victorie even in the middest among his enemies It is he that with the spirit of his mouth slayeth the Antichrists This his word also and preachings of the Gospell came forth first from Sion or Hierusalem as Esay Micheas and Luke doe testifie Now followeth the third verse In the day of thy battell or armie shall thy people be well willing the dew of thy birth is unto thee in an holy maiestie out of the wombe of the cleare morning Herewith doth David describe the glorious and victorious faith of the Christian For when the Gospell is preached there ariseth a conflict betweene faith and infidelitie betweene the seed of Christ and the Serpent between idolatrie and true godlinesse And the unbeleevers persecute the Lord Christ in his members that is to say the faithfull but they are well content utterly to give over bodie honour and goods their bloud and life for Gods truths sake For the martyrs and they in the Primitive Church being gathered together of the Apostles and after the Apostles time have thus kept truth and faith toward the Lord Christ and were willing to die for knowledging him Afterward describeth he also in the foresaid verse the pure and holy conception and birth of our Lord Iesus Christ And this doth he with a goodly similitude and saith Thy birth shall be holy and very excellent not uncleane as the birth of other men For like as the dew out of the cleare heaven and out of the faire morning is borne as it were out of a mothers wombe even so also shalt thou be borne holy and cleane of an undefiled virgin Whereof thou findest more instruction Luk 1.31 The Lord hath sworne and it shall not repent him thou-art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech In this fourth verse describeth he the office of Iesus Christ how that he is ordained of God to be one only Priest for ever which should offer up himselfe for the sinne of the world and alway appeare in the sight of God the Father and to pray for us All this doth holy Paul declare at large to the Hebrewes in the 5 7.8·9 and 10. chapters And specially in this verse is grounded all that is read thorowout the Scripture of the merits of Christ of the forgiving of sinnes of righteous making of being Mediatour and that he alone is the only Salvation Advocate Satisfaction and Righteousnesse of the faithfull The Lord is at thy right hand he in the time of his wrath shall wound even Kings This fifth verse teacheth how God will ever more and more stand on his Sonnes side further his cause and bring downe and destroy those Kings Princes and Lords that will not amend and beleeve in Christ but will rather provoke his wrath than desire his grace Which thing Herod Nero Domician Maximine and Iulian have proved Yet followeth the sixt verse declaring the fifth He shal iudge among the Heathen and fill all full of dead bodies and smite the head on the wide ground Christ is also preached unto the Heathen and reigneth among them but many withstand Christ and them doth he judge And like as a King overcommeth his enemies with a battell and covereth the whole plaine with dead bodies visiteth also and smiteth the head of the warre and the head citie of the enemies Even so doth Christ to his enemies and destroyeth their power and kingdome All which things wee have seene in the old unchristian Empire of Rome and in many other potentates and powers But specially he breaketh the head of the old Serpent according to the promise Gen. 3.15 And at the last shall he come to judge the quicke and dead and destroy his enemies for ever Out of the brooke in the way shall he drinke therefore shall hee also lift up the head Finally and in the seventh verse he describeth the passion of Christ and his glorie In the way saith he that is in his life while he is in this misery He shall drinke out of the brooke that is he shall suffer and be overcome For to drinke out of the cup is as much as to suffer But to drinke out of the brooke is to be altogether full of trouble to be vexed and tormented without victorie and utterly to be overwhelmed with a brooke and strong streame of troubles Thus was it his minde to declare the Passion of Christ After the Passion followeth the glory with the Resurrection and Ascension Paul Philip. 2. speaketh of both and saith Christ humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Wherefore God hath exalted him and given him a name which is aboue all names c. Thus much be spoken of this Psalme and of Davids understanding which hee had of Christ Iesus and of the Christian faith Upon this I marvell if after so evident testimonies there be yet any man which perceiveth not that Davids faith and understanding of Christ was even one faith and understanding with the faith that we knowledge and say I beleeve in one God Father almightie c. as it is in the twelve Articles of the Christian faith For the holy Trinitie in one God-head doth he knowledge not only here but also in the 33. Psalme saying Through the word of God were the heavens made and all their power through the spirit of his mouth For certaine it is that there is but one only God maker of heaven and of earth but here is the Trinitie called Lord or God Word and Spirit Neither is there any thing in the Articles of the Beleefe concerning the God-head and Man-hood of Christ of his conception birth passion crosse and death of the resurrection ascension and judgement but it is cleerely comprehended here in this Psalme The articles of the holy Church of forgiving of sinnes resurrection of the flesh and an everlasting life are contained in this Psalme and are treated upon yet more clearely and with many mo words very substantially in other Psalmes of David Therefore had he our holy faith and knowledged the same was saved therein and of all holy men was called the Father of Christ with high commendation because of the promise that was made unto him Moreover all the holy Prophets following had respect unto David as to another Moses and tooke many things out of his writings For there is scarce any other that so clearely wrote of the cause of Christ as this Prophet David and therefore hath he honour and praise aboue other in Israel Of whom thou readest also Eccles 47.2 Such faith and confidence in God through Iesus Christ had David out of the holy Ghost and out of the doctrine of his Prophets Samuel Nathan and Gad and of other his Priests which also had the same of God and of the holy Fathers specially of Moses And no doubt hee desired the honour of God and of his Sonne not to keepe it only himselfe but also much
the head and thou shalt tread him on the heele Which is thus much to say Thou hast used the woman to the destruction of men so that from henceforth they bring death and by kinde and nature are damned when they are borne Therefore will I also use the woman but to salvation for of the woman shall a seed or childe bee borne which shall breake thy head power and kingdome sinne damnation and death howbeit in his manhood he shall be trodden down and bitten That is Man with his transgression hath deserved eternall death so that after the rigour of my justice hee should perish and belong to the Devill for ever neverthelesse I Will have mercie upon him and receive him to grace againe But to the intent that my truth and righteousnesse may be satisfied I will cause my Sonne to take the verie nature of man upon him Then will I that hee take upon himselfe the curse and damnation and die and with his innocent death to take away that noisome death and curse and so to set the generation of man out of death into life out of the dominion of the Devill into his owne kingdome out of darknesse into light Thus the right foundation or ground of our holy faith continueth fast and unmoved in so much as all the generation of man is whole and cleansed from sinne and delivered from the curse from the Devill and everlasting damnation onely through the mercie and meere grace of God by Iesus Christ As touching this Paul said when hee wrote to the Romans in the 8. Chapter God sent his Sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh and through sinne that is to say through the sinne-offering and willing death of Christ he condemned sin in the flesh And in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the first Chapter the same Paul saith Christ Iesus is appointed of God to be our wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption that as it is written who so glorieth and rejoyceth let him glorie and rejoyce in the Lord. But for as much as this is the first promise and the first sure Evangelion I will now speake of everie word in especiall First God calleth his Sonne our Lord Iesus the seed of the woman A seed because of the verie nature of man and because that our Lord should not take upon him a fantasticall but a verie true bodie But to these words there is added Of the woman For our Lord was not conceived and borne of mans seed but of the Holy Ghost out of the Virgine Marie Therefore cannot this sentence be understood of Eve but of the Virgine Marie Now whereas she is called a woman it is done because of the kinred For even the daughters also and maidens are reckoned in the womens kinred and yet continue undefiled virgins God also hath spoken here distinctly and said not I will put enmitie betweene thee and this woman but betweene thee and haischah the woman understanding some speciall woman no doubt even such an one as he afterward set forth cleerely by Esay saying Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne c. And this word seed was alway afterward in everie renewing of this promise concerning Christ Iesu among all the Patriarks and Prophets rehearsed used and expressed untill the time of David Of whom the Lord afterward was called a flower the root sprowting or blossome of David The holy Apostle Paul expoundeth this word seed clearely and plainly and saith it is Christ Gal. 3. Moreover it serveth to the praise of the Lords mother that God saith I will put enmitie betweene the woman and thee for he meaneth the difference of both their natures The Devill is proud subtill wicked false and untrue but the mother of Christ is lowly simple vertuous faithfull and upright chaste and cleane And the same pure virgin and gracious mother hath borne unto us him that trod downe the Serpents head The head of the Serpent is the power and kingdome of the Devill even sinne the curse and damnation All this hath that blessed seed broken for his faithfull All which things the holy Apostle Paul also hath taught with these words The Lord is become partaker of our flesh and bloud that he through death might take away the power from him which had the Lordship over death that is to say the Devill and to deliver them which through feare of death were all their life time in bondage For hee tooke not upon him the Angels but the seed of Abraham tooke hee upon him c. And to the same meaning doth this also serve that followeth And thou shalt tread him on the heele The heele is the lowest part in man and here it signifieth the most inferiour thing in Christ even his flesh This hath the old Serpent the Devill persecuted and trodden downe by his members Caiphas Annas Herod and Pontius Pilate For Peter saith Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh The Godhead is impassible and the soule immortall But by this treading downe of the Lord hath God trodden downe the kingdome of the Devill that is to say by his death hath he destroyed death and brought life againe to all them that beleeve Hereof commeth it that Christ saith himselfe Ioh. 12. Now is the judgement of the world now shall the Prince of this world be thrust out And I when I am lift up that is to say crucified from the earth will draw all things to me At the last saith the Lord that he will put enmitie betweene the Serpent and the womans seed This may wee see in the Devill and his members and acts how they are contrarie to Christ and his members and deeds But how strong soever the Serpent is yet shall he be trodden downe through Christ and his faithfull Hereof commeth it that Paul spake so comfortably to the Romans Rom. 16. The God of peace shall shortly tread downe the Devill under your feet And herewithall is the dutie also of the faithfull in Christ shortly comprehended For as touching them that say Is it enough then and is all well when I knowledge that I am a sinner and saved through the blessed seed only To them it is here answered and cleerly given to understand that all they which put their trust in the blessed seed take upon them the kinde of the seed and hate the kinde of the Serpent that is to say sinne and blasphemie and fight alway more and more against the world and the Devill as long as they live yea and occupie themselves most faithfully about that which is Gods will And hereto now serveth it that followeth after For when the Lord had taken away the everlasting death he laid upon man a temporall punishment correction and discipline in the which hee should be exercised as long as hee lived upon earth And upon the woman he laid trouble sorrow and paine when she should beare and bring
