was said out of Austin formerly that whosoever contradicted that which was there delivered Aut haereticus aut a Christi fide alienus was either an Heretick or an Infidel If none of these particulars may be justly quarrelled it must be then that the Apostles thought not fit to commit it to writing but left it to depend on tradition only And yet St. Augustine saith the same Catholica fides in Symbolo nota fidelibus memoriaeque mandata c. The Catholick faith contained in the Creed saith he so well known to all faithful people and by them committed unto memory is comprehended in as narrow a compass as the nature of it will bear St. Hierome no great friend of Ruffines as I said before is more plain then he who tels us that the Symbolum of our faith and hope delivered by Tradition from the Apostles Non scribitur in charta atramento sed in tabulis cordis was not committed in those times to ink and paper but writ in the tables of mens hearts Irenaeus cals it in plain tearms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Greek word for Tradition and Tertullian fetcheth it as high as from the first creating of the Gospel Hanc regulam ab initio Evangelii decurrisse as expressely he Compare these passages of Irenaeus and Tertullian whereof the first conversed with Polycarpus the Apostles Scholar with that which is told us by Ruffinus of Majores nostri that the relation which he makes came from the Tradition of their forefathers and we shall finde as strong as constant and as universal a Tradition for the antiquity and authority of the Creed in question as for the keeping of the Lords-Day or the baptizing of Infants and it may be also for the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture And yet behold two witnesses of more antiquity then Irenaeus and Tertullian The first Ignatius one of the Apostles scholars and successour unto St. Peter in the See of Antioch who summeth up those Articles which concern the knowledge of CHRIST IESVS in his incarnation birth and sufferings under Pontius Pilate his death and descending into Hell his rising on the third day c. as they stand in order in the Creed The second is Thaddeus whom St. Thomas the Apostle sent to Abgarus the King or Toparch of Edessa within few years after the death of our Redeemer who being to instruct that people in the Christian faith gives them the sum and abstract of it in the same words and method as concerning CHRIST in which we finde them in the Creed at this very day Nor shall I fear to fare the worse amongst knowing men for relying so far upon Traditions as if a gap were hereby opened for increase of Popery For there are many sorts of Traditions allowed of and received by the Protestant Doctors such as have laboured learnedly for the beating down of Popery and all Popish superstitions of what kinde soever Chemnitius that learned and laborious Canvasser of the Councel of Trent alloweth of six kindes of Tradition to be held in the Church with whom agreeth our learned Field in his fourth book of the Church and 20. chapter Of these he maketh the first kinde to be the Gospel it self delivered first by the Apostles viva voce by preaching conference and such ways of lively expressions Et postea literis consignata and after committed unto writing as they saw occasion The second is of such things as at first depend on the authority and approbation of the Church but after win credit of themselves and yeild sufficient satisfaction unto all men of their divine infallible truths contained in them and of this kinde is that Tradition which hath transmitted to us from time to time the names and number of the Books of Canonical Scripture The third is that which Irenaeus and Tertullian speak of and that saith he is the transmission of those Articles of the Christian faith quos Symbolum Apostolicum complectitur which are contained in the Apostles Creed or Symbol The fourth touching the Catholick sense and interpretation of the Word of God derived to us by the works and studies of the FATHERS by them received from the Apostles and recommended to posterity The fifth kinde is of such things as have been in continual practise whereof there is neither precept nor example in the holy Scripture though the grounds reasons and causes of such practise be therein contained of which sort is the Baptism of Infants and the keeping of the Lords-Day or first day of the week for which there is no manifest command in the Book of God but by way of probable deduction only The sixt and last sort is de quibusdam vetustis ritibus of many antient rites and customs which in regard of their Antiquity are usually referred unto the Apostles of which kind there were many in the Primitive times but alterable and dispensable according to the circumstances of times and persons And of this kinde are those Traditions spoken of in our Book of Articles where it is said that it is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one or utterly like in that at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversity of countreys times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word So that the question between us and the Church of Rome is not in this as many ignorant men are made believe wheâ—her there be or not any such Traditions as justly can derive themselves from the Apostles or whether such Traditions be to be admitted in a Church well constituted I know no moderate understanding Protestant who makes doubt of either The question briefly stated is no more but this that is to say whether the Traditions which the Church of Rome doth pretend unto be Apostolical or not Now for the finding out of such Traditions as are truly and undoubtedly Apostolical there are but these two rules to be considered the first St. Austins and is this Quod universa tenet Ecclesia that whatsoever the Church holdeth and hath alwayes held from time to time not being decreed in any Councel may justly be believed to proceed from no other ground then Apostolical authority The second rule is this and that 's a late learned Protestants that whatsoever all or the most famous and renowned in all Ages or at the least in divers ages have constantly delivered as from them that went before them no man gainsaying or doubting of it without check or censure that also is to be believed to be an Apostolical Tradition By which two rules if we do measure the Traditions of the Church of Rome such as they did ordain in the Councel of Trent to be imbraced and entertained pari pietatis affectu with the like ardor of affection as the written Word What will become of prayer for the dead and Purgatory the Invocation of the Saints departed the worshipping of Images adoration
Faith related not to points of doctrine which could not but be every where at all times the same because all guided by the same infallible spirit but only to the form of words wherewith they were to clothe and express those doctrines which if not in all points the same might amongst many simple and illiterate people be taken for an argument of a different faith Whereas the consonancie which all Churches held with one another not only in the Unity which they maintained amongst themselves in point of judgement but also in that uniformity wherewith they did express that consent in judgement was a strong evidence no doubt to the weak and ignorant who are governed more by words then matters that the Faith wheresoever they travelled was in all parts the same because they found it every where expressed in the self same words So that for ought appeareth by these shifts and cavils the CREED may still retain the honour which of old was given it and be as it is commonly called The Apostles Creed The next thing that I have to do is to resolve upon the course and order which I mean to follow in the performance of the work I have undertaken And here I shall declare in the first place of all that as the main of my design is to illustrate and expound the Apostles Creed so I shall keep my self to that Creed alone and not step out into those intricate points of controversie which principally occasioned both the Athanasian and the Nicene Creeds For though I thank God I can say it with a very good conscience that I believe the doctrine of the holy Trinity according to the Catholick Tradition of the Church of CHRIST yet I confess with all such is the want and weakness of my understanding that I am utterly unable as indeed who is not to look into the depths of so great a mystery and cannot but cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle did in another case Oh the unsearchableness the depth of this heavenly Oeconomie What then I am not able to inform my self in those things wherein I am not able to content and satisfie my own poor shallow understanding how can I hope so to express in words or writing as to give satisfaction and content to a minde more curious Id fides credat intelligentia non requirat was antiently the Fathers rule and shall now be mine In matters of so high a nature I believe more then I am able to comprehend the gift of faith supplying the defect of mine understanding and yet can comprehend more by the light of faith then I am able to express So that I shall not meddle in this following Tractate with the eternal generation of the Son of God or any of those difficult but divine sublimities which are contained in the Creed of the Nicene Councel nor with the manner of the holy Ghosts procession whether from the Father only or from the Father and the Son nor how God can be one in three and three in one Such lofty speculations and sublimities of so high a nature I leave to be discussed and agitated by men of larger comprehensions and more piercing judgements then I dare challenge to my self resting contented with those mediocrities which God who gives to every one his several Talent hath graciously vouchsafed to bestow upon me In other points I shall make use sometimes of such explications as the Athanasian or the Nicene Creeds do present unto me which I shall handle rather in a Scholastical and if occasion be presented in a Philological way also then a way meerly Catechetical or directly practical wherein I see so many have took pains already taking along the stating and debating of such points of Controversies as either naturally do arise from the words themselves or may be very easily deduced from thence on good and logical deductions And in such points of Controversie as shall here be handled as also in such Observations as shall be here amassed together I chiefly shall rely on the Antient Fathers whose reputation and authority is most precious with me but so that I shall now and then make bold as I see occasion to spoyl the Egyptians also of their choicest Iewels for the adorning of this body of Divinity which I had brought into the forge since my first retreat and is now ready for the Anvil St. Paul esteemed it no disparagement to his holy doctrine to strengthen it with reasons drawn from the best Philosophie to prove and press it home in a Logical way and to adorn it with the dictates of three old Greek Poets Menander Aratus and Epimenides whose testimonies he makes use of in three several places As long as Hagar doth submit herself to her mistress Sarah and not contend for the precedency with her so long she is and may be serviceable in the house of Abraham And humane literature especially in relation unto Paganish errours is of as necessary use as she in the Church of God if it conform unto the Scripture and be guided by it and do not bear it self too high on the conceit and reputation of its own great excellencies But for the main of this discourse I shall especially repose my determination on the authority and general consent of the Fathers as before I said not medling with the Protestant Writers of the forein Churches but when a doubt is to be cleared which concerns themselves nor often with the Writers of this Church of England but when I have occasion to enquire into such particulars as must be proved to be the true intent and doctrine of this CHVRCH by law established The holy Scriptures are the main foundation which I am to build on according to that sense and interpretation which have been given us of them by the holy Fathers and other Catholick Doctors of the Church of Christ who lived before the truth degenerated into Popish dotages and whose authorities and judgements I conceive most fit for the determining of such Controversies which are now on foot as being like to prove most indifferent Umpires because not any way ingaged in our present quarrels I know that Downe Dalie and others of great parts and wit have laboured to disclaim them as incompetent Judges not to be trusted in a business of such main concernment as the determination of the controversies in the Church of Christ out of an high conceit of their own great worth which is not willing to acknowledge a superiour eminence And I know well that many if not most of our Innovators whether it be in point of Discipline or Doctrine decline all trial by the Fathers Councels and other the records and monuments of the Catholick Church because directly contrary to their new devices But all this moves not me a jot nor makes me yeild the less authority to their words and writings The Church of England waves not their authority though some of her conceited children and others of her factious
Countrey A Proclamation following in the Rear from the Civil Magistrate That no man should presume to afford them any help or maintenance during that miserable exile Whether this were not too severe I regard not here This is enough to shew that National or Provincial Councils do still claim a power in handling and determining controversies touching points of Faith and that they challenge an obedience to their Resolutions of all which live within the bounds of their jurisdiction without which all Synodical meetings were but vain and fruitless Nor hath the Church onely an especial power in determining of controversies raised within her according to the Word of God but so to explicate and interpret the Word of God that no controversie may arise about it for the time to come Four Offices there are which the Church performs in reference to the holy Scriptures The first Tabellionis of a Messenger or Letter-Carrier to convey it to us Quid enim est Scriptura tota nisi Epistola omnipotentis Dei ad Creaturam suam saith St. Gregory What else is the whole Scripture but a Letter or Epistle from Almighty God unto his Creature and by whose hands doth he convey this Letter to us but by the Ministery of his Church The next is Vindicis of a Champion to defend it in all times of danger from the attempts and machinations of malicious Hereticks and such corruptions of the Text as possibly enough might have crept into it in long tract of time The Iews since our Redeemers time had falsified some places of the Old Testament and expunged others which spake expresly of Christs coming Delentes namque literas inficiati sunt Scripturam as we finde in Chrysostom The like saith Athanasius of their falsifications Tam manifestis Scripturis de Christo Prophetiis excaecavit Satanas Judaeorum oculos c. Ut talia testimonia falsa Scriptione falsarent The Arians stand convicted of the like attempt who had expunged ou◠of all their Bibles these words of St. Iohn Deus est Spiritus Iohn 14.24 because they seemed to prove the Deity of the Holy Ghost and that not out of their own Bibles onely but out of the Publick Bibles also of the Church of Millain Et fortasse hoc etiam in oriente fecistis and probable enough it was that they had done the same in the Eastern Churches saith St. Ambrose of them But such a vigilant and careful eye did the Church keep over them that their corruptions were discovered and the Text restored again to its first integrity The like may also be affirmed of such corruptions as casually had crept into the Text of holy Scripture by the negligence of the Transcribers and mistakes of Printers Which the Church no sooner did observe as observe them she did but they were rectified by comparing them with such other Copies as still continued uncorrupted Of which St. Augustine telleth us thus Corrumpi non possunt c The Scriptures saith he cannot be corrupted because they are in the hands of so many persons And if any one hath dared to attempt the same Vetustiorum codicum collatione confutabatur he was confuted by comparing them with the elder Copies The third Office is Praeconis of a Publisher or Proclaimer of the Will of God revealed in Scripture by calling on the people diligently to peruse the same and carefully to believe and practise what is therein written And this is that whereof St. Augustine speaks in another place saying Non crederem Evangelio nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae moveret autoritas i. e. That he being then a Novice in the Schools of Christ had not given credit to the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholick Church had moved him to it The fourth and last Office is Interpretis of an Interpreter or Expounder of the Word of God which in many places are so hard to be understood that Ignorant and unstable men may and do often wrest them to their own destruction who therefore are to have recourse to the Priests of God whose lips preserve knowledge and from whose mouth the people are to take the explication of the Law of God But being it hapneth many times that the Priests and Ministers themselves do not agree upon the sense of holy Scripture and that no small disturbance hath been raised in the Church of Christ by reason of such different Interpretations as are made thereof every one making it to speak in favor of his own opinion the Body of the Church assembled in her Representatives hath the full power of making such Interpretation of the places controverted as may conclude all parties in her Exposition Both Protestants and Papists do agree in this not all but some of each side and no mean ones neither Sacrae Scripturae sensus nativus indubitatus ab Ecclesia Catholica est petendus so said Petrus à Soto for the Papist The proper and undoubted sense of the holy Scripture is to be sought saith he from the Catholick Church which is indeed the general opinion of the Roman Schools And to the same effect saith Luther for the Protestant Doctors De nullo privat◠homine nos certos esse habeant necne revelationem Patris Ecclesiam unam esse de qua non liceat dubitare We cannot be assured said he of private persons whether or not they have a revelation from the Father of Truth it is the Church alone whereof we need make no question Which words considering the temper of the man and how much he ascribed to his own spirit in expounding Scripture may serve instead of many testimonies from the Protestant Writers who look with reverence on him as the first Reformer This also was the judgment of the Antient Fathers St. Augustine thus We do uphold the truth of Scripture when we do that which the Vniversal Church commandeth recommended by the authority of holy Scripture And for as much as the Scriptures cannot deceive us a man that would not willingly erre in a point of such obscurity as that then in question ought to enquire the Churches judgment With him agrees St. Ambrose also who much commends the Emperor Gratian for referring the interpretation of a doubtful Text unto the judgment of his Bishops convened in Council Ecce quid statuit Imperator Noluit injuriam facere sacerdotibus ipsos interpretes constituit Episcopos Behold saith he what the good Christian Emperor did ordain therein Because he would not derogate from the power of the Bishops he made them the Interpreters Thus Innocent one of the Popes doth affirm in Gratian Facilius inveniri quod à pluribus senioribus quaeritur i. e. The meaning of the Scripture is soonest found when it is sought of many Presbyters or Elders convened together And reason good For seeing that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation because it came originally from such holy Men who spake as
to signifie the place of meeting and the people which did therein meet That by these words Ecclesia quae est domi ejus St. Paul meaneth not a private family but a Congregation Severall significations of the word in the Ecclesiasticall notion of it The Clergy sometimes called the Church The Church called Catholick in respect of time place and persons Catholick antiently used for sound and Orthodox appropriated to themselves by the Pontificians and unadvisedly yeelded to them by the common Protestants Those of Rome more delighted with the name of Papists then with that of Christian. The Church to be accounted holy notwithstanding the unholinesse of particular persons The errour of the old and new Novatians touching that particular confuted by the constant current of the book of God Neither the Schismatick nor the Heretick excluded from being Members of the Catholick Church The Catholick Church consists not only of Elect or Predestinate persons The Popes supremacy made by those of Rome the principall Article of their faith Of the strange powers ascribed unto the Pope by some flattering Sycophants as well in temporal mattters as in things Spiritual The Pope and Church made termes convertible in the Schools of Rome The contrary errour of the Presbyterians and Independents in making the Church to be all body St. Hieroms old complaint revived in these present times The old Acephory what they were and in whom revived The Apostles all of equall power amongst themselves and so the Bishops too in the Primitive times as successors to the Apostles in the publick government Literae Formulae what they were in the elder ages Of the supremacy in sacred matters exercised by the Kings of Iudah and of that given by Law and Canon to the Kings of England CHAP. III. Of the visibility and infallibility of the Church of Christ and of the Churches power in expounding Scripture determining controversies of the faith and ordaining ceremonies WHat we are bound to believe and practise touching the holy Catholick Church in the present Article The Church at all times visible and in what respects The Church of God not altogether or at all invisible in the time of Ahab and Elijah nor in that of Antiochus and the Maccabees Arianisme not so universal when at the greatest as to make the Church to be invisible The visibilitie of the Church in the greatest prevalency of the Popedom not to be looked for in the congregations of the Albigenses Husse or Wicliffes answer to the question Where our Church was before Luthers time the Church of Rome a true Church though both erroneous in Doctrine and corrupt in manners The Vniversal Church of Christ not subject unto errour in points of Faith The promises of Christ made good unto the Vniversal though not to all particular Churches The opposition made to Arianism in the Western Churches and in the Churches East and West to the Popes Supremacy to the forced Celibat of Priests to Transubstantiation to the half Communion to Purgatory Worshipping of Images and to Auricular confession General Councels why ordained how far they are priviledged from errour and of what authority The Article of the Church of ENGLAND touching General Councels abused and falsified The power of National and Provincial Councels in the points of faith not only manifested and asserted in the elder times but strenuously maintained by the Synod of Dort Four Offices of the Church about the Scripture The practises of the Iews and Arians to corrupt the Text. The Churches power to interpret Scripture asserted both by Antient and Modern Writers The Ordinances of the Church of how great authority and that authority made good by some later Writers The judgement and practice of the Augustane Bohemian and Helvetian Churches in the present point Two rules for the directing of the Churches power in ordaining Ceremonies How far the Ordinances of the Church do binde the Conscience CHAP. IV. Of the Communion which the Saints have with one another and with CHRIST their Head Communion of affections inferreth not a community of goods and fortunes Prayers to the Saints and adoration of their Images an ill result of this communion THe nature and meaning of the word Communio in the Ecclesiastical notions of it The word Saints variously taken in holy Scripture In what particulars the Communion of the Saints doth consist especially The Vnion or Communion which the Saints have with CHRIST their Head as Members of his Mystical body proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Communion which the Saints have with one another evidenced and expressed in the blessed Eucharist Of the Eulogia or Panes Benedicti sent from one Bishop to another in elder times to testifie their unity in the faith of Christ. The salutation of the holy kiss how long it lasted in the Church and for what cause abrogated The name of Brothers and Sisters why used promiscuously among the Christians of the Primitive times Of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love Feasts in the elder ages The readiness of the Christians in those blessed times not only to venture but to lay down their lives for one another Pleas for the community of the Estates studied by the Anabaptists and refelled by the Orthodox The natural community of mankinde in the use of the creatures contrary unto Law and Reason and to the pretentions also of the Anabaptists themselves The Orthodoxie in this point of the Church of England A general view of the communion which is between the Saints departed and those here on earth The Offices performed by godly men upon the earth to the Saints in Heaven That the Saints above pray not alone for the Church in general but for the particular members of it The Invocation of the Saints how at first introduced Prayers to the Saints not warranted by the Word of God nor by the writings of the Fathers nor by any good reason Immediate address to Kings more difficult then it is to God The Saints above not made acquainted in any ordinary way with the wants of men Arguments to the contrary from the Old Testament answered and laid by An answer to the chief argument from the 15. chapter of St. Luke Several ways excogitated by the Schoolmen to make the Saints acquainted with the wants of men and how unuseful to the Papists in the present point The danger and doubtfulnesse of those ways opened and discovered by the best learned men amongst the Papists themselves Invocation of the Saints and worshipping of their Images a fruit of Gentilisme The vain distinctions of the Papists to salve the worshipping of Images in the Church of Rome Purgatory how ill grounded on the use of Prayers for the dead Prayers for the dead allowed of in the primitive times and upon what reason The antient Diptychs what they were The heresie of Aerius and the Doctrine of the Church of England concerning Prayer for the dead Purgatory not rejected only by the Church of England but by the whole Churches of
