So the Arrians who denied the consubstantiality and coeternity of Christ with the Father and such as did deprave the form of baptism saying I baptize thee in the name of the Father by the Son Niceph. hist l. 10. c. 35. in the Spirit the baptisme of such indeed is vaine and no baptisme but the baptisme of those that hold the foundation of faith as the Novatians did but built not rightly upon it yet kept the true form of baptizing such might be admitted into the Church again without rebaptization because there is but one truth faith and baptisme Again another error rose up about the year 380. Donatus by Donatus and his disciples Donatus was Bishop of Numidia and held that the true Church was only among those in Africa that held with him contrary to that universall donation which God gave to Christ by promise Psal 2. I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Optatus whom Optatus Bishop of Milevitane confuted in the time of Valentinian the Emperour Also this Donatus affirmed that all that had been baptized in the universall Church save by those of his party ought to be rebaptized whose error the Anabaptists still follow These were worse then the other for they were not only schismaticks but hereticks also for they denied that Article of the Creed which confesseth the Church Catholick yet our Brownists and Anabaptists in these latter times follow their steps by refusing communion with the Church of England and in their uncharitable censures of all that are not of their party Aug. ep 50. as also in defacing the Churches and breaking down Communion Tables for a third error sprung up 1525. by the Anabaptists in Germany of whom I have spoken already They held that children ought not to be baptized til they came to ripe age and can give account of their faith These are very deeply plunged in this old error yea more then any of the former for they not only nullifie all baptisme by Papists or Protestants but deny baptisme to infants also which neither the Novatians nor Donatists did Mathe. But what say you to the third tenet That there ought to be no set form of Praier or Liturgy in the Church Phila. I shall prove that such set forms may be in the Church 1. By Scriptures 2. Antiquity And 3. By reason 1. By Scriptures Liturgy proved lawfull God set a form of blessing the people Num. 6.23 So of confession Deut. 26.5 and of praier Hos 14.2 and Joel 2.17 And therefore the Church may imitate God in this she having the spirit of supplication poured upon her though such forms be not indited to her by immediate infusion Beside we find in Scriptures that holy men of themselves did without any prescription from God set down forms of praier and praises as Moses Num. 10.35 36. and David set Psalms to be sung at certain times as Psal 92. a song for the Sabbath day and Psal 102. is a Psalm for the afflicted So we find some called Psalms of degrees which they sung when the Priests went up the steps to the Temple This they did and yet no doubt could pray by the spirit also In the New Testament also Cyp. de orat dom Christ not only set us a rule to pray by Mat. 6.9 but as a form to use Luke 11.2 When ye pray say our Father c. And Christ used a form thrice saying the same words Mat. 26.39 So the Apostle used a form saying The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you and so in many Epistles 2. It may be proved by antiquity and modern history that the Churches from the Apostles had set forms that they might with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15.6 And some think that the form of sound words committed to Timothy was some symbole of faith or form of Liturgy But however it is plain that in the first hundred yeers Victorinus Sciaticus in praef Laturg Clem in Epi. ad Corinth Hegesippus both the Greek and Latine East and West Church had set forms which some write they received from the Apostles And surely James chosen Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles had not the name of Liturgus given him for nothing some say from a Liturgy that he composed So likewise in the next age we find that the Christians met every Lords day and had certain select places of scripture read to them and had common praiers beside the ministers particular conceived praier and also sung Psalms So Ignatius writing to the Magnesians an Epistle generally confessed to be his saith Iust Mart. apol 2. ad Antoninum Imperat. and chargeth them to meet all in one place and to have one common praier and to meet in one faith and one hope unblameable in Jesus Christ and so to run as if all were but one to the Church as to one Altar and one Jesus Christ This man suffered martyrdome in the year 107. after Christ And as in the former times they had their common praiers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul. apol c. 30. so they had also prescribed praiers as appears in the forms of their praiers for Emperours recited by Tertullian and the short antiphonas and responsories which we find in St Cyprians which are retained in our Liturgies to this time Magd. hist cent 3. viz. Lift up your hearts saith the Minister at the Communion the people answered We lift them up to the Lord. He lived about the year 250. Then next in the time of Constantine the great about 300. and odd years after Christ He commanded praiers to be made in a set form for the welfare of the Empire Euse Eccl. hist lib. 4. c. 19. and the propagation of the Gospell and thanksgivings for that God had given him victory over all the tyrants and persecuters of the Church and he himselfe made a form for his souldiers to say every day And farther the Councill of Laodicea about 368. called after the death of Jovinian