Spirit in which we shall discern both his power and office These gifts and graces of the Spirit the School-men commonly divide into Gratis data such as being freely given by God are to be spent as freely for the good of others of which kinde are the gift of tongues curing diseases and the like and gratum facientia such as do make him good and gracious on whom it pleaseth God to bestow the same as Faith Iustice Charity The first are in the Scripture called by the name of gifts Now there are diversity of gifts saith the Apostle but the same Spirit For to one is given by the Spirit the word of Wisdom to another the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kindes of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues The later are called Fruits by the same Apostle The Fruits of the Spirit saith he are love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance The Gifts are known most commonly by the name of Gratis data the Fruits pertain to Gratum facientia The Gratum facientia belong to every man for himself the Gratis data for the benefit of the Church in common That which God giveth us for the benefit and use of others must be so spent that they may be the better for it because not given unto us for own sakes onely nor to gain others to our selves but all to him In which respect Gods Servants are to be like Torches which freely wast themselves to give light to others like Powder on the day of some Publick Festival which freely spends it self to rejoyce the multitude That which he gives us for our selves must be so improved that we may thereby become fruitful unto all good works vessels prepared and sanctified for the Masters use In the first of these we may behold the power of the Holy Ghost in the last his office His power in giving tongues to unlearned men knowledge to the ignorant wisdom to the simple the gift of prophecy even unto very Babes and Sucklings I mean to men not studied in the Liberal Sciences A power so great that no disease is incurable to it no spirit so subtile and disguised but is easie discerned by it no tongue so difficult and hard which it cannot interpret no miracle of such seeming impossibility but it can effect it In which regard the Holy Ghost is called in Scripture The power of God The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee Luke 1.35 And Christ our Lord having received the ointing of the holy Spirit is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power Acts 10.38 Nor want I Reasons to induce me unto this opinion that when Simon Magus had effected by his sorceries and lying wonders to be called the great power of God but that his purpose was to make men believe that he was the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God which title afterwards he bestowed on his strumpet Helena and took that of CHRIST unto himself as the more famed and fitting for his devilish purposes Next for his Office that consisteth in regenerating the carnal and sanctifying the regenerate man First In regenerating of the carnal For except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God saith our Blessed Saviour of Water as the outward Element but of the holy Spirit as the inward Efficient which moving on the Waters of Baptism as once upon the face of the great Abyss doth make them quickning and effectual unto newness of life Then for the Work of Sanctification that is wrought wholly by the Spirit who therefore hath the name of the Holy Ghost not onely because holy in himself formaliter but because holy effective making them holy who are chosen unto life eternal So say St. Peter the first and St. Paul the last of the Apostles St. Peter first Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1.2 And so St. Paul But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6.11 That is to say Iustified in the Name of our Lord Iesus through Faith in him and sanctified by the Spirit of God through the effusion of his Graces in the Soul of Man The work of Sanctification is not wrought but by many acts as namely By shedding abroad in our hearts that most excellent gift of charity filling our souls with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost by teaching us to adde To our faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity that we be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ. Though Christ be the Head yet is the Holy Ghost the Heart of the Church from whence the vital spirits of grace and godliness are issued out unto the quickning of the Body mystical And as the vital spirits in the body natural are sensibly perceived by the motion of the heart the breathing of the mouth and by the beating of the pulse so by the same means may we easily discern the motions of the Spirit of Grace First It beginneth in the heart by putting into us new hearts more sanctified desires than we had before A new heart will I also give you and a new spirit will I put within you saith the Lord by the Prophet Ezekiel And to what end That ye may walk in my Statutes and keep my Iudgments This new heart is like the new wine which our Saviour speaks of not possible to be contained in old bottles but will break out first in new desires For Novum supervenisse spiritum nova demonstrant desideria as St. Bernard hath it Nor will it break out onely in desires or wishes but we shall finde it on our tongues for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh And if the heart be throughly sanctified we may be sure that no corrupt communication will come out of our mouths but onely such as is good to the use of edifying and may minister grace unto the hearers The same breath in the natural body is Organon vitae vocis as experience telleth us The Instrument of life and voice it is the same we live by and the same we speak by And so it is also in the Body mystical as well the vocal as the vital breath proceeding both alike from the Holy Ghost Nor stayes it onely on the tongue but as the beating of the pulse is best found at the hand so if we would desire to know how the
also of the creation and fall of man OF the name and nature of the Angels Why the creatioon of the Angels not expressed in Scripture Probable conjectures that the Angels were created before the beginning of the world and those conjectures backed by authority of the Antients both Greeks and Latines The several orders and degrees of the holy Angels The Angels ministring to Almighty God not only in inflicting punishments upon the wicked but in protection of the godly Many things said in Scripture to be done by God which were effected by the Ministry of the blessed Angels That every one of Gods people and they alone hath his Angel-guardian proved not only by the authority of the Antients but by the testimony of the Scripture Of the Daemons of the antient Gentiles That the worshipping of Angels mentioned in Coloss. 2. did arise from thence Angel worship not alone forbidden by Scriptures and Fathers but by the very Angels themselves The evil Angels first created in a state of integrity Of their confederacy and fall That the sin of ambition was the cause of the fall proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers and by several reasons Several differences between the sin and fall of man and the sin and fall of the evil Angels The reason why CHRIST took not on himself the Angelical nature The Devils diligence and design in seducing mankinde The Devil why and how called the Tempter Of the Mali Genii Of the Gentiles and that the Daemonium Socratis so often mentioned by the Antients was not of that nature Several Artifices of the Daemons in gaining Divine honours to themselves The Devil not without much difficulty dispossessed of the Soveraignty he had gotten in the souls of men The goodly structure of mans body and some contemplations thence arising That the soul of man is not ex traduce proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Image of God imprinted on mankinde in what it doth consist especially and of the several degrees and perfections of it The voluntary fall of man and how it came to be imputed to his whole posterity the remedy of God provided