that used and did such service without faith and lifting up of the minde But they that put their trust in God cleaving only unto him and lifting up their hearts higher and remained not in the visible thing those pleased God Whereas they had but one Altar and one place appointed where they should doe sacrifice it signified the crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ and that he should be offered up but once and that in one place for the sinne of the world Therefore whereas the high Priest also every yeere went into the inward Tabernacle with bloud it signified that our Lord Iesus should come into this world and shed his bloud once for all to forgive and cleanse our sinnes and so to ascend unto heaven Yea all oblations and all sheddings of bloud in the sacrifices of the old fathers signified the death of our Lord Iesus Christ Nothing was cleansed among them without bloud which signifieth that all the purging of our uncleannesse is done by the bloud of Iesus Christ And all the Priesthood which was ordained for to teach to pray and make intercession to offer and doe sacrifice represented the office of our Lord Christ which came into this world to teach us the truth and righteousnesse then to offer himselfe to the Father for our sinnes and after the sacrifice done to rise up againe from death to ascend unto heaven there to sit at the right hand of God and even there as a true high Bishop to appeare alway in the presence of God and to pray for us This is the summe of the rites and ceremonies of the old fathers the understanding of the figures and the spirit of the letter whereof holy Paul hath written much in the most excellent epistle to the Hebrewes Out of all this is it easie to understand how that these rites and ceremonies of the fathers were sacraments and given to the people of God Not that they with the letter and outward visible and corporal thing should sufficiently serve God which is a spirit but that they should lift up their mindes above the same to the spirituall things pondering the mercy of God out of the which hee being moved is become gracious unto us And when he might have damned us for our sins and misdeeds he spared us for his Sons sake whom he gave unto death and his innocent death hath he accepted for our sinnes Such a faithfull consideration which is the true beleefe pleaseth God and with such a faith is God served and such a faith would the Lord have taught and planted in us with the foresaid rites and ceremonies Therefore all they that pleased God among the old fathers pleased him not for the letters sake but by reason of the spirit When the sacrifice also and ceremonie was executed after the ordinance of God in the congregation the beloved friends of God had not only respect unto the outward thing but much rather beheld they Christ with the eyes of faith and thought thus Behold the will of God hath ordained to do sacrifice for sinne now are we all sinners and debtors unto God in so much that he hath power and right over us that like as the beast which is now slaine and offred dieth and hath his bloud shed Even so might God now also kill us all and condemne us for ever Neverthelesse he hath taken us to his mercy and promised us a seed which should thus die on the Crosse and cleanse us with his bloud and with his death restore us unto life which thing no doubt shall as surely come to passe as this beast is slaine and offered now afore our eyes And like as the bloud is sprinkled over the people for the bodily cleansing so shall the bloud of Christ be sprinkled upon our soules c. And out of such a thought and faithfull consideration of the sacrifices grew repentance and sorrow for their sinnes a gladnesse praise comfort and thanks-giving unto God the mercifull Father And to this doe serve certaine Psalmes which were made concerning the sacrifices To this also serve all the rebukings of the holy Prophets and the refusing of the oblations For the externall pompe and shew of the offerings without faith in God and the blessed seed is nothing worth yea it is rather abominable unto God as thou seest in the first chapter of Esay Thou wilt aske Might not God have taught and shewed his people the cause of Iesus Christ of true beleefe none other way than through and with such cost pompe and glory of sacrifices and other gorgeousnesse of the Church I answer If the people had not fallen to more wickednesse in Egypt through their dwelling among the Idolaters but had constantly and stedfastly remained as did their fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob then might they well have continued by the old short simple forme as it was among the holy fathers But now had they seene in Egypt an outward costly Gods service with temples altars sacrifices priesthood holy daies ornaments c. Likewise the idolatry increased daily in all the world so that now there was utterly no people which had not their owne outward ceremonies wherewith they served God To the intent then that God might retaine his people within the compasse of faith in one God and in the blessed seed promised afore to the intent also that they should shew no outward service to any other gods or take upon them to serve God after the manner of the Egyptians or of other heathen he appointed an outward Gods service and commanded to doe the same unto him and else to none and in the same pleased it him to set forth all the cause of the foresaid seed till he came and performed all things in deed that they had figuratively in their sacrifices Moreover God according to his wisdome of his speciall mercy and good heart that he hath unto mans generation would with these outward tokens tender our weaknesse which of spirituall heavenly things hath better understanding when they are shewed unto it by corporall visible things God therefore through such corporall representations laboured to shew unto that grosse and fleshly people the heavenly cause of his Sonne Neverthelesse the corporall visible things were given for no longer but untill the time of the fulfilling But now that Christ hath appeared and fulfilled and performed all that was written and figured of him in the Law and the Prophets the figure ceaseth and the outward sacraments of Moses law are of no more value to be exercised and used Thus much be said of the ceremonies Whereas beside the ceremonies there is much written also in the Law concerning civill policie ordinance judgement to live peaceably and well in citie and land of buying and selling of warre and peace of inheritance and proprieties of lawes matrimoniall of punishment of the wicked of the judgement and counsell of lending and borrowing c. It is no newes at all
Prophets prophesied of him before thus to become the salvation of all faithfull beleevers even the Lambe of God which hath beene sacrificed since the beginning of the world that is this is he whose power and deliverance hath cleansed all them that ever put their trust in God through the blessed seed Herein now is the right true salvation this is the summe of the right and perfect religion Who so perverteth this from him shall God turne himselfe who so addeth ought unto this to him shall God adde his wrathfull hand who so taketh therefroÌ„ his life shall God minish But blessed are they which walk in this simplicitie cleannesse and continue so unto the end even they that heare Gods word and doe thereafter whose onely hope is Iesus Christ This only true and ever during salvation would hee to bee shewed and declared to all nations which came to save all nations but he would it should be declared by the preaching of the holy Gospell and through the ministration of the holy Sacraments And therefore by his life time hee did chuse Apostles whom he received to bee witnesses of all his doctrine and miracles informing them diligently and held nothing backe from them For hee saith unto them Yee are my friends if yee doe all that I command you I will henceforth call you no more servants for a servant woteth not what his Lord doth But I have called you my friends for all that I have heard of my Father have I opened unto you Ioh. 15. But for as much as they yet lacked understanding and were forgetfull and had ever strange imaginations of the kingdome of Christ therefore when hee now ascended unto heaven hee charged them not to depart from Hierusalem but to wait for the Holy Ghost whom he also gave unto them upon the fiftieth day after his resurrection that is upon the tenth day after his ascension even the fifteenth day of May by the which Holy Ghost they being illuminate spake with all manner of languages and were mindfull of all that the Lord had commanded them afore For the Holy Ghost did not endue them with a new doctrine but it that the Lord had taught them out of the Law and the Prophets the same did hee bring to their remembrance and illucidate all things and printed them more clearly in their hearts For so saith the Lord in the Gospell The Comforter even the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance that I have said unto you Therefore so long as the Lord was with them and told them all the matter of his passion they were sorrie and could not beare away all that he said unto them But after that he was taken up from the earth into heaven he sent the Holy Ghost even him whom the Prophets also had before and that led them into all Christian veritie So when they were endued with the Holy Ghost they began according to the Lords commandement to preach in all the world the foresaid matter of salvation purchased and obtained onely by Christ and gotten by true faith For hee had said Goe your way into all the world and preach the Gospell unto all creatures Whoso beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved c. And therewith comprehendeth he both the points which the Apostles used and practised even the preaching of the faith in Iesus Christ and of the ministration of the Sacraments And how the Apostles doctrine was it is manifest out of the Acts of the Apostles But shortly and in a summe they preached amendment of life and remission of sinnes through Iesus Christ That is to say how that the whole generation of man lay in the dominion of the Devill and in the bonds of sinne cursed and damned but God had mercie on us all and sent his Sonne into this world to die and with his death to restore us unto life and to wash us with his bloud that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternall life All this declared they out of the Law and the Prophets and proved that Iesus Christ whom they preached is the blessed seed promised unto the fathers Whoso is desirous to have a perfect example of this declaration he findeth two Sermons of the famous Apostles Peter and Paul the one in the Acts of the Apostles the second chapter vers 14. the other in the 13. chapter vers 16. There doth the holy Apostle open the mysterie of our holy faith verie excellently declaring it from the time of Abraham unto David and from him unto Iohn the Baptist Thereupon sheweth he how Christ suffered died was buried and rose againe from death All this confirmeth hee with the Scriptures of the Prophets At the last he concludeth the Sermon after this manner Be it knowne unto you therefore ye men and brethren that through Iesus is preached unto to you forgivenesse of sinnes and that by him all they that beleeve are justified from all things from the which yee could not bee justified by the Law of Moses To this agreeth now also the sermon of Peter Yea all the Scriptures of the Apostles doe finally accord to the same effect Hereout also bring they the doctrine of repentance and amendment of life the rebuking of sinne consolations exhortations and drawing to all manner of good works that follow out of faith The speciall Sacraments which the Lord did chiefly institute and command the Apostles to practise in the Church are holy Baptisme and the blessed Supper of our Lord Iesus Christ Concerning the first hee saith thus To mee is given all power in heaven and in earth therefore goe your way and teach all people and baptize them in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost and teach them to keepe all that I have commanded you The other did hee institute at the last Supper For thus is it written in the holy Gospell When they were eating hee tooke bread and when hee had given thanks he brake it and gave them saying Take eat this is my bodie which shall be given for you this doe in the remembrâ—nce of mee So tooke hee also the cup when â—hey had supt and said Drinke yee all out of this this is my bloud of the new Testament which shall be shed for the remission of sinnes With such Sacraments through outward visible formes for our infirmities sake pleased it the Lord to shew and set before our eyes his heavenly and invisible grace not that we should continue still hanging in the visible thing but that wee should lift up our mindes and with a true beleefe to hold fast to print sure in our mindes to worship and to enjoy the things that faith sheweth us by the outward Sacraments With these outward Sacraments also hath it pleased him to open declare and shew unto us his grace and loving kindnesse Namely how
Mahumet it is manifest what the one hath taken in hand and done now more than 600. yeeres and the other upon a 900. yeeres It is evident yet also even now whereto his generall councels and parlamenrs doe extend But not regarding how he threatneth and faceth and how he garnisheth his new and wanton religions with false but dissembling titles boasting of many hundred yeeres many generall Councels Fathers holy men Doctors Vniversities Cloisters singing praying fasting almes-giving displying and telleth such like All his bragging set aside let us cast his religion from us and take upon us unfainedly the true old religion which hath endured since the beginning of the world by the which all holy men have ever loved worshipped and served God and knew nothing utterly of the Popes religion And if we must for this cause be hated and persecuted of the world well it hapned even so unto all holy Prophets before us likewise and specially unto Iesus Christ our Lord which shall come shortly to judgement and utterly destroy the kingdome of Antichrist whom he now killeth with the spirit of his mouth Our possession is not here upon earth the kingdome of heaven is our native country From thence looke we for the Saviour Iesus Christ our Lord which shall raise up our mortall and miserable body that he may make it like his excellent and glorified body according to the power whereby he may subdue all things unto himselfe To him be honour and praise for ever and ever AMEN FINIS The accustomed goodnesse of God God hath shewed no lesse kindnesse to us than he did to the old world They that follow Gods word are laughed to scorne The doctrine of Christ his faith is no new thing 1 Cor. 1.18 1 Cor. 1.14 None but reprobates deride the truth of Gods Gospell To us which are saved it is the power of God What faith is Hebr. 11.1 Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Ephes 2.8 Phil. 3.9 Iaco. 2.14 Heb. 11.6 Rom. 14.23 Act. 15.9 1 Pet. 1.9 Gala. 5.6 1 Cor. 10.3 Heb. 11.4 Heb. 11.4 5. Iames 1 21 Would to God we had many such as Iames the Apostle was Iames 1. O unthankefull world Iames 2.25 Saint Iames would not spare to rebuke such Iames 3 17. Iames 4.1 Against such grosse vices would not Saint Iames spare to speake Iames 4. Iames 5.19 Let every man take the paines to rebuke his owne fault Iames 3.17 We must put on the nature