the Emperor set down rules that one and the same service should be used morning and evening And when some began to make use of extempore praiers of their own and left the common forms then the Milevitane Councill assembled afterward in the raign of Arcadius about some 400 years after Christ whereof St Austin Bishop of Hippo was president and wherein the hereticks Pelagius and Caelestius who held that man had power and free will to do good without the support of grace were sufficiently confuted This Councill I say made orders that none should in the Churches use any other praiers but those that were composed by the Synod and gives this reason lest some by ignorance or want of care might utter something in the Church that might be dissonant from the Catholike faith to which order not only Presbyters but also Bishops were to be subject After this in the next age Basil
the Father was acknowledged by his creation and providence so the Son of God might be worshipped for his redemption and the Holy Ghost be known by his operating in us the blessed ends that God intended in our creation and the effects of Christs redemption that so the office of Christ as a King Priest and Prophet may be set forth by our faith and obedience to the same Of this holy and orderly state God made Israel a type Esa 51.15 16. when he did that which Esay makes repetition of saying I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand namely I kept thee in thy going through the wildernesse to Canaan that I might plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth that is that I might make thee a state consisting of superiours and inferiours as a body politick and say to Sion thou art my people And as he made them into Prince Priest and people under the Law so certainly he did not intend to leave the Gospell people to disorder and confusion and therefore he made Kings nursing fathers and Apostles Bishops and Presbyters to instruct and people to be ruled and instructed as I have already declared it remaineth to shew what effects in the mystery of godlinesse the blessed spirit worketh on Christs redeemed people called the Church Mathe. That I desire to know Phila. First it worketh in Christs Church people outward and inward holy worship The outward consisteth in places utensils and gestures fit for divine service The inward consists in an holy heart and life answerable thereunto which is wrought in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost the third person in the most holy Trinity Mathe. What am I to conceive and beleeve of the Holy Ghost since I find little speech of him in the Creed save only in one article or two at most Phila. Though you find little speech of him as you do of the name of the Father and the Son yet all those Articles of the Creed that follow from beleeving in the Holy Ghost do relate to him and to his operations upon the object thereof which is the holy Catholick Church which he sanctifieth by making in it the communion of Saints and sealing to it the remission of sin and bestowing upon it the power of the blessed resurrection and the felicity of eternall life And insomuch as we are taught to beleeve in the Holy Ghost as well as in the Father and the Son that word in doth intimate to us 1. That he is God as well as the Father and Son or else we may not beleeve upon him But we find that we are to be baptized into his name together with the Father and the Son Mat. 28.29 2. That he proceedeth from the Father and the Son and therefore called the Spirit of the Father and the Son Of the Father John 15.26 and of the Son Rom. 8.9 and procedeth from the Son in that he breathed him upon his disciples John 20.22 and yet is a distinct person from them both as appeareth Mat. 3.17 where the Father speaketh and the Holy Ghost descended and the Sun submitted his humane nature to baptisme and yet he is equall to the Father and the Son and therefore divine worship is due to him as to them Therefore it is fit that we know him in his nature and operations Mathe. I pray declare them to me Phila. I shall first he is eternall and was before the world Gen. 1.2 and cannot alter his nature and condition So secondly he is immense and so every where present Psal 139.7 and therefore he is at hand alwaies to give us his help and assistance Again he is omnipotent Rom. 15.19 all wonders and miracles were done by him and therefore he is able to deliver us and make us for ever most happy as well as he is omniscient knowing all our wants Acts 10.19 1 Cor. 2.10 Now for his effects they are either common or proper common to all creatures or all men To all creatures as in the creation when the spirit of God cowred on the waters and earth mixed together not yet separated as an hen sitting on egs thereby qualifying that chaos to take severall forms Gen. 1.2 which spirit also garnished the heavens Job 26.13 and is still sent forth to continue the creature by production and generation Psal 104.30 which kind of operation is common also to all men Job 33.4 the spirit of the Lord hath made me and not only so but the same spirit giveth inventions to men of Arts and Sciences as to Bezaleel and Aholiab Exod. 31.3 so to write excellent things for the common use of men so to qualifie Ministers with the gifts of prophecy and preaching and tongues yet not all with saving grace mat 7.22 So many men have illumination to discern of some doctrines of faith by drawing off the vaile that hangs before other mens eies though without application to themselves or correspondent practice of such knowledge Heb. 6.4 5. they have a taste but no delight nor digestion for it neither takes them from the love of the world nor