Cajetan was a publick Confession and in generals onely sed non confessio Sacramentalis Not such a private and particular one as is now required not such a Sacramental one as is now defended But we might well have saved this particular search it being ingenuously confessed by Michael de Palacios a Spanish Writer That notwithstanding all their pains to found it on some Text of Scripture they are so far from being agreed amongst themselves that it is much to be admired Quanta sit de hac re concertatio What contention there is raised about it and how badly they agree with one another And if they have no better ground for the main foundation how little hopes may we conceive of finding any good in their superstructures And yet upon no better grounds do they exact a most unreasonable particularity of all mens affairs to be delivered to them in confession requiring of all persons being of age a private and distinct confession of all and every known mortal sin open and secret of outward deed and inward consent together with all circumstances thereof though obscene and odrous not fit to be communicated to a modest ear and that too once a year at least if they do not oftner For this we need not go much further than the Council of Trent where we shall finde Oportere à poenitentibus omnia peccata mortalia quorum post diligentem sui discussionem conscientiam habent in confessione recenseri etiamsi occultissima sunt tantum adversus duo ultima Decalogi mandata remember that they divide the last Commandment into two commissa c Which how impossible it is to do should one go about it what an intanglement it may prove unto the conscience of a penitent sinner and what a temptation also to the Priest himself to be acquainted with particulars so unchast and lustful I leave to any sober Christian to determine of who shall finde more hereof in Alvares Pelagius de Planctu Ecclesiae L. 2. Art 2 3 27 73 83. and Agrippa de Vanitate Scientiarum cap. 64. Writers of their own than I think fitting at this time they should hear from me who do not love to rake in such filthy puddles So then the business of Confession doth stand thus between us That we conceive it to be free whereas those of Rome will have it obligatory we that it is Iuris positivi onely but they Iuris divini we that it is a matter of conveniency and they of absolute necessity And then for the performance of it they do exact a punctual enumeration of all sins both of commission and omission together with all the accidents and circumstances thereunto belonging which we conceive in all cases to be impossible in some not expedient and in no case at all required by the Word of God Now as we disagree with those of the Church of Rome about the nature and necessity of private confession so have we no less differences with the Grandees of the Puritan faction about the efficacy and power of Sacerdotal Absolution which they which speak most largely of it make declarative onely others not so much whereas the Church hath taught us that it is authoritative and judicial too Authoritative not by a proper natural and original power for so the absolving of a sinner appertains unto God alone but by a delegated and derived power communicated to the Priest in that clause of their Commission Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained Iohn 20.23 Which proves the Priest to have a power of remitting sins and that in as express and ample manner as he can receive it But though it be a delegated Ministerial power yet doth not the descent thereof from Almighty God prove it to be the less judicial Then Judges and other Ministers of Justice sitting on the Bench may be said to exercise a judicial power on the lives and fortunes of the Subjects because they do it by vertue of the Kings Commission not out of any Soveraign power which they can chalenge to themselves in their several circuits Now that the Priests or Ministers of the Church of England are vested with as much power in forgiving sins as Christ committed to his Church and the Church to them the formal words Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted c. which are still used in Ordinations do expresly signifie Which though some of the Grandees of the Puritan faction have pleased to call Papisticum ritum an old Popish ceremony foolishly taken up by them continued with small judgment by our first Reformers minore adhuc in ecclesia nostra retentus and with far less retained by the present Church yet we shall rather play the fools with the Primitive Christians than learn wit of them And for the exercise of this power we have this form thereof laid down in the Publick Liturgy where on the hearing of the sick mans confession the Priest is to absolve him with these formal words viz. Our Lord Iesus Christ who hath left power unto his Church to absolve all sinners which truly repent and believe in him of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences And by his authority committed unto me I absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen In which we finde that the Sacerdotal power of forgiving sins is a derived or delegated Ministerial power a power committed to his Ministers by our Lord and Saviour but that it is Iudicial also not Declarative onely It is not said That I do signifie or declare that thou art absolved which any man may do as well as the Priest himself but I do actually absolve thee of all thy sins which no mortal man can but he In this the Priest hath the preheminence of the greatest Potentate And in this sense it is that St. Chrysostome saith Deus ipse subjecit caput Imperatoris manui Sacerdotis i.e. That God himself hath put the head of the Prince under the hand of the Priest For as no man whatsoever although he use the same words which the Minister doth can consecrate the Elements of Bread and Wine into the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ because he wants the power of Order which should inable him unto it so no man not in Priestly order can absolve from sin though he may comfort with good words an afflicted Conscience or though he use the same words which are pronounced by the Minister in absolution The reason is because he wants the power of order to which the promise is annexed by our Saviour Christ which makes the sentence of the Priest to be so judicial which when the penitent doth hear from the mouth of the Minister he need not doubt in foro conscientiae but that his sins be as verily forgiven on Earth as if he had heard Christ himself in foro
this blessed Spirit on the particular Members of his Congregation that is to say the joyning of the Saints together in an holy Communion the free remission of our sins in this present life resurrection of the body after death and the uniting again of Soul and Body unto life eternal This is the sum and method of the following Articles and these we shall pursue in their order beginning first with that of the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance I implore to guide me in the waies of Truth that so the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart may be alwayes acceptable in the sight of God the Lord my strength and my Redeemer But because the word or notion of the Holy Ghost is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various signification in the Book of God we will first look upon it in those significations and then conclude on that which is chiefly pertinent to the intent and purpose of the present Article For certainly the Orators Rule is both good and useful viz. Prius dividenda antequam definienda sit oratio That we must first distinguish of the Termes in all Propositions before we come unto a positive definition of them According to which Rule if we search the Scripture we shall there find that the Holy Ghost is first taken personaliter or essentialiter for the third person in the Oeconomie of the glorious Trinity We find him in this sense in the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour as the principal Agent in that Work The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee Luk. 1.35 And in his Baptism descending on him like a Dove to fit him and prepare him for the Prophetical Office he was then to exercise And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luk. 3.22 From which descent St. Peter telleth us that he was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and that from thenceforth he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil In the next place the Holy Ghost is used in Scripture to signifie the Gifts and Graces of the holy Spirit as in Act. 2. where it is said of the Apostles that they were all filled with the holy Ghost ver 4. not with his essence or his person but with the impressions of the Spirit the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost such as the Gift of Tongues mentioned in the following words The Gift of the Holy Ghost as it is called expresly Ver. 38. Thus read we also that the holy Ghost was given by the hands of Peter Act. 8.17 18. And by the hands of Paul Act. 19.6 In which we read that when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came on them and they spoke with tongues and Prophesied which last words are a commentary upon those before and shew that by the holy Ghost which did come upon them is meant the Gift of Tongues and the power of Prophecying both which the holy Ghost then conferred upon them And lastly it is taken not onely for the ability of doing Miracles as speaking with strange Tongues Prophecying curing of Diseases and the like to these but for the Authority and Power which in the Church is given to some certain men to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people As when Christ breathed on his Apostles and said unto them Receive the holy Ghost that is to say Receive ye an holy and spiritual power over the soules of men a part whereof consisteth in the remitting and retaining of sins mentioned in the words next following and serving as a Comment to explaine the former In which respect the Holy Ghost said unto certain of the Elders in the Church of Antioch Segregate mihi Barnabam Saulum Separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Act. 13.2 It is the Holy Ghost which cals it is his work to which they were called and therefore separate mihi separate to me may not unfitly be expounded to my Work and Ministery and consequently to the authority and power which belongs unto it Which being premised the meaning of the Article will in briefe be this That we beleeve not onely that there is such a person as the Holy Ghost in the Oeconomy of the blessed Trinity though that be principally intended but that he doth so distribute and dispose of his Gifts and Graces as most conduceth to the edification of the Church of Christ. But this I cannot couch in a clearer way as to the sense and doctrine of the Church of England than in the words of Bishop Iewel who doth thus expresse it Credimus spiritum sanctum qui est tertia persona in sacra Triadi illum verum esse Deum c. i. e. we beleeve that the Holy Ghost who is the Third Person in the holy Trinity is very God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding both from the Father and the Son by an unspeakable means and unknowne to man and that it is his property to mollifie and soften mans heart when he is once received thereinto either by the wholesome Preaching of the Gospel or by any other way that he doth give men light and guide them to the knowledge of God to the wayes of truth to newnesse of life and to everlasting hope of salvation This being the sum of that which is to be beleeved of the Holy Ghost both for his Person and his Office we will first look upon his Person on his Property or Office afterwards And yet before we come unto his Person I mean his Nature and his Essence We will first look a little on the quid Nominis the name by which he is expressed in the Book of God In the Original he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a double Article as Luk. 3.22 in Latine Spiritus sanctus or the Holy Spirit but generally in our English Idiom the Holy Ghost The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to breath and is the same with the Latine Spiro from whence comes Spiritus or the Spirit a name not given as I suppose because he doth proceed from the Father or the Son or both in the way of breathing though Christ be said to breath upon his Apostles when he said receive the Holy Ghost but because the breath being in it selfe an incorporeal substance and that which is the great preservative of all living creatures it got the name first of Spiritus vitae we read it in our English the breath of life Gen. 11.7 and afterwards came to be the name of all unbodyed incorporeal essences For thus is God said to be a Spirit God is a Spirit Ioh. 4.24 The Angels are called Ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 the Soule of man is called his Spirit let us cleanse our selves saith the Apostle from all filthiness both of flesh and Spirit that is of the body and
Pastors and Teachers That is to say either he gave unto some men such a measure of Gifts as might fit them to the severall Callings which are there enumerated or else he gave the men so gifted to the use of the Church and dedicated them Gifts and all to the publick service Either or both of these was done and done unto the end which is after specified viz. for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ. These were the Gifts which Christ conferred upon his Church by the Holy Ghost First by his first descent or coming on the feast of Pentecost when he gave Apostles Prophets and Evangelists and ever since by furnishing the Church with Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and fitting them with those Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit which are expedient for their calling And though St. Paul in this recital doth not speak of Bishops yet questionlesse he doth include them in the name of Pastors For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is used in the original doth signifie a Ruler as well as Pastor And Christ is called Episcopus Pastor animarum the Bishop and Shepheard of our soules as our English reads it to shew that the Episcopal and Pastoral Office is indeed the same And this I could make good out of the constant tendry of the Ancient Fathers had I not handled it already in another place Nor shall I adde more here out of that Discourse but that it is affirmed positively by our learned Andrewes Apud vâ—teres Pastorum nomen vix inveniri nisi cum de Episcopis loquntur i. e. that the name of Pastors is scarce read amongst the Ancients but when they have occasion to speak of Bishops And Binius in his notes upon the Councils excepts against a fragment of the Synod of Rhemes for laying claime to more antiquity than belongs unto it and that he doth upon this reason eo quod titulum Pastoris tribuat Paracho because the Parish Priest there is called Pastor contrary to the usage of those elder times But to put the matter out of doubt though S. Paul doth not speak of Bishops by name in that place of the Ephesians before alleged yet when he called the Rulers of the Church to appear at Ephesus before him he doth not only give them the name of Bishops but saith that they were made Bishops by the Holy Ghost In quo vos spiritus sanctus posuit Episcopos as all Translations read it but our English onely Christ did not so desert his Church as to leave it without Order and the power of Government nor hath so laid aside his Prophetical Office but that as well since his Ascension as while he sojourned here on the Earth amongst us he is still the chief Pastor and Bishop of our Souls as St. Peter calls him Onely it pleased him to commit a great part of this care to the managing of the blessed Spirit whom he promised to send to his Apostles after his departure to the end that he might guide them into all truth and abide with them always to the end In which respect Tertullian calleth the Holy Ghost Vicarium Christi the Vicar or Deputy of Christ his Usher as it were in the great School of the Church and doth assign this Office to him Dirigere ordinare ad perfectam producere disciplinam that he direct dispose and perfect us at the last in all Christian pietie Not that the Holy Ghost doth of himself immediately discharge this duty but by the Ministry of such men as are called unto it Whom he co-operates withal when they Preach the Gospel by working on the heart on the inward man as they upon the understanding by the outward senses Without the inward operation of the Holy Spirit the Preaching of the Word would be counted foolishness and all the eloquent perswasions unto Faith and Piety which could be uttered by the tongues of Men or Angels would seem but as tinckling brass and a sounding cymbal Without an outward calling to attend this Ministry Vzzah will press too near the Ark Uzziah take upon him to burn incense on the Altars of God and both not draw destruction on their own heads onely but prove a stumbling block and scandal to the rest of the people Not every one which prophecieth in the Name of Christ or doth pretend in his name to have cast out devils or done any other wonderful works shall be acknowledged by him in that terrible day but he that doth it in that Order and by those warrantable ways which he hath appointed Christ must first send them ere they go upon such an errand and send them so as he did his Apostles to Preach the Gospel first giving them a power to minister the things of God and then commanding them to go into all the world to teach all nations It had not been sufficient for them to pretend a mission unless they could have shewn their commission also and that they had not till he pleased to breathe upon them and said Receive the Holy Ghost with the words that follow And so it hath been with the Church in all Ages since We must receive the Holy Ghost and be endued with power from above before we enter on the Ministry in the Church of Christ and not perswade our selves to pretend unto some special gifts and illuminâ—tions unless we have the Holy Ghost in the sense here spoken of unless the power which we pretend to be conferred upon us by those hands which have power to give it Those words Receive the Holy Ghost import not the receiving of saving grace or of inward sanctimony nor the conferring of such special gifts of the holy Spirit as after were given to the Apostles for the use of the Church but the receiving of a power to execute a Ministry in the Church of Christ a special and spiritual power in the things of God and in the dispensation of his heavenly Mysteries And as they were then used by Christ at the authorizing of his Apostles to Preach the Gospel so are they still the verba solemnia the solemn and set form of words used at the Ordination of all Priests or Presbyters used antiently in that sacred Ceremony without any exception and still retained with us in the Church of England for I look not on the new Model of Ordination as a thing in which the Anglican Church is at all concerned as the very operative words by which and by no others of what kinde so ever the order of Priesthood is conferred And had not those of Rome retained them in their Ordinations their giving power to offer sacrifice for the quick and the dead Accipe potestatem sacrificandi pro vivis mortuis which new patch they have added to the antient Formulas had never made them Priests of the New Testament
Of the Authority or Power of remitting sins we shall speak more appositely hereafter in the following Article At this time I shall onely speak of the Form of words which some of the pretenders unto Reformation in Queen Elizabeths time did very much except against affirming That to use the words of our Redeemer and not to give the gifts withal was nothing but a meer mockery of the Spirit of God and a ridiculous imitation of our Saviours actions But unto this it is replied by Judicious Hooker that not onely the ability of doing miracles speaking with tongues curing diseases and the like but the authority and power of ministering holy things in the Church of God is contained in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is the Author And therefore he which gives this power may say without folly or absurdity Receive the Holy Ghost meaning thereby such power as the Spirit of Christ hath pleased to endue his Church withal And herein he is seconded by that living Magazin of Learning Bishop Andrews who reckoneth the Apostleship or the very office to be a Grace one of the graces doubtless of the Holy Ghost such as St. Paul calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace we English it the gift of ministring unto the Saints 2 Cor. 8.4 For that the very Office it self is a grace St. Paul saith he avoweth in more places than one and in particular Mihi data est haec gratia according to the gift of the grace of God which is given unto me Ephes. 3.7 Where he speaks of his Office and of nothing else And such as this saith he was the grace here given of Spiritum called a Spiritual and of Sanctum an holy Calling from them derived unto us by us to be derived on others to the end of the World and that in the same form of words which our Saviour used For being the especial power which Christ at that time gave unto his Apostles consisted in remitting and retaining of sins and seeing that the same power is given by the Church of Christ why should not the same words be used as were used at first why may not the same words be used in conferring this grace of an holy calling whereby their persons are made publick and their acts authentical and they inabled to do somewhat about remitting of sins which is not of the like avail if done by others though perhaps more learned than they and more vertuous too but have not the like warrant nor the same accipite as is conferred in holy Orders Nor do I utterly deny but that together with the power the Holy Ghost doth give some fitness to perform the same though not in any answerable measure to the first times of the Church when extraordinary gifts were more necessary than in any time since For as the ointment which was poured upon Aarons head did first fall down upon his Beard and after on the skirts of his garments also So we may reasonably believe That the holy Spirit which descended on the head of Christ and afterwards on his Apostles as upon his beard hath kept some sprinklings also to bestow on us which are the lowest skirts of his sacred garments So far we may assuredly perswade our selves That the Spirit which calleth men to that holy Function doth go along with him that is called unto it for his assistance and support in whatsoever he shall faithfully do in discharge thereof and that our acts are so far his as that Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn or give Absolution or in a word whatsoever we do as the Despensers of Gods Mysteries our Words Acts Judgements are not ours but the Holy Ghosts For this I have the testimony of Pope Leo the first a Learned and Religious Prelate of the Primitive times Qui mihi oneris est Autor ipse administrationis est adjutor Ne magnitudine gratiae there gratiae is used for the office or calling as before St. Paul succumbat infirmus dabit virtutem qui contulit dignitatem Which is in brief He that hath laid the burden on us will give strength to bear it But behold a greater than Pope Leo is here Behold saith Christ to his Apostles I am with you always to the end of the world that is to say Cum vobis successoribus vestris as Denys the Carthusian rightly with you and your Successors in the Work of the Ministry to guide them and assist them by his holy Spirit And when he said unto them upon other occasions He that heareth you heareth me and whatsoever ye binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven Did he not thereby promise so to own their actions that whatsoever they should say or do in order to the propagation of his Gospel and the edification of his Church should be esteemed as his act his act by whose authority and power it is said or done But the assisting of the Church and Ministers thereof with his Power and Spirit is not the onely publick benefit though it be the greatest which it receiveth immediately from the Holy Ghost Without some certain standing Rule by which the Ministers of the Gospel were to frame their doctrine and the rest of the people guide their paths in the way of godliness both Priest and People would be apt to pretend new Lights and following such ignes fatui as they saw before them be drawn into destruction both of body and soul. And on the other side Tradition hath been always found to be so untrusty in the conveyance of Gods will and pleasure to the ears of his people that in small tract of time the Law of God became obliterated in the hearts of men the righteous Seed degenerating after carnal lusts and Abraham himself serving other gods for want of a more certain rule to direct their actions Therefore to take away all excuse from back-sliding men it pleased God first to commit his Law to writing the Two Tables onely and afterwards to inspire many holy Men with the Spirit of Wisdom Power and Knowledge to serve as Commentators on that sacred Text whose Prophecies Reproofs and Admonitions being put into their mouths by the Holy Ghost for Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy Men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as St. Peter hath it So by direction of the same Spirit were they put into writing Propter vivendi exemplum libros ad nostram etiam memoriam transmiserunt in the words of Ierom The Lord himself did on Mount Sinai give the Law the very Letter The Prophets and other holy Men of God being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 especially inspired to that end and purpose did compose the Comment By the same Spirit were the Evangelists and Apostles guided when they committed unto writing the most glorious Gospel and other the Records and Monuments of the Christian Faith The
judicii pronouncing them with his own mouth to be forgiven in Heaven According to the promise made unto St. Peter or the Church in him when he delivered him the Keys that whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven And so we are to understand St. Chrysostomes words Iudex sedet in terris dominus sequitur servum The Judge remains upon the Earth the Lord followeth the servant His meaning is That what the servant doth here upon the Earth according to his Masters will the same the Lord himself will confirm and ratifie To which effect it is affirmed by others of the Antient Writers but in clearer words That the judgment of man goeth before the judgment of God The Priest is then a Iudge to pronounce the sentence and not a Cryer onely as some say to proclaim what the Judge pronounceth and as a Judge doth actually absolve or condemn the sinner by the same power of pardoning or retaining sins which he had from Christ or which Christ executes by him as his lawful deputy For as Kings are said to minister Justice to their Subjects though they do it not in their own persons but by a power devolved on subordinate Officers and as Christ himself may properly be said to have fed the multitudes though he gave the loaves onely unto his Disciples and his Disciples to the multitudes So he may also be affirmed to absolve the penitent although he do it by the mouth of the Priests or Ministers it being his act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and theirs but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally his and ministerially theirs the same power in both And this may further be made good by that form of Speech used by our Saviour in the delegation of this power unto his Apostles and by them to his Ministers in all ages since being the very same with that which he himself hath given us in the Pater noster In his Commission it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose sins soever ye remit Iohn 20.23 And in the Lords Prayer it is thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and forgive us our sins Luke 11.4 The same word used in the original for the one and the other And if it be a Solecism to say as no doubt it is That we desire no more of God in that clause of the Prayer than that he would signifie or declare that our sins are pardoned The Solecism must be as great for ought I can see to say That they are onely signified or declared to be pardoned by the mouth of the Minister Now that this is the meaning and intent of the Church of England some of our Romish adversaries do not stick to grant though others to calumniate this most Orthodox Church have given out the contrary For one of their great Controversors hath declared in print that it is the doctrine of some of the Protestants That Priests have power not onely to pronounce the remission of sins but to give it also And that this seemeth to be the doctrine of the Communion Book in the Visitation of the sick where the Priest saith And by his authority committed unto me I absolve thee from all thy sins c. And therefore when a foul-mouthed Iesuite had been pleased to charge us with denying power unto the Priests of forgiving sins Bishop Usher telleth him to his face That he doth us wrong and proves it by the very formal words in our Ordination Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain they are retained But no man can say more to this than hath been said already by Bishop Morton now Lord Bishop of Durham The power of absolution saith that learned Prelate whether it be general or particular whether in publick or in private is professed in our Church where both in our Publick Service is proclamed Pardon and Absolution upon all Penitents and a particular applying of particular Absolution unto Penitents by the Office of the Ministery And greater power than this hath no man received from God And this hath also been acknowledged by the Leaders of the Puritan faction who in their Petition to King Iames at his first coming to this Crown excepted against the very name of Absolution as being a Forinsecal and Iuridical word importing more surely than a Declaration which they desired to have corrected And thereupon it was propounded in the Conference at Hampton Court That to the word Absolution in the Rubrick following the general Confession these words Remission of sins might be added for Explanations sake And though Dr. Raynolds one of the Four Proctors for the said Petitioners in the foresaid Conference may be conceived to have been of the same opinion with these of the agrieved sort whom he did appear for yet he was so well satisfied in the power and nature of Sacerdotal Absolution that he did earnestly desire it at the time of his death humbly received it at the hands of Dr. Holland the Kings Professor in Divinity in the Vniversity of Oxon for the time then being and when he was not able to express his joy and thankfulness in the way of speech did most affectionately kiss the hand that gave it But what need more be said for manifesting this judicial power in the remitting of sins than what is exercised and determined by the Church in the other branch of this Authority in retaining sins By which impenitent sinners are solemnly and judicially cut off from the sacred Body of the Church and utterly excluded from the company and Communion of the rest of the faithful Of which the Church hath thus resolved in her publick Articles viz. That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicate ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican until be be openly reconciled by penance and received into the Church by a Iudge that hath authority thereunto Where clearly we have found a Iudicial power and a Iudge to exercise the same and that not onely in the point of retaining sins in case of excommunication but also in reconciling of the penitent in remitting sins in the way of ordinary absolution Which whether it be given in Foro poenitentiae or in Foro Conscientiae either in private on the confession of the party or publickly for satisfaction of the Congregation doth make no difference in this point which onely doth consist in the proof of this That the Priests or Ministers of the Gospel lawfully ordained have under Christ a power of forgiving sins Which comfortable doctrine of the remission of sins by Gods great mercy at all times and the Churches Ministery at some times as occasion is is the whole subject of this branch of the present Article Proceed we next to those great benefits which we reap thereby The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting ARTICLE XI
