the word for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two edgedsword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart ver 12. All which force and activity cannot be from the dead letter which constitutes the word but from the quick spirit which accompanies and enlivens it But their faith was and our faith is wanting to the Spirit of God which brings us all under that sharp reproof of our blessed Saviour O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. For if we be not slow to believe yet generally we believe by an historical faith proceeding from the conviction of the understanding meerly through the evidence of truth as the Devils believe and tremble not by a justifying faith proceeding from the conversion of the will through the love of truth And hence it is that though the cheif corner stone be rightly laid in all Christian Churches all alike confessing Christ to be the eternal Son of God and the Mediator betwixt God and man for if any deny this they are neither to be thought nor to be called Christians yet the building is not rightly raised in many Churches the reason is because there be many mockers in these last times who walk after their own ungodly lusts separating themselves sensual not having the Spirit as Saint Jude admonisheth But in no wise building up themselves in their most holy faith or praying in the Holy Ghost or keeping themselves in the love of God as Saint Jude adviseth No wonder if such a faith as this came far short of its proper object Christ with all the blessings and mercies of God since indeed it comes far short of it self For a faith that maketh men not build up but pull down the practice of religion and pray not in Gods Holy Spirit but in their own perverse spirits and keep themselves not in the love of God and consequently of his Church but in the love of their own self-interests and advantages such a faith or rather such a phansie or fiction and faction as this is and must be called comes far short of faith and therefore cannot but come far short of Christ the proper object of faith Saint Paul tells us of another kind of faith which to them under the Law was the evidence of things not seen and must be so to us under the Gospel saying these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Heb. 11. 13. They died in that faith in the which we ought to live and dye though the object of it be more clearly revealed to us then it was to them a faith which is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen A faith knowing by evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did see the promises a faith approving by adherence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were perswaded of them A faith applying by affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they embraced them and lastly a faith working and persevering by profession practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they confessed the same promises not only in their words but also in their deeds in their life and conversation accounting themselves strangers and Pilgrims on earth when they considered those heavenly promises And that made them like Pilgrims earnestly to long after their own country and not do or desire any thing for love of earth which might hinder or delay their passage to heaven So that a faith thus seeing thus applying thus approving thus confessing the promises of salvation by Christ is the faith which our Apostle defineth to be the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is to say a faith that now maketh Christ present with the soul by the communion of his grace and will hereafter make the soul present with Christ in the communion of his glory Oh for such a faith to bring my Saviour into my soul and to keep him there till faith it self be no longer faith but be turned into vision A faith that engageth the whole man in all his powers and faculties both of soul and body For only such a faith as taketh up the whole man in his understanding will affections actions can take a right and lay a fast hold on Christ such a faith though it cannot miraculously now open the heavens as it did once to Saint Stephen yet it can and will pierce the heavens and there see the son of man standing on the right hand of God ready to defend us on earth and as ready to receive us into heaven Whence we may very well conclude that this communion of good Christians with Christ or of the body with the head though at so great a distance is in the thing it self most real and substantial though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical Christ and his Church nay every true member of his Church are as substantially united together as man and wife Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church Ephes 5. 25. that is to say his wife And therefore as no distance can keep the man and his wife from being one flesh so neither Christ and his Church from being one spirit He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And to put us out of doubt that we whilst we live here on earth if we live unto him are thus joyned unto him Saint John saith plainly Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. There cannot be a more substantial union then is of the soul with the body because the soul abideth in the body and the same union is of Christ with the soul because he abideth in the soul and as we know the soul abideth in the body by the spirit or breath which it giveth to the body so we know that Christ abideth in the soul by the spirit which he giveth to the soul Yet is this union of Christ with his body not carnal but spiritual not to be discerned by the strength of the outer but of the inner man such an union as Saint Paul describeth to all but wisheth only to good Christians for though he might wish the Son of righteousness to shine upon a dunghill yet he might not wish him to be joyned to it that God would grant you to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith Ephes 3. 16 17 Here is a most real and substantial union and communion betwixt Christ and good Christians for the spirit strengtheneth them and Christ dwelleth in them but t is only spiritual for the spirit strengtheneth their inner man and mystical for Christ dwelleth
not find So should every one of us keep the feast of our Christian Passeover cleanse our vessels from the leaven of all sin and wickedness then search the corners of our hearts to find it out then burn and consume what we have found then detest and abandon what we cannot find crying out with a hearty sorrow and repentance never to be repented of Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal 19. 12. Secret not only to others but also to my self He that so heartily repents of the sins he knows not doth much more repent of those he knows And indeed the Paschal Lamb might not be eaten without bitter herbs nor can Christ be received without sorrow and bitterness of Spirit so as to become the nourishment of our souls and those men are grosly mistaken who think they can receive him by faith alone without repentance for who dares preach Christ otherwise then he preached himself and that was by repentance So saith the Evangelist Jesus began to preach and to say Repent Mat. 4. 17. We cannot phansie but we may weep our selves into our Saviours mercy nor can we truly rely upon his righteousness by faith till we have first bewailed our own unrighteousness by repentance And indeed the strange faith that some of late have desired and devised and therefore devised because they desired it of being in Christ whiles they be in malice injustice disobedience profaneness perversness and other such like grievous sins is much like the strange woman spoken of in the Proverbs Her lips drop as a honey-comb and her mouth is sweeter then oyl but her end is bitter as wormwood Porv. 5. 3 4. for such a faith begins in honey and oyl promising salvation with much sweetness and smoothness but its end is as bitter as wormwood for it bringeth death and damnation upon the soul Sixthly and lastly The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten whole and to be eaten only by the circumcised So Christ is to be taken whole in all the Doctrines of the Christian faith That which he hath commanded is as necessary to salvation as that which he hath promised and we may not expect to inherit his promises if we neglect and disobey his commands not a bone of his natural body was broken by the Jew nor may a bone of his spiritual or of his mystical body be broken by the Christian They brake the legs of the malefactors who were not yet dead but they brake not the legs of Christ Saint John 19. so may the Magistrate break the legs and stop the proceedings of malefactors especially if they be not yet dead to their sins by a hearty repentance and amendment of life but he may not break the legs of Christ or crush any of those whom Christ hath appointed to be the supporters of Christianity Again we must remember that unless the Jew was circumcised he had no right to eat of the Paschal Lamb So we Christians may not hope to receive Christ unless we be spiritually circumcised in our ears and in our hearts in our ears to hear his voice in our hearts to obey it Else it were possible for us so to receive God the Son as to resist God the Holy Ghost for so saith Saint Stephen Act. 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost The uncircumcised in hearts and ears cannot be the receivers of Christ because they are the resisters of his Spirit because they resist the Holy Ghost SECT IV. The great vertue of this Propitiation and the great goodness wisdom justice and power of God in finding it for us and giving it to us WHere shall a good Christian look for comfort but in the Word of comfort what word of comfort like that which proceeded immediately from the Comforter And what text so comfortable in that word as that which assures us not only of God the Holy Ghost but also of God the Son to be our Assistant and Advocate to intercede for us For we may have the assistance of the Holy Ghost and yet say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when we seriously consider how often we have deserved to be forsaken But there is nothing to discomfit or dismay an offender though his offences be never so many and great if he may be sure that his Judge will be his friend to absolve and to acquit him Now we all believe that the Son of God is to be our Judge and therefore must needs be most rejoyced with that saying that assures us he will be our friend in the Judgement and that saying is recorded 1 John 2. 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous No greater friend to a poor Client that hath a bad cause then a good Advocate to plead for him unless it be a favourable and friendly Judge to absolve him And behold the Penitent sinner hath here both these joyned in one for the same Christ that is his Advocate to plead for him is also his Judge to absolve him And therefore he is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Comforter the same title which is given to the Holy Ghost John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only an Advocate but also a Comforter The Spirit of God is both the Son of God is both to the true Penitent The Spirit is our Advocate to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. And he is our Comforter to assist us in our Temptations and to stengthen us against them And so also is the Son our Advocate to make intercession for us with the Father And our Comforter in that the Father will not refuse nay more cannot resist his intercession For the same Christ who is the Advocate to plead for penitent sinners is also the propitiation for their sins to make good his own Plea as it followeth and he is the propitiation for our sins So that as he is our Advocate to undertake our cause so he is our Comforter to assist and to deliver our souls by one and the same Plea defending us against the Devil who will busily accuse us and delivering us from the fear of hell which will be ready to receive us in that he is our Advocate to plead for us before him and to prevail for us with him who alone is able to destroy both body and soul in hell So that our blessed Saviour is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both senses as it signifies an Advocate and as it signifies a Comforter and indeed in one and the same respect as he is our Mediator is he both our Advocate and our Comforter Our Advocate to plead our cause our Comforter to rescue and to free our persons Wherefore we may with reverence and without derogation to the Spirit of
and therefore when we have the greatest joyes we should also have the greatest sacrifices For the analogie or proportion is not only historical but also causal which we find set forth betwixt the joy of Gods people and their Sacrifices Nehem. 12. 43. Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoyced for God hath made them rejoyce with great joy Because their joy was great their sacrifice also was great God had made them rejoyce with great joy on that day and therefore also on that day they offered great sacrifices And this is the reason why the Church of Christ recommendeth to us solemn Festivals as daies wherein the Lord hath made us rejoyce with great joy and as solemn sacrifices for those festivals particularly the receiving the holy Eucharist and the giving of alms the two proper sacrifices of Christians that our sacrifices may be in some sort answerable to our joy For all the sacrifices we can offer unto God cannot be answerable to the joy we have in him and from him and much less answerable to the joy which we hope to have with him And will you see the reason of this joy it is by reason of the comfort and consolation that good men have in and from God when they cannot have it in or from the world They have comfort from the Comforter and may well have joy with their comfort This made Saint Paul bless God for all the troubles and tribulations he had from men because the more they troubled him the more his God comforted him and enabled him to comfort others 2 Cor. 1. 3 4. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God that is with internal and spiritual comfort which proceedeth from the Spirit of God q. d. I will not repine for mens cruelties but bless God the Father of mercies whiles the more man is my Persecutor the more God is my Comforter enabling me to comfort both my self and others with such comforts as this world is not able to give and therefore sure is not able to take away And the same way doth God please to comfort the soul as the Prophet describes him comforting of Zion for what is Zion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but an illuminated or enlightened soul For the Lord shall comfort Zion He will comfort all her wast places and he will make her wilderness like Eden and her desart like the garden of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Isa 51. 3. What an immense an immortal comfort is this that the wast places of the soul are comforted and that her wilderness is made like Eden and her desart like the garden of the Lord for the waste place of the soul that needs be comforted is the conscience which is wasted by sin the wilderness or desart of the soul is the same conscience overgrown with cares as a wilderness is with thorns and over-awed with fears and terrours as with so many wild beasts and overcome with drouth and barrenness like the desarts of those hot Countries that starve their inhabitants This wast place this wilderness this desart must be quite changed before it can be comforted The Lord makes this wilderness like Eden a place of pleasure this desart like a garden of the Lord a place of fruitfulness before joy and gladness can be found therein thanksgiving and the voice of melody Till the conscience is purged from dead works it is like a wilderness unlovely and unfruitful unlovely it makes the man out of love with himself and much more his God out of love with him unfruitful it brings forth no fruits either of righteousness or of repentance But after it is purged from sin then it is like an Eden or a Paradise a place of pleasure and of plenty of loveliness and of fruitfulness Saint Paul joyns them both together That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all pleasing of God of your neighbours and of your selves there 's the pleasure and the loveliness for no man truly pleaseth himself whiles he displeaseth his God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bringing forth fruit in every good work or bringing forth the fruit of every good work there 's the plenty and the fruitfulness for no man walketh worthy of God but he that is fruitful in every good work that is to say fruitful in the works of piety of temperance and of charity of piety towards God of temperance towards himself of charity towards his neighbour He that thus walks worthy of God cannot but exceedingly rejoyce in God For he cannot but say with the Psalmist And now shall he list up mine head above mine enemies round about me Psalm 27. 6. Hoc erit lentum est nimis He shall lift up mine head would make him stay too long for his joy He may therefore say He hath already lifted up mine head even my blessed Saviour above all mine and above all his enemies that I should not fear them and he is daily lifting me up to my head that I should not fear my self Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation with great gladness I will sing and speak praises unto the Lord ver 7. Hoc erit lentum est nimis I will sing keeps him too long from his duty he therefore doth sing and say Praised be the Lord for he hath heard the voice of my humble petitions The Lord is my strength and my shield my strength to support me when I am not assaulted my shield to defend me when I am my heart hath trusted in him and I am helped therefore my heart danceth for joy and in my song will I praise him Psal 28. 7 8. All this and much more then this is set down to express the joy of the Holy Ghost and it is nothing but Abba Father in the language of those under the Law who though they did not see God in his Son and in his Spirit so clearly as we do under the Gospel yet they praised him as loud both for his Son and for his Spirit as we can praise him for though in some sort they came short of us in the Object of Faith because the Son and the Holy Ghost were not so fully revealed unto them yet they came not short of us in the Act of faith whether exercised in prayers or in praises for they prayed in the mediation of the Son and they praised in the joy of the Holy Ghost SECT V. Fâ—lly and Filiation are together in Gods best adopted children whiles they are in this world The three priviledges of the Saints of Gods not of their own making because of the Spirit of Adoption First
were first Angels secondly men yet men only not Angels appointed by him as witnesses of his Ascension though not All men And that the disturbers of these witnesses that is of the Orders of Christs Ministers in his Church do sin against this Article of Christs Ascension which however is it self and puts all true believers above all disturbancet CAP. 3. Christ considered after he was Ascended Hath three Sections Sect. 1. WHat is meant by the right hand of God and by Christs sitting there Sect. 2. That Christ as man sitteth on the right hand of God Sect. 3. That to sit at the right hand of God is proper only to Christ and therefore invocation of or adoration to the blessed Virgin is not agreeable with this article of our Christian Faith That the Author of no Religion but only the Christian is said to be at the right hand of God and to administer his Kingdom and therefore no Religion to be compared with it and no power to prevail against it Christ Communicated in the coming of the Holy Ghost Hath two Chapters The first Chapter is of the Communication of Christ unto his members The second Chapter is of the coming of the Holy Ghost where Christ is Communicated CAP. 1. Of the Communication of Christ to his members Hath three Sections Sect. 1. THat we being born in sin our condition is very miserable till Christ be Communicated to us but after that very comfortable for the time of sin is a time of warfare captivity banishment the time of Grace a time of peace of restitution of liberty the admirable liberty of Gods servants the woful slavery of those who serve themselves Sect. 2. That Christ is generally Communicated to all Christians by Baptism wherein the Holy Ghost is given to regenerate and sanctifie them by taking away the imputation or guilt of Original sin and making them the members of Christ How the Apostles baptized in the name of Christ and their infidelity and uncharitableness who deny Baptism to Infants Sect. 3. That Christ is more peculiarly communicated to some Christians by the Spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba Father calling upon God with greater earnestness confidence and comfort then did the Jews and yet they also had the Spirit of adoption though not in the same degree as well as Christians CAP. 2. Of the coming of the Holy Ghost where Christ is Communicated Hath six Sections Sect. 1. THat the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ that is the spirit of the Son as well as of the Father and that the Greeks were unjustly and uncharitably rejected by some of the Latines as Hereticks concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost Of the addition of Filioque to the Constantinopolitan Creed and that the Pope hath no authority to change any Article of Faith The Greek Church agreed with the Latine about this controversie insense though not in words Therefore not anathematized by the Western Churches which use the Athanasian Creed Bellarmines heavy doom concerning the Greek Church fitter for a souldier then a Divine Sect. 2. That the coming of the Holy Ghost for the communicating of Christ after an extraordinary manner is not now to be expected That preaching and praying with the spirit come not by infusions Enthusiasts are the worst separatists and the greatest blasphemers guilty of the worst kinds of sacriledge and idolatry in robbing God of his publick worship after such a manner as he hath commanded and idolizing their own pretended gifts Sect. 3. Hypocritical Christians who make Prayers for pretences worse Atheists then the Heathen pretenders to the spirit are the greatest enemies to the spirit and shew the least fruits of the spirit Therefore must be silenced by the Ministers of Christ and shunned by his people who have no excuse if they are misled by them because they are to be known by their works whereof the weakest and the meanest men are competent Judges Sect. 4. Vnsetledness in Religion shews we have not learned it from our heavenly Master or from Gods Exapostle The Holy Ghost being given us from the Father by the Son sheweth there is no salvation to them who believe not the Trinity The mixture of praises with prayers in the Psalms was the Abba Father of the Old Testament and proceeded from joy in the Holy Ghost which is a joy both unsequestrable and unspeakable The sacrifices and Hymns answerable to that Joy Sect. 5. Folly and Filiation are together in Gods best adopted children whilst they are in this world The three priviledges of the Saints of Gods not of their own making because of the spirit of adoption 1. That of enemies they are made servants of God of servants they are made sons 2. That being made Sons of God they have the spirit of his Son 3. That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession Sect. 6. The having the spirit and language of the Son farther explained by three questions 1. How Abba Father is called the language of the Son and whether Saint Mark borrowed not that expression from Saint Paul 2. Who it is that cryeth Abba Father or that prays by the spirit whether he that hath most cordial affections or he that hath most voluble effusions 3. Whether the spirit may be in the heart Believing whiles t is not in the mouth crying Abba Father or whether the spirit of Adoption once truly had be not retained to the end Christ received in the State of true Christianity Hath three Chapters The first Chapter is of the state of true Christianity The second Chapter is of the knowledge of that state The third Chapter is of the comfort of that knowledge CAP. 1. Of the state of true Christianity Hath five Sections Sect. 1. THE happiness of Christians who have their conversation with Christ that lovers of themselves or of the world have not this happiness for though Christ spaek to all yet he answers only to good Christians that is to sheep not to Wolves or to Christians not to Heathen for such he accounteth all persecuters teaching the one to their instruction and contentation the other only to their conviction and condemnation The reason why so many Christians come not to the state of true Christianity Sect. 2. Many Christians not so careful of their spiritual as of their temporal estate or condition The state of true Christianity is not external in the profession but inetrnal in the love of Christ which will make us hate all sin No malitious man can be in the state of true Christianity The ground of true Christian charity generally abused to most unchristian uncharitableness charity is more safely mistaken then not maintained Sect. 3. That the state of true Christianity is best taught by our Saviour Christ and best learned of him and how far the Jews may be said to
grace in us and which is all one of his favour towards us that the fear of Gods judgement may humble us that the presumption of our own secure state and condition may not ruine us and that the desire of Gods grace may daily more and more increase in us All these three reasons are intimated by Saint Peter If ye callon the Father there 's the desire of the increase of grace who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works there 's the fear of Gods judgement pass the time of your sojourning here in fear there 's against the presumption of our own secure state and condition As then I desire to be humbled as I desire not to be eternally ruined and as I would increase in my soul more and more such holy desires so I must take heed that I be not puffed up with the conceit of my adoption for he that hath given me that inestimable grace when I did not deserve it hath not promised to continue his gift if I will needs abuse it SECT V. Our adoption in Christ not spoken of by Saint John without a double Preface one practical another speculative and is here according to the likeness of his grace shall be hereafter according to the likeness of his glory The threefold Image of God in man ADoption is the assumption of a stranger into a son Adoptio est personae extraneae in filium assumptio saith the Civilian so that our adoption implies three things 1. An assuming or taking of a man from his own kindred into Gods family 2. An assuming or taking such a man as was a stranger into that family 3. An assuming or taking that stranger to be one of the best of Gods family to be a Son A most blessed assumption which gives to the true Christian soul not an imaginary but a real not an anniversary but an everlasting Holy day Hence it is that Saint John cannot speak of this infinite mercy without a double Preface 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of the love of the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! Behold there is one Preface a practical Preface that concerns the person to fix his attention to raise his affection and to confirm his devotion what manner of love the Father hath bestowed there is another Preface a Doctrinal Preface that concerns the thing shewing in it that sublimity which challengeth the best of our attention that excellency which challengeth the purest of our affection that immortality which challengeth the firmest of our devotion There can be no Preface appositely made but is either practical to exite and move the reader or didactical to make way for the explication of the work the end and scope of the first is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beloved of us the end and scope of the second is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovely in it self for so is Aristotles distinction 20. Magn. Moral c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle joins these two several ends and scopes of Prefaces both together before he treats of our adoption saying Behold to shew this lovely and amiable to us richly worth our looking after and what manner of love to shew it is most lovely and amiable in it self And we may easily see by the ensuing words that it is such a good as is not to be valued by the judgement of the flesh for the world knows it not nor sufficiently to be valued by the judgement of the spirit for we our selves yet scarce know it it doth not appear what we shall be It doth not appear to the world what we are nor to our selves what we shall be only this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him ver 2. as if he had said there are at least two degrees if not two parts of this filiation or adoption of sons one in this life when we are regenerated into the hope of everlasting glory the other in the next life when we shall be admitted into the possession of it When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. The first degree of our adoption the world knows not of us the second we do not cannot in this life fully know of our selves Of the first degree of adoption speaks the same Saint John in his Gospel John 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God Of the second degree speaks Saint Paul Rom. 8. 23. We our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body as if the adoption were not to be obtained here but to be expected hereafter wherein however he speaks as it were out of Christs own mouth as well as by his spirit for our blessed Saviour himself useth these words Luke 20. 36. They are the children of God being the children of the resurrection not that they were not the children of God before but only that they were not compleatly and perfectly children till they were admitted to their inheritance and were come to a full similitude and likewise with their Father For as a natural son of man is partaker of his humane nature or else he cannot be his son so also is an adopted Son of God partaker of his Divine Nature though not Originally because he is adopted yet sure derivatively because else he cannot be a Son for on the participation or communication of the Divine nature is founded our adoption or being the Sons of God according to that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 4. That by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinae consortes naturae consorts or companions of the Divine Nature that is communicants in it as well as partakers of it And upon this ground it is we do assert that as the participation of the Divine nature to us is different in degrees so also is our adoption different in degrees as inchoate in this life and consummate only in the next For in this life we are made partakers of the Divine Nature but inchoately and imperfectly that is as it is resembled in grace but in the next life we shall be made partakers of it consummately or perfectly that is as it will be revealed in glory For there is in man a threefold Image of God Imago creationis Imago recreationis Imago similitudinis as saith the angelical Doctor 1 2ae qu. 93. ar 4. The first Image is by likeness of Nature the Image of creation the second is by likeness of grace the Image of regeneration the third Image is by likeness of glory the Image of perfection Tbe first Image hath been so defaced and blotted and slurred by our sin that we are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. So that in and from this Image of God
