yet in some respects they are sometimes appropriated more to One then to another heere therefore in speaking of Heaven and Earth the Originall of Creatures the making them is justly attributed to God the Father the originall Creator for otherwise it is so true that they all had a hand in making them that it is said of the Holy Ghost also that Spiritus Dei Incubabat the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and what was this but a Fomenting the worke of the Father and the Sonne by the Bond of Concord the proper worke of the Holy Ghost From hence we may learne that the World hath not been from Everlasting For if God be Maker of Heaven and Earth then Heaven and Earth were made and if made then made in time and if made in time then there was a time when they were not made But how could this bee seeing there was no time till they were made But yet there was a space of Duration and that space had beene from Everlasting and being from Everlasting how could it ever come to have an ende and an End it must have before Time could come to have a Beginning O my Soule These are no Thoughts for thee thy wings are too weake to fly so high a pitch Thy Plummets are too short to sound so great a depth It may bee sufficient for thee to know that although God made not the World from Everlasting yet hee made it then when from Everlasting hee had Decreed to make it but how hee brought Time out of Eternity is a mystery thou shalt never attaine to know till thou come thy selfe to attaine Eternity Thus farre wee are brought by Beleeving in God the Father And in his onely Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord. but seeing Father is a Relative and every Relative imples a Correlative and the Correlative to Father is Sonne this brings my Beliefe a degree further to Beleeve in his onely Sonne Jesus Christ our Lord Not his Sonne by Adoption as we are nor his Son by Creation and Grace as Angels are but his Sonne by Generation as onely himselfe is and such a Sonne as the Father Proclaimes to be His and tels the day when he begot him Hodie genui te This day have I begotten thee But what day was this day Not such a day as our dayes are which follow one after another but a day in which there is nothing Before nor after but the Past and the Present are both at once the Past in Genui the Present in Hodie indeed a day Not of Time but of Eternity which makes him Co-eternall with his Father One good degree of Equality And as the day of his Begetting is not like ours So neither is the manner of his Begetting like ours For where our Begetting is a Third from Two his Begetting is a Second from One and therefore must needs bee of One substance Both and this makes him Consubstantiall with the Father another good degree of Equality which kind of Begetting though it exceede our capacity yet it exceeds not our Beliefe and therefore though our Inquisitive Thoughts would faine bee making further Querees about it yet Faith makes us contented to take this for an Answer Generationem ejus quis enarrabit Who shall declare his Generation If then the day of his Begetting make him Co-eternall with the Father and the manner of his Begetting make him Consubstantiall with the Father have we not as good ground for our Believing in him as in the Father And though it may be thought no Power is left for the Sonne the Father being Almighty yet all Power is given to the Sonne both in Heaven and Earth for though the Father bee Almighty yet Almighty but as God and therefore Almighty as due to the Sonne who is God with the Father and as just cause wee have to say to the Sonne as to the Father Wee praise thee O God wee knowledge thee to bee the Lord. But how can the Sonne that is begotten be Co-eternall with the Father who Begets Seeing that which Begets is alwaies before that which is Begotten But is not this a fallacie They being Relatives Seeing nothing can Beget but there must bee something Begotten there cannot bee a Father till there bee a Sonne and therefore if the Father bee from Everlasting the Sonne also is from Everlasting and so are Co-eternall But though the Sonne may bee Co-eternall with the Father yet how can he be Consubstantiall with the Father Seeing the Substance of every thing is proper to it selfe and cannot bee communicated to another This indeed were true if the Father and the Sonne were Aliud Aliud and not onely Alius Alius but now being Both One God and onely Two Persons Seeing the difference of Persons makes no difference of Substance they remaine of One Substance Both and so are Consubstantiall Thus farre reacheth our Beliefe in the Divinity of the Son but seeing we beleeve him to be both perfect God and perfect Man this leades our Beliefe a degree further To Beleeve in Jesus Christ our Lord Termes belonging to his Humanity Jesus a Name given him by an Angel when hee was yet in his Mothers womb Because hee should save his people from their sinnes Christ a Name given him from his Office As being a Priest after the Order of Melchisedech annointed with the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes Lord a Name given him from his Dominion For of his Kingdome there shall be no end O Blessed Son of God Let mee enjoy the benefit of thy Name Jesus that I may bee saved from my sinnes Let me enjoy the benefit of thy Name Christ that I may bee partaker of the oyle of gladnesse with