and rockes and never leauing vs till we be dismembred and they breathlesse or on the contrary if God restraine them by pulling them in with the sudden violence of the strait hand of his Iustice they fall to plunging and careering and never leaue till the saddle be emptie and even then dangerously strike at their prostrate rider for after terror of conscience filthy lusts get the dominion and bring men into a deepe securitie and senselesnesse of their misery and like blind Sodomites they are groaping after evill when God smites them It is iust with God that those which want grace should want wit too It is the power of sinne to turne men into stockes and stones Easie warnings neglected end ever in destruction His a mercy of God to warne vs by our consciences yet as some children grow carelesse with often whipping so some sinners grow more senselesse and stupid by the often frequent lashes of their consciences But alas securitie and presumption attend even at the threshold of ruine and bring a man to be without all sense and feeling of his misery onely God who knowes by an vnwonted blow to fetch bloud out of the sturdiest heart can so strike that conscience after all this deadnesse shall looke wonderfully agasht vpon the sinner and driue him to horrible despaire Gods judgements are the racke of godlesse men if one straine make them not confesse let them be stretched one wrench hyer and they cannot be silent and therefore securitie is euer accompanied with despaire in the end and a fearefull expectation of judgement Nay whiles they liue here God doth often bring vpon them some extraordinary judgement Thus then you see the symptomes of the second death horror of conscience from whence flight and occultation arise then securitie breeding in men the senselesnesse of sinne and despaire for it and lastly some extraordinary judgement of God Eph. 4.18 Deut. 28.28 Gen. 3.10 The things of this life when they come vpon the best tearmes are but vaine but when vpon ill conditions burdensome when they are at best they are scarce friends but when at worst tormentors Alas poore worldlings how ill agrees a gay coat and a festred heart What availes an high title with an hell in the Soule Lord heale these evill symptomes of the second sorrow least I sleepe in the most miserable death Q. What is the perfection of it A. An eiection or eternall separation from the face of God and an iniection or casting of the Soule immediately after the first death into hell where there is an increasing of sinne but more truely of torment their sinnes being turned into sorrows and they then finding no pleasure in evill for sinne being the greatest misery and most opposite to good cannot but be the principall part of their torment Furthermore a reservation of the body in the graue as in a dungeon against the dissolution of the world by fire and day of judgement when after the resurrection both body and soule meeting together againe shall be cast into hell fire where there is both an increase of sinne of the gnawing worme of conscience and torment and from hence weeping wayling and gnashing of teeth Weeping is the expression of sorrow and sorrow cooles the heart and cold makes the teeth to chatter so that their torment and misery shall be intollerable Sinne shall increase the worme of conscience and conscience shall make all to sympathize with it in sorrow and sorrow shall be angmented by fire and cold such paines shall the damned indure in hell as never eye saw nor eare heard nor can possibly enter into the heart of man Isa 30.33 Math. 13.40.42 25.41 2 Thes 1.9 Rev. 20.14 The Papists neare adioyning to hell make three places more as Limbus of the Fathers before Christ of Infants before Baptisme and of Purgatory for satisfaction As a Caldron hath brimmes and a bottome so hell is the bottome of the Caldron Purgatory is the middle and the Fathers and Infants were in the brimme Wee say in all scalding and fiery instruments the greatest heat is in the top but this seething Caldron though it did hemme in the Fathers like the gard of a gowne yet was it full of pleasure vnto them onely infants being in the next border had neither paine nor pleasure Here is a rale of Limbus without either welt or gard yet so plaine and palpable an error that it confutes confounds it selfe God his law mans life his recompence societie and Sauiour doe all exclaime against such dreames of Limbus and Purgatory First God deales with all mankind either in iustice or mercy Secondly his law is either broken or kept and of sacrifices for all sinnes and sinners there are none appointed for the dead The law then whom it casts in this world it condemnes in the world to come without redemption and God is iust in the highest degree and therefore takes no expiation out of his sonne and if he once admit it in his sonne he is like wise mercifull in the highest degree and therefore sends none to Purgatory or Limbus whom he ever meanes to recall backe againe Thirdly mans life either pleaseth or displeaseth God and all men walke but in two pathes and so come accordingly to their ends Fourthly the recompence is either hell or heauen the one prepared for the reprobate the other for the elect and of a third place Scripture makes no mention A gaine the blessed rest from their labours especially sinne and punishment therefore the cursed liue in both and as sin is the most grieuous labour to the godly Rom. 7.24 so shall it be the greatest torment to the wicked Either after the first death we rest from this painfull labour which is a peece yea the greatest part of our heauen or else we liue in it which is no lesse then hell it selfe Fiftly after the first death wee meet with no other societie but either of Angels or Devils Lastly our Sauiour was a Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world and so from that time raised againe Ioh. 11.24.25 Lazarus shall rise againe why because Christ is the resurrection and he was not then actually dead or raised In the progresse of a King he himselfe is the first mouer though many goe before him all are attendants vpon his person whether they goe before or follow after There is then no need to shut heauen against the Fathers because Christ was not then actually risen an a ascended for they all waite vpon Christ though they goe before him vnto heauen As for children they are either of faithful parents or of infidels and therefore are they not excluded from grace and mercie But I must abbreviate or else I shall grow infinite in laying downe of the precepts of this Art CHAPTER XXI Of the propagation of Sinne. Question HItherto of the transgression What is the propagation of it Answere All that posteritie that was to proceed from Adam by ordinary propagation as it should haue
beene the greatest Malefactor that ever was Math. 26.55 Q. What is the second degree A. His arraignment before the Ecclesiasticall and politicke Magistrate as if he had broken all lawes and deserued punishment at euery judgement seat And all this was done to shew vs what wretches wee were in Gods sight and how he should haue proceeded against vs who by meanes of his Sonne are pardoned that wee might never see our iust condemnation otherwise then wee see it acted in our Suretie he was posted from Caiaphas to Pilate from Pilate to Herod and backe againe from Herod to Pilate by whom he was both iustified and condemned God running along with the whole Tragedie and shewing plainely by Iudge Pilate that Christ was not to die for himselfe but for vs the iust suffering for the vniust Mat. 26.57 and 27. 2. Luk. 23.7.8 Math. 27.4.19.24 Q. What was the third degree A. The most miserable derision and whipping of him that ever was heard tell off he was to encounter both paine and scorne for vs. An ingenuous and noble nature can worse brooke this then the other any thing rather then disdainfulnesse imperious in sultation especially from so base enemies The Iewes the Souldiers yea the very theeues flouted and taunted him and triumph over his misery his blood cannot satisfie them without his reproch Math. 26.67.68 and 27.28.29.30.31 Oh that wee could imitate the Iewes in their custome concerning evill doers they had ever some malefactor brought forth to them in their great Feast which they dismissed with disgrace so it should bee the happiest peece of our triumph and solemnitie if wee could bring forth that wicked prophanenesse wherewith wee haue dishonoured God and blemisht his Gospell to be scourged and sent away with all holy indignitie See thy Sauiour scourged and beaten for thee and see if thou canst finde in thy heart to fauour or cheerish the least sinne Q. What is his crucifying A. After all these abuses he is put to the most accursed death of the Crosse a kind of punishment ioyntly with the other inflicted vpon none but such as were offenders in the highest degree and euery one was held most accursed that so died to shew that he suffered for offenders of the greatest staine and straine and so to beare our curse vpon him Phil. 2.8 Gal. 3.12.13 Deut. 21.23 Q. Did he suffer onely these outward afflictions A. He suffered these as iudgements for sinne therefore were they so much the more bitter and whiles he was on the crosse those three houres of darkenesse he was assayled with all the powers of darkenesse so that he felt in his soule and body vnvtterable anguishes even the effects or apprehension of the most feareful wrath of God so that it made him cry out My God my God c. and when that was over as hauing felt therein the most bitter paines of all his sufferings he said it was finished Math. 27.45.46 Ioh. 19.30 Q. What might this meane A. That he was for the time reputed as one separated from God which is the second death for as the first death is the reparation of the soule from the body the beginning of our naturall life so the second death is the separation of both body and soule from God the beginning of that spirituall life Isa 53.4.5.6.10 Christ was never a stranger to the life of God Eph. 4.18 and yet his Father did for a space seeme to estrange himselfe to his Sonne Oh beloued Saints of God let vs with that Disciple follow him a far off and passing over all his contemptuous vsage in the way see him thus brought to his Crosse and still the further wee looke the more wonders shall wee behold Euery thing addes to his ignominy of suffering and triumph of over-comming It was not done in a corner as Paul saith to Festus but in Ierusalem the eye the heart of the world and that without the gates in Calvary among the stinking bones of execrable Malefactors Before the glory of the place bred shame now the vilenesse of it Not a circumstance but argues the wonderfull humiliation of our Sauiour and still his paine and scorne increased till all was finished Q. Hitherto of his life what is his death A. The expiration and deliuering vp of his soule into the hands of his Father Math. 27.50 Luk. 23.46 Ioh. 19.30 When he had finished all and indured most exquisite torments he himselfe without all violence gaue vp the Ghost For he both cryed with a lowd voyce and bowed the head immediately before he yeelded his last breath whereas in mans death the spirits first faint and tyre and the head fals downe when they are expired but Christ being full of spirit able to hold vp his head bends the same downe-ward of his owne accord and then dies Oh yee sinners behold Christs head thus humbly bowed downe in a gracious respect to you his armes are stretched out louingly to embrace you yea his precious side is open to receiue you there is no more accusation iudgement death hell for you all these are no more to you then if they were not if yee can beleeue who shall condemne It is Christ which is dead Rom. 8.34 I know euery man is ready to reach forth his hand to this dole of grace and would be angry to be beaten from this doore of mercy surely there is no want in this Mossias looke that the want be not in thy selfe hee hath finished but thou beleeuest not thou repentest not all is in vaine to thee for all these thou maist be condemned What ever Christ is what art thou Here is the doubt Christ is a good shepherd and giues his life for his sheepe But what is this to thee that art secure prophane impenitent thou art a wolfe or a goat Christs sheepe heare his voyce but thou art a rebell to his law and therefore canst not hearken to his Gospell for mercie c. Q. What is his death to vs A. Christ was willingly content to indure the separation of his body and soule for a time which is the first death that hee might take away whatsoeuer is iudgement therein and sanctifie the same vnto vs. 1. Cor. 15.55.56.57 Wee were the authors of this death and our Saviour did alter it our disobedience made it bitter his mercy hath made it not to be evill vnto vs. Oh my Saviour how halt thou perfumed and softened this bed of my graue by dying How can it grieue mee to tread in thy steps to glory The worst peece of the horror of this death is the graue and that part which is corrupted feeles it not the other which is free from corruption feeles an abundant recompence and forefees a ioyfull reparation Wee carry heauen and earth wrapt vp in one compound it is but restitution when each part returnes homeward Q. What followed his death A. His buriall and abiding in the graue to the end that hee might sweeten the same for vs and whereas it was
Taverne Tyrants in their houses and Cheators in their shops He sees those daintie Dames that vnder a cloke of modesty and devotion can hide their pride and fiendishnesse It will not be long ere thou wilt iudge all our secrecies with severitie The sunne of my sinnefull life hath passed the meridian and I am now in the after-noone of my age The night of nature will come fast vpon mee when death as Gods sergeant will arrest my body vpon debt due vnto nature my soule vpon trespasse committed against my all-seeing Creator The one must be bound hand and foote and committed close prysoner to the ground the other arraigned in the high Court of heauen where he that hath seene me sinne shall be both party and judge to answere to all obiections as well of ignorance as of contempt Onely this is my stay and staffe that hee will both forgiue and forget yea put himselfe out of office if I betimes judge my selfe and repent of my evill Q. What as his Will A. That whereby he wills most freely what is good Exod. 33.19 Psal 5.4 and 115.3 and 135.6 And here might something be sayd of diverse affections attributed to God But they will appeare better vpon the occasions they manifest themselues and for which they are giuen to God And here must wee learne our counsell and comfort Counsell to submit to whatsoeuer he commandeth and comfort to admit whatsoever he promiseth Oh vaine studies of men how to walke thorow streets all day in the shade how to square circles how to salue the celestiall motions how to correct mishapen copies to fetch vp old words from forgetfulnesse and a thousand other points of idle skill whiles the maine care of knowing Gods will is neglected This makes the best of all these inferiour creatures to liue in more sorrow and discontentment then the worst of them yea that very reason wherein he excells them by which he might advantage his life is abused to suspicious distrust of God and his will How many haue wee found of the fowles of the ayre lying dead in our way for want of provision they can eate rest sing c. onely man toyleth careth loatheth and lamenteth his present O the coldnes of care in casting it vpon God as if he wanted will to prouide best for them for whom he hath prouided all things I will so depend on my makers will that my trust therein may not exclude my labour and so labour vpon my confidence thereon as that my endevour may be voyd of vexation Math. 10. Q. What are Gods Vertues A. The qualities whereby he is absolutely good Math. 19.17 Why callest thou me good there is none goad but God Deut. 32.4 He is a rocke his worke is perfect for all his workes are iudgement a God of truth and without iniquitie iust and right is he 2. Sam. 22.31 God must needs haue all vertues because he wants no perfection As the Ocean receiueth all streames and yet hath proper waters in farre greater abundance so in God there is a confluence of the perfections of all creatures and yet his owne perfections doe infinitely exceed them What are the pleasures of this life to our drinking of his pleasures as out of a ryver Psal 36.8 At the best they are but as beames of that sunne sparkles of that fire which most purely and perfectly are contained in him Yet as we haue made them they are as a smoakie fire in cold weather whereof the smoake is more noysome then the heat is comfortable O giue me of that abundance which both in cause and continuance plentie and place so farre excells the other Q. What are the sorts of these Vertues A. Two either his intellectuall or morall vertues God must haue the best vnderstanding and the best will and therefore must needs enioy the vertues of both Rom. 3.4 Let God be true and euery man a liar Psal 51.4 God is iust when he speaketh and pure when he iudgeth his will and vnderstanding are purely good By this our hearts being ravished with the loue admiration of this light which so brightly shineth vnto vs as men with the Sunne who are newly drawne from dungeon and bottome of basenesse should readily follow him who carrieth so faire a lampe before vs. Shall the marchant refuse no adventure for hope of gaine the hunter shrinke at no weather for loue of game the Souldier decline no danger for desire either of glory or spoyle And shall we frame to our selues either an ease in not vnderstanding or an idlenesse in not vsing the meanes whereby we attaine both immeasurable and immortall glory pleasure and gaine I know as the proverbe is a dead woman will haue foure to carry her forth so we cannot easily be beaten out of our homes to hasten to this inheritance laid vp for the Saints in light Q. What are his intellectuall Vertues A. Whereby he is most prompt in vnderstanding all his purposes most exactly and distinctly Psal 139.4 There is not a word in my tongue but thou knowest it wholly Rom. 11.33 and 16.27 Onely wise and a depth of wisedome and knowledge is to be found in God Iob 21.1 Act. 15.8 1 Ioh. 3.20 His deepe iudgement hath waded and weighed all considerations and the way he taketh is ever best The minde of man is weighed as euery wind of passion dooth puffe Lust and pride desire to spend avarice to spare envie to detract feare or favour to extoll ambition to adventure suspition to hold backe wrath sweetneth revenge with delight deceit cloaketh it with dissimulation Onely God is exact and distinct in all his enterprises Q. What are his morall vertues A. Whereby most holily readily and purely he performes the act of his will Gen. 18.15 Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe iustly Deut. 32.4 A God of truth and without iniquitie iust and right is he in all his wayes According to these two heads of vertues were all things created The whole world manifesteth the wisedome of God and all his intellectuall vertues Men and Angels his iustice and mercy the top of all his morall vertues But the particular handling of these vertues we leaue to the places where they doe most manifest themselues O my Soule thou art pent within the clay-walles of my body and mayest often looke through the grates in thy busie thoughts when this holy God will send for thee Surely to be dissolved is best of all onely he that gaue our soules their mittimus into our bodies must giue them a re-delivery with returne yee sonnes of Adam If in the interim he crosse vs in our bodies yet haue we no cause to complaine as long as wee haue him in feeling in faith in earnest and pledges yea in possession O the madde insolence of nature that dares controll where it were more fit to wonder Should presumptuous clay be bold to check the potter Me thinkes this should ingender a very curious advantagious warinesse in all
made a law to haue them purified before he would haue them vsed Num. 31.22.23 c. Hence it is abominable of these things to make Idoll gods Ezek. 16.17 Ioel. 3.5 Q. What are the elementaries with life A. Whereby they were created of a body and soule for life is nothing but the act of the soule vpon the body and the soule saue onely the reasonable is compounded of the foure elements and is nothing but the Spirits of them or that which is most formall and actiue in them Hence fire and ayre are most predominant in these spirits for as by extraction we haue the spirits of things taken from the masse and body by resolution of the composition so in the composition those spirits were as the soule of that liuing thing Wine is pressed from the grape which is the fruit of a vegetable plant and because it carries away with it the more formall elements and leaues the grosser and more materiall behind wee say it is generous and full of Spirits yea and out of this againe by Art are taken the Spirits of wine which are very liuely and of a quickning nature In all plants Ayre is most formall and therefore the vegetatiue life consists most in moysture and the spirit of it but in the Sensatiue and Motiue life fire and the spirit thereof is most predominant These Spirits which are the soules of Plants and Beasts are but the band or tye of the reasonable soule and body hence death in man is nothing but the extinguishing or consuming of these Spirits for as this claspe vnlooseth or knot vntieth so body and soule separate asunder Agues they consume and backe these Spirits within our bodies and so consequently kill vs colds and watery distempers doe not so much wast as weary and tyre them and at last extinguish them as a brand in a puddle of water Gen. 1.20.21.24.28 c. we read of life and Gen. 7.22 wee heare how God extinguished the same againe Q. What are the kinds A. Either such as liue a single life or a compound life Some creatures haue their Spirits or Soules from some one element formally others from more As for example all Plants liue most by the Spirit and moysture of the ayre Starres of the fire men and beasts by both They grow by the one haue sense and motion by the other Q. What is this single life A. Whereby he made some creatures to line by the formall and act itâ—e Spirits of some one element Q. What are their kinds A. Plants and lights the one with a growing and springing life the other with a stirring or mouing life Gen. 1.11 with 14. The first being more imperfect as ayre is lesse formall then fire is first handled Q. What is the Creation of the Plants A. Whereby the earth brought them forth with aspringing life onely Gen. 1.11.12.13 They were compounded of the foure elements but the earth doth predominate or beare rule in the body as ayre doth in the Soule and euery thing is placed in that element which beares greatest sway in the body or materiall substance of it Q. How were they created A. According to their kinds yeelding seed both the lesser and greater the lesser as grasse herbes flowers shrubbes the greater fruitfull trees and the rest without fruit All which the earth brought forth by the commandement of God and as it is the mother and breeder of them so is it the Nurse and foster-mother of them ever after Gen. 1.14 The act of the soule in plants is vegitation and they haue as it were a mouth to draw nourishment and prepare it for the stomacke and a kind of liuer and heart for concoction Now this facultie to nourish hath foure companions to waite on it First Attraction the Spirits drawing a portion to euery part Secondly Retention whereby the part keepes and holds what it hath gotten Thirdly Concoction to digest and convert what it hath gotten into it selfe Fourthly Expulsion whereby it reiecteth and electeth whatsoeuer is superfluous Now the seed is an excrement of the last concoction and therefore is from the assimulation of the nourishment which makes it like euery part Hence from simular parts it begets simular parts and out of so little a part being full of Spirits are begotten all other creatures In seed and food consists all vegitable life and a hurt in either is dangerous and often deadly From nutrition proceed augmentation and generation the one for extension of the same thing the other for preservation of it in others Extention is by heat hence females are lesse then males because their heat is lesse though often they haue more moysture Generation is by seed which receiues from plants and all other things the soule and substance of euery part Hence is it able to giue the kind that yeelds it And therefore the Lord sayes euery Plant yeelding seed after his kind Gen. 1.12 Teaching vs thereby that the seed vertually and potentially answeres the creature in euery part and member of it Q. When were these made A. The same day wherein the waters and earth were created Gen. 1.13 And so by succession of an evening and morning was there a third day or 24. houres In creation of the elements God began in the top of the matter but in the elementaries he began in the bottome first creating the Mineralls and then the Plants For God is a God of order and so passeth on in his worke from imperfection to perfection I meane where there is a succession of parts otherwise God begins with the best first For the Lord did not in the vniverse as men doe in building rake first in the earth to lay the foundation and adde the roofe last but he first laid on the roofe and last of all came to the foundation First heaven then fire next ayre and last of all water and earth Yet being the God of Art followed an exact methode in all for being come to the earth hee first makes things spring then moue after spring moue and walke by sense Lastly as an Epitome of all the rest he comes to man which growes moues walkes and aboue all the rest liues by reason Q. What is the Creation of the lights A. Whereby he made them in the element of fire with a motiue life to runne round carrying the same side still forward that they may bring light vpon the earth and separate betweene day and night and be for fignes and seasons dayes and yeeres Gen. 1.14.15 Iob 38.31.32.33 Psal 8.2.4 Psal 19.2.3.4.5.6.7 and 136.7.8.9 Ier. 31.35 Amos. 5.8 c. False and fabulous Phylosophie makes this doctrine a wonder and they that bring Moses to Aristotle laugh at this lesson Starres to liue is against reason for they are not nourished neither doe they increase or generate c. I may reply againe vpon Divines from Moses by a probable argument they were created after liuing things therefore they haue life c. Aristotles obiection is easily answered
