deceive our selves and others by giving one and the same Answer to All or Most Questions that are or can be moved concerning these Duties That may be true of Mortification or Conversion whether spiritual or moral taking it in some Degree which is altogether false if we apply it to the same Qualification or Duty taken or considered according to another Degree Thus much they better saw then considered who have entertained Dispute Pro or Con in that Question An Homo in prima Conversione ad Deum sit merè Passivus Whether man in his first Conversion be meerly passive The Issue would be easier shorter and more certain if the same Question were proposed thus An Homo quoad Primum Gradum Conversionis sit merè Passivus Whether man be meerly Passive in the first Degree or Degrees of his Conversion or Mortification For mine own part as I acknowledge many Degrees of Conversion and many precedent Motions to true and compleat Mortification So I should think the most men Living that are throughly Converted and truely mortified to be Meerly Passive not in the First Second or Third Degree only but in All or most of the intermediate Degrees of Mortification which are precedent to the Habit of it or rather to the Gift of Perseverance in it And being once Habitually Mortified we are in a sort Active 2. But if in the First Second or Subsequent Degrees of Mortification we be meerely Passive How shall we avoyd That Imputation which is laid upon our Church by the Romanists The Imputation is This That albeit we grant men to be Mortified and require the Dutie of Mortification at mens hands yet wee acknowledge them not to be Men but meere Stocks in the Acts or Interims of their Conversion or Mortification To this we answer That although we be meerly Passive in the Acts of Mortification yet are we not Passive after the same manner that Stocks and Stones or Creatures meerly Sensitive are Passive Nor are Creatures indued with sense Passive after the same manner that stocks and stones or creatures without sense are There be Passives inanimate Passives sensitive reasonable Passives or Patients Every Faculty of Sense is meerly Passive in respect of its proper Function or Sensation And yet the ignoblest Faculties of sense are in some sort Active that they may be sensitively Passive or passive after another manner than stocks and stones or things inanimate are The Sense of Touching which of all the five External Senses is most ignoble and least Active may not withstanding be lesse Passive or more or lesse capable of paine by the Activitie or motion of the bodie But of the more Noble Senses the Maxim is most true Sentire est pati All Sensation is a kind of Passion or suffering And it is generally resolved in Schooles that Visio fit intromittendo non extramittendo Sight or Vision although it be the most Noble external Sense is not made by Extramission or sending out of the Rayes or beames of the Eye but by Impression of the Obiect seen and Impression is a Passion So that Sight it self consists in Passion and the Eye it self in respect of its proper Function is meerly Passive and yet he that will see the Sun or other Objects Visible must be content to open his eyes not to wink yet to wink or open the eyes is no Passion but an Action He that desires to see Objects obscure or lesse Visible must Intend the Optick Nerves otherwise he shall not be sensitively Passive In what sence we are said to be Passives in our Conversion And He that desires to hear well especially if he be afarre off must be content to Listen and Listning includes an Intension of the Organ or Instrument of hearing an Action in the Hearer that he may be sensitively Passive He that speaks is the Agent or Actor And yet how pleasant soever his speech be the Hearer must be Active to finde him Eares Now Faith is as the Eye-Sight of the Soul and understanding and yet Faith as the Apostle saith comes by hearing Our Mortification or Conversion which is a work of Faith is never wrought without some sense or feeling And in these works if they be spiritually performed the Spirit of man is as meerly Passive as the bodily Eye is in the sense of Sight or the Eare in the Act of Hearing But meerely Passive after a more remarkable manner in the First Degrees of Mortification or Conversion than in their Accomplishment The Resolution then of the former doubt is This We are meerly Passive in the Degrees or works of Mortification or Conversion We are not meerly Passive we must be Active in some works by the Providence of God presupposed for accomplishment of these works or for his accomplishing these works in us by the Spirit 3. For Illustration of that which in this Point may be easily conceived by all without offence as I hope to any We will take for Instance or Example a man whose heart hath never found any internal Comfort of the Spirit a Despiser of the Meanes which lead to Grace A Young Man Every way as dissolutely Bent as his yeares and Experience will permit him This man upon some Loathsome Concomitants which follow ryot or upon some grievous mischance that hath befalne him or his Friend in an unruly place upon the Lords-Day abjures the like place and Companie for a while And being not able or unaccustomed to be alone resolves to make trial whether he shall speed better by repairing at times seasonable unto the Lords House In thus resolveing and in thus repairing to the Church he is not meerly Passive but an Active This is no Work of true Faith no Degree of true Conversion or Mortification spiritual yet a Motion by Gods Providence presupposed or rather prerequired to his future Regeneration or Conversion He is Active Likewise in Lending his Eares with some tolerable attention unto the Preacher The Theme whereupon the Preacher without any notice of this Parties Dispositions or Occasions doth insist we will suppose to be that portion of scripture which was the meanes of St. Austins first Conversion to Christianitie without any choyce made by Him but presenting it self in respect of his present thoughts or purpose by meere Chance The Theme which first wrought his Conversion as he himself in His Confessions acknowledgeth Confess 8. lib. 12. Cap. was Rom. 13. 13. 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in Ryoting and Drunkennesse not in Chambering and Wantonness not in strife and Envying But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof A discreet methodical application of such Doctrines as this Text affords would much move any dissolute Young-Mans heart which had been impelled or drawn upon the former presupposed Occasions to heare these Words opened or discoursed upon without his choyce and beyond his Ayme or expectation And in this supposed Motion or relenting of
of any doubtful or difficult place of Scripture The people were in a manner taught to believe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere to believe this Article was sufficient to Salvation live they in the mean time how they list This foolish Doctrine did begin and propagate it self in Germanie before Melancthon did correct Luther or as Chemnitius thinks did record his own Recantation But the infection in the mean time did so farr overspread the Church of England before it heard of the remedie that it moved Sir Thomas Moore to lay aside jesting and deplore the miseries of his times in earnest to see men given over to Revelling Bouzing or drinking or to other worse vices and yet continue Confident that the sufferings and Passions of Christ should fully pay the shot or discharge the reckoning how great soever it were 3. It was but an Implicit Branch of the former Error which at the first did not break forth in expresse Termes to teach men to Believe Secundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with full Assurance of Faith that Christ dyed for them in particular before they had any assurance that Christ dyed for All men A strange Conclusion which they sought to cover or overshadow with a more dangerous branch of the same Error to wit That every man was to have Fiduciam or full assurance of his own Estate in Grace or interest in Christ not from Gods General promises made in Him but from special or Particular Faith This was that unfortunate Doctrine which gave such Scandal to the beginning of Reformation in Germanie that not three hundred Bellarmines not so many Valentia's or other learned Jesuites which have lived since could ever withdraw the tenth part so many from Reformed Religion as Dr. Hessils did with-hold from embracing it by exagitating this Sensual Doctrine as he styles it as if it had been conceived or maintained of purpose that some professing Reformation might continue and encrease their drunken and voluptuous Others their lascivious and wanton kind of life and yet be as sure of their Personal Salvation as either St. Peter or St. Paul were during their Pilgrimage here on Earth This was that Ginne or Noose which Satan sought to draw upon them as knowing that he had this kind of people at greater command then ever he had any besides For as is intimated in some former meditations published and in some Others in due time to be communicated to Learned and Pious Readers There is not There cannot be any possible Evasion out of this snare but by recanting the former Opinions or Errors themselves For every Novice in Arts hath Learned that every Vniversal Negative Proposition may be Converted Simpliciter Now the Scripture gives us this Universal Negative again and again That no Adulterer no Covetous Person no Slanderer or Reviler of his Neighbours no Seditious or Rebellious Spirit shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The other Vniversal Negative which they deliver up as their Deed and Writing unto the Father of Lies and of all wicked cunning is This That no Man which must of necessitie enter into this Kingdom though he dye this day or to morrow can be an Adulterer a Covetous Person a Slanderer or Reviler of his Neighbour or carrie a Seditious Rebellious or Traiterous Spirit to his King and Countrie Now by this Noose or Gin which they have cast for themselves the Great Tempter can draw or lead them to all manner of mischief and Hypocrisie to envenome their thoughts with malice and slander with Treason Sedition and Disloyaltie and yet assure them that they are no Slanderers no Traytors c. but Zealous and Godly persons because they must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Last and worst branch of the former bitter Root is an Assertion which I never read in any forraign writer but of late set down in Terminis Terminantibus by some English Zelots whose study and practice it hath been either to improve or malignifie Forraign Errors The improvement of the former Errors which Outlandish Writers did rather not take into Consideration then maintain