Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the
till the coming of CHRIST and after a more explicit faith in Christ when he had redeemed it then had been pressed before on the house of Iacob CHRIST hath redeemed us saith St. Paul from the curse of the Law that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles thorough IESVS CHRIST that is to say that as Abraham did believe in God and that was imputed unto him for righteousness even so the Gentiles thorow faith in IESVS CHRIST might be justifyed also And yet faith doth not justifie conceive not so out of any property that is natural or essential to it or any dignity or work inherent in it above other Theological vertues but out of somewhat that is adventitious and extrinsecal meerly that is to say the will good-pleasure or appointment of Almighty God This is the will of him that sent me saith our Saviour that every Man that seeth the Son and believeth in him should have life everlasting Where clearly he suspends the justifying property or power of faith not upon any quality or vertue that it hath in it self but only on the will and free grace of God which had it fallen in conjunction or cooperation with any other of Gods graces either hope or patience or any other whatsoever that act of grace or the act rather of that grace so by God appointed would have conduced as fully to our justification as now the act of faith or believing doth But now to trouble our selves with these speculations suffice it that as God was pleased to make choice of faith so he made choice not of the habit or the object but the act of faith to be imputed to us for our justification Abraham believed God saith the holy Scripture and it was counted unto him for righteousness Nor is it thus with Abraham only but with all the faithful who if they do believe on him that justifyeth the ungodly that faith of theirs shall be accounted unto them for righteousness also T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Credere the very act of faith it self which God requireth of us for our justification in stead of all the workes of the Law and if we do believe as we ought to do that every act of our believing without the help of any of the workes of the Law shall be imputed to us for righteousness Seven times at least in the fourth Chapter of the Romans hath the Apostle used this phrase to account or impute faith for righteousness unto the believer We finde the same phrase also used in the 3. Chapter to the Galatians vers 5. and in the 2. of St. Iames vers 23. Scarce such another consonancy of expression in the holy Scripture Which certainly the holy Ghost had not stood upon not bound himself precisely to the words and syllables of if he had not meant to give this honour unto faith it self but rather to some other thing which faith layeth hold of and applyeth for our endlesse comfort And this as it is most agreeable to the Text and Context where faith is put in opposition unto workes that faith alone might have the honour of our justification so hath it been the constant Doctrine of the antient Writers who do ascribe the same to faith and to faith properly so called not as the word is taken tropically or metonymically for the object thereof For thus saith Iustin Martyr first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham saith he had not from God the testimony or commendation of righteousness because of his circumcision but because of his faith Tertullian next How saith he are we made the children of faith or of whose faith if not of Abrahams For if Abraham believed God and that was imputed unto him for righteousness and he deserved thereby to be made the Father of many nations Not autem credendo Deo magis pro inde justificamur sicut Abraham we by believing God more as having more things to believe then Abraham had for that I take it is his meaning are therefore also justifyed as Abraham was Next to him that of Origen which we had before Cum multae fides Abraham praecesserint c. Whereas many faiths or many acts of Abrahams faith had gone before now all his faith was recollected and summed up together and so imputed unto him for his justification St. Ambrose in fewer words saith as much as any Sic decretum dicit a Deo ut cessante lege solam fidem gratia Dei posceret ad salutem God saith he hath so decreed that the Law ceasing the grace of God should require only faith of man towards his salvation Why was this writ saith St. Chrysostome of our father Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that we may learn that we are also justifyed as Abraham was because we have believed the same God And in another place What was Abraham the worse for not being under the Law To which he answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was nothing the worse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for his faith was sufficient for his justification What saith St. Augustine of himself In eum credo qui justificat impium ut deputetur fides mea ad justitiam that is to say I do believe in him that justifyeth the ungodly that my faith may be imputed to me for righteousnesse What doth the same Father say of Abraham in another place if at the least the work be his Ecce sine opere justificatur ex fide et quicquid illi legali observatione potest conferri totum credulitas sua donavit Behold saith he Abraham is justifyed without works by faith and whatsoever could have been conferred upon him by the observation of the Law that his believing only hath wholly given him Primasius somewhat after him in the course of time Tam magna fuit dono dei fides Abrahami ut et pristina peccata ei donarentur et sola prae omni justitia doceretur accepta i. e. So great was Abrahams faith by the gift of God that both his former sins were pardoned and this his faith alone was preferred in acceptation before all righteousness And finally thus Haimo B. of Halberstad an Author of the 9. Century to descend no lower Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse that is saith he unto remission of sinnes quia per ipsam fidem qua credidit justus effectus est because by that faith wherewith he believed he was made righteous By all which testimonies of the antients it is plain and evident that faith is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the very act of believing is that which is imputed to us for our justification and that this is no new interpretation excogitated by Arminius in these latter days as some please to tell us Nor is this contrary to the Church of England delivered in her book of Homilies though at the first appearance it may so be thought When we
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
he only made a shew of faith which he never had Why so Quia Lucas aperte testatur eum credidisse because S. Luke affirms that he did believe being convinced by the signs and miracles which S. Philip wrought as many others of Samaria at the same time were And yet no doubt but Simon Magus was a Reprobate a man rejected by the Lord in regard of his wickedness and that his heart was not right in the sight of God and afterwards an author of such mischief in the Church of God that Ignatius who lived neer those times very rightly cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first begotten of the Devil The like mâ—y be affirmed also of Alexander Hymeneus and Philetus who had been made partakers of the Faith of CHRIST and were zealous in it for the time but afterwards made shipwrack of it denying amongst other Articles of the Christian faith that of the resurrection of the dead and thereby overthrowing the faith of some Men questionless given over to a reprobate sense or else we may be well assured St. Paul had never given them over to the hands of Satan as it is plain he did But what need search be made into these particulars when Calvin himself affirms in general Reprobis fidem tribui eosdem interdum simili fere sensu atque Electos affici eosque merito dici Deum sibi propitium credere c. that Faith is given unto the Reprobate that sometimes they are touched with the like sense of Gods grace as the Elect ones are and may deservedly be said to believe that God is favourable and propitious to them God sometimes makes the Sun of Righteousness as well as the Sun of Heaven to shine on the evil and on the good Which notwithstanding Faith is called and that most properly Fides Electorum the Faith of Gods Elect in that and other places of the Book of God because the fruits thereof are in them more visible the confession of the same more fervent the seeds thereof more fastly rooted and the fruit more durable For which cause possibly the Apostle doth there join together the faith of Gods Elect and the knowledge of the truth which is after godliness Which is indeed the special difference which is between the faith of the Elect and the faith of the Reprobates For if the fruit be unto holiness no question but the end thereof will