in denying of himselfe in all his ungodlie and sinnefull lusts that he may become a holy and a meet Temple for God to dwell in And so hee may assure himselfe that God will give him experience of himselfe as hee hath promised Ioh. 14.23 That hee will come and make his abode with him This is that wise merchant who for this pretious pearle sels all that hee hath to buy it This is hee that eates of the hidden Manna Ioh. 6.50.51 Rev. 2.17 that receives that white stone and a new name written which none knowes saving hee that receiveth it This is hee that in the face of Iesus Christ as in a mirrour beholds the glory of the Lord so that hee is changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Notes a GOd is not matier Anaximenes said the aire was God that he was therfore unmeasureable but had a beginning was always in motion Diagoras of Apollonia for he of Melos was the Atheist consented unto him as concerning the matier The opinion of Cleanthes I told you before which one while held God to bee matier in this sensible world in the uppermost ayre and in the Statres Parmenides imagined a mighty wide circle which encompast the world like a Crowne or garland therefore called by him Stephane to be God Xenophon and with him Plato where hee speakes in iest saith the word was God which we call Mammon and yeelds there were more such but where he speakes in earnest as in his Epistles hee speakes of one God the Author of all things as we doe Aristotle could not tell how to gaine-say his master with his owne credit and so followed his judgement Heraclides of Pontus somewhiles said the Starres were Gods then heaven and earth So Theophrastus and sometime Zeno was for the Starres Chrisippus that was accounted most subtile amongst the schollers of Zeno was most wavering in his opinions sometime he thought the world was God sometime the uttermost or burning aire then water now earth after this ayre below and by and by the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres at last all together was but one God yet men canonized for their vertues must needs bee Gods apart and then much more the vertues for which they were immortall And thus they that would seeme wise while they cared to know more than the truth of God became idle in their imaginations and there foolish heart was full of darkenesse The parts which were before separate 2.1 b All parts are understood apart as things differing And therefore although divers formes are brought out of the power of the matier or propagate with the matier yet that affords no objection to weaken this argument But is destinate unto another totall 2.2 c If you looke on the question you shall finde it onely to be about such formes as these For it is not said that God is utterly no forme For forme is the most simple or pure being which wee can conceive but he is none of those formes which are allyed to matier The Angels are accounted formes but separate But I runne not with that opinion The Ideas are conceived to bee formes altogether separate not destinate unto matier much lesse is that most simple forme of formes the originall of all formes God is not the forme of any other Being 2.2 d The opinion of Democritus is contrary to this conclusion in that he makes mans soule to be God Straton thought that God was only a certaine divine power in Nature so said Chrisippus otherwhile and so Cleanthes where hee affirmed that God was the life of the world His opinion that reason was God was an errour against this conclusion also if by reason hee meant that reasonable soule the former of mans body Heraclides supposed God to change his shape at his pleasure Zeno said that reason in every thing was God or that he was that living law that gave life to everything Wavering Chrisippus sometime held the life of the world to be God somewhile he cal'd him destinie Therefore God is no compound 3.1 e Among the matiers reckoned up before note a. some you see are compounded and they belong properly to this place as earth water and our ayre below of which none are simple elements but mixt one with another for generation sake and fitted to the inhabitants that dwell therein of which none could live in elements that are pure being themselves compounded Therefore God is not a body 4.1 f The schoole of Epicurus taught that God was in shape like a man and that he was also bodily For they thought that if hee were without a body as Plato taught he could neither have sence nor wisdome and so could no way be partaker of any pleasure or happines But concerning the pleasure which God enjoyes Plato teaches Epist ad Dionys that it is not in outward or bodily things which hinder the happinesse of the minde The weaknes of Epicurus argument is shewed by Cotta a follower of Plato Cic. de Nat. D. l. 1 the opinion it selfe confuted by the arguments here brought especially against the Audean hereticks that were called Anthropomorphites whoupheld the opinion of the Epicurean Philosophers because the holy Scripture teaching men by their senses speakes of Gods powerfull right hand and treading down his enemies that hee was sorry in heart and specially where it is said Gen. 1. Let us make man in our owne likenesse They here understood the likenesse of the body not of the minde in holinesse and knowledge which we have lost must endeavour our selves to recover as we are exhorted Eph. 4.24 Put on the new man which is created according to God in righteousnesse and holinesse of the truth and againe Put on the new man which is renued in you unto knowledge according to the Image of Him that created him Therefore in God is no accident 5.1 Zeno g sometime affirmed that the yeare and the seasons thereof the spring the harvest the moneths also were God Chrisippus said the truth of things was God And if you account truth an accident you may referre his opinion hither You have now heard the difference of opinions among the Philosophers But how much wiser was Simonides that learned Poet who being demanded by Hiero king of Siracuse what God was He desired a day to thinke of his answer being the next day asked againe he desired two dayes And thus being often asked still doubled his time Being demaunded the reason he answered that the longer he thought thereon the more hard and darke the thing seemed unto him What thanks therefore can we give unto God who by his holy word hath so fully revealed himselfe unto us that the holy Angels themselues with wonder desire to pry into those mysteries which hee hath made manifest unto his Church by Christ 1 Pet. 1.12 1. Therefore his being is most simple 6.1 Against this conclusion a doubt or two may be raised 1. being without addition is
the joyes also of the blessed are increased by the superexcellent beauty and pleasures of that place of their abode And because our Lord is blessed and holy above all that are blessed and holy therefore it is necessary that He should ascend into heaven 6. If Christ after His resurrection had not ascended into heaven then could no other creature bee blessed in heaven by His merit So the place of perfect blisse should be without inhabitants and therefore created in vaine So God should want that praise which were due to Him for His mercy and goodnesse shewed to the creature But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Angels and Saints are blessed in heaven and Christ our Lord their King among them See Iohn 14.2 3. and Ephes 2.6 7. If Christ our Lord had not ascended into heaven yea so that His ascension might be witnessed both by men and Angels Actes 1.10 11. then could not we which beleeve in Him have full assurance of those heavenly joyes that are laid up in store for us 1. So the Christian faith were all in vaine and we still subject to the punishment of our sinnes 2. So His Conception Birth Miracles Sufferings Death and Resurrection heretofore prooved should have beene in vaine So His owne preaching and of His messengers 4. So the prophecies of the Scriptures which were before concerning Him even since the world began should bee without their trueth 5. So the faith and hope of them which confesse the most glorious things of God concerning His goodnesse and mercy toward His creature which faith they have in Him being taught by Him out of his word and by the successe of all things that have come to passe accordingly should be frustrate But all these things are impossible And therefore God is gone up on high in triumph and our Lord with the sound of the trumpet all the holy Angels and the spirits and soules of the faithfull joying therein all the troopes of the heavens and the heavens of heavens attending His comming and submitting themselues to Him their Lord and King Open your heads ô yee gates and be yee set ope yee everlasting doores that the King of glory may come in Who is this King of glory The LORD of hostes mighty in battell euen our Lord IESVS who by the warres of His suffering and death on the Crosse and by the conquest of His resurrection hath overcome the powers of Hell He is the King of Glory Amen Notes a THerefore He ascended into Heaven This Article hath beene gainesayed by the heretickes diversly Cerinthus said That because Iesus was man onely conceived and borne as other men Hee was not yet risen but should rise at last Aug. de haer cap. 8. And thus by consequence he denied that our Lord ascended into heaven But this Iew both by nation and opinion is refuted before in all by the proofe of those Articles which he denied And because he brought nothing for the proofe of his opinions but onely opinion let them all vanish at the authority of the holy Scripture as mist before the Sunne Carpocrates as he had beene taught by Saturnilus said that the soule was onely saved Epiph haeres 23. So that the soule of Christ onely after it was freed from the body ascended to the Father Epiph heres 27. Against this heresie you may set the reasons and authorities of the Chapter before and them that follow in the Article of the resurrection of the body Chap. 38. The errour of Apelles you read before Note a on Chap. 26. § 1. N. 3. his reasons and their refutation you have Note a on Chapter 27. N. 3. The Seleucians confesse that Christ when He ascended tooke with Him His manly body and carryed it as high as the Sunne but there He put it off and left it there But Saint Paul affirmes that He ascended farre aboue all heavens that is all the visible heavens either of planets or starres yet they brought their reason out of the 19. Psalm vers 4. He hath set His tabernacle in the Sun So the vulgar translation of the Latines hath it from the Greeke and so all the Greeke copies reade it except that of Aquila who according to the Hebrew hath it thus In them the heavens He set a tabernacle for the Sunne and this helpes the Seleucians nothing But the errour which hath swayed most against this Article and which with their sacriledge if they could see it hath now defaced their Church is that of the Vbiquitaries who because they beleeve that very substance of the body and blood of Christ is received with the Bread and Wine they are compell'd to say That His naturall body may be in many and consequently in all places at once as His God-head is And therefore that this ascensin of Christ must be nothing else but a disappearance out of the earth or a vanishing from the sight of men For the ground of their opinion they urge the word of our Lord This is my body This is my blood but they deny not the Bread and Wine to continue still which if it be true then the sence of the words must bee In this or with this Bread and Wine is my body and blood But the words beare no such meaning but prove much rather that transubstantiation or change of the Bread and Wine into the body and blood of Christ which the Papists would But this opinion of the Papists were to denie Christ to have taken flesh of the Virgin Mary and so to have beene made of the seed of David at least in part of His bodily being when His body and blood should be made of bread and wine I but it is said Matth. 28.20 I am with you unto the end of the world Answere Not by His bodily being but by His continuall providence and the graces of His Holy Spirit as Saint Augustine saith Corpus suum intulit Coelo majestatem non abstulit mundo Tract 50. in Ioh. But the Centurists cite also the auctorities of the Fathers for their consubstantiation as of Iust Martyr in Tryph. of Tertullian against Marcion but corruptly and falsly and of Origen but a forged one Cent. 3. cap. 10. They bring also reason for say they If the Divine and humane natures in Christ be united personally then it is necessary that where the one nature is there must also be the other But the two nature are so united Ergo. Answere The consequence of the proposition is not good where one of the natures is finite the other Infinite as Saint Augustine saith God and man are one Person and both together are one Christ every where as He is God but as He is man in heaven Ep'la ad Dardanum But this question is by many handled at large and if you desire further satisfaction See the Catechisme of Vrsinus a Booke I thinke common and the question is there briefly handled See Doctor Willet Synopsis Pap. Contr. 13. Part. 1. See also Bucan Inst
concludes Rom. 8.18 That the afflictions which are of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall bee revealed For those things which God hath prepared for them that love Him are such as neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard neither have they entred into the heart of man to conceive 1 Cor. 2.9 And concerning the assurance of this joy let the same mind be in us which was in Saint Paul Rom. 8.38 39. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. For it is just with God to give unto His Sonne having fully satisfied His justice for the sinne of man to give to His Sonne I say according to the merit of His desert that glory and honour and immortall joy which is due to Him therefore which joy for the infinite merit of His Person being both God and man must likewise be infinite And because Himselfe is God blessed for evermore and hath eternall glory and happinesse and a Name which is above every name that is named in this world or in the world to come therefore hath Hee not any need of this purchased glory which is due for His sufferings but that glory is reserved for them that are called of His grace to be partakers thereof And because a finite creature cannot be capable of infinite glory at once intensivè that is according to the infinite measure thereof therefore is it bestowed extensivè that is in the externity or continuance thereof wherein man is carryed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Neither is it for any man to thinke that this glory which Christ hath purchased by His obedience should be setled on that humane nature which He assumed in the Incarnation For that hereditary or native glory which He had as being one with the Father was abundantly sufficient to glorifie that tabernacle wheresoever He was pleased to dwell as He saith Ioh. 17.5 And now ô Father glorifie thou Me with thine owne selfe with that glory which I had with thee before this world was So it appearing both by reason and authority of the holy Scripture that this happinesse which we doe beleeve in eternall life is to be eternall as the life is that first doubt which was first * In the entrance before Chapter 1. proposed in the entrance is fully satisfied The other two questions concerning the soule you shall heare by and by § 2. The heresies that have been concerning this Article though they be divers yet two especially are needfull to be examined One of the Chiliasts which thought that after the resurrection the kingdome of Christ was to flourish 1000. yeeres in this world taking that Scripture which is in Revel 20. for proofe thereof The other is that which they lay to St. Origen That all the reasonable creature even the most wicked among men yea the very devills themselves after their sins by long torments have been purged out shall be restored to joy and happines in the kingdome of heaven and againe after a long time shall fall to their former sins againe and so returne to their ancient punishment and this say they shall be the revolution of all the reasonable creature both good and bad for ever 1. But this is contrary to the trueth of the holy Scripture For no creature either man or Angel can approach to God or come to heavenly happines but onely such as God doth love and whom He loves He loves unto the end Iohn 13.1 because in Him is neither variablenesse nor shadow of change Iam. 1.17 2. Moreover as none can be partaker of heavenly joyes but such as are interested therein by Christ seeing no man commeth to the Father but by Him Ioh. 14.6 if there should be any falling from joy it would seeme to argue an insufficiency of the merit of Christ which cannot stand with the infinity thereof 3. Besides if God willed this eternall revolution of the creature from extreame joy to paine and from paine to joy then were we not taken into the state of sonnes and heirs of glory yea coheirs with Iesus Christ. Ro. 8.17 but to the state of bondmen which should have so much happines as we were able to purchase by our indurance of afflictions and torments 4. So the justice of God should not be infinite if it might be satisfied by a finite creature 5. And if any satisfaction to God could have bin made beside that which was by the death of Christ then that of Christ had beene needlesse and in vaine But all these thins are impossibilities Therefore there is no such revolution from one state to another as this opinion fained to Origen after his death when hee could not answer for himselfe would bring in But though Origen were a Saint yet was he a man and so might have his errours CHAP. XL. Amen ⧠The third supply Concerning the questions incident 1. Whether the soule of man be immortall § 1. 2. Whether there be one common soule of all men § 2. 3. That the holy Religion of the Christians is onely true and none other beside it § 3. 4. How faith is said to justifie § 4. Whether the soule of man be immortall § 1. IT is not the doubt that any Christian can make whether the soule of man be immortall or no. For when God hath come downe from heaven and hath taken upon Himselfe the being of man when He hath beene borne and died to make satisfaction for the sinne of man can any one that beleeves this make a doubt whether hee have an immortall soule or whether immortall life doe belong to him both in soule and body Therefore is not this question proposed for the Christians sake but by way of defiance against the Atheist and such godlesse people as say in their hearts There is no God no soule no life to come And although by all the arguments of the two last Chapters and many before the question may receive an easie solution yet to give full satisfaction is this which followes in particular But to brand both the questions and the movers thereof with their due infamy it must ever be remembred that the errour of the mortality of the soule doth take away the foundation of all religion and common honesty For how can he make due reckoning of honesty that cares onely for himselfe to shift and sharke for a present maintenance in worldly plenty and supposed joy and thinkes that all is ended with him in this life Or what reverence can he have of God or His seruice who is not perswaded that there is a God or if that must needs be put yet is he perswaded that with this life ended his foule also comes to nothing And if there be no reward
