belonging to the holy Communion be carefully maintained cap. 12. art 12. and upon this ground doth our Church think it fit to maintain kneeling rather then standing at the holy Communion the better to maintain and to improve that due reverence In a word we make that profession concerning this blessed Sacrament which the Primitive Christians made as it is recorded by Iustine Martyr towards the end of his second Apologie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For we receive not these elements as common bread or as common wine But as by the Word of God Iesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate had both flesh and blood for our salvation So that food over which the Word that came from God hath prayed and given thanks whence our flesh and blood are nourished after it is changed we are taught in the flesh and blood of that Incarnate Iesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incarnati illius Iesu carnem sanguinem esse edocti sumus These words have been much urged both for Transubstantiation and for Consubstantiation but since they have been urged to prove both we may safely conclude they can prove neither Two proofs are taken from them The first is That he saith we receive it not as common bread but that proves it is bread though not common bread The second that he saith The bread is the flesh of the incarnate Jesus that is such flesh as Christ took in his incarnation But that proves it is not flesh under the appearance of bread or in conjunction with bread besides he saith Our flesh and blood are nourished by it but sure our flesh is nourished by bread not by the body of Christ that is only the nourishment of our souls And yet still though we embrace neither of these opinions we do most willingly profess with that holy Martyr That we receive these elements not as common bread nor as common wine but as the very flesh and blood of our incarnate Iesus And therefore we desire to use such reverence in receiving this holy Eucharist as may be suitable with this profession For what Saint Paul said would come to pass among the Corinthians upon a right use of Preaching will we hope much more come to pass amongst us upon a right use of Administring If there comes in one that believeth not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report That God is in you of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. He is not like to fall on his face whiles he seeth us either sit or stand Our outward reverence if used may convince and condemn him if not used will convince and condemn our selves For if he seeth us not true worshippers he will not think us true Believers We will therefore kneel that we may worship and we will therefore worship that we may make an Alient a true Believer and much more shew our selves to be true Believers CAP. III. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and retained by All the people of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the Rules of Conscience SECT I. Every particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Christian Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it THAT man cannot be truly said to believe the Communion of Saints who doth not labour to make himself one of that Communion This he cannot attempt without joyning himself to those who profess to know and to worship God in Christ and this he cannot attain without joyning himself to those who do truly so know and rightly so worship God So that although the Communion of Saints may be sought among all sorts of Christians yet is it not to be found but only among good Christians such as are publickly known to be true believers and right worshippers For Christian Communion is founded both in Doctrine and in Devotion In Doctrine to make men of one mind in Devotion to make men of one mouth And since Doctrine and Devotion are the two integral Parts of Religion the one â—anctifying the understanding the other sanctifying the will that so Religion may fully do its work in knitting or binding the whole soul unto God it is manifest that Christian Communion is founded in Christian Religion and the truest Christian Communion in the truest Christian Religion Accordingly every particular man is bound to joyn himself to that Church which doth profess the truest Christian Religion both in Doctrine and in Devotion that so he may embrace the truest Christian Communion And because all Churches do alike magnifie themselves and vilifie others it is necessary that in the choice of our Christian Communion we observe the Apostles general Axiom Not he that commendeth himself is approved but whom the Lord commendeth 2 Cor. 10. 18. In the business of Religion and of eternal Salvation we may not rely upon our own judgements or the judgements of any other men but only upon the judgement and approbation of God who is the Author of Religion and the Giver of Salvation Therefore it is not for any man to be of this or that Church because it commendeth it self but because God commendeth it And where should we seek where can we find Gods commendation but in his word So it is plain I must choose my Church from Gods word or I can never be sure that God doth commend my choice and this consideration alone must needs make a conscientious man afraid of choosing that Church for the guide of his Communion which refuseth to take Gods word for the guide of her Religion For the Churches power concerning Religion in the Apostles times was but ministerial and how should it come in our times to be magisterial For so it is said Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every man 1 Cor. 3. 5. They are Ministers of your faith not Lords and Masters of it Nay in that they are Ministers it is evident they cannot be Masters of your Faith for there is a direct opposition between a Minister and a Master you are bound to have a special regard to their Ministry that you may believe but not to depend or rely upon their authority in your belief For thus hath Christ our Lord appointed That your Faith should come by the Churches Ministry but from his own Authority 〈…〉 And therefore you must go to his Church for your Communion that you may go to himself for your Religion Christs Church hath not a co-ordinate authority that she may command with Christ in matters of Religion for so she might also command against him but only a subordinace Authority to command in and for him in his name and for his
him in his intercession The first shews us what he was in his humiliation the second what he is in his exaltation and yet the eye of faith will still look further after him not only as a Saviour and as a Mediator but also as a Judge for that 's the third observation concerning Christ what he will be in his retribution Not a severe but a merciful Judge to judge us according to the Gospel which will condemn only the unrepenting and unbelieving sinners not according to the Law which will condemn even the most righteous A merciful Judge to acquit us by the Merits and righteousness of that blood which he himself hath shed for us according to that most comfortable Prayer in the heavenly Hymn of Saint Ambrose which alone was of merit enough to entitle the Ambrosian office so long to keep its station against the Gregorian We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge we therefore pray thee help thy servants when thou hast Redeemed with thy precious blood We are sure thou wilt not lose thine own blood and that makes us hope thou wilt not lose us for whom thou hast been pleased to shed it Thus to draw neer to Christ is to draw neer to him with a true heart as we are commanded Heb. 10. 23. Let us draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of Faith The heart with which we must draw neer to Christ ought to be true to itself by examination contrition conversion for t is a false heart to it self that wants this repentance and it ought to be a heart true to its Saviour by a lively faith in his death and passion by a constant faith in his mediation and intercession by a conquering faith in his aquitment and absolution for the heart is false to its Saviour that wants this faith and being false to its Master cannot enter into his joy O my God make my heart true to it self by repentance that it may be true to its Saviour by faith then though I have sorrow in my self yet I shall have joy in him whose joy alone is an eternal joy SECT X. That the end of this and of all other Christian Festivals is our spiritual communion with Christ and therefore they ought to be celebrated more with spiritual then with carnal joys That though our carnal joyes are greater in their proportion yet our spiritual joyes are greater in their foundation A Carnal heart receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. and much less the joys of that Spirit wherefore we must look for a spiritual Feast that we may have a spiritual joy And accordingly the Church of Christ as it hath not a carnal but a spiritual communion with Christ so it hath not a carnal but a spiritual Feast wherein it doth communicate feeding on him in the heart by faith with thanksgiving for without that we may call the holy Eucharist a Communion but shall not find it so because we do not Communicate with our blessed Saviour and so our souls may starve whilst we are at this Feast if we do not Spiritually eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas diem festum agebant 1. Sacrificium offerebant They kept a Feast that is they offered sacrifice nor can we rightly celebrate this holy Feast unless we offer unto God our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving And what sacrifice is left for Christians but the living sacrifice of their souls and bodies spoken of Rom. 12. 1. For the soul though not named must also be in the sacrifice or else it cannot be a reasonable service 'T is not offering our Saviour but offering our selves to God that makes the accehtable sacrifice not observing the holy institution yet I could heartily wish that were better observed by them who best observe it but observing it with a holy intention that makes a spiritual Feast and therefore our Church at the celebration of the holy Eucharist doth in Gods name invite us not so much to a corporal as to a spiritual feeding on the body and blood of Christ And though some do scruple the offering up of Christs real body in that sacrifice for they had rather say it is commemoratio sacrificii then commemorativum sacrificium yet none scruples the offering up of his mystical body in it never any Christian did think he might leave himself out of the offering though many have thought they might leave their Saviour out of it as to his carnal presence for every man believes he is bound to offer the sacrifice of praise to God and therewith also his own soul so that even this our Feast must likewise be a spiritual Feast or though the outward Elements may nourish our bodies to this natural life yet the inward grace will not nourish our souls to the life eternal We conclude then that no Feast can truly honour God the God of Spirits but a spiritual Feast And that whosoever hath once kept this will endeavoor to turn all others into it or at least to extract this out of them he will feast his soul more then his body as one that cannot well relish the carnal because he hath tasted the spiritual delicacies for most undoubtedly our spiritual joyes though they come short of carnal joys in their measure and proportion yet they far exceeed them in their cause and foundation we are more zealous for our carnal joys because they are connatural to us whiles we are cloathed with our flesh but our spiritual joys which are supernatural do more deserve our zeal I will say to my soul Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry said the rich glutton Luke 12. 19. What a great preparation is here to carnal joy I will say unto my soul what a great proportion of it take thine ease eat drink and â—e merry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rest that thou maist eat and drink eat and drink that thou mayst delight thy self and be merry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Saint Basil If thou hadst the soul of a swine what couldest thou say or do more so great a proportion is there of joy in the carnal man from carnal delights as if even the spiritual part of him were made carnal as if the soul it self were incorporated into flesh and that flesh incorporated into swine made the most brutish and sensual in the whole world even swines flesh yet so little a foundation is there of this joy that t is grounded only on the mans own fansie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 17. He made his reckoning but t was a false reckoning meerly of his own making and not agreeable with the truth of the account For the word is fit to express the condition of worldlings saith Beza quia totam vitam in subducendis rationibus consumunt because they spend all their days in making reckoning they spend all their time in casting up accounts either for their pleasure or for
the zeal of our piety and the constancy of our saith by the unweariedness of our piety that neither faith nor piety may be reproved in thy sight when thou shalt come to Judge us who rulest and governest all things with the Father and the Holy Ghost ever one God world without end Amen Christ communicated in the coming of the Holy Ghost CAP. I. Of the Communication of Christ to his Members SECT I. That we being born in sin our condition is very miserable till Christ be communicated to us but after that very comfortable for the time of sin is a time of warfare captivity banishment The time of Grace a time of Peace of Restitution of Liberty The admirable liberty of Gods servants the woful slavery of those who serve themselves IT is no small part of mans misery who is born in sin and sorrow and therefore born in sorrow because in sin that the afflictions of this world may grieve his soul but all the comforts of this world cannot rescue or release it from grief The Spirit may be perplexed from the flesh but cannot be relieved from it it is only the lover of souls that can exhilerate the soul only the God of Spirits that can comfort the Spirit And till this lover of souls shew his love to us we are hateful to our selves till this God of Spirits do comfort our spirits we cannot but remain altogether comfortless For we are of our selves strangers and aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and consequently from the comforts and immunities of that Common-wealth being alienated from God as far as earth from heaven in our affection as far as hell from heaven in our condition T is a sad truth which may be lamented but may not be denied for in its denyal though a man may shew himself a good Sophister yet he must shew himself a bad divine and cannot shew himself a good Christian That we are all by nature children of disobedience and children of wrath The Jew though he came of the stock of Abraham yet came not into the world without disobedience nor without wrath no more then the Gentile for so saith Saint Paul we were born the children of wrath even as others that is we Jews who came of Abraham no less then the Gentiles who came of the most unworthy and most unrighteous stock in the world Among whom sc the children of disobedience we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh and were by nature the children of wrath even as others Eâ—h 2. 3. as if he had said we were children of disobedience in our affection children of wrath in our condition strangers from God in our affection for being under such lusts strangers from God in our condition for being under such wrath The Apostles intent is fully to declare unto us the state of mans misery which he is in by nature till he be relieved by his blessed redeemer and we may reduce all his doctrine to these four Heads First that our misery consisteth of two parts that we are under the dominion of sin and that we are under the guilt and punishment of Sin Secondly that all men in general as well Jews as Gentiles as long as they are without Christ and his Grace are subject to this misery that is are dead in trespasses and in sins and obnoxious to punishment for the same Thirdly that this our misery is meerly voluntary in regard of the sin though not in regard of the punishment for it is the course of this world and the fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind i. e. perverse and inordinate desires both external of the body and internal of the Soul for body and soul both are alike infected both are corrupted by sin and the desires of the mind are sinfull no less then the desires of the flesh This course of the world we are all desirous to run these desires of the flesh we are all inclined to nourish and to fulfill So that our misery is altogether voluntary in regard of our sin though it be altogether involuntrary and necessary in regard of the punishment we are willingly under the sin as pleasing our corruption but unwillingly under the punishment as bringing our destruction we are contented with the disobedience but we are afraid of the wrath and yet as long as we are under the sin we cannot but be under the punishment as long as we are children of disobedience we are also children of wrath Fourthly and lastly that as it is not in our will so it is not in our power to redeem our selves from this misery for that our corrupt nature doth not so much as desire and therefore cannot recover the state of true liberty either from sin or punishment but t is only the infinite goodness and mercy of God that recovers us by his Grace which is as far beyond our desires as above our deserts such a grace as we could not imagine and therefore did not desire such a grace as we did not desire and therefore could not deserve as saith the Apostle But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ The first Adam communicated nothing to us but sin and death t is only the second Adam that hath communicated to us Grace and Life and therfore t is only in relation to him to our Saviour Christ that the Prophet begins his Sermon of Comfort Isa 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned The beginning of the pardon is the end of the war Her warfare is accomplished and her iniquity is pardoned do both signifie the same peace Completa est malitia ejus saith the Latine translation for militia by a small mistake of the letter and that in the printer not in the translator but none of the sense for our malitia is our militia our iniquity is our warfare the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is both her work and her time of war Kimchi in his gloss saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vult dicere tempus quod in captivitate vel exilio dâ—buit transigere He means the time that she was to pass in banishment or captivity we may well admit the gloss For sin is a time of war banishment and captivity of war with God of banishment from God and of captivity not under God for he can be no tyrant but under the devil A sad time surely And therefore the time of Grace must needs be a joyfull time wherein this warfare this captivitâ— this banishment is brought to an end For Christ being communicated the sin is pardoned and the Sin being pardoned the sinner is in peace and in prosperity and in liberty to say this is to speak truly to the heart 〈◊〉
too much of our time in those Christian Duties and Devotions which tend immediatly to the Honour of our Saviour Christ that so we may not be defective either in our preparation before them or in our Affections in them or in our Thanksgivings after them First That we be not defective in our preparation before our Christian devotions for this is a main cause of our great shame and greater sin that we have been hitherto so bad Christians in so good a state of Christianity that whereas Christ hath been so long and so powerfully applyed unto us both in Prayers and Word and Sacraments yet we have been so little benefited by that Application as scarce to perceive the loss of it or at least scarce to grieve for that loss A shrewd sign of Edomites rather then of Israelites to be content to lose our Prayers our true spiritual Birth-right that we might keep our Pottage our Temporal interests of which we may now truly say as he did Gen. 25. 30. Feed me with that Red with that Red for the just vengeance of God hath lately made it so with our own Blood or at least a shrewd sign of Ephraimites if not of Edomites for they being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle Psalm 78. 9. The reason is given in the verse before they were a generation that prepared not their heart and whose spirit was not stedfast with God They did not set their heart right by preparation and therefore could not keep their spirit stedfast by perseverance and it is to be feared this is our case For it had scarce been possible for so admirable a form of publike Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments which had in it the most pithy Devotions both of Greek and Latine Churches and the superstitions of neither to have been so long amongst us to so little advantage of our souls had there been good things found in us and had we prepared our hearts to seek our God as that good King did 2 Chron. 19. 3. and hath left his example as a mandate for us so to do since no Scripture is of private Interpretation and much less of private Jurisdiction The old Testament in all precepts and precedents of morality no less commanding the Christian then it did the Jew but if any be contentious touching the Old Testament though we have no such custome nor the Churches of God yet we have both a Precept and a Precedent in the New Testament to reprove and to reproach his contention and the fittest that can be alledged for this Argument even that of Saint John Baptist the forerunner of Christ For he came preaching saith the Text and his Sermon consisted so much of this doctrine of Preparation that he was chiefly to be known by this character The Voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord Mat. 3. Secondly We need imploy our time readily and carefully in those Christian duties which immediately concern the honour of Christ that we be not defective in our Affections whiles we are at our Christian Devotions actually conversing with our blessed Saviour For our Affections have been so long standing on the lees and dregs of the earth that they are not to be refined and much less to be elevated and lifted up to Heaven without multiplied Essays of most holy meditations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Priest to the people in the Greek Liturgie And they answer him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us lift up our hearts we lift them up unto the Lord so we in our Liturgy from theirs But it is observable that neither Greek Church nor ours used these words till after many prayers were past in which the Communicants had poured out their souls before God to be sanctified by his Grace And so likewise the Apostle requiring us to seek those things which are above doth as it were pass through all the Creed to the Article of the Resurrection before he hopes throughly to raise our Affections Col. 3. 1 2. If ye be then risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right Hand of God set your Affection on things above c. He doth not only say Christ is risen but also if ye be risen with Christ he is fain to presuppose and as it were to antedate the day of the Resurrection of the bodies that so he may perswade them to a Resurrection of their souls O God work in us this great miracle of thy Grace to raise our souls that we may all rejoyce in that great miracle of thy power which thou wilt at the last day work on us in the raising of our bodies Thirdly and lastly we need imploy our time readily and carefully in those Christian Duties which immediately concern the honour of Christ that we be not defective in our thankfulness after our Devotions after we have had the honour and the happiness to converse with our blessed Saviour For if I may not give mine alms without a full purpose of my heart 2 Cor. 9. 7. Shall I think that I may give my self without it or doth God indeed love a cheerful giver of the hand and not much rather a cheerful giver of the Heart To what purpose is ihis wast Mat. 26. 8 9. seems in it self a question of Piety and in its reason For this ointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor a question of charity yet St. John brands him that made it That for his Piety he was a Traytor ready to betray Christ And for his Charity he was a Thief not ready to relieve but to pillage his poor members John 12. 4 6. so dangerous a thing is it for men to begrutch any expence either of Time or of Pains or of Patrimony that is bestowed upon Christ and much more to disturb the woman the Church that bestoweth it For wheresoever this Gospel of the great condescention and greater goodness of the Son of God shall be Preached in the whole world there also shall this be told for a memorial of her Duty that wrought the good work upon her Saviour but of their undutifulness who opposed her in working it Mat. 26. 10 13. Gods mercies in our Saviour Christ are too many and great to come all Ex tempore to us so should our Devotions be to thank him for their coming since it is every jot as good Divinity for our Prayers and Sermons which we offer up for the parts of Gods publick worship as it was for Davids sacrifice Neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. For what can I profess by the unworthiness of my offering but either That I have a less worthy esteem of God then David had to whom I offer that which he would not offer or that I have a more worthy esteem of my self then he had as if forsooth God would at
rise again to newness of life This is the happy estate we acknowledge God conveyed unto us in our Baptism for other visible conveyance there is none when he made us Christians for then he gave us the right of calling him Father and we by saying unto him Our Father do beseech him to confirm this sâ—me happy estate unto us in making us good Christians But how shall those that are bad Christians and cannot be assured of the adoption of sons as having defiled themselves since their Baptism say unto God Our Father I answer if they heartily repent and desire to be adopted and to become children of God they may say so by virtue of their desire though they have not yet actually received the inward seal and have actually defaced the outward seal of their adoption wherefore those only have no right to their Pater noster but do hypocritically and falsly say the Lords Prayer who neither are the children of God by adoption nor desire to be so But those that heartily desire to be adopted supposing they have been baptized may rightly and truly say to God Our Father because they are accepted as sons in Christ though not in themselves I will rise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned saith the Prodigal Son Luk. 14. 18. He was not yet risen he was not yet gone he did only desire and resolve to rise and go to him and this desire and resolution gives him a right of calling God Our Father as if he had still continued a dutiful son our blessed Saviour teaching us in that chapter both by his Doctrine and by his example that God is ready to receive sinners when they truly desire to draw neer to him The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured at the example but they were ashamed to murmur at the Doctrine The lost sheep and the lost groat had opened their eyes but the lost son was enough to open their hearts the lost sheep and the lost groat had made way in their apprehensions for the receiving of the lost son when he returned to his Father but the lost son was enough to make way in their hearts for their own returning that they also might be received they were convinced that there was joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ver 10. And they were ashamed least what was the Angels joy should be thought their sorrow Therefore though they were still enemies to their own souls in not embracing this Doctrine yet they were ashamed to shew themselves enemies to other mens souls in gainsaying it nay indeed to shew themselves enemies to God himself who must be excluded out of heaven or he cannot be excluded out of thy joy for it is said ver 6. Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth And our Saviour having taught us to say to God Our Father which art in heaven will not have us exclude him out of this joy which is proper to those in heaven nay indeed the parable directly includes him in it ver 32. T was meet that we should make merry and be glad and without doubt God is so well pleased in the righteousness of his Son that he joyes to see penitent sinners made righteous in him and willingly bestowes upon them his righteousness when with unfeigned lips and penitent hearts they call upon him for it For as through Christs satisfaction they have a right to the adoption of Sons so also through his intercession which is always ready to accompany his own prayer they are sure to obtain that right if they continue heartily praying for themselves that so they may have the benefit of his intercession For as far as we are made partakers of Christ so far can we truly in his merit and with his Spirit say unto God Our Father For the right of filiation belongs Originally to Christ and but dirivatively to us He is the Son of God in himself we are the Sons of God in and through him and t is happy for us that we are so for else we could not but fear the loss of our adoption as often as we did find the loss of our obedience For there can be no assurance of such an adoption as shall last till we be instated in our inheritance from our selves but only from our Saviour Christ God indeed is pleased to call good men his sons but none was ever called the Son of God with this promise and Prerogative that God alwaies was and alwaies would be his Father but only Christ or else Saint Pauls Argument would lose much of its strength when he proves our Saviour Christ to be above all the Angels because God had not said to any of them but had said only to him Thou art my Son And again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son For Angels and men are so the Sons of God as to be his Sons in Christ not in themselves and therefore no sooner nor no longer his sons then they were and are in Christ For which cause we can be no farther sure of our adoption in Christ then we are sure of our conjunction and communion with him and that not of a corporal conjunction in the same flesh but of a spiritual conjunction in the same Spirit For our corporal conjunction with Christ doth not only make us capable of being adopted in him but it is our spiritual conjunction with him that gives unto us the seal and benefit of our adoption whereby we are joyned with Christ in the same mystical body here and shall be joyned with him in the same glorious body hereafter Thus may every good Christian saith with Saint Paul Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain to me to live is Christ because I am now with him in the communion of the same Mystical body to me to die is gain because I shall hereafter be with him in the communion of the same glorious body There needs no dissolution for my union with Christ in the same mystical body but only of my sinful being the dissolution of sin from my soul but for my union with Christ in the same glorious body there needs also a dissolution of my natural being a dissolution of my soul from my body I will then labour for that union with my blessed Saviour in my life which will keep me from the fear of my own dissolution at my death For I shall not make a right use of his corporal union with me unless I lay it for the ground and rise of my spiritual union with him whereby to be united with my Saviour not only in the same natural but also in the same mystical body inchoately in his Church militant consummately in his Church Triumphant And this is the way for me so to welcom the Son of God in his Nativity as much more to see and enjoy him in his immortality Amen Christ