rotten vlcer of the heart and by the heat of his word hardning and styling the crabbed nature of man can get in and goe out at pleasure without all ferrumination or soldring with man as sinne and Satan doe CHAPTER XX. Of Death Question VVHat is Death Answere A deprivation and losse of life with a fearefull subiection to the misery of this life and the life to come Gen. 2.17 Rom. 6.23 Man by sinne is made vnable to please God he must therefore be dissolued and new made or changed that he may doe it Death should be farre more welcome vnto vs the sinne for that may prepare vs for heaven when this will be sure to cast vs into hell Alas is it not pitty to see our feare misplaced All men feare to suffer evill but few they are that feare to doe evill Of two deaths we feare the lesse and neuer dread the last and worst There are but two stages of the first the bed and the graue The former if it haue paine yet it is speedie and the latter as it is senselesse so it giues rest Against this there are many Antidotes and comforts and we know that an evill that is ever in motion cannot be fearefull that onely which both time and tempest nay eternitie it selfe finds standing is worthy of terror And let them tremble at it that delight to liue in the former punishment As for the first there are no by-paths of a fairer or neeerer way all that travell to the holy land must be content to offer this tribute at the Pison Castle or gates of death crownes and scepters lie piled at this entrance and seeing God cannot re-edifie without taking downe of this old house I will welcome death We receiue any homely messenger from great personages with due respect to their masters and what matters it what death it be so it bring me good newes And what newes can be better then this that God sends for me to make me more happie then my crasie carcase will suffer me to be till it be mended and cast in a better mould Let them feare death which know him to be as a pursuivant sent from hell to fetch them as for vs we can passe chearefully through the blacke gates or darke entry of a corporall death vnto our glorious mansions aboue but let vs proceede to see both deaths that by them wee may learne our misery and see Gods greater mercy Q. What things are to be confidered in death A. The inchoation and beginning or the perfection and end The beginning of any act is part of it and when man sets his hand to any thing he is doing it If there had beene any act of spirituall life man had liued and God had beene well pleased and his life had beene immutable so on the contrary when man begins to die he is a dying and God sayes in the very day that thou eatest or sinnest thou shalt die Gen. 2.17 Adam was left a dead man as soone as hee had tasted of the tree and every man is crasie from his cradle The pace of death is soft and sure and euery man liue he never so long is a dying man till he be dead Deut. 28.22.61.65 Q. How many deaths be there A. Two The first and the second The soule dyes the first death by sympathie with the bodie and the bodie dies the second death by sympathie with the soule Math. 10.28 Rev. 2.11 Rev. 20.6.14 Yet in nature the second death is the first for the soule dies first in sinne the punishment being inflicted according to the fault Neverthelesse that is called the second death because the extremitie of it is to begin after the end and perfection of the first Q. What is the first death A. Subiection to the miseries of this world Iob 5.7 and 14.1 Earth was made mans Paradise and Palace of pleasures but now it is his true Bochim as the Israelites called their mourning place We begin our life with teares and therefore Lawyers define life by weeping If a childe be heard cry it is a lawfull proofe of his liuing to possesse the miseries of this world else if he be dead we say he is still-borne and at our parting with this world God is said to wipe off our teares Labour and paines goe now together and one word ponos is sufficient to expresse both whence we say he that labours takes paines and a woman is sayd to be in labour when she is in the travell and paine of child-births yet by creation God made both to labour without paine onely with sinne paine seized vpon the bones and the minde was possessed with a wearinesse and irksome loathing of what it must doe Looke into our fields and there shall we finde toyling and moyling and tyring of our selues at plough and sithe looke into the waters and there is tugging and tuing at the oares cables Looke into Cities and there is plodding vp and downe and sweating in shops till men complaine of wearinesse Looke into Schollers studies there is tossing of braines and bookes scratching the head even to palenesse and infirmitie Looke into the most pleasurable place vpon earth the Courts of Princes and there how are men wearied with tedious attendance emulatory officiousnesse c. Are not all things full of labour and labour full of sorrow Nay If wee turne our selues to idlenesse it is as wearisome as worke Oh then what wretches are wee to bee so much in loue with this life What Gally-slaue likes and loues his chaine Prisoner his Dungeon Hee is a mad Mariner that salutes the Sea with songs and the haven with teares It is a foolish bird that when the cage is open had rather sit singing within the grates then be at libertie in the woods Children cry to goe to bed when the more discreet call it their rest Our God sayes of the blessed that die in his sonne they rest from their labours Who can loue bolts and fetters when he may haue them stricken off and an Angel of God to shine in his layle as he did once to Peter and open him both the wooden and iron gate and bid him be gone What a little more sleepe slumber in the hands of his keepers rather then follow the Angel of God into libertie Wee are wonderfully besotted if we doe not long after the better life as often as we thinke of the miseries of this Q. What is the beginning hereof A. The losse of the good things of the body as the sense of nakednesse of maiestie whence comes shame of comelinesse and beautie as also of health whence man is exposed to wearinesse dangers sicknesse and a daily dying Gen. 3.7.10 Deut. 28.21.22 Of all the creatures man was most comely without a covering Beasts would be nastie without haire and birds without feathers God apparels them in their excrements because their temper was not so exquisite as mans whose beautie was to be bare and I cannot but wonder that pride should
6.8 Ioh. 8.48 Math. 1â— 25 Let the Moone shine never so bright yet sonne Cur or other shall be found to barke against it but it is princely to doe well and heare ill the spirit of glory rests vpon such 1 Pet. 4.14 Iob speakes of a whole volume of reproches which he will take vpon his shoulder and bind as a crowne to his head Iob 31.35.36 It is honour enough to be graced for well-doing and Dauid may find comfort as well in the scoffes and scornes of his irreligious wife as the songs and praises of the religions maydens 2 Sam. 6.22 Doe worthily and wee cannot misse of fame Ruth 4.11 Ioh. 12.26 Rom. 2.7 And if a good name be to be chosen aboue great riches Prov. 22.1 who will not affect vertue for the glory of heauen Q. What are the degrees thereof A. The first is in assurance of our election and the loue of God never to be violated or broken off againe and that is by our effectuall vocation iustification and sanctification then for the time of this life the vndoubted perswasion of faith which makes those things extant or present that are hoped for and giues vs vndoubted evidence of those things which are not seene Heb. 11.1 And hereupon a certaine and infallible hope and expectation of the fruition of those good things which are prepared for Gods elect such indeed as the eye hath not seene nor so much as the eare heard nor that which is most entred into the heart and thought of man Lastly the fruition it selfe of glory and life everlasting First in the soule and that in the very instant of death it being translated from earth to heauen by the ministery of Angels Secondly in the body together with the soule in the day of the resurrection and last iudgement when the good shall be separated from the wicked to the right hand of Christ to heare come ye blessed c. and the wicked to the left to heare goe ye cursed c. In this life the godly haue a tast of the life to come and shall haue it in a greater measure so soone as the soule is separated from the body for then it is with the Saints departed and is for the modell and measure as it shall be with the whole man inioying the presence of Angels holy Patriarkes Prophets Apostles c. Neyther must we thinke that they that dyed before Christs comming in the flesh were depriued of this glory for Christ is hath beene and shall be yesterday and to day and the same for ever And then at the vniversall resurrection body and soule being conioyned together againe wee shall receiue a further augmentation of glory Psal 16.11 and 17.15 and 21.6 Ioh. 5.25 and 6.47 and 13.3 and 17.3 Phil. 1.23 Rev. 21.4 Heb. 4.9 The body at that day shall be either gloriously raised againe or in a moment changed into glory then shall euery thing imperfect in it be made perfect and it selfe immortall 1 Cor. 15.54 Children shall be men and men shall be the mirrours of glory and then shall be taken vp to meete their Lord and judge and with him shall iudge the world then afterwards in the sight of the damned shall ascend with their Sauiour into heauen and there shall be presented to his Father and by him placed in those mansions of glory which are prepared for them where they shall serue the Lord continually without any let enioying his presence for evermore at whose right hand they shall finde fulnesse of ioy 1 Ioh. 3.2 2 Cor. 3.18 Rev. 7.14.15.16.17 and 21.3.4 In vision fruition and perfection of holinesse Math. 22.30 How should this make vs to conquer our impatience and to swallow downe the miseries of this life O blinder then Beetles the Marchant refuseth no adventure for hope of gaine the hunter shrinketh at no weather for loue of game the Souldier declineth no danger for desire either of glory or spoyle and shall we frame to our selues either an ease in not vnderstanding or an idlenesse in not vsing those things which will be a meanes to vs not onely to avoyd intollerable and endlesse paines but to attaine both immeasurable and immortall glory pleasure and gaine Let vs summon the sobrietie of our senses before our owne judgement and that which saying cannot let feeling perswade Doe we not know what these tearmes doe import death iudgement hell or whom they doe concerne or how neere they are vnto our neckes Will wee like miscreants thinke hell is not so hot nor sinne so heavy nor the Devill so blacke nor God so vnmercifull as the Preachers say Doe we take these things for the fables of Poets and not for the oracles of Gods owne mouth Remember that prospect on thy death bed which in this life by reason of the interposition of pleasures or miseries could not so well be seene If thou be good thou mayest looke vpward and see heauen open with Steven and the glorious Angels attending as ready to carry vp thy soule If wicked then must thou looke downeward and see three terrible spectacles death iudgement and hell one beyond another and all to be passed through by thy soule and the very Devils attend to lay fast hold of it to carry it to torment In this life thou wast content with a condition common with beasts and therefore in the other art thou onely fitted for Devils Art thou not O wretched man euery houre in danger and wilt thou not be in doubt to step into them Remember the wicked are sayd to turne into hell and their merry dance to haue a miserable downfall What must thou be intreated like a mad-man to be good to thy selfe Hadst thou rather feele then feare these torments Rather endure them then for a short time thinke of them Where then is thy iudgement become Where are thy right wits or where at least is thy selfe-loue Canst thou pry after profit for the world and bee carefull to avoyd both losse and harme and yet never thinke what may hurt thy foule and loose thee heaven Oh the coldnesse of care that will not provide how to prevent these miseries Wee thinke heauen stands by our bed sides and Lord haue mercy vpon vs will bring vs thither when indeed hell stands neerer is readier for entrance Heauen is compared to a hill hell to a hole hee that climbes vpward must sweat and blow he that will tumble downeward shall at ease fall into the pit Oh then let vs neither refuse the hardnesse nor the hazards of the way but as Ionathan and his Armour-bearer passed betwixt two rockes one Bozez the other Seneh that is foule and thorny so wee must make shift here below to climbe on our hands and knees and when we are come vp wee shall see our victory and triumph Let vs with the holy and happy Apostles leaue all both pleasures and advantages to follow Christ and by a foreible entry by a maine and manly breach through all difficulties to
propertie of the Sonne A. To be begotten Heb. 1.5 Q. What is his manner of subsisting A. To be the second person in order not in nature for the begotten in relation is naturally as soone as the begetter Q. What is his worke A. Redemption Ephes 1.7 Q. What is Redemption A. It is a satisfaction made to the Iustice of God the Father for Man by a Redeemer Q. Who is the Redeemer A. Iesus Christ his onely Sonne our Lord. Q. Why call you him Iesus A. Because he is a Sauiour of his people from their sinnes Math. 1.21 Q. Why Christ A. In regard of his offices as he is anointed our King Priest and Prophet Psal 45.7 Luk. 4.18 Act. 4.27 and 10.38 Q. VVhy his onely Sonne A. Because the Father can haue no more sonnes by nature but one Q. Why our Lord A. By the right of Redemption Rom. 14.9 Q. How is our Redemption wrought A. By the humiliation and exaltation of the Sonne of God Luke 24.26 Q. VVhat be the seuerall degrees of his humiliation A. Seuen There be some others left out of the Creed but these expressed are the principall Q. What are they A. 1. His conception 2. his natiuitie 3. his passion vnder Pilate 4. his crucifying 5. his dying 6. his buriall 7. his descent into hell Q. VVhat are meant by all these A. That Christ must not onely satisfie in generall but that he must passe through the degrees of our sorrowes and beare our afflictions Isa 53.4.5 Q. VVhat be the seuerall degrees of his exaltation A. Foure which are his Resurrection Ascension Sitting at Gods right hand and returne to Iudgement As in his humiliation he tooke our receits and tasted the bitter potion for vs so all Physicke being ended of that kinde he giues vs his receits of Redemption Ephes 1.7 Iustification Rom. 3.24 Reconciliation Colos 1.20 Sanctification 1 Pet. 1.2 Entrance into glory Heb. 10.19 These are Cordials for vs and for him after all his penall receits Q. What is the third person A. The holy Spirit who by nature proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne and by counsell applyeth Christ to the Church and euery member thereof the Father being the first person elects the Sonne redeemes and the Spirit sanctifies Ioh. 14.26 and 15.26 Rom. 8.16 1 Cor. 2.12 Ioh. 3.5 2 Cor. 1.21 Rom. 8.23 Q. VVhat is his Relatiue propertie A. To proceede Vnderstanding begets an Image of it selfe and loues it and so from the best vnderstanding to the best obiect of it proceedes a mutuall loue The begetter loues the begotten and the begotten loues the begetter and their loue is equall to themselues and proceedes from them both and to vs. The will of the Father by the wisedome of his Sonne and power of his good Spirit is sayd to doe all Q What is his manner of subsisting A. To be the third person in order for proceeding from two he must needs be the third and yet in nature as soone as either of them for the louers and the loued are Relalatiues and therefore together in nature Q. VVhat is his worke A. Application or Sanctification Ephes 5.26.27 The Sonne hauing prepared the remedie leaues it to be applyed by the Spirit Ioh. 16.7 CHAPTER II. Of the Faith of the Church Hitherto of Faith in God Question WHat is the Faith of the Church Answere Whereby beleeuing in God we also beleeue that wee are of the Church and made partakers of all good things promised vnto it Q. VVhat is the Church A. That number of all those that are applyed to Christ by the spirit Now as this vnion is made by faith it is called the militant Church as by vision the triumphant Q. Why is it called holy A. Because it is an holy Societie of Saints in regard of the Spirits worke 1 Pet. 2.9 Reu. 11.2 and 21.19 Q. Why Catholicke A. Because it is vniuersall in respect of all times persons and places a familie both in heauen and earth Math. 26.13 Ephes 3.15 1 Ioh. 2.1 Reu. 7.9 Q. What are the benefits God bestoweth vpon it A. Two in this life as the communion of Saints and remission of sinnes and two in the life to come as the resurrection of the body and life enerlasting Lamen 3.23 Psal 68.19 Col. 1.5 and 3.3.4 1 Ioh. 3.2 Q. VVhat is the communion of Saints A. It is our communicating with God and the godly both in grace and glory or that fellowship that wee haue with Christ our head and all his members Psal 16.5 73.26 Isa 55.1 Act. 4.32 Gal. 6.10 Ephes 4.3.4.5.6 Heb. 10.24 Phil. 2.1.2 1 Cor. 10.16 Reue. 3.18 and 6.20 Q. What is the remission of Sinne A. It is a worke of mercy whereby the Father being offended and reconciled by his Sonne doth witnesse to our consciences by his holy Spirit that all our sinnes are discharged and that we are graciously receiued againe into his fauour Iob 33.27.28 1 King 8.47 Hos 14.2 Isa 33.24 and 62.11 God in forgiuing our sinnes doth both couer and cure them 1 Ioh. 1.9 Q. What is the resurrection of the body A. It is a standing vp from the dead by the power of Christs resurrection whereby our corruptible bodies are made incorruptible and filled with all glory and excellencie Iob 19.25.26 Ioh. 5.28 Act. 3.19 1 Cor. 15.42.43 2 Cor. 5.1 Heb. 11.35 Q. What meane you by life Euerlasting A. That most blessed and happie estate in which all the Elect of God shall raigne with Christ their head in the third heauen after this life and after the day of iudgement and that both in body and soule for euer and euer Psal 16.11 Isa 64.4 Ioh. 17.20.21 1 Cor. 2.9 and 13.12 and 15.28 2 Cor. 12.4 Phil. 3.21 Reue. 21.22 and 22.2 CHAPTER III. Of good Workes Hitherto of Faith Question WHat are the workes of Faith Answere That ready act of faith to doe as we are bidden Rom. 6.16 1 Sam. 12.25 Iam. 2.14.17 Ioh. 14.15 1 Thes 1.3 Tit. 3.1.8 Q. How are these workes deuided A. They are either our walking with God or conferring with him or receiuing from him 2 Cor. 7.1 Phil. 1.6 2 Thes 1.11 Heb. 6.17.18 Faith bids the cleansed goe away and sinne no more but walke after the Spirit it prouokes to prayer and giues vs full confirmation of Gods loue Q. What is our walking with God A. It is our due obseruation of his lawes in all our wayes Psal 119.6 Q. What is the law of God A. The rule that God hath prescribed vs for the holy performance of all our actions Isa 8.20 Rom. 2.15 7.7 Q. How is the Law distributed A. It is either concerning the worship of God or loue of our neighbour Mark 12.29.30.31 Q. What is the first Commandement concerning the worship of God A. Thou shalt haue no other Gods before myface Gen. 39.9 Iob 31.23.24 Psal 112.1 Pro. 3.5 Isa 8.13 and 51.12 Hab. 1.16 Luke 12.45 Phil. 3.19 Colos 3.5 Q. What is the summe of this precept A. The hauing of
the true God and him alone and that with the whole man in the best of all his powers Q. What is the second Commandement A. Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image Exod. 20.4.5.6 Psal 44.21 and 106.35.39 Deut. 4.12 Isa 42.2 Hos 14.8 Hab. 2.18 Math. 15.9 1 Ioh. 5.21 Q. What is the summe hereof A. That we worship God with his owne worship and not our owne deuises Q. What is the third Commandement A. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine c. Deut. 28.58 Psal 5.16.17 Dan. 4.34 Math. 6.9 Rom. 11.33 1 Tim. 6.1 Q. What is the summe thereof A. Due reuerence to be shewed in the worship of God Q. What is the fourth Commandement A. Remember thou keepe holy the Sabboth day c. Neh. 13.15 to 22. Exod. 20.8.9.10.11 Isa 58.13 Ier. 17.27 Reu. 1.10 Q. What is the summe of this law A. All diligence in publique Prayer to God and in learning the will of God especially vpon his owne day CHAPTER IIII. Of Charitie Hitherto of holinesse in the first Table Question WHat is that Iustice that we owe to our neighbour Answere That we doe to him as we would he should do to vs. Mark. 12.31 Q. What is the first Commandement of this Table A. Honour thy father and mother c. Exod. 20.12 Q. What is the summe thereof A. Due respect to our superiours inferiours and equalls to honour all according to their place and degree Q. What is the second precept A. Thou shalt not kill Exod. 20.13 Q. What is the summe of it A. Preseruation of life as farre as may stand with the good of the Church and Common wealth Q. What is the third Commandement A. Thou shalt not commit adulterie Exod. 20.14 Q. What is the summe of it A. Chastitie both inward and outward in affection and action Q. What is the fourth Commandement A. Thou shalt not steale Exod. 20.15 Q. VVhat is the summe of it A. Iustice and equitie a vertue that readily giues euery man his owne Q. VVhat is the fift Commandement A. Thou shalt not beare false witnesse c. Exod. 20.16 Q. VVhat is the summe thereof A. Truth and our testimony thereunto as often as it shall lawfully be required Q. VVhat is the sixt Commandement A. Thou shalt not couet Exod. 20.17 Q. VVhat is the summe thereof A. Contentment and resistance against all concupiscence CHAPTER V. Of Prayer Hitherto of the Law Question VVHat is Prayer Answere It is a mouing of God the Father in the name of his Son by the power of his Spirit with things agreeable to his will Rom. 8.27 Ioh. 16.23 Q. Where is the summe of this contained A. In the Lords Prayer Q. How is that divided A. Into a Preface the Petitions and the conclusion Q. What is the Preface A. It is the preparation of the heart in comming to God for as we are to come with boldnesse so must wee also come with reuerence of his Maiestie that filleth the heauens Psal 26.6 and 115.3 Eccl. 5.1 Isa 66.1 Luk. 15.18 Q. VVhat are the words A. Our father which art in heauen Q. How are the petitions devided A. They either concerne God or our selues Q. How many concerne God A. Three Q. How are they devided A. They either concerne his Glory or the meanes of it Q. Which is the petition concerning his Glory A. Hallowed be thy name Where we desire that God in his nature attributes word and workes may be sanctified by vs Leu. 10.3 Ezek. 38.23 Act. 12.23 Q. What are the petitions concerning the meanes of his Glory A. Two The comming of his kingdome and the doing of his will Q. What is meant by thy Kingdome come A. That the kingdome of our Lord Iesus Christ both by the inward working of his spirit and also by the outward meanes may be enlarged daily vntill it be perfected at the comming of Christ to Iudgement Psal 122.6 Isa 62.7 Rom. 14.17 2 Thes 3.1 2 Tim. 4.8 Reu. 22.20 Q. What is meant by the doing of Gods will vpon earth as it is done in heauen A. That all obedience be giuen to God in the most holy and heauenly manner Psal 86.11 and. 119.36 Mal. 1.6 Act. 24.16 Rom. 8.29 1 Thes 4.3 And for want of exact performance daily prayer for pardon with a complaining of our wants Psal 143.2 Rom. 7.18 CHAPTER VI. Of requests for our selues Hitherto of blessings concerning our sanctification of Gods name comming of his kingdome and performance of his will Question VVHat blessings concerne our selues Answer Either such as concerne this life or a better the bodie or the soule Q. What is the petition for this life A. The giuing of vs our daily bread that is that God would prouide for vs all things conuenient for this life walking faithfully in our vocations and in all things submitting to his heauenly will and good pleasure Psal 37.5 Prou. 10.22 and 16.3 and 30.8 Hag. 1.6 1 Tim. 6.8 Q. What are the petitions for a better life A. I regard of the present forgiuenesse of sinne and for future deliuerance out of all temptations that may any wayes draw vs to sinne Q. What meane you by the first A. That all our sinnes may be forgiuen and neuer laid to our charge either to condemne vs here or to confound vs hereafter and that most freely in Iesus Christ and as we heartily forgiue them that haue offended vs wherewith goeth an humble confession of them to God Psal 40.12 Luke 11.4 1 Ioh. 1.9 Confession and deprecation must goe together Q. What meane you by the second A. The not leading or leauing of vs in temptation but his most gracious and mercifull deliuerance of vs out of them all and in this request we either lament our estate to God or complaine of the wicked who molest vs. Deut. 8.2 and 13.3 2 Chron. 32.31 Psal 13.2 and 55.2.3 Hitherto of Petition Q. What is thankesgiuing A. A gratefull acknowledgement of all the benefits of God and ascribing vnto him dominion power and glory for euer and euer Amen And this is the sweet concluding of all our Prayers 1 Chron. 29.11 Psal 29.2.9 2 Cor. 1.20 Phil. 4.6 CHAPTER VII Of Sacraments Question NOw we come to the celebrating of a Sacrament what then is it Answere It is a seale of righteousnesse by faith Rom. 4.11 Q. What are the kinds A. Two Baptisme and the Lords Supper Mat. 26.26 and 28.19 Gen. 17.11.12 Rom. 4.11.1 Cor. 10.1.2.3.4 Q. What is Baptisme A. A Sacrament of our entrance into Christianitie or of our ingrafting into Christ Act 8.12.38 Q. What is the outward signe A. Water with the sprinkling of it in the Name of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost Q. What is signified by it A. The washing away of our sinnes and presenting of vs holy to God the Father Q. What is the Lords Supper A. A Sacrament of our continuance in Christianitie or our daily growing vp with Christ 1. Cor. 11.23 This memorable Banquet
proportioned in the outward Elements and inward Graces Q. How doe the outward Elements teach the outward man A. Either in themselues or their vses Q. How in themselues A. Both for substance and qualitie Q. How for substance A. As the bread is the staffe of life and as the wine glads the heart of man Q. How in their qualities A. As they are common and sensible sensible to the eye and cares feeling smelling tasting Q. How in their vse A. Either as they are handled by the minister or by the receiuers Q. How by the Minister A. First in setting them apart Secondly in blessing of them Thirdly in breaking of the bread powring forth of the wine Fourthly in deliuering them to the Communicants Q. How by the receiuers A. First by taking the bread and drinking the wine Secondly by digesting of them first in the stomacke then in the liuer lastly in euery part whereby they are made powerfull to humane duties Q. How doth all this teach the inward man in respect of grace A. In proportioning them to Christ both in himselfe and in his vse Q. How in himselfe A. Both in his nature and qualitie Q. How in his nature A. As his body is the bread of life whereof whosoeuer tasteth shall neuer hunger and his bloud is drinke indeede that for euer makes glad the heart and soule Q. How in the qualitie A. As his bodie and bloud were common with ours in all things sinne onely excepted and that he is made sensible both to the eare bored by the Spirit the eye anointed with eye-salue and to the feeling of the sanctified affection also to the smelling of ioy and tasting of the hungry soule Q. How in the vse A. Either as he is appointed of the Father or receiued of vs. Q. How of God A. First as he is called to this worke Secondly indued with grace Thirdly as his body is crucified for vs and his bloud powred out for the washing of our wounds Fourthly as he is deliuered and giuen to euery beleeuer Q. How receiued of vs A. First he is taken by the hand of faith and his bodie is fed on by meditation and his bloud spiritually drunken to wash our soules then he is digested first in the vnderstanding and then in the will and affections and lastly distributed to euery facultie both of body and soule by which wee are made able to euery good word and worke which is the happy life of euery Christian * ⎠* ERRATA Some faults escaped in Printing which I intreat thee courteous Reader to correct the materiall ones are these following PAge 2. line 33. weakened for wakened p. 6. l. 1. our for the pa. 7. l. 3. at for as p. 22. l. 8. our conuersion for our conuersation p. 43. l. 7. to it selfe for in themselues p. 64.7 most excellent for the most excellent p. 73. l. 36 deadly for dead p. 149. l. 32. as diaptron for as a diaptron p. 153. l. 34. flie for shie p. 189. l. 16. found for sound p. 200 l. 33. art for act p 223. l 3 take out othor p. 232. l. 3. require for acquire p. 256. l. 32. fit for vnfit p. 263. l. 2.9 embatement for embasement l. 34 rigorous for vigorous p. 262 13. receiued for reviewed p. 266. l. 12. authenticall Ierome for authenticall Ierome p. 268. l. 5. babes for bagges p. 292. l. 24. ouercome for ouercome it A MODELL OF DIVINITIE CATECHISTIcally Composed CHAPTER 1. Of Religion Question IS there any thing that is called Religion Answere Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles which haue not the Law doe by nature the things contained in the Law they hauing not the Law are a law vnto themselues which shew the effect of it written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witnesse and their thoughts accusing one another or excusing Let Pilate heare of a God and he will feare Ioh. 19.18 Felix of judgement and hee will tremble Act. 24.26 So powerfull is conscience to put backe the swellings of the proudest Iorden Iosh 3.19 And dare boldly tell euery man as that stout and resolute Tragedian told proud Pompey the time shall come wherein thou shalt fetch many a deepe and deadly sigh and sorrow desperately because thou sorrowedst no sooner It is the demand of Nature it selfe What shall we doe to haue eternall life and because Natures meanes are not able to resist the force and feare of death no people so sauage which hath not thought vpon some supernaturall helpe though ignorance haue cast them vpon superstition c. Oh that the miserable estate of others which wander in darkenesse and wote not whither they goe could giue vs vnderstanding hearts worthily to esteeme the riches of the mercy of God toward vs before whose eyes the doores of the kingdome of heauen are set wide open Should we offer violence vnto it it offereth violence vnto vs and we gather strength to withstand it It is the fault of corrupt nature and not the least that as she hath dimme eyes so they are for the most part euen in the best things exceedingly misplaced She lookes still either forward to the obiect she desireth or downeward to the meanes she vseth neuer turning her eyes either backward to see what she is or hath beene or vpward to view the true cause of her good Alas What a little sparke and poore peece of Adams old ingenuitie is left aliue in vs like one of Iobs messengers to beare witnes of our great losse and what diuine light is extinguished in vs It can bring vs to the obiect of our confusion vnable to shew vs the least glimpse of the obiect of our consolation O foolish reason how sharpe art thou to see thy mischiefe and yet how blunt how blind art thou to foresee it O poore remnant of pictie onely so much goodnesse left as to make vs languish in our owne euill How are we weakened how are we weakened by these relicks of right reason not to see our misery that wee may implore Gods mercy but despairing in both as if wee were banished from our right wits cast our selues more violently into the iawes of the Prince of hell O curst accursed wits that for ease teach the poore sinner either to drinke downe his damnation with a greedie swallow or else through horror to chocke himselfe with his owne morsels Conscience is not alwaies lowd and clamorous neither are the deadliest enemies euer vp in armes against vs yet with still murmurings and secret twitches it bewryes his mis-likes and for want of true peace euermore workes priuie and hidden vnquietnes in the heart There is a lamentable and odious disease called Ileos or misercre mei Deus Nature in expelling superfluities contracts and gathers it selfe from aboue downeward but being often and againe hindred by inflamation opilation and exulceration the fibres doe from below gather themselues vpwardes against nature and by a peristaltick motion sends backe with violence the excrements by the mouth So