be life everlasting It is not then the weakness or the want of faith which doth alone exclude the Reprobate from the Kingdom of Heaven and make him finally uncapable of the grace and favour of the Lord in the day of judgement but the want of a good conscience in the sight of God And therefore if we mark it well St. Peter did not charge it upon Simon Magus that he wanted faith or that his faith was only a dissembled hypocritical faith upbraiding him as formerly Ananias in another case that he had not only lyed unto men but unto God but that he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity not having his heart right in the sight of God Nor did St. Paul accuse the said three Apostates that they never had received the faith or that the faith which they received was not true and real but that first having put away a good conscience they afterwards made shipwrack of the faith also blaspheming God and scattering abroad their dangerous errours to the seducing of their brethren If Simon had repented of his wickedness as St. Peter advised it may be charitably supposed that the thoughts of his heart had been forgiven him And Hymeneus and Alexander if they had made good use of the Apostles censure when he delivered them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh no question but their spirits might have been saved in the day of the Lord IESUS Which may suffice for answer to the first objection touching the faith of reprobates as they use to call them whose firm assent to supernatural truths revealed makes them not inheritable to the Kingdom of Heaven because they hold the truth revealed in unrighteousness and so become without excuse as St. Paul tels us in another case of the antient Gentiles The next Objection is that if this phrase in Deum credere import no more then this that there is a God and that all his words are Divine truths and all the world the workmanship of his hands alone the Devils do belieue as much as St. Iames assures us Thou believest saith he that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble Iam. 1.19 The answer unto this is easie St. Iames assures us of the Devils that they believe there is one God but doth withall assure us this that this belief of theirs confirms them in the certainty and foreknowledge of their everlasting damnation the apprehension of the which produceth nothing in them but fear and horrour The Devils do believe that there is a God and that this God is just in all his actions and righteous in all his ways unchangeable in his Decrees Yesterday and to day and the same for ever What other comfort can they reap from this faith of theirs but that being once condemned by God to eternal fire they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgement of the great and terrible day For knowing that the judgements of the Lord are just and his doom unchangeable they must needs know withall the certainty of their own damnation or else they cannot properly be affirmed to believe this truth that there is a God And as they do believe that there is a God so they believe also that he is the Maker of heaven and earth For being at the first created by Almighty God with so great perspicacity and clearness of the understanding they could not choose but know the hand that made them and consequently believe that he made all those things which are ascribed to God in the holy Scripture Though by their fall they lost the favour of the Lord their first estate in which they were created by Almighty God the grace by which they stood and the glories which they did possess yet lost they not that quickness and agility of motion that perspicacity and clearness of the understanding wherewith they were endowed by God at their first Creation But what makes this unto their comfort when the same knowledge or belief call it which you will by which they are assured that God made the Heavens and the Earth and all the things therein contained will keep them always in remembrance of this most sad truth that he also made an Hell of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth prepared for the Devill and his Angels To go a little farther yet the Devils did not only believe long since that CHRIST was come in the flesh but publickly proclaimed him in the open
Divinity Reader in Heidelberg though he both useth approveth this distinction yet to my seeming takes not the tearms to be so different as the members of a good Division ought to be by the rules of Logick and indeed so confounds them one with another that we can hardly see where the difference lyeth For he confesseth in plain tearms fidem Iustificantem Historicam semper inse complecti that justifying faith doth always comprehend the Historical in it and that the faith of Miracles hath either Temporary or Historical faith always joyned unto it If so the difference between them must be very small consisting more in magis minus and such degrees of comparison then in any spiritual and formal difference and possibly it may fall out that the faith of miracles as they call it is rather an extraordinary gift or effect of faith then any distinct species or branch thereof First for Historical faith that faith whereby we do believe Ea vera esse quae in libris Prophetarum Evangelistarum tradita sunt by which we do believe those things for true which are contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as themselves define it I cannot see wherein it differeth from justifying or saving faith unless perhaps it be in the application which rather is an Act of faith then a species of it And 't is but a perhaps if that for in my mind Dr. Iackson reasoneth very well That our Faith is not to be counted unsound or non salvifical because Historical but rather oft-times therefore insufficient to some because not so fully Historical as it might be or in that our apprehension of divers matters related in Sacred stories is not so great so lively and sound as to equalize the utmost limits of some belief which yet may be fully comprehended under Historical assent there being no assent which can exceed the measure of that belief or credence which is due unto sacred Writers Which if it be on our parts as it ought to be to Gods general promises it will more forcibly more truly and naturally apply them to us in particular then we our selves can possibly do by beginning our faith at that particular application where indeed it must end For temporary faith they define that next to be an Assent unto the Doctrine of the Gospel accompanyed with joy and gladness and the outward profession of the same but such as lasteth but for a season and fades in time of persecution and affliction And this they ground upon that passage in our Saviours parable where it is said that He which receiveth the seed in stony places the same is he that receiveth the Word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a season For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word by and by he is offended But for my part I could never see any reason to perswade me yet that our Saviour in that Parable did purpose to represent unto our view the several kindes of Believers but the several kindes of hearers only many of which do hear the Word with divers ends and different purposes but only they which do so hear the Word of God as to bring forth the fruit of good living shall like the good grain in the following Parable be laid up at the last day in the barn of the Heavenly husbandman Or granting that they build this definition on a ground well laid yet I see nothing to the contrary but that the temporary faith which is there defined may be a true and lively faith and justifie the man that hath it in the sight of God though failing in the course of his Christian race he do not get the prize proposed unto them that win and hold out to the very end A temporary faith may justifie for the present time and bring forth many fruits of holiness and newness of life but it is faith with perseverance in the works of Piety which shall receive the Crown in the day of Judgement And if this Temporary faith be not saving also it is not in regard of it self that it wants any of those signs and tokens by which a saving faith is to be discerned but that the man that is endued or invested with it hath not the gift of perseverance but out of worldly fear or on by-respects makes shipwrack of his faith or casts it over-board in the storm as a thing unprofitable So that the difference between Temporary and Salvifical faith is not in any thing essential to the true nature of faith but only in duration which is accidental and extrinsical which make it no more a distinct species of faith or to fall short in any thing which true faith should have then that a man who dyeth in the flower of his youth wants any thing of being as compleat and perfect a man as he that lives unto the age of Methusalem That magis minus do not differre specie is an old rule