of Canaan on the Priests and Levites being his in his own right Originally by the law of Nature and by him challenged and appropriated as his own domaine All the Tithe of the land whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree is the Lords Here 's the Lords claim and title to them as his own propriety Behold I have given the children of Levi all the Tenth or Tithes in Israel for an inheritance for the service which they serve even the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation There 's the collation of his right on the Tribe of Levi whom he made choyce of to attend in his holy Tabernacle and to do service at his Altar And they continued the inheritance of the Tribe of Levi until the Priesthood was translated unto Christ our Saviour who being made by God the true owner of Tithes a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech became invested ipso facto with that right of Tithing which God had formerly conferred on the Priests and Levites and consequently with a power of disposing of them to them that minister in his Name to the Congregation The second argument which the Apostle doth afford us in this case of Tithes is the Prerogative which Melchisedech haâ— iâ— that particular above Aaron and the sons of Levi. Levi also saith he which received Tithes paid Tithes in Abraham for he was yet in the loyns of his Father when Melchisedech met him Heb. 7.9 10. Then which there cannot be a stronger and more pregnant argument to prove that Tithes are no Mosaical institution or the peculiar maintenance of the Levites but that they are derived from an higher Author and are to be continued to the Ministers of a better Testament For the Apostle taking on him to prove this point that the Priesthood after the Ordâ—â— of Melchisedech was better and more perfect then that which was according to the Order of Aaron useth this argument to evince it and it is a weighty one indeed that Levi himself though he received Tithes of his brethren by the Lords appointment yet he and all his Tribe paid their Tithes to Melchisedech being all vertually and potentially in the loyns of Abraham at such time as Melchisedech met him and consequently being as effectually tithed in Abraham as all mankinde have sinned in Adam from whose loyns they sprung Nay we may work this argument to an higher pitch and make the full scope of it to amount to this That if the Tribe of Levi had been in full possession of the Tithes of their Brethren when Melchisedech met with Abraham and blessed him as became the High Priest of God to do or if Melchisedech had lived in Canaan till their setling in it they must and ought to have done as their Father did and paid their Tithes unto Melchisedâ—eh as the Type of Christ in reference to his everlasting and eternal Priesthood But seeing that this common place hath been so much beaten on I shall only alter some few words of that Noble Gentleman and great Antiquarie Sir Henry Spelman to make his argument more suitable to my present purpose and so close this point Insomuch saith he as Abraham did not pay his Tithes to a Priest that offered a Levitical Sacrifice of Bullocks and Goats but unto him that presented him with Bread and Wine which are the Elements of the Sacrament ordained by Christ this may serve well to intimate thus much unto us that we are to pay our Tithes unto that High Priest an High Priest of Melchisedechs Order who did ordain the Sacrament of Bread and Wine and unto them in his behalf who by his Ordinance and appointment in the Word Hoc facite administer the same unto us And so much for the Sacerdotal Office of our Lord and Saviour which he doth execute for our good at the right hand of God we now proceed unto the Regal which though it is most eminent in his coming to Iudgement and so more properly to be handled in the following Article yet for so much thereof as is exercised at the right hand of God we shall reduce it under this in the following chapter CHAP. XIV Of the Regal or Kingly Office of our Lord as far as it is executed before his coming unto Iudgement Of his Vice-gerents on the Earth and of the several Vice-roys put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians WE have not yet done with this branch of the Article that of our Saviours sitting at the right hand of God For of the three Offices allotted to him that of the Priest the Prince and the Prophet all which are comprehended in the name of CHRIST that of the Priest is wholly executed as he sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty And so is so much also of the King or the Regal Office as doth concern the preservation of his Church from the hands of her enemies the Regulating of the same by his holy laws and indeed every act and branch thereof except 〈◊〉 of Iudicature which is most visibly discharged in the day of judgement Of all the rest we shall now speak and for our better method and proceeding in it must recall to minde that we told you in our former Chapter how both the Kingdome and the Priesthood of our Saviour Christ did take beginning at the time of his Resurrection He was before a King Elect designed by God to this great Office from before all worlds but not invested with the Crown nor put into the possession of the Throne 〈◊〉 David till he had conquered Death and swallowed up the grave in victory That he was King Elect and in designation is evident by that of the Royal Psalmist where he brings in God Almighty speaking of his only Son and saying I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion as evident by that of the Prophet Daniel where he telleth us that in those days those days which the Apostle calleth the fulness of time the God of Heaven shall set up a Kingdome which shall never be destroyed which can be meant of none but the Kingdome of Christ. And that we may not have the testimony only of Kings and Prophets which were mortall men but also of the blessed Angels those immortal Spirits we have the Angel Gabriel saying of him to his Virgin-Mother that the Lord would give unto him the Throne of his Father David and of his Kingdome there should be no end But yet he was but King Elect and in designation born to the Crown of the Celestial land of Canaan as the Heir apparent and by that name enquired for by the Wise men saying Vbi est ille qui natus est Rex Iudaeorum i. e. where is he that is born King of the Iews as our Englâ—sh reads it And so do all translations else which I have seen except Bezas and the French which doth follow him And he indeed doth
or designement unto that high office a calling far more solemne and of better note then that which Aaron had to the Legal Priesthood For of the calling of Aaron it is only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was called by God is a common word and therefore like enough 't was done in the common way But the calling of Christ it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a more solemne and significant word and intimates that he was solemnely declared and pronounced by God to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech Now as the calling was so was the consecration in all points parallel to Aarons and in some beyond Aaron was consecrated to the Priesthood by the hand of Moses but Christ our Saviour by the hand of Almighty God who long before as long before as the time of David had bound himself by oath to invest him in it Aarons head was anointed only with materiall oile Christs with the oil of gladnesse above all his fellowes The consecration of Aaron was performed before all the people gathered together for that purpose at the dore of the Tabernacle That of our Saviour was accomplished in the great feast of the Passeover the most solemne publick and universall meeting that ever any nation of the world did accustomably hold besides the confluence and concourse of all sorts of strangers In the next place the consecration of Aaron was solemnized with the sacrifices of Rams and Bullocks of which that of the Bullock was a sin-offering as well for Aarons own sins as the sins of the people and of the Rams the one of them was for a fire-offering or a sacrifice of rest the other was the Ram of consecration or of filling the hand And herein the preheminence runs mainly on our Saviours side who was so far from needing any sin-offering to fit him and prepare him for that holy office that he himself became an offering for the sins of others even for the sins of all the world And as he was to be advanced to a more excellent Priesthood then that of Aaron so was he sanctifyed or prepared if I may so say after a far more excellent manner then with bloud of Rams For he was consecrated saith the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his own bloud and with this bloud not only his hands or ears were spinkled as in that of Aaron but his whole body was anointed first being bathed all over in a bloudy sweat next with the bloud issuing from his most sacred head forced from it by the violent piercing of the Crown of thornes which like the anointing oyle on the head of Aaron distilled unto the lowest parts of that blessed body and lastly with the streams of bloud flowing abundantly from the wounds of his hands and feet and that great orifice which was made in his precious side Though our Redeemer were originally sanctifyed from the very wombe and that in a most absolute and perfect manner yet would Almighty God have him thus visibly consecrated in his own bloud also that so he might become the authour of salvation to all those that obey him and that he having washed our robes in the bloud of the Lamb might be also sanctifyed and consecrated to the service of our heavenly father Finally the consecration of Aaron and of all the high Priests of the law which succeeded him was to last seven dayes that so the Sabbath or seventh day might passe over him because no man as they conceived could be a perfect high Priest to the Lord their God until the Sabbath day had gone over his head The consecration of our Saviour lasted seven dayes too in every one of which although he might be justly called an high Priest in fieri or per medium participationis as the Schoolmen phrase it yet was not he fully consecrated to this Priestly office till he had bathed himself all over in his own bloud and conquered the powers of death by his resurrection That so it was will evidently appear by this short accompt which we shall draw up of his actions from his first entrance into Hierusalem in the holy week till he had finished all his works and obtained rest from his labours On the first day of the week which still in memory thereof we do call Palme Sunday he went into the holy City not so much to prepare for the Iewish Passeover as to make ready for his own and at his entrance was received with great acclamations Hosanna be to him that cometh in the name of the Lord And on the same day or the day next following he purged the Temple from brokery and merchandizing and so restored that holy place to the use of prayer which the high Priests of the Law had turned or suffered to be turned which comes all to one to a den of Theeves The intermediate time betwixt that and the day of his passion he spent in preaching of the Gospell instructing the ignorant and in healing of the blind and lame which were brought unto him in the performance whereof and the like workes of mercy he was more diligent and frequent and more punctuall far then Aaron or any of his successors in the legal Priesthood in offering of the seven dayes sacrifice for themselves and the people On the fift day having first bathed his body in a bloudy sweat he was arrained and pronounced to be worthy of death in the high Priests hall And on the sixt according to the Iewish accompt with whom the evening is observed to begin the day he went into his heavenly sanctuary to which he had prepared entrance with his precious bloud as Moses at Aarons consecration did purifie and consecrate the materiall Sanctuary with the bloud of Bullocks and of Rams Not by the bloud of Goats and Calves saith the Apostle but by his own bloud hath he once entred into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for us Which Sacrifice of the Son of God on the accursed Crosse although it was the perfect and full accomplishment of all the typical and legal sacrifices offered in the law yet was it but an intermediate though an especiall part of his consecration to the eternall Evangelical Priesthood which he was to exercise and not the ultimum esse or perfection of it That was not terminated till the day of his resurrection untill a Sabbath day had gone over his head which was more perfectly fulfilled in his consecration then ever it had been in Aarons and the sons of Aaron For then and not till then when God had powerfully defeated all the plots of his enemies did God advance him to the Crown to the regal Diademe setting him as a King on his holy hill the hill of Sion and saying to him as it were in the sight of his people Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And then and not till then when he had glorifyed him thus in the
maxime that greater are the swarmes of writers then of flies in Summer And here I look it should be said that in those things wherein I thus judge others I condemn my self in doing the same things which I judge them for and so am rendred inexcusable for so great a folly And though it cannot be denyed but that I have been as great a Scribler as almost any other of my age and time yet thus much I must say in my own defence that except the first Essay and draught of my Geography digested for my private pleasure and Printed probably out of ambition and vain glory I never published any thing with or without my mane subscribed unto it but what was either by the strong hand of importunity extorted from me or else imposed by the appointment and command of the noblest power under which I lived Had I been troubled as some are with an itch of Printing or carryed on by a desire of being in action I could have offered to thy view some Pieces long before this time and those it may be not unworthy of thy consideration which hitherto I have kept by me and possibly shall do so still untill they may be found subsequent to the publick peace For that there is a time to keep silence as well as times for men to speak is as Canonical a line for a man to walke by in my poor opinion as to be instant in season and out of season is esteemed by others But the truth is I never voluntarily ingaged my self in any of those publick quarrels by which the unity and order of the Church of England hath been so miserably distracted in these latter times Nor have I ever loved to run before or against Authority but always took the just counsels and commands thereof for my ground and warrant which when I had received I could not think that there was any thing left on my part but obsequii gloria the honour of a cheerful and free obedience And in this part of my obedience it was my lot to be most commonly imployed in the Puritane controversies in managing whereof although I used all Equanimity and temper which reasonably could be expected the argument and persons against whom I writ being well considered yet I did thereby so exasperate that prevailing party that I became the greatest object of their spleen and fury Hardly a libell in those times which exercised the patience of the State for so long together in which my reputation was not blasted my good name traduced my Religion questioned and whether I would or not I must be a Papist or at the least an Under-factor for the Church of Rome But the best was I had the honour of good Company which made the burden pleasing to me not only the Bishops generally but some Particulars amongst them of most eminent note being traduced in the same Pasquils for carrying on a designe to bring in Popery the King himself given out witnesse the Popish royall Favorite amongst other Pamplets to be that way biassed And if they call the Master of the house by the name of Belzebub the servants must not look to finde better language And though I took all honest and ingenuous courses to wipe off this stain yet when the calumny once was up necesse est ut aliquid haereat it was impossible for me in a manner so to purge my self as not to suffer under the injustice of the imputation Concerning which I shall make bold to tell thee a remarkable passage which is briefly this It was about the time that my Lord of Canterbury had published his learned and laborious work against Fisher the Iesuite when I had preached some Sermons before the King upon the Parable of the Tares which Parable I had chosen for the constant argument of my Sermons intended for the Court of which some moderate and judicious men were pleased to say that in those Sermons I had pulled up Popery by the very roots and subverted the foundations of it to which it was replyed by some of those bitter spirits whether with more uncharitablenesse or imprudent zeal it is hard to say that the Arch-bishop might Print and Dr. Heylyn might