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A04191 A treatise containing the originall of vnbeliefe, misbeliefe, or misperswasions concerning the veritie, vnitie, and attributes of the Deitie with directions for rectifying our beliefe or knowledge in the fore-mentioned points. By Thomas Iackson Dr. in Divinitie, vicar of Saint Nicholas Church in the famous towne of New-castle vpon Tine, and late fellow of Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford.; Commentaries upon the Apostles Creed. Book 5 Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640. 1625 (1625) STC 14316; ESTC S107490 279,406 488

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maketh warres to cease A God of wisedome and a God of glorie and yet a God that hath compassion on the poore and despiseth not the weake and sillie ones And as if he had feared lest Israel vpon such occasions as seduced the Romanes might misdeliver devotions confusedly intended to him vnto stormy waues or tempests or with the Aramites confine his power to vallies or mountaines or with others make him a God of the sea onely not of the land He hath sounded a counterblast to those impulsions where with the heathens were driven headlong into Idolatrie in that excellent song of Iubile The Lord is a great God and a great King aboue all Gods In his hand are the deepe places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also The sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the drie land O come let vs worship and fall downe let vs kneele before the Lord our maker For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheepe of his hand It was his pleasure to try them with penurie of water after he had tried them with scaricitie of bread that by his miraculous satisfaction of their intemperate desires of both as also of their lusting after flesh he might bring them to acknowledge him for a God as powerfull over the foules of the aire as over the fish in the sea as able to draw water out of the hard rocke as to raine bread from heaven And having indoctrinated them by their experience of his power in these and like particulars he commends this generall precept or morall induction to their serious consideration Hath God assayed to goe and take him a nation from the middest of another nation by temptations by signes and by wonders and by warre and by a mightie hand by a stretched out arme and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardest his words out of the middest of the fire Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord he is God in heaven aboue and vpon the earth beneath there is none else And lastly That no sencelesse or liuing creature through the faulty ignorance of man might vnawares purloine any part of his honour the Psalmist hath invited all to beare consort with his people in that song of prayse and acknowledgement of his power Prayse ye the Lord from the heavens prayse him in the hights Prayse yee him all his Angells prayse yee him all his hosts Prayse yee him Sunne and Moone prayse him all yee Starres of light Prayse him yee heavens of heavens and yee waters that be aboue the heavens Let them prayse the name of the Lord For he commanded and they were created He hath also stablished them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not passe Prayse the Lord from the earth yee dragons and all deepes c. Let them prayse the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is aboue the earth and heaven CHAPTER XIX Of divers errors in Philosophie which in practise proued seminaries of Idolatrie and sorcerie 1. THe best Apologie which the greatest heathen clearks could make for themselues for the grosser fopperies of the vulgar they would not vndertake to defend was borrowed from a plausible Philosophicall opinion thus expressed by the Poet His quidam signis atque haec exempla secuti Esse apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aethereos dixere Deum namque ire per omnes Terrásque tractúsque maris coe●umque prosundum Hinc peci●des armenta viros genus omne serarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri Omnia nec merti esse l●cum sed viva volare Syderis in numerum atque alto succedere coelo S●me by these signes and these examples thereto drawne haue taught The soules of Bees to be divine of heavenly spirits a draught For God say they as find they may who Natures workes per vse Through earth through seas through heavens profound liue goodnesse doth diffuse From his liue presence Cattle men birds sucke the spirit of life From him all springs in him all ends though death be nere so rife Yet nothing dies what earth forsakes findes place in starry skie What we thinke into nothing slits aboue the Heavens doth flie This opinion was worse construed by some than either the Author or Commentator meant many the most auncient especially agree in this That Deus was Anima mundi That the world was animated by God as our bodies are by our soules Whence they concluded as some later Romanists doe That all or most visible bodies might be religiously worshipped or adored with reference to Gods residence in them The Antecedent notwithstanding being graunted the practises which they hence sought to justifie are excellently refuted by S. Austine who hath drawne them withall a faire and streight line to that marke whereat they roved at randome or blind guesse by wayes successiuely infinite For answering any objection the Heathen Divines could make against