threatning that in what houre soever he did eat of the same tree he should die an everlasting death But untruly dealt man with his faithfull God transgressed his commandement and gave more credit to the perswasion of the woman and of the serpent than to the true word of God which was nothing else but even as much as to take the forme of good and evill out of themselves or elsewhere rather than of God and not to cleave and be obedient onely unto him as to such an one as wisheth good unto every man For man being deceived through the woman and the Serpent did beleeve that God was not indifferent and that hee had withdrawne from him some of his godly wisdome And for as much as the minde now was departed from God through infidelity and looked not for all good at his hand therefore tooke the hand the noisome apple and the mouth did eat the forbidden meat And thus thought hee to helpe himselfe to Gods Majesty by another meanes rather than by God and so to repaire his necessitie which he thought hee had And so with infidelity unfaithfulnesse disobedience and unthankfulnesse he wrought life and died the death that is he offended against God and fell into the punishment of everlasting damnation Yea he made himselfe bound unto the devill whom he was so diligent to beleeve to follow and to serve Contrariwise he forsooke God and so came he utterly into the bondage of the devill and darknesse And thus have we now the goodnesse and faithfulnesse of God Againe the wickednesse and great unfaithfulnesse of man CHAP. III. The first and right foundation of our holy Christian faith HEre now had the just God occasion and right to expell man to destroy him to damne him and to leave him utterly to the devill And the same also did his righteousnesse and truth require For he had said In what day soever thou eatest of the fruit thou shalt die the death Contrariwise the goodnesse and mercy of God required not utterly to suppresse man a poore and naked creature In the meane season was there found a way whereby the righteousnesse and truth of God should be satisfied and in the which the mercy of God should specially be exercised and declare it selfe that is to say Christ Iesus which is given us by the manifest grace of God was offered for our sinnes satisfied and recompenced the righteousnesse of God and so delivered us out of the bonds of the Devill For hee died for us all in as much as God said In what day soever thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Therefore died Christ for us all that through his death we might live and be taken out of the kingdome of darknesse and be set in the kingdome of the deare beloved Sonne of God This device of Gods wisdome which no doubt was determinate from everlasting was also directly opened unto Adam after the fall in manner following When man had eaten of the fruit of the forbidden tree immediatly his eyes were opened in so much that he was ashamed when he saw that he was naked Hitherto had hee lived in innocencie therefore began he now to cover himselfe but with simple clothing which they trusted not much to like as it is all unprofitable that man of himselfe will cover his sinne withall saving that they fled from the Lord and hid themselves from him But the Lord followed upon the fugitive put him in minde of his decay miserie and the life that hee was fallen from and said Adam where art thou Or knowest thou what miserie thou art fallen into from great felicitie Now should man have acknowledged his fault but hee shewed himselfe stiffe-necked And the Lord moveth him still to see if he will acknowledge his sinne and said Who told thee that thou art naked Yea to helpe him in the matter and to make him confesse his sinne hee saith moreover Hast thou not eaten of the tree of the which I forbad thee that thou shouldest not eat But man was loth to knowledge his sinne and laid it first upon the woman his companion and the same did he with so froward and unadvised words that a man may easily see that secretly in his heart he wickedly and unreasonably laid the fault upon God For hee said not onely The woman gave me of the tree to eat but added proudly thereto The woman which thou gavest me c. As though he should say Thou thy selfe art in the fault if thou haddest not given mee the woman I had not beene deceived And yet the righteous God gave him not the woman to deceive him but to bee an helpe to him Therefore appeareth it here againe that the sinne of man was the more wilfull grievous Yet for all this did the gracious God proceed further and would prove whether hee might finde any knowledge of the sinne with the woman the beginning and occasion of the sinne But nothing at all could he finde The one person was as the other and they both had no power Therefore like as Adam put all the fault to the woman even so laid the woman all the fault upon the Serpent that is upon the Devill Which nature doth yet to this day cleave in man But what man which hath well considered this foresaid matter by himselfe would now say or durst thinke that any part of the