must needs be controverted to the worlds end unless it could be proved that not only Christ but also the blessed Virgin doth indeed sit at the right hand of God being joyned with Christ in the government of his Kingdom which is altogether impossible for that Christ himself sits there in his humane nature only by vertue of the personal union to and with the eternal Son of God whose property alone it is to sit at the right hand of his Father For though the Holy Ghost be also equal with the Father in the same power and glory and therefore together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified yet he is not said to sit at his right hand that 's a phrase spoken peculiarly of the Son in whom the Divine nature was as it were ecclipsed for a while in the state of his humiliation and in whom the humane nature now shineth most gloriously in the state of exaltation And besides for that the Son alone doth administer the Kingdom of the Father immediately from the Father but the Holy Ghost administreth the same Kingdom not only from the Father but also from the Son For although God the Father Son and Holy Ghost do equally govern the Church both militant and triumphant that is do equally administer one and the same Kingdom in heaven and earth yet the Father administreth it of himself not by himself for he is of none as in being so in working The Son administreth the same Kingdom by himself not of himself for as his being so his working is of the Father The holy Ghost administreth the same Kingdom by himself not of himself for he is of the â—ather and of the Son so that God the Father administreth his Kingdom immediately by God the Son who is next him in order and mediately by God the Holy Ghost who so administreth from the Father as also from the Son and therefore is not said to sit at the right hand of the Father because he hath the administration of the Kingdom of God not of the Father alone but of the Father and of the Son whereas the Son hath it immediately and only of the Father So that our blessed Saviour did administer the Kingdom of his Father from all eternity as God But now since his Ascension he doth also administer the same as God in man or as God manifest in the flesh And it is his property alone to sit at the right hand of God because it is his property alone to govern all things in heaven and in earth immediately from the Father Laus Deo will reflect directly on him no less then on the Father and the Holy Ghost for the blessed administration of his Kingdom but Virginique Matri Mariae may securely be left out and is blasphemously and idolatrously put in since the blessed Virgin her self must needs think it robbery to be equal with her Son when her Son thinks it no robbery to be equal with God And certainly if the Fathers in the first Council of Constantinople thought it enough to prove the Holy Ghost coequal with the Father and the Son by saying Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified Then we cannot but think it too much that the blessed Virgin is worshipped and glorified with all three persons of the Trinity as if she were to be thought coequal with Father Son and Holy Ghost But perchance Bellarmine was resolved to gratifie the present practise of his Church with a doxology answerable to that Antiphona Gaude Maria Virgo cunctas haereses sola interemisti in universo mundo Rejoyce O Virgin Mary thou alone hast taken away all heresies in the universal world And he having made it his work to confute all for hereticks who were not of his own gan gives thanks to the blessed Virgin as if by her help he had perfected this great confutation whereas without doubt it is no more in the power of any creature to take away a heresie then it is to change the heart or will of the heritick nor is it in the power of all the Jesuites in the world to prove us poor protestants guilty of heresie because we dare not be guilty of blasphemy nor of Idolatry For it is blasphemy to ascribe that perfection and it is Idolatry to give that honour to the creature which is proper only to the Creator And t is a wonder that Baronius who is pleased to say that our Church of England is wholly drowned in heresie would not impute the cause of that mischeif to our rejecting this and the like Hymns or prayers to the blessed Virgin and say she would not take away our heresies because we had taken away her worship for this reason had certainly been more ingenuous in one of that perswasion then to tell us that we were therefore given over to our delusions because we denyed to pay the Peter pence For that is his observation in his Annals Anno Christi 740. That Ina King of the West Saxons appointed every house in his Dominions to pay a penny to Saint Peter every year that his subjects knowing Saint Peter to be their Lord should more zealously addict themselves to his service and call upon him in their necessities â—t annui census pensitatione cognosceret se subditum S. Petro quem scientes omnes Dominum esse suum propensiori studio colerent in opportunitatibus invocarent But that when this yearly revenue did cease to be payed the Church of England was swallowed up by an inundation of heresies Vbi cessavit pendi vectigal istud utcunque mali redemptum haeresum alluvione Anglicana Ecclesia absorbetur whereas if the mony were paid upon that reason of Invocating Saint Peter it could not be excused from heresie to have continued that payment However this reason is more for the Penny then for the Pater noster and sure the Church of England had more heresies whilst it paid the Peter pence then it hath had ever since unless we look upon these few late years wherein the poor woman cloathed with the Sun hath been distressed by a great red Dragon and forced to flee into the wilderness Rev. 12. But Gods truth is never the worse for being persecuted and Gods faithfull servants will not fall from his truth because of persecution For they know they serve a Master who himself hath said My Kingdom is not of this world John 18. 36. and therefore they who profess themselves subjects of his Kingdom will not change with the world For though our Saviours Kingdom be not of this world yet hath he subjects on earth as well as in hâ—…en And therefore in his Ascension whereby he took possession of his Kingdom he provided for them both For those on earth by the diffusion of his grace called by the Apostle Receiving gifts for men for those in heaven by the diffusion of his glory expressed by this phrase And sate on the right hand of God By
that Christian joy The first part is Christ Preached The second part is Christ Practised The third part must be your own that is Christ Purchased which from the bottom of his heart and in the bowels of Christian Charity he wisheth unto you who is Your Brother and Servant in Christ E. H. A Prayer in honour of Christs Nativity OBlessed Jesus thou Lover and Redeemer of souls God manifest in the flesh who camest unto men and didst become man to bring true light into the world from the Father of Lights grant we beseech thee unto us miserable sinners so to glorifie thee for thy coming to us and being in us and reigning over us that though of our selves we are in darkness and in the shadow of death yet in thee we may come to see the true light of Grace and by thee may come to enjoy the true light of Glory to glorifie thee eternally who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God eternal world without end Amen A short Scheme of the whole Christ welcomed in his Nativity Hath three Chapters The first sheweth the Motives of that welcome The second sheweth the Reasons of that welcome The third sheweth the joyful manner of that welcome CAP. 1. Shewing the Motives of Christs welcome from God and from Gods Church both Triumphant and Militant Hath fifteen Sections Sect. 1. CHrists image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire tâ—… Christ should be formed in us Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation Sect. 2. Christs humiliation was in the fulness of time Sect. 3. The fulness of time in which Christ came to humble himself was the perfection of time Sect. 4. God observed the fulness of time for the sending of Christ to fill our souls with Patience and with Piety which two make up the true Christians fulness Sect. 5. The authority of God and of his Church for a solemn Festival to celebrate the coming of Christ and that the Church did no more then her Duty in appointing that Festival and an Advent Sunday to prepare for it and that we cannot justly or safely gainsay that Appointment Sect. 6. Christmass no superstitious word and Christmass-day observed not for it self but for its duty takes off all controversies and can fall under no just exceptions and may not fall under any unjust cavils much less calumnies Sect. 7. The difference betwixt a Iewish and a Christian observation of daies This latter is a moral part of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal Sect 8. To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to Iews keeping them from Christianity Sect. 9. The Iews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaneness especially that profaneness or irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ Sect. 10. That those Christians who oppose Christmass-day do give occasion to other good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion Sect. 11. The first Christmass-day was kept by the holy Angels therefore no will-worship in keeping Christmass but rather a necessity to keep it from Heb. 1. 