and goodnesse are one being doth bring forth eternally an infinite good that is the Sonne betwixt whom and himselfe results an infinite Communion of goodnesse viz. the holy Ghost If there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the actions of the Godhead then there must needs bee a difference of Persons otherwise the difference of the termes were idle and vaine if the being understood thereby were not answerable But there must needs bee a distinction of termes in the working of the Godhead For an infinite working already proved must needs be from an infinite worker about an infinite worke Therefore there is a difference of Persons in the unity of the deity 6. If there were not an infinite and eternall production in the Persons of the Godhead then the being of a beginning could not cleerely and evidently bee therein because though the beginner were yet the working of the beginner and the being begun were yet wanting and so these two comming after should bee inferiour or lesse both in continuance and infinitie And so the first and highest cause should bee an infinite beginner without any effect or thing begun by him which must bring on that the first and chiefest cause of all should be infinitely defective and ceasing to worke and of lesse force than other causes subordinate which all worke incessantlie to the bringing forth of their effects unlesse they bee hindered by lets more powerfull Therefore there bee moe Persons than one in the unitie of the Godhead 7. Being and the power of Being working and the power of working are all one in God as was shewed chap. 8. 9. n. 6. But God by his infinite and eternall power can bring forth an infinite and eternall being like Himselfe by the infinite and eternall working of his power Therefore He doth bring forth or if he can and will not that power were in vaine and so his power and will were not equall and infinite So there should bee divers beings in God finite and infinite But all these things are impossible Therefore God doth bring forth an infinite being his Sonne by his infinite working the holy Ghost 8. If the inward working of the deity bee infinite with all the conditions of Infinitie then the understanding of God for example must bee infinite both in the act or perfection of it selfe and in the object which it doth understand and in the worke or action of the understanding about that object So that God understanding his owne being must needs behold himselfe by an infinite action of understanding But the working of God is infinite with all the conditions of infinitie as hath beene proved for otherwise there should bee a greaternesse in being and a lessenesse in working and so the being of God should not bee simple and one Therefore in the unity of the infinite deity there is an infinite understanding which we call the Father an infinite object or image of that understanding in the sight of which that infinite understanding is most delighted because nothing can be more excellent than it and this is God understood that glorious Sonne and an infinite working of the understanding and that is the Holy Ghost which you see cannot be conceived to be if either the infinite understanding or the object were supposed not to be and therefore he is said to proceed from them both And thus is it in all the other dignities of God his goodnesse his infinitie his eternity power will truth glory c. 9. Now the texts whereby this doctrine is taught more darkely in the old Testament lest the true Church with the Heathen might have fallen into the opinion of many Gods are these among many other Gen. 1. v. 26. Let us make man in our owne image Gen. 3.22 Behold the man is become as one of us Gen. 11.7 Let us goe downe and let us confound their language Gen. 11.7 which manner of speech is not borrowed for manners sake from the custome of Princes and great men who for modestie speake not in their owne name alone Wee but as having determined with their great men and counsellors men like themselves But God doth not so consult nor determine by advice of his Creature Neither yet doth that language admit such forme of speech but as the Easterne languages even to this day speake to one particular person in the number of one as you may reade 2 Sam. 12.7 Thou art the man and 2 Sam. 18 3. Thou shalt not goe forth Thou art worth ten thousand of us Esth 7.3 If I have found favour in thy sight O King But to returne to the holy Trinity You have a like proofe in Numb 6.24.5.6 where the word Iehovah is three times repeated in the blessing and every time with a severall accent So that although his name be one Zach. 14.9 and his being one Deut. 6.4 yet in that one being is a Trinitie of Persons which you shall better understand if you consider the blessings in the new Testament all taken from hence as that 2 Cor. 13.14 Rev. 1.4.5 c. So likewise in Iob. 35.10 Where is God my makers and Psal 149. Let Israel rejoyce in his makers Eccles 12.1 Remember thy Creators and againe Psal 11.7 His faces or their faces will view the righteous In which places though for some reason translated singularly Maker Creator Face yet according to the precisenesse of the Hebrew it is as I have told you And yet a more evident proofe is that in Gen. 20.13 where the word Elohim God is ioyned with a verbe of the plurall number And in Ioshuah 24.19 The Trinity of Persons in unity of the being is most cleare For with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elohim is ioyned an adiective of the plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kadoshim and a personall of the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu as if you would say God He the holy ones or as Esay explaneth it Ch. 6.3 Holy Holy Holy art thou O Lord. And againe in the same Chapter ver 8. whom shall I send there is the unity of the Godhead and who shall goe for us there is the Trinity of the Persons And againe in Esay chap. 48.16 Christ speaketh thus There am 1. I. and now the. 2. Lord God and 3. His Spirit hath sent me So you read in Psal 33.6 By the 1. Word of 2. Ichovah were the heavens made and all the host of them by the 3. Spirit of his mouth And in Hag. 2.5.6 From the beginning I was and now I am with you saith the 1. Lord of hostes the 2. word which covenanted with you when you came out of Aegypt my 3. Spirit shall dwell among you And if you desire moe proofes out of the old Testament you may reade Ficinus de Christ Relig. Cap. 31. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ichovah that great and fearefull name of God Deut. 28.58 one name of his owne being containes the mysterie of the Trinity For in the forming
of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hawah or hayah whence the name is derived Ie is the signe of that which is to come as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yeheweh He shall be or He will be Ho of that which is as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being or He that is and wah of that which hath bin as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee hath beene and thus is the word opened Rev. 1.8 He which was in eternitie the fountaine and eternall Father of Him which shall be in eternity by the common band of all continuance that which is in eternity And this is Hee that was and is and is to come And in the new Testament besides the places cited before in the beginning of the chapter in Math. 3.16.17 and Luc. 3.21.22 you may heare the witnesse of the Father concerning the Sonne and see the Holy Ghost comming downe on Him in the likenesse of a dove And againe Ioh. 14. vers 16.17.1 I will pray the 2. Father and he will send you another Comforter even the 3. Spirit of truth And 2 Cor. 13.13 The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holie Ghost bee with you all with many other texts not needfull here to bee cited because that when we come to speake of the other Persons of the Trinitie in the Articles following some of them must bee remembred And if the adversaries testimonie be ought worth you may take hereto the Aegyptian oracle of Serapis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First God and then the Word and Holy Ghost with them Of essence one in one accord And from hence it seemes had Merc. Trism that which hee teaches in Pormand of that Light which is God the Father the word which is the Sonne and that life which is the union of them both See the other arguments inductive in the Notes a andb. Notes a BY reason we are summon'd to hearken to this truth Pref. Tho. Aqu. in his questions on the master of the sentences lib. 1. Dist 2. q. 3. brings a couple of reasons to prove a plurality of Persons in the unity of the Godhead which in effect are these 1. with the greatest happinesse there must bee the greatest pleasure and content But in the Possession of that which is good there cannot be pleasure and content without company seeing the perfection of every good thing stands in the community of the use thereof But company is not without plurality The second reason is from the perfection of the divine love and all love ever wishes well to another But these reasons prove no more a Trinity than a society of Ten and sit better for an ordinary than the high mystery in question And therefore having look't well upon his reasons and seeing that they were very poore inductions he resolves it is no way necessary to put a distinction of Persons in the Deity for the force of reasons but onely for the justifying of our Faith and for the authority of the Holy Scriptures And in the third Disc qu. 4. whether it were possible for the old Philosophers which knew not the Scripture by the knowledge of the creature onely to come to the knowledge of the Trinity hee saith that by the view of the creature they might come to the knowledge of the divine power wisdome and goodnesse as the cause is manifest by the effect and conclude that there is one God even as Saint Paul proves Rom. 1. and againe Rom. 10.18 out of the 19. Psalme But that they could not thereby attaine the knowledge of the Trinity because the Creature was an insufficient meanes to bring them to the knowledge of that high mysterie So in the 4 booke of his Summe Contr. Gentiles Cap. 1. hee determines even so concerning the incarnation and the consequents thereof So likewise concerning the resurrection everlasting life and all our hopes that depend thereon Againe in his Summe of Theologie chap. 33. hee concludes that by naturall reason it is impossible to know God in the distinction of Persons and that for these reasons 1. First it takes away from the worthinesse of our Faith 2. Faith is of things not appearing and such as exceed reason as it is said Heb. 11.1 Thirdly Infidels laugh at that which is not fully proved and therefore saith hee it shall bee sufficient to defend that our faith holds nothing that is impossible But Doctor reason must yeeld that to bee impossible which it cannot make to appeare that it is possible And therefore that our faith bee not set at nought by misbeleevers as being of things impossible you tye us for defence thereof to further proofe which if it be full and sufficient your third reason is nothing worth The first reason is lesse worth in it selfe For that is the glory of a Christian faith and the triumph of it over all false worships that is so surely founded in the truth of God that the Gates of hell cannot prevaile against it Therefore to speake cleerely to this question I say the word naturall reason may either meane that reason whereof a man is capable by that light of understanding which is naturally through the gift of Christ in every man Ioh. 1.4.9 the holy Scripture hath opened this light most clearely and therefore is it called the light of Grace or else it may meane such reasons as are gathered from the causes effects and rules which are manifest onely in naturall things Now although the articles of our creede by way of Induction onely may be manifest by naturall reason thus understood as S. Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 11. cap. 26. in this very question hath made it appeare yet by that first light of understanding which wee call naturall reason because it is in every man according to the possibility of nature they may bee understood and approved by other rules than such as have their grounds in naturall things For God is not the God of nature onely but much more the God of grace and mercy and to the knowledge of these principles and the conclusions gathered thereon wee are led by better guides than Aristotle ever knew that is the holy Scripture and the Spirit of Grace who leades us to the right meaning thereof Yet how farre even Naturall light hath gone in the discovery of the great Mysteries of Divinity even of the Trinity it selfe you may judge by this of Proclus taken out of Plato as you may reade in Steuchus de perenni phi lib. 2. c. 16. These two saith hee unity and Being consisting in the Trinity the first begetting the second begotten the one perfecting the other perfected it must needs be that there is a certaine power by the which and with the which that unity gives subsistence and perfection unto that being For both the procession from that unity to being and the returne from that being unto unity must be by a middle power betweene them both For
