preuail by his equal ominnipotent power with the father and likewise was it requisite he should bee man that beeing like to his brethren in al respectes sinne excepted hee might haue a full experience of all the infirmities wherewith man is beset Neyther did Christ what hee did and endured onely in that proportion as hee is the head and the Church his body the head with the body mystically but truely so called but also in the dayes of his flesh he and only he satisfied the Law and that by his personal and proper satisfaction and sacrifice wee are redeemed from the Law ransomed from the curse Into this his office vnder heauen nothing must intrude The Pelagian the Iewe the Papist will finde it a matter of greater charge and cost than our impure nature or the impossible Law or our imperfect works can defray and perfourme All abilities congruities dignities cōdignities wel-willing or our best woorking can neuer make vs Sonnes and when we are Sonnes we are thereby heires not of a first supposed iustification alone but heires of al that foloweth after euen of saluation in heauen The fraction of two iustifications is a fond diuisiō a false that frappet or fraction of two iustifications and of double inheritaunces is but a puppet of Papistes deuising as if Christes office should haue bin to deliuer vs first that wee might be redeemers of our selues afterward No no. For we men bring neuer a farding to the paiment neither of our first as they call it nor as we speak to our full and finall redemption and namely to our saluation to life euerlasting which is Rom. 6.23 the gift of God S. Paul could haue made the diuision if it had bin a right diuision partly to God partly to mā if Christ could haue parted stakes in a matter of such importance that brought him being very God from the top of heauen and the bozom of his father that he might be the only giuer and we but the receauers of our redemption from the Lawe and adoption to be Sonnes 6 And because yee are Sonnes God hath sent the spirit of his sonne into your harts which crieth Abba Father 7 Wherefore thou art no more a seruaunt but a sonne nowe if a sonne then also the heire of God through Iesus Christ The working of the trinitie in the saluation of man and in the assurance thereof In the woork of our happy redemption see the gracious goodnes of the holy Trinity by al means woorking a cleare vnderstanding in vs that we may know and acknowledge both what wee are and by whom The father sendeth the spirit euen the spirit of his sonne into our hartes Wherein we see and obserue the euident * distinction of the persons and therein the Scriptures are plaine that the persons are three distinctly 1. The Father 2. The Sonne 3. The Holy Ghost 1. The Father who gaue his Sonne sent his spirit 2. The Sonne who gaue himselfe And 3. whose the spirit is euen the spirite proceeding from the Father and the Sonne and these three are one In sense I can distinguish many things that in nature differ not for example The yee the snow and the water and yet all these three are of one substance and of a watrie nature But neither sense nor reason can deal in these cases it is our Creede There is a blessed Trinity in a sacred Vnity Quod lego credo I reade it in Scripture and therefore beleeue it in heart and leaue off to reason whereof I cannot and I may not reason Well God sent the spirite of his Sonne into the hartes of vs his sonnes * Sonnes by nature and sonnes by adoption So that hee is the Sonne and we the sonnes of God hee by nature and we by adoption through Christ whereupon the Apostle maketh these collections If we bee sonnes and sonnes of a ripe iudgement out of our nonage and wardship of the Law farewell al seruile feare nay because wee are sonnes God hath sent his spirite which crieth in our hartes that which a carnall heart could neuer bring foorth Abba Father And because wee are Sonnes by consequent wee are heires but how Through Christ Sonnes through Christ Heires through Christ sealed and settled with that prerogatiue and most singular priuilege of the holye spirite of Christ The Papist like an Atheist iesteth at the spirit of God in the sonnes of God but what marueil if men laugh at that they knowe not what it meaneth But if they were the children of God and inheritours of heauen they might know that they are not Christes who want his spirite euen this crying spirit The certainty of saluation most assured by the spirit of God and other infallible grounds Heb. 4. A wauering minde hath a stammering tongue in the case of his saluation But the spirit of christ crieth and hath an audible voice in the cōsciences of Christians The Ankerite speaketh simperingly hollowly as it were with the mouth of death out of his grate but the spirit openeth and culargeth our harts and forceth foorth a bold and a free confession and therein wee haue accesse euen as Gods deere Children vnto the throne of grace and not vnto a terrible consistory or