6. The Kingdom of Christ as Creator and as Redeemer Sect. 12. We must embrace all opportunities of glorifying Christ that we may not be thought to desert either our Saviour or our selves whiles we are defective in our Devotions either for want of Preparation before them which hath hitherto made us so bad Christians in so good a Churâ—â— or of Affection in them which will keep us from being good Christians or of Thankfulness after them which will keep us from worthily magnifying the name of Christ Sect. 13. A new song for the coming of Christ God the Father Son and Holy Ghost carefully observed the time of our Saviours coming into the world therefore it can be no true piece of Reformation for men not to observe it Sect. 14. Everlasting thankfulness is due to God for this everlasting mercy Sect. 15. Time not perfect in Gods account from our Creation but from our Redemption The Iews not destroyed and Time not untimed meerly in relation to the coming of Christ Time still continued for the world to make a right use of his coming No other time perfect in Gods account but that wherein he gives his Son And no other should be perfect in our account but that wherein we receive him CAP. 2. Shewing the Reasons of Christs welcome because of the infinite love of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost bestowed on man in his Redemption Hath nine Sections Sect. 1. GOds first gift to man was his love in Christ his second Gift was Christ in our nature No Gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love Not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best temporal the other the best Spiritual Gift Sect. 2. Gods love in Christ though it be Universal in the diffusion yet is it particular in the Obligation Sect. 3. Gods love to man in Christ was the ground of his Consultation with himself how to bring us to eternal life Sect. 4. Gods love to man in Christ was not in vain or without Success though his Churches love to us in daily Praying for us and teaching us to pray for our selves often proves unsuccessful And yet our best proof that God hath loved us in Christ is That we love him again both in his Authority and in his Ordinances and in his Members Sect. 5. Gods love to us in Christ was not in vain or without a cause for as much as Christ was the ground of our Election as well as the Author of our Reconciliation More men Reconciled by Christ to God then Recommended to Him Or more men reconciled Potentially then Actually Sect. 6. Gods love in Christ is not a fond love therefore he scourgeth whom he loveth The Christian Church not taught in the New Testament to expostulate for being scourged though she be crucified as Christ was between two thieves Sect. 7. Christs love to us that he would come from the bosom of his Father to teach and to redeem us The title of the chief corner-stone blasphemously applyed to his pretended Vicar Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Ex-apostle one sent out of God Sect. 8. Tht mother of Christ so a Woman as still a Virgin The Prayer of the seventy Interpreters Christs love to us that he would be made the Son of a woman whereby he hath exalted men above Angels A mercy not to be forgotten till there be no man to remember it That the Iews corrupted not the Text proved from the Prophecies concerning Christ Sect. 9. Christs love to us that he would be made under the Law That man is a Son of Belial not a Member of Christ who will not be under the Law All good Christians follow Christ both in Active and in Passive obedience CAP. 3. Shewing the joyful manner of Christs welcome as proceeding from joy in the Holy-Ghost
he did rest He made the Sun Moon and Stars nor do I read there that he did rest But I read that when he had made man he did rest because â—e then had one to whom he could forgive sins God was not at rest till he had made man to whom he might forgive sins And after he had made him he was not at rest till he had forgiven him O my soul how canst thou be at rest till thou hast asked and obtained forgiveness God accounts the Perfection of Time not from his Power whereby he created the world but from his mercy whereby he redeemed it as if the creation of the whole world had been imperfect without man and the creation of man had been imperfect without his Redemption and all other Time not worth the notice save only that which Christ honoured with his coming for whose only sake Time it self deserved to be continued and not to be Untimed after men had corrupted it For as no satisfactory reason can be given why God destroyed not the whole people of the Jews in their so many Idolatries Rebellions and Apostasies but only that Christ was to come of their Nation So neither why Time it self should not have been destroyed long before Christs coming for the outragious sins and villanies which were acted by men but only that Christ was promised to come in it And so likewise for the same reason is Time still continued notwithstanding all the defections of wicked men from God and their defiances against God because Christ may not lose the end of his coming which was to save Repentant sinners so saith Saint Peter The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise but is long suffering to us-ward not willing That any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 9. His will is That since his Son hath been pleased to take upon him the nature of man both sinful man should come to Repentance and Repentant sinners should come to salvation Thus in Gods account That is only the Perfection of Time wherein he gives Christ and why not also in ours that wherein we receive him For in truth all the Time of our life is but an imperfect Time till we have gained Christ There may be the Perfection of the natural man before but not of the spiritual man till he come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 13. All the Time of our life though we live to Methuselah's Age is but imperfection of Time till with good old Simeon we come by the Spirit into the Temple and there see and embrace the Lord Christ Luke 2. 27 28. And then our life though never so short will immediately be so compleat and perfect that we may pray for a nunc dimittis and say Lord now at this very instant without any longer stay Lord new lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Saint Paul tells the Galathians plainly that though never so aged in themselves yet they were but meer children in his account till Christ was formed in them Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you Did we truly believe this and seriously reflect upon our own belief we would look much less after the man and much more after the Christian Less after our selves more after our Saviour Less after our Interests more after our Devotions Since that only is to be accounted a perfect Time which Christ by his presence did once make so in the world and still is pleased to make so in our hearts Nor is it any disparagement to those heavenly Spheres by whose revolution Philosophy hath taught us to measure the duration of earthly things to say That though Time do borrow its continuance from heaven yet it borrows its Perfection only from the God of Heaven The continuance of Time leads to death but the perfection of Time leads to everlasting life This moment in it self is not a part of fleeting Time but in its good employment it is no less then a blessed eternity The motion of the first mover is exceeding glorious in the heavens but it is much more glorious in our hearts I will admire that motion because it produceth Time but I will rejoyce and acquiesce in this motion because it produceth eternity For this is the motion which alone affords rest unto my soul whiles I consider my blessed Saviour humbling himself but exalting and raising me O thou blessed moneth of December wherein the earth gives us nothing but heaven hath given us all things having given us him who is All in All CAP. II. Containing the Reasons of Christs welcome the infinite love of God the Father and of God the Son and Holy Ghost in our Redemption SECT I. Gods first gift to man was his Love in Christ His second gift was Christ in our nature No gift can prove a blessing unless God give it in love not Government not the Gospel though the one be the best Temporal the other the best Spiritual gift WE have passed through the Porch called Beautiful Acts 3. 2. wherein all mankind lame from their mothers womb had a long time laid expecting alms of the Son of God when he should please to enter into the Temple of his body Let us now go into the Sanctuary and there contemplate and consider the infinite Love of God which caused him to send his only Son for our Redemption and we shall never want Thankful hearts to bid him welcome nor Pious Hearts to make a right and conscionable use of his coming That as he came at first for our Redemption so he may come at last for our salvation And this Part of Christian Divinity hath been taught us by Christ himself not only by his Spirit as all the rest but also with his own mouth Saint John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Where it is evident That the cause why Christ was given to man was no other but only the love of God And consequently the grand Reason of our joyfully receiving this gift must be this That it proceeded from Gods infinite and undeserved love towards us For Gods first gift to man was his love in his Son His second gift was his Son in our nature So saith Saint Paul 2 Tim. 1. 9. According to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Gods first gift was grace given us in Christ his second gift was Christ given us in our flesh And the Master of Scholastical subtilties makes this a rule of sound Reason as well as of sound Religion Inter omnia dona dantis primum donum quod dat quisquis dare potest est Amor ejus quem primo dat amato quia est ratio cujuscunque alterius doni nihil enim habet rationem doni nisi in quantum