produced nor yet Holy Ghosts as not proceeding then should they bee most idle and defective in the first principle of all Being and therefore not necessary and therefore not possible 2. The same number must be to the Persons of the deitie which is to the termes or perfections of the divine dignities for otherwise the perfections of the dignities and the Persons of the Deity could not bee consubstantiall and the same as hath beene shewed But the perfections of the dignities are three essentially For in that which is essentially wisdome or understanding as we have proved that God is c. 8. the action of understanding is an essentiall meane betweene that which doth understand and that which is understood and these three termes are one understanding and one understanding hath these three essentially Therefore in God there is unity of essence and that substantiall and likewise a Trinity of Persons and yet substantiall that the termes may differ infinitely from accident confusion contrariety But if the Trinity be in the Deity substantially it is impossible there should bee moe or fewer Persons therein than three 3. If in the Godhead there bee but one infinite Agent whose Action is likewise one infinite Action like himselfe then it must needs bee that the object of this action be also infinite and one But it hath beene proved that God this agent of whom I speake is onely one chap. 8. and that his action is infinite and one chap. 10. For if it were not infinite it could not bee one nor in Him One if not infinite Neither yet can the action be infinite if the object be finite nor one if the objects be many And beyond these it is impossible to assigne any limit or terme necessary to action nor yet can action bee without any of these as you may understand by this insuing induction Therefore in the Deity the Persons are three onely and no moe 4. The power and propriety of all inferiour causes depends onely on the highest and first cause of all And all effects are the true images of their causes And no action can bee perfect but in the number of three For the perfection of every action is in the Agent the obiect and the action thereabout and these are onely three So the termes of motion from whence whereto and the middle terme between them are onely three a Therefore the divine Persons are three and no moe 5. The whole being of a beginning must needs be most perfectly in that which is the first and chiefe beginning of all beginnings so as that it cannot receive a Beginning from another nor yet bee a beginning to it selfe so can it not bee worthy the name of a beginning if it be not a beginning to another Being coessentiall and like it selfe But in the perfect being of a beginning taken actively and passively there must bee three termes and no moe that is a Beginner a Being begun and an action of Beginning Therefore there be three Persons in the Deity and no moe And this is that which is said Eph. 4.6 There is one God and Father of all and Ioh. 1.18 The onely Begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father hath declared Him unto us And againe Eph. 4.4 There is one Body one Spirit one Lord c. And yet more cleerely 1 Ioh. 5.7 There are three which beare Record in Heaven the Father the word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Notes a Therefore the Divine Persons are three and no moe Reason 4. Against this conclusion it is urged out of Andr. Osiander by Murschell the declamer of whom I spake before cap. 1. note c. That if the Father by the view and understanding of Himselfe doth bring forth a Person like Himselfe then the Sonne also and Holy Ghost by view of Themselves shall bring forth severall Persons like themselves and so there shall be a multiplication of Persons infinity or if these two Persons doe not bring forth Persons like themselves it must needes follow either that they are destitute of the power of understanding or that the understanding of the Father is more noble and powerfull than theirs But this is impossible For so the consubstantiality of the Persons should bee taken away And this objection in their opinion is like those great Stones wherewith Ioshua shut up the five Kings in the Cave But I say rather like that feale of the Iewes on the tombe of Christ whereby they thought to have shut up the Lord of life among the dead But thus is Hee wounded in the house of his friends For you may not thinke that hereby they prepare to Iustifie the Tritheites or any other Hereticks but onely to set reason against reason and to shew how inconvenient the use of reason is in matiers of Faith But before I goe any further I would aske a question or two of these opposers Is not the Sonne begotten of the Father you dare not denie it It is the word of the Scripture 1 Ioh. 5.1 Is Hee not consubstantiall with the Father you dare not deny it For the Father and Hee are one Ioh. 10.30 If then Goodnesse Infinity eternity almightinesse wisdome c. be the very being of God as hath beene proved is it not necessary that these excellencies bee active in that divine generation for how otherwise can He be the Image of his Father Heb. 1. And if so wherein have Raimund Melancthon Scaliger Keckerman or other learned men offended that they should bee so set at nought by a Phrase-gatherer But I smell the Fox they can sophisticate authority of Scripture of Fathers of Councels for their Consubstantiation the maine point of their private opinion But by no meanes can they tell how to make it stand with reason therfore that their consubstantiation might be a matter of Faith would they so fain make a divorce between faith reason If this were not the very cause so great a Clearke as Osiander seeing his reason was contrary to his faith if he could not have answered it should have studied thereunto lest it might turne the unstable from the Faith But what if wilfully he would not know had he read nothing of Tho. Aquinas This Thomas proposes this same doubt and answers it in his first booke on the Master of Sent. Dist 7. q. 3. c. 4. where he makes the objection thus All the power which is in the Father is also in the Sonne therefore also the power of begetting To which hee answers that the word Power doth fignifie either the simple essence of power and so it is in all the Persons one and the same or the order thereof to some determinate Act and so the same power is in the Father and the Son but in the Father to beget and not to be begotten in the Sonne to be begotten and not to beget and this is the reall distinction of their Persons So that the objection is onely from that fallacy of the
authority or else it signifies a tribe and in this sence the tribe or distinction of a tribe never departed from Inda till our Lord came whereas the ten tribes carried away by Salmanasar in the dayes of Hezekiah were ever after utterly left out of all remembrance in the holy records see further in the 27. chap. R. 2. But concerning the cunning Scribe or lawyer for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies brought up betweene his feet as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel it is most certaine that such a Prince never failed from Iuda till the time of Herod the great who not being able to win the Iewes either by his most sumptuous building of the Temple or by his Largis in their famine or by all the favours that he could doe them to acknowledge his right to the kingdome by the gift of the Romans because they daily expected him that was to come of David murdered their Sanbedrim and all the males that hee could finde of the house of David so that he spared not his owne Sonne that was descended thence by his mother burnt also the bookes of the genealogy of their Kings and afflicted them with other calamities till they after thirty yeeres reigne of his were compelled to acknowledge him their lawfull king and then according to the promise was our Lord incarnate that true Shiloh her only Sonne But you say Shiloh may be interpreted his Son I answer The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiloh by the consonants or substantiall letters signifies her Sonne but by the vowell or spirit above it may signifie his Sonne but because the vaâ—â— is wanting it shall signifie his sonne that is invisible and therefore our Saviour is both God and man So there is no letter present no letter wanting in the holy word without a deepe mystery higher than heaven c Dan. 9. v. 24. Seventy weekes are determined upon thy people vpon thy holy Citty to restraine transgression to seale up sinne to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse to seale the vision and Prophesie and to annoint the Holie of holies c. to the end of the chapter The more evident and plaine any text of Scripture is for the clearing of the truth of Christ the more hath the devil laboured to darken it and to pervert the truth thereof And though by other texts of Scripture it be plaine enough to us that this Iesus is the Christ yet seeing no Scripture is so direct and punctuall as this for the certaine designement of the time the devill hath the more earnestly laboured to bewitch mens understanding so that they have taken more paines to make the time uncertaine nay some make it nothing at all belonging to Christ our Lord. The errours of the Iewes you may read in Pet. Galatinus lib. 4. cap. 14. to the 19. the contradictions of the Christians against the truth and against one another you may finde in D. Willet his most diligent com on Dan. Among the Iewes one Porphyry because he saw the text was so plaine for the truth of Christ suffering at the time appointed by this prophecie said that there was no reckoning to be made of this text of Daniel because he was no propher contrary to the consent of all other Iewes and the manifest authority of the Scriptures as you may reade Eze. 14.14.20 28.3 Math. 24.15 wher his innocency wisdome gift of prophecie are testified others among them doe wrest the time concerning the end thereof For the true Messiah not comming as they lookt for Him in pompe and worldly glory they stil looking for him that should come according to their fancy have made these weeks to mean some 700 yeers some 7. Iubilees others 7. tens And because many in Scripture are stiled by the title of Messiah as you may reade Psal 105.19 Esay 41.1 and elsewhere therefore some of them will have Cyrus to be meant hereby some Zorobabel others Iehoshua some Nehemiah but because neither the time nor circumstances accord others will needs refer it to Agrippa who was King when the Citty and Temple were destroyed by Titus And I would the faithlesse Iewes had wandred thus alone and that no Christian by his lifelesse interpretation had sided with them But the circumstances of the text doe easily overthrow them For this Messiah must bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah Naghid the Prince or chiefe Messiah or of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Messiah that was to be manifested that Messiah that was to be annointed with the oyle of gladnesse above all his partners Psal 45.7 because He received not the Spirit by measure Ioh. 3.34 Moreover who is he that can be that Holy of Holies but onely Christ our Lord both God and man who is hee that can restraine men from transgression that can seale up sin that can cover iniquity that can bring in eternall righteousnesses but Christ our Lord in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed Therefore the text by these circumstances is tyed onely to the promised seed Gen. 3.15 which should utterly destroy the workes of the devil But the errors and disagreements of the Christians have beene a great cause to withhold the Iewes from the acknowledgment of the truth For they have been more different in their opinions hereabout than the Iewes who held constantly that the beginning of the time was according to the word of the Angel in the first yeere of Cyrus when they had liberty to returne and to build the Citty and Temple But the Christians make questions whether from the going forth of the word from God to the Angel or from the Angel to Daniel or from the king who gave the commission to the Iewes Gordonii Chronol cap. 15. pag. 237. And here againe out of Ezra because it is said chap. 6.14 that the house was sininished by the commandement of Cyrus and Darius and Arteshaste king of Persia question arises whether these seventy weekes begin in the first yeere of Cyrus or of Darius Hystaspis or of Artaxerxes Longhand and whether in his seventh or in his twentieth yeere And here while every man is rich in his owne opinion and prizes at an high rate his owne reading and praises his Authors and despises as deceived or counterfeit such as make against him men have so puzled themselves by prophane stories and the reckoning by the olympiads that they cannot finde as not where to begin so not where to end the account whether at Pompeies taking of Ierusalem or at the birth of our Lord or at his death or with the destruction of Ierusalem or in the daies of Adrian when the Iewes were banished out of Palestina And whether these sevens of yeares for on that the Christians agree be moone-yeeres or Sun-yeeres for such fine subtilties they are driven unto who apply their wits and studies to make good their profane authorities How much more necessary were it to hold constantly the limits
the same purpose a Wisdome increated and a Wisedome created and although Arius affirmed as Postellus That Christ was a creature but not as one of the creatures made but not as one of other things that were made c. and therefore concluded that he held the same faith with the Church and detracted nothing from the glory of Christ when hee called him the first and chiefe creature Epiph. haeres 69. yet Postellus whether he were indeed ignorant of it or whether he dissembled his knowledge makes no mention thereof lest the name Arius might discredit the position although the difference betweene Arius and Postellus be as much as from the East to the West For though Arius held the increated Wisdome or Word to be in the Trinity yet he could not yeeld to this that that Wisdome tooke flesh and became that Saviour to whom we confesse And this was the businesse betweene him and the right meaning Fathers But Postellus held that the created Wisdome that first borne of every creature which in the fulnesse of time tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and in that flesh made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world was hee in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead did dwell Now by the rule of our faith both the extremities are yeelded unto that Christ is God blessed above all and that he is man as hath beene proved But this is now to be examined whether it be necessary to the beeing of our mediatour that hee be that first creature of God created before all times and ages of the world by whom all other things were afterwards made in their due times and are governed as Postellus affirmed The Authorities which Postellus brings are either forraine or else out of the holy Scripture you shall first see them of the first kind with their exceptions then his reasons with their answers and lastly those enforcements which are by him and may beside bee brought from the Word of truth 1. First he saith he is urged to the declaration of this truth by the Spirit of Christ pag. 1 3 7 c. but I say these enthusiasmes and revelations are a common claime not onely to them that speake the truth from God as the holy Prophets say Thus saith the Lord but also to them that vent their owne fantasies and heresies in stead of the truth The second authority is that of the Abisine Church which commonly they call of Presbyter Iohn out of whose Creed he cites for his purpose thus much Pag. 24. 25. We beleeve in the name of the holy Trimty the Father the Son and the holy Ghost who is one Lord three names one Deity three Faces one Similitude the conjunction of the three persons is equall in their Godhead one Kingdome one Throne one Iudge one Love one Word one Spirit But there is a Word of the Father a Word of the Soune and a Word of the Holy Ghost and the Son is the same Word And the Word was with God and with the Holy Ghost and with himselfe without any defect or division the Sonne of the Father the Sonne of himselfe and the beginning of himselfe Where in the first Article you see that Church acknowledges the Trinitie of Persons in the unitie of the Deity according to that faith which wee beleeve The second Article But there is a Word of the Father c. is altogether a declaration of this created Word of Sonne of God by whom all the holy Scriptures were given and inspired as Postel speakes But concerning that Church though Postel to make the authority thereof without exception say it was never troubled with any heresie yet it is not unlikely to have nursed that arch-heretick Arius whom all writers account to be a Lybian Besides it is manifest that they are all Monothelites and so farre forth Iacobites or Eutychians that they condemne the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon for determining two natures to be in Christ Moreover what their learning is like to be you may judge by this that their inferiour Church Ministers and Monkes must live by their labor having no other maintenance nor being suffered to crave almes see Mr Brerewoods Enquiry Chap. 23. 21. a state of the Ministery whereto our sacrilegious patrons and detainers of those livings rightly called Impropriations because they belong most improperly to them that unjustly withhold them from the Church would bring our Church unto But see whereto this want of maintenance hath brought that Church which in the time of the Nicene Councell was of so great regard that their Patriarch had the seventh place in all generall Councels yet now as I have read have they of late yeares beene compelled to send to Rome to beg a religion and teachers from them And this is the Authority of that Church But you will say their Creed is ancient and of authority I say though it be as ancient as Arius yet what wit or judgement was in this to put such a point into their Creed which they themselves by Postels owne confession doe not understand If it were necessary to beleeve it other Churches would not have omitted it if not necessary why was it brought into their Creed But the ancient Paraphrasts Anchelus and Ionathan are without exception and where the Text is And the Lord spake unto Moses they explaine it thus And the Lord spake unto Moses by his word which all the old Interpreters and especially Rambam understand to be spoken of the created Word of God that Word of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost or the Divinitie which is appliable to the created beeings Pag. 24. The Cabalists also concurre with this interpretation and therefore call him the inferiour VVisdome the Throne of Glory the house of the Sanctuary the heaven of heavens united to eternity the superiour habitation in which God dwels for ever as his body is the inferiour habitation after he was incarnate the great Steward of the house of God who according to the eternall decree brings forth every thing in due time And these as I remember are all the authorities which Postellus cites except you will add this that whereas he writes to the Councell of Trent they of the Councell being called for other purposes did not at all passe any censure of the booke or this position which is the maine point therein You may add to these authorities many other and first out of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach Chap. 1. vers 4 5. Wisdome hath beene created before all things and the understanding of Prudence from everlasting The VVord of God most high is the fountaine of wisdome c. which agrees with that in the Creed before that hee is the VVord of the Sonne and the beginning of himselfe And againe verse 9. The Lord created her and saw her and numbred her And Chap. 24.8 9. He that made me caused me to rest he created me from the beginning before the world and I shall never faile And this authority