Preach what they would against Popery but they should never believe them to be any thing the lâ—sse Papists for all that A censure of a very strange nature and so little savoring of Christianity that I believe it is not easie to be parrallel'd in the worst of times But from the envie hatred malice and uncharitablenesse of such kind of men no lesse then from plague pestilence and famine good Lord deliver us I could add much more not much short of this did I love to rub up these old sores as indeed I do not the clamour not being made lesse if it went not higher in the sitting of the late long Parliament though no complaint or information was made against me or if it were was thought considerable enough to be enquired into or took notice of Nor indeed had I said thus much but in compliance to the grave counsell of St. Hierome whose saying it was In suspicione hareseos se nolle quenquam fore patientem that for a man to keep silence when accused of Heresie was a selfe-conviction And yet I cannot choose but note the great and unprofitable paines which hath been taken by the Author of that Voluminous nothing entituled Canterburies Doom to finde me guilty of some points of supposed Popery only because in some particulars not determined by the Church of England I had adhered unto the words and tendries of the Antient Fathers or bound my self in matters publickly resolved on to vindicate this Church to her genuine tenents And to say truth the least endevour of this kinde was cause enough for any clamor or reproches which the tongues and pens of those bitter men could impose on them who did not stand as strongly in defence of Out-landish fancies as of the true and natural doctrines of the Church their mother Witnesse the fearfull outcry made against B. Bilson for preaching otherwise of Christs descending into hell and the great hubbub raised against Peter Baro for writing otherwise in the points of Predestination then had been taught by some of the Genevian Doctors though neither the one had Preached nor the other Printed but what was consonant to the Doctrine of approved Antiquity and to the true intent and meaning of the book of Articles here by Law established Private opinions especially if countenanced by some eminent name were looked on as the publick Resolutions of the Anglican Church and the poor Church condemned for teaching those opinions which by the artifice of some men had been fastened on her So that it was not without some ground that the Archbishop of Spalato being gone from hence did upbraid this Church in his Consilium redeundi for taking into her confession which he acknowledges of its self to be sound and profitable multa Calvini Lutheri
otherwise then now they are For neither is the prescience or foreknowledge of almighty God for by that name his infinite knowledge may be styled the necessary and adaequate cause that things shall fall out as they do not otherwise but rather because things shall in time so fall out therefore GOD fore-knowes them Nor doth his infinite wisdome in pursuit of the means conducing to the end proposed so fetter and intangle his most infinite power but that he is still liberum agens and is at liberty to produce his end by things plainly contingent as well as by such whereon he hath imposed an everlasting necessity or to suspend the execution of some former edict according as he seeth just occasion for it which liberty in the holy one of Israel is an high perfection For as his eternal knowledge of all things doth not make all things which he knoweth to be eternal so neither doth the immutability of his decrees make every thing which he decrees to be immutable there being many temporal and mutable things which he eternally both knew and decreed accordingly So that for GOD to alter his proceedings with men according as they stand or fall in the acts of piety now punishing where he lately rewarded and presently rewarding where before he punished argueth no mutability in the counsails of GOD but rather an unmovable constancy to the immutable rule of justice which being alwayes one and the same without variation must needs afford different measure unto different deserts and sit contrary dispositions with contrary recompences And on the other side to make this conclusion that because God fore-knoweth by his infinite knowledge and by his infinite wisdome hath decreed of all things even from all eternity therefore it is as impossible for any thing to be otherwise then it is or otherwise then it hath been or will be hereafter as to recall again that which is past already were either to make GOD an impertinent agent in the continuall governance of humane affaires or that he hath nothing else to do but to behold the issue of his former counsails For plainly they which so conceive of the counsails of GOD that all things are decreed and predetermined by him even to the taking up of a straw which was Cartwrights phrase although they have not said it in terms express yet do they necessarily infer or involve thus much That God by his eternall and immutable decrees did set the whole course of nature going with an irresistible and untractable swindge and doth since only look upon it with an awfull eye as Masters sometimes watch their servants to see how willingly or unwillingly how carefully or negligenly they attend his businesse Which how derogatory it is to the truth of the Gospell those words of CHRIST Et pater adhuc operatur i. e. I work and my Father also worketh do declare sufficiently it being evident by that Text if considered rightly that there is altogether as much need of Gods power and wisdome to manage and direct the affaires of the world as at first to make it Thus are we come at last to the fourth and last species of Infinity which is that of Power or of Omnipotence and therein to behold GOD as the Father Almighty the Father because the fountain and root of being and the Almighty Father too because that being in himself an eternal being he had withall a power invested or inherent in him to give a being to the Creatures and to make all things out of nothing which needs must be the act of a power most mighty To this the former part of this Chapter served but as a preamble or a necessary introduction to bring us to the knowledge of this part of the Article viz. That GOD is not only a Father but a Father Almighty which could not otherwise have been fully cleered and made known unto us then by a serious looking on him in his names and attributes For finding in the name IEHOVAH that he is existing of himself and that from him all things that are receive their being his mighty strength in the name of El his eminent power in that of Adonai or Lord that he is God most high in Helion and a Judge in Elohim and then concluding out of these that being such he must be of an uncompounded and most simple essence by consequence eternal and incomprehensible of infinite knowledge to foresee and wisdome to effect what he meaneth to do we may from all together come to this result that he can be no other then the Father Almighty And this was the result which was made of old by the most learned of the Gentiles who having made a muster of his severall Attributes resolved all into this at last that he was the general Father both of God and Men the Parent of the Universe both of Heaven and Earth and therefore without question an Almighty Father Mercurius Trismegistus calleth him in termes expresse Patrem mundi the Father or Parent of the world affirming that the name of good and of a Father belong only to him and so Pythagoras cals him too as is said by Clement Plato entituled him Universi Patrem the Father or Parent of the Universe Iamblichus one of Plato's followers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-father as before was noted By Aristotle in his book de Mundo he is called Pater deorum et hominum the Father both of Gods and Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Homer By Virgil in the same sense Hominum sator atque Deorum in the first of the Aeneids By Orpheus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original Ancester of all and by Apollo himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unspeakable Father And for the titile of Almighty I finde it given expresly to him in a verse of one of the Sibyls where he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Omnipotent invisible and yet seeing all things The like doth frequently occurre in the Latine Poets who call him the Almighty Father in as positive termes as he is called here in the Creed Tum Pater Omnipotens foecundis imbribus c. And in another place At pater Omnipotens speluncis abdidit atris as we read in Virgil. At Pater Omnipotens misso perfregit Olympum c. so it is in Ovid And by Valerius Soranus one of elder times their Iupiter or supreme deity had the title of Almighty and King of Kings assigned unto him Iupiter Omnipotens Regum Rex ipse Deusque as St. Augustine citeth him out of Varro More might be added unto this were not this sufficient to shew that even the learned Gentiles did acknowledge God to be the Father Almighty We must next see how and in what respects he is called a Father and doth stand so entituled in the front of the Creed And first the name of Father as applyed to God in holy Scripture is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Personally as
prayers and offerings which are made unto them by that miserable and infatuated people whom they have captivated in the chains of sin and ignorance but they look for it at their hands and threaten most severe punishments if it be neglected The Devil is still sick of his old disease of being like to God both in power and greatness And being still possessed of his old ambition no marvel if he stand on Temples Altars Sacrifices both upon Invocation and on Adoration and whatsoever else is requisite to the Worship of God It was the pride and vanity of this glorious humor which made them uncapable of long stay in Heaven and hath since plunged them in the depths of disconsolation They were at first created by Almighty God in the state of perfection as were the blessed spirits who still stand in Grace endued with a most excellent understanding and a conformity of will to the Will of God Good they were made as all the rest of Gods creatures were but not good unchangeably That was the priviledge and Prerogative of the Lord most high But made so good that they were also capable of doing evil if they would themselves and put into a power or liberty of condition either of placing their whole comforts in the service of God or by falling off from that felicity to make themselves the authors and the servants of sin Which power or liberty of their will call it how you please some of them did abuse so far unto Gods dishonour that they were presently removed from that glorions dwelling banished for ever from the presence of Almighty God and kept in chains of darkness to the day of Judgement So witnesseth the holy Scripture both old and new Behold he put no trust in his servants and his angels he hath charged with folly or rather in his Angels he found wickedness In Angelis invenit pravitatem saith the Vulgar Latine Which though they were the words of Eliphaz the Temanite a man not altogether Orthodox in points of Divinity yet that which he intends thereby is countenanced by other passages of Canonical Scriptures For if by finding wickedness or folly in the Angels themselves be meant no more then this as indeed there is not quod illi a Deo propria voluntate discesserunt that by the impulsion of their own will they fell off from God as the learned Estius well obsereth then doth this Temanite say no more in the Book of Iob then what St. Peter and Iude have also said in their two Epistles God spared not the Angels which sinned as St. Peter hath it but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement St. Iude affirms the very same The Angels saith he which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day By both it is as clear as day that the Angels sinned and that the punishment due unto their transgression was inflicted on them but what the particular sin was which they did commit and in what state they stand in regard of the punishment we shall crave leave to look into with some further search as being necessary to be known in reference to the fall of man the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour and his last coming unto Iudgement For being fallen themselves from the love of God they have practised ever since on Adam and his whole posterity to make them also liable to the same damnation In solatium calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi jam perdere saith Minutius Felix And this calamity of man induced the ever gracious and most merciful God to send his onely begotten Son into the World to redeem such as were under the law of sin that so they might receive the adoption of sons First for their sin the general opinion of the Church hath been that it was an ambitious pride to be equal with God For being made by God of so pure a substance of such an excellent comprehension and so rare abilities they thought themselves too glorious and sublime an essence to obey a superiour and that it was sufficient honour to the Lord their God if they admitted him for an equal and let him be half sharer with them in the Supreme power Just like some proud ambitious favorite in the Courts of Princes who being raised from nothing to be next in dignity to their Soveraign Lord are not content with those preheminences which their King hath given them but are resolved to strike at all and either get the Regal Diadem or perish in the glory of their undertaking But being this could not be the hope of all those Angels who forsook their God it is supposed to be the aim of some chief amongst them of him who in the Scripture is called sometimes Satan and sometimes Lucâ—fer and sometimes Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The rest of the apostate Angels were drawn into the plot either upon a hope of having a supreme Lord of their own nature which should bear rule over them or fancying to themselves a more moderate reign by living under a Prince of their own Election Now that it was ambition which caused Lucifers fall it is expresly said by the Prophet Esay How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer son of the morning How art thou cast down to the ground which didst weaken the Nations For thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend above the height of the Clowds I will be like the most High Yet shall thou be brought down to Hell to the sides of the pit Upon which words S. Hierom giveth us this short Gloss Qui per superbiam dixerat In Coelum ascendam ero similis altissimo non solum ad infernum sed ad Inferorum ultimum detrahitur He that said through the pride of his heart I will ascend above the height of the Heavens and be like the most High is not only brought down to Hell but to the lowest pit of that dreadful Lake And to this fall of Lucifer as I conceive our Saviour doth allude in St. Lukes Gospel saying I saw Satan as lightning fall from Heaven 10.18 Upon which passage take this short note from the pen of Theophylact Marvel not that the Devils are made subject to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their Prince is long since fallen from Heaven and hath no power left which although mortal men beheld not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet was it visible to me who see things invisible The like Ezekiel saith as of Lucifers fall under the name and notion of the King of Tyre Thus saith the Lord God Thou hast been in Eden or Paradise as the Vulgar reads it the Garden of God thou art the anointed Cherub that coverest thou wast upon the holy Mountain of God and perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wert