makes them the more to love God or goodnesse yea and in other men he works restraining grace to forbear some foule sins as Abimelech to forbear Sarah Gen. 20.6 yea and to do some laudable actions contrary to their disposition 1 Sam. 10.10 when Saul prophecied which was so strange to the people that it became a proverb Is Saul also among the Prophets This restraining grace God giveth the wicked not sur their own but for the Churches sake who would by them otherwise in their lusts be basely defiled or utterly destroied Now there be other operations and effects of the spirit proper to the elect and some of them are generall and some particular the generall are the conception of Christ and the qualification of his humane nature to make it fir for the great work of redemption of the elect Isa 61.1 The spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach glad tidings c. which spirit he received without measure John 3.34 The second generall work is his dwelling in the elect by which they are made a temple for God 2 Cor. 6.10 and built together for Gods habitation Eph. 2.22 Also regeneration of them whereby they are washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Then next he uniteth the elect into one mysticall body by faith and love in the bond of peace Beside Eph. 4.3 he hath particular operations in the singular persons of the elect as first he works in them liberty from the power of sin and ability to subdue the corruption in nature which neither naturall reason not morall prudence can do but where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.13 because the law of the spirit of life hath made us free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 And this the spirit doth by exercising of us in
which the other hath not and so one or both are imperfect and so there can be but one God Mathe. Whether do we Christians worship this one true God Phila. Yes we do For we worship him that made the world by his word and doth govern it by his wisedome and preserves it by his providence whose glorious presence is far above all heavens yet hath his influence upon all things here below by his Vicegerent Nature whose power he inlargeth and restraineth at his pleasure but a more rare influx upon mans soule by qualifying of it with rare gifts of Art and Science but most divinely upon souls refined from the drossie world by the operation of his holy spirit informing the mind with divine light inspiring with good desires incouraging in good actions preventing our doing evill furthering us in doing good convincing us of sin affrighting us for it Now this God we know to be a true God because he is the same who hath been worshipped from the beginning by the wisest holiest and best knowing men yea by the Jewish Nation who had the greatest evidences to shew of this true God by his miracles oracles prophecies and promises by which the very heathen have been convinced and became their proselytes 2. Because the heathen gods have been forced to confesse him the greatest As when King Thulis of Aegypt asked Shor-apis their Oracle Suidas who was the greatest it answered God Word and Spirit This is that Trinity whom all true Christians worship in unity 3. Because we find all other gods but counterfeits of this our true God and imperfect representations of his attributes or divine properties As their Baal a lord a counterfeit of this Lord of lords Baal-Zephon of our watching Lord that neither slumbers nor sleeps So their Baal-peor a counterfeit of him who gives the power of generation Baal-zebub a representation of him that is God of Hosts and Armies of all manner of flies which for sin he sendeth to infest the nations and at his word are driven away So Baal-berith a counterfeit of our God who keepeth Covenant with his people For the Devill is but Gods ape God had sacrifice and altar so had he God had a Temple at Jerusalem he had another at Delos God would have his Altar-fire alwaies burning and Satan would have alwaies his Vestall fire glowing God had his mercy Seat so the Devill his Tripodas So Apollo counterfeits Gods wisedome mans his power in battell Diana his purity Mercury his declarative word Jupiter his thundring voice Saturn his peaceable providence Venus his love Ceres and Bacchus his plentifull provision Proserpine the spirit of Nature in the earth Neptune Gods power in the Ocean Plato Gods power even in hell All which are but lame expressions of Gods properties by some seeming shew whereof the Devill hath drawn men from the true God so that the heathens worship they know not what but we know what we worship and that salvation is from our God who is infinite almighty invisible inscrutable the only wise and good God in whom from whom and by whom are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen Mathe. Some are content to acknowledge a God and one God but yet only as one person Therefore are we bound to beleeve persons in the Godhead or not Phila. You are bound to beleeve God as he revealeth himselfe Now he hath revealed himselfe to be a divine essence subsisting in three persons that is a Unity in Trinity Mathe. I pray first unfold the terms and then prove God to be a Vnity in Trinity Phila. First for the terms you must not look to find them in Scripture yet it disalloweth them not for they express the sense of them For 1. The essence of God is expressed Exod. 3.14 in that name I am that I am for essence or being is that which is 2. Subsistence signifieth only the manner of Being as humane nature is mans essence or substance of man and his person is his manner of subsisting in that nature So 3. Unity signifieth and shewes the divine nature cannot be divided