be except you will say that hee created himselfe and so was when He was nor or that hee had his creation from some other originall than God which must likewise bee infinite in being able to create so excellent a being and yet finite that hee might move or not move himselfe thereto when he would But first this progresse would be infinite and beside that impossible For if neither God could move because Hee is infinite nor much lesse the creature when it was not how was it possible that any thing at all should be created Secondly Moreover it would follow hereupon that that were possible to the second cause which was not possible to the first but it is manifest that all second causes worke onely by the activity of the first so that if the first cause cease to worke much more the second Thirdly beside this the power of God should not be infinite if it could not worke according to his pleasure in things without But you say as Himselfe so His action is infinite and it is impossible that a finite being should be the subject of an infinite action I say though Sampson were able to breake a Cable yet might he straine one haire of Dalilah to straightnes not to lengthen it to lengthen it not to breake it This is true say you because he was as every creature partaker of being and not being of act or perfection and of possibilities or imperfection whereby he might move or not move at his pleasure But God is not so but alwaies actually whatsoever Hee may be But say I it is one thing to speake of the infinite action of God in himselfe and another of his action in the creature limited according to his Wisdome and His Will in respect of the outward object as I have shewed at large in answer to the objections for the worlds eternity chap. 13. note b ob 2.3.4 Neither is the will of God without an infinite Wisedome to dispose of all things in their times nor yet without an infinite power to cause every thing to bee actually according to His Wisdome and His will and the application of his will wisdome and power is sufficient to move all inferiour causes to give all manner of beeing to the Creature 2. But seeing the matier and forme of all things are after a sort contrary and that the bodily composition likewise of things below is of elements contrary in their qualities it is impossible that these repugnances should be brought together into one nat Med. pag. 21. Answ The Philosophers tell us of a certaine quintessence in which the different qualities of all the elements are brought to agreement and give us reason to beleeve it by which quintessence dwelling in every thing the contrarieties of the elements are accorded in every compound Raim Lulli and Ioh. de Ruposc de 5. essentia lib. 1. cap. 2. But seeing they keepe the experiment with themselves neither their reason nor their authority shall bee of any force with us But this is without all doubt that hee that had power to create all things had likewise power out of that created masse fruitfull with the seed of all things to bring out every thing in due time according to the kindes that were by him foreseene and determined And because wee have hitherto maintayned that God alone by his eternall wisdome Our Lord Iesus Christ was the Creator it must follow of necessity that the creature was also ordered and guided by Him For that infinite power which could doe the more and cause that to bee which was not might also doe the lesse and order it at his will So that for this objection wee are not compelled to acknowledge any such created being the Creator and disposer of all the rest And concerning that supposed repugnancy betweene the matier and forme of every thing it is but the begging of the question for all formes are produced out of possibilities of their matier excepting onely the soule of man and the divine endowments thereof as I shewed at large chap. 17. § 4. n. 2. 3. The third argument of Postellus pag. 28. as not much unlike the former drawne from the perpetuall change of things subject to generation and corruption For nature brings out nothing violently or in an instant therefore as the things that are began by little and little to bee by the power of the Spirit of God which moved upon the waters so by the power of the same Spirit are they still preserved in their order of being and by it they are changed from state to state And this spirit of God is that first created being that Mediator betweene God and the creature the spirit of the Vniverse actually moveable and applying it selfe to every thing and working in every thing by the power of the Trinity which dwelleth in Him For nothing which proceedes from the power of the matier is able to move it selfe no more than the matier was no not the soule of man but onely by His strength and activity by whose power it is Answer Concerning the progresse of things naturall from the evening of their beginning to the morning of their perfection I have spoken before But for answer to this I say that it is not necessary to put any such spirit of the universe such an applyable divinity as the Platonicks call Animam Mundi because things are changed from one state of being to another seeing the Holy Scripture tels us Psal 148.5 that all the armies of the creature were made because God commanded And for their changes in corruption and generation it is plaine it must be according to that degree which they cannot passe vers 6. which is the law of nature And moreover concerning the providence of God on every particular thing our Lord hath taught us Math. 10.29 that not a Sparrow fals to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father except Postellus will here except that that heavenly Father must signifie that first begotten of the creature which he doth meane Which interpretation would directly crosse that text Act. 15.18 That all the workes of God were knowne to Him from everlasting And nothing can bee in the second cause which was not in the first Therefore seeing the infinite power of God is that by which every thing is powerfull to worke unto that end whereto it was destinate we must needs confesse that Hee by His power workes what He will both in Heaven and in earth and yet because all the orders of causes are appointed by him wee may safely say as our Lord hath taught us Mark 4.28 That the earth of her owne accord bringeth forth fruit and as the Prophet Hos 1.21.22 I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the corne and the wine shall heare Israel Which order of causes being put we shall not need to apply the immediate power of that applyable divinity of the
eternally ordayned in the counsell of God yet this Spirit here meant is that Spirit of the humanity of Christ as it appeares by the circumstance of the text For hee that searcheth the hearts knoweth the meaning of the Spirit so it is the Spirit of the heart of Christ our Mediatour whereby he intreates for the Saints For although our Lord Iesus be glorified in body yet is he the same body that he was before and his heart is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and even now sorrowes with us for our sorrowes as when he wept Iohn 11.35 For as Postel truely saith pag. 33. The beginning of his sufferings was in the body and though his bodily sorrow was ended in his death yet his sufferings in his soule and Spirit are not ended till that which is remaining to the sufferings of Christ be likewise fulfilled in the bodies of his Saints as it is plaine Acts 9.4 Col. 1.24 And therefore it is said of this Saviour or Angell of his presence in all their troubles he was troubled Esay 63.9 Heb 2.17 4.15 16. But Saint Paul Colos 2.2.3 saith That all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge are hid in that mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ Where the Father by a manifest distinction from God and from Christ must meane this meane being or created Mediatour which tooke flesh of the Virgin Answer Not so for although the eternall power and Godhead were manifest to all men by the creature that wicked men might bee without excuse Psal 19. and Rom 1.20 Yet none of the Princes of this world did understand that mysterie of the Gospell of Christ 1. Cor. 2.8 For that had beene kept secret since the world began but was now manifest in the last times Rom. 16.25 Col. 1.26 Therefore these treasures of knowledge are first to know God one infinite and eternall being then to know him the Father that is to confesse in the unitie of the Deitie the three persons 1. the Father eternall which cannot be without an eternall 2. Son neither can an eternall Sonne bee without an 3. eternall procession or generation Now to know this one God and him the Father and that one Mediatour betweene God and man the eternall Sonne dwelling in the man Iesus the Sonne of the Virgin is the height and perfection of all knowledge whereto man by all his search could never attaine Then so to acknowledge this truth as to live in holinesse as they ought that know it is that perfection of wisdome that whole duty of man whereto hee is called and this answer may serve for the like objection out of Ephes 1.3 17. So Saint Paul also Heb. 1.3 seemes not to give unto Christ equall glorie with the Father for he saith of him that he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beame which is of one nature with the fountaine of the light nor yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shine of that beame but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glimpse brightnesse or shine by reflection from that glory whereby it followes that he is not consubstantiall with the Father and so of necessity a created mediator Answer It is said 1 Tim. 6.16 that God dwelleth in the light which no man can approch unto that is that centrall or incommunicable light of the deity which no man hath seene or can see for the creature cannot comprehend what God is except it bee united unto him but yet because the creature cannot bee blessed but in God therefore is that light spread abroad or dilated from the centre into the infinite circumference of the divine dignitie by the infinite obiect of that light the Sonne our Lord Iesus by whom that light is participate unto men and Angels in that blessed vision whereby they are blessed in him and this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or brightnesse of Saint Paul the same glory of God made communicable unto us by our Mediator not any shine or reflection of light in a forreigne obiect as the wisdome of God in the creature or the light of the Sonne reflected in the Moone or starres in which the light is made other then it was as the obiection mistakes it 18. Revelation 3.14 Christ is called the beginning of the creation of God therefore Hee was the first creature Answer If he be the beginning of the creation therefore he cannot be a creature for so should He be the beginning of himselfe so should He be when he was not so should he be a cause and yet not be but these are impossibilities Compare herewith Colos 1.15 And see the reason of the speech in answer to the fourth obiection § 11. The heresies concerning the proprieties of the Mediator are principally three of the 1. Acephali the 2. Agnoetae and the 3. Monothelites The Acephali or headlesse because they had neither bishops nor priests nor set times nor order for the service of God though that as the two natures in Christ were confused for from the Timotheans they descended so also the proprieties of these natures But if the first befals as was shewed § 1.2 3. before then their confusion is also confounded The author of this heresie was one Severus a bishop of Antioch who dayly cursed the Councell of Chalcedon for that by their decree which you heard before § 1. they had forestalled this heresie But his blasphemous tongue cut out and he banished from his chayre were worthy rewards of such a Bishop Euag. lib. 4. c. 4. 2. From that heresie of Apollinarius came that of the Agnoetae that the divine nature of Christ was ignorant of many things as the day of judgement the grave of Lazarus c. For if the Godhead were changed into flesh as Apollinarius held Themistius might well conclude that both the being and also the proprieties of the Godhead must suffer losse thereby and so falsly ascribe unto the Godhead that which was proper unto the manhood But if the foundation were unsure as it appeared § 2. their building must needs fall to the ground 3. And because the opinion of Eutyches concerning the only divine nature in Christ began to be hated therfore Cyrus by shop of Alexandria upheld it by the opinion of one will in Christ for said he the humane will of Christ either is none or not at all moved as the will of man but onely by God But to take away those proprieties which doe necessarily follow the nature and being of any thing is to destroy the thing it selfe so that to deny either the divine or humane will of Christ were to make him an unsufficient mediator and is directly contrary to that scripture which is Luke 22.42 Father not my will but thine be done 4. From whence Iordanus Brunus a Neapolitan in my time in Oxford would inforce a more wicked conclusion That Christ was a sinner because His will was not in every respect answerable to the will of God And because that which comes into the
body which should againe have beene scattered into that from whence it was taken as Apelles affirmed so had it beene to no end to take a body and therein to suffer the darkning of His divine glory if by that body no benefit had redounded to the creature But if you desire moe reasons hereto they that are brought in the Chapter for His suffering crucifying death and buryall may give you full satisfaction So the â—rrours that are yet remaining about the suffering of Christ are two one of the Theopaschites who held that the God-head of Christ did suffer while His body was nayled on the Crosse Aug. de Haer. Cap. 73. The other of the Patrispassians such as Praxeas and Sabellius who because they thought that as the Father and the Son were but one substance so were they likewise but one Person and therefore they affirmed that God the Father was incarnate and suffered Aug. de Haer. Cap. 41. But the former of these is sufficiently reproved by the doctrine of the 9. Cha. For if God be not any kind of matier nor a compound nor a formed body nor subject to any accident but that His being be most simple and pure as was there shewed by every one of these circumstances it will follow necessarily that God cannot suffer The later is refuted by all the reasons of the 11. and 23. Chapters And if you hold not your selfe satisfied by that which is brought in those Chapters and the answeres to the reasons of Sabellius Note d on Chap. 11. You may doe well to read Epiph. Haer. 57. and Tertullian against Praxeas For this very question whether God the Father was incarnate and suffered is the Argument of that Booke b That by His partaking of our sufferings He might c. It may heere not vnsitly be demanded for what causes Christ the Holy one of God should die for vs and how that death becomes availeable to free vs from the power of sinne of death and hell For answere Wee must first put that which was the first and principall cause of our salvation the eternall purpose of God which He purposed in Iesus Christ our Lord Ephe. 3.11 See Actes 2.23 And this not for any graces or workes fore-seene in us But according to the good pleasure of His owne will Ephe. 1.5 For He hath saved us and called us with an Holy calling not according to our workes but according to His owne purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began 2. Tim. 1.9 And he that puts any outward cause or good workes fore-seene in us whereby God might bee moved to chuse us takes away the chiefe glory of his grace and makes him to bee lesse good So then the first cause of all the causes and meanes of our salvation in Christ is the free mercy and purpose of God the Father which because it is the first it must needes also be the chiefe cause seeing all other cames worke to that end to which they are ordered and guided by the first And because the Son doth nothing of Himselfe but what things soever He seeth the Father doe those also doth the Sonne likewise Iohn 5.19 Therefore secondly did the Sonne according to that eternall purpose of the Father offer Himselfe vnto His Father for man as a ransome and satisfaction for their sinne as it is said Psal 40.7 Loe I come in the volume of the Booke it is written of mee to doe thy will O God Heb. 10.7 For in Him onely is God well pleased Matth. 