By right of the Fathers constitution because the Father hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.22 and hath made him heir of all things Hebr. 1.2 His Dominion therefore extends not onely unto us but unto all creatures Seeing therefore Christ is the Lord of us all we ought to be humble and meek one towards another for we are fellow servants of the Lord. Masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven saith S. Paul Col. 4.1 And seeing that Christ is the Lord let us adhere to him alone otherwise we shall have very many strange lords whom to serve it will be most miserable Most truly said S. Ambrose O how many lords hath he who hath not one he hath so many lords or masters as he hath sins yea holy father he hath so many mistresses as lusts and certainly thou thy self being judge lust is a most furious mistress Let us therefore serve the Lord Jesus onely And if we be noble and generous Christians let us not admit of any other government As Thomas Aquinas observeth of horses that a spirited and wel-mettled one will not admit of any other rider but his own master and is moved onely at his beck Hitherto of the titles of the Mediator he is further to be described according to the degrees both of his exinanition or humiliation and likewise of his exaltation First Christ did empty himself and became very low The word is made flesh Joh. 1.14 The Son of God is made the Son of man that the son of man might become the son of God He is now who was and what he is he was not De Trin. lib. â—0 saith S. Hilary Our Mediator is become God and man that he might conjoyn God and man together again who were separated and disjoyned And if it be said Object that the flesh of Christ could not be united to our flesh because our flesh is sinful Answ We answer It doth not follow for sinfulness is accidental to our flesh not of the substance or essence of it so that Christs flesh may be united to our flesh but not as to the sinfulness of it If it be said that no accession can be made to God we say That is true if meant of perfection but not of union If further any object Object that the humane nature cannot come or be united to God It is true unless that God assume it That it is most ignominious for God to be a creature Answ It is most ignominious for him to be changed into a creature but not to be united with it without the change of his essence But although there be in Christ two natures yet there is onely one Person Although he be God and man yet he is not two but one Christ as S. Athanasius professeth in his Creed The humane nature of Christ doth not constitute a person because it subsists not of or by it self but it is upheld or sustained in and by the Word If it be objected Object that God and man are two persons We answer Answ That it is true if they be not united If it be said that dead and always living are not the same It is true that they are not the same according to the same But Christ was so according to his divers natures If it be enquired How is the Incarnation attributed to the Son We are to know that the Incarnation is the work of the whole Trinity by inchoation and of the Son alone by termination He assumed our nature which the Father formed in him out of the substance of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost This substantial knitting or joyning although produced by all the Persons yet formally it did not knit or conjoyn the humane nature with any In 3. p. D. Thom. but with the Person of the Son as Suarez copiously and other Divines And of the two natures there was an union made hypostatically or personally not physically as the form is united to the matter nor spiritually as the elect among themselves and with God nor by help and assistance as the mariner to the ship nor relatively as a friend to a friend nor mystically as in the Sacrament the two natures were united inconfusedly unchangeably not admitting of any division inseparably Inconfusedly each nature having their properties remaining but the properties of one nature by communication of idioms is attributed in the concrete to the person denominated from either nature as that God hath purchased his Church by his bloud Acts 20.28 The Lord of glory was crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 this is spoken according to his humane nature This speech ought to be taken in the concrete not in the abstract and it follows not that because God is said to suffer therefore the Deity suffered Secondly the natures were united inconvertibly that is without the change of the Divine into the humane or of the humane into the Divine Thirdly individedly without division of natures although not without distinction they are not two but one Christ Fourthly inseparably this union remains for ever At the death of Christ his soul was separated from his body but the Divine nature remained united to both after its own manner the natural union was dissolved and not the personal Thus far concerning the Incarnation in general The parts thereof follow the conception of Christ and his nativity Conceived by the Holy Ghost Not of the essence but by the efficiency of the Holy Ghost This particle of doth not denote the matter as if that Christ was of the Holy Ghost for he was of the fathers according to the flesh Rom. 9.5 God also is immutable and the Word assumed our flesh and is not changed into it but of signifies the efficient cause because by the vertue and power of the Holy Ghost Christ was conceived His conception by the Holy Ghost speaks the miraculous forming of the flesh or body of Christ without the help of man then the sanctifying of it from original sin and the hypostatical union of it with the Word The body of Christ is thought to have been made simul semel together and at once perfect not successively as the bodies of men are in the space of fourty days otherwise Christ should not have been conceived a man but an embryo yea he was inspired with a reasonable soul Wickedly did Apollinaris say that the soul of Christ was his Divinity His soul was heavy and sad which is not competent to the Divinity at his death his soul departed from his body but his Divinity did not recede or depart He was conceived for us behold his love how can we conceive to express it He was conceived of the Holy Ghost behold his wisdom that he might be free from sin let us mourn by reason of our impure conception Let every one say with David Behold in iniquity was I conceived Psal 51.5 His pure
