of great goodness saith the Prophet David O Hierusalem Heirusalem saith the son of David how often would I have gathered thee together as a Hen doth her Chickens but ye would not But is the patience of a Father so implanted in him that it can never be worn out and converted to anger Not so we know it is a proverb that patientia laesa fit furor the greatest patience if abused may possibly be turned to the greatest fury or anger at the least in the highest degree How angry was old Iacob with his two sons the Brethren in evil when he desired his soul might not come into their secret and prayed to God to scatter them in Jacob and divide them in Israel And cannot God be angry think we with his stubborn and rebellious children when they do wilfully transgress his holy laws and with an high hand violate all his sacred precepts Why then doth he so often punish those that do amiss for Ira Dei non est aliud quam voluntas puniendi as St. Augustine hath it the anger of God is only his just will to chastise the sinner Why then did he repent of his making man or rain down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah as it is said he did Why then do we beseech him with such shame and sorrow to correct us in his judgement and not in his fury that we may not be consumed and brought to nothing He that bids us be angrie and sin not intended not the extirpation but the moderation of anger And thereupon Lactantius very well inferreth Qui ergo irasâ—i nos jubet ipse utique irascitur he that bids us be angry so we do not sin can without doubt be angrie too when he seeth occasion The like may be affirmed also of those other affections which are in Parents towards those whom they have begotten Remove the imperfections from them and the affections of themselves after separation may without any danger and as some Schoolmen think without any Metaphor be ascribed to GOD. Now out of those affections which before we specified ariseth the chief care of our natural parents which is to see us trained up in some lawful trades or in the knowledge of good letters that being put into a course of good education we may subsist with credit and escape those miseries which poverty and necessity may else bring upon us And out of that authority which they have by nature to dispose of us as they see most sutable unto our deserts ariseth the chief power of our natural parents either to make us heirs of their goods and fortunes or to leave us out First for the care of education it seemed so necessary to the Grecians in the former times that one of their Wisemen did use to say Praestat non nasci that it was better not to be born then not well instructed And by the laws of Rome which they had from Greece when as the father now grown old and out of work did sue his son for Alimonie as we use to call it it was a good plea in the son against his Father that he had never taken care of his education or trained him in the knowledge of any Art either ingenuous or mechanick Filius arte carens Patris incuria eidem necessaria vitae subsidia ne praestato was one of the laws of the twelve Tables How much more necessary must we think that part of our education which the wise Grecian never knew nor ever was prescribed by the laws of Rome that part I mean by which young children are instructed in the fear of GOD and taught betimes to run the pathes of the Lords commandements But if the Father do his office if that no care be wanting on his part to instruct his children if he admonish and advice them when they do amiss and they continue still to afflict his heart either by neglecting that imployment in which he hath placed them or wasting his estate in riotous and licentious courses is the poor Father left without further remedy then what may be had upon complaint from the Civil Magistrate No by no means The Father at the first by the law of Nations had potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death over all their children But after the receiving of the Christian faith the law was altered in that case by the following Emperours And now as the Civilians tell us Parentibus solummodo relinquitur honesta emendatio maximis ex causis exhaeredatio i. e. The fathers power consisteth most especially in these points to punish and chastise them for their smaller faults and disinherit them in time if they prove incorrigible Which power as it was used by Iacob on his eldest son Reuben because he had defiled his old fathers bed so hath it since been ordinary in the practise of all times and ages though perhaps more to be commended where it may not then where it may possibly be spared Such also is the care and consequently such the power of our Heavenly Father For who but he taught Abel how to order Sheep and Cain to till the ground or to be an husbandman Iubal to play on instruments and Tubal-cain to work in iron who but he called forth Ioshua to fight his battels and Aaron and his sons to serve at the holy Altar And for the bringing of them up in the fear of GOD he hath revealed himself so far to the Turks and Pagans and in the former times to the antient Gentiles which are his children only by the right of Creation that by the things which he hath made they may perceive both his eternal power and Godhead Though he permitted them for a while to walk in their own ways and so fulfil their several lusts yet left he not himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or without a witness in that he shewed his works unto them and filled their hearts with food and gladness Nay that which may be known of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul calleth it is manifest in them for the invisible things of God saith the same Apostle from the creation of the world are clearly seen that is as Augustine doth expound it per visibilia Creaturae pervenisse eos ad intelligent am invisiblis Creatoris by studying on the Book of Nature they came to understand the nature of GOD. For further proof whereof if more proof be necessary we need but have recourse to the former Chapter where we did prove this point that there was a God and that he is eternal and incomprehensible of infinite both power and wisdome Nor did GOD leave them so in this general knowledge but he revealed so much of his will unto them as is included or expressed in the law of Nature The Gentiles saith St. Paul which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law which