12.18 And this is that Eternall Gospel of the Lambe slaine from the foundation of the World Apoc. 13.8 For through the Eternall Spirit did He offer Himselfe without spot vnto God But if this offer of our Redeemer who offered Himselfe for vs had not beene accepted of His Father then had it beene of no availe for us Therefore in the third place it must appeare that God did accept this Sacrifice of His Sonne which is manifest first by this That it was the disposition and purpose of God Himselfe as was shewed in the first place and as it is said Heb. 10.10 By the will of God are wee sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all Neither was God in this reconciliation of man-kind a willer or disposer onely but a worker also of our Redemption For God was in Christ reconciling the World vnto himselfe not imputing their trespasses vnto them 2. Cor. 5.19 If God then be for us who can be against us If He Iustifie who can condemne us who have the decree and will of God for our Iustification the offer and acceptance of Christ both God and man for our ransome and reconciliation and that offer was made by the eternall Spirit And this Spirit also beareth witnesse to our Spirit that wee are the sonnes of God Rom. 8.16 The second cause concernes the justice of God by which our Lord Christ died for vs. And it stond in this that He according to the will of His Father became our surety Hebr. 7.22 and bound Himselfe to make satisfaction for the sin of man which maâ— himselfe could not doe as it hath beene manifest before Chap. 19. Now iâ— this satisfaction of Christ the infinite Iustice was accorded with the infinite Love of God to the creature The infinite love appeared as was said before first in this that the Sonne was called and appointed to the performance of this glorious worke Hebr. 5. verse 4 5.10 Then in this that being performed it was accepted in our name and for our everlasting happinesse as it is said Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world that He gave His onely begotten Sonne that whosoever beleeveth Him should not perish but have everlasting life The infinite Iustice was manifest in this that the satisfaction of Christ was a full and perfect satisfaction according to the rigour of Iustice and that both in respect of the infinite value thereof and of the punishment which our Mediator endured The infinite value of the satisfaction was first in the Person that offered it For as the grieuousnesse of the injurie exceeded by the worthinesse of the Person of the Father that was offended So the value of the satisfaction exceeded by the worthinesse of the Sonne that maâ—e the amends And because the honour which was done to God herein is valued according to the worthinesse of the Person which worthinesse in Christ is essentiall unto him not accidentall as that of Aaron therfore the satisfaction also is essentially infinite and therefore abundantly sufficient in respect of the Person that did fulfill it For the satisfaction to an infinite Iustice was as fully made by the Person of the Sonne an infinite being than if the creature being finite even all Angels and men had suffered the torments of hell eternally Secondly the infinite value of the satisfaction appeares in the worthinesse of the thing that was offered For our Mediator having no greater nor better
the meanes 2. Doth reason onely dictate this Doth not the Scripture say also the same For if Christ bee therefore the first-borne from the dead 1. Cor. 15.20 that Hee may bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 firsting or having the first place or preheminence in all things Col. 1.18 Is not the argument also good Christ is ascended that Hee in all things may have the preheminence And if the dead bee therefore raised againe by the vertue of Christs resurrection who was therefore raised up by the glory of the Father Rom. 6.4 Iohn 5.21 doe they not also ascend by the vertue of His ascension So that before the Ascension of Christ our head there was no ascension for any of the members It was the word of our Lord Himselfe Iohn 3.13 No man hath ascended up to heaven But I heare one whisper against this that the soule is not said to ascend without the body and therefore the soules might bee in heaven though they ascend not So the cavill is onely about the word Ascend But the reason For it is said Actes 2.34 David is not ascended up into heaven And this was spoken by Peter after Christs ascension So that although Davids soule was not in heaven before but went with Christ at his ascension yet David is then said not to have ascended Al. Hume Rej. to Doctor Hil. But had this man well considered the circumstances of this text in the 25. verse David speaketh concerning Christ and so as it followeth in the 29.30.31 he would have taken this text from David as S. Luke doth when he saith David is not ascended that is this Scripture doth not at all belong to David concerning any ascending or descending of his but to Him alone of whom David speaketh Psal 100. The Lord said unto my Lord sit at my right hand The like speech to this is that of our Lord Luke 22.42 Not my will but thy will be done And yet it is said of Him Psal 40.8 I delight to doe thy will O my God Thy law is written in my heart So the will of God was done as the first moving cause of our salvation the wil of Christ was done as subordinate not as the first cause See Heb. 10.9 So 1. Cor. 15.10 Not I laboured but the grace of God which was within mee And yet who knowes not the labours of Paul to have beene above all the rest of the Apostles 2. Cor. 11.23 ad finem yet he of his owne motion laboured not for the Church but persecuted it So David ascended not as the first fruits of them that slept but Christ ascended so by vertue of whose ascension David and all the rest of the faithfull shall ascend But not to fight with the shadow I take the word at the manifest meaning that David is not ascended and from thence conclude against themselues That if David had not ascended before Christ nor yet ascended with Him much lesse were the faithfull soules in heaven before Christ but that the soule of David dwells and must still dwell in Paradise with Daniel and the rest of the faithfull till the end bee Dan. 12.13 But if they will needes have the soule of David in heaven not formaliter as all the faithfull soules are in respect of the heavenly joyes which they have in Paradise but locally then I say it must needes have ascended For if the soule being in one place is not in another and if heaven be upward in respect of the earth then when Dauids soule went into heauen it must needes be said to ascend or goe upward as Luke 2.15 speakes of the Angels and Solomon Eccles 3.21 speaketh of the spirit or soule There ore this is but a poore shift such as they must needes bee driven unto that oppose the trueth Yet thus he holds it sufficient to mocke at the direct word of our Lord which is Iohn 20.17 I have not yet ascended to my Father For if He had then must there be two ascensions as they beleeve one of the soule alone and another of the body and soule together 3. Yet it is said Iohn 14.2 I goe to prepare a place for you And if I goe to prepare a place I will come againe and receive you to my selfe By which it is plaine that none could goe to heaven before Christ our Lord had gone and prepared a place for them which was not done before His death and ascension 4. Moreover it is said Heb. 9.8 the way into the holyest of all was not yet open while the first Tabernacle was yet standing Whereto if you take that which is verse 24. Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are figures of the true but into heaven it selfe it will bee manifest that there was no entrance as not into the holy of holies so much lesse into heaven before that Christ by His death had opened it as our Church confesseth in the hymne of Ambrose When thou haddest overcome the sharpenesse of death thou didst open the Kingdome of Heaven to all beleevers Whereupon it must necessarily follow that the soules of the faithfull were not in heaven properly so called before the death and resurrection of Christ 5. To this purpose you may also bring that which is Ephe. 4.8 When Hee ascended up on high He led Captivitie captive Now what was this captivitie or multitude of captives Were they reprobate You will not say it If the Elect then it followes necessarily that they were not in heaven before the ascension of Christ except you will bring them downe from thence to fetch up Christ in triumph but then had they not beene captives if already triumphing in heaven then had not the conquest of Christ over death and him that had the power of death beene so glorious if hee had had no captives to lead in triumph And therefore Esay 53.12 after the suffering of Christ describes His conquest thus I will divide Him a portion with the great and He shall divide the spoyle with the strong The faithfull soules therefore being held under the power of death though free from His tyranny and torment as it is said Sap. 3.1 The soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torments shall touch them whereby Christ having bought them of God and payd their ransome brought out of all power of their strong enemie out of the shadow of death into the everlasting light of Paradise in all the libertie and ioy of the understanding to view the Wisedome of God in His most glorious workes as you may read further a little below Sect. 8. Numb 3. Sect. 7. Sect. 7 Now having shewed the different interpretations of this Article and as I thinke fully proved that the soule of Christ went not to heaven properly so called before His resurrection but that it was glorious and blessed among His Saints in happinesse and so in heaven formaliter as they speake It is fit that wee draw toward a conclusion which
raysed unto you as Moses of your brethren is there not one man among you that understands any more Doe you not heare the words of your Prophet Hosea 1.7 I will save them saith GOD by IEHOVA their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battell by horses nor by horse-men as you still dreame But which is the greater deliverance that from hell and the power of sinne and eternall death or from any temporary and worldly thraldome If the greatest deliverance bee performed why doate you on the lesse Which cannot bee till you forsake your infidelitie and returne Returne therefore unto Iesus your God for whom you are fallen by your unheliefe Take with you words and turne to the Lord your God and say unto Him Take away our iniquity and receive us graciously so will wee render the calues of our lips But you will say why did not Christ shew Himselfe alive to all the Iewes at once that they might all beleeve I answere that the life to which our Lord redeemed us is a spirituall life unto which we must walke by faith and not by sight And if it bee not sufficient proofe of His resurrection that He beside other times shewed Himselfe alive to five hundred at once 1. Cor. 15.6 neither would it have beene sufficient to them that seeing would not see and hearing would not heare who said that His great workes were done by the power of the devill though Hee had conversed among five hundred thousand of them every day ARTICLE VI. ⧠He ascended into heaven c. CHAP. XXX § 1. THough the Iustification of the Articles of our Creed bee my onely worke Yet heere I heare two questions demanded of mee The first who those were which are said Matth. 27.52 and 53. to have risen at the resurrection of Christ and to have shewed themselues to many in Irerusalem The second where our Lord was in that time of 40. dayes betweene His resurrection and ascension seeing it is manifest that He conversed not wholely with His Disciples but shewed Himselfe unto them at severall times and that especially on the first dayes of the weeke as on that day He had risen from the dead To these I answere where I have the authority of the Scripture boldly where I have not I leave you at your libertie to thinke with mee First therefore in the number of them that rose immediately after the resurrection of our Lord I put those high Saints which are reckoned in the Genealogie of our Lord from Adam unto Ioseph His nursing Father except Henoch and with them many of the Saints who had slept in the faith of Christ to come in the memory and knowledge of such as were yet alive in Ierusalem as Zechary and elizabeth Simeon Hanna and many others who by speciall grace were raysed againe shewed themselues alive unto such as were appointed thereto and to them bare witnesse not onely of the resurrection of Christ but by experience in themselues did also testifie that the power and vertue of His Resurrection was of force and availe for the raising up of all them that should beleeue in Him And of these especially you must understand that speech of our Lord which is Iohn 5. Chapter from verse 19. to 30 where He saith that the houre was comming and was even then at hand when the dead should heare the voice of the Sonne of God and should live As you may remember how it was said Note a on the last Chapter that the faithfull are raised by the vertue of Christs resurrection but they that shall be raised up to judgement at the last day are raised up by the power of the Father Of these faithfull that had dyed was that word of our Saviour spoken as it is manifest by the text And this is that captivitie or number of Captives which till then had beene held under the bands of death but by the victory of Christs resurrection were freed from death and ascended with Him on high when Hee gave gifts unto men Eph. 4.8 And although some will needes interpret that resurrection only of a new life by repentance from dead workes yet the arguments in that place will not so hold All that are in the graves shall heare the voyce of the Father and shall come foorth some to life some to damnation ver 28.29 Therfore some shall heare the voice of the Sonne and live verse 25. For the Father quickneth the dead so the Sonne verse 21. And whatsoever the Father doth the same things doth the Sonne likewise But to raise the dead and to give Repentance are not the same things So then that which is heere spoken by our Lord is no other thing than that which was prophesied by Hosea 6.2 The third day He will raise us up and wee shall live in His sight and was here fulfilled by the testimony of the Evangelists And if the first fruits be holy then also the whole lumpe Rom. 11.16 So that we which have the same faith shall at last receive the end of our hopes and have our parts in that holy resurrection whereof whosoever is partaker on Him the second death can have no power For as that prophesie of Ioel 2.18 was fulfilled in part after the ascension of our Saviour It shall be in the latter dayes that I will powre out of my Spirit upon all flesh c. Act. 2.17 and for a proofe or assurance of that which shall be fulfilled not in 120. Persons but in all flesh when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Es 11.9 Hab. 2.14 So likewise was that resurrection a pledge and assurance of that holy resurrection of the dead in Christ which shall rise first 1 Cor. 15.23 1 Thes 4.16 but the rest of the dead shall not rise till the time be fulfilled that they shall be judged according to those things that are written in the bookes Revel 20.4.5.12 Whereas of these it is said Iohn 5.24 That they shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into iudgement much lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into condemnation but are passed from death unto life For he that judgeth himselfe and condemneth himselfe and brings no other plea unto Christ but that for mercy may be sure to find mercy in the time of need See 1 Cor. 11.31 Heb. 4.16 Now for the second question although it seeme more curious then profitable to aske where our Saviour was after the time of His resurrection during His absence from His Disciples yet I will answere what I thinke and leave you upon better consideration to give a better answere First therefore it is manifest by the Scripture that our Lord shewed Himselfe Eleven times after His resurrection if oftner yet is it not manifest by the text Of this number five manifestations of Himselfe were on the day of His resurrection 1. To Mary Magdalen alone Mar. 16.9 2. To her againe and the other
