and the self same man as if he had been but once created or had continued from his creation without any interruption of his duration or existence This implies no more contradiction in nature then to say that the King may create one and the same man twice Earl or Duke or make him often the same Magistrate The Office or dignity may be the self same albeit there be some vacancie or interruption in the Administration or duration of it As if a man was deposed of his Office and dignity at the end of the first year and restored again at the end of the second year this would imply a diversity of Creation or advancement no diversitie at all in the Office or dignitie unto which the same person is twice advanced Now Gods Power over all his creatures either utterly to annihilate them or to interrupt them in their actuall existence or duration and to create them in the self same or better estate again is farre greater and more Soveraigne then any Princes civill power to advance or depose his subjects or to restore them intirely to their former dignities Admit then That God had resolved the first man Adam into nothing at the very first instant wherein he did eat the forbidden fruit with purpose not to create him again untill the last trumpet shall sound to Judgement the Terrour of that day should make as deep impression in him then first restored to life and sense again as if he had suffered him to live but one day and had called him at even unto Judgment or a final accompt as terrible as in that last day it shall be to all that die in their sins This whole time of vacancy or cessation from actual Being for almost six thousand years would not have seem'd so long to him at his Resurrection as a night past over in a dead sleep is to a malefactor which had murthered his Father in the Evening and is drawn to the execution as soon as he awakes in the morning Thus much of Gods Power in general to raise up the self same men again which have been long dead or by supposition more then dead utterly resolved into nothing Now if we must acknowledge it as an essential Branch of the Almighty Creators Power to be able to raise up or create the self same men again although they had been annihilated or turned to nothing we must needs acknowledge it as a fruit or effect of the same Power to re-unite every mans soul and body again at the last day seeing the soul as Christian Faith doth teach us doth still remain the same it was the body being not utterly annihilated or consumed to nothing but only resolved into dust or into the Elements of which it was first made Sed quomodo inquis dissoluta materia exhiberi potest Consider a temetipsum O homo fidem rei invenies Recogita quid fueris antequà m esses utique nihil meminisses enim si quid fuisses Qui ergo nihil fuer as priusquam esses idem nihil factus cum esse desieris cur non posses esse rursus de nihilo ejusdem ipsius Auctoris voluntate qui te voluit esse ex nihilo Quid novi tibi eveniet qui non eras factus es cumiterum non eris fies Redde rationem si potes quâ factus es tunc require quà Fies Et tamen facilius utique fies quod fuisti aliquando quia aeque non difficile factus es quod nunquam fuisti aliquando Quaecunque te materia destruxerit hauserit aboleverit in nihilum prodegerit reddet te ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum This is the sum of Tertullian's Collections Apolog. cap. 48. 10. This Power of God to create man of nothing and to create every one the self same man he was albeit he had been annihilated or turned into nothing The School Divines of the Romish Church acknowledge and with great subtilty of wit and strength of Argument prove out of the Article of Gods Omnipotencie unto which all Possibilitie meerly Logical or which implies no evident contradiction in nature is alwayes subject and obedient But of This as of most other Orthodoxal Doctrines or Principles of Faith wherein we hold communion and consort with the Roman Church the modern Advocates of that Church the Jesuites especially make a very malicious and Sinister use The most learned amongst the modern Jesuites being pressed by our Writers with the gross absurdities and scandalous inconveniences which necessarily follow upon their doctrine of Transubstantiation or of Christs local Circumscriptive bodily presence in the blessed Sacrament Fly to this doctrine of Gods Almighty Power whereby he is able to create one and the self same Individual Substance again and again as oft as it pleaseth him as to their last Hold and refuge Their only hope is that this General Doctrine being made plausible by them they shall be able to make their quarrel Just not in it self but upon expected advantage if any of our Writers should be so forward as in divers other Cases some have been too forward to deny their Antecedents when as they should Traverse the Inference or conclusions which they labor with subtiltie to infer from plausible and Orthodoxal Premisses Howbeit this Antecedent That God is able to create the self same man or bodily substance again and again and as oft as it shall please him no Protestant Writer to my observation hath yet denied none as I hope will ever deny But such is our adversaries confidence of Christs promise to St. Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail Luke 22. 32. and of the Popes authority as of Peters pretended Successor in this promise that whatsoever doctrine the Pope shall deliver ex Cathedra as he hath done this doctrine of Transubstantiation for a point of Faith they think God bound in Justice to use his absolute and Omnipotent power to make it true For if the Pope or the visible Romish Church could possibly err in this or any other point of faith God by their doctrine should fail in the performance of his former general promise which undoubtedly he will not do so long as he hath power to make his promise good or to make the visible Churches interpretations true and justifiable to the preservation of whose Infallibility he hath as they teach bound himself by solemn promise 11. But The Question betwixt us and them Concerning Christs local or circumscriptive Bodily presence in the Sacrament is not whether God can make one and the same body to be at one and the same time in divers places or whether He can create one and the same body again in every hour or in every place as shall seem good to him But whether it be his will to use this his power Or whether his will thus to do be so fully revealed in Scripture as that we are bound to believe That he doth or will make Christs
our Apostle here saith that the whole building doth grow unto an holy temple it is included that every part of this temple should be a living stone For growth such growth as the Apostle speakes of is an effect of life Things inanimate or without life as materiall buildings stones of the quarrie or any heap or congest may become greater by addition of matter unto them they cannot Grow unto greatnesse as wanting the facultie of vegetation or Nutrition That onely is capable of growth which is capable of nutrition and nothing is capable of nutrition but that which is endowed with life Hence saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 2. c. As new born babes desire the Sincere milk of the word that yee may grow thereby if so be yee have tasted that the Lord is gracious The Growth then of every Christian is more than the Growth of vegetables for it includeth the sense of tast wee must tast the graciousnesse of the Lord by faith and wee must come unto him by faith as unto a Living stone disallowed of men but chosen of God and pretaious and coming thus unto him As the Apostle adds vers 5. wee also become lively stones and are built up a spirituall house an holy Priesthood to offer up spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ S. Peters inference in that place vers 6 7 c. is the very same with our Apostle S. Pauls in this place and so is the Use or Application of it the very same with that which our Apostle makes in the later end of this Epistle But of the Use hereafter It will in the meane time be very Usefull for us to observe That neither S. Paul nor S. Peter when they purposely handled the building of the Gentiles upon this chief Corner-stone do mention or intimate any other Foundation on which wee are to be builded before we be builded on Christ Neither of them taught us to rely on themselves or on their personal faith or their successors Authoritie as upon secondary foundations by Union with whom or relying upon whom we might be grounded upon the Prime Foundation which is Christ If this they had taught us they had taught us not to believe as they believed and not believing as they believed we could not possibly become such live stones of this spirituall edifice as they were 5. But if wee must beleeve as S. Peter believed must wee not beleive as the Church beleeves yes Al that hope to be saved must believe as the true Church believes and they onely are the true Church which believe as S. Peter believed The Question is Who they be that believe as S. Peter believed These wee say are the members of Reformed Churches or the Reformed Churches themselves No member of the Romish Church can possibly believe as S. Peter did unlesse they will abandon the absolute infallibilitie of the visible Romish Church For every one which beleeves as S. Peter did must have the same Object of Faith which S. Peter had He may not believe any Article of faith which S. Peter did not believe he may not seek he cannot hope to be built on the same Foundation on which Peter was built by relying upon any Authoritie upon which Peter himselfe did not rely The manner of his union unto this Foundation must be the same that Peters was as immediate as Peters Union was What then was the proper Object of Peters faith What was the Fundamental Rock on which Peter was by this faith immediately built That was only Christ the Son of man and the Son of the living God And the Branches which naturally issue out of this Root or living Rock are That Christ the Son of the living God the Son of God the Father was Conceived by the Holy Ghost was Born of the Virgin Mary did suffer under Pontius Pilate was Crucified dead and buried c. Did S. Peter believe all or any of these Articles by believing his own Authoritie Was he founded on Christ by the intermediation or interposition of any other secondarie foundation Was he the foundation or Rock on which himself was built If we cannot believe these Articles but by believing S. Peter or his personal faith to be the Rock on which the Church is built then Peter or his personal faith must be to us as a second foundation We cannot be united to Christ we cannot be builded on Christ unlesse we be first united unto and builded on Peter But Peter was not builded upon himself or upon his own faith wherefore if we be builded upon Peter or upon Peters faith we have not the same Object of faith nor the same faith which Peter had for neither Peters person nor his faith were any part of the Object of his Faith His Authoritie was no meanes of his Union with Christ 6. That the Object of Faith must be formally the very Same in all true Believers the present Romish Church if this were the Question between her and us could not deny Her greatest Clerks do expressely teach and maintaine it as a principle of true Divinitie And maintaining this truth they must confesse unlesse they will contradict themselves that we must be as immediately united to Christ by Faith as Peter was we must be as immediately builded on Christ by this faith as Peter was we must not be built on him by being built upon Petes Faith or upon his successors Infallible Authoritie For so we should have another Object or Article of faith than Peter had or his successors have We should have another foundation then Pete had as many more foundations as Peter hath successors Our Union with them should be a part of our Union with Christ Our Belief of their Infallible Authoritie should be the chief Bond of this Union such a bond or stay of our edification upon Christ as the stones or cement in a material building is between the lowest foundation and the intermediate Rows of stone which are layed one upon another until the highest Row be finished And to be thus united unto Christ were to make him no living stone which diffuseth life unto all that are built upon him but a dead stone or a stone only able to support the material or dead weight which is laid upon it there should be no growth in faith but an addition or cementing of one part unto another until the edifice were finished Whereas our Apostles words are expresse that all the building is fitly framed together in Christ and so framed groweth up unto an holy Temple in the Lord. He saith not we are builded one upon another but builded together in Him for an habitation of God through the Spirit This Spirit by which we are builded together in Christ or through which we become the habitation of God is not communicated and propagated unto us from S. Peter and his Successors as from intermediate Foundations or Roots We and all true believers receive the influence of the Spirit