all that required Baptism When first made part of the publick Liturgy and rehearsed by the people standing in what particulars discriminated from other Formula's The first objection that the Creed is no Canonical Scripture produced and answered An answer to the second objection about the variation of the words in which the Creed was represented Several significations of the Greek word Catholick and that it was a word in use in and before the time of the Apostles contrary to the third objection The last objection from the words of Ruffinus answered The scope and Project of this work The Authors appeal unto antiquity The testimony given unto antiquity by the Antient Writers and also by the Church of England Calvins Authority produced for the asserting of this Creed to the twelve Apostles closeth up the Preface PART I. CHAP. I. Of the name and definition of faith the meaning of the phrase in Deum credere The Exposition of it vindicated against all exceptions THe Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies and from whence it comes The proper Etymologie of the Latine fides Faith how defined and how it differeth from experience knowledge and opinion The grounds of faith less falliâ—le thâ—n that of any Art or Science Why faith is called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the substance of things not seen c. The usual distinction between credere Deum credere Deo and credere in Deum proposed and explicated according to the general tendries of the Schools neither the phrase in Deum or in Christum credere and the distinction thereon founded so generally true as it is pretended Credere with the proposition in not so peculiar unto God as by some conceived No difference in holy Scripture between Deo and in Deum credere nor in the meaning of the Creed Of the faith of Reprobates and why faith hath the name of fides electorum in the Book of God The faith of Devils what it is and why it rather makes them tremble then serves to nourish them in the hope of grace and pardon The Vulgar distinction of faith into Salvifical Historical Temporary and the faith of Miracles proposed examined and rejected CHAP. II. That there is a God and but one God only and that this one God is a pure and Immortal Spirit and the sole Governour of the world proved by the light of reason and the testimony of the antient Gentiles THe notion of a Deity ingraffed naturally in the soul of man Pretagoras Diagoras and Euhemerus why counted Atheists in old times Fortune and Fate why reckoned of as gods by some old Philosophers Natural proofs for this truth that there is but one God summed up together and produced by Minutius Felix and seconded by the testimonies of Mercurius Trismegistus the Sibyls and Apollo himself confirmed by the suffrages of Orpheus and the old Greek Poets The beeing of one God alone strongly maintained by Socrates affirmed by Plato and his followers countenanced by Aristotle and the Peripateticks verified also by the Academicks the most rigid Stoicks and by the general acknowledgment of all sorts of people The judgement of the learned Gentiles touching the Essence and Attributes of God conformable to that of the Orthodox Christians The Heresies of the Manichees and the Anthropomorphites confuted by the writings of the old Philosophers A parallel between the Tutelary gods of the old Idolaters and the Topical or local Saints of the Pontificians CHAP. III. Of the Essence and Attributes of God according to the holy Scripture the name of Father how applyed to God Of his Mercy Justice and Omnipotency THe diligence of Iustin Martyr when an Heathen in the search of God The name IEHOVAH when and for what occasion first given to God in holy Scripture The superstition of the later Iews in the use thereof The Hebrew Elohim sometimes communicated to the creature The several Etymologies of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The names of El Elion and Adonai what they do import Of the Simplicity Eternity and Omnipresence of God Of his Knowledge Wisdome and Omnipotency The name of Father Almighty given to God by the learned Gentiles God in what sense the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST and of none but him The preheminence due in that respect to God the Father the name of Father how communicable to the whole Godhead God proved to be the Father of all mankinde in the right of Creation and of his faithful people by the laws of Adoption Many resemblances between adoptions among men and mans adoption to the sonship of Almighty God The love care and authority of our Heavenly Father compared with that of our earthly parents The care of God in educating all his children in the knowledge of his will how far extended unto the Infidels and Pagans and how far beneficial to them The title of Almighty given to God the Father what it importeth in it self and what in reference to the creature to his Church especially CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of the World and the parts thereof that it was made at first by Gods Almighty power and since continually preserved by his infinite Providence GEneral inducements moving God to create the world An answer to that idle question what God did before the creating of the world The error of Lactantius in it God differenced by this great work from the gods of the Gentiles and that in the opinion of the Gentiles themselves The work of the Creation ascribed to the whole Godhead jointly in the holy Scripture Of the first matter out of which and the time when it was created The opinion of the worlds eternity refelled by Cicero why supposed by Aristotle The worlds creation by the power of Almighty God proved by the testimonies of Trismegistus of Plato Aristotle and others of the learned Greeks As also by the suffrages of Varro Tully Seneca and others of the principal wits amongst the Latines Why God did pass no approbation on the works of the second day and doubled it upon the third Probable proofs that by the waters above the Firmament mentioned in the first of Genesis Moses intended not the clowds and rain but some great body of waters above the Spheres The praise and honour due to God for the worlds creation The general Providence of God in ordering the affairs thereof asserted both against the Stoicks and the Epicureans Gods goodness towards all mankinde especially to his chosen people And of his Iustice or veracity in performing the promises made unto them Gods justice in retaliating to the sons of men and meting to them with that measure which they mete to other Vngodly men how used as executioners of divine vengeance That neither the impunity nor prosperous successes of the wicked in this present world are inconsistent with the justice of Almighty God CHAP. V. Of the creation of Angels The Ministry and office of the good The fall and punishment of the evil Angels and
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
the Greeks and the antient Fathers The ireconcileable differences amongst the Papists and the fluctuation of St. Augustine in the point of Purgatory CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No actual sin so great but it is capable of forgivenesse In what respect some sins may be accounted venial and others mortall FOrgivenesse of sins the first great benefit redounding unto mankind by our Saviours passion Man first made righteous in himself but left at liberty to follow or not to follow the ways of life Adam not God the author of the first transgression proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The heresie of the Cataphrygians and of Florinus in making God the Author of sin as also of Bardesenus and Priscilian imputing sin to fate and the stars of Heaven The impious heresie of Florinus revived by the Libertines The Founder of the Libertines a member of the Church of Rome not of Calvins Schoole Calvin and his Disciples not altogether free from the same strange tenets The sin of Adam propagated to his whole posterity Original sin defined by the Church of England and in what it specially consisteth That there is such a sin as original sin proved by the testimony of the Scriptures by the light of reason and by the Practise of the Church Private Baptisme why first used and the use thereof maintained in the Church of England Not the day of their birth but of the death of the Saints observed as Festivals by the Church and upon what reasons The word natalis what it signifyeth in the Martyrologies Original sin how propagated from one man to another and how to children borne of regenerate Parents The sin of Adam not made ours by imitation only but by propagation Of the distinction of sins in venial and mortal and how far abominable Equality of sins a Paradox in the Schoole of Christ. No sin considered in its self to be counted veniall but only by the grace and goodnesse of Almighty God No sin so great but what is capable of Pardon if repented of no not the murdering of Christ nor the sin against the holy Ghost Arguments from the holy Scriptures as Heb 6.4 6. and Heb. 10.26 27. and 1 Ioh. 5.16 to prove some sins to be uncapable of pardon produced and answered The proper application of the severall places with the error of our last Translators in the second Text. CHAP. VI. Of the remission of sins by the bloud of Christ and of the Abolition of the body of sin by Baptisme and Repentance Of confession made unto the Priest and the authority Sacerdotal GOD the sole Author Christ the impulsive meritorious cause of the forgivenesse of sins Remission of sins how and in what respects ascribed to the bloud of Christ. Power to forgive sins conferred upon and exercised by the Apostles The doctrine of the Church of England touching the efficacy of Baptisme in the washing away of sin confirmed by the Scriptures and the Fathers and many eminent Divines of the reformed Churches Baptismal washings frequently used of old both by Iews and Gentiles as well to expiate their sins as to manifest and declare their innocence The waters of Baptisme in what respect made efficacious unto the washing away of the guilt of sin What it is which makes Baptisme to be efficacious unto the washing away of sin The rigor of the Primitive Church towards such as sinned after Baptisme The Clinici what they were and how then esteemed of The institution and antiquity of Infant Baptisme The old rule for determining in doubtfull cases how applyed to this Proofs for the Baptisme of Infants from St. Augustine up to Irenaeus inclusively What faith it is by which Infants are Baptized and justifyed Of the necessity of Baptisme the want thereof how supplyed or excused in the Primitive times and of the state of Infants dying unbaptized Repentance necessary and effectuall in men of riper years for remission of sins Confession in the first place to be made to God satisfaction for the wrong done to be given to man Satisfaction for sin in what sense to be given to God by the Penitent sinner Private confession to a Priest allowed of and required by the Church of England The Churches care in preserving the seal of confession from all violation Confession to a Priest defended by the best Divines of the Anglical Church approved by the Lutheranâ— not condemned by Calvin The disagreement of the Papists in the proofs of their auricular confession from the Texts of Scripture The severity of exacting all particular circumstances in confession with the inconveniences thereof That the power of sacerdotall Absolution in the opinion of the Fathers is not declarative only but judicial and that it is so also both in the Doctrine and the practise of the Church of England CHAP. VII Of the Resurrection of the body and the proofs thereof The objections against it answered Touching the circumstances and manner of it The History and grounds of the Millenarians THe resurrection of the body derided and contemned by the Antient Gentiles Proofs for the resurrection from the words of Iob from the Psalmes and Prophets and from the Argument of our Saviour in the holy Gospels Our Saviours Argument for the resurrection against the cavils of the Sadduces declared expounded and applyed to the present purpose Several Arguments to the same purpose and effect alledged by St. Paul in his Epistles and that too of the same numerical not another body Baptizing of or for the dead a pregnant proof or argument for the resurrection severall expositions of the place produced and which most probable Baptizing or washing of the dead antiently in use amongst the Iews the Gentiles and the Primitive Christians with the reasons of it Practical and natural truths for a resurrection The resurrection of the same bâ—dy denyed by Hereticks and justifyed with strong reasons by the Orthodox Christians Two strong and powerfull arguments for the resurrection produced from the Adamant and the art of Chymistry That the dead bodies shall be raised in a perfect stature and without those deformities which here they had and in their several sexes also contrary to the fancies of some vain disputers Considerations raised on the Doctrine of the resurrection with reference unto others and unto our selves The Doctrine of the Millenarians originally founded on some Iewish dotages by whom first set on foot in the Church of Christ how refined and propagated The Millenarian Kingdome described by Lactantius and countenanced by many of the antient writers till cryed down by Hierome The texts of Scripture on which the Millenarians found their fancies produced examined and lâ—yed by as unusefull for them The disagreement of the old Millenarians in the true stating of their Kingdome CHAP. VIII Of the immortality of the soul and the glories of Eternal life prepared for it as also of the place and torment of hell Hell
also as before was shown Which if it may not be admitted in the Articles of the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints with the rest that follow I see no cause why it should be admitted in the front of all which was to be the leading Case unto all the rest But other men of higher mark have seen this before me who give no other sense theâ—eof in this place of the Creed then to believe that there is one only eternal God the Maker of all things For thus the Book entituled Pastor and commonly ascribed to Hermes St. Pauls scholar Ante omnia unum credere Deum esse qui condidit omnia i. e. Before all other things believe that there is one God who made all things Origen thus Primum credendus est Deus qui omnia creavit i. e. In the first place we must believe that there is a God by whom all things were created S. Hilary of Poyctiers thus In absoluto nobis facilis est aeternitas Iesum Christum a mortuis suscitatum credere i.e. Eternity is prepared for us and made easie to us if we believe that Christ is risen from the dead And finally thus Charles the Great in the Creed published in his name but made by the most learned men which those times afforded Praedicandum est omnibus ut credant Patrem Filium Spiritum sanctum unum esse Deum omnipotentem i. e. the Gospel must be preached to all men that they may know that the Father Son and holy Ghost is one God Almighty Which resolution and authority of the antient Fathers is built no doubt upon the dictate and determination of S Paul himself who did thus lead the way unto them viz. He that câ—meth to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Where the first Article of the Creed I believe in God is thus expounded and no otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I believe that God is that there is a God According to which Exposition of the blessed Apostle our Reverend Iewell publishing the Apology and Confession of the Church of England did declare it thus We believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine power which we call GOD c. and that the same one God hath created Heaven and Earth and all things contained under Heaven We believe that Iesus Christ the only Son of the Eternal Father when the fulness of time was come did take of that blessed and pure Virgin both flesh and all the nature of man c. that for our sakes he died and was buried descended into Hell c. We believe that the holy Ghost is very God c. and that it is his property to mollifie and soften the hardness of mens hearts when he is once received thereunto c. We believe that there is one Church of God and that the same is not shut up as in times past amongst the Iews into some one corner or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and dispersed throughout the whole world c. and that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and the Spouse of CHRIST c. To conclude we believe that this our self same flesh wherein we live although it dye and come to dust yet at the last shall return again to life by the means of Christs Spirit which dwelleth in us c. and that we through him shall enjoy everlasting life and shall for ever be with him in glory Which consonancy of expression being so agreeable to that observed before by the antient Fathers and that observed before by the antient Fathers so consonant unto the expression of S. Paul the Apostle is the last reason which I have for this resolution that the so much applauded explication of the phrase in Deum credere is not to be admitted in this place of the Creâ—d And this shall also serve for a justification of that gloss or Commentary which I have given on this first Article viz. that to believe in God the Father Almighty is only to believe that there is one Immortal and Eternal Spirit of great both Majesty and Power which we call GOD and that this God is the Father Almighty the Father both of IESVS CHRIST and of all mankinde who as a Father hath not only brought us into the world but hath provided us of all things necessary both for body and soul protecting us by his mighty power and governing us and our affairs by his infinite wisdome But against this there may be some objections made which must first be answered before we come unto the further explication of this Article For if Faith be no other then a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed the Reprobate as they call them may be said to have faith which yet is reckoned in the Scripture as a peculiar gift of God unto his Elect which is therefore called Fides electorum or the Faith of the Elect Tit. 1.1 2. If to believe in God the Father Almighty and in IESVS CHRIST his only Son c. be only to believe that there is a God and that all those things are most undoubtedly true and certain which be affirmed of IESVS CHRIST in the holy Scripture the Devil may be reckoned for a true believer S. Iames assuring us of this that the Devils do believe and tremble Iam. 2.19 And 3. if the definition and the explication before delivered be allowed for currant it will quite overthrow the received distinction of Faith into Historical temporary saving or justifying faith and the faith of Miracles so generally embraced in the Protestant Schools This is the sum of those objections which I conceive most likely to be made against me but such as may be answered without very great difficulty For that the Reprobate as they call them may have Faith in CHRIST is evident by many instances and texts of Scripture Of Simon Magus it is written in the Book of the Acts that he believed and was baptized and continued with Philip the Evangelist Adhaerebat Philippo saith the Vulgar he stuck so fast unto him that he would not leave him Ask Calvin what he thinks of this faith of Simons and he will tell you Majestate Evangelii victum vitae salutis authorem Christum agnovisse ita ut libenter illi nomen daret that being vanquished by the power and Majesty of the Gospel of Christ he did acknowledge him to be the Author of salvation and eternal life and gladly was inrolled amongst his Disciples And whereas some had taught and published amongst other things that Simon never did believe but counterfeited a belief for his private ends Calvin doth readily declare his dislike thereof acknowledging this faith of Simons to be true and real though but only temporarie Non tamen multis assentior qui simulasse duntaxat fidem putant quum minime credâ—ret I cannot yeild to them saith he which think
of Nature Speusippus that God was that natural and animal power by which all things are governed Democritus though the first inventor of that absurd opinion that the World was made of several Atoms joyned by chance together yet for the most part he puts Nature in the place of GOD as also did Straton and the Epicureans And Aristotle though inconstant and of many mindes yet other whiles he makes him be that Soul or understanding which presides over the World Heraclides Ponticus will have him also to be a Divine soul or understanding and thereunto inclined Theophrastus Cleanthes Zeno and Chrysippus save that they sometimes call him by the name of Fate Xenophon the Disciple of Socrates was of opinion that the form of the true GOD could not be seen by any man and therefore was not to be sought or inquired into Aristo Chius that he was not to be comprehended both of them guessing at the Majesty of Almighty God by a despair of understanding what indeed he was And Plato finally not only doth affirm of God that he is the Parent of the World the Maker of all Celestial and Terrestrial creatures but by reason of his eminent and incredible power it was a difficult thing to finde what he was and having found it an impossible matter to express it rightly And of all these Minutius noteth that they are Eadem fere quae nostra the same almost with that which was affirmed of GOD in the schools of CHRIST Insomuch saith he that one might very justly think that the modern Christians were Philosophers or that the old Philosophers had indeed been Christians Lactantius also doth affirm that they did vail the same truth under divers notions and that whether they called him Nature Reason Vnderstanding Fatal necessity the Divine Law or in what phrase soever they did use to speak him idem est quod anobis Deus dicitur it was the same with that which we the followers of CHRIST call GOD. His nature being thus declared as far as could be seen by the Eye of Reason proceed we next unto those Epithets or Adjuncts whereby that nature is set forth in the best of their Writers Philolaus a scholar of Pythagoras hath told us of him that he is singularis immobilis sui similis that there is but one God the chief Lord of all and that he is immovable always like himself the Divine Plato that God is good and the Idea of all goodness the Author of whatsoever is good or beautiful and the fountain of truth that he is also living and everlasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have somewhere found him cited Aristotle sometimes also doth come home to this in whom the attributes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortal and eternal do eft-soones occur By Orpheus it is said that he is invisible that he hath his dwelling in the heavens that he sits there in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Golden Throne and from thence doth dart his thunders upon wicked men Phocylides hath given us as much of him as one verse can hold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is one God saith he most wise most powerful and most happy One of the Sibyls heaps upon him the most glorious attributes of being of great Majesty begotten by none invisible yet beholding all things and Apollo one of the Heathen Gods comes not short of her saying of God that he was begotten of himself and taught of none immoveable and of a name not to be expressed These two last passages we before cited out of Lactantius but then it was to prove that there was a GOD. And to these adde that verse of the same Apollo which is elsewhere cited by Lactantius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which he calleth him the immortal and eternal GOD the unspeakable Father Lay all which hath been said together and we may gather out of all this description of him for to define him rightly is a thing impossible that GOD is an immortal and eternal Spirit existing of himself without any beginning invisible incomprehensible omnipotent without change or passion by whose Almighty power all things were created and by whose divine goodness they are still preserved What more then this is said by the Church of England the purest and most Orthodox of the daughters of Sion which in her book of Articles thus declares her self that is to say There is but one living and true God everlasting without body parts or passions of infinite power wisdom and goodness the Maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible What more hath been delivered by the Antient Fathers who had the light of Scripture to direct them in it then that which hath been said by these learned Gentiles upon no other ground then the light of Reason Which manifestly proveth that both the Beeing and the Nature of God were points so naturally graffed in the souls of men that neither the ignorance of letters nor the pride of wealth nor the continual fruition of sensual pleasures have hitherto been able to efface the Characters and impressions of it as before I said And if a GOD and but one only he must be such as is described or no GOD at all But of the Attributes and Acts of Almighty God we shall speak more at large in the two next chapters In the mean time by this Theologie of the learned and more sober Gentiles we may see sufficiently that many of those who are counted Christians do fall most infinitely short of them in the things of GOD. Of this kinde were the Anthropomorphitae a sort of Hereticks proceeding from one Andaeus by birth a Syrian but living for the most part in Egypt who miserably mistaking many Texts of holy Scripture conceived and taught Deum humana esse forma eundemq corporalia membra habere that God was made of humane shape and had the same members as men have Which though it was so gross a folly as would have been hissed out of all the schools of Philosophie yet found it such a plausible welcome with the Monkes of Egypt that Theophilus the learned Patriarch of Alexandria was in danger to be torn in pieces because he had opposed them in their peevish courses And of this sort also were the Manichees who for fear they should make God the Author of any thing which was not pleasing to them as darkness winter and whatsoever else did seem evil to them would needs obtrude upon the world two contrary principles or two Supreme Powers from one of which all that was good from the other all that was evil or so seemed to them did proceed originally The first Author of this Heresie amongst the Christians was one Manes who lived about the times of Aurelianus Anno 213. by birth a Persian to whom this errour was first propagated out of the Schools of Zoroaster that great Eastern Rabbin who seeing but with half an eye into sacred matter had fancied to
terris as St. Bernard hath it Who could be fitter to make us the Sons of God by adoption and grace then the word by which we were to be begotten unto life eternal or to repair the image of God decayed in us then he that was the brightnesse of his Fathers glory and the expresse image of his Person Finally who more fit to settle the minds of men in a certain and undoubted perswasion of the truth of such things as are necessary to be believed and thereby bring us into the way of life everlasting then he that was the way the truth and the life as himself telleth us of himself in St. Iohns Gospell Vt homo fidentius ambularet ad veritatem ipsa veritas Dei filius homine assumpto constituit et fundavit fidem as St. Augustine hath it That man saith he might with more confidence travell in the wayes of truth the truth it self even the Son of God taking the nature of man upon him did plant and found that faith which we are to beleive By which it is apparent that it was most agreeable both to our condition and the nature of the word it self that he should take upon himself the office of a Mediator between God and Man but so that he was bound thereto by no necessity but only out of his meer love and goodness to that wretched Creature The Scriptures and the Fathers are expresse in this Walke in love saith the Apostle as Christ hath also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God a sweet smelling savour And anon after Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved his Church and gave himself for it And in pursuance of this love he took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. So that first out of his love and goodness towards us he offered himself to serve and suffer in our places and after out of the same love submitted himself unto the punishment which our sins deserved God not imposing this upon him by necessity of any inevitable decree but mercifully accepting his compassionate offer which did so powerfully conduce unto mans salvation and the most inexpressible honour of his only Son The sufferings of CHRIST in regard of man do take their value from his Person the excellency of which did prevail so far as to make the passion of one available for the sins of all But the merit of those sufferings in regard of himself is to be valued by that cheerful freedom with which he pleased to undergo them and had not been so acceptable nor effectual neither if they had not been voluntary For Fathers which affirm the same we need take no thought having both Reason and the Scriptures so expresly for it though this be universally the Doctrine of all Catholick wrirers some of whose words I shall recite and for the rest refer the Reader to their Books For the Greek Church thus saith Athanasius CHRIST seeing the goodness of his Father and his own sufficiency and power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was moved with compassion towards man and pitying our infirmities cloathed himself with the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and willingly took up his cross and went uncompelled unto his death And thus St. Augustine for the Latâ—ne The Word saith he was made flesh by his own power and was born suffered died and rose again nulla necessitate sed voluntate potestate by no necessity laid upon him but meerly of his own good will and that authority which he had to dispose of himself See to this purpose the same Augustine in Psal. 8. de Trinit l. 4. c. 10. Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. 55. in Ioh. Hom. 82. Amb. in Psal. 118. Serm. 6. De Fide l. 2. c. 1. Hieron in Isai. cap. 3. in Psal. 68. Not to descend to those of the later Ages The passages being thus laid open we now proceed to the great work of the incarnation wherein the holy Ghost was to have his part that so none of the Heavenly powers might be wanting to the restauration of collapsed man That our Redeemers Incarnation in the Virgins womb was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost is positively affirmed in St. Matthews Gospel first in the way of an historical Narration Before they came together as man and wise she was found with childe of the holy Ghost ch l. 1. 18. and afterwards by way of declaration from an Angel of Heaven saying Ioseph thou son of David fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife for that which is conceived in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of the holy Ghost vers 20. Nor wanted there especial reason if at least any reasons may be given in matters of so high a nature why this miraculous Conception was committed rather to the holy Ghost then either acted by the sole power of God the Father or by the sole vertue of the Word who was aboundantly able to have wrought his own Incarnation For as the Word was pleased to offer himself to take humane flesh the better to accomplish the great work of the Worlds redemption and as God the Father knowing how unable poor man must be to work out his own salvation otherwise then by such a Saviour was graciously pleased to accept the offer so it seemed requisite that God the holy Ghost should prepare that flesh in which the Word of God was to be incarnate Besides the power of quickning and conferring fruitfulness is generally ascribed to the Spirit in the Book of God who therefore in the Nicene or rather the Constantinopolitane Creed is called the Lord and giver of life For thus saith David for the Old Testament Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they are created and thus the son of David for the New Testament Spiritus est qui vivificat i. e. It is the Spirit that quickneth The holy Ghost then was the proper Agent in the Incarnation So St. Matthew tels us But for the manner and the means by which so wonderful a conception was brought to pass that we finde only in St. Luke The blessed Virgin as it seemed made a question of it how she should possibly conceive and bring forth a son considering that as yet she had not had the company of her husband Ioseph Quandoquidem virum non cognosco that is to say since as yet I do not know my husband for so I rather choose to read it then to translate it as it stands in our English Bibles seeing I know not a man For that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek and Vir in Latine do sometimes signifie an Husband every Schoolboy knows and so the words are rendred in our English Bibles Ioh. 4.16 17 18. and in other places And
peccando dejectus es that is to say Christ out of his mercy descended to that very place unto which man was fallen by sin Petrus Chrysologus in the next Age thus To suffer death and to conquer it intraffe inferos rediisse to enter into hell and return back again to come within the jaws of the dungeon of hell and to dissolve the laws thereof is not of weakness but of power Fulgentius states the point more fully It remained saith he to the full accomplishment of our Redemption that the man whom God took unto himself without sin should descend even thither whither man separated from God fell by desert of sin that is to hell where the soul of a sinner useth to be tormented and to the Grave where the body of the sinner useth to be corrupted yet so that neither Christs flesh might rot in the grave nor his soul be tormented with the sorrows of hell To omit Arator and Prudentius who affirm as much as those before but may be thought to have spoken out of Poetical liberty we will next look upon the Fathers of the fourth Councel of Toledo An. 630. after the birth of our Saviour by whom it was declared that Christ descended to hell to deliver the Saints which there were held captive and subduing the kingdome of death rose again Which after was repeated and confirmed in the Councel of Orleance holden in the 46. year of Charles the Great Finally to descend no lower Venantius Fortunatus once Bishop of Poictiers doth resolve it thus first that Christ did descend to hell and secondly that his descent into hell was no disparagement unto him for that he did it with relation to his infinite mercies as if a King should enter into a Prison not to be there detained himself but to release and loose all such as were guilty Thus have we seen the suffrages of the antient Writers in their times and ages touching the descent of Christ into hell with such a general consent and unanimity that a greater is not to be found in all or any of the Articles of the Christian faith And we have also seen the reasons which as they thought induced our Saviour unto that descent the benefits which did accrew to the Church thereby Now these being principally three that is to say the vanquishing of the powers of hell Secondly the securing of his faithful servants from coming under the dominion thereof And thirdly the deliverie of the souls of those righteous men which lived under the law and were held captive for a time by the powers of darkness till he released them by his coming two of the three I hold to be undoubtedly true and the other I consider as a matter questionable And first I take it for a truth an undoubted truth that our Saviour Christ by his descent into hell did utterly suddue and overthrow the Kingdom of Satan and gave him his last blow in his own Dominions and that thereby he took this captivity captive and having spoyled those principalities and powers which do there inhabit did make a shew of them openly and triumph over them The Scriptures explicated by the Fathers do most abundantly confirm me in the truth of that To which adde here which was before omitted in its proper place those words of Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria saying The powers principalities and rulers of the world which the Apostle speaks of there none other could conquer and carry into the Deserts of hell but only he who said Be of good hope for I have overcome the world Therefore it was necessary that our Lord and Saviour should not only be born a man amongst men but also should descend to hell that he might carry into the Wilderness of hell the Goat which was to be led away and returning thence that work performed might ascend to his Father And I do also hold for a truth undoubted that Christ by his descent into hell hath secured all his faithful servants since that time from coming under the power and dominion of it Which as it was the doctrine of the eldest times of Christianity as appeareth by the objection of Tertullian At inquiunt Christus inferos adiit ne nos adiremus that they i. e. the Orthodox Professors against whom he writ affirmed that Christ went into hell to hinder us from going thither so was it constantly maintained in the times succeeding by all the sound members of the Church This appears yet more evidently by that of Athanasius saying Christ descending to hell or Hades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 brought us back so loosing our detention there In which it is to be observed that he speaks this of himself and others which were then alive and not them in hell but yet both might and must have come there if he had not freed them from it by his descent And so we must interpret that of Hierom also Liberavit omnes Dominus quando anima ejus descendit in infernum the Lord delivered all his servants both dead and living when his soul descended into hell and that of Hilarie Christ descending into hell nostra salus est is our salvation and that of Ambrose descendens ad ' inferos genus humanum liberavit that Christ descending into hell delivered mankinde i. e. aswell from coming thither as from tarrying there Fulgentius goes to work more clearly then any of the rest before recited and doth not only tell us this that descendentem ad infernum animum justi c. the sorrows of hell were loosed by the descending thither of Christs righteous soul but addeth that having so loosed the sorrows or pains of hell omnes fideles ab iisdem liberavit he delivered all the faithful from them But above all St. Augustine is most clear and positive in this particular as may appear in part by that which was said before in the last Section but far more fully in the passages which are yet to come In all those miseries saith he though we were not then yet because our deserts were such that we should have been in them if we had not been delivered from them it may be rightly said we were thence delivered Quo per liberatores nostros non permissi sunt perduci whither we were not suffered to come by our deliverers And who these were whom he delivered in this manner that is to say by not permitting them to come thither at all he tels us in another place where we finde it thus that it is believed not without good cause that Christs soul came into that place in which sinners are miserably tormented Vt eos solveret a tormentis quos solvendos esse occulta nobis sua justitia judicabat that he might deliver them from torments whom in his secret justice unknown to us he thought fit to deliver In a word thus most fully saith that Reverend Prelate Si enim non