is The Division of all Mankind into Two Sorts that is into Elect and Reprobate An Error I confesse which can do no great harm upon such Sawcy Malepert Vocalists as have the gift to let the Word of God runne as fast out at their mouthes as it comes into their braines either by the Ear or Eye But if it enter once into the thoughts of a Sober Conscientious Spirit whose brain and heart have dayly entercourse or Commerce it is impossible but it should put him into a Dangerous Perplexitie either of being carelesly Presumptuous or of falling into utter despaire Experiments of this Later evill have been more frequent in our Church and in these times then in any other Church or times before us 4. For Conclusion of this Tragical Consideration I would request all such as sit in judicature specially in Causes Criminal to call to mind or suffer Me to be their Remembrancer of a Grave saying delivered by a great Praelate in the high Court of Parliament That Severitie without instruction is a kind of Tyranny More particularly my humble request is that with good leave I may put such in mind as judge seditious turbulent or enormous practises or Censure Fellones de se that they shall mightily condemn themselves by judging them unless they be as forward withall to quell the Erroneous Doctrine whether by Lawes Ecclesiastical or Civil whence the former Practises spring As that kind of Sedition Stubborn disobedience disloyalty Scandalum Magnatum or privie Conspiracie under whose heavie burden this State and Church doth now sigh and groan These and divers other like Branches of the Divels service are as true and proper Effects or natural issues of the forementioned preposterous Belief or Doctrine of Special faith or Division of all Mankind into Two Sorts as Christian Charitie Humilitie Obedience Penitencie or Contrition of Spirit are of the true and wel-grounded Belief of Jesus Christ and of him Crucified 5. The best instructions that can be given for rectifying the former Errours is that of our Apostle Rom. 4. Though we follow the Interpretations or Hints of those Writers whom these Zelots most admire He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to performe And therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him But for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our Justification Vers 20 21 22 23 24 25. CHAP. LII That Iustification Consists not in one Single Act. In what Sense Fides est Fiducia is True 1. MUst we then with the Romish Church admit of a First and Second
Quarto's in this Volume we must tell the Reader before hand that the sixt Book of Divine Essence Attributes Providence will not administer to him either the delight or the profit we intended unless God move the hearts of them that have the MS. Copie of the Treatise of Prodigies or Divine Forewarnings betokening Blood which certainly was perfected by the Authour lent or lost in his life time to produce it that it may be annexed to the sixt Book to which of due it appertaines The 4. Particular will give the Reader notice what Subject Matters he is to expect handled in the 11. Book But before we name them he must be reminded that the Authour had in the 9. Book come as farre as the Article of Christs Ascension reckoning Inclusivé in the 39. Chapter of that Book had tackt That Article to the next of His Session at the Right-Hand of God Now the respective Ends or Effects of Christs Ascension into heaven and of His Session at the Right-Hand of Majestie were some of them of Immediate and if I may so say of a Transient dispatch And such I take it were His prepareing a place for his Elect Ones His Consecrating the heavenly Sanctuarie and setting open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers His sending the Holy Ghost in the Grace of comfort Gifts of tongues c. Some are of constant Vse and continue in Esse unto this day so shall unto the worlds end as the Providential Government of His Church and the rest of the world in order to the affaires of his Church which He administers as Lord the Exercise of His Sacerdotal Office which he executes as Christ some shall be manifested at the end of time of this sinfull world when He shall come in great power and Glory to Judge both quick dead What this Authour hath said upon any of these Heads in his Books already printed the Reader if he will take the paines to search may find Of the following Generals with their incident subordinate particulars doth the Eleventh Book treat Of Christs Session at the Right-Hand of God the Grammatical Sense of the words the Real Dignitie answering to them viz. The Exaltation of Christ And whether He was exalted as the Son of God or as the Son of David An excellent state of the question about Ubiquitie Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Of His Coming to Judgement Of the Final Sentence to be awarded by Him to All. Of the Resurrection of the Dead From thence He shall come to Judge the quick and the Dead Of Life Everlasting not the merit of man but the Gift of God and Death the wages of sin So that it is plain the Eleventh Book reflects upon The Resurrection of the Body and Life Everlasting or resumes the Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-Hand of God and withall proceeds to the Next and to the Two last 16. I Expect the Intelligent Reader will Ask where He may find handld the Articles concerning God the Holie Spirit the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins I must referr the proposer of this rational question which deserves a better answer then I can give it to the Authors owne words Which he may find in the first page of His Treatise Of The Holy Catholick Faith and Church which in the Catalogues of his Works for orders sake is reckon'd the 12. Book of his Commentaries and whereof the first part of three intended was published 1627. In my Comments on the Creed Saith Hee I did Sequester Four points from the Body of the Work The First was the Doctrin Of the most Holie and most Blessed Trinitie So he did intend to Handle the Commandements by way of Catechism to be set down by way of Prayer Soliloquie not of Schoole-Dispute The Second The Holie Catholick Church The Third The Communion of Saints The Fourth The Remission of Sins Points which I cannot Handle in that order they be propounded in the Creed without Interruption of my Method intended So that I have out of Choice reserved these for peculiar Treatises THE AUTHORS Book then of the Holie Catholick Faith Church 't is more then plain The Holie Catholick Church referres to the Article of And for the rest of his Books or Tracts hereafter to be published when they come abroad they must bear some Tessera or Recognizance to signifie their Retainance or to which of the 12. Christian Predicaments they are to be reduced 17. I have yet Two things to recommend unto the Reader The One I humbly present to the Consideration of the Nobilitie Gentrie of the Land who have the Honour Blessing Longo Sanguine Censeri This Author as his manner all-a-long is to open the Earth shew the Out-Burst of the spring leave the Well to be digged by him that meanes to dwell upon the Plat hath page 19. 31. moved a Querie well worth their most exquisite indagation and pursuit 'T is This whether Parents of both sexes may not by frequent voluntarie Commission of some sinnes improve the Corruption of nature in their Children to an Height above the ordinarie Taint descending from Adam or coming from Sin meerely Original not intended by unnecessary affected actual or habitual Transgressing Would any of Them now in this their privacie or vacation please Philosophari to think upon it and Commend their meditations to the world they would be more acceptable and more imperative of practise Coming from themselves consequently be more Contributive to the Revival of virtue unto an Heroical Degree 18. The other is to those of the Clergie who teach the people Knowledge for that end do seek acceptable words out of writings upright and True as for the pretended Favorites of the Spirit it is in vain to speak to them He that has Compassion on the poor ignorant multitude even destroyed for lack of Knowledge of Principles contained in their Creed Catechism c. And a mind to tread in the Good Old way for Aedification of the poor of the Flock may find in this Authors Works matter proper for every Dominical Festival through the year especially for the special ones that is those that Commemorate the Great Benefits received by Christ As also for occasions of Administring Both Sacraments marriages Funerals Fasts c. But let me tell him The Gold he is to find beat out doth somtimes lie in so smal a Compass that unless he observe well he may over-run it For an Experiment he may see 1 grain taken by me beaten out into divers Leaves And for expounding Texts of Scripture this Author seems to have a felicitie not ordinary Oft-times when he pretends but to take One verse he illuminates the Reader in the Epicycle of the Context nay in the next Orbe I mean the Parallel be it in the old or new Testament But the Magisterium of his excellencie
Exercise of his Everlasting Sacerdotal Function To this later part of the Knowledge of Christ and him Crucified c. that Knowledge which in Philosophie or in other Sciences we call à Posteriori that is which we gather from the Effect or learn by Experience doth answer in a true kind of subproportion Unto this Second Part of the Knowledge of Christ somewhat more is required then hath been expressed in the Former Part betwixt which and those Scientifical Conclusions in Sciences which we call à Priori there is perfect Analogie or Correspondency Somewhat or a great deal more then such Knowledge of God and of his Providence as most of the School-men or Historians whether Ecclesiastical or Secular do present unto us 3. Cyprian The knowledge of our selves the best method to know God or Christ Vt Deum cognoscas saith an Ancient and Pious Father Teipsum prius cognosce we must learn to know our selves before we can attain unto the true or perfect knowledge of God whether as He is our Creator our Redeemer or our Sanctifier And this true knowledge of our selves hath a double Aspect the one unto the Estate from which the other unto the Estate into which we are fallen The chief if not the only Reason Why the God-head or Eternal Son-ship of Christ Jesus is in this last Age questioned Why his Meritorious Satisfaction for the Sins of the World is by some flatly denied is Because the Parties this way peccant or such as can with Christian patience or without disgust read or hear their Discourses do not know themselves either in the Individual as they are Mortal Men and tainted with many Actual Sins or in the General as they are the Sons of Adam They understand not the Prerogatives that Man had in his first