to restore lost man The fall of Adam not decreed and in what sense permitted by Almighty God CHAP. VI. What Faith it was which was required for Justification before and under the Law of Moses Of the knowledge which the Patriarchs and Prophets had touching Christ to come Touching the Sacrifices of the Jews the salvation of the Gentiles and the justifying power of Faith THe general project of this Chapter No faith in Christ required of Adam till his fall nor after that explicitely affirmed of our Father Abraham The error and mistake of Eve touching the Messias Whether the Prophets fully understood their own predictions touching Christ to come In what Gods Prophets differed from the Heathen Soothsayers The Heathen Soothsayers why called extatici and arreptitii and furiosi No explicite faith in Christ required of the Patriarchs before the law nor of the people of the Iews who lived under the Law What faith it was which was imputed for righteousness to our Father Abraham The Sacrifices of the Iews not counted expiatory in reference unto Christ to come but by the Ordinance and Institution of Almighty God Why CHRIST is said in Scripture to be the end of the Law Or the advantages which the Iews had above other Nations The Gentiles not left destitute of means and helps to bring them to the knowledge and Worship of God No point of Reverence performed by Gods people antiently in the act of Worship which was not practised by the Gentiles The Sacrifices of the Gentiles what they aimed at chiefly before perverted by the Devil The Sacrificing of men and women among the Gentiles by whom first introduced and upon what grounds The eminence of some Gentiles in all moral vertues The union of mans soul with Almighty God proposed as the chiefend of liâ—e by the old Philosophers The salvation of the nobler souls amongst the Gentiles defended by some late Divines denyed by St. Augustine formerly and upon what grounds the grounds on which he built examined The vertues of the Gentiles not to be counted sins or vices for any circumstantial imperfections which are noted in them The special help wherewith God might supply amongst the Gentiles the want of Scripture The charitable opinion of Franciscus Iunius touching the Infants of the Gentiles The case of the Gentiles altered since our Saviours passion and so St. Peter Act. 2. and the 17. Article of the Church of England to be understood What it is that makes Faith instrumental unto Iustification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of faith imputed to a man for righteousness proved by the testimony of the Scriptures and the Antient Writers The Homilies of the Church explicated and applyed to the present point LIBER II. CHAP. I. Nothing revealed to the Gentiles touching Christ to come The Name of JESUS what it signifies and of bowing at it Of the name CHRIST and the Offices therein included The name of Christians how given unto his Disciples SAlvation of the world by Christ kept as a Mysterie from the Gentiles generally before the Preaching of the Gospel The Sibâ—lline Oracles what they say of Christ not to be counted pie fraudes and with what care preserved from the common view The tearm or â—â—tion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the WORD frequently found in Plato and his followers The summe of our belief touching Christ our Saviour The name of IESVS whence derived and what it signifieth A parallel between IESVS the Son of God and Ioshua or Iesus the son of Nun. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Salvator by the Writers in the Christian Church till the alteration made by Beza and of the full meaning of those words The dignity of the name of Iesus That bowing at the Name of IESVS was antiently used in the Church of Christ and from the first beginning of the Reformation in the Church of England The name CHRIST whence derived and what it signifieth and of the several Offices it relates unto That the name of Christian was not given unto the followers of Christs Doctrine without some solemnities Chrestos and Chrectiani mistakingly used for Christus and Christiani by some Heathen Writers CHAP. II. That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God Why called his only or his only begotten Son Proofs for the Godhead of our Saviour Of the title of LORD THe name of the Son or Sons of God ascribed in several respects to men and Angels and also to the Saints departed given in a more peculiar manner to Kings and Prophets then unto any other of the sons of men in all of these respects communicable unto CHRIST our Saviour but after a more excellent manner then to all the rest CHRIST not the Son of God only but his only Son properly to be called the natural and begotten Son of Almighty God in reference to his birth
praeterpluperfect tense of the passive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to be perswaded to be taught to be induced to give assent unto such propositions as are made unto us Thus is the word used by the great Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For I am perswaded that neither life nor death c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Being confident of this very thing Persuasum habens hoc ipsum as Beza very properly doth translate the word That he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Iesus Christ. So that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render faith being hence derived may not unfitly be construed a perswasion or a firm assent persuasionem seu firmam assensionem as the learned Valla hath observed and then the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being brought from thence will signifie in the true and proper notion of it I am perswaded verily of the truth of that which so many godly and religious men have related to me and give as full and firm an assent unto it as if I had been present when the deed was done Thus also for the Latine word Fides the Etymologie thereof is drawn from fio from the doing or performance of those things which are said or promised Fides enim dicitur saith Cicero eo quod fiat quod dictum est And therefore faith or fides call it which you will as it relates unto the promises of God is defined by Zanchius to be firma certa persuasio de promissionibus dei a strong and confident perswasion that God will graciously fulfil those promises which he hath pleased to make unto us And therefore I shall fix upon that definition of the thing it self which I finde amongst the Antient Schoolmen affirming it to be a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed Which definition lest it should fare the worse for the Authors sake is backed and seconded by so many learned men both of the Protestant and Reformed Churches as may well serve to set it free from all further cavils For thus Melanchthon for the Protestant or Lutheran Churches Fides est assensus omni verbo Dei nobis tradito Faith saith he is an assent to the veracity or â—ruth of the whole Word of God delivered to us And so saith Vrsin for the Doctors of the French or Calvinian party defining it almost in the self same words to be Vera persuasio qua assentimur omni verbo Dei nobis traditâ—o With these agree Chemnitius in Evan. Concil Trident. cap. de Iustificatione Pet. Martyr ad Rom. 3. v. 12. Polanus Partit Theolog. lib. 2. pag. 368. besides divers others Which being the true and proper definition of belief or faith according to the natural meaning of the word both in Greek and Latine I may conclude from hence without further trouble that to believe according as the word here stands in the front of the Creed is only to be verily perswaded of the truth of all those points and articles which are delivered in the same and to give a firm assent unto them agreeable unto the measure of our understanding Faith thus defined differeth not only from experience knowledge and opinion all which do come within the compass of Assents in general but from all other things whatsoever which come within the compass of our belief When we assent unto the truth of such things or matters as are discernible by sense we may call it perception or experience