remarkable circumstances we shall then see how properly our blessed Saviour was called the Lamb of God First the Paschal Lamb was one of the flock Exod. 12. 5. So Christ was one of us and dwelt among us Saint John 1. 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us This consideration That the word was made flesh as it may inflame our devotions because our Saviour is in our own flesh to pitty us and to relieve us so it must cool and allay our distempers That he is in that same flesh which we so easily suffer in our selves to be excessively passionate and either distracted by sinful factions or distempered by sinful affections So that now what sins I commit in the flesh I commit not only against that flesh which in my self goes creeping and growling on the earth but also against that flesh which in my Saviour is exalted into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God This is the Apostles most pathetical argument against all the sins of uncleanness and should be mine in the like case or temptation Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6. 15. as if he had said I must abandon abhor all uncleannesses of the flesh in that thereby I shall sin against mine own body How much more in that thereby I shall sin against my Saviours body Secondly the Paschal Lamb was without blemish so Christ was without sin the only spot and blemish of the soul In peccato sunt reatus macula saith the School All sin as it brings a guiltiness with it so it leaves a spot and blemish after it Our Saviour Christ was without this spot and we must labour to be without it likewise by being made conformable to him So should we rightly understand the hidden mysterie of predestination more by our practise then we can possibly by our speculations or disputes if every one of us would really endeavour to fulfill that part of it To be conformed to the image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son The great quarrel of Christendom at this day is about conformity that all Churches will not be conformed to one And yet even that conformity if it were brought to pass would not could not put an end to other differences But here is such a conformity that would soon end all quarrels whatsoever if men would make it their study and business to conform themselves to the image of the Son of God If men would seriously endeavour a conformity with Christ by holiness meekness patience obedience vertues so much out of our use that they are almost out of our knowledge but quite out of our remembrance they would never be Non-conformists in any lawful thing nor require conformity in any that is unlawful much less would they brand one another as reprobates but every one would strive to make his own Election sure Hope well of anothers so we should all forth with prove unerring students unblamable proficients in that grand controverted Doctrine of Predestination if we did but truly follow the meekness of this Lamb. Thirdly the Paschal Lamb was slain as a memorial of the Jews deliverance from the bondage of Egypt So was Christs death our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan Let me then stand fast in that spiritual liberty wherewith Christ hath made me free and be no less afraid of returning to my former sins then the Israelites were of returning to their former bondage alwaies remembring that dreadful sentence in the Apostle who in that he had fallen himself was the more careful to keep others from a relapse the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Fourthly the blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled on the door posts made the destroying Angel pass over the Israelites when he smote the Egyptians So the blood of Christ sprinkled upon our souls preserveth us from the destroying Angel A mercy to be remembred with an everlasting thankfulness and to be commemorated with an everlasting thanksgiving for this is a part of the new song in heaven Rev. 5. 9. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy blood What was the ground of their thanksgiving in heaven must be the ground of our supplication on earth that we lose not the benefit of this blood which is the price of our Redemption that neither through the infirmities of the flesh nor the anguishes of the Spirit nor the backslidings of the world nor the temptations of the Devil we be drawn or driven from faith in the blood of our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And accordingly we must take care that we be not driven or drawn from the outward profession and exercise of this faith least we come by degrees to be driven or drawn from the inward settlement and assurance of it Fifthly the Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitter herbs and without leaven so Christ is to be received with repentance and without malice or hypocrisie which is the most common but the most unsavoury leaven of the soul for a small parcell of either of these will infect and corrupt all our best Religious performances even as a little leaven leaventh the whole lump Accordingly the Apostle is most industrious to chase this leaven out of our hearts when he biddeth us to keep the feast not with old leaeven that is the leaven of hypocrisie when we pretend to be new men but are not Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in azymis sinceritatis veritatis for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerity is a righteous judgement against the sophistications or delusions of malice and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth is a righteous practise for there is a moral as well as a Metaphysical truth against the prevarications of Hypocrisie They generally go both together hypocrisie in the tongue and malice in the heart fair pretences and foul intentions The hypocrite being most commonly malicious as having the Devil in his heart and the malicious needing the hypocrite to disguise his malice by seeming to be an Angel in his tongue But what ever the leaven be whether these or any other infectious sins our care must be first to find it and then to cleanse it wherein it will not be amiss if we follow the great scrupulosity of the Jews who to the intent that not so much as the suspition of leaven should be amongst them at their feast of the Passeover did first cleanse their ordinary vessels of it then searched every cranny or chink of their houses after it then burnt all they found then execrated or cursed all that might possibly be left behind which they could
not find So should every one of us keep the feast of our Christian Passeover cleanse our vessels from the leaven of all sin and wickedness then search the corners of our hearts to find it out then burn and consume what we have found then detest and abandon what we cannot find crying out with a hearty sorrow and repentance never to be repented of Who can tell how oft he offendeth O cleanse thou me from my secret faults Psal 19. 12. Secret not only to others but also to my self He that so heartily repents of the sins he knows not doth much more repent of those he knows And indeed the Paschal Lamb might not be eaten without bitter herbs nor can Christ be received without sorrow and bitterness of Spirit so as to become the nourishment of our souls and those men are grosly mistaken who think they can receive him by faith alone without repentance for who dares preach Christ otherwise then he preached himself and that was by repentance So saith the Evangelist Jesus began to preach and to say Repent Mat. 4. 17. We cannot phansie but we may weep our selves into our Saviours mercy nor can we truly rely upon his righteousness by faith till we have first bewailed our own unrighteousness by repentance And indeed the strange faith that some of late have desired and devised and therefore devised because they desired it of being in Christ whiles they be in malice injustice disobedience profaneness perversness and other such like grievous sins is much like the strange woman spoken of in the Proverbs Her lips drop as a honey-comb and her mouth is sweeter then oyl but her end is bitter as wormwood Porv. 5. 3 4. for such a faith begins in honey and oyl promising salvation with much sweetness and smoothness but its end is as bitter as wormwood for it bringeth death and damnation upon the soul Sixthly and lastly The Paschal Lamb was to be eaten whole and to be eaten only by the circumcised So Christ is to be taken whole in all the Doctrines of the Christian faith That which he hath commanded is as necessary to salvation as that which he hath promised and we may not expect to inherit his promises if we neglect and disobey his commands not a bone of his natural body was broken by the Jew nor may a bone of his spiritual or of his mystical body be broken by the Christian They brake the legs of the malefactors who were not yet dead but they brake not the legs of Christ Saint John 19. so may the Magistrate break the legs and stop the proceedings of malefactors especially if they be not yet dead to their sins by a hearty repentance and amendment of life but he may not break the legs of Christ or crush any of those whom Christ hath appointed to be the supporters of Christianity Again we must remember that unless the Jew was circumcised he had no right to eat of the Paschal Lamb So we Christians may not hope to receive Christ unless we be spiritually circumcised in our ears and in our hearts in our ears to hear his voice in our hearts to obey it Else it were possible for us so to receive God the Son as to resist God the Holy Ghost for so saith Saint Stephen Act. 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost The uncircumcised in hearts and ears cannot be the receivers of Christ because they are the resisters of his Spirit because they resist the Holy Ghost SECT IV. The great vertue of this Propitiation and the great goodness wisdom justice and power of God in finding it for us and giving it to us WHere shall a good Christian look for comfort but in the Word of comfort what word of comfort like that which proceeded immediately from the Comforter And what text so comfortable in that word as that which assures us not only of God the Holy Ghost but also of God the Son to be our Assistant and Advocate to intercede for us For we may have the assistance of the Holy Ghost and yet say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me when we seriously consider how often we have deserved to be forsaken But there is nothing to discomfit or dismay an offender though his offences be never so many and great if he may be sure that his Judge will be his friend to absolve and to acquit him Now we all believe that the Son of God is to be our Judge and therefore must needs be most rejoyced with that saying that assures us he will be our friend in the Judgement and that saying is recorded 1 John 2. 1 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous No greater friend to a poor Client that hath a bad cause then a good Advocate to plead for him unless it be a favourable and friendly Judge to absolve him And behold the Penitent sinner hath here both these joyned in one for the same Christ that is his Advocate to plead for him is also his Judge to absolve him And therefore he is called in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Comforter the same title which is given to the Holy Ghost John 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only an Advocate but also a Comforter The Spirit of God is both the Son of God is both to the true Penitent The Spirit is our Advocate to make intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered Rom. 8. 26. And he is our Comforter to assist us in our Temptations and to stengthen us against them And so also is the Son our Advocate to make intercession for us with the Father And our Comforter in that the Father will not refuse nay more cannot resist his intercession For the same Christ who is the Advocate to plead for penitent sinners is also the propitiation for their sins to make good his own Plea as it followeth and he is the propitiation for our sins So that as he is our Advocate to undertake our cause so he is our Comforter to assist and to deliver our souls by one and the same Plea defending us against the Devil who will busily accuse us and delivering us from the fear of hell which will be ready to receive us in that he is our Advocate to plead for us before him and to prevail for us with him who alone is able to destroy both body and soul in hell So that our blessed Saviour is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both senses as it signifies an Advocate and as it signifies a Comforter and indeed in one and the same respect as he is our Mediator is he both our Advocate and our Comforter Our Advocate to plead our cause our Comforter to rescue and to free our persons Wherefore we may with reverence and without derogation to the Spirit of
heaven and earth and all things in them above them and below them did so fully set forth the power of God as did this condescention that God was made man saith the same Father He looked upon it as an act of great power That God had emptied himself then that he had filled all the world CAP. III. Christ admired in his Satisfaction SECT I. The necessity of Christs satisfaction for that he was the only sacrifice to expiate sin NExt those Hereticks that oppose Christ in his person they are in the saddest condition who seek to oppose him in his Satisfaction for as the one overthroweth the foundation so the other hindereth the edification of the Christian Faith both acting the wicked parts of Sanballet and Geshem whiles true Christians with Nehemiah are labouring to build up the Temple of God For if there needed no satisfaction for sin why was the eternal Son of God offered up as a sacrifice for our sins And if we be indeed pattakers of his satisfaction what madness is it for us to rely upon our own Let the first question be seriously pondered there will be no Pelagian to deny original sin for fear he find not cause enough for the death of Christ if there were no sin of mans nature to be expiated Let the second question be seriously pondered there will be no Pharisee to maintain personal righteousness for fear he make not a right use of Christs death in that he thinks he hath not so great need as others of that his expiation Alexander Hales who was reputed and called the irrefragable Doctor is opposed by Aquinas his greatest admirer and by Bonaventure his choicest Schollar for teaching that Christ should have come into the world though with flesh not capable of suffering â—arne tamen impassibili if so be that Adam had not sinned The Angelical and Seraphical Doctors thought it unreasonable that Christ should come in the flesh not to suffer and shall not we think it irreligious to extenuate the vertue of his sufferings Sure we are that the whole creation of men and Angels are not able to satisfie the justice of God for one sin because there is no proportion betwixt their Satisfaction and his Justice for the one is finite the other is infinite And as sure we ought to be That God did not give us his Son to satisfie for our sins that we should question the necessity much less that we should undervalue the efficacy of his satisfaction For all other sacrifices were but Types of this great sacrifice which in the end of the world appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 26. Judah desired to be a bondman for Benjamin but he was his brother Saint Paul said He could wish himself accursed for the people of the Jews but they were also his brethren and his kinsmen But our Saviour Christ was contented to be made both a bondman and a Curse for us whiles we were yet his enemies His bondage was our freedom His Curse was our blessing but let not his love be our enmity for though he came to save us whiles we were his enemies yet he will not save us if we continue so O thou art my Priest to bring me unto God and my sacrifice to reconcile me to him make me to present my self body and soul as a living sacrifice unto thee that thou maist at the last day present me both in soul and body without spot and blemish unto thy heavenly Father in thine eternal and everlasting kingdom that though thou wilt then cease to be my Priest yet thou maist never cease to be my King SECT II. The commemoration of Christs sacrifice enjoyned not the repetition of it and that the Ordination of Ministers for administring the Sacraments not of Priests for the offering of Sacrifice is most agreeable with the institution of Christ and the constitution of a true Christian Church WE cannot consider Christ as a sacrifice but we must consider that sacrifice as a full expiation of and satisfaction for all our sins and consequently we must look upon it as such a sacrifice as may only be remembred but not repeated For other sacrifices shewed their own insufficiency by their often repetition they were offered year by year continually because they could not make the Commers thereunto perfect Heb. 10. 1. But this sacrifice is proved to have been sufficient because it is not again to be repeated So saith the Apostle ver 10. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all to say there is more offering were to say there is less Sanctification to say his body is more offered were to say that our souls are less Sanctified ver 11. And every Priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins¿ This saepe in the Sacrifice is nunquam in the Satisfaction because there is an oftentimes in the offering there is a Never in the taking away of sins ver 12. But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God This man hath so fully expiated all sin by one sacrifice that it is as absurd to think he may be sacrificed again as to confound his state of exaltatation with his state of humiliation or to think he may be brought again to his cross now he is sate down at the right hand of God And indeed our blessed Saviour himself in that he saith Do this in remembrance of me doth evidently call for the commemoration of his sacrifice upon the cross till his coming again for as long as he shall be out of sight He may not be out of mind whiles he cannot be seen he must be remembred But he that cals only for a commemoration doth in effect dissallow of a Repetition So that the burning of the blessed Sacrament into a sacrifice properly so called is neither sound divinity as they teach it nor sound devotion as they use it who by pretending to repeat and renew the corporal Sacrifice of Christ do in effect according to the Apostles rule bring it under the suspicion or at least leave it under the imputation of insufficiency for what is done once sufficiently as to all intents and purposes is in vain desired to be done again yet we deny not that Christ is offered in the holy Eucharist but we say he is offered mystically not corporally We deny not that he is also there Sacrificed but we say it is by way of Commemoration and representation not by way of renovation or repetition when Christ was corporally offered and sacrificed he himself alone was the Priest who was the Offering and the Sacrifice But he is still mystically offered and sacrificed by those Priests or Ministers who are obliged to continue the representation of his corporal offering and sacrifice though not the repetition of it Accordingly it is much to be observed that such as was
the difference of opinion concerning this sacrifice such was also the difference in the ordination of those men who were appointed to offer it For the manner of ordination in the Greek Church supposed the man ordained only as a Minister to the administration of the sacrament for the Bishop that ordained him put the consecrated bread into his hand saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Take this holy thing committed to your charge and keep it till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he will call you to an account how you have disâ—osed of it This man so ordained had delivered to him the Trust and charge only of a Sacrament But the manner of ordination in the Latine Church supposeth the man ordained as a Priest to the offering of a Sacrifice for the Bishop that ordained him put the Communion plate and chalice into his hand saying Accipe potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo Missamque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis in nomine Domini c. Receive the power of offering a Sacrifice to God and of celebrating the Mass both for the quick and the dead in the name of our Lord c. And agreeable to this is the benediction of the Presbyters after this ordination in the same Church Benedictio Dei omnipotentis Patris filii spiritus Sancti descendat su er vos ut sitis benedicti in ordine sacerdotali oâ—feratis placabiles hostias pro peccatis atque offensionibus populi c. The blessing of God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost descend upon you that you may be blessed in the order of Priests and offer acceptable sacrifices for the sins and offences of the People Pontifical Rom. Venetiis editum An. 1561. This man so ordained had delivered to him the trust and charge not of a Sacrament but of a sacrifice But in the ordination of the Church of England and some other Protestant Churches the Bishop saith to him that he ordains Receive the Holy-Ghost whose sins you forgive they are forgiven whose sins you retain they are retained but be thou a faithfull dispencer of the word of God and of his holy sacraments in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost This man so ordained hath delivered unto him the trust and charge of no sacrifice but only of the Sacraments and also of the word and it were to be wished that those whom it nothing concerns would neither invade nor disturb this trust especially since it is so exactly agreeable with the Text which in all the new Testament hath not recommended to the Church the trust and charge of a Sacrifice but only of the Word and Sacraments And it can be no shame for us to confess that in the judgement of our Church the holy Eucharist is a Sacrament not a Sacrifice unless it be in a mystical sense a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving or in a figurative sense a commemoration or representation of a sacrifice but by no means a repetition of Christs corporal sacrifice since the Apostle hath expresly said concerning that We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. According to which our Church doth believe and profess in different words the very same truth saying That Christ made upon the cross by his one oblation of himself once offered a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world and I will ever rejoice in this belief and profession since he that hath made a full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world hath not left his father unsatisfied only for my sins CAP. IV. Christ admired in his Application SECT I. Christ in his Propitiation and Satisfaction doth not benefit us without a particular Application TRuly to know Christ is truly to know the whole Christian Faith as hath been said For truly to know Christ in his person is to know the Christian Faith in the ground or substance of it And truly to know Christ in his Propitiation Satisfaction Application is to know the Christian Faith in the power or vertue of it Accordingly Saint Paul is not content to know Christ only in his Person saying that I may know him but he will also know him in his Propitiation Satisfaction and Application saying and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3. 10. To know Christ in the power of his resurrection is to know him in his propitiation for he was delivered for our offences and raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. To know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings is to know him in his satisfaction whereby he slaked body for body soul for soul in our stead that he might satisfie for all the sins both of our bodies and of our souls And to know Christ so as to be made conformable to his death is to know him in his Application for we cannot apply the merit of his death till we be conformed to it by dying unto sin and rising again to newness of life for the Application of Faith doth no less require that man apply himself to God by holâ—ness of conversation then that he apply God unto himself by strength of perswasion And truly the one cannot be without the other since it is impossible for that man to lay hold on Gods promise of mercy who looks not after the conditions on which it is promised to wit a hearty repentance of his sins and an amendment of his sinful life for Gods promises of mercy are not made to all sinners but only to penitent sinners so that where is no true repentance there can be no true faith and where is true repentance there cannot be too much for if man perform his part of the Covenant of grace he may assure himself that God will perform his part nay he must assure himself so unless he will remain in the state of infidelity For a true and lively faith is a full perswasion of the heart grounded upon the promises of God that whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered for the salvation of man he hath done and suffered for me as well as for others And I must never be satisfied with my self nor think I am in a good state or condition till I have gotten such a faith as will give me such a perswasion For the satisfaction of Christ in general will afford me but little comfort without the application thereof in particular to mine own soul Wherefore my labour must be to put my self in such a condition that though I cannot but think my self unworthy of the invaluable blessing of this satisfaction yet I may not think much less make my self uncapable of it SECT II. The ground of that application iâ— Christs threefold conjunction with us in his person in his nature and in his office from which proceedeth the marriage of the soul with Christ I
Do not find any desert in man that entitled him to a property in the creature but sure none can be found to entitle him to have a property in the Creator Yet he that saith unto his Saviour as Saint Thomas did My God and my Lord seems to claim a property in him For how can a man assume or apply that unto himself in which he hath no property Wherefore it is necessary that we examine how Christ is made ours that so we may see the ground both of our property and of this application I say then that Christ is ours in a threefold respect because of a threefold conjunction of Christ with us in his nature in his person and in his office First Christ is ours in his nature by a real conjunction having taken our nature upon him and in that respect he is ours as we are men and he hath bestowed on all mankind a greater capacity of his Grace then otherwise they would have had by reason of their corrupt nature for which cause the Evangelical Promises which God maketh to man in Christ are universal as excluding none because Christ hath taken the nature of all but yet conditional as including only those who repent and believe the Gospel for no others make a right use or attain the end of Christs Merits and Mercies Secondly Christ is ours in his person by a voluntary conjunction having taken our sin upon him as our surety or pledge for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. 4. And in that respect he is ours as we are Christians and hath bestowed on us the knowledge of his grace though very many of us by our own infidelity and impenitency make but a little and a bad use of that knowledge Thirdly Christ is ours in his office by a mystical conjunction such as is between a King and his Subjects both making but one mystical body and in that respect Christ is ours only as we are good Christians and hath bestowed on us the communion or rather the communication of his grace incorporating nay more inspiriting us as his members into himself And this is the happiest conjunction that we can have with Christ whiles we live here on earth To be one with him in the same mystical body or in the same actual communion not only external of his nature or of his person as many are that are little benefited thereby but also to be one with him in the same actual internal Communion of his grace to the inestimable benefit of our souls which are first sanctified and at last saved by this communicating with Christ For all the priviledges and blessings of his Regal of his Prophetical of his Sacerdotal function of his power as King of his instruction as Prophet of his sacrifice or intercession as Priest are made ours by this blessed conjunction according to that comfortable assertion of the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All are yours and ye are Christs for the words are not spoken consequutive sed causaliter not by way of consequence but by way of causality and accordingly import this sense All are therefore yours because ye are Christs Ye are Christs and Christ is yours and he being All in All in and through him All is yours but without him All is nothing and you are worse then nothing O then let me so rejoyce for his coming to me in the body as much more to desire and long for his coming to me in the soul That as the Lord of all is joyned with me in one flesh so I may be joyned with him in one Spirit that I may dwell in him and he may dwell in me for ever There is a mutual In-being betwixt Christ and every good Christian saith Saint Bernard even as betwixt Christ and God As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and therefore Father and Son make but one essentially So Christ is in the good Christian and the good Christian is in Christ and therefore Christ and the good Christian make but one mystically If either the Father were not in the Son or the Son were not in the Father they could not be perfectly one by essential Unity And if either Christ be not in the Christian or the Christian be not in Christ they cannot be one by mystical Unity Sic igitur Anima cui adherere Deo bonum est non ante se existimet ipsi perfecte unitam nisi quum illum in se se in illo manentem persenserit Bern. Serm. 71. super Cant. Therefore let not the soul which is happy only through her union with Christ think her self perfectly united unto him till she perceive that he so dwelleth and abideth in her as that she also dwelleth and abideth in him and desireth so to dwell and abide for ever O happy soul that is thus wedded to her Saviour by a spiritual marriage for man and wife are not more nearly and more indissolubly joyned together by being one flesh then Christ and the Christian soul by being one Spirit Vere Spiritualis sanctique connubii contractus est iste Parum dixi contractus complexus est Complexus plane ubi idem velle nolle idem unum facit spiritum â— duobus This is more then a spiritual contract it is a compleat marriage when the same will being in two persons shall make them both but one Spirit So the same Saint Bernard and so likewise saith Saint Paul He that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6 17. Then let me be joyned to him that I may be one spirit with him and that my spirit may be his rather then mine own For mine own spirit will be death to me because of sin but his spirit will be life to me because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. In my self I can see nothing but sin and death In my Saviour I see both righteousness and life righteousness to deliver me from sin and life to deliver me from death Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Isa 61. 10. A fit Epithalamium to celebrate this spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian wherein though the Angels be ready to make up the Chorus yet the devout soul her self alone sings the song There is joy in them but much more in us for this marriage because we have such a wedding garment bestowed on us as expells the fear both of a Divorce and of a Dissolution the first of which may be the second of which must be in all other marriages They may be under a divorce by sin they must be under a dissolution by death But the marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian if it be once indeed truly consummated is under neither for the blessed Bridegroom of souls bestows both righteousness and salvation upon all those who