in Logick And so Bucanus doth conclude to the point in hand though as professed and rigid a Calvinian as any other whatsoever affirming plainly Fidem languidam esse veram fidem that a weak and languishing faith is a true faith on this very reason Quia magis minus non variant rerum species as before is said Which rule if it hold good in the intension of Faith as to strength and weakness will certainly hold good in the extension of it also as to length and shortness of duration Last of all for the faith of Miracles or fides Miraculorum as they please to call it is defined by the said Vrsinus to be Donum singulare faciendi aliquod opus extraordinarium aut praedicendi certum eventum ex revelatione divina that is to say a singular gift of doing some extraordinary and supernatural work or foretelling things to come by divine Revelation But this considered as it ought is so far from being a distinct species of faith that it ought not to be called faith at all but is rather the effect of an eminent faith or some more extraordinary gift super-added to it For CHRIST our Saviour reckoneth it as the effect of a powerful faith saying to his Disciples when they seemed to complain because they could not cast the Devil out of a man who was brought before them that it was propter incredulitatem ipsorum by reason of their unbelief as our English reads it that it to say because their faith was yet but weak and newly planted not strong nor spiritful enough to effect such wonders And the Apostle reckoning up those gifts and graces of the holy Ghost which God bestowed upon his Church in her first plantations gives us this punctual list or catalogue of them saying that unto one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of knowledge by the same Spirit to another is given Faith by
the same Spirit to another the gift of healing by the same Spirit to another power to do miracles to another prophecy to another the discerning of spirits to another diverse kindes of tongues c. Where plainly Faith the gift of healing Prophecying and the power of working Miracles are counted for distinct graces of the holy Ghost by consequence the power of working Miracles is no species of faith but rather something extraordinary super-added to it as before I said So that we need not stand so much upon this distinction as in regard thereof to recede from the Exposition before delivered wherein it was affirmed that in Deum credere to believe in God is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty who as he made all things by his mighty power so he doth still preserve them by his divine Providence and preserve them by his infinite wisdome And this Interpretation of the phrase in Deum credere or in Christum credere doth hold best correspondence with the definition of faith before laid down For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed then to include no more in these forms of speech then that there is a God an Almighty God the maker of all things and that his only Son IESVS CHRIST our Lord both did and suffered all these things which are affirmed of him in the holy Scriptures and briefly laid together in the present Creed must needs be most agreeable to the nature of faith Which being premised once for all we shall proceed unto the proof of the present Article in which we shall first make it clear and evident out of monuments and records of the learned Gentiles for in this point it were unnecessary to consult either the Scriptures or the Fathers that there is an infinite incomprehensible and eternal Spirit whom we call by the Name of GOD and secondly that this GOD is only one without any Rival or Competitor in the publick Government of the Universe And this shall be the argument of the following Chapter CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the World proved by the light of Reason and the testimonies of the Antient Gentiles THat GOD is or that there is a God is a truth so naturally graffed in the soul of man that neither the ignorance of letters nor the pride of wealth nor the continual fruition of sensual pleasures have been able to obliterate the Characters or impressions of it For Tully very well observeth Nullam gentem tam feram esse neminem omnium tam immanem cujus mentem non imbuerit deorum opinio That there was never Nation so barbarous nor man so brutish and inhumane but was seasoned with this opinion that there was a God And though saith he many misguided by ill customes or want of more civil education do conceive amiss of the Divinity yet they did all suppose a nature or power Divine to which they were not drawn by conference and discourse with others nor by tradition from their Ancestors or the laws of their Countrey but by a natural instinct imprinted in them quae gentium omnium consensio lex putanda est which general consent of all people concerning this matter is to be esteemed the Law of Nature And though the civil wisdome which appeareth in the laws of Lycurgius Numa and other antient Legislators amongst the Heathens may argue probably an opinion in them of framing many particular rites of Religion as politick Sophisms to retain that wilde people in awe for whose sake they devised then yet could not their inventions have wrought so succesfully upon mens affections unless they had been naturally inclined to the ingraffed notion of a GOD in general under pretence of whose Soveraign right those particulars had been commended to them or obtrudâ—d on them A more plentiful experiment of which evident truth hath been suggested to us in these later Ages wherein divers Countries peopled with Inhabitants of different manners and education have been discovered the very best whereof have been far more barbarous then the worst of those which were so counted in the days of Tully yea or of Numa or Lycurgus though long time before him And yet amongst these savage Indians who could hardly be discerned from brute beasts Nisi in hoc uno quod loquerentur as Lactantius once said in a case much like but only in that they had the use of speech were found to have acknowledged several Gods or superior powers to which they offered sacrifices and other rites of Religion in testimony of their gratitude for benefits received from them As if the signification of mans obligements to some invisible power for health food and other necessaries or for their preservation from dysasters and common dangers were as natural to him as fawnings or the like dumb signs in doggs other tame domestick creatures are to those who cherish them Concerning which as Cicero one of the wisest of the Gentiles gives an excellent rule so of that natural inclination did the Apostle of the Gentiles make an excellent use For there were many great and famous Philosophers which did not only ascribe the government of the World to the wisdom of the Gods but did acknowledge all necessary supplies of health and welfare to be procured from their providence Insomuch that corn and other increase of the Earth saith Cicero together with that variety of times and seasons with those alterations or changes of weather by which the fruits of the Earth doe spring up and ripen are by them made the effects of Divine goodness and of the love of GOD to mankinde And on this ground St. Paul proceeded in his Sermon to the people at Lystra whom he endevoured to bring unto the knowledge of the only true invisible GOD by giving them to understand that though in times past he had suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways yet did he not leave himself without witness in that he was beneficial or did good unto them and gave them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling their hearts with food and gladness From which one stream of Divine goodness experienced in giving rain to proceed no further did the old Grecians christen their great god Iupiter by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Latines on the same reason did surname him Pluvius And to say truth the prudent Orator had very good ground both for his observation and the reason of it For of all the Nations known in the times he lived in there was none branded with the stain of Atheism but the poor Fenni a Sect or Tribe amongst the Germanes Of whom it is affirmed by Tacitus that they had neither houshold gods nor corn nor cattel nor any