renounced his Communion since it is evident that no man can renounce his Prayer but must also by consequence renounce his Communion But let Saint Cyprian speak to this argument that we may be sure to have a good spokesman who in his Book de Oratione Dominica saith thus Qui facit vivere docuit orare ut dum prece Oratione quam filius docuit apud Patrem loquimur facilius audiamur He that made us to live taught us to pray that speaking to the Father in the words of his Son we might be sure not to speak in vain Again Que enim potest esse magis Spiritalis oratio quà m quae vere à Christ◠nobis data est à quo nobis Spiritus Sanctus missus est What Prayer can be more spiritual then that which he gave us who hath also given us the holy Spirit Lastly Oremus itaque fratres dilectissimi sicut Magister Deus docuit Let us pray my beloved brethren as God our master hath taught us Agnosca◠Pater Filii sui verba cum precem facimus qui habitat intus in pectore ipse sit in voce Let God the Father see his own Sons words in our Prayers and let him also that dwelleth in our hearts be also in our tongues Here is such a threefold cord as is not to be broken an argument drawn from God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost why we should often say Our Father as becomes dutiful children That God the Father may own and hear us God the Son may pray with us and God the Holy-Ghost may accompany and assist us in our Prayers SECT IX Whether a man that is not assured of his adoption in Christ can truly and rightly by virtue of his Baptism only the outward seal of adoption say to God Our Father or can lawfully and laudably use the Lords Prayer That the assurance of our adoption is according to the assurance of our conjunction with our Saviour Christ THere is nothing that so much prevails with God to give us his grace as our frequent and fervent praying and nothing that so much calls upon us to make a right use of Grace when t is given as our serious consideration and devout use of the Lords most holy Prayer for he that doth cordially say to God Our Father will not easily forget the duty and obedience that belongeth to a son according to that truly Theological observation of Saint Chrysostome in his nineteenth Sermon upon the Epistle to the Romans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When in our own Prayers we say to God Our Father we do not only call to mind his great grace and goodness but also our own obligation to virtue and righteousness that we may not do any thing unworthy of so honourable a descent or alliance For though the title of Father belong to God by virtue of the creation in which respect we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth yet in the Lords most holy Prayer it is understood of him only as he is our Father by adoption having made us that were his enemies sons in his eternal Son and called us first to be heires of his promises and at last to be heirs of his Kingdom So that in saying to God Our Father we do implicitely and virtually give him thanks for our happy estate through his eternal Son that though by nature we were the children of wrath yet by him we are made the children of God that though in our selves we were enemies yet in our Saviour we are made sons and we do beseech him to confirm in us this assurance we are his children by framing us daily more and more to the Image of his only begotten Son whilst he filleth our souls with heavenly affections and our lives with a heavenly conversation such as may shew all manner of dutifulness to our Father and all manner of love to our brethren This happy estate we acknowledge he conveyed unto us in our Baptism when he made us Christians that is to say members of Christ children of God and inheriters of the Kingdom of heaven as our own Church teacheth us or when we put on Christ Gal. 3. 27. or when God sanctified and cleansed us with the washing of water by the word Ephes 5. 26. when he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. as Saint Paul teacheth the Church that is to say yet in plainer terms when God first made us his sons and gave us the priviledge of calling him Father For they that have not been baptized into Christ have no right to say unto God Our Father for whence should they have it being born the children of wrath and not yet incorporated into Christ to be made the children of God Wherefore it was not lawful heretofore for the Catechumeni or such as were not yet baptized to say the Lords Prayer as not being yet exempted from the dominion and power of the Devil and consequently not reckoned or reputed amongst Gods children whence that memorable saying of Saint Ambrose lib. 5. de Sacram. cap. 4. Primus Sermo quanta sit gratia O homo faciem tuam non audebas ad coelum attollere subito accepisti gratiam Christi ex malo servo factus es bonus filius The first word of this Prayer sc our Father how much grace and favour doth it import Thou didst not dare lift up thine eyes to heaven and thou didst suddenly receive the grace of Christ thy sins were forgiven thee and of a bad servant thou becamest a good son Ergo attolle oculos ad Patrem qui te per lavacrum genuit ad Patrem qui te per filium redemit dic Pater noster Therefore now being baptized lift up thine eyes to thy Father who hath regenerated thee by Baptism who hath redeemed thee by his Son and say Our Father concluding he had no right to say so before he was baptized and doubtless the Text which saith The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the Counsel of God against themselves being not baptized with the Baptism of John Luke 7. 30. doth much more declare that those Christians do reject the counsel of God against themselves who will not be baptized with the Baptism of Christ Ergo Baptismus consilium Dei est Quanta est gratia ubi est concilium Dei Audi ergo nam ut in hoc seculo nexus Diaboli solveretur inventum est quomodo homo vivus moreretur vivus resurgeret saith the same Saint Ambrose lib. 2. de Sacramentis cap. 6. Therefore is Baptism the counsel of God And how great is the Grace of God where we have the counsel of God Hear it therefore For God that he might destroy in man the power of the Devil that is sin whiles he is yet in this world hath in his counsel appointed Baptism whereby being yet alive he might both dye and rise again dye unto sin and
admired in his Passion I Cannot admire my Saviour in his sufferings unless I admire him in his person which made him liable to suffer and in his propitiation satisfaction application whereby I have the benefit of his sufferings And in all these respects hath the holy Apostle Saint Paul admired my Saviour for me 1 Cor. 5. 7. when he said for Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us for these few words afford no less then four considerations of our blessed Saviour the first is of Christ in his person for Christ the second is of Christ in his propitiation our Passeover the third is of Christ in his satisfaction is sacrificed the fourth is of Christ in his application for us So that I have a very good precedent for making these four considerations of Christ the four Chapters of my ensuing discourse CAP. I. Christ admired in his Person SECT I. That the eye of man cannot be fixed with comfort upon God in himself but only upon God in Christ THE contemplation of God in himself is not a ground of joy to us on earth though it is to the Saints and Angels in heaven not that the beatifical vision doth not consist in seeing God but that the eye of mortal man must be strengthened before it can see him and the eye of sinful man must be cleansed before it can see him with comfort and without confusion for if Aristotle could alledge his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noctu◠oculus ad solem an Owl or Bat looking upon the Sun to excuse the imperfect contemplation of some inferiour Truths how much more may we plead this excuse for our imperfect contemplation of the first truth since there is much more in this case an Owl or a Bat looking upon the Sun for there is not only a weak but also a sinful eye looking upon God A weak eye because not accustomed to light A sinful eye because not unaccustomed to darkness Such a weak and sinful eye is it wherewith man in this life looketh upon the Sun of righteousness an eye which cannot stedfastly behold him for its weakness an eye which cannot comfortably behold him for its sinfulness Therefore man whiles he is cloathed with sin and mortality must look on God not in God but in man not in the majesty of the Spirit but in the humility of the flesh or else he will be more confounded then comforted with the vision The Apostles saw but a glimps of our Saviours Divinity in the transfiguration and they fell to the ground Mat. 17. 16. and what then do we think they would have done had they seen the full luster and brightness of the Sun of righteousness Jacob tells Laban of the God of Abraham but only of the fear of his Father Isaac Gen. 31. 42. The reason we may conceive to be this because Abraham was dead but Isaac was yet alive for it is impossible but the Divine majesty should strike terrour and consternation to the most upright man that is whiles he is clogged and burdened with flesh and much more with sin And this observation doth Solomon Jarchi intimate in his gloss upon the place saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is called the Fear not the God of Isaac because he doth not appropriate his name to just men whiles they are yet alive The reason cannot be That they are less his Favourites but that they are not so much capable of his Favour he is the same God to the living and to the dead but the living have him for their fear because they are in a state of weakness and unworthiness the dead have him for their love and their reward because they are in a state of glory and of blessedness And therefore said God himself to Moses No man shall see me and live Exod. 33. 20. If we see God in himself that sight will destroy our life but if we see him in his Son that will preserve it for as the Chrystal glass may afford much glittering light but not any delightful reflexion to the beholder till it be clouded and darkened with a back of some grosser mettal so the Divinity of Christ may afford many glorious speculations of his Majesty but no one comfortable reflexion of his mercy till it be as it were darkened and shadowed with his humanity Then me thinks I can easily without the help of a Crucifix see in him a head bowed down to hear me an eye carefully looking after me an hand stretched out to defend me a mouth open to call me and a bosom as open to receive me So that I cannot but still desire to see my Saviour in the flesh though not with the eye of my flesh but with the eye of my faith for if I see him in God he is my consternation but if I see him in man he is my salvation SECT II. In what sense Saint Paul cared not to know Christ in the flesh and yet Christ in the flesh only is comfortably known IT is impossible that a good Christian should either desire not to know Christ because he loves him or not to know him in the flesh because so he hath most reason to love him and yet Saint Paul hath said Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. But sure the Apostle speaks not positively but comparatively Henceforth know we no man after the flesh not so as to forget the relations and substance of the flesh in others which we carry about our selves for that were to forget the Law of nature But so as not to overprize the seeming pre-eminencies but indeed real vanities of the flesh beauty honour riches and the like when they are destitute of the gifts and graces of the Spirit as if Christian love and conversation more concerned the outward then the inward man for that were to forget the Law of Grace Thus we must know no man after the flesh no not Christ himself that is in the external representation of his flesh or more admiring the image of his person then the power of his Redemption or in the external presence of his flesh as desirous to enter a carnal instead of a spiritual communion with him and bringing rather our mouths then our hearts to feed upon his precious body and blood Thus must we no more know Christ himself after the flesh but yet we may not we must not forget the substance of his flesh in which the Son of God and the Son of man is but one Christ unless we will forget the substance of our own salvation For in that same flesh he was our Redeemer in that same flesh he still is our Mediator and Intercessor In that same flesh was his head crowned with thorns that ours might be crowned with glory in that same flesh be often bowed down his head to look upon us he once suffered his feet to be fastened to stay for
are espoused unto him Such a righteousness as will keep off sin from causing a Divorce He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness such a salvation as will keep off death from causing a dissolution in their marriage He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for neither shall my sins disturb this joy since I am covered with his righteousness nor shall my death diminish it since I am cloathed with his salvation To him be glory for this righteousness and for this salvation for evermore Amen Christ adored in his Resurrection CAP. I. That Christ is to be adored chiefly in his Resurrection SECT I. The resurrection of Christ the grand cause of joy to Christià ns but strongly opposed by the Jews whose Commentaries are not to be followed on those texts which concern our Saviour Christ though even those texts have not been corrupted by them WHat is the sorrow of the soul for sin we may partly see by every true penitent who cannot but say for his sins as our Saviour once said for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even to the death Mat. 26. 38. But what is the sorrow of the soul for death the wages of sin God make us such true penitents that we may never see for if we are so unfit by reason of our impatience and so unable by râ—â—son of our infirmity to pass over the momentary sorâ—oâ—â— of the earth it must needs fill our souls with astonishment and confusion but once seriously to think of the sorrows the everlasting sorrows of hell Wherefore most welcom to the Christian soul is that joy which delivers it from this sorrow and that is the joy of Christs resurrection whereby we have been delivered from the sting and mischief of the temporal from the pangs horrours of the eternal death Accordingly it hath been observed by Christian Chronologers that our blessed Saviour did rise from the dead on that very same day of the year on which Moses and the children of Israel had almost two thousand years before passed safely through the red Sea And indeed as their deliverance by Moses from the Egyptians was a type of our deliverance by Christ from our spiritual bondage so their joy may well be in our hearts and their Song in our mouths only heightned by a greater measure of thankfulness and of thanksgiving for as much as ours hath of the two been infinitely the greater deliverance Therefore let me say as they did but let me say it with a more thankfull heart and with a more cheerfull voice for greater is my duty though lesser is my ability I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously Exod. 15. 1. Never was so glorious a triumph as this which triumphed over the grave that devours all this worlds triumphs nay over Hell which makes the bare memory of them odious and detestable either that they were gained unjustly or used immoderately or abused intemperately The Lord is my strength and song and he is become my Salvation ver 2. What can my soul say more what should it say less for being delivered from the pangs and horrours of the temporal and eternal death but that the Lord is my Song for being my strength to rescue and to redeem me much more for being my salvation to receive me and to crown me Again Who is like unto thee O Lord amongst the Gods who is like unto thee glorious in holiness fearfull in praises doing wonders ver 11. Let me but think of the Son of God dying for my sins and rising from the dead to make me righteous and I must needs say he was glorious in holiness and ought to be fearfull in praises for doing such wonders as to bring glory out of shame holiness out of Sin and life out of death Lastly Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation ver 13. All those Saints that did rise from the dead when our Saviour Christ arose to go along with him into heaven and all those Saints that shall rise hereafter by vertue of his resurrection to follow him thither can say no more then this to express their joy and thankfulness Thou hast led us forth from the grave thou hast redeemed us from death thou hast guided us in thy strength to thy holy habitation there to see and bless and enjoy thee for ever So that those late Hebr. Criticks are too much in love with the glosses of the Jews who oppose them against the Judgement of the whole Catholick Church that they may enervate one of the soundest proofs of the Resurrection that is to be found in all the Old Testament And that proof is Job 19. 25 26 27. I know that my redeemer liveth and that I shall rise out of the earth at the last day and shall be covered again with my skin and shall see God in my flesh Yea and my self shall behold him not with other but with these same eyes Words so expresly spoken of the resurrection that the Church hath thought fit to use them at the burial of the dead as the chiefest comfort and consolation against death yet upon these words thus saith the Learned Mercer Nostri ferè omnes tam veteres quà m recentiores hunc versiculum cum duobus sequentibus ad resurrectionem referunt sâ—d ego cum Hebraeis aliter accipio Quod si de resurrectione futura hic loqueretur Job non erant haud dubie id praetermissuri Hebraei qui ipsi resurrectionem credunt At ne unum quidem ex sex aut septem Hebraeorum commentariis invenies qui eò referat Almost all Christian writers ancient and modern do expound these three verses of the Resurrection but I with the Jews do expound them otherwise For if Job had here spoken of the resurrection to come doubtless the Hebrew doctors would not have pretermitted it in their Commentaries since they also believed this Doctrine but in six or seven of their Expositors there is not one that expounds these words of the resurrection This reason is unsound in it self and therefore unsatisfactory in its Proof For the Jewish expositors labour after nothing more then not to see Christ in the Old Testament And their Doctors knowing that the Christians did believe and profess the Resurrection of the dead by vertue of Christs resurrection had rather leave the doctrine of the resurrection out of their glosses then allow it to be by vertue of our blessed Saviour whom their fathers had crucified and whom themselves not only hated but also accursed and blasphemed every day Thus Saint Mathew tells us plainly that the Jews gave the Souldiers mony to say that our Saviours disciples came by night and stole him away And they that were so willing to put a lye in other mens mouths were as
willing to put the truth out of their own Hearts for so saith the same Evangelist And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day Mat. 28. 15. Nor is it easie for any man to shew another Day wherein they first left off this Report Sure we are that when the Apostles preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead Act. 4. 2. that the Jews were greived and with might and main opposed their Doctrine and this spirit of contradiction continued in them throughout all that age wherein the New Testament was written and Ecclesiastical writers do shew us that by its long continuance it was rather increased then abated in their successors Wherefore it must be unsound and unsafe for any Christian Divine to appeal to the Jewish Comments for the true sense of any Text in the Old Testament concerning Christ For although they unanimously maintain and justifie the Letter of the Scripture wherein they have shewed themselves more thankful if not more faithful then many of our late Christians who would teach the translations to justle out the Original yet they have laboured to corrupt and deprave the meaning of it in most of those prophesies which they found the Christian Church had applied unto our Saviour Christ I speak especially of the latter Jews who are the cheifest Commentators we now have upon the Old Testament for those Rabbies who were before Christ did interpret many Texts of the Messiah which the later Rabbies have since wrested to and obscured by another Interpretation so that in truth those later Rabbies whose comments we now have upon the Bible have used what Art they could to obscure the Prophesies concerning Christ and therefore must needs be ill guides in any Doctrine that concerns the Christian Faith As for example Isa 7. 14. the place which Saint Matthew quotes to prove that Christ was to be conceived and born of a Virgin yet Kimchi who is one of the cheifest and the best of the late Jewish Expositors expounds it of the Prophets or of Ahaz his wife and saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not there put for a Virgin but only for some younger woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is willing to distinguish Almah from Bethulah because Bethulah must be an incorrupt Virgin but Almah may signifie a maid that had not an incorrupted Virginity as Prov. 30. 19. And Aquila had too much of the Jew in him to follow the Septuagints interpretation of this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a Virgin therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a young woman shall conceive for the Jews did meerly out of envy render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a young woman instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Virgin And sure we are the infallible spirit of God hath thus rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a Virgin shall be with child Mat. 1. 23. So again Isa 9. 6. For unto us a child is born c. Kimchi labours to prove this child to be Hezekiah though he be fain to divide the predicate from the subject in the same proposition contrary to all Logick and to divide the relative from the antecedent in the same sentence contrary to all Grammar that he may wrest the latter part of the words His name shall be called wonderful Councellour c. which are unappliable to any man and expound them of God the Father because he will not allow the Prophesie to concern God the Son So again Isa 53. A place which Bellarmine alledgeth to prove that the Jews did not corrupt the Text for that the Original Hebrew did plainly assert the Divinity of Christ calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a smitten God when as our translations only say he was smitten of God This place making more against the Jews in the Hebrew Original then either in Greek or Latine translations is a substantial proof indeed that the Jews did not seek to corrupt the letter of the Text but yet this same place doth as plainly prove that they did seek to deprave the sense of it for Jarchi and Kimchi both would fain perswade us that all this Chapter is to be interpreted of the Jews in their present captivity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the captivity of Israel although the expressions be such throughout the whole Chapter as can belong only to one single person He shall grow up he is despised he was wounded c. and there be many passages which cannot possibly be applyed to Israel I will insist that but on three 1. That it is said he was wounded for our transgressions whereas Israel was afflicted for their own sins 2. That it is said He had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth whereas every man is a liar and God only is true who is the first truth 3. That it is said He made intercession for the transgressors whereas the Jews are so far from praying for the Christians who they say hold them in captivity that they revile and curse them every day and pray for their destruction Lastly that I may instance in one placec which neerly concerns this Doctrine of the resurrection which the Jews care not to see in the forenamed testimony of holy Job It is most evident that the ninth and tenth verses of the sixteenth Psalm do expresly prophesie of the resurrection of Christ and Saint Peter plainly proves as much Acts 2. to the conviction of all those Jews that heard him and to the conversion of some thousands of them yet the late Jewish Expositors will find no such piece of Divinity in it but Jarchi will needs expound it of David contrary to all sense and reason and Ezra slubbers it over with a Platomical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Volutatio animarum the tumbling and jumbling of souls whereby they phansied one soul to pass through three several bodies as that the soul of Adam was afterwards in David and shall hereafter be in the Messiah which say their Cabbalists is intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath in it the initial letters of Adam David Messias to shew that his soul should also possess their two bodies And Elias in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tels us of a Text which they quote to make good this their wild position of one and the same humane soul receiving as it were a threefold creation and possessing three several bodies and that Text is Job 33. 29. Ecce omnia ista operatur Deus cum homine tribus vicibus Lo all these things worketh God with man three times It were the loss of my labour and of the Readers patience to insist upon the confutation either of their opinion or of their proof they alledge for it since both are equally absurd and erroneous And yet Abâ—n Ezra would needs shuffle in this frantick opinion into his Comment upon those words
fear least the earth should open under him and heaven should be shut above him and against him for that he is a sinner against his own soul Numb 16. 38. and doth provoke God to make him as Corah and his company In this one case we have a memorable example of Gods justice and as exemplary a memorial thereof and we have scarce any other such as this but we find very many exemplary memorials of his mercy Scarce any singular blessing bestowed upon the Iews but there was a special feast appointed in the Church to propagate and to perpetuate its remembrance Thus was the feast of tabernacles instituted that your generations may know that I made Israel to dwell in bothes when I brought them out of the Land of Egypt Levit 23. 43. Thus without Gods immediate command was ordained the feast of Purim Esther 9. which yet was faithfully observed and the observation thereof looked on as a religious not as a superstitious practise by God and man Nay yet more we find another feast after this not mentioned in the Canonical Scripture but only in the Apocrypha the feast of the Dedication of the Altar 1 Macchab. 4. 59. and yet this feast was not only carefully observed by the Iews but the observation of it was also approved by our Saviour himself John 10. 22 23. which is warrant more then enough both for the Church to constitute still such festivals to the honour of God and for us to observe the Festivals that are so constituted And it is also check more then enough to their insolency and perversness if they would take notice of it who in matters of the Christian Religion will pretend to be wiser not only then Christs Church but also then Christ himself For if the argument be undenyable concerning marriage from John 2. 1 2. which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence and first miracle that he wrought in Cana of Galilee Then it is as undenyable concerning Festivals from Iohn 10. 22 23. which holy institution Christ himself adorned and beautified with his presence in that he went to the Temple at the feast of the Dedication as well as at other feasts which were immediately commanded in the text In a word Thus the feast of the Passover was instituted to commemorate to the Jews how God had passed over them when he slew the Egyptians Exod. 12. 12. And the Christian Church hath appointed this Gospel Anniversary feast of Easter to succeed that legal Anniverâ—…y feast of the Passeover not so much to shew her Authority which however cannot be denyed without Heresie nor resisted without Schism as to discharge her trust For the Apostle 1 Cor. 9 10. saying that those words Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treadeth out the corn were written no doubt for our sakes hath laid it for an immoveable grouud of our Christian faith that the general equity even of the Levitical Law as far as it was not typical is still in force among Christians concerning the solemnities of Religion and must be so till the worlds end And if we will stick fast to this ground All our late contests about the times places and persons belonging to Gods publick worship will soon be determined if we will not stick to it we shall in effect put aside the Apostles Divinity that we may bring in our own By this ground Aerius his Heresie will soon be ejected out of the Church who taught That Imparity of the Ministry was condemned and Parity commended in the word of God as saith Saint August lib. de haeres haeres 53. Dicebat Presbyterum ab Episcopo nullâ differentiâ debere discerni For it is evident out of the Levitical Law alone That God himself ordained and instituted an Imparity in the Priesthood and as evident That he hath since not reversed but plainly approved if not established an imparity in the Ministers of the Gospel as appears by the power of Jurisdiction given by Saint Paul to Timothy over Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. unless we will say That he might receive accusations against Presbyters pass sentence upon them without having jurisdiction over them Again By this ground tithes and all other provisions made for the Ministry will rather be encreased then diminished for the Gospel being so much above the Law doth rather call for a greater then for a lesser maintenance so that if the Ox that trod out the corn might not be muzzled then much less now Churches will no longer be nick-named much less unfrequented or profaned and the Sabbath will no more afford us matter of Disputation but of Devotion if we will stick to this ground for that God himself hath said Keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary Levit. 19. 30. and the same God that hath forbad us to profane the time hath also forbad us to profane the place of his worship Levit. 21. 23. that ye profane not my sanctuaries for I the Lord 〈…〉 sanctifie them I say by this ground all our late contests about the times places and persons belonging to Gods publick worship may easily be determined â—nless we will needs say for wilful men will say any thing That Gods commands about Oxen contain in them matter of precept for our Christian conversation and obedience though the Apostle plainly telleth us That God careth not for Oxen But not so his commands about the time and place and persons of his own worship concerning which God himself hath professed that he is solicitous and careful even to a jealousie And by this same ground it is evident That as the Jew under the Law â—as so the Christian under the Gospel is obliged to commemorate Gods extraordinary benefits to his Church with extraordinary thanksgivings And as God prescribed the Jews a set form of Catechism to instruct their children in the reasons of this solemn festival Exod. 12. 24 25 26. which Solomon Jarchi calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon Exod. 13. 8. that is to say The Annuntiation of the Passeover so did the Christian Church think fit to require catechizing specially against Easter and more particularly because of those who addressed themselves to the Holy Communion which never failed heretofore to be administred at that time and is our true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most full and exact Annuntiation of our spiritual deliverance nor is it improbable that Saint Paul alluded to this very Text of Exod. 13. 8. Annuntiabis filio tuo and to this very custom of the Jews grounded thereon of making their Catechetical annuntiations when he used the very same word concerning the blessed Sacrament saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Annuntiatis mortem Domini 1 Cor. 11. 26. thereby himself calling or at least licencing us to call the holy Eucharist the annuntiation of the death of Christ And it is remarkable that the Jews used this manner of Catechizing only at this feast and their Catechism consisted of these three heads 〈◊〉
Iew he would have been zealous to have proved his Sabbath before Moses could he have made good his proof and that these words seem to be spoken by way of anticipation to continue the history like that of the Saints rising at our Saviours death Saint Mat. 27. 52. which yet was not so till after his resurrection for Christ was to be the first that should rise from the dead Act. 26. 23. The reason of the name Sabbath depends upon the creation of which God repented soon after as saith Moses it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart Gen. 6. 6. when as the reason of the name Lords day depends upon the Redemption of which he cannot repent For Christ rising again from the dead now dieth not death from henceforth hath no power upon him for in that he died he died but once to put away sin but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Rom. 6. 9 10. And as Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more so neither can this Festival die which is consecrated to the memory of his resurrection but as long as the first day of the week shall last so long it must be our Lords day and not our own As is the mercy immortal so is the duty that recordeth it and as is the duty so is the day on which it is recorded As is the Lord himself so is his day as much as a day can be the same yesterday and to day and for ever The same in all ages and successions of the Church Not changeable now by the Authority of his present Catholick Church because that hath a power for edification not for destruction 1 Cor. 10. 8. and in this change the Church that is now would but pull down what the Church when it was under the master-builders hands did set up Not changeable by the Authority of Angeis for they in so doing would in effect preach another Gospel another Christ delivered for our offences and risen again for our Iustification and so being themselves under Saint Pauls anathema Gal. 1. 9. I dare further say and I hope it is no presumption sure it is intended with reverence not changeable by Christ himself according to his power of excellency whereby he is head of the Church and founder of all Christian Institutions because though the change be Metaphysically possible that is in its own nature for that all daies are alike in themselves as to Gods worship yet it is not morrally possible that is in the end and reason of the change because Christ cannot rise again from the dead and consequently there cannot be another day as a memorial of his resurrection More daies then this may be set apart for the honour of Christ by the example and from the reason or end of this for the duty is of extent large enough to employ many daies and God having consecrated time to his own service hath made it lawful or rather necessary for the Church to do so too and we find the Jews did ordain the feasts of Purim and Dedication without any peculiar precept from the text and yet are justified for so doing But this day must be set apart by the example of Christ himself who made it his free-will-offering to God by making on it the first ordination of the ministers of his Gospel Other daies are authorized by vertue of this but this day is authorized by vertue of Christ who chose it for the day whereon to ordain his Apostles the Teachers and Governors of his Church and also to give unto them the power of ordaining others So that both the circumstances of time and person the day and the Ministers of Gods publick worshp have no less then the chief corner stone for their foundation For they both are grounded upon the practise of Christ on the day of his resurrection though builded upon the practise and precepts of his Apostles So we read John 20. 19. The same day at evening being the first day of the week came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them Peace be unto you the same day at evening the evening follows the morning in the Christian but went before it in the Iewish account of daies The evening and the morning made the first Sabbath but the morning and the evening made the first Lords day what other reason can we give of the change but because the Lord rose from death in the morning Being the first day of the week Why is the first day of the week so punctually named Surely not to tell the Apostles what day it was but to tell us that should be after them that we might know the very day on which Christ had purchased for and bestowed on his Church such unvaluable mercies and so know it as to keep it as it followeth ver 21. Theu said Jesus unto them again Peace be unto you Now it is more then an ordinary salutation it is certainly a most solemn benediction Peace be unto you as my Father hath sent me even so send I you and when he had said this he breathed on them and saith unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost We have here the practise and example of Christ for solemnizing the day of his resurrection and for the ordaining of his Ministers We have his example for the observation of the Lords day which as he made holy by his own rising so he kept holy by his blessing and ordaining the Apostles on it And we have his example for the ordination of the Lords Ministers and there is little reason why we should easily and much less slightly pass by the former since we are sure that the latter is to continue till the worlds end for this is the full meaning of the words As my Father sent me and endued me with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority to be the teacher and governor of his universal Church So I send you and endue you with the Holy Ghost or with spiritual authority and power to be teachers and governors of the Church after me And as the Father sent me with power and authority of sending others and of giving them the Holy Ghost or my spiritual power So do I send you with the power of sending others and giving unto them the Holy Ghost or this spiritual authority and power of sending others still after them even to the worlds end This is the full meaning of those words and therefore the antient Fathers particularly Saint Cyprian and Firmilian did rightly apply this Text to prove by it the authority of the Church in their daies and we may as rightly alledge it now to justifie the same authority For the Bishops are obliged by this Text to ordain a succession of Ministers even to the worlds end One must be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection saith Saint Peter Acts 1. 22. If God say One must be ordained it is not for
