was unknowne and by him to his disciples whereby after the power came downe upon him from above he did miracles And that when he had suffered that which came from above flâ—w up againe from Jesus So that Jesus suffered and rose againe but the Christ which came upon him from above flew up againe without suffering which is that which came downe in the shape of a dove and that Jesus is not the Christ Where you see he makes the coming of Christ to be nothing else but an escape made by the Holy Ghost when he came upon our Lord out of the Fullnesse of the Godhead to return thither againe when he had suffered Now it is agreed upon that Cerinthus had spread his Heresies in Asia when Saint John writ his Gospell And though Epiphanius report that it was Ebion whom Saint John met with in the bath and refused to come in it so long as he was there calling away his Scholars with him Yet it must be resolved that it is a meere mistake of his memory because himselfe testifies as afore that the Heresy of Cerinthus flourished in Asia and in Galatia and because Eusebius after Irenaeus who conversed with Saint Johns Scholar Polycarpus reports it of Cerinthus As for the Heresy of Ebion it is manifest by Epiphanius himself in his Heresy that it sprung up first and flourished most in the parts of Palestine beyond or besides Jordane which they called Peraea what time the Church of Jerusalem had forsaken the City to remove themselves to Pella where God had provided for them at the destruction of it So that it appeareth not that Saint John saw the birth of it being probably removed into Asia before that time I shall therefore neede to say nothing of the Heresy of Ebion having Saint Jerome in Catalogo to witnesse that the Gospell of Saint John was written at the request of the Bishops of Asia in opposition to Cerinthus But the stocke of that evidence which I shall bring out of the Scripture for the state of our Lord Christ and his Godhead before his coming in the flesh lying therefore in the beginning of that Gospell which was writ on purpose to exclude it I shall referre the rest of that which I shall gather out of the New Testament to the sense and effect of it CHAP. XIII The Word was at the beginning of all things The apparitions of the Old Testament Prefaces to the Incarnation of Christ Ambassadors are not honoured with the honour due to their Masters The Word of God that was afterwards incarnate was in those Angels that spoke in Gods Name No Angel honoured as God under the New Testament The Word was with God at the beginning of all things as after his return THE Gospel of Saint John then beginneth thus In the beginning wâ—s the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God In which words the Socinians will not have the beginning to be the beginning of all things but the beginning of preaching the Gospel That is to say when John the Baptist began to preach And the Word to be the man Jesus so called because he was the man whom God had appointed to publish it So that in the beginning was the Word is in their sense When John the Baptist began to preach there was a man whom God had appointed to publish the Gospel And truly I cannot deny that the beginning here might signifie the beginning of the Gospel by the same reason as in the Scripture and in all Languages words signify more then they expresse But that reason can be no other then this because a man speakes of things mentioned afore in discourse or of that which is otherwise known to be the subject of his discourse So words signifie more then they expresse because something that is known need not be repeated at every turne What is the reason then why this addition not being expressed is to be understood Forsooth Saint Mark beginneth his Gospel thus The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Sonne of God As it is written in the Prophets Behold I send my Messenger before thy face that shall prepare thy way before thee The voice of him that cryeth in the wildernesse Prepare â—e the way of the Lord make his path plaine John was baptizing in the wildernesse Is not this a good reason Because in one Text of Saint Marke you find the beginning of the Gospel to be the preaching of John therefore wheresoever you read the beginning you are to understand by it the beginning of the Gospel At least in the beginning of S. Johns Gospel we must seek no other meaning for it But who will warrant that the word Gospel in S. Marke signifies the preaching of the Gospel as sometimes it does or this book of the Gospel which S. Mark takes in hand to write The words it is manifest may signifie either and therefore it cannot be manifest that the word beginning without any addition is put to signifie the one and not the other For if you understand the beginning of the book of the Gospel when S. John saies In the begining was the Word Their turne is not served As for the title of the Word which scarce any of the Apostles but S. John attributes to our Lord Look upon the beginning of his first Epistle That which was from the beginning which we have heard and seen and our hands have handled of the Word of Life for the Life hath been manifested and we have seen and bear witnesse and declare unto you that everlasting Life which was with the Father and hath been manifested unto us That which we have heard and seen declare we unto you Here it must be a man that S. John calls the Word when he speakes not onely of hearing but of seeing and handling the Word of Life But when he saies that the Word was with God from the beginning and since hath been made manifest to us is there nothing but the man and his office of preaching the Gospel to be considered for the reason why he is called the Word What meant then the Apostle Ebr. IV. 12 13 The Word of God is quick and active and cutteth beyond any two edged sword and cometh so farre as to divide between the soul and the spirit to the joints and marrow and judgeth the thoughts and conceits of the heart Neither is any creature obscure to it but all things naked and bare to the eyes of him whom we have to do with Where you see he begins his discourse concerning the Gospel but ends it in God And therefore attributes to the gospel under the name of the Word those things which onely God can do because to the Author of it under the Name of the Word he attributes the knowledge and governing of all things For the reason then why our Lord is called the Word we must have recourse to that which the most ancient
Advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins And when David who had the spirit of God upon the same termes as Christians have it excepting that which hath been excepted prayeth Psalm XIX 13 14. Who understandeth his errours Clense me from hidden sins Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins that they beare not rule over me Then shall I be upright and cleane from great transgressions He showeth sufficiently the difference between veniall and mortall sins as to Christians which in case of invincible ignorance and meere supprize comes to no sin as to Christians But he showeth also that Christians neglecting themselves may come to fall into sins of persumption which he prayeth against For the rest the same S. Iohn incouraging Christians to pray for the sins of Christians with this limitation as I surppose if by their advice they appear to be reduced to take the cours which may procure pardon at Gods hands acknowledgeth further that there is a sin unto death I say not that yee pray for it saith he 1. John V. 16. 17. And the Apostle to the Hebrews VI. 4 5 6. speaketh of some sin which he acknowledgeth not that it can be admitted to penance for the obtaining of forgivenesse which he protesteth again Ebr. X. 26 -31 XII 16 17. It is commonly thought indeed that to deny the true faith against that light which God hath kindled in a mans conscience is hereby declared to be a sin that repentance cannot cure Or rather that God hereby declareth that he will never grant in repentance And truly that blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which our Lord saith shall never he pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come Mat. XII 31 32. Mark III. 28 29. Luke XII 10. manifestly consisteth in attributing the works which the holy Ghost did to convert men to Christ to the devill being convinced that our Lord came from God by the workes he did for that purpose Just as Saint Steven reproaches the Jewes for resisting the holy Ghost as their Fathers had done Acts VII 51. And that there is no cure for this sin it is manifest because it consisteth in rejecting the cure And apostasy from Christianity which is manifestly the sinne which the Apostle to the Hebrews intendeth differeth from it but as the obligation to Christianity once received differeth from that Christianity which being proposed with conviction a man is bound to receive But otherwise not onely the Church but the Novatians themselves supposed that those who had denied the Faith might recover pardon of God by repentance Nor can it become visible to the Church what is that conviction which whoso transgresseth becomes unpardonable because God hath excluded him from repentance In the meane time how difficult the Primitive Church accounted it to attaine pardon of such sinnes appeares by the excluding of the Montanists and Novatians first then by the long Penance prescribed Apostates Murtherers and Adulterers least the admitting of them to Penance might seem to warrant their pardon upon too light repentance Saint Paul admits the incestuous person at Corinth whether to Penance or to Communion with the Church But upon what termes Least the offender should be swallowed up with extream sorrow and least Satan should advantage himself against them should he refuse it And because having written out of great anguish of heart with teares for them who presumed to bear him out in it he had found them moved with sorrow according to God to repentance with all satisfaction and desire of peace with the Apostle 2 Cor. II. 1-8 VII 7-11 For we understand by Saint Paul 1 Cor. V. 2. 2 Cor. XII 21. that even the Church themselves when they shut a sinner out of the Church did make demonstration of sorrow for his case And therefore himself much more was put to mourning and to professe by his outward habit that he thought his sinne incurable without sorrow answerable to it And when Saint Paul commands the Collossians III. 5. Mortify your members that are upon earth fornication uncleannesse passion evill desire and covetousnesse which is idolatry For which the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience It is manifest that he placeth the mortifying of these vices in the afflicting and humbling of our earthly members wherein the lusts of them reside Therefore he serves his own body no otherwise but striving for the prize of Christians like one of their Greekish Champions that would not beat the aire he beates his own body black and blew to bring it under servitude Least having preached to others himself should become reprobate 1 Cor. IX 26 27. And certainly if Christianity require this discipline over Saint Pauls body least he should fall into sinne it will require very great severity of them that are fallen into sinne to be exercised upon their bodies the lusts whereof they have satisfied by those sinnes to regain the favour and appease the wrath of God and to settle that hatred of sinne and that love of goodnesse in the heart which the preventing of sinne for the future necessarily requireth The practice of the Old Testament sufficiently signifieth the same Though David in the Psalme that I mentioned afore seem to make the pardon of his sin a thing easily obtained at Gods hands as it is indeed a thing easily obtained supposing the disposition which David desired it with but not that disposition a thing easily obtained yet you shall find the same David elsewhere wetting his bed and watring his couch with his teares so that his beauty is gone with mourning his flesh dried up for want of fatnesse and his bones cleave to his flesh for the voice of his mourning Indeed he alwayes expresseth his affliction to be the subject of his mourning But alwayes acknowledging his sins to be the cause of those afflictions which he therefore takes the course to remove by taking this course for his sinnes The Prophet Esay I. 15 16. thus calleth the Jewes to appease Gods wrath Wash ye make ye clean remove the evil of your workes from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do good seek righteousnesse Sure this was never intended to be done by the meer thought of doing it But the Prophet Joel having threatned a plague what doth he prescribe for the cure And now saith the Lord return to me with all your heart with fasting weeping and mourning and rent your hearts and not your garments and turn to the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull long-suffering great in mercy and repenteth him of evill Blow the trumpet in Sion sanctify a fast invite the assembly gather the people sanctify a Congregation make the old and young and the sucking infants meet let the bridegroom come forth of his chamber and the bride of her closet let the Priests the ministers of the Lord weep between the Porch and the Altar and say Spare Lord thy people and
