woodden thigh or dry arm to the body of a natural man For they want life sense and motion and receive no influence from the Head they are as is commonly said in the Church not of the Church 1 Iohn 2. 19. Hence arose the distinction of the Church into Visible and Invisible The Invisible Church consists only of those who are endued with true faith and holinesse but these are known to God and Christ alone 2 Tim. 2. 19. Iohn 10. 14. therefore in respect of us that Church which alone truly and properly is the Church on earth is called Invisible The Church is a society of men not as men for so a number of Turks or a nest of Arians might be the body of Christ but as beleevers and therefore the Church as the Church cannot be seen but beleeved Bellarmine himself saith Videmus coetum hominum qui est Ecclesia sed quod ille coetus sit vera Christi Ecclesia non videmus sed credimus and what say we more That is the visible Church which consists of men professing the true Faith and Religion any way whether in truth or counterfeitly and falsly of good and evil of elect and reprobate This Church is mixt whence it is compared to a great house in which there are not onely vessels of gold and silver but also wood and clay some for honour some for reproach 2 Tim. 2. 20. To a field in which there are Tares as well as wheat Matth. 13. to a net in which fishes of all kinde good and bad are gathered See Dr Featley against Fisher about the visibility of the Church Iacksons raging Tempest on Matth. 8. 23. p. 25. Dr Taylor on Rev. 12. p. 294. Mr Baxters Infants Church-membership pag. 176. Par. on Rom. 11. vers 4. pag. 160 161. Again The Church is either Particular viz. a company of the faithful which is contained in some particular place 2 Cor. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Or Universal Catholick which consists of all that every where call upon the name of God 1 Cor. 1. 2. The Apostle cals it The general Assembly Heb. 12. 23. It is General 1. In respect of time it had a being in all times and ages ever since the giving of the promise to our first parents in Paradise 2. In respect of the Persons of men it consists of all sorts and degrees of men Act. 16. 34. 3. In respect of place because it hath been gathered from all parts of the earth specially now in time of the New Testament Revel 5. 9. 4. In respect of Doctrine therein professed This name Catholick is not given to the Church in Scripture but was imposed by men yet consonant to the Scripture The Church was first intituled Catholick in opposition to the visible Church of the Jews Act. 10. 15 34. the full importance of this term Catholick is set down Revel 5. 8 9. This Catholick Church is called Holy 1 Cor. 14. 33. Revel 11. 2. because Christ the Head of it is holy Heb. 7. 26. and he makes the Church partaker of his holinesse Iohn 17. 19. because it is called with a holy calling and is separated from the world 2 Tim. 1. 9. because the holy Word of God is committed to it Rom. 3. 2. Object But the Church doth not only contain in it those that are holy but also hypocrites and such as are openly wicked How therefore is it holy Answ. Hypocrites and prophane persons are but in name and outward profession of the Church indeed and in truth they are not those which are truly of the Church are holy and therefore the Church is rightly called and is holy 2. Although the visible hath good mingled with evil yea almost overwhelmed with their multitude yet it is deservedly denominated from the better part As we call that a heap of corn where there is more chaff then corn It is the priviledge as well as duty of Gods people to be holy Deut. 26. 18. 28. 9. it comes in by way of Promise Reward Priviledge Revel 20. 6. The Reasons of this are taken from the Cause the Nature and Effects of Holinesse First From the cause of it it flows from Union with God Iohn 17. 17 21. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 4. 14. Secondly The Nature of Holinesse consists in a likenesse and conformity to God Be ye holy as I am holy Levit. 26. 44 45. There is a four-fold Holinesse 1. Of Dedication so the vessels of the Temple and Tabernacle were holy 2. Of Exemplification so the Law being the Epistle or exemplification of Gods will was holy Rom. 7. 12. 3. By Profession as 1 Cor. 7. 14. 4. By Participation or Communion The people of God are holy all these wayes 1. They are dedicated to God Rom. 1. 1. 2. By Exemplification They are the Epistle of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. By Profession 4. By Participation Thirdly If we consider the Effects of Holinesse 1. Upon our selves it is the end of our Election Ephes. 1. 14. of our Vocation 1 Thess. 4. 17. Redemption Luke 1. 74. 2. Upon others even the Enemies of it wicked men 1. Affectation the hypocrite affects it that there are so many pretenders to it though but in shew discovers the dignity of it 2. That awfulnesse which it strikes in the hearts of wicked men Saul stood in awe of Samuel Herod of Iohn Baptist Mark 6. 20. 3. Envy it works this in the worst 1 Iohn 3. 17. Quest. Whether every one which sincerely professeth the belief of this Article of the holy Catholick Church be bound to beleeve that he himself is a true lively member of the same Church Answ. No all men are not bound to beleeve that they are actual or real members of the Catholick Church for none can truly beleeve thus much of himself but he that hath made his election sure and is certain that his name is written in the book of life A note mark or character is that whereby one thing may be known and differenced from another That which is proper to a thing and peculiarly found in it may serve as a note or mark of distinction The marks of the Church are An entire profession of the Gospel and saving truth of God the right use of the Sacraments Holinesse of conversation the sound preaching of the Word of life servent and pure calling upon Gods Name subjection to their spiritual guides mutual communion in the Ordinances of Worship Christian Fellowship with all Saints and true visible Churches of Jesus Christ. All these are proper to the Church but not perpetually to be found in it noâ— alike pure in all ages Where all these notes are to be found purely the Church is excellent for degree pure and famous where any of these are wanting or impure the Church is so much defective or impure though it may be pure in comparison of others But all these things be not of equal necessity to the being of a
Militant or Triumphant 2. The Church Political particular Churches gathered with their Officers as the seven Churches in Asia Christ is the head of both The original and fountain of all Government is God the Father Sonne and holy Ghost he hath a primitive and absolute Soveraignty over all men 1. As he gives them what being he will 2. As he appoints them what end he will 3. As he gives them what Law he will this is Regnum essentiale Thine is the Kingdom Secondly All the Persons of the Trinity have committed or delegated this power into the hands of Christ as he is Mediator both God and Man Mat. 12. 18 19. Dan. 7. 13 14. Four things qualified Christ for this He hath 1. A Spirit of wisdom and counsel Isa. 11. 2. 2. Of courage there to and Isa. 31. 4. 3. Of meeknesse and moderation 4. Is faithful Isa. 9. 6. Thirdly Christ delegates this power as he hath the government of the Church three wayes 1. To the Angels they are principalities and powers 2. To the Magistrates By him Kings reign 3. To Church-officers Ephes. 4. 11 12. These are to continue so long as his Mediatory Kingdom shall last It is fit that Christ and he alone should govern the Church First Because the Church is his own his own body and house Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 12. 12. Ephes. 4. 16. Heb. 3. 6. It is his 1. By purchase He hath purchased to himself a peculiar people 2. By Covenant I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine 3. By Regeneration They are one Spirit Secondly The Church is his great Depositum and Praemium 1. The great pledge God hath committed to his trust Iohn 17. 2. 2. The great reward of all his services Eph. 1. 21 22. 3. There is none qualified for the Churches government but he This Soveraignty of Christ as Mediator is two-fold First In the spiritual Kingdom by which he rules in the hearts of all especially his Saints Luk. 17. 21. Rom. 14. 17. This consists in six things 1. He sets up a throne in the souls of his people that they look on him as a King Rev. 4. 3. 2. As a spiritual King he gives Laws to the soul Rom. 13. 5. 3. He will punish their enemies 1 Ioh. 3. 18. 4. He bestows both gifts and graces Rev. 4. 5. 5. He rules in their hearts and wayes Ioh. 16. 14. 6. He hath the key of heaven and hell Rev. 11. 17. Secondly He hath a Soveraignty committed to him as Mediator God-man iâ— the providential Kingdom Psal. 8. 4 5. compared with Heb. 2. 5. Ephes. 1. 21. Pro. 8. 15. 21 22. 2. All the great things in providence are ascribed to Christ Mediatour he brought the floud Gen. 6. 3. compared with 1 Pet. 3. 18 19. he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah he gave the Law Heb. 26 27. 3. He shall accomplish all the Prophecies Rev. 19. 13. He shall judge the world Act. 17. 30 31. therefore he rules it else he could not proportion to men rewards and punishments if he did not imploy them 4. He shall give up his Kingdom to his Father 1 Cor. 15. 34. the Lord Jesus hath all this Soveraignty for the Saints sake that they might have interest in it Ioh. 17. 2. 3. 35. We should take heed of doating on an earthly Christ Kingdom Inheritance or Preferment by Christ the Apostles expected earthly preferment the Millenaries say Christ shall destroy all Monarchies and be Monarch alone and his Saints shall be great persons here The Jews deny Christs Kingly Office they say he shall be an earthly King and shall conquer all Nations and bring them into the Land of Canaan and there shall blesse them with abundance of all things The Papists speak of a carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament The Pope hath invaded Christs Kingly Office by making laws which shall immediately binde the consciences of men He saith he is Christs Vicar and the Head of the Church They say there is a two-fold head of the Church 1. Imperial Principal Invisible so Christ. 2. Ministerial Secondary Visible so the Pope This is a meer contradiction To be head argueth preheminence to be ministerial argueth subjection and inferiority Most in the world oppose the Kingly Office of Christ his Laws Psal. 2. 4. See Phil. 2. 10. There are three Kingdoms contrary to the Kingdom of Christ that of sin Satan and Antichrist Christ is our Lord This name is often given to Christ Psal. 110. 1. Mat. 22. 44. Iohn 13. 13. Act. 2. 36. 1 Cor. 2. 8. 8 5 6. The Apostle takes delight still to mention this title The Lord Col. 1. 19. 1 Cor. 10 21. 11. 20. Iude v. 3. It is called The table of the Lord and the body and bread of the Lord because we are so ready to forget Christs authority therefore he is very often called Lord in the New Testament Rev. 1. 5. Phil. 2. 10. Christ is Lord 1. As God Ioh. 20. 28. 2. As man both in respect of the hypostatical Union and by the merit of his passion by which he hath gained a dominion to himself over men redeemed by him Luk. 2. 18. 3. From Gods Ordination Act. 2. 36. Phil. 2. 9 10 11. He is Lord by right 1. Of Creation Ioh. 1. 3. 2. Of Redemption 1 Cor. 6. 20. 1 Pet. 1. 18. 3. Preservation and Government Ephes. 5. 23. He is Lord two wayes 1. In general as over all creatures King of Nations Ier. 10. 7. 2. In special as head of his Church King of Saints Rev. 15. 3. The King is Lord over all the Subjects but in special manner over the Queen by a double right as King and Husband Ephes. 1. penult There are three priviledges of his Lordship 1. He is Lord alone he hath no co-partner Ephes. 4 5. 2. Is Lord over all creatures inwardly and outwardly the good to defend them the wicked to offend them 3. Is Lord for ever This Attribute when given to God the Father or Christ usually signifieth his Soveraignty and Dominion Thus saith the Lord God that is he that hath Soveraign power over you When this Title is given to Christ in the New Testament as a distinctin between God and the Lord 1 Cor. 8. 6. Ephes. 4. 5 6. Phil. 2. 11. it signifieth that Christ is he through whom all good from God is derived to us and through whom all our services are offered to God that he is our Mediator We should pray Let thy Kingdom come labour for a true personal reign of Christ that Christ and he only may be Lord of our souls we should be glad to have him raign in our Families publick Assemblies his Truths Ordinances and Government If we receive Christ into our hearts we must receive him onely and absolutely upon his own terms and in all his Offices and into every room of our hearts and that for ever We become the servants of God four wayes 1.