ordained that having made compensation to his neighbour for the injury done he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord a Ram without blemish out of the flock And the Priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord and it shall be forgiven him In which we finde that satisfaction for the wrong in regard of man was to be made by restitution but the forgiveness of the sin in regard of God to be procured by the sacrifice of the bloud of Rams But what need search be made into more particulars when the atonement for their sins and sanctifying them to the Lord their God is generally ascribed to the sacrifices and bloud of beasts as if the burden of mens sins had been laid on them For thus saith God by Moses to the sons of Aaron Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin-offering in the holy place seeing it is most holy and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the Congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord Thus when he doth restrain that people from eating bloud he gives this reason of the same because I have given it to you upon the Altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the bloud that makes an atonement for the soul Thus also saith S. Paul that both the Book and all the people the Tabernacle and all the vessels of the Ministry and almost all things by the Law were purged with bloud and that without shedding of bloud there was no remission If without shedding of the bloud of beasts there was no remission then certainly it followeth by St. Pauls illation that by shedding of their bloud there was Or that the sacrifices both before and under the law may seem to have the same effect in remission of sins which is conferred on Baptism in the time of the Gospel A power not natural to either ex natura sua for naturally it is as impossible for water as for the bloud of Buls and Goats to take away sins but Ex vi divinae institutionis conferred upon them by the Institution of Almighty God who being the Physitian of the soul of man might choose what medicines he thought fittest for the Patients ease And possibly enough it is that besides this Expiatory power affixed to these legal Sacrifices they might occasionally produce repentance in the hearts of the people when they beheld the innocent dumb beasts brought unto the slaughter and brought unto the slaughter for no other reason but to make reconciliation for the sin of man For if a generous young Prince that sees his negligences punished on the back of another according to the usage of former times doth thereby both grow more industrious in his course of studies and more conform and regular in his course of life why may we not conceive so favourably of the people of Israel that seeing the brute beasts punished for mans offences they might repent with shame and sorrow of their former wickednesses and cry out passionately and afflictedly in the words of DAVID It is I that have sinned and done wickedly but what have these sheep done that they should be slaughtered Me me adsum qui feci in me convertile ferrum Let thy hand be against me that have done this wickedness So that for ought appeareth unto the contrary the Sacrifices both before and under the Law had in themselves a power of Propitiation by vertue of the ordinance and justification of Almighty God and not a relative vertue only in reference to the Al-sufficient sacrifice of our Saviour CHRIST But then admitting that those Sacrifices were ordained but as types and figures of that which Christ was in the fulnesse of time to make for the sins of mankind yet is this to be understood of Gods minde and purpose and not of any such respect which the people had of them For that the people when they brought their sacrifices before the Altar had any such relation to the death of CHRIST as to conceive the same to be represented in the slaughter of beasts is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the Volume and context of the book of God Or if the people in their sacrifices had respect to CHRIST or looked upon them but as types and figures of that perfect sacrifice which he was afterwards to offer unto God the Father think we that God would have rejected or disliked them professe himself to be full of the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed beasts that he delighted not in the bloud of bullocks or of lambs and goates and more then so that their sacrifices were become such an abomination to him that he who sacrificed a lamb was as if he had cut off a dogs neck and he that sacrificed an Oxe as if he had killed a man Assuredly God could not entertain such a vile esteem of the Iewish sacrifices however they might have some mixture of impure affection had they been offered only in relation to the death of Christ. And though the Lord Du Plessis seem to be of opinion that the sacrificing of men and women was first taken up upon some knowledge that the bloud of the son of man would prove a fuller expiation for their sins and wickednesses then of all the sheep upon the hils and the beasts of the forrest and therefore that their sacrifices did relate to Christ howsoever horribly mis-applyed in that particular yet is this only gratis dictum without proof at all there being another cause as bad of such humane sacrifices which we shall touch upon hereafter If it be asked in the mean time how CHRIST is said in Scripture to be the end of the Law Rom. 10.4 or how the Law is said to be our Schoole-master to bring us to Christ Gal. 3.24 except the sacrifices of the Law were as types and figures of the sacrifice which was made by Christ I answer that the Law had other and more proper means to bring men to Christ then to conduct them by the hand of such types and figures in case the sacrifices of the Iewes had been only such For CHRIST is therefore said to be the end of the Law for righteousness unto those that believe for so it followeth in the Text because he doth performe that unto those which believe which the Law propounded for its end but could not attain that is to say the Iustification of a sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what did the Law aime at saith St. Chrysostome to make man righteous but it could not because man will not keep the Law To what end served the feasts and ordinances the sacrifices and the rest of the Mosaical institutes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that they might contribute to mans Iustification Which when they could not bring to passe then was CHRIST fain to undertake it and so became the end of the Law for righteousness Theophylact following him in this as
first of these respects the blessed Angels have the title of the sons of God Where wast thou saith the Lord in the book of Iob when I laid the foundation of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy The sons of God that is to say the holy Angels Per filios Dei Angeli intelliguntur saith the learned Estius on the place And so St. Augustine doth determine who hereupon inferreth that the Angels were created before the stars and not after the six days were finished as some it seems had taught in the times before him Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta sunt autem sydera die quarto as he most rationally concludes from this very text In this respect also the Saints in glory are called the sons or children of God and said to be equall to the Angels in St. Lukes Gospell not that they have all the prerogatives and properties which the Angels have sed quod mori non possunt saith the text but because they are become immortall and no longer subject as before to the stroke of death In the last meaning of the word though all the Saints and holy men of God may be called his children because they are adopted to the right of sons and made co-heires with CHRIST their most blessed Saviour yet is the title more appliable to the Prophets of God at least appliable unto them after a more peculiar manner then unto any others of the children of men I have said saith David ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most High Of whom here speaks the Psalmist of Gods people generally or only of some chosen and select vessels Not of Gods people generally there 's no doubt of that though both St. Augustine and St. Cyril seem to look that way but of some few particulars only as Euthymius and some others with more reason thinke And those particulars must either be the Princes and Judges of the earth who are called Gods by way of participation because they do participate of his power in government or else the Prophets of the Lord who are called Gods and the sons or children of the most High by way of communication because God doth communicate and impart to them his more secret purposes that they might make them known to the sons of men Them he called Gods as Christ our Saviour doth expound it then whom none better understood the meaning of the royal Psalmist ad quos sermo dei factus est i. e. to whom the word of the Lord came as our English reads it And what more common in the Scripture then this forme of speech factum est verbum Domini c. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah Isa. 38.4 The word of the Lord came to Ieremiah Ier. 1.2 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.3 et sie de caeteris If then such men to whom the word of the Lord came might justly be entituled by the name of Gods and called the sons of the most High assuredly there was not any of the children of men which could with greater reason look to be so called then the holy Prophets And yet in none of these respects abstracted from an higher consideration is CHRIST our Saviour here called by the name of the Son of God or so intended in this Creed For Angel he was none in the proper signification of the word though called the Angel of the Covenant in the way of Metaphore Nor did he take the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham as St. Paul tels us to the Hebrews We may not think so meanly of him as to ranke him only in the list of the Saints departed it being through the merits of his death and passion that the Saints are made partakers of the glories of heaven and put into an estate of immortality T is true indeed he was a Prophet the Prophet promised to succeed in the place of Moses that Prophet in the way of excellence in the first of Iohn v. 21 25. But then withall as himself telleth us of Iohn the Baptist he was more then a Prophet that word which came unto the Prophets in the times of old and to whom all the Prophets did bear witness for the times to come A King indeed he is even the King of Kings though not considered in that notion here upon the earth nor looked on in that title in the present Article Or if we could reduce him unto any of these yet take him as an Angel or a Saint departed or a King or Prophet every of which have the name of Sons in the book of God he could not be his only Son the only begotten Son of God the Father Almighty who hath so many Saints and Angels so many Kings and Prophets which are called his Sons It must needs follow hereupon that IESVS CHRIST our Lord is the Son of God by a more divine and near relation then hath been hitherto delivered And hereunto both God and Man the Angels and internal spirits give sufficient testimony The Lord from heaven procliamed him at his Baptisme and Transfiguration to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And Peter on the earth having made this acknowledgement and confession saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God received this confirmation from our Saviours mouth that flesh and bloud had not revealed it unto him but that it came from God the Father which is in Heaven The Angel Gabriel when he brought the newes of his incarnation foretold his mother that he should be called the Son of God the Son of the most High in a former verse And a whole Legion of unclean Spirits in the man possessed joynes both of these together in this compellation IESVS thou Son of God most high A thing not worthy so much noise and ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner then any of the sons of men who either lived with him or had gone before him had there not been something in it extraordinary which might entitle him unto so sublime and divine a priviledge Though Iohn the Baptist were a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yet we do not finde that the Devils stood in awe of him for Iohn the Baptist did no miracles or looked upon him in the wilderness as the Son of God To which of all the holy Angels as St. Paul disputes it did the Lord say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And who can shew us any King but him that was the Son of God as well as of David whom God the Lord advanced to so high an honour as to cause him to sit down at his own right hand till his enemies were made his footstoole Though Angels Kings and Prophets were the sons
of God by a communication of more speciall Grace then had been granted generally to the sons of men yet none but CHRIST our Lord is honoured with those high prerogatives of being called his own Son his only Son his only begotten Son the first born of every Creature the first born from the dead and the heir of all things that so in all things he might have the preheminence Which glorious attributes and titles being laid together do put a very signall and materiall difference between the sons of God by adoption and grace and IESVS CHRIST our Lord and most blessed Saviour who is his son by nature his begotten Son begotten by his Father before all times generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by an unspeakable manner of generation without help of woman and yet made of a woman in the fulness of time generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a supernatural kind of generation without help of man In terris sine Patre in coelis sine Matre as it is in Origen Without a Father on the earth without a Mother in heaven the very true Melchisedech which hath no descent who neither had beginning of days as the Son of God the Father alone nor shall have any end of life as he is the Son of God and the Virgin Mary Now of this twofold generation of the Son of God we will first speak of that which is last in Order his generation in the womb of the Virgin Mary in which he was incarnate by the holy Ghost and was made flesh and dwelt amongst us for a season that we might live with him for ever For being begotten and conceived in the Virgins womb after such a supernatural and wonderful manner by the Almighty power of God he is in that regard if there were no other Gods own Son or his son by nature his only and his only begotten Son take which phrase we will The Angel Gabriel doth affirme this twice for failing Behold thou shall conceive and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest And then unto the Virgins Quaere he returns this answer The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God What called the Son of God only and not be so really Not so but that being really and truly the Son of God he shall declare the same by such several means ut sic merito ab omnibus vocetur that so he shall be called and counted over all the world For that he was really and truely the Son of God by this his generation in the fulness of time the miraculous manner of his conception without any other Father then the power of God doth most assuredly evince A son begotten in that manner may very well be called natura filius non tantum beneficio filius a son by nature not by grace and indulgence only saith the learned Maldonate Quia non ex viro sed ex solo Deo concipiendus because begotten not by man but by God alone Nay so peculiarly doth this miraculous manner of his generation entitle him to be the true and proper Son of Almighty God that so he might be justly called and accompted of had he not been the Son of the living God by a preceding generation even before all times And so doth Maldonate resolve it in his Commentaries on St. Lukes Gospel though otherwise a great assertor of the eternal generation of the Son of God whose words I shal put down at large for the greater certainty Etiamsi Christus Deus non fuisset illo tamen modo genitus quo genitus fuit merito Dei Filius vocatus fuisset non solum ut caeteri viri sancti sed singulari quadam ratione quod non alium quam Deum haberet patrem neo ab alio quam ab eo generatus So he I think exceeding rightly to the point in hand His instance or exemplification in the case of Adam who is called the Son of God by the same St. Luke quia non a viro sed a Deo genitus erat because he was begotten by God and not by Man I cannot by any means approve of the production of our Father Adam not being to be reckoned as a generation but to be esteemed of as a work of Creation only But to proceed as Christ is properly and truly the Son of God by this his generation in the womb of his Virgin-mother so in the same respect is he called in Scripture the only and the only begotten Son of God the Father I know that generally the style or attribute of the only begotten Son of God is used for an argument or convincing reason to prove that Christ our Saviour is the Son of God by an eternall generation long before all worlds But by their favours I conceive that he is called Gods only begotten Son either in reference to this his generation in the womb of the Virgin because the only Son of God which was so begotten or else because he was most dearly loved of his heavenly Father as commonly an only Son is best and most affectionately beloved of an earthly Parent To the first sense I have the testimony of Vrsinus a Divine of the reformed Churches who though he hold that CHRIST is principally called the only begotten Son of God secundum divinitatem suam according to his Divine nature yet he concludes that aliquatenus after a sort he may be called so in his humane nature His reason is Quia etiam secundum hane tali modo est genitus quali nunquam quisquam alius ex Virgine nimirum incorrupta vi Spiritus sancti that is to say because according to that nature he was begotten in such a manner as never any had been before or since as being conceived of a pure Virgin by the holy Ghost And to the second sense I have that of Maldonate who on these words Hic est filius meus dilectus in the 3. of Matthew observes that filius dilectus and filius unigenitus are termes reciprocal that not alone in Homer but in holy Scripture the best beloved Son is called the only begotten and on the other side that by only begotten in St. Iohn he means best beloved God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son that is to say his best beloved Son For unigenitum posuit pro charissimo as his words there are But what need Maldonate be produced in so clear a case which hath so plain an evidence from the word of God For read we not that God commanded Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as our English reades it unigenitum filium tuum the only begotten Son as the Vulgar hath it So the Greek reads it also
