distinct natures in the Person of CHRIST and yet a communication of Properties or Idioms as they call them of the one nature to the other that CHRIST in one Person should have two distinct wils all who opined the contrary being branded and condemned by the name of Monothelites Not to say any thing in this place of those dark expressions in which the eternal generation of the Son of God and the nature of the Hypostatical Vnion have been delivered by some Writers of whom a man may say with a sober confidence that they hardly understood what they said themselves Assuredly that antient diverb Ingeniosa res est esse Christianum was not made for nought The best way therefore is to contain our selves within those bounds which are prescribed us in the Word of God in which though all things are not written which concern our Saviour yet those things which are written are sufficient doubtless to make us wise unto salvation that so we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing we may have life through his Name And now as far as I can go by the light of Scripture I should proceed unto the incarnation of the Son of God but that we must first behold him as he is our LORD which is the last of those two relations in which he is presented to us in this present Article Of this as it belongeth to God the Father we have already spoken in the first Article under the title of Iehovah the proper and peculiar name of the Lord our God a name so proper and peculiar to the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST that it is thought by very learned men not to be understood of the Son of God or of God the Son in the whole Old Testament who is most usually expressed by the name of Adonai Thus in that celebrated place of the Psalms of David whereas we read in English thus the Lord said unto my Lord it is in the Original thus Iehovah said to Adonai or the Lord Jehovah said unto my Lord Adonai Where clearly the name of Iehovah doth denote the Father as that of Adonai the Son though both be generally Englished by the name of Lord. Now the name Adonai is derived as before was noted from the Hebrew word Eden which signifieth the basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly doth express his nature by whom as all things were created in the first beginning as St. Iohn telleth us in his Gospel so doth he still support the Earth and the pillars of it as it is told us in the Psalms But for the name or style of Lord both in Greek and Latine it seemed to be a title of such power and soveraignty that great Augustus though the Master of the Roman Empire did forbear to use it Nay which is more gravissimo corripuit edicto as Suetonius hath it he interdicted the applying of it to himself by a publick Edict The like by Dion is reported of Tiberius also a Prince who cherished flattery more then any vertue and in whose Court no men were more esteemed of then the basest sycophants This by the Statists of those times imputed to policy or Kings-craâ—t ne speciem Principatus in Regni formam converterent for fear they should be thought in that conjuncture of time when their affairs were yet unsetled to affect the title of Kings as they had the power which was most odious to the Romans But in my minde Orosius gives a better reason who thinks that this was rather done by Gods special Providence then on any foresight of those Princes His reason is because that Christ during the reign of those two Emperours had took our flesh upon him and did live amongst us Nor was it fit saith he that any man should take upon himself the name of LORD ex eo tempore quo verus totius geneâ—is humani Dominus inter nos homines natus esset whilest the undoubted Lord of all mankinde was conversant amongst us here upon the Earth And this we may the rather credit to have been done by Gods special providence because Caligula who next succeeded in the Empire our Saviour Christ having then withdrawn his bodily presence was not alone content to admit this Title but did command it to be given him by all the people Et primus Dominum se jussit appellari as it is in Victor But whether this observation of Orosius will hold good or not certain it is that from the time and instant of the Resurrection the style of LORD did properly belong unto CHRIST our Saviour Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesâ—s whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Not made that is to say not declared LORD by his heavenly Father before that time when he had overcome the sharpness of death and trampled on the grave in his Resurrection though called so sometimes before in the way of Anticipation or of civil complement Then only called now made and publickly declared the Lord of all things And certainly it might seem to stand with reason that seeing all power was given to the man Christ Jesus both in heaven and earth for now we look upon him only in that capacity that with the power he also should partake of the highest title by which that power was usually expressed and signified From that time forwards unto this there is not any thing more ordinary in the Book of God or in the Liturgies of the Church or in the common speech of good Christian people then to entitle our Redeemer by the name of the LORD and to entitle him thereby in so clear a manner as to make it more peculiar to him then to God the Father So that in all the antient Liturgies both Greek and Latine when the name of God the Father and of God the Son occur in the same Prayer or Hymne as they often do the name of Lord is constantly appropriated unto God the Son And so we also finde it in our English Liturgie According to thy promises declared unto mankinde in Christ Jesu our Lord as in the general Confession Almighty God the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST in the Absolution through Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with thee and the holy Ghost as in some of the Collects And this the Church did learn no doubt from the like expression of St. Paul who thus gives the blessing The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and not of the Lord God and the fellowship of the holy Ghost and not of the Lord holy Ghost be with you all Amen And thus it also stands in the present Creed in which the title of Lord is appropriated only to the Son and neither added to the Father nor the holy Ghost Nor is he called LORD only in general tearms