Disciples who were in Jerusalem at S. Peters first Sermon were but 120. He is afraid of an imaginary miscief but fals into a real inconveniency the mischif was meerly imaginary as if S. Paul to the Corinthians had clashed with S. Luke in the Acts whereas Saint Luke saith not there were then in Jerusalem but 120. disciples only there were but one hundred and twenty of such note as the Apostles had called together to consult about the election of a new Apostle accordingly he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of the names that is such as were notorious and eminent in the Church not denying but there might be many hundreds of the inferiour sort of people which are called by the Poet sine Nomine turba the common sort that are without a Name who were at that time reckoned among the disciples though they had not been called to the election of Saint Matthias Thus the mischief he feared was meerly imaginary but he fell into a real inconveniency For this supposition that it is possible there should have been such chopping and changing in the Text tends directly to the enervating of the Authority of the Scriptures and the fidelity and veracity of the Catholick Church for both Greek and Latine Churches do now read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 five hundred and if they read not now as they found it delivered to them they are defective in their Veracity if it was not delivered to them as it was at first written their forefathers were defective in their Fidelity for this is too great a change to come in by the mistake of a writer though it is very improbable that the whole Church should be so careless as to suffer any such mistakes However in this particuler Eusebius will justifie our present reading of the Text against all conjectures whatsoever for he lib. 1. Histor Eccles cap. 12. setteth down this very apparition of our blessed Saviour totidem verbis not by numeral letters but in so many several express words as Saint Paul had before saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an undeniable argument that these words were so writ at large from Saint Pauls own hand Having given this hint only out of zeal to Gods holy word which must sway my faith against the practice of whole Churches much more against the phansies of private men I pass to the words which our blessed Saviour spake immediately before he ascended for without all question he then again repeated them though he had spoken them several times before Saint Luke records them as spoken on the very day of his Resurrection Luke 24. 47. Saint John records them as spoken also on the very same day John 20. 19 20 21 22. Saint Mathew records them as spoken after that day sc on the mountain in Galilee Mat. 28. 16 19. And Saint Mark records them as spoken both on the day of his resurrection for so was the Apparition to which he annexeth them and also on the day of his Ascension for such is the manner of his annexion So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven For what was it that the Lord had spoken unto them but these words concerning the discharge of their Apostolical Office or Function Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. which is yet more evidently attested by Saint Luke Acts 1. 9. where it is said when he had spoken these things that is those things which concerned their Function whiles they beheld he was taken up For Saint Matthew's Go ye therefore and teach all Nations And Saint Mâ—â—k's Go ye into all the world And Saint Lukes ye are witnesses of these things And Saint Johns As my Father sent me even so send I you do all of them concern one and the same office of preaching the Gospel and administring the Sacraments and whatever else the Apostles were bound to do in order to the gathering or preserving or governing the Church of Christ And we cannot deny but these same words or at least words to this effect were solemnly spoken at three several times by our blessed Saviour to his Apostles that is to say On the day of his Resurrection and afterwards again in Galilee and yet a third time also after that immediately before his Ascention to shew what a necessity was laid upon them to discharge that sacred function when he thought it necessary so often to repeat their charge as if it had been his only business from his Resurrection to his Ascention And doubtless if we seriously consier the words themselves we shall easily see and willingly confess that as they did concern the constitution of the Church at that time so they do concern the constitution of the Church at this day and will concern both its constitution and conservation to the worlds end I will accordingly explain them briefly as I find them in the Evangelists yet so as to make Saint Matthew the standard for the rest having already explained the words as they are recorded by Saint John And thus Saint Matthew records the words All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth our blessed Saviour had all the power of heaven and earth given to him from the Father both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of man as he was the Son of God so this power was given him by eternal generation as he was the Son of man so the same power was given him by free donation partly at his first conception by vertue of his union with the God-head but more fully after his resurrection for the merit of his death and passion So that though he exercised this power in his life time by choosing Apostles and instituting the Holy Sacraments yet after he was risen again he exercised the same much more eminently in a threesold respect Quoad modum quoad statum quoad usum First because he was possessed of it after a more excellent manner as having merited it by his death Secondly because he was possessed of it in a more excellent state as now being past all fear and danger of dying Thirdly because he was possessed of it for a more excellent end as being how to use it not for the conversion of one people but of all the world as it follows Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Go ye therefore relying upon my authority which is founded upon all power both in heaven and in earth whereas any authority that can forbid you to go is founded only upon the power in earth And teach all Nations This the Apostles could not do no more then they could continue to the end of the world in their own persons Therefore our Saviour Christ speaks these words to their Successors as well as to them And so this Precept was given to make good that Promise Mat. 24. 14. The Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all Nations and then shall
ascended And to this purpose we may not unfitly reduce all the words which he spake from his Resurrection till his Ascension to these three heads verba instructionis verba consolationis verba benedictionis words of instruction words of consolation and words of benediction or words of grace mercy and peace For like as Saint Paul said to Saint Timothy whom he called his own son in the Faith Grace Mercy and Peace so did God from the beginning speak to his Apostles and so doth he still speak to all those whom he accepteth as his sons though unworthy to be his servants the words of grace by instruction the words of mercy by consolation and the words of peace by benediction Saint Luke saith our Saviour was full forty dayes with his Apostles after his Resurrection speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Act. 1. 3. He had so fervent a desire of teaching them and in them us the right way of salvation that he differred to enter into his own glory which he had so dearly earned by his sufferings till he had fully instructed and confirmed them in that way He was willing to leave the impression of heaven in their hearts before he was willing to take possession of it in his own body Oh that we did imitate our Master in this his unspeakable charity for though it be above our expression yet may it in some sort come under our imitation by truly desiring and zealously promoting one anothers Salvation This would be indeed to shew not to speak our selves Christians This would be indeed not Verbally but Really to put on the Lord Jesus Christ He was unwilling to leave his Apostles before he had given them all manner of Instructions both how to teach and how to govern his Church the one that he might keep all after-ages from heresie the other that he might keep them from schism Oh that all Christians would accordingly consider what a grievous sin it is not to hearken to Christs own Teaching not to obey Christs own Government And what a Severe account he will call them to when he shall come again as Judge of quick and dead for being hereticks against his doctrine put afterwards in writing in his word or for being Schismaticks against his discipline put immediately in practice in his Church For if he kept himself forty dayes from heaven to settle his Church how shall any that is called a Christian think the best way thither is to unsettle it Our blessed Saviour gave instructions and not only so least we should think any thing of Religion to be arbitrary but he also gave commands That we should know and acknowledge all matters of Religion to be necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After he had given commandments unto the Apostles Acts 1. 2. But where are these commands Are they or any of them devolved down unto us only by unwritten Tradition we dare not say so for that were to make the holy Apostles so regardless of Christs instructions as to care to teach them only to those men who had the happiness to live in their dayes since verbal Tradition is as changable as the breath that derives it whereas what is spoken of Abel is much more to be verified of Saint Peter or Saint John God testifying of his gifts and by it that is by his faith he being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Nay more yet Preacheth for the reading of the law of Moses is called Preaching Acts 15. 21. For Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and if reading in the Law of Moses was Preaching who dares deny it to be so in the Law of Christ Therefore the books of the New Testament do certainly contain the Instructions and commands which Christ gave to his Apostles by word of mouth during those forty dayes he abode with them And we need go no farther then the written word to know our Saviours mind for it is therein taught us either by Precept or by Promise or by Precedent And consequently what we find not there written for our instruction in one of these three wayes that we must not ascribe either to his dictating or to their Preaching unless we will impute gross forgetfullness to the Registers of Christ as not remembring all things necessary when as our Saviour himself promised them such a Comforter as should bring all things to their remembrance Joh. 14. 26. or supine negligence to the Pen-men of the Holy-Ghost as not writing what was necessary to be remembred For if the words which Job spake concerning Christ were to be engraven with an yron pen lead in a rock for ever Joh. 19. 24. then much more were those words to be so engraven which Christ himself spake to his Apostles words ingraven in a rock with an yron pen are lasting but they are not so legible unless they be also drawn over or coloured with lead to make them conspicuous So Salomon Iarchi glosseth this Text he would have the Characters of his Letters engraven with yron to make a deep impression but after that he would have those same Characters coloured or died with lead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare litteris aspectum nigrum ut cognoscantur That their black tincture might make them the more legible And without doubt our blessed Saviour took such a course that the main effect of his words should be so engraven as to be both lasting and legible to the worlds end when himself hath said that heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Mat. 24. 35. and amongst the rest sure not his last words Saint Luke records this for one of them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father Acts 1. 4. And this word doth our Saviour Christ still speak to every good Christian saying unto him depart not from Jerusalem though it were in truth what some have made it reputed by their false clamours prophane unclean impure Ierusalem For you may not hope to fare better then Christ and his Apostles whereever you stay and you are sure not to fare worse then they did though you stay in Jerusalem Jerusalem the City of God had been turned into Sodom a cage of unclean birds for its impurity into an Aceldama a field of blood for its cruelty yet here is such a promise annexed to it as makes Christs Disciples willing to bear with the impurities and to bear the cruelties For it is an Elisha promise which signifieth My God saveth And no wonder then if it hath the power of reviving the Soul as Elisha's bones did revive a dead body And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood upon his feet 2 Kings 13. 21. So if the soul be let down never so low into the pit of destruction yet if it touch this Elisha this promise of My God saveth with
Domino crucifixo mortuo discipulis fugientibus de resurrectione desperantibus in illâ solâ tota fides remansit Because the Disciples being fled and despairing of the Resurrection when they saw their master was dead the whole Christian faith remained in the blessed Virgin alone specially that day wherein Christ himself lay in the grave that was the Sabbath day or Saturday as if he had been captivated under death The foundation is unsound and so is the superstruction But we are sure whatever the Disciples frailty was in our Saviours Passion yet their zeal and constancy were both very eminent after his resurrection For then they attended diligently and constantly upon their master till they saw him taken up from them and they lost nothing by their diligent and their constant attendance For his Valediction was a Benediction as he left them he blessed them A good example for us how we ought to leave this world though never so injurious to us never so oppressive of us for a Benediction is the only true Christian Valediction and there is no ascending into heaven without that They who part and go away hence in discontents and grudgings which are but secret curses of the heart against God or man can scarce go to heaven by Christs assistance because they desire not to go thither after his example But let their names be enrolled in the records of eternity who notwithstanding all the provocations and insolencies of unjust and unrighteous men have died with more patience and contentedness then we dare live Sure even they also did see Christ in his Ascention though so many hundred years after it or they could not so exactly have followed his pattern But whatever we may think or say of them sure we cannot deny but some others did see it full as many hundred years before as Moses Deut. 33. 26. Ascensor coeli auxiliator tuus He that ascendeth the heavens iâ— thy helper for not only Saint Hierom but also Jarchi so expounds those words And David Psal 47. 7. Ascendit Deus in jubilatione God is ascended with a shout Nay many more it seems did see this Ascention together with him upon whom he calls earnestly to glorifie God for it Psalm 68. 4. O sing unto God and sing praises unto his name magnifie him that rideth upon the heavens as it were upon an horse what could the Apostles say more when they saw our Saviour triumphantly sitting upon the cloud and so ascending up Praise him in his name yea and rejoyce before him Concerning which places the Angelical Doctor hath thus determined Quòd autoritates illae propheticè dicuntur de Deo secundum quod erat incarnandus 3. p. qu 57. art 2. ad 1m Those authorities were spoken prophetically of God the Son in respect to his Incarnation And a more truly Angelical Doctor did in effect so determine long before him and that was Saint Paul when he applyed those words of Psalm 68. 18. Thou art gone up on high thou hast led captivity captive c. directly and expresly to the ascension of our Saviour Christ Thus were there many witnesses of our blessed Saviours Ascension long before it come to pass and therefore certainly that truth and consquently the rest tending to it may not want its witnesses to the worlds end This is clearly evidenced from Saint Pauls words who saith that when he ascended he gave gifts unto men that there should be a succession of witnesses to testifie of him till his coming again for this is the effect of those words Eph. 4. 11 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ The meaning is that the testimony of his Truth should not expire with the first witnesses of it but should continue by a succession of other witnesses to the worlds end even as long as there should be a Church to be edified or Saints to be perfected or the work of the Ministry to be performed Let these men consider whether they come not near denying Christs Ascension who do in effect deny the Apostles proof it He proves that Christ was ascended because he had established a Ministry they say there is no no need of a Ministry they were as good say That Christ is not ascended Again others there are that will have a Ministry but yet set up new officers in it or with it for the edifying of the body of Christ which Christ himself never instituted at his ascension and reject those which were of his own undoubted institution These men ought not to obtrude upon the Church any office as of Christs erecting that is not comprehended among those in this Text since they cannot shew us another Ascension much less ought they to disturb some of those which Christ himself then erected and his Church hath ever since acknowledged and retained unless they will be thought disturbers of this Article of their Christian faith He ascended into heaven For that institution cannot be only for a time which hath a reason that continues for ever And such is the reason here given by Saint Paul for instituting these Church-officers to wit The perfecting of the Saints the work of the Ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ A reason which is to hold till the end of the world and therefore doubtless so also must the Institution But we may â—ot stray away from our Mount Gerizim on which not the Sons of men but the eternal Son of God hath blessed us to follow after those whose delight is to be upon Mount Ebal to revile and to curse their Brethren nay their Mother the Church Let us then fix our eyes and our hearts upon our blessed Saviour for though one cloud received him out of his Disciples sight whiles he was ascending yet not all the clouds nor the whole body of heaven was able to keep Saint Stephen from seeing him after he was ascended for so we read Acts 7. 55. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God what he did then see with the eye of flesh we may still see with the eye of faith especially if with him we suffer couragiously and contentedly and not only so but also thankfully for Jesus sake we shall with him likewise see Jesus standing on the right hand of God Behold I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God v. 56. Adstantem ad dexteram Dei i. e. Paratum ad me confirmandum in veritatis confessione recipiendum ad sese saith Beza I see him standing that is ready to confirm me in the confession of his truth and as ready to receive me for confessing it And he borrowed this his gloss from Saint Gregory in his Sermon upon the Ascension
Sedere est judicantis stare vero pugnantis adjuvantis Stephanus ergo in labore certaminis positus stantem vidit quem adjutorem â—abuit sed tunc post ascensionem Marcus sedere describit qua post Ascensionis gloriam inde in â—iâ—e videbitur To sit belongs to one that judgeth to stand to one that helpeth Therefore Saint Stephen saw Christ standing when he needed his help though Saint Mark described him as sitting because after he was ascended he looked on him as ready to judge the quick and dead God grant all the persecuted Ministers and servants of Christ so to see their master standing as ready to help them nay indeed so they do see him or they could not contentedly undergo their persecutions Quo propiùs mortem accedunt martyres eo propiùs Christum intuentes in coelum assurgunt saith the same Beza in his short notes upon the place The Martyrs the nearer they approach to death the nearer they behold Christ and when they seem to fall lowest they do indeed rise highest when their head is nearest earth even upon the block their heart is nearest heaven when we most see their destruction they most see their own salvation we look on their destroyers standing over them ready to dispatch them but they look on their Saviour standing over their destroyers even at the right hand of God ready to receive them Most heavenly is that contemplation of Tertullian lib. de resur carn Quemadmodum nobis arrhabonem Spiritus reliquit ita à nobis arrhabonem carnis accepit vexiâ— in coelum pignus totius summae illuc quandoque redigendae Securi igitur estote caro sanguis usurpâstis enim coelum regnum in Christo Our blessed Saviour as he gave unto us the earnest of his Spirit so he took of us the earnest of our flesh and carried that with him into heaven as a pledge that all the rest should follow after it Be secure then O flesh and blood for ye have already ascended into heaven and do even now in Christ your head possess and enjoy the Kingdom of God CAP. III. Christ considered after he was ascended as sitting on the hand of God SECT I. What is meant by the right hand of God and by Christs sitting there SAint Augustine in his hundred and fifteenth Sermon de tempore ascribes this part of the Apostles Creed concerning Christs ascending into heaven and sitting on the right hand of God to Saint Bartholomew and the antient Fathers do generally make them both but one Article or at least joyn them so together as if they were bur one Wherein they speak much after the dialect of Saint Peter 1 Pet. 3. 22. Who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God But I have rather chosen to treat of them severally because though we should allow them to be but one article of our Faith yet they are two several mysteries of our Religion and indeed the one an effect and consequent of the other and therefore not the same with it For our blessed Saviour first ascended in his humane body and afterwards in that same humane body sate at the right hand of God But here we must be sure to observe Origens caution Ne tibi describas sensibiles sessiones duas cathedras sedentes super â—as humano Schemate Patrem Filium take heed you phansie not to your self any visible sitting as if there were two chairs in heaven the one for the Father to sit in the other for the Son to sit by him Nor may we think that God hath such a right hand for Christ to sit on as Solomon had for his mother Bathsheba 1 King 2. 19 He caused a seat to be set for the Kings Mother and she sate on his right hand We must have no such earthly and fleshly thoughts of the place and much less of the God of spirits but by the right hand of God We must understand the power and majesty and glory of the God head So Saint Basil in lib. desp S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The right hand of God doth not signifie any relation of place but equality of power So Saint Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when you hear of Gods right hâ—nd you must thereby undeastand the glory honour and worship of God and nothing else is meant by Christs sitting at the right hand of God but his being in the same glory with the Father Excellently Damascence lib. 4. de orth fide cap. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was the more willing to transcribe the whole words because this piece of Damascen is scarce to be met with but in Colledge Libraries and is not like to be there very long if some men may have their wills who gaping after Colledge lands would force the poor Scholars to sell their books to buy bread but the meaning of them is this We say that Christ sitteth on the right hand of his father corporally or locally in his humane body But we do not say that the right hand of his Father is local or corporal confined to any place or situation for how can he that is uncircumscrîbed and unconfined have such a right hand But we call the right hand of the Father the glory honour of the Godhead in the which Christ as the Son of God was Copartner with his Father before all ages being coessential with him But now also as the Son of man in his humane flesh or body is he possessed of the same glory his humane nature being glorified together with his Divine nature and worshipped in the same person by all the Saints and Angels in heaven SECT II. That Christ as man sitteth on the right hand of God IT is not to be denyed but that our Saviour Christ doth as he is a man sit at the right hand of God For he doth sit there in his humane nature whether we take his sitting at the right hand of God for his resting in eternal blessedness after all the travails and labours of his sufferings as Saint Augustine doth in Expos Symb. or for being assumed and associated into the glory of the Divinity as Damascen expounds it For as in his Divine nature he sate at the right hand of God from all eternity being in the same power and glory and blessedness with him so also after his ascension he carried up his humane nature to sit there having taken the nature of man as into the unity so also into the glory and blessedness of his person and in it administring the Kingdom of his father as head of the Church both Militant and Triumphant King of Saints and governour of all things in heaven and in earth For so himself hath told us Mat. 28. 18. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go therefore and teach all nations baptizng them or rather Go therefore and Disciple all nations baptizing them that is make them my Disciples by baptizing them in the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loqui ad Cor which is the Hebrew phrase for speaking comfortably other comforts go no farther then the ear then the outward man that his stock is increased his request granted his cause advanced t is only this comfort that enters into the heart and revives the inner man That the time of his warfare banishment and captivity is at an end because his sin is pardoned For here are two distinct times to be observed A time not accepted that 's of warfare banishment and captivity And a time accepted that 's of peace or reconciliation of restitution of liberty For Epiphanius his argumentation is not to be denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the nature of relatives si fuit unus annus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ergo fuit alter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Christ preached one year wherein he was accepted as Clemens Alexandrinus labours to prove out of Luke 4. 19. To preach the acceptable year of our Lord then it must needs be that he could not preach only but one year for there must also be another year wherein he was contradicted and no◠accepted His Logick is not to be questioned though his tenent be refused by the Learned Scaliger lib. 6. de emend temp who proves that Christ did preach upon the earth not only one year as Clemens nor two years as Epiphanius would have it but four full years So here the inference is unquestionable If there were a time of warfare of banishment of captivity before the pardon there must needs be a time of peace of restitution of liberty after it If that were a time of expulsion or rejection whiles we were enemies this is a time of acceptance or admission now we are Sons as saith Sant Paul behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 8. That was a day of damnation this is a day of salvation that a a time not accepted this a time accepted The time of the flesh and the time of the Spirit the time of sin and the time of Grace are two opposite times the time that sin reigns in us is a time of warfare banishment and captivity the time that the Spirit of Grace reigns in us is a time of restitution and of liberty First a time of peace and that a peace of heart John 14. 27. My peace I give unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid The peace that Christ gives us is a peace of heart a Peace that puts away all trouble and all fear All trouble least it should disturb our peace outwardly and all fear least it should disturb our peace inwardly which is the invincible reason Saint Augustin alledgeth to prove that the holy Angels are assured of their state of bliss because otherwise their fear would disturb their peace and consequently interrupt their blessedness And Aquinas affirms the Saints in heaven to be no less sure of the continuance of their bliss then of the bliss it self and therefore to be in some sort partakers of the divine eternity to which all is actually present nothing to come or else they could not have the full quietation of their wills without which Blessedness it self could be no blessedness 22. q. 18. art 2 3. Secondly the time of Grace is a time of restitution and that to our true Country even to heaven The Philosopher could point thither with his finger but the Christian points thither with his heart For that being once touched with the spirit of God alwayes moves and beats towards heaven as a needle touched with a loadstone moves alwayes towards the Pole For true Christians are so full of hope and their hope is so full of immortality that they are very well contented to resign this mortal life when God shall require it as those who know themselves to be but strangers and so journers hereon earth and that their Country where they are to expect a lasting a sure dwelling is only in heaven as saith Saint Paul in their behalf For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the heavens wherefore in this we groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. This house of earth is but our tabernacle that of heaven is our dwelling In this we groan in that we shall rejoice This is to be dissolved as built by man that 's a building of God and therefore not capable of dissolution Thirdly the time of Grace is a time of liberty for Grace is the well-spring and fountain of liberty as sin is of thraldom For as sin is an aversion from God to serve our selves which is the greatest servitude so Grace is a conversion to God to serve him whose service is perfect freedom so that no man is so truly a slave as he that serves himself and none so truly free as he that serves his God Nemo liber nisi sapiens None is a free man but he that is a wise man may not be taken for a Paradox if we be not mistaken in the wisdom but think and say with the spirit of God Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Job 28. 28. T is a heavenly contemplation of the Seraphical Doctors Tunc homo rectus est quum intellectus adaequatur summ◠veritati in cognoscendo voluntas confirmatur summa bonitati in diligendo virtus continuatur summae potestati in operando Et ex hoc homo non solùm rectus sed rector ipse Deo subditus ipsi alia Bonav Prol. in lib. 2. Sent. Man i◠then only well governed in himself and governour of all other things when he depends wholly upon God His dependance upon God in his understanding to know him the first truth In his will to desire him the chiefest good and in his power of action to follow and obey him the highest power makes him subject to God and all the world subject to him This is such a kind of liberty which the son of God only gives and the servants of God only enjoy See it in the Sons gift If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed John 8. 38. See it in the servants receipt And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Psal 119. 45. They who are Gods servants are the only free-men for they are so his servants as that also they are his Sons For as the Soveraignty of his dominion claims them for Servants so the transcendency of his goodness accepts them for Sons and therefore gives unto them both the Liberty and the Patrimony of children SECT II. That Christ is generally communicated to all Christians by Baptisme wherein the Holy Ghost is given to regenerate and sanctifie them by taking away the imputation or guilt of original sin and making them the members of Christ