diligent and circumspect is nature to vnburden it selfe so conscience that from aboue would worke vpon the will affections being hindred gathers it selfe from below euen from hell it selfe and finding the sinner secure makes him miserable and leaues him desperate Goe too yee Miscreants of matchlesse mischiefe monsters of men and all ye brethren of the sword earue to your selues the largest morsels of sinnefull pleasures and with your most able gorges of Chiucrell consciences swallow and digest them yea with the same hands embrued in blood receiue the body of your Sauiour and make him bleed againe with your sinnes yet I beleeue all will be bitternesse in the end and howsoeuer you cheere vp your selues and satiate your mindes with these huskes of pleasure yea cry out we haue liued the onely royall and ioviall life in the world yet you shall neuer perswade me that your hearts do laugh with your faces Such vanities may shake the splene the conscience they cannot comfort be assured the kindest curtesies of sinne like a bemired dogge doe but defile you with fawning and leaue you worse for intermedling You say you are merry secure I heare you well But euery fowle that hath a seemely feather hath not the sweetest flesh nor euery tree that beareth a goodly leafe bringeth forth good fruit glasse giueth a cleerer sound then siluer many things glister besides gold a gorgeous chest is not alwayes the signe of a rich treasure nor a faire die of a fine threed nor a costly seabbard of a sure blade nor a merry countenance of a minde either pleasantly disposed or set at quiet Wee may be assured many a mans heart bleedeth when his face counterfeits a smile Wee see how some will laugh at the beating of their heads against stone-walles Yea but then they are mad you will say true but not so dangerously mad as they who will smoothly smile at the satisfiing of their sinnefull desires Glow-wormes in the night may make a fiery and lightsome shew and yet pressed are nothing but a lumpe of crude cold moy sture so the lampe of the wicked in the night of his ignorance may glister but it is soone put out by the pressing convulsions of a distempered conscience Doe your worst you desperate sinners peck out your eyes or suffer the Deuill to seize on them and you as Rauens doe on sicke sheepe that hauing plucked out their eyes deuoure their flesh yet your consciences shall not be shifted off You may runne from your selues and the soule may flie from your bodies but your consciences will not part from your soule not sinne from your consciences The mute dumbe and deafe Deuill charged by Christ found a tongue Mark 9. 26. so shalt thou before thou be discharged of thy sinne Quench and quell the heart of thy heart roule vpon it the irremoueable stone of hardnesse of heart seale it vp in the graue of obliuion till with Lazarus Iob. 11.39 it be growne vnfauory and would stink with stirring Yet shalt thou not want a witnesse from the dead to tell thee of a iust God a holy Religion and a fear efull damnation euen in that thou knowest not wherefore thou wert borne 2. Thess 1.8 Oh then that it would please God to giue vs that true wisedome that hath both cleere eyes and right set that wee might see further then the dimme eyes of nature are able to reach that we might vnderstand wherefore we are borne and know that inuisible hand that by most happle rules directs all things to their ends Iust is it with thee O Lord to with hold what thou wouldest giue and curse that which thou bestowest because we abuse the very light of nature Rom. 1.24 yea trample vpon it with daily sins as men doe the engrauings of Monuments with durtie shoes till nothing be left legible We must not therefore presume much vpon an appeale to a blinded conscience onely it may force and fasten this vpon vs by way of conclusion first that man is made secondly made for an end thirdly an end better then himselfe fourthly which end in God fiftly which God he is to serue sixtly serue by a rule lastly which rule is Religion Q. But doth God require it A. Mal. 1.6 A some honoureth his father and a seruant his master if I therefore be a father where is my honour and if I be a master where is my feare Mic. 6.8 Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good and what the Lord requireth of thee c. Whatsoeuer then may be our leuell God must be our scope at whom in all our affaires we must chiefely ayme O then let not the thought of this last end bee the least end of our thoughts we must neuer thinke our selues in good case so long as we are vnwilling to thinke of our God who is infinitely good not onely comprehending but exceeding the perfections of all things and therewith also the last end of humane desires and perfect rest of the reasonable soule All the springs and brookes of our best affections must runne into this maine neither must we suffer the least riveret to be drayned another way onely this must be our care that neglecting the counsels of flesh bloud we learne to depend vpon the commission of our Maker not daring to attempt any action before we haue his warrant least it be said vnto vs who required these things at your hands Isa 1.12 No action is good without Faith and no faith is good without a word The Centurion when he would describe his good seruant in the Gospel sayes no more of him but this I bid him doe this and he doth it And the chosen vessell giues an euerlasting rule His seruants we are to whom wee obey Rom. 6.16 So that our seruice wee owe to our end is briefely nothing else but a readinesse to doe as we are bidden All arts serue but two ends immediately God and man and from them both take their denominations of Diuinitie and humanitie Say now to thy selfe how haue I liued or rather not liued consuming precious dayes in time eating vanities Thou art an exquisite humanist but such wise dome and knowledge will increase sorrow and griefe Eccl. 1.18 till thou come to the conclusion Eccl. 12.13 And if grace scorne not to learne of nature as Moser refused not the good counsell of a Midianite then as humane knowledg brings all things to thee so let diuine bring thee vnto God If God preserue all for thee for whom then doest thou reserue thy selfe What for gold or some Herodias Canst thou offer God or thy selfe a greater indignitie Are all Arts Philosophy bearing witnesse diuine or humane and the one subservient to the other How then can we make the creature our standing marke and not so much as roue at the Creator Shall humanitie teach thee what is good for thy selfe and not diuinitie how thou art good for God or else for nothing For shame reckon that the greatest
to the fruits qualitie to the seeds temper to the seasons God therefore that can doe all is the best husbandman Man therefore that hath expired his first life must haue God to inspire him againe or else hee cannot liue And this will appeare in the very name wee giue our rule Religion is to tie againe Our loue to God like the new cords of Sampson was quickly snapt asunder God therfore that he might bind vs to himselfe by a stronger cord hath chosen the grace of faith to revnite vs againe to himselfe And so Religion hath his notation from the first part of our rule which is faith in God Or else may it take his denomination from the second part which is obedience towards God The law that was to be read by creation was obliterated and in a manner scraped our by corruption but now againe by religion is written in our hearts Ier. 31.33 and so is to be read againe Life consists in vnion and action now by faith wee haue the one and by the law we performe the other The rule of life is called Diuinitie in regard of God the end of it Theologie in regard of the subiect matter 1. Pet. 4.11 logia Theou words of God but of all names this comes neerest the forme of our Art which signifies either our tying againe to God or reading againe the things of God This bond is the surest Isa 54.10 Ier. 32.40 And this booke is the plainest Deut. 30.14 Rom. 10.8 For as faith binds vs to God so it giues and gaines such power from him as wee may walke acceptably before him Luke 1.74 And here we see how pittifull and plentiful a God we haue in raising of vs from corruption to greater perfection then ever we enioyed by creation This second bond is invincible for so it becomes the Almightie to proceed in his workes He that hath shewed man what he can doe for himselfe shall now see what God can doe for him And God were not faithfull if there were either finall or fatall Apostasie from a iustifying faith It is folly to imagine that God should goe from one imperfection to another Loue was for try-all faith is for trust God hath tried the weaknesse and wickednesse of our loue It is now for vs to trust him vpon the faith of our saluation Water cannot suddenly be cleared but with leisure and by degrees and some time must necessarily be required to beare and beate backe those abuses wherunto we haue a long time beene envred Time and industry will eate euen thorow Marbles Giue God credence and he will in his due time giue thee riddance of all the rubbish of thy sinnes But to this our owne safety our owne sedulitie is required for as it is in vaine Psal 127.1 for men to watch except God keepe the citie so will it be in vaine for God to keepe except wee watch The husbandman must not burne his Plough or the Marchant neglect his Trade because God hath said I will not forsake thee Father keepe them in thy name Ioh. 17.11 doth not intimate that wee should be carelesse to keepe our selues Indeed till the Lord inspire wee but lamely and blindly re-aspire to any good We liue groaping as the Sodomites after lifes doore and hauing wearied our selues goe away wanting the thing we both wished and waited for Take away the Sunne from the world and the soule from the body and earth becomes earth as it was at the first Gen. 1.2 So sever God from the soule and what is man but a dead carrion All the elements and elementaries lighten and darken coole and warme die and reviue as the Sunne presents or absents it selfe from them so wee liue or die feele or faint as the Sunne of righteousnesse parts or revnites himselfe vnto vs. Whereby we are taught that primarily and principally we liue by God as the soule of our soules and secondarily by faith as the Spirits The bond of soule and body here is that heat or heauenly breath that knitts God and man together in an indivisible and insoluble knott If the Lyons Dan. 6.16 ravenous beasts by nature and made keene with hunger adore the flesh of a faithfull man shall any worldly thing change his heart alter his affection or Gods to him Rom. 8. the earth shall sooner shake the pillars of the world tremble the countenance of heauen apale the Sunne loose his light the Moone her beautie the Starres their glory c. then a man knit to God by Religion be once seperated from him againe The fire hath proclaimed it selfe vnable so much as to singe an haire of the head of the godly Dan. 3.27 Thus then you see how Religion may put vs in minde of the wonderfull mercy of God Now heare how it remembers vs of our wofull misery we are found of God as rotten roots without any life or vertue as barren ground bringing forth no fruit but sinne shame and damnation As a dead body or decaying bough cut off from the tree perishing and withering to nothing yea wee are so much more miserable by how much wee were once more excellent and eminent The more vnnaturall any qualitie is the more extreame will it be a cold win de from the South is intollerable and the purest wine becomes the sharpest vineger The few sparkes of good that lie couered vnder heapes of cold ashes are no wayes able t kindle the fire of a godly life no not so much as to giue a glimmering light to lead to heauen The wisest Philosophers never so much as ghessed at this Art the doctrine of it never came within the fadome of their reason If they few any thing it was a farre off even as heauen it selfe vpon which they looked with desire and admiration knowing not the right way thither Natures skill is something in the end nothing in the meanes It hath taught without controlement that there is a blessednesse for man to seeke after but what or where was remoued from their Academie assuring vs that not Athens but Ierusalem must reach vs this lesson The wisest Ethnick doth but as S. Peter speaketh Mnoopazein see glimmeringly and vncertainly in this Theame 2. Pet. 1.9 And like Zebul in holy Story either take men for mountaines or mountaines for men Iudg. 9.36 and for inconstancy like Absolon and the Elders of Israel come off and on in their opinions and alwayes beleeues the worst Sometimes the counsell of Achitophell is approued and then presently the aduice of Hushai the Archite is a great deale better 2. Sam. 17.4.14 The Barbarians almost with one breath curse and blesse the Apostle Act. 28.6 Shall we therefore praise nature or trust it in this No wee prayse it not With what presumption hath it vndertaken to write bookes of the soules tranquilitie but that must needs be performed with much imperfection which is practised without a rule Sundry capricious fancies and fables are handsomly framed glued together by morall Philosophie
to keepe the minde in an equall poyse but as Balances ill matched in their vnsteddy motions come to an equalitie but stay not at it so the scoales of an vnregenerate minde if at any time they seme to be even are easily swayed by contrary passions sometimes vp to the beame through lightnesse and overweening opinion of prosperitie and suddenly downe againe to the lowest pitch being depressed with any load of sorrow There is no heart makes so rough weather as never to admit of a calme When the winde stirreth not the waters and waues of the Sea seeme to be silent so the man that is most disordered may haue some respits of quietnesse It is not enough to avoyde the imputation of madnesse to be sober many Moones for hee that rageth in one is no better than franticke so how quiet so euer these masters haue made themselues yet their rules haue never countervailed all their troubles The wisest and most resolute Moralist that ever was lookt pale when he was to taste his poysonfull Hemlock Courage and constancie against all crosses and curses and then to bee least shaken when mostassayled comes from the rules of an higher art then naturall wisedome was ever able to teach Hastie hounds amd swift on foote often spend their mouths and courses in vaine for want of sent so how easie is it for nature to over runne Religion that so seldome is lead by right reason Wandering Empiricks may say much in tables and pictures to perswade credulous Patients but their ostentation is farre from approbation of skill when they come to effect their cures How many ships haue suffered miserable ship-wracke for all the glorious titles of the Triumph the safe-gard the geod-speed c. So how many soules haue beene swallowed vp with the faire hopes of their fained religions This taske of faving soules is left whole for grace to busie her selfe about it Alas nothing is left in vs but the ruines and relicks of our sinnes and the iudgements of our God Nay the soule diepred with her owne bloud shrinkes not at the face of death following it That goes best downe with the sinner that is freest from grace And as hunger maketh riffe raffe odious viands toothsome or as the vicious stomacke can feed hungerly on coales and ashes so the greedie sinner can with delight devour the murthering morsels of his owne misery In darknesse Starres of the greatest magnitude are not to be seene nor the millions of moats that lie in blindnes so who knowes the magnitude or multitude of his sins O Lord if thou shine not vpon vs wee sleepe in darknes If thou saue vs not in thy sonne we perish in our selues O that we could be netled with the newes of our miserie Can we see our Sauiour mourne for it whiles we haue no grace to mourne for it our selues Should not this strike vs in the very striking and fetch teares from our eyes If he that was without sinne would not be without stripes for vs shall we thinke to be cockered like Adoniah of our heauenly Father Lord strike our hearts with the rod of thy word as Moses smote the hard rocke that our stonie hearts may gush forth plentifull rivers of teares because we haue not kept thy Law Let vs no longer like fooles laugh when we are lashed of our sinnes Transplant vs into thy Sonne for as we are both the stocke and the griffe are euill It was onely for our Sauiour as a sweet Impe to grow out of a Crabstocke But if thy mercy feoffe vs not in the blessings and vertues of thy Sonne as our sinnes doe feoffe vs in the curses of our parents we perish They are grosse faltterers of nature that tell her shee is cleane yea aliue O the vnspeakeable mercy of our God that whiles wee provided him the sinne he provides vs the remedie Behold an expiation as early as our sinnes the pure and innocent Lambe of God slaine from the beginning of the world Thus thus whiles the clamour and feare of our fall to our affrighted consciences runnes on like fire in a traine to the very vtmost rankes of our bodies and soules euery part and power fearing their fellowes no lesse then themselues are affraid even then to the true beleeuer behold the bloud of him who purgeth our consciences from dead workes Heb. 9.14 Nay so admirable a lenatiue that it leaues no more conscience of sinne Heb. 10.12 But from the name and notation let vs come to the definition and fist that which is generall a doctrine Our once lost law of life is left to the teaching of the word and Spirit Sinfull man being dull and deafe of hearing had need to haue his heart prepared made ready by all meanes to receiue the truth The Scriptures are not penned like an Art in order and methode and the reason is because the truth could not be offered to man directly who lookes asquint but on all sides that he may be hit with them on some side The first thunder-bolt that did strike through the soule of man was Adam thou hast sinned and art the childe of death By creation in wonderfull silence was the law written in the fleshy Tables of our hearts and as things which are written in barkes of trees did daily grow out by corruption therefore he thought it high time to write in in tables of stone as more faithfull monuments then our hearts And when he comes to driue it into the iron hearts of men hee takes state vpon him as one that will be trembled at in his word and judgements There was nothing in the deliuery of the Law that might not worke astonishment The eyes dazled and dimmed with lightnings the eares torne with thunders roaring in them The voyce of the Almightie wrapped in smoake and fire and out-speaking both the clamor of the trumpet and clappes of thunder and that in such a manner as he did rather seeme to threaten then teach forbid then command deterre then define what he would haue done More negatiues in opposition to what men would doe then affirmatiues in direction to what men should doe By which wee are to vnderstand that he that was so terrible a Law-giuer would one day appeare as severe a judge If he were so dreadfull in the proclamation he would be as fearefull in the execution Oh! how will this fiery Law flash terrour in the face of euery hard and impenitent sinner when at the day of iudgment his conscience like another Sinai shall tremble and quake before the Iudge then shall he see the Law that was giuen in fire in fire to bee required By this promulgation I plainely see how difficult a thing it is to teach a sinner If God should not change our hearts Ezech. 11.19.20 his Messengers might as well with our venerable Country-man Mr Beda preach to heapes of stones as to the stony hearts of carnall men There is none but God that is able to giue the first charge
neither any to heare it but such as are taught of him There must be a putting in of the rule before there will be any putting forth of man to obey it Ier. 31.33 and 32.40 the noyse of the word Ephes 5.4 shaking of afflictions Ob 33.16 or day light of the Gospell Rom. 13.11.12 are but secundary helping causes and doe nothing without the principall He that is asleepe awakes not till his naturall heat returne hauing digested all those foggie mists and vapours that did bind vp the senses no more is there any awaking of the sinner till there be a returne of that supernaturall heat of grace whereby the vapours of fleshly lustes may bee dissolved within vs which darken the cogitation and oppresse the heart 1. Pet. 2.11 Ephes 4.18 Luk. 21.24 onely here is the difference that this is a dead sleepe whereby the hear of creation is vtterly extinguished so that a new spirit must be put within vs or else wee never crucifie the flesh with the lusts and affections thereof which would keepe vs in a perpetuall sleepe far surpassing the seuen sleepers in the time of Decius the Emperour or Epimenides the Cretian which slept fourescore yeeres in a Caue so sayes the Author of fables and take his word alone I am not his suretie but this is no forgery that many a man out-sleepes his naturall life It is reported of Dionysius the Herocleote that he felt not when men thrust needles into his fat belly so sinners whose hearts are as fat as grease Psal 119.70 feele not their misery Nay like the Fencer that laughed to see his wounds lanched by the Surgeon The beares spoken of in Plinie that could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles come short of a thicke skinned sinner Alas how many shutt all their senses that they may not be troubled with the terrible threats of the Almightie Euen as the old Italians in the time of thunder shot off their greatest Ordinance and did ring their deepest bells to drowne the noyse of the heauens so wretched offenders know how to out-cry and out-roare the highest But they that thus harden and hearten themselues against Gods word shall one day be taught to cry to the hills and mountaines to cover them from the presence of him whom so often they haue despised The Lord teach vs to listen to him here least neglecting the light of his word wee feele the heat of his wrath in hell and be made to finde that to our cost which neuer had our care and to sinart with paine for what we neuer heard with patience But if I should insist vpon euery head as I might well and with profit I should write a Salmeron-like Commentary vpon Petrarches remedies yet doubt whether so this worke would be perfect sure I am a life would bee too little to write it and but enough to read it I will hereafter goe on with the heads as shortly as I may and giue as much good counsell in a narrow roome as I shal be able Brevitie where it is neither obscure nor defectiue is very pleasing even to the daintiest iudgements I will as neere as I may in so large an Art imitate those that draw great personages in little tablets and describe worlds of Countries in the compasse of small Maps I hope if wee haue speciall care of matter and methode wee shall make this Doctrine more portable for memory and readier for vse If our precepts as nailes driue out one another you may iustly impute it to want of Art I shall follow him that is now with God and which I confesse hath broken the Ice before me The forme of the Art is to liue well There is a naturall life which we liue by the vnion of body and soule and there is a spirituall life which we haue by the knot spoken of to wit our vnion with God by Religion Now all men in that they will haue some Religion may be said to liue spiritually but they cannot liue well because they want a true rule of life The follies of the Heathen are baits for babes no bookes for Christians which onely depend vpon God and his word to teach them truely how to liue but let vs cleare our definition by Scripture 1. Tim. 6.3 A doctrine according to godlinesse Tit. 1.1 The acknowledgement of the truth which is after godlinesse First this Art is in God Secondly wee receiue it from him as the paterne and patent of his will Thirdly our examples are to accord with it Hence godlinesse in the example must answere godlinesse in the rule and godlinesse in the rule must bee according to that which is in God God plots the rule then he publisheth it as his will and command and lastly lookes for obedience at our hands A king first plots his government in himselfe then by Proclamation makes it knowne vnto his subiects and lastly vnder penaltie enioynes the keeping of it A Scrivener first makes letters in his head then pens them downe with his hand and guides the Scholler accordingly So God is the Author of Religion then he publisheth it and wee are to liue after it To liue well in practise is to liue well by precept and precept that brings vs to the Prince of our happinesse Pro. 2.5 it is called the feare and knowledge of God Iam. 3.15 It is sayd to be wisedome from aboue 2. Pet. 1.3 through this knowledge wee receiue of God all things that pertaine vnto life and godlinesse To conclude giue thy selfe wholy to learne this Art and deferre it not to thy last wilt thou charge this greatest burden vpon the weakest beast If thou canst not passe over the foord when the waters are low how wilt thou doe when they are risen Twigges at the first will bend to euery hand which afterwards will not be bowed with all thy might Sparkes are sooner quenched then flames and greene wounds sooner cured then festred sores he that driueth a naile first striketh easily and afterwards redoubleth in strength in so much as the more blowes he striketh the more it is fastened and the harder it will be to draw it forth againe so betimes breake the bands shake off the shakles of sinnes and be daily labouring to saue thy poore soule CHAPTER II. Of Faith in God Question VVHat are the parts Answere Faith in God and obedience towards God In the old Testement is devided into feare and seruice Deut. 6.13 Iosh 24.14.1 Sam. 12.24 Ob 28.28 Psal 2.11 Eccl. 12.13 Feare is the head or beginning of this wisedome Psal 111.20 Pro. 9.10 and therefore to serue God without it is a head-lesse Religion Yet on the other side what comfort can we haue in such an head or Masculine disposition if with the Israelites brood it should be smoothered in the birth or recoile like Zarah in Thamars wombe So perfect is this Art that wee must haue cleane fingers as well as cleane hearts It is the plea of Ignorants in doing euill to sy they
and rather abound with sorrow then sinne so shall the consuming fire that no water can quench or violence oppose haue mercy vpon me Heb. 12.29 He is liberall that I liue but he shall bee munificent in bringing a poore wretch from all miseries to taste of the full cup of his glory Hitherto we haue but heard of God by way of Negation denying of him all the imperfections of the creatures Now wee are to speake of him by way of Affirmation giuing him the most eminent and excellent perfections of his owne workes The Schooles haue layd vs downe a three-fold way of knowing God As the negation of imperfections the affirmation of perfections and the causation of great workes The two first we follow in Gods sufficiency the last wee leaue as proper to the efficiency CHAPTER V. Of the Attributes of the Essence Question BVt how shall God be apprehended of vs seeing he is simply one Answere In that he hath made himselfe many attributes It is fit that the obiect and the vnderstanding be proportionable to it selfe an infinite vnderstanding is capable of an infinite obiect and so God onely vnderstands himselfe Now because man cannot apprehend God by one act of vnderstanding the simplicitie of his face and essence is layd open by the multiplicitie of his backe-parts and attributes So God reuealed himselfe to Moses when he proclaimed his glorious Name The Lord the Lord strong gracious and mercifull Exod. 34.6 c. And so Moses himselfe published Gods name Ascribe yee greatnesse to our God he is arocke is worke is perfect Deut. 32.3.4 all his wayes are iudgement a God of truth and without iniquitie iust and right is he Preiudice is a great enemy to truth and makes the mind vncapable of it Hence it comes to passe that most men despaire of any knowledge of God and so fall into Atheisme or else they will fashion God to some forme of their owne whether of an humane body or of admirable light or if their mindes haue any other more likely and pleasing image and so become Idolaters with their owne conceits In matters therefore of so great consequence I will first lay a sure ground and then beleeue though I can argue no further and will hold the conclusion in spight of all premisses He that teacheth God vpon the warrant of his owne braine layes the brands together without tongues and is sure at least to burne his owne fingers I will therefore beware how I sayle vpon this Sea without Compasse Q. What are Gods Attributes A. That one most pure God diversely apprchended Hoare O Israel Deut. 6.4 And 10.17 the Lord thy God is one great mightie terrible c. Faith which is the divine Logick of Gods spirit rests vpon testimony aboue all Arguments and so takes God barely on his word without any further discourse yet by the way of vnderstanding which apprehends the knowledge of things by Arguments distinct from the things and amongst themselues Faith is so farre content that Reason shew the way in making the Attributes diverse from the essence and amongst themselues but checks reason when it would make them opposite or really to be distinguished It is aboue the Art of reason to teach the subiect and all his attributes to be one in nature and yet thus farre it may agree with reason to make them diverse So that by faith and the way of sanctified reason wee come to apprehend him that is simply one Mans reason in matter of faith as fire in the first degree of her ascent may be a flame next smoake and then nothing The light may be good if like fooles-fire wee trust it not too long Faith stands like an auncient Pyramid which the lesse it growes to a mans eye the neerer it reaches to heauen Whereas reason for the most part like Astronomie begins in Nature ends in Magicke If it may haue the whole handling of divinitie it will make it ridiculous before it leaue it Logicke the Heraldry of all Arts and the best array of indgement is in the most exact knowledge of God either a skilful ignorance or a wild knowledge Almost as good discourse to brute beasts of the depth of Phylosophy as to meere carnall men of the mysteries of Divinitie He that will beleeue no more then he conceiues by reason can never be a Christian or he a Logician that will assent without reason And seeing God hath made the soule as the lampe of the body and reason as the lampe of the soule Religion of Reason and Faith of Religion Let vs vse all these lights without confusion and let not one trip vp the heeles of the other according to the dexteritie of humane policy In divine things what we may wee must conceiue the rest beleeue and wonder Not the curious head but the credulous and plaine heart is accepted with God Wee will bolt out by reason what may helpe faith not confound it In briefe to open a little crevise of further light and giue a little more glimpse to the poynt let the insuing consectaries be well marked and observed Q. What followes from hence A. That the attributes differ not really from his essence or betweene themselues but onely in respect of our vnderstanding Hence they are his essence I am that I am Exod. 3.14 teacheth an Ocean of Divinitie where the attribute is I am as well as the subiect and so nothing is giuen to God that is lesse then himselfe God is mercifull and his mercy is himselfe Loe with this word I am wee may happily wade out of those deepes whereof our conceits can finde no bottome A little further here shall wee not like Pagans worshipping the Sunne hold our hands to the Glo-worme in stead of a coale for heat Q. What then obserue you in the second place A. That all his attributes are giuen vnto him both in the abstract and concret as God is mercifull or God is mercy it selfe To haue life and be life to be in the light Ioh. 5.26 With 14.6 1. Ioh. 1.5.7 1. Ioh. 4.7.8 and the light loue to come from God and be God are all one Thinke of him as one whose wisedome is his iustice whose iustice is his power whose power is his mercy and whose wisedome iustice power and mercy are himselfe Good without qualitie great without quantitie everlasting without time present every where without place containing all things without extent These things are not to bee weighed at the common beame of custome and opinion but at the golden standard of Gods Sanctuary Iob. 28.1.2 Siluer hath his veine and Gold his mine where it is found iron is taken out of the earth and brasse moulten out of the stones but the place of this wisedome is not to be found in the land of the liuing Faint not in this knowledge neither be weary of well-doing for though in rowing this vessell vpon so maine an ocean the windes blow and crosse Seas rage