been yet in our sins all our faith would have been in vain 1 Cor. 15.17 He rose for his own and his Fathers glory for the dignity and authority of his Person Because of his office he ought to reign for ever and always to intercede for us He rose for our salvation for our justification for our regeneration for our resurrection and glorification That he might raise up our bodies at the last day the head being risen the members cannot but rise like as Adam brought death upon himself and his posterity even so Christ life the Lord makes the faithful coheirs of his glory let us therefore rise again to the life of grace and persevere in the same It is objected that these benefits flow from the death of Christ Object Answ We answer that Christ did merit them by his death but they are declared and applyed by his resurrection And if it be further said that these benefits were given to the faithful beleevers under the Old Testament our answer is This was done in respect of the resurrection to come But may some say the ungodly also shall rise again They shall rise again indeed but to the judgement of condemnation not of absolution And these things out of many concerning the resurrection of Christ His Ascension follows Jesus like the Sun at his full meridian ascendeth the highest Heaven He ascended from the mount of Olives to Bethany and not onely into the aereal and starry heaven but also into the empyreal into the seat of the Blessed He ascended according to his humane nature Object But we have it S. John 3.13 the Son of man was then in heaven Answ But this was spoken by communication of idioms whereby the properties of either nature are attributed to one and the same Person of Christ by what name soever expressed He was there then according to his Divinity But he that descended hath also ascended Object saith the Apostle Answ Ephes 4.10 He did not descend as man it seems therefore that neither did he ascend as man But here the kinde or manner of the predication is changed the Divinity descended that is did shew it self in a place where before it had not so discovered it self And even as Jesus did discover or manifest himself in his humane nature in like manner he ascended He ascended on the fourtieth day after the resurrection in this space he would instruct his disciples concerning his kingdom He ascended visibly and locally he ascended into heaven But S. Object Paul saith he ascended far above all heavens Answ Eph. 4.10 That is say some far above all the starry heavens others determine that this doth not denote the sublimity of the place but the excellency or highness of the Divine Majesty because he hath all things in subjection under him Some will have Christ to be in a void space above the heaven and with his feet to stand upon the outmost surface of the highest Heaven where the Saints live under him But the words of the Apostle compel us not to the belief of this He may be said to have ascended far above all heavens when he ascended into the supreme or highest Heaven and to the most worthy place therein even as we say not onely he that gets up to the very top is said to ascend a tree or a tower but he also that climbs up to the higher boughs or steps although he stays beneath the top But it may be objected Obser that Christ promised he would be with us to the end of the world Answ But this is to be understood of the Deity of Christ of his grace and power spiritually not of his humanity and corporally Christ ascended that he might intercede for us and although the intercession of Christ was before his ascension yet it depended upon this glorious intercession It was made before in the worth of the sacrifice that was to be offered but now of that which hath been offered Secondly Jesus ascended as an eagle that we although but worms may ascend with him Adam had shut up heaven Christ opened it again And although Enoch and Elias ascended before him yet it was not by their own but Christs power by which also he himself ascended Thirdly Christ ascended that he might give the Holy Ghost and although he was given before yet it was in regard of the Ascension and after it in a more plentiful manner Hitherto of the Ascension of Christ his sitting at the right hand of the Father followeth The right hand is attributed to God per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by a borrowed speech from men and it signifies the chiefest power and glory To sit at the right hand is a phrase taken from the custom and manner of kings who place those whom they honour at their right hand and cause them whom they set over the affairs of the kingdom to sit together with them So Christ is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father because the Father after he had finished our redemption on earth crowned him