vs or refuting any Apologie made for themselues I alwayes referre the Reader to this good Fathers learned labours of excellent vse in his time But my purpose is not to make men beleeue these heresies are yet aliue by hot skirmishing with them The lines of my method rather lead me to vnrippe their originalls so farre onely as not discovered they might breed daunger to our times Now in very truth the opinion pretended by them to colour the filth of their Religion did minister plentie of fuell and nutriment as learned Mirandula hath observed to those monsters whose limmes and members had beene framed from the seeds of errors hitherto mentioned and the illiterate in all probabilitie tooke much infection at eies and eares from Poeticall descriptions or Emblematicall representations of Gods immensitie such as Orpheus if wee may beleeue Clemens Alexandrinus did take out of the Prophet Esay cap. 66. vide Ciem Alexand. lib. 6. Strom. Ipse autem in magno constans firmus Olympo est Aureus huic Thronus est pedibus subiectaque Terra Oceani ad fines illi protenditur ingens Dextera montanas atque intus concutit illi Ira bases motus nec possunt ferre valentes Ipse est in coelis terram complectitur omnem Oceani ad sinus expansa est manus illi Vndique dextera Not held by them He heavens doth firmely hold Whole earth 's but footestoole to his throne of G●ld Ins mightie Palme the Ocean vast doth rolle The rootes of mountaines shake at his controlle Or e Heavens through earth his right hand doth extend It all inclasps all it not comprehend 2. Iupiter though
and wise observation of reverend Gerson That famous miracles were to be suspected for lying wonders vnlesse they had some speciall vse or extraordinary end Now the onely vse or iust occasion we can obserue of Popish miracles in later times hath bin either to purchase the reputation of Saints to such as wrought them whiles they liued or to gaine a currant title to canonizatiō after their deaths And the true reason in my opinion why the Carthusians of all other religious orders wrought not many miracles was because they had no desire to be Saints of the Popes making If they had sought to be graced by his Holines with publicke sanctitie they must haue graced themselues their order with a fame of wonders otherwise that exception which was brought against Thomas of Aquine would haue taken place against them For even this Angelicall Doctors title to canonization was impeached by some because he had wrought no miracles vntill his Holines cleared the doubt by a more benigne interpretation then Apollo's Oracle could haue given Tot fecit miracula quot quaestiones determinauit Locke how many doubts he hath determined and he hath wrought so many miracles But by this reason he should haue placed him aboue most Saints amongst the Angells For it is scarce credible that any Saint hath wrought halfe so many miracles as are the doubts which this Doctor after his fashion hath determined appositely enough for the Romish Hierarchie And hath not the Pope good reason to make the Church militant adore their soules as gods in heaven which haue made his Holines more than a Saint a very god on earth But because they deny that the Church makes gods of such as the Pope makes Saints we are in the next place to discusse whether invocation of Saints as it is publickely maintained by them be not an ascription of that honour to the creature which is onely due to the Creator CHAPTER XXIIII In what sense the Romanists denie or grant that Saints are to be invocated Whether the Saints by their doctrine be mediate or immediate Intercessors betweene God and man That they neither can conceale or will they expresse the full meaning of their practise 1. BEllarmine lib. 1. de Sanctorum beatitudine cap. 16. accounts the former imputation for one of Calvins malitious slaunders Quis enim deo dicere auderet Sancte Deus ora pro nobis We must not thinke they are so foolishly impious as to say Holy God pray for vs. Nor did Calvin charge them with pulling downe God as low in every respect as the Saints but for exalting the Saints in sundry cases into the throne of God howsoever they salute them by an inferior style Nor will it follow that the Heathens did not worship many gods because they did not equalize all with Iupiter or vse the same forme of appellation vnto him to their demi-gods or Heroikes Or admitting the Romanists make no Saints equall to God the Father or to any person in the Trinitie considered according to his Deitie alone is it no sacril●ge to invest them with Christs royall titles or prerogatiues as he is our high Priest and Mediator It will vpon examination proue no slander but a just accusation to say they make the Saints both sharers with Christ in his office of mediation and with the glorious Trinitie in acts essentiall to the Deitie But let vs first heare in what sense they themselues grant or deny Saints may be prayed vnto or otherwise adored and then examine whether their answers to our arguments can stand with the forme of their Liturgie or fit the maine point in question betwixt vs. 2. Some more auncient then Epiphanius for he refuteth their heresie held the Virgin Mary was to be prayed vnto after the same manner we pray to God Betweene this excessiue honor thus ascribed vnto the chiefe of Saints and the other extreame as they make it consisting in defect or deniall of invocation of any Saints Bellarmine labours to finde out a meane which he comprehends in