the Greeks and the antient Fathers The ireconcileable differences amongst the Papists and the fluctuation of St. Augustine in the point of Purgatory CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No actual sin so great but it is capable of forgivenesse In what respect some sins may be accounted venial and others mortall FOrgivenesse of sins the first great benefit redounding unto mankind by our Saviours passion Man first made righteous in himself but left at liberty to follow or not to follow the ways of life Adam not God the author of the first transgression proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The heresie of the Cataphrygians and of Florinus in making God the Author of sin as also of Bardesenus and Priscilian imputing sin to fate and the stars of Heaven The impious heresie of Florinus revived by the Libertines The Founder of the Libertines a member of the Church of Rome not of Calvins Schoole Calvin and his Disciples not altogether free from the same strange tenets The sin of Adam propagated to his whole posterity Original sin defined by the Church of England and in what it specially consisteth That there is such a sin as original sin proved by the testimony of the Scriptures by the light of reason and by the Practise of the Church Private Baptisme why first used and the use thereof maintained in the Church of England Not the day of their birth but of the death of the Saints observed as Festivals by the Church and upon what reasons The word natalis what it signifyeth in the Martyrologies Original sin how propagated from one man to another and how to children borne of regenerate Parents The sin of Adam not made ours by imitation only but by propagation Of the distinction of sins in venial and mortal and how far abominable Equality of sins a Paradox in the Schoole of Christ. No sin considered in its self to be counted veniall but only by the grace and goodnesse of Almighty God No sin so great but what is capable of Pardon if repented of no not the murdering of Christ nor the sin against the holy Ghost Arguments from the holy Scriptures as Heb 6.4 6. and Heb. 10.26 27. and 1 Ioh. 5.16 to prove some sins to be uncapable of pardon produced and answered The proper application of the severall places with the error of our last Translators in the second Text. CHAP. VI. Of the remission of sins by the bloud of Christ and of the Abolition of the body of sin by Baptisme and Repentance Of confession made unto the Priest and the authority Sacerdotal GOD the sole Author Christ the impulsive meritorious cause of the forgivenesse of sins Remission of sins how and in what respects ascribed to the bloud of Christ. Power to forgive sins conferred upon and exercised by the Apostles The doctrine of the Church of England touching the efficacy of Baptisme in the washing away of sin confirmed by the Scriptures and the Fathers and many eminent Divines of the reformed Churches Baptismal washings frequently used of old both by Iews and Gentiles as well to expiate their sins as to manifest and declare their innocence The waters of Baptisme in what respect made efficacious unto the washing away of the guilt of sin What it is which makes Baptisme to be efficacious unto the washing away of sin The rigor of the Primitive Church towards such as sinned after Baptisme The Clinici what they were and how then esteemed of The institution and antiquity of Infant Baptisme The old rule for determining in doubtfull cases how applyed to this Proofs for the Baptisme of Infants from St. Augustine up to Irenaeus inclusively What faith it is by which Infants are Baptized and justifyed Of the necessity of Baptisme the want thereof how supplyed or excused in the Primitive times and of the state of Infants dying unbaptized Repentance necessary and effectuall in men of riper years for remission of sins Confession in the first place to be made to God satisfaction for the wrong done to be given to man Satisfaction for sin in what sense to be given to God by the Penitent sinner Private confession to a Priest allowed of and required by the Church of England The Churches care in preserving the seal of confession from all violation Confession to a Priest defended by the best Divines of the Anglical Church approved by the Lutheranâ— not condemned by Calvin The disagreement of the Papists in the proofs of their auricular confession from the Texts of Scripture The severity of exacting all particular circumstances in confession with the inconveniences thereof That the power of sacerdotall Absolution in the opinion of the Fathers is not declarative only but judicial and that it is so also both in the Doctrine and the practise of the Church of England CHAP. VII Of the Resurrection of the body and the proofs thereof The objections against it answered Touching the circumstances and manner of it The History and grounds of the Millenarians THe resurrection of the body derided and contemned by the Antient Gentiles Proofs for the resurrection from the words of Iob from the Psalmes and Prophets and from the Argument of our Saviour in the holy Gospels Our Saviours Argument for the resurrection against the cavils of the Sadduces declared expounded and applyed to the present purpose Several Arguments to the same purpose and effect alledged by St. Paul in his Epistles and that too of the same numerical not another body Baptizing of or for the dead a pregnant proof or argument for the resurrection severall expositions of the place produced and which most probable Baptizing or washing of the dead antiently in use amongst the Iews the Gentiles and the Primitive Christians with the reasons of it Practical and natural truths for a resurrection The resurrection of the same bâ—dy denyed by Hereticks and justifyed with strong reasons by the Orthodox Christians Two strong and powerfull arguments for the resurrection produced from the Adamant and the art of Chymistry That the dead bodies shall be raised in a perfect stature and without those deformities which here they had and in their several sexes also contrary to the fancies of some vain disputers Considerations raised on the Doctrine of the resurrection with reference unto others and unto our selves The Doctrine of the Millenarians originally founded on some Iewish dotages by whom first set on foot in the Church of Christ how refined and propagated The Millenarian Kingdome described by Lactantius and countenanced by many of the antient writers till cryed down by Hierome The texts of Scripture on which the Millenarians found their fancies produced examined and lâ—yed by as unusefull for them The disagreement of the old Millenarians in the true stating of their Kingdome CHAP. VIII Of the immortality of the soul and the glories of Eternal life prepared for it as also of the place and torment of hell Hell
