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
in the Ordination of Paul and Barnabas and other Presbyters of the Church in the best and Apostolical times so gave it a fair hint to the times succeeding to institute four solemn times of publick fasting which they called jejunia quatuor temporum we the Ember-weeks to be the set and solemn times of giving Orders in the Church and calling men unto the Ministry of the same to the end that all the people might by prayer and fasting apply themselves unto the Lord humbly beseeching him to direct the Fathers of the Church to make choyce of fit and able labourers to attend his harvest as also to enable those who are called unto it and give them gifts and graces fitting for so great a business Which antient institution of the Church of God as it is prudently retained in this Church of England according to the 32 Canon of the year 1603. in which all Ordinations of Presbyters and Deacons are restrained to those four set times so were it to be wished that the same authority would establish publick meetings and set forms of Prayer to be observed at those times that so with one consent of heart both Priests and people might commend that religious work to the care and blessings of the Lord according as it was directed in the Common-Prayer Book intended for the use of the Church of Scotland There was another reason which induced our Saviour to make choyce of this time for his fast which was the better to draw on the Tempter to begin his assault but this will better fall within the compass of the third general point to be considered in this story that is to say the main act of it or the temptation it self In the mean time we may consider what might be the reason why he fasted forty days and forty nights neither more nor less In which it is first to be observed that it is not only said that he fasted forty days and no more then so but forty days and forty nights Which caution was observed by St. Matthew for this reason chiefly left else it might be thought by some carnal Gospellers that he fasted only after the manner of the Iews whose use it was to eat a sparing meal at night having religiously fasted all the day before Si ergo diceretur quod Christus jejunaret quadraginta diebus without making mention of the nights intelligeretur quod per noctes comedebat sicut Judaeis solitum erat as Tostatus notes upon the Text which also is observed by Maldonat Iansenius and some other of the Romish Writers and then there had been little in it of a miracle either to work upon the Iews or confound the Devil As well then forty nights as forty days to avoid that cavil And there was very good reason too why he should fast just forty days and forty nights neither more nor less Had he fasted fewer days then forty he had fallen short of the examples which both Moses and Elias left behinde them on the like occasions on like occasion I confess but on less by far both which were by the Lord enabled to so long a fast that by the miracle thereof they might confirm unto the Iews the truth of their doctrine For seeing that they fasted longer then the strength of nature could endure it must needs be that they were both assisted by the God of nature whose service and employment they were called unto And though perhaps a longer and more wonderful fasting might have been expected from our Saviour considering both who he was and of how much a better and more glorious Ministery he was to be employed by the Lord his God yet he resolved not to exceed the former number nor to make use of that assistance which he might easily have had of those blessed Angels who as St. Mark saith ministred unto him And this he did upon two reasons First to demonstrate to the world Evangelium non dissentire a lege Prophetis as St. Austin hath it what an excellent harmonie there was between the Law and the Prophets whereof Moses and Elias were of most eminent consideration and that his own most glorious and holy Gospel of which he was to be the Preacher and secondly lest peradventure by a longer and more unusual kinde of fast then any of the former ages had given witness to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read in Chrysostom the truth of his humanity his taking of our flesh upon him might be called in question Of any mystery which should be in the number of forty more then in another I am not Pythagorean enough to conceive a thought no not so much as in my dreams as never having been affected with that kinde of Theologie or the like curious and impertinent nothings Nor am I apt to think as many of the Papists do that men are bound by any Precept of our Saviour or of his Apostles to observe the like fast of forty days which we call commonly by the name of Lent Iejunium-Quadragesimale in the Latine Writers or that his glorious and divine example was purposely proposed unto us for our imitation as some others think The silence of the Evangelical Scriptures which say nothing in it and the unability of our weak nature to imitate an action of so vast a difficulty are arguments sufficient to perswade the contrary such as have finally prevailed on Iansenius and other modest Romanists to wave the plea of imitation and to ascribe the keeping of the Lent fast to such other reasons as shall be presently produced in maintenance of that antient and religious observance And on the other side I will not advocate for Calvin as I see some do who being at enmity with all the antient rites and Ordinances of the Church of Christ doth not alone affirm that the keeping of it in imitation of our Saviour is mera stultitia in plain tearms a flat piece of foolerie but tels us also of the Fathers who observed this fast that they did ludere ineptiis ut simiae play like old Apes with their own Anticks chargeth them with I know not what ridiculous zeal or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he cals it and finally affirms the whole fast so kept to be impium detestabile Christi ludibrium a detestable and ungodly mockage of our Saviour Christ whether with less charity or wisdome I can hardly say For that I may crave leave to digress a little most sure it is that the Lent fast according as it was observed in the Primitive times was not alone of special use to the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but also of such reverend Antiquity that it hath very good right and title to be reckoned amongst the Apostolical Traditions which have been recommended to the Church of God The Canons attributed to the Apostles which if not theirs as many learned men do conceive they are are questionless of very venerable Antiquity do
oblationem Deo facere et in omnibus gratos inveniri fabricatori Deo c. It becometh us saith he to make oblations unto God and to be thankefull in all things to our heavenly maker offering to him the first fruits of his own creatures with a right belief and faith without hypocrisie in hope assured and fervencie of brotherly affection which pure oblation the Church alone doth offer to the maker of all things out of his own creatures with praise and thanks-giving And last of all it is called the Sacrament sometimes the Sacrament of the Lords Supper sometimes the Sacrament of the Altar by reaso that the bread and wine thus dedicated to the service of Almighty God and righly consecrated by his Ministers are made unto the faithful receiver the very body and bloud of Christ our Saviour and do exhibit to us all the benefits of his death and passion Of which it is thus said by the old Father Irenaeus that the bread made of the fruits of the earth and sanctifyed according to Christs ordinance jam non communis panis est sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebus constans terrena Coelesti c. is now no longer common bread but the blessed Eucharist consisting of two parts the one earthly and the other heavenly that is to say the outward elemental signe and the inward and spiritual grace In which respect it was affirmed of this bread by Cyprian if at the least the work be his which is somewhat doubted non effigie sed natura mutatum that though it kept the same shape which it had before yet was the nature of it changed not that it ceased to be what before it was as the Patrons of the Romish Masse do pervert his meaning but by being what before it was not just as an iron made red hot retaineth the proportion and dimensions which before it had and is still iron as at the first though somewhat of the nature of fire which is to warme and burn be now added to it And this was antiently the doctrine of the Church of Christ touching the sacrifice of the Lords supper or the blessed Eucharist before that monstrous Paradox of Transubstantiation was hammered in the brains of capricious Schoolmen or any such thing as a Propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead affabulated to the same by the Popes of Rome Now such a sacrifice as this with all the several kinds and adjuncts of it we finde asserted and maintained by the Church of England though it condemn the sacrifices of the Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt as dangerous deceits and blasphemous fables and censureth Transubstantiation as repugnant to the plain words of Scripture destructive of the true nature of a Sacrament and to have given occasion to much superstition For if a true and proper sacrifice be defined to be the offering of a creature to Almighty God to be consecrated by a lawfull Minister to be spent and consumed to his service as Bellarmine and the most learned men of both sides do affirme it is then is the offering of the bread and wine in the Church of England a true proper sacrifice for it is usually provided by the Church-wardens at the charge of the people and being by them presented in the name of the people and placed on the Altar or holy table before the Lord is now no longer theirs but his and grant that we receiving these thy creatures of bread and wine and being consecrated by the Priest is consumed and eaten by such as come prepared to partake thereof The whole prayer used at the consecration doth it not plainly manifest that it is commemorative and celebrated in memorial of that full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world which our Saviour made upon the Crosse for our Redemption And when the Priest or Minister doth call upon us in the Exhortation above all things to give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ and that we do accordingly entirely desire his fatherly goodness mercifully to accept that our sacrifice of praise and thanks-giving and therewith offer and present unto him our selves souls and bodies to be a reasonable holy and lively sacrifice unto him do we not thereby signifie as plainly as may be that it is an Eucharistical and spiritual sacrifice Finally that it is a Sacrament I think none denies and that thereby we are partakers of the body and bloud of CHRIST I think all will grant the people giving thanks to Almighty God for that he hath vouchsafed to feed them with the spiritual food of the most precious body and bloud of his Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and calling upon him to grant that by the merits and death of his Son Christ Jesus and through faith in his bloud both they and all his whole Church may obtain remission of their sins and all other benefits of his passion Nor doth the Church of England differ from the Antients as concerning the change made in the bread and wine on the consecration which being blessed and received according to Christs holy institution become the very body and bloud of Christ by that name are delivered with the usual prayer into the hands of the people and are verily and indeed saith the publick authorized Catechisme taken and received of the faithfull in the Lords Supper The bread and wine though still the same in substance which before they were are changed in nature being made what before they were not according to the uncorrupted doctrine of the purest times and the opinion of the soundest and most learned Protestants I add no more but that if question should be asked with which of all the legal sacrifices this of the Church of Christ doth hold best proportion I answer that it it best agreeth with those Eucharisticall sacrifices of the Law which were called peace-offerings made unto God upon their reconciliation and atonement with him In which as the creature offered a sacrifice to the Lord their God might be indifferently either male or female to shew that both sexes might participate of it so being offered to the Lord the one part of it did belong to the Priest towards his maintenance and support as the skin the belly the right shoulder and the brest c. the rest was eaten in the way of a solemn feast by those who brought it for an offering before the Lord. And in the feast as Mollerus very probably conjectureth the man that brought this offering did use to take a cup of wine and give thanks over it to the Lord for all his benefits which was the Calix salutis whereof the Psalmist speaketh saying I will take the
them from the miseries of this sinful world as also for those manifold and admirable gifts and graces which he hath manifested in them and those examples of good living which he hath pleased to leave us in their lives and actions Finally calling upon God That we by following their good examples in all vertuous and godly living may come to those unspeakable joyes which are prepared for them who unfeignedly love him that we with them and they with us may have one perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his everlasting and eternal Kingdom And more than this we still preserve an honorable remembrance of them as men that having fought a good fight against Sin and Satan have glorified their Saviour in his earthly members and to the memory of the principal and most chief amongst them have set apart some particuliar days that so the piety of their lives and conversations might redound more unto Gods glory and to the better stirring up of the sons of men to serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness as they did before all the days of their lives This was the judgment and the practise of the best times of the Church when superstitious vanities had not yet prevailed according as I finde it registred in the works of Augustine Honoramus sane memorias eorum tanquam sanctorum hominum Dei qui usque ad mortem corporum pro veritate certarunt And this they did unto the ends before remembred Vt sc. ea celebritate Deo vero gratias de eorum victoriis agamus nos ad imitationem talium coronarum eorum memoriae renovatione adhortemur Of this I know no sober man can make any question nor do I finde it scrupled at by any of the Reformation who have not wholly studied Innovations in the things of God For my part I shall venture a little further and think it no error in divinity to allow the Saints a little more particular intercession for us than possibly hath been granted in the Protestant Schools That those Celestial Spirits which are now with God do constantly recommend unto him the flourishing estate and safety of the Church in general I suppose as granted The current of Antiquity runs most clearly for it That some of them at some times and on some occasions do also pray for some of us in particular I think I have sufficient reasons to perswade me to so far forth as by revelation from the Lord their God or by remembrance of the state that they left us in or any other means whatever they can be made acquainted with our several wants If it should please God to take away a man that is ripe for Heaven whose bosom-friend is guilty of some known infirmities I little doubt but that the spirit of him departed will pray for the amendment of his friend in the Heavens above for whose wel-doing on the Earth he was so solicitous To think that any of the Saints in the state of bliss were utterly unmindful of such friends as they left behinde were to deprive them of a quality inseparable from the soul the memory And to suppose them negligent of such pious duties as the commending of a sinner to the throne of grace were to deprive them of a vertue inseparable from the Saints their charity Potaemiana a Virgin-Martyr in Eusebius promised the Executioner at the time of her death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That she would pray unto the Lord for his conversion The story doth not onely say that she kept her promise but prevailed also in her sute her Executioner his name was Basilides becoming thereupon a Christian and dying in defence of the Faith and Gospel Thus doth Ignatius write unto the Trallenses nor is the credit of the Epistle questioned by our nicer Criticks that he did daily pray for them to the Lord his God and that he would not onely do it whiles he was alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that he would continue in the same good office even in the estate of immortality Origen for his part was of this opinion That the Saints helped us by their Prayers Ego sic abitror saith he quod nos adjuvant orationibus suis So was St. Cyprian too that most godly Martyr Sanctos defunctos jam de suâ immortalitate securos de nostro adhuc esse sollicitos The Saints saith he though sure of their own salvation are yet sollicitous for ours Which if it be too general to be brought in evidence he telleth us a solemn covenant made betwixt him and other Bishops to this effect Si quis nostrum prior hinc praecesserit c i. e. That he who first departed to the state of bliss should recommend to God the estate of those whom he left behinde him And so far we are right enough in my poor opinion and if our adversaries in the Church of Rome would proceed no further the difference between us would be soon made up The error is not in the Doctrine but the Application For as it hapneth many times that an ill use may be made of a very good doctrine so in the darker and declining times of the Church of Christ it was conceived to be a solecism in the way of piety not to commend our prayers and desires to them who had so carefully commended our estate to God And so at last as there is seldom any medium inter summa praecipitia in the words of Tacitus no stop in tumbling down an hill till we come to the bottom The Saints in Heaven against their wills and besides their knowledge became the ordinary Mediators between God and Man And this I finde to be the very process of the Council of Trent in drawing up the Article for the Invocation of Saints First That the Saints do pray for us Sanctos una cum Christo regnantes orationes suas pro hominibus Deo offerre And so far Orthodox enough had they gone no further but then comes in the Inference or Application which is all as dangerous That therefore we must pray to them Proinde bonum atque utile esse simpliciter eos invocare ob beneficia à Deo impetranda c. ad eorum orationes opem auxiliumque confugore And here we have the point in issue We grant because indeed we must unless we absolutely mean to renounce our Creed That the Saints pray for us in the general as being some part of that Communion which belongs to them as fellow-members with us of that Mystical Body whereof Christ is the Head But yet we do not think it lawful to pray to them but to praise God for them which is that part of the Communion which belongs to us And we grant this because we may that some of them at sometimes and on some occasions do pray for some of us particularly as before was noted but yet we do not think as the Papists do That in
unto it So wandring and uncertain hath the latter part of my Pilgrimage been that I began this work in Winchester the prime City of Hamshire continued it in a Parish of Wiltshire finished it at my house in Oxfordshire and am now come to publish it Quem das finem Rex magne laborum from Abington the chief Town of Barkshire For I had but finished it if that and not bestowed my last hand upon it when by the importunity of some speciall friends I was prevailed with to the writing of my large Cosmography Which being published and received with some approbation I began to fear I might goe lesse in the esteem which I had gotten If I should venture this piece to the publick view Jealous I was of being thought a better Geographer then Divine or that it should be said of me as it had been in some cases of some other men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that I had spent more of my stock upon the Accessorie then upon the Principal more on Geography which was a thing ad extra to me then I had done upon Divinity my own proper element Considering therefore to whose hands I might commend the perusall of it I pitched at last on the right reverend Father in God and my very good Lord the Lord B. of Rochester of whose severity in judging without partiality and friendly counsell in advising without by-respects I was very confident And he accordingly having bestowed some time upon it returned me the incouragement and approbation of this following Letter which not without some hope of his Lordships pardon I shall here subjoyne as that which was the speciall motive to this publication SIR I Have as you desired read your soul on the Apostles Symbol and although I have not done it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I have read it so as I dare say when you shall have reviewed it perfected the quotations and added the last hand thereto it shall not only redound to your deserved honour but much very much to the benefit of any candid and learned Reader And in this Approbation I have the concurrent judgement of a Scholar and sound Divine who read the book with me There remaines nothing more on my part then to receive your directions where and to whom the book shall be commended by Your reall friend and humble servant IOHN ROFFENS October 14. 1651. I am now drawing towards an end good Reader and shall only tell thee that I had entertained a Project of an higher nature such as hath not been ventured on for ought I can learne by any other whosoever which if God had pleased to continue me in those abilities of minde and body which he hath formerly vouchsafed me would more conduce to the advancement of good letters then any or all the rest of my undertakings But I have found of late God helpe me such great and sensible decay of sight that I may say too truely in the wisemans words Tenebrescunt videntes per foramina claudunt ostia in platea that is to say those that look out of the window be darkned and the doors are shut in the streets as our English reads it And for my part I never had the facultie as some men have of studying by another mans eyes or turning over my books by anothers hand but have been fain to work out my performances by my proper strength without the least help or co-operation to assist me in them If by thy prayers for good successe on such Physical means as I submit my self unto it shall please God to make my sight so usefull to me as to inable me to goe through with the undertakings I shall with joy and cheerfulnesse imploy the remainder of my time to compleat that work which I have digested in my thoughts but so that it lies still within me like an unpolished and unperfect Embryo in the Mothers womb the children being come to the birth but wanting strength to be delivered In the mean time I render all humble and hearty thankes to the Lord my God for giving me such a measure of his holy assistance as to bring this work to a conclusion which if it may redound to his glory the benefit of this Church and thy particular contentation it is all I aime at And that thou mayest receive herein the more full contentment I have drawn up the heads and summe of all the Chapters which I refer to thy perusall and gathered an Errata or Correction of the faults which I desire thee to amend accordingly as thou goest along Thou wilt by that means be somewhat better able to judge whether Geography be better then Divinity Remember the now well known scoffe which was put upon me And so I leave thee to Gods grace and the Churches blessing Lacies Court in Abingdon Iune 6. 1654. POSTSCRIPT READER I Am to give thee notice that in the seventh Chapter of the third Book there is a whole Section or Paragraph misplaced that being subjoyned to the end which should have found its proper place in the beginning of that Chapter And therefore I desire that after these words viz. that he made Israel to sin which thou shall finde fol. 464. lin 23. thou wouldest turne over to fol. 479. lin 17. beginning with these words viz. I know it doth much trouble c. which having read to the end of that Section thou mayest return to the place where thou wert before viz. Now to these positive texts c. and so proceed unto the end without interruption The rest of the Errata thou shalt finde summed up after the generall Contents which I desire thee to correct as before was intimated before thou settle to the work and so fare thee well SYLLABVS CAPITVM OR The Contents of the Chapters The PREFACE Of the Authority and Antiquity of the Creed commonly called the Apostles Creed with answer to the chief Objections which were made against it ALl things made One by God from the first beginning One Faith essential to the Church and upon what reasons What moved the Apostles to comprehend the chief heads of Faith in so short a Summary Whether the Creed of the Apostles were not that form of sound Doctrine which the Apostle recommends to Timothy Proofs for the Antiquity of the Creed from Irenaeus and Tertullian not the Creeds only but the authority of the Fathers disputed and disproved in these later times and by whom especially some reasons warranting the Creed to have been framed by the Apostles The story how the Creed was made at large related by Ruffinus The story of Ruffinus justified by the Antient Writers Traditions how far entertained in the Protestant Churches An Apostolical Tradition by what marks discerned and those marks found in the Tradition which transmits the Creed The reverend esteem held by the Antients of the Creed in Commenting upon the same and keeping it unaltered in the words and syllables The Creed to be first learned by
from the Virgin Mary The only Son and the best beloved Son equivalent in holy Scripture Christ why entituled the first born of every creature The rights of Primogeniture what they were and how vested in him CHRIST so to be accounted the Son of God as to be also God the Son That the Messiah was to come in the form of man The testimony given by Christ to his own Divinity cleared from all exceptions The story of Theodosius the Iew in Suidas touching Christ our Saviour justified The testimony given to Christs Divinity by the Heathen Oracles The falling of the Egyptian Idols the Poet Virgil and the Roman Centurion The Heresies of Ebion Artemon and Samosatenus in making Christ our Saviour a meer natural man briefly recited and condemned The perplexed niceties of the School avoided purposely by the Author The name of LORD appropriated in the Old Testament unto God the Father but more peculiar since the time of the Gospel to God the Son The title of LORD disclaimed by the first Roman Emperours and upon what reasons CHRIST made our LORD not only in the right of purchase but also by the law of Arms. CHAP. III. Of Gods free mercy in the Redemption of man the WORD why fitted to effect it The Incarnation of the Word why attributed to the holy Ghost the Miracle thereof made credible both to Jews and Gentiles THe controversie between Mercy Peace Truth and Iustice on the fall of man made up and reconciled by the oblation of Christ then designed and promised That God could have saved mankinde by some other means then by the Incarnation and death of Christ had he been so minded The Oblation of Christ rather a voluntary act of his own meer goodness then necessitated by imposition or decree Some reasons why the work of the Incarnation was to be acted chiefly by the holy Ghost The manner of the Incarnation with a more genuine explication of the Virgins answer The miraculous obumbration of the holy Ghost made more intelligible by two parallel cases The impure fancies of some Romish Votaries touching this Obumbration and the blessed Virgin The large faculties of Frier Tekell Sleidan corrupted by the Papists The strange conceit of Estius in making Christ the principal if not only Agent in the Incarnation The miracle of the Incarnation made perceptible to the natural man to the Iews and Gentiles The Virgins Faith a great facilitating to the Incarnation The Antiquity of the feasts of Annuntiation Christ why not called the Son of the holy Ghost The body of Christ not formed all at once as some Popishs writers doe affirm and the reasons why CHAP. IV. Of the birth of CHRIST the Feast of his Nativity Why born of a Virgin The Prophesie of Esaiah the Parentage and priviledges of the blessed Virgin NO cause for the WORD to be made flesh but mans Redemption Our Saviour Christ not only born but made of the Virgin Mary and the manner how That several Heresies in the Primitive times touching this particular The time and place made happy by our Saviours birth That Christ was born upon the five and twentyeth day of December proved by the general consent of all Christian Churches The high opinion of that day in the Primitive times The miracle of Christ being born of a Virgin Mother made perceptible by some like cases in the Book of God A parallel between Eve and the Virgin Mary The promise made by God to Eve The clearest Prophesie in Scripture that Christ our Saviour should be born of a Virgin-Mother That so much celebrated Prophesie Behold a Virgin shall conceive c. not meant originally and literally of the birth of Christ. The genuine meaning of the Text and how it was fulfilled in our Saviours birth Whether Christ were the direct heir of the house of David The Genealogie of Christ why laid down in such different wayes by the two Evangelists The perpetual Virginity of Christs Mother asserted against the Hereticks of former times defended on wrong grounds by the Pontificians The Virgin freed from Original sin by some zealous Papists and of the controversie raised about it in the Church of Rome What may be warrantably thought touching that particular The extreme errours of Helvidius and the Antidicomaritani in giving too little and of the Collyridians and the Papists on the other side in giving too great honour to the blessed Virgin Some strange extraâ—vigancies of the learned and vulgar Papists The moderation in that kinde of the Church of England The body of Christ a real not an imaginary substance and subject to the passions and infirmities of a natural body 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 ANnas and Caiaphas why said to be High Priests at the self same time Of Pontius Pilate his barbarous and rigid nature and of the slaughter which he made of the Galileans By what SPIRIT for what reasons and into what part of the Wilderness Christ was led to be tempted A parallel between Christ and the Scape-goat Reasons for our Redeemers fast why neither more nor less then just forty days Of the Ember weeks The institution and antiquity of the Lenten fast and why first ordained St. Luke and St. Matthew reconciled A short view of the three temptations with a removal of some difficulties which concern the same How Satan could shew Christ our Saviour from the top of a mountain and in so short a space of time the Kingdomes of the earth and the glories of them In what respects it is said of Christ that he was or could be tempted of the Devil CHAP. VI. Of the afflictions which our Saviour suffered both in his soul and body under Pontius Pilate in the great work of MANS REDEMPTION THe heaviness which fel on Christ not so great and terrible as to deprive him of his senses In what respect it is said of Christ in his holy Gospel that his soul was sorrowful to the death The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth in the holy Penmen The meaning of our Saviours words Ioh. 12.27 No contrariety in Christs Prayer to the will of God Why death appeared so terrible in our Saviours eye The judgement of the Antients on that Prayer of Christ. The doctrine of the Schools touching the natural fear of death Why Christ desired not to receive that Cup from the hands of the Iews Of the comfort which the Angel brought unto our Saviour in the time of his heaviness A passage of St. Paul expounded Heb. 57. The meaning of the word Agony in the best Greek Writers and in the usual style of Scripture Christs Agony and bloudy sweat rather to be imputed unto a fervency of zeal then an extremity of pain The sentence put upon our Saviour in the High Priests Hall and at the Iudgement Seat of Pilate A brief survey of Christs sufferings both in soul and