diversified nor multiplied 4. The word Trinity sheweth the manner of the divine nature subsisting which the Scriptures deliver to us of God as in the 1 of John 5.7 There be three that bear record in heaven Vbi unus ibi unitas ubi tres ibi Trinitas the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Where by the WORD is meant the Son who is so called also John 1.1 to signifie his divine and spirituall generation like a word expressed by the mind So 5. The word Person signifieth to us that God is in his subsistence or manner of being an intellectuall substance neither divided nor communicated nor sustained in or by any other which is the property of a person This word is found Heb. 1.3 where Christ the Word or Son of God is called the ingraven image of Gods person Mathe. How came these words into use Phila. They were formed by the Doctors of the Church for the more easie confutation of heresie by a shorter way of disputation and demonstration of this mystery of the sacred Trinity which in many words could not have been so well moulded into a form of dispute without much trouble to the memory and the understanding As in all Arts there be proper terms which include in them the sum of the science in short words and therefore we are not to stumble at termes which serve to explain or maintain holy mysteries for whatsoever is not against the truth is for it Mathe. But how prove you that God is Vnity in Trinity Phila. That God is a unity in himselfe none can doubt who beleeves that God is one and that there is but one God as is already proved And that this Godhead hath a Trinity of persons in it selfe subsisting we are to beleeve it upon Scriptures which do first intimate to us more persons in the Godhead then one as Gen. 1.1 which saith Elohim bara that is Elohim plu Bara sing if translated word for word The Lords he created to which answereth John 1.1 In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And ver 2. All things were made by him that is the Son and yet Gen. 1.2 The spirit of God moved upon the waters so that there were three in this work i. God the Father did it by the Son through the Spirit So Gen. 1.26 God said Let us make man which argued a consultation of persons So when God appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre Gen. 18.1 yet it was in three persons ver 2. though Abraham speaks to them as one saying my Lord The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Jupiter The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Neptune The Poets shadowed out this by three prime gods Pluto Mathe. But may they not be more then three persons Phila. No because the
Lord God never expressed himself by more then three as appears first By his commanding Moses to blesse the people but thrice in the name of the Lord Deut. 6.24 The Lord bless thee and keep thee intimating the protection and providence of the Father 2. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee i. in pardoning thy sin by the gracious redemption and favour of the Son well expressed by St Paul 2 Cor. 4.6 calling it the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 3. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace i. the joy of the Holy Ghost and peace of conscience in gods promise which the Holy Ghost sealeth to us Eph. 1.13 So the Seraphins pronounced God thrice Holy Holy Holy Esa 6.3 So we see in Christs baptisme 1. The Father speaking from heaven 2. The spirit descending and 3. The Son suscepting baptisme Mat. 3.16 And our Savivour affirms but three persons John 16.36 saying when the Comforter is come i. the Holy Ghost whom I will send i I the Son who proceedeth from the Father i. the first person Mathe. Is there any reason to prove this Phila. As much as any reasonable man can desire and that is the impressions of it upon his works and his gifts and in the minds of men 1. He hath given three principles of all bodies airie watry Chymists say Salt Sulphur and Mercury and earthy matter and three kind of lives or souls the vegetative or growing life or soule to plants The sensitive with vegetation to bruits the rationall with both the former to men but especially the Image of God in the first man argued the three persons immortality wisedome and freedome So to the rationall soule three principall faculties the Understanding the Will and the power of acting So Arts which are Gods gifts some of them sheweth his unity as Geometry draweth all lines from one point and Arithmetick from a unite draweth all numbers so Astronomy all motions from the first mover so Musick a rare gift of God ariseth from unison and three concords and discords arguing a unity in Trinity 2. But above all these three Arts by which we expresse our souls which have an impresse of the Deity sets forth the Trinity as they proceed one from the other For Grammer is the fountain of them by letters which makes words Logick of words frameth sence and Rhetorick by help of both maketh an oration So the Son is the word of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds from them both and therefore the Cabalists said that before God revealed himselfe in his operations he was like a dark solitary letter Aleph tenebroâ— sum of which we could make nothing But now we know by his word and his works not only that he is but what he is 3. He hath imprinted this Trinity in the minds of men as well as the unity of the Godhead Which made some learned men say Pythago Trismegist in Pimand Dial. 4 that all things are terminated in THREE Others that one begat one and by reflecting on each other begat a third Not that these men did apprehend the Trinity as we do by Scripture but this argued them to have a