tribunall of feare but a most gracious Father and mercifull God Alas alas Popery flyeth after butterflies and beateth the aire and aimeth at vncertainties alas it knoweth neither the right meanes nor the perfect certainty of mans saluation But brethren faith is a sure ground Hope is an infallible anker with God there is no variablenes his promises are all yea and Amen his spirit doth not speake but * Rom. 8. cry thus much in our harts Neither is it an vncertaine sound or a false alarum it is the cry of his spirite I could dilate and I haue debated these things in a treatise of Nature and Grace which you haue in you handes and therefore I referre you thereunto where purposely I haue refuted their chiefest argumentes which either Master Stapleton or Pigghius both being chiefe Papists haue brought in this matter greeuing the spirit of God as much as in them lieth The spirit resēbled to a seale whereby we are sealed vnto the day of our redemption I say whereby we are sealed For therby are we sealed and this seale is set and imprinted on the harts of Christians To an ernest penny The spirite is also called an earnest penny a perfect assurance of a greater sum and a ful payment which shal be discharged in heauen To an inunctiō Likewise it is termed an inunction the annointing of God whereby we are inaugurated and destrinated to an infallible inheritance certainly reserued in the hands of a strong keeper against that famous day of our redemption And therefore they who are Sonns are Heires and they who are Heires shal inherit So saith nay so crieth the spirit Papistes seeke to infirme this faith to weaken our hope to
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely expect we in patience the Lordes leasure knowing assuredly that God wil make vs a forth and a way amids al temptations Neither wil hee suffer his children to be tempted aboue their measure Dauid had his Goliath Sampson his Lion to encounter with God knew the measure of Dauids courage and Sampsons strength Physitions giue the strongest potions to the strongest bodies And health is most acceptable after the greatest sicknes And the ioy of the sick soule is then enlarged when it returneth after sorrowe and then is the cry of the spirite heard with a quicker sense when for a while it had not beene heard at al. And thus much for the consequent that because we are sonnes wee are therefore endued with his spirite assuring vs though not euer alike Rom. 9. that we are his sonnes and heires because it crieth and certifieth our harts that God through Christ is become our father 8 But euen then when ye knew not God yee did seruice vnto them which by nature are not Gods 9 But now seeing yee know God yea rather are knowen of God how turne yee againe vnto impotent and beggerly rudiments wherunto as from the beginning yee wil be in bondage againe 10 Yee obserue daies and moneths and times and yeares 11 I feare of you least I haue bestowed on you labour in vaine The best way of discerning is euer to compare matters times persons causes condicions and circumstances together Paul taketh this course and sheweth them 1. What they were they knew not God c. 2. What they are they know God or rather are knowen of God c. 3. And therefore their relapse is strange to the beggerly Elementes and thereupon hee feareth their greater danger to ensue The effectes of Ignorance The condicion and state wherein the Galathians liued was in ignoraunce and liuing in ignorance of the liuing God they serued them which by nature were no Gods For certes if they had knowen the true God they woulde haue serued him Ioh. 4. The woman of Samaria if she had known with whom she talked as Christ requested water of hir so would shee haue craued of him the waters of eternal life Mat. 25. The wise Virgins had their entrance with the bride and haue their due commendation for they were wise But the folish virgins though virgins yet because they were fooles and ignorant reaped the sour fruit of their security are reputed thereafter were excluded when the bride was entred Ephes 2. The Ephesians to whom our Apostle writeth the next Epistle what were they How liued they Read the second chapter They folowed the sway of this sinful woorld Sathan ledde the dance hee went before and they thronged after their whole conuersation was altogether in the lusts and wil of the flesh Aske yee the reason They were Aliants from the common wealth of Israel they were strangers from the couenant of the promise they were in the same case were these Galathians and al the Gentils else they had no hope and were very Atheists that is men without God Aske yee why they were Atheists why they hoped not why they trusted not in God The answere is easie and was laide downe in the woordes before because they were strangers and vnacquainted with gods promises Testimonies and Lawes because they were Aliantes from the statutes and ordinances of his church and common wealth because in one