or bad The ill successe that followed the young Prodigals journey was no part of his fathers purpose of his will and absolute decree much lesse no nor so much as to be ascribed unto his permission which was but causa sine qua non as the Schooles call it if it were so much Only it gave the Father such an opportunity as Adams fall did GOD in the present case of entertaining him with joy at his coming home and killing the faâ—ted Calfe for his better welcome T is true that God to whose eternal eye all things are present and fore-seen as if done already did perfectly fore-know to what unhappy end this poor man would come how far he would abuse that natural liberty wherewith he had endowed him at his first Creation Praescivit peccaturum sed non praedestinavit ad peccatum said Fulgentius truly And upon this fore-knowledge what would follow on it he did withall provide such a soveraign remedy as should restore collapsed man to his primitive hopes of living in Gods fear departing hence in his favour and coming through faith in Christ unto life eternall if he were not wanting to himself in the Application For this is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that CHRIST IESVS came into the World to save sinners of whom every man may say as St. Paul once did that he is the chief And it is as worthy of acceptance which came though from the same Spirit from a worthier person that God so loved the World the whole world of mankinde that He sent his only begouten Son into the World to the intent that whosoever did believe in him should live though he dyed and whosoever liveth and believeth in him should not die for ever but have as in another place everlasting life But what it is to believe in him and what a Christian man is bound to believe of him as it is all the subject of the six next Articles so must it be the argument of another book this touching our belief in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and all things therein with most of the material points which depend upon it beginning now to draw to a final period Chap. VI. What Faith it was which was required for Justification before and under the Law Of the knowledge which the Patriarchs and Prophets had touching Christ to come Touching the Sacrifices of the Jews the Salvation of the Gentiles and the Justifying power of Faith ANd yet before we pass to the following Articles there are some points to be disputed in reference to the several estates of the Church of God as it stood heretofore under the Law and since under the Gospel the influence which Faith had in their justification and the condition of those people which were Aliens to the law of Moses before Christs coming in the flesh For being that the Patriarchs before the time of Moses and those holy men of God that lived after him till the coming of Christ had not so clear and explicite a knowledge of the particulars of the Creed which concern our Saviour or the condition of the holy Catholick Church and the Members of it as hath been since revealed in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles it cannot be supposed that they should have universally the same object of faith which we Christians have or were bound to believe all those things distinctly touching Christ our Saviour and the benefits by him redounding to the sons of men which all Christians must believe if they will be saved And then considering that there is almost nothing contained in Scripture touching God the Father his Divine Power and Attributes the making and government of the World and all things therein which was to be believed by those of the line of Abraham but what hath been avowed and testified by the learned Gentiles it will not be unworthy of our disquisition to see wherein the differences and advantages lay which the Patriarchs and those of Iudah had above the Nations or whether the same light of truth did not shine on both through divers Mediums for the better fitting and preparing of both people to receive the Gospel In sifting and discussing of which principal points we shall consider what it is in faith it self which is said to justifie of what effect the Sacrifices both before and under the Law were to the satisfying of Gods wrath and expiating of the sins of the people by whom they were offered to the Lord and the relation which they had to the death of Christ the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world and finally what is to be conceived of those eminent men amongst the Gentiles who not extinguishing that light of nature which was planted in them but regulating all their actions by the beams thereof came to be very eminent in all kindes of learning and in the exercise of Iustice Temperance Mercy Fortitude and other Acts of Moral vertue Some other things will fall in incidently on the by which need not be presented in this general view And the mature consideration of all these particulars I have reserved unto this place that being situate in the midst between the Faith we have in God the Father Almighty and the belief required of us in his Son Christ Iesus it may either serve for an Appendix to the former part or a Preamble to the second or be in stead of a bond or ligament for knitting all the joints of this body together in the stronger coherence of discourse And first Faith being as appeareth by the definition before delivered a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed we cannot but conceive in reason that the Object of it is to be commensurable to the proportion and degree of the Revelation For as our Saviour said in another case that to whom much is given of him the more shall be required so may we also say in this that to whom more divine supernatural truths have been revealed of him there is a greater measure of belief expected Till the unhappy fall of Adam there was no faith required but in God alone For without faith it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle which Adam by the Law of his Creation was obliged to endeavour Nor could he come before the Lord or seek for the continuance of his grace and favours had he not first been fitted and prepared by faith For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as in the same text saith the same Apostle Which words we may not understand of Faith in Christ at least not primarily with respect to Adam of whom such faith was not required in the state of Innocency for where there was no sin there was no need of a Saviour but only of a faith in Almighty God the stedfast confession and acknowledgement of whose beeing and bounty was to speak
properly the fundamental act and radical qualification of the faith of Adam But after he had fallen from his first integrity and that the Lord out of meer pity to his frail perishing creature was pleased to promise him some measure of reparation in the womans seed then did the bruising of the Serpents head by the seed of the woman become a partial object of the faith of Adam and of all those who afterwards descended of him in the line of Grace And yet this was but in a general apprehension of the mercies of God and of his constancy and veracity in fulfilling his word no distinct Revelation being made till the time of Abraham so much as from what branch of the root of Adam this promised blessing was to come A pregnant argument whereof I think is offered to us in the errour of our Grandam Eve who on the birth of Cain her first-born but most wicked son conceived that he should be the man in whom the promise made by God was to be fulfilled and therefore said I have gotten a man from the Lord as our English reads it but rather possedi virum ipsum IEHOVAH I have gotten a man even the Lord IEHOVAH as Paulus Phagius a very learned Hebritian doth correct that reading And as for Abraham himself though it pleased God to tell him more particularly then before was intimated that in his seed should all the families of the Earth be blessed yet so unsatisfied was he as concerning Sarah or that this general blessing was to come of a son by her that when GOD promised such a son from that barren womb by whom she was to be a Mother of Kings and Nations instead of giving thanks to God he returned this answer O that Ishmael might live before thee And though upon the duplicate of this gracious promise that in Isaac should his seed be called he was sufficiently instructed and believed accordingly that the great mercy which God promised to our Father Adam was to descend in time from the loyns of Isaac yet that he should be born of an imaculate Virgin that he should suffer such and so many indignities and at the last a bitter and most shameful death by the hands of those who seemed to boast so much in nothing as that they were the children of this faithful Abraham as it was never that we read of revealed unto him so have we no reason to believe that it was any part or object of his faith at all The like may be affirmed in general of the house of Israel till God was pleased to speak more plainly and significantly to them by the mouth of his Prophets then he had done unto their Fathers in dreams and visions For having nothing further revealed unto them touching Christ to come then what was intimated first in generals to our Father Adam and more particularly specified to their Father Abraham the primary and principal Object of their faith was God alone conceive me still of God the Father Almighty in whom they looked for the performance of those gracious promises which he had made unto their Fathers though of the time when the manner how