only teach Posterity to give none to himself And having thus asserted the authority of the Creed which I have in hand declared the course and purposes of this following work and shewn you what grounds I am especially resolved to proceed upon I shall with the assistance of Gods gracious Spirit fall roundly to the work it self taking the Articles in order as they lie before me And yet before I shall descend unto particulars I think it not amiss to adde the testimony and consent of Calvin to that which is before delivered touching the Authors and authority of this common Creed according as I finde it in an old Translation of his Book of Institutes for I have not the Original now by me printed at London in the year 1561. And thus saith he Hitherto I have followed the order of the Apostles Creed because whereas it comprehendeth shortly in few words the chief Articles of our Redemption it may serve us for a Table wherein we do distinctly and severally see those things that are in Christ worthy to be taken heed unto I call it the Apostles Creed not over carefully regarding who were the Authors of the same It is verily by great consent of old Writers ascribed to the Apostles either because they thought it was by common travail written and set out by the Apostles or for that they judged that this Abridgement being faithfully gathered out of the doctrine delivered by the hands of the Apostles was worthy to be confirmed by such a Title And I take it to be out of doubt that from whence soever it proceeded at the first it hath even from the first beginning of the Church and from the very time of the Apostles been used as a publick Confession and received by the consent of all men And it is likely that it was not privately written by any one man for as much as it is evident that even from the farthest age it hath alwayes continued of sacred authority and credit among all the godly But that which is only to be cared for we have wholly out of controversie which is that the whole History of our Faith is briefly and well in distinct order rehearsed in it and that there is nothing contained therein which is not sealed with sound testimonies of the Scripture Which being understanded it is to no purpose either curiously to doubt or to strive with any man who were the Authors of it unless perhaps it be not enough for some man to be assured of the truth of the holy Ghost but if he do also understand either by whose mouth it was spoken or by whose hand it was written So he And this is very much for one who was no greater Champion of the antient Farmulas THEOLOGIA VETERVM OR THE SUMME OF Christian Theologie Positive Polemical and Philological CONTAINED IN THE Apostles CREED Or reducible to it According to the tendries of the Antients both GREEKS and LATINES THE FIRST BOOK By PETER HEYLYN Heb. 11.6 3. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Through faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Henry Seile 1654. ΣΥΜΒΟΛΟΠΤΩΠΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΠSymbolum Apostolicum secundum Graecos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symbolum Apostolicum secundum Latinos St. PETRUS 1. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem St. JOHANNES 2. Creatorem coeli terroe St. JACOBUS 3. Credo in Iesum Christum filium ejus unicum dominum nostrum St. ANDREAS 4. Qui conceptus est de Spiritu sancto natus ex Virgine Maria St. PHILIPPUS 5. Passus est sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus mortuus sepultus St. THOMAS 6. Descendit ad inferos tertia die resurrexit a mortuis St. BARTHOLOMAEUS 7. Ascendit in coelos sedet ad dextram dei Patris omnipotentis St. MATTHAEUS 8. Inde venturus judicare vivos mortuos St. JACOBUS ALPHAEI 9. Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam St. SIMOE ZELOTES 10. Sanctorum communionem remissionem peccatorum St. JUDAS JACOBI FR. 11. Carnis Resurrectionem St. MATTHIAS 12. Et vitam aeternam Amen ARTICLE I. Of the First ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. PETER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem i. e. I beleeve in God the Father almighty 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 HAving thus vindicated the Authority of the common Creed and intimated the design and project of this present work I now proceed unto the Explication of it and every branch and Article therein contained as they lie in order beginning first of all with that which testifieth our Faith and belief in him which is the first of all beginnings A Iove principium was the rule of old and a more excellent Rule then that who can teach us now But first as a Praecognitum unto all the rest I must insist upon the nature and interpretation of the first word of it which hath a special influence and operation over the whole body of the Formula and giveth denomination to it For from the Latine Credo comes the name of Creed from the first English word which is I believe we call the whole the Articles of our belief and so the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Ecclesiastical notion of it we interpret Faith So that in whatsoever language we behold the same the the word is verbum operativum as the Lawyers cal it a word which hath relation unto every Article to every branch and member of the whole Compositum as I believe in God the Father Almighty I believe in Iesus Christ his only Son I believe that Iesus was conceived of the holy Ghost I believe that he was born of the Virgin Mary I believe that he suffered under Pontus Pilate sic de caeteris And first for the quid nominis of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifieth to assent or to joyn credit or belief to such things as are laid before us As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the old Poet Phocylides that is to say give no credit to the talk of the common people who are unconstant and uncertain in their words and actions Derived it is from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render faith and that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the
after Easter which is the Anniversary feast of the Resurrection are those of the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour and the coming of the holy Ghost or the Feast of Whitsuntide Which method of the Church in these great solemnities seemes to be borrowed from the method of the Creed which we have before us wherein unto the Article of the Resurrection is presently subjoyned that he ascended into Heaven there sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and there shall tarry and abide untill he come to judge both the quick and the dead and after that the Article of the holy Ghost And there was good reason for this too For therefore did our blessed Saviour raise himself from the shame and obloquie of the grave that he might ascend in glory to the Heaven of Heavens that being gone from thence and ascended thither he might send them as he had foresignified another Comforter that should abide with them for ever And as it seems the Royal Psalmist the sweet singer of Israel fore-saw the neer conjunction of those two great Festivals the necessary dependance which the coming of the holy Ghost had on Christs Ascension Thou art gone up on high saith he thou hast led Captivity Captive and received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them So that the Text beginneth with the ascending of CHRIST and ends with the descending of the holy Ghost For if a man should ask as the Eunuch did of whom doth the Prophet speak this of himself or of some other man we must needs answer with St. Philip and say that it relateth unto Jesus Christ. That so it is we have St. Paul to be our warrant who thus cites the Text with reference unto Christ the Lord When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men He received gifts for men saith the Psalmist he gave gifts to men saith the Apostle He did reâ—eive them of his Father that he might give them unto us Well then what gifts are they