he only made a shew of faith which he never had Why so Quia Lucas aperte testatur eum credidisse because S. Luke affirms that he did believe being convinced by the signs and miracles which S. Philip wrought as many others of Samaria at the same time were And yet no doubt but Simon Magus was a Reprobate a man rejected by the Lord in regard of his wickedness and that his heart was not right in the sight of God and afterwards an author of such mischief in the Church of God that Ignatius who lived neer those times very rightly cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first begotten of the Devil The like mâ—y be affirmed also of Alexander Hymeneus and Philetus who had been made partakers of the Faith of CHRIST and were zealous in it for the time but afterwards made shipwrack of it denying amongst other Articles of the Christian faith that of the resurrection of the dead and thereby overthrowing the faith of some Men questionless given over to a reprobate sense or else we may be well assured St. Paul had never given them over to the hands of Satan as it is plain he did But what need search be made into these particulars when Calvin himself affirms in general Reprobis fidem tribui eosdem interdum simili fere sensu atque Electos affici eosque merito dici Deum sibi propitium credere c. that Faith is given unto the Reprobate that sometimes they are touched with the like sense of Gods grace as the Elect ones are and may deservedly be said to believe that God is favourable and propitious to them God sometimes makes the Sun of Righteousness as well as the Sun of Heaven to shine on the evil and on the good Which notwithstanding Faith is called and that most properly Fides Electorum the Faith of Gods Elect in that and other places of the Book of God because the fruits thereof are in them more visible the confession of the same more fervent the seeds thereof more fastly rooted and the fruit more durable For which cause possibly the Apostle doth there join together the faith of Gods Elect and the knowledge of the truth which is after godliness Which is indeed the special difference which is between the faith of the Elect and the faith of the Reprobates For if the fruit be unto holiness no question but the end thereof will be life everlasting It is not then the weakness or the want of faith which doth alone exclude the Reprobate from the Kingdom of Heaven and make him finally uncapable of the grace and favour of the Lord in the day of judgement but the want of a good conscience in the sight of God And therefore if we mark it well St. Peter did not charge it upon Simon Magus that he wanted faith or that his faith was only a dissembled hypocritical faith upbraiding him as formerly Ananias in another case that he had not only lyed unto men but unto God but that he was in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity not having his heart right in the sight of God Nor did St. Paul accuse the said three Apostates that they never had received the faith or that the faith which they received was not true and real but that first having put away a good conscience they afterwards made shipwrack of the faith also blaspheming God and scattering abroad their dangerous errours to the seducing of their brethren If Simon had repented of his wickedness as St. Peter advised it may be charitably supposed that the thoughts of his heart had been forgiven him And Hymeneus and Alexander if they had made good use of the Apostles censure when he delivered them unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh no question but their spirits might have been saved in the day of the Lord IESUS Which may suffice for answer to the first objection touching the faith of reprobates as they use to call them whose firm assent to supernatural truths revealed makes them not inheritable to the Kingdom of Heaven because they hold the truth revealed in unrighteousness and so become without excuse as St. Paul tels us in another case of the antient Gentiles The next Objection is that if this phrase in Deum credere import no more then this that there is a God and that all his words are Divine truths and all the world the workmanship of his hands alone the Devils do belieue as much as St. Iames assures us Thou believest saith he that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble Iam. 1.19 The answer unto this is easie St. Iames assures us of the Devils that they believe there is one God but doth withall assure us this that this belief of theirs confirms them in the certainty and foreknowledge of their everlasting damnation the apprehension of the which produceth nothing in them but fear and horrour The Devils do believe that there is a God and that this God is just in all his actions and righteous in all his ways unchangeable in his Decrees Yesterday and to day and the same for ever What other comfort can they reap from this faith of theirs but that being once condemned by God to eternal fire they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgement of the great and terrible day For knowing that the judgements of the Lord are just and his doom unchangeable they must needs know withall the certainty of their own damnation or else they cannot properly be affirmed to believe this truth that there is a God And as they do believe that there is a God so they believe also that he is the Maker of heaven and earth For being at the first created by Almighty God with so great perspicacity and clearness of the understanding they could not choose but know the hand that made them and consequently believe that he made all those things which are ascribed to God in the holy Scripture Though by their fall they lost the favour of the Lord their first estate in which they were created by Almighty God the grace by which they stood and the glories which they did possess yet lost they not that quickness and agility of motion that perspicacity and clearness of the understanding wherewith they were endowed by God at their first Creation But what makes this unto their comfort when the same knowledge or belief call it which you will by which they are assured that God made the Heavens and the Earth and all the things therein contained will keep them always in remembrance of this most sad truth that he also made an Hell of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth prepared for the Devill and his Angels To go a little farther yet the Devils did not only believe long since that CHRIST was come in the flesh but publickly proclaimed him in the open
hath his dwelling on High Psal. 113. in which respect the Heathen Poets said of their Idol-Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he dwelleth in the Highest Heavens but in relation to his Essence by which he infinitely exceeds all creatures both in Heaven and Earth who in comparison of him are but toys and trifles So little reason have we to be proud of our earthly fortunes or of our natural parts and graces that rather looking whence we are made of dust and ashes the thought thereof should humble us in the sight of God and make us have recourse to him to obtain perfection The last we meet with in this kinde for still we are upon those Names or Attributes which are both absolute in God and Essential to him is that of Adonai or my Lord. A name as it is noted in the Mazoreth found of it self no more then 134 times in all the Old Testament but substituted by the Modern superstitious Iews in the place of Iehovah as often as they meet that word in the course of the Text. A name derived by the learned from the Hebrew Eden which signifieth a Basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly chosen to express his nature who beareth up the pillars of the Earth as the Psalmist hath it by whom the whole fabrick of the Universe is preserved in being These are the names or Titles of Almighty God by which he hath made known himself to his chosen servants all of them absolutely his without relation to the creature and such as rather serve to declare his Essence then set forth his office for Deus est nomen naturae non officii as St. Ambrose hath it All of them laid together teach us this of GOD that he is of a self-existing of infinite power of incomprehensible strength and unspeakable Majesty and that as he hath all this of himself alone so like an Universal Parent he communicates a beeing to all the creatures and doth endue them with so much of his power and wisdom of his strength and Majesty as shall suffice to every one in their several places Not that the creature doth partake of his heavenly Essence we conceive not so but that he is the principal and Original cause by which all creatures have an Essence non ut de essentia ejus sed ut causa essendi as Aquinas stateth it and that having thus received an essence or a being from him we receive also out of his abundance all additaments of what sort soever which are expedient for us in our severall callings For out of his fulnesse we have all received as we are told by the Apostle Now by the knowledge of these names or rather of the nature of God represented in them we come unto the knowledge of those reall attributes which are so proper and peculiar to the Lord our God as not to be communicated unto any creature of which we must first speak a little in the way of groundwork or foundation before we can behold him as the Father Almighty And these are principally two simplicitas and infinitas Simplicitas or the simpleness of God if we may so call it is that whereby he is void of all composition either of matter and forme or parts and accidents compounding whether they be sensible or intelligible only For whereas all corporall substances are compounded of matter and forme and the angelicall natures of a potentia and an actus as the School-men phrase it GOD being incorporeal hath no matter of forme and being wholly existing all at once together must be purus actus not having any thing in potentia which at first he had not For if GOD were compounded of matter and form there must be some pre-existent matter out of which he was made and if he be compounded of potentia and actus he must and may be somewhat which at first he was not both which are so destructive of the nature of GOD as being once admitted he is God no longer And therefore in my minde the judicious Scaliger hath very well determined of it in these following words Intelligentiae habent aliquid simile materiae aliquid simile formae Solus Deus simplex est in quo nihil in potentia sed in actu omnia imo ipse purus primus medius ultimus actus that is to say The Angels or Intelligences have something proportionable unto matter and something which resembleth form God only is a simple uncompounded essence in whom there is nothing in potentia but all things in act he being a pure act himself and the first intervenient and last act of all God then is in the first place a simple or uncompounded essence without parts or accidents his attributes not differing from his essence at all but being of his very essence for in Deo non est nisi Deus as the old rule was nor differing essentially from one another but only in regard of our weak understanding which being not able to know or comprehend the earthly things by one single act must of necessity have many distinct acts and notions to comprehend the nature of the incomprehensible God And being such a simple uncompounded essence without parts or accidents he is both great without quantity and good without quality mercifull without passion every where without motion in heaven without a place or ubi The second Attribute of God which before we spake of is that of Infinitenesse by which God is absolutely and actually infinite in his acts and essence And this infinite or infinitenesse is defined to be that without which nothing is or can be Infinitum est extra quod nihil est said the old Philosophers so that it is impossible for any thing to be without or besides that before or after that in which all possible being is comprehended And this infinity doth branch it self into these four species that is to say Infinity in regard of duration which we call Eternity 2. Infinity in regard of dimensions which we call Immensity 3. Infinity in regard of comprehensions by which we say that God is of infinite wisdome and of infinite knowledge And last of all Infinity in regard of power which we call Omnipotence And first Infinity in regard of duration which we call Eternity is that attribute of the Lord our God by which he is without beginning or end without beginning of dayes or end of time without succession or precession if I may so speak Or else we may define it with Boetius to be the entire or totall possession of interminable life all at once together or otherwise thus to be a circular duration whose instants are alwayes and whose terminations of extremities never were nor shall be which are the words of Trismegistus with some little change In this respect God took unto himself this name I AM or I AM THAT I AM all time being present unto God as is also that infinity which was
before the beginning of time and shall be also as it is when time it self shall be no more In this regard he tels us also of himself that he is A and Ω or the first or the last which was and is and is to come still the same for ever And finally in this respect it is said by Tertullian Ante omnia Deus erat solus et erat sibi tempus mundus et omnia i. e. Before all things were God was and he was also to himself time the world and all things He was alone quia nil aliud extrinsecus praeter illum because there was not any thing without or besides him and yet not then alone if we weigh it rightly Habebat enim Deum quod habebat in semet ipso c. for he had alwayes with him that divine wisdome which he had alwayes in himself And so the old Philosophers are to be expoonded when they say of God that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortal and eternal or everlasting that is to say not only a parte post as Angels and the souls of men are called mortal but also a parte ante which none was but God Which makes up that conclusion of the royal Psalmist Before the mountaines were brought forth or ever the earth and the world were made thou art God from everlasting and world without end world without end a parte post from everlasting also a parte ante but in both eternall Of the same nature is that infiniteness in Almighty God in respect of dimensions which by a name distinct may be called immensity whereby he is of infinite extension not circumscribed with any bounds filling all places whatsoever but contained of none Of this immensity or unmeasurableness doth the Prophet speak saying Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his Hand and meted out heaven with his span and comprehended the dust of the earth in his three fingers after such a manner as men take up a dust or sand and weighed the mountaines with scales and the hils in a balance Who taketh up the Isles as a very little thing before whom all nations are as nothing as the drop of a bucket This by an other name and in other respects is also called Vbiquity or Omnipresence by which our GOD is present in all places every where and confined to none but as a sphere as very understandingly said Trismegistus whose Center is every where his circumference no where In reference to this we finde it said by Moses of the Lord our God that he is God in Heaven above and in the earth below The very same with that of the royal Psalmist If I climb up into Heaven thou art there if I goe down into Hell thou art there also And so we have it both in Moses and in the Psalms In reference unto this it is said by Ieremy Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord And Can any man hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him And so we have it in the Law and the Prophets too And though the Gentiles did exceedingly stomach at the primitive Christians for giving this Vbiquity or Omnipresence to their Lord and God Discurrentem scilicet illum volunt et ubique praesentem as Cecilius in the Dialogue did object against them yet did the Fathers of all times stand most stoutly to it and would not yeild a jot to their importunities For thus saith the renowned Augustine Deus meus ubique praesens ubique totus nusquam inclusus My GOD saith he is in all places present in all places wholly but so in all places as contained in none More fully Gregory the great Deus est intra omnia non inclusus extra omnia non exclusus supra omnia non elatus i. e. GOD is in all things but not inclosed he is without all things but not excluded he is above all things but not lifted up and finally beneath all things and yet not depressed And though it may be truly said of the sons of men Qui ubique est nusquam est he that is every where is no where that is to say he that ingageth himself in every business will goe thorow with none yet so it cannot be affirmed of the God of Heaven unlesse perhaps it be in a qualifyed sense interpreting nusquam esse by non includi And in that sense is that saying of St. Bernard exactly verifyed Nusquam est et ubique est i. e. He is no where because no place either reall or imaginary can comprehend or contain him and he is every where because no body no space nor spirituall substance can exclude his presence Proceed we next to the third species or kinde of infiniteness which we called the infinity of comprehensions by which all things whatsoever as well things future as things past are alike present to him and for ever before him by which he knoweth things that are not as if they were and doth accordingly decree and determine of them with as much perspicacity of wisdome and infallibility of judgment as if they were actually before his eyes For first God being of an infinite knowledge most perfectly and simply knoweth all things in himself which ever were or shall be in the times to come and then being of an infinite wisdome to dispose of all things as may conduce most to his honour and glory hath either given them bounds which they shall not passe or left them a dispositive power of their own occasions putting upon things necessary the law of necessity and leaving things contingent to the lot of contingency The due consideration of which weighty point brought the Apostle to cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches of the wisdome and knowledge of God Which two though two distinct acts and attributes in our apprehension yet differ not in GOD as before was said nor perhaps very much in themselves at all For wisdome is but the excellency of knowledge consisting either in the dignity or usefulnesse of the matter known or the more perfect manner of discerning what they truely are And of this wisdome or more usefull kind of knowledge there are these two offices the one stedfastly to propose a right end the other to present a right choice of means for effecting thereof But being it is equally consonant to Gods infinite wisdome and not a whit derogatory to his infinite power that some things should be as truely contingent as other are really and truely necessary therefore hath God been pleased as well to decree contingency as to decree or fore-determine of necessity Hereupon it will follow by good rules of Logick that though there be an immutability in the counsails of God arising from the infiniteness of his knowledge and wisdome yet that there are some things which might not have been and that some things are not which yet might have been or might have been far
it denotes the first person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity There are three that bear record in heaven as St. Iohn hath it the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one And in this notion or acception of the word GOD is the father of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST whom he hath begotten to himself before all worlds generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by such a kind of generation as neither the tongue of Men nor Angels can expresse aright In this respect our Saviour saith of GOD the first person I and my Father are one and in another place which we saw before on another occasion I work and my Father also worketh In this sense God the Father saith of the second person This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And finally in this as no man living no not any of the host of Heaven is to be called the Son of God but the second Person so none of the three Persons takes the name of Father but the first alone Though GGD hath severall sons and by severall means as shall be shewed anone in the place fit for it yet only CHRIST is called his begotten son and therefore God a naturall Father if I may so say unto none but him And this is that which Gregory Thaumaturgus hath told us saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath no other son by nature but thee my Saviour The name of this generation I forbear to speak of It is a point I waived from the very first when first I undertook to expound this Creed as being of too sublime and transcendent nature for the shallowness of my capacity to inquire into It is enough that I acknowledge God to be the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST by an eternall generation though I professe my self unable to discourse thereof with any satisfaction to my self or others And for the generation of our Saviour in the fulnesse of time by which he was conceived of the Virgin Mary I shall have opportunity to speak in a place more proper So that not having more to speak of the name of Father as it is personall and hypostaticall in the first Person only I shall proceed to that acception of the word wherein it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or essentially and so given to GOD that every person of the Trinity doth partake thereof But first I cannot choose but note that even in that equality or unity which is said to be between the Persons of the blessed Trinity the Father seems to me to have some preheminency above the others For not only the Greek Church doth acknowledge him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head but it is generally agreed on by all Orthodox writers that the Father is first in order though not in time Pater est prior ordine non tempore as Alstedius states it and by Aquinas amongst those of the Church of Rome that the Son or second person is Principiatus non essentiatus that is to say if I rightly understand his meaning that there was a beginning of his existence though not of his essence or a beginning of his Filiation but not of his God-head And yet I dare not say that I hit his meaning for I professe my self uncapable of these Schoole-niceties because I finde it generally agreed on by most learned men that CHRIST receiveth the being and essence which he hath from the Father although not in the way of production of an other essence which was condemned as an impious heresie in Valentinus Gentilis but by communication of the same Add here that those who have most constantly stood up in the defence of the doctrine of the Trinity against some Hereticks of this Age doe notwithstanding say and declare in publick that CHRIST though looked upon as the Son of God in his eternall generation cannot be said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or self-essentiate And that both Genebrard Lindanus and some others of the Romish Doctors have quarrelled Calvin whom Beza laboureth to excuse in that particular for saying that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hath his God-head from himself wherein he is deserted by Arminius also and those of the Remonstrant party in the Belgick Countries But that the Father Almighty mentioned in my Creed was not and is not both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too hath never been affirmed nor so much as doubted of by any Christian writer of what times soever Next look we on the name of Father as it is taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 essentially in the holy Scriptures and then it is appliable to every person of the blessed Trinity each of which in his severall person or subsistence may be called our Father Thus read we of the second person for of the first there is no question to be made in the 9. of Esay that unto us a Son is born and that he shall be called wonderfull the mighty God the everlasting Father Vers. 6. Thus in St. Iames we finde that the holy Ghost is called Pater luminum the Father of lights it being his office to illuminate every soul which is admitted for a member of the Church of CHRIST in which respect the Sacrament of Baptisme in which men are regenerated and born again of water and the holy Spirit was antiently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or illumination The reason why the name Father doth in this sense belong respectively to each is because they equally concur as in the work of Creation God the Father creating the world in the Son by the holy Ghost so in those also of Redemption and Sanctification From whence that maxim of the Schools Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa that is to say the outward or externall actions of the Trinity are severally communicable to the whole essence of GOD and not appropriated unto any particular person And yet the name of Father even in this acception is generally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the common course of speech referred to the first Person only as he that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the root and fountain of the God-head as before was said For thus hath CHRIST himself instructed us to pray and say Our Father which art in heaven And the Church following his command who hath willed us to pray after that manner beginneth many of her prayers in the publick Liturgy with this solemn form of compellation Almighty and most mercifull Father Not that we do exclude the Son or the holy Ghost in our devotions but include them in him In Patre invocantur filius et spiritus sanctus as Bellarmine hath most truly noted And therefore though we commonly begin our prayers with a particular address to God the Father yet we conclude them all with this through Christ Iesus our Lord and sometimes add to
sheweth the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness aud their thoughts excusing or accusing one another By means whereof such of them as were careful to conform their lives unto that law and put not out that light which did shine within them attained unto an eminent height in all moral virtues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Naziazen Which moral piety of theirs if not directed to the glory of GOD as it ought to be but either to advance their projects or else to gain opinion and be seen of men may perhaps mitigate their torments but not advance them to the glories of eternal life Nec vitae aeiernae veros acquirere fructus De falsa virtute potest as Prosper hath it Not that those actions in themselves were not good and commendable and might deserve some more then ordinary blessings at the hands of GOD but that those men being so far instructed and illuminated they desisted there holding the truth as St. Paul telleth us in unrighteousness and so became without excuse But of this more hereafter in another place And if the Lord hath been so gracious to the antient Gentiles and still is to the Turks and Pagans of the present ages which are his children only by the right of Creation no question but he doth instruct whom he hath adopted after a more peculiar manner He shewed his word unto Jacob his statutes and his Ordinances unto Israel saith the Prophet David of the Iews And as for us which have the happiness to live under the Gospel the Lord himself hath said by the Prophet Ieremie that he would write his law in their hearts and put it in our inward parts and by another of his Prophets that our sons and daughters should prophecy and that we should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or taught of God If after so much care on the part of God if after all this done by our Heavenly Father we still continue ignorant of his will or shut our eyes against that light which doth shine upon us and stop our ears against the voyce of the Charmer charm he never so sweetly no wonder if he draw his sword and either cut us off by a temporal death or publickly expose us unto shame and misery For sure it cannot be denyed but that the Lord our heavenly Father hath potestatem vitae necis the power of life and death over all his children The Lord hath power of life and death as the wise man hath it he leadeth to the gates of Hell and brings back again Wisd. 16.13 But this a severity which God reserves unto the last as the utmost remedy inflicting in the mean time moderate chastisements on his wilful children in hope by that means to reclaim them Which if they do not take effect he then proceeds unto the woful sentence of disinheritance expungeth them out of the Catalogue of his Elect razeth their names out of the sacred Book of life and leaves them no inheritance in the house of Jesse or any portion at all in the son of David So excellently true is that of Lactantius Deus ut erga bonos indulgentissimus Pater ita adversus improbos justissimus Iudex God saith he as he is a loving and indulgent Father towards his good and godly children so towards those who are past hope of reformation he will become as terrible and severe a Iudge so he Institut tut l. 1. cap. 1. And certainly it doth concern us in an high degree to keep the love and good opinion of our heavenly Father who is not only able to chastise us with such light corrections as are inflicted on us by our earthly Parents but to arm all the hosts of Heaven and all the creatures of the Earth against us as once he did against Pharaoh and the land of Egypt GOD is not here represented to us by the name of a Father only but by the name of a Father Almighty The title of Omnipotent makes a different case and may be our Remembrancer upon all occasions to keep us from incurring his just displeasure and drawing down his vengeance on our guilty heads This is that infinitie or infiniteness of power which before I spake of and is so proper unto God that it is not to be communicated unto any creature no not unto the man CHRIST IESVS The Roman Emperours indeed in the times of their greatest flourish did take unto themselves the style of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby they gave the world to understand that they were absolute and independent not tyed to the observance of any laws or bound by the Decrees of Senate but that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Omnipotent was never challenged by the proudest nor given unto them by the grossest of their many Parasites Now GOD is said to be Almighty because that he is able to do and doth upon occasion also whatsoever pleaseth him both in Heaven and Earth as the Psalmist hath it For with God nothing is impossible saith the holy Angel And though some things may seeme impossible in the eyes of men yet apud Deum omnia sunt possibilia all things are possible to God saith CHRIST our Saviour yet still observe the words of David before mentioned which is the Rule or Standard if I may so call it by which not only possibility and impossibility but even Omnipotencie it self is to be measured and David saith not of the Lord that he can do all things but whatsoever pleaseth him be it what it will For therefore God the Father is said to be Almighty or Omnipotent not that he can do every thing whatsoever it be and will do all things that he can but because he can do all things that he plaaseth all that can be done Because he can doe all things whatsoever he pleaseth For as S. Augustine well observeth nec ob aliud vocatur Omnipotens nisi quia quicquid vult potest Because he can do all things which can be done For some things are not denyed to be impossible even to God himself as namely such as do imply a contradiction and so the dictate of Aquinas is exceeding true Deus omnia potest quae contradictionem non implicant Nor can he do such things as may argue him to be capable of any defect as namely to be unjust to lie to be confined to place or to change his beeing according to another rule of the same Aquinas i. e. Omnipotentia excludit defectus omnes qui sunt impotentia ceu posse mentiri mori peccare c. The reasons are first because those things in themselves would make him lyable to impotency wants and weakness and utterly deprive him of the title of a Father Almighty Nam si haec ei acciderent non esset Omnipotens as most excellently it is said by Augustine Secondly actions of that nature are in themselves so contrary
