bloud as understanding themselves aright all Christians must needs do Unlesse wee can maintain that wee receive the body and blood of Christ not onely when wee receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist but also by receiving it there is no cause why our Lord should say This is my body this is bloud when hee delivered onely the sign of it to good and bad and therefore not out of any consideration of the quality of them that received it And what a grosse thing were it to say that our Savior took such care to leave his Church by the act of his last will a legacy which imports no more than that which they might at all times bestow upon themselves And let mee know whether the Church could not devise signes enow to renew the memory of Christs death or if that be likewise included to expresse their profession also of dying with Christ by bearing his Crosse if our Lords intent had been no more than to appoint a Ceremony that might serve to commemorate our Lords death or to expresse our own profession of conformity to the same For certainly they who make no more of it whom I said wee may therefore properly call Sacramentaries cannot assign any further effect of Gods grace for which it may have been instituted and yet make it a meer sign of Christs death or of our own profession to dy with Christ or for Christ But if I allow them that make it more than such a sign to have departed from a pessilent conceit and utterly destructive to Christianity I cannot allow them to speak things consequent to their own position when they will not have these words to signifie that the elements are the body and bloud of Christ when they are received but become so upon being received with living faith which will allow no more of the body and bloud of Christ to be in the Sacrament than out of it For the act of living faith importeth the eating and drinking of the flesh and bloud of Christ no lesse without the Sacrament than in it Certainly it is no such abstruse consequence no such farr fetched argument to inferr If this is my body this is my bloud signifies no more than this is the sign of my body and bloud then is the Sacrament of the Eucharist a meer sign of the body and bloud of Christ without any promise of spiritual grace Seeing that being now a Sacrament by being become a Sacrament it is become no more than a sign of the body and bloud of Christ which though a living faith spiritually eateth and drinketh when it receives the Sacrament yet should it have done no lesse without receiving the same I will here allege the discourse of our Lord to them that followed him to Capernaum John VI. 26-63 upon occasion of having been fed by the miracle of five loaves and a few little fishes Supposing that which any man of common sense must grant that it signifies no more than they that heard it could understand by it and that the Sacrament of the Eucharist not being then ordained they could not understand that hee spake of it but ought to understand him to speak of believing the Gospel and becoming Christians under the allegory of eating his flesh and drinking his bloud But when the Eucharist was instituted the correspondence of the ceremony thereof with the allegory which here hee discourseth is evidence enough that as well the promise which hee tendreth as the duty which hee requireth have their effect and accomplishment in and by the receiving of it I must here call you to minde that which I said of the Sacrament of Baptisme that when our Lord discoursed with Nicodemus of regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost John III. not having yet instituted the Sacrament of Baptisme in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost nor declared the promise of giving the Holy Ghost to them that should receive the same it must needs be thought that hee made way thereby to the introducing of that Ordinance the condition and promise whereof hee meant by the processe of his own and his Apostles doctrine further to limit and determine In like maner I must here insist and suppose that hee speaks not here immediately of eating and drinking his flesh and bloud in the Eucharist which his hearers could not then fore-tell that hee meant to ordain but that the action thereof being instituted with such correspondence to this discourse the intent of it may be and is to be argued from the same Now I have showed in due place that the sayings and doings of our Lord in the Gospel are mystical to signifie his kingdome of Glory to the which hee bringeth us through his kingdome of Grace So that when our Savior fed that great multitude with the loaves and the fishes which hee multiplied by miracle to the intent that they might not faint in following him and his doctrine it is manifest that hee intimateth thereby a promise of Grace to sustain us in our travail here till wee come to our Countrey of the Land of Promise When therefore hee proposeth the theme of this discourse saying Yee seek mee not because yee have seen miracles which serve to recommend my doctrine but because yee have eaten of the loaves and were filled Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for that which indures to life everlasting hee showes two things First that his flesh and bloud sustain us in our pilgrimage here because hee showes the Manna which the Fathers lived on in the Wildernesse to be a figure of it Secondly that they bring us to immortality and everlasting life in the world to come by expounding the figure to consist in this that as they were maintained by manna till they died so his new Israelites by his flesh and bloud by eating his flesh and drinking his bloud which hee was giving for the life of the world never to dye Now wherein the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud consisteth hee showes by his answer to their question upon this Warning them to work for the meat that lasts unto everlasting life which hee tenders and not for that which perisheth The question is What shall wee do to work Gods works And the answer The work of God is this to believe in him whom hee hath sent I have showed in due place that the condition which makes the promises of the Gospel due is oâ—r Christianity to wit to professe the faith of Christ faithfully that is not in vain Therefore when our Lord saith The work of God is this To believe on him whom hee hath sent hee means this fidelity in professing Christianity For indeed who can imagine otherwise that hee should call the act of believing in Christ that work of God which Christ came to teach Gods people Hee then that considers the death of Christ that is to say the crucifying of his flesh and the pouring out of his bloud with that faith which supposes all
his Crosse faithfully resolve to undertake it do by the Spirit eat his flesh and drink his bloud Therefore when in correspondence hereunto hee pretends to institute the Sacrament of the Eucharist that they who eat his flesh and drink his bloud in that Sacrament may eat and drink the same spiritually as unlesse they crucifie him again they cannot chuse but do it behoves indeed that hee procure the flesh and bloud of Christ to be there by the operation of that Spirit which framed them for an habitation to it self in the womb of the Virgin that so the receiving of his flesh and bloud may be the means of conveying his Spirit But how is it requisite that they be there in bodily substance as if the mystical presence of them were not a sufficient means to convey his Spirit which we see is conveyed by the meer spiritual consideration and resolution of a lively and effectual faith S. Paul writes thus to the Corinthians I would not that you should be ignorant Brethren how that all our Fathers did eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink For they drank of the spiritual rock that went with them Now that rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 1 3 4. The meat and drink of the Fathers in the wilderness can no otherwise be understood to be spiritual then as I have proved the Law of Moses to be spiritual That is as intimating spiritual promises it intimates a contract for spiritual obedience So S. Pauls argument holds If they who were sustained by God in their travel to the Land of Promise not keeping their Covenant with God fell in the wildernesse Then shall it not serve our turn that being baptized wee are fed by the Eucharist to everlasting life if wee perform not that which by our Baptism wee undertake The Rock then and the Mâ—nnâ— were spiritual meat and drink because they signified the flesh and the bloud of Christ crucified for us Which who so believes as thereupon to undertake Christianity our Lord when hee had not yet instituted the Eucharist promiseth that hee shall be nourished by his flesh and bloud to life everlasting The effect of which promise all Christians find that by the assistance of his Spirit overcome the world in approving themselves Christians When our Lord annexed the promise of his Spirit to his Baptisme and Eucharist by instituting those Sacraments hee tied the spiritual eating and drinking of his body and bloud to the Sacramental in respect of all them whom the affirmative Precepts of using those Sacraments should oblige Christ then was the food and the drink of them who attained Salvation under Moses Law because by the faith of Christ to be crucified they were saved as wee by the faith of Christ crucified But to follow God in hope of Salvation by Christ to come is not the same as to undertake that Christianity which by his coming hee hath taught us The signs of good things to coâ—â—â—ed onely those that were led by the promise of them The rest found by them onely the nourishment of their bodies in their travel to the Land of promise But when our Lord having promised his flesh and bloud for food to those Souls that should conform themselves to his Crosse instituteth the Eucharist and