woord they knew not God therefore they serued false Gods and by name Diana and cried out like man men Acts. 19. Magna est Diana Ephesiorum Great is Diana the Goddes of the Ephesians Read the thirteenth and the fourteenth Chapters of Wisedom and you should see it vouched that many inconueniences specially Idolatry and the seruice of strange gods and very Idols came in by Ignorance And were mens eies in their heads and their sight cleared and enabled so as to discerne but indifferently it were impossible that the wicked inuention the doctrine of lying the discipline of vanity the multitude of Idolatrous seruices shoulde so preuaile and that men shoulde serue as God that which is incomparably woorse than man that man made by his creation after the Image of God shoulde creepe to a materiall crosse gad to a shrine say my father to a peece of wood yea that a man purposing to saile the Seas should call vpon a stocke and a rotten Roode more rotten than the vessel that carieth him But ignorance is the mistres the mother and the nurse of this deuotion or rather superstition Rom. 4.21 The Romanes because they knewe not God they glorified him not but became vnthankful vanishing away in their Imaginations And why Their foolish harts were ful of dareknesse And being fooles they turned the glory of God into the similitude of innumerable increadible and corruptible vanities In this state at the first were the Romans the Ephesians the Galathians c. And al through ignorance I could dilate and be long and enter disputation with our known and neerest aduersaries because of their introducing and bringing in because of their maintenance and supportation of intolerable Ignorance and Idolatry I know they haue shiftes and distinctions curiously wrought but spiders webs cannot holde out winde or weather The worshipping of Images The ignorant is ignorant hee knoweth not the difference they vainely make of Douly and Latry and Hyperdouly and it is a toy and greeke as we say to the people And it is greeke indeede and that to the English man that knoweth nothing but his owne language And in his ignorance hee creepeth and croucheth lifteth vp handes and falleth downe and adoreth all the Images in their Temples and knoweth litle God knoweth what these sorry proportions and terms meane I aske you do you know them Douly Latry Hyperdouly I know you know them not O learne to know God and thou will worship God alone and in such sort as himselfe hath prescribed But liue in Ignoraunce and straite thou rangest inordinately and seruest straunge gods euen as the children of Israel when the onely God had wrought their strong delyuerance yet sacrificed and gaue the praise thereof euen to a Calfe that eateth hey And say not say not brethren that you you serue not strange gods for all this The Israelites sayde they worshipped God when they adored a Calfe you say you worship God when you fal downe before the Image of the father before the picture of his sonne or of his Saintes but they worshipped strange gods notwithstanding and so doe you in that you worshippe God after a straunge manner which is not Gods-worshippe but a wil-worship and an idol of your owne deuising and that expresly against the scriptures and all for want of true knowledge and by reason of ignorance The making of Images Moses conuenting the people of Israel togither commandeth on gods behalfe on this wise In the day the Lord spake vnto you out of the mids of the fier in
cause Pauls doing is a better president But such wisedome courage constancy are not euery where found and not alwaies there perfourmed where they are much expected and greatly required Of all things a busie waspe and a quarelling or stubborne curst nature is woorst But if the cause be Gods if thy calling and giftes be according there is no * Eccl. 4.28 relenting at al no starting backe no shutting neck out of the coller in such cases in cases whereunto a man is expresly duly enabled warranted commanded Zeale without discretion is naught discretiō without zeal is nothing worth Wherefore 1. zeal without wisedome is neuer good 2. And yet what is wisedome without zeal 3. But zeal and discretion seemely vnited in one as it was in our Apostle is as the throne of wise Solomon and as the strong * 1 King 10.20 Lions at the staies and ascending vp vnto his throne 6 By them which seemed to be somwhat I was not taught whatsoeuer they were in time past it maketh no matter to mee God accepteth no mans person the chiefe added nothing to me 7 But contrariwise when they sawe that the Gospel ouer the vncircumcision was committed vnto me as the Gospell ouer the Circumcision was vnto Peter 8 For he that was mightie by Peter in the Apostleship ouer the circumcision was also mightie by me toward the Gentiles 9 And when Iames and Cephas Iohn knewe of the grace that was giuen vnto mee which are counted to bee pillars they gaue to mee and to Barnabas the right handes of fellowship that we should