and other the material points which the Creed contains they were utterly ignorant and consequently could not ground any faith upon them In after times as GOD imparted clearer light to the house of Iacob for the neerer we are to the Sun-rising the more day appeareth so were they bound to give belief to such Revelations or supernatural truths revealed call them which you will which he vouchsafed to make unto them by his holy Prophets Which howsoever they contained in them a sufficient light to guide them to the knowledge of many particular points and circumstances which were to be accomplished in the time and place of Christs Nativity his course of life and sufferings and most shameful death which every one could see when they came to pass that whatsoever had been done by or concerning him did come to pass according as had been sore-signified in the holy Scriptures yet this great light of prophesie which did shine amongst them was but like a Candle in a dark Lanthorn or hid under a bushel and rather served to convince them of incredulity when he was ascended then to prepare them to receive him when he came unto them He came unto his own and his own received him not saith St. Iohn expressely And for the Prophets themselves 't is true that they have in them many positive and plain predictions of the Incarnation Nativity and Circumcision of Christ of his Passion Resurrection and Ascension as also of the most remarkable passages and occurrences in the whole course of his life And yet a question hath been made amongst learned men whether they did always distinctly foresee or explicitely believe whatsoever they did fore-tell or fore-signifie concerning Christ. Nor can I finde but that this question is resolved to this effect that though they had a right apprehension of the truths by them delivered and a foresight of all those future events of which they prophesied according to the accomplishment and sense thereof by themselves intended yet that this foresight of theirs extended not to all branches of divine truth contained in their writings or to that use and application which was after made of them by CHRIST himself and his Evangelists and Apostles with this mark of reference that such and such things came to pass that the sayings of the Prophets might be fulfilled For many things are extant in the Prophetical writings either by way of Typical prefigurations or positive and plain predictions applyable to the life and actions of our Lord and Saviour and the success and fortunes of his holy Church which in all probability was never so intended by those sacred Pen-men For who can reasonably conceive that Moses in the story of the commanded offering up of Isaac the only son of his Father intended to typifie or fore-shadow the real offering up of CHRIST the only begotten Son of God neer the self same place or that this Ceremony in the ordering of the Paschal Lamb ye shall not break a bone thereof did look so far in the first institution of it as to the not breaking of our Saviours legs in the time of his passion or that the setting up of the Brazen Serpent was by him meant to signifie and foreshew the lifting up of the Son of God upon the Cross to the end that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have eternal life as himself applyes it in St. Iohn The like may be affirmed of David to whom the Lord had promised that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore Psal. 132. that God would set his King upon his holy hill of Sion Psal. 2. with many other predictions to the same effect And yet it may be questioned upon very good reason whether he understood
perhaps it will be said that though the things they did were good ex genere objecto suo good in their kinde and in relation unto those who received good by them as were the feeding of the hungry cloathing of the naked and such like yet being looked upon ex fine circumstantiis with reference to the end for which and the circumstances with which they were done they were both vitious in themselves and utterly unpleasing in the sight of God And to this end this passage is alleadged out of St. Augustines works Non officiis sed finibus virtutes a vitiis discernendas that vertues are distinguished from vices not so much by the work it self as the end proposed This we acknowledge to be true but we say withall that if the works of faithful men be so pryed into it cannot be but that there will be either some obliquity in the action or misapplication in the end there being no just action so accompanyed with all manner of circumstances as to abide the judgement of Almighty God if he should be extreme to mark what is done amiss Both Protestants and Papists do agree in this although the last doe speak more favourably of the works of regenerate persons then the former do The Protestants maintain that there is no work done by a godly man in the state of grace but that there is some sinfulness which doth cleave unto it and in part doth blemish it But not so far as to make it lose the name of a good work or to put the doer of it into the state of damnation by reason that God for Christs sake forgives the imperfections and accepts that which is good And for the Papists it is thus resolved by Andreas Vega one of the great sticklers in the Councel of Trent Ipsa etiam perfectorum opera a bonitate ipsa longe deficere qua deceret nos Deum colere c. i. e. the very works of the best men are much defective in that goodness wherewith we ought to worship serve and honor God because they are conjoyned with many imperfections whilest men live here neither are they so pure holy and fervent as the measure of divine goodness and bounty towards us doth require at our hands And thereupon he doth conclude that many good works are done by us without blot of sin Quae tamen si districte vellet Deus nobiscum agere injustitiae essent which notwithstanding if God should deal strictly with us would be counted wickedness So that if vertue must be vice and good works a sin because they fail in some of those many circumstances which are required unto the making of a work to be fully perfect it is not like to go ill with the Gentiles only but even with the most righteous of Gods faithful servants 'T is true indeed the Gentiles had not the assistance of Gods written Word to be a light unto their pathes and a lamp to their feet and that is one of the Prerogatives which the Israelites had for want whereof they could not come so generally to the knowledge of God nor walk so knowingly in the ways of his laws and precepts But then perhaps it may be said if one would undertake the part of an Advocate in it that God hath furnished them with some other means for the supplying of this want which wrought as powerfully on the affections of the learned Gentiles as did the letter of the law on the Vulgar Israelites To this head I refer their Politick laws and constitutions for punishing all violent and unlawful actions but principally the study of Philosophy by which they were not only restrained from all Criminal actions which came within the compass of their positive laws but had their affections so composed and their lusts so bridled as to advance them to an eminencie in all sorts of virtues not only doing all that their laws required but at some times more And to this purpose was the answer of the wise man Aristotle who being asked what benefit the study of Philosophy had brought unto him made this reply Vt ea facerem injussus quae plerique per legum metum faciunt that he thereby discharged those duties without any command which others were compelled to by the force of laws A second means whereby GOD might supply the defect of Scripture was the co-operating of his Grace with that light of Nature which is implanted naturally in the soul of man which light assisted by the influence of Preventing Grace was doubtless able to conduct them in the ways of vertue and make them do such things as were good and acceptable in the sight of God For if by Grace we understand as Greg. Ariminensis saith we may quod cunque Dei speciale adjutorium ad bene operandum every special help which God giveth unto us towards doing good we have no reason to conceive but that those Worthies of the Gentiles had such special helps or else they never had attained to such special eminence in all vertuous actions Though God restrained his written Word unto Israel only yet finde we not that he confined his Grace to so narrow a compass or that he could not give a portion of his holy Spirit unto whom he pleased Had it been so what had become of Iob of the land of Vz of Rahab a Canaanitish woman of Ruth a Moabite How had the Aethiopian Eunuch been invited to see Hierusalem or Cornelius the Centurion found such favour of God as to be warned in a Vision touching his salvation if God had given his Grace with respect of persons or thought no creature worthy of it but a Iew by Nation For my part I have no Commission to call any thing common or unclean that God hath cleansed or to shut the gates of Heaven against any of those that are renowned upon record for a vertuous life considering that I finde in Scripture that in every Nation be that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Nor can I think it a dishonour to Almighty God to be a rewarder of all those who seek him diligently according to that measure of faith and knowledge which is given unto them or that it is derogatory to the written Word that men of riper years should be saved without it in extraordinary cases and of special grace And I say men of riper years because I finde the case of children to be very different of whose salvation although born of Infidel parents some principal and leading men of the Reformation make no doubt at all of this opinion amongst others was Franciscus Iunius as grave and eminent a Divine as any which that Age offered and a great stickler against Arminius in the controversie of Predestination The passage you may see at large in his book de Natura gratia Num. 28. but the sum is this Omnino statuimus servatum iri c. He doubteth not but that many of