Creation above other Creatures nor yet trouble their thoughts How that which They and We call Sin found first Entrance into the World How it hath been propagated throughout all Mankind or what be the special Properties the true Effects or Power of it Now without the Knowledge or serious Consideration of all these Points it is impossible for Us for any Man to take a true much lesse a full or competent Estimate of Christs Sufferings upon the Crosse or of the Efficacy of his Resurrection from the Dead of the Fruits of the Spirit which he promised to all his Followers upon his Ascension into Heaven and sitting at the Right Hand of God the father SECT I. Of the First Mans Estate and the Manner How He lost it How Sin found Enterance into the World Of the Nature of Sin How it was and is propagated unto Adam's Posterity CHAP. I. Of the Primaeval Estate of the First Man and of the variety of Opinions about it 1. More Contention then Contradiction about the First Mans Estate ABout the Prerogatives or Praeeminences of the First Man over and above all others which by Natural Descent have sprung from him a great variety of Opinions there is more then is about the Limitation or Extent of the Prerogative Royal in most Kingdoms Christian as now they stand But the several Opinions contained within this great and spacious variety concerning the Estate or Prerogatives of the First Man are in my opinion very compatible Few or none of them contradict others And it is the Part of Divines by Profession not to sow any seeds of contention between the Authors or Abetters of several Opinions which in their nature imply no Contradiction Yea in times Ancient and unpartial it hath been accounted one special part of Priests or Profest Divines to solicite or Mediate for Compromise between Parties at difference whether in Matters Civil or Criminally Capital much more to Endeavour for Reconciliation of Opinions or Controversies properly belonging to their own profession 2. Now it is confessed by all good Christians that the First man was made in or according to the Image of God which made him But wherein this Image of God or the Live Copy of it exhibited in the First Man did properly or chiefly consist is a Probleme wherein Many good Writers both Ancient and Modern do sowmewhat Vary Some would have the Prerogatives which did result from the likenesse of God imprinted upon the First Man to consist principally in that Power or Dominion which He had over all other visible or sublunary Creatures But though it be true of these present times as it was of former That Dominium non fundatur in Fide id est Kings and Supream Governours have their Right of Dominion over their Subjects or Inferiors albeit such Kings and Governours have not at any time been true Christians or have degenerated from such Christian Faith as they have sometimes professed or maintained yet without all controversie that Soveraignty or Dominion which the First Man had over all other visible Creatures was founded upon that Integrity of soul or Righteousnesse inherent which He lost Since the First Man and his Successors became Corrupt in all their wayes that Primaeval Dominion which the First Man had did cease by Degrees to be so entire as once it was Nor is there any Hope to have it fully restored unto any Soveraignty or prvate Members of any Soveraignty or Kingdom in this Life Nor are all they which well agree in this General That the First Mans Similitude with his Maker did radically and punctually consist in Righteousness and Integrity of Soul and Body at so fair accord among themselves Wherein this Righteousnesse or Integrity did properly or formally consist or of what Rank or Order it was CHAP. II. Wherein the Righteousness of the First Man did Consist 1. Original righteousnesse no supernatural Grace MAny Great Divines or Doctors heretofore have been and some or rather Many to this day there be who peremptorily determine and would perswade Others either by their Authority or by Reason to believe That the Righteousnesse of the First Man did formally consist in a peculiar Grace Supernatural even to Him If this Opinion were true the same Grace should have been more then Supernatural to his successors supposing that they continued by natural propagation in the same State and Condition wherein the First Man was Created To maintain this opinion That the Righteousnesse or Integrity of the First Man did consist in a supernatural Grace the Romish Church specially since the publishing of the Canons of the Trent Councel is deeply engaged For unlesse this Postulatum or Supposition be granted Many Dogmatical Resolutions which the whole Christian World is by the Romish Church bound to believe sub poenae Anathematis that is under penalty of that Churches solemn Curse or everlasting Damnation cannot possibly or with any Mediocrity of Probability be maintained The Points of Belief which from this Postulatum or supposition That the Righteousness wherein the First Man was Created was a Grace Supernatural might with some probability be maintained are principally these 2. First That Sin which we and the Romish
Church call Original should be no more then a meer Privation of Original Justice Of the Inconveniencies which will follow upon the affirmative Opinion that is of that Image of God wherein the First Man was Created But the Ingenuous Reader wil perhaps demand what further Inconvenience wil follow upon the yielding or granting of the former Postulatum or Supposition unto them This in the Second place That Adams Successors whether immediate or intermediate unto the worlds End should have a greater measure of that which they call Liberum Arbitrium or Free-will then the word of God doth acknowledge or any Ingenuous Man that will subjugate his Reason to be Regulated by the written word or Ancient Rules or Canons of Faith can allow or approve This deduction following is clear by Rules of Reason viz. If the Righteousnesse of the First Man did consist in a Grace Supernatural or in any quality additional to his constitution as he was the Work of God This Grace or Quality might have been or rather was lost without any Real wound unto our Nature Or without any other Wound then such as the Free-will or right use of Reason or other Natural parts which after the losse this of supposed Supernatural Grace or Quality were left might instantly have cured or yet may cure Or in other terms more Scholastical perhaps Thus If the Integrity or Righteousnesse of the First Man were lost only demeritoriè by way of Demerit without any physical or working cause of its expulsion or without any wound made in our nature by such positive cause The same Righteousnesse which the First Man had might have been regained by the right use of Reason which was left unto him or of those natural faculties which he had pro primâ vice abused From these premisses the necessary consequence will be this That the satisfaction of our Lord Christ for sin original at least had been superfluous And according to this Tenet the Opinion of the Socinians would be more tolerable and more justifiable then the Doctrine of the Romish Church so far as it concerns the Valew or Efficacy of Christs Sufferings or Satisfaction by his Merits or Justification by works rather then by faith especially works of the Moral Law or observance of those two great Commandments To love God above all and our Neighbours as our Selves or of that other whatsoever you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them 3. Lastly if all or any of these Opinions were granted to the Church of Rome we of Reformed Churches should be concluded to yield That Adams posterity or as many of them as are or shall be justified were to be Formally justified by inherent Righteousnesse that is they have or might challenge absolution from the first sentence denounced against Adam by way of legal plea or satisfaction The deduction or remonstration of this demonstrative inference is clear to any Artist to any reasonable man unlesse his Reason be overgrown by faction or by mingling of passions with his understanding The Remonstration of this demonstrative inference is thus It is in confesso and more then so an undoubted Maxim subscribed unto by the Church of Rome That the grace which is infused by and from our Lord Jesus Christ is a supernatural quality or a qualification more soveraign then the first grace which God the Father bestowed upon the First Man Now if that Grace were a super addition to his Nature or Constitution as he was the work of God the losse of this Grace or quality could not have made any wound in the humane Nature which the least drop of that Grace which daily distilleth from the second Adam might not more then fully cure Yea such grace would sublimate our Nature so cured unto an higher pitch or fuller measure of Righteousnesse then that which was bestowed upon our Father Adam In respect of these and many other Reasons which might be alledged all such Congregations or Assemblies of Christian Men as have departed or have been extruded out of the Romish Church stand deeply engaged to deny that the Righteousnesse of the First Man was a Grace or quality supernatural CHAP. III. Whether Original Righteousness were a quality Natural or a mean betwixt Natural and supernatural 1. TO affirm that the Righteousnesse wherein the First Man was created was a gift rather Natural then supernatural would be no solaecisme no assertion any way more incongruous then many Resolutions of the Roman Doctors in like Cases are no grosser blemish or deeper impression then might easily be salved or wiped off with that distinction usual amongst them in other the like or rather the same Cases The true state of the Question proposed That the righteousness wherein Adam was created was natural quoad terminum productum non quoad modum productionis A natural Endowment in respect of the essential qualitie produced albeit the manner of producing it were somewhat more then supernatural But this is a dispute which for the present shall be waved because the Original difference betwixt us and them may be more punctually stated and the Questions dependent on it may be more clearly resolved from these Postulata or presumed Maxims First That God did make the First Man after his own image Secondly That the First man being so made was righteous and just Neither of these are denied by any The state of the Original Controversie unto such as are disposed to have it plainly propounded in constant or unfleeting Terms is thus Seeing man was made after the image of God and being so made was just and righteous Whether there were two works of God or two distinct effects of his work of creating the First Man in righteousness and in his own image And whether the one of them was terminated to his own image imprinted in man and the other to his original justice If these two expressions made by Moses of Gods image and mans righteousness expresse or include no more then one and the same work of God or effect of his work in man The losse of Original justice or defacing of Gods image enstamped upon him was more then a meer privation and necessarily presupposeth a positive Cause in our First Parents and a positive Effect wrought by that cause whereunto the privation of Original justice was Concomitant or rather Consequent Whatsoever Controversie may be moved concerning the Cause or manner how this Effect was wrought the effect it self was a deadly wound in our Nature a multitude of wounds all by Nature or any endeavour of Nature or performances of such Free will as was left to mankind after these wounds were once made altogether incurable without the help or assistance of better Grace or endowments then were bestowed upon the First Man The cure of these wounds wholly depends upon that grace whose Being and bestowing the second Adam did merit from the Father of Lights or from the Divine nature or Deity 2. To win the Assent of