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
hath his dwelling on High Psal. 113. in which respect the Heathen Poets said of their Idol-Iupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he dwelleth in the Highest Heavens but in relation to his Essence by which he infinitely exceeds all creatures both in Heaven and Earth who in comparison of him are but toys and trifles So little reason have we to be proud of our earthly fortunes or of our natural parts and graces that rather looking whence we are made of dust and ashes the thought thereof should humble us in the sight of God and make us have recourse to him to obtain perfection The last we meet with in this kinde for still we are upon those Names or Attributes which are both absolute in God and Essential to him is that of Adonai or my Lord. A name as it is noted in the Mazoreth found of it self no more then 134 times in all the Old Testament but substituted by the Modern superstitious Iews in the place of Iehovah as often as they meet that word in the course of the Text. A name derived by the learned from the Hebrew Eden which signifieth a Basis or foundation on which the whole building doth relie and therefore very fitly chosen to express his nature who beareth up the pillars of the Earth as the Psalmist hath it by whom the whole fabrick of the Universe is preserved in being These are the names or Titles of Almighty God by which he hath made known himself to his chosen servants all of them absolutely his without relation to the creature and such as rather serve to declare his Essence then set forth his office for Deus est nomen naturae non officii as St. Ambrose hath it All of them laid together teach us this of GOD that he is of a self-existing of infinite power of incomprehensible strength and unspeakable Majesty and that as he hath all this of himself alone so like an Universal Parent he communicates a beeing to all the creatures and doth endue them with so much of his power and wisdom of his strength and Majesty as shall suffice to every one in their several places Not that the creature doth partake of his heavenly Essence we conceive not so but that he is the principal and Original cause by which all creatures have an Essence non ut de essentia ejus sed ut causa essendi as Aquinas stateth it and that having thus received an essence or a being from him we receive also out of his abundance all additaments of what sort soever which are expedient for us in our severall callings For out of his fulnesse we have all received as we are told by the Apostle Now by the knowledge of these names or rather of the nature of God represented in them we come unto the knowledge of those reall attributes which are so proper and peculiar to the Lord our God as not to be communicated unto any creature of which we must first speak a little in the way of groundwork or foundation before we can behold him as the Father Almighty And these are principally two simplicitas and infinitas Simplicitas or the simpleness of God if we may so call it is that whereby he is void of all composition either of matter and forme or parts and accidents compounding whether they be sensible or intelligible only For whereas all corporall substances are compounded of matter and forme and the angelicall natures of a potentia and an actus as the School-men phrase it GOD being incorporeal hath no matter of forme and being wholly existing all at once together must be purus actus not having any thing in potentia which at first he had not For if GOD were compounded of matter and form there must be some pre-existent matter out of which he was made and if he be compounded of potentia and actus he must and may be somewhat which at first he was not both which are so destructive of the nature of GOD as being once admitted he is God no longer And therefore in my minde the judicious Scaliger hath very well determined of it in these following words Intelligentiae habent aliquid simile materiae aliquid simile formae Solus Deus simplex est in quo nihil in potentia sed in actu omnia imo ipse purus primus medius ultimus actus that is to say The Angels or Intelligences have something proportionable unto matter and something which resembleth form God only is a simple uncompounded essence in whom there is nothing in potentia but all things in act he being a pure act himself and the first intervenient and last act of all God then is in the first place a simple or uncompounded essence without parts or accidents his attributes not differing from his essence at all but being of his very essence for in Deo non est nisi Deus as the old rule was nor differing essentially from one another but only in regard of our weak understanding which being not able to know or comprehend the earthly things by one single act must of necessity have many distinct acts and notions to comprehend the nature of the incomprehensible God