preach vnto the Gentiles and they vnto circumcision 10 Warning only that we should remember the poore which also I was diligent to do Paul in his conference gaue no place to the chiefe and the chiefe brethren gaue nothing to Paul by waie of authorizing his person or adding to his doctrine 1. and hee sheweth why it should be so 2. and withall declareth the chiefe Apostles due consenting vnto him 3. and onely requesting him to haue a careful eye to the poore which Paul respected and did ful diligently The motiue of Antiquity Among the argumentes the false Apostles vsed against Paul a maine matter was made and drawen from Antiquity that the other Apostles were ancienter than Paul and therefore questionles to be preferred Truly personal preferment was not the mark Paul shot at For he could be euer and was often wel content in all things to giue and yeeld so far foorth as might stand with the glory of Christ But in this ceremonious quarel opposed against the trueth of Christ and Christian libertie as before hee defied an Angell if to that end he should come from heauen so now he declareth that the name of Antiquitie in the Apostles might not cary him away nor driue him aside They were his auncients What mattereth that to me saith he And indeede it skilleth litle There is no prescription against the Prince and why should there be any against the trueth be it later or sooner in whomesoeuer This or that time past or present or future and to come is not in the nature of trueth neither are matters of faith measured by yeares nor is any point of religion liable to be decided by continuance pretended Iob. 32. Elihu said well There is a spirit in man but the inspiration of the Almightie giueth vnderstanding As if he had said man is made not onlie of a body but of a bodie and a soule and that soule is a reasonable spirit and that spirite in processe of yeares and tract of time gathereth politique experience as it were a stone that hath been long pitcht in one place gathereth much mosse But all that experience is but mossy terrene and earthly true wisdome is from aboue from the Father of lights and God of knowledge reueiled in his Son which illuminateth euery man not onely comming into the worlde but either entering into or els continuing priuatly or publiquely in the house of his church And therfore Elihu reformeth his thoughts voucheth that he was mis-conceited when he thought that it was the length of daies should speake and that the multitude of yeares should teach wisedome But yet of old and stil many men embrace rather Elihu his first opinion concerning age and antiquity than his later iudgement afterwarde wel rectified and truly reformed So an old prophet soone deceaued the young Prophet whom neither the threats nor entreaty of * 1. King 12. a king could moue at al. So * Iosh 9. old shewes olde battles findes bread torne sackes tottered rags like rotten relickes with profered seruice seruus seruorum and pretence of comming from far deceaued Iosue because hee rather respected such trinkets and consulted not with the Lord. Our aduersaries knowe how humane affections leane this way and therefore they beare the poore people in hand that theirs is the old religion and ours is an yesterdaies bird but with the like trueth and with the same spirite the Iewes said our sauiours doctrine was new the Apostles preaching new wine and the false Apostles here obiect that Saint Paul was an vpstart and deuoid of Apostolick warrant Sooner or later called it skilleth not old or new if true it forceth little If the name of new were alwaies naught why would Christ cal his louely commandement * Iohan. 13.34 a new commanded If the name of old were alwaies good why did S. Paul cōmand aduise the Corinthians that the * 1 Cor. 5.7 old leuen the incestuous person be purged out If you wil recourse to the first heade of all in this question it were another matter For God is for euer and before Sathan and Sathans fal the Lawe was first giuen and then ensued the transgression first the husbandman sowed his ground and afterward the enimie came sowed tares And which is to be obserued there was no long time betweene For Sathan took the next oportunitie of ignorance and securitie euen the next night as it were when the ground was yet new turned and trimmed for seede the enemie sparst some of his tares in the fielde and Church of God And then while truth and error were yet but greene in the blade the difference was not so easily discerned * Mat. 13.25 til the growth was greater And as it is this in the cause of truth compared with error so is it in the professors and Doctors of trueth compared among themselues the first teacher is not alwaies best for then the vsher must needes bee better than the schoolemaister and the country schoolemaister than the vniuersitie Reader Peter and Andrewe Iames and Iohn and others were called before Paul Hee asketh what was that to him There was no difference or prestancy therin He had antiquity enough that had Christ for his author So that in all materiall respects if they were Apostles so was Paul Nay * 1 Cor. 15.10 2 Cor. 11.23 hee laboured more