with the chiefest glory above all Angels and men in heaven and declared him to be Head and King of the Church by whom he would immediately govern all things both in heaven and earth and whom he would have to be adored of all creatures The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my right hand saith the Prophet Psal 110. The sitting therefore at the right hand of God is the singular and proper dignity of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man conferred upon him by the Father after his Ascension And it consists First in the perfection of his Person or the equality of the Word with the Father which indeed he did not then first of all receive but it being vailed in the time of his humiliation he did again make apparent or manifest Secondly this dignity consists in the perfection of the humane nature which the infirmities being put off or laid aside is adorned with supereminent and surpassing excellency of gifts wisdom and power Thirdly this dignity consists in the perfection of his office because Jesus is constituted or appointed Head of the Church This true Trismegist is King Prophet Priest And although he was the Head of the Church before yet was not that according to both natures nor always exalted Fourthly the dignity of Christ consists in the perfection of his honour because he ought to be acknowledged and extolled by all as Lord of all All things are put under Christs feet by reason of his glorious victory and although some things may seem to be refractory to him yet they are to be repressed by him at his will and pleasure It may be objected against the sitting of Christ at the right hand of God the Father Object that S. Stephen saw him standing at the right hand of God Acts 7.55 But by this posture he expressed Christ his readiness to assist them that are his Champions Answ as when Christ is said to sit
sinner as the selling of Joseph or the crucifying of Christ We answer that this is done in a diverse respect it is attributed to the sinner as it is an evil work but to God as it is a good one This is the reason of that common simile of a hors-man riding on a lame horse its halting or lameness proceeds not from the hors-man but from the horse it self Joseph's brethren sold him out of malice God permitted this out of mercy lest he should have been slain for his own glory and for the great advantage and profit of his servant The Jews crucified Christ out of ill-will God the Father permitted this out of his greatest good will towards men Judas betrayed Christ out of covetousness our heavenly Father out of love They err who affirm that God doth incline and force the will of the wicked to commit great and grievous sins to have formed man in his mothers womb with a perversness of nature and a necessity of sinning or to this end to have created Esau to lead a wicked life or to move a thief to kill the innocent and him that is not prepared to die This is most certain that God doth not approve of wickedness neither is he the cause of it yet all things subject themselves to his providence all his creatures rational or irrational all events good or evil But his principal care is of his elect His providence in respect of them is most special We should do well therefore to be patient in adversity thankful in prosperity and hope for the future For our God is omnipotent good and true Hitherto of the first part of the Creed the second follows which is concerning faith in Christ in these words And in Jesus Christ his onely Son our Lord c. The second Person is true God not mere man otherwise he were not the object of our faith He is called Jesus in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Saviour because he saveth his people Jeschuah Jehoscuah Matth. 1.21 This name JESUS is honey in the mouth melody in the ear a jubile or rejoycing in the heart Others have had this name Joshua a Captain or Leader and Joshua the High Priest But they by the imposition of men Jesus by the denunciation of an Angel Those were saviours by a figure and typically but Jesus truly and in his own nature They brought corporal good things and Jesus spiritual They were ministers or servants He the Master Jesus is a Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superlatively He alone saveth excluding the creatures There is no other name given under heaven whereby they may be saved Acts 4.12 He saveth from the evil of sin and from the evil of punishment the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth let therefore every faithful soul rejoyce and say O Jesu be thou to me a Jesus or Saviour Secondly our Mediator is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unctus anointed à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo to anoint but in Hebrew he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as he hath his Hebrew name Jeschuah Maschiach because he was to be the Saviour of the Jews so he hath his Greek name Christ because he was to be the Saviour of the Greeks that is of the Gentiles and other nations for all the Gentiles were called Grecians as S. Epist 200. Austin saith because from the time of Alexander the Great the Greeks having the rule almost over all nations did propagate their tongue together with their Empire As the Prophets Priests and Kings were wont to be anointed so likewise Christ was anointed although not in regard of the signe outwardly and ceremonially yet in respect of the thing signified inwardly and really He was anointed because he was ordained to the office of a Mediator and endued with gifts for the accomplishing of the same work of this duty The bestowing of gifts was in