that he tels us after And he gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers to the gathering together of the Saints to the work of the Ministration and to the edifying of the Body of Christ. These were the gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the holy Ghost first by his first descent or coming upon Whitsunday when he gave Apostles and Evangelists falling upon their heads in likeness of cloven tongues and ever since by furnishing the Pastors and Teachers of it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are expedient for their Calling And this is evident enough from the Psalmists words where it is said that He received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Which cannot be applyed unto Christ himself for then it must not have been said that he had ascended up on high and was parted from us but that he tarried here below to be always with us Therefore God here must needs he God the holy Ghost who came not down till after Christ was gone up and then came down noâ— only to remain among us but to be in us saith our Saviour and to abide with us for ever So that this Text containing as you see it doth the substance and occasion of these two great Festivals we will begin first with the holy Thursday part thereof which is Christs Ascension according as the method of the Creed doth lead me Where by the way the Feast of holy Thursday of the Lords Ascension is of as great Antiquity as eminencie in the Christian Church it being reckoned by St. Augustine amongst those feasts and there were but four of them in all which had been generally received in all ages past and thought to be of Apostolical Institution Now for this great act of the Ascension St. Mark delivereth it in brief that When he had spoken unto them he was received into heaven and sate him down on the right hand of God St. Luke a little more fully in his Gospel thus that he led them out into Bethany and blessed them and it came to pass that as he blessed them he departed from them and was carryed up into Heaven But in the Acts the story is laid down at large and with more particulars There we are told that from the time of his Resurrection he continued forty days upon the earth appearing many times in that space or Interim unto his Apostles and speaking to them of the Kingdome of God that on the fortieth day he led them to a Mount which is called Olivet being from Hierusalem a Sabbath days journey which some conceive to be a mile or but two at most that being there and speaking unto his Apostles about the Kingdome of Israel while they beheld he was taken up on high and a Cloud received him out of their sight And finally that as they followed him with their eyes towards Heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same IESVS which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come even as ye see him go into Heaven This is the substance of the story in which we have some passages to be further looked on and others to be reconciled with the Creed from which they seem in words to differ For first whereas it is said that he appeared unto them forty days which is not to be so interpreted as if he shewed himself unto them every one of those days but that in the said forty days from his Resurrection frequenter se eis viÌ„dâ—â—dum exhibuerat he had offered himself to them oftentimes to be by them and to discourse with them of the things of the Kingdom of God In the next place St. Luke who tels us in the Acts that our Saviour made his ascent from the Mount of Olives informs us in the Gospel that it was at Bethany Which difference is easie to be reconciled would there were no worse For Bethanie was a village neer unto Hierusalem about fifteen furlongs from it as the Text instructs us and seated at the foot of the Mount called Oâ—ivet In which respect it is called Bethanie at the Mount of Olives Mark 1.1 So that whether Mount Olivet was esteemed to be within the limits and precincts of the Village of Bethanie or Bethanie was reckoned for the lower part of the Mount of Olives it comes all to one But the main point to be considered is the seeming difference which is between the words of the Creed and the words of the Gospel Ascendit ad Coelum saith the Creed he ascended into Heaven 't is his own act here Assumptus est in Coelum saith St. Mark ferebatur in Coelum saith St. Lukes Gospels elevatus est saith the Book of the Acts he was carryed up into
yet take him in perfecta gloriae suae exhibitione in the full and perfect manifestation of of his glorious Majesty and then he may be said most truly to have his habitation in the Heaven of Heavens For thus the Prophet Moses in the Book of Deuteronomie Looke down from Heaven thy holy habitation 26.15 Thus David in the Psalms The Lords seat is on high from the place of his dwelling he beholdeth all things Psal. 112. Thus Solomon the Son of David Hear thou from Heaven thy dwelling place 1 King chap. 8. Finally thus the Prophet Isaiah Look down from Heaven the habitation of thine happiness and of thy glory Chap. 63. He is no Christian I dare say who will stick at this And this bâ—ing granted I consider that in a place of such immensitie as the Heaven of Heavens in a large house wherein there are so many Mansions as our Saviour telleth us the Lord hath chosen one place above all the rest in which to fix his Throne and advance his Scepter and shew himself in all the Majesty of his Glory to the Saints and Angels For as the Lord was present in all parts of the Temple but most effectually in the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Ark was kept and into which none entred but the High Priest only was thought fit to enter so though his dwelling be in Heaven in all parts thereof all which may properly be called his Court or Imperial Palace yet hath he placed his Throne in that part of Heaven which the Apostle by allusion calleth the Holy of Holies where the Ark of his incomprehensible Majesty is most conspicuous to be seen and into which none but our High Priest IESVS CHRIST was permitted to enter Of all the Apostles only two were so highly favoured as to be carried in the Spirit into Heaven above where they not only heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are impossible for a man to utter though he could speak with all the tongues both of men and Angels but saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the invisible things of God which never mortal man had beheld before and both of them describe God sitting on a Throne St. Iohn most copiously thus Immediately saith he I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne Ver. 2. About the Throne were four and twenty seats for the four and twenty Elders vers 4. and out of it proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voyces vers 5. And when the time came and the Q. was given the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the Throne and worshipped and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive glory and honour and power because thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure sake they are and were created vers 10 11. more to this purpose doth occur in the following Chapter And last of all I do consider that though the Throne Imperial of Almighty God hath neither a right side or a left as indeed it hath not yet seeing that our Saviour is ascended in his natural body and hath his left hand and his right hand like to other bodies it will be logically inferred that our Redeemer sitting by the Throne of God with his left hand next unto the Throne in true propriety of speech without Trope or figure may be said to sit at the right hand of God or on the right hand of the Throne of God which comes all to one St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heaven and had a glimpse at least if not a full and perfect sight of the heavenly glories hath it so expressely where he affirms that our Redeemer the Author and finisher of our faith having endured the Cross and despised the