For the full resolution of this Question the Sacred Scriptures are not the sole Competent Judge or Rule Nor doth the determination of it belong to the Cognizance of such as are the best Interpreters of Sacred writ for the true Grammatical or Litteral sence of every proposition contained in it This Case must be reserved to the Schools of Arts or to the certain Rules of true Logick and Philosophy which are the best guides of Reason in all discursive faculties But here I am engaged to do that which in other cases I have endeavoured to avoid that is to make repetition of two great Problems in the Science or Faculty of Theologie heretofore in their several places handled and in some ensuing meditations to be hereafter inculcated The first Problem is In what sense or with what limitations the Scripture is held by all reformed Churches to be the only Rule of Faith The Second In what sense or how far it is true that Recta ratio Reason rectified or rightly managed may be admitted a competent Judge in Controversies belonging to the Faculty of Theologie 2. To the First Problem In what sence the Scripture is held by us to be the sole and competent Rule of Faith and manners I have no more to say for the present then hath been long ago published in the second book of these Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed Sect. 1. Chap. 11. The summe of all in that place delivered is to my best remembrance This No Christian is bound to admit or receive any Doctrine or proposition as an Article of his Faith unlesse it be contained in the Old or New Testament either Totidem verbis or may be Concludently or Demonstratively deduced from some Sacred Maxim or proposition expresly contained in the Canonical Books in the Old and New Testament Such Maxims as are expresly and plainly contained in Scripture Every Christian Man is bound to believe absolutely But such propositions or Conclusions as may be demonstratively inferred from Canonical unquestionable Maxims they only are bound absolutely to believe which have so much use of Reason or skill in Arts as may enable them clearly to discern the Necessity of the Consequence or concludent Proof of the Deduction The ignorant or illiterate are only bound to believe such Deductions Conditionally See the second Book chap. 2. chap. 4 c. or to practise according to their Teachers instructions with such Reservation or under such Conditions as have been expressed in the second and third Book of these Commentaries 3. But what Propositions though expresly contained in Scriptures be Negative or Affirmative Vniversal Indefinite Particular or Singular Or how any or all of these be Convertible whether Absolutely by Accident or by Contraposition or how to Frame a perfect Syllogism out of them These or the like are points which the holy Ghost who spake by the Prophets and other Pen-men of Sacred and Canonical Writ did never undertake or professe to teach The discussion or determination of Questions of this nature must be had from the Rules of Reason sublimated or regulated by good Arts or faculties And for the bettering or Advancing of Natural Reason in this search the most learned or most sanctified Christian this day living should be very unthankful to the only Lord his Redeemer and Sanctifier if he do not acknowledge it as an especial branch of his All-seeing Providence in raising up unto the World such Lights of Nature and Guides of Reason as Aristotle Plato and others of the Ancient Philosophers were True Reason in whomsoever seated Whether in the Natural or Regenerate man unlesse it be advanced and guarded by such Rules of Arts as these Sages of the old World have by Gods Providence invented or bettered can be no fit Judge but being so advanced and guarded is the most Competent Judge of Controversies in Divinity of such Controversies I mean as arise from Consequences or Deductions made by way of use or application out of the uncontroverted Maxims of sacred Writ And if we would sequester Grammatical or Rhetorical Pride and partialitie to the several Professions wherein respectively men glory we might easily discern all or most of those unhappy Controversies which have set the Christian World for these late years in Combustion to have been hatched maintained and nourished by such pretended Favorites of the Spirit as either never had faithfully Learned any true Logick Philosophie or ingenuous Arts or else had utterly forgotten the Rules which they had learned or heard before they begun to handle controversies in Theologie or entertain disputes about them 4. Obliquity can have no other Cause beside that which is the Cause of the Act whence it necessarily results The Hypothesis for whose clearer discussion these last Theses have been premised is this Whether it being once granted or supposed that the Almighty Creator was the Cause either of our mother Eves desire or of her Actual Eating of the Forbidden Fruit or of her delivery of it to her husband or of his taking and eating it though unawares the same Almighty God must not upon like Necessity be acknowledged to be the Author of all the Obliquities which did accompany the positive Acts or did necessarily result from them This is a Case or Species Facti which we cannot determine by the Rule of Faith It must be tried by the undoubted Rules of Logick or better Arts. These be the only perspective Glasses which can help the Eye of Reason to discover the truth or necessity of the Consequence to wit Whether the Almighty Creator being granted to be the Cause of our Mother Eves first Longing after the forbidden Fruit were not the Cause or Author of her sin Now unto any Rational man that can use the help of the forementioned Rules of Arts which serve as prospective Glasses unto the Eye of Reason that usual Distinction between the Cause or Author of the Act and the Cause or Author of the Obliquity which necessarily ensues upon the Act will appear at the first sight to be False or Frivolous yea to imply a manifest Contradiction For Obliquity or whatsoever other Relation can have no Cause at all besides that which is the Cause of the Habit of the Act or Quality whence it necessarily results And in particular that conformity or similitude which the First man did bear to his Almighty Creator did necessarily result from his substance or manhood as it was the work of God undefaced Nor can we search after any other true Cause of the First mans confirmity to God or his integrity besides him who was the Cause of his manhood or of his Existence with such qualifications as by his Creation he was endowed with In like manner whosoever was the cause whether of his coveting or eating of the Tree in the middle of the Garden was the true Cause of that Obliquity or crooked deviation from Gods Law or of that deformity or dissimilitude unto God himself which did necessarily result
Saviour Christ to sett him Free and to enable him to do those things which being done he shall be set Free For the Question is not nor ever ought to have been made Whether we have any Free-Will or power to make our selves Free but Whether we have a Free-Will or some Abilitie to do those things which being done we shall be made Free which being left undone we have no Hope or probable Assurance that we shall be made Free Indeed by the Son of God 4. Let Every one that is called a Christian and is not ashamed of the Cross of Christ or of Baptism in his name account it an open shame or Scandal both to his Person and Profession either to deny or suspect that he hath not the same measure of Free-Will or a greater which Naaman the Syrian had when he came to the Prophet Now he had a true Freedome of Will or choyce of harkening or not harkening to Good Counsel The one Branch he exercised in not obeying the Prophets Command The other he practised in hearkening to his Servants Advice or Counsel And it went better with him that he did so For otherwise he might have gone home a more grievous Leper then he came and made himself uncapable of the Miracle wrought upon him by God alone Let us Likewise account it a shame to suspect that we have not the same Freedome of Will which the Widdow of Sarepta had Now she had a true Freedome of Will or choyce either to relieve or not to relieve the Prophet out of her small store If she had not relieved him she and her Child might have died for hunger within few daies after But she making choyce of the better part of such Freedome of Will as she had was with her Child preserved alive by miracle Let such as be Servants to sin as she was then when the Prophet came to her use that Portion of Free-Will which they have either as well or not further amiss then she did hers And the Lord no doubt will work as great miracles in and upon their Soules as he did upon her poor pittance of oyl and meal Let not any man that professeth himself the Servant of Christ be more prone to Tempt God by Distrusting then to Try his Goodnesse by practising the Like works of mercy and charitie as that poor Widdow did 5. Even such amongst us are most conversant and busiest in the medling or market-way to Gain or Preferment and by their several Trades or Callings which they have made choyce of more obnoxious then other men are to the temptations of the Prince of this world will scorn to be suspected not to have as much Free-Will or Good Nature or as good affection towards Christ and his Gospel as the Romane Souldiers or Publicans had unto John Baptists Person or his Doctrine of Repentance And a Freedome of Will or ability they certainly have as well to be contented with their wages or Fees and to deal Conscionably as to exact more then their due or to oppress others by bribery