as when a man assents to this proposition that ice is cold or that fire is hot because he feels it to be so by his outward senses If our assent be weak unsetled or grounded only upon probabilities we then call it opinion in matters of which nature men are for the most part left at liberty their understandings being neither convinced by the power of a superior truth nor setled and confirmed by demonstrative proofs This though it be an assent is no firm assent and therefore nothing less then Faith If our assent be grounded on demonstrative proofs and built upon the knowledge of natural causes it is then tearmed Science or knowledge properly so called for Scire est per causas scire said the great Philosopher But he that gives assent unto any truth only because of the authority of the man that speaks it neither examining his proofs nor searching into the probabilty or possibility of the thing related that man in true propriety of speech is said to believe and to believe we know is the act of faith Thus it is said of the Samaritans that many of them believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified thus of him viz. He told me all that ever I did but more believed because of his own words when they had heard him speak and observed his doctrine And yet not every truth believed on the speakers credit is the proper object of belief or faith according as we use the word in the Schools of Christ but only supernatural truths such truths as our depraved nature could not reach unto without revelation from above by consequence not the authority of every speaker but only of such holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost is the foundation of this faith which we here define I give belief unto the Histories of Xenophon Thucydides Polybius and Corn. Tacitus because I hold a good opinion of the men that writ them And I believe that Edward the Black Prince wonne the battel of Crecie being then but 18 years of age and that King Henry the fifth subdued the greatest part of France within five or six years because I finde it so related without contradiction both by our English Chroniclers and the French Historians But I rely on no humane authority how great soever it be for a rule of Faith which as it hath truths only supernatural for the object of it so have those truths or the revelation rather of those truths no other Author then the Spirit of God So then faith is a firm assent which makes it differ from opinion which may be called an assent also but weak and wavering It is a firm assent to truths for to believe in lyes is not faith but folly A brand or character set on those by Almighty God who seeing they would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved have been and are given over unto strong delusions and to believe in lyes that they should be damned 'T is an assent to truths revealed not grounded on demonstrative proofs or the disquisition of natural causes or the experiment of sense but only on the authority of him who reveals it to us which differenceth it most clearly both from experience and from knowledge which have surer grounds
And finally it is a firm assent to truth supernatural and supernaturally revealed which makes it differ from that credit or belief call it which you will which commonly we ascribe and give to humane authorities which being but humane must needs be fallible and therefore no fit ground for our faith to rest on according to the notion of that word in the Church of Christ. For though both knowledge and experience rest on surer grounds as to the satisfaction of the understanding to which a demonstration is of more authority then an ipse dixit that being a convincing argument which commands assent this but artificiosum argumentum as Logicians call it yet are the grounds of faith less fallible then those of any other Art or Science whatsoever it be because they are communicated to us by the Spirit of God qui nec fallere nec falli potest who being infallible in himself will most infallibly lead unto all those truths the knowledge of the which is either necessary or expedient for us 'T is true St. Paul lays down another definition or description rather of belief or faith which he defines to be Substantiam rerum sperandarum argument non apparentium that is to say The substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Which definition or description we will first explain and then declare to what acception of the word Faith it relates especially Now the first thing to be considered in this definition is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Vulgar Latine rendreth by Substantia Beza more like a Paraphrast Illud quod facit ut extent quae sperantur Which being so obscure as to need a Commentary he helps our understanding with a marginal note and cals it suâ—siâ—tentiam rerum quae sperantur which is the true meaning of the word in its natural sense For faith is therefore called the subsistence or the existence as the word is sometimes translated of things hoped for because it makes those things which are yet in hope and are no otherwise ours then in expectation subsistere in corde nostro quasi ante oculos corporis to subsist or exist no lâ—ss really in our hearts or souls then if we saw them present with our bodily eyes And this he doth illustrate by the Resurrection which is not past already as some Hereticks taught nor come as yet as to the accomplishment and performance of it and yet faith makes it to subsist or exist in the minde of a Christian ac si prae oculis eam habeamus as if we were already possessed thereof The word hath other senses in the holy Scripture as in the third chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews where we finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 initium substantiae as the Vulgar reads it principium illud quo sustentamur as more truly Beza The beginning of our confidence say our last Translators where that which in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Englished confidence according as we finde it also Psal. 39. where that which by the Septuâ—gint is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in our English rendred hope Surely my hope is even in thee vers 7. Budaeus that most learned Critick in the Greek tongue will have it signifie courage or praesentiam animi deriving it from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to sustain or endure a shock in which regard that Souâ—dier is called miles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who stands his ground and will not turn his back unto his adversary And in this sense we finde it also in St. Pauls Epistle unto those of Corinth twice meeting with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unmoved constancy in boasting or praefidentem gloriationem as Beza renders it that is to say a glorying that will not shrink or be put out of countenance Which also very well agrees with the nature of faith and serves most fitly to express the full vigour of it by which a man is made assured and confident in all times of danger and scorns to give ground or to turn his back though Principalities and powers and all the rulers of the darkness of this present world were armed against him The second thing to be observed in this definition or description rather which the Apostle hath laid down in the place aforesaid is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of things not seen as the English reads Beza translates it quod demonstrat the Vulgar Latine Argumentum and both these say the same though in divers words Arguere dicebant antiqui ostendere a quo venit argumentum quasi ostensio The old Grammarians saith Haimo used the word Argue in that sense which we use the word to declare and shew And Argumentum proprie ratio est qua quis rei dubiae facit fidem an argument saith he is the proof or evidence whereby a doubtful matter is confirmed and ratified And then the meaning of St. Paul will be briefly this Fides est ea credere quae non videntur faith makes us to believe such things as we never saw and are not subject to our senses the minde being so convicted with