shame is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn intimates as much when he tels us as it were from the mouth of Christ in these very words To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and have sitten with my Father in his Throne Where plainly Christ our Saviour sitting in the same Throne wiâ—h Almighty God as St. Iohn expressely saith he doth may properly be said to sit at the right hand of God in regard that the left hand of his natural body was in site nearest to the splendour of his heavenly Majesty for otherwise God must be said to sit on the right hand of Christ. The like may be affirmed of St. Stephen also where it is said that being full of the holy Ghost that is to say transported from himself by the holy Spirit he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God In which we have the glory of God conspicuoâ—sly manifested in his Royal Throne and Iesus standing at the right hand of the Throne or at the right hand of God take which phrase you will and standing either as an Advocate to plead for his afflicted servants or as a suiter in behalf of the Proto-martyr or as General in chief ready to march against the enemies of his best beloved So far we may consider of the literal sense of this branch of the Article without any derogation â—rom the Majesty of God the Father and much unto the honour of our Lord and Saviour and without any prejudice unto faith and piety And in such Cases as I take it the best way is to stand to this good old Rule that where the literal sense of holy Scripture doth hold an analogy and correspondence with the Rule of Faith it is to be preferred before any other But whether this be so or not for I propose it only as a consideration I have delivered freely my opinion in it and have delivered it no otherwise then as my opinion to which I never was so wedded but that a clearer judgement might at any time divorce me from it My opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As mine I have no reason to impose them upon other men or seek to captivate their understanding and make it subject to my sense And as opinions I am not bound to adhere to them my self but lawfully may change and vary according to that light and evidence of holy truth which either shall or may be given unto me In matters doctrinal concluded and delivered by the Church my Mother I willingly submit my self unto her Decisions Where I am left at large to my own election I shall as willingly take leave to dissent from others as others I am sure will take and on Gods name let them to dissent from me This was the amicable temper of the Fathers in the Primitive times which more preserved the Church both in peace and unity then all the Canons of Councils and Edicts of Princes to that purpose were of
seventh Chapter where we were purposely to treat of our Saviours sufferings And we have looked upon it also as an especial part of his Consecration unto the everlasting and eternal Priesthood after the Order of Melchisedech a Priesthood which consisted not in outward sacrifices but in prayers and blessings For when the Son of God our Saviour did offer himself upon the Cross for our Redemption he neither was a Priest after the Order of Aaron How could that be considering he was of the Tribe of Iudah nor after the Order of Melchisedech He was not qualified for that till his Resurrection but a Priest only in fieri as Logicians call it in the degrees and progress of his Consecration Which Consecration once performed he was no more to offer Sacrifice either bloudy or unbloudy whatsoever that so he might conform more fully to the Type of Melchisedech of whom we no where read that he offered sacrifice further then as it may be intimated in the name of Priest For though I will not say and I think I need not be put to it that Melchisedech never offered any Sacrifice yet since we do not read of any I may safely say that that part of his Sacerdotal function is purposely omitted by the holy Ghost that so he might more perfectly represent our Saviours Priesthood who after he was consecrated to that sacred Office had no more sacrifice to offer And possibly it might be done in the way of prevention to keep the Church from errour in this point of the Sacrifice who not content with the Commemoration of it the Eucharistical and Commemorative Sacrifice of his own ordaining might fall into a fancy of reiterating that one Sacrifice as is now practised and defended in the Church of Rome and make it expiatory of the sins both of quick and dead How guilty they of Rome have been in this particular and what strange positions they have broached in pursuit hereof would appear most fully if one would look no further then the Councel of Trent from the determinations whereof there lyeth no appeal though sometimes they will finde some evasions from it For in that Councel it is said that in the Masi our Saviour Christ is really offered by the Priest unto God the Father that it is the same propitiatory Sacrifice which was offered by Christ upon the Cross that it is propitiatory for all persons both quick and dead serving to purge them of their sins to ease them of their pains and satisfie for the punishment which they have deserved that being so beneficial and meritorious to all sorts of people it is to be reiterated and often offered not only day by day but many times in the same day as often as the Priest shall think fit to do it Which doctrine how plainly contrary it is unto our Apostle the scope and drift of the Epistle to the Hebrews especially the ninth and tenth Chapters of it do most clearly evidence And though it was a very uncharitable guess of our Rhemish Papists that the Protestants would have refused this whole Epistle but that they falsely imagine certain places thereof to make against the Sacrifice of the Mass yet we may finde by that where the shooe did wring them and that they thought there were some passages in this Epistle with which their Mass was inconsistent and which the Protestants might alleadge for I regard not the word falsely to their disadvantage Well therefore was it done of the Church of England not only to assert the true Catholick Doctrine of the one oblation of Christ finished on the Cross but to adde another Proposition to it in condemnation of the errours of Rome The Orthodox truth asserted is St. Pauls expressely viz. The offering of Christ once made is that perfect Redemption Propitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world both Original and actual and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone The conclusion followeth naturally on the former evidence viz. Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits For what fable can be more blasphemous then that a poor Priest should have power to make his Maker that having made him with the breath of his mouth he should fall down and worship what himself had made that having worshipped him as God he should presume to lay hands on him and offer him in sacrifice assoon as worshipped that his oblation thus made should be efficacious both to quick and dead both to the absent and the present and finally that such as be present at it may if they finde their stomachs serve devour their God A thing of such reproach scandal to the Christian faith that Averroes the Moore but a very learned man and a great Philosopher hath laid this stain or brand on the Religion it self viz. that he had travelled over most parts of the world but never found a wickeder and more foolish Sect then that of the Christians His reason is Quia deum quem colunt dentibus devorant because they did devour the God whom they worshipped And what deceit can be more dangerous to a Christian soul then that which leads him blindfold into gross idolatry and teacheth him to give Divine honour to a Deity of a poor Creatures making for though the Elements be sanctified by the Word and prayer and are made unto the faithful receiver the very body and bloud of Christ yet are they still but bread and