distinct natures in the Person of CHRIST and yet a communication of Properties or Idioms as they call them of the one nature to the other that CHRIST in one Person should have two distinct wils all who opined the contrary being branded and condemned by the name of Monothelites Not to say any thing in this place of those dark expressions in which the eternal generation of the Son of God and the nature of the Hypostatical Vnion have been delivered by some Writers of whom a man may say with a sober confidence that they hardly understood what they said themselves Assuredly that antient diverb Ingeniosa res est esse Christianum was not made for nought The best way therefore is to contain our selves within those bounds which are prescribed us in the Word of God in which though all things are not written which concern our Saviour yet those things which are written are sufficient doubtless to make us wise unto salvation that so we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his Name And now as far as I can go by the light of Scripture I should proceed unto the incarnation of the Son of God but that we must first behold him as he is our LORD which is the last of those two relations in which he is presented to us in this present Article Of this as it belongeth to God the Father we have already spoken in the first Article under the title of Iehovah the proper and peculiar name of the Lord our God a name so proper and peculiar to the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that it is thought by very learned men not to be understood of the Son of God or of God the Son in the whole Old Testament who is most usually expressed by the name of Adonai Thus in that celebrated place of the Psalms of David whereas we read in English thus the Lord said unto my Lord it is in the Original thus Iehovah said to Adonai or the Lord Jehovah said unto my Lord Adonai Where clearly the name of Iehovah doth denote the Father as that of Adonai the Son though both be generally Englished by the name of Lord. Now the name Adonai is derived as before was noted from the Hebrew word Eden which signifieth the basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly doth express his nature by whom as all things were created in the first beginning as St. Iohn telleth us in his Gospel so doth he still support the Earth and the pillars of it as it is told us in the Psalms But for the name or style of Lord both in Greek and Latine it seemed to be a title of such power and soveraignty that great Augustus though the Master of the Roman Empire did forbear to use it Nay which is more gravissimo corripuit edicto as Suetonius hath it he interdicted the applying of it to himself by a publick Edict The like by Dion is reported of Tiberius also a Prince who cherished flattery more then any vertue and in whose Court no men were more esteemed of then the basest sycophants This by the Statists of those times imputed to policy or Kings-craâ—t ne speciem Principatus in Regni formam converterent for fear they should be thought in that conjuncture of time when their affairs were yet unsetled to affect the title of Kings as they had the power which was most odious to the Romans But in my minde Orosius gives a better reason who thinks that this was rather done by Gods special Providence then on any foresight of those Princes His reason is because that Christ during the reign of those two Emperours had took our flesh upon him and did live amongst us Nor was it fit saith he that any man should take upon himself the name of LORD ex eo tempore quo verus totius geneâ—is humani Dominus inter nos homines natus esset whilest the undoubted Lord of all mankinde was conversant amongst us here upon the Earth And this we may the rather credit to have been done by Gods special providence because Caligula who next succeeded in the Empire our Saviour Christ having then withdrawn his bodily presence was not alone content to admit this Title but did command it to be given him by all the people Et primus Dominum se jussit appellari as it is in Victor But whether this observation of Orosius will hold good or not certain it is that from the time and instant of the Resurrection the style of LORD did properly belong unto CHRIST our Saviour Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesâ—s whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Not made that is to say not declared LORD by his heavenly Father before that time when he had overcome the sharpness of death and trampled on the grave in his Resurrection though called so sometimes before in the way of Anticipation or of civil complement Then only called now made and publickly declared the Lord of all things And certainly it might seem to stand with reason that seeing all power was given to the man Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth for now we look upon him only in that capacity that with the power he also should partake of the highest title by which that power was usually expressed and signified From that time forwards unto this there is not any thing more ordinary in the Book of God or in the Liturgies of the Church or in the common speech of good Christian people then to entitle our Redeemer by the name of the LORD and to entitle him thereby in so clear a manner as to make it more peculiar to him then to God the Father So that in all the antient Liturgies both Greek and Latine when the name of God the Father and of God the Son occur in the same Prayer or Hymne as they often do the name of Lord is constantly appropriated unto God the Son And so we also finde it in our English Liturgie According to thy promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesu our Lord as in the general Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST in the Absolution through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost as in some of the Collects And this the Church did learn no doubt from the like expression of St. Paul who thus gives the blessing The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and not of the Lord God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost and not of the Lord holy Ghost be with you all Amen And thus it also stands in the present Creed in which the title of Lord is appropriated only to the Son and neither added to the Father nor the holy Ghost Nor is he called LORD only in general tearms
infirmities of the flesh into natural and personal calling those natural which follow the whole nature of man as hunger thirst labour wearinesse and even death it self those personal which arise out of some defect or imperfection in the constitution of the body or disorder of diet or from some other outward cause as Agues Leprosies and the like Then they infer that all the frailties and infirmities you may call them punishments if you will as indeed they are that are from without and are common to the whole nature of man were taken with our flesh by Christ who came to be a Saviour of all men without respect of persons but such as flow from sin dwelling within or proceed from particular causes and are proper only unto some those he took not on him Aud of these passions and infirmities attendant on Christs humane nature I have spoke the rather in this place because it doth so manifestly conduce to the better understanding of the following Article viz. his sufferings of all sorts under Pontius Pilate ARTICLE V. Of the Fift ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. PHILIP 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Passus est sub Pontio Pilato crusifixus mortuus sepultus i. e. Suffered under Ponce Pilate was crucified dead and buried CHAP. V. Of the sufferings of our Saviour under Pontius Pilate and first of those temptations which he suffered at the hands of the Devil FOr the finding out of the time of our Saviours Birth St. Luke hath given us these two notes and characters the Presidentship of Cyrenius over Syria and the taxing of all the world by Augustus Caesar in the time of his Cyrenius government And for the finding out the time of our Saviours sufferings he hath given us most undoubted notes also such as cannot fail us In the fifteenth yeer saith he of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being Governour of Judaea and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee his brother Philip of Iturea and Lysanias of Abylene Annas and Caiaphas being High Priests the Word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the Wilderness which was the first year of our Saviours Ministery and consequently of those sufferings whereof there hath been any notice taken in the Book of God Now in this punctual list of names that of most consideration in this present business is Pontius Pilates being only mentioned in the Creed of whom we shall say somewhat in the way of preamble his name not being inserted here for nothing and then descend unto our Observations on the present Article But first we will remove a rub that hath stumbled many which is the making of Annas and Caiaphas to be both high Priests at the same time being a thing so plainly contrary both to the law and practise of the Iewish state Certum est duos simul Pontifices eodem simul tempore Sacerdotium nunquam occupasse And so much is confessed by Calvin though in the salving of the difficultie he mistakes the matter affirming contrary to the Evangelist non esse eundem ambobus titulum that they did not both enjoy the Title but that Caiaphas did suffer Annas who was his Father in law to participate in the honour with him and be half-sharer as it were in that eminent dignity As wide as this shoots the great Cardinal Baronius who will have Annas be the high Priest properly and Caiaphas to be called so only because he was one of the heads of those 24 Orders into which David had divided the sons of Aaron whereas his own Vulgar could inform him that those heads are always called Primarii Sacerdotes Principes Sacerdotum the chief Priests as our English reads it but Summi Sacerdotes or the high Priests never Nor doth Eusebius shoot much neerer and I wonder at it who doth salve it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. that Christ began his Ministerie under Annas and ended it under Caiaphas about four years after whereas it is manifest by Iosephus whom Eusebius citeth that Annas was removed from the high Priesthood by Valerius Gratus being then Lord Lieutenant of the Province of Iewry who left that Government to Pontius Pilate in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar being three years at least before the beginning of our Saviours ministery Others conceive that Annas only was high Priest and that Caiaphas was his Sagan or the second high Priest i. e. his Coadjutor or Assistant which being he was his son in law may not seem unprobable such an Assistant in dispatch of the publick service as the Syncellus of late times was to the Patriarchs of Constantinople But that which seems most probable in my opinion his that Annas was high Priest de jure and Caiaphas de facto For howsoever Annas was put out by Valerius Gratus yet being once consecrated to that Office he was still high Priest de jure as in point of right and so esteemed of by the Iews to whom such innovations in their forms of Government were not very pleasing and that Caiaphas though high Priest de facto did yet ascribe so much to the right of Annas as to let him have a leading power in all great affairs Which appears evidently in this that Christ was carried first to the house of Annas and examined there and after sent by him to the house of Caiaphas to which the chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees were convened together And now to come to Pontius Pilate he was made Governor of Iudaea as before was said in the twelfth year of Tiberius Caesar upon the calling back of Valerius Gratus A man he was of an austere and rigid nature Vir pertinaci duroque ingenio as it is in Philo and for the first essay of his future Government had caused the images of Caesar to be secretly brought into Hierusalem with an intent no doubt to place them in the holy Temple This caused a great tumult in the City and the Countrey people joining with them they went altogether to him to Caesarea desiring Pilate to remove those Images and to preserve the antient laws and liberties of their Country Which when he stifly did refuse to give ear unto and that the Iews as stoutly were resolved not to be denyed they offered him with one consent their naked throats protesting openly with great alacrity and consent that they had rather be all cut in pieces then permit the Law of God to be so defiled At sight whereof he did let fall his resolution and in reward of such a brave and noble courage especially not knowing otherwise how to quiet the people he was contented to remove them which was done accordingly Another time saith the same Iosephus he had a minde to rob the Corban or the publick treasure of the Temple under pretence of making Conduits in the City Which when the people understood they rose up in a tumult and being called to appear before him sitting
Saviour going to his Passion gave her the print of his face in a linnen cloth for the death of Christ but the Greek Legends do ascribe this prosecution unto Mary Magdalen as being of more credit in those parts and both true alike Certain it is that in his hasty proceedings against CHRIST our Saviour he had most wilfully broke an Edict of Tiberius the then Roman Emperour by whom it was decreed Vt supplicia damnatorum in decimum usque diem differrentur as Suetonius hath it that the execution of the sentence upon men condemned should be deferred till the tenth day But I finde not this laid unto his charge He had guilt enough besides of more publick nature then the murder of one innocent person Iosephus telling of a great slaughter which he made of the Samaritans a little before his calling home and Philo accusing him to Caius of rapine bribery oppression many cruel murders of men uncondemned which were the things most likely to procure his banishment Nor could he live long quiet at Vienna neither the vengeance of the Lord still following after him his guilty conscience still condemning and Caius Caligula the Roman Emperour putting so many indignities upon him that he thought best to rid himself at once out of all his troubles and so slew himself as both Eusebius and Orosius do report the story For Caiaphas next Iosephus telleth us that he was deprived of the high Priesthood by the same Vitellius who removed Pilate from his Government the infamy and disgrace of which deprivation did so work upon him that he grew weary of his life and at last laid violent hands on himself also to save the Executioner a labour as we read in Clemens The like foul ends befell Annas together with the rest of the Chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees who had an hand in the conspiracy against our Saviour of whom Nicephorus tels us but in generall only Quod ipsi dignas variasque dederunt poenas that they all came to just but miserable deaths as the wickedness of the fact deserved As for the whole Nation of the Iews who were so bent upon the death of their Messiah that they cryed aloud his bloud be upon us and our children what a miserable destruction fell upon them very shortly after and how they have been hunted since from one place to another is a thing so well known that I need not tell it All I shall note is this particular passage of the Divine justice that they who bought their Saviour for thirty peeces of silver were themselves sold at thirty for one peece of silver in the open Market A true but a most wonderful character of the finger of God And so I leave them to Gods mercy and proceed unto the following Article ARTICLE VI. Of the Sixt ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. THOMAS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Descendit ad inferos tertia die resurrexit a mortuis i. e. He descended into Hell the third day he rose again from the dead CHAP. VIII Of the locall descent of Christ into hell Hades and inferi what they signifie in the best Greek and Latine Authors and in the text of holy Scripture An examination and confutation