reference to his humane nature the ordination to his office was according to either nature Christ was anointed to be a Prophet and a Teacher who should make known the will of his Father to be a High Priest and a Priest that by the sacrifice of his body he might redeem us and that he might always intercede for us to be a King that he might guide us by his word and Spirit This is our duty then that by the odour of his ointments we should run after him Draw thou us O Lord Jesus and we shall run after thee From Christ we are called Christians and this name was first given them at Antioch Act. 11.26 Of his fulness we have all received and he hath made us kings and priests to God our Father We are kings that we should fight against Satan the world yea and against our selves Fortior est qui se quà m qui fortissima vincit He 's stronger that subdues himself by far Then he that conquers greatest walls by war We are Priests that we may sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise prayer contrition alms righteousness and in fine serve him in all things appertaining to a Christian life We are Prophets that we may know God and knowing him we may truly profess him that we may be Christians not onely in outward profession but also by inward communion that we may be members of the Church not onely in appearance but also in reality and truth As for the remaining titles of our Mediator He is next of all called the Son of God He was his Son according to the Divine nature being light of light and God of God And according to the humane nature after the common manner in respect of creation and after a special manner in respect of conception The Son is the onely begotten for he hath no brethren according to eternal generation nor according to his extraordinary conception yet the elect are called Christs brethren by reason of the Fathers adoption and likeness of humane nature for their liberality charity and for some kinde of conformity they have with Christ Besides our Mediator is called Lord. Lord was a title of the Emperours so high that Cesar Augustus would not be so called as Dio and Tertullian testifie deeming himself to be unworthy of so great a name It seems he did this by Divine instinct that that glorious Title being untouch'd might remain to the onely Son of God The King of kings and Lord of lords who straight after came into the world But at this time the Turks call their Emperour the great Lord and the Tartarians Persians and others of the East countrey Sultan that is Lord. Jesus is our Lord by right of creation because all things were made by him Col. 1.16 by right of redemption which we have through his bloud Col. 1.14 By right of principality for he is the head of all principality and power Col. 2.10 By right of preserving his unto salvation for he giveth life eternal to his sheep Joh. 10.28
conception will cover our impurity if that hereafter we endeavour to be pure So was his conception his nativity succeeds Christ was born that he might signifie to us the truth of his humane nature Born of Mary to shew that he was of the fathers to wit David and Abraham of whom Mary came Born of the Virgin Mary lest he should be defiled with original sin and that the Scripture should be fulfilled this the Prophet foretold Isai 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bring forth a Son Neither were the Sybils silent in this matter if those things be true which are written of them And truly Boetius in his Tractate of Scholastical discipline reports a wonderful thing to wit that there was found in Plato's tomb a plate of gold in which was written I beleeve in the Son of God that is to be born of the Virgin And such a like story Nicephorus tells of a certain man that in the time of Constantine and of his mother Irene there was a stone chest found under the earth with this inscription The Messias shall be born of a Virgin and I beleeve in him Out of all these ariseth the confirmation of our faith and firm consolation that a Saviour is born and born to us Isai 9.6 When he was rich he became poor for us For our sakes he was disgraced of men and contemned of the vulgar he was humble because he would not have us to be proud he was born of a poor Virgin that he might shew to us that we ought not to boast in riches and honour and that he might teach us to be contented with the meanest condition The Virgin brought forth her Son she wrapped him in swadling clothes having taken him first in her Virgin arms into the which he being new born the Angels had laid him as Suarez conjectures The Pastor of Israel manifested himself to be a good Shepherd to the shepherds The Angels brought news of great joy that should be to all people for that a Saviour was born Christ the Lord in the city of David and suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God Jesus the bread of life was born in Bethlehem the house of bread He was born in a stable that we should not so much care for sumptuous Palaces in which place afterwards there was built by S. Beda de locis sanctis alii Helen a most sumptuous Church to the honour of the Virgin the Mother of God Concerning the manner of his birth it was wonderfully singular and singularly wonderful Of this thing Saint Austin doth very admirably discourse saying thus Let the incredulous Jew tell me how or in what manner the dry rod to wit Aarons budded and blossomed and brought forth almonds then I will tell him how the Virgin conceived and brought forth But truly neither can the Jew explain the one nor I the other Divine mysteries are not to be discussed or searched out by the understanding but to be adored