as immediately from Christ or from God the Father and the Son in the same manner as Saint Peter did though not in the same measure But the Difference of the measure in which we receive it or the difference of our growth in Christ doth not argue a different manner either of our receiving it or of growth by it 7. But is this the worst Practise of the Romish Church that she adds one Article more unto our Creed than Saint Peter knew or taught others to believe or that she makes Peters successors to have a Foundation which he had not If thus she did and no more this were enough to convince her of Grosse Heresie But this one Article of faith or this second foundation of faith which she pretends is of such a transcendent nature that it devours all the rest and doth if not overthrow the First foundation of our faith yet which is all one it draws us from it For as many successions as there be of Popes or of Peters pretended successors so many several foundations there be of their faith which successively adhere unto them Nor are these several or successive foundations either immediately cemented or firmly united to the first Foundation which is Christ or one to another They are as so many Rows or Piles of stone laid one upon another without any juncture or binding than loose sand And all that absolutely unite themselves to the present Romish Church that is to Peters pretended successors must of necessity fall off from the First Foundation Christ God and man and flote with these secondarie foundations to wit Peters succcessors when the floods of temptations do arise The point then to be proved is this That the present Romish Church to wit the present Pope or such as rely upon him as a second or intermediate foundation in this structure cannot possibly be built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets they cannot grow up together as living stones firmly united in Christ Jesus as in the Corner-stone Now the proof of this Point is clear because none can be built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles unlesse they absolutely believe as they believed and firmly acknowledge that which they have commended unto us in their writings to have been delivered unto them by God himself for so they expressely teach us to believe Believing then as they believed we must believe that albeit the Apostles and Prophets be not the Foundation here meant in the Text yet that they were Master Builders appointed by God for squaring and fitting all that lived with them or that succeeded them for this foundation and that the Rule by which as well the Pastors and Teachers as the people taught by them must be fitted and squared for this foundation is the doctrine of faith conteined in their Writings Both these parts of truth to wit that the Books of the Old and New Testament are their Writings or Dictates and that in these Writings the Doctrine or Rule of Faith is contained must be absolutely believed and taken for unquestionable before any modern pastors in the Church can be fram'd or fashioned to be true stones in this building But no man which absolutely believes the present Romish Church can have any absolute belief that the Old and New Testament or the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets are infallibly true or contain the Word of God The best belief that any Romanist can have is but Conditional and the Condition is this If the present Romish Church to wit the Pope and such as rely upon his authoritie be absolutely infallible and cannot err in matter of faith But it will be Replyed In as much as the Roman Catholicks take it as a Principle most unquestionable that their Church cannot erre they for this reason must beleeve the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Christ to be infallible and the bookes of the Old and New Testament to conteyne the word of God because the Church their Mother which they firmely beleeve cannot erre doth tell them so or as their owne writers speake because the Church their mother doth Canonize these bookes for the bookes of God This indeed is the chiefe advantage which they Presume their Lay-people have of ours in that they believe the Churches testimony concerning the bookes of God to be infallible and if they beleeve the Church to be in this point infallible they cannot doubt but that these bookes are the word of God But if wee look more narrowly into this mysterie of iniquitie and take their full meaning with us it will further appear that this absolute belief of this present Churches absolute infallibilite doth overthrow or undermine the whole frame of faith For they extend this supposed infallibilitie of the Romish Church so farre and make the belief of it so necessarie that without this fundamentall principle as they say wee cannot infallibly believe or know the bookes of the Old and New Testament to containe in them the word of God And in avouching this it is evident that they leave both the Authoritie of the Apostolical and Prophetical writings and the Authoritie of the Present Church altogether uncertaine so uncertaine that nothing avouched by either of them can be by their doctrine so certain as to become any Foundation of their faith If wee cannot infallibly believe the bookes of the Old and New Testament to be the bookes of God himselfe and of divine Authoritie otherwise then by believing the present Romish Church to be infallible let them tell us how they can possibly believe or prove that the Romish Church or any other Congregation of men hath any such infallible authoritie This authoritie must be either believed or known by light of nature or by Divine Testimonie or Revelation That the infallibilitie of their Church can be known by light of Nature they do not they dare not say For that Peter on whom that Church as they pretend is founded was an Apostle of Christ cannot be known by light of Nature or by sense it cannot be infallibly believed but by Divine Authoritie Revelation or Testimonie By what Divine Testimonie then do they know that Peter was an Apostle or that the Church was to be builded on him or on his successors You know they pretend that place of S. Matthew Chap. 16. 18. Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and that of S. Luke Chap. 22. 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith shall not fail And yet they deny that we can possibly know these words to be the words of God or to have any such meaning as they make of them unlesse we will believe the Churches Authoritie in avouching them to be the words of God and her interpretation of them to be infallible But leaving them wandring in this Round or Circle as we found them long agoe let us further consider the manner how we are built upon Christ the Chief Corner-stone and how we must
bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself
for conferring the Order of the Priesthood and for the efficacie of the Sacrament of Confirmation Secondly The Necessitie of the ordinarie Priests Intention in administring the Sacrament of Baptism of the Lords Supper and of Extreme Unction we need not be afraid or ashamed to Charge their Doctrine in making the Intention of the Priest or Minister of the Sacrament to be an Essential part of the Sacrament with nursing a perpetual distrust or doubt not only of salvation or perseverance in Grace but with distrust or Doubt whether men have the ordinary Meanes for attaining unto the First or Second Grace For of these Meanes they can be no more certain no better assured then they are of the Priests Intention 6. The Second Point which I undertook to shew you was How some in Reformed Churches by seeking the Cure of this maladie to wit Doubt or distrust of salvation by the Contrary did conceive a doctrine which either nurseth a Doubt or distrust not of salvation only but of meanes necessarie unto it as bad or worse then the former Doubt of the Romish Church or else occasioneth a Presumption in many which is worse then both The doctrine which they conceived to be the fittest medicine for curing the Romish Maladie to wit distrust or Doubt of salvation was The Certainty or Assurance of salvation That Fides was Fiducia That Faith did include a certainty of salvation which if every man could assume none should Doubt or distrust of salvation Mistake me not I pray as if I did absolutely deny or condemn this Doctrine which I acknowledge to be wholsome and true in its Time and Place I only mislike the mis-placing or mis-application of this Truth As he said Beneficia male collocata male facta arbitror Good offices evil bestowed part-take more of evil Turns then of good deeds So may I say That the mis-placing of Truth is oft-times more dangerous then a gross Error But how or wherein hath this Doctrinal Truth concerning The Certaintie or Full Assurance of Faith been mis-placed by some Writers of Reformed Churches In this especially That they have taught or maintained this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Full Assurance or Certitudo Fidei which is somewhat more then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be as Essential to the Nature of Faith of that Faith which distinguisheth a Christian from an Infidel or a Faithful man from a Reprobate as the Intention of the Priest is by the Doctrine of the Romish Church to the Essence or efficacie of the Sacrament Such an Essential Propertie would they have This Certaintie of salvation to be of true Faith that whosoever doth truly believe must be Certain of his salvation and whosoever is not certain of his salvation is no true Believer And to this Point or purpose that Saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 5. hath been alleged by many Know you not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be Reprobates The former Extent of this Certaintie of salvation to All true Believers did give the forest blow to Reformed Religion that ever it received a wound more grievous than all our Adversaries could have given it had not her friends and lovers given them this Advantage Now this Negative or Exclusive Interpretation of this place of St. Paul as if all were Reprobates or without hope which one time or other after meanes of salvation have been offered cannot assure themselves of their present estate in Grace or Salvation hath more deeply wounded the Consciences of private men then the consciousness of all their other mis-deeds or practises And the Doctrine is for this reason the more to be misliked for that it specially wounds such as are of an humble and dejected spirit and most afraid to offend God either by unbelief or by misdeeds 7 Both parts of my Conclusion to wit That This Doctrine admitteth either Doubt of salvation or Presumption will be made clear or cast upon you from the Confluence of these two Errors mentioned The One which makes The Certaintie of Salvation an Essential or reciprocal Property of Faith The Other which ranks all that have not this Assurance or Certaintie in the state or condition of Reprobates which is indeed but a Branch of another usual Error of which I must request and admonish you to beware in whomsoever you find it of them Who divide all mankind without Limitation into two ranks into sheep or goats Reprobates Though this be in due time and place most true yet it is a truth much mis-placed if we make this Division of all men before the hour of death or day of Judgment But you expect a clear Explication of the manner how these Two Opinions nurse either a Doubt of Salvation or Presumption which is worse then Doubt Take it then Thus. If it were a Truth to be taught or if it be taken as true That whosoever doth not attain unto the Certaintie of Salvation is none of the Elect or That of all mankind the one sort is irrevisibly ordained to life the other irreversibly ordained to death Then All such as have heard the Word preached and received the Sacraments and are not as yet assured that they are in the Estate of Grace or number of the Elect must of necessitie doubt whether there be any possibility left for them to attain unto such an Estate or whether they be not in the number of Reprobates I know the usual Reply to this Objection is That albeit some men be irreversibly appointed to death eternal before they be made part-takers of life temporal yet because it is unknown unto us who they be that be thus ordained or appointed therefore we must preach the Word and administer the Sacraments indifferently to all whom we see willing to hear the Word or receive the Sacraments But all this doth no way diminish the former Doubt or distrust in most hearers for if it still be true as the former Doctrine supposeth that some men the farre greater part of men which hear the Word preached are irreversibly ordained to death every man which as yet apprehends not his own estate in Grace or his Ordination to life eternal cannot be Certain must still doubt whether he be or ever shall be in the number of them which are or shall be irreversibly ordained to life The Romish Church did never deny but that the Priest may actually or virtually intend to do what the Church appoints him to do when he administreth the Sacraments And yet in as much as they teach withall That if he do not intend to do as the Church of Christ appoints him to do the Sacramental Act is void we hence justly charge their doctrine with breeding or nursing continual Distrust or Doubt of Salvation But if we withdraw or substract the Intention or purpose of God or of Christ from concurring with the Word and Sacrament which we exhibit unto all or from concurring with any part or the
grow unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 9. Christ as you heard before is not the Corner-stone or Foundation only but the Temple of God A Greater and more spacious Temple then all the building which is erected upon him which groweth up in him We must be living stones we must be Pillars in the house of God we must be Temples of God that is an habitation of God through the Spirit but no Foundations no chief corner-stones these are Christs prerogatives Behold I have graven thee to wit the Spiritual Sion saith the Prophet Isa 49. 16. upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me that is as a late Interpreter of the Romish Church saith I have pitched thy foundations in my hands by the wounds which I received in them By whose diduction or rent a place was opened for this future edifice to be erected in him And for this cause Christ who is the Rock was every way digged into in his side in his hands in his feet The mysterie whereof is that he might exhibit a firm foundation out of which the fabrick of the Church should grow That we then become living stones in this edifice it is from our immediate Union with this chief corner-stone being united to him he is fashioned in us and by him fashioned in us we become living stones growing stones we grow from living stones to living pillars from living pillars to living Temples or habitations for our God That the children of God are not onely living stones but from living stones grow into pillars our Saviour himselfe hath taught us by S. John Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make A Pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and if wee be pillars in the temple of God we must be as immediately placed on the foundation or chief corner-stone as S. Peter or Christs other Apostles were We must be as intire Temples as they were And for this reason our Saviour adds upon every one whom he makes a pillar the name of God and the name of the City of God the new Jerusalem which cometh out of Heaven Know ye not saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19. That your bodie is the temple of the Holy Ghost As wee say the Kings presence makes the Court So it is Gods Holy Spirits extraordinary presence in man which makes him his Temple And the Reason why Christ is called The Temple of God is because the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily And for the like reason every one in whom Christ dwelleth by faith is in a participated sense called The Temple of God And as visible Cities consist of severall houses and as the beautie of every Citie consists in the Uniformitie of houses well built and joyned together so the heavenly Jerusalem consists of several Temples whose beautie or Uniformitie consists in this that Christ Jesus is the life and light of every severall Temple and that his spirit is uniformely diffused through all 10. Christ as you have read before Communicates his Titles unto his Saints but not the Reall Prerogative of his Titles He is The Rock so was Peter a rock so are wee rocks but not The rock on which the Church is built He is the Chiefe Corner-stone we are living stones he is the temple and the Priest of the most high God and he makes us both temples and Priests unto his God So saith S. Peter 1. Ep. cap. 2. vers 5. Yee all as lively stones are built up a spirituall house an holy Priest-hood to offer up Spirituall sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ The Modell of this spirituall Temple and Priest-hood that is of the new Jerusalem and the service of God performed in it was exhibited by Moses Exod. 24. 