grace in us and which is all one of his favour towards us that the fear of Gods judgement may humble us that the presumption of our own secure state and condition may not ruine us and that the desire of Gods grace may daily more and more increase in us All these three reasons are intimated by Saint Peter If ye callon the Father there 's the desire of the increase of grace who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works there 's the fear of Gods judgement pass the time of your sojourning here in fear there 's against the presumption of our own secure state and condition As then I desire to be humbled as I desire not to be eternally ruined and as I would increase in my soul more and more such holy desires so I must take heed that I be not puffed up with the conceit of my adoption for he that hath given me that inestimable grace when I did not deserve it hath not promised to continue his gift if I will needs abuse it SECT V. Our adoption in Christ not spoken of by Saint John without a double Preface one practical another speculative and is here according to the likeness of his grace shall be hereafter according to the likeness of his glory The threefold Image of God in man ADoption is the assumption of a stranger into a son Adoptio est personae extraneae in filium assumptio saith the Civilian so that our adoption implies three things 1. An assuming or taking of a man from his own kindred into Gods family 2. An assuming or taking such a man as was a stranger into that family 3. An assuming or taking that stranger to be one of the best of Gods family to be a Son A most blessed assumption which gives to the true Christian soul not an imaginary but a real not an anniversary but an everlasting Holy day Hence it is that Saint John cannot speak of this infinite mercy without a double Preface 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of the love of the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! Behold there is one Preface a practical Preface that concerns the person to fix his attention to raise his affection and to confirm his devotion what manner of love the Father hath bestowed there is another Preface a Doctrinal Preface that concerns the thing shewing in it that sublimity which challengeth the best of our attention that excellency which challengeth the purest of our affection that immortality which challengeth the firmest of our devotion There can be no Preface appositely made but is either practical to exite and move the reader or didactical to make way for the explication of the work the end and scope of the first is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beloved of us the end and scope of the second is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovely in it self for so is Aristotles distinction 20. Magn. Moral c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle joins these two several ends and scopes of Prefaces both together before he treats of our adoption saying Behold to shew this lovely and amiable to us richly worth our looking after and what manner of love to shew it is most lovely and amiable in it self And we may easily see by the ensuing words that it is such a good as is not to be valued by the judgement of the flesh for the world knows it not nor sufficiently to be valued by the judgement of the spirit for we our selves yet scarce know it it doth not appear what we shall be It doth not appear to the world what we are nor to our selves what we shall be only this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him ver 2. as if he had said there are at least two degrees if not two parts of this filiation or adoption of sons one in this life when we are regenerated into the hope of everlasting glory the other in the next life when we shall be admitted into the possession of it When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. The first degree of our adoption the world knows not of us the second we do not cannot in this life fully know of our selves Of the first degree of adoption speaks the same Saint John in his Gospel John 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God Of the second degree speaks Saint Paul Rom. 8. 23. We our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body as if the adoption were not to be obtained here but to be expected hereafter wherein however he speaks as it were out of Christs own mouth as well as by his spirit for our blessed Saviour himself useth these words Luke 20. 36. They are the children of God being the children of the resurrection not that they were not the children of God before but only that they were not compleatly and perfectly children till they were admitted to their inheritance and were come to a full similitude and likewise with their Father For as a natural son of man is partaker of his humane nature or else he cannot be his son so also is an adopted Son of God partaker of his Divine Nature though not Originally because he is adopted yet sure derivatively because else he cannot be a Son for on the participation or communication of the Divine nature is founded our adoption or being the Sons of God according to that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 4. That by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinae consortes naturae consorts or companions of the Divine Nature that is communicants in it as well as partakers of it And upon this ground it is we do assert that as the participation of the Divine nature to us is different in degrees so also is our adoption different in degrees as inchoate in this life and consummate only in the next For in this life we are made partakers of the Divine Nature but inchoately and imperfectly that is as it is resembled in grace but in the next life we shall be made partakers of it consummately or perfectly that is as it will be revealed in glory For there is in man a threefold Image of God Imago creationis Imago recreationis Imago similitudinis as saith the angelical Doctor 1 2ae qu. 93. ar 4. The first Image is by likeness of Nature the Image of creation the second is by likeness of grace the Image of regeneration the third Image is by likeness of glory the Image of perfection Tbe first Image hath been so defaced and blotted and slurred by our sin that we are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. So that in and from this Image of God
in us ariseth only the necessity or want of adoption for there is only so much of it left as to shew how great need we have to be made his children that we may be made more like him then we are by nature But the adoption it self is founded in our new begotten Image or likeness with our heavenly Father which is after the similitude of his only Son by Grace in this world and by glory in the world to come and may accordingly be called either incompleat or compleat adoption Concerning the first Saint John saith that we are made the Sons of God as being already partakers of the Divine nature in the likeness of grace concerning the second he saith It doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him that is we shall hereafter be made the Sons of God after a more perfect manner by being made partakers of the divine nature in the likeness of glory Blessed be that eternal Son in whom we are made Sons and blessed be that day wherein he took on him our nature that he might give us his SECT VI. Christians are more eminently the Children of God in Christ then were the Jews The difference betwixt the Adoption and all other Spiritual blessings of the Jews and of the Christians That though they were adopted to be heirs as we are yet were they tutored as infants till the coming of Christ by whom was wrought a true Reformation THE Spirit of adoption though it were given under the Law yet was it not so fully given as it is now under the Gospel For though it were the same Covenant of Grace to the Jew and to the Christian to be saved by Christ yet was this Covenant much different in the manner of its administration And therefore we must consider the Church before Christ came in the flesh though as an heir that had a right from Gods fidelity though not from his strict Justice to all Spiritual Gifts and Graces whatsoever yet withal as an infant that had not the full possession of that right And this distinction Saint Paul himself teacheth us Gal. 4. 1. Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child or rather an infant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an one as cannot speak differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all but is under Tutors and Governors until the time appointed of the Father And himself plainly applies this distinction to the Church before Christs time verse 3. saying even so we when we were children or infants were in bondage under the elements of the world that is as long as we continued in the Jewish Religion For the Church before the coming of the Son of God was so an heir as that she was also an infant As she was an heir so she was free but as she was an infant so she was a servant under Tutors and Governors As she was an heir she had spiritual hopes but as she was an infant she had carnal Ordinances Heb. 9. 10. As she was an heir she had the Spirit of adoption but as she was an infant she had the Spirit of fear and bondage which makes the Apostle say Rom. 8. 