by faith saith S. Gregory I beleeve therefore that it is enough for us simply to beleeve that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary And certainly we ought piously to hold and maintain it that the blessed Mother of our Redeemer always remained a Virgin She was a Virgin before in and after her bearing or bringing forth The which S. Jerom at large proves against Helvidius And that place Mat. 1.25 He knew her not till she brought forth her first-born Son notes that he knew her not at all The like you have 2 Sam. 6. and the last verse where it is said Michal the daughter of Saul had no childe until the day of her death that is she never had any But how is Christ said to be the first-born if he had no brethren We answer that Christ is so called not because there was not any son after him but because there was none before him And where in the Scripture there is mention made of the brethren of Christ there cousin-germans and kinsmen are understood so Abraham said unto Lot We are brethren Gen. 13.8 Hitherto of the nativity of Christ his passion followeth He suffered under Pontius Pilate The whole life of Jesus was a passion he suffered in his circumcision in his flight into Egypt in fasting fourty days and in his temptation by the Devil he suffered in the want of the chiefest felicity he suffered all kinde of evils all humane infirmities sin excepted he endured poverty injury and the sense of the wrath of God but without despair and to conclude he suffered death it self according to his humane nature To teach that Christ felt no pain in his flesh nor true sorrow in his soul at the time of his passion is contrary to truth and heretical as if it should be said he took not upon him to be true and real man but onely his similitude So truly saith the Master of the Sentences The Divine nature did rest 3 Sent. dist 14. that the humane might suffer but it upheld the humane in its agonies that it might overcome The cause moving God to subject his Son to sufferings was either inward or outward The inward was the love of his good pleasure The outward threefold the misery of sin from whence was mercy sin it self from whence justice and the tyranny of the Devil from whence revenge the end and fruit of Christs passion are the same in a diverse respect the end in respect of Christ the fruit or benefit in respect of us and they are two the glory of God and our salvation The Judge under whom he suffered was Pontius Pilate the Governour of all Judea for Tiberius the Emperour that it might be evident that Jesus was the true Messias who was not to come till the sceptre was wholly taken away from Judah Gen. 49.10 which came now to pass Judea being overcome of the Romans Then it is also said that he suffered under Pilate that the truth of that which Christ spake concerning his being delivered up to the Gentiles might be manifest Matth. 20.19 Besides because his sufferings under Pilate were most heavy and grievous For Pilate scourged Christ and with thongs not by his own but by the hands of the executioners saith S. Jerom. Soon after when his body throughout was torn with scourges being crowned with thorns adorned with a purple robe and a sceptre of reed by a new kinde of mockery as it were to act in a theatre Pilate brings him in a King of misery to be beheld of the people and saith Behold the man By which words he would have moved the Jews to pity But they O hard-hearted men as they were used Christ very unmercifully made choice of Barabbas one notorious for lewd pranks to be released from punishment and were very instant requiring that the most innocent Jesus might be crucified Pilate could have denied them but he would not and against his conscience he delivered Jesus into the hands
at the right hand of God thereby is shown the Majesty of Christ glorified therefore both of them are true in a diverse respect Besides some may argue after this manner The right hand of God is every where the humane nature sitteth at the right hand of God therefore it is every where But in this argumentation you are to say there are four terms as in this which follows The sea compasseth the whole world a certain city is situate by the sea therefore a certain city compasseth the whole world Neither also doth the uniting of two inseparable things require that wheresoever one is the other should be but onely that they are somewhere together and not at a distance This is evident in the soul and in the head which are united inseparably and yet not wheresoever the soul is there is the head when as the soul is in the feet where the head is not But let us give over this subject and be of good courage Christ sitteth at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us O how great a comfort is this Let us therefore embrace the Lord Jesus with our chiefest love and do his will so we shall be blessed when he shall come to judgement of which there is mention made in the next Article From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead That word From thence designs the place from whence the Judge shall come namely from heaven He shall come from thence whither the disciples saw him ascending Acts 1.9 10. And although the work of judgement may be assigned to every one of the Persons according to decree consent and authority yet the exercise of this visible act and the execution is committed to the Son as he is the Son of man As for that place Object Joh. 5.22 The Father judgeth no man to it we say thus He judgeth no man alone and without the Son Answ but by the Son Neither doth that of Christ in any wise contradict this when he saith Joh. 12.47 I came not to judge He speaks there concerning his first coming in the flesh in the which he came not to condemn the world but to save it and not of his second coming which is unto judgement Neither is that which is said of the Apostles that they shall judge the twelve tribes Matth. 