And being such a simple uncompounded essence without parts or accidents he is both great without quantity and good without quality mercifull without passion every where without motion in heaven without a place or ubi The second Attribute of God which before we spake of is that of Infinitenesse by which God is absolutely and actually infinite in his acts and essence And this infinite or infinitenesse is defined to be that without which nothing is or can be Infinitum est extra quod nihil est said the old Philosophers so that it is impossible for any thing to be without or besides that before or after that in which all possible being is comprehended And this infinity doth branch it self into these four species that is to say Infinity in regard of duration which we call Eternity 2. Infinity in regard of dimensions which we call Immensity 3. Infinity in regard of comprehensions by which we say that God is of infinite wisdome and of infinite knowledge And last of all Infinity in regard of power which we call Omnipotence And first Infinity in regard of duration which we call Eternity is that attribute of the Lord our God by which he is without beginning or end without beginning of dayes or end of time without succession or precession if I may so speak Or else we may define it with Boetius to be the entire or totall possession of interminable life all at once together or otherwise thus to be a circular duration whose instants are alwayes and whose terminations of extremities never were nor shall be which are the words of Trismegistus with some little change In this respect God took unto himself this name I AM or I AM THAT I AM all time being present unto God as is also that infinity which was
But such was his unspeakable love to the sons of men that he disdained not to submit himself for their sakes to those low conditions as to be made man and to have a Mother a Mother which beyond example did bring forth her God and became the Parent of her Saviour Et mater sine exemplo genuit autorem suum as Lactantius hath it Born then our Saviour was of a mortall womb But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the present Article tels us more then so and telleth us that he was not only born of the Virgin Mary but so born of her as to be made of her also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the word was made flesh Ioh. 1.14 God sent his Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made of a woman saith St. Paul Gal. 4.4 where the same word is used as here Made then he was as well as born of the Virgin Mary And made not convertendo not by converting the Word into flesh as Cerinthus nor converting flesh into the WORD as Velentinus was of opinion for the deity cannot be changed into any thing nor any thing into it Nor was it made conciliando as friends are made one or reconciled so as they continue two persons still and while the flesh suffered the WORD stood still and looked on only as Nestorius taught for that were not to be made flesh but made with the flesh not caro sed cum carne saith my reverend Author Nor finally was he made componendo by compounding two persons together and so a third thing produced of both as Eutyches for so he should be neither of both neither the word nor flesh neither God nor man But made he was as St. Paul tels us assumendo by taking the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 His generation before time as verbum Deus is as the enditing the word within the heart His generation in time as verbum caro is as the uttering it forth with the voice The inward motion of the minde taketh unto it a naturall body of Aire and so becometh vocal It is not changed into it the word remaineth still as it was yet they two became one voice Take a similitude from our selves Our soul is not turned into nor compounded with the body yet they two though distinct in natures grow into one man So Athanasius in his Creed For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man so God and man is one Christ. So into the Godhead was the manhood taken the natures preserved without confusion the person entire without division The fourth General Councell so determineth also Sic factum est caro ut maneret verbum non immutando quod erat sed suscipiendo quod not erat Nostra auxit sua non minuit nec Sacramentum pietatis detrimentum est Deitatis i. e. He was so made flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing what he was but taking that he was not We were the better he was never the worse The mysterie of Godlinesse was was no detriment to the Godhead nor the honour of the creature wrong to the Creator No wrong indeed it was no detriment to the divine nature of the Word to be made flesh and take upon him the infirmities of our humane nature but much to the advancement of our humane nature which he took upon him as many Kings and soveraign Princes have been made free of some particular Corporations under their commands without diminution or impeachment of their Royal Power and highly to the honour of those Companies or Corporations Mortalis factus est non infirmata verbi divinitate sed carnis suscepta infirmitate as divinely Angustine in his De Civit. dei l. 9. c. 15. And herein miserable man hath a great advantage of the Angels though made lower then they in his creation in that the WORD God for ever blessed vouchsafed to be made in such manner of our rank and order as he is not of theirs From the manner passe we to the time when this work was wrought which St. Paul cals plenitudinem temporis or the fulnesse of time that is to say when the time was come and fully accomplished which God in his eternall wisdome had