wine as before they were When therefore we incounter with some passages in the works of the FATHERS in which they either speak of the daily Sacrifice or say that Christ is daily offered on the Altar as sometimes they do we must not understand them of a Real Sacrifice as to the offering up of Christ unto God the Father a Sacrifice propitiatorie to the quick and dead such as is now maintained in the Church of Rome but only of an Eucharistical and Commemorative Sacrifice which by Christs death is represented to the eyes of the people which is the Sacrifice defended by the Church of England But here perhaps it will be asked that if our Saviour be to offer no more Sacrifice and that which he once offered upon the Cross be not to be reiterated as the Priest thinks necessary what use there is to us of his Priestly Office as concerning Sacrifice I answer with St. Paul on another occasion much every way For though he offereth no more Sacrifices then that made already yet the effect and fruit thereof is still to be applyed to the souls of men the merit of it still to be represented in the sight of God Of these the first may seeme to be the Office of the holy Ghost but the later most assuredly is the Office of our High Priest and of him alone Who when he findes his heavenly Father troubled with our perversness our high hand of
this blessed Spirit on the particular Members of his Congregation that is to say the joyning of the Saints together in an holy Communion the free remission of our sins in this present life resurrection of the body after death and the uniting again of Soul and Body unto life eternal This is the sum and method of the following Articles and these we shall pursue in their order beginning first with that of the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance I implore to guide me in the waies of Truth that so the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be alwayes acceptable in the sight of God the Lord my strength and my Redeemer But because the word or notion of the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various signification in the Book of God we will first look upon it in those significations and then conclude on that which is chiefly pertinent to the intent and purpose of the present Article For certainly the Orators Rule is both good and useful viz. Prius dividenda antequam definienda sit oratio That we must first distinguish of the Termes in all Propositions before we come unto a positive definition of them According to which Rule if we search the Scripture we shall there find that the Holy Ghost is first taken personaliter or essentialiter for the third person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity We find him in this sense in the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour as the principal Agent in that Work The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Luk. 1.35 And in his Baptism descending on him like a Dove to fit him and prepare him for the Prophetical Office he was then to exercise And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luk. 3.22 From which descent St. Peter telleth us that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and that from thenceforth he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil In the next place the Holy Ghost is used in Scripture to signifie the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit as in Act. 2. where it is said of the Apostles that they were all filled with the holy Ghost ver 4. not with his essence or his person but with the impressions of the Spirit the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost such as the Gift of Tongues mentioned in the following words The Gift of the Holy Ghost as it is called expresly Ver. 38. Thus read we also that the holy Ghost was given by the hands of Peter Act. 8.17 18. And by the hands of Paul Act. 19.6 In which we read that when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and Prophesied which last words are a commentary upon those before and shew that by the holy Ghost which did come upon them is meant the Gift of Tongues and the power of Prophecying both which the holy Ghost then conferred upon them And lastly it is taken not onely for the ability of doing Miracles as speaking with strange Tongues Prophecying curing of Diseases and the like to these but for the Authority and Power which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people As when Christ breathed on his Apostles and said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that is to say Receive ye an holy and spiritual power over the soules of men a part whereof consisteth in the remitting and retaining of sins mentioned in the words next following and serving as a Comment to explaine the former In which respect the Holy Ghost said unto certain of the Elders in the Church of Antioch Segregate mihi Barnabam Saulum Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 It is the Holy Ghost which cals it is his work to which they were called and therefore separate mihi separate to me may not unfitly be expounded to my Work and Ministery and consequently to the authority and power which belongs unto it Which being premised the meaning of the Article will in briefe be this That we beleeve not onely that there is such a person as the Holy Ghost in the Oeconomy of the blessed Trinity though that be principally intended but that he doth so distribute and dispose of his Gifts and Graces as most conduceth to the edification of the Church of Christ. But this I cannot couch in a clearer way as to the sense and doctrine of the Church of England than in the words of Bishop Iewel who doth thus expresse it Credimus spiritum sanctum qui est tertia persona in sacra Triadi illum verum esse Deum c. i. e. we beleeve that the Holy Ghost who is the Third Person in the holy Trinity is very God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding both from the Father and the Son by an unspeakable means and unknowne to man and that it is his property to mollifie and soften mans heart when he is once received thereinto either by the wholesome Preaching of the Gospel or by any other way that he doth give men light and guide them to the knowledge of God to the wayes of truth to newnesse of life and to everlasting hope of salvation This being the sum of that which is to be beleeved of the Holy Ghost both for his Person and his Office we will first look upon his Person on his Property or Office afterwards And yet before we come unto his Person I mean his Nature and his Essence We will first look a little on the quid Nominis the name by which he is expressed in the Book of God In the Original he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a double Article as Luk. 3.22 in Latine Spiritus sanctus or the Holy Spirit but generally in our English Idiom the Holy Ghost The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to breath and is the same with the Latine Spiro from whence comes Spiritus or the Spirit a name not given as I suppose because he doth proceed from the Father or the Son or both in the way of breathing though Christ be said to breath upon his Apostles when he said receive the Holy Ghost but because the breath being in it selfe an incorporeal substance and that which is the great preservative of all living creatures it got the name first of Spiritus vitae we read it in our English the breath of life Gen. 11.7 and afterwards came to be the name of all unbodyed incorporeal essences For thus is God said to be a Spirit God is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 The Angels are called Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 the Soule of man is called his Spirit let us cleanse our selves saith the Apostle from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit that is of the body and
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