the Greeks and the antient Fathers The ireconcileable differences amongst the Papists and the fluctuation of St. Augustine in the point of Purgatory CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No actual sin so great but it is capable of forgivenesse In what respect some sins may be accounted venial and others mortall FOrgivenesse of sins the first great benefit redounding unto mankind by our Saviours passion Man first made righteous in himself but left at liberty to follow or not to follow the ways of life Adam not God the author of the first transgression proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The heresie of the Cataphrygians and of Florinus in making God the Author of sin as also of Bardesenus and Priscilian imputing sin to fate and the stars of Heaven The impious heresie of Florinus revived by the Libertines The Founder of the Libertines a member of the Church of Rome not of Calvins Schoole Calvin and his Disciples not altogether free from the same strange tenets The sin of Adam propagated to his whole posterity Original sin defined by the Church of England and in what it specially consisteth That there is such a sin as original sin proved by the testimony of the Scriptures by the light of reason and by the Practise of the Church Private Baptisme why first used and the use thereof maintained in the Church of England Not the day of their birth but of the death of the Saints observed as Festivals by the Church and upon what reasons The word natalis what it signifyeth in the Martyrologies Original sin how propagated from one man to another and how to children borne of regenerate Parents The sin of Adam not made ours by imitation only but by propagation Of the distinction of sins in venial and mortal and how far abominable Equality of sins a Paradox in the Schoole of Christ. No sin considered in its self to be counted veniall but only by the grace and goodnesse of Almighty God No sin so great but what is capable of Pardon if repented of no not the murdering of Christ nor the sin against the holy Ghost Arguments from the holy Scriptures as Heb 6.4 6. and Heb. 10.26 27. and 1 Ioh. 5.16 to prove some sins to be uncapable of pardon produced and answered The proper application of the severall places with the error of our last Translators in the second Text. CHAP. VI. Of the remission of sins by the bloud of Christ and of the Abolition of the body of sin by Baptisme and Repentance Of confession made unto the Priest and the authority Sacerdotal GOD the sole Author Christ the impulsive meritorious cause of the forgivenesse of sins Remission of sins how and in what respects ascribed to the bloud of Christ. Power to forgive sins conferred upon and exercised by the Apostles The doctrine of the Church of England touching the efficacy of Baptisme in the washing away of sin confirmed by the Scriptures and the Fathers and many eminent Divines of the reformed Churches Baptismal washings frequently used of old both by Iews and Gentiles as well to expiate their sins as to manifest and declare their innocence The waters of Baptisme in what respect made efficacious unto the washing away of the guilt of sin What it is which makes Baptisme to be efficacious unto the washing away of sin The rigor of the Primitive Church towards such as sinned after Baptisme The Clinici what they were and how then esteemed of The institution and antiquity of Infant Baptisme The old rule for determining in doubtfull cases how applyed to this Proofs for the Baptisme of Infants from St. Augustine up to Irenaeus inclusively What faith it is by which Infants are Baptized and justifyed Of the necessity of Baptisme the want thereof how supplyed or excused in the Primitive times and of the state of Infants dying unbaptized Repentance necessary and effectuall in men of riper years for remission of sins Confession in the first place to be made to God satisfaction for the wrong done to be given to man Satisfaction for sin in what sense to be given to God by the Penitent sinner Private confession to a Priest allowed of and required by the Church of England The Churches care in preserving the seal of confession from all violation Confession to a Priest defended by the best Divines of the Anglical Church approved by the Lutheranâ— not condemned by Calvin The disagreement of the Papists in the proofs of their auricular confession from the Texts of Scripture The severity of exacting all particular circumstances in confession with the inconveniences thereof That the power of sacerdotall Absolution in the opinion of the Fathers is not declarative only but judicial and that it is so also both in the Doctrine and the practise of the Church of England CHAP. VII Of the Resurrection of the body and the proofs thereof The objections against it answered Touching the circumstances and manner of it The History and grounds of the Millenarians THe resurrection of the body derided and contemned by the Antient Gentiles Proofs for the resurrection from the words of Iob from the Psalmes and Prophets and from the Argument of our Saviour in the holy Gospels Our Saviours Argument for the resurrection against the cavils of the Sadduces declared expounded and applyed to the present purpose Several Arguments to the same purpose and effect alledged by St. Paul in his Epistles and that too of the same numerical not another body Baptizing of or for the dead a pregnant proof or argument for the resurrection severall expositions of the place produced and which most probable Baptizing or washing of the dead antiently in use amongst the Iews the Gentiles and the Primitive Christians with the reasons of it Practical and natural truths for a resurrection The resurrection of the same bâ—dy denyed by Hereticks and justifyed with strong reasons by the Orthodox Christians Two strong and powerfull arguments for the resurrection produced from the Adamant and the art of Chymistry That the dead bodies shall be raised in a perfect stature and without those deformities which here they had and in their several sexes also contrary to the fancies of some vain disputers Considerations raised on the Doctrine of the resurrection with reference unto others and unto our selves The Doctrine of the Millenarians originally founded on some Iewish dotages by whom first set on foot in the Church of Christ how refined and propagated The Millenarian Kingdome described by Lactantius and countenanced by many of the antient writers till cryed down by Hierome The texts of Scripture on which the Millenarians found their fancies produced examined and lâ—yed by as unusefull for them The disagreement of the old Millenarians in the true stating of their Kingdome CHAP. VIII Of the immortality of the soul and the glories of Eternal life prepared for it as also of the place and torment of hell Hell
ones have bâ—en pleased to do it Witness that famous challenge made by Bishop Iewel by which the several points in issue between the Church of England and the Church of Rome were generally referred to the decision of the Antient Fathers with great both honour and success Witness these words of Peter Martyr a man of great imployment in the REFORMATION of the Church and sent for hither by Archbishop Cranmer to mote it here In judging things obscure saith he the Spirit there are two ways or means for our direction whereof the one is inward which is the Spirit the other outward or external the Word of God to which saith he Si Patrum etiam autoritas accesserit valebit plurimum If the authority of the Fathers do come in for seconds it will exceedingly avail And unto this agrees Chemnitius also though of a different judgement from him in some points of doctrine who having told us of the Fathers that we may best learn from their own words and sayings what we may warrantably conceive of their authority gives in the close thereof this note and a sound one 't is Nullum dogma in Ecclesia novum cum tota antiquitate pugnans recipiendum that is to say that new opinion which seems new and is repugnant to the general cuâ—rent of Antiquity is to be entertained in the Church of God What is decreed herein by the Church of England assembled representatively in her Convocations what by the King and three Estates convened in Parliament we shall see anon In the mean time take here the judgment of the Antients in this very case 'T is true indeed the Fathers many times and in sundry places humbly and piously have confessed the eminency of Canonical Scriptures above all the writings of men whatsoever they be for which consent St. Augustine contr Faust. Manic l. 11. c. 5. de Baptismat contr Donatist l. 1. c. 3. Epist. 19. in Proem lib. de Trinitate desiring liberty of dissent from one another when they saw occasion and binding no man to adhere unto their opinions further then they agreed with the Word of God delivered by the holy Prophets and Apostles which have been since the world began De quorum Scriptis quod omni errore careant dubitare nefarium est and of whose writings to make question whether or not they were free from error were a great impiety And this is that whereof St. Hierome speaks in an Epistle to Pope Damasus Ut mihi Epistolis tuis sive tacendarum sive dicendarum Hypostase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 n detur autoritas that he might be left to his own liberty either in using or refusiug the word Hypostasis But then it is as true withall that Vincentius give it for a rule Multorum magnorum consentientes sibi sententias Magistorum sequendas esse that the antient consent of godly Fathers is with great care both to be searched into and followed in the Rule of Faith And 't is as true that having moved this question in another place that if the Canon of the Scripture be so full and perfect and so abundantly sufficient in it self for all things Quid opus est ut ei Ecclesiasticae intelligentiae jungatur autoritas what need there is that the authority of Ecclesiastical interpretations should be joyned with it returns this answer in effect Lest every man should wrest the Scriptures to his own private fancy and rather draw some things from thence to maintain his errours then for the advancement of the truth Of the same resolution and opinion was St. Augustine also who though he were exceeding careful upon all occasions to yeild the Scriptures all due reverence yet he was willing therewithall to allow that honour which was meet both to the writings of the Fathers which lived before him and to the Canons and Decrees of preceding Councels and to submit himself unto their Authorities For speaking of General Councels he subjoyns this note Quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima autoritas that their authority in the Church was of excellent use And in another place alleadging the testimonies of Irenaeus Cyprian Hilarie Ambrose and some other Fathers he concludeth thus Hoc probavimus autoritate Catholicorum sanctorum c. This we have proved by the authority of Catholick and godly men to the end that your weak and silly novelties might be overwhelmed with their only authority with which your contumacie is to be repressed He speaks this unto Iulian a Pelagian Heretick And with these testimonies and authorities of such holy men thou must either by Gods mercy be healed i. e. recovered from his errour or else accuse the famous and right holy Doctors of the Catholick Church against which miserable madness I must so reply that their faith may be defended against thee even as the Gospel it self is defended against the wicked and professed enemies of Christ. More of this kinde might be produced from the Antient Writers But what need more be said in so clear a point especially to us that have the honour to be called the children of the Church of England who by a a Canon of the year 1572 doth binde all men in holy Orders not to preach any thing in their Congregations to be believed and holden of the people of God but what is conâ—onant to the doctrine of the Old and New Testaments Quodque ex illa ipsa doctrina Catholici Patres Veteres Episcopi collegerint and had been thence concluded or collected take which word you will by the Catholick Fathers and antient Bishops of the Church The like authority and respect is given to the first four General Councels by the unanimous vote and suffrage of the Prince and three Estates convened in Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory wherein it was ordained or declared rather amongst other things that nothing should be deemed or adjudged Heresie in the Kingdome of England but what had been adjudged so formerly in any of the said four General Councels or any other General Councel determining the same according to the Word of God c. Where we may see that the Estates in Parliament did ascribe so much to the authority of those four Councels and the judgement of the Fathers which were there assembled as not to question any thing which they had determined concerning heresie or to examine whether it agreed with Gods Word or not but left the people of this Kingdom totally to repose themselves upon their authority and to take that for heresie without more ado which they judged to be so And so I close this point with those words of Saravia a learned man and one that stood up stoutly in this Churches cause against the innovating humors which was then predominant though not so high as in these times of Anarchie Qui omnem Patribus adimit autoritatem nullam relinquit sibi that is to say He who depriveth the Fathers of their due authority will
of sin as a general circumstance which may accompany any sin And many of those who have renounced the Faith of Christ under persecution or called his divinity in question did afterwards recant their Errors and became good Christians Final Apostasie indeed and a malicious resisting of the known Truth till the very last are most grievous sins and shall no question be rewarded with eternal punishment as every other sin shall be which is not expiated with Repentance but can with no more right or reason be called the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost than unrepented Murder unrepented Adultery unrepented Heresie or any other of that nature Therefore to set this business right it is judiciously observed by my Learned Friend Sir R. F. in his Tractate Of the Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost First That this sin so much disputed and debated in neither of the three Evangelists which record this passage is called The sin against the Holy Ghost but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Secondly That blaspheming according to the true Etymon of the Word is a blasting of the fame of another man a malicious detracting from him or speaking against him as both St. Matthew and St. Luke do expound the word Matth. 12.32 and Luke 12.10 Thirdly That these words were spoken by our Saviour Christ against the Scribes and Pharisees who traduced his Miracles affirming That that wondrous work of casting out Devils which he had wrought by the power of the Spirit of God as he himself affirmeth Matth. 12.28 was done by the power and help of Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Vers. 24. And Fourthly That the Scribes and Pharisees being the eye-witnesses of such miracles as might make them know that Christ was a Teacher come from God did notwithstanding lay that reproach upon them to the end That the people being beaten off from giving credit to his miracles should give no faith unto his Doctrine Upon which grounds he builds this definition of it viz. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was an evil-speaking or slandering of the miracles of our Saviour Christ by those who though they were convinced by the miracles to believe that such works could not be done but by the power of God did yet maliciously say That they were wrought by the power of the Devil And hereupon he doth infer these two following Corollaries First That we have no safe rule to conclude that any but the Scribes and Pharisees and their confederates committed in those times this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost so condemned by Christ And Secondly That it is a matter of probability that the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is not a sin committable by any Christian who lived not in the time of our Lord and Saviour And to say truth If such a sin were practicable by us Christians since it must needs be a very great marvel if not somewhat more that the Apostles who were very precise and punctual in dehorting from all manner of sin should never in any of their Epistles take notice of this or give us any Caveat to beware thereof and in particular that St. Paul making a specification of the fruits of the Spirit and such a general muster of the works of the flesh as are repugnant thereunto should not so much as give a glance which doth look this way To countenance the opinion of this Learned Gentleman I shall adde here the judgement of two learned Iesuites Maldonates first Who makes this sin to be the sin of the Scribes and Pharisees who seeing our Saviour cast out Devils Manifesta Spiritus Sancti opera daemoni tribuebant ascribed the visible works of the Holy Ghost to the power of the Devil Of Estius next who distinguishing betwixt the sin against the Holy Ghost and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost referreth to the first all sins of determined malice to the second onely such malicious and slanderous reproaches against the mighty works of God Quale erat illud Scribarum divina miracula malitiosè calumniantium As was that of the Scribes maliciously slandering our Saviours miracles And if it be a sin or blasphemy call it which you will not acted but by them and on that occasion it is not practicable now But leaving this to the determination of the Church of England lawfully and Canonically represented in an holy Synod to which that Learned Gentleman doth submit his judgement proceed we on in our discourse of the Holy Ghost concerning whose Divinity or Godhead there is not so much difference in the Christian World as in the manner of his Procession or Emission And here indeed the World hath been long divided the Greek Church keeping themselves to express words of Scripture making him to proceed from the Father onely the Latines on the Authority of some later Councils and Logical inferences from the Scripture making him to proceed both from Father and the Son And though these last may seem to have the worst end of the Cause in as much as Logical inferences to men of ordinary capacities are not so evident as plain Text of Scripture yet do they Anathematize and curse the other as most desperate Hereticks if not Apostates from the Faith Nor will they admit of any medium towards reconcilement although the controversie by moderate and sober men is brought to a very narrow issue and seemeth to consist rather in their Forms of Speech than any material Terms of Difference For Damascen the great Schoolman of the Eastern Church though he deny that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son yet he granteth him to be Spiritum filii per filium to proceed from the Father by the Son and to be the Spirit of the Son And Bessarion and Gennadius two of the Grecian Divines who appeared in the name of that Church in the Council of Florence and were like to understand the meaning of Damascen better than any of the Latines affirmed as Bellarmine tells us of them That he denied not the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as to the truth of his proceeding Sed existimasse tutius dici per filium quam ex filio quoad modum loquendi but thought onely that it was the safer expression to say That he proceeded by the Son than from the Son And Clictoveus in his Comment on that Book of Damascen l. 1. c. 12. is of opinion That the difference between the East and Western-Churches as to this particular is In voce potius modo explicandi quam in ipsa re More in the terms and manner of expression than the thing it self The Master of the Sentences doth affirm as much saying That the Greeks do differ from the Latines Verbo non sensu not in the meaning of the Point but the forms of Speech And more than so The Greeks saith he confess the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of the Son with the Apostle Gal. 4. And the Spirit of Truth with the Evangelist Joh.
