and Dignity of Lord and to put on The Affection of a Priest perpetually to make intercession on our behalf for Remission of sins past Rom. 3. 26. and for Grace whereby for the future we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Seeing then we have so great an High Priest Let us hold fast our Profession And let us come boldly to the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Worthy is THE LAMB that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing Revel 5. 12. And THE LAMB shall overcome them for He is LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS Rev. 17. 14. SECTION III. Of Christs coming to Judgement 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ That every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Acts 17. 30. But now God commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he raised him from the dead Daniel 7. 9. Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living We shal All stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ Every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God Revel 20. 12. CHAP. IX THe First Words contain an undoubted Maxim or principal Article of our Faith yea such a Plurality of Articles of Christian Belief that I could not choose fitter for continuation of my former Argument concerning Christs Lordship or Dominion And His Dominion as was said before was A Dominion both of Property and of Jurisdiction We are his servants not our own Men as we say we may not dispose of our own souls or bodies much less of our bodily imployments or endeavours as We please but as He pleases Or in case we wrong him by alienating the imployments of our bodies or of our souls from his service who hath the full Dominion of Propertie we cannot exempt our selves from his Dominion of Jurisdiction to which all flesh is lyable without Appeal Now of his Dominion of Jurisdiction or of his Royal Power over us the Exercise of Final Judgment is the Principal Part And of this Judgment the general Sum or Abstract is contained in 2 Cor. 5. 10. Before I enter upon the Particulars therein contained I am in General to advertise That albeit the Scripture be such A Compleat Rule of Christian Faith That neither those which are appointed to interpret the Scriptures ought to propose or commend any point or doctrine as an Article of Faith unto others nor are others bound to believe any thing as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly contained in the Scriptures or may out of the express testimonies of them be deduced by infallible Rules of Reason and Art Yet in the things believed because contained in Scripture there is a Difference to be observed Some things we believe without any Ground at all besides the meer Authority of Scriptures Other things we beleive from the Authority of Scriptures too yet so as we have the truth which the Scriptures teach concerning them ensealed unto us by Experiments answering to the Rules of Scriptures And these Experiments be of two sorts Either Observable in the general Book of Nature and course of times or Observable in our selves Of this later rank are the Articles of the Godhead of the Creation of Divine Providence of Original Sin of Final judgment and of Life and Death everlasting The Being of a Godhead or Divine Power the very Heathens which knew not Scriptures did in some sort believe of Gods Providence and of Judgment after this life the Heathens likewise had divers Notions which were as rude materials or stuffe unwrought The frame or fashioning of which Notions into true and Christian Belief cannot otherwise be effected then by the Rules of Scripture which are The Lines by which the structure or edifice of Faith must be squared or wrought Now whatsoever the Heathens without the help of Scriptures or Divine Revelations did believe or conceive concerning the Points mentioned Every Christian man which doth believe the Scriptures though but by an historical Faith may much better believe and conceive by the help of Scriptures albeit his affections be not as yet sanctified by the Spirit of Grace although he be but in the Estate of a meer Moral or Natural man so he be not delivered up unto a Reprobate sense The Branches then of my Meditations concerning this Grand Article of Christs coming to Judgment shall be in general These First Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and which every natural man so his Conscience be not seared may have Experienced in himself of a Final Judgment after this life or of a Recompence according to his wayes or works The Second By what Authoritie of Scriptures the Exercise of this Final Iudgment is appropriated to Christ The Third The manner of Christs coming to Iudgment The Fourth The parties that are to be Iudged to wit the Quick and the Dead The Fifth The Sentence or Award of this great Iudge and that is Everlasting Life or Everlasting Death Thus you see Three Principal Articles of Our Creed to wit This of Christs coming to Iudge the quick and the dead and the Two last viz. The Resurrection of the body and The life everlasting are so link't together that they cannot be so commodiously explained in several as they may be in this proposed Link or Chain CHAP. X. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to these Notions of a Final Judgment 1. THe Notions which the Heathens had of a Iudgment to passe upon them after this life were of Two Sorts Either Implicite and Indirect such â—s give better Testimony to us then they made of it to themselves or Direct and Express though indefinite and imperfect and mingled for the most part with some errour And these Later are most frequent in the ancient heathen Poets Many of whose Testimonies to this purpose are so Express and direct that they may well seem to have been taken from some scattered Traditions of that truth which God had revealed unto the Patriarchs before the Law was written or from the written Law it self which it is probable Plato with some other Philosophers and Poets had read at the least received at the second hand However unless the truth concerning this point delivered in Scriptures had been imperfectly implanted in mens hearts by nature these meer natural men could not have submitted their Assent or Opinions unto it That not the ancient Poets onely but the ancient Philosophers had an