of the contrary opinions WE made an end of the Humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the former Chapter for to a lower condition then that of the ignominie of the grave we could not possibly expect that he should be brought We must next look upon his exaltation the first degree or step to which was his descent into hell But this perhaps may seem to some to be a very strange kind of preferment a point so far from being any part of his exaltation that it may worthily be accounted his very lowest degree of humiliation a fall farre lower then the Grave And so it had been out of doubt had he descended down to hell to have felt the paines of it or to have been tormented though but for a moment in the flames thereof T is not the place but the intent not the descending but the businesse which he went about which makes the difference in this case and the intent and purpose of his going thither was to begin his triumph over Satan and all his Angels to beat the Devill in his own strongest hold and fortresse and take possession of that part of his kingdome whereof God had given the keyes unto him And to descend on such a businesse is I presume no matter of humiliation Doth not the Scripture tell us in another place that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Arch-angel and with the trumpet of God when he comes to judge the quick and the dead yet that descent of his upon that occasion will be the highest step of his exaltation there 's no doubt of that To descend then is no humiliation of and in it self but in relation to the businesse we descend about And the intent or purpose of his descent was to spoyle principalities and powers that is to say the Prince of the world and the powers of darknesse and having spoyled them to make a shew of them openly and triumph over them to shew himself unto the Devils and infernall spirits and to receive the homage of the knee from them as his slaves and vassals that being reckoned as a part of his exaltation that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow as well of things under the earth as either of things upon the earth or the things in heaven To this the Fathers do attest and some Councels also some of which shall be here produced Our Saviour Christ had power saith Athanasius to shew incorruption in the grave and in his descent to hell to dissolve death and proclaime resurrection unto all St. Cyprian thus When by the presence of Christ hell was broken open and the captivity made captive his conquering soul being presented to the sight of his Father returned again unto his body without delay St. Augustine more plainly yet Reddunt inferna victorem c. Hell returned back again her Conquerour and whiles his body lay in the grave his soul triumphed over hell And finally thus the fourth Councell of Toledo CHRIST say the Fathers there assembled descended to hell devicto mortis imperio and having subdued the kingdome of death rose again the third day More testimonies to this purpose might be here produced but that they are reserved to another place when we shall come to speak of those particular motives which did induce our Saviour to make this descent and of the benefits redounding to the Church thereby These are enough to let us see that his descending into hell is to be reckoned as a part of his exaltation which was the matter to be proved To which we shall make â—old to add this one reason more that is
after Easter which is the Anniversary feast of the Resurrection are those of the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour and the coming of the holy Ghost or the Feast of Whitsuntide Which method of the Church in these great solemnities seemes to be borrowed from the method of the Creed which we have before us wherein unto the Article of the Resurrection is presently subjoyned that he ascended into Heaven there sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and there shall tarry and abide untill he come to judge both the quick and the dead and after that the Article of the holy Ghost And there was good reason for this too For therefore did our blessed Saviour raise himself from the shame and obloquie of the grave that he might ascend in glory to the Heaven of Heavens that being gone from thence and ascended thither he might send them as he had foresignified another Comforter that should abide with them for ever And as it seems the Royal Psalmist the sweet singer of Israel fore-saw the neer conjunction of those two great Festivals the necessary dependance which the coming of the holy Ghost had on Christs Ascension Thou art gone up on high saith he thou hast led Captivity Captive and received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them So that the Text beginneth with the ascending of CHRIST and ends with the descending of the holy Ghost For if a man should ask as the Eunuch did of whom doth the Prophet speak this of himself or of some other man we must needs answer with St. Philip and say that it relateth unto Jesus Christ. That so it is we have St. Paul to be our warrant who thus cites the Text with reference unto Christ the Lord When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men He received gifts for men saith the Psalmist he gave gifts to men saith the Apostle He did reâ—eive them of his Father that he might give them unto us Well then what gifts are they that he tels us after And he gave some to be Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers to the gathering together of the Saints to the work of the Ministration and to the edifying of the Body of Christ. These were the gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the holy Ghost first by his first descent or coming upon Whitsunday when he gave Apostles and Evangelists falling upon their heads in likeness of cloven tongues and ever since by furnishing the Pastors and Teachers of it with those gifts and graces of the Spirit which are expedient for their Calling And this is evident enough from the Psalmists words where it is said that He received gifts for men that the Lord God might dwell amongst them Which cannot be applyed unto Christ himself for then it must not have been said that he had ascended up on high and was parted from us but that he tarried here below to be always with us Therefore God here must needs he God the holy Ghost who came not down till after Christ was gone up and then came down noâ— only to remain among us but to be in us saith our Saviour and to abide with us for ever So that this Text containing as you see it doth the substance and occasion of these two great Festivals we will begin first with the holy Thursday part thereof which is Christs Ascension according as the method of the Creed doth lead me Where by the way the Feast of holy Thursday of the Lords Ascension is of as great Antiquity as eminencie in the Christian Church it being reckoned by St. Augustine amongst those feasts and there were but four of them in all which had been generally received in all ages past and thought to be of Apostolical Institution Now for this great act of the Ascension St. Mark delivereth it in brief that When he had spoken unto them he was received into heaven and sate him down on the right hand of God St. Luke a little more fully in his Gospel thus that he led them out into Bethany and blessed them and it came to pass that as he blessed them he departed from them and was carryed up into Heaven But in the Acts the story is laid down at large and with more particulars There we are told that from the time of his Resurrection he continued forty days upon the earth appearing many times in that space or Interim unto his Apostles and speaking to them of the Kingdome of God that on the fortieth day he led them to a Mount which is called Olivet being from Hierusalem a Sabbath days journey which some conceive to be a mile or but two at most that being there and speaking unto his Apostles about the Kingdome of Israel while they beheld he was taken up on high and a Cloud received him out of their sight And finally that as they followed him with their eyes towards Heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into Heaven This same IESVS which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come even as ye see him go into Heaven This is the substance of the story in which we have some passages to be further looked on and others to be reconciled with the Creed from which they seem in words to differ For first whereas it is said that he appeared unto them forty days which is not to be so interpreted as if he shewed himself unto them every one of those days but that in the said forty days from his Resurrection frequenter se eis viÌ„dâ—â—dum exhibuerat he had offered himself to them oftentimes to be by them and to discourse with them of the things of the Kingdom of God In the next place St. Luke who tels us in the Acts that our Saviour made his ascent from the Mount of Olives informs us in the Gospel that it was at Bethany Which difference is easie to be reconciled would there were no worse For Bethanie was a village neer unto Hierusalem about fifteen furlongs from it as the Text instructs us and seated at the foot of the Mount called Oâ—ivet In which respect it is called Bethanie at the Mount of Olives Mark 1.1 So that whether Mount Olivet was esteemed to be within the limits and precincts of the Village of Bethanie or Bethanie was reckoned for the lower part of the Mount of Olives it comes all to one But the main point to be considered is the seeming difference which is between the words of the Creed and the words of the Gospel Ascendit ad Coelum saith the Creed he ascended into Heaven 't is his own act here Assumptus est in Coelum saith St. Mark ferebatur in Coelum saith St. Lukes Gospels elevatus est saith the Book of the Acts he was carryed up into
being typified in the Sanctum Sanctorum and by that entituled as before we saw unto which none might enter but the High Priest only From Types proceed we next unto the way of Prophecy and there we finde assured proof not only for the Substance of the Lords Ascension but for every Circumstance First for the substance thus saith the Prophet David Psal. 24. Lift up your heads O you gates and be you lift up you Everlasting doores and the King of Glory shall come in Who is the King of Glory the Lord strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battel Which Psalm as it was framed by that sweet singer of Israel on the reduction of the Ark to the City of David and literally meant of the Gates of the Tabernacle through which the Ark the glory of the Lord of Hosts was to have its entrance so was it mystically and Prophetically spoken of our Saviour Christ who in a mighty battel had subdued all the powers of hell and afterwards by his Ascension did set open the Gates of Heaven as all the Fathers generally down from Iustin Martyr do expound the place The Gates were lift up in the Psalm for the King of glory and opened in the Gospel for the Lord of glory as the Apostle with some reference to the Psalmist cals him Where by the way I think we need not go much further to resolve a doubt which hath been made by some in the Church of Rome that is to say whether the Heavens did open to make way to our Saviours passage an vero sine diversione eos penetravit or that he pierced or passed through the Coelestial bodies as they conceive he came unto his Disciples when the dores were shut The reason of this querie we know wel enough It is to help them at a pinch when they are put to it in maintenance of that monstrous Paradox of Transubstantiation which utterly destroys the being of Christs natural body But unto this the lifting up of the Gates gives a ready answer and such an answer as hath countenance from the Gospel also For if the Heavens were opened to make way for the Spirit of God to descend upon him at his Baptism as we know it was with how much greater reason must they then be opened when he ascended into Heaven not in Spirit only but also in his body in his humane nature Next for the circumstances which occur in the Lords Ascension we have the time thereof the fortieth day precisely from his Resurrection prefigured in the forty days of respit which God gave to Nineveh before he purposed to destroy it The correspondence or resemblance doth stand thus between them that as God gave the Ninivites forty days of Repentance after the miraculous deliverance of Ionah from the belly of the Whale had in all probability been made known unto them to confirm his Preaching so he gave forty days to the Iews also after Christs Resurrection to see if they would turn from their sins or not before he did withdraw the presence of their Saviour from them and lay them open to that desolation which he had denounced against them for their wickedness And this I am the more confirmed in by another passage of this kinde in the Book of Ezekiel where it is said Thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days I have appointed thee each day for an year Which Prophesie what ever it might aim at at that present time in which it was declared by the mouth of the Prophet was questionless most punctually fulfilled in those forty days which Christ continued on the earth untill his Ascension For having born those forty days the iniquities of the house of Iudah and kept off by his presence all those plagues and punishments which were due unto them for the same he left them unto that destruction which at the end of forty years reckoning each day for an year as the Prophet bids us befell both their Temple and their Nation For the place next we finde it on record in the Prophet Zachary in these words His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Hierusalem on the East and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof Which part of the Prophesie concerning the feet of God which were to stand on the Mount of Olives was never before so literally verified as in the day of oâ—r Saviours Ascension his sacred feet making such an impression on the ground where he took his rise if I may so say as seemed to cleave the ground in twain and there continued for the space of four hundred years if the Tradition of the Antients be of any credit Certain I am that so it is affirmed by Paulinus no fabulous Writer but of a very great esteem for piety in the best times of the Church and he tels it thus Mirum vero inter haec quod in Basilica Ascensionis locus ille tantum de quo in nube susceptus ascendit ita sacratus divinis vestigiis dicitur ut nunquam tegi marmore aut paviri receperit semper excussis se respuente quae manus adornandi studio tentavit apponere Itaque in toto Basilicae spacio solus in sui caespitis specie virens permanet impressam divinorum pedum venerationem calcati Deo pulveris perspicua simul irrigua venerantibus conservat I have put down the words at large on the Authors credit and so commit them to the censure of the learned Reader Then for the cloud in which our Saviour made his Ascent to Heaven we have it thus fore-signified by the Prophet Daniel Behold saith he one like unto the Son of man came in the Clouds of Heaven and approached unto the antient of days and they brought him before him And he gave him Dominion and honour and a Kingdome that all people Nations and languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall never be taken away and his Kingdome shall never be destroyed Where by the way we have a full description of that power and honour which God conferred upon our Saviour and by St. Mark is intimated in that form of speech and sate down on the right hand of God But this I touch but on the by referring the full disquisition of it to the next branch of this Article to which it properly belongeth In the mean time let us behold the pomp and ceremonie of the Lords Ascension which David hath described in the words before that is to say When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and received gifts for men He gave gifts to men saith the great Apostle which how they do agree was before delivered In which it seemes to me that the sacred Pen-men have made the course and order of the Lords Ascension like to the pomp and glory of the antient Triumphs It was we know the custome of the