4 5. at the making of the first covenant Moses wrote all the words of the Lord and rose up earely in the morning and builded an altar under the Hill and twelve pillars according to the 12. tribes of Israel And he sent yong-men of the Children of Israel which offered burnt offrings and sacrificed peace offerings of Oxen unto the Lord. Immediately after this Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu saw the God of Israel and there was under his feete as it were a paved work of a saphire stone and as it were the bodie of Heaven in his clearnesse ver 9. The yong men which he sent to offer sacrifices as the best interpreters observe were the first-born of their families For till that time and at that time which was before the consecration of Aaron and his sonnes it was Lawfull for the First born male of every family to execute the office of the Priest This was his dutie So that every family was as a little parish-Church and had his Priest to performe this service of God Now though all that are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles are not admitted to be Architects or master-builders though all be not publick teachers or pastors yet all that are or hope to be parts of this building have the same Prerogative which the First-born males of Israel had before Aaron was consecrated All must be Priests to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices unto God But seeing wee must grow unto an holy temple and growth as was said before supposeth nutrition let us now see what is the nourishment by which we must grow from living stones to be living pillars from pillars to be living Temples yea Kings and Priests unto our God 11. The nature and qualitie of the Nutriment by which wee must grow cannot in fewer words be more pithily exprest than it is by S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. cap. vers 2. It is the sincere milk of the word But how good soever the nutriment be it doth not kindly nourish unlesse wee have an appetite to it Therefore the same Apostle addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire or long after the sincere milk of the word We must then desire to have the word dwell in us plentifully and wee must desire to have it sincere that is pure and unmingled Now this milk may become unsincere or mingled sometimes by the default of the Pastor or teacher sometimes by the default of the hearers The dutie which concernes us teachers is that wee do not mingle the word with the Traditions of men how ancient soever they be This is the fault of the Romish Church which the Church our mother hath sufficiently prevented by publick edicts or decrees But many otherwise averse enough from Traditions of the Romish or other ancient Church ofttimes corrupt it with their own Conceits or Phansies which will easily mingle themselves with the word unlesse we speak out of premeditation and have both art and leasure to revise and examine aswell our own meditations as the meditations or expositions of others whose help wee use Since the ordinary Gifts of the Spirit did cease there is no facultie under the sun which more requires the help of art and study than the
he hath a more peculiar right of Dominion over us over all that pertain unto his Church then by right of Creation he hath as God then by right of Redemption or Attonement he hath as God and Man For That part of our nature that flesh and blood which he took of his Mother was his by a more peculiar Title and real property then it was God the Fathers or the Holie Ghosts and we by mystical and spiritual union with that part of the humane nature which he assum'd into the Unitie of his Divine Person are His at least He by this union is our Head and Lord by a more strict and proper Title then God the Father or God the Holie Ghost is By the former Title of Redemption or satisfaction made for us he is our Lord and we his servants By this Title of mystical Union with him he is the Bridegroom or Head the Church is his Spouse and being Head of the Church every member of it is bound as God by the Psalmist exhorts the Spouse Psal 45. to worship him as our Lord and God for the husband is Lord of the wife He bought all our souls being in the state of Aliens or bond-servants and after cleansed and purified them that they might be espoused to him and finally presented to his Father He hath purchased the Church of God saith St. Paul with his own blood Acts 20. 28. And again Eph. 5. Christ gave himself for the Church that he might Sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word That he might make it unto himself a glorious Church c. ver 25 26 27. CHAP. VIII What our Confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redounds to the Glory of God the Father 1. EVery tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Our Lord by a peculiar real Title To this Confession every Son of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue is bound de Iure but many sons of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do not confess so much de Facto The Jews with their tongues flatly deny him to be the Lord or their promised Messias The Turks and Mahumetans confess him to be a Lord of Christians but deny him to be The Lord The chief Lord under God the Father This title of Chief Lord they ascribe to Mahomet and under his right they pretend a title of dominion over Christendom The Heathens which know not God do not so much as question whether he be a Lord or whether He or Mahomet be under God the chief Lord. But as for us Christians we all to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do confess him to be The Lord As for those to whom the use of the tongue is by the course of nature and Gods ordinarie providence denyed others for them do ingage themselves at Sacred Baptisme that they when God shall grant them a heart to understand and a tongue to speak shall confess him to be the Lord and to be unto them their Lord. And in case they dye before they come to possesse the use of their hearts or of their tongues the Church or parish wherein this profession of faith was made on their behalfs are bound to profess thus much for them And as God no doubt accepts the prayers of the Church wherein they are baptized for them which cannot so much as speak to men much less pray to God or to Christ That they may be admitted into his visible Church and be reputed as members of his mystical bodie so doubtless he will accept the prayers of the Church and of every faithfull member of the Church wherein they live and dye that they may be accepted into the Church Triumphant and to us invisible albeit they never attained unto the use of the tongue or when as the Lord which gave others this blessing hath taken it from them For even of the tongue or of the use of the tongue that of Iob is most true and to be resumed by all as well by the dying as by the living by him for his owne part and by the living on his behalfe the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. 21. 2. Thus every tongue is bound de Jure to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord that Lord whom Job so long before did confess But though every tongue of men throughout the world every tongue of Christians of Jewes of Mahumetans or Infidels should from their birth confess thus much would this be enough for that acknowledment which here is required that Jesus Christ is the Lord or would such acknowledgement of every tongue be sufficient to pay that tribute which is due unto the Glorie of God the Father from this Confession which is here required that Jesus Christ is the Lord No it is not the Confession of every tongue that will suffice albeit the acknowledgment or Confession of every tongue be de jure required In this speech Every tongue must confess c. there is a Twofold Universalitie included The One of the Parties thus confessing or aknowledging The Other of the Duties or services to be performed by everie party thus acknowledging Christ to be the Lord. To begin with the Former when the Apostle saith That every tongue must Confesse that Jesus Christ is THE LORD You must take this Universal note to be equivalent to that phrase so often used in the Book of the Revelation by the Evangelist and Apostle all nations and Kindreds all people and Tongues every one of all Sorts of the Sons of Adam are bound de Jure to confesse That Jesus Christ the son of God and the son of man conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the virgin Marie is THE LORD of the Dying and of the Living of the Quick and of the Dead As for all such as do not either in heart or tongue or in both either by themselves or by others for them truly acknowledge Him in this life to be such a Lord they shall acknowledge Him to be such A Lord after their Resurrection from death of which likewise He is Lord. 3. But the acknowledgment of Every Tongue or of every one to whom God hath vouchsafed either a tongue or the use of the tongue will not suffice to find him a Gracious Lord at the resurrection from the dead and at the day of finall Judgment There must be as is said an Universalitie as well of duties and services to be performed by every particular person to whom God hath given an heart to understand as an universalitie of tongues or lips which are to make this confession The real language of every heart will be sufficient for every one in particular whom God hath deprived or denied the use of the tongue But unto him to whom God hath given an understanding heart and the use of the tongue also the hearty prayers and
that this conversion is rightly called Transubstantiation So that in fine the unitie whereof the children of that Church do so much brag is not an unity of faith or belief but an unity of faction or conspiracy for their own gain such as may be between the Jews the Turks the Heathens and the Arian hereticks which denied the Divinity of Christ to rob or spoil the Orthodoxal or true Catholick Christians 13. Most men have often read All almost have often heard of a Twofold Resurrection The one from death in sin unto newness of life The other from bodily death unto glory and immortality The second Resurrection is the End of our whole life here on earth the first Resurrection from death in sin to newness of life is the mean most necessary for attaining this joyful and happy End Now as the second Resurrection from bodily death unto glory is the End of the first Resurrection from sin to newness of life So is the first Resurrection the End of the blessed Sacrament or solemn commemoration of Christs death till he come to Judgment And although the Omnipotent Power of God by which all things were created of nothing be the most prime and powerful Cause of the second Resurrection yet of our Resurrection unto that Glory and Immortality whereof Christ is now possest Christ as man is not only the Idaeal or Exemplarie but the immediate Efficient or working Cause also Howbeit the power of his Efficiency or working as man be derived from the Omnipotent Power of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily But unto the real participation of this All-powerful Influence from Christs humanity by which the dead shall be quickned by which these mortal bodies shall be cloathed with glory and immortality the bodily or local presence of Christ is not required by the Romish Church It doth not hold it necessary that all or any body which shall be quickened or raised to Glorie shall first swallow Christs Body or be touched by it Of Angelical ministerie or service for gathering the dispersed reliques of mens bodies which have been dissolved by death some use there shall be in the last day as some Romanists with divers Antients think but no use at all of any Mass-Priest to make Christs Body to be locally present unto all that shall be quickened by it There shall be no need then of Transubstantiating Sacramental bread into Christs Body or wine into his bloud for giving life unto those that have been long dead or for effecting that change which shall be wrought in the living Now if by the meer virtual presence of Christs Body and Blood the men which have been long dead shall be restored to perfect life immortalitie shall not the souls of all which receive him in the Sacrament by Faith and true repentance be raised to Newness of life by the same virtual presence without any local touch of His Body but only by that sweet Influence which daily issueth from this Sun of righteousness now placed at the Right hand of God as in its proper Sphere This manner of Christs presence of his real presence in the Sacrament to wit by powerful Influence from his Humanitie our Church did never deny nor doth God the Father or Christ the Son deny this Real Influence of life unto any that hunger and thirst after it in the Sacrament CHAP. XIV 1 COR. 15. 36 c. But some will say How are the dead raised up and With what body do they come Thou Fool That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die c. That this Argument drawn from Seed sown is a Concludent Proof of the Resurrection of The Bodie THe Questions are Two First How the dead shall be raised The second With what bodies shall they come forth The former imports thus much How is it possible that the Dead shall be raised Or it being admitted that it is possible for the dead in some sort or manner to arise to life the next branch of the same Question is in what particular manner they shall de Facto arise as whether by Gods Creative Power by which he made all things of nothing or by his Conservative Power by which he preserveth all things that are in their proper Being or advanceth them to an higher estate or better Tenure of Being The second Question or Quaerie is With what kind of bodies shall the dead arise Whether with the self same bodies wherein they died Or if not every way the same what alteration or change shall be wrought in them Unto Both these Questions our Apostle vouchsafeth but this one Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Fool that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die But this Answer may seem in the first place to break the Rule of Christian Charity For many of these Corinthians though in this point of the Resurrection erroneous and ignorant were yet Christian though weak brethren and the Law is general he that shall say unto his brother THOU FOOL shall be guilty of Hell fire Matth. 