bounds do the same things she doth by Equivalencie and run to the same End by a quite contrary way The Romish Church it cannot be denyed makes her Popes and Prelates with other Pillars of their Church plain Idols They which out of an undiscreet and furious zeal seem most to abhor this kind of Idolatry commit Sacrilege and rob God of his honour as the Romish Church doth And he that robs God of his honour doth the very same thing and no other which an Idolater doth Now they are said in Scripture to rob God of his honour and to commit an abomination more then heathenish for the heathen do not spoil their Gods which defraud him of his tithes offrings which were due unto the Priest for his ministration and service in Gods House But they rob God of his honour more immediately and more directly which despise or contemn his Embassadors not in word only but in taking that Authority from them which he hath expresly given unto them and which is worst of all in seeking to alienate it unto them over whom he hath in matter of salvation appointed them Guides and Overseers That Precept of our Apostle I am sure will stand good when all Laws or Intendments of Laws to confront it will fail Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves Heb. 13. 17. What Rule doth he mean meerly Civil or Temporal No! What then Ecclesiastick Not that only But the Rule of Government spiritual such as is proper to the Bishops of the Church For so it follows for they to whom you are to submit your selves watch for your souls as they that must give an accompt and you are therefore to obey that they may do their office with joy and not with grief for that saith the Apostle is unprofitable for you Now that in this plenty of preaching and frequencie in hearing The most hearers profit so little in the School of Christ the true Reason is for that men do not submit themselves unto their Pastors in such sort as they ought but think it his Duty or Office only to preach and their duty only to hear not to be Ruled or Governed by him whereas the ones preaching is vain and the others hearing is vain unless this duty of obedience be first planted in their hearts The Pastors Grief which ariseth from neglect or contempt of this Duty will prove in the issue the Peoples Curse 8. But the main stream of Popery from which the name of Babylon is derived unto Rome was the Absolute Infallibilitie of the Romish Church Representative The branches of this supposed absolute Infallibilitie were Two The First That the sense of Scriptures which that Church doth maintain or avouch concerning Faith or Manners is alwayes Authentick undoubted and true But whereas many Points as well of Doctrine as Practise concerning Faith and Manners were in that Church established by Prescription and Use without so much as any Pretence of warrant from Scripture They were inforced in the Second Place to maintain That the Unwritten Traditions of the Church were of equal Authoritie with the Scriptures and that the present Church was as Infallible in her Testimony of the One as in her Judgment of the other The Infallible Consequence of which supposed Infallibilitie is This That the people were absolutely to believe whatsoever that Church should propound unto them as a Point of faith or practise commendable and to abjure whatsoever that Church should condemn for heresie or ungodliness By Absolute Belief or obedience they intend a belief or obedience not only without Condition or scruple in the first undertaking but without Reservation of appeal upon any new discovery of dangers unseen unsuspected in the first undertaking The Churches Authority once declared was in their Divinity sufficient to quell or put to silence all succeeding Replies or mutterings of Conscience Both these dangerous Errors were well Reformed The later stream or puddle of Traditions in a manner drained by this Church and State For every Bishop at his Consecration doth solemnly promise or vow not to propound any thing to the people as a Point of Faith unless it be either expresly conteined in the Scripture or may be thence deduced by necessary Inference To bind or tie all Bishops thus solemnly unto the observance of this Rule the wisdom of those Times had these Reasons Not only to curb or restrain the licentious Abuse of Bishops former Authoritie but because they knew that the people were in many Cases concerning the service of God and other Christian duties bound to yeeld more credence and obedience to their Bishops and Pastors then unto men not called to Sacred or Pastoral Function It is One Thing to believe any Doctrinal Proposition as A Point of Faith necessary to salvation Another to believe it so far as we may safely adventure upon any practise or duty injoyned by superiors That is to believe it not Absolutely but Conditionally and out of such belief to obey them not absolutely but conditionally that is with reservation of freedom or libertie when either the truth shall be better discovered then now it is or greater dangers appear then for the present we do suspect The Obedience which we give unto Superiors may be Ex Fide of Faith