dark as St. Iohn hath it or very early in the morning at the breaking or dawning of the day as St. Matthew tels us but that they came not to the Sepulchre till the Sun was risen Or else we may resolve it thus and perhaps with greater satisfaction to the text and truth that Mary Magdalen whose love was most impatient of a long delay went first alone for St. Iohn speaks of her alone when it was yet dark but having signified to Peter what she had discovered she went to make the other women acquainted with it and then came all together as the Sun was rising to behold the issue of the business As for the seeming contradiction in St. Matthews words we shall best see the way to discharge him of it if passing by the Vulgar Latine from whence the contradiction took its first Original we have recourse unto the Greek In the Vulgar Latine it is Vespere Sabbati in the Evening of the Sabbath and that according to the Iewish computation must be on Friday about six of the clock for with them the Evening did begin the day as we saw before But in the Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English in the end of the Sabbath and then it is the same with St. Marks expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Sabbath was past And this construction comes more neer to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which points unto a thing which is long since past as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hour being now a good while spent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you lost your opportunity by your tardy coming And so the word is here interpreted by Gregory Nyssen by birth a Grecian and therefore doubtlesse one that well understood the Idiotisme of his own language in whom the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew is made to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very hour and moment of the resurrection Which ground so laid let us subjoyne these words in St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 18. to the last words of St. Lukes Gospel Chap. 23. and then this seeming contradiction will be brought to nothing St. Luke informes us of the women who had attended on our Saviour at his death and burial that having bought spices to imbalme his body they rested on the Sabbath day according to the Scripture v. 56. And then comes in St. Matthew to make up the story as all the four Evangelists do make but one ful history of our Saviours actions which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Sabbath was now past and that the first day of the week did begin to dawn they went unto the Sepulchre as they first intended We have not done yet with the time of his resurrection although the difficulties which concern that time have been debated and passed over We finde it generally agreed on by all four Evangelists that the resurrection was accomplished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the first day of the week and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the dawning of the day as St. Matthew hath it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the rising of the Sun as St. Marke informes About the dawning of the day for certainly it was not fit that the Sun of Heaven should shine upon the earth before the heavenly Sun of righteousnesse Nay therefore did our Saviour prevent the sun by his early rising to teach us that the whole world is enlightned only by the beams of his most sacred Gospell and that he only is the light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of his people Israel And there was very good reason also why he should choose the first day of the week to be the day of the resurrection more then any other that as God the Father on that day did begin the creation of the world in which we live the life of nature so God the Son should on the same day also begin the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in the souls of men by which they live the life of grace here and are thereby prepared for the life of glory in the world to come The sixt day in which our father Adam did begin to live was the same day in which the second Adam did begin to die And the seventh day on which God rested from his labours in the great work of our Creation was also rested by our Saviour in the far greater businesse of our Redemption Rested I say by him not sanctifyed For Christ did therefore pretermit and sleep out as it were the Iewish Sabbath that from thenceforth the observation of that day should be laid aside and that in that neglect of his there should no further care be taken of the legal Ceremonies And as God sanctifyed that day in which he rested from the work of the worlds Creation so the Apostles first as it was conceived and afterwards the Church of Christ by their example did sanctifie and set apart that day for religious offices in which our Saviour cancelled the bonds of death and finished the great work of our Redemption The Israelites were commanded by the Lord their God immediately on their escape from the hands of Pharaoh to change the beginning of the year in a perpetuall memory of that deliverance With very good reason therefore did the Church determine to celebrate the Christian Sabbath if I may so call it upon a day not used before but changed in due remembrance of so great a miracle as that of our Saviours resurrection from the power of the grave and our deliverance thereby from the Prince of darknesse The Parallel of the worlds Creation and the Redemption on all mankind by Christ our Saviour with the change which followed thereupon in the day of worship is very happily expressed by Gregory Nyssen in his first Sermon upon Easter or the Resurrection where speaking of Gods rest of the Sabbath day he thus proceedeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By that first Sabbath saith the father thou mayest conjecture at the nature of this this day of rest which God hath blessed above all dayes For on this the only begotten Son of God or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his own words are who out of a divine purpose of restoring mankind did give his body rest in the house of death and afterwards revived again by his resurrection became the resurrection and the life the day-spring from on high the light to them that sit in darknesse and the shadow of death Finally to insist upon this point no longer three days our Saviour set apart for the performance of this work and wonder of the resurrection and answerably thereunto the Church did antiently set apart three days for the commemoration of that work and wonder which was then performed In which respect the feast of Easter is entituled by the said Gregory Nyssen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the three days festivall The next considerable circumstance of the
mereri is no more then consequi to obtain or procure and in that sense the word is generally used in antient writers of which we may see more hereafter in a place more proper Take this of Tacitus once for all where speaking of Agricola he gives this Item Illis virtutibus iram C. Caesaris meritus est that by those vertues he procured the displeasure of Caius Caesar. That Christ did merit for himself in this sense of the word I take to be a matter beyond all controversie For first he merited or procured to be adored by his Apostles with religious worship the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek Original which he never could procure at their hands before Maldonates note upon this Text and the reasons of it are in my minde exceeding apposite but then his inference thereupon is like mors in olla an herbe that poysoneth the whole pottage His note is this Non legimus nisi hoc loco Christum a discipulis suis adoâ—atum we do not read saith he but in this place only that Christ was worshipped or adored by his Disciples His reason of it is this because whilest he conversed amongst them they looked upon him only in his humane nature as one made of the same mould that themselves were of Nunc demum adorant cum in calum eum ferri vident c. But when they saw him taken up into heaven they could not but acknowledge that he was a God also and therefore was to be adored which they did accordingly So far the Iesuite hath done well none could do it better His inference is if I rightly understand his meaning that the Eucharist is to be adored though they of Rome are for so doing quarrelled by the modern Hereticks Assuredly were Transubstantiation an Article of the Christian faith as that of Christs ascension is well known to be or could I see Christ in the the Eucharist with my bodily eyes as the Apostles saw him when he went up into heaven none should be forwarder then my selfe to adore the Eucharist But our great Masters in that Church do affirme unanimously that there is nothing to be seen but the outward elements the accidents of bread and wine as they please to phrase it And Suares one of the greatest of their Clerks doth affirme in Terminis Hoe tantum pendet ex principiis Metaphysicis Philosophicis ad fidei doctrinam non pertinet that Transubstantiation doth depend only on Metaphysical and Philosophical principles and is not de fide or a matter of faith Nay in the Church of Rome it self neither the Pastors nor the people were bound to believe it till Innocent the third defined it in the Lateran Councell about 400 years agoe upon whose definition it doth wholly rest as many of their Schoolmen cannot chuse but grant it being free till that time saith the learned Tunstal once Ld. B. of Durram to follow their own conjecture concerning the manner of the presence How all this doctrine doth agree with the Lords ascension and how one overthrowes and destroyeth the other we shall more fully see in the close of this Chapter Now therefore leaving these disputes let us follow Christ in his Ascension and see what he did further merit or procure for himself thereby That he obtained to be adored by his Disciples we have seen already the next point that he gained was this to be acknowledged by his followers for their Lord and King So witnesseth St. Peter in his first Sermon saying Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both LORD AND CHRIST Made him both Lord and Christ but when After his ascension after he had exalted him and placed him at his own right hand as the foregoing verses ballanced and compared together do most clearly evidence What then was he not Lord and Christ before No not in fact but only in the way of designation as first begotten Son of God and his heir apparent Him he made heir of all things from the first beginnings but being as he was in the forme of a servant he was to do his Fathers businesse and attend his leasure Who having raised him from the dead exalted him but not before with his own right hand to be a Prince and Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgivenesse of sins Shall we have more then to the Apostle of the Iews add we him of the Gentiles and he will tell us more at large how first God raised him from the dead then set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come lastly that having so exalted him he did put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body Now as he gained this power and Empire from the hands of God so he obtained or merited obedience at the hands of men the reverence of the knee in their adoration the tribute of the tongue in their acclamations Christ saith the same Apostle humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse Which being suffered and subdued God also highly hath exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And that every tongue should confesse that IESVS CHRIST is the Lord to the glory of God the Father But here I must be understood of speaking all this while of the man CHRIST IESVS as he appeared in our likenesse and was found in the fashion of us men in which nature as he only suffered and humbled himself unto the death even the death of the Crosse for the remission of our sins so in that nature only was he capable of an Exaltation of being raised from the dead and caried up into heaven and placed there at the right hand of the Father almighty Which sitting at the right hand of the Father Almighty though it be another of those high preheminences which Christ did merit for himself in his humane nature yet being he was not actually possessed of it untill his ascension shall be considered by it self in the following Chapter which is designed particularly to that branch of the Article In the mean time to shew that all the steps of Christs exaltation are spoken and intended of his humane nature whereof we shall speak more anon on the like occasion take this of Ruffine as a taste of what others say as well concerning this point of the Lords ascension into heaven as that of sitting there at the right hand of God both which he understandeth as the antients did of the manhood only Neque enim ulli
power of God as our Saviour calleth it Luke 22.69 And as the right hand is applyed to God as the hand of power by which he ruleth all things both in heaven and earth so is it sometimes also ascribed unto him and not to him alone but to Christ nor Saviour as the hand of love by which he cherisheth and protecteth his faithful servants For what else is the reason why the sheep in the day of Judgement shall be placed at the right hand of the King of Heaven but to shew that they are his beloved ones his Benjamins the children of his right hand as that name doth signifie And for what reason is it said that he doth imbrace the Church his Spouse with his right hand but to shew that ardour and sincerity of affection wherewith he doth cherish and protect her Cant. 2.6 8.3 Be it the power of God or his fidelity and love it 's the right hand stâ—ll There is another word to be looked on yet before we shall finde out the full meaning of this branch of the Article which is the word Sâ—det which we render sitting In which we must not understand as I think some Protestant Writers do any constant posture of the Body of Christ at the right hand of God For he who in the Creed and in divers places of the Old and New Testament is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is by St. Stephen who saw him with a glorified eye affirmed to stand Behold saith he I see heaven opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand Sitting and standing then for both words are used denote not to us any certain posture of our Saviours body but serve to signifie that rest and quiet which he hath found in Heaven after all his labours For what was our most blessed Saviour in the whole course and passages of his life and death but a man of troubles transported from one Countrey to another in his very infancy and from one City to another when he preached the Gospel compelled to convey himself away from the sight of men to save his life exposed to scoffs and scorns at the hour of his death Noahs Dove and he were both alike No rest for either to be found on the face of the earth no ease till they were taken into the Ark again out of which they were sent And this St. Paul doth intimate where he tels us of him that for the joy which was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And unto this construction of the word Sedere St. Ambrose very well agrees saying Secundum consuetudinem nostram illi consessus offertur qui aliquo opere perfecto victor adveniens honoris gratia promeretur ut sedeat It is saith he our usual custome to offer a chair or seat to him who having perfected the work which he had in hand doth deserve to sit And on this ground the man CHRIST IESVS having by his death and passion overcome the Devil and by his Resurrection broken open the gates of Hell having accomplished his work and returning unto Heaven a Conquerour was placed by God the Father at his own right hand Thus far and to this purpose he The like may be affirmed of standing or of standing still which doubtless is a great refreshment to a wearied Traveller a breathing bait as commonly we use to call it and many times is used in Scripture for a posture of ease as Quid statis toto die otiosi Why stand you here all the day idle But to proceed a little further in this disquisition there may be more found in the words then so For standing is the posture of a General or man of action ready to fall on upon the Enemy Oportet Imperatorem stantem mori said the Roman Emperour And it is also the posture which the Iews used in prayer as appears Matth. 6.5 Luk. 18.10.13 From whence they took that usual saying Sine stationibus non subsisteret mundus that were it not for such standings the world would not stand And sitting is we know the posture of a Judge or Magistrate in the act of Iudicature of Princes keeping state in the Throne Imperial And this appears as plainly by our Saviours words to his Apostles saying that they which followed him in the Regeneration should when the Son of man did sit in the Throne of his glory sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel And so the word is also used in Heathen Authors as Consedere duces consâ—ssique ora tenebant in the Poet Ovid when the great cause was to be tryed for Achilles armour When therefore St. Stephen beheld our Saviour Christ and saw him standing at the right hand of God the Father he found him either ready as a Chief or General to lead on against the enemies of his persecuted and afflicted Church or as an Advocate Habemus enim Advocatum for we have an Advocate with the Father IESVS CHRIST the righteous pleading before Gods Throne in behalf thereof or offering up his prayers for the sins of his people And when St. Paul and other texts of holy Scripture do describe him sitting they look upon him in the nature of a Iudge or Magistrate the Supreme Governour of the Church and then sedere is as much as regnare as St. Hierome hath it to reign or rule And to this last St. Paul doth seem to give some countenance if we compare his words with those of the Royal Pâ—almist Sit thou at my right hand saith the Psalmist till I have made thy enemies thy footstool Psal. 110.1 Oportet eum regnare saith the Apostle For he must reign or it behoveth him to reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15.25 Of this minde also was Sedulius an old Christian Poet Aethereas evectus abit sublimis in auras Et dextram subit ipse Patris mundumque gubernat Ascending into Heaven at Gods right hand He sits and all the World doth there command This said we will descend to those Expositions which have been made by several men on this branch of the Article and after pitch on that which we think most likely Some think this sitting at the right hand of God to signifie the fame with that which was said before of his ascending into Heaven which opinion Vrsin doth both recite and reject And he rejects it as I conceive upon very good reason it being very absurd as lie truly noteth in tam brevi Symbolo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 committi that a tautologie should be used in so short a summary It had been very absurd indeed and yet more absurd if they should intimate the same thing in a figurative and metaphorical form of speech which they had formerly expressed in so plain a way as was familiar
to the apprehension of the weakest Christians Others and those the greater part both of the Protestant Churches and the Church of Rome do so expound Christs sitting at the right hand of God as if thereby he were made equal to the Father in Majesty and power and glory And this way many of the Antients have gone before them But Maldonat not content with this goes a strain yet higher a straâ—t above Elah at the least and thinks that CHRIST by sitting at the right hand of God is somewhat more then equal to him Et majorem prae se dignitatem ferat and carryeth a resemblance of the greater dignity as being placed in the more honorable and more worthy seat For this he giveth us a rule and an instance too both alike false and faulty if examined throughly His rule is this Cum sedent duo qui honoratior est sedet ad dextram that when two persons sit together the most worthy of them sits on the right hand of the other But this is only true amongst private persons and that but in some Countries and at some times neither Between a King and Subjects of what rank soever the case is otherwise and most ridiculous and absurd would the consequents be if it were not so Next let us look upon the instance which he gives us of it out of his aboundance to see if it doth either mend or mar the matter and we shall finde both that and his inference on it to be more ridiculous then his rule His instance is that of Bathsheba before remembred whom Solomon saith he did place on the right hand of his Throne ut eam superiorem agnosceret thereby acknowledging his Mother to be his superior Assuredly the Iesuite must be very blinde when he made that inference and did not see how ill it did cohere with the truth of story or else he must be thought to have a further aim in it then he would be know of All that can logically be deduced from that act of Solomons is that he bare a filial duty to his Mother though he were her Soveraign and did desire to have her honoured by his people in the next place to himself For had she been Superiour to him or so thought herself she would not have petitioned him as we see she did to bestow Abishag the Shunamite upon Adonijah but would have done it freely of her own authority Or had the King conceived her to be Lady Paramount and to have the Soveraignty or Superiority as the Iesuite saith he would not have returned her back with a flat denial especially considering that she had descended so much beneath herself as to move him in it and that too in an humble and petitioning way Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat said the Poet Martiall if Bathsheba was Supreme unto Solomon and confessed to be so then was he no King Or if we grant it to be so in the case of Bathsheba we must allow it to be so too in the Kings wife Psal. 45. placed at the Kings right hand by David in a very ill time For whether we understand it literalâ—y of the Kings wife the Queen whose wife soever she was whether his or Solomons or mystically of the Church the Spouse of Christ it must needs follow by his rule and his reason both that the Queen wore the breeches and did rule the King and the CHVRCH Lord it over CHRIST neither of which I think the learned Iesuite had the face to say And therefore I am easily induced to think that Maldonate being a man of great reach and reading had a further aim in it and laid his line a far off for some other fish For Solomon being as he was a Type of Christ and though a King yet publickly acknowledging his Mother for Superior to him why may not then the Virgin Mary take the like authority why must not Christ submit to her as to his Supreme If so then Iure Matris impera Redemptori will be no longer Popish superstition but good Christian piety and Bonaventures Psalter a new piece of Scripture then the dividing of the Kingdome of God betwixt Christ and his Mother leaving to him the Kings Bench and to her the Chancery justice to him but mercy to his Lady Mother will be sound Divinity and the Idolatrous title of Regina Coeli or the Queen of Heaven which they so often give her in their publick formulas will be no longer Courtship or a spiritual kinde of daliance as Harding cals it but her own just right Nay God must be beholding to her if she stop at that and put not in for the Supremacy over him and all as by the Iesuites grounds she may for ought I can see For since that Christ by sitting at the right hand of God the Father hath not only an equality with him both in power and Majesty but majus quiddam saith the Iesuite something more excellent then so and seeing that the Virgin Maries case is like that of Bathsheba and 't is a ruled case that of Bathsheba if we mark it well it must needs follow thereupon for ought I can judge that God the Father must content himself with the third place only and be glad of that too Adeo argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truly Let us consider in the next place whether this sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of God doth give him an equality with God the Father which is the more received opinion and more likely far or if not that then what our Saviour gains by his sitting there and what we take to be the meaning of that form of speech And first I see no reason strong enough to perswade me to it that sitting at the right hand is a sign of equality the case being rightly laid as it ought to be betwixt a King and his Subjects betwixt God and man For I conceive this Article to relate only to the man CHRIST IESVS and that the note of Estius is exceeding good that is to say that all the Articles of the Creed concerning Christ from his being conceived by the holy Ghost to that of his coming unto judgement inclusively de Christo dici secundum humanam naturam are spoken of him only in his humane nature For in that only he was born of the Virgin Mary in that alone did he suffer under Pontius Pilate in that was crucified dead and buryed descended into hell rose again from the dead and finally in that and in none but that did he ascend into the Heavens and there doth sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty And if his humane nature in it self considered will not give him an equality with God the Father as he himself affirms it did not acknowledging that his Father was greater then he and that he knew not all things which the Father did then
certainly this his sitting at the right hand of God will not do it for him For building on the grounds which before we laid though sitting at the right hand of a Prince or Potentate were a great honour to the man that sate there and gave him the next place to the Prince himself yet that it gave him an equality of power and Majesty neither the nature of Soveraignty which can brook no equals nor any of the instances before remembred can evince or evidence Not that of David and his Queen if of her he means it for David was too well acquainted with his own authority as to divide it with his wife and become joynt Tenant with her to the Crown of Israel Nor that of Solomon and his Mother which the Iesuite stands on for then the King had done her wrong to reject her suit and more then so to put his brother to the sword for whom and in whose cause she came a suiter Though Solomon was then very young and as much indebted to Bathsheba for the Crown of Israel as a son could be unto a Mother yet he knew how to keep his distance and preserve his power Young Princes have their jealousies in point of State aswell as those of riper years and can as ill endure or admit a Rivall Omnisque potestas impatiens consoriis erit as the Poet hath it Their hearts are equally made up of Caesar and Pompey as unable to endure an equal as admit a Superior Though Nero was advanced to the Empire of Rome by the power and practises of Agrippina his Mother and came as young unto the Crown as King Solomon did yet would he not permit her to be partner with him no not so much as in the outward signs and pomps of Majesty And therefore when he saw her come into the Senate with an intent to sit down with him as he thought in the Throne Imperial he cunningly rose up to meet her Atque ita specie pietatis obviam itum est dedecori saith the wise Historian and under pretence of doing his duty to her did prevent the infamy So then the sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of God importing neither an equality with him nor any superiority at all above him the phrase being measured as it ought according to the standard of the Iewish Idiom and the received customes of that Nation we must enquire a little further to finde out the meaning Most like it is that by these words And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is meant the exaltation of the man CHRIST IESVS our blessed Lord and Saviour in his humane nature to the next degree of power and glory unto God himself whereby he was made Lord and Christ the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter cals him the head over all things unto his Church as St. Paul entitles him that to inable him the better to discharge those Offices wherewith by God he is intrusted he hath received withall a participation of Gods Almighty power and most infinite goodness for the defence and preservation of the Church committed to him with all those other powers and faculties which are in Scripture called the right hand of God and finally that sitting there in rest and quiet after all his labours he is continually intent on his Churches safety which he stands ready to defend against all its enemies to govern aâ—d direct it in the ways of godliness and to reward or punish as he sees occasion Which exaltation of our Saviour in his humane nature I can no better liken then to that of Ioseph when Pharaoh made him Ruler over all the land of Egypt and placed him also over his house that according to his word they might all be ruled and made him to ride in the second Charet that he had with an Officer to crie before him Bow the knee All he reserved unto himself was the Regal Throne in which he could not brook an equal Onely in the Throne said he will I be greater then thou So stands the case as I conceive it between God the Father and his Christ. Christ by his exaltation to the right hand of God hath gained the neerest place both of power and glory unto God himself a participation of Gods divine power and goodness an absolute command over all the Church consisting both of men and Angels Only the Divine Throne the Supreme transcendency the Lord God Almighty reserves unto himself not to part with that And if we look into the Scriptures with a careful eye we shall finde Christ standing neer the Throne of Almighty God but not sitting on it St. Paul informs us to that purpose where he saith of Christ that he sate down at the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn telleth us in the Book of the Revelation that he saw in the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne which was God the Father a Book written within and on the backside And the Lamb which had been slain came and tooke the Book out of the right hand of him that sate on the Throne A matter which the strongest Angel mentioned in the second verse did not dare to meddle with knowing his distance from the Throne and how ill it became him to attempt too neer it For though the Angels of themselves are of a more excellent glorious nature and far surpassing all the children of the loyns of Adam yet in this point they fall short of those infinite glories which CHRIST acquired in his person to our humane Nature First in his birth God did in no wise take the Angels saith the great Apostle but the seed of Abraham he took the meaning is that when God was to send a Saviour to redeem the world and that both men and Angels stood at once before him both coveting to be advanced to so high a dignity he did confer that honour on the seed of Abraham on one descended from his loyns and not on any of the Angels of what rank soever Who being born into the world was honoured presently with the name of the Son of God the first begotten Son of the Lord most high and therein was much better and more excellent then the Angels were in that he did inherit a more excellent name That 's the first point in which our Saviour had the better of those glorious creatures For unto which of the Angels that is to say none at all said he at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Though he was made lower then the Angels of inferiour metal and for a while of less esteem in the eyes of men yet did they worship him at his birth by Gods own command and cheerfully proclaimed the news to the sons of men Now as God honoured him with a name above all the Angels so he advanced him to a place at his own right hand which
from sin and Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from the yoak of bondage which the Romans had then laid upon them Thus was it also with the whole body of his Disciples when convened together at the very time of his Ascension Wilt thou at this time say they restore again the Kingdome unto Israel The Kingdome What Regnum illud temporale quod ablatum erat a Iudaeis the temporall power which by the Romans lately had been taken from them And now I thinke it cannot reasonably be expected that the Gentiles should conceive otherwise of the Kingdome of Christ if they knew any thing at all of it then the whole nation of the Iews or his own Disciples Nam post Carthaginem vinci neminem puduit It was no shame for them to mistake in that which was not rightly understood by his friends and followers If they that satâ— in the light saw so obscurely how could they see at all that sat in darknesse and in the shadow of death There had continued in the East saith Tacitus and Suetonius both a received opinion fore ut Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur that out of Iewry should proceed a most puissant Prince who should in fine obtain the Empire over all the world A report founded questionlesse upon that of Micah and to this purpose cited in St. Matthews Gospel viz. that out of Judah there should come a Governour which shall rule my people Israel This prophecie the Roman Historians of those times referred in the accomplishment unto Vespasian and his sons who being the Provincial Governours of Iudaea did afeâ—rwards by force of the Eastern Armies obtain the empire But it wrought further as it seems upon Domitian who is reported to have sought out all those of the line of David which his care and diligence could discover and to have murdred them being found Which howsoever some ascribe to his accustomed cruelty without further aime yet I am verily perswaded that jealousie in point of state the better to secure himself from those on whom that prophecie did reflect originally did induce him to it And possible enough it is that Pilate grounding his proceedings on the same mistake might think quod scripsi scripsi an high part of wisedome and that therein he did great service to the Roman Emperors in terrifying others from aspiring to the name of King which Iesus upon so good title and without any prejudice unto their affaires had presumed to own But all this while he was a King in title only or a King designed We must next look upon him as inaugurated and put in full possession of the regal power And that this was not done till his resurrection is positively affirmed in two texts of St. Peter and very concludingly inferred by a text of St. Paul We will take that of St. Peter first delivered in the first Sermon that he preached on the Feast of Pentecost where speaking of the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour and having pressed the point home to their souls and consciences he concludeth thus Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucifyed both Lord and Christ Not made him Lord nor Christ till then neither King nor Priest The very same St. Paul affirmeth in more positive termes Who speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132 Psalme that of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his throne for evermore resolveth it thus The promise which God made unto our Fathers hath he fulfilled in us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the 2. Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Of this we have already spoken more fully in the 13. Chapter and therefore shall not need to repeat it here And if the word head be used in Scriptures and other creditable Authors to signifie the King or supreme Governour of a body politick as no doubt it is we have St. Paul as positive in this particular as St. Peter was That so the word head hath been oft times used I shall not need to prove out of many witnesses when two or three will be sufficient Of these the first shall be the Prophet Isaiah saying The head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Israel is Samaria they being the principall and commanding Cities of those severall Kingdomes And more then so the head of Damascus is Rezin and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah who were the Kings of those two Realms whereof Damascus and Samaria were the principal Cities Thus doth the Poet say of Rome Roma caput mundi that it was the head of the world i. e. the chief or commanding state to which all the residue of the world did owe subjection And thus doth Chrysostome say of Theodosius the Roman Emperour that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the head of all people on the earth It followeth then that Christ being called in Scripture the head of his Church which is indeed his mystical body and exercising all that power and authority which the head hath upon the members of the body natural must needs be understood for the King thereof the Prince and Saviour of his people as St. Peter called him And that Christ was not made the head of his Church till the resurrection was accomplished it 's by St. Paul affirmed so plainly and in terminis that it needs no Commentary The God of our Lord IESVS CHRIST saith the Apostle hath raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places above all principalities and powers and might and dominions that is to say above the whole Hierarchie of the Angels c. And given him to be head over all things unto the Church which is his body This makes that clear and evident which before we said that though our Saviour was designed to the Crown of David long before his birth yet was he not actually inaugurated till his resurrection nor inthronized at Gods right hand untill his ascension And this distinction serves most fitly to clear the meaning of St. Paul in that other place from which the same may be concludingly inferred It is a passage in his Sermon made unto the Pisidians where speaking of the promise which God made to David that viz. of the 132. Psal. That of the fruit of his body there should one sit upon his Throne for evermore v. 12 13. he resolves it thus The promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is also written in the second Psalme Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Many Interpreters I know both antient and modern do expound these words of the eternal generation of the Son of God and fancie to
rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
not then be cheated by this new distinction that Kings are Gods Vice-roys but not Iesus Christs though the distinction be much hugged by our great Novators Who intend nothing else thereby but to throw down Crowns and lay them at the foot of their Presbyteries and to set up instead of the Regal power their own dear Tribunal a Soveraignty in all causes Ecclesiastical to over-rule it first and extirpe it afterwards as the right learned Bishop of Kell-Alla very well observeth In these ways and by these several means and subordinate Ministers doth Christ administer the Kingdome committed to him And this he doth continually sitting at the right hand of God the Father and there to sit untill his enemies be made his footstool This David did fore-see by the spirit of Prophecy The Lord saith he said unto my Lord i. e. the Lord God almighty said to my Lord CHRIST IESVS Sit thou on my right hand untill thy enemies be made thy footstool This the Apostle also verifieth and affirms of Christ. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins is set down for ever on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool And this he also telleth us in another place saying of Christ that he must reign till he shall have put all his enemies under his feet Till then his Kingdome is to last and till that time he is to sit at the right hand of God in all power and Majesty If it be asked when that will be that all his enemies shall be subdued and subject to him we answer at the end of this present world when there is no enemie left to be destroyed Now the last enemie which is to be destroyed is death saith the same Apostle And thereupon we may inferre that while death reigneth in opposition to the Lord of life and sin in a defiance to the Lord of righteousness that hitherto we have not seen all things put under him and therefore must expect yet a little longer before he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father But then indeed when Death is utterly destroyed and all the Saints admitted to the glories of eternal life when all things are subdued unto him then also shall the Son himself be made subject to him that did put all things under him that is God the Father Then when he hath put down all rule and all authority and power then cometh the end and then he shall deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father that God may be all in all This is the summe of St. Pauls argument in that point In which there being many things not easie to be understood I shall not think my time ill spent to make a short Paraphrase and discourse upon it that so we may perceive more fully the Apostles meaning And first he saith that CHRIST must reign till he hath put all things under his feet that being one of the especial parts of the Kingly function as before was shewn to save and defend his Church from the hands of her enemies and for the enemies themselves to crush them with a Scepter of iron and break them in pieces like a Potters vessel When this is done when he hath trodden under foot all his mortal enemies the persecutors of his Church false Prophets false Apostles and the great Antichrist himself which labour to seduce even the very Elect when he hath subjugated the powers of Hell and that sin hath no more dominion over us yet we shall still lie under the power of death untill the last and general Resurrection Death therefore is the last enemie to be destroyed that being delivered from his thraldome raised from the grave which is his prison and all those bonds and fetters broken by which we were held captive under his command we may be made partakers of eternal life and reign with Christ for ever in his heavenly glories When that time cometh when there are neither enemies from which to protect his Church nor any Church to be instructed in the wayes of godliness according to the Nomothetical part of the Regal Office then cometh the end the end of all things in this world which shall be no more the end of Christs Kingdome as the Mediator between God and man man having by the power of his mediation attained the end of his desires the guerdon and reward of his faith and piety This being done the rule of Satan and the authority of sin and the power of death being all broken and subdued he shall first raise our mortal bodies in despight of death pronounce the joyful sentence of absolution on them in despight of sin and finally advance them to that height of glory from which Satan fell to the confusion of the Devil and all his Angels And having so discharged the Office of a Mediator for executing which he sate at the right hand of God he shall deliver up unto God the Father the right and interest which he had in the Kingdome of Grace consisting in the building up of his Elect in faith hope and charity that they with him and he with them may reign forevermore in the Kingdome of glory Where there shall be no use of Faith for they shall see God face to face and faith is the existence of things not seen and less of hope for hope is the expectancy of things desired which being once obtained puts an end to hope Charity onely shall remain for that never ceaseth and therefore said to be the greatest of the three Theological vertues of which the Apostle there discourseth 1 Cor. 13.13 And so Primasius hath resolved it In this present life saith he there are three in the life to come onely the love of God and his Augels and of all the Saints That therefore is the greater which is alwayes necessary then that which once shall have an end The like St. Austin before him The greatest of all is charity because when every one shall come to eternal life the other two failing charity shall continue with increase and with greater certainty And finally before both thus St. Chrysostome and these three witnesses enough The greatest of these is Charity because they passe away but that continueth I must confess there is hardly a more difficult Text in all the Scripture then this of Christs delivering up the Kingdome unto God the Father nor which requires more care in the Exposition for fear of doing injurie unto God or Christ conceive me still of Christ in his humane nature For neither must we so understand the place as if God reigned not now at the present time nor was to reign at all untill this surrendry of the Kingdome by Christ our Saviour That were injurious to the power and Majesty of Almighty God by whom all things were made and by whom all made subject unto Christs command for he it is who did put all things
and Martyrs approving and applauding as before I said that most righteous judgement which CHRIST shall then pronounce against all the wicked saying Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels This dreadful sentence thus pronounced and the condemned persons being delivered over by the Angels of God to the Devil and his according to the sentence of that righteous Iudge CHRIST shall arise from his Tribunal and together with his elect Angels and most blessed Saints shall in an orderly and triumphant manner ascend into the Heaven of Heavens where unto every one of his glorious Saints he shall bestow the immarcessible Crown of glory and make them Kings and Priests unto God the Father When all the Princes of the Earth have laid down their Scepters at the feet of CHRIST God shall be still a King of Kings a King indeed of none but Kings Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium always but most amply them For then shall CHRIST deliver up the Kingdom unto God the Father which how it must be understood we have shewn before And the Saints laying down their Crowns at the feet of Christ shall worship and fall down before him saying Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever For thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and Nation and hast made us Kings and Priests to God to reign with thee in thy Kingdome for evermore Thus have I made a brief but a plain discovery so far forth as the light of Scripture could direct me in it both of the manner of our Saviours coming unto Judgement and of the Method he shall use in the act of judging That which comes after Iudgement whether life or death whether it be the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell will fall more properly under the consideration of the last Article of the Creed that of Life Everlasting and there we mean to handle all those particulars which I think pertinent thereunto In the mean time a due and serious consideration of this day of Iudgement will be exceeding necessary to all sorts of people and be the strongest bridle to restrain them from the acts of sin that ever was put into the mouths of ungodly men For what a bridle think we must it be unto them to keep them from unlawful lusts nay from sinful purposes when they consider with themselves that in that day the hearts of all men shall be opened their desires made known and that no secrets shall be hid but all laid open as it were to the publick view What a strong bridle must it be to curb them and to hold them in when they are in the full careere and race of wickedness when they consider with themselves that there will be no way nor means to escape this Judgement Though they procure the Rocks to fall upon them and the Hils to hide them yet will Gods Angels finde them out and gather them from every corner of the World be they where they will Though they have flattered their poor souls and said Tush God will not see it or have disguised themselves with fig-leaves out of a silly hope to conceal their nakedness or wiped their lips so cunningly with the harlot in the Book of Proverbs that no man can discern a stollen kiss upon them yet all this will not serve the turn God will for all this bring them unto judgement and apprehend them by his Angels when they go a gathering There shall not one of them escape the hands of these diligent Sergeants Ne unus quidem no not one And finally what a bridle must it be unto them to hold them from exorbitant wickedness as either the crucifying again of the Lord of glory the persecuting of the Saints their mischievous plots against the Church in her peace and Patrimony when they consider with themselves that he whom thus they crucifie is to be their Iudge and that those poor souls whom they now contemn shall give a vote or suffrage on their condemnation and that the poor afflicted Church which they made truly militant by their foul oppressions malgre their tyranny and confederacies shall become Triumphant And on the other side what a great comfort must it be to the righteous man to think that Christ who all this while hath been his Mediator with Almighty God shall one day come to be his Iudge What a great consolation must it be unto him in the time of trouble to think that all his groans are registred his tears kept in a bottle and his sighs recorded and that there is a Iudge above who will wipe all the tears from his eyes and give him mirth in stead of mourning What an incouragement must it be unto him in the way of godliness when he considereth with himself that there is laid up for him a Crown of glory which the Lord the righteous Judge will give him at that day and give it him in the fight both of men and Angels Finally what strength and animation must it put into them to make them stand couragiously in the cause of Christ and to contemn what ever misery can be laid upon them in the defence of Christs and the Churches cause when they consider with themselves that there is no man who hath lost Father or Mother or wife or children or lands and possessions for the sake of Christ but shall receive much more in this present world and in the world to come life everlasting For behold he cometh quickly as himself hath told us and his reward is with him to give to every man according as his work shall be Even so Lord Jesus So be it Amen THE SUM Of Christian Theologie Positive Philological and Polemical Contained in the APOSTLES CREED or Reducible to it THE THIRD PART By Peter Heylyn 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one Spirit are we all Baptized into one Body whether we be Iews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit LONDON Printed for Henry Seyle 1654. ARTICLE IX Of the Ninth ARTICLE OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. IAMES the Son of ALPHEVS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Credo in Spiritum sanctum sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. I beleeve in the Holy Ghost the holy Catholick Church CHAP. I. Touching the Holy Ghost his divine Nature Power and Office the Controversie of his Procession laid down Historically Of Receiving the Holy Ghost and of the severall ministrations in the Church appointed by him WE are now come unto the third and last part of this Discourse containing in the first place the Article of the Holy Ghost and of the holy Catholick Church gathered together and preserved by the power thereof And in the rest those several Gifts and special Benefits which Christ conferreth by the operation of
and then subjoyns Glorifie God therefore in your body And doth not the same Father infer from thence the Deitie or Godhead of the Holy Ghost Ne quisquam Spiritum Sanctum negaret Deum continuo sequutus ait Glorificate portate Deum in corpore vestro Lest any man saith he should possibly deny the Holy Ghost to be God he addes immediately Glorifie and bear God in your bodies To seek for Testimonies from more of the Fathers to confirm this point were to run into an endless Ocean of Allegations there being few who lived after the rising of the Arian and Macedonian Heresies who have not written whole Tracts in defence hereof and none at all who give not very pregnant evidence to the cause in hand But where the Scripture is so clear what need they come in And so exceeding clear is Scripture as is shewn already that I marvel with what confidence it could be said by Doctor Harding in his Reply to Bishop Iewel That though the Doctrine of the Church of England were true and Catholick in this point yet we had neither express Scripture for it nor any of the four first General Councils and thereon tacitely inferreth That the Deity of the Holy Ghost depended for the proof thereof not on holy Scripture but on the Tradition of the Church and the Authority of some subsequent Councils of the Popes confirming To which that learned Prelate wittily replieth That if God cannot be God unless he be allowed of by the Pope and Church of Râ—me then we are come again to that which Tertullian wrote merrily of the Heathens saying Nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit i.e. Unless God humor man he shall not be God Some further Arguments may be used to confirm this Truth and they no less concludent than those before As namely from the Form of Baptism ordained by Christ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost From the Form of Benediction used by St. Paul The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost From the Doxologie or Form of giving glory used in the Church and used as St. Basil confidently averreth from the first beginning Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost And finally from the place it holds in the present Creed composed by the joynt concurrence of the Blessed Apostles But that which I shall specially insist upon is that passage in three of the Evangelists touching the sinâ—t â—t blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God which is there said to be of that heinous nature that it shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.32 That is to say It shall never have forgiveness as S. Mark expounds it Mark 3.29 St. Ambrose gathereth from this Text a concluding Argument against the Macedonian and Eunomian Hereticks who held the Holy Ghost to be onely a created power Quomodo inter Creaturas aâ—det quisquam Spiritum Sanctum computare c. How dareth any man saith he compute the Holy Ghost amongst the rest of the Creatures considering that it is affirmed by the Lord himself That whosoever speaketh against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And to this inference of his we may well subscribe though the sin or blasphemy spoken of by our Lord and Saviour was not against the Person of the Holy Ghost but against his Power For that no sin or heresie against his person was so irremissible as to exclude the offending party from all hope of pardon is evident by the constant practise of the Primitive Church which as St. Chrysostom observeth used daily to receive again to the Word and Sacraments the Eunomian Hereticks on the recanting of their Error That therefore being not the siâ— which is here intended it would be worth the while and very pertinent to our present business to enquire into it though as St. Augustine notes right well In omnibus Scripturis sanctis nulla major quaestio nulla difficilior That there is not a greater nor more difficult question in all the Scripture And well might he say so of all men who in delivering his own judgement upon the point doth so much vary from himself that it is impossible to finde what he doth resolve on For sometimes he makes it to be final impenitency as Lib. de fide ad Pet. c. 3. Sometimes to be despair of Gods mercy as in his Comment on the Romans Sometimes to be a denying of the Churches power to forgive sins as in his Eucheirid c. 83. Sometimes to be sins of malice as De Ser. Domini in monte l. 1. And sometimes neerer to the truth to be an ascribing of the works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil as in his Tract De Quâ—st ex utroque Testam quaest 102. Nor do the Writers of the former or later times agree better in this point with one another than that Learned Father with himself Some holding it to be a renouncing of the Faith of Christ as the Novatians others the denying of the Divinity of Christ as Hilary Philastrius extending it unto every Heresie and Origen whom some of the Novatians also followed to every sin committed after Baptism For later Writers the Schoolmen generally make it to be sins of malice affirming sins of infirmity to be committed against the Father whose proper attribute is Power and sins of ignorance against the Son whose proper attribute is Wisdom and therefore sins against the Holy Ghost must be sins of malice because his attribute is Love And on the other side the Protestants as generally do make it to be final Apostasie or a wilful and malicious resisting of the Truth to the very last And so it is defined by Calvin who makes them to be guilty of this sin against the Holy Ghost Qui divinae veritati cujus fulgore sic per stringuntur ut ignorantiam causari nequeant tamen destinata malicia resistâ—nt in hoc tantum ut resistant that is to say Who out of determined malice resist the known Truth of God with the Beams whereof they are so dazled that they cannot pretend ignorance to the end onely to resist But God forbid that most if at all any of the sins before enumerated should come within the compass of that grievous sentence which is denounced against blaspheming of the Holy Ghost For if either every sin committed after Baptism or every sin of malice or despair of mercy or falling into heresie especially in that large sense as Philastrius takes it should be uncapable of pardon it were almost impossible for any man to be sayed And for the rest final Impenitency is not so properly a particular and distinct species
both be the witnesses of his Life and Doctrine and afterwards discharge so much of the Prophetical Office as he should please to delegate and entrust unto them To these he shewed himself after his Resurrection and conversed with them for the space of forty days to the intent he might the better fit them for so great a work And being even upon the instant of departing from them it seemed good to him to invest them with a sacred Power and by some outward Ceremony and set Form of words to dedicate them to the Ministry of such holy things as were not to be meddled with by vulgar hands He breathed on them saith the Text and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained The meaning of these words we have shewn before and need repeat no more but this That in the number of those gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is Author there is contained that sacred Power by which some men are made the Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people When therefore Christ breathed on his Apostles and said Receive the Holy Ghost he did as it were breathe out that power of Preaching the Word of Truth and doing other holy Offices in the Church of God which he had formerly received from the Holy Ghost Receive said he the Holy Ghost i. e. Such a sublime power as no Prince nor Potentate can bestow a power which gives you such an influence on the Souls of men as that of the remitting and retaining sin In which it is to be observed That our Saviour puts not down this act of remitting and retaining sins for the whole entire and adequate subject about which the Apostolical or Prophetical Office was to be employed but onely as one chief part thereof in the name of all that by the weightiness of that they might judge the better of the importance of the other He had promised them the Keys before but now he hangs them at their girdle and puts them absolutely and fully into their possession Ability and power to perform the rest they were to tarry for yet a little longer and then immediately to receive both from the Holy Ghost whom he did promise to send them after his departure And so accordingly he did the Holy Ghost descending on them upon the tenth day after his Ascension in the likeness of fiery cloven tongues and furnishing them with all those extraordinary gifts and graces which were necessary for the first propagation of our Saviours Gospel By his own breathing on them and the words that followed he gave them jus ad rem as the Lawyers call it a power to exercise a Spiritual Function in his holy Church and put them into possession of so much thereof as concerned the remitting and retaining of sins But for the jus in re the actual execution of that holy Function together with those supernatural endowments by which they were to be fitted and prepared for it that they received upon this coming of the Holy Ghost and did not onely receive it as before from Christ but repleti sunt omnes they were all filled with it saith the Text This coming of the Holy Ghost as Pope Leo noteth Was Cumulans non inchoans nec novus opere sed dives largitate rather by way of augmenting the former power and abilities which Christ had given them than of beginning a new For it is a known rule of the Antient Fathers That where the Holy Ghost had been given before and yet is said to come again it is to be understood either of an increase of the former in weight or measure or of some new gift which before men had not but was conferred after for some new effect as it is noted out of St. Ierom and Sâ— Cyril by our Learned Andrews And to say truth there was good reason why we must understand this coming of the Holy Ghost in both these respects both in regard of measure and addition too Before when Christ breathed on them and therewith said Receive ye the Holy Ghost their Ministry was confined within the Land of Iudea Go not into the way of the Gentiles or into any City of the Samaritans but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel A less proportion of the Spirit would have served for that But when he was to leave them he inlarged their bounds and put the whole world under their jurisdiction Go saith he into all the world and Preach the Gospel unto every Creature Go therefore teach all Nations as St. Matthew hath it chap. 28.19 And if they were to travel over all the World and to teach all Nations good reason they should be inabled to speak the Tongues of all Nations also and be replenished with so great a measure of the Holy Spirit as might make the conquest of the world the more easie to them Which work as it was wrought in the Feast of Penticost so hath the anniversary of that day been celebrated ever since in the Christian Church though under other names according to the language of particular Countries as the Birthâ—day of the Gospel of Christ the day on which it was preached after his Ascension after the great work of our Redemption was accomplished by him It had before been kept as a solemn Festival one of the three great Festivals ordained by Moses in memory of the giving of the Law that day upon Mount Sinai And hath been since observed as a solemne Festival one of the three great Festivals of the Christian Church in memory of the promulgation of the Gospel from Mount Sion on the same day also A day it was of so great solemnity that there were then assembled at Ierusalem of every Nation under heaven as the Text informes us The Gospell was not to be published but in such a generall concourse of people Therefore the day thereof to be solemnized by all Nations also and made a day of holy assembly to the Lord our God But our Redeemer staid not here as if he had sufficiently discharged his Propheticall Office by furnishing his Apostles with the Gifts of the Spirit and meant from henceforth to betake himselfe to the execution of the Priestly or the Kingly Offices as being in themselves more glorious and to him more honorable When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave Gifts to men not unto Twelve alone which was the number of his Apostles nor to an hundred and twenty onely which was the whole number of his Disciples at that time The Harvest being great did require more labourers and therefore Gifts must be bestowed on more men than so And if we will beleeve St. Paul so it was indeed For having cited those words of the royall Psalmist he addes immediately And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some
Reformers in Queen Elizabeths time say as much as this The Scriptures say the Papists in their Council of Trent for I regard not the unsavory Speeches of particular men Is not sufficient to Salvation without Traditions that is to say without such unwritten Doctrinals as have from hand to hand been delivered to us Said not the Puritans the same when they affirmed That Preaching onely viva voce which is verbum traditum is able to convert the sinner That the Word sermonized not written is alone the food which nourisheth to life eternal that reading of the Word of God is of no greater power to bring men to Heaven than studying of the Book of Nature that the Word written was written to no other end but to afford some Texts and Topicks for the Preachers descant If so as so they say it is then is the written word no better than an Ink-horn Scripture a Dead Letter or a Leaden Rule and whatsoever else the Papists in the height of scorn have been pleased to call it Nay of the two these last have more detracted from the perfection and sufficiency of the holy Scripture than the others did They onely did decree in the Council of Trent That Traditions were to be received Paripietatis affectu with equal Reverence and Affection to the written Word and proceed no further These magnifie their verbum traditum so much above it that in comparison thereof the Scripture is Gods Word in name but not in efficacy They onely adde Traditions in the way of Supplement where they conceive the Scriptures to be defective These make the Scriptures every where deficient to the work intended unless the Preacher do inspire them with a better Spirit than that which they received from the Holy Ghost Good God that the same breath should blow so hot upon the Papists and yet so cold upon the Scriptures that the same men who so much blame the Church of Rome for derogating from the dignity and perfection of the Holy Scriptures should yet prefer their own indigested crudities in the way of Salvation before the most divine dictates of the Word of God But such are men when they leave off the conduct of the Holy Ghost to follow the delusions of a private Spirit Articuli IX Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam i. e. The Holy Catholick Church CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the Title of Catholick The Church in what respects called Holy Touching the Head and Members of it The Government thereof Aristocratical IN the same Article in which we testifie our Faith in the Holy Ghost do we acknowledge That there is a Body or Society of faithful people which being animated by the power of that Blessed Spirit hath gained unto it self the name of the Church and with that name the attribute or title of Catholick in regard of the extent thereof over all the World of Holy in relation to that piety of life and manners which is or ought to be in each several Member And not unfitly are they joyned together in the self same Article the Holy Ghost being given to the Apostles for the use of the Church and the Church nothing but a dead and lifeless carcass without the powerful influence of the Holy Ghost As is the Soul in the Body of Man so is the Holy Ghost in the Church of Christ that which first gives it life that it may have a Being and afterward preserves it from the danger of putrefaction into which it would otherwise fall in small tract of time Having therefore spoken in the former Chapter of the Nature Property and Office of the Holy Ghost and therein also of the Volume of the Book of God dictated by that Blessed Spirit for that constant Rule by which the Church was to be guided both in Life and Doctrine We now proceed in order to the Church it self so guided and directed by it And first for the Quid nominis to begin with that it is a name not found in all the writings of the Old Testament in which the body of Gods people the Spiritual body is represented to us after a figurative manner of Speech in the names of Sion and Ierusalem as Pray for the peace of Jerusalem Psal. 121. And the Lord loveth the gates of Sion Psal. 87. The name of Church occurreth not till the time of the Gospel and then it was imposed by him who had power to call it what he pleased and to entitle it by a name which was fittest for it The Disciples gave themselves the name of Christians the name of Church was given them by our Saviour Christ. No sooner had St. Peter made this confession for himself and the rest of the Apostles Thou art Christ the Son of the living God but presently our Saviour added Upon this Rock that is to say The Rock of this Confession as most of the Antients and some Writers also of the darker times do expound the same will I build my Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek The word used by our Lord and Saviour is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence the Latines borrowed their Ecclesia the French their Eglise and signifieth Coetum evocatum a chosen or selected company a company chosen out of others derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as evocare to call out or segregate In that sense as the word is used to signifie a company of men called by the special Grace to the Faith in Christ and to the hopes of life eternal by his death and passion is the word Ecclesia taken in the writings of the holy Apostles and in most Christian Authors since the times they lived in though with some difference or variety rather in the application to their purposes But antiently it was of a larger extent by far and signified any Publick meeting of Citizens for the dispatch of business and affairs of State For so Thucidides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the Assembly being formed the different parties fell upon their disputes and so doth Aristophanes use it in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That the people should now give the Thracians a Publick meeting in their Guild-hal or Common forum of the City St. Luke who understood the true propriety as well as the best Critick of them all gives it in this sense also Acts 19.32 where speaking of the tumult which was raised at Ephesus he telleth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Assembly was confused And in the 26. Psal. Ecclesia malignantium is used for the Congregation of ungodly men APPLICATION BUt after Christ had given this name unto the Body of the Faithful which confessed his Name and the Apostles in their writings had applied it so as to make it a word of Ecclesiastical use and notion the Fathers in the following Ages did so appropriate the same to the state of