Servator on us in the place thereof Concerning which St. Augustine hath this observation that antiently Salvator was no Latine word but was first devised by the Christians to express the greatness of the mercies which they had in Christ. For thus the Father Qui est Hebraice JESUS Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostra autem locutione Salvator Quod verbum Latina lingua non habebat sed habere poterat sicut potuit quando voluit Nay Cicero the great Master of the Roman elegancies doth himself confess that the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of too high a nature to be expressed by any one word of the Latine tongue For shewing how that Verres being Praetor in Syracusa the chief town in Sicily had caused himself to be entituled by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he addes immediately hoc ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit And thereupon he is compelled to use this Paraphrase or circumlocution Is est nimirum Soter qui salutem dedit i. e. He properly may be called Soter who is giver of health So that the Latine word Servator being insufficient to express the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the Hebrew IESVS the Christians of the first times were necessitated to devise some other and at last pitched upon Salvator which to this purpose hath been used by Arnobius l. 1. adv Gentes Ambros. in Luk. c. 2. Hieron in Ezek. c. 40. August de doctr Chr. l. 2. c. 13. contr Crescon l. 2. c. 1. besides the passages from Ruffinus and the same St. Augustine before alleadged So then the name of Iesus doth import a Saviour and the name of IESVS given to the Son of God intimates or implieth rather such a Saviour as shall save his people from their sins This differenceth IESVS our most blessed Saviour from all which bare that name in the times foregoing Iesus or Ioshua the son of Nun did only save the people from their temporal enemies but IESVS CHRIST the Son of the living God doth save us from the bonds of sin from our ghostly enemies IESVS the son of Iosedech the Priest of the Order of Aaron did only build up the material Altar in the holy Temple but IESVS the High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech not only buildeth up the spiritual Temple but is himself the very Altar which sanctifieth all those oblations which we make to God Iesus the son of Sirach hath no higher honour but that he was Author of the book called Ecclesiasticus a book not reckoned in the Canon of the holy Scripture but IESVS CHRIST the Son of God and the Virgin Mary not only is the subject of a great part of Scripture but even the Word it self and the very Canon by which we are to square all our lives and actions I am the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us in St. Iohn Look on him in all these capacities he is still a IESVS a Saviour of his people from their sins and wickednesses a builder of them up to a holy Temple fit for the habitation of the holy Ghost a bringer of them by the truth and way of righteousness unto the gates of life eternal a true IESVS still So properly a IESVS and so perfectly a Saviour to us that there is no salvation to be found in any other nor is there any other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby they must be saved but this name of IESVS Aâ— name if rightly pondered above every name and given him to this end by Almighty God that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in Heaven and earth and under the earth And there may be good reason besides Gods appointment why such a sign of reverence should be given to the very name not only a name above other names and therefore to be reverenced with the greater piety but as a pregnant testimony of that exaltation to which God hath advanced him above all other persons We bow the knee unto the persons of Kings and Princes And therefore Pharaoh when he purposed to honour Ioseph above all the Egyptians appointed certain Officers to cry before him saying bow the knee CHRIST had not been exalted more then Ioseph was had bowing of the knee been required to his Person only and therefore that there might appear some difference betwixt him and others the Lord requires it at his name And though the Angels in the heavens and the Spirits beneath have no knees to bow which is the principal objection of our Innovators against the reverent use of bowing at the Name of Iesus used and enjoyned to be used in the Church of England yet out of doubt the spirits of both kindes both in Heaven and Hell as they acknowledge a subjection to his Throne and Scepter so have they their peculiar ways such as are most agreeable to their several natures of yeilding the commanded reverence to his very Name Certain I am St. Ambrose understood the words in the literal sense where speaking of the several parts of the body of man he maketh the bowing at the name of JESUS the use and duty of the knee Flexibile genu quo prae caeteris Domini mitigatur offensa gratia provocatur Hoc enim patris summi erga filium donum est ut in nomine JESU omne genu curvetur The knee is flexible faith the Father whereby the anger of the Lord is mitigated and his grace obtained And with this gift did God the Father gratifie his beloved Son that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow Nor did St. Ambrose only so expound the Text and take it in the literal sense as the words import but as it is affirmed by our Reverend Andrews there is no antient Writer upon the place save he that turned all into Allegories but literally understands it and liketh well enough that we should actually perform it Conform unto which Exposition of the Antient Writers and the received usâ—ge of the Church of Christ it was religiously ordained by our first Reformers that Whensoever the Name of IESVS shall be pronounced in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of curâ—esie and uncovering of the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necesâ—aâ—ily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed Which being first established by the Queens Injunctions in the yeer 1559. was afterwards incorporated into the Canons of King Iames his reign And if of so long standing in the Church of England then sure no Innovation or new fancy taken up of late and bâ—t of laâ—e obtruded on the Church by some Popish Bishops as the Novators and Novatians of this present age the Enemies of Iesu-Worship as they idlely call it have been pleased to say And should we grant that this were no duty of
