figures hereof and read their bringing out of Egypt into the land of Promise and the maintainance of them in the inheritance thereof notwithstanding their enemies yea notwithstanding their frequent transgressing of it imputed to the Covenant with their Fathers believing with S. Paul that all Gods promises are yea and amen in Christ they cannot consequently make doubt to believe not onely that they are spiritually made good to Christians but also were spiâ—itually made good to them who lived the life of Christians under the faith of Christ to come during the Law in consideration of his merits and sufferings And therefore it is not for nothing that I insist upon this that not onely the giving of the Law but the ambassages by which God dealt with the Fathers and Prophets of old time were performed by the same Word of God which afterwards becoming incarnate is now our Lord Christ assuming for the time the ministery of an Angel that represented and bore the person of God in the likenesse of man As prefaces and preludes to his coming in our flesh not to leave it any more For if it pleased God to use this ministery in order to that which was to purchase of him that grace which should build the Church is it marvail if in consideration of his Sonne by whom this intercourse between God and man was managed he should grant those helps at that time which by the meanes of that knowledge which that intercourse maintained were effectuall to reduce them to that spirituall obedience to God which made them friends to God at that time And therefore I marvaile not that the ancient Church according to that which I said afore should make use of those bookes which now we call Apocrypha for the instruction of those whom by the name of Catechumeni they prepared for baptisme For in as much as we have in them those expresse testimonies which I have quoted of the Wisdome of God dealing with mankâ—nd from the fall of Adam to reduce them to the knowledge of God and to maintaine them in it insomuch it affordeth a necessary instruction to informe all that desire to be Christians by what means the world was saved before and after the Law and yet no salvation but by Christianity Which they that neglect will sooner betray the cause of our common Christianity then give a good account of so great a difficulty The Socinians for certaine will want footing against the Jews either in shewing how the Fathers were saved or why they are rejected It remaineth that I give a reason why the position of Socinus or of Pelagius in denying the grace of Christ as the cure of Originall sinne is not consistent with the grounds of Christianity which is to say that the account which they are able to give for the coming of our Lord Christ is not sufficient not reasonable because they deny this grace Socinus liberally granteth the grace of God in sending Christ to publish his Gospel and to assure all mankind that he is ready to pardon the sinnes of all that receive it and to give them eternall life living here as Christians undertake to do That having provided that our Lord Christ should be born of a Virgine by the holy Ghost of his free grace he hath exalted him to the power and honour of God under himself thereby both rewarding his undertaking and performing this ambassage above merit and assuring us both of the truth of the Gospel and of the performance of it to them that live conformable to Christs Crosse who have a man of our own kind indowed with Gods own power to deliver us from all enemies of our own free will believing his Gospel so tendered and living as it requireth But in all this neither he nor Pelagius who as I said in the beginning as freely acknowledgeth that grace of God which consisteth in giving the Gospel besides that free will which we come into the world with tenders us any account at all how it comes to passe that all mankind iâ— become enemy to God and subject to his wrath Which untill it be supposed to be true there is no cause why the Apostles and the Church after them should invite the world to undertake so much hardship as Christianity importeth And therefore S. Paul hath had care to set it forth as the ground of Christianity in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romanes For it will not serve the turn to have recourse to the examples of their predecessors and the nature of man apt to imitate them as a sufficient reason hereof seeing this reason can go no higher then Adam and that there is evidence that through the grace of God good examples of his posterity such as walked with God if not of himself as the book of Wisdome affirms X. 1. and we have no cause to doubt were performed before the eyes of them who notwithstanding imitated the apostasy which he disclaimed How then shall we imagine supposing a good and an evil branch in his posterity that the bad example should so be followed that all the world should runne after strange Gods Onely a few Fathers by that entercourse which God granted them of grace and the doctrine which came from their Fathers but to their Fathers by grace being preserved intire to God How comes the same to passe after the floud in the posterity of so just a man as Noe after such a horrible warning as the deluge Had the light of reason been such in discerning the difference between good and bad as the Law of Nature and by consequence the state of mans creation requireth had mans inclination been without any bias contrary to that which the light of reason such as it is shewes how could this have been How comes it to passe that the excellence of mans nature and the reason that he is endowed with serves for a reproach to all mankind that now follows it That those who see the difference of good and bad when they are alone without witnesse when they are under publick ingagements commit those oppressions upon men whereof they have no example even from beasts Doth not all the learning all the experience of the world thus farre give testimony to Christianity and shall we think fit to advantage our selves upon this plea against those that are not Christians and straight to deny the consequence of it to Christians Especially having the fall of Adam so evident a beginning of it set forth by Moses and the comming of Christ by S. Paul for the cure of it Thus farre then we plead from the motives of our common faith But when we come to measure the grace of Christ which is the cure by the person of Christ I suppose I have right to demand for true that which I have proved that he is God and man not by grace noâ— by reward but by birth And give notice to Pelagius that Socinus in a more cunning age of disputing found it requisite for
man that comeâ— into the world with concupiscence becomes either habituated to the love of God above all things or indowed with the habituall assistance of Gods Spirit by that promise which the Gospell importeth Thus much is to be seenâ— by that which hath been said That in the justification of a sinner by Christianity which I have showed to be the condition of it there is a twofold change either implied or signified For that a man should become reconciled to God continues in the same affection to himselfe and the world as before he heard of Christ is a thing which the soâ—ereâ—t of them that dispute justification by faith alone abhorre And that a man by the Gospel should be intitled to no more then that disposition which be is changed to obligeth God to give is no lesse horrible to them that dispute justification by the works of faith And therefore besides that change in the nature and disposition of him that becomes estaâ—ed in the promises of the Gospel which justification involveth there is another change in Gods esteeme which is morall by virtue of his free promise which the change which his nature hath received signifieth not because Gods will onely infâ—rs it The former of these the Schoole insist upon and they seeme to follow S. Austinâ— in it who though he have nothing to doe with any conceit of habituall grace yet most an end attributeth the effect of justifying even before God to those inherent acts of righteousnesse whereby the grace of God translateth his enimies into that state of his grace The later though it be that which both the Scriptures and the most ancient records of the Church doe expresse yet so long as the effect of justifying is attributed to the disposition which is inherent in the soule not for the worth of it but by Gods Grace it can containe nothing either formally destructive or by consequence prejudiciall to the Faith That the one is fundamentally implyed the other formally signified in the justification of a Christian belongs rather to the skill of a divine in understanding the Scriptures then to the virtue of a Christian in holding the faith What the Church thinkes of the workes of those who believing do not yet declare themselves Christians by procuring Baptisme as it is a consideration fit for this place so is it manifest by the doubt which they make of the salvation of those that dye in that estate For though the life that they live supposing the preventing Grace of the holy Ghost to bring them to that estate must needs be ascribed to the same yet is it not as yet under the promise of reward because they are not yet under the Covenant of Grace but onely disposed to it And how good soever their life may be yet so long as it proceeds not to an effectuall resolution of undertaking Christs Crosse it is buâ— actuall and dependeth dâ— facto upon the assistance of Gods Spirit which dâ— jurâ— they can challenge no title in being not yet estated in Gods promises but onely prevented by those helps which they can claime no difference of right in from those that are not prevented with the same But he that undertakes Christs Crosse by coming to Baptisme with a good conscience obtaineth remission of sinnes adoption to be Gods Sonne and right and title to everlasting life Which adoption and which title as they are morall rights and qualities so are they meer appendences of that justification which God alloweth the Faith of those that are baptized sincerely without consideration of workes according to the doctrine of the Fathers Supposing it is true as much change as between a Christian and no Christian in him that obtaines them in which regard it is no marvaile if remission of sinnes or justification be ascribed to the said change many times in their writings For how such sayings are to be understood imports onely the signification of words not the salvation of a Christian but not importing Gods consideration of their qualities the consideration of whose works is excluded S. Augustine it is true considering this change in him that is justified which is indeed the ground upon which God accepteth of his Faith to that purpose and using the word justifying to signify the same hath occasioned the Schoole to agree in that forme of doctrine which the Council of Trent canonizeth But though he frequent the terme more then others in that sense yet can he no wayes be thought to depart from the meaning of the rest who do sometimes describe justification by the ground which it supposeth sometimes by the quality in Gods account which it signifyeth Acknowledging all of them the gift of the holy Ghost to be obtained by this faith which justifyeth of Gods free Grace indeed which onely moved him to set the Gospel on foot but as due by the promise which it containeth to abide and to dwell with him that voides not the condition upon which it is granted This grace of the holy Ghost habitually dwelling in them that have undertaken Christs Crosse to inable them to go through with the work of it as it cannot be unfruitfull in good works so are those works henceforth under the promise of reward which no workes done afore Baptisme can challenge I must not leave this point till I have said a word or two of Socinus his opinion as to this point of justifying faith For as concerning the two points premised I conceive I have showed you that it is no lesse destructive to Faith in teaching that a man is able of himself to imbrace and to fulfill all that the Gospel requires at his hands withoâ—â— any help of Gods grace granted in respect of our Lord Christs obedience Then that God accepteth what a man is so able to performe not out of any consideration thereof but of his own free goodnesse which moving him to settle such a decree moved him to send our Lord Christ to publish and assure it As for the rest of his opinion having maintained that the efficacy of all acts whether of Gods grace or of mans will toward the obtaining of the promises of the Gospel necessarily depends upon the receiving of Baptisme where the outward fulfilling of the promises of a positive precept which the onely will of him that is converted to Christianity fulfilleth not is not unavoidablely prevented by casualties which his will cannot overcome I suppose I have by that meanes showed that his opinion is destructive to Christianity because destructive to the precept of receiving Baptisme without which no man is a Christian And truly this imputation reflects upon the other extreme opinion concerning the justification of a Christian which ascribing it to believing that a man is predestinate excludes it from being necessary either as a meanes to salvation or as a thing commanded both which considerations concurre in the necessity of it supposing the premises For the necessity of that which is necessary as the meanes and the
apprehend that the Scripture representing the friendship of God with his children according to his Gospel by the patern of that love which the best men show to those whom they intertaine friendship with doth intend to expresse him disobliged upon every offense But unlesse we thinke it commendable for God to love men more then righteousnesse for the love of Christ to whom the same righteousnesse is no lesse deare then to God will never thinke it agreeable to the honor of the Gospell to propose the reward of that righteousnesse which it requireth but upon supposition of performing of it Certainly Celsus had done the Christians no wrong in slandering them that they received all the wicked persons whom the world spued out into an assurance of everlasting happinesse nor could Zosimus be blamed for imputing the change of Constantine the Great to a desire of easing his conscience of the guilt of those sinnes which Paganisme could show him no means to expiate had the Christians of that time acknowledged that they tendred assurance of pardon to any man but upon supposition of conversion from his sinne These thinges supposed it will be easy to resolue that the assurance of salvation which the Gospell inables a good Christian to attaine is not the act of justifying Faith but the consequence of it Indeed if a man were justifyed by believing that he is justifyed so farre as a man hath the act of justifying Faith so farre he must necessarily rest assured not onely of his right to salvation at present but of his everlasting salvation in the world to come But neither is that opinion which maketh justifying Faith to consist in the trust and confidence which a Christian reposeth in God through Christ for the obtaining of his promises liable to the horrible and grosse consequence of the same To exclude all Christians from salvation that are not as sure that they shall be saved at they are of theire Creede is a consequence as desperate as it is grosse to make that assurance the act of justifying Faith The true act of justifying Faith which is constancy in Christianity the more lively and resolute it is the more assurance it createth of those consequences which the Gospell warranteth For no man is ignorant of his owne resolutions Nor can be lesse assured that it is Gods Spirit that creates this assurance then he is assured that his owne resolusions are not counterfeit And therefore his trust in God not as reconcileable but as reconciled must needes be answerable And the same trust may warrant the same assurance though not of it selfe but upon the conscience of that Christianity whereupon it is grounded And by those things which were disputed not onely during the Council of Trent but also since the deâ—ree thereof it is manifest that the Church of Rome doth not teach it to be the duty of a good Christian to be allwayes in doubt of Gods grace But alloweth that opinion to be maintained which maketh assurance of salvation attainable upon these termes and therefore incourageth good Christians to contend for it As for the assurance of future salvation which dependeth upon the assurance of preseverance till death or a mans departure in the state of Grace you see S. Paul involveth all Christians in it with himselfe by saying I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord And therefore I conceive is was a very great impertinence to dreame of any privilege of immediate revelation for the means by which he hadde it Whosoever is a Christian so farre as he is a Christian hath it Adouble minded man that is unconstant in all his wayes as S. James speakes that is who is not resolved to live and dy a good Christian cannot have it Whosoever hath that resolution in as much as he hath that resolution that is so firme as his resolution is so firme is his assurance For knowing his owne resolutions he knowes them not easily changeable in a water importing the end of a mans whole course And therefore knowing God unchangeable while he so continues is able to say full as much as Saint Paul saith I am perswaded that neither life nor death shall be able to separate â—e from the love of God in Christ Jesus As for the sense of the primitive and Catholick Church putting you in mind of that which I said before to show that it placeth justifying Faith in professing Christianity the effect whereof in justifying must needes fail so soon as a man faileth of performing that Christianity in the profession whereof his justification standeth I shall not need to allege the opinions of particulare Fathers to make evidence of it having Lawes of the Church to make evidence that those who were ruled by them must needs thinke the promises of the Gospell to depend upon the Covenant of our Baptisme and therefore that they become forfeit by transgressing the same The promise of persevering in the profession of the Faith untill death and of living like a Christian was allways expressely exacted of all that were baptized as now in the Church of England And upon this promise and not otherwise remission of sinne right to Gods kingdome and the Gift of his Spirit was to be expected As if it were not made with a serious intent at the present baptisme did nothing but damne him that received it So if it were transgressed by grosse sins not to be imputed to the surprizes of concupiscence For the condition failing that which dependeth upon the same must needs faile For the means by which they expected to recover the state of Grace thus forfeited we have the Penitentiall Canons which as they had the force of Law all over the Church all the better times of the Church So I show from the beginning that they had theire beginning from the Apostles themselves to assure us that all beleived that without which there could be no ground for that which all did practice Can any man imagine that the Church should appoint severall times and severall measures of Penance for severall sinnes to be debarred the Communion of the Eucharist and to demonstrate unto the Church by theire outward conversation the sincerity of theire conversion to theire first profession of Christianity had not all acknowledged that the promises of the Gospell forfeited by transgressing the profession of baptisme were not to be recovered otherwise And that the deeper the offense was the more difficulty was presumed in replanting the resolution of Christianity in that heart which was presumed to have deserted it according to the measure of the sinne whereby it had violated the same This is enough to prescribe unto reasonable men against such little consequences as now and then are made upon some passages of the Fathers which upon by occasions seeme to speake otherwise S. Augustine is the maine hope of the cause so farre as it hath any joy in