15. For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again ye had it once sc whiles ye were under the Law but ye have it not again sc now ye are under the Gospel to fear but ye have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Hence it is that the Jews had then the same spiritual blessings in dark representations and figures which we Christians now have in full revelations and substance I will set down some few examples concerning the chiefest spiritual blessings by which we may easily be able to judge of all the rest and not be mistaken in our judgements 1. What a vast difference is there betwixt those words of Moses The seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. and those words of Saint Paul the God of peace meaning our Saviour Christ who was our peace-maker and gave himself to make it shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16. 20. or those words of Saint John For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 Jâ—â—n 3. 8. And yet both alike speak of the same redemption 2. What a vast difference is there betwixt that of Gen. 25. 23. the elder shall serve the younger and that of Rom. 9 16. Not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy yet both alike concern the same Doctrine of Election 3. What a vast difference is there betwixt Abrahams being called to go out of his Countrey and from his Fathers house Gen. 12. 1. and our being called out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. and yet both alike confess the same Vocation 4. What a vast difference betwixt the sacrifices of the Jews and the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross and yet both alike assure us of the same Justification in so much that Saint Paul explaineth the one by the other Eph. 5. 2. as Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savour 5. What a vast difference is there betwixt the Sons of Abraham according to the promise under the Law and under the Gospel for as Isaac was so also we are the children of the Promise Gal. 4. 28. The one having the promise of an earthly the other of an heavenly inheritance and yet both promises alike belong to the same Adoption 6. What a vast difference betwixt the Cirumcision of the flesh and of the heart betwixt the outward purifications of the Jews and the inward purgings of Christians for the blood of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. and yet both of them do set forth the same Sanctification 7. Seventhly and lastly what a vast difference betwixt their entring into Canaan and our entering into the heavenly Jerusalem and yet both of them declare one and the same Glorification They were all partakers of the same spiritual blessings that we are they had the same Redemption Election Vocation Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification that we have but they had them in a dark representation not in an open revelation so that they could not so fully know them and they had them in types and figures not in reality and substance so that they did not so fully enjoy them For they all had carnal Ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation Heb. 9. 10. that is till the time of Christs coming to plant the Christian Religion which was a true reformation indeed because it proceeded from a true cause and to a true end from a true cause a more perfect knowledge of Christ who before had not been fully discovered and to a true
renounced his Communion since it is evident that no man can renounce his Prayer but must also by consequence renounce his Communion But let Saint Cyprian speak to this argument that we may be sure to have a good spokesman who in his Book de Oratione Dominica saith thus Qui facit vivere docuit orare ut dum prece Oratione quam filius docuit apud Patrem loquimur facilius audiamur He that made us to live taught us to pray that speaking to the Father in the words of his Son we might be sure not to speak in vain Again Que enim potest esse magis Spiritalis oratio quà m quae vere à Christ◠nobis data est à quo nobis Spiritus Sanctus missus est What Prayer can be more spiritual then that which he gave us who hath also given us the holy Spirit Lastly Oremus itaque fratres dilectissimi sicut Magister Deus docuit Let us pray my beloved brethren as God our master hath taught us Agnosca◠Pater Filii sui verba cum precem facimus qui habitat intus in pectore ipse sit in voce Let God the Father see his own Sons words in our Prayers and let him also that dwelleth in our hearts be also in our tongues Here is such a threefold cord as is not to be broken an argument drawn from God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost why we should often say Our Father as becomes dutiful children That God the Father may own and hear us God the Son may pray with us and God the Holy-Ghost may accompany and assist us in our Prayers SECT IX Whether a man that is not assured of his adoption in Christ can truly and rightly by virtue of his Baptism only the outward seal of adoption say to God Our Father or can lawfully and laudably use the Lords Prayer That the assurance of our adoption is according to the assurance of our conjunction with our Saviour Christ THere is nothing that so much prevails with God to give us his grace as our frequent and fervent praying and nothing that so much calls upon us to make a right use of Grace when t is given as our serious consideration and devout use of the Lords most holy Prayer for he that doth cordially say to God Our Father will not easily forget the duty and obedience that belongeth to a son according to that truly Theological observation of Saint Chrysostome in his nineteenth Sermon upon the Epistle to the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When in our own Prayers we say to God Our Father we do not only call to mind his great grace and goodness but also our own obligation to virtue and righteousness that we may not do any thing unworthy of so honourable a descent or alliance For though the title of Father belong to God by virtue of the creation in which respect we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth yet in the Lords most holy Prayer it is understood of him only as he is our Father by adoption having made us that were his enemies sons in his eternal Son and called us first to be heires of his promises and at last to be heirs of his Kingdom So that in saying to God Our Father we do implicitely and virtually give him thanks for our happy estate through his eternal Son that though by nature we were the children of wrath yet by him we are made the children of God that though in our selves we were enemies yet in our Saviour we are made sons and we do beseech him to confirm in us this assurance we are his children by framing us daily more and more to the Image of his only begotten Son whilst he filleth our souls with heavenly affections and our lives with a heavenly conversation such as may shew all manner of dutifulness to our Father and all manner of love to our brethren This happy estate we acknowledge he conveyed unto us in our Baptism when he made us Christians that is to say members of Christ children of God and inheriters of the Kingdom of heaven as our own Church teacheth us or when we put on Christ Gal. 3. 27. or when God sanctified and cleansed us with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5. 26. when he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. as Saint Paul teacheth the Church that is to say yet in plainer terms when God first made us his sons and gave us the priviledge of calling him Father For they that have not been baptized into Christ have no right to say unto God Our Father for whence should they have it being born the children of wrath and not yet incorporated into Christ to be made the children of God Wherefore it was not lawful heretofore for the Catechumeni or such as were not yet baptized to say the Lords Prayer as not being yet exempted from the dominion and power of the Devil and consequently not reckoned or reputed amongst Gods children whence that memorable saying of Saint Ambrose lib. 5. de Sacram. cap. 4. Primus Sermo quanta sit gratia O homo faciem tuam non audebas ad coelum attollere subito accepisti gratiam Christi ex malo servo factus es bonus filius The first word of this Prayer sc our Father how much grace and favour doth it import Thou didst not dare lift up thine eyes to heaven and thou didst suddenly receive the grace of Christ thy sins were forgiven thee and of a bad servant thou becamest a good son Ergo attolle oculos ad Patrem qui te per lavacrum genuit ad Patrem qui te per filium redemit dic Pater noster Therefore now being baptized lift up thine eyes to thy Father who hath regenerated thee by Baptism who hath redeemed thee by his Son and say Our Father concluding he had no right to say so before he was baptized and doubtless the Text which saith The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the Counsel of God against themselves being not baptized with the Baptism of John Luke 7. 30. doth much more declare that those Christians do reject the counsel of God against themselves who will not be baptized with the Baptism of Christ Ergo Baptismus consilium Dei est Quanta est gratia ubi est concilium Dei Audi ergo nam ut in hoc seculo nexus Diaboli solveretur inventum est quomodo homo vivus moreretur vivus resurgeret saith the same Saint Ambrose lib. 2. de Sacramentis cap. 6. Therefore is Baptism the counsel of God And how great is the Grace of God where we have the counsel of God Hear it therefore For God that he might destroy in man the power of the Devil that is sin whiles he is yet in this world hath in his counsel appointed Baptism whereby being yet alive he might both dye and rise again dye unto sin and