their lives given as a prey Ezechiel Daniel and they that were signified by the basket of good figges Iere. 24.5 were carryed away for their good The Christians likewise were safe at Pella in the destruction of Ierusalem Euseb Ecclesiast hist lib. 3 Cap. 5. So He delivereth from the noy some pestilence Psalm 91.3 c. and in the dayes of famine those that wait on Him shall have enough Psal 37.19 So these things are testimonies unto us both that there shall be a judgement and that the godly shall be saved and the wicked condemned 12 And as if nature if selfe had imprinted the acknowledgment of this judgement in every mans mind so there was never any man c that confessed the resurrection but did withall confesse this generall judgement And therefore though every other Article of our Creed have been impugned by some hereticke or other yet never any gainesayd this I meane since those errours were stilled in the Apostles time See 2 Thess 2.1 2 3. But whether it be that every man acknowledging the justice of God as no man can confesse him to be God whom he doth not beleeve to be just and a rewarder of them that diligently seeke Him Hebr. 11.6 or whether it be that the testimonies of the holy Scripture are so cleare in this point as that they have stopped the mouthes of all heretickes the thing it selfe is most certaine to be as it may appeare by the texts of Scripture already cited and by these also that follow Psalm 9. vers 8. The Lord hath prepared His Throne for judgment He shall judge the world in righteousnesse He shall minister judgment unto the people in uprightnesse And Psalm 50. vers 3 4 5 6. God shall come A fire shall devoure before Him Hee shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that Hee may judge His people c. Psalm 96.13 The Lord commeth to judge the earth Hee shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with His trueth As it is also Psalm 98.9 Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce ô young man in thy youth c. but know that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement And Eccles. 12.14 God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it bee ill Reade hereto 2 Pet. 3. Chap. from vers 7. to 15. and Reu. 20. Chap. from vers 11. to the end § 6. Sect. 6 Thus it being manifest that the judgement shall be it must also appeare that our Lord Iesus must bee that judge Whereto though I have said that which may be sufficient at the beginning of the Chapter yet because it is our speciall hope and comfort that He shall be our judge that was our Creator that hath so dearely bought us that hath been our Mediator that doth evermore preserue us from the power of the enemy let us both begin and end with this lest the conscience of our owne sinnes and the remembrance of that fearefull time should cause us not to long for that comming For if God be very terrible in the assembly of His Saints Psalm 89.7 how much more in that gloomy day when He comes to render vengeance with devouring fire before Him and to repay His aduersaries to their face and to passe on them that fearefull sentence that shall d never be reversed and from which there is no appeale But lift up your heads you that are little in your owne eyes and tremble at His words for that is the day of your redemption and God Himselfe will come and save you And because He is God He knowes the secrets of your hearts and sees your reverence and your feare before Him and your acknowledgment of your owne unworthinesse And because He is man and hath had experience of sorrowes and passed under the burden of unjust and cruell judgement and hath for us endured the Crosse and shame that we might be delivered from the wrath to come therefore lift up your heads and receive the reward of your faith and patience and the end of your hopes the eternall saluation of your soules and bodies 1. For if our Lord having suffered such things for us and having overcome in all His sufferings having ascended into heaven to be our continuall intercessor for us should not then give unto us that everlasting life which He hath purchased for us His sufferings and intercession should be altogether in vaine and our faith in Him which He hath wrought in us by His holy Spirit should be utterly void and those promises which Hee hath giuen us in His holy Word should faile of their trueth and performance But all these things are impossible And therefore our Lord Iesus shall come to give reward unto His seruants both small and great Revel 11.18 and to cast out the unbeleevers out of His kingdome 2. In things that are orderly disposed for an end nothing may be omitted of those things that are necessary for the attainement of that end The end of our Lords incarnation and sufferings concernes either God or man Concerning mankind euerlasting life in all happinesse and joy is that great end for which our Saviour was incarnate died and rose againe and shall raise us up at the last day And by His judgement of mercy and compassion on us shall deliver unto us the seisure and possession of that eternall happinesse Therefore our Lord Iesus shall be judge of the quicke and the dead Concerning God it is necessary that in His love to His Father and zeale to His honour Hee take vengeance on them that have offended the infinite justice and despised that mercy and pardon which hath beene offered unto them and still have continued in their sin and followed it with greedinesse Therefore in this respect also our Lord Iesus Christ shall be the Iudge of the quicke and the dead 3. And seeing our Lord Iesus hath undertaken that honourable enterprise viterly to destroy the workes of the devill it is necessary that He leave nothing unperformed which doth belong to the accomplishment thereof Therefore Hee shall judge those Angels which are reserved in chaines of darknesse unto that day and bring upon them that destruction which they sought to bring upon all man-kind And shall also reward those servants of His which have continued faithfull in His service whether they be Angels or men 4. None is so fit to judge betweene two as hee that hath interest in both parties and knowes the worthinesse of them both and that not onely in his understanding but also by his experience of them both But man-kind is to be judged for that which hee hath done contrary or according to the will of God Therefore seeing our Lord Iesus is very God and very man as it hath beene prooved Hee shall be the judge of the quicke and the dead 5. In every orderly and just judgement both the Iudge and the sentence ought to be manifest and knowne to all them that
devills also shall be saved at last But because it is not fit in this grammar of Christian Religion to trouble the vulgar eares with paradoxes you may perhaps find this question handled in that booke which is intituled Arithmetica sacra In the meane time he shall further me much therein that shall truely teach me the true and uttermost meaning of the Iubile ARTICLE VIII ⧠I beleeve in the Holy-Ghost CHAP. XXXIII § 1. THe word Ghost in English our true speech is as much as athem or breath in our new Latine language a Spirit The metaphoricall use of it as it signifies a qualitie as wee say the Spirit of meeknesse of jealousie of pride or that spirit of 7. devills which troubles and overturnes the state of the world which God doth hate above all other Psal 10.3 I meane the spirit of covetousnesse hath no place here nor yet the word spirit as it may meane any being elementall as we speake of the winde or any subtile steame raised from a moist body nor yet as it signifies those created ethereall spirits which wee call Angels but onely as our Lord speakes Iohn 4.24 God is a Spirit which as it is spoken of the God-head essentially so heere wee confesse that wee beleeve in the Holy-Ghost or Spirit that third Person in the glorious Trinity our God our Sanctifier our Comforter eternally one with the Father and the Sonne unto whose faith and service onely wee are baptized as our Saviour commanded Matth. 28.19 Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost As fast as our heavy-footed reason can follow our faith I have in the 10 11 and 12. Chapter and Notes thereon already shewed the distinct substances of the three Person in the unity of their essence so that it seemes there is nothing in this place needfull to that point but onely to bring those Scriptures which doe directly prove the God-head of the Holy-Ghost and that Hee doth proceede from the Father and the Sonne For the first you may take these Texts 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these three are one Actes 5.3.4 Why hath Satan fill'd thy heart that thou shouldest lie unto the Holy-Ghost Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Mark 3.29 He that shall blaspheme against the Holy-Ghost hath never forgivenesse but is in danger of eternall damnation Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto texts brought Chap. 11. § 3. num 9. By all which Scriptures it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost is God coessentiall with the Father and the Sonne and therefore to be worshipped and glorified with the same glory with them And that He doth proceed from the Father and the Sonne these texts doe make it plaine Iohn 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of trueth which proceedeth from the Father Hee will testifie of mee And Iohn 16.7 If I depart I will send the Comforter unto you Rom. 8.9 He is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Gal. 4.6 Because yee are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of His Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father See Rev. 5.6 and Iohn 20.22 Hee breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy-Ghost By which it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost proceedeth from Him And this is that Holy Spirit that dwelleth in us and that not onely by His graces and gifts in us nor onely as God every where present that worketh all in all but also as in those Temples which He hath sanctified for His perpetuall dwelling as it is said 1. Cor. 6.19 Know yee not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy-Ghost which is in you Neither doth the Holy-Ghost onely dwell with them whom He hath sanctified unto Himselfe but together with Him both the Father and the Son as it is said Iohn 14.16 I will pray the Father and Hee shall give you another comforter even the Spirit of trueth that Hee may abide with you for ever And againe verse 23. If a man love mee hee will keepe my wordes and my Father will love him and wee will come unto him and make our abode with him And thus is the Tabernacle of God with men and thus doth He dwell among them Therefore let us remember that precept Eph. 4.30 Not to grieve that Holy Spirit by our willfull sinnes whereby wee are sealed to the day of redemption For if any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1. Cor. 3.17 This is the seale and pledge of our eternall hope For if the spirit of Him that raised up Iesus from the dead doth dwell in us He shall also quicken our mortall bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us as I shewed more fully Chap. 17. § 4. num 2. Neither indeed were it any assurance of hope or comfort to know and beleeve that God the Father created all things by Iesus Christ and that Christ the Sonne of God died for the sinnes of men for so much the devills acknowledge except wee did also know and beleeve that the fruite and effect of that redemption did belong to every beleever in particular and that in the eternall purpose of God wee were created unto this hope And this faith and knowledge is wrought in us only by the Holy-Ghost as you may read Iohn 16.13.14 and Eph. 1. from verse 17. to the end Neither yet could wee have sure consolation in this witnesse of the Holy-Ghost unto our hearts except wee did certainely know that this Holy-Ghost which witnesseth these things unto us were God who cannot lie Whereof wee have full proofe by those graces which Hee worketh in us as first the knowledge of the trueth then faith to beleeve it then as living water doth he wash our consciences from sinne then as another Evangelist speaketh doth Hee as fire inflame our hearts with the love of God a hatred of sinne and a desire to walke in newnesse of life and although wee be daily assaulted by the world and the devill to whom wee are often betrayed by our owne wicked imagination ye doth He not forsake us for ever but when wee see our selves to have no strength of our selues to stand in the least temptation and so have learned not to trust in our selves but in the living God and to desire His helpe then doth He returne and comfort us in all the troubles of our mind and even in death it selfe makes us more than conquerors Oh what is man that thou shouldest take such tender care of Him or the sonne of sinfull flesh that thou shouldest so visit him Now it is impossible that any created Spirit at one time in all places of the world and that ever since God created man upon the earth even unto the last man that shall be borne should worke these different effects in the hearts of all Gods children
And therefore the Holy-Ghost is God And His witnesse in our hearts that wee are the sonnes of God is an eternall trueth and such as hath neither falshood nor doubt nor double meaning § 2.1 But you will say Sect. 2 if the word Spirit belong essentially to all the Persons of the God-head and that they bee all holinesse it selfe as it is said Es 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hostes how is it here appropriated to the third Person Is not the difference of Persons taken away hereby seeing every one is a Holy Spirit I answere That in this place as in many other texts of Holy Scripture the words Holy Spirit are taken relatively or Personally as they meane that third Person of the Holy Trinity with that relation of procession which He hath from the Father and the Son as it was shewed Chap. 11. Re. 8. 2. But it is said Iohn 7.39 That the Holy-Ghost was not yet which takes away His eternity and so His God-head Answere Tropes and figures are usuall in every language though not minded by the vulgar sort So here is a Metonymia or taking of the author for the gifts of divers tongues miracles prophecie and such like and these gifts were not yet given as it followes in the text because that Iesus was not yet glorified that it might appeare to all that these were His gifts who was before crucified Compare herewith Iohn 16.7 Ephe. 4.8 and 11.1 Cor. 12.8 c. 3. a If the procession of the Holy-Ghost bee perfect from the Father then doth Hee not proceed from the Sonne or if it be necessary that He proceede from the Sonne also then must there bee in Him something of composition of superaddition or the like whereby his being should not be most simple which were to denie Him to be God So also the procession from the first principle not being perfect would argue a defect therein Answere This is as if you should reason thus If the way betweene Thebes and Athens be the ready way from Thebes to Athens then can it not be the way from Athens to Thebes But I say that the procession emanation or out-flowing of the Holy-Ghost from the Father is most perfect infinite and eternall as from that being from which the procession is actively as the action of understanding is in and yet from the mind which doth understand as from the active principle But the procession or emanation of the Holy-Ghost from the Sonne is likewise infinite and eternall as from the passive principle as the understanding is from that object which is understood And so the procession of the Holy-Ghost is perfect infinite and eternall both from the Father and the Sonne And because all this is in the God-head onely for I speake not now of those graces and mercies which are from God upon the creature therefore it is necessary that the Holy-Ghost be God blessed above all infinitely and eternally one being with the Father and the Sonne You will heere aske me what the difference is betweene generation whereby the Sonne is from the Father and procession whereby the Holy-Ghost is from the Father and the Son If I confesse that I can neither speake nor conceive it you must hold me excused For in those things that are not lawfull nor possible for the creature to know it is not fit to enquire But you may remember that heretofore although we concluded according to the rule of trueth the Holy Scripture that all the Persons in the Holy Trinitie were in their absolute being one yet by the same rule and the enforcement of reason we were compelled to yeeld unto the Father as concerning His Personal being the precedence of originall as being that fountaine of life and glory from which the other Persons doe proceede And because our Lord Iesus is the expresse Image of the Father Heb. 1.3 whose procession or going forth is from eternity Mich. 5.2 and He by the stile of the Holy Scripture called the Sonne of God Psal 2.7 therefore doe wee attribute unto Him as concerning His Personall being the word of generation or being begotten yet in respect of His absolute essence wherein He is one with the Father He is also called the everlasting Father Esay 9.6 But because all things in the Godhead are in the infinitie of perfection and that the being of the Holy-Ghost is alike both from the Father and the Son and that no perfect being hath two Fathers therefore is His personall being said to be rather by procession then by generation § 3. And because this Article is the last in our Creed Sect. 3 whereby we confesse our faith in the holy Trinity it will not be unfit to take up in briefe that which we have spoken hereunto at large It is manifest unto all reason that nothing can be a cause and yet not be for that would bring a contradiction which the understanding of the foole of fooles I meane the Atheist could not endure that a thing that hath no manner of being should bee of such powerfull being as that it should cause either it selfe or another thing to be And because we see that divers things are which could not cause themselues to be when they were not it followes necessarily that there were causes of their being and that all their causes did worke as they were ordered and mooved by their first cause which seeing it is the cause of all beings must of it selfe not onely be but also have power both to be of it selfe and also to moove all other causes to worke to their determinate ends And this most excellent and first being the cause of all other is that which we call God in whom you see the first thing which we can understand is to be but that eternally because there is nothing before Him which might give Him His being and infinitely because there was nothing which could put any bounds to His being The next thing that we can understand of God is that He hath power both to be and to worke but no worke or action can be but in that which hath both actuall being and also power to worke And if from hence I should conclude a Trinity of Persons in the unity of that one powerfull and active being the whole creature would say Amen For as every effect is answerable to the cause and by that voyce which it hath shewes what the cause was so you shall finde that every created being hath in it matier or that which is proportionable thereto which is as the simple being thereof then forme whereby it hath power to worke and lastly working according to that property which ariseth from the matier and the forme For as Saint Paul saith of mankind so is it true in every thing That In Him or By Him we moove that is our action and Live that is the power from whence our action ariseth and Are that is the foundation of both the other But because this argument would be