to him therefore must we sue and address our prayers as often as we stand in need of his help and succour either in stirring up the diligence of our own proper Angels or sending us such for their succour as the case requireth The Angels are his Ministers but not our Masters our Guardians at the best but by no means our Patrons Therefore we must not pray to them in our times of danger but to God that he would please to send them Not unto them because we know no warrant for it in the holy Scripture nor any means might it be done without such warrant to acquaint them ordinarily with our present need by which they may take notice of our distresses and come in to help us 'T is true the Daemons or evil Angels in the state of Gentilism were honoured both with Invocation and with Adoration and the Colossians being newly weaned from their Idolatries thought it no great impiety to change the subject and to transfer that honour on the Angels of light which formerly they had conferred on the Angels of darkness But doth St. Paul allow of this No he blames them for it Let no man saith he beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels Not in a voluntary humility as if we thought our selves unworthy to look up to God and therfore must employ the Angels for our Mediators For this was formerly alleadged as it seems by Zonaras by some weak Christians in the infancy and first days of the Church Of whom he telleth us that they were verily perswaded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That we ought not to invocate Christ to help us or to bring us to God but to desire that favour of the Angels rather immediate address to Christ being a thing too high for our great unworthiness Nor in the worshipping of Angels which being an effect of their former Gentilism Of which consult St. August Confess l. 10. cap. 42. De Civit. Dei l. 8 9 10. Theodoret upon the Text Clemens of Alexandr Strom. l. 3. Can. 35. Concil Laodicensis was therefore by St. Paul condemned and forbidden as a thing plainly derogatory to the honour of Christ whom they did hereby rob of the glorious Office of being the Mediator between God and man 'T is true that there were some in the Primitive times who were called Angelici who intermingled the Worship of God with the adoration of Angels and lived about the end of the second Century But then it is as true withall that they were reckoned Hereticks for so doing both by Epiphanius in his Pannaion and by St. Augustine in his 39. chap. ad quod vult Deum And not the adoration only but even the invocation of Angels also invocation being an act of Divine worship is by the same Epiphanius condemned for heresie Haer. 38. where he speaks of it as a thing in usual practise amongst the Hereticks called Caini Nor was this worshipping of Angels condemned only by them but by all the Fathers of the Council of Laodicea Canon 35. nor by them only who were guided by a fallible spirit nor by St. Paul only though directed by the Spirit of God but by the very Angels themselves who constantly have refused this honour whensoever by mistake or otherwise it was offered to them For when Manoah in testimony of his joy and thankfulness would have offered a Kid unto that Angel which brought him news from Heaven of the birth of his son the Angel did refuse it saying If thou wilt offer a Burnt-offering thou must offer it unto the Lord By which modest and religious refusal of so great an honour Manoah knew as the Text hath it that he was an Angel And if we may not offer to them the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving then certainly they do as little expect our incense or the oblation of our prayers And therefore it was both piously and acutely said by divine St. Augustine that if we would rightly worship Angels we must first learn of them that they will not be worshipped The like we also finde in the Revelation Where when St. Iohn astonished at the sight of the Angel fell down at his feet to worship him the Angel did refuse it saying See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant and of thy Brethren Concerning which we have this memorable passage of the same St. Augustine Quare honoramus eos c. We honour saith he the angels with love not service neither do we build Temples to their honour for they will not so be honoured by us because they know that we our selves are the Temples of God And therefore it is rightly written that a man was forbidden by an Angel that he should not worship him but one God alone under whom he was a fellow-servant with him They then which do invite us to serve and worship them as Gods and so do all which do invite us to pray unto them are like to proud men who would be worshipped if they might though to say truth to worship such men is less dangerous then to worship Angels Finally he resolves it thus and with his Resolution I shall close this point though much more might be said in the prosecution Let Religion therefore binde us to one God Omnipotent because between our mindes or that inward light by which we understand him to be the Father and the truth there is no creature interposed Pray to them then we may not we have no ground for it But pray to GOD we may to send them to our aid and succour when the extremity of danger doth invite us to it And having made our prayers we may rest assured that God will send them down from his holy hill from whence comes Salvation and give them charge to succour us as our need requireth Calvin himself alloweth of this and gives it for a Rule or Precept Vt in periculis constituti a Deo petamus protectionem Angelorum confidamus eos ex mandato Dei praesto fore But behold a greater then Calvin here For our most blessed Mother the Church of England not only doth allow of so good a rule but hath reduced his rule to as good a practise By whom we are taught to pray in the Collect for St. Michael the Archangels day that God who hath ordained and constituted the service of all Angels and men in a wonderful order would mercifully grant that they who always do him service in Heaven may by his appointment succour and defend us on earth through IESVS CHRIST our Lord. Amen Further then this we may not go without entrenching deeply upon Gods Prerogative which as these blessed spirits expect not from us so neither will they take it if it should be offered Non nobis Domine non nobis is the Angels song But so it is not with the Devil or the Angels of darkness who do not only accept of those