confused knowledge of it as Caiaphas had of Christs death when he said It was necessary one man die for the people Aquin. Non è â—â—titia sed ex officie so prophecying as he was high Priest that year so these spake by naturall instinct Another that may be urged to prove the three persons in the Godhead is Bonum diffusivum Because God being the chiefe good is of a diffusive nature and so must communicate himselfe by some subsistency that is capable of the whole divine essence communicated everlastingly from one to the other John 10.30 therefore Christ saith I and my Father are one that is in the essence communicated not the personality So he saith I am in the Father John 14.10 and the Father in me that is by mutuall immanency in the same essence So he saith I came forth from the Father that is first By his divine and eternall generation and by his temporall mission into the world John 16.28 So he saith all that the Father hath is mine therefore I said he shall take of mine and give it to you i. the holy Ghost John 16.15 By which is understood the communication of the divine essence one to another and the communication of gifts of men A similitude of this divine reflection and procession God gave in the first marriage He made Adam one then he joined him to another made out of himselfe of these two he produced a third i. children Beside he makes all things but by a threefold vertue his Power Wisedome and Love a representative of the three persons Nor is there any more then three principall efficient causes from whom by whom and through whom a thing is Rom. 11. And so all things are from the Father by the Son through the Holy Ghost who receiveth and giveth a procession to things so that there is but one God the Father 1 Cor. 8.6 and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ and we by him and one Holy Spirit and we through him Mathe. But this is hard to conceive right and dangerous to conceive wrong I desire a rule or two to direct me aright in the conceiving hereof Phila. 1. That you are to beleeve the divine essence to be one yet the persons to be three and every person to be God and Lord and yet but one God because but one essence as there is but one humane nature though divers persons therein 2. That these persons are not before one another in time but in order nor greater then another but coequall 3. That these three persons communicate the divine essence one to another but not their personality for the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet Esa 9.6 the Son is called the everlasting Father but not in regard of his person but his essence which is all one with the Father 4. That in those works of the Trinity which are wrought towards us though one person be entitled to it more then others yet all of them hath an hand therein though one more especially As the Father creates yet so as by the Son through the Spirit The Son redeemeth yet so as sent from the Father and conceived by the holy Spirit The holy Spirit sanctifieth yet so as through the Father by the Son breathing his holy graces into us 5. That the Father is the fountain of the personality but not of the essence for therein they be coeternall 6. They all flowe from one and the same essence as the light of the Moon and that of the air is from one Sun and as three rivers from one fountain 7. That they have
a mutual emanency one in the other and an eternall emanency one from the other for they be each in each Aug. de Trin. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him and the holy Spirit in both so they be all in each For the Son is in the bosome of the Father and the Father in the Image of the Son the holy Spirit in the breath of each and they both in his operations 3. All in each for one is possessed of the other 4. All in all the whole essence being in every person And yet 5. But one in all because all three are but one God And take heed of thinking therefore 1. That there is no God 2. That there be no persons in the God but only relations Socin Patrisp offices or dispensations For so we may count the Father to suffer not the Son for our redemption 3. That they be only like one another in substance Arri. Eunom Tritheit but not of the same substance or of an unlike substance but of one and the same substance And take heed of thinking they be three gods for there is but one God in essence though three persons in subsistence one God in being though three persons in the manner of that being Nor may you like the Mahometans acknowledge one God without persons or like the Indians denie the Son of God Mahom. Indians because then they say God must have a wife These people only understand carnall generation not spirituall and in what they know naturally therein they abuse themselves Jude ver 10. and speak evill of what they know not For they perceive not how the soule begets children namely the thoughts and words without female conjunction This high knowledge of God should teach us to admire him whom we cannot comprehend and therefore to serve him in faith fear and reverence Psal 2.11 especially in his Temple and service Psal 138. and so say with Job O Lord what I know not do thou teach me so that in thy knowledge I may find felicity We must not think this knowledge to be superfluous since it is life eternall to have it John 17.3 Mat. 16.18 and that Christ so much approved St Peter for acknowledging it I know all men cannot apprehend this alike yet if we desire that Christ would shew us the Father John 14.8 and that we may have his Spirit he will not denie it to him that asketh him especially if we lament for the losse of the excellent knowledge no doubt he will reveal so much of it to us as