manner of Tyrants to seek the destruction of the right Inheritor dissembled with the Wisemen pretending that his purpose was to come and worship him and learning by them what he could for that purpose intended in very deed to have made him away by which means he was compelled for the saving of his life to take a long and tedious journey down into Aegypt no Question with great labour and wearinesse to himself as well as to his Parents Thus you have the sufferings of our Saviours Infancy next consider his whole life and what was it but a suffering of all misery both in the whole course of it and in the conclusion of all at his death For the course of his life it was private and publick For his private life untill his thirty years he lived a Carpenter He that was sufficient to have governed all the Monarchies under the Sunne to have ruled the whole world to have led mighty Armies and to have read a Lecture of Wisdom to Angels and Archangels he was servant to his Father a Carpenter and spent his time obscurely in a manual occupation handling the Mallet and Chezil and doing the work of a mean labourer burying as it were all his Divine Excellencies under the thick and dark cloud of a poor Trade and not shewing forth so much as a glympse of his heavenly glory but that at one time at the age of twelve years he peeped a little out of the Cloud when at a feast in Ierusalem he disputed with Doctors to the astonishment of all the hearers and beholders He was cast down from all honour and made to inherit contempt and basenesse But come we to his publick life where he was to take upon him a glorious function fit for himself even to be the Minister of the Circumcision a Prophet to the people Israel First He entred into this function with a great toil and labour for by and by after his Baptism and Calling to publick view he was thrust forth into the wildernesse there to be tempted of the Devil not for a few hours or dayes but for full fourty dayes together There he did challenge all the powers of darknesse and hand to hand did enter the lists to fight a combate with all the Devils of hell There was he singled forth and they let loose to try the utmost of their mighty and subtil temptations three principal ones are mentioned but no question he stood not against so little as three thousand for what would not Satan assay to do him mischief What evils did he not by word or suggestion labour to draw him to when he had him for so long a space of time at so great a disadvantage all alone in the wildernesse and fasting he would strain himself to the utmost of his wicked wit to have poysoned him with some taint of wickednesse that he might have killed the whole body of his Church in him the Head thereof as he destroyed all mankinde in the first Adam the common root of it It is certain that our Lord was armed with power and wisdom to discover and resist his temptations and knew he should could and would be victorious but no doubt the combate was troublesome and tedious and filled his righteous soul with unspeakable dolour and anguish Let a vertuous and honourable Matron be shut up so many dayes together in one room with a base and loathsome adulterer there to suffer all his impure solicitations will not her misery be so much the greater in sense by how much her self is more shamefac'd and honest and more abhorrent from all such impurity so it was with the soul of our blessed Saviour That great and foul polluter of himself and mankinde the Devil had liberty given him to try what ever he could do with all his crafty and abominable temptations to draw our Lord Jesus from his God and to make him as all other men were a sinner The most valiant person in the world armed with the best weapons for defence and furnished with so much prowesse and skill that he knew he should be conquerour and unwounded would yet finde it unspeakably troublesome to ward oft the multitude of blows of ten thousand at once assailing him with such fiery darts and poisoned weapons that each of them had they but fastened to draw bloud would have been mortal unto him Had any of Satans temptations fastened on the soul of Christ he had been made a sinner and so separated from the Union with the second Person and so himself with all his members that depended upon him had perished eternally Doubtlesse though he knew he should overcome yet the bearing off putting by and resisting so many mighty blows and subtil thrusts must needs be extreamly tedious and bitter unto him by how much he was more perfectly holy and did more detest all such manner of temptations Thus his sufferings from Satan were horrible though in the issue harmlesse yea and glorious but now thinke what he bare in his whole life after Five things are most intollerable to the nature of man in passing of his life Poverty Reproach Labour Danger and Sorrows he was laden with all these in all extremity First for Poverty Though he were very rich saith St Paul yet he became poor for our sakes he had been no slothful nor prodigal Person in his private life but he was a Servant to his father in law and the calling was poor so that he could get nothing but from hand to mouth and therefore being to leave his Trade and become a Minister and Preacher of the Gospel he had no house nor home of his own to dwell in no stock nor revenues to live upon but was fain to live of pure alms and though he was no beggar yet as if he had been a beggar to maintain himself altogether by the kindenesse of others The Foxes have holes the Fowls nests but the Sonne of man hath not whereon to rest his head We reade of a bag he had but it was not filled with the fruits of his own hand or stock but with the gifts and alms of others He had it but he had it of alms it was enough but at other mens voluntary cost What ingenuous spirit doth not feel it an abasement to be so maintained You see his Poverty he was of so low estate that indeed he had nothing at all but what good people would bestow upon him Again for Reproach How insufferable a thing is that to worthy natures to be standered reviled ill-spoken of and laden with false accusations and calumniations Doth it not seem unto us a heavier thing then death Who is not so tender of his good name that the least blemish and aspersion cast upon him seemeth more smarting then the cutting of a sword But our Saviour had all manner of disgraces cast upon him not by mean base beggarly and despised companions but by the Scribes Pharisees Elders High-Priests and Rulers of the City
hath not the Church for his Mother 1. The Act of Faith in these words tacitly implied I beleeve 2. The Object of this Faith the Church described by two Properties viâ— 1. Sanctity in that it is called Holy 2. Universality in that it is stiled Catholick Concerning the act of this Faith I beleeve though it be not prefixed to the beginning of this Article as neither to the rest which follow it yet it is to be understood the former I beleeve which precedes the Article of the holy Ghost communicating it self to this and the subsequent and that chiefly for two Reasons The one to teach us that the principal object of our Faith is God himself considered in Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons and therefore to each of the Persons there is either a Beleeve prefixed or the particle in set before to shew that on them we are to build the certainty and assurance of our hope but as for these Articles of the Church The forgivenesse of sins The Resurrection of the body and the like they being creatures are but the secondary objects of our Faith not to be trusted upon immediately in themselves and therefore have not a Credo a Beleeve apart to themselves but prefixt to one of the Persons I beleeve in the holy Ghost The other to set out and divide by this means unto every of the Persons a special work Creation to the Father Redemption to the Sonne Sanctification to the holy Ghost Question is made What the words are which are to be supplied in this Article The holy Catholick Church whether I beleeve or I beleeve in I beleeve as is generally determined by the Orthodox Kahal in Hebrew ordinarily translated Ecclesia sometimes Synagoga is taken for an Assembly or Congregation and that sometimes in the evil part for an Assembly of wicked men as Gen. 49. 6. Psal. 2â— 5. sometimes in the good sense for an Assembly of men gathered together for a holy or civil use or end Nehem. 5. 13. 1 Sam. 17. 47. 1 Chron. 13. 2. Deut. 23. 1 2 3. Psal. 8. 22 23. Gnedah or Hedah ordinarily translated Synagoga doth also signifie an Assembly or Congregation gathered at set hours and places appointed Sometimes it notes a rebellious tumultuous and evil Assembly Psal. 106. 17 18. Numb 16. 48. and sometimes an orderly and lawful Congregation as Psal. 1. 5. Ier. 30. 20. Exod. 12. 19 47. Gnedah signifieth something more noble then Kahal as being the special Ecclesia in prophane Authours signifieth an Assembly of Citizens which by the voice of the Crier was called from their domestick affairs and the rest of the multitude to hear the sentence of the Senate so it is all one with Concio which is derived à Ciendo because all were called by publick Edict into the Assembly In the New Testament it is once taken for a disorderly and confused Assembly Act. 19. 32 39 40. But that one place excepted it is ever taken for a multitude or society with a disposition or relation to Religion And so it notes 1. The company of all the faithful Mat. 16. 18. Ephes. 1. 21 22. 4. 16. 5. 25 26. Col. 1. 18 24. Ephes. 5. 27 32. it is also taken indefinitely for every multitude and society of beleevers in Christ Act. 2. 47. Gal. 1. 13. 1 Cor. 15. 9. 12. 20. Act. 5. 11. 8. 1. 2. More particularly it signifieth any Assembly gathered together for the worship of God Act. 9. 31. 14. 23. 1 Cor. 11. 16. The Church in its primary signification may be defined A multitude or society of faithful men called out of all mankinde corrupted by the Ministery of the Word according to the good pleasure of God united as living members to Christ their Head and in him partaking of grace in this life and glory in the life to come to the praise of Gods wisdom power and riches of his mercy 1. It is a multitude 1 Cor. 10. 17. and that out of every Nation Language Tribe and People Apoc. 5. 9. 2. It is a society of men not of Angels Heb. 12. 22. See Ephes. 3. 10. L'Empereur in his Theses saith If the word Church be generally taken it is certain that the Angels also belong to it for the Church is the body of Christ Ephes. 1. 23. but Christ is the Head not only of men but also of Angels Col. 2. 10 18 19. They are our fellow-servants Revel 19. 10. and fellow-brethren Iob 1. 6. by Christ Ephes. 3. 15. 3. A society of the faithful called effectually and savingly out of the world or mankinde corrupted by the Gospel The Church is either Jewish or Christian the Christian either Primitive or Successive and they again in respect of Manners are Pure or Impure in respect of Worship Sound or Idololatrical in respect of Doctrine Orthodox or Heretical in respect of mutual Communion Catholick or Schismatical There are divers and glorious Elogies of this Church visible in the Scriptures it is called The City of God Heb. 12. 22. The heavenly Ierusalem there also Ierusalem which is from above Gal. 4. 26. The house of God the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christs sheepfold John 10. 16. The Spouse of Christ Cant. 4. 8. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Revel 21. 9. The body of Christ Eph. 1. 22 23. Col. 1. 18. The Church is Triumphant or Comprehensorum and Militant or Viatorum 1. Triumphant viz. that part of men who having overcome the flesh the world and the Devil now reign with God and Christ gloriously in Heaven 2. Militant viz. that part of men which yet conflict with those adversaties That distinction relies on the words of the Apostle Ephes. 3. 15. The Apostle speaks of the Triumphant Church 2 Tim. 4. â—6 7. Heb. 12. 23. Revel 7. 9. Hence their errour is refuted who think that the souls of the dead do sleep even to the Resurrection or who think that the souls of the godly and faithful till that time are excluded from the vision of God and heavenly glory See 2 Cor. 5. 6 7 8. Phil. 1. 23. Revel 14. 13. the Apostle speaks of the Militant Church 1 Tim. 6. 12. That which is spoken to one is understood of all Gal. 5. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 11. 1 Iohn 5. 4. Ephes. 6. 11 12. The Church is Militant either in deed or in shew only and profession those indeed belong to the Militant Church which are called according to purpose viz. the truly faithful and elect Those are the true members of the body of Christ who by faith are united to Christ and ingraffed in him who are partakers of the holy Ghost who draw grace and spiritual life from Christ Rom. 8. 9. Col. 2. 19. Ephes. 5. 25 26 27. but the wicked and hypocrites onely in name and profession belong to the Church for they have no true Communion with Christ they no more belong to the mystical body of Christ then a