Pastors and Teachers That is to say either he gave unto some men such a measure of Gifts as might fit them to the severall Callings which are there enumerated or else he gave the men so gifted to the use of the Church and dedicated them Gifts and all to the publick service Either or both of these was done and done unto the end which is after specified viz. for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ. These were the Gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the Holy Ghost First by his first descent or coming on the feast of Pentecost when he gave Apostles Prophets and Evangelists and ever since by furnishing the Church with Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and fitting them with those Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit which are expedient for their calling And though St. Paul in this recital doth not speak of Bishops yet questionlesse he doth include them in the name of Pastors For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used in the original doth signifie a Ruler as well as Pastor And Christ is called Episcopus Pastor animarum the Bishop and Shepheard of our soules as our English reads it to shew that the Episcopal and Pastoral Office is indeed the same And this I could make good out of the constant tendry of the Ancient Fathers had I not handled it already in another place Nor shall I adde more here out of that Discourse but that it is affirmed positively by our learned Andrewes Apud vâ—teres Pastorum nomen vix inveniri nisi cum de Episcopis loquntur i. e. that the name of Pastors is scarce read amongst the Ancients but when they have occasion to speak of Bishops And Binius in his notes upon the Councils excepts against a fragment of the Synod of Rhemes for laying claime to more antiquity than belongs unto it and that he doth upon this reason eo quod titulum Pastoris tribuat Paracho because the Parish Priest there is called Pastor contrary to the usage of those elder times But to put the matter out of doubt though S. Paul doth not speak of Bishops by name in that place of the Ephesians before alleged yet when he called the Rulers of the Church to appear at Ephesus before him he doth not only give them the name of Bishops but saith that they were made Bishops by the Holy Ghost In quo vos spiritus sanctus posuit Episcopos as all Translations read it but our English onely Christ did not so desert his Church as to leave it without Order and the power of Government nor hath so laid aside his Prophetical Office but that as well since his Ascension as while he sojourned here on the Earth amongst us he is still the chief Pastor and Bishop of our Souls as St. Peter calls him Onely it pleased him to commit a great part of this care to the managing of the blessed Spirit whom he promised to send to his Apostles after his departure to the end that he might guide them into all truth and abide with them always to the end In which respect Tertullian calleth the Holy Ghost Vicarium Christi the Vicar or Deputy of Christ his Usher as it were in the great School of the Church and doth assign this Office to him Dirigere ordinare ad perfectam producere disciplinam that he direct dispose and perfect us at the last in all Christian pietie Not that the Holy Ghost doth of himself immediately discharge this duty but by the Ministry of such men as are called unto it Whom he co-operates withal when they Preach the Gospel by working on the heart on the inward man as they upon the understanding by the outward senses Without the inward operation of the Holy Spirit the Preaching of the Word would be counted foolishness and all the eloquent perswasions unto Faith and Piety which could be uttered by the tongues of Men or Angels would seem but as tinckling brass and a sounding cymbal Without an outward calling to attend this Ministry Vzzah will press too near the Ark Uzziah take upon him to burn incense on the Altars of God and both not draw destruction on their own heads onely but prove a stumbling block and scandal to the rest of the people Not every one which prophecieth in the Name of Christ or doth pretend in his name to have cast out devils or done any other wonderful works shall be acknowledged by him in that terrible day but he that doth it in that Order and by those warrantable ways which he hath appointed Christ must first send them ere they go upon such an errand and send them so as he did his Apostles to Preach the Gospel first giving them a power to minister the things of God and then commanding them to go into all the world to teach all nations It had not been sufficient for them to pretend a mission unless they could have shewn their commission also and that they had not till he pleased to breathe upon them and said Receive the Holy Ghost with the words that follow And so it hath been with the Church in all Ages since We must receive the Holy Ghost and be endued with power from above before we enter on the Ministry in the Church of Christ and not perswade our selves to pretend unto some special gifts and illuminâ—tions unless we have the Holy Ghost in the sense here spoken of unless the power which we pretend to be conferred upon us by those hands which have power to give it Those words Receive the Holy Ghost import not the receiving of saving grace or of inward sanctimony nor the conferring of such special gifts of the holy Spirit as after were given to the Apostles for the use of the Church but the receiving of a power to execute a Ministry in the Church of Christ a special and spiritual power in the things of God and in the dispensation of his heavenly Mysteries And as they were then used by Christ at the authorizing of his Apostles to Preach the Gospel so are they still the verba solemnia the solemn and set form of words used at the Ordination of all Priests or Presbyters used antiently in that sacred Ceremony without any exception and still retained with us in the Church of England for I look not on the new Model of Ordination as a thing in which the Anglican Church is at all concerned as the very operative words by which and by no others of what kinde so ever the order of Priesthood is conferred And had not those of Rome retained them in their Ordinations their giving power to offer sacrifice for the quick and the dead Accipe potestatem sacrificandi pro vivis mortuis which new patch they have added to the antient Formulas had never made them Priests of the New Testament
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
the soule and by a metaphor the motions of the minde whether good or evill are called spirits also as the spirit of giddiness Isa. 19.14 the spirit of error 1 Tim. 4.1 the spirit of envie Iam. 4.5 which come all from the unclean spirit mentioned Luk. 11.24 And thus in general the pious motions in the mind are called Spirits too Quench not the spirit saith St. Paul i. e. those godly motions to the works of Faith and Piety which the Holy Spirit of God doth secretly kindle in thee For the word Ghost it is originally Saxon and signifieth properly the soul of a man as when we read of Christ that he gave up the Ghost Mark 15.37 and in the rest of the Evangelists also the meaning is that his soule departed from his body he yeelded up his soule to the hands of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Original Expiravit as the Latine reads it that is to say he breathed out his soul or he breathed his last Nor doth it signifie the soule onely though that most properly but generally also any spiritual substance as doth the word spiritus in the Latine a touch whereof we have still remaining in the Adjective Ghostly by which we mean that which is spiritual as our Ghostly Father Ghostly Counsel i. e. our Father in the spiritual matters counsel that savoreth of the spirit So then the Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit are the same Person here though in different words and the word Holy which is added doth clearly difference him from all other spirits Not that God being a spirit is not holy also or that the Angelical spirits are not replenished with as much holinesse as a created nature can be capable of but because it is his Office to sanctifie or make holy all the elect Children of God therefore hath he the title or attribute of holy annexed unto him And yet the title of holy is not always added to denote this person though when we find mention of the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit it is meant and spoken of him onely For sometimes he is called the Spirit without any adjunct the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminency but still with reference to those gifts which he doth bestow The manifestation of the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Article demonstrative is given to every man to profit withall For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit Sometimes he is called the Spirit of the Father as Matth. 