first of the Evangelical Scriptures was the Epistle Decretory which we finde in the fifteenth of the Acts and that was countenanced by a visum est spiritui sancto i. e. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost And when St. Paul writ his Epistle unto those of Corinth for fear he might be thought by that factious people to injoyn any thing upon them without very good warrant he vouched the Spirit of God for his Author in it They preached the Gospel first to others as Christ did to them by word of mouth that being the more speedy way to promote the Work But being they could not live to the end of the world and that the purest waters will corrupt at last by passing through muddy or polluted Chanels they thought it best to leave so much thereof in writing as might serve in all succeeding Ages for the Rule of Faith Postea vero per voluntatem Dei in Scripturis nobis Evangelium tradiderunt firmamentum columnam fidei nostrae futuram as in Irenaeus A man might marvel why St. Iohn should give that testimony to the Gospel which was writ by him that it was written to the end That men might believe that JESUS is the CHRIST the Son of God and that believing they might have Faith through his Name considering that none of the rest of the Evangelists say the like of theirs or why he thundred at the end of his Revelation that most fearful curse against all those who should presume to adde anything to the words of that Book or take any thing from it being a course that none of all the sacred Pen-men had took but he But when I call to minde the Spirit by which Iohn was guided and the time in which those Books of his were first put in writing methinks the marvel is took off without more ado For seeing that his Gospel was writ after all the rest as is generally affirmed by all the Antients those words relate not as I guess to his own Book onely but to the whole Body of the Evangelical History now perfectly composed and finished for otherwise how impertinent had it been for him to say That IESVS did many other signs in the presence of his Disciples which were not written in that Book if he had spoken those words of his own Book onely Considering that he had neither written of the signs done in the way to Emaus mentioned by St. Luke or his appearing to the eleven in a Mountain of Galilee which St. Matthew speaks of or his Ascension into Heaven which St. Mark relateth which every vulgar Reader could not chuse but know The like I do conceive of those words of his in the Revelation viz. That they relate not to that Book alone but to the whole body of the Bible St. Iohn being the Survivor of that glorious company on whom the Holy Ghost descended in the Feast of Pentecost and the Apocalypse the last of those Sacred Volumes which were dictated by the Spirit of God for the use of his Church and now make up the Body of the holy Scriptures God had now said as much by the mouths and pens of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles as he conceived sufficient for our salvation and so closed up the Canon of the Scriptures as St. Augustine telleth Deus quantum satis esse judicavit locutus Scripturam condidit as his own words are which certainly God had not done nor the Evangelist declared nor St. Augustine said had not the Scripture been a sufficient rule able to make us wise unto salvation and thoroughly furnished unto all good works Which being so it cannot but be a great dishonor to the Scripture and consequently to the Spirit of God who is Author of it to have it called as many of the Papists do Atramentariam Scripturam Plumbeam Regulam Literam Mortuam that is to say An Ink-horn Text a Leaden Rule and a Dead Letter Pighius for one as I remember gives it all these Titles or to affirm That it hath no authority in the Church of Christ but what it borroweth from the Pope without whose approbation it were scarce more estimable than the Fables of Aesop which was one of the blasphemous speeches of Wolf Hermannus or that is not a sufficient means to gain Souls to Christ or to instruct the Church in all duties necessary to salvation without the adding of Traditional Doctrines neither in terminis extant in the Book of God nor yet derived from thence by good Logical inference which is the general Tenet of the Church of Rome or that to make the Canon of the Scripture compleat and absolute the Church as it hath added to it already the Apocryphal Writings so may it adde and authorize for the Word of God the Decretals of the Antient Popes and their own Canon Law as some of the Professors of it have not sticked to say So strongly are they byassed with their private interess and a desire of carrying on their faction in the Church of Christ as to place the holy Spirit where he doth not move in their Traditions in Apochryphal and meer Humane writings and not to see and honor him where indeed he is in the holy Scriptures Of the Authority Sufficiency and Perspicuity of which holy Scriptures I do not purpose at the present any debate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a work more fit for another place and such as of it self would require a Volume onely I say that if the written Word be no rule at all but as it hath authority from the Church which it is to direct and then not an entire but a partial rule like a Noune Adjective in Grammar which cannot stand by it self but requireth somewhat else to be joyned with it in Construction and that too so obscure and difficult that men of ordinary wits cannot profit by it and therefore must not be permitted to consult the same the Holy Ghost might very well have spared his pains of speaking by the Prophets in the time of the Law or guiding the pens of the Apostles in the time of the Gospel and the great Body of the Scripture had been the most impertinent and imperfect peece the most unable to attain to the end it aims at that was ever writ in any Science since the world began Which what an horrid blasphemy it must needs be thought against the majesty and wisdom of the holy Spirit let any sober Christian judge And yet as horrid as those blasphemies may be thought to be some of the most profest enemies of the Church of Rome and such as think that the further they depart from Rome they are the nearer to Christ have faln upon the like if not worse extravagancies For to say nothing of the Anabaptists and that new brood of Sectaries which now swarms amongst us whom I look on onely as a company of Fanatical Spirits did not Cartwright and the rest of our new
in several ranks appointing unto every rank the course of his ministery composing Psalms and Hymns to the praise of God prescribing how they should be sung with what kind of instrument and ordering with what vestments the Singing-men should be arayed in the act of their service We shall there finde the Feast of Purim ordained by Mordecai who then possessed the place of a Prince among them and that of the Dedication by the Princes of the Maccabean progeny yet both religiously observed in all times succeeding this last by Christ himself as the Gospel telleth us We shall there finde how Moses broke in peeces the Golden Calf and Hezekiah the Brazen Serpent how the high places were destroyed and the groves cut down by the command of Iehosaphat and what a Reformation was made in the Church of Iudah by the good King Iosiah Finally we shall therein finde how Aaron the High Priest was reproved by Moses Abiathar deposed by Solomon the arrogancy of the Priests restrained by Ioas Such power as this the godly Princes of the Iews did exercise by the Lords appointment to the glory of Almighty God and their own great honor If they took more than this upon them and medled as Vzziah did in offering incense which did of right belong to the Priests office A Leprosie shall stick upon him till the hour of his death nor shall he have a sepulchre amongst the rest of the Kings And such and none but such is that supream power which we ascribe unto the King in the Church of England The Papists if they please may put a scorn on Queen Elizabeth of most famous memory in saying Foeminam in Anglia esse caput ecclesiae that a woman was the head of the Church of England as once Bellarmine did and Calvin if he list may pick a quarrel with the Clergy of the times of King Henry the eighth as rash and inconsiderate men and not so onely but as guilty of the sin of blasphemy Erant enim blasphemi cum vocarunt eum summum caput ecclesiae sub Christo for giving to that King the title of Supream Head of the Church under Christ himself But Queen Elizabeth disclaimed all authority and power of ministring divine service in the Church of God as she declared in her Injunctions unto all Her Subjects And the Clergy in their Convocation Anno 1562. ascribe not to the Prince the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments nor any further power in matters which concern Religion than that onely Prerogative which was given by God himself to all godly Princes in the Holy Scriptures More than this as we do not give the Kings of England so less than this the Christian Emperors did not exercise in the Primitive times as might be made apparent by the Acts of Constantine and other godly Emperors in the times succeeding if it might stand with my design to pursue that Argument Take one for all this memorable passage in Socrates an old Ecclesiastical Historian who gives this Reason why he did intermix so much of the acts of Emperors with the affairs of holy Church viz. That from that time in which they first received the Faith Ecclesiae negotia ex illorum nutu perpendere visa sunt c The business of the Church did seem especially to depend on their will and pleasure insomuch as General Councils were summoned by them for the dispatch of such affairs as concerned Religion even in the main and fundamentals and other emergent occasions of the highest moment CHAP. III. Of the Invisibility and Infallibility of the Church of Christ And of the Churches power in Expounding Scripture Determining Controversies of the Faith and Ordaining Ceremonies BUt laying by those Matters of External Regiment we will look next on those which are more intrinsecal both to the nature of the Church and the present Article For when we say That we believe the Holy Catholick Church we do not mean That we do onely believe that there is a Church upon the Earth which for the latitude thereof may be called Catholick and for the piety of the Professors may be counted Holy but also that we do believe that this Church is led by the Spirit of God into all necessary Truths and being so taught becomes our Schoolâ—mistress unto Christ by making us acquainted with his will and pleasure and therefore that we are to yeeld obedience unto her Decisions determining according to the Word of God This is the sum of that which we believe in the present Artiâ—le more than the quod sit of the same which we have looked upon in the former Chapter and to the disquisition of these points we shall now proceed A matter very necessary as the world now goes in which so many Schisms and Factions do distract mens mindes that Truth is in danger to be lost by too much curiosity in enquiring after it For as the most Reverend Father the late Lord Bishop of Canterbury very well observes Whiles one Faction cries up the Church above the Scripture and the other side the Scripture to the contempt and neglect of the Church which the Scripture it self teacheth men both to honor and obey They have so far endangered the belief of the one and the authority of the other That neither hath its due from a great part of men The Church commends the Scripture to us as the Word of God which she hath carefully preserved from the time of Moses to this day and so far we are willing to give credence to her as to believe that therein she hath done the duty of a faithful witness not giving testimony to any supposititious or corrupted Text but to that onely which doth carry the impressions in it of the Image and Divine Character of the Spirit of God But if a difference do arise about the sense and meaning of this very Scripture or any controversie do break forth on the mis-understanding of it or the applying and perverting it to mens private purposes which is the general source and fountain of all Sects and Heresies we will not therein hearken to the voice of the Church but every man will be a Church to himself and follow the Dictamen or the illumination as they please to call it of their private Spirit It therefore was good counsel of a learned man of our own Not to indulge too much to our own affections or trust too much unto the strength of a single judgment in the controverted points of Faith but rather to relie on the authority and judgment of the Church therein For seeing saith he that the Controversies of Religion in our time are grown in number so many and in nature so intricate that few have time and leasure and fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which of all the Societies of men in
Ceremonies and authority in Controversies of Faith And yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the Word of God neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Wherefore although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be believed as necessary to salvation So stands the Article in the very Acts and Records of the Convocation An. 1562. where by the way the Book of Articles being Re-printed in Latine An. 1571. when the Puritan Faction did begin to shew it self in its colours the first clause touching the authority of the Church in Controversies of Faith and in Decreeing Rites and Ceremonies was clean omitted and stands so maimed in the Book called The Harmony of Confessions for the Protestant and Reformed Churches According to which false and corrupted Copies I know not by what indirect means or by whose procurement it was so Printed too at Oxon An. 1636. when the Grandees of that Faction did begin to put forth again But to proceed The Church or Body Collective of the people of God having devolved this Power on her Representatives doth thereby binde her self to stand to such Conclusions as by them are made till on the sight of any inconvenience which doth thence arise or upon notice of some irregularity in the form and manner of proceeding she do again assemble in a new Convention review the Acts agreed on in the former Meeting and rectifie what was amiss by the Word of God And this is that which St. Augustine averreth against the Donatists men apt enough to flie in the Churches face if any thing were concluded or agreed upon against their Tenets Concilia quae per singulas provincias fiunt plenariorum Conciliorum autoritati cedere ipsaque plenaria saepe priora à posterioribus emendari cum aliquo experimento aperitur quod clausum erat cognoscitur quod latebat Provincial Councils saith the Father ought to submit unto the General And of the Generals themselves the former are oftentimes corrected by some that follow when any thing is opened which before was shut or any truth made known which before was hidden For otherwise it was not lawful nor allowable to particular men to hold off from conformity to the publick Order which had been setled in the Church nor to make publick opposition unto her conclusions which as the late most Reverend Father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury very well resolves it Are with all submission to be observed by every Christian that is as he expounds himself in another place to have external obedience yeelded to it at least where Scripture or evident demonstration do not come against it And this hath been the judgment of the purest times and the practise of the best men for the times they lived in For thus said Constantine the Emperor to the point in hand Quicquid in sanctis Episcoporum Conciliis decernitur c Whatsoever is decreed in the holy Councils of Bishops ought wholly to be attributed to the Will of God More plainly Martianus Caesar Injuriam eos facere Reverendissimae Synodi judicio qui semel judicata in dubium vocent That they commit a great affront against the dignity and judgment of the most Reverend Council who shall presume to call in question what is there determined Which words of his are well enough allowed by Doctor Whitakers if understood of those things onely as they ought to be which are determined according to the Word of God St. Augustine to this purpose also Insolentissimae est insaniae c It is saith he an insolent madness for any man to dispute whether that be to be done or not which is determined to be done and therefore usually is done by the whole Catholick Church of Christ. St. Bernard also thus for the darker times Quae major superbia c What greater pride than that one man should prefer his own private judgment before the judgment of the Church Tanquam ipse solus Spiritum Dei habeat as if he onely were possessed of the Spirit of God And this holds also good in National and Provincial Councils which being the full Representative of the Church of that State or Nation hath power sufficient to compose such controversies as do arise amongst themselves and to require obedience of the Represented according to the limitations laid down before in the case of Oecumenical or General Councils The practise of all times and Nations make this plain enough in which many several Heresies have been concluded against as in that of Milevis wherein the Pelagians were condemned Anno 416. Matters of Faith have been resolved on as in the third of Toledo Anno 589. wherein many Anathemaes were thundred out against the Arians and finally Constitutions made for regulating the whole Body of Christian people in the worship of God as in the General Code of the African Councils Or were there no Record thereof in the times fore-going yet may we finde this power asserted in these later days and that by some of the most eminent Doctors of the Reformed Churches For the Divines of the Classis of Delph assembled amongst others in the Synod of Dort do declare expresly Ordinem nullum nullam pacem in Ecclesia Dei esse posse c That there would be no peace nor order in the Church of God if every man were suffered to Preach what he listed without being bound to render an accompt of his doctrine and submitting himself unto the judgment and determination of Synodical meetings Why so For if Paul and Barnabas say they being endued with the same Spirit as the rest of the Apostles were endued withal were content to go unto Ierusalem to know the judgment of the rest in the point then questioned Quanto aequius est ut Pastores alii qui Apostoli non sunt hujusmodi Synodicis Conventibus se subjiciant How much more fitting must it be for other Ministers which are no Apostles to captivate their own judgments unto that of a publick Synod Nor was the Synod it self less careful to provide for her own authority than the Delphenses were to promote the same And thereupon decreed in the close of all Abdicandos esse omnes ab officiis suis c That every man should be deprived as well of Ecclesiastical as Scholastical Offices who did not punctually submit to the Acts of the Synod and that no man should be admitted to the Ministery for the time to come who refused to subscribe unto the doctrine which was there declared and Preach according to the same And in pursuance of this final determination no fewer than Two hundred of the opposite party who did refuse to yeeld conformity to the Acts thereof were forthwith banished the
also of the creation and fall of man OF the name and nature of the Angels Why the creatioon of the Angels not expressed in Scripture Probable conjectures that the Angels were created before the beginning of the world and those conjectures backed by authority of the Antients both Greeks and Latines The several orders and degrees of the holy Angels The Angels ministring to Almighty God not only in inflicting punishments upon the wicked but in protection of the godly Many things said in Scripture to be done by God which were effected by the Ministry of the blessed Angels That every one of Gods people and they alone hath his Angel-guardian proved not only by the authority of the Antients but by the testimony of the Scripture Of the Daemons of the antient Gentiles That the worshipping of Angels mentioned in Coloss. 2. did arise from thence Angel worship not alone forbidden by Scriptures and Fathers but by the very Angels themselves The evil Angels first created in a state of integrity Of their confederacy and fall That the sin of ambition was the cause of the fall proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers and by several reasons Several differences between the sin and fall of man and the sin and fall of the evil Angels The reason why CHRIST took not on himself the Angelical nature The Devils diligence and design in seducing mankinde The Devil why and how called the Tempter Of the Mali Genii Of the Gentiles and that the Daemonium Socratis so often mentioned by the Antients was not of that nature Several Artifices of the Daemons in gaining Divine honours to themselves The Devil not without much difficulty dispossessed of the Soveraignty he had gotten in the souls of men The goodly structure of mans body and some contemplations thence arising That the soul of man is not ex traduce proved by the Scriptures and the Fathers The Image of God imprinted on mankinde in what it doth consist especially and of the several degrees and perfections of it The voluntary fall of man and how it came to be imputed to his whole posterity the remedy of God provided to restore lost man The fall of Adam not decreed and in what sense permitted by Almighty God CHAP. VI. What Faith it was which was required for Justification before and under the Law of Moses Of the knowledge which the Patriarchs and Prophets had touching Christ to come Touching the Sacrifices of the Jews the salvation of the Gentiles and the justifying power of Faith THe general project of this Chapter No faith in Christ required of Adam till his fall nor after that explicitely affirmed of our Father Abraham The error and mistake of Eve touching the Messias Whether the Prophets fully understood their own predictions touching Christ to come In what Gods Prophets differed from the Heathen Soothsayers The Heathen Soothsayers why called extatici and arreptitii and furiosi No explicite faith in Christ required of the Patriarchs before the law nor of the people of the Iews who lived under the Law What faith it was which was imputed for righteousness to our Father Abraham The Sacrifices of the Iews not counted expiatory in reference unto Christ to come but by the Ordinance and Institution of Almighty God Why CHRIST is said in Scripture to be the end of the Law Or the advantages which the Iews had above other Nations The Gentiles not left destitute of means and helps to bring them to the knowledge and Worship of God No point of Reverence performed by Gods people antiently in the act of Worship which was not practised by the Gentiles The Sacrifices of the Gentiles what they aimed at chiefly before perverted by the Devil The Sacrificing of men and women among the Gentiles by whom first introduced and upon what grounds The eminence of some Gentiles in all moral vertues The union of mans soul with Almighty God proposed as the chiefend of liâ—e by the old Philosophers The salvation of the nobler souls amongst the Gentiles defended by some late Divines denyed by St. Augustine formerly and upon what grounds the grounds on which he built examined The vertues of the Gentiles not to be counted sins or vices for any circumstantial imperfections which are noted in them The special help wherewith God might supply amongst the Gentiles the want of Scripture The charitable opinion of Franciscus Iunius touching the Infants of the Gentiles The case of the Gentiles altered since our Saviours passion and so St. Peter Act. 2. and the 17. Article of the Church of England to be understood What it is that makes Faith instrumental unto Iustification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of faith imputed to a man for righteousness proved by the testimony of the Scriptures and the Antient Writers The Homilies of the Church explicated and applyed to the present point LIBER II. CHAP. I. Nothing revealed to the Gentiles touching Christ to come The Name of JESUS what it signifies and of bowing at it Of the name CHRIST and the Offices therein included The name of Christians how given unto his Disciples SAlvation of the world by Christ kept as a Mysterie from the Gentiles generally before the Preaching of the Gospel The Sibâ—lline Oracles what they say of Christ not to be counted pie fraudes and with what care preserved from the common view The tearm or â—â—tion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the WORD frequently found in Plato and his followers The summe of our belief touching Christ our Saviour The name of IESVS whence derived and what it signifieth A parallel between IESVS the Son of God and Ioshua or Iesus the son of Nun. The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred Salvator by the Writers in the Christian Church till the alteration made by Beza and of the full meaning of those words The dignity of the name of Iesus That bowing at the Name of IESVS was antiently used in the Church of Christ and from the first beginning of the Reformation in the Church of England The name CHRIST whence derived and what it signifieth and of the several Offices it relates unto That the name of Christian was not given unto the followers of Christs Doctrine without some solemnities Chrestos and Chrectiani mistakingly used for Christus and Christiani by some Heathen Writers CHAP. II. That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of God Why called his only or his only begotten Son Proofs for the Godhead of our Saviour Of the title of LORD THe name of the Son or Sons of God ascribed in several respects to men and Angels and also to the Saints departed given in a more peculiar manner to Kings and Prophets then unto any other of the sons of men in all of these respects communicable unto CHRIST our Saviour but after a more excellent manner then to all the rest CHRIST not the Son of God only but his only Son properly to be called the natural and begotten Son of Almighty God in reference to his birth