his death because the Lord will as assuredly ingraffe us into Christ and cloathe us with his righteousnesse as we have the outward washing if we deprive not our selves thereof by our own carelessnesse 2. We should stirre up our selves to walk cheerfully in Gods Commandments Hath he promised to sanctifie me and shall I live as the men of the world The Parts of Baptism The essential Parts of Baptism are the Matter and the Form That the Matter of Baptism is water it appears from the word baptizing which signifies washing the Ministery of Iohn and the Apostles of Christ Matth. 3. Iohn 1. 31 33. that answers to the flood the Red Sea and divers purifications of the Law 1 Cor. 10. 1 Pet. 3. Heb. 9. it also well agrees with the thing signified viz. with the bloud of Christ and the washing away of sins by his bloud The first Baptism in the New Testament was in the River water and at the River Iordan Mat. 3. 6. afterward some were baptized in fountains as the Eunuch Acts 8. 38. Some in Rivers as Lydia Acts 16. 15. some in particular houses as the Gaoler in the prison vers 33. of the same Chapter Vide Voss. in Thes. See M. Bedf. on the Sac. par 1. c. 2. Some object Acts 2. 38. 19. 5. as if it were enough to baptize onely in the Name of Christ. Part there by a Synecdoche is put for the whole it being a form of Baptism known in those times Id est saith Grotius in Act. 19. 5. in nomen Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti Baptism borrowing a Ceremony from exorcising which in those dayes was a gift in the Church of casting out devils by adjuration it signified thereby not that men before Baptism are possessed with the Devil but first what they are by nature that is children of wrath and servants of the Devil and secondly what they are by Grace whereof Baptism is a Sacrament that is freed from the bondage of Satan and made coheirs of the Kingdom of Heaven D. Chalon In the West or Latine Church the Minister speaketh thus to him that is baptized Ego baptizo te c. In the East or Greek Church Baptizetur iste c. but it is no material difference Beza likes that form of the Latines best The Rites or Ceremonies of Baptism In the beginning Christians had no Chruches nor Fonts in them and there being many hundreds nay thousands to be baptized together there was a necessity that this Sacrament should be administred in Rivers or such places where was store of waters Iohn 3. 22. The Rites of Baptism in the Primitive times were performed in Rivers and Fountains whence the person to be baptized stood up and received the Sacrament This manner of baptizing the ancient Church entertained from the example of our Saviour who baptized Iohn in Iordan this was convenient for that time because their converts were many and men of years Hence it is that we call our vessels which contain the water of Baptism Fonts or Fountains Ridley of the Civil Law Zanchius and Mr Perkins preferre in persons of age and hot Countreys where it may be safe the Ceremony of immersion under the water before that of sprinkling or laying on the water as holding more Analogy to that of Paul Rom. 6. 4. That we are buried with Christ in Baptism D. Burges of the Cerem Sprinkling of water is no instituted Ceremony distinct from that washing which Christs Apostles used It is very probable also that the Apostles going into the colder part of the world did use sprinkling Dr. Ames against Dr. Burges par 2. pag. 140. The allusion of burying with Christ in Baptism is for us rather we lay men in the grave with their faces upwards and do not plunge them into the dust and earth but pour and sprinkle dust and broken earth upon them Cobbet of Baptism par 2. c. 3. Sect. 16. Those expressions which the Anabaptists so much insist upon being born of water Iohn 3. 5. Buried by Baptism Rom. 6. 4. And buried through Baptism Col. 2. 12. are meerly figurative and do not binde us to any literal observance It is the received Doctrine of all the Protestant Churches now as their practice together with their Catechisms and divers of their Liturgies sufficiently demonstrateth that it is a thing indifferent whether Baptism be performed by immersion a total washing of the body or by sprinkling the head or face only The Ceremony used in Baptism is either dipping or sprinkling dipping is the more ancient at first they went down into the Rivers afterwards they were dipped in the Fonts In colder climates and in case of weaknesse the custom of the Church hath been to pour water on the face The substance is washing hence Baptism is termed washing Ephes. 5. 26. Tit. 3. 5. to wash the body either in whole or part and so that this be done the manner is dispensable by the Church Dipping over head and ears is hurtful to the life and chastity of man many in hotter climates at some times of the year cannot be plunged over the head in cold water without hazard of life or health 2. Sacraments are to be celebrated in the face of the Congregation it is a scandal for naked men to go into the water with women Master Baileys second Book Chap. 7. The Necessity of Baptism This grows from Gods command and our weaknesse not the compelled want but the carelesse neglect and wilful contempt of it doth damn Some who are baptized are neverthelesse condemned because they believe not and some who believe are saved though they be not baptized Augustine held that children dying unbaptized are necessarily damned and in that regard was stiled Durus Pater infantum It was the opinion of Pelagius saith Austin de Haeret. c. 88. That children dying unbaptized do enjoy a certain blessed life out of the Kingdom of God Augustine in that Doctrine in which he dealt with the Pelagians saith Rivet bended the Tree too much the other way that he might make it straight The Papists make Baptism absolutely necessary Vide Bellarm. de Statu peccati l. 6. cap. 2. but Circumcision being the same in use and signification with Baptism was omitted in the Wildernesse fourty years David doubted not of his uncircumcised childes salvation and children are holy in the root through their believing parents 1 Cor. 7. 14. 1. Grace is not tied to the Word therefore not to the Sacraments 2. They were separate in the first and greatest Minister of Baptism Iohn himself who confessed that he could not baptize but with water 3. Then every baptized party should be truly regenerate but the contrary appears in Simon Magus Ananias and Sapphira and others 4. Some are justified before Baptism as Abraham was Rom. 4. 10. Cornelius Act. 10. 47. the Eunuch v. 37. 38. some after Baptism as many who are daily converted some out of Popery some out of prophanenesse The
passionis potiores quidem non inculâ—cutur alibâ— ab quos passus legitur Rom. 3. 25. Ephes. 1. 16. Col. 1. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Joh. 2. 2. Spannem Dub. Evang. part 1. Dub. 33. One saith It is the nature of God to hate sin but to punish it is from his will God had been merciful if he had sav'd none and just if he had punisht none Object Doctrina de satisfactione spoliat Deum omnipotentia quia non potest liberè condonare peccatum quod vilissimo cuique homuncioni conceditur Resp. Nec homo potest liberè condonare ut judex tametsi potest debet ut conservus Deus autem hic consideratur ut Iudex Dominus qui legem tulit à servis suis immutabiliter exequendam Dr Prid. Lect. 19. de Christi satisfactione Ego unus sum inter alios qui Piscatorem revercor tanquam Theologum nâ—â— modò in plurimis orthodexum singulari eruditione textuali ferè omnia confirmantem suspicor Cujus tamen illam de absoluta satisfactionis Christi necessitate sententiam comprobare nunquam potui Twiss contra Corvinum c. 1. sect 7. See Mr Oweâ— of Redemption l. 2. c. 2. That is a poor shift of the Socinians when we urge That Christ died for us out of 1 Pet. 2. 21. 3. 18. Ro. 5. 8. that is say they propter nos or nostro bono for our benefit not loco vel vice nostri in our room or stead See John 11. 50. For a man to do or suffer ought for another is as much asto do it in his stead Christ died not only for our benefit but in our stead as our Surety Heb. 7. 22. Christ gave his life a ransom for many Mat. 20. 28. 2. He died as a Sacrifice Ephes. 5. 2. that died in stead of the worshipper Iob 33. 24. 3. He took our Person therefore was called the second Adam Rom. 5. and burden 1. Our guilt 2 Cor. 5. 2â— 2. Our curse upon him Gal. 5. 13. Vide Grot. de satiss Christi c. 9. Vide Cammyroth Evang. ad Heb. 8. 4. Christus dicitur Nabi Propheta Deut. 18. 15 18. uti constat ex explicatione N. T. Act. 3. 22 23. cap. 7. 37. Est autem Nabi usu Scripturae is qui profundiora de Deo deque rebus divinis disserit qui mentem divinam hominibus aperit saepius etiam de iis usurpatur qui futura praedicunt Glass Onomat Two things make a compleat Prophet 1 A fulnesse of knowledge of all the secret counsel of God Prov. 8. 23 30. Col. 2 3. 2. An ability to communicate this knowledge unto men Isa. 50. 4. He revealed those counsels himself when he was on earth and reveals them by his Spirit now in heaven John 1. 18. Heb. 3 2. There is say some a twofold Kingdom of God 1. Regnum essentiale which belongs to all the Persons in the Trinity and was before the fall 2. Regnum viearium an oeconomical Mediatory Kingdom committed to Christ as Mediator Ioh. 5. 22. 18. 36. The Covenant was changed and made with Christ therefore the Government is put into his hand This Kingdom say some is threefold 1. Regnum universale a providential Kingdom or Kingdom of power so Christ is King over all creatures Psal. 8. 4. compared with Heb. 7. Christ is made Caput rerum omnium ad finem supernaturalem Ephes. 4. 22. 2. Spiritual Luk. 17. 21. whereby God rules over men and Angels 3. Regnum Davidicum whereby God shall in a peculiar manner rule over the Jews Dan. 7. 14. Hos. 3. lat end 2 Cor. 10. 5 6. Dan. 2. 44 7. 14. Luk. 1. 33. The Apostle useth the most extensive expressions when he speaks of the Dominion of Christ Ephes. 1. 21 22. Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Revel 5. 13. That place 1 Cor. 15. 24. is understood by some of Christs outward visible government in his Church then shall all preaching and Church-administrations cease a Vide Aquin. part 3. Quaest. 7 Artic. 1 2 3 4 5 6. b The head is the highest part in a man so he the highest in his Church the head giveth sense and moving unto all the body so he quickneth the Church As in a natural body all the members how remote soever from the head have a real union and conjunction with it which is the foundation of the influences from the head unto them so every Christian hath a union with Christ and thereby communion and influence from him 2. All the members are so joyned one with another by certain wayes of communication that they all serve for the use of the whole so in the Church of Christ all his people have not only an union with Christ the head but a conjunction one with another and are useful to the good of the whole body Rom. 12. 5. 1 Cor. 12. from vers 8. to the end Ephes. 4. from vers 12. to 17. They are all possessed with the same spirit Isa. 11. 11. that is the principal band the secondary bond is Christian love 1 Cor. 13. Eph. 4. 16. Col. 3. 14. Psa. 2. 6. Luke 1. 33. The Spirit is the bond of a higher union to the Saints then Angels Christ is to the Angels Caput dignitatis to the Saints Caput unionis He communicates to the Angels as servants to the Saints as members Isa. 33. 22. John 5. 20 21 22 23. Keys are Authoritatis symbolum a token of power authority and government Revel 1. 18. 3. 7. A metaphor taken from Stewards in houses who have the Keys given them Christ performs all promises executes all threatnings and exerciseth all the Attributes Col. 1. 15. Ioh. 5. 22. 1 Tim. 6. 15. Sane nihil in Veteris Testamenti scriptis uspiam exstat ex quo accuratius ac firmius demonstrari possit Messiam iis temporibus Iudaeis datum fuisse quo noster servator dulcissimus Iesus Christus verus ille Messias ac Dei hominum Mediator in Iudaea visibiliter conversabatur quam ex Prophetiae Danielis cap. 9. Caetera quidem omnia variis modis eludere ad suam Messiam quem adhuc exspectant applicare possunt hoc verò unicum testimonium os ipsis obturat ut planè conticescant obmutescant Wilhelmi Langi de annis Christi l. 2. c. 1. Iudaei summi hostes Dei sunt quit Iesum Christum pro Messiâ Deo non habent sed cum rejiciunt cum tot á sacra-sancta Trinitate quia Christum accrbè oderunt etiam infensissini hostes sunt Christiant nominis prae omnibus aliis Gentibus sect is quae Religionem Christianam aversantur Vedel de Deo Syutag l. 1. c. 2. James 4. 12. John 5. 22 27. This Title was given to Christ Ephes. 1. 21. Col. 1. 18 to lift him above all powers Rules and Dominions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a demonstrative Article he and no other is the head Lord is taken three wayes 1. Essentially so God the