the Spirit of prophesie as Minutius Felix well observeth Nay being spirits as they are of an excellent knowledge and either by a foresight which they have of some things in future or by conjecturing at events out of natural causes or coming by some other means to be made acquainted with the will of God they took upon them to effect what they knew would follow and to be the Authors of those publick blessings which were hard at hand so that indeed it was no wonder Si sibi Templa si honores si sacrificia tribuuntur if thereupon the people would erect them Temples and offer sacrifice unto them and yeild them other Divine honours fit for none but Gods By means whereof they did not only raise themselves into the Throne and Majesty of Almighty God and captivated almost all the world in a blinde obedience to their will and commands Sed veri ac singularis Dei notitiam apud omnes gentes inveteraverunt as the same Lactantius rightly noteth but in a manner had defaced the knowledge of the true one and only God over all the earth And in this blindeness and Idolatry did the world continue till the birth of CHRIST the Idols of Egypt falling down flat before him when he was carryed into that countrey in his Mothers arms as Palladius telleth us and all the Oracles of the Gentiles failing at the time of his death as is collected out of that work of Plutarchs inscribed De defectu Oraculorum Which preparation notwithstanding these Devils or Daemons call them which you will had gotten such possession of the mindes of men that the Apostles and Evangelists found it a far easier matter to cast the Devils out of their bodies then out of their souls and long it was before the rising of the Sun of righteousness was able to dispel those thick clowds of darkness wherewith they had thus overspread the whole face of the Earth Which with their power and influence in the acts of sin occasioned the Apostle to make this expression that he wrestled not against flesh and bloud but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers not of this world but of the darknesse of this world and against spiritual wickednesses in high places By which words as he means the Devils and infernal spirits against which the man of God is to combate daily so by those words he gives me a just ground to think that the Angels which did fall from the primitive purity and have since laboured noithing more then the ruine of man were chiefly of those Orders of Aâ—gels which are called Principalities and Powers in the holy Scriptures And this I am the rather induced to think because I finde them called by those names in another place where the Apostle speaking of Christs victory over Hell and Satan describes it thus that having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly and triumphed over them But of this argument enough It is now time that we proceed to the Creation and fall of man as that which more immediately conduceth to the following Articles of the Incarnation death and passion of our Lord and Saviour And first for mans Creation it was last in order though first in Gods intention of the six days work it being thought unfit in Gods heavenly wisdome to create man into the world before he was provided of a decent house and whatsoever else was necessary both for life and comfort For it we look unto the end for which God made many of the inferiour creatures reperâ—â—mus eum non necessitati modo sed oblectamento voluisse consulere as Calvin rightly hath observed we shall finde that he not only intended them for the necessities of mans life but also for the convenience and delight in living And whereas all the rest of the six days work were the acts only of his power the creating of man doth seem to be an act both of power and wisdome In all the rest there was nothing but a Dixit Deus he spake the word and they were made saith the Royal Psalmist But in the making of man there was somewhat more a Faciamus hominem a consultation called about it each Person of the Trinity did deliberate on it and every one contributed somewhat to his composition For God the Father as the chief workman or the principal agent gave him form and feature in which he did imprint his own heavenly Image The Son who is the living and eternal Word gave him voyce or speech that so he might be able to set forth Gods praises and the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as the Nicene Fathers truly call him did breath into his nosthrils the breath of life Or if we look upon it as one act of all we shall finde man agreeing with many of the creatures in the matter out of which he was made but very different from them all both in form and figure For though God pleased to make him of the dust of Earth to humble him and keep him from aspiring thoughts as oft as he reflected on his first Original yet did he make him of a straight and erected structure advanced his head up towards the Firmament and therein gave him the preheminence over all creatures else which had been made before of the same materials And this is that which Ovid the Poet thus expresseth Pronaque cum spectant animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit coelumque videre Iussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus That is to say And where all Creatures else with down cast eye Look towards th' Earth he rais'd mans Head on high And with a lofty look did him indue That so he might with ease Heavens glories view A thing of principal moment if considered rightly not only to the beeing but well being of man who is hereby instructed by the Lord his God that in the setling of his desires and affections he should take counsell of his making so to advance his meditations as God doth his head and not by fastning both his looks and thoughts on the things below him to disgrace as much as in him is the dignity of his creation and consequently merit to have had the countenance even of those very beasts whose minde he carryeth For I am verily perswaded that if the worldly minded man and such as are not well instructed in the things of God did but consider of the figure of his body only that very contemplation would promote him in the way of godliness and rectifie such errours and misperswasion wherewith his soul hath been misguided in the way of truth Certain I am that Lactantius whom I have so often cited in this present work examining the Original and growth of Atheism with which the world had been infected in the former times makes this amongst some other causes to be one of the principal that men had formerly neglected to look up