by extortion or unjust exactions If they make choyce of practising this later Branch of such Free-Will as they have this is but to take Earnest mony to become hired Servants unto Mammon If they make choyce of that part of Free-Will which Zachaeus did practise that is to be Charitable Liberal to the poor and to make such Restitution as he did to those whom they have wronged then they shall be made Children of Abraham or which is more true Servants of God and of Christ whose Service is perfect Freedome 6. A brief Rule for right stating the Questions Concerning the Concurrence of Grace and Free-will Again albeit not many of us scarce Ten in any Age since the Apostles Times have any Freedome of Will or ability to determine or examine the Controversies about the power of Grace and of Nature about Justification or Election yet even the meanest amongst us have a Freedome of Will either to say or not to say their dayly Prayers or Devotions and a Like Freedome of Will to frequent or not to frequent the Solemn Prayers of the Church and to hear them either negligently or attentively and a Capacity withall to understand the meaning of them being expounded unto them by their ordinary Pastors or Catechists whom I could wish to make this one special work of their Function 7. For Conclusion I shall commend to every Readers or Teachers Meditations that Prayer of the Church appointed to be read amongst others in the second Service Prevent us O Lord in all our doings with thy most Gratious Favour and further us with thy Continual Help that in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie Thy Holy Name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the First part of this Godly Prayer we have the State of the Question concerning the Concurrence of Grace and Free-Will more pithily and more plainly set down than in any Controversie-writers whether in the Romish or Reformed Churches The Summe is that without Gods Preventing Grace or peculiar disposition of his Favourable Providence we cannot do any Good Works at all though but Civilly or Morally Good as a Learned Jesuit acknowledgeth nor any works Spiritually Good without Gods assistant Grace or Gifts of the Spirit inherent in us This is that which is in the same Prayer Better expressed by The Furtherance of his continual help In the later Clause of the same Prayer That in all our works begun continued and ended in thee we may glorifie thy holy name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting Life we have all I am perswaded that the Romish Church would have said Concerning the Necessitie of Good Works Whether unto Salvation or Justification and all again that the Protestants have said or can say against the Romish Church concerning Justification by Faith only without works When we Pray that we may glorifie Gods Name by our good works this argues their Necessity unto Salvation if not to Justification And when we pray that after we have glorified Gods Name by our Good works we may attain Everlasting life by Gods mercy in Christ and through Christ this is an Argument most Concludent that we must not rely upon or put our Confidence in the Best Works which we do though we do them continually but in Gods Mercies and Christs Merits Only And this is the Full and Lively Expression of our Apostles meaning when he saith We are Justified by Faith in Christ alone Finally Let all of us remember this Lesson that when it is said We are to Renounce Good works in the Plea of Faith or all Trust ☜ or Confidence in our Selves or in our Merits or Workes This must alwayes be understood of the Good works which we have done not of the Good works which we have left undone much less of Works which we have done amiss We must as our Saviour instructs us
mind as often as he findes himself prone to the works of the Flesh that he may fall into Reprobation before he be aware if he continue secure in that Course of life which formerly be hath taken let him withall remember that Praeterita non nocent si praesentia non placent On the Otherside is there any man whose Conscience can truly inform him that he hath sincerely laboured to mortifie the deeds of the Body his Faith upon this Information will assure him that he is in the way of Life and that in patâ—eni Continuance in Well-doing he shall be a Vessel unto honour and make his election sure But let not any man hence Conclude that he is already in the Immutable state of Grace For our Apostle doth not say if ye have mortified the deeds of the body by the spirit ye are in the Immutable state of Life but he saith if ye mortifie the Deeds of the Body ye shall live that is if ye Continue to mortifie the deeds of the Body God will Continue the blessings and means of life unto you yea Confirm you in the Immutable State of Life and saving Grace 25. If any man list to examine himself whether he be in the state of Election or Reprobation let him measure or moderate his perswasions of the one or other Estate by his proficiency or negligence in this duty of Mortification Otherwise to be prepossest with strong perswasions of being in the Immutable State of Grace or Election before we have given all diligence to make our election sure by performing this Duty of Mortification is the readiest or most compendious way that Satan yet hath found out to cast men into a Reprobate Sense that is to make them without sense or feeling of their sinnes or which is worse to misperswade them that those very Deeds whilest done by Them are no sins or sins of Infirmity only which being done by Others are even in their Judgements grosse and Capital sins The Method by which Sathan works this misperswasion in men strongly perswaded of their own Immutable state of Grace before their due time is Immutable and Infallible For it is an Infallible Rule in Logick and Nature That An Vniversal Negative may be Simply converted If no rich man whilst a rich man can be a begger then no begger whilst he is a begger can be a rich man If no convetous no proud no envious no seditious or uncharitable man no doer of any of those works of the Flesh mentioned by S. Paul Gal. 5. can enter into the Kingdome of heaven Then no man whose entrance into it is Immutably determined can be a covetous an evious seditious or uncharitable man Whence if a man be once perswaded that his entrance into the Kingdome of heaven or his estate in Grace is unchangable he cannot possibly perswade himself or be perswaded by others that he is a covetous proud envious seditious or an uncharitable man albeit he do all the works that a covetous proud envious seditious or uncharitable man doth 26. Lastly although it be the safest way to examine our Estate in Grace by our diligence in this duty of Mortification yet I must admonish men not to examine their proficiency or progress in performance of this Duty by Meer Abstinence from the works of the Flesh which they sincerely dislike or condemn in others I know we condemn the blind obedience of the Roman Catholicks that are ready to do and believe as the Church commands them without examination as a work of the Flesh of which we are Freed yet this doth not argue that we have mortified this work of the Flesh this Blind Obedience unlesse our Consciences can truly inform us that we are ready to obey the Church our Mother in things lawfull or in things which upon diligent examination are not Evill but Indifferent We likewise condemn as wel the affected Ignorance of the Romish Catholick in that though he may yet he regards not to hear the Word preached in a Language that he knows as his blind Devotion in that he can be content to make his Prayers or to hear publick Prayers in a Language that he understands not for works of the Flesh In both these we do well yet are neither of these works truly mortified in us by the Spirit unlesse we be as ready and zealous to joyne with the Congregation in publick Prayers of the Church celebrated in a known Tongue as we are to hear or read Sermons The Ministers must preach that the people may know how to pray aright in private And the people must joyn with them in Publick Prayers appointed by the Church that both may practise according to the Rules of Life delivered whether by the word read or preached The Communion of Saints or that part of it which can be had betvvixt Saints here on earth doth specially consist in the Unity of Faith and of Prayers publikely celebrated according to the Common Rule of Faith FINIS Cap. 37. A Note Referring to Fol. 3159. Line 3. and to Marg. Note 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Basil 1. Tom. Paris 1638. Graeco-Lat Fol. 113. Comment in Psal 1. CHAPTER XXXVIII A Sermon Preached on St. SIMON and JVDE'S Day 1629. Jude Verse 4. For there are Certain men crept in unawares which were before of old ordained to this Condemnation ungodly men turning the Grace of our God into Lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. THE End and Scope of this Epistle you have set down in the 3. The Scope of the Epistle Verse And it is in Brief to exhort these his Flock or Charge To contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints The Word ONCE is Emphatical and imports Thus much That the Rule of Faith had been Once for all delivered unto them so full and so compleat that if they vvould hold close to it and use it as the Rule of Life they should need no other additions The occasion of writing it or increase of new points to be believed or practised The speciall occasion vvhich he had to vvrite unto them for this end and purpose was because there were Certain ungodly men crept in to their Society vvhich did overthrovv or contaminate that Rule of Faith vvhich had been delivered unto the Saints But hovv they did overthrovv it is not exprest in particular Most certain it is for St. Jude expresly affirms it that they did deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Novv to deny God or Christ Two ways of denying God there be but Two ways possible either by Opinion and Doctrine or by Matter of Fact and Practise And these men it seems did both ways deny God and his Christ though not directly and expresly yet by necessary and unavoidable Consequence But vvherein they did deny God and Christ shall be toucht in the Use and Application The Doctrinal Points to be discussed are Two Two points of