fore-determined which he had also signifyed to the house of Israel by the mouth of his Prophets In reference to the civil Account it was at the time when Herod a stranger to the bloud-royal of David was King of Iewry and Augustus Caesar the sole Monarch of the Roman Empire The first having translated the Scepter from Judah and the Law-giver from between his feet made an apparent way for the coming of Shiloh to whom the gathering of the people was now to be The latter having the third time closed the Temple of Ianus and setled an universal peace over all the Empire made it the most agreeable time for the birth of him who being called the Prince of peace by the Prophet Isaiah proclaimed peace unto all the earth at the hour of his birth and left it to his Disciples as his last Legacie at the time of his death And it was also in the time of a general taxing as our English or rather of a general enrolment cum universus orbis describeretur saith the vulgar very answerably to the Greek Originals as the Rhemists read it A time when every subject of the Roman Empire was to repaire to the head City of his family there to list his name and to professe ut profiterentur saith the Vulgar or make acknowledgment of his fealty and true allegeance to the Prince in being A thing not done at random or by humane providence that by this means the Emperour might come to know quot civium sociorumque in Armis the strength and number of his Subjects as the Statists tell us but by the speciall dispensation and appointment of Almighty God Though Christ had been conceived in Nazareth a City of Galilee yet was he to be born in Bethlehem the City of David And thither was Ioseph to repair to be taxed or enrolled rather with Mary his wife that she being there delivered of her blessed burden the word of God fore-signifyed by the Prophet Micah might be fulfilled viz. that out of Bethlehem-Judah there should come a Governour which should rule over the house of Israel The shutting of the Temple of Ianus and this general taxing or enrolment under the President-ship of Cyrenius point us directly to the 35. year of Augustus his Empire in which CHRIST was born And if it were esteemed as it seems to be so great an honour unto Cicero that this Augustus was born when he was Consul Consulatui Ciceronis non mediocre adjecit decus natus eo anno D. Augustus saith the Court Historian how great an honour may we count it unto this Augustus that CHRIST the Son of God the very brightnesse of his Father was born when he was Emperour And as the year so is the
leading of the Spirit I have offered my self unto the same And thus Theophylact following the constant current of the former writers For this cause came I unto this hour that I might suffer death for all by which he very plainly tels us that though we be troubled and perplxed at it we must not flie death for the truth For I saith Christ am troubled as you see being a true and innocent man and cannot but permit mans nature to shew it self yet do I not say unto my Father that he should save me from this houre but that he glorifie his name Finally thus St. Chrysostom for the antient Fathers out of whose garden Theophylact collected his best flowers Therefore came I unto this houre i. e. as if the Lord had said in termes more particular and expresse though we be moved and troubled yet we flee not death for this I say not as my resolution Father deliver me from this houre but Father glorifie thy name So that these words of Christ being thus expounded according to the true intent and full meaning of them import not such a contrariety or contradiction as these dreamers fancie but only do import a consultation and deliberation held within himself though such indeed as might and did proceed from a troubled soul. And therefore Epiphanius notes exceeding well that our Redeemer spake these words in the way of preparation or dubitation as being scarce thorowly resolved what he had to do For howsoever the inclination of nature induced him to avoid death as much as might be in this debating with himself what was best to be done yet he did presently reject and repell those inclinations saying for this cause came I unto this hour and absolutely resigned them in the words next follwing Father glorifie thy name But it is time I leave these triflers and return back into the garden of Bethsemane where I left my Saviour sorrowing and lamenting under the most calamitous burden of our sins and miseries whom I finde first kneeling on his knees but after prostrate on the ground on his very face and calling earnestly and passionately on the Lord his God and saying Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me It seemes God looked upon him now or on the sins of man which were laid upon him with a wrathful countenance holding his lightnings in his hands and all the vials of his anger to be powred upon him He had not else broak out into these expressions which were indeed the true effects and signes of a soul astonished And yet not so astonished neither as some men would have him who make him pray in this confusion and astonishment against Gods known will which is an irreligious and most dangerous dotage For doth not CHRIST submit immediately to his fathers will doth he not say in termes expresse not my will but thy will be done And call you this a praying against Gods known will How much more orthodoxly is the point resolved by Chrysostom where we read as followeth If this were spoke saith he of Christs divinity then were it a contradiction indeed and many absurdities would thence follow but if it were spoken of the flesh then was there good reason for these words and