5. 22. The Rule indeed is General if this or the like opprobrious speech be hatched out of malice leavened wrath or invetered hatred But this sentence they do not incur out of whose mouthes these or the like speeches issue by way of just reproof or instruction as from a Master to his Scholers or from a Lord to his Servants in points wherein they err and are to be corrected or instructed by him In these cases or upon these occasions their censure passeth rather upon the folly then upon the persons of them whom they so chastise correct or seek to instruct And it is not altogether impertinent which some have noted upon that place That our Apostles censure doth not aim at any particular or determinate person but it is indefinitely directed to all those which seriously make the former questions either concerning the Possibilitie of mens arising from the dead or the particular Manner how this Resurrection should be wrought or with what bodies they should come forth But many such as will confess his reason or Argument to be free from breach of Christian Charitie or good manners will question the Logical strength or pertinence of it The strength or efficacy of it is questionable upon These points As first How the dayly experiment of seed-corn which first dies and is quickned again can inferr the Fundamental conclusion by our Apostle intended to wit the Resurrection of mens bodies which have been dead and rotten for many hundred years and their Reliques dispersed into so many several Elements or places that if the seed-corn which men sow were but dispersed into half so many places the husband-man should in vain expect an increase or his seed again Secondly admitting this yearly experiment of the seed dying and reviving were of force sufficient to inforce our belief of the former conclusion that the bodies of men dead may be raised to life again yet the
in the first place 3. All of them did solemnly promise and vow to mortifie the deeds of the body as we now do But so may others do which never meant to be baptized It is true and therefore the full and onely Reason why these Romans one and other were reckoned as dead to sin was not because they had promised or vowed to mortifie the deeds of the flesh or to put sin unto a civil death that is to break the Raign or Dominion of it For thus to promise or thus to vow without sufficient means or probable hopes such hopes and means as by nature they could not have to perform what they thus vow were presumption a tempting of God and provocation of Satan to take that opportunitie which they themselves offer to assault them To compell all that come unto the Sacred Laver to undertake that treble vow which is and hath been alwayes solemnly made and undertaken either by the parties themselves which are to be baptized in case they be of years or by their sureties were the part rather of a cruel Stepdame than the office of a loving Mother unlesse the Church our Mother which exacts this vow of all and every one could give full assurance to all and every one of her sons that God in baptisme for his part never failes to give means sufficient for quelling the reign of sin for mortifying the deeds of the body Means I mean sufficient not in themselves only but sufficient to every one of us unlesse we will be defective unto our selves Now adde this Reason unto the former and you have the true and full meaning of our Apostle when he saith that all that are Baptized are dead to sin that is First they are dead unto it by solemn vow or profession Secondly they are said to be dead unto sin or sin to be dead in them in as much as they in Baptism receive an Antidote from God by which the rage and poison of it might easily be asswaged or expelled so they would not either receive that grace or means which God in Baptisme exhibits unto them in vain or use it amisse So we may say that any popular disease is quelled or taken away after a soveraign remedie be found against it which never fails so men will seek for it seasonably apply it and observe that Dyet which the Physitian upon the taking of it prescribes unto them 4. Some in our times there be and more I think than have been in all the former which deny all Baptismal Grace Others there be which grant some Grace to be conferred by Baptisme even unto infants but yet these restrain it onely to infants Elect. And This they take to be the meaning of our Churches Catechisme wherein Children are taught to believe That as Christ the second Person in the Trinitie did Redeem them and all mankind So the Holy Ghost the third Person doth sanctifie them and all the Elect People of God But can any man be perswaded that it was any part of Our Churches meaning to teach Children when they first make profession of their Faith to believe that they are of the number of the Elect that is of such as cannot finally perish This were to teach them their Faith backwards and to seek the Kingdom of Heaven not Ascendendo by ascending but Descendendo by descending from it For higher then thus Saint Paul himself in his greatest perfection could not possibly reach no nor the blessed Angels which have kept their First station almost these 6000 years Yet certain it is that Our Church would have every one at the very first profession of his Faith to believe that he is One of the Elect People of God But those Reverend Fathers which did compose that Catechisme and the Church our Mother which did approve and authorize it did in charity presume that every one which would take upon him to expound this Catechisme or other principles of Faith should first know the Distinction between the Elect that is such persons as cannot perish and the Elect People of God or between Election unto Gods ordinarie Grace or means of salvation and Election unto eternal glory Every People or Nation every company of men when they are first converted from Gentilism to Christianitie become an Elect People a chosen generation or company of men that is they and their seed after them are made capable of Baptism receive an Interest in Gods promises made unto us in Christ which the heathens whilst they continue heathens cannot have And all of Us are in Baptism thus far sanctified that we are made true members of the visible Church qualified for hearing the word for receiving the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood and whatsoever Benefits of Christs Priestly Function are committed to the dispensation of his Ministers And thus far sanctified by Baptisme no man can be but by the Holy Ghost Our Apostle saith 1 Cor. 7. 14. That the unbelieving Husband is sanctified by the believing wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing Husband else were your children unclean but now they are holy So that he attributes an holiness unto the children of believing Parents by which they are more capable of Baptisme then the children of unbelieving Parents are And of this holiness by which they are capable of Baptisme all children are partakers although but one of their Parents whether Father or Mother do believe much more are the children of believing Parents to be reputed holy or sanctified after baptisme by which alwayes some Gift of the Holy Ghost is conferred upon them For even that holiness which was communicated or derived unto them from their Parents before they were baptized or by which they became capable of Baptisme was conferred upon their Parents by Baptisme 5. Whether This gift or Qualification wherewith The Holy Ghost is said to sanctifie all the Elect people of God be or include in it the Grace of Regeneration I will not dispute That infants are by Baptisme regenerated we may not deny unlesse we will take upon us to put another sense upon the Articles of our Church than they will naturally bear But whether such as were baptized when they came to years of discretion as most of these Romanes were did in Baptisme receive the Grace of Regeneration or were forthwith regenerated That I leave unto the Schools It sufficeth us to know the true meaning of our Apostle in this place And this it is All of us in baptisme receive A gift or Talent which by nature we had not we could not have For the use of this talent we shall be called unto a strict accompt And when this accompt shall be taken it shall go harder with those which either have abused it misimployed it or not used it than with the Gentiles Heathens or Infidels which never received the like For to whom more is given of them more shall be required And unlesse their means to vanquish Satan
to be our Redeemer No Act or work of God no not the first work of Creation was of more free Gift or bounty as the Romanists grant or less merited either de Condigno or de Congruo by any work of ours then the work of our Redemption So that the word Merit how often soever it be used by the Antient Latine Fathers carries no weight to sway us to any conceipt of True Worth in our Works for the purchasing of eternal life 3 But what if the Holy Ghost speak thus in Formal or Equivalent Terms as that Eternal life is the wages or stipend of our Works or that our Works are worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven or of the life to come Shall we not subscribe unto him Yes we will if the Romish Church can prove unto us that He thus spake or meant Now that he thus speaks or means they endeavor thus to prove First from all those places of Scripture in which Eternal life is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces that is a reward or stipend Now our Saviour himself thus speaketh Matth. 5. 11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you From this and the like places they labor to infer that the patience of Martyrs is meritorious of Eternal Life To this and the like places the Answer is easie The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the Latin Merces imply no more in the Language of the Holy Ghost then our English word Reward And hence the fruit or issue of our paines so it be grateful to men though no way deserved is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So our Saviour saith that the very Hypocrites which do all their works to be seen of men if they gain applause have their Reward Yet no man will say that a dissembler or hypocrite doth deserve or merit this Reward but rather punishment And Rewards we know are sometimes given freely out of meer bountie and liberalitie as well as by way of desert or merit Yea it is not properly a Reward unlesse it be a Gratuitie or Largesse That which a man works for upon Covenant or that which he receives by way of hire is not a Reward but a just Pay or Stipend and though it be most true that God renders to every one according to all his wayes yet in proprietie of speech he is said to reward none but those whom he remembers in mercie and bountie For so it is said Heb. 11. 5. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him not so of such as seek him not for them he punisheth and no branch of punishment is any branch of Reward This then we learn from our Apostle That the first thing to be believed in all ages is this That there is a God The second That this God is a Rewarder of those that seek him This truly infers That His Reward is worth the seeking after whether it be bestowed upon us in this or in the life to come but it doth not infer that our seeking after it is meritorious or worthy of the least of his Rewards And though Eternal Life be the Best and Last Reward of such as seek God yet it is not the Only Reward that he bestowes on them that seek him yea he bestowes Eternal Life or the Life of Glorie upon none upon whom he doth not first bestow the Reward of Grace The Kingdom of Grace is but the Entrance into the Kingdom of Glorie And when we teach new Converts to pray in the first Place for The Kingdom of Grace and to pray for it as the Reward or Gift of God Yea and the Romanists themselves do grant that no man can merit the Kingdom of Grace which is properly the Reward of such as seek God so that all their Arguments which they draw from this Topick that Eternal Life is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Merces and may therefore be merited by us are altogether groundless All of them conclude Aut nihil aut nimium either nothing at all or a great deal too much As That the First Grace may be merited which they themselves deny 4. Their next chief Topick is that Our works or endeavors are said to be worthy of Eternal Life and that in Canonical Scriptures To this purpose Cardinal Bellarmine citeth that of our Saviour Luke 10. 7. Dignus est operarius mercede sua The Laborer is worthy of his hire But I am perswaded that he took this upon trust from some idle or ignorant Scholler whom he had imployed to rake testimonies for his present purpose If his leisure had served him to look upon the Circumstances of the Text with his own eyes he might clearly have seen that our Saviour there speaks not of Eternal Life or of the Reward or Gift of God but of that Hire which is due unto the Preachers of the Gospel from such as are instructed in the Gospel The other Testimonies alledged by him are more Pertinent though not Concludent And they are in number Three The First is Luke 20. 35. But they that shall be accounted Worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage The second is 2 Thess 1. 4. We our selves saith he glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure which is a manifest token of the righteous Judgment of God that ye may be counted Worthy of the Kingdom of God For which ye also suffer The third is Revel 3 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are Worthy This last Testimony affords them A new Topick or Frame of Arguments which they draw from this and the like places wherein The works or righteousness of the Saints are assigned as True Causes Why they enter into the Kingdom of heaven So our Saviour saith in the Final Sentence Math. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world FOR I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye cloathed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came unto me This is as much saith Bellarmine as if he had said Ye are Therefore blessed of my Father ye shall Therefore enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Because ye have done these and the like good Works out of your Love and Charitie towards me Now if these works be The Cause Why they enter into the Kingdom of