Doctrine handled First Vnto what Condemnation they were of Old ordained Secondly How or in what manner they were ordained unto it 2. There is An English Note upon this Place A very strange One yet gathered as it seems from some good Writers vvho did not so clearly express themselves in their Comments upon this Place as might have been desired See the 1. note at the end of this Chapter and yet are farre vvorse understood by many of their Follovvers then they meant The English Note seems to imply that these men were Ordained to trouble the Church or to follow those lewd Opinions or Practises whereby the Church was troubled and the Faith of many brought into manifest hazard Yet to say that any man is ordained by God to this or the like end will be very harsh to any Christian eares and was I am perswaded either a branch of their Heresy which are here said to be ordained to Condemnation or a Branch of the same Root worse then any Heresy God ordains no man to sin which they maintained And yet to say That men are ordained to trouble the Church to be ungodly and to deny Christ is but the Necessary Consequent of their Opinion who hold That all things every Action of Man even sinfull Actions are so ordained and determined by God that they cannot come to pass otherwise then they do in the Individual either for the Matter Substance or for the circumstance of the action Thus to write thus to speak some are emboldened because nothing can fall out without Gods Foresight yea without his Co-operation For in him all things living do live all things endued with motion do move and have their being And in that nothing can be done without him in that he is Omnipotent and supporteth the world by the Word of his Power they do not collect amisse that they cannot lay a load too heavy upon him But they should consider God is no lesse holy and just then powerful that seeing he is Holy and Just no lesse Holy and Just then he is Powerfull they may lay that upon him which is a great deal too foul for him to bear The foulest Aspersion that can be cast upon his Holiness is to make him the Author of sinful Actions To say or think he did Ordain men to trouble the Church or to be as these men were ungodly Persons denyers of Christ 3. To avouch in plain Terms That God is the Author of sin is as most confesse a dangerous Heresy a sign of a darkned mind in spiritual knowledge And yet the blindnesse or ignorance would be more gross if any man should grant the Antecedent and deny the Consequent That is if one should grant that God did ordain any man to persecute the Church to turn his Grace into wantonness and yet withall deny that God in thus doing should be the cause and Author of Sin See the 6. Chapter He that is the Author or Cause of any Action which is Essentially evill or universally inseparable from evill is the Author and Cause of all the evill which is inseparable from the Action even in that he is the Cause of the Action For that which they call the Obliquity of the Action or Malum Formale Formally Evill can have no other cause at all then that which is the Cause of the Action from which this Formal evill is unseparable So that if Gods Ordinance be the Necessary Cause of such an Action to wit of Troubling the Church the same Ordinance must be the cause of the Obliquity or evill which is annexed unto it Satan and wicked men should be but Causes Instrumental at most that is such a cause as the sword is of the murther which a man commits with it So that the Case is clear that if to trouble the Church with lewd Opinions be a sinfull Action then God who is no Author of Sin did never ordain men unto that action For whatsoever God doth ordain or decree God is Author of that which be ordaineth he is the Author of it These Inferences will admit no Plea or Traverse amongst such as are instructed in the Fundamentall Rules of Art or Nature For all do grant that which they call Obliquity or Formal Evil to be a Relation that is such an entity or Being unto which no Action can be immediatly terminated it hath its Being only by Concomitance or resultance from some other Effect which hath a direct and Immediate Cause Of this Nature are Equality or Inequality of bodies Similitude or Dissimilitude Now it is impossible that man or Angel or any Cause whatsoever should produce an Equality between two bodies formally unequal by any other means then by altering the Quantity of one or both or to make one body dislike unto another but by altering their Qualities Altogether as Impossible it is to produce an Obliquity or Crookedness in mens wayes by any other means then by producing those Actions which are in their Nature Perverse and crooked He which is the Cause of such Actions in the Individual is the Cause of that crookedness or Obliquity which is inseparably annext unto them 4. That God is not the Cause not the Author of such Actions or that such Actions are not necessary in respect of his Decree Christianity it self or the Rule of Catholick Faith binds us to believe as firmly as that there is a God who is the Author or Fountain of Goodnesse Hence saith St. James Cap. 1. ver 13. Let no man say when he is tempted he is tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evill neither tempteth he any man unto evil but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed And unto this inconvenience of being tempted by his own lust man was not subject untill he was beguiled by Satan nor could this great tempter work evill in man immediatly or directly but only by tempting or inticing him to that Action to which evill was unseparably annexed that is to tast of the fruit which God had forbidden The Tempter knew that if he could intice our first Parents unto this Action there was no possibility of shedding the Obliquity or Formal evil from it which was essentially annext unto it Now if God had ordained man to this Individuall Action or to the condemnation which was due to this Action without possibility of avoiding it His Ordination had been a more true Cause of the first mans sin and of his death and ours then Satan was For Satan had no power either naturall or permitted him by God to make any ordinance or decree for man no power either given or permitted to lay a necessity of sinning upon our first Parents All that he was able or permitted to do was only by way of temptation or inticement Adam as all grant had a Freedom of Will in respect of Satan or any inticement that he could propose unto him But Freedom of Will he
a Black English Letter printed at London Anno Dom. 1598. By the Deputies of Christopher Barker And it Runs thus The Text. Of old ordasined to this Condemnation The note e He confirmeth their heart against the Contemners of Religion and Apostates shewing that such men trouble not the Church at All-adventures but are appointed thereunto by the Determinate Counsel of God Thus it is in that Edition Though in some Bibles with Notes since printed some words or part of that Note is omitted 2. To Fol. 3168. To Those words in in the 7. Paragraph of this 38. Chapter The Party thus offending doth expell himself The Heathens had a Notion very remarkable That the Gods were desirous to shew mercy at least to be quiet and not to have their Justice provoked by the sins of men Coelum ipsum petimus Stultitia neque per nostrum patimur scelus Iracunda Iovem ponere fulmina says Horace Carm. l. 1. Ode 3. It is a complaint usual with Salvian Salv. Lib. 1. in his Books de Gubern Dei That though God were loth to pumish yet men did exigere extorquere ut perirent And that they did vim facere manus inferre pietati Divinae omni peccatorum scelere quasi omni telorum genere misericordiam Dei expugnare And yet for all this Complain'd of Gods severitie whereas nos nobis nos accusandi sumus Lib. 4. Nam cum ea quibus torqueamur admittimus ipsi tormentorum nostorum autores sumus Isa 50. 11. Unusquisque nostrum ipse se punit ideo illud Propheticum ad nos dicitur Ecce omnes vos ignem accendit is vires praebet is Flammae Ingredimini in Lucemignis vestri flammae quam accendist is Totum namque humanum genus hoc ordine in poenam aeternam ruit quo scriptura memoravit Primum enim accendit posteà vires ignibus praebet postremo flammam ingreditur quam paravit Quando igitur primum sibi homo aeternum accendit ignem sc cum primùm peecare incipit Quando autem vires ignibus praebet Cum utique peccatis peccata cumularit Quando verò ignem aeternum introibit quando irremediabilem jam Omnium Malorum summam Crescentium delictorum iniquitate Compleverit Mat. 23. 32. Sicut Salvator noster ad Iudaeos ait Implete mensuram patrum vestrorum And in his seventh Book Quicquid actum est peccatis non Deo ascribendum Salv. Lib. 7. quia rectè illi rei factum ascribitur quae ut ita fieret exegit Nam Homicida cum à judice occiditur suo scelere punitur Et Latro aut Sacrilegus cum flammis Exuritur suis criminibus concrematur This agrees with the Rules of Civil Law Qui causam dat damni ipsum Damnum dedisse videtur Qui sceleratum Consilium cepit exinde quodammodo sua mente punitus est So the Emperours Severus and Antoninus in L. 34. D. de Jure Fisci Rescripserunt Asclepiadi Ipse te huie poenae subdidisti Ex quo notant D. D. Eum qui delinquit hoc ipso praesumi voluisse obligare sese ad poenam ei delicto praestitutam See Macarius his 4. Homilie where he Cites Rom. 2. 5. Thou treasurest up to thy self wrath Hom. 12. Interrog 5. Yea sure most Certain it is That every One which commits any sin together with yea in the very Commission of that sin enters an Obligation and forfeits himself to the very same punishment which the Divine Justice hath inflicted or awarded unto that sin in the Examples recorded in Holy Scripture Achan bound himself to appear in the Valley of Achor or Trouble by the very taking of the wedge and cloathes which were indeed no other then the Earnest of those wages which were there paid unto him Ahab and Iezabel by seazing on Naboth and his Vineyard forfeited their blouds to the Dogs Gehezi brought back the Syrian Leprosie wrapt up in the Raiment c. Even so Holy and True and Righteous are Thy Iudgements O Lord who would not fear Thee O King of Nations which hast Ordained that an Inordinate mind should not only Breed and bring forth but Be a Punishment an Executioner a witness and a Iudge unto it self This last Observation is partly S. Austin's That which follows is a Heathen's Exemplo quodcunque malo Committitur ipsi Displicet Authori. Prima est haec ultio quod se Iudice nemo nocens absolvitur improba quamvis Gratia fallacem Praetoris vicerit urnam c. See Iuvenals 13. Sutyre The 3. Note taken out of the Authors writings relates to Fol. 3172. at the 2. Marginal Note Some deny all Baptismal Grace Others grant that some Grace is given to Infants in Baptism but restrain it only to Infants Elect. So they expound the Church-Catechism which teaches children to believe That as Christ redeem'd them and all maâ—kind so the Holy Ghost doth sanctifie them and all the Elect People of God But who can think that our Church meant to teach Children at the first Profession of their Faith to believe they were Elect that is such as cannot finally perish This was to teach them their Faith backwards to seek heaven by descending from it S. Paul nay The Angels that have kept their first Estate almost 