Viceroyes put upon him by the Papists and the Presbyterians THe title of King designed to Christ long before his birth given to him by the Souldiers and confirmed by Pilate The generall opinion of the Iews and of the Apostles and Disciples for a temporal Kingdome to be set up by their Messiah the like amongst the Gentiles also Christ called the head of the Church and upon what reasons The actuall possession of the Kingdome not conferred on Christ till his resurrection Severall texts of Scripture explained and applyed for the proof thereof Christ by his regall power defends his Church against all her enemies and what those enemies are against which he chiefly doth defend it Of the Legislative power of Christ of obedience to his lawes and the rewards and punishments appendent on them No Viceroy necessary on the earth to supply Christs absence The Monarchy of the Pope ill grounded under that pretence The many Viceroyes thrust upon the Church by the Presbyterians with the great prerogatives given unto them Bishops the Vicars of Christ in spirituall matters and Kings in the externall regiment of the holy Church That Kings are Deputies unto Christ not only unto God the Father proved both by Scriptures and by Fathers The Crosse why placed upon the top of the regall Crown How and in what respects Christs Kingdome is said to have an end Charity for what reasons greater then faith and hope The proper meaning of those words viz. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdome unto God the Father disputed canvassed and determined CHAP. XV. Touching the coming of our Saviour to judgement both of quick and dead the souls of just men not in the highest state of blisse till the day of judgement and of the time and place and other circumstances of that action THe severall degrees of CHRISTS exaltation A day of judgement granted by the sober Gentiles Considerations to induce a natural man to that perswasion and to inforce a Christian to it That Christ should execute his judgement kept as a mysterie from the Gentiles Reasons for which the act of judging both the quick and the dead should be conferred by God on his Son CHRIST IESVS That the souls of righteous men attain not to the highest degree of happinesse till the day of judgement proved by authority of Scriptures by the Greek Fathers and the Latine by Calvin and some leading men of the reformation The alteration of this Doctrine in the Church of Rome and the reason of it The torments of the wicked aggravated in the day of judgement The terrors of that day described with the manner of it The errour of Lactantius in the last particular How CHRIST is said to be ignorant of the time and hour of the day of judgement The grosse absurdity of Estius in his solution of the doubt and his aime therein The audaciousnesse of some late adventurers in pointing out the year and day of the finall judgement The valley of Iehosophat designed to the place of the generall judgement The Easterne part of heaven most honoured with our Saviours presence The use of praying towards the East of how great antiquity That by the signe of the Son of man Mat. 24.30 we are to understand the signe of the crosse proved by the Western Fathers and the Southerne Churches The sounding of the trumpet in the day of judgement whether Literally or Metaphorically to be understood The severall offices of the Angels in the day of judgement The Saints how said to judge the world The Method used by Christ in the act of judging The consideration of that day of what use and efficacy in the wayes of life LIBER III. CHAP. I. Touching the holy Ghost his divine nature power and office The controversie of his Procession laid down historically Of receiving the holy Ghost and of the severall Ministrations in the Church appointed by him SEverall significations of these words the holy Ghost in the new Testament The meaning of the Article according to the Doctrine of the Church of England The derivation of the name and the meaning of it in Greek Latine and English The generall extent of the word Spirit more appositely fitted to the holy Ghost The divinity of the holy Ghost clearly asserted from the constant current of the book of God The grosse absurdity of Harding in making the divinity of the holy Ghost to depend meerly upon tradition and humane authority The many differences among the writers of all ages and between St. Augustine with himself touching the sin or blasphemy against the holy Ghost The stating of the controversie by the learned Knight Sir R. F. That the differences between the Greek and Latine Churches concerning the procession of the holy Ghost are rather verball then material and so affirmed to be by most moderate men amongst the Papists The judgement of antiquity in the present controversie The clause a Filioque first added to the antient Creeds by some Spanish Prelates and after countenanced and confirby the Popes of Rome The great uncharitablenesse of the Romanists against the Grecians for not admitting of that clause The graces of the holy Ghost distributed into Gratis data and Gratum facientia with the use of either Why Simon Magus did assert the title of the great power of God Sanctification the peculiar work of the holy Ghost and where most descernible Christ the chief Pastor of the Church discharged not the Prophetical office untill he had received the unction of the holy Spirit The Ministration of holy things conferred by Christ on his Apostles actuated and inlarged by the holy Ghost The feast of Pentecost an holy Anniversary in the Church and of what antiquity The name and function of a Bishop in St. Pauls distribution of Ecclesiasticall offices included under that of Pastor None to officiate in the Church but those that have both mission and commission too The meaning and effect of those solemne words viz. receive the holy Ghost used in Ordination The use thereof asserted against factious Novelty The holy Ghost the primary Author of the whole Canon of the Scripture The Canon of the Evangelical and Prophetical writings closed and concluded by St. Iohn The dignity and sufficiency of the written word asserted both against some Prelates in the Church of Rome and our great Innovators in the Church of England CHAP. II. Of the name and definition of the Church Of the title of Catholick The Church in what respects called holy Touching the head and members of it The government thereof Aristocraticall THe name Church no where to be found in the old Testament The derivation of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what it signifyeth in old Authors The Christian Church called not improperly by the name of a Congregation The officiation of that word in our old Translators and the unsound construction of it by the Church of Rome Whence the word CHVRCH in English hath its derivation The word promiscuously used in the elder times
of Reliques single life of Priests and the like to these Assuredly they are all so far from having the general consent of all times that generally they have had the consent of none no not so much as in the Church of Rome it self till the candle of all good literature was put out by the night of ignorance But for the Creed of the Apostles trie it according to these rules by both or either and it will evidently appear not only that it hath been universally and continually received in the Church for theirs but that the most famous and renowned men of all times and ages have so received it from their Fathers and recommended it for such to the times ensuing no man gainsaying or opposing till these later times in which the blessed Word of God cannot scape unquestioned So that we have as much authority as the Tradition of the Church the consent of Fathers and the succession of all times can give us to prove this Creed to have been writ by the Apostles by them commended to the Churches of their several plantations and so transmitted to our selves without interruption And no authority but divine immediately declared from the God of heaven is to be ballanced with this proof or heard against it Thus having proved that the Creed was writ by the Apostles and proved it by as great authority as any can be given by the Church of CHRIST and the consent of the most renowned Writers of the Primitive times Let us next see what reputation and esteem it carryed in all parts of Christendome and draw from thence such further arguments as the nature of that search will beaâ— And first it is a manifest and undoubted truth that as this Creed was universally received over all the world ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus from the very times of the Apostles as Vigilius hath it without the least contradiction or opposition so hath it passed from hand to hand for above these 1600 years without alteration or addition This we did touch upon before but now press it further and use it for another argument that none but the Apostles were or could be the Authors of it and that if it had otherwise been esteemed of in the former times it would have been obnoxious unto alterations yea and to contradiction also as others the most celebrated Creeds in the Christian world It was the saying of Pope Gregory the Great that he esteemed of the four first General Councels no otherwise then of the four Evangelists And who is there to whom the name of Athanasius and the Nicene Councel and the first general Councel holden in Constantinople is not most venerably precious And yet the Creed of Athanasius hath found such sory welcome in some parts of the world as to be called either in dislike or scorn the Creed of Sathanasius and he himself condemned of extreme arrogance if not somewhat worse for imposing it upon the consciences of all Christian men as necessary to their salvation Non potuit Satan altius evehere humanam formulam as the Remonstrants please to phrase it The Nicene Creed was of no long continuance in the Church of Christ before these words secundum Scripturas according to the Scriptures were added to the Article of the Resurrection And to the Constantinopolitan the Churches of the West have added Filioque in another Article and no mean one neither that namely of the proceeding of the holy Ghost without the leave and liking of the Eastern Prelates The reason of which boldness is because they are and were conceived to be humane formula's of Ecclesiastical constitution only no divine authority and therefore might be altered and explained and fitted to the best edification of the Church Whereas the Creed of the Apostles is come unto our hands without alteration in the same words and syllables as it came from them none ever daring in the space of so many years to alter any thing therein though many have applyed their studies to explain the same And this I make a second argument evincing the Authority and Antiquity of the sacred Symbolum that men of most renown and credit for the times they lived in did purposely apply their studies to expound this Creed with as much diligence and care as any part or most parts at least of the holy Scriptures Witness the fourth Catechism of St. Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem two of the Homilies of St. Chrysostom some of St. Augustines Sermons de Tempore his two whole Tracts de fide Symbolo de Symbolo ad Catechumenos all principally made for explanation of this Creed together with the Commentaries of Ruffinus Maximus Taurinensis Venantius Fortunatus B. of Poyctiers antient writers all and all composed upon no other text or argument but this Creed alone Not to say any thing at all of the learned works of many eminent men in the ages following and of the present times we live in though otherwise of different perswasions in Religion A thing which cannot be affirmed of the Nicene Creed or any other Creed whatever none of which have been commented or scholied on by any of the antient Doctors of the Catholick Church or of the disagreeing parties in the present times And to say truth there was good reason why this Creed should be thus explained why such great pains should be bestowed to expound the same it being a very antient custome in the Church of CHRIST not to admit any to the sacred Font but such as made a publick profession of their faith according to the words of this Creed and understandingly recited it in the Congregation Mos ibi servatur Antiquus apud eos qui gratiam baptismi suscepturi sunt publice i. e. fidelium populo audiente Symbolum reddere so saith Ruffinus for his time of the Church of Rome we may affirme the like for those of Antioch Hierusalem Africa upon the credit of St. Chrysostome Cyril Augustine in their works now mentioned Nor was it long before it was ordained in the Councell of Agde Ann. 506. that in regard of the great confluence of all persons to the Church to receive the Sacrament of Baptisme upon Easter day the Creed should be expounded every day in the way of Sermons to the people from the Sunday we call Palme Sunday to the Feast it self Symbolum ab omnibus Ecclesiis ante octo dies Dominicae resurrectionis publice in Ecclesia competentibus praedicari as the Synod hath it Nay they conceived the learning of this Creed by heart so necessary in the former times that it was first desired and afterwards enjoyned that all should learn it and retain it in their hearts and memories who either were desirous to be counted good Catholick Christians or to partake of any of the solemne offices in the Christian Church St. Augustine commended it unto his Auditors that for the better keeping it in memory they should repeat it to themselves Quando surgitis quando vos collocatis ad
somnum both when they rose when they betook themselves to sleep or put on their cloaths and diligently learning and retaining of it being commended also to all sorts of people omnis aetatis omnis sexus omnisque conditionis by the Councell holden in Friuli Ann. 791. And by a Canon superadded unto those of the last of the three Oecumenical Councels holden in Constantinople it was expresly ordered by the Fathers there not only that no person should be admitted unto Baptisme or to Confirmation or to stand Godfather for any in those sacred Acts except infants only who could not say the Creed and Lords prayer without book but also Catholicum esse non posse that he who was so negligent in the things which did so nearly concern him in the way of his salvation could not be a Catholick And yet this was not all the honour nor were these all the markes of difference which were put upon it to set it high in estimation above other Creeds For whereas that of Nice and Athanasius were ordered to be said or sung but at speciall times according to the usages of particular churches it was decreed by Damasus who sat Pope at Rome A. 370. or thereabouts that the Apostles Creed should be repeated every day in the publick Liturgies on the Canonicall houres of prayer And whereas it was ordered by Pope Anastasius that at the reading of the Gospell not the Priests only and the Ministers but all people present venerabiliter curvi in conspectu Evangelii starent should stand upon their feet and bow down their bodies as in the way of veneration it was not long before the same gesture had been taken up for I finde not that it was imposed by publick Sanction at the reading also of the Creed as being the summe and substance of the holy Gospels Et cum Symbolum est verbum Evangelicum quoad sensum ergo illud stando sicut Evangelium dicitur as Durandus hath it The like authority it had in all generall councels in which it is usuall to be recited as Baronius very well observeth quasi Basis et fundamentum totius Ecclesiae structurae as the foundation and ground-work of the whole Ecclesiasticall edifice and this he proves out of the acts of the Councels of Chalcedon Ephesus and Constantinople whither I refer you Finally as this Creed is sometimes called the Creed without any addition the Creed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by way of eminence all other being called for distinction sake the Constantinopolitan the Nicene the Creed of Athanasius or the Creed of Damasus so was this antiently esteemed the one and only Creed devised for the generall use of all the Church the rest being only made as Expositions or as Comments on it upon occasion of particular and emergent heresies And so much Perkins doth confesse though he be otherwise perswaded of the Authors of it then had been taught him by the greatest and most eminent Writers of the Primitive times For against this that hath been said many Objections have been studied both by him and others to make the Creed of latter standing and of lesse authority And first they say that if the Creed were indeed framed by the Apostles in that form of words in which it is come unto our hands it must be then a part of the Canonicall Scriptures as the residue of their writings are which also I finde granted and I wonder at it in our learned Bilson The Creed saith he we do not urge as undoubtedly written by all the Apostles for then it must needs be Canonicall Scripture Which being said he answereth himself in the words next following where he affirmeth that it is the best and perfectest forme of faith delivered to the Christians at the first planting of the Gospel by the direction of the Apostles and by their Agreement If so if it was framed by their direction and agreement it is as much to my intent as if it had been written by them all together it being not their pen but their authority and consent which makes it be entituled to them and called Apostolicall St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans were not else Canonical because written by the hand of Tertius as it is said Rom. 16.22 And as to the conclusion which is thence inferred I answer that not every thing which was writ by the Apostles or by any of them was ipso facto to be called canonical Scripture because writ by them but only that which they committed unto writing by the dictamen and direction of the holy Ghost with an intent that it should be Canonical and for such received For otherwise the Epistles of St. Paul to Seneca supposing them for his which I here dispute not and all the letters of intercourse betwixt them and their private friends of which no question need be made but they writ many in their time as occasion was had we the copies of them extant must have been Canonical as well as those upon record in the book of God And this is that which we finde written by St. Austin Quicquid ille de suis dictis factisve nos scire voluit hoc illis scribendum tanquam suis manibus reposuit and in another place to the same effect Deus quantum satis esse judicavit locutus scripturam condidit His meaning in both places doth amount to this that whatsoever God conceived to be fit and necessary for the edification of his Church he did impart to the Apostles and when he had communicated so much as was fit and necessary he closeth the Canon of the Scripture not giving way that any thing should be added to it as the word of God but that which he did so communicate and impart unto them It is objected secondly that in the Primitive times it had not any exact forme at all but that the Fathers varied in the repetition of the heads thereof and to this end Ignatius Irenaeus Tertullian Origen and others of the antients are brought in as witnesses but prove no such thing All that can be collected from those antient writers is no more then this that many times the Fathers as learned men and great discoursers use to do inlarge the words and syllables of the Creed as they saw occasion the better to deliver the true meaning of it and sometimes they contract into fewer words the whole summe thereof as thinking it not pertinent to the present purpose to tie themselves unto the words Which appears plainly by Tertullian who doth acknowledge that there was but one only Creed or set rule of faith affirmed by him to be unalterable and unchangeable yet having three occasions to repeat the heads thereof doth vary every time in the words and phrases And yet it cannot be inferred upon these variations that at the first or rather in the Primitive times the Creed had no exrct forme at all or not the same in which it is retained now in the Christian Church no more then any
man can say that there was never any exact forme of the Nicene Creed commended by that Councell to the use of the Church because that in the Councell of Chalcedon and in the works of Athanasius and St. Basil it is presented to us with some difference of the words and phrases Of which the most that can be said must be that of Binius idem est plane sensus sed sermo discrepans i. e. that the sense is every where the same though the words do differ In the third place it is objected that the Creed could not be written by the Apostles because there are therein certain words and phrases which were not used in their times and for the proof of this they instance in these two particulars first in our Saviours descent into hell which words they say are not to be found in all the Apostolical Scriptures and secondly in that of the Catholick Church which was a word or phrase not used till the Apostles had dispersed the Gospell over all the world And first in answer to the first we need say but this that though these words of Christ descended into hell be not in terminis in the Scriptures yet the Doctrine is which we shall very evidently evince and prove when we are come unto the handling of that Article And if we finde the doctrine in the book of God I hope it will conclude no more against the authority and antiquity of the Creed we speak of then that the word Homousion in the Nicene Creed did or might do against the authority of that Creed or Symbole because that word could not be found in all the Scriptures as was objected by the Arians in the former times And for the second instance in the word Catholica there is less ground of truth therein then in that before But yet because it hath a little shew of learning and doth pretend unto antiquity we will take some more pains then needed to manifest and discover the condition of it Know then that the Apostles might bestow upon the Church the adjunct of Catholick before they went abroad into several Countries to preach the Gospel not in regard that it was actually diffused over all the world according as it hath bin since in these later Ages but in regard that so it was potentially according to the will and pleasure of their Lord and Saviour by whom the bar was broken down which formerly had made a separation between Iew and Gentile and the Commission given of Ite praedicate to go and preach the Gospel unto every creature Catholick is no more then universal The smallest smatterer in the Greek can assure us that And universal questionless the Church was then at least intentionaliter potentialiter when the Apostles knew from the Lords own mouth that it should no longer be imprisoned within the narrow limits of the land of Iewry but that the Gentiles should be called to eternal life Without this limitation of the word I can hardly see how the Church should be called Catholick in her largest circuit there being many Nations and large Dominions which are not actually comprehended within the Pale of the Church to this very day I hope their meaning is not this that there was no such word as Catholick when the Apostles lived and composed the body of the New Testament If so they mean although they put us for the present to a needless search yet they betray therein a gross peece of ignorance For the discovery whereof we may please to know that the word Catholick is derived from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth in universum as that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is totum all as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that I may sum up all in brief And so the word is used by Isocrates that famous Oratour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say generally or in a word I shall endeavour to declare what studies it were fittest for you to incline unto But the proper signification of it is in that of Aristotle where he opposeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a general or universal demonstration to that which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is partial only or particular Hence comes the adjective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. universal and so the word is taken by Quintilian saying Propter quae mihi semper moris fuit quam minimum me alligare ad praecepta quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocant i. e. ut dicamus quomodo possumus universalia vel perpetualia Thus read we in Hermogenes an old Rhetorician 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of usual and general forms of speech and thus in Philo speaking of the laws of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he ordained a general perpetual law for succession into mens inheritances Take which of these three senses they best like themselves and they will finde at last it comes all to one If the word Catholick do signifie the same with universal it also signified the same in and before the times the Apostles lived in and how the Church might then be called universal we have shewn already If they desire rather to translate it general Pope Iulius will tell us how the Church might be called General in the first days and hours thereof Quia sc. generalis est in eadem doctrina ad instructionem because it generally proposeth the same doctrine for edification or if by that of perpetual rather there is no question to be made but that our Saviours promise to be with them to the end of the world did most sufficiently declare unto them that the Church which they were to plant was to be perpetual There is another meaning of the word Catholicus as it denotes an Orthodox and right believer which whether it were used in the Apostles times may be doubted of it being half granted by Pacianus an antient writer sub Apostolis CHRISTIANOS non vocari Catholicos that Christians were not then called Catholicks But this at best being not the natural but an adventitious meaning of the word according to a borrowed metaphorical sense it neither helps nor hinders in the present business and in this sense we shall speak more of it hereafter when we are come unto the Article of the Catholick Church One more objection there remains and but one more which is worth the answering and is that which is much pressed by Downes namely that to affirm as Ruffinus doth that the Apostles did compose the Creed to be the rule or square of their true preaching lest being separated from one another there should be any difference amongst them in matters which pertain to eternal life were to suppose them to be guided by a fallible spirit and consequently subject unto Errour For answer whereunto we need say but this that the difference which Ruffinns speaks of and which he saith the Apostles laboured to avoid by their agreement on this sum or abstract of the Christian
And finally it is a firm assent to truth supernatural and supernaturally revealed which makes it differ from that credit or belief call it which you will which commonly we ascribe and give to humane authorities which being but humane must needs be fallible and therefore no fit ground for our faith to rest on according to the notion of that word in the Church of Christ. For though both knowledge and experience rest on surer grounds as to the satisfaction of the understanding to which a demonstration is of more authority then an ipse dixit that being a convincing argument which commands assent this but artificiosum argumentum as Logicians call it yet are the grounds of faith less fallible then those of any other Art or Science whatsoever it be because they are communicated to us by the Spirit of God qui nec fallere nec falli potest who being infallible in himself will most infallibly lead unto all those truths the knowledge of the which is either necessary or expedient for us 'T is true St. Paul lays down another definition or description rather of belief or faith which he defines to be Substantiam rerum sperandarum argument non apparentium that is to say The substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Which definition or description we will first explain and then declare to what acception of the word Faith it relates especially Now the first thing to be considered in this definition is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Vulgar Latine rendreth by Substantia Beza more like a Paraphrast Illud quod facit ut extent quae sperantur Which being so obscure as to need a Commentary he helps our understanding with a marginal note and cals it suâ—siâ—tentiam rerum quae sperantur which is the true meaning of the word in its natural sense For faith is therefore called the subsistence or the existence as the word is sometimes translated of things hoped for because it makes those things which are yet in hope and are no otherwise ours then in expectation subsistere in corde nostro quasi ante oculos corporis to subsist or exist no lâ—ss really in our hearts or souls then if we saw them present with our bodily eyes And this he doth illustrate by the Resurrection which is not past already as some Hereticks taught nor come as yet as to the accomplishment and performance of it and yet faith makes it to subsist or exist in the minde of a Christian ac si prae oculis eam habeamus as if we were already possessed thereof The word hath other senses in the holy Scripture as in the third chapter of this Epistle to the Hebrews where we finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 initium substantiae as the Vulgar reads it principium illud quo sustentamur as more truly Beza The beginning of our confidence say our last Translators where that which in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Englished confidence according as we finde it also Psal. 39. where that which by the Septuâ—gint is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in our English rendred hope Surely my hope is even in thee vers 7. Budaeus that most learned Critick in the Greek tongue will have it signifie courage or praesentiam animi deriving it from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to sustain or endure a shock in which regard that Souâ—dier is called miles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who stands his ground and will not turn his back unto his adversary And in this sense we finde it also in St. Pauls Epistle unto those of Corinth twice meeting with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an unmoved constancy in boasting or praefidentem gloriationem as Beza renders it that is to say a glorying that will not shrink or be put out of countenance Which also very well agrees with the nature of faith and serves most fitly to express the full vigour of it by which a man is made assured and confident in all times of danger and scorns to give ground or to turn his back though Principalities and powers and all the rulers of the darkness of this present world were armed against him The second thing to be observed in this definition or description rather which the Apostle hath laid down in the place aforesaid is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evidence of things not seen as the English reads Beza translates it quod demonstrat the Vulgar Latine Argumentum and both these say the same though in divers words Arguere dicebant antiqui ostendere a quo venit argumentum quasi ostensio The old Grammarians saith Haimo used the word Argue in that sense which we use the word to declare and shew And Argumentum proprie ratio est qua quis rei dubiae facit fidem an argument saith he is the proof or evidence whereby a doubtful matter is confirmed and ratified And then the meaning of St. Paul will be briefly this Fides est ea credere quae non videntur faith makes us to believe such things as we never saw and are not subject to our senses the minde being so convicted with the evidence of divine authority as to submit it self or to give assent to every thing which is delivered in the holy Scriptures even touching the invisible things of Almighty God as the Apostle cals them in the first to the Romans But then we must observe withall that this is not a proper definition of faith it self according to the rules of Art the true character and nature of a definition but rather a description of the fruits and effects of faith in that it represents those things which are yet in hope as if they were possessed already and doth so clearly look into things invisible as if they were before our eyes And this saith Beza on the place Excellens fidei descriptio ab effectu est quod res adbuc in spepositas repraesentet invisibilia veluti oculis subjiciat So then we may define Belief or Faith as before we did St. Pauls description notwithstanding to be a firm assent to supernatural truths revealed which doth most fully manifest the true nature of faith and no way crosseth that which St. Paul delivereth For that faith represents the things hoped for and is the evidence or proof of things not seen is an effect or consequent of that firm assent to supernatural truths revealed which worketh both that evidence and existence in us It follows thereupon as we before said that to believe according as the word here stands in the front of the Creed is only to be verily perswaded of the truth of those points and Articles as are delivered in the same and to give a firm assent unto them according to the measure of our understanding This being thus stated and determined we now proceed unto the explication of the
