rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad vitam eternam so saith Scharp a Scotchman Ecclesia Catholica coetus est hominum sanctorum quos ab aeterno Deus in Christo elegit so saith Dr. Whitakers Ecclesia Catholica coetus est universus electorum so the famous Raynolds The like might be produced from others of the Doctors of the Reformation were not these few sufficient to speak out for all Names great enough I must confess but not to be preferred before Sacred Truth in the defence whereof it behoves a man not wedded to mens names and dictates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Aristotle to sacrifice his private interesses and most dear Relations That the Elect are of the Church yea and the chief ingredients of the whole compositum it were impiety to deny And that it is for their sakes chiefly that the Word of God is preached the Sacraments of Christ administred the promises of life eternal offered to the Sons of Men is a thing which I shall easily grant And so I understand the words of Clemens of Alexandria saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church of the first-born it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text whence the Father had it whose names are written in the Heavens as St. Paul informs us But in a great house there are more people than the children though all they co-heirs and in a Royal Court there are many Retainers whose names are not registred in the Check Though the Elect are of the Church yet neither all they nor yet they alone Not all the Elect for when Saul breathed out slaughter against the Saints and Mary Magdalen was possessed with seven devils at once whether with so many wicked spirits or the seven deadly sins we dispute not now who can affirm them to be Members of the Church of Christ And yet who can or dare deny that they were vessels of election elect according to the fore-knowledge of Almighty God Secundum praescientiam praedestinationem quam multi oves foris quam multi lupi intus as St. Augustine hath it According to Gods prescience and predestination How many of the Sheep saith he are without the Church how many Wolves contained in it And in another place Electorum quidam in haeresibus aut Gentilium superstitionibus sunt tamen illic novit Dominus qui sunt ejus Many of the Elect. saith he are yet involved in Heresie or Heathenish Superstitions whom yet God knoweth to appertain unto the number of his people Nor they alone For there are Wolves within the fold as the Father telleth us and many which partake of the heavenly calling who by impurity of life and unfoundness of Doctrine exclude themselves from having place in the Heavenly Kingdom Out of the many which are called but few are chosen because they do not chearfully obey that calling and hearken not with due obedience to the voice of God which calls them in the Church unto newness of life Were it not so and that even wicked men and ungodly sinners did appertain unto the Church and that the Heretick and Schismatick were not members of it The Church had no authority to proceed against them or to endeavor their reclaim by Ecclesiastial censures Though God both may and will judge them when he sees his time yet the Church cannot do it For what have I to do to judge them also that are without saith the great Apostle And what were this but to make the Church of God which is pure and holy to be a stable of unclean beasts and a sink of filthiness To which all scandalous sinners would repair in swarms in confidence of enjoying there their desired impunity Gods field hath Tares as well as Wheat and both permitted to grow up till the general harvest when he shall give his Angels charge to sever the wicked from the just and righteous persons to binde the one in bundles for eternal fire but gather the other for his barn for the joyes of Heaven Now as these opposite parties have extreamly erred in the right constitution of the Members of the Church of Christ so have they failed as grosly in their Doctrine of the Churches Head Which the one side have made too great for that Sacred Body the other all Body in a manner but no Head at all I speak not here of Christ understand not so whom both sides do acknowledge for the Head of the Body Mystical but of the Supream Head on Earth to whom the Government of the Church is by him committed Our Masters in the Church of Rome first make the Government of the Church to be Monarchical and lay the burden on the shoulders of one man alone and then this more than man this Monarch to be the Pope of Rome and none else but he For the first part of this Assertion they pretend the Scriptures mustering up all the Privileges which Christ gave to Peter which were they such as are pretended were but personal onely no more annexed to his Successors in the Chair of Rome than in that of Antioch But for the second part thereof they confess ingenuously that there is no Scripture to be found For Bellarmine who had canvased this point as thoroughly as any man what ever of all that party is fain to shut it up with this close at last That though some Headship or Supremacy may seem to be conferred on Peter in the Book of God Tamen Pontificem Romanum Petro succedere expresse in Scripturis non haberi yet that the Pope succeeded Peter is not found in Scripture but grounded on Tradition onely as before was said And if it be not found in Scripture as he saith it is not we shall as little build our Faith upon their Traditions though now we see what makes them rank Traditions equal with the written Word as upon those similitudes and ill-grounded consequences which for want of better proof he is fain to flie to And yet this point thus weakly grounded is by them made an Article of the Catholick Faith and that not onely in the new Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth who might be partial in his own cause where it brings up the Rere but in the general esteem of the Court of Rome where it chargeth in the very Front For when the Princes of those times applauded the piety and courage of King Henry the Eighth in that without any alteration in Religion he had suppressed the Popes Authority in all his Dominions The Papal faction thought the censure to be very unjust Primo praecipuo Romanensium fidei Articulo de Pontificis Primatu immutato considering that the first and chiefest Article of the Faith that of the Popes Supremacy was so changed and abrogated But on what ground soever they have raised this building and placed the Headship of the Church on such rotten shoulders as are not able to support it yet is this Head
become so monstrous that it is grown bigger than all the rest of the Body For do not his own Canonists say that the Pope hath power of both the Swords that Christ committed to St. Peter and in him to them Terreni coelestis imperii jura The rights both of the Earthly and Heavenly Kingdoms Was it not openly affirmed in the Council of Lateran In Papa esse omnem potestatem c That in the Pope there was vested an authority over all powers both in Heaven and Earth And in pursuance of this power have they not frequently deposed Kings absolved the Subjects of the Oaths of Allegiance and disposed of Kingdoms till at last his Parasites came to broach this Tenet Papam esse verum Dominum temporalium ita ut possit auferre ab alio quod alias suum est c. That is to say That the Pope onely is the true and direct Lord of all Temporal States so that he may deprive whom he will of his estate without any remedy All Bishops and Princes whatsoever not being the Proprietaries of their own estates but Bailiffs and Stewards under him Thus also in Spiritual matters do they not teach that the whole World is his Diocess that he is Ordinarius omnium hominum and Episcopus totius orbis the ordinary Judge of all mankinde and Bishop of the whole world and that being thus possessed of this general Bishoprick Omnes Episcopi descendunt à Papa quasi membra à Capitè de plenitudine ejus omnes recipiunt All Bishops derive their power from him as the Body doth motion from the Head and that of his fulness they have all received That if the Pope should teach as he may and doth Virtutes esse vitia vitia esse virtuâ—es That vertue is vice and vice vertue we were bound to believe him And more than so That what crime soever he commit he is not to be censured or condemned for it Nec à Concilio nec à tota Ecclesia nec à toto mundo neither by a Council nor by all the Church together nor the whole World neither So privileged in a word he is that as one of them saith Si Papa innumerabiles populos catervatim secum ducat mancipio Gehennae c. If the Pope draw infinite companies of people with himself to Hell yet must no mortal man presume to reprove him for it Why so The Reason is most plain and evident Quia Papa Christus unum faciunt Consistorium because the Pope and Christ conjunct do but make one Consistory and consequently it must be as great a Sacrilege to question the acts of the Pope as those of Christ. We see by this to what a monstrous greatness this Head is grown how unproportionable to the Body his own Creatures make him And yet he is not onely greater than all the Body but he is all the Body too the Pope and Church being grown to be Terms and Convertible For so saith Gregory de Valentia Per ecclesiam caput ejus intelligimus c By the Church we mean her head and by that the Pope Dominicus Bannes affirms the same Pro eodem omnino reputatur autoritas ecclesiae universalis autoritas summi pontificis The authority of the Pope and that of the Universal Church is altogether the same The whole authority of the Church abideth in him saith Thomas Aquinas It remains all in him saith Silvester another of their principal Schoolmen Bellarmine is more plain than any Papa potest dicere ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi The Pope saith he may tell the Church that is himself His meaning is That lest the Pope should want Remedy when offence is given him he may be Judge in his own cause and on complaint unto himself see the matter mended But this he learnt of Innocent the Third Pope of that name who challenged to himself the cognizance of some points in difference between King Philip of France and Iohn King of England because it is written in the Gospel Dic ecclesiae as I have read in some good Author but cannot call to minde in whom Never did Text of Scripture meet with two such learned Glossaries never was Pope and Cardinal better matched nor need I adde more in so clear a case unless it be that commonly they call the Pope Virtualem Ecclesiam or the Vertual Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek because what power soever doth of right belong to the Body Collective of Christs Church the Church Essential as they term it is vertually contained in his person onely Me thinks it might have been enough for a single man to have been counted onely for a Chapel of Ease But such is the ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned for a Church at all And yet this of the two is the lovelier Error Better the Church be all head than no head at all And such a Church that is all body and no head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their later Platforms The Presbyterian Party first began this Monster which those of the Independent way have now fully perfected The Presbyterian Form being hatched in a popular state but such as did acknowledge a supream command in the great Council of that City first make all Ministers equal amongst themselves and then associate with each Minister two or more Lay-Elders whom they invest joyntly with all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which antiently and of right did belong to Bishops But this Presbytery thus constituted is not so supream but that it is accomptable to the Classis within which it is as that unto the Provincial Assembly and all unto that National Meeting which being made of the Deputed Ministers and Lay-Elders out of each Presbytery hath the name of General not such a General Assembly as St. Paul speaks of though possibly the name may allude to that For neither are they the Church of the first-born nor all of them at all times of the number of those whose names are written in the Heavens But let them call it what they will they have given us such a Model of Church-Government as was not known amongst the Antients and made it in effect but an headless body The Ruling Members being all equal in themselves and yet so Heterogeneous in the whole Compositum that the greatest part thereof are men of inferior quality men of Shops and Trades and consequently uncapable of Spiritual Powers Which if it do not make the Church to be all Body doth yet come very near it to a Tantamount But what the Presbyterians wanted to compleat this Monster hath since been added by the Brethren of the Independency who living in the waste and deserts of New England where every man was a king in his own opinion and had so much of Caesar in him
unto it So wandring and uncertain hath the latter part of my Pilgrimage been that I began this work in Winchester the prime City of Hamshire continued it in a Parish of Wiltshire finished it at my house in Oxfordshire and am now come to publish it Quem das finem Rex magne laborum from Abington the chief Town of Barkshire For I had but finished it if that and not bestowed my last hand upon it when by the importunity of some speciall friends I was prevailed with to the writing of my large Cosmography Which being published and received with some approbation I began to fear I might goe lesse in the esteem which I had gotten If I should venture this piece to the publick view Jealous I was of being thought a better Geographer then Divine or that it should be said of me as it had been in some cases of some other men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that I had spent more of my stock upon the Accessorie then upon the Principal more on Geography which was a thing ad extra to me then I had done upon Divinity my own proper element Considering therefore to whose hands I might commend the perusall of it I pitched at last on the right reverend Father in God and my very good Lord the Lord B. of Rochester of whose severity in judging without partiality and friendly counsell in advising without by-respects I was very confident And he accordingly having bestowed some time upon it returned me the incouragement and approbation of this following Letter which not without some hope of his Lordships pardon I shall here subjoyne as that which was the speciall motive to this publication SIR I Have as you desired read your soul on the Apostles Symbol and although I have not done it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I have read it so as I dare say when you shall have reviewed it perfected the quotations and added the last hand thereto it shall not only redound to your deserved honour but much very much to the benefit of any candid and learned Reader And in this Approbation I have the concurrent judgement of a Scholar and sound Divine who read the book with me There remaines nothing more on my part then to receive your directions where and to whom the book shall be commended by Your reall friend and humble servant IOHN ROFFENS October 14. 1651. I am now drawing towards an end good Reader and shall only tell thee that I had entertained a Project of an higher nature such as hath not been ventured on for ought I can learne by any other whosoever which if God had pleased to continue me in those abilities of minde and body which he hath formerly vouchsafed me would more conduce to the advancement of good letters then any or all the rest of my undertakings But I have found of late God helpe me such great and sensible decay of sight that I may say too truely in the wisemans words Tenebrescunt videntes per foramina claudunt ostia in platea that is to say those that look out of the window be darkned and the doors are shut in the streets as our English reads it And for my part I never had the facultie as some men have of studying by another mans eyes or turning over my books by anothers hand but have been fain to work out my performances by my proper strength without the least help or co-operation to assist me in them If by thy prayers for good successe on such Physical means as I submit my self unto it shall please God to make my sight so usefull to me as to inable me to goe through with the undertakings I shall with joy and cheerfulnesse imploy the remainder of my time to compleat that work which I have digested in my thoughts but so that it lies still within me like an unpolished and unperfect Embryo in the Mothers womb the children being come to the birth but wanting strength to be delivered In the mean time I render all humble and hearty thankes to the Lord my God for giving me such a measure of his holy assistance as to bring this work to a conclusion which if it may redound to his glory the benefit of this Church and thy particular contentation it is all I aime at And that thou mayest receive herein the more full contentment I have drawn up the heads and summe of all the Chapters which I refer to thy perusall and gathered an Errata or Correction of the faults which I desire thee to amend accordingly as thou goest along Thou wilt by that means be somewhat better able to judge whether Geography be better then Divinity Remember the now well known scoffe which was put upon me And so I leave thee to Gods grace and the Churches blessing Lacies Court in Abingdon Iune 6. 1654. POSTSCRIPT READER I Am to give thee notice that in the seventh Chapter of the third Book there is a whole Section or Paragraph misplaced that being subjoyned to the end which should have found its proper place in the beginning of that Chapter And therefore I desire that after these words viz. that he made Israel to sin which thou shall finde fol. 464. lin 23. thou wouldest turne over to fol. 479. lin 17. beginning with these words viz. I know it doth much trouble c. which having read to the end of that Section thou mayest return to the place where thou wert before viz. Now to these positive texts c. and so proceed unto the end without interruption The rest of the Errata thou shalt finde summed up after the generall Contents which I desire thee to correct as before was intimated before thou settle to the work and so fare thee well SYLLABVS CAPITVM OR The Contents of the Chapters The PREFACE Of the Authority and Antiquity of the Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed with answer to the chief Objections which were made against it ALl things made One by God from the first beginning One Faith essential to the Church and upon what reasons What moved the Apostles to comprehend the chief heads of Faith in so short a Summary Whether the Creed of the Apostles were not that form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle recommends to Timothy Proofs for the Antiquity of the Creed from Irenaeus and Tertullian not the Creeds only but the authority of the Fathers disputed and disproved in these later times and by whom especially some reasons warranting the Creed to have been framed by the Apostles The story how the Creed was made at large related by Ruffinus The story of Ruffinus justified by the Antient Writers Traditions how far entertained in the Protestant Churches An Apostolical Tradition by what marks discerned and those marks found in the Tradition which transmits the Creed The reverend esteem held by the Antients of the Creed in Commenting upon the same and keeping it unaltered in the words and syllables The Creed to be first learned by