Moses is certainly a transcript or rude draught of this originall righteousnesse due from man to God And therefore purposely made so curiously scrupulous that even the earthly promises of the land of Canaan and temporall happinesse in it should not be obtained by the exact observation thereof as I observed afore But it was also an intimation of the Gospell of Christ not onely in the provision which it made for expiation of transgressions the signification whereof the greatest part never understood but in those grounds of assurance which it gave those that should observe it from the heart as before God and for his love of the reward of the world to come In which regard S. Paul and the Apostles so often alledge the saying of the Prophet Abac. II. 4. The just shall live by faith and Saint Paul Rom. I. 15. saith that the righteousnesse of God is revealed by the Gospel from faith to faith That is from the faâ—th of Christ to come to the faith of Christ come And Saint John Baptist saith of our Lord John I. 16. Of his fullnesse we have all received grace for grace Because the law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ So that though the grace of the Gospel came by Christ yet it succeeded the same grace under the law though as under a fainter light so in a scarser measure And Saint Augustine rightly accounteth those that attaine truâ— righteousnesse under the law to belong to the New Testament as carnall Christians under the Gospell to the Oâ—d But if the faithfull at that time were saved by that scarse measure of righteousnesse which the faint light they were under required then were they also saved though not by fullfilling the originall Law of righteousnesse due from man to God yet by fulfilling that rule of Evangelicall righteousnesse which God under the Law required at their hands In which regard if the Fathers by things recorded of them in the Old Testament may be seene to have attained that perfection which Saint Paul calles his glory in doing that which he was not commanded as a meanes to the discharging of that wherein the perfection of Christians consisteth that which became mater of precept under the Gospel is necessarily to be taken for mater of counsell under the Law Alwayes understanding that as those helps of grace without which I have showed that they had not been able to performe such righteousnesse under the Law were granted even then in consideration of our Lord Christs interposing his mediation to the redeeming of mankind so was the righteousnesse then performed accepted in no consideration but of the obedience of Christ and his righteousnesse CHAP. XXXIII Whether any workes of Christians be satisfactory for sinne and meritorious of heaven or not The recovery of Gods grace for a Christian fallen from it a work of labour and time The necessity and efficacy of Penance to that purpose according to the Scriptures and the practise of the Church Merit by virtue of Gods promise necessary The Catholicke Church agrees in it the present Church of Rome allowes merit of justice ANother dispute there is that makes an endlesse noise never to be decided but upon this ground not to be maintained admitting it That is Whether the workes of Christians merit heaven or not which I must inlarge into another point of so neer nature to it that both may as easily be resolved as the one Whether the humiliation for sinne in praying fasting giving â—lmes by Christians in confidence of the satisfaction of Christ to obtaine pardon of God be satisfactory for sinne or not For in as much as to be free from evill is good and to obtaine a discharge from punishment is as much as to deserve a reward in so much it is all one to satisfie for sinne so as to be discharged of punishment and to fulfill an obligation so as to claime a reward Whereupon as I said afore that all satisfaction is necessarily of the nature of merit To this question then or to these questions the answer is necessarily consequent from the premises That if we regard the originall law of God neither can any man make God satisfaction for his sinne nor merit the reward of everlasting life at his hands But if we regard that dispensation in it which the Gospel preacheth in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of our Lord Christ neither shall any man attain forgivenesse of sinne without making satisfaction for it nor the reward of everlasting life without making it due to him by virtue of Gods promise The proofe of the first point consists in all those passages of Scripture which require repentance as a condition requisite to the obtaining remission of sins whether in the New Testament or in the Old In as much as I have showed that the promiseâ— of the Gospel were obtained under the Law upon the same termes and conditions for substance as under the Gospel though for the measure proportionable to that light of knowledge and those helpes of Grace which the dispensation of God under the Old Law afforded In particular taking notice of the theme of Saint John Baptist which our Lord also took for the argument of his preaching Repent for the kingdome of heaven is at hand Mat. III. 2. IV. 17. Mark I. 15. which the Apostles also followed Acts II. 38. III. 19. Upon that ground which Saint Paul also debates in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romanes that the necessity of the Gospell and Christianity is grounded upon a supposition that both Jewes and Gentiles are liable to sinne without Christ and by consequence to judgement And againe of those texts of the Apostles writings wherein there is mention or intimation of Penance required or injoyned by them or by the Church in their time for the obtaining of remission of sinnes by the keyes which I have handled in another place And thirdly of those passages which I have quoted in this book disputing of Justification by faith to show that remission of sinnes done after baptisme is obtained for Christians by prayer joyned with fasting and giving of almes to move God to give us pardon as we forgive or give to our brethren But this proofe consists also in all those scriptures which I have alledged to show that the bloud of Christ and his sufferings are truly and properly satisfaction for the sinnes of mankind For as he that believes this can by no meanes imagine that any man can make satisfaction for his own sinnes by the originall Law of God for then the coming of Christ had been in vaine as not necessary neither had there needed that dispensation in Gods proceeding with mankind upon the originall rule of righteousnesse which the Gospel declareth So can he by no meanes imagine the satisfaction which any man can tender God for his sinne to import any more then the fulfilling of that condition which God by his Gospell requireth to qualify any man that
supposeth that there is no means but the Gospel to save us But if wee be saved by believing the Gospel wee may be saved not believing that which the Church teacheth without it For that which the Gospel obligeth us to believe unto salvation it is agreed already that wee cannot be saved without believing it Suppose now the Church to continue till the last day not as one visible Body but broken into pieces as wee see it so that alwaies there remain a number of good Christians for whether or no they that communicate not with the Church of Rome may be good Christians is the thing in question not to be taken for truth without proving shall the gates of hell be said to prevail against the Church all that while Besides Grotius expounds those words to signifie no more but this That death and the grave which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell in the stile of the Old Testament signifies shall never prevail over Christians That is that they shall rise again And I suppose it is not so evident that this exposition is false as that the Gospel is true As for the Keyes of Christs Kingdom let him that saith they argue Infallibility say also that they cannot be abused But hee will have more shame if not more sense than to say it The Thessalonians received the Gospel as the Word of God because they supposed it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word which God sent them newes of Would they therefore have received the decrees of the Church with the same reverence not supposing them the Word of God till some body prove it But suppose the promises made S. Peter to import as much as the power of the Apostles is it as evident that the present Pope succeeds S. Peter as that Christianity is from God That hee succeeds him in the full right of that Power which is given the Apostles Certainly wheresoever two or three are assembled in the name of Christ there is not the Infallibility of the Church Therefore it cannot be founded upon the promises made to all Assemblies of Christians as Christians It is very probable that the Council of the Apostles at Jerusalem had a revelation upon the place signifying how they should order the mater in question because there are many instances in the Scriptures of inspirations at the very Assemblies of Gods people as I have showed in the Right of the Church Therefore it is not evident that all Councils may say the like Therefore they cannot presume that the Holy Ghost will lead them into all truth whatsoever they take a humor to determine because it was promised that hee should lead the Apostles into all truth concerning our common Christianity But if the Church be the pillar and foundation that upholdeth the truth then must that truth first be evidenced for truth before the effect of the Churches office in upholding it as pillars uphold an house can appear The exhortations of the Apostles 1 Thess V. 14 15. Hebr. XIII 7 17. to yield obedience to the Rulers of the Church are certainly pertinent to this purpose But it is evident that this obedience is limitable by the grounds and substance of Christianity delivered afore as it is evident that all Power of the present Church presupposeth our common Christianity As for the obedience required in the Old Testament to the Governors of the Synagogue and Priests confirmed by our Lord Mat. XXIII 2. I am very willing to grant the Church all Power in decreeing for truth that can appear to have belonged to the Rulers of the Synagogue because I am secure that those who could put malefactors to death as they could were not therefore able to tye men to believe that which they say to be true But the great subtilty is the Prophesie of Caiaphas John XI 48-52 who because High Priest could not but truly determine that our Lord must die least the people should perish even in resolving to crucifie him Indeed at the beginning God was wont to conduct his people by Oracles of Urim and Tummim in the High Priests brest-plate And though this was ceased under the second Temple as wee have reason to believe the Jewes yet was it no marvail that God should use the High Priests tongue to declare that secret which himself understood not being the Person by whom hee had used to direct his people in former ages But hee that from hence concludes the Church infallible must first maintain that Caiaphas erred not in crucifying our Lord Christ Now if it be said that the consent of all Christians though not as members of the Church because as yet it appeareth not that the Church is a Corporation and hath members determines the sense of these Scriptures to signifie Infallibility which they may but do not necessarily signifie Let him consider the disputes that succeeded in the Church upon the decree of the Great Council at Nicaea the breaches that have succeeded upon the decrees of Ephesus and Chalcedon the division between the Greek and the Latine Church between the Reformation and the Church of Rome For is it imaginable that all Christians holding as firmly as their Christianity that the acts of the Pope and a Council that is the greater part of the present Church is to be believed as much as the Scriptures not onely the decree of Nicaea should be disputed again but breaches should succeed rather than admit their decrees retaining the common profession of Christianity What disputes there have been betwixt the Court of Rome and the Paris Doctors whether it be the act of the Pope or of a General Council that obligeth the belief of the Church is as notorious to the world as that they are not yet decided And yet the whole question is disputed onely concerning the Western Church The East which acknowledgeth not the Pope appeareth not in the claim of this Infallibility were both East and West joyned in one and the same Council Now among them that maintain the Pope it is not agreed what acts of the Pope they must be that shall oblige the Church to believe as it believes the Scriptures For it is argued that Popes have decreed Heresie Liberius Honorius Vigilius and perhaps others And though I stand not to prove I may presume that the contrary is not so evident as our common Christianity or the Scriptures And that some of them have held Heresie seems granted without dispute Is it then as evident as our common Christianity what act of the Pope obliges us to believe That hee cannot decree that error to be held by others which it is granted himself holdeth Besides how many things are requisite to make a true Pope whose Power unlesse it be conveyed by the 〈◊〉 act of those that are able to give it the acts thereof will be void which it does not appear that the present Pope is qualified with as it appeareth that the Scriptures are true And may not the same question be
it is manifest that the authority which S. Paul giveth Timothy and Titus as his Epistles to them evidence is respective to the Churches of Ephesus and Creet or at the most those Churches which resorted to them Yet are they inabled thereby to constitute Bishops for the service of the said Churches as also their Deacons and to govern the same 1 Tim. II. 5. Titus I. 6-9 The Elders of the Church which S. Paul sent for to Ephesus had authority respective to the Church there meant but received from S. Paul as his directions and exhortations intimate Acts XX. 17 28-21 So did the Elders which hee and Barnabas ordained in the Churches Acts XIV 28. The like wee finde in the Churches of the Jewes Heb. XIII 7 17. James V. 14. 1 Pet. V. 1-5 and of the Thessalonians and Philippians 1 Thess V. 12 13. Phil. I. 1. And the seven Churches of Asia have their seven Angels which the Epistles which the Spirit directs S. John to write them do show that they were to acknowledge his authority Apoc. I. 20. II. III. So as long as the Scriptures last it is evident that there was a common authority whether derived from or concurrent with the authority of the Apostles which must needs make the Church one Body during that time whatsoever privilege can be challenged on behalf of the people and their concurrence to the acts either of each particular Church or of the whole And for the continuance of this authority after the Apostles I see no cause why I should seek farr for evidence It shall susfice mee to allege the Heads of the Churches of Rome Alexandira Antiochia and Jerusalem recorded by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical Histories from the time of the Apostles Adding thereunto thereunto the protestations of Irenaeus III. 3. that hee could reckon those rhat received their authority from the Apostles in all Churches though for brevities sake hee insist onely in the Church of Rome And of Tertullian de Praescript cap. XXXII who also allegeth the very Chaires which the Apostles sate upon possessed by those that succeeded them in his time as well as the Originals of those Epistles which they sent to such Churches extant in his time I will also remember S. Augustine Epistolâ CLXV and Optatus lib. II. alleging the same succession in the Church of Rome to confound the Donatists with for departing from the comminion thereof and of all Churches that then communicated with it For what will any man in his right senses say to this That this authority came not from the Apostles Or that it argues every one of these Churches to be a Body by it self but not all of them to make one Body which is the Catholick Church Hee that sayes this must answer Irenaeus alleging for a reason why hee instances onely in the Church of Rome Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique sideles For to this Church it is necessary that all Churches that is the Christians that are on all sides should resort because of the more powerfull principality What is the reason why it is enough for Irenaeus to instance in the Church of Rome but this That all Churches do communicate with the Church of Rome when they resort to Rome and all resort thither because it is the sear of the Empire So that which is said of the Faith of the Church of Rome is said of the Faith of all Churches And potentior principalitas is not command of the Church over other Churches but the power of the Empire which forces the Christians of all sides to resort to Rome Again the cause of the Church against the Donarists stands upon this ground that the Church of Rome which the Churches of Africk did communicate with communicated with all Churches besides those of Africk But that Church of Rome which the Donatists communicated with for they also had set up a Church of their own at Rome the rest of the Church did not communicate with How this came to passe you may see by the cause of the Novatians being the same in effect with that of the Donatists By the IV Canon of Nicaea it is provided that every Bishop be made by all the Bishops of the Province some of them as many as can meeting the rest allowing the proceedings under their hand This provision might be made when there were Churches in all Cities of all Provinces but the I Canon of the Apostles onely requireth that a Bishop be ordained by two or three Bishops For when Christianity was thinner sowed if two or three should take the care of providing a Pastor for a Church that was void their proceeding was not like to be disowned by the rest of the neighbouring Churches nor in particular by that of the chief City to which the Cities of the rest resorted for justice The Churches of these chief Cities holding intelligence correspondence and communion with other Churches of other principal Cities those Churches which they owned together with their Rulers or whosoever they were that acted on behalf of them must needs be owned by them in the same unity and correspondence The Bishop of Rome being dead while the question depended whether those that had fallen away in the persecution of Decius should be readmitted to communion or not And the neighbour Bishops being assembled sixteen of them ordain Cornelius three of them Novatianus who stood strictly upon rejecting them whatsoever satisfaction they tendered the Church Whether of these should be received was for a time questionable especially in the Church of Antiochia and those Churches which adheered to it Untill by the intercession of Dionysius of Alexandria they were induced to admit of Cornelius without dispute All this and much more you have in Eusebius Eccl. Hist VI. 42-46 Which being done there remained no further question that those who held with Cornelius were to be admitted those that held with Novatianus remaining excommunicate Whereby it appeares that by the communication which passed between the greatest Churches and the adherence of the lesse unto them whatsoever Church communicated with any Church communicated with the whole And in what quality soever a man was known in his own Church in the same hee was acknowledged by all Churches And therefore the succession of the Rulers of any Church from the Apostles is enough to evidence the unity of the Catholick Church as a visible Corporation consisting of all Churches I must not here omit to allege the authority of Councils and to maintain the right and power of holding them and the obligation which the decrees of them regularly made is able to create to stand by the same authority of the Apostles Which if I do there can no further question remain whether the Church was founded for a Corporation by our Lord and his Apostles when wee see the parts ruled by the acts of the whole That is to say