Esdras the springs above the firmament were broken up which on the abatement of the waters are said to have been stopped or shut up again Gen. 8.2 A thing saith he not to be understood of any subterraneous Abysse without an open defiance to the common principles of nature Besides it doth appear from the Text it self that at the first God had not caused it to rain on the earth at all perhaps not till those times of Noah but that a moysture went up and watered the whole face of the ground Gen. 2.5.6 as still it is observed of the land of Egypt And that it did continue thus till the days of Noah may be collected from the bow which God set in the Clouds which otherwise as Porphyrie did shrewdly gather had been there before and if no clouds nor rain in the times before the Cataracts of heaven spoken of Gen. 7. 11. 8.2 must have some other exposition then they have had formerly Nay he collects and indeed probably enough from his former principles that this aboundance of waters falling then from those heavenly treasuries and sunke into the secret receptacles of the earth have been the matter of those clouds which are and have been since occasioned and called forth by the heat and influence of the Sun and others of the stars and celestiall bodies These are the principall reasons he insists upon And unto those me thinks the Philosophical tradition of a Crystalline heaven the watery Firmament we may call it doth seem to add some strength or moment which hath been therefore interposed between the eighth sphere and the primum mobile that by the natural coolness and complexion of it it might repress and moderate the fervour of the primum mobile which otherwise by its violent and rapid motion might suddenly put all the world in a conflagration For though perhaps there may be no such thing in nature as this Crystalline heaven yet I am very apt to perswade my self that the opinion was first grounded on this Text of Moses where we are told of Waters above the Firmament but whether rightly understood I determine not But I desire to be excused for this excursion though pertinent enough to the point in hand which was to shew the power and wisdome of Almighty God in ordering the whole work of the Worlds Creation To proceed therefore where we left As we are told in holy Scripture that God made the World and of the time when and the manner how he did first create it so finde we there the speciall motions which induced him to it Of these the chief and ultimate is the glory of God which not only Men and Angels do dayly celebrate but all the Creatures else set forth in their severall kindes The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy work saith the royall Psalmist And Benedicite domino opera ejus O blesse the Lord saith he all ye works of his Psal. 103.22 The second was to manifest his great power and wisdome which doth most clearly shew it self in the works of his hands there being no creature in the world no not the most contemptible and inconsiderable of all the rest in making or preserving which we do not finde a character of Gods power and goodness For not the Angels only and the Sun and Moon nor Dragons only and the Beasts of more noble nature but even the very worms are called on to extol Gods name All come within the compass of laudate Dominum and that upon this reason only He spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created In the third place comes in the Creation of Angels and men that as the inanimate and irrational creatures do afford sufficient matter to set forth Gods goodness so there might be some creatures of more excellent nature which might take all occasions to express the same who therefore are more frequently and more especially required to perform this duty Benedicite Domino omnes Angeli ejus O praise the Lord all ye Angels of his ye that excel in strength ye that fulfil his commandements for the Angels are but ministring spirits Psal. 104.4 and hearken to the voyce of his words And as for men he cals upon them four times in one only Psalm to discharge this Office which sheweth how earnestly he expecteth it from them O that men would therefore praise the LORD for his goodness and declare the wonders which he doth to the children of men Then follows his selecting of some men out of all the rest into that sacred body which we call the Church whom he hath therefore saved from the hands of their enemies that they might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives And therefore David doth not only call upon mankinde generally to set forth the goodness of the Lord but particularly on the Church Praise the Lord O Hierusalem Praise thy God O Sion And that not only with and amongst the rest but more then any other of the sons of men How so because he sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his Ordinances unto Israel A favour not vouchsafed to other Nations nor have the Heathen knowledge of his laws for so it followeth in that Psalm v. 19 20. The Church then because most obliged is most bound to praise him according to that divine rule of eternal justice that unto whomsoever more is given of him the more shall be required And last of all the Lord did therefore in the time when it seemed best to him accomplish this great work of the Worlds Creation that as his infinite power was manifested in the very making so he might exercise his Providence and shew his most incomprehensible wisdome in the continual preservation and support thereof And certainly it is not easie to determine whether his Power were greater in the first Creation or his Providence more wonderful and of greater consequence in the continual goverance of the World so made which questionless had long before this time relapsed to its primitive nothing had he not hitherto supported it by his mighty hand For not alone these sublunary creatures which we daily see nor yet the heavenly bodies which we look on with such admiration but even the Heaven of Heavens and the Hosts thereof Archangels Angels Principalities Powers or by what name soever they are called in Scripture enjoy their actual existence and continual beeing not from their own nature or their proper Essence but from the goodness of their Maker For he it is as St. Paul telleth us in the Acts who hath not only made the World and all things therein but still gives life and breath unto every creature and hath determined of the times before appointed and also of the bounds of their habitation And so much Seneca Pauls dear friend if there be any truth in those letters which do bear their names hath affirmed also
Roman Emperours who though they ruled the people by the advice of the Senate yet ruled the Senate as they pleased and made the intimation of their own will and pleasure to pass as currant as Law Quod Principi placuerit Legis habet valorem saith the book of Institutes And such almost is the conclusion of those Royal Edicts which daily is set out by the French Kings which generally ends with these formal words Car tel est nostre plaisir for such is our pleasure But this in these and other Princes of the like authority is rather a character of power then a Rule of justice the Rule of justice being to be straight and even and always constant to it self not alterable on occasions or turned aside by passions and humane affections The will of God is subject to no such vicissitudes to such turns and changes as the wils of men but an unalterable and most constant rule without variation such as the rule of equal and impartial justice is of right to be And by this rule it is that the Lord proceedeth in executing justice over all the World Which justice either doth consist in the performance of his promises for even a just and righteous man is as good as his word and then it may be called veracitas and is a species or kinde of Commutative justice or else in punishing or rewarding the sons of men according to the exigence of their several works and then it hath the name of distributiva or distributive justice That part thereof which doth consist in the performance of his promises and is called Veracitas may be defined to be a constant and unalterable purpose in Almighty God of bringing every thing to pass which he hath either promised to the sons of men or spoke concerning them by his holy Prophets which have been since the World began In the first sense it is said so often of him in the holy Scipture that he remembred the Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Iacob performing to their seed and their children after them whatsoever he was pleased to promise more generally by the Royal Psalmist Custodit veritatem in seculum that he keepeth his promise for ever Psal. 146.6 And in the other sense it was said unto the Virgin Mary by her Cousin Elizabeth that there should be a performance of all those things which had been told her by the Lord Luk. 1.45 by the Apostle that all the Promises of God in Christ Jesus are yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 by CHRIST himself that Heaven and earth should pass away but that there was not one Iod or title in the Word of God which in due time should not be accomplished If it consist in punishing the impenitent sinner or chastising his own dear children for their wilful follies we then call it punitive and so it comes within the compass of Gods heavenly anger which as St. Augustine doth define it non aliud est quam voluntas puniendi is nothing but the will of God to punish such as do offend against his Commandements If in rewarding those who conform themselves as far as humane frailty will permit to his laws and precepts it is called Remunerative and hath a great admixture in it both of love and mercy in passing by our faults to reward our faith that saying of St. Bernard being always true Semper invenies Deum benigniorem quam te culpabilem Nay even his anger or his punitive justice is so mixt with goodness that in the midst of judgement he remembreth mercy and dealeth not so extremely with us as we have deserved it being as true which I finde noted by Nicephorus Deum vindictae gladium oleo misericordiae semper acuere that God doth always scour the sword of his vengeance with the oyl of his mercy The World had been reduced by this time to its former nothing had not he sweetned the severity of his judgements by the balm of his mercies and grown into a Wilderness or vast confusion had he not held in by his Iustice the exorbitant power of those who make their lusts and their wils a Law And certainly if we consult the Monuments and Records of former times we shall finde no Age nor State of men or Nations which do not give us evident and plain examples of Gods proccedings in this kinde when the necessities of his Church or the sins of men do require it of him The subtle tyrannie of the Egyptians had not only taught them to oppress Gods people for the present but to extinguish the whole race of them for the time to come and therefore a command was given to the Midwives of Egypt to murder all the Male Children which were born to Israel Did not God scourge them with their own rod and pay them in their own coin as we use to say when he slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt And possibly the piety compassion of the Midwives of Egypt in sparing many of the Male children whom they might have murdered occasioned God to lay the fury of his vengeance on the first-born Male not on any of the Females throughout the Countrey When David surfeiting on plenty and the sweets of power not only had defiled the wife but destroyed the husband how fitly did God square the punishment unto the offence For presently a violent mixture of rape and incest is committed by one of his own sons on his daughter Tamar that rape revenged not long after in the death of the Ravisher the Murderer getting in short time such a potent party as to drive his Father out of Hierusalem and to defile his Wives and Concubines in the fight of the people When David was restored to his Crown again and growing vain in conceit of his own great power must needs command a general muster to be made of all his subjects that all the World might see of what strength he was and stand in fear of his displeasure how justly did God punish him and take down his pride in cutting off so many thousands of his people in whose strength he trusted and bringing him to this confession that all his strength and power was from God alone The loss of so many of his subjects was a loss to David the glory of a King consisting in the multitude of his subjects as the Wise-man tels us And though David interceded for them and took all the fault upon himself saying in the affliction of a troubled soul At oves istae quid fecerunt what had those sheep done yet was there none at all of that seventy thousand who had not many ways offended against Gods Commandements and therefore had deserved death as the wages of sin How patiently did God bear with the house of Iudah in their Idolatries and apostasie from his Laws and Precepts how frequently did he command them to rely on him in all times of danger By consequence how justly did
for God had sent him into Egypt before hand for their preservation So also in the case of our blessed Saviour of whom Ioseph was a Type or figure the Lord determined out of his counsel and fore-knowledge as St. Peter telleth us that he should be the Propitiation for the sins of the world and in due time he made the avarice of Iudas and the malice of the Scribes and Pharisees his means and instruments that by their wicked hands and obdurate hearts he might be crucified and slain So used he the ambition of the Kings of Babylon to punish and chastise his people of the house of Iudah and the desire of glory which he found in Titus for the subversion of that wicked and perverse generation who had not only made themselves drunk with the bloud of the Prophets but against all rules of Law and Iustice had filled themselves with the bloud of the Son of God Thus when he had a minde to assay Iobs patience he used the Chaldees and wilde Arabs who did trade in theevery to fall upon the heards of his Kine and Camels and was content the Devil should try some experiments on his body also to leave the fairer pattern of unconquered patience for the times to come And though in these and other occasions of this nature he make use of the wicked to effect his purposes yet he rewardeth them answerably to their deservings proportioning their Wages to their own intentions and not according unto that effect which he works out of them Recipient vero non pro eo quod Deus bene usus est eorum operibus malis sed quod ipsi male usi sunt Dei operibus bonis said Fulgentius truly And though some of them have the hap or the seeming happiness to go down into the grave in peace and carry the reputation with them of successeful wickedness yet God will finde them out at last and meet with these sowre grapes in his general Vintage and tread them in the Wine-press of his indignation And to say truth there are as great and weighty reasons why some mens punishments should follow after them as that the rest should have a triall and essay of their future miseries by those which they endure in this present life For as St. Augustine well observeth if all mens sins were punished in this present world Nihil ultimo judicio reservari putaretur it would occasion some to think that there were no necessity nor use of the general judgement and on the other side if none Nulla esse divina providentia crederetur others would be too apt to think that there were no Providence and say with him in Davids Psalms Tush God doth not see it God therefore doth so order the affairs of this present life as may be most subservient unto that to come not giving such success to the prayers of his servants as they think most conducible unto their estates but as he thinks most expedient for them in reference to a better life then what here they have And if he do not always give the victory to the justest cause but that the good man may complain as once Cato did Victrix causa placet superis sed victa Catoni that the worst cause sped best in the chance of war that also is a special testimony of his heavenly Providence For either they which seem to have the justest cause may manage it by wicked and ungodly instruments or else relye too much on the Arm of flesh or God may possibly foresee that they will use the Victory unto his dishonour or grow secure and negligent of all pious duties upon the strength of that success In all which cases if God give them over to the hands of their enemies they have no reason to complain of Almighty God as if he either were not just in his distributions or that his Providence were asleep or too highly busied to look upon such passages as are here beneath God doth that which is most agreeable to his heavenly justice in punishing the sins of those whom he loves most tenderly with some temporal punishments that they may scape the wrath of the day to come and lets the wicked man go on with success and glory until he hath made up the measure of his sins and wickednesses and so is fitted and prepared for the day of slaughter But of this Argument it is enough to have said a little the Providence of God in governing the affaires of the present world being a point so generally granted by the sober Heathens that Aristotle being asked what answer should be given to those who made question of it is said to have replyed The whip His meaning was that they who ware so irreligious as to make any doubt of Gods heavenly providence were rather to be answered with stripes then with demonstrations And with this resolution I conclude this Chapter and the point together CHAP. V. Of the Creation of Angels the ministry and office of the good the fall and punishment of the evill Angels And also of the Creation and fall of Man OF the Creation of the World we have spoken before and are now come to speak of the creation of Angels and Men as the more noble parts thereof These though included in those words of Heaven and Earth according as they stand in the Creed are more significantly expressed by the Nicene Fathers who to those words of Heaven and Earth have added as by way of Glosse or Commentary and of all things visible and invisible That under the notion of things visible they intended Man as well as any other visible work of the whole Creation is a thing past question And that by things invisible they did mean the Angels will prove to be as clear as that and testifyed by St. Paul expressely saying that By him all things were created whether in Heaven or Earth visible or invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him In which we have not only the Apostles testimony that by the things invisible are meant the Angels but an enumeration of the severall rankes and degrees of Angels which were created by the power of the Lord our God Of these degrees and ranks we shall speak anon having prepared our way unto that discourse by taking first a short survey of the angelical nature For the quid nominis to begin first with that it is meerly Greek and English word Angel and the Latine Angelus being the same in sound and sense with the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nuntio which is to carry a message or to go of an errand Angelus then is no more then nuncius an Angel but a messenger in our English language And so it it expressed by Lactantius saying Habe◠enim Ministros quos vocamus nuncios This as it notifyeth their name and the reason of
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
the children of Infidels are saved partly by vertue of the Covenant and partly by Gods Election By vertue of the Covenant in regard they are descended of such Ancestors as were themselves within the Covenant though it be long since and that there be some interruption in the whole succession Gods mercy reaching as he tels us Exod. 20. unto a thousand generations By Election because God hath not barred himself from a power and right to communicate his Grace to those whose Ancestors were not of the Covenant For if he called those Adulti men of riper years to be partakers of the Covenant who were not within the same before why may he not in like manner if he please elect children also Finally as he doth believe that all who are elected or within the Covenant shall most undoubtedly be saved so he doth charitably conceive that those whom God takes out of this world in the state of infancy servari potius secundum electionem providentiam ipsius paternam quam a regno Coelorum abdicari are rather saved by Gods election and paternal providence then utterly excluded out of the Kingdom of Heaven If the same charity make me hope the like of those famous men among the Gentiles who were not wanting to the grace of God which was given unto them why should I fear worse fortune then was found by Iunius who never yet was censured for ought I have read for that so charitable resolution in the case of Infants no not by those of the Reformed who differ in opinion from him as to that particular And so far I conceive I may go with safety without opposing any text of holy Scripture or any publick tendry of the Church of England 'T is true St. Peter telleth us in the 4. of the Acts that there is no name under Heaven given among men whereby they be saved but that of our Lord and Saviour IESVS CHRIST v. 12. But this is spoken with relation to the times of the Gospel when CHRIST had broken down the partition wall and that the Gentiles were admitted to the knowledge of the word of life a general command being laid by CHRIST on his Apostles to preach the Gospel to all Nations After this time the case was altered and the Gentiles altogether left without excuse if they embraced not the ordinary meanes of their salvation which by the universall preaching of Christ crucifyed had been offered to them And so I understand that Article of the Church of England by which all they are to be accursed who presume to say that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect that he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of nature Act. 18. For certainly the Article relates not to the times before Christs coming or the condition of the Gentiles in those elder dayes but only to the present condition of the Church of Christ as it now stands and hath stood since his death and passion in opposition both to Iewes and Gentiles unto Turkes and Saracens with reference to the Familists and such modern Sectaries who made the external profession of the faith of Christ but a thing indifferent so they conformed themselves by the light of nature Of which opinion one Galcalus Martius also is affirmed to be by Paulus Iovius in his Elog. doct virorum So that for ought appeares from that place of the Acts and from this Article of the Church we may conceive the charitable hope of the salvation of some of the more noble Gentiles the great example of whose vertues is transmitted to us in Classical and approved Authors But this was only in some extraordinary and especial cases some Casus reservati as the Lawyers call them which God reserved to his own Power and dispensation and not of any ordinary and common right For generally the Heathen people as they knew not God having extinguished that light of nature which was given unto them so having their understanding darkned and that light put out their will forthwith became depraved the affections of their hearts corrupted and their lusts exorbitant And as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge so did God give them over to a reprobate minde to do those things which are not convenient dishonouring their owne bodies amongst themselves and being filled with all unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse Nay even their greatest Clerks men of wit and learning professing themselves wise did become fooles in that they sought not after God the true fountain of wisdome and holding the truth which was revealed to them in unrighteousnesse as St. Paul saith of them were thereby made without excuse And as the light of nature was thus generally extinguished amongst the Gentiles so was the light of Prophecie as much neglected amongst the Iewes who though they were Gods chosen and peculiar people had so degenerated from the piety of their Predecessors that there was hardly either faith or charity to be found amongst them Insomuch as all the world was now of the same condition in which it was before the flood Of which God said that all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth the wickedness of man grown great and all the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart continually and only evill Nothing could have prevented a second deluge but Gods gratious promise that there should never more be a flood to destroy the Earth nothing have respited the World from more grievous punishment had not Christ come into the World and by his suffering on the Crosse for the sinne of Man appeased Gods anger for the present and caused his Gospell to be preached unto every nation that so they might escape the wrath of the time to come Nothing required by him for so great a mercy but that we would believe in him that to the faith which every man was bound before to have in God the Father Almighty by whom we were created when we were just nothing there might be added a beliefe in IESVS CHRIST his only Sonne by whom we were redeemed being worse then nothing He knew the frailty of our nature that we were but dust that we were utterly unable to observe the Law which Adam either could not or would not keep in the state of innocency and therefore did not look so far as to the Covenant of works to require them of us but to the Covenant of faith as the easier duty God in the Covenant of works required of every man for his justification an absolute and entire obedience to the Law which he had prescribed and that obedience to the Law had it been performed had justifyed the performance of it in the sight of God But finding man unable to fulfill the Law he made a second Covenant with that sinfull Creature and required nothing of him for his justification but only faith in God and his gracious promises for the redemption of the world
look to finde it in any writings or records of the antient Gentiles So that we may affirme of the knowledge of CHRIST as Lactantiuss did in generall of the ttue Religion Nondum fas esse alienigenis hominibus Religionem Dei veri justitiamque cognoscere the time was not yet come in which the Gentiles should be made acquainted with those heavenly mysteries which did concern the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour T is true the Sibylline Oracles cited by Lactantius and others of great eminence in the Primitive times speak very clearly in some things concerning the life and death of CHRIST in so much that they seem rather written in the way of History then in that of Prophesie And though the learned Casaubon and others of our great Philologers conceive them to be pious fraudes composed of purpose by some Christians of the elder ages and added as a supplement to the true Originals the better to win credit to the faith of CHRIST yet dare I not so far disparage those good Catholick writers as to believe they would support so strong an edifice with so weak a prop or borrow help from falshood to evict the truth Or if they durst have been so venturous how easie had it been for their learned Adversaries Porphyrie Iulian and the rest of more eminent note to have detected the Imposture and silenced the Christian Advocates with reproach enough Letting this therefore go for granted as I think I may that the Sibylline Oracles are truly cited by the Fathers and that they do contain most things which hapned to our Saviour in his life and death yet could this give but little light to the Heathen people touching CHRIST to come because they were not suffered to be extant publickly and consequently came not to the knowledge of the learned Gentiles till by the care and diligence of the Christian Writers they were after published For so exceeding coy were the antient Romans of suffering the Sibyls or their works to go abroad having got into their hands the best copies of them that those times afforded that they commanded them to be kept closely in the Capitol under the care and charge of particular Officers whom from the number of fifteen for so many they were they called Quindecemviri and to whom only it was lawful to consult their papers Nec eos ab ullo nisi a Quindecemviris fâ—s est inspici as Lactantius notes it very truly And it is also very true that many of the antient and most learned Grecians had a confused notice of a second Deity whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Word making him aiding and subservient to Almighty God in the Creation of the world and therefore giving him the attribute of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the worlds Creator The several testimonies to this purpose he that lists to see may finde them mustered up together in that laborious work of the Lord du Plessis entituled De veritate Religionis Christianae cap. 6. So frequently occurs this notion in the old Philosophers especially in those of the School of Plato that Porphyrie an Apostate Christian and a Platonick in the course of his sect and studies blasphemously averred that St. Iohn had stollen the first words of his Gospel viz. In the beginning was the Word c. from his Master Plato And though the affirmation of that vile Apostata intended only the disgrace of the holy Evangelist and of the Gospel by him written for the use of the Church yet had it been a truth as indeed it was not it could have been no greater a disparagement to St. Iohn to borrow an expression from a Greek Philosopher then to St. Paul to use the very words of three Grecian Poets But the truth is that both St. Iohn and the Platonicks together with the rest of those old Heroes borrowed the notion from the Doctors of the Iewish Nation as Maldonate hath proved at large in his Comment on that Text of the blessed Evangelist who withal gives it for the reason why S. Iohn made choyce rather of this notion then of any other in the front or entrance of his Gospel because it was so known and acceptable both to Iew and Gentile Philosophos non dubium est ab antiquis Hebraeis hausisse sententiam vocabulum accepisse Proinde voluit Johannes accommodate ad usum loqui saith the learned Iesuite But then withall we must observe that though we finde such frequent mention of the Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the writings of the antient Gentiles yet finde we almost nothing of him but the name or notion nothing that doth relate to the salvation of man the taking of our nature upon him or being made a propitiation for the sins of mankinde That as before I noted was a secret mysterie not to be manifested to the sons of the Gentiles till CHRIST himself was come to make one of both and call them to the knowledge of his grace and faith in him Being so called they were no longer to be differenced by the name of Gentiles but fellow-heirs and of the same body whereof CHRIST is Head and as the members of that body to joyn in the Confession of the self same faith not only as to God the Father in the acknowledgement of which Article all the Nations meet but as unto his only Son IESVS CHRIST our Lord from whence the faith hath properly the name of Christian. Now that which we believe touching CHRIST our Saviour and is to be the argument of this present Book is thus delivered by the pen of our Reverend Iewell in the name and for the use and edification of the Church of England Credimus Jesum Christum filium unicum aeterni patris c. i. e. We believe that IESVS CHRIST the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been determined before all beginnings when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man that he might declare unto the world the secret and hidden will of his Father and that he might fulfil in his humane body the Mysterie of our Redemption and might fasten our sins unto the Cross and blot out that hand-writing which was against us We believe that for our sakes he dyed and was buryed descended into Hell and the third day by the power of his God-head rose again to life and that the fortieth day after his Resurrection whiâ—est his Disciples looked on he ascended into Heaven to fulfil all things and did place in Majesty and glory the self same body wherewith he was born in which he lived upon the earth in which he was scornfully derided and suffered most painful torments and a cruel death and finally in which he rose again from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father above all principalities and powers and might and dominion that there he
the Text as I think we need not yet might it give the Church a justifiable ground of commanding such a duty to all Christian people To the end that by those outward ceremonies and gestures their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord IESVS CHRIST the true and eternal Son of God is the only Saviour of the world in whom alone all the graces mercies and promises of God to mankinde for this life and the life to come are fully and wholly comprehended Which is the end proposed and published by the Church of England as appears plainly by the 18. Canon An. 1603. As IESVS is the name of our Lord and Saviour his personal and proper name by which he was distinguished from the rest of his Fathers kindred â—o CHRIST is added thereunto both in the holy Scriptures and the present Creed to denote his offices Christus non proprium nomen est sed nuncupatiâ— potestatis regni CHRIST saith Lactantius is no proper name but a name of power and principality It signifieth properly an anointed and is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to anoint and was used by the old Grecians for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a word of the same signification but more common use And so the word is used by Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. they washed and then anointed themselves with oyl The Hebrew word Messiah corresponds to this as appears evidently by that passage in St. Iohns Gospel where Andrew telleth his brother Simon this most joyful news viz. We have found the Messias which being interpreted is the CHRIST And ' â—is no wonder if Andrew ran with so much joy to acquaint his brother with the news for by the name of the Messiah the Iews had long expected the performance of the promise which God made to David that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore But the word CHRIST implyes more yet then a name of Soveraignty For though Kings antiently were anointed as is plain by examples of the Saul 1 Sam. 10.1 2 Sam. 2.4 yet not only they The High Priest also was anointed For it is said of Moses that he powred the anointing oyl upon Aarons head and anointed him to sanctifie him And so the Prophet seems to be in the Book of Kings where Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat to be the Prophet in his room Vngebantur Reges Sacerdotes Prophetae saith a learned Writer and each of these respectively in their several places might be called Christus Domini the Lords anointed or the Lords Christ but our Redeemer after a more peculiar manner was Christus Dominus the Lord Christ or the Lord anointed And certainly there was good reason why the Name of CHRIST should be applyed to him in another manner then it had been to any in the times before he being the one and only Person in whom the Offices of King Priest and Prophet had ever met before that time Although those Offices had formerly met double in the self same person Mâ—lchisedech a King and Priest Samuel a Prophet and a Priest David a Prophet and a King Yet never did all three concur but in him alone and so no perfect CHRIST but he A Priest he was after the order of Melchisedech Psal. 110. vers 4. A Prophet to be heard when Moses should hold his peace Deut. 18.18 A King to be raised out of Davids seed who should reign and prosper and execute judgement and justice in the earth Ier. 23 5. By his Priesthood to purge expiate and save us from our sins for which he was to be the Propitiation By his Prophetical Office to illuminate and save us from the by-pathes of errour and to guide our feet in the way of peace By his Kingdom or his Regal power to prescribe us laws protect us from our enemies and make us at the last partakers of his heavenly Kingdome Ieremies King Davids Priest Moses Prophet but in each and all respects the CHRIST Not that he was anointed with material oyl as were the Kings and Priests in the Old Testament but with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal. 45.7 but with the Spirit of the Lord wherewith he was anointed to preach good tidings to the meek Esai 61.1 which he applyed unto himself Luk. 4.18.21 anointed with the holy Ghost and with power as St. Peter telleth us Act. 10.38 Anointed then he was to those several Offices and in that the CHRIST But how he doth perform these Offices and at what times he was inaugurated to the same shall be declared in the course of the following Articles which relate to him save that we shall refer the Execution of the Prophetical function to the Article of the holy Ghost by the effusion of whose gifts on the Pastors and Ministers of the holy Church it is most powerfully discharged The Name of CHRIST as it is commonly added unto that of IESVS to denote his Offices so in a sort it is communicated unto those whom he hath chosen to himselfe for a royal Priesthood a chosen generation a peculiar people and for that reason honoured with the name of Christians And the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch saith the book of the Acts. Called Christians what by chance I believe not that The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Original hath more in it then so We have the same word in the second of St. Matthews Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of the Wise men that came from the East to worship CHRIST and there we render it that they were warned by God warned by him in a dream not to goe to Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then in this place of the Acts must have some reference to God and seems to intimate at least if not fully evidence that they took not this name upon themselves but by Gods direction The Iews had formerly called them Nazarites as the Mahometans do still in the way of reproach And though the Disciples were neither ashamed nor afraid of any ignominy which was put upon them for the sake of their Lord and Master yet they conceived it far more honorable to him into whose heavenly house and family they were adopted to own themselves by that name which might most entitle them to all those priviledges which did acrew uuto them in the right of Adoption A caution to which God more specially might encline their hearts that his dear CHRIST might look upon them as his own to whom he gave the unction or anointing of the holy Spirit The anointing which ye have received of him saith the beloved Disciple abideth in you and ye need not that any men teach you That God had a directing hand in it the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth perswade me which intimates at