Therefore He is a creature Answere 1. He is no where in the Scripture called a creature or mentioned among the creatures in Psal 148. or else-where Therefore He is God Answer 2. The proposition is false as it appeared by the texts cited out of Actes 5.3 4. and Matth. 28.19 where He is equalled with the Father and the Sonne and 2. Cor. 13.14 And Iohn 5.7 Moreover no sinne doth make a man lyable to an infinite punishment but that which is against an infinite being But the sinne against the Holy-Ghost shall not bee pardoned neither in this world nor yet in that which is to come Matth. 12.32 Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto Actes 28. verso 25. and 27. with Rom. 11.8 and 1. Cor. 3.16 And as these texts of Scripture are sufficient to shew the falshood of this last objection So doe they manifest the vanitie of all the rest and confirme abundantly the trueth of this Article that the Holy-Ghost is God To bring the consent of Fathers and Councelis to these Scriptures were as to encrease the light of the Sun by a burning candle yet because it was so plainely declared in the first generall Councell held at Nice by 318. Fathers in the yeere of Christ 325. you may remember it if you will In that Councell this Article was thus declared in that forme of confession which was framed by Hosius Bishop of Corduba As the Father and the Sonne so also the Holy-Ghost subsisteth with them of the same being of the same power of which they are And a little after Wee ought to confesse one God-head one being of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost not teaching any confusion or division of the Persons of the unspeakeable and blessed Trinitie But according to the integritie of that faith and doctrine which was heretofore delivered by the Lord Himselfe to His Apostles and hath beene sincerely taught to us by our holy Fathers who kept it pure and intire as they received it from the Apostles wee beleeve and confesse the undivideable Trinitie which cannot sufficiently either be conceived in the understanding or expressed in wordes that is the Father eternally and truely subsisting a true Father of a true Sonne and the Sonne eternally and truely subsisting a true Sonne of a true Father and the Holy-Ghost verily and eternally subsisting with them And wee are ever ready by the power of the Holy-Ghost to proove that this is the trueth by the manifold testimony of the holy Scripture Histor Gelasij Cyzie Act. Conc. Nic. lib. 2. cap. 12. This faith was approved of all but because the present businesse with Arius was especially about the Sonne For he held that the Son was not of the subsistence of the Father nor yet very God That they might meet fully with that errour they agreed to that forme wherein it is confessed that the Sonne is light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father c. Thus having ended the controversie about the God-head of the Sonne they come to the question of the Holy-Ghost against whom Phaedon a Philosopher and patron of Arius his cause objected thus It is no where written in the Scripture that the Holy-Ghost is a Creater and therefore Hee is not God To which the Councell opposed that which is in Iob 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made mee and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life And that in Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the Spirit of His mouth To which they added that of Saint Paul 1. Cor. 12. verse 4 5 6. where the Holy-Ghost is called both Lord and God And so concluded that all the three Persons that is the Father the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall or of the same substance Lib. Cit. Cap. 25. Likewise when this heresie of Arius concerning the Holy-Ghost was againe revived by Macedonius the second generall Councell held at Constantinople in the yeere 381. condemned the heresies of all Arians Apollinarists and Macedenians confirmed the faith professed in the Nicene Creed and for further explanation of the trueth in this point to that clause Wee believe in the Holy-Ghost they added the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified c. And this is sufficient for the declaration of the trueth in this point by the authority of generall Councells All the orthodox Fathers consent hereunto Among whom if you desire to bee further acquainted with the arguments and objections on both sides you may reade the writings of that most noble Champion of the trueth of the holy Trinitie Athanasius and in speciall that sermon of the humane nature taken by the Word the oration against the ging of Sabellius and the first and second Epistle to Serapion and his first dialogue against Macedonius with him Macedonianus See also Greg. Nyss vol. 2. pag. 439. edit Paris 1615. you may also if you will take these objections and their answeres brought by Epiphanius to this question Haer. 74. and with them those in Thomas Aquinas Contra gentes Liber 4. Cap. 16. and their answeres Cap. 23. Another errour against the being of the Holy-Ghost is that which they call of the later Greekes and yet is not onely of the Grecians themselves but of all those Nations and Peoples that are of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople which if you leave out the Countreys of the poore Painims in the East and West Indies is far greater than the pretended universality of the Bishop of Rome both in Europe and in Asia See Brerew Enq. Chap. 15. and besides them the Melchites or Christians of Syria the Armenians and Maronites hold the same heresie All these though they confesse that the Holy-Ghost is God the third Person in the Trinitie yet they say that He proceedeth onely from the Father not from the Sonne But although they account this but a later errour among the Greekes perhaps because the stirres thereabout after the Councell of Florence in the yeere 1439. grew more hot than they had beene before and that because the Greekes then present in that Councell in hope to draw them of the West into their helpe against the Turks did seemingly yeeld to that trueth which these Churches in the West doe holde in that point yet it appeares that in the time of Damascen about the yeere 750. it was their received opinion For thus he writes Orthod fidet lib. 1. Cap. 13. He is the Spirit of the Sonne not proceeding from Him but from the Father by Him For the Father onely is the cause Nay if you looke yet higher in that explanation which the Councell of Constantinople spoken of even now made of that Article of the Holy-Ghost in the Nicene Creed that clause and from the Sonne is left out so that this errour
of the ordinary means which in the Church is the Word read and preached and the Sacraments by which all men are called to repentance and faith in Christ which if they refuse their condemnation is just Also out of the visible Church nature calls in a softer voyce upon all nations and people of the world and upon every one in particular to feare God and to give Him glory which made the heaven and the earth and all therein And moreover the light of every mans conscience accusing or excusing him for those things which he doth contrary or according thereto is the witnesse of God in every mans heart to excuse or condemne him And in respect of these meanes God may be said to will that all men should be saved in that he doth offer his mercy to all and call upon them to turne unto Him that they might be saved if they want not grace to accept it Object 4. The want of that is not imputed to any man which is onely in the power of another to give and seeing that without repentance faith hope and perseverance in vertue no man can attaine to happinesse which vertues of repentance c. are onely in God to give as the Prophet saith Lam. 3.21 Turne Thou us unto thee ô Lord and so shall wee bee turned it may seeme that the want of these things ought not to be imputed to any man Answere If any man refuse a good thing when it is offered the want of that shall be imputed to himselfe as to the wicked that saith to God Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Iob 21.14 and these are they whom God is said to harden because they have hardened their owne hearts through the custome of sinne that they cannot repent Therefore though the predestinate that the mercy of God may appeare are conuerted by the inward and effectuall calling their hearts being renewed by repentance to follow him that calleth yet that the order of Iustice may be observed they that forsake their owne mercy are still left to the punishment of their sinne both originall and actuall because they neglect the outward calling and wilfully shut their eyes against the light of their naturall knowledge and conscience See Rom. 9.21 c. And according to this sence is it that in Scripture the hardning of man in sinne and the preseruing man from sinne seemes to be attributed to God both wayes as where he is said to harden Pharaohs heart and to Abimelech a Gen. 20.6 I have kept thee from sinning against me § 2. Sect. 2 And thus it being manifest what this holy Church is and of what persons it doth consist it followes first to proove that there is such a Catholike Church as wee say wee doe beleeve to bee then to see the differences which are betweene this Catholike Church and other particular Churches and Congregations 1 If there were not a number of holy people which God hath chosen unto eternall life then the end of Christs sufferings for us were all in vaine and the whole race of mankind should have beene created onely to destruction So the mercy of God toward His creature that had sinned should be without effect Neither should His glory be magnified in saving that which was lost So the devill the enemy of mankind might magnifie himselfe against God in that he had destroyed His creature irrecoverably But all these things are impossible Therefore there is a holy Church chosen of God unto eternall life And if this holy Church in the parts or members thereof had not continued in all ages since God made His promise of a Savior to Adam then faith had fail'd from among men and the promises of God being either not beleeved or forgotten the sons of God begotten by the immortall seed had failed So the throne of Christ when there was no faithfull heart wherein He reigned should not have beene established for ever contrary to the promise Psalm 89. ver 4 29 36. and Luke 1. ver 33. So the seed of the enemy onely had flourished in the earth contrary to the disposition of that wise husbandman Matth 13.30 Let both grow together untill the haruest But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Church is also Catholike or continuing from the beginning to the end of the world For your better understanding you may take these arguments apart 2. If the goodnesse of God being essentially one with His infinity were not diffusive or spreading it selfe upon the creature for the succour and aid thereof in the greatest misery then should it be exceeded by the malice and wickednes of the devill which though it be the greatest that may be yet must it needs be finite as having the originall from a finite creature But it is impossible that God should be exceeded by the malice of the devill therefore there is a restoring of man to that blessednesse and glory from which he fell by his sinne as you have seene it prooved before in the 18. Chapter and from all the reasons there brought to that conclusion you may bring reasons for the proofe of this Article 3. If man were created according to the will of God innocent and without sinne then that present estate of sinne and death the punishment thereof wherein he now is must needs have beene brought upon him since his creation contrary to the revealed will of God wherein though for the declaration of the justice of God against sinne some be suffered to continue yet because sinne is contrary to the will of God and death contrary to the end of His creation of mankind it is necessary that there be a redemption or freeing of some appointed thereunto from the thraldome both of sin and death But it hath beene prooved Chap. 15. that man was created innocent Therefore there is a Church or a number knowne unto God of them that are so redeemed 4. There is a God who hath made His promises of everlasting life There is faith hope and repentance and other vertues both Christian and morall whereby the promises of God are apprehended and obedience performed to His Commandements Therefore there is a holy Catholike Church For it is impossible either that the promises of God should faile of their performance or that faith and other vertues should be without their reward For so the Spirit of grace which wrought these vertues in man should worke in vaine But this is impossible 5. This holy Catholike Church is declared in sundry places of the holy Scripture and in special according to all the causes thereof in the Epistle to the Ephes 4. chap. 1. from vers 2. to 15. And although Saint Paul in that place write to a particular Church yet is the Catholike Church no other than such as is there described no more then the Brittish or Spanish Seas are different from the great Ocean either in substance or qualities For there is but one body and one Spirit one Lord one faith