19.28 and of the Saints that they shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.7 any let hereunto for this shall be done of them by way of approbation not of authority The end of Christs Advent or Coming is explained by the distribution of the subjects that he may judge both the quick and the dead under which terms all men altogether are comprehended who are said to be quick of dead in respect of that state which precedes the judgement The quick being they whom the last day of judgement shall surprize alive who in a moment shall be changed from a mortal condition to an immortal The dead those who from the beginning of the world have departed this life and before the last day shall be raised up at length by the trump of the Arch-angel and presented before the judgement-seat of Christ and the Angels are included also who kept not their first station Jude v. 6. and are therefore reserved in chains under darkness to the judgement of the great day 2 Pet. 2.4 It may be objected Object that the devil is now judged Joh. 16.11 and he that beleeveth not is condemned already John 3.18 We answer Answ that this is done in part to wit in the word of God in their own consciences or in respect of the beginning of their punishment but they shall be judged afterwards in regard of the manifestation and promulgation of the judgement already made the exasperation of the punishment and the consummation of the torments both of body and soul The last judgement shall be set up that every one may receive what he hath done in his body whether it be good or evil and that the justice of God may be published to the praise of it Since God is just it is necessary that it be perfectly well with the good and godly and that the wicked and impious be for ever miserable this very thing is not done in this world therefore it is righteous to recompense to them who trouble the godly trouble and to you who are troubled rest when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 2 Thess 1.7 That there shall certainly be a judgement this we know against the Epicureans but the year moneth day and hour we know not no not the Angels in heaven Mark 13.32 The Fanaticks err who either out of an enthusiastical revelation or Arithmetical calculations and Astrological prognostications do set down the time when the judgement shall be but without a right judgement Let us in the mean time prepare our selves all our days and moments of our lives for the coming of Christ and let us take heed lest that day come upon us unawares and finde us unprepared The last day is hid from us that we might watch all our days it is always unknown that it may be always expected let therefore that terrible trumpet ever make this noise in our ears Arise ye dead and come to judgement The second part of the Creed was concerning the Son of God the third follows of the Holy Ghost I beleeve in the Holy Ghost We are to beleeve that the Holy Ghost is God and that he is the third Person of the Trinity equal to the Father and the Son in all perfection This is clear out of Sacred Writ and the doctrine of the Church which do render equal glory to the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Yet it may be said Object that he who receives from another is not his equal But the Holy Ghost hath received something from the Father and the Son Ergó This is true of him who receiveth part from another Answ in time successively and by grace but the Holy Ghost received from the Father and the Son the whole essence from eternity and by nature Some may object that he that is sent is not equal to him that sendeth but this doth not hold where the mission or sending is by a voluntary consent He is called a Spirit because he is a spiritual essence and that by way of excellency because he is far above all created spirits It may be objected Object that the Father and the Son are by way of eminency Spirits and holy So they are indeed absolutely Answ and bynature but this is attributed to the Holy Spirit by appropriation as it were a characteristical note and because his proper office is to sanctifie the elect He breathes into our hearts good motions and he himself was breathed from the Father and the Son as from one principle or beginning and this is that which the Oriental or Eastern Fathers do teach when they say that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Son even as we
bride I beseech you therefore by the plentiful effusion of the bloud of Jesus on the Cross that ye walk with God or have your conversation with God not in the darkness of unbelief or of sin but in the light of faith grace and vertue God by his nature is light void of darkness if ye would be joyned to him ye must of necessity bid adieu to darkness and your delightful sins The second part of this communion is the union of the members of the Church between themselves We being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another saith the Doctor of the Gentiles Rom. 12.5 and from thence the holy man doth infer golden or precious precepts amongst some other these Let love be without dissimulation Communicate or distribute to the necessity of the Saints rejoyce with them that rejoyce weep with them that weep be of the same minde one towards another as if he should say I would have such a sympathy or fellow-feeling among you Christians as to be equally