confineth the spiritual eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud to it so far as the precept thereof obligeth Shall hee not be understood to promise his body and bloud by that Sacrament without which hee will not grant it to those that are tied to the Sacrament and neglect it The presence of his body and bloud in the Sacrament is that which makes good the promise of his body and bloud made before the instituting of the Sacrament to them who are obliged to use the Sacrament by the institution of it CHAP. III. That the presence of Christs body in the Eucharist depends not upon the living Faith of him that receives but upon the true profession of Christianity in the Church that celebrates The Scriptures that are alleged for the dependence of it upon the communication of the properties They conclude not the sense of them by whom they are alleged How the Scripture confineth the flesh of Christ to the Heavens IF these things be true it will be requisite that wee acknowledge a change to be wrought in the Elements by the consecration of them into the Sacrament For how should they come to be that which they were not before to wit the body and bloud of Christ without any change And in regard of this change the Elements are no more called by the name of their nature and kind after the consecration but by the name of that which they are become Not as if the substance thereof were abolished but because it remains no more considerable to Christians who do not nor are to look upon this Sacrament with any account of what it may be to the nourishment of their bodies by the nature of the Elements but what it may be to the nourishment of their Souls by the Spirit of God assisting in and with his flesh mystically present in it But this change consisting in the assistance of the Holy Ghost which makes the Elements in which it dwells the body and bloud of Christ it is not necessary that wee acknowledge the bodily substance of them to be any way abolished Nay as I am perswaded that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist cannot be better expressed than by that term which the Council of Trent useth calling it a Sacrament and saying that the flesh and bloud of Christ is Sacramentally there So there is nothing more demonstrative to mee that no such thing as the abolishing of the Elements is revealed by the Scriptures than that the sense of them is so fully satisfied by this term So that the anathema which it decreeth against them that do not believe them to be abolished can by no means be grounded upon the Scriptures Nor do I think the term any lesse fit or serviceable because it serves them to signifie the Local presence of Christs body and bloud under the dimensions of the Elements the substance of them being gone For I shall not be obliged to grant that the Sacrament of Christs body and blood can properly be understood supposing the sign and the thing signified to be both the same subject the dimensions of the Elements being become the dimensions of Christs body and bloud and by the means of them all the bodily accidents of the Elements subsisting in the same And therefore the Sacramental presence of Christs body and bloud cannot properly be maintained unlesse acknowledging the true being and presence of the thing signified wee acknowledge also the sign to remain But if a man demand further how I understand the body and bloud of Christ to be present in or with or under the Elements when I say they are in and with and under them as in and with and under a
world And truly no more than this can be thought requisite to the purpose of the whole Prophesie of incouraging them to continue constant in the profession of Christianity notwithstanding all persecutions as foreknowing the issue Now hee that continues constant in Christianity and never knew this Prophesie shall want nothing necessary to his salvation though hee want so nething very effectual to the having of that which is necessary To wit of perseverance in Christianity The intent of this Prophesie being to perswade them to it Which is enough to show any man a difference between the right understanding of this Prophesie and any part of the Rule of Faith As for the custome of giving the Eucharist to Infants so soon as they were baptized I answer that the evidence which I will give you that it was never used out of an opinion of necessity to Salvation as the Baptisme of Infants was seemeth to be an exception sufficient against the universal use of it as supposed to come from the Apostles Hee that will shew mee any Writer of the Church by whose testimony it may be presumed that the Church did not baptize Infants out of an opinion that they could not be saved without it I speak not now of the truth of this opinion but onely of the point of fact whatsoever may be argued from thence by virtue of the premises I will yield him that the same Writer did believe that the giving of the Eucharist to Infants upon their Baptisme was commanded by the Apostles I acknowledge it is the opinion of Tertullian for which there is no mark upon him as ever a whit the lesse Catholick that it was not expedient to baptize Infants because of the danger of years under discretion to seduce them from the fulfilling of their profession before they could throughly understand what it imported But I deny that this was because he or any body then believed that they could go out of the world unbaptised and yet be saved For when the vigilance of Parents and the diligence of all might assure them not to fail of Baptism in case of necessity it is no marvail if the reason alledged might move men to defer it to the years of manhood beleeving no lesse the necessity of it Now in the writings of Fulgentius a worthy African Prelate there is extant a little piece in answer to a Letter of Ferrandus a Deacon of his it seems about a certain Moore who being converted and having divers times made profession of Christianity as the custome of the Church then required after that being taken sick was baptized without being able by speaking to make the like profession as the rule required all at their baptism to make Upon other considerations the Letter desires resolution of the salvation of this Moore But upon this also because he survived not to receive the Eucharist which is clearly answered in the affirmative upon as good reasons of Scripture as a good Christian can desire Which is without exception to show that they had not that opinion of the necessity of the Eucharist as of Baptism sufficient to argue a severall beginning of observing them both And truly seeing it is granted on all hands that it is no inconvenience in Christianity that the Church or any part of it mistake the true meaning of some Scriptures the alledging of our Lords words Vnless yee eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drink his blood yee have not life in you Joh. VI. 53. seems to argue that this came to be an order from some new act of the Church or part of it rather then that it was practised as coming from the Apostles Whereunto if we add that which here follows though it appear chiefly by S. Cyprian de lapsis to have been frequented in Africk though it were practised in the Western and Eastern Church yet perhaps it will appear to comeshort of S. Austins rule of discerning what comes from the Apostles as affording appearance that it was neither Original nor Catholick as for how prejudiciall this is not the place to determine it The words of Innocent I Pope out of which it is commonly taken for granted that this custome was in use at Rome are these Epist XCIII Apud Augustinum Illud verò quod eos vestra fraternitas asserit praedicare parvulos aeternae vitae praemiis etiam sine baptismatis gratiâ posse donari perfatuum est Nisi enim manducaverint carnem filii homins biberint sanguinem ejus non habebunt vitam in â—semetipsis But that which your brotherhood affirms that they publish that Infants may have the reward of eternal life given them even without the grace of baptism is very foolish For unlesse they eat the flesh of the Sonne of man and drink his blood they have not life in themselves Where it is plain that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ which he makes necessary to salvation is that which consists in being baptized but of giving them the Eucharist not a word more then this The same fense concerning the eating of the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ in and by baptisme and that onely necessary to salvation S. Austine also most manifestly delivers in a passage alledged by Gratain de Consecrat dist 2 Cap. Quia passus est dominus out of a certain Homily de infantibus which Bede also hath in 1 ad Cor. X. Nulli est aliquatenus dubitandum unumquemque sidelium Corporis sanguinis Dominici tunc esse participem quando in baptismate membrum efficitur Christi nec alienari ab illius panis calicisque consortio etiamsi antequam panem illum comedat calicemque bibat de hoc seculo migraverit in unitate Corporis Christi constitutus No man is any way to doubt that every believer then becomes partaker of the body and blood of Christ when he is made a member of Christ by baptism Nor does he become a stranger to the communion of that bread and cup though before eat that bread and drink that cup he goes out of the world estated in the unity of Christs body And thus he expounds also the eating of Christs flesh and drinking his blood de peccatorum meritis remis III. 4. And so he is likewise there to be understood Cap. XX. And to this purpose all those passages of his are in force whereby he requireth nothing but Baptisme to the salvation of Infants And in this sense Hypognost ad Art V. Quomodo vitam regni coelorum promittitis parvulis non renatis ex aqnâ spiritu non cibatis carne atque non potatis sanguine Christi qui fusus est in remissionem peccatorum Ecce non baptizatus vitali etiam cibo poculoque privatus dividitur à regno coelornm ubi fons viventium permanet Christus How do ye Pelagians promise little ones not born again of water and the spirit noâ— fed with the flesh nor drenched with the blood of