were much better then their present in mercie favour and loving kindnesse 5. But whilst they thus contend for the merit of works done by Grace do they not derogate from the merits of Christ who is the only fountain of all Grace We say They do But They Reply They do not but rather magnifie the merits of Christ more then we do who deny the merits of Saints For Christ as they alledge did not only merit Grace for us but this also that we by Grace might truly Merit Now grace itself and the merit of grace is a more Magnificent Effect of Christs Merits then grace alone Here is a Double Effect of Christs Merits by their Doctrine whereas we admit but a single One. Thus they reply But if the One of those two effects which they imagine or conceive doth derogate more in true construction from the merits of Christ then the supposal or admission of it can add unto them We attribute more unto his merits by the admission of One single Effect only to wit meer grace then they do by acknowledgment of Two to wit grace it self and the merit of grace in us But the more we are to merit by grace for our selves the less measure of merit we leave unto Christ For as that which he merited for us is not ours but his so that which we merit for ourselves is not His but Ours The merit of grace supposeth a Fulnesse or Fountain of grace and Fountain of grace there is no other but Christ himself nor is there any Fulness of grace but in him only For of his fulnesse as the Evangelist saith Iohn 1. 16. we all have received grace for grace that is grace upon Grace Every degree or greater measure of Grace which we receive doth flow alike immediatly from the fulness of this inexhaustible Fountain of Grace without any secondary Fountain or Feeders Grace doth not grow in us as Rivers do which although they have one main spring or fountain yet they grow not to any greatness without the help of secondary Fountains or concurrence of many springs or feeders Grace doth so immediatly come from Christ as the Rivers do from the sea Increase of Grace doth come as immediatly from Christ as the increase of Rivers from rain or as the increase of light in the waxing Moon comes from the Sun 6. The state of this Question concerning The merits of works comes to the same issue with that other Great question concering Justification As whether it be by faith alone or by faith and works The Romish Church grants that we are justified by faith in Christs blood or merits Tanquam per Causam efficientem as by a true efficient Cause seeing all the Grace which we first receive is bestowed upon us for Christs sake But they hold withall that it is the Grace which for Christs sake is bestowed upon us by which we are formally justified that is As water poured into a vessel doth immediatly expell the air which was in it before so the infusion of Grace for the merits of Christ doth expell sin whether Original or actuall out of our souls And this in their Language is The remission of sins for the attaining whereof There needs no imputation of Christs righteousness after Grace be once infused The formall Cause of every thing requires some efficient or Agent for the production or resultance of it but being once produced or existent it excludes the interposition or intervention of any other Cause whatsoever for the production or existence of its formall Effect To produce heat in the water it is impossible without the Agency or Efficiency of fire but the water being made scalding hot by the heat of fire will heat or scald the flesh of of man or other living creature although it be removed from the fire although it work only in its own strength or of the heat inherent in it Thus say the Romanists that grace cannot be produced in us but by the vertue and efficiency of Christs merits but being by them once produced it doth justifie us immediatly by the strength and vertue of it inherent in us and by the same strength and vertue working in us it doth produce its formall effect to wit the increase of grace and lastly eternal life But if this Doctrine of theirs so far as it concerns Justification or the Remission of sins were true then this inconvenience as I have elsewhere shewed would necessarily follow That no man already after this manner justified could say or repeat that Petition in our Lords Prayer Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us without a mockerie of God or Christ For if our sins be formally remitted by the infusion of grace and if by the infusion of the same grace we be formally justified the only true meaning of this Petition is in true Resolution This Lord makes us such or remit our sins after such a manner that we shall not stand in need of thy remission or forgivenss of them or that we shall not stand in need of the mediation of thine only Son For if they be remitted immediatly by grace so long as this grace endures all mediation is superfluous is impossible This Inconvenience is farther improved by the same Doctrine so far as it concerns the merits of works done in charitie And prophanes those Two other Petitions in the same our Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven no lesse then their Doctrine of Justification doth that Petition Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us For if works done by grace or charitie could truly merit eternal life the effect of all the three Petitions should be but this Lord let thy Kingdom of Grace so come unto us Lord let thy will be so done by us here on earth that as we have been long debters unto thee for giving thine only Son to die for our sins and for the purchasing of the First Grace unto us so let us by this grace be inabled to make both Thee and Him debters to us by the merit of this grace and debters in no meaner a sum then the retribution or payment of Eternal Life For if that life can be merited by our works then God doth owe it unto us for our works And if it be due unto us by merit or by debt then it is not as our Apostle hath it in this 23. verse the gift of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Original hath it the Grace of God The Apostle might as well have said that Eternal Life was as truly the wages of our righteousness as death is the wages of our sin And so the best Scholars in the Romish Church do grant he might have said What then is the Reason why he did not say so Of this they give us This Reason Inasmuch say they as the First grace by which we merit the Kingdom of heaven is
2. About this Position Controversie between us and the Romish Church there needed to have been none unless some in that Church had been more desirous to open a gap to new contentions then ready to bring the controversies already set on foot to a Tryable Issue by reducing them to some Point of Contradiction But some of good Note in that Church for learning and moderation have left this Animadversion upon These words of Saint Matthew That this place alone doth sufficiently evince that the Final Award or retribution shall be made Secundum Opera non Secundum Fidem according to works not according to Faith That God should render to every man either in this life or at the last day according unto his works yea according to all his works we never denied For Solomon had long since said as much in his prayer to God 2 Chron. 6. 30. Yea all works even the most secret works those of the heart not excepted shall have their Proper Award and every man shall reap according to that he hath sowen Whether he hath sowen unto the flesh or unto the spirit But that this Final Retribution should be made Secundum Opera non Secundum Fidem according to works only not according to Faith we cannot grant without contradiction to the truth delivered by our Saviour and Saint Paul For Faith and Works by both their Doctrines are so strictly linkt together that if the Final Retribution be made according to mens works it must likewise be awarded according to mens Faith And unlesse the Advocates of the modern Romish Church had been diposed to follow those Hypocrites against whom Saint James disputes in his second Chapter in their notions or apprehensions of Faith more then Saint James yea more then Saint Paul Nay more then our Saviour himself they could not be ignorant of that contradiction which is implied in their Assertion That the Final Retribution is made according to Works not according to Faith Know ye saith our Apostle Gal. 3. 7. that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham so Abraham is called The father of the faithful And none can be his sons or children but by propagation or participation of his faith Our Saviour saith unto the Jewes John 8. 39. If ye were Abrahams children ye would do the works of Abraham And if they had done the works they should have had the Reward of Abraham Yet as the Apostle saith They that be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham So then it is true that God rewarded Abraham according to his Works and yet withall according to his Faith yea he was therefore rewarded with blessing according to his works because his works were done in Faith or because he was faithful in his works But do these Romanists which say that we shall be rewarded according to Works not according to Faith as evidently contradict their pretended Patron Saint Iames as they do Saint Paul They do without Question if we look into his intent and scope in that very place from which they seek to magnifie Works above Faith as well in point of Justification as in respect of salvation or Final Retribution 3. Was not Abraham our Father saith Saint James Chap. 2. 21. justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the Altar Yet the same Apostle doth not deny but rather suppose that Abraham offered up Isaac by Faith for so he addes ver 23. that by this work that Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness If this Scripture were fulfilled by this work then Abrahams Faith did work in this work or rather did work this work it was his working Faith or belief which was imputed unto him for righteousness and it was impossible that Abraham should be rewarded according to this work and not be rewarded as well according to his Faith as according to his Work Indeed if Abraham had profest only in General That he did believe God and his word but had started back from this or the like Service which God had enjoyned him he had not been justified But why not justified only because he had no works nay rather because not having such works as God required at his hands his Faith had not been sound and perfect and his Faith being not sound and perfect had not been imputed unto him for righteousness Now the Scripture plainly affirms and St. James takes it as granted that Abraham's belief not his works was imputed to him for righteousness Albeit Saint James doth say that the Belief was perfected by the work yet all the perfection was the perfection of his Faith the use and End of his work or of his Tryal was to perfect or strengthen his Faith as we say exercise of body doth perfect or confirm health but it will not therefore follow that Exercise of body is better then health seeing all the perfection that it hath is at the service of health So far was this work of Abraham by which Saint James saith his faith was perfected from being a distinct perfection from the perfection of his faith that Saint Paul includes the very Work in his Faith Heb. 11. 17. By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac The reason why he ascribes this work unto his faith is given ver 19. He accounted that God was able to raise him up from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure It was a Great and difficult matter for Abraham to believe that he should become the Father of many nations Rom. 4. 18. Not to consider his own being now about an 100. years old neither yet the deadnes of Sarahs womb But it was a greater work after he had received Isaac upon the threed of whose life the blessing promised Gen. 15. 5. of being the Father of many nations did wholly depend to offer him up in sacrifice this was more then to believe in hope against hope The ready way for ought that humane wisdom or any experience till that time manifested unto the world could inform him to cut the very throat of all his hopes or future blessings But how great soever this work were the strength by which it was wrought was meerly the strength of his Faith so the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 20. 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 God had promised he was also able to perform and therefore was it imputed to him for righteousness So that if any man do not the works of Abraham it is because he hath not the faith of Abraham Impossible it were for any man that hath the same measure of Faith which Abraham had not to do the like works which Abraham did What measure of works truly good any man doth so much or so great a measure he hath of true Faith And so far as any man is Rewarded according to his works