differ They agree saith he in four particulars 1. That each article is a mysterie 2. That each article is made known to us only by Divine revelation 3. That neither article can be sufficiently explained in this life 4. That either article cals for our Faith to believe it not for our understanding to scan it And they differ saith he in these two particulars 1. That in the Trinity there is one substance and three Persons but in Christ three substances the soul the body and the Divinity but one person 2. That in the Trinity there is another and another person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Father is one person the Son another the Holy Ghost a third but not another and another thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Father Son and Holy Ghost are but one God But in Christ there is another and another thing to wit the Divine nature and the humane but not another and another person for these two natures of God and man make but one Christ Accordingly the same Greek Father tells us most excellently lib. 3. cap. 7. that though Christ was twice born yet he was but once a son he had indeed two Nativities as well as two Natures one from his Father which was eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above cause reason time and Nature the other temporal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after our manner as to the time of his birth from the time he was conceived but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above our manner as to the way both of his birth and conception yet notwithstanding these two different Nativities as well as two different Natures we must say that Christ was but one Son or but once a Son for to say that he was twice a Son or two Sons were to say that he had two subsistences and consequently was two persons wherefore the Council of Ephesus did justly decree that the blessed Virgin should be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Mother of God because the Manhood which our Saviour took from her had no other personal subsistence but only in the Son of God I will not here insist upon those four words which in all probability made the four first general Councils to be received as four new Gospels The council of Nice defining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that our Saviour Christ was truly God against the Arrians The Council of Constantinople defining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was perfectly man against the Apollinarians The Council of Ephesus defining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was indivisibly God and man in one person against the Nestorians and The Council of Chalcedon defining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was distinctly and inconfusedly God and man in two natures against the Eutychians To which four words all the Doctrine concerning the Person of Christ may be reduced and by which all the heresies that oppose that Doctrine may be refuted Nor will I insist upon the Creed of the Council of Chalcedon which alone hath set down five words to shew the manner of the union of God and man in one Christ that it was 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without conversion of one into the other 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without confusion of the one with the other 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without alteration or change of the one by the other 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without division of the one from the other 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without distance of the one from the other for it is sufficient for my purpose to declare that in the person of Christ was such an union of the two several natures of God man as was without conversion of one into the other for God was not turned into man nor man into God without confusion of the one with the other for the God-head was not confounded with the manhood nor the man-hood with the God-head and without division of the one from the others for God is not to be separated from man nor man from God In so much that we may boldly and truly say and therefore boldly because truly that this Jesus Christ in our humane flesh is the second Person of the most holy blessed and glorious Trinity not that our flesh is coessentially or consubstantially of the Trinity but that it is hypostatically or personally of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks distinguish not in for or of it self by virtue of its own essence but in for and of the Son of God with whom it is personally united so that in one Christ we may contemplate and must confess all the beauty and loveliness both of heaven and earth The beauty of heaven is God The beauty of earth is man the beauty of heaven and earth together is this God-Man CAP. II. Christ admired in his Propitiation SECT I. The manner of knowing Divine truths what it ought to be and the great benefit of knowing Christ in his Propitiation He that will read the Scripture to the benefit of his soul must have Christ crucified in his thoughts THough in speculatives the bare act of knowledge makes a man learned yet not so in practicks there the cheifest thing that advanceth our learning is the manner of knowing And Christianity being chiefly a practical Science t is not the bare knowledge of Christ but the manner of knowing him that makes a man a well grounded Christian Hence Saint Paul saith to the Ephesians But ye have not so learned Christ Ephes 4. 20 that is so as not to practice him he looks not only after their knowledge of Christ but also after their manner of knowing him which he would have to be such as might work upon their lives and conversations Accordingly he adviseth the Colossians that as they had received Christ Jesus the Lord so they would walk in him for that was their only way to be rooted and built up in Christ and stablished in the faith abounding therein with thanksgiving Col. 2. 6 7. Excellently Saint Bernard like a very good Divine and a far better Christian Sermon 36. in Cant. Modus sciendi est ut scias quo ordine quo studio quo fine quaeque nosse operteat quo ordine ut id prius quod maturius ad salutem quo studio ut id ardentius quod vehementius ad amorem quo fine ut non ad inanem gloriam aut curiositatem aut aliud quid simile sed tantum ad â—dificationem tuam vel proximi The manner of knowing Divine truths is this that we know them in a right order with a right zeal and for a right end The right order is to know that first which first procureth salvation The right zeal is to desire to know that most which most enflameth our affections And the right end is to use all our knowledge to edification and in these three respects the knowledge of Christ in his Propitiation doth challenge our best endeavours that we may gain
exposition He that cometh to God must believe that God is his God and that he will be his rewarder if he diligently seek him for so did Enoch believe when he did forsake and by forsaking did provoke the men of that wicked age of the world foul enough for a flood to wash it though no washing could cleanse it only that he might walk with God His Faith strengthened him against his fears whiles it represented God thus speaking unto him Fear not I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. Wherefore though Moses spake not one word of Enochs faith yet Saint Paul takes it for as good a proof that Enoch had faith because he pleased God as that he pleased God because God took him And is it possible that this faith should be in any man who is yet in his sins No certainly for he cannot believe God to be his shield whom he hath made his enemy nor to be his rewarder whom he hath made his avenger Look upon your first Father Adam after he had sinned and you will see your self in him and your sin his God called unto him and said Where art thou but he said I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Gen. 3. 10. A strange folly that made him think he could hide himself from Gods All-seeing eye A stranger fear that made him desire to hide himself from Gods All-saving Presence He knew that in God alone he lived and moved and had his being and yet was afraid of him when he was yet scarce fully entred into the possession of his life The reason was he had taken such an inmate into his soul as he knew God could not but hate and could not but confound and destroy Whiles he continued in his innocency nothing that God said could fright him nothing that God did could hurt him But when once he had sinned Gods voice that only called for his appearance was more terrible then his hand before that had taken away his rib a still small voice in the cool of the day makes him flie into a thicket as thinking thereby to secure himself In this miserable condition he would have lived and dyed for the same cause must have produced still the same effect had not God promised him that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head and in that promise revealed Christ unto him as a propitiation for his sins After that though he was immediately thrust out of Paradise yet he could think of comming into Gods presence with sacrifice and burnt offerings for sure t was he taught his sons those offices of Religion because he saw he had a Mediator to intercede for him whereas before that promise though he was actually in the Garden of God yet he durst not come neer him as not knowing how to intercede