these propositions following Non licet à Sanctis petere vt nobis tanquam authores divinorum beneficiorum gloriam vel gratiam aliaque ad beatitudinem media concedant Bellarmin de Sanctorum beatitud lib. 1. cap. 17. It is not lawfull to request the Saints that they as Authors of divine benefits would graunt vnto vs Grace or Glorie or other meanes availeable to the attainement of Faelicitie His second proposition is Sancti non sunt immediati intercess●res nostri apud Deum sed quicquid a Deo nobis impetrant per Christum impetrant Ibidem The Saints are not our immediate Intercessors with God but whatsoeuer they obtaine of Cod for vs they obtaine it through Christ I know not whether out of cunning or incogitancie he hath expressed himselfe or rather left their full meaning vnexpressed in these tearmes per Christum not adding withall propter Christum In the declaration he commends three parties to our consideration when we pray to God 1. The person of whom we craue every good gift 2. Him through whose merites we request they may be given vs. 3. The partie which craues them Saints by his doctrine cannot supply the first or second but the third and last place The onely meaning whereto vpon better examination he will stand is this that Saints cannot be substituted in the stead of God the Father or of Christ as he is the principall Mediator or primary Intercessor But to say that we may not request favour of God the Father propter merita Sanctorum for merits of Saints or request Saints to interpose their merits with Christs for more sure or speedie expedition can neither stand with the profession or practise of the Romish Church Bellarmine well vrged will quickly be enforst to deny the conclusion which he thus gathers from the premised propositions We pray saith he to the Saints onely to this end that they would vouchsafe to doe what we doe because they can doe it better and more effectually than we can at least they and we together may doe it better then we alone And againe we may request nothing of the Saints besides their intercession with God that Christs merits may be applyed to vs and that through Christ we may attaine grace and glory For praying thus far to Saints that speech of S. Bernard warranteth them Opus est mediatore ad mediatorem nec alter nobis vtilior quam Maria we haue neede of a mediator to our mediator and none more fit than Mary Hence they learne that Christ onely is the immediate intercessor who is heard for his owne sake the Saints are onely mediate intercessors and can obtaine nothing which they aske without Christs mediation Thus much is included in the forme of their prayers vpon Saints dayes which are all conceived in this tenor Grant vs these or these benefits at the intercession of such or such Saints 3. The first part
of his second proposition That Saints are not immediate Intercessors for vs with God he proues by places of Scripture so pregnant that some of them directly disprooue all mediate or secondary Intercessors or Mediators as Coloss 1. It pleased God that in him should all fulnesse dwell If all fulnesse the fulnesse of mediation or intercession and absolute fulnesse excludes all consort As there is but one God so there is but one Mediator betweene God and man no secondary God no secondary Mediator 1. Ioh. 2. He is the propitiation for our sinnes the absolute fulnesse of propitiation And Ioh. 10. he enstileth himselfe the Doore and Way such a doore and such a way as no man may come vnto the Father but by Him This restriction in our Divinitie makes him the onely doore and the onely way not so in theirs For wee must passe through other doores that we may come to this onely immediate doore that is he is the onely doore whereby the Saints are admitted into Gods presence but Saints are necessary doores for our admission vnto him Opus est Mediatore ad mediatorem Were this Divinitie which they borrow from S. Bernard true they much wrong Aristotle and Priscian in calling him Immediatus Intercessor aut Mediator and are bound to right them by this or the like alteration of his title He is vnicus vltimus aut finalis Mediator He is the onely finall or last Mediator For a Mediator is not of one whence to be an immediate Mediator essentially includes an immediate reference to two parties Christ is no Mediator but betweene God and Man and betweene them he is no immediate Mediator vnlesse men haue as immediate accesse to him as he hath to God the Father As God he best knowes the nature and qualitie of every offence against the Deitie vnto what sentence every offender is by justice liable how far capable of mercy as man he knowes the infirmities of men not by hearesay or information but by experience and is readie to sollicite their absolution from that doome whose bitternesse is best knowne vnto him not at others request or instigation but out of that exact sympathie which he had with all that truely mourned or felt the heavinesse of their burden Whiles he was onely the sonne of God the execution of deserved vengeance was deferred by his intercession Nor did he assume our nature and substance that his person might be more favourable or that his accesse to God the Father might be more free and immediate but that wee might approach vnto him with greater boldnesse and firmer assurance of immediate audience than before we could He exposed our flesh made his owne to greater sorrowes and indignities than any man in this life can haue experience of to the end he