may be done or not But if thou beleevest answer me some Questions with which things the Philosopher being astonished answered I beleeve and giving him thanks that he had overcome him was not onely of the same judgement with the old man but also began to give counsell to others who were before enemies to the Christian Faith as well as himself to assent to the Christian Doctrine and added an Oath that he was not onely changed by a divine Deity but also by a certain unexpressible force was converted to the Christian Religion If Zanchy may be credited the perseverance of Saints in the Faith is a main part of the Gospel Vedelius in his Panacea Apostasiae bono constantium lapsorum praescripta l. 1. c. 3. shews that an Apostate breaks all the ten Commandments I wish that the Reformed Churches by their unhappy divisions fomented by the Boutefeus of Christendom the lesuites do not weaken themselves and accomplish their enemies great design It is observed by Chemnitius that in the year 1540. the Iesuites by the Intercession of Cardinal Contarenus did obtain from Paul the III that he would confirm that order by his Pontificial Authority who did ratifie it with this caution that onely threescore men should be of that Society But when afterward they observed that that order was more active then others in upholding the tottering Church of Rome he decreed in the year 1543. that this Society of the Iesuites should not be limited to any either terms of places or number of persons It is also observable what Campanella laies down in his discourse of the Spanish Monarchy It is manifest saith he that the King of Spain if he could subdue England with the Low-countreys would soon become Monarch of all Europe and a great part of the world Now nothing so much conduceth to overthrow the English as a dissension and discord stirred up amongst them and the Dutch and perpetually nourished which will soon saith he afford better occasions In Chap. 27. of the same Book he speaks much to the same purpose Parsons the English Jesuite in his Memorial for Reformation or a remembrance for them that shall live when Catholick Religion shall be restored unto England he would have the grand Charter burnt the municipal Laws abrogated and the Innes of Court converted to some other use that for Lawyers Then for Divines The Colledges in both the Vniversities should be onely in the power of six men who should have all the Lands Mannors Lordships Parsonages c. and what ever else belonged to Church or Cloister resigned into their hands That at the beginning no mans conscience be pressed for matters in Religion then that publick disputations between Papists and Protestants be held in both the Vniversities That for some years it will be more commodious for the publick and more liberty for the Preachers to have no Appropriation nor Obligation to any particular Benefice but Itinera mitto caetera M. Smiths Preface to Dailles Apology for the Reformed Churches translated by him He saith there he hath been told by the London Booksellers that at the least thirty thousand Popish Books have been printed here within these three last years Shall the Iesuitical and heretical party be so active for Popery for errour and shall not the Orthodox be as studious to hold fast and hold forth the Truth Let Magistrates make the interest of Christ his Truths his Worship his People their great interest let them discountenance gross errors and damnable heresies Let Ministers preach down pray down live down those abominable Doctrins now amongst us Let all the people of God study Fundamentals labour to be stablisht in the Truth and in their places oppose Falshood Libertinism and all horrid Blasphemies and pray earnestly to God that he would cause the false prophets and the unclean spirits to pass out of the Land Zech. 13. â— and I should yet hope though our case be very sad that God would continue his Gospel still amongst us in power and purity though by our sins we have forfeited so great a mercy Which blessing that it may be vouchsafed unto us though altogether unworthy shall be the prayer of Your true Christian Friend and hearty well-wisher Edward Leigh TO THE Christian and Candid READER READER DIvers have since the publishing of my Treatise of Divinity consisting of three Books exprest their good esteem thereof and withall have said that if the like were done upon the whole Body of Divinity it would be a very usefull and profitable work I have therefore inserted divers things into the former Treatises and also enlarged them so farre by the addition of other Subjects as to make a compleat Systeme or Body of Divinity I relate not here of the Covenant and Promises Asslictions or Martyrdoms because I have in my Books of Divine Promises and Saints Encouragements sufficiently discussed those several points Divines go different wayes in their handling of positive Divinity and give several Titles to their Books Some call their Work A Systeme of Divinity Others A Synopsis Others A Syntagma Others Common places Some The Mâ—rrow Some The Body of Divinity Others The Summe of Divinity There are Calvins Institutions Bullingers Decads Zanchies Works Gerhards Common places Ursins Summe of Divinity and some others that have more fully handled the Body of Divinity but there are few of our English Writers unlesse Master Perkins of old and Bishop Usher lately who have largely and fully written in English this way Some reduce all the Principles of Religion into more some to few Heads Some referre all to those four Heads 1. Quae Credenda What things are to be beleeved in the Creed 2. Quae Facienda What things are to be done in the Commandments 3. Quae Petenda What things are to be begged in the Lords Prayer 4. Quae Recipienda What things are to be received in the Sacraments The Creed Commandments the Lords Prayer and the Sacraments Though I do not punctually observe that method yet I handle all those four Subjects I speak of God and his Attribute Almighty in the second Book and handle all the Articles which concern Christ in the fifth Book where I treat of the Recovery of man by Christ and somewhat of the holy Ghost in the seventh Book where I handle the Benefits by Christ in Sanctification Sanctification of the Church and Communion of Saints I speak of in the seventh Book Of Forgivenesse of sins in the fifth Petition of the Lords Prayer and in the Doctrine of Iustification Of the Resurrection of the Body and Last Iudgement and Life Everlasting I treat in the last Book I handle the Commandments in the ninth Book The Lords Prayer and Sacraments among the Ordinances in the seventh Book I shall now particularize the several Subjects of each Book according to the method I observe First I treat of the Scriptures or Word of God the Divine Authority of both the Old and New Testament
2. Psalmi videntur data opera versi in contumeliam Latini Sermonis Chamier Ierom praefat in Prov. saith That he had allotted himself but three dayes for the translating of the three Books of Salomon viz. the Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Canticles which yet a man will hardly be able to reade over well and exactly in a moneth by reason of the great difficulties he will there meet withall as well in the words and phrases as in the sense And neverthelesse if the pretences of the Church of Rome be true this little three dayes work hath been so happy as to be not only approved and esteemed but even canonized also by the Councel of Trent Now whether the will of God be that we should receive this Translation of his as his pure word or not I shall leave to those who have a desire and ability to examine However I dare considently affirm that Saint Hierome himself never had any the least thought or hope that ever this piece of his should one day come to this honour it being a thing not to be imagined but that he would have taken both more time and more pains in the thing if ever he had either desired or foreseen this Daille du vrai usage des Peres l. 2. c. 3. The vulgar Latine of the New Testament is no lesse corrupted then of the Old Matth. 6. 11. The English Papists at Rhemes who translated the New Testament into English not out of the Greek Text but out of the vulgar Latine reade Give us to day our super-substantial bread the Latine hath it Panem super-substantialem for Quotidianum Daily bread The Rhemists note upon the same is By this Bread so called here according to the Latine and Greek word we ask not onely all necessary sustenance for the body but much more all spiritual food viz. the blessed Sacrament it self which is Christ the true Bread that came down from Heaven and the Bread of life to us that eat his Body Our Saviour Christ which condemned vain repitition and by a form of prayer provided against the same is made here of the Jesuites to offend against his own rule for that which is contained in the second Petition they teach to be asked in the fourth Secondly They lodge in one Petition things of divers kindes and farre removed in nature spiritual and corporeal heavenly and earthly yea the creature and the Creator Thirdly Hence it should follow that he taught them expressely to ask that which he had neither instituted nor instructed them of and whereof his Disciples were utterly ignorant Salomon from whom our Saviour seemeth to have taken this Petition confirms that exposition of things tending to uphold this present life Prov. 30. 8. Lechem Chukki The Bread which is ordained for me The Jesuites will never be able to justifie the old Interpreter which translateth one word the same both in syllables and signification in one place Supersubstantial and in another viz. in Luke Quotidianum or Daily against which interpretation of his he hath all Antiquity before that Translation and some of the Papists themselves retained the words of Daily Bread Bellarm. l. 1. de bonis operibus c. 6. prefers Quotidianum and defends it against the other Tostatus applieth it to temporal things The Syriack saith Panis indigentiae vel sufficientiae nostrae Luke 1. 18. Plena gratia for gratis dilecta as Chrysostome renders it Hail Mary full of grace for freely beloved The word signifieth not any grace or vertue inherent in one but such a grace or favor as one freely vouchsafeth and sheweth to another the word retained by the Syriack in this place is Taibutha and signifieth happiness blessedness goodness bountifulnes Tremellius turneth it gratia which may and ought to be Englished favour as the Greek word signifieth and is expounded by the Angel and the Virgin Mary themselves the Angel adding in the same verse The Lord is with thee meaning by his special favour and in v. 30. saying She had found favor with God The Virgin in her thankful song magnifying the mercy of God toward her that he had so graciously looked on her in so mean estate as to make her the mother of her own Saviour after so marvellous a manner They foolishly salute her who is removed from them by infinite space and whom their Hail cannot profit being in Heaven as the salutation of the Angel did and might do whilst she was here in the vale of misery Their Alchymie also is ridiculous to make that a prayer unto her which was a prayer for her to make it daily that served in that kinde for one onely time to make it without calling which the Angel durst not do unless he had been sent Ephes. 5. 32. Vulg. Sacramentum hoc magnum est and the Rhemists This is a great Sacrament for great mystery Sacraments are mysteries but all mysteries are not properly Sacraments How can it be a Church Sacrament which hath neither element nor word of promise Secondly Sacraments are the peculiar and proper possession of the Church of Christ how can that be a Sacrament which is and lawfully may be used out of the Church amongst the Turks and Jews to whom the benefit of Matrimony cannot be denied The old Interpreter Coloss. 1. 27. translateth the same word a mystery or secret Chemnitius reckons this place among those which the Papists abuse not among the corrupted for Sacrament is the same with the Ancient Latine Divines that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is with the Greeks Chamier Heb. 11 21. The vulgar hath Iacob adoravit fastigium virgae the Rhemists adored the top of his rod whereas the words are He worshipped upon the top of his staff and not as they have falsely turned it so also doth the Syrian Paraphrast read it The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used elswhere in the New Testament for a walking staff agreeth fitly unto Iacob who being both old and sick had need to stay himself thereupon whilst he praised God Ioseph was no King and therefore had no Scepter to fall down before In the Hebrew Gen. 47. for top we read head which by a metaphor signifies the top because the head is the end and highest part of man and consequently of any thing else And for staff we now read in the Hebrew bed which fell out because the word mittah there extant pricked with other vowels signifieth a staff for in the Hebrew matteh is a staff and mitteh a bed The Septuagint whom the Apostle follows read it matteh and so translated it staff otherwise then we now read it in the Hebrew Text. If we follow the Hebrew Text as it is now extant the sense will be That Iacob because he could not raise his body out of his bed therefore he bowed his head forward upon his beds head and so worshipped God Beza speaking of the divers Latine Translations of the New Testament onely he saith of the vulgar Latine That