6000. years could not reach higher Yet would our Church have every one at his first Profession of Faith believe that he is One of the Elect people of God Those RR. Fathers that composed that Catechism and our H. mother that did Authorize it did in charitie presume that every one which would take upon him to expound that Catechism or other Principles of Faith should first know the Distinction between Elect that is such as cannot perish and the Elect people of God or between Election unto Gods ordinary Grace or means of Salvation and Election unto Glory Every Nation or Company of men when first Converted from Gentilism to Christianity became an Elect people a chosen Generation that is they and their seed were made capable of Baptism reciev'd an Interest in Gods Promises c. which Heathens whilest Heathens could not have All of us are in Baptism thus far sanctifyed that we are made true Members of the visible Church qualifyed for hearing the word receiving the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud and all other Benefits of Christs Priestly Function that are committed to the Dispensation of his Ministers here on earth Out of This the Reader may easily Pick what is Pertinent to that place Fol. 3172. A Note Relating to the Chapter following This Learned Author in the year 1628. Published his sixth Book of Comments upon the Creed or his Treatise of the Divine Essence and Attributes Immediatly where upon Mr. H. Burton taking offence Published his book styled Israels Fast Perhaps he might preach some part of it at the Fast held in the Beginning of the Parliament cald that year In the Epistle Dedicatory perfix't to that Book he
Means much available for strengthening of Faith or for repairing those decayes or ruines which the subtiltie of Satan works in our soules yet the Reiteration of the Sacrament of Baptism is neither Necessary nor allowable much lesse Commendable for such purposes And the Raritie or rather Singularitie of It was to my apprehension Emblematically prefigured by the Sacrifice of the Red Heifer or the Water of sprinkling which was Legally sanctified or consecrated by her Ashes The Law concerning this kind of Purification is not to be found I take it in Leviticus at least not in that sixteenth Chapter wherein the Law of the Sacrifice of attonement is punctually set down However the forementioned Glossarie upon the Romish Canon for consecrating Holy Water either through negligence See Chapt. 48 Num. 6. or ignorance or both avouch that place for it If the sacrifice of the Red Heifer had belonged unto the Feast of attonement it must have been reiterated once every year whereas the Hebrew Antiquaries affirm that this solemnitie was not used above tea times during all the time of the Law of the Tabernacle or Temple And whether it were so often used may be questioned because there is no Law or Precept for the Continuation of it but only for the use of the water of sprinkling being once consecrated by it so often as the occasion specified in the Law did require 2. But unlesse the frequent use of the water so mingled with the ashes did wast or exhaust the ashes of that one sacrifice which Eleazar not Aaron was commanded to offer These might have been preserved without putrifaction for a longer time then the Law of Ceremonies was to endure For Ashes as good Naturalists tell us being well kept are immortal or an Emblem of Immortalitie But it may be that as soon or as often as the Ashes of any such sacrifice were by frequent use of the water of sprinkling exhausted or wasted the Legal Priests were bound by the Law mentioned to offer another for consecrating the water of sprinkling whose use was to continue as long as the reason mentioned in the Law did indure 3. The chief use or End of the water of sprinkling mingled with the Ashes of this sacrifice was to purifie such as had made themselves Legally unclean or had casually fallen into such uncleanness One branch of this uncleanness was the touching or being touched by any Dead Corps And unto this use of the water of sprinkling mentioned Numb 19. 11. that of our Apostle Heb. 9. 14. hath special Reference more then Allusion How much more shall the bloud of Christ purge our Consciences from DEAD works That this Legal Sacrifice for sinne was an Exquisite Type of Christs Bloudy Death and sufferings or an exact picture of his bloud wherewith the heavenly Sanctuary or Holy places were purified although the bloud of this Legal sacrifice were not brought into the Earthly Sanctuary no good Writers which I have read either deny or question That the Water of sprinkling consecrated by the aspersion of the Ashes of this Legal Sacrifice did truely resemble the water of Baptism by which we are washed from sin and consecrated unto God as clean persons that is made members of his Church here on earth is so evident in it self that it needs no Paraphrase or Laborious Comment upon the fore-cited Law Yet to this purpose the learned Reader may find much pertinent matter in Chytraeus his Comments upon the Book of Numbers and in many others It will be more needful or better suiting with my intentions in this place to prevent the captious exceptions which some Anti-Papists have heretofore taken and now resume against the expressions of our Publick Liturgie in that Part of it which concerns the Administration of Baptism Almighty and everlasting God which of thy great mercie diddest save Noah and his Familie in the Ark from perishing by water and also diddest safely lead the children of Israel through the red sea figuring thereby thy holy Baptism and by the Baptism of thy wel-beloved Son Iesus Christ diddest sanctifie the floud Iordan and all other waters to the mystical washing away of sin We beseech thee for thine infinite mercies that thou wilt mercifully look upon these Children Sanctifie them and wash them with the holy Ghost that they being delivered from thy wrath may be received into the Ark of Christs Church and being stedfast in faith joyful through hope and rooted in charity may so passe the waves of this troublesome world that finally they may come to the land of everlasting life there to reign with thee world Without end through Iesus Christ our Lord Amen Seeing now dearly beloved Brethren that these Children be regenerate and grafted into the body of Christs Congregation let us give thanks unto God for these Benefits and with one accord make our prayers unto Almightie God that they may lead the rest of their life according to this beginning We yeild thee heartie thanks most merciful Father that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own Child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation and humbly we beseech thee to grant that he being dead unto sin and living unto righteousness and being buried with Christ in his death may crucifie the old man and utterly abolish the whole body of sin that as he is made partaker of the death of thy Son so he may be partaker of his resurrection so that finally with the residue of thy holy congregation he may be Inheritor of thine everlasting Kingdom through Christ our Lord. Amen 4. It is no part of our Churches Doctrin or meaning that the washing or sprinkling infants bodyes with Consecrated water should take away sinnes by it's own immediate Vertue To affirm thus much implies as I conceive a Contradiction to that Apostolical doctrin The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who is gone into heaven c. 1. Pet. 3. 21. The meaning of our Church intends no further then thus That if this Sacrament of Baptism be duely administred the blood or bloody Sacrifice of Christ or which is all one the Influence of his spirit doth alwaies accompany or is Concurrent to this solemn Act. But whether this Influence of his spirit or Vertual presence of his body and blood be either immediatly or only terminated to the soul and spirit of the party Baptized or have some vertual influence upon the water of Baptism as a mean to convey the Grace of Regeneration unto the soule of the partie Baptized whilest the water is poured upon him is Too Nice and curious a Question in this Age for sober Christians to debate or contend about It may suffice to beleive that this Sacramental pledge hath a Vertual Presence of Christs Blood or some Real
untill we be actually cleansed from these later by the bloud of Christ. I should now proceed unto the manner how the Son of God doth dissolve those works which Satan worketh in us after Baptism or regeneration or how we are actually cleansed from sinne by his bloud 11. The Error of the sacrifice of the Mass But here again I find the Truth besett with Two Errors or Extremes the One Positive or an Heresie maintained by the Romish Church which in effect denies the infinite value or everlasting Efficacie of Christs bloudy Sacrifice upon the Crosse The Other Extreme is an Incogitancy of some men which magnisie the everlasting Efficacie or infinite value of Christs Bloudie Sacrifice not too much for so they cannot but amiss they make it everlasting after such a manner or rather make such use or application of its everlasting Efficacie or infinite value to themselves and to their hearers as makes his Everlasting Priesthood to be uselesse or needlesse To begin with the First Error or Extreme Is it possible that That Church which challengeth the Title of Catholick as her own peculiar should deny the most Fundamental Article of Catholick Faith as is the everlasting Efficacie or infinite value of Christs Bloudie Sacrifice In expresse terms or directly she doth not deny it Her Advocates dare not professe the denyal of it For so most of their Faction whom they lead blindfold would forsake them as Hereticks and Aliens from the Antient and Orthodoxal Church Yet the more stifly the greatest Scholars in that Church deny the imputation or Charge which we lay upon them the better proof we shall gain from them that they are the men which as the Apostle saith are given over to believe Lyes that they are the men on whose soules the spirit of delusion hath seazed If we shall decypher the impression or Character of that spirit so clearly that every one which is not sworn to their Faction whether Jew Mahumetan or Heathen or other more indifferent though but indued with Common Reason may run and read it Let us see then how they expose the greatest Mysteries of our Salvation unto the just scorn and derision of the lew Mahumetan or Heathen without possibilitie of Apologie for their manifest contradicting the Principles not of Christianitie only but of Common Reason Thus you may imagine any Iewish School-Boy or young Artist Catechized in the Rudiments of his own Religion would oppose the greatest Rabbines in the Romish Church We of the Jewish Nation once had our ordinary Priests which offered sacrifices daily in the temple we had our high Priest which went into the most holy place once a year with the bloud of the Anniversary and solemn sacrifices ye Christian Catholicks so ye term your selves teach your hearers as your Apostle hath taught you that the best sacrifices which our Fathers used were but Shadowes fore-signifying the taking away of sin they did not they could not take away sins or cleanse the consciences of such as offered them And why could not our sacrifices take away sin your Apostle gives this Reason because they were often offered Heb. 10. ver 1. 