which thou wert Annointed Let me enjoy the benefit of thy being my Lord that being thy Servant I may have thy Protection and Thou my Obedience But how happens it that having said in the beginning of my Creede I Beleeve I now come to say Our Lord and so where I went single out am now suddenly fallen into company It is true indeed I sayd I Beleeve when I spake but as regarding my owne person but now that I speake as regarding the Communion of Saints I say Our Lord. For though Saint Thomas said My God and my Lord as though hee would claime CHRIST wholly to himselfe yet that seemes spoken but in passion and to make amends for his former doubting But now that I speak deliberatly I can say no lesse then Our Lord seeing as Christ is a Saviour not of me onely but of all mankinde so he is the Lord not of me onely but of all that serve him and thus Christ is that Lord in whom is expounded the Riddle of David The Lord said unto my Lord For if hee be Davids Lord how is hee his Sonne and if he bee his Sonne how is he his Lord Indeed Both his Son as concerning the Flesh but his Lord concerning Divine Generation and if Davids Lord
the innumerable number of persons that must make their appearance there scarse the whole earth would be roome enough to make a Sessions-house for such a company unlesse perhaps by the like miracle as is said to have beene usuall in the Jewish Synagogue that when the people kneeled downe there was roome enough in the Temple to hold them all but when they stood up they were fain many of them to goe out of the Temple for want of roome when yet kneeling downe must needs take up more roome then standing up But though we know not either at what time or to what place hee shall come yet we beleeve to what purpose hee shall come For hee shall come to judge the quicke and the dead The quick those whom hee shall finde alive at his comming and the dead those who dyed before his comming Or the quicke those that are alive in grace and the dead them that are dead in sin But not to judge the dead while they are dead for so they should not bee able to answer for themselves which cannot stand with the justice of so righteous a Judge but at his comming at the sound of a Trumpet The Sea and the Earth shall give up their dead and they shall all arise and stand at his Tribunall to receive their sentence of pardon or condemnation according to their works And oh how terrible will that day be For if the day were terrible in which the Law was given so terrible that Mount Sinai was all of a smoake how terrible will that day bee in which the transgressors of the Law shall all be brought to receiue their Triall If the day were terrible which was a day of grace how terrible will the day be which shall be a day of punishment O my soule let the remembrance of this Article be never out of thy minde and if at any time thou find in thy selfe either suggestions of Satan or motions to sinne then thinke upon this Article and when thou thinkest upon it beleeve it and be most assured that there shall most certainly bee a day of judgement in which all thoughts of the heart though never brought forth in words shall bee discovered all actions of life though never so secretly done shall all be laid open and judgement shall be given upon them all without favour or partialitie And let us not flatter our selves in security because he who is now our Advocate shall be then our Judge but rather consider that though hee be now a Lambe he will then be found to be a Lyon Demonstravit potentiam qui demonstravit patientiam and let us prepare our selves against that day in feare and trembling and let us send up strong cries to him that as the good Thiefe obtained to be remembred of him when he came into his kingdome so wee may obtaine of him to be remembred in mercy when he comes to judgement Before wee leave this Article there is one observation which may not be omitted that this Article is of a different making from all the rest all the other might bee made by Apostles but this seemes rather to bee made by a Prophet For our beliefe in it is Propheticall and tells what Christ will doe in time to come Indeed none of the Articles concerning Christ are in the Future tense but onely this as none of them is in the Present tense but onely the next before He fitteth at the right hand of his Father all the other Articles are in the Preter perfect tense and speake of the time past even from his conception to his ascending into Heaven in the Preterperfect tense all but once ascended into Heaven where all time is Present no more Preterperfect tense then no more mention of time past and therefore our Article turnes Present too He sitteth at the right hand of his Father and there should sit and enjoy his Present tense and time for ever if it were not for us but as once before for our sakes hee left Heaven and came downe to redeeme us so once againe for our sakes hee will leave Heaven and come downe to judge us For without judging he could not come to rewarding No comming to Venite benedicti Patris Come yee blessed of my Father untill hee have judged first and without comming to this Venite all that went before would come to nothing And therefore all the benefit of these Preterperfect tenses consists in this Future all the harvest I may say of the other Articles is reaped in this last that Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead O therefore my soule be carefull to lead thy life so in this present world that thou maist not bee afraid of his comming to judgement because of Ite maledicti in ignem aeternum Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire but maist rather rejoyce at his comming because of Venite benedicti Patris Come yee blessed of my Father For as that Ite will pay them home for all the pleasures of a wicked life So this Venite will make amends for all the pressures of a wretched life and indeed without the benefit of this Venite all the delights and pleasures the world can afford will prove but as Naboths Vineyard to Ahab Corosives in the end And now having beleeved in the first and second Person of the Trinity I beleeve in the Holy Ghost the Father and the Son if wee should not beleeve in the third Person the Holy Ghost wee should doe him great wrong and our selves more seeing it hath been through him and by his assistance that we have beleeved in thē For as it is true that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son so it is true that beleeving in the Father the Son proceeds from the Holy Ghost For beleeving being a work of Faith and Faith a worke of Sanctification and Sanctification a worke of onely the Holy Ghost how should wee come to beleeving but by the Holy Ghost And it is indeed for this that he hath his Name to be called the Holy Ghost or Spirit Not but that the Father and the Sonne are both Holy and Spirits as well as he but because it is properly Hee that inspires our mindes with all good thoughts and holy desires And now my soule while I beleeve in the Father as the author of my Creation and in the Sonne as the author of my Redemption and in the Holy Ghost as the author of my Regeneration that all the Persons in the Deity may have their severall operations in me and bestow their severall gifts upon me will there not be cause of my thankefulnesse to every one of them and of returning to every one of them all praise and glory who are all of them but one But why is there so much spoken of Christ and so little of the Holy Ghost being a Person in the Trinity as well as hee Is it not that there is more spoken of the Sonne then of the Holy Ghost
seeing there is no salvation out of the Catholike Church what assurance could I have of my salvation if I did not beleeve that there is a Catholike Church How can I beleeve my selfe to be a member of that Body which I doe not beleeve to bee For this Holy Catholike Church is the number of all those whō God hath Predestinated and Elected and though the Catholike Church may have in it errours and perhaps Heresies yet the Holy Catholike Church can have none in it but Orthodoxe and true beleevers For it is as the Arke of Noah to save all that beleeve the comming of the Flood but unbeleevers are all excluded from entring into it It is as the Corporation of the Citizens of the New Hierusalem in which whose names are not Enrolled and none are Enrolled that beleeve not they can bee no partakers of the Heavenly Priviledges of which Salvation is the chiefest If there were not a Holy Cathotholike Church then Christ should be a Shepherd without a Flocke then God the Father should bee a King without a People then the Holy Ghost should bee a guide and have none to lead but the Two first of these are assured us by Christ where he saith Feare not little Flock For it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdome and the last where hee saith Hee will send the Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth Therefore there is an Holy Catholike Church which he that beleeves not is not of it and not being of it can have no hope of salvation by it To be Holy and Catholike are indeed the proper Caracters of a Christian Church the first representation whereof was then when at Pentecost there met at Hierusalem of all Nations under heaven Parthyans and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and Judea in Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Aegypt and in the parts of Lybia and sirangers of Rome Jewes and Proselites Creetes and Arabians For here was no bounding within Canaan no bounding within Africa but the Church was made apparent by plurality of Nations to bee Catholike and by visible graces to be Holy This Church therefore I beleeve to be holy yet not holy in perfection but tending to perfection and justly called holy for its Inchoation and I beleeve it to bee Catholike but Catholike in doctrine not in discipline and therefore the rule of it as concerning doctrine is this Quod ab omnibus Quod ubique Quod semper For if it be not ab Omnibus It is not Catholike in Persons if not Vbique not Catholike in place if not Semper not Catholike in time and all these must concurre to make the Church be Catholik in Doctrin In Discipline not so for there neither ab omnibus nor ubique nor semper is required but it may be various and diverse according to the diversity of Time and Place and yet in doctrine bee the Catholike Church For Discipline is but onely Ecclesiasticall where Doctrine is divine This Article bindes my beliefe to no particular Church as it is a particular but as it is a Member of the Catholike For take it by it selfe without considering it as a Member of the Catholike Church and it is not so properly a Church as a Conventicle which though I cannot deny but it may be Holy