promise of righteousnesse and salvation of man were to bee ascribed to his owne power and deserving For as much as it is so manifest how unable and lost a creature man is of himselfe which doth nothing but heape sinne upon sinne and disobedience upon disobedience Againe who is so blinde but he seeth that all salvation is to be ascribed to the onely meere grace and mercie of God For now followeth it first how God handled this matter Now when all the complaint was made upon the Serpent the Lord asketh and examineth the Serpent nothing at all for the deed was open neither was the Serpent created of God to speake and with the Devill was there no truth Therefore doth the Lord righteously curse the Serpent the Devill Unto the bodily serpent also whom the Devill used as an instrument he giveth a sore curse and saith Vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and earth shalt thou eat all the dayes of thy life When this was done it was ordained now first for man that according to the righteousnesse and truth of God he should bee punished also with the curse and with eternall death but for the causes expressed in the beginning of this chapter the curse was directed unto Christ who also with cleare words was promised and so was life in him promised likewise Therefore saith not the Lord now And cursed bee thou man because thou hast done against my Commandement but And I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman betweene thy seed and her seed the same shall tread thee on
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
are delivered from the power of the devill and from everlasting death through Iesus Christ and brought into the land of promise even to eternall joy and salvation which God promised unto our fathers Adam Noe Abraham Isaac and Iacob Now when the Lord had caried his people out of Aegypt and brought them thorow the red sea drie shod and had drowned Pharao with all his people he commanded his folke to prepare and cleanse themselues at mount Sina For he would binde himselfe unto them receive them as his owne people and give them his law and ordinance Which thing he also did and appointed his law himselfe spake it with his owne mouth and wrote it with his owne fingers in two tables of stone In the one and first table hee ordained foure commandements concerning the worship and love of God namely that wee should take him only for the true and right God and none else beside or except him That wee should worship and honour him only and in no wise to have any other God comfort or hope Item that we should in no wise make any image or picture of any things and neither to worship them nor serve them Moreover that wee should not take the name of God in vaine or lightly And that wee should hallow the Sabboth day In the other table ordained he six commandements concerning man And like as the foure first are comprehended in these words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart c. Euen so are the six contained in these words following Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe The commandements are these Thou shalt honour father and mother Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not breake wedlocke Thou shalt not steale Thou shalt beare no false witnesse Thou shalt not lâ—st In all these commandements is comprehended all that serveth for a godly life and that any where is written of God of true serving of God and of right vertue towards this world Who so now doth well ponder these ten chapters or commandements and compareth them to the doings and workes of the holy Patriarks and old Fathers which had no law in writing he shall finde that the Lord now with this his written law began no new thing neither ought that was not afore in the world but rather renewed the old and the law that he hitherto had written in the hearts of holy men now when the people had gotten them stony hearts he wrote the same in tables of stone For that wee ought to worship and serve God onely and to have none other Gods the same did the holy fathers so beleeve and keepe that all their conversation and doing beareth record thereof Concerning images or idols it is evident that Iacob buried the Idols of Mesopotamia under an Oke beside Sichem Gen. 35.4 We may perceive also by the oathes of Abraham Isaac and Iacob how the name of God was had in reverence among them of old and not taken in vaine The Sabbath did not the Lord ordaine here first but on the seventh day of the Creation Gen. 2.3 The same did the fathers keepe aright no doubt Iohn 7.22 Whereas Cham had not his father Noe in reverence he was cursed for it Gen. 9.25 Advoutry did the heathen rulers forbid under paine of death as we may see Gen. 26.10 11. Whereby it is easie to understand how the blessed friends of God kept holy wedlocke How contrary the holy men were unto theft and deceit it appeareth in the parting of Abraham and Loth Gen. 13.6 8 9. And in Iacobs faithfulnesse and handling with Laban his father in law Gen 29.37 30 33 31.6 Lying and false dealing was so farre from the holy