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
Servator on us in the place thereof Concerning which St. Augustine hath this observation that antiently Salvator was no Latine word but was first devised by the Christians to express the greatness of the mercies which they had in Christ. For thus the Father Qui est Hebraice JESUS Graece 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nostra autem locutione Salvator Quod verbum Latina lingua non habebat sed habere poterat sicut potuit quando voluit Nay Cicero the great Master of the Roman elegancies doth himself confess that the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word of too high a nature to be expressed by any one word of the Latine tongue For shewing how that Verres being Praetor in Syracusa the chief town in Sicily had caused himself to be entituled by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he addes immediately hoc ita magnum est ut Latino uno verbo exprimi non possit And thereupon he is compelled to use this Paraphrase or circumlocution Is est nimirum Soter qui salutem dedit i. e. He properly may be called Soter who is giver of health So that the Latine word Servator being insufficient to express the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently the Hebrew IESVS the Christians of the first times were necessitated to devise some other and at last pitched upon Salvator which to this purpose hath been used by Arnobius l. 1. adv Gentes Ambros. in Luk. c. 2. Hieron in Ezek. c. 40. August de doctr Chr. l. 2. c. 13. contr Crescon l. 2. c. 1. besides the passages from Ruffinus and the same St. Augustine before alleadged So then the name of Iesus doth import a Saviour and the name of IESVS given to the Son of God intimates or implieth rather such a Saviour as shall save his people from their sins This differenceth IESVS our most blessed Saviour from all which bare that name in the times foregoing Iesus or Ioshua the son of Nun did only save the people from their temporal enemies but IESVS CHRIST the Son of the living God doth save us from the bonds of sin from our ghostly enemies IESVS the son of Iosedech the Priest of the Order of Aaron did only build up the material Altar in the holy Temple but IESVS the High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech not only buildeth up the spiritual Temple but is himself the very Altar which sanctifieth all those oblations which we make to God Iesus the son of Sirach hath no higher honour but that he was Author of the book called Ecclesiasticus a book not reckoned in the Canon of the holy Scripture but IESVS CHRIST the Son of God and the Virgin Mary not only is the subject of a great part of Scripture but even the Word it self and the very Canon by which we are to square all our lives and actions I am the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us in St. Iohn Look on him in all these capacities he is still a IESVS a Saviour of his people from their sins and wickednesses a builder of them up to a holy Temple fit for the habitation of the holy Ghost a bringer of them by the truth and way of righteousness unto the gates of life eternal a true IESVS still So properly a IESVS and so perfectly a Saviour to us that there is no salvation to be found in any other nor is there any other name under Heaven given amongst men whereby they must be saved but this name of IESVS Aâ— name if rightly pondered above every name and given him to this end by Almighty God that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in Heaven and earth and under the earth And there may be good reason besides Gods appointment why such a sign of reverence should be given to the very name not only a name above other names and therefore to be reverenced with the greater piety but as a pregnant testimony of that exaltation to which God hath advanced him above all other persons We bow the knee unto the persons of Kings and Princes And therefore Pharaoh when he purposed to honour Ioseph above all the Egyptians appointed certain Officers to cry before him saying bow the knee CHRIST had not been exalted more then Ioseph was had bowing of the knee been required to his Person only and therefore that there might appear some difference betwixt him and others the Lord requires it at his name And though the Angels in the heavens and the Spirits beneath have no knees to bow which is the principal objection of our Innovators against the reverent use of bowing at the Name of Iesus used and enjoyned to be used in the Church of England yet out of doubt the spirits of both kindes both in Heaven and Hell as they acknowledge a subjection to his Throne and Scepter so have they their peculiar ways such as are most agreeable to their several natures of yeilding the commanded reverence to his very Name Certain I am St. Ambrose understood the words in the literal sense where speaking of the several parts of the body of man he maketh the bowing at the name of JESUS the use and duty of the knee Flexibile genu quo prae caeteris Domini mitigatur offensa gratia provocatur Hoc enim patris summi erga filium donum est ut in nomine JESU omne genu curvetur The knee is flexible faith the Father whereby the anger of the Lord is mitigated and his grace obtained And with this gift did God the Father gratifie his beloved Son that at the Name of JESUS every knee should bow Nor did St. Ambrose only so expound the Text and take it in the literal sense as the words import but as it is affirmed by our Reverend Andrews there is no antient Writer upon the place save he that turned all into Allegories but literally understands it and liketh well enough that we should actually perform it Conform unto which Exposition of the Antient Writers and the received usâ—ge of the Church of Christ it was religiously ordained by our first Reformers that Whensoever the Name of IESVS shall be pronounced in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowness of curâ—esie and uncovering of the heads of the mankinde as thereunto doth necesâ—aâ—ily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed Which being first established by the Queens Injunctions in the yeer 1559. was afterwards incorporated into the Canons of King Iames his reign And if of so long standing in the Church of England then sure no Innovation or new fancy taken up of late and bâ—t of laâ—e obtruded on the Church by some Popish Bishops as the Novators and Novatians of this present age the Enemies of Iesu-Worship as they idlely call it have been pleased to say And should we grant that this were no duty of
after Easter which is the Anniversary feast of the Resurrection are those of the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour and the coming of the holy Ghost or the Feast of Whitsuntide Which method of the Church in these great solemnities seemes to be borrowed from the method of the Creed which we have before us wherein unto the Article of the Resurrection is presently subjoyned that he ascended into Heaven there sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and there shall tarry and abide untill he come to judge both the quick and the dead and after that the Article of the holy Ghost And there was good reason for this too For therefore did our blessed Saviour raise himself from the shame and obloquie of the grave that he might ascend in glory to the Heaven of Heavens that being gone from thence and ascended thither he might send them as he had foresignified another Comforter that should abide with them for ever And as it seems the Royal Psalmist the sweet singer of Israel fore-saw the neer conjunction of those two great Festivals the necessary dependance which the coming of the holy Ghost had on Christs Ascension Thou art gone up on high saith he thou hast led Captivity Captive and received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them So that the Text beginneth with the ascending of CHRIST and ends with the descending of the holy Ghost For if a man should ask as the Eunuch did of whom doth the Prophet speak this of himself or of some other man we must needs answer with St. Philip and say that it relateth unto Jesus Christ. That so it is we have St. Paul to be our warrant who thus cites the Text with reference unto Christ the Lord When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men He received gifts for men saith the Psalmist he gave gifts to men saith the Apostle He did reâ—eive them of his Father that he might give them unto us Well then what gifts are they that he tels us after And he gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers to the gathering together of the Saints to the work of the Ministration and to the edifying of the Body of Christ. These were the gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the holy Ghost first by his first descent or coming upon Whitsunday when he gave Apostles and Evangelists falling upon their heads in likeness of cloven tongues and ever since by furnishing the Pastors and Teachers of it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are expedient for their Calling And this is evident enough from the Psalmists words where it is said that He received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Which cannot be applyed unto Christ himself for then it must not have been said that he had ascended up on high and was parted from us but that he tarried here below to be always with us Therefore God here must needs he God the holy Ghost who came not down till after Christ was gone up and then came down noâ— only to remain among us but to be in us saith our Saviour and to abide with us for ever So that this Text containing as you see it doth the substance and occasion of these two great Festivals we will begin first with the holy Thursday part thereof which is Christs Ascension according as the method of the Creed doth lead me Where by the way the Feast of holy Thursday of the Lords Ascension is of as great Antiquity as eminencie in the Christian Church it being reckoned by St. Augustine amongst those feasts and there were but four of them in all which had been generally received in all ages past and thought to be of Apostolical Institution Now for this great act of the Ascension St. Mark delivereth it in brief that When he had spoken unto them he was received into heaven and sate him down on the right hand of God St. Luke a little more fully in his Gospel thus that he led them out into Bethany and blessed them and it came to pass that as he blessed them he departed from them and was carryed up into Heaven But in the Acts the story is laid down at large and with more particulars There we are told that from the time of his Resurrection he continued forty days upon the earth appearing many times in that space or Interim unto his Apostles and speaking to them of the Kingdome of God that on the fortieth day he led them to a Mount which is called Olivet being from Hierusalem a Sabbath days journey which some conceive to be a mile or but two at most that being there and speaking unto his Apostles about the Kingdome of Israel while they beheld he was taken up on high and a Cloud received him out of their sight And finally that as they followed him with their eyes towards Heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same IESVS which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come even as ye see him go into Heaven This is the substance of the story in which we have some passages to be further looked on and others to be reconciled with the Creed from which they seem in words to differ For first whereas it is said that he appeared unto them forty days which is not to be so interpreted as if he shewed himself unto them every one of those days but that in the said forty days from his Resurrection frequenter se eis viÌ„dâ—â—dum exhibuerat he had offered himself to them oftentimes to be by them and to discourse with them of the things of the Kingdom of God In the next place St. Luke who tels us in the Acts that our Saviour made his ascent from the Mount of Olives informs us in the Gospel that it was at Bethany Which difference is easie to be reconciled would there were no worse For Bethanie was a village neer unto Hierusalem about fifteen furlongs from it as the Text instructs us and seated at the foot of the Mount called Oâ—ivet In which respect it is called Bethanie at the Mount of Olives Mark 1.1 So that whether Mount Olivet was esteemed to be within the limits and precincts of the Village of Bethanie or Bethanie was reckoned for the lower part of the Mount of Olives it comes all to one But the main point to be considered is the seeming difference which is between the words of the Creed and the words of the Gospel Ascendit ad Coelum saith the Creed he ascended into Heaven 't is his own act here Assumptus est in Coelum saith St. Mark ferebatur in Coelum saith St. Lukes Gospels elevatus est saith the Book of the Acts he was carryed up into
we shall come to speak of the Communion of Saints yet I shall ask this question first and then dismiss the cause to another day My question is if we must call upon the Saints as our Mediatours but Mediators only of Intercession whether they do commend our requests to God immediately by themselves or by the mediation of Christ our Saviour If they reply immediately and by themselves as certainly their doctrine doth import no less what then shall we return in answer to our Saviour words No man comes unto the Father but by me No nor the Saints departed neither if St. Ambrose erre not Eo nisi intercedente nec nobis nec Sanctis omnibus quicquam est cum Deo Nor we nor any of the Saints saith that Reverend Prelate have access to God but only by the intercession of our Saviour Christ. But if they say they do it by the mediation of our Saviour as needs they must and indeed some of them do of late we do but put our selves to a needless trouble in making our address to them which cannot help us nor aid us in our prayers to Almighty God without first going unto Christ for his furtherance in it Especially considering that our blessed Saviour to whom the Saints themselves must become Petitioners hath called us nay commanded us to come to him as often as we are heavy laden with sin or misery upon his gracious promise to relieve us in it Certainly did these men remember the good old rule Frustra fieri per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora they would not make more Mediators then their case requires nor set up such a number of superfluous Priests to become Intercessors for us in the Court of Heaven instead of that one High Priest whom God hath ordained one so compassionate to us in our distresses and every way so sensible of our infirmities For though there be many other qualifications necessary to the constituting of this great High Priest our Saviour Christ for ever blessed as namely to be holy blameless undefiled separate from sinners and higher then the highest Heavens yet none doth speak such comfort to the souls of men as that he had been compassed with infirmities and therefore like to have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way And such is our High Priest our most blessed Saviour who in the dayes of his flesh had been so afflicted exposed unto the scorn of men and the Temptations of Satan that he was fain to make his prayers and supplication to his heavenly Father and that too with strong cries and tears to be delivered from the dangers which did seem to threaten him His bloudy conflict in the Garden and that of Eli Eli Lamasabachtbani when upon the Cross are proof sufficient that he had need of Consolation And they are proof sufficient for this purpose too that being he suffered and was tempted he is able yea and willing too to succour them that are tempted as the Apostle doth infer concerning him For seeing that such an especial part of the Priestly Office is to make intercession for us in all our distresses it seemed expedient to the wisdome of God that he should finde just occasion in his own person to offer up prayers and supplications with strong cries for himself Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco said the gallant Lady in the Poet. It was a plausible answer which Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary gave a great undertaker in School Divinity upon a pretty question which himself proposed The question was What reason might induce our Saviour to make S. Peter Head of the Church who had thrice denyed him rather then St. John the dear Disciple whom he loved a Virgin and one never tainted with any crime To which when the great Clerk could make no reply but rambled up and down in Gods secret Councels the King thus solved the Probleme for him Si virgo Johannes in fide firmus Pontifex fuisset c. The words are many in the Author but the sum is this That if our Saviour had made St. Iohn to be the Head of the Church he would have looked that all men should have been as perfect and sincere as himself and so have proved more rigorous and severe in correcting sinners then the infancy of the Church could bear whereas St. Peter being conscious of his own infirmities would sympathize the better with them and proceed more in his government towards them with the spirit of meekness Assuredly did I believe that Peter was made Head of the Church I could not have conceived a more plausible reason which might induce our Saviour unto that Election But howsoever I shall make this use of the story that God dealt most exceeding mercifully with the sons of men in providing such an High Priest for them as had in all things been tempted like unto themselves sin only excepted having made himself an offering for sin knew better then any of the Saints or Angels could how to apply the benefit of it to our wants and weaknesses And that indeed is the main business of the Priesthood For every High Priest is ordained for men in things pertaining unto God to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins as St. Paul defines him Which gifts and sacrifices as they were only types of that gift and sacrifice which Christ made of himself for the sins of the world so that oblation being made there was no longer use of the Legal sacrifice nor consequently of the Aaronical Priesthood By this one offering of himselfe hath â—e made perfect for ever all them that were sanctified and thereby out a signal remarkable difference between that one Sacrifice of himself and the sacrifices formerly required by the Law of Moses For in the time of the Law the Priesthood daily ministring and oftentimes offering the same things which yet considered in themselves and without reference to his own Sacrifice in Gods secret purpose could not take away sin But CHRIST by this one offering of himself for sin did not only take away the sins of many even of all those which faithfully believe in him and sanctifie them in his bloud by that one offering of his body once for all but having so done what he undertook and knowing that there remained no other sacrifice to be performed he sate him down at the right hand of God expecting there untill his enemies be made his footstool No further sacrifice to be offered then that already offered upon the Cross for what could follow after Consummatum est when all which was foreshadowed in the Legal Sacrifices was in that accomplished And as for that upon the Cross how it alluded to the Sacrifices of the Old Testament in what particulars the shadow and the substance held the best resemblance and of the benefit thereof unto all mankinde we have already spoke in the
from sin and Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from the yoak of bondage which the Romans had then laid upon them Thus was it also with the whole body of his Disciples when convened together at the very time of his Ascension Wilt thou at this time say they restore again the Kingdome unto Israel The Kingdome What Regnum illud temporale quod ablatum erat a Iudaeis the temporall power which by the Romans lately had been taken from them And now I thinke it cannot reasonably be expected that the Gentiles should conceive otherwise of the Kingdome of Christ if they knew any thing at all of it then the whole nation of the Iews or his own Disciples Nam post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit It was no shame for them to mistake in that which was not rightly understood by his friends and followers If they that satâ— in the light saw so obscurely how could they see at all that sat in darknesse and in the shadow of death There had continued in the East saith Tacitus and Suetonius both a received opinion fore ut Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur that out of Iewry should proceed a most puissant Prince who should in fine obtain the Empire over all the world A report founded questionlesse upon that of Micah and to this purpose cited in St. Matthews Gospel viz. that out of Judah there should come a Governour which shall rule my people Israel This prophecie the Roman Historians of those times referred in the accomplishment unto Vespasian and his sons who being the Provincial Governours of Iudaea did afeâ—rwards by force of the Eastern Armies obtain the empire But it wrought further as it seems upon Domitian who is reported to have sought out all those of the line of David which his care and diligence could discover and to have murdred them being found Which howsoever some ascribe to his accustomed cruelty without further aime yet I am verily perswaded that jealousie in point of state the better to secure himself from those on whom that prophecie did reflect originally did induce him to it And possible enough it is that Pilate grounding his proceedings on the same mistake might think quod scripsi scripsi an high part of wisedome and that therein he did great service to the Roman Emperors in terrifying others from aspiring to the name of King which Iesus upon so good title and without any prejudice unto their affaires had presumed to own But all this while he was a King in title only or a King designed We must next look upon him as inaugurated and put in full possession of the regal power And that this was not done till his resurrection is positively affirmed in two texts of St. Peter and very concludingly inferred by a text of St. Paul We will take that of St. Peter first delivered in the first Sermon that he preached on the Feast of Pentecost where speaking of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour and having pressed the point home to their souls and consciences he concludeth thus Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both Lord and Christ Not made him Lord nor Christ till then neither King nor Priest The very same St. Paul affirmeth in more positive termes Who speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132 Psalme that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his throne for evermore resolveth it thus The promise which God made unto our Fathers hath he fulfilled in us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the 2. Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Of this we have already spoken more fully in the 13. Chapter and therefore shall not need to repeat it here And if the word head be used in Scriptures and other creditable Authors to signifie the King or supreme Governour of a body politick as no doubt it is we have St. Paul as positive in this particular as St. Peter was That so the word head hath been oft times used I shall not need to prove out of many witnesses when two or three will be sufficient Of these the first shall be the Prophet Isaiah saying The head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Israel is Samaria they being the principall and commanding Cities of those severall Kingdomes And more then so the head of Damascus is Rezin and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah who were the Kings of those two Realms whereof Damascus and Samaria were the principal Cities Thus doth the Poet say of Rome Roma caput mundi that it was the head of the world i. e. the chief or commanding state to which all the residue of the world did owe subjection And thus doth Chrysostome say of Theodosius the Roman Emperour that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of all people on the earth It followeth then that Christ being called in Scripture the head of his Church which is indeed his mystical body and exercising all that power and authority which the head hath upon the members of the body natural must needs be understood for the King thereof the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter called him And that Christ was not made the head of his Church till the resurrection was accomplished it 's by St. Paul affirmed so plainly and in terminis that it needs no Commentary The God of our Lord IESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places above all principalities and powers and might and dominions that is to say above the whole Hierarchie of the Angels c. And given him to be head over all things unto the Church which is his body This makes that clear and evident which before we said that though our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor inthronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension And this distinction serves most fitly to clear the meaning of St. Paul in that other place from which the same may be concludingly inferred It is a passage in his Sermon made unto the Pisidians where speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132. Psal. That of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore v. 12 13. he resolves it thus The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Many Interpreters I know both antient and modern do expound these words of the eternal generation of the Son of God and fancie to
the fowles of the Aire Next for the Nomothetical arts of Empire let us look on those and we shall finde that as he came not to destroy the Law of God but to fulfil it so hath he added more weight to it either by way of application or of explication then before it had They who consult our Saviours Sermon on the mount and look upon his Commentaries on the law of Moses which the chief Priests and Pharisees had perverted by adulterate glosses will quickly finde that he discharged us not from the Obligation which the moral law had laid upon us but only did become our surety and bound himself to see it faithfully performed by us in our severall places The burden was not made lesse heavy then it was before I speak still of the Moral Law not the Ceremonial but that he hath given more strength to bear it more grace to regulate our lives by Gods Commandements And somewhat he did adde of his own auhority which tended to a greater measure of perfection then possibly we could attain to by the Law of Moses and that not only in the way of Evangelical Counsels and that there are such Counsels I can easily grant but of positive precept For so far certainly we may joyn issue with the Council of Trent that IESVS CHRIST is to be honoured and observed Non tantum ut Redemptor cui omnâ—s fidant sedut Legislator cui obediant not only as a Saviour unto whom we may trust but as a Law-maker also whom we are to obey The same position is maintained also by the Arminian party but not the more unsound for either Veritas a quocunq est est a Spiritu sancto as St. Ambrose hath it And this is so agreeable to the Word of God that either we must deny the Scripture or else confess that it proceeded from the Spirit of God Nor are his laws indeered only to us and sugred over as it were by the promise of a great reward but enjoyned also under pain of grievous punishments punishment and reward being the square or measure of the heavenly government no otherwise then of the earthly Tribulation and anguish saith St. Paul shall come upon the soul of every man that doth evil but glory and honour and peace to every man that doth good to the Iew first and also to the Gentile for God is no respecter of persons By which two general motives set before our eyes and the co-operation of the holy Spirit working with his Word he doth illuminate our mindes and mollifie our hearts and quench our lusts instruct us in the faith confirm us in our hopes and strengthen us in Christian charity till in the end he bring us to the knowledge of his holy will then to obedience to his Laws and finally to a resemblance of his vertues also If after all this care and teaching either by frailty or infirmity we do break his laws or violate his sacred Statutes as we do too often he doth not presently take the forfeiture which the Law doth give him for then O Lord should no flesh living in thy sight be justified but in the midst of judgement he remembreth mercy We may affirm of him most truly as Lactantius did Vt erga pios indulgentissimus Pater ita adversus impios justissimus Iudex as terrible a Iudge he is to impenitent sinners as an indulgent Father to his towardly children as before was said Such is the nature and condition of our Saviours Kingdome which sitting at the right hand of Almighty God he doth direct and govern as seems best to his heavenly wisdome and so shall do untill his coming again to judge both the quick and the dead Although he hath withdrawn himself and his bodily presence yet is he present with it in his mighty power and by the influences and graces of his holy Spirit And in this sense it was that he said unto them Behold I am with you alwayes to the end of the world And that not only with you my Apostles unto whom he spake but cum vobis successoribus vestris with all you my Disciples and with your successors also in your several places till time be no more Though he be placed above in the heavenly glories and is not joyned unto his Church by any bodily connexion yet he is knit unto it in the bonds of love and out of that affection doth so guide and order it as the Head doth the members of the Body natural Habet ecclesia Caput positum in Coelestibus quod gubernat Corpus suum separatum quidem visione sed annectitur Charitate as St. Austin hath it Vice-roy there needeth none to supply his absence who is always with us Nor we the assistance of a Vicar General to supply his place whose Spirit bloweth where him listeth and who is linked unto us in so strong affections But for all this our Masters in the Church of Rome have determined positively that in regard our Saviour hath withdrawn himself from the Church in his Body secundum visibilem praesentiam for as much as doth concern his visible presence he needs must have some Deputy or Lieutenant General qui visibilem hanc Ecclesiam in unitate contineat to govern and direct the same in peace and unity It seemes they think our Saviour Christ to be reduced unto the same straights as Augustus was of whom it is reported in the Roman stories that he did therefore institute a Provost in the City of Rome because he could not always be there in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and durst not leave it absolutely without a Governor And sure however others may complain of our Saviours absence and for that reason think it necessary to have some general Deputy to supply his place yet of all others those of Rome have least cause to do it who can command his presence at all times and on all occasions For as Cornelius a Lapide affirms expressely by saying only these words Hoc est Corpus meum the Bread is not only transubstiated into our Saviours Body but Christ anew begotten and born again upon the Altar And not his Body only that 's not half enough but as the Canon of Trent tels us there is totus Christus una cum anima Divinitate whole Christ both body and soul and the Godhead also personally and substantially on the blessed Sacrament That he is present every where in his power and Spirit there is none of us which denyeth If they can have his bodily presence also in so short a warning what use can they pretend for a Vicar General Adeo Argumenta ex falso petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius rightly Besides it is a Maxime in Ecclesiastical Polity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that the external Regiment of the Church of Christ is to be fitted to the frame and order of the