answer is that Moses did therein consult the frailty of the Iewes his Countrymen who having been very well acquainted with the Idolatries of Egypt might easily have been induced to the worship of Angels had they found any thing in Scripture of that noble subject or else because being acquainted with the things of God he would not trust them with a secret of so high a nature Angelorum non meminit quia scribebat rudibus Judaeis illius secretioris doctrinae parum capacibus saith Estius the Iesuite for the Pontificians That he did purposely omit it Peter Martyr granteth but saith that it was propter hominum proclivitatem ad Idololatriam because of their inclination to Idolatrie For my part I confess these answers do not satisfie me For neither were the Iews so untaught a people as not to have been told of those Ministring Spirits which did so frequently appear to Abraham Isaac and Iacob And if they were so prone unto Idolatrie as they say they were I cannot see but that the pretermission of the Creation of Angels might rather give them some occasion to commit Idolatry then any way divert them from it For when they found by reading in the book of Genesis that not only Lot bowed himself down before the Angels which appeared unto him but that the same reverence or worship call it which we will had been performed unto them by their Father Abraham and yet could not meet with nothing touching their creation might not they probably conclude that sure the Angels were no creatures but rather a nature so divine and excellent that it were no impiety to worship them with religious worship There must be therefore somewhat else which did occasion this omission whatsoever it was And why that reason may not be because it did not fall within the compass of the six days work which Moses only undertook to lay down before us I must confesse for my part I can see no reason That they were made before the fourth day is most plain in Scripture Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth said God to Iob when the morning stars sung together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy St. Augustine hereupon inferreth Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta autem sunt sydera die quarto Therefore saith he the Angels were created before the stars for other Sons of God there were none but they to magnifie and applaud that most glorious work Before the fourth day then that 's clear And I am apt enough to think till I see better evidence to the contrary that they were made before the first Certain I am the Tenor of the Greek Fathers went this way confessedly whose testimonies I would here produce to make good the assertion but that I have confitentem reum For Estius himself doth confesse ingenuously Quod multi Patres Graeci tradunt Angelos aliquandiu creatos ante Mundum corporeum that many of the Greek Fathers were of opinion that the Angels were created for some space of time before this visible and corporeal World And Estius himself for ought I can see is of the same opinion also who telleth it for a manifest truth in another place that the Angels did not fall from the love of God in the first moment as it were of their Creation Sed aliquanto tempore in justitia stetisse but that they did abide awhile in the state of righteousness though they did not persevere therein as the others did Assuredly had they been created in the six days work their continuance in the state of Grace had been so short that it could hardly have been called Aliquantum temporis But whether Estius might so mean I determine not The Greek Fathers as he saith for the most part did and so did many of the Latines Lactantius I am sure was of this opinion and thereby answereth the objection which Hortensius made touching the loneliness and solitude of Almighty God before the making of the World Tanquam nos qui unum esse dicimus desertum ac solitarium esse dicamus Habet enim Ministros quos vocamus nuncios How far this satisfyeth the objection we have shewn before but certainly it doth sufficiently declare his judgment that the Angels were created before the World The old Hermit Cassianus is more plain and positive and he a Latine writer too of approved antiquity Ante conditionem hujus visibilis Creaturae spiritales coelestesque virtutes Deum fecisse c. nemo fidelium est qui dubitat That God before the making of this visible World had made those heavenly and spirituall powers so he cals the Angels there is not any of the faithful who so much as doubteth In which it is to be observed that Cassian doth not only speak this as his own opinion but the opinion of all Orthodox and faithful Christians and an opinion grounded on the words of Iob before remembred by him alledged and applyed for the proof hereof Finally having cleared the received opinion from being any way derogatory to the honour of Christ by whom and for whom all things were created he doth again repeat what he said before though he differ somewhat in the words saying Ante istud Geneseos temporale principium omnes illas Potestates Coelestesque virtutes Deum creasse non est dubium This then was the opinion of the antient Church and it stood uncontrouled by any publick authority till the Lateran Councel about 30. years agoe in which indeed it was declared Omnipotenti Dei virtute mundum et Angelos simul ab initio temporis de nihilo esse condita that by the Almighty God the Angels and the World were both created together in the beginning of time This was indeed determined then But I ascribe not so much to the Lateran Councell or the decrees and definitions which were therein made was not the point of Transubstantiation first established there as to recede from the authority of the antient writers because Pope Innocent the third did not like their tenets especially when I have some advantage of the holy Scriptures to rely upon For when I find that David in marshalling the works of the Creation puts the Angels first not only before the Sun and Moon but before all Heavens I cannot think that he observed only the order of dignity but that he had an eye especially on the order of time And so the Angels being placed before Heaven must consequently be created before that beginning in which as Moses tels us Heaven and Earth were created But whensoever they were made it is out of question that they were all created by the word of God and that they were created both for glory excellent and for their numbers almost infinite Lactantius telleth us in general termes that they were innumerable and so no question but they were For besides those many thousands which fell from God
towards heaven Desierunt homines vultus suos in coelum tollere And thereupon it followed as perhaps it did that being once besotted with earthly pleasures they came in time to be infected with gross and earthly superstitions And no less sure I am that on this Contemplation Anaxagoras a wise man amongst the Gentiles being demanded for what cause he thought he was born made an answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to behold the Firmament So right a use did the Philosopher make of his bodily structure as to conceive the World and the pleasures of it to be so unfit an Object for his minde that it was not worthy of his eye Next for the form or soul of man it differeth more from that of all living Creatures then he doth differ from them in his bodily figure For whereas the soul of all other living creatures did rise out of the matter out of which they were made the soul of man had a more excellent sublime and divine original and was not either made with the bodie or out of the same dust whereof the body was made but infused immediately by God after the body was first framed and organized in every part to receive the same Of other animals it is said that God made the beast after his kind and the cattel after their kind that is to say matter and form at once without any distinction But when he cometh to the creation of man it is first said that God formed man of the dust of the ground and after that he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life whereby he became a living soul. And though I will not enter here upon that dispute whether the rational soul of man be a thing ex traduce whether begotten by his Parents or infused by God yet I confesse that the very order which God used in mans creation is of it self sufficient to make clear that point and to evince thus much that the soul of man is of a more noble extraction then the souls of beasts and not as theirs potentially in the seed of their generation Or if this be not sufficient to evince it then I conceive that he that was the best Divine and the greatest Philosopher of any of the sons of men even Solomon and all his wisdome hath so determined of the point as to make all sure affirming that the bodies of men being generated of grosse and earthly matter are in the end dissolved into that dust out of which they were primitively made but that the soul returneth into the hands of God by whom at first it was inspired Then saith he i. e. at the time of our death the dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to him that gave it A Text so clear and evident to the point in hand that he who writ the Pamphlet called Mans mortality printed 1643. did very well and wisely to passe it over and not to put it in the number of those Objections which might be made against him from the word of God as being utterly destructive of that monstrous Paradox which he takes upon him to defend for true Catholick doctrine And if the Fathers may be suffered to come in for seconds where the authority of Scripture is so plain and pregnant we have a cloud of witnesses of unquestionable credit to confirme the same For the Greek writers first it is said by Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the principal faculties of the soul by which we have rational discourse is not engendred by projection of humane seed Theodoret doth not only say as much as he but brings good proof for it from the word of God The Church saith he believing the divine Scriptures teacheth us that the soul was and is created as well as the body not having any cause of its creation from natural seed but from the will of the Creatour after the body of man had been perfectly made For the divine Moses writeth that Adams body was first made and afterwards his soul was inspired into him and also telleth us in the Law that the body was first made then the soul infused The same he also proveth from a text in Iob and so concludeth that this confession touching the soul and body of man the Church had learnt from holy Scripture Next for the Latine Fathers it is said by Hilarie Animam nunquam ab homine gignentium originibus praeberi that the soul never cometh from the generation of men by Ambrose Ex nullo homine generantur Animae that the souls are not generated by the seed of man by Leo that the Catholick Church doth truly teach that the souls of men were not or had not any being at all before they were inspired into their bodies Nec ab alio incorporentur nisi ab opifice Deo neither are incorporated with the body but by God alone St. Hierome glossing on those words of Solomon before produced thus declareth himself Ex quo satis ridâ—ndi sunt qui putant animas a corporibus seri et non a Deo sed a Corporum parentibus generari Cum enim caro revertatur in terram et Spiritus redeat ad Deum qui dedit illum manifâ—stum est Deum patrem Animarum esse non homines I have laid down his words at large because they are a full and perfect exposition of that Text of Solomons on which I principally ground my self for Catholick doctrine though there be diverse other places one might build upon But for S. Hieromes words they are thus in English How worthily saith he are they to be derided who think the soul to be sown together with the body in the Mothers wombe and to be generated by our Parents not to come from God For being it is said by Solomon that the flesh returneth to the earth and the Spirit unto him that gave it it is most manifest that God is the Father of our souls not man T is true Ruffinus made some scruple whether the soul did come by propagation from Man or infusion from God by which as he gave very great scandall to all Christian people so was he very sufficiently scorned and confuted by S. Hierome for it T is true Tertullian sometime thought as this Pamphetler doth that the soul either was a kind of body or was ex traduce that is to say derived and propagated by traduction of humane seed but then it is as true withall that for this and other of his Heterodox tenets he is put into the Catalogue of Hereticks composed by Augustine And for S. Augustine himself though to avoid the difficulty which lay hard upon him touching the manner how the soul cometh to be infected with original sin made question whether the soul were infused by God or derived he knew not how from the soul of the Parent yet he rejected the opinion as absurd and grosse that is should be
this objection she might make not out of any disbelief of the Angels words for being then as faulty as old Zachary was she had been as punishable since God is no respecter of persons nor that she had vowed chastity as the Papists say and Gregory Nyssen doth report from an unknown Author whose history he doth confess to be Apocryphal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are for then she had done very ill to betroth herself unto an husband the vow of Chastity being inconsistent with the state of Matrimony But this she did because the Angel seemed to speak of her Conception as a thing instantly to be done and then in fieri at the least as Logicians phrase it and she though then betrothed to Ioseph was a Virgin still for the Text saith it was before they came together and more then so there was perhaps some part of the time remaining which usually intervened amongst the Iews betwixt the first Espousals and the consummation of the marriage But this bar was easily removed For it followeth that the Angel answered and said The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee The holy Ghost shall come upon thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it that is to say the holy Ghost shall fall upon thee like rain into a fleece of wooll or like the dew of heaven upon a barren and thirstie land where no moisture is and make thee no less fruitful without help of man then was the Virgin Earth in its first integrity when no outward or extrinsecal moysture had yet fallen upon it but that there went up a mist only out of the very bowels thereof and watered the whole face of the ground And the power of the most High shall overshadow thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greek and cover thee with the wings of his quickning virtue as the Hen doth Egges when she brings forth young To make this matter plainer yet we shall illustrate it by two Texts of holy Scripture equal to this both in the wonder and the agent In the beginning saith the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And in the second of the same Book we read that God created man out of the dust of the earth vers 7. In each of these there is a subject some matter such as it was to be wrought upon that confused mixture of Earth and waters to be disposed into a world the dust and Atoms of that world to be contrived into a man The fashioning and accomplishment of which great works both of them seeming as impossible to sense and reason as the Conception of our Saviour in a Virgins Womb is in the Scripture attributed to the holy Ghost The Spirit of God saith Moses moved upon the face of the waters Hence the digestion of that matter fashioned into that goodly fabrick of Heaven and Earth which we so visibly behold with such admiration God breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life inspiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae from whence the Animation and soul of man This action then ascribed unto the holy Ghost which St. Luke calleth a supervenience or a coming upon and an obumbration or over-shadowing is likely to have been much of the same nature with that of moving in the first and that of breathing in the 2. of Genesis Gods Spirit as it breatheth where it listeth so can it quicken where it pleaseth Some there have been if Maldonate do report them rightly Qui turpe aliquid hoc loco somniant who have made some impure construction of this holy Text most impudently affirming Spiritum sanctum ad modum viri cum Maria concubuisse I abhor to English it but who they were he either was afraid or ashamed to tell us No doubt but they were some of the Romish party For had such a blasphemous and ungodly saying dropped from the mouth or pen of a Protestant all Christendome had been told of his name and Nation And therefore certainly this quidam whom he spares to name must be some such good fellow of the Catholick faction as Fryer Albert of the frock as they use to call him Of whom I remember I have read in some of their Authors that being a great Votary of the blessed Virgins she appeared nightly to him in her bodily shape espoused her self to him by a ring and suffered himself to converse with her in familiar manner Insomuch as he might say in the Poets language Contrectatque sinus forsitan oseula jungit He dallied with her Paps And kissed her too perhaps But I do ill to mingle these impurities with this sacred argument if the unmasking of the obscoenities of those great Professors of vowed chastity do not plead my pardon And yet I cannot choose but adde that these lazy lives of some of the Monks and Fryers have carryed them so far into spiritual fornications or rather into contemplative lusts that many of them have fancied to themselves such unclean commixtures as that of Fryer Albert with the blessed Virgin To what end else served those large Faculties which were given unto Tekelius a Dominican Fryer when he was sent to publish the pardons or Indulgences of Pope Leo the tenth in the upper Germany Who spared not to affirm even in common Alehouses that by his Buls he had authority to absolve any man whatsoever Etiamsi Virginem matrem vitiaverit though he had vitiated or deflowred the Virgin Mother as Sleidan tels the storie in his book of Commentaries I know that in the later Editions of this Author as in that of Colen printed An. .... the words are changed to Virginem aut matrein a maid or a mother and so to mend the matter they have marred the sense For what need such large faculties as Tekelius bragged of for pardoning fornication or Adultery for the deflowring of a Virgin or lying with another mans wife which every ordinary Priest can absolve of course Besides in the first Edition of that Author printed at ..... An. .... it is plainly Virginem Matrem the Virgin Mother And so 't is in an old English Translation of him printed at London and la Veirge Mere as plainly in a French Translation printed at Geneva An. 1574. Marvail it is that Maldonate hath not undergone the like castigation whose Quidam whatsoever he was offended more against the Majesty of the holy Ghost then Tekel did save that the Popes authority was concerned in it against the modesty and piety of the Virgin Mary To return therefore where I left as I abominate the impieties of these Romish Votaries so neither can I approve the conceit of Estius though otherwise a very learned and sound Expositor of holy Scripture where the interest of the Church of Rome
general rule but hath some exceptions so this hath one exception and but only one there being one only place in the new Testament where Hades is translated otherwise in the vulgar Latine that namely 1 Cor. 15.55 where it is rendred mors or death Of which no reason can be given unlesse perhaps he fell upon some such Greek copies as Eusebius did wherein the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was twice repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. O death where is thy sting O death where is thy victory To which I do incline the rather because the reading of the Latine is exceeding antient ubi est mors aculeus tuus ubi est mors contentio tua where we finde also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. strife for victory occurring in Tertullian Cyprian and others of the antient writers So that the word Hades being used throughout the whole new Testament to signifie the place of torments and inferi or infernus by the old Latine translatour to expresse that word it must needs be that inferi and infernus throughout the Testament and with most Ecclesiastical Authors since the translating of it must signifie the self-same place which we English usually call the name of Hell These things premised we shall the better be inabled to discern what the meaning is of Christs descent into hell whether the words import any local descent or only something analogical and proportionable to it That the Apostles and Evangelists did first commit the sacred monuments of the faith which they left behind them to the Greek tongue as being then of an extent more universall then that of the Romans and the Iews is a thing past question unlesse perhaps St. Matthews Gospel was first written in the Hebrew language as St. Ierome and some other learned men have been of opinion And therefore it is more then probable that they delivered this brief Abstract of the Christian faith which we call the Creed in the same tongue also in which they did communicate those Oracles of eternal life Which granted as I think no question will be made thereof what else can follow thereupon but that the word Hades in the Creed must be taken in the self-same sense in which we finde it generally used not one place excepted in the whole new Testament those very men whose writings make up a great part of the said new Testament contributing their severall Articles to make up the Creed And then what else can be supposed to be the meaning of Christs descent into hell but that he locally went down which is the ordinary meaning of the word descend and went down to the place of torments which in the common course of speech is generally designed by the name of hell Or if the Creed were first compiled and published in the Latine tongue the same conclusion must needs follow from the former premisses the Latine inferi or infernus as before was proved signifying the very same with the Greek word Hades and that imparting nothing else according to the Ecclesiastical notion but the English Hell Besides the Apostles purposely intended this and whosoever else we shall please to think were the Authors of it did intend the same to lay down plainly and methodically according to the understanding of the vulgar sort that which they thought most fitting to comprise in this short Compendium Nor can it enter into the belief of any man endued with ordinary sense and reason that the Apostles having before made use of those vulgar phrases was crucifyed dead and buried in the literal sense which every Artizan and Ploughman nay even women and children could not but understand at the first hearing should then come in with a descent into hell not to be understood in a literal sense as the words usually import in common speech but in a meaning too abstruse and difficult for all vulgar wits beyond the reach of ordinary apprehensions Assuredly it was never the Apostles meaning that they for whose use principally they compiled the Creed and in whose language it was written which soever it was should not be able to conceive the true sense of their words without the help of a Lexicon or having diligent recourse unto the Criticks and Philosophers of their severall Languages But because Arguments of this nature may perhaps be said not to be demonstrative and that men will not readily let goe their hold-fast upon probabilities we will proceed another way and setch the truth of this assertion that Christ descended into hell in a literal sense from the authority and text of holy Scripture Most sure it is that there is nothing comprehended in the Creed but what is to be found in the book of God either in termes expresse as the greatest part of them are or else by necessary and undeniable consequence And both these wayes we doubt not but we shall be able to assert this Article First in the way of necessary undeniable consequence it may be pleaded from that place of St. Paul to the Romans where it is said The righteousnesse which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend up into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead For the expounding of which words we first take notice that the two interrogatives are equivalent to these general negatives none can ascend up into heaven none can descend into the deep And then the meaning will be this that if none can ascend to heaven nor descend down into the deep then not Christ himself which to affirme were plainly and directly contrary unto the righteousnesse of faith So that it is a main ground of the Christian faith that Christ descended into the deep and into such a deep as hath some proportion to his ascension into heaven which possibly can be no other then the deeps of hell And hereunto agree Interpreters both old and new For thus Theophylact Stagger not saith St. Paul nor cast this doubtingly in thy mind how Christ descended from heaven or how after death he arose from the deep again id est ex abditissimo profundissimo loco that is to say from the deepest and most hidden place And why was hell called Hades amongst the Greeks but quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dark hidden and unseen as before was said More plainly Mart. Bucer for the late writers thus The Apostle acknowledgeth this question to be a denial of Christ and that he draweth Christ down from heaven who admitteth this doubt It is evident that the deep is taken pro infernis Hell and in this sense the Apostle seemeth to use this word the deep for he addeth that is to bring back Christ from the dead to wit to account his descent to hell to be void and his victory over death and hell Gehenna of none effect So then