albeit the points of doctrine or the perswasions out of which we yeeld this obedience be not De Fide No points of Faith or necessary to salvation 9. But a great many well-meaning men there were who shortly after this happy Reformation could not content themselves to stand upon such sure Termes of Contradiction unto the Romish Church as the first Reformers had done but sought in this Point which was indeed above all others to be abhorred to be most extremly Contrary unto her Wherein then doth that Contradiction to the Romish Church wherein the first Reformers of Religion did entrench themselves and wherein doth the Extream Contrarietie whereunto others more Rigid Reformers if they could have effected their Projects would have drawn this Church and Land consist The Romish Church as you heard before did make Unwritten Traditions a Part of the Rule of Faith as soveraign as the written Word of God and did obtrude those observances which had no other warrant then such Tradition as altogether necessary to salvation The First Reformers of this Error were contented to contradict them only in this And their Contradiction is expresly mainteined partly in the Articles of Religion partly in the Book of Consecration of Bishops The Contradiction is This That all things necessary to salvation are contained in Scripture which is all one as to say That the Scripture is the only Rule of Faith Yet did they not for all this utterly reject All use of Tradition or Ceremonies as you may find expressed in the thirty fourth Article in which though Rites and Ceremonies or other customs of the Church be not injoyned in particular as they take for granted by God himself
observe did report of Them to the Asiaticks who slandered and persecuted them Take notice saith he of the late and daily Earthquakes compare our estate with theirs They he means Christians have more confidence to God-ward then you have 15. This was The solid Truth whose liveless Lineaments or obscure Picture nature had drawn unto the Heathen in the former indefinite Notions or Suggestions The best fruits of a good conscience the principal end why we are to study and labor for the preservation of our Consciences void of offence towards God and man throughout the whole course of our life is that we may be enabled in that last day to stand without horror or confusion before the Son of Man As peace of conscience breedeth confidence so the onely Fountain whence this peace of conscience can issue must be our reconciliation to that supreme Judge whose doom or Censure the Consciences of meer natural men implicitly or by instinct of Nature dread albeit they cannot apprehend the express manner of the Judgement to come or who it is that shall be Judge Both these and all like points which are necessary unto true Christian Faith must be learned out of the Book of Life Thus much of the First General viz. Heathen Notions of a Judgement to come c. we proceed to the second according to the method proposed in the 9 th Chapter CHAP. XI By what authority of Scripture the Exercise of this Final Judgement is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ 1. THat there was to be a Judgement general to all but most terrible to the wicked and ungodly was a Truth revealed before any part of the sacred Books now extant were written But if it be a Revelation more ancient then the written Canon what warrant can we have to believe it besides Tradition Is then Tradition a sufficient warrant for us to believe unwritten verities or Revelations made to Gods Saints for many thousand years ago It is not unless the Tradition be expresly avouched by some Canonical Writer But then it or rather the Vouchers authority concerning the truth of the Tradition is to be believed So that our Belief in this Point must be resolved into a written verity or a parcel of Canonical Scripture The Revelation concerning the final Judgement whereof we now speak was made to Enoch before the Flood The Avoucher of this Revelation is St. Jude ver 14 15. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints To execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Besides the authority of St. Jude which makes this Tradition to be no more a meer Tradition but Canonical Scripture we have other more special Grounds to believe that Enoch did thus Prophesie then we have to believe any other pretended Revelations which are not contained in Scripture The truth and certainty of this Judgment denounced by Enoch was so publickly and notoriously known that the Hebrew Church before our Saviours incarnation did begin the Writ or Instrument of their Great and terrible Excommunication with the first words of Enochs Prophesie Dominus veniet the Lord shall come As if they meant to bind the party whom they excommunicated besides all other punishments or infamies over to this Grand Assize But is there in this Prophecie any particular character of Christ Any pregnant intimation that this Great Judge of the world should be the Second Person in the Trinity rather then The First In the words themselves there is no peculiar Character of Christ save only in The Title LORD which as we said before is peculiar to Christ whether it be in the Original exprest by the word Jehovah or Adonai whensoever Judgment or visible exercise of Jurisdiction Regal is the subject or matter of the prophetical discourse as in this Prophecy of Enoch it is Besides this Character in the words of the prophecie the Prophet himself Enoch was a lively Type of Christ the great Prophet in the very ground of his Title to Lordship and Jurisdiction Enoch was translated that he should not see death but before his translation had this testimony that he Pleased God Hebr. 11. 