those that are ordained or absolved Tertullian saith further that mariage was confirmed by an Eucharist and sealed which blessing And Clemens Alexandr Paedag. III. 1. complaining of her that wore not her owne haire that the Priest laying hands on her blessed not her but some bodies haire besides What blessing should he speak of but the blessing of mariage The Epistle of Syricius to Himerius Bishop of Tarracona mentions it and so doth the IV. Synode of Carthage Can. XIII likewise Innocent I. Pope Epist IIX ad Prelum and S. Basil in Hexaem Hom. VII nor can any exception be made to the generality of it But if there could there would neverthelesse ly no maner of exception against the Power of the Church in appointing of it or the reason why the Church should appoint it supposing the premises And the experience of so much abuse as hath been committed of late yeares the same man or woman marying two brothers or sisters successively the one party marying the other being alive men marying other mens wives through the neglect of lawfull impediments for example the experience I say of abuses that have succeeded by leaving people free to marry without the blessing of the Church is enough to demonstrate the necessity thereof as supposing the allowance of the mariage And therefore the solemnity of blessing mariage intimating a supposition that it is intended for an inseparable conjunction of one with one as is that of our Lord Christ with his Church And that with due submission to the Rules of the Church from the prayers whereof the blessing is expected may well be called the Sacrament of mariage as containing a ceremony signifying that spirituall Grace of living like Christians in the state of wedlock for which it signifyeth the parties to be qualified and tending to obtaine the same by virtue of that promise which the foundation of the Church warranteth the effect of her prayers with Consider now that the Sacrament of Baptisme though it qualifieth for the promises of the Gospell yet supposing the unity of the Church out of which the Spirit of God breatheth not That every Church is the congregation of Christians that is contained in that place which is the cheife seate of that Church and the territories of it subject to the Bishop and Clergy of the same That whosoever is necessarily to minister Baptisme is not allwayes able to make him whome he baptizeth a member of the Church as in case of Heresy and Schisme the Baptisme whereof the Church alloweth to stand good but without effect of Christs promise For he that considers these things will find reason to grant that the consent of the Bishop being requisite to make any man a member of his Church according to such termes as the Rules of the whole Church shall limit the allowance of every mans Baptisme to that effect should be solemnized by his Blessing so as the effect thereof to become voide in case of the utter neglect of it This is the reason that S. Jerom advers Luciferianos renders for the solemnity of Confirmations from the unity of the Church and the person of the Bishop in which and by which every Christian is a member of the whole Church because a member of his Church whome the whole Church acknowledgeth Pastor of the same And this the reason why it was never counted peremtorily necessary for all as S. Hierome acknowledges that in villages where the Bishops occasions called him not to come Christians lived and died without it Because the testimony of all those who seeke the Bishops Blessing in acknowledgement of their Christianity the profession whereof they declare themselves to stand to by seeking the same and he by giving it to allow and of theire communion with the Church which by the same meanes they claime and he owneth is a presumption on behalfe of the rest who have not the like opportunity to seek it that neither they pretend towards the Church nor he on behalf of the Church intends towards them otherwise The ground of this construction is manifest by the practice of the Church in reconciling those Hereticks and Schismaticks whose Baptisme the Church allowed to stand good to the Church by Confirmation with imposition of hands For this supposeth that Baptisme which the Church did not repeate as allowing it ministred in due forme to have been without effect so long as they continued without the Church And to revive and take effect againe by removing that bar of separation from the Church which their reconcilement voideth If the Church of some times and some places have added to Imposition of hands a further ceremony of Chisme consisting of oil and Balsame to signify by the anointing thereof that sweet smell which the Spirit of the Messias in Esay resenteth why should it be thought that this addition in the solemnity must needs take away from the efficacy of it Is it not enough that it may take away from it in them who being zealous for the ceremony are carelesse of the substance That this is acknowledged by returning to the Apostolical simplicity of Imposition of hands Seing then that the grace of standing to the common Christianity is to be expected from the blessing of the Church upon them who have recourse to this solemnity with a disposition qualifying for the promises of the Gospel in the unity of the Church it will be no disperagement to the Sacrament of Baptisme that Confirmation should be reckoned among the Sacraments of the Church being a ceremony no way empty of that promise of sanctifying Grace which by the foundation of the Church belongs to the prayers thereof and yet the said promise no way subsisting but upon supposition of that Covenant of Grace which the Sacrament of Baptisme inacteth As for the matter of Ordination the words of Saint Paul stick close 1 Tim. IV. 14. Neglect not the grace that is in thee being given thee through prophesie by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery At least taking in Saint Paul againe 1 Cor. IV. 7. For who distinguisheth thee Or What hast thou that thou receivest not But if thou hast received why dost thou boast as not having received Which I have showed being spoken of the Grace of an Apostle is drawn into consequence on all hands concerning the grace of a Christian And therefore it will not serve the turne to say that Saint Paul speaketh of some of those graces that are called gratis datae that some for the use of the Church not for the salvation of him that hath them For Saint Paul when he calleth those graces the manifestation of the Spirit signifieth that they were given by God to manifest his presence in the Church by the visible operations of them And therefore ordinarily they presupposed in him that had them the presence of the holy Ghost to the effect of saving grace The cases of Balaam and Caiaphas or Saul or those that prophesied in Christs name I have showed
course of life as he thinks may give him best meanes and opportunity of discharging the common profession of Christians though all Christians are not tied to professe the same shall he not stand bound to make it good upon the same ground for which Ananias and Sapphira are condemned in withdrawing that which they professed to consecrate to God But Saint Pauls instruction to refuse the younger widdows hath no answer Because when they grow wanton against Christ they will marry Having damnation as having set their first faith at nought 1 Tim. V. 11 12. For what can that first faith be but their promise ingaged to the Church whereby they dedicate themselves to the service thereof in the state of widows Under the Old Testament it is no mistake of the Jewes to believe that all Gods people were ordinarily under the precept of increase and multiply requiring of them the state of marriage Saint Angustine and other Fathers of the Church have found markes of it in the Old Testament It is not therefore to be imagined that there is either precept or precedent for the state of Monkes in the Old Testament Nor yet to be denied that Nazarites especially from the mothers womb that those women who kept guard at the Tabernacle Exod. XXXVIII 5. 1 Sam. II. 22. as Anna the daughter of Phanuel that departed not from the Temple serving God with fasting and prayer day and night Luke II. 37. that the Rechabites are instances and precedents of some principles and ingredients of their profession even under the Old Testament For if man and wife should now dedicate themselves to attend upon the poor sick and helplesse in hospitals or the like they would be no lesse The Prophets though under no perpetuall tye lived in a kind of Community with their disciples not for that knowledge of the Law which the Rulers of the people professed whom they were ordinarily in difference with and often times persecuted to death by them but for those rudiments of Christianity which by their meanes were kept alive under the Law The Rechabites being of the race of the Kenites which it seems upon Moses invitation to Jethro tooke part with the Israelites in the Land of Promise under the condition of worshipping onely the true God knowing what all strangers are subject to living under the dominion and protection of strangers received a Law from their predecessors not to have further to do in the world then their subsistence by the simplest sort of life by being shepherds required And being commended for obeying their Rule by the Prophet Jeremy from Gods mouth have much justified them who under Christianity do voluntarily put themselves under the like Rule out of a pretense the better to discharge their Christianity by that meanes During the time of our Lord there was a third sect of people among the Jewes whom we find no mention of in the Scriptures of the New Testament because they lived retyred out of the world some married others in single life both under a most strict observation of their Rule which you have in Josephus under the name of Essanes It is well enough known that Eusebius finding a relation written by Philo the Jew of that manner of life which they used in Egypt hard by Alexandria hath reported them for Christians and how this report hath been disowned of late yeares as a meer mistake of Eusebius or an ungrounded conjecture I who have showed that it is possible Philo himself may have been a Christian must not reject the opinion of those who think they might really be Christians converted by the first arrivall of Christianity in Aegypt For in the case which I spoke of there is no cause why they might not be both Jewes and Christians the separation of the Church from the Synagogue not being yet formed and when it was formed continue Christians forsaking the Synagogue And truly the mention of Virgines as of a peculiar order visible in the Church is so ancient in the writings of Tertulliane Methodius whose Book of Virginity is published of late and Saint Cypriane that it must needs be impossible to find any beginning for it For Tertulliane writing his Book De velandis Virginibus to prove that Order not exempt from Saint Pauls injunction that women vail their faces at divine service appeales to the custome of the Church at Corinth to which Saint Paul writ it as having alwayes observed it in Virgines And therefore the same Saint Paul directing him who had resolved to keep his daughter a Virgine 1 Cor. VII 37. seems to suppose this resolution to imply that education whereby she might be inabled so to continue For it is true the profession is difficult but not impossible for him to go commendably through with that by Gods grace undertakes it with that zeal which the end requires I do much admire the resolution of Gennadius De ' Dogmat. Eccles cap. LXIV that it is not the meer love of a continent estate which Christianity esteems unlesse it be chosen as the meanes and opportunity of serving God with the more freedome otherwise signifying rather the declining of mariage then the love of Chastity For. so it is indeed he that chuses a continent estate to avoid the difficulties of mariage seems rather to tempt God and to expose himself to many desertions waving the remedy which he hath provided But he who trusts to Gods assistance for the accomplishment of that intention which Christianity commendeth though it command not may assure himselfe of it not destituting his prayers of the indeavours which he may and is to contribute This being the case of particular persons that withdraw themselves from the world to make their salvation the more assured the interesse which accrues to the Church in them that do so seems to be no more then may be grounded upon the profession of such a purpose For so long as it is secret between God and the soul the Church can have nothing to do in it But being once professed and known to take hold the transgression thereof becoming notorious is a sinne which owes an account to the Church Not that the manner of this profession is any way provided for but by the custome of the Church For he that should actually and visibly declare such an intention by really entering upon the course and living according to it would become necessarily liable to that account for the transgressing of it which the solemnity renders due And therefore that solemnity reduceth it self to the nature of those ceremonies whereby actions of great consequence wherein the authority of the Church is exercised ought in reason to get reverence For by that meanes the parties concerned receive a due impression of the charge they undertake when God and his Church become rather parties then witnesses to it In the mean time they remaine in the Church what they were before private Christians onely professing such a course of life onely ingaged to God in
the Temple to serve God with his then people Acts II. 42 44 46. V. 13. VI. 1 4. And shall wee think that all the Christians in Corinth where God had said to S. Paul that hee had many people Acts XVIII 10. could meet in one room because S. Paul sayes 1 Cor. XI 20. when yee meet together in one place For they must not onely meet together but sup together as the Apostle showes which would require a great room if God had many people there And all the believers at Jerusalem met together and supped together Acts II. 44 46. VI. 1. but not VIM in one room as I suppoâ—e Therefore at Corinth also there might be more Congregations than one where the Church was but one and all might meet together though in several places several assemblies In the mean time I do not hear what they say to that which I have alleged in my book of the Right of a Church in a Christian State pag. 44-50 to show that wee never read of more Churches than one in one City but every where of more than one in one Province in the writings of the Apostles And therefore I will here plead further That from the time of the Apostles to the Reformation which wherein it consisteth my businesse is to inquire and therefore not to suppose that it consisteth in every thing that hath been done all the Independents in the world shall never be able to show mee any thing called a Church but the Body of Christians that lived in one City and the territory of it Indeed at the first preaching of Christianity it must needs come to passe that the number of Christians in a very great City might be so little that they might meet all at once And the name of Cities might be extended to Townes and Villages that could make but few Congregations when the question was made whether they should make several Churches or resort to one As I have instanced there But because wee have yet extant antient lists of all the Churches of the Romane Empire and the Soveraignties into which it is dissolved punctually agreeing with the records of all Church Writers in comprising the whole summe of Christians within and under one City in one Church It may perhaps be found that all the Christians in a whole Nation might resort to one Church which was the Church of the Head City But that ever there were any Christians that took it for a Law that every Congregation is to be a Church before the Reformation it can by no means appear whatsoever hath been done since And therefore I challenge that all reasonable men must allow all Christians that succeeded the Apostles understood the meaning of their writings by their acts when they cast all the Christians in under one City every where into one Church then those who now challenge for a Law of God that all Congregations are to be Churches And thus farre it appears by the same evidence upon which wee accept of our common Christianity that is by the Scriptures and by the consent of all Christians that the Apostles so founded the Churches of their planting that they might be fit to concurre to the constitution of one whole Church CHAP. VII That the Apostles delivered to the Church a Summary of Christianity which all should be baptized were to profess Evidence out of the Scriptures Evidence out of the Scriptures for Tradition