which the voice from heaven proclaimed him openly to be But since that time there had been many bickerings between them in which the Devil always went away with the loss his Ministers disgraced and their crimes laid open even in the sight of all the people his Kingdome in the souls of men in danger to be lost for ever by the preaching of that Gospel which our Saviour taught and as a preparative thereunto himself ejected violently out of many of his strongest holds and fortresses I mean the bodies of those men which he had possessed And then why may we not conceive that either to revenge himself on his mortal enemy in a desperate hope to prevail against him he had now mustred all his forces for another onset and was resolved to put the whole fortune of his affairs upon the issue of this combat and by the issue and success thereof of so great a battel to decide the title which he pretended and laid claim to in the souls of mankinde Why may not this be thought the conflict in which our Saviour was ingaged or willingly had ingaged himself on the appearance of the Angel for the success whereof he prayed so earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Greek with greater earnestness of minde and fervency of zeal then he did before For my part I can see no reason but it might be so Certain I am that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a race a wrastling or some such solemn publick exercise and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the plural number denote such things as appertain to those games and exercises Thus read we in the book of Maccabees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum quinquennalis Agon Tyro celebraretur i. e. when the games of every fift year were kept at Tyre and in the first to the Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nam qui in Agone contendit c. i. e. Every man that striveth for the mastery as the English reads it And it is plain to any who is conversant in the Greek not only that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie to be solicitous and in anguish but also to contend or strive about the victory but also that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word here used by the Evangelists though it doth generally denote a dismaying sorrow yet is used sometimes to express Luctantis angustias difficillimas the straights which Wrastlers are reduced to in those publick exercises But whether this conjecture be approved or not for I leave it arbitrary there is no question to be made but that the bloudy sweat which the Scripture speaks of proceeded not from fear but fervency not from the anguish of his heart but from that heat of zeal and strong intension of minde which was then upon him It could not come from fear that 's certain for fear as Galen hath observed doth presently drive the bloud and spirits towards their Fountain and contracteth them together by cooling the uttermost parts of the body For on the apprehension of any imminent danger the bloud and spirits which are naturally diffused through all the parts of the body repair immmediately unto the heart as the principal fortress for the strength and preservation of the whole repercussis spiritibus atque in intimos cordis sinus receptis as we read in Scaliger So that the bloud and spirits being drawn back to the heart or towards their fountain as Galen saith as usually they are in the case of fear it cannot be that any extremity of fear should be the cause of such an unusual kinde of sweat as that which did befal our Saviour And on the other side it is no new thing that fervency of zeal and a vehement contention of the minde being they heat and thin the bloud and not cool and thicken it as we are told by Galen that fear doth most commonly should produce such a strange effect as a bloudy sweat For the Physitian whosoever he was who writ the Book De utilitate respirationis amongst Galens works doth affirm for certain Contingere poros ex multo aut fervido spiritu adeo dilatari ut etiam exeat sanguis per eos fiatque sudor sanguineus that is to say it sometimes hapneth that abundant or fervent spirits do so dilate the pores of the body that bloud issueth out by them and so the sweat may be bloudy Which observation being true as no doubt it is we may well think if we look to the order and sequence of the Gospel that the fervent zeal of our Redeemer extremely heating the whole body melting the spirits rarifying the bloud opening the pores and so colouring and thickning the sweat of Christ might in most likelyhood be the cause of that bloudy sweat Doth not the Gospel say expresly that being in an Agony or dangerous and dreadful conflict he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud falling down to the ground and was not then that bloudy sweat a natural and proper effect of that fervency and zeal of prayer of which it is made a consequent in the holy Gospel Certain I am that Zuinglius one of the first men that laboured in the present Reformation of the Church did conceive it so Non lacrymas modo oculis sed sanguinis guttas e corpore exprimit seria devota oratio c. Serious and fervent prayer saith he doth not only draw tears from the eyes but a bloudy sweat also from the body as we see in Christs agony And doth not Bernard say to the same effect that Christ falling into an agony and praying the third time seemed to weep not only with his eyes but with all the parts of his body Nor doth it hinder us at all that the drops are said to be great great drops of bloud as in the English such as the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latines Grumi but doth rather help us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed doth sometimes signifie the congealed parts of that which is liquid and the compacted peeces of that which is powdered But it stands very well with reason that Christs sweat might be thick by reason it issued from the inmost parts of his body and was mixed with bloud or might break out in great and eminent drops as coming from him violently and abundantly and being coloured with bloud and congealed with the coldness of the ayr might trickle down like strings or great drops of bloud to the very ground The greater those drops seemed to be the greater was that fervency of Spirit in which he prayed unto the Lord the greater the occasion he had to powre sorth those prayers He was now in his great incounter with the powers of darkness the safety and salvation of all mankinde depended on the issue and success thereof Angels and Archangels and all the hosts of heaven were gathered as