the evidence of divine authority as to submit it self or to give assent to every thing which is delivered in the holy Scriptures even touching the invisible things of Almighty God as the Apostle cals them in the first to the Romans But then we must observe withall that this is not a proper definition of faith it self according to the rules of Art the true character and nature of a definition but rather a description of the fruits and effects of faith in that it represents those things which are yet in hope as if they were possessed already and doth so clearly look into things invisible as if they were before our eyes And this saith Beza on the place Excellens fidei descriptio ab effectu est quod res adbuc in spepositas repraesentet invisibilia veluti oculis subjiciat So then we may define Belief or Faith as before we did St. Pauls description notwithstanding to be a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed which doth most fully manifest the true nature of faith and no way crosseth that which St. Paul delivereth For that faith represents the things hoped for and is the evidence or proof of things not seen is an effect or consequent of that firm assent to supernatural truths revealed which worketh both that evidence and existence in us It follows thereupon as we before said that to believe according as the word here stands in the front of the Creed is only to be verily perswaded of the truth of those points and Articles as are delivered in the same and to give a firm assent unto them according to the measure of our understanding This being thus stated and determined we now proceed unto the explication of the
he only made a shew of faith which he never had Why so Quia Lucas aperte testatur eum credidisse because S. Luke affirms that he did believe being convinced by the signs and miracles which S. Philip wrought as many others of Samaria at the same time were And yet no doubt but Simon Magus was a Reprobate a man rejected by the Lord in regard of his wickedness and that his heart was not right in the sight of God and afterwards an author of such mischief in the Church of God that Ignatius who lived neer those times very rightly cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first begotten of the Devil The like mâ—y be affirmed also of Alexander Hymeneus and Philetus who had been made partakers of the Faith of CHRIST and were zealous in it for the time but afterwards made shipwrack of it denying amongst other Articles of the Christian faith that of the resurrection of the dead and thereby overthrowing the faith of some Men questionless given over to a reprobate sense or else we may be well assured St. Paul had never given them over to the hands of Satan as it is plain he did But what need search be made into these particulars when Calvin himself affirms in general Reprobis fidem tribui eosdem interdum simili fere sensu atque Electos affici eosque merito dici Deum sibi propitium credere c. that Faith is given unto the Reprobate that sometimes they are touched with the like sense of Gods grace as the Elect ones are and may deservedly be said to believe that God is favourable and propitious to them God sometimes makes the Sun of Righteousness as well as the Sun of Heaven to shine on the evil and on the good Which notwithstanding Faith is called and that most properly Fides Electorum the Faith of Gods Elect in that and other places of the Book of God because the fruits thereof are in them more visible the confession of the same more fervent the seeds thereof more fastly rooted and the fruit more durable For which cause possibly the Apostle doth there join together the faith of Gods Elect and the knowledge of the truth which is after godliness Which is indeed the special difference which is between the faith of the Elect and the faith of the Reprobates For if the fruit be unto holiness no question but the end thereof will be life everlasting It is not then the weakness or the want of faith which doth alone exclude the Reprobate from the Kingdom of Heaven and make him finally uncapable of the grace and favour of the Lord in the day of judgement but the want of a good conscience in the sight of God And therefore if we mark it well St. Peter did not charge it upon Simon Magus that he wanted faith or that his faith was only a dissembled hypocritical faith upbraiding him as formerly Ananias in another case that he had not only lyed unto men but unto God but that he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity not having his heart right in the sight of God Nor did St. Paul accuse the said three Apostates that they never had received the faith or that the faith which they received was not true and real but that first having put away a good conscience they afterwards made shipwrack of the faith also blaspheming God and scattering abroad their dangerous errours to the seducing of their brethren If Simon had repented of his wickedness as St. Peter advised it may be charitably supposed that the thoughts of his heart had been forgiven him And Hymeneus and Alexander if they had made good use of the Apostles censure when he delivered them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh no question but their spirits might have been saved in the day of the Lord IESUS Which may suffice for answer to the first objection touching the faith of reprobates as they use to call them whose firm assent to supernatural truths revealed makes them not inheritable to the Kingdom of Heaven because they hold the truth revealed in unrighteousness and so become without excuse as St. Paul tels us in another case of the antient Gentiles The next Objection is that if this phrase in Deum credere import no more then this that there is a God and that all his words are Divine truths and all the world the workmanship of his hands alone the Devils do belieue as much as St. Iames assures us Thou believest saith he that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble Iam. 1.19 The answer unto this is easie St. Iames assures us of the Devils that they believe there is one God but doth withall assure us this that this belief of theirs confirms them in the certainty and foreknowledge of their everlasting damnation the apprehension of the which produceth nothing in them but fear and horrour The Devils do believe that there is a God and that this God is just in all his actions and righteous in all his ways unchangeable in his Decrees Yesterday and to day and the same for ever What other comfort can they reap from this faith of theirs but that being once condemned by God to eternal fire they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgement of the great and terrible day For knowing that the judgements of the Lord are just and his doom unchangeable they must needs know withall the certainty of their own damnation or else they cannot properly be affirmed to believe this truth that there is a God And as they do believe that there is a God so they believe also that he is the Maker of heaven and earth For being at the first created by Almighty God with so great perspicacity and clearness of the understanding they could not choose but know the hand that made them and consequently believe that he made all those things which are ascribed to God in the holy Scripture Though by their fall they lost the favour of the Lord their first estate in which they were created by Almighty God the grace by which they stood and the glories which they did possess yet lost they not that quickness and agility of motion that perspicacity and clearness of the understanding wherewith they were endowed by God at their first Creation But what makes this unto their comfort when the same knowledge or belief call it which you will by which they are assured that God made the Heavens and the Earth and all the things therein contained will keep them always in remembrance of this most sad truth that he also made an Hell of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth prepared for the Devill and his Angels To go a little farther yet the Devils did not only believe long since that CHRIST was come in the flesh but publickly proclaimed him in the open