regulating the Communion of the Church and the Order of it Evidence for the Rule of Faith out of the records of the Church For the Canons of the Church and the pedegree of them from the Order established in the Church by the Apostles That the profession of Christianity and that by being baptized is necessary to the salvation of a Christian BUt I will grant that this were not evidence enough out of the Scriptures for a point of such consequence as it will appear to be of when it apâ—eares to be true were it not for the general inference that I made afore Here I challenge having proved against the Leviathan that whosoever acknowledges our Lord Jesus to be the Christ must acknowledge whatsoever hee teaches and delivers either by himself or the Apostles his Deputies to be Law to the Church That whatsoever it may appear any way that the Aposâ—lhs delivered to the Church to be observed in it is of that nature I say further it is evident by their writings that they delivered to the Church a certain Summary of Christianity which whosoever was admitted into the Church by Baâ—tisme underto professe and practise Indeed this is the main point now in hand that all interpretation of Scripture is to be confined within this Summary as the Rule of our common Christianity And therefore it may seem that I go about first to prove the Corporation of the Church by this Rule And then to prove the Rule by the consent of the Church whereby I pretend to evidence what the Apostles delivered to the Church for the Rule of our common Christianity But I can easily answer that it is one thing to question whether the Apostles did deliver any such Rule to the Church from the beginning or not Another what it containes and what belongs to it as part of it what not If it may appear by the writings of the Apostles that delivered it and by the acknowledgment of the Church that received it for what othâ—r meane can there be to make it appear that such a sense the Apostles did deliver to the Church it will be a great part of the evidence that they did found the Church for a Corporation wherein the profession of it might be preserved and wherein God mâ—â—â—t be served according to the profession of it And if this may appear then the consent of this Corporation will be as good evidence as the subject mater allowes whether any thing questionable be part of it or not Let us then heare the Apostles Thanks be to God saith S. Paul Rom. VI. 17. that being once slaves to sinne yee have obeyed from your heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you Had hee onely said it was dâ—livered they had not acknowledged themselves obliged but when hee sayes they obeyed it hee shows they were under the obligation that God cast on them by delivering it 2 Pet. II. 21. It had been better for them not to have owned the way of righteousnesse than having owned it to return from the holy commandement delivered What is this holy commandement what is this way of righteousnesse but in one word Christianity Which when hee saith it was delivered hee means by Metonymy that it was received because hee saith further that they had owned it The same is called by another Apostle Jude 3. the Faith once delivered to the Saints And S. Paul 2 Tim. I. 13 14. Hold fast the form of wholesom words which thou hast heard of mee in faith and love which is through Christ Jesus Keep that good
Thus S. Paul calleth Gaius his host and of the whole Church Rom. XVI 23. signifying that as hee intertained him S. Paul so hee was ready to intertaine any Christian as a Christian And addeth to that Epistle a recommendation whereby Phaebe might be acknowledged and received as a Deaconesse of the Church at Cenchreae Rom. XVI 1. Whereas otherwise leter◠were written expresse to that purpose which S. Paul himself calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or commendatory 2 Cor. III. 1. The termes in which S. Paul recommends Phabe are these That yee receive her in the Lord as it becometh the Saints and stand by her in any businesse where shee may stand in need For shee also hath stood by many and by mee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Athens was strangers patrone For at Athens a stranger that came to live there could not act for himself but by his patrone The same S. Paul thus chargeth Titus III. 22. Send away Zenas the Lawyer and Apollos with care that they want nothing That is put money in their purse as their journey shall require As the Aegyptians sent away the Israelites with care when they furnished them with all that they demanded Wisedome XIX 2. But the passage of S. Johns Epistle III. 5-10 is very remarkable You saw how in his second Epistle hee forbids them so much as to salute Hereticks much lesse to intertaine them or any that should not bring with him the true Faith That is a cognisance that they professed it Here hee commends Gaius for assisting some Christian strangers that travailed for the name of Christ that is upon the businesse of the Church taking nothing of the Gentiles because themselves were Jewes turned Christians These hee saith had born witnesse to Gaius his love before the Church by writing leters to acquaint the Church from whence they came with their intertainment Wishing him so to dispatch them as may be fitting towards God because by so doing a man assists the truth And whereas Diotrephes had prevailed with the Church not to receive them and did labor particular men to that purpose upon pretense it seemes of some strangenesse between the Jewes and Gentiles that were turned Christians forbids him to be ruled by his factiousnesse Wee heare S. Paul in the end of his Epistles relate the saluations of the brethren that is of the Church from whence hee dates and also of particular persons eminent there to the Body of the Church hee writes to What ground had there been for this intercourse had not the Apostle taught them that they were all of one Body and so ought to preserve themselves How often do they charge them to salute one another with a holy kisse or the kisse of love Rom. XVI 16. 2 Cor. XIII 12. 1 Thess V. 14. 1 Pet. V. 14. which the Constitutions of the Apostles showes was done before the Consecration of the Eucharist to signifie the love of one another in Christ and for Christ wherewith they professed to rceive the same Though Origen upon Rom. XVI sayes it came after Prayer And Tertullian therefore calls it signaculum orationis de Orat. XIV the seal of prayer To wit of that prayer which the Eucharist was celebrated with Therefore chose salutations joyned with the charge of saluting one another in token of this love signifie no lesse than the expression of the same love from forrain Churches which they professed among themselves in the communion of the same mysteries That is that they who absent thus saluted them did no less communicate with them in the same Sacrament than they did with one another who saw one another communicate with one another face to face This is then that communication of peace that title of brotherhood that recognisance of the marks of hospitality which Tertullian allegeth for the means whereby all Churches make one Church the same with that primitive and original Church which was first founded by the Apostles The unity whereof being grounded upon the same Faith delivered and received at the Sacrament of Baptisme is able to make evidence of the same Faith Do not all the records of the Church from the Apostles time justifie the same visible communion in Christianity by the same intercourse and communion of counsailes and businesse which were trouble to no purpose were not the intent of it to maintain the Unity of the Church Look upon the Epistles of Ignatius and observe in them two things for the present purpose The first that Ignatius being carried in bands from Rome to Antiochia the Churches by which hee passed not onely those hee writes his Epistles to but divers others send deputations of the principal persons among them to conferre with him about their present estate Which are the occasions of the leters hee directs to them The second that hee desires them to depute and ordaine certain persons to go to Antiochia to his Church there to congratulate with them that since hee was taken from them they were returned from persecution into their wonted body The preservation whereof I suppose every man will imagine this conference advice and comfort of so many Churches was the means to advance The same is to be seen by that of Clemens or rather of the Church of Rome in whose name hee writes it to the Church of Corinth divided within it self into factions to reduce them to peace and unity For I suppose the premises will show the reason that must oblige the parties to respect the advice of the Church of Rome To wit the obligation of communicating with the whole Church Seeing reason requires that the party which should refuse to return to unity must be refused the communion of the Church of Rome and those Churches by consequence that should adhere to it Look now upon S. Cyprians leters look upon the leters of Dionysius of Alexandria out of which for the greatest part Eusebius hath compiled the seventh book of his Ecclesiastical Histories look upon the rest of the intercourse by which the unity and communion of the Church was maintained distinct from all Heresies and Schisms from the Apostles time till Constantine and let mee know what probable reason can be assigned to move forrain Churches to give that respect to strafigers which was effectual to the purpose intended had not all sides been perswaded that this was the end with the Apostles after our Lord had ordained this the meanes to procure it Take for an instance the leter of tha Synod at Antiochia about Paulus Samosatenus in the place afore quoted There showing that having deposed him they had made a new Bishop in his stead they write further 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This wee have given you notice of that you may write to him and receive from him communicatory leters But let him that is deposed write to Artemon and let them of Artemons sect communicate with him These leters then were a mark and cognisance that they acknowledged him
meaning that the CXLIVM are seen standing with the Lamb upon mount Sion XIV 1. if they belong not to that people What is the meaning that afterwards XIV 19 20. when the Angel with the sickle had made the Vintage and cast it into the Wine-presse of Gods wrath this Wine-presse is trode without the City and the bloud over-flows to the space of XVI C furlongs But that the City of Jerusalem is meant and the Judgment executed in the destruction thereof expressed by the Wine-presse of Gods wrath which over-flowed all that compasse without the City If these things cannot be unlesse the sounding of the seven Trumpets Chap. VIII and IX be understood to proclaim the same vengeance Let mee ask what is the reason that having related what the founding of them produced hee addeth IX 20 21. The rest of men that were not slain with these Plagues neither repented of the works of their hands so as not to worship Devils and Idols of gold silver brasse stone and wood which can neither see nor hear nor go Nor of their murthers and witcheries and whoredoms and thefts For the Jews not being chargeable with Idolatry at that time nor the consequences thereof how should the rest be chargeable for not repenting of the same For to say that covetousnesse of silver gold and goods of brasse stone or wood is the Idolatry and these the Idols here meant is to strain the Scripture to an improper sense whereof there is no argument in the words But if wee say that the rest of men that were not slain with the Jews are the Gentiles to whom God by destroying Jerusalem sent a warning to turn them from their Idols to Christianity for persecuting whereof they saw the Jews destroyed wee say that the main scope of the whole Prophesie is touched in these words And from hence wee shall be able to give a reason why having propounded in the twelfth and thirrteenth Chapters the subject of that vengeance which hee seeth God to take by the Vision of the seven Viols in the fifteenth and sixteenth Chapters hee returneth to remembrance of those CXLIV M that were marked to be saved and of the destruction of the rest of the Jews XIV 1-5 14-20 of which I shall not easily believe that a reasonable account can be given otherwise For having fore-told the persecution of Christians in those two Chapters the twelfth and thirteenth what could be more pertinent than that hee should return to the remembrance of the saving of those that were marked and the destruction of Jerusalem as a patern of comfort to Christians to incourage them to indure and of terror to the Gentiles to refrain that fury And therefore as before IX 20. this intent had been signified so it is most expresly repeated by the proclamation of three Angels one after another XIV 6 8 9-11 warning all to worship God alone not the Beast of Chapter XIII and fore-warning of the fall of Babylon for her Idolatries Now I am to remember you that after the sealing of the CXLIVM Jewish Christians there appears before the Throne of God so great a multitude as no man could number of all Nations Tribes people and Languages cloathed in white Robes and singing praises to God Which afterwards are expounded by the Angel to be those that come out of the great tribulation and had washed their Robes white in the bloud of the Lamb VII 9. 14. that is to say Martyrs And further that these are they who are seen at opening the fifth Seal standing beneath the Altar and calling for vengeance upon their bloud VI. 9 10. Which vengeance begins to be executed by the seven Trumpets And the Angel that throws down those coals of vengeance upon the earth from the Altar above is said to put incense to the prayers of the Saints VIII 3 4 5. So that the same Censer sends up perfume that is those prayers to the throne and vengeance down upon earth Seeing then that it is manifest to all that at opening the first Seal our Lord goes forth upon a white horse to make warr VI. 2. Who after victory and revenge upon his enemies appears in the same likenesse again as triumphing over his enemies XIX 11-16 it will be requisite to understand the Vision of opening the six Seals to be a general proposition of the whole Prophesie signifying the publishing of the Gospel and the prevailing thereof through the vengeance which God would execute upon the persecutors of it Jews first and afterwards Gentiles of the Romane Empire who would not take warning by the destruction of Jerusalem to turn from persecuting the Gospel to imbrace Christianity And therefore the signification of the rest of the Seals is common to both For when hee feeth a Red Horse to signifie warr a Black Horse to signifie famine and a Pale Horse to signifie pestilence VI. 3-8 it is manifest that all this agrees wonderfully with that which our Lord had fore-told should come to passe in Jewry as a preface to the destruction of Jerusalem of warrs famines earthquakes and pessilences so as notwithstanding the end not to be yet Mark XIII 5-10 Mat. XXIV 6-15 Luke XXI 8-20 And yet it expresseth as punctually those calamities of the world which those of the Empire did impute to the sufferance of Christianity when as God indeed intended thereby to punish them that imbraced it not Antiquity is copious in this subject that when these calamities fell out the Romanes cried out upon the Christians as the onely cause of them The beginning of Arnobius his dispute against the Gentiles will satisfie you of it When as therefore the persecution of Christianity was both begun in Jewry as the Acts of the Apostles inform us and prosecuted in the Empire it will be against the truth of the case to restrain the cry of the Souls under the Altar upon the opening of the fifth Seal either to those that suffered by the Jewes or by the Empire Now hee that peruseth that which is said to have come to passe upon the opening of the sixth Seal Apoc. VII 12-17 might have cause to think that hee reads the destruction of the world but that it is evident both that the destruction of Jerusalem is prophesied by our Lord by the like expressions which the Prophets also of the Old Testament do use in describing the vengeance which God taketh upon the Nations and also that this Prophesie expresses a large time for Christianity to continue in the world after this vengeance taken by God upon the enemies of it And therefore wee must believe that those have reason who referr the effect of it no lesse to the great change that fell out in the world upon the ceasing of the persecution of Diocletian and the coming of the Empire into the hands of the Christians than to the destruction of Jerusalem For when could it be said more justly that the world was in an earthquake that the Sun became like hair