least some secret influence in the work if not a publick and Oracular admonition And that it was not done but upon serious consultation had amongst themselves and a devout invocation of the name of God the greatness of the business the piety of the first Professors and other good authorities do most strongly assure For if upon the naming of Iohn the Baptist there was not only a consultation held by the friends and mother but the dumb father called to advise about it and if we use not to admit the poorest childe of the parish into the Congregation of Christs Church by the dore of Baptism but by joint invocation of the Name of God for his blessings in it with how much more regard of ceremony and solemnity may we conceive that the whole body of Christs people were baptized into the name of Christians But besides this we have an evidence or record sufficient to confirm the truth of our affirmation For Suidas and before him Iohannes Antiochenus an old Cosmographer first tels us that in the reign of Claudius Caesar ten years after the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven Euodius received Episcopal consecration and was made Patriarch of Antioch the great in Syria succeeding immediately to St. Peter the Apostle And then he addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. And at this time the Disciples were first called Christians Euodius calling them to a solemn conference and putting this new name upon them For before they were called Nazarites and Galileans Some of the Heathens not knowing the Etymon of the name called them Chrestiant and our most blessed Saviour by the name of Chrestos For thus Tertullian of the Christians perperam a vobis Christianus appellatur and thus Lactantius for our Saviour qui eum immutata litera 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 solent dicere But this was only on mistake not on studyed malice Et propter ignorantium errorem as Lactantius hath it the very name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Chrestianus intimating nothing else but meekness and sweetness as Tertullian very well observeth And though Suetonius following the errours of the times calleth our Saviour CHRIST by the name of Chrestos yet Tacitus who lived in the same age with him hits right as well on Christus as on Christianus Quos vulgo Chrestianos appellabat And then he addeth Auctor nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio imperitante per Procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat Having thus rectified the name and asserted it to its true Original we may do well to have a care that we disgrace not the dignity of so high a calling by the unworthiness and uncleanness of our lives and actions In nobis patitur Christus opprobrium in nobis patitur lex Christiana maledictum that Christ and Christianity were ill spoken of by reason of the wicked lives of Christian people was the complaint of Salvians time God grant it be not so in ours And God grant too that as we take our name from CHRIST so the like minde may be in us as was also in him that is to say that we be as willing to lay down our lives for the brethren especially in giving testimony to his Faith and Gospel as he was willing to lay down his life for us and that as his Fathers love to him brought forth in him the like affections towards us and to his Commandements so his affection unto us may work in us the like love towards our brethren and to all his precepts For hereby shall men know we are his Disciples if we abide in his love and keep his Commandements as he hath kept his Fathers Commandements and abide in his love But see how I am carried to these practical matters if not against my will yet besides my purpose I proceed now to that which followeth ARTICVLI 3. Pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Filium ejus unicum Dominum nostrum i. e. His only Son our Lord. CHAP. II. That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God why called his only or his only begotten Son Proofs for the God-head of our Saviour Of the title of Lord. THat which next followeth is the first of those two Relations in which we do behold our Saviour in this present Article his only Son i. e. the only Son of God the Father Almighty whom we found spoken of before That God had other sons in another sense there is no question to be made All mankinde in some sense may be called his sons The workmanship of his creation Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us saith the Prophet Malachi in the Old Testament Our Father which art in Heaven saith Christ our Saviour for the New The Saints and holy men of God are called his sons also in the more peculiar title of adoption For who else were the sons of God in the 6. of Genesis who are said to take them wives of the daughters of men but the posterity of Seth the righteous seed by and amongst whom hitherto the true worship of the Lord had been preserved More clearly the Evangelist in the holy Gospel To as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God even to them which believed in his Name Most plainly the Apostle saying As many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God having received the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry to him Abba Father And in this sense must we understand those passages of holy Scripture where such as are regenerate and made the children of God by adoption of grace are said to be born of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Iohns phrase is both in his Gospel and Epistle Not that they have the Lord God for their natural Father for so he is the Father only of our Lord Iesus Christ but because being begotten by immortal seed the seed of his most holy Word they are regenerate and born again unto life eternal This is the seed of God spoken of by St. Iohn which remaineth in us by which we are begotten to an inheritance immortal undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved for us in the Heavens as St. Peter tels us In neither of these two respects can we consider Christ as the Son of God For if he were the Son of God in no other respect then either in regard of Creation or Adoption only he could not possibly be called Gods only Son or his only begotten Son but at the best multis e millibus unus one of the many thousands of the sons of God There is a more particular title by which some more selected vessels both of grace and glory have gained the honourable appellation of the sons of God that is to say by being admitted to a clearer participation and fruition of eternal blisse or made more intimately acquainted with his secret will In the
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
whether he were the Christ whom they did expect but that they knew he was to come in an humane shape and that it was no Blasphemy to own that title So then the quarrel which the Iewes had against our Saviour was that he called himself the Son of God in the literal and natural signification of the word And this appeares more plainly yet not only by a former passage where they sought to slay him because he said that God was his Father making himself thereby to be equal with God but by a solemn conference which they had on the like occasion In which our Saviour did not only own himself to be the CHRIST and to claim God to be his Father in the proper sense of the word Father but added further an expression more unpleasing to them saying I and my Father are one For which when the Iews took up stones to stone him and were demanded for which of his many good workes they were so resolved they answered thus For a good worke we stone thee not but for blasphemy because thou being a man makest thy selfe God It seems the Iewes were of opinion that none could properly and naturally be the Son of God or so call himself but he must make himself to be also God or else their accusation had been falsly grounded And if our Saviour had not known himself to be very God as well as his natural proper and begotten Son he ought so far to have consulted the honour of God as to have traversed the enditement refelled the ill-grounded crimination and told them plainly this that he was not GOD but wronged exceedingly by them in so false an inference which the Logick of his discourse would by no means bear For if Iohn Baptist being asked on the like occasion denyed himself to be the MESSIAH and said plainely I am not the Christ and if Paul and Barnabas when the Lystrians would have offered sacrifice unto them rent their clothes and said Sirâ— why do ye these things we are men of like passions with your selves how much more was our Saviour bound to have done the like and not to let the Iewes run on in their misperswasion But our Redeemer doth not so He lets them peaceably enjoy their opinion of him that is to say that by calling God his Father he had made himself God and doth not go about to perswade them otherwise Only he laboureth to take off the edge of their malice towards him by telling them that according to the grounds of their own Law it was no such heinous or unpardonable crime for men to call themselves by the name of God And if they were called Gods in Scripture to whom the word of God came as it did to the Prophets and called so without any offence that was taken at it with how much better reason might he call himself the Son of God even in that sense wherein they understood his words without incurring either the sin or punishment of Blasphemy This is the summe of the discourse between Christ and the malicious Iewes in the tenth of St. Iohn and this doth evidently prove that CHRIST did so affirme himself to be the Son of God the Father as that he would by no means deny himself to be God the Son Adde unto this that in another Dialogue betwixt him and the Iewes he took unto himself the name I am 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antequam Abraham fieret â—goâ—sum saith the Vulgar Latine that is to say Before Abraham was made or born I am Which being the very self same name by which God calleth himself in the book of Exodus saying Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you may serve for a concluding Argument that as CHRIST was not ashamed to call himself the son of man so neither was he afraid to own himself for the Son of God and so to be the Son of God as to be also true God God for ever blessed Thus have I done with such Records and evidence of holy Scripture which are intrinsecal to this cause and have been chosen by me out of a greater number with reference to the limitations fixed to my design Some other evidence there is which I count extrinsecal because borrowed from the writings of Iews Greeks and Romans no friends unto the cause if not open enemies And first beginning with the Iews we finde this testimony given to our Lord and Saviour by Iosephus the Historian that it was hardly lawful to call him a man and in the close of all that he was the CHRIST Erat eodem tempore Jesus quidam c. There lived saith he one IESVS much about that time a wise man if at the least it be lawful to cal him a man For he did many miracles and was a Teacher of those who do receive the truth with gladness drawing many after him both Iews and Gentiles This was the CHRIST This said he speaks in brief of his crucifying under Pontius Pilate his resurrection from the dead on the third day after and then concludes Et ad hunc usque diem Christianorum gens ab eo cognominata non dâ—sinit that the Sect of the Christians being denominated from him continue to this very day Though this be more then we have reason to expect from a Iew yet that of Thedosius which we finde in Suidas is more full then this This Theodosius was a Iew living in the time of Iustinian the Emperour Iustinian the Emperour having some acquaintance with one Philip a Christian Merchant told him a story to this purpose viz. That there were in the Temple of Hierusalem 22 Priests in ordinary attendance and that as often as one died another was chosen in his place that IESVS in regard of his piety and learning was chosen into one of the void places and his own name together with the name of his Parents being to be inrolled in the publick Register his Mother came to answer in that behalf who being interrogated of his Fathers name reported the whole story of his incarnation as she had heard from the Angel and thereupon his Name was entred in these words IESVS the Son of the living God and the Virgin Mary This Book or Register the same Theodosius doth report to have been carefully preserved in Tiberias a City of Galilee after the destruction of Hierusalem and that he had often seen and perused it there he being one of the principal Citizens and of authority in that place I know the truth of this relation hath been much disputed in regard that our Redeemer was of the Tribe of Iudah and so not capable of the Aaronical or Levitical Priest-hood Nor can I tell whether it will help the matter to report out of Ranulph the Monk of Chester that Hismerias the Mother of Elizabeth which bare the Baptist and Anna the Mother of the Virgin Mary were sisters and the
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
conteret caput tuam she shall break thy head which many of their Commentators do refer to her that Bellarmine maketh at all no difference betwixt the Veneration which is due to her and that which doth belong unto Christ as man and finally that the vulgar sort in point of practise for needes such practise must ensue on such desperate doctrines do use to say so many Ave Maries for one single Pater noster hear day by day so many masses of our Ladies and not one of Christs adorn her images with all cost and cunning which mans wit can reach whilest his poor Statues stand neglected as not worth the looking after Wonder it is they have not practised on the Creed aud told us how the Apostles had mistook the matter when they drew it up and that it was not Jesus Christ but the Virgin Mary that suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucifyed dead and buryed for the sins of man Such are and such have been the most known repugnancies which have found entertainment in the Christian world touching the Priviledges and Prierogatives of this blessed woman Between these two extremes is the vertue placed which I perswade my self hath been most happily preserved in the Church of England retaining still two annual feasts instituted in the best times to her name and memory We gladly give her all the honour which is due unto her account her for the most blessed of all women a choice and most selected Temple of the holy Ghost and happiest instrument of mans good which hath descended simply from the loynes of Adam but dare not give her divine honour by erecting Altars to her service going in pilgrimage to her shrines or powring forth our prayers unto her Finally we resolve with Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let the blessed Virgin be had in reverence but God only worshipped let her possesse principal place in our good opinions so she have none in our devotions But it is time to leave the Mother and return again unto the Son Now that which in this Article is expressed by the present words Natus ex Virgine Maria that is to say born of the Virgin Mary in that of Nice is thus delivered and was made man Some Hereticks had formerly called this truth in question affirming that our Saviours body was not true and real but only an ayery and imaginary body as did the Marcionites others that he received not his humane being of the Virgin Mary but brought his body from the heavens and only passed thorow her womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as thorow a Conduit pipe as Valentinian as if our blessed Lord and Saviour had only borrowed for a time the shape of man therâ—in to act his woful tragedy on the publick Theatre of the world and made the Virgins womb his trying house And some again there were who did conceive his body to be free from passion maintaining that it was impassibilis and that he was not subject to those natural frailties and infirmities which are incident to the Sons of men by the ordinary course of nature To meet with these and other Hereticks of this kind the Fathers in the Nicene Councel expressed our Saviours being born of the Virgin Mary which every Heretick had wrested to his proper sense in words which might more fully signifie the truth and reality of his taking of our flesh upon him in words which were not capable of so many evasions declaring thus that being incarnate by the holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary factus est homo he was made man and consequently was made subject unto those infirmities which are inseparably annexed to our humane nature This that which positively is affirmed by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews where it is said that we have not such an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin The high Priest which God gave us in the time of the Gospel was to be such as those he gave unto his people in the time of the Law one who could have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself is compassed also with infirmities The difference only stood in this that our Saviours passions and infirmities were free from sin and neither did proceed from sin or incline him to it as do the passions and infirmities of men meerly natural which is the meaning of St. Paul in the place aforesaid where he affirmeth of our high Priest that he was tempted that is to say afflicted tryed and proved in all things like as we are save only that it was without sin or sinful motions And to this truth the Catholick Doctors of the Church do attest unanimously St. Ambrose thus CHRIST saith he took upon him not the shew but the truth and reality of the flesh what then Debuit ergo et dolorem suscipere ut vinceret tristitiam non excluderet he therefore was to have a sense of humane sorrowes that he might overcome them not exclude them only Fulgentius goes to work more plainly Nunc oftendendum est saith he c. Now must we shew that the passions of grief sorrow fear c. do properly pertain unto the soul and that our Saviour did endure them all in his humane soul ut veram totamâ— in se cum suis infirmitatibus hominis demonstraret suscepti substantiam that he might shew in himself the true and whole substance of man accompanied with its infirmities The fathers of the Greek Church do affirme the same When thon hearest saith Cyril that Christ wept feared and sorrowed acknowledge him to be a true man and ascribe these things to the nature of man for Christ took a mortal body subject to all the passions of nature sin alwayes excepted Which when he had affirmed in thesi he doth thus infer Et ita singulas passiones carnis c. Thus shalt thou finde all the passions or affections of the flesh to be stirred in Christ but without sin that being so stirred up they might be repressed and our nature reformed to the better But none of all the Antients state the point more clearly then Iohn Damascene in his 3. book De fide orthodoxa where he tels us this We confesse saith he that Christ did take unto him all natural and blamelesse passions for he assumed the whole man and all that pertained to man save sin Natural and blamelesse passions are those which are not properly in our power and whatsoever entred into mans life through the occasion of Adams sin as hunger thirst weaknesse labour weeping shunning of death fear agony whence came sweat with drops of bloud These things are in all men by nature and therefore Christ took all these to him that he might sanctifie them all With this agreeth the distinction of the latter Schoolmen who divide the
make an atonement with him And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon his head and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins putting them upon the head of the Goat and shall send him away by the hands of a fit man into the Wilderness And the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited and he shall let go the Goat in the Wilderness A Type or Figure most punctually agreeing with the Antitype with our Redeemers going into the Desert to a land not inhabited No sooner had he been declared by St. Iohn the Baptist to be the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world no sooner was the burden of our iniquities laid upon his head but presently he is led by the holy Spirit as by the hands of a fit man into the midst of the Wilderness And though some of the antient writers as Iustin Martyr and Tertullian refer this figure of the Scape-goat to our Saviours passion and some of later times to his resurrection yet in my minde Calvin hath hit more happily on the right application then any of those which went before him By whom it is conceived and rightly that of the two Goats which were brought before the Lord the one was offered for a Sacrifice after the manner of the Law the other was sent forth alive to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a thing devoted to destruction for others For though saith he a more curious speculation may be brought as that the sending away of the Scape-goat was a figure of Christs Resurrection yet I embrace that which is more plain and certain that the Goat sent away alive and free was vice piaculi as a thing devoted to bear the brunt for others that by his departure and leading away into the Wilderness the people might be assured that their sins did vanish and were carried away far out of sight A second cause of leading our Saviour into the Wilderness and to the parts thereof most retired from company was to the end as the same Calvin is of opinion that he might undertake the Office of a publick Teacher and an Embassadour from heaven with the more authority tanquam magise Coelo missus quam assumptus ex oppido aliquo communi hominum grege as being rather sent from heaven then taken out of any town or place of ordinary commerce For so was Moses taken up by God into Mount Sinai tanquam in Coeleste sacrarium as into one of the revestries of the highest heavens before the promulgating of the Law and so Elias in like manner Qui instaurandae legis Minister erat whom God made choyce of to restore his Law to its primitive lustre was by the Lord withdrawn aside to the Mount of Horeb situate in the remotest part of this very Wilderness In this particular both Moses and Elias had been types of Christ who was to be the Mediator of a better Covenant i. e. a Covenant established upon better promises and therefore Christ to be conform to them in this particular lest he should seem in any thing to fall short of them The third and last consideration which occasioned the leading of our Saviour into the Wilderness was to afford the better opportunity unto Satan to pursue his business to tempt and trie him to the purpose For as St. Chrysostome well observes the Devil never is more busie to tempt men to sin then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he findes them left unto themselves without help or company This opportunity he took to seduce poor Eve when she was all alone and without her husband and speeding then so well in that great attempt hath ever since made use of the like advantages He found our Saviour in the Wilderness and more then so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most inaccessible places of it saith the same St. Chrysostom so that the loneliness of the place seemed to concur with other circumstances especially his beginning to be hungry after so long and great a fast to animate the old Tempter to give the onset and to befool himself with the hopes of Victory But here the Devil was deceived in his expectation and gave himself the overthrow by his too much forwardness falling into the hands of that promised seed of which he had been told in the beginning of time it should break his head The second thing to be considered in this story of the Temptation of our Saviour is the Preparation which is thus laid down by the Evangelists And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungred For then the Tempter came unto him so St. Matthew hath it But St. Luke thus He was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness being forty days tempted of the Devil and in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended he afterwards hungred and the Devil said unto him c. St. Mark more briefly and with some difference from the other two And he was in the Wilderness forty days and was tempted of Satan Which different narration of these three Evangelists hath produced a doubt amongst the learned touching the very moment and point of time when the Devil first began his onset whereof more anon but they do all well agree in this that he fasted forty days and forty nights being the whole time that he continued in the Wilderness And herein divers things are to be considered First why our Saviour chose this time for so great a work Secondly Why he fasted forty days and forty nights neither more nor less And thirdly what was after done by the Church of God in reference to this great example And first it may be thought that he chose this time because he then began to set himself in more special manner to the great work of our Redemption which was not to be wrought but by humbling of himself for us under the mighty hand of his heavenly Father and fasting is a special act of humiliation in which respect the Church hath taught us thus to pray in her publick Liturgies O Lord which for our sakes did fast forty days and forty nights c. Secondly we may think that he chose this time that by this exercise of fasting he might prepare and fit himself for the discharge of the Prophetical Office the function of the holy Ministery which he was pleased to take upon him Not that he needed in himself to whom God had not given the spirit by rule or measure but partly to comply with the examples of Moses and Elias in the former times who had both betook themselves to fasting on the like occasions and partly to leave an example to his Church which they were to follow in calling men unto the Ministery of the Gospel Which Precedent as we finde it followed
thus speak for Lent Can. 69. Si quis Episcopus aut Presbyter i. e. If a Bishop Priest or Deacon or of any other holy Order kept not the holy fast of Lent let him be degraded unless it be in case of sickness Si laicus sit Communione privetur but if a Layman do not keep it let him be debarred from the Communion Ignatius one of the Apostles scholars and one who as it is believed saw Christ in the flesh in his Epistle to the Philippians doth advise them thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let none despise the Fast of Lent for it contains the imitation of our Lords example which is full enough Tertullian the most antient of the Latine Fathers whose works are extant in the world speaks of it by the name of jejunium Paschatos or the Easter fast because it doth immediately precede that solemn festival and reckoneth it amongst those publick orders which the Church was bound to keep from the first beginning though then he was an enemie to all publick orders and an open Montanist St. Ambrose a most godly Bishop accounts it as a special gift and blessing of Almighty God Hanc quadragesiman largitus est nobis Dominus c. that he appointed Lent unto prayer and fasting And Leo a right good and godly man too though a Pope of Rome affirmeth positively Magna divinae institutionis salubritate provisum esse c. that it was ordained by divine Institution for the clensing and purging of the soul from the filths of sin Not that they thought there did occur any Precept for it delivered in the Volume of the Book of God we must not so conceive or conclude their meaning but that both for the time of the year and the set number of days they had a special eye to this fast of Christs as to the most convenient direction which the Church could give them St. Hierome though he make it not a divine institution yet reckoneth it for an Apostolical Tradition which is as much as the two former do affirm rightly understood saying Nos unam Quadragesimam secundum traditionem Apostolorum c. that is to say We fast one Lent in the whole year at a fit and seasonable time according to the tradition of the holy Apostles Finally St. Augustine speaks thereof as a most wholesome and religious institution of great antiquity and use in the Church of Christ not only in his 74. Sermon de Diversis and the 64. of those de Tempore whereof some question hath been made amongst learned men but also in his Epistle unto Ianuarius of the authority whereof never doubt was raised And here I might proceed to St. Basil Chrysostom and other the renowned lights of the Eastern Churches but that sufficient to this purpose hath been said already especially for us and for our instruction who have been always counted for a Member of the Western Church Now as the institution of this Lent-fast is of great antiquity so was it first ordained and instituted upon such warrantable grounds as kept it free from all debate and disputation till these later times save that Aerius would needs broach this monstrous Paradox for which he stils stands branded as a wretched Heretick Non celebranda esse statuta jejunia sed cum quisque voluerit jejunandum that no set fasts were to be kept neither Lent nor others but that it should be left to mens Christian liberty For whereas it is very fit as a learned man of this Church very well observes that there be a solemn time at least once in the year wherein men may call themselves to an account for their negligences repent them of all their evil doings and with prayers fasting and mourning turn unto the Lord this time was thought to be the fittest both because that herein we remember the sufferings of Christ for our sins which is the strongest and most prevailing motive that may be to make us hate sin and with tears of repentant sorrow to bewail it as also for that after this meditation of the sufferings of Christ and conforming of our selves unto them his joyful Resurrection for our justification doth immediately present it self unto us in the days insuing in the solemnities whereof men were wont with great devotion to approach the Lords Table and they which were not yet baptized were by Baptism admitted into the Church Thus then it was not without great confideration that men made choyce of this time wherein to recount all their negligences sins and transgressions and to prepare themselves by this solemn act of fasting both for the better performance of their own duties in those following days of joyful solemnity as also to obtain at the hands of God the gracious acceptance of those whom they offered unto him to be entred into his holy Covenant it being the use and manner of the Primitive Church never to present any unto Baptism unless it were in case of danger and necessity but only in the Feasts of Easter and Whitsontide Which being the reasons moving them to institute a set and solemn time of fasting and to appoint it at this time of the year rather then another they had an eye as for the limitation of the number of days to our Saviours fast of forty days in the dedicating of the new Covenant not as precisely tyed to that time at all by the intent and purpose of the Lords example but rather that by keeping the same number of days we may the better keep in remembrance his fasting and humiliation for the sake of man and thereby learn the better to express our duty and affections to him Some other reasons are alleadged for this yearly fast of which some are Political for the increase of Cattel in the Common-wealth that being as we know full well the great time of breed some Physical for qualifying of the bloud by a slender diet of fish hearbs and roots the bloud beginning at that time of the year to increase and boyl and some Spiritual shewing the use and necessity of mortification at that time of the year in which the bloud beginning to be hot and stirring as before was said is most easily inflamed with the heats of lust And on these great and weighty reasons as the Church did institute and all the States of Christendome confirm the strict keeping of it so hath it hitherto been retained in this Church of England as far as the condition of the times would bear in which there is a solemn and set form of service for the first day of Lent which the Antients called by the name of Caput jejunii as also for every Sunday of it and for each several day of the last week of it the holy week as commonly our Fathers called it and abstinence from flesh injoyned from the first day thereof till the very last according to the usage of the purest times and all this countenanced and confirmed by