10.20 It is not yee that speak but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in you sometimes the Spirit of the Son as Gal. 4.6 where it is said that God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father Most generally he is called the Spirit of God as Gen 1.2 and Matth. 3.16 and infinite other places of the holy Scripture and more particularly the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 in which place he is also called the Spirit of God Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if that the Spirit of God dwel in you there the Spirit of God if any have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit both of God and Christ and in one verse both So far we are onwards on our way for discoverie of the nature of this blessâ—d Spirit as to have found him out to be the Spirit of God the Father from whom he doth proceed by an unspeakable way of emanation and unknown to man for he proceedeth from the Father as our Saviour telleth us and to be also the Spirit of Christ the Son of God by whom he was breathed on the Apostles and so proceeding from the Son doth proceed from both Sent from the Father at the desire and prayer of the Son I will pray the Father and he shall send you another Comforter Iohn 14.16 Sent by the Son with the consent and approbation of the Father whom I will send unto you from the Father Iohn 15.26 and so sent of both And yet not therefore the less God because sent by either than IESUS CHRIST is God God for ever blessed as St. Paul calls him Rom. 9.5 because he was sent by God the Father He sent his Son made of a woman Gal. 4.4 saith the same Apostle If any doubt hereof as I know some do he may be sent for resolution of his doubt to the beginning of Genesis where he shall finde the Spirit of God moving on the waters Gen. 1.2 And to the Law where he shall read how the same Spirit came down on the Seventy Elders Numb 11.26 And to the Psalms Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created Psal. 104.30 And to the Prophets The Spirit of God is upon me saith the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 61.1 which was Christs first Text And I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh saith the Prophet Ioel Chap. 1.28 which was Peters first Text The Spirit of God is God no question for in Deo non est nisi Deus say the Schoolmen rightly Not a created Spirit as the Angels were For in the beginning when God created the Heaven and the Earth and all things visible and invisible then the Spirit was and was not onely actually in a way of existence but was of such a powerful influence in the Creation of the World that on the moving of this Spirit on the face of the Waters the darkness was removed from the face of the deep and the Chaos of undigested matter made capable of Form and Beauty In the New Testament the evidence is far more clear than that of the Old by how much the Sun of Light did shine more brightly in the times of the Gospel than in those of the Law Saith not St. Peter in the Acts Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost and then addes presently Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God What saith St. Austin on this Text The Holy Ghost saith he is God Unde Petrus cum dixisset ausus eâ— mentiri Spiritui Sancto continuo secutus adjunxit quid esset Spiritus Sanctus ait non mentitus es hominibus sed Deo i. e. Therefore when Peter said unto Ananias thou hast dared to lie to the Holy Ghost he added presently to shew what was the Holy Ghost Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God Saith not St. Paul Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God How so Because the Spirit of God dwelleth in you What saith the Father unto this Ostendit Paulus deum esse Spiritum Sanctum ideo non esse Creaturam that is to say St. Paul by this sheweth That the Holy Ghost is God and so no Creature Doth not the same Apostle say in another place Know ye not that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost
as to brook no Superior fitted the Government of those Congregations which they called the Churches according unto that equality and want of order which they had been accustomed to in Civil matters For in their Platform every Congregation whether little or great is absolute in it self and independent of any other having in it self a supream Authority of exercising Ecclesiastical Powers and Spiritual Faculties without any reference or appeal in point of grievance And in the exercising of those powers and faculties every Member of the Congregation whether poor or rich as they are all concerned are all equally interessed And for the Ministration of the Word and other Ordinances for I think they do not call them Sacraments though many times they do set a part some particular persons yet do they not exclude any man of what rank soever from exercising of his gift as the Spirit moves him In this quite contrary to the Fathers of the Presbytery who though they do so dearly affect a parity amongst the Ministers themselves yet do they suffer none to perform that Office but such as have an outward calling by giving them the hands of fellowship Which Ceremony they conceive savors more of parity than that of the imposition of hands used in Ordinations And though each Presbyter and Presbytery too stand in equal rank and equipage with one another yet in relation to their Meetings or Bodies aggregate they do allow of sub and supra the Presbytery being subordinate unto the Classis as the Classis is to the Provincial and that to the General Assembly from which lieth no appeal in what case soever But so it is not with the Brethren of the Independency every particular Member of their Congregations being permitted to Preach and expound the Scripture according to the measure of the gift which is given unto him So that if Ierome were alive he might most justly make complaint of that foul disorder which some began to practise in those early days but was never so much in request as amongst this people Whereas saith he all other Arts and Mysteries have their peculiar Artists and distinct Professors Sola Scripturarum ars est quam omnes passim sibi vendicant onely the Art of Preaching and Expounding Scripture is usurped by all men For this saith he each weak old man and taâ—ling gossip for we have Women Preachers too in these Congregations and each wrangling Sophister every man in a word doth intrench upon and take upon them to teach others what they did never learn themselves Some with a supercilious look speak big and dogmatize of holy Matters amongst silly women others learn that of women it is a shame to say it which afterwards they teach to men and some again with great variety of words and sufficient impudence do talk to others of those things which they understand not themselves A man would think St. Ierome were inspired with the Spirit of Prophecy and that he spake not of the frenzies of the former times but the distempers of the present And yet perhaps we have a better character of them especially as it relates to their way of Government in the old Acephali the Hereticks which had no head as their name doth signifie Of whom