for himself For his sin had cast such a confusion such an amazement upon his soul that he durst not open his eyes to look on God and could not open his mouth to make supplication to him because he knew he was first to make satisfaction before he could be admitted to make intercession for that Gods offended justice was to be satisfied before his undeserved mercy might be implored And so is it with all mankind ever since being all conceived and born in sin we cannot but come into the world with a natural aversion from God that is with a fear to come neer him and with a desire to go and keep far from him if it were possible alwayes out of his sight And as we come into the world so we abide in it with a total aversion from God till he be pleased to reveal his Son to us that we may know him or rather in us that we may love him Nor would any man that is descended from the corrupt loins of Adam ever have thought much less have desired to come neer God to worship him had there not been revealed a sufficient atonement for his sin For till our sins be expiated we cannot hope that our worship should be accepted And as for the heathens and Jews who worship God without the knowledge or with the contempt of Christ we must say their worship is not good and is rather out of a good custome then out of a good conscience as too many Christians still worship God who know not Christ effectually or practically And t is better saying so then to say they can have either a good conscience or a good worship who have not faith in Christ Wherefore let my soul evermore bless God for having revealed this great mystery and greater mercy of godliness that he is reconciled to me in Christ having blotted out my sins by his precious blood And let me now be as much afraid of not coming into Gods presence to beg and gasp for his mercy as I should have feared to come to him if he had not made known to me the means and way of this reconciliation For the Son of God having expiated all my sins that by him I might come unto his Father hath in effect told me that my sin of not comming to God is now like to prove of all others the most inexpiable SECT II. That no religion adoreth God rightly which adoreth him not in Christ and of the excellencie of the Christian Religion That no other Religion teacheth such conformable truths to right reason declareth an expiation for sin promiseth so great a reward sheweth so pure a worship or so innocent a conversation REason teacheth all men to adore and worship God but t is only Religion that teacheth some few men how he is truly and rightly to be adored and worshipped and those few men were heretofore the Jews and are now the Christians for they alone rightly worship God who worship him in his Son that is in Christ So saith the beloved Disciple in honour of and in justice to his master Whosoever denyeth the Son the same hath not the Father 1 John 2. 23. That is he that hath not the Son for his God hath not the Father for his God For the nature of Relatives evinceth thus much that if there be a Father there must be a Son and if there be not a Son there cannot be a Father wherefore it is a gross mistake or rather a great blasphemy to say that the Jews or Turks or other Infidels do worship the same God with us Christians for they not having the Son cannot have the Father and not having the Father have not the true God but an idol of their own making nay a lyar insteed of God as saith the same disciple He that believeth not God hath made him a lyar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not
Sedere est judicantis stare vero pugnantis adjuvantis Stephanus ergo in labore certaminis positus stantem vidit quem adjutorem â—abuit sed tunc post ascensionem Marcus sedere describit qua post Ascensionis gloriam inde in â—iâ—e videbitur To sit belongs to one that judgeth to stand to one that helpeth Therefore Saint Stephen saw Christ standing when he needed his help though Saint Mark described him as sitting because after he was ascended he looked on him as ready to judge the quick and dead God grant all the persecuted Ministers and servants of Christ so to see their master standing as ready to help them nay indeed so they do see him or they could not contentedly undergo their persecutions Quo propiùs mortem accedunt martyres eo propiùs Christum intuentes in coelum assurgunt saith the same Beza in his short notes upon the place The Martyrs the nearer they approach to death the nearer they behold Christ and when they seem to fall lowest they do indeed rise highest when their head is nearest earth even upon the block their heart is nearest heaven when we most see their destruction they most see their own salvation we look on their destroyers standing over them ready to dispatch them but they look on their Saviour standing over their destroyers even at the right hand of God ready to receive them Most heavenly is that contemplation of Tertullian lib. de resur carn Quemadmodum nobis arrhabonem Spiritus reliquit ita à nobis arrhabonem carnis accepit vexiâ— in coelum pignus totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae Securi igitur estote caro sanguis usurpâstis enim coelum regnum in Christo Our blessed Saviour as he gave unto us the earnest of his Spirit so he took of us the earnest of our flesh and carried that with him into heaven as a pledge that all the rest should follow after it Be secure then O flesh and blood for ye have already ascended into heaven and do even now in Christ your head possess and enjoy the Kingdom of God CAP. III. Christ considered after he was ascended as sitting on the hand of God SECT I. What is meant by the right hand of God and by Christs sitting there SAint Augustine in his hundred and fifteenth Sermon de tempore ascribes this part of the Apostles Creed concerning Christs ascending into heaven and sitting on the right hand of God to Saint Bartholomew and the antient Fathers do generally make them both but one Article or at least joyn them so together as if they were bur one Wherein they speak much after the dialect of Saint Peter 1 Pet. 3. 22. Who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God But I have rather chosen to treat of them severally because though we should allow them to be but one article of our Faith yet they are two several mysteries of our Religion and indeed the one an effect and consequent of the other and therefore not the same with it For our blessed Saviour first ascended in his humane body and afterwards in that same humane body sate at the right hand of God But here we must be sure to observe Origens caution Ne tibi describas sensibiles sessiones duas cathedras sedentes super â—as humano Schemate Patrem Filium take heed you phansie not to your self any visible sitting as if there were two chairs in heaven the one for the Father to sit in the other for the Son to sit by him Nor may we think that God hath such a right hand for Christ to sit on as Solomon had for his mother Bathsheba 1 King 2. 19 He caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and she sate on his right hand We must have no such earthly and fleshly thoughts of the place and much less of the God of spirits but by the right hand of God We must understand the power and majesty and glory of the God head So Saint Basil in lib. desp S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The right hand of God doth not signifie any relation of place but equality of power So Saint Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when you hear of Gods right hâ—nd you must thereby undeastand the glory honour and worship of God and nothing else is meant by Christs sitting at the right hand of God but his being in the same glory with the Father Excellently Damascence lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was the more willing to transcribe the whole words because this piece of Damascen is scarce to be met with but in Colledge Libraries and is not like to be there very long if some men may have their wills who gaping after Colledge lands would force the poor Scholars to sell their books to buy bread but the meaning of them is this We say that Christ sitteth on the right hand of his father corporally or locally in his humane body But we do not say that the right hand of his Father is local or corporal confined to any place or situation for how can he that is uncircumscrîbed and unconfined have such a right hand But we call the right hand of the Father the glory honour of the Godhead in the which Christ as the Son of God was Copartner with his Father before all ages being coessential with him But now also as the Son of man in his humane flesh or body is he possessed of the same glory his humane nature being glorified together with his Divine nature and worshipped in the same person by all the Saints and Angels in heaven SECT II. That Christ as man sitteth on the right hand of God IT is not to be denyed but that our Saviour Christ doth as he is a man sit at the right hand of God For he doth sit there in his humane nature whether we take his sitting at the right hand of God for his resting in eternal blessedness after all the travails and labours of his sufferings as Saint Augustine doth in Expos Symb. or for being assumed and associated into the glory of the Divinity as Damascen expounds it For as in his Divine nature he sate at the right hand of God from all eternity being in the same power and glory and blessedness with him so also after his ascension he carried up his humane nature to sit there having taken the nature of man as into the unity so also into the glory and blessedness of his person and in it administring the Kingdom of his father as head of the Church both Militant and Triumphant King of Saints and governour of all things in heaven and in earth For so himself hath told us Mat. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go therefore and teach all nations baptizng them or rather Go therefore and Disciple all nations baptizing them that is make them my Disciples by baptizing them in the