and if hee that offendeth in any offendeth in al in what case are we al How can we be iustified by the Law These thinges touch vs neerely and concerne vs much What Vrim and Thummim may wee consult in this case Esa 46. Repaire wee to the Lord in the and six fourtith Chapter of Esay who resolueth vs on this wise Heare me yee stubburne harted that are farre from Iustice As if it were said if any of you presume in pride or precend in hypocrisie of much iustice you are ouer-bold you are deceaued and you cannot deceaue God It is a pride and a pretence of righteousnesse from whence in verie deede you are farre wide Heare mee harken not to your selues to your selfe-wit and ouer-weening I will bring neere my righteousnesse neither shall your iniquitie frustrate or make vaine my promises or sequester my purposed mercy from my elect amongst you and from my church vnto whom I wil shew mercy I wil giue my saluation in Sion and my glory in Israel Then I aske wil Israel be glorified wil Sion bee saued will man bee iustified will hypocrisie speake truely wil stubburne hearts bee mollified and frowarde mindes rectified Then harken what God saith Glory Saluation Righteousnesse and Iustification the acceptation of vs as iust yea of vs very impious and Atheists by nature is Gods only grace and free gift A vanting and a vilde spirite is onely in man who naturally hath but a sorry a naughty and a sleight conceat of the mercy of the father and of the infinit merit of Christ his sonne Come wee home to our Apostle Wee knowe that man is not iustified by the woorkes of the Lawe but by faith It is not an opinion Opinio est entis non entis Opinion is of thinges that may be so or may bee no. But wee know saieth Paul And whereas there are but two waies to bee quit either plea of our owne innocency or help and trust else-where to be iustified wee must leane either to the one or to the other either perfourning the Lawe which no man can or embracing Christ onely relying in him by faith by onely faith in Christ If it be quarreled why cannot man bee yet iustified by the Lawe what should bee the cause thereof It is * An ineuitable reason why Man cannot possiblie iustified by the Law aunswered by Paul flat al men are flesh But why cannot flesh Why Al flesh is fleshly al fleshe is grasse euen the very grace thereof And what is hey and stubble to saue a man * Esay 4.6 And the grace thereof is but as the flower Some flowres are green yellow red stammel purple or white c. These are but gay coulers and what are these before the face of the winde in the heate of the Sunne and in the sight of God Wherefore flesh and bloode may not cannot dare not should not prosume to appeare where it can stand in iudgement before the consistory of our God in the strength of it selfe and without our aduocate Nay the heauens are not cleare in his eies nor the very Angels and celestiall spirites much lesse man who dwelleth in an house of cley and in a body subiect to the soile of sinne who drinketh in iniquity as a drie ground doth a rainey water Wherefore by the * Workes are imperfect being as perfect as they may be they beno deserts but dueties Christ is our righteousnes at the right hand of his father woorkes of the Lawe perfourmed by man by his fleshly arme and strength wee euen the regenerate wee bee not we cannot bee iustified Saint Paul knoweth and acknowledgeth that by faith in Christ and that by Christ alone in whom wee beleeue we bee pronounced in him to bee that wee are not nor can bee of our selues nor in our selues So that heere is guilty and not guilty righteous and not righteous Not righteous but guilty by the Lawe by woorkes by nature and in our selues but in Christ who is made our wisedome righteousnes sanctification and redemption we haue al that wee haue and in him who hath payd all for vs wee haue al and enough And this knowledge brethren being thoroughly learned perfectly beleeued and fully setled in a sanctified soule most honoureth God and comforteth man aboue al thinges that can be named 17 If then while we seeke to be made righteous by christ we our selues are found sinners is Christ therefore the Minister of sinne God forbid 18 For if I builde againe the thinges that I haue destroied I make my selfe a trespasser 19 For I thorough the Lawe am dead to the Lawe that I might liue vnto God 20 I am crucified with Christ but I liue yet not I any more but Christ liueth in mee and in that that I nowe liue in the fleshe I liue by the faith in the sonne of God who hath loued mee and giuen himselfe for me 20 I doe not abrogate the grace of God for if righteousnesse come by the Lawe then Christ died without a cause Vpon the former matters premised Paul may seeme to argue thus if while wee seeking which was graunted on