said he addes this of the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thus in fine they saw Hell spoyled Epiphanius in this order marshalleth the acts of Christ He was crucified buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he descended to places under the earth he took captivity captive and rose again the third day By which we see that the taking of captivity captive was one of the effects of his descent into Hell and that both his descent and victory over Hell and Satan are placed between his burial and Resurrection In the Homiliâ—s which Leo the Emperour made for the exercise of his style and the Confession of his Faith wherein no doubt he had the judgement and advice of the ablest men that were about him he doth thus deliver it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Christ is risen saith he bringing Hades or the Devil prisoner with him and proclaiming liberty to the Captives He that held others bound is now bound himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is now come from Hell or Hades with his ensign of triumph as appeareth by the sowre and heavy looks of those which were overthrown that is to say of Hades meaning there as first the old Satan himself together with Death also and the hateful Devils Dorotheus in his Book de Paschate very plainly thus What means this that he led captivity captive It means saith he that by Adams transgression the Enemy had made us all captives and had us in subjection and that Christ took us again out of the Enemies hand and conquered him who made us captive And then concludes Erepti igitur sumus ab Inferis ob Christi humanitatem that we were then delivered from the power of Hell by the manhood or humanity of Christ our Saviour St. Cyprian though more antient and not so clear as he in this particular doth yet touch it thus Descendens ad inferos captivam ab antiquo duxit captivitatem that Christ descended into Hell brought back those captives which had before been captivated And in another place which we saw before When in the presence of Christ Hell was broken open and thereby captivity made captive his conquering soul being first presented to his Father returned unto his body without delay But to look back again to the old Greek Fathers who are far more positive and express in this then the Latines are we are thus told by Athanasius in another place that the Lord rose the third day from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having spoyled hell trodden the enemy under foot dissolved death broken the chains of sin with which we were tyed and freed us which were bound from the chains thereof St. Cyril of Alexandria thus Our Lord saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. having spoyled death and loosed the number of souls which were detained in the dens of the earth rose again the third day from the dead Which words of Cyril are repeated and approved in the Councel of Ephesus and afterwards confirmed in the fifth General Councel holden at Constantinople St. Hierom finally on the parable of the strong man which was bound and spoiled Mat. 12. gives this observation which I had almost pretermitted viz. that this strong man was tyed and bound in Hell and trodden under the Lords feet and the Tyrants house being spoyled captivity also was led captive In which quotations from the Fathers we must take this with us that when they speaking of spoyling Hell and vanquishing the powers thereof they do allude as evidently to the spoyling of principalities and powers mentioned in that to the Colossians as they insist upon the taking of captivity captive expressed in that to the Ephesians In a word take the sum of all which by the Antients is delivered upon those two Texts in these words of Zanchius a very learned Writer of the Reformed Churches The Fathers saith he for the most part are of this opinion that Christ in his soul came to the place of the damned to signifie not in words but with his presence that the justice of God was satisfied by his death and bloudshed and that Satan had no longer power over his Elect whom he held captive c. As also that he might carry all the Devils with him in a triumph as it is Coloss. 2. He spoyled powers and principalities and made an open shew of them leading them as captives in a triumph by the vertue of his Cross by which he had purged away sins and appeased the justice of God So Zanchius But the most clear and pregnant place of holy Scripture for proof of Christâ— descent into Hell is that of the 2. of the Acts where the Apostle citing those words of David Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell nor suffer thine holy One to see corruption applyeth it thus unto our Saviour that David seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in Hell neither did his flesh see corruption In which particular words those before recited it is clear and manifest that the soul and body of Christ were by God appointed to be superiour to all contrary powers that is the soul to Hell and the flesh to the grave and that from both Christ was to rise an absolute conquerour that he might sit on his heavenly Throne as Lord over all not by promise only as before but in fact and proof But for the whole Sermon of St. Peter made on this occasion it may be summed up briefly to this effect that is to say that the Prophesie of David neither was nor could be fulfilled in any no not in David himself but only in the promised Messiah for that his soul should not be left in Hell or Hades nor his flesh see corruption but was fulfilled in that Christ whom ye cruelly crucified He it is that is risen Lord of all in his own person the sorrows of death being loosed before him he is ascended up to Heaven as David likewise foretold of him and there sitteth on the right hand of God untill all that be his enemies in the rest of his Members be made his foot-stool and thence hath he shed forth this which you now see and hear even the promise of the holy Ghost received of the Father for all his And therefore know ye for a surety that God hath made him both Lord and Christ i. e. Lord over all in Heaven Earth Hell and Christ even the Anointed Saviour of all his Elect. And to this purpose saith St. Augustine Quamobrem teneamus firmissime c. Wherefore let us most firmly hold that which is comprehended in our Faith or the heads thereof confirmed by most sound authority namely that Christ dyed according to the Scriptures and was buried and according to the Scriptures also rose again the third day with the rest of those things which are most clearly testified of him in the written Word
to proceed with them by the authority of Scripture and of reason both To the old Testament and our proofs from thence we shal challenge an obedience from them because by them confessed for Scripture and reverenced as the Oracles of Almighty God And for the new the writings of the holy Evangelists we shall expect submission to the truths thereof so far forth as it shall appear to be built on reason and unavoydable Demonstration Now the old Testament consisteth in that part thereof which doth reflect upon the birth and actions of our blessed Saviour either of types and figures or else of Prophecies and examples and the first type which looks this way is that of Isaac the only son the only beloved son of a tender father a type both of his death and his resurrection In which observe how well the type and truth do agree together The Altar was prepared the fire kindled Isaac fast bound and ready to receive the blow the knife was in his Fathers hand and his arme stretched out to act the bloudy part of a Sacrificer And yet even in the very act and so near the danger God by his holy Angel and a voice from heaven delivered the poor innocent from the jawes of death and restored him back unto his father when all hopes had failed him How evidently doth this fact of Abrahams stretching out his hand to strike the blow and being withholden by the Angel from the blow it self fore-shadow those sacred fundamentall truths which we are bound to believe concerning the true bodily death and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The Iews themselves in memorie of this deliverance did celebrate the first of Tisri which is our September usually called the Feast of Trumpets with the sound of Rams hornes or Corners and counted it for one of the occasions of that great solemnity which shews that there was somewhat in it more then ordinary somewhat which did concern their nation in a speciall manner Needs therefore must the Iews of our Saviours time be blinde with malice at the least with prejudice that look upon this story of Isaac the child of promise only as the relation of a matter past not as a type and shadow of the things to come this only son of Abraham this child of promise the only hope or pledge of that promised seed which was expected from the beginning being to come thus near to death and yet to be delivered from the power thereof that so the faith of Abraham touching the death and resurrection of his son the heir of promise might be tryed and verifyed or rather that by experiment our Saviours death and resurrection might be truly represented and foreshadowed in Isaacs danger and delivery And this is that to which St. Paul alludeth saying By faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure i. e. a figure of the resurrection of Christ the promised seed represented by it though Abraham probably looked no further then the present mercy Isaac then was the true representation and foreshadowing of our Saviours death and resurrection And so the wonderfull increase of Isaacs seed in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed was as full an embleme of our Saviours seed and generation which cannot be numbred he having begotten unto God since his resurrection more sons and daughters throughout all nations then all the children of Abraham or Isaac according to the flesh though like unto the sands of the Sea for multitude But the circumstances of our Saviours selling and betraying his cruell persecution both by Priests and people the whole story of his humiliation unto death and exaltation after his resurrection are more perfectly foreshadowed by the cruel persecutions of Ioseph procured by his brethren by his calamity and advancement in Egypt The story is so well known it needs no repeating And the afflictions laid on both by the sonnes of Iacob in a manner parallel themselves Both of them were the first-born of their several Mothers both of them the best beloved sons of their Fathers and for this cause both of them envied and maligned by their wicked and ill natured brethren by whom they were both severally betrayed and sold for a contemptible piece of money So far the parallel holds exactly goe we further yet The pit whereinto Iosephs brethren cast him as also the pit or dungeon unto which he was doomed by a corrupt and partial Iudge on the complaint of an imperious whorish woman without proof or witnesse what was it but the picture of our Saviours grave to which he was condemned in the sentence of death by as corrupt a Judge as Potiphar on the bare accusation and complaint of an Adulterous generation as the Scripture cals them without proof or evidence And the deliverance of Ioseph from both pit and dungeon his exaltation by Pharaoh over all the land of Egypt and his beneficence to his Brethren whom he not only pardoned but preservation from famine what were they but the shadowes and resemblances of Christs resurrection his sitting at the right hand of God the Father by whom all power was given him both in heaven and earth and finally his mercie to the sons of men whose sins he doth not only pardon but preserve them also from the famine of the word of God The Kings ring put on Iosephs hand the gold chain put about his neck and the vesture of fine linnen or silke wherewith he was arraied by the Kings command what were they as the Antients have observed before but the resemblances of those glorious endowments with which the body or Humanity of Christ our Saviour hath been invested or apparelled since his resurrection More then this yet The name of Zaphnath Paaneah given to Ioseph by the Kings appointment and the Proclamation made by Pharaoh that every knee should bow before him what is it but a modell or a type of that honour which God the King of Kings hath ordered to be given to Christ to whom he hath given a name above every name that at the name of JESUS every knee should bowe of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth Where by the way and that addeth something farther to the parallel also the name of Zaphnath Paaneah as the Hebrew reads it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psonthem Phanech as the Septuagint is naturally as the learned Mr. Gregory very well observeth a Coptick or Egyptian word and signifyeth an Interpreter of hidden things or a revealer of secrets And so not only the Babylonish Targum and others of the Rabbins do expound the word but we finde the same exposition in Theodoret also 〈◊〉
to the apprehension of the weakest Christians Others and those the greater part both of the Protestant Churches and the Church of Rome do so expound Christs sitting at the right hand of God as if thereby he were made equal to the Father in Majesty and power and glory And this way many of the Antients have gone before them But Maldonat not content with this goes a strain yet higher a straâ—t above Elah at the least and thinks that CHRIST by sitting at the right hand of God is somewhat more then equal to him Et majorem prae se dignitatem ferat and carryeth a resemblance of the greater dignity as being placed in the more honorable and more worthy seat For this he giveth us a rule and an instance too both alike false and faulty if examined throughly His rule is this Cum sedent duo qui honoratior est sedet ad dextram that when two persons sit together the most worthy of them sits on the right hand of the other But this is only true amongst private persons and that but in some Countries and at some times neither Between a King and Subjects of what rank soever the case is otherwise and most ridiculous and absurd would the consequents be if it were not so Next let us look upon the instance which he gives us of it out of his aboundance to see if it doth either mend or mar the matter and we shall finde both that and his inference on it to be more ridiculous then his rule His instance is that of Bathsheba before remembred whom Solomon saith he did place on the right hand of his Throne ut eam superiorem agnosceret thereby acknowledging his Mother to be his superior Assuredly the Iesuite must be very blinde when he made that inference and did not see how ill it did cohere with the truth of story or else he must be thought to have a further aim in it then he would be know of All that can logically be deduced from that act of Solomons is that he bare a filial duty to his Mother though he were her Soveraign and did desire to have her honoured by his people in the next place to himself For had she been Superiour to him or so thought herself she would not have petitioned him as we see she did to bestow Abishag the Shunamite upon Adonijah but would have done it freely of her own authority Or had the King conceived her to be Lady Paramount and to have the Soveraignty or Superiority as the Iesuite saith he would not have returned her back with a flat denial especially considering that she had descended so much beneath herself as to move him in it and that too in an humble and petitioning way Qui Rex est Regem maxime non habeat said the Poet Martiall if Bathsheba was Supreme unto Solomon and confessed to be so then was he no King Or if we grant it to be so in the case of Bathsheba we must allow it to be so too in the Kings wife Psal. 45. placed at the Kings right hand by David in a very ill time For whether we understand it literalâ—y of the Kings wife the Queen whose wife soever she was whether his or Solomons or mystically of the Church the Spouse of Christ it must needs follow by his rule and his reason both that the Queen wore the breeches and did rule the King and the CHVRCH Lord it over CHRIST neither of which I think the learned Iesuite had the face to say And therefore I am easily induced to think that Maldonate being a man of great reach and reading had a further aim in it and laid his line a far off for some other fish For Solomon being as he was a Type of Christ and though a King yet publickly acknowledging his Mother for Superior to him why may not then the Virgin Mary take the like authority why must not Christ submit to her as to his Supreme If so then Iure Matris impera Redemptori will be no longer Popish superstition but good Christian piety and Bonaventures Psalter a new piece of Scripture then the dividing of the Kingdome of God betwixt Christ and his Mother leaving to him the Kings Bench and to her the Chancery justice to him but mercy to his Lady Mother will be sound Divinity and the Idolatrous title of Regina Coeli or the Queen of Heaven which they so often give her in their publick formulas will be no longer Courtship or a spiritual kinde of daliance as Harding cals it but her own just right Nay God must be beholding to her if she stop at that and put not in for the Supremacy over him and all as by the Iesuites grounds she may for ought I can see For since that Christ by sitting at the right hand of God the Father hath not only an equality with him both in power and Majesty but majus quiddam saith the Iesuite something more excellent then so and seeing that the Virgin Maries case is like that of Bathsheba and 't is a ruled case that of Bathsheba if we mark it well it must needs follow thereupon for ought I can judge that God the Father must content himself with the third place only and be glad of that too Adeo argumenta ex absurdo petita ineptos habent exitus said Lactantius truly Let us consider in the next place whether this sitting of our Saviour at the right hand of God doth give him an equality with God the Father which is the more received opinion and more likely far or if not that then what our Saviour gains by his sitting there and what we take to be the meaning of that form of speech And first I see no reason strong enough to perswade me to it that sitting at the right hand is a sign of equality the case being rightly laid as it ought to be betwixt a King and his Subjects betwixt God and man For I conceive this Article to relate only to the man CHRIST IESVS and that the note of Estius is exceeding good that is to say that all the Articles of the Creed concerning Christ from his being conceived by the holy Ghost to that of his coming unto judgement inclusively de Christo dici secundum humanam naturam are spoken of him only in his humane nature For in that only he was born of the Virgin Mary in that alone did he suffer under Pontius Pilate in that was crucified dead and buryed descended into hell rose again from the dead and finally in that and in none but that did he ascend into the Heavens and there doth sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty And if his humane nature in it self considered will not give him an equality with God the Father as he himself affirms it did not acknowledging that his Father was greater then he and that he knew not all things which the Father did then
rule his Church in things which concern salvation by men in sacred Orders is confessed on both sides and that he doth preserve the same in external Order at peace and decency and in the beauty of holiness by the power of Christian Princes is affirmed in Scriptures Why else are Kings entituled the Nursing Fathers and Queens the nursing mothers of the Church of Christ but for the protection which they give their superintendency over it in their several Kingdoms Kings are Christs Vice-roys on the earth in their own Dominions over all persons in all causes aswell Ecclesiastical as Civil the Supreme Governours And so are Bishops in the first sense in their several Dioceses and under them those Presbyters which have cure of souls Which lest we may be thought to say without good authority we call the Popes themselves to witness against those of Rome and to the others will say more in the following Paragraph For Pope Eusebius in his third Epistle decâ—etory which whatsoever credit it be of amongst learned men must be good ad homines saith plainly that our Saviour is the Churches head and that his Vicars are the Bishops to whom the Government and Ministerie of the Church is trusted Caput Ecclesâ—ae Christus est Vicarii autem Christi sacerdotes sunt And Sacerdotes in those times did signifie the Bishops no inferior Order For further proof whereof if more proof be needful consult St. Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 11. St. Austin in his questions on the Old and New Testament qu. 127. The Author of the Imperfect work ascribed to St. Chrysostom Hom. 17. the Fathers of the Councel of Compeigne and divers others all of which call the Bishop in most positive tearms Vicarium Christi the Vicar of Christ. And for the King so said Pope Eleutherius in a letter of his to Lucius a King of Britain no great Prince assuredly but the first Christian Prince that ever was in the world Vicarius Dei vos estis in regno vestro you are Gods Vice-roy or Lieutenant in your own Dominions Which title Edgar as I take it a West-Saxon King did challenge as his own of right in a speech made unto his Clergy in their Convocation or some such like Synodical meeting The like occurs of William the Conquerer who in a Parliament of his is called Vicarius summi Regis as is said by Bishop Iewel in the Defence of the Apology part 5. cap 6. sect 3. And this perhaps the sticklers for Presbyterie will not stick to grant who will allow Kings to be Gods Vice gerents so they be not Christs and if not Christs then not to intermeddle in such things as concern the Church but to betake themselves meerly unto secular matters Beza hath so resolved it against Erastus Our Saviour Christ saith he hath told us that his Kingdome is not of this world adeo ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrationi nunquam se immiscuerit and therefore would not be a Judge in a Temporal difference and thereupon it is inferred that Secular Princes must not meddle in such things as concern Christs Kingdome But none have spoke more plainly in it then our Scottish Presbyters from Father Henderson down to Cant and Rutherford who build their Presbyterian Platform upon this foundation that Kings receive not their authority from IESVS CHRIST but from God the Father Which being so pernicious a Maxime to the right of Kings and so derogatory to the honour of our Lord and Saviour I shall in brief summe up some passages in holy-holy-Scripture and other good authorities from the antient Fathers as may aboundantly convince them of most gross absurdity in offering such strange fire in the Church of God For first our Saviour who best knew his own Prerogative hath told us that All power is given to him both in Heaven and Earth If all then doubtless that of ordaining Kings which are the greatest powers on earth If all then must it be by him as indeed it is or Solomon mistook the matter By whom Kings reign and Princes decree justice In reference to this power no question but St. Paul calleth him Rex Regum or the King of Kings He is saith the Apostle the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords By the same title he is called in the Revelation chap. 17. vers 14. And this not only in the way of excellencie because a greater King and a more puissant Lord then any here upon the earth but also in the way of derivation because from him all Kings and Princes whatsoever do derive their power Just so and in the self same sense some of the mighty Monarchs amongst the Gentiles having inferiour Princes under their command and such as do derive all authority from them do call themselves the Kings of Kings Rex Regum Arsaces the old style of the Parthian Emperours This further proved and very significantly inferred from another place of the Revelation where it is said of Christ the Lamb that he hath on his vesture and on his Thigh a name written viz. Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords In which last place there are two things to be observed which concern this point the one that this name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords is fixed and setled in Christs Person as the Son of man the other that all Kings are De femore Christi certainly of his appointment and Ordination as if they were descended from his very loyns Nor want we of the Fathers which affirm the same St. Athanasius paraphrasing on this Text of Scripture And he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever c. saith plainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Christ having received the Throne of David hath transferred the same and given it to the holy Kings of Christians And so Liberius one of the Popes of Rome writing unto the Emperour Constantius a Prince extremely wedded indeed to the Arian faction admonisheth him not to fight against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 s who had advanced him to the Empire nor to be so unthankeful to him as to countenance any impious opinion that was held against him Adde to these two though these the great Patriarchs of the Roman and Egyptian Churches the suffrage of the Fathers assembled at the Councel holden in Ariminum who writing to the same Constantius and speaking of our Lord and Saviour addes these following words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say By whom thou reignest and hast Dominion over all the world And this no question is the reason why all Christian Princes do place the Cross upon the top of their Royal Crowns For though they use it as a badge of their Christianity and to acknowledge that they are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ yet by allotting to it the superior place they publish and confess this also that they do hold their Crowns by and under him Let us
of Christs disciples shall goe to an invisible place appointed them by God and there shall remain unto the resurrection and after receiving their bodies and rising perfectly that is corporally as Christ did rise shall so come to the Vision or sight of God Tertullian next It is saith he apparent to any wise man that there is a place determined which is Abrahams bosome for the receiving of the souls of his sons which region I mean Abrahams bosome though it be not heavenly but Tertullian was out in that sublimior tamen inferis yet being higher then the inferi or places below shall give comfort to the souls of the righteous untill the resurrection and the end of all things bring the full reward So Hilarie B. of Poyctiers The day of judgment is the day of everlasting happinesse or punishment till which time death hath every one under his dominion whilest either Abrahams bosome or the house of torments reserveth every man to judgement St. Ambrose to the same effect till the fullnesse of time come the souls expect their due reward for some of which pain for others glory is provided Next him St. Augustine his convert After this short life thou shalt not as yet be where the Saints shall be to whom it shall be said in the day of judgement Come ye blessed of my father c. Thou shalt not be there as yet who knoweth not that but there thou shalt be where poor Lazarus was seen a far off by the proud richman In that rest shalt thou securely expect the day of judgment in which thou shalt receive thy body and be changed and be made equall with the Angels St. Bernard thus you perceive that there be three states of the soul the first in this corruptible body the second without the body the third in perfect blessednesse The first in the Tabernacles the second in the Courts the third in the house of God into which most blessed house of God the souls of the Saints shall not enter without us nor without their own bodies I had not named St. Bernard amongst those Antients but only to the end that it might be seen that this was generally the doctrine of the Western Church as to this particular untill the invocation of the Saints departed became first to be put in practise and afterwards to be defended and imposed as good Catholick Doctrine For they saw well that unlesse it were received for an Orthodox truth that the Saints departed were admitted presently into the beatificall vision of Almighty God and in him see as in a Mirrour what things soever could be done or said on the earth beneath it were in vain to make unto them either prayers or vows not being yet estated in their own full glories and consequently not admitted to the presence of God And on the very same reasons for which the Church of Rome doth admit the Saints to enjoy the blessed vision of Almighty God in the heaven of glories did Calvin labour to decrie the received opinion in that point though by long tract of time engendering prejudice and prepossession in the hearts of men against any contrary position it was become the generall tenet of the Protestant Schools For well he knew that if that doctrine could be rooted out of the minds of men by which the Saints were brought though before their time into an habitation in the highest heavens that of the invocation of the Saints departed which depends upon it must of necessity perish with it But whatsoever moved him to opine so of it for I am confident it was not any love to the antient Fathers certain it is that he hath freely declared his opinion in it in several places of his writings In that entituled Psychopannychia he doth thus expresse it The souls of the Saints after death be in peace saith he because they are escaped from the power of the enemie but shall not raign with Christ their King untill the heavenly Hierusalem shall be advanced to her glory and the true Solomon the King of peace shall sit on high on his tribunal And this he doth not only say and leave the proof thereof to his ipse dixit as if that were enough to carry it over all the world but cites Tertullian Chrysostome Augustine Bernard some of whose words we saw before to confirme the point But seeing that tract of his hath been called in question as if it did incline too much towards the Anabaptists we will next look upon his book of Institutions where we finde him saying That since the Scripture every where biddeth us to depend upon the expectation of Christs coming and deferreth the Crown of glory till that time we are to be content with the bounds that God hath appointed us viz. that the souls of the godly having ended their warfare depart unto an happy rest where with a blessed joy they look for the fruition of the promised glory and that so all things shall stand suspended untill Christ appeare The same he also intimateth in another place where he resolveth That not only the Fathers under the Law but even the holy men of God since the death of Christ are but in profectu in progresse as it were to that perfect happinesse which is to be conferred upon them in the day of doom that in the mean time they abide in atriis in the out-courts of Heaven and there expect the consummation of their beatitude And finally none but our Saviour Christ saith he hath entred into the heavenly Sanctuary where to the end of all the world Solus populi eminus in atrio residentis vota ad deum defert he alone represents to God the desires of his people sitting a far off in the outward Courts I know that Bellarmine doth quarrell at these passages of Calvins and I cannot blame him He and the common interesse of the Church of Rome were so ingaged in the defence of the other opinion without which that of the invocation of Saints must needs fall to the ground that it concerned them all to calumniate Calvin as the broacher of new Doctrines in the Church of Christ though in this point they finde him countenanced by most antient writers Neither doth Calvin stand alone in this opinion being seconded though not in so expresse terms as himself delivereth it by Bucer Bullinger Martyr Musculus and some others also And wonder t is not that he was followed by so many but by so few prime men of the reformation to whom his name and authority were exceeding dear And if the case stand so with the Saints above no question but it standeth so too with the souls below For contrariorum par est ratio as the old rule is And to the truth we have not only the testimonie of the holy Scriptures saying expressely that God reserveth the unjust unto the day of judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2. but of so many of the
