they ascribe unto them omnipresence if as to absent they ascribe to them omniscience Both which are blasphemous Besides when they invocate they ascribe omnipotencie to them and therefore repose their trust in them But God alone is to be trusted in because he alone is omnipotent and cursed is he that trusteth in man Jer. 17. 5. II. Again mere men are not religiously to be adored It is Peters reason Acts 10. 26 and Pauls Acts 14. 15. If Christ himself had been but a mere man or a creature though a god by creation yet ought not he religiously to be adored and much lesse the Saints who are but the servants of Christ. Therefore the ancient Fathers termed the Arians who supposed Christ to be God by creation and yet worshipped him idolaters and the Nestorians likewise who supposed the humanitie of Christ to be a distinct person from the Sonne of God III. To leave God who hath commanded us to call upon him and hath promised to heare us and is most willing and onely able to help us and to run to the Saints who neither have commanded us as having no such authoritie nor have promised to heare and help us as having no such power yea are so farre from hearing and helping that they neither know us nor our desires and so farre from commanding us to call upon them as they have forbidden us so to do and alwayes directed us to call upon God Acts 10. 26. and 14. 15. is a thing in-religion impious and in reason absurd IV. To call upon Saints is a thing most injurious unto God and Christ our Saviour derogatorie from the glory of God as though they were either more ready to heare or more willing or more able to help us or that we had more confidence in their love then in the mercies of God and intercession of Christ our Saviour But it is lawfull to intreat the Saints upon earth to pray for us why then may we not desire the Saints in heaven much more to pray to God for us To intreat the Saints living on earth to pray for us hath warrant in the Scriptures as having been a dutie injoyned by God Gen. 20. 7. Job 42. 8. Jam. 5. 14 16. and also practiced by the faithfull Rom. 5. 30. Ephes. 6. 19. But praying to Saints departed hath no warrant in the Scriptures as the Papists themselves are forced to confesse Nay it is directly forbidden and those which do it commit two evils forsaking God the fountain of living waters and digging out to themselves cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. They worship the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 25. praeterito Creatore passing by the Creatour ut Hilarius interpretatur De Trinitate lib. 12. 2. The Saints living with us are acquainted with our persons and our wants and therefore may pray in particular for us and so cannot the Saints departed 3. The request made in this behalf to the faithfull living is a civil intreaty of a Christian duty but as it is made to the Saints departed it is a religious invocation of them to do that for us which is the peculiar office of the Mediatour Neither do they onely intreat the Saints to pray for us and desire God that for the merits intercession of the Saints he would grant their desires which is to give the office of Christ to them But also they desire the Saints themselves to bestow upon them such blessings as they desire both spirituall and temporall and to avert from them such evils as they fear Wherein the Papists have made the Saints to succeed the heathen gods ascribing unto them their severall offices and functions insomuch that there is no countrey citie or town but hath certain Saints to patronize them as the heathen had their tutelares deos no trade or occupation which hath not a peculiar Saint no kind of cattel or tame fowl which have not their patrones no kind of disease but some Saint or other is called upon for the curing thereof as the dii averrunci or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the heathen So that if there were no other fault in Popery their idolatry were sufficient cause of separation from them But the Saints departed do pray for us therefore we ought to pray unto them It may well be supposed that the Saints departed do pray in common for the faithfull upon the earth as fellow-members of the same bodie But they are not acquainted with particular persons or their particular wants or desires or if they were yet it would not follow that we should pray to them no more then we are bound to invocate religiously the Saints upon earth whom we know according to their dutie do pray for us August contra Faust. Manich lib. 20. c. 21. Colimus martyres â—…o cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur sancti homines We worship the martyrs with that worship of love and societie with which even in this life holy men are worshipped Notwithstanding the Papists think this consequence to be so strong as they take it for granted that if the Saints make intercession for us we must pray to them Insomuch that Bellarâ—…ine when he would prove against our King That invocation of Saints was taught by the ancient Fathers in stead of that he proveth ridiculously the intercession of Saints for us CHAP. XIII That we must conceive of God in prayer as he hath