it will be farre more easie to fill the belly of faith then the eye of reason That faith may therefore be as the elbow for a heauy Soule to leane on wee will vnder prop it with both these pillars I know that as the Sea receiueth all streames and yet hath proper water in farre greater abundance so in God there is a confluence of the perfections of all creatures and yet his owne perfection doth infinitely exceed them Wee are to meddle with the first with the presence whereof all the powers of the minde shall be filled all the senses of the body shall be satiated in so much as they shall neither in desire seeke nor in hope aspire nor in imagination faine any greater pleasure Q. What is God A. God is a spirit hauing life in himselfe or of himselfe He is as wee haue heard both being and Act Ioh. 4.24 With 5.26 2. Cor. 3.17 now wee see both in our definition not that hee is compounded of them but expressed by them In euery creature there is a composition of matter and forme out of which it hath his essence and action so in God spirit is as the matter life as the forme I say expressing not compounding his nature And the reason is liuely for God must be the most excellent nature and the most eminent act Spirit is the purest nature and life the quickest act Obserue but in nature and you shall find that much matter and little forme make things grosse and corporall much forme and little matter fine and spirituall Earth is more grosse then water water then ayre ayre then fire bodies then soules men then Angels Angels then God There is no creature free from matter for then should it be as spirituall as God He onely is without matter and therefore most spirituall and consequently most actiue as if he were all forme Hence he is stiled the liuing God Ier. 10.10 1. Tim. 4.10 Deut. 32.40 Iudg. 8.19 Ruth 3.13 Ezek. 33.11 Dan. 4.37 by whose life wee are to sweare as hauing most intelligence of the truth and greatest power to punish the liar Being a spirit hee must needs be strong and subtile to enter where he will being life it selfe he must needs quicken and quiet all desires and appetites Act. 17.28 Ioh. 1.4 And 5.21.26 Alas then how miserable are all those that want this God or haue prouoked him by their sinnes As one that floateth halfe choaked and wearied in the middest of the Sea ceaseth not to wrestle with the waues to cast forth his hands euery way although he graspeth nothing but thinne and weake water which continually deceiueth his paines so they that both swim and sinke in this depth of death shall alwayes striue and struggle therewith although they neither finde nor hope for any helpe O deadly life O immortall death if the paine were no greater then the stinging of Ants or of Fleas eternitie were enough to make it intolerable Ioh. 5.21.24 2 Cor. 4.11 Gal. 2.19.20 Lord quicken me from this death and make me by faith to passe from it vnto life purposed and promised in thine owne beloued Happie are all they that beleeue and in beleeuing serue this spirit of life in spirit and truth Ioh. 4.24 Luk. 1.75 all the dayes of their life Q. What are the attributes that shew vs who he is A. His essentiall properties And here the field is large for the describing of God Simonides being asked of Hiero the King what God was demanded a dayes respite then two dayes afterwards three and being asked the reason answered that the longer he thought what God should bee the lesse he vnderstood of him And another heathen said It is hard to find a God Plato but to vnderstand him impossible No wonder these men had but the light of Nature yet thus farre they aymed right Quò enim prius eo notius naturâ and shot neere that God the most intelligible was least vnderstood of vs and that the infinite vnderstanding was not within the compasse and fadome of the finite but in helping that default by their owne imaginations went themselues exceeding wide and came not neere the marke which I ascribe not to any defect of eye sight in those sharpe sighted Eagles of Nature but onely to the want of fixed contemplations in the book of the world and more especially their vtter ignorance of the word of God Wee therefore that enioy the sacred Scriptures may see farre further into this mystery Remembring alwayes that Divinitie as the Mistresse taketh vpon her to direct her hand-mayd and that the Bible is the best man of counsell for the greatest Clarke in the world containing more then all the Divines of the Heathen ever saw the shadow of All which will best appeare by the opening of this rich Cabinet of Gods Attributes and viewing the severall Iewels in it by this torch-light or rather Sunne of the little world And it should be a shame for Christians if it were not better knowne of them then Lipsius his Bee-hiue or Machiavels Spider-web about which many wits like a Dor end their flights in a Dung-hill Rom. 3.4 Exod. 23.19 Psal 46.1 With 70.5 Exod. 34.6 And here I might enter an ample harvest of properties affirmatiue negatiue proper and figuratiue absolute and Relatiue But here such properties are to be handled as appeare by themselues as no wayes flowing from the essence of the creatures as all negatiue figuratiue and relatiue properties doe Onely one thing I cannot but mention in admiration of Gods goodnesse vnto vs which is that God is content to take properties most improper as a body in respect of all the members of it head face eyes eye-lids apple of the eye mouth eares necke hand arme right hand fingers feete heart bowels c. Dan. 7.9 Exod. 33.20.23 2. Chron. 16.9 Psal 11.4 Deut. 32.10 Iosh 9.14 Psal 31.2 2. Sam. 22.9 Ier. 18.17 Act. 4.28 Exod. 6.6 and 15.6 and 31.18 Psal 110.1 1. Sam. 2.35 Ier. 31.20 So likewise a soule coupled with the body and members Isa 1.14 so the senses that rise from the vnion both inward and outward as memory forgetfulnesse hearing seeing smelling c. Psal 136.23 Isa 49.14 Psal 14.2 and 5.1.2 Gen. 8.21 In briefe he assumeth the very affections and passions of the soule as ioy sorrow anger zeale Ielousie c. Iudg. 9.13 Gen. 6.6 Rom. 1.18 Nay yet hee goes lower and by the wings of birds hornes of beasts the Sunne the light their very shadow the fire rockes and stones he speakes vnto vs. Psal 91.4.2 Sam. 22.3 Psal 84.11.1 Ioh. 1.5 Psal 91.1 Deut. 4.24 Psal 71.3 yea and to goe to the lowest by the works of mans hands as shields and bucklers c. Psal 2.3 and 144.2 yet we are to vnderstand that all these are attributed vnto God improperly and by way of his gracious condiscending vnto and sympathizing with mans nature because being literally taken they are derogatory vnto his
our proceedings hauing learned by experience the wisedome and holinesse of our God It is for them to murmure and mutter that either know not God or know him displeased with them Alas foolish wormes what doe wee turning againe when hee â—eads vpon vs If we be his why pine we at that which is good for vs yea best for that must ever bee best to vs which he seeth best and that he sees best which he sendeth His will is the rule of his actions and his goodnesse of his will It is therefore our dutie to submit vnto him in all things If he strike the rod must be kissed in silence and glory giuen to the hand that rules it It is no small part of his rare vertues to worke our good by affliction and therefore wee may be incouraged to rest vpon him in all estates Q. What followes from hence A. Gods most absolute happinesse both in action and contemplation Whereby he is freed from all evill abounding with all good sufficiently contenting himselfe with himselfe and no wayes standing in need of any other 1. Tim. 1.11 and 6.15.1 Ioh. 1.5 Psal 16.2 vnd 50.7 to 14. Hag. 2.8 Behold now yee ambitious spirits how ye may truely rise to more then ever the sonnes of Zebedee desired to aspire vnto Waiting is the way to raigning serue him which is thus happy though without apparent wages he will pay sure if slow Liue well and thou mayest liue in expectation as those which after some terme of their cottage expired are assured they shall haue a marble palace built for them O let vs thinke that the dayes and moneths passe slowly away till then ever looking vp to him that is the finisher of our faith and remembring that for the new heavens our hearts must be made new before hand Let worldlings like a company of idle boyes scramble for the figges of this life it is for wise men to take them if they fall in their bosomes whose maine care is to be found acceptable in the day of the Lord. Worldly vanities which are alwayes ther owne cut-throats by their owne crossing and contrarietie are to be abandoned of Christians who casting away all weake diffidences know how to trust God with his owne Waite thou on the Lord and keepe his way and he shall exalt thee Psal 37.34 It is he that will fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodnesse and the worke of faith with power 2. Thess 1.11 O that hee would purge out of our minds and memories that ambition and vanitie which so bewitches them with the loue of pompes and glories of this perishing and ending world which in the breathing of a breath wee may loath loose leaue and despise as nothing and would graffe in them a pure and single eye to behold the eternall blisse which seene breedeth loue and loued conducts vs to heaven Here to as high a tide as wee shall rise in our desires of wealth and well-fare to as low an ebbe shall we fall in our hopes thereof Seeing then we looke for better things in the heavens let vs be diligent that we may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse 2. Pet. 3.14 Doe wee beleeue that all things shall be made new and our hearts onely remaine olde As if our blessed God intended nothing but our soules to be out of fashion Be assured that as no man puts new wine into olde vessels no more will God put the new wine of his glory into the olde veslels of our corruption Looke wee therefore to him that hath sayd he will giue vs new hearts Ezek. 11.19 And remember that all our glory begins in grace and that God will haue none to dwell with him in happinesse that will not vouchsafe him to dwell with them in holinesse Roote out deare God all gall and acerbitie amongst brethren and bend their hearts to charitie that being re-vnited in the pilgrimage of this life this country of our terrestriall bodies wee may after our service and course therein accomplished ascend vnder the conduct of our Sauiour before ascended to our everlasting rest in the countrey of our celestiall Soules there in societie and vnitie of Saints and Angels to enioy the happy vision of the all-glorious Deitie and to sing his prayse for ever CHAPTER VIII Of the Subsistences or three Persons Question HItherto of the essence what are the Subsistences Answere That one most pure essence with the relatiue properties Relation addes nothing to the divine essence but respect or mutuall affection God with the relation of begetting is the Father of begotten the Sonne of proceeding the Spirit One and the same essence hath all these respects but peradventure wee haue mis-taken our Cue for there is not so much in the divine essence as any inherent qualitie I answere I marvaile so learned a disputer should moote no better Qualitie and relation are distinct predicaments Wisedome and father-hood in the same man are not two qualities for the one because a qualitie is some thing in it selfe but the other because a relatiue is nothing without another A father is nothing without a sonne neither is the sonne in being without a father They are mutuall beings And yet one being may be mutually many of them as one and the selfe same man may be a father a master and a subiect so one pure God may be a father sonne and holy Ghost 1. Ioh. 5.7 Wee call them Subsistences because by their singular individuall and personall properties they subsist in one and the same essence Could we now but through a crevis or lettice see those things which the eye of faith seeth here with open face how would wee loath all Epicurisme and Atheisme in comparison of our Baptisme in the name of these three worthies Had we but tasted with the tip of our tongues these dainties we would pray with Dauid even against the worlds delicates Psal 141.4 Here shall wee not haue our liues composed of ieiune and emptie contemplations but so full of contentment that wee shall need to wish no other measure of pleasure then to be wholly taken vp with this divine taske Here is the exaltation of Isaacs delight in walking forth into the pleasant fields of sacred meditations on the blessed Trinitie O let our Soules haue two or three walkes a day vpon this mount Taber and with holy Moses conuerse with one God in three persons on the Horeb of both Testaments till wee haue found out vnto our selues the pure law of life As these three exhibite it vnto vs. And if the one brest let not downe this nourishing liquor so freely so easily as our strength will beare it then may we refresh our selues with the other and by such a small varietie wee shall finde them yeelde milke equally wholesome equally pleasant to vs weake Infants and nurselings If mount Sinai covered with darkenesse tremble the father being offended the Gospell calmes and lightens it presently the sonne hauing satisfied Ioh. 17.3
body hangs on the Crosse the soule is yeelded the God-head is eviternally vnited to them both And if Christ be God and by his subsisting working come so neare vs what should dissolue the eternall bonds of our heauenly coniunction with him or the daily influences of grace from him Here are the apples and flagons of holy consolation and it is good for the Spouse to be walking into the Gardens and eating of these fruits Wee cannot hope to be so neare to our God as Christ was vnited personally yet need wee not feare that God should seeme more absent from vs then hee did from his owne sonne Hee was still one with both body and soule when they were devided from themselues when he was absent to sense he was present to faith when absent in vision yet in vnion one and the same so will hee bee to our soules when they are at worst He is ours and we are his if our hold seeme loosened his is not when temptations will not let vs see him he sees vs and possesseth vs onely beleeue him against sense aboue hope and though he kill vs yet let vs trust in him Shiloach refresheth Ierusalem Iordan Naaman better then Abanah and Pharphar Cherith dried vp while Eliah dranke of it Iacobs well was stopped vp but this well of liuing water no drought can diminish nor Philistimes stop vp Q. What followes yet in the fift place A. That the three persons are coessentiall as hauing the same essence together and that not devided or by parts but as if I may so speake with reverence three partners in a Ship haue not each a peece of it but wholly and together Father and sonne are often two distinct men haue a common humanitie devided by parts betweene them but here the persons distinguished by relation are vndevided in essence And the reason is because the father cannot beget one lesse then himselfe and therefore he being infinite his sonne must likewise be infinite And that which is infinite admits of no division or distribution Now the three persons being co essentiall are likewise co-equall and co-eternall Ioh. 5.18 Phil. 2.6 1. Ioh. 5.7 He that walketh in the Sunne for pleasure may bee tainted with the heate thereof before he retire so they that are drawne by delight into these cogitations may thereby take the touch of a more deepe impression Papists as I haue read hauing little knowledge of our Ladies countenance fauour haue assembled the fairest Curtezans to draw the most modest beautie of a Virgin out of the flagrancie of Harlots so many whose skill is very slender in this mystery out of their owne devotion haue broached many strange conceits of the Trinitie and left them as Oracles for their followers But wee study to expresse these things as neere as wee can with truth of matter and sobriety of speech for truth findeth more easie entrance when it commeth armed with his owne force and adorned with the furniture of words that may best beseeme it Q. What obserue you in the last place from the definition A. That they are one in another and with another mutually delighting and glorifying each other Pro. 8.22.30 Ioh. 1.1.2 and 5.20 and 10.38 and 13.31.32 and 14.10 and 17.5 The Sonne is a delight to the Father in the worke of our Redemption Math. 12.18 and the Spirit a ioy to them both in the worke of our sanctification Pro. 8.30.31 If the sonne had not beene the fathers dayly delight he had never reioyced in the habitable part of the earth nor had his delights with the sonnes of men Behold oh man that standest in the wayes inquiring for life here it is labour thou to delight in them that are delighted in thee and reioyce together to worke out thy saluation Alas how should it pitty our hearts to see many silly Soules runne vp and downe in the common labyrinth of error groaping for the strait and narrow gate of life like the blind Sodomites after Lots doore each man telling his dreame to his neighbour of an imagined happinesse And though they draw and drinke in iniquitie yet will they still dreame of drawing in the easie yoake of a Sauiour when God wotes they were never driuen vnto it Is this the pastime of the blessed Trinitie to sport themselues together in doing vs good and shall wee be intreated like madde men to be good vnto our selues O how many that never tasted of these delights yet thinke themselues in skie and highest sphere of happinesse Alas how many walking Ghosts in the shapes of liuing men applaud themselues like swine in earthly pleasures O the watery pleasures of Epicurean hoggs that satiate themselues with the huskes of vanity and cry out in their madnesse that they haue liued the onely ioviall and iocand life These like Moles in the earth are ever casting vp as restlesse in themselues Surely he goes lightly that wants these loads as loath to lagge in the foulest weather The Bustard by reason of his great body and bulke of bones when he is pursued can hardly get vpon his wings whereas the little Larke mounts presently aloft with ease Oh how should our right conceit of this delight of the Trinitie carry our soules vpon the wing and make them ascend Alas ambitious mindes of ayery honour are but ambitious of their owne destruction who climbing the slippery hill of high preferment measure more then their length in their dangerous downe-falls whereas he that stands on oven-ground is as soone vp as downe O then that the Christian soule would say to it selfe in a word or two how liuest thou know and consider from whom thou drawest thy breath and remember that one day led with the blessed Trinitie is better then an immortalitie of the worlds windie vanities CHAPTER IX Of their Relation Question VVHat meane you by the relatiue properties Answere Two things First that howbeit the Subsistences are the same essence yet not as essence but as it is with the relatiue properties A Scholler or a teacher is a man but not a Scholler or a teacher as a man for as he instructeth he is a teacher and as he learneth a Scholler Which are relatiue properties This mystery cloudeth the clearest of our thoughts yet from so many rayes wee must study to light some little torch to quicken our owne feeble sights It shall be well if we tame our vnbridled vnderstandings and learne with Nazianzene Orat. 40. in S. Baptism I know not how sayth he to thinke of one but that vpon the very instant I shall see my selfe environed with the brightnesse of three neither can I discerne these three except at the very moment I returne vnto one Q. But make you any distinction betweene them and the Essence A. Yes As betweene a man and a Scholler who though he be a man yet not as a Scholler for then should euery man be a Scholler because he is a man But indeed he is a Scholler because he learneth
and a man as he is composed of a body and reasonable soule so that he is a man in one respect and a Scholler in another Rom. 2.21 Thou that teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe Where you see the same man is to be both master and Scholler I am astonished at so many wonders as I behold enstated and packeted vp in this rich Cabinet of the knowledge of GOD. They that goe downe into the deepes they see the workes and wonders of the Lord. Psal 107.23 But they that goe downe into this deepe are not like to see any thing except they plow with his heyfer that can read vs the darkest riddles Ioh. 14.9.10.11 Christ in this mystery applies two rules of relation the one concerning their mutuall knowledge the other their mutuall being He that hath seene me hath seene my Father that is Philip know one and know both if thou beleeue mee to be the sonne then must thou beleeue my father For it is impossible to conceiue a sonne without a father Againe I am in the father and the father is in me that is our being is mutuall if I were not his sonne he were not my father and if he were not my father I were not his sonne As I haue the being of a sonne from my father so hath he the being of a father from his sonne And hereupon by the necessitie of relation I am in my father and my father is in mee Abraham as a father is in Isaac and Isaac as a sonne is in Abraham but because they are also two distinct men Isaac is also out of Abraham and Abraham out of Isaac But the eternall father and the sonne hauing the same singular essence are personally the one with the other and essentially the one the other Ioh. 1.1 Q. How are they then distinct A. As the man and the Scholler And here to avoyd all doubts and dangers and that a godly appetite may finde what to feed on let reason ruled by Scriptures supply with the defectiue what he either reads not or in reading knowes not Iob. 1.1 The word was with God and the word was God If God in both places be taken in the same sense then the second person is so a concrete with the essence as in reason the essence may be predicated of it and therefore the difference is rationall not reall or if you will haue the argument the essence and subsistence are diverse not opposite They turne sides not backes The essence dissents from the subsistence by reasons apprehension not natures opposition for if they were opposite he that is with God could not be sayd to be God So that the holy Ghost reacheth vs by that phrase that the sonne for manner of subsisting is with the essence as if it were to bee conceiued close by the side of it as the manner of a thing is to the being of it And againe least wee should there mis-take by putting too great a difference as if the manner should differ really from the thing he addes and the same was God So then the difference is very little a diversitie no reall repugnancie They turne aside our apprehension without crossing or contrarietie If God in the first place be taken personally and in the second essentially then with God is with the father and so they are not diverse but contraries not if I may so speake with reuerence as backe to backe but face to face I am thy father thou art therefore my sonne but when I say I am thy father therfore I am not thy sonne in this they are contrary not in the other And therefore wee say the properties are incommunicable I am the begetter therefore not the begotten Yet if I be the begetter thou art my begotten Psal 2.7 So then the Subsistences are contraries with mutuall affection but essence and subsistence are diverse by Logicall apprehension Ioh. 10.30 I and my father are one 1. Ioh. 5.7 These three are one as relatiues or contraries they cannot be one but as subsistences in the same essence they are all one I should be thankefull to my render if he would not suffer idlenesse to deuour the sweete that others sweat for or would but so much as count these labours pleasant as they are prepared to his hand But I feare as the Iassians in Strabo delighted with the musique of an exquisite Harper ran all away as soone as they heard the Fish-market bell ring saue a deafe olde man c. So they that seeme to be delighted with the knowledge of divine things are easily called off by worldly imployments and if any stay by it they profit no more by this Doctrine then the deafe man did by the Harpers ditties The Ministers haue some-thing to doe that breake vp the swarth and sowe it for vs. I shall desire no more but godly attention and patience to weigh all points diligently and with humilitie to yeeld vp their owne fancies to reason The hot and headdie are not to be imployed in the contemplation and search of these truthes for as being suddaine in their actions they seize lightly on that which commeth first to hand so being stiffe in their resolution they are transported with euery preiudicate conceit from one errour to another Giue me therefore a constant and stable student and he shall gaine by this good Q. Doe these relatiue properties adde any thing to the essence A. Nothing but respect and manner of being so that the essence remaineth still pure or meere essence The relation of a father master servant c. are no addition of a new essence Rom. 2.21 The learner and the teacher may bee the same man He is a right Mauchen or gazing stocke that thinkes himselfe a new man because he is a new master As Saul was changed to another man presently vpon his anointing so are men vpon their advancement and according to our ordinary Proverbe Their good and their bloud rises together Now it may not bee taken as it hath beene Other fashions fare and furniture fit them whom favour graceth But alas what is relation to Greatnesse where there is no alteration in goodnesse the man is the same though he haue the respect of a King Q. What is the second thing meant by relatiue properties A. That the Subsistences or persons are distinct by themselues as Relatiues From the essence as we haue said they differ as diverse onely turning aside a little but amongst themselues they differ as contraries hauing mutuall respect for though the sonne be the sonne of the father and the father the father of the sonne yet the father is not the sonne neither is the sonne the father So likewise the holy Ghost proceedeth from the father and the sonne yet is he neither the father nor the sonne A father a sonne being relatiues are contraries yet both of them may be no more then diverse to the same man that is both Mat. 1.2 Abrahambegate Isaac and Isaac begate Iacob c.