he is likewise rewarded according to his Faith We may extend that Saying of our Saviour though spoken then but to one man unto all and every man According to their faith so shall it be done unto them And our Saviour in the Parable next before This Sentence expresly avoucheth that the Final Award or retribution shall be according to Faith Matth. 25. 23. Well done thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. No man shall be rewarded for any Works unless they were the Works of Faith or done in Faith To speak properly it is the Fidelity of our Works or our Fidelity in Working which shall be rewarded As for those Hypocrites against whom St James disputes and from whose Notion or Conceit of Faith the Romish School-men for the most part take their Description of Faith they had altogether as little of Abrahams Faith as they had of Abrahams Works For if they had been partakers of Abrahams faith then as our Apostle infers Gal. 3. 7 They had been the sons of Abraham and if they had been the sons of Abraham they would by our Saviours Inference have done the works of Abraham Such faith as they made brags of could not justifie them because it was a dead and fruitlesse faith devoid of works Such works as the Romish Church doth magnifie in opposition to faith can neither justifie nor receive any Reward because they are no faithful Works but rather like seeming fruits without any Root They put their works upon their faith as we do sweet flowers upon dead Corpses Neither can give life or perfection to others The best Censure that Christian Faith or Charity will permit us to give of their doctrine Concerning the nature of faith and works is This That albeit they all profess to believe that which their Church believes yet the most of them do neither believe nor practise as the Church in these points teacheth Their ignorance in this particular is much better then their knowledge of most of the rest But to conclude the first Position Because some of our Writers exclude all works from the work of Justification some Roman Writers I dare not say all sought to be even with them by excluding faith from sharing with works in the Final Award or retribution For besides this Eagerness of extream Opposition or desire to be contrary unto us it is not imaginable what could move any learned Writer amongst them to Affirm that this final Retribution shall be according to VVorks and Deny it According to Faith 4. About the Second Position there is no Controversie betwixt us and the Romish Church we hold Good works to be as necessary to salvation as they do As necessary according to both Branches of Necessity Necessarie they are Necessitate praecepti and necessarie likewise Necessitate medii necessarie by Precept or duty for God hath commanded us to do them he hath redeemed us to the end that we should serve him in righteousness and holiness But many things which are in this sense necessary in that their Omission doth necessarily include a breach of Gods Commandement and by consequent a sin do not alwayes induce or argue a Forfeiture of our Estate in Grace or utter exclusion from the' Kingdom of heaven For this Reason we say That Good works are necessary not only Necessitate praecepti by way of Command but Necessitate medii as the way and means so necessary to salvation that without the practise of them no man can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven Through the Omission of Good works many do forfeit that Interest which they truly had in the promises of everlasting Life In the promise it self all that are partakers of the Word and Sacrament all that acknowledge the Word revealed to be the way unto everlasting life have A true Interest Of the pledge or earnest of the blessing promised that is of justifying or sanctifying Grace none are partakers but such as are fruitful in Good works according to the means or abilities which God hath bestowed upon them Whether it be possible for such as are once estated in Grace to give over the Practise of Good works that here we leave to such as desire to exercise their wits in the controversies about Falling from Grace and the rather because we have spoke a word of that Point in the 26. Chapter of this Book Let them determine of the Categorical Affirmative or Negative as they please This Conditional is most certain If it be possible for him that hath Grace or Faith in what measure soever inherent to give over the practise of Good Works he shall thereby forfeit his present estate in Gods promises and defeat his hopes of inheriting the Kingdom of God Whosoever saith our Saviour shall break one of these Commandements and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven For I say unto you that except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. Yet did these Scribes and Pharisees many Good Works and made conscience of many Duties which many Precise Ones in our dayes do not trouble their Consciences withal This notwithstanding These Scribes and Pharisees did exclude themselves from the Kingdom of Heaven as here established on earth by leaving other Good Works altogether or for the most part undone which the Law of God did no lesse require at their hands Even the Good Works which they did were not well done by them because they were not done in Faith they never came so near unto the Kingdom of Heaven as to acknowledge Christ for their Lord much lesse to be partakers of those Gifts and Graces of the Spirit which after his Ascension were bestowed on men Nor shall all they which were partakers of those Gifts and which did still acknowledge him for their Lord enter into the Kingdom which is here prepared for such as continue in well doing So saith our Saviour Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth c. Many will then say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out divels and in thy name done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquitie Matth. 7. 21 22. 5. But in this place We see the Sentence is not awarded for Positive Works of iniquitie but for Omission of the duties of charitie He saith not Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Because ye have oppressed the poor and stranger or for that ye have robbed the Fatherless and made a prey of
deep touch of Pity or Compassion would raise our spirits to an higher point of service unto Christ then any relief or supply of their bodily wants can amount unto You may if you will for Christs sake be pleased to do it distribute so unto their bodily necessities as you may lay a necessity upon their souls of coming to the ordinary knowledge of Christ and of Gods mercies in him towards man You may by authority put the Precept of our Apostle in execution Such as will not work let them not eat or such as will not work the ordinary works of God that will not labor to be instructed in his fear and in his Laws let them not be partakers of your Bounty and Pity To constrain the poor the halt and lame to enter into the Lords house were a matter easie if as the Law of God and man requires none were permitted to remain amongst us but such as were confined to some certain dwelling or abode where they might live under the inspection or cure as well of Civil as of Ecclesiastick Discipline And consider with your selves I beseech you how either the Civil or Ecclesiastick Magistrate will be able to answer the great King at the last day through whose default whether joyntly or severally many children have been by Baptism received into Christs Church and yet permitted after to live such a roving and wandring life that no Tie can be laid upon them to give an account of their Faith or Christian conversation to any Church or Embassador of Christ But as Bodies while they are in motion are in no place though they pass through many so these wandering Meteors are of no Church though they be in every Church If I should in private perswade You Magistrates to seek some Redress of this Enormitie and blemish to the Government of this place I doubt I should be put off with the Exception to which I could not easily replie That you have better experience then I or others of my opinion or profession have And out of that experience see greater difficulties then we can discern But now having express warrant from our Saviour's words and this Fair opportunitie of Time and Place You must give me leave to reply unto you as an ingenuous and learned Scholar once did to a Christian Emperour which pretended greater difficulties in a good work which he commended to his Princely care then you can do in this Yet a work not all together so necessary nor so acceptable unto God as this work would be In rebus pijs aggrediendis nefas est considerare quantum tu potes sed quantum Deo fidis qui omnia potest Think not when you are about works of Pietie so much of your own Abilitie or weakness but examine how much you relie and trust in Almightie God who is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we conceive or think CHAP. XXXI MATTH 25. 34. 41. Come ye Blessed of my Father FOR I was hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirstie Go ye Cursed FOR I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirstie Jansenius his observation and disputation About merit examined and convinced of contradiction to it self and to the Truth The definition of Merit The State of the Question concerning Merit Increase of Grace no more Meritable then the First Grace A Promise made Ex mero motu sine Ratione dati et accepti cannot found a Title to Merits Such are All Gods promises Issues of Meer Grace Mercy and Bountie The Romanists of kin to the Pharisee yet indeed more to be blamed then He. The objection from the Causal Particle FOR made and answered 1. AGainst such as denie the merit of humane works Thus much saith Jansenius an ingenuous and learned Bishop though a Papist is diligently to be observed That Christ in this place deputes this Kingdom to the righteous FOR their works sake hereby giving us to understand that Life Eternal is bestowed upon them FOR their works by which the righteous Merit Life Eternal even as the wicked by their evil works Merit everlasting punishment The only ground or reason of this Assertion is For that our Saviours Form of speech in both Sentences is the same and Causal in both As he saith unto the wicked Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire FOR I was an hungred and you gave me no meat c. ver 41 42. So he saith unto the righteous or them on his Right-hand v. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you FOR I was an hungred and you gave me meat c. Yet least any man should except against him as dissenting from the Doctrine of Christ elsewhere delivered and from the Apostolick and Catholick Church By which Our salvation is ascribed to Gods Grace and mercy he adds this salve to the wound which he had made Non tamen Sic merit is nostris putetur dari vita aeterna c. Let no man think that life eternal is So bestowed upon our merits as All may not be given to the mercie of God from which we have our good works or merits He grants withal That the salvation of the Righteous depends upon Gods Blessing and Predestination upon which likewise their Good works depend Lest any should glory in himself A sin forbidden by Gods Prophet Jer. 9. ver 23. That All then is to be attributed to Gods mercie that no man may glorie in himself or in his works is true Our enemies in this Point being Judges is confessed by our Adversaries even in this place from which they seek to establish Merits And This we may conclude is A Point of Catholick Doctrine taught by Christ Prophets and Apostles stedfastly imbraced by all Reformed Churches and expresly in words acknowledged by the Romish Church With this Point of Catholick Faith we mingle no Doctrine no Opinion which may but questionably pollute or defile it We avoid all occasions of incurring the least suspition of contradicting it and for this cause We abandon the very name of Merit as now it is used or rather abused by the Romish Church Although in some Ages of the Church it were an indifferent and harmlesse Term Mereri importing no more as was shewed Chapter 27. then to Get or Obtain But Merit in the language of the modern Romish Church Est actio cuijustum est ut aliquid detur is An action or work to which something or any thing is due by Rule of Justice Yet doth the Romish Church not only Enjoyn the Use or Familiarity of this Name in this Sense or signification but Require the Assent of Faith unto the Reality Expressed by it 2. The Points then which lie upon that Church to prove if she will acquit her self from polluting the holy Catholick Faith are Two The One That this Doctrine of meriting heaven by works doth not contradict the former part of Catholick doctrine acknowledged by her to wit that
further then we see good probabilitie for whereas the Honour and Glory we owe unto Him as our Father and our King as the Lord our God is to hope above hope to rely upon his providence that prospereth beyond all possibilitie of good speed that we know can foresee or imagine He that will save his life as our Saviour saith must resolve to lose it That is according to the equitie of this Rule whosoever desires God to bestow upon him that immortal and farre better Life must be in heart and mind resolved to resign this mortal life into his hand whensoever he shall demand it Oft-times we come to lose this mortal life it self by too much chariness or intemperate desires to keep it Such as fear death more then Gods displeasure oft-times incurre both when as he that neglects all care of life by Gods extraordinary mercie and care hath his life given him for a prey As it is said to Baruch Jer. 45. 5. Or as it is promised by God in the fore-cited third of Malachi ver 16. Then spake they that feared the Lord every one to his neighbor to wit to honour the Lord as he required and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of Remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name And they shall be to me saith the Lord of Hosts in that day that I shall do this for a Flock and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall you return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not 13. By the equitie of the same Rule we gather that he which desires God should bless him with extraordinary riches that is send him such riches as shall be a Blessing unto him for to many they are a curse must resolve as Solomon speaks to cast his bread upon the waters to be open so more open-handed to the poor then he can see any probability in humane reason how it should hold out referring the issue to God who will blesse us over and above that we can desire or can procure by ordinary care so we in sinceritie of heart not out of vain ostentation be liberal and bountiful over and above the Rate of our ordinary means If we desire God should send down a secret blessing upon our store we should do alms so secret that the left hand should not know what the right hand gave He that will honour the Lord with his substance shall have his Barns filled with abundance Prov. 3. 