euery side to bee made righteous by Christ yet wee bee found notwithstanding sinners by relying to the Lawe which the false Apostles woulde haue annexed is Christ therefore become the Minister of sinne which must needes bee if he bee coupled with the Law Phy out vpon 〈◊〉 it were most absurd it cannot be and God forbid Christ and the Law cannot make one fabricke or building If any man should build vp the Iericho which hee had destroied and was accursed were hee not to bee accursed If Paul shoulde builde vp the Lawe which accurseth though it were with the coupling of Christ in the building yet should hee shewe himselfe to bee a transgressor in setting vp of the Lawe with Christ which two to stand together were vtterly impossible For to that end entered Christ that the Lawe might cease To that ende Paul exemplyfieng in himselfe voucheth he was dead to the Lawe and therefore had not to doe with the Lawe at all was crucified with Christ and fixed to Christ and vnto Christ alone Iustification by acceptation or imputation excludeth not a measure of inherent sanctification And dying to the curse of the Law shutteth not out good liuing according to the rule of the Law And yet least Paul being dead from the Lawe and crucified with Christ might seeme by this doctrine in himselfe to bee an ensample of dying vnto God and liuing to the world vers 20. hee saith But I liue and because no man should mistake him hee sheweth 1. in what measure of goodnes he liueth as he might in the flesh and 2. withall sheweth how it came to passe that in the flesh he might liue saying that he liueth by Christ and thorough faith in him In him who hath loued me and giuen himselfe for me Whereupon I note 1. the freenesse of the giuer 2. the
mount Horeb Deut. 4. you hard a voice you saw no similitude Take heede therefore as you loue your soules that yee make no grauen Image no representation of any figure neither of male nor femal nor of any creature These woords are cleare and plaine and neede no commentary Esaie 40. The Prophet Esay likewise is as vehement herein as was Moses all people are but a drop of a bucket full in comparison of the Lord. The woddes of Libanus can neither finde him fuel for friar nor beastes for sacrifice To whom shal men liken so woorthie a God What similitude can set him forth Shall the Carpenter make him an Image and the goold-smith couer it with gilt or cast it in a frame of siluer plates Or because this is ouer-costly for the poorer sort what shal the poore man doe Gette him into the Forest and choose out a tree and cause it to be carued out O know yee nothing Saith the Prophet As who would say they are vtterly deuoid of vnderstanding and that it is an extremely ignorant extrauagant imagination to deeme that any protraiture or imagery of better or baser either matter or fashion can fit and frame out a conuement worship of the liuing and eternal God For hath not the Almighty imparted his pleasure herein hath hee not made a veile betwixt the seate of his glory and the earth his footstoole betwixt himselfe and our sightes that possibly we cannot see discern him as he is therefore must not go about to expres him in a dumb earthly figure as hee is not And to whom wilt thou make him like whom thou hast not seene Wilt thou make him like to whom hee is not like and to whom he neither can neither wil be likened A graie headed man is a monument of our mortality not an expression of the Godhead of the father The forme of an aged gray headed father with intent to declare his ancientnes because he is the ancient of daies is but a good intent falsly called good For there is no good intention without the direction of true faith and a right faith resteth on the foundation and ground of the word of god wel known and wisely pondered and the word of god is full and flat to the contrary and darest thou vpon thine owne head make him like an oulde man whose yeares bring age and whose age bringeth death Good Intentes Schoole distinctions secret traditions are the only foundation of images and image-worship Any secret tradition added to this intent to bolster it vp is but a basterd slip and the watering of it with some few fonde distinctions may make it shewe greene a whâ—le but the thunder of gods spirit proceeding from the breath of his mouth wil blast and wither it and finally root it out and confound all such deuises so expresly and oppositely set against his manifest precept Thou shalt not expresse God in forme of male or female or of anie creature God the Sonne is no more to be depictured thaÌ„ God the father And farther as god the father will not bee pictured of thee nor cannot be carued by thee so will not neither can god the sonne bee portraited out more than the father or otherwise than is prescribed For the sonne is very god of the same substance with his father It is replied that as he was man so may he be pictured The historicall picturing of any thing that may lawefully bee