was truly dead The women came and sought him but were inform'd by the Angels that he was risen yet could not make the Apostles beleeve it This Peter did preach Acts 2. this Paul preached Acts 13. this Paul inculcateth 1 Cor. 15. and Peter in his Epistle also It is so necessary a point of our Christian Faith that without it all our Faith is vain and falleth to the ground David fore-told it in all the parts of it as Peter interprets him Acts 2. His soul was not left in hell nor did his body see corruption that is putrifie at all A man consists of two parts a soul and a body there can be no resurrection after the separating of these two unlesse the soul be re-united to the body again and both lifted up out of the state of death therefore did the God-head to whom both soul and body were united restore the soul to the body again preserving it from putrifaction that it might be a fit dwelling place for the soul and so having joyned them together the body rose and went abroad and shew'd it self to the Apostles no longer a weak feeble mortal and corruptible body but a glorious impassible incorruptible and most beautiful body for it lost all its imperfections in the grave And this Resurrection fell upon the third day after his death as himself said Iohn 2. 18. the third day he should rise The day began as we ordinarily account howsoever perhaps by special institution the Sabbaths may be accounted to have begun otherwise at the peep of the morning when men begin to stir about businesse then did Christ stirre also he was to lie no longer then the first day of the week because he intended to challenge that day to himself to be the Lords day and the Christian Sabbath whence it came in processe of time to have that name before the third day he was not to rise that he might shew himself truly dead and stay a sufficient while under the arrest of death for the accomplishment of our satisfaction Now this Resurrection was performed by the power of his Deity for all the while that he continued dead his soul and body were both united to the God-head as it were a sword pulled out of the scabberd which the man holdeth still one in one hand the other in the other and so can easily put the same together again For the Apostle saith Rom. 1. 4. He was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection of the dead that is by that his resurrection which is virtually the resurrection of all seeing by vertue thereof all his people rise to glory Therefore is he termed The first fruits of them that die 1 Cor. 5. 16. And the first begotten from the dead Col. 1. 18. because by vertue of his Resurrection the Saints rise to glory and enjoy from him this prerogative of overcoming death as the first fruits sanctifie the lump and as the first-born hath the priviledge above all the children In time some rose before him but in vertue none for all that rose did rise by the efficacy and merit of him and his rising again And this Resurrection was necessary for divers purposes 1. To make way for his farther Glorification that he might raign as Lord of Lords and King of Kings for he could not have possessed fulnesse of Glory had he not been still in the Sepulchre The soul indeed might have been perfectly glorified but whole Christ could not have been fully glorified if the body had not risen to partake of the glory of heaven with the soul. Now seeing the body was helpful to and in the performance of the work of Redemption suffering great abasement it was not equal that it should be any longer deprived of the reward when once Justice was fully satisfied upon it It was necessary also to fulfill the Prophecies and Types that went before Davids Prophecy Peter presseth Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption the type of Ionah our Saviour telleth of Matth. 12. 40. and both were to be acâ—omplished Lastly It was necessary for the confirmation of our Faith that we might be assured he was the Sonne of God and had perfectly accomplished this great work he undertook therefore Paul saith That he rose again for our justification that is to declare and prove that he had perfectly fulfilled all that was necessary to satisfie for our sins and to procure for us as the Apostle calleth it everlasting righteousnesse When the Surety is apprehended for the Debtor there is no getting out of the Creditors hand till he have discharged the whole debt therefore when the Surety gets out of prison and is at large the debt is fully satisfied so it is in this case so that we could not have rested upon him as a full and perfect Saviour if he had not risen but now our Faith doth evidently acknowledge him to be a perfect Saviour and hath full assurance to ground upon since in him salvation is to be had And for the end and use of this Resurrection it was to quicken our soul first that we might rise to newnesse of life as the Apostle St Peter saith and at length to quicken our mortal bodies too 1 Pet. 4. 5. that the Head being risen the members might rise with him The Resurrection of Christ should work on us so that we should live to him 2 Cor. 5. 15. Ephes. 1. 19 20. and that four wayes From the knowledge of his Resurrection we should be assured 1. That the Lord will raise the Church or us out of our lowest afflictions Hos. 6 2 3. Isa. 26. 19. Ezek 37. 3 4. and that should ingage us to improve all our power for him 2. That Christ hath likewise power to raise up our souls to spiritual life as our first rising is by the life of Christ as he recovered his life so the increase of it is by the improvement of his Resurrection by Faith Phil. 3. 11. Rom. 6. 4 5. 3. It assures us of the Resurrection of our bodies Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 15. Ioh. 11. 24. 4. Of an inheritance and glorious estate 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Now you have the Doctrin of the Resurrection as the Scriptures deliver the same The second Degree of Christs Glorification is his Ascension which was a change of place a transferring of his glorified body and soul into the upper Region of the world out of this lower room thereof A body cannot be in more places then one because it is circumscriptible and our Saviours body though glorified retaineth yet still the nature of a body though it have laid aside all the natural imperfections of a body and therefore our Saviours body could of it self move upward because it was rid of that grosse weightinesse which doth alwayes accompany a natural compound body Now this Ascension of our Saviour is in Scripture often related two of the Evangelists
tell of it and St Luke again in the Acts of the Apostles Mark hath it thus Chap. 16. 19. He was received up into Heaven Luk. thus Chap. 24. 51. He was parted from them and caught up into Heaven Again in Acts 1. 9 10 11. While he spake thus he was taken up and a Cloud received him up out of their sight Now this Ascension be fell fourty dayes after his Resurrection Act. 1 3. when he had conversed with them and informed them of all things necessary for their Apostolical function both that he might thus confer with them of all such necessary things and that by often shewing himself he might give sufficient and undeniable proof of his Resurrection And after this was done Luke telleth how an Angel spake to them about it and told them of his returning again and that the Heavens should contain him till the time appointed Thus did he fulfill the Prophecy that went before concerning this matter for David had said long before Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast given gifts unto men This was also typed by the High-Priests entring into the most holy place upon atonement day after the Sacrifice of expiation offered therefore Christ the true High-Priest entered into the holy place not made with hands even into very Heaven there to appear before God for us Heb. 6. 20. 7. 26. 84. The cause of his ascending was because the earth was no fit place for a person so glorious to abide in for either he must shew forth that glory of his and then men could not have endured to converse with him or else he must not shew it forth and then he had deprived himself of his deserved glory Wherefore it was necessary that he should betake himself to a place and company capable of that glory even into the highest Heavens where he might enjoy and declare that infinite great glory which his Father was to bestow upon him for a reward of his sufferings And this his Ascension was even a taking possession of that glorious estate for us that we might be fully assured of his drawing us his members after him that at last in due time we might be where he is to behold his glory and therefore he told his Disciples That he went to prepare a place for them and that in the fit season he would return again to take them with him that head and body might be both together And in the mean space this his Ascension is become a means of drawing our hearts after him to a longing desire of being with him that we might set our affections on things above where Christ our Head is For seeing Christ our Lord did leave earth to go into Heaven it is evident that Earth is a far meaner place and Heaven a far more excellent Wherefore it is necessary for us to raise up our hearts to that which is the most happy place and state Now the third Degree of his Glorification follows that is His sitting down at the right hand of his Father whereof many Scriptures also make mention Heb. 10. 12. 1. 3 12. 2. 8. 1. Ephes. 1. 20. Now this is a figurative kinde of speech and denoteth the high advancement of his humanity next to the Divinity above all other creatures both in respect of admirable gifts and boundlesse authority For to be at Gods right hand signifieth a state of excellent glory as he that is next the King in honour standeth or sitteth at his right hand Gen. 48. 18. 1 King 2. 19. Psal. 45. 9. Matth. 20. 20 21. This is called a sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on high it is the dwelling of the fulnesse of the God-head in him bodily in that very body of Christ the God-head hath poured forth all sorts of excellencies as much as a creature is possibly capable of and he is actually invested with all power in Heaven and Earth Christ hath a Name above all names farre above all Principalities and Powers and Thrones and Dominions Where he must abide till he make all his enemies his foot-stool Our Lord Jesus Christ is adorned with more abundance of Wisdom Power Goodnesse Love Joy Mercy Holinesse and whatsoever qualities tend to make him in whom they are excellent glorious and happy then all the creatures of God laid together so that all the heavenly Army worship and adore him and cast themselves down at his feet and are most ready to yield him absolute and perfect obedience knowing him to be preferred by his Father to that Dignity That so he might receive a most ample reward for that exceeding great abasement to the lower parts of the earth to which he did voluntary submit himself for his Fathers glory sake and that he might become a fit Head and King to his Church able to guide and rule them at all times and to sub due all their and his enemies under him and them Dan. 2. 44. 7. 14 27. Mar. 14. 62. Rom. 8. 3. Ephes. 1. 21 22. I should now speak of Christs judging the quick and dead at his second coming which some Divines make the last degree of his glory but there will be a fitter place to handle that elsewhere I shall therefore in the next place draw some usefull Corollaries from the Glorification of our blessed Saviour FIRST We must labour so seriously to contemplate this unutterable glory of our Head Christ Jesus till we be translated into the same image from glory to glory endeavouring to shew forth the power of his Resurrection and Ascension in rising to newnesse of life and in ascending up on high in our desires and affections We must be raised up together with him and with him sit together in heavenly places If the Resurrection of Christ have not a powerful impression on our souls to make us rise out of the filthy grave and rotten Sepulchre of a wicked life to a holy and godly conversation If his Ascension and sitting at his Fathers right hand have not a like powerful impression upon our souls to raise us up to all heavenlinesse of minde making us in desire and will even as it were to ascend after him and sit there with him the bare saying that we beleeve these Articles shall little avail to our happinesse I beseech you therefore let us all endeavour to make a practical use of these heavenly and supernatural truths which are revealed to us Christ is risen say to thy self why do not I rise with him from all loosnesse vanity wickednesse uncleannesse injustice and abominable lusts Christ is ascended and hath taken his place in Heaven Why do not I cast off all earthly base affections and lift up my soul and aspire to that high-place We say we love Christ and that we are his members let us shew our love to him and union with him by being thus made conformable to his Resurrection and Ascension