willing to put the truth out of their own Hearts for so saith the same Evangelist And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day Mat. 28. 15. Nor is it easie for any man to shew another Day wherein they first left off this Report Sure we are that when the Apostles preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead Act. 4. 2. that the Jews were greived and with might and main opposed their Doctrine and this spirit of contradiction continued in them throughout all that age wherein the New Testament was written and Ecclesiastical writers do shew us that by its long continuance it was rather increased then abated in their successors Wherefore it must be unsound and unsafe for any Christian Divine to appeal to the Jewish Comments for the true sense of any Text in the Old Testament concerning Christ For although they unanimously maintain and justifie the Letter of the Scripture wherein they have shewed themselves more thankful if not more faithful then many of our late Christians who would teach the translations to justle out the Original yet they have laboured to corrupt and deprave the meaning of it in most of those prophesies which they found the Christian Church had applied unto our Saviour Christ I speak especially of the latter Jews who are the cheifest Commentators we now have upon the Old Testament for those Rabbies who were before Christ did interpret many Texts of the Messiah which the later Rabbies have since wrested to and obscured by another Interpretation so that in truth those later Rabbies whose comments we now have upon the Bible have used what Art they could to obscure the Prophesies concerning Christ and therefore must needs be ill guides in any Doctrine that concerns the Christian Faith As for example Isa 7. 14. the place which Saint Matthew quotes to prove that Christ was to be conceived and born of a Virgin yet Kimchi who is one of the cheifest and the best of the late Jewish Expositors expounds it of the Prophets or of Ahaz his wife and saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not there put for a Virgin but only for some younger woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is willing to distinguish Almah from Bethulah because Bethulah must be an incorrupt Virgin but Almah may signifie a maid that had not an incorrupted Virginity as Prov. 30. 19. And Aquila had too much of the Jew in him to follow the Septuagints interpretation of this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a Virgin therefore he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a young woman shall conceive for the Jews did meerly out of envy render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a young woman instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Virgin And sure we are the infallible spirit of God hath thus rendred it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold a Virgin shall be with child Mat. 1. 23. So again Isa 9. 6. For unto us a child is born c. Kimchi labours to prove this child to be Hezekiah though he be fain to divide the predicate from the subject in the same proposition contrary to all Logick and to divide the relative from the antecedent in the same sentence contrary to all Grammar that he may wrest the latter part of the words His name shall be called wonderful Councellour c. which are unappliable to any man and expound them of God the Father because he will not allow the Prophesie to concern God the Son So again Isa 53. A place which Bellarmine alledgeth to prove that the Jews did not corrupt the Text for that the Original Hebrew did plainly assert the Divinity of Christ calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a smitten God when as our translations only say he was smitten of God This place making more against the Jews in the Hebrew Original then either in Greek or Latine translations is a substantial proof indeed that the Jews did not seek to corrupt the letter of the Text but yet this same place doth as plainly prove that they did seek to deprave the sense of it for Jarchi and Kimchi both would fain perswade us that all this Chapter is to be interpreted of the Jews in their present captivity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the captivity of Israel although the expressions be such throughout the whole Chapter as can belong only to one single person He shall grow up he is despised he was wounded c. and there be many passages which cannot possibly be applyed to Israel I will insist that but on three 1. That it is said he was wounded for our transgressions whereas Israel was afflicted for their own sins 2. That it is said He had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth whereas every man is a liar and God only is true who is the first truth 3. That it is said He made intercession for the transgressors whereas the Jews are so far from praying for the Christians who they say hold them in captivity that they revile and curse them every day and pray for their destruction Lastly that I may instance in one placec which neerly concerns this Doctrine of the resurrection which the Jews care not to see in the forenamed testimony of holy Job It is most evident that the ninth and tenth verses of the sixteenth Psalm do expresly prophesie of the resurrection of Christ and Saint Peter plainly proves as much Acts 2. to the conviction of all those Jews that heard him and to the conversion of some thousands of them yet the late Jewish Expositors will find no such piece of Divinity in it but Jarchi will needs expound it of David contrary to all sense and reason and Ezra slubbers it over with a Platomical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called by the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Volutatio animarum the tumbling and jumbling of souls whereby they phansied one soul to pass through three several bodies as that the soul of Adam was afterwards in David and shall hereafter be in the Messiah which say their Cabbalists is intimated in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath in it the initial letters of Adam David Messias to shew that his soul should also possess their two bodies And Elias in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in radice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tels us of a Text which they quote to make good this their wild position of one and the same humane soul receiving as it were a threefold creation and possessing three several bodies and that Text is Job 33. 29. Ecce omnia ista operatur Deus cum homine tribus vicibus Lo all these things worketh God with man three times It were the loss of my labour and of the Readers patience to insist upon the confutation either of their opinion or of their proof they alledge for it since both are equally absurd and erroneous And yet Abâ—n Ezra would needs shuffle in this frantick opinion into his Comment upon those words
of the sixteenth Psalm for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt suffer thine holy one to see corruption rather then he would allow them their own plain proper sense whereby they did necessarily infer his resurrection from the dead in whose person they were spoken which is the more to be observed for that himself had acknowledged some peculiar eminence of this Psalm from the Title of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he therefore had thus glossed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T is glorious or precious as Gold t is a Golden Psalm and yet he would not see that mysterie in it which alone had given it that glorious title in the judgement of the best Divines even the Mysterie of Christs Resurrection SECT II. The necessity of our Christian Festival called Easter as it is an Anniversary feast to express the Christians joy for the resurrection of Christ that thereby the Christians Jubile or joy in Christ is not confined but enlarged and that by the same reason the Spirit of Prayer is not confined or hindred but rather assisted and helped by a set form of words SInce we cannot deny the Christians unspeakable joy for the Resurrection of Christ why should we go about to diminish it by opposing the grand Christian Festival which hath been instituted to express that joy For excellently Greg. Naz. and most like a true Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. 39. the sum or business of a Festival is the remembrance of God and to put the Thesis into an Hypothesis the sum and business of this Festival is to remember Christ in whom alone we Christians must remember God so that to oppose this Festival is in effect to oppose the remembrance of God in Christ and to shake the very foundations of Christianity For we cannot oppose this Anniversary but we must also oppose our weekly Lords day Therefore did that Council judiciously which began its reformation of abuses in the Church with this Canon Custodite diem Dominicam quae nos denuo peperit à peccatis omnibus liberavit estote omnes in hymnis laudibus Dei animo corporeque intenti si aliter fecerit rusticus aut servus gravioribus fustium ictibus verberabitur Concil Matiscon 2. cap. 1. Keep the Lords day which hath begotten us anew and delivered us from all our sins Be all of you intent in body and soul to the praises of God and if any country man or servant do otherwise let him be soundly cudgelled for his pains And Bullinger in his Decades upon the fourth Commandment gives an excellent reason why set times and seasons should be consecrated and set apart for the publike worship and honour of God saying Oportet autem definitum tempus consecratum esse exercitio religionis ut Dominicum idem sentiendum arbitror de pauculis quibusdam Christi Domini festis quibus peragimus memoriam Nativitatis incarnationis circumcisionis resurrectionis ascentionis in coelum missionis Spiritus Sancti in discipulos libertas enim Christiana non est licentia dissolutio Ecclesiasticae piaeque observationis juvantis provehentis gloriam Dei charitatem proximi There must be some set and certain time consecrated to the exercise of Religion by vertue of this fourth Commandment as the Lords day and I think the same of those other Festivals instituted and observed in memory of Christ as his Nativity incarnation circumcision resurrection ascention into heaven and sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples For Christian liberty is not a licentious dissolution of such holy and pious Ecclesiastical observations as tend wholly to the glory of Christ and the edification of our Christian Brethren Yet do we most willingly confess that the Christians feast of Jubile is not to be confined to a day because he that is the cause of it Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. And indeed so doth Saint Chrysostome expound that Text of Saint Paul 1 Cor. 5. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He saith not Let us keep the feast because it was then Easter or Whitsuntide when he writ this Epistle but to shew that a good Christians life is a continual Feast and therefore every day might serve him for a Festival So that in Saint Chrysostomes judgement Saint Pauls Let us keep the Feast is little other then a short extract of the Psalm of Jubile Jubilate Deo omnis terra O keep your Jubile in the Lord all ye lands Psalm 100. 1. Only the reason is much more express in the New then in the Old Testament Be ye sure that the Lord is God saith the Psalmist It is he that hath made us but much more forcible is the Apostles reason It is he that hath redeemed us We are his people and in that regard ought to hold a feast unto him Exod. 5. 1. but much rather because he hath been a sacrifice for us that we might be his people we are the sheep of his pasture and ought to hear his voice much rather because he hath been our Paschal Lamb that we might be his sheep The whole Psalm is nothing else but a song of Jubile in one verse and the reason of it in the next as ver 1. O be joyful in the Lord with gladness and with a song there 's the Jubile but ver 2. The Lord he is God it is he that hath made us there 's the cause of it And again ver 3. O go your way into his Gates with thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise and be thankful unto him there 's the Jubile But ver 4. For the Lord is gracious his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth from generation to generation there 's the reason of it Grace mercy and truth are all met together in the Lord saith the Psalmist a grace without repenting the Lord is gracious that is still continues so notwithstanding our multiplied provocations a mercy with ending His mercy is everlasting and a truth without failing His truth endureth from generation to generation But the Apostle tels us moreover in whom they are met and the ground of their meeting when he saith For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us For the cause of the grace is that this Christ is ours made ours by conjunction The cause of the mercy that he is our sacrifice by propitiation and the cause of the truth which is one and the same from Genesis to the Revelation is this that the same Christ was this sacrifice of the passover according to the prediction so long foreshewed in the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. and so long foretold in the Prophets particularly Isa 53. 7. He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter so that though a stranger from the Common-wealth of Israel could ask the question Of whom speaketh the Prophet this he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before the
The third is Lex charitatis it must give place to the Law of charity as is proved from the saying of Hosea I will have mercy and not sacrifice ver 7. The fourth is Authoritas legislatoris the authority of the law-giver for he that made it may abrogate it an argument not used in the Text concerning any intrinsically moral law or duty The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath ver 8. We may add a fifth from the repetition of the same story and that is Intentio legislatoris it must give place to the intent of the Law-giver which is the good not the mischief of those to whom he gives his Law And this Limitation or Interpretation we find Mar. 2. 27. in these words the sabbath was made for man that is for mans good to wit the outward rest of his body and the inward rest of his soul and therefore it is not his intent who made the Sabbath for mans good both in corporal and spiritual rest that it should bind him to any real mischief either in his body or in his soul wherefore it is evident by our blessed Saviours own determination That though great is the obligation of those ceremonies which are of Gods own immediate appointment yet greater is the obligation of the least moral duty then of any of those ceremonies when that Moral duty concerns either our selves or our neighbours and not only when it concerns our God For ceremonials are appointed for Morals but Morals are appointed for themselvs Positive constitutions are for the inforcement of natural institutions but natural institutions are for the God of nature Wherefore since Gods worship is not ceremonial but moral not positive but natural the Sabbath is both positive and ceremonial it must follow that the worship was not ordained for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for the worship and consequently the worship is cleerly above the Sabbath And this same Antisabbatarian doctrine is not only of Christs but also of Moses his own teaching if we may believe the Jewish Doctors themselves upon those words of Exod. 12. 16. And in the first day and in the Seventh day shall be an holy convocation For there this is Aben Ezzra's gloss in the first day because that was the day of their going out of Egypt and in the seventh day because that was the day of Pharaohs being drowned therefore those two dayes were more strictly observed then any of the rest that came in betwixt them And yet if we look narrrowly into the matter not the dayes themselves but the duties performed on them made the holy convocations for it is evident from the Text that the first day was sanctified by eating of the Passeover and the Seventh day was sanctified by the heavenly Songs and thanksgivings of Moses and Miriam so it was the Passeover and the thanksgiving not the first and the seventh day that is Holy duties not holy dayes which made the Gathering of the people to be an holy convocation and shewed it to be so We ask no more of Christians but this That they will allow Duties to be above dayes in making of holy convocations and consequently the publike worship of God to be above the Sabbath the day wherein he is to be so worshipped And this being granted which cannot well be denied it must needs follow that they best keep the sabbath who have the best publike worship of God which is the duty not they who are strictest in observing of the day which is the ceremony who talke much of the Sabbath but follow such a service or worship of God as is more agreeable with mans humors or with humane invention then with Gods word or divine institution A Service or worship which though it may be solemn and publike in regard of the Convention yet not in regard of the Communion since no man can câ—me as a Communicant to that worship concerning the which he is not well assured that it is according to the analogy of Faith For he may neither give up his conscience in a blind obedience nor may he retain it upon uncertainties the one being against the evidence the other against the assurance of faith and whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom 14. 23. Whether it be not of faith for want of evidence or for want of assurance Nor doth this divinity whereby we â—ollow the best Divine that ever was in preferring substances above accidents morals above ceremonials Duties above dayes any whit diminish the true Santification of the Sabbath but rather improve advantage it For it is an undeniable rule of reason and much more of religion That all moral duties must have moral antecedents concomitants and consequents which if we will apply to this moral duty of Gods publike worship we shall find any day consecrated there to whether weekly or yearly little enough either for our preparation before we go to worship or for our attention whiles we are worshipping or for our meditation and thankfulness after we have worshipped In a word a Sabbath in general is doubtless moral by the fourth commandment which requires a day to be set apart or made holy for Gods publike worship requires that the day so set apart be esteemed holy and religious though not so much for its own sake as for its works sake according to St. Pauls command concerning the Ministers that are set apart for the same worship 1. Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake which text plainly convinceth those men to be the greatest sabbath-breakers and contemners of the fourth commandment who will not know those which labour among them in the Lord unless it be to contemn and to revile and to oppress them and are so far from acknowledging those labourers to be over them in the Lord that they strive both to bring the labour under their girdles and to tread the labourers under their feet for the Apostle saith expresly they are to be esteemed highly if not for their own yet surely for their works sake in saying so teacheth us to say the same of the time and place that are consecrated to the publike worship of God For by the rule of proportion what is commanded concerning one adjunct of Religion is commanded concerning the rest and we may not think we have dicharged our duties to the fourth commandment by honouring the time but pillaging and defying both the Places and the Persons that are consecrated to Gods service or to speak yet more plainly by crying up the Sabbath but beating down both Churches and Ministers And indeed the fourth commandment it self hints no less which deriveth the reason of the Sabbaths being sanctified above other dayes not from any holiness in the day it self or any set number of dayes but only from the holiness that is in God Wherefore
boisterous men to say ye shall nor ordain nor for timerous men to say we dare not They that are enemies to the ordination to the witnesses can scare be friends to the Doctrine of the resurrection The Lords daies and the Lords Ministers will stand or fall both together and there is no opposing the one without opposing the other and no opposing either without opposing Gods command For indeed they are both alike in general commanded by the fourth Commandment though only one be named even as uncleanness and fornication are both forbidden in the seventh though only adultery be mentioned and they are both alike in special determined by the example of Christ and of his Apostles and the constant and universal practise of the Christian Church As there is an order from the Holy Ghost that concerns the time or the day proved from the first of the Corinthians 16 2. As I have given order to the Churches of Galatia even so do ye that is the same order that I gave to them concerning the first day of the week I give also to you and in you to all other Churches which order was accordingly speedily and generally obeyed because there was an irresistible reason for that obedience so also there is an order from the Holy Ghost concerning the persons proved from Acts 20. 8. The Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Biships and Titus 1. 5. That thou shouldst ordain Elders or Presbyters whence it must needs follow that to disturb the persons ordained to be in the Church of God is equally sacrilegious as to disturb the day that was settled by the same order For the determination of the persons appointed to be the Lords Ministers is full as plain to speak but sparingly both in the prescript of the Text and in the practice of the Catholick Church as is the determination of the Lords day and those men are equally inexcusable who make bold to alter Gods determination in the one as those who make bold to alter it in the other for both being established by the same authority are alike unalterable An universal obligation bindeth equally all persons at all times and in all places and therefore only moral and eternal duties of the Text can immediately and from themselves have such an obligation as the duties of faith hope and charity But yet a determination of the Text though by way of example only concerning the publick exercise of those duties which is without controversie in the Gospel of Christ given to us Christians may also immediately and by vertue of the said duties have an universal obligation because to occasion the disturbance or disesteem of the true and laudable exercise of Religion whether by profaness or perversness whether by throwing aside or pulling down the time place or persons appointed for that purpose is certainly ungodly and irreligious and it is at no time lawful to do an act of ungodliness or irreligion SECT VIII That Sunday as the Lords day is most truly a Christian Festival and ought to be most Religiously observed and so ought also other Festivals instituted in honour of Christ as being likewise our Christian Sabbaths NO Christian festival whatsoever but must be wholly Christian both in its foundation Christian Verity and in its institution Christian authority and in its observation Christian service or duty For the day is holy for the duty not the duty for the day and they who teach or practise otherwise are like those Priests of Spain mentioned and reproved in the fourth Toletane Council can 9. who would not say the Lords Prayer but only on the Lords day Orationem Dominicam tantum die Dominico dicere voluerunt as if Religion were an adjunct of time and not rather time an adjunct of Religion Christian Verity Christian Authority Christian Duty no man can willfully go against either of these principles but he must profess himself either Unchristian or Antichristian And behold our weekly festival in honour of our Saviour Christ is justifiable by all these three and consequently being truly Christian in all these respects that is to say in its foundation in its institution and in its observation must needs be an universal feast for all Christians to be partakers of for that it is annexed to the Christian Religion as necessary by the necessity of Justice from the duty and thankfulness we all owe to our Saviour Christ and therefore may not be carelesly neglected much less irreverently profaned without the Imputation of injustice and unthankfulness The Casuists speak louder and say not without the imputation of Sacriledge So Cajetane in his summulae Festos dies in honorem Dei sanctificatâ—s violare peccatum est Sacrilegii quia injuria fit tempori sacro quantum ad illud ad quod sanctificatum est To profane a Holy day that is made and kept holy in honour of God is a sin of Sacriledge because the profanation of time that is sanctified is an affront and defiance of its sanctification so that in effect it is a double Sacriledge for it robs time of that holiness which belongs to it and it robs God of that time which belongs to him This great Sacriledge is yet further accompanied with one of the seven deadly sins commonly so called and that sin is spiritual slothfulness So saith Alensis Accidia opponitur praecepto de sanctificatione Sabbathi In peccato enim Accidiae Tristitia est de spirituali laborioso cum amore quietis carnalis è contra vero in illo praecepto est Amor sanctae quietis quae est cum gaudio in bono spirituali par 2 qu. 140. m. 10. The sin of slothfulness is opposed to that precept of the sanctification of the Sabbath for in the sin of slothfulness there is sorrow for spiritual labour and love of carnal rest But in the precept concerning the sanctification of the Sabbath is commanded the love of a Holy Rest or Joy in our spiritual good which as it is not obtained without great labour so it is not enjoyed without great rest even the sweet and most comfortable rest of the soul in God for his everlasting mercies in Iesus Christ so that all those Festivals which commemorate to us the mercies of God in Christ are to be accounted as our Christian sabbaths and we shall be little less then enemies to our own souls if not to be our blessed Saviour unless we seriously endeavour to make them so Surely if men did truly believe and earnestly desire the life everlasting they would be as carefull not to defraud their souls of due nourishment as they are not do defraud their bodies and would no more begrutch the time for the one then for the other but would rather be more industrious to save their souls then they are to preserve their bodies and consequently more solicitous how to lay in provision for a supply against their spiritual then for a supply against their corporal necessities alwaies remembring that Motto Ex hoc
momento aeternitas as we spend our time here so we shall find our eternity hereafter For God who hath given us time only to prepare and provide for eternity will certainly call us to a strict account for all our time but to the strictest account for that time which he hath more immediately allotted and consigned us to make that preparation SECT IX The fourth commandment was not given to limit the first and therefore excludes not other Festivals shewing our true love of Christ but rather commands them The true manner of ob serving any Christian festival particularly Easter is to account and make it a day of Observations by observing our selves and our Saviour our selves what we have been what we are what we desire to be Our Saviour what he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will in his retribution CHristian Feasts were not ordained not so much for the outward as for the inward man Hence excellently the divine Nazianzen or at 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No beauty doth so much enamour and delight the most affectionate lover of beauties as our spiritual keeping of publike assemblies doth delight a Christian lover of Festivals We will therefore enquire how a good Christian may best keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord and we hope thereby not to overthrow but rather to establish our set temporal Festivals And indeed we cannot better keep a spiritual feast unto the Lord then by accounting it a day of observations as Moses said of the feast of the Passeover that it was a night of observations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salomon Jarchi gives this gloss upon the place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the Lord observed himself that night and watched that he might deliver Israel according to his promise And sure we are that our blessed Saviour thus observed and watched himself that he might deliver us from sin and death and as sure that this day of our deliverance ought be a day for every good Christian most especially to observe himself and yet much more to observe his Saviour That sabbath day was an high day to the Jew whereon was celebrated the Passeover John 19. 31 And since there is much greater reason it should be so to the Christian t is not possible there should be greater supestition in it For reason and superstition could never yet agree so well together that what was truly Rational could by the wit of man be proved superstitious We must then account this day an high day and not confine our devotions so to our weekly Festival as if that alone were within the compass of the fourth commandment For we may not limit the first commandment by the fourth since the first is the great commandment to which all the rest in that Table are to be reduced according to our blessed Saviours own determination Mat. 22. 37 38. Jesus said unto him Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great commandment By which his determination our infallible Doctor hath concluded the fourth commandment to be moral in that he maketh it reducible to the first but withall to have its chiefest morality meerly by vertue of that reduction And in this respect we may pray in faith Incline our hearts to keep this law as well as any of the rest in the Decalogue looking on the duty as moral for it self on the day as moral for its duty for the duty is clearly reducible to the love of God and consequently to be most religiously observed for it self by vertue of that comes in the day with its other adjuncts to be most religiously observed for the duty We have a Theological certainty concerning the duty which is the rest of our souls in God we can have but a moral certainty concerning the day as set apart for that rest yet we need not fear a mistake in the day being sure of no mistake in the duty and consequently observing the day for the duty we cannot but pray in faith for mercy because we have transgressed for who did ever rest in God as he was bound to do and for grace that we may not transgress but may still more and more rest in him till we come to our eternal rest Therefore we may not limit or restrain the end of the fourth Commandment by the letter of it advancing the day above the duty for that is the way not to pray in faith that we may keep this Law much less may we limit and restrain the first Commandment by the fourth for that is the way not to be able to pray in faith that we may keep any other Law since it is evident that the love of God is the foundation of faith in all our prayers and that Love is required in the first Commandment so that to restrain that Commandment is to restrain our love of God and to restrain our love of God is to restrain our faith in God Again we may not limit the first Commandment by the fourth for that were to limit the greater by the lesser and t is evident the fourth was given to establish the exercise of the first not to enfeeble its obligation since then the first commands us to love God with all our hearts and with all our souls we may not think that the fourth was given to confine this love in any one particular member of Christ much less in his whole mystical body as if Christians were bound to make use of their hearts and souls in the publike exercise and profession of their love to God only upon Sunday or upon one day in seven Accordingly we must account every Christian Festival that is truly in honour and for love of Christ and particularly this of the Passover An high day and to shew that we account it so our best way is to endeavour to make it so by making it a day of observations Now observations cannot be less then two and that two may indeed serve our turns one of these observations must be of our selves another of our Saviour The observation of our selves must be three-fold what we have been what we are what we resolve to be First what we have been miserable sinners Thus the Psalmist observed himself when he said for innumerable troubles are come about me my sins have taken such hold upon me that I am not able to look up yea they are more in number then the hairs of my head and my heart hath failed me O Lord let it be thy pleasure to deliver me make haste O Lord to help me Psalm 40 I have been hitherto a miserable sinner but I beseech thee to deliver me both from my misery and from my sin Secondly what we are penitent sinners Thus holy Job observed himself when he said wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes Job 42. 6. T is in the Origin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Idcirco reprobabo therefore I will reject and reprobate what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Ezra all my words we may say more all my thoughts words and work which have been against thee I will account them all as reprobate for fear they should make me so and I will repent in dust and ashes that I have so frequently so undutifully so unthankfully sinned against that great Majesty which was able to confound me in my sins and much more that I have thus sinned against that good mercy that is willing to save me from my sins and dayly inviteth me to that salvation Thirdly what we resolve to be amended sinners Thus the Prophet Jeremiah adviseth us therefore now amend your ways Jer. 26. 16. I appeal to all the consciences of all men now living whether ever any ways of men so much needed amendment as ours do who have made Saint Pauls general Doctrine of all mankind as it were a particular History of our selves They are all gone out of the way they are altogether become unprofitable that 's too mild take it as t is in the Psalmist they are altogether become abominable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues have they used deceit the poison of asps is under their lips their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their ways 1. quacunque incedunt solitudinem vastitatem faciunt omnia perdendo saith Beza where ever they go they carry desolation along with them and the way of peace have they not known 1. Vitam innocentem pacisicam saith Beza they have not known what belongs to an innocent and a peaceable life and indeed how can they know what belongs to peace who will not know what belongs to innocency These words were spoken in the Old Testament of the best of men the Jews and of them in the best of their times that is when King David and King Hezekiah governed them for all the Testimonies are taken out of the Psalms and the Prophesie of Isaiah And hence it is the Apostle by an argument à majori ad minus makes them Doctrinal of all men whatsoever for though they were particular in their occasion or in their example yet they were universal in their instruction and in their document They were spoken only of some men and that occasionally but they are true of all men and that Doctrinally till God please to purifie their hearts by faith and their lives by repentance But we have again made them particular and occasional and meerly Historical of our selves who have been called to the knowledge of faith and the practice of repentance above all other Nations and yet have outstripped them all in our works of infidelity and impenitency Our infidelity whatever we vainly talk of faith hath made us guilty of all this impiety and wickedness both against God and man and our impenitency makes us still persist and continue in our guiltiness Surely Saint John Baptist if he were now alive would think himself bound to teach us though he were sure to lose his head for his Doctrine that therefore the Kingdom of Heaven the power of the Gospel is so far from us because we are so far from repentance For he that might not preach the Gospel in vain first preached repentance saying repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resipiscite repent ye so Beza and our new translation looking to the inward contrition and conversion of the heart poenitentiam agite saith the Vulgar Latine do pennance looking to the outward confession of and humiliation for the sin Amend your lives saith our old translation as it is still in the sentences before the common prayer looking to the real correction and amendment of the sinner contrition for the heart confession for the mouth correction for the life and conversation not one of these must be wanting in him that desires and resolves to be an amended sinner This for the observation of our selves The other observation must be of our Saviour and that is also threefold what he was what he is and what he will be What he was in his humiliation what he is in his exaltation what he will be in his retribution First what he was in his humiliation our Surety and pledge to undertake for us surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. 4. And again the chastisement of our peace was upon him ver 5 that is what chastisement was fit to have come upon us that we might be in peace did come upon him in our stead So doth Aben Ezra gloss the words aright though he be grossly if not wilfully mistaken in the person applying this text to the Jews as bearing the chastisement of the Gentiles and not to Christ as bearing the chastisement of both Jews and Gentiles where as it is unreasonable that the Jews should be punished for us Gentiles and unpossible that their punishment should expiate our transgressions No it cost much more to redeem a soul so that only he who was worth infinitely more then the whole creation was able to pay the price of our Redemption Excellently Saint Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eternal Son of God brought the Temple of his Body for our pledge and ransom The Grecians call a pledge or surety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that stakes soul for another so was our blessed Saviour our pledge to stake body for body and soul for soul in our stead we should also be his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in another sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hesychius the birds which according to the Poets fiction sprung out of Memnons ashes were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they sacrificed their life to him from whom they had received it we are bound to sacrifice our lives to our blessed Saviour and much more to offer our selves to him as a living sacrifice Secondly what he is in his exaltation even our Mediator and Intercessor He sitteth at the right hand of God and maketh intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. We cannot be so ready to pray for our selves as he is to pray for us and yet t is to be doubted whether he will pray for us if we will not pray for our selves Whether his offering himself to God will be available to our salvation unless we also offer our selves unto him for so the Apostle seems to intimate Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them For whom For them doubtless that came unto God by him but scarce for others who either come not to God at all or come not to God by him but by some other Mediator T is a dangerous matter not to look on Christ in his passion and as dangerous not to look immediately on