whom he predestinated those he also called and whom he called those he also justified and whom he justified those be also glorified The purpose according to which he describes them to be called to whose good all things conduce is either the purpose of God or their own As Barnabas exhorteth them that were converted to cleave to God with purpose of heart Acts XI 23. For those that are called are often taken by S. Paul metonymically for those that have obeyed their calling by God as Rom. I. 6 7. 1. Corin. â— 2. 24. Jude 9. Apoc. XVII 14. and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epe IV. 1. And so all things conduce to good for those that not onely are professed Christians but are so from a steddy purpose of heart But though we grant that they are described by two qualifications one that they love God the other that thy are predestinated to life that is called out of a purpose in God to save them yet they are not predestinated by God to become conformable to the pattern of Christ which consists in bearing his Crosse but as Christians And this it is which here S. Paul saies they are predestinated to not to life The predestination which he speakes of here is not of men to be saved but of Christians to beare the Crosse of Christ whereof he had said a little afore for the occasion of this discourse Rom. VIII 17 18. If we be sons then also â—eires Heires of God but joint heires with Christ that if we suffer with him we may also be glorified with him For I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not valuable with the glory that is to be revealed upon us And when he calleth them Saints and those that love God and those he foreknew it is manifest that the foreknowledge which he meaneth is that whereby God knew them true Christians from the heart whom he intends to prove and therefore appoints them to beare Christs Crosse that being justified that is approved in so doing they may be glorified in Gods purpose and the right and title of their owne estate All this being manifest by the proposition of the Chapter There is now therefore no more condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus that live not after the flesh but after the spirit Which words plainly describing those that are Christians from a grounded purpose of the heart of whome the sequele of the discourse must proceed manifestly demonstrate that S. Paul speakes not of Gods predestinating any man to be saved but of predestinating those whom he knowes to be good Christians to beare Christs Crosse and so to obtaine Gods promises As the same S. Paul saith that it was granted of grace to the Philippians not onely to believe in Christ but to suffer for Christ Phi. XI 26. And hereby it is manifest that succeeding graces are bestowed in consideration of the right use of those that went afore For here you see that those who being moved by the helps of Gods preventing grace have submitted themselves to the profession of Christianity from the heart are in consideration thereof designed by God to the happy accomplishment of their course And this is invincibly evidenced by the promise of the H. Ghost tendred by the Gospel to those that obey Gods calling by undertaking to be Christians for the inabling of them to persevere in that which tâ—ey undertake The same is exprest in the words of the Apostle when having menaced the Hebrew Christians with the expectation of vengeance upon their Apostasy he thus restores them againe Heb XI 9. 10. But we are perswaded better things and that belong to salvation of you beloved though we thus speake For God is not unjust to forget your worke and labour of love which ye showe to his name ministring to the saints as still ye doe For it is manifest that the Apostle expects here the supply of grace inabling to persevere from the justice of God in consideration of that which they had done in performance of their Christian profession before On the other side it may be objected that if the whole worke of grace in the life of each Christian be resolved into the free appointment of God in regard that those helps which each man is first prevented with cannot be granted in consideration of any worke of our nature the rest depending on those first helps it is to no purpose to dispute how the freedome of the will takes place in every particular act each mans finall estate being no lesse determined then if there were no place for it Neither availeth it any man that God appointeth him not to death or gives him sufficient helps to bring him to life seeing that the efficacy of them depending upon his meere will the sufficience of them serves but to aggravate his sentence To this my answer is that I conceive I am not to answer further then S. Paul hath done Who having objected to him selfe in the person of the Jewes thinking much they should not be saved by the Law Why doth God then find fault For who hath resisted his will Rom. IX 29. Returnes an answer that denies not that God might convert the Jewes to Christianity did he think it fitting But thus Nay rather who art thou O man that disputest with God Shall the earthen pot say to the potter Why hast thou made me thus Hath not the potter power over the clay to make one vessell to an honourable use another to a dishonourable of the same compost What if God willing to shew wrath and make knowne his power hath borne with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fit to be destroyed That he might also make knowne the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy us whom he hath called not onely of the Jewes but also of the Gentiles whom he hath prepared for glory Where since God forbeares the vessels of his wrath with that long suffering which S. Peter saies â—leades to repentance designing to shew his wrath the heavyer upon them for neglecting it it is manifest that they are not said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if God had fited them for it as designed and made to that dishonourable use which is the reason why I translated it not as a participle but as a noune not fitted for destruction as by God but fit for destruction as of themselves And therefore that one and the same masse of compost out of which the potter makes vessels to contrary uses is to be compared with mankind in that estate in which the Gospell finds it the question being made why some obay it and not others why the Gentiles rather then the Jewes and the argument made that if Gods grace be the cause then are not they to be blamed that neglect it And the Apostle having premised for his ground that all mankind being overtaken by the Gospell destitute of righteousnesse are to become Christians that they may obtain it This being the case it
counted the Sacrifice of Christ crucified mystically and as in a Sacrament represented to feasted upon by his people The Apostle saith that Christ is gone into no holy place made with hands figurative of the true but into heaven it self to be presented before God for us Nor to offer himself many times as the High Priest goes once a year into the Holy places with that bloud which is not his own For then must hee many times have suffered since the foundation of the world But now once in the end of times is hee manifested by the sacrifice of himself to the voiding of sin And as it is appointed for men once to dye and after that judgment So Christ once offered to take away the sins of many shall appear the second time without sin to those that look for him to salvation Ebr. IX 24-28 But have I said any thing to cause any man to imagine that I suppose Christ to be crucified again as often as the Eucharist is celebrated Do I say those that celebrate it are those Jewes that crucified him once Or do I or can I imagine them to be Jewes at all that would have the sacrifice of our Lord Christ upon the Crosse repeated again and again as legal sacrifices are Certainly I will speak freely neither can they that hold Transubstantion be truly said to stand obliged to any such consequence so long as they acknowledg with all Christians that the Covenant of Grace is for once settled by the one Sacrifice of our Lord upon the Crosse Why because though they believe the natural flesh and bloud of Christ as crucified to be there yet not naturally but sacramentally that is in their sense under the accidents of bread and wine which is indeed and in the sense of the Church under the species or kinds which difference is so great an abatement of that common and usual sense in which all Christians understand that Christ was sacrificed upon the Crosse that all that know it to be their profession which all must know that will not speak of they know not what must acknowledg that the repeating of the Sacrifice of Christ crucified by the Eucharist is not the repeating of that Sacrifice by which mankinde was redeemed otherwise than as a Sacrament is said to be that whereof it is a Sacrament What ground and advantage this gives mee and any man of my opinion to argue from those things which themselves acknowledg that there is no cause why they should insist upon the abolishing of the substance of the Elements in the Eucharist I leave to them that shall think fit to consider the premises to judg But for mee who demand no more than this That in as much as the body and bloud of Christ is in the Eucharist in so much it is the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse I cannot foresee what occasion slander can have to pick any such consequence out of my sayings Certainly the Sacrifices of the Old Law ceased not to be Sacrifices because they were figures and Prophesies of that one Sacrifice upon the Crosse which mankinde was redeemed with And why should the commemoration and representation in that sense of this word repraesentation which I determined afore of that one Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse which mankinde was redeemed with be lesse properly a Sacrifice in dependance upon denomination from that one which the name of Sacrifice upon the Crosse was first used to signifie For all conceit of legal Sacrifice is quite shut out by supposing that Sacrifice past which the Sacrifice of the Eucharist represents and commemorates Whereas all Sacrifices of the Old Law are essentially at least to Christians figurative of the Sacrifice of Christ to come Indeed by that which I have said concerning the nature of a Sacrifice in the Eucharist as it is intended for Christians to feast upon it is evident that this commeâ—orative and representative Sacrifice is of the nature and kinde of Peace-Offerings which by the Law those that offered were to feast upon I will take the Cup of salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. I will pay my vowes now in the presence of all his people Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints saith the Psalm CXVI 12 13. And that in answer to the question made What reward shall I give unto the Lord for all the benefits that hee hath done unto mee At feasting upon the parts or remains of Peace-Offerings the Master of the Sacrifice began the Cup of Thanksgiving for deliverance received in consideration whereof hee payes his vowes And the Sacrifices which hee payes are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sacrifice of Thanks-giving for deliverance received Is not this the â—ame that Christians do in celebrating the Euâ—harist setting aside the difference between Jews and Christians Wherefore I have showed that it is celebrated and is to be celebrated with commemoration of and thanksgiving for the benefits of God especially that of Christ crucified Which thankâ—giving as it tends to the consecrating thereof so in as much as the consecration tends to the receiving of it another thanksgiving at the receiving of it becomes also due as at feasting upon Peace-Offerings And hereupon I have showed that it is called by the Apostle the sacrifice of Praise the fruit of our lips giving thanks to God And that hâ—ving showed that Jewes have no right to it as a Propitiatory Sacrifice that is not to it because not to the Propitiatory Sacrifice which it representeth But therefore that Christiâ—ns have right to feast upon it as the Jews upon their Peace-Offerings But if it be true as I have showed that the celebrâ—tion of the Eucharist is the renewing of the Covenant of Grace which supposeth propitâ—ation made for the sins of mankinde by that one sacrifice which it commemorâ—teth and representeth the celebration thereof being commanded as a condition to be performed on our part to qualifie us for the promise which it tendreth to those that are qualified as it requireth Shall it be a breaâ—h upon Christianity to say also that it is such a Sacrifice whereby wee make God propitious to us and obtain at his hands the blessings of Grace which the Covenant of Grace tendreth This indeed requireth yet further consideration for what reasons the Sacrament of the Eucharist may be accounted and called a Sacrifice that wee may be able to judge in what sense and for what reason it may be accounted Propitiatory and Impetratory without prejudice to Christianity First then let it be remembred that by the institution and ordinance of God those that dedicate themselves to the service of God in the faith of Christ by Baptism are to dedicate their goods to the maintenance of the Communion of the Church in the said service the chief Office whereof is the celebration of the Eucharist proper to Christianity as I showed a little afore Then be it observed that there were two