at least in a Morall holinesse yet I can deny that I am bound to beleeve it to be holy because I am bound to beleeve no true holinesse to bee out of the Catholike Church This Catholike Church is a Schoole of instruction to teach us as much as we are bound to know and a Rule of direction to informe us as much as wee are bound to beleeve if it were but onely what Saint Thomas saith this might make us doubt of Christs resurrection or if it were but onely what Saint Peter saith this might make us incline to comply with the Jewes but when it is that which all the Apostles with one consent say this is the voice of the Catholike Church and can never make us to goe astray And therfore to this Church I submit all my faculties both my understanding to her decrees and my will to her counsels and make account that if I know any thing and not of her instruction it will prove but falsehood if doe any thing and not by her direction it will prove but folly For this that Spouse of Christ of which it is said Thou art all faire and there is no spot in thee Oh then let not me beginne to make any spot in the face of thy Spouse O Lord but so purge me with Hysope that though I be not pure yet I may bee cleane at least not so foule to defile others nor deserve with Miriam to be put out of the campe of thy Militant Church but may come to thy Triumphant As therefore this Article is the first of all we have to beleeve so let it have the honor that is due to the first and have the highest place in our beliefe For indeed all the Articles that follow are but as flowres that grow in the garden of this Catholike Church The Communion of Saints as the flowre of Charitie The forgivenesse of sinnes as the flowre of Faith The resurrection of the body as the flowre of Hope and the life everlasting as the flowre of reward if I may not rather say as the whole nosegay of all the other flowres together seeing in this they have all their smels united into one fragrant odour Charity raised to perfection Faith turned into love and Hope into enjoying But what should be the cause why amongst these Articles that are to be beleeved there is no mention at all made of the Scriptures For seeing we are commanded to search the Scriptures No doubt it is required wee should beleeve the Scriptures and if we should beleeve them why are they left out in the Article of our beliefe Is it not that these were Articles of Beliefe for a Christian man before any Gospell of Christ was written and how then could they have any place in the Creed when they had not as yet any being in the world For the life and doctrine of Christ was published by word before it was recorded by writing and the Apostles preached it before the Evangelists writ it and this Creede being a Breviate and summe of that which was preached who can tell but it may bee more antient then that which is written at least being the substance of them both what more is it to beleeve the Scripture then the Creed And then what neede is there to have them named when they are exprest And as for the words of Christ Scrutamini Scripturas Search the Scriptures or yee search the Scriptures if we extend them no further then Christ spake them we may be farre enough off from beleeving the Gospel For Christ spake then but of the Olde Testament and not of the New which at that time was none For
Credere Deum or Credere Deo which a man may doe as a stander by and as onely a looker on though he make himselfe no party in the matter The true Beleeving in God indeed is Credere in Deum to interest our selves in him to depend wholly upon him to put all our trust and confidence in him to account him not onely our Oracle to Direct us but our Sanctuary to Protect us to make him not onely our Hope but our Assurance and both in life and death to say that to him which Christ said at his death In manus tuas Domine commendo spiritum meum Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit I therefore beleeve in God indeed but not in Gods and therefore not in Gods because there are no Gods to beleeve in For if there were more Gods then One there should be none at all seeing it is against the nature of God to bee more then One. Neither indeed will Time or Place allow any more For of Place it is true which God saith of himselfe Caelum Terram ego impleo Heaven and Earth I fill and if One God fill all places what roome can there be for any other And of Time it is true also that God is Primum Ens the First Being but there can be but One First and therefore but One God And as One multiplyed by One can never make any more then One so God being Unity it selfe can never be multiplied into a number but it is most true which the Jewes say of him Hu a'chad ue aein shenì He is One and there is not a Second and yet perhaps not true in their meaning For they may meane it of the Persons in the Deity of which here is both a Second and a Third and yet all Three but One God And if there were more Gods then One there could bee no Beliefe at least but distracted Beliefe and distraction is destruction to beliefe For if it be not Fixt and Intentive upon One and the same power still it may bee Opinion but it cannot be Beliefe But what is God or who is the Lord that I should beleeve in him For to Beleeve in God and not know what God is were to Beleeve in I know not what and were like to make but a blind Beliefe Is it then