nothing in them to be blamed And this the Father presseth in the following words For saith he that the flesh would not willingly die is not a thing to be condemned because proper to nature the properties whereof he shewed in himself yet without sin and that very abundantly thereby to stop the mouths of Hereticks When then he saith If it be possible let this cup passe from me and not as I will but as thou wilt he declareth nothing else but that he was invested with true real flesh which feared the inevitable stroke of death that shewing the infirmitie thereof he might confirme the truth of his humane nature yet sometimes covered those feares and other infirmities from being visibly discerned because he was not a bare man Here then we see an easie way to salve that contrariety to the known will of God imputed by these men to our Saviours prayer which yet the Schoolmen have expressed in a clearer and more significant manner There was say they a double apprehension of reason in Christ the one termed the superior which looketh into things with all incident circumstances the other the inferior which presenteth to the minde some circumstances but not all Then they declare that in Christ every faculty power and part was suffered notwithstanding the perfection found in some other to do that which properly pertained to it And thereupon infer that thence it is easie to discern how it came to passe that he should desire and pray for that which he knew would never be granted as namely that the Cup of death might passe from him For the sense say they of nature and inferior reason presented death and the ignominie of the Crosse unto him as they were evill in themselves without any consideration of the good to follow and so caused a desire to decline them which he expresseth in that prayer But superior reason considering them with all the circumstances and knowing Gods resolution to be such that the world by that means should be saved and by no other means whatsoever perswaded to a willing acceptance of them so that between these desires and resolutions there was a diversity but no contrariety a subordination but no repugnance There was no contrariety because they were not in respect of the same circumstances for death as death is to be avoided neither did the superior reason ever dislike this judgment of the inferior faculties but shewed further and higher considerations whereon it was to be accepted and embraced And there was no repugnance nor resistance because the one yeilded to the other For even as a man that is sick considering the potion of the Physitian to be unpleasant to his tast declines it whiles he stayes within the bounds and confines of that consideration but when he is shewed by the Physitian the happy operation of it and the good that is in it doth receive it willingly in that it is beneficial to him in the way of his health So CHRIST considering death as in it self it is evill and contrary to the nature of all mankinde shunned and declined it whilest he staid within the bounds of that consideration and yet did joyfully accept it as the only means of mans salvation embracing what he had refused and refusing what he had embraced Again There is a thing saith Hugo de Sancto Victore which is bonum in se good in it self and the good of every other thing there are somethings good in themselves and yet good but to certain purposes only and some there are which being evill in themselves are to some purposes good Of these the two first sorts are to be desired simply and absolutely for themselves the other in respect only
unto certain ends And of this kind saith he was the death of the Crosse with all the wofull torments concurring with it which simply Christ shunned and declined but respectively to the end proposed did embrace it cheerfully So far and to this purpose and effect the said Reverend and Learned Doctor This being declared and the point thus stated by the Schoolmen we will next see how this agreeth with the sense of all the antient and orthodox writers who have delivered us their conceptions of this prayer of Christs And first saith Origen CHRIST taking to him the nature of mans flesh retained all the properties thereof according to which he prayed in this place that the cup might passe from him It is the property of every faithfull man to be unwilling to suffer any pain especially that tendeth unto death because he is a man and hath flesh about him but if God so will then to be content even against that will of his own because he is faithful There is also another exposition of this place which is this If it be possible that all these good things may come to effect without my passion which otherwise shall come by my death then let this passion passe from me but not otherwise And Athanasius thus As by death Christ abolished death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all humane miseries by suffering them as a man so by his fear he took away our fear and made men no longer to fear death But Cyril of Alexandria next Quando formidasse mortem videtur ut homo dicebat c. When Christ seemed to fear death he said as a man Father let this cup passe from me for though as a man he abhorred death yet as a man he refused not to performe the will of his Father and of himself being the word of God Then Beda thus agreeably to the sense of his Predecessors if death may die without my death in the flesh let this cup passe from me but because this will not otherwise be thy will be done not mine Then Damascen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These words saith he proceeded from a naturall fear for as a man CHRIST would have had the