I have shewed in my first Book of the Scriptures Secondly It tends to the extream dishonour of Christ 1. In making other Intercessours 2. In making each man his own Saviour by his own works 3. In feigning a Purgatory Thirdly It tends to the damnation of mens souls 1. In drawing them to put confidence in their own works 2. In making them content with lip-labour in stead of prayer 3. In mocking them with counterfeit confession 4. In teaching them to commit Idolatry 5. In teaching them the doctrine of venial sins and that these may be pardoned without either confession or contrition There is a double way of advancing Antichrist First In way of Worship and Superstition Some conceive that course was taken here formerly when there was so much cringing and bowing toward the Altar Secondly By publishing and maintaining the Doctrines of Popery the most refined Doctrines conditional Decrees Free-will Auxilium sufficiens omnibus ad salutem media scientia in God and Universal Redemption in Christs intention final Apostasie These are the Jesuites Doctrines Arminius had it from them Christians that have cast off Popery should be so farre from returning again to Babylon that they should pray for the destruction and utter ruine of that man of sinne and with confidence expect the accomplishment of the Prophecies in that kinde The End of the sixth Book THE SEVENTH BOOK OF OUR VNION And Communion WITH CHRIST And our Spiritual Benefits by him and some special Graces CHAP. I. Of our Union with Christ. HAving handled the work of Redemption in the Nature and Person of it Now I shall speak of the Application of it by the holy Ghost That is a special part of Gods Providence whereby those things which Jesus Christ hath purchased are by the operation of the holy Ghost made effectual to all those for whom they were appointed Four things are considerable in it 1. The foundation of it 2. The efficient cause or worker of it 3. The persons who shall be made partakers of it 4. The parts of this work 1. Union and conjunction with Christ. 2. Communion with him The ground work of it lies in three things 1. The donation of God the Father Iohn 6. 39. All that my Father hath given me shall come to me 2. The intendment of Christ in all the work he wrought Iohn 17. 19. For their sakes do I sanctifie my self that is separate my self to the work I undertook 3. The Fathers accepting it done for them as heartily as if they had done it in their own persons 2 Cor. 5. 19. 2. The efficient cause of it the holy Ghost that is the third Person in the Trinity who is equal to the Father and the Son The making of man was in some respect appropriated to the Father redeeming him to the Son the making it effectual and applying it was the work of the holy Ghost 14 15 and 16. Chapters of Iohn I will send the holy Ghost The Comforter he shall lead you into all truth Convince you of sinne righteousnesse and judgement There is no one branch of our partaking of Christ but what is totally ascribed to the holy Ghost The sending of the Gospel is by the holy Ghost they are the gifts and graces of the holy Ghost Faith Union with Christ and Communion with him in all his Offices are from the holy Ghost the Spirit teacheth governeth comforteth Reason Because no inferiour person could effect it Ephes. 1. 19 20. Thirdly The Persons to whom this work of application belongs or who shall be made partakers of Christ but the Decree of Election and Reprobation have been handled already There are a certain number whom God hath appointed to come to life by Christ the Spirit of God will make the means effectuall to all his Fourthly The parts of this work 1. Union and conjunction with Christ. 2. Communion with him 1 Ioh. 5. 12. I shall first speak of our Union with Christ. Christ is said to dwell and abide in us and we are said to be Christs to be partakers of Christ to be cloathed with Christ and abide in him The Spirit of God sets it out in five similitudes 1. Of food made one with the body Ioh. 6. 5 6. 2. Of Head and Members Ephes. 1. 22 23. 3. Of the foundation and building Ephes. 2. 20 21 22. 1 Pet. 2. 4 5 6. 4. Of the stock and branches Ioh. 15. 4 5 6 7. 5. Of the Husband and Wife Ephes. 5. 31 32. We must be one with Christ as we were one with the first Adam say some two wayes 1. Naturally as we bore his image 2. Voluntarily as we consented to his Covenant so with the second Adam 1. Naturally by receiving of his Spirit 2. Voluntarily consenting to his Covenant Though it is not easie to conceive how we can be said to have consented to his Covenant but as being in him and so his consent did include ours The Union begins on Christs part he layes hold on me by his Spirit Rom. 8. 9. Phil. 3. 12. Gal. 4. 5 6. 1 Iohn 4. 13. This Spirit works a principle of faith in us that layes hold on Christ and accepts him for our Head and Husband for ever Iohn 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 17. He will take Christ 1. With all his Offices for a Lord as well as a Saviour 2. With all his graces 3. With all his inconveniences Christ with poverty with disgrace with the stake There is a three-fold Union between Christ and a Believer 1. Mystical with Christ as a Head the fruit of that is intimacy 2. Moral with Christ as a patern or example 3. Judicial with Christ as a Surety whereby we are concerned in every act of Christs mediation the fruit of this is interest This Union between Christ and us is wrought by the Spirit Ephes. 4. 4. He unites God and us and us one with another He works it by the Ministery of the Word 1 Cor. 1. 9. Iohn 6. 44 45. and a religious use of the Seals 1 Cor. 12. 13. Rom. 6. 3 5. 1 Cor. 10. 16. Some make our Union with Christ to be only a relative Union others an essentiall personall Union as if we were Godded with God and Christed with Christ. I would not be too bold with those expressions of Nazianzen because I see they are abused 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First There is more then a relative Union as that place 1 Cor. 6. 17. forcibly proves 2. These Reasons 1. This Union is set forth by similitudes which shew a real Union Iohn 15. 1. 1 Cor. 12. Head and Body 2. Because our Union with Christ is compared to the Mystery of the Trinity and is like to the Union of the Persons in the Divine Nature Ioh. 6. 57. 14. 20. 17. 21 22 23. We are one not in the same kinde or degree of Union nor in so high and glorious a manner 3. Because it is not a Union founded only in terms of Scripture but
really wrought by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 12. 13. 4. Because there are real effectual comforts and graces derived to us from hence Rom. 6. 4. Phil. 3. 10. Secondly It is not an essential Union 1. Because the Union is mystical not personal the two Natures in Christ are essentially united because they are made one person it is a Union of persons our persons are united to Christ yet not a personal Union we make not one person but one body with Christ and not one body natural but mystical 1 Cor. 6. 17. 2. Those that mingle and confound the persons make the mystical Union higher then the personal the personal Union did not confound the Natures make the man God Object The whole Church is called Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. and we are made partakers of the Divine Nature Answ. We must not apply that to Union which is proper to Communion Communion is the common union of all the members with Christ. It is folly to apply that to one part which is proper to the whole body Head and Members is Christ mystical the parts are of the body but not the body There is a great deal of difference between the Divine Nature as it was in Christ and as it is in us Col. 2. 6. compared with that of 2 Pet. 1. 4. He had the fulnesse of the God-head we are only partakers of the Divine Nature the God-head dwels in him personally in us spiritually 1 Iohn 4. 16. there is a likenesse wrought in us to the Divine Nature This Union between Christ and us is 1. Real though he be in Heaven we on earth because the same Spirit that dwels in him dwels in us it is not only notional nor moral as betwixt friends 2. Mutual I am my Beloveds and my Beloved is mine and total whole Christ God and man is ours and the whole man soul and body must be his Psal. 45. 10. therefore we are said To eat his flesh Drink his bloud 3. Spiritual Christs Spirit is communicated to us and abides in us 4. Operative where Christ dwels by his Spirit he casts out Satan and takes possession of the soul and furnisheth it with his graces repairs his Image in us communicates his life to us gives us strength to bear crosses 5. Intimate Iohn 17. 21. Cant. 8. 12. it was not enough to say My vineyard but my vineyard which is mine 6. Strong and inseparable Death dissolves marriage not this Union Rom. 8. 34 35 36 37 38. It brings us nearer Christ by vertue of this mystical Union with Christ the dead bodies of the Saints are raised up at the last day This Union with Christ is one of the deep things of God one of the great mysteries of the Gospel Ephes. 5. 30 32. Our Saviour in his preaching began with the Doctrin of Repentance Mat. 4. 17. then went to that of Sanctification in general in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of Matth then he proceeds to the Doctrin of Faith sixth seventh and eighth Chapters of Iohn and lastly to his Union with the Saints fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Chapters of Iohn There are three mystical Unions not to be understood by a creature 1. The Mystery of the Trinity wherein three distinct Persons make but one God Deut. 6. 4. 2. Wherein two distinct Natures make one particular person so there is one Christ 1 Cor. 8. 6. 3. When two distinct Natures and Persons are united by one Spirit so there is one Church Cant. 6. 8. How to know whether I am united to Christ. I have then received the Spirit of Christ 1 Iohn 3. 24. Rom. 8. 26. He walks in the Spirit lives by the Spirit is led by the Spirit Two Rules to know that Christ is then first A Spirit of Mortification he 1. Helps thee to subdue thy darling sins 1 Iohn 3. 8. 2. Helps thee to overcome thy secret spiritual sins the power of natural conscience may keep under grosse sins but what power have you to subdue contempt of God impenitency hardnesse of heart pride envy Secondly Christ is also a Spirit of Sanctification 1 Pet. 1. 2. 1. In renewing the inward man That which is of the Spirit is Spirit 2. In transforming the outward man 1. He is willingly ignorant of no truth 2. He lets it break forth into practice 3. Layes out whatever is dear to him for Christ as Nehemiah Esther Benefits which flow from our Union with Christ 1. Reconciliation God looks not upon us as enemies Luk. 2. 14. 2. Union with the holy Trinity God the Father Christ dwels in God and God in him 1 Thes. 1. 1 2. The Spirit he is said to abide in them and they in him 3. He hath an interest in all Christs relations Iohn 17. I go to my Father and your Father my God and your God this gives boldnesse and accesse to the throne of Grace 4. The Promises come to be yours by your union with Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. they are made with Christ and with you in him he is Primus foederatus say some yet others say Christ is Mediator of the Covenant but not a party with whom the Covenant is made I will forgive their iniquities c. this they say is not made with Christ who knew no sinne Besides they urge that it is expresly said I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel c. And all spiritual priviledges 1 Ioh. 5. 12. this is the ground of all imputation of righteousnesse 5. We are presented to the Father through Christ he not onely presents your services but persons Exod. 12. 29. Heb. 7. 24 28. Eph. 1. 6. Phil. 3. 9. The end or intendment of this Union 1. To be the highest exaltation to his people that their persons are capable of the Angels are not so united to Christ as the Saints they are his servants not his members 2. That this might be the foundation of all Communion betwixt Christ and the soul he is the head we the members by vertue of the hands union with the head are all living operations He is the foundation we the building He the stock we the branches He the Husband we the Spouse by vertue of this conjunction he looks for duties from us there is a living in him a bearing fruit in him and we for priviledges from him we partake with him in his Righteousnesse Victories Graces Inheritance Directions to preserve our Union or Conjunction with Christ He is united to us by the in-dwelling vertue of his Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. 1 Iohn 3. 24. 4 13. and by faith Iohn 1. 12. 1. Do not grieve Gods Spirit Ephes. 4 23. Delicatares est Spiritus sanctus Tert. if he counsel rebel not 2. Maintain thy faith beleeve strongly against all doubts and apprehensions of thy own unworthinesse the Spirit comes by faith Gal. 3. and it is kept by it faith is the bond of union on our part as the Spirit on Gods 3. Use the