like this of Camerarius we finde in Espencaeus also in his Comment on the 3. Chap. of the 2. of Tim. touching the Hutites a by-branch of the sect of Anabaptists Of the next sort Alstedius a late famous writer and Professor of Herborn in high Germanie hath presumed so far as to define the year of Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead which after his accompt shall be in the year of CHRIST 3694. The best is he takes time enough not to be disproved For being of opinion as t is plain he is that there shall be a corporall resurrection of the Saints and Martyrs at least a thousand years before the generall resurrection of all flesh during which time they shall enjoy all possible felicity that the world can give and fixing the beginning of those thousand years in Ann. 2694. it must needs follow thereupon that the day of the generall resurrection and of Christs coming to judgement must be in the year 3694. as before was said But before him Napeir a Scot one of the Ancestors of the now right noble Lord of Marchiston adventured on the like attempt although he differed very much in his computation For publishing a Commentary on the Revelation Ann. 159â— he will defer the end of the world no longer then to ninety two years after that publication which fals into the year 1685. Which though it comes two thousand years before that of Alsted yet was it put off long enough to save his credit the good man being like to die long before that time Whereupon one of our own Countrymen wrote this following Epigram Nonaginta duos durabit mundus in Annos Mundus ad arbitrium si stat obitque tuum Cur mundi finem propiorem non facis ut ne Ante obitum mendax arguerere Sapis Which I finde thus Englished to my hand Ninety two years the World as yet shall stand If it do stand or fall by your command But say why plac'd you not the worlds end nigher Lest ere you dyed you might be found a lyer Add unto this a pleasant jest which King Iames put upon the Author of the book aforesaid for such adventurers cannot be too much exposed to the publick scorne and in brief is this The Gentleman holding lands of the Crown of Scotland petitioned the King to have a longer terme granted in his estate The King demanded of him how long time he desired to have added to it To which when he had answered five hundred years God a my soul replyed the King that is four hundred years more then the world shall last and I conceive you do not mean to hold my Land in the world to come And so dismissed him for that time although he after gratifyed him in his request having thus made him sensible of his own absurdities But leaving these Knights errant to seek new adventures we will next look unto the place appointed for this general Sessions in which we have some light of Scripture and probabilities of reason to direct our search This by some very learned men is supposed to be in the Aire over the valley of Iehosaphat which is near mount Olivet and both of them Eastward of Hierusalem And this they do upon these grounds For first they say the holy Scriptures seem to say it in as plain words as may be For thus saith God the Lord Jehovah I will gather all nations into the valley of Jehosaphat and plead with them there Cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord Let the heathen be wakened and come upon the valley of Jehosaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about Besides the name of Iehosaphat doth signifie as much as The Lord will judge And in this valley did God give Iehosaphat a signall victory over the Ammonites Moabites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir which was a type or figure of that finall victory which Christ the supreme Iudge shall give his Elect overall their enemies in the last day and in that very place as the Iewish Doctors do expound it That of the Prophet Zechariah And his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives which is before Hierusalem to the East c. though formerly applyed by us unto Christs Ascension may be accommodated also to his coming to judge the world The rather in regard it was said by the holy Angel unto his Disciples This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven being then upon the mount of Olives shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go hence Which possibly may as wel be meant of the place as of other the circumstances of his coming and therefore by Aquinas and all the rest of the old Schoolmen except Lombard and Alexander of Hales is made to be the second reason which they build upon for nominating this valley or rather some place over it in the Ayr to be the place appointed for the future judgement The third reason they take from a passage in the Prophet Ezekiel compared with Christs own words in his holy Gospel The Prophet tels us of Hierusalem that it is placed in medio Gentium in the very midst of the world and so accordingly it is seated by some Cosmographers And Christ hath told us of the Angels that they shall gather together the Elect from the four windes from one end of Heaven unto the other If then the Termini a quibus be the four parts of the world and Hierusalem be seated in the midst of the earth as they say it is the terminus ad quem must be Hierusalem or some place neer it and such is this Valley of Iehosophat or else some Angels must be thought to be of a more quick dispatch then others which were ridiculous to imagine But that which is of greatest moment is that our Lord and Saviour for ever blessed was crucified and put to open shame very neer that place Mount Calvary and the Valley of Iehosaphat being not far asunder if not close together and conterminous And what can be more probable for they propose not these proofs for Demonstrations then that where Christ was put unto publick shame he should again receive a more publick honour and that where he himself was condemned and punished with so much malice and injustice he should appear to judge the world with such truth and equity These are the reasons brought to make good this Tenet which as I cannot easily grant to be convincing so I am far from saying any thing in reproof of that which hath such handsome probabilities to gain credit to it And now I am fallen upon these points I will adventure on another though more nice then necessary At least it may be so accounted and I pass not for it Quilibet abundet in suo sensu Let every man injoy that liberty I mean in matters of this nature which I take my self We said