their profit but t is by a false Arithmetick an Arithmetick that is only in their own fansie by which they cast up that which is not and so must needs be out in their account For they cast up for the time to come making that a part of their reckoning and by that their life longer in their fansie then t is truely in it self or in Gods appointment which is so unimaginable folly that it causeth the Son of God to thwart his own instructions and though he much dislike the language of thou fool Matth. 5. 22. Yet here he useth it saying verse 20. Thou fool this night thy soul shsll be required of thee Thus are our carnal joys great in their proportion not so in their foundation but contrarywise our spiritual joys are greater in their foundation then in their proportion which shews that even the best of us do so live in the flesh as to live too much after it contrary to that profession which should be ours as well as Saint Pauls for though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh 2 Cor. 10. 3. Hence it is that the cause or foundation of our joy in Christ is infinitely greater then the measure and proportion of it But yet the man after Gods own heart the Prophet David sets it out to the full He was a man after our hearts in his carnal failings but a man after Gods heart in his unfeigned repentance which caused his spiritual rejoycings And his spiritual joy was so great that he cals for company to rejoyce wirh him saying Rejoyce in the Lord O ye righteous for it becommeth well the just to be thankful Psal 33. 1. As if he had said since ye are truly righteous and just being made righteous by his propitiation and just by his satisfaction it becommeth you well to rejoyce in him that you may be thankful for this transcendent salvation So let me be just so let me be joyful SECT XI A zealous observation of this Christian Festival proceedeth from the true love of our Redeemer and thankfulness for our Redemption A set form of Praise fittest to express that thankfulness IT were a fowl shame for Christians who are most obliged to serve God to be least devoted to his service and therefore we must beware of shewing less zeal in our moral then the Jews shewed in their ceremonial worship When they celebrated their Passeover they did sing some Psalms of Repentance as a lamentation for the sinner other Psalms of thanksgiving as a triumph and rejoycing for the righteous Canebant quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quaedam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Scal. lib. 6. de emend temp They did sing some Psalms for propitiation some for thanksgiving And this was their hymn for thanksgiving Blessed art thou O Lord our God King of heaven and earth who hast sanctified us by thy Commandments and hast commanded us in this manner to bless and praise thee which hymn of theirs holy Zachary seems to have imitated but withal to have amplified in his Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people that we being delivered from the fear of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the daies of our life A main ground of his blessing God is this That God hath enabled his people to bless and praise him Which invaluable mercy the Greek Church alwaies thought worthy of a particular thanksgiving saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we give unto thee humble and hearty thanks that thou hast given us this Liturgie this good form of serving thee That thou hast called us to this duty of publick thanksgiving That thou hast vouchsafed us this great honour who are dust and ashes and greater mercy who are sinful dust and ashes to bless and praise thee and to call upon thy holy name And they have this reward of their thankfulness that in the middst of the greatest and bitterest enemies of the Christian Religion they do still enjoy their Liturgy groaning indeed under the bondage and oppression of their bodies but infinitely rejoycing in the liberty of their souls the Turks themselves thinking it too inhumane a tyrannie to bring that people into bondage both of body and of soul And as for the Jews they would have laughed at any man that should have offered them whimsies instead of certainties and would sooner have let their bread be taken out of their mouthes then this their hymn of blessing and praising God So great so fervent so constant was their zeal for that which they knew to be true godliness This I say was the general thanksgiving of the Iews at all their great Feasts to the which they added those particular forms of thanksgiving that most properly concerned the occasion And this was their spiritual manner of feasting God himself suggesting no less in that he commanded them to take their Lamb the tenth day of the moneth which was not to be slain till the fourteenth for why was the Lamb to be taken so long before hand but only that their souls might feed on the goodness of God before their bodies feasted on the Lamb And the Jewish Authors tell us that during those four daies the Lamb was tyed to their bed-posts that not only eating and drinking as Saint Paul requires of us 1 Cor. 10 31. but also sleeping and waking they might glorifie their God And so will we too if we have the true love and zeal of godliness saying with those three holy men for the same cause that they did even our deliverance from the fiery furnace not of temporary but of everlasting burnings O ye servant of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye spirits and souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye holy and humble men of heart bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever So that unless we will profess that we serve our selves not our God that we are men whose spirits and souls are unrighteous and that we are unholy and proud of heart we must bless the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever This is the zeal we should bring with us to this and all other our Christian Festivals as the Prophet requireth saying If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own waies nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words Isa 58. 13. which text in Kimchies gloss is to be interpreted of the Sabbath in general for saith he the feast of expiation was strictly to be observed as a Sabbath though it was placed on the 10. day of September which might fall on any day of the week And he proveth a strict observation from the words themselves wherein are both a negative
life 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Wherefore that Religion which hath not the Son hath not life and the Religion which hath not life what can it have but death Nor is it lawfull and much less laudable in any man to account those men Christians who doubt the divinity of Christ much less who deny it For they that have not Christ for their God cannot have the true God for their God And therefore Saint Paul takes these two for one and the same mischief to be without Christ and to be without God saying to the Ephesians At that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Saint Cyril in his Catechism expound these words of the Heathen saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some of them made the Sun their God that all the night long they might be without God others made the Moon their God that they might be without God all the day But in truth the words will concern many men that are far from that stupid and gross Idolatry even all Jews and all Turks and too too many that are called Christians even as many as question the divinity of Christ for all these alike are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Atheists alike as being without the true God And if their Religion make them Atheists what shall we call it but Irreligion or Atheism But I will not insist any longer upon the proofs of the Text to justifie the Christian Religion since even common sense it self doth make known this Tenent and common experience doth make it good For it is a very substantial and sufficient proof that no other Religion hath in it those truths which are really conformable to a rational mans understanding but only the Christian for that no other Religion subsisteth any longer then the sword that forceth it whereas the Christian Religion still abideth and continueth in the world not by the violence but by the patience of those that uphold and maintain the same nowithstanding the many and great difficulties that are in and with it and the many and great oppositions and persecutions that have been and are against it which must needs argue an inward consonancy or congruity of the Christian Religion with the very soul of man as alone having truths able to satisfie it and alone shewing means able to save it And indeed these three excellencies among many other do give to the Christian Religion the preheminence above all other Religions The first is That no other Religion declareth au expiation for sin The Jewish Religion it self being defective in this particular but as it was Christian and looked unto Christ the Apostle plainly and positively assuring us That it is not possible the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins Heb. 10. 5. So that no Jew could have this opinion of his own Religion that it taught a way of expiating sin unless he would be mad that he might be thought religious for there is no room for any the least probability against an absolute impossibility but the Apostle saith it is not possible And yet there can be no comfortable nor cordial practice of Religion to a man that groaneth under the burden of his sins unless he have this perswasion that his sins may be expiated and his person accepted since it is impossible that any man should care to worship or serve God being offended with him if he had no hope to appease him Let this then be the peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it may be most comfortably and most cordially practised because it most teacheth that God may be appeased nay indeed it teacheth how he is appeased even by the merits and mediation of his son who is both founder and the foundation of our Christian Religion The Second excellency is That no other religion proposeth much less promiseth so great and glorious a reward to those that embrace it as is the eternal and everlasting glory both of the body and soul for to let pass the disputes of the Heathen in this kind which were all either vanities or uncertainties even Moses himself in the institution of the Jewish Religion if we look upon the express and explicite Covenants of the law went no farther then a a land flowing with milk and honey and a long and prosperous continuance of them and their seed in that land But for what concerns a better life after this t is either darkly included in this promise or rationally concluded from it not without strong collections of a searching Judgement such as was that of our blessed Saviour Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he is not a God of the dead but of the living Luke 20. 37 38. Where the conclusion was virtually in the premises though not found out till the eternal wisdom of God discovered it and since that discovery we see t is undeniable in our own humane reason yet if the Jewish Doctors could have seen so much before t is scarce imaginable that one of their chiefest Sects or Parties I mean the Sadduces would have denied the resurrection Let this then be another peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it teacheth the body shall live again with the soul in the life everlasting for this doctrine must needs terrifie us from the sins of the flesh because we shall all rise again with our own bodies and give account of the works done in them and be acquitted or condemned according to that account And this same doctrine must also needs comfort and strengthen us against all the maladies and miseries of the flesh for what is a momentary sickness or miserie to an endless and everlasting glory Wherefore since it is the work of Religion to subdue the flesh to the spirit both in its doings and in its sufferings and thereby to subdue the spirit to God and since the Christian Religion alone can do this work subduing the flesh to the spirit in its doings by terrifying it from sin and in its sufferings by strengthning it against miseries I will evermore bless my God for calling me to such a Religion which maugre all the mischief and malice both of men and devils will neither let me be impenitently sinfull nor uncomfortably miserable The third excellency of the Christian Religion above all other religions consists in that admirable holiness and Purity which it requires in the worship of Christ and in all other duties and works of Christianity whereas the Pagan sacrifices were full of cruelty delighting in the blood of men and their mysteries full of obscoenity invading the modesty of women And the Jewish Religion though it had nothing unlawfull or immodest yet it had many things in themselves unusefull and unnecessary though both useful
and necessary in regard of the Jews to keep them in obedience and from idolatry as circumcision sacrificing of beasts the distinction of meats and the rigorous observation of the Sabbath But the Christian Religion requires nothing of us save what is usefull and necessary in it self though it were not commanded as it requires us not to circumcise the foresking of our flesh but of our hearts not to keep a Sabbath by the external rest of the body ceasing from motion but by the internal rest of the soul ceasing from sin and taking its repose in God Not to offer the blood of bullocks but to be ready to offer our own blood for Gods glory not to abstain from certain kinds of meats but to use them all with sobriety for the chastisement of the body and sometimes to use none at all for the advantage of the soul And whereas other Religions have too much of Mammon in them to teach men to forsake their estates ours teacheth us to forsake our selves nor if I had the tongue of men and Angels were I able to express the incomparable purity of that faith whereby we are taught to hope in God not only above hope but also against it in the midst of death to hope for life in the extremity of Justice to hope for mercy and so wholly to trust God with our souls as not to hope for salvation but only to glorifie him thereby desiring his glory equally with our own eternal bliss or rather above it Nor if I had a Seraphins quill were I able to delineate the purity of that worship which teacheth us to pray for nothing but in relation to the honour and with subordination to the will of God and to rest secure in the deniall of temporal blessings whiles we rely upon the promises of those which are eternal This being such a purity as is above our Praise and yet required to come under our Practice plainly sheweth that our Religion is too much above our selves either to proceed from our own understanding or to depend upon our own wills and consequently that God alone was the first founder and is still the Master-builder and defender of it Nor doth our Christian Religion teach us this admirable purity and holiness only in conversing with our God but also in conversing with our selves not only in our duty towards God but also in our duty towards our neighbour Do but consider the ordinary offices of humanity and the Christian Religion will shew you there is some thing of Divinity in those offices for that teacheth you to relieve your brother not only as a member of your own body having the same flesh and blood with your self which is according to the office of humanity but also to relieve him as a member of your Saviours body as a member of God the Son as a temple of God the Holy-Ghost which adds something of divinity to that office Humanitas quà m sit proprium hominis ipsum nomen indicat shew the offices of Humanity to another man for your own sake because you are a man unless you would be accounted a beast was a forcible argument for men to be curteous and friendly one to another before Christ came in the flesh But now that argument must be strained to a higher pitch and we must say shew the offices of humanity to another man for the Son of Gods sake because you are a Christian unless you would be accounted not a beast but a devil So undeniable is the argument of the Christian Religion for the practise of Charity So inexcusable are Christians above other men for the practice of uncharitableness For surely we cannot deny but this doctrine of doing good to all and hurt to none for Christs sake is nowhere to be found but among Christians though their practise in this yron age of the hard-hearted world hath much disagreed from this doctrine As for the Turks religion it was born in the camp smells of the camp lives by the camp it was brought in by the sword savours of the sword is preserved and propagated by the Sword And yet in this respect shame it is to say it but the shame is theirs of whom it may be truly said many Christians are of late turned Turks So that the black-mouthed calumnie of Calvino-Turcismus is in this sense a Truth and the retaliation of that by Papismo-Turcismus is in this sense not to be thought a calumnie for both Protestants and Papists as much as they have of cutting of purses and cutting of throats in their late inhumane rapines and butcheries so much they have of Turcism not of Christianity For that hath said If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12. 20. That is strive to make thine enemy thy friend by overcoming evil with good but in no case to make thy friend and much less thy God thine enemy by overcoming good with evil And indeed this mild voice is only the voice of the Christian religion For even the Jew who came neerest to God and his goodness did nevertheless say An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and thou shalt love thy neighbour but hate thine enemy T is only the Christians hath learned this lesson from the mouth of their master Love your enemies blâ—ss them that curse you and do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 42. As much then as love is above hatred blessing above cursing forgiving above reviling relieving above revenging and praying above persecuting or in one word heaven above hell so much is the Christians Religion above all other religions in the offices of humanity or in the conversation of man with man Again look upon the conversation of man with woman and you shall find the Christian is taught and the good Christian doth practice a greater chastity in his marriage then other men look after in their virginity He knows he is bound to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God 1 Thes 4. 1. and therefore will take heed of making his remedy his disease of adding oyle to the fire of provoking that lust of concupiscence which he should banish and expel for what he retains of lust that he loses of sanctification and honour in his body and of the knowledge of God in his soul This chast consideration being grounded in the hearts of good Christians will either keep them innocent or make them penitent whereas other men that know not this Doctrine or regard it not do let loose the rains of their concupiscence and are further from chastity in their virginity then these men are in their marriage For the one follow the Apostles advice It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none 1 Cor. 7. 29. The other
the eternal Spirit be all honour and glory now and for ever Amen Christ glorified in his Ascention The Prooeme That our blessed Saviours Ascention is not so truly observed by our commemoration as by our imitation and the manner how to consider the History of his Ascention THere is no blessing of Christ but imposeth upon a Christian the necessity of commemorating it and withall affords him exceeding great joy in its commemoration if he so observe it with other Christians as also to imitate it with good Christians For at Saint Luke gives a full definition of Christs Gospel when he calleth it a Treatise of those things which Jesus did do and teach Acts 1. 1. as if he had said A Book that containeth Christs sayings and doings so may we give this definition of a true Gospeller or of a good Christian He is a lively representer of the sayings and doings of Christ of the sayings of Christ by his profession of the doings of Christ by his practise and imitation For that man alone hath a true faith in the Passion Resurrection and Ascention of Christ who sheweth his faith by his works dying with Christ that he may live to him rising with Christ that he may live with him and ascending to Christ that he may live in him who sheweth his faith in Christs Cross by crucifying his own sinful lusts in Christs resurrection by rising to newness of life and in Christs ascention by ascending thither in heart and mind whiher his Saviour is gone before him Thus did the holy Apostles follow their Master with their eyes and with their hearts when they could not follow him with their bodies They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up Acts 1. 10. Surely the more to fix their hearts on him when he was above And so must we too we must go up with him thither that we may tarry with him there accordingly as Christs own Church hath taught us to pray Grant we beseech thee Almighty God that like as we do believe thine only begotten Son our Lord to have ascended into the heavens so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend and with him continually dwell who liveth and raigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost one God world without end which is such an heavenly prayer That we are infinitely bound to bless God for putting it into our devotions but yet more bound to beseech him that he will also put it into our lives and conversations For which cause I will enlarge my considerations concerning the ascention of our blessed Saviour And as Binius in setting down that vast and voluminous Council of Ephesus digesteth his work into three Tomes in the first tome reciting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts before the Council in the second Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done in the Council in the third Tome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the acts done after the Council So will I consider the history of our blessed Saviours Ascention first insisting upon those things which are recorded before it His apparitions his instructions his consolations and his benedictions Secondly insisting upon those things which are recorded concerning the manner of his ascending And lastly insisting upon that one thing which is recorded of him after he was ascended viz. his sitting at the right hand of God And I have warrant enough so to do from the two Pen-men of that very History For Saint Mark describeth the Ascention with reference to Christs Apparitions upon the very day of his resurrection though that was full fourty daies before he ascended for so we read Mar. 16. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sate at meat and upbraided their unbelief and hardness of heart which apparition was clearly on the very day of his Resurrection unless we will say that unbelief and hardness of heart remained in the Apostles when it scarce remained in any of the other Disciples for he had appeared unto them no less then five several times on that very day for the confirmation of their faith And yet without any mention of more apparitions it followeth v. 19. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them he was received up into heaven But Saint Luke describeth the Ascention with the sending down of the Holy Ghost which was not till ten daies after our Saviour Christ was actually ascended as appears Acts 1. 8 9. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you And when he had spoken these things he was taken up The Ascention is so placed in the narrations of these Evangelists as both to look backward to the Feast of Easter and forward to the Feast of Pentecost To look backward upon the Resurrection of God the Son to look forward upon the Descention of God the Holy Ghost Happily to teach all Christians That they must first arise from sin before they can ascend up to God there 's the Resurrection before the Ascention And that they must ascend up to God before they can receive the gifts and graces of his Holy Spirit there 's the Ascention before the coming of the Holy Ghost However this is ground enough for me to look a little backward and a little forward in my considerations of the Ascention because the Evangelists have thus related it with its antecedent apparitions and words and with its consequent exaltation or sitting on the right hand of God CAP. I. Christ Considered before his Ascention SECT I. Christ considered in his Apparitions before he ascended as to Mary Magdalen and to Saint Peter c. The wrong use that hath been made the right use that may be made of those Apparitions IT is much to be observed That since in the Gospel are mentioned but ten apparitions of Christ between his Resurrection and his Ascention yet no less then five of them are recorded on the very day of his Resurrection For he appeared five several times to several persons on that same day which Durand would perswade us the Latine Church did intimate in her very Church musick of that day singing that Invitatory Hymn The Lord is risen indeed in the fift musical tone Et est quinti toni propter quinque apparitiones Domini in ill◠die saith he This Anthymne Surrexit Dominus verè The Lord is risen indeed is sung in the fift Tone because the Lord appeared five times on that very day This is an elegant way of teaching mysteries by musical tones somewhat above that gross invention of turning pictures into Lay-mens books but yet whatsoever is to be said of the musick we are sure the thing it self is consonant to the Truth For our blessed Saviour did appear five several times on the very day of his resurrection that as soon as he had raised his own body from the Grave he might raise his Apostles souls from incredulity and prepare them to receive those Heavenly doctrines pertaining to the kingdom of God concerning which he resolved to speak with them
ascended And to this purpose we may not unfitly reduce all the words which he spake from his Resurrection till his Ascension to these three heads verba instructionis verba consolationis verba benedictionis words of instruction words of consolation and words of benediction or words of grace mercy and peace For like as Saint Paul said to Saint Timothy whom he called his own son in the Faith Grace Mercy and Peace so did God from the beginning speak to his Apostles and so doth he still speak to all those whom he accepteth as his sons though unworthy to be his servants the words of grace by instruction the words of mercy by consolation and the words of peace by benediction Saint Luke saith our Saviour was full forty dayes with his Apostles after his Resurrection speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God Act. 1. 3. He had so fervent a desire of teaching them and in them us the right way of salvation that he differred to enter into his own glory which he had so dearly earned by his sufferings till he had fully instructed and confirmed them in that way He was willing to leave the impression of heaven in their hearts before he was willing to take possession of it in his own body Oh that we did imitate our Master in this his unspeakable charity for though it be above our expression yet may it in some sort come under our imitation by truly desiring and zealously promoting one anothers Salvation This would be indeed to shew not to speak our selves Christians This would be indeed not Verbally but Really to put on the Lord Jesus Christ He was unwilling to leave his Apostles before he had given them all manner of Instructions both how to teach and how to govern his Church the one that he might keep all after-ages from heresie the other that he might keep them from schism Oh that all Christians would accordingly consider what a grievous sin it is not to hearken to Christs own Teaching not to obey Christs own Government And what a Severe account he will call them to when he shall come again as Judge of quick and dead for being hereticks against his doctrine put afterwards in writing in his word or for being Schismaticks against his discipline put immediately in practice in his Church For if he kept himself forty dayes from heaven to settle his Church how shall any that is called a Christian think the best way thither is to unsettle it Our blessed Saviour gave instructions and not only so least we should think any thing of Religion to be arbitrary but he also gave commands That we should know and acknowledge all matters of Religion to be necessary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After he had given commandments unto the Apostles Acts 1. 2. But where are these commands Are they or any of them devolved down unto us only by unwritten Tradition we dare not say so for that were to make the holy Apostles so regardless of Christs instructions as to care to teach them only to those men who had the happiness to live in their dayes since verbal Tradition is as changable as the breath that derives it whereas what is spoken of Abel is much more to be verified of Saint Peter or Saint John God testifying of his gifts and by it that is by his faith he being dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Nay more yet Preacheth for the reading of the law of Moses is called Preaching Acts 15. 21. For Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and if reading in the Law of Moses was Preaching who dares deny it to be so in the Law of Christ Therefore the books of the New Testament do certainly contain the Instructions and commands which Christ gave to his Apostles by word of mouth during those forty dayes he abode with them And we need go no farther then the written word to know our Saviours mind for it is therein taught us either by Precept or by Promise or by Precedent And consequently what we find not there written for our instruction in one of these three wayes that we must not ascribe either to his dictating or to their Preaching unless we will impute gross forgetfullness to the Registers of Christ as not remembring all things necessary when as our Saviour himself promised them such a Comforter as should bring all things to their remembrance Joh. 14. 26. or supine negligence to the Pen-men of the Holy-Ghost as not writing what was necessary to be remembred For if the words which Job spake concerning Christ were to be engraven with an yron pen lead in a rock for ever Joh. 19. 24. then much more were those words to be so engraven which Christ himself spake to his Apostles words ingraven in a rock with an yron pen are lasting but they are not so legible unless they be also drawn over or coloured with lead to make them conspicuous So Salomon Iarchi glosseth this Text he would have the Characters of his Letters engraven with yron to make a deep impression but after that he would have those same Characters coloured or died with lead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dare litteris aspectum nigrum ut cognoscantur That their black tincture might make them the more legible And without doubt our blessed Saviour took such a course that the main effect of his words should be so engraven as to be both lasting and legible to the worlds end when himself hath said that heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Mat. 24. 35. and amongst the rest sure not his last words Saint Luke records this for one of them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father Acts 1. 4. And this word doth our Saviour Christ still speak to every good Christian saying unto him depart not from Jerusalem though it were in truth what some have made it reputed by their false clamours prophane unclean impure Ierusalem For you may not hope to fare better then Christ and his Apostles whereever you stay and you are sure not to fare worse then they did though you stay in Jerusalem Jerusalem the City of God had been turned into Sodom a cage of unclean birds for its impurity into an Aceldama a field of blood for its cruelty yet here is such a promise annexed to it as makes Christs Disciples willing to bear with the impurities and to bear the cruelties For it is an Elisha promise which signifieth My God saveth And no wonder then if it hath the power of reviving the Soul as Elisha's bones did revive a dead body And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stood upon his feet 2 Kings 13. 21. So if the soul be let down never so low into the pit of destruction yet if it touch this Elisha this promise of My God saveth with