Rome relapsed to her antient Gentilism revived again so many of her Gods and Goddesses that both the Iews and Infidels may have cause to question whether she doth believe in one God alone or that he only is the Father Almighty whom the Creed here mentioneth Of which and other of the Attributes of Almighty God I am next to speak Articuli 1. pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Patrem Omnipotentem i. e. The Father Almighty CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture The name of Father how applyed unto God of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency BY that which hath been said in the former Chapter out of the Monuments and Records of the antient Gentiles it is apparent that they knew that there is a GOD that he was one only and that this one God was an Eternal and Immortal Spirit existing of himself without any beginning invisible incomprehensible omnipotent without change or passion In which description we have all those Epithels summed up together out of the works and writings of those reverend Sages which Ruffinus a good Christian Writer of the Primitive times hath bestowed upon him in his Exposition of the Creed Deum cum audis substantiam intellige sine initio sine fine simplicem sine ulla admixtione invisibilem incorpoream ineffabilem inaestimabilem in quo nihil adjunctum nihil creatum And though it could not be expected that the Gentiles guided only by the light of Nature should have said so much yet for the better knowledge of the Essence Attributes and works of GOD we must not rest our selves contented with that measure of light which was discovered unto them but make a more exact search for it in the holy Scriptures Concerning which there is a memorable story of Iustin Martyr which he relateth in his Dialogue with Trypho the Iew. St. Paul hath noted of the Greeks that they seek after wisdome and never was the note more exactly true then in that particular For being inflamed with a desire of coming to a more perfect knowledge of the Nature of GOD then had been generally attained by the common people first he applyed himself unto the Stoicks who by the gravity and preciseness of their conversation did seem most likely to direct him But this knowledge was not with the Stoick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor could he learn much there of the nature of God Next he betook himself to the Peripateticks men most renowned for their knowledge in the works of Nature and the subtilties of disputation But there he profited less then before with the Stoicks the Peripateticks being more irresolute and speaking less divinely of the things of GOD then any of the other Sects of Philosophie Then had he severally recourse unto the Pythagorean and the Platonist who were most eminent in those times for the contemplative parts of learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the search of immaterials But true Divinity was not to be found in all the writings either of the Pythagoreans or the Platonists although these last did seeme to come more neer the truth then either the Peripatetick or the Stoick At last he was encountred by a Reverend old man a Christian Father and was by him directed to the Book of God writ by the Prophets and Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they which only knew the truth and which alone were able to unfold it rightly The counsel of which Reverend man he obeyed full gladly and profited so well in the Schools of CHRIST that he became a Martyr for the Faith and Gospel So we if we would come unto the perfect knowledge of GOD though we may sport our selves and refresh our thoughts in the pleasant walks and prospects of Philosophy must at the last apply our selves to the holy Scriptures where we shall be as far instructed in the things of GOD as he thinks fit to be communicated to the sons of men Now for our better method in the present search we will consider GOD in those names and Attributes by which he hath made known himself in his holy Covenants And first we meet with that of the Lord IEHOVAH which the Greeks usually called the Tetragrammaton or the name consisting of four letters for of no more it doth consist in the Hebrew language the Iews more properly nomen appropriatum gloriosum the most peculiar and most glorious name of the Lord our God appropriated unto him in so strict a manner that it was not lawful to communicate it unto any Creature By this name was he first pleased to make himself known unto Moses saying that he had appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty but by this Name of Jehovah he had not made himself known unto them And in the Prophet Esay thus Ego sum Jehovah illud est nomen meum i. e. I am Jehovah that is my Name and my glory will I not give unto another Derived it is from Iah an old Hebrew root which signifieth ens existens Being or existing And hereupon was that when Moses in the third of Exod. v. 14. asked the name of GOD the Lord returned this answer to him I Am that I Am and thus shalt thou say unto the people I AM hath sent me unto you And hereupon it was that St. IOHN calleth him in the Book of the Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is which was and which is to come Nor doth it signifie alone a self-existence by which he hath a Beeing in and of himself and doth communicate a beeing unto all the creatures but it is used in Scripture for a name of power by which he governeth all those creatures on which he hath been pleased to bestow a beeing And therefore if we mark it well though he appear unto us by the name of God in the first of Genesis when the Creation was an Embryo an imperfect work yet he is no where called by the name of the Lord Iehovah till the Creation was accomplished and his works made perfect The Fathers heereupon observe and the note is handsome that the name of GOD is absolute essential and coeternal with the Deitie but that of IEHOVAH or the Lord not used except in reference to the creature And it is noted by Tertullian in his Book against Hermogenes that in the first of Genesis it is often said Deus dixit Deus vidit Deus fecit God said and God saw and God created But that he was not called the Lord by the name of IEHOVAH till the second Chapter when he had finished all his works the Heaven and Earth and all things in the same contained and that there was some creature framed on which to exercise his Power and Supreme command Ex quo creata sunt in quae potestas ejus ageret ex eo factus est dictus DOMINVS for by the word Dominus do the Latines render
or bad The ill successe that followed the young Prodigals journey was no part of his fathers purpose of his will and absolute decree much lesse no nor so much as to be ascribed unto his permission which was but causa sine qua non as the Schooles call it if it were so much Only it gave the Father such an opportunity as Adams fall did GOD in the present case of entertaining him with joy at his coming home and killing the faâ—ted Calfe for his better welcome T is true that God to whose eternal eye all things are present and fore-seen as if done already did perfectly fore-know to what unhappy end this poor man would come how far he would abuse that natural liberty wherewith he had endowed him at his first Creation Praescivit peccaturum sed non praedestinavit ad peccatum said Fulgentius truly And upon this fore-knowledge what would follow on it he did withall provide such a soveraign remedy as should restore collapsed man to his primitive hopes of living in Gods fear departing hence in his favour and coming through faith in Christ unto life eternall if he were not wanting to himself in the Application For this is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that CHRIST IESVS came into the World to save sinners of whom every man may say as St. Paul once did that he is the chief And it is as worthy of acceptance which came though from the same Spirit from a worthier person that God so loved the World the whole world of mankinde that He sent his only begouten Son into the World to the intent that whosoever