to the precise number of seven for we find it not in any of the Fathers or other Writers whatsoever before a thousand years after Christ have shewed that the seven are not all Sacraments if the name of Sacrament be taken properly and straitly Rainolds against Hart. The number of seven Sacraments was not determined untill the dayes of Peter Lombard which lived 1151 years after Christ. None but Christ onely can institute a Sacrament Their Schoolmen Alensis and Holcot have denied confirmation to be from Christ his Institution their Hugo Lombard Bonaventure Alensis Altisiodorus have affirmed the same of extream Unction which in the primitive Church by the judgement of their Cassander was not so extream Matrimony and Confirmation were held by the Schoolmen to be no Sacrament Iohn the Evangelist notes that out of the side of Christ being dead there came bloud and water hence arose the Sacraments of the Church Paul twice joynes them both together 1 Cor. 10. 1. 12. 12 13. The Fathers intreating precisely of the Sacraments of the New Testament do only expresse two Baptism and the Eucharist so Ambrose in his Treatise properly written of the Sacraments and Cyril in his Book entituled a Catechism Onely Baptism and the Lords Supper in the New Testament were instituted by Christ Matth. 28. 24. therefore they onely are Sacraments of the New Testament Christ did onely partake in these two Paul acknowledgeth but these two 1 Cor. 10. 2 3 4. Matrimony 1. being ordained before the fall can be no Sacrament which is a seal of the Promise and Covenant of Grace after and by reason of the fall 2. It is not proper to the Church as Sacraments are but common to Jews Turks and Infidels 3. Every Sacrament belongs to every member of the Church but this belongs not to their Priests and Votaries See M. Cartw. Rejoynd par 2. p. 82 83. Cajetane denies that the Text of Iohn 20. 23. and Ephes. 5. 32. and Iam. 5. 4. being the sole grounds of Scripture which Papists have for three of their Sacraments Auricular Confession Matrimony and Extream Unction do teach any such thing It came not from the Lord to ordain one Sacrament for the Clergy as Orders a second for the Laity alone as Marriage a third for catechized ones as Confirmation a fourth for sick ones as Unction a fifth for lapsed ones as Penance These are no Scripture but tradition Sacraments The Councel of Trent thus argues There are seven defects of a man seven degrees of the body seven Aegyptian plagues seven planets seven dayes in the week they should adde also seven heads of the Beast Therefore there are seven Sacraments Vide Aquin. part 3. Quaest. 65. Art 1. X. The use of the Sacraments of the New Testament 1. To quicken our dulnesse and stirre up our care in performing the duties whereto the Gospel bindeth us viz. to endeavour and labour to repent and beleeve and obey out of an assured confidence that God will accept and help our endeavours 2. To confirm and stablish our hearts in faith that we may setledly beleeve that God hath and will perform the good things sealed up viz. Remission of sins sanctification and salvation all the spiritual blessings of the new Covenant The uses or ends of the Sacraments are especially three 1. To strengthen faith 2. To seal the Covenant between God and us 3. To be a badge of our profession Atters of the Sac. l. 1. c. 3. XI Whether any other but a Minister lawfully called and ordained may administer the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper It is held by the Reformed Churches and by the soundest Protestant Writers That neither of these Sacraments may be dispensed by any but by a Minister of the Word lawfully ordained 1. God hath appointed the Ministers of the Word lawfully called and ordained and no other to be stewards and dispensers of the mysteries of Christ 1 Cor. 4. 1. Tit. 1. 5 7. 2. He hath appointed them to be Pasâ—ors or Shepherds To feed the stock of God Ier. 3. 15. Ephes. 4. 11. Acts 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. much of this feeding consists in the dispensation of the Sacraments 3. Christ gives a Commission to the Apostles to teach and baptize and extends the same Commission to all teaching Ministers to the end of the world Matth. 28. 19. 20. Ephes. 4. 11 12 13. Neither of the Sacraments have efficacy unlesse they be administred by him that is lawfully called thereunto or a person made publick and cloathed with Authority by Ordination This errour in the matter of Baptism is begot by another errour of the absolute necessity of Baptism Mr. Hendersons second Paper to the King The Scripture joyneth together the preaching of the Word and dispensations of the seals both belonging to the Officers who have received Commission from Jesus Christ Mat. 28. 19. 1 Cor. 1. M. Ball. Heb. 5. 4. No man takes this honour but he which is called as was Aaron which sentence doth manifestly shut out all private persons from administration of Baptism seeing it is a singular honour in the Church of God Cartw. 2d Reply 11th Tractate The example of Zipporah either was rash or singular and also no way like womens baptizing Circumcision was then commanded the Head of the Family Baptism belongs only to Ministers Matth. 28. she circumcised her son when he was not in danger of death as these baptize CHAP. VIII Of Baptism BAptism is taken sometimes for the superstitious Jewish ablutions and legal purifications as certain representations of our Baptism as Mark 7. 3 4. and Heb. 9. 10. Sometimes by a Synecdoche for the Ministery of the Doctrine and Baptism of Iohn Mat. 21. 25. Acts 1. 5. Sometimes for the miraculous and extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost Acts 1. 5. Sometimes by a Metaphor for the crosse and afflictions Matth. 20. 22. Luke 12. 50. Lastly for the sign of the Covenant of Grace Mat. 28. 19 20. Mar. 16. 15 15. Our Lord took Baptism as some have observed from the Jews baptizing of Proselytes and washing of themselves from uncleannesse which was known and usual among them And he chose the Lords Supper likewise from a custom observed among the Jews at the Passeover at the end of the celebration whereof the Fathers of Families were wont to take a Cake of bread and after the blessing thereof to break and distribute it to the Communicants As also after that a Cup of wine in the like sort Whereunto that may have reference Ps. 116. 12 13. Iohns Pref. to his Christian Plea This custom Nestrezat Tableandu Sacrament de la Saincte Cene also mentions and saith The Master of the Family in giving the bread to every one of his domesticks set at a Table used these words Hold Eat This is the bread of the misery which our Parents did eat in Egypt and he quotes Deut. 16. 3. Baptism is the Sacrament of our initiation or ingraffing into Christ
minde without any sensible representation 2. The parts or kindes of worship that they be by him appointed which are 1. Ordinary such as are to be done constantly and in a setled course which are three-fold 1. Publick 2. Private 3. Indifferent 1. Publick 1. Preaching of the Word 2. The administration of the Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper 2. Private 1. Conference 2. Meditation 3. Indifferent 1. Prayer 2. Reading the Scriptures or other good 〈…〉 3. Catechizing 4. Singing of Psalms 2. Extraordinary such services as are tâ— be â—â—ne now and then upon special occasions 1. Fasting 2. Feaâ—â—ing 3. Vows 2. The Manner of the performance of Divine Service is three-fold 1. A due preparation before 2. A right carriage in them doing them 1. Truly and sincerely upon the right Motives Causes Gods Commandment and Will and our own Duty and need and for the right ends viz. the pleasing of God and procuring of Grace and increase of vertue in our souls 2. Reverently with a special apprehension of Gods presence and greatnesse 3. Faithfully with a believing of Gods truth therein and promising to our selves the blessing he hath promised 4. Devoutly that is with a diligent attention of the minde to the words and matter and whole work in hand 3. A right making Use thereof after The third Commandment enjoyns the common worship of God that is the right carriage of our selves to his honour in all our common affairs so far forth as we have any thing to do with him therein The general duty of it is to live holily To sanctifie God 1. Inwardly by seeing him in his works 1. Of chastisement to be patient penitent 2. Of Mercy to be thankful and obedient 2. Outwardly 1. In word by the lawful use of an Oath by a reverent mention of Gods Titles and Attributes upon any occasion by good conference and making confession of his truth 2. In our Deeds and Actions 1. In General to aim at his glory in all our works and live to him and not to our selves 2. More Particularly in two things 1. In suffering Persecution cheerfully for Righteousnesse sake 2. By a sanctified use of Gods creatures of any thing whatsoever we do whereto four things are required 1. Knowledge out of the word of God concerning the lawfulness of our doing such things 2. Craving Gods blessing in the use of Meat Drink Marriage 3. Returning Thanks to God for his goodnesse 4. Moderation in the use of them The fourth Commandment appoints the consecrating of a special time viz. every seventh day after six of labour to holy and religious exercises The full Summe of it is After thou hast bestowed six dayes in ordinary and common businesses thou shalt bestow the seventh day in exercises of piety and religion The things commanded in this precept are two 1. Preparation to the Sabbath in the word Remember which is done two wayes 1. All the week long by diligence fore-sight moderation in the labours of our calling 2. On the sixth day towards the end of it by a seasonable breaking off our labours and making all things ready for the Sabbath 2. Celebration of the Sabbath not only observing and keeping it our selves but preserving it and looking that our Inferiours and others under us at the least outwardly keep it We must 1. Rest from thoughts words and deeds that concern worldly things but only for necessity and mercy 2. Sanctifie it by bestowing it in the exercises of Religion which for the manner are to be done cheerfully consecrating the Sabbath unto the Lord as a delight The fifth Commandment enjoyns the performance of all such duties as appertain to men in regard of their place that we shew due respect to our Superiours Equals and Inferiours Our Duty to our Governours is to honour and reverence their persons willingly to obey all their lawful commandments to bear their reproofs and chastisements submissively patiently and fruitfully The particular Duty of Children to their Parents besides these common duties is 1. To love them very much to maintain them if need be in sicknesse and age and to be guided by them in marriage The particular Duty of Servants is to be trusty and painfull in the busisinesse committed to them by their Governours as well in their absence as presence The particular Duty of Subjects to their Kings and inferiour Magistrates is to defend their persons against all violence offered to them by any according to their places and to render them willingly all due services and paiments The Duty of People to their Teachers and spiritual Pastors is to submit to their Ministery and to reward them with plentiful maintenance The Duty of the younger to their betters in age is to behave themselves toward them reverently and to take their good advice Our Duty towards our betters in gifts is to take notice of their gifts and to respect them accordingly The common duty of all Governours towards those that are under them is to rule them wisely mildly and equally taking care by their authority to plant true Religion among them The particular Duty of Parents toward their children is to give them fit instruction and correction to help them to some honest Calling to dispose of them fitly in marriage and to lay up for them according to their meanes The particular Duty of Masters toward their servants is to use them justly and mildly for work diet reward and chastisement The Duties of man and wife each towards other are these Both must love each other above all other persons he must cherish her as his own body and she must be an helper to him and yeeld to him as her Head The particular Duty of Kings and other Magistrates is to make fit Lawes and to see them duly executed for the maintaining of peace honesty and godlinesse The Duty of Ministers toward their people is to guide them in the right way by life and doctrine to oversee their carriage and to administer the Sacraments duly to them The Duty of the ancienter toward their younger is to further them in goodnesse by grave carriage and good counsel Their Duty that have better gifts then others is to use the same readily and humbly for the help of such as want them The Duty of Equals is 1. To think better of their Equals then themselves and to esteem of them above themselves 2. In giving honour to go one before another 3. To be glad and well-satisfied at the raising and advancement of their equals to places above themselves The sixth Commandment enjoyns all due care of our own and neighbours safety Temporal and Spiritual For our own temporal safety we must shun all distempered passions and needlesse perils using food rest and other means of health and strength cheerfully and moderately For our spiritual safety we must carefully â—lee all sins and the occasions of them and use all means of getting grace and salvation For our neighbours natural safety we must keep wrath malice and hatred out