the spirit Ioh. 15.26 I will send from the father the Comforter even the spirit of truth The same is said to proceed Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the spirit of his sonne into your hearts Ioh. 16.8 As the sonne comes from the father to take our nature vpon him so the spirit comes from them both to apply Christ effectually vnto vs and vs vnto Christ But this comming sending proceeding is a worke of counsell not of nature for the Spirit by an imminent act as he comes from father son so he hath his residence in them both and no creature is capable of him but as by a transient act hee passeth the worke of Redemption to vs by application hee is sayd to come to vs and we receiue him in graces and operations By nature he comes from the same persons and rests in them by counsell not by command he comes to vs and is said to dwell with vs and that in spite of Satan all his temptations As fierce Mastiues tyed in a chaine which although they both barke and haue perhaps a good will to bite yet they can make no neerer approach then the chaine doth permit so that Cerberus of hell is chained vp of God and though his malice be great to labour to enter where he is expulsed yet the spirit keepes him out by his presence and safegards our hearts in peace against all his molestations Q. What is the Father A. The first person who by nature begets his sonne who must needs be an onely sonne because the Father cannot haue many images of himselfe Christ is the first begotten Heb. 1.6 and the onely begotten Ioh. 3.16.18 1 Ioh. 4.9 Ioh. 1.14.18 And therefore the relation betwixt the Father and Christ is a speciall and peculiar respect Heb. 1.5 I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a sonne Man was made in the image and likenesse of God and of the three persons by a divine consultation but Christ is the image of his Father or first person by an eternall and everlasting generation Luk. 3.38 Adam is called the sonne of God which is a most free and voluntary act of the Creator in producing man in his owne image This I insist vpon the more that wee may be wary in our conceits in apprehending Gods act vpon vs and the fathers act vpon his sonne It is happinesse enough for vs to come so neare God that his onely sonne may stand betwixt vs him and that wee may be called his brethren by the Fathers choice of vs in him Q. What is the Fathers relatiue propertie A. To beget and not to be begotten and therefore he is the first person in order Psal 2.7 Thou art my sonne this day haue I begotten thee Heb. 1.5 The same words are repeated to proue Christ aboue the Angels who Iob. 2.1 are called the sonnes of God and therefore in another sense that is in regard of Creation and grace both which they obtained by the will and counsell of their Creator who made them and ordained them to stand in that favour from which the reprobate Angels fell but Christ is a naturall and an eternall sonne Prov. 8.25 And therefore to day is as some Fathers expound it put for eternitie seeing all times are present to God to whom a thousand yeares are as one present day Or rather this day being the day of Christs resurrection and exaltation in which he was mightily declared to be the sonne of God Rom. 1.4 is the manifestation of that eternall generation by which hee is preferred before all creatures His conception and natiuitie as he was man belong to his humiliation which as S. Augustine speakes of his passion was the sleepe of his divinitie as his death was the sleepe of his humanitie Yet as the fathers of Chalcedon say truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indivisibly inseparably is the God-head of the second person with the whole humane nature and euery part of it still and for ever one and the same person The soule in the agony and vpon the Crosse feeles not the presence of the God-head the body in the graue feeles not the presence of the soule yet vpon the third day both bodie and soule did feele the power of his divine nature death being too weake to dissolue the eternall bonds of this heauenly coniunction And therefore vpon the day of Christs resurrection was there a manifest declaration of the eternall generation of the second person Q. What is the Sonne A. The second person begotten of his father Ioh. 1.14 We beheld his glory the glory of the onely begotten of the Father Vers 18. No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten sonne which is in the bosome of the father he hath declared him Q. What is the relatiue propertie A. To be begotten and not to beget and because he is from the father alone therefore the second person in order 1. Ioh. 4.9 God sent his onely begotten sonne into the world Heb. 1.5 I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a sonne therefore by the force of relation he must be begotten no begetter otherwise contrary things should bee the same Q. What is the holy Ghost A. The third person proceeding from the Father and the Sonne Ioh. 14.26 The comforter which is the holy Ghost whom the father will send in my name Ioh. 15.26 When the comforter is come whom I will send vnto you from the father c. Ioh. 20.22 Christ breathed on them and saith vnto them receiue yee the holy Ghost he that hath power to breath on his members the gifts of the holy Ghost according to his owne will and counsell hath by nature together with his father an ineffable manner of breathing the spirit for as the three persons worke by counsell so they subsist in the divine essence by nature Q. What is the spirits relatiue propertie A. To proceed and because he is both from the Father and the Sonne therefore the third person in order of subsistence Ioh. 15.26 even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the father c. Ioh. 16.7 It is expedient for you that I goe away for if I goe not away the comforter will not come vnto you but if I depart I will send him vnto you till the second person haue fully dispensed the worke of Redemption the third person cannot so fully apply it no marvaile then if the times before the death of Christ had more weake meanes of application then now we haue the spirit being more fully giuen Ioh. 12.32 And I if I be lifted vp from the earth will draw all men vnto mee Peter Act. 2.41 conuerted more at one Sermon then Christ did all his life not because he was the better or more powerfull Preacher but because the spirit was then more fully sent both from the father and the sonne to accomplish that which they had begun for the redemption both of Iew and Gentile Q. What is
Father had none to speake vnto but his Sonne let there be is that the word spoken might be done by the Spirit who finisheth what is spoken by both And here we see by what kind of motion the world was made by the least stirring for what is lesse then to effect all by a word And yet what greater then to effect by such a word and spirit Iob 26.13 The Spirit is said to garnish the worke of creation Ioh. 14.26 and 15.26 All that the word hath said or Father promised shall bee taught testified and remembred vnto vs by Gods spirit Rom. 8.10.11 13.14.15.16.26 c. A Spirit of life quickens those mortall bodies that are redeemed by Christ by whom they liue againe and are led in prayer as children of adoption c. 1. Cor. 12.11 All gifts and graces wee haue from the Spirit Rom. 8.9 1. Cor. 3.16 the Spirit is said to dwell for as the Father makes choice of his house and the sonne purchaseth it so the holy Ghost takes possession in casting out Satan and sinne and in keeping and holding the same in spite of all Satans assaults Act. 5.3 A lie against the truth is a speciall sinne against the holy Ghost whose proper worke is to testifie of the veritie he hath receiued from the Father and the Sonne And hence it comes to passe that sinning after the knowledge of the truth is most dangerous because it is opposite to the last act of God further then which he will not goe in the addition of any new supply of grace and goodnesse Q. What may wee learne for conclusion of all this A. That to him the worke is especially giuen in whom the manner of working doth most appeare as Creation to the Father Redemption to the Sonne and Sanctification to the holy Ghost This may a little be manifested vnto vs out of man who is said to doe all things by his wit will and power The first mouer of man to action is will then by wit and wisedome he proceeds and by his power concludes The will workes by wit and power wit workes from the will by power and the power workes from them both Will begins wit dispenseth and power doth finish the action Onely here is the difference that they are not alwayes able to worke inseparably for sometimes a man hath more wit then will Agrippa Act. 26.28 had more wit to be perswaded to be a Christian then will to imbrace so dangerous a profession Sometimes he hath more will then wit as Peter Mat. 16.22 Master spare thy selfe loue made him blind in seeing what was fit for Christ to doe Sometimes againe more will and wit then power as the Devill Mat. 4. in the temptation of our Sauiour he shewed all his wit and will to trap our Sauiour but he had not power thereunto somtimes also there appeares more power then eyther wit or will as in the Legion of vncleane Spirits Math. 8. who carried the whole Herd of Swine head long into the Sea By this wee may see the inseparable co-operation of the three persons as through a crevis or lettice a little glimmering light of their distinct manner of working The Father wills the thing to be done hence in Scripture will is oftner giuen to the Father then any other person Mat. 11.26 Ephes 1.11 Secondly the Sonne being the wisedome of the Father dispenseth what the Father hath willed And here wee vsually call the Sonne the wisedome of the Father and so indeed we finde him to be in our redemption 1. Cor. 1.30 Thirdly the holy Ghost as the power of both doth finish and consummate their works and so the Scripture stiles him the power of the Highest Luk. 1.35 For as the Father did will that his Sonne should take vpon him our flesh and as it was proper to the second person to assume so the finishing of this worke in the last act of it was due to the Spirit for as there is a naturall spirit to vnite the body and soule together so is there a divine spirit equall to the worke to vnite the divinitie and the humanitie of Christ together God wills that his sonne assume and his sonne will not assume but by the worke of the Spirit To conclude nothing is done no not in their most distinct manner of working but they will all haue an hand in it what more proper to the sonne of God then to take our flesh and become our wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption And yet he can doe none of this but from the will of his Father and by the power of his Spirit CHAPTER XII Of the Creation of things immediately made perfect Question HItherto of Gods efficiencie in generall what are the kinds Answere A. Two Creation and providence In the one we see the orderly production of the creatures in the other Gods carefull administration and preservation of them See for this Psalme 104. Of creation to the tenth verse of government to the 27. verse of preservation to the end Nehe. 9.6 Thou hast made the heauen with all their host c. Thou presoruest them all and they worship thee in regard of their Government Q. What is Creation A. It is the first part of Gods externall efficiencie whereby he made the world of nothing originally good Gen. 1.1 In the beginning God made Heb. 11.3 of things which did not appeare Gen. 1.3 and they were very good Psal 33.6.7.8.9 and 146.6 Ier. 10.11.12 Act. 17.24 All which places testifie of a Creator and his power wisedome and discretion in framing them so excellently and that minimo motu by his word and breath Q. What is here generally to be obserued A. That because things here originally had their beginning therefore the Fathers manner of working doth here pruicipally appeare to whom the originall of all things is giuen 1. Cor. 8.6 All are said to be of the Father so are they of the Sonne as God but as a person he is not the originall for in the same place it is said by the sonne And so in the Creed we giue all personally to the Father vntill wee come to the worke of redemption and here we are to learne that the Apostasie of Adam was especially against the Father and therefore could not he by way of satisfaction be our Redeemer for the person properly offended cannot satisfie himselfe by himselfe but by some other that must come betwixt the Father and vs and thus agrees it with the iustice of God that we should be reconciled by a second person Q. Did God make the world all at one instant A. No but in the space of sixe times 24. houres that wee might more distinctly consider all his workes And Aquinas giues a good rule Successiverum non simul est esse perfectio God could haue created all at once but in his wisedome he tooke daies for it Some glimps of reason hereof we may aime at thus as some creatures were to begin with the first instant
of time so some others that they might not haue their principles together were to haue something goe before them hence the constancie and inconstancie of Gods creatures The third heauen and the Angels were of necessitie to be created in the first instant that they might haue their perfection of matter and forme together otherwise they should be corruptible for whatsoeuer is of a preexistent matter is resoluble and subiect to corruption But that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed hath no other change but by the same hand to returne into nothing againe It was therefore impossible for the world to want a beginning and improbable for the creatures to be all at once and yet some to remaine incorruptible and others corruptible That the worke was of sixe dayes continuance is plaine by Gen. 2.1 Exod 20.11 Q. How is the worke distributed A. Either into the adiuncts of time as a worke of sixe dayes or into the essentiall and integrall parts as into nature constant or inconstant or respecting the agent that gaue all as well matter as forme into Creation immediately perfect or perfect by degrees Gen. 1.1 In the beginning or very first moment of time God created heauen and earth Now by the opposite member in the distribution largely discribed in the whole Chapter we shall be able to vnderstand that which is in silence passed over Earth vpon which wee now tread was made the third day and therefore cannot be this which was made in the very beginning of the first day neither can this heauen be that which was made the second day ver 8. It then remaines by iust consequent to be the highest heauen which at the very first was made most absolute and perfect Secondly the earth that was made at the very same instant as a matter of all that was afterwards to be created being all things in power nothing in act did from his owne center touch the third heauen in euery point and part of his outside that of necessitie least any vacuitie or emptinesse should haue interposed it selfe within the compasse of so great a continent nature abhorring to yeeld nothing a place within the circle of some-thing Therefore were these two as companions and friends immediately made of God in the very beginning of the first day Further it is said of the earth ver 2. that it was without forme and voyd that is as yet it had neither any essentiall or accidentall perfection The Lord afterwards did forme it into the light the expanse improperly called the firmament the water and the earth These foure were mediately created of the earth and yet for their formes immediately from God of nothing Thus was the earth first formed the highest part of it most apt to receiue light the next ayre the third the forme of water and the lowest the forme of earth After the earth had receiued this perfection it was filled in euery part of it with inhabitants as aboue with starres foules below with trees beasts and fishes c. But of these anone I insist here to proue by reason that which is a truth not as yet clearely deliuered and by many contradicted I leaue all to censure according to the evidence I shall giue My meaning is not to binde any man vnto my opinion I onely present things and lay them out as it were vpon a stall neither is it meet I grow into choler with any man that giues me no credit or dis-likes my ware that were to play the Pedant Passion witnesseth that it is not reason so to doe and he that doth any thing out of passion cannot well doe it out of reason Why should any bee angry with mee that I am not altogether of his opinion seeing I am not angry with him because he is not of mine I haue propounded for my example S. Ierome and S. Augustine in their disputations to whom it was no matter who gained the day they would both winne by vnderstanding their errors But why doe I thus draw my selfe from my taske Let truth vphold her selfe by mildnesse and be promoted by patience You haue heard that heaven and earth were made in the very instant and beginning of the first day That they are two opposite members in the worke of God and therefore what is properly giuen to the one must not bee giuen to the other The earth sayth the Text was without forme and voyd Heaven then had at the very first his forme and inhabitant and therefore had the glorious Angels at the same instant created with it other places were in time before their in-dwellers onely the third heaven and the Angels were concreated and the reason is for that their perfections were equally of nothing It could not stand with order after the finishing of the third heauen and entrance made to create of matter afterward to fall off againe and beginne to create substances of no matter I meane integrally for their whole essence otherwise the foure formes of the elements and soule of man were of nothing Q. What is the creation of things immediately made perfect A. Whereby he made them of nothing with their principles together that is their matter and forme were put together of Almightie God not suffering the one to enter the composition before the other Gen. 1.1 In the beginning he made not giuing the one a beginning before the other The same individuall time was the measure of both Our bodies and soules may part asunder because in creation time did separate them c. Q. What followes from hence A. That they are obnoxious and subiect to the motion of their owne nature onely by the power of God No other force is able to worke vpon them or destroy their beings Luk. 12.31 Math. 6.19.20 1. Tim. 6.19 The place and the life therein are both incorruptible subiect to no alteration change or mutation Angels are too quicke and ready in their motion to suffer of any but God he onely is nimble enough to meet them and master them Q. What else A. That they are onely subiect in regard of their essence to creation and annihilation that is by the same hand they may be made nothing as they were of nothing made something Isa 40.15 God can takeaway his creature as easily as the winde doth a little dust Q. What yet further may be obserued A. That they are in themselues no wayes liable to generation or corruption They can neither receiue new formes or loose their old for that matter cannot admit of diverse formes which it selfe was never depriued of his owne So complete is the vnion that the matter hath not so much as the least inclination to any other perfection then it receiues at the first instant by the hand of the Creator and excellencie of his forme Math. 22.30 The idle question of the Sadduces concerning mariage in heauen and procreation of children is fully answered by our Sauiour both in regard of the nature of the place and
his first inhabitants In the resurrection of the dead they neither marry nor are giuen in mariage but are as the Angels of God in beauen Q. When were these things created A. In the first moment of time for as they had no succession of time for the receiuing of their essentiall parts so God tooke the very first beginning for their creation The succession of time being left to other creatures of a cleane contrary nature Angels are not simply eternall because they haue a beginning yet they are immortall because nature can never sever their parts or divide them asunder Gen. 1.1 In the beginning he made the heauen c. Perfect for forme and that it might not be voyd like the earth filled it with most excellent inhabitants Q. What are the things so made A. The third heaven and the Angels Colos 1.16 Heaven and all things therein as thrones dominions principalities powers c. were created of the Father by his Sonne Angels no sooner opened the eyes of their reason then they saw themselues in skie and highest sphere of happinesse Q. What is the creation of the third heaven A. Whereby it was made perfect immediately of nothing to be a most excellent place replenished with all pleasures that belong to eternall happinesse where his Maiestie is seene face to face and therefore aboue all other places is called the Habitacle of holinesse 2 Chron. 30.27.1 King 8.30 Deut. 26.15 Gods house full of excellent Mansions Ioh. 14.2 Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 The third and highest heaven 2. Cor. 12.2 Psal 113.5 The habitation of Iehovah where are fulnesse of ioy and pleasures for euermore Psal 16.11 and 33.14 This onely hath the immoueable foundation Heb. 11.10 And is as folide as stone but cleare as Cristall Rev. 21.11 Iob sayes it is strong and firme as being stretched and spread out to the vtmost extension and as transparent in brightnesse as a molten looking glasse Iob 37.18 This onely is to be called Firmament as not penetrable by any creature whereas the other two heavens vnder it are to be passed through by the grossest bodies This heaven is without all pores and cannot possibly extend or contract it selfe into a larger or straiter compasse it opens to the very Angels Gen. 28.12 Ioh. 1.51 who though they be able to penetrate all things vnder it yet are they no more able to enter that body then they are to passe into one anothers natures Hence it comes to passe that the third heaven giues way to Angels the soules and bodies of men to enter by miracle God making way by his power where nature yeelds no passage This heaven is more firme and solide then the earth more bright and glorious then the Sunne in his strength c. Q. What is the Creation of the Angels A. Whereby he created them at once and together in the third heaven immediately of nothing with the greatest perfections of nature to the end they might praise him together and become his ministring Spirits and Messengers as he should haue occasion to send them Heb. 1.7 He made them for perfection of nature Spirits and for office his most immediate Ministers and for execution more ready then any flame of fire ver 14. Yea and so prompt to minister to the heires of saluation that they are all ready to be commanded Iob 38.7 They are called morning Starres by reason of their admirable brightnesse of nature such as the eye of flesh cannot behold Colos 1.16 Q. With what properties hath he enriched them A. With the greatest perspicuitie of reason and acutenesse of wit libertie of will strength and speed of motion that is possible or incident to created nature Mat. 18.10 They are sayd alwayes to behold the face of God so cleare vnderstandings that they quickly perceiue what God would haue done yet of some things are they ignorant Mar 13.32 And whatsoever they know is by reflection either of Gods face vpon the glasse of their mindes or the beames of it as they shine in the creatures the one is by immediate revelation the other by inquisition and discourse Eph. 3.10 1. Pet. 1.12 It is true that Angels see both the face of God and the face of things and then the face of themselues and hence it is that they know nothing in themselues but either God reveales it or themselues doe finde it in the creatures and by meanes hereof they learne much in beholding God and his workes and hauing so neere a presence with his Maiesty must needs out-strip others that are further off I meane in respect of divine Revelation As for freedome of will it was most excellent by nature and is now growne better by grace and hath confirmed them for ever in glory as for strength and a gilitie of motion read these Texts Gen. 32.2 2 Sam. 24.16 2 King 19.35 Act. 1.10 and 5.19 and 12.7.8.9.10 Q. What are their offices A. To celebrate the praises of God and to execute his commands Dan. 7.10 Thousand thousands ministred vnto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him Luk. 1.19 I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speake vnto thee c. Psal 103.20 and 148. 2. Ready are the Angels both in their attendance vpon God and performance of his will to his creatures Psal 91.11 Isa 6.3 Rev. 7.11.12 They are as a gard to the Church Q. Where is their speciall abode A. In the third heauen Math. 18 10. Their Angels in heaven Mar. 12.25 When wee arisefrom the dead wee shall be as the Angels in heaven Psal 68.17 The Chariots of the Lord are twentie thousand thousand Angels and the Lord is among them as in the Sanctuary of Sinai They are the proper inhabitants of heaven and there is of them an innumerable company Heb. 12.22 Yet their number is not infinite though to vs it be indefinite Q. Are there any degrees of Angels A. Yes but to determine what and how many is without warrant from Gods word for ought I can finde Q. Doth not Scripture favour their opinion that make nine severall orders of Angels A. Col. 1.16 Ephe. â— 21. and 3.10 S. Paul here giueth distinct titles to the inhabitants of heauenly places But whether hereby are signified distinct orders offices or gifts it doth not appeare And whenas it is supposed that those nine orders are set downe by a disciple of S. Paul it is well proued that the alledged Dionysius is of a far newer stamp and baser mettall Nor can I see how it can agree with Scripture that the Seraphim Cherubim and thâ—ones haue never any other employment then immediate attending vpon the presence of God whereas Heb. 1.14 the Angels are said to be all ministring Spirits for the good of the elect Isa 6.6 CHAPTER XIII Of the first matter and foure Elements Question HItherto of things immediately perfected what is the creation of those things that were perfected by degrees An. It is whereby he made them of a
to make way for the Sea seemes to lie vpon the very waters and to be vpholden by them and so appeared by Gods commandement from vnder them and now to stand in them Q. How called God the waters beneath A. Iammim Seas Gen. 1.10 because there was the collection of many waters all rivers running into it Eccl. 1.7 We see many great rivers which at the first rising out of some hills-side might be covered with a Bushell which after many miles fill a very broad channell and drawing neere to the Sea doe even make a little Sea in their owne bankes Iam signifies the west because the Seas flow from that way c. CHAPTER XIIII Of the Elementaries Question VVE haue heard of the elements what are the elementaries Answere Whereby God made them of these foure elements by a mixture Gen. 1.11 Let the earth bring forth c. This was impossible without heat and moysture therefore other elements were in the composition as may appeare by the resolution of plants out of which water and spirit is to be distilled c. The mystery of this mixture may thus bee conceiued First water being of a running nature is stayed by earths drinesse Secondly earth being dry in the highest degree would destroy waters moysture being not answerable to his quality in the same degree therefore ayre comes in and takes part with water to moderate his excessiue drinesse Thirdly the coldnesse of water and earth together would easily extinguish the heat of the ayre except fire the greatest champion should step in and helpe the ayre against them both And those all foure being closed together fight it out vntill the quarrell be taken vp by euery one yeelding a little to another and remitting their forces vntill they all meete louingly together in the same elementary composition which is as a compound of them all But you will say this is rather Generation then Creation and therefore a foule confusion to bring it amongst divine precepts I answere The action of euery creature is but an imitable genesis or correspondent work-manship to Gods and therefore in euery thing the first course is extraordinary God shewing the creature his way of imitation Therefore all the elementaries were made of God though hee gaue commandement to the elements to bring them forth Q. How devide you these clementaries A. They are either animate or inanimate things with life or without life God shewing himselfe by his worke to be both life and being Now because God proceeds to perfection let vs first see the more imperfect elementaries Q. What are the inanimate elementaries A. Whereby they were made out of the elements without parts that is a body and a soule I confesse some dispute is about Mineralls which containe in them excellent spirits and are found very vivificall in cordialls but yet this is no proper life neither will it follow that they haue a vegetatiue life because they seeme to grow for that is onely by addition of matter and not a liuely extension of the same matter by a springing life increasing to his full perfection c. Q. How are they devided A. They are either Meteors or Mineralls for so it comes to passe that these things which haue onely a body and no soule are either of elements well ioyned together or else of such as hang very loosely together and are casily shaken asunder these things are passed over in silence by Moses and might well be left out of this Art saue onely that God doth wonderfully set forth his glory even by the weakest workes and those that are worst tyed together in their composition We will therefore stay a little in the handling of them for their knowledge shall be both pleasant and profitable Q. What are the Meteors A. All luch things as are mixed of the foure elements imperfectly Gen. 1.6 Of this kinde are the waters aboue Gen. 2.5 the raine that descends from them Psal 148. Clouds fire haile snow winde and vapours are called vpon to prayse the Lord because he created them What marvells doe we meete withall in this head of creatures the clouds the bottles of raine vessels as thin as the liquor which is contained in them there they hang and moue though weightie with their burden These the Lord maketh one while as some ayery Seas to hold water another while as some ayery Furnaces whence he scattereth his sudden fires vnto all the parts of the earth astonishing the world with the fearefull noyies of the thunders eruption out of the midst of the waters aboue he fetcheth fire and hard stones Another while hee makes the clouds as steele-glasses wherein the Sunne lookes and shewes his face in the varietie of colours which he hath not there are the streames of light blazing and falling Starres fires darted vp and downe in many formes hollow openings and as it were gulfes in the skie bright circles about the Moone and other Planets Snowes Haile c. Here might I discourse of a world of wonders to the astonishment of the readers but I must remember my Art which is to speake of Creation and not the generation of things for as the one belongs to Divinitie so the other to naturall Phylosophy And I take it that Meteors were rather generated of the foure elements then created though in all wee are to admire Gods hand though we cannot search out his action But if God lend life as I desire first to acquaint men more fully with the knowledge of Iehovah-Elohim so after with their workes And Creation according to Moses description will yeeld the exactest and divinest Phylosophie Q. What is the perfect mixture A. Whereby the bodies of things are more closely vnited and produced according to the predominant element not hanging by violence out of their proper elements but duely placed of God in their proper places whereby the first matter is filled and adorned God himselfe supplying that voyd and vnformed masse with foure formes and infinite varieties of creatures out of their composition and mixture They which lie the lowest and doe adorne the bowels of the earth wee call Mineralls and they are either Metalls or Stones the one hath water predominant in it the other earth and they are both precious and base purer or impurer And it is to be wondered at that man treading vpon these Mineralls should not learne to contemne them They lie furthest from heaven and the best of them are in India furthest from the Church It is as we haue said that which Midianitish Camels carry that Indian slaues get that servile Apprentises worke that greedy Iewes swallow worldlings admire and Ruffians spend and yet we cannot esteem of it as the meanest of Gods creatures far inferior to a spire of grasse Adam had them in the first Paradise Gen. 2.11.12 In the second we shall not need them Iob 28.1.2.3.5.6 c. There may you see how God hath placed them and how we come by them And so subiect to sinne as God