did believe in him should live though he dyed and whosoever liveth and believeth in him should not die for ever but have as in another place everlasting life But what it is to believe in him and what a Christian man is bound to believe of him as it is all the subject of the six next Articles so must it be the argument of another book this touching our belief in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and all things therein with most of the material points which depend upon it beginning now to draw to a final period Chap. VI. What Faith it was which was required for Justification before and under the Law Of the knowledge which the Patriarchs and Prophets had touching Christ to come Touching the Sacrifices of the Jews the Salvation of the Gentiles and the Justifying power of Faith ANd yet before we pass to the following Articles there are some points to be disputed in reference to the several estates of the Church of God as it stood heretofore under the Law and since under the Gospel the influence which Faith had in their justification and the condition of those people which were Aliens to the law of Moses before Christs coming in the flesh For being that the Patriarchs before the time of Moses and those holy men of God that lived after him till the coming of Christ had not so clear and explicite a knowledge of the particulars of the Creed which concern our Saviour or the condition of the holy Catholick Church and the Members of it as hath been since revealed in the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles it cannot be supposed that they should have universally the same object of faith which we Christians have or were bound to believe all those things distinctly touching Christ our Saviour and the benefits by him redounding to the sons of men which all Christians must believe if they will be saved And then considering that there is almost nothing contained in Scripture touching God the Father his Divine Power and Attributes the making and government of the World and all things therein which was to be believed by those of the line of Abraham but what hath been avowed and testified by the learned Gentiles it will not be unworthy of our disquisition to see wherein the differences and advantages lay which the Patriarchs and those of Iudah had above the Nations or whether the same light of truth did not shine on both through divers Mediums for the better fitting and preparing of both people to receive the Gospel In sifting and discussing of which principal points we shall consider what it is in faith it self which is said to justifie of what effect the Sacrifices both before and under the Law were to the satisfying of Gods wrath and expiating of the sins of the people by whom they were offered to the Lord and the relation which they had to the death of Christ the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world and finally what is to be conceived of those eminent men amongst the Gentiles who not extinguishing that light of nature which was planted in them but regulating all their actions by the beams thereof came to be very eminent in all kindes of learning and in the exercise of Iustice Temperance Mercy Fortitude and other Acts of Moral vertue Some other things will fall in incidently on the by which need not be presented in this general view And the mature consideration of all these particulars I have reserved unto this place that being situate in the midst between the Faith we have in God the Father Almighty and the belief required of us in his Son Christ Iesus it may either serve for an Appendix to the former part or a Preamble to the second or be in stead of a bond or ligament for knitting all the joints of this body together in the stronger coherence of discourse And first Faith being as appeareth by the definition before delivered a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed we cannot but conceive in reason that the Object of it is to be commensurable to the proportion and degree of the Revelation For as our Saviour said in another case that to whom much is given of him the more shall be required so may we also say in this that to whom more divine supernatural truths have been revealed of him there is a greater measure of belief expected Till the unhappy fall of Adam there was no faith required but in God alone For without faith it is impossible to please God saith the Apostle which Adam by the Law of his Creation was obliged to endeavour Nor could he come before the Lord or seek for the continuance of his grace and favours had he not first been fitted and prepared by faith For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him as in the same text saith the same Apostle Which words we may not understand of Faith in Christ at least not primarily with respect to Adam of whom such faith was not required in the state of Innocency for where there was no sin there was no need of a Saviour but only of a faith in Almighty God the stedfast confession and acknowledgement of whose beeing and bounty was to speak
and his wretched Idols the honour which was due to GOD did in short time possesse them with this opinion that if they did desire to make even with God and offer him such compensation as might indeed absolve them from all their crimes they should no longer think to satisfie by the bloud of beasts who in the dignity of their creation sell far short of men and therefore could not be a sufficient sacrifice to make atonement for their sins As man had sinned and by his sins deserved the punishment of death so was it requisite that by the bloud of men they should make atonement and turne away the anger of the heavenly powers This was the ground they went upon for those humane sacrifices Pro vita hominum nisi vita hominum reddatur non posse deorum immortalium numen placari as Caesar telleth us of the Gauls But the Gauls were not the first authors of this wretched custome The Canaanites the progeny of accursed Cham did first give way to those suggestions of the Devil offering their children unto Moloch which whether it were Saturn as the learned think or some Idol more peculiar to that people we dispute not now that by the fruit of their bodies they might satisfie for the sins of their souls Of these oblations unto Moloch we finde much mention in the Scripture as Levit. 18.20 20.2 3 4. 1 King 11.7 and in other places the Israelites being too apt to adore the Idols of the nations whom they had subdued and more inclined to this then to any other From the Phoenicians or the Canaanites for Canaan was accounted for a part of Phoenicia did the Carthaginians bring this barbarous and inhumane ceremony into Africk with them the Carthaginians being a Phoenician or Tyrian Colonie Of whom the Historian doth informe us Homines ut victimas immolabant et impuberes Aris admovebant pacem Deorum sanguine eorum exposcentes that they offered men in sacrifice and brought young youths unto the Altars that by their bloud they might appease and satisfie the offended Gods Which as it was their generall practise so at one time on a particular occasion which Lactantius speaks of it they sacrificed no fewer then two hundred children of their chief nobility The suddain growth and spreading of this damnable custome he that lists to see let him consult Lactantius de falsa Rel. l. 1. c. 21. Arnobius adv Gentes Tertullian and Minutius Felix in their Apologeticks I will no more defile my pen with these Barbarities Nor had I said so much on this horrid Argument but only to declare the ground it was built upon which was not as we see in reference to that blessed Sacrifice which Christ was afterwards to make for the sins of mankind whereof the Canaanites as they had no notice so had they took but little consideration but only thrust upon them by the Devil himself who thought he could not binde them surer by his own commands or alienate them more from God then by such Oblations But this was only in some Countries and to some of their Gods who were it seems more hard to please then the gentler Deities not to be charged on all particular men whatever though possibly