Of the Authority or Power of remitting sins we shall speak more appositely hereafter in the following Article At this time I shall onely speak of the Form of words which some of the pretenders unto Reformation in Queen Elizabeths time did very much except against affirming That to use the words of our Redeemer and not to give the gifts withal was nothing but a meer mockery of the Spirit of God and a ridiculous imitation of our Saviours actions But unto this it is replied by Judicious Hooker that not onely the ability of doing miracles speaking with tongues curing diseases and the like but the authority and power of ministering holy things in the Church of God is contained in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is the Author And therefore he which gives this power may say without folly or absurdity Receive the Holy Ghost meaning thereby such power as the Spirit of Christ hath pleased to endue his Church withal And herein he is seconded by that living Magazin of Learning Bishop Andrews who reckoneth the Apostleship or the very office to be a Grace one of the graces doubtless of the Holy Ghost such as St. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace we English it the gift of ministring unto the Saints 2 Cor. 8.4 For that the very Office it self is a grace St. Paul saith he avoweth in more places than one and in particular Mihi data est haec gratia according to the gift of the grace of God which is given unto me Ephes. 3.7 Where he speaks of his Office and of nothing else And such as this saith he was the grace here given of Spiritum called a Spiritual and of Sanctum an holy Calling from them derived unto us by us to be derived on others to the end of the World and that in the same form of words which our Saviour used For being the especial power which Christ at that time gave unto his Apostles consisted in remitting and retaining of sins and seeing that the same power is given by the Church of Christ why should not the same words be used as were used at first why may not the same words be used in conferring this grace of an holy calling whereby their persons are made publick and their acts authentical and they inabled to do somewhat about remitting of sins which is not of the like avail if done by others though perhaps more learned than they and more vertuous too but have not the like warrant nor the same accipite as is conferred in holy Orders Nor do I utterly deny but that together with the power the Holy Ghost doth give some fitness to perform the same though not in any answerable measure to the first times of the Church when extraordinary gifts were more necessary than in any time since For as the ointment which was poured upon Aarons head did first fall down upon his Beard and after on the skirts of his garments also So we may reasonably believe That the holy Spirit which descended on the head of Christ and afterwards on his Apostles as upon his beard hath kept some sprinklings also to bestow on us which are the lowest skirts of his sacred garments So far we may assuredly perswade our selves That the Spirit which calleth men to that holy Function doth go along with him that is called unto it for his assistance and support in whatsoever he shall faithfully do in discharge thereof and that our acts are so far his as that Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn or give Absolution or in a word whatsoever we do as the Despensers of Gods Mysteries our Words Acts Judgements are not ours but the Holy Ghosts For this I have the testimony of Pope Leo the first a Learned and Religious Prelate of the Primitive times Qui mihi oneris est Autor ipse administrationis est adjutor Ne magnitudine gratiae there gratiae is used for the office or calling as before St. Paul succumbat infirmus dabit virtutem qui contulit dignitatem Which is in brief He that hath laid the burden on us will give strength to bear it But behold a greater than Pope Leo is here Behold saith Christ to his Apostles I am with you always to the end of the world that is to say Cum vobis successoribus vestris as Denys the Carthusian rightly with you and your Successors in the Work of the Ministry to guide them and assist them by his holy Spirit And when he said unto them upon other occasions He that heareth you heareth me and whatsoever ye binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven Did he not thereby promise so to own their actions that whatsoever they should say or do in order to the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church should be esteemed as his act his act by whose authority and power it is said or done But the assisting of the Church and Ministers thereof with his Power and Spirit is not the onely publick benefit though it be the greatest which it receiveth immediately from the Holy Ghost Without some certain standing Rule by which the Ministers of the Gospel were to frame their doctrine and the rest of the people guide their paths in the way of godliness both Priest and People would be apt to pretend new Lights and following such ignes fatui as they saw before them be drawn into destruction both of body and soul. And on the other side Tradition hath been always found to be so untrusty in the conveyance of Gods will and pleasure to the ears of his people that in small tract of time the Law of God became obliterated in the hearts of men the righteous Seed degenerating after carnal lusts and Abraham himself serving other gods for want of a more certain rule to direct their actions Therefore to take away all excuse from back-sliding men it pleased God first to commit his Law to writing the Two Tables onely and afterwards to inspire many holy Men with the Spirit of Wisdom Power and Knowledge to serve as Commentators on that sacred Text whose Prophecies Reproofs and Admonitions being put into their mouths by the Holy Ghost for Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as St. Peter hath it So by direction of the same Spirit were they put into writing Propter vivendi exemplum libros ad nostram etiam memoriam transmiserunt in the words of Ierom The Lord himself did on Mount Sinai give the Law the very Letter The Prophets and other holy Men of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially inspired to that end and purpose did compose the Comment By the same Spirit were the Evangelists and Apostles guided when they committed unto writing the most glorious Gospel and other the Records and Monuments of the Christian Faith The
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
30. And in his Regulae Compend Respons 310. St. Ierom in 1 Cor. St. Chrysostom also on the place Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius on the same Text also Nor is the word so used onely in the best Christian Writers but did admit also of the same signification amongst the best learned and most critical of the Heathen Greeks Of whom take Lucian for a taste who speaking of the adorning of the Court or Senate-house expresseth the place it self by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot possibly be meant of the men that met but of the place of the Assembly A thing which here I had not noted because not pertinent to the sense of the present Article but onely to encounter with the peevish humor of our Modern Sectaries who will by no means yet yeeld the name of Churches to those sacred places but call them Steeple-houses in the way of scorn But to proceed the word Ecclesia or Church in the Genuine sense as it denotes the Body Collective of Gods Servants since the coming of Christ is variously taken in the Book of God and also in the Writings of the purest times For first it signifieth a particular Congregation of men assembled together in some certain and determinate place for Gods publick service In this sense it is taken in those several Texts where St. Paul speaketh of the Church in the house of Nymphas Col. 4.15 To the Church in the house of Philemon Vers. 5. The Church which was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16. and 1 Cor. 16.19 I know that this is commonly expounded of their private Families as if the house and family of each Faithful Christian were in St. Pauls esteem reputed for a Church of Christ. But herein I prefer Mr. Medes opinion before all men else who understands those words of the Congregation of Saints which were wont to assemble at such houses for the performance of Divine Duties it being not unusual with some principal Christians in those early days to dedicate or set apart some private place within their own houses for the residue of the Church to assemble in And this he proveth first from the singularity of the expression which must needs include somewhat more than ordinary somewhat which was not common to the rest of the Saints whom St. Paul salutes in his Epistles For in so large a Bedrol as is made in the last to the Romans it is very probable that many if not most of them were Masters of Families and then must all their Families be Churches too as well as that of Aquila and Priscilla or else we must finde some other meaning of the words than that which hath hitherto been delivered Secondly Had St. Paul intended by those words The Church which is in their house nothing but the Family of Nymphas Philemon and the rest we should have found it put in the same expression which he doth elswhere use on the same occasion as viz. The houshold of Aristobulus the houshold of Narcissus Rom. 16.10 11. The houshold of Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 4.19 Patrobas Hermes and the Brethren which are with them Rom. 16.14 Nereus and Olympas and all the Saints which are with them Vers. 15. The difference of expressions makes a different case of it and plainly doth conclude in my apprehension That by the Church in such an house the Apostle meaneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church assembled at such houses as he there expounds it And though he cite no antient Author to confirm him in this opinion but Oecumenius and he none of the antientest neither Yet in a matter of this nature I may say of him as Maldonat doth of Euthymius in a greater point whose single judgement he preferreth before all the rest of the Fathers viz. Quem minorem licet solum autorem verisimilia tamen dicentem quam plures majoresque illos sequi malo But to proceed unto the other acceptions of the word Ecclesia it is also used to signifie in holy Scripture The Church of some City with the Region or Country round about it a National or Provincial Church under the Government of one or many Bishops and subordinate Ministers as the Churches of the Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Thessalonians Romans and the rest mentioned in the Acts and St. Pauls Epistles Thirdly It is also used to signifie not the Church it self or the whole Body of the people of a City or Province agreeing in the Faith of Christ but for the principal Officers and Rulers of it such as possess the place of Iudicature in the Court or Consistory In this sense it is used in the 18 of Matthew where the party wronged and able to get no remedy otherwise is willed by Christ to tell the Church that is to say to make his complaint to them who having the chief place and power in Spiritual matters are able to compel the wrong-doer to make satisfaction by menacing and inflicting the Churches Censures Tell the Church That is saith Chrysostom the Prelates and Pastors of the Church who have the power of binding and loosing such offenders which is mentioned in the verse next following And in this sense the name of Church became appropriated to the Clergy in the latter times and hath been used to signifie the State Ecclesiastick Ecclesiae nomen ad Clerum solere restringi as Gerson noted in his time not without regret as being men most versed in the Church affairs And lastly it is used for the Body Collective or Diffusive of the people of God made up of several Congregations States and Nations consisting both of Priests and People of men as well under as in Authority In this respect Christ is said to be the head of the Church Eph. 5.23 The husband of the Church V. 32. To love his Church and to give himself for his Church V. 25. That is to say not onely of a National or Provincial Church and much less of a Congregational onely but of the Universal Church which consists of all dispersed and distressed over all the World And this we do define to be the whole Congregation of Christian people called by the grace and goodness of Almighty God to a participation of his Word and Sacraments and other outward means of eternal life This Universal Church being thus found out is represented to us in the present Article by two marks or characters by which she is to be discerned from such Publick meetings which otherwise might claim that title Of which the one denotes the generality of extent and latitude and is that of Catholick by which it is distinguished from the Iewish Synagogue being shut up in the bounds of that Country onely and from the private Conventicles of Schismatical persons The other doth express the quality of the whole compositum by the piety and integrity of its several members and is that of Holy by which it is distinguished from the Assemblies of ungodly men from the
Ecclesia malignantium as the Psalmist calls it Or if you will we may by these behold the Church in her chief ingredients which are the sanctimony of life and conversation it is an holy Church and the integrity of her doctrine free from all Heresie and Error in the title Catholick For the word Catholick is not onely used to signifie Universality of extent but purity of doctrine also The first in the natural the second in the borrowed sense of the word In the first sense the Church is called Catholick in respect of place Thou hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and nation To which accordeth that of an Antient writer saying Ab ortu solis ad occasum lex Christiana suscepta est That the Gospel of Christ had been admitted from the rising of the Sun to the setting of it that is to say In all parts of the world And it is called Catholick too in respect of persons who are promiscuously and indefinitely called to the knowledge of Christ In whom there is neither Iew nor Gentile bond nor free male nor female but all called alike And so Lactantius telleth us also Universos homines sine discrimine sexus vel aetatis Minutius addes Aut dignitatis ad coeleste pabulum convocamus Lastly it hath the name of Catholick in respect of times as comprehending all the faithful since our Saviours days unto the age in which we live and to continue from henceforth to the end of the world Of which duration or extent of the Church of Christ the Angel Gabriel did fore-signifie to his Virgin-mother that he should reign in the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there should be no end And in this sense it doth not onely include that part of the Church which is now Militant on the Earth but also that which is Triumphant in the Heaven of Glories Both they with us and we with them make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head and all together together with the Antient Patriarcks and other holy men of God which lived under the Law shall make up that one glorious Church which is entituled in the Scriptures The general Assembly the Church of the first-born whose names are written in the Heavens For the better clearing of which Vnion or Concorporation which is between these different Members of the Body Mystical the Fathers of the Constantinopolitan Council added the word One unto the Article reading it thus And I believe one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Catholick then the Church may be rightly called in regard to extent whether it do refer to time place or persons and it is called Catholick too in respect of Doctrine with reference to the same extensions that being the true Catholick Doctrine of the Church of Christ Quae semper quae ubique quae ab omnibus credita est which hath always and in every place been received as Orthodox and that too by all manner of men according to the Golden Rule of Lerinensis Catholick in this sense is the same with Orthodox a Catholick Christian just the same with a true Professor by which the Doctrine is distinguished from Heretical and the men from Hereticks Iustinian in the Code doth apply it so Omnes hanc legem sequentes Christianorum Catholicorum nomen jubemus amplecti That for the persons the Professors it followeth after for the Doctrine Is autem Nicenae adsertor fidei Catholicae Religionis verus cultor accipiendus est c. A National or Topical Church may be called Catholick in this sense and are often times entituled so in Ecclesiastical Authors For Constantine the Emperor writing to the Alexandrians superscribed his Letters in this form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. To the Catholick Church of Alexandria And Gregory Nazianzen being then Bishop of Constantinople calls himself in his last Will and Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The Bishop of the Catholick Church in the City of Constantine Of this word Catholick in this sense there hath been different use made as the times have varied The Fathers of the purest times made use of it to distinguish themselves from Hereticks according to that so celebrated saying of Pacianus Christianus mihi nomen est Catholicus cognomen Christian saith he is my name and Catholick my sirname by the one I am known from Infidels by the other from Hereticks And so long as the main body of Christianity retained the form of wholesome words and kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace it served exceeding fitly for a mark distinctive to known an Orthodox Professor from those who followed after Heretical and Schismatical Factions But when the main Body of the Church was once torn in peeces and every leading faction would be thought the true Church of Christ they took unto themselves the names of Catholicks also as if the truth was not more Orthodoxly held by the soundest Christians than it was by them And this hath been a device so stale and common that the Nestorians in the East though antiently condemned for Hereticks in the Third General Council do call their Patriark by the name of Catholick that is to say The Catholick or Orthodox Bishop as Leunclavius telleth us very rightly not Iacelich as the Copies of Brochardus and Paulus Venetus do corruptly read it In the same Error are our great Masters in the Church of Rome who having appropriated to themselves the name of Catholicks and counting all men Hereticks but themselves alone First cast all others out of the Church by the name of Hereticks who do not hold communion with them in their sins and errors and then defend themselves by the name of Catholicks from having dealt unjustly with their Fellow-Christians men every way more Orthodox than they be themselves Just so the Collier justified himself for a true Believer because he believed as the Church believed though he knew not the doctrine of the Church and the Church believed as he believed though the Church troubled not it self about his opinions I know the great Cardinal presumes very much on the name of Catholick making it to be one of the signs of the true Church now because an adjunct of the true Church in the Primitive times And wonder it is that we are grown so prodigal of late as to give it to them A courtesie which they receive with a great deal of joy and turn the bare acknowledgement to their great advantage there being no Argument more convincing than that which is drawn from the confession of an adversary Upon this ground doth Barclay build his Triumph for the cause of Rome Adeo probanda est ecclesia nostra à nomine Catholicae quod extorquet etiam ab invitis hareticis as he brags it there For my part as I never gave it them in writing nor in common speech as thinking