as good authority as the Laws and Statutes of the Realm can give unto it Which holy time had it been as carefully and conscionably observed by all sorts of people as it was prudently and piously ordained at first we had no doubt escaped many of those grievous plagues with which the Lord of late hath scourged us and even consumed us unto nothing by our own licentiousness But to proceed to the third general point contained in the story of the Lords temptation in which there is a doubt as before was said touching the very moment and point of time which the old Tempter took to give the onset occasioned by the different narrations of the three Evangelists that is to say whether the Devil tempted him all those forty days and then gave him over or that he did not trouble him and begin the business until the forty days were past and his fast was ended St. Matthews words do seem to intimate nay to say expresly that the Tempter did not come unto him till his fast was ended and that afterwards he was an hungred and this more literally agrees with the particulars of the following story But on the other side it is said in Luke that he was led into the Wilderness being forty days tempted by the Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek text reads it and then how could the Devil set him upon one of the Pinnacles of the Temple if he were all the time of his Temptation within the bowels of that Desert For resolution of which point Eusebius and St. Cyril two Greek Fathers though they keep the words yet they do point them otherwise then we read them now in our printed copies referring the forty days which are there spoken of not to his being tempted of the Devil but to his being in the Wilderness And then the reading will be thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say And he was led into the Wilderness forty days being tempted of the Devil c. And so it seems it stood in those antient copies which were consulted by the Author of the Vulgar Latine whosoever he was in which we read Et agebatur in Spiritu in deserto diebus quadraginta tentatur a Diabolo Which reading if it be allowed of as I see no reason but it may then the doubt is ended and the appearing difference fairly reconciled Otherwise we may say and no doubt most safely that he was tempted by the Devil all those forty days as is said by Luke and after they were ended also as we finde in Matthew that is to say as Euthymius very rightly noteth the Devil tempted him in those days the said forty days as it were a far off by sleep sloth heaviness and the like but after he knew him once to be hungry then he set upon him prope manifeste as the Author hath it more visibly and hand to hand namely in those three great temptations which the story mentioneth So then the nick and point of time in which the Devil did apply himself most closely to the work intended was cum esuriret when he began to be an hungry As long as our Redeemer kept himself unto prayer and fasting the Devil either did not trouble him or it was either with such trivial and light temptations as made no impression and neither interrupted him in his holy course nor caused him to intermit the business he was then upon by making any necessary replies to his lewd suggestions But when he began to be an hungry when his minde seemed to be upon his belly if I may so say then did the Devil think it was time to work him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it was notably well observed by Chrysostom to this very purpose So excellent is the force and efficacy of an holy fast that it keeps the Devil at a distance This difficulty thus passed over we shall next look on the particular temptations which those Gospels speak of In which it is to be observed that whereas St. Iohn makes mention of three kindes of lust which mightily prevail on the affections of us mortal men viz. the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the Devil tempted CHRIST in all and in all was vanquished He tempted him in the first place with the lust of the flesh when he found that after such and so long a fast he began to be hungry and was reduced to such extremities as to be forced to seek his bread even in desolate places and said unto him if that thou beest the Son of God as the late voyce from heaven did seem to signifie command that these stones be made bread to appease thy hunger and satisfie that natural necessity which is now upon thee An opportunity well taken and as strongly followed had it been answered with success For commonly when men are in distress and want they are then most apt either to distrust the Lord their God as if he left them to themselves without hope of relief or else to use unlawful means to relieve themselves which was the point the Devil thought to bring him to by this first temptation But when he failed of this design he pressed him in the next place with the lust of the eye taking him up upon an exceeding high mountain shewing him all the Kingdomes of the World and the glories of them and offering to bestow them all upon him if he would only yeild so far as to fall down and worship him Impudent wretch thou worst of all wicked spirits saith Ignatius how was it that thou didst not fear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to utter such a sawcy voyce to the Lord of all things And yet a far more impudent braggart to make an offer of those things which he had no power of the Kingdomes of the earth and the glories of them being holden of no other Lord then the Lord our God And here it is to be observed that whereas in the former onset which only did relate unto Christ himself he only did reply upon him with a Scriptum est in this wherein the glorie of his heavenly Father was concerned so highly he addes an Apage or rebuke Get thee hence thou Satan So that the Devil failing at the two first weapons betakes himself unto the last the pride of life setting him on a pinnacle of the holy Temple saying if thou bee the Son of God as credulous men are made believe by the late great miracle of a voyce supposed to be from heaven do somewhat to confirm them in that belief teque assere coelo somewhat which may indeed make manifest that thou art from heaven and answerable to the testimony which that voyce gave of thee and a more sure and easie trial thou canst never meet with then by casting thy self down from hence knowing so well how all the Angels are at hand to attend upon thee and carry thee upon their
to attone the difference The generall resolution is for this is neither time nor place to discusse it fully that the whole day amongst the Iews from sun to sun which the Astronomers call the artificial day was commonly divided into four quaternions of houres of which the first three had the name of the third houre the second three of the sixt hour the third three of the ninth hour and the last three of the evening or sun set Then that the sixt hour beginning where the third did end the same thing may be said to be done in the end of the third houre which was done in the beginning of the sixt inchoative in the sixt hour but completive in the third And so our Saviour may be said to be crucifyed in the third hour as St. Marke relateth that is to say in the end of the third houre complete and about the sixt hour as St. Iohn delivereth it that is to say about the sixt hour coming on Others conceive that Marke relates unto the time when Pilate did passe sentence on him and deliver him over to be crucifyed which was in the third hour of the day and that Iohn speaks as to the execution of the sentence which was done in the sixt And if this could agree with the other cicumstances it were undoubtedly the best and of most probability especially considering what good ground it hath from Ignatius who lived in the times of the Apostles By whom the whole story of the Passion is thus distributed In the third hour Christ was condemned by Pontius Pilate crucifyed in the sixt died in the ninâ—h and was buried before sunset And unto either of these two I should sooner yeild then hearken to the new devise of Daniel Heinsius who will have the third hour mentioned in St. Marks Gospell to be the third hour of our Saviours crucifying with which the circumstances of the text can no way agree and yet far sooner unto him then to an eminent Divine of great place and name affirming openly in a Sermon before the King on the credit of some old Greek copies that the text in Iohn had been corrupted Lesse difficulty far there is about the place of the Passion in which all Euangelists do agree in meaning though they use divers words St. Matthew Marke and Iohn do call it Golgatha according to the Hebrew name but St. Luke cals it Calvarie 23.33 according to that Hebrew name translated and made intelligible to the ears of the Romans In every one it signifieth the place of a skul and is so translated in our Bibles Matth. 27.33 Mark 15.22 Ioh 19.17 A name bestowed upon it as the Fathers say in regard that Adam was there buryed and his skul found there by the people many Ages after And though I dare not swear this for a Canonical truth yet certainly it hath as good grounds to stand upon as an old Tradition can confer For sure I am that such a Tradition there was in the time of Origen one of the most antient Christian writers whose works are extant Venit ad me talis traditio quod corpus Adae primi hominis sepultum est ibi ubi crucifixus est Christus There is a Tradition saith he that the body of the first man Adam was there buried where Christ was crucified Tertullian doth affirm the same amongst his verses So doth St. Basil also on Levit. 5. Epiphanius contra haereses n. 46. Chrysostom in his 84. Homilie on Iohn St. Augustine in the 71. Sermon inscribed de Tempore St. Ambrose Epistola 3. lib. 5. Hierom on Matth. 27. Theophylact in his Comments on the four Evangelists Nor do they only thus unanimously report the said Tradition but they give their reason for it too viz. that because all men dyed in Adam so by Christ all might be also made alive that so where sin took its beginning it should finde destruction and finally that ut super Adae tumulum sanguis Christi stillaret which was Hieroms conceit that so the bloud of Christ might fall upon Adams tomb And I remember I have seen a picture in an old peece of hanging in the stals at Westminster for we have our Testes fenestras too especially in such a case as this as well as Campian in a greater in which we finde the souldier piercing Christs side with his lance water and bloud issuing from the side â—o pierced and Adam starting out of his grave with a cup in his hand to receive the bloud Which fancy as it was conform to the old Tradition so did it hand somely express a good peece of Divinity the meaning of it being this that as Adam being the root of all mankinde had forfeited for himself and his posterity all those most excellent endowments of grace and nature which God had given him at the first so now he did lay hold upon Salvation for himself and his that all who were and were to be descended of him should have their part in the redemption of the World by the bloud of Christ. And this I call a piece of good Divinity howsoever expressed by reason that the universality of Redemption by our Saviours death was not alone the Doctrine of the Primitive times but is the genuine and confirmed doctrine of this Church of England which teacheth us to pray unto God the Son as the Redeemer of the world and every one of us to believe in the same God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankinde and finally to pray to God to have mercy upon all men even upon all Iews Turks Infidels and Hereticks that they may all be saved amongst the remnant of true Israelites and be made one fold under the same one Shepheard IESVS CHRIST our Lord. No truth more rightly stated more piously applyed nor more fully explicated It is now time we lay our Saviour in his Grave being the last degree of his humiliation taking along with us such preparatives as lead unto the same in the holy Gospel in which the first passage which we meet with is how some devout people repaired to Pilate and begged the body of their Lord that they might entomb it others in reference to the great festival ensuing had desired of him that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away to the end that their bodies might not remain upon the Cross on the Sabbath-day Which suit being granted and that the souldiers coming to Christ found him dead already they omitted the breaking of his legs for so had God disposed who before had signified that a bone of him should not be broken but yet to make sure work it seemed good to one of them to pierce his side with a spear and forthwith saith the Text came out bloud and water Ioh. 19.34 On this St. Augustine makes this gloss that by the bloud and water issuing from the side of CHRIST we are to understand the two
first it is objected out of Ruffinus that this clause of Christs descent into hell was not in his time in the Creed of the Church of Rome nor in those of the Eastern Churches His words are these Sciendum est quod in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo non habetur additum descendit ad inferos sed neque Orientis Ecclesiis This we acknowledge to be true what then Therefore say they it needs must follow that it was not in the Creed at all untill some time after But this by no means can be gathered out of Ruffines words who is not to be understood in the sense they dream of or if he be shall presently confute himself without further trouble And first Ruffinus could not say that the clause of Christs descent into hell was neither in the Apostles Creed before his time nor reckoned for a part thereof by the Church of Rome or by any Churches of the East For long before the times he lived in Ignatius Bishop of Antioch the most famous City of the East repeated it as a part of the Creed the like did Chrysostome one of the Presbyters of that Church and Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem both living in the same time that Ruffinus lived in Nyssen and Nazianzen and Basil his contemporaries or not long before him do reckon it amongst the Articles of the Christian faith and give us the true orthodox sense thereof as before was shewn all of them very famous Bishops of the lesser Asia one of the most considerable parts of the Eastern Church The like doth Epiphanius for the Isle of Cyprus and Cyril for the Patriarchate of Alexandria whereof this last was the great ruler of the Aegyptian Aethiopian and Arabian Churches the other though within the Patriarchate of Antiochia yet was sui juris an Independent as it were and of equal priviledge at home So also for the African and other Churches of the Western world it is most evident by that which hath been cited from Fulgentius Augustine Ambrose Tertullian Cyprian and all the rest of note and eminency that this of the descent into hell was reckoned for an Article of the Creed in those parts and times in which they severally and respectively did live and flourish And so it was esteemed in Rome it self when Ruffinus lived and in the Church of Aquileia not far from Rome where he was a Presbyter For otherwise neither he himself had so reputed it nor commented thereupon as upon the rest nor had St. Hierome being at that time a Presbyter of the Church of Rome so â—ar avowed this Article of the descent into hell or given us so much help and furtherance to the right understanding thereof had it been reputed by that Church for no part or Article of the Common Creed as we see he did Thus then Ruffinus did not mean and indeed he could not that this Article of the descent into hell was not accounted for an Article of the Apostles Creed either by those of Rome or the Eastern Churches No such matter verily His meaning is that whereas in those times diverse several Churches and many times particular persons of rank and quality did use to publish several Creeds to serve as testimonies of their right beliefe upon occasion of some new emergent heresies the Creed or Symbol made for the Church of Rome and some of those which were in use in the Eastern parts did omit this Article For well we know it was omitted both in the Constantinopolitan and Nicene Creeds which were of so much reputation in all parts of Christendome as being a point about the which no stir or Controversie had been raised Nor doth Ruffinus say if we marke him well that the Church of Rome denied this clause to be part of the Apostles Creed which he must either say or nothing which will do them good but that it was not in Ecclesiae Romanae Symbolo in the Creed or Symbol made for the use of the particular Church of Rome for some particular occasion such as was that of Damasus in St. Hieromes works where indeed it is not So that the omitting of this Article in the Creeds of those particular Churches which Ruffinus speaks of shewes rather that it was received in all parts of Christendome with such a general consent and unanimity that it was needlesse to insert it in those Creeds because no controversie or debate had been raised about it For otherwise it must needs follow by this Argument that being there is no mention of Christs death in the Nicene Creed nor of his burial in the Creed of Athanasius nor of the Communion of the Saints in the Constantinopolitan nor of many of the last Articles in the Creed of Damasus not to descend to more particulars therefore those Articles and clauses were not to be found in such copies of the Apostles Creed as were commended to the use of Gods people within the Patriarchates of Rome Constantinople Alexandria or the City of Nice or any of those numerous Churches over all the world where those particular Creeds were received and welcomed This project therefore failing as we see it doth the Devils next great care hath been to dispute down the authority and effect thereof such a descent as is delivered and maintained by the Church of England being neither possible nor pertinent as is objected And first say some it is not possible Why so Because say they our Saviour promised the penitent Theef that the same day his soul should be with him in Paradise What then Therefore Christs soul being to goe that day to Paradise could neither goe to hell that day nor the two days after An argument which hath as many faults almost as it hath words For first our Saviour was not of such slow dispatch as these men would have him but that he might carry the theefs soul to Paradise and yet shew himself the same day to the fiends in hell That both were done on the same day Vigilius one of the antients doth affirme expressely Constat dominum nostrum Jesum Christum sexta feria crucifixum c. It is most manifest saith he that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucifyed on the sixt day that on the same day he descended into hell on the same day he lay in the grave ipsa die latroni dixisse and on the same said to the Theef This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise All this might very well be done by our Lord Christ Iesus within lesse time then the compasse of a natural day unlesse we measure his omnipotence by our own infirmities But yet to take away all scruples which may hence arise St. Augustine and some others of the Fathers have resolved it thus viz. that when Christ said unto the Theef This day thou shall be with me in Paradise he spake not of his manhood but of his Godhead And this saith Augustine doth free the Article from all
ambiguities But this he doth declare more plainly in another place saying that he who said unto the Theef hanging on the Crosse This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise according to his manhood or humane nature had his soul that day in hell and his flesh in the grave but according to his Godhead was most undoubtedly in Paradise Titus Bostrenus saith the same an Author not of such authority but of more antiquity then St. Augustine How saith he did our Saviour performe this promise made unto the Theef Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso And thereunto he answereth thus Christ taken down from his Crosse was in hell according to his soul and neverthelesse by the power of his divinity he brought the theef into Paradise Thus Damascen also for the Greek Fathers The same Christ is adored in Heaven as God together with the Father and the holy Ghost And he as man lay in the Sepulchre with his body and abode in hell with his soul and gave entrance to the Theef into Paradise by his divinity which cannot be comprehended in any place Or if we think the journey from the Crosse to Paradise and from thence to hell to be too great for our Redeemer to dispatch in a day which by the way were a fine peece of infidelity what hinders it but that having for a day refreshed his wearyed soul in the joyes of Paradise he might afterwards goe down to hell to pursue his Conquest For though the great Cardinal affirme Animam Christi triduo esse in corde terrae that the soul of Christ continued as long in hell as his body lay in the grave yet herein he deserts those worthies of the former times whose dictates he would fain be thought to adhere unto For Anselm once Arch-bishop of Canterbury though a Post-natus in regard of the Antient Fathers yet far more antient and of no lesse abilities then Bellarmine was perswaded otherwise Who asking in the way of discourse or dialogue Whither Christs soul went after his death he answereth to the heavenly Paradise as he said to the Theef This day c. When then to hell He answereth at midnight before his resurrection at which hour as the Angel destroyed Egypt so at the same Christ spoyled hell and made their darknesse as bright as day But lest the Cardinall should think it a disparagement unto him to be counterballanced by a writer of so late a date let him take this of Augustine for a farewell and so much good do it him Si igitur mortuo corpore ad Paradisum anima mox vocatur quemquamne adhuc tam impium credimus qui dicere audeat quod Anima Servatoris nostri triduo illo corporeae mortis custodiae mancipetur If then the body of the Theef dying saith that reverend Father his soul was presently taken into Paradise shall we think any man so wicked ware that Sr. Cardinal as to dare say that the soul of our Saviour during the three days that his body was dead was restrained in the custody of hell So that we see there is no such impossibility as hath been objected but that our Lord and Saviour might descend into hell though he was the same day with the theef in Paradise As little doth it follow from their other argument that Christ commended his soul into the hands of his Father and therefore it could not be in hell For certainly these men must think the hands of God to be very short and the power of the Devil over great if any part of hell should be out of Gods reach or that he could command nothing there but by Satans leave Christs soul wheresoever it was was in Gods protection and so by necessary consequence in the hands of God there being no place in heaven or hell exempted from the power of the Lord Almighty David had else deceived both himself and us in saying that if he went down to hell he should finde God there And therefore we need say no more unto this Objection but that which Gregory Nyssen said in former times as by way of prevention viz. that the soul of Christ commended into his Fathers hands went down to hell quum ita illi bonum commodum visum esset when it seemed convenient to himself that it should so do that he might publish salvation to the souls in hell and be Lord over quick and dead and spoil hell and might prepare a way for man to return to life after he himself had been the first fruits the first born from the dead And this saith he may be perceived and proved by many places of Scripture And I the rather have made use of those words of Nyssen in answer unto that Objection if it may be called one because it satisfyeth in part another of their doughty Arguments touching the use and pertinency of Christs descent For if say they there be no certain benefit redounding to the godly by Christs going to hell then out of doubt he went not thither so far they say exceeding well But then they take without proof as a matter granted that no such benefit redounded to the godly by it and therefore they conclude what they list themselves This is the summe of what they say as toâ—ching the impertinency of Christs descent into hell and this is as easie to be answered as that of the impossibility which we had before Three speciall motives which induced our Saviour unto this descent we shewed you from the Fathers in the former Chapter that is to say the full and finall overthrow of the powers of Satan the bringing thence the Antient Patriarchs and others which dyed before the preaching of our Saviours Gospel and finally the delivering us from the holds thereof that we goe not thither And do they think that none of these are any matter of certain benefit to the godly man Or do they think the publishing of salvation to the souls in hell the making of our Saviour to be Lord over quick and dead the spoyling of hell and the preparing of a way for man to return to life which we finde in Nyssen administreth no use of consolation to the godly minde Besides there were some other ends of Christs descent into hell then the procuring of some certain benefits to the godly only which if they should deny as perhaps they may they will condemn therein the best Protestant writers Aretius one of name and credit in the reformed Churches gives us three reasons of the Lords descent into hell whereof there is but one which concerns the godly The first saith he is for the Reprobates that they might know he was now come of whose coming they had so often heard but neglected it with great contempt The second is that Satan might assuredly know that this Christ whom he had tempted in the desert and delivered unto death by the hand of the Iews was the very Messiah and the seed promised
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What saith he meaneth Pspothomphanech To which he answereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. An interpreter of hidden things Which also very well agreeth to our Lord and Saviour to whom all hearts be open all desires known and from whom no secrets can be hidden Come said the woman of Samaria and behold a man that hath told me all the things that ever I did Ioh. 4.29 The Iew which thorough this thin vail on the face of Ioseph doth not behold the portraiture and lineaments of Christ our Saviour is not so properly to be termed blinde because he cannot see as because he will not Such also was the type of the Prophet Daniel cast by the malice of his enemies the King unwillingly consenting into the den of ravenous cruel Lyons the dore sealed up with the Kings Ring nothing but death to be expected And yet behold a resurrection in the person of Daniel exactly typifying that of Christ our Saviour in each of the particulars before remembred But of all types especially as to the circumstances of time and place that of the Prophet Ionas doth come nearest home and it comes close home too as to the occasion Ionas went down into the Sea and put himself into a Ship to flie from the presence of the Lord but a great tempest overtook him a tempest of extraordinary violence that neither art nor strength could prevail against it insomuch that the Mariners although Heathens did conclude aright that it was of Gods immediate sending and that there was some heinous sinner got aboard amongst them which drew down vengeance from above upon all the rest To Lots they went Ionas was found to be the party who willingly and cheerfully submitting to the will of God to save the rest in danger to be cast away said frankly without opposition or repining at it Tollite me take me and cast me into the sea Better one perish then so many Accordingly cast in he was and drowned as the poor men thought that had cast him in But the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights which time expired the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land This is Historia vera a true relation of the story in respect of Ionah but it is Sacramentum magnum a very great mysterie withall in regard of Christ. For Ecce plusquam Ionas hic behold a greater then Ionas is presented here It was but signum Prophetae the signe of the Prophet Ionah as our Saviour cals it in respect of the history but it was Res signata too in regard of the mysterie And so it is affirmed by Christ whose death and resurrection it foreshadoweth to us viz. As Ionas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Never did type and truth correspond more perfectly For who knows not how usual a thing it is to compare the world unto a ship or argosie wherein all mankinde is imbarked all the sons of Adam and amongst them the son of man as he cals himself But all the sons of Adam being sinners from the very birth no wonder if the tempest of Gods anger fell upon them all and made them all in danger to be cast away In which amazement and affright only the son of man like Ionah in the sides of the ship slept it out securely who though he knew no sin was made sin for us by taking our iniquities upon his accompt and in that sense the greatest sinner in the vessel So that the high Priest did not prophecie amisse when he said this of him It is expedient that one man do die for the people that the whole nation might not perish Never was doubtfull Oracle fulfilled more clearly For Christ no sooner found what their purpose was but he was at his tollite too as willing to be throwne in as Ionas was and therefore said to those who came out against him Sinite hos abire let those go their way I only am the man that must stay this storme and pacifie the wrath of Almighty God And so accordingly it was done Gods wrath thereby appeased poor mankinde saved and Christ like Ionas having lain three days and three nights in the heart of the earth did on the third day rise again and by so doing vanquished death and swallowed up the grave in victory But this particular we shall hereafter meet with and more fully speak of when we are come unto the Circumstances of the resurrection of which this of the time the third day is the most materiall I add this only for the present in respect of the Iews who being by Christ foretold of his resurrection and in so evident a type thereof as this Signum Prophetae this signe of the Prophet Ionas as himself entitles it could look with an Historical faith on the resurrection of the Prophet out of the belly of the Whale and yet give no belief unto that of Christ out of the bowels of the earth though testifyed and confirmed unto them by such pregnant evidence And yet I shall crave leave to add that if Ionah was the Widow of Sereptas son he whom Elias raised from death to life 1 King 17. as many of the Iewish Doctors do affirme he was the parallel will yet come closer then before it did For Ionas in the Whales belly was but dead putative in the esteem and eye of men but in the Widowes Chamber he was dead realiter and so more perfectly resembling him whose signe he was This leads me on to the next way of evidence in regard of the Iew which is that of example Themselves had read in holy Scripture and believed accordingly that Elias had restored from death to life the son of the Sareptan woman whosoever he was and that Elisha did not only work the like wonder on the dead child of the Shunamite but that his dead body did revive a man and raised him also from the grave And to this head we may reduce the more then wonderfull deliverance of Daniel from the Lyons den and the three Hebrew Salamanders from the fierie furnace all of them putative dead all of them ransomed by the Lord from the mercilesse furie of the grave and jawes of death and that miraculous deliverance no lesse to be esteemed then a Resurrection To each of these the Iews most readily give assent How then can they deny it unto this of Christ Assuredly it was as possible to God to raise our Saviour from the dead if we consider him no further then a mortall man as to raise dead bodies by the prayers of the Prophets and by the dead carkasse of Elisha or as it had been to reprieve Daniel and the three children from the hands