vilifie but to confute their preaching immediatly shew how Christ is more peculiarly communicated by the Spirit of adoption and the rather because his being communicated in Word and Sacraments would not be available to salvation unless he were also communicated to us by the coming of the Holy Ghost Concerning which Alensis hath befriended us with a most comfortable and a most Christian-like position in these words Lâ—quendo proprie de missione non dicitur mitti Filius vel Spiritus Sanctus nisi ratione alicujus effectus pertinentis ad gratiam gratum facientem Nam in missione illorum non solum dona ipsorum sunt nostra sed ipsi quia Inhabitant animum sunt ibi modo specialiori quà m prius Alen. par 1. qu. 73. m. 4. art 2. To speak properly concerning the mission or communication of the Son and Spirit of God neither of them is communicated but only in some effect of saving grace though in general terms either may be said to be communicated in the gift of any grace For when they are communicated unto us not only their gifts are ours but also themselves to inhabit and to dwell in us and to be in us more specially or peculiarly then they were before And why then should not every Christian take up Holy Davids most holy Resolution and say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill I find out a place even mine own soul for the Temple of the Lord and an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Psal 132. 4 5. For indeed the Lord and the mighty God Christ and his Spirit are communicated both together according to that of John 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you As there is a communication and distribution of the nourishment to the body that it may live so is there of Christ to the soul or it cannot live And he is communicated by the Spirit For no man can eat his flesh nor drink his blood who is at the right hand of God by corporal but only by spiritual manducation and there can be no spiritual eating of Christ but by the assistance of his Spirit So that Christ and the Spirit of Christ are communicated to us both together and we have alike need of both For as Christ is our Advocate to bring us to the Father so is the Holy Ghost our Advocate to bring us unto Christ And as Christ revealed to us the will of his Father so doth the holy Spirit reveal to us the will of Christ making us in the right use of his Word and Sacraments to receive instruction from him to enjoy communion with him and to find immortal joy and comfort in him This is that Spirit the Apostle speaketh of when he saith For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. The Apostle would have us Christians see the happiness of our own condition above the Jews that we might accordingly shew our thankfulness above them For they being under the terrours of the Law could not but have the Spirit of bondage because they saw nothing in the Law but what was exceeding formidable the flames of Mount Sinai before it and the flames of Hell fire after it But we Christians being under the promises of the Gospel which discharge all that truly repent and unfeignedly believe from the curse of the Law and from the guilt of their sins have the spirit of liberty whereby we can with great confidence and with greater comfort draw near to the throne of grace The Jews had the Spirit of Adoption as well as Christians though not in the same degree but not from the Law but from so much of the Gospel as was revealed to them And the Christians have also the spirit of bondage as well as the Jews though not in the same degree but not from the Gospel but from so much of the Law as is still in force to scourge them unto Christ The same spirit of Adoption was to them a spirit of bondage yet with some hopes and shew of liberty To us it is a spirit of liberty and yet with some fear and shew of bondage They could say unto God Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Isa 63. 16. but we can say moreover Abba Father that is we can call upon God as our Father with greater fervency and earnestness with greater assurance and confidence and with greater joy and comfort then they could For this Abba Father is vox clamantis vox exclamantis vox acclamantis The voice of one crying out the voice of one crying out for help the voice of one crying out for joy First The voice of one crying out there 's the greater earnestness they did say to God our Father but we do cry it not coldly and remissely least our prayers should be congealed in the middle Region of the air before they get up to heaven but zealously and earnestly They said it with zeal but we say it with greater zeal Secondly The voice of one crying out for help there 's the greater confidence The Jew could say Father but the Christian saith Abba Father that is Father Father with greater confidence and assurance of Gods paternal affection Lastly The voice of one crying out for joy there 's the greater comfort The Jew could rejoyce in God as his Father by Creation but the Christian rejoyceth in God as his Father by Redemption The joy of the creation had an allay because of the sin and sorrow which we had brought upon our selves but the joy of our Redemption hath no allay because our blessed Saviour hath taken away our sins and with our sins our sorrows CAP. II. Of the coming of the Holy Ghost where Christ is communicated SECT I. That the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ that is the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father And that the Greeks were unjustly and uncharitably rejected by some of the Latines as Hereticks concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost Of the Addition of Filioque to the Constantinopolitan Creed and that the Pope hath no Authority to change any article of faith The Greek Church agreed with the Latine about this controversie in sense though not in words therefore not anathematized by the Western Churches which use the Athanasian Creed Bellarmines heavy doom concerning the Greek Church fitter for a Souldier then a Divine IT is not the part of any Christian to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ since that were not only to deny the Word of Christ but also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity It were to deny the Word of Christ for Saint Paul taketh the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ for one and the same saying If so
affections whiles we cry Abba Father But is the spirit therefore gone when the voice is gone or is the Holy Ghost no longer in our hearts then Abba Father is in our mouths For that must be our third Quere Whether the spirit may be in the heart believing while t is not in the mouth crying Abba Father as when Saint Peter who doubtless had the Spirit of God was so far from saying Abba Father that he denied the Son nay forswore him as if a simple denial had not been enough unless it had been seconded with oaths and curses which is our unhappy progress of Saviour-denial instead of self-denial I answer for Saint Peter that either the spirit was not quite gone from him or else soon returned unto him which appears by the speediness and by the entireness of his repentance in that he wept suddenly and he wept bitterly for he had a peculiar prayer and promise of Christ that his faith should not fail I answer for others of Gods adopted children as my late reverend and learned Diocesan taught me out of Saint Ambrose Deus nunquam rescindit donum Adoptionis God never cuts off his entaile if once adopted ever adopted and out of Biel Eos 〈…〉 qui à salute excidunt numquam fuisse filios dei per adoptionem All those who at last fall away from their salvation were never the children of God by adoption Bishop Davenant in his third determination or rather as Saint John taught them all three If they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us 1 John 2. 19. But withal I must distinguish betwixt adoption and the state of adoption betwixt salvation and the state of salvation for there is salus status salutis salvation and the state of salvation as there is peccatum status peccati sin and the state of sin And the state of either is such as it is in relation to us and to our reception of it In actionibus humanis dicitur negotium aliquem statum habere secundum ordinem propriae dispositionis cum quadam immobilitate seu quiete 22ae 183. 1. in humane actions the state of a business shews the immoveableness of its disposition so the state of sin is a kind of immoveableness in sin and the state of Adoption is a kind of immoveableness in adoption But yet we men are not alike immoveable in both states because the state of sin is wholly of our own making and therefore may get some stability from us But the state of grace is wholly of our receiving not of our making and therefore loseth of its stability as also of its perfection from the mutable and sinfull condition of our persons Hence it is that though to be in sin is much less then to be in the state of sin yet to be in Adoption and Salvation is much more then to be in the state of either For though we can add to our own misery yet we can only diminish from Gods mercy For Adoption and Salvation are much greater in Gods giving then in our receiving and consequently the Adoption is greater then the state of Adoption and the salvation then the state of salvation according to the old rule Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis whatsoever is received follows more the nature and condition of the receiver then of the giver And hence it is that even the adopted Sons of God have by fearfull failings and fallings made disputable for a time the state of their salvation though their salvation hath by Gods infinite goodness been made indisputable For there i◠no being at the same time in two contrary states that is to say in the state of sin and in the state of Grace and sure we are that t is no other then madness for any man to be in the hope who is not in the state of Salvation So that though we may truly say the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the habit remains when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act is gone or cessant yet we may as truly say That Gods Elect are not saved only by habits and therefore the acts of grace if they have been expelled must necessarily return again either to keep or to put them in the state of salvation either to retain them in it or to restore them to it before they can be actually saved And in this sense may we expound Saint James his question What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say He hath faith and have not works can faith save him James 2. 14. As if he had said It is not the sleepy habit but the vigorous act of faith and of all other graces that brings a man to salvation And by this means we shall reconcile Saint James his works and Saint Pauls faith in the Doctrine of Justification For Saint James affirming that we are justified by works doth include faith in those works and Saint Paul affirming we are justified by faith doth include works in that faith both of them understanding a faith working by love Gal. 5. 6. though Saint James comprehend the faith in the works as the cause in the effect Saint Paul comprehend the works in the faith as the effect in the cause And Saint James as justly urgeth the necessity of works against hypocrites who deceived themselves with a vain pretence of faith in Christ and so did not look after the righteousness of works as Saint Paul urged the necessity of faith against the Pharisees who trusting to the righteousness of the Law did not at all look after the righteousness of Christ Both Saint James and Saint Paul will have us justified by Christs righteousness for no other righteousness can acquit and absolve us before God only they differently express the instrumental cause of our Justification which is faith working by love for whereas that faith hath a twofold act actum confidendi obediendi An act of believing and an act of working Saint Paul rather insists upon the act of believing because he had to deal with Pharisaical Jews who rejected the Gospel and thought they could live according to the rule of the Law But Saint James rather insists upon the act of working because he had to deal with Hypocritical Christians who abused the Gospel of Christ to lawless licentiousness of living And therefore in Saint James his Divinity it is as great an absurdity to suppose true faith without its proper act of working and consequently by the rule of analogie to suppose the habit of righteousness without the exercise of righteousness as to suppose true faith and righteousness without salvation For the act of working being as essential to a justifying faith as the act of believing He that will go about to separate true faith from working may as well go about to separate it from believing and as well make faith no faith as make it no working faith But how this faith sheweth its work in those who are carried away with any
God but by love we must dwell in love or he will not dwel in us And therefore it was most Christian Doctrine which was delivered by Saint Augustine lib. 1. de Doctrina Christiana when he said Quatuor sunt diligenda unum quod est supra nos Sc. Deus Alterum quod nos sumus Tertium quod juxta nos i. e. proximus Quartum quod infra nos i. e. corpus There are four things which every man is bound to love that he may be a good Christian or in the state of true Christianity his God that is above him His neighbour that is about him His soul that is within him and His body that is without him for as the body is capable of eternal bliss by redundancy from the soul so is it also capable of true Christian charity which is not a momentary or temporal but an eternal and everlasting love grounded upon the communication and the communion of a blessed eternity So that in truth the love of God doth not only produce but also comprize and contain all those three other loves man loving his body and his soul and his neighbour with Christian charity only in relation to Christ and as they belong to his communion For undeniable if not indisputable is that position of the Angelical Doctor Amicitia charitatis super communicatione beatitudinis fundatur The friendship of Christian charity is founded upon the communication of eternal blessedness Aquin. 22â— qu. 25. art 5. and by consequent is to be extended according to the extent of that communication Therefore it beginneth with our Saviour Christ and goeth on to every one of his members this spiritual unction of the Holy Ghost being like to that holy ointment poured upon Aaron which ran from his head down to the skirts of his cloathing Psal 133. 2. And yet even from this excellent ground of charity do many men find a pretence for gross uncharitableness whilst those that are of divers perswasions in matters of Religion will needs deny to one another the hopes of salvation every one being resolved to maintain that his own Religion is the only true Christian though it be no more then a profession of it and all agreeing that t is only the true Christian Religion wherein and whereby we can attain eternal blessedness Hence it is that we commonly receive those very faintly whom we suspect God hath not received and those not at all whom we are perswaded he will not receive So that we do little less then invade Christs Judgement seat that we may discard true Christian charity and if we now invade his seat we shall hereafter tremble at his bar Why should we so grosly abuse the very ground of Christian charity to a most unchristian uncharitableness Why should we be so hasty to exclude out of the communion of eternal blessedness those whom our Saviour Christ hath called to it Surely if it be not in our power to give heaven by our charity t is not in power to deny heaven by our uncharitableness unless it be only to our selves True Christian charity is of as large an extent as heaven it self and embraceth all those who have any probability of getting thither For it is grounded upon the communion of eternal bliss and therefore as it loves Christ the head so it cannot but love all Christians as members of that communion It first loves Christ for his own sake by whom we have the communication it afterwards loves our Christian brethren for Christs sake with whom we have inchoately and hope to have consumâ—… of eternal blessedness O Christ let me love as a Christian that I may live as a Christian for I cannot live as a Christian unless I live in thee and I cannot live in thee unless I live in love Let me rather mistake my charity in believing their salvation who have gross errors mixed with their profession then not maintain my charity by denying them salvation who are not of mine own profession For thou wilt sooner pardon their errors which may proceed from ignorance or infirmity then my uncharitableness which can proceed from nothing else but pride and presumption SECT III. That the state of true Christianity is best taught by our Saviour Christ and best learned of him how far the Jews may be said to have known Christ and Christianity That Christ teacheth us by his voice in the holy Scriptures more certainly then by his voice in holy Church the Scripture is to teach the Church as the Church is to teach the people THere is not in all the world any thing taught by a Preacher from heaven but only the Christian Religion And the Son of God came from heaven to teach that and his Fathers voice came from heaven to bid us observe and follow his teaching Behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17. 5. And we may very well be not only contented but also desirous to hear him for the state of true Christianity is without all doubt best taught by Christ himself and is therefore best learned of him Moses was faithful in Gods house as a servant and the best teachers amongst men can but sit in Moses chair Mat. 23. 2. but Christ was faithful as a Son Heb. 3. 5 6. The servant was appointed and ordained for the Son and so was Moses for Christ but the Son came only for himself The servant was faithful in his Masters house but the Son in his own house Christ as a Son over his own house ver 6. Moses his faithfulness was by way of introduction for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after ver 5. sc by Christ But Christs faithfulness was by way of perfection to speak those things plainly of which Moses had testified obscurely and to accomplish or perform whatsoever Moses his testimony had either prophesied or promised concerning him For Moses in his writings spake of Christ and directed these Jews unto him in so much that our Saviour telleth the Jews that they needed no other then Moses to accuse them of unbelief for not turning Christians Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his writings How shall ye believe my words John 5. 45 46 47. We may put the whole sense of those three verses into these two propositions 1. That Moses writ so much of Christ as to leave the Jews inexcusable if they did not from his writings look after Christ and believe in him which more particularly appears from Deut. 18. 15. where Moses saith The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which words we find Saint Peter and Saint Stephen both
not put it in the power and will of his Church to give unto his people the words of eternal life that they should run away either from her doctrine or from her communion The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God John 5. 25. Sweet Jesus make the dead to hear thy voice for the living do little less then scorn it And this document or instruction as it much concerns the word preached so it much more concerns the word written which hath alwayes in all ages and in all Churches been taught more incorruptly and more impartially by Translations then by Expositions For in Translations men generally follow Gods truth but in expositions they too too often follow their own inventions if not their own interests Thus have men little reason to depart from the Church because therein Christ teacheth by his word and yet much less because he therein teacheth by his spirit for it is clear that the spirit goeth along with the word in that Saint Stephen saith unto the Jews Ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. When as they had only resisted the words of the Prophets Therefore we may confidently and comfortably affirm that they who carefully observe and conscionably obey Gods holy Ordinances in his Churchâ— will be able at the last day to say unto him not as Sectaries and wanderers will be able to say Thou hast taught in our streets Lake 13. 26. to whom he will answer I tell you I know you not whence you are depart me from all ye workers of iniquity ver 27. but Thou hast taught in our hearts for I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. And indeed this doctrine concerning the state of true Christianity and the knowledge of that state and the comfort of that knowledge is a most heavenly doctrine and therefore can have its teacher only from heaven The teaching Priest is not enough to instruct us in it but we need also The teaching God Miserable was the condition of Israel to have been without a teaching Priest but irrecoverable would have been their misery had they been also without a teaching God had not the Spirit of God come upon Azariah to teach them 2 Chron 15. 1. 3. Man may teach us the way of Gods statutes and we may never keep that way at all but if God once teach it us we shall noâ— only keep it but we shall also keep it unto the end Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end Psal 119. 33. Thus hath Saint John said And ye need not that any man teach you but as the same annointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 John 2. 27. His intent is not that they to whom he writ should despise his teaching he is only willing to commend them to a far better teacher for the Apostle might teach them and yet they might not abide either in the Church or in the truth but if the Annointing if the Spirit did teach them they were sure to abide both in him and in his doctrine for ever And therefore saith holy Job who teacheth like him Job 36. 22. Though he be not the only teacher for man teacheth with him yet he is the only irresistible and infallible teacher for man teacheth not like him He is the only infallible teacher because he convinceth the understanding he is the only irresistible teacher because he converteth the will teaching us by the representation of himself unto our Souls as the chiefest good from which we cannot turn away and against which we will not resist For God teacheth the soul by his own presence revealing unto it himself and his everlasting blessedness saith Alensis against which the will of man cannot resist in the judgement of some Philosophy and therefore the scoff of irresistible Grace must needs be far from the Judgement of sound Divinity The Church in the Collect for Whitsunday sheweth both the infallibility and the irresistibility of Gods teaching he teacheth irresistibly in that he teacheth the Heart which useth to make resistance against all teaching of the ear unless it self be taught in the first place wherefore none can be an irresistible Teacher but he that can teach the heart he teacheth also infallibly in that he teacheth by the light of his holy Spirit wherefore none can be an infallible teacher but he that teacheth by the Holy Ghost God which hast taught the hearts of thy faithfull people by sending to them the light of thy holy Spirit Here 's a teacher that subdues my perversness and makes me willing to learn in that he teacheth my heart here 's a teacher that enlightens my darkness and makes me able to learn in that he teacheth by the light of his holy spirit And the doctrines which he teacheth are agreeable with the manner of his teaching Recta sapere in ejus consolatione gaudere To have a right judgement in all things that is in all things of Salvation as if you would say to have a right judgement in the state of true Christianity and of your being in that state and evermore to rejoyce in his holy comforts as if you would say to comfort your self against all temptations and taibulations that you have such a right judgement Let me never uâ—dervalue much less forsake that School wherein this heavenly master is pleased to teach for fear I should lose both the right judgement and the Holy comfort which he is pleased to bestow upon his Scholars And let me not doubt but this Church wherein I have been trained up is a part of that school since it hath taught me nothing that is either Antichristian or unchristian for where I cannot deny the doctrine of Christ I may not doubt of the spirit of Christ Wherefore it is a false and an envious principle of divinity which some have so much improved of late to the advantage of their Church but to the disadvantage of Religion if at least any Christian Church can be advanced by that doctrine by which the Christian Religion is depressed and disparaged That our Saviour Christ hath set up one chair from which he would have all the world to take the documents and determinations of Christianity For the state of true Christianity is not to be confined to any one Church since the author and teacher of it is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. The Apostle proves that God vouchsafed his Grace to the Gentiles no less then to the Jews by this argument is he the God of the Jews only is he not also the God of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Rom. 3. 29. and again There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him
words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concord part agreement which are in effect so many pledges to us and testimonials to others of our internal communion with our blessed Saviour for that causeth us to have concord part and agreement with him Concord as being united with Christ in the same affections Part as being united with him in the same promises Agreement as being united with him in the same professions Wherefore this rule as it may increase our knowledge so it must increase our comfort as it may be for our instruction so it must be for our consolation that as far as we partake of Christ so far we communicate with him and as far as we communicate with Christ so far we partake of him If our participation of Christ be only external as is that of hypocrites who draw neer him with their lips but their heart is far from him who hear his Word and receive his Sacraments meerly for custom or for curiosity or for some other external consideration then is our communion with Christ only external and we only do help to make up that visible body whereof man is the Head But if our participation of Christ be internal as is that of good Christians who hear his Word and receive his Sacraments out of conscience that they may hear him speaking to them in his Word and find him nourishing them in his Sacraments then is our communion with Christ not only external but also and much rather internal and we do help make up that mystical body whereof Christ alone is the Head For t is our heart makes our Head as we are Christians if our heart be with man more then with God in our religion then man is our head in it but if our heart be with Christ more then with man in our religion then Christ is our Head in it And hence it comes to pass that some men are better Christians under a more corrupt then others are under a more incorrupt form of doctrine and discipline because it is not communion with the Church but with Christ in the Church that makes the good Christian He that looks more after Christ then after his Church in the profession of Christianity may haply be a good Christian in a bad Church for Christ is able to make him a good Christian without his Church nay indeed against it He that looks more after his Church then after Christ must needs be a bad Christian in a good Church for his Church cannot make him a good Christian without Christ Accordingly a man may be a better Christian in an unreformed Church if his religion be above his faction then in a reformed Church if his faction be above his religion and I had much rather have a Christian mind in an unchristian or antichristian Church then an unchristian mind in the purest Christian Church that is For though Christ be never so much in my Church yet that will do me no good unless he be also in my heart And if Christ be in my heart t is not my Churches being Antichristian or unchristian in some particulars which I do lament but cannot help that can drive him out of it or deprive me of the state and comfort of true Christianity T is sin if Christ be not in mine heart whiles I profess my self to be a Christian T is my misery if Christ be not in all the professions and practices of my Church by which I have been brought to Christianity Let me keep my self from being sinful by making sure of Christ in my heart and my God will keep me from being miserable because of some mistakes or defects of Christianity in my Church Saint Paul saith to the Corinthians but of him are ye in Christ Jesus notwithstanding at that time there was both heresie and schism in the Church of Corinth Heresie for some denied the resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 12. Schism for some said they were of Paul others of Apollos others of Cephas 1 Cor. 1. 12. Their communion with a bad Church when they could not help it did not hinder their communion with Christ and their communion with Christ did make them partakers of Christ for he was made unto them wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. wisdom to direct them righteousness to acquit them sanctification to purge them and redemption to save them Thus was Christ made unto them either externally in his Word and Sacraments or internally in his Spirit and graces accordingly as they did communicate with him and participate of him If they brought only an outside to him they received only an outside from him such a wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption as did only shew them to be Christians not make them good Christians But if they brought their inner man to Christ he perfected their inner man by an internal communion with and participation of his wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Wherefore if our communion with Christ or participation of Christ be only external and not also internal we ought to quarrel with our selves not with our Church and much less with our God for without doubt God is faithful who offers us Christ by his Church in his word and Sacraments For is the Spirit of the Lord straitned do not his words do good to him that walketh uprightly Mich. 2. 7. is a question as unanswerable now as it was then and it is meerly from our own unfaithfulness if we receive not Christ when he is offered or retein him not when he is received SECT III. That our internal communion with Christ is through his Spirit and our faith which may not be a phansie or fiction much less a faction but a faith knowing by evidence approving by adherence applying by affection and working by practice That such a faith will make our communion with Christ real and substantial in the thing it self though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical THE union of two extreams is necessarily by some other third thing betwixt them both which brings the said extreams together and that in regard of Christ is his spirit which brings him down to us in regard of us is our faith which carries us up to Christ Both are alike required in our internal communion with Christ For though his Spirit be never so powerfully with his own ordinances that to resist the one is to resist the other as saith Saint Stephen ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7. 51. Yet if our faith be not with his Spirit we cannot have communion with him in his word For so is the same truth spoken by anothers mouth But the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it Heb. 4. 2. Their not being profited was not for want of Gods Spirit with his word but for want of their faith with Gods Spirit The spirit was not is not wanting to
in their hearts And he dwelleth in their hearts by faith not a faith that commeth from their own Spirits but a faith that commeth from Gods Spirit A faith that cometh from our own spirits strengthneth only the outer man but a faith that cometh from Gods spirit strengthneth the inner man That faith is strong only in perswasion but this faith is strong in affection That faith is strong in phansie but this faith is strong in love even in that love which is the fulfilling of the Law loving the body for the heads sake loving the head for his own sake loving the Church for Christ and loving Christ for himself such a faith as this proceeding from the Spirit of God cannot but afford us a real communion with the Son of God and having a real communion with Christ as with our head we shall never delight in separations and divisions from the Church which is his body SECT IV. Christian communion beginneth with the Church but endeth with Christ both in the word and Sacraments and Prayers and that the Church is bound in all these to advance not to hinder our Communion with Christ either by denying the people the use of the Scriptures or by teaching them superstitious prayers as to Saints and Angels wherein Christ neither can nor will communicate with men The ready way to have communion with Christ is by peace and holiness and wherein that communion chiefly consisteth TRue Christian communion beginneth with the Church as with the body of Christ but endeth with Christ himself as with the head God hath joyned those two together let not man put them asunder Nor is it the intent of this discourse to divide this Christian communion into two several communions by reason determining or defining ratione ratiocinata because the body cannot subsist without the head but only by reason discussing or debating ratione ratiocinante because the head is different from the body And every good Christian is to take notice that though he may consider this communion severally yet he may not persue and embrace it so For he cannot have actual communion with Christ unless he have actual communion with his Church no more then he can have communion with the head unless he have also communion with the body yet may he not rest satisfied in his communion with the body the Church of Christ till they come thereby to have communion with the head even with Christ himself For our Christian communion is much like Jacobs ladder the lower part whereof was set upon the earth but the top of it reached up to heaven And behold the Lord stood above at the top of it Gen. 28. 12 13. So is our Christian communion The lower part of it is with the Church the body of Christ here on earth but the upper part or top of it is with Christ in heaven And we cannot say that our Christian communion is a true communion unless Christ be at the end of it as for example in hearing the word read and preached we at first communicate with the Church which speaketh to the outward man but we hear it not profitably to our salvation unless we at last communicate also with Christ speaking by his Spirit unto our souls or to the inward man Paedogogus est Jesus Our teacher is Jesus was thought by Clemens of Alexandria a fit subject both to fill and to name his books of Christian Institutions v. lib. 1. Paedag. cap. 9. For as the Church teacheth the people so also Christ teacheth them much more and the Churches paedagogy iâ— or should be to bring them unto Christ not to make them rest only upon their own teaching for soul-saving truths nor is this Doctrine any disparagement to the Church no more then Saint Pauls was to the Law when he said The Law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3. 24. Nay indeed it is the greatest honour of the Church as it was of the Law that God is pleased to use her teaching as a means or instrument to bring us unto Christ That as the Church teacheth us by explaining saving truths to our understandings so Christ may teach us by imprinting the same truths in our wills and affections therefore the Church should above all things take heed of offering those truths in her explanations which she cannot believe nor wish that Christ should ratifie by his impressions such as are all those Doctrines which are the inventions of men and not the institutions of Christ And forasmuch as it cannot be denied that Christ teacheth more powerfully by his own word then by ours it is evident that the Holy Scriptures may not be denied to the people in their own tongue by that Church which will labour to advance their communion with Christ and as evident that the people are not bound to communicate with that Church which will not labour to advance this the highest and greatest part of their Christian communion Again in receiving the holy Eucharist we must not only communicate with the Priest exhibiting unto us the bread and wine but also and much rather with Christ himself exhibiting unto us his most precious body blood or we shall receive but half a Sacrament and enjoy but a half communion This is Saint Pauls Divinity The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ 1 Co. 10. 16. We bless the Cup and we break the bread therefore you must communicate with us which we could not say if we did refuse to do either for we could not desire you to relinquish your communion with Christs institution to follow ours But the Cup which we bless and the bread which we break is the communion of the blood and body of Christ therefore you must not communicate chiefly and much less only with us but also and much rather with Christ himself Lastly Thus is it also in our prayers we are bound in our praying to communicate not only with the Church as the body but also with Christ as the head and consequently the Church is bound to use no other prayers then such as may be agreeable with Christs communion and available by Christs intercession For if we pray out of his communion we cannot hope to obtain what we pray for by virtue of his intercession And this I conceive was one main reason why publick Liturgies were at first established in the Church that Christians might know before hand the terms of their communion and be assured in their own hearts that no other prayers should be offered unto them then such wherein Christ himself would joyn with them in intercession which assurance during the extraordinary effusions of the Spirit was grounded upon the infallibility of their persons who prayed but when it could no longer be grounded upon the infallibility of the persons that prayed then it was thought fit it should be