which is a kind of feeling for both must haue their obiects present Now it is made by the passing down of the sensitiue spirit from the brain to the tongue c. Sight is made by conveiance of sensitiue spirits to the eyes where they are met with the light without that first comes to the watery humor which is as lead to a looking glasse that stayes the light then it comes to the glassie humor and there is gathered together then it comes to the crystaline or clearest humor and is carried vp vnto the braine by the sensitiue spirit that meetes it Hence Hippocrates saies that these sensitiue Spirits are a drie brightnesse and that is because fire is here predominant as wee may see by a blow vpon the eye the Spirits redoubled are made visible as fire Those that haue the brightest eyes as Catts c. see better in darkenesse then other creatures and worse in the light because the greater light darkens the lesser Hearing is a fourth sense and meets with the noyse in the eares there it centers for noyse is made by a circle in the ayre not much vnlike vnto that which wee see in the water when wee cast a stone into it Hence it comes to passe as many as stand within the circle or circumference of the sound made in the ayre heare it and the reason is because any point or center within the circle of the sound is potentially in euery part of it one point is enough to bring it to our eares yet we cannot see so for when we but looke at a thing that is round wee cannot see it all at once But I must not play the Phylosopher too much it is my desire that God for his workes may haue the due glory Smelling is the last sense and serues wonderfully to refresh the braine The inward senses that looke through these outward are fancie cogitation and memory and they are a little resemblance of reason which comes in the last place For fancie hath in it a kind of invention cogitation of iudgement and memory of methode And this is the sensatiue life wherein God shewes his owne act more eminently Q. How many sorts of creatures liue by sense A. Two either such as liue by it onely or haue beside all these a reasonable life This onely passeth Elements both formall and materiall yet the finest Spirits serue to knit it with the rest and so wee handle that life amongst Elementaries otherwise it is angelicall and purely of nothing by the power of the Creator Q. How many kinds haue we of the first life A. Either fishes and foules or beasts All which were made according to their kinds and were mightily to increase through Gods blessing and to fill their places with daily of-spring Q. What is the creation of the fishes A. Whereby the Lord caused the waters to bring them forth in abundance wherein also they increase and multiplie and replenish the waters Gen. 1.20.21.22 Iob 40.20 41.1 Q. What is the creation of the fowles A. Whereby he made them to flie in the ayre and to multiplie vpon the earth Gen. 1.20 Q. When were the fish and fowle made A. In the sift day or 24. houres Gen 1.23 These were more imperfect then the beasts of the field and therefore conclude a dayes worke by themselues God willing vs to take notice how exact he was in ascending vp to mans perfection Q. What is the creation of the beasts A. Whereby he caused the earth to bring them forth after their kinds and they are either walkers or creepers walkers cattell and beasts that is wild and tame creatures Gen. 1.24.25 Thus God formed and filled that first matter and prepared it as an habitation for man who though hee came naked out of the wombe of the earth was even then so rich that all things were his heaven was his roofe earth his floare the Sea his pond the Sunne Moone his torches all creatures his vassalls They that looke into some great Pond may see the bankes full though they see not the severall springs whence the water riseth so wee may eye the world but can never come to see the excellencie of it much more of the maker himselfe Kings erect not cottages but set forth their magnificence in sumptuous buildings so God hath made a world to shew his admirable glory And if the lowest pauement of that third heaven be so glorious what shall wee finde within Who would thinke that all these should be made for one and that one well-neere the least of all Sure I am the last with him therefore let vs conclude this worke of Creation CHAPTER XV. Of Mans Creation Question VVHat is the creation of things with a reasonable life Answere Whereby he made them of a body and soule immortall Gen. 1.26 Other creatures were made by a simple command Man not without a divine consultation Others at once Man he did first forme then inspire others in severall shapes like to none but themselues Man after his owne image others with qualities fit for seruice Man for dominion His bodie and soule are both immortall for death is an enemie 1. Cor. 15.26 And therefore no consequent of nature but a companion of sinne yet this is true that euery elementary is corruptible and resoluble and so is the body of man being taken out of the dust but as it was made a companion of an immortall soule immediately made of nothing so is it fit that it should be aboue its own nature elevated to be one though not per vim contactus yet per vnionem personae immortall and eternall Almighty God after he had drawne the large and reall map of the world abridged it into this little table of Man as Dioptron Microcosmicum which alone consists of heaven and earth soule and body In his soule is the nature of Angels though not so extensiue and actiue as wee may see in a little and great man c. In his bodie are the foure elements the Meteors and Mineralls as may appeare both by vapours and fumes and spirits He liues the life of a Plant he hath the senses of beasts and aboue all the addition of reason His body is more exquisitely made then any other as may appeare by the nakednesse of it For others that are clothed with feathers and haires c. shew that they are fuller of excrements The Lord brought him vpon the stage fully prepared that he might be both an actor and a spectator He had a body with hands for action and an head for contemplation Q. How did God create him A. In his owne likenesse and image Gen. 1.26 Colos 3.10 And it is so called because man was furnished in euery point to resemble the wisedome holinesse and righteousnesse of God not onely in this frame and perfection of body and soule but also by his actions and government of the creatures and this was naturall vnto man The Papists thinke that this image was supernaturall
but vntruely seeing it was of his created perfection hauing the greatest excellencies of all things here below For an image is a speciall kinde of similitude and so man after a more speciall sort then all other creatures resembles the maiestie of his Creator even as it were a stature or image of him yet must we take heed of the error of the Authropomorphoi and Papists who metamorphize God into the shape of a Man old and auncient For the likenesse stands not in hauing a body and soule but in the hability of both to worke answerably to the righteousnesse and holinesse of God And image beside similitude which is the generall containes two things more expression and representation First it must either be expressed by another thing or else exemplarily formed to such a patterne and pattent and as it were the very copie and countenance of it Hence one egge though it be the similitude of another yet is it not the image and so one man is like another in shape but not his image yet is the sonne the image of his father and my face in a glasse the image of my naturall face so is the stamp in brasse waxe c. the image of the seale and the picture of Caesar the image of Caesar Secondly It must represent specifically either the substance or accidents of the thing whereof it is an image Hence the sonne is the image of his father essentially and a picture mans image accidentally and by this it appeares that an egge is not the image of an Hen though it be expressed by her or a worme of a man though it be engendered in or out of his body The image of God by naturall expression and representation is the onely sonne of God Heb. 1.3 He alone is of the father by nature and essentially as it were his very forme and figure c. But man is an image by counsell Iam. 1.18 And more specially from God then other creatures Gen. 1.26 Let vs make It was enough for other creatures to be but man is not without speciall counsell and in speciall manner is made a fit subiect for the three persons to declare their workes in him No doubt the Father Sonne and holy Ghost did even now consult according to their eternall act to produce man as he might bee fittest to declare severally the righteousnesse and holinesse of each person Ephes 4.24 Col. 3.10 The new man is Christs the putting on of him is the Spirits and the creation of him the Fathers Surely he that did loue his owne image without an obiect did also loue it when he had created it and was so carefull of it that when man had destroyed it he would haue it repaired againe by his Sonne and his elect invested into it by his spirit He that can loue without an obiect can hate without an obiect and yet hate nothing but the opposite of his owne image His loue begins at himselfe as an affection of vnion and so doth his hatred as an affection of separation And God doth never separate where he once loues Hee condemnes euery sinner but the hatred of condemnation is not alwayes the hatred of separation It pleaseth God to loue himselfe and his owne image and to loue it constantly in his owne Sonne and who shall complaine that he is separated from this loue Sinne makes a separation in all in regard of condemnation Farre be it from the iust Iudge to favour either sinne or sinner yet notwithstanding the vnion of loue remaines still for either he loues his owne image in the elect or the elect in the image of his sonne Q. Wherein consists this image A. Either in conformation or domination first he is to expresse Gods image in his conformitie with the holinesse and righteousnesse of his Creator Secondly in his dominion and rule over the creatures As God is holy in his nature righteous in his actions and Lord in his commands so man was made most pure and holy filled with originall righteousnesse for all righteous actions and made a pettie Lord or Lord deputy over all the creatures Ephes 4.24 Gen. 1.26 Q. Wherein consists his conformitie with God A. Both in his body and soule for that which executes is to be holy as well as that which acts 1. Thes 5.23 Rom. 6.12.13 and 12.1 These places shew plainely that the body and members being instruments of the soule are to be so tuned and touched that there may be an excellent harmony betwixt the will of God and the whole man For wee are made of God both in body and soule to glorifie God in vsing all faculties and members parts and powers as instruments of righteousnesse and true holinesse 1. Corinthians 6.20 Q. Whereof and how was the body made A. Of the finer dust of the earth with the rest of the elements hence it was possible for man to die yet that it might enioy health and never sicken the Lord made it of a most excellent temper and by the vse of wholesome food and his blessing therein to continue and hold out and thereupon it was possible for man not to die Besides the Lord furnished it with most excellent instruments absolutely composed both for beautie and dutie in all the workes of holinesse and righteousnesse Gen. 2.7.25 Psal 8.5 139.14 Rom. 6.13 The matter of mans body though basest as earth yet finest and purest as the dust For as Moates in the Sunne are nearest pure ayre so is dust neerest their nature being as it were the sifting of the earth and being layed by water was red earth Mans body then had the purest portion of earth For the forme it was erect and straight and this was done because he was to speake to others as likewise to God and therefore was not to looke vpon the ground as if that should haue beene his obiect c. The body all over is vncovered that it might be a fitter habitation for the reasonable soule which is much hindered by abundance of excrements In euery part beautie strength convenience meete together His head is round and fuller of braines then any other creature that it might be the throne and seat of reason and because his attendants are there I meane the senses it can turne any wayes for reason to over-looke them Within the braine are many cells or cellars for the Spirits to goe in and as messengers to be dispatched vp and downe for reasons vse which are not in other creatures As he hath a head for contemplation so hands for execution differing from beasts Againe all the internall parts are of more excellent matter and forme then those in beasts Hence mans braine makes finer spirits then theirs his liner and heart finer bloud and better concocted and all for the exercise of the reasonable soule His head is neerest heaven for place figure and ghests there dwell the maiesticall powers of reason which make him a man and not a beast The senses here take their originall most
their instruments There are the liuing glasses placed in the midst of his visage which bring obiects a farre off to the minde and because they are too tender opticke peeces slie of the most soft and lawny touches they are mightily defended and fenced with hollow bones and with prominent browes and lips And least they should be too much bent on what they ought not they haue peculiar nerues to pull them vpward to God as also to the seat of their rest What a tongue hath God giuen him the instrument not of taste onely but of speech also How sweet and excellent voyces are formed by that loose filme of flesh What an incredible strength is giuen to the weake bones of the iawes What a wonder of so few letters to make infinite words and giue them severall sounds with a distinct articulation and ready signification to the hearers The causes whereof in nature are these The lungs or lights breath to coole the heart and like a paire of bellows thrust out that ayre which they haue receiued and it goes and comes by the wind-pipe which is made rough as it were with ringes to stay the breath it goe not out altogether at the top thereof is a peece of flesh to cover the mouth of it Now in the pipe this noyse comes vp and lies in the almands and makes a resound and is turned vpon the tongue which strikes it against the pallet and teeth and makes an articulate sound cutting in peeces the whole sound either into a letter or clapping diverse together makes syllables and so words and then sentences This articulation is naturall but the appellation of things by names is artificiall and belonging to the Art of Grammar In Babels bablers to stop their proud attempt God meddles neither with hands nor feete but their tongues not pulling them out or loosing their strings or making them speechlesse but by teaching them to say too much A sound of letters befooles the workmen and spoiles the worke I beleeue this confusion was made in turning of letters when they intended to put such letters together God taught them to dispose them contrary as ab ba c. And now poore creatures how long doe wee stay vpon the shell of tongues before wee come to chew the sweet kernell of knowledge Division of tongues hinders any worke and is often a cause why our Sion riseth no faster and though it over-threw old Babel yet doth it build the new Onely I except the clouen and fiery tongues of the Apostles Act. 2.3 The Spirit teaching the Art of Grammar without meanes c. Againe that goodly proportion God set in the face how is it altered with passion as with ioy and sorrow Laughter ariseth from the extension of the heart which sends spirits apace from it selfe and because they are hot fly vpwards and so come to the face that is very full of muscles cold by nature and so contracted yet by the heat comming thither are extended which is the laughter in the face Onely this must further be added that the heat of the head and braine doth sympathize with other parts of the body And therefore the apprehension of a ridiculous obiect sends downe to the heart from the head then back againe to the face Teares arise cleane contrary for the head being stricken with the apprehension of some sorrowfull obiect the heart is smitten too and contracts it selfe and so sends vp those chrystaline humors that are to coole it and are squesed out by contraction of parts and so runne out at the eyes The head stands vpon a comely and tower-like necke most sinewie because smallest I might carry you downe to his feete but my purpose is not to play the Anatomist any further then to giue a little taste of a wonderfull worke All the inward vessels for all offices of life nourishment egestion generation c. no veine sinew artery c. are idle Yet this body compared to the soule what is it but as a clay-wall that encompasseth a treasure as the wooden box of a Ieweller or as a course case to a rich instrument or as a maske to a beautifull face let vs therefore come to his Soule Q. How was the soule created A. Immediately of nothing hence it dies not Man was made last because he was worthiest And the soule was last inspired because more noble then all the rest And the inspiration of it is by creating to infuse and by infusing to create Gen. 2.7 Zech. 12.1 The breath of life was formed within and not without man And though it be little yet is it of great value A little peece of gold containes many peeces of silver one Diamond is of more worth then many Quarries of Stone and one Load-stone hath more vertue then mountaines of earth Q. How then was the soule indued A. With most excellent faculties which either worke vpon the body by Spirits or themselues by reason As the soule works vpon the body by elementary spirits it is possible for man to die but as these by the blessing of God are cherished by wholesome food man againe might not die These spirits are either naturall as hauing ayre predominant in them and they serue for generation and augmentation and nutrition or animall hauing fire predominant in them and they serue for sense or motion now the motiue faculties are either for locall motion whereby the bodie is carried vp and downe or epithumeticall and internall motion whereby the soule is moued with desires or affections especially loue and hatred which are the primatiues of all others whether they be in the concupiscible or irascible facultie as ioy and sorrow in respect of present obiects hope and feare in regard of absent c. Beside these separable faculties and not practised without the bodie the soule hath more eminent and excellent powers and abilities which it is able to vse being separated from the body and they are reasonable whereby he might be the free beginner of his owne action that is a cause by counsell Gen. 2.10 and these faculties are vnderstanding and will And thus you see how God hath giuen vs a Soule to informe our bodies senses to informe our soule faculties to furnish that soule vnderstanding the great surveyer of the secrets of nature and grace by this man seeth what God hath done by this he can admire his works and adore him in what he seeth Here is fancie and invention the master of great workes Memory the great keeper or master of the Rolles of the Soule a power that can make amends for the speed of time and make him leaue his Monuments and Chronicles behind him There is will the Lord-paramount keeping state in the Soule commander of all actions and the elector of all our resolutions Iudgement sits by as the great counsellour of the will affections follow as good servants of both And for the good thereof hath God giuen a body fit to execute his charge so wonderfully disposed as
knowne in Moses dayes and by the description may be knowne in ours Plinie speakes of a citie called Ctesiphon which lies betweene the river Tigris and Euphrates mentioned by Moses Gen. 2.14 which is wonderfull fruitfull and it lies as an Iland environed by both Also it is well knowne that in Babylon neere Tigris is a most fertile place for feeding of Cattell and the people are faine to keepe them vp in the night for feare of suffocation Their corne they mow thrise and then receiue a twofold increase The Garden of Adonis was in this countrey And Scripture mentioneth 2. King 19.12 The children of Eden which were in Thel-asare That is the Garison Souldiers that were in a tower against the King of Assyria for the defence of this fruitfull countrey The Topographie shewes plainely that here-abouts the Garden stood Perath or Euphrates is a knowne river that devideth Syria from Chaldea and Mesopotamia c. And may be taken for the whole river though it haue but the name of the fourth river which is as it were the midle streame of Euphrates running betwixt the second third river of which nothing is sayd more then the name because it was best knowne to the Iewes when Moses did write Pison the first river may very well be that which Plinie calls Pasi-tigris or Piso-tigris And in Plinie Diglath or Diglito another arme is the same with Hiddekel both signifying the same thing viz. an arrow for the swiftnesse of the water and this is the same with Tigris now called Tegil So that by all this it is most probable that the Garden did lie betwixt Euphrates and Tigris Furthermore Plinie writes that as it were a fish-pond or Marsh in compasse about an Acre of ground burnes continually which may not without probability be thought to besome remembrance of that flaming sword which turned euery way to keepe man from the tree of life Gen. 3.24 God in iust judgement turning the place into ashes a burning poole as he afterwards did Sodome another Eden of the world By this appeares the folly of Papists that thought this Garden was not drowned in the flood and that Enoch and Elias liue in it c. Oh happy man if hee had but knowne his owne happinesse when he first opened his eyes he saw haven aboue him and a flourishing earth vnder him and himselfe placed in the very Paradise and Palace of the world But this is cleane washed away and over turned in the iust judgement of God Yet read the excellent description of it and let the losse of it provoke vs to seeke after a better Gen. 2.8.9.10.11.12.13.14 Q. Why did God thus place man in a Garden A. That man being appointed of God as Lord deputie vnder him might there serue him more freely keepe his Court haue necessary imployment both in dressing and keeping the Garden Gen. 2.15 It was one of Adams faults to suffer the serpent to come into it Another to forget his dutie to God for the very trees did not onely affoord him worke for his hands but instruction for his heart There he saw two Sacraments in the very midst of the rest of the trees grow before him as most eminent teachers of him Gen. 2.9 The greater shame to offend God who had so hedged him in on all sides that by a word of his mouth he might haue rebuked the Serpent and by the least cast of his eye beene confirmed in dutie and diligence But blessed be God that we haue a better tree of life before our eyes not a tree for triall but for confirmation of being happie in despight of Satan of which we may eate and liue Q. Of what kinds was man created A. Male and female Gen. 1.27 The Male immediately for his body of the foure Elements Gen. 2.7 The female for her body of one of his ribs man being cast into a deepe sleepe Gen. 2.21 Man had better loose a peece of himselfe then misse a good wife Yet the Lord would not paine him in sending him a meete helper as for their Soules they were equally inspired that they might both be partakers of the same happinesse Gen. 1.27 For the image they were both equall Q. Why did God make her A. God saw that it was not good for man to be alone and among the rest of the creatures there was none fit to be his companion Gen. 2.18.20 That there might therefore be wanting to him no comfortable thing God thought it needfull that he should haue such an helper as might satisfie his desires and giue him by his divine benediction a fruitfull ofspring Gen. 1.28 Mal. 2.15 All that man saw immediately after his creation were fit to be his servants none his companions and the same God that found the want supplies it Rather then man shall want a comfort God will begin a new creation not out of the earth mans first matter or out of other creatures his servants but out of himselfe for dearnesse for equalitie and that neither of the head nor foote but the side shewing her place which is to stand next to her husband neither as his drudge in being basely governed nor as his wanton in crowing over him Furthermore God consults not with man to make him happie As he was ignorant while himselfe was made so shall he not know while a second selfe is made out of him Both that the comfort might be greater then was expected as also that he might not vpbraid his wife with any great dependance or obligation he neither willing the worke nor suffering any paine to haue it done The rib can challenge no more of her then the earth can of him They are both made equall debters to God who alone tooke care that they might both be happie in him and by him Q. What did God with her being made A. He brought her to man and ioyned her in marriage with him who acknowledgeth her to be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone This sheweth how exquisite knowledge he had from God If God had giuen him her name or the names of other creatures it had not beene so great a prayse of Adams memory to recall them as it was now of his judgement at first sight to impose them Gen. 2.23 Shee shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man So piercing was the eye of his reason that he saw the inside of all the creatures at first blush and by his perfect knowledge he fitted their names to their dispositions whereas we silly solves his ignorant posteritie see but their skins ever since and forget their very names when we are told them Furthermore he receiued her thankefully to be his wife and established that law of matrimony concerning co-habitation Therefore shall man leaue his father and mother and cleane to his wife and they shall be one flesh Gen. 2.22.23.24 Q. How were man and woman perfect whiles they were both naked A. They then needed no clothing for yet there was
the body into his due course See how the first sinne put all out of ioynt and displaced the whole image of God First man neglected his ordinary calling when carelesly he suffered the Serpent to enter Secondly heabused his eare standing betwixt God and the Devill when he left God and listned vnto his enemy Ever since which time he hath beene dull of hearing Gods word They are not made more deafe of hearing that dwell by the fall of Nilus then Adam and all his posteritie of harkning what God sayes Thirdly his eye wandered when he saw that to be desired which was so plainely forbidden Fourthly his feeling was perverted touching where it was sure to be tainted Fiftly he tasted with delight that which he should haue spit out as bitter and poysonfull Sixtly his smelling which is set over the mouth to giue intelligence to it whether our meat be sweet or no was here trecherous to the palate in suffering it to swallow downe so stincking a morsell Thus the fiue senses were as Cinque-ports for temptations where sinne began first to trafficke and at length Satan became Lieutenant of them all and by them not long after gained custome-tribute of Soules From all these wheeles running wrong Satan creepes neerer the Soule and gots possession of all the interior senses While the Crocodile sleepes with open mouth the Indian Ratt shoots himselfe into his belly and gnawes his gutts in sunder so entred mischiefe at the open gates of this securitie A watchfull providence would haue prevented this eminent danger Now the fancy begins plausible inventions here is a tree for wisedome the cogitation takes it for a truth and the memory hath forgotten both the loue and law of God Vnderstanding thus blinded with sense never calls this sophistry to her tribunall but taking one argument for another teacheth the will to conclude amisse and so the Devill is imbraced for God and man being thus subverted sinned being condemned of himselfe Tit. 3.11 And by this disobedience are we all made sinners both actually and originally Rom. 5.19 Q. What is originall sinne A. An exorbitation or swarning of the whole man both inwardly in himselfe and outwardly in the government of the creatures Psal 51.5 Rom. 3.10 and 5.12.18.19 and 7.24 and 8.5 Eph. 4.17.18 1 Cor. 2.14 Col. 3.9 Tit. 1.15 Heb. 12.1 Gen. 6.5 and 8.21 Isa 57.20 First originall sinne is not the wheele or man himselfe but the exorbitation or swaruing of it Secondly it is come in the place of originall righteousnesse and so is a privation of that and an evill habite in the Soule Thirdly It is not a sleeping habite but an inward act ever stirring in man as doth the first act of the soule which is never quiet Fourthly in this inward motion it hath alwayes an inclination to evill Fiftly It most especially possesseth the will and therefore by the auncients is called concupiscence which is the wills motion where now all sinne beginnes and by a kinde of imperious command drawes all other wheeles about with it By this sinne the whole man is in evill and whole evill is in man as the Chaos had the seeds of all creatures onely wanted the spirits motion to bring forth so this wants nothing but Satans heat to hatch even Cockatrices and such like poysoned monsters Q. What note we from hence A. That mans wit and will are exorbitant and therefore he hath no freedome of will to any good that is that may be pleasing vnto God but wholly is carryed vnto evill Ioh. 8.34.35 Rom. 3.11 2 Pet. 3.5 Heb. 11.6 Gen. 6.5 Ier. 8.21 and 13.10.23 and 17.9 Psal 14.1.3 Math. 7.18 and 12.34 Iob. 3.3 and 6.44 and 12.39 Rom. 7.18 Without the principle of life it is impossible to liue therefore originall sinne being in the place of originall righteousnesse and now no new principle of faith as yet infused man is euery wayes dis-inabled to liue well liue he may and that freely but it must be in sinning The Chariot of the soule is cleane carried out of the way of holinesse and man runnes quite beside the line of the law It is left to God to worke both that which is first to will and that which is last to worke Phil. 2.13 To will and to runne is mine but without God I can doe neither well Without mee sayes Christ you can doe nothing no not thinke any thing sayth Paul Alas what can they doe that are not lame but dead in sinnes Eph. 2.1 The first bond is broken and therefore God and man are parted as really and truely in regard of spirituall life as when the naturall spirits are extinguisht body and soule flie asunder By the influence of Gods Spirit alone must a new life be created in vs that was not and not some former life excited yea further wee are not pre-disposed and prepared of our selues for the receiuing of it As there is no vacuitie in nature no more is there spiritually Euery vessell is full if not of liquor yet of ayre and so is the heart of man though by nature it is empty of grace yet it is full of hypocrisie and iniquitie neither can it be filled with grace except it be emptied of these evill qualities and as in a vessell so much water as goes in so much ayre goes out so in the narrow mouth'd vessell of the heart so much grace as comes in by drops so much sinne is expelled and the first expulsion is violent man not co-working at all for he is imformed as it were with sinne and is contrary to the worke of grace the very wisedome of his flesh is enmitie not secret but publicke in resistance neither doth nor can subiect it selfe Rom. 8.7 One hupotassetai ou dunatai two words that cut the very throat of our free-will It subiects not there is resistance and where there is resistance there is contrarietie and contraries suffer violence of one another And the corrupt will is turned againe to God by violence I say not the will for that is a subiect of both and passiue in conversion suffering grace by violence to cast out sinne As farre as it opposeth by corruption so farre is it constrained to yeeld by grace and in the first motion will not-subiect nay because of sinne cannot but the wheele once turned againe by grace is as ready to doe well as ever it was to doe evill Onely Lord I know that by reason of this opposition my soule will take a long time to emptie and fill and that the best vessell cannot be quite full while it is in the body because there will be still these remainders of corruption Though I must not be impatient of Gods delay yet will I never rest cōtent with any measure of grace in this world but will euery day endevour to haue one drop or another added to my small quantitie so shall my last day fill vp my vessell to the brim Q. What is actuall sinne A. The continuall iarring of man vpon outward