of sin as a general circumstance which may accompany any sin And many of those who have renounced the Faith of Christ under persecution or called his divinity in question did afterwards recant their Errors and became good Christians Final Apostasie indeed and a malicious resisting of the known Truth till the very last are most grievous sins and shall no question be rewarded with eternal punishment as every other sin shall be which is not expiated with Repentance but can with no more right or reason be called the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than unrepented Murder unrepented Adultery unrepented Heresie or any other of that nature Therefore to set this business right it is judiciously observed by my Learned Friend Sir R. F. in his Tractate Of the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost First That this sin so much disputed and debated in neither of the three Evangelists which record this passage is called The sin against the Holy Ghost but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Secondly That blaspheming according to the true Etymon of the Word is a blasting of the fame of another man a malicious detracting from him or speaking against him as both St. Matthew and St. Luke do expound the word Matth. 12.32 and Luke 12.10 Thirdly That these words were spoken by our Saviour Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Miracles affirming That that wondrous work of casting out Devils which he had wrought by the power of the Spirit of God as he himself affirmeth Matth. 12.28 was done by the power and help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Vers. 24. And Fourthly That the Scribes and Pharisees being the eye-witnesses of such miracles as might make them know that Christ was a Teacher come from God did notwithstanding lay that reproach upon them to the end That the people being beaten off from giving credit to his miracles should give no faith unto his Doctrine Upon which grounds he builds this definition of it viz. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was an evil-speaking or slandering of the miracles of our Saviour Christ by those who though they were convinced by the miracles to believe that such works could not be done but by the power of God did yet maliciously say That they were wrought by the power of the Devil And hereupon he doth infer these two following Corollaries First That we have no safe rule to conclude that any but the Scribes and Pharisees and their confederates committed in those times this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so condemned by Christ And Secondly That it is a matter of probability that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not a sin committable by any Christian who lived not in the time of our Lord and Saviour And to say truth If such a sin were practicable by us Christians since it must needs be a very great marvel if not somewhat more that the Apostles who were very precise and punctual in dehorting from all manner of sin should never in any of their Epistles take notice of this or give us any Caveat to beware thereof and in particular that St. Paul making a specification of the fruits of the Spirit and such a general muster of the works of the flesh as are repugnant thereunto should not so much as give a glance which doth look this way To countenance the opinion of this Learned Gentleman I shall adde here the judgement of two learned Iesuites Maldonates first Who makes this sin to be the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing our Saviour cast out Devils Manifesta Spiritus Sancti opera daemoni tribuebant ascribed the visible works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil Of Estius next who distinguishing betwixt the sin against the Holy Ghost and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost referreth to the first all sins of determined malice to the second onely such malicious and slanderous reproaches against the mighty works of God Quale erat illud Scribarum divina miracula malitiosè calumniantium As was that of the Scribes maliciously slandering our Saviours miracles And if it be a sin or blasphemy call it which you will not acted but by them and on that occasion it is not practicable now But leaving this to the determination of the Church of England lawfully and Canonically represented in an holy Synod to which that Learned Gentleman doth submit his judgement proceed we on in our discourse of the Holy Ghost concerning whose Divinity or Godhead there is not so much difference in the Christian World as in the manner of his Procession or Emission And here indeed the World hath been long divided the Greek Church keeping themselves to express words of Scripture making him to proceed from the Father onely the Latines on the Authority of some later Councils and Logical inferences from the Scripture making him to proceed both from Father and the Son And though these last may seem to have the worst end of the Cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain Text of Scripture yet do they Anathematize and curse the other as most desperate Hereticks if not Apostates from the Faith Nor will they admit of any medium towards reconcilement although the controversie by moderate and sober men is brought to a very narrow issue and seemeth to consist rather in their Forms of Speech than any material Terms of Difference For Damascen the great Schoolman of the Eastern Church though he deny that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son yet he granteth him to be Spiritum filii per filium to proceed from the Father by the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son And Bessarion and Gennadius two of the Grecian Divines who appeared in the name of that Church in the Council of Florence and were like to understand the meaning of Damascen better than any of the Latines affirmed as Bellarmine tells us of them That he denied not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as to the truth of his proceeding Sed existimasse tutius dici per filium quam ex filio quoad modum loquendi but thought onely that it was the safer expression to say That he proceeded by the Son than from the Son And Clictoveus in his Comment on that Book of Damascen l. 1. c. 12. is of opinion That the difference between the East and Western-Churches as to this particular is In voce potius modo explicandi quam in ipsa re More in the terms and manner of expression than the thing it self The Master of the Sentences doth affirm as much saying That the Greeks do differ from the Latines Verbo non sensu not in the meaning of the Point but the forms of Speech And more than so The Greeks saith he confess the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of the Son with the Apostle Gal. 4. And the Spirit of Truth with the Evangelist Joh.