Churches keeping it on the Sunday after in memory of the day of the resurrection Nor was there ever any sect or body of Hereticks but they kept the festival no not so much as the Novatians or Cathari as they call themselves but they kept an Easter though they left every one at liberty to keep it when he would so he kept it at all and therein differing from the Sect of the Quartodecimani who urged it as a matter necessary to celebrate it on the 14. day of the moon and upon no other The sharpe contentions raised in the Primitive times about this point and the great care took by the Prelates of those times to compose the difference are proof sufficient for the estimation which they held it in and the antiquity thereof were there no proof else And yet to set it clear above opposition we finde it upon good record that it was not celebrated by the Church not only during the lives of the Apostles but also by some of them in person For Polycarpus who conversed with the Apostles and was made Bishop of Smyrna by them as Irenaeus and Tertullian do expresly say affirmeth that he kept his Easter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with St. Iohn the Disciple of the Lord and others of the Apostles in whose times he lived and conversed with them St. Iohn by name the rest of the Apostles but in generals only And so Polycrates the Metropolitan of Ephesus doth as plainly say that St. Philip the Apostle kept it and he not only was a Bishop of most eminent note but a most famous Martyr also and so not likely to sophisticate or report a falshood This makes it clear and evident that the feast of Easter is of Apostolical Institution though possibly not ordained or instituted till toward the latter end of the first Century if perhaps Philip lived so long as Iohn doubtlesse did To goe a little higher yet it was received for a truth in the time of Constantine that Easter had been kept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the first day of our Saviours passion untill the very time that good Emperour lived in and more then so that they received it from our Saviour that Christ delivered it unto them So that the institution of the feast of Easter is not only of Divine Apostolicall right but in the opinion of those times and those the happiest of the Church both for peace and purity of a divine right in the highest degree Whether that so it were or not I dispute not here though possibly the high estimation which the Antient Fathers held it in and the honorable attributes which they give unto it may seem to intimate some such matter For St. Ignatius who lived near the Apostles times if he lived not with them calleth it expressely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ladie and Queen of all the feasts and that too in his Epistle ad Magnesianos against which no exception hath been made as yet in this captious age By Constantine it is called the most holy feast and that four times for failing in one Epistle By Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great solemnity By Nazianzen to wander through no more particulars it is not only termed the Queen and Soveraigne of days which it seems he borrowed from Ignatius but thus set out and beautifyed in a fuller manner Easter day is come saith he Gods own Easter day and again I say Easter day is come in honour of the blessed Trinity the feast of feasts the solemnity of all solemnities as far surpassing all other feasts holden not only by or for men but even in honour of Christ himself as the sun the stars Nor was this great festival only solemnized in the world abroad but of as high an estimation also within this Island the errour of the Quartodecimani being condemned and the custome of the Western Church asserted in the Councell of Arles a Councell of more antiquity though of lesse authority perhaps then that of Nice to which subscribed amongst others Euborius B. of York Restitutus B. of London and Adelfus B. of Colchester And for the Scots they did receive the observation of this Festival together with the faith it self Sedulius a learned man of that nation who flourished not long after the conversion of it writing a Poem which he entituled Opus Paschale and did thus begin Paschales quicunque dapes c. In fifteen hundred years and more from our Saviours Passion never did man oppose or cry down this feast but Aerius only who for this and other of his dotages was held to be an heretick and a madman too his folly in this point being held so grosse that he had never any followers for ought I can finde So that the marvell is the greater that after so long a tract of time some people under colour of reformation should put down this feast and for the better and more effectuall obtaining of their end therein either extend the time of their Lent so far as to bring it within the compasse of that publick fast or else as some have also done forbid the Sacrament of the Lords supper to be administred on that day under paines and penalties to make it looked upon no otherwise then a common day And yet the wonder is the more that the same men who practise to beat down this feast with such heat and violence being kept upon the very day of the resurrection and consequently opus diei in die suo should withall labour with the utmost of their power and cunning to cry up the Sunday and scrue it to as high a pitch as the Iews did their Sabbath which is but the Epitome or the Abstract of it Of very congruity at the least it is to be regarded more then an other Sunday as was most notably observed by his sacred Majesty Who asking whether they that preached at Holdenby house on Easter day did preach according to the day of the resurrection and being answered that they did not he next desired to know what reason the new reformers had to put down Easter and continue Sunday For being both instituted by the same authority viz. the authority of the Church of Christ they might as well refuse to observe the weekly Sunday as not keep this feast The Moderate Intelligencer tels us of the Question but I never yet could hear any Answer to it though his Majestie gave it them in writing and I believe I never shall ARTICLE VII Of the Seventh ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. BARTHOLOMEW 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Ascendit ad Coelum sedet ad dextram Dei Patris Omnipotentis i. e. He Ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty CHAP. XI Of the Ascension of our Saviour with a Discussion of the points and other Circumstances which are most considerable in the same THE next great Festivals
Heaven or taken up on high as our English reads it it was Gods act there And so it was indeed it was Gods and his the Persons having such an interest in one another that what was done by the one is ascribed to the other without wrong or prejudice to either as it is also in the case of the Resurrection in which although we find it to be his own act his Resurrexit only in the holy Gospels yet is it quem Deus suscitavit a mortuis him hath God raised from the dead in St. Peters Sermon Or else it may be answered thus that though our Saviour did ascend by his own power and vertue yet he may properly be said to be assumptus taken or carried up into Heaven in three regards that is to say either as taken up on the wings of Angels whereof we shall say more anon as Lazarus was carryed into Abrahams bosom or because he seemed to be wrapt up in a cloud and so taken up out of their sight or finally that the man CHRIST IESVS was taken up into Heaven by the power and vertue of the Godhead in separably united to him Either of these constructions will atone the difference and reconcile the Creed with the words of the Text though we may further add and ex abundanti that St. Luke doth not only say ferebatur in Coelum or he was carryed up into Heaven as if he were passive in it only but that Recessit ab iis first he left them of his own accord gave the first rise to his Ascension and after ferebatur for so it followeth suffered himself to be assumpted taken or carryed up into Heaven either by the Cloud or by the Angels or how else he pleased Lastly it is to be observed that he ascended into Heaven videntibus illis saith the Text whilest his Apostles looked on to signifie that he did ascend by little and little that he might feed their eyes and refresh their souls and by his leisurely ascent make them more able to attest it as occasion served For had he been caught up into Heaven as Elias was who had but one witness to affirm it or rapt up into Heaven as St. Paul was afterwards without any witness but himself and scarce that neither for whether it were in the body or out of the body he could hardly tell the truth thereof had wanted much of that estimation which the mouths of so many witnesses as beheld the mirâ—â—le were able to afford unto it And yet it was strange that many witnesses should need to confirm that truth which had so clearly been fore-signified both by Types and Prophecies that none who did believe the Scriptures could make question of it For if we look upon the Substance or the quod â—it of it or on the circumstances of the time the place the cloud the pomp and manner of the same or finally on the consequent or effect thereof as to Christ himself we finde all signified before-hand in the Book of God and that so fully and expressely as must needs convince the Iews of the greatest obstinacy that ever had been entertained in the hearts of men first in the way of Type or Figure we have that of Enoch before the Law and that of Elias under the Law Of Enoch it is said in the holy Scripture that he walked with God that is to say as the text doth expound it self in the case of Noah he was a just man and perfect in his generation for the times he lived in So righteous was he as it seems in the sight of God that we finde no mention of his death Only the Scriptures say that he was not found because God took him i. e. because God took him to himself translating him both body and soul to his heavenly Kingdome And so St. Paul expounds it saying By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death neither was he found because God had taken him And of Elijah it is said that being talking with Elisha one of his Disciples there appeared a Charet of fire and horses of fire and parted them asunder and that Elijah went up in a whirlwinde into Heaven Here then we have two Types or figures of the Lords Ascension the one delivered in the person of a righteous man who was unblameable in his conversation walking in the commandements of God without reproof the other of a Prophet mighty both in WORD AND WORK who did not only reprove sin and foretel of things which were to come but did confirm his Doctrine with signs and miracles And being that the Iews cannot but confess as Iosephus did that Christ was not only a wise man a Teacher of the people in the ways of truth one that wrought miracles and had gained many both of the Iews and Gentiles to adhere unto him being they cannot but acknowledge of our Saviour Christ as the good Theif did ille autem nil mali fecit that he had done nothing amiss or as Pilate that there was no fault to be found in him they have no reason but to think that Enoch and Elijah were the Types of the Lords Ascension aswell as of his life and doctrine But here perhaps it will be objected that either Enoch and Elijah were not taken up into Heaven and so no Types and figures of the Lords Ascension or if they were then was not Christ the first which opened the gates of Heaven and ascended thither in his body to make a way for others in due time to follow as all Antiquity in a manner do affirm he was grounding their judgement on the evident and plain texts of Scripture For doth not the Apostle expressely say that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet manifest while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Heb. 9.8 And doth not Christ our Saviour as expressely say that no man had ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man Ioh. 3.13 How then were Enoch and Elijah Types of Christs Ascension if they were not taken up into Heaven or how was Christ the first if they there before him Our Saviour Christ himself makes answer unto this objection where he saith that in his Fathers house there were many mansions that is to say several degrees of happiness and estates in glory though all most glorious in themselves To some of which degrees of happiness and estates in glory unto some one or other of those heavenly Mansions both Enoch and Elijah were by God translated there 's no doubt of that the Scripture is expressely for it But that they were in Coelosummo in the highest Heaven that unto which the Lord ascended and where he now sitteth at the right hand of God the Father that as the Scriptures doe not say so there is no necessity why we should believe it Our Saviour was the first who ascended thither that place of supreme glory
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
But presently comes Abraham fals upon the Victors takes the five Kings and with them Lot also Prisoner by means whereof both Lot and they became Abrahams captives to be disposed of as he pleased who had got the mastery So was it with the sons of men till they were rescued from the Devill by this son of Abraham We were the miserable children of this captivitie They to whom we were captives were taken captive themselves and we with them So both came into Christs hands were both made his Prisoners and both accordingly led in triumph on this glorious day Both indeed led in triumph but with this great difference Their being led in triumph was to their confusion they were condemned also as we saw before to perpetuall prisons there to expect the torments of the day of judgment We by this new captivity were released of our old restored unto the glorious liberty of the sons of God And this was felix captivitas capi in bonum a fortunate Captivity that fell out so happily And yet it did not end so neither as if the giving of us our lost liberty had been all intended though we perhaps had been contented well enough had it been no more One part of this great triumph doth remaine behind the dona dedit of the Psalmist the scattering of his gifts and Largesse amongst his people Missilia the old Romans called them to make his conquest the more acceptable to all sorts of men And this he could not do untill his Ascension till he had took possession of the heavenly palaces Every good and perfect gift coming from above as St. Iames hath told us I speak not of those gifts here which concern the Church the body collective of the Saints the whole Congregation The giving of those gifts was the work of Whitsuntide when the Apostles received gifts for the publick Ministery and for the benefit of the Church in all times succeeding I speak of such gifts only now as concerne particulars which he conferreth upon us with a liberal hand according to our wants and his own good pleasure Are we in danger of our enemies By being ascended into heaven he is the better able to deliver us from them for standing on the higher ground he hath got the vantage from whence he can rain down fire and brimstone on them if he thinke it necessary Ascensor Coeli auxiliatur He that rid upon the Cloudes to Heaven is our helpe and refuge saith Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy Are we in want of necessaries to sustain our lives He shall send down a gracious rain upon his inheritance the former and the latter rain as the Prophet cals it Are we unfurnished of such graces as are fit for our Christian calling Out of the fulnesse of his treasure shall we all receive and that too grace for grace saith the great Evangelist that is to say not all of us one and the same grace but diversi diversam to every man his severall and particular grace as Maldonate and I thinke very happily doth expound the Text. For unto one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdome and to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit To another working of miracles to another prophecie to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues To one a supereminâ—nt faith to another an abundant charity to every man some gift or other the better to prepare him for his way to Heaven and make him the more welcome at his coming thither And this indeed is the main gift we are to look for the greatest benefit we can receive by Christs ascensun All other gifts are but in order unto this to provide heaven for us In that he is ascended into heaven in our humane nature he lets us know that heaven is to be ascended and that our nature is made capable of the like ascension if we have ascensiones in corde first and ascend up to him in our hearts by saith and piety Nay therefore did our Saviour ascend into heaven that he might shew us the way thither bespeak our entertainment for us and prepare our lodging I go saith he to prepare a place for you Ioh. 14.3 And so perhaps he might doe and we never the better he might prepare the place and we not come at it He tels them therefore in plain termes If I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also This is indeed the greatest fruit and benefit which redounds to us by Christs Ascendit in altum by his ascending up on high He overcame the sharpnesse of death by his resurrection by his ascension he set open the Kingdome of heaven unto all believers that where he is we may be also Such other of the fruits and effects hereof as be in ordine to this will fall more fitly under the consideration of the next branch of this Article his sitting at the right hand of God the Father and till then we leave them In the mean time it will be fitting for us to take up that Psalme of David and sing Non nobis Domine non nobis that this great work was not wrought for our sakes alone There is a Nomini tuo da gloriam to be looked on too somewhat which Christ acquired thereby unto himselfe that must be considered He was made lower then the Angels in his humane nature not to be crowned with immortality and glory till in his humane nature he ascended into heaven All power had formerly been given him both in heaven and earth He had a jus ad rem then when he sojourned here The exercise of this authority or the jus in re at least the perfect manifestation of it in the eyes of men was not till he had took possession of the heavens themselves the Palace royal of his kingdome Iesus he was a Saviour from his very birth acknowledged by St. Peter for the Christ of God and in his mouth by all the rest of the Apostles Yet finde we not that they looked otherwise on him then as some great Prophet or at the most a Prince in posse if all things went well with him They never took him for their God and Lord though many times they did for their Lord and master nor did they worship and adore him untill his ascension Then the text saith indeed they did it but before that never And it came to passe saith St. Luke that while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven and they worshipped him and returned to Hierusalem with great joy The Papists make a great dispute about this question An Christus sibi aliquid meruerit i. e. Whether Christ merited any thing for himself or for mankinde only In the true meaning of the word and not as they mean merited it is plain he did For properly
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
place where he brings in our Saviour sitting at the right hand of God and making intercession for us In this respect he is called the Mediator of the New Testament Heb. 12.24 that is to say one that doth intercede betwixt God and man to make up the breach that was between them and reconcile poor man to Almighty God And this is such a trust such an high imployment as never was committed unto Saints or Angels but purposely resolved by God for this great High Priest As we acknowledge but one God so can we have no more then one Mediatour and this can be no other then our Lord and Saviour There is one God saith the Apostle and one Mediator between God and man even the man CHRIST IESVS Do we desire to know more of him in this Office from the holy Scriptures hear him then speaking of himself and saying I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me So excellently true is that gloss of Augustines Non est quo eas nisi ad me non est qua eas nisi per me Our Saviour in this case saith he is both the journeys end and the way also Do you desire to hear more from him in this Office from the holy Fathers take then this passage of S. Ambrose Ipse est Os nostrum per quod Patri loquimur he is the mouth by which we speak unto the Father if we hope to speed To state this point more fully as a point in Controversie we are to lay these two truths for a certain ground of our proceeding the first that men are sinners from the very womb and all their righteousness no other then a menstruous cloth the second that God is a God of pure eyes and such as cannot patiently behold our iniquities Such being then the disproportion between God and man how could God look on man without indignation or man lift up his eyes to God without confusion God therefore out of his most infinite mercy gave his Son unto us first for a Sacrifice to be the Propitiation for the sins of the world and after for an High Priest to intercede an Advocate to plead for us unto God the Father to be the Mediator between God and man in all cases of difference and as it were the General Solicitour of our suites and businesses in the Court of Heaven Nay having raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places he made him Master of the Requests appointing him and him alone to receive those petitions and addresses which we make to God and in our name to tender them unto his Father adding his own incense unto our sweet odours that so they might finde welcome at the hands of God And here me thinks this story of Themistocles will not seem impertinent who being banished from Athens his own native soyl was fain to have recourse to Admetus King of the Molossians hoping to finde that safety in a strange land which his own Country could not give him Being admitted into the Kings Chappell he snatcheth up the young Prince into his arms kneels down with him before the Altar and so presented his desires and himself to the King the young Princes Father Which kinde of suing or Petitioning as my Author tels me the Molossians held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the most effectual means of dealing with him and such as could not be denyed I think the Application were superfluous to ingenious ears yet for the driving of it home to our present point take it briefly thus We by our Covenant made to God in holy Baptism are become Aliens to the world and as much hated by it as he at Athens in that respect as much necessitated to cast our selves upon the love and mercy of the Lord our God as he to seek protection in the Court of Admetus And as the young Prince whom he used as his Mediator was of a mixt condition between a King and a subject the Heir not differing from a servant when he is a childe So is our Saviour also between God and man God of the substance of his Father before all worlds man of the substance of his mother born in the world as Athanasius in his Creed Finally as Themistocles did assure himself that he should speed in his requests with King Admetus because the Kings son seemed to solicite for him so we with greater confidence may proceed in our prayers to God the Son of God making continual intercession for us that they may be granted Where note that not our pressing into the Chappel as a thing of course nor falling down before the Altar as a point of ceremony but taking Christ into our arms as he did that Prince will make our prayers to be effectual This verified by Christ himself in his holy Gospel Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name saith he that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son And in another place of the same chapter also Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full If on these grounds we make no other Mediators of Intercession then him that was the Mediator of Redemption too for such a nice distinction have some men found out the better to deceive their own souls and rob Christ of his glory Let us not stand accused for Hereticks in the Court of Rome or if we must so stand accused yet let us still worship the God of our Fathers after the way which they call Heresie Certain I am that in the way which they call heresie the Lord was worshipped by our Fathers in the Primitive times Ignatius who lived neer the time of the Apostles and conversed with some of them willeth us to have Christ only before our eyes when we make our prayers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Irenaeus who lived next to him I mean in time and not in place gives this counsel also Orationes nostras ad Deum dirigere qui fecit omnia that we address our prayers to him only by whom all things were made Origen goes the right way too though in many other things he was out extreamly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we should make our supplications unto God alone who is over all things to God alone as the chief Donour of the blessing but unto God by Christ as the means to gain it Remember what was said before out of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine to the point in hand and we shall finde no other Mediatours of intercession in the times of the Fathers then the man CHRIST IESVS though those of Rome in pity as it were to our Saviour Christ whom they would gladly ease of so great a burden have liberally bestowed the Office on the Saints departed And though a fullerâ—search into their Position is to be made hereafter in a place more proper when
themselves an hodie aeternitatis something which may be called this day before all eternity Which exposition of the words as it is very justly disliked by Calvin so is he very unjustly quarrelled for by some latter writers who look no further on the words then the words of David and not upon the application which St. Paul makes of them Clearly St. Paul who spake by the same Spirit that David did and therefore could not erre in expounding the words of David intends them neither to CHRISTS natural birth as the son of the blessed Virgin Mary nor his eternall generation as the Son of God but to his birth day or begetting to the Crown of the heavenly Canaan the day of their advancement to the regal throne being esteemed as their birth day by most Kings and Princes For who so ignorant in the affaires of the world so little conversant in the monuments of former times as not to know that it is usuall in most States and Kingdomes not only to celebrate with great feasts and triumphs the naturall birth-day of their Kings which they call Diem natalem imperatoris but the inauguration day the day wherein he was exalted to the Crown imperial which they call Diem natalem imperii Certain I am that the day whereon Augustus did assume the imperial power was solemnized in Rome every tenth year with a great deal of joy and that Caligula did decree that the day whereon he began his Empire Dies quo cepisset imperium as my Authour hath it should be called Palilia and celebrated as that was by the antient Romans in memory that their City was on that day founded And thus it hath continued in most States of Christendome but most unprosperously of late as if it were an Omen of the present troubles laid aside in ours And this interpretation of the Psalmists words receiveth good countenance from another place of the same Apostle in which those words of David are again recited The place is this Christ saith he glorifyed not himself to be made high Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son to day have I begotten thee as he saith also in another place Thou art a Priert for ever after the order of Melchisedech The meaning of this passage we have shewn before and is this in brief that Christ being called by God to the two great offices those of the Priesthood and the Kingdome was not exalted unto either though designed to both till God had glorifyed him in the sight of the people by his resurrection And to my seeming Davids words had not St. Paul conducted us to this exposition could have no other meaning then is here made of them For if we marke the composition of the same and the place in which these words are ranked we shall finde that God had first advanced his King and set him on his holy hill of Sion on the royall throne before and but immediately before these words Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee But what need one Apostle be called to witnesse in this point when we have all that glorious company the Apostolical College and the rest of their company apply the whole Psalme to the person of Christ of Christ anointed to the Kingdome by the hands of God but not till Herod Pontius Pilate the Gentiles and the people of Israel had conspired against him to do whatsoever the hand and counsell of God had before determined Having thus brought our Saviour to the Regall throne and set him on the right hand of God in the heavenly places let us next look upon him in his forme of Government according to the arts of Empire These by the Stalists are reduced unto two heads the one consisting in protecting and defending the people committed to them which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other in prescribing laws and executing justice on the transgressours which they terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both these most perfectly discharged by our Prince and Saviour And first the Enemies against which he protects his people are these three the Devil sin and persecution The two first he discomfited in that painfull combat in which he paid the price of our redemption and made his passage open to the new Hierusalem Since that time there is nothing left in Satan but a powerlesse malice and though he roare against the Church he shall never devour it The gates of hell shall not prevail against it said the glorious Conqueror Sin at the same time lost his strength which was the curse of the Law and not his strength only but his Empire too And though he may sojourn for a time in our mortal bodies yet shall he never reigne over us and have us in subjection as before he had unlesse we willingly betray our selves and captivate our souls to those conquered powers which God hath given us grace to master Nor deales otherwise with the Persecutors of his Church and people then he hath done with sin and Satan whom he doth crush at last with a rod of iron and break them into pieces like a potters vessell as David telleth of him in the second Psalme And though sometimes to manifest his own glory in his peoples sufferings and to make tryall of their faith and Christian patience he doth permit their enemies to prevail against them yet was he never wanting in his own due time to make their deliverance more remarkable then all their afflictions Witnesse the persecutions of the primitive times in which the Princes of the earth and the powers of hell banded themselves against the Lord and against his anointed times in the which it were a difficulty to determine whether the gallantry of the Martyrs or the tyranny of the persecutors gave juster cause of admiration to the sad spectators With such a chearfull countenance did they beare their sufferings that they even wearied their tormenters and did not lose their lives but give them With what a noble confidence did they mount the scaffold on which they were to suffer the most cruel death which the wit of man and malice of the Devil could inflict upon them so bravely and without amazement as if they had been mounted rather to behold a triumph then to be brought to execution Never was tragedy of death more bravely acted nor actor honoured with a richer and more glorious crown And for his enemies and theirs the vengeance of the Lord found them out at last and laid them in the dust with disgrace and ignominy For which was there of all the persecutors who made themselves drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Prophets or that have raged against the Church since those furious times to whom he gave not bloud to drinke whom either in their gray haires or in the pride and flourish of all their glories he brought not to the grave with reproach and sorrow or left their dead bodies to be meat to
that Hierusalem was seated in the midst of the earth and thereupon is called by some Geographers Vmbilicus terrae and that aswell Mount Olivet as the Valley of Iehosaphat did both stand Eastward of that City From hence it is by some inferred and their illation backed by no mean authority that Christ our Saviour did ascend up into the East part of Heaven I mean that part of Heaven which answereth to the Equinoctial East upon the Earth that in that part of Heaven he sitteth at the right hand of the Throne of Almighty God and from the same shall also come in the day of Judgement The use that may be made out of this illation shall be interwoven in the file of this discourse and altogether left unto the judgement of the Christian Reader That he ascended up into the Eastern part of Heaven hath been a thing affirmed by many of the Antients and by several Churches not without some fair hints from the Scripture also Sing unto God ye Kingdomes of the earth c. saith the Royal Psalmist To him that rideth on the Heavens as it were upon an horse said our old Translation to him that rideth on the Heaven of Heavens from the beginning as our new would have it But in the Arabick it runs thus Sing unto the Lord that rideth on the Heaven of Heavens in the Eastern part And so the Septuagint that rideth on the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards the East This Origen who very well understood the Eastern languages applyeth to CHRIST utpote a mortuis post passionem resurgens in Coelum post Resurrectionem ad orientem ascendens i. e. who rose from the dead after his passion and ascended up into Heaven towards the East after his Resurrection And so the Aethiopick reads it also viz. Who ascended up into the Heaven of Heavens in the East Thus Damascen affirms expressely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when he was received into Heaven he was carryed up Eastward And unto this that of the Prophet Ezekiel may seem to allude where he saith that the glory of the God of Israel Remember who it is which is called in Scripture the Glory of his people Israel Luk. 2. passâ—d through the Eastern gate Therefore that gate was shut up and might not be opened but to the Prince That being thus ascended into Heaven above he sitteth in that part thereof at the right hand of God must needs be granted if God be most conspicuously seated in that part himself And to prove this we finde this in the Apostolical constitutions ascribed to Clemens take notice by the way of the Antiquity of the custom of turning towards the East in our publick prayers so generally received amongst us who describing the Order of Divine service then used in the Church concludes it thus Then rising up and turning towards the East Let them pray to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sitteth upon the Heaven of Heavens in the Eastern part To this agreeth that of the Prophet Baruch saying Look about thee O Hierusalem towards the East and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God Towards the East that is to say saith Olympiodorus an old Christian writer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 towards IESVS CHRIST our Lord the Sun of righteousness And this way also looketh that part of the old Tradition derived as Irenaeus telleth us who lived neer those times ab Apostolorum Discipulis from those which heard it of the Apostles that is to say that the receptacle of the just and perfect men is a certain Paradise in the Eastern part of the third Heaven An argument that the glory of God is most conspicuous in that part also of the Heaven of Heavens the proper mansion of the Highest as before was shewn Finally that from the Eastern part of Heaven he shall make his last and greatest appearance at this day of judgement although it followeth upon that which is said already hath much stronger evidence An Arabick Author writing on the duties of Christian Religion and particularly of that Prayer directeth us to turn our faces when we pray to the Eastern Coast because that is the Coast concerning which Christ said unto whom be glory that he would appear from thence at his second coming To the same purpose the Arabick Code hath a Canon saying When ye pray turn your selves towards the East For so the words of our Lord import who foretold that his return from Heaven at the later day should be like the Lightning which glittering from the East flasheth into the West His meaning is that we should expect his coming from the East Iohn Damascen to the same effect thus For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so also shall be the coming of the Son of man in which regard we worship him towards the East as expecting him from thence And this saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an unwritten tradition delivered to us from the very Apostles Take for a close this of an old Confession of the Eastern Church viz. We pray towards the East for that our Lord Christ when he ascended into heaven went up that way and there sitteth in the heaven of Heavens above the East And in very deed we make no doubt but that our Lord the Christ as respecting his humane nature hath his seat in the Eastern part of the Heaven of Heavens and sitteth with his face turned towards this world To pray therefore or worship towards the East is to pray and worship towards our Saviour Nor is this only the Tradition of the Eastern and Southern Churches as by the fore-cited Authors it may seem to be We had it also in the West For Paulus de Palacios a Spanish writer makes it the general Tenet of all Christian people quod in Oriente humanitas Christi-sedeat that Christ in reference to his humane nature sitteth in the Eastern part of Heaven and that he is to come from thence where now he sitteth And in an old Festival in this Church of England the Priest used thus upon the Wake days or Feasts of Dedication to exhort the people viz. Let us think that Christ dyed in the Este and therefore let us pray besely into the Este that we may be of the number that he died for Also let us think that he shall come out of the Este unto the Doom Wherefore let us pray heartily to him and besely that we may have grace of contrition in our hearts of our misdeeds with shrift and satisfaction that we may stand that day on the right hand of our Lord IESV CHRIST And so much for this Eastern passage for which I am principally beholding to that learned peece of Mr. Gregory late of Christs Church in Oxon whom as I much esteemed when he was alive so have I made this free acknowledgement to the honour of his memory now