on the authority and warrant of the holy Scriptures yet certainely the Scripture as we see by these two last passages is against him in it That which occasioned his mistake if I guesse aright was those words of David viz. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement which is not to be meant of their not appearing but of their not daring to stand to their tryall but shrinking under the heavy burden of their sinnes and wickednesses Thus have I made a brief but a full description of Christs coming to judge both the quick and the dead according as it is laid down in the book of God The substance of it we have there delivered in so plain a way that every one that reads it understands it also unlesse he wilfully mistake and turn all to Allegories But for the Circumstances of this great and most glorious action that is to say the method and the manner of it the time and place and other things co-incident to those particulars in those I shall crave leave to enlarge my self a little further as well for my own satisfaction as the content of the reader And first beginning with the time there is but little I confesse to be said of that Our Saviour telleth us in plain termes that of that day and that hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in heaven neither the Son but the Father And yet as plain as these words are they have given great matter of dispute in the Christian Church especially that part of them which concernes the Son and his not knowing when that day and that hour should come The Arians hereupon concluded against CHRISTS divinity as being ignorant of some things which the Father knew But unto this the Fathers of that age answered very rightly that Christ speaks not of himself as God or as the Word both made and manifested in the flesh but as he was the Son of man to whom the Father had not pleased to communicate the knowledge of so great a mysterie And of this minde were Athanasius Serm. 4. cont Arium Ambrose l. 5. de fide c. 8. Nazianzen Orat. 4. de Theolog. Theodoret Anathem 4. cont Cyrill Cyril of Alexandâ— l. 9. Thesaur c. 4. the Author of the imperfect work on St. Matthews Gospel ascribed to Chrysostome Which though no doubt it was the most ready and most satisfactory answer which could be given unto the objection yet when the learning of the Schooles came to be in credit this answer was conceived to be derogatory to the honour of CHRIST and many quaint devises found to avoid the Argument some of them so derogatory to the honour of Christ that I think a greater scandall could not possibly be laid upon him And such I take to be that of Estius though I thinke him to be one of the modestest men that ever came out of the Schoole of Ignatius Loyala who telleth us that Christ is said to be ignorant of that day and hour quia non sic eum didicerat a Patre ut illum ulterius hominibus mâ—nifestare deberet because he had not so learned it of his Father as that he ought to make it known to us men More briefly thus Christ saith he doth doth not know of that day and that hour ut videlicet nobis notum faciat he doth not know it so as to tell it us Which is in plain termes neither better nor worse then to make Christ the author of equivocation so much in use amongst the Iesuits For though our Saviour was not bound nor did thinke it expedient to communicate all those things unto his Disciples which had been imparted to him by his heavenly Father yet to put such a speech in the mouth of Christ viz. I know it not that is to say I do not know it so as to tell it you is such a cunning piece of Iesuitisme that it is hardly to be matched in all their writings And therefore leaving them to their strange devises we will look back again upon the answere of the Antient Fathers which though both right and satisfactorie as before I said yet was it so deserted in the age next following that the Themistiani in the time of the Emperour Mauritius were accounted hereticks and nick-named commonly Agnâ—etae because they taught that Christ considered in his humane nature was ignorant of that day and hour of his own coming to judgment And possible enough it is they might still passe for hereticks did they live amongst us if they maintained this universally of Christs humane nature as if he neither did know it nor were capable of it and not with reference to the time in which he spake it there being many things communicated to him after his resurrection which before were not known unto him And therefore I for my part shall subscribe unto that of Origen who telleth us that when our Saviour spake these words he was indeed ignorant of the day of judgement post resurrectionem vero seivisse quod tunâ— Rex Judex a Patre constitutus sit but that he knew it after his Resurrection because he was then made by God both our King and Iudge But whether Christ did know of that day or not seemes not much materiall to some men who because they would be wiser then Christ our Saviour have marked us out the precise time of his coming to judgement And some there be who think they do not trespasse at all upon Gods prerogative to whom it only doth belong to know the times and the seasons Act. 1.7 if they content themselves with a certain year and do not look so narrowly into it as to name the day Of the first sort was a Dutch Priest in the parts near Noremburg who being skilful in Arithmetical calculations concluded out of the numerical letters of this prediction in the Gospel videbunt in quem pupugerunt Ioh. 19.38 that the world should end Ann. 1562. And having fooled himself in that he presumed so far as to name the very day nay the hour it self in which the world should end and Christ come to judgement so far prevailing on his Parish that they gave beliefe to his prediction and at the day and hour appointed met all together in the Chappel or Parish Church to hear their Prophet preach and expect Christs coming It were pity to leave the story so and therefore I will tell the successe thereof which in brief is this No sooner were the people assembled together but there fell a great storme with thunder and lightning and that in such a violent and fearfull manner that they looked every minute for the Lords appearing But the day waxing fair again and no Saviour coming the people finding how they had been abused fall on the Priest and had doubtlesse slain him in the place if some of the more moderate men had not stayed their fury and helped the silly Prophet to get out of their fingers Somewhat
causa etiam ad hodiernum diem Purgatorium non est à Graecis creditum In which besides a plain acknowledgement that the Greek Fathers knew not of it there is a very shreud intimation that there is little mention in the antien◠Latines Some other ground there must be for the fire of Purgatory than prayers and offerings for the dead but what that is is not so easily agreed upon amongst themselves Some relie wholly on Tradition and others as they build on that for the main foundation so they bring Texts of Scripture as a second help for their collateral security onely and no more than so But Frier Iohn Bacon hath declared That there be others who think that Purgatory cannot be proved by authority of Scripture that the Books of Maccabees which commonly are alleged for proof thereof are not Canonical that the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. speaks of that fire that shall purge the elements of the world in the last day and that touching those words of Christ it shall never be remitted in this world nor in that to come they prove not that there is a remission of sins in the other world Nor is Iohn Bacon onely of this opinion For they who carefully consult the writings of our Romish Adversaries will easily perceive how little confidence they have in those Texts of Scripture which commonly are alleged in defence hereof there being not so much as one Text hitherto produced and insisted on by some of that party but what by others is denied to be meant of Purgatory And to say truth their differences are so many and irreeoncilable in all the points and circumstances which concern this doctrine that the disagreements which they have amongst themselves may serve sufficiently instead of all other Arguments to confute the Tenet First for the place which Eckius will have to be in the bottom of the Sea some in Mount Aetna others in the Centre of the Earth and Bernard de Busses in an Hill of Ireland next for the Torments which Sir Thomas Moor will have to be onely by fire Fisher his fellow-sufferer by Fire and Water Lorichius neither by Fire nor Water but by the violent convulsions of Hope and Fear then for the Executioners which Bishop Fisher will have to be holy Angels Sir Thomas Moor to be very Devils So for the sins that are to be expiated in those flames which some will have to be onely venial others to be the venial ones and the mortal too And for the time of their continuing in that state which Dennis the Carthusian extends to the end of the world Dominicus à Soto limits but to ten years onely others have shortned that time too if either their friends will hire some Priest to say Mass for their souls or the Pope do but speak the word And last of all for the extremity of the pain which Aquinas makes as violent as those of Hell and yet the Rhemists say that they which are in Purgatory are in a more happy and blessed condition than any man living Durandus betwixt these extreams gives them some intermission from these terrible pains upon Sundays and Holidays By which uncertainty or contrariety rather of opinions we may clearly see upon what weak foundations they have raised this building which probably had faln to the ground long since if the profit which ariseth by it to their Monks and Friers had not kept it up But I forbear to meddle further in this point of Purgatory which for my part I do conceive to be rather a Platonical and Poetical fiction than to have any ground in Scripture or true Antiquity The Fathers for the first 600 years after Christs Nativity making no resolution in it either publick or private save that St. Augustine to avoide a worse inconvenience may seem to some to patronize it And yet he doth it with such doubtingness and so much uncertainty that any man not blinded with his own opinion may see he knew not what to determine of it For sometimes it is no more then quantum arbitror for as much as he thinks and other whiles incredibile non est that it is not incredible But then he leaves it off with a quaeri potest as a matter disputable At other times he goes as far as a forsitan verum that peradventure it is true and yet at last utterly rejects it with an ignoramus Heaven we do know saith he and we know Hell also Tertium locum ignoramus a third place between both we can tell of none He that can ground a point of faith upon such uncertainties must have more skill in Architecture than I dare pretend to But this is onely on the by to shew how little the Communion of the Saints hath to do with Purgatory which neither is a consequent nor concomitant of it The Saints may pray for one another we for their consummation in the state of glory and they for our wel-doing in our passage thither and no such thing as Purgatory be inferred from either It is now time that I proceed to such other benefits as do redound unto the Church from her Head CHRIST IESUS Articuli X. Pars Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Remissionem Peccatorum i. e. The forgiveness of Sins CHAP. V. Of the first Introduction of sin God not the Author of it Of the nature and contagion of Original sin No Actual sin so great but it in capable of forgiveness In what respect some sins may be counted Venial and others Mortal IT is a saying of St. Augustines in no point so uncertain as in that of Purgatory that possibly God could not have bestowed a greater blessing on his Church than making his onely begotten Son Christ Iesus to be head thereof By means whereof it cometh to pass that one and the same person Et orat pro nobis orat in nobis oratur à nobis doth both pray for us and pray with us and yet is also prayed to by us How so That he resolves immediately in the words next following Orat pro nobis ut sacerdos noster orat in nobis ut caput nostrum oratur à nobis ut deu◠noster that is to say He prayeth for us as our Priest he prayeth with us as our Head and is prayed to by us as our God Himself is both the Suter and the Mediator yea and the party sued unto and therefore doubt we not when we call upon him but he will grant us those Petitions which himself makes for us As Priest he represents continually to Almighty God the benefit and effect of that perfect Sacrifice which he once offered on the Cross for the sins of the world As Head unto the Church he recommends our prayers to the Throne of Grace and joyneth with his Members in their sutes to God for the more speedy and effectual obtaining of them As God he hath his eye still over
Monuments of the Catholick Church to signifie the death and not the birth-day of the Saints departed And more particularly we are thus informed by St. Augustine Solius Domini Beati Iohannis dies nativitatis in universo mundo celebratur i. e. That onely the day of the nativity of our Lord and Saviour and of St. Iohn Baptist were celebrated in his time in the Church of Christ Of Christ because there is no doubt but that he was conceived and born without sin original and of the Baptist because sanctified in his Mothers womb as St. Luke saith of him And for particular men it is said by Origen Nemo ex sanctis invenitur hunc diem festum celebrasse c. That never any of the Saints did celebrate the day of their own nativity or of any of their sons and daughters with a Solemn Feast The reason was the same for both because they knew that even the best of them were conceived in sin and brought forth in wickedness and therefore with no comfort could observe that day which the sense of their original corruptions had made so unpleasing But on the other side those men who either knew not or regarded not their own natural sinfulness esteemed that day above all others in their lives as that which gave them their first-being to enjoy their pleasures and they as Pharaoh in the Old Testament and Herod in the New failed not to keep the same as a Publick Festival Soli peccatores super hujusmodi diem laetantur as it is in Origen And hereupon we may infer without doubt or scruple that having the authority of the Scripture and the Churches practise and that practise countenanced by Authors of unquestioned credit not to say any thing further in so clear a case from the concurrent Testimonies of the Antient Fathers That there is such a sin as Birth-sin or Original sin a Natural corruption radicated in the Seed of Adam which makes us subject to the wrath and indignation of God Thus have we seen the Introduction of sin the first act of the Tragedy let us next look upon the second on the Propagation the manner how it is derived from Adam unto our Fore-fathers and from them to us And this we finde to be a matter of greater difficulty St. Augustine in whose time these controversies were first raised by the Pelagians did very abundantly satisfie them in the quod sit of it but when they pressed him with the quo modo how it was propagated from Adam and from one man to another he was then fain to have recourse to Gods secret justice and his unsearchable dispensation Et hoc quidem libentius disco quam doceo ne audeam docere quod nescio as with great modesty and caution he declined the business For whereas sin is the contagion of the soul and the soul oweth its being unto God alone and is not begotten by our parents the Pelagians either would not or could not be answered in their Quere How Children should receive corruption from their Parents not could the good Father give them satisfaction unto their demand But as a Dwarf standing on the shoulders of a Giant may see many things far off not visible to the Giant himself so those of the ensuing times building on the foundations which were laid by Augustine have added to him the solution of such doubts and difficulties as in his time were not discovered Of these some have delivered That the soul contracts contagion from the flesh even in the very act of its first infusion the union of the soul and body nor is it any thing improbable that it should so be We see that the most excellent Wines retain their natural sweetness both of taste and colour as long as they are kept in some curious Vessel but if you put them into foul and musty bottles they lose forthwith their former sweetness participating of the uncleanness of the Vessel in which they are Besides it is a Maxim amongst Philosophers Quod mores animae sequuntur temperamentum corporis That the soul is much byassed and inclined in the actions of it unto the temper of the body and if the equal or unequal temper of the body of man can as it seems incline the minde unto the actual embracing of good or evil then may it also be believed that the corruptions of the flesh may dispose the soul even in the first infusion of it to some habitual inclinations unto sin and wickedness Than which though there may be a more solid there cannot be a more conceiveable Answer But others walking in a more Philosophical way conceive that the accomplishment of the great work of Generation consists not in the introduction of the form onely or in preparing of the matter but in the constituting the whole compositum the whole man as he doth consist both of soul and body And that a man is and may properly be said to beget a man notwithstanding the Creation of his soul by God because that the materials of the Birth do proceed from man and those materials so disposed and actuated by the emplastick vertue of the Seed that they are fitted for the soul and as it were produced unto Animation Which resolution though it be more obscure unto vulgar wits is more insisted on by the learned than the former is and possibly may have more countenance from holy Scripture When God made man it is said of him That he was created after Gods own Image that is to say Invested with an habit of Original Righteousness his understanding clear and his will naturally disposed to the love of God But Adam having by his fall lost all those excellent endowments both of grace and nature begot a Son like to himself And therefore it is said in the fifth of Genesis That he begot a son in his own likeness after his own image and he called his name Seth Though Adam was created after the Image of God and might have still preserved that Image in his whole posterity had he continued in that state wherein God created him yet being faln he could imprint no other Image in the fruit of his Body than that which now remained in him his own Image onely the understanding darkned and the will corrupted and the affections of the soul depraved and vitiated Qualis post lapsum Adam fuit tales etiam filios genuit such as himself was after his Apostasie such and no other were the Children which descended of him â—s Paraeus very well observeth And if it fall out commonly as we see it doth that a crooked Father doth beget a crook-backed Son that if the Father look a squint the Children seldom are right-sighted and that the childe doth not onely inherit the natural deformities but even the bodily diseases of his Parents too It is the less to be admired that they should be the heirs also of those sinful lusts with which their
all them that are sanctified Blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us and nailed it to his cross for ever to the end that being mindful of the price wherewith we were bought and of the enemies from whom we were delivered by him We might glorifie God both in our bodies and our souls and serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh in the time of the Mosaical Ordinances How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God in the time of the Gospel This is the constant tenor of the Word of God touching remission of our sins by the Blood of Christ. And unto this we might here adde the consonant suffrages and consent of the antient Fathers If the addition of their Testimonies where the authority of the Scripture is so clear and evident might not be thought a thing unnecessary Suffice it that all of them from the first to the last ascribe the forgiveness of our sins to the death of Christ as to the meritorious cause thereof though unto God the Father as the principal Agent who challengeth to himself the power of forgiving sins as his own peculiar and prerogative Isai. 43.25 Peculiar to himself as his own prerogative in direct power essential and connatural to him but yet communicated by him to his Son CHRIST IESUS whilest he was conversant here on Earth who took upon himself the power of forgiving sins as part of that power which was given him both in Heaven and Earth Which as he exercised himself when he lived amongst us so at his going hence he left it as a standing Treasury to his holy Church to be distributed and dispensed by the Ministers of it according to the exigencies and necessities of particular persons For this we finde done by him as a matter of fact and after challenged by the Apostles as a matter of right belonging to them and to their successors in the Ministration First For the matter of fact it is plain and evident not onely by giving to St. Peter for himself and them the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven annexing thereunto this promise That whatsoever he did binde on Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he did loose on Earth should be loosed in Heaven But saying to them all expresly Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained And as it was thus given them in the way of fact so was it after challenged by them in the way of right St. Paul affirming in plain terms That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by not imputing their trespasses unto them but that the Ministery of this reconciliation was committed unto him and others whom Christ had honored with the title of his Ambassadors and Legates here upon the Earth Now as the state of man is twofold in regard of sin so is the Ministery of reconciliation twofold also in regard of man As he is tainted with the guilt of original sinfulness the Sacrament of Baptism is to be applied the Laver of Regeneration by which a man is born again of water and the Holy Ghost Iohn 3.5 As he lies under the burden of his actual sins the Preaching of the Word is the proper Physick to work him to repentance and newness of life that on confession of his sins he may receive the benefit of absolution Be it known unto you saith St. Paul that through this man CHRIST IESUS is preached unto you remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And first for Baptism It is not onely a sign of profession and mark of difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others which be not Christned as some Anabaptists falsly taught but it is also a sign of regeneration or new birth whereby as by an instrument they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of the forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God This is the publick Doctrine of the Church of England delivered in the authorised Book of Articles Anno 1562. In which lest any should object as Dr. Harding did against Bishop Iewel That we make Baptism to be nothing but a sign of regeneration and that we dare not say as the Catholick Church teacheth according to the holy Scriptures That in and by Baptism sins are fully and truly remitted and put away We will reply with the said most Reverend and Learned Prelate a man who very well understood the Churches meaning That we confess and have ever taught that in the Sacrament of Baptism by the death and Blood of Christ is given remission of all manner of sins and that not in half or in part or by way of imagination and fancy but full whole and perfect of all together and that if any man affirm that Baptism giveth not full remission of sins it is no part nor portion of our Doctrine To the same effect also saith judicious Hooker Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end That they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness and also that infused divine vertue of the Holy Ghost which giveth to the powers of the soul the first dispositions towards future newness of life But because these were private men neither of which for ought appears had any hand in the first setting out of the Book of Articles which was in the reign of King Edward the Sixth though Bishop Iewel had in the second Edition when they were reviewed and published in Queen Elizabeths time let us consult the Book of Homilies made and set out by those who composed the Articles And there we finde that by Gods mercy and the vertue of that Sacrifice which our High Priest and Saviour CHRIST IESUS the Son of God once offered for us upon the Cross we do obtain Gods grace and remission as well of our original sin in Baptism as of all actual sin committed by us after Baptism if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly unto him again Which doctrine of the Church of England as it is consonant to the Word of God in holy Scripture so is it also most agreeable to the common and received judgment of pure Antiquity For in the Scripture it is said
