christ as sometimes coins