30. And in his Regulae Compend Respons 310. St. Ierom in 1 Cor. St. Chrysostom also on the place Theodoret Theophylact and Oecumenius on the same Text also Nor is the word so used onely in the best Christian Writers but did admit also of the same signification amongst the best learned and most critical of the Heathen Greeks Of whom take Lucian for a taste who speaking of the adorning of the Court or Senate-house expresseth the place it self by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot possibly be meant of the men that met but of the place of the Assembly A thing which here I had not noted because not pertinent to the sense of the present Article but onely to encounter with the peevish humor of our Modern Sectaries who will by no means yet yeeld the name of Churches to those sacred places but call them Steeple-houses in the way of scorn But to proceed the word Ecclesia or Church in the Genuine sense as it denotes the Body Collective of Gods Servants since the coming of Christ is variously taken in the Book of God and also in the Writings of the purest times For first it signifieth a particular Congregation of men assembled together in some certain and determinate place for Gods publick service In this sense it is taken in those several Texts where St. Paul speaketh of the Church in the house of Nymphas Col. 4.15 To the Church in the house of Philemon Vers. 5. The Church which was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla Rom. 16. and 1 Cor. 16.19 I know that this is commonly expounded of their private Families as if the house and family of each Faithful Christian were in St. Pauls esteem reputed for a Church of Christ. But herein I prefer Mr. Medes opinion before all men else who understands those words of the Congregation of Saints which were wont to assemble at such houses for the performance of Divine Duties it being not unusual with some principal Christians in those early days to dedicate or set apart some private place within their own houses for the residue of the Church to assemble in And this he proveth first from the singularity of the expression which must needs include somewhat more than ordinary somewhat which was not common to the rest of the Saints whom St. Paul salutes in his Epistles For in so large a Bedrol as is made in the last to the Romans it is very probable that many if not most of them were Masters of Families and then must all their Families be Churches too as well as that of Aquila and Priscilla or else we must finde some other meaning of the words than that which hath hitherto been delivered Secondly Had St. Paul intended by those words The Church which is in their house nothing but the Family of Nymphas Philemon and the rest we should have found it put in the same expression which he doth elswhere use on the same occasion as viz. The houshold of Aristobulus the houshold of Narcissus Rom. 16.10 11. The houshold of Onesiphorus 2 Tim. 4.19 Patrobas Hermes and the Brethren which are with them Rom. 16.14 Nereus and Olympas and all the Saints which are with them Vers. 15. The difference of expressions makes a different case of it and plainly doth conclude in my apprehension That by the Church in such an house the Apostle meaneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church assembled at such houses as he there expounds it And though he cite no antient Author to confirm him in this opinion but Oecumenius and he none of the antientest neither Yet in a matter of this nature I may say of him as Maldonat doth of Euthymius in a greater point whose single judgement he preferreth before all the rest of the Fathers viz. Quem minorem licet solum autorem verisimilia tamen dicentem quam plures majoresque illos sequi malo But to proceed unto the other acceptions of the word Ecclesia it is also used to signifie in holy Scripture The Church of some City with the Region or Country round about it a National or Provincial Church under the Government of one or many Bishops and subordinate Ministers as the Churches of the Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Thessalonians Romans and the rest mentioned in the Acts and St. Pauls Epistles Thirdly It is also used to signifie not the Church it self or the whole Body of the people of a City or Province agreeing in the Faith of Christ but for the principal Officers and Rulers of it such as possess the place of Iudicature in the Court or Consistory In this sense it is used in the 18 of Matthew where the party wronged and able to get no remedy otherwise is willed by Christ to tell the Church that is to say to make his complaint to them who having the chief place and power in Spiritual matters are able to compel the wrong-doer to make satisfaction by menacing and inflicting the Churches Censures Tell the Church That is saith Chrysostom the Prelates and Pastors of the Church who have the power of binding and loosing such offenders which is mentioned in the verse next following And in this sense the name of Church became appropriated to the Clergy in the latter times and hath been used to signifie the State Ecclesiastick Ecclesiae nomen ad Clerum solere restringi as Gerson noted in his time not without regret as being men most versed in the Church affairs And lastly it is used for the Body Collective or Diffusive of the people of God made up of several Congregations States and Nations consisting both of Priests and People of men as well under as in Authority In this respect Christ is said to be the head of the Church Eph. 5.23 The husband of the Church V. 32. To love his Church and to give himself for his Church V. 25. That is to say not onely of a National or Provincial Church and much less of a Congregational onely but of the Universal Church which consists of all dispersed and distressed over all the World And this we do define to be the whole Congregation of Christian people called by the grace and goodness of Almighty God to a participation of his Word and Sacraments and other outward means of eternal life This Universal Church being thus found out is represented to us in the present Article by two marks or characters by which she is to be discerned from such Publick meetings which otherwise might claim that title Of which the one denotes the generality of extent and latitude and is that of Catholick by which it is distinguished from the Iewish Synagogue being shut up in the bounds of that Country onely and from the private Conventicles of Schismatical persons The other doth express the quality of the whole compositum by the piety and integrity of its several members and is that of Holy by which it is distinguished from the Assemblies of ungodly men from the
it a greater condemnation to our selves than men were aware of So could I wish the like Caution in all others also lest unawares they utterly exclude themselves out of Christianity For as Pope Gregory the first said unto some of the Bishops of his time concerning the Patriarch of Constantinople who had then took unto himself the title of Oecumenical or Vniversal Bishop viz. Si ille universalis or which is the same Catholicus est restat ut vos non sitis Episcopi so may we also say in the present case if we once grant them to be Catholickâ— we thereby do conclude our selves to be no Christians or at best but Hereticks Christian perhaps they have no fancy to be called the name of Christian in most parts of Italy being grown so despicable that Fool and Christian in a manner are become Synonyma Italico Idiomate per Christianum hominem stupidum stolidum solent intelligere as Hospinian tells us from the mouth of one Christian Franken who had lived amongst them Since then they have no minde to be called Christians nor reason to be called Catholicks let us call them as they are by the name of Papists considering their dependance on the Popes decision for all points of Faith And possibly we may gratifie them as much in this as if we did permit them the name of Catholicks For Bellarmine seems very much delighted with the Appellation flattering himself that he can bring in Christ our most blessed Saviour within the Catalogue of Popes and that he hath found a Prophecy in St. Chrysostom to this effect Quandoque nos Papistas vocandos esse That Papist in the times then following should be the stile and title of a true Professor Great pity it is but he and his should have the honor of their own discovery and Papists let them be since the same so pleaseth Now as the Papists make ill use of the name of Catholick so do their opposite faction in the Church of Christ conclude as falsly and erroneously from the title of Holy The Church is called Holy and is called so justly because it trains men up in the ways of godliness because it is so in its most eminent and more noble parts whom God hath sanctified by the Graces of his holy Spirit and finally because redeemed by the blood of Christ to the intent that all the faithful Members of it being by him delivered from the hands of their enemies might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives Not holy in the sense of Corah and his factious complices who made all the Congregation holy and all holy alike nor holy in the sense of some Antient and Modern Sectary who fancy to themselves a Church without spot or wrinkle a Church wherein there are no vessels of wrath but election onely and where they finde not such a Church they desert it instantly for fear they should partake of the sins and wickednesses which they observe to be in some Members of it Our Saviour Christ who better knew the temper of his Church than so compares the same in holy Scripture to a threshing floor in which there is both Wheat and chaff and to a fold wherein there are both Sheep and Goats and to a casting net which being thrown into the Sea drew up all kinde of Fishes both good and bad and to an house in which there are not onely vessels of honor as Gold and Silver but also of dishonor and for unclean uses and to a field in which besides the good Seed which the Lord had sown Infelix lolium steriles dominantur avenae the enemy had sowed his Tares In all and every one of which heavenly Parables our Saviour represented unto his Disciples and in them to us the true condition of his Church to the end of the world in which the wicked person and the righteous man are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here In which erroneous doctrines are so mixt with truth that it can never be so perfectly reserved and purified but errors and corruptions will break out upon it Perplexae sunt istae duae civitates in hoc seculo invicemque permistae saith the great St. Augustine The City of the Lord and the City of Satan are so intermingled in this world that there is little hope to see them separated till the day of judgement Though the foundation of the Church be of precious stones yet there is wood and hay and stubble in her superstructures and those so interwoven and built up together that nothing but a fatal fire is of power to part them I mean the fire of conflagration not of Popish Purgatory Were it not thus we need not pray to God for the good estate of the Church Militant here on Earth but glory as in the Triumphant as they do in Heaven And yet the Church is counted Holy and called Catholick still this intermixture notwithstanding Catholick in regard of time place and persons in and by which the Gospel of our Saviour Christ is professed and propagated Holy secundùm nobiliores ejus partes in reference to the Saints departed and those who are most eminent for grace and piety And it is called Ecclesia una one holy Catholick and Apostolick Church though part thereof be Militant here upon the Earth and part Triumphant in the Heavens The same one Church in this World and in that â—o come The difference is that here it is imperfect mixt of good and bad there perfect and consisting of the righteous onely Accordingly it is determined by St. Augustine Eandem ipsam unam Sanctam Ecclesiam nunc habere malos mixtos tunc non habituram For then and not till then as Ierom Augustine and others do expound the place shall Christ present her to himself a most glorious Church without spot or wrinkle and marry her to himself for ever Till that day come it is not to be hoped or looked for but that many Hypocrites False Teachers and Licentious livers will shroud themselves under the shelter of the Church and pass for Members of it in the eye of men though not accounted such in the sight of God The eye of man can possibly discern no further than the outward shew and mark who joyn themselves to the Congregation to hear the Word of God and receive his Sacraments Dominus novit qui sunt sui The Lord knows onely who are his and who are those occulti intus whose hearts stand fast in his Commandments and carefully possess their Souls in Truth and Godliness And yet some men there are as there have been formerly who fancy to themselves a Church in this present world without spot or wrinkle and dream of such a Field as contains no Tares of such an House as hath no Vessels but of honor sanctified and prepared for the Masters use The Cathari in
the East the Donatist in the South and the Novatians in the West who made one Faction onely though of several names were antiently of this opinion and set up Churches of their own of the New Edition For flattering themselves with a conceit of their own dear sanctity they thought themselves too pure and pious to joyn in any act of worship with more sober Christians and presently confined the Church which before was Catholick to their own private Conventicles and to them alone or intra partem Donati as they pleased to phrase it Who have succeeded them of late both in their factions and their follies too we all know full well The present ruptures in this State do declare most evidently that here is Pars Donati now as before in Africa A frenzy which gave great offence to the Antient Fathers who labored both by Speech and Pen to correct their insolencies and of such scandal to the Churches of the Reformation that Calvin though a ridged man and one inclinable enough unto new opinions did confute their dotages and publickly expose them to contempt and scorn The Antients and the Moderns both have agreed on this That though the Church of Christ be imperfect always and may be sometimes faulty also yet are not men to separate themselves so rashly from her Communion or make a rupture for poor trifles in the Body Mystical It argueth little Faith and less Charity saith renowned Cyprian if when we see some Errors in the Church of God De ecclesia ipsi recedamus we presently withdraw our selves and forsake her fellowship And here we might bring in St. Augustine and almost all the Fathers to confirm this point but that they are of no authority with the captious Schismatick and now of late disclaimed by our neater wits Therefore for further satisfaction of the stubborn Donatist we will behold the Constitution of the Church in the Book of God and take a view of the chief Types and Fortunes of it to see if we can finde there such a spotless Church as they vainly dream of In Adams family which was the first both Type and Seminary of the Church of God there was a Cain a murderer that slew his brother Amongst the Sons of God in the time of Noah how many that betook themselves to the daughters of men and in Noahs Ark the next and perhaps the greatest a Cham which wretchedly betrayed the nakedness of his aged father In Abraham's house there was an Ishmael that mocked at Isaac though the heir and the heir of promise in Isaac's a prophane Esau that made his belly his God and sold Heaven for a break-fast in Iacob's there were Simeon and Levi Brethren in evil besides a Reuben who defiled his old Fathers Bed And in the Church of Israel when more large and populous how many were mad upon the worship of the Golden Calf more mad in offering up their sons to the Idol Moloch Thousands which bowed the knee to Baal Ten thousands which did sacrifice in the Groves and prohibited places yet all this while a Church a true Visible Church with which the Saints and Prophets joyned in Gods publick worship Let us next look upon the Gospel and we shall finde that when the bounds thereof were so strait and narrow that there were few more visible Members of it than the Twelve Apostles yet amongst them there was a Iudas that betrayed his Master When it began to spread and enlarge it self to the number of One hundred and twenty there were among them some half Christians such as Nicodemus who durst not openly profess the Gospel but came unto the Lord by night and some false Christians such as Demas who out of an affection to the present world forsook both the Apostle and the Gospel too She then increased to such a multitude that they were fain to choose seven subordinate Ministers the better to advance the work and one of them will be that Nicholas the founder of the Nicolaitan Hereticks whom the Lord abhorred Follow it out of Iewry into Samaria and there we finde a Simon Magus as formal a Professor as the best amongst them and yet so full of the gall of bitterness within that Ignatius in plain terms calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first-born of the Devil Trace it in all the progress of it thorow Greece and Asia and we shall see the factiousness of the Corinthians the foolishness of the Galatians and six of the seven Asian Churches taxed with deadly sin Good God into what corner of the Earth will the Donatist run to finde a Church without corruption free from sin and error It must be sure into the old Utopias or the new Atlantis or some Fools Paradise of their own in terra incognita unless as Constantine once said unto Acesius a Novatian Bishop b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they can erect a Ladder of their own devising and so climb up into the Heavens Whilest they are here upon the Earth they have no such hopes and do but fool themselves in the expectation The chief occasion of these Errors which the two opposite Factions in the Church of Christ have thus faln into is a mistake of the right constitution of the members of it For those of Rome condemning all the Protestant party for Hereticks and the Eastern Churches for Schismatical and then excluding Hereticks and Schismaticks from being any members of the Church at all not onely appropriate to themselves the name of Catholick but consequently confine the Church within their Communion And on the other side the Donatist and their Modern followers out of the dear affection which they bear themselves first make the Church to consist of none but the Elect and none to be Elect but those who joyn fellowship with them and so by the same necessary consequence have confined the Church within the Walls or Curtains of their private Conventicles Both faulty and both grounding their unsound Conclusions upon as false and faulty principles For taking it for granted first which will never be yeilded by us nor made good by them that both the Christians of the East are Schismaticks and the Protestants of the North are no better then Hereticks yet are they not presently to be cut off from being any Members of the Church at all as Bellarmine and others of the Church of Rome have been pleased to say A Schismatick in the true meaning of the word is he Who holding an entire profession of the truth of God and joyning with the Church in all points of doctrine do break the peace thereof and disturb the order by refusing to submit themselves to their lawful Pastors and yeild obedience to her power in external matters If he stay there and withal fall not into manifest Heresie and set on foot some new Opinion as most Schismaticks have used to do the better to justifie themselves in their separation so
become so monstrous that it is grown bigger than all the rest of the Body For do not his own Canonists say that the Pope hath power of both the Swords that Christ committed to St. Peter and in him to them Terreni coelestis imperii jura The rights both of the Earthly and Heavenly Kingdoms Was it not openly affirmed in the Council of Lateran In Papa esse omnem potestatem c That in the Pope there was vested an authority over all powers both in Heaven and Earth And in pursuance of this power have they not frequently deposed Kings absolved the Subjects of the Oaths of Allegiance and disposed of Kingdoms till at last his Parasites came to broach this Tenet Papam esse verum Dominum temporalium ita ut possit auferre ab alio quod alias suum est c. That is to say That the Pope onely is the true and direct Lord of all Temporal States so that he may deprive whom he will of his estate without any remedy All Bishops and Princes whatsoever not being the Proprietaries of their own estates but Bailiffs and Stewards under him Thus also in Spiritual matters do they not teach that the whole World is his Diocess that he is Ordinarius omnium hominum and Episcopus totius orbis the ordinary Judge of all mankinde and Bishop of the whole world and that being thus possessed of this general Bishoprick Omnes Episcopi descendunt à Papa quasi membra à Capitè de plenitudine ejus omnes recipiunt All Bishops derive their power from him as the Body doth motion from the Head and that of his fulness they have all received That if the Pope should teach as he may and doth Virtutes esse vitia vitia esse virtuâ—es That vertue is vice and vice vertue we were bound to believe him And more than so That what crime soever he commit he is not to be censured or condemned for it Nec à Concilio nec à tota Ecclesia nec à toto mundo neither by a Council nor by all the Church together nor the whole World neither So privileged in a word he is that as one of them saith Si Papa innumerabiles populos catervatim secum ducat mancipio Gehennae c. If the Pope draw infinite companies of people with himself to Hell yet must no mortal man presume to reprove him for it Why so The Reason is most plain and evident Quia Papa Christus unum faciunt Consistorium because the Pope and Christ conjunct do but make one Consistory and consequently it must be as great a Sacrilege to question the acts of the Pope as those of Christ. We see by this to what a monstrous greatness this Head is grown how unproportionable to the Body his own Creatures make him And yet he is not onely greater than all the Body but he is all the Body too the Pope and Church being grown to be Terms and Convertible For so saith Gregory de Valentia Per ecclesiam caput ejus intelligimus c By the Church we mean her head and by that the Pope Dominicus Bannes affirms the same Pro eodem omnino reputatur autoritas ecclesiae universalis autoritas summi pontificis The authority of the Pope and that of the Universal Church is altogether the same The whole authority of the Church abideth in him saith Thomas Aquinas It remains all in him saith Silvester another of their principal Schoolmen Bellarmine is more plain than any Papa potest dicere ecclesiae i. e. sibi ipsi The Pope saith he may tell the Church that is himself His meaning is That lest the Pope should want Remedy when offence is given him he may be Judge in his own cause and on complaint unto himself see the matter mended But this he learnt of Innocent the Third Pope of that name who challenged to himself the cognizance of some points in difference between King Philip of France and Iohn King of England because it is written in the Gospel Dic ecclesiae as I have read in some good Author but cannot call to minde in whom Never did Text of Scripture meet with two such learned Glossaries never was Pope and Cardinal better matched nor need I adde more in so clear a case unless it be that commonly they call the Pope Virtualem Ecclesiam or the Vertual Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek because what power soever doth of right belong to the Body Collective of Christs Church the Church Essential as they term it is vertually contained in his person onely Me thinks it might have been enough for a single man to have been counted onely for a Chapel of Ease But such is the ambition of the Pope of Rome that unless he may be taken for the Catholick Church he passeth not for being reckoned for a Church at all And yet this of the two is the lovelier Error Better the Church be all head than no head at all And such a Church that is all body and no head at all have some of our Reformers modelled in their later Platforms The Presbyterian Party first began this Monster which those of the Independent way have now fully perfected The Presbyterian Form being hatched in a popular state but such as did acknowledge a supream command in the great Council of that City first make all Ministers equal amongst themselves and then associate with each Minister two or more Lay-Elders whom they invest joyntly with all manner of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction which antiently and of right did belong to Bishops But this Presbytery thus constituted is not so supream but that it is accomptable to the Classis within which it is as that unto the Provincial Assembly and all unto that National Meeting which being made of the Deputed Ministers and Lay-Elders out of each Presbytery hath the name of General not such a General Assembly as St. Paul speaks of though possibly the name may allude to that For neither are they the Church of the first-born nor all of them at all times of the number of those whose names are written in the Heavens But let them call it what they will they have given us such a Model of Church-Government as was not known amongst the Antients and made it in effect but an headless body The Ruling Members being all equal in themselves and yet so Heterogeneous in the whole Compositum that the greatest part thereof are men of inferior quality men of Shops and Trades and consequently uncapable of Spiritual Powers Which if it do not make the Church to be all Body doth yet come very near it to a Tantamount But what the Presbyterians wanted to compleat this Monster hath since been added by the Brethren of the Independency who living in the waste and deserts of New England where every man was a king in his own opinion and had so much of Caesar in him
as to brook no Superior fitted the Government of those Congregations which they called the Churches according unto that equality and want of order which they had been accustomed to in Civil matters For in their Platform every Congregation whether little or great is absolute in it self and independent of any other having in it self a supream Authority of exercising Ecclesiastical Powers and Spiritual Faculties without any reference or appeal in point of grievance And in the exercising of those powers and faculties every Member of the Congregation whether poor or rich as they are all concerned are all equally interessed And for the Ministration of the Word and other Ordinances for I think they do not call them Sacraments though many times they do set a part some particular persons yet do they not exclude any man of what rank soever from exercising of his gift as the Spirit moves him In this quite contrary to the Fathers of the Presbytery who though they do so dearly affect a parity amongst the Ministers themselves yet do they suffer none to perform that Office but such as have an outward calling by giving them the hands of fellowship Which Ceremony they conceive savors more of parity than that of the imposition of hands used in Ordinations And though each Presbyter and Presbytery too stand in equal rank and equipage with one another yet in relation to their Meetings or Bodies aggregate they do allow of sub and supra the Presbytery being subordinate unto the Classis as the Classis is to the Provincial and that to the General Assembly from which lieth no appeal in what case soever But so it is not with the Brethren of the Independency every particular Member of their Congregations being permitted to Preach and expound the Scripture according to the measure of the gift which is given unto him So that if Ierome were alive he might most justly make complaint of that foul disorder which some began to practise in those early days but was never so much in request as amongst this people Whereas saith he all other Arts and Mysteries have their peculiar Artists and distinct Professors Sola Scripturarum ars est quam omnes passim sibi vendicant onely the Art of Preaching and Expounding Scripture is usurped by all men For this saith he each weak old man and taâ—ling gossip for we have Women Preachers too in these Congregations and each wrangling Sophister every man in a word doth intrench upon and take upon them to teach others what they did never learn themselves Some with a supercilious look speak big and dogmatize of holy Matters amongst silly women others learn that of women it is a shame to say it which afterwards they teach to men and some again with great variety of words and sufficient impudence do talk to others of those things which they understand not themselves A man would think St. Ierome were inspired with the Spirit of Prophecy and that he spake not of the frenzies of the former times but the distempers of the present And yet perhaps we have a better character of them especially as it relates to their way of Government in the old Acephali the Hereticks which had no head as their name doth signifie Of whom Nicephorus thus informeth us Acephali ob cam causam dicti sunt quod sub Episcopis non fuerint c The Acephali were so called saith he because they were not under Bishops and therefore neither did they minister Baptism according to the solemn and received Order of the Church nor celebrate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or any other Divine Office in the usual manner And because every man had liberty to adde unto the holy Faith what new points he pleased a very great number of Hereticks and Apostates did ensue upon it with whom the Church for a long time was perplexed and exercised Besides that great seditions and disorders did from hence arise the rascal rabble of that Sect pressing unto the Rails of the Altar threatning to fine the Priests and cast them out of their Churches with reproach and infamy if they presumed to mention the Authority of the General Council that of Chalcedon it is he means or to recite the names of those holy Fathers who were present at it So far and to this purpose he in which we may discern a great deal of the humor as well as we have found the name of our new Acephali But to proceed The Government of the Church not being Monarchical as our Masters in the Church of Rome would have it nor Democratical or Popular as the Fathers of the Presbytery and Brethren of the Independency have given it out both in their Practise and their Platforms it remains then that it must be Aristocratical And this indeed hath been the judgement of most pure Antiquity and verified in the practise of the happiest times For howsoever those of Rome do perswade themselves that Christ invested Peter with a Sovereign power over the rest of the Apostles yet generally the Fathers of the Primitive times have determined otherwise For so saith Origen Haec velut ad Petrum dicta sunt omnium communia Those things which seem spoken to St. Peter onely are common unto all the rest Thus Cyprian Hoc erant utique coeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consorti praediti potestatis honoris The rest of the Apostles were as much privileged as Peter and were all invested with a like proportion both of power and honor Thus Ierome also for the Latines the two great Writers of the African and Alexandrian Churches you have heard before Super Petrum fundatur Ecclesia c The Church is founded upon Peter but this is said in another place of the other Apostles all of which had the Keys of Heaven Et ex aequo super eos ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur and the foundation of the Church is setled equally on them all And thus St. Chrysostom for the Greeks Paul saith he had no need of Peter or stood in want of his voice or countenance Honore enim illi par erat ne quid dicam amplius but was his equal at the least that I say no more The like equality was maintained in the following times amongst the Bishops or chief Rulers in the Church of Christ. For being Successors unto the Apostles in the Publick Government though not in their extraordinary power as they were Apostles whereof we shall speak more anone they had no reason to pretend superiority over one another which none of the Apostles could lay claim unto Of this equality of the Bishops doth St. Ierom speak and it is indeed an evidence beyond all exception Vbicunque fuerit Episcopus sive Eugubii sive Constantinopli sive Alexandriae sive Tanai ejusdem meriti ejusdem est Sacerdotiâ— Potentia divitiarum paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit Coeterum omnes Apostolorum
in several ranks appointing unto every rank the course of his ministery composing Psalms and Hymns to the praise of God prescribing how they should be sung with what kind of instrument and ordering with what vestments the Singing-men should be arayed in the act of their service We shall there finde the Feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai who then possessed the place of a Prince among them and that of the Dedication by the Princes of the Maccabean progeny yet both religiously observed in all times succeeding this last by Christ himself as the Gospel telleth us We shall there finde how Moses broke in peeces the Golden Calf and Hezekiah the Brazen Serpent how the high places were destroyed and the groves cut down by the command of Iehosaphat and what a Reformation was made in the Church of Iudah by the good King Iosiah Finally we shall therein finde how Aaron the High Priest was reproved by Moses Abiathar deposed by Solomon the arrogancy of the Priests restrained by Ioas Such power as this the godly Princes of the Iews did exercise by the Lords appointment to the glory of Almighty God and their own great honor If they took more than this upon them and medled as Vzziah did in offering incense which did of right belong to the Priests office A Leprosie shall stick upon him till the hour of his death nor shall he have a sepulchre amongst the rest of the Kings And such and none but such is that supream power which we ascribe unto the King in the Church of England The Papists if they please may put a scorn on Queen Elizabeth of most famous memory in saying Foeminam in Anglia esse caput ecclesiae that a woman was the head of the Church of England as once Bellarmine did and Calvin if he list may pick a quarrel with the Clergy of the times of King Henry the eighth as rash and inconsiderate men and not so onely but as guilty of the sin of blasphemy Erant enim blasphemi cum vocarunt eum summum caput ecclesiae sub Christo for giving to that King the title of Supream Head of the Church under Christ himself But Queen Elizabeth disclaimed all authority and power of ministring divine service in the Church of God as she declared in her Injunctions unto all Her Subjects And the Clergy in their Convocation Anno 1562. ascribe not to the Prince the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments nor any further power in matters which concern Religion than that onely Prerogative which was given by God himself to all godly Princes in the Holy Scriptures More than this as we do not give the Kings of England so less than this the Christian Emperors did not exercise in the Primitive times as might be made apparent by the Acts of Constantine and other godly Emperors in the times succeeding if it might stand with my design to pursue that Argument Take one for all this memorable passage in Socrates an old Ecclesiastical Historian who gives this Reason why he did intermix so much of the acts of Emperors with the affairs of holy Church viz. That from that time in which they first received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex illorum nutu perpendere visa sunt c The business of the Church did seem especially to depend on their will and pleasure insomuch as General Councils were summoned by them for the dispatch of such affairs as concerned Religion even in the main and fundamentals and other emergent occasions of the highest moment CHAP. III. Of the Invisibility and Infallibility of the Church of Christ And of the Churches power in Expounding Scripture Determining Controversies of the Faith and Ordaining Ceremonies BUt laying by those Matters of External Regiment we will look next on those which are more intrinsecal both to the nature of the Church and the present Article For when we say That we believe the Holy Catholick Church we do not mean That we do onely believe that there is a Church upon the Earth which for the latitude thereof may be called Catholick and for the piety of the Professors may be counted Holy but also that we do believe that this Church is led by the Spirit of God into all necessary Truths and being so taught becomes our Schoolâ—mistress unto Christ by making us acquainted with his will and pleasure and therefore that we are to yeeld obedience unto her Decisions determining according to the Word of God This is the sum of that which we believe in the present Artiâ—le more than the quod sit of the same which we have looked upon in the former Chapter and to the disquisition of these points we shall now proceed A matter very necessary as the world now goes in which so many Schisms and Factions do distract mens mindes that Truth is in danger to be lost by too much curiosity in enquiring after it For as the most Reverend Father the late Lord Bishop of Canterbury very well observes Whiles one Faction cries up the Church above the Scripture and the other side the Scripture to the contempt and neglect of the Church which the Scripture it self teacheth men both to honor and obey They have so far endangered the belief of the one and the authority of the other That neither hath its due from a great part of men The Church commends the Scripture to us as the Word of God which she hath carefully preserved from the time of Moses to this day and so far we are willing to give credence to her as to believe that therein she hath done the duty of a faithful witness not giving testimony to any supposititious or corrupted Text but to that onely which doth carry the impressions in it of the Image and Divine Character of the Spirit of God But if a difference do arise about the sense and meaning of this very Scripture or any controversie do break forth on the mis-understanding of it or the applying and perverting it to mens private purposes which is the general source and fountain of all Sects and Heresies we will not therein hearken to the voice of the Church but every man will be a Church to himself and follow the Dictamen or the illumination as they please to call it of their private Spirit It therefore was good counsel of a learned man of our own Not to indulge too much to our own affections or trust too much unto the strength of a single judgment in the controverted points of Faith but rather to relie on the authority and judgment of the Church therein For seeing saith he that the Controversies of Religion in our time are grown in number so many and in nature so intricate that few have time and leasure and fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which of all the Societies of men in