consequently if the Scriptures have in any wise lost their authority they have lost it by the Church and it were a wonder if the Church should cause the Scriptures to lose their authority and yet keep her own We will then take it for granted that the Catholick Church cannot be fully and infallibly proved to be Christian but only by the Holy Scriptures and that she her self seeks for no other and cannot find a better proof And from hence it must neede follow that every particular Church as far as it is truly Christian is willing to submit it self to be tryed by the written Word of God and that if nothing but true Cbristianity had gotten into the Church men would never have withdrawn their necks and much less their hearts from that known and certain tryal for that all the world is not able to prove any thing that is unwritten whether it be Tradition or Revelation to be the undoubted Word of God but only as far as it is agreeable with what is written according to that admirable Rule delivered by Saint Athanasius who having been vexed by the Arrian hereticks above forty years together hath taught us how best to confute that and all other heresie saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in Epist de decretis Nic. Synodi ad finem There are much more exact and perfect proofs of the divine truth to be taken from the Scripture alone then all the whole world beside is able to afford us wherefore it must needs follow again that the best way for a particular Church to keep communion with the Catholick Church is to keep close to the Scriptures wherein alone are revealed those Truths the bare profession whereof makes a Church and the entire profession whereof makes it truly Catholick That Curch which hath the written Word of God for the foundation of her faith and practice is sure to have communion with all good Christians in what she truly believeth and practiseth according to that word And in case she deviate through humane error or infirmity in some particular deductions yet that deviation or mistake shall not overthrow her faith because it is sure and certain in the foundation and consequently shall not break off her communion with Christ the head nor with the Catholick Church his body because that same holy Spirit on whose dictates she relies is the sole author and maintainer of that communion whereas if a Church should believe all the Articles of the Christian faith upon any other ground then that of Divine revelation which we cannot now be assured of but only from the written Word of God as she could not have a true Divine saith not being grounded upon a Divine foundation so she could not in that faith have communion with those Christian Churches who allowed no other ground of their belief And such were all the Christian Churches of the Primitive times for though Saint Athanasius in the place fore-alledged doth on the Arrians behalf bring in an objection against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as not being used in the Text and therefore not to be used concerning Christ for that we may not speak otherwise of him then he in his word hath spoken of himself yet he alloweth this very objection to be according to his own heart and sure he was a very good Chatholike and enforceth it with the reason afore cited That the most exact proofs of Divine truths were to be taken from the Scriptures and withal avoweth that those about Eusebius who was a chief upholder of the Arrians were such egregious turn-cotes and cavillers that the Bishops assembled in the Council of Nice were in a manner compelled more clearly to expound those words of the text which did immediately strike at the root of their heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereby it appears that the Nicene Fathers did assume to themselves only the power of Exposition in matters of faith not of Addition or of Invention They did expound that more clearly which they found in the Scriptures and in the Apostles Creed they did not ad or invent that which they found not As they were expounders they might and did hold communion with the Catholike Church whereof they were then the Representative which did wholly rely up-the word of God for all the Doctrines of faith whereas if they had taken upon them to be Inventers they must have forsaken the main ground of Christian communion the undoubted word of Christ and have been the authors of a faction and of a division And for this cause we see that in that famous Council of Chalcedon wherein were assembled six hundred Christian Bishops The Holy Gospel was placed in the midst of them as that on which they relyed and to which they appealed in all their determinations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words found in the first action of that Council The most holy and most pure Gospel being set before them And Baronius tells us that the same had been done before in the Council of Nice and gives the reason why it was done out of Saint Cyril who saith thus concerning the Council of Ephesus Christum assessorem capitis loco adjunxit venerandum enim Evangelium in throno collocavit tantum non in aures sacerdotum clamans Justum judicium judicate Liber igitur ille in sede regia collocatus divinam prae se ferebat personam secundum illud Psalmi Deus stetit in synagoga Deorum in medio autem Deos dijudicat They looked upon Christ as head or president of their assembly for they placed his holy Gospel on a throne amongst them that it might represent the person of God the Judge of all men and they placed it in the midst that all might cast their eyes upon it and be afraid in the presence of their Judge to pass an unrighteous judgement Thus saith the Psalmist God stood in the midst of the congregation of Gods and he that was in the midst judged the other Gods Baron An. 325. num 66. And the same saith Binius in his notes upon the Council of Ephesus In medio Patrum consessu sedem enm Evangelio collocarunt cujus intuitu omnes admonerentur Christum omnium inspectorem ac judicem adesse Synodique praesidem agere In the midst of the fathers of the Ephesine Council was the Holy Gospel placed on a throne that all the Fathers seeing it might be admonished of Christs own presence to overlook them as their Judge and to overawe them as president of their Council and he saith no more then is truth for that form of adjuration mentioned by Fidus the Bishop of Joppe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whom we beseech and adjure by the Holy Gospel here set before us Council Eph. par 2. act 1. doth plainly witness as much although at the first session of the Bishops there is no mention of the Holy Gospels being placed among them as was afterwards at the first session of the Council of Chalcedon But
People and I must hear this Church as I would have the benefit of his Sons blood as I would have the instructions of his holy Spirit and as I would not forfeit the salvation of mine own Soul Wherefore though the whole world turn round to a meer spiritual diziness or reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man yet this shall be the sober resolution of my soul I will not sin against that authority which God hath set over me He hath called his Ministers his friends I will not call them mine enemies least I put my self out of his friendship I find that God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost hath set them over me and how shall I answer it to this blessed Trinity if I oppose my self against them or rather set my self over them T is St. Athanasius his observation Ath. lib. de communi essentiâ Patris Filii Sp. S. That the election of Ministers in Gods Church is in the book of God equally attributed to all three persons of the holy and blessed Trinity Saint Paul attributeth it to God the Father 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles Secundarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers c. Again The same S. Paul attributeth this work to God the Son Eph. 4. 11. And he gave some Apostles sc He that had descended into the lower parts of the earth and was now ascended into heaven and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers And lastly the same Saint Paul attributeth the choice of Ministers to God the Holy-Ghost Acts 20. 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Overseers God the Father Son and Holy Ghost hath made them my Overseers and shall I strive to make them my Underlings And what shall I answer at the last day to this God whose authority I have contemned and whose power I shall not be able to resist when he will call me to an account and pronounce against my soul and execute upon it the sentence of eternal dammnaton for my contempt He hath said expresly Obedite praepositis vestris subjacete eis Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you There are some certain men that have charge of the peoples souls and are accordingly to give an account of that charge Those are here called their Rulers or Leaders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their Captains to train and lead them under Christs banner A word of great humility in regard of their communion with them in the same Christian duties and combates but a word of great authority in regard of their command over them in so much that Gregor Nazian in the first of his steliteuticks calls the Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The order of those that govern and the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are under that order of government or those who are to be governed The one are set over the other are set under by the power of God the Father by the wisdom of God the Son and by the goodness of God the Holy-Ghost so that to disturb and to destroy this order is little less then to proclaim enmity against the eternal power and wisdom and goodness of God This is reason enough why we should obey because God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost hath made them our Rulers but yet the words enforce another reason of our obedience because they watch for our souls And are accordingly called watch-men in the Text Son of man I have made thee a watch-man to the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me Ezek. 3. 17. Speculatorem dedi te speculator qui est aliis vice oculorum i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Calvin upon the place A watch-man is one who is to others instead of eyes that is an Overseer or a Bishop we find here God hath divolved to him a double trust here is verbum commissum Animae commissae Gods word is committed to his care and mens souls are committed to his cure He is entrusted with Gods word hear the word at my mouth and he is entrusted with his neighbours Souls Give them warning from me His office was instituted meerly for the glory of God and the salvation of men and I cannot oppose it but I must be an enemy both to God and Man And if I be an enemy to Gods glory here how shall I hope to enjoy it hereafter If I oppose the Salvation of others how shall he that came to be their Saviour take a care to save me For I do what is in me to trample his blood under my feet and how can I hope that he should sprinkle it upon my soul nor may I say that these Texts were only occasional or this trust was only temporal such as concerned the Prophets and Apostles but not others after them unless I will moreover say which in truth I am afraid to think That God hath now a less care then he had then both of his own glory and of our salvation both of his own word and of our souls These spiritual watch-men were as necessary in Saint Pauls time as in Ezekiels and in our times as then And consequently they are to us what the Prophets were to the Jews or the Apostles to the Primitive Christians saving only their extraordinary commission and endowments Ezekiel was to give warning to the Jews and Saint Paul was to give warning to the Gentiles for so himself saith whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1. 28. And our watch-men are now to give warning unto us by vertue of the same commissions and therefore Saint Paul speaketh in the plural number saying whom we preach comprizing the whole body of the Ministry wherefore also he saith warning every man and that we may present every man which was impossible for himself alone and indeed for all the Preachers of his time because there were to be infinite sucessions of men which could not be their auditors whereby it is evident that as long as there shall be men to be warned and taught and presented perfect in Christ Jesus so long there must be Preachers to warn and teach and to present them whose duty and office is accordingly here described 1. In the nature of it To warn and to teach not only to deliver sound doctrine which is teaching but also to apply it by particular exhortations according to the capacities or wants of theit auditors which is warning or admonishing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting your mind to theirs that they may understand what you say not soaring aloft in sublime speculations above their apprehensions or putting
God calls his sons how shall we not call our brethren unless we will deny him to be our Father Whence it must follow that Christian communion is of as great a latitude or extent as is the Christian Church according to that of Saint Paul ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Having said before ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus to shew they were of the same Christian Church he now saith ye are all one in Christ Jesus to shew they were also of the same Christian communion And this principle we may not gain-say if we will acknowledge the excellency of true Christian communion for it cannot be so excellent if it depend on man as if it depend on God if it depend on Christs Vicar as if it depend on Christ himself if it be confined to one party of Christians as if it be extended to all for undenyable is that rule in reason Bonum quo communius eo melius Every good the more common it is the better it is and much more undenyable is it in charity when it is applyed to our Christian Communion For it is against the nature of God to be under a restraint or a Monoply God the fountain of goodness is an universal good He is good unto all and every other good the more it partakes of his goodness the more it partakes of his universality and is the more diffusive of it self being good only to it self whiles it is not diffused and therefore diffusing it self that it may also be good to others Much more is this to be seen and confessed in the good of Christian Communion which is therefore good because it is a common good and may not be abridged of its Community without being also abridged of its goodness Saint Paul will have us if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. therefore much more with the best of men with Christians who have the name the word the image the Spirit of Christ with all men we must keep an external and civil but with Christians we must moreover maintain an internal and spiritual peace Our hand is bound to the good behaviour in regard of Christs enemies but our heart is so bound in regard of his servants We may not break the outward peace with those that persecute him much less may we break the inward peace with those that love him There is a great difference betwixt our Civil and our Christian conversation or communion The Civil depends upon the body and is accordingly confined to time and place but the Christian depends chiefly upon the soul and therefore may be extended as far as the souls apprehension and affection to know and to love the Truth Whence Saint John saith to that elect Lady Whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth though they had not known her for the truths sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever 2 John 1. 2. As far as truth and love do extend so far extends our Christian Communion the foundation whereof is truth the building whereof is love Communio spiritualis est in consensu vero vel interpretativo Spiritual communion consists either in an explicit or an implicit consent with other Christians Alensis par 2. qu. 161. m. 10. which as I may not afford to any Christians as they abide in errour so I may not deny to any Christians as they embrace the Truth For wherever the Truth is it calls for my interpretative or virtual consent not to deny or gain-say it and where I know it to be there it calls for my actual and explicit consent to love and follow it I may not turn Donatist to confine the spirit of truth nor may I turn Familist to confine the spirit of love For as it cannot be denyed but that the spirit breatheth where it listeth so it may not be disputed but I must love wheresoever the spirit is pleased to breath Either I must deny the spirit of Truth to breath upon all those Christians that are not of my profession or the spirit of love to breath upon me if I will not allow them to be of my Christian Communion So that I must first limit and confine the Catholick Church before I can limit and confine the Communion of Saints for as is the Church so is the communion if the one be Catholick the other is so too If I will make a particular Christian communion I must make a particular Christian Church and consequently make that two Articles of my Faith which Christ and his Apostles have made but one even The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints Saint John the beloved Disciple loved for the Truths sake and so must I where God hath not denyed his truth there may not I deny my love If there be such a Christian Church in the world which I cannot well love for its own sake yet even that Church must I love for the truth sake as far as it hath my Saviours Truth so far it must have my souls love And though that Church may most justly claim my love which hath most entirely Christs truth yet no Christian Church but may in some sort claim it since no Christian Church but hath Christs Truth by which it is made Christian Some have this truth mingled with many and gross errours but God forbid that the tares which the enemy hath sowed should make me out of love with that good seed which I know came from Christ himself For why should I be alwaies looking on the mote in my brothers eye and not rather see the beam in mine own To his own master he standeth or falleth and God is willing to make him stand why should I be willing to make him fall or to keep him down If I would look on the Christian not on the man I should account him a brother whom now I think an enemy for what he is in Christ is most amiable though not what is he in himself God looks on me in Christ to love me and why should not I so look on my Brother to love him Gods love in Christ towards me covers a multitude of my sins and why should not my love in the same Christ towards my Brother cover a few of his mistakes Sure I am my Saviour hath made Charity a necessary condition to the forgiveness of my sins and therefore I must willingly cover my brothers faults or I cannot hope that God will cover mine If I will needs lay open his miscarriages to my sight I shall but lay open mine own miscarriages to the sight of God for he that cursed Cham meerly for not covering will certainly never bless me only for discovering either my fathers or my brothers nakedness I cannot judge him but I shall bring my self into Judgement and therefore I must pass by his faults as I would have God to pass by mine This is
enjoyning duties shewing us that we cannot take any of either but we must take all And this is most evident in the present case for the fourth Commandment plâ—inly presupposeth all that is enjoyned in the three former commandments concerning holy duties or the whole substance of Religion both internal and external and then also farther addeth an obligation of consecrating time and other adjuncts for the publick exercise thereof that God may be the more solemnly glorified and men the more truely edified whilst the duties of Religion are all practised together in a full communion of Saints the Church Militant being obliged in this to imitate the Church Triumphant that it invite men on earth to glorifie God with one accord as the Angels do glorifie him in heaven And in this respect we may easily believe and readily confess the first Sabbath to have been both instituted and kept in Paradise for the Church was there founded and the Communion of Saints there first established That is the communion of holy men with the holy Angels and with themselves joyning together to sing Halleluiahs to God their blessed Creator which was indeed the principal end of their creation And accordingly men were at first enabled to the discharge of this great duty as well as the Angels having the right and acceptable forms of praising God imprinted in their hearts and when through transgression they had disabled themselves it pleased God of his infinite goodness to grant them as it were a new impression and to give them a second edition of those praises in his holy Scriptures which before had been written in their own hearts but were now very much slurred and defaced if not quite obliterated and blotted out This great and undeserved mercy of God those men either shamefully forget or ineffectually remember who cry up the Sabbath day but beat down the Sabbath Duty making little or no use of the written Word of God in their publick worship and making little or no account of those forms of praâ—er and praise which are either contained therein or agreeable thereto but setting up their own private gifts against that publick communion which should be in Gods house and service by virtue of this fourth Commandment discountenancing the exercise of Religion in known forms of heavenly prayers able to establish the heart and encouraging new-fangled devices which are only fit to busie and tickle the phansie By which ungodly practice for so it must be called though it pretend to the greatest measure of godliness they in effect throw the fourth Commandment out of the Church whilst they pretend to set it up over the Altar since not sitting still or keeping an outward rest but comming together that we may all labour inwardly in Hallowing the name of our Father which is in heaven is the cheif moral duty of the Sabbath For as in the promise of the fifth so in the precept of the fourth Commandment the Lawgivers expression containeth the least part of his intention and we may no more confine this precept in the duty then we may that promise in the reward Therefore as we would be loth to look no farther then the Land of Canaan for our inheritance so we should be wary how we assert that God looks no farther then the Sabbath day for our obedience Truth is it pleased God to train up the Jews in his fear by types and figures and as it were to wrap up heaven in earth spirituals in temporals morals in ceremonials substances in circumstances to them as well in his precepts as in his promises particularly in that precept which concerned his publick worship because that amongst the Jews was for the most part Ceremonial and figurative Wherefore if we desire rightly and fully to understand the fourth Commandment we must conceive it in so great a latitude as to comprize all those Commissions injunctions invitations and exhortations which we find in the Old and New Testament given either to Kings or Ministers or People concerning the ordering establishing reforming practicing professing or promoting the solemn publick worship of Almighty God which is in truth the principal end thereof unless we will say that all those moral duties are reducible to none of the ten commandments in the decalogue and consequently that all they were will-worshippers who either professed or promoted or practised them For as such duties of Religion are to be done publickly and solemnly by many together in one communion they are not reducible to any of the three first commandments which speak to single persons but only to the fourth which alone speaketh to whole families or to many persons joyned together in one community And therefore it is not amiss to say that Hallowed be thy name is that Petition which most directly prayes for Grace to perform the duty of the fourth Commandment since all other things are hallowed for his names sake God sanctifying times places persons and forms of prayers and praise unto us that he may sanctifie us unto himself nor is it amiss to say that the holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints is that Article of faith which most directly professeth to believe the truth of the fourth Commandment for it is only the Catholick Church the Communion of Saints which doth rightly hallow and praise Gods holy name The Hallowing of Gods most holy name belonging equally to the decalogue and to the Creed and to the Lords most holy prayer belonging to the decalogue as it is a duty to be performed belonging to the Creed as it is a truth to be believed and belonging to the Lords Prayer as it is a good to be desired as we are all bound to pray that we may perform this duty and believe this truth For Faith Hope and Charity are not to be separated from one another but do alike belong to supernatural Truths and to religious or moral duties because both truths and duties do equally call for our faith to know and believe them and for our hope to crave and desire them and for our Charity to love and embrace them But if we take the outward sanctification of a day for the principal morality of the Sabbath we shall scarce find a Petition in the Lords most holy and most perfect prayer relating to such a Duty nor an Article in the Apostles Creed relating to such a Truth and so we shall phansie to our selves such a morality as is without a good to be desired and without a truth to be believed for without doubt The Lords Prayer briefly containeth all the good we are bound to desire and the Apostles Creed briefly containeth all the Truths we are bound to believe as well as the Decalogue briefly containeth all the Duties we are bound to practise and perform Whereas on the other side if we look upon hallowing the name of God in our publick worship as upon the principal moral duty that is enjoyned in the fourth Commandment we shall find the Decalogue and the Creed and
the Lords prayer all joyntly agreeing together in this the one commanding it to be done the other believing it is done perfectly in heaven the third praying it may be done perfectly on earth And in this sense it is evident that keeping of the Sabbath is a moral duty not to end with time but to last to all eternity as becometh Righteousness which is immortal not temporary and that so intrinsecally and essentially that if it be not Immortal it cannot be righteousness Thus did Adam and Seth with his righteous posterity keep the Sabbath long before the Law was given by Moses to appoint the day as we read Gen. 4. 26. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord which words clearly set forth the first exercise of publick worship in the first communion of Saints upon the earth so Junius upon the place Sensus est Adam Seth in cujus posteris mansura erat Ecclesia c. The meaning is that Adam and Seth in whose posterities the Church was to be continued observing that their families were in danger of being corrupted by the ungodly conversation of the wicked Cainites and consequently that the worship of God whereof they were the Ministers and therefore the Trustees was like speedily to decay did from that time assemble their children together into one congregation or into one body of a Church and by their preaching and their praying and their exercises of piety and Religion did labour to convert the wicked and to confirm the righteous from which their religious observations they did purchase to themselves the title or appellation of the Sons of God Nam prius quidem invocavit Adam sed in familia tunc verò invocarunt multi sed in ecclesiam velut in caulam recepti à mundi peccantis seducentis consortio For Adam had indeed before that called upon the name of the Lord in his own family But at that time many families called upon God together being gathered into the Church as into a fold and separating themselves from the sinners and seducers of the world Thus in effect saith Junius And we cannot but say that this was a moral duty suggested to them by the Law written in their hearts which teacheth men to enter into a society or communion to serve themselves and much more to serve their God Drusius goes yet further saying thus Eo tempore ritus certos colendi Deum institutos fuisse quos observarent filii Dei At that time were instituted some certain rites and ceremonies of worshipping God which the Sons of God were bound to observe But Aquinas had said the same long before him for after this objection how could Enos first begin to call upon the Name of the Lord for that were to say that the Church began not till his time he gives this answer Non incepit divinum cultum sed invenit aliquem modum singularem colendi velorandi Deum He did not first begin to worship God but found out a new way of solemnly worshipping him which new way Junius tells us was of assembling many families together whereas before for want of Communicants Adam had served God only in his own family But now that the Church was further enlarged and spread in several families it was necessary that all those families should assemble together to do their homage to their leige Lord and maker And the Chaldee Paraphrase did before him give the same exposition of that Text for though the words of that Paraphrase be different in Buxtorfs and Montanus his Hebrew Bibles which is very usual whilst the Hebrew Text in both is alwayes the same the Church not thinking her self bound to the same care in keeping of Translations as of the Originals yet the sense is not different but one and the same of either Paraphrase and that is this then began men to pray in the name of the Lord that is then they began to pray altogether in one congregation whereas before they had prayed only in several families So then this is the true keeping of the Sabbath to Hallow Gods most holy name for its own sake and to hallow the things conducting or belonging thereto for his names sake according to that command Be ye holy for I am holy which though found four several times in Leviticus Lev. 11. 44. 11. 45. Lev. 19. 2. Lev. 20. 7. yet is not a precept of the Levitical but of the Moral Law as Saint Peter plainly shews us alledging these very words as an invincible demonstration that it is our bounden duty to be holy in all manner of conversation because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. Where this is the force of the argumentation such as I am such must all they be who will have relation to me or communion with me but I am holy therefore must they be holy And this argumentation though it most properly belong to persons yet may it not be confined only to them but is also to be extended to things and Actions Person◠Res Actiones Persons Things and Actions must be all holy or they must not come into the beauty of holiness And if they be all holy they must come in thither and may not be kept or cast out thence ungodly profaning of dayes and Churches unworthy reviling or robbing of Ministers consecrated to the service of Almighty God unjust excommunicating of Orthodox Christians undeserved ejecting of Catholick rites of unblameable Liturgies are all sins against this fourth Commandment and so many breaches or violations of the Sabbath all of these directly opposing that communion of Saints which ought to be in the publick worship of God or the exercise of Religion and all of them grievously sinning against that command which came to Saint Peter in a voice from heaven before it came to us in the written word What God hath cleansed or purified that call not thou common or unclean Act. 10. 15. We generally do look upon the profanation of consecrated time as the breach of the Sabbath and we do well for so it is But we look not far enough for profanation is of as large an extent as consecration and we are to know that persons and Things and Actions are all alike consecrated to Gods publick worship by virtue of the fourth Commandment Thus saith the Psalmist Give thanks O Israel to God the Lord in the congregation Psalm 68. 26. Which are the words saith Sol. Jarchi that Miriam and the Damosels with her playing on the timbrels mentioned in the verse before had said in their song of praises to God at the drowning of the Egyptians so that in the judgement of this great Doctor blessing God in the congregations was a duty that belonged to Israel by the Law of nature for the Law of Moses was not then given when Miriam was supposed to say so Though it was also included in the positive Law concerning the Sabbath which we find set down in