Nicephorus thus informeth us Acephali ob cam causam dicti sunt quod sub Episcopis non fuerint c The Acephali were so called saith he because they were not under Bishops and therefore neither did they minister Baptism according to the solemn and received Order of the Church nor celebrate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or any other Divine Office in the usual manner And because every man had liberty to adde unto the holy Faith what new points he pleased a very great number of Hereticks and Apostates did ensue upon it with whom the Church for a long time was perplexed and exercised Besides that great seditions and disorders did from hence arise the rascal rabble of that Sect pressing unto the Rails of the Altar threatning to fine the Priests and cast them out of their Churches with reproach and infamy if they presumed to mention the Authority of the General Council that of Chalcedon it is he means or to recite the names of those holy Fathers who were present at it So far and to this purpose he in which we may discern a great deal of the humor as well as we have found the name of our new Acephali But to proceed The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters in the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical or Popular as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practise and their Platforms it remains then that it must be Aristocratical And this indeed hath been the judgement of most pure Antiquity and verified in the practise of the happiest times For howsoever those of Rome do perswade themselves that Christ invested Peter with a Sovereign power over the rest of the Apostles yet generally the Fathers of the Primitive times have determined otherwise For so saith Origen Haec velut ad Petrum dicta sunt omnium communia Those things which seem spoken to St. Peter onely are common unto all the rest Thus Cyprian Hoc erant utique coeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consorti praediti potestatis honoris The rest of the Apostles were as much privileged as Peter and were all invested with a like proportion both of power and honor Thus Ierome also for the Latines the two great Writers of the African and Alexandrian Churches you have heard before Super Petrum fundatur Ecclesia c The Church is founded upon Peter but this is said in another place of the other Apostles all of which had the Keys of Heaven Et ex aequo super eos ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur and the foundation of the Church is setled equally on them all And thus St. Chrysostom for the Greeks Paul saith he had no need of Peter or stood in want of his voice or countenance Honore enim illi par erat ne quid dicam amplius but was his equal at the least that I say no more The like equality was maintained in the following times amongst the Bishops or chief Rulers in the Church of Christ. For being Successors unto the Apostles in the Publick Government though not in their extraordinary power as they were Apostles whereof we shall speak more anone they had no reason to pretend superiority over one another which none of the Apostles could lay claim unto Of this equality of the Bishops doth St. Ierom speak and it is indeed an evidence beyond all exception Vbicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Eugubii sive Constantinopli sive Alexandriae sive Tanai ejusdem meriti ejusdem est Sacerdotiâ— Potentia divitiarum paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit Coeterum omnes Apostolorum
this present life And Lyra also saith the same though of later date Dixit Christus se derelictum a Deo Patre quia dimittebat eum in manibus occidentium i. e. Christ saith he was forsaken of God his Father because he was left in the hands of them that slew him And so Theodoret for the Greeks CHRIST saith he calleth that a dereliction or forsaking of God which was a permission of the Godhead that the humanity might suffer With these agree some Doctors of the Protestant Churches of great name and credit as Bucer and Bullinger in their Comments on the 27. of S. Matthew and Munster in his observations on the 21. Psalm Other forsaking other dereliction more then the leaving of him in the hands of his enemies they acknowledg none sure I am no withdrawing from him of the divine presence and assistance of God For so Tertullian doth affirm that God was said to have forsaken him in a sort dum hominem ejus tradidit in mortem whilest he delivered him in his humane nature to the hands of death but that he did not leave him altogether in that it was into the hands of his Father that he commended his Spirit Fulgentius saith as much or more saying that though in the death of Christ his soul was to forsake his dying body Divinitas tamen Christi nec ab anima nec a earne potest separari suscepta yet the Divinity could not be separated from his soul nor from the body neither which it had assumed And how far Christ was then from thinking that he had either lost the favour of Almighty God or his own interest in disposing of the heavenly glories doth evidently appear by that of Hilariâ— derelinqui se ad mortem questus est sed tunc Confessorem suum secum in regno Paradisi suscepit CHRIST saith he doth complain of his being forsaken or left unto the powers of death and yet even then he received the Theef that did confess him into the assured hopes of Paradise Where by the way all the forsaking which this Father doth take notice of was derelictio ad mortem a leaving of our Saviour to the hands of death The Schoolmen also say the same who make six kindes of dereliction or forsaking according as I finde them in our Reverend Field 1. By disunion of person 2. by loss of grace 3. by diminution or weakness of grace 4. by want of the assurance of future deliverance and present support 5. by denial of protection and 6. by withdrawing all solace and destituting the forsaken of all present comfort Then they declare that it is an impious thing to think that Christ was forsaken any of the four first ways in that the unity of his Person was never dissolved his graces neither taken away nor diminished no possibility that he should want assurance either of present support or future deliverance But for the two last ways he may be rightly said say they to have been forsaken in that his Father had denyed to protect and keep him out of the hands of his cruel bloudy and merciless enemies no way restraining them but suffering them to do the uttermost of that which their wicked malice could invent and that nothing might be wanting to make his sorrows beyond measure sorrowful had withdrawn from him also that accustomed solace which he was wont to find in God and removed from him all those things which might any way asswage the extremity of his pain and misery The Master of the Sentences gives it thus more briefly Separavit se divinitas quia substraxit protectionem separavit se foris ut non esset ad defensionem sed non intus defuit ad unionem All the forsaking then that the Lord complained of on the Cross was that he had been left to the hands of his enemies and that his heavenly Father had forborn all this while to shew any open sign of love or favour towards him in the sight of the Iews by whom he had been so afflicted and reproached and indeed blasphemed This is the most that can be said of this bitter and compassionte cemplaint which our Saviour made whether in reference to himself or to all mankinde or perhaps to both unless it may be further added that he desired in these words as some think he did that God would please to manifest by some publick sign what an esteem he had of that sacred Person whom both the Iews and Gentiles had so much oppressed and despised and of whom he had seemed all this while to make little reckoning And this is that which Athanasius hath observed in his fourth Oration or Discourse against the Arians who stood much upon it Loe saith he upon Christs speech why hast thou forsaken me the Father shewed himself to be even then in Christ as ever before For the earth knowing her Lord to speak did straightway tremble and the vail rent in twain and the Sun did hide himself and the rocks clave in sunder and the graves were opened and the dead men rose And that which was no less marvellous indeed the standers by which before denyed him confessed him to be the Son of God To proceed then this exclamation being made and gaining no more from the standers by but addition of scorn to misery and contempt to scorn the people mocking him as if he had called upon Elias to come and help him he cryed out I thirst and even the matter of that cry gives them another opportunity to put a scorn upon him and increase his griefs One of them saith the Scripture ran and took a spunge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave it him to drink Matth. 