of Gods doctrine Let the workes of God which are past be a warning to us The Christian faith is elder than 1600. yeeres Eusebius Acts 11.26 The first creation of heaven and earth The garnishing of heaven and earth The office of tâ—e creatures in tâ—â— firmament Fishes Fowles Beasts The creation of man The creation of the woman The request of the commandement The unthankefulnesse â—nd wâ—ckednesse of man The righteousnesse and mercy of God Gen. 2.17 The way of satisfaction before God is Christ Sinne. The frowardnesse of man Why God gave the woman unto man Grace We all are loth to knowledge our selves guiltie Punishment Genes 3.14 The promise Genes 3.15 The Serpents head The â—â—re foundation of our faith Rom. 8.3 1 Cor. 1.30 The Gospell of Iesus Genes 3.15 Esay 7.14 Gal. 3.16 A praise of the virgin Marie Heb. 2.14 Genes 2.15 Christs heele 1 Pet. 4.1 Ioh. 12.31 32. Rom. 16.20 Object Answ Gen. 3.17 Gen. 3.19 1 Tim. 2.15 1 Thessal 4.6 Ephes 4.25 Heb. 5.17 Gen. 3.20 Adams faith Gen 2.23 Comfort helpe and loving kindnesse in the mids of correction Gen. 3.22 Comfort and patience in Christ 1 Pet. 2.21 Adams faith Heb. 11.4 Outward sacrifice was a token of thankfulnesse Cain the father of wickednesse The first division in relâ—gion when it began Abel the first Martyr The world the citie of the Devill The difference of true and false faith The first decay of the faith was by cursed Cain Genes 4.25 Adam was not of the faith of Cain Seth the firâ—â— reâ—â—â—eâ— of the true faith The reparation of our faâ—th Gen. 4.26 Adams life To call upon the name of God what it is Hebr. 11.5 The number of the wicked ever greatest The wrath of God upon the wicked Noes Floud The first triumph of faith in Noe. 1 Pet. 3.21 Genes 6.18 The sacrifice of Noe. Genes 8.20 Ephes 5.2 Outward sacrifice the figure of Christs oblation Matth 3.17 The Commandements given unto Noe. Through Noe was the world replenished C ham the first Idolater after the Floud The faâ—th â—f Heathen â—s idolatry 〈…〉 Gen. 10. â— Gen. 11 â— Gen 11.10.27 Faith dâ—â—kned after the floud Gen. 12.1 Genes 22.18 Galath 3.8 The promise renewed to Abraham Abrahams faith Iohn 8.56 Rom. 4.16 Galath 3.29 Abrahams Christian workes The fâ—iâ—â— of the Ieweâ— Gen. 17 24. Gen. 15.6 Gal. 3.17 Hâ— wold the Christian faith iâ— Exod. 19.20 Gen. 32.28 Oâ— Israel came the Israeâ—â—â—â—s Gen. 28. Iacob saw that Christ onely is the way to heaven Iohn 1.51 Gen. 35.2 Gen. 49.10 The faith of Ioseph Ioseph a figure of Iesus The continuance of faith before the Law Heb 11 24. The faith of Moses Gen. 15.13 The Easter lambe Iohn 1.29 The delâ—verance out of Aegypt a figuâ—â— of our redemption by Christ The giâ—ing of the law The first table Matth. 22.37.39 The second Table The law written in stone 〈◊〉 no nâ—w thing The first Commandement 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Gen. 39.8 The law written in stone was fulfilled afore The Lawes given after the ten Commandements were by-Lawes Objection Answer Galath 3 15 Gods Testament Galath 3.17 Salvation by grace not by desert or workes Objection Answer Galath 3.19 Why the Law was given The Law was given to further the promise Gal. 3.19 20 21 22 23 24. The Law is the rule to live by Wisdom 16.6 7. The brasen Serpent a figure of Christ Iohn 3.14 15. 1 Cor. 10.1 2. Christ is the rocke Question Answer One altar wâ—at iâ— signified Note this well Why the ceremonies of the Law were given The godly consideration of the fathers Question Answer Wâ—y Gâ—◠〈…〉 among the 〈◊〉 God tendreth our weaknesse Lawes iudiciall Rom. 13.9 Matth. 7.12 The five originall bâ—â—kes of holy Scripture written by Moses The first bâ—oke of Moses Acts 7.22 The second booke of Moses The third booke The fourth booke The fifth booke The originall Scripture of our faith The Law written is no new thing Rom. 10.4 Gal. 3.23 The death of Moses Iosue was a figure of Christ Iosue fought at Gods commandement An heresie of the Anabaptists Heb. 11.32 Rulers must punish Matth. 26.52 Gen. 3.15 An errouâ— Of King David Acts 15.22 Psalm 110.1 The holy Trinitie Matth. 22.44 Iohn 1.1 Iohn 1.14 Matth. 22.24 The faith of David in Christ Iohn 20.20 Psalm 110.1 Marke 16.19 Psalm 110.2 The spirituall kingdome of Christ Acts 1.8.12 Psalm 110.3 A battell The birth of Christ Psalm 110.3 Psalm 110.4 The office of Christ Psalm 110.5 Christs cause shall forth Psalm 110.6 Christ shall destroy his enemies Psalm 110.7 Philip. 2.8 Psalm 133.6 The article of the holy Trinitie David was called Christs father Matth. 9.27 The waies of David 1 Kings 15.3 4 5. King Abia. 2 Kings 18.5 6. 2 Chro. 34.1 2 3. 1 Kings 6.1 The departing of Israel from Iuda King Iehu God alwaies 〈…〉 Pâ—â—phets The oldest Prophets The Prophets preached the old faith Rom. 3.20 21 22. The Law and the Prophets allow the righteousnesse of God that commeth by faith Act. 3.24 Act. 10.2 3. Matth. 21.4 The godhead and manhood of Christ Esay 7.14 Mich. 5.2 Esay 9. â— Ierem. 23.5 6. The righteous blossome Mala. 3.1 Iohn Baptist Mala. 4.5 Esay 61.1 The office of Christ Ezech. 34. Christ is called David The miracles of Christ Esay 2.2 Dan. 7.13 The kingdome of Christ Esa 62.2 Esay 62.10 Zach 9.9 The death of Christ Dan. 9.26 Esay 50.5 c. Esay 53.2 c. The sacrifice of Christ Zacha. 3.8 The buriall and resurrection of Chriâ—t Matth. 12.40 The Ascension The vocation of the Heathen 1 Pet. 1.9 c. The Prophets sought salvation in Christ A prophesie told unto Daniel The number of the yeeres Faith assailed and religion suppressed Antiochus God had eveâ— some vertuous men Zacharie Luk. 1.68 Simeon Luk. 1.29 All Gods elect were saved by Christ The old Testament is not to be refused Luke 24.13 The new Testament declareth the old The birth of Christ Luke 2.10 Tidings of Christs birth Luke 2.10 Genes 12.3 The grace of God Ierem. 31.33 Note well Chrâ—st the only salvaâ—ioâ— of all the wâ—râ—d Luke 2. The dutie of us 1 Tim. 1.5 Iohn Baptist Iohn 1.29 Iohn 1.26 1 Iohn 3.36 Matth. 11.2 Matth. 3.13 Matth. 3.17 Note this similitude Matth. 4.1 2. Matth. 4.17 The substance of true religion The speciall points of Christs doctrine The patient suffering of Christ Iohn 29 30. Luke 13.46 The fruit of Christs death Water and bloud The time of Christs Passion The buriall of Christ The power of Christ saveth all Iohn 15.14 15. Christ held nothing backâ— from his Apostles The Holy Ghost bâ—oughâ— no new doctrine Iohn 14.26 Marke 16.15 Acts 13.38 Baptisme Matth. 28.18 19. The Supper of the Lord. Matth. 26.26 Acts 15.9 The fruâ—t of the Sacraments 1 Cor. 11.17 Acts 15 28. The Apostles did not overcharge the people with Ceremonies Acts 2.1 Acts 15.20.29 The Apostles would not offend the weake Note The decay of Christs religion What inconvenience followed Note The Pope and Mahumet strive against Christ Let us doe as our oâ—dest fathers have done long bâ—fore us Philip. 3.20 21.
Looke from Adam And behold THE PROTESTANTS FAITH AND RELIGION EVIDENTLY PROVED OVT OF the holy Scriptures against all Atheists Papists loose Libertines and Carnall Gospellers and that the Faith which they professe hath continued from the beginning of the world and so is the true and ancient Faith HEREIN HAST THOU ALSO A SHORT SVMME OF THE WHOLE BIBLE and a plaine manifestation that all holy men who have pleased God have beene saved through this Christian Faith alone LONDON Printed by Iohn Haviland for Thomas Pavier and are to be sold at his shop in Ivie Lane 1624. TO THE CHRISTIAN READER HAving divers times observed with my selfe most Christian Reader that the doctrine of the Gospell which hath beene now freely preached these many yeeres amongst us in this our flourishing Common-wealth is yet daily and ordinarily by sundry persons charged with noveltie as which being an upstart were not of sufficient standing or antiquitie I thought it not amisse in this respect either for the confutation of the obstinate adversarie or for the comfort of the weake and simple professour of religion to publish and set forth this little worke of M r. Miles Coverdale who for his integritie of life and fame in learning and other excellent gifts was so renowmed in the Church of Christ in his age that I doubt not but that his onely name will be a sufficient credit with any man that is not maliciously disposed for the full allowance and well-liking of any such monument of his as he of pure zeale and good affection hath commended to us his posteritie By which travels of his as hee hath generally shewed himselfe a notable member in the Church of God so hath he thereby especially well deserved of this his native Countrey Wherefore not willing to detain thee from better matter I wish thee to use this booke to thy profit and with mee to give thanks to our mercifull Father for this valiant Souldier as also for other worthie Martyrs of his time which after the battell by themselves fought have by Gods providence left spirituall children I meane their good bookes to make a supply that Christs Church may bee encreased to the utter confusion and overthrow of Antichrist Farewell in the Lord. Miles Coverdale TO ALL CHRISTIAN Readers wisheth grace mercy and peace from God the Father through our Lord and onely Saviour IESVS CHRIST LIke as the Almighty eternall God three in persons and one in substance of his tender mercy and love not only created man at the beginning after his owne similitude and likenesse but also when he was lost most graciously redeemed him and brought him out of bond age Even so when man neither regarding his wonderfull creation nor his most deare redemption gropeth in darknesse in vice and blindnesse lieth in the Devils prison and goeth in the way of damnation God alway setteth up his light before him sendeth the message of his word unto him sheweth him what case he is in giveth him warning openeth the prison doore calleth him out of the Devils service telleth him what danger it is to be his bondman or servant unto sinne This doth God alway afore he punish and plague the world This I say hath ever beene the worke of God since the beginning as the stories and prophesies of all the holy Bible doe testifie And though we had no writing of Gods acts in times past yet hath he practised this same his wonderfull worke of mercy upon us So that like as we must needs confesse that we are created of God and redeemed by his only mercy in his deare Sonne Iesus Christ So can we not denie but we have heard his holy message had no lesse preachings and warnings of dangers to come than other have had afore our daies Yea even the same mercifull God that sent Noe to preach righteousnesse unto the wicked world and converted the Ninivites by his word in the ministration of the Prophet Ionas hath done even so with us in every condition And some thanks be unto him therefore hath bee brought out of darknesse into his wonderfull light and out of the devils service into the kingdome of his deare Sonne But alas and woe to this unthankfull world For like as a great number that be in prison of Satan will not come forth when they are called and the doore set open but goe on still stumbling in darknesse when the lanterne of light is offered them Even so if any play a wise mans part and doe as he is warned by Gods word hee shall have a sort of apish people a number of dizerds and scornfull mockers which because the man will not dance in the devils morrys with them nor keepe their company in the bondage of sinne and vice neither runne with them unto like confusion as S. Peter calleth it laugh him to scorne and bleare out their tongues at him even like fooles and cockscombs of the world And like as when a poore wretch commeth out of prison he shall have moe to stand gasing and gaping upon him than to doe him good or to helpe him to his fees Even so now that God of his mercy hath called us out of Satans prison and from the schoole of false doctrine my Lords foole with his companions standeth staring upon us and mocketh us because we sit not still with other prisoners There goeth a fellow of the new learning saith one there is one of these new-fangled Gospellers saith another that is one of the new brethren saith the third he followeth the new faith c. Wherefore in consideration hereof I have here set forth this booke partly because it sheweth the antiquitie and ancient age of our holy Christian faith and partly to give occasion unto all such as have received it not to be ashamed of it nor to shrinke from it for any opprobrious mockage or scornfull derision in this world The Apostle saith that the preaching or word of Christs crosse is foolishnesse to them that perish and that the thing which appertaineth to the spirit of God is foolishnesse to a carnall minded man Whereby like as we may learne that it is no new thing to be mocked and stared upon for holding with the doctrine that maketh so much of Christ his death and the true worshipping of God in the spirit even so may we see to the singular comfort of our conscience that no man mocketh us for it but such as perish and are carnally minded and that for all their derision and scorning it is yet the power of God 1 Cor. 1.18 and belongeth to his holy spirit 1 Cor. 2.14 and is not our owne doctrine neither of any other mans making This is now to us a comfort and consolation But because the world is angry with us for our faith and giveth us so euill report for teaching it it shall be expedient for us to declare what faith is and what faith we meane when we make mention thereof First