are justified before God But the inward and Spirituall observation of them at least the purpose and intention of it as it depends upon the grace of Christ which the Gospel publisheth so must it necessarily be included in that faith which in opposition to the works of the Law qualifies Christians for those promises which the Gospel tendereth But that which must remove all doubt of the Apostles meaning in this point must be the removing that difficulty which held the Jewes then and still holds them in the opinion of obtaining righteousnesse and salvation by the Law For certainely could S. Paul have perswaded them that the ancient Fathers from the beginning of whose salvation theyh could not doubt though under the Law yet obtained not salvation by the law but by the Gospel it had been an easie thing for him to have perswaded them to it The Apostles intent therefore is to perswade them to that which because it was hard to perswade them to therefore they continued Jewes and refused to become Christians Now let us suppose that which I have premised that the Law expressely covenanteth onely for the worldly happinesse of that people in the land of promise requiring in lieu of it onely the outward and civil observation of the law But the summe of that outward observation thereof which is expressely covenanted for consisting in the worship of one God whose providence in the particular actions of his creatures it presupposeth maintaining also a Tradition of the immortality of mans soul and of bringing all mens actions to account shall not all that are born under this Law stand necessarily convict that they owe this God that inward and spirituall obedience wherein his worship in Spirit and truth consisteth And seeing the same God tenders them terms of that reconcilement and friendship which maintaines them in that state of this world whereby they may be able and fit to render him such inward and spirituall obedience punctually making good the same to them Have they not reason enough to conclude that they shall not faile of his favour and grace so long as they proceed in a course of such obedience How much more having the examples of the ancient Fathers the doctrine which they delivered by word of mouth the instructions of the Prophets whom God raised up from time to time to assure them that this was that principall intent of Gods law though it made the least noise in it how much more I say must they needs stand convict both of their own obligation to tender God this obedience and also that tendring it they could not faile of Gods favour toward them even as to the life to come Though this cannot be said to be the Gospel of Christ because it containeth not the dispensation of his life in the flesh nor the expresse tender of the life to come in consideration of the profession of his Name and of living according to his doctrine Yet if it be truly said that the Gospel is implied and vailed in the Law either this signifies nothing or this is the thing that it signifies For upon this ground it is manifest that there was alwayes a twofold sense and effect of Moses Law and by consequence a twofold law By virtue of which difference whereas it is said Heb. VII 16. That the legall Priesthood stood by the law of a carnall precept And the precepts thereof are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said afore And the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of the red heifer are said to sanctifie to the cleansing of the flesh Heb. IX 10. 13. On the other side S. Paul saith that the Law is spirituall and that the commandment was given to life and therefore discovers concupiscence to be sinne Rom. VII 7 10 14. And S. Steven saith to his people of Moses that he received living oracles to give unto us Acts VII 38. And S. Paul of himself and his fellow Apostles delivering the doctrine of the Gospel Which things we speak saith he not with words taught by mans wisdome but taught by the holy Ghost comparing spiritual things with spiritual things 1 Cor. II. 13. that is the spiritual things which the Gospel expresseth with the same spiritual things implied by the law As I shewed afore that the same S. Pauls meaning is that the man of God is perfectly furnished to every good work when he is able to make the Scriptures of the Old Testament usefull to instruct reprove teach and comfort Christians in Christianity 2 Tim. III. 16 17. And truly whatsoever is said in the writings of the Apostles or the sayings of our Lord Christ supposing the difference between that which is Spirituall and that which is carnall or literall in the Scriptures must be expounded upon this ground of the Apostle that all the promises of God are yea in Christ and in him amen as S. Paul saith 2 Cor. I. 20. That is to say that the temporall promises of Moses law were intended for and fulfilled in the eternall promises of Christs Gospel For upon this ground there is a Jew according to the letter and a Jew according to the Spirit that is a Christian Rom. II. 28 29. There are sons according to the flesh and sons according to promise Rom. IX 8. and he that was born of the bondmaide was born according to the flesh and persecuted him that was born of the free woman according to the Spirit Gal. IV. 23. 29. For this reason it is said That the Fathers all eat the same spirituall meat and drank the same spirituall drink as we Christians do For they drank of the spirituall rock that followed them which rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 3 4. Because as Christianity was intended by the law so was Christ by the figures of the law neither is there any other reason to be given why the letter killeth but the Spirit quickneth as S. Paul affirmeth 2 Cor. III. 6. but this Because as the law in the literall sense provides no remedy for those that fall into Capitall crimes but leaves them to the justice of the law So the Spirituall sense of it was not available to bring men to life though available to convict them of sinne So that the Jews whom S. Paul pursueth as guilty of sinne by the conviction of the law stand noverthelesse convict that they were never able however convict of sin to attain righteousnesse by the help of it alone and therfore that they are no lesse obliged to have recourse to the Gospel and to imbrace Christianity then the Gentiles themselves who had no other pretense to avoid the judgement of God which the Gospel publisheth This is the intent of S. Paul in the first chapters of his Epistle to the Romanes which he recapitulates in this generall inference Rom. III. 9. We have pleaded before that Jewes and Gentiles both are under sinne And againe Rom. XI 32. God hath shut up all under disobedience that he might have
thus proceedeth Heb. IX 13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkled sanctify the polluted to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the everlasting spirit offered himself to God blamelesse cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God For though the Soul of Christ raised from the dead have immortality which is life indissoluable yet it hath not the virtue of it which is to be ascribed to the Spirit which raised him from the dead as vvell as us according to S. Paul Rom. VIII 10. 11. If Christ be in you though the body be dead because of sin yet the Spirit is life because of righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortall bodies also through his Spirit that dwelleth in you And whether the cleansing of sin can be ascribed to any gift bestowed upon the humane Soule of Christ as here they vvould have it ascribed to the immortality thereof let all the World judge I deny not indeed that Christ offers the Sacrifice of himself to the Father in the Heaven of Heavens as the Priest offered him the blood of those Sacrifices which were burnt without the Camp in that Holy of Holies But if I should deny that he offered himself to God vvhen he vvas crucified I might as vvell deny that the Priests offered therein Sacrifices to God when they killed them at the Altar and burnt them upon it So manifest so certain it is that the eternall Spirit by virtue whereof the blood of Christ being offered cleanseth sin was in Christ before his rising again And this is that which S. Paul saith 1 Tim. III. 16. And without crontroversie Great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit preached to the Gentiles seen of Angels believed of the World taken up into Glory It is sayd indeed that the Syriack the Vulgar Latine the Arabick and the Commentaries under S. Ambrose his name all want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and understand S. Paul to speak of the Gospel all the while And that the Gospel being sayd to be preached before it is sayd to be taken up into Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be no more then that it is exalted and glorified As if the order of the words did inforce that which is first sayd to have been first done or as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not signifie the taking of him up to God but the making of the Gospel famous Such violence will a prejudicate supposition offer even to Gods words rather then to quit an argument For to what sense can the Gospel be sayd to be manifested in the flesh because preached by the man Christ And suppose it may be sayd to be justified by the Spirit as Wisdome is justified by the Children of Wisdome Mat. XI 9. Luke VII 35. how much more proper is it to understand that God who appeared in the flesh should be sayd to be justified so to be in or by the Spirit the Works whereof shewed him so to be as afore Neither shall we need to make any greater doubt of the reading of those vvords of S. Paul Acts XX. 28. Look therefore to your selves and to the whole Flock ever which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath gotten with his blood Though the written Copy at S. James and the Syriack read here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because that the Church over which the Holy Ghost makes Bishops it bought with the blood of Christ is the same with that of the Apostle afore that the blood of Christ offered by the eternall Spirit cleanseth sin Neither is it so easie to avoyd the words of the Apostle Heb. XI 16. as some imagine For he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham he took Suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to challenge which is done by laying hands on that which we challenge Is the ground therefore void upon which he challenges these to life as his own that through feare of death were in bondage does not the whole Epistle argue that this is done by the offering of our flesh saith he not expresly that it behoved him to become like his Brethren in all things and that he is not ashamed to call them Brethren because he that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one Heb. XI 11. 