God knowes us as we are Nay he saith there that Moses beheld 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek seems to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying that glorious appearance witnessing the presence of God which Moses communed with mouth to mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by sight for we have no better English for S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. V. 7. not by riddles Whereby it appeareth the knowledge of God which blessed soules have is described by S. Paul in the very same termes in which the knowledg of God which Moses had is described by God And yet none of those School Doctors believes that Moses saw God as the blessed shall doe Therefore both of them seeme to be such an expression of intellectuall and spirituall things borrowed from bodily things of this world as this weakenesse of our nature is able to beare And therefore seeing God is represented to us throughout the whole scripture in the Majesty of a King sitting upon his Throne as the most glorious thing that all sorts of men to whom the scripture is written can imagine to themselves it seemeth most reasonable to conceive that both expâ—essions are borrowed from thence For the custome of the world knowes no more evident marke of preferment then for a man to see his King and to be alwaies admitted to his presence of which admission Courts know that there are many degrees As the VII Princes in Ester I. 16. which see the Kings face Or stand before the Kings face as the Queen of Sheba expresseth it in Solomons servants 2 Kings X. 8. As the souls of the Martyrs are before Gods throne and see him day and night Apoc. VII 15. And so by consequence those soules that are admitted into Gods presence have an other manner of knowledge and familiarity with God then ever Moses had because it is one thing to see God to speake with God mouth to mouth in his Tabernacle Where by a glorious appearance speaking in his person he testified his presence another thing in the third heavens whereof the most Holy Place of the Tabernacle was but a figure Here take notice before we goe further in what fashion the Majesty of God appeareth or is described in the scriptures I saw the Lord sitting on his Throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left saith the prophet 1 Kings XX. 19. that is all the Angels attending on both sides of his Throne God is to be trembled at in the great council of his Saints and terrible above all that are about him Saith David Psa LXXIX 8. The Majesty of his Throne is terrible even to the Angels that stand beneath and about it For the Saints of heaven in the old Testament are onely Angels Thus far none of them sits in Gods presence In that vision of his throne which appeareth Dan. VII 9. 10. with God sitting on it like the Ancient of daies with a thousand thowsands and a miryade of miryads waiting upon him it is said indeed Thrones were set But no mention of any but this one in all that followeth And though the people of God are called there v. 22 25 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saints of the Highest Yet the Angles are still the Saints of heaven His people the Saints on earth whom God there giveth sentence for against their enemies But to the prophet Ezekiel I. 22 26 27. he appearteth in the likenesse of a man sitting upon a Throne pitched on a floor which is drawne by foure living creatures signifying those Angels which covered the Arke of the Covenant in the Tabernacle upon which God is described to sit as upon his Throne in so many places of the old Testament Whereas in the vision of the Prophet Esay his Throne is compassed by six Esay VI. 1 2. in that of S. Iohn Apoc. IV. 2 3 5-8 with foure But in the new testament our Lord promises his twelve Apostles that at the regeneration that is the Resurrection they shall sit on twelve Thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel Mat. XIX 28. Luke XXII 30. where by the way wee are also to note that the Kingdome of God which oure Lord bequeaths to them to eate and to drink in it and to sit on these thrones is not till the resurrection Therfore neither these joies which the said eating and drinking signifies Hereuppon it is that S. Paul saith Know you not that the Saints shal judge the world 1 Cor. VI. 2. When therfore God appeareth to S. Iohn as a bout to take vengeance upon the persecutors of his Church his throne appeareth invironed with XXIV Thrones for XXâ—V Elders to sit on and give sentence with him Apoc. VI. 4. the Angels attending upon their Thrones as upon his Apoc. V. 11. VII 11. and the soules of the Martyrs which Apoc. VI. â— appeare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beneath the Altar of incense which stands before the throne Apoc. VIII 3. appeare before the Throne Apoc. VII 9. Just as in the Church the people was wont to stand at the service of God with their faces towardes the Bishop sitting on his throne in the midst of the seates on which the Presbyters sate on both sides of him the Deacons standing to gâ—ve them attendance As I have shewed large in my booke of the service of the Church Chap. III. p. 53-62 Chap. IV. p. 71-76 besides the review p. 74 75. And further in my book of the Râ—ght of the Church p. 93-98 But all this while we must remember that though this vision appeares to S. Iohn in the heavens Apoc. IV. 1. yet doth it not appear that the Throne of God before which the soules of the Martyrs stand and round about which the XXIV Elders sit is seene by them as it is seene by S. Iohn in the vision here described For whereas it is plaine that all this is represented as if there wâ—re in Heaven such a Temple as that at Jerusalem in the inner court whereof the Elders sit the people stand praysing God For Apoc. VII 15. the Martyâ—s serve God before the Throne day and night in the Temple It is manifest that the Throne of God which in the Temple was the Arke of the Covenant shadowed with the Châ—rubâ—nes was not seene by those who worshipped without in the Court. And Apoc. IV 5. it is said that thunder and lightning came out of the Throne and that there were seven lamps burning before the Throne being the seven spirits of God So that the seven candelsticks being betweene the Holy of Holies and the Court in which these things appeare we are obliged to understand the Throne to be in the Holy of Holies as in the Temple and the VII lights in the outward Tabernacle or holy place of the Temple Which is still more plaine when it is said Apoc. XI 19. And the Temple of God in heaven was opened and the Arke of his Covenant was seene in
God hath allowed them to tempt mankind and to dwell in the air about them Job I. 7. II. 2. Ephes II. 2. VI. 12. whereupon they desire our Lord not to send them into the deep Luke VIII 31. it seemeth necessary to grant that he will take account of them for the malice which at present he suffereth them to exercise though sentenced to that dungeon and those bonds which they can no more escape then be converted to goodnesse from the beginning CHAP. XXVII The Soules of the Fathers were not in the Devils Power till Christ Though the Old Testament declare not their estate Of Samuels soul The soul of our Lord Christ parting from his body went with the Thiefe to Paradise Of his triumph over the powers of darknesse Prayer for the dead signifieth no delivering of soules out of Purgatory The Covenant of Grace requires imperfect happinesse before the generall judgement Of forgivenesse in the world to come and paying the utmost farthing IT is manifest then by these premises that there is appearance enough of difference in and between severall Scriptures that concern the state of souls departed before the generall judgement Neverthelesse in this it cannot be said that there is any difference but that all is agreed that the wicked are in paine the righteous at rest upon their departure As the Parable of Dives and Lazarus distinguishes And this I should here proceed further to limit but that I hope to do it more clearly and resolutely premising here the determination of two points incident For it is manifest that all parties in difference do allow the hope of salvation to those Christians that depart imperfectly turned from their evil wayes and amended in their inclinations and actions Be it but for the example of the thiefe upon the Crosse though we suppose that as there is but one example written so there are few and very few examples come to passe yet seeing that which hath come to passe may come to passe againe and that the case cannot be excepted from the hope of salvation the question will be what becomes of those soules that depart hence in the state of Gods grace but burthened with sins which they have not repented of to amendment And because all that is to be said of happinesse after death must come out of the new Testament according to the premises It will be requisite to inquire in the second place in what condition the soules of the holy Fathers before and under the Law and those who by their doctrine and example did belong to the new Testament though they lived under the old as I have said in what condition of ease or sorrow they are between their departure and the generall judgement Which drawes an other question after it concerning the place where or the company which Christs humane soul was with during the time it was departed from the body For it is manifest that there is an opinion which hath very great vogue even among the Fathers that the soule of Christ was in Hell with the soules of the Fathers during that time and brought them along from thence when he rose againe carying them up into heaven with him at his ascension where ever since the souls of the martyrs and other eminent Christians which now are properly called Saints for in the writing of the Apostles Christians who are generally called Saints as in the old Testament Israelites are received when they depart hence Those that dy not in Gods Grace being condemned to hell torments But those who have not had care to cleanse themselves of sin by repentance and amendment remaining in the Suburbs of Hell as I may well call that place which the Church of Rome calls Purgatory till by the prayers of the living or having payd the debt of temporall paine remaining due when the guilt of sinne is done away with the debt of eternall paine they are removed to heaven and to the sight of God which is the same happinesse they shall injoy after the resurrection onely that the body hath no part in it as then it shall have That which the opinion which I have mentioned saith of the state of righteous souls under the Old Testament seemeth to stand upon those descriptions of the dead which it giveth The Prophet Esay describing the ruine of the King of Babylon Esay XIV 9. Hell or the grave from beneath is moved for thee at thy coming It stirreth up the dead for thee even all the leaders of the earth To what purpose is it here to dispute whether Hell or the Grave where it is so evident that the dead must rise to meet the King of Israel To what purpose to allege a figure of Prosopopaeia unlesse it could be understood that dead corpses could meet him and receive him without their souls The dead here are in the originall the Giants of whom we read Gen. VI. 4. that for the wickednesse of their times the World was condemned to the floud For though Moses call them Nephilim and Esay Rephaim Yet it is manifest that the same word is attributed to the dead because of the violence and wickednesse which the Scripture showeth were multiplied upon the earth by the Giants before the Floud and afterwards by the Giants that inhabited the land of promise whereupon the Scripture by calling the dead by the name of Giants signifieth that the Giants were under that death which God threatned Adams sinne with And doth not the Scripture of the Old Testament describe unto us the Fathers of the Old Testament in the same estate What shall we say of the soul of Samuel which the witch of Endor raises out of the earth if the Scripture say true 1 Sam. XXVIII 12 14. when the woman saw Samuel And Saul perceived that it was Samuel And that no man may say it is a witch and that he that went to a witch says it What shal we say to the language of Jacob I will go down to my sonne into hell mourning Gen. XXXVII 35. For his grief for Joseph would not have been enough to make him dy with sorrow had he died with Saint Pauls expectation to be with Christ so soon as he was dismissed And therefore the language of David Psal LXXXIX 4 -7 entertaining the thought of death with such astonishment seemeth to give credit to that grosse opinion that souls have no sense till the resurrection but sleep out the time As also King Ezekias weeping at the news of death because the dead could not praise God Esay XXXVIII 3 18. as also Psal VI. 6. and Baruch II. 17. And Job III. 13. makes his case had he never been born the same with the dead Not because he thought the soul mortall Therefore because he thought it a light that death puts out and the resurrection kindles it againe But all this is to be imputed to nothing in the world but that dispensation of the Old Testament which I have spoke of so many times and now