revealed himself in his word SEeing then the Lord alone is to be called upon religiously it remaineth that we consider how we are to conceive of God when we do call upon him viz. not according to the fansies of our own brain but as he hath revealed himself in his word both in respect of the Divine nature and also the Divine persons In respect of his nature that he is a spirit invisible and incomprehensible omnipotent and infinite most holy wise just and mercifull c. And in regard of the Divine persons that being a God in essence substance one and indivisible he is notwithstanding distinguished into three persons the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost who as they be not in nature disjoyned so are they not to be severed in their worship but the Unitie in Trinitie and Trinitie in Unitie is to be worshipped and adored Whosoever therefore in respect of Gods nature do circumscribe God worshipping him under any form whether outwardly expressed or inwardly conceived as namely in the form of an old man c. in stead of the true God they do worship an idole Such was the erroneous conceit of the Anthropomorphites and such is the superstitious worship of the Papists at this day Likewise in respect of the persons whosoever shall call upon God as not distinguished into three persons howsoever they may professe that they invocate one onely true God maker of heaven and earth yet they do not worship the
true God but an idole for the true God is the Father the Sonne and holy Ghost Forasmuch therefore as the Jews and Turks do not worship the Trinity they are not worshippers of the true God but as our Saviour said of the Samaritanes They worship they know not what John 4. not acknowledging the true God nor Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 5. 23. He that honoureth not the Sonne honoureth not the Father and Whosoever denieth the Sonne hath not the Father 1. John 2. 23. Here therefore it may be demanded That seeing we are to worship the holy Trinitie whether it be lawfull to direct our prayers to some one person as to the Father to the Sonne or to the holy Ghost He that acknowledgeth the Trinitie when in his prayers he nameth one onely person he doth not exclude the other persons but rather includeth thē For in every person or supposite that is named the Divine nature is presupposed so that when the Father is nominated Christ and so the holy Ghost is the same God which is invocated and therefore as there is one essence of all the persons so one worship Furthermore concerning our Saviour Christ it may also be demanded That seeing God is the onely object of religious invocation whether he being the mediatour between God and man is to be invocated and if he be how and in what respect we are to call upon him That he is to be called upon as our Lord and Saviour in whose name we are baptized in whom we believe and trust there is no doubt All men must honour him as they honour the Father John 5. 23. and All the angels must adore him Heb. 1. 6. and to his name must every knee bow Phil. 2. 10. Examples Stephen Acts 7. 59. Thomas John 20. 28. the Apostles Luke 24. 52. But all the question is Whether we are to call upon Christ as God alone or as man alone or as both God and man Since our Saviour Christ was incarnate and did personally and inseparably unite unto himself the humane nature his whole person as he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immanuel God manifested in the flesh is to be worshipped by one and the same act of invocation and worship without separation or division The Papists have found out a peculiar worship for the humanitie of Christ and for the blessed Virgin which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the humanitie of Christ as it doth not subsist of it self so are we not severally to worship it with Nestorius but the whole person both God and man But yet so as that our prayer be not directed to the humanity which is a creature but to the Sonne of God having assumed and united unto himself the humane nature So saith Cyrill Non igitur tanquam hominem adoramus Emmanuelem Absit Deliramentum enim hoc esset deceptio ac error In hoc enim nihil differremus ab his qui creaturam colunt ultra Conditorem Factorem that is We do not therefore worship our Emmanuél as man alone God forbid For this were a dotage a false conceit and errour neither should we in this differ from those which worship the creature more then their Creatour and Maker To conclude this second point Whereas the whole world almost is overflown with idolatry as with an universall deluge the Paganes invocating a multitude of false gods the Jews and Turks worshipping one God but not in the Trinitie of persons nor acknowledging Jesus Christ the Papists which call themselves the Catholick Church invocating besides the true God a multitude of angels and Saints images the crosse and Eucharist and in their prayers representing the invisible and incomprehensible God in a visible form notwithstanding God in his great mercy hath taken us who professe the reformed religion into the ark of his Church teaching us by his word and spirit to call upon him the true God in the name of Christ his Sonne himself also being near unto us as he was to the Church of Israel in all that we call upon him for Deut. 4. 