5. Before his Translation he denounced this Wo or Curse against all that continue in ungodliness fore warning the world withal that the Lord himself whose Embassador he was should come to put his Embassage in execution The congruity of the Fact or Type with the Body fore-shadowed implies that this Propheeie was then to be fulfilled after the Prince of Prophets had been translated as Enoch was from earth but in a higher degree then Enoch was into heaven it self And albeit before his translation he had a more ample Testimony then Enoch had this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased yet was he not made Lord and King and Judge till after his Resurrection and Translation From that time the Angels and Principalities and Powers even all the Hoast of Heaven intimated by Enoch became by that Title subject unto him That Christ is that very Lord against whom those ungodly men whom Enoch mentions did speak such bitter words our Apostle St. Paul though obscurely yet fully implies in the conclusion of his first Epistle to the Corinthians chapt 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let him be accursed or excommunicated with that Great and terrible Excommunication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Lord shall come for so they call their Excommunication as we do Writs by the first words of the Writ or Instrument and these were the first words of Enochs Prophecie Veniet Dominus The Lord shall come The full meaning or implication of the Apostle is That whosoever doth not love the Lord Jesus shall be liable to all the Iudgments or Woes denounced by Enoch against the hard speeches of ungodly Sinners which they have spoken against their Lord and Iudge 2. That God is Judge of all the Earth that there shall be a final Judgment generally awarded to all the Inhabitants of the Earth by God himself the places of the old Testament are infinite I shall only touch the principal or more pregnant testimonies to this purpose To begin with the First Gen. 18. 22. When the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom Abraham stood yet before The Lord and drawing neer he said wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked ver 23. And again ver 25. To slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be far from thee Shall not The Judge of all the Earth do right Thus he spake in the case of Sodom whose Judgment this Lord and Judge of all the earth was then
And I beseech the Infinite Mercie to pardon these and all others as fully freely and upon the same termes I desire pardon for mine own I have but Two Things more to say and the One concernes the Vulgar Reader 1. That this Book seems no way lyable to the Objection of Obscurity which hath been sometimes made against some other parts of this Authors Writings the Style here being more easie and Popular as first prepared for His Charge at Newcastle Though to say the truth The Darkness was most-what in the Readers Eye and not in the Object or Authors Writings 2. That the longer the world lasts the more seasonable every day then other will this Book be yea so it must needs be the Essential parts thereof treating of and proving Christs Coming to Judgement The Resurrection and Life Everlasting If any One shall either by reading the Book or the Preface be any thing bettered I beseech him make his Return in Prayers for the Church of England once the Envie and Fear now by the folly of her own children made the scorn of her Aemula That the Lord would so build up her walls set up her Gates and erect her Towers That Her Militancie in his strength may be victorious for His Truth and at last changed into a Triumph in His Glory Which shall be the earnest Request of Her most Unworthy Son and the Readers Humble Servant in the Lord Jesus B. O. ERRATA In the Tenth Book Fol. 3137. lin 16. read some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of R. In this Book Fol. 3327. lin 26. read Fifth Chapt. Fol. 3789. lin 16. read Cui à nobis reddenda A TABLE Of the Principal Arguments of the several Sections and Chapters contained in this BOOK SECT I. Of Christs Sitting at the Right Hand of God Of the Grammatical sense of the Words and of the Real Dignity answering thereto CHAP. I. Of the Grammatical sense of the words Heb. 10. 12. But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice c. and whether they be meerly Metaphorical pag. 3307 2. Of the Real Dignitie contained in this Article viz. The Exaltation of Christ That Christ was exalted both as the Son of God and the son of David p. 3311 3. In what sense Christs humane Nature may in what sense it may not be said to be infinitely exalted The Question concerning the Ubiquity of Christs Bodie handled p. 3317 4. A Paraphrase upon the sixth of S. John In what sense Christs flesh is said to be truly meat c. What it is To eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood Of Eating and Drinking Spiritual and Sacramental and whether of them is meant John 6. 56. Of Communion in one kind and Receiving Christs Blood per Concomitantiam Tollets Exposition of Except ye Eat And Drink by disjunction turning And into Or confuted and Rules given for better expounding like Cases How Christ dwells in Us and We in Him The Application All which be seasonable Meditations upon the Lords Supper p. 3328 5. The Great Attribute of Christ His being the Chief Corner stone handled in the foregoing Chapter prosecuted more amply in this Christ is the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets How Christians being built upon this Foundation do grow into an Holy Temple p. 3348 SECT II. Of Christs Lordship or Dominion Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confess c. p. 3358 CHAP. 6. What it is to be a Lord. Though there be many called Lords yet there is but One Absolute Lord. ibid. 7. In what Respects or upon what Grounds Christ by peculiar Title is called The Lord. And first of the Title it self Secondly of the Real Grounds unto this Title 3362 8. What our confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redoundeth to the glory of God the Father SECT III. Of Christs Coming to Judgment CHAP. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 10. insisted upon p. 3375 10. Of the Natural Notions which the Heathens had and the Internal Experiments which every true Christian may have answering to those Notions of a final Judgment 3377 11. By what Authority of Scripture this exercise of the final Judgment is appropriated unto our Lord Jesus Christ p 3390 12 The manner of Christs coming to Judgment which was the third General proposed in the ninth Chapter p. 3401 SECT IV. Of the Resurrection of the Dead CHAP. 13. The Belief of the Article of the Resurrection of high concernment malignantly impugned by Satan and his Agents needs and deserves our best Fortification The Heathens had Implicite notions of a Resurrection The obstacle of impossibility removed by proof of this Conclusion That though all things were annihilated yet God is able to retrieve or recover The Numerical same p. 3422 14. This Argument drawn from Seed sown 1 Cor. 15. 36. c. is a concludent proof of the resurrection of the Bodie p 3434 15. The Objections of the Atheist and the Exceptions of the Naturalist both put fully home and as fully answered The falsitie of the Supposals and Paradoxes rather then Principles of the Atheist discovered and made even palpable by ocular demonstration and by Instances in Bodies Vegetant and Sensitive A Scruple that might trouble some pious mind after all this satisfied A short Application of the Doctrin contained in the whole Chapter p 3444 16 The Apostles method 1 Cor. 15. 16 17 20. in proving the Resurrection peculiar and yet Artificial His way of Natural or reciprocal Infeference both Negative and Assertive justified and shewed That both these Inferences naturally arise and may concludently be gathered from the Text and from the Principles of Christian Belief Wherein the witness false upon supposition ver 14 15. should consist That Philosophical Principle Deus et Natura nihil faciunt frustra divinely improved Gods special and Admirable works have ever a Correspondent that is some extraordinary end How sin is taken away by Christs Death How by his Resurrection How we are justified by Christs Resurrection How we may try our selves and know whether we rightly believe this Article of the Resurrection or no. p 3455 SECT V. Of the Article of Everlasting Life CHAP. XVII Rom. 6. 21 22 23. What fruit had ye then of those things c. The Connexion of the fifth and sixth Chapters to the Romans A Paraphrase upon the sixth chapter The importance of the phrase Dead to sin No Christians in this life so dead to sin as to come up to the Resemblance of Death natural True Christians dead to sin in a proportion to civil death All Christians at least all the Romans to whom S. Paul writes did so in Baptism professe themselves dead to sin and vow death to sin by a true Mortification thereof All have in Baptism or may have a Talent of Grace as an Antidote or Medicine against the deadly Infection of sin as a strengthning to make us victorious over sin Three Motives to deter us from the service of sin 1. It is fruitless 2. It
stock That fatnesse is as peculiar to the Olive as sweetness to the Fig or Vine besides experience we have the authoritie of Scripture Judg. 9. ver 9. The trees went forth on a time to annoint a King over them and they said unto the Olive tree Reign thou over us But the Olive tree said unto them Should I leave my fatnesse wherewith by me they honour God and man and go to be promoted over the trees And the trees said unto the Fig tree Come thou and Reign over us But the Fig tree said unto them Should I forsake my sweetnesse and my good fruit c Yet is Christ Jesus the True Olive Tree but left his fatnesse for a time that we being by nature wild Olives might be ingrafted into him and being ingrafted might participate of his fatnesse and sweetnesse which is no other then that whereof the natural Olive is the Embleme to wit Peace even the Peace of God which surpasseth all understanding Peace was his Embassage as the Apostle saith He is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us c. And came and preached peace unto you which were afar off and to them that were nigh Eph. 2. verses 14. 17. CHAP. V. The Great Attribute of Christ His being the Chief Corner-Stone handled in the fore-going Chapter prosecuted more amply in this Christ is the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets How Christians being built upon this Foundation do grow into an Holie Temple Ephesians 2. 