utterly unreasonable For the Parable representing unto us Dives and Lazarus conferring together at that distance what reason can there be why this victory might not be declared at the same distance Or why the soul of Christ should move to do that which might be done at that distance Least of all why it should be necessary to salvation to believe that which there is no reason why it should be necessary to be done It is true our Lord entered into possession of his conquest when he raised the bodies of those Saints which upon his resurrection appeared in Jerusalem For that was to say that their bodies as well as their souls were from henceforth free from the dominion which sinne gave death over mankind But seeing their soules as we have seen were not to change their abode till the generall râ—surrection and seeing therefore that the soul of Christ was not to go to take them from the verge of Hell for the marke and exercise of his triumph I do not see why it should go into the nethermost Hell the place of the damned to declare his victory and to exercise his triumph and nothing else Now having proved that the soules of the Fathers were not removed from the Verge of Hell to heaven by the descent of Christs soul at such time as the passage from the Law to the Gospell might seem to make such a change reasonable I shall be very difficult to be perswaded that any soules of Christians who depart in the state of grace are sent to the Verge of Hell by the name of Purgatory there to remaine till having payd the debt of temporall punishment reserved at the restoring of them to the state of Grace they are by the prayers of their friends here dismissed to heaven and happinesse Every man knowes that this opinion is chiefly built upon the words of Saint Paul 1 Cor. III. 12-15 If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble Every mans work shall be made manifest For the day shall show it for it is revealed with fire and the fire shall try what every mans work is If any mans work remaine which he hath built upon this foundation of Christ he shall receive the reward If a mans work be burnt up he shall suffer losse yet himself shall be saved but so as through fire But who shall consider these words without prejudice seeing he findes them very difficult shall find it impossible to build an article of faith upon them And finding the issue of them to be at the generall day of judgement shall find that removing of souls out of Purgatory upon which all the consequence thereof depends utterly inconsistent with the same For the day whereof S. Paul here speakes can be no other then the day of judgement because had it been any day of inferiour note it must have been described by some further marke which that day needs not I know two opinions that will not have that day to signify the day of judgement Saint Augustine thinkes that it may signify any day of triall For the fire is the meanes of that triall And tribulation being that triall the day will be the day of tribulation Grotius thinks the day to be the judgement of the Church here whereby that which men build upon the foundation of Christ shall be tried whether it be gold silver precious stones according to the foundation or wood hay stubble no way suitable to it For that which agrees not with the foundation there is no reason why it may not be lost and yet he that laid it upon the foundation be saved though not by that fire yet through that fire that tries What pretense is here left for the purging of soules by that fire whereby they are tried If the triall be at the generall judgement to bring souls out of Purgatory then what thanks can it deserve And of the generall judgement S. Paul must needs speake because there is no other triall that is certaine Affliction may try and the Church may try but it may also not try S. Paul speakes of a triall that must be not that may be I confesse this is avoided by saying that Saint Paul here prophesies of a judgement of God to come upon those who adulterated the Gospell at Corinth of whom he speakes For that judgement which S. Paul foretelleth must certainly come to passe But S. Paul when he saith the day shall show it speaketh not of a day which hereby he declareth that it shall come But of a day which otherwise they acknowledge was to come Namely by our common Christianity whereof the day of judgement is a part And whatsoever judgement Saint Paul foretelleth to come upon them seeing the judgements of this world do not use to make every mans work manifest neither can it be said that he whose work remaines shall receive his reward he whose work is burnt up though he suffer losse shall escape as through fire Speaking of such a triall as by the ordinary course of providence manifests not all mens works but some Besides when S. Paul saith the day is revealed he speakes of a day which in the mean time is concealed when it shall be though allready revealed that it shall be And what day is that but the day of judgement Or what fire did they expect that day to be revealed with but that fire which our Lord shall come to judgement with Now the fire of Gods vengeance which the last day shall come with why should it not try as well as punish This is indeed in my understanding all that possibly can remaine questionable in the sense of those words the rest seems clear beyond dispute The fire of the last day is a bodily fire which shall burn up the world or purify it to that constitution which shall remaine for the future But what is that to the trying of their workes Saint Pauls words require it not The day tries the fire consumes the workes and so leaves the men purged by suffering that losse So mens workes being tried by that great day if it the fire of it cleanse their bodies by sensible torments for that which we speak of comes to passe after the restoring of bodies then it is plaine how the man escapes through fire whose workes are consumed by the fire which punishes the man by whom they are done If this fire cannot be properly understood to try what every mans work is it will be nothing unproper to understand the judgement of God to be the fire which examines mens workes by which examination they which have built hay and stubble upon the foundation of Christ shall loose what they have built and yet themselves scape through that fire of conflagration which shall involve those that hold not the foundation with their works The other text of S. Paul is more obscure then this and yet being brought to prove this purpose cannot here be balked 1 Cor. XV. 29.
ground upon which Ceremonies are to be used in the service of the Church Instances out of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Apostles Of the equivocation of the word Sacrament in the Fathers The reason of a Sacrament in Baptisme and the Eucharist In extreme Vnction In Marriage In Confirmation Ordination and Penance NOW to come to the reason for which Ceremonies are to be used in the publick service of God I must here rest in that which I have rendred in my Book of the service of God at the assemblies of the Church being satisfied that it pointeth at the very ground for the use of them from the beginning among Gods people Man is compounded of soule and body and the worship of God and prayer to God is an act of the soule which the body by the senses thereof may diverte the mind from but cannot help forwards it till by the motion and gesture of the body the soul be ingaged to attend on that which the mind proposeth Therefore the people of God in the Scripture pray alwaies either standing or kneeling unlesse some speciall cause move them to prostrate themselves That their ordinary posture was standing appeares by Mat. VI. 5. Mark XI 25. Luke XVIII 11. Neh. IX 5. Jerem. XV. 1. XVIII 19. Job XXX 20. And they have reason who derive the Stations of the primitive Christians and the use of not kneeling on Lords dayes and between Easter and Whitsontide from their custome But therefore they kneeled in Lent and ' Daniel kneeled when he fasted IX 20. and Moses fell prostrate before God Deut. IX 18 25. but Esdras upon his knees Esd IX 5. X. 1. as Daniel also VII 11. to what purpose but to cast down the mind by the posture of the body that being sensible of his wants a man may attend upon God with deep devotion and reverence The Publicane durst not lift up his eyes to heaven Luke XVIII 13. which showes that otherwise they did lift up their eyes and spread their hands to heaven as Lam. III. 41. 1 Kings VIII 54. 1 Tim. II. 8. But the Publicane smote upon his brest because he exacted Penance of himselfe He was a foole for his paines if that be Reformation which is pretended to claime familiarity with Almighty God by talking with him negligently to signify that we are sure of him having Faith that we are predestinate to life as of the number of those for whom Christ died exclusively to the rest of mankind Or if it be Reformation to sit and censure with how fit and pertinent conceptions in how proper and choice terms a man expresses his necessities and the necessities of his people to God But praying to God is something else than all this and not onely the ancient people of God but those who have no sense of religion but that which nature forceth them to show us by their practice that lowlinesse of the body stirreth as well as testâ—fieth reverence in the minde to God in his service All this holdeth taking a man by himselfe as a single Christiane But supposing the society of a Church and an assembly of Gods people for his service there is more to be said The people of God spoke much by visible signes not all by words Jeremy might have said to them of Jerusalem take example by the Rechabites who drink no wine upon the order of their Patriarch But that was not enough He must bringe them to the Temple and set wine before them that having formally refused it he might thereupon protest to his people The same Jeremy might have told the Jewes as Saint Paul doth the Romanes that men are as clay in the Potters hands without going down to the Potters and seeing him spoile a vessell that he was making that he might thereupon take his rise and say that God was framing evil against them whom he had made Jer. XVIII 1-5 without buying an earthen vessell and breaking it before the ancients of the People and of the Priests to tell them that God would break them likewise Jer. XIX 1 11 12. when he makes all that businesse on purpose he showes what force visible signes have to make impression upon the minde of that which words signify neverthelesse The Law would never have appointed to sit still on the Sabbath in remembrance of the creation of the world or the deliverance from Egypt to carry a bundle of branches in the hand and to dwell in booths in remembrance of the voiage through the wildernesse otherwise And is not this reason fit to be applied to the assemblies of Christians Witnesse the Prophet Joel Why must they weep and mourne with their fasting why must the children and sucklings assemble why must the joy of the bride chamber be superseded but to make impression of sorrow upon particulars from that which the publick expresseth Joel II. 13-16 The people of Niniveh and the King thereof put on sackcloth and sat in ashes nor man nor beast must tast foode or drinke water at the preaching of Jonas III. 5. 6. 7. On the contrary at the bringing of the Arke into the City of David Chron. XIII 8. XV. 28. They have seen thy goings O God even the goings of my God my King into the sanctuary The singers went before those that played on instruments followed amongst them were the damsels playing on timbrells And the solemnity which the wall of Jerusalem was dedicated with you may read in Nehem. XII 27-43 The Festival of our Lords Resurrection presupposeth the Fast of the Passion makes all the Lords dayes of the year festivall by renewing weekly that joy which it solemnizeth The Fast which goeth before it by the institution of the Apostles agreeing in it because not agreeing when it should end in Tertullians time was inlarged to those dayes on which the Bridegroome was not missing but by just use of the Churches Power is inlarged to fourty dayes Shall it be superstitious for the Church to professe solemn Penance and mourning for that time which gained the Ninivites that grace which the Gospel tendereth the Gentiles that repent according to their example If it be Reformation to abolish all ceremonies let it be Reformation for Gods people to understand any difference between an humiliation and a thanksgiving Saint Paul disputeth hard that the women of Corinth ought to be vailed the men unvailed Not for any consideration of reverence to God which the uncovering of the head did not signify in those times But to signify the humility and modesty of the sex which had he spoken of serving God in private he need not have stood upon and therefore in regard to the Church Which if it be true if consideration ought to be had of the Church in celebrating the service of God at the assemblies thereof then it is requisite that when the World is come into the Church and all assemble those ceremonies should be used which were not requisite when the numbers were small and the assemblies thereof
him who believes it not so present as in my opinion the ancient Church did believe Both must worship the body and blood of Christ because incarnate and therefore as the body and blood of Christ is inseparable from the consideration of his God-head which every Christian intends to worship And how can then a mans mistake in thinking the elements to be away which indeed are there make him guilty of honouring those creaturs as God which we know if he thought that they were there he must needs take for creatures and therefore could not honour for God I doe believe it hath been said by great Doctors of the Church of Rome that they must needs think themselves flat Idolaters if they could think that the elements are not abolished That showes what confidence they would have the world apprehend that they hold their opinion with But not that the consequence is true unlesse that which I have said be reprovable For what reason can be given why that bodily gesture which professedly signifieth the honour of God tendred to Christ spiritually present in the Eucharist should be Idolatry because the bread and wine are believed to remaine there Which according to their opinion supposing them to be abolished their accidents onely remaining is no idolatry but the worship of our Lord Christ for God In the next place as concerning prayer to Saints I must suppose that the termes of prayer invocation calling upon and whatsoever else we can use are or may be in despite of our hearts equivocal that is we may be constrained unlesse we use that diligence which common discretion counts superfluous to use the same words in signifyng requests made to God and to man Which are not equivocall according to that equivocation which comes by meere chance but by that for which there is a reasonable ground in that eminence which out conceptions and therefore our words which signifie them expresse unto us For all the apprehensions that we have of God all things intelligible coming from things sensiâ—le we can have no proper conceite of Gods excellence and the eminence thereof above his creatures which necessarily appeares to us under attributes common to his creatures removing that imperfection which in them they are joyned with This is the reason why all signes of honour in word or deed may be equivocall when they need not be counted so being joyned with signes either of other words or deeds which may serve to determine the capacity of them Adoration worship respect reverence or howsoever you translate the Latine cultus are of this kind as I said afore Ingressus scenam populum saltator adorat coming upon the stage to dance he adores or worships the people or as an othersaies jactat basia he throwes them kisses He does reverence to the spectators by kissing his hand and saluting them with it So prayer invocation calling upon God is not so proper to God but that whether you will or not every petition to a Prince or a Court of justice is necessarily a prayer and he that makes it invocates or calls upon that Prince or that Court for favour or for justice Now the militant Church necessarily hath communion with the triumphant believing that all those who are departed in Gods Grace are at rest and secure of being parted from him for the future though those who have neglected the content of this world the most for his service and are in the best of those mansions which are provided for them till the day of judgement whom here we call properly Saints injoy the neerest accesse to his presence To dispute