affected both with the good and evil things of all whether in prosperity or adversity Beloved Auditors yeeld ye obedience to these admonitions of the Apostle Be ye endued with humanity or brotherly love charity meekness bounty let it be a shame to Academians who ought to be more rational creatures then others to be given to anger brawlings envyings disobediences evil-speaking inhumanity and revenge shun these vices which become not the Students of humane learning and after the examples of the Christians of the Primitive Church Be ye of one heart and of one minde Acts 4.32 And if ye shall forgive others the injuries that are offered unto you by them ye shall also obtain remission of sins from your heavenly Father The which is treated of in the following words I beleeve the remission of sins Forgiveness of sins is the will or good pleasure of God whereby he forgiveth beleevers both the sin and the punishment due to sin for Christs merits sake Yea their most enormous sins shall be forgiven for it is repugnant to the infinite goodness of God to be overcome by any humane wickedness He doth injury to God that despaireth of his mercy rightly Saint Augustine against those words of Cain Genes 4. Mine iniquity is greater then that it may be forgiven After this manner saith he Thou lyest Cain for the goodness of God is greater then the iniquity of all men and elsewhere he hath written That greater is the mercy of God then the misery of all men Verily it is a most excellent speech of his unto God in his meditations Although O Lord I have committed that for which thou mayest condemn me yet thou hast not lost that whereby thou mayest save me It is most true for if a sinner do repent the Lord will not remember his iniquities Let the wicked forsake his way and turn again unto the Lord and the Lord will have mercy on him Isai 55.7 In God there is omnipotent mercy and merciful omnipotency such is the benignity of his omnipotency and the omnipotency of his benignity that there is nothing that he will not or cannot forgive a beleeving soul yea oftentimes beyond remission God bestows most abounding grace What cannot repentance do Who in the secular state sinned more enormously then Paul Who in the religious more out of measure then Peter Yet they by repentance did not onely attain to the ministery but also the magistery of holiness But to explain this Article more fully We must know that God is the principal efficient cause of remission He alone can forgive sins primarily or by chief authority But the Priests or Ministers of the Church are onely administring causes as they are messengers of the Divine forgiveness God onely of himself forgiveth sins because he cleanseth the soul from the inward blemish or stain and releaseth it from the debt of eternal death but he hath not granted this to the Priest to them notwithstanding he hath given the power of loosing and binding that is by shewing them they are loosed and bound 4 Sent. Dist 18. as Lombard writes Some may say Object that it is not agreeable with the justice of God to forgive sin and not to punish it This is true Answ if he punish it neither in the sinner nor in another to wit the surety But God hath punished sin in Christ Some may object again that it is an unjust thing to punish the innocent for the offender We answer It is not if the innocent party offer himself spontaneously to punishment if he can go through it and get out of it and if this tend to the glory of God and the salvation of men all which conditions do meet very well in Christ It may be further objected that this remission of God is not freely bestowed because satisfaction was required to the forgiveness of sin But we say the satisfaction required was not made by us but by another If we be urged still that he who on such condition forgiveth doth not forgive freely It may be answered It is true unless the party that requires it doth also give the satisfaction But God the Father hath given his Son that he might satisfie for us Hitherto Of the remission of sins the resurrection of the body or flesh followeth Credo resurrectionem carnis I beleeve the resurrection of the body or flesh It is a very difficult thing to understand by the sense or perception of corrupt reason how or in what manner the same body should rise again after so many transmutations and be reunited to the same soul And therefore many in the Areopagus derided Paul when they heard of the resurrection of the dead yet by the light of faith it is most clearly manifest that there shall be such a resurrection It will not be difficult to them to beleeve this who do beleeve that with God there is nothing difficult the restitution of the body or flesh is by far easier then its first constitution or forming It is of lesser concernment by much to restore that which hath been then to make that which never had any being He which could make all things out of nothing can easily raise again our bodies out of something to wit restore them out of the dust of the earth and why should we admire that that could be born again which hath had a being when as we behold that to have a being which never had any before Holy Job in the Old Testament an Evangelical man before the Gospel doubted not of this thing I know saith he that my Redeemer liveth and after that worms shall consume this body of mine yet in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for my self and not another Job 19.25 Thy dead men shall live saith Isaiah to the Lord together with my dead body shall they arise chap. 26. verse 19. And in the New Testament the Lord Jesus John 5.28 doth most apparently attest the