pictured is not the chiefe point of the quarrell betwixt our aduersaries and vs yet herein we require their wisdomes greatly But in their ignorance they not onely made Images but in the grosse darcknesse of later times Images haue receiued an Idolatrous worship and this principally this is that pernicious Popish error which we most abhor * Ioh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures for they bear witnes of Christ this is a true teaching But gaze vpon his Image were a doctrinne for Demetrius the siluer-smith for Alexander the copper-smith for Licippus tooles or Apelles pensill Ephes 4.10 No warrant for Images in the word of God Saint Paul intending to shew that our Sauiour ascending on high notwithstanding left behinde him sufficient woorcke-men and spirituall artisans for the accomplishment of the frame and furniture of his Church to wit Prophets Apostles Teachers and Pastours and yet he maketh no mention at all of Painters and Carpenters of Caruers in wood and Engrauers in stone Also God hath spoken of old sundry both waies and times by Vrim and Thummim by visions and dreames by his holy Prophets and lastly in person by his sonne and stil and euer inwardly by his spirite and outwardely by the ordinarie preaching of his word yea in and to the consciences of natural and wicked men he hath not left himselfe without a witnes at any time Among all these meanes or any other that I can tel these sacredimages are not mencioned If they were so sacred and holy so requisite as they beare vs in hande it were more than a wonder there should bee such silence of them If Christs personall presence were not requisit why require they so much the picture of his person Concerning the image of Christes humanity how can it concerne vs so much When himselfe was personally present was it not expedient he should depart And yet is it so necessary that his corporal image must be retained While hee was on the earth were not his Apostles dull of vnderstanding slow of beleef Did not Peter deny Thomas doubt and all fly and forsake him And while himselfe was in place his image was needeles and when hee entred the heauens he promised the assurance of his spirit and the assistance of the holy ghost Of his corporal shape and feature what pattern I should say what picture left he whence nothing is learned though the painter should perfourme his duety neuer so wel but onely the outward lineaments of his humanity Ioh. 20.17 Marie Magdalen was not permitted to touch him after his resurrection For a fleshly vsage since that time much and since his ascention especially is and was much more inconuenient For we walke by faith and not by the outward appearance we serue God in truth and spirit and blessed is hee that beleeueth though hee see not his fleshe much lesse the image thereof The flesh profiteth nothing neither eaten with teeth nor seene with eie Christ careth little for the gazing of the senses but for the stedfastnes of the hart and so farre onely for signes externall as they bee ordained by himselfe expresly to such purposes as his eternal wisdome hath giuen out direction D. Clement Doctor Clement in Oxford when the Church was supposed to haue beene on fier ranne to the pix indeede in the pix were many pictures made on the wafer cakes yea and these cakes he and all Papists like him thinke to be very God the Son of God and the second person in the blessed
The * The Church a city vpon a hill second obiection of the Citty vpon the Hill that cannot be hidden * Can-not in what sense CAN-NOT is here taken for Cannot in dewty Id possumus quod Iure possumus not for an absolute impossibilitie For the highest hils may bee sometimes hid with mistes And our Sauiour spake those wordes to his Apostles whom they most concerned and they proue a proportionable duty in others but not a very performance of such duties when they who should dwell in the hils either come down build in the valleys or els are driuen from the hils and cōstrained to fly into vauts dens secret places Our sauior that said they were the city on the hil said also they were the salt of the earth but he putteth the case that if the salt lost his saltnesse then wherefore is it good So if things alter keepe not their course their duety is shewed by these termes and not their doings If Libanus turne into Carmel or Carmel into Libanus they have altered their first nature For Libanus was a wood and Carmel a fertill pasture But in processe of time woods become pastures and by the iust iudgement of God the best pastures are turned into barren heathes So hils are made vallyes and vallyes may bee exalted and the verie house of God bu It on mounr Sion may bee and was made a den of theeues The Church a candle on the table 3 The third obiection of the candell in the candle-sticke set on the table suffereth the like answere For if the clear burning candle become a snuf as if the white Nazareth should become a black Aethiop the case