whether we are bonnd to honour them or not were to dispute whether we are to be Christians and to believe this or not Whether this honour be Religious or civill nothing but equivocation of words makes disputable and the cause of that equivocation the want of words vulgar use not having provided words properly to signifie conceptions which came not from common sence If we call it Religion it is manifest that all religion is that reverence which the conscience of our obligation to God rendreth If civil the inconvenience is more grosse though lesse dangerous For how can we owe civill respect where there is no relation of members of the same city or Common wealth Plainely their excellence and the relation we have to them being intelligible onely by Christianity must borrowe a name from that which vulgar language attributes to God or to men our superiours I need say nothing in particular of Angels whom if we believe to be Gods ministers imployed instructing his children upon earth we must needs own their honour though the intercourse between us be invisible It were easy to pick up sayings of the Fathers by which religious honour is proper to Christ and others in which that honour that reverence which religion injoines is tendred Saints and Angels And all to be imputed to nothing but want of proper termes for that honour which religion injoyneth in respect of God and that relation which God hath setled betweene the Church militant and triumphant being reasonably called Religious provided that the distance be not confounded between the religious honour of God and that honour of the creature which the religious honour of God injoines being neither civill nor humane but such as a creature is capable of for religions sake and that relation which it setleth I must come to particulars that I may be understood He that could wish that the memories of the Martyrs and other Saints who lived so as to assure the Church they would have beene Martyrs had they been called to it had not beene honoured as it is plaine they were honured by Christians must find in his heart by consequence to wish that Christianity had not prevailed For this honour depending on nothing but the assurance of their happinesse in them that remained alive was that which moved unbelievers to bethinke themselves of the reason they had to be Christians What were then those honours Reverence in preserving the remaines of their bodies and burying them celebrating the remembrance of their agonies every yeare assembling themselves at their monuments making the daies of their death Festivals the places of their buriall Churches building and consecrating Churches to the service of God in remembrance of them I will adde further for the custome seemeth to come from undefiled Christianity burying the remains of their bodies under the stones upon which the Eucharist was celebrated What was there in all this but Christianity That the circumstances of Gods service which no law of God had limited the time the place the occasion of assembling for the service of God alwaies acceptable to God should be determined by such glorious accidents for Christianity as the departure of those who had thus concluded their race What can be so properly counted the raigne of the Saints and Martyrs with Christ which S. Iohn foretelleth Apoc. XX. as this honour when it came to
the same effect there is no cause why he should be excused of Idolatry for his paines But withall he cannot be excused of contradicting himselfe as grossely as he that maintaines those Saints or Angels to be that one true God whom he acknowledges not to be that God but his creatures If there be reason to presume that they who acknowledge Saints or Angels their Mediators Intercessors or advocates to God intend to commit Idolatry by contradicting themselves thus grossely there may be reason to thinke that they count them their Mediators Intercessors or Advocates to God to that effect to which Christ alone is our Mediator Intercessor or Advocate But if whosoever is accepted to pray for an other is necessarily by so doing his Mediator Intecessor or Advocate to him with whom he is admitted to deal on his behalfe by his prayers then will it be necessary to limite the worke of mediation to that effect which may be allowed to the intercession of the Saints or Angels for us if we will have them to be to purpose Certainely neither could Iob intercede for his friends nor Samuel for the Israelites nor Abraham for Abimelech or Pharao nor any of Gods Prophets for any that had or were to have recourse to them for that purpose but they must be by so doing Mediators intercessors and Advocates for them with God For neither can the mediation of Saints or Angels nor of any prophet or other that can be persumed to have favour with God be to any effect but that which the termes of that reconciliation which our Lord Christ hath purchased for us doe settle or allow But he that saith the Saints and Angels pray for us saith not that we are to pray to Saints or Angels nor can be say it without Idolatry intending that we are to do that to them which they do to God for us On the other side though that which we doe to them and that which they doe to God be both called praying yet it wil be very difficult for him that really and actually apprehendeth all Saints and Angels to be Gods creatures to render both the same honour though supposing not granting the same Christianity to injoyn both But to come to particulars I will distinguish three sorts of prayers to Saints wheâ—her taught or allowed to be taught in the Church of Rome The first is of those that are made to God but to desire his blessings by and through the merits and intercession of his Saints I cannot give so fit an example as out of the Canon of the Masse which all the Westerne Churches of that communion do now use There it is said communicantes memoriam venerantes omnium Sanctorum tuorum quorum meritis precibusque concedas ut in omnibus protectionis tuae muniamur auxilio Communicating in and reverencing the memory of such and such and of all thy Saints by whose merit and prayer grant that in all things we may be guarded by thy protection and helpe There is also a short prayer for the Priest to say when he comes to the Altar as he findes opportunity Oramus te Domine per merita sanctorum tuorum quorum reliquia hic sunt omnium sanctorum ut indulgere digneris omnia peccata mea We pray thee Lord by the merits of the Saints whose reliques are here and all Saints that thou wouldest vouchsafe to release me all my sins And on the first Sunday in Advent mentioning the Blessed Virgin they pray Vt qui vere eam matrem Dei credimus ejus apud te intercessionibus adjuvemur That we who believe her truely the mother of God may be helped by her intercessions with thee The second is that which their Litanies containe which though I doe not undertake to know how they are used or how they ought to be used by particular Christians that is how far voluntary how far obligatory yet the forme of them is manifest that whereas you have in them sometimes Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Holy Trinity one God have mercy upon us You have much oftner the Blessed Virgine repeated again and againe under a number of her attributes you have also all the Saints and Angels or such as the present occasion pretends for the object of the devotion which a man tenders named and spoken to with Ora pronobis that is Pray for us The blessed virgine some saie with te rogamus audi nos We beseech thee to heare us One thing I must not forget to observe that the prayers which follow those Litanies are almost alwaies of the first kind That is to say addressed directly to God but mentioning the intercession of Saints or Angels for the meanes to obtain our prayers at his hands The third is when they desire immediately of them the same blessings spirituall and temporall which all Christians desire of God There is a Psalter to be seen with the Name of God changed every where into the Name of the blessed Virgine There is a book of devotion in French with this title Moyen de bien seruir prier adorer la Vierge Marie The way well to serve pray to and adore the blessed Virgine There are divers forms of prayer as well as excessive speeches concerning her especially and other Saints quoted in the Answer to the Jesuites Challenge pag. 330-345 Of those then the first kind seems to me utterly agreeable with Christianity importing onely the exercise of that Communion which all members of Gods Church hold with all members of it ordained by God for the meanes to obtaine for one another the Grace which the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased for us without difference whether dead or alive Because we stand assured that they have the same affection for us dead or alive so farre as they know us and our estate and are obliged to desire and esteem their prayers for us as for all the members of Christs mysticall body Neither is it in reason conceivable that all Christians from the beginning should make them the occasion of their devotions as I said out of any consideration but this For as concerning the terme of merit perpetually frequented in these prayers it hath been alwawes maintained by those of the Reformation that it is not used by the Latine Fathers in any other sense then that which they allow Therefore the Canon of the Masse and probably other prayers which are still in use being more ancient then the greatest part of the Latine Fathers there is no reason to make any diffficulty of admitting it in that sense the ground whereof I have maintained in the second Book The third taking them at the foot of the leter and valuing the intent of those that use them by nothing but the words of them are meer Idolatries as desiring of the creature that which God onely gives which is the worship of the creature for the Creator God blessed for evermore And were we bound to make
not yet onely as it inables me to conclude that this kind of prayer is not Idolatry This necessarily followes from the premises Because a man cannot take that Saint or Angel for God whose prayers he desires But manifestly showes that his desire is grounded upon the relation which he thinkes he hath to him by our Lord Christ and by his Church Neverthelesse though it be not Idolatry the consequence and production of it not being distinguishable from Idolatry the Church must needes stand obliged to give it those bounds that may prevent such mischeif as that which shall make it no Church For though the degrees are not visible by which the abuse is come to this height yet I conceive it appeares by Walafridus Strabus de Rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. XXVIII that before S. Jerome the Saints had no roome in the Litanies which answer Pray for us after every Saints name There he telleth that S. Jerome first translated Eusebius his Martyrologe containing what Saints died on what dayes of the year at the request of Chromatius and Heliodorus Bishops upon occasion of that commendation which the Emperor Theodosius had given Gregory Bishop of Cordova for commemorating every day at the Eucharist the saints of the day And afore this he affirmeth the Saints names had no room in the Letanies And Chemnitius hath given us the transcript of an ancient Letanie out of a written Copy belonging to the Abbey of Corbey upon the Wesor which calleth upon the Saints Sancte Petre Sancte Paule c. but so that the suffrage is Exaudi Christe O Christ hear us or them for us which is the effect of the first sort of Prayer and an evident argument that the formes now in force took possession by degrees For the Letatanies are properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord have mercy upon us as the Liturgies of Saint Basil and Saint Chrisostome call them By that forme of service which the Constitutions of the Apostles relate where the Deacon indites to the people what they are to pray for in behalf of all estates in the Church and their necessities you shall see the people answer onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord have mercy That is their part Thence came the name of Letanies whether such devotions were used in Processions or otherwise That in the Letanies of Saint Gregory whereof we read in his life I. 41. 42. The Saints were spoken to the people answering Ora pro nobis pray for us it is easy to believe For of Charles the Great and Walafridus his time there is no question to be made That the same was done in Saint Basils Letanies whereof Epist LXIII or in those which Mamertus Bishop of Vienna instituted as we find by Sidonius Epist V. 14. VII 1. which have since been called Rogations there is no manner of appearance And the innovaâ—ion of Petrus Fullo the Eutychian Bishop of Antiochia after the Councile of Chalcedon which Nicephorus relates Eccles Hist XV. 28. in bringing the Blessed Virgine into the prayers of the Church is enough to assure us there is no Tradition of the Apostles for it A difference very considerable For grant the monuments of Saints and Martyrs the places for Christians to meet at for Gods service in publicke for their private devotions by primitive Christianity All this while the service of God is the work the honour of the Saints determines onely the time and place of it Processions celebrated with Letanies were assemblies for Gods service to turn away his plagues and the like And when the Saints come into them their honor becomes part of the work for which Christians assemble Suppose a simple soul can distinguish between Ora pro nobis and Domine miserere between Pray for us and Lord have mercy upon us How shall I be assured that it distinguishes between the honour that Pagans gave the lesse gods under Jupiter the Father of gods and that which himself gives the Saints under the God of those Saints And is it enough that the Church injoynes not nor teaches Idolatry Is it not further bound to secure us against it I know not whether it can be said that Processions and Letanies are voluntary devotions which the people are not answerable for if they neglect They were first brought in and since frequented at the instance of Prelates and their Clergy and if they be amisse the people are snared by their meanes that is by the Church if the Church bear them out in it And by these three sorts of Prayers it appears that without giving bounds to private conceits there is meanes to stop mens course from that extreamity which whether it be reall Idolatry or not nothing can assure us Upon these terms I stand I have heard those relations upon credit not to be questioned which make their devotions to Saints hardly distinguishable from the Idolatries of Pagans That they who preferred them could not or did not distinguish I say not In fine they demonstrate manifold more affection for the Blessed Virgine or some particular Saints then for our Lord. That they call not upon Saints to pray for them but to help them That they neither expresse nor can be presumed to meane by praying for them but by granting their prayers In fine that they demonstrate inward subjection of the heart wherein Idolatrie consists I cannot disbelieve those who relate what they see done What may be the reason why to them rather then to God It was a meanes to bring the world to be Christians that it was preswaded that God protected Christians by the intercession of those Saints whose Festivalls they solemnized But it brought them to be Christians with that love of the world and the present commodities of it which Christianity pretends to leave without the Church among the Pagans Should they resigne these affections to their Christianity they would have immediate recourse to God whom having to friend they know they need neither be troubled for plague nor toothach nor any thing which the Crosse of Christ consists with While they cannot assure themselves that they do no marvaile if they would have such Christianity as may give them hope of that by the Saints which God assures them not by it I grant it no Idolatrie that is not necessarily any Idolatrie to pray to Saints to pray for us The very matter implies an equivocation in the word praying which nothing hinders the heart to distinguish But is it fit for the Church to maintaine it because it is necessarily no Idolatry I grant Ora pro nobis in the Letanies might be taken for the ejaculation of a desire which a man knowes not whether it is heard or not as some instance in a leter which a man would write though uncertaine whether it shall come to hand or not and I could wish that the people were taught so much by the form as a powerfull meanes to preserve the distance between God and his creature alive in their esteem I count it not