Successores sunt I have laid down the place at large because St. Ierome is conceived to have been an enemy to the Episcopal Function and to that end some fragments of him are alleged by our Innovators His meaning is That all Bishops whether of the greater or the lesser Cities were of the same Order and preheminence in the Church of Christ and that it was neither the pride of wealth nor the baseness of a poor estate which made a Bishop higher or lower in respect of Government all of them being Successors unto the Apostles And so Erasmus understands him who in his Scholies on the place gives this gloss or descant Hieronymus videtur aequare omnes Episcopos inter se c Ierome saith he doth seem to make all Bishops equal amongst themselves because all equally Successors unto the Apostles and thinks not any Bâ—shop to be less than another because he is poorer nor superior to another because he is richer making the Bishop of Eugubium a poor small City equal unto the Pope of Rome St. Cyprian speaks as plain as Ierome Vna est ecclesia c There is one Church saith he divided by Christ throughout the world into many Members Episcopatus item unus Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus And there is also one Bishoprick or Episcopal Office alike diffused over all the world by an agreeing or corresponding multitude of many Bishops And in another place to the same effect Episcopatus unus cujus à â—ingulis in solidum pars tenetur i.e. There is but one Episcopal Function in the Church of Christ whereof every particular Bishop doth stand wholly seized And this Pope Eleutherius doth himself acknowledge who in a Decretal of his let those of Rome look to the credit of the writing tells the Bishops of France and in them all other Bishops of what Realm soever Vobis à Christo Vniversalis Ecclesia est commissa That to their care the Vniversal Church was by Christ committed Every Bishop wheresoever he be fixt and resident hath like St. Paul an universal care over all the Churches Which since they could not exercise by personal conferences they did it in the Primitive times before they had the benefit of general Councils by Letters Messages and Agents for the communicating of their Counsels and imparting their advice unto one another as the emergent occasions of the Church did require the same Examples of the which in the stories of those Elder-times are obvious to the eye of each careful Reader By means of which entercourse and correspondency they maintained not onely an Association of the several Churches for their greater strength nor a Communication onely of their Counsels for the publick safety but a Communion also with each other as Members of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is Head These Letters they called Literas format as communicatorias as in an Epistle of St. Augustine where both names occur And for the publick benefit which redounded by them we may finde it in Optatus an African Bishop who having made a Catalogue of the Bishops of Rome from St. Peter down unto Siricius who then held the place or as his own words are Qui noster est socius who was his partner or associate in the Common Government He addeth Cum quo nobis totus orbis commercio formatarum in una communionis societate concordat i. e. With whom together with our self the whole world agreeth in one communion or society by those Letters of intercourse This as it cuts off all pretensions to Monarchial Government so doth it utterly destroy the Democratical or Popular Platforms The Publick Government of the Church belonging onely unto Bishops as Successors to the Apostles to whom Christ committed it For that the Bishops do succeed in place of the Apostles is the constant and received opinion of all the Antients What Ierome did affirm herein we have seen before but he affirms it more than once and gives it us again in another place where shewing the difference between the Montanists and the Catholick Church he saith That they had made the Bishops the third in order Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent but in the Church the Bishops held the place or rank of the Apostles St. Augustine saith as much as he deriving the descent or petigree of the Christian Faith by the Seats of the Apostles Et successiones Episcoporum and the succession of Bishops which were dispersed and propagated over all the world St. Cyprian as more ancient so he speaks more plainly who writing to Cornelius the then Bishop of Rome exhorts him to preserve that unity Per Apostolos nobis successoribus traditam which was commended by the Apostles unto them their Successors And before him also Irenaeus who lived very near St. Iohns time if he lived not in it who speaking of those Bishops which were ordained by the Apostles and shewing what perfections were required in them then addes Quos successores relinquebant c Whom they left behinde to be their Successors delivering over unto them their own place of Government Nothing can be more plain than this and nothing can more plainly declare unto us that neither the Monarchy of the Pope nor the Democraâ—y of the Presbyterians nor the Anarchy of the New-England Independents had any being or existence in the Primitive times The Government of the Church was wholly in the hands of Bishops who separately in their several and respective Diocesses or joyntly in Provincial Councils took order in all matters which concerned the same But this is to be understood with a salvo jure a reservation of the Rights and Privileges of such Christian Princes as God raised up to be nursing Fathers to his Church To them as God hath given the sword for he beareth not the sword in vain so are they made custodes utriusque tabulae the Guardians and Keepers of both Tables of the Law of God not onely in keeping them themselves as every private man is bound to do but in that they ought to have a care that all and every of their Subjects yeeld obedience to them and punish such as evil doers which offend against them And this extends as well to Bishops and inferior Ministers as to any Lay-subject of what rank soever who though they derive their Spiritual Function immediately from Christ himself yet are they not onely subject to the Rule of Princes in matter of Exterior order in the service of God but are to be accomptable to them in their Ministration if wilfully they neglect or transgress their duties The constant practise of all godly Kings and Emperors as well under the Old Testament as since the time of the Gospel makes this plain enough For if we please to search the Scriptures we shall finde David giving Rules to the Priests and Levites in matters which concerned the worship of God dividing them
in several ranks appointing unto every rank the course of his ministery composing Psalms and Hymns to the praise of God prescribing how they should be sung with what kind of instrument and ordering with what vestments the Singing-men should be arayed in the act of their service We shall there finde the Feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai who then possessed the place of a Prince among them and that of the Dedication by the Princes of the Maccabean progeny yet both religiously observed in all times succeeding this last by Christ himself as the Gospel telleth us We shall there finde how Moses broke in peeces the Golden Calf and Hezekiah the Brazen Serpent how the high places were destroyed and the groves cut down by the command of Iehosaphat and what a Reformation was made in the Church of Iudah by the good King Iosiah Finally we shall therein finde how Aaron the High Priest was reproved by Moses Abiathar deposed by Solomon the arrogancy of the Priests restrained by Ioas Such power as this the godly Princes of the Iews did exercise by the Lords appointment to the glory of Almighty God and their own great honor If they took more than this upon them and medled as Vzziah did in offering incense which did of right belong to the Priests office A Leprosie shall stick upon him till the hour of his death nor shall he have a sepulchre amongst the rest of the Kings And such and none but such is that supream power which we ascribe unto the King in the Church of England The Papists if they please may put a scorn on Queen Elizabeth of most famous memory in saying Foeminam in Anglia esse caput ecclesiae that a woman was the head of the Church of England as once Bellarmine did and Calvin if he list may pick a quarrel with the Clergy of the times of King Henry the eighth as rash and inconsiderate men and not so onely but as guilty of the sin of blasphemy Erant enim blasphemi cum vocarunt eum summum caput ecclesiae sub Christo for giving to that King the title of Supream Head of the Church under Christ himself But Queen Elizabeth disclaimed all authority and power of ministring divine service in the Church of God as she declared in her Injunctions unto all Her Subjects And the Clergy in their Convocation Anno 1562. ascribe not to the Prince the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments nor any further power in matters which concern Religion than that onely Prerogative which was given by God himself to all godly Princes in the Holy Scriptures More than this as we do not give the Kings of England so less than this the Christian Emperors did not exercise in the Primitive times as might be made apparent by the Acts of Constantine and other godly Emperors in the times succeeding if it might stand with my design to pursue that Argument Take one for all this memorable passage in Socrates an old Ecclesiastical Historian who gives this Reason why he did intermix so much of the acts of Emperors with the affairs of holy Church viz. That from that time in which they first received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex illorum nutu perpendere visa sunt c The business of the Church did seem especially to depend on their will and pleasure insomuch as General Councils were summoned by them for the dispatch of such affairs as concerned Religion even in the main and fundamentals and other emergent occasions of the highest moment CHAP. III. Of the Invisibility and Infallibility of the Church of Christ And of the Churches power in Expounding Scripture Determining Controversies of the Faith and Ordaining Ceremonies BUt laying by those Matters of External Regiment we will look next on those which are more intrinsecal both to the nature of the Church and the present Article For when we say That we believe the Holy Catholick Church we do not mean That we do onely believe that there is a Church upon the Earth which for the latitude thereof may be called Catholick and for the piety of the Professors may be counted Holy but also that we do believe that this Church is led by the Spirit of God into all necessary Truths and being so taught becomes our Schoolâ—mistress unto Christ by making us acquainted with his will and pleasure and therefore that we are to yeeld obedience unto her Decisions determining according to the Word of God This is the sum of that which we believe in the present Artiâ—le more than the quod sit of the same which we have looked upon in the former Chapter and to the disquisition of these points we shall now proceed A matter very necessary as the world now goes in which so many Schisms and Factions do distract mens mindes that Truth is in danger to be lost by too much curiosity in enquiring after it For as the most Reverend Father the late Lord Bishop of Canterbury very well observes Whiles one Faction cries up the Church above the Scripture and the other side the Scripture to the contempt and neglect of the Church which the Scripture it self teacheth men both to honor and obey They have so far endangered the belief of the one and the authority of the other That neither hath its due from a great part of men The Church commends the Scripture to us as the Word of God which she hath carefully preserved from the time of Moses to this day and so far we are willing to give credence to her as to believe that therein she hath done the duty of a faithful witness not giving testimony to any supposititious or corrupted Text but to that onely which doth carry the impressions in it of the Image and Divine Character of the Spirit of God But if a difference do arise about the sense and meaning of this very Scripture or any controversie do break forth on the mis-understanding of it or the applying and perverting it to mens private purposes which is the general source and fountain of all Sects and Heresies we will not therein hearken to the voice of the Church but every man will be a Church to himself and follow the Dictamen or the illumination as they please to call it of their private Spirit It therefore was good counsel of a learned man of our own Not to indulge too much to our own affections or trust too much unto the strength of a single judgment in the controverted points of Faith but rather to relie on the authority and judgment of the Church therein For seeing saith he that the Controversies of Religion in our time are grown in number so many and in nature so intricate that few have time and leasure and fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which of all the Societies of men in
this plea as a sorry shift which onely seemed to be excogitated for the present pinch If any ask me Where the Church was before Luthers time I answer generally First That if the Church had failed in these North-west parts of the world as indeed it did not yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South the Greeks Nestorians Melchites Abassins with divers others with whom the first Reformers might have held communion though differing from them in some points of inferior moment And secondly I answer more particularly that our Church was before Luther where it hath been since in Germany France England Italy yea and Rome it self A sick Church then but since by Gods grace brought to more perfect health a corrupt Church then but since reformed of those particular abuses both in life and doctrine which seemed most offensive That the Church of Rome is a true Church though not the true Church no sober Protestant will deny Iunius grants it in his Book De Ecclesia cap. 19. and so doth Dr. Whitakers also Cont. 2. Qu. 3. cap. 2. as great an enemy as any of the Romish factions The like doth Dr. Raynolds in his fifth Thesis though he deny it as he might to be either the Catholick Church it self as they vainly boast or any found member of the same Nay even the very Separatists do not grutch them that as Francis Iohnson in his Treatise called A Christian Plea Printed 1627. pag. 123 c. A true Church in the verity of essence as the Church is a company of men which profess the Faith of Christ and are baptized into his Name but neither Orthodox in all points of doctrine nor sound or justifiable in all points of practise And a true Church in reference to the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith which they maintain as constantly and defend as strongly against the several Hereticks and Sectaries of this present age as any Doctor of the Protestant or Reformed Churches though in the Superstructures they are faln aside from the received opinions of the Catholick Church A true Church too in which Salvation may be had for why should we deny the possibility of their salvation who have been the chief instruments of ours saith judicious Hooker by those especially who ignorantly follow their blinde guides and do not pertinaciously embrace any Popish error either against their Science or against their Conscience Of whom as of the greatest numbers in the Church of Christ we may very safely say with Augustine Coeteram turbam non intelligendi vivacitas sed credendi simplicitas tutissimam facit i. e. That amongst ordinary men it is not the vivacity of understanding but the simplicity of believing which makes them safe Of this Church were the Protestants Members before they did withdraw themselves from the errors of it before by this their separating from the errors of it they were schismatically expelled and thrust out of the communion of the Church of Rome by those which had the conduct of the affairs thereof in the beginning of that breach And from this Church do we of the Church of England derive immediately our interess in Christ by the door of Baptism the Body of the holy Scriptures the Hierarchy or Publick Government our Liturgy and Solemn Forms of Administration not as originally theirs but as derived to them from the Primitive times and by them transmitted unto us This Bristo doth acknowledge in his Book of Motives and this we think it no reproach unto our Religion to acknowledge also That Aphorism of King Iames of most famous memory deserving to be writ in Letters of Gold viz. That no Church under colour of Reformation for of that he speaketh ought further to separate it self from the Church of Rome either in Doctrine or Ceremony than she had departed from her self when she was in her flourishing and best estate and from Iesus Christ our Lord and Head And yet I know not how it hath come to pass but so it is that instead of reforming of an old Church which is all we did the building of a new Church will we nill we is by some Zelots of boâ—h sides obtruded on us Whereas the case if rightly stated is but like that of a sick and wounded man that had long lien weltering in his own blood or languishing under a tedious burden of diseases and afterwards by Gods great mercy and the skilful dâ—ligence of honest Chirurgions and Physitians is at the last restored to his former health No new man in this case created that is Gods sole privilege but the old man cured No new Church founded in the other that belongs to Christ but the old Reformed When Hezekiah purged the Temple and other godly Kings and Princes of the Land of Iudah did reform Religion as we know they did Neither did the one erect a new Temple or the others frame a new Religion but onely rectified in both what they found amiss And so it was also in the Reformation of the Church of Rome further than which we need not go to look where our Church was before Luthers time or to finde out that constant and perpetual visibility of the Church of Christ which hath been hitherto the subject of this Disquisition But put the case the worst that may be and let it be supposed this once That the Church of Rome had so apostated from the Faith of Christ that it ceased to be a Church at all both in name and nature yet were there many Christian Churches in the East and South all of them visible no doubt as they still continue which constantly maintained all those several Truths that had been banished and exploded in the Church of Rome For that the Vniversal Church should so fall away as to teach any doctrine contrary to the Faith and Gospel is plainly to the promise made by Christ our Saviour It is true indeed Christ hath not bound himself nor annexed his spirit so inseparably to a National or Provincial Church but that it may fall at last unto such desperate and dangerous Errors as finally may cut it off as an unsound Member from the residue of the Body Mystical The Candlestick may be removed as well out of any Church as from that of Ephesus if wilfully they put out the light which shined amongst them and so it is determined by the Church of England As the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch hath erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not onely in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith saith the Nineteenth Article But so it is not with the Universal the Body Collective of Gods people the Church essential nor can it be colourably inferred though it be the best Argument of Dr. Raynolds to evince his Thesis that because many of those who are outwardly called and some of the Elect themselves many of the Flock and some of the Pastors and that not