14. 17. does Christ vindicate mankind or the Seed of Abraham For though this is written to the Hebrews alone yet it was written at such time as all christians understood that it belongs no less to the Gentiles Wherfore it is manifest that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might seem to signifie Christs challenging mankind or vindicating them into freedome from death as well here as elswhere is restrained by the Text and consequence of the Apostles discourse to signifie the assuming of mans nature by the means whereof he won mankind into freedome and maintains it in the same In fine when the Apostle sayth 1 Pet. I. 11. That the ancient Prophets did search against what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did declare and profess the sufferings to come upon Christ and the glories following the same He sheweth plainly that the same Spirit by which they spake by fits dwelt in the flesh of Christ for ever having once assumed it Of which Spirit the Evangelist sayth Marke XI 8. That Jesus knew by the Spirit how the Pharises reasoned of him within themselves For as I sayd afore that when it is sayd in the Old Testament that the word of God came to this or that Prophet an Angel appeared unto him speaking in the person of God vvho vvas therefore vvorshiped as God because the Word of God for vvhich being incarnate our Lord Jesus is for ever to be Worshiped as God vvas in that Angel at the present for that Service So I must further note here that upon such Word of God coming to a Prophet he became inspired that is possessed and acted by the Spirit of God for the time of that Service vvhich God by such a message imployed him about Not that all Prophets did receive such Word by such message from God before they spake those things which we believe still they spake by the Spirit of God For there is a great deal of appearance in the Scripture for that which the Jewes doctors deliver unto us Abarbanel by name alleging Maimoni for his saying upon Numb XI that there are inferior degrees of Prophesie which comes not by apparitions in which a man saw one that spake to him in Gods Name but sometimes meerly by inspiration of Gods Spirit inwardly moving either to act or to speak as
exalted Neither is it any difficulty that Christ could not be exalted to any eminence that should not be due to him as God in mans flesh and therefore that which was due to him as incarnate could not be due to his Crosse For the assumption of mans nature being a work of God and not of nature the state which our Lord Christ was to assume in our nature was not determinable any way but by the voluntary apointment of God and the Father who ordered it So that nothing hindred the effects of the holy Ghost dwelling in our Lord Christ without measure to be exercised in such measure and upon such reasons as God should appoint nor the declaration of the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelling in our flesh to depend upon his obedience and suffering in it The declaration hereof is that which S. Paul calls that name above all names at which all things bow which the giving of the holy Ghost to our Lord Christ to convince the world of it upon his exaltation is that which effecteth So saith S. Peter Acts II. 33 Being therefore exalted to the right hand of God and having received the promise of the holy Ghost of the Father he hath shâ—d forth this which ye now see and hear For it is true our Lord promised his disciples the holy Ghost John XIV 16 17 18. XVI 7 13 14 15. But this promise he received upon his advancement to the right hand of God being then and thereupon enabled to perform it And therefore it is that which our Lord signifies Mat. XXVIII 18. When he saies All power is given to me in heaven and upon earth Go ye therefore and make disciples all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost For the event shews that this power consists in sending the holy Ghost whereby the World was reduced to the obedience of the Christian Faith So that when our Lord saies Mat. XI 27. All things are delivered unto me by the Father he means the right to this power though limited in the exercise of it unto the time and state of his advancement which gave him right in it And though it be granted as I said afore that the generall terms of all power in heaven and earth and all things are to be understood of that which concerns his kingdome Yet seeing the ground thereof consisting in giving such measure oâ— the holy Ghost to his disciples as the advancement of his kingdom requires supposes the fullnesse thereof to dwell in his own flesh it imports no disparagement to the Godhead of Christ that the exercise thereof in our flesh is limited to that time and that state of his advancement which the Father appointeth S. Paul Ephes IV. 7-11 writeth thus Now to every one of us is grace given according to the measure of Gods gift To wit in which God pleased to give it Therefore he saith Going up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men Now that he ascended what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth He that descended is the same who also ascended farre above all heavens that he might fill all things And he hath given some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors Where it is manifest that he sets forth the ascension of our Lord in the nature of a triumph after the victory of his Crosse as Conquerors lead captives in triumph and give largesses to their subjects and souldiers And that which S. Paul terms giving gifts to men David out of whom it is quoted Psal LXVIII 18. calls receiving gifts for men Our Lord being his Fathers Generall and by his Commission conquering in his name Receiving therefore of him who gave him Commission the gifts which he bestowes at his triumph can any man doubt that he receives them in consideration of the discharge of that Commission which he undertook And these gifts are the meanes by which the Gospel convicteth the World and taketh effect in it The same appears by the conquest of Christs Crosse and those Scriptures that speak of it Col. II. 15. Disarming principalities and powers he made an open shew of them triumphing over them through it To wit his Crosse to which he had said just afore that he nailed the decrees of the Law that were against us Heb. II. 14. Seeing then that Sonnes partake of flesh and blood he also likewise did partake of the same that by death he might destroy him that had the power of death even the devil and free as many as through fear of death were all their life long subject unto bondage 1 Cor. XV. 54-57 When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall immortality then shall that come to passe which is written death is swallowed up in victory Death where is thy sting Hell where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to the Lord which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ How doth God grant victory by our Lord Jesus Christ are we not and he severall persons by nature the conflicts severall what doth this conquest contribute to ours but by inabling us to overcome How that but by the help of God granted in consideration of it How are slaves to the fear of death freed from death by Christs death but because there is no condemnation for them that live by the Spirit of life granted them in consideration of his death And what is the triumph of the Crosse over the powers of darknesse but this that by the meanes of it they are disabled to keep mankind prisoners as afore And wherein consists the condemning or the executing of sinne in the flesh which S. Paul spake of afore but in this that by the death of Christ we are inabled to put it to death The Parable of our Saviour is manifest in this that as the branches bear fruit by being in the vine that is of it so Christians by being in Christ John XV. 1-8 and that force by virtue whereof they bear it not being conveyed but by Gods appointment why God had appointed the merits and sufferings of Christ to go before this conveyance but to procure it is not reasonable Therefore our Lord John VIII 31 36. If ye abide in my word ye shall be my disciples indeed and shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free And againe Verily verily I say unto you that every man that sinneth is a slave to sinne Now the slave abideth not for ever in the house but the Sonne for ever If therefore the Sonne set you free you shall be free indeâ—d The Sonne of God sets free the slaves of sinne not as the Sonnes of men by the death of their Fathers becoming heirs and granting freedome to whom they please but by dying himself and by his death helping them to their freedome And S. Paul 1 Cor. II.