name of the Father c. thereby distinguishing them from those who are not my Disciples even by Baptism Here is such a commission for the Minister to execute his calling both for Word and Sacraments as all the Magistrates in the world can neither give nor take away For they have a power only from Christs power in earth but this calling of the Ministry is founded upon the power of Christ which he hath also in heaven And they who make it their business to discountenance and oppose the Ministers of the Gospel whilst they preach and pray and administer the Sacraments according to the appointment and command of their Master do but in effect strive to justle Christ out of the heads and hearts of men and to thrust him away from the right hand of God Surely he that hopes to be set one day at the right hand of Christ will now willingly acknowledge and reverently adore Christs sitting at the right hand of God And they who do not willingly now put themselves under his power shall at last be brought under it against their will for he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet and though he shall still reign after that for his Kingdom shall have no end as being an everlasting Kingdom 2 Pet. 1 11. yet he shall not after that exercise his government so visibly by the cooperation of his humane nature as now he doth but only by the essential power and presence of his Godhead in which respect it is said And when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. For the office of his Mediatorship will then be at an end no less as King then as Priest and Prophet when he shall have brought all men either to his Father or under him though the Majesty of his person be immortal and everlasting And therefore as the Man Christ Jesus did not actually sit at the right hand of God till he was exalted into heaven and yet was potentially there that is in right and power by virtue of the hypostatical union even from the first instant of his incarnation so when he shall have exalted and drawn all his mystical body thither after him though he shall still sit there in the same person yet not in the same respect or to the same end for not Man but God shall then administer the Kingdom of the Father that as from all eternity so also to all eternity God may be all in all Excellently Saint Augustine Ipsam Dexteram intelligite potestatem quam accepit ille homo susceptus à Deo ut veniat judicicaturus qui prius venerat judicandus Non enim Pater judicat quenquam sed omne judicium dedit Filio ut omnes honorent Filium sicut honorant Patrem By the right hand of God understand the power which that man hath received who is taken into God that he may come to judge who at first did come to be judged For the Father judgeth no man but hath comâ—… all judgement to the Son that all men should honour 〈…〉 As they honour the Father So that this 〈…〉 at the right hand of God is to be expounded of ouâ— blesâ—ed Saviour not according to his Divine but according to his humane nature as the Apostle hath fully declared Eph. 1. 21. When he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome These words cannot be spoken and therefore may not be understood of God the word for he was never dead and therefore t is not said of him that he is set on Gods right hand So likewise Saint Cyprian Dominus ascendit in coelum non ubi verbum Dei prius non fuerat quippe qui erat semper in coelis manebat in Patre sed ubi verbum caro factum ante non sedebat The Lord ascended into heaven not where the word was not before for he was alwayes in the bosome of the Father but where the Word made flesh never sate before But let Saint Augustines determination decide this controversie who purposely handleth it lib. 3. de Symbolo cap. 8. Quis est qui sedit ad dexteram patris Homo Christus Nam in quantum Deus semper cum Patre ex Patre quando ad nos processit à Patre non recessit Who is it that sitteth at the right hand of the Father The Man Christ For as God he was alwayes with his Father and of his Father and when he came to us did not depart from him Therefore Christ was alwayes at the right hand of his Father as God but since his ascension he is there also as Man SECT III. That to sit at the right hand of God is proper only to Christ and therefore invocation of or adoration to the blessed Virgin is not agreeable with this Article of our Christian Faith And that the Author of no Religion but only the Christian is said to be at the right hand of God and to administer his Kingdom and therefore no Religion to be compared with it and no power to prevail against it IF it be demanded whether to sit at the right hand of God be proper only to Christ it must be answered Yes For none else is none else can be there but only he For by this argument doth the holy Apostle prove him to be the Son of God Heb. 1. 13. But to which of the Angels said he at any time Sit thou on my right hand And if he hath not said so to the Angels much less hath he said so to any man And â—ow then shall we say unto either sit thou on the right hand of God by our invocation and adoration placing the creature in the throne of the Creator God blessed for ever And what else do they who thus invest a Bishop saying Accipe pallium plenitudinem sc pontificalis efficii ad honorem omnipotentis Dei gloriosissimae Virginis Mariae genitricis ejus Beatorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli Take this pall and with it the fulness of Episcopal power to the honour of Almighty God and the most glorious Virgin Mary his Mother and his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul for to joyn the blessed Virgin and the Apostles in the same honour and glory with Almighty God is in effect to joyn her and them in the same Kingdom and power with him since they all go together For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever Therefore Laus Deo Virginique Matri Mariae used by Bellarmine at the end of each general controversie must needs beget a new controversie were all the rest amicably concluded among those Christians who love not to think but to know they do God good service in their prayers and praises For such a form of worship
That of enemies they are made servants and of servants they are made sons Secondly That being made sons they have the Spirit of his Son Thirdly That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father Having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession IT is fit that a foolish son should know his folly as well as his filiation his folly that he may return to himself to do his duty as well as his filiation that he may return unto his Father and beg for mercy Accordingly every good Christian being made the son of God and yet still abiding too much in the sins of other men should look with one eye upon himself to increase his humility and to quicken his obedience and repentance with the other eye upon his Saviour to strengthen his faith and to inflame his piety and devotion He must see his folly as well as his filiation that he may ascribe unto God the honour due unto his name and much more the honour due unto his nature in that he disinherits not a foolish Son besotted and bewitched with the vanities of the world and with his own sinful lusts and affections but first looks on him as wise in Christ his own eternal wisdom and then makes him so that he may not only accept him for a son but may also bring him to his inheritance For there is no doubt to be made but that the filiation will carry the inheritance if so be we take care that the folly do not destroy the filiation And accordingly we must still remember that we were by nature the children of wrath born enemies but made sons by the grace of adoption and take heed of returning to our own natural corruptions or of sinning against that grace whereby we have been adopted For in that we have been adopted into Gods family we have been put out of our own so the Greeks do expresly set forth the nature of adoption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adopted son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas is to be put out of our own kindred out of our own stock And the Psalmist requires no less of us when he saith Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Psal 45. 