he is deceased Having thus took some pains concerning the time and place of this great action let us next proceed unto the manner from thence unto the method of it and so make an end And in the manner of his coming there are specially thâ—se three things to he considered viz. the sign of the Son of man the sound of the Trumpet and the Ministry of the blessed Angels in all of which we shall finde something worth our Observation Touching the sign of the Son of man which our Saviour speaks of as of a certain note and token of his coming to judgement it stands thus in Scripture Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clowds of Heaven with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 This sign then whatsoever it is is the prodromos or fore-runner of Christs coming to judgement of his second coming as was the Star which shined in the East of his birth or first coming into the world And this to make the Parallel more full and pertinent shall appear visibly in the East also if the Authors whom I have consulted do not much mistake it If you would know what sign this is I answer that it is the sign of the Cross a sign like that which Christ vouchsafed to shew from Heaven to the famous Constantine Of whom Eusebius hath reported from his own mouth too that being imbarked in a war against Maxentius and much perplexed in minde about that affair there shewed it self unto him in an afternoon the form of a Cross figured in the Ayr and therein these words written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say in this sign thou shalt overcome He addes that after that Christ appeared to him in his sleep holding forth the very like sign unto him bidding him cause the like to be framed or fashioned in the Standard-Royal and it should give him victory over all his enemies Which apparition of the Cross or sign of the Son of man in the time of Constantine was a fore-runner as it were of that petit Sessions which Christ at that time held against the cruel Persecutors of his Church and people Diocletian Maximinus Maximianus Licinius and the aforesaid Maxentius all which in very little time were brought to most shameful ends And that the sign of the Son of man which our Saviour speaks of as the fore-runner of the great and general Sessions shall be no other then the sign of the Cross shining in the Ayr hath the approved authority of the Antient Fathers and the consent and testimony of the Western Church and of the Aethiopick also For if you ask St. Hierom what this sign shall be his answer is Signum hic Crucis intelligimus that it was to be understood of the sign of the Cross. St. Augustine also saith the same Quid est signum Christi nisi crux Christi what is the sign of Christ or the Son of man but the sign of the Cross Prudentius a Christian Poet of the Primitive times in an Hymne of his saith of this sign Iudaea tunc signum crucis experta that then the Iews shall have experience of the sign of the Cross. Our venerable Bede is of the same minde in this with the other Fathers Nor is it marvail that he was for it was grown by this time the received opinion of the Western Church as appears plainly by that Anthem in her publick Rituals viz. Hoc signum Crucis erit in Coelo c. This sign of the Cross shall be seen in Heaven at Christs coming to judgment So also for the Eastern Churches that it shall be the sign of the Cross S. Chrysostom affirms expressely saying withall that the light or lustre of it shall be so glorious that it shall darken and obscure the Sun Moon and Stars Euthymius and Theophylact say as much for the Greek Churches and so doth Ephrem Syrus for the Syrian also The Aethiopian Church is so peremptory in it that it it is put into the Articles of their Creed as their Zaba cited by Mr. Gregory doth affirm for certain And finally that it shall appear in the East is with no less certainty affirmed by Hippolytus Martyr a Bishop of the Primitive Ages whose words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e. For a sign of the Cross shall rise up in the East and shine from East to West more gloriously then the Sun it self to give notice to the world that the Iudge is coming And to say truth there may be very good reason for this old Tradition of the Cross. For what can be more honourable to our Lord and Saviour or more full of terrour to his enemies then that the Cross of Christ which they counted foolishness and more then so esteemed the greatest obloquie and reproach of the Christian faith should at that day be made the Herald to proclaim his coming and call all Nations of the world to appear before him No wonder if the Tribes of the Earth did mourn when that so hated sign did appear in Heaven to call them to receive the sentence of their condemnation For the Trump next we finde it mentioned in all places almost in which we meet with any thing of the day of Iudgment Our Saviour telleth us of the coming of the Son of man that he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet Matth. 24.31 St. Paul the like In a moment in the twinckling of an eye at the last trump for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed 1 Cor. 15.52 And in another place more fully The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trump of Christ and the dead in Christ shall rise first 1 Thes. 4.16 Now that which Christ and his Apostle say of the time to come the same St. Iohn saith of it as of a thing done before his face speaking expressâ—ly of this trumpet both in the first chapter of his Revelation vers 10. and in the 4. chapter vers 1. So far it is agreed on without doubt or scruple But then the difference will be thus whether the speech be proper or only figurative whether it were a real Trumpet or but Metaphorical If figurative then the phrase doth signifie no more then this that Christ shall finde a means to call all the Nations of the world to appear before him as if it were with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet being used amongst the Iews by Gods own appointment for calling the Assembly and removing the camp of Israel If but a Metaphorical Trumpet then it may signifie no more then a mighty noise wherewith the dead shall be awakened from the sleep of the Grave such as that voyce spoken by
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
the Gospel as by no means to let it be accommodated to the times of the Law That by a name distinct they have called the Synagogue Synagoga Iudaeorum Ecclesia Christianorum est as St. Augustine hath it And the distinction may sort well enough with the state of the Church as it stood heretofore in the time of the Law and now under the Gospel though otherwise the names may be used promiscuously For properly Synagogue is no other than a Congregation derived from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to congregate or gather together into one and the other in one word may be rendred a Convocation from calling the same men together to some certain end Both words of Ecclesiastical use and notion and both import the same thing though in divers words For both the Patriarks and other holy Men of God which lived under the Law may be called a Church that is to say a Convocation a Body Collective of men called by their God unto a participation of his Word and Ordinances And we which have the happiness to live under the Gospel may without any reproach or dishonor to us be called by the name of the Congregation Certain I am St. Augustine though much affected with the foresaid distinction doth yet allow the one to be called a Church Tamen illam dictam invenimus ecclesâ—am as his words there are and no less sure that the meetings of Christs faithful Servants are by St. Paul called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. A Congregation or gathering of themselves together as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of the same Root and Origination is used by him to the same purpose in another place And yet I can by no means like the zeal of our first Translators who were it seems so out of love with the name of Church that wheresoever they found the word Ecclesia in Greek or Latine for I know not which of the two they consulted with they would not render it the Church but the Congregation And so it stands still in the Epistles and Gospels and several other passages of our Publick Liturgy which were taken out of that Translation A thing which Gregory Martin justly doth except against though he be out himself in saying That the Apostles never called the Church by the name of the Congregation But that Error is corrected in our late Translations and we are now no more afraid of the name of the Church than the Romanists are afraid of the name of Pope Audito Ecclesiae nomine hostis expalluit was a vain brag in Campians mouth when the times were queasiest more ayt to strain at Gnats than they have been since Much less can I approve of that false Collection which those of Rome have made from St. Augustines words For whereas he appropriating the name of Synagogue to the state of the Iews and that of the Church unto the Christians inserts I know not why this Grammatical note Congregatio magis pecorum convocatio magis hominum intelligi solet That to be convocated or called together doth belong to Men but to be congregated or gathered together appertains to Beasts the Authors of the Roman Catechism have from thence collected That the people under the Law were called a Synagogue because like brute Beasts they sought after nothing but temporal and earthly pleasures not being nourished in the hopes of eternal life The vanity of this Collection we have shewn before by bringing in St. Paul to witness how properly the word Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek may be applied and understood of the Church of Christ. The falshood of the Tenet we shall shew hereafter when we are come to speak of the last Article that of Life Everlasting In the mean time the scornful Papist may be pleased to be put in minde that there is nothing more frequent in the Acts of the Council of Constance than Synodus in Spiritu Sancto congregata and yet I know they neither have the confidence nor the heart to say That the Bishops which were there assembled were gathered together like brute Beasts which Congregari doth import in the Tridentine Criticism Of the Quid nominis the name or notion of the Church as it is called Ecclesia both in Greek and Latine we have said enough Our English word Church hath another Root and is derived from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the proper signification of it doth signifie Gods house the material Church the place appointed for the Meetings of Christian people to celebrate the Name of the Lord their God So witnesseth Eusebius saying That in as much as the Holy Houses and Temples of that time were dedicated unto God the chief Lord of all therefore they did receive his Name and were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dominicae in the Latine Tongue that is the Houses of the Lord A name saith he imposed upon them not by the will of man but the Lord himself In correspondence to the Greek they were called Dominica in the Latin and called so very early too in St. Cyprians time as appears by his reproof of a wealthy widow of whom he saith In Dominicum sine sacrificio Venis That she used to come into the Church without her Offering Of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that famous Antiquaâ—y Sir Henry Spelman hath right well observed came the Saxon Cyric or Kirk which still the Scots retain without alteration which we by adding thereunto a double Aspirate have changed or mollified into Church A name which though at first it signified the Material Temple I mean the place of meeting for Gods Publick Worship yet came it easily to be applied to the Body Mystical to the Spiritual Temple built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles IESUS CHRIST himself being the chief corner stone As on the otherside the word Ecclesia which first the Christians used to signifie the Spiritual Temple the Collective Body of Gods people became in little time to denote the building the material edifice appointed for the meeting of the Congregation Tertullian hath it in this sense for the African Churches Conveniunt in ecclesiam confugiunt in ecclesiam They met together in the Church and they fled to the Church So hath St. Ierome for the Roman Aedificate ecclesias expensis publicis Let Churches be erected at the Publick charge And for the Eastern thus the Synod of Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. In the Church of the most holy Martyr Euphemia Many more instances of which kinde might be here alleged but that St. Paul is generally supposed by all sorts of Writers to speak of the Material Church when he charged those of Corinth for despising the Church of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek Original Concerning which consult St. August quaest 57. super Levit. St. Basil. in Moral Reg.
as to brook no Superior fitted the Government of those Congregations which they called the Churches according unto that equality and want of order which they had been accustomed to in Civil matters For in their Platform every Congregation whether little or great is absolute in it self and independent of any other having in it self a supream Authority of exercising Ecclesiastical Powers and Spiritual Faculties without any reference or appeal in point of grievance And in the exercising of those powers and faculties every Member of the Congregation whether poor or rich as they are all concerned are all equally interessed And for the Ministration of the Word and other Ordinances for I think they do not call them Sacraments though many times they do set a part some particular persons yet do they not exclude any man of what rank soever from exercising of his gift as the Spirit moves him In this quite contrary to the Fathers of the Presbytery who though they do so dearly affect a parity amongst the Ministers themselves yet do they suffer none to perform that Office but such as have an outward calling by giving them the hands of fellowship Which Ceremony they conceive savors more of parity than that of the imposition of hands used in Ordinations And though each Presbyter and Presbytery too stand in equal rank and equipage with one another yet in relation to their Meetings or Bodies aggregate they do allow of sub and supra the Presbytery being subordinate unto the Classis as the Classis is to the Provincial and that to the General Assembly from which lieth no appeal in what case soever But so it is not with the Brethren of the Independency every particular Member of their Congregations being permitted to Preach and expound the Scripture according to the measure of the gift which is given unto him So that if Ierome were alive he might most justly make complaint of that foul disorder which some began to practise in those early days but was never so much in request as amongst this people Whereas saith he all other Arts and Mysteries have their peculiar Artists and distinct Professors Sola Scripturarum ars est quam omnes passim sibi vendicant onely the Art of Preaching and Expounding Scripture is usurped by all men For this saith he each weak old man and taâ—ling gossip for we have Women Preachers too in these Congregations and each wrangling Sophister every man in a word doth intrench upon and take upon them to teach others what they did never learn themselves Some with a supercilious look speak big and dogmatize of holy Matters amongst silly women others learn that of women it is a shame to say it which afterwards they teach to men and some again with great variety of words and sufficient impudence do talk to others of those things which they understand not themselves A man would think St. Ierome were inspired with the Spirit of Prophecy and that he spake not of the frenzies of the former times but the distempers of the present And yet perhaps we have a better character of them especially as it relates to their way of Government in the old Acephali the Hereticks which had no head as their name doth signifie Of whom Nicephorus thus informeth us Acephali ob cam causam dicti sunt quod sub Episcopis non fuerint c The Acephali were so called saith he because they were not under Bishops and therefore neither did they minister Baptism according to the solemn and received Order of the Church nor celebrate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or any other Divine Office in the usual manner And because every man had liberty to adde unto the holy Faith what new points he pleased a very great number of Hereticks and Apostates did ensue upon it with whom the Church for a long time was perplexed and exercised Besides that great seditions and disorders did from hence arise the rascal rabble of that Sect pressing unto the Rails of the Altar threatning to fine the Priests and cast them out of their Churches with reproach and infamy if they presumed to mention the Authority of the General Council that of Chalcedon it is he means or to recite the names of those holy Fathers who were present at it So far and to this purpose he in which we may discern a great deal of the humor as well as we have found the name of our new Acephali But to proceed The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters in the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical or Popular as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practise and their Platforms it remains then that it must be Aristocratical And this indeed hath been the judgement of most pure Antiquity and verified in the practise of the happiest times For howsoever those of Rome do perswade themselves that Christ invested Peter with a Sovereign power over the rest of the Apostles yet generally the Fathers of the Primitive times have determined otherwise For so saith Origen Haec velut ad Petrum dicta sunt omnium communia Those things which seem spoken to St. Peter onely are common unto all the rest Thus Cyprian Hoc erant utique coeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consorti praediti potestatis honoris The rest of the Apostles were as much privileged as Peter and were all invested with a like proportion both of power and honor Thus Ierome also for the Latines the two great Writers of the African and Alexandrian Churches you have heard before Super Petrum fundatur Ecclesia c The Church is founded upon Peter but this is said in another place of the other Apostles all of which had the Keys of Heaven Et ex aequo super eos ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur and the foundation of the Church is setled equally on them all And thus St. Chrysostom for the Greeks Paul saith he had no need of Peter or stood in want of his voice or countenance Honore enim illi par erat ne quid dicam amplius but was his equal at the least that I say no more The like equality was maintained in the following times amongst the Bishops or chief Rulers in the Church of Christ. For being Successors unto the Apostles in the Publick Government though not in their extraordinary power as they were Apostles whereof we shall speak more anone they had no reason to pretend superiority over one another which none of the Apostles could lay claim unto Of this equality of the Bishops doth St. Ierom speak and it is indeed an evidence beyond all exception Vbicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Eugubii sive Constantinopli sive Alexandriae sive Tanai ejusdem meriti ejusdem est Sacerdotiâ— Potentia divitiarum paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit Coeterum omnes Apostolorum
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
if they die in their Baptism in which respect they may be said to communicate with the rest of the faithful Concerning which the same St. Augustine hath most excellently resolved it thus No man in any wise may doubt but that every faithful man is then made partaker of Christs Body and Blood when in Baptism he is made a member of Christ And that he is not deprived of the Communion of that Bread and that Cup although before he either eat of that Bread or drink of that Cup he depart this world being in the unity of Christs Body For he is not deprived from partaking of the benefit of that Sacrament so long as he findeth in himself the things or the res Sacramenti as St. Cyprian calls it which the Sacrament signifieth As for the Union or Communion which the faithful have with one another though that arise upon their first incorporation in Iesus Christ by holy Baptism yet is more compleatly signified and more fully effected by that communion which they have in his Body and Blood And so St. Cyprian and St. Augustine and the rest of the Fathers do declare most plainly St. Cyprian as more antient shall begin the evidence and be the foreman of the Inquest That Christian men are joyned together with the inseparable bonds of charity the Lords Supper doth saith he declare St. Augustine generally first of all outward Sacraments In nullum nomen Religionis seu verum seu falsum coagulari possunt homines nisi aliquo signaculorum vel sacramentorum visibilium consortio colligantur Men saith he cannot be united into any Religion be it true or false unless they be joyned together in the bond of some visible Sacraments What he affirmeth of this particularly we shall see anon first taking with us that of Dionysius an Antient Writer doubtless whosoever he was Sancta illa unius ejusdem panis poculi communis pacifica distributio unitatem illis divinam tanquam unà enutritis praescribit that is to say That holy and peaceable distribution of the same one Bread and that common Cup prescribeth to them which are so fed and nourished together a most heavenly union More elegantly in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Pachymeres the Greek Paraphrast doth thus reason for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because that common feeding together with such joynt consent bringeth to our remembrance the Lords Supper Nor doth the participation of this blessed Sacrament produce an union or communion between them alone who do receive the same together at one time and place but it doth joyn and knit together all the Saints of God how far soever they are distant and scattered far and near upon the face of the Earth For therein we profess that we are all servants in one House and resort all to one Table and feed all of one Spiritual Meat which is the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of God The Prayers which are used in that holy action being so fitted and contrived in all Antient Liturgies that they extend not unto those onely which do then communicate but that they and the whole Church with them may by the death and merits of Iesus Christ and through Faith in his Blood obtain remission of their sins and all other the benefits of his passion as it is piously expressed in the Liturgy of the Church of England To this St. Ierom gives a clear and most ample testimony who being pressed by Iohn the then Bishop of Ierusalem with whom he had some personal quarrels to go to Rome and witness his integrity by communicating in the face of that Church A qua videmur communione separari from whose communion he had seemed to separate returns this Answer Non necesse esse ire tam longè that it was not needful for him to go so far How so Et hic in Palestina eodem modo ei jungimur In viculo enim Bethlehem Presbyteris ejus quantum in nobis est communion◠sociamur For here saith he in Palestine do we hold communion with that Church and I residing in this Village of Bethlehem am joyned in the communion with the Priests of Rome By which we see that whosoever doth worthily eat the Body of Christ and drink his Blood according to the Institution of our Lord and Saviour communicates thereby with all Christian men of all Countreys and Nations whatsoever and that by vertue and effect of the said Communion they be all knit and joyned together as members of the same one Body in the bonds of love And this is that which is affirmed by St. Augustine Non mirum si absentes adsumus nobis ignoti no smet novimus cum unius corporis membra simus unum habeamus caput una perfundamur gratia uno pane vivamus una incedamus via eadem habitemus is domo It is no wonder saith the Father that being absent we be present together and being not acquainted do know each other considering that we be the Members of one Body have the same one Head an endowment of the self-same Spirit and that we live by one bread go the same way and dwell together in one House To testifie this Communion which they had with each other by vertue of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper it was a custom of the Primitive and Purest times to send some part of the consecrated Elements unto them which were absent and joyned not with them in that action And sometimes for one Bishop to send to another a Loaf of Bread as a token of consent in the point of Faith and in all brotherly love and concord which he that did receive it if he thought it fitting might consecrate and use at the Ministration Touching the first of these it was well observed by Irenaeus that when any of the Eastern Bishops came to Rome the Popes thereof which preceded Victor did use to send them some of the blessed Sacrament although they differed in the observation of the Feast of Easter whereby a mutual concord and communion was preserved between them Of which he writeth thus to the said Pope Victor Qui fuerunt ante te Presbyteri etiam cum non ita observarent Presbyteris Ecclesiarum of the East he meaneth cum Romam acciderent Eucharistiam mittebant And of the other it is said in those Epistles which Paulinus wrote unto St. Augustine Panem unum quem unanimitatis indicio misimus charitati tuae rogamus ut accipiendo benedicas i. e. The Loaf of Bread which I have sent unto you as a token of unity I beseech you to receive and consecrate See also to what purpose he sent those five Loaves which were designed for the said St. Augustine and Licinius of which he speaketh in the Six and thirtieth Epistle of that Fathers works and that other single Loaf in the Five and thirtieth where it appeareth That the Loaves so sent and consecrated
Monuments of the Catholick Church to signifie the death and not the birth-day of the Saints departed And more particularly we are thus informed by St. Augustine Solius Domini Beati Iohannis dies nativitatis in universo mundo celebratur i. e. That onely the day of the nativity of our Lord and Saviour and of St. Iohn Baptist were celebrated in his time in the Church of Christ Of Christ because there is no doubt but that he was conceived and born without sin original and of the Baptist because sanctified in his Mothers womb as St. Luke saith of him And for particular men it is said by Origen Nemo ex sanctis invenitur hunc diem festum celebrasse c. That never any of the Saints did celebrate the day of their own nativity or of any of their sons and daughters with a Solemn Feast The reason was the same for both because they knew that even the best of them were conceived in sin and brought forth in wickedness and therefore with no comfort could observe that day which the sense of their original corruptions had made so unpleasing But on the other side those men who either knew not or regarded not their own natural sinfulness esteemed that day above all others in their lives as that which gave them their first-being to enjoy their pleasures and they as Pharaoh in the Old Testament and Herod in the New failed not to keep the same as a Publick Festival Soli peccatores super hujusmodi diem laetantur as it is in Origen And hereupon we may infer without doubt or scruple that having the authority of the Scripture and the Churches practise and that practise countenanced by Authors of unquestioned credit not to say any thing further in so clear a case from the concurrent Testimonies of the Antient Fathers That there is such a sin as Birth-sin or Original sin a Natural corruption radicated in the Seed of Adam which makes us subject to the wrath and indignation of God Thus have we seen the Introduction of sin the first act of the Tragedy let us next look upon the second on the Propagation the manner how it is derived from Adam unto our Fore-fathers and from them to us And this we finde to be a matter of greater difficulty St. Augustine in whose time these controversies were first raised by the Pelagians did very abundantly satisfie them in the quod sit of it but when they pressed him with the quo modo how it was propagated from Adam and from one man to another he was then fain to have recourse to Gods secret justice and his unsearchable dispensation Et hoc quidem libentius disco quam doceo ne audeam docere quod nescio as with great modesty and caution he declined the business For whereas sin is the contagion of the soul and the soul oweth its being unto God alone and is not begotten by our parents the Pelagians either would not or could not be answered in their Quere How Children should receive corruption from their Parents not could the good Father give them satisfaction unto their demand But as a Dwarf standing on the shoulders of a Giant may see many things far off not visible to the Giant himself so those of the ensuing times building on the foundations which were laid by Augustine have added to him the solution of such doubts and difficulties as in his time were not discovered Of these some have delivered That the soul contracts contagion from the flesh even in the very act of its first infusion the union of the soul and body nor is it any thing improbable that it should so be We see that the most excellent Wines retain their natural sweetness both of taste and colour as long as they are kept in some curious Vessel but if you put them into foul and musty bottles they lose forthwith their former sweetness participating of the uncleanness of the Vessel in which they are Besides it is a Maxim amongst Philosophers Quod mores animae sequuntur temperamentum corporis That the soul is much byassed and inclined in the actions of it unto the temper of the body and if the equal or unequal temper of the body of man can as it seems incline the minde unto the actual embracing of good or evil then may it also be believed that the corruptions of the flesh may dispose the soul even in the first infusion of it to some habitual inclinations unto sin and wickedness Than which though there may be a more solid there cannot be a more conceiveable Answer But others walking in a more Philosophical way conceive that the accomplishment of the great work of Generation consists not in the introduction of the form onely or in preparing of the matter but in the constituting the whole compositum the whole man as he doth consist both of soul and body And that a man is and may properly be said to beget a man notwithstanding the Creation of his soul by God because that the materials of the Birth do proceed from man and those materials so disposed and actuated by the emplastick vertue of the Seed that they are fitted for the soul and as it were produced unto Animation Which resolution though it be more obscure unto vulgar wits is more insisted on by the learned than the former is and possibly may have more countenance from holy Scripture When God made man it is said of him That he was created after Gods own Image that is to say Invested with an habit of Original Righteousness his understanding clear and his will naturally disposed to the love of God But Adam having by his fall lost all those excellent endowments both of grace and nature begot a Son like to himself And therefore it is said in the fifth of Genesis That he begot a son in his own likeness after his own image and he called his name Seth Though Adam was created after the Image of God and might have still preserved that Image in his whole posterity had he continued in that state wherein God created him yet being faln he could imprint no other Image in the fruit of his Body than that which now remained in him his own Image onely the understanding darkned and the will corrupted and the affections of the soul depraved and vitiated Qualis post lapsum Adam fuit tales etiam filios genuit such as himself was after his Apostasie such and no other were the Children which descended of him â—s Paraeus very well observeth And if it fall out commonly as we see it doth that a crooked Father doth beget a crook-backed Son that if the Father look a squint the Children seldom are right-sighted and that the childe doth not onely inherit the natural deformities but even the bodily diseases of his Parents too It is the less to be admired that they should be the heirs also of those sinful lusts with which their