read it in a different way Vbi est Rex ille Judaeorum qui nat us est But I will not now dispute this point of the translations Suffice it that our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth and did not waive his title to it when he was alive Yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor intronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension That he was a King in designatiton long before his birth we have proved already And that he did not waive the title when he was alive is proved as plainly by that part of the accusation which the Priests and Pharisees made against him objecting that he called himself Christ a King And when he was interrogated on that Article by Pontius Pilate viz. Art thou the King of the Iews or not he let it passe as a thing granted with a Tu dixisti thou hast said it only distinguishing of his Kingdome and telling him upon more discourse about that point that his Kingdome was not of this world That was enough to rectifie the errour and possesse the Deputie that he had no designes to disturb the State or set on foot his claim to the Crown of Israel though he was sure of finding a considerable party amongst the people who would have made him King by force if he had not removed himself out of their sight And yet had God some further evidence to extort from Pilate and not from him only but from all his Souldiers touching the Kingdome of his CHRIST The Souldiers they arraied him in a purple or imperial robe they set the Crown upon his head though a Crown of thornes they put a scepter in his hand and then bow the knee saying Hail King of the Iews Their purpose I confesse was only to expose him to contempt and laughter But God had also his ends in it and in the vanity of this humour brought forth that acknowledgment which in a serious way they had never uttered A deo veritas ab invitis etiam pectoribus erumpit said Lactantius truly So Pilate before whom he had been accused for taking to himself this title did on the Crosse confirme it to him and freely granted him that honour for taking which or nothing he had been condemned IESVS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE IEWS was a fair testimonie to proceed from the mouth of Pilate the fairer in regard that he stood resolved not to have it altered but made this peremptory answer when the Priests proposed it Quod scripsi scripsi what I have written I have written God certainly was in Pilates mouth and he knew it not For thus became Christs title manifested to the Greeks and Romans and published all abroad by those very means which were intended to suppresse it So unsearchable are the Counsels of Almighty God and his wayes past finding out as the Prophet hath it A Kingdome then our Saviour had and that acknowledged and confessed by his very enemies though all of them mistaken in the nature of it And to say truth the generall opinion of Christs temporal Kingdome was become so epidemicall a disease amongst Iews and Gentiles that neither the wisdome of the Grecians nor the word of God amongst the Iews nor God the word then conversant with his own Disciples could remove the malady And first beginning with the Iews the Oracles of God had long since promised a Messiah but they were wretchedly deceived in the manner of his coming to them expecting such a one as should be answerable to their present miseries and free them from that yoak of bondage which the Romans at that time had laid upon them And as the wise Philosopher tels us that the same man doth place his summum bonum upon divers blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being sick he thinks it to consist in health if poor in riches even so this people being under the captivity of a second Babylon dream of no other happinesse then present liberty For this cause they expected such a Messiah whose sword should free them from that thraldome whose Kingdome should be more apparent to the faith of the eye then the eye of faith This was it which made Herod tremble and all Hierusalem with him i. e. as many in Hierusalem as did hold his faction when the wise men demanded saying Where is he that is born King of the Iews This made him murder the young children in Bethlem Iudah and amongst them one of his own sons as the story telleth us a man more cruel in his fears then in his anger The Courtiers most and many of the better sort of people also were all alike possessed with the same poor fancie For seeing the glory of Herods Palace and experimentally knowing his prowesse they conceived him to be the Messiah and on that ground as many learned men are of opinion were called Herodians As for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the baser and ignoble multitude certain it is that the ambition of their hopes did ascend no higher Upon which ground some of them flocked unto Theudas who boasted of himself to be some great body others to Iudas of Galilee who exhorted not to pay tribute both thought to be the King they had so long looked for but miserably deceived in both as the issue proved Their expectation of a temporall Messiah did not fail them yet CHRIST is the next they set their rest on and would have made him King by force He that could feed so many thousands with a few loaves of bread was likely to maintain an Army with no charge at all Afterwards in the days of Hadrian the Roman Emperour they placed their hopes on one Barchochab His name did signifie as much as the son of a star which made them take him for that star of Iacob of which Balaam prophecied and taking him for such to reverence him as Eusebius tels us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he were a star which came down from heaven A Star indeed he proved but a falling star drawing the people generally into rebellion against the Romans on which they were for ever banished from their native Country Nor was it thus only with the Iews in generall but those who had more near relation to their Lord and Saviour The Secretaries to this King the Apostles had all of them their hope stonger then their faith and did already contend amongst themselves which of them should be greatest in their Masters Kingdome Not in his Kingdome of grace nor in that of glory for they dreamed of neither but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his temporal Kingdome rather which they all looked after The seventy which were Clerks of his Counsel so conceived it also and it is no marvell Nam quis viam rectam teneret errante Cicerone We thought said Cleophas that this had been the man that should have delivered Israel Delivered Israel from whom Not
we must despair of no body no not of the wickedest as long as he lives and that we may safely pray for him of whom we do not despair So that for ought we see by these Texts of Scripture there is no sin which properly may be said to be irremissible And therefore I resolve with Maldnonate though he were a Iesuite Tenendam esse regulam fidei quae nullum peccatum esse docet quod à Deo remitti non possit That it is to be imbraced as a rule of Faith that there is no sin so great whatsoever it be which God cannot pardon for which if heartily bewailed and repented of there is no mercy and forgiveness to be found from God I shut up all with that of the Christian Poet Spem capio sore quicquid ago veniabile apud te Quamlibet indignum venia faciamve loquarve In English thus My words O Christ and deeds I hope with thee Though they deserve no pardon venial be CHAP. VI. Of the Remission of sins by the Blood of Christ and of the Abolition of the body of sin by Baptism and Repentance Of confession made unto the Priest and the Authority Sacerdotal THus have we in the former Chapter discoursed at large of the Introduction and Propagation of Sin and of the several species or kindes thereof and also proved by way of ground-work and foundation that albeit sin in its own nature be so odious in the sight of God as to draw upon the sinner everlasting damnation yet that there is no sin so mortal so deserving death which is not capable of pardon or forgiveness by the mercy of God We next descend unto those means whereby the pardon and remission of our sins is conveyed unto us the means by which so great a benefit is estated on us The principal agent in this work is Almighty God of whom the Scripture saith expresly That it is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith that it is God which justifieth the Elect and that the Scriptures did foresee That God would justifie the Heathen In all which Texts to justifie the Elect the Iews the Gentiles doth import no more than freely to forgive them all the sins which they had committed against the Law and to acquit them absolutely from all blame and punishment due by the Law to such offences Which appears plainly by that passage of the same Apostle where speaking of Almighty God as of him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4.5 he sheweth immediately by way of gloss or exposition in what that justifying doth consist saying out of David Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin And this God doth not out of any superadded or acquired principle which is not naturally in him but out of that authority and supream power which is natural and essential to him In which respect no Creature can be said to forgive sins no not our Saviour Christ himself in his meer humane nature but must refer that work unto God alone For who can so forgive sins but God onely said the Pharisees truly And as God is the onely natural and efficient cause of this justification the principal Agent in this great work of the remission of sins so is the onely moral and internal impulsive cause which inclines him to it to be found onely in himself that is to say his infinite mercy love and graciousness toward his poor creature Man whom he looks on as the miserable object of grace and pitty languishing under the guilt and condemnation of sin Upon which Motives and no other he gave his onely begotten Son to die for our sins to be a ransom and propitiation for the sins of the world That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but through forgiveness in his Blood have life