ab his putat exigendam fidem quos novit nullam propriam habere culpam The justice of Almighty God saith he doth not think it fitting that having committed no particular sin of their own he should exact of them a proper and particular faith of their own but as they were undone by anothers fault so they should be relieved by anothers faith To which effect though not so fully I have read somewhere I am sure in St. Ierome but cannot well remember where Qui peccavit in altero credat in altero That he which hath sinned in others may believe by others For the next point though we maintain the necessity of Baptism as the ordinary outward means to attain salvation and do correct those Ministers by the Churches censures by whose gross negligence or default if required to do it an Infant shall die unbaptized Yet we conceive it not so absolutely necessary in the way to Heaven but it is possible for a man to be saved without it For antiquity supplied in some the want of water by blood which many times was the case of Martyrs in others the inevitable want of Baptism by the Holy Ghost the earnestness of the desire if it might have been had supplying the defect of the outward Ceremony Hence came the old distinction of Baptismus fluminis Baptismus flaminis and Baptismus sanguinis Concerning which the Fathers teach us this in brief That where men are debarred by an evitable impossibility from the outward Sacrament Faith and the inward conversion of the heart flying unto God in IESUS CHRIST through the sweet motion and gracious instinct of the Holy Spirit may be reckoned for a kinde of Baptism because thereby they obtain all that which they so earnestly sought after in the Sacrament of Baptism if they could have been partakers of it And if it be so that an ordinary degree of Faith do sometime obtain salvation without the Baptism of Water much more may that which makes men willing to suffer death for Christs and the Gospels sake and be baptized as it were in their dearest blood It was not simply the want of Baptism but the neglect and contempt thereof which antiently in the Adulti men of riper years was accounted damnable But what may then be said in the case of Infants in whom are no such strong desires no such sanctified motions Shall we adjudge them with St. Augustine to eternal fire as some say he did who thereby worthily got the name of Infanto-mastyx or the scourge of Infants as he had gloriously gained the title of Malleus Pelagianorum The Maul or Hammer of the Pelagian Hereticks No God forbid that we should so restrain his most infinite mercies unto outward means Or shall we feign a third place for them near the skirts of Hell as our good Masters do in the Church of Rome We have as little ground for that in the holy Scripture Rather than so we may resolve and I think with safety that as the Faith of the Church and of those which do present such as are baptized is by God accepted for their own so the desire and willingness of the same Church and of their God-fathers and Parents where Baptism cannot possibly be had is reputed theirs also Or if not so yet we refer them full of hope to the grace of God in whose most rigorous constitutions and sharpest denunciations deepest mercies are hid and who is still the Father of mercies though the God of justice And so I shut up this discourse with these words of Hooker That for the Will of God to impart his grace to Infants without Baptism the very circumstance of their natural birth may serve in that case for a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in a charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their salvation to whom the benefit of Christian parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath no power himself to avoid So he of those which are descended of a Christian stock What may be thought of children born of unbelievers hath been said elswhere And so much of the first ordinary outward means ordained by Christ for the remission of our sins the holy Sacrament of Baptism Proceed we next unto the other which is the power of the Keys committed in the person of St. Peter to the Catholick Church and those which by the Churches order are authorized and appointed to it That miserable man being wrought upon unto repentance by the power and preaching of the Word may on confession of his sins be forgiven of God or have the benefit of absolution from the hands of his Ministers if their spiritual necessities do so require For certainly there is not a more ready way to forgiveness of sins than by sincere and sound repentance nor any speedier means to beget repentance than to present our sins unto us in their own deformity by the most righteous myrror of the Word of God For when the sinner comes to know by the Word of God the heinousness of his misdeeds the wrath which God conceives against him for his gross offences together with the punishment which is due unto them according to his rigorous judgments The thought thereof must needs affect him both with fear and horror and make him truly sensible of his desperate state To whom then shall he flie for succor but to God alone humbly confessing unto him both his sins and sorrows How can he look to be recovered of the biting of these fiery Serpents but by looking with the eye of faith on that brazen Serpent which was exalted on the Cross for his Redemption Or if he finde his Conscience troubled and his minde afflicted and that he hath not confidence enough to draw near to God then let him go unto the Priest whom God hath made to be the Iudge between the unclean and the clean whom God hath authorized to minister the word of comfort to raise up them that be faln and support the weak to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide their feet in the way of peace This is the Method to be used the course to be pursued by those who do desire to profit in the School of repentance And about this as to the main and substance of it there is but little difference amongst knowing men For that Repentance is a necessary means required for the remission of sins committed after Baptism the Antients and the Moderns do agree in one The Fathers used to call it secundam tabulam post naufragium the second Table after Spiritual shipwrack on which all those who had made shipwrack of the Faith and a good conscience used to lay hold after they had foregone the benefit received in Baptism to keep them up from sinking in the depth of despair from being overwhelmed in the bottomless Ocean of sin and judgment