20 21. And are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 1. THe Sum of our Apostles speech in this Chapter whereof these words are the Conclusion is this That these Ephesians who were Gentiles by progenie far off from God and Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel had now the priviledge of Gods Saints were fellow Citizens with them and of the houshold of God as it is ver 19. And to assure them of this Priviledge or perogative he adds ver 20. That they were built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone Jesus Christ was the Best Foundation the only foundation which could give this prerogative to the Apostles or Prophets to be either Saints or of the houshold of God And he it is that gave to these Ephesians though by nature Gentiles and that gives to all whosoever are built upon this Corner-stone the like Priviledge a priviledge or prerogative to be native parts of that Holy Temple which Jesus Christ came down from heaven to build here on earth 2. The Points then to be discussed are Three First What is meant by the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Secondly In what manner Christ is said to be the chief Corner-stone Thirdly The manner how we are built upon the foundation here meant or upon this Corner-stone with the manner of our growth into an Holy Temple First Whatsoever be here meant by the Foundation it is not restrained to any one Prophet or Apostle The meanest Prophet is not excluded Moses and Samuel are to be numbred amongst the Prophets here meant they were no foundations of the rest Nor is Peter here included as the foundation of the other Apostles but as a joynt part of this Foundation or of the Building erected upon it whether we consider his Person or Doctrine Many Interpreters of good note understand the Doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets so saith Hugo Cardinalis Super doctrinam Apostolorum Prophetarum But every Sound Doctrine must have a sure Foundation What then is the Foundation of the Apostolick and Prophetical Doctrine That can be no other then the Corner-Stone here mentioned to wit Christ Jesus God and man Are not the Apostles then true foundations of this building or will not Saint Johns words Rev. 21. 14. infer thus much And the wall of the Citie had twelve foundations and in them the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Surely neither his words nor the circumstance of the place will conclude that the twelve Apostles were the twelve Foundations but only that their names were inscribed in them So were not for ought we read the names of the Prophets nor can it be concluded that S t John did mean the self same thing by the twelve foundations that Saint Paul here doth by the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles Saint John describes the new Jerusalem as a Citie lying four square with twelve Gates Three on the East and three on the North three on the South and three on the West bearing the Inscription of the twelve Tribes of Israel And having twelve Gates it must needs have twelve foundations that is the whole Foundation is divided into twelve parts The Apostles were in no other sense the twelve foundations than the twelve Tribes of Israel were the twelve Gates Yet foundations the Apostles might be said of this Citie in such a sense as Hesychius saith Saint Andrew was of Saint Peter because he brought him to Christ Thus the whole Christian world was by the Apostles brought unto Christ as to the only sure foundation which God had promised to lay in Sion or as the Hebraism imports on which or in which God had promised to build up Sion that is in Saint Johns language the new Jerusalem Christ then was the chief Corner-Stone on which the Prophet foretold Sion should be Re-erected the foundation on which the Apostles themselves were laid and we should no way swerve from the meaning of Saint Paul if by the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles we neither understand their persons nor their Doctrine or neither of these only or especially but the self same foundation upon which the Prophets and Apostles were built by whose vertue they grew to be living stones of this edifice For other foundation then this Corner-stone can no man lay nor did Christ himself build upon any other foundation then upon himself He is the only Foundation whether of the Apostles persons or Doctrine I am the bolder to Commend this Interpretation unto you because I see it ingenuously acknowledged by a late Learned Jesuite who I think learned it of Thomas Aquinas Superaedificati supra fundamentum Apostolorum id est Christum qui est Fundamentum Apostolorum 3. But in what sense is Christ said to be the chief Corner-Stone In the interpretation of the Original word I find the Diversitie to be greater then the real difference Some translate the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Summo angulari lapide the highest or supreme Corner-Stone which couples or bindes the Building Beza will have it imo angulari lapide the lowest stone in the corner which we call the Foundation Stone and which in Buildings especially consecrated to sacred use is commonly laid with great Solemnitie and by the hands
intimate either a new manner of Gods governing the world or a beginning of his reign over all Nations or of being made Lord and King or of arising to Judge the earth must be meant of God incarnate that is of the Son of God begotten before all worlds and begotten again from the dead For as the Son of God by his death and resurrection became our Lord by a peculiar Title So he was from the ground of the same Title appointed Judge of quick and dead by a peculiar and personal right This is more often and more Emphatically intimated by our Saviour Christ and by his Apostles then observed by many of their profest Interpreters First by St. Peter Acts 10. 40 41 42. Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not unto all the people but unto witnesses chosen before of God even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the dead And again by St. Paul Acts 17. 30 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will Judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead But more fully by the same St. Paul Rom. 14. 9. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might he Lord both of the dead and living In this Collection from the Prophet Esay he saith no more then our Saviour hath done Iohn 5. 