be Saints in the Church Triumphant But whether it be there or here a mutual communion there is always to be held between us between the Saints upon the Earth though Saints by outward calling onely united in the joynt participation of the Word and Sacraments and the external Profession of the Faith and Gospel but more conspicuously between those which are Saints indeed not onely nominally but really and truly such in that harmony of affections and reciprocal offices of love which makes them truly one Body of Christ though different Members And a communion there is too of this later kinde between the Saints upon the Earth and those which have their consummation in the Heaven of Glories who though they have in some part received the promise yet being fellow-members of the same one Body they pray for and await our ransom from this prison of flesh without which God hath so disposed it they should not be made perfect Which said we may now clearly see in what particulars the Communion of Saints intended in this Article doth consist especially which may be easily reduced unto three heads 1. A Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation by which they are made members of one another and of Christ their Head 2. A Communion of Affections expressed in all the acts of love and charity even to the very communicating of their lives and fortunes And 3. A communion of entercourse between the Saints in Heaven and those here on Earth according to the different states in which God hath placed them All other kindes of Christian Communion are either contained in and under these or may be very easily reduced unto them And first for the Communion in the Mysteries of our Salvation and the benefits which redound thereby to the Church of Christ St. Paul hath told us That the Cup of blessing which is blessed in the holy Eucharist and the Bread there broken is the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ and that being made partakers of that one Bread we are thereby made though many to be one Bread also and one Body even the Body of Christ one Bread though made of many grains and one Body though composed of many members A better Paraphrase upon which place of the Apostle we can hardly finde in all the writings of the Fathers than that of Cyril Ut igitur inter nos Deum singulos uniret quamvis corpore simul anima distemus modum tamen adinvenit consilio patris sapientiae suae convenientem Suo enim corpore credentes per Communionem mysticam benedicens secum inter nos unum nos corpus efficit c That Christ might unite every one of us both with our selves and with God though we be distant from each other both in body and soul he hath devised a way agreeable to his own Wisdom and the Counsel of his Heavenly Father For in that he blesseth them that believe with his own Body by means of that Mystical Communion of it he maketh us one body with himself and with one another For who will think them not to be of this Natural union which be united in one Christ by the Union or Communion of that one holy Body For if we eat all of one Bread we are all made one Body in regard Christ may not be dis-joyned nor divided In which full passage of the Father we finde an union of the faithful with Christ their Head as well as a conjunction with one another effected by the Mystical communion of his Body and Blood A double union first with Christ and with each others next as the members of Christ. The union which we have with Christ is often times expressed in Scripture under the figure and resemblance of the Head and Members which as they make but one Natural Body so neither do they make but one Body Mystical Know you not saith the Apostle that your bodies are the members of Christ 1 Cor. 6.15 That ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12.27 That we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones Ephes. 5.30 And doth not the same Apostle tell us That God hath given Christ to be head over all things unto his Church Eph. 1.22 That Christ is the head of the Church Vers. 23. And that from this head all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 Occumenius hereupon inferreth That neither Christ without the Church much less the Church without her Christ but both together so united make a perfect body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author hath it Others of more antiquity do affirm the same For thus St. Chrysostom Quidnaem significat panis Corpus Christi quid fiunt qui accipiunt Corpus Christi What signifieth the Bread The Body of Christ What are they made that do receive it The Body of Christ. St. Augustine thus Hunc cibum potum societatem vult intelligi corporis membrorum suorum i. e. He would have us understand that this meat and drink is the fellowship of his body and of his members What of the members onely with one another Not onely so but of the fellowship or communion which they have with him that is their head who though he be above in the heavenly places and is not fastned to his body with any corporal connexion yet he is joyned unto it by the bonds of love as the same Father hath it in another place Habet ecclesia caput positum in coelestibus quod gubernat corpus suum separatum quidem visione sed charitate annexum St. Cyprian speaks more home than either both to the matter and the manner of the union which we have with Christ. Nos ipsi corpus Christi effecti Sacramento re Sacramenti capiti nostro conjungineur unimur We are then made the Body of Christ both by the Sacrament and the grace represented by it when we are joyned or united unto Christ our Head Not that we are not made the members of Christs Mystical Body but onely by a participation of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood but that this Mystical union and communion which we have with Christ is most fitly represented by it For otherwise St. Paul hath told us That by one Spirit we are all baptized into that one Body and consequently made the members of Christ. According unto that of Divine St. Augustine Ad hoc baptisma valet ut baptizati Christo incorporentur membra ejus efficiantur To this saith he availeth Baptism that men being baptized may be incorporated unto Christ and made his Members But this supposeth a relation to the other Sacrament of which although they may not actually participate before they die yet they have either a desire to it if they be of age and a right or interess in it
were called Eulogia Hunc panem tu Eulogiam esse facies dignatione sumendi i. e. This Loaf you by your favorable acceptation of it will make to be an Eulogia or the Bread of blessing or panis benedictus in the Latin Idiom So witnesseth Durantes a late Popish writer when as this laudable custom had been much perverted and that this consecrated Bread not consecrated for but after the communion ended as it is plainly said by Honorius Augustodunensis was given to such as had not on the Sunday received the Sacrament Et pro Communione quae singulis diebus dominicis fieri solebat statutum est ut daretur in dominicis diebus Panis Benedictus sanctae Communionis Vicarius qui Eulogia dicebatur A custom still retained in the Church of France in which the Bread so blessed is called Pain Beni but whether in any other Churches of the Romish Communion that I cannot say But to proceed The second head to which the Communion of Saints is to be reduced is that conjunction of Affections which is and ought to be between them expressed in all the outward signs of love and fellowship even to the communication of their lives and fortunes A thing most visibly discerned in the Primitive times when the affections of the faithful were most pure and prevalent especially in their salutations their feasts of love and other acts of Christian bounty and finally in that pity and compassion which they shewed each other when the extremity of their affairs did require it of them And first Their Salutations were not onely verbal but accompanied with an holy Kiss mention whereof is frequent in St. Pauls Epistles where he requireth the people unto whom he wrote to salute one another with an holy kiss as Rom. 16.16 1 Cor. 16.20 1 Thes. 5.26 With a kiss that being an especial way to inflame affections Et animarum quoque mixturam facere and mingle as it were the souls of them that love With an holy kiss that is as Chrysostom expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not with a treacherous and deceitful kiss as was that of Iudas nor with a lustful and lascivious kiss as was that of Amnon Which salutation so enjoyned we finde to have continued unto after ages The Christians of Iustin Martys time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concluding their devotions with an holy kiss And Athenagoras reports that it was punishable in his time by the Churches Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any man gave a second kiss in their salutations because the second kiss might be imputed unto sensuality which shews that the salutation of the kiss was still in force Afterwards on some scandal which did thence arise it pleased the Church to take away the outward Ceremony of this salutation but to retain the substance and intent thereof in the continuance of that harmony and accord of souls which ought to be between Professors of the same Religion For Calvin very well observeth that St. Pauls purpose was not to oblige us to the very Ceremony but to excite us onely Ad fovendum fraternum amorem To the cherishing of brotherly love and concord whereof the holy kiss was nothing but a badge or emblem And to this head or manner of expression we may reduce those lovely names of Fathers Mothers Brethren Sisters wherewith they used to salute and call each other This last objected by Cecilius against the Christians of the times in which he lived as if thereby he could have proved them guilty of incestuous mixtures Et se promiscuè fratres appellant sorores said their witty Adversary But this as they first learnt from the holy Apostles so did still retain it upon very good Reasons as being all adopted Children of the same one Father Professors of the same one Faith and Coheirs of the same hopes of Eternal life Unius Dei parentis omnes fidei consortes spei cohaeredes as it was well replied by the Christian Advocate And for that reverend name of Father and Mother the yonger people used it as an honorable title due to age upon the warrant of St. Paul who adviseth Timothy to entreat the Elder Men as Fathers and the Elder Women as Mothers though otherwise all Brothers and Sisters in regard of God their Father Almighty Such in a word were the affections of the Primitive Saints that it was one of the principal Queries which Diognetus made unto Iustin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know what kinde of natural friendship and affection the Christians bare to one another And vide ut se invicem diligunt in and before Tertullians time was one of the expressions which the Gentiles used to express their wonder at that integrity and perfection of so rare a piety as they observed to be in Christians towards one another Not to say more in this particular we close this point with that which is affirmed by Cyprian on the like occasion Et vix invenio quid prius praedicare debeamus eorumne stabilem sidem an individuam charitatem that is to say It is not easie to determine whether the firmness of their Faith or the inseparableness of their Affections were of the two the more praise-worthy Next let us look on their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or their Feasts of Charity as St. Iude hath called them and called them by a name most proper to express their nature Coena nostra de nomine rationem suam ostendit vocatur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Tertullian These as they were intended to the increase of love amongst the wealthier and the relief and comfort of the poorer sort so were they celebrated and performed with an equal piety Begun with Prayer concluded with Thanksgiving continued with frequent readings of the Scripture and many pious Hymns being intermingled to the praise of God In setting out which Love Feasts as they spared no costs because thereby their poorer Brethren were relieved and cherished so did they think all gain which was so expended for Lucrum est pietatis nomine sumptum facere as the same Author hath it because thereby they kept themselves in a stock of piety And yet not thinking this enough they had their monethly Contributions for relief of the poor Which as it was chearfully brought in so was it carefully expended in educating fatherless Children sustaining old men unfit for labor in the repairing of their fortunes whom the Seas had ruined the ransoming of such particular persons as were confined unto the Ilands banished unto the Mines or locked up in the Common Prisons No respect had to Countreys and to Kinred less This made the man a competent object of their bounty of the Communion of their Goods that he was a Christian. And yet they had an ampler field for this Christian Piety than the necessities of private and particular persons which was the sending of relief to those National or Provincial
misunderstood dictates of those old Philosophers For where the Scripture saith They had all things common we are to understand it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the use and communication and not in referenee to the right and original title The goods of Christians were in several as to the right title and possession of them but common in the merciful inclination of the owner to the works of mercy And this appears exceeding plainly by the Text and Story of the Acts. For the Text saith That no man said of any thing that it was his own no not of the things which he possessed which plainly shews That the possession still remained to the proper owner though he was mercifully pleased to communicate his goods to the good of others But this the story shews more plainly For what need any of the Possessors of Lands or Houses have sold them and brought the prices of the things which were sold and laid them down at the Apostles feet to be by them distributed to the poorer Brethren If the poor Brethren might have carved themselves out of such estates and entred on them as their own or with what colour could St. Paul have concealed this truth and changed this natural community to a communication Charge them which be rich in this world saith he that they be willing to communicate a communication meerly voluntary and such as necessarily preserves that interess which the Communicators have in their temporal fortunes And so Tertullian also must be understood For though it be omnia indiscreta in regard of the use or a communion if you will with the Saints maintained with one another in their temporal fortunes yet was it no community but a communication in reference to that legal interess which was still preserved and therefore called no more than rei communicatio in the words foregoing The like may be replied to the other Argument drawn from the quality of friendship and the authority of Aristotle and the rest there named That which I have is properly and truly mine because descended on me in due course of Law or otherwise acquired by my pains and industry and being mine is by my voluntary act made common for the relief and comfort of the man I love and have made choice of for my friend yet still no otherwise my friends but that the right and property doth remain in me Quicquid habet amicus noster commune est nobis illius tamen proprium est qui tenet as most truly Seneca As for the practise of the Spartans and that natural liberty which is pretended to be for mankinde in the use of the Creatures It is a thing condemned in all the Schools of the Politicks and doth besides directly overthrow the principles of the Anabaptist and the Familist and their Confederates who are content to rob all mankinde of the use of the Creatures so they may monopolize and ingross