have not received any more the Spirit of bondage to fear but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby ye cry Abba that is Father For those that are led with the hope of temporall promises as all must necessarily be led under that Law which was established upon such must needs be subject to fear of disgrace with God whensoever their sinnes allowed not those promises to take place So then though they were then partakers of Gods Spirit as the Prophet Ezekiel showes us XXXVI 27. XXXVII 14. XXXIX 20. Yet in as much as it is called the Spirit of feare there is due argument that they were not pertaker of that peace and joy in the holy Ghost which Christians afterwards were moved with to indure all persecution for the maintainance of their profession But the Apostle pointeth us ouâ— further the sourse of this feare Heb. II. 14 15. When he saith that our Lord Christ tooke part â—f flesh and bloud that by death he might abolish him that had the power of death â—ven the devil and discharge all those that through the fear of death were all their life long subject unto bondage For so long as the promises of this life ended in death and the punishments thereof conducted to it they who knew that death came into the world upon the transgression of Adam could not think themselves discharged of Gods wrath so long as they found themselves liable to the debt of it No marvaile then if the Spirit of God were the Spirit of fear in them who saw not as yet the kingdom of death dissolved by the rising of our Lord Christ from the dead Another argument I make from the words of our Lord when the disciples were ready to demand fire from heaven upon those Samaritanes that received them not after the example of Elias Luke IX 52-56 Ye know not what Spirit ye are of saith our Lord For the Son of man came not to destroy but to save mens lives Whereby he declareth that because the Gospel bringeth salvation whereas the Law wrought wrath as S. Paul saith by tendring conviction of sinne without help to overcome it Rom. III. 20. IV. 15. VII 8-11 therefore God requireth under the Gospel of those that are his the Spirit that seeketh onely the good of them from whose hands they receive it not Whereas under the Law even his Prophets revenged themselves of their enemies by vengeance obtained at Gods hands And by this meanes we have an answer for that difficulty otherwise insoluble in our Lords words of John Baptist Mat. XI 11. Verily I say to you there never arose among those that are born of women one greater then John the Baptist But the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater then he For if God under the Law required not of his Prophets that perfection of Charity which the Gospel exacteth of all Christians if in those things which they said and did by Gods Spirit they have not expressed it well may it be said that the least of all those that belong to the Gospel in truth which here is called the kingdom of heaven is in a respect of so great concernment greater then the Prophets of the Old Testament As for the example of Jael the wife of Eber the Kenite who being in league with Jabin and Siâ—era for the good of Gods people knocked him on the head being retired into the protection of her house and is commended for it by the Spirit of God in Deborah the Prophetesse Jud. V. 17-21 VI. 24-28 The instance indeed is difficult enough And they that are so ready to condemne the fact of Judith in cutting off Holefernes by deceit and that by the example of her father Simeon that spoiled and destroyed the men of Shecheâ—â— contrary to covenant Judg. IX 2. Gen. XXXIV 23. are not advised how to come clear of it Suppose there was just cause of hostility between them a daughter of the house being dishonoured by the Prince of that people For among Gods people their chastity was alwayes as highly valued as it was little regarded among Idolaters Suppose that they condescended to be circumcised not for love to the true God but for hope of increasing their own power and riches by bringing the Israelites under their Government as there is appearance enough in the words of Hamor Gen. XXXIV 20 21 22. Yet a league being inacted upon such a pretense the zeal of Simeon and Levi in destroying those that were come under the covering of Gods wings so farre very well figures the zeal of the Jewes in persecuting the Apostles and not allowing the Gentiles any room of salvation by their own onely true God And therefore it is excellently observed by S. Jerome Tradit Hebr. in Genesin that the Scribes were of the tribe of Simeon as the Priests of the tribe of Levi in whom the curse of Jacob by the Spirit of God detesting their fact and prophesying the like to those their successors in the case of our Lord Christ and his Apostles I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel Gen. XLIX 5 6 7. was evidently fulfilled in the mysticall sense The tribe of Levi for gathering of Tithes and the tribe of Simeon for imployment of Clarkes and Notaries dwelling dispersed through all the tribes as Solomon Jarchi in his glosse upon the place literally expoundeth it But the case of Judeth is the case of a stratageme in professed hostility which whether Christianity allowe or not certainly no Law of nations disallowes And therefore though she propose to her self the zeale of Simeon and Levi for the honour of their people and the successe they had against their enemies yet if we understand her not to commend the meanes by which they brought it to passe to wit by violating the publick faith we shall not find her contradict the Spirit of God which by Jacob condemns them for it As for the â—act of Jael it is in vaine to alledge any mysticall sense to justify it as some would do unlesse we can undertake that there was no such thing done in the way of historicall truth which I suppose no man will be so madde as to do And therefore if any man will not believe that the Spirit of God in Deborah extolls onely the temporall benefit which the people of God reâ—ped by that fact of hers for which she was alwayes to be famous amongst them leaving to her self the justification of her conscience Let him seek a better answer But he who transgressing that Charity that is fundamentall in Christianity and therefore without which no Christian can obtaine the Spirit of God shall make her example a motive to that which he cannot justify even in Gods ancient people Though I allow him to mistake Christians for Pagans and Idolaters whose professed enmity to Gods people upon the account of Religion was the ground of that revenge which they were allowed then to pursue them with yet I must not allow him
impose upon all their Divines a necessity to maintain that there is no trope in the words This is my cup of the New Testament which so many of their Predecessors had granted because it could not be denied Which being granted must needs take place in This is my body by necessary consequence And surely the common principles of Grammar and Rhetorick will inforce it when they inform us that tropes are used as cloaths are either for necessity because there are more things much more conceptions than words to signifie them For thereupon necessity constrains to turn a word to signifie that which it was not at first intended to signifie and that is a trope Or for ornament to expresse a mans mind with more elegance Compare then our ordinary way of expressing the conceptions of the mind by words which is common to all Languages which our ordinary way of expressing the objects thereof to our minds by the said conceptions If a word be diverted to signifie that conception which it was not first imposed to signifie because there was no other at hand imposed to signifie the present conceit Logick and Grammar will make this a Trope though Rhetorick do not because it was not used for ornament but for the necessary clothing of a mans mind in terms intelligible The trial whereof is if the subject you speak of cannot truly be said to be the thing which is attributed to it As the bread and wine which our Lord blessed cannot be said to be his body and bloud For if the subject mater signified by the Scripture elsewhere require that the body and bloud of Christ be thought present then is the property of the terms to be abated so as they may serve to signifie that presence Voiding all dispute concerning the signification of words which those that hold Transubstantiation could never nor never will agree upon among themselves because it stands upon terms of art the use whereof no mans conceit can over-rule that which the necessity of our common Faith requireth being once secured as here For the reason being rendred why the Eucharist was instituted and why it is to be frequented notwithstanding that the Body and Bloud of Christ may always be eaten and drunk by a living Faith to wit because the reviving of our Christianity by receiving the Sacrament reviveth the promise of Christs body and bloud being the means to convay his Spirit it will not concern the purpose thereof that it should be present by Transubstantiation abolishing the nature of the Elements For though it hath been boldly said by those who dispute controversies That the body of Christ is really and substantially resident in and united to our bodies That Grace and Charity cooled by sinne are inflamed in the Soul by the body of Christ immediately touching our bodies That the seed of our resurrection is thereby sowed in our mortal bodies First none of this is true unlesse you understand it with the same abatement That the body of Christ received in the Sacrament by the body of him whose Soul hath living Faith in Christ is the seed of the life of grace and glory both to his soul and body Because otherwise a dead faith should receive the same Secondly none of this would hold if Transubstantiation be true because rendring the body of Christ invisibly present no mans body whatsoever can immediately touch it And therefore it is no marvel that so many excellent School Doctors have acknowledged that setting the sense of the Church aside of which I will say what shall be requisite by and by