Ancient Fathers The Rule is this That Custom is the best interpreter of a doubtful Law and we are lessoned thereupon to cast our eyes in all such questionable matters unto the practise of the State in the self-same case Si de Interpretione legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendum est quo â—ure Civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio Legis est Where we have both the Rule and the Reason too Which Rule as it holds good in all Legal Controvesies so there is a practical Maxim of as much validitie in matters of Ecclesiastical nature delivered by the ancient Writers This Maxim we will take from St. Augustines mouth and after shew how consonant it is unto the mind of the rest of the Fathers Quod universa tenet Ecclesia nec in Conciliis institutum sed semper retentum est non nisi Apostolica autoritate traditum rectissimè creditur i. e. Whatsoever the whole Church maintaineth which hath not been ordained by authority of Councils but been alwaies holden most rightly may be thought to have been delivered by Apostolical authority To this agreeth St. Hierom also saying Etiamsi Scripturae autoritas non subesset totius Orbis in hanc partem consensus instar praecepti obtineret That were there no authority of the Scripture for it yet the unanimous consent of all the world were as good as a precept So doth St. Irenaeus also who telleth us that in doubtful cases Oportet in antiquissimas recâ—rrere Ecclesias in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab iis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est we are to have recourse to the Eldest Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and learn of them what is to be determined in the present question And to this Maxim thus confirmed not onely the Romanists do submit but even Calvin too who telleth us he would make no scruple to admit Traditions Si modo Ecclesiae traditionem ex certo perpetuo sanctorum Orthodoxorum consensu confirmaret If Pighius could demonstrate to him that such Traditions were derived from the certain and continual consent of Orthodox and godly men If then according to this Maxim it be made apparent that Infant-baptism hath been generally used in the Church of Christ not being ordained in any Council but practised in those elder Churches in which some of the Apostles lived and since continued in the constant and perpetual usage of all godly men we may conclude that certainly it is of Apostolical Institution though there occur no positive Precept for it in the Book of God Which ground so laid we will proceed unto our proofs for this general practise taking our rise from Augustines time without looking lower because his Authority is conceived to have carryed the Baptism of Infants almost without controul in the following ages First then for Augustine he is positive and express herein Infantes reos esse Originalis peccati ideo baptizandos esse That Infants being guilty of Original sin are to be Baptised and this he cals antiquam fidei regulam the old Rule of Faith and saith expresly Hoc Ecclesia semper habuit semper tenuit à majorum fide recepit That the Church alwaies held and used it deriving in from the authority and credit of their Predecessors St. Chrysostom a Presbyter of the church of Antioch where St. Peter sometimes sate as Bishop somewhat before S. Augustins time speaks of Infant-Baptism as a thing generally received in the Christian Church Hoc praedicat Ecclesia Catholica ubique diffusa The Catholick Church saith he over all the world doth approve of this Some what before him lived St. Hierom a Presbyter of the Church of Rome which questionless was one of the Apostolick Sees founded both by St. Peter and St. Paul the two great Apostles of Iew and Gentile as the Antients say And he is clear for Infant-Baptism Qui parvulus est Parentis in Baptismo vinculo solvitur c. Children saith he are freed in Baptism from the sin of Adam in the guilt whereof they were involved but men of riper years from their own and his And in conclusion he resolves Infantes etiam in peccatorum remissionem baptizandos c. That Infants are to be baptized for the remission of sins and not as the Pelagians taught into hopes of Heaven as if they had been guilty of no sin at all A little before him flourished St. Ambrose successor to Barnabas the Apostle in the See of Millain who speaking of the Pelagian Heresies who published amongst other things that the hurt which Adam did unto his posterity was exemplo non transitu rather by giving them such a bad example of disobedience than by driving on them any natural sinfulness doth thereupon infer that if this were true Evacuatio Baptismatis parvulorum The Baptism of Infants were no longer necessary And in the same age but before flourished Gregory Nazianzen who calling Baptism Signaculum vitae cursum ineuntibus a Seal imprinted upon those who begin to live requires That children should be brought unto holy Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lest they should wart the common grace of the Church And though he afterwards advise that the Baptism of Children should be deferred till they be three years old that so they might be able to make answer to some Catechetical questions yet in a case of danger he doth press it home it being better as he grants that they be sanctified insensibly they not perceiving it by reason of their tender years than that they should depart hence without that signature Ascend we from the fourth to the third age of the Church and there we finde St. Cyprian the Great Bishop of Carthage as great a stickler for the Baptism of Infants as any one whosoever in the times succeeding He in an Epistle to one Fidus doth thus plead the case Porro si etiam gravissimis delictoribus c If saith he remission of sins be given to the greatest offenders none of which if they afterwards believe in God are excluded from the grace of Baptism Quanto magis prohiberi non debet infans qui recens natus nihil peccavit c. How much rather should an Infant be admitted to it who being new-born have not sinned at all save that they have contracted from Adam that original guilt which followeth every man by nature and therefore are more capable of the forgiveness of sins than others are Quod illis remittuntur non propria sed aliena peccata Because it is not their own but anothers sin Nor was this the opinion of St. Cyprian onely but the unanimous consent of Sixty and six African Bishops convened in Council by whom it was declared as he there relateth That Baptism was to be ministred as well to Infants as unto men of riper yeers Before him flourished
brought to light then much more shall the workers of those iniquities be made known to the Saints their Judges for if the persons be not known where would be that confusion of the face which the Scriptures speak of which shall befall the wicked and impenitent sinner upon the manifestation of his deeds of darkness Many a malefactor hath been hanged more chearfully in places where we was not known where he could be no shame to his friends and kinred than if he had been executed in the sight of those who knew him and the parentage whence he came And to this purpose are the words of our blessed Saviour unto his Apostles when he informeth them That they should sit upon twelve seats judging the twelve Tribes of Israel By which it is apparent that they shall be known by the Tribes of Israel to be the poor despised Apostles of a more despised and persecuted Saviour It followeth consequently upon good deduction not onely that the twelve Apostles shall know those of the Tribes of Israel whom they are to judge but that they shall be also known of one another and of all the Saints who shall rejoyce in that preferment of their Chiefs and Leaders though raised unto an higher pitch and degree of glory than others of their Brethren are advanced unto For that in Heaven there shall be different degrees and estates of glory I take to be a point so clearly evidenced in holy Scripture that little disputation needs be raised about it Though some too much affected to a parity in this present life expect to finde it also in the life to come The Fathers I am sure did all look this way And so much Peter Martyr doth confess ingenuously although himself no friend unto their opinion De Patribus fatemur ingenuè quod praemiorum discrimina statuerunt which is plain enough And as he doth affirm this of the Fathers generally so he affirms particularly of St. Ierom that he was istarum differentiarum acer propugnator a great assertor of those different degrees and estates of glory as indeed he was And certainly they had good warrant to resolve so in it Daniel a Prophet of the Lord and one in more than ordinary favor with him hath assured us this That they which be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and they which turn many unto righteousness like the Stars for ever In which we see two different duties recommended to us to learn the rules of wisdom first to be wise our selves and then to teach them unto others to turn them to righteousness accordingly the rewards proportioned to shine like the brightness of the firmament like the stars of Heaven And who seeth not how much the splendor of the Stars exceeds the brightness of the Sky of the clearest Firmament The like St. Paul hath told us of the Resurrection That there shall be a difference in it that there is one glory of the Sun another glory of the Moon another glory of the Stars and of the Stars that one Star differeth from another Star in glory Now our Astronomy doth teach us upon very good inferences that the Sun is One hundred sixty and six times bigger than the Earthly Globe whereas the Moon hardly amounts unto a fortieth part thereof and that the fixed Stars of the first magnitude are found to be One hundred and seven times bigger than the Body of the Earth those of the least coming but to the sixth part of that proportion Which sheweth the difference in glory to be very great though possibly the Rules of that Art may fail us in the proportioning of that difference But whatsoever be the error in those Rules of Art assuredly there can be no etror in the words of Christ in whom the Prophets and Apostles do concenter and meet together And he hath told us in plain terms That in his Fathers house there are many mansions that is to say as Denys the Carthusian states it conform unto the minde and meaning of the antient Fathers Multi praemiorum gradus variae distinctiones many degrees of happiness and estates of glory though all most glorious in themselves According to which Rule of our Lord and Saviour we finde a difference made in his holy Gospel between those men which had been faithful over much and those which had been faithful over a little onely the one being made the Ruler of Ten Cities the other but of Five alone between the recompense and reward of a righteous person and that which is laid up by God for the reward of a Prophet He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteoas mans reward And he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward saith our Lord and Saviour And to say truth besides the warrant and authority of the holy Scriptures that so it should be it stands with very good Reason that so it should be and is most consonant to the Rules of distributive Iustice that so it must be For if that faith in Christ and a conformity to the words of his holy Gospel be in the merciful construction of the Lord our God thought worthy of a crown of glory then certainly a greater and more lively faith and a more conscionable walking in the sight of God must be rewarded with a richer and more excellent Crown And so it also followeth by the rule of contraries For if he that knoweth the will of his Master and doth it not shall be beaten with more stripes than the ignorant man as the truth it self hath said he shall it must needs follow by that Rule that they which know Gods will exactly and conscionably apply themselves to observe the same shall be rewarded with more blessings at their Masters hands And so the old Carthusian whom before I spake of doth resolve the question Many saith he are raised above their brethren in the house of God Secundum quod aliqui ferventius Deum dilexerint as being far more zealous in their love to God more constant in pursute of their way to Heaven than others of their Brethren are which yet by Gods great mercy shall come thither also As therefore the Apostle advised those of Corinth so must I also counsel those which shall read these papers that they do covet earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best gifts and graces that so they may possess the most eminent places Or if they dare not look so high to be sure of this that they do so conform their lives unto Gods commandements that when their earthly Tabernacles are dissolved into dust and ashes their soules may be disposed of in the place of rest there to expect the Resurrection of their Bodys to Eternal life and lodged for ever in some one of those heavenly Mansions reserved for them in the Heavens And this indeed is that which we
of the Article but shall take it in the literal and Grammatical sense With which expression I conclude this long dissertation ARTICVLI 6. Pars 2da 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Tertia die resurrexit a mortuis i. e. The third day he rose again from the dead CHAP. X. Of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour with a consideration of the circumstances and other points incident to that Article IT was the observation of the Antient Father that the incredulity of St. Thomas did much conduce unto the confirmation of the Christian faith in this great Article of the Resurrection Quam felix incredulitas quae omnium seculorum fidei militavit as St. Augustine hath it The rest of the Apostles who had seen the Lord had made this their Colleague acquainted with so great a miracle too great indeed for one of so weak faith to assent unto And therefore he requires a more â—ull and perfect demonstration of it then any of his fellows had before exacted Vnless saith he I put my finger into the print of his wounds and thrust my hands into his side I will not believe See here the stubbornness of incredulity The same man who had seen Christ raise up Lazarus after three days resting in the grave will not believe he had ability to work the like miracle upon himself Our gracious Saviour thereupon permits his body to be handled by this unbeliever And Thomas sensibly convicted of his infidelity breaks out into this divine ejaculation MY GOD AND MY LORD Prae caeteris dubitavit prae caeteris confessus est said the Father rightly Here was a miraculous generation of belief indeed Faith came not here by hearing but by believing only And by this way of generation of belief in him the Christian Church became the more confirmed and setled in this present Article this trial and experiment of St. Thomas having clearly manifested that Christ assumed not a body in appearance only neither one of a spiritual essence or a new created one but that he rose again in the same numerical body in which he suffered on the Cross and paid the price of our Redemption So that of all that glorious company there was none more fit to testifie the truth of this point then he and to deliver it to the world for his part of this Common Symbol as it was antiently conceived he did And unto this St. Gregory may possibly relate where he tels us saying Dum in Magistro suo palpat vulnera carnis in nobis sanat vulnera incredulitatis whilest Thomas feels the wounds in his masters body he healed the wounds of incredulity in his followers souls And certainly some such experiment as this was exceeding necessary to satisfie the wavering and doubtful soul in so high an Article which by reason of the seeming impossibility and unexampled strangenesse of the matter hath been more called in question and opposed both by Iew and Gentile then any other of the Creed It was indeed a work both of weight and wonder not to be wrought by any which was simply man To man meer natural man it was no lesse impossible to give a resurrection to the dead then to grant a dispensation or indulgence not to die at all How could it be expected that one meerly moral should be of strength sufficient to destroy death and to bury the grave to raise himself first from the jawes of death and receptacles of the grave and by the power thereof to restore poor man to his lost hopes of immortality Most justly may it be presumed that had so great a work been possible to mortal man man being proud enough to attempt great matters would first have took the benefit of his own abilities and so more easily have possessed the incredulous world with the truth and reall being of a resurrection by the powerfull Rhetorick of example In cases where the issue may be doubtfull and the triall dangerous we commonly make tryall and experiment as ignorant Empericks do their potions upon other men But where the issue or event is known and certain likely to yeeld honour to our selves in the undertaking we use not willingly to let others rob us of the glory of it or be beholding unto others for that which we conceive we can do our selves He then which was to be the first-fruits of the resurrection must have something in him more then ordinary something to raise a doubt in his greatest adversaries as in Iosephus a Iew but a very modest one whether it were lawfull or not to call him man to reckon him amongst the natural sons of Adam Tantae ejus res gestae quantas audere vix hominis perficere nullius nisi Dei was spoken in the way of flattery by the Court Historian but may be truly verifyed of the acts of Christ. Those Miracles of his upon true record as they could hardly be attempted by a mortal man so could they be performed by none but a powerfull God For who but he who both in name and power was the God of nature had power not only to suspend some acts of nature but absolutely to over-rule the whole course thereof Of which great works above the ordinary reach of man and nature if we accompt the resurrection as the principall we shall rightly state it It is within the power of Art and the rules of Physick to repaire the ruines of decayed nature and perhaps prolong the number of a few miserable days He only could restore life to the dead who first gave it to the living He only can restore our bodies to our souls in the last day who did at first infuse our souls into our bodies Which miracle before it could be wrought on us he must first work it on himself and thereby raise an hope and be belief in us to expect our own The head being raised gives good assurance to the body that though it do not rise at the same time with it it shall in due time be raised by it What other uses may be made of Christs resurrection we shall see anon This is enough to shew the reasons or necessity thereof by way of preamble to let us see that all the hopes we have of our own resurrection depends upon the certainty and truth of this Which though it be a principle of the Christian faith by consequence of common course to be confessed and not disputed Oportet enim discentem credere as the old rule is yet sithence that the truth thereof hath been much suspected by the Iews and the possibility debated by the Gentiles it will be necessary for the setling of a right beliefe to satisfie the one and refell the other Which done it will be easily seen that there is reason and authority enough to confirm this truth were it not left us for a principle And first beginning with the Iews who first and most maliciously opposed this part of holy Gospel we purpose
as in the West did gainsay the same had their several Errors which never could finde entertainment in the Church of Rome Insomuch as one might safely say of Theological truths as was once said of Philosophical viz. Though they may not possibly be found all at once together in a National or Particular Church yet they are all preserved in the Vniversal And it is the Vniversal Church or the Church Essential not any Topical Church whatever which is free from Error This being granted as I think it is proved sufficiently that the Church Essential cannot fall into any Error which is destructive of divine and salvifical truth We will next see whether and if at all how far this privilege may be extended to the Representative For being it is impossible for the whole Church the diffusive Body to meet together in one place for the composing of such Differences and suppressing such Heresies as may occasionally arise in some part thereof it hath been found expedient in all former ages to delegate some choice men out of the particulars which being met should represent the whole Body Collective and in the name of those that sent them agree amongst themselves what was fit to be done These Meetings were called General Councils Concilia à conciliando from reconciling and attoning such material differences as did disturb the publick peace and general in relation unto National and Provincial Councils assembled on occasions of more private nature From the Apostles times did this use continue Who on the dissention raised by some which came down from Iudea and mingled Circumcision and the Law of Moses with the Gospel of Christ did meet together to consider and determine of it And having resolved upon the point they sent their Decretory Epistle unto all the Churches requiring their obedience and conformity to that resolution which on debate amongst themselves and by the guidance and assistance of the Holy Ghost had been made therein This as it was the first General Council of the Church of Christ so was it the model also of all those that followed and of this Council it is certain that it could not erre Partly because composed for the most part of the Lords Apostles but principally because guided and directed by the Spirit of Truth who had the supream managing of the Action But this we cannot say of those General Councils which after were assembled on the like occasions For though the Church essential might delegate her power unto those Commissioners whom she imployed at such Assemblies yet could she not also import her Privilege And for the Members who convened they neither were endued with a like measure of the Spirit as the Apostles were possessed of nor sure infallibly of such assistance from the Holy Ghost as he vouchsafed to them in that great affair and therefore could not warrantably presume of the like freedom from error which that first General Council might lay claim unto Augustine hath resolved it so against Cresconius Non debet se Ecclesia Christo praeponere cum ille semper veraciter judicet Ecclesiastici autem judices plerumque falluntur The Church saith he ought not to prefer her self before Christ i. e. Before Christ speaking in his Gospel considering that he always judgeth according to truth but Ecclesiastical Iudges being men are oft-times deceived And so it is resolved by the Church of England who hath declared That for as much as General Councils be Assemblies of men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God they may erre and sometimes have erred in things appertaining unto God A possibility then there is in the judgment of the Church of England That General Councils may erre in the things of God whether in points of Faith or not there is nothing said For being the Conveners are no more than men men subject as all others are to Humane affections and byassed many times by their private interesses it cannot be but such a possibility may be well supposed And a declaration there is also that some General Councils have actually erred as did the second Nicene in the matter of Images for which it stands censured by the Bishops of France and Germany in the Synod held at Franckford under Charls the Great Which notwithstanding such and so sacred is the name of a General Council if truly such that is to say if it be lawfully called and rightly constituted That the determinations of it are not rashly to be set at nought or wilfully opposed or scornfully slighted it being the Supream Tribunal of Christ on Earth For since the Lord was pleased so graciously to promise That when two or three were gathered together in his name he would be in the midst of them It may be piously inferred in Pope Celestines words Cum nec tam brevi numero Spiritus defit quanto magis eum interesse credamus turbae convenientem in unum sanctorum If the Spirit saith he be not wanting to so small a number how much rather ought we to believe that he vouchsafes to be present with a great multitude of good and godly men convened together He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me said Christ himself also unto his Apostles and in them unto their Successors in his holy Ministery May it not piously be inferred from those words of Christ as did some of the Antients in an African Synod to be a very gross absurdity for a man to think That God would give an understanding and discerning Spirit to particular men Et sacerdotibus in Concilium congregatis denegare and not afford it to be a company of godly Bishops met together in counsel And reason good For as many eyes see more than one and the united judgments of learned men assembled together carry more authority in Natural or Political things than of some single persons onely so questionless the joynt prayers of many devout and godly men prevail more with God for the assistance of his Spirit in their consultations than any private man can chalenge or presume upon when points of Faith and matters appertaining to the service of God are to be debated Upon these grounds from the Apostles times to these the Church hath exercised a power in her Representatives of setling such affairs as concerned the publick whether it were that some new controversie did arise in the points of Faith or an emergent Heresie was to be suppressed or that some Text of holy-Scripture which Hereticks had wrested to their private ends was to be expounded or finally that the worshipping of God the Lord in the beauty of holiness did require it of them Nor was it onely exercised by the Church de facto but de jure too And so it is resolved by the Church of England in her Twentieth Article the first and last expresly the second upon strong and necessary consequence The Church hath power to decree Rites or
they were moved by the Holy Ghost It is not subject to the humor of a private spirit but to be weighed and pondered by that publick Spirit which God hath given unto his Church which he hath promised to conduct in the ways of truth and to be with her always to the end of the world Not that we do exclude any private man from handling of the holy Scripture if he come sanctified and prepared for so great a work if he be lawfully ordained or called unto it and use such helps as are expedient and necessary to inform his judgment nor that we give the Church such a supream power as to change the sense and meaning of the holy Scriptures according as her self may vary from one opinion to another in the course of times This is indeed the monstrous Paradox of Cusanus who telleth us That the Scripture is fitted to the time and variously to be understood so that at one time it is expounded according to the present fancy of the Church and when that fancy is changed that then the sense of Scripture may be also changed and that when the Church doth change her judgment God doth change his also And this I call a monstrous Paradox as indeed it is in that it doth not onely assubject the truth of Scripture but even the God of truth himself to the Churches pleasure How much more piously hath the Church of England determined in it who though it do assert its own power in Expounding Scripture yet doth it with this wise and Religious Caution That the Church may not so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another Within which bounds if she contain herself and restrain her power no doubt but she may use it to the honor of God the setling of a Publick Peace in all matters controverted and the content and satisfaction of all sober Christians The last part of the Churches power consists in the decreeing of Rites and Ceremonies for the more orderly officiating of Gods Publick service and the procuring of a greater measure of reverence to his holy Sacraments Of this she hath declared more fully in another place First In relation to it self to the Churches power viz. Every particular or National Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by mans authority so that all things be done to edifying Next in relation to the people and their conformity That whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be openly reproved that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and woundeth the Consciences of the weaker Brethren Which Propositions are so evidently and demonstratively true according to the constant practise of approved Antiquity that he must wilfully oppose the whole Catholick Church and all the famous National Churches in the Primitive times who doth not chearfully and readily assent unto them For who can shew me any Council in the former Ages wherein some Orders were not made for regulating both the Priest and People in the worship of God wherein the Church did not require obedience to her Constitutions and on defect thereof proceeded not to some publick censure of the party He must be utterly ignorant of all Antiquity and the affairs of holy Church that makes doubt of this Nay of so high esteem were the Churches Ordinances in matters of exterior order in the service of God that they were deemed as binding as the word it self And so St. Augustine hath resolved it Iâ— iis rebus de quibus nihil statuit Scriptura mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege Dei tenenda sunt as he in his Epistle to Casulanus The customs of the Church and the institutes of our fore-fathers in things of which the Scriptures have determined nothing are to be reckoned and esteemed of as the Word of God Our Saviour by his own observing of the feast of Dedication being of Ecclesiastical institution and no more than so shewed plainly what esteem he had of the Churches Ordinances and how they were to be esteemed of by the sons of men And when St. Paul left this rule behinde him That all things be done decently and in order think we he did not give the Church authority to proceed accordingly and out of this one general Canon to make many particulars Certain I am that Calvin hath resolved it so and he no extraordinary friend to the Churches power Non potest haberi quod Paulus hic exigit nisi additis constitutionibus tanquam vinculis quibusdam ordo ipse decorum servetur That which St. Paul requires saith he is not to be done without prescribing Rules and Canons by which as by some certain Bonds both order and decorum may be kept together Paraeus yet more plainly and unto the purpose Facit Ecclesiae potestatem de ordine decoro Ecclesiastico liberè disponendi leges ferendi By this saith he doth the Apostle give authority to the Church of Corinth and in that to other Churches also of making Laws for the establishing of decency and order in the Church of Christ. And Musculus though he follow the citing of this Text by Eckius in justification of those unwarrantable Rites and Ceremonies Quibus Religionis nostrae puritas polluta esset with which the purity of Religion had been so defiled yet he allows it as a rule for the Church to go by Vt quae lâ—gitimè necessario gerenda sunt in Ecclesia That all those things which lawfully and necessarily may be done in the Church should be performed with decency and convenient order So that we see the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies in things that appertain to order decency and uniformity in Gods publick service and which is more a power of making Laws and Canons to inforce conformity to the same and that too which is most of all in the opinion of those men which were no great admirers of the Churches customs and looked not so much on the Primitive as the present times Nor is this onely the opinion of particular men but the declared judgment of the eldest Churches of the Reformation The Augustane Confession published in the name of all the Protestants and onely countenanced and allowed of by Imperial Edict not onely doth ordain those antient usages to be still retained in their Churches which conduce to decency and order in the service of God and may be kept in force without manifest sin But it resolves Peccare eos qui eum scandalo illos violant c. That they are guilty of sin who infringe the same and thereby rashly violate the peace of the Church And amongst those