certainly this his sitting at the right hand of God will not do it for him For building on the grounds which before we laid though sitting at the right hand of a Prince or Potentate were a great honour to the man that sate there and gave him the next place to the Prince himself yet that it gave him an equality of power and Majesty neither the nature of Soveraignty which can brook no equals nor any of the instances before remembred can evince or evidence Not that of David and his Queen if of her he means it for David was too well acquainted with his own authority as to divide it with his wife and become joynt Tenant with her to the Crown of Israel Nor that of Solomon and his Mother which the Iesuite stands on for then the King had done her wrong to reject her suit and more then so to put his brother to the sword for whom and in whose cause she came a suiter Though Solomon was then very young and as much indebted to Bathsheba for the Crown of Israel as a son could be unto a Mother yet he knew how to keep his distance and preserve his power Young Princes have their jealousies in point of State aswell as those of riper years and can as ill endure or admit a Rivall Omnisque potestas impatiens consoriis erit as the Poet hath it Their hearts are equally made up of Caesar and Pompey as unable to endure an equal as admit a Superior Though Nero was advanced to the Empire of Rome by the power and practises of Agrippina his Mother and came as young unto the Crown as King Solomon did yet would he not permit her to be partner with him no not so much as in the outward signs and pomps of Majesty And therefore when he saw her come into the Senate with an intent to sit down with him as he thought in the Throne Imperial he cunningly rose up to meet her Atque ita specie pietatis obviam itum est dedecori saith the wise Historian and under pretence of doing his duty to her did prevent the infamy So then the sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of God importing neither an equality with him nor any superiority at all above him the phrase being measured as it ought according to the standard of the Iewish Idiom and the received customes of that Nation we must enquire a little further to finde out the meaning Most like it is that by these words And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is meant the exaltation of the man CHRIST IESVS our blessed Lord and Saviour in his humane nature to the next degree of power and glory unto God himself whereby he was made Lord and Christ the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter cals him the head over all things unto his Church as St. Paul entitles him that to inable him the better to discharge those Offices wherewith by God he is intrusted he hath received withall a participation of Gods Almighty power and most infinite goodness for the defence and preservation of the Church committed to him with all those other powers and faculties which are in Scripture called the right hand of God and finally that sitting there in rest and quiet after all his labours he is continually intent on his Churches safety which he stands ready to defend against all its enemies to govern aâ—d direct it in the ways of godliness and to reward or punish as he sees occasion Which exaltation of our Saviour in his humane nature I can no better liken then to that of Ioseph when Pharaoh made him Ruler over all the land of Egypt and placed him also over his house that according to his word they might all be ruled and made him to ride in the second Charet that he had with an Officer to crie before him Bow the knee All he reserved unto himself was the Regal Throne in which he could not brook an equal Onely in the Throne said he will I be greater then thou So stands the case as I conceive it between God the Father and his Christ. Christ by his exaltation to the right hand of God hath gained the neerest place both of power and glory unto God himself a participation of Gods divine power and goodness an absolute command over all the Church consisting both of men and Angels Only the Divine Throne the Supreme transcendency the Lord God Almighty reserves unto himself not to part with that And if we look into the Scriptures with a careful eye we shall finde Christ standing neer the Throne of Almighty God but not sitting on it St. Paul informs us to that purpose where he saith of Christ that he sate down at the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn telleth us in the Book of the Revelation that he saw in the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne which was God the Father a Book written within and on the backside And the Lamb which had been slain came and tooke the Book out of the right hand of him that sate on the Throne A matter which the strongest Angel mentioned in the second verse did not dare to meddle with knowing his distance from the Throne and how ill it became him to attempt too neer it For though the Angels of themselves are of a more excellent glorious nature and far surpassing all the children of the loyns of Adam yet in this point they fall short of those infinite glories which CHRIST acquired in his person to our humane Nature First in his birth God did in no wise take the Angels saith the great Apostle but the seed of Abraham he took the meaning is that when God was to send a Saviour to redeem the world and that both men and Angels stood at once before him both coveting to be advanced to so high a dignity he did confer that honour on the seed of Abraham on one descended from his loyns and not on any of the Angels of what rank soever Who being born into the world was honoured presently with the name of the Son of God the first begotten Son of the Lord most high and therein was much better and more excellent then the Angels were in that he did inherit a more excellent name That 's the first point in which our Saviour had the better of those glorious creatures For unto which of the Angels that is to say none at all said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Though he was made lower then the Angels of inferiour metal and for a while of less esteem in the eyes of men yet did they worship him at his birth by Gods own command and cheerfully proclaimed the news to the sons of men Now as God honoured him with a name above all the Angels so he advanced him to a place at his own right hand which
yet take him in perfecta gloriae suae exhibitione in the full and perfect manifestation of of his glorious Majesty and then he may be said most truly to have his habitation in the Heaven of Heavens For thus the Prophet Moses in the Book of Deuteronomie Looke down from Heaven thy holy habitation 26.15 Thus David in the Psalms The Lords seat is on high from the place of his dwelling he beholdeth all things Psal. 112. Thus Solomon the Son of David Hear thou from Heaven thy dwelling place 1 King chap. 8. Finally thus the Prophet Isaiah Look down from Heaven the habitation of thine happiness and of thy glory Chap. 63. He is no Christian I dare say who will stick at this And this bâ—ing granted I consider that in a place of such immensitie as the Heaven of Heavens in a large house wherein there are so many Mansions as our Saviour telleth us the Lord hath chosen one place above all the rest in which to fix his Throne and advance his Scepter and shew himself in all the Majesty of his Glory to the Saints and Angels For as the Lord was present in all parts of the Temple but most effectually in the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Ark was kept and into which none entred but the High Priest only was thought fit to enter so though his dwelling be in Heaven in all parts thereof all which may properly be called his Court or Imperial Palace yet hath he placed his Throne in that part of Heaven which the Apostle by allusion calleth the Holy of Holies where the Ark of his incomprehensible Majesty is most conspicuous to be seen and into which none but our High Priest IESVS CHRIST was permitted to enter Of all the Apostles only two were so highly favoured as to be carried in the Spirit into Heaven above where they not only heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are impossible for a man to utter though he could speak with all the tongues both of men and Angels but saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the invisible things of God which never mortal man had beheld before and both of them describe God sitting on a Throne St. Iohn most copiously thus Immediately saith he I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne Ver. 2. About the Throne were four and twenty seats for the four and twenty Elders vers 4. and out of it proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voyces vers 5. And when the time came and the Q. was given the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the Throne and worshipped and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive glory and honour and power because thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure sake they are and were created vers 10 11. more to this purpose doth occur in the following Chapter And last of all I do consider that though the Throne Imperial of Almighty God hath neither a right side or a left as indeed it hath not yet seeing that our Saviour is ascended in his natural body and hath his left hand and his right hand like to other bodies it will be logically inferred that our Redeemer sitting by the Throne of God with his left hand next unto the Throne in true propriety of speech without Trope or figure may be said to sit at the right hand of God or on the right hand of the Throne of God which comes all to one St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heaven and had a glimpse at least if not a full and perfect sight of the heavenly glories hath it so expressely where he affirms that our Redeemer the Author and finisher of our faith having endured the Cross and despised the shame is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn intimates as much when he tels us as it were from the mouth of Christ in these very words To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and have sitten with my Father in his Throne Where plainly Christ our Saviour sitting in the same Throne wiâ—h Almighty God as St. Iohn expressely saith he doth may properly be said to sit at the right hand of God in regard that the left hand of his natural body was in site nearest to the splendour of his heavenly Majesty for otherwise God must be said to sit on the right hand of Christ. The like may be affirmed of St. Stephen also where it is said that being full of the holy Ghost that is to say transported from himself by the holy Spirit he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God In which we have the glory of God conspicuoâ—sly manifested in his Royal Throne and Iesus standing at the right hand of the Throne or at the right hand of God take which phrase you will and standing either as an Advocate to plead for his afflicted servants or as a suiter in behalf of the Proto-martyr or as General in chief ready to march against the enemies of his best beloved So far we may consider of the literal sense of this branch of the Article without any derogation â—rom the Majesty of God the Father and much unto the honour of our Lord and Saviour and without any prejudice unto faith and piety And in such Cases as I take it the best way is to stand to this good old Rule that where the literal sense of holy Scripture doth hold an analogy and correspondence with the Rule of Faith it is to be preferred before any other But whether this be so or not for I propose it only as a consideration I have delivered freely my opinion in it and have delivered it no otherwise then as my opinion to which I never was so wedded but that a clearer judgement might at any time divorce me from it My opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As mine I have no reason to impose them upon other men or seek to captivate their understanding and make it subject to my sense And as opinions I am not bound to adhere to them my self but lawfully may change and vary according to that light and evidence of holy truth which either shall or may be given unto me In matters doctrinal concluded and delivered by the Church my Mother I willingly submit my self unto her Decisions Where I am left at large to my own election I shall as willingly take leave to dissent from others as others I am sure will take and on Gods name let them to dissent from me This was the amicable temper of the Fathers in the Primitive times which more preserved the Church both in peace and unity then all the Canons of Councils and Edicts of Princes to that purpose were of
for an Historical truth it might as well be made appliable to Pauls negative Character according to the former interpretation as that Melchisedech should be Sem whose Ancestors and posterity both are upon record in the old Testament and the new though not delivered us as his by the name of Melchisedech But leaving this unto the credit of the Authors we must next look upon Melchisedech whosoever he was as the Priest of God And Melchisedech King of Salem saith the text brought forth bread and wine And he was the Priest of the most high God And he blessed him Abram and said Blessed be Abram c. And Abram gave him tithes of all In this we finde Melchisedech invested with the two great offices of a King and a Priest the King of Salem and the Priest of the most high God Nor was it strange or extraordinary in those times that it should be so the Principality and the Priesthood in those early dayes yea and a long time after in the Roman Empire being commonly united in the self same person Look on him as a King one that did share in the successe of Abrams victory and then we finde him entertaining this triumphant Conquerour with a royal feast And Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine That he did only as a King as a Princely friend willing to set forth some refreshment to the wearied Souldiers Melchisedech King of Salem brought forth bread and wine It was the Kings act as a King and for such recorded before we finde any thing spoken of him as the Priest of God And when we finde him spoken of as the Priest of God we finde no mention of his entertainment of his bread and wine That belonged to him as a King but only that he blessed Abram and received tithes of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the text that is to say he tithed him or took tithes of him not as the gift of Abram but his own just dues By these two acts of blessing and receiving tithes the Priesthood of Melchisedech is described by Moses and by the same only doth St. Paul describe it not obiter or on the by but where he speaks of him in a set discourse and from his Priesthood doth proceed unto that of Christ whom God ordained a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Nothing in the Apostle of the bread and wine for that concerned him not as he was a Priest in which capacity only St. Paul looks upon him and looking on him only in that capacity he findeth him only as a Priest to blesse and to tithe He met Abraham saith St. Paul returning from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him To whom also Abraham gave the tithes of all Nothing here spoken of the bread and wine as an entertainment given by a Royall and magnificent Prince to a friend and neighbour nor as a Sacrifice neither to the most high God as he was a Priest which thing the Papists mainly stand for and marvail that S. Paul took no notice of it Miror in hoc capite inter tot Similitudines quibus Melchisedech Christum repraesentat nihil dixisse de Sacrificio panis vini c. I wonder saith Mariana that in this Chapter Heb. 7. amongst so many resemblances wherein Christ is made like unto Melchisedech there is no mention made of the Sacrifice of bread and wine which Melchisedech offered Gen. 14.18 being a type or Symbol of the sacrifice of the holy Eucharist But the best is St. Paul knew better what Melchisedech did and knew much better how impertinent it would be for his present purpose which was to parallel Christs priesthood with Melchisedechs then any the best learned man in the Church of Rome And therefore here is nothing to be wondred at if speaking of him as the Priest of the most high God he takes no notice of his actions as he was a King And for the Sacrifice which they dream of and would force from thence the better to advance the pedegree of the Romish Masse it is a thing so inconsistent with the meaning of Moses that neither the letter of the text nor any circumstance of the History nor the generall consent of Fathers nor any Orthodox Rule of interpretation doth give any countenance at all â—nto it As for the parallel made by the Apostle betwixt Christ and him which is the third thing to be considered it consists most especially in these two points first in the identity of their titles and then in the performance of their severall Offices First for their titles St. Paul telleth us that Melchisedech by interpretation is the King of righteousnesse and that King of Salem signifyeth a King of Peace Such also is our blessed Saviour not only called in Scripture the Prince of peace but our peace it self Ephes. 2.14 not only acknowledged by his enemies for a man of righteousnesse but righteousnesse it self in the very abstract and therefore said by the Apostle to be made our righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 Melchisedech was the only King that ever by divine providence or an heavenly calling was a Priest also of the most high God and therein a fit parallel for Christ our Saviour whom God having raised him from the dead made both Lord and CHRIST that is to say both King and Priest Lord over all the Kings of the earth and clothed in a garment down to the feet girded about the pappes with a golden girdle such as the high Priest used to wear as St. Iohn describes him Melchisedech was King of Salem which afterwards being called Hierusalem became the royall seat of David and the Kings of Iudah our Saviour Christ was publickly acknowledged to be King of the Iews and crowned though with a Crown of thornes within Hierusalem it self the imperiall City and doth now reigne and shall for ever in the new Hierusalem whereof more hereafter The greatest difficulty lieth in the Negative Character that he was without Father without Mother without descent or Genealogie having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life and how he may be likened unto Christ in this or Christ to him in all these particulars hath very much perplexed the brains of some learned men For admitting Melchisedech to have neither father nor mother nor genealogie nor descent according to the former construction of it yet this can no ways be applyed unto Christ our Saviour whose genealogie is recorded by two Evangelists who had a Mother on the earth and a Father in Heaven Therefore the best solution is for ought I can see to say that those particulars of this negative Character without father without mother without descent do all but serve to usher in that which followeth next viz. that he was without beginning of dayes or end of life no mention being made of his predecessors or of any one that did succeed him in that sacred office Or else because it followeth