might be a more compassionate Intercessor for vs to his Father than any man or Angell can be vnto him We need the consort of their sighes and groanes which are oppressed with the same burden of mortalitie here on earth that our ioynt prayers may pierce the heavens but these once presented to his eares neede no sollicitors to beate them into his heart Surely if the intercession of Saints had beene needfull at any time most needfull it was before Christs incarnation or passion when by the Romanists confession it was not in vse The sonne of God was sole Mediator then 4. As the impietie of their practises doth grieue my spirit so the dissonancy of their doctrine doth as it were grate and torture my vnderstanding while I contemplate their Apologies Sometimes they beare vs in hand that God is a great King whose presence poore wretched sinners may not approach without meanes first made to his domestique servants The conceipt it selfe is grossely Heathenish and comes to be so censured in the next Discourse Now seeing they pretend the fashion of preferring petitions to earthly Princes to warrant the forme of their supplications to the Lord of heaven and earth let vs see how well the patterne doth fit their practise Admitting the imitation were lawfull how could it iustifie their going to God immediately with these or the like petitions Lord I beseech thee heare the intercession of this or that Saint for me through Iesus Christ our Lord. What fitter interrogatories can I propose vnto these sacrilegious supplicants then Malachy hath vnto the like delinquents in his time If I be your Lord and King as you enstyle me where is my feare where is my honour saith the Lord of Hoastes to you Priests that despise my name and yet being chalenged of disloyaltie they scornefully demand Wherein haue Wee despised thy name Yee bring polluted offrings into my Sanctuary and yet yee say wherein haue wee polluted thy Sanctuary If yee offer such blind devotions as these is it not evill Offer them now to thy Governour to thy Prince or Soveraigne Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hoastes He would either be thought to mock the King and come within iust censure of disloyaltie or els be mocked out of his skin by Courtiers that durst exhibite a petition in this forme vnto his Maiestie Vouchsafe I beseech you to pardon my offences against your Highnes and admit me into good place at the intercession of your Chauncellor Treasurer Chamberlaine or Controller in honor of this his birth-day for the Princes sake your sonne my good Lord and Master yet if we change onely the persons names this petition which could become none but the Princes foole to vtter differs no more from the forme of Popish prayers vpon Saints dayes then the words of Matrimony vttered by Iohn and Mary doe from themselues whilest vttered by Nicolas and Margaret The former respectlesse absurditie would be much aggravated if the Courtiers birthday whom the petitioner would haue graced with the grant of his petition should fall vpon the Kings Coronation day or when the Prince were married Of no lesse solemnitie with the Romanist is the feast of the Crosses invention it is Christs coronation or espousals and yet withall the birth-day of two or three obscure Saints whom they request God to glorifie with their owne deliverance from all perills and dangers that can betide them through Christ their Lord. This last clause must come in at the end of every prayer to no more vse than the mention of a certaine summe of mony doth in feoffements or deedes of trust onely pro formâ Praesta quoesumus omnipotens deus vt qui sanctorum tuorum Alexandri Eventij Theodoli atque 〈◊〉 ●nalis natalitia colimus a cunctis m●lis imminentibus eorum intercessionibus liberemur per Dominum c. Grant we beseech thee Almightie God that wee which adore the natiuitie of the Saints of Alexander Event Theod. and Iuuenal may by their intercession be delivered from all evills that hang over vs through Iesus Christ our Lord. To be delivered from evils at or by the intercession of such Saints is
holy Ghost or a mockery of him a sacrilegious put loyning of that which was brought vnto the Sanctuary and solemnly consecrated to the Lord of the Temple CHAPTER XXVI That the Worship which Sathan demanded of our Saviour was the very same wherewith the Romish Church worshippeth Saints that is Dulia not Latria according to their distinction That our Saviours answere doth absolutely prohibite the offering of this worship not onely to Sathan but to any person whatsoever besides God The truth of this assertion proued by S. Iohns authoritie and S. Peters 1. THe doctrine delivered in the former Chapter was a truth in olde times so cleare and so well approued by the constant practise of liuing Saints that the very quotation of that Law whereon wee ground it did put the Devill himselfe for the present to a non-plus But he hath bethought himselfe of new answers since and found opportunitie to distill his intoxicating distinctions into moderne braines through Iesuiticall quills Howsoever to eyes not darkned with the smoake of hell it will never take the least tincture of probabilitie much lesse any permanent colour of solid truth that the Tempter should demand cultum latriae as now it is taken by the Iesuites of our Saviour Or although he had set so high a price at the first word vpon so faire commodities as he proffered there could be no doubt of his readinesse to fall lower at the