some of all sorts of men had been guilty of it For certainly there were some amongst them as before was said who by conforming of their lives to the Law of nature and cherishing those heavenly motions which they felt within them not only came unto the knowledge of the nature of God and did abominate as much as any those inhumane sacrifices but did attain to such an eminent height of all moral vertues that greater was not to be found amongst those of Israel The Justice of Aristides the magnanimity of Alexander the temperance of Cato the fortitude of Iulius and the prudence of Augustus Caesar are not easily paralleled whether we look into the times before them or the ages following not to insist on all particular instances of a vertuous life which the Heroes of those times have given us in their lives and actions And this they did not at a venture or by special chance as a blind man may hit the marke which he doth not aime at but on such Principles of knowledge and grounds of wisdome as brought them to a perfect habit of most vertuous actions For knowing as they did that God was infinitely good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-goodness as they sometimes called him they could not but conceive withall as indeed they did that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only profitable good the most desirable felicity and therefore that they were not capable of a greater happiness quam conjungi et assimilari Deo then to be united with and made like to GOD which is as Plato saith the height and full accomplishment of all Beatitude Iamblichus one of Platos Schoole gives it for a rule Quicquid faciendum aut non faciendum tibi proponis ad Divinitatem referri debet that whatsoever we propose unto our selves either to be done or left undone is to have reference to the Godhead our life saith he being given us for no other end quam ut Deum sequamur then to conform our selves unto the wisdome and vertue of God Plotinus another of Platos scholars saith as much as he first making God to be the supreme end of the life of man and then inferring thereupon that he who is possessed of that infinite good Non tantum conjungitur Deo sed fit quasi Deus not only is united to God but in some sort a God himself Nor was this opinion of the Platonists only but also of the Peripateticks of the school of Aristotle For Aristotle himself rejecting all conceits of mans summum bonum which some had placed in honours and some in pleasures others more probably on spiritual and divine Contemplations doth for his part affix it wholly to an active life directed by the rules of vertue And Syrianus writing upon Aristotles Ethicks where this point is handled saith that the end proposed by men in a vertuous life is to be reconciled to and conjoyned with God Vt Deo conjungamur et conciliemur rursus as my Author hath it In this the Stoicks did agree also with those other Philosophers as appears by this of Epictetus Non pudet nos vitam inhonestam ducere et cedere adversis Is it not a great shame saith he for men to lead a lewd and dishonest life and to give way to adverse fortune Why so Dei agnati sumus c. because we are of kin unto God himself from him we came and therefore let us do our best to return to him again Galen for the Physitians goes as far as any who telleth us that our soul coming down from Heaven and being capable of knowledge doth evermore aspire unto Heaven again et ad substantiam similem et congenerem sibi to joyne it self with
perhaps it will be said that though the things they did were good ex genere objecto suo good in their kinde and in relation unto those who received good by them as were the feeding of the hungry cloathing of the naked and such like yet being looked upon ex fine circumstantiis with reference to the end for which and the circumstances with which they were done they were both vitious in themselves and utterly unpleasing in the sight of God And to this end this passage is alleadged out of St. Augustines works Non officiis sed finibus virtutes a vitiis discernendas that vertues are distinguished from vices not so much by the work it self as the end proposed This we acknowledge to be true but we say withall that if the works of faithful men be so pryed into it cannot be but that there will be either some obliquity in the action or misapplication in the end there being no just action so accompanyed with all manner of circumstances as to abide the judgement of Almighty God if he should be extreme to mark what is done amiss Both Protestants and Papists do agree in this although the last doe speak more favourably of the works of regenerate persons then the former do The Protestants maintain that there is no work done by a godly man in the state of grace but that there is some sinfulness which doth cleave unto it and in part doth blemish it But not so far as to make it lose the name of a good work or to put the doer of it into the state of damnation by reason that God for Christs sake forgives the imperfections and accepts that which is good And for the Papists it is thus resolved by Andreas Vega one of the great sticklers in the Councel of Trent Ipsa etiam perfectorum opera a bonitate ipsa longe deficere qua deceret nos Deum colere c. i. e. the very works of the best men are much defective in that goodness wherewith we ought to worship serve and honor God because they are conjoyned with many imperfections whilest men live here neither are they so pure holy and fervent as the measure of divine goodness and bounty towards us doth require at our hands And thereupon he doth conclude that many good works are done by us without blot of sin Quae tamen si districte vellet Deus nobiscum agere injustitiae essent which notwithstanding if God should deal strictly with us would be counted wickedness So that if vertue must be vice and good works a sin because they fail in some of those many circumstances which are required unto the making of a work to be fully perfect it is not like to go ill with the Gentiles only but even with the most righteous of Gods faithful servants 'T is true indeed the Gentiles had not the assistance of Gods written Word to be a light unto their pathes and a lamp to their feet and that is one of the Prerogatives which the Israelites had for want whereof they could not come so generally to the knowledge of God nor walk so knowingly in the ways of his laws and precepts But then perhaps it may be said if one would undertake the part of an Advocate in it that God hath furnished them with some other means for the supplying of this want which wrought as powerfully on the affections of the learned Gentiles as did the letter of the law on the Vulgar Israelites To this head I refer their Politick laws and constitutions for punishing all violent and unlawful actions but principally the study of Philosophy by which they were not only restrained from all Criminal actions which came within the compass of their positive laws but had their affections so composed and their lusts so bridled as to advance them to an eminencie in all sorts of virtues not only doing all that their laws required but at some times more And to this purpose was the answer of the wise man Aristotle who being asked what benefit the study of Philosophy had brought unto him made this reply Vt ea facerem injussus quae plerique per legum metum faciunt that he thereby discharged those duties without any command which others were compelled to by the force of laws A second means whereby GOD might supply the defect of Scripture was the co-operating of his Grace with that light of Nature which is implanted naturally in the soul of man which light assisted by the influence of Preventing Grace was doubtless able to conduct them in the ways of vertue and make them do such things as were good and acceptable in the sight of God For if by Grace we understand as Greg. Ariminensis saith we may quod cunque Dei speciale adjutorium ad bene operandum every special help which God giveth unto us towards doing good we have no reason to conceive but that those Worthies of the Gentiles had such special helps or else they