is the same that was of the high City that had cast hirselfe beadlong from the mountaine And againe it is to bee remembred that the candle and light of the truth and true Church is not alike lightsome to cuery ey and no man seeeth the light of the house but hee that is in the house Solem non nisi sanus videt Augustine in Psal 47. The bleare ey cannot abyde the light the blind seeth not no not in the sun Againe the Apostles were as this candle thus placed therefore are they also who are nothing apostolick are they the light of the woorld the candle on the table I deny it If bees become drones because they were bees shal they brag of their first being And very waspes make combs as wel as bees but waspes make no hūny therfore there is no sweetnes no sauor no tast in this bragging shew of auncient progenitors and titles without answerable dueties and goodnes according Go not out into the wildernes spoken in what meaning 4 The fourth cauil is that there is no going out into the wildernes to enquire for the church In the 17. of Luke our Sauior being demanded concerning his kingdome which is his church he answereth first generally that it cōmeth not with obseruation which may bee explicated not to be with sumptuous preparation and costly manner after the vsage of earthly princes Al which strōgly reprooueth the pompe and starely brauery of Rome Then meu shal not say of a certainty and of alocal necessity Lo here or lo there as if gods Church were necessarily either in the wildernes or any where esse For the kingdome is not hung as a painting vnpon walles or builte vppon the sand of multitudes or else conueied into the wildernes whence it cannot com fuorth when God would no we neuer said that Elias was alwaies so in his caue and could not come foorth Nay the kingdome of God then when our Sauiour aunswered was offered them and was amongest them and should haue beene inwardely receaued of them For the throne of Dauid belonging spiritually to our Sauiour was no earthly conceat no local matter no corporall respect with a necessary respect heere or there either in the desert or in any place els but may bee here and maie bee there but neither heere or there of pure necessite but as God will without obseruation of cirtumstances and therefore without a pluralitie of numbers or localities of places or visibilities of set persons The kingdome of God commeth now with obseruation And farther as it came not so when it first came Shal Rebecca ride and Isaack go a foote Gen. 24.64 so shall it not ende in such beuty as popery requireth and why should it The spouse is not better than the brideman the members than the head When the child went into Aegypt Mary and Ioseph went with it And the woman in the Reuelation which is the Church whereof there is a plaine prophesie shee was driuen by name into the wildernes and we ought as occasions shal be offered by the prouidence of the Almighty with patience to suffer our selues to be framed conformable to our Sauiour in the daies of his fleshe Who beeing looked on with a fleshly eye seemed contemptible and to be depised verily without * Esai 53.3 forme or beutie to see to that is without al vistble estimation And as for our selues in the last times we are plainly foretold that there shal bee a defection and that religion shall bee mystically defaced vnder faire pretences and that when Christ shall come he shall scant finde faith on the face of the earth and what careth hee for a painted visibility of faithlesse hypocrites God might vse the papacy to the benefit of his Church though the papacy be not the Church Where not with standing euen in the mids of such God may haue and hath had and hath no doubt many secret ones yea God can vse such hypocrites to the benefite of his Church as a man may vse a bussard to hatch him haukes though when the hawkes bee hatcht the bussard mislike and beate them most that are best of wing and soare highest both for integrity of life and soundnes of doctrine but the very hawk in experience tan tell in time that the bussard as their naturall dame neuer laid the egs from whence they cante So in popery albeit wee and others some-when externally receaue the sacrament of baptisine amongest them or ought that good is else yet inwardly beeing regenerated by the spirite in the blood of Christ through the mercy of the Father and comming to riper yeares by true knowledge out of his holy word we know that we were baptized though ministerially by them yet by the prouidence of God not into the partiality of the Romish faction but into the communion of the vnsuersal church so made no members of Rome but of Christes body to serue him not in a seruility of Ie wish or apish rites or in the visibility of a Church pompt or in the particularity of my place but in the true liberty of a fre people and it the generall lap of his chosen which in this world is hated and spited most euen of them that much pretend to loue her most But