them all to the use of the Saints that is themselves But the truth is that these pretences for the Saints are as inconsistent with the Word and Will of God as those which are insisted on for mankinde in general For how can this Community of the Saints or mankinde agree with any of those Texts of holy Scripture which either do condemn the unlawful getting keeping or desiring of riches by covetousness extortion theevery and the like wicked means to attain the same or else commend frugality honest trades of life and specially liberality to the poor and needy Assuredly where there is neither meum nor tuum as there can be no stealing so there needs no giving For how can a man be said to steal that which is his own or what need hath he to receive that in the way of a gift to which he hath as good a Title as the man that giveth it I shut up all with this determination of the Church of England which wisely as in all things else doth so exclude community of mens goods and substance as to require a Christian Communication of and communion in them The riches and goods of Christians saith the Article are not common as touching the right title and possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast therefore no community Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the poor according to his ability and there a Communion of the Saints in the things of this world a communication of their riches to the wants of others But the main point in this Communion of the Saints in reference to one another concerns that intercourse and mutual correspondency which is between the Saints in the Church here Militant and those which are above in the Church Triumphant The Church is of a larger latitude than the present world The Body whereof Christ is Head not being wholly to be found on the Earth beneath but a good part thereof in the Heavens above Both we with them and they with us make but one Body Mystical whereof Christ is Head but one Spiritual Corporation whereof he is Governor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Chrysostom And if he be the Head of both as no doubt he is then must both they and we be members of that Body of his and consequently that correspondence and communion must be held between us which is agreeable to either in his several place So far I think it is agreed on of all sides without any dispute The point in question will concern not the quod sit of it that there is and ought to be a communion between them and us but quo modo how it is maintained and in what particulars And even in this I think it will be granted on all hands also that those above do pray unto the Lord their God for his Church in general that he would please to have mercy on Ierusalem and to build up the breaches in the walls of Sion and to behold her in the day of her visitation when she is harassed and oppressed by her merciless enemies How long say they in the Apocalypse O Lord holy and true how long dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth And as they pray unto the Lord to be gracious to us so do they also praise his name for those acts of mercy which he vouchsafes to shew to his Church in general or any of his servants in particular The joy that was in Heaven at the fall of Babylon which had so long made her self drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martys and that which is amongst the Angels of Heaven over every sinners that repenteth are proof enough for this were there no proof else We on the other side do magnifie Gods name for them in that he hath vouchsafed to deliver them out of the bondage of the flesh to take their souls unto his mercy and free
in every point come home to this Pagan Theology in the worshipping of those Daemonia they do not onely pray to the Saints departed but dedicate unto their proper and immediate service as the Gentiles did to their Daemonia Temples and Festivals and Altars and set forms of worship and at the last advance their Images also in the Church of God and give them the same veneration which they conceived was due to the Saints themselves For Instans est Theologorum sententia imaginem honore cultu eodem honorari coli quo colitur id cujus est imago as Azorias telleth us for all so that it is the common and received opinion of the Church of Rome and not of some particular Schoolmen as they use to plead in other cases And certainly they that shall seriously observe with what laborious Pilgrimages magnificent Processions solemn Offerings and in a word with what humble bendings of the body and affectionate kisses the Images of the Saints have been and are still worshipped in the Church of Rome cannot be otherwise perswaded but that that she is relapsed again to her antient Gentilism It is true the better to relieve themselvs in this desperate plunge they have excogitated many fine distinctions as Terminativè and Objectivè Propriè and Impropriè Per se per accidens which howsoever they may satisfie the more learned sort are not at all intelligible to poor simple people What said I That they may give satisfaction to their learned men No such matter verily For Bellarimine himself confesseth That they who hold that any of the Images of Christ our Saviour are to be honored with that kinde of worship which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are fain to finde out many a nice distinction Quas vix ipsi intelligunt ne dum populus imperitus which they themselves much less the silly ignorant people could not understand Which makes me think that sure the Cardinal was infatuated with the spirit of dotage himself defining positively in the self same page Imagines Christi impropriè per accidens posse honorari cultu latriae That by the help of a distinction our Saviours Image might be honored with the highest worship But this I do accompt a fruit of this Iconolatriae this Image-worship as they call it that it draws down on them who use it that most heavy curse That such as worship them are made like unto them Now as it is in Bellarmines judgment with the Image of Christ so is it also with the Images of the Saints departed The worship which is given unto them in the Church of Rome not being to be salved with a dark distinction which neither the poor ignorant people no nor the greatest Clerks which they have amongst them have light enough to understand And though perhaps some men of learning may be able to relieve themselves by these distinctions yet I can see no possibility how the common people who kneel and make their prayers directly to the image it self without being able to discern where the difference lieth between their Propriè and Impropriè or Per se per accidens can be excused from palpable and downright Idolatry Adde unto this the scandal which is thereby given unto Iews and Turks and the great hinderance which it doth occasion unto their conversion who do abominate nothing more in all Christianity than this prophane and impious adoration of Images In which respect we may affirm with safety of the modern Romans what St. Paul tells us of the antient viz. Nomen Dei per vos blasphemari inter gentes that by their means the Name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles But of this Argument enough though neither improper nor impertinent to our present business both Invocation of the Saints and Adoration of their Images having been brought into the Church under colour of maintaining that communion which ought to be between the Saints upon the Earth and the Saints in bliss betwixt the members of the Militant Church and the Church Triumphant both of them making that one body whereof Christ is Head And under the same colour also have they obtruded on the Church their device of Purgatory and all the suffrages and prayers of the Saints alive for those which are deceased but not yet in glory For as it seems the prayers which many of the Saints in bliss make for them on Earth is but in way of a requital for some former courtesies because by reason of their prayers and devout oblations their souls had been delivered out of Purgatory and by that means exalted unto such a degree of happiness as to enable them to pray for their Benefactors This is Ka me ka thee as the saying is If by my prayers a soul hath been delivered from the fire of Purgatory it is all the reason in the world that he should remember me when he comes into his Kingdom or if he do not that I call upon him and put him in remembrance of his obligation It is true that prayer to and for the dead is of larger latitude than to refer to those onely who have been in Purgatory Our Masters in the Church of Rome requiring prayers unto some Saints who were never there as the blessed Virgin Mary the Apostles Martyrs and Primitive Antiquity allowing prayers and offerings for the Saints deceased when as these Purgatorian fires had not yet been kindled For prayer and offering for the dead there is little to be said against it It cannot be denied but that it is antient saith our Learned Andrews I can admit prayer for the dead and deny your purgatory I can give you reasons to pray for the dead and yet keep far enough from Purgatory saith as learned Montague It was indeed a custom of the Primitive Church not onely to make commemorations of the Saints departed for the instruction of the living and honor of the dead as before was said but to name them at the time of the celebration of the holy Eucharist offering to God that reasonable service for them that had departed and did rest in peace in sure and certain hope of a Resurrection To this effect there is a passage in the Liturgy ascribed to St. Iames which as Brerewood very well observeth was questionless the Publick Liturgy of the Church of Ierusalem to this effect That God would remember all the faithful that are faln asleep in the sleep of death since Abel the just to this present day and that he would vouchsafe to place them in the Land of the living To this effect we do not onely finde in Cyprian Sacrificamus pro mortuis the offering of the Sacrifice of praise and prayer in behalf of the dead but an express order taken by him that Gemimus Victor who had made one of the Presbyters of the Church of Carthage executor of his last Will and Testament and thereby wholly taken him off
causa etiam ad hodiernum diem Purgatorium non est à Graecis creditum In which besides a plain acknowledgement that the Greek Fathers knew not of it there is a very shreud intimation that there is little mention in the antien◠Latines Some other ground there must be for the fire of Purgatory than prayers and offerings for the dead but what that is is not so easily agreed upon amongst themselves Some relie wholly on Tradition and others as they build on that for the main foundation so they bring Texts of Scripture as a second help for their collateral security onely and no more than so But Frier Iohn Bacon hath declared That there be others who think that Purgatory cannot be proved by authority of Scripture that the Books of Maccabees which commonly are alleged for proof thereof are not Canonical that the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. speaks of that fire that shall purge the elements of the world in the last day and that touching those words of Christ it shall never be remitted in this world nor in that to come they prove not that there is a remission of sins in the other world Nor is Iohn Bacon onely of this opinion For they who carefully consult the writings of our Romish Adversaries will easily perceive how little confidence they have in those Texts of Scripture which commonly are alleged in defence hereof there being not so much as one Text hitherto produced and insisted on by some of that party but what by others is denied to be meant of Purgatory And to say truth their differences are so many and irreeoncilable in all the points and circumstances which concern this doctrine that the disagreements which they have amongst themselves may serve sufficiently instead of all other Arguments to confute the Tenet First for the place which Eckius will have to be in the bottom of the Sea some in Mount Aetna others in the Centre of the Earth and Bernard de Busses in an Hill of Ireland next for the Torments which Sir Thomas Moor will have to be onely by fire Fisher his fellow-sufferer by Fire and Water Lorichius neither by Fire nor Water but by the violent convulsions of Hope and Fear then for the Executioners which Bishop Fisher will have to be holy Angels Sir Thomas Moor to be very Devils So for the sins that are to be expiated in those flames which some will have to be onely venial others to be the venial ones and the mortal too And for the time of their continuing in that state which Dennis the Carthusian extends to the end of the world Dominicus à Soto limits but to ten years onely others have shortned that time too if either their friends will hire some Priest to say Mass for their souls or the Pope do but speak the word And last of all for the extremity of the pain which Aquinas makes as violent as those of Hell and yet the Rhemists say that they which are in Purgatory are in a more happy and blessed condition than any man living Durandus betwixt these extreams gives them some intermission from these terrible pains upon Sundays and Holidays By which uncertainty or contrariety rather of opinions we may clearly see upon what weak foundations they have raised this building which probably had faln to the ground long since if the profit which ariseth by it to their Monks and Friers had not kept it up But I forbear to meddle further in this point of Purgatory which for my part I do conceive to be rather a Platonical and Poetical fiction than to have any ground in Scripture or true Antiquity The Fathers for the first 600 years after Christs Nativity making no resolution in it either publick or private save that St. Augustine to avoide a worse inconvenience may seem to some to patronize it And yet he doth it with such doubtingness and so much uncertainty that any man not blinded with his own opinion may see he knew not what to determine of it For sometimes it is no more then quantum arbitror for as much as he thinks and other whiles incredibile non est that it is not incredible But then he leaves it off with a quaeri potest as a matter disputable At other times he goes as far as a forsitan verum that peradventure it is true and yet at last utterly rejects it with an ignoramus Heaven we do know saith he and we know Hell also Tertium locum ignoramus a third place between both we can tell of none He that can ground a point of faith upon such uncertainties must have more skill in Architecture than I dare pretend to But this is onely on the by to shew how little the Communion of the Saints hath to do with Purgatory which neither is a consequent nor concomitant of it The Saints may pray for one another we for their consummation in the state of glory and they for our wel-doing in our passage thither and no such thing as Purgatory be inferred from either It is now time that I proceed to such other benefits as do redound unto the Church from her Head CHRIST IESUS Articuli X. Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Remissionem Peccatorum i. e. The forgiveness of Sins CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No Actual sin so great but it in capable of forgiveness In what respect some sins may be counted Venial and others Mortal IT is a saying of St. Augustines in no point so uncertain as in that of Purgatory that possibly God could not have bestowed a greater blessing on his Church than making his onely begotten Son Christ Iesus to be head thereof By means whereof it cometh to pass that one and the same person Et orat pro nobis orat in nobis oratur à nobis doth both pray for us and pray with us and yet is also prayed to by us How so That he resolves immediately in the words next following Orat pro nobis ut sacerdos noster orat in nobis ut caput nostrum oratur à nobis ut deu◠noster that is to say He prayeth for us as our Priest he prayeth with us as our Head and is prayed to by us as our God Himself is both the Suter and the Mediator yea and the party sued unto and therefore doubt we not when we call upon him but he will grant us those Petitions which himself makes for us As Priest he represents continually to Almighty God the benefit and effect of that perfect Sacrifice which he once offered on the Cross for the sins of the world As Head unto the Church he recommends our prayers to the Throne of Grace and joyneth with his Members in their sutes to God for the more speedy and effectual obtaining of them As God he hath his eye still over