or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was received up as unto that which he had so fully merited and deserved Again the same twofold expression shews a twofold miracle if we consider Christ in the unity of his person as those two natures of God and man made but one Christ the first miracle was the conquest over earth in his body which was taught to ascend upwards contrary to the nature of Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He went up in that body The second miracle was the conquest over heaven in his soul which for his singular piety was taught in some sort to descend downwards contrary to the nature of heaven in that the light clouds were made to come down that they might minister to his Ascension So that these must be our considerations of our blessed Saviour from the act and manner of his Ascending his twofold Title in claiming heaven and his twofold miracle in possessing it his first title to heaven was as the Son of God for so he claimed heaven by inheritance and the word used in the Apostles Creed intimates that claim or title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went up sc to take possession of his own he went by his own power to enter upon his own right claiming heaven as his natural inheritance because he was the Son of God And this right of his Saint Paul exactly describes Heb. 1. 2 3. Where he saith God hath appointed his son heir of all things by whom also he made the world who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high In which words the Apostle teacheth us to say to the son of God what the Son taught us to say unto the Father For thine is the Kingdom the power and the glory For he fully setteth forth unto us the Kingdom of Christ both as Redeemer and as Creator As Redeemer when he saith God appointed him heir of all things in which respect Christ himself saith All things are delivered unto me of my father Mat. 11. 27. and all power is given unto me Mat. 28. 18. and the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand John 3. 35. And he setteth forth unto us the Kingdom of Christ as Creator when he saith By whom also he made the worlds for in that respect our Saviour had all power in heaven and in earth without its being given or delivered unto him as he was the eternal Son of God coequal with his Father Which his coequality the Apostle expresseth from three particulars First in that he was the brightness of his glory that is the natural brightness of his glory by necessary generation not by voluntary communication even as the Sun naturally begets brightness and not voluntarily upon choice or deliberation Secondly In that he was the express Image or character of his person not only representing his essential glory as God of which representation it is said No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him John 1. 18. but also representing his personal glory as father because the person of the Father is wholly and fully expressed in the person of the Son as in a lively Image or Character thereof in which respect Christ himself saith If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him John 14. 7. and again he that hath seen me hath seen the Father ver 9. Thirdly In that he upheld all things by the word of his power to wit by the same word by which he had made them ver 2. All this being said t is no wonder if it follow immediately after that he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as taking that place in the nature of man which was his proper right as the Son of God But what comfort is this to us who are born the Sons of wrath and so have title only to the place of wrath and vengeance as to our inheritance T is true we have no title from our selves save only to hell such a title as we care not to claim though we labour to make good But we have also a title of inheritance to heaven from our blessed Saviour as saith the Apostle And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For the Son by adoption is admitted to the inheritance as if he were a Son by nature And we being adopted in Christ cannot be denyed to have a title to his Inheritance But we were best take heed that we abuse not this title or at least mistake it not as some do who cry Abba Father and are no sons or who are so the Sons of God as not led by the Spirit of God or so led by the Spirit of God as not doing the works of the Spirit but of the flesh being guilty of hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murders such horrid murders as have out-faced heaven and amazed the earth and will not believe the Apostle though he tell it before and after though he say it and say it again that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. Let the man after Gods own heart both ask and answer this question for us Psalm 24. ver 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall rise up in his holy place Even he that hath clean hands not defiled with blood and a pure heart not corrupted with Faction or Sedition and that hath not lift up his mind to vanity by taking fancie for faith or vain imaginations for holy inspirations nor sworn to deceive his neighbour convenanting for spoil and robbery to be not only impiously but also blasphemously guilty of theft He shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation For such a man as hath clean hands and a pure heart is led by the Spirit of God and with his pure heart thinks the thoughts with his clean hands doth the works of the Spirit This man is heir to an inheritance in heaven because he is the Son of God and he is the Son of God because he is led not by his own private Spirit but by the Spirit of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Rom. 8. 14. He that saith as many doth in effect say no more they are and none but they are the Sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God He that lifts up his mind to vanity cannot lift up his mind to heaven he that hath sworn to deceive his neighbour is sure to deceive himself he that hath no share in the righteousness may not look
so that we should then see the thoughts of one anothers hearts looking through one anothers breasts were there no other obstacle to hinder us but only the grosness of the flesh according to that position of the Angelical Doctor Cogitatio unius hominis non cognoscitur ab â—alio propter duplex impedimentum sc propter grossitiem corporis propter voluntatem claudentem sua secreta primum obstaculum tolletur in resurrectione nec est in angelis sed secundum impedimentum remanebit post resurrectionem est modò in angelis 1. p. qu. 57. art 4. ad 1. There are now two impediments of knowing mans thoughts one from his body another from his will The first shall be quite taken away in the resurrection and then men shall be like Angels have nothing to keep their thoughts secret but only their own wills of not revealing them Thirdly Our bodies after the Resurrection shall be nimble active and powerful without any weakness For as the soul will move wholly with God so the body will move wholly with the soul and as there will be no impotency in the soul to hinder it from following God so there will be no impotency in the body to keep it from following the motions of the soul Fourthly and lastly they shall also be spiritual and subtle without any sluggishness Now I have almost a carnal soul but then I shall have a spiritual body Now I have a gross spirit but then I shall have a subtle and active flesh why should I not long for that minute which will take away my weakness and sluggishness and cloath me with power and activity in immortal glory So we see that this first miracle the conquest over earth in our Saviours natural body shall in due time be accomplished also in his mystical body For we men shall be partakers of it after the last Resurrection from the death of the body nay we are already in some sort partakers of it after the first Resurrection from the death of sin For as many as are truly regenerated have already even in their flesh in some weak degree this incorruption this glory this activity this spirituality They are not subject to so much corruption as formerly in their conversation for that is reformed nor to so much grosness of heart for that is refined and moves towards heaven nor to so much weakness for they are able nor to so much dulness and sluggishness for they are willing through the grace of God to run the way of his commandments A blessed miracle this to be considered but much more to be enjoyed the first miracle in our Saviours Ascention the conquest over earth in his body And yet we have Another miracle The conquest over heaven in his soul in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was received up Heaven it self as it were stooping down to carry and to receive him up Christ had conquered heaven in his humiliation by the fervency of his prayer making an Angel Minister unto him Luk. 22. 43. So that t is no wonder if he conquered heaven in his exaltation making a bright cloud to minister unto him For though his glorified body needed no fiery charet as Eliahs did because he ascended by his own power into heaven yet he was received by a cloud out of his Apostles sight to shew that even heaven it self was ready to minister to his Ascention This ministerial assistance of the creature not derogating from the power but proclaiming the goodness of the creator according to that determination of the school Non propter defectum suae virtutis sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis ut dignitatem causalitatis etiam creaturis communicet God makes use of his creatures in many things not for the defect of his power but for the abundance of his goodness that he may communicate to them the honour of doing good one unto another whiles he himself is the only true Efficient cause of doing good to all But here the honour was so much the greater by how much the need was the less for though the creatures may one need another yet the Creator himself hath need of none and our Saviour in making use of this cloud did only shew unto us that he could have commanded heaven it self if he had so pleased to receive him up as well as to receive him in Thus did the kingdom of heaven first suffer violence from Christ himself and now from every good Christian Mat. 11. 12. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence the violent take it by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus not by contentious wranglings and disputes but by the constancy of an upright life and by uncessant prayers do we get the conquest over heaven many men do now mistake this violence whiles they seek to invade the kingdom of Grace using the sword of the flesh not of the Spirit to set up religion forcing other mens faith and consciences but neglecting their own whereas the violence should indeed be offered to the kingdom of glory every man should now invade that by the strength of his Faith since Christ hath opened it to all believers For nothing is or can be a good Christians treasure but only Christ not to be kept from him by the most watchfull Sentinel not to be taken from him by the most merciless plunderer or the most deceitfull sequestrator and therefoe where his only treasure is there will his heart be also even at the right hand of God This makes him alwayes pressing into the wounds of Christ who sitteth there for in his wounds there is a place to hide his soul from Vengeance and there is blood to wash his soul from sin This is indeed the violence of faith but this violence is more safe in affection then in perswasion for our affection may without doubt carry us up to heaven after our blessed Saviour but our perswasion cannot Therefore a faith which is strong in perswasion and not in affection is but as a dream which soon vanisheth and the image of Christ which is imprinted in us by such a faith cannot but vanish with it So dangerous a thing is it to put asunder those two which God hath joined together in A true and lively faith Perswasion and affection Israel himself could not so prevail with God though he had his name of Israel from prevailing with God T is true he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me there 's the strength of his faith in its perswasion But t is as true that he wept and made Supplications Hosea 12. 4. there 's the strength of his faith in its affection T was both together made him Israel and not the one without the other Thus is the true strength of faith set down by the Prophet David Psal 73. 24. It is good for me to hold me fast by God to put my trust in the Lord God there
the diffusion of his glory he hath prepared a mansion for us with him by the diffusion of his grace he hath prepared a mansion in us for himself O the immortal comfort of a good Christian and the more immortal glory of the Christian Religion shew me a comfort like to the comfort of a good Christian who is already in his head ascended into heaven shew me a glory like to the glory of the Christian Religion which hath him alone for its author for its head who sitteth on the right hand of God Ask the Jew he will tell you he left his Prophet upon Mount Nebo Ask the Turk he will tell you his Pcophet was left at Meca Ask other Religions they will tell you they know not what is become of their Prophets It is only the Christian Religion that can say it had such a Prophet as now sitteth at the right hand of God A Prophet who taught not a religion without righteousness as is the Religion of Turks and Heathens nor a Religion with Righteousness but which could not make men righteous as was the Religion of the Jews But a Religion with Righteousness to shew it self righteous and a righteousness with Religion to make us so For the law which was the rule of righteousness came by Moses but grace which maketh righteous came only by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. By this He still dwelleth in us even now that he is farthest from us which is so invaluable a blessing that it cannot be valued till it be enjoyed and when it is enjoyed it is found invaluable For the soul of man cannot but have a wretched dwelling in the body and a more wretched dwelling out of it unless Christ have a dwelling in the soul It is the glory of men above Angels that Christ dweleth in their flesh It is the glory of good Christians above other men that Christ dwelleth in their spirits By his grace he dweleth with us and in us by our faith and love we dwell with him in him nor shall this dwelling ever be destroyed it shall only be enlarged when what is now of grace shall hereafter be of glory There is so inseparable an union betwixt Christ and the good Christian that as the Christian cannot be in the state of Grace without Christ so Christ not fully in the state of glory without him The head thinks himself not in honour whiles the members are in dishonour and therefore our head being ascended into heaven makes it his work to draw us the members of his mystical body thither after him For we are united unto Christ by a threefold cord that is not easily broken First by the tie of Election God having chosen us in him before the foundation of the world having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. Secondly by the tie of incarnation wherein he took our flesh unto himself Thirdly by the tie of Inspiration wherein he hath given his Spirit unto us All which have begot so inseparable an union betwixt the Son of God and the sons of men by a golden chain reaching from heaven to earth that Saint Paul speaks of the good Christians as of those who are already in glory with Christ And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. He looks on them not only as having jus ad rem but also as having jus in re not only as claiming but also as possessing their heavenly inheritance O that we would be so careful or could be so happy as not to abuse those mercies which we cannot deserve O that we would lift up our souls truly and entirely unto the Lord then would our hearts be where our treasure is at the right hand of God For we may not be in heaven by our perswasions whiles we are either in earth by our affections or in hell by our dispositions How can we see our Saviour at Gods right hand whiles Satan stands at ours making us to butcher his servants to deface his Sanctuary to discountenance his Religion to defile or despise his Ordinances to deceive his people to destroy his inheritance How can we believe him to be making intercession for us whiles we care not to make intercession for our selves or at least wise use such extravagant prayers wherein we cannot justly expect much less judiciously hope he should make intercession with us Be it the priviledge of faith to have an eye to be able to see Christ but of devotion to keep that eye alwaies open actually to behold and look upon him for which cause some have thought that prayer was the proper act of justifying faith men then most especially believing in Christ when they are praying to him So that to oppose or disturb the exercise of well-grounded and well-settled devotions under pretence of reforming them is to put out the eye of faith whiles we pretend to take off the film that it may see the clearer For the precious talent of faith must neither be wrapped up in a Napkin nor indiscreetly managed if we expect it should enrich our souls with heavenly and immortal comforts but must be diligently and discreetly imployed in judicious as well as in fervent pravers and praises to Almighty God that so we may fight the good fight of faith by defending and maintaining not only the truth of the Gospel but also our profession and practise of that truth Saint Paul requires both alike of his Scholar and in him of us 1. Tim. 6. 12. Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses Saint Timothy had not only embraced the Christian faith in general but had also in particular professed a good profession thereof before many witnesses and Saint Paul binds him as well as he had bound himself to make it good Else as many as had been witnesses of his profession must have been Judges and Condemners of his revolt And doubtless God having exalted our Saviour Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion Eph. 1. 20 21. hath sufficiently declared That we should so exalt and advance the Christian Religion whereby we seek to glorifie his Son in earth as the Father hath glorified him in heaven that neither principality nor power nor might nor dominion here on earth for those in heaven will not endeavour it should be able to remove us from the truth of Christ either in its belief or in its practise no more then they can remove Christ himself from sitting at the right hand of God And we most humbly beseech thee O blessed Saviour who hast conquered all things to conquer also our inconstancies that we may perfectly and without all doubt believe in thee and shew the sincerity of our faith by
vilifie but to confute their preaching immediatly shew how Christ is more peculiarly communicated by the Spirit of adoption and the rather because his being communicated in Word and Sacraments would not be available to salvation unless he were also communicated to us by the coming of the Holy Ghost Concerning which Alensis hath befriended us with a most comfortable and a most Christian-like position in these words Lâ—quendo proprie de missione non dicitur mitti Filius vel Spiritus Sanctus nisi ratione alicujus effectus pertinentis ad gratiam gratum facientem Nam in missione illorum non solum dona ipsorum sunt nostra sed ipsi quia Inhabitant animum sunt ibi modo specialiori quà m prius Alen. par 1. qu. 73. m. 4. art 2. To speak properly concerning the mission or communication of the Son and Spirit of God neither of them is communicated but only in some effect of saving grace though in general terms either may be said to be communicated in the gift of any grace For when they are communicated unto us not only their gifts are ours but also themselves to inhabit and to dwell in us and to be in us more specially or peculiarly then they were before And why then should not every Christian take up Holy Davids most holy Resolution and say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill I find out a place even mine own soul for the Temple of the Lord and an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Psal 132. 4 5. For indeed the Lord and the mighty God Christ and his Spirit are communicated both together according to that of John 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you As there is a communication and distribution of the nourishment to the body that it may live so is there of Christ to the soul or it cannot live And he is communicated by the Spirit For no man can eat his flesh nor drink his blood who is at the right hand of God by corporal but only by spiritual manducation and there can be no spiritual eating of Christ but by the assistance of his Spirit So that Christ and the Spirit of Christ are communicated to us both together and we have alike need of both For as Christ is our Advocate to bring us to the Father so is the Holy Ghost our Advocate to bring us unto Christ And as Christ revealed to us the will of his Father so doth the holy Spirit reveal to us the will of Christ making us in the right use of his Word and Sacraments to receive instruction from him to enjoy communion with him and to find immortal joy and comfort in him This is that Spirit the Apostle speaketh of when he saith For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. The Apostle would have us Christians see the happiness of our own condition above the Jews that we might accordingly shew our thankfulness above them For they being under the terrours of the Law could not but have the Spirit of bondage because they saw nothing in the Law but what was exceeding formidable the flames of Mount Sinai before it and the flames of Hell fire after it But we Christians being under the promises of the Gospel which discharge all that truly repent and unfeignedly believe from the curse of the Law and from the guilt of their sins have the spirit of liberty whereby we can with great confidence and with greater comfort draw near to the throne of grace The Jews had the Spirit of Adoption as well as Christians though not in the same degree but not from the Law but from so much of the Gospel as was revealed to them And the Christians have also the spirit of bondage as well as the Jews though not in the same degree but not from the Gospel but from so much of the Law as is still in force to scourge them unto Christ The same spirit of Adoption was to them a spirit of bondage yet with some hopes and shew of liberty To us it is a spirit of liberty and yet with some fear and shew of bondage They could say unto God Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Isa 63. 16. but we can say moreover Abba Father that is we can call upon God as our Father with greater fervency and earnestness with greater assurance and confidence and with greater joy and comfort then they could For this Abba Father is vox clamantis vox exclamantis vox acclamantis The voice of one crying out the voice of one crying out for help the voice of one crying out for joy First The voice of one crying out there 's the greater earnestness they did say to God our Father but we do cry it not coldly and remissely least our prayers should be congealed in the middle Region of the air before they get up to heaven but zealously and earnestly They said it with zeal but we say it with greater zeal Secondly The voice of one crying out for help there 's the greater confidence The Jew could say Father but the Christian saith Abba Father that is Father Father with greater confidence and assurance of Gods paternal affection Lastly The voice of one crying out for joy there 's the greater comfort The Jew could rejoyce in God as his Father by Creation but the Christian rejoyceth in God as his Father by Redemption The joy of the creation had an allay because of the sin and sorrow which we had brought upon our selves but the joy of our Redemption hath no allay because our blessed Saviour hath taken away our sins and with our sins our sorrows CAP. II. Of the coming of the Holy Ghost where Christ is communicated SECT I. That the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ that is the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father And that the Greeks were unjustly and uncharitably rejected by some of the Latines as Hereticks concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost Of the Addition of Filioque to the Constantinopolitan Creed and that the Pope hath no Authority to change any article of faith The Greek Church agreed with the Latine about this controversie in sense though not in words therefore not anathematized by the Western Churches which use the Athanasian Creed Bellarmines heavy doom concerning the Greek Church fitter for a Souldier then a Divine IT is not the part of any Christian to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ since that were not only to deny the Word of Christ but also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity It were to deny the Word of Christ for Saint Paul taketh the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ for one and the same saying If so
be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit for Christ is God And it were also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity which is this That the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us to revive our souls now from the death of sin to revive our bodies hereafter from the death of the grave the Apostle plainly attributeth thr Resurrection of the soul from sin and of the body from death only to the dwelling of Christs Spirit in us Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righeeousness there 's the resurrection of the soul from sin and again ver 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you There 's the resurrection of the body from death And this is also from the Spirit that dwelleth in us as well as the other the Spirit of Christ raiseth the soul from sin the Spirit of Christ raiseth the body from death so that to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ is to deny both our Regeneration and our Resurrection Wherefore this being of so dangerous a consequence The Master of the sentences would not impute this Tenent to the Greek Church as if they denyed the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son though they would not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son but only who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified But he saith plainly that the Greek Church did agree with the Latine Church concerning that Article of Faith in sense though not in words Sensu nobis conveniunt dum aiunt Spiritum Sanctum esse Patris Filii They agree with us in the sense whilst they say that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son only we speak a little more plainly saying who proceedeth from the Father and the Son nor are we to be blamed saith he for adding to the Creed much less to be anathematized because our addition is not of a contrary assertion but of a necessary interpretation Nos enim non praedicamus contrarium sed addimus quod deerat ideoque non subjecti anathemati Lomb. 1. Sent. Dist 11. He is more careful to justifie his own Church for adding to the Creed then to condemn the Greek Church for not allowing that addition But his Scholars are not so moderate for Aquinas taxes Damascene of Nestorianism in the case and saith he was carried away with the Schism of the Greeks Damascenus sequitur errorem Nestorii Quod Sp. S. non procedit à Filio quia fuit tempore quo incepit illud Schisma Graecorum Aqu. 3. par qu. 36. art 2. ad 3. And Bonaventure is yet much mor fierce when he saith that the Greek Church denyed this article out of ignorance pride and perverseness Graecos negâsse hunc articulum ex ignorantiâ superbiâ pertinaciâ Bonav in lib. 1. sent dist 11. Three unmerciful words from a Church-mans mouth against a whole Church and surely altogether underserved For the Greek Church always acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be consubstantial with the Son as well as with the Father as appears by the Confession of Faith exhibited by Charisius in the Council of Ephesus in the sixth Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of truth the comforter being of the same essence or substance with the Father and the Son which plainly shews the Greek Church did not deny the article though they were loth to change their Creed wherein they found it was thus expressed Who proceedeth from the Father no mention at all made of the Son For this is their own profession in the Council of Florence in the 25. Session 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Creed from seven general Councils and weneither add thereto nor take therefrom And t is evident that the Latine Church it self did a long time demurr about this addition of Filioque to the Greek Creeds Nay Leo the third did strongly oppose it and that not only Papally in his Chair but also Episcopally in his Chancel for he did absolutely refuse this addition when he was thereto intreated by Charles the great and did set up the Creed over the Altar at Rome without it nor did Filioque get into the Article till the time of Benedict the seventh saith Binius in Syn. Constant which was above nine hundred and fifty years after Christ and about six hundred years after the divulging of that Creed But without doubt the Addition it self is to be justified for it was not Additio corrumpentium Symbolum sed perficientium as saith Bonaventure not an addition to corrupt the Creed but to perfect it or rather an explication not an addition as Bellarmine seems to distinguish Explicatio Doctrine non additio contrarii but the manner of maintaining it seems altogether unjustifiable For those of the Latine Church shewed little temper and as little charity in rejecting the Greek Church for hereticks which was trampled on enough by Turks and needed not Christians to help tread it more under foot for not admitting the same addition meerly because they thought themselves under the curse which the Latines are willing to put off by a distinction if they should recede but one tittle or syllable from the language of their own Creeds But this it seems was the fault of the Greek Church which hath been ever since accounted damnable Schism in all other Churches they could not swallow much less digest that crude position Ad summum Pontificem pertinet fidei Symbolum ordinare It belongs to the Pope to order and dispose of the Creeds A position so unreasonable that Aquinas himself the greatest Master of reason among all the Schoolmen is fain to fly to Gratians decree to fetch a proof for it and that proof depends altogether upon the Authority of some few Popes who were very partial Judges in their own cause This is clear that the objection about Athanasius his Creed doth so puzzle him that he is fain in effect to say his Creed is no Creed because he cannot find the Popes hand was in the making of it Athanasius non composuit manifestationem fidei per modum Symboli sed per modum cuiusdam Doctrin◠Athanasius did not set out this manifestation of the faith as a Creed but as a Doctrinal institution notwithstanding the very title of it in Greek is the same which is prefixed to the Apostles Creed and the Latine Church calleth it Symbolum Athanasii unto this day It is not suitable with my purpose and much less with my desire