11 12. Thou canst not be an adopted son of God unless thou forget thine own people and thy fathers house that is unless thou go out of the man that thou maist go in to God leave off to be an enemy that thou maist begin to be a son forsake thy self that thou maist cleave to thy Saviour For in thy self thou art a stranger nay an enemy in him only thou art a servant or rather a Son This consideration made Saint Paul say I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As if he had said I am crucified with Christ in that I am dead unto sin for the thought that he hath nailed my sins to his Cross makes me willing to be crucified with him And yet I still truly live but not that old carnal man I was before but made a new creature so that indeed Christ liveth in me by his Spirit making me lead a new life And though I am still in this mortal body yet my life which I live is immortal for though my person be on earth yet my conversation is in heaven And the same truth which the Apostle here preached by his Example he did in another place preach also by his Doctrine saying And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. that is the outward man is mortified to the weakning and abolishing of sin but the inner man is renewed to the encreasing and establishing of righteousness And this is the proper work of the Spirit of adoption to change a man from being an enemy to be a servant and from being a servant to be a son which we may well look upon as the first priviledge of the Saints who are truly so that is Saints in Gods account though sinners in their own Saints not of their own calling but of Gods or Saints not of their own but of Gods making Their duty is to be his servants but their honour is to be his friends nay more his sons Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. They were before his enemies they are now his servants and friends They are to do whatsoever he commands them there 's their duty they are obliged as servants yet he saith unto them ye are my friends there 's their honour they are accepted as friends Great is their honour as his friends admitted to his counsels yet much greater is their honour as his sons admitted to his inheritance But this honour is meerly a priviledge not a prerogative t is such as they must thankfully receive not such as they may peremptorily demand for when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do saith our blessed Saviour Luk. 17. 10. Christ looked upon his own obedience as duty and therefore will not have us look upon ours as supererogation We are unprofitable servants in our service and should be so in our account and are we then in Gods account accepted as friends nay beloved as sons Great was their priviledge who could say We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build his house Ezra 5. 11. Sure they could not have said so much if they had pulled his house down But far greater is our priviledge who can say We are the sons of the God of heaven and earth and though we be despoiled of our inheritance in earth yet we cannot be deprived of our inheritance in heaven The prodigal son saith to his father I am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luk. 15. 19. but each of us may now invert those words and say unto our Father I am no more worthy to be a hired servant and yet thou hast made me be called thy Son A consideration which is able to kindle a holy fire in the breast of every good Christian and enflame his soul with the love of Christ by whom alone of an enemy he is made a servant of a servant a friend of a friend a Son of a son an heir even an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For though men have son that are not heirs yet God hath no son which is not also an heir and
given to some particular Minister a special endowment hath he therefore given him leave either to condemn his Brethren or to condemn his Church Surely no and much less upon so slight a ground either of Reason or of Religion For neither ought there to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities and if there ought yet is not the Church bound to make it First there ought not to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities because these emergencies whether corporal or spiritual yet as they are occasional they are meerly temporal for occasion is the opportunity of time but Christianity is chiefly to busie it self about eternals Again as they are occasional they are meer contingencies but Religion is chiefly to busie it self about certainties The Form by which Saint John Baptist taught his Disciples to pray is lost without any mischief to Religion because it was meerly Occasional the reason thereof expiring with its use But the Form by which our blessed Saviour taught his Disciples to pray God would not suffer to be lost for fear Religion might have been lost with it because that Prayer is doctrinal and eternal never to expire either in its reason or in its use And how shall we then seek to advance Occasionals above Eternals in our Praying Surely he that saith Pray continually 1 Thes 5. 17. supposeth such matter of our Prayers as is constant not as is emergent as is continual not as is occasional So that if I first provide for occasionals in my Devotions and Eternity may be subservient to Time the accessory may chance draw the principal which is against the dictates of nature but if I first provide for eternals Time is subservient to Eternity the Principal will undoubtedly draw the accessory which is according to the dictates of Grace T is an excellent Prayer of our own Church to Almighty God That thou being our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that finally we lose not the things eternal If God be my ruler and guide I shall slightly glance upon temporals as upon things in my passage but I shall wholly fix upon eternals as upon things that belong to my journeys end Fear not Zacharie saith the Angel for thy prayer is heard and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear a Son This man doubtless prayed for eternals in the discharge of his Priestly office yet hath a grant of temporals On the other side Hannah prayed for temporals that she might have a son yet gives thanks in her Song as if she had received eternals Religious souls distill all their thoughts in a pure limbeck so as to admit no dross nor dreggs of the earth in their distillation If you look upon the occasion of those heavenly prayers in the Psalms you will think many of them personal and particular such as belonged only to King Davids temporals wants and distresses But if you look upon the matter of these prayers you will find all of them doctrinal and universal such as do belong to all good Christians spiritual wants and distresses The Spirit of God teacheth us in our prayers to turn occasionals into eternals not to turn eternals into occasionals we justly dislike that Tenent which would make the Rule of our Religion the holy Scriptures rather occasional then doctrinal And how can we like that invention which would make the practice of our Religion our publick Prayers not so truly Doctrinal as Occasional that is indeed not so truly Eternal as Temporal Attention is best in Prayer when it is fixed wholly upon God and why not Affection too Conversion to my self may be an aversion from my God but surely conversion to my God cannot possibly be an aversion from my self I may easily so look after occasionals as to neglect eternals to my great loss and greater sin but if I look well after eternals it can be neither loss nor sin in me though I should chance to neglect occasionals So that it is both irrational and irreligious to say That there ought not to be so great provision made for occasional emergencies as for continual necessities in our private prayers but if there ought yet surely the Church is not bound to make that provision in her publick Prayers and if this be made good too then the Gift of Prayer though it may be of excellent use in private houses yet can have no pretence to cast set forms of Prayer out of Gods house And surely this Assertion That the Church is not bound to make provision for occasional emergencies but only for continual necessities in her ordinary publick Prayers may be made good from the very nature of Common-Prayer which is to be of common concernments such as are no more to be restrained to particular times then to particular persons Thus Saint Chrysostom himself explaineth what he meaneth by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by his common supplications 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath given us grace to make our common suppplications and teacheth us what we should mean by our Common Prayers when he saith Granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth and in the world to come life everlasting For common supplications or common Prayers are such as all other good Christians would be ready to make as well as we for that the matter of them concerns them All as well as Vs To wit knowledge of God and life in God Such Petitions as these which are common to all Christians alike are those which properly constitute Common-Prayer for that ought to be common in its matter before it be common in its use And such common Petitions as these is the Church bound to make as she is Catholick or Christian and as for other less common Petitions the Church makes them only as she is National A common good is the proper subject of Common-Prayer that is to say A spiritual good which is common to all Christians or a temporal good which is common to all of one Society as they all are one either by the union of Nature or by the union of Grace and Love These goods are certain and known to all and the Churâ—h which hath the common care of all is bound to provide such prayers as may best express our desires concerning these And upon any publick occasion though it be temporal our Church doth accordingly still make such Provision both for occasional Prayers and Praises But as concerning any particular good which this or that private man may need upon this or that particular occasion it is uncertain and unknown it comes not under the Churches knowledge and how can it come under the Churches care Such particulars are infinite and as infinite they cannot be the object of the Churches certain knowledge much less should they be the subject of the Churches constant prayers There needs a particular confession that such occasional necessities or distresses may be known before there can be a