of the ancient Christians were so called of their end and purpose or effect Albeit they had divine Toleration yet they had not divine Institution and Introduction For it is not shewed out of holy Writ or consent of Antiquity that they were commanded by Christ or his Apostles warrant We may well say they had for without check or controlment of their use without alteration for their being they were in the Apostles times and there is mention of them in Scripture only they are taxed that did abuse them and made themselves unworthy of such holy meetings St Paul is commonly understood of these Feasts 1 Cor. 11. 18. which were concomitant unto the holy Sacrament then but St Iude in expresse words doth name them vers 12. Maculae in Agapis vestris Both prove but a practice abused and reformed again by St Paul not an Ordination from God or the Apostles These Love-feasts were general meetings of the whole Church at least representative of as many as did communicate unlesse some great occasion did with hold them IV. Hungring after Christ and desire of Gods favour We must come poor and hungry to the Lords Table Psal. 132. 15. Luke 14. 13. Revel 3. 17 18. The promises are made to the hungry Isa. 55. 1. 45. 19. Prov. 21. 21. Luke 1. 50. Mat. 5. 3. Ier. 31. 25. Iohn 6. 44. Heb. 7. 25. Luthers paradox is None come worthy but those that come unworthy that is in their own sense and feeling Hunger and thirst imply 1. A want of those things which should support our bodily life 2. An afflicting sense of the want 3. An eager desire of the supply of it So we must apprehend 1. Our own emptinesse our lost condition 2. We must be sensible of the wrath of God due to us for our sins 3. We must earnestly desire Gods favour to be reconciled to him Hunger and thirst are both expressed Iohn 6. 44. to shew the thorownesse of the apprehension and supply Reasons 1. These only can relish Christ he is sweet to hungry souls Matth. 11. 28. Those that are affected with the sense of their sins can best taste of Gods mercy 2. These only suit with Christ Follow me for I am lowly and meek 3. This will awake desires the hunger-bitten beggar will be importunate with God 4. This will make you welcome to God He fils the hungry with good things Open thy mouth wide and he will fill it Isa. 44. 3. Psal. 145. 15. compared with the 19. We must desire Gods favour heartily and continually because 1. It is necessary for it were better for one not to be then to be out of Gods favour 2. Because it is excellent for Gods favour and the light of his countenance is better then life it self That we may stir up this desire in us we must consider 1. Our need of Christ his fulnesse and perfection 2. The necessity and excellency of the Sacrament 3. The benefits we have therein and the helps thereby to quicken and confirm our faith Having dispatched the consideration of the truth of certain graces we are to examine before we come to the Lords Table I shall in the next place speak of the growth or wants of our graces I. Of the growth of our Graces As we ought to examine our selves of the truth of our graces when we go to the Lords Supper so likewise of their growth and strength true grace will grow The Lords Supper is a sealing and strengthening Ordinance therefore presupposeth life we should then know the degree and strength of our graces Grace is a supernatural and peculiar quality wrought in the people of God by his Spirit whereby they are inabled to please God in all things 1. A quality in us sometimes it signifieth grace in God Being justified freely by his grace 2. Supernatural inableth us to do things above nature 3. Peculiar to distinguish it from common graces in reprobates which are supernatural as the grace of God working miracles 4. Wrought in us by the Spirit it is not in us by nature or education it is the grace of God he is the God of all grace 5. To please God in all things we must have respect to all his Commandments The Scripture speaks much of abounding and growing in grace Psal. 92. 12. 1 Cor. 15. 58. The word abounding is taken from rivers the other from all sorts of vitals or plants The Apostle cals upon the Corinthians to be strong and upon Timothy to be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus and upon the Ephesians to be strong in Christ and in the power of his might Paul prayes for the Ephesians that according to the riches of his grace the Lord would strengthen them by his Spirit with all might in the inward man Bodily strength is a natural gift common to man with beast yet many brag of it spiritual strength is far more excellent See Heb. 10. 29. Ephes. 4. 15. There is alwayes a furthermore in Christianity 1 Thess. 4. 1. Ubi incipis nolle fieri melior ibi etiam de sinis esse bonus Bern. Epist. 91. Reasons why Christians should strive to grow in grace First God commands it Phil. 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 19. Colos. 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 10. Heb. 6. 1. Secondly God commends it O woman great is thy faith Stephen was full of the holy Ghost Acts 9. 36. Thirdly The Saints of God have practised it 1. Prayed for the increase of grace Phil. 3. 11. 2. Laboured for the increase of it Fourthly From the similitudes to which a childe of God is compared in Scripture to trees Psal. 1. 2. 91. 12. Isa. 61. 3. Hos. 14. 5. Plants grow till they die whence they are called vegetables Fifthly From the nature of grace where there is truth of grace it will grow Matth. 13. 8. because it puts a man into Christ whosoever is in him must needs be fruitful Iohn 15. 5. if the body of Christ did not grow as well as the head it would be a monstrous body Col. 2. 19. Ephes. 2. 10. Sixthly According to the measure of your grace shall be the degree of your glory 2 Pet. 1. 10. He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally Motives to get strength and grow in grace 1. We need more strength Revel 3. 9. Grace is the elevation of the soul. 2. It is more honourable to have a great measure of grace Revel 2. 19. Christ checks his Disciples for their little faith 3. If we grow not in grace we decrease Heb. 6. 1. compared with v. 4. All Christians saith Ierome are like the Angels in Iacobs ladder they all ascended or descended Qui dixit sufficit deficit 1 John 3. 3. 4. Fruitfull Christians are in a happy condition Heb. 6. 7. God is much honoured by them Iohn 15. 5 8. Phil. 1. 11. he will delight to dwell with them at the day of judgement they shall receive publick approbation and remuneration Matth. 25. 23.
up the Authority of the Law The End of the ninth Book THE TENTH BOOK OF Glorification OF THE General RESURRECTION THE LAST JUDGEMENT AND Everlasting Misery of the wicked and Happiness of the Godly CHAP. I. Of the General Resurrection REsurrection from the dead and eternal judgement are two of the principles of the Apostles Catechism Heb. 6. 1. There shall be a Resurrection of the body In the New Testament the thing is so perspicuous and obvious that it would be too long to rehearse the several places Matth. 22. 32. Iohn 5. 28 29. Acts 17. 31. 24. 16. Revel 20. 12 13. Paul proves it by divers Arguments 1 Cor. 15. Tertullian hath written a famous book of this subject and begins his Book thus Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead 2. Of the self-same body the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 53. speaks by way of demonstration and as it were pointing at his own body This corruption must put on incorruption Credo resurrectionem hujus carnis said the old Christians Iob 19. 25. Non enim resurrectio dici potest nisi anima ad idem corpus redeat quia resurrectio est iterata surrectio ejusdem autem est surgere cadere Aquinas Supplem 3. part Quaest. 78. Artic. 1. 3. It shall be genoral of the good and bad Matth. 22. 31 33. Dan. 12. 2. Iohn 5. 28 29. The wicked rise in virtute Christi Iudicis the godly in virtute Christi capitis the wicked shall arise to death and shame the resurrection of the Saints shall be glorious they shall rise first 1 Cor. 15 2. Every one of them shall have a perfect body without defect or deformity they shall arise in perfect beauty 3. Their body shall be immortal 4. Spiritual and glorious like Christs body Phil. 4. ult Aquinas shews that Subtilitas est proprietas corporis gloriosi Supplem 3. part Quaest. 83. Art 1. and that it is ratione subtilitatis impalpabile Ib. Art 6. Vide ibid. Qu. 84. Art 1. Qu. 85. Art 1 2. The Resurrection may be proved by reason 1. From the power of God he made us of nothing therefore he can raise us out of the dust Facilius est restituere quam constituere Qui potest facere potest reficere saith Tertullian Mat. 22. 29 Phil. 3. 21. 2. His justice the body is partner with the soul in sin or holinesse 3. Christ rose again and he rose as the publick head of the Church Luke 24. 46 47. He rose as the first-fruits 1 Cor. 15. 21. He bought soul and body 1 Cor. 6. 20. He is united to a whole believer Iohn 6. 40. 4. That the glory of God and Christ and the Saints may be manifested The world derides the resurrection of the body the Philosophers could not attain to it but it is the Christians chief consolation Iob 19. 27. Hope and resurrection of the dead are joyned together Act. 23. 6. 24. 14. There are as great things past as to come our bodies may as well be in heaven as Christs body be in the grave Rom. 8. 32. Although the Resurrection shall be by the power of the whole Trinity yet it shall be peculiarly by the voice of Christ the dead shall hear the voice of God and live by an Archangel ministerially The end why Christ shall raise them all is to bring them to judgement The Schoolmen say Omnes resurgent in eadem aetate and urge Ephes. 4. 13. but Christ rose say they in his youthful age about thirty three years but the Fathers interpret that place otherwise The godly then need not fear persecution it toucheth but the body Matth. 10. 28. nor death it self It is but a sleep Act. 7. 60. 2 Thess 4 13. the grave a bed of rest Isa. 57. 2. Those that sleep likely rise so shall thy body be raised up at the last day CHAP. II. Of the Last Iudgement BErnard distinguisheth of a three-fold coming of Christ 1. Ad Homines John 1. 11. 2. In Homines Matth. 28. ult 3. Contra Homines Revel 1. 7. The usual distinction is of his first coming in great humility when he was incarnate and his second coming in Majesty when he shall openly manifest and declare his excellent glory in the sight of all his reasonable creatures Angels and men good and bad The knowledge of the time is reserved to God alone Acts 1. 7. The day is appointed by God the Father and not revealed to any creature saving the humanity of Christ and was not revealed to that it seemeth while he lived in the earth in basenesse Christ shall suddenly descend from heaven with the voice of an Archangel with a mighty shout and with the trump of God and then shall he cause all the Saints to rise and with the living Saints shall cause them to meet him in the clouds and after he shall cause all the sinners to arise also and there publickly shall adjudge all his Saints to his heavenly Kingdom making known and rewarding all their good deeds but shall adjudge all the wicked to eternal damnation making known to all the world all their wicked and ungodly deeds words and thoughts even those which before were most secret which having done he shall then yeeld up the Kingdom to God his Father not ceasing to be lesse glorious himself because he hath shewed the infinite glory of God to which all things are to be referred as their proper end but perpetually enjoying glory and blisse with him in another manner and in no lesse full measure even as a mighty man under some great Prince having conquered some Kingdom against whom his Prince did send him then resigneth the office of Lord General because there is no farther use of it but yet liveth in as much honour in the Kings Court as that military title and function would afford him So our Lord and all his members with him after the last day shall remain for all eternity unspeakably glorious though the manner of administration of things which is now in use by Gods appointment shall be finished and determined that God may be all in all Two things are to be considered 1. That all universally are to be judged 2. That Christ shall be Judge of all For the former there is a two-fold Judgement 1. Particular and private which is given concerning every one immediately after death 2. Universal and publick when all men shall be judged together called the day of Revelation Rom. 2. 5. and of this judgement the Creed speaks when it saith From thence he shall come to judge the quick and dead From thence viz. Heaven He that is Christ Jesus the second person in Trinity Shall come to judge the quick and dead that is all men that ever were or shall be That in the end of the world there shall be a day of Judgement and that all men shall then be judged it appears First From