9. And the reason why many a poor mans store is not extraordinarily increased as the Sareptan Widdows was is because out of their penurie they do not minister to others that are in greater necessity then themselves especially to such as are dear in Gods sight as his Prophets or Messengers We may not perhaps desire that God should work such a miracle in our dayes For the manner but he can and will give as extraordinary increase by meanes ordinarie though not usual For his promise is still the same First seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all those things which the world cares for shall be added unto you God blesseth not us Ministers with such store of temporal things as we desire because we minister not spiritual things to you in such measure as he commands And God blesseth not you with such store of spiritual instruction as you do or should desire because you are backward in ministring temporal things to Gods Honour To conclude as we must be perfect as God is perfect though not so perfect as he is perfect so must we do to him as we desire he should do to us though not in the same measure If we desire Glorie Immortalitie of him which is the participation of his Divine Nature we must first be holy as He is holy If we seek for bodily health we must use temperance and abstinence in our Diet. You need not fear as if this Doctrine came near Poperie That we must do that which is Good ere we obtain that which we desire of God is the Doctrine of Our Church in the Collect appointed for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinitie ALmighty and everlasting God Give unto us the increase of Faith Hope and Charity And that we may obtain that which thou dost promise make us to love that which thou dost command especially make us to love the Great Commandments of loving Thee O Lord above all with all our hearts with all our souls with all our strength and our neighbours as our selves Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Third Sermon upon this Text. CHAP. XXXIV MATTH 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them c. The Impediments that obstruct the Practise of this Dutie of Doing to others as we would have done to our selves are chiefly Two 1. Hopes and desires of attaining better estates then we at present have 2. Fears of falling into worse Two readie Wayes to the Dutie 1. To wean our soules into an Indifferencie or vindicate them into a Libertie in respect of all Objects 2. To keep in mind alwayes a perfect Character of our own Afflictions and Releases or Comforts Two Inconveniences arising from accersite greatness or prosperity 1. It makes men defective in performing the Affirmative part of this Dutie 2. It makes them perform some part of the Affirmative with the violation of the Negative part thereof A Fallacie discovered An useful general Rule 1. THe Third Point proposed Chapter 32. § 5. was concerning the best means and method of putting this Rule in Practise And we shall the sooner find out These if we can discover those Impediments which usually either disable or detain men from doing to others as they would be done unto themselves The Original and principal Impediment of this practise is because we cannot or will not or do not sufficiently and impartially propose others mens Cases as our own And this fals out oft-times because we are ignorant what our own desires would be in many Cases and therefore having no Rule within our selves we cannot practise This to the behoof of others It is seen by experience that such as have the fresh prints or bleeding scarres of any calamitie upon themselves will be most compassionate to others suffering the like The Reason is These men cannot but propose other mens afflictions as their own They know well what they themselves have desired to be done unto them in like calamitie and according to the full measure of their own desires ariseth an Alacritie and readiness to relieve others The sight or notification of others mens miseries casts them as it were by a Relapse into a Fit of their Own so as they are afflicted whilst others are tormented and for this Reason are drawn by Sympathie to do to others as
pamphlets Schismatical and Seditious books find no where better welcome or entertainment then in this Town And wise men I hope will account it a work of charitie rather then of crueltie to take Rats-bane from children albeit they should long after it more greedily then after any wholsom meat Or if any be so stubborn as not to part with this poison by gentle perswasions the only Remedie must be to exclude them from communicating with others in the food of life For us Dearly beloved let us in the bowels of Christ Jesus I beseech you content our selves with the Reformation already established by Authority It is no time to sally out against the Adversary in single bands or scattered companies but rather with the joynt forces of our united affections of prayers and endeavours either to batter the Foundation of their Churches wals or manfully to defend our own keeping our selves within the bounds whereunto authoritie hath confined us The common Adversaries of the Truth which we professe want no strength of wit or weapons of Art to work upon all advantages which our ignorance negligence indiscretion or dissension may present unto them And this one great advantage they have of us that we for the most part fight as it were every man upon his own head without the advice or appointment of our chief Leaders and Commanders So do not our Adversaries they have the perfect Discipline of War And I cannot but approve his wish That either they had our vine or we their fence And it is a Rule to be observed aswell in spiritual warfare as in any others yea most especially in it Arma tenenti Omnia dat qui justa negat By denying that to our Adversaries whereto they have fair Title out of Gods Word or out of Venerable Orthodoxal Antiquitie we shall but betray the true Cause which we maintain against them in main and Fundamental Points which if we would wisely maintein them are most defensible Observe I beseech you what hath been said unto you and the God of wisdom and of peace give you understanding in all things profitable to your Salvation CHAP. XXXIX The Third Sermon upon this Text. ROMANS 2. 1. Therefore Thou art inexcusable O man c. A Romish Error breeding Doubt of Salvation charged upon its proper evident Ground viz Their making The Intention of A Bishop Essentially necessarie to the Consecration of A priest And the Intention of a Priest so necessary that no Sacrament can be without it The Error of The Contrarij Teaching a Preposterous immature Certaintie of Salvation The Right Mean betwixt or cure of these extremities prescribed unto us by our Reformers of Blessed memorie contained in the Publick Acts of The Church 1. ANother Doctrinal Point there was mainteined by the Romish Church when our Fathers departed from it which required Reformation And this Point contains all the several Tenets of that Church which did occasion or nurse Doubt of Salvation or Perplexity of Conscience in every private man so often as he should examine his Estate in Grace his hopes or Interest in Gods mercy or promises to all First then by Gods assistance Of the General Error or that branch of it which especially required Reformation Secondly Of the Contrary Error or Inconveniencies into which many by Curiositie of Reformation have run Thirdly Of the True Mean or Orthod oxal Doctrine which the Reformers of our Church did hold and maintain and have delivered unto us in the Publick Acts of the Church approved and ratified by the General Consent of this Kingdom The Error of the Romish Church was Doubt of Salvation with This Error that Church hath been often charged by all the best writers of Reformed Churches But sometimes or by some men in those Churches not upon so Evident Ground as it might be charged For some there be which charge this Error directly upon their Tenet concerning The Nature of Faith or Hope But for their Defence if we joyn issue with them upon those Terms they have more to say then they can have if we charge this Error upon their Doctrine concerning The Intention of the Priest in the Administration of the Sacraments By whose hidden vertue Faith and Hope are begotten and increased For how much soever they may seem to magnifie The Sacraments of the New Testament in respect of the Sacraments of the Law as that they conferre Grace upon the receivers of them Ex Opere operato by the very Sacramental action which the Sacraments of the Law did not Yet all this being granted no man can be more certain of his Estate in Grace then he is of the good Intention of the Priest which administred the Sacraments Now this Assurance or perswasion of the Priests Intention can be no sure Ground of Faith truly Christian 2. The Sacrament of Baptism they hold to be absolutely necessary unto Salvation and that All such infants as die without Baptisme are excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven And yet they hold withall that Unlesse the Priest when he comes to Baptize any Infant do intend to do what the Church appoints him to do the Baptisme is invalid or of none effect albeit he use the Formal Words of Baptisme and apply the Sacramental element to the body of the Infant presented by the solemn prayers of the Church or Congregation present Besides the solemn Pronunciation of the Words I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and the washing of the body in water there must be Interior mentis intentio the internal Intention of the Priests minde must joyntly concur with the Word and Sacrament or rather with the Holy Ghost for producing the Invisible Grace or Gift of the Spirit which is the proper Effect of the Sacrament So that how well soever the Parents the Friends and neighbours assembled demean themselves at or before the performance of this Sacred Act yet every Infant brought to the Sacred Laver may be Two Wayes remedilesly prejudiced by the Priest to the ruine of its soul or losse of salvation First It may be deprived of the fruit or benefit of this Sacrament which is by their Doctrine absolutely necessary to salvation by the meer negligence or carelesnesse of the Priest as in Case he forget in heart or mind to intend his dutie of doing that which the Church in like Case usually doth or appoints to be done whatsoever else he do or say all is nothing it is no Baptisme Secondly The Infant may be so far prejudiced as is said by the malice or impietie of the Priest As in Case he be so wickedly disposed as secretly to subtract or withdraw his Intention by any interposed condition or Limitation though not expressed the Baptisme is invalid or of no effect To give you One of their own Instances or Ruled Cases If one should come to one of their Priests and request him to baptize such a mans child naming his Parents and
greater part of men we do necessarily breed a greater scruple or nurse a more dangerous Doubt of salvation in all men as yet not effectually called then the Romish Church doth For Gods Intention or purpose to save men is without all question more Essential to the Efficacie of the Word preached or of the Sacraments administred then the Romish Church can conceive the Intention of her Priests to be Besides all this If their Doctrine were true who teach That all such men as in the issue prove Goats or Reprobates were such from their birth or irreversibly destinated to death before they were born God should with-hold or withdraw his Purpose or Intention of Salvation from farre more hearers of the Word and partakers of the Sacraments then the Romish Priests usually do 8. But many you will say which hear the Word are already assured of their Estate in Grace or of their salvation And this Doctrine cannot occasion any doubt or distrust in them It cannot indeed whilst they are thus perswaded But even this Perswasion it self if it be immature or conceived before its time doth secretly nurse A Presumption which is far worse then Doubt or distrust of salvation And sometimes occasions a worse kinde of distrust or Doubt then the former doctrine of the Romish Church doth For suppose A man which is to day strongly perswaded of his present Estate in saving Grace and certain of his salvation should to morrow or the next day fall into some grosse or grievous sin and continue in it or the like for many dayes together If his former assurance remain the same it was it is No Assurance of Faith No true Confidence but Presumption Or if his former Confidence or Assurance upon consciousness of new sins fail or abate The Former Division of All Mankinde into Goates and sheep into Elect and Reprobates will thrust him into Despere For the Consciousnesse of freedom from grosser sins or of practise of good works cannot be a surer token of his Estate in Grace or salvation then the consciousness of foul and grievous sins is of Rejection or Reprobation if it were true that every man is at all times either in the state or condition of an Elect person or a Reprobate For The Rule of life and Faith is as plain and peremptory that no Adulterer no murtherer no foul or grievous offender shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as it is That all such as live a godly and a sober life shall enter into it And yet our own consciences can give a surer Testimony that we have committed grosse and greivous sins then that they are cleansed from the guilt of former sins Seeing the heart of man is more deceitful or more deceivable in its perswasions or Judgement of its good deeds or resolutions then in its apprehension of grosser facts committed by us And for this Reason I cannot perswade my self That any man which hath any sense or feeling of True Religion or rightly understands himself in these or the like Points can in the consciousness of grosse and fouler sins rest perswaded that he is in the same Estate of Grace wherein he was or in the same way to life Howbeit even in the consciousness of foulest sins he may and ought to have hope that he may be renewed by repentance And yet to have such an hope were impossible unlesse he were perswaded that there is a Mean or middle Estate or condition between the estate and condition of the Elect and the Reprobates 9. But let us take a man that hath been long perswaded that he is and hath been in the irreversible state of salvation and is not conscious to himself of any grosse or palpable sin or at least of continuance in any such sins since this perswasion did possesse him Yet if he have embraced this opinion or perswasion before his soul were adorned with that golden chain of spiritual vertues which St. Peter requires 2 Pet. 1. whether for making our election sure in it self or for assuring it unto us This immature or misplaced perswasion may fill his soul with the self same presumption which the absolute infallibilitie of the present Romish Church doth breed or occasion in all such as beleeve it And that is A presumption worse then heathenish For though an Heathen or Infidel kill men uncondemned by law live in incest and fall down before stocks and stones or other dumb creatures Yet such a man being called in question for killing men uncondemned by Law will not justifie his Action If his incest be detected he will be ashamed of it or being challenged for worshipping stocks and stones he will not allege any sacred Authoritie for his warrant But if you challenge a Romanist with some like practises and tell him that he transgresseth the Law of God in those particulars as grossly as the Heathens do his Reply will be Though our facts be outwardly the same yet our practises are most dislike Our practises cannot be against the Law of God seeing they are warranted by the authoritie of the Church and Pope who is the faithful Interpreter of Gods Laws and cannot erre in matters of faith or practice authorized by him In the like case if you shall oppose a man that makes himself thus certain of his salvation before his time in this or the like manner Sir you are as covetous as great an oppressor of the poor as uncharitable as malitious as proud and envious as are the Heathen or others whom you condemn for Infidels and no good Christians And press him with such evident particulars in every kind as would amate or appall an ingenuous Heathen or other meer moral man that were conscious of the like yet you shall find him as surely locked up in his sins by this his immature perswasion of his own infallible estate in Grace as the Romanist is by his Implicit Belief or the Churches absolute Infallibilitie So long as this Perswasion lasts that he shall certainly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven no Messenger of God shall ever perswade him that he hath done or continues to do those things which whosoever continues to do shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Grosse and palpable or open sins might happily shake or break this perswasion how stiffe soever it had been before but so will not secret or lurking sins It rather animates or quickens those secret sins of envy ambition pride or malice And of all other fruits of this preposterous perswasion or misplaced Truth this is the worst that it makes men mistake their malice towards men whose good parts or fame they envy to be zeal towards God or to his Truth 10. Unless Sathan had put this Fallacie upon some men in our times it were impossible that they could sleep upon the consciousness of such uncivil behaviour as they use or such unjust aspersions as they cast upon all others without respect of persons which dissent from them in Opinions often disputed between