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
Resurrection of the Body also And to this purpose that of Gregory Quam in se oftendit in me facturus est exemplo hic monstravit quod promisit in proemio That saith the Father which he exemplified in himself he will make good upon me what we finde proved in his person shall be further manifested in our own Besides we know that Christ is often called in St. Pauls Epistles the head of the Church which is his Body and we with joy and gladness do acknowledge it for a certain truth Now Chrysostom hath truly noted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where the head is there also will the body be and if the Head be glorified the Body will be also glorified If therefore CHRIST our Head be risen then shall we also be raised in due time who are his Body or at least the Members of that Body for ye are the body of Christ and members in particular saith the same Apostle But this must be expected in its own due time as before I said I◠being not to be supposed that so great a work as this shall be wrought upon us either unseasonably or out of order Every one in his own order saith the Text first CHRIST the first fruits of the resurrection afterwards such as are Christs at his coming Where still observe how Christs resurrection and our own are tyed by the Apostle in a string together Eadem catena revincta est Christi resurrectio nostra as my Author hath it we cannot stir one end of the chain but the other moveth with it This habitude or connexion between Christ and us will help us to another Argument to confirm this Doctrine For if we be the members of the body of Christ we must be crucified in our members as Christs body was Mortifie therefore your earthly members saith St. Paul And certainly we may conclude That if we be crucified with Christ we shall rise with Christ if we do suffer with him we shall also reign with him and be glorified with him There is another rational way of Argumentation used by the Apostle the sum whereof in brief is this That if there were no Resurrection of the Body whereby we might receive the comfort of those good acts which we have done in our flesh then should we have but small encouragement in the works of piety especially to hazard our estates nay our very lives in maintenance and defence of the Holy Gospel Why stand we then saith he in jeopardy all the day long And why have I my self encountred Beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men or suffered in my flesh that full variety of torments that I may justly say of my self that I die daily And not so onely but certainly we rob our selves of too much pleasure by the severity of our Religion and foolishly deny to our lives those comforts which make life valued for a blessing For to what purpose should we weary out our souls with fasting and our skins with sack-cloath or to what purpose do we make our knees even hard and callous by kneeling in his holy Temple were there no Resurrection of the Body or no life to come If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we were of all men the most miserable Rather than so let us give way to our desires and eat and drink enjoy the pleasures of the world whiles they are before us for ought we know we may die to morrow and with that death to morrow there is an end of all things Thus might a man reason for a Resurrection in behalf of himself and he may reason for it also on the behalf of God whose justice cannot be declared in the sight of men if there were no Resurrection of the flesh to express it by To this end we are told by the same Apostle That we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every man may receive according to that which he hath done in his body whether good or evil The strength and efficacy of which Argument as is elswhere noted is briefly this The Bodies of us men being the servants of the soul to righteousness or else the instruments to sin in justice ought to be partakers of that weal or wo which is adjudged unto the soul and therefore to be raised at the day of judgment that as they sinned together or served God together so they may share together of reward or punishment Which Argument as it strongly proves the Resurrection of the Body so it as strongly doth conclude for a Resurrection of the same Body the same numerical body which before we had not of a new created body as some idly dream For certainly it were no justice in Almighty God if one flesh should fast and pray and kneel and watch and weary out it self in the service of God and another flesh reap that which it never labored for No comfort to the poor body at all to abridge it self of so much pleasure and be exposed to so much danger and affliction and another strange body shall step up and receive the reward Iobs confidence was That he should see God with the same eyes and none other for them If they restrained themselves as it were by Covenant with the Lord from straying after objects of lust and not intice him to a maid as he saith he did It is but justice that they the same eyes and none other should be rewarded with the view of a better object If they have been poured out like water and dropped many a tear in the sight of God Reason and Justice both will agree to this That the tears should be wiped from those eyes not from a pair of new ones which did never shed any And unto this St. Paul comes home not speaking of the Resurrection of a Body in general but of this body in particular It is these eyes of Iob none other which shall see the Lord and hoc corruptibile in St. Paul this corruptible and none other which must then put on corruption And thus far we have gone upon positive proofs and sought them also in the Law and the Prophets onely Another kinde of evidence may be found in Scripture which for distinctions sake shall be called Practical common alike to Law and Gospel both to Iews and Christians Of this sort was the solemn form of burial amongst the Iews the charges they were at in Spices and sweet Ointments to embalm the Bodies of their dead and the command given both by Ioseph and Iacob to their children for the transporting of their bones to the Land of Canaan the type and shadow of Gods Kingdom in the Heavens above All special testimonies that they did expect in the Lords good time a Resurrection of those Bodies so carefully so choicely tendred laid up in the Repository of the Grave with such cost and decency When Mary Magdalen poured forth
a full discourse which he entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Discourse of Promises and finding that he grounded his erroneous Tenets on the Revelation he wrote another on that Book which he inscribed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The confutation and reproof of the Allegorists Nor did he labour by his pen onely but by conference too making a journey or Episcopal Visitation into Arsenois a Province of Egypt where this opinion was most cherished of purpose to dispute down this erroneous Doctrin◠In which he sped so answerably unto his desires that many of the chief Sticklers in it did recant their error et veritatem una nobiscum confite bantur and chearfully imbrace that truth which he brought unto them This Doctrine being set on foot though by such vile Hereticks and seeming to have ground and countenance from the Revelation was by the Fathers and other Writers of the first times of the Church thought fitter to be rectified and reformed than abandoned wholly And thereupon a new conceit was taken up and dispersed abroad unto this effect That after the Resurrection Christ should have an Earthly Kingdom the principal Seat whereof should be Hierusalem Hierusalem new built of gold and most precious stones Hierusalem aurea gemmata as St. Hierom calleth it in which the Saints should reign with him for a Thousand years in all manner of happiness and after that accompany him to the Heaven of Heavens and there live for ever This was the sum of the Opinion thus refined and rectified But for the Readers satisfaction and my own together I shall describe it more at large that we may see the better what we are to think of it and therein I shall follow Lactantius chiefly who hath more copionsly presented the true state thereof than any other of the Antients By him we are informed that after the destruction of the Roman Empire which must be utterly subverted before any of these things shall come to pass there shall follow great plagues unseasonable weather a general mortality of all living Creatures many strange Prodigies in the Air the Stars fall down from Heaven and the whole course of nature shall be out of order Things being in this dreadful state the Lord shall send into the world the great Prophet Elias who shall convert many unto God with great signs and wonders but in the midle of his work Antichrist shall arise out of Syria encounter with that great Prophet kill him in the Fight leaving him for three daies unburied after which time he shall revive and be taken up into Heaven After this shall presently ensue a terrible persecution of those righteous persons who will not worship this proud Tyrant calling himself the Son of God and practicing to seduce the people after the working of Satan by power and signs and lying wonders insomuch that all the Saints shall be compelled to retire themselves into the Wilderness and there abide in great distress calling continually for help to the Lord their God For their relief Christ shall descend at last with the Hosts of Heaven fight with this dreadful Tyrant overthrow him often and finally take him and his Confederates Prisoners whom he shall presently condemn to their merited torments Then shall the graves be opened and the bodies of the Saints shall arise and stand before the Iudgement seat of Christ the Conqueror and being united to their souls shall be incorporated with those righteous persons which are found alive and both together constitute an earthly Kingdom to our Lord and Saviour who shall reign over them or with them rather for a Thousand years triumphing over the remainder of their mortal Enemies who shall not be extinguished but preserved to perpetual slavery During this time the Devil shall be bound in chains that he do not hurt the Saints inhabiting the holy City in all peace and happiness the Sun shall shew more glorious than ever formerly the Earth become more fruitful than it was before producing most delicious fruits of its own accord the Rocks shall yeeld the sweetest hony and all the Rivers flow with Milk and Wine After which Thousand years expired the Devil that old Murderer shall get loose again stir up the Nations of the Earth to destroy the Saints and not onely lay siege unto the holy City But fire and hail and tempests from the Heavens above shall make so general and terrible a destruction of them that for Seven years there shall no other wood be burat but their Spears and Targets Then shall the Saints be brought into the presence of Almighty God whom they shall serve for evermore and at the same time shall be the Second and most general Resurrection in which the wicked shall be raised to eternal torments and damned for ever to the lake of fire and brimstone This is the substance of the Story as Lactantius telleth it which whether it have more of the Iew or of the Poet in it it is hard to say That of the great defeat of Antichrist and the burning of the Spears and Shields for Seven years together is branded by St. Hierom for a peece of an old Talmudical Tale the Iewish Rabbins making the like endless fables interminabiles fabulas as the Father calleth them of Gog and Magog who for a while shall tyrannize so cruelly over those of Israel but be at last subdued and slain with as great an overthrow as he affirmeth of Antichrist and his Confederates That of the flourishing estate of Christs earthly Kingdom was reckoned in those times when it was most countenanced to be but a Poetical fiction Figmenta haec esse Poetarum quidam putant as Lactantius doth himself acknowledge And more than so he seemeth to refer his Reader for a further description of this Kingdom to the works of the Poets affirming positively that all those characters shall be verified of this Kingdom of Christ I mean this Millenarian Kingdom Quae Poetae aureis temporibus facta esse dixerunt which by the Poets are affabulated of the golden age for proof whereof for fear we should not take his word he puts down a description of it out of Virgils works But in my minde his own description of it comes more near to Ovids who thus concludes his Map or Character of that blessed time Mox etiam fruges Tellus inarata ferebat Nec renovatus Ager gravidis canebat aristis Flumina tum Lactis tum flumina Nectaris ibant Flavaque de viridi stillabant Ilice Mella Which is thus Englished by Geo. Sandys The fruitful Earth Corn un-manured bears And every year renews her golden Ears With Milk and Nectar were the Rivers fill'd And yellow Honey from green Elmes distill'd But whether it were Iewish or Poetical or compounded of both the fancy being once taken up proved very acceptable as it seems in those elder times to most sorts of people both in the East and Western Churches who did
and beams of our Heavenly Father who hath bestowed our souls upon us indued with such a perfect measure of understanding and who not onely doth direct our mindes in the ways of godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in due time also will save our Bodies The Divine Plato and his followers borrowed a great deal of their light from this Zoroaster and the like Dictates of the rest of the Chaldean Sages which grounded him in his opinion of the Souls immortality and the account it was to give to the dreadful Iudge in the world to come whereof he speaketh in his second Epistle and eleventh Book De Legibus Pythagoras though sometimes he held the transmigration of the soul into other Bodies yet in his better thoughts he disposed it otherwise and placed the souls of vertuous men in the Heavens above where they should be immortal and like the gods saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say Leaving the Body they to Heaven shall flie Where they shall be immortal never die And to this purpose also that of Epicharmus may be here alleged assuring us That if we live a life conform to the rules of vertue death shall not be able to do us hurt because our souls shall live in a blessed life in the highest Heavens Upon these grounds but specially upon the reading of some Books of Plato Cleombrotus is said to have been so ravished with the contemplation of the glories of that other life that for the more speedy attaining of them he cast himself down from the top of a Mountain with greater zeal by far than wisdom And therefore much more commendable was the death and dying speech of one Chalcedius another of those old Platonicks Revertar in patriam ubi meliores Progenitores Parentes I am saith he returning into my own Country where I shall finde the bettet sort of my Progenitors and deceased Parents Nor was this such a point of divine knowledge as was attainable onely by the wise men of Greece the sober men amongst the Romans had attained it also For Cicero affirms expresly Certum esse ac definitum in coelo locum ubi beati aevo sempiterno fruantur That there is a certain and determinate place in Heaven where the blessed souls of those who deserve well of the publick shall injoy everlasting rest and happiness And Seneca speaks thus of death intermittit vitam non eripit that it onely interrupteth the course of life but destroyeth it not because there will come a day at last qui nos iterum in lucem reponat which will restore us again to the light of Heaven Finally Not to add more testimonies in so clear a case Homer makes Hercules a companion of the gods above with whom he lives in endless solace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Ennius saith the like of Romulus Romulus in Coelo longum cum diis agit aevum If we would know what their opinion was of the place it self in which eternal life was to be enjoyed we have a glimpse or shadow of it in the fiction of the Elysian fields so memorized and chanted by the antient Poets Locos laetos amoena vireta Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas A place conceived to be replenished with all variety of pleasures and divine contentments which possibly the soul of man could aspire unto the ground continually covered with the choycest Tapistry of Nature the Trees perpetually furnished with the richest fruits excellent both for taste and colour the Rivers running Nectar and most heavenly Wines fit for the Palat of the gods And which did add to all these beauties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sweets thereof not blasted by untimely dewes or interrupted by the inclemency of a bitter winter A place by them designed for the soules of those who had been careful of Religion or lost their lives in the defence and preservation of their natural Country or otherwise deserved nobly of the publick Nay even the rude Americans and savage Indians whom we may justly call jumenta rationalia a kind of reasonable beasts retain amongst them a Tradition thar beyond some certain hils but they know not where there is a glorious place reserved for the soules of those who had lived vertuously and justly in this present life or sacrificed their lives to defend their Country or were the Authors of any notable and signal benefit which tended to the good of mankind If then not onely the Philosophers and learned Gentiles but even the Barbarians and rude Americans have spooken so divinely of the place and state of good men departed there is no question to be made but that the Patriarchs Prophets and other holy men of God were very well assured of the truth hereof although they lived before or under the Law as well assured as we that have the happiness to live under the Gospel For St. Paul telleth us of the Fathers which were under the cloud that they all passed thorow the red Sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them and that Rock was Christ Not that they had the same Sacraments in specie which we Cristians have but others which conduced to the same effect and did produce the same fruits both of Faith and Piety The Mysteries of salvation the hopes and promises of eternal life are frequently expressed in the Old Testament quamvis obscuriores longè though more obscure by far than in the forms of speech in which they are presented to us in the New Testament as Peter Martyr well observes And he notes too that many were the temporal promises or the promises concerning temporal blessings but so as to conduct and train them up in the hopes of happines eternal The temporal blessings which they had were but the types and figures of those endless comforts which were reserved for them in the Heavens above the land of Promise but a shadow of that promised land of which they were to be heirs in the Kingdom of God Hierusalem but a Map of that glorious City whose Author and founder is the Lord. Enoch had neither been translated before the Law nor Elias under it had not both of them stedfastly beleeved this truth that they should see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living And yet some men there were and I doubt still are who teach that the holy men of God which lived before Christ our Saviours time did fix their hopes only upon temporal blessings and not at all upon spiritual or if upon spiritual as the peace of conscience yet not upon eternal happiness which is the crown and glory of that peace The Anabaptists and the Familists were of this opinion against whom the Church of England hath declared her self in the Seventh Article of her Confession saying That they are not to be
wings that thou take no harm This was the Devils last attempt and he failed in this too our Saviour keeping still to his old ward and beating off all his blows with a Scriptum est to teach us that the Word of God is the best assurance we can have to rest our selves upon in the day of Temptation and that there is no readier way to quench the fiery darts of Satan then to be always furnished with the waters of life This done the Devil finding him impregnable and that he did but lose his labour in those vain assaults gives him over presently He left him to himself as St. Matthews tels us and thereby made that good in fact which is recorded of him by St. Iames the Apostle Resist the Devil and he will flie from you And yet he left him so as to come again He departed from him for a season as St. Luke informs us and he that goes away for a season only hath animum revertendi a purpose of returning when he sees occasion and when he meets with those occasions we shall finde him at it In the mean time there are some doubts to be resolved touching these temptations which we will first remove and then pass forwards For first a question may be made how the Devil could so suddenly take our Saviour up and set him on a pinnacle of the holy Temple being a place so remote from the heart of the Wilderness But the answer to this doubt is easie would there were no worse Read we not how a good Angel laid hold on Habacuc and took him by the hair of the head and carryed him with his dinner in a moment of time from the land of Iewrie unto Babylon And then why may we not conceive but that the Devil though an evil Angel yet an Angel might take up Christ into the ayr and carry him to the top of the Temple and arrest him there especially our Saviour making no resistance but rather giving way unto it and perhaps facilitating the attempt For that the Devil could do nothing against him without much less against his will is a truth past questioning But then there is a greater difficulty occurring in the story of the second temptation where it is said which seems impossible to be comprehended that having taken Christ unto the top of the mountain he shewed him all the Kingdomes of the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Luke in a moment of time For resolution of which doubt we must first premise that those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render in the English in a moment of time are a Proverbial kinde of speech as Erasmus noteth by which the Grecians use to signifie a short space of time as where Plutarch saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our whole life is but a short time and yet far longer then a moment Agreeably whereto the Translator of the Syriack doth thus read the words which Translation is of great and approved Antiquity He i. e. Satan shewed him all the Kingdomes in a very small time And this premised the doubt may easily be resolved by those two answers or by which of them the Reader pleaseth Some think that Satan gave him not a particular inspection of every place but a general direction to the coasts and parts of the earth where those Kingdomes lay the rest being supplyed by speech and not by sight and of this minde is he that made the Expositions on St. Matthew ascribed to S Chrysostom Satan saith he did not so shew those Kingdoms unto Christ that he saw the very Kingdomes themselves or the Cities people gold and silver in them but the parts of the earth in which every Kingdome and the chief City of it stood And then it followeth to the same purpose and effect which before we spake of For Satan might most directly point with his finger unto every place and then relate in words express the state and glories of each several Kingdome With whom agreeth Euthymius Zigabenus amongst the Antients and Musculus a man of no mean learning amongst later Writers Others conceive that as the Devil can transform himself into an Angel of light so he is able also to make spectres or false shews of any thing when he is suffered so to doe by Almighty God to deceive mens eyes as the Magicians of Egypt turned their rods into Serpents and changed the rivers into bloud and brought frogs upon the land of Egypt Experience of all Ages doth confirm this truth And therefore it may be believed to be no hard thing for him to frame the appearances of Kingdomes and Cities and shew the similitudes of them from every part of the earth And to this Calvin doth incline though very modestly he leaveth every man to his own opinion A most learned Prelate of our own likes a third way better and thinks that Satan might shew and Christ might see all those places themselves with all the pomps and glories of them for that Satan being an Angel had another manner of sight even in the body which he assumed then we mortals have and Christ when it pleased him could see both what and whither he would notwithstanding all impediments which were interjected as appeareth by his own words unto Nathaniel for which Nathaniel did acknowledge him for the Son of God Before Philip called thee when thou wert under the fig-tree I saw thee In such variety of Answers each of them being satisfactory to the doubt proposed and all agreeable to the analogie or rule of faith I leave the Reader to his own choyce and to rely on that which he thinks most probable And now to draw unto an end of that part of our Saviours sufferings which consisted in diversity of strong temptations although the Devil left him for a season as before was said yet he resolved within himself not to give him over but to make use of other means and try other ways for the effecting of his enterprise And to this end he seeks to tempt him to ambition by offering him the crown of his own Country in the way of a popular election working upon the common people to come and take him by force and to make him King He tempts him also to vain glory by the shouts and acclamations of the Vulgar Nec vox hominem sâ—nat Never man spake as this man speaketh He tempts him also to self-love to have a greater care of his own preservation then of doing the will of him that sent him and therein he makes use of Peter one of Christs domâ—stickâ— his principal Secretary as it were one of counsel with him And Peter in pursuance of the dangerous drift took him aside advised him to have more care of himself then so Let this be far from thee O Lord and was rejected for it in the self same termes Get behinde me Satan wherewith the very Devill was repulsed
before Finally during the whole time of his earthly pilgrimage of his conversing in our flesh the Devill never failed in his endevours sometimes himself and sometimes by the means of others either by flatteries or by contumelies to prevail upon him though alwayes to his own losse and to the greater ruine of that Kingdome of darknesse which he had founded on this earth And these we reckon for the first part of those inward sufferings which our Redeemer did endure under Pontius Pilate not by exciting in his heart any evill motions in which respect we men are said most commonly to be tempted inwardly but by presenting to his senses such continuall objects as he conceived most like to work on the inward Man For otherwise it cannot be affirmed of CHRIST that he was tempted inwardly that is to say by any motions rising from within without manifest Blasphemy And to this all sound Orthodox Christians have agreed unanimously Thus Gregory amongst the Latines Omnis illa tentatio Diabolica foris non intus all that temptation of the Devill was not inward but outward And thus Theophylact for the Greeks The Devill said he appeared to Christ in some visible shape 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for thoughts that is to say any thoughts of sin Christ admitted not The Lord forbid we should conceive such a wicked fancie Thus Calvin finally for the latter writers It is saith he no errour or absurdity to thinke that CHRIST should be tempted of the Devill modo ne intus hoc est in mente et anima quicquam putemus passum fuisse so that we do not hold that he suffered any thing in his minde or soul. So to make the thoughts and cogitations of the heart of Christ to be inwardly moved with pride presumption infidelity and Idolatry as some men have done the better to find out the paines of hell in our Saviours soul were to be guilty of their sin who to that end have vented most blasphemous figments and pernicious impostures to the seducing of the simple the hurt of their own souls and the dishonour of Christ. But of this we shall speak more at large in the following Article of Christs descending into hell for the misconstruing of which Article or rather for the totall expurgation of it it was first invented We now proceed to those afflictions which assalted inwardly which wrought upon his soul only on the inward man and then to those which were inflicted also upon his Body so far forth as they did precede his Crucifixion which shall come after by it self CHAP. VI. Of the afflictions which our Saviour suffered both in his soul and body under Pontius Pilate in the great work of mans Redemption THat CHRIST our Saviour was tempted in all things as we are yet without sin that is to say without the least internal motion and provocation of the heart to sin as we are not hath been abundantly discovered in the former Chapter We now proceed to those affictions which he suffered for us in his minde or soul those griefes of heart and anguish of the Spirit which did fall upon him in reference to the great work of mans redemption for as for those which seized upon him out of particular affections as his groaning in the Spirit over the grave of his dead friend Lazarus or the lamenting those calamities which he foresaw would shortly fall on his native Country they do not come within the compasse of this disquisition And these we purpose to examine with the greater industry because there is a sort of men as before I said that to elude the true and genuine meaning of Christs descent into hell have fancied to themselves and proclaimed to others that they have found the pains of hell in our Saviours soul and that there was no other descent of Christ into hell then the extremity of those hellish and most dismal pains which he suffered in his humane soul here upon the earth And first to take those texts in order in which those sorrowes and afflictions are most plainly met with in the first place we finde him in the garden of Gethsemane the place designed for the great combat betwixt him and Satan where taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee it is said that he began to be sorrowfull and very heavie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek text hath it St. Mark with the alteration of one word only doth deliver it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he began to be sore amazed and very heavy coepit contristrari verementer angi saith the translatour of the Syriack This was it seemeth with him the beginning of sorrowes for it is said that he began to be sorrowful and sore amazed which though it was a sad beginning yet it was mastered in the end For though he began to be affraid and sore amazed upon the apprehension of those bitter pangs of death which he was to struggle with yet he no further did submit to this passion of fear and this discomfiture of amazement then to expresse the naturall horror which he had of that deadly cup whereof he was presently to drink not suffering it to possesse him wholly or to bear dominion over him or to work in him any such corruptions as we frail men are subject to in the like extremities And this is that and only that which is meant by Origen where he affirmeth Coepit pavere vel tristari nihil amplius tristitiae vel pavoris patiens nisi principium tantum No such amazement no such sorrow as might make him lose either speech or sense or memory as some men imagine much lesse to pray he knew not what but least of all to pray expresly against the known will of his heavenly Father Nor will the words in the Original admit any such meanning For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scripture â—ignifies no such amazement as takes away mens senses from them which appeares evidently in this that when he descended from the mountain where he was transfigured the people which saw him were amazed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the text and yet they came unto him and saluted him as the Gospell tels us So when they saw him cast out Devils by his word alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were all amazed and yet they asked of one another what strange thing that was and when the two Apostles had healed the poor old criple at Solomons porch the people were amazed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet flocked all unto the place to behold the miracle And for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifyeth no such heaviness in the book of God as draweth with it all or any of those distractions above remembred St. Paul affirming of Epaphroditus that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding pensive because the Philipians who most dearly loved him had heard he was sick and that he knew not