forth children Subjection also and service with feare and obedience which she oweth to the man To man hee enjoyneth labour for the Lord cursed the earth and said With sorrow shalt thou get thy living all the dayes of thy life Yea in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread Moreover he layeth temporall death upon them both and saith Earth thou art and to earth shalt thou returne Of the first doth Paul speake also 1 Tim. 2. The woman shall be saved by bearing of children if she continue in faith and in love and in holinesse or cleannesse and nurture Of the second speaketh the same Paul likewise to the Ephesians and Thessalonians Let no man undermine or deceive his brother in occupying and who so hath used falshood and deceit let him doe it no more but let him rather labour with his hands some honest thing that he may have to distribute unto such as have need And as touching death Paul also saith to the Hebrewes in the ninth Chapter How that it is appointed unto men once to die and that even so Christ Iesus was offered up and died once for all CHAP. IIII. Of the first faithfull Christians ADAM and EVE ANd hitherto I trust we have had in the first promise of God the foundation and the whole summe of our holy Christian faith namely that the whole generation of man was but lost through his owne fault and wickednesse and fallen into death and damnation so that there remaineth nothing in man but it is displeasant to God Hereof commeth it that there is nothing to be ascribed unto the power and deserving of man save sinne and malediction But God of his abundant mercy had compassion on us and of very grace promised he life unto us againe in his Sonne our Lord Iesus whom he would to become man and to suffer death in his flesh that thereby hee might tread downe the devill death sinne and hell Item he would put enmitie betweene the womans seed and the serpent that is he would endue us which are the seed that is to say the children of Adam if wee beleeve with another heart and power that we might become enemies unto the devils workes resist his suggestion and hold our selves fast by the blessed seed labouring and suffering whatsoever God enjoyneth us to worke and suffer Who is it now which seeth not herein all that is written in the whole Scripture of beleefe of love and innocencie that is to say of a Christian life and faith Who so is disposed let him looke upon the 2.3 and 4. chapters of Paul to the Romanes the first and second to the Ephesians let him compare those chapters toward this summe and he shall finde it none otherwise For as much then as Adam and Eve had faith in God and stood so toward God that they knowledged themselves to be sinners and trusted to be saved only through the blessed seed giving themselves over willingly into the discipline and nurture travell and trouble of this time No man can say contrary but it followeth that our first elders were Christians Neverthelesse we will declare the same yet more clearely by Moyses words following And Adam called his wife Heva because shee should be the mother of all living For as soone as he was now strengthned through the promise of God and beleeved that hee and his posteritie which else were children of wrath of the devill and of death should live through the blessed seed he turned his wives name and called her Heva for the remembrance of the matter and practising of his faith for he beleeved that shee now living in the power of the blessed seed should bring forth not only quicke men temporally as pertaining to this naturall life like as we call other creatures living but living that is to say children of salvation For Adam had lost eternall life from himselfe and from us his posteritie but the same is given unto us againe through Iesus Christ our Lord. Adam for as much as he beleeved changed his wives name like as we finde that for great weighty causes the names of certaine places cities and men were changed Thus was Iacob called Israel Simon Peter Luthz Bethel Eve had now a name of life for Haiah in Hebrew is as much to say as Life Afore was shee called Ischa that is to say Woman because shee was taken from out of the man which in the Hebrew is called Isch Gen. 2. And thus it is manifest what faith Adam had whereby we may well suppose that Eve had none other faith But God used his mercy and loving kindnesse yet furthermore even in the mids of all correction for when he would now expell man out of paradise into miserie he doth unto him in every condition even as a faithfull father which for some misdeed putteth his sonne away from him notwithstanding leaveth him not utterly comfortlesse but provideth him a garment and comforteth him with friendly words and then first sendeth him away from him Even thus doth God the father of heaven also For first he cloatheth Adam and Eve against the frost and tempest of weather in as much as by the meanes of sinne the weather the earth the aire and all creatures were no more so subject tame and obedient unto man as they were afore the fall Therefore even now at this present time whatsoever inconvenience and harme is in the good creatures of God it commeth by the meanes of our sinnes Afterward doth the Lord comfort the miserable wretched man with very loving words after this manner Behold Adam is become like one of us or Loe Adam shall be as one of us and it shall happen unto him as to one of us and he shall know good and evill This doth God speake which is one in substance and three in persons he prophesieth here unto Adam that he shall know or have experience of good and evill that is to say that upon earth he must feele prosperitie and adversitie miserie and trouble sowre and sweet and must suffer necessitie paine and affliction Yet in all this must he be constant and patient forasmuch as nothing shall happen unto him save even the same that shall happen to one of them And he meaneth the Sonne our Lord Iesus Christ the second person in the holy Trinitie With this his passion and through the same doth he comfort Adam As though he would say let the paine sorrow and trouble which thou must suffer upon earth not vex thee and consider that one of us also shall take upon him the kinde and nature of man and that the serpent as it is said afore shall tread him on the heele that is to say he shall die he shall be opprest and have much affliction and trouble all the daies of his life In the same meaning also did the holy Apostle Peter say Christ suffered for our sakes and gave us an example that we should follow
him and goe in his footsteps Out of all this is it easie to understand what faith and knowledge Adam had of our Lord Christ namely that he knew in him very Godhead and manhood and that he saw in faith his Passion and Crosse a farre off Moreover that the passion of Christ once done for all breaketh the kingdome of the devill and bringeth life againe to such as faithfully beleeve Secondly that it is to our living an example at the which wee ought to learne patience in adversitie and daily to die from all evill And hereto now serve all doctrines of patience of bearing the crosse of despising the world and mortifying or putting off the old Adam which thing is contained and with many and goodly words handled thorowout the Prophets and Apostles As for Adam and Eve they lacked none of these things though they had not the matter in writing For God spake it all to them himselfe and wrote it in their hearts Moreover our first Elders had no Church rites nor ceremonies save only the bodily offering a representation of the sacrificing of Christ and exercises or tokens of thankfulnesse For how should Cain and Abel else have knowne any thing of sacrifice if they had not received the same at the custome of their father who with his wife Eva the mother of us all was saved by none other worke or merit of man but only through and in the blessed seed our Lord Iesus Christ CHAP. V. That the holy Patriarks also were Christians and saved by Christ SUch faith in Christ Iesus as we now have spoken of did the holy father Adam no doubt teach his children that they also might plant in their children the promise of God his mercy and device concerning the Messias or Saviour that was for to come And truly Abel had such a notable faith in God that the holy Apostle Paul wrote of him after this manner Through faith did Abel offer a greater sacrifice than did Cain and thereby obtained he witnesse that he was righteous For God bare record to his gifts In as much then as it cannot be denied but that all they which are just and righteous be made righteous through the blessed seed And Abel was justified It followeth that he was made righteous through faith in Iesus Christ In that he did sacrifice it is a token and fruit of a heart that was thankfull and feared God It was no such enterprise that he would clense and make himselfe acceptable unto God through that outward sacrifice For certaine it is that no outward oblation purifieth man within But the grace of God granted unto us through Jesus Christ purifieth us aright And the outward sacrifices of the old fathers beside that they were tokens of thankfulnesse praise and magnifying of God as it is said afore were figures of the only perpetuall sacrifice of our Saviour Christ And in this behalfe they were even as much as sacraments of things to come Thus also and in like understanding have our first fathers done sacrifice as hereafter it shall follow more largely Now like as in Abel there is set forth unto us an example of Gods seed and of a regenerate true faithfull Christian man So is Cain a seed of the Serpent a childe of the Devill which despised the inspiration of God and harkened to the deceitfull Serpent And in these two brethren wee may see what God meaned when he said I will put enmitie betweene the seed of the woman and thy seed As though he would say There shall be two manner of people the one shall cleave unto Christ the blessed seed the other shall cleave unto the Devill And these two generations shall in no wise agree but be at variance in faith and religion I will endue my seed that they shall cleave only unto me feare me honour and worship mee seeke all salvation in me through the blessed seed live vertuously honestly and soberly Then shall the Serpent tempt their seed with hypocrisie not to love me nor serve mee aright not to hold of mee as they should not to trust in me but to love the world and to follow the lusts and temptations thereof All this finde wee here in these two brethren in whom beginneth the first difference of true and false beleevers For Abel was simple godly and of a constant faith in God And in as much as he tooke God for his refuge he brought him gifts of his best substance no doubt because he had first given over his soule and all his power unto God at whom alone hee sought all good without any hypocrisie He was also innocent vertuous and friendly and followed not his owne tentations And for this faiths sake did his sacrifice please God but Cains pleased him not for his heart was not right with God he was a dissembler greedie and vnfaithfull person which set his heart and minde upon earthly things alway despising Gods word and following his owne tentation Which thing was evident in this that he having no cause only of a wilfull heart and through the temptation of the serpent murthered his owne brother Whereby hee hath obtained to be the Arch-father of all murtherers which persecute and murther the seed of God that is to say the true beleevers only for their faiths sake Thus became Abel the first martyr and instrument of God and of Christ in the holy Church For these two brethren have set forth before us the whole battell and strife which the world the citie of the devill the children and citizens of the cursed citie wherein the Serpent is head and master and hath the dominion shall make against the citie and citizens in whom Christ is the head unto the end of the world The freemen of the citie of God and of Christ doe cleave only unto God serve him with all their heart build only upon Christ The citizens of the Serpent despise God and yet they boast of God to whom also they offer and doe service but not as they ought to doe Now when they perceive that their faith is not right and that their hypocrisie is espied and misliked then fall they to murthering to the which God is an enemie and forbiddeth it with his word For Cain also exhorted hee from his purpose and said Thou needest not to arme thee because of thy brother for thou hast none occasion to be angrie with him For if thou doest right thou shalt finde it and have joy thereof but if thou dost not right then is thy misfortune sinne and trespasse open and thou shalt shame and destroy thy selfe Thy brother goeth on without fault he shall doe thee no hurt nor harme he shall also not be Lord over thee nor minish thy right Yea he shall have respect unto thee and thou shalt have dominion over him and so keepe thy birth-right and still remaine the first borne although his sacrifice be acceptable unto mee and not thine Cease therefore