opening their sins as it follows Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith ver 13. and without doubt whosoever cordially desires to be sound in the Faith either is not concerned in the rebuke or will not be displeased with it It is Alensis his observation that the Spirit of God makes no mention of the sin of Angels in the book of Genesis but sets forth at large the sin of man and he gives this reason for it Quia Angelicam vulnus Deus non praedestinavit curare sed hominis peccatum sanare voluit Par. 2. qu. 98. m. 8. Because God intended not to heal the wound or to repair the ruine of the Angels but he intended to heal the wound and repair the ruine of man so is it still where God will not heal the sinners he suffers their sin to be undiscovered and unreproved but if he be pleased to reprove them t is because he is willing to heal them And if the mouths of unruly vain talkers and deceivers must be stopped by the Ministers then surely their communion and their Doctrine both must be shunned and abandoned by the people who can have no pretence of excuse if they be misled by false Prophets since the Text bids them in this case appeal not to their judgements wherein they might possibly be misguided by misperswasions but to their senses wherein themselves are infallible Judges for saith our blessed Saviour ye shall know them by their fruits Mat. 7. 16. The most ignorant peasant that lives knows the distinction of fruits by his outward sense and goes not to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles And our blessed Saviour bids him be guided also by his own sense in the choice of the tree from which he would gather spiritual fruit to nourish his soul to everlasting life He may not leave a good and go to a bad tree to gather good fruit The false Prophets will say Lo here is Christ as well as the true Prophets Mat. 24. 23. Yet our Saviour saith believe them not What shall the people do in such a case shall they not believe the Prophets No they must not believe the false Prophets But how shall they distinguish betwixt the true and the false Prophets to believe the one and to shun the other I answer they must look on that other Text which professedly bids them beware of false Prophets Mat. 7. 15. and there they shall find their note of distinction for he that bids them beware teaches them to distinguish and to discern a wolf though he be in sheeps cloathing and they must distinguish them meerly by their fruits whereof they themselves cannot be but sufficient Judges Wherefore let them examine the works of the Prophets and they will soon perceive which are the true and which are the false Whether the scoffing Ismael or the patient Isaac Whether the covetous Balaam who loveth the wages of unrighteousness or the obedient Elisha who slayeth his Oxen and burneth his Plow to shew that no worldly interest can keep him from his calling Whether a false and a fierce Zedekiah that is ready to Prophecy according to the mind of Ahab and to smite a true Prophet on the cheek or a true and a mild Micaiah who vows to speak only what the Lord shall say unto him though he be sent to the prison never so often and who forbears to give ill words when he is smitten Lastly whether a proud Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence and receiveth not the brethren but prateth against them with malicious words or a meek and modest Demetrius that hath a good report of all men and of the truth it self In a word whether he that serveth the times or he that serveth the Lord whether he that invadeth anothers right to forsake his Religion or he that forsaketh his own right to keep and practise his Religion Surely it can be no hard matter for the people to discern in such a case on which side Christ is and on which side he is not and if they will not discern we cannot say this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed but this people are cursed because they will not know the Law they will not know that Christ is to be found in the temple among the Doctors not among the mony-changers and out of the temple among just obedient patient men that are ready to suffer for righteousness sake not among unjust rebellious outragious men that are ready to devour those that are more righteous then themselves For Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh useth this introduction Now the works of the flesh are manifest therefore as easily to be discerned by the ignorant as by the learned by the people as by the Priests they are manifest for all men to see them and for such men as do them not to avoid and abandon those that do them and the same Saint Paul after he hath spoken of the works of the flesh with an c. saying and such like for fear we should think he had named them all in naming those few useth this conclusion of the which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God doubtless with an intent to instruct the people as well as the Priest the unlearned as well as the learned that those who have not done such things should take heed of doing them and those who have done such things to procure some worldly advantages should take heed of doing them any more unless they will so look after the inheritance of this world as not to inherit the Kingdom of God All the works of the flesh which the Apostle there numbreth do directly proceed either from the sinfull distemper of the body as adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness drunkenness revellings or from the more sinful though less visible distemper of the soul as idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife sedition heresies envyings murders The distemper of the body is the more opprobious the more scandalous the distemper of the soul is the more dangerous the more pernicious I find Noah repented of his drunkenness I find not that Cham repented who mocked at his fathers nakedness I find that David repented of his adultery and of his uncleanness I find not that Doeg repented of his cruelty and of his maliciousness I find Publicans repenting who thought themselves sinners I find no Pharisees repenting who thought themselves Saints I will pray as heartily as I can that God will keep me from the distempers of my body lest I should defile the members of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost But above all will I pray that God will keep me from the distempers of my soul for they will downright expell Christ out of my heart and bid defiance to the Holy Ghost For the temper of Christ was the temper of charity and of humility and so also is the temper of the good Christian Come
due time which is best for my soul either now to hear thy voice as a sheep to my salvation or hereafter to hear it as a goat to my condemnation Thou hast said My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me John 10. 27. Which is thy voice Lord that we may hear it And where wilt thou be that we may follow thee Is not thy voice in thy Word art not thou in thy Church How then do those men hear thy voice that neglect thy word How do they follow thee that run away from thy Church Surely he is no good sheep that doth this and therefore Christ is none of his shepherd He careth not to answer one that is either a Wolf or a Divel either a Wolf for his bloody cruelty or a Divel for his continued Apostacy or if he do answer such a one it shall be only as he did once answer Judas Iscariot who was both a Wolf and a Divel with a Tu dixisti Thou hast said Mat. 26. 25. An answer tending to nothing but to his conviction or to his condemnation He that hath persecuted or betrayed his Saviour if he say unto him Master is it I shall soon find such an answer returned to him in his own guilty conscience Thou hast said an answer tending only to his conviction or to his condemnation But the answer which our blessed Saviour was pleased to return to Saint Jude the Confessor was of another strain for it was a gracious answer for his instruction a satisfactory answer for his contentation If Christ made so great a distinction betwixt two of the same communion and of the same order no wonder if he still make so great a distinction betwixt those that will not be of the same Church who regard neither the Doctrine of Christ nor the communion of Christians Judas the traytor had not yet forsaken Christs Communion yet was not benefited by his teaching because he regarded not his Doctrine Judas the Confessor that he might be sure to be well taught by him readily embraced his Doctrine and resolved never to forsake his Communion And hence it was that our Saviour Christ returned to him a gracious answer for his instruction teaching him that great Mysterie of the manifestation of the Son of God in the soul of man Nay yet more a satisfactory answer for his contentation assuring him that he would thus manifest himself unto him The manifestation of Christ unto the soul is a great mysterie and a greater mercy the mysterie instructs the soul but the mercy contents it And well it may for t is no less then eternal life In qua quidem manifestatione vita aeterna consistit as saith Aquinas in which manifestation of Christ unto the soul consisteth eternal life and he proveth his saying from John 17. 3. And this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Aquin. 22. qu. 24. art 12. So then if I will enjoy eternal life I must first know it if I will know eternal life I must know Christ If I will know Christ I must not disesteem his Doctrine or discountenance his communion for if I do either though I live never so long among Christians yet I am like never to come to the state of true Christianity SECT II. Many Christians not so careful of their spiritual as of their temporal estate or condition The State of true Christianity is not external in the profession but internal in the love of Christ which will make us hate all sin No malicious man can be in the state of true Christianity The ground of true Christian charity generally abused to most unchristian uncharitableness charity is more safely mistaken then not maintained IF men were as zealous to look after their spiritual as they are to look after their temporal state the earth would be less filled with sin and heaven would be more filled with Saints But we are generally careless to know the state and condition of our souls because we are generally careless to make it such as might be worth our knowing Hence that sad Epiphonema from our Saviours own mouth so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God Luke 12. 21. That is so very a fool is he in the account of the eternal wisdom though perhaps he be wise in his own account who is carefull of his Mammon and careless of his God who takes so much pains about his body so little about his soul who is so busie in contriving of his temporal but thinks not at all of his eternal welfare Hence it is that men so easily betake themselves to that profession of the Chrisâ—ian Religion which makes most for their temporal advantages though it much disadvantage them in their spiritual condition and thereby declare themselves not to be in the state of true Christianity for that would make them prefer the love of Christ above all worldly interest whatsoever But we need not have to do with the several professions of the Christian Religion in this case for the state of true Christianity is not to profess but to love Christ and we are then truly in the state of salvation when we truly love our Saviour And this plainly appears by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Ephesians and in them to us where he saith Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Ephes 5. 1 2. To be followers of God and to be his dear children and to walk in love are put for one and the ame thing And what love is here meant but the love of Christ who so dearly loved us as to give himself for us and therefore may justly require our entirest love And if we entirely love him we will be sure not to love what he hateth nor to hate what he loveth and consequently not to abide in any sin either of commission or of omission for to be wilfully guilty of a sin of commission is to love what Christ hateth and to be wilfully guilty of a sin of omission is to hate what Christ loveth and either of these is enough to keep a man from being a good Christian Therefore saith the Psalmist O ye that love the Lord see that ye hate the thing which is evil Psalm 97. 10. For ye cannot love him unless ye hate what he hateth he hateth every thing that is evil whether it be evil by omission or by commission The state of salvation consists so much of love that t is not possible for an uncharitable and much less for a malicious man to be in that state but either he must forgoe his malice or he must forgoe his salvation for God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him John 4. 16. No man can be in the state of salvation who hath not communion with God and there is no having communion with
God but by love we must dwell in love or he will not dwel in us And therefore it was most Christian Doctrine which was delivered by Saint Augustine lib. 1. de Doctrina Christiana when he said Quatuor sunt diligenda unum quod est supra nos Sc. Deus Alterum quod nos sumus Tertium quod juxta nos i. e. proximus Quartum quod infra nos i. e. corpus There are four things which every man is bound to love that he may be a good Christian or in the state of true Christianity his God that is above him His neighbour that is about him His soul that is within him and His body that is without him for as the body is capable of eternal bliss by redundancy from the soul so is it also capable of true Christian charity which is not a momentary or temporal but an eternal and everlasting love grounded upon the communication and the communion of a blessed eternity So that in truth the love of God doth not only produce but also comprize and contain all those three other loves man loving his body and his soul and his neighbour with Christian charity only in relation to Christ and as they belong to his communion For undeniable if not indisputable is that position of the Angelical Doctor Amicitia charitatis super communicatione beatitudinis fundatur The friendship of Christian charity is founded upon the communication of eternal blessedness Aquin. 22â— qu. 25. art 5. and by consequent is to be extended according to the extent of that communication Therefore it beginneth with our Saviour Christ and goeth on to every one of his members this spiritual unction of the Holy Ghost being like to that holy ointment poured upon Aaron which ran from his head down to the skirts of his cloathing Psal 133. 2. And yet even from this excellent ground of charity do many men find a pretence for gross uncharitableness whilst those that are of divers perswasions in matters of Religion will needs deny to one another the hopes of salvation every one being resolved to maintain that his own Religion is the only true Christian though it be no more then a profession of it and all agreeing that t is only the true Christian Religion wherein and whereby we can attain eternal blessedness Hence it is that we commonly receive those very faintly whom we suspect God hath not received and those not at all whom we are perswaded he will not receive So that we do little less then invade Christs Judgement seat that we may discard true Christian charity and if we now invade his seat we shall hereafter tremble at his bar Why should we so grosly abuse the very ground of Christian charity to a most unchristian uncharitableness Why should we be so hasty to exclude out of the communion of eternal blessedness those whom our Saviour Christ hath called to it Surely if it be not in our power to give heaven by our charity t is not in power to deny heaven by our uncharitableness unless it be only to our selves True Christian charity is of as large an extent as heaven it self and embraceth all those who have any probability of getting thither For it is grounded upon the communion of eternal bliss and therefore as it loves Christ the head so it cannot but love all Christians as members of that communion It first loves Christ for his own sake by whom we have the communication it afterwards loves our Christian brethren for Christs sake with whom we have inchoately and hope to have consumâ—… of eternal blessedness O Christ let me love as a Christian that I may live as a Christian for I cannot live as a Christian unless I live in thee and I cannot live in thee unless I live in love Let me rather mistake my charity in believing their salvation who have gross errors mixed with their profession then not maintain my charity by denying them salvation who are not of mine own profession For thou wilt sooner pardon their errors which may proceed from ignorance or infirmity then my uncharitableness which can proceed from nothing else but pride and presumption SECT III. That the state of true Christianity is best taught by our Saviour Christ and best learned of him how far the Jews may be said to have known Christ and Christianity That Christ teacheth us by his voice in the holy Scriptures more certainly then by his voice in holy Church the Scripture is to teach the Church as the Church is to teach the people THere is not in all the world any thing taught by a Preacher from heaven but only the Christian Religion And the Son of God came from heaven to teach that and his Fathers voice came from heaven to bid us observe and follow his teaching Behold a voice out of the cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Mat. 17. 5. And we may very well be not only contented but also desirous to hear him for the state of true Christianity is without all doubt best taught by Christ himself and is therefore best learned of him Moses was faithful in Gods house as a servant and the best teachers amongst men can but sit in Moses chair Mat. 23. 2. but Christ was faithful as a Son Heb. 3. 5 6. The servant was appointed and ordained for the Son and so was Moses for Christ but the Son came only for himself The servant was faithful in his Masters house but the Son in his own house Christ as a Son over his own house ver 6. Moses his faithfulness was by way of introduction for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after ver 5. sc by Christ But Christs faithfulness was by way of perfection to speak those things plainly of which Moses had testified obscurely and to accomplish or perform whatsoever Moses his testimony had either prophesied or promised concerning him For Moses in his writings spake of Christ and directed these Jews unto him in so much that our Saviour telleth the Jews that they needed no other then Moses to accuse them of unbelief for not turning Christians Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom ye trust For had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his writings How shall ye believe my words John 5. 45 46 47. We may put the whole sense of those three verses into these two propositions 1. That Moses writ so much of Christ as to leave the Jews inexcusable if they did not from his writings look after Christ and believe in him which more particularly appears from Deut. 18. 15. where Moses saith The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken which words we find Saint Peter and Saint Stephen both
communicating of himself Praesens autem est in quantum praesentat seu praesentem facit beatitudinem quae est in ipso in habitu tantum ut in parvulis in affectu tantum ut in adultis in habitu effectu et intellectu ut in beatis saith that excellent Schoolman Alensis par 3. qu. 61. God is then present with the soul when he represents unto it his own blessedness either in habit or disposition as in children that know him not and yet love him or in desire or affection as to men that know him and love him or in a habit desire and comprehension as to the blessed souls that not only know and love but also enjoy him So that according to the degrees of Gods presence are also the degrees of his communion where his presence is incompleat and imperfect as in grace there his communion is so too where his presence is compleat and perfect as in glory there so also is his communion But it is best for us to examine the effects of our communion with God in the presence of his grace that so we the more may undoubtedly attain to a communion with him in the presence of his glory And these effects are excellently set down in few words by the Casuists saying Spirituale bonum Divinum consistit in amicitia inter Deum hominem ac per hoc in consentire conversari convivere colloqui cum Deo The blessing of the soul consists in this that a man hath friendship or communion with God and consequently that he lives for him by consent lives to him by conversation lives with him by cohabitation lives in him by contentation I will briefly explain them all that the good Christian may know his own happiness in that he is called to live in this communion by vertue whereof First he lives for God by consent Fiat volunt as tuaâ— Thy will be done is a petition twice sanctified unto us by our Saviours own lips in two several prayers One of them taught us by his Doctrine in the Mount Mat. 6. So that we cannot contemn his prayer but we must also contemn his Sermon The other taught us by his practice or example Mat. 26. 42. where he made but one speech yet three prayers he prayed the third time saying the same words ver 44 It was one and the same expression of his voice it was not one and the same elevation of his soul therefore he prayed the third time though he spake but his first words We place the gift of prayer in the volubility of our tongues our Saviour placed it in the groans of his heart He prayed thrice in the same words we use many words scarce pray at all It is the heart that pants it not the tongue that chants it out when we truly say Thy will be done Conformitas in volito formali must be in all our desires where in volito materiali cannot be Here was a conformity of our Saviours will with Gods will in what he desired formally in his intention though a seeming non-formity in what he desired materially in his expression And so it must ever be with us For we are most sure that in this case the Non Conformist cannot be a good Christian but the want of conformity is the want of Christianity The second effect of this communion is that the good Christian lives to God by conversation T is a pleasant contemplation of Aquinas that local distance is no impediment in the Angels conversing one with another or speaking one to the other because that is a meer intellectual operation In loquutione Angelorum nullum impedimentum praestat localis distantia quia est mere intellectualis operatio Aqu. 1. par qu. 107. art 4. But t is a much more comfortable assertion of the Apostle that the distance of heaven from earth cannot hinder the conversation of man with God for so much he plainly asserteth when he saith For our conversation is in heaven for whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 20. In which words the Apostle affordeth us three observations concerning the heavenly conversation of good Christians 1. that it is nothing else but a serious study and exercise of Christian piety in imitation of Christ to whom they are always lifting up their eyes and their hearts 2. that they only are true Christians who firmly and constantly exercise this piety for they only have true faith in Christ they only have a firm hope of immortality 3. that we have all two great Motives for this exercise the one is that Christ our Saviour on whom all our hopes rely and in whom all our joys are fixed is in heaven thefore what have we to do on earth The other is that the same Christ will at the last day come from heaven to judge us according to the works that we have done therefore if we will have a favourable judgement we must have an innocent conversation Conversation is but a frequent conversion and requires our often turning to God by our repentance as we often turn away from him by our sins The third effect of this communion is that he lives with God by cohabitation I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Saint Paul by this losing his life did indeed save it had he kept his life in himself he might have lost it by a temporal a spiritual an eternal death for he would have been subject to the separation of his body from his soul of his soul from grace and of his soul and body from God But having lost his life in himself that he might keep it in his Saviour he keeps it for ever He keeps his natural life which else he could not but lose for his dissolution is not to him a death but only a change making good his We shall all be changed even before the last day for he had a change only when others had a death Our departure hence if looked upon as a change is our greatest consolation for it must needs be much for the better because our corruptible shall thereby put on incorruption our mortal shall put on immortality But if looked upon as a death must needs be our greatest horror and confusion for that can only tell us of the destroying not of the amending or bettering our present state and condition He keeps also his spiritual life so continuing as moreover improving it His soul being more knit and united with grace then before which is the spiritual life the union of the soul with grace for though we suppose it the same grace yet the soul must needs be united to it the more neerly and the more firmly the longer it abides in the communion of Christ the fountain of grace But we may well suppose the good Christian to grow
the word for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two edgedsword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart ver 12. All which force and activity cannot be from the dead letter which constitutes the word but from the quick spirit which accompanies and enlivens it But their faith was and our faith is wanting to the Spirit of God which brings us all under that sharp reproof of our blessed Saviour O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. For if we be not slow to believe yet generally we believe by an historical faith proceeding from the conviction of the understanding meerly through the evidence of truth as the Devils believe and tremble not by a justifying faith proceeding from the conversion of the will through the love of truth And hence it is that though the cheif corner stone be rightly laid in all Christian Churches all alike confessing Christ to be the eternal Son of God and the Mediator betwixt God and man for if any deny this they are neither to be thought nor to be called Christians yet the building is not rightly raised in many Churches the reason is because there be many mockers in these last times who walk after their own ungodly lusts separating themselves sensual not having the Spirit as Saint Jude admonisheth But in no wise building up themselves in their most holy faith or praying in the Holy Ghost or keeping themselves in the love of God as Saint Jude adviseth No wonder if such a faith as this came far short of its proper object Christ with all the blessings and mercies of God since indeed it comes far short of it self For a faith that maketh men not build up but pull down the practice of religion and pray not in Gods Holy Spirit but in their own perverse spirits and keep themselves not in the love of God and consequently of his Church but in the love of their own self-interests and advantages such a faith or rather such a phansie or fiction and faction as this is and must be called comes far short of faith and therefore cannot but come far short of Christ the proper object of faith Saint Paul tells us of another kind of faith which to them under the Law was the evidence of things not seen and must be so to us under the Gospel saying these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Heb. 11. 13. They died in that faith in the which we ought to live and dye though the object of it be more clearly revealed to us then it was to them a faith which is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen A faith knowing by evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did see the promises a faith approving by adherence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were perswaded of them A faith applying by affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they embraced them and lastly a faith working and persevering by profession practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they confessed the same promises not only in their words but also in their deeds in their life and conversation accounting themselves strangers and Pilgrims on earth when they considered those heavenly promises And that made them like Pilgrims earnestly to long after their own country and not do or desire any thing for love of earth which might hinder or delay their passage to heaven So that a faith thus seeing thus applying thus approving thus confessing the promises of salvation by Christ is the faith which our Apostle defineth to be the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is to say a faith that now maketh Christ present with the soul by the communion of his grace and will hereafter make the soul present with Christ in the communion of his glory Oh for such a faith to bring my Saviour into my soul and to keep him there till faith it self be no longer faith but be turned into vision A faith that engageth the whole man in all his powers and faculties both of soul and body For only such a faith as taketh up the whole man in his understanding will affections actions can take a right and lay a fast hold on Christ such a faith though it cannot miraculously now open the heavens as it did once to Saint Stephen yet it can and will pierce the heavens and there see the son of man standing on the right hand of God ready to defend us on earth and as ready to receive us into heaven Whence we may very well conclude that this communion of good Christians with Christ or of the body with the head though at so great a distance is in the thing it self most real and substantial though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical Christ and his Church nay every true member of his Church are as substantially united together as man and wife Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church Ephes 5. 25. that is to say his wife And therefore as no distance can keep the man and his wife from being one flesh so neither Christ and his Church from being one spirit He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And to put us out of doubt that we whilst we live here on earth if we live unto him are thus joyned unto him Saint John saith plainly Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. There cannot be a more substantial union then is of the soul with the body because the soul abideth in the body and the same union is of Christ with the soul because he abideth in the soul and as we know the soul abideth in the body by the spirit or breath which it giveth to the body so we know that Christ abideth in the soul by the spirit which he giveth to the soul Yet is this union of Christ with his body not carnal but spiritual not to be discerned by the strength of the outer but of the inner man such an union as Saint Paul describeth to all but wisheth only to good Christians for though he might wish the Son of righteousness to shine upon a dunghill yet he might not wish him to be joyned to it that God would grant you to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith Ephes 3. 16 17 Here is a most real and substantial union and communion betwixt Christ and good Christians for the spirit strengtheneth them and Christ dwelleth in them but t is only spiritual for the spirit strengtheneth their inner man and mystical for Christ dwelleth