Transubstantiation cannot be concluded from the Scriptures Whose judgements I carry along with mee for the complement of that prejudice which I advance toward the right understanding of the sense of the Church To wit that whatsoever the present Church may have determined the Catholick Church did never understand that which the Scripture necessarily signifieth not Now let us see what our Lord sayes to his Disciples being scandalized at those things which I showed you that hee taught them in the Synagogue at Capernaum of attaining everlasting life by eating his flesh John VI. 58-63 Is this it which scandalizeth you saith hee What then if you see the Son of man ascend where hee was afore It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak to you are Spirit and Life The spiritual sense in which hee commandeth them to eat and drink his flesh and bloud is grounded upon that difference between the promises of the Law and the Gospel which I settled in the beginning For by virtue thereof that Manna which maintained them in the Desert till they died is the figure of his body and bloud that maintains us not to dye Whereupon S. Paul saith 1 Cor. III. 6. The Spirit quickeneth but the Leter killeth Not onely because the Law covenants nor for the world to come But also because it was no further the means to procure that righteousnesse which giveth life then the Spirit of Christ was intimated and furnished under the dispensation of it Whereupon S. Paul argues that the Jews have as much need of Christ as the Gentiles because the Law is not able to bring corrupt nature to righteousnesse Wherefore the reason why they were scandalized at this doctrine of our Lords was not meerly because it was difficult to understand hee having so plentifully expressed his meaning and inculcated it by often beating the same discourse there and otherwise made the condition of his Gospel intelligible to his Disciples but because it was hard to undergo importing the taking up of his Crosse as I have said For it is evident by common experience in the world how men find or how they plead their minds to be obstructed in the understanding of those spiritual maters which if they should grant their understandings to be convinced of there were no plea left them why they should not conform their lives and conversations to that light which themselves confesse they have received So that the scandal was the same that the rich man in the Gospel took when hee was told that besides keeping Gods Commandments one thing was wanting to part with all hee had and take up Christs Crosse to wit for the observing of his Commandments And this scandal hee intends to take away when hee referres them to his ascension into Heaven because then and from thence they were to expect the Holy Ghost to inable them to do that which the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud signifieth spiritually And his words hee therefore calleth Spirit and Life because they are the means to bring unto the communion of his Spirit wherein spiritual and everlasting life consisteth So that the flesh of Christ being exalted to the right hand of God and his Spirit which first made it self an habitation in his flesh being sent down to make him an habitation in the hearts of his people those who upon faithful consideration of
observable than in the Psalmes XVI 11. Thou shalt make known to mee the way of life Fulnesse of joyes is before thee and pleasures at thy right hand for ever more Is not this true in the sense of Ezekiah Esa XXXVII 10 21 First hee saith I shall see the Lord no more in the land of the living But upon the tender of the Prophet hee askes What is the signe that I shall go up into the house of the Lord Where the presence or right hand of God and the pleasure of it is the joy that his people have to worship him before the Ark of his presence Psal XVII 15. As for mee I will behold thy presence in righteousnesse when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse The same thing hee meanes and hee awakes when hee comes out of trouble to serve God Though I am to grant that I cannot think of any text in all the book of Psalms wherein the world to come is more literally exâ—ressed thâ—n in these words Psalm CXXVI 5 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Hee that now goeth on his way weeping shall doub lesse come again in joy and bring in his sheaves Whether at the returne from Captivity or in heaven let the beginning of the Psalme speak When the Lord turned again the Captivity of his people thâ—n were wee like men that dreame But there would be no end if I should go about to produce all those passages of the Psalmes wherein the same is to be observed Let us come now to the New Testament and produce first the sayings of the Apostles wherein my position is expresly affirmed especially in the Apostle to the Hebrewes VII 19. For the Law persited nothing but the bringing in of à better hope by which wee draw nigh unto God What is this better hope but that of the world to come so much better than the Land of Promise and what bringeth it in but the Gospel of Christ by whom alone sinners have accesse to God X. 19 Againe VIII 6. But now hee hath obtained a more excellent ministery by how much hee is the Mediator of a better Covenant which is inacted upon better promises IX 15. And therefore is â—ee the Mediator of a New Covenant that dâ—ath interceding for the redemption of those sins that were under the first Covenant those that are called may receive the promise of eternal life This more excellent Ministery is the Priesthood of Chriâ—t after the order of Melchisedeck To make way for which the whole Epistle ciâ—putâ—s that the Levitical Priesthood is removed as the interest of Christianity against the Law of Moses and the qâ—â—â—â—ion on foot required Now Melchisedek was â— Priest not by the law of a carnal precept but by the power of indissoluble life saith hee again Ebr. VII 19. What thiâ— carnal precept is you have IX 9-14 When hee saith that at present to wit under the Law gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot persit him that serveth as to the conscience consisting onely in meats and drinks and several washings and carnal justifications imposed till the time of Reforma 〈…〉 When Christ coming as a High Priest of good things to come and having fo 〈…〉 sage into heaven cleanses the conscience from dead works to serve the living â—â—d So that according to the Apostle the Sacrifices of the Law effecting onâ—ly a carnal right to the Congregation of Gods people the Sacrifice of Christ a right to heaven this right is tendred by the Gospel the other by the Law And thus S. Paul 2 Tim. I. 9 10. calleth the Gospel the Grace that was given us in Christ Jesus before the ages of the world but is manifested now by the appearance of our Lord Christ Jesus who hath destroyed death but declared life and incorruption by the Gospel For though the life to come was known and declared by the Prophets under the Law yet had they no expresse commission to ingage God for it till Christ rendred it as that which the Gospel covenants for on Gods part But I must not forget the occasion of that memorable passage quoted from Ebr. IX 9. from the discourse that went afore whereby the Apostle declares the whole course and constitution of the service of the Temple to be nothing else but a Parable of the present time to wit of Christianity As also the legal Tabernacle was nothing else but a Copy of the Heavenly by the pattern whereof hee observes that Moses was commanded to build it VIII 5 6. calling it therefore the Worldly Sanctuary IX 1. because it was a Copy as it were of this whole world in the several parts of it as Philo and Josephus have discoursed at large The most Holy place into which the High Priest entred once a year by the Apostles interpretation answereth to the highest heavens whereunto our Lord Christ is ascended whom therefore hee calleth the minister of the true Tabernacle which God and not man pitched VIII 7 And therefore the outward Sanctuary into which the Priests went once a day was intended to signifie the Starry heavens and the Court of the Tabernacle the World here below as Philo and Josephus declare justifying the reason why the Apostle calls it a Worldly Tabernacle This interpretation of the Ceremonial Law made by the Apostle in this place by that which it expresly affirmes concerning the twofold sense of that part of the Old Testament induces a consequence to the twofold sense of all the rest Inferring that if the mystical and allegorical sense of the Old Testament determine in the promises of the world to come then the literal and historical sense of the same determines in the promises of this life the allegory that is to say the reason of interpreting the Old Testament to that purpose consisting in nothing else but the correspondence between them I am not ignorant that some Divines have done their best to create one Controversie more to divide the Church by maintaining that there is but one sense of the Scriptures which the leter intends The things figured under the Old Testament and the figures of them there set down making but one and the same sense as a man and his picture are called the same man because without the things signified the signes are nothing at least in the nature of signes For my part I finde it a thing as easie as for every fool to tye knots which a wise man cannot loose to ingage in disputes in which men cannot yield to the truth while that ingagement continues But I finde no pretense why that sense of the Scriptures which they make one consisting of the figure and the thing figured should not be counted two one immediately the other principally intended Because the Gospel was a secret under the Law as S. Paul so many times layes down So that hee which knew the Law many times understood not the utmost intent of it under the Gospel Seeing then that this way of