fathers that for keeping their credit and truth they obtained very great commendation Notwithstanding they were tempted with evill as all men be but they resisted the wicked lusts For manifest is the chaste act of Ioseph which would not touch his masters wife nor desire her Wherefore in these commandements is nothing written or required that was not also required of the fathers afore the law and performed through true faith in Christ The Lord therefore began no new thing with his people when hee delivered them the tables of the law Only he would bring into a short summe and set in writing all the law that the Fathers had but not together nor comprehended in a summe to the intent that they should the lesse be forgotten of the people which through their dwelling in Aegypt among Idolaters and false beleevers were brought into sore offence and slander This must now be rectified againe after this manner As for all the lawes and ordinances which afterward were added unto these two tables they were not joyned thereunto as principall lawes but as by-lawes for the declaration and better understanding of the ten Chapters or Commandements For the perfect summe of all lawes the very right rule of godlinesse of Gods service of righteousnesse of good and evill conversation is comprehended alreadie in the two tables But here might some men make objection and say If all truth be contained in these ten Commandements how happeneth it that by no token there is mention made of the blessed seed promised unto the Fathers Hitherto is it declared and promised unto the holy Fathers that they shall be saved through the blessed seed out of the very grace of God and for none of their owne deservings but now are written lawes which command and forbid us as though we through our owne workes and deserving as namely if we keepe these Commandements should be saved and acceptable unto God Where is now Christ Where is the faith of the Patriarkes Here is nothing heard of faith but much yea only of workes Answer This objection hath deceived many that they have had no right opinion and faith of the grace of God and our righteous making Therefore will we now give no answer out of our selves but set forth holy Paul and let him answer that the answer may be the more sure and the better esteemed Paul in the third chapter to the Galathians writeth after this manner Deare brethren I will speake after the manner of men When a mans Testament is confirmed no man doth lightly regard or despise it nor addeth ought thereto Now were the promises made unto Abraham and to his seed He saith not In the seeds as in many but as in one And in thy seed which is Christ All these are Pauls words and the meaning of them is For as much as the Testaments or workes of men are of such reputation in the world that when they are made ordained and confirmed no man dare adde ought to them or minish any thing from them but every man must let them be as they are of themselves It is much more reason that Gods Testament or bequest remaine still and that nothing be added to it or
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
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
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
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
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
rather to require it of all his people Wherefore no doubt he set up and furthered this his faith and religion among all his men of warre kinsfolke in all his court dominion before the whole congregation and all his kingdome so diligently earnestly and fervently that afterward certaine hundred yeeres they which beleeved right and lived well were praised for walking in the waies of David their Father They also that did evill set not forth the true faith of them is it written they walked not in the waies of David their Father Of this hast thou many examples in the bookes of the Kings and in the Chronicles Many things also were forgiven the Kings and all the people of Iuda for Davids sake that is for the promise sake made unto David even for Iesus Christs sake whom Ezechiel calleth David In the first booke of the Kings the fifteenth chapter it is written thus The heart of Abia was not right toward his Lord God as was the heart of David his father And for Davids sake did the Lord give him a light at Hierusalem so that at Hierusalem he set up his sonne and preserved him For David did that that was right in the fight of the Lord and all the daies of his life did not he shrinke from any thing that he commanded him except in the matter of Vrias the Hethite Thus readest thou also of Ezechias 2 Reg. 18. Afore Iosias was there no King that was like him which turned himselfe so unto the Lord with all his heart with all his soule and with all his power according to all the law of Moses And afterward came there none like him But in the second booke of the Chronicles the 34. chapter standeth the declaration of the foresaid place after this manner Iosias reigned at Hierusalem one and thirtie yeeres and did