never had attained to such special eminence in all vertuous actions Though God restrained his written Word unto Israel only yet finde we not that he confined his Grace to so narrow a compass or that he could not give a portion of his holy Spirit unto whom he pleased Had it been so what had become of Iob of the land of Vz of Rahab a Canaanitish woman of Ruth a Moabite How had the Aethiopian Eunuch been invited to see Hierusalem or Cornelius the Centurion found such favour of God as to be warned in a Vision touching his salvation if God had given his Grace with respect of persons or thought no creature worthy of it but a Iew by Nation For my part I have no Commission to call any thing common or unclean that God hath cleansed or to shut the gates of Heaven against any of those that are renowned upon record for a vertuous life considering that I finde in Scripture that in every Nation be that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Nor can I think it a dishonour to Almighty God to be a rewarder of all those who seek him diligently according to that measure of faith and knowledge which is given unto them or that it is derogatory to the written Word that men of riper years should be saved without it in extraordinary cases and of special grace And I say men of riper years because I finde the case of children to be very different of whose salvation although born of Infidel parents some principal and leading men of the Reformation make no doubt at all of this opinion amongst others was Franciscus Iunius as grave and eminent a Divine as any which that Age offered and a great stickler against Arminius in the controversie of Predestination The passage you may see at large in his book de Natura gratia Num. 28. but the sum is this Omnino statuimus servatum iri c. He doubteth not but that many of
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
resurget qui inter impiorum manus occubuit that is to say with a sure Faith I do beleeve it was it seems a part of his Creed and with as great freedom I profess he both beleeved in his heart and confessed with his mouth that I shal rise again at the last day for as much as my Redeemer shall assuredly rise who is to be done to death by ungodly men And this is further to be noted in this Text of Scripture that we no sooner hear of a Creator in Moses than of a Redeemer in Iob no sooner of the death of mankind in Adam but of their restoring to life in Christ. And more than so that though Moses who wrot this was a Iew yet Iob who spake it was a Gentile not of the seed of Iacob though perhaps of Abrahams to shew that both the Iews and Gentiles as well the Gentiles as the Iews were to have their share in the resurrection of Christ Iesus and therefore in due time to expect their own I know that the Socinians Anabaptists and some other Sectaries who are no very good friends to the resurrection do otherwise interpret these words of Iob and will not have them meant of his resurrection but of his restitution to his former glories But for my part I must profess that if the Greek Catena and the authority of the Latine Fathers and the consent of all the Orthodox and learned Writers of these times were to be laid aside as incompetent Iudges I am not able to discern any thing from the Text or Context that the Holy Ghost intended them any other waies than to set forth Iobs constant faith in the resurrection the knowledge that he had of his Redemption from the jaws of death From Moses pass we to the Prophets to the Psalmist first Thou turnest man unto destruction and sayest Return ye children of men or come again ye children of men as the old Translation Thou turnest men unto destruction there we have their death he calls them to return again there is there resurrection And this appears yet further by the following words Thou carriest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep and if they be but as a sleep they shall be wakened in due time at the sounding of the last Trump without all peradventure I know indeed this Psalm doth bear the Title of the Prayer of Moses but whether made by him or by David or some other in his name is not yet resolved It is sufficient to this purpose that it passeth amongst Davids Psalms as a distinct and separate body from the works of Moses On forwards to Isaiah the Evangelical Prophet who seems to look on Christ as if gone before him Thy dead men saith he shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing yee that dwel in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead And parallel to this in another place When yee be old your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like herbs and then the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his Servants and his indignation towards his Enemies In both these Texts we find a Resurrection of the dead effected by the raising of the body of Christ and in some part with it a resurrection like to that of men which do wake from sleep like that of herbs which though they creep into the earth in the time of Winter shall again re-flourish in the Spring And in the last we have not onely a pure evidence for a resurrection but for the Day of Iudgement which shall follow on it wherein the righteous Judge shall distribute his rewards and punishments his hand of mercy towards his Servants but wrath and indignation upon all his Enemies St. Hierom so interpreteth the Prophets meaning and parallels this last place with another of the Prophet Daniel in which it is affirmed expresly that they which sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt Thereupon he doth thus infer Omnes igitur Martyres sancti viri qui pro Christo fuderunt sanguinem quorum tota vita fuit Martyrium resurgent evigilabunt atque laudabunt Deum Creatorem suum qui nunc habitant in pulvere de quibus in Daniele scriptum est c. Add to this rank of Proofs those several passages in which God calls himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob and the illation made from thence by our Lord and Saviour to prove the very point which we have in hand Concerning the resurrection of the dead have you not read saith he that which was spoken to you of God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Here is authority enough we need seek no further Authority enough to perswade us this that the Patriarchs before the coming of our Saviour were certain of their resurrection to eternal life that they were well assured of this that God would recompence their faith and reward their piety by making death the way onely to a greater happiness And this we finde to be a truth so generally received amongst the Iews even in the most declining time of their Church and State that none but the Sadduces who also did deny the being of Angels and of Spirits also did make question of it who for this cause are branded every where in the Gospel with this mark upon them that they said there is no resurrection as Mat. 22.23 Mark 12.19 Luk. 20 27. Act. 23.8 just as it followeth on the mention of Ieroboham the son of Nebat that he made Israel to sin Now to these Positive Texts of Scripture and such as have their being and foundation onely in the Old Testament we will adde such as are presented in the New and those not barely positive and peremptory as the rest before but such as seem to have a great measure of rationality in them and to be logically inferred upon very sound premises And of this kind we meet with divers in St. Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians amongst whom many doubtful souls had called in question the resurrection of the body To satisfie their doubts and remove their scruples the Apostle grounds himself on this that CHRIST was risen If CHRIST be risen from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead for if there be no resurrection of the dead then is CHRIST not risen Considering therefore we have proved that CHRIST is risen and that by the testimony of no fewer than five hundred brethren at one time besides the other arguments which have been and may be further alleged to confirm that truth it followeth by the reason of the Apostle that there is a