second rather than to hazzard the losse of his Market For he loues to play at small games rather than altogether to sit out And if the Iesuites answers to our arguments were currant their Master with halfe of one of their skill in Sophistrie might haue put ours to a new reply as he did him twice to a scriptum est It is written sayth our Saviour Thou shalt worship thy Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serue True sayth the Iesuite cultu latriae for it is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this kinde of worship exprest by the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our Adversaries doctrine is due to Saints What was it then which the Devill did expresly demand of our Saviour Latria or Dulia neither expresly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adoration But this Worship may be demanded vpon some higher style than befits Saints to accept or vse It may be demanded in testification of homage royall or in acknowledgment of the partie to whom it is tendred for Lord and Soveraigne of the parties which tender it To him that would thus reply the reioynder is readie out of the text for the Devill did not exact any externall signe of submission vnto himselfe as vnto the supreame disposer or prime fountaine of the temporall blessings which he promised The tenor of his promise was thus All this power will I giue thee and the glory of the kingdomes for that is delivered vnto me By whom questionlesse by some Superior more soveraigne Lord from whose right he sought to deriue his warrant to bestow them To whomsoever I will I giue it The warrant pretended in respect of the parties capable of the donation of it is very large but not without conditions to be performed by them If thou therefore wilt fall downe before me and worship me all shall be thine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or falling downe before him being all the Tempter did demaund our Saviours reply had neither beene direct nor pertinent vnlesse the exclusiue particle onely be referred as well to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worship or prostration as to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or supreame service Is it then but a meere tricke of wit or poynt of Sophistrie without sinne thus palpably to divide that sense of Scripture which God had so closely joyned Is it a pettie presumption onely for a Iesuite to thinke he could haue caught the Devill more cunningly in his owne play or haue gone beyond him with a mentall reservation or evasion if the like proffer had beene made to him as was to our Saviour For this in effect is the Iesuites answer The Law forbids 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely the Devill required onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore he demaunded nothing forbidden by the Law To be able thus to play fast and loose with the sacred bond of Gods Law at his pleasure or to loose the linke of absolute allegiance to supreame Maiestie with frivolous distinctions pretended from some slips of the Auncients is that wherein the Iesuite glories Such of this sublimated sect as stifly maintaine that not onely all Image-worship but all civill vse of Pictures was forbidden the Iewes are not ashamed to stand vpon the former glosse as the best rocke of their defence for maintaining the distinction between Dulia and Latria But the words of the Law are still the same and therefore can admit no distinction now which they might not then haue borne Howbeit were that Law abrogated so far as it concernes the vse of Images it could not disanull this new distinction were this grounded vpon any other pregnant Scripture but so grounded it is not it cannot be 2. Such as would blush at the former Glosse will perhaps reply that the lowest degree of any worship was more than the Devill had right to chalenge and more than might be tendred to him by any Intelligent creature The exception I graunt were good if our Saviour had onely refused to worship him because he was Gods enemy but it no way toucheth the reason of his refusall which is vniversally perpetuall For he tooke no notice of the Devils ill deserts but frames such an answer to the demaund it selfe as was to stand for an vnalterable expositiō of that indispensable Law in respect of every creature either tempting or tempted in like sort to the worlds end None may worship or serue any Creature with religious Worship all of vs must so worship and serue God alone The words of the Text it selfe as well in the Septuagint as in the Hebrew are no more than these Thou shalt feare thy Lord thy God and him shalt thou serue The super-eminent dignitie of the partie whose feare and service are enioyned doth in our Saviours Logicke make the indefinite Forme of the Commaundement fully aequivalent to this vniversall Negatiue No man may tender any act of religious feare worship or service to any man or Angell to any thing in heaven or earth or in the regions vnder the earth but onely to him who made all who is Lord of all whom all are bound to feare and worship with all their hearts with all their soules and all their might And of all kindes of religious feare or service Cultus duliae is either most improperly or most impiously tendred to Saints and Angels For though as in Gods house there be many Mansions so no doubt there be severall degrees or rankes of Attendants yet the highest and the lowest members of Christs mysticall body are brethren the