2. c. Ye Christian Catholicks have your high Priest who as ye say offered himself up in bloudy sacrifice unto God for your sinnes was this his sacrifice perfect or was it not Did it take away sinnes more perfectly then the sacrifices which our Fathers used or did it not ye say It did we say It did not it could not if your Apostles Principles or Expositions of Scriptures be true and your practise not false or unlawful Your Priests as you confess stand daily ministring and offering the same sacrifice which your high Priest did offer and therefore by your Apostles argument against us and by your practise this sacrifice can never take away sinne it is more the same sacrifice than the sacrifices of the Law were And yet it is offered oftner and in more places than any Legal sacrifices were 12. Some devoted to the Romish religion will perhaps say in their hearts the Doctors of our Church know well enough how to untye these knots which the Iewes cast albeit so learnedly and so subtilly that no unlearned man can perceive how they untye them If men will thus believe or rely upon their Teachers skill without any true experiment of it we cannot help it Yet if you will believe me upon the faith of a Christian I never yet could see any Romish Writer which leaves not the former knot worse then he found it after he had used all the paines and skill he had to untwist it The wisest and most learned of them usually let it slide away without medling Many of you perhaps have read what the Rhemists in their Notes upon the tenth to the Hebrewes have attempted To make you believe that all is loose The Apostle say they speakes of the sacrifices of the Law not of the sacrifice of the Mass It is true indeed he speakes of the sacrifices of the Law for he proves them to be unperfect unsufficient but he proves them to be unsufficient by such a Reason as will conclude more strongly not only against the sacrifice of the Mass if so the sacrifice of the Masse were as lawfull as the Legal sacrifices sometimes were or the Reiteration of it not more abominable in the sight of God then the restauration of Legal bloudie sacrifices at this day would be But against Christs bloudy sacrifice upon the †He meanes if it needed to be often offered Cross also The only Reason by which the Apostle proves the best kind of Legal sacrifices even whilest they were lawfully used and according to Gods appointment to have been altogether unsufficient for taking away sinne is because they were to be often offered Now every particular must be proved by an universal and A true universal Rule or Principle includes the same reason in every particular The Apostle could not prove the Legal Services to have been imperfect for this Reason that they were often offered unless this Vniversal were true and taken by him as granted That no sacrifices or sacrifice of what kind soever which is often offered can be perfect or sufficient to take away sinnes This universal Reason the Apostle takes as granted by Light of Nature and Common Reason and so frames his Argument from the Authoritie of Scriptures and the consonancie of Common Reason or light of nature ver 15. The Holy Ghost ALSO is witnesse c. It is as idle and as frivolous a shift wherewith the same Rhemists seek to put off their ignorant Readers when they tell them that Christs body was but once offered up in a bloudy manner but may and ought to be often offered up in a bloudless manner The very root and ground of this distinction if you examine it by our Apostles Argument includes a confession or acknowledgement of the CRIME or HERESIE which we object unto them to wit that The bloudy Sacrifice
the due Consideration of the Multiplicitie of the former sacrifices and the often Reiteration of them Of bloudie sacrifices some were reiterated Every day others Every year or in Sett Festivals or upon Special Occasions for private Persons And this last sort of sacrifices or Offerings were to be reiterated so often as Occasions or occurrences did interpose No one sacrifice could purifie the same party though peccant only against the Law of Ceremonies from his Legal Uncleannesse for any more Turns then One. Every Recidivation or Relapse into the same sin or error was to have a new Purification 6. Now if it were possible to calculate First The multitude of sinnes and of sinners against the Moral Law of God in comparison of such as did sinne against the Law of Ceremonies Secondly The excessive number of sinnes committed by every particular Christian man and bear this truth in mind that there needs no other sacrifice either for sinne or sinners besides That One of Christ himself upon the Cross the Influence of whose infinite value is daily and hourly communicated to all such as seek salvation by him The Superexcellencie of this our high Priest and of his sacrifice in respect of all Legal Priests and services will farre surmount the compasse of the Highest Heavens or Orbes imaginable in comparison of the least sensible part of the Earth 7. But some New-started Opinions there be which take away much matter of Admiration in this great Subject of Divine Meditation and dull the spirits of otherwise wel-minded men in the search after the virtue of Christs Everlasting Sacrifice and Priest-hood Of these new Opinions One special One is for I must not here touch upon the rest That the sinnes of some men of all the Elect were remitted before they could be comitted An Opinion voyd of all Reference to any pious use or practise A Speculation most untrue prodigiously absurd For no actual sin by whomsoever committed can be remitted to men living here on earth otherwise then by some new Influence from the Everlasting Sacrifice of Christ or as our Apostle speakes without the sprinkling of that bloud Which speaketh better things then that of Abel Heb. 12. 24. As much as I here intimate that passage of St. John if it be rightly scanned will clearely evince If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we ly and do not the truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Iohn 1. 6 7 8. 8. So then even such as walk in the light stand in need of Cleansing by the blood of Christ And with Reference to this place as I conceive that Maxim of S Austin well approved of by the best Reformed writers was first conceived by him Our Justification consists in the perpetual Remission of sin Justification Consists not in one indivisible Act. But an errour there is which I know not when it did first creep into the world but creep it did by the Incogitancie or indistinct Notions of some Late writers That Iustification is but one Act never to be resumed or reiterated This Assertion may be true in respect of That Justification Quâ Deus nos justificat or of Justification taken in the Active Sense as it concerns God For no act of his can be resumed or reiterated nor admitt any interpositions or Interims of time But if we speak of Justification in the Passive Sense or as it is an Effect wrought in our soules by the spirit of Christ there may be and are many Acts many Resumptions or Renovations of the same Act or Effect All being wrought in us by Interpositions or several Interims of time Our Natural bodyes do not require so many Refections of meat and drink for continuation of life of health and strength as the Faith by which the just do live and other spiritual Graces which accompanie Faith in the Purification of our soules do admitt yea require Refections spiritual Of these refections or refreshments of Faith or other Graces some are obtained by our dayly Prayers others being like extraordinary feasts or banquets are wrought in the participation Christs Body and Blood so often as we receive that blessed Sacrament as we ought to do But the most of us which enjoy the Libertie of Christian Lawes do not receives it so often as we ought Fewer as they ought And whosoever receives it unworthily receives it too often if he so receive but once Unto the worthy Receivers of the Sacramental pledges of Christs Body and Blood how often so ever and how many so ever receive them the Blood of Christ though but once shed becomes a Perennal unexhaustible Fountain of life everlasting But of the right interpretation of our Saviours Testament or Institution of this blessed Sacrament more at large by Gods assistance in the Article of the Holy Catholick Church In the mean time Two Prayers there be commanded by the Church our Mother to be used in the Uisitation of the Sick at the Administration of the Sacrament unto them Both which mutatis mutandis I would Commend to every piously minded Christan's Meditations or to every professed Christian that desires to be such both before and after he present himself at the Lords Table though he so present himself in perfect health of body and mind 1. O Lord look down from heaven behold visit and relieve this thy Servant Look upon him with the Eyes of thy mercie give him comfort and sure confidence in thee defend him from the danger of the Enemie and keep him in perpetual peace and safety through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen And 2. O Most Merciful God which according to the multitude of thy mercies dost so put away the sins of those which truely repent that thou remembrest them no more open thine Eye of mercie upon this thy servant who most earnestly desireth Pardon and forgivenesse Renew in him most loving Father whatsoever hath been decayed by the Fraud and malice of the Divel or by his own carnal will and frainess Preserve and continue this sick member in the unitie of the Church consider his contrition accept his teares asswage his pain as shall be seen to thee most expedient for him And forasmuch as he putteth his whole trust only in thy mercy impute not unto him his Former sins but take him unto thy Favour through the merits of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. L. The Rarity of that Rite of consecrating the Water of Sprinkling by the Ashes of the Red Heifer an Emblem of Baptism and the Singularity thereof Our Churches meaning in some expressions at the Administration of that Sacrament 1. BUt although the frequent Use of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud be needful or necessary by Precept and a