be invisible And so it is also in those two instances which the Patrons of this invisibility have pitched upon since the times of the Gospel the one being in the prevalency of the Arian Heresie the other in the predominancy of Popish Superstition For the first it is alleged out of St. Ierom Ingemuit mundus se Arianum esse miratus est That the world groaned under the burden of that Heresie and wondred how she was become so wholly Arian But this admits of such a qualification and restriction as utterly overthroweth the thoughts of invisibility For that which Ierom calls Mundus or the whole world generally in Lerinensis is but orbis penè totus almost all the world Arianorum venenum non jam portiunculam quandam sed orbem pene totum contaminaverat The Arian poyson saith that Author had not onely envenomed a small part or portion but almost all the world it self And that which Lerinensis calls orbem pene totum almost all the world was onely almost all that part of the world which was under the command and power of the Roman Emperors Costerius in his Notes on Lerinensis doth expound him so saying Adeo incredibiles fuisse impietatis hujus successus ut omnes fere Romani imperii Ecclesias haec lues pervaserit And to this Exposition that of Gregorius Presbyter who wrote the life of Gregory Nazianzen gives a great deal of light who attributes the spreading of that powerful Heresie unto the countenance it had from some of those Emperors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who labored with might and main to promote the same so that the growth and spreading of the Arrian Heresie was neither over all the world nor almost all the world but onely over almost all the Churches in the Roman Empire and that but for the time onely when Constantius and Valens did possess the Throne There were then many Christian Churches in Persia India Aethiopia where neither Valens nor Constantius were of any power and many Catholick Bishops in France Egypt Italy and consequently Catholick Churches also to which an Orthodox Professor might have had recourse for the worship of God according to the prescript of his holy Word And though the Arian Heresie both for time and place was more diffused and longer-lived than any other whatsoever in the Church of Christ yet neither did it over-spread the whole face of the Church or made it for the time invisible to discerning eyes nor by denying the consubstantiality of persons in the holy Trinity did they so abjure the Christian Faith as not to be accounted Christians though defiled with Heresie by their greatest enemies The Orthodox Professors so esteemed them reckoning their Bishops Priests and Deacons to be lawfully called their Sacraments to be lawfully ministred by them their Forms of Divine worship nothing different from the rest of the Church except in the Doxology onely And if they did proceed against them in the way of punishment it was not as they were no Christians but as Arian Hereticks And on the other side holding entire all other points of Christian Faith and scrupling onely against that because they found it not in terminis in the holy Scriptures the Gentiles amongst whom they lived in the out-parts of the Empire persecuted them as they did the rest who professed the Gospel with fire and sword and put them unto grievous deaths insomuch as suffering for the Christian Faith not the Arian Heresie some of them had the honor to be counted Martyrs even by the Catholicks themselves Ita ut non-nulli ex Ariana secta Martyres fierent as it is in Socrates But the main difficulty doth relate to that space of time in which the power and superstition of the Church of Rome carried all before it and in relation unto that the Fautors of the Churches invisibility have most beat their brains For not being able when put to it by their Romish Adversaries to finde a Church agreeing in all points with the Protestant Tenets before Luthers time they betook themselves to this as their surest refuge That the Church was many times invisible and so had been immediately in the time before them Thus Luther pleased to place the Church in quibusdam reliquiis in a certain remnant of men whom the world took no heed of who were indeed the people and the Church of God though not so accounted And Calvin hides the same in uncertain corners where God did wonderfully preserve it from the sight of men Et mirabiliter Ecclesiam suam tanquam in latebris servasse as his own words are But this not giving satisfaction to the common Adversary who press upon us with this Question Where was your Church before Luther a pedegree thereof was fetched from Wicliff Hus the Albigenses the Pauperes de Lugduno and I know not whom who in their several times and ages had publickly opposed some errors and corruptions in the Church of Rome and thereby drew upon themselves the hatred of the Roman Clergy And by this means it was conceived That a perpetual visibility of the Protestant Churches might be fairly proved the fancy of an invisible Church beginning to grow out of credit with most sorts of men especially considering that besides the opposition made by those before remembred Clemangius Armachanus Lincolniensis had severally inveighed against the pride and vices of the Court of Rome and that there were many things also in the Church it self whereof St. Bernard and Pope Adrian wished a Reformation But this in my opinion will not do the deed For neither did Clemangius Armachanus or the rest that follow withdraw themselves from the Communion of the Church of Rome or if they had they did not thereby make themselves a distinct Church from it and least of all a Church agreeing in all points perhaps not in any with those which are defended in the Protestant Schools And as for Wicliff Hus and the Albigenses though they held some opinions which the Protestants do yet held they many others which the Protestants do not Some I am sure which are as much abominated by the Church of England as the extreamest dregs of the Church of Rome Nor can we prove the visibility of our Church from them from whom we neither receive our Baptism nor our Priesthood nor our Form of Worship nor any outward Rite and Ceremony nor any thing for ought I know by which we claim the name of a Christian Church Or if we did our visibility would fail us in those frequent intervals which were between Wicliff and the Hussites the Hussites and the Albigenses the Albigenses and the rest of those scattered companies from whom this goodly Pedegree is to be derived Whereof the one started up in England the other long before him in Bohemia the third in France and others in the Mountains of Italy not having a Succession from nor giving a Succession unto one another So that relinquishing
The word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be onely two or three witnesses to attest unto it Two or three Members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in the name of the rest and thereby save the whole from Error even as a King invaded by a forein enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof in time may regain it all The Body cannot properly be said to be wholly dead as long as any Member of it doth remain alive But in this storm raised by the Arians in the Church the Orthodox Professors had but one Error to encounter with and that discovered and opposed in the first rising of it The Church of Rome maintained so many and those promoted by such power and so subtile instruments that there was far more danger in the Mass of Popery than any single Errors in the times before yet never could they so prevail by their force or cunning but that their Errors were opposed in some Church or other and truth though banished in the West found hearty entertainment in the Eastern parts As for example The Popes Supremacy is and hath long been held at Rome as an Article of the Faith and a chief one too and held so ever since it was declared by Pope Boniface the Seventh Omnino esse de necessitate salutis omni humanae creaturae suâ—esse Romano Pontifici i. e. That it was altogether necessary to Salvation for every mortal man to be subject to the Bishops of Rome But this Supremacy was never acknowledged by the Greeks nor Muscovites nor by the Habbassines or Christians of Ethiopia nor by the Indian Churches neither till these latter days in which they have submitted to the Popes authority And in the West it self where the Pope most swayed it was continually opposed by the Albigenses the Hussites Wiclivists and others in their several times The Popes usurped a power over Kings and Princes and did not onely hold it as a matter practical but publickly maintained and taught as a doctrinal point But against this did all the Princes of the world oppose their power the French by the Pragmatical Sanction the English by the Statutes of Provisions and Praemuniri the German Emperors at once both by Sword and Pen as is apparent by the writing of Marsilius Patavinus Dante 's Occam and many others of those times whereof consult Goldastus in his Monarchia It pleased the Popes for politick and worldly ends to restrain the Clergy of that Church from marriage because that having Wives and Children they would be more obnoxious to their natural Princes and not depend so much as now on the See of Rome But on the other side the Greeks the Melchites and the Maronites which are names of several Churches of the East neither deny Ordination unto married men or force them to abstain from the use of their Wives when they are in Orders The Russes and Arminians admit none but married men into the Priesthood the Iacobites and Nestorians allow of second and third marriages in those of their Clergy as also do the Indians and Christians under Prâ—ster Iohn the Patriarck being first sued to for a dispensation In Germany when this yoke was first laid upon them by Pope Gregory the Seventh the Clergy generally opposed stiling that Pope Hominem plane haereticum vesani dogmatis an Arant Heretick and the Broacher of a mad opinion In Italy it was taught by Panormitanus Votum non esse de essentia Sacramenti That the vow of single life was not essential unto Orders How late it was before the Priests of England could be brought to forsake their Wives and what embroilments have been raised in the Church about it Henry of Huntingdon and others of our Antient Writers do declare at large Pope Innocent the Third first setled Transubstantiation in the Church of Rome a word not known unto the Fathers in the Primitive times nor any of the old Grammarians and Professors of the Latine tongue But the Armenians do reject it as an unsound Tenet and so as I conjecture did the Egyptian Maronite and the Habbassine Churches who neither do allow of the Reservation nor the Elevation of the Host as the Romanists call it which are the Pages or attendants of that Popish Error And in the Church of Rome it self it was opposed by Bertram Berengarius and Basilius Monachus as afterwards by the Pauperes de Lugduno the Albigenses Hussites Wiclivists and their descendents to the time when first Luther writ The taking of the Cup in the holy Sacrament from the Lay-Communicant and thereby sacrilegiously robbing him of the one half of his birth-right crept unawares upon the Church by a joynt negligence as it were both of Priest and People But so that it was still retained by the Eastern Churches claimed and accordingly enjoyed by the Albigenses and their followers and so tenaciously adhered unto by the Bohemians where the Hussites had their first original that in small time they got the names of Calistini and Sub utrâques from their participating of the Cup and communicating under both kindes when none else durst do it And this they did in so great numbers that Cochlaeus one of their greatest Adversaries relates that Thirty thousand of them did assemble together at one time to receive the Sacrament under both kindes The fire of Purgatory hath for a long time warmed the Popes Kitchin and kept the Pot boiling for the Monks and Friers But there is no such fire acknowledged by the Greeks and Moscovites nor by the Melchites Iacobites Armenian and Egyptian Christians nor by the Waldenses Hussites and their Descendents The Worshipping of Images hath not onely been practised but enjoyned by the Church of Rome ever since the second Nicene Council But the Christians of St. Thomas so they call the Indians admit no Images at all to be set up in their Churches The Grecians Moscovites and Ethiopians though they admit of Painted Images yet allow not of the Carved and forbid the worshipping of both The Church of Rome hath long time used Auricular Confession as a kinde of State-picklock and opening therewith the Cabinet-Counsels of the greatest Kings and laid it as a burden upon the conscience of the penitent sinner But the Nestorians and the Iacobites never did enjoyn it themselves or approved it in them that did And though the Greek Church still retains the use of Confession of the right use whereof we shall speak hereafter yet such a rigorous pressing of it as our Masters in the Church of Rome have been used unto they allow not of These are some few of many Errors which have been taught and patronized in the Church of Rome which yet were constantly opposed and condemned by others in the East and South As on the other side those Churches of the East and South and such
as in the West did gainsay the same had their several Errors which never could finde entertainment in the Church of Rome Insomuch as one might safely say of Theological truths as was once said of Philosophical viz. Though they may not possibly be found all at once together in a National or Particular Church yet they are all preserved in the Vniversal And it is the Vniversal Church or the Church Essential not any Topical Church whatever which is free from Error This being granted as I think it is proved sufficiently that the Church Essential cannot fall into any Error which is destructive of divine and salvifical truth We will next see whether and if at all how far this privilege may be extended to the Representative For being it is impossible for the whole Church the diffusive Body to meet together in one place for the composing of such Differences and suppressing such Heresies as may occasionally arise in some part thereof it hath been found expedient in all former ages to delegate some choice men out of the particulars which being met should represent the whole Body Collective and in the name of those that sent them agree amongst themselves what was fit to be done These Meetings were called General Councils Concilia à conciliando from reconciling and attoning such material differences as did disturb the publick peace and general in relation unto National and Provincial Councils assembled on occasions of more private nature From the Apostles times did this use continue Who on the dissention raised by some which came down from Iudea and mingled Circumcision and the Law of Moses with the Gospel of Christ did meet together to consider and determine of it And having resolved upon the point they sent their Decretory Epistle unto all the Churches requiring their obedience and conformity to that resolution which on debate amongst themselves and by the guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost had been made therein This as it was the first General Council of the Church of Christ so was it the model also of all those that followed and of this Council it is certain that it could not erre Partly because composed for the most part of the Lords Apostles but principally because guided and directed by the Spirit of Truth who had the supream managing of the Action But this we cannot say of those General Councils which after were assembled on the like occasions For though the Church essential might delegate her power unto those Commissioners whom she imployed at such Assemblies yet could she not also import her Privilege And for the Members who convened they neither were endued with a like measure of the Spirit as the Apostles were possessed of nor sure infallibly of such assistance from the Holy Ghost as he vouchsafed to them in that great affair and therefore could not warrantably presume of the like freedom from error which that first General Council might lay claim unto Augustine hath resolved it so against Cresconius Non debet se Ecclesia Christo praeponere cum ille semper veraciter judicet Ecclesiastici autem judices plerumque falluntur The Church saith he ought not to prefer her self before Christ i. e. Before Christ speaking in his Gospel considering that he always judgeth according to truth but Ecclesiastical Iudges being men are oft-times deceived And so it is resolved by the Church of England who hath declared That for as much as General Councils be Assemblies of men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometimes have erred in things appertaining unto God A possibility then there is in the judgment of the Church of England That General Councils may erre in the things of God whether in points of Faith or not there is nothing said For being the Conveners are no more than men men subject as all others are to Humane affections and byassed many times by their private interesses it cannot be but such a possibility may be well supposed And a declaration there is also that some General Councils have actually erred as did the second Nicene in the matter of Images for which it stands censured by the Bishops of France and Germany in the Synod held at Franckford under Charls the Great Which notwithstanding such and so sacred is the name of a General Council if truly such that is to say if it be lawfully called and rightly constituted That the determinations of it are not rashly to be set at nought or wilfully opposed or scornfully slighted it being the Supream Tribunal of Christ on Earth For since the Lord was pleased so graciously to promise That when two or three were gathered together in his name he would be in the midst of them It may be piously inferred in Pope Celestines words Cum nec tam brevi numero Spiritus defit quanto magis eum interesse credamus turbae convenientem in unum sanctorum If the Spirit saith he be not wanting to so small a number how much rather ought we to believe that he vouchsafes to be present with a great multitude of good and godly men convened together He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me said Christ himself also unto his Apostles and in them unto their Successors in his holy Ministery May it not piously be inferred from those words of Christ as did some of the Antients in an African Synod to be a very gross absurdity for a man to think That God would give an understanding and discerning Spirit to particular men Et sacerdotibus in Concilium congregatis denegare and not afford it to be a company of godly Bishops met together in counsel And reason good For as many eyes see more than one and the united judgments of learned men assembled together carry more authority in Natural or Political things than of some single persons onely so questionless the joynt prayers of many devout and godly men prevail more with God for the assistance of his Spirit in their consultations than any private man can chalenge or presume upon when points of Faith and matters appertaining to the service of God are to be debated Upon these grounds from the Apostles times to these the Church hath exercised a power in her Representatives of setling such affairs as concerned the publick whether it were that some new controversie did arise in the points of Faith or an emergent Heresie was to be suppressed or that some Text of holy-Scripture which Hereticks had wrested to their private ends was to be expounded or finally that the worshipping of God the Lord in the beauty of holiness did require it of them Nor was it onely exercised by the Church de facto but de jure too And so it is resolved by the Church of England in her Twentieth Article the first and last expresly the second upon strong and necessary consequence The Church hath power to decree Rites or
Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the Word of God neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed as necessary to salvation So stands the Article in the very Acts and Records of the Convocation An. 1562. where by the way the Book of Articles being Re-printed in Latine An. 1571. when the Puritan Faction did begin to shew it self in its colours the first clause touching the authority of the Church in Controversies of Faith and in Decreeing Rites and Ceremonies was clean omitted and stands so maimed in the Book called The Harmony of Confessions for the Protestant and Reformed Churches According to which false and corrupted Copies I know not by what indirect means or by whose procurement it was so Printed too at Oxon An. 1636. when the Grandees of that Faction did begin to put forth again But to proceed The Church or Body Collective of the people of God having devolved this Power on her Representatives doth thereby binde her self to stand to such Conclusions as by them are made till on the sight of any inconvenience which doth thence arise or upon notice of some irregularity in the form and manner of proceeding she do again assemble in a new Convention review the Acts agreed on in the former Meeting and rectifie what was amiss by the Word of God And this is that which St. Augustine averreth against the Donatists men apt enough to flie in the Churches face if any thing were concluded or agreed upon against their Tenets Concilia quae per singulas provincias fiunt plenariorum Conciliorum autoritati cedere ipsaque plenaria saepe priora à posterioribus emendari cum aliquo experimento aperitur quod clausum erat cognoscitur quod latebat Provincial Councils saith the Father ought to submit unto the General And of the Generals themselves the former are oftentimes corrected by some that follow when any thing is opened which before was shut or any truth made known which before was hidden For otherwise it was not lawful nor allowable to particular men to hold off from conformity to the publick Order which had been setled in the Church nor to make publick opposition unto her conclusions which as the late most Reverend Father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury very well resolves it Are with all submission to be observed by every Christian that is as he expounds himself in another place to have external obedience yeelded to it at least where Scripture or evident demonstration do not come against it And this hath been the judgment of the purest times and the practise of the best men for the times they lived in For thus said Constantine the Emperor to the point in hand Quicquid in sanctis Episcoporum Conciliis decernitur c Whatsoever is decreed in the holy Councils of Bishops ought wholly to be attributed to the Will of God More plainly Martianus Caesar Injuriam eos facere Reverendissimae Synodi judicio qui semel judicata in dubium vocent That they commit a great affront against the dignity and judgment of the most Reverend Council who shall presume to call in question what is there determined Which words of his are well enough allowed by Doctor Whitakers if understood of those things onely as they ought to be which are determined according to the Word of God St. Augustine to this purpose also Insolentissimae est insaniae c It is saith he an insolent madness for any man to dispute whether that be to be done or not which is determined to be done and therefore usually is done by the whole Catholick Church of Christ. St. Bernard also thus for the darker times Quae major superbia c What greater pride than that one man should prefer his own private judgment before the judgment of the Church Tanquam ipse solus Spiritum Dei habeat as if he onely were possessed of the Spirit of God And this holds also good in National and Provincial Councils which being the full Representative of the Church of that State or Nation hath power sufficient to compose such controversies as do arise amongst themselves and to require obedience of the Represented according to the limitations laid down before in the case of Oecumenical or General Councils The practise of all times and Nations make this plain enough in which many several Heresies have been concluded against as in that of Milevis wherein the Pelagians were condemned Anno 416. Matters of Faith have been resolved on as in the third of Toledo Anno 589. wherein many Anathemaes were thundred out against the Arians and finally Constitutions made for regulating the whole Body of Christian people in the worship of God as in the General Code of the African Councils Or were there no Record thereof in the times fore-going yet may we finde this power asserted in these later days and that by some of the most eminent Doctors of the Reformed Churches For the Divines of the Classis of Delph assembled amongst others in the Synod of Dort do declare expresly Ordinem nullum nullam pacem in Ecclesia Dei esse posse c That there would be no peace nor order in the Church of God if every man were suffered to Preach what he listed without being bound to render an accompt of his doctrine and submitting himself unto the judgment and determination of Synodical meetings Why so For if Paul and Barnabas say they being endued with the same Spirit as the rest of the Apostles were endued withal were content to go unto Ierusalem to know the judgment of the rest in the point then questioned Quanto aequius est ut Pastores alii qui Apostoli non sunt hujusmodi Synodicis Conventibus se subjiciant How much more fitting must it be for other Ministers which are no Apostles to captivate their own judgments unto that of a publick Synod Nor was the Synod it self less careful to provide for her own authority than the Delphenses were to promote the same And thereupon decreed in the close of all Abdicandos esse omnes ab officiis suis c That every man should be deprived as well of Ecclesiastical as Scholastical Offices who did not punctually submit to the Acts of the Synod and that no man should be admitted to the Ministery for the time to come who refused to subscribe unto the doctrine which was there declared and Preach according to the same And in pursuance of this final determination no fewer than Two hundred of the opposite party who did refuse to yeeld conformity to the Acts thereof were forthwith banished the
Countrey A Proclamation following in the Rear from the Civil Magistrate That no man should presume to afford them any help or maintenance during that miserable exile Whether this were not too severe I regard not here This is enough to shew that National or Provincial Councils do still claim a power in handling and determining controversies touching points of Faith and that they challenge an obedience to their Resolutions of all which live within the bounds of their jurisdiction without which all Synodical meetings were but vain and fruitless Nor hath the Church onely an especial power in determining of controversies raised within her according to the Word of God but so to explicate and interpret the Word of God that no controversie may arise about it for the time to come Four Offices there are which the Church performs in reference to the holy Scriptures The first Tabellionis of a Messenger or Letter-Carrier to convey it to us Quid enim est Scriptura tota nisi Epistola omnipotentis Dei ad Creaturam suam saith St. Gregory What else is the whole Scripture but a Letter or Epistle from Almighty God unto his Creature and by whose hands doth he convey this Letter to us but by the Ministery of his Church The next is Vindicis of a Champion to defend it in all times of danger from the attempts and machinations of malicious Hereticks and such corruptions of the Text as possibly enough might have crept into it in long tract of time The Iews since our Redeemers time had falsified some places of the Old Testament and expunged others which spake expresly of Christs coming Delentes namque literas inficiati sunt Scripturam as we finde in Chrysostom The like saith Athanasius of their falsifications Tam manifestis Scripturis de Christo Prophetiis excaecavit Satanas Judaeorum oculos c. Ut talia testimonia falsa Scriptione falsarent The Arians stand convicted of the like attempt who had expunged ou◠of all their Bibles these words of St. Iohn Deus est Spiritus Iohn 14.24 because they seemed to prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost and that not out of their own Bibles onely but out of the Publick Bibles also of the Church of Millain Et fortasse hoc etiam in oriente fecistis and probable enough it was that they had done the same in the Eastern Churches saith St. Ambrose of them But such a vigilant and careful eye did the Church keep over them that their corruptions were discovered and the Text restored again to its first integrity The like may also be affirmed of such corruptions as casually had crept into the Text of holy Scripture by the negligence of the Transcribers and mistakes of Printers Which the Church no sooner did observe as observe them she did but they were rectified by comparing them with such other Copies as still continued uncorrupted Of which St. Augustine telleth us thus Corrumpi non possunt c The Scriptures saith he cannot be corrupted because they are in the hands of so many persons And if any one hath dared to attempt the same Vetustiorum codicum collatione confutabatur he was confuted by comparing them with the elder Copies The third Office is Praeconis of a Publisher or Proclaimer of the Will of God revealed in Scripture by calling on the people diligently to peruse the same and carefully to believe and practise what is therein written And this is that whereof St. Augustine speaks in another place saying Non crederem Evangelio nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae moveret autoritas i. e. That he being then a Novice in the Schools of Christ had not given credit to the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholick Church had moved him to it The fourth and last Office is Interpretis of an Interpreter or Expounder of the Word of God which in many places are so hard to be understood that Ignorant and unstable men may and do often wrest them to their own destruction who therefore are to have recourse to the Priests of God whose lips preserve knowledge and from whose mouth the people are to take the explication of the Law of God But being it hapneth many times that the Priests and Ministers themselves do not agree upon the sense of holy Scripture and that no small disturbance hath been raised in the Church of Christ by reason of such different Interpretations as are made thereof every one making it to speak in favor of his own opinion the Body of the Church assembled in her Representatives hath the full power of making such Interpretation of the places controverted as may conclude all parties in her Exposition Both Protestants and Papists do agree in this not all but some of each side and no mean ones neither Sacrae Scripturae sensus nativus indubitatus ab Ecclesia Catholica est petendus so said Petrus à Soto for the Papist The proper and undoubted sense of the holy Scripture is to be sought saith he from the Catholick Church which is indeed the general opinion of the Roman Schools And to the same effect saith Luther for the Protestant Doctors De nullo privat◠homine nos certos esse habeant necne revelationem Patris Ecclesiam unam esse de qua non liceat dubitare We cannot be assured said he of private persons whether or not they have a revelation from the Father of Truth it is the Church alone whereof we need make no question Which words considering the temper of the man and how much he ascribed to his own spirit in expounding Scripture may serve instead of many testimonies from the Protestant Writers who look with reverence on him as the first Reformer This also was the judgment of the Antient Fathers St. Augustine thus We do uphold the truth of Scripture when we do that which the Vniversal Church commandeth recommended by the authority of holy Scripture And for as much as the Scriptures cannot deceive us a man that would not willingly erre in a point of such obscurity as that then in question ought to enquire the Churches judgment With him agrees St. Ambrose also who much commends the Emperor Gratian for referring the interpretation of a doubtful Text unto the judgment of his Bishops convened in Council Ecce quid statuit Imperator Noluit injuriam facere sacerdotibus ipsos interpretes constituit Episcopos Behold saith he what the good Christian Emperor did ordain therein