from thy wicked purpose and offend not against thy brother But Cain did as all ungodly doe For he went forth and slew his innocent brother And afterward when the Lord would have brought him into the knowledge of his great sinne and pardon him he despised the voice of the Lord with craking and facing For the which cause the Lord was wroth with him and cursed him Then despaired he first and went forth and became yet more wicked dealt altogether ungodly set first his minde upon earthly things thought to exalt his name upon earth and builded the first citie which he called Hanoch hee begat sonnes and daughters but little feare of God was before their eyes in so much that the Scripture saith Adam lay with his wife againe and shee bare a sonne whom shee called Seth. For God said shee hath given me another seed for Abel whom Cain slew Seth also had a sonne and he called him Enos And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Out of the which words it is easie to understand that as touching holy Adam hee held no more of Cain than as though he never had had childe For Adam feared God Cain with his progenie despised God and became the Serpents generation Wherefore when Adam had gotten another sonne he was of a good hope that in Abels stead God had given him another sonne which should doe right and of whom the root of the blessed seed should spread out afterward For the which cause also he called him Seth which by vs is called a plant meaning that God had set and planted him as a branch out of which the Messias should be borne For as for Cain hee doubted of him And from the same Seth proceeded the generation of the righteous untill Noe and from him to Abraham and so unto David and from thence forth unto Christ This Seth repaired our holy faith which received great hurt at the death of Abel This did Seth I say for as much as he being taught inwardly of God and by mouth or outwardly of Adam learned his children and their seed to put their trust in God and to comfort themselves in the blessed seed and to cleave unto the same For it is written manifestly And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Till this time was Adam with Heva his wife only a true friend and server of God The generation of Cain was now well spread abroad and come to two hundred and fiftie yeeres and aboue but the more part lived without the feare of God unrepentant and ungodly Wherefore in as much as the generation of Seth now increased and the feare of God and right beleefe was among them the Scripture faith well And then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. And by this calling upon doth the Scripture meane the true right beleefe and Gods service that he most alloweth Of the progenie therefore of righteous Seth sprang the servants of God and presidents of our Christian faith As for the cursed generation of Cain and of the ungodly it was destroyed and drowned with the Floud To the holy genealogie of the true beleevers pertaineth the Patriarke Enoch of whom it is written that he walked before God that is he ordered his life and conversation altogether after the will of God being constant and upright no doubt in all that which God had spoken unto Adam Therefore became he also an example of the immortalitie of the soule and resurrection of the bodie and that all Gods servants shall be saved after this life For thus saith the Scripture And in as much as hee applied himselfe to walke after God God tooke him away and he was no more seene The holy Apostle Paul also in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrewes speaketh very excellently of Enochs faith so that no man may doubt but that hee had respect to the blessed seed and pleased God through Christ Moreover the enmitie betweene the children of God and of man that is the issue of the Serpent grew ever more and more so that on the one side the multitude of God increased and on the other side the multitude of the devill Yet at the last the multitude of the wicked was greatest For when the children of God withheld not themselves from the children of the world but tooke wives and husbands among them they begat rough people which had no faith at all and lived only after their owne lust and temptation forgat God utterly and regarded not the hundred and twentie yeeres which God gave them to amend Therefore was God constrained so to punish the unfaithful world once that all posterities unto the end of the world might have a terrible example of the just wrath of God whereby they might learne how ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse displeaseth God Thus the Lord brought the floud upon all the earth overthrew all that stood up and destroyed every thing that had life when the world had stood now a thousand six hundred and six and fiftie yeeres For so many yeeres finde wee in the fifth and seventh of Genesis where it is written that Noe was six hundred yeeres old when the floud came upon the earth Now if wee reckon the yeeres of the old Fathers in the fifth chapter untill Adam wee shall finde the foresaid summe And thus the issue of the Serpent had an end and all ungodly and unrighteous living was mightily supprest and destroyed of God And in this horrible destruction of the ungodly was faithfull Noe saved he being the eighth and preserved in the Arke through the grace and mercie of God Here our holy true Christian faith had the victorie and triumphed For Noe was of our faith even of the seed of God and put his trust in the blessed seed our Lord Jesus Yea the Arke or ship of Noe was a figure of Christ as we may easily understand by the words of S. Peter 1 Pet. 3. Seeing then that Noe was preserved through the Arke it followeth that hee was saved by Iesus Christ therefore is it manifest that hee first beleeved in Christ Noe also was hee with whom God first renued the covenant made with Adam For it is but one covenant onely even the foresaid promise and end made by God unto Adam Howbeit the same covenant was afterward at certaine times renued by reason of certaine occasions Here might Noe have thought that all the world and all men should utterly have beene undone for as much as the Lord said I am determined to destroy all flesh Therefore immediately he addeth moreover and saith But with thee will I set up my covenant that is to say whatsoever pertaineth to my covenant and what I have promised Adam alreadie the same will I surely and constantly make good and though I now destroy the world yet will I performe my truth through thee For I will preserve thee alive that the blessed
whom they have taken their name The Law also was given 430. yeeres after the promise as Paul made the reckoning Gal. 3. It followeth therefore that our Christian faith is 2048. yeeres elder than the Circumcision and 2449. yeeres elder than the Law the Priesthood and ceremonies of the Iewes For from Adam unto the Floud were 1656. yeeres And from the Floud untill the departing of Abraham out of Caldea 363. yeeres From that time are reckoned 430. yeeres untill the departing of Israel out of Aegypt And on the 50. day after the departing was the Law given unto Israel upon Mount Sinâ— Exod. 19.20 And after certaine daies was the Priesthood and ceremonies appointed them Whereas God then made a covenant with Abraham when he ordained the Circumcision it serveth more to the confirmation of our holy Christian faith than to the maintenance of the Iewish ceremonies Isaac and Iacob were Abrahams children not only after the flesh but also after the spirit For they had the saith of their father and grandfather Abraham put their trust only in God through Iesus Christ and lived a sober and vertuous life Of this doth the Scripture beare them record thorowout Yea Iacob whom the Lord also called otherwise Israel of whom afterward all the people of God received the name Israel had many visions of the Lord Christ as with the ladder that stood upon the earth the top reaching to heaven on the which the Angels of God went up and downe For herewith was represented unto him the Lord Iesus which is the way unto heaven the truth and life without whom no man commeth unto the Father Upon the vision of Iacob saith he also himselfe Iohn 1. Verily I say unto you henceforth shall yee see the heaven open and the Angels of God going up and downe upon the sonne of man And so constant was Iacob in remembring the same that afterward at the commandement of the Lord he set up in the same place an Altar no doubt as it is said before for a figure of the crosse and sacrifice of Christ and there honoured he and worshipped the Lord he commanded all his people also that they should forsake strange gods and give him the Idols that they had brought with them out of Mesopotamia and he buried them under an Oke that stood beside Sichem Gen. 35. And when he would now die he prophesied very clearely of the Lord Christ how he should be borne out of the kinred of Iuda and that hee should be borne the same time that the kingdome should be taken from Iuda Which thing also came to passe in Herods time For in the 32. yeere of the reigne of Herod was CHRIST borne at Bethleem in Iewry Whereof the words of Iacob are these The scepter shall not be taken away from Iuda nor a Ruler from his feâ—t till Schilo come that is to say the Saviour and he in whom all nations shall be blessed and the people shall fall unto him This stedfast faith of Iacob did Ioseph follow also which mortified his owne flesh declared patience in adversitie and prison and exercised great justice and equitie in his governance He was a figure of our Lord Iesus Christ who also being sold of his owne unto the Heathen preserved his brethren alive So that from the beginning of the world untill the death of Ioseph the right Christian faith endured 2300. yeeres And thus all holy Patriarks before the Law were sawed not through the Law nor by their owne strength and deserving but through the blessed seed our Lord Iesus Christ CHAP. VI. The law of God given by Moses leadeth unto Christ and maketh mention of all his doings THe Israelites after the death of Ioseph untill their departing and deliverance out of Aegypt were in the land 140. yeeres And like as before in the time of Noe the dwelling among the wicked became occasion of falling unto the righteous Even so now did the Israelites learne idolatry and all unhappinesse of the Aegyptians For the which cause also they were sore oppressed a long season howbeit there remained yet many excellent men which kept still the old faith and hated the abhominations of the Aegyptians For of Moses which was borne 60. yeeres after the death of Ioseph saith Paul Moses through faith when he grew up and was great refused to bee called the sonne of Pharaos daughter and chose rather to suffer adversity with the people of God than to enioy the pleasures of sinne for a season and esteemed the rebuke of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt for he had respect to the reward Heb. 11. Now can no man desire to suffer with Christ except hee have knowledge of Christs suffering Therefore Moses in the midds of all persecution had knowledge of Christ and the faith in Christ So is there no doubt but more vertuous people had this true faith which were all oppressed and vexed in Aegypt like as afterward the right faithfull beleevers were somewhat more persecuted as among the heathen in the time of the Iudges and Kings of Iuda and Israel under king Antiochus under the Emperors Nero Traâ—â—nâ—s Domitianus Maximianus Iulianus and other As for the unbeleevers they in such miserable times received the reward of their unthankfulnesse disobedience idolatry and blasphemie But when the appointed time came which God had foreseene opened unto Abraham Gen. 15. he brought the people of Israel by Moses out of Aegypt with and through great wonders and tokens By the which he first declared his power then his loving kindnesse and mercy toward his owne and his terrible justice and vengeance against his enemies whereby all the world might know that there was none other just and true God save the God of Israel in whose hand only consisteth all things which also of his meere mercie preserveth his owne and with right judgement rewardeth his enemies Specially this is most wonderfull that in this great businesse and worke hee hath so mightily set forth the redemption performed by our Lord Iesus Christ yea and expressed it to be a very mighty redemption For the same night when they should depart away and be dispatched in the morning the Lord commanded them to kill a lambe and with the bloud thereof to sprinkle the doores and posts of the house So when the Angell that in the same night slew the first borne of the Aegyptians saw the bloud hee should doe no harme and slay no man therein Exod. 12.3 Now testifieth Paul 1 Cor. 5.7 that Christ Iesus is our Easter Lambe and Passeover So saith Saint Iohn Behold the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Therefore were not the Israelites spared because of the bloud of beasts but for the blouds sake of the blessed seed that was promised for to come And thus the whole deliverance out of Aegypt was a figure of the true redemption by the which we
and serveth altogether for the declaration of the six commandements of the second Table and is comprehended in the words of Paul Rom. 13. Love thy neighbour as thy selfe And in the words of Christ That thou wouldest not have done unto thee doe not thou to another Matth. 7. Such lawes and rules to live in peace in a civill order and in vertue have also the good holy fathers had from the beginning of the world written in their hearts by God himselfe Now hath God also caused all to be comprehended in writing by Moses to the intent that the world might have all more clearely and perfectly and that no man might excuse himselfe of ignorance CHAP. VII The originall of the holy Scripture and faith thereof THis matter which I have hitherto treated upon have I not fained of my selfe but taken it out of the mouth and word of God For God stirred up Moses to write and leave behinde him all the matter for our learning and knowledge This did now Moses with great faithfulnesse and comprehended all in foure bookes The first is called the booke of the creation from the beginning of the world unto his time of the creation of the world beginning of all nations and of the Patriarks and old righteous servants of God of their faith and conversation of the promises and works of God The same wrote hee as hee was inspired of the Holy Ghost and as he had received of old fathers and somewhat as he found in the bookes of the Aegyptians For Moses was excellently well learned in all wisdome of the Aegyptians as Steven doth witnesse of him Act. 7. The other three bookes wrote he of his owne time according as he himselfe was present saw and knew And specially the second booke concerning the departing out of Aegypt how the people of God were oppressed in Aegypt how the Aegyptians were punished how Israel was delivered received the Law and set up a Tabernacle with a gorgeous serving of God In the third booke which is called Leviticus are written the spirituall Lawes namely such as concerne the Priests and the Priesthood their office living knowledge sacrifices solemne feast dayes rites ceremonies and such like In the fourth which is called Numeri hee writeth at length how they went thorow the wildernesse and came to Iordan with a rehearsall of their order and number of their murmuring also and punishment and of certaine victories with a remembrance of certaine lawes and statutes Beside all this hee made yet an Enchiridion and summe of all the acts of his time and of the Law of God which is called Deuteronomium the same commanded hee to bee laid in the Arke at the motion of God and that it should be read unto all the people as it is mentioned Deut. 31. And in these five bookes given us of God by Moses is the whole ground of our holy faith For all the Prophets afterward grounded themselves upon the same and wrote thereout like as afterward our Lord Iesus and the Apostles point unto Moses Neither did ever any righteous man of understanding and that feared God doubt any thing or blaspheme such Scriptures And from such true servants of God have wee hitherto received our matters in writing Thus much have I said concerning the Law how it is no new thing but even the onely will of God but now comprehended in writing Moreover that all the Law pointeth unto Christ and that all men of right understanding which lived under the Law were Christians For manifest is it that Paul said Rom. 10. Christ is the end of the Law to justifie everie one that beleeveth And Galat. 