21 22. For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them even so the Son quickeneth whom he will For the Father Iudgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son 4. But the Former Question still revolves upon the same Center that it did before The Point or Center is This Whether St. Peter or St. Paul or whether our Saviour himself did deliver the doctrine fore-cited from that authority only which was delegated to them from God within that compass of time wherein they did converse with men here on earth or whether the doctrine which they then delivered were fully ratified by Divine Authority revealed and written before To this we Answer that our Saviour Himself in all his Answers to the Jews did but Comment upon or expound those Texts of holy Scripture which he had put into his Prophets mouthes long before he himself had spoken with the mouth of man One of the most pregnant Texts of the Old Testament is Psal 82. 1 2. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the Gods How long will ye Judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the most High but ye shall die like men and fall like one of the Princes that is like any Princes amongst the Heathen And dying and falling thus they could not expect that they were to rise again to Judge others but rather to be Judged by God himself or by him that was the Son of the most High in another manner then they were who though he were to die as man yet did he not cease to be the Son of God by his death Yea He was declared to be The only Son of God with Power by His Resurrection from the Dead And out of this hope of his future resurrection the Psalmist for Conclusion being as it seems opprest with corruption of Judgment appeals unto the supreme Judge as well of the dead as of the living Arise O God Iudge the earth for thou shalt inherit all Nations ver 8. He doth not say Thou dost inherit all Nations or thou art already set in Judgment but arise O God to Iudge the earth for thou shalt inherit all Nations So that the ground or Title of his universal Jurisdiction or judicature is his Inheritance of all Nations and his Title of Inheritance over all Nations bears date or began to be in Esse from the day of his Resurrection as you heard before out of St Paul Rom. 14. And was before him expresly foretold by the Prophet David Psal 2. 7 8 9. I will declare the Decree the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son This day have I begotten thee Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel This Decree was executed this promise performed when All Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto Christ Matth. 28. 18. 5. To omit all further variety of Testimonies No other Article in our Creed is or can be so authentickly testified as This One Article of Christs coming to Judgment is Besides that it was expresly and distinctly foretold by the Prophets and the fulfilling of their prophecies expresly avouched by the Evangelists and the Apostles the Truth of it was in special manner sealed by the blood of this Great Judge himself The only matter of death which the malicious wit of his enemies could invent or pretend against him was from his voluntary Confession of this Article in the same Form or Terms wherein we profess our Belief of it For as you may read Matth. 26. 59. After the High-Priest and Elders had found that the Witnesses suborned against him did not agree in their testimonies or else which is more probable that their testimonies though well agreeing did not amount to any matter Capital the High-Priest seeks to intangle him in his own Answers to This Interrogatory I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be The Christ the Son of God ver 63. Our Saviour confesseth the Article or Interrogatory For so much is answered at least in the next words Thou hast said it Nevertheless I say unto you Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven This Adversative Particle Nevertheless hath much troubled some Interpreters and some to ease themselves of further trouble would have it to be no Adversative but an Affirmative As to their apprehensions the Hebrew Ac whereof the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place is the expression in many places of the Old Testament is an Affirmative no Adversative Particle But it were easie to shew them wherein their Observations fail The difficulty of the Construction in this place may be Two wayes salved either 1. by filling up this Hiatus or chink in St. Matthew with the words of our Saviours answer which St. Luke relates Or 2. by borrowing this Adversative Particle from St. Matthew and adding it unto St. Luke's Relation Unto the former
yet obedience is due unto them in particular and they which disobey or transgress them in any particular are to be punished or made Examples lest others be emboldened to do the like And the Reason why they would have such punished which I would request you to observe is lest their impunity should minister offence to the weak brethren And a man cannot give greater offence to the weak or ignorant then by emboldening them to disobedience in Cases wherein obedience is due But soon after these Publick Injunctions other Private Spirits rose up which out of desire to be Extreamly Contrary to the Romish Church concerning Traditions did expresly contradict their Lawful Governors in that Article The Contrary Error into which they run by seeking to avoid the error of the Romish Church was in brief This That no Christian man is bound to obey superiors in matters of sacred Rite or Ceremony or in Duties of ordinary practise unless their Governors or such as demand their Obedience can shew them expresse Authority of Scripture or can convince their understandings that God by his Word doth enjoyn them to obey in these particulars But thus to