all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 2. 14. thereby decâ—aring unto us as it were the two integral parts of our Christian communion Peace and Holiness and the reason why we should embrace them both even that we may come to the beatifical vision follow peace with all men that you may have communion with Gods Church and follow holiness that you may have communion with God himself for if you leave out either of these or leave following either of these you cannot see the Lord We that follow peace with no men not so much as with our selves how shall we see God we that follow holiness in no kind at least conscientiously but only contentiously pretending to set it up in some one commandment that we may the more plausibly beat it down in all the rest how shall we see God Let all unpeacefull and unholy men for surely they go both together though holiness hath of late been made a pretence for breaking the peace here see the danger of their perversness that hereafter they feel not the mischief of it those who neither follow peace nor holiness and yet pretend their eyes are open so as to see God more then all the world besides For it is a sad thing so to see God as not to come neer him Dives could do so in hell He could see Abrahams bosome though he could not get neer it for it was afar off saith the Text Luke 16. 23. T is a sad thing to have a Vision of God without a fruition but t is an impossible thing to have a fruition without a communion Excellently Alensis asks this question Per quid est unio membrorum in corpore Ecclesiae By what is it that good Christians are joined together or the faithfull are united as members in the body of the Church and he thus answers it Per unam perfectionem una enim est perfectio in capite Christo in omnibus Sanctis sc Spiritus sanctus ex quo est nobis communio Trinitatis et per unam dispositionem sc Fide spe charitate opere nam Idem credunt Idem appetunt seu volunt Idem expectant Idem imitantur Par. 3. q. 12. m. 2. art 3. Christ and good Christians are all united together by one Perfection and by one Disposition By one perfection for there is the same perfection in Christ the head and in all the Saints which are his body to wit the Holy-Ghost which joins them both in communion with the blessed Trinity and by one Disposition to wit in Faith Hope Charity and Works for they all believe the same thing viz. The first truth All desire the same thing viz. The chiefest good All expect the same thing viz. Eternal bliss All imitate the same thing viz. The pattern or example of holiness and hence it is that they all are of the same communion SECT V. That the Catholick Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ as his body That the whole Christian Church is this Catholick Church and that it is known to be so by the word of Christ and how a particular Church may be sure to keep communion with the Catholick Church HE that truly desires communion with God cannot but highly esteem and zealously pursue the actual communion with his Church because the Church is appointed to bring and lead him unto God And this was the reason of that antient saying Extra Ecclesiam non est Salus Out of the Church there is no hope of Salvation that is out of the Catholick Church which is the body of Christ So that for any man not to be a member of that body is in effect to be a limb of the devil and fewel for hell which consideration made Saint Cyprian break out into that pathetical expostulation Vbi ex qua â—ui nâ—tus est qui filius Ecclesiae non est ut habere quis possit Deum Patrem ante Ecclesiam matrem Saint Cypr. Epist and Pompeium Where of whom or to whom is he born who is not â— Son of the Church that he should have God for his father who hath not the Church for his mother And this doctrine not only many very good Christian Divines but also the Jewish Doctors have enforced as a duty of the Text from these words of Solomon My Son hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the Law of thy mother Prov. 1. 8. for say they by Father is here meant God the Father almighty and by Mother is here meant the Church which teacheth us the word of God Thus Solomon Jarchi glosseth that Text my Son hear the instruction of thy father that is saith he Hear the Instruction which God blessed for ever gave to Moses partly in writing partly by word of mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And forsake not the Law of thy mother that is saith he forsake not the Law of the Church or the Congregation of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor the interpretations of the Scribes which are as it were a hedge of the Law And doubtless he that will not hearken to the Churches instruction will not hearken to Gods instruction and he that will not hearken to Gods instruction cannot hope for Gods communion which made the Prophet Jeremiah to say Be thou instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee Jer. 6. 8. T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut non laxetur anima mea à te lest my Soul be loosed or disjointed from thee the same word saith Rabbi David that is used about the hollow of Jacobs thigh being out of joint and the signification of it is the removing of a thing out of its place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence we may gather that the communion of faithful Souls with God is like the knitting of the joints in the bodies of men and as a member when it is out of joint affords great pain but no use to the man as long as it is dislocated So is it with the Soul whiles it is out of Gods communion it is subject to very much horrour and great anguish but is not capable of any good motion or inclination Consider what it is to put thy soul out of joint before thou play the Ephraimite starting aside like a broken bow from the communion of God in his Church for if the dislocation of a joint be so painfull because of the distention of the parts what pangs and horrours must needs accompany a disjointed Soul that is distended upon the wrack of an evil and a troubled conscience Accordingly Rabbi David thus glosseth the Prophets words Be thou instructed O Jerusalem for if thou wilt not be instructed my good-will shal be separated from thee that I will take no delight in thee A dismal judgement for a Separatist that God will be separated from him and take no delight in him but the reason is because he would needs be separated from God and
take no delight in God For if he had delighted himself in the Law of God he would have delighted himself in the Church to which God committed and with which God intrusted his Law But he would not take delight in God and therefore God by way of retaliation will not take delight in him And this he may be sure of if God take no delight in him what ever he may do for a while in this world yet certainly in the next world he will take no delight in himself For he will then be so out of joint as never to be set again Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Isa 50. 11. A text that is to be expounded of Schismaticks in Iarchies opinion who thus begins to gloss it Behold all ye because saith he they did not hear the voice of his Prophets So we see that in his judgement the words concern those who would not hear the Church and we may read in them The sin and the punishment of Schismaticks Their sin is twofold they kindle a fire and compass themselves with sparks that is they are Incendiaries in Church and State and they love to be so And their punishment is also twofold 1. That in this life they are suffered to walk in the â—ight of their own false fire walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled q. d. Quum non acquiescaâ—â—â— igâ—â— sacro pergâ—tote in prophano vestro sed perituri tamen ut filii Aaronis Levit. 10. saith Trem. since you will not acquiesce and rest satisfied with the holy fire that came from God and with the true light thereof that is in his Church go walk in your own strange fire and after your own false lights but know you shall certainly perish as did the Sons of Aaron Lev. 10. where Nabad and Abihu for offering of strange fire were devoured by fire 2. That at the end of this life they are punished with everlasting death This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow as if he had said because ye will needs stand up in sin ye shall be sure to lie down in sorrow and ye shall so lie down in sorow as that ye shall never rise up in glory And we have little reason to wonder at this grievous punishment but less to doubt of it for every Schismatical spirit by putting it self out of the communion of Gods Church doth also put it self out of the communion of God himself For Christs Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ the eternal Son of God And if you ask what Church it must be answered That Church which is his body for that only can act by power and vertue of the Head If you farther ask what Church is his body It must be answered the Catholick Church that is to say the whole congregation of Christian people dispersed over the face of the whole earth For so doth Saint Paul plainly answer for us saying And he is the head of the body the Church Col. 1. 18. Not naming this or that particular Church but taking the whole body of Christian people for the body of Christ or for his Catholick Church For they are all united together in one communion and fellowship by the spirit of Christ even as all the members of the body are united in one communion by the soul So Aquinas Sicut in uno homine est una anima unum corpus tamen sunt diversa membra ipsius Ita Ecclesia Catholica est unum corpus habet diversa membra Anima autem quae hoc corpus vivificat est spiritus sanctus in opusc de symbol As in one man there is but one soul and one body although there be very may several members because they are all made one body by vertue of the soul which gives life to all so is the Catholick Church but one body although it consist of divers particular Churches as of so many members because they are all made one body by the spirit of God which quickens and enlivens them all So that no man can say any one particular Church is the Catholick Church excluding other Christian Churches without confining the spirit of God and dismembring the body of Christ which is little less then damnable blasphemy against the Spirit for he is infinite and therefore unconfinable and as damnable Schism against the Son of God for he hath made himself one with his Church and therefore to cut off any part of his Church from him is to cut him off from himself Let me rather rejoice that the spirit of God is not to be confined and the body of Christ is not to be dismembred for why should my eye be evil because he is good Why should I deny that mercy to others which God hath undeservedly bestowed on me Will he not say to me as Moses to Joshua Enviest thou for my sake Numb 11. 29. for what is it to deny the Holy Spirit to other Christians that are not of our own profession but enviously to wish that God would deny his spirit unto them Or what is it to say they are not of Christs body but malitiously to wish they were not so We may not then labour to bring back so much of Judaism into the world as to say now He hath not dealt so with any Nation neither have the heathen knowledge of his Laws Psal 147. 20. for we cannot say he hath restrained his Church to any one Nation or People since himself hath said that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 35. Be it therefore taken for granted that all the Christian Churches in the world do make up the Catholick Church of Christ and that it is so called not only for its accidental Catholicism which is universality of time place and person because it comprizeth all times all places all persons that is all conditions of men But also and much rather for its Essential or Substantial Catholicism which is universality of doctrine which all they do hold and maintain that are reputed or called Christians and that doctrine is called by Saint John This confession That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 John 4. 2. The Apostles scope and intention in that place is briefly to teach us how to try or examine the spirits that is the several doctrinâ—â— of religion that we may know who are true and who are false teachers and he tells us that whosoever teacheth that Jesus is the Christ that is the only founder and governour of the Church and Saviour of the world that mans doctrine is of God for it is not to be doubted
he gave his mind to the holiness of the Temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would not let Uzziah offer incense therefore it is said he it is that executed the Priests office because he was most zealous for the glory of the Priest-hood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Kimchi it seems by the Text that officiating in the Priests office without being a Priest was a profanation under the Law and why should we think otherwise under the Gospel since those who now succeed them in the administration of publick worship have obtained a more excellent ministry by how much they are the Mediators of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. For those words though spoken directly of Christ yet are proportionably true of the Ministry instituted by him who are surely the Mediators of a better Covenant therefore have obtained a more excellent Ministry consequently to invade their office must needs be a more dangerous profanation and we see those who are guilty of it are commonly even to this day struck as Vzziah was though not with a corporal yet with a spiritual leprosie that infects more dangerously though less discernably And if their office may not be invaded without profanation then much less may it be despised opposed without irreligion For God gave all the authority belonging to the Ministry of the New Testament to our Saviour Christ and he gave the same to his Apostles with power and command of giving it to others after them to the worlds end so saith the Text John 20. 24. As my father hath sent me Therrs the authority of the Ministry given unto Christ even so I send you there 's the same authority given by him to his Apostles not only for themselves but also for others for as Christ was sent that he might send them so were they sent that they might send others after them Thus Saint Paul saith for himself According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust 1 Tim. 1. 11. And he saith no less for Saint Timothy I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other Doctrine And again This charge I commit unto thee 1 Tim 1. 3. 18. Thereby acknowledging that he had received this trust not only to discharge it himself but also to commit it to others that should discharge it after him For this calling of Ministers having been instituted for the perfection of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephes 4. 12. t is evident it must be continued as long as there shall be any Saints to be perfected or the work of the Ministry to be performed or the body of Christ to be edified and as evident that it may not be despised or opposed by any who will not put himself out of the communion of Saints or cut himself off from the body of Christ For the Text is as plain as if it had been written with a Sun beam which saith He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you dispiseth me and he that despiseth me dispiseth him that sent me Luke 10. 16. He that despiseth you that are sent by me despiseth me that sent you and he that despiseth me that am sent of my Father despiseth him that sent me nor may we say that our Ministers are not sent of God for how shall they preach except they be sent doth now infer as well as then that if there be no sending there can be no preaching either we must say that preaching and consequently praying and administring the Sacraments for there is the same reason of all is not Gods work or that those who lawfully do it have Gods authority for what they do And if they have Gods authority how shall they not have my obedience Saint Pauls saith not only for himself and his assistants but also for all that were to succeed him in his Ministry We were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel 1 Thes 2. 4. They have Gods allowance or approbation and may lawfully undertake the Ministry of the Gospel nay more they have Gods command or trust and must necessarily discharge what they have undertaken so the same Saint Paul Necessity is laid upon me yea woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9 16. Not speaking the words occasionally concerning his person we must betray the authority of the Scripture to say so making it an imperfect rule to give us only momentary or occasional directions but doctrinally concerning his calling and therefore this woe lieth upon all those that succeed him in the Ministry binding them to use their utmost endeavours both by their preaching and by their living and by their dying to advance the Gospel of Christ or if they do not their duty this woe lieth upon them and consequently if they do it lâ—eeth upon those that oppose or hinder them For it is a clear case that our Saviour Christ hath in every Nation of Christendom entrusted his worship and Word and Sacraments and what ever else directly concerns the salvation of souls with some peculiar men who must rather forgoe their lives then forsake their trust to whom he still saith as he did to his Apostles when he first gave them his commission Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell Mat. 10. 28. They were not to fear mens killing if they did their duty but Gods killing if they did it not And least the world should think them hated of God because they were by him exposed to all dangers in another place where he still deterreth them from fearfulness in discharging this trust he calleth them his friends And I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do But I will fore-warn you whom you shall fear fear him that after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12. 4 5. They are to prefer the discharge of their Trust above their lives and shall not I prefer it above my humour Shall I think that my Saviour who hath bid me take him for an heathen or a publican that neglects to hear the Church will take me for a good Christian if I my self be guilty of that neglect Mat. 18. 17. I will then willingly acknowledge that those only to whom Christ hath given the power of loosing and binding in heaven are in this respect called the Church for so the sequele of the context there requires and that if I hear not these I shall be in his account but as a heathen or a publican For this is the Church which God hath in this Nation entrusted with the blood of his Son with the dictates of his Spirit and with the souls of his
the Truth into their minds as they are able to receive it 2. In the object of it every man excluding none from the benefit of their Ministry who desire to be taught or to be warned though more particularly including those of their own Pastoral charge in which respect Clemens Alexandrinus his gloss may be admitted who saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 warning and teaching the whole man that he may be purified both in his body and in his soul 3. In the manner of it with all assiduity and industry for so the Participles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do set forth not only continued but also multiplyed acts 4. And lastly in the end of scope of it which is to bring men to the communion of Christ that so they may be presented to God as perfect having that perfection in their Saviour which they have not in themselves Wherefore we cannot deny but as we still need the warning so we still need the watchmen and we must confess that watchmen of Gods own setting up may not be disturbed or displaced till himself be pleased to put them away or to pull them down and sure we are that will not be till we shall no longer need them And if the watchmen are bound to give the warning then questionless the people are bound to take it when it is given For it is plain the Text said Obey them that watch for your souls Heb. 13. 17. before the civil Magistrate was yet Christian to force men to that obedience Nay indeed while he was yet Heathen to deterre them from it and to persecute them for it So that the fifth Commandment obligeth me to obey those whom God hath set over me in spirituals no less then those whom he hath set over me in temporals And I may no more forsake the Church to set up a new Religion then I may forsake the State to set up a new Government For my obedience is due to both as a moral debt by the necessity of Justice since I am as much obliged to my spiritual Father for the care of my soul as I am to my civil Father for the care of my body and therefore I can no more withdraw my duty from the Church then I can from the Common-wealth Nor may I go out of my Nation to look for a Head of the Church any more then to look for a Head of the State since the fifth Commandment obligeth me equally to the Church and to the State And I ought to be as much afraid of Schism which is a sedition against the Church as of Sedition which is a schism against the State Sure I am if I will be a true Gospeller I must see that my conversation be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ and that 's a conversation which requires Unity no less then Verity Unity of Spirit no less then Verity of Faith So the Apostle advising the Philippians that their conversation should be as becometh the Gospel of Christ sheweth them in the next words wherein consisteth that conversation saying That ye stand fast in one Spirit with one mind there 's the Vnity striving together for the faith of the Gospel there 's the Verity Phil. 1. 27. He permitteth not the pretence of Verity to break the bonds of Unity for he saith striving together not striving one with or against another for the faith of the Gospel Their concord and communion was to be the credit of their Religion not the pretence of Religion to be the bane of their communion He accounts it as necessary to their salvation that they should stand fast in the same Unity as that they should strive for the same Verity that they should stand fast in one spirit with one mind as that they should strive for the faith of the Gospel This is the true way to set up Christs Discipline for himself hath said By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another John 13. 35. As we are made Christs Disciples by the Verity of our Faith so we are known to be his Disciples by the Unity of our Love and if we desire to set up his Discipline we must take a course that men may know we are his Disciples which they cannot do unless we have love one to another and surely factions divisions strifes contentions are very ill arguments and worse evidences of love So that I cannot be a Schismatick in with-drawing my love from Christs Church but I must be a piece of an Atheist in withdrawing my love from Christ himself as refusing to be accounted his Disciple This makes Saint Paul come like clypei Dominus septemplicis Ajax holding out a Buckler with no less then seven folds in it to keep off all the assaults of schism saying 1. There is one Body that is one Catholick Church of Christ whereof we are all members that profess our selves to be Christians 2. One Spirit to quicken and enliven that body 3. One hope of immortality to comfort and confirm it 4. One Lord to wit our Saviour Christ that hath purchased and doth claim it 5. One faith to feed and nourish it 6. One Baptism to wash and cleanse it 7. One God and Father of all to rule and govern it Eph. 4. 4 5 6. So that I dare no more be a Schismatick then I dare think to divide this one body to multiply this one Spirit to falsifie this one hope to renounce this one Lord to forsake this one faith to despise this one Baptism to deny this one God for I must be zealous to maintain this Christian Communion in its authority that I may be so happy as to enjoy it in its excellency CAP. II. Christian Communion in its excellency SECT I. The excellency of Christian Communion because of its large extent as reaching to all Christians though of different perswasions and professions THE Christian Church is truly Catholick in that it comprizeth all true Believers of what nation sex age or condition soever for God acknowledgeth them all for his children by faith in Christ Jesus So saith Saint Paul Gal. 3. 26 27. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ So that whosoever believeth in Christ and is baptized in his name must be acknowledged a member of the Christian Church whether he be Jew or Greek bond or free which was not so before Christs coming in the flesh for then it was said only of the Jews ye shall be my people and I will be your God Jer. 30. 22. But since our blessed Saviour hath broken down the partition wall God hath called to himself a people not of the Jews only but also of the Gentiles and it hath come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them ye are not my people there they are now called the children of the living God Rom. 9. 24 26. Those whom
God calls his sons how shall we not call our brethren unless we will deny him to be our Father Whence it must follow that Christian communion is of as great a latitude or extent as is the Christian Church according to that of Saint Paul ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. Having said before ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus to shew they were of the same Christian Church he now saith ye are all one in Christ Jesus to shew they were also of the same Christian communion And this principle we may not gain-say if we will acknowledge the excellency of true Christian communion for it cannot be so excellent if it depend on man as if it depend on God if it depend on Christs Vicar as if it depend on Christ himself if it be confined to one party of Christians as if it be extended to all for undenyable is that rule in reason Bonum quo communius eo melius Every good the more common it is the better it is and much more undenyable is it in charity when it is applyed to our Christian Communion For it is against the nature of God to be under a restraint or a Monoply God the fountain of goodness is an universal good He is good unto all and every other good the more it partakes of his goodness the more it partakes of his universality and is the more diffusive of it self being good only to it self whiles it is not diffused and therefore diffusing it self that it may also be good to others Much more is this to be seen and confessed in the good of Christian Communion which is therefore good because it is a common good and may not be abridged of its Community without being also abridged of its goodness Saint Paul will have us if it be possible to live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. therefore much more with the best of men with Christians who have the name the word the image the Spirit of Christ with all men we must keep an external and civil but with Christians we must moreover maintain an internal and spiritual peace Our hand is bound to the good behaviour in regard of Christs enemies but our heart is so bound in regard of his servants We may not break the outward peace with those that persecute him much less may we break the inward peace with those that love him There is a great difference betwixt our Civil and our Christian conversation or communion The Civil depends upon the body and is accordingly confined to time and place but the Christian depends chiefly upon the soul and therefore may be extended as far as the souls apprehension and affection to know and to love the Truth Whence Saint John saith to that elect Lady Whom I love in the truth and not I only but also all they that have known the truth though they had not known her for the truths sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us for ever 2 John 1. 2. As far as truth and love do extend so far extends our Christian Communion the foundation whereof is truth the building whereof is love Communio spiritualis est in consensu vero vel interpretativo Spiritual communion consists either in an explicit or an implicit consent with other Christians Alensis par 2. qu. 161. m. 10. which as I may not afford to any Christians as they abide in errour so I may not deny to any Christians as they embrace the Truth For wherever the Truth is it calls for my interpretative or virtual consent not to deny or gain-say it and where I know it to be there it calls for my actual and explicit consent to love and follow it I may not turn Donatist to confine the spirit of truth nor may I turn Familist to confine the spirit of love For as it cannot be denyed but that the spirit breatheth where it listeth so it may not be disputed but I must love wheresoever the spirit is pleased to breath Either I must deny the spirit of Truth to breath upon all those Christians that are not of my profession or the spirit of love to breath upon me if I will not allow them to be of my Christian Communion So that I must first limit and confine the Catholick Church before I can limit and confine the Communion of Saints for as is the Church so is the communion if the one be Catholick the other is so too If I will make a particular Christian communion I must make a particular Christian Church and consequently make that two Articles of my Faith which Christ and his Apostles have made but one even The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints Saint John the beloved Disciple loved for the Truths sake and so must I where God hath not denyed his truth there may not I deny my love If there be such a Christian Church in the world which I cannot well love for its own sake yet even that Church must I love for the truth sake as far as it hath my Saviours Truth so far it must have my souls love And though that Church may most justly claim my love which hath most entirely Christs truth yet no Christian Church but may in some sort claim it since no Christian Church but hath Christs Truth by which it is made Christian Some have this truth mingled with many and gross errours but God forbid that the tares which the enemy hath sowed should make me out of love with that good seed which I know came from Christ himself For why should I be alwaies looking on the mote in my brothers eye and not rather see the beam in mine own To his own master he standeth or falleth and God is willing to make him stand why should I be willing to make him fall or to keep him down If I would look on the Christian not on the man I should account him a brother whom now I think an enemy for what he is in Christ is most amiable though not what is he in himself God looks on me in Christ to love me and why should not I so look on my Brother to love him Gods love in Christ towards me covers a multitude of my sins and why should not my love in the same Christ towards my Brother cover a few of his mistakes Sure I am my Saviour hath made Charity a necessary condition to the forgiveness of my sins and therefore I must willingly cover my brothers faults or I cannot hope that God will cover mine If I will needs lay open his miscarriages to my sight I shall but lay open mine own miscarriages to the sight of God for he that cursed Cham meerly for not covering will certainly never bless me only for discovering either my fathers or my brothers nakedness I cannot judge him but I shall bring my self into Judgement and therefore I must pass by his faults as I would have God to pass by mine This is
such a truth as no Christian can deny and therefore none should contemn yet is this truth most of all contemned by Christians whiles each particular Church more stomachs at a man for not being one of her members then she rejoyces for his being a member of Christ Hence those outragious invectives and impious calumnies of one Christian Church against another whiles they all had rather contribute to their own unnecessary differences as men then to their necessary concord and agreement as Christians Each particular Church so labouring to advance and enlarge her own Communion as in effect neglecting and confining the communion of Christs Catholick Church Whereas it is most evident by Saint Paul that there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and all Col. 3. 11. That is All true Believers promiscuously without any distinction or exception of place or person do belong to the communion of Christs Catholick Church And accordingly the same Apostle sets all Christians a rule how infallibly to compass and inviolably to hold this communion saying Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye ver 12 13. How many vertues are here joyned together the least whereof if put on in bowels that is sincerely and without hypocrisie will not let us break communion with any Christian For here is mercy to pitty him kindness to recall him humbleness to yeild to him meekness not to provoke him long suffering to forbear and to forgive him when we have a just quarrel and therefore much more not to make a quarrel against him when we have none And all this is enjoined as we would be the Elect and beloved of God or thought zealous to follow the example of Christ who hath forborn and forgiven us much more then we can for his sake forbear or forgive our brethren These virtues will make us zealous in compassing our Christian communion and one more follows these which will make us as zealous in keeping it And that is charity of which it is said And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness ver 14. Charity is the bond of perfection in regard of our souls in regard of our operations and in regard of our communion making our souls perfect by uniting and binding them together in Christ that every one may enjoy the perfections of all making our operations perfect by uniting binding them together for Christ that all may tend to his glory as if they were but one and making our communion perfect by uniting and binding both our operations and our souls together with Christ for our communion in neither is perfect till both be joyned with him who is the author of all perfection For as in the natural body of man the perfection thereof consisteth very much in the communion which the several members have with themselves but much more in the communion which they all have with the soul so in the mystical body of Christ the perfection thereof consisteth very much in the communion which good Christians have with one another but much more in the communion which they all have with Christ It is their great glory and bliss that they all have in effect one common soul but their far greater glory and bliss that they all have in truth one common Saviour And indeed they first meet in him before they meet in one another Quae in aliquo tertio conveniunt ea inter se conveniunt is not only consequently but also causally true not only if two or more agree in a third they agree in themselves but also because they agree in a third therefore they agree in themselves Thus the two extreams in a syllogism are joyned both together in the conclusion because they were both joyned before with the same middle term in the premises so is it with men of different and disagreeing perswasions because they rightly agree in medio termino in one and the same Mediator they cannot but agree among themselves And as it is a rule in Logick or in reason Si medium in premissis rite collocatur duo alii termini non possunt aliter quà m recte disponi If the medium be rightly placed the two extreams cannot be placed amiss so is it in religion if our Mediator may but have his due place and order amongst us there will be no fear of our own being out of order amongst our selves Hence that Eulogie of the first Christians And all that believed were together and had all things common Act. 2. 44. They were not so together in their persons as to be asunder in their affections and therefore we must interpret this verse from the first and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were all with one accord in one place or with one mind and soul They were unanimously met together as well as personally they were in one mind as well as in one place And so will all true believers to the worlds end Nay they will meet in one mind when they cannot meet in one place for they are all joyned together as it were in one common soul though not as men according to Averrois his phansie who said there was but one numerical intelligent soul which assisted all mankind Yet as Christians according to Saint Pauls Divinity with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15 6. or perfectly joyned together in the same mind and the same judgement 1 Cor. 1. 10. or being of one accord of one mind Phil. 2. 2. And in this respect they have also all things common for though we may not allow an external community of goods and bodies to the confusion of humane property and society yet we must allow an internal community of affections and souls to the exercise of Christian love and charity For if that rule be true of the outward or carnal man Homo sum humani à me nihil alienum puto I am a man and think nothing belongs to a man but belongs to me then much more is it true of the inward and spiritual man I am a Christian and think no prosperity or adversity can happen to any Christian but the same happens to my self For this is according to the example of Christ who said unto Saul I am Jesus whom thou persecutest Act. 9. 5. Thinking the injuries done unto his members as done unto himself Nay it is according to the precept of Christ commanding us to think so to wherefore he saith Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep Be of the same mind one towards another Rom. 12. 15 16. Bidding us be of the same mind that we might be of the same affections and have the same joyes and the same sorrows This contemplation should