is there just cause to think that thereby advantage is given to the Jewes against Christianity by granting that such passages out of which the New Testament drawes the birth and sufferings of our Lord are reasonably to be understood of his predecessors in Gods ancient people For it is plaine that it despite of the Jewes the works done by our Lord and his Prophesies concerning his Dying and Rising again and the destruction of the Jewes and the preaching of the Gospel to all Nations seconded by his Apostles and that which they did to winn credit that they were the witnesses of the same are the evidence upon which the Gospel obliges The Scriptures of the Old Testament which were no evidence to the Gentiles as much and more concerned in the Gospel than the Jewes were evidence and so to be not of themselves for what need Christ then have done those works But upon supposition that God intended not to rest in giving the Law but to make it the thred to introduce the Gospel by Which supposition as it is powerfully inforced by the nature of the Law and the difference between the inward and the outward obedience of God as it hath been hitherto declared and maintained So is it also first introduced by those works which our Lord declareth to be done for evidence thereof then made good by the perpetual correspondence between the Old and New Testament which any considerable exception interrupts And there reasons so much the more effectual because this difference of literal and mystical sense was then and is at this day acknowledged by the Jewes themselves against whom our Lord and his Apostles imploy it in a considerable number of Scriptures which they themselves interpret of the Messias though they are not able to make good the consequence of the same sense throughout because they acknowledge not the reason of it which concludes the Lord Jesus to be the Messias whom they expect If these things be true neither Origen nor any man else is to be indured when they argue that a mystical sense of the Scripture is to be inquired and allowed even where this ground takes no place For vindicating the honor of God and that it may appeare worthy of his wisedom to declare that which wee admit to be the utmost intent of the Scriptures For if it be for the honor of God to have brought Christianity into the world for the salvation of mankinde and to have declared himself by the Scriptures for that purpose then whatsoever tends to declare this must be concluded worthy of God and his wisedom whatsoever referres not to it cannot be presumed agreeable to his wisdom how much soever it flatter mans eare or fantasie with quaintnesse of conceit or language Now as I maintain this difference between the literal and mystical sense of the Old Testament to be necessary for the maintenance of Christianity as well as for understanding the Scriptures So are there some particular questions arising upon occasion of it which I can well be content to leave to further dispute As for example There is an opinion published which saith That the abomination of desolation which our Lord saith was spoken of by Daniel the Prophet concerning the destruction of Jerusalem Dan. IX 24 Mat. XXIV 15. Mar. XIII 14. was fulfilled in the havock made by Antiochus Epiphanes Which is also plainly called the abominatio of desolation by the same Prophet Daâ— XI 31. XII 10. Whether this opinion can be made good according to historical truth or not this is not the place to dispute Whether or no the difference between the literal and mystical sense of the Scriptures will indure that the same Prophesie be fulfilled twice in the literal sense concerning the temporal state of the Jewes once under Antiochus Epiphanes and once under Titus that is it which I am here content to referre to further debate One thing I affirme that notwithstanding this difference it is no inconvenience to say that some Prophesies are fulfilled but once Namely that of Jacob Gen. XLIX 8-12 that of Daniel IX 24. that of Malacbi III. 1. IV. 5 6. Because the coming of Christ boundeth the times of the literal and mystical sense And therefore there is reason why it should be marked out by Prophesies of the Old Testament referring to nothing else Againe I am content to leave to dispute whether the many Prophesies of the Old Testament which are either manifestly alleged or covertly intimated by the Revelation of S. John must therefore be said to be twice fulfilled once in the sense of their first Authors under the Law and again under the Gospel in S. Johns sense to the Church Or that this second complement of them was not intended by the Spirit of God in the Old Prophets but that it pleased God to signifie to S. John things to befall the Church by Prophetical Visions like those which hee had read in the ancient Prophets whereby God signified to them things to befall his ancient people For of a truth it is the outward rather than the spiritual state of the Church which is signified to S. John under these images A third particular must be the first Chapter of Genesis For in that which followes of Paradise and what fell out to our first Parents there I will make no question that hoth senses are to be admitted the Church having condemned Origen for taking away the historical sense of that portion of Scripture But whether the creation of this sensible world is to be taken for a figure of the renewing of mankinde into a spiritual world by the Gospel of Christ according to that ground of the difference between the literal and mystical sense of the Scripture which hitherto I maintaine This I conceive I may without prejudice leave to further debate But leaving these things to dispute I must insist that those things which the Evangelists affirm to have been fulfilled by such things as our Lord said or did or onely befell him in the flesh have a further meaning according to which they are mystically accomplished in the spiritual estate of his Christian people The chiefe ground hereof I confesse is that of S. Matthew VIII 17. where having related divers of our Lords miracles hee addeth that they were done That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Esay LIII 4. Hee took our infirmities and â—are away our sicknesses Together with the words of our Lord Luke V. 17-21 where hee telleth them of Nazareth This day are the words of the Prophet Esay LXI 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee because hee hath anointed mee to preach the Gospel to the poor fulfilled in your hearing And his answer to John Baptist grounded upon the same passage Mat. XI 4 5 6. Go and tell John what yee have heard and seen The blinde receive sight the lame walk the lâ—pers are cleansed the deaf heare the dead are raised and the poor have the Gospel preached them For
Apostles are certainly their act the declaration of the Church proceeding no further than the means provided by God for that purpose will inable the Church to discerne that this doth appear will have the force of a Law to oblige all Christians not to violate the communion of Christians upon pretense that it doth not appear So the rcason of believing and the evidence thereof are both antecedent to the foundation of the Church But the declaration of the Church obliging those that are within it not to violate communion upon pretense of contrary evidence that is the effect of that right and power which God giveth his Church But there are other acts which the Church will be as often necessitated to do as it becomes questionable in the Church how any of those Offices which God is served with by Christians is to be performed What times at what places what persons are to assemble themselves for that service as of it self it is not determined so were it never so particularly determined by the writings of the Apostles yet so long as the world is changeable and the condition of the Church by that reason not to be limited in that service by the same Rule alwaies the Society of the Church could not subsist without a Power to determine it The persons especially that communicate with the Church if you will have the Church a Society must be indowed with several qualities some of them inabling to communicate passively that is to joyn in the Offices of Gods service For till our time I think it was never quessioned among Christians whether the same persons might minister and he ministred to in the Offices of Christianity Then if some persons be to be set apart for that purpose of necessity it may become questionable by what acts the fame is lawfully done according to the will of God declared by his Apostles Further when it is determined who when where are the Offices of Christianity and the Assemblies of the Church to be celebrated the least circumstance of matter and form of solemnity and ceremony though it make no difference of saith yet is able to create a cause of separation of communion that shall be just on the one side Is it any great Power that is demanded for the Church by the Original constitution thereof when it is demanded that the Church have Power to regulate it self in things of this consequence Let mee be bold to say there is never a Company in London so contemptible that can stand without having the like excepting the determination of maters of Faith And therefore it is a small thing to demand that the Apostles for their time should be able to do it by Power from God so as to be heard in Christs stead Those that received Power from them according to the measure of that Power which they received though they pretend not their acts to be our Lord Christs as the Apostles yet within the bounds of that Office to which they are ordained they have power from God determining their persons though not justifying their acts Suppose then that our Lord Christ assume a Ceremony in use in the Synagogue at such time as hee preached of baptizing those that imbraced Moses Law being born of other Nations to signifie and to solemnize the admission of them that undertake Christianity to the privileges of his New people I suppose it is the act of our Lord that makes this a Law to his Church though it was the Power which God had provided to govern his ancient people that made it a Law to the Synagogue It is no more doubted among men of Learning that our Lord Christ at his last Supper made use of Ceremonies practised among the Jewes at their Passeover in the celebration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist the outward act whereof hee appointed to consist in those Ceremonies whereas the inward intent thereof was not known afore For whatsoever they knew of Christ they could not thereby know that hee would institute the Sacrament of his Body and Bloud in those Elements In like maner it had been alwaies a custome of Superiors in the Synagogue according to that of the Apostle Ebr. VlI. 7. Without all contradiction the lesse is blessed by the greater to blesse and to pray for interiors with laying hands upon them or lifting up hands over them So did the Priests so did the Prophets so Isaac Gen. XXVII 4 7 12 19 21 22. Jacob Gen. XLVIII 9 14 17. Aaron Levit. lX. 22. because a man cannot lay hands upon an Assembly all at once The Priests blessing therefore is called among the Jewes listing up of hands and many scrupulous observations there are among them in doing it Num. VI. 23 24 25. So our Lord in doing cures as Naaman thought Elisha would have done 2 Kings V. II. in blessing his Disciples Lue. XXIV 50. and divers the like If then the Apostles of our Lord frequented the same Ceremony in solemnizing Ordination as praying for the grace of the Holy Ghost upon those that received it and in other acts of publick effect in the Church it cannot be conceived that any thing but their owne act brought it in force though the practice of Gods ancient people gave them a precedent for it but it must be conceived that this argues a Society of the Church where such Ceremonies are instituted to celebrate such acts with as were to provide for the maintenance of it Here I must not forget the Law of Tithes and the Title by which they are challenged to be due to the Church For having made that this proved the Church a Corporation by the power of making Lawes within themselves of creating Governors and of Excommunicating If it be demanded where is the common stock and revenue of it seeing no Corporation can subsist without means to maintaine the attendance requisite to those things wherein it is to communicate it will be necessary to show that those who founded the Church have provided for this Tithes are commonly claimed by the Levitical Law And it is not easie to give a reason why other Lawes of the Church should not come in force or stand in force by the Law of Moses if it be once said that Tithes are due to the Church under the Gospel because they were as signed the Levitical Priesthood by the Law Truly it deserves consideration whether they that insist upon the Levitical Law in the claime of Tithes to the Church do not prejudice the cause which they pretend to maintaine For if they look into the tenor of the Law it will easily appear that Tithes of fruits of the earth are assigned the Priesthood by God in consideration of the Land of Promise which hee gave them And that therefore the practice of the Jewes at this very day is due and legal who pay no Tithes of those fruits because the service for which they are due is by the Law prohibited out of the Land of Promise Besides it is
it smelled so ranck that I conceived my self bound to cry out upon the venene that may be so closely couched under the words But to those that believe the truth of Christianity arguments from the mystical sense of the Old Testament must not seem contemptible those of our Lord Christ and his Apostles being such provided that the correspondence between the Law and the Gospel be preserved upon the right ground and in the right grain Provided also that no more waight be laid upon them than they are able to bear To wit no more than wee can lay upon the Law of Moses in proving the truth of Christianity Which if wee premise not the miracles of our Lord Christ and his Apostles done to witnesse their commission from God together with the excellence of Christianity above Judaisme even in the ballance of reason If wee make not good and constant correspondence between both wheresoever the ground of that correspondence takes place wee allege a reason that needs a reason to defend it But if wee do that wee imprest all the miracles done by Moses to introduce the Law to depose for the truth of the Gospel Wee furnish our selves of a magazine of argument in all points of Christianity to convince those who have received it what the conâ—â—itution of Gods ancient people and the truth then on foot will inferre upon the correspondence which they are supposed to hold with Christianity and with the Church I do then freely grant that Excommunication stood not immediately by Gods Law among Gods ancient people though by that Power which Gods Law had vested on them that first introduced it Were it Esdras by commission from the King of Persia as to the Power that inforced it with means to constraine though by the Law as to his Title before and against other men by the Law or whosoever it were besides But I will allege evidence for it after the return from Captivity which to my knowledge hath not hitherto been alleged Namely that which is called in the Greek Bible the third Book of Maccabees where it is râ—lated that when some of the Jewes at Alexandria had obeyed the Edict of Ptolomee Philometor commanâ—ing to worship an Idol which hee had set up the rest of the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abhorred those of them that had turned Aposâ—â—â—es and condeâ—ned â—â—em as enemies to the Nation depriving them of mutual conversation and the henefit of it III. 25. Upon the consideration of which passage I easâ—ly conclude that of 1 Macc. XIV 38. not to be well understood nâ—â— translâ—ted where it is said that Razias 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying indeed that in the â—orâ—er times under Antiochus Epiphanes when so many Jewes departed from their Law hee had brought in the decree of not mixing Judaisme That is to say that hee had been the means of passing a decree that those who stuck to their profession should not commâ—nicate with the Apoâ—â—ates These things were done by virtue of the Law against the will of their Soveraignes and therefore Philometor complaines of them for it 3 Macc. III. 16. but it is by virtue of his decree being his subjects that they put them to death aftâ—rwards VII 8 9 10. I do also grant that the putting of a man out of the Synagogue which I admit to have come in by the act of those men who nâ—verthâ—lesse had their authority originally from that act of God which made them a people under those Lawes imported a great abatement of the temporal privilege of each Jewes estate in as much as it is evident that whosoever was banished the conversation of Jewes in whole or in part was at the same rate abated the privilege of a Jew which they held by the declaration of their Soveraignes to maintain them in the use of their own Lawes For the privilege which a man holdeth among his people whereof hee is a native will appeare of what