oppose the Romish Church by way of Contrarietie is but to seek the overthrow of a Tyranny by the Erection of an Anarchie For if the Flock or inferior members of the Church owe no obedience unto their superiors but upon these Termes then Pastors Prelates yea Kings should owe the same obedience unto the meanest Tradesmen or Day-labourers that Tradesmen or Day-labourers owne to them For Pastors and Prelates even Kings themselves are bound to obey the Word of God by whomsoever it shall be manifested or made known unto them and to obey it in every particular which it manifestly injoynes And if obedience were not due to Pastors Prelates and Kings in matters concerning the service of God or sacred Rites until they can shew warrant for every particular which they enjoyn out of Gods word there were no obedience at all due unto them but unto Gods Word only And every man might say to them as the Emperour said to the Pope Non Tibi sed Petro. But so the Sacred Rule of Faith and manners should be not the Author of such Order as we believe it is but an occasion of confusion in every Christian Estate or Congregation 10. But this is the happiness of the English Church or Clergie that all the Arguments which have been or can be brought by Factious or discontented spirits in matters of Rites Ceremonies or Discipline do draw their strength from such false or mistaken Principles as if way were given to their growth or exercise of their force they could not peck the least hole in the Miter or make the least thirle in the Surpellice without working a proportionable crack or flaw in the Royal Crown Their Authors disobedience to Lawes or Discipline Ecclesiastick would quickly induce if opportunitie served open rebellion against the Prerogative Royal. Reason and Experience had taught the Heathen States-men That it was a matter of like sufferance or equally insufferable to live Ubi omnia Licita et ubi nihil Licitum In A State wherein all must be subject to the Will of One man and in a place where every man may do what he will A Tyran is like a Ravenous Beast which devours all that comes within his Walk or Range but which there are many wayes for a wise man to escape But if a Tyrannie once dissolve into an Anarchie Homo homini fit Lupus every man becomes a Wolfe unto his neighbour Their habitations or places of meeting become but nests of waspes or serpents 11. Let Rome then be accounted as it was when our Forefathers departed from it and as it still remains the spiritual Babylon Let the Pope be a Tyran more cruel and Barbarous then Nebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar yet let us remember that when God called his people out of Babylon he called them unto Jerusalem which is by interpretation the vision of peace A citie as the Psalmist in the literal sense perhaps meant compacted But in the mystical or Emblematical sense a City at unity in it self The long Durance of an hard and forein yoke had taught them subjection unto their native Governours Zerubbabel their Prince and Jesus their High-Priest The hatred contempt and scorn which they had endured amongst barbarous Aliens was a Cement to unite their hearts in brotherly affections But we by misimploying our peace and securitie of dread from the Enemy have turned the Grace of God into wantonness and transformed that Christian Libertie which our forefathers purchased with their Ashes into such Licentiousness as if we had departed out of Babylon to build a Babel in Jerusalem How have our Printing-houses become the Cels and Arcenals of strife and contention And our Pulpits been made Babels or Towers of Confusion When the men which came from the East attempted to build a Tower unto Heaven God as you know confounded their Language that they could not understand one another and the enterprize was dissolved and the enterprizers were dispersed over the face of the earth This was the Lords doing and therefore it was a confusion which did not end in Contention Though one of them did not understand another Yet we do not read but that every man did well understand himself But our misery is that every one will over-understand another when he doth not half-understand himself or the matter whereof he writes or speaks and so raiseth contention without an Adversarie and builds up a Babel without help making a confusion without mixture of Language only by pouring out his own simplicitie ignorance and malice and making no conscience of taking Gods Name in vain quoting Scripture to no other end then to countenance blasphemie or to dazle the eyes of the unlearned whilst he transforms the Nature and Goodness of God into worse similitudes then the Papists or Heathen do One while speaking against Arminians another while unwittingly pleading for them one Page containing a comfortable Use or Application whereas in the next before and after it he hath laid the Doctrinal Foundations of despaire or more then desperate presumption Thus to contradict themselves is so familiar and natural unto them that they cannot endure to be contradicted by any others which in the spirit of meekness would shew them the way how they might maintain all those Conclusions which they so much labour for and that without giving advantage to the Adversaries without dissension or disagreeing from themselves 12. These are the men that must be disclaimed as no true members of the English Church or at least no fit Expositors of her Tenets Otherwise we shall be inforced to grant that our Church participates as well of Babel or Beth-aven as of Bethel I have been the bolder to insist the longer upon This Point because some of good place and Authority in the Church and Common-weale take notice That some unlicensed and scandalous