that which pleased the Lord and walked in the waies of his Father David and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left For in the eighth yeere of his reigne while he was yet but young even sixteene yeeres old hee began to seeke the God of his Father David Thus much be spoken concerning this that Israel and all the vertuous Kings of Iuda trusted unto Christ and not to the Law of Moses Who so desireth the number of the yeeres he findeth 1 Reg. 6. even 480. yeeres from the departing out of Aegypt untill the fourth yeere of the reigne of Salomon And from that time untill the captivitie of Babylon are reckoned 419. yeeres or thereabouts All together make 899. yeeres CHAP. IX All holy Prophets doe point unto Christ and preach salvation only in him SOmewhat yet will we now declare further concerning the times of the Kings of Iuda and Israel which in a manner were even as the times of the Iudges of Israel For like as in the first yeeres of Iosue God gave great victorie and honour and afterward rest and peace Even so were the Israelites very victorious and triumphant under David and had great rest and peace under Salomon But like as after the death of Iosue the honour of Israel decreased and the departing away from God followed with one persecution upon another though in the meane time they had peace and deliverers as Othoniel Ehud Barack Gedeon Iephtha Sampson c. Even so did the worship of Israel decrease after Salomons time For the ten Tribes of Israel fell away from the house of David only Iuda and Bejamin held Salomons sonne Roboam for their King the other made Hieroboam King And so of one kingdome were made two the kingdome of Israel and the kingdome of Iuda The kingdome of Israel through the perswasion of Hieroboam chose them another manner of serving God Not that they utterly denied and refused the God of their Fathers but they served him after a strange heathenish manner of their owne imagining But afterward they fell the longer the more and further into grosse idolatrie so long till the Lord suffered them to be rooted out and carried away by the King of the Assyrians and scattered abroad among all the Heathen The kingdome and the Kings of Iuda were somewhat better howbeit they had some also which excelled the Kings of Israel and of the Heathen in ungodlinesse For they likewise went forth so long in unrighteousnesse till Nabuchodonosor the King rooted them out and caried them away unto Babylon But afore we see that there was a wonderfull combrance in the civill policie and in the religion Sometime was all righteousnesse and true religion opprest and violence and idolatrie used Sometime gat righteousnesse up againe and the right true faith had the victorie all unright and idolatrie being put downe This came to passe also in Israel under Helias and King Iehu Yet was the idolatrie and wrong rather punished than any amendment following Like as it came also to passe after the birth of Christ that there were vertuous Kings and Emperours which according to the prophecie of Esay in the 49. chapter verse 23. did all righteousnesse set up the faith of Christ and put downe all idolatrie Againe there came other that set up all unrighteousnesse and idolatry persecuted the truth and at the last receiued their reward convenient So weightie a matter is it to have good or evill Rulers But in these wonderfull alterations and thorowout all the time of these governances of both the kingdomes God alway sent his servants the holy Prophets to rebuke wrong and idolatry and to teach all righteousnesse and true serving of God And first after the time of David and Salomon under whom there was a great multitude of learned and holy Prophets for David also and Salomon were excellently endued with the spirit of wisdome and prophecie above other men these were the chiefe most famous and oldest Prophets of whom the Bible maketh mention with worship Semeias which lived under Roboam King of Iuda Ahias the Silonite under Hieroboam Azarias the sonne of Obed which lived under Asa King of Iuda and Iehu the sonne of Anani whom Baasa the King of Israel slew Helias the great Prophet and Micheas the sonne of Iema lived under Achab and Iosaphat Now like as in the time of David there was a great number of learned men even so testifieth the second booke of the Chronicles in the 17. chapter that in the time of Iosaphat there were many learned Levites and Prophets Heliseus was in the time of King Iehu and Zacharias the sonne of Ioiada was under Ioas under whom also he was stoned Neverthelesse we have no bookes written and set forth by these only we have the prophecie of Abdias which wrote his prophecie under Achab. Afterward under Vzzia Iothan Achas and Ezechias Kings of Iuda lived the most part of them whose bookes are abroad For under these preached and wrote Ionas Oseas Isaias Ioel Nahum Amos and Micheas Afterward under King Manasses wrote Abacuck Vnder the holy King Iosias wrote Sophonias
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
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