consequence it is when hee comes to live among strangers But I do not therefore yield that to be excommunicate out of the Church by the original constitution thereof and the Law of God imports the abatement of any secular privilege Because of the difference between the Synagogue and the Church which God appointed to be gathered out of all Nations under the condition of bearing Christs Crosse For such a company refusing their Communion to such as they exclude can neither prejudice their persons goods nor fame which being doubtfull to the world so long as they professe the Religion which the world owns not returns by consequence when they quit that Religion to return to the Religion of the State Rather as the Leviathan truly sayes they make themselves liable to all the persecution that may be brought upon them by such as think they have had ill measure by being put out of the Church Now to that which is argued That because the Christians went for Jewes among the Gentiles at the beginning of Christianity injoying Jewes privileges and thereby the exercise of their Religion therefore the Excommunications used by them must needs be such as were in force among the Jewes according to Moses Law that is by the Power which it establisheth The answer is by denying the consequence The reason this The Christians at the beginning communicated with the Jewes in that service of God which they used as well in the Temple as in the Synagogue How should they have opportunity to make them acquainted with the Gospel otherwise But as sometimes they assembled secretly among themselves for fear of the Jewes Acts XII 12. John XIX 38. so also besides those Offices which they served God with among the Jewes in the Temple or in the Synagogue they acknowledged others which they held themselves bound to and for which they retired themselves from the Jewes Acts I. 13. II. 42 46. III. 23. V. 42. VI. 2. The ground of their Communion with the Jewes Christians know to have been the hope of winning them to be Christians lasting while that hope should continue the ground of serving God in their own Assemblies the obligation of Christianity for ever to continue In regard of the conversation and communion which they held with the Jewes whether Civil or Religious they were subject to be excommunicated by the Jewes That is part of our Lords Prophesie John XVI 2. They shall put you out of their Synagogues Nay the time cometh that whoso killeth you shall think that hee doth God service But whatsoever the effect of these Excommunications might be being driven and confined in a maner to the Communion of the Church by being excluded or at least abridged the Communion of the Synagogue must they not needs forfeit their Communion by not fulfilling the condition by which they held it Or could they forfeit it upon other gronnds or to other effect than those upon which and to which they held it Indeed I will not undertake to give you many Scripture examples of Excommunications
the sense of it For if the same Faith which first was preached was afterwards committed to writing by the Apostles and how should those Christians which had not the use of leters be saved otherwise then was it the authority of the Apostles acknowledged by them that found themselves tyed to be Christians which made the Faith to oblige whether delivered by writing or without it The consent of all Churches in the same Rule of Faith serving for evidence of the Apostles act in delivering the same to the Churches Nor can any further reason be demanded why that knowledg which the Gnosticks prerended to have received by secret wayes should be refuted than the want of this And therefore it is in vain to allege that as they scorned the Scripture so they alleged Tradition for this secret knowledge The Tradition which they alleged being secret and such as could not be made to appear But no lesse contradictory to the Tradition of the Church than to the Scriptures both infallibly witnessed by the consent of all Churches And hereupon I leave the sayings of S. Austine setting aside the authority of the Council of Nicaea and affirming that former General Councils may be corrected by later without answer As also the sayings of them who affirm the Faith which our Lord hath taught to be the rock upon which the Church is built For if no building can lay that foundation upon which it standeth then cannot the Church make mater of Faith being founded upon it And that authority which may be set aside or corrected can be no infallible ground of Faith It is true it is pleaded that though in the Church of Rome there be some that do believe that the Church is able to make new Articles of Faith that is to make such determinations in maters of Faith as shall oblige all men to believe them as much as they are obliged to believe all that which comes from our Lord by his Apostles Others that do believe onely that the Church is able to evidence what the Apostles delivered to the Church and that this evidence is the ground whereon particular persons are to rest that whatsoever is so evidenced was indeed so delivered by the Apostles yet both these agree in one and the same reason of believing both of them alleging the Tradition of the Apostles to the Church for the ground of their Faith But this is more than any man of reason can believe unlesse wee allow him that affirms contradictories to ground himself upon one part of the contradiction which the other part of it destroyes For seeing that there must be but one reason one ground upon which we believe all that we believe and that it is manifest that those Articles of Faith which the determination of the Church creates being not such by any thing which that determination supposes are believed to be such meerly in consideration of the authority of the Church that determines them By consequence the Scripture and whatsoever is held to be of Faith upon any ground which the authority of the Church createth is no mater of Faith but by the authority of the Church determining that it be held for such On the other side hee that allowes Tradition to be the reason why hee believes the Christian Faith necessarily allowes all that hee allowes to be mater of Faith not onely to be true but to be mater of Faith before ever the Church determine it So that allowing him to say that hee holds his Faith by Tradition hee must allow mee that hee contradicts himself whensoever hee takes upon him to maintain that the Church creates new Articles of Faith which were not so the instant before the determination of the Church CHAP. XXXII Answer to an Objection that choice of Religion becomes difficult upon these terms This resolution is for the Interest of the Reformation Those that make the Church Infallible cannot those that make the Scripture clear and sufficient may own Tradition for evidence to determine the meaning of the Scriptures and Controversies of Faith The Interest of the Church of England The pretense of Rushworthes Dialogues that wee have no unquestionable Scripture and that the Tradition of the Church never changes AS little shall I need to be troubled at any reason that may be framed against this resolution having answered the prejudice that seems to sway most men to apprehend that God must have been wanting to his Church if all things necessary to salvation be not clearly laid down in the Scriptures For it is very manifest that the very same presumption possesses the mindes of the adverse party that God must needs have provided a visible Judge infallible in deciding all Controversies of Faith Whether the Church or any person or persons authorized in behalf of the Church for the present all is one I shall therefore onely demand that it be considered first that God was no way tied either to send our Lord Christ or to give his Gospel which because it comes of Gods free grace is therefore called the Word of his Grace and the Covenant of Grace Then that hee hath not found himself obliged to provide effectual means to bring all mankinde to the knowledge of it resting content to have provided such as if men be not wanting to their own salvation and the salvation of the rest of mankinde may be sufficient to bring all men to the knowledg of it And when it is come to knowledg all discreet Christians notwithstanding must acknowledg that the motives thereof fully propounded though abundantly sufficient to reasonable persons yet do not constrain those that are convicted by them to proceed according to them as necessary reasons constrain all understandings that see them to judg by them For how should it be a trial of mens dispositions if there were no way to avoid the necessity of those motives that inforce it Now if any knowledg can be had of truth in maters of faith that become disputable it must all of necessity depend upon the sufficiency of those motives which convict men to imbrace the Christian Faith And if there be any such skill as that of a Divine among Christians of necessity all of it proceeds upon supposition of the said motives which not pretending to show the reason of things which they convict men to believe convict them notwithstanding to believe that they are revealed by God For what conviction can there be that this or that is true unlesse it may appear to fall under those motives as the means which God hath imployed so to recommend it Therefore can it not be reasonable to require a greater evidence to the truth of things disputable among Christians than God hath allowed Christianity it self which being supposed on all hands it remains questionable whether this or that be part of it Therefore can it not be presumed that God hath made the Scriptures clear in all points necessary to salvation to all understandings concerned or that hee hath
be baptized who cannot make or are tied to any such promise To these I say no more but this that it is one thing to answer arguments and to give grounds of a contrary truth another thing to object difficulties which even the truth is not clear of especially that which comes by revelation from without as Christianity doth Because to the verifying of revealed truth it is not necessary that all things should be alike clearly revealed that are necessary to the clearing of objections The obligation of sticking to that which is revealed taking place no lesse though something belonging to the clearing of it be not so clearly expressed And generally that which is evident is never the lesse evident because there is something else evident the evidence whereof I cannot reconcile with it But this I say not as though I meant to dismiss these difficulties without that which I conceive ought to satisfie But because I have learned of Aristotle that it is the fashion of the unlearned to demand at once both the grounds of the truth and the clearing of difficulties A thing which might be done here but so that another place would require it to be done againe and not without balking the order which I intend My designe will bring me in due time to speak with the Pelagians first and afterwards with the Anabaptists To those points I will remit the answer to these objections Onely for the present to the former of these doubts I would say this That all that hath been said hitherto concerns onely that disposition which he that will come to salvation by Christianity must be firmly qualified with as the condition which the Covenant of Grace requireth All which being supposed it may and doth still remaine questionable how and by what meanes in the nature of an effective cause a man becomes qualified with the disposition so required To wit whether by the meer force of free will or by the help of Gods Grace And that being resolved upon what consideration in the nature of a meritorious cause those helps of Gods grace are furnished To wit whether by the free Grace of God or in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ provided by Gods free Grace as the reason for which and the measure by which the helps of his Grace are dispensed To the latter of them I would onely say here That I conceive I have here maintained that reason for the necessity of Baptisme to the salvation of all Christians upon which the necessity of the Baptisme of Infants is to be tied Which is to say in plain English That I have by the premises re-established that ground for the necessity of Baptisme in generall the unsetling whereof was the onely occasion to make the necessity of Baptizing Infants become questionable CHAP. VI. Justifying Faith sometimes consists in believing the truth Sometimes in trust in God grounded upon the truth Somtimes in Christianity that is in imbracing and professing it And that in the Fathers as well as in the Scriptures Of the informed and formed Faith of the Schools NOW for those Scriptures wherein the nature of justifying faith is described by those effects which the promises of the Gospel tender I must here observe that which all observe that faith is many times made by the Scriptures to consist in believing the truth of Christs Message which he came to preach Otherwhiles neverthelesse in a grounded trust and confidence in the goodnesse of God declared through Christ For what is more manifest then that of S. Paul Rom. X. 9. If thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the deád thou shalt be saved Where first that which the heart believeth is the rising of Christ from the dead signifying by one Article the rest of the Faith then that which the mouth professeth is nothing but the same truth Therefore neither the inward nor the outward act of faith reacheth any further then the acknowledgment of the said truth So the Apostle 1 John V. 15. 10. Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Messi as is begotten of God Who is he that overcomes the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witnesse in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the witnesse which God beareth of his Son Where it is plain that no difference is made between believing God and believing in the Son of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more then to believe Gods witnesse Mat. IX 28. Jesus faith to the blind Believe you that I am able to do this They say unto him yea Lord. Then touched he their eyes saying according to your faith be it unto you That faith which consisted in believing that he was able to do it So of John the Baptist our Lord Mat. XXI 32. John came to you in the way of righteousnesse and ye believed him not but the publicans and harlots believed him Which you seeing repeated not afterwards that ye might believe him And sure they obtained the grace of Christ that believed John the Baptish Our Lord to the father of the Lunatick Mat. IX 23. 24. If thou caust believe all things are possible to him that believeth And straight the father of the childe crying out said Lord I believe help my unbeliefe If thou canst believe that I am able to do this as afore Mat. XI 23. 24. He that shall say to this mountaine be thou removed and cast into the sea and doubt not in his heart but believe that what he sayeth cometh to passe is shall come to passe to him as he sayeth Therefore I say unto you all things that ye ask by prayer believe that ye shall receive and they shall come to passe to you John V. 24. He that heareth me and believeth him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh not into condemnation but is passed from death to life XX. 31. These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believeing ye may have life through his Name Acts VIII 37. Philip said to the Eunuch If thou believest with all thy heart thou mayest be baptized He answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Upon which faith he is baptized Rom. IV. 3. Abraham believed God saying to him Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven Gen. XV. 5. and it was impâ—â—â—ed to him for righteousnesse On the other side it is no rare thing to finde faith described by trust and confidence in God and the effects of saving faith ascribed to it as in the description of the Apostle Heb. XI 2. Now faith is the substance of thing hoped for the evidence of things not seen That which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which the Hebrew expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
are justified before God But the inward and Spirituall observation of them at least the purpose and intention of it as it depends upon the grace of Christ which the Gospel publisheth so must it necessarily be included in that faith which in opposition to the works of the Law qualifies Christians for those promises which the Gospel tendereth But that which must remove all doubt of the Apostles meaning in this point must be the removing that difficulty which held the Jewes then and still holds them in the opinion of obtaining righteousnesse and salvation by the Law For certainely could S. Paul have perswaded them that the ancient Fathers from the beginning of whose salvation theyh could not doubt though under the Law yet obtained not salvation by the law but by the Gospel it had been an easie thing for him to have perswaded them to it The Apostles intent therefore is to perswade them to that which because it was hard to perswade them to therefore they continued Jewes and refused to become Christians Now let us suppose that which I have premised that the Law expressely covenanteth onely for the worldly happinesse of that people in the land of promise requiring in lieu of it onely the outward and civil observation of the law But the summe of that outward observation thereof which is expressely covenanted for consisting in the worship of one God whose providence in the particular actions of his creatures it presupposeth maintaining also a Tradition of the immortality of mans soul and of bringing all mens actions to account shall not all that are born under this Law stand necessarily convict that they owe this God that inward and spirituall obedience wherein his worship in Spirit and truth consisteth And seeing the same God tenders them terms of that reconcilement and friendship which maintaines them in that state of this world whereby they may be able and fit to render him such inward and spirituall obedience punctually making good the same to them Have they not reason enough to conclude that they shall not faile of his favour and grace so long as they proceed in a course of such obedience How much more having the examples of the ancient Fathers the doctrine which they delivered by word of mouth the instructions of the Prophets whom God raised up from time to time to assure them that this was that principall intent of Gods law though it made the least noise in it how much more I say must they needs stand convict both of their own obligation to tender God this obedience and also that tendring it they could not faile of Gods favour toward them even as to the life to come Though this cannot be said to be the Gospel of Christ because it containeth not the dispensation of his life in the flesh nor the expresse tender of the life to come in consideration of the profession of his Name and of living according to his doctrine Yet if it be truly said that the Gospel is implied and vailed in the Law either this signifies nothing or this is the thing that it signifies For upon this ground it is manifest that there was alwayes a twofold sense and effect of Moses Law and by consequence a twofold law By virtue of which difference whereas it is said Heb. VII 16. That the legall Priesthood stood by the law of a carnall precept And the precepts thereof are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I said afore And the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of the red heifer are said to sanctifie to the cleansing of the flesh Heb. IX 10. 