goods of it depending upon the same it is manifest that whether the sacrifices which the Congregation was bound to offer of course upon ordinary or solemne dayes or those which purged legall impurities inferring onely incapacities of conversing which Gods people or those which were offered for sinnes properly so called or for acknowledgment of blessings received or whatsoever they were all were made an offered upon the generall claime to the land of promise and every mans share in it Neither is there any greater argument hereof then this That there is no sacrifice appointed by the Law for capitall offenses Num. XV. 23. 27. 28. 29. as those which the Law deprived of all interest in the land of promise all right to converse among Gods people Which what it signified to Christians you may see by the apostle Ebr. II. â— X. 28. to wit that they who stick not to the termes of their Christianity must expect so much the heavier vengeance at Gods hands And therefore when the Apostle argues Ebr. X. 4 It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goates should take away sinne The answer is given by the same Apostle Ebr. IX 13. If the blood of bulls and of goates and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the defiled sanctifieth to the purity of the â—lesh That it takes not away the guilt of sinne from the conscience which shuts heaven upon us but it takes away the incapacity of coming into the Tabernacle or conversing among Gods people or other forfeitures of legall promises And therefore I may conclude that the sacrifices which the Law was established with Ex. XX. 4 â—â— though not expiatory gave the people right to the land of promise to wit as done to solemnize their resolution of submitting to the Law For the people having beene Idolaters in Aegypt as we understand by the Prophet Ezek XX. 6. 7. and now submitting to a Covenant with God for the land of promise by obeying his Law are they not thereby accepted by God for heires of it This seemes indeede not to stand well with the opinion of the Fathers S. Chrysostome Theodoret and divers others the best expositers of the Scriptures that the ancient Church hath that the sacrifices of the Law were appointed by God not of his owne originall intent but upon occasion of their pronenesse to worship Idols as the Hethen did granting them those rites which they had knowne them serve their idols with so as they might be performed after that perticulare manner which he should injoyne as done to him alone And this they make the meaning of the Prophet when he saith that God commanded their Fathers nothing concerning Sacrifices at their coming out of Aegypt Jer. VII 22. because we see that in theire first coming out of Aegypt he treates with them about keeping his Lawes but not about sacrifices Ex. XV. 25. 26. But nothing hinders those sacrifices which were brought in occasionally to have been intended to figure the sacrifice of Christ As nothing hinders those sacrifices which from the beginning had been dâ—livered the Fathers as pleges of Gods love to them through Christ to be by the malice of the devill diverted and imployed to the service of Idols Certainly the Fathers before the floud sacrificed nothing but whole burnt offeringes because at that time they were not to eate of their sacrifices feeding onely on things that grew out of the earth Gen. I 28. For afterwards when he gave the sons of Noe license to eat flesh Noe offered peace offerings whereof part being burnt upon the Altare the rest went to the use of those that had sacrificed to â—east upon Gen. VIII 19. 20. IX 4. And those which Moses solemnized the Covenant of the Law with were holocausts and peace offerings Exod. XXIV 5. those which the Law makes properly explatory being afterwards introduced by the Law Now that all sacrifices are figures of Christ we have not onely the generall reason premised but particulare instances in the New Testament The Paschall Lambe 1 Cor. V. 7. The holocausts and peace offeringes which the Law was inacted with Exod. XXIV 5. Ebr. IX 18-22 together with all those the blood whereof purgeth by the Law The daily burnt offeringes of the Congregation Ebr. X. 1. for Socinus is ridiculously willfull to understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there once a yeare as if the speech were onely of the sacrifice for the day of atonement and by consequence all anniversary oblations And whereas Socinus observes that no lambe is appointed by the Law for a Propitiatory sacrifice I suppose when the Baptist saith John 1. 36. Behold the lambe of God that takes away the sinnes of the world when S. John saith Apoc. 1 5. To him that loved us and hath washt us from our sinnes in his bloude when the Martyrs say Apoc. V. 9. Thou wast killed and hast brought us to God out of every kinred and tribe and language and nation when the Apostle Apoc. XIII 8. mentions those whose names are not written in the booke of life of the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the world These I suppose knew well enough what creatures were sacrificed and yet declare that Christ was figured by Lambes to what purpose let their words argue It is manifest indeed that the Epistle to the Ebrues argues most upon the anniversary sacrifice of the day of atonement whereof one thing I must observe to him concerning the accomplishment of that which it figureth that as he maketh it together with all other sacrifices the bloud whereof is sprinkled upon the Arke to signify Christ crucified without the walls of Jerusalem So he maketh the sacrifice of Christ crucified signified thereby a pâ—ace offering for the Church to feed upon as we doe in the sacrament of the Eucharist though by the Jewes not to be touched because they killed it without the City as abominable Ebr. XIII 8-16 But Socinus will not have this sacrifice made at least not perfected nor Christ an High Preist till he entred into the heavens to present it to God as the High Priest into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood How then is he figured by those sacrifices the blood whereof is not caried within the vaile I grant the sacrifice of Christ is not done till Christ come to judgment as that was not done till the High Priest came out of the Holy of Holies declaring the accepting of it Levit XVI 18 19 20. But as he must Be an High Priest that sacrificed what God accepted so must Christ be High priest before he was killed And therefore a sacrifice as the Apostle expressely saith Ebr. X. 26 27 28. That having abolished sinne by the sacrifice of himselfe he shall appeare againe to the salvation of them that expect him As the High Priest out of the Holy of Holies The same is many wayes evident by Ebr. IX 14-20 For where Socinus will have Christ to offer himselfe unspotted to God by the â—ternall Spirit by presenting
himselfe in heaven immortall upon his resurrection free from the punishments of sinne which he had upon him here on earth you have seene that the everlasting Spirit is the Godhead of Christ And had the apostle meant the presentation which is now in doing he would have spoken in the time past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he that considers that all sacrifices were visited before they were killed whether legall or blemished which is called in one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must beleive that he is called here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as found spotlesse and so fit to be slaine And does he not make the death of Christ the Sacrifice when he makes the New Covenant in correspondence to the Old to be inacted by it It is true the same Apostle Ebr. IX 2 -6. showing the highest heavens to be the Holy of Holies where the Priest-hood of Christ is exercised addes That if he were upon earth he should not be a Priest there being other Priests to offer gifts according to the Law But this is onely to say that his Priest-hoode is not earthly who hath caried his owne bloude into the heavenly Tabernacle not medling with the sonnes of Levi or theire office For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is according to the Ebrew which for want of composition expresses adjectives by praepositions for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If â—e were upon earth signifies if he were an earthly Priest as those of the Leviticall Priesthood It is true he was to learne compassion for us by his sufferinges here Ebr. II. 17 18. V. 1 7 8. but might he not as well as other high Priests learn that compassion by sacrificing himself for us here which he hath for us to the end of all things In fine every sacrifice is a sacrifice from the time that it is consecrated to God as the Paschal Lamb from the tenth day of the moneth Ex. XII 2. thence it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 due and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift Or let any Jew say if it might not many ways become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reprobate before it came into the Holy of Holies because a sacrifice or Offering before And was not Christ consecrated when he was the Lamb of God Of himself he saies John XVII 19. For their sakes do I sanctify my self To wit to be a spotleâ—â—e sacrifice This is therefore no exception to the generall argument the force whereof consisteth in this That seeing it cannot be denied that the inheritance of the Land of Promise and each mans share in the goods and and rights of it is assigned the Jewes in consideration of their sacrifices to wit as the condition of that Covenant by which they were prescribed It must not be doubted that the inheritance of the kingdome of heaven is assigned to Christians by the Covenant of Grace in consideration of the obedience and sufferings of Christ which they figure But this is still more evident by the termes of ransome and price and buying attributed to the sacrifice of Christ The heathen had sacrifices that they called Lustralia and lustrare signifies to expiate among the Romanâ—s to wit By paying a price For Ennius translating into Latine a Greek Tragedy called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Homer where he speakes of Priamus ransoming Hectors corpes from Achilles intituled it Hectoris lustra Therefore it is the Latine of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies deliverance by paying a ransome In the words of the Prophet Daniel III. 57. IV. 24. Redeem thy sinnes by repentance and thy misdeeds by having mercy on the afflicted Many blame the vulgar Latine and would translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breake off But the words of Solomon Prov. XVI 6. By mercy and truth iniquity is redeemed showe that it is truly translated And having showed afore that such considerations do qualify us for remission of sinnes I may well argue from hence that the terme of ransome imports the consideration for which it is bestowed Wherefore let the sweet smelling sacrifice of Christ Ephes V. 2. be understood in the same notion as the good workes of Christians are called a sweet savour Phil. IV. 18. Ebr. XIII 16. Seeing Socinus will have it so Provided that it be understood that the sacrifice of Christ is accepted to purchase mankind the right of coming out of sinne into everlasting life the sacrifices of Christians to the quallifying of their persons for the benefit of the same To the same sense Prov. XIII 8. The ransome of a mans life is his wealth For literally a mans wealth is the saving of his life with the world that spares a mans life in consideration of his wealth or sets not upon him in regard of it which the Psalmist saith God does not Psal XLIX 6 7 8. mystically it is the same that Solomon said in the place afore quoted But when Solomon saith Prov. XXI 18. The wicked is a ransom for the upright and the sinner comes instead of the righteous And the Prophet Esa XLIII 3. I have given Egypt for thy ransom Cush and Seba instead of thee God signifyeth by a Parable that having imployed Sennacherib to execute his judgements upon those nations he had given him the Aegyptians and Aethiopians that he might spare the Israelites So he paies him his hier which discharges his own people of that which they had suffered otherwise So in the words of Otho Tacit. Hist IV. Hunc animum hanc virtutem vestram ultra periculis objicere nimis grande vitae meae pretium duco I hold it too great a price for my life to cast this courage and valour of yours any more upon dangers It is manifest that a ransome or price imports the consideration of that for which it is laid out The blood of his soludiers for their Generalls life And shall it be otherwise when the Apostle saith that Christs death intercedes for the redemption of those transgressions that remained under the Old Testament Ebr. IX 15 when S. Paul saith that the man Christ Jesus gave himself a ransome for all to be witnessed in due time 1 Tim. II. 5 6 When our Lord saith the same Mat. XX. 28. Mat. X. 45 and S. Paul againe 1 Cor. VI. 20. Ye are bought with a price glorify therefore God with your body and with your Spirit which are Gods And againe 1 Cor. VII 23. Ye are bought with a price Be not servants of men And of Christ Titus II. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works The same Apoc. V. â— Rom. III. 24. Gal. III. 13. Ephes I. 7. Acts XX. 28. Where I must needs call it meer impudence in Socinus to say that God redeemed his Church by his own bloud because Christs blood which it was redeemed with was as Christ Gods own It is not here to be denied that these terms may by figure of
Christ shed for reâ—â—ission of sins the life of the Kingdom of heaven See the unbaptized deprived also of the bread and cup of life is divided from the Kingdom of Heaven where Christ the well of life remains So it appears that the African Church had this custome but held it not necessary to salvation as Baptism But by Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis Cap. LII It appears to have been a custome of the Church when Hereticks were reconciled to the Church by confirmation to give their little ones the Eucharist presently upon it And Ordo Romanus de Baptismo prescribes it after the solemn Baptism before Easter which the French Capitulary I. 161. and Alcuinus also de divinis officiis provideth for And in the Eastern Church Dionysius in the end of the booke de Hierarchiâ Ecclesiasticâ In the mean time it is to be considered that there being no order that all should be baptized Infants nor at what age Whereupon St. Gregory Nazianzene Orat. XLII in Sanctum Bapt. advises at three or four years of age it cannot be said to have been a generall custome of the Church Nor that it could be originall from the Apostles because the solemn times of Baptisme at Easter and Whitsontide cannot be thought to have been settled till Christianity was grown very vulgar For as for those that were baptized upon particular occasions or in danger of death it cannot be thought that the Eucharist was celebrated for their purpose nor doth any example appear that it was ever brought them from the Church On the contrary when the times of Baptisme came to be disused because it was found to be for the best that all should be baptized Infants upon this occasion the receiving of the Eucharist came to be deferred as much longer then was fitting in my opinion then it was given too soon in S. Cyprians time according to the example related by him in his Book de Lapsis where the Child whom the Pagans had given bread dipped in the wine that had been consecrated to their Idols because too young to eat of the flesh of their sacrifices receives the Eucharist in the Church CHAP. XXIV Two sorts of means to resolve whatsoever is resolvable concerning the Scripture Upon what terms the Church may or is to determine controversies of Faith And what obligation that determination produceth Traditions of the Apostles oblige the present Church as the reasons of them continue or not Instances in our Lords Passeover and Eucharist Penance under the Apostles and afterwards S. Pauls vail eating blood and things offered to Idols The power of the Church in limiting these Traditions I May now proceed I conceive to resolve generally upon what principles any thing questionable in Christianity is determinable and as franckly as briefly do affirm that there are but two sorts of means to resolve us in any thing of that nature Tradition and Argument Authority and Reason History and Logick For whatsoever any Artist or Divine hath said of the great use of the languages in discovering the true meaning of the Original Scriptures by the ancient Translations as well as the Originalls which I allow as much as they demand they must give me leave to observe that seeing all languages are certain Lawes of speaking which have the force of signifying by being delivered to posterity upon agreement of their Predeoessors all that helpe is duly ascribed to Tradition which we have from the Languages Indeed this is no Tradition of the Church no more then all History and Historicall truth concerning the times the places the persons mentioned in the Scripture concerning the Lawes the Customes the Fashions and orders practised by persons mentioned in the Scriptures in all particulars whereof the Scripture speaks which whether it be delivered by Christians or not Christians as far as the common reason of men alloweth or warranteth it for Historical truth is to be admitted into consequence in inquiring the meaning of the Scriptures and without it all pretense of Languages is pedantick and contemptible as that which gives the true reason to the Language of the Scripture whatsoever it import in vulgar use This helpe being applied to the Text of the Scripture it will be of consequence to confider the process of the discourse pursuing that which may appear to be intended not by any mans fancy but by those marks which cleared by the helps premised may appear to signifie it Which is the work of reason supposing the truth of the Scriptures And whereas other passages of Scripture either are clearer of themselves or being made clearer by using the same helps may seem to argue the meaning of that which is questioned whereas other parts of Christianity resolved afore may serve as principles to inferre by consequence of reason the truth of that which remains in doubt not to be impured therefore to reason but to the truth from which reason argues as believed and not seen this also is no lesss the work of reason supposing the truth of the Scriptures But whereas there be two sorts of things questionable in Christianity and all that is questionable meerly in point of truth hath relation to and dependance upon the rule of faith as consequent to it or consistent with it if we will have it true or otherwise if false I acknowledge in the first place that nothing of this nature can be questionable further then as some Scripture the meaning whereof is not evident createth the doubt And therefore that the determination of the meaning of that Scripture is the determination of the truth questionable For seeing the truth of Gods nature and counsails which Christianity revealeth are things which no Christian can pretend to have known otherwise then by revelation from God and that we have evidence that whatsoever we have by Scripture is revealed but by the Tradition of the Church no further then all the Church agreeth in it all that wherein it agreeeth being supposed to be in the Scripture and much more then that It followeth that nothing can be affirmed as consequent to or consistent with that which the tradition of the Church containeth but by the Scripture and from the Scripture So that I willingly admit whatsoever is alleadged from divers sayings of the Fathers that whatsoever is not proved out of the Scriptures is as easily rejected as it is affirmed limiting the meaning of it as I have said But whatsoever there is Scripture produced to prove seeing we have prescribed that nothing can be admitted for the true meaning of any Scripture that is against the Catholick Tradition of the Church it behoveth that evidence be made that what is pretended to be true hath been taught in the Church so expresly as may inferre the allowance of it and therefore is not against the rule of Faith But this being cleared so manifest as it is that the Church hath not the priviledge of infallibility in any express act which is not justifiable from the universall