privacies yea in lâ—â—civious postures and the habits of their mistresses as promising themselves protection from them in their debauches In fine by this meanes they are come to make images of God not pictures of his apparitions in the Scripture but of the Father and of the holy Trinity A thing so expresly forbidden by the Law For the Arke of the Covenant had on it indeed the figures that signified Angels the Throne of God it self signifying Christ in whom God is propitious to mankind Therefore they were to worship towards the Ark. But the majesty of God was hereby understood to be like nothing visible they were onely taught where to find him propitious Now setting up their images and injoyning images to be worshipped the construction is so reasonable that they honour the image with the honour due to God alone that it is not possible to make any other reasonable construction of that which they doe Against the II. Councile of Nicaea all this and without any order of the present Church of Rome but so that were not men sensible by whom they were authorized it were as easily disowned on the one side as it were hard on the other side to perswade men to do it Here it will be said these are probable reasons such as in moral matters may alwayes be made on both sides for what is there concerning humane affairs that is not disputable But the decree of the Church being once interposed by the second Councile of Nicaea it behoveth all Sons of the Church to depart from their own reasons because the unity of the Church as a Body can by no meanes be maintained unlesse inferiours yeild to the judgement of superiours An objection which I must owne because I have acknowledged the argument of it hitherto and have no where been straightened by it But I say therefore that the Power of the Church hath never been exercised by a voluntary consent in any decree injoyning the worship of Images For the having of Images in Churches I acknowledge there is a clear and unquestionable consent of the Church visible though as I said afore there appeared dissatisfaction in some parts which appeares to be voided by the subsequent consent of the whole And I finde sufficient and clear reason for it the adorning of Churches for the solemnity of Gods service the instruction of the simple that cannot reade in any booke by the pictures of things related in the Bible and the acts and sufferings of the Saints and Martyrs the admonishing of all whether learned or unlearned of that which they knew before the stirring up of devotion towards God by being admonished whether of things related in the Scriptures or in the relations concerning the Saints and Martyrs which the Church justifieth In a matter subject to the power of the Church as I have showed this to be the light of common reason attesting these considerations more ought not to be demanded And therefore though the Homilyagainst perill of Idolatry contain a wholsome doctrine in this particular I must have leave to think it failes as it evidently doth in others But all those reasons are utterly impertinent to the worshipping of Images For suppose the Image of our Lord or his Crosse may reasonably determine the circumstance of place where a man may pray to God as I said of the holy Eucharist the worship so tendered will be manifestly the worship of God and have no further to do with the image then a furniture or instrument not which a man serves but whereby he serves God And therefore Saint Gregory supposing and as it seems taking no notice of him that prayes before the image of Christ upon the Crosse in his Epistle to Secundinus In another Epistle to Serenus Bishop of Marseilles forbiddeth all worshipping of Images as making them subjects capable of any worship that may be called religious as proceeding from or injoyned by that virtue For the honour of the image passeth not upon the principall any otherwise in this case then as the presence thereof may be a signe to shew why we worship the principall where it is Which the images of Saints are not fit to signify because their principals the Saints are not capable of it But setting aside all dispute what ought to be done because the question is what the Church hath decreed that it ought to be done I say the decree of the second Councile of Nicaea obligeth not the Church at present because it never had the force of a sentence I have said in due place that all decrees of Counciles are but prejudices no sentences The reason whereof is as necessary as evident supposing the premises For the consent of the whole is that which gives any decree the force of a decree as you saw by the instance of the Council of Sardica The consent of the representatives in a Council is a presumption of the consent of the whole but it is not the formall consent of it No Council ever was composed of representatives proportionable in number of votes to the weight of each part to the whole The ground of a presumption making the calling of Councils worth the while is because whatsoever may come in consideration is supposed to have been wayed there and the expresse consent had of the present against which the absent cannot weigh In the II. Councile of Nicaea the Popes Legates consented and I granted afore the West was wont to receive the conclusions from Rome but not tied so to do in case the matter required further examination as in this case For within a while after a Council of Charles the Greats Dominions then the farre greatest part of the Western Church assembled at Francford condemnes the Council of Nicaea allowes the having of images in Churches as S. Gregory had done and in like maner condemnes all worshipping of them Here was a fair stop to the recalling of the Church of Romes concurrence to it Which though it was not effected yet under Ludovicus Pius son of Charles the Great an Embassy â— comes from the Easterne Emperor with a leter yet extant signifying many orrible abuses which the decree had produced and desiring his concurrence and the concurrence of the Church under him to stop the current of them A Treaty being had hereupon by the Prelates of his dominion the resolution-is yet extant in the negative under the name of the Synod of Paris grounded upon consent with the Fathers By this and by divers particulars laid forth by the Archbishop of Spalate 7. de Republ. Eccles XII 59. 71. it appeares that the worship of images never came in force by virtue of this Conncile of Nicea And amongst them it is not to be forgotten that the acts thereof were not known in the West as appeareth by the extravagancies of Thomas Aquinas and the Schoole Doctors that followed him in determining that images and the true Crosse of Christ are to be worshipped with the same honour as their principals
same ground to wit that the offenses that fall out among Gods people might not scandalize the Gentiles Therefore Saint James writing his Epistle to converted Jewes supposeth that they exercised the same power of judging between Christian and Christian as they did being Jewes between Jew and Jew And exhort them thereupon to use it like Christians James II. 1-13 for this I have shewed to be his meaning in another place And Saint Cypriane teaches Quirinus in the testimonies which he produces against the Jewes out of the Scripture III. 44. Fideles inter se disceptantes non debere Gentilem Judicem experiri In Epistola Pauli ad Corinth I. Audet quisquam vestrum That Christians being in debate among themselves are not to come to the triall of a heathen Judge For in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians you have dare any of you In the Constitutions of the Apostles II. 45 46 47. this authority is most truly attributed to the Church by describing the manner of proceeding in it Nor will any man of reason question that the author of them though not so ancient as the title under which he goes understood the state of the Church before Constantine There he showes that the Church in the use of this power aimed at the precept of our Lord to be reconciled to our brethren before we offer sacrifice to God Mat. V. 23 24. For though the offering of beasts in sacrifice to God be ceased yet the reason of the precept holds in the Eucharist and the offering of those oblations out of which it was consecrated for Christians To this purpose he prescribeth that Consistories be held on the Munday to see what differences were on foot in the Church that they might have the week before them to set them to right that so they might offer at the Eucharist on the Lords day with a clear conscience For at the Eucharist they were to salute one another with a kisse of peace and the deacon cried aloude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man have any thing against any man let no man give the kisse of peace dissembling All evidences for the practice of the Church That which Gratiane hath alledged out of the Epistle of Clemens to James of Jerusalem Causa XI Quaest I. Cap. XXXII is found also in the life of Saint Peter out of the book of the Popes lives which you have in the Counciles though in that Copy of it which hath since been published under the name of Anastasius it appeareth not The words are these in the Epistle Si qui ex fratribus negotia habent inter se apud cognitores seculi non judicentur Sed apud Presbyterâ—s Ecclesiae quicquid illud est definitur If any of the brethren have suits among themselves let them not be judged before judges of the World But whatsoever it is let it be judged before the Priests of the Church The life of Saint Peter saith thus Hic Petrus B. Clementem Episcopum consecravit cui Cathedram vel Ecclesiam omnem disponendam commisit dicens Sicut mihi gubernandi tradita est a Domino meo Jesu Christo potestas ligandi sâ—lvendique ita ego tibi committo ut ordines dispositores diversarum causarum per quos actus non Ecclesiastici profligentur tu minime curis seculi deditus reperiâ—â— sed solummodo orationi praedicationi ad populum vacare stude This Peter consecrated B. Clement Bishop and committed to him the see or the whole Church to be ordered saying As the power of governing or binding and loosing was delivered me by my Lord Jesus Christ so do I also depute thee to ordain those that may dispose of divers causes by whom actions that are not of the Church may be dispatched so that thou be not found addicted to secular cares but onely study to attend upon prayer and preaching to the people I know the first is forged and the second of little credit And he that writ the Epistle might intend to create an authority against trying the Clergy in secular Courts which could not be the subject of any thing that Clement might write But both authors write what they might know in their time to have fitted the Apostles time There is nothing more suitable to that estate which the Apostles signify then that Clemens should appoint who should attend upon the dispatching of suits between his people that he might attend upon the principall of his Office For that all resorted not then to the Church it is ridiculous to imagine It is enough that there is no instance extant of any suit between Christians tried before Gentiles before Constantinâ— And this is the reason why Constantine undertaking the protection of Christianity made the Law that is yet extant in the Code of Theodosius de Episcopali Audientia I. that any man might appeale to the Bishop in any cause before sentence Is there any appearance that so vast a priviledge would ever have been either demanded or granted had not the matter of it been in use by the Constitution of the Church among Christians Therefore it was no marvaile that it was limited afterwards for it made the Church judge in all causes in which one party would appeal to it as it appeares by Justinians Law and other constitutions afore Justiniane For when the Empire was become Christiane the reason of our Lords and his Apostles Order was expired In the mean time the referring of causes to the Bishop upon appeale was but to referre the causes of Christians to the Bishop which belonged to his knowledge afore And when all were Christians to demand that all should resort to the Bishop had been to dissolve the Civile Government which the Church supposeth The causes that were afterward heard by Bishops of the trouble whereof Saint Augustine complaines and which Saint Peter had cause to provide that Clemens should not be oppressed with resorted to them either as arbitrators by consent of parties or as Judges delegated by the secular power in causes limited by their acts And now is the time to answer the objection against the being of the Church and the Protection which is drawn from those bounds which the power of excommunicating challenged by the Church hath been and is confined to by all Christiane states Though having made the question generall I find it requisite to extend also the answer to those other points wherein I have said the right of the Church is seen and upon which the society thereof is founded no lesse then upon the power of excommunicating And then the argument will be to this effect That seeing no Christian can deny that the Lawes the Ordinations the Censures of the Church are lawfully prohibited to take effect by the secular Powers of Christian States therefore the right of doing those acts stands not by Gods Law but by the sufferance and appointment of the same secular Powers chusing whom they please to execute their own rights