Because he would not derogate from the power of the Bishops he made them the Interpreters Thus Innocent one of the Popes doth affirm in Gratian Facilius inveniri quod à pluribus senioribus quaeritur i. e. The meaning of the Scripture is soonest found when it is sought of many Presbyters or Elders convened together And reason good For seeing that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation because it came originally from such holy Men who spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost It is not subject to the humor of a private spirit but to be weighed and pondered by that publick Spirit which God hath given unto his Church which he hath promised to conduct in the ways of truth and to be with her always to the end of the world Not that we do exclude any private man from handling of the holy Scripture if he come sanctified and prepared for so great a work if he be lawfully ordained or called unto it and use such helps as are expedient and necessary to inform his judgment nor that we give the Church such a supream power as to change the sense and meaning of the holy Scriptures according as her self may vary from one opinion to another in the course of times This is indeed the monstrous Paradox of Cusanus who telleth us That the Scripture is fitted to the time and variously to be understood so that at one time it is expounded according to the present fancy of the Church and when that fancy is changed that then the sense of Scripture may be also changed and that when the Church doth change her judgment God doth change his also And this I call a monstrous Paradox as indeed it is in that it doth not onely assubject the truth of Scripture but even the God of truth himself to the Churches pleasure How much more piously hath the Church of England determined in it who though it do assert its own power in Expounding Scripture yet doth it with this wise and Religious Caution That the Church may not so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Within which bounds if she contain herself and restrain her power no doubt but she may use it to the honor of God the setling of a Publick Peace in all matters controverted and the content and satisfaction of all sober Christians The last part of the Churches power consists in the decreeing of Rites and Ceremonies for the more orderly officiating of Gods Publick service and the procuring of a greater measure of reverence to his holy Sacraments Of this she hath declared more fully in another place First In relation to it self to the Churches power viz. Every particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Next in relation to the people and their conformity That whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be openly reproved that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and woundeth the Consciences of the weaker Brethren Which Propositions are so evidently and demonstratively true according to the constant practise of approved Antiquity that he must wilfully oppose the whole Catholick Church and all the famous National Churches in the Primitive times who doth not chearfully and readily assent unto them For who can shew me any Council in the former Ages wherein some Orders were not made for regulating both the Priest and People in the worship of God wherein the Church did not require obedience to her Constitutions and on defect thereof proceeded not to some publick censure of the party He must be utterly ignorant of all Antiquity and the affairs of holy Church that makes doubt of this Nay of so high esteem were the Churches Ordinances in matters of exterior order in the service of God that they were deemed as binding as the word it self And so St. Augustine hath resolved it Iâ— iis rebus de quibus nihil statuit Scriptura mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege Dei tenenda sunt as he in his Epistle to Casulanus The customs of the Church and the institutes of our fore-fathers in things of which the Scriptures have determined nothing are to be reckoned and esteemed of as the Word of God Our Saviour by his own observing of the feast of Dedication being of Ecclesiastical institution and no more than so shewed plainly what esteem he had of the Churches Ordinances and how they were to be esteemed of by the sons of men And when St. Paul left this rule behinde him That all things be done decently and in order think we he did not give the Church authority to proceed accordingly and out of this one general Canon to make many particulars Certain I am that Calvin hath resolved it so and he no extraordinary friend to the Churches power Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires saith he is not to be done without prescribing Rules and Canons by which as by some certain Bonds both order and decorum may be kept together Paraeus yet more plainly and unto the purpose Facit Ecclesiae potestatem de ordine decoro Ecclesiastico liberè disponendi leges ferendi By this saith he doth the Apostle give authority to the Church of Corinth and in that to other Churches also of making Laws for the establishing of decency and order in the Church of Christ. And Musculus though he follow the citing of this Text by Eckius in justification of those unwarrantable Rites and Ceremonies Quibus Religionis nostrae puritas polluta esset with which the purity of Religion had been so defiled yet he allows it as a rule for the Church to go by Vt quae lâ—gitimè necessario gerenda sunt in Ecclesia That all those things which lawfully and necessarily may be done in the Church should be performed with decency and convenient order So that we see the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies in things that appertain to order decency and uniformity in Gods publick service and which is more a power of making Laws and Canons to inforce conformity to the same and that too which is most of all in the opinion of those men which were no great admirers of the Churches customs and looked not so much on the Primitive as the present times Nor is this onely the opinion of particular men but the declared judgment of the eldest Churches of the Reformation The Augustane Confession published in the name of all the Protestants and onely countenanced and allowed of by Imperial Edict not onely doth ordain those antient usages to be still retained in their Churches which conduce to decency and order in the service of God and may be kept in force without manifest sin But it resolves Peccare eos qui eum scandalo illos violant c. That they are guilty of sin who infringe the same and thereby rashly violate the peace of the Church And amongst those
by them retained are all the holy days and fasts observed in the Church of England kneeling at the Communion the Cross in Baptism a distinct kinde of habit for the Ministration and divers others which by retaining they declare to be free from sin but those men to be guilty both of sin and scandal who wilfully refuse to conform unto them The Bohemians in their Confession go as high as this Humanos ritus consuetudines quae nihil pietati adversantur in publicis conventibus servanda esse i. e. That all Rites and Customs of Humane or Ecclesiastical Institution which are not contrary unto Faith and Piety are still to be observed in the publick meetings of the Church And still say they we do retain many antient Ceremonies as prescribed Fasts Morning and Evening Prayer on all days of the week the Festivals of the Virgin Mary and the holy Apostles The Churches of the Zuinglian and Calvinian way as they have stript the Church of her antient Patrimony so have they utterly deprived her of her antient Customs not thinking their Religion plain enough till they left it naked nor themselves far enough from the pride of Rome till they had run away from all Primitive decency And yet the Switzers or Helvetian Churches which adhere to Zuinglius observe the Festivals of the Nativity Circumcision Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord and Saviour as also of the coming of the Holy Ghost And those of the Genevian platform though they have utterly exploded all the antient Ceremonies under the colour of removing Popish Superstitions yet they like well enough of others of their own devising and therefore do reserve a power as appears by Calvin of setling orders in their Churches to which the people shall be bound for he calls them by the name of vincula quaedam to conform accordingly By which we see that there hath been a fault on both sides in the point of Ceremonies the Church of Rome enjoyning some and indeed too many Quae pietati adversantur which were repugnant to the rules of Faith and Piety and therefore not to be retained without manifest sin as the Augustane and Bohemian Confessions do expresly say and the Genevians either having none at all or such as altogether differ from the antient Forms Against these two extreams I shall set two Rules whereof the one is given in terminis by the Church of England the other by an eminent and renowned Member of it The Church declares her self in the point of Ceremonies but addes withal That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the Word of God That makes directly against those of the Church of Rome who have obtruded many Ceremonies on the Church of Christ plainly repugnant to the Word and therefore not to be observed without deadly sin The other Rule is given by our Learned Andrews and that relates to those of the opposite faction Every Church saith he hath power to begin a custom and that custom power to binde her own children to it Provided that is the Rule that her private customs do not affront the general received by others the general Rites and Ceremonies of the Catholick Church which binding all may not be set light by any And this he doth infer from a Rule in the Mathematicks that Totum est majus sua parte that the whole is more considerable than any part and from another Rule in the Morals also that it is Turpis pars omnis toti non congrua an ugly and deformed part which agrees not with the whole So than according to the judgment of this Learned Prelate the customs of particular Churches have a power of binding so they run not cross against the general First Binding in regard of the outward man who if he wilfully refuse to conform unto them must though unwillingly submit to such pains and penalties as by the same power are ordained for those who contemn her Ordinances And they are binding too in regard of Conscience not that it is simply and absolutely sinful not to yeeld obedience or that the Makers of those Laws and Ordinances can command the Conscience Non ex sola legislatoris voluntate sed ex ipsa legum utilitate as it is well resolved by Stapleton but because the things which they command are of such a nature that not to yeeld obedience to them may be contrary unto Justice Charity and the desire we ought to have of procuring the common good of all men amongst whom we live of which our Conscience would accuse us in the sight of God who hath commanded us to obey the Magistrates or Governors whom he hath set over us in things not plainly contrary to his written Word To bring this business to an end in points of Faith and Moral Duties in Doctrines publickly proposed as necessary in the way of Salvation we say as did St. Ierom in another case Non credimus quia non legimus We dare not give admittance to it or make it any part of our Creed because we see no warrant for it in the Book of God In matters of exterior Order in the Worship of God we say as did the Fathers in the Nicene Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let antient customs be of force and prevail amongst us though we have no ground for it in the Scripture but this general warrant That all things be done decently and in order as St. Paul advised They that offend on either hand and either bring into the Church new Doctrines or cast out of the Church her antient and approved Ceremonies do violate that Communion of Saints which they ought to cherish and neither correspond with those in the Church Triumphant nor such as are alive in the Churches Militant Of which Communion of the Saints I am next to speak according to the course and method of the present Creed ARTICLE X. Of the Tenth Article OF THE CREED Ascribed to St. SIMON ZELOTES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sanctorum Communionem Remissionem peccatorum i. e. The Communion of Saints The forgiveness of Sins CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with Christ their Head Communion of Affections inferreth not a community of Goods and Fortunes Prayers to the Saints and Adoration of their Images an ill result of this Communion NExt to the clause touching the nature and authority of the Catholick Church followeth in order a recital of the principal benefits which are conferred upon the Members of that Mystical Body Two in this life and two in that which is to come Those in this life are first that most delightful Fellowship and Communion which the Saints have with one another and with Christ their Head and secondly That forgiveness and remission of all their sins as well actual as original which Christ hath purchased for them by his death and passion and by the Ministery
from the work of his Ministery should neither be named in the Offertory nor any prayer be made for him at the holy Altar Ne deprecatio aliqua nomine ejus in ecclesia frequentetur as his words there are To this effect we have this clause or prayer in St. Chrysostoms Liturgy Offerimus tibi rationalem hunc cultum pro iis qui in fide requiescunt majoribus scilicet Patribus Patriarchis Prophetis Apostolis Praeconibus Evangelistis Martyribus Confessoribus c We offer this reasonable sacrifice unto thee O Lord for all that rest in the Faith of Christ even for our Ancestors and Predecessors the Patriarcks Prophets and Apostles Evangelists Preachers Martyrs Confessors c. And finally to this end served the antient Diptychs being Tables of two leaves apeece in the one of which were the names of such famous Popes Princes and Prelates men renowned for piety as were still alive and in the other a like Catalogue of such famous men as were departed in the Faith as is observed by Iosephus Vice Comes in his Observat. Eccles. de Missae apparatu Tom. 4. l. 7. c. 17. and by Sir H. Spelman in his learned Glossary Out of these Diptychs did they use to repeat the names both of the living and the dead at the time of the Eucharist as appears plainly by that passage of the Fift Council of Constantinople In which we finde first That the people came together about the Altar to hear the Diptychs Tempore Diptychorum cucurrit omnis multitudo circumcirca Altare and then that recital being made of the four General Councils as also of the Arch-Bishops of blessed memory Leo Euphemius Macedonius and other persons of chief note who had departed in the Faith of our Saviour Christ the people with a loud voice made this acclamation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to thee O Lord. Not that it was the meaning of the antient Church to pray for the deliverance of their souls from Purgatory since they never thought them to be there but partly to preserve their memory in the mindes of the living and partly to pray for their deliverance from the power of death which doth yet tyrannize over the bodies of the faithful the hastning of their Resurrection and the joyful publick acquitting of them in that great day wherein they shall stand to be judged at the Tribunal of Christ. These were the ends for which the Offerings and Prayers for the dead were made Which being very consonant to the rules of piety found such a general entertainment in the Primitive times that none but Aërius and his followers disallowed the same Of him indeed it is reported by St. Augustine Illo cum suis Asseclis Sacrificium quod pro defunctis offertur respuebat that he and his followers admitted not of Sacrifices in behalf of the dead the Sacrifices he meaneth are of praise and prayer for which and others of his Heterodox and unsound opinions he was condemned for an Heretick by the antient Father and so remains upon record Concerning which take here along the judgment of Dr. Field once Dean of Glocester who speaking of Aërius and his Heterodox doctrines resolves it thus For this his rash and inconsiderate boldness and presumption in condemning the Vniversal Church of Christ he was justly condemned For howsoever we dislike the Popish manner of praying for the dead which is to deliver them out of their feigned Purgatory yet do we not reprehend the Primitive Church nor the Pastors and Guides of it for naming them in their publick prayers thereby to nourish their hope of the Resurrection and to express their longing desires of the consummation of their own and their happiness which are gone before them in the Faith of Christ What Bishop Andrews and Bishop Montague have affirmed herein we have seen before and seen by that and by the judgment of this Reverend and Learned Doctor That the Church of England is no enemy to the antient practise of praying for the dead in the time of the celebration of the holy Eucharist though on the apprehension of some inconveniences as her case then stood it was omitted in the second Liturgy of King Edward the sixt which is still in force But howsoever it was so omitted in the course of the Eucharist yet doth it still retain a place in our publick Liturgy and that in as significant terms as in any of the formulas of the Primitive times For in the Form of Burial Having given hearty thanks to Almighty God in that it hath pleased him to deliver that our Brother out of the miseries of this sinful world We pray That it would please him of his infinite goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his Elect and to hasten his Kingdom that we with that our Brother and all others departed in the true Faith of Gods holy name may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his eternal and everlasting glory But Prayers and Offerings for the dead as before was said are no proofs for Purgatory The Church of England which alloweth of prayer for the dead in her Publick Liturgy hath in her Publick Articles rejected Purgatory as a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the same The like do Montague of Norwich and the Dean of Glocester whose words we have before repeated and so doth Bishop Iewel the greatest ornament in his time of our Reformation And as for prayer for the dead saith he which you Dr. Harding say ye have received by tradition from the Apostles themselves notwithstanding it were granted to be true yet doth it not evermore import Purgatory Nor doth he onely say it but he proves it too For bringing in a prayer of St. Chrysostoms Liturgy in which there is not onely mention of the Patriarcks Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors but of the blessed Virgin her self he addes I trow ye will not conclude hereof that the Patriarcks Prophets Apostles c. and the blessed Virgin Mary were all in Purgatory Of the same judgment is the late renowned Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who telleth us That it is most certain that the antients had and gave other Reasons of prayer for the dead than freeing them out of Purgatory And this saith he is very learnedly and largely set down by the now learned Primate of Armagh Where we have the Primate of Armagh in the bargain too But what need such a search be made after the judgment and opinion of particular persons of the Church of England when it is manifest that the Greek Church at this day and almost all the Fathers of the Greek Church antiently though they admit of prayers for the dead yet believe no Purgatory Of which Alphonsus à Castro doth very ingenuously give this note De Purgatorio in antiquis Scriptoribus potissimum Graecis ferè nulla mentio est Qua de
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
expresly by St. Peter to the sorrowful and afflicted Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins By Ananias unto Saul Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord By Paul himself who had experimentally found the efficacy and fruit thereof in his own person That God according to his mercy hath saved us not by works of righteousness which we have done but by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and finally by St. Peter also That Baptism doth now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ This also was the judgment of the Antient Writers and that too long before the starting of the Pelagian Heresies to which much is ascribed by some as to the advancing of the efficacy and fruit of Baptism by succeeding Fathers For thus Tertullian Quotidiè nunc aquae populos conservant deleta morte per ablationem delictorum Exempto scilicet reatu eximitur poena Ita restituetur homo Deo ad similitudinem ejus qui retro ad imaginem Dei conditus fuerat Now saith he do the Waters daily preserve the people of God death being destroyed and overthrown by the washing away of sins for where the guilt is taken away there is the punishment remitted also St. Cyprian thus Remissio peccatorum sive per Baptismum sive per alia Sacramenta donetur propriè Spiritus Sancti est that is to say that the remission of sins whether given in Baptism or by any other of the Sacraments is properly to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost The African Fathers in full Council do affirm the same and so doth Origen also for the Alexandrians of both which we shall speak anon in the point of Paedo-baptism Thus Nyssen for the Eastern Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saith he is the expiation of our sins the remission of our offences the cause of our new-birth and regeneration Thus do the Fathers in the Constantinopolitan Council profess their Faith in one Baptism or being onely once baptized for the remission of sins And finally That this was the doctrine of the Church in general before Augustines time who is conceived to be first that did advance the power and efficacy of Baptism to so great an height in opposition to the Pelagian Heresies appears by a by-word grown before his time into frequent use the people being used to say when they observed a man to be too much addicted to his lusts and pleasures Sine illum faciat quod vult nondum enim baptizatus est i. e. Let him alone to take his pleasure for as yet the man is not baptised More of this we shall see anon in that which follows Nor is this onely Primitive but good Protestant Doctrine as is most clear and evident by that of Zanchius whom onely I shall instance in of the later Writers Cum Minister Baptizat c. When the Minister baptizeth I believe that Christ with his own hand reached as it were from Heaven Filium meum sanguine suo in remissionem peccatorum aspergere besprinkleth the Infant with his Blood to the remission of sins by the hand of that man whom I see besprinkling him with the Waters of Baptism So that I cannot choose but marvel how it comes to pass that it must now be reckoned for a point of Popery that the Sacraments are instrumental causes of our justification or of the remission of our sins or that it is a point of learning of which neither the Scriptures nor the Reformed Religion have taught us any thing So easie a thing it is to blast that with Popery which any way doth contradict our own private fancies But here before I do proceed further in this present Argument I shall make bold to divert a little upon the antient use of Baptismal-washings before our Saviour Christ ordained it for an holy Sacrament that we may see what hint our Saviour took in this Institution who thought it no impiety to fit the antient usages of the Iews and Gentiles to the advancement of the Gospel though now to hold conformity with the Church of Rome in matters very pertinent to the same effect is reckoned for the greatest Error in our Reformation First for the Iews that they used very frequent washings is most clear in Scripture For not onely the Pharisees particularly who were a superstitious supercilious Sect but the Iews in general have this Character given them by St. Mark That they eat not except they wash their hands oft that they washed as often as they came from market or any publick place of meeting and that they did observe upon old Tradition the washing of Cups and Pots of brazen Vessels and of Tables And this they did not onely in the way of cleanliness or in point of manners to wash away the filth of their bodies when they went to eat or to make clean their Vessels and other Vtensiles which they ate or drank in But rather out of an opinion that by those frequent washings they preserved themselves from the filth and corruption of the world especially in their return from the streets and market places where possibly they might meet with some that were uncircumcised or otherwise obnoxious to an ill report by which they thought themselves defiled And this I take to be an antient custom of the Iews because I finde it much in use amongst the Samaritans who were in many if not most of their common Ceremonies but the Apes onely of the Iews Who on the same opinion of their own dear sanctity which had so perfectly possessed their neighbors of Iudah did use when they had visited any of the Nations to sprinkle themselves with urine upon their return and if by negligence or necessity of business they had touched any not of their own Sect to drench themselves over-head and ears in the next Fountain The reason of which is thus delivered by Epiphanius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Because they held it for an abomination to come near a man that was of a different Religion or perswasion from them But this appears more plainly by that passage of St. Iohns Gospel where there is mention of six water pots of stone at the marriage-feast of Cana in Galilee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of the purifying of the Iews Where by no means I can consent to Maldonâ—tes interpretation who will not have these water-pots to be used at all for any Legal or Mosaical purification Qua qui secundum legem polluti erant mundabantur in which they used to wash themselves who had incurred some legal pollution but onely for those Pharisaical washings which the Pharisees used often in the midst of a feast Which had it been the
ab his putat exigendam fidem quos novit nullam propriam habere culpam The justice of Almighty God saith he doth not think it fitting that having committed no particular sin of their own he should exact of them a proper and particular faith of their own but as they were undone by anothers fault so they should be relieved by anothers faith To which effect though not so fully I have read somewhere I am sure in St. Ierome but cannot well remember where Qui peccavit in altero credat in altero That he which hath sinned in others may believe by others For the next point though we maintain the necessity of Baptism as the ordinary outward means to attain salvation and do correct those Ministers by the Churches censures by whose gross negligence or default if required to do it an Infant shall die unbaptized Yet we conceive it not so absolutely necessary in the way to Heaven but it is possible for a man to be saved without it For antiquity supplied in some the want of water by blood which many times was the case of Martyrs in others the inevitable want of Baptism by the Holy Ghost the earnestness of the desire if it might have been had supplying the defect of the outward Ceremony Hence came the old distinction of Baptismus fluminis Baptismus flaminis and Baptismus sanguinis Concerning which the Fathers teach us this in brief That where men are debarred by an evitable impossibility from the outward Sacrament Faith and the inward conversion of the heart flying unto God in IESUS CHRIST through the sweet motion and gracious instinct of the Holy Spirit may be reckoned for a kinde of Baptism because thereby they obtain all that which they so earnestly sought after in the Sacrament of Baptism if they could have been partakers of it And if it be so that an ordinary degree of Faith do sometime obtain salvation without the Baptism of Water much more may that which makes men willing to suffer death for Christs and the Gospels sake and be baptized as it were in their dearest blood It was not simply the want of Baptism but the neglect and contempt thereof which antiently in the Adulti men of riper years was accounted damnable But what may then be said in the case of Infants in whom are no such strong desires no such sanctified motions Shall we adjudge them with St. Augustine to eternal fire as some say he did who thereby worthily got the name of Infanto-mastyx or the scourge of Infants as he had gloriously gained the title of Malleus Pelagianorum The Maul or Hammer of the Pelagian Hereticks No God forbid that we should so restrain his most infinite mercies unto outward means Or shall we feign a third place for them near the skirts of Hell as our good Masters do in the Church of Rome We have as little ground for that in the holy Scripture Rather than so we may resolve and I think with safety that as the Faith of the Church and of those which do present such as are baptized is by God accepted for their own so the desire and willingness of the same Church and of their God-fathers and Parents where Baptism cannot possibly be had is reputed theirs also Or if not so yet we refer them full of hope to the grace of God in whose most rigorous constitutions and sharpest denunciations deepest mercies are hid and who is still the Father of mercies though the God of justice And so I shut up this discourse with these words of Hooker That for the Will of God to impart his grace to Infants without Baptism the very circumstance of their natural birth may serve in that case for a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in a charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their salvation to whom the benefit of Christian parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath no power himself to avoid So he of those which are descended of a Christian stock What may be thought of children born of unbelievers hath been said elswhere And so much of the first ordinary outward means ordained by Christ for the remission of our sins the holy Sacrament of Baptism Proceed we next unto the other which is the power of the Keys committed in the person of St. Peter to the Catholick Church and those which by the Churches order are authorized and appointed to it That miserable man being wrought upon unto repentance by the power and preaching of the Word may on confession of his sins be forgiven of God or have the benefit of absolution from the hands of his Ministers if their spiritual necessities do so require For certainly there is not a more ready way to forgiveness of sins than by sincere and sound repentance nor any speedier means to beget repentance than to present our sins unto us in their own deformity by the most righteous myrror of the Word of God For when the sinner comes to know by the Word of God the heinousness of his misdeeds the wrath which God conceives against him for his gross offences together with the punishment which is due unto them according to his rigorous judgments The thought thereof must needs affect him both with fear and horror and make him truly sensible of his desperate state To whom then shall he flie for succor but to God alone humbly confessing unto him both his sins and sorrows How can he look to be recovered of the biting of these fiery Serpents but by looking with the eye of faith on that brazen Serpent which was exalted on the Cross for his Redemption Or if he finde his Conscience troubled and his minde afflicted and that he hath not confidence enough to draw near to God then let him go unto the Priest whom God hath made to be the Iudge between the unclean and the clean whom God hath authorized to minister the word of comfort to raise up them that be faln and support the weak to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide their feet in the way of peace This is the Method to be used the course to be pursued by those who do desire to profit in the School of repentance And about this as to the main and substance of it there is but little difference amongst knowing men For that Repentance is a necessary means required for the remission of sins committed after Baptism the Antients and the Moderns do agree in one The Fathers used to call it secundam tabulam post naufragium the second Table after Spiritual shipwrack on which all those who had made shipwrack of the Faith and a good conscience used to lay hold after they had foregone the benefit received in Baptism to keep them up from sinking in the depth of despair from being overwhelmed in the bottomless Ocean of sin and judgment