Roman Souldiers would not do but also his body raising factions and schisms in the Church not only against the decency and order which are as it were the coat or cloathing but also against the very substance of worship which is in some sort the body of Christ So then the Church may still in this regard claim and continue the power of Exorcism saying with Saint Paul I exhort or command you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ or we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth And if the evil spirit of Schism being thus adjured shall answer Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are yâ— making no more account of the Ministers of Christ then if they were indeed so many vagabond Jews it will shew it self not only a factious but also a lying spirit saying It knows Christ when it doth not know him They profess that they know God but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. 16. Such a lying spirit deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth which saith Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 5. shewing that the societies or corporations of Christians may no more take their spiritual food together without their ministers then other Corporations do usually take their corporal food without their Stewards I say such a lying spirit as this which pretends to know both Jesus and Paul but indeed knows neither deserves not to be confuted by the spirit of Truth but by the spirit errour and indeed hath found such a confutation For Satan in this foul affront of Christ is devided against himself and one of his own most false and wicked spirits could not but say of Gods Stewards or Ministers These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. This truth when some men did gainsay after the father of lyes himself durst not deny could not dissemble it they gave occasion to Luther of falling into these bitter expressions As hitherto men have seemed possessed with Devils even so now the Devils themselves do seem to be possessed of far worse Devils and so rage above the fury of Devils and again For who ever heard to pass over the abominations of the Pope so many monsters to burst out at once in the world as we see at this day in the Anabaptists alone in whom Satan breatheth out as it were the last blast of his kingdom through horrible uproars as if he would by them suddenly not only destroy the whole world with Seditions but also by innumerable Sects swallow up and devour Christ wholly with his Church Prefat in Gal. So Luther in his zeal to Christ and his Church for he saw the one could not be devoured without the other he saw the Church could be thrown down but Christ would also be involved in the downfall Without doubt it is a most horrid sin for men to cry up the shadow that they may beat down the substance of the Law and yet this is the sin of many men who cry up the Sabbath in the Day that they may throw it down in the Duty making it their business to discountenance the solemn exercise of Religion in common Prayer to disadvantage Gods publike worship and service to disgrace his Ministers to defile his ordinances to revile and contemn and pollute his Sanctuaries whereas in truth these are all alike sanctified to the hallowing of Gods name by vertue of the fourth Commandment and if we will needs make a separation betwixt the letter and the end or reason of that commandment where God hath made a most strict conjunction we must give the pre-eminence and superiority not to the circumstances or adjuncts but to the substance of Religion The Jew in his typical worship was first to look after the Time the Place the Person as the Sabbath the Temple the Priest which were the adjuncts of his worship and then to offer his sacrifice which was the substance of it But the Christian in his moral worship is first to look after substance then after circumstances though he hath commission to neglect neither but rather hath express command to look after both Nay indeed the Jew himself was to do this in his moral worship even to prefer the Substance before the circumstance for we find that Ezra did read in the book of the Law and blessed the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground Ezra 8. 5 6. All these were acts of moral worship and accordingly we find them not confined to the Temple for its evident They were all performed before the Street that was before the water-gate verse 3. And it is as evident that the duties of Preaching and Praying were exercised by the Jews in their Synagogues whereas their sacrifices were offered only in the Temple The reason we may conceive was this Because their Typical worship was to continue but for a time and to shew it deserved not to continue for ever there was in it this kind of absurdity that the accessory did draw the Principal the Temple the Sacrifice the Circumstance the Substance But their moral worship was to continue for ever and therefore in that the Principall was to draw the accessories the substance the circumstances blessing the Lord the great God bowing the head and worshipping the Lord reading the Law and giving the sense of it that the People might understand the reading these being all duties of moral worship were unconfinable either to place or time either to the Temple or Sabbath to shew they were above them both and were to remain after them as they had been before them This was the main subject of Saint Stephens Sermon Acts 7. That Abraham and the Fathers worshipped God rightly long before Moses was born to give them any Laws either about the Tabernacle or the Temple and consequently about the Sabbath and that all those outward ceremonies which were afterwards ordained by Moses were to last but for a time but till the coming of Christ And the Jews themselves who call the Sabbath the foundation of the Decalogue because the precept of the sabbath was given before the rest for that was certainly given in the wilderness of Zin Exod. 16. where as the rest were not given till they came to Mount Sinai Exod. 20. yet do ingenuously confess that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath so saith Hospinian who yet was very zealous for the Sabbath Judaei ipsi in minori expositione in Genesin arbitrantur Abrahamum non observasse Sabbatum The Jews themselves in the lesser exposition upon Genesis do think that Abraham did not keep the Sabbath Nay the Fathers do plainly say they know he did not For Tertullian proves against the Jews that
and Adoration of God and a right profession to glorifie his most holy name according to the three first Commandments How doth it not bind us to its communion in all these according to the fourth If we cannot deny the purity how dare we deny the publike exercise of our Religion For surely he that will one day say Depart from me ye cursed to those who have carelesly neglected their duty towards their neighbours will never say Come ye blessed to us if we wilfully neglect our duty towards our God but our peevishness now saying unto him in effect Depart from us Thou blessed will then most certainly be recompenced with his Justice saying unto us Depart from me ye cursed Our departure from him is now voluntary it will then be necessary it is now our sin it will then be our punishment For if we shall be condemned for our omissions towards our brethren much more shall we be condemned for our omissions or rather for our contempts towards our Saviour And those Jehu's which drive furiously not to throw down the worship of Baal but of the true everliving God shall without doubt answer at the last day not only for their furiousness as guilty of Schism but also for their contempt as guilty of profaness not only for their breaking the Christian communion but also for their opposing the Christian Religion they cannot set up the abomination of desolation in the Holy place and pull down holiness from thence but themselves will be in Gods account abominable and desolate So saith Junius in his Parallel upon Saint Mat. 24 15. Appellatur exercitus omnis infidelium ad subversionem desolationemque populi Dei comparatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Abominatio desolationis Abominatio quidem propter naturam constitutionem ipsius quia totus ex hominibus abominandis infidelibus conflatus est Desolationis vero ab effectu quia horridam desolalationem fuerat importaturus loco in quem irruerit Christ calleth those Roman Armies which were to lay waste Jerusalem The Abomination of desolations Abomination from their persons because they were abominable men desolation from their work because they were to make Hierusalem waste and desolate If those men were the abomination of desolation who laid waste the City of God what are they who lay waste the worship of God Therefore saith the Spirit of God in Psalm 68. that such men are Gods enemies and must expect to be scattered and either speedily to vanish like smoak after they have a little troubled our eyes or at least to melt like wax that they may not stay so long as to harden our hearts For he is the God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house verse 6. and most loves they should be of one mind in his own House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the 70. Inhabitare facit unius moris in domo He makes those of the same fashion to be of the same family He makes men to be of one disposition and of one conversation that they may be of one communion And he accounts them but runnagates that are not so But letteth the runnagates continue in scarceness Nay the Hebrew calls them Rebels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the rebellious The Greek translations do render this one word four several ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the 70. Qui exasperant they that are contentious ready to exasperate and to provoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Symmachus Incruduli They that are incredulous and hard to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aquila Abscedentes They that are exceptious or ready to depart from the known way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Theodotius Declinantes They are erroneous and actually declining into false wayes for so is that word used Psalm 124. v. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Declinantes autem ad tortuosas vias such as turn aside unto their crooked ways All which sins are combined together in this one of wilful schism which makes men Runnagates for their inconstancy Rebels for their disobedience contentious for their bitterness incredulous for their blindness exceptious for their apostasie and erroneous for their pertinacy Such men are commonly Hot-headed and Hard-hearted in their sin and they are accordingly tormented with Heat and Hardness in their punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitabunt aestus siccitatem saith Symmachus They shall dwell among burning drought that shews their punishment from heat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habitaverent rupem saith Aquila they do dwel among rocks that shews their punishment from Hardness And what is the reason of all but because they are enemies to God in being enemies to the communion which he hath established for so it is said ver 26 Give thanks O Israel unto God the Lord in the congregations but they neither regard Israel nor the God of Israel nor the giving of thanks nor the congregations And therefore these words Rise up Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee which were used by Moses when the Ark set forward Num. 10. 35. are here by David formed into a perfect Psalm which was sung afterwards saith Musculus before that same Ark when David and all the house of Israel brought it up to Zion with shouting and with dancing and with the sound of the trumpet 2 Sam. 6. 15. The Ark was a Type of the Church and therefore this Psalm which once concerned the Ark and its enemies doth now concern the Church and her enemies and Saint Paul in effect assured us as much in that he hath applied the 18 verse of this Psalm to our Saviour Christs Ascension wherein he gave such gifts to men by which the Christian Church was first founded and doth still subsist So that it is evident that this Psalm is a prayer for defence and propagation of the Catholick Church and consequently these and the like expressions that are found in it are so many imprecations and curses from the Spirit of God against his Churches enemies The like is often to be observed in the whole book of Psalms which is very full of expostulations with and imprecations against the enemies of the Church and that being a book of devotions of Gods own making may neither be neglected by his servants nor yet securely used by his enemies for they will but curse themselves by using it and more mischief themselves by not using it A sad condition which the Churches enemies most unavoidably bring upon themselves either not to use those devotions which were of Gods own composing or to use them against their own prosperity in this world and salvation in the next I will make but one instance more and that shall be out of Psalm 129. one of the Psalms of degrees or Ascensions which were so called saith Kimchi from Rabbi Sudia because the Levites in singing those Psalms were bound to exalt their voices and as it were to ascend higher and higher in every Psalm so
and consequently the ground of true faith in Christ Nor can we think of the common People so generally withdrawing themselves from the Arrian Bishops in those dayes for not giving glory to God rightly according to the form of this Hymne but we must needs censure the dulness and deadness of this our Age wherein men care not with what Ministers they assemble in publike worship though they see them not only forsake but also revile all the Symbols of true Christian Faith and worship and all the badges of true Christian communion such as are the Lords most holy Prayer the Apostles Creed and this Hymn of glorification for though men may have so much Charity as to pass by that Sacrilegious Tenent which professeth Bishops and Presbyters both one that they may be equally contemned I call it a Sacrilegious Tenent because I find it so called by the Catholick Church twice in the Council of Chalcedon once in the fift Action in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopum in gradum Presbyteri redigere Sacrilegium est to bring back a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter is Sacriledge and again in the fifteenth Action wherein are the Canons of that Council in the 29th Canon in the very same words only that insteed of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring back they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopum in Presbyteri gradum reducere est Sacrilegium to bring down a Bishop to the degeee of a Presbyter is Sacriledge I say though men may have so much charity as to pass by that Sacrilegious Tenent which professeth Bishops and Presbyters both one that they may be equally contemned yet they should not have so little faith as to communicate in that Sacrilegious worship which cares not to profess God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost to be but one that they may be equally glorified And surely Saint Basil taking so much pains to clear himself concerning the right use of the Gloria Patri doth sufficiently condemn all our late Divines who in such Antitrinitarian and therefore Antichristian times as these are willfully contemn or carelesly neglect the constant and publike use of that most Christian Hymne For it is most certain he that hath not a right belief of the Trinity cannot have a right belief of Christ and therefore he that will not openly profess his belief of the Trinity cannot justly claim and consequently not reasonably expect the communion of those who desire and deserve â—e accounted Orthodox Christians And it is observable that those formes of the communicatory letters which are mentioned by Gratian in his seventy third Distinct and before him by Jno and Berchardus do still retain the footsteps of this Truth that all Christian Communion was antiently grounded on the Profession of Faith in the Holy Trinity and in this respect we may say that membranas occupare non debet was an unreasonable censure in him that glossed the case of that distinction for the insertion of those Greek elements 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the initials of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in effect assure us that the ancient Bishops did neither give nor send their communicatory letters to any that did not openly profess their belief in Father Son and Holy Ghost for as concerning that phansie in the Canonist Petri quoque Apostoli prima litera i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assumatur that P must also be added to signifie Peter it sufficiently confuteth it self in that it supposeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand alone for the Holy-Ghost contrary to the nature and use of the Greek tongue and leaveth out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not robbing Peter to pay Paul but robbing the Holy-Ghost to pay Peter And yet we may add further to its confutation that it is as easie for those who resolve to make Saint Peter their author for every thing they say or do to bring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to turn Patres into Petrus and we find that hath been done in the very Pontifical it self where the Bishops Oath was at first to observe Regulas Sanctorum Patrum the rules of the Holy Fathers But these words come afterwards to be changed into Regalia Sancti Petri The Royalties of Saint Peter but without doubt the Greeks meant nothing else by those initial Elements save only Father Son and Holy-Ghost if at least they had any set Form of communicatory letters among them which sure is not now easie to be met withal although Baronius hath assured that the form of those letters was instituted and Binius hath further assured that it was extant in the 18th canon of the first Council of Nice In concilio Nicaeno forma quaedum eiusmodi literarum c. 18. ne fraus irreperet est instituta non autem recens res ipsa est introducta saith Baronius An. 142. n. 6. Harum literarum formula à Niceno Concilio praescripta extat can 18. istius Concilii saith Binius in notis in Epist 1. Sixti Papae 1. yet he may chance lose his labour that shall look for that form not onlâ— in that Canon but also in any other of the Greek Councils or in the Commentaries of Zonaras Balsamon upon them But what ever was the form of their communicatory letters which by the Latines might be called Formatae for they acknowledge a form of them such a one as it is sure we are this was the ground of their communion that their Baptism their Belief their worship was all in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost They kept themselves entire in their Religion and that made them keep themselves entire in their communion They did earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. they did not labour to deliver a new Faith So that their contending for the faith kept them from other contentions as now our contentions do indeed keep us from the faith They laboured to serve their Saviour not to serve themselves of him we labour to serve our selves whiles we pretend to serve our Saviour they followed the advice of Christs Apostle Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4. 3. We follow the insolency and outrage of Christs enemies saying Let us break their bonds asunder and casts away their cords from us Psal 2. 3. Kimchi saith these were the words of the Philistins against Israel the Church of God But the Apostles say in effect they were the words of Herod and Pontius Pilate against Christ the Son of God Acts 4. 27. Let us take heed of saying such words as these against the Church of God for fear we come in time to say them against the Son of God For what are the bonds of Christ but Religion which hath its name from binding and Communion which hath its work to
man in general neither as lame nor as blind nor as perverse nor as ignorant nor as false but an excellent creature made to know and enjoy his maker So though I see many defects and imperfections in particular Churches for in many things we offend all men and Churches too yet I consider the Catholick Church or the Church in general neither as defective nor as imperfect but as the body and Spouse of Christ holy and undefiled without spot called to the knowledge of God here in this world and to the enjoyment of him hereafter in the world to come And if all men would look more upon the perfections then upon the defects of the Churches wherein they live if they would rather look upon what Christ hath made them then what they have made themselves the world would be more given to devotion then now it is to disputes and would be more filled with Religion then it is now with faction For Christ is so well preached in every true Christian Church notwithstanding the great corruptions and divisions of Christendom that if he were but half so well practised we should most of us soon become very good Christians And truly we can scarce give a better reason why State policy and self-interest hath not generally corrupted the principles as it hath the Practise of Christians but only that those who sit in Moses his chair think themselves concerned in Moses his Trust which was this Thou shalt speak all that I command thee Exod. 7. 2. Hence it is they commonly speak as they ought though they seldom do as they speak their tongues are sanctified though not their lives they remain holy and innocent in their Functions though not in their Actions circumcised in their lips though uncircumcised in their hearts Their Persons unregenerated but their calling such as worketh regeneration Therefore said Truth himself concerning them Mat. 23. 3. All whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do for they speak with Moses but do not ye after their works for they say and do not they act with Jannes and Jambres They speak they teach according to their Trust but they act they do according to their lusts it being much easier to talk by Rule then to walk by it God often giving to his Ministers the grace of â—â—iâ—ication for his names sake that they may preserve his Truth when yet he denyeth them the grace of Regeneration for their own sakes because they will not obey his truth Gratia gratis data may be given to the calling when Gratia gratum faciens is denyed to the Person we find that God threatneth the wicked Priests saying I will curse your Blessings Mal. 2. 2. What is their Blessing but their calling and how is that cursed but when it is blessed to all men save only to themselves When the Ministers shall be like so many statues in a doubtful Road directing the travellers in the right way but themselves not moving therein at all The comparison is not much amiss For as it is not from the substance of the statue but from its office or employment that men are directed by it so is it also in the Ministers t is not from their persons but from their calling that they are so highly qualified as to be our guides to heaven And as men can make a stock so much more God can make a man discharge the office of a faithful guide And as the rottenness of the statue hinders not the soundness of its directions so a Minister that hath a false and a rotten heart may have a true and a sound mouth And as the traveller thanks not the statue for his good directions but those that set it there so we are not to thank such a Minister for his good directions but God that set him over us For if the efficacity and operation of a good Instrument be ascribed to the efficient cause then much more of a bad instrument And if such holy Apostles as Saint Peter and Saint John rebuked the amazed Jews after this manner Why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk Act. 3. 12. then we may be sure that when words of power or of truth proceed from the mouth of a wicked Caiaphas That he spake not this of himself but being High Priest that year he prophesied John 11. 51. And as Caiaphas though he was not a true man yet he was a true Prophet because in that respect he was Gods Trustee for the propagation of that truth which he then prophesied So is it still with many Christian Ministers and Churches as they are Gods Trustees for preserving and propagating the saving truths of the Gospel so they are enabled by his Spirit to discharge that Trust in so much that we may take it for granted that God hath entrusted them because we cannot deny but God hath enabled them For if he had not given them a Trust why should he either give them Authority to undertake it or ability to perform it Therefore since we cannot deny the Authority nor the Ability we may not deny the Trust And indeed the Trust is too palpable to be denyed by any that will not shut his eyes against the truth lest he should see it or that will not open his mouth against the truth that he may oppose it for so saith Saint Paul 1 Cor. 9. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dispensatio mihi credita est I am entrusted with a dispensation sc of the Holy Gospel And t is evident he spake not this in regard of his person that the Trust should die with himself but in regard of his Calling to shew the same trust was to remain with his Successors for ever And if we will look upon all his Epistles we may there see accordingly that he hath derived this Trust to particular Churches after him that is to those Bishops and Presbyters that were set over the people For as the Epistles that were sent to the seven Churches of Asia were directed and sent to the Angels that is to the Bishops and Ministers of those Churches and not to the common people Apoc. 2. 3. So was it in all Saint Pauls Epistles they were sent not to the people but to the Ministers that were set over them God entrusting them with his saving Truth whom he had entrusted to bring others to salvation nor are we beholding to the Citizens of Rome or to the Burgers of Corinth but to the Ministry of both those Churches and of other Churches since them that we now enjoy the true Copies of Saint Pauls Epistles the like is to be said concerning all the other parts of the New Testament For as the Books of the Old Testament were known to have come from God because they were deposited in the Ark and committed to the custody of the Priests whence Damascene saith concerning the Wisdom of Solomon and of the son of Sirach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the Ministery which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the Grace of God v. 24. as if he had said I did not at first either invade or falsifie this Trust that I should now betray it or forsake it for I received it of the Lord Jesus he put me in this course I must follow his Directions He made me his Minister I must obey his commands It is my course I must run it on directly not turning aside either to the right hand or to the left that I may consult with flesh and blood but looking only to my journies end It is my Ministry I must perform it as I am enjoined not seeking to please my self and much less any other but only my Master Nor need we ask the Eunuchs question I pray thee of whom speaketh the Prophet this of himself or of some other man Acts 8. 34. For Saint Paul in the same place gives the answer to this question in that he alledgeth his own example not as Personal but as Doctrinal making this inference upon it Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy-Ghost hath made you oversers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood v. 28. He gives them 4. reasons why they should be as carefull in their Trust as he had been in his 1. That they had the charge of the flock and were to answer for those that should go astray Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock 2. That they have this charge imposed on them by the Spirit of God Over which the Holy-Ghost hath made you Overseers 3. That this charge neerly concerned the Church of God which he owned for his own peculiar To feed the Church of God 4. That this charge neerly concerned the Son of God and might not be neglected without the inexpiable guilt of profaning and contemning his blood which was the only price of our souls and the only expiation of our sins which he hath purchased with his own blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Chrysost see how many necessities are here joyned together you have your Ordination or Commission from the spirit of God there 's one necessity you are entrusted with the Church of God there 's another necessity you are entrusted with the blood of God there 's a third necessity This is the necessity that St. Paul thought was laid upon him of preaching the Gospel when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Necessitas enim mihi incumbit for necessity is laid upon me 1 Cor. 9. 16. and the same necessity hath he laid upon all his Successors in the Ministry to the worlds end as plainly appears in his charge to Timothy his chiefest Successor in this Trust at Ephesus to whom he saith I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickneth all things and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ which charge it was impossible for Timothy to perform by himself because he was to die long before the coming of Christ it must therefore be performed by his successors who are to continue till Christs coming that they may perform it as Saint Ambrose glosseth upon the place non solicitus à cura Timothei tam circumspectus est sed propter successores eius This charge was given thus circumspectly in this strict manner to Timothy not that S. Paul doubted of him but that all the world might see it was not given to him alone but also to all his successors And so much concerning the Trust that was given by God to the particular Church of Ephesus whereof Timothy was the Bishop or the chiefest Trustee whence Oecumenius tells us upon those words of S. Paul to him I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here he made him Bishop of the Church of Ephesus He that is Saint Paul but as the instrument of the Holy Ghost for so Saint Paul himself had told us before That the Holy Ghost had made him Bishop of that Church and all his fellow Presbyters in some sort Bishops with him Over which the holy-Ghost hath made you overseers some were overseers of the flock but he also of the shepherds themselves and the commission is accordingly Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the Flock every Presbyter was a Bishop or an overseer in regard of the flock but he was also Bishop or Overseer in regard of the Presbyters in the regard of the Ministery and not only of the People this is Oecumenius his gloss upon the fourth of the Ephesians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those who were entrusted with whole Churches he peculiarly calleth Bishops such as was Timothy and Titus And doubtless such Trustees as these were more especially interested in that admonition concerning the Wolves or the false Pastors v. 30. 31. for therefore said he they shall arise that those to whom he said it should suppress them when they did arise But however they were all in common Gods Trustees for that place and people though not all equally entrusted God the Father entrusted them with his flock God the Son entrusted them with his blood God the Holy-Ghost entrusted them with his Truth Go now you that despise the Ministers whom God hath set over you but take this advice along with you Take heed you despise not at once God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost Goe now you that invade the office of the Ministers whom God hath not made overseers of his flock nor entrusted with his word or with his people yet you will needs be feeding his Church but take this advice before you go take heed he say not to you at the last day Who hath required this at your hands Isai 1. 12. for sure he will charge you with a profanation because he hath not charged you with a Trust look not upon that office as profitable and glorious which God will have looked upon as terrible and dangerous no less dangerous if undertaken without his commission then if forsaken against it The like is to be averred concerning the Trust of the particular Church of Creet The people of which Island Saint Paul plainly commended to Titus and his fellow Presbyters as himself hath professed For this cause left I thee in Creet that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City Tit. 1. 5. Why was he to ordain more Bishops but because the Trust was too great for one Bishop So saith Oecumenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For he would not that such a great Island should be committed one Bishop but that every City should have her own Pastor or Bishop For by Elders or Presbyters he meaneth Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Chrysostome He would that every particular Bishop should have his