alone Who when he findes his heavenly Father troubled with our perversness our high hand of sinning and ready to execute vengeance on us for our great misdeeds doth interpose the merit of his death and passion shews him the print of the Thorns in his sacred head his hands and feet boared through with nayls and his side pierced with the spear At sight whereof Gods heavy anger fals away and his wrath is pacified and he lays by the instruments of his rage and vengeance Tela reponuntur manibus fabricata Cyclopum as the Poet hath it and he resolves to tarry a little longer and expect the amendment of his people An Office from the which our High Priest never can desist whilest there are men upon the world to provoke God to anger and though we dare not say of him as St. Paul did of himself that he dyeth daily yet we may safely say and make it the rejoycing which we have in CHRIST IESVS our Lord that the merit of his death and passion are daily hourly nay continually presented by him to the view and consideration of Almighty God A point of no mean consolation to us whilest we are subject to the sins and lusts which we bear about us in the flesh and cannot otherwise be excused from them but by changing our mortal into immortality And this is that which was prefigured in the Law of Moses by the High Priests entring into the Sanctum Sanctorum which was parted with a vail or traverse Curtain from the rest of the Temple to make atonement with the Lord for the peoples sins The parallel stands thus between them First none might enter into the Sanctum Sanctorum or the holiest of all but the High Priest only Levit. 16.3 So Christ our High Priest and none but he hath entred into the holy places not made with hands to appear in the presence of God for us Heb. 9.24 Secondly as the veil of the Temple was lifted up or drawn aside to make room for the High Priest to enter into it so did the vail of the Temple rent in sunder at the very instant when the soul of our High Priest did depart from his body and enter the Celestial Sanctuary Mattb. 27. Thirdly the High Priest was apparelled in his Priestly vestments Levit. 16.10 and so our Saviour is described in the Rev. 13.13 Fourthly the High Priest entred into the Sanctuary but once a year which was upon the Feast of the Expiation Exod. 30.10 So did Christ enter once into the holy place which was upon the day of his death and passion whereon he obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 And last of all as the High Priest made an offering for the sins of the people though it were only of the bloud of Calves and Goats before he went within the veil Levit. 16.12 15. which bloud he was to sprinkle on the Mercy-seat vers 14 15. and thereby made atonement in the holy place for all the Congregation of Israel vers 17. So before Christ our High Priest entred into the Heaven of glories he made an offering of himself Heb. 9.25 and by his own bloud entred into the holy places vers 12. which bloud of his that is to say the merits of it he sprinkleth on the Mercy-seat of Almighty God and thereby doth avert him from his displeasure and reconcile him daily to poor sinful man Which Parallel thus made we may the better understand St. Pauls drift and meaning in comparing the High Priests together and the excellency of Christs Priesthood above that of Aaron The Priests saith he i. e. those of inferiour order went into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the service of God But into the second went the High Priest alone once every year not without bloud which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people But Christ being made an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands neither by the bloud of Goats and Calves but by his one bloud did he enter into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us Not that he should offer himself often as the High Priest entred into the holy place every year with the bloud of others but that being offered once a sacrifice for sin he might for ever sit at the right hand of God chap. 10. ver 12. to appear in the sight of God for us unto our Salvation and to make intercession for us Thus standeth the case with our High Priest in the point of Sacrifice in which as in the other Offices of offering up our prayers to God interceding for us and pouring down his blessings on us he doth perform the Office or Function of an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech But there is yet one Argument more that St. Paul brings in proof of Melchisedechs Priesthood which is that he tithed Abraham or took Tithes of him Heb. 7.2 9. And if we prove not this also of our Saviour Christ the parallel betwixt him and Melchisedech will not be complete nor his high Priesthood so asserted as it ought to be But herein the Apostle will not fail us neither affording us two arguments to make good this point the one derived from the eternity of our Saviours Priesthood the other from the Prerogative which Melchisedech had in this particular above Aaron and the sons of Levi. The first stands thus Melchisedech took Tithes of Abraham in his own right as Priest of the most high God whose Priesthood being everlasting in the Person of Christ for he hath an unchangeable Priesthood vers 24. the right of taking Tithes is inherent in him on the meer taking on himself of Melchisedechs function I mean in being made a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech And this is that to which St. Paul alludeth saying Here men that die receive Tithes that is to say Here in the land of Canaan by the Law of Moses the Priests and Levites of our Nation being mortal men and subject to the stroke of death aswell as we do receive tithes of us to shew that we acknowledge them to be our Superiours in their place and Ministery But there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth His meaning is that when Melchisedech received Tithes of Abraham he received them as a Type of our Saviour Christ who now liveth with God and by his Resurrection did make known that he liveth for ever and lived to execute the Office of a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech He then of whom it is witnessed that he liveth receiveth Tithes or hath at least a right and title to receive them in regard of his unchangeable and eternal Priesthood But he receiveth them not in person having transferred all his interests in them and title to them upon the Ministers of his Gospel No otherwise then God conferred the Tithes of the land
for ostentation of our Savious power in regard that every man receives his judgement either life or death as soon as he is freed from his earthly tabernacle For which there is sufficient proof in the book of God This day said Christ our Saviour to the penitent theef shalt thou be with me in paradise As plain is that of the Apostle It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgement The same we finde exemplifyed in the rich man and Lazarus the soul of the one as soon as dead being carried into Abrahams bosome the other being plunged in unquenchable flames If so as so it is most certain what use can be conceived of a general judgement when all particular persons have already received their sentence what further punishments or glory can be added to them then Paradise to Gods Saints and servants and the unquenchable flames of hell for impenitent sinners Which difficulty though removed in some part before as to the vindicating of the justice of Almighty God and the participation of the body in that blisse or misery which the soul presently is adjudged to on the separation and finally the manifesting of Christs power and glory in the sight of his enemies shall now be also cleared as to that part thereof which seems to place the soul in the height of happinesse as soon as separate from the body or in the depth of anguish and disconsolation And first that the souls of just and righteous persons are in the hands of God in Paradise in Abrahams bosome yea in the very heavens themselves I shall easily grant But that they are in the same place or in the same estate and degree of glory to which they shall be preferred by Christ in the day of judgement I neither have seen text nor reason which could yet perswade me Certain I am the Scripture seems to me to be quite against it the current of antiquity and not a few Moderns of good note and eminencie to incline very strongly to the other side For Scriptures first St. Paul doth speak indeed of a Crown of righteousnesse to be given to him and to all those that love the appearing of Christ but not to be given them till that day i. e. the day of his appearing St. Peter next informeth of an incorruptible inheritance reserved for us in the heavens and more then so prepared already but not to be shewed till the last time In the last place we have St. Iohn acquainting us with the condition of the Saints as in matter of fact where he telleth us that the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar where they were willed to rest themselves till the number of their fellow servants was accomplished And though we grant the souls of righteous men departed are in heaven it self yet doth it not follow by any good consequence that therefore they are in the highest Heaven where God himselfe refideth in most perfect majesty The name of Heaven is variously used in holy Scriptures First for the Aire as where we finde mention of the birds of heaven Mat. 26. and the cloudes of heaven Mark 14. Next for the Firmament above in which the Lord hath placed those most glorious lights which frequently are called the Stars of heaven as Gen. 20. Then for that place which St. Paul calleth in one text by the name of the third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 and in another place shortly after by the name of Paradise vers 4. which is conceived to be the habitations of the Angels their proper habitation as St. Iude calleth it vers 6. Into this place the soul of Lazarus was carried as to Abrahams bosom to this our Saviour promised to bring the soul of the penitent theef Hitherto Enoch and Eliah were translated by God and St. Paul taken up in an heavenly rapture And to this place or to some one or many of those heavenly mansion for in my Fathers house there are many mansions said our Lord and Saviour the souls of righteous men are carryed on the wings of Angels there to abide till they are called upon to meet their bodies in day of day of judgement And last of all it â—ignifyeth the highest heaven to which Christ our Saviour is ascended and sitteth at the right hand of God in most perfect glory Of which St. Paul telleth us that he was made higher then the heavens Heb. 7. and that he did ascend above all the heavens Ephes. 4. This is the seate or Palace of Almighty God called as by way of excellency the heaven of heavens where his divine glory and majesty is most plainly manifested and therefore called by the Prophet the habitation of his holinesse and of his glory So then the souls of righteous men deceased may be in Paradise in the third heaven in Abrahams bosome and yet not be admitted to the highest heaven wherein God reigns in perfect glory till Christ shall come again to judgment and take them for ever to himself into possession and participation of his heavenly Kingdome That in this sense the Fathers understand the Scriptures which mention the estate of the Saints departed will best be seen by looking over their own words according as they lived in the severall Churches First for the Eastern Cherches Iustin Marter telleth us that the the souls of the righteous are carryed to Paradise where they enjoy the company of Angels Archangels and the vision of Christ our Saviour and are kept in places fit for them till the day of the resurrection and compensation Next Origen The Saints saith he departing hence do not presently obtain the full reward of their labours but they expect us though staying and slacking For they have not perfect joy so long as they grieve at our Errours and lament our sins Then Chrysostome more then once or twice Though the soul were a thousand times immortall as it is yet shall she not enjoy those admirable good things without the body And if the body rise not again the soul remaineth uncrowned without heavenly blisse Theodoret lived in the same times and was of the same opinion also saying The Saints have not yet received their Crowns for the God of all expecteth the conflict of others that the race being ended he may at once pronounce all that overcome to be Conquerers and reward them together Finally not to look so low as Oecumenius and Theophylact who say almost as much as Theoderet did we have at once the judgement of many of the Fathers delivered by Andreas Caesariensis in a very few words It is saith he the judgement of many godly Fathers that every good man after this life hath a place fit for him by which he may conjecture at the glory which is prepared Look we now on the Western Churches and first we have Irenaeus B. of Lyons in France affirming positively thus Manifestum est c. It is manifest that the souls