did eat drink and sit down together at the self-same Table And therefore unto these and such Texts as these which speak of eating and drinking or sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the Kingdom of Heaven there cannot be given a better answer than that which Christ returned to the captious Saduces viz. That in the Kingdom of Heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels of God And if they are as the Angels of God there shall be neither eating nor drinking then we are sure of that Nor is it like that glorified and immortal Bodies alimoniis terrenis sustentanda sint can be sustained with corruptible and earthly food For as Ierom very well inferreth Vbi cibus sequuntur morbi c. Where there is meat there will be sickness where there is sickness death will follow and after that another Resurrection is to be expected and then another thousand years to be added to that Et sic de coeteris As for those passages alleged from the Revelation if they be literally understood they seem to be expresly for the Millenarians but then withal it draweth after it such inconsequences as plainly overthrow their whole foundation For I hope they will provide themselves of a better Supper Than to eat the flesh of Kings and the flesh of Captains and the flesh of Mighty-men and the flesh of Horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men both bond and free and small and great Such chear and such an earthly paradise as they seem to dream of will agree but ill I must desire to be excused for calling it a Dream of an earthly paradise for I am verily perswaded that it is no other It hangs upon such doubtful proofs and is so differently reported by the Patrons of it that never sick-mans dream was more incoherent Which that we may the better see and see withal how every one added somewhat of his own unto it according as the strength or weakness of his fancy led him I shall put down a memorable passage of Gennadius which most fully speaks it In divinis repromissionibus nihil terrenum vel transitorium expectamus sicut Melitani sperant Non nuptiarum copulam sicut Cerinthus Marcus delirant Non quod ad cibum vel ad potum pertinet sicut Papiae Autori Irenaeus Tertullianus Lactantius acquiescunt Neque per mille Annos Resurrectionem regnum Christi in terra futurum Sanctos cum illo in deliciis regnaturos speramus sicut Nepos docuit qui primam justorum Resurrectionem secundam impiorum confinxit By which we see that Melito did fancy onely a transitory and earthly Kingdom Cerinthus and Marcus introduced the use of the marriage-bed Papias seemed to be content with eating and drinking and Nepos found out the distinction to make all compleat between the first and second Resurrection making the first to be onely of the just and righteous the second of the wicked and impenitent sinner after the end or expiration of the thousand years This is the Genealogie or Pedigree of this Opinion which hath of late begun to revive among us and findes not onely many followers but some Champions also Whom I desire more seriously to consider in their better thoughts whether this their supposed Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour commended to the world by some Antient Writers gave not the first hint unto Mahomets Paradise In which he promiseth to those who observe his Law most delicious dwellings adorned with flowery Fields watered with Chrystalline Rivers and beautified with Trees of Gold under whose comfortable shade they shall spend their time with amorous Virgins and be possessed of all voluptuous delights which to a sensual minded-man are the greatest happiness I know that some of late times and of eminent note have given us this opinion in a better dress delivering upon probable grounds That before the end of the world there shall be a time in which the Church of Christ shall flourish for a thousand years in greater purity and power both for faith and manners and in more outward lustre and external glory than hitherto it hath done in all former ages Coelius Secundus Curio in his Book De Amplitudine Regni Dei P. Cunaeus in that De Repub. Iudaeorum Du Moulin in his Christian Combat Piscator in his Comment on the Revelation Alstedius in a Tract of his called Diatribe de mille Annis Apocalypticis and divers others not inferior unto them for parts and learning have declared for it And for my part I see no danger in assenting to it If this will satisfie the Millenarians they shall take me with them but if they stand too stifly to their former tendries and look not for this flourishing time of the Gospel till the Resurrection of the just be first accomplished and then expect to have their part and portion in the pleasures of it I must then leave them to themselves The method of my Creed doth perswade me otherwise which from the Resurrection of the Body leads me on immediately unto the joys and glories of eternal everlasting life to which now I hasten I know it doth much trouble many pious and sober men to finde the force and efficacy of our Saviours Argument in the place foregoing which seems more plainly to assert the Immortality of the Soul than the Resurrection of the Body the bodies of Abraham Isaac and Iacob being dissolved into dust in the time of Moses though their souls were living with their God Concerning which we are to know 1. That the Sadduces by whom this Question was propounded did not alone deny the Resurrection of the dead but so as to affirm withal Animas cum corporibus extingui That the Soul it self did also perish with the body as Iosephus tells us They said that there was neither Angel nor Spirit as St. Luke says of them 2. That though the Pharisees who were their opposite faction in the latter end of the Iewish state did grant a Resurrection or Reviviscency from the dead yet was it after such an Animal and Carnal sense in eating drinking and conversing with women In qua cibo potu opus esset conjugia rursum jungerentur c. saith my Author of them as the Mahometans now dream of in their sensual paradise And against this absurd opinion as indeed it was the Sadduces had found out that Argument about a woman which had or might have had seven Husbands by the Law of Moses whose writings onely they received as Canonical Scripture desiring to be satisfied in their curiosity to which of the seven she should be wife at the Resurrection Which when the Pharisees could not answer as keeping to those principles indeed they could not they thought to put our Saviour to it at the self-same weapon But they found there another manner of Spirit than what had spoken to them by and
this objection she might make not out of any disbelief of the Angels words for being then as faulty as old Zachary was she had been as punishable since God is no respecter of persons nor that she had vowed chastity as the Papists say and Gregory Nyssen doth report from an unknown Author whose history he doth confess to be Apocryphal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are for then she had done very ill to betroth herself unto an husband the vow of Chastity being inconsistent with the state of Matrimony But this she did because the Angel seemed to speak of her Conception as a thing instantly to be done and then in fieri at the least as Logicians phrase it and she though then betrothed to Ioseph was a Virgin still for the Text saith it was before they came together and more then so there was perhaps some part of the time remaining which usually intervened amongst the Iews betwixt the first Espousals and the consummation of the marriage But this bar was easily removed For it followeth that the Angel answered and said The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee The holy Ghost shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it that is to say the holy Ghost shall fall upon thee like rain into a fleece of wooll or like the dew of heaven upon a barren and thirstie land where no moisture is and make thee no less fruitful without help of man then was the Virgin Earth in its first integrity when no outward or extrinsecal moysture had yet fallen upon it but that there went up a mist only out of the very bowels thereof and watered the whole face of the ground And the power of the most High shall overshadow thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek and cover thee with the wings of his quickning virtue as the Hen doth Egges when she brings forth young To make this matter plainer yet we shall illustrate it by two Texts of holy Scripture equal to this both in the wonder and the agent In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And in the second of the same Book we read that God created man out of the dust of the earth vers 7. In each of these there is a subject some matter such as it was to be wrought upon that confused mixture of Earth and waters to be disposed into a world the dust and Atoms of that world to be contrived into a man The fashioning and accomplishment of which great works both of them seeming as impossible to sense and reason as the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb is in the Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost The Spirit of God saith Moses moved upon the face of the waters Hence the digestion of that matter fashioned into that goodly fabrick of Heaven and Earth which we so visibly behold with such admiration God breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae from whence the Animation and soul of man This action then ascribed unto the holy Ghost which St. Luke calleth a supervenience or a coming upon and an obumbration or over-shadowing is likely to have been much of the same nature with that of moving in the first and that of breathing in the 2. of Genesis Gods Spirit as it breatheth where it listeth so can it quicken where it pleaseth Some there have been if Maldonate do report them rightly Qui turpe aliquid hoc loco somniant who have made some impure construction of this holy Text most impudently affirming Spiritum sanctum ad modum viri cum Maria concubuisse I abhor to English it but who they were he either was afraid or ashamed to tell us No doubt but they were some of the Romish party For had such a blasphemous and ungodly saying dropped from the mouth or pen of a Protestant all Christendome had been told of his name and Nation And therefore certainly this quidam whom he spares to name must be some such good fellow of the Catholick faction as Fryer Albert of the frock as they use to call him Of whom I remember I have read in some of their Authors that being a great Votary of the blessed Virgins she appeared nightly to him in her bodily shape espoused her self to him by a ring and suffered himself to converse with her in familiar manner Insomuch as he might say in the Poets language Contrectatque sinus forsitan oseula jungit He dallied with her Paps And kissed her too perhaps But I do ill to mingle these impurities with this sacred argument if the unmasking of the obscoenities of those great Professors of vowed chastity do not plead my pardon And yet I cannot choose but adde that these lazy lives of some of the Monks and Fryers have carryed them so far into spiritual fornications or rather into contemplative lusts that many of them have fancied to themselves such unclean commixtures as that of Fryer Albert with the blessed Virgin To what end else served those large Faculties which were given unto Tekelius a Dominican Fryer when he was sent to publish the pardons or Indulgences of Pope Leo the tenth in the upper Germany Who spared not to affirm even in common Alehouses that by his Buls he had authority to absolve any man whatsoever Etiamsi Virginem matrem vitiaverit though he had vitiated or deflowred the Virgin Mother as Sleidan tels the storie in his book of Commentaries I know that in the later Editions of this Author as in that of Colen printed An. .... the words are changed to Virginem aut matrein a maid or a mother and so to mend the matter they have marred the sense For what need such large faculties as Tekelius bragged of for pardoning fornication or Adultery for the deflowring of a Virgin or lying with another mans wife which every ordinary Priest can absolve of course Besides in the first Edition of that Author printed at ..... An. .... it is plainly Virginem Matrem the Virgin Mother And so 't is in an old English Translation of him printed at London and la Veirge Mere as plainly in a French Translation printed at Geneva An. 1574. Marvail it is that Maldonate hath not undergone the like castigation whose Quidam whatsoever he was offended more against the Majesty of the holy Ghost then Tekel did save that the Popes authority was concerned in it against the modesty and piety of the Virgin Mary To return therefore where I left as I abominate the impieties of these Romish Votaries so neither can I approve the conceit of Estius though otherwise a very learned and sound Expositor of holy Scripture where the interest of the Church of Rome
is not concerned who by the power of the most High understands here the very person of God the Son and by this over-shadowing of the blessed Virgin his voluntary Incarnation in her sanctified womb His words are these Per virtutem Altissimi intelligi ipsum Dei Filium qui est virtus brachium potentia Patris quique obumbraturus significatur Virginem illapsu suo in uterum Virginis per occultum Incarnationis mysterium But by his leave I cannot herein yeild unto his opinion though Chrysostom and Gregory for the antient Writers Beda and Damascene for the Authors of the middle times do seem to contenance it For not St. Augustine only as himself confesseth and Euthymius a good writer also are against him in it but the plain text and context of the holy Scripture which makes the quickning of the womb of this blessed Virgin to be the work only of one Agent though it be expressed by different titles Nor are such repetitions strange or extraordinary in the Book of God nor can it give any colour to distinguish the power of the most High from the holy Ghost as if they were two different Agents unless we can distinguish the Lord our God from him that dweleth in the Heavens because we finde them both together in the 2. Psalm He that dwelleth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision And though it cannot be denyed but that the Son of God is the very power and strength of his Father yet himself doth give this very name of power to the holy Ghost For when he commanded the Apostles to abide in the City of Hierusalem donec induantur virtute ex alto i. e. until they were â—ndued with power from on high what else did he intend thereby but that they should continue there until they were endued with the holy Ghost Of which see Act. 2.4 Besides if this opinion should be once admitted we must exclude the holy Ghâ—st from having any thing to do in so great a mysterie and so not only bring the Creed under an Expurgatorius Index but the Scripture too Letting this therefore stand for a truth undeniable that the over-shadowing as the Text calleth it of the blessed Virgin was the proper and peculiar work of the holy Ghost let us next see whether the nature of the miracle be not agreeable to the operatioâ—s of the holy Spirit or such as may not be admitted for a truth undoubted by equal and indifferent men though they be not Christians nor take it up upon the credit of the Word of God And first that of it self it is agreeable to the operations of the Spirit the course of his Divine power in the works of nature doth expresly manifest For as in the spiritual regeneration though it be Paul that planteth and Apollo that watereth yet it is God who gives the increase without whose blessing on their labours their labours will prove fruitless and ineffectual so also in the act of carnal generation though the man and woman do their parts for the pro creation of children yet if the quickning Spirit of God do not bless them in it and stir up the emplastick virtue of the natural seed they may go childless to their graves It is the Spirit which quickneth what the womb doth breed And therefore in my minde Lactantius noted very well Hominem non Patrem esse sed generandi Ministrum that man was nothing but the instrument which the Lord did use for the effecting of his purpose to raise that goodly edifice of flesh and bloud which he contemplates in his children It is the Spirit of God as the Scripture tels us which first gave form unto the world from whence that known passage of the Poet Spiritus intus alit had its first Original of which we have made use in our former book And if the chief work or rather the principal part in the work of nature in the ordinary course of Generation and first production of the Word may be ascribed as most undoubtedly it must unto the powerful influence of this quickning Spirit with how much more assurance may he be entituled to the Incarnation of the Word to which one sex only did contribute and that the weakest without the mutual help and co-operation of the seed of man Nor is the greatness of the Miracle so beyond belief but that there is sufficient in the holy Scripture to convince the Iew and in the writings of the Poets to perswade the Gentiles to the admission of this truth and consequently to confirm all good Christians in it Out of the Virgin-Earth did God first make Adam and out of Virgin Adam he created Eve Adam first made without the help of man or woman and Eve made after out of Adam who had no wife but this which was made out of him Why might not then the blessed Virgin be as capable of conceiving a Son by the sole power and influence of the holy Ghost without help of man as Adam was of being Father unto Eve by the self same power without the use of a woman Without a Mother Eve without Father CHRIST Adam without both Father and Mother but all the handy-work of God by the holy Spirit Equivalent in effect to the creation of Adam and the production of Eve was the birth of Isaac conceived by Sarah when it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women by consequence as indisposed to the act of conception as if she had been still a Virgin or which is more then that under years of marriage The strength that Sarah had to bring forth that Son was not natural to her for she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past the age of childe-bearing as the Text informs us but a strength supernatural given from God on high and therefore called a received strength she received strength to conceive seed Heb. 11.11 because not naturally her own but received extraordinarily from God As Isaac was in many things a Type of CHRIST so in no one thing more exactly then that he was the only Son or the dearly beloved Son of his Father begotten on a woman past the time of her age whose dead womb could not but by such a miracle be revived again To this the Iews most cheerfully do give assent boasting themselves to be the children of Abraham by this very venter What reason have they then not to yeild to this but that they resolved not to yeild to reason Next for the Gentiles do we not finde it in their Poets that Venus was ingendred of the froth of the Sea animated by the warmth and influence of the Sun that Pallas issued from Ioves brain and Bacchus from the thigh of Iupiter Do we not read that most of their Heroes so much famed of old were begotten by their Gods upon mortal creatures as Hercules on Alcmena by Iupiter Phaeton on Clymene by Phoebus and Paâ—
yet take him in perfecta gloriae suae exhibitione in the full and perfect manifestation of of his glorious Majesty and then he may be said most truly to have his habitation in the Heaven of Heavens For thus the Prophet Moses in the Book of Deuteronomie Looke down from Heaven thy holy habitation 26.15 Thus David in the Psalms The Lords seat is on high from the place of his dwelling he beholdeth all things Psal. 112. Thus Solomon the Son of David Hear thou from Heaven thy dwelling place 1 King chap. 8. Finally thus the Prophet Isaiah Look down from Heaven the habitation of thine happiness and of thy glory Chap. 63. He is no Christian I dare say who will stick at this And this bâ—ing granted I consider that in a place of such immensitie as the Heaven of Heavens in a large house wherein there are so many Mansions as our Saviour telleth us the Lord hath chosen one place above all the rest in which to fix his Throne and advance his Scepter and shew himself in all the Majesty of his Glory to the Saints and Angels For as the Lord was present in all parts of the Temple but most effectually in the Sanctum Sanctorum where the Ark was kept and into which none entred but the High Priest only was thought fit to enter so though his dwelling be in Heaven in all parts thereof all which may properly be called his Court or Imperial Palace yet hath he placed his Throne in that part of Heaven which the Apostle by allusion calleth the Holy of Holies where the Ark of his incomprehensible Majesty is most conspicuous to be seen and into which none but our High Priest IESVS CHRIST was permitted to enter Of all the Apostles only two were so highly favoured as to be carried in the Spirit into Heaven above where they not only heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such things as are impossible for a man to utter though he could speak with all the tongues both of men and Angels but saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the invisible things of God which never mortal man had beheld before and both of them describe God sitting on a Throne St. Iohn most copiously thus Immediately saith he I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne Ver. 2. About the Throne were four and twenty seats for the four and twenty Elders vers 4. and out of it proceeded Lightnings and Thunderings and Voyces vers 5. And when the time came and the Q. was given the four and twenty Elders fell down before him that sate on the Throne and worshipped and cast their Crowns before the Throne saying Thou art worthy O Lord our God to receive glory and honour and power because thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure sake they are and were created vers 10 11. more to this purpose doth occur in the following Chapter And last of all I do consider that though the Throne Imperial of Almighty God hath neither a right side or a left as indeed it hath not yet seeing that our Saviour is ascended in his natural body and hath his left hand and his right hand like to other bodies it will be logically inferred that our Redeemer sitting by the Throne of God with his left hand next unto the Throne in true propriety of speech without Trope or figure may be said to sit at the right hand of God or on the right hand of the Throne of God which comes all to one St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heaven and had a glimpse at least if not a full and perfect sight of the heavenly glories hath it so expressely where he affirms that our Redeemer the Author and finisher of our faith having endured the Cross and despised the shame is set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And St. Iohn intimates as much when he tels us as it were from the mouth of Christ in these very words To him that overcometh I will grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and have sitten with my Father in his Throne Where plainly Christ our Saviour sitting in the same Throne wiâ—h Almighty God as St. Iohn expressely saith he doth may properly be said to sit at the right hand of God in regard that the left hand of his natural body was in site nearest to the splendour of his heavenly Majesty for otherwise God must be said to sit on the right hand of Christ. The like may be affirmed of St. Stephen also where it is said that being full of the holy Ghost that is to say transported from himself by the holy Spirit he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God In which we have the glory of God conspicuoâ—sly manifested in his Royal Throne and Iesus standing at the right hand of the Throne or at the right hand of God take which phrase you will and standing either as an Advocate to plead for his afflicted servants or as a suiter in behalf of the Proto-martyr or as General in chief ready to march against the enemies of his best beloved So far we may consider of the literal sense of this branch of the Article without any derogation â—rom the Majesty of God the Father and much unto the honour of our Lord and Saviour and without any prejudice unto faith and piety And in such Cases as I take it the best way is to stand to this good old Rule that where the literal sense of holy Scripture doth hold an analogy and correspondence with the Rule of Faith it is to be preferred before any other But whether this be so or not for I propose it only as a consideration I have delivered freely my opinion in it and have delivered it no otherwise then as my opinion to which I never was so wedded but that a clearer judgement might at any time divorce me from it My opinions as they are but opinions so they are but mine As mine I have no reason to impose them upon other men or seek to captivate their understanding and make it subject to my sense And as opinions I am not bound to adhere to them my self but lawfully may change and vary according to that light and evidence of holy truth which either shall or may be given unto me In matters doctrinal concluded and delivered by the Church my Mother I willingly submit my self unto her Decisions Where I am left at large to my own election I shall as willingly take leave to dissent from others as others I am sure will take and on Gods name let them to dissent from me This was the amicable temper of the Fathers in the Primitive times which more preserved the Church both in peace and unity then all the Canons of Councils and Edicts of Princes to that purpose were of
power to do Non tam stultus sum ut diversitate explanationum tuarum me laedi putem quia nec tu laederis si nos contraria senserimus This was St. Hieromes resolution to St. Augustine in a point between them equally full of piety and Christian courage And of this temper was also Pope Sixtus the fift as stout and resolute a Prelate as ever wore the Triple Diadem and one who lived in the worst Ages of the Church of Rome when most ingaged in self-interresses and maintaining factions Of whom it is notwithstanding said by Cicarella non multum pugnare ut sua vinceret sententia sed potius ab aliis si ita res ferret facile passus est se vinci And to this blessed temper if we could attain diversity of opinions and interpretations so they hold the analogy of the faith may adde as much to the external beauty of the Church of Christ as it did ornament and lustre to the Spouse of Christ that her cloathing though of pure gold was wrought about with divers colours or wrought with curious needle-work as it after followeth But it is time that I look back upon our Saviour sitting at the right hand of God in whatsoever sense we conceive the words and sitting there to execute the Sacerdotal or Priestly function and so much of the Regal also as is to be discharged and exercised by him before his coming unto judgement Of which two functions by Gods grace I am next to speak The Attribute or Adjunct of the Father Almighty which we finde added to this branch of the Article hath been already handled in its proper place and therefore nothing need to be said here of it CHAP. XIII Of the Priesthood of our Lord and Saviour which he executeth sitting at the right hand of God wherein it was fore-signifyed by that of Melchisedech in what particulars it consisteth and of Melchisedech himself WE told you in the beginning of our former Chapter that they which do consider Christ in his several offices and did reduce each several office to some branch or other of the Creed did generally refer his office of high Priest unto this branch of sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty For being advanced to such a place of nearnesse to the throne of God he hath no doubt the better opportunities as a man may say of interceding with God in behalf of his people and offering up the peoples prayers to the throne of grace which are the two main parts of the Priestly function And yet this sitting at the right hand of God is not precisely proper and peculiar to him as he is our Priest but that he claimes the place also as he is our King and there doth execute so much of the Regall office as doth consist in governing his holy Church untill the coming unto judgment Certain I am that David findes him sitting on the right hand of God in both capacities as well King as Priest and so doth represent him to us The Lord saith he said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand till I make thy enemies thy footstoole That David by those words My Lord meaneth Christ our Saviour is a thing past question We have the truth it self to bear witnesse to it the Lord himself applying it unto himself in his holy Gospels And that he meaneth it of Christ both King and Priest is no lesse evident from the rest of the Prophets words which do immediately follow on it For in the very next words he proceedeth thus The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion Rule thou in the middest of thine enemies Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power In which assuredly he looks upon him in his regal function And no lesse plainly it doth follow for the Priesthood also The Lord hath sworn saith he and shall not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech Touching the Regal office though here also executed we shall more fully and more fitly speak in the following Article that of his coming to judge the quick and dead the power of judicature being the richest flower of the regal diademe The Priesthod we shall treat of now T is the place most proper Christs Priesthood and his sitting at the right hand of God being often joyned together in the holy Scripture Nay therefore doth he sit at the right hand of God that so he might with more advantage execute the Priestly office Every Priest saith the Apostle standeth dayly ministring and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sinnes But this man that is Christ our Saviour the high Priest of the new Testament after he had offered one sacrifice for our sins is set down for ever at the right hand of God From hence forth tarrying till his enemies be made his footstool And in another place to the same purpose thus We have such an high Priest that sitteth on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens A Minister of holy things and of the true Tabernacle c. Being therefore in this place to speak of the Priesthood of CHRIST we will consider it in all those particulars which may make the calling warrantable to himself and comfortable unto us To make it warrantable in respect of himself we must behold him in his calling in his consecration and finally in the order it self which was that of Melchisedech to which he was so called and consecrated To make it comfortable in regard of us we will behold him in the excercise of those three great duties wherein the Priesthood did consist viz. the offering of sacrifice for the sins of the people the offering of prayers in behalf of the people and lastly in the act of benediction or of blessing the people To these heads all may be reduced which concernes this argument and of all these according to the method now delivered which I think most natural a little shall be said to instruct the reader First for his calling to the Priesthood it was very necessary as well to satisfie himself as prevent objections For Christ our Saviour being of the line of Iudah he could not ordinarily and of common right intermedle with the Priestly function which was entailed by God to the house of Aaron and therefore he required a special and extraordinary warrant such as God gave Aaron and the sons of Aaron to authorize him thereunto No person whatsoever he was was to take this honour to himself but he that was called of God as Aaron was as St. Paul averreth Now such a calling to the Priesthood as that of Aaron our blessed Saviour had and a better too for he was called to be an high Priest after the order of Melchisedech Where this word called imports more then a name or title as if he were called Priest but indeed was none but a solemne calling
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad vitam eternam so saith Scharp a Scotchman Ecclesia Catholica coetus est hominum sanctorum quos ab aeterno Deus in Christo elegit so saith Dr. Whitakers Ecclesia Catholica coetus est universus electorum so the famous Raynolds The like might be produced from others of the Doctors of the Reformation were not these few sufficient to speak out for all Names great enough I must confess but not to be preferred before Sacred Truth in the defence whereof it behoves a man not wedded to mens names and dictates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Aristotle to sacrifice his private interesses and most dear Relations That the Elect are of the Church yea and the chief ingredients of the whole compositum it were impiety to deny And that it is for their sakes chiefly that the Word of God is preached the Sacraments of Christ administred the promises of life eternal offered to the Sons of Men is a thing which I shall easily grant And so I understand the words of Clemens of Alexandria saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church of the first-born it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Text whence the Father had it whose names are written in the Heavens as St. Paul informs us But in a great house there are more people than the children though all they co-heirs and in a Royal Court there are many Retainers whose names are not registred in the Check Though the Elect are of the Church yet neither all they nor yet they alone Not all the Elect for when Saul breathed out slaughter against the Saints and Mary Magdalen was possessed with seven devils at once whether with so many wicked spirits or the seven deadly sins we dispute not now who can affirm them to be Members of the Church of Christ And yet who can or dare deny that they were vessels of election elect according to the fore-knowledge of Almighty God Secundum praescientiam praedestinationem quam multi oves foris quam multi lupi intus as St. Augustine hath it According to Gods prescience and predestination How many of the Sheep saith he are without the Church how many Wolves contained in it And in another place Electorum quidam in haeresibus aut Gentilium superstitionibus sunt tamen illic novit Dominus qui sunt ejus Many of the Elect. saith he are yet involved in Heresie or Heathenish Superstitions whom yet God knoweth to appertain unto the number of his people Nor they alone For there are Wolves within the fold as the Father telleth us and many which partake of the heavenly calling who by impurity of life and unfoundness of Doctrine exclude themselves from having place in the Heavenly Kingdom Out of the many which are called but few are chosen because they do not chearfully obey that calling and hearken not with due obedience to the voice of God which calls them in the Church unto newness of life Were it not so and that even wicked men and ungodly sinners did appertain unto the Church and that the Heretick and Schismatick were not members of it The Church had no authority to proceed against them or to endeavor their reclaim by Ecclesiastial censures Though God both may and will judge them when he sees his time yet the Church cannot do it For what have I to do to judge them also that are without saith the great Apostle And what were this but to make the Church of God which is pure and holy to be a stable of unclean beasts and a sink of filthiness To which all scandalous sinners would repair in swarms in confidence of enjoying there their desired impunity Gods field hath Tares as well as Wheat and both permitted to grow up till the general harvest when he shall give his Angels charge to sever the wicked from the just and righteous persons to binde the one in bundles for eternal fire but gather the other for his barn for the joyes of Heaven Now as these opposite parties have extreamly erred in the right constitution of the Members of the Church of Christ so have they failed as grosly in their Doctrine of the Churches Head Which the one side have made too great for that Sacred Body the other all Body in a manner but no Head at all I speak not here of Christ understand not so whom both sides do acknowledge for the Head of the Body Mystical but of the Supream Head on Earth to whom the Government of the Church is by him committed Our Masters in the Church of Rome first make the Government of the Church to be Monarchical and lay the burden on the shoulders of one man alone and then this more than man this Monarch to be the Pope of Rome and none else but he For the first part of this Assertion they pretend the Scriptures mustering up all the Privileges which Christ gave to Peter which were they such as are pretended were but personal onely no more annexed to his Successors in the Chair of Rome than in that of Antioch But for the second part thereof they confess ingenuously that there is no Scripture to be found For Bellarmine who had canvased this point as thoroughly as any man what ever of all that party is fain to shut it up with this close at last That though some Headship or Supremacy may seem to be conferred on Peter in the Book of God Tamen Pontificem Romanum Petro succedere expresse in Scripturis non haberi yet that the Pope succeeded Peter is not found in Scripture but grounded on Tradition onely as before was said And if it be not found in Scripture as he saith it is not we shall as little build our Faith upon their Traditions though now we see what makes them rank Traditions equal with the written Word as upon those similitudes and ill-grounded consequences which for want of better proof he is fain to flie to And yet this point thus weakly grounded is by them made an Article of the Catholick Faith and that not onely in the new Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth who might be partial in his own cause where it brings up the Rere but in the general esteem of the Court of Rome where it chargeth in the very Front For when the Princes of those times applauded the piety and courage of King Henry the Eighth in that without any alteration in Religion he had suppressed the Popes Authority in all his Dominions The Papal faction thought the censure to be very unjust Primo praecipuo Romanensium fidei Articulo de Pontificis Primatu immutato considering that the first and chiefest Article of the Faith that of the Popes Supremacy was so changed and abrogated But on what ground soever they have raised this building and placed the Headship of the Church on such rotten shoulders as are not able to support it yet is this Head