is the signification of its name derived from the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies joy and exaltation or our English word Glee That as the resurrection of Christ was the greatest joy that ever came to earth whose very dust by this new breathing of God the Son is the second time become a living body never to die again so the place wherein it was demonstrated and the time wherein it was celebrated should be to mankind both of them remembrancers of everlasting joy This was enough then to make all the world go to Hierusalem and Hierusalem it self to go to Galilee that they might be joyful spectators of this great blessing and more blessed partakers of this great joy accordingly providing their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their songs and hymns of triumph in honour of our blessed Saviour who had thus overcame death to open unto us the gate of everlasting life and let us in to an immortal Communion with himself the first-born of the dead and with his holy Angels the first-born of the living This is that communion the holy Apostle recommendeth to our desires and much more to our delights when he saith Ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the Heavenly Hierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels To the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12. 22 23 24. As many words so many excellencies of our Christian communion which is inchoate here in earth and shall be consummate hereafter in heaven but I will reduce them all to three heads the proper place the company and the author of this Communion 1. The proper Place is the Church of God here specified by three most honourable titles or compellations Mount Sion The City of the living God The heavenly Hierusalem three such titles as will make every sober much more every Religious man in love with the Churches communion as he would be in love with the stedfastness of Mount Sion which cannot be removed with the holiness of the City of God which cannot be defiled and with the happiness of the heavenly Hierusalem which above all things is to be desired for without doubt this Christian communion with the Church of Christ is the safest and the plainest way to stedfastness to holiness and to happiness 2. The company and that is so good that we cannot hope for better in heaven for it consists of Angels and of the first-born in Christ whose names are written in heaven and of God the Maker Preserver and Rewarder of these and the Judge of all that hate and oppose them with all these do we actually communicate in Christs Church whiles we are here on earth with Angels as the assistants with good men as the members and with God as the president of this communion nay indeed we actually communicate with more then these for also with the spirits of just men made perfect so that if any just man go from hence out of our company yet he goes not out of our communion for we follow after him to heaven in our affections though we still continue and remain here on earth in our persons 3. The author of this Communion and he is no other then the eternal Son of God the hope of men and the joy of Angels the support of earth and the beauty of heaven even Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant who by his eternal Priesthood offering up himself hath fully expiated and taken away the sins of the whole world and by his own death hath ratified and confirmed that Testament in which he hath given us the Inheritance of heaven 'T is of his fulness we have all received grace for grace It is of his fulness we shall all receive glory for glory It is the sprinkling of his blood which washeth away our sins contracted from our earthly parents and which will present our souls without sin before our heavenly Father so that we have great necessity earnestly to desire and constantly to embrace his Communion by whom alone we can hope to attain the sanctification of our souls here and the salvation of our souls hereafter CAP. III. Of Christian Communion in its sincerity SECT I. The sincerity of Christian Communion consists in this that it gives all to Christ Those Christians justified that do so in their Festivals the Sabbatarians questioned for not so doing The Apostles new method of teaching Christian Divinity by interlining of prayers and praises that Christ might be the more glorified and the Christian Religion the less adulterated IN other communions every one is like Diotrephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ready to challenge if not to engross the preheminence to himself But in the true Christian communion all are willing to give the preheminence wholly unto Christ And they have great reason so to do and greater Religion in so doing for they do but give unto him what they have received from him that like as they have the preheminence among other men in being members of his body so he may have the preheminence among them in being acknowledged for their Head For his humiliation was very great in stooping down so low as to be joyned to them and by the Apostles express rule Phil. 2. His exaltation is to be correspondent to his humiliation Saint Chrysostom thus expresseth his humiliation in that He descended to this communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he who was above and above all things was pleased to joyn himself with those below that so he might be their Head It was the Psalmists admiration Who is like unto the Lord our God that hath his dwelling so high and yet humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and earth Psalm 113. 5. It must be our astonishment that he humbleth himself not to behold but to guide and manage them that he humbleth himself not to look but to come down to heaven to be the head of Angels not to look but to come down to earth to be the head of men Three great steps of humility in stepping down to this It was one great step for him to look down to heaven Another great step to look down to earth but the third was far greater then both to come down to earth that he might there incorporate himself with men in one body and so become their Head and inspirit men with himself as it were in one soul that they might become his members Wherefore our enquiry concerning this must needs begin in admiration that our admiration may the better end in thanksgiving according to Saint Pauls example who after his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the depth of the riches concludes with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom be glory for ever Amen Nay indeed according to Saint Pauls Doctrine for so he expresly saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
it or potentially in our spiritual vote and desire though we live never so far from them And it is to be noted in Gods Method that he first makes provision for the Truth of his worship in the three first then afterwards for the publike exercise of it in the fourth Commandment he first takes care that we be not faulty in the object of our worship saying Thou shalt have no other Gods but me then not in the outward manner of it either in deed or in word not in deed saying Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image thou shalt not how down to them nor worship them not in word saying Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain After this order taken for the truth of his worship both in the object and in the manner then he proceeds to command the publick exercise thereof saying Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day Certainly this Method was not in vain but to shew that as the Truth was to go before the exercise so the exercise was to follow the Truths of Religion And therefore wheresoever the Church did worship God according to the dictates of the three first commandments there every man was bound to be a communicant with the Church by vertue of the fourth and not only by vertue of the fifth Commandment For Christian communion as an act of Religion belongs to the first though as an act of obedience it belong to the second Table Therefore if another man saith Our Father which art in heaven how shall I not say with him Hallowed be thy name Doth it beseem me to be angry with the Lords most holy prayer for his sake that saith it as if what Christs lips had sanctified his lips could prophane for my devotion Or can I be angry with any of Christs words wheresoever I find them and not be guilty of anger against Christ and against Christianity Is the love of my God to be over-ruled by the hatred of my neighbour or may I indeed hate my God for my neighbours sake who am bound to love mine enemy for Gods sake The argument then will proceed à minori ad majus that if I may not in a true worship deny my communion to a stranger much less to a brother if not to a brother then much less to a mother If not to one single Minister much less to a whole Church which God hath entrusted with his own worship and with my soul For if I must look on that particular Minister whom God hath set over me as one that directeth me in his worship by his authority then much more must I so look upon my Church which God first set over that Minister before he set that Minister over me And if every particular Minister amongst us would as conscionably acknowledge and as couragiously vindicate his Churches Trust as he confidently assumes and diligently performs his own we should soon have much less faction in the Church and much more Religion in the people SECT V. The Prince as the supream governour of the particular Church in his own Dominions is Gods Trustee concerning the outward exercise of Religion not to manage or perform but to propagate and to protect it The antient Divines acknowledged this Trust and the antient Princes discharged it and Princes were bound so to do because it is their right by the Law of nature and because without the discharge of this Trust there can neither be the face nor the order of Religion among any People IT was the singular providence of God to commit the care and trust of man in matters of Religion only to men for since the devil can transform himself into an Angel of light if in this case we had been entrusted with the Angels we might have been deluded by the Devils But now having a more sure word of prophesie then can be any voice from heaven whosoever be the speaker or the messenger 2 Pet. 1. 19. there is no true Christian Church but may with confidence and must with courage say unto the people committed to her Trust as Saint Paul said to the Galatians Though we or an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. God hath not trusted Angels but men with preaching his Gospel nor hath he trusted men to preach a new Gospel but that only which the Apostles at first preached and what he hath given some men spiritual power to preach that he hath given other men temporal power to maintain The Priest is to preach it the Prince is to maintain it and the same God who in the affairs of the body hath given his Angels charge over men hath in the affairs of the soul given men charge over Angels for though an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel yet neither might the Priest publish it nor the Prince protect it It being a priviledge of men above Angels since the eternal truth took on him not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham that as Angels are the guardians of men so men should be the guardians of Gods truth And happily in this regard we find two sorts of men especially in the holy Scriptures called Angels to wit Kings and Priests because God hath most especially trusted them with his truth T is sure this reason is given why the King is so called 2 Sam. 14. 17. For as an Angel of God so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad And t is very probable the same reason is meant though it be not given why the Priests are so called Revel 2. For we find the Angels of those several Churches strictly examined if not severely blamed for the neglect of this Trust God hath made Kings and Priests guardians of his truth as he hath made the Angels guardians of our persons that we should admire his infinite power whereby he is able and adore his infinite goodness whereby he is willing not only to send down from heaven his Ministring Spirits but also to raise up from earth his Ministring flesh to be our guardian Angels Nor can we now without unthankfulness to God injury to the Truth and injustice if not uncharitableness to our selves deny either King or Priest his part in this guardianship And God he knows we have great need of both It hath been the Devils cheifest policy to sow seeds of jealousie and dissension between these two Trustees that so he might make himself the greater harvest either by depraving the purity or by disturbing the peace of Religion In some Churches the Priest hath almost expelled the King in other Churches the King hath almost expelled the Priest The one extending his spirituals even to temporals the other extending his temporals even to spirituals neither but cometh short of his duty whiles both go beyond their Trust God make both truly to see the danger and the burden of their own
Bishops and Presbyters in Italy shall give an account for souls in England and as much against reason to say or think that souls in England shall not give an account for their disobedience And as this Position concerning the Authority of our own particular Church is reasonable so is it also religious For this is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians Though you have ten thousand instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me 1 Cor. 4. 15 16. Whence we cannot but collect this dogmatical conclusion That this Church which hath begotten us in Christ claimeth our obedience in Christ and to renounce that obedience is in effect to renounce our being made Christians And as no other Church can truly say to us I have begotten you through the Gospel so no other Church can justly say unto us Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me To sum up all in one word This Doctrine concerning the acknowledging and obeying the authority of mine own Church being both rational and religious I dare not wilfully oppose it for fear of sinning against the God within me that is to say mine own conscience which will certainly by a most terrible and just remorse vindicate the violated dictates of Reason And much more for fear of sinning against the God without me Father Son and Holy Ghost which will certainly by a more terrible and just vengeance at the last day vindicate the violated dictates of Religion CAP. II. That the Church of England hath most carefully discharged her Trust concerning Religion as a most Christian or most Catholick Church SECT I. Gods intent in trusting his Church with Religion was her honour and happiness which should cause our thankfulness to God and our reverend esteem of his Church IT is a great honour to be trusted and as great a happiness to discharge a Trust Accordingly God entrusting his Church with Religion did intend her both honour and happiness Honour with men happiness with himself Honour in earth and happiness in heaven wherein we cannot but admire the goodness and Justice and liberality and mercy of God His Goodness in that he communicateth to his Church his own most excellent property even a will and desire that all men should be saved and come unto the knowledge of the Truth 1. Tim. 2. 4. His Justice in that he giveth abilities proportionable to that desire enabling his Church to promote the salvation of men and to bring them unto that heavenly knowledge his Liberality in that he giveth this desire and those abilities meerly of his free grace to enrich our souls not himself And lastly his Mercy in that by giving this desire these abilities and these riches he expelleth our natural defects arising from errour and ignorance whereby we do walk in the false and cannot find out the true way and prepareth us for that bliss and glory which is above nature who can think of this goodness of this Justice of this liberality of this mercy and not say with the Psalmist Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is withâ—n me praise his holy Name Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities which saveth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and loving kindness Psalm 103. 1 2 3 4. For it is his goodness that he forgiveth sin and healeth infirmities his Justice that he forgiveth only the penitent sinners and healeth only those who are broken in heart His mercy that he saveth our life from destruction and his liberality that he crowneth us with mercy and loving-kindness Accordingly he hath commanded his Church to teach especially the Doctrine of Faith to set forth his goodness by which he is reconciled The Doctrine of Repentance to set forth his Justice which hath been satisfied The Doctrine of Free Grace to set forth his mercy in saving us from destruction The Doctrine of eternal glory to set forth his liberality in crowning us with loving kindness O my soul consider the immortal comfort of these heavenly Truths and look upon thy Church which teacheth them as the daughter of immortality as the mother of comfort and as the Bride of the King of Heaven Then wilt thou no more be contentedly without thy Church then thou canst be comfortably without these Doctrines Then wilt thou say with the Psalmist I am fearfully and wonderfully made but with thy self I am more fearfully and wonderfully saved Marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psalm 139. 13. I am much amazed at thy great care and providence over my body but much more at thy great care and providence over my soul Thou madest use of my carnal Parents to make me communicating to them as far as they were capable the honour of my Creation Thou makest use of my spiritual Parents to save me communicating to them as far as they are capable the honour of my salvation should I be a monster of nature if I dishonoured the one and shall I not be a monster of grace if I dishonour the other Didst thou confer on them the Dignity of Causality by thy goodness that I should cast upon them the indignity of contumacy by my undutifulness Can I indeed truly honour thee the Principal and dishonour thy Church the instrumental cause of my salvation Thou laid'st thine hand upon me to make me but thou laid'st thine heart upon me to save me O make me wholly to fix my heart upon thee my Saviour and upon thy salvation Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy book were all my members written wstilst thou madest my Body But thine eyes would not see my sinfulness nor my imperfections and thou didst blot all my transgressions out of thy Book that thou mightst save my soul Therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels unto me O God Psalm 139. 17. Dear are thy counsels about my Creation much dearer are thy counsels about my Redemption Counsels they were till thou wert pleased to reveal them by thy Church Since therefore I cannot but say How dear are thy counsels I beseech thee suffer me not to say How cheap is thy Counsellor SECT II. The Churches Trust concerning Religion is to see there be right Preaching Praying and Administring the holy Sacraments That preaching belongs rather to the knowledge then to the worship of God and ought not to thrust out Praying which is the chiefest act of Gods worship and most regarded by him especially when many pray in one communion CHristian Religion teacheth us to know and worship God as is agreeable to his Glory and profitable for our salvation So that the Churches trust concerning the Christian Religion is reducible to these two heads the knowledge and the worship of God And because the Church is trusted with the
Justice and the like to supply your spiritual wants and necessities and you shall not want any temporal necessaries for you shall from your spiritual supplies find either a certain remedy against your temporal wants or a sufficient recompence for them or an immortal comfort in them There is no occasional necessity can befall the soul save only by way of comparison that upon some occasions she may be in a greater need of the act of Faith upon others in a greater need of the act of Repentance But her necessities as also her endowments are properly continual because they are spiritual therefore all the noise that is made about using the gift of Prayer in praying against occasional necessities or praising for occasional mercies doth not much excite us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness for his Kingdom and righteousness are both eternal but rather to seek first those things which our Saviour calls Additaments or Adiections for whatsoever is occasional is temporal and whatsoever is temporal ought to be reckoned in the Catalogue of those things concerning which our Saviour hath said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adjicientur vobis All these things shall be added unto you If we heartily Pray for Faith and Repentance and the like spiritual endowments God will surely give them And he will give them liberally that is to say in great abundance that they may be truly worth his giving and upon our greatest necessities or occasions that they may be as truly worth our receiving He will give them in their acts as well as in their habits that his gifts may be compleat And he will give them in our necessities That his gifts may be convenient then greatest when our wants are so according to that of Saint James If any of you lack wisdom or any other spiritual gift let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not and it shall be given him Jam. 1. 5. God giveth liberally therefore he giveth the whole gift in the Act as well as in the Habit and he upbraideth not therefore he giveth it most when we most want it for his gifts as they are with liberality not to begrutch them so they are without Repentance not to upbraid them 'T is true he cannot give us any one spiritual gift before we want it but as true that he most willingly gives them all according to our wants So that if by our frequent and fervent prayers we do obtain of God those spiritual gifts which concern the continual we need not be very solicitous about those which only concern the occasional necessities of our souls For if our continual necessities be supplyed our occasional necessities cannot want supply should any such indeed befall our souls and as for the occasional necessities of our bodies they are not worth our own much less our Churches prayers but only in relation to our souls So little reason is there that the pretence of occasional necessities should unsettle and distract our own private forms much less unloosen and destroy our Churches publick forms of constant Devotions wherein we are sure we do not seek our own interests or temporal advantages and much less our unrighteousness but only the Kingdom of God and his righteousness Without doubt Innocency Piety and Charity which may be as truly sought and more surely found in set forms then in conceived prayers are wholly and entirely our spiritual interests and if we cordially ask these in our prayers we shall so rightly seek the Kingdom of God in it self that we shall joyfully find it in our own souls For the Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. and therefore is to be sought by such Prayers as may best express and increase our faith that so we may obtain righteousness And our repentance that so we may obtain peace and our obedience that so we may obtain joy in the Holy Ghost Such prayers God having given us a Church to teach more then any other Church in the Christian world and not given us hearts to learn t is to de feared unless we speedily and heartily repent he will pronounce the same sentence or rather execute the same judgement against us as he did against the Israelites But my people would not hear my voice and Israel would not obey me so I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and let them follow their own imaginations Psal 8â— 12 13. T is in the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishirruâ—h libbam id est In contemplatione aut visione cordis eorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bemaraith so Jarchi or In pertinacia aut duritie cordis eorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bechozek so Ezra The one saith I gave them up to the contemplations of their own hearts and that was bad enough for it is said concerning man that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually Gen. 6. 5. The other saith I gave them up to the hardness of their hearts and that was a great deal worse for to be hardned in evil imaginations is much worse then simply to be in them for that is not only to be sinful but also to be under the captivity and bondage of sin He that follows his imagination without his reason doth in effect degenerate from a man into a Beast But he that hardneth himself in his imagination against his own right reason and much more against Gods true Religion doth degenerate from a man almost to be a Devil These are the sad Judgements of God upon those who will not hear his voice nor obey his Commands Wherefore we cannot be too solicitous in hearing him nor too dutiful in obeying him And consequently when we are once sure that t is his voice which speaks to us and his command which is laid upon us we must speedily and wholly resolve upon lending our ears to the voice and lending our hearts to the command For he that bids us prove all things doth not bid us to be alwayes proving for it follows hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5. 21. I will prove my Religion before I embrace it that I may draw neer to God with my conscience and not as an hypocrite But I will hold fast my Religion when I have proved it that I fall not from God against my conscience as an Apostate T is not specious pretences can make others religious and God forbid they should make me lose my Religion Men may pretend to the spirit of prayer who have it not but I am sure they had the spirit of prayer who made such heavenly prayers as the holy Spirit of God doth justifie by his Doctrine and will accompany with his intercession And doubtless every particular Christian is bound to make sure of such prayers both for his private and for his publick devotions and when he hath gotten such prayers is bound not to leave them unless we will say the
the good behaviour and God himself hath in effect told us as much in giving us so many set forms of prayers in the holy Bible SECT XIV The third and last part of the Churches trust concerning Religion is touching the holy Sacraments wherein our Church is not faulty either in the number or in the administration of them as exactly following our Saviours institution nor in the manner of administring as following it with reverence REligion being above the light of nature to understand it must needs be above the power of nature to command it Hence the acts of the Theological vertues are prescribed by the positive Law of God because they belong properly to Religion But the acts of moral vertues are prescribed by the Law of nature because they belong to Reason yet are they in truth injurious to Religion who will allow nothing to be moral but what they can prove to be natural For the positive Law of God doth constitute moralities to the Christian as well as the inbred Law of nature doth constitute moralities to the Man This appears plainly in the Sacraments which are not to be accounted as Ceremonies because they come not under the authority of the Church either for their institution or alteration or abolition and must therefore be accounted as moralities though they are not at all commanded by the Law of nature but only by the Law of God That these Sacraments are a part of the Churches trust is unquestionable because the Gospel is For the vocal word and the visible word Verbum Vocale verbum visibile both alike are duties of the Christian Religion for the glory of God and of the Christian Communion for the edification of man but all the duties both of Religion and Communion are committed to the Churches trust God having appointed his own Ministers as his special Trustees both for preaching his word and for administring his Sacraments So that no man can administer a Sacrament but in the person of God and he hath not licensed every one that will to take upon him his person but only such to whom he hath given his special deputation And this is more peculiarly manifest concerning the two Sacraments properly so called that is Baptism and the Lords holy Supper For our blessed Saviour said only to his Apostles Go ye therefore and baptize in respect of the one and do ye this in remembrance of me in respect of the other As for the five additional Sacraments they were never looked upon as integral parts of Gods ordinary publick worship and therefore though they could be proved Sacraments yet they would not come under our present discourse But in truth they cannot be proved Sacraments according to the proper definition of a Sacrament which is this A Sacrament is an outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace given to us and ordained by Christ himself as a means to convey that grace and as a pledge to assure us thereof Let us examine this definition by its causes and we shall easily perceive that it belongs only to Baptism and the Holy Eucharist and therefore they two only are to be called Sacraments First by its efficient cause Given and ordained by Christ himself which is clear of these two for they were instituted by him and have his precept and promise in the very words of their institution which cannot be asserted concerning any of the other Secondly by its material cause outward visible sign inward spiritual Grace which are both manifestly known in Baptism and the Holy Eucharist but neither in any of the rest For Pennance hath no outward visible sign at all and Matrimony Orders Confirmation Extream unction have no outward visible signs of Christs appointing And much less have any of these that inward spiritual Grace which is annexed to Baptism and the Holy Eucharist To wit Christ with all his merits and mercies whereby of God He is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. For we dare not say that any man is by any of these five either born and initiated or nourished and confirmed in Christ Thirdly by its formal cause An outward visible sign of an inward spiritual Grace Whereby it appears that the internal and proper form of a Sacrament is the necessary conjunction or connexion of the sign and the thing signified which conjunction is so undeniable in our two Sacraments that Baptism is called the washing of regeneration Tit. 3. 5. And the holy Eucharist the Communion of the body and blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. For that these two are not only signs and seals but also conveyances of grace unto the soul whereas the other five though they have something of the sign yet they have nothing at all of the seal or of the conveyance of grace Lastly by its final cause As a means to convey Grace and as a pledge to assure us thereof The end of a Sacrament is partly our Communion with Christ and partly our acknowledgement of that Communion This twofold end is very apparent in Baptism and in the holy Eucharist which doth procure our Communion with Christ and also require our acknowledgement of that Communion but in the rest either the one is without the other or there is a want of both For either there is no Communion with Christ or there is no acknowledgement of that Communion whereas a Sacrament is a seal of Gods Covenant and therefore in its own nature is a double pledge to wit of Gods grace and favour to man and of mans duty and thankfulness to God For as it is a sign of Gods grace to us so it should be a sign of Gods grace in us For in the very signification of a Sacrament there is a mutual respect one on Gods part offering grace another on mans part promising obedience If either of these be wanting the holy rite may be a mysterie but it cannot be a Sacrament properly so called since a Sacrament is the seal of a Covenant and a Covenant is a mutual engagement of two parties which in this case are God and Man Therefore a Sacrament is from the very end of its institution perpetual in its continuance and common in its use Perpetual in its continuance because Gods Covenant is not for a day but for ever t is an everlasting Covenant And common in its use because Gods Covenant is not for one but for all t is a general an universal Covenant Non enim propter unius seculi homines venit Christus sed propter omnes qui illius membra futuri sunt saith Irenâ—us lib. 4. adver haereses cap. 39. Christ came not into the world for the men of one age or of one order but for all that should be his true and faithful members in all ages and all orders of men whatsoever And upon this ground we cannot but say that the Sacraments which do exhibit and convey Christ do alike belong to men of all ages