in several ranks appointing unto every rank the course of his ministery composing Psalms and Hymns to the praise of God prescribing how they should be sung with what kind of instrument and ordering with what vestments the Singing-men should be arayed in the act of their service We shall there finde the Feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai who then possessed the place of a Prince among them and that of the Dedication by the Princes of the Maccabean progeny yet both religiously observed in all times succeeding this last by Christ himself as the Gospel telleth us We shall there finde how Moses broke in peeces the Golden Calf and Hezekiah the Brazen Serpent how the high places were destroyed and the groves cut down by the command of Iehosaphat and what a Reformation was made in the Church of Iudah by the good King Iosiah Finally we shall therein finde how Aaron the High Priest was reproved by Moses Abiathar deposed by Solomon the arrogancy of the Priests restrained by Ioas Such power as this the godly Princes of the Iews did exercise by the Lords appointment to the glory of Almighty God and their own great honor If they took more than this upon them and medled as Vzziah did in offering incense which did of right belong to the Priests office A Leprosie shall stick upon him till the hour of his death nor shall he have a sepulchre amongst the rest of the Kings And such and none but such is that supream power which we ascribe unto the King in the Church of England The Papists if they please may put a scorn on Queen Elizabeth of most famous memory in saying Foeminam in Anglia esse caput ecclesiae that a woman was the head of the Church of England as once Bellarmine did and Calvin if he list may pick a quarrel with the Clergy of the times of King Henry the eighth as rash and inconsiderate men and not so onely but as guilty of the sin of blasphemy Erant enim blasphemi cum vocarunt eum summum caput ecclesiae sub Christo for giving to that King the title of Supream Head of the Church under Christ himself But Queen Elizabeth disclaimed all authority and power of ministring divine service in the Church of God as she declared in her Injunctions unto all Her Subjects And the Clergy in their Convocation Anno 1562. ascribe not to the Prince the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments nor any further power in matters which concern Religion than that onely Prerogative which was given by God himself to all godly Princes in the Holy Scriptures More than this as we do not give the Kings of England so less than this the Christian Emperors did not exercise in the Primitive times as might be made apparent by the Acts of Constantine and other godly Emperors in the times succeeding if it might stand with my design to pursue that Argument Take one for all this memorable passage in Socrates an old Ecclesiastical Historian who gives this Reason why he did intermix so much of the acts of Emperors with the affairs of holy Church viz. That from that time in which they first received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex illorum nutu perpendere visa sunt c The business of the Church did seem especially to depend on their will and pleasure insomuch as General Councils were summoned by them for the dispatch of such affairs as concerned Religion even in the main and fundamentals and other emergent occasions of the highest moment CHAP. III. Of the Invisibility and Infallibility of the Church of Christ And of the Churches power in Expounding Scripture Determining Controversies of the Faith and Ordaining Ceremonies BUt laying by those Matters of External Regiment we will look next on those which are more intrinsecal both to the nature of the Church and the present Article For when we say That we believe the Holy Catholick Church we do not mean That we do onely believe that there is a Church upon the Earth which for the latitude thereof may be called Catholick and for the piety of the Professors may be counted Holy but also that we do believe that this Church is led by the Spirit of God into all necessary Truths and being so taught becomes our Schoolâ—mistress unto Christ by making us acquainted with his will and pleasure and therefore that we are to yeeld obedience unto her Decisions determining according to the Word of God This is the sum of that which we believe in the present Artiâ—le more than the quod sit of the same which we have looked upon in the former Chapter and to the disquisition of these points we shall now proceed A matter very necessary as the world now goes in which so many Schisms and Factions do distract mens mindes that Truth is in danger to be lost by too much curiosity in enquiring after it For as the most Reverend Father the late Lord Bishop of Canterbury very well observes Whiles one Faction cries up the Church above the Scripture and the other side the Scripture to the contempt and neglect of the Church which the Scripture it self teacheth men both to honor and obey They have so far endangered the belief of the one and the authority of the other That neither hath its due from a great part of men The Church commends the Scripture to us as the Word of God which she hath carefully preserved from the time of Moses to this day and so far we are willing to give credence to her as to believe that therein she hath done the duty of a faithful witness not giving testimony to any supposititious or corrupted Text but to that onely which doth carry the impressions in it of the Image and Divine Character of the Spirit of God But if a difference do arise about the sense and meaning of this very Scripture or any controversie do break forth on the mis-understanding of it or the applying and perverting it to mens private purposes which is the general source and fountain of all Sects and Heresies we will not therein hearken to the voice of the Church but every man will be a Church to himself and follow the Dictamen or the illumination as they please to call it of their private Spirit It therefore was good counsel of a learned man of our own Not to indulge too much to our own affections or trust too much unto the strength of a single judgment in the controverted points of Faith but rather to relie on the authority and judgment of the Church therein For seeing saith he that the Controversies of Religion in our time are grown in number so many and in nature so intricate that few have time and leasure and fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which of all the Societies of men in
Churches which either were in want or in any misery Such the Collection made at Antioch for the poor Brethren of Iudea of the Corinthians for the Saints which dwelt in Ierusalem and to the honor of the Romans it is recorded by Dionysius the then Bishop of Corinth That they did carefully relieve the wants and several necessities of all other Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he in an Epistle unto Soter the then Pope of Rome so fully were their souls united so excellent was the union or communion which was then amongst them that they all suffered in the miseries of the poorest members and did accordingly endeavor to relieve and comfort them Witness their carriage in that great and dreadful Plague which hapned at Alexandria in the reign of the Emperor Galienus in which the love and piety of the Christian people extended more unto their Brethren than unto themselves visiting those whom God had visited administring to their necessities when they were yet living embalming them with tears when they were departed and following them with all due ceremony to the Funeral pile Insomuch that even their very enemies could not but praise that noble act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and magnifie that God whom the Christians worshipped A needless thing it were to tell how willingly the faithful of those happy times used to accompany each other on the stage of death how frequently they would make offer of their own lives to reprieve their Brethren from the slaughter A thing not rarely known in those blessed days in which it pleased the Lord to set forth unto us the excellency of that communion which ought to be between the Saints of the most high Ghost in which he pleased to let us see for our imitation how much the love of God and the Saints of God could work upon a soul which was truly Christian And therefore it was rightly noted by Tertullian that as the Gentiles used to say in the way of envy Vide ut se invicem diligunt Look how these Christians love one another so in the way of admiration they did use to say Vide ut pro alterutro mori sunt parati See how they are prepared to die for one another also And now we have brought this part of the Communion of the Saints of God which did consist in the Communication of Affections unto the highest pitch which it can attain to For greater love than this hath no man saith our blessed Saviour than that a man lay down his life for his friend Nor had I said so much of a Theme so common but that I would fain give my self a little hope that by presenting to the sight of this present age the piety and eminent affections of the Primitive Christians it may be possibly revived and reduced to practise in these decaying times of true Christian Charity But here I would not be mistaken or thought to be the Author of such wretched counsels as under colour of Communion to introduce a community or to perswade that by communicating of our goods to the use of others we should make them common Such a Communion as is meant in the present Article doth aim at nothing less than so sad a ruine as the devesting of the faithful in the propriety and interess of their estates must needs bring upon them We leave this frenzy to the Fratricellians who first hatched this Cockatrice and taught amongst many other impious and absurd opinions Nihil proprii habendum esse that men were to have nothing in propriety not so much as wives But this not getting any ground at the first appearing was afterwards advanced and propagated by the Anabaptist Non posse aliquem salvum fieri nisi facultates omnes in commune deferat nihilque proprium possideâ—t That no man could be saved who brought not all his wealth to the common treasury or kept any thing several to himself though it were his wife was then if never else esteemed good Christian doctrine when frenzy and King Iohn of Leyden reigned in the City of Munster And yet as frantick as this doctrine may be thought to be it hath found Advocates to plead for it in these later times and to bring proofs in maintenance in defence thereof both from the Scripture and the practise of the Primitive times as also from the usage in the state of nature and the rules of reason From Scripture they allege that place of the Acts where it is said That the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common A Text much urged and stood upon by some antient Hereticks who under colour of these words maintained a community of all mens estates admitting none to their Communion who had either Wives or Goods in several to their proper use and would needs be called Apostolici as the revivers of the true Christian and Apostolick piety And they might have some further ground for it from the best and purest times of the Christian Church of which Tertullian saith expressly Indiscreta apud nos omnia praeter uxores That they had all things common except their wives in which they differed from the Gentiles who held their wives in common and their goods in several Nor was this the continual and general practise of the Gentiles neither the Commonwealth of Sparta being a right Commonwealth indeed wherein community of all things was established by Original Laws one of the Fundamentals of that Government And till this Iron-age came in as the Poets tell us there was no such matter as propriety as Land or Houses Communisque prius ceu lumina solis Aer The Earth being no less common in the state of nature before the natural liberty and rights of mankinde were limited and restrained by the Bonds of Law as was the Air they breathed in or the light of the Sun that shined upon them Nor was this natural liberty so wholly abrogated but that there did remain some Vestigia of it amongst the more amicable and intelligent men whose reason could not choose but tell them that where they setled their affections in a friendly way they were to interess the party whom they did affect in a joynt participation of their goods and fortunes For that all things ought to be common amongst friends such as all mankinde ought to be by the common principles of nature and the rules of Reason was one of the dictates of Pythagoras seconded by Tully not denied by Seneca besides that golden saying of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That wheresoever there was friendship there must be community But these although they seem in shew to be several Arguments may all be satisfied with one answer those specially which are borrowed from the practise of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and the
God if not more possible to recreat a man from something than to creat him first of nothing Whether the natural substance of a man corrupted be not more apt to be recollected unto it self than the dust of the Earth was in it self to be first framed to such a substance Credamus ergo abeodem restitui posse veterem hominem qui novum fecit as it is excellently well prest upon them by Lactantius If for the manner of it they would know by what arts and agents so great a miracle as the raising of the same numerical body shall be wrought upon them we must refer them to themselves and in themselves they have an Answer They all know so much of themselves that they live move and have a being that they are all engendred by their natural Fathers and fashioned in the secret Closets of their Mothers womb yet certainly it is a matter if considered rightly not very capable of credit that so small a quantity of seed should either be improved into a substance of such different parts as flesh and blood and bones and sinews or else divided into so many parts of such different substance When at the last the body is made fit to receive the soul they cannot tell either by what means the soul is given or the whole birth nourished Lord I am fearfully and wonderfully made said the Royal Psalmist If then they know not by what means they were made at first but shut up their enquirie in an admiration of the unsearchable power and wisdom of the most high God why should they look to be resolved of all doubts and difficulties touching the Resurrection of the self-same bodies and not refer that also to Gods power and wisdom Which was the answer of Tertullian to the Roman Sophisters Redde si potes rationem qua factus es tunc require qua fies First render an account saith he how thou first wert made and afterwards enquire how thou shalt be raised But not to answer them with Questions after the manner of the old Socratical way of disputing to illustrate our belief more fully in this Article and gain theirs unto it I will lay before them two such instances as will clearly carry it except they think more meanly of the power of God than of subservient nature and the force of art It is the nature of the Loadstone to draw steel to it that is a thing well known And it is found of late by a strange experiment that if a massie body of steel be ground to powder and all the Atomes of it buried in a lump of Clay yet will the powerful vertue of the Stone or Adamant being gently moved upon the superficies of the Cake attract into a lump all those dusts of steel so strangely scattered and dispersed Which though it be a wondrous power and effect of nature yet comes it short of that which is done by art The substance of the steel not being altered though the parts attenuated For it is found by those who do trade in Chymistry that the forms of things are kept invisibly in store though the materials of the same be altered from what first they were and that by vertue of those forms the things themselves will be restored to their former being which they make good by this experiment They take a Flower or Plant of what kinde soever in the Spring time when it is in its fullest and most vigorous growth and beat it in a Morter Root Stalks Flowers and Leaves until it be reduced to a confused Mass. Then after Maceration Fermentation Separation and other workings of that art there is extracted a kinde of Ashes or Salt including those formes and tinctures under their power and Chaos which they put up in Glasses very close made up the mouth of the Glass being heated in the fire and the neck thereof wrung close together to keep in the Spirits Which done applying to it a soft fire or candle you shall presently perceive the Flowers or Plants to rise up by little and little out of those Ashes and to appear again in their proper forms as when they grew upon the ground But take away the fire or candle and they remove immediately to their Chaos again A wonderful effect of art and nature such as not onely doth resemble the Resurrection but so far confirm it that he who shall deny it for the time to come will make the God of Heaven less powerful than the Sons of Art The ingenuous Author of the Book called Religio Medici doth also touch upon this rarity but I have not now the Book by me to put down his words or to make use of any other of his observations to the point in hand And to say truth there need but little more be added as to the Quod sit of the Resurrection to the point it self That which remains relates unto the manner onely to some points of circumstance and to such Christian uses as are raised hereon And first Perhaps it may be demanded of us as once of the Apostle in former times Quali corpore venient How with what Bodies they shall rise Not whether in the very same Numerical Body for that hath been made good before but whether in the same shape and fashion which before it had We know that man returns again into his Earth at several ages the tender Infant and the Man of ripest years being alike subject to the stroke of impartial death In which respect it hath been questioned by the Antients whether they shall arise in the same age and disproportions of Age and Stature which they had whilest they lived St. Augustine doth resolve it Negatively and determineth thus That we shall all of us be raised in that proportion both of strength and beauty which men attain to commonly at the time of their best perfection Restat ergo saith he ut suam quisque habeat mensuram vel quam habuit in inventute vel quam habiturus esset si vixisset And this he groundeth on that passage to those of Ephesus where the Apostle speaks of that special care which CHRIST hath taken of his Church and our edification till we all come to a perfect man unto the measure of the fulness of the age or stature of CHRIST Ad mensuram plenitudinis aetatis Christi that is to say as he expounds it Ad juvenilem formam to that degree of age or stature which our Redeemer had attained to at the time of his passion which was about the four and thirtieth year of his life as may be gathered from the Scriptures A second Quere hath been made concerning them which are diffigured and deformed and mulcted as it were by nature how in what bodies they shall come in the Resurrection Not with their imperfections I conceive not so for in the Heavens there shall be nothing not compleat and of full accomplishment And on the other side were they freed