that there is something which is seene by being invisible which is known by being Incomprehensible and that my Soule is God Or is it there is something whose Center is every where and Circumference no where whose Power is Infinite and in whose hands are all the corners of the Earth and that my Soule is God Or is it there is something which cannot be said It was and yet hath alwaies been Nor cannot be said It wil be yet shal be for ever and that my Soule is God Or is it ther is somthing whose Being cannot be conceived and yet whose Being onely is conceivable which exceeds the Sun in brightnes yet is no quality the World in greatnes yet is no quantity and that My Soule is God But indeed God is He who brought the Ten great Plagues upon Pharaoh for presuming to aske this Question For who can be excused that takes not notice of his Being who is the Author of al Being Who can be excused that knows not who Hee is that onely is And therefore when Moses asked God his Name he answered I am that I am meaning that his Being was his Name For as a name is proper to the thing named so Being is proper only to God all other things rather seeme to be then are Or if they bee indeed yet it is but a Being which they have from him seeing in Him we all live and move and have our being And this I am of Moses is my I am too For it is true which God saith of himselfe Ego Deus non mutor I am God and there is none to change for me and therefore in Beleeving in this I am I am I am sure in a a right Beliefe which makes me to beginne my Creede with this I beleeve in God But thought the Beliefe no doubt be true Yet it is but a truth which Jewes and Turkes beleeve as well as we For they also Beleeve in God and in one God and shall a Christians Belief go no further then theirs Yes my Soule For I beleeve in God the Father the first Person in the Trinity and this no Jew nor Turke beleeves For they have alwaies stuck at One and could never bee gotten to come to Three when yet without knowing this Three that One can never be truely knowne Although to say the truth this Mystery of Three in One is a Truth not so much to be known as to be Beleeved For if it could be perfectly knowne It would not perhaps bee so fit for a Creede which consists in Believing as for some Art that consists in knowing But though I cannot perfectly know this Mystery yet I Beleeve it because I submit my understanding to Faith which though I cannot make to goe along with Beliefe as a Companion yet I make it to wait upon Beliefe as a Servant and this neither Jew nor Turke will be gotten to doe They like not to make their Understanding a Servant though they can be content to be servile themselves yet they will have their understanding to be Free and therefore what they comprehend not they beleeve not Foolish men that would bring downe Heaven to Earth and bound the profound Mysteries of God within the shallow lymits of their owne braines But what is meant by a Person in the Trinitie which is necessary to be known that when wee say there bee Three persons It may not bee thought we meane Three Gods Indeed humane Infirmity is apt to fall into such errour Wee must therefore know that a Person in the Trinity is a Name of Distinction but not of Diversitie It makes Alium Alium but not Aliud Aliud and it is an Appellation proper onely to the nature of the Deity and not to be found in any Creature whatsoever The Person of the Father is distinct from the Person of the Sonne and the Person of the Sonne from the Person of the Holy Ghost but Distinct in Relation not in Substance and all Three Persons are but One God And to make it plainer we may say that God considered as Begetting is the Person of the Father considered as Begotten is the Person of the Sonne and considered as proceeding from the Father and the Sonne is the Person of the Holy Ghost In these onely distinguished in all other points of Deity One The Father is not more God then the Sonne nor the Son then the Holy Ghost They are Three in Subsistence but one in Substance the Subsistence makes the Trinitie the Substance the Deitie an Ineffable Mystery which we may Beleeve but cannot Comprehend O my Soule how much â—re wee bound to God for revealing this Mystery of the Blessed Trinity
mention made of the Virgin Mary Is it not enough to beleeve that Christ was borne of a Virgin but there must be added the Virgin Mary Indeed it is added very justly for by this it appeares that Christ was Descended of the Lynage of David his Mother being of the same Lynage as the Prophets had foretold the true Christ should bee and this is no small strengthening to our Beliefe that Christ is the true Messias But how is it like that Mary was a Virgine when shee had a Husband at least how can wee beleeve shee was a Virgin when shee had a Child Is it not that her Marriage was Inchoate indeed but not Consummate shee was Desponsata but not Nupta shee was not Married And therefore Espoused that there might bee One to take care of her and her Childe when it should be borne But why should her Husband take care of a Childe that was none of his owne might he not rather justly suspect her to have played false with him and therefore rather put her to shame at least put her from him then to take her to him It is indeed a hard matter to make one beleeve that a woman should have a Childe and not accompany with man but as it was