7. CHAP. XIIII That Christ alone is the Mediatour of intercession as well as redemption HAving spoken of the subject of invocation viz. men and the object viz. God we are now in the third place to enquire how it cometh to passe that man being stained and polluted with sinne and by reason thereof an enemie to God should have any accesse unto God or be admitted to any speech with him who is most just and terrible a consuming fire hating all iniquitie with perfect hatred Indeed it must be confessed that sinne maketh a separation between God and man and that both we are unworthy in our selves to appear before God and our prayers also by reason of our manifold wants and corruptions unworthy to be offered unto him And therefore of necessitie a mediatour was to come between God and man who reconciling us unto God and covering our imperfections might make both our persons and our prayers acceptable unto God And for as much as it was needfull that the justice of God should be satisfied in the same nature wherein he had been offended neither could obedience be performed to the law given to man nor the punishment due to the sinnes of man be satisfied but by man neither could the righteousnesse be meritorious for all nor the price of ransome sufficient if the person which should perform both were not God It was likewise needfull that the mediatour who should reconcile us unto God and make us and our prayers acceptable unto him should be both God and man therefore God in his unspeakable mercy hath appointed and given his onely begotten Sonne to be our Mediatour Advocate and Intercessour who having assumed our nature should therein satisfie his justice and appease his wrath and having performed perfect obedience for us and given himself a ransome for our sinnes should ascend into heaven and there sitting at the right hand of the Father should make intercession for us that both the persons of such as believe in him and their prayers which call upon God in his name should be accepted of him But as in the former points we were forced to prove two things not onely that God is to be invocated but that he alone is to be called upon and not Saints and Angels so in this we are by the like superstition of the Papists compelled to demonstrate two things first that Christ is the onely Mediatour of intercession and secondly that we are alwayes to call upon God in his name For as they invocate others besides God and so are indeed worshippers of more gods so have they appointed other mediatours and intercessours besides Christ. And the reason is alike in both But the Apostle teacheth us That as there is but one God so there is but one Mediatour between God and man the man Christ. The Papists make two sorts of mediatours the one
3. 38. and the Angels Job 1. By adoption in Christ Ephes. 1. 5. So every believer is born of God 1. John 5. 1. For to so many as believe in Christ God hath given this priviledge to be the sonnes of God John 1. 12. And in this sense is every faithfull man to call God Father But here it may be demanded Whether the whole Trinitie is called upon in the name of Father or the first Person alone The word Father is attributed unto God two wayes either essentially or personally Essentially when he is so called in respect of the creatures 1. Cor. 8. 6. Personally when it hath relation to the other Persons the Sonne and the holy Ghost In this place it hath relation to the creatures So Deut. 32. 6. Isai. 63. 16. But howsoever the whole Trinity is our Father so to be worshipped of us yet this speech is more peculiarly directed to the first Person the fountain of the Godhead who is the Father of Christ Ephes. 3. 14. and in him our Father John 20. 17. yet so as in worshipping him we joyntly worship the other two who as they are â—…ll one in essence coequall and coeternall concurring also in all actions towards us so they are altogether to be worshipped O God thou Father of Christ and in him our Father who givest the Spirit of thy Sonne whereby we cry Abba Father to thee we present our prayers in the name of thy Son craving the help of the holy Ghost The second Person is called our Father Isai. 9. 6. so may the holy Ghost who doth regenerate us Deut. 32. 6. and to either of them may our prayers be directed Acts 7. 59. So that our prayer may be directed to any or to all the Persons 2. Cor. 13. 13. or to two of them 1. Thess. 3. 11. We are taught to whom to direct our prayers namely to God alone For seeing our Saviour hath commanded us when we pray to say Our Father it is evident that we break the commandment if we direct our prayers to any to whom we may not say Our Father c. Which title without blasphemy we cannot attribute to any but onely to the Lord who is our heavenly Father Jer. 31. 9. Sum Israeli Pater I am a Father to Israel Secondly whereas by nature we are the children of wrath and yet commanded to call upon God as our Father we are taught in whose name we are to come unto God Not in our own names or worthinesse Dan. 9. 