the Law of man hath taken care of all these so much more hath the Law of God taken care of them and most of all in Gods own worship Here the Holy Spirit will have 1. Persons rightly ordered prescribing the decent behaviour both of men and women from the first verse of the eleventh Chapter to the sixteenth 2. Things rightly ordered prescribing the right administration of the holy Eucharist from the sixteenth verse to the end of the Chapter Lastly actions rightly ordered prescribing the right use of Spiritual gifts and Functions in the twelfth thirteeenth and fourteenth Chapters In respect of all these it is the Apostles injunction to the Corinthians and the Churches injunction to us Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ as my Church must submit to Christs authority in the exercise of Religion to avoid superstition so I must submit to my Churches authority to avoid faction and confusion For what my Church requires by vertue of his command I cannot disobey without contempt of his authority Excellently Aquinas Majores sive perfecti soli Deo inhaerent cujus est immutabilis bonitas qui et si inhaereant suis praelatis non inhaerent illis nisi in quantum illi inhaerent Christo secundum illud Imitatores mei estote sicut Ego Christi 22. qu. 43. art 5. c. Those that are firmly grounded and to be called perfect Christians do in all things cleave to Christ himself and stick fast to him whose goodness is unchangeable and therefore so is also their will and resolution for though they rely upon the Church which Christ hath set over them yet they relye upon their Church as that relyeth upon Christ according to that of Saint Paul Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ Every good Christian man relies immediately upon Christ for his Religion and much more every good Christian Church can you not deny me to be a Major in this case and will you needs make my Church a Minor Am I of ripe years and must my Church be under age must I relye upon Christ and must not my Church much rather relye upon him There cannot be a greater impudence then for one man to perswade another to leave Christ and stick to him unless it be for one Church to perswade another to do the same And are not they perswaded to leave Christ who are perswaded to leave the Holy Scriptures that they may stick to uncertain Traditions For where is Christ to be certainly followed but in his undoubted word How then can any Church forsake Christs written word and pretend to follow him Saint Paul cares not to be so authentical and yet doubtless had more authority then those that are so He praiseth the Corinthians for keeping the Ordinances or Traditions as he had delivered them 1 Cor. 11. 2. but he professeth he had delivered no other then what he had received For I delivered unto you that which I also received 1 Cor. 15. 3. Nay in the same Chapter wherein he praiseth them for keeping what he had delivered he averreth that he had delivered what he had received ver 23. For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you nor is it reasonable we should imagine the Apostle of Christ would stand more upon his own then his Masters honour or would have praised the Corinthians for remembring him in all things if so be he had so grosly forgotten himself as not to have remembred his Master and who hath made a Church above an Apostle Therefore we may be sure that the Traditions Saint Paul gave the Corinthians were such as had been given him and we could scarce be sure of this were not the same Traditions still given us and consequently we cannot part with the least degree of this certainty but we must part with the best and greatest reason of our praise for what is or can be the praise of any Church but that she remembers the Apostles in all things and keeps the Traditions as they delivered them unto her so that upon the certainty of the Traditions depends the Fidelity of the Church and those Churches must needs approve themselves to be most faithfull which can make the surest proof of their Traditions that they are indeed truly Apostolical now it is evident that the written word is so acknowledged by all Churches but the unwritten word is not so and t is observable that those who stand most upon the credit of unwritten Traditions yet are of late very willing to endeavour to prove most of the Doctrines and practices depending thereupon by some Texts of the undoubted written word surely not to gratifie their adversaries who refused the other but themselves who look upon these as the much better and surer proofs Wherefore the holy Scriptures which are the only proof that the Church hath a Trust from God concerning his Worship are the only Rule by which she can either conscionably or acceptably discharge that Trust Conscionably in offering nothing to mens consciences but what God hath offered Acceptably in offering nothing unto God but what himself hath required and if every particular Church did exactly follow this Rule none could detest the Communion of another without detesting the communion of God himself For this is the Apostles own determination I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed 1 Cor. 12. 3. that is doth accurse or detest any thing that is truly of the Christian Religion for that is little other then to detest and accurse Christ Jesus himself Men may bestow their hearts as they please about Ceremonies and formalities and happily be charged only with indiscretion but not so about real forms of worship not so about sound and solid prayers unless they will also be charged with irreligion For if the prayer which is used by any Christian Church doth truly honour Jesus no other Church can detest her communion in that prayer without detesting Jesus himself Therefore it is not from the Spirit of God but from our own spirits that we dislike any thing which truly belongs to Jesus whether in his Doctrine or in his worship and consequently what is exactly agreeable with the known Word of Jesus is also exactly agreeable with his will and accordingly all Churches are bound to agree in that though they may disagree about other matters Therefore let every Church faithfully discharge her Trust about the worship of God and there may be a hope of a Christian agreement among all Churches for then those that shall disagree from the rest will prove themselves either Antichristian or unchristian either Antichristian as being against Christ or unchristian as being without him either faulty for having a false or faulty for not having a true worship of Christ For a true and laudable worship cannot but challenge our communion either actually in our corporal presence if we live among such good Christians as have
not justly be condemned by another Church much less opposed or deserted by her own state For that such a Church is without doubt Gods Trustee and hath not been faulty in the discharge of her Trust and may not be hindred or molested in dischaging it SECT VIII The Trust of particular Churches is immediately from God himself both in regard of the Magistrate and of the Minister That Trust much stood upon in the Primitive times and ought to be so still because it is founded on the holy Scriptures And that this Doctrine concerning the Trust of particular Churches doth not canton or disjoynt the Catholick Church T IS no hard matter to prove That particular Churches are Gods immediate Trustees though they have but a limited Trust For else will follow the greatest absurdity that can be imagined and much greater that may be granted viz. That God hath left the blood of his Son the dictates of his Spirit the honour of his name exposed to all the contempts and prophanations and corruptions of perverse and ignorant and wicked men if he hath not entrusted them all with some such persons who are bound to see them neither prophaned nor contemned nor corrupted And who were those his Trustees at first but only his Apostles and who have they been ever since but their Successors Bishops and Ministers Take heed unto the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Acts 20. 28. O Timothy keep that which is committed to thy Trust 1 Tim. 6. 20. The Minister whether Bishop or Priest is immediately intrusted with the care of souls and with those truths and administrations which directly concern the soul For the civil Magistrate though he be Christian yet is not capable of discharging the spiritual part of this Trust being not called of God as was Aaron to do the office of a Priest though he be called of God as was Moses to have power and dominion over Priests For in that he is governour of the State he is also governour of the Church which is in and within the State and in that he is governour of the Church he must needs have his share in the Trust of the Church concerning Religion as far as Religion is liable to the government of the State sc to be ordered protected and defended by it For as God at first used the extraordinary power of miracles to maintain his word and Sacraments and to strike the opposers and profaners of them either with death or with other corporal punishments as S. Paul saith of the Corinthians For this cause many are weakly and sick among you and many sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. sc because of your profaning the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ So in process of time he was pleased to use the ordinary power of the Civil Magistrate for the same purposes never leaving himself without witness having given a directive and spiritual power to the Ministery a coactive and external power to the Magistracy for the suppressing of wickedness and vice and for the promoting of true Religion and Virtue Therefore both Magistracy and Ministery have the immediate Trust of Religion and God hath commanded both to assist hath allowed neither to oppose the other in the execution of his Trust Both are obliged to see there be a right exercise of Religion the one to perform it the other to countenance and protect it And both have their Trust immediately from God and this is that which I call the Trust of particular Churches nor is it to be imagined That if God had given the Trust of all Churches to some general Vicar of his who derived his power immediately from him and was to derive the same to others but that he would have given some notice of this universal Trustee that others might not invade this Trust without his leave much less manage it without his Authority yet this he was willing to plead for who said Petrus Paulo dedit licentiam praedicandi Gl. in Grat. Dist 11. cap. 11. that Saint Peter gave Saint Paul a licence to preach and that Authoritate Domini by Gods own command who said Acts 13. Sepatate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them He will needs bring Saint Peter from Jerusalem to Antioch of purpose to lay his hands on Saint Paul though the Holy-Ghost reckons up these particular men who were bid do that work and reckons not Saint Peter among them nay though Saint Paul himself plainly tels us that he had Preached full three years before he once saw Saint Peter Gal. 1. 17 18. and then was fain to go up to Jerusalem not to Antioch to see him and only to see him not to receive commission or Instruction from him So Saint Chrysostome upon the words Gal. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He wanted Peter for nothing but being equal in honour with him that I may say no more now yet he went up to him as to his Superiour and his Ancient And he tell us this of purpose saith he that we should not think the ensuing reprehension proceeded either out of hatred or envy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it is plain he loved the man and respected him more then any other of the Apostles for he saith Other of the Apostles saw I none Yet he did but go to see him not to learn of him much less to receive spiritual power from him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did but see him I did not learn of him saith the same Saint Chrysostome And indeed it is scarce imaginable that Saint Paul was rapt up into the third Heaven the proper dwelling place of God to hear unspeakable words to be Tongue-tied on earth by any man so as not to be able to preach without his License Nay on the contrary it is clearly evident from the Holy Scriptures and from all Antiquity that not only Saint Paul but also all the other Apostles did Preach the Gospel found Churches ordain Bishops excommunicate offenders without any delegation from Saint Peter only by their own immediate Authority And it is also evident that they all derived their Authority to their several Churches after them and that those several Churches did very much insist upon that authority which they could not lawfully have done had it not been derived to them by the Apostles Thus Saint Cyprian pleads for his Church of Carthage Ne quisquam se Episcopum Episcoporum constituat aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigat quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit quà m nec ipse possit alterum judicare Neither let any man make himself a Bishop of Bishops nor by his tyrannical threats seek to compell his collegues to be his Vassals since every Bishop hath his own native liberty and power to determine for himself as one that may neither Iudge his fellow-Bishop
communion Thus doth Saint Paul briefly but pithily define a Christian Church 1 Thes 1. 1. To the Church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ We cannot imagine the Thessalonians were in God before they were with God so that the one presupposeth the other and we may hence collect this definition of a true Christian Church that it is a company of men Ministers and People though here Saint Paul chiefly write to the Ministers calling them the Church as appears in that he chargeth them to read this Epistle to all the Holy brethren cap. 5. v. 27. which sheweth that he sent it only to the Ministers I say that a true Christian Church is a company of Men Ministers and People who are with the God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by their Religion nay more who are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ by their communion And all the men in the world who are thus with and in God the Father and God the Son by the power of God the Holy Ghost do make up the whole present Christian or Catholick Church They may be several Churches in their Denominations and Jurisdictions They are but one Church in their Religion and in their spiritual communion Thus faith the same Saint Paul Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12. 27. that is ye Christians of all Nations are the mystical body of Christ aud ye Christians of Corinth of this or that Nation are members in particular of that body and members in particular one of another as all together make up that body or as all particular Churches make up the Catholick Church SECT IX What Trust is given to other particular Churches in the Holy Scriptures is also given to our particular Church of England from God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost That our Church is accordingly bound to magnifie her Trust and therefore we bound not to vilifie it And that it is both Rational and Religious to maintain the Trust and Authority of our own particular Church IF he be justly reproached for dishonesty who doth not carefully discharge his Trust which he hath received from man how much more they who do not carefully discharge their Trust which they have received from God And this is the case of Ministers above all other men who have received such a Trust from God as all the power of the world could not give them and all the malice of the world cannot deny them Indeed it is the case of every particular Minister much more of the whole Ministry or of a whole Church which is more eminently Gods Trustee and hath a much greater Trust then either the arrogancy of any one can challenge or the ability of any one can discharge And therefore if the spirit of God give that charge to one particular Archippus Take heed to the Ministery which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it Col. 4. 17. much more doth it give the same charge to the whole Church of Colosse which had in a more ample manner and for a more general end received the same Ministery And though the Church of Colosse it self was soon after swallowed up with an Earth-quake in the dayes of Nero as saith Orosius yet not so the Instructions nor the authority given to it they must remain till the worlds end Take heed to the Ministery which thou hast received in the Lord is not to be swallowed up by the cleaving and dividing of the earth no more then it is to be revoked or recalled by any voice from heaven And so was it also with the Church of Ephesus as appears from Saint Pauls charge to the first Bishop of that Church I give thee charge in the sight of God and before Christ Jesus that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukeable untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 6 13 14. In that he chargeth him to keep the commandments he had received concerning Religion without spot unrebukeable he sheweth the Churches trust in that he addeth to his charge untill the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ he sheweth that Trust is to continue till the worlds end For in this case we must alwayes remember those words of our Saviour Mar. 13. 37. And what I say unto you I say unto all Watch For what Saint Paul said to the first Bishop of Ephesus he said to all Bishops that ever should be after him as well as to all that were then with him For the Apostolical Epistles though in their inscriptions or Title they concerned some special Churches yet in their Instructions and use they concerned all Churches as plainly appears from Saint Pauls own words Col. 4. 16. And when this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that yee likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea So that what Instruction or Authority or charge was given to one Church was given to all Churches in that one And consequently we may thus argue by way of Induction The Trust of Religion was given by God to the Church of Rome and of Corinth and of Galatia and of Ephesus and of Philippi and of Colosse and of Thessalonica therefore the same trust is given by God to our own Church of England and indeed to all the several particular Churches in the Christian world For if each particular Bishop and Presbyter have his Trust originally from the Holy-Ghost though derived by the hands of men Then much more have all the Bishops and Presbyters their Trust from the Holy Ghost Hence that expression in the first Council of Bishops Act. 15. 28. It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us Which hath in some sort been followed by other Councils since Particularly the sixth which confirming the five oecumenical before doth it in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This our holy and Oecumenical Synod hath by inspiration from God confirmed those former Councils Which is in effect as much as if they had said It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and us to confirm them Concil Constant 3. Act. 17. Graece sed 18. Latine A sufficient proof that the Apostles spake not those words for themselves alone but also for the Church after them which was thereby authorized as to act by the power so to act in the name of the Holy-Ghost And if any shall be so refractory as to say otherwise he may look upon another place not only as a confirmation of this truth but also as a confutation of his own refractoriness Acts 7. 51. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost For whosoever is stiff-necked and will not hear nor obey the word of truth though in the mouth of a weak and sinful man sent from God to speak it doth make himself guilty of this detestable and damnable resistance even of resisting the Holy Ghost For
those Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus were as much ordained and appointed by men as any can be of any Church till the worlds ends supposing they be rightly ordained to whom yet the Apostle saith Take heed unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act. 20. 28. For the ordination of Ministers though it is by man yet is it not of men but of God even as also is the Gospel which they are ordained to preach so that to resist them and their Doctrine is not to resist men but God so said he who first ordained Ministers of the Gospel and still assisteth them in their ministrations He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. How shall any man go on this errand without Gods sending when the eternal word himself would not preach till he was sent How shall any man despise those whom the Word hath sent and not despise the Word that sent them and the Father that sent the Word And how shall any man despise the Father and the Son and not grieve the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from them So impossible is it for any to despise the Church which God hath set over him and not sin against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For the argument is à minori ad majus if it be dangerous to despise one much more to despise all if to undervalue a Disciple much more an Apostle For as the Apostles had a greater trust then the 70. Disciples so hath every National Church which is as it were the grand Apostle of its Nation a greater trust then any particular Bishop or Presbyter of the same and the Church now hath that trust as the Apostles first had it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Saint Paul saith of himself but doubtless he saith it for more then himself that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God that is of God the Father 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Luke saith of him that t was God the Son even Jesus our blessed Saviour who called him to be an Apostle who said unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and who said of him He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Acts 9. 4 15. The same Saint Luke saith in another place that he was called to the Function of the Apostleship by the commandment of God the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them Which variety of expression doth not only verifie that common axiome of Divinity Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The works of the blessed Trinity in regard of any external product are indivisible so that what is externally done by one person is done by all But it doth also testifie the great trust which was laid upon every one of the Apostles in that he received his commission from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as this trust hath since been and still is derived to the Church so it hath been and is derived by the same glorious and blessed Trinity Whereby we see the large Exposition that is to be given to those words he that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. for it is all one as if it had been said he heareth God he heareth the Son of God he heareth the Spirit of God Wherefore supposing that this national Church wherein we live is as Gods Apostle to this Nation no sectary can justly pretend to God or Christ no Enthusiast can justly pretend to the Spirit of God and Christ why he should not hearken to the dictates and follow the directions of this Church which God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ hath set over him I find in the antient Calenders on the twenty sixth of May this Title Augustini Anglorum Apostoli The feast of Saint Augustine the Apostle of the English He was looked upon as one that had planted the Christian Faith amongst us and was therefore in the judgement of the Latine Church esteemed and called our Apostle I will not dispute the ground but only admit the Title for if one single Priest or Bishop was not unfitly called the Apostle of our Nation Then much more may a whole company of Bishops and Presbyters be so called and ought to be so esteemed who have more generally propagated more firmly established and more carefully preserved amongst us the true Christian Faith It is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. As if he had said no Embassadour can more justifie his trust and his authority by his Princes seal annexed to his Credential letters then I can justifie my Apostleship towards you in that by my preaching you have been converted to the Lord and are confirmed in him what Saint Paul was to the Corinthians in bringing them to the knowledge and to the communion of Christ to the knowledge of Christ by preaching the word to the communion of Christ by administring the Sacraments that our Church hath been and still is to us And therefore what Saint Paul said to the Crinthians that our Church may justly say to us Since these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you For the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord Though others may pretend they have some cause to doubt the trust and the authority of our Church as if she had not a true succession of Ministers which in truth is but a meer pretence or rather a cavil as the learned Mason hath sufficiently demonstrated and should be least objected by them who will have the whole Church depend upon the Pope and cannot deny that they have had many and long lived Anti-popes to disturb their succession yet sure we our selves can neither have cause nor pretence to doubt it since we cannot reasonably deny but our Church hath a true succession of Doctrine so that for us who have not only the speculative but also the practical the experimental knowledge of the Gospel unless we have been grosly wanting to our selves and impiously wanting to our Saviour for us I say to doubt of our Church is little other then to doubt of our Religion as if that either had not come from Christ or could not bring us to Christ and keep us with him For there can be no doubt of the Embassadours authority if there be no doubt of his Princes seal and if we our selves be not the seal of our Churches Apostleship in the Lord the fault is meerly our own t is because we would not
10. Sund. after Trin. Let thy merciful ears O Lord be open to the prayers of thy humble servants and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee No Congregation of Christians can pray in faith of obtaining their petitions unless they pray in faith of asking such things as please God and they cannot well do this unless they know before-hand what they shall ask of him in their prayers and in what words they shall ask it because else for ought they know they shall ask such things as may not please him or ask in such a sort as may displease him SECT VIII The Church is obliged to make set forms of prayer according to the pattern of the Lords most holy prayer that there be no peccancy neither concerning the object nor the matter nor the manner of publick prayer that our Church hath exactly followed that pattern in Hers and that other Churches ought to follow the same in their Liturgies A short historical narration concerning our Common prayer Book and the Anti-prayer Book set up against it REligion is the motion of the reasonable soul to God as to its first beginning and to its last end but Christ alone is the way by and in which the soul doth make this motion so that to have a Religion without Christ is to have a Religion without God that is to have no Religion For the soul of man being finite cannot be joyned to God who is infinite but by the help of a Mediator nor can any be a Mediator betwixt finite and infinite but he that partakes of both which is only our Saviour Christ who partaketh of finite as man of infinite as God He alone is able to joyn finite and infinite in one Communion who hath joyned them in one person and therefore to him alone we must repair as often as we desire to be joyned with God Our Religion without him were nothing for it could not bring us unto God and since our prayers are the chiefest part of our Religion they also would be nothing without him Therefore it neerly concerns the Church to make sure of such prayers wherein Christ may joyn with her for else she will pray in vain because without his intercession nay indeed she will pray in sin because against his command Accordingly hath Christs own most holy Prayer been looked upon in all Ages of the Church as the ground and platform of Liturgy to make other set forms of prayer from it as a warrant by it as a pattern This was the judgement of the Church in Saint Augustines time delivered by himself in his Epistle to Proba Si recte congruenter oramus nihil aliud dicere possuneus quam quod in ista oratione Dominica positum est If we pray rightly and fitly rightly in the object fitly in the matter and manner of our prayers We can say nothing else but what is already briefly said in the Lords Prayer And this was likewise the judgement of the Church in Aquinas his time as it is also delivered by himself In oratione Dominica non solum petuntur omnia quae recte desiderare possumus sed etiam eo ordine quo desideranda sunt ut sic haec oratio non solum instruat postulare sed etiam sit informativa totius nostri affectus 22ae qu. 83. art 9. c. In the Lords most holy prayer are not only desired all things which are truly desirable but also in that Method and order in which we must desire them So that this prayer doth not only regulate our expression teaching us of whom and what to ask but also our affection teaching in what Method to ask it For this prayer teacheth us to pray unto God only Our Father which art in heaven and in our prayers first to desire God for himself and after that all other things for God God for himself as he is in himself Hallowed be thy name God for himself as he may be enjoyed by us Thy Kingdom come God for himself as he ought to rule and reign over us Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven And it teacheth us to desire all other things for God whether they concern our present subsistence Give us this day our daily bread or our present deliverance from the guilt of sin and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us or our future deliverance from the guilt of sin and lead us not into temptation or our present and future deliverance from the punishment of sin But deliver us from evil Even all these deliverances are prayed for in relation to God for as much as the guilt of sin doth immediately separate from his holiness the punishment of sin doth immediately separate from his blesedness much more is our present subsistence prayed for in relation to him that we may not subsist in and for our selves who are worse then nothing but in and for our God who is all in all And all these things are prayed for in a right order first God for himself as he is in himself Then God for himself as he is in his Church Triumphant by his Glory after that as he is in his Church Militant by his Grace Then we pray for all other things in relation to God and amongst them first we desire desire him to give those things which may be as instruments to bring us to him as our corporal and much more our spiritual food after that we desire him to remove those things which are as impediments to keep us from him our sins our temptations our punishments We cannot answer it to God or men if we refuse to pray with those who thus pray with Christ for such men cannot be peccant either in the object or in the matter or in the manner of their prayers wherein the Liturgy of the Church of England hath a singular pre-eminence which maketh her prayers only to God and such prayers as are only for God Prayers exciting holy affections agreeable with a holy God Prayers affording holy expressions agreeable with holy affections Prayers least defective either in religious affections or in religious expressions and therefore prayers most befitting the publick exercise of Religion which will not endure either of these defects Prayers which no man doth say cordially but he is assured of his hearts being with his God Prayers which every man should say cordially because when he is assured of his hearts being with his God he may be ashamed of his tongues not being with his heart As for that objection which some make against our Liturgy that it cometh too neer the Popish Mass book t is in truth its vertue 1. Because thereby our Reformers intended the promotion of true Christian Communion by not making a needless much less a scandalous separation from other Christians in those devotions wherein they had not separated from Christ 2. Because they intended to promote true Christian