13. On the other side S. Paul saith that the Law is spirituall and that the commandment was given to life and therefore discovers concupiscence to be sinne Rom. VII 7 10 14. And S. Steven saith to his people of Moses that he received living oracles to give unto us Acts VII 38. And S. Paul of himself and his fellow Apostles delivering the doctrine of the Gospel Which things we speak saith he not with words taught by mans wisdome but taught by the holy Ghost comparing spiritual things with spiritual things 1 Cor. II. 13. that is the spiritual things which the Gospel expresseth with the same spiritual things implied by the law As I shewed afore that the same S. Pauls meaning is that the man of God is perfectly furnished to every good work when he is able to make the Scriptures of the Old Testament usefull to instruct reprove teach and comfort Christians in Christianity 2 Tim. III. 16 17. And truly whatsoever is said in the writings of the Apostles or the sayings of our Lord Christ supposing the difference between that which is Spirituall and that which is carnall or literall in the Scriptures must be expounded upon this ground of the Apostle that all the promises of God are yea in Christ and in him amen as S. Paul saith 2 Cor. I. 20. That is to say that the temporall promises of Moses law were intended for and fulfilled in the eternall promises of Christs Gospel For upon this ground there is a Jew according to the letter and a Jew according to the Spirit that is a Christian Rom. II. 28 29. There are sons according to the flesh and sons according to promise Rom. IX 8. and he that was born of the bondmaide was born according to the flesh and persecuted him that was born of the free woman according to the Spirit Gal. IV. 23. 29. For this reason it is said That the Fathers all eat the same spirituall meat and drank the same spirituall drink as we Christians do For they drank of the spirituall rock that followed them which rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 3 4. Because as Christianity was intended by the law so was Christ by the figures of the law neither is there any other reason to be given why the letter killeth but the Spirit quickneth as S. Paul affirmeth 2 Cor. III. 6. but this Because as the law in the literall sense provides no remedy for those that fall into Capitall crimes but leaves them to the justice of the law So the Spirituall sense of it was not available to bring men to life though available to convict them of sinne So that the Jews whom S. Paul pursueth as guilty of sinne by the conviction of the law stand noverthelesse convict that they were never able however convict of sin to attain righteousnesse by the help of it alone and therfore that they are no lesse obliged to have recourse to the Gospel and to imbrace Christianity then the Gentiles themselves who had no other pretense to avoid the judgement of God which the Gospel publisheth This is the intent of S. Paul in the first chapters of his Epistle to the Romanes which he recapitulates in this generall inference Rom. III. 9. We have pleaded before that Jewes and Gentiles both are under sinne And againe Rom. XI 32. God hath shut up all under disobedience that he might have
XI 50. 51. 52. But in what sense doe Christians find it true Surely no man that ever prayed to God in Christs name need to be told it It is requisite therefore that we have recourse to the consideration of those thinges which the Scripture uses to joyne with the mention of Christs dying for us if we will rightly determine the meaning of it And so having premised the consideration of a sacrifice upon which our sinnes were charged of our ransome by the price of it of reconciliation and propitiation for sinne obtained for us by it we must conclude that when the Scripture speakes of Christs death for us the meaning of it cannot be satisfyed by granting that he died to move us to be Christians CHAP. XXIX The grant of Grace in consideration of Christ supposes satisfaction made by him for sinne Neither our sinnes imputable to Christ nor his sufferings to us formally and personally but as the meritorious causes which satisfaction answereth The effect of it the Covenant of Grace as well as help to performe it The Fathers saved by the Faith of Christ to come The Gospel a new Law The property of Satisfaction and Punishment in Christs sufferings Of the sense of the Catholike Church THere remaines one argument from the premises where I concluded that effectuall Grace is appointed from everlasting and therefore granted in time in consideration of Christ and his merits according to S. Paul Ephes I. 3-6 For if this grace be granted in consideration of Christ and life everlasting appointed from everlasting and granted in time in consideration of that quality which this grace effâ—cteth it cannot in reason be avoided that remission of sinne and life everlasting is granted here in right and title and in effect in the world to come in consideration of that quality which the effectuall helps of Grace of their own nature tend to produce which they are appointed by God to produce and which really and in effect thus are produced being granted by God in consideration of Christs obedience But why should I be so solicitous to restore all those Scriptures to their true meaning which they have set upon the rack to make them speak a false having such evidence of reason that by this position they make the death of Christ voide and needlesse even in their owne judgement For though if they should say that Christ came onely to show those workes that migh be sufficient to make his Gospell credible and give us good example I could not say that the death of Christ were to no end Yet would they say that it were to no competent end complaining as they do how much they are wronged when they are understood to acknowledge no further end of his coming But when they say that he died to induce men to be Christians by inacting the Covenant of Grace that is assuring them that God will stand to it on his part and that according to the example of Christ bearing his Crosse they shall attaine his glory I demand how all this can be more assurance then every man hath that is peremâ—orily assured otherwise as no man doubts but competently it may be assured otherwise that the Gospell of Christ is Gods message For when sufficient evidence is once made and a man is convinced to beleeve that God promises remission of sinnes and everlasting life to them that imbrace it can he that beleives God to be God remaine any more doubtfull of the truth of his promise To Pharao and to his people it was necessary that the wonders of God should be repeated till they stood convict that there was no God else which they beleived not afore But to them that admit the God of Israel to be the onely true God being convict that the Gospell is his promise is any further assurance requisite that he will stand to it who were not God if he should not stand to it when they say that Christ died to the end that being advanced to be God he might be able to bring his promises to effect I referre my selfe to the sense of any man that is able to thinke of God with due reverence whether it be possible to imagine that a meere man having made promises to mankind in Gods name can live with God to see Gods promises frustrate And by consequence whether it can appeare necessary that our Lord Christ should be advanced to be God that he might be able in his owne person to fullfill the promises which he had made us in his Fathers Name I referre my selfe to that which I have said to show the word of God which took the flesh of man from the Virgine to be God from everlasting as the Sonne of God and his everlasting wisâ—ome and image And therefore not advanced to be God in consideration of his obedience But that having condescended to that state which his obedience in doing his fathers message and testifying the truth thereof required the Sonne of God incarnate was advanced in our flesh by the appointment of God in reward of his obedience to the privilege of sending the Holy Ghost to make his Gospell effectuall to convert the nations to Christianity that by them he might be acknowledged and glorified for that which he was from everlasting So that the end of his coming being to obtaine that grace by which the world might be converted to Christianity and being converted obtaine remission of sinnes and life everlasting for it and neither of these purposes admitted by Socinus we may well say to him as S. Paul sayes to the Jews Gal. II 21. If righteousnesse be by the Law then is Christ deade in vaine So if righteousnesse came as Socinus would have it then is Christ deade to no purpose Because all that he requires might have been as well effected without it Whereas a due valuable consideration in regard whereof the converting grace of the Holy Ghost and remission of sinnes and life everlasting in consideration of the effect thereof should be granted could not have been had without it It is strange to be observed how litle Socinus hath to produce out of the scriptures to prove a position of such consequence as this All his businesse in a maner being to draw those texts which heitherto have been understood in the sense of the Church to his intent I can for the present recall no more then those frequent passages of the Apostles especially S. Paul whereby they affirme the righteousnesse and salvation of Christians to come by the meere grace of God and our Lord Christ Which I need not here repeate no wayes apprehending the infernce That it cannot be said to come from the meere grace of God if I suppose the consideration of Christs obedience and sufferinges as the purchase of it It is true in the wordes of the Prophet Jeremy XXXI 34-34 alleged by the Apostle Ebr. VIII 8-12 to be meant of the Gospell we find a promise of God to pardon the sinnes of his
all the rest of the creatures So is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 often used in the New Testament especially to signify egregius or eximius or that which they signify in Latine when they speak of creatures chosen our of the flock to be sacrifices or dedicated to God for first fruits Examples you have in abundance Mat. XX. 16. XXII 14. XXIV 23 24 31. Mark XIII 20 22 27. Luke XVIII 7. Rom. XVI 3. Col. III. 12. 2 Tim. II. 10. Titus I. 1. 1 Pet. I. 1. II. 9. 2 John I. 14. Apoc. XVII 14. In all which texts there is nothing to be sound that inforceth any more then the choice esteem which God has of those that are there qualified his elect without intimation of any decree of his whereby he hath designed them to life everlasting Which those that will not content themselves with when the Apostle exhorteth to make our calling and election sure 2 Pet. I. 10. to wit to assure our selves of the state and condition of Gods choice ones do intangle themselves in everlasting difficulties how any man can assure himself of that which he can never forfeit being passed from everlasting Let S. Paul then go forward Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Tribulation or anguish or persecution or hunger or nakednesse or peril or the sword as it is written For thee are we killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep to be slaine Nay in all these we are more then conquerors through him that hath loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is through our Lord Christ Is there any thing in all this to signify that sinne cannot separate Christians from the love of God Not that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature can separate those whom S. Paul comprehends with himself in the plurall us from the love of God to sinne Surely I cannot allow the curiosity of those that would have Saint Paul say all this out of a revelation made to him in particular of his salvation For what shall become of this us whom besides S. Paul shall it comprise But when S. Paul sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded he sayes no more of himself then I can maintaine every one of those whom he comprises with himself in the plurall us to say Which is that every good Christian may aime at as firm a perswasion of attaining salvation as he findes his own resolution to be firme to abide in the way of it And that having digested the greatest difficulties to which he is liable and being assured not to faile of Gods help in not failing of his indeavours by grace received from God none of them shall be of force to cast them away Indeed I find S. Paul more confident in the same purpose when he speakes nearer death 2 Tim. IV. 7 8. I have fought the good fight I have finished the course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge shall render me As having it from God that there was not much of his course remaining and having digested in his mind the terrors of death But when he saith further And not onely to me but to all that love his appearance I am confident as those that love his appearance have the same crown laid upfor them so they that know they love his appearance may as well know that they have the same crown in store And therefore that S. Paul meant not to abate any thing of this confidence when he said 1 Cor. IX 26 27. I therefore so runne as not at random So fight I as not beating the aire But chasten my body and inslave it least having preached to others I leave my self a reprobate But that he expresseth hereby the supposition upon which his confidence was grounded together with his resolution to undergo the utmost of it The words of S. John have no difficulty in them if we take them together 1 John III. 7 8 9. Little children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousnesse is righteous even as he is righteous He that sinneth is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning The Sonne of God was manifested on purpose to dissolve the workes of the Devil Every man that is borne of God doth not commit sinne because his seed abideth in him and he cannot sinne because he is born of God Was there not reason for Saint John to warne them against all deceitfull pretenses of righteousnesse before God in them that live not in righteousnesse when it is manifest that he writes against Heresies which wallowing in uncleannesses pretended a secret ground whereupon they continued righteous before God I say not that this is the opinion I write against But I say that if the Apostles argument be true that sinne is from the devil and that Christ came to dissolve the works of the devil Then he that doth the works of Belial hath no part in Christ more then Belial hath And therefore when it followeth every man that is borne of God doth not commit sinne because his seed abideth in him He meanes not to show us a distinction to sinne and injoy the pleasure of sinne without committing of sinne as if the sinnes of the regenerate overcoming so many more obligations were not committed more then those of the unregenerate Neither doth he discover that which every man knew before by saying that a Christian if he do like a Christian sinnes not because the seed of his Christianity remains in him unlesse we think our Lords words to no purpose Mat. VII 16. 17. 18. doe they gather grapes of thorns or figgs of thistles So every good tree bringeth forth good fruit and a corrupt tree badde fruit A good tree cannot bring badde fruit nor a corrupt tree good fruit And that speaking of the same Heresies of which S. John is to be understood as I have showed that they might not admit any pretense against that mark Or unlesse we thinke S. Ignatius his words to no purpose who uses the same sentence in the same case Wherefore when S. John saith that he who is borne of God cannot sinne because his seed is in him his meaning is that which Tertulliane expresseth de praescript Haeret. Cap. III. Non futurus Dei filius si admiserit Because he cannot continue the sonne of God if he sinne It hath been much argued that S. Paul Rom. VII 7-25 sets forth in himself as regenerate such a conflict between the law of his members and the law of his mind that as a carnall man he confesses himself to be sold under sinne because saith he what I do I allow not For what I would I do not but what I would not that I do Which if I doe when I