will universall grace perseverance and the like which are no way availeable to the increase of godlinesse or the comfort of the conscience but rather have overthrowne the faith of some and beene the feuell of Factions both in the Church and Common-wealth But as among the Corinthians when schismes and discontents arose concerning their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love-feasts before the holy Communion the Apostle brings them to the simplicity of the first institution thereof 1 Cor. 11.21 So by the same Spirit of wisedome hath his Majestie our gracious Soveraigne with the advice of our reverend Fathers the godly and learned Bishops cut off these curious questions with all inconuenience and scandall as might grow thereby See his Majesties declaration before the Art of 62. Read also the Art 9.10.11.17 So that now through the mercy of God by the piety and constant care of his Majesty and by the providence and zeale of our faithfull shepherds there is assured hope that these tares which so lately troubled our neighbour Churches and by the seruants of the enuious man were attempted to be sowne in our beauteous fields shall never spread any roote of bitternesse among us And although these questions thrust in themselues here in this place to be discussed seeing predestination is the eternall foundation of the holy Catholike Church out of which there is no saluation and into which none can come but he that is holy It may seeme that it ought to be enquired what holinesse we have of our selues or what strength to come to that holinesse which we ought to have and what strength to continue therein But because obedience is better then sacrifice and because reason ranging beyond these bounds which God hath set is accounted by Saint Paul Rom. 9.20 a replying against God let us leave these questions as Saint Paul left that of predestination to the meere mercy and will of God and that absolute Lordship which he hath over His creature as the temperer of the clay hath power over the same lumpe to make one vessell to honour and another to dishonour And seeing mans understanding searching into the things of God so farre above his reach as the infinite wisedome of God and His secret will are must needs fall into errour let us be contented to keepe our selues within those limits which God Himselfe hath set Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may doe them To this purpose Saint Paul writeth concerning this sealed secret 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this seale The Lord knoweth them that are His and let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity Therefore lest any man should runne beside his owne hopes whilest he enquires too busily into the hopes of other men let us remember that wise and faithfull counsell which is in 4. Esdr 8.55 Aske thou no questions concerning them that perish The reason went before verse 47. for thou commest farre short that thou shouldest be able to love the creature more then He that made it ARTICLE X. ⧠The Communion of Saints CHAP. XXXVI THey that make this clause to bee onely an appendix for explication of the former as if they would say I beleeve the holy Catholike Church to be the Communion or fellowship of Saints come short of the uttermost meaning thereof For beside the two properties of the Church to be Holy and Catholike it is necessary to know what the Priviledges or prerogatives are which belong to that holy congregation that they may know that their seruice is not without reward These prerogatives are 4.1 This Cōmunion of the Saints which is the ground and assurance of the rest For from hence it followes that we may assuredly beleeve that our sins are forgiven and therefore that our bodies shall rise againe and that to everlasting life But this Communion of the Saints is two-fold 1. Among themselves Secondly in the participation of those benefits which are purchased for them by the merit of Christ Yet this Communion among themselves is rather a third property than a priviledge of the holy Church and ariseth from that Communion which we have with Christ For he that loveth Him that begetteth loveth him also that is begotten of Him 1. Ioh. 5.1 2. And because all the faithfull are governed by one Holy Spirit therefore are they ever ready and willing to impart what gifts soever they have received to the common good of all that may be partakers thereof And this not onely in the supply of outward helpes as it appeared Act. 4.32 but much more in like affection one toward another in prayer one for another in supporting each the infirmitie of other as one member of the body is ever helpfull to another in comforting in exhorting and in the Spirit of Meekenes admonishing one another and every one in himselfe giving an example of a vertuous and honest life according to that commandement Mat. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in heaven And these things proceed from that inward and spirituall Communion which wee have with God the Father and with His Son Iesus Christ as it is said 1. Iohn 1.3 For seeing wee know That God so loved the world as that He gave His Son to die for the life of the world wee ought also to love the brethren So likewise the spirituall Communion or participation of those benefits whereof wee are partakers by the merit of Christ stands altogether in this that He our Mediator God and Man having given Himselfe a ransome for us God doth not now looke on us as wee are in our selues corrupted in our sinnes but as wee are washed but as wee are sanctified but as wee are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God as wee are one body with His Son and He our head is become our righteousnesse our sanctification and redemption So that through Him wee haue not onely these priviledges here mentioned of the forgivenesse of our sinnes resurrection and life but also having in Christ the adoption of sonnes wee have by Him an entrance unto God the Father a right and interest in the eternall inheritance of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever may bee availeable to our eternall happinesse for the gift was not as the offence as you might see Chap. 18. § 2. For as we know that Christ our Lord the eternall Son was partaker of our nature and are likewise assured that the greatest actions of God in His creature are for the greatest good that can come neere the creature So ought wee to bee perswaded that we also shall be made the sons of God by that Spirit of God that dwelleth in us as it is said 1. Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And these are the
true faith with the fulnesse of the Gentiles may bee speedie according to the promises Es 59.20 Rom. 11.26 and verse 15. How Faith is said to justifie §. 4. SO precious is the redemption of soules that that must bee let alone to God for ever And therefore no workes or merit of our owne nor of all the Saints of Heaven can be of any availe for us that wee should be accounted just before God but onely by our Lord Iesus and His righteousnesse both originall and actuall apprehended by a true faith are wee accepted righteous For because God doth not accept of any righteousnesse which is not most perfect according to the perfection of his most just law And seeing the fountaine of all our actions is corrupted by our originall sinne therefore is the originall righteousnesse of Christ most necessary to be imputed unto us to take away our originall sinne and His actuall righteousnesse also wholly necessary that by His obedience and His sufferings wee may bee justified Vnderstand by the originall righteousnesse of Christ not that righteousnesse which is in Him as God as some have done but that righteousnesse which was in Him as man from the first minute of His incarnation by the Holy-Ghost which is His originall or habituall righteousnesse And this righteousnesse of His though it bee not in us yet it is imputed unto us even as our originall and actuall sinnes were imputed unto Him that wee might bee justified by Him And although it be necessary for us to know and to beleeve that as wee are made originally sinfull by Adam not onely because the offence of him that was the father of us all is imputed unto us or is reckoned ours because wee were all in him originally but also in respect of that staine of sinne and corruption which wee draw originally from him so is this righteousnesse of Christ accounted ours in as much as He hath set Himselfe to answere for us as it is said Matth. 20.28 That Hee gave His life a ransome for many that as by the disobedience of one Adam many are made sinners so by the obedience of One that is Christ many are justified Rom. 5.19 Therefore faith alone is not said to justifie us but faith with the object thereof that is Christ with all His merits So God the Father for the merit of Christ is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 And the holy Spirit also is said to seale the promise of God unto us Ephes 1.13 and to justifie us in the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1. Cor. 6.11 Neither is faith any meritorious cause for which we are justified neither doeth faith precisely considered include charity or other vertues thereby justifie us but as an instrument or hand is it given to us of God whereby we take hold on Christ and His righteousnesse preached unto us in the word of reconciliation Therefore as the hand which receiues the treasure doth not make a man rich but the treasure it selfe So neither the habit nor the action of faith no not as it is the worke of God in us doth make us just before Him but onely correlatively that is as it brings to us the merit of Christ and makes it ours See what you find hereto in the Note b on the 27. Chapter The Conclusion BEcause I had both read and heard that divers men of fame in learning had undertaken this taske which I have now performed as you see I waited with great patience and hope the accomplishment of their promises But when they were dead and no fruites appeared worthy of such hopes as they had given having now past the seventieth yere of my life I utterly despaired of what I had so long hoped for For though I had oftentimes thought of that argument and for mine owne use had gathered divers Notes and Arguments thereunto yet when I considered that in that age the vigor of wit doth often languish which in younger yeares is more pregnant though not alwayes with that staydnes of judgment which ought to goe therewith and especially that for my professions sake I was compelled to poëts and their fables and among children to speake to their understanding yet when that great and grievous pestilence which befell in the yeare 1625. had made a stop to that dayly toyle I knew it was foolish and altogether vaine to flee from the hand of God and that no thoughts could befit a Christian better in the continuall hearing of dolefull knells and sight of corpses carryed to the grave then such as hold the mynd fast to God and those blessed hopes that He hath given to Christian men And therefore hauing brought my houshold to a few and them no gadders abroad but such as were easily commanded to stay within I tooke the comforts which Almighty God vouchsafed mee and found my selfe safe under His protection and so cheerefully undertooke that taske which I had long thought on because my expectation of others had quite failed me Therefore I praise and magnifie that glorious and holy Name not only for that whole and perfect deliverance which He vouchsafed unto mee at that time but much more also that Hee hath beene pleased to effect by me so meane that which other vertuous and learned men held fit to be done for the benefit of the Church and yet effected it not And if this labor of mine may prove any way availeable to the comfort of others or the strengthening of their faith or establishing of them therein that they fall not into those heresies into which other peruerse minded men have beene plunged For this also shall His praise be ever in my mouth according to that example of the holy Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS A TREATISE CONCERNING THE TRINITIE OF PERSONS IN VNITIE OF THE DEITIE VVritten by ALEXANDER GIL to Thomas Mannering an Anabaptist VVho denyed that IESVS is very GOD of very GOD but man onely yet endued with the infinite power of GOD. The second Edition ⧠Imprinted at London 1635. TO MY VERY LOVING FRIEND Master THOMAS VVHITE a Citizen of BRISTOVV WHile I was at Norwich in the yeere 1597 I writ this Treatise vpon such occasion as appeares therein and delivered it unto that Hereticke that by himselfe if God would he might consider and be perswaded Since which time I have kept it by me and though some of my private friends desired copies yet allowing that wisedome of Solon who would make no law against Patricide lest the mention of the fact might give occasion to commit it and withall considering that it is too simple and poore for the publike view I refused to make it common Yet after perceiving a present necessitie because that some began to wander in this labyrinth and withall remembring that if any weakling shall hereafter entertaine this opinion he may before he be wholy possessed therewith find the absurdity of it and be reformed that many a novice in Christianity who therefore doubts of the
exceeding great and precious promises that God hath made unto us in Christ that by Him wee shall bee made partakers of the divine nature 2. Peter 1.4 this is that union and Communion for which our Lord prayes that it may bee made perfect in us Iohn 17.21 22 23. 1. For seeing the soule of man is a thing whose excellencie doth so farre exceed all things of this world it may not be thought that the happinesse and perfection of the soule can stand in things that are inferiour to it selfe as in riches honour worldly pleasure or the like But seeing it knowes that there is one onely infinite goodnes which because it is infinite must needs be eternall and able to satisfie all the desire of the creature that can bee partaker thereof therefore doth it aspire thereunto because in the injoying of that alone it can be made perfect And if this desire of the soule should be in vaine then the Holy Spirit of God which wrought this desire in the soule should have wrought in vaine then the infinite goodnesse which might satisfie the desire of the creature should be defective toward the creature and consequently not infinite then the promises of God made in His word should faile and the prayer of our Mediator cited even now from Iohn 17. without effect But all these things are impossible Therefore there is a Communion of the Saints with God and with one another as wee confesse in the article 2. If the merit of Christ bee infinite and that not for Himselfe but for His body which is the Church then it is necessary that an infinite reward be given thereto But the merit of Christ is infinite both actively and passively Therfore an infinite reward is due to us thereby So that by the Spirit of Christ which is in us we have communion both with the Father and the Sonne 1. Iohn 1.3 3. All the dignities of God are infinite and they are all to bee manifested in the creature so farre forth as the creature can bee made capable thereof Ergo. Now the foundation and originall of communion is in this that for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himselfe tooke part of the same that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death Hebr. 2.14 and that to this end that wee might be partakers of His immortality and from that union of the divine and humane nature whereby our Lord of the seed of Abraham became one with all man-kind ariseth that spirituall and mysticall union of us with Him that howsoever we are absent in body yet being renewed by the Spirit of our mind we live unto Him have Him evermore abiding in us as we evermore abide in him daily more more grow up with Him into one mystical body as if we were flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones Eph. 5.30 and from this mystical union we have the assurance of that glorious vnion which shall be in heaven when we shal be joyned to our head inseparably and this is that vnion or communion which all the faithfull hope for whereof we have the assurance of His promises in His Holy word the signes and pledges of the Holy supper and the witnesse of the holy Spirit of God in our hearts And thus is Christ ours with His graces and His merits and thus according to the exceeding great and precious promises are wee made partakers of the divine nature not that wee participate of the incommunicable essence of the deitie but that by the renewing of the Holy-Ghost wee put off our corrupt desires and are transformed in our minds according as His Divine power doth give us all things that belong to life and godlinesse ARTICLE XI ⧠The forgivenesse of sinnes CHAP. XXXVII BEing is of God alone whose being because it is infinite therefore must it hold in it selfe all the extreamities of being so that nothing that is can possible be but by Him therefore seeing the soule the body and the abilities thereof are from God alone the devill can claime no interest in man in respect of any of these for none of these had their originall from him But because he was a murtherer from the beginning and inspired his inbred poyson into man even from the beginning the root of man-kind being thereby poysoned the venome spreads throughout all his race to corrupt both his understanding and his will that so his actions being corrupted by the ill which he wilfully committeth his being also may become abominable But as the Physicians make a difference betweene the body and the disease so He our gracious healer discernes betweene the being His owne worke and the corruption thereof the tares I meane which the envious man sowed thereupon to save his owne worke and to cast the venome and the effects thereof on the face of the enemy to the increase of his eternall damnation and first heales the understanding that it may see the sinne then the will that he may detest and avoid it And thus by the renewing of the mind are we transformed from the image of the devill and that stampe which his sinne did set upon us So that the satisfaction being made to the infinite justice both for our originall and actuall sinne the workemanship of God even our whole being may be glorifyed with that glory for which it was created which also it had in the eternall decree before this world was And because our great weakenesse caused of our inbred infection and our many sinnes ensuing thereupon doth every moment stand up as a wall of separation betweene our God and us therefore hath God given unto us such assured hopes of His mercy that although we fall we shall not be cast away because the Lord putteth under His hand Psalm 37.21 and sustaineth us with this confidence That although our sins be as red as scarlet yet they shall be made more white then snow Esay 1.18 And because this hope and confidence ought alwayes to be before our eyes as being the sure stay and anchor of our soules therefore is nothing more fully assured unto us then this among all those things which we doe beleeve Stay thou trembling and fearefull soule and though the ugly visage of thy monstrous sinnes make thee afraid which indeed are so much the more hideous and deformed because they are not onely against the Law of God but against the law of reason rightly judging and against thine owne conscience yet stay and see what hope there is for thee and though that messenger of hell Despaire with all that wretched traine of all thy sinne which he brings with him doth hunt thee so close that thou darest not stay though thou wouldest be any thing save that thou art and most of all nothing at all yet see if a doore of hope as wide as the valley of Achor Hos 2.15 be not set open for thee onely if thou wilt be intreated to goe