the Holy Ghost that wrought the conception of Christ in his Mothers Wombe so it was the Holy Ghost that wrought this Beliefe in the minde of her husband Joseph that the Angell told him true when he said unto him Feare not Joseph to take Mary thy wife For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost And though shee were the Mother of a Childe yet she continued a Virgin still For neither the conception of Christ nor the Birth of Christ did abrogate her Virginitie but rather made her if not a more Virgin at least a pureâ— Virgin then shee was before For such is the purity of Christs Body that it makes all passages the â—urer by which it passeth and therefore it may bee piouslâ— beleeved and without Hyperbole that as she was Virgo ante partum so shee was Virgo in partu and Virgo post partum a Virgin before the Birth and in the Birth and after the Birth for though shee had Purification yet that perhaps was but as Christ had Baptisme to fulfill all righteousnesse And as Christ was conceived of Mary without sinne so Mary was Delivered of Christ without paine for it was but just that she who brought him forth that Freed mankind from the generall Curse should in bringing him forth bee Freed her selfe from the particular Curse laid upon Woman-kind which was That in sorrow they should bring forth Children But if Jesus Christ were Borne of the Virgin Mary how could he be the Sonne of the Virgin foretold by the Prophet Esay For the Sonne of that Virgin was to be called Immanuell and not Jesus where this Sonne of the Virgin Marie was called Jesus and not Immanuell But is it not that Immanuell was not properly meant a Name of Appellation but of Act and then was the Name Acted when the Sonne of God tooke Flesh and was Incarnate For being the Son of God and taking our nature upon him he was God with us and to be God with Us was to be Immanuell Blessed Marie what Tongue can expresse thy Happinesse in thy selfe thy glory in the world to have thy Body nine moneths together be made a Heaven for the Son of God to dwell in to have thy Wombe bee the sacred Bed for the Holy Ghost to overshadow and more then both these to have the Sonne of God to bee thy Sonne and take Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone that all our Affinitie now to Heaven must be attributed to thee that our flesh which was never before without sinne is now made as pure as when it was first made must bee attributed to thee and more then Both these that our Flesh is now exalted up to Heaven must bee attributed to thee that Christ sitteth at the Right hand of his Father to bee our Advocate must be attributed to thee and therefore all Generations shall justly call thee Blessed justly thou mayest say Thy Soule doth magnifie the Lord and thy Spirit rejoyceth in God thy Saviour For if ever Soule had cause to Magnifie the Lord If ever Spirit had cause to rejoyce in God It is Thine It is Thine most Blessed most Glorious and most to bee Admired Marie Suffered under Pontius Pilate After we have Beleeved that Christ was Borne of the Virgin Marie It followes next that we Beleeve Hee suffered under Pontius Pilate But what Suffered as soone as hee was borne Indeed as all of us beginne our life with Crying which is an effect of Suffering and bring this Omen with us into the world of the miseries that are to follow So Christ was more like to doe it then any other who was Vir Dolorum a man of sorrowes all his life long but yet this is not the suffering that is here meant For the suffering heere spoken of was under Pontius Pilate which was not till many yeares after the time of Christs birth Was it then that hee was smitten and buffeted had a Crown of Thornes platted upon his Head was mocked and scourged under Pontius Pilate Great suffrings all yet neither were these the Suffering that is heere meant but as we use to say when men are Executed and put to death that then they suffer so the suffering here meant was his Executing and putting to Death as Christ himselfe calleth it where he saith I have desired to eate this Passeover with you before I suffer which was done also under Pontius Pilate at that time Governour for the Romanes in Hierusalem But though it bee necessary to beleeve that Christ suffered yet why is it necessary to beleeve that he suffered under Pontius Pilate Indeede because there were many afterwards that tooke upon them to be Christ as Christ had fore-told that many should come in his Name saying I am Christ But wee acknowledge none of them to be the true Christ but Him onely that suffered under Pontius Pilate We have here an Example what little good there is in good Intentions if they bee not followed home to their full period for a good Intention in Pilate for want of pursuing cost Christ a scourging more then otherwise perhaps hee should have had for out of a desire to save his life he caused him to bee scourged hoping in a good intention it would have passed with the Jewes for a satisfying punishment but when his scourging would not serve their turnes nor pacifie their malice he then left pursuing his good intention and delivered him into their hands to be put to death Unhappy Pilate that seeking to doe him good didst him hurt and thinking to save his life didst adde a scourging to his death What ill lucke hadst thou to bee a Governour at this time thereby to be made a Minister of so fowle a