be crept into clouts which are the ensignes of shame Our finenesse is our filthinesse and our neatnesse our nastinesse if we grow proud of what should humble vs. Againe such a maiesty was in man that the very bruit beasts should haue reverēced it which now being covered they contemne and dispise Onely some reliques of it remaine to testifie what was once in man the very Lyons will winke to looke man in the face and the Crocodile with a kind of remorse will wash the face of man with his teares whom he hath apprehended And now we cover not our faces and hands because they are as yet the greatest seats of mans maiestie Furthermore for comelinesse what deformities are in the fairest Absolons ill qualities shewed his temper was not absolute In beautiful faces all hold not proportion and it were no sinfull mixture if there were an absolute symetrie of all parts And for sanitie it is well seene by the infinite diseases of the body what a dyscrasie is in the whole A horse hath not so many infirmities as a man Aristotle thought it came from the worke of nature being more curious in man then any other creature Hence an error more dangerous and by consent of parts inlarged but Aristotle was a pegge too low seeing the whole distemper came from sinne c. Q. What else A. Subiection to the miseries which come by the losse of externall good things as first of such things wherewith the life of man was honoured as the losse of friendship honour rule over the creatures eiection or casting out of paradise with an interdiction or forbidding of vs to enter by the Cherubius Secondly of things necessary for the maintenance of this life as of food which though he laboured vntill he sweat againe yet should the earth bring forth briers thorns thistles Also of raiment and clothing without which he should suffer extreame cold nakednes And lastly in all his possessions and goods continuall calamitie and losse Gen. 3.17.18.19.23.24 Deut. 28.29.30 c. Sorrow for losse of friends disgrace in the creatures turning out of Paradise like some base borne brood vnworthy of such a princely palace if he might haue left it like a tenant or sold it like an owner it had bin some credit vnto him but to be cast out for a wrangler haue the good Angels turne against him which were created as his guard must needs much perplex his mind could be no les then foerūners of his end Add to this his food with famine faintnes his corne with cockle his sweat to drinesse of body drines of graine the very earth being now become a mother of weedes and step mother of wheate his cloathing eyther clogging nature in keeping it too hot or over-little leauing it to the annoyance of the ayre and to starue as well with cleanlinesse of apparell as cleanenesse of teeth and lastly euery calling subiect to calamitie and goods least good when most need and we cannot but conclude that all these together were great hastners of his death but aboue all seeing now in stead of a blessing Gods curse was carried withall and could be no lesse then a devouring canker or wartwort in all his actions and possessions Sinne lockes vp a theefe in our counting-house which will carry away all and if we looke not vnto it the sooner our soules with it Q. What is the perfection and end thereof A. The going out of the Spirits whereby the Soule departeth from the body and the body afterwards is returned and resolved into the earth and other elements whence it was taken Gen. 3.19 Eccl. 12.7 Obserue that neither soule nor body die but onely the Spirits that hold them together they fall asunder by the extinction consumption or congelation of the Spirits that runne along in the bloud c. Here then is nothing but improvidence that addes terror vnto this death Let vs but thinke of it and wee shall not feare it Doe wee not see that even Beares and Tigres seeme not terrible to those that liue with them how may wee see their keepers sport with them when the beholders dare scarce trust their chaine Let vs then be acquainted with this death and we shall be the better able to looke vpon his grimme countenance I am ashamed of this weake resolution that we should extoll death in his absence and be so fearefull in his presence Often in our speculations haue wee freely discoursed of such a friend and now that hee is come to our beds side and hath drawne the Curtaines and takes vs by the hand and offers vs his service wee shrinke inward and by the palenesse of our faces and wildnesse of our eyes wee bewray an amazement at the presence of such a guest Doe we not see that there is no helpe to heale vs but by pulling all asunder Lord teach me while I liue to die vnto sinne and liue vnto righteousnesse that so when I shall die vnto nature I may liue vnto glory Our sinne hath made it bitter and thy mercy hath made it better then life Good Physitians when they apply their Leeches scoure them with salt and nettles and when their corrupt bloud is voyded imploy them to the health of their Patients This Esau in stead of frownes shall meet vs with kisses and although wee receiue a blow from his rough hand yet the very stripe and stroke shall be healing I will therefore never grieue to tread in the steps of my Sauiour to glory I know my last enemy by his goodnesse shall be my first friend in my passage to another world Q. What is the second death A. The subiection of man to the miseries of the world to come Rom. 2.5 An heaping of wrath against the day of wrath The little sparke of immortality and beame of Gods eternity through sinne of an inualuable blessing becomes an intollerable curse subiecting of vs to the miseries of another life Oh that we could feele this as well as the other and vpon the first groanes seeke for ease What mad man will purchase this crackling of thornes such is the worldlings ioy with eternall shrieking and torment But it is no marvaile seeing onely wise men seeke for remedies before their disease sensible patients when they begin to complaine as for fooles they will doe it too late Oh that wee could weepe on earth that wee might laugh in heauen Who would not be content to deferre his ioy a little that it may be perpetuall and infinite Better that wee should weepe with men and laugh with Angels then fleering with worldlings and iolly ones to gnash and howle with Devils Q. What are the beginnings thereof A. In this life as forerunners emptinesse of good things and fulnesse of evill as ignorance of minde terror of conscience and hence a flying from God and hiding of our selues rebellion of will inordinate affections finding the reines loose in their neckes and like wild horses carrying vs over hilles
had happinesse if he had stood so is it made obnoxious to all his miseries he falling By a rule in nature he begets children and by a rule in divinitie he begets them sinfull and yet both naturall It was in mans nature to doe well for himselfe and others and so by consequent to doe evill and convey the same to all his heires for as naturall spirits runne along in the bloud and are apt for generation so originall righteousnesse as a more divine spirit runnes along with the whole frame to frame it in others now that being lost a worse spirit of evill hauing taken vp the roome of the first formes men according to a sinfull image Gen. 5.3 Adam is said to beget in his owne likenesse and image Rom. 5.12.14 Q. By what right is sinne propagated A. By all kinds of right first by the law of Nations for Adam was a Prince of all his posteritie who covenanted with God for vs and for himselfe for the performance of obedience and therefore he breaking wee brake He was also as our Legate did lie as our Lidger or deputie with God and therefore wee may be said to doe whatsoeuer he did He went as a common suretie for vs all and on him was all our credite reposed and he was betrusted of God with the estate of vs all It is therefore a nationall equitie that wee comming all into one bond and obligation should all fare alike Secondly we haue it by the law of inheritance he was our father and we were his sonnes hee the roote and we the branches and therefore were to participate with him in all his estate Doe we not see how children are left in good or bad case by their parents and of meere relation they become their lawful heires and successors Thirdly by the law of divine Iustice the perfection whereof cannot pardon the least sinne without satisfaction to euery farthing as also by the infinitenesse of it that extends it selfe to euery guiltie person and by reason of the violation of the law and dishonour of the law-giuer deales most strictly and precisely with euery sinner One man may kindle such a fire as all the world cannot quench One plague sore may infect a whole kingdome and here we see how the infection of Adams evill is growne much worse then a personall act Satans subtiltie hath ever bin to begin withan head of evill knowing that the multitude as we say of Bees will follow their master Corah kindled a fire of rebellion two hundreth and fiftie Captaines readily bring stickes to it all Israel are content to warme their hands by it onely here the Incendiaries perish God distinguishing betwixt the heads of a faction and the traine but in this all are alike though we were all a sleepe in Adams loynes because the law was equally giuen for all our benefits and our prosperitie stood in the first well husbanding of the happie estate God yeelded vs in Paradise If any obiect Ezek. 18.20 the sonne shall not die for the fathers sinne The answere is when he is not guiltie of it either by propagation or transgression he himselfe according to his birth liuing and dying in it Heb. 7.9.10 It is sayd Leui payed tythes in Abrahams loynes so we in Adam were bound by law to stand to his reconing Q. After what manner is sinne propagated A. Neither from the body to the soule as comming from our vncleane parents As if the soule being purely created should fall into the body as a man in pure white rayment doth fall into a puddle of dirt and mire for the body is not the first subiect of sinne but the soule and therefore cannot be the head and fountaine of propagation Neither is it from the soule to the body as begotten of our vncleane parents for then should it be as mortall as the body and spirits of it as also crosse God in his speciall relation of the father of spirits Heb. 12.9 He is a father of both Psal 139.14 Iob 10.10.11.12 But of the one by the parents of the other immediately by himself It therefore followes by iust consequent that it proceeds from the vnion of both into one man for though our parents as bruit beasts beget not soules yet they beget a more perfect creature in that they are the procreant causes of man vnited of his essentiall causes Gen. 4.1 I haue gotten a man from the Lord. Iehovah Adam and Eue were all about the composition of Cain his Soule was inspired pure and holy yet as soone as the vitall spirits laid hold of it It was in the compound a sonne of Adam The thing may well be explained by this similitude A skilfull Artificer makes a clocke of all his essentiall parts most accurately onely he leaues the putting of all parts together to his vnskilfull Apprentise who so iumbles together the severall ioynts that all fall a iarring and can keepe no time at all euery wheele running backward way so God most artificially still perfects both body and soule but our accursed parents put all out of frame and set euery part in a contrary course to Gods will Psal 51.5 Warmed in sinne is vnderstood of the preparation of the body as an instrument of evill which is not so actually till the soule come Q. What followes from hence A. A iust imputation of the first transgression as also of the fault guilt and punishment and that both in sinne and death Rom. 5.12 1 Cor. 15.21 Q. How is originall sinne propagated A. By our next parents and so ascending to Adam himselfe It is impossible to bring a cleane thing out of filthinesse Gen. 5.3 Iob 14.4 Q. How is actuall sinne conveyed A. In the masse and lumpe other wise in kind euery mans actuall sinne is his owne Ezek 18.20 Q. How death A. Seed and food are the principles of our life in procreation and preservation the first we haue from our parents which is deadly as poysoned with sinne the other comes from our selues being ignorant of what should bee good for our bodies but beside the first death there is a conveyance of the second we being borne the children of wrath for Gods displeasure was kindled as well against Adams posteritie as Adam himselfe Eph. 2.3 Q. How is Eue made partaker of Adams punishment A. Besides her proper punishments as an instrument of evill shee participates with Adam in all we haue said for God made them both equally for an happie estate onely the wife was to inioy it by meanes of her husband first as shee was taken out of him Secondly as they were to hold together for better and worse in regard of their marriage Thirdly as she was a companion with him in the same sinne they did both eate sinne and see it at the same time Genesis 3.6.7 Q. Was propagation then from them both A. Yes immediately from them both as their children were begotten by the mutuall knowledge of the one the other Gen. 4.1 and 5.3
a separation of his two natures though body and soule parted for a while Wee must therefore hold that neither the God-head is at any time changed into the manhood nor yet the manhood into the God-head Luk. 24.39 1 Pet. 4.1 Furthermore we are to learne that Christs humane nature is like vnto ours in all things but in sinne and manner of subsisting Phil. 1.7.8 Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 Q. What is the personall vnion of these two natures A. Whereby the nature assuming and nature assumed make one Messias or Mediator betwixt God and man the nature assuming is infinite and his action is incomprehensible yet this we may safely affirme that the second person in Trinitie immediately assumes and then the God-head so that our flesh is first taken by a person and hence our nature assumed is without all personall subsistence in it selfe and is inseparably conioyned with the divine nature and doth wholly subsist that is the whole manhood subsists in the whole God-head for whole God is in heauen whole God is on earth because the divine nature hath no parts and so our flesh is not in a part of the God-head but wholly in the whole And yet not euery where with the whole For the assumption is not by way of extension as a forme extends his matter but of ineffable vnion humane nature hauing no standing of it selfe but by the divine nature It is locally circumscribed as hauing quantitie and consists as a finite thing within the limites of essence being truely compounded of matter and forme And yet it hath neither parts nor passions essence or accidents which are not assumed vnto the divine nature when body and soule were asunder and locally in diverse places then were both of them inseparably knit vnto the God-head Ioh. 1.14 Colos 2.9 The Papists say Christ was Mediator according to his humane nature which is contrary to this personall vnion for as the person assuming giues the nature assumed subsistence so action and it is not able to doe any thing without it Therefore according to both natures Christ redeemes and the worke is not to be devided Furthermore we say the second person assumes not the first for he is principally offended not the third for he is to testifie of the reconciliation yet such is the vnion that wee come by it both to the Father and the Spirit For immediately the second person assumes then the Deitie and hauing fellowship with that wee haue it also with the Father and Spirit Now if the divine nature should first assume then would the action be the Fathers or if the Spirit then should the Father haue two Sonnes c. CHAPTER XXIII Of Christs humiliation Question VVHat are the parts of Redemption Answere Two His humiliation and his exaltation Psal 110.7 Isa 53.12 Rom. 8.34 Eph. 4.9.10 Phil. 2.8.9 And the reason is giuen by S. Luke chap. 24.26 Christ must of necessitie both suffer and be glorified c. Q. What is his humiliation A. Whereby he was made subiect to the iustice of God to performe whatsoever the same might require for the redemption of man Rom. 10.4 Gal. 4.4 Heb. 7.22 Christ became our Suretie and so bound himselfe to pay all our debts Papists say Christ is a Mediator betweene himselfe and vs but they are ignorant how a sinne may more peculiarly be against one person then another as the manhood it selfe is more properly vnited to the second person then any other Christ doth principally mediate betwixt the Father and man and yet the justice of the whole Deitie and consequently of euery person is satisfied Q. What did the iustice of God require A. Two things Satisfaction for the trespasse or payment of the forfaiture and righteousnesse answerable to the law for the payment of the principall The one frees vs from death the other brings vs to life By the first wee are made no sinners by the second wee are made iust The law stands still in force for death and life sinne and die is by Christs death satisfied doe and liue is by his life fulfilled Dan. 9.24 Christ reconciles to God by suffering and of enemies makes vs friends but wee neither deserue nor can iustly desire any thing vntill he bring his owne righteousnesse for vs. Rom. 4.25 Q. Wherein consists all this A. In the conformitie of himselfe both for himselfe and vs to he image of God and the law its performing perfect obedience thereunto as also in vnder going for his such death and dolors as were requisite As Adam was made in the image of God and bound to keepe the law for himselfe and vs so Christ must be conformed in nature to Gods image and in all his actions to his Pathers will He is holy and iust both for vs and himselfe but his sufferings are onely for vs and not himselfe And here two questions arise first whether his originall righteousnesse and actiue obedience were onely for himselfe his passiue onely for vs and sufficient for our saluation It may be obiected by his bloud we are saued c. Ans Here a part is put for the whole for we are saued as well by his life as by his death and they are both of them both actiue and passiue Christ suffered in being concelued and he was no looner made man made vnder the law but he began to pay for vs for as Adam dyed as soone as he had sinned so Christ suffered as soone as he became our suretie therefore his whole life death are for vs and our payment He that dies by the law is not acquitted or iustified but condemned He that makes false Lature may be pardoned or punished but not iustified Euery law acquits when men are found to haue done nothing against it but it moreouer rewards when subiects are found to performe the vtmost required by it Christ therefore is to suffer and satisfie but that will not iustifie vs except further be found in him that he hath done nothing against the law nay also that he hath to the height and ful measure fulfilled it We haue need both of originall and actuall righteousnesse to bring vs to heauen and out of him it is not to befound The second controuersie is about the second death which is the punishment of the damned and therefore not fit for Christ to suffer Concerning this we acknowledge that Christ did not neither could truely and properly suffer the second death which is a casting out and banishment from blessednesse and the fauour of God God forbid that any Christian should haue such a thought of our Lord Christ who euer since his conception was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and could not be other for any moment of time He and his Father were neuer separated in loue and affection because Christ even in vnder going of this obeyed his Father yet were they for a time separated in apprehension and representation God punishing his Sonne iustly for vs in as much as he stood in our stead
Adam went downe too vpon the day of his Creation or not long after and therefore Christ to answere both went downe being an Infant Againe Christ after many admirable testimonies of his royall birth will fall backe againe into wonderfull obscuritie to shew plainely how our pride was to be expiated And here Moses is a liuely type of Christ Moses by flight escaped Pharaohs rage and returned againe when they were dead that sought his life and became a deliuerer So Christ escaped the butchery of Herod came backe againe when his enemies were dead and became Israels happy deliuerer His infancy was most spent in Aegypt as being our most vnprofitable time but his education must be in Canaan but not as a King in Ierusalem Psal 110.2 or Bethlehem Dauids citie Mic. 5.2 but in greater obscuritie befitting his humiliation in Nazaret a place both base and wicked Ioh. 7.52 with 1.46 Hence he was called a Nazarite by which name the Devils disgraced him Mar. 1.24 Scribes and Pharisees reiected him Ioh. 7.52 Act. 6.14 and the Iewes scorned him Math. 26.71 Ioh. 18.5.7 and 19.19 And yet holy Angels that better knew the mystery did adore him in it Mar. 16.6 And vnder it was he preached Act. 2.22 and 4.10 And the godly beleeued in him Mar. 10.47 Neyther is our Saviour ashamed of it in his glory Act. 22.8 The reason of the name is abundantly testified of by the Prophets Nazer or Nezer is an ornament giuen to the Nazarites hie Priest Princes whereby they are distinguished from the vulgar Nazarites that gaue themselues to God by vow had the bush of their hayre called Nezer Num. 6.7.8 The high Priest had Nezer vpon his head Exod. 29.6 And as the former were holy to the Lord as long as they kept on their lock so was holinesse written vpon this Exod. 39.30 And the very oyle that did conseerate it is called Nezer Lev. 21.12 So the Crowne vpon the Kings head is called by the same name 2 Sam. 1.10 2 King 11.12 Psal 89.39 Christ therefore being called a Nazarite is separate from all others as most holy and is our true Prince and Priest Psal 2.2.6 and 110.4 Furthermore he is called a Nazarite as was Ioseph Gen. 49.26 Deut. 33.16 that is one separate to be a preserver of his brethren Ioseph was a long time obscured before hee was brought forth to feed the famished so Christ did lie hid a long time in this citie before he steps forth to his publicke function On Christ shall Nezer flourish Psal 132.18 Sampson whose haire was faire and strong Iudg. 13.25 and who liuing and dying devoured his enemies is a royall type of Christ Luk. 11.22 But Nezer thus taken is with Zam it is also written with Zade which signifies a branch and so indeed Christ is called Isa 11.1 Also Zemach which signifies the same Ier. 23.5 and 33.14 Zech. 6.12 and 3.8 Isa 4.2 In the tribe of Nephtali was there a Citie called Hazar or Enhazar Iosh 19.37 And by contraction Nazar from whence Nazareth might be deriued a Citie of sprigs and branches that place in Ioshua called Cinereth afterwards was called Genezar or Ge-nezareth the valley of branches so Christ being the true branch of Dauid would grow in this Citie and afterwards put forth himselfe as our Messias By all this we see that eyther place or persons giues vs an apt reason of this derivation as sufficeth to fulfill the Prophecie Q. What is written of the time of his life wherein he liued subiect to his Parents A. Two things first his dispute with the Doctors at Ierusalem when he was twelue yeeres old secondly his labouring with his hands Luk. 2.42.49.51 Q. What is meant by his dispute with the Doctors A. It was as it were the giuing notice before hand of his publicke calling and that he was the true Rabbi or Doctor that come from God Luk. 2.46.47 The children of the Iewes had a double education first at home Exod. 12.26 Deut. 4.10 and 6.7 second in the Schooles 1 Sam. 10.5.10 2 King 2.3 and 4.38 Act. 22.3 2 Tim. 3.15 Christ at home did both teach and was taught Luk. 2.49 to sanctifie our private education and instruction but for the more exact teaching Christ had none Ioh. 7.15 Mar. 6.2 to shew that he needed not to learne of man and yet hee entred into the Schoole at twelue yeeres both to sanctifie that profession as likewise to shew himselfe to be the great Doctor that was shortly to come into the world and had no need to learne of any other Iohn 1 18 and 7.16 Q. What meant his labouring with his hands A. That he might also beare our curse who were with the sweat of our browes to eate our bread Gen. 3.19 The word subiect to his parents Luk. 2.51 signifies to be ordered and governed by another in outward Arts and Sciences Math. 13.55 with Mar. 6.3 He was not onely the Carpenters sonne but the Carpenter and therefore verse 2. they were offended at him He was neither brought vp in the Temple as was Samuel nor among the Pharisees as was Paul at the feet of Gamaliel neither in the wildernesse amongst the Essees c. All which might haue gained him some authoritie amongst his owne but with Ioseph a Carpenter in a most obscure village All this might well shew his humilitie for our good as likewise shew vs that the builder of the world Heb. 1.2 and 11.10 was now come to repaire the decayes of it and even to sanctifie vnto vs the meanest trade and calling in the world Furthermore beside bodily labour for the space of eight-teene yeares Christ did wonderfully increase Luk. 2.52 with 40. Ioh. 1.14 and by reason of the Hypostaticall vnion had all fulnesse dwelling in him Cel. 2.9 yet this hid it selfe for a time 2 Cor. 8.9 Phil. 2.7.8 So that question is iustly moued whether there was a reall increase of wisedome stature and grace or onely an apparent and visible declaration of that which was in Christ from his very first subsisting and being in our flesh The auncient Diuines least they should derogate from the hypostaticall vnion thought the increase to be in outward effects no inward habites Yet body and soule being finite receiued according to measure and manner and as the one increased in quantitie so the other in qualitie the wisedome of the Soule as the stature of the body receiuing a daily augmentation He is sayd to grow inwardly as well as outwardly and to learne by his owne actions Heb. 5.8 And we know that frequent actions require habites or at least a further perfection of infused gifts and graces and questionlesse all this time of eight-teene yeares labour he according to the increase of grace became gracious in his calling for the Text saith both with God and men he manifested a wonderfull thriuing in goodnesse Q. What is his publicke life A. Wherein he more publickly declared himselfe to be that Messias which was so long before expected and
by reason of sinne a dungeon to reserue the guiltie body against the day of judgement it is through him become as it were a perfumed bed for the elect against the day of Resurrection Math 27.59.60 Luk. 23.53 Isa 57.2 Buriall comes of burning an auncient custome of burning bodies and then preserving their ashes in a pitcher in the earth Hence it may be that the Auncients to prevent an absurd conceit of this kind of Funerall concerning Christs body whereof not a bone was to be broken or wasted added descending into hell to shew that Christ was not burned but buried by going downe into Sheol but it is not for mee to determine the doubt I leaue it to riper judgements One thing more I adde that buriall is sometimes taken for preparation of a body for the graue Math. 26.12 This shee did to bury me c. Christ died was embalmed and then interred CHAPTER XXIIII Of Christs Exaltation Question HItherto of his humiliation What is his Exaltation Answere It is his victory and triumph over his and our enemies the Devill sinne and death with the world and whatsoever else might crosse the felicitie of the Saints Eph. 4.8.9.10 Phil. 2.9.10 It was the strangest and strongest receit of all the rest by dying to vanquish death 1 Thess 5.10 Wee need no more wee can goe no further there can bee no more Physicke of the former kinde there are cordials after this purgation of death of his resurrection and ascension no more penall receits By his bloud wee haue Redemption Eph. 1.7 Iustification Rom. 3.24 Reconciliation Colos 1.20 Sanctification 1 Pet. 1.2 Entrance into glory Heb. 10.19 Woe were to vs if Christ had left but one mite of satisfaction vpon our score to bee discharged by our selues and woe be to them that derogate from him to arrogate to themselues and would faine botch vp his sufferings with their owne superfluities hee would not off the Crosse till all was done and then hauing finished he went on with a second worke to build vp a perfect way to heauen vpon this foundation and from the graue to his throne in heauen he chalked out for vs the everlasting way Q. Wherein doth the glory of his victory and triumph consist A. First in the deposition and laying aside of all infirmities Secondly in his assumption and taking vp of all perfections both of body and soule His body was now no more to die but to receiue celestiall perfection His soule had nothing withheld from it no truth from his vnderstanding no goodnesse from his will vpon earth hee was ignorant of something which now is perfectly revealed vnto him he now knowes the day of judgement and by his God-head hath euery thing revealed vnto his man-hood that is fit for the government of his Church though he be absent from vs both in body and soule that which neither Saint nor Angell can heare he heares and puts vp all petitions to his Father His minde is ignorant of nothing for the manner and measure of a most perfect created vnderstanding and his will is perfected with the greatest perfections of vertues that are incident to any creature so that hee is both in soule and body far more glorious then any other creature is or can be and made Lord of all Heb. 12.4 The manhood of Christ is not the sonne of God by adoption or creation but personall vnion and so hath no other relation to the Father of sonne-ship but the same with the God-head this exalts him highly in glory and there is as much difference betwixt the sonne of God and other creatures as betweene a King and his meanest subiect and as one Starre differeth from another in glory 1 Cor. 15.41 and the Sunne farre exceeds all the rest so in heauen shall Christ appeare more glorious then any other Saint or Angel Rev. 21.23 Isa 60.19 and shall be as easily knowne from the rest as the Sunne is from all other Starres c. Q. Hitherto of his glory in generall what are the particular degrees thereof A. The first is his resurrection the third day when as his soule and body by the power of his God-head never separated from either were brought together againe and so rose againe and appeared to his Disciples for the space of fortie dayes And this is the earnest of our Resurrection so that wee shall also rise by the power and vertue of his Resurrection not vnto judgement but life everlasting This is first confirmed by the Angels to men Math. 28.5.6.7 Mar. 16 6.7 Luk. 24.4.5.6 Secondly by his owne apparitions vnto them Math. 28.9.17 Mar. 16.9 12.14 Luk. 24.15.36 Ioh. 20.14.19.26 and 21.1 Act. 1.2.3 1 Cor. 15.4.5.6.7.8.9 Thirdly by the keepers of the Sepulcher Math. 28.11 Fourthly by his Apostles Act. 2.24.32 Lastly by the inward testimony of the Spirit in the hearts of the elect Ioh. 15.26 The power by which he rose is expressed 2 Cor. 13.4 1 Pet. 3.18 His immortalitie Rom. 6.9.10 dominion Rom. 14.9 Godhead Rom. 1.4 The fruit of it to vs first in our iustification Rom. 4.25 Secondly our sanctification and glorification Rom. 6.4.5.8.9.10.11.12.13 2 Cor. 5.15 Eph. 2.4.5 Colos 2.12.13 and 3.1.2.3.4.5 1 Pet. 1.3.4 1 Thess 4.14 c. Q. What is the second degree thereof A. His ascension into Heauen by the vertue of his God-head from Mount Olivet in the sight of his Disciples Where he began his passion there he beginnes his ascension to teach vs how from deiection wee shall be brought to our exaltation as also to teach vs that because hee is our head and is already advanced into heauen thither also must the body follow him And therefore he is gone before to prepare a place for vs. Mar. 16.19 Luk. 24.50 Act. 1.9.12 Heb. 10.9.20 Ioh. 14.2 Q. What is the third degree A. His sitting at the right hand of God the Father where we haue his advocation and intercession for vs and need to acknowledge no other Master of requests in heaven but one Iesus Christ our Mediator Here good prayers never come weeping home In him I am sure I shall receiue eyther what I aske or what I should aske I cannot be so happie as not to need him and I know I shall never be so miserable that he will contemne mee if I come as a poore suter with my petition vnto him Rom. 8.34 Heb. 9.24 1 Ioh. 2.1 1 Pet. 3.22 Rev. 3.7 Furthermore by Christs sitting at his Fathers right hand wee are to vnderstand two things first the returne of the divine nature as it were the worke of humiliation being finished to his former glory Christ for a time obscured the excellencie of his Godhead Phil. 2.6.7.8.9 vnder the vaile of our flesh but now the Curtaine is drawne againe the divine nature which seemed to sleepe in the humane is awaked to worke wonders openly for the good of the elect and even breakes forth as the Sunne doth from vnder a cloud hauing expelied all the mists of his humiliation Secondly as