18. for then we shall find him a Judge rather then a Father but onely in the name and mediation of Christ Eph. 3. 12. in whom he is our Father and in whose name he hath promised to grant whatsoever we ask according to his will It is well said of Calvine Cùm Deum Patrem vocamus Christi nomen praetendimus When we call God Father we pretend the name of Christ. 3. We are taught that the help of the holy Ghost is necessary in prayer For how should we which were children of wrath dare to call God our Father or be assured that we be his children By the holy Ghost who is the spirit of adoption beareth witnesse to our spirits that we are the sonnes of God we cry in our hearts Abba Father Rom. 2. 15 16. For if none can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost then much lesse can a man call upon God as his Father in Christ except he be endued by the holy Ghost We must therefore as the Apostle teacheth us Ephes. 2. 18. call upon God the Father in the name of the Sonne by the assistance of the holy Ghost so shall we though unworthy and unable to call upon God in Christ be accepted and by the holy Ghost be enabled to pray according to God Here therefore first are they refuted who think they may lawfully direct their prayers either to Angels or Saints to whom the name Father is opposed Isai. 63. 16. or to their images sâ—…ying to a stock or stone Our father Jer. 2. 27. If God be our heavenly Father who is more willing to give good things then any earthly parents and also all-sufficient why should we seek to any other unlesse we can either accuse him of unkindnesse or object want of power unto him Secondly if God be our Father in Christ then ought we with boldnâ—…sse to come unto the throne of grace through him Ephes. 3. 12. Neither do we need any other mediation then of the Sonne who is the onely Mediatour as of redemption so also of intercession 1. Tim. 2. 5. contrary to the doctrine of the Papists who teach men to use the mediation of Saints Whereas our Saviour John 16. 26. having commanded us to pray in his name addeth I say not that I will intreat the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you Duties in Prayer IF God be our Father we must come 1. In reverence as unto our heavenly Father 2. In dutifull thankfull and sonne-like affection acknowledging his mercy of Adoption who when we were by nature children of wrath adopted us to be his sonnes and if sonnes then heirs Behold what love the Father hath shewed on us that we should be called the sonnes of God 3. In faith and assurance not onely that we and our prayers are accepted in Christ but that our prayers shall be granted unto us of our Father as may be most for his glory and our good And that we may come in faith let us consider First that without faith we are no sonnes of his but children of wrath Ephes. 2. 3 12. and if we believe we are the sonnes of God John 1. 12. and of the houshold of faith Secondly that if God be our Father in Christ he will grant us what good thing soever we ask For 1. he is affected as a good Father towards his children yea his love towards us is so much greater then the love of earthly parents as his goodnesse and mercy is greater Isai. 63. 16. Psal. 27. 10. Isai. 49. 15. Matth. 7. 11. Luke 11. 13. 2. In that he is our Father he hath given us the greatest gift that can be imagined and therefore will not deâ—…y the lesse Pater quid 〈◊〉 filiis qui jam 〈◊〉 quòd pater est What will the father deny to his sons who hath vouchsafed already to be our Father For if he have sâ—… loved us that he gave his Son for us that in him we might be adopted his children how shall hâ—… not with him give us all good things Rom. 8. 32. 3. In that he hath vouchsafed us this great love to be our Father and that we should be his children he hath also made us his heirs provided us an inheritance in heaven For as he gave his Sonne in pretium for a price so he reserveth himself in praemium for a reward If therefore it be our Fathers
known unto us so when we are commanded to pray for all we are bound in particular to pray for those whose wants are known unto us and especially for such as do any wayes belong unto us or do desire to be commended in our prayers unto God Rom. 15. 30. Jam. 5. 14. Ephes. 5. 19. 1. Tim. 2. 1 2. Thirdly whereas we are taught to say Our Father Give us c. we may gather that this prayer and those that are made to the like effect are the common voyce of the Church and of all the members thereof praying mutually for one another Which affordeth comfort to every one of us for although the sense of thy own wants weaknesse in calling upon God doth discourage thee yet this ought to comfort thee that this prayer and the like is the common prayer of the Church and of all the faithfull lifting up holy hands in every place and praying for thee if thou be a faithfull man as well as for themselves Now the prayer of the Church the Lord who is most gracious unto it is ready to heare Deut. 4. 7. Isai. 65. 24. and being most faithfull is also willing to perform Matth. 18. 