that would onely be saved So that the workes whereby they are pursued must be called workes of supererogation because he that does them layes out more upon Gods service then he is obliged to do They are the words of our Lord to the disciples Mat. XIX 11 12. All are not capable of this word of not marrying For there are Eunuchs which were so born from their mothers wombe And there are Eunuchs which were made Eunuchs by men And there are Eunuchs that have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven He that is capable let him hold this Here it is said that God hath made some men of such constitution of nature that they are able to containe themselves from marriage and that this is the gift of continence which whoso hath falls under a command of not marrying whoso hath not of marrying But when our Lord exhorts those that are able to containe themselves from marriage to strive for that grace certainely he makes not that a gift of nature which he would have a man indeavour to attaine He that is exhorted to make himself an Eunuch is not so made by God but from God he hath the grace to preferre the kingdom of heaven before even that content which God alloweth him here and if he betray not that grace by preferring that content before the clearest and securest meanes of attaining it he will not faile of grace to performe that which he resolves for Gods sake And truely it were strange that the Gospel should make that grace which conducts to the height of Christianity to consist in an indowment of nature But S. Pauls wordes will take no nay 1 Cor. VII 25-28-36 37 38. Of Virgins I have no precept of the Lord but give advise as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithfull I think then this expedient for the present necessity that it is good for a man to be thus Art thou tied to a wife seek not to be loose Art thou loose from a wife seek not a wife But if thou marry thou sinnest not and if a virgine marry she sinneth not Onely such shall have affliction in the flesh But I spare you Againe If a man think he deales unhansomly with his Virgine if she passe her flour and so it must be let him do as he please he sinneth not let him marry But he that standeth firme in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath resolved this in his heart to preserve his Virgine doeth well So he that marrieth her doeth well but he that marrieth her not doeth better Is the sunshine more manifest then this A man may resolve either of both for his daughter a Virgine supposing her will to follow his as generally the duty of the children is which S. Paul here supposeth and not sinne but do well yet better in containing from marriage because of the advantage which that state yeildeth Christianity as S. Paul showes Therefore he declares that God hath given no law in it but his Apostle gives that advise for the best which his Lord had done The same Apostle of Widowes 1 Tim. V. 5 9-14 She that is a Widow indeed and desolate hopeth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day And let no Widow be listed under threescore years old having been the wife of one husband having a testimony for good works that she hath bred up her children entertained strangers washed â—he Saints feet helped the afflicted followed every good work But refuse younger Widowes for when they grow wanton against Christ they will marry Being to be condemned because they have renounced their first faith And withall they learn to be idle and to go about from house to house and not onely idle but tattlers busie bodies speaking things unfitting Therefore I would have the younger marry Here is againe a clear case Timothy is directed to liâ—t some Widowes for the service of the Church in the state of Widowes others to refuse That which commends the one for the preferment is the exercise of those workes which they could not have had opportunity for in the state of wedlock That which renders the others dangerous is because for them to desire marriage is to grow wanton against Christ Wherefore when S. Paul would have them to marry it is not because he denieth in the next words that state of proficience which he had acknowledged just afore but because it is better to hold the mean then to fall from the highest ranck of Christianity Which serves to resolve his meaning as well as his Masters 1 Cor. VII 1 2 6 7. For that which you writ to me about it is good for a man not to touch a woman But because of fornication let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband But this I speake of indulgence not by command For I would all men were even as my self But every one hath his proper grace of God some thus some otherwise Doth not the grace of God in married people assiâ—t in the offices of Christianity towards those relations which marriage procureth Correspondently therefore the Grace of God in the continent is not a natural temper obliging them so to live But the helps that inable them to discharge themselves like Christians in a higher rank among Christians So that the perfection of Christianity lies not in the state of continence but in the rank of it That is to say in â—hose offices of Christianity wherein their estate gives them opportunity to be conversant the state being no otherwise so accountable then because there is a presumption that persons are such as they ought to be and as their state gives them opportunity to be The perfection of Christianity then consisteth in the love of God and in his service and the service of Christians for Gods sake That is in spending a mans life in those offices in which there is most regard to God least to our owne temporall interest But is it unreasonable to count that a state of perfection which generally and in reason is the meanes for it because it is found to be practised to other effects Is it unreasonable to think that God who hath need of all states for the service of his Church and giveth those severall graces which are requisite to make severall men serviceable for severall states should not determine by law but leave to their choice whom he indues with those graces that which containes not the work of Christianity but being indifferent by kind is neverthelesse by kind the meanes to procure it Saint Paul gives this reason why he wrought for his living rather then take any thing of the Corinthians in these termes It were better for me to dye then that any man should void that which I glory in For if I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity lies upon me yea woe to me if I preach not the Gospel For if I do
Advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins And when David who had the spirit of God upon the same termes as Christians have it excepting that which hath been excepted prayeth Psalm XIX 13 14. Who understandeth his errours Clense me from hidden sins Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins that they beare not rule over me Then shall I be upright and cleane from great transgressions He showeth sufficiently the difference between veniall and mortall sins as to Christians which in case of invincible ignorance and meere supprize comes to no sin as to Christians But he showeth also that Christians neglecting themselves may come to fall into sins of persumption which he prayeth against For the rest the same S. Iohn incouraging Christians to pray for the sins of Christians with this limitation as I surppose if by their advice they appear to be reduced to take the cours which may procure pardon at Gods hands acknowledgeth further that there is a sin unto death I say not that yee pray for it saith he 1. John V. 16. 17. And the Apostle to the Hebrews VI. 4 5 6. speaketh of some sin which he acknowledgeth not that it can be admitted to penance for the obtaining of forgivenesse which he protesteth again Ebr. X. 26 -31 XII 16 17. It is commonly thought indeed that to deny the true faith against that light which God hath kindled in a mans conscience is hereby declared to be a sin that repentance cannot cure Or rather that God hereby declareth that he will never grant in repentance And truly that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which our Lord saith shall never he pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Mat. XII 31 32. Mark III. 28 29. Luke XII 10. manifestly consisteth in attributing the works which the holy Ghost did to convert men to Christ to the devill being convinced that our Lord came from God by the workes he did for that purpose Just as Saint Steven reproaches the Jewes for resisting the holy Ghost as their Fathers had done Acts VII 51. And that there is no cure for this sin it is manifest because it consisteth in rejecting the cure And apostasy from Christianity which is manifestly the sinne which the Apostle to the Hebrews intendeth differeth from it but as the obligation to Christianity once received differeth from that Christianity which being proposed with conviction a man is bound to receive But otherwise not onely the Church but the Novatians themselves supposed that those who had denied the Faith might recover pardon of God by repentance Nor can it become visible to the Church what is that conviction which whoso transgresseth becomes unpardonable because God hath excluded him from repentance In the meane time how difficult the Primitive Church accounted it to attaine pardon of such sinnes appeares by the excluding of the Montanists and Novatians first then by the long Penance prescribed Apostates Murtherers and Adulterers least the admitting of them to Penance might seem to warrant their pardon upon too light repentance Saint Paul admits the incestuous person at Corinth whether to Penance or to Communion with the Church But upon what termes Least the offender should be swallowed up with extream sorrow and least Satan should advantage himself against them should he refuse it And because having written out of great anguish of heart with teares for them who presumed to bear him out in it he had found them moved with sorrow according to God to repentance with all satisfaction and desire of peace with the Apostle 2 Cor. II. 1-8 VII 7-11 For we understand by Saint Paul 1 Cor. V. 2. 2 Cor. XII 21. that even the Church themselves when they shut a sinner out of the Church did make demonstration of sorrow for his case And therefore himself much more was put to mourning and to professe by his outward habit that he thought his sinne incurable without sorrow answerable to it And when Saint Paul commands the Collossians III. 5. Mortify your members that are upon earth fornication uncleannesse passion evill desire and covetousnesse which is idolatry For which the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience It is manifest that he placeth the mortifying of these vices in the afflicting and humbling of our earthly members wherein the lusts of them reside Therefore he serves his own body no otherwise but striving for the prize of Christians like one of their Greekish Champions that would not beat the aire he beates his own body black and blew to bring it under servitude Least having preached to others himself should become reprobate 1 Cor. IX 26 27. And certainly if Christianity require this discipline over Saint Pauls body least he should fall into sinne it will require very great severity of them that are fallen into sinne to be exercised upon their bodies the lusts whereof they have satisfied by those sinnes to regain the favour and appease the wrath of God and to settle that hatred of sinne and that love of goodnesse in the heart which the preventing of sinne for the future necessarily requireth The practice of the Old Testament sufficiently signifieth the same Though David in the Psalme that I mentioned afore seem to make the pardon of his sin a thing easily obtained at Gods hands as it is indeed a thing easily obtained supposing the disposition which David desired it with but not that disposition a thing easily obtained yet you shall find the same David elsewhere wetting his bed and watring his couch with his teares so that his beauty is gone with mourning his flesh dried up for want of fatnesse and his bones cleave to his flesh for the voice of his mourning Indeed he alwayes expresseth his affliction to be the subject of his mourning But alwayes acknowledging his sins to be the cause of those afflictions which he therefore takes the course to remove by taking this course for his sinnes The Prophet Esay I. 15 16. thus calleth the Jewes to appease Gods wrath Wash ye make ye clean remove the evil of your workes from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do good seek righteousnesse Sure this was never intended to be done by the meer thought of doing it But the Prophet Joel having threatned a plague what doth he prescribe for the cure And now saith the Lord return to me with all your heart with fasting weeping and mourning and rent your hearts and not your garments and turn to the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull long-suffering great in mercy and repenteth him of evill Blow the trumpet in Sion sanctify a fast invite the assembly gather the people sanctify a Congregation make the old and young and the sucking infants meet let the bridegroom come forth of his chamber and the bride of her closet let the Priests the ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and say Spare Lord thy people and
impose upon all their Divines a necessity to maintain that there is no trope in the words This is my cup of the New Testament which so many of their Predecessors had granted because it could not be denied Which being granted must needs take place in This is my body by necessary consequence And surely the common principles of Grammar and Rhetorick will inforce it when they inform us that tropes are used as cloaths are either for necessity because there are more things much more conceptions than words to signifie them For thereupon necessity constrains to turn a word to signifie that which it was not at first intended to signifie and that is a trope Or for ornament to expresse a mans mind with more elegance Compare then our ordinary way of expressing the conceptions of the mind by words which is common to all Languages which our ordinary way of expressing the objects thereof to our minds by the said conceptions If a word be diverted to signifie that conception which it was not first imposed to signifie because there was no other at hand imposed to signifie the present conceit Logick and Grammar will make this a Trope though Rhetorick do not because it was not used for ornament but for the necessary clothing of a mans mind in terms intelligible The trial whereof is if the subject you speak of cannot truly be said to be the thing which is attributed to it As the bread and wine which our Lord blessed cannot be said to be his body and bloud For if the subject mater signified by the Scripture elsewhere require that the body and bloud of Christ be thought present then is the property of the terms to be abated so as they may serve to signifie that presence Voiding all dispute concerning the signification of words which those that hold Transubstantiation could never nor never will agree upon among themselves because it stands upon terms of art the use whereof no mans conceit can over-rule that which the necessity of our common Faith requireth being once secured as here For the reason being rendred why the Eucharist was instituted and why it is to be frequented notwithstanding that the Body and Bloud of Christ may always be eaten and drunk by a living Faith to wit because the reviving of our Christianity by receiving the Sacrament reviveth the promise of Christs body and bloud being the means to convay his Spirit it will not concern the purpose thereof that it should be present by Transubstantiation abolishing the nature of the Elements For though it hath been boldly said by those who dispute controversies That the body of Christ is really and substantially resident in and united to our bodies That Grace and Charity cooled by sinne are inflamed in the Soul by the body of Christ immediately touching our bodies That the seed of our resurrection is thereby sowed in our mortal bodies First none of this is true unlesse you understand it with the same abatement That the body of Christ received in the Sacrament by the body of him whose Soul hath living Faith in Christ is the seed of the life of grace and glory both to his soul and body Because otherwise a dead faith should receive the same Secondly none of this would hold if Transubstantiation be true because rendring the body of Christ invisibly present no mans body whatsoever can immediately touch it And therefore it is no marvel that so many excellent School Doctors have acknowledged that setting the sense of the Church aside of which I will say what shall be requisite by and by Transubstantiation cannot be concluded from the Scriptures Whose judgements I carry along with mee for the complement of that prejudice which I advance toward the right understanding of the sense of the Church To wit that whatsoever the present Church may have determined the Catholick Church did never understand that which the Scripture necessarily signifieth not Now let us see what our Lord sayes to his Disciples being scandalized at those things which I showed you that hee taught them in the Synagogue at Capernaum of attaining everlasting life by eating his flesh John VI. 58-63 Is this it which scandalizeth you saith hee What then if you see the Son of man ascend where hee was afore It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak to you are Spirit and Life The spiritual sense in which hee commandeth them to eat and drink his flesh and bloud is grounded upon that difference between the promises of the Law and the Gospel which I settled in the beginning For by virtue thereof that Manna which maintained them in the Desert till they died is the figure of his body and bloud that maintains us not to dye Whereupon S. Paul saith 1 Cor. III. 6. The Spirit quickeneth but the Leter killeth Not onely because the Law covenants nor for the world to come But also because it was no further the means to procure that righteousnesse which giveth life then the Spirit of Christ was intimated and furnished under the dispensation of it Whereupon S. Paul argues that the Jews have as much need of Christ as the Gentiles because the Law is not able to bring corrupt nature to righteousnesse Wherefore the reason why they were scandalized at this doctrine of our Lords was not meerly because it was difficult to understand hee having so plentifully expressed his meaning and inculcated it by often beating the same discourse there and otherwise made the condition of his Gospel intelligible to his Disciples but because it was hard to undergo importing the taking up of his Crosse as I have said For it is evident by common experience in the world how men find or how they plead their minds to be obstructed in the understanding of those spiritual maters which if they should grant their understandings to be convinced of there were no plea left them why they should not conform their lives and conversations to that light which themselves confesse they have received So that the scandal was the same that the rich man in the Gospel took when hee was told that besides keeping Gods Commandments one thing was wanting to part with all hee had and take up Christs Crosse to wit for the observing of his Commandments And this scandal hee intends to take away when hee referres them to his ascension into Heaven because then and from thence they were to expect the Holy Ghost to inable them to do that which the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud signifieth spiritually And his words hee therefore calleth Spirit and Life because they are the means to bring unto the communion of his Spirit wherein spiritual and everlasting life consisteth So that the flesh of Christ being exalted to the right hand of God and his Spirit which first made it self an habitation in his flesh being sent down to make him an habitation in the hearts of his people those who upon faithful consideration of