with the twelue lesser and Daniel The Apocrypha is shut out of the distribution both by the Iewes and our Saviour and therefore is not of equall authoritie with the bookes we haue mentioned God made the Iewes faithfull registers of the old Testament and they were so curious least a letter should be lost that they kept them by count and therefore would never haue beene so negligent in the Apocrypha writing if ever they had beene committed of God vnto them by their extraordinary governours As in notorious Burglaries a hat gloue or fword is often left behind for discovery so in these though more honest some errors haue escaped to discover the Authors Q. Who were their ordinary Governours A. The supreame was the high Priest the inferior were the Priests Levites and Rulers of their Synogogues Lev. 8. Num. 3. Act. 13.15 Order hath ever beene for the custodie of divine things and confusion for their ruine Q. What is the Church among all people A. The Catholicke Church gathered out of all people where we haue the Messias exhibited in the flesh in whom the law and the Prophets are yea and Amen Moses branded some creatures with vncleannesse he that hath redeemed his children from morall impuritie redeemes his creatures from legall what should S. Peters great sheet let downe by foure corners teach vs but that all creatures through the foure corners of the world are cleane and holy And that God is no respecter of persons but in euery nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousnesse is accepted with him Act. 10.34.35 Gal. 4.27 Q. How are the Congregations thereof called A. They are called Churches the name of the whole being put for the part and Christ doth it to distinguish his Churches of the Gospell from the prophane and wicked Synagogues of the Iewes Math. 18.17 He sayes not tell it the Synagogue but the Church c. They therefore levell amisse that lay the line of their government by this deceitfull square Q. Who were the extraordinary Governours of this Church A. Iohn Baptist the forerunner of Christ Christ himselfe his Apostles seventie Disciples Evangelists and Prophets whereof some did write the bookes of the new Testament in the Greeke tongue which are either Historicall as the Gospells of Mathew Marke Luke and Iohn or diverse excellent Epistles as of Paul to the Romanes Corinthians 2. Galathians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians 2. Timothy 2. Titus Philomon Hebrewes Epistle of Iames of Peter 2. Iohn 3. Iude or lastly the Propheticall booke of the Revelation Q. Who were the ordinary Governours A. The Doctors and Pastours Eph. 4.11 which may be distributed into Bishops Elders and Deacons As for the first if time and place be accidents of a calling and the very essence lie in relation betwixt the caller and the called Timothy and Titus were ordinary teachers for to an extraordinary Governour an extraordinary caller is required It cannot be denied but that both Timothy and Titus did a long time wait vpon the Apostles and were sent from place to place though setled at the last If going from place to place make an Euangelist then they were both of them Evangelists but I beleeue all the Pastours and Doctours of the Church were at the Apostles command and sent too and fro as there was need 2 Tim. 3.10.12.20 c. wee heare of Crescens Titus Tychicus Trophimus c. sent diverse wayes by the Apostle Paul c. And therefore it is not enough from the place to say such a one was an Evangelist except it be further prooued that he had an extraordinary calling That Timothy is bidden to doe the worke of an Euangelist it is a dubious terme for an Evangelist is either put for a writer of the Gospels and so some Apostles are Evangelists or for an officer and so such as were extraordinarily called to plant Churches Act. 8. but had no power to ordaine them Pastours are called Evangelists Act. 21.8 And of this sort might be many of the seventie Disciples or lastly for Preachers for the Gospell with which the name is coniugated is the obiect of all three The first write it for the edification of the Church the second preach it and worke miracles to confirme it for the plantation of the Church and the third preach it too for the further watering of that seed which others haue sowne before them and in this sense is Timothy bidden to doe the worke of an Evangelist as the next words expound it make thy ministery fully knowne And it is out of doubt that Timothy was called of God by man which to me is an ordinary calling And that Timothy and Titus as Bishops properly so called had a superintendencie and coerciue power of jurisdiction over Elders Ministers or Preachers it is evident to me out of these places 1 Tim. 1.3.5.19 2 Tim. 2.14 Tit. 1.5.11.13 The Elders are from the originall called Presbyteri which turned into English is called Priests the most current and passable title had not Masse-mongers made it infamous in the eares of such people as are not acute enough to devide betweene a fit title and a corrupting abuse Thus much for the name As for the office of Elders taken for Ecclesiasticall Governours I find none described but by seeding of the flocke which makes mee conclude they were all Pastours As for that place 1 Tim. 5.17 all the question is about the comparison whether gifts or offices be compared together The originall hath it thus Elders ruling well are worthy of double honour especially labouring in the word and doctrine now it is a rule in the Greeke tongue that participles are to be turned into reasons of the things they explaine as ruling because they rule and labouring because they labour c. The sense then may be thus rendred without all rending of the comparison Elders are to be reompenced with honour and maintenance first because they rule secondly because they preach First they goe before their flocke in holy practise of discipline vpon themselues and others secondly they continually presse them by precepts in painfull preaching Now that the people may especially see wherein they are to be honoured it is in this that they are labourious dispensers and disposers of heauenly doctrine Therefore with the Scriptures I say that the ordinary teachers and Governours of the Christian Churches were Pastours and Doctors and that copulatiuely and not segregatiuely as in Apostles Prophets and Evangelists Q. What is the Church triumphant A. The number of all those that are applied vnto Christ by sight After faith and sight followes freedome and fruition This Church consists of holy Spirits both Angels and men the soules of the Saints departed are receiued vp into glory and after the resurrection the militant Church both in body and soule shall be of the Triumphant in the full fruition of all blisse and happinesse Gal. 4.26 Heb. 12.22.23.24 Iob. 14.2.3 Heb. 11.10.16.26 c. As those therefore that haue tasted of some
hope of better in reversion and shall we sticke at any worldly pelfe for the gaining of heaven Fie on such children as with Esau would sell this birth-right for a messe of this worlds pottage Lord make mee one of thy heires and I will be content to waite thy leisure for my pleasure in inioying Q. Hitherto of our being in Christ what is our coalition or growing vp with him A. It is our daily putting off of the old man with his corruptions and the putting on of the new man with his daily renewing in righteousnesse and true holinesse Ephes 4.22.23.24 2 Cor. 5.17 Gal. 2.20 and 5.24 They that are in Christ cannot but be new creatures and such as are daily crucifiers of sinne Q. What are the parts or rather degrees of this our coalition A. Regeneration and glorification Being adopted of the Father it is fit wee should come forth as his children therefore it pleaseth the Father of his owne will to beget vs with the word of truth Iam. 1.18 1 Pet. 1.23 First there is a divine conception of the adopted Sonnes of God and secondly a bringing forth of that worke Christ was conceiued in the wombe of the Virgin by the worke of the Spirit so must his brethren be conceiued in the wombe of the Church by the same Spirit Psal 110.3 Christ told Nicodemus that he was to be re-borne or else hee should never see glory Ioh. 3.3 Regeneration is as the conception Glorification as the nativitie or happy birth day The passion dayes of the Martyrs were called of old Natalitiasalutis the birth dayes of their salvation and that as well for festivitie as the nativitie it selfe Thus from an obscure conception we come to a glorious birth 1 Ioh. 3.2 Q. What is Regeneration A. It is as it were a new conception of vs in the wombe of the Church by the spirit of God and that of the incorruptible seed of the Word whereby our corrupt nature is begotten againe or restored to the image of God 1 Pet. 1.3 2 Pet. 1.4 Tit. 3.5 Gal. 4.6 2 Cor. 3.17 Colos 5.9.10 Eph. 4.23 Which is of the whole man and in this life is perfect in the parts though imperfect in the degrees as a child is a perfect man before he come to his full age And this may be called our sanctification whereby of vnholy wee are renewed by the holy Spirit to the image of our heauenly Father And here we are to consider two degrees of our sanctification the first is the inchoation or beginning of it the second is the processe or passing forward to greater perfection hence Rom. 8.30 our glorification followes our iustification sanctification being no other thing then a degree thereof still proceeding profiting and perfiting in true holinesse which is the greatest reward of godlinesse for as to doe ill and continue therein is the greatest misery so to doe well and persevere therein is the greatest felicitie Glory is the reward of vertue and God cannot crowne his servants better then with an increase of grace Now this progresse is orderly and begins in the Soule even in the very marrow and spirit thereof and so proceeds to the outward man and the actions thereof Ier. 4.14 Eph. 4.23.25.26.27.28 First conversion then conversation And here alas how many set the Cart before the Horse and beginne to change their liues before their lusts their hands before their hearts to purge the channell when the fountaine is corrupt and apply remedies to the head when the paine is caused from the impuritie of the stomacke What is this but to loppe off the boughes and never lay the Axe to the roote of the tree to prune the Vine that it may sprout the more Miserable experience shewes how such disordered beginnings come to miserable endings Many seeme to abstaine from sinnes which they never abhorre and leaue some evils which they loath not and so like swine wallow in them againe or like dogs follow their former vomit she wing plainly they did never inwardly distast those sinnes which for a time outwardly they neglected Againe as wee are to obserue order so wee are to labour for a thorow change 1 Thess 5.23 Holinesse as a dram of Muske perfumes the whole boxe of oyntment or is placed in the Soule as the heart in the body for the conveying of life to all the parts Some turne from one sinne to another others like Aethiopians are white onely in the teeth that is in verball profession else-where cole blacke in conversation they speake well and that 's all Others thinke it is well if they turne their mindes from error though they never change their wills from evill as a reformed Papist but an vnreformed Protestant as wanton in truth as ever he was wilde in error others againe thinke they haue done God good service if they giue halfe the turne as prostrating their bodies to Idoles when God shall haue their hearts or on the contrary when God hath their bodies they suffer the Devill to haue their Soules When mens bodies are in Sacello their hearts as Augustine complaineth are at home in saccellis suis Many by their looke and language out-face the congregation whiles their hearts are running and roving after covetousnesse If wee will beleeue eyther Phylosophy or experience wee shall finde our hearts where they loue not where they liue Lastly others resolue to giue all to God yet haue a leering eye and a squint respect vnto some of their sinnes with Lots wife casting a longing looke after their old Sodome Know the rule of the Schoole to be most certaine that as vertues so vices are coupled together and though in conversion to temporall good they looke diverse wayes yet in regard of aversion from eternall good they beare all one face Yet this must be added for the comfort of the weake that vnperfect sanctification if it be vnpartiall is accepted of God Onely let vs as the aire from darke to light in the dawning of the day proceed by degrees to our noone in grace or as the water from cold to luke-warme and then to heat so let vs haue our soules benummed with sinne warmed with grace and then further heated with true zeale and ferveneie Q. What are the affections or properties of Regeneration A. They are either from the death of Christ our mortification of sinne or his resurrection our vivification in righteousnesse and from hence our spirituall warre betweene corruption dying in vs and righteousnesse rising and growing in vs. Mortification is a daily dying to sinne by applying Christs death to our selues 2 King 13.21 The dead body no sooner touched the bones of Elisha but it was revived againe so wee no sooner touch Christ but he crucifies sinne in vs and reviues vs in the spirit Rom. 6.2.11 and. 7.4 Colos 3.3 Rom. 6.6 Vivification is a dally rising to newnesse of life by the vertue of Christs resurrection Ioh. 5.11 Eph. 2.4.5 The spirituall battell is waged betweene the part corrupted and
the part renewed where there is part taking for corruption the Devill and the world are vp in armes for newnesse of life the Father Sonne and the Spirit Eph. 6.12 1 Ioh. 4.4 Q. What are the parts of Regeneration A. They are according to the constitution of the subiect and that is of a Soule and a body The renovation of the soule is either intellectuall or morall Intellectuall is the clearing of our vnderstanding with spirituall knowledge and godly wisedome to vse it Reason without grace in the very excellency of it is but the Devils anvile whereon he forgeth and hammereth mischiefe What is carnall wisedome but serpentine subtiltie What is skill in lawes but colouring and covering bad causes and persons and making truth a nose of waxe to bad ends Marke and you shall ever finde the ring leaders of all lewdnesse and lasciviousnesse to be men of good wits but alas what 's all this without a fanctified minde What are sacred oathes and holy obligations to prophane persons but as Sampsons cords which they snap in sunder as fast as they are giuen them So well vnderstand they themselues that they doe and vndoe and discerne God in his word as they doe Christ in his Sacraments which they regardlessely take and as rashly breake There is no band that they cannot make like a Monkies coller out of which they will slip their neckes at pleasure But reason truely renewed will be constant in Religion Luk. 1.79 A Candle set vp in the minde to discover darkenesse and guide our feete in well doing And this is true illumination Psal 16.11 Rom. 7.23 and 12.2 2 Cor. 1.21 Colos 3.10 Rev. 3.18 Morall sanctification is of the will and all the affections of the will hence freedome to goodnesse of the affections hence repentance which is the change of them all hence our loue of God and goodnesse and hereupon in the absence of good hope and desire of it and in the presence ioy and gladnesse Also our hatred of evill if it be absent feare and flight if present griefe and sorrow By meanes whereof Repentance is an aversion from evill because hatred is an affection of separation and a conversion to good because loue is an affection of vnion And by meanes of the two cardinall and primitiue affections all the derivatiue and subordinate are set on worke Our desires are made fervent which before were saint in following after God but now are made impatient of delay Prov. 13.12 Hell mouth may be full of good wishes Num. 23.10 And they that are troubled with their farmes and fat oxen c. count it a blessed thing to eate bread in Gods kingdome Luk. 14.15.16.17 But these for want of penitent desire may be said to want will It may be sayd of them they would be good but they haue no will to it there is none so prodigall or slothfull but would be rich yet wee say not such will be rich set it downe and determine it vltimata voluntate There are none so wicked but at sometimes haue a faint desire to be good and leaue sinne but these cold dispositions breed and beget imperfect essayes and proffers and by their negligent propensities and inconstant bubles shew they spring from corrupt flesh which can be prodigall in momentanie purposes and promiles But sanctified desire is eager and earnest and with Dauid will vow and sweare to obey yea and be more vile in spite of mocking Michots Never was Ahab more sicke for a Vineyard Ruhel more ready to die for children Sisera for thirst then the Saint of God is after holinesse Psal 42.1.2 and 81.10 and 119.20 and 143.7 Gant 2.5 A gaine this will make our desire of good laborious and will not suffer vs to be lazie Christ Math. 5.4 compares it to hunger which will breake through the stone wall and it will make them hold out and be constant without ficklenesse Psal 119.20 As for ioy in the fruition of good oh what an heauen brings it into the soule This will make vs for sinceritie to delight in the law with the inner man Rom. 7.22 It will bring vs to a full ioy Ioh. 15.24 Isa 9.3 Psal 4.8 Yea and will so strengthen vs in the good we haue that we shall as well in passiue as actiue obedience indure c. As for feare of evill it will set it the right way making vs to dread more the doing of it then suffering in it and for sorrow it will make vs see our sinnes thoroughly and bewaile them as heartily and as wee see in nature that there is the same instrument of seeing and weeping to shew vs that weeping depends vpon seeing so repentance no sooner takes notice of sinne but a godly heart begins to bleed for it and so he that intellectually sees well morally weepes well And by all this we see how the mind will and affections are sanctified and the excellent worke of repentance in regard of all our affections Isa 55.7 Act. 11.18 Rom. 6.4.5.6 Ephes 4.22.23.24 2 Tim. 2.25 Phil. 2.13 Ier. 4.4 Q. What is the renewing of the body A. When the members of the body which before were servants to sinne are now become the servants of righteousnes euery part executing his function in an holy manner Rom. 12.1 Rom. 6.13.19 Col. 3.5 Q. What is our glorification A. The perfection of our sanctification whereby wee are made compleat in holinesse and righteousnesse Famous acts shall haue glorious rewards Glory is the praise and price of vertue for as shame and repentance are bridles and curbes to sinne so praise fame glory and honor are the spurres and speeders of vertue Praise followes the beginning of a good action fame runs with it as it spreads further abroad and glory is for the perfection of it when euery mouth rings of it and euery heart honours it I cannot but thinke that the wicked one day shall honour the godly and speake of their glory to their owne shame and howsoever they speake all manner of ill of them in this world yet often doe their hearts checke them with their innocency and to see their honour maugre the malice of all gaine-sayers A field of sinceritie charged with the deeds of pietie cannot but be accomplisht with the crests of glory all the fame which men haue sought by buildings by acts of Chivalry and by such other courses which the light of nature offereth and effecteth for the enobling of it selfe time devoureth it and within an age or two it is cleane put out but that glory which springeth from the rootes of godlinesse no tract of time can make to wither no blast of venemous tongues can overcome It shall breake out as the Sunne in spite of all darkning clouds it is watered with the dew of heauen and it shall grow and increase in spite of the Devill himselfe Envie will be the companion of vertue as well as honour and by meanes thereof shall the godly be reviled of the wicked Luk. 6.22 2 Cor.
without measure but the things of this life in a meane as meanes of a better kingdome Math. 6.33 Q. What concerning God A. Our sanctification of his name the comming of his kingdome and performance of his will first wee pray that God may be glorified by vs and secondly wee pray that the meanes of his glory may be sanctified vnto vs. Math. 6.9.10 Q. What concerning Man A. All things convenient and necessary for him in his condition that both himselfe may line by Gods blessing and others by him c. Math. 6.11 Eph. 4.28 Q. What are the things we intreat to be remoued from vs A. Sinne and misery Where we are to make vse of that holy exercise of fasting which is to abstaine from Gods creatures for a time to testifie our humiliation before his Maiestie Iocl 2.15 Q. What is our deprecation for the pardon of our sinne A. It is our intreating of God to forgiue them and that he will never lay them to our charge Remission is an action of God the Father whereby for the merites of his Sonne applied by his spirit he accounts sinne as no sinne or as if it had never beene committed Isa 38.17 and 44.22 Ier. 31.34 and 50.20 Mic. 7.19 Math. 6.12 Colos 1.14 1 Ioh. 1.7 Q. What is our deprecation in regard of miseries A. That the Lord would deliuer vs out of all temptations and other afflictions and calamities which if we consider them as they are sent of God then our entreating is in Lamentation if as they are inflicted by the wicked It is a Complaint Psal 35. and 69. In both which Psalmes Dauid lamenteth for the wicked and complaineth of their ingratitude to God Ier. 9.19.20 Q. What is thankesgiuing A. An heartie acknowied gement of Gods mercies bestowed on vs yeelding him due praise and ascribing vnto him kingdome power and glory for ever Amen Psal 29.2.9 and 66.2.3 and 96.6.7 Luk. 1.68 Eph. 1.3 Col. 3.17 1 Tim. 2.1 Q. What is a compound Prayer A. A prayer consisting of all or some of these simples 1 Tim. 2.1 I exhort that supplications prayers intercessions and giuing of thankes be made for all men As faith is the Conduit cocke that watereth all the herbes and flowers that grow in the Garden of obedience so prayer is the messenger that knockes at heauen gates for the showers and dewes of heauenly benediction to make all thriue and prosper Oh that euery soule whiles it is feasting and banqueting with God by faith as Ester with Ahasuerosh could bethinke it selfe what suites it hath to him or what trouble some enemie it would be rid off suppose it to be some potent Haman of pride c. How soone should it be executed and crucified before our eyes if wee could but make our complaint to our best beloued or if wee find we haue more need to petition for ourselues then deprecate against others then let vs duely consider what grace wee want ana make our suite to God as Achsah to Caleb and wee shall haue giuen vs the plentifull springs of grace both aboue and beneath And that we may doe all these the Lord powere vpon vs the spirit of grace and supplication and that we may cheerefully looke vp to him whom we haue pierced with our sinnes c. Zech. 12.10 CHAPTER III. Of the Sacraments Question HItherto of Prayer What is the celebration of a Sacrament Answere An act of faith whereby according to Gods institution wee celebrate the Sacraments or dained of God by the reciprocall action of godly giuing and taking 1 Cor. 11.23.24.25.26 Hence the Lords Supper is called a Communion God communicating to vs by giuing wee with him by receiuing 1 Cor. 10.16 Q. What is a Sacrament A. It is a divine testimony wherein externall sensible things by a solemne right are separated from common vse to signifie seale and represent vnto the faithfull assurance of life in Christ Iesus Rom. 4.11 Circumcision is sayd to be a signe and seale of righteousuesse by faith A signe in regard of the thing fignified a seale in regard of the covenant made betwixt God and man of righteousnesse not our owne but that of Christ both actiue and passiue for all the wayes of God are iust and true and therefore no imperfect righteousnesse can be sealed in Gods contracts and treaties with men by faith for that as the instrument makes the righteousnesse of Christ ours by imputation Q. How many parts or members be there in a Sacrament A. Two The outward and sensible signe and the inward and spirituall grace for as man consists of a body and soule and that nothing ordinarily comes to the soule but by the body Almightie God condescending to our weaknesse hath ordained outward teachers to convey knowledge and comfort to the inward man Math. 26.26 This is my body If bread and the body of Christwere not two distinct parts of a Sacrament the Sacrament it selfe should be lame and imperfect both in reason and religion In reason because the relation betwixt the signe and the thing signified should be taken away the one being present without the other as a reall presence of flesh without a reall presence of bread and so the teacher of the outward man being remoued God is so farre in the Sacrament aboue our capacitie that it is incredible to beleeue either the thing or the power of God in such a conversion for it were vnreasonable to turne a peece of bread into a glorified body or a glorified body into an omni-present God A Sacrament is the plainest part of Divinitie and commeth lowest both to our necessitie and capacitie yet Papists elevateit aboue all Divinitie and make it obscure aboue measure Secondly it is against reason in proper speech to call a member the whole and to say the body of Christ is the whole intyre and perfect Sacrament If they say it is but a part then let them shew vs the other the bread being vanished away and remaining no more in his substance Thirdly it is against Divinitie and Religion to thinke any part of it to be corporall food for it is the rule of the will and consequently of the whole man and so is a spirituall teacher though it be helped by sensible meanes to convey it selfe into the soule and therefore Christ in the Sacrament profiteth not except he be eaten by faith A reprobate may receiue bread but the signe seale and thing signified are none of his for he hath no experience of this mystery that wants the first part of Divinitie without the which the second cannot worke no more then a man liue without a soule Q. What is the sensible signe A. That externall part which is lyable to the senses whereby our faith being weake and our sanctification but in part our chedience very imperfect and prayers not as they should be Notwithstanding the divine Goodnesse witnesseth to our senses the constancie of his purpose to saue vs and it is as it were the badge symbole and
that euery part hath best opportunitie to his owne functions so qualified with health arising from proportiō of humors that like a watch kept in good tune it goes right is set to serue the soule and maintaine it selfe But alas they are not now like the first copie from which they were drawne more like the ingrauings of Tombes walked on with foule shooes the very Characters of nature blotted out with originall sin and troden out with daily sinnes The Bookes of our consciences are clasped and sealed vp and the woefull contents are not read by the law they remaine as letters written with the iuyce of Orenges which are onely to be made legible by the fire of Gods wrath when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Behold we were not more like God in our knowledge holinesse and righteousnesse then we are now vnlike our selues in their losse O God how may we prayse our selues to our shame for the better we were we are the worse What is it for the sonnes of prodigall and tainted Auncestors to tell of the Lands and Lordships which were once theirs their fathers Lord whet our desires that we may redeeme our losse in thy Sonne The fault shall be ours if this our very damage proue not beneficiall Q. How did God further deale with man A. He gaue him dominion over all his creatures Psal 8.6 Thou hast made him to haue dominion in the workes of thy hands thou hast put all things vnder his feete Gen. 1.26.28 A shame for him that was to subdue all things to suffer himselfe to be subdued by them become a very lacquey to his vile affections in doing homage to the three great Idols of the world Profit preferment and pleasure Nay should labour to subdue the Lord of his life to become his vassall The Glutton makes God his Cator his belly his God and himselfe the Guest The lascivious wanton makes God his Pandar and himselfe the lover The covetous worldling would haue God his broker and himselfe the vsurer The angry sinner would haue God his hangman or executioner and himselfe the Iudge The Ambitious inquisitor can some-times make God and Religion his stale but honour shall be his God If times serue the credit of the Gospell shall be subordinate vnto his credit and Christ shall be a stirrop to climbe to promotion the word as a trumpet to blazon our owne commendation and the Pulpit a stage or shop to set to view and sale our owne good parts Fie on such service or Lordship as shall make God to serue with sinne Isa 43.24 Amos. 2.13 And the meanest servants thus ride on Horse-backe It s fitter for the Savages of Calecut to place Satan in the throne and God on the foot-stoole then for a Christian to abase himselfe to the creatures and the Creator to himselfe Oh that the Sunne of peace should looke vpon these vncleane heapes or giue light to this brood of darkenesse They are rare hands hearts that are free either from aspersions of bloud or spots of filthinesse What base rule keepes man here below Oh the want on excesse excessiue pride close Atheisme impudent prophanenesse vnmercifull oppression over mercifull connivence to sinne greedie covetousnesse loose prodigalitie symoniacall sacriledge vnbridled luxurie beastly drunkennesse bloody trechery cunning fraud slanderous detraction envious vnderminings secret Idolatries hypocriticall fashionablenesse c. All drencht in prophanenesse and profusenesse and the very earth diepred with our villanies But I forget my felfe seeing my taske is to lay downe a rule and not inveigh against the breach of it Q. Wherein consists mans dominion over the creatures A. In a most free vse of all things for the glory of God his owne necessitie and lawfull pleasure and that without all let or hinderance of any of his actions and therefore if hee offended in them it was his owne fault Gen. 1.29 with Chap. 3.11 Man could not content himselfe in knowing God and all his creatures his curiositie is to know more then ever God made evill of sinne and evill of death How deare this lesson cost vs we know well enough smart with knowing We the sonnes of Eue inherite her saucie appetite and miscarry daily with the presumptuous affectation of forbidden knowledge Oh Lord teach me a sober knowledge and a contented ignorance thou hast revealed more then I can know enough to make me happie Giue me againe the tenure of grace that I may hold what I haue as well in the consistory of conscience as at the common-pleas least whiles I be a civill owner I proue but a spirituall vsurper make me once againe a spirituall owner and then I shall not care if I die a civill begger Q. What followes from hence A. First Gods commandement for the procuration of meate from the Plants to himselfe and the beasts as likewise the dressing of them Gen. 1.29.30 and 2.15 That which was mans store-house was also his work house his pleasure was his taske Earth serued not onely to feed his senses but to exercise his hands happinesse never consisted in doing nothing Idlenesse neither gets nor saues for wee doe ill whiles wee doe nothing and loose whiles wee gaine not Houres haue ever had wings to flie vp to heaven to the author of time to carry newes of our vsage Eue could not long keepe chat with the Serpent but God had notice of it and for such idlenesse turnes her out of Paradise God esteemes much of our times what ever our price be and plagues the losse of a short time with revenge beyond all times God giue me grace to take it by the fore-top that I may make that which is wild and fugitiue tame and pliable to my purposes for heaven Q. What secondly may be gathered A. The bringing of all creatures which could conveniently be brought vnto him as their Lord to see how hee would name them Gen. 2.19 All Arts were engraven vpon the creatures yet none but man could see them for he receiued them both actiuely and passiuely and therfore by Logicke vnderstood their natures and by Grammar gaue them names And so even in this shewed his dominion over them in that he knew how to governe and order them all Q. What in the third place may be observed A. That he was like a Lord placed in the Garden of Eden as in a stately Palace planted of God Eastward with excellent trees and other plants as well for pleasure as for profit and watered with a pleasant river devided into foure heades which was to wash the Garden not like Nilus that makes Aegypt fertile with invndation For that is the raine water that falls a good way off and comes tumbling from the hills and carries with it the soyles of other grounds by the fatnesse and mud whereof that land is made fruitfull but this was to wash away filthinesse and superfluous fatnesse in so excellent a soyle least all should turne blade and nothing corne This Garden was