cup to passe Next him Euthymius Zigabenus thus As a man Christ said if it be possible i. e. so far as it is possible and in saying yet not as I will but as thou wilt he teacheth that we must follow the will of God though nature reclaime And in the close of all Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is incident to the nature of man to fear death for death entred besides or against nature and therefore nature flyeth death And in another place The common fear of mans nature Christ cured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consuming it in himself and making it obedient to the will of God In which concurrent testimonies of the antient writers we have not only the full grounds of that distinction of the Schoolmen touching the superior and inferior Reason and the severall and adequate acts of each but also of the observation of Hugo de Sancto Victore and of those severall respects and reasons in which Christ may be said both to decline death and to embrace it But being there is so much speech amongst them of a naturall fears or the fears incident to nature we will once more repair unto the Schoolmen and enquire of them both what his natural fear was and in what respect it was he feared as also how this fear of his may be reconciled both with the will of God and his knowledg of it First then they say that natural fear ariseth in these three respects that is to say first in respect of things that cannot be avoided neither by resistance and incounter nor by flying from them secondly in respect of such things as may be escaped or overcome with a kind of uncertainty of event and danger of the issue thirdly in respect of such as may be escaped or overcome without any uncertainty of the event or issue but not without great conflict and extremity of labour Then they declare what things they were which Christ did fear and in what sort he feared them For first say they he feared death and the stroke of the justice of God his Father sitting on his tribunal or judgment seat to punish the sins of men for which he stood forth that day to answer and secondly he feared also that everlasting destruction which was due to mankind for those sins And finally they resolve it thus that the former of these two he feared as things impossible to be escaped in respect of the resolution and purpose of his heavenly Father which was that by his satisfactory death and sufferings and no other way man should be ransomed and delivered from the power of Satan and that he feared the latter that is to say declined it as a thing he knew he should escape without all doubt or uncertainty of the event though not without conflicting with the temptations of the Devil and the enduring of many bitter and grievous pangs which in that conflict might befall him Which resolution of the Schoolmen not only shews the reasons of CHRISTS natural fear but addes withall another reason why he was so amazed and sorrowfull and also why he prayed so long and with so great fervencie that the cup which was prepared for him might have passed over him And to say truth it must be somewhat more then the consideration and apprehension of a bodily death which could so much work upon our Saviour considering with how much gallantrie so many of the primitive Martyrs have defyed their torments and mounted on the scaffold with so clear a confidence as if they had not been to have suffered death but behold a Triumph And therefore first it may be said that besides the natural fear of death which is incident to the Saints of God however gallantly resolved to contemn the force of it by the assistance and support of the holy Spirit which he could not avoid and the avoidable fear of everlasting destruction which might be for a season presented to him he was to undergoe the whole wrath of God for the sins of mankind A wrath so infinite and just so far exceeding the strength and reach of mans nature to endure that our earthly infirmity to which for our sakes he submitted himself cannot conceive nor comprehend the greatnesse of it nor think upon the power thereof without fear and horror CHRIST saith a reverend and learned Prelate of this Church was not only to suffer that which in his Person should be thought sufficient in the righteous judgment of God to appease his anger and purge our sins but he was further to see and behold from what he delivered us even from the wrath to come For how should the price and force of his death be known unto him if he were ignorant what dreadfull and terrible vengeance was prepared
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
daughter of a Levite whose name was Isachar This I am sure may be affirmed in defence of the story that the Iews were not then so punctual in keeping themselves unto their Tribes as they had been formerly that even the High Priesthood it self had been bought and sold to persons both unworthy and uncapable of so high an honour that we finde IESVS to have preached in the Temple often and to have done in it other Ministerial Offices which questionless the Priests and Pharisees would never have suffered had he not had some calling to it which might authorize him And if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacerdotes in the Text of Suidas we may have leave to understand some inferiour Ministers and not the very Priests themselves as possibly enough we may the story may then stand secure above all exceptions Next let us look amongst the Gentiles and they will tell us that Augustus the Roman Emperour in whose time the Lord CHRIST was born consulting with the Oracle of Apollo touching his successor received this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus An Hebrew childe whom the blest Gods adore Commands me leave these shrines and back to Hel So that of Oracles I can no more In silence leave our Altars and farewell Which answer being so returned Augustus built an Altar in the Roman Capitol with this Inscription ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI i.e. the Altar of the first begotten of God The general ceasing of Oracles much about this time gives some strength to this And so doth that which we finde mentioned in Eusebius touching the falling of the Idols of Egypt upon our Saviours first coming into that countrey St. Ambrose in his Commentary on the 119. Psalm doth affirm as much Nor is it yet determined to the contrary by our greatest Criticks but that the Prophet Esaiah may allude to this where bringing in the burden of Egypts he saith Behold the Lord rideth upon a swift clowd and shall come into Egypt and the Idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence But whether the Prophet do allude unto this or not we have no reason to misdoubt of the truth of the story and the acknowledgement which the false Gods of the Gentiles made to the Divinity of the true In and about these times lived the Poet Virgil one of whose Eclogues being a meer extract of some fragments of the Sibylline Oracles hath many passages which cannot properly be applyed to any but our Saviour Christ though by him wrested to the honour of Marcellus the Nephew and designed Heir of Augustus Caesar. For example these Iam redit Virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Iam nova progenes Coelo demittitur alto Chara Deunt soboles magnum Iovis incrementum Which may be Englished in these words Now shines the Virgin now the times of peace Return again and from the Heaven on high Comes down a sacred and new Progenie The issue of the Gods Ioves blest increase More testimonies of this nature might be added here but these shall serve at this time for a tast of the rest And so we end with that of the Centurion of Pilates guard who noting all that hapned in our Saviours passion could not but make acknowledgement of so great a Prophet saying Surely this was the Son of God And this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as could possibly be delivered in so few words Which being so it is the more to be admired that such as take unto themselves the name of Christians should think and speak less honorably of their Lord and Saviour then the Iews Gentiles and the Devils themselves yet such vile miscreants have there been in the former ages and I doubt are still And of those Ebion was the first who savouring strongly of the Iew had made up such a mixture of Religion as might please their palates and taught no otherwise of CHRIST then that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ordinary natural man begotten in the common course of generation Eusebius so informs us of him St. Hierome addes that for the suppression of this heresie St. Iohn at the request of some Asian Bishops wrote his holy Gospel of purpose to assert the Divinity of CHRIST ut divinam ejus nativitatem ediceret are St. Hieromes words of which but little had been said by the other Evangelists After him there arose up Artemon or Artemas in the days of the Emperour Heliogabalus who held the same opinion concerning CHRIST as the Ebionites did affirming him to be no other then a meer natural man saving that he was born of the Virgin Mary after a more peculiar manner then the rest of mankinde and was to be preferred before all the Prophets And against him there was a Book written as Eusebius telleth us though the name of the Author came not to his hands But that which is a matter of most admiration is that Paulus Samosatenus a Christian Bishop a Bishop of one of the four Patriarchal Sees even of the City of Antioch should not only set on foot again this condemned Heresie but have the impudence to affirm that it had been the antient and approved Doctrine of the Church of Christ No wonder if the Prelates of the Church did best in themselves when such a foul contagion was got in amongst them and therefore they assembled in the City of Antioch that by the authority of their presence and the sincerity of their doctrine so dangerous a Monster might be quelled in the face of his people This was about the time of the Emperour Aurelianus Nor had there been a more celebrious Councel in the Church of Christ from that of the Apostles mentioned in the 15. of the Acts unto that of Nice The issue and success whereof was so blessed by God that from those times until these last and worst ages of the Church wherein Socinus Osterodius and their followers have again revived it this wretched heresie was scarce heard of but in antient Histories And on the other side some of the antient Writers and the later Schoolmen the better to beat down the dotages of such frantick Hereticks as had impugned the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour have so intangled the simplicity of the Christian faith within the Labyrinth of curious and intricate speculations that it became at last a matter of great wit and judgement to know what was to be believed in the things of Christ. And of this nature I conceive are those inexplicable and perplexed discourses about the consubstantiality and coequality of the Persons which how it can consist with the School-distinction that the Father doth all things authoritative and the Son all things sub-authoritative it is hard to say that the Son is coeternal with the Father as in the Creed of Atâ—anasius and yet Principium a principio in the Schoolmens language that there should be two