3. Or ever faith that is to say Christ came we were kept and shut up under the Law unto the faith which should afterward be declared Thus was the Law our schoole-master unto Christ that wee might bee made righteous by faith All this I suppose will bee new and strange in many hearts neverthelesse I trust that all they which have understanding doe see and knowledge that this is the true old right and godly Divinitie and Theologie which ascribeth all honour unto God the Father through our Lord Iesus Christ in the Holy Ghost To whom be glorie and praise for ever Amen CHAP. VIII All vertuous Kings and the people of Israel trusted unto Christ and not to the Law AFter that the Law was given and Gods service set up Moses the servant of God died being an hundred and twentie yeeres old and at the commandement and commission of God he left Gods people to bee ruled and guided by the faithfull valiant Iosue which also was a figure of our Lord Iesus For like as it was not Moses but Iosue that brought the people into the land of promise Even so are we brought into the eternall rest not by the works of the Law nor through our owne deserving but by grace through Iesus Christ like as it is also with many words expressed of holy Paul Heb. 4.3 c. This Iosue no doubt did keepe maintaine and defend Gods faith and religion with the spirit and understanding thereof and taught other to keepe the same like as he through Gods inspiration received it of the fathers by Moses Which thing though it bee evident in many points yet is it manifest specially by this that hee would not suffer the children of Ruben and Gad and the halfe Tribe of Manasse to set up and have another altar beside the onely altar that the Lord had appointed them For herein as it is mentioned afore was figured the vertue and perfectnesse of the onely crosse death and sacrificing of Iesus Christ Therefore would not Iosue that any thing should be set cheeke-mate with the crosse and oblation of Iesus Christ but that all honour of cleansing and forgivenesse of sinnes should bee ascribed onely unto him Whereas Iosue now and other Iudges Rulers Princes and Kings of Israel after him used sore and great warre stroke many horrible battels destroyed much land and people and shed mens bloud without measure he did it as a chiefe head and as an instrument and vessell of God at the commandement of God which would so punish the Idolatrie the great sinne and blasphemie of the ungodly which he had long suffered and exhorted them to amendment but for all his patient abiding they would not convert Those now did hee root out through the sword of his beloved friends sometime delivered he his people with the sword of the righteous and saved them from the hand of their enemies For because of the sinnes of his people he gave them over sometime into the hand of their enemies to nurture and correct them with the rod then fell the people of God and fled before their enemies and were subdued and opprest of the ungodly till they knowledged their sinnes called upon God and amended putting their trust in God onely through the blessed seed worshipping
him onely calling upon him and honouring him according to his word casting away strange worshipping of God service of Idols that shamefull blasphemous and ungodly living Then sent he them his helpe and delivered them in his power by the ministration of his appointed Captaines And such warring delivering and punishing was no fleshly unfaithfull worke whom no man ought to follow as some being wrapped with the unstedfast spirit of the Maniches and Anabaptists doe meane For Paul expresseth cleerely And what shall I say of Gedeon Barach Sampson and Iephtha David and Samuel and the Prophets which through faith subdued Kingdomes wrought righteousnesse obtained the promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword of weake were made strong became valiant in battell turned to flight the armies of the Aliants Heb. 11. All which works the holy Apostle praiseth and commendeth as excellent works of faith Therefore are they no works of the flesh neither is it now contrarie to the holy faith if Christian rulers deliver their innocent people whom God hath subdued unto them from wrongfull violence and defend their libertie righteousnesse house and land or punish the shamefull blasphemers Idolaters and persecuters of the holy faith and not suffer them to have all their malicious will Neverthelesse this must be done by them to whom God hath committed the sword For thus saith the Lord Who so taketh away the sword shall perish through the sword Matth. 26. But specially in the battels of Gods people and of the unfaithfull it commeth to passe and is expressely set before our eyes that God said to the serpent at the beginning Gen. 3. I will put enmitie betweene thy seed and the womans seed For the righteous are the seed of Christ the unrighteous and unfaithfull are the seed of the Devill Betweene these now see we great discord but specially this that the faithfull doe alway tread the serpent on the head though they themselves also be bitten in the heele For the right faithfull beleevers afore the birth of Christ in the time of the promise had no lesse trouble and persecution not onely because of sinne but also for righteousnesse and faiths sake than the faithfull after Christs birth in the time of grace and perfectnesse Therefore have they small knowledge of the doings of the faithfull which say that the people of old were a victorious people and governed corporally but that the people after Christs comming are borne to suffer and to no victorie or governance Neverthelesse in these wonderfull times in the which Gods people had no victorie and anon were subdued and oppressed the true faith continued upright and unblemished from Iosue forth throughout all the Iudges untill the time and reigne of David David also was a man that suffred much through divers and long trouble through miserable distresse and vexation and through sore persecution without ceasing being proved tried and provoked afore he was King Whereof the bookes of Samuel and the more part of the Psalmes beareth record But after that he was promoted unto the kingdom by God which said I have found a man after mine own heart he advanced set forth and magnified the true faith right diligently Here also to the honour of our Lord Iesus Christ will I shortly and by the way declare what knowledge and faith this noble King and Prophet had of our Lord Iesus This will I doe with the declaration of the 110. Psalme whose words are these The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot-stoole In the first verse David knowledgeth the persons in the holy Trinitie the God-head also and the eternall kingdome of Christ Thus likewise did our Lord Jesus Christ understand and alleage this verse in the Gospell Matth. 22. knowledging two of the Persons in the one only Godhead for he saith The Lord said unto my Lord. Now is it certaine and undeniable that hee which speaketh and he to whom ought is spoken are not one but two Persons Yet is there but one Lord and God and they both the Father that speaketh and the Sonne to whom is spoken are the Lord therefore are they one of one substance and being the very true God Neither is the Sonne lesse than the Father There can also none be a father except he have a sonne or a childe Now is the everlasting Father God therefore is the Sonne also everlasting There is also but one only everlasting without beginning Both the Father and the Sonne are eternall without beginning therefore are they one only true God with the holy Ghost Like as Iohn also saith In the beginning that is to say from everlasting was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God And immediatly thereafter saith he that the Word is Jesus Christ our Lord. For it followeth The Word became flesh Therefore doth David also call the Son of God specially his Lord saying The Lord said unto my Lord. And therefore calleth he Christ his Lord because hee confesseth and beleeveth that he is his very naturall Lord and God as Thomas also did knowledge My Lord and my God Ioh. 20. Afterward calleth he him his Lord because that after the nature of man he should be borne out of his loynes For thorowout all the Scripture is our Lord Iesus called the Sonne of David And thus doth David knowledge two natures in Christ the nature of God and the nature of man That the kingdome of Christ shall last for ever and that the kinde and nature of man shall be exalted aboue all heavens as Paul saith Hebr. 2. David testifieth with these words Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy foot-stoole For Marke saith in the sixteenth chapter The Lord was taken up into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God Of this also finde we 1 Cor. 15.15 Now must he needs be very God indeed which reigneth for ever and to whom all enemies must be subdued yea cast utterly unto his feet Now followeth the second verse The Lord shall send thy mightie staffe out of Sion thou shalt be Lord even in the middest among thine enemies Here speaketh he of the preaching of the holy Gospell and how the world should be converted unto Christ and Christ to reigne in the middest of the world In the first verse is spoken of the eternall kingdome that he is very God living and reigning for ever not only in this time but also after this time eternally But here speaketh hee specially of the kingdome whereas hee reigneth here beneath through the Gospell For the Staffe the Scepter the Rod of Christ is the holy Gospell even the power of God which saveth all that beleeve Rom. 1.16 Which maketh Christs enemies friends and smiteth them downe that will not convert so that Christ hath dominion and
Baruch and Hieremie in whose daies Israel had such misfortune that Hierusalem with the Temple was destroyed and the people that remained over and perished not were caried away captive into Babylon In the same captivitie did Ezechiel and Daniel write their prophecies And after the captivitie when Israel was delivered againe and came home to Hierusalem then preached and wrote Esdras Haggeus Zacharias Malachias and Nehemias Beside these Prophets no doubt there were other moe of whom no mention is made But these are the chiefe by whom it pleased God to open unto us all that appertaineth to our salvation And though we had also the writings of the other yet should we reade no other thing in them than we finde in our owne Prophets for as much as these whom we have agree so together all in one Now whether they be our own Prophets whose writings we have or the other whose writings we have not yet have they all preached the summe of the doctrine and knowledged the faith that wee spake of afore and wrote in one summe which faith Adam Noe Abraham Moses and David had And this did they the more evidently because they applied themselves to open the Law and to drive away the misunderstanding which was risen up among and in the people therefore point they every where from the letter unto the spirit from the outward sacrifice unto Christ Iesus from all idolatry unto the onely God which saveth us through his mercy onely in the blessed seed and through none of our deservings This did Paul see and therefore said he Rom. 3. Through the workes of the law shall no man be iustified in the sight of God For through the law commeth the knowledge of sinne But now is the righteousnesse of God declared without the law for as much as it is allowed by the testimonie of the Law and the Prophets The righteousnesse of God commeth by the faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all them that beleeve So saith Peter also in the third of the Acts All the Prophets from Samuel and thenceforth as many as have spoken have told of these daies And in the 10. chapter To this Iesus Christ give all the Prophets witnesse that whosoever beleeveth in him shall through his name receive forgivenesse of sinnes Who so now is learned in the writings of the Prophets knoweth well that there is nothing read concerning the Lord in the New Testament which the Prophets have not prophesied of afore He that is then any thing instructed in the Prophets hath no doubt considered this in the New Testament that the Apostles prove all their doctrine of the Lord Iesus out of the Law and the Prophets yea that the Lord himselfe confirmeth his owne doings with the Scriptures of the Prophets and that the Euangelists thorowout the holy Gospell set unto the doctrine and miracles of Christ these words And this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophets Neverthelesse for their sakes that are not yet instructed I will now declare the principall articles of our Lord Iesus Christ out of the holy Prophets As touching the true Godhead and manhood of our Lord Iesus Christ and that he should be borne at Bethlehem in the land of Iewry of a pure virgin and maid out of the kinred of David the Prophets testifie after this manner Esay in the seventh chapter saith Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and shall call his name Emanuel that is to say God with us Micheas saith in the fifth chapter Though thou Bethlehem Ephrata art too small to be reckoned among the principall cities of Iuda yet out of thee shall there come one unto me which shall be ruler in Israel whose forth-going is from everlasting In the ninth chapter of Esay it is written Vnto us is a childe borne and to us is given a sonne upon whose shoulders the kingdome shall lie and he shall be called after his owne name even the wonderfull counsell-giver the mighty one of Israel the eternall father the prince of peace his kingdome shall increase and of his peace there shall be no end and he shall reigne upon the seat of David his father In the 23. of Hieremie it is written thus Behold the time commeth saith the Lord that I will raise up the righteous blossome of David he shall be king and reigne and prosper iudgement and righteousnesse shall he execute upon earth In his time shall Iuda be saved and Israel shall dwell without feare and this is the name wherewith