S. Gregory saith Scholasticus composed whether hee mean a man of that name or as I conceive some Doctor that professed the Scriptures if S. Gregory should tell mee that some other form to the same effect was not in use I could not believe him believing the premises The substance and effect whereof under the name of Eucharistia or the Thanks-giving is that which the Church from the beginning consecrated the Eucharist with by the appointment of our Lord and according to the practice of his Apostles So Rabanus de Institutione Clericorum I. 32. affirms that the whole Church consecrates with Blessing and Thanksgiving the Apostles having taught them to do that which our Lord had done Walafridus Strabus de Rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. XXII relates two several opinions concerning this businesse as it appears by his discourse Et relatio majorum est ità primis temporibus Missas fieri solitas sicut modò in Parasceve Paschae in quo die apud Romanos Missae non aguntur communicationem facere solemus Id est praemissâ— Oratione Dominicà sicut ipse Dominus noster praecepti commemoratione passionis adhibitâ eos Corpori Dominico communicâsse Sanguini quos ratio permittebat And there is a relation of our Predecessors that in the first times Masse was done as now on Good Friday on which day Masse is not said at Rome the communion is wont to be made That is that the Lords Prayer premised and the commemoration of his death applyed those whom reason allowed did communicate in the Body and Bloud of our Lord. The practice of the Church of Rome here mentioned is that which still continues not to consecrate the Eucharist either on Good Friday or the Saturday following For then Masse is said so late that it belongs to Easter day And on Maundy Thursday the Eucharist is consecrated and reserved to be received on Good Friday That any commemoration of Christs death is made at the receiving of it as Rabanus saith I finde not This is certain that no man imagines that the Eucharist is consecrated by any thing that is said or done at the receiving of it but at the Masse on the day before And this in the Greek Church is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Liturgy of the elements that were consecrated afore Which they use on other days besides Therefore this opinion that the Apostles should celebrate so would import that they celebrated the Eucharist without consecrating of it That is that they never appointed how it should be consecrated Which neither Rabanus nor any of these whose opinion he relates can maintain Nor supposing the premises is it tenable And therefore I take the true meaning of S. Gregories words to be laid down in another opinion related afore by Rabanus Quod nunc agimus multiplici orationum cantilenarum consecrationum officio totum hoc Apostoli post eos proximi ut creditur orationibus commemoratione passionis dominica faciebant simpliciter That which wee act by an Office compounded of many and divers Prayers Psalms and Consecrations all that the Apostles and the next after them did plainly with prayers and the commemoration of our Lords passion as it is thought For the consecration may well be understood to be made plainly by prayer with commemoration of our Lords passion in opposition to that solemnity of Lessons Psalms and Prayers which at the more solemn occasions of the Church it was afterwards celebrated with Though wee suppose it to conclude alwaies with the Lords Prayer as S. Gregory requires And herewith the words of S. Gregory seeâ— to agree when hee â—aith Vt ad ipsam â—solummâ—do orationem To consecrate at or with it alone not by it alone But if this opinion cannot passe having indeed no constraining evidence but that S. Gregories words will needs require that they conâ—ecrated the Eucharist by the Lords Prayer alone I will will then â—ay that the Apostles understood the petition of our dayly bread as S. Cyprian upon the Lords Prayer doth To wit of the breâ—d and drink of the Eucharist daily celebrated and received For supposing this intent and meaning there is nothing pretended to be done by the consecration which that Petition signifieth not Praying that God will give us this day the dayly food of our â—ouls by the elements presently provided for that purpose And all this will no way prejudice that which hath been said of the mater and form of the consecration derived by Tradition from the Apostles to be frequented at more solemn occaâ—â—ons of Christian Assemblies For that Assembly which believing that Christians are justified by undertaking to professe the Faith and to live according to it and that our Lord hath left us his body and bloud of the Eucharist to convey the Holy Ghost to our â—ouls that they may be able to perform what they undertake should pray the Lords Prayer over the Elements proposed with that intent I cannot doubt of their receiving the Body and bloud of Christ Provided that where the occasion will bear more solemnity the Order of the Church received from the Apostles be not neglected Whereas supposing Christians to believe that they are justified by believing that they are justified or predestinate in consideration onely of Christs sufferings and that the Eucharist is instituted onely for a signe to confirm this Faith Though they should regularly use that form of consecration which I maintain to come by Tradition from the Apostles I would not therefore grant that they should either consecrate the Eucharist or could receive the Body and bloud of Christ by it Sacrilege they must commit in abusing Gods ordinances to that intent for which hee never appointed it but Sacrament there would be none further then their own imagination And upon these premises I am content to go to issue as concerning the sense of the Catholick Church in this point If it can any way be showed that the Church did ever pray that the flesh and bloud might be substituted instead of the elements under the accidents of them then I am content that this be counted henceforth the Sacramental presence of them in the Eucharist But if the Church onely pray that the Spirit of God coming down upon the Elements may make them the body and bloud of Christ so that they which received them may be filled with the grace of his Spirit Then is it not the sense of the Catholick Church that can oblige any man to believe the abolishing of the Elements in their bodily substance because supposing that they remain they may neverthelâ—sse become the Instrument of Gods Spirit to convey the operation thereof to them that are disposed to receive it no otherwise than his flesh and bloud conveyed the efficacy thereof upon earth And that I suppose is reason enough to call it the body and bloud of Christ Sacramentally that is to say as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist It is not here to be denied that
I come to conclude against the Anabaptists Our Lord saith to Nicodeâ—â—us Joh. III. 3. Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born again hee cannot seâ— the Kingdom of God And what this new birth is he setteth forth in answering that impertinent question which Nicodemus not understanding him makes how a man should come out of his Mothers belly the second time Verily verily I say unto thee unlesse a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Here I will grant the Anabaptists that the Sacrament of Baptism is not instituted by these words but by the act of our Lord after his Resurrection when he gives his Apostles their Commission Go make Disciples all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you Mar. XXVIII 18. But for reasons which perhaps they will not thank me for though they be not able to refute As yet when this discourse was held it was not declared to all that took our Lord for a Prophet that he was the Sonne of God Nicodemus himselfe that comes to him as a Prophet saying Master we know thou art a Prophet come from God For no man could do the works that thou dost unlesse God were with him If he go away instructed that the same which obliges him to take our Lord Christ for a Prophet concludes him to be the Christ the Son of God he is beholden to the freedom of our Lord in declaring to him the pretense of his coming by this discourse But for the purpose of sending the Holy Ghost it cannot be imagined that it was declared from the beginning of our Lords preaching who reveals not the intent of his death to his Apostles till he grew towards the time of it The priviledge of sending the Holy Ghost being part of that state to which he was to be exalted rising from death How then can it be imagined that our Lord should from the beginning of his preaching appoint all to be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the Sacrament of Baptism that makes us Christians Certainly it is not the same thing for John to baptize in the name of him that should come as for the Apostles in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Unlesse we think that all the people of God who expected a Messias expected him to be the Son of God which Christians worship our Lord Christ for and they crucified him for pretending to be There is therefore no cause why we should offer that violence to the Scripture Acts XXX 4. 5. John indeed baptized the baptism of repentance saying to the people that they were to believe in him that came after him that is in Christ Jesus And hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus which I showed you is offered by those that would have it to signifie That those who were baptized by Iohn Baptist were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus For other answers that are devised to avoid to clear a Scripture I count them not worth the refuting so evidenâ—ly they force the express sense of the words And among them none more unreasonable thâ—n that which saith that these men were not indeed baptized with the baptism of Iohn though they thought they were And that S. Paul when he sayes John indeed baptized with water saying to the people that they should believe in him that was to come even in Christ Iesus argues and perswades them that they were not indeed baptized with the Baptism of Iohn though they thought they were For of all things in the world could men be deceived to think that they professed that which the Baptism of Iohn must oblige them to professe and did not Nor can it be said with any appearance of truth that Iohn baptizing unto repentance those whom he sends for the means of salvation for the future to him that was to come did baptize in the Name of the Lord Jesus in as much as it is necessary to be said that the Apostles when they baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Acts II. 38. VIII 16. X. 48. did sufficiently intimate the name of the Father whose Son they preached our Lord to be and also of the Holy Ghost whom our Lord had promised to those that are baptized as Irenaeus so long since hath exquisitely cleared the difficulty how they observed their Commission of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Baptizing as S. Luke reports in the Name of the Lord Jesus But of Iohn the Baptist it is said Ioh. I. 29-34 That the morrow after he baptized our Lord he declared him to be the man that was to come after him in whose name he had baptized that he knew him not but came to declare him and that by the coming down of the Dove upon him it was revealed to him that he should know our Lord to be the man that came to Baptize with the Holy Ghost Whereby it appeareth that he cannot be thought to have baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus as that importeth as much as baptizing in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost For though it is evident that Iohn knew our Lord when he came to be baptized that he knew him to be in the world from the time that he began to preach and that he should baptize with the Holy Ghost Yet not knowing the man from the time that he began to baptize how could he baptize in his name and as the Son of God that was to give the Holy Ghost before our Lord himselfe had preached and declared upon what terms it was to come I suppose it is easie enough to distinguish between baptizing in the name of Christ and baptizing with an intent of sending them whom he baptized to Christ to be baptized with the Holy Ghost Neither is this to say that Iohns Baptism availed not to remission of sinnes for the time that it was on foot by Gods appointment when as we acknowledge that dispensation of Grace which was intimated and conveyed by the Law to have been the means to bring some to the righteousnesse of faith How much more the twilight of the Gospel under John the Baptist But that before the Covenant of Grace was published by the preaching of our Lord and inacted on Gods part by his death upon the Crosse or rather by raising him from death it was not time to determine that act by which God intended that profession which he requires for the condition of it should be solemnized and celebrated Therefore there came water and blood out of our Lords side upon the Cross to intimate the ground upon which this Sacrament should be in force for the future And if this be the condition
do not therefore condemn this custome for a prophanation of the Sacrament when it was in use Infants cannot examine themselves neither can they presume in eating that bread and drinking of that cup. But neither can they be taught to do all things which Christ commandeth so soon as they are made his Disciples by being baptized If the Church duely presume that with remission of sinnes they attain the gift of Gods spirit by being baptized did it unduly presume that remission of sinnes remaining uninterrupted the gift of the Holy Ghost may be strengthned by receiving the Eucharist Let us rather watch over our own customes then condemn the customes of the Church The grace of the Holy Ghost may be fortified by the Sacrament of the Eucharist against those occasions of re-entry which the evil Spirit espieth in those that begin to perceive the difference between good and bad though unable to reflect upon themselves and to judge whither in the state of Grace or not If the Eucharist be prophâ—ned where they take it too young what pretense of Christianity or of a Church remains where neither young nor old take it CHAP. IX What controversie the Reformation hath with the Church of Rome about Penance Inward repentance that is sincere obtaineth pardon alone Remission of sinnes by the Gospel onely The condition of it by the Ministrey of the Church What the power of binding and loosing contains more then Preaching or taking away offenses Sinne may be pardoned without the use of it Wherein the necessity of using it lyeth I Have showed from the beginning that the Power of the Keyes which is the foundation of the Church is seen much more towards them that are already of the Church then them that are not of it For in those there is but one thing for the Church to judge whether their perswasion and resolution be such as qualifies them to be baptized Disciples of Christ that is Christians But in these so many particulars as the profession of a Christian is imployed about so many are there for this power to judge whether the profession of a Christian be discharged in them or not And this ground must needs be much strengthned by that which hath been resolved concerning the Covenant of Grace and the terms of it For if the profession of Christianity be that which qualifies a Christian for remission of sinnes and life everlasting then he that fails of this profession by any such sinne as cannot stand with it as he attained the communion of the Church upon presumption that he stood qualified for the promises of the Gospel so he failes of it upon evidence that he is not so qualified Therefore though the Powâ—r of the Keyes is seen in free admitting to the Communion of the Church yet is it more visible in excluding from the same as well as in readmitting to it And this is the next act or the next object which the the power of the Church is imployed about that comes here to be considered The difficulty whereof seems to stand in that which the Church of Romes by the Law of confessing once a year all sinnes that come to remembrance seems to teach That no sinne or at least none of those which a man is bound to confesse which in what sense they may and are to be allowed mortal sinnes I have showed in due place can be remitted him that falls into them after Baptism unlesse the Keyes of the Church passe upon them The opposite whereof in the other extream seems to be the opinion of those that pâ—etend for a point of Reformation and of that freedom to which the Gospel calls Christians That though it be necessary to give satisfaction to the the Church which shal have been scandalized by the evil example of a notorious offence yet that no office of the Church and of the Keys which it is â—rusted with by our Lord concurs to the loosing of that sinne which the Church hath first tied a man with by excluding him from the communion of the Church But that it is wholly to be imputed to the preaching of the Gospel ministred by the Church when it is received by faith Though for the present I inquire not what they would have this faith to be having distinguished the consequences of the several conceâ—ts which may be had about it afore For this difficulty being here proposed in the beginning I do not foresee any thing of moment in question concerning this power of the Church the effect â—nd intent of it that will not come to be determined by virâ—ue of the reâ—olution therâ—of and in consequence to it Which resolution shall briâ—fly be this That inwâ—rd repentance with confession to God alone that is â—â—ncere and effectual to the reforming of that which a man repents of for the future is a diâ—position qualifying a man for pardon of sâ—â—ne by virtue of the Covenant of Grace without any act of the Church passing upon it But that God hath charged his Church and therefore given it power and right to call all those that notoriously transgresse that Christianity which once they have professed to those demonstrations of inward repentance and amendment of mind by visible actions that may satisfie the Church that Gods wrath in regard of that sinne is appeased through Christ and upon these demonstrations to readmit them to communion with the Church And further that God having provided this means of procuring and assuring the pardon of sinne by the Church hath also obliged all Christians to make use of the same by bringing their secret sinnes to the knowledge of the Church so farre and in as much as they ought to stand convict that the ministry of the Church is requisite to procure in them that disposition which by the Gospel intiles them to forgivenessâ— This resolution hath several parts which I have thought fit to be thus wound up in one not onely for brevities sake which I seek so farre as it will let me be understood but for the dependance they have one upon another in point of reason and truth And first to clear the foundation in the first place I suppose what our Saviour preached himselfe in publishing his Gospel according as it stands declared and setled by the premises to wit that mankind being lost in sinne and neither the law of Nature nor that of Moses being able to reduce it to righteousnesse and so to happinesse God by our Lord Christ requires all them that find themselves surprized in this estate to believe him to be sent for remission of sinnes and life everlasting to all that turning from that conversation in which they are overtaken do make the glory of God the end and his will the rule of their actions for the future by undertaking to live like Christians in hope of being inabled by Gods spirit to perform the same for Christ his merits and of being accepted for his suffering This being the summe of Christ his Gospel according to