everlasting But for the external impulsive efficient cause of this act of Gods the meritorious cause thereof that indeed is no other than our Lord JESUS CHRIST the death and sufferings of our most blessed Lord and Saviour For God beholding Christ as such and so great a sufferer for the sins of men is thereby moved and induced to deliver those that believe in him both from the burden of their sins and that condemnation which legally and justly is due unto them This testified most clearly by that holy Scripture Be ye kinde saith the Apostle unto one another forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Where plainly the impulsive cause inclining God to pardon us our sins and trespasses is the respect he hath unto the sufferings of our Saviour Christ. Thus the Apostle tells us in another place That we are freely justified by the grace of God through the Redemption which is in CHRIST IESUS Justified freely by Gods grace as by the internal impulsive cause of our Iustification by which he is first moved to forgive us our sins through the Redemption procured for us by the death and sufferings of CHRIST IESUS as the external moving or impulsive cause of so great a mercy In this respect the pardon and forgiveness of the sins of men is frequently ascribed in Scripture to the Blood of Christ as in the Institution of the Sacrament by the Lord himself This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Thus the Apostle to the Romans Whom JESUS CHRIST did God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God And thus to the Ephesians also In whom we have redemption through his Blood the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace To this effect St. Peter also For ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And so St. Iohn The Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and he hath washed us from our sins in his own Blood in another place Infinite other places might be here produced in which the forgiveness of our sins is positively and expresly ascribed to the Blood of Christ or to his death and sufferings for us which comes all to one But these will serve sufficiently to confirm this truth that the main end for which Christ suffered such a shameful ignominious death accompanied with so many scorns and torments was thereby to attone or reconcile us to his Heavenly Father to make us capable of the remission of our sins through the mercy of God and to assure us by that means of the favor of God and our adoption to the glories of eternal life By that one offering of himself hath he for ever perfected
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
us out the way unto life eternal both by thy Doctrine and Example Conduct us we beseech thee in the pathes of righteousness suppress that itch of curiosity which hath not left one Article of the holy Faith without stain or censure and make us chearfully submit our Reason to the Rule of Faith And thou O God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth send down thy holy Spirit into our hearts that by his Grace we may believe in thine onely begotten son JESUS CHRIST our Lord place all our hopes upon the merits of his most precious death and passion our comforts in his glorious Resurrection and Ascension That by his means and mediation we may be made true Members of thy Catholick Church enjoy a right Communion with thy blessed Saints and the remission of our sins in this present world That so we may be made partakers of the Resurrection unto Life eternal in the world to come So be it Amen FINIS Eccl. 12.12 Plautus Rom. 2.1 Eccl. 4.7 Tacit. Ann. Pag. 350. Pacian in Biblioth Patr. Whitac Contr. 2. q. 9. c. 8. Horat. de arte Poet. Ovid. Triâ—t Eleg. 1. Virg. Aen. l. 1. Ambros. in Hexaemer 1 Cor. 12.20 Ephes. 5.32 De Civit. dei l. 22. c. 17. Hos. 2.19 Eph. 5.30 Eph. 4.5 1 Cor. 12.13 Tacit. Annal. lib. 15. Joh. 3.16 Joh 20.31 2 Pet. 3.16 Rom. 14.1 Heb. 5 13 14. 2 Tim. 1.13 Iren. adv haeres l. 1. c. 2. Id. ibid. c. 3. Iren. adv haeâ—es l. 1. c. 3. Tertull. de veland Virgin Aug. Serm. de Temp. 115. Aug. de fide Symb. c. 1. Id. in Encheirid a Laur. Ruffin in Symbol Aug. Serm. 115. de Temp. Ambros. Serm. 38. Hieron Epist ad Pammach 61. Leo Epi. 13. ad Palcher De Eccl. Officiis l. 2 c. 3. Cap. 56. Terent. in Andria Aug. Encheir ad Laurent Id. lib. de fide Symb. c. 1. Epist. 61. ad Pammach c. 9. Lib. 1. c. 3. Tertul. adv Praxeam Ignat. Epist. ad Trallian Euseb. Hist. l. 1. c. ult Examen Concil Trident. sess 4. Articl of 1562. Art 134. Contra Donat. l. 4. c. 23. Field l. 4. c. 21. Vigilius contra Eutych l. 4. Hooker Eccles. Polit. l. 5. Apolog. pro Confess Remon Durand Rationale Divin Field of the Church l. 2. c. 1. Ruffinus in Exposit. Symb. Concil Agathens Can. 13. Aug. Homil 42. Conc. Foro-Iuliens Apud Binium Tom. 3. par 1. l. 1. p. 262. Durand Rational Divin Anast. apud Platinam in Collect. Concil Durand Rational Divin Baron Annal Eccl. A. 44. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Id. ibid. B. Bilsons Survey p. 664. August de doctr Christian. Id. de Civit. l. 11. c. 3. B Bilsons Survey p. 664. Binuis in Annot. in Concil Tolet. IV. Tom. Concil 2. part 2. Perk. Exposition of the Creed Mar. 16.15 Isocrat in Orat. ad Nicoclen Aristol Analytic prior Quintilian l. 2. cap. 13. Philo de vita Mofis l. 3. Iulii Etist decretal c. 8. Mat. 28 20. Paci Epist. 1. ad Symp. Downs of the Authors and Authority of the Creed Ruffinus in posit Symb. Lact. l. 2. c. 9. Act. 17.28 1 Cor. 15.33 Tit. 1.12 B. Iewels challenge Pet. Mart. de votis coelebat Chemnit Examen de Tradition c. 6. August Epist 19. Hieronyn ad Damas. Epist. 57. Vincent Lirin adv haeres c. 38. Id. ibid. c. 2. Augustin in Epist. 118. Id. contr Iulian. Pelagi l 2.9 Id. ibid. c. 10. Canon An. 1571. cap. de Concionator An. 1. Eliz. cap. 1. Saravia de divers ministerii gradibus Calvin Inst l. 2. c. 16. sect 1â— (b) Coke in Calvins case (c) Phocylid sentent (d) Rom. 8.38 (e) Philip. 1.6 (f) Valla in Annotat. in N. Test. (g) Zanch. de Natura Dei c. 3. (h) Melancht in Exam. Artic. de Iustificatione (i) Vrsin in Exposit. praecept 1. (k) Arist. in lib. Demonstrat (l) Joh. 4.39.41 42. (m) 2 Pet. 1.21 (n) 2 Thes. 2 10 11 12. (o) Heb. 11.1 (p) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (q) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (r) 2 Tim. 2.18 (s) Haymo in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (t) Heb. 3.14 (u) Budaeus in Comment Gr. Linguae (x) 2 Cor. 9.4 11.17 (y) Ephes. 6.12 (z) Haymo in Heb. 11. v. 1. (a) Id. ibid. (b) Rev. 1.20 (c) Beza in Heb. c. 11. v. 1. (d) August in Psalm 77. (e) Id. in Iohan tract 29. (f) Compend Theol. lib. 5. c. 21. (g) Zuinglius in Matth. 23.13 (h) Muscul. loci commun loco de Fide n. 3. (i) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. lib 2. c. 14. n. 3. (k) Mat. 8.26 (l) Mat. 28.2 c. (m) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 2. v. 11. (n) Joh. 4.39 (o) Davenant in Coloss. 2. v. 2. (p) Joh. 11.42 (q) Calvin in Ioh. cap. 11. v. 42. (r) Joh. 1.12 (s) Joh. 2.23 (t) Calv. in locum cap. 2. v. 23. (u) Joh. 2.24 (x) Muscul Loci commun de fide (y) Exod. 14. v. 31. (z) Muscul. ut supr (a) Exod. 19.9 (b) Basil. de sancto Spiritu c. 14. (c) Socrat. hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. 25. (d) Ruffin in Exposit. Symboli (e) Paschas de Spirit sancto lib. 1. (f) August in Ioh. tractat 29. (g) Wotton de Reconcil Peccat part 1. l. 2. c. 14. (h) Joh. 2.23 (i) Act. 16 31. (k) Hermes (l) Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in prooemio (m) Hilar. de Trinitate l. 10. (n) Symbol Caroli M. (o) Heb. 11.6 (p) Iewel Apol Eccles. Anglic (q) Act. 8.13 (r) Calvin Instit. l. 3. c. 2. â— 10. (s) Idem in Act. 8.13 (t) Act. 8.21 22. (u) Ignat. Epi. (x) 1 Tim. 1.19 20. 2 Tim. 2.17 18. (y) 1 Tim. 1.20 (z) Calvin Instit l. 3. c. 2. n. 11. (a) Rom. 6.22 (b) Act. 5.4 (c) Act. 8.23.21 (d) 1 Tim. 1.19 (e) Act. 8.22 (f) 1 Tim. 1.20 (g) 1 Cor. 5.4 (h) Rom. 1. 18.20 (i) Jude v. 6. (k) Mat. 25.30.1 (l) Mark 1.24 (m) Mat. 8.29 (n) Heb. 2.16 (o) Sect. 1. ch 2. (p) Vrsin Theses Theol. c. 13. (q) Id. ibid. (r) Iackson of justifying faith c. 2. (s) Vrsin Cutech part 2. qu. 21. n. 2. (t) Matth. 13.20 21. (u) Bucan Com. loc de Fide (x) Vrsin Catech part 2. qu. 21. (y) Mat. 17.20 (z) 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. (a) Cicer. in Tusc. quaest l. 1. (b) Lactant. l. 3.8 (c) Act. 14.16 17. (d) Tacit. de mor. German (e) Lactant. l. 1.2 (f) Ap. Morâ— de vera Relig. (g) Lactant l. 1. c. 11.13 c. (h) Lucan Pharsal l. 10. (i) Lactant. l. 2. (k) Iuvenal Sat. 13. (l) August de civit Dei l. (n) Minut. Fel in Octavio (o) Lactant. l. 1.6 (p) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (r) Mereur Trism in Paeman c. 2 3 4 c. El in Asclep c. 6 7. (s) Lactant. l. 1.6 (t) Id. cap. 7. (u) Minut. Fel. in Octavio (x) Clem. Alexand in Proâ—rept (y) Laert. in vita Socrat. (z) Tertul. in Apolog. c. 46. (a) Laert. in vita Socr. (b) Plato in Epist. 13. ad