us and his ear still open to our prayers which he hath both the will and the power to grant so far forth as he seeth it fitting and expedient for us He suffered for our sins as he is our Priest forgives them as he is our God and mediates as our Head with his Heavenly Father for the remission of those sins which he suffered for The medicine for our sins was tempered in his precious blood and therein we behold him in his Priestly Office the application of this medicine was committed to the sons of men whom he by his Prophetical Office authorized unto it The dispensation of the mercy thereof still remains in God as an inseparable flower of the Regal Diadem for who can forgive sins but God alone said the Pharisees truly And this forgiveness of our sins as it is the greatest blessing God ca◠give us in this present life because it openeth us a door to eternal glory so is it placed here as the first in order of those signal benefits which do descend upon the Church from her Head Christ Iesus For we may hopefully conclude that since Christ was not onely pleased to die for our sins but doth intercede also with his Heavenly Father that we may have the benefit of his death and passion those prayers of his will make that death and passion efficacious to us in the forgiveness of those sins under which we languish With the like hope we may conclude from the self-same Topick That if we have our part in the first Resurrection that namely from the death of sin to the life of righteousness we shall be made partakers of the second also that namely from the death of nature to the life of glory For Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That where the Head is will the members be If therefore Christ our Head be risen from the grave of death the members shall be sure of a Resurrection If Christ our Head be glorified in his Fathers Kingdom the members in due time shall be glorified also So that as well the Article of the Forgiveness of sins as those of the Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting depend upon Christs being Head of this Mystical Body and that too in the method which is here proposed The forgiveness of sins being given us as a pledge or assurance that we shall have a joyful Resurrection in the day of judgment as that is but a way or passage to eternal life First then we are to speak of the Forgiveness of sins and therein we will first behold the whole body of sin in its own foul nature that so we may the better estimate the great mercies of God in the forgiveness of the same And for beholding the whole body of sin in its own foul nature we must first take notice That it pleased God in the beginning to exhibite to the world then but newly made a lively copy of himself a Creature fashioned ad similitudinem suam after his own Image saith the Text. In the creating of the which as he collected all the excellencies of inferior Creatures so did he also crown him with those heavenly graces with which he had before endued the most holy Angels that is to say a rectitude or clearness in his understanding whereby he was enabled to distinguish betwixt truth and error and with a freedom in his will in the choice of his own ways and counsels Ut suae faber esse possit fortunae That if he should forsake that station wherein God had placed him he might impute it unto none but his wretched-self It is true God said unto him in the way of Caution That in what day soever he did eat of the fruit forbidden he should die the death But he had neither undertaken to preserve him that he should not eat and so by consequence not sin much less had he ordained him to that end and purpose that he should eat thereof and so die for ever And true it is that God fore-knew from before all eternity unto what end this Liberty of man would come and therefore had provided a most excellent remedy for the restoring of lapsed man to his grace and favor Yet was not this foreknowledge in Almighty God that so it would be either a cause or a necessity or so much as an occasion that so it should be And it is therefore a good rule of Iustin Martyr seconded by Origen and divers others of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Prescience of God say they is not cause or reason why things come to pass but because these and these things shall so come to pass therefore God fore-knows them So that God dealt no otherwise in this case with our Father Adam than did the Father in the Parable with his younger son gave him that portion of his goods which fell to his share and after left him to himself And as the Prodigal childe being an ill husband on the stock which his Father gave him did quickly waste the same by his riotous living suffered the extremities of cold and hunger and was fain to cast himself again on his Fathers goodness so man not using well that stock which the Lord had given him gave himself over to the Epicurism of his eye and appetite By means whereof he lost those excellent endowments of his first Creation was shamefully thrust out of Paradise without hope of return and in conclusion fain to cast himself on the mercies of God as well for his subsistence here as his salvation hereafter The story of mans fall makes this plain enough and wholly frees Almighty God from having any hand or counsel in so sad a ruine For there we finde how God created him after his own Image placed him in Paradise commanded him not to meddle with the Tree of good and evil threatned that in case he did eat thereof he should surely die and lastly with what grievous punishments he did chastise him for violating that Commandment All which had been too like a Pageant if God had laid upon him a necessity of sin and death and made him to no other end as some teach us now but by his fall to set the greater estimate on his own rich mercies So excellently true is that of Ecclesiasticus though the Author of it be Apocryphal That God made man in the begining and left him in the hands of his own counsels And this is the unanimous doctrine of the New Testament also where it is said That by man came death and that not onely of the body but of the soul 1 Cor. 15.21 That by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 That by one mans disobedience many were made sinners Vers. 19. That all die in Adam Vers. 22. And in a word That no man ought to say when he is tempted that he is tempred of God for God tempteth no man but every
to the water but the institution nor to the Sacramental water of it self alone but to the holy Spirit which is active in it Et ipsi soli hujus efficienciae privilegium manet to which belongeth the prerogative in this great effect For as the Spirit of God moving upon the waters of the great Abyss did out of that imperfect matter produce the world so the same Spirit moving on the waters of Baptism doth by its mighty power produce a regenerate Creature From hence it is that in the setting forth of so great a work the water and the Spirit are oft joyned together as in St. Iohn Except a man be born again of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in St. Paul accrrding to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost And in St. Iohns Epistle also There be three that bear witness on the earth the Spirit and the Water and the Blood And if the Spirit go along with the Waters of Baptism as we see them joyned together in the holy Scripture no question but it will be made effectual to the work intended which is the washing away of sins whether smal or great whether Original or Actual of what sort soever For proof whereof besides what hath been said of this Point already let us behold the practise of the Primitive times when the Discipline of the Church was grown so severe that some were hardly admitted at all unto publick Penance others removed from the communion of the Church for three four or seven years together and sometimes as the quality of the sin appeared for the whole time of their lives A Discipline which the Church used onely towards those which had given up their names in baptism to be visible members of that body whereof Christ was Head and that made more unpleasing to most sort of men upon the growth and spreading of the Novatian Heresie who mistaking the Apostles meaning declared all those to be uncapable of mercy who sinned after Baptism and therefore neither would admit them unto publick penance nor otherwise restore them to the Churches peace of whom St. Cyprian thus complaineth Sic obstinatos esse quosdam ut dandam non putent lapsis poenitentiam And though the Orthodox party did abominate these Novatian rigors yet were they too strait-laced towards those who fell into any publick or notorious sin after they had received the Sacrament of Regeneration it being conceived that after Baptism major in sordibus delictorum reatus as it is in Augustine the smalest sins seemed greater than indeed they were Upon this ground and an assurance which they had that all their sins whatever were expunged in Baptism it was the custom of too many to defer their Baptism till the hour of their death or till they lay so far past hope on the bed of sickness that nothing but the stroke of death was to be expected Thus doth the Story tell us of the Emperor Constantine that in extremo vitae die when he was even brought to the point of death he was baptized in Nicomedia by the hands of Eusebius the like of Theodosius a most pious Prince upon these grounds St. Austine did defer his baptism a long time together that so he might more freely enjoy those pleasures to which he was addicted in his younger years On the like fear of such relapses as were censured so severely in those rigid times he put off the baptizing of Adeodatus his own natural Son till he came to thirteen years of age at what time the severity of the Church began to slaken or rather the good Fathers judgement was then changed to the better on the right understanding of the use and nature of that holy Sacrament A custom as ill taken up so as much condemned and subject to the Churches censures when occasion served those which were so baptized and escaped from death whom they called Clinici because they were baptized on the bed of sickness being disabled by the Canons from the holy Ministery But whether censured or not censured it comes all to one as to the point I have in hand which was to shew that in the practise and opinion of those elder times the Sacrament of Baptism was held to be the general plaster for all manner of sins and though sometimes deferred till the hour of death on the occasion and mistakes before remembred yet then most earnestly desired ad delenda erratu illa quae quoniam mortales erant admiserant as the Historian saith of the Emperor Constantine for expiating of those sins which they had committed But on the other side as some did purposely defer it till the time of their death out of too great a fear of the Church's censures and a desire to injoy the pleasures of sin yet a little longer so others and those the generality of the people of God out of a greater care of their childrens safety procured it to be administred unto them in their â—endrest infancy almost as soon as they were born And this they did on very pious and prudential considerations though there be no express command nor positive precept for it in the holy Scripture for when we read that we were shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin Psal. 51.5 that all men are by nature the children of wrath Ephes. 2.3 and that except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Joh. 3.5 What Parent can so far put off all natural affections as not to bring his child to baptism especially if there be any danger of death as soon as all things fitting can be had in readiness for that ministration And though there be no positive precept nor express command for Infant-baptism in the holy Scripture it is sufficient ground for the Church to go on if it be proved to be an Apostolical practise and that it is at least an Apostolical practise there will appear sufficient evidence to any man not prepossessed with prejudice and mis-perswasions For when we finde particular mention of the baptizing of whole housholds as of that of Lydia Act. 16.15 of the Gaoler vers 33. of the same Chapter and of Stephanus 2 Cor. 1.16 Either we must exclude children from being part of the houshold which were very absurd or else admit them with the rest to this holy Sacrament But because many exceptions have been made against these instances some thinking it possible enough that those housholds had no children in them as we see many families in great Towns and Cities where no Infants are others restraining the administration of Baptism unto such of the houshold as by giving testimony of their Faith and Repentance were made capable of it we must for further proof make use of a Rule in Law and back that Rule of Law by a practical Maxim delivered by the
Resurrection of the Body also And to this purpose that of Gregory Quam in se oftendit in me facturus est exemplo hic monstravit quod promisit in proemio That saith the Father which he exemplified in himself he will make good upon me what we finde proved in his person shall be further manifested in our own Besides we know that Christ is often called in St. Pauls Epistles the head of the Church which is his Body and we with joy and gladness do acknowledge it for a certain truth Now Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where the head is there also will the body be and if the Head be glorified the Body will be also glorified If therefore CHRIST our Head be risen then shall we also be raised in due time who are his Body or at least the Members of that Body for ye are the body of Christ and members in particular saith the same Apostle But this must be expected in its own due time as before I said I◠being not to be supposed that so great a work as this shall be wrought upon us either unseasonably or out of order Every one in his own order saith the Text first CHRIST the first fruits of the resurrection afterwards such as are Christs at his coming Where still observe how Christs resurrection and our own are tyed by the Apostle in a string together Eadem catena revincta est Christi resurrectio nostra as my Author hath it we cannot stir one end of the chain but the other moveth with it This habitude or connexion between Christ and us will help us to another Argument to confirm this Doctrine For if we be the members of the body of Christ we must be crucified in our members as Christs body was Mortifie therefore your earthly members saith St. Paul And certainly we may conclude That if we be crucified with Christ we shall rise with Christ if we do suffer with him we shall also reign with him and be glorified with him There is another rational way of Argumentation used by the Apostle the sum whereof in brief is this That if there were no Resurrection of the Body whereby we might receive the comfort of those good acts which we have done in our flesh then should we have but small encouragement in the works of piety especially to hazard our estates nay our very lives in maintenance and defence of the Holy Gospel Why stand we then saith he in jeopardy all the day long And why have I my self encountred Beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men or suffered in my flesh that full variety of torments that I may justly say of my self that I die daily And not so onely but certainly we rob our selves of too much pleasure by the severity of our Religion and foolishly deny to our lives those comforts which make life valued for a blessing For to what purpose should we weary out our souls with fasting and our skins with sack-cloath or to what purpose do we make our knees even hard and callous by kneeling in his holy Temple were there no Resurrection of the Body or no life to come If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable Rather than so let us give way to our desires and eat and drink enjoy the pleasures of the world whiles they are before us for ought we know we may die to morrow and with that death to morrow there is an end of all things Thus might a man reason for a Resurrection in behalf of himself and he may reason for it also on the behalf of God whose justice cannot be declared in the sight of men if there were no Resurrection of the flesh to express it by To this end we are told by the same Apostle That we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every man may receive according to that which he hath done in his body whether good or evil The strength and efficacy of which Argument as is elswhere noted is briefly this The Bodies of us men being the servants of the soul to righteousness or else the instruments to sin in justice ought to be partakers of that weal or wo which is adjudged unto the soul and therefore to be raised at the day of judgment that as they sinned together or served God together so they may share together of reward or punishment Which Argument as it strongly proves the Resurrection of the Body so it as strongly doth conclude for a Resurrection of the same Body the same numerical body which before we had not of a new created body as some idly dream For certainly it were no justice in Almighty God if one flesh should fast and pray and kneel and watch and weary out it self in the service of God and another flesh reap that which it never labored for No comfort to the poor body at all to abridge it self of so much pleasure and be exposed to so much danger and affliction and another strange body shall step up and receive the reward Iobs confidence was That he should see God with the same eyes and none other for them If they restrained themselves as it were by Covenant with the Lord from straying after objects of lust and not intice him to a maid as he saith he did It is but justice that they the same eyes and none other should be rewarded with the view of a better object If they have been poured out like water and dropped many a tear in the sight of God Reason and Justice both will agree to this That the tears should be wiped from those eyes not from a pair of new ones which did never shed any And unto this St. Paul comes home not speaking of the Resurrection of a Body in general but of this body in particular It is these eyes of Iob none other which shall see the Lord and hoc corruptibile in St. Paul this corruptible and none other which must then put on corruption And thus far we have gone upon positive proofs and sought them also in the Law and the Prophets onely Another kinde of evidence may be found in Scripture which for distinctions sake shall be called Practical common alike to Law and Gospel both to Iews and Christians Of this sort was the solemn form of burial amongst the Iews the charges they were at in Spices and sweet Ointments to embalm the Bodies of their dead and the command given both by Ioseph and Iacob to their children for the transporting of their bones to the Land of Canaan the type and shadow of Gods Kingdom in the Heavens above All special testimonies that they did expect in the Lords good time a Resurrection of those Bodies so carefully so choicely tendred laid up in the Repository of the Grave with such cost and decency When Mary Magdalen poured forth