ordained is the Remembrance of God And consequently they best keep the Sabbath who best remember God and without doubt they remember him best who serve him best who have an established publick worship most befitting his glorious Majesty Others though they make never so much noise of God yet if they remember his name they forget his nature The Seraphims durst not do so when they came to praise him They agreed before hand what should be the set form of their Praise for one cryed unto another and said Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Isaiah 6. 3. They cryed one unto another to shew they all were agreed upon the same anthymn that they had prepared their song of praise before they came to sing it And Saint Ambrose tells us they still continue the same song To thee Cherubims and Seraphims continually do cry Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabbath There is no true singing Holy Holy Holy unto God without preparing the song before hand and a song that is well prepared is as well continued Let us imitate the Seraphims in our care of preparation that we may imitate them in our ardency of affection for we shall little less then lye to God if we say The whole earth is full of his glory whiles our own hearts are empty SECT X. Certainty is more to be regarded in the publick exercise of Religion then Variety Hence the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Decalogue righteously taken into our Liturgie but unrighteously omitted by Innovators who vainly obtrude Variety to mens consciences instead of Certainty THE ready way to make men irreligious is to bring them to an uncertainty in Religion For Constancy is founded upon Certainty and therefore those men who are most uncertain what to do must needs be most unconstant in their doings For this cause the Church which is Gods Trustee for Religion thinks it a great part of her trust to deal therein altogether upon Certainties not upon Varieties and to have such a publick worship of God as should first make the people certain of their Religion then zealous and constant in it Hence was the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments taken in as parts of our Liturgie because they are not only the compleat summes but also the certain rules of all those duties of Faith Hope and Charity in which consists the very body and substance of Religion For as they are the compleat summes of those Religious duties so they must fully declare the glory of God These short abridgements of Gods own making shewing more of the Truth then all the copious enlargements which we can make And as they are the certain rules of those duties so they most readily advance the edification of men whose souls are more truly edified by adhering to these fundamental certainties then by cleaving to all our additional varieties which are but additions of hay and â—tubble unless they be grounded upon these Wherefore those men who are so furiously bent against the publick use of these in our Liturgies were best seriously to consider whether or no they do not grosly oppose the glory of God in rejecting such unparalleld summes of Piety but surely they do grievously oppose the edification of men in rejecting such undoubted rules of certainty For their work is though I hope their aim be not to bring all the world to an uncertainty in Religion To an uncertainty in Believing for all Doctrine to novelty to an uncertainty in Praying for all Devotion to Phancie to an uncertainty in Doing for all practice to Inconstancy Hence that heavenly Creed which was the Rule of the Apostles Preaching is willingly if not purposely omitted in their Assemblies lest it should discover the nakedness and novelty of their Doctrine Hence the Lords most holy Prayer which was not only the Rule but also the chiefest part of antient Liturgies as willingly omitted by them lest it should discover the emptiness the levity the uncharitableness the irregularity and in one word the phantasticalness of their Prayers Lastly Hence the Decalogue which is the short rule of life and morality as willingly omitted as the rest lest it should discover the impiety and check the inconstancy of their doings for this is the readiest if not the best reason we can give why they should quarrel with Gods own hand-writing in our Liturgy denying us to repeat each Commandment with a solemn invocation for mercy testifying our repentance the best part of our innocency and as solemn an invocation for Grace imploring the amendment of our sinful lives the best part of our repentance This is too too palpable That they generally preach such Doctrines vent I cannot say make such prayers and use such practises as are not agreeable with these rules and therefore they may judiciously if not justly be thought to leave out the rules lest they should be checked from their own mouths and thereby awaken the yet sleeping checks of their hearts for such Preachings such Prayings and such Doings And if any of them take this for an uncharitable gloss let him know it is more charitable for us to question their superstructions then for them to condemn our foundations For if one man sin against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against God who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. As if the good old Priest had said No man ought to speak the least word for him that sins against God with an high hand and no man can speak too much against him But I hear a great noise of Variety making more then ample amends for that Certainty in the publick exercise of Religion which we think is diminished if not destroyed but they say is only changed and by its change augmented I could easily answer Quid verba audio dum facta videam To what purpose do men offer good words in excuse for bad deeds As if they could prove that others eyes are shut because they say their own are opened Or as if men came to Church rather for curiosity then for conscience rather like Athenians only to hear and to hear some new things to please their curiosities then like Christians to pray for so it was in Christs time Two men went up into the Temple to pray Luke 18. 10. Or if to hear yet not to hear such solid Truths as might nourish their souls and such fundamental Truths as might establish their consciences But because they will needs say with Saul I have performed the commandment of the Lord I have done nothing but according to his Holy Word I will also answer with Samuel What meaneth then this bleating of sheep in mine cars and the lowing of the Oxen which I hear 1 Sam. 15. What meaneth this Bleating and Lowing instead of Praying and Preaching not bleating of sheep and lowing of Oxen for thence might come an acceptable sacrifice at last though nothing but an hideous noise at first but
and of all orders Whereas Pennance Matrimony Order Confirmation and Extrâ—am â—unction do not so for they are either not perpetual in their continuance as not belonging to all times or not common in their use as not belonging to all persons though under the same Covenant and of the same faith So that our Church hath not erred in the number of the Sacraments by excluding these from that number because she looks on a Sacrament as a seal of Gods grace equally belonging to all that are under the same Covenant of grace and as a Testimony of mans faithfulness equally belonging to all that are bound to profess the same Christian faith As it is a seal of Gods Covenant so it is perpetual in its continuance and mnst belong to all times for the Covenant doth so As it is a Testimony of mans faithfulness so it is common in its use and must belong to all persons for the profession of faith doth so and we can avow both these only concerning Baptism and the Lords Supper and accordingly dare not avow any but these to be properly called Sacraments Now as concerning the administration of these Sacraments there is little or no contention about Baptism though now it be commonly administred by aspersion whereas heretofore not only in hotter but also in these our colder climates it was administred altogether by immersion For all do allow that Axiome Magis minus non variat speciem so as the element be water t is not material to Baptism whether it be more or less for the least drop of Christs blood signified by the water in Baptism and applied to the soul is able to wash and cleanse it from all sin But there are many and great contentions about the administration of the Holy Eucharist whereby men may have made that a Division which God made a Communion One main reason hath been that some would not regard Christs Command hence the wine came to be left out and yet would observe his practice Hence water came to be taken in and hence also that sharp dispute betwixt the Greek and Latine Church the one rejecting the use of unleavened the other of leavened bread whereas it ought to be without all question That what was of Christs command in this Holy Sacrament is still indispensable not so what was only of his practise or example So saith Saint Paul to the Corinthians I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered to you 1 Cor. 11. 23. bringing them back to Christs command to have the same elements of bread and wine as he appointed and to use them for the same end even for his remembrance But he brings them not back to Christs example to have either unleavened bread or water mixed with their wine and much less to use the same posture he did that they may receive sitting or leaning or to observe the same time he did that they may receive after Supper He leaves all these and the like as things indifferent to the disposal of the Church for they are indifferent in regard of the Sacrament though they may be necessary in regard of us viz. when they are commanded because we are bound to follow the Churches order in things indifferent to preserve the Vnity of Communion as the Church is bound to follow Christs order in things necessary to preserve the Verity of Religion And if we desire to know what is to be judged necessary what indifferent in regard of this Sacrament since both were joyned together in our Saviours practice I answer that must be accounted necessary which was substantial either as belonging to the essence or to the end of the Sacrament That must be accounted indifferent which was circumstantial as belonging to the Sacrament only at that time sc of the Jewish Pass over when the Jews were bound to eat unleavened bread or in that country as the mingling water with wine which was usual in those hotter climates But the not using wine in the holy Communion cannot be accounted Indifferent because wine is one of the material parts belonging to the essence of the holy Communion and there can be no whole Communion without it as there can be no whole being of any thing without one of its essential Parts Besides as The using wine belongs to the essence so likewise it belongs to the end of this holy Sacrament which is the remembrance of Christ For so saith Saint Paul As often as ye eat this bread And he saith not Or drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 11. 26. The conjunction copulative And will not allow the proposition being copulative to be true unless both its parts be true and therefore we cannot shew the Lords death only by eating this bread unless we also drink this cup for if we have but a half Sacrament we can have but a half remembrance of Christ In Baptism though our fore-fathers used immersion we now only use aspersion yet both they and we have the same Sacrament because both use water and so have the same essential matter of Baptism as well as the same essential form But in the holy Eucharist it may be doubted whether the present Lay-Romanists have the same Sacrament with their fore-fathers because they now are not permitted to have the wine which their fore-fathers had till full a thousand years after Christ And truly in this respect our common people are much more happy then those of the Papacy That they have the whole Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist and thereby a full remembrance of Christ and a full Communion with him as well as the Priest For if the blood be with the Body by concomitancy why should the Priest have it twice who eats of the bread as well as the Lay-man and yet besides drinks of the cup If the blood be not with the body it is clear the Lay-man hath it not at all and so he is most uncharitably and unjustly defrauded of that spiritual nourishment which Christ hath given him To let alone the Dispute of Sacriledge in the case for a man to rob God of that service which himself hath commanded or rather the Determination of that Dispute for so hath Pope Gelasius determined it in his decretal Epistle recited by Gratian in these words Aut integra Sacramenta percipiant aut ab integris arceantur Quia divisio unius ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi Sacrilegio non potest provenire de consecr dist 2. cap. 12. Either let them take all the Sacrament or let them take none For what mysterie God hath made One man cannot divide or make Two without great Sacriledge I say to let alone the Sacriledge in the case and yet I cannot see how any man can with a good conscience communicate in a Sacriledge This Uncharitableness and Injustice is enough to make any considerate man out of love with that Church which deals with him so uncharitably and so unjustly So unjustly as to deny
belonging to the holy Communion be carefully maintained cap. 12. art 12. and upon this ground doth our Church think it fit to maintain kneeling rather then standing at the holy Communion the better to maintain and to improve that due reverence In a word we make that profession concerning this blessed Sacrament which the Primitive Christians made as it is recorded by Iustine Martyr towards the end of his second Apologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For we receive not these elements as common bread or as common wine But as by the Word of God Iesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate had both flesh and blood for our salvation So that food over which the Word that came from God hath prayed and given thanks whence our flesh and blood are nourished after it is changed we are taught in the flesh and blood of that Incarnate Iesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incarnati illius Iesu carnem sanguinem esse edocti sumus These words have been much urged both for Transubstantiation and for Consubstantiation but since they have been urged to prove both we may safely conclude they can prove neither Two proofs are taken from them The first is That he saith we receive it not as common bread but that proves it is bread though not common bread The second that he saith The bread is the flesh of the incarnate Jesus that is such flesh as Christ took in his incarnation But that proves it is not flesh under the appearance of bread or in conjunction with bread besides he saith Our flesh and blood are nourished by it but sure our flesh is nourished by bread not by the body of Christ that is only the nourishment of our souls And yet still though we embrace neither of these opinions we do most willingly profess with that holy Martyr That we receive these elements not as common bread nor as common wine but as the very flesh and blood of our incarnate Iesus And therefore we desire to use such reverence in receiving this holy Eucharist as may be suitable with this profession For what Saint Paul said would come to pass among the Corinthians upon a right use of Preaching will we hope much more come to pass amongst us upon a right use of Administring If there comes in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report That God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. He is not like to fall on his face whiles he seeth us either sit or stand Our outward reverence if used may convince and condemn him if not used will convince and condemn our selves For if he seeth us not true worshippers he will not think us true Believers We will therefore kneel that we may worship and we will therefore worship that we may make an Alient a true Believer and much more shew our selves to be true Believers CAP. III. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and retained by All the people of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the Rules of Conscience SECT I. Every particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Christian Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it THAT man cannot be truly said to believe the Communion of Saints who doth not labour to make himself one of that Communion This he cannot attempt without joyning himself to those who profess to know and to worship God in Christ and this he cannot attain without joyning himself to those who do truly so know and rightly so worship God So that although the Communion of Saints may be sought among all sorts of Christians yet is it not to be found but only among good Christians such as are publickly known to be true believers and right worshippers For Christian Communion is founded both in Doctrine and in Devotion In Doctrine to make men of one mind in Devotion to make men of one mouth And since Doctrine and Devotion are the two integral Parts of Religion the one â—anctifying the understanding the other sanctifying the will that so Religion may fully do its work in knitting or binding the whole soul unto God it is manifest that Christian Communion is founded in Christian Religion and the truest Christian Communion in the truest Christian Religion Accordingly every particular man is bound to joyn himself to that Church which doth profess the truest Christian Religion both in Doctrine and in Devotion that so he may embrace the truest Christian Communion And because all Churches do alike magnifie themselves and vilifie others it is necessary that in the choice of our Christian Communion we observe the Apostles general Axiom Not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10. 18. In the business of Religion and of eternal Salvation we may not rely upon our own judgements or the judgements of any other men but only upon the judgement and approbation of God who is the Author of Religion and the Giver of Salvation Therefore it is not for any man to be of this or that Church because it commendeth it self but because God commendeth it And where should we seek where can we find Gods commendation but in his word So it is plain I must choose my Church from Gods word or I can never be sure that God doth commend my choice and this consideration alone must needs make a conscientious man afraid of choosing that Church for the guide of his Communion which refuseth to take Gods word for the guide of her Religion For the Churches power concerning Religion in the Apostles times was but ministerial and how should it come in our times to be magisterial For so it is said Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every man 1 Cor. 3. 5. They are Ministers of your faith not Lords and Masters of it Nay in that they are Ministers it is evident they cannot be Masters of your Faith for there is a direct opposition between a Minister and a Master you are bound to have a special regard to their Ministry that you may believe but not to depend or rely upon their authority in your belief For thus hath Christ our Lord appointed That your Faith should come by the Churches Ministry but from his own Authority 〈…〉 And therefore you must go to his Church for your Communion that you may go to himself for your Religion Christs Church hath not a co-ordinate authority that she may command with Christ in matters of Religion for so she might also command against him but only a subordinace Authority to command in and for him in his name and for his
Church of her Truth and Peace For I ask seriously of any Christian and Conscientious Divine who cares either for Christianity or for Conscience May we blaspheme God with our mouthes and say That we honour him in our hearts and think thereby to excuse our blasphemie May we invocate the creature as the Creator in our prayers and say we mean the Creator and think thereby to excuse our Idolatry Doth it not indeed concern our Religion to be truly Christian in words as well as in sense that if there came in one unlearned he may be convinced of all he may be judged of all and falling down on his face may worship God 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. and not worship the Saints in word and say He worships God in sense This is the unhappiness of those who are obliged to a superstitious form of publick worship if they mean as they speak they are guilty of Idolatry and of Blasphemie if they do not mean as they speak they are guilty of falsness and of hypocrisie So necessary was it for our Church to reform the Liturgie in those Prayers which were directed to the Saints instead of God And so happy are we if at least we know our own happiness who do enjoy the benefit of that Reformation For surely it is no more lawful to honour him as God who is not God then it is not to honour him as God who is so 'T is one proof of the Deity of the Holy Ghost that he hath a Temple 1 Cor. 6. 19. And since the worship is greater then the Temple How shall we worship any that is not God Franciscus Davidis was justly condemned for denying the Divinity of Christ because he denyed his Invocation and how then can we bestow Invocation upon the Saints and not acknowledge their Divinity Doubtless though they are Gods nearest and dearest friends yet such honour to them is too great to be due And since it is not due because they are his friends we may be sure it is not acceptable So that if there were no other argument but this alone to prove that the Saints do not hear them that pray this were enough to prove it That they do not openly reject and reprove their prayers for else without doubt they would say now as the Angel did heretofore See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-servant worship God Rev. 19. 10. 22. 9. The reason is plain and undenyable for I am thy fellow-servant and must exclude Saints and Angels both alike out of our Liturgies Thus doth Justine Martyr describe the worship which was professed and practised by the Primitive Christians saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. We worship God the Creator of the universe in the first and his Son in the second place and his Prophetical Spirit in the third No mention at all of Saints or Angels to be worshipped in any place much less to come in before the Holy Ghost as by a false comma upon the same authors words not two leaves before Bellarmine would prove the Angels were antiently worshipped the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We reverence and worship the true God and his Son which came from him and taught us these things and the Host of the good Angels and also the Prophetical Spirit The meaning of the Martyr is this That they worshipped God the Father Son and Holy Ghost only he describes the Son more at large as one who had revealed his Fathers will and made known the Hoast of Angels amongst other his Revelations but the Jesuite by a comma parting the Hoast of Angels from the things revealed reckons them up as things worshipped which comma we may not allow though it be now in the Paris Edition First because it is absolutely against the fore-cited place which saith the Holy Ghost was worshipped in the third place viz. with the Father and the Son whereas if the Angels may step in before him he must be contented with the fourth place Secondly Because it is an Article of our Christian Faith that the Vnity in Trinity and Trinity in Vnity is to be worshipped but if the Angels may step in before the Holy Ghost we must say not the Trinity in Vnity but the Quaternity in Community is to be worshipped Thirdly Because this exposition supposeth the blessed Martyr to prefer the Angels before if not above God the Holy Ghost which were to expunge him out of the Catalogue of the Fathers and leave him among the grossest Hereticks whereas on the contrary he is so far from asserting the worship of Angels That in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew He proves the Angel which appeared to Lot was indeed the Son of God because Lot worshipped him which proof had been nothing worth had he thought it lawful to worship Angels 4. Because the Greek Text will not bear this comma without some confusion in the words and more in the sense which the Latine interpreter well observing hath thus rendred the place Verum hunc ipsum so Deum Patrem qui ab eo venit atque iste nos bonorum Angelorum exercitum docuit Filium Spiritum Propheticum colimus adoramus Fifthly If the comma should be allowed yet would it not justifie Bellarmines conclusion for he maketh this Inference from it That some kind of worship greater then Civil less then Divine is due to Angels whereas if they be indeed to be worshipped by vertue of this quotation They have equal worship with God the Father and the Son and they must have it before God the Holy Ghost I will not here insist upon arguments from the uncertainty of this worship because I meet with too too many from the Impiety of it 'T is uncertain whether all that are cannonized are Saints wherefore it may be imprudent but t is certain they are not Gods wherefore it must be impious to offer up our Prayers unto them For that is a spiritual sacrifice which is due only unto God Haec est Christiana Religio ut colatur unus Deus quia non facit animan◠beatam nisi unus Deus saith Saint Augustine Tract 23. in Evang. Johan This is the Christian Religion that we worship one God because none can make the soul blessed but only God None else made the soul but only God therefore none else may have the homage of the soul none else can make the soul blessed therefore to none else should be the desire of the soul So saith the Prophet Isaiah O Lord we have waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee with my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early Isa 26. 8 9. Till I can in my Prayers have too much desire of my soul for thee I may not bestow the least part of that desire away from thee All the desire of my soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee
yet can I not glorifie thy name as I ought nor remember thee as I would yea though with my soul I have desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me I seek thee early yet have I not so great desires in my soul as I have defects in my desires All the desire of my soul and of my spirit is too little for my God I have none to spare for any else and if I had yet might I not give it unless I had something greater then it to give unto my God This is the sin which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquitas judicata vel judicantis digna quae à judicibus puniatur An iniquity to be punished by the Judge for a man to give that honour to the creature which is due only to the Creator for it is in effect to deny the God that is above For I should have denyed the God that is above Iob 31. 28. The earnest longings of my soul to converse with God in the actions of holy Religion are the best preparative for my soul to converse with him in the fruition of a blessed immortality my Religion must reach him or his blessedness will not reach me T is not conversing with Saints or Angels can give my soul a true gust of eternal blessedness and much less a happy enjoyment of it I should be loth to mispend my time upon so barren so unfruitful a Religion and much less to hazard my eternity upon it The Heathen Philosopher Hierocles could say It was the work of wisdom To make a God out of a man as far as was possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Christian Divine may not say less of Religion which is the only true wisdom T is its work to transform a man into God uniting the understanding to him by faith and contemplation uniting the will to him by charity and affection Thus saith the Apostle We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. In which words are briefly described both the work of Religion and the power of it The work of Religion is with open face to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord for the soul cannot well fix its eye and much less its love upon any inferiour glory The Power of Religion is to change us into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord for it is only the love and the spirit of the Lord which can change the soul from glory to glory the love of the Lord working that change formally the Spirit of the Lord working that change efficiently upon the soul from glory to glory that is from the glory of Religion to the glory of Fruition from the glory of Holiness to the glory of Happiness from the glory of knowing and loving God to the glory of possessing and enjoying him This being the work of Religion to behold the glory of the Lord I dare look on nothing as Religion which doth not that work This being the power of Religion to change the soul into that glory I dare not be of that Religion which hath not that power Let those that please behold the glory of the creature instead of the Creator they will not find it sufficient to content much less to change their souls I desire a Religion which may change me into the image of the Lord and sure I am that Religion must teach me to behold his face which will change me into his image for no other can have the assistance of his Spirit and therefore no other can have the power to work this change This is the great blessing I have received from God by this his now distressed Church That I have been called to the Verity of his Religion nor do I see how I can thankfully embrace and dutifully obey this Call but only by persisting in the Vnity of her Communion Such a Communion as joyns me with the Saints whether they be Angels or men in the manner of my worshipping not as joyns the Saints or Angels with God in the equality of worshp The Pater noster as it was used heretofore in the private devotions of English Papists allowed not this practice for therein this was the first Petition Hallowed be thy name among men on earth as it is among Angels in heaven The second this O Father let thy Kingdom come and reign among us men on earth as thou reignest among thy Angels in heaven The third this Make us to fulfill thy will here on earth as thy Angels do in heaven Now Prayer being the actual hallowing of Gods name the exercising of his Kingdom the fulfilling of his will must be directed only unto God unless we will plainly thwart these three Petitions and resolve to do these three Duties otherwise then the Angels do in heaven For without doubt they fix their contemplation only on God and place their Fruition only in him And so doth our Church in all her Prayers first teaching us to contemplate God as the first truth that we may pray with knowledge and understanding then to enjoy him as the chiefest good that we may pray with zeal and affection ex gr O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed there 's the contemplation of God to enlighten the understanding Give unto thy servants that Peace which this world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy Commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness there 's the fruition of God to inflame the will and affections The soul cannot have this Fruition without having that contemplation and therefore they who teach and enjoyn Prayers to any but to God are in truth injurious to the very contentation and much more to the salvation of souls SECT IV. That the Communion of the Church of England obligeth those in conscience who are members of that Church to retain it and not to reject it much less to renounce it by no less then five Commandments of the Decalogue IT having been declared that the Communion of the Church of England is founded in the Truth of Religion It cannot be reasonably denyed but that even her enemies are bound to her internal and much more her sons are bound to her external Communion And that both are also bound in conscience because Religion will not be contented with a lesser obligation The Doctrine being from God which we profess and the Devotion being from God which we practise All Christians that live at never so great a distance from us are bound to believe our Doctrine and to love our Devotion and that 's enough to constitute an internal Communion But those Christians who live amongst us are also bound to profess our
give an ear to the holy Prophets Exhortation O Praise the Lord with me and let us magnifie his name together Psal 34. 3. For where God is praised and magnified in the Religion I am very strictly bound to joyn my self in the Communion Nay more Let me alwaies give my heart to the holy Prophets resolution I was glad when they said unto me We will go into the house of the Lord Psal 122. 1. where God calleth to the practice of godliness t is not for another to say to me You shall not go nor for me to say to my self I will not For I must be glad of the Call and much more of the Practice Now Christ the eternal Son of God calleth us to the practice of the true Christian Religion three several waies By his Word by his Example and by his Communion By his Word for he commandeth us to perform all the duties of Religion By his Example for himself whiles he was upon earth did perform them And by his Communion for now he is in heaven he recommendeth to his Father all our Religious performances so making intercession to God for us as also with us How shall I answer him at the last day if I neglect his Word if I reject his Example if I renounce his Communion His Word pierceth mine Ear his Example pierceth mine Eye but his Communion pierceth my Heart His Word and his Example pierce my sense but his Communion pierceth my soul For if it were said of Sauls Messengers nay of Saul himself when they saw the company of the Prophets prophecying and Samuel standing as appointed over them that the Spirit of God was upon them and they also prophesied 1 Sam. 19. 20. Then surely when I see a company of Christians praying and Christ himself standing as appointed over them for so himself hath avowed where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18. 20. if the Spirit of God be in me I will also pray with them and it must be some evil Spirit in me that makes me either reject or renounce their prayers For if there be indeed The Communion of Saints saying unto me We will go into the house of the Lord I am bound to have the affection which is due to that Communion and say I was glad when they said unto me we will go for this indefinite Particle When not defining one set time will suffer me to exclude no time T is like a general Commission which not prescribing what day to do the business leaves it to be done any day and to neglect no opportunity of doing it Indefinitum in materià necessarià aequipollet universali when the duty it self is absolutely necessary though it be set down as indifinite yet we must look upon it as universal for though the Casuists do tell us concerning affirmative precepts Ligant semper sed non ad semper That they bind us at all times but not to all times yet we must understand their meaning only of our actual exercise and performance of those duties not of our habitual disposition and desire to perform them For there is not one minute of our life wherein we are not bound to be in a disposition and desire of serving God And thus doth Solomon Jarchi expound the Prophets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shamacti Laetatus sum I was glad I did hear saith he the sons of men saying When will this David die that his son Solomon may succeed and build the Temple that so we may go to the house of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vaani Shomeach And I was very glad to hear them say so Thus saith he David preferred Gods service before his life And so will every man who knoweth he hath such a Religion as if he rightly follow it will bring him to salvation Aben Ezra goes further in his gloss and saith That All the people of Israel was of Davids mind and that every one of them did say as well as he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord Why should we Christians have a worse Zeal upon better Hopes For he that will not be glad when others say unto him We will go into the house of the Lord may live to be sorry That there is not a house of God for him to go to But O Thou who camest to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death Remove not the Candlestick away from us because we have neglected and abused the light of Grace But let the Priests of the Lord still serve the Lord between the Porch and the Altar weeping and saying Be favourable O Lord be favourable unto thy People Let not thine heritage be brought to such confusion lest the Heathen be Lords thereof Wherefore should they say among the Heathen where is now their God And let us thy undutiful unthankful unworthy people still enjoy the inestimable freedom of thy Gospel Publick Communions in thy Church and Publick Prayers and Praises in thy Name Heal our back-slidings and repair those great and wide breaches which we have lately made in our Piety in our Fidelity and in our Charity And amidst the many inconstancies and many more impieties of this wicked world make thine own sheep still hear thy voice and thine own people still secure and glad in thee That notwithstanding all obstacles and oppositions they shall yet more and more worthily praise and adore thy most holy and Reverend name among the faithful in this life and in the great Congregation of Saints and Angels in the life to come being all of us joyned now in affection hereafter in possession with that heavenly consort and holy Communion which is alwaies saying Hallelujah Salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God Father Son and Holy Ghost world without end Amen Una est in trepida mihi re medicina Jehovae Cor patrium Os verax omnipotensque manus FINIS Deo Trinuni Gloria in aeternum