20. Therefore this serveth as for instruction teaching us our duty in calling upon God for one another so also for our comfort assuring us that others in like sort pray for us and that we are partakers of all the prayers of the whole Church and all the members thereof Fourthly the hypocrisie of those is condemned who say with the Jews John 8. 41. We have all one Father God but neither have faith in God nor charity towards men nor any fellow-feeling of other mens wants nor any true desire of their good who say Every man for himself and God for us all Vses concerning our lives SEeing we have all one and the same Father Matth. 23. 9. therefore we ought to embrace one another with brotherly love Ephes. 4. 3 4 6. For if God be the Father of us all then are we all brethren Which word of love ought to tie us with the bond of love and break off all dissension Gen. 13. 8. Acts 7. 26. Mal. 2. 10. And surely if we love not our brethren the love of God is not in us For he which loveth him that begetteth loveth also those that are begotten 1. Joh. 5. 1. And Whosoever saith that he loveth God and hateth his brother he is a liar 1. John 4. 19 20. Therefore where is not brotherly love there is not the love of God where is not the love of God there is no faith and who hath not faith is not the sonne of God Therefore the Apostle saith 1. John 3. 10. In this the children of God are known and the children of the devil Whosoever doeth not righteousnesse is not of God nor he that loveth not his brother For if those that be the sonnes of God as all the faithfull are and we are to hope well of the most when we speak of particulars be not our brethren and so we esteem them then are not we the sonnes of God For if he be our Father then his children are our brethren If the sonnes of God be not brethren to us then are not we his children If therefore we shall hate the children of God how can we call upon him as our Father Secondly whereas all as well poore as rich are commanded to call God Father this ought to teach the rich comfort the poore The rich ought from hence to learn humility and not to despise the poorest Christian seing they are our brethren by the law of nature and of the same bloud Acts 17. the same flesh Isai. 58. and also by our redemption by Christ they are our brethren in him sonnes of the same Father and have as good part in Christ if they believe as the best for God is a Father that respecteth noâ—… persons Acts 10. 34 35. 1. Pet. 1. 17. And in Christ there is no difference of rich and poore bond or free but we are all one in him Gal. 3. 28. To which purpose Paul exhorteth Philemon to receive his servant Onesimus being now converted as a brother v. 17. Let therefore the rich follow the advise Rom. 12. 16. Example Job 31. 13 14 15. that of the wife 1. Pet. 3. 7. which is to be extended to all Christians viz. that they be coheirs Which doctrine doth not favour the Anabaptists for although in respect of our spirituall estate there ought to be no respect of persons Jam. 2. 1. neither is there difference of bond and free in Christ yet in respect of our outward estate the Lord hath ordained superiours and inferiours c. and hath established orders and degrees in the outward politie The poore also are to comfort themselves with this consideration that howsoever they be contemned in the world yet they are dear in Gods sight God is their Father as well or rather of them then of the rich Psal. 68. 6. and Christ their brother yea they are members of Christ to whom what is done Christ esteemeth as done to himself Matth. 25. The which is to be understood of the godly poore for otherwise as their estate is miserable now so a thousand times more miserable shall it be in the world to come Vses of reproof THey are condemned that call God their Father and yet hate the children of God because they are godly and deride the name of brethren 2. Schismaticks who call God their Father but denie his children to be their brethren For they which will have God for their Father must have the true Church to their mother And these words Our Father are the voyce of the Church and of all that be of the same brotherhood 3. Again when we are bid to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Father c. we are taught to direct our prayers unto God immediately as being present with us Which confuteth the Papists who would not have us go directly to God but to desire Mary or Peter c. to pray for us whereas this priviledge have all the faithfull to come with boldnesse to the throne of grace by Christ Ephes. 3. 12. Secondly we are to believe that God who is in heaven is also present with us hearing our prayers and therefore so ought we to poure forth our prayers as into his bosome yea though we pray in secret Matth. 6. 6. Thirdly we ought to have the eye of faith to see him that is invisible Heb. 11. so shall we set God before our eyes and behave our selves as it becometh those that speak to so glorious a Majesty But most men because they see none present are touched with lesse reverence then if they spake to a mortall superiour Which art in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 HEaven is all that space which is above the earth Of which are three parts Coelum Aereum Gen. 1. 8. Aethereum Empyreum The first Air in which are the