27.48 Where mark the malice of the man if he may so be called which had no humanity Our Saviour called for drink to asswage his thirst the wicked fellow gives him vinegar not to accelerate his death or send him out of hand to the other world for fear Elias indeed should come to help him as Theophylact thinks but rather to continue him the longer in those terrible pains It is the quality of vinegar as we read in Pliny that it stancheth the effusion of bloud Sanguinis profluvium sistunt ex aceto as that Author hath it And therefore I concurre with them who think this vinegar was given him to no other end but out of a most barbarous purpose to prolong his torments for fear least otherwise he might bleed to death and put too speedy an end to their sports and triumphs But contrary to the expectation of this wicked man no sooner had our Saviour took a tast thereof but the work was finished He cryed out with a loud voice Matth. 27.50 It is finished Joh. 19.30 and presently he bowed his head and said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and having thus said he gave up the ghost In which it
is to be observed that Christ now seeing all was finished which God required at his hands to the satisfaction of his justice for the sins of man and having fulfilled all those things which were spoken of him by the Prophets did voluntarily of his own accord deliver up his soul into the hands of his Father He had before told us of himself that he was the good Shepheard which giveth his life for the sheep Ioh. 10.11 that no man had power to take it from him Si nemo utique nec mors and if none then not death as we read in Chrysostom but that he laid it down of himself vers 18. and that he gave his life as a ransome for many Matth. 20.28 And the event shewed that he was no braggard or had said more then he was able to perform For the Evangelists declare that he had sense and speech and voluntary motion to the last gasp of his breath all which do evidently fail in the sons of men before the soul parteth from the body Which breathing out of his soul so presently upon so strong a cry and so lowd a prayer seemed so miraculous to the Centurion who observed the same that without expecting any further Miracle he acknowledged presently that truly this was the Son of God And this St. Hierom noted rightly The Centurion hearing Christ say to his Father Into thy hands I commend my Spirit statim sponte dimisisse spiritum and presently of his own accord to give up the ghost moved with the greatness of the wonder said Truly this man was the Son of God The Fathers generally do affirm the same ascribing this last act of our Saviours Tragedy not to extremity of pain or loss of bloud to any outward violence or decay of spirits but as his own voluntary deed and that though God the Father had decreed he should die yet he did give him leave and power to lay down his life of his own accord that his obedience to the will and pleasure of his heavenly Father might appear more evidently and the oblation of himself be the more acceptable And to this purpose saith St. Ambrose Quasi arbiter exuendi suscipiendique corporis emisit spiritum non amisit i. e. he did not lose his soul though he breathed it forth as one that had it in his own power both to assume his body and to put it off Eusebius to the same purpose also When no man had power over Christs soul he himself of his own accord laid it down for man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so being free at his own disposing and not over-ruled by outward force he himself of himself made his departure from the body The judgement of the rest of the Fathers touching this particular he that list to see let him consult St. Augustine lib. 4 de Trinit c. 13. Victor Antiochen in Marc. c. 15. Leo de Passione Dom. serm 16. Fulgentius lib. 3. ad Thrasimundum Sedulius in Opere Paschali lib. 5. c. 17. Beda in Matth. c. 27. Bernard in Feria 4. Hebdom poenosae And for the Greeks Athanasius Orat. 4. contra Arianos Origen in Ioh. Hom. 19. Gregorie Nyssen in Orat. 1. de Christi Resurrectione Nazianzen in his Tragedy called Christus patiens Chrysostom in Matth. 27. Homil. 89. Theophylact on the 27. of Matth. and the 23. of Mark. and the 23. of Luke And for late Writers Erasmus on Luk. 23. and Mark 15. Musculus on the 27. of Matthew and Gualter Hom. 169. on Iohn all which attest most punctually to the truth of this that the death of Christ was not meerly natural proceeding either from any outward or inward causes but only from his own great power and his holy will And to what purpose note they this but first to shew the conquest which he had of death whom he thus swallowed up in victory as the Apostle doth express it and secondly to shew that whereas natural death was the wages of sin which could not be inflicted on him in whom no sin was he therefore did breath out his soul in another manner then is incident to the sons of men to make himself a free-will offering to the Lord his God and make himself a sacrifice for the sins of mankinde by yeelding willingly to that death which their sins deserved And to this death this voluntary but bodily death of the Lord CHRIST IESVS and to that alone the Scriptures do ascribe that great work of the worlds redemption For thus St. Paul unto the Romans When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.11 to the Hebrews thus For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 9.15 if by Christs death it must be by his bodily death by effusion of his bloud and by no other death or kinde of death of what sort soever And to this truth the Scriptures witness very frequently For thus St. Paul we have redemption through his bloud Ephes. 1.7 By his own bloud hath he entred into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 St. Peter thus Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Finally thus the Elders say unto the Lamb in the Revelation Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud Apocal. 5 9. Which being so it is most certain that Christ abolished sin and Satan by suffering his body to be slain his bloud to be shed unto the death or the sins of the world and not by any other way or means co-ordinate with it as some lately fable Yet so it is that some men not content with that way of Redemption which is delivered in the Scriptures have fancyed to themselves another and more likely means for perfecting that great work of the death of Christ and teach us that the shedding of his bloud to the death of his body had not been sufficient for the remission of our sins if he had not also suffered the death of the soul and thereby wholly ransomed us from the wrath of God Calvin first led the dance in this affirming very desperately that I say no worse Nihil actum esse si corporea tantum morte defunctus fuisset that Christ had done nothing to the purpose if he had dyed no other then a bodâ—ly death He must then die the death of the soul seeing that his bodily death would not serve the turn and they who pretermit this part of our Redemption never known before and do insist so much externo carnis supplicio in the outward sacrifice of his flesh are insulsi nimis but silly fellows