members of the same Church without dissension And of all the Points in Divinity this day controverted in any Church or betwixt the members of any Church there is no one that doth naturally better brook diversitie of Opinions or acurate sifting without hazard of breaking the bond of Christian peace and charitie then the Controversie about the Certaintie of Salvation or of Perseverance in the state of Grace For Christian charity would presume that every man which hath his senses exercised in these or the like Points is desirous to be as certain of his own Salvation or estate in Grace as with safety of conscience his own understanding or rule of reason will permit him or can make him Such as know their own Estate in Grace by experience or otherwise stand bound in equity in Christian charity and in humanity rather to pity then to exasperate their brethrens weakness which have not the skill or like Experience to conclude for themselves so well as they do or which doubt whether the doctrine in Thesi in the General be true or false And yet we see by woful experience that the Contentions about these Points have been so bitter and so uncivil that no Papist or other Adversary shall ever be able to say more against the Certaintie of Salvation or mens Irreversible Estate in Grace then many such as have written for it have said against themselves For if by the Grace which they hold impossible for men to fall from they mean the Spirit of wisdom or understanding in matters spiritual or the Spirit of meekness of sobrietie and Christian charitie every man that hath any branch of the Spirit of Grace implanted in him may conclude without sin that many which contend most earnestly for Absolute perseverance in it either never had this Grace or else are totally fallen from it 11. The Third Point proposed was the Golden Mean which the Church of England mainteins as opposite to these Contrary Extremes but most consonant to the Evangelical Truth First Our Church doth acknowledge That Fides is Fiducia That the very nature of that Faith which differenceth a Believer from an Infidel or a Christian from a meer natural man doth necessarily include a Certaintie or full Assurance in it It must be without wavering without distrust or Doubt The only Question is About the right or orderly placing of this Certaintie of Faith or full Assurance Or What be the Points whereon it first must be pitched These questionless must be Points Fundamental and such is that That the Son of God did die for us that he did fully pay the price of our Redemption This every man is firmly to beleive otherwise he builds without a Foundation This Certainty of Faith or full assurance you shall find continually prest upon all hearers in the Book of Homilies and other Acts of the Church But how shall every private man be fully assured that Christ did die for him and that he fully paid the price of his redemption Sure no man can have a right or full assurance of this Particular unless he first assuredly believe that the Son of God did die for all men that he hath redeemed all mankind He that firmly and constantly believes this Proposition in some respect universal The Son of God did die for all men can never doubt or waver in Faith whether he died for him or whether he hath paid the full Price of his Redemption He which believes the General by an Historical or Moral Faith cannot chuse but believe the particular by the same Faith He that believes the General by a spiritual and true Christian Faith must believe the particular by the same Faith If the first Proposition Christ died for All men be De Fide The Second likewise Christ died for me must be De Fide too But how any man should have Assurance of Faith That Christ did die for him or hath redeemed him unless he be first assured by Certaintie of Faith That Christ did die for all men This I confess is a Point which I could never be assured of nor be satisfied in by any that plead for Special Faith 12. Sure I am that the Church our Mother doth teach us to begin our Faith or Assurance from the General Christ died for All men he hath redeemed all mankind And this General She grounds upon that Saying of our Saviour John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Application or Use of this place you may find pithily prest in the third Part of the Homily Upon the Death and Passion of our Saviour To whom saith the Author of the Homily did he give his Son To the whole world that is to say to Adam and to all that come after him He was not given to Adam nor to such as come after him until Adam and all that came after him were lost until mankind were become his enemies And this is that which sets forth The wonderful love of God unto the world that he would give his only Son whom he loved for all of us which were his enemies Scarcely for a righteous man will one die saith the Apostle Rom. 5. 7. yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners he died for us 13. But when we are taught to beleive that Christ died as well for every one of us as he died for any we are bound to beleive not only that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for St. Peter or St. Paul but that he shed as much blood for every one of us as he did for all men That he paid as great a price for my redemption as he paid for the Redemption of all mankind It was not the Quantitie of his blood shed but the infinite Value of each drop which he shed that did pay the price of our Redemption Had the whole stream of his blood been much greater then it was if it had been of value less then infinite it could not have payed the price of one mans redemption and of price more then infinite his blood what-ever quantitie had been shed could not be for all So that he did as much for thee as he did for both thee and me as much for either of us as he did for the whole world His deservings of every one of us are infinite Were this apprehension or belief of the infinite and undivided love of God in Christ toward all and every man rightly planted in mans heart it would bring forth the fruits of Love he which is thus perswaded of Christs love towards him in particular would love Christ and would keep his Commandements would trust in Christ and in all temptations rely upon him 14. To conclude all concerning The right ordering or placing of that Certaintie or full
very Bodie and Blood to be locally present in every place where and at all times when that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated This we deny And the former Principle or Antecedent That God is able to create the self same body as often as it pleases him will never infer their intended Conclusion Not to question what God can do we further add For Christs body or whole Christ God and man to be bodily present by this means in many places at once or in all places at all times wherein that blessed Sacrament shall be celebrated is one of those things which according to their rules as well as ours cannot be done as implying an evident Contradiction in nature It may not be believed nor imagined because God did never bind any man to believe such an impossibilitie or Contradiction as is involved in this doctrine It is altogether without the compass of the most miraculous work which God hath at any time wrought or ever promised to work All the former Instances or Cases possible concerning Gods Power to make one and the same man again after he had been annihilated are most unlike to their intended Conclusion All the former Instances or suppositions are free from all color or suspition of Contradiction in nature This supposed Creation of Christs Body often since his death implies as many and as manifest Contradictions as there have been Masses in the Romish Church Not only these Assertions but the dissimilitude also of the Case in question to the former Cases will be immediately made clear from the very Definition of Creation To create a body is to make it of nothing and to make the self same Body which formerly had been but is resolved into Nothing out of Nothing again is but a second exercise of his Creative Power and whatsoever God before hath done he is able to do the same again But the Body of Christ they acknowledge to be immortal and absolutely exempted not only from Annihilation or resolution into Nothing but from all danger of Corruption or diminution Again whatsoever is Created whether at the first second or third time hath no Actual being until it begin to be by Creation Now to make that very thing begin to be or to begin to be out of nothing which already actually is is something is immortal and more glorious then any other creature implies a manifest Contradiction But Christs Body they grant to be immortal since his Resurrection more unalterable then the heaven of heavens so immortal that it can never cease to be what it is therefore it is impossible that it should begin to be by a new creation or be created again For that which is created or may be created again must first be resolved into nothing or cease to be before it can be created again seeing creation is the making of that which is not out of Nothing or be made again by means miraculous If then Christs Body be locally present in the Sacrament it must either be created again and this supposeth either annihilation or dissolution of it or else it must be brought out of the heavens into the Priests hands or else the presence of it in many places must be created but Local Presence is altogether uncapable of Creation for it is a Meer Relation which can neither be created nor made but resulteth from or followeth upon the motion of things created from one place to another or from their creation or beginning to be in that place wherein they are said to be created 12. So it fares with our Adversaries in this Argument as it doth with Boot-halers or night-riders which have caught an unlawful prey being hotly pursued by the right owners Now their manner is to divide the spoil and their company that they may carry one part one way and another part another way that so whilst one is pursued others may escape without pursuit or rescue of the prey Through the ignorance or carelesness of Gods people which should have kept a better watch over their own souls the Romish Priests had made a gainful prey by transporting the native sense of our Saviours Words in the institution of the Sacrament to justifie the doctrine of Transubstantiation And since they have been pursued by reformed Writers as Cozeners and Cheaters of Gods people some of them run one way some another Some of them seek to maintain Christs local presence or Transubstantiation by the former doctrine of Gods Almighty Power which is able to create one and the same body often Others seek to maintain the same doctrine and carry away the prey by the manner of Angelical motion from one place to another in an instant or moment of time And if they could draw such as pursue them into these straits and subtilities they hope to make their part good against such as are not much conversant in the School-mens nice disputes concerning the nature or motions of Angels or know not the difference between the nature and motions of Spirits and Spiritual Bodies Others seek to maintain the same doctrine by the infinitie of divisible quantities as if it were possible for a flies wing to overspread the whole earth as a hen doth her chickens And that Christs Body may by this kind of Infinitie be in many places at once in as many as God shall appoint hoping by this means to cast a mist before the eyes of such Readers as know not the difference betwixt a real material or substantial and a mathematical or imaginary quantitie But all these fictions or suppositions they cast forth only to offer play unto their adversaries or to gain some time for invention of new shifts None of them dare pitch upon any or all of these wayes or imaginations or put the Case upon this issue Whether any of them be in nature possible or agreeable to the Analogie of Faith The only point wherein they agree is the submission of their judgments or imaginations to the authoritie of the Church which is no better agreement then if amongst a multitude of unlearned men one of them should maintain that snow is white another black another pawn his estate that it is blew and a fourth that it is green and yet in the end refer themselves to be tried by some Philosopher which had written of the nature of Snow in a language that none of them understands whose books they know not where to find For what the Church is that cannot err or of whom it consists the French and Italian Catholicks do not agree Or if we take the Church for the Trent Council confirmed by the Pope the Jesuites themselves cannot agree about the meaning of it in this point Divers of them do in Effect deny any Transubstantiation in this Sacrament albeit that Council under pain of curse enjoyneth all Christians to believe That there is a true Conversion of the bread into the substance of Christs Body and of the wine into the substance of his Blood and