Churches of all one Soveraignty constitute the Nationall Church containing all the Provinces thereof so would they have also Provincial Synodical and Classical Churches consisting of the Congregations Classes and Synods which each respective Classis Synod or Province containeth The other mean opinion is the frame of the Catholick Church I as have showed and shall show it to have been in force from the time of the Apostles Having first showed that the visible unity of the Church is a thing commanded by God in the first place for the communion of all Christians in the true faith and in the service of God according to the same For it is visible that the means by which this hath been attained is the dividing of Christendom into Churches which we now call Dioceses providing each of them a sufficient number of Priests and Deacons under one Head the Bishop as well to regulate the faith and maners of the people as to Minister unto them the offices of Gods service Therefore whatsoever means I imployed at the beginning to show that those persons who succeeded the Apostles in time obtained not their places by force or fraud but by their will and appointment will here be effectual to prove that the qualities which they held in their severall Churches were not obtained by force or fraud but by the same appointment Wherefore having showed that from the beginning the unity of the Church hath been mainâ—ained by the mutuall intelligence and correspondence of the chief Churches upon whom the less depended And that this intelligence and correspondence was alwaies addressed and managed by the heads of the said Churches nor could it indeed have been maintained had there not been such Heads alwaies ready to address and manage the same I have in effect showed that this was the course whereby the Apostles executed their design of maintaining unity in the Church Is it not plain by the instances produced in the first Book that the whole Church remained satisfied of the saith of each Christian upon the testimony of his Bishops because they rested satisfied of his That hereupon whosoever was recommended by his Bishop was admitted to communion as well abroad as at home What other interess had the Church of Rome in the faith of Paulus Samosatenus or Dionysius Alexandrinus the Churches of Alexandria and Antiochia in the proceedinge of Novatianus all Churches in the fortune of Athanasius What other reaâ—on can any man give for that uniform difformity of Ecclesiasticall Traditions and customes which â—ppeareth from point to point in all maters the whole Church agreeing in things of highest concernment but all Churches differing in maters of lesse consequence Is it not manifest whensoever inâ—stead of this daily correspondence Synods were assembled upon more pressing occasions that onely Bâ—shops appeared in behalf of their respective Churches For if others appeaâ—ed in the name of Bishops upon occasion of old age or other hinderances I need not say that it was the Bishops right in which another appeared Into these qualities and preheminences over the rest whether of the Clergy or People that Bishops should be able to inâ—â—nuate themselves all over Christendom had it not been so appointed by the Apostles it is no lesse contradictory to common sense then that Christianity should ever have been received had not such men as our Lord Christ and his Apostles preached and done such things as the Scriptures relate to make it receivable Or then that all Christians should of their own inclinations agree to those Laws which have made the Church one Society from the beginning had they not found themselves tied to follow the appointment of the Apostles that founded it Wherefore I will not take upon me to show you the names of Archbishops Primates and Patriarchs in the Scriptures Much lesse any command there recorded that all Churches be governed by Bishops all higher Churches by higher Bishops But I pretend to have showed by the particulars produced in the Right of the Church Chap. III. in the Primitive Government of Churches throughout and in the Apostolical form of Divine Service Chap. IV. and never contradicted to my knowledge that there are express marks left us in the Scriptures of severall Churches planted in several Cities so that there is never mention of more Churches then one in one City but perpetually of more then one in one Province of Heads of those Churches whether Apostles themselves or their fellows and successors applyed to the charge of several Churches Of chief Churches and inferiour Churches according to the capacity of the Cities in which they were first planted I challenge further here as proved by that which hath been said in the first Book That this form of Government hath been in sorce ever since the time of the Apostles whose immediate successors are to be named in the greatest Seas upon which it is evident that inferiour Churches depended from the same time As manifest by that which hath been said in the places afore-named That the advice and assistance of Presbyters together with the ministery and attendance of Deacons to and upon the said Heads is as anciently evident in the Records of the Church as any Record of any Church is ancient And upon these premises I conclude That the same course and way of Government by Bishops Priests and Deacons which afterwards prevailed throughout the whole Church was first begun by the Apostles as without whose authority it could not have taken effect all over the Church And of those that take upon them to depart from the Church that they may not be so governed I take my self inabled to demand where there is any precept recorded in Scripture that the Government of the whole Church be setled either in Independant Congregations or in Congregationâ—l Classical Synodical Provincial and National Churches The very names are as barbarous to the language of the Scriptures â—s the subject is to the Writers of it And yet were all this showed me I would say that as the Magicians of Pharoah in the third Miracle so must the Architects of this design fail in the highest point of aecumenical or Catholick Which having never been compassed but by the means of single heads of the chief Churches it is absolutely too late for any other form to pretend I say not to come from any command of the Apostles but to be receivable in the Church being founded by God for one and the same body to continue till the coming of Christ to judgement For if the Apostles of our Lord determining in part that Order which should preserve the unity of the Church which what it was the original practice of the whole Church evidenceth leave the rest to be determined by the Church for its own necessity and use That which is so determined by the Châ—rch whensoever it becomes necessary to maintain unity in the Church shall no lesse oblige then that which the Apostles determined in specie themselves The reason is the unity
which our first parents lost by rebelling against God They could not use so fit a terme to expresse the rest and happinesse of blessed spirits in the world to come as by calling the place of it Paradise But that the place of this rest was the third heavens before the sitting down of our Lord Christ at the right hand of his Father I am yet to learn that there is any syllable or tittle in the holy Scripture to signify that the people of God understood at such time as our Lord delivered this Parable So that there can possibly be no reasonable presumption that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used not in reference to the body which goes to corruption in the grave but to the soul or spirit should signify the same with Gehenna in opposition to Abrahams bosome Neither the originall signification of the word nor the circumstance of the parable nor any opinion received then among Gods people so limiting the signification of it But that the bosome of Abraham should signify the place of rest which God had appointed for the righteous the reason is plaine The hospitality of Abraham being renowned in the Scripture and the happinesse of the world to come being usually represented to the people of God at that time under the resemblance of a Feast whereof Abraham is made the Master when his bosome is made the place to receive and refresh Lazarus There is therefore no reason why the bosome of Abraham and Paradise should not signify the same state or the same place to the apprehension of Gods people at that time But there is also no reason why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Parable should not extend to comprehend both Gehenna and Paradise in the sense of those to whom our Lord addresses this Parable For neither is it any way necessary when the good thief prayes Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdome And our Lord answers To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke XXIII 42 43. that Paradise should here be understood to signify the third heavens the way into which was not yet laid open standing the first Tabernacle saith the Apostle Ebr. IX 8. And againe Which new and living way our Lord Jesus hath dedicated or hanseled for us through the vaile that is his flesh unlesse we abuse our selues with an imagination that words can signifie things which could not be aprehended on t of them by those to whom they were said For as for S. Paul who was ravished into the third heavens that is into paradise 1 Cor. XIV 3 4. I conceive I need not insist upon an exception which there is no issue to try To wit that S. Paul speakes of severall raptures one into the third heavens the other into Paradise For to speake freely it seems no more then reason to grant that S. Paul was ravished to the presence of our Lord Christ But I must needs insist that the word Paradise could not signifie the same thing to S. Paul after the Ascension of our Lord as to the hearers of our Lord afore it As for the words of the same S. Paul having a desire to depart and to be with Christ Phi. I. 23. whether they do confine the spirit of S. Paul departed to the place of our Lord Christs bodily presence in the third heavens I will not conclude till I have considered more of those scriptures which may concerne the same purpose And indeed the Apocalypse as it is the last of the new Testament so seemeth to declare more in this mater then all the rest of it before had done For when upon the opening of the fift seale Apoc. VI. 9 10 11. the soules of Martyrs having demanded vengeance upon their persecutors were cloathed with long white robes and bidden to expect the fulfilling of their numbers And after that the CXLIVM of the XII tribes that were to be preserved from the said vengeance were sealed It followeth Apoc. VII 9. 14. After that I looked and behold a great multitude whom no man could number of every nation and tribe and people and language standing before the Throne and before the Lambe and cloathed in long white robes with Pâ—lmes in their hands And to show who they were These be they who come out of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and have blanched their robes in the bloud of the lambe Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth upon the Throne overshadoweth them They shall not hunger nor thirst nor shall the sun fall on them nor any heate For the Lambe that is in the midst of the Thorne feedeth them and guidâ—th them to living wells of water and God wipes away all teares from their eyes Here you have the soules of the Martyrs before the throne of God over shadowed by him that sitteth on the Throne who wipeth away all teares from their eyes And again Apoc. XIV 1-5 where the CXLIVM that were sealed appear again upon mount Sion and the voice of harpers is heard singing to their harps a new song before the throne and before the foure living creatures and Elders which no man but the sealed could learne It followeth These are they that have not been defiled with women for they are Virgins These are they that followe the Lambe whithersoever he goeth These are redeemed from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lambe Nor was any deceite found in their mouthes For they are unspotted before the Throne of God Here CXLIVM appeare upon mount Sion hearing onely the song which the harpers sing to their harps And therefore those that were not defiled with women that followe the Lamb whithersoever he goeth that are unspotted before the thâ—one of God are the harpers not those that were sealed The same Martyrs soules that appeared before in long white robes with Palmes in their hands now appeare singing the song of triumph to their harps For so it followeth v. 13. after denouncing the the fall of Babilon and vengeance of God upon those that worship the Beast I heard a voice from heaven say to me Write Blessed are the dead that from henceforth dye in the Lord. Even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labour and their works goe along with them Well might Tertullian restraine this to Martyrs for the consequence of the text mightiâ—y inforceth it The Lambe indeed is seen on mount Sion with those that are sealed But it is never said that they are before the Throne but onely they who appeare in Heaven that is the Martyrs whose song of tryumph they heare and learne which needed not have been said if they were represented as of one company And perhaps it is said that they follow the Lamb whither soever he goes Because they followed him to his Crosse suffering that death for him which he had suffered for us And that they are Virgines Because not stayned
his Temple and there were lightnings and thunders and flashes and earthquakes and great haile For if opened then then shut afore neither was the Throne seen which the arke of the Covenant signifyeth And Apoc. XIV 17 18. One Angel comes out of the Temple in Heaven with a sharpe sickle another out of the Court where all this appeares hitherto called there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Sanctuary as also Apoc. XI 2. in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple out of which came the seven Angels with the seven viols Apoc. XV. 5. so also XIV 1 17. And you shall see by all this what reason wee have to thinke that those who are described before Gods Throne by this vision are not admitted to see his face And therefore if to know God as we are knowne in S. Paul to see him as he is in S. Iohn be our happinesse there is nothing to show us that it is accomplished before the generall judgement For if S. Iohn when he sayeth we shall know him as he is speakes of the resurrection the same wee must needs think is meant by S. Paul when he sayes we shall see him face to face know him as we are known for S. Paul not expressing whether he speak of the resurrection or of the meane time betweene death and it must needs be limited by S. Iohn speaking of the time when our Lord shall be manifested or when it shall be manifested what wee shal be And therefore though Moses spake with God mouth to mouth though he see him by sight not in a riddle yet is this but the highest degree of propheticall vision which notwithstanding no man shall see Gods face and live and therefore Moses himselfe sees but his back Exod. XXXIII 20-23 And notwithstanding that the Martyrs are before Gods Throne in the third Heaven yet for all this they are but in the inward Court and the Holy of Holies appeared not open to S Iohn but upon occasion of judgements the execution whereof comes from thence where the sentence must be understood to passe So that to knowe God as he is knowne according to S. Paul and to see him as he is according to S. Iohn is that which is reserved for them that shall feast after the resurrection in his presence For seeing S. Iohn sees the Throne of God in vision of Prophesy which the same vision describeth the Martyrs soules in heaven to see It cannot be concluded that the Martyres soules doe see God as he is and know him as they are knowne because they are before Gods Throne or because they see him sitting upon it For Moses also communed with God mouth to mouth that upon his Throne in the Holy of Holies the Arke of the Covenant overshadowed by the Cherubines unto whom God said neverthelesse no man shall see my face and live The Apostle indeed to the Ebrewes XII 23. when he sayes We are come to the assembly and Church of the first borne registred in the heavens and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect seemes to speak of this meane time For though some would have those sprits of just men made perfect to be the soules of living Christians as when S. Peter saith 1. Peter IV. 19. 20. that our Lord Christ being put to death in the flesh was made alive by the spirit in which departing he preached to the spirits in prison Which is necessarily to be understood of the Gentiles whom the spirit of God in the Apostles won to repentance though the same spirit in Noe could not effect it as it followes yet it seemes more consequent to the rest of the text to understand it here of the souls of Christians made perfect upon their departure hence But if just men made perfect may be understood to signifie no more then Christians because our Lord distinguishing that righteousnesse which the Gospel requireth from that which the Law was content with concludes Be yee therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect Mat. VI. 48. Certainely the perfection of Christian soules in the meane time between death and the resurrection cannot be concluded to be such as nothing shall be added to because it is said that they are made perfect The same we have from the Apostle 1 John IV. 17. Herein is love perfected in us that we have confidence in the day of Judgement because as he is so are wee in this world For I beseech you how can there be any thing added to his confidence at the day of judgement who hath received his full reward from the day of his death But Saint Paul 2 Thessalonians I. 6-9 Seing it is just with God to render tribulation to them who afflict you and to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revealing of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his Angels in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them who know not God Who shall indure the punishment of everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his strength when he cometh to be glorified among his Saints at that day Where you see he referreth as well the rest of them who are afflicted as the punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord to the last day of the generall judgment when he cometh to be admired among his Saints Who shall then be as well glorified Christians as the Angels and that in heaven according to the spirituall sense of the Old Testament as upon earth according to the literall sense the Prophet Esay saith that after the destruction of Senacherib The Lord of hosts shall raigne in mount Sion and Jerusalem and be glorified in the sight of his Elders Esay XXIV 23. Here then all those scriptures which referre the torments provided for the devil and his angels unto the generall judgement come in to bear witnesse in the same cause For therefore the words of the sentence bear Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mat. XXV 41. to wit against that time And S. Paul 1 Cor. VI. 2. know ye not that we shall judge the angels to wit the evil angels And the possessed to our Lord Mat. VIII 29. Art thou come to torment us before the time And the Apostle 2 Pet. II. 4. For if God spared not the angels having sinned but delivered them to be kept for judgement in the dungeon with chaines of darknesse And S. Jude 6. And the angels that kept not their originall but left their own habitation he keeps in everlasting chaines under darknesse to the judgement of the great day For though there can be no reason why the devils having rebelled against God should not taste the fruits of their rebellion immediately as there is a reason to be given why man is not to be judged till he be tried Especially the Parable of Dives and Lazarus showing that wicked souls are in torment upon their departure Yet seeing