he shall be named even God our righteousnesse Concerning the comming of Iohn the Baptist which was the forerunner of our Lord Christ and prepared the people for him hath Malachy written in the third chapter after this manner Behold I will send my messenger which shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom yee long for shall shortly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant whom yee would have Behold he commeth saith the Lord zabaoth And afterward Behold I will send Helias the Prophet afore the comming of the great and fearefull day of the Lord. Of Christs preaching of the grace of God of the forgiving of sinnes of the wonders also and tokens of the Lord speaketh Esay in the 61. chapter after this manner The spirit of the Lord God is upon me and therefore hath the Lord anointed me to preach the Gospell to the meeke hearted hath he sent me to heale the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captive to open the prison to such as are in bonds to proclaime the yeere of Gods gratious will and to bring consolation to all them that are in heavinesse In the 34. chapter of Ezechiel it is written thus Over my sheepe will I raise up one onely shepherd which shall feed them even David my servant which shall feed them and he shall be their shepherd I the Lord also will be their God and David shall be their Prince even I the Lord have spoken it In the 35. chap. of Esay it is written thus Say unto them that are of a feeble heart Be strong and feare not behold our God commeth to take vengeance and to reward God commeth himselfe and will deliver you Then shall the eies of the blinde be opened c. Then shall the lame man leape as an Hart and the tongue of the dumbe shall give praise Of the kingdome of Christ in the which he himselfe alone is king all the world being subject unto him declaring his dominion and royall majestie writeth Esay thus in the second chapter And it shall come to passe in the last time that the hill of the house of the Lord shall be exalted upon the height of mountaines above all little hils and all nations shall come together unto him the people shall goe to him and say Come let us goe up to the mount of the
Lord even to the house of the God of Iacob that he may shew us his way and we will walke in his paths For the Law shall come forth from Sion and the word of God from Hierusalem In the 7. of Daniel it is written thus I saw a vision in the night and behold there came one in the clouds of heaven like the sonne of man which came to the old aged and they brought him before his presence And he gave him power glory and the kingdome and all people nations and tongues must serve him his power is an everlasting power which shall not be taken from him and his kingdome shall not perish Esay saith in the 62. chapter And the heathen shall see thy righteousnesse and all kings thine honour and he shall call thee by a new name O Sion and the mouth of God shall give thee the name And thou shalt be a crowne of glory in the hand of the Lord ad a royall crowne of the kingdome in the hand of thy God And soone after it followeth Make ready make ready the way gather up the stones out of the street and hang out the banner unto the people behold the Lord hath caused it to be proclaimed unto the end of the world Tell the daughter Sion behold the Saviour commeth loe his treasure and his reward bringeth he with him and his deeds goe before him And they that are redeemed of the Lord shall be called the holy people Zacharie saith in the ninth chapter Reioyce O daughter Sion be glad O daughter Hierusalem behold thy king commeth unto thee even the righteous and Saviour meeke and simple is he he rideth upon an asse and upon a young colt of the shee asse He shall preach peace unto the heathen his kingdome also shall reach from the one sea to the other and from the river unto the uttermost part of the earth Of the death and passion of Christ speaketh Daniel in the ninth chapter after this manner And after two and sixtie weekes shall Christ be slaine and put to death and yet shall they have no true testimony that he is guilty of death Esay in the 50. chapter saith thus The Lord God opened mine eare and I refused it not neither went I backward I gave my bodie to the smiters and my cheeks to the nippers and my face have I not turned from their shamefull intreating and spitting upon me The Lord God also shall helpe me therefore shall I not be confounded And therefore have I hardned my face like a flint stone and am sure that I shall not be confounded In the 53. chapter there is written of Christ after this manner He shall have neither beauty nor fairenesse we shall looke upon him but we shall have no desire unto him He is despised and contemned of men a man of trouble and one that hath had experience of infirmitie He is so despised that we shall hide our faces from him and have him in no estimation And yet hath he borne our unperfectnesse and felt our sorrowes We also thought that he should be wounded smitten and punished of God But he was wounded for our sinnes and slaine for our wickednesse sake And the punishment whereby we have peace is laid upon him and through his wounds are we made whole All we have gone astray like sheepe every one of us hath had respect unto his owne way and the Lord hath laid all our sinnes upon him Violence and wrong was done unto him he hath beene evill intreated and yet opened he not his mouth He shall be lead as a beast to be slaine and as a sheepe dumbe before the shearers so shall he not open his mouth c. The whole chapter describeth all the cause of Christ so clearely that holy Hierom said not in vaine Esay is not only a Prophet but also an Euangelist Zacharie describeth the Priesthood and sacrifice of Christ and testifieth that with the same only oblation he hath obtained grace for all sinne and therefore seven that is to say all eyes shall have respect unto him and shall seeke peace and rest of their consciences in him and shall finde it Heare now O Iosue thou high Priest thou and thy companions that sit before thee seeing yee are men of examples For loe I will bring my servant even the blossome For behold the stone which I have laid before Iosue will I bring To the same only stone shall seven eyes looke Behold I will digge it up and disclose it saith the Lord Zabaoth and the sinne of the earth will I take away in one day And in that day shall every man call his neighbour under his vine and figge tree The buriall and resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ hath the Prophet Ionas figured very excellently For thus saith our Lord Christ himselfe Like as Ionas was three daies and three nights in the whales belly so shall the sonne of man be three daies and three nights in the heart of the earth Of the ascension of Iesus Christ and sending of the Holy Ghost hath Ioel also written in the second chapter and it is alleaged of S. Peter Act. 2. Of the calling and gathering together the Heathen and of every thing pertaining to the holy Church doth Esay write in the 49. chapter and so forth to the end of his prophecie Thus hast thou that the Prophets also in their time did preach Iesus Christ and pointed not the people to trust unto the works of the law and their owne deserving but unto Christ of whom they prophesied every thing that followed after Therefore did Peter speake right 1 Pet. 1. saying Ye shall receive the end of your faith even the salvation of your soules After which salvation have the Prophets inquired and searched which prophesied of the grace that should come unto you searching when or what time the spirit of Christ which was in them should signifie which spirit testified before the passions that should happen unto Christ and the glory that should follow after Vnto the which Prophets it was also declared that not unto themselves only but unto us they should minister the things which are now shewed unto you by them which have preached unto you the Gospell through the Holy Ghost that was sent unto them from heaven c. In the which testimonie the holy Apostle Peter had a speciall respect to the prophecie of Daniel which did not only record the passion and glory of Christ but also pointed to the time in the which Christ should come For like as God in greatest perils dangers and alterations hath alway renued and more clearely expressed his promise concerning the blessed seed as in the time of Noe when the world was destroyed in the time of Abraham when God would prepare himselfe a new people in the time of Moses when God received his people and caried them out of Egypt to bring them into the
land of Canaan in the time of David when all things stood so well and it must needs be avoided lest any man should thinke David were the blessed seed before the captivitie of Babylon also and in the time of the Prophets which as it is said afore preached and wrote that no man should doubt in Gods promise as who say they were given up and cast away though the Temple were broken the Citie burnt and though the people of whom Christ should be borne were led into captivitie Even so now also in the captivitie when the faithfull might almost have thought that the promise of God concerning the Messias were cleane gone even then did God shew his servant Daniel a more cleare vision of Christ after this manner The people shall be let goe againe out of captivitie and shall come home to Hierusalem build the Temple and Citie againe but with a sore time And after that the Citie is builded unto the time of Christ shall be 62. weekes that is 483. yeeres And even so was it from the third yeere of Darius Histaspes or Artaxerxes in the which the Citie was builded Nehemie 15. untill the 42. yeere of the Empire of Augustus under whom Christ was borne Luke 1. The Angell also gave Daniel farther information of Christ how that his owne people should slay him and finde no fault in him and how that the sacrifice with the ceremonie should cease And a strange people saith he shall come from farre and make the Temple with the Citie an horrible abomination yea they shall destroy and breake downe all together All which things were afterward fulfilled in the last weekes that is within 70. yeeres or thereabout For within 30. yeeres did the Lord grow to teach and to suffer For when he was 30. yeere old Iohn baptised him Afterward within three yeeres was he put to death and within 40. yeeres followed the destruction of Hierusalem by Titus and Vespasian All the time now and yeeres from the captivitie of Babylon to Christs birth are 616. yeeres For the captivitie of Babylon endured 70. yeeres In the first yeere of Cyrus were they delivered in the second yeere began they to build the Temple and builded 46. yeeres even untill the 6. yeere of Darius In the 32. yeere of Darius was the Citie finished which maketh 143. yeeres Adde now hereto the 483. yeeres out of Daniel and thou hast the foresaid summe even 626. yeeres In the said yeeres had our holy faith sore conflicts and the seed of the Serpent pressed sore upon the seed of God as the Babylonians at Babylon and the Persians when the people of God was come home againe Neverthelesse the truth had ever the victorie and was the more clearely testified by Daniel Haggeus Zacharie Esdras Nehemias and Malachy Afterward were they specially opprest by the ungodly king Antiochus in the time of the Machabees When as the times were ever the longer the more full of perils and adversitie untill Aulus Gabinus Pompeius and Crassus Captaines of Rome conquered the land and the true old religion was utterly gone in so much that out of the old serpent there arose in Israel all manner of sects and symonie whom our Lord Iesus Christ with his comming in the world resisted and called them the Serpents generation as the holy Euangelists testifie Notwithstanding in the middest of such mischiefes in Israel there were also godly vertuous people which sought God and his anointed though the errour was great Among whom no doubt was specially the Priest Zacharias the father of Iohn Baptist Elizabeth his wife and godly Simeon When Zacharias had knowledge of the Lords comming hee sayd with a joyfull heart Praised be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and delivered his people and set up the horne of salvation in the house of David his servant according as he had promised afore by the mouth of holy Prophets c. For his words are read Luc. 1. Simeon when he saw the child Iesus in the Temple and had taken him in his armes he sayd Now Lord let me dye in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seene thy Saviour whom thou hast prepared before the face of all people that he might be a light to give light unto the Heathen and the glorie of thy people Israel Luke 1. Loe thus the hearts of all righteous in the old Testament from Adam unto Christ even 3974 yeers have stood onely upon Christ in him was their comfort upon him they trusted it was hee whom they longed for and in Christ Iesus were they saved Therefore hath our Christian faith endured since the beginning of the world and is and continueth still the onely true old undoubted and fast grounded faith CHAP. X. Of the time of the grace of Christ and how that he himselfe testifieth that the salvation of all the world standeth only in him HItherto have I set forth the time of the promises in the which God through the promised seed our Lord Iesus Christ comforted cleansed and preserved all his servants and deare friends There have wee learned and seene that the Christian faith which hath endured since the beginning of the world is the eldest undoubted right and true faith which all holy Patriarks had and in the which they served God and pleased him as Adam Seth Enoch and Noe Item Abraham Isaac and Iacob Likewise the excellent and highly endued Prophet yea the Father and foregoer of all Prophets even great Moses his brother Aaron the holy Priest Eleazar and Phinees The excellent Dukes and Iudges Iosue Gedeon and other moe Even so likewise the Kings David Ezechias Iosaphat and Iosias The dearely beloved of God and excellent Prophets Samuel Helias Isaias Daniel Zacharias and all the other This holy faith also had all righteous and such as were of godly understanding in all the congregations of Israel from the beginning In this were saved all they that from the beginning were preserved and ordained to salvation wherefore whatsoever they can alleage against this faith whether it be concerning holy men old age multitudes learned men generall Councels Convocations of Parliaments Fathers Acts Statutes tokens and wonders it is all nothing worth and is not to be reputed in comparison of our holy faith as every one that hath understanding may see in this Treatise before And though my purpose be now finished even declared out of the Scripture that the Christian faith hath endured since the beginning of the world yet will I adde a short instruction concerning the time of grace and performing of all promises and I will declare that God now also through the appearing of his Sonne would bring into the world and set forth none other religion none other faith neither any other salvation than even the same which was shewed to the old Fathers saving that now all things are more evident more clearely practised accomplished fulfilled and performed for the which cause
also all figures sacrifices and ceremonies doe cease For in Christ is all perfection Yet shall we not therefore cast away the old Testament as some ignorant unlearned and foolish people doe but have it in greater reputation for as much as wee know now through Christ what every thing signifieth and wherefore every thing was thus and thus ordained used and spoken Now shall every man first have a courage to reade the Law and the Prophets when he seeth whereupon every thing goeth And thus also at the beginning did the holy Apostles preach Christ unto the Iewes out of the Law and the Prophets as it is oftentimes mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles And our Lord himselfe when hee went with the two Disciples toward Emaus and preached so unto them that their hearts burnt within them he began at Moses and went thorow all the Prophets and opened unto them the old Scriptures and shewed them that so it behoved Christ to suffer and to enter into his glory This is the cause also that the Scriptures of the New Testament hang altogether and referre themselves to the Scriptures of the old Testament so that these cannot be rightly understood without the other no more than the glosse without the text The text is the Law and the Prophets the exposition are the Euangelists and the Apostles Now will wee see what the worke of grace of the new Testament is In the two and fortieth yeere of the Empire of Augustus after the beginning of the world 3974. yeeres was Iesus Christ the blessed and promised seed borne of the undefiled Virgin and Maid Mary at Bethleem in the Land of Jewrie And though he as a very man was wrapped in cloathes and laid in the crib yet appeareth the Angell of the Lord in great clearenesse unto the Shepherds and saith Feare yee not behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall happen unto all people For this day is borne unto you the Saviour even Christ the Lord in the Citie of David The first newes and tidings of the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ must the Angell bring and give to the intent that it might be the more accepted of all the world All the holy men from the beginning of the world did hitherto long sore after the promised Seed Therefore saith the Angell now that he bringeth them tidings of great joy no doubt to them that were gone dead and past to them also that now lived and to them that were to come afterward The joy is this that Iesus Christ the Saviour is borne even the promised Seed which should save all the world from the power of the Devill cleanse them from sinne and deliver them from damnation Therefore saith the Angell moreover Which shall happen unto all people For unto Abraham it was said In thy seed shall all Nations of the earth be blessed The same saith the Angell is borne in the Citie of David even out of Davids kindred out of the which the Prophets testified that he should be borne which Prophets also for the same cause called him David and the blossome of David And this is now the grace of God that whereas wee poore sinners belonged unto death and were in the Devils bonds hee sent his Sonne to loose and deliver us out of captivitie This is the new Testament For Hieremie also testifieth hereof and saith This is the Testament that I will make I will be their God and they shall be my people I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and sinnes and will thinke upon them no more Hier. 31. This full and perfect forgivenesse is not therefore called the new Testament as though there had beene no remission of sinnes among the old Fathers but because the promise made long before unto the Fathers is now confirmed and renewed and the old figures that represented the same are abrogate Thus the Lord Iesus alone is set forth for the only salvation of all the world so that not only we but all they which before or after his appearance or incarnation beleeved on him were saved And at the birth of Christ there commeth to the foresaid Angell the whole heavenly hoste which praised God and said Glory and praise be unto God in the height and peace upon earth to men a good will And by this they teach us what the dutie thankfulnesse and knowledge of men is or ought to be in this behalfe that God hath done so great good for man Namely how that they ought to praise God to have a sure trust in him and to be friendly and loving one to another And the fulfilling of the Law is love from a pure heart out of a good conscience and of an undissembled or unfained faith 1 Tim. 1. In the fifteenth yeere of the Empire of Tiberius from the beginning of the world 4004. yeeres came the word of the Lord to Iohn the sonne of the Priest Zachary in the wildernesse and he went and preached unto the people of Israel amendment of life and forgivenesse of sinnes in Iesus Christ To whom he bare record that he was the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets very God and Man the only and ever-living Saviour which with the sacrifice of his own bodie should cleanse the world from sinne yea hee pointed unto him with his finger and said Behold this is the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the world And so perfectly and wholly hangeth hee all salvation only on Christ Iesus that he saith plainly Out of his fulnesse have all we received grace c. Ioh. 1. Item who so beleeveth in the Sonne of God hath everlasting life who so beleeveth not in the Sonne shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him Therefore did he also send all his Disciples from him and commanded them to cleave unto Christ He maketh no mention at all of any ceremonies figures or oblations as necessarie points to salvation but preacheth Christ purely and clearely This is manifest Ioh. 1. and 3. Matth. 3. and Luk. 3. The Lord himselfe also came unto Iohn and was baptised And when hee had received Baptisme the heaven opened and the Holy Ghost appeared in the forme of a Dove and there was a voice heard from heaven saying This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am pacified to the intent that all the world should have witnesse of Christ the true Saviour not only now by the Angels and by Iohn the holiest man of all but also from heaven and of God himselfe and that we might be the bolder to commit our selves wholly unto him When hee had received the testimonie he went into the wildernesse And like as our disease began in Paradise by temptation even so at the temptation in the wildernesse began the Lord our health And like as the Father of us all did eat the forbidden meat so
did the Lord not eat the meat that hee might have eaten but fasted fortie daies and fortie nights Afterward came hee among the people and began to preach salvation saying The time is fulfilled and the kingdome of God is at hand repent and beleeve the Gospell Herewith hath he healed all sores driven out Devils and raised up the dead testifying so by his acts that he is Lord of all things and the true Saviour And of them whom hee healeth asketh he nothing hee commandeth them not to build him a Temple neither to give him blocke or stocke hee requireth no bodily thing but onely stedfast faith and confidence And to them whom hee hath healed hee saith Goe thy way and sinne no more take heed that a worse thing happen not unto thee And herewithall doth hee teach in what thing the substance of true Religion lieth even in a right true faith and in an innocent life that in all our conversation wee keepe our selves from all filthinesse Yea the thing that some man taketh for Gods service refuseth hee as long babling prayers vaine-glorious fasting and like almes giving Hee nothing regardeth mens traditions diversities of sects long garments outward appearance their cleansing nor all their hypocrisie He goeth into the Temple overthroweth casteth downe powreth out every thing that is to bee sold in the Temple he driveth the buyers and sellers out of the Temple with a whip For the Temple was ordained for generall prayer thanksgiving and preaching and not for chopping and changing or other such like things These three points doth hee teach vs diligently to observe First that wee obtaine remission of sinnes true righteousnesse and everlasting life onely through him and by his Passion and death and else by none other meane For hee is the onely Mediatour Priest Intercessour Comforter the onely Righteousnesse Satisfaction Ransome Sanctifying the onely perpetuall Sacrifice the Suretie of grace and salvation Speciall testimonies hereof hast thou Iohn 3.6.14 and 16. Secondly that wee cannot serve and please God with exteriour sacrifices or any outward pompe but with such workes as proceed of love and mercie And thirdly that all the children of God are bound to keepe themselves from the workes of darknesse and to apply them to live in righteousnesse and in the light And herein also is comprehended all godlinesse that is all right good Christian workes So when hee had taught all righteousnesse and disclosed and overthrowen all hypocrisie in religion he offered up himselfe upon the crosse for the remission of all our sinnes For willingly and patiently put he himselfe into the hands of his enemies and of his betrayer suffered himselfe to be taken to be bound to be led from one Iudge to another to be laughed to scorne cried out upon to be spitted on and at the last to be adjudged unto death to be scourged and to be crowned with a crowne of thorne Hee himselfe bare his owne crosse to the place of execution where hee was crucified and hanged up betweene two murtherers Then lived hee in great paine from the sixth houre untill the ninth At the last he cried It is finished Father into thy hands commend I my spirit thus offered he himselfe for our sinnes and died that wee might live But soone after followed the things whereby the fruit of Christs passion might bee perceived For the vaile which in the Temple separated the holy from the most holy did rent from the top to the bottome whereby Christ testified that now with his death all ceremonies and figurative things were at an end and no more of value that the way to eternall salvation was opened that all things significative in the Tabernacle in sacrifices rites and observances were now fulfilled and abrogate that now the bare and onely crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ is altogether unto the faithfull that the heele of the Virgins seed is well trodden upon and his flesh well rent and slaine but that yet also in the meane season he hath trodden the serpent upon the head Therefore did the dead also arise and appeared vnto certaine at Hierusalem For the death of Christ is our life The earth quaked the stones burst asunder For the preaching of the death of the Sonne of God hath altered the whole world and many hard stonie hearts are moved to repentance faith and good works But when the side of the dead bodie of Christ was opened with the speare and the rocke as Zacharie saith was digged up there ran out water and bloud declaring manifestly thereby that unto us out of the death of Christ followeth life and purifying For water cleanseth in the bloud is the life of man And with the bloud of Christ is all bloud stanched and now is Christs bloud only available being sprinkled through faith in our hearts This oblation and passion of Christ the ransome for the sinne of the whole world was done in the 18. yeere of the Empire of Tiberius reckoning from the beginning of the world 4007. yeeres the 25. day of March. So the whole bodie of Iesus was taken downe from the crosse and honourably buried and on the third day after hee rose up againe so that his soule came againe to the bodie and his verie flesh was raised up from death howbeit now no more mortall and passible but glorified For hee is the first in the resurrection of the dead For like as by one man came death so by one man must come the resurrect on of the dead And like as in Adam wee all died in bodie and soule so shall wee be all together restored againe to life in Christ Iesus This hope unto life would the Lord print substantially in us with the resurrection And therefore after his resurrection hee continued fortie dayes with his Disciples that hee might well instruct them of his resurrection and that they should haue no doubt therein So when he had shewed and declared unto them his verie resurrection divers wayes and had performed al that the Father commanded him to finish hee ascended up unto heaven with bodie and soule from mount Olivet in the sight of his Disciples and is set at the right hand of God there to remaine corporally untill the last day in the which hee shall come againe bodily to judge the quicke and dead And all such as have walked in faith shall he take to him with bodie and soule into heaven like as hee himselfe is received into heaven And shall with bodie and soule condemne all them that have walked in the way of the old serpent and have noâ— converted from unrighteousnesse to the righteousnesse in Christ And thus shall salvation bee perfectly finished and Gods children shall live eternally with God through Iesus Christ To whom be praise for ever Amen CHAP. XI That also the elect Apostles preached this old faith and declared that all salvation is onely in Christ THus through Christ Iesus is all fulfilled that the