shall acquire eternall life Mathe. What means hath God given us to know him by Phila. Two means his Works and his Words His Works Natura naturans naturata and the book of Nature naturated by the power of God His Word is the book of Nature naturating i. of God himselfe without which revelation man cannot apprehend God at all or very darkly The reason whereof is 1. Because Adam seeking curious knowledge beyond the light which God gave him in nature he lost that light of God which by nature he had and despoiled himselfe of that image and character of God which God had impressed upon him and so fell into false conceptions of God in his generations and by himselfe into a more obscure apprehension of him in his time 2. This dark knowledge of God in man ariseth from the depravation of his affections which desires to know God sensibly as men behold Princes which cannot be in this world 1 Cor. 15. no more then flesh and blood can inherit heaven till it be mortified by death and fermented in the grave and refined at the resurrection Moses desire was exuberant to see Gods glory in visible appearance For though God was pleased to be represented by Angels in shapes of men in the Old Testament yet he hath no shape For to what will ye liken me saith God 3. Men being not read in Scriptures are oftentimes driven by some accidents in the world and change of times and strange events above or beside reason to think that either there is no God or else that God is not just Psal 37.36 Psal 73.1 2 3. Wisd 1.1 2. 4. Because we find all things fall alike to all and a naturall succession of things to be as they were alwaies so they think we are all born at adventure and all things come by nature or fortune 5. It comes by the devils craft deluding men with vanity and making them not to think of God and so bold to perpetrate horrible sins through blindnesse and hardnesse of heart whereas if they did but consider Gods waies and footsteps in Scripture in making all things and in disposing them to their severall ends and orders the rare knowledge given to man above other creatures the peace of his mind when he doth well the terrors of his conscience in doing ill the impression and stamp of Elohim upon his Magistrates whom he calleth Gods the strange vengeance following wicked men to them whom temporall Judges either do not or cannot punish Besides prodigious signs in heaven of future calamities So to see monstrous births terrible earthquakes which though they have naturall and second causes yet why they are not alwaies or oftner or not at all or in this place more then that must needs be the rule of some superiour power But yet nothing of all these leads us to the knowledge of God like the Scripture Mathe. Why so Phila. Because the Scriptures are the word of the true God of whom nothing can testifie better then his own word and truth therefore Christ saith Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Secondly because they clearly set forth God in his nature attributes and works Mathe. How prove you the Scripture to be the Word of the true God Phila. Because it alone doth treat primarily of that God who is Trinity in Unity three persons in one Godhead and of their relations one towards another and their operations in and towards man 2. Because it is the most ancient truth as the true God is the ancient of daies Now what is most ancient and first is true Moses writings are most ancient upon which the rest of the Bible is a comment and the New Testament is a perfect complement and is therefore called grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ John 1.17 because he brought to man by the Gospell the love and favour of God and brought the truth prophesied into fact and performance But this Moses is the ancientest writer Eupolem Masius whom some call Musaeus some Trismegistus as some have thought the Aegyptian Serapis to be a monument of Joseph Sure enough he was the oldest writer of divine Revelation if not of any other He lived in the time of Cecrops King of Athens Aug. The oldest writing the Greeks have is the wars of Troy which fell out in the time of Israels Judges which was three hundred
sanctified or cleansed from originall sin for if it had ever been sinfull it could not have been sanctified from sin without the blood of the covenant Heb. 9.22 and Ephe. 1.7 and so there must have been another Mediator beside himselfe which St Paul denieth 1 Tim. 2.5 there is but one Mediator even the Man Christ Jesus the High Priest who is in himselfe holy innocent and undefiled and separate from sinners Heb. Mathe. But if Christs humane nature came from the blessed Virgin and from Adam he could not avoid the taint of sin no more then he could death Phila. We are to consider as I said before that sin cleaving not to substance alone but to persons and considering that he took no person of the Virgin but her substance which was immediately united to his Godhead in subsistence and only so made a person it will follow that though his substance yet his person was never in Adam and so never sinned in Adam and so never tainted with originall sin For as it could not be propagated by his manner of conception so neither could it be justly imputed to his person which was both God and man And for his death it was voluntary Death did not by his own power prevaile over him but he laid it down John 10.17 18. Nor did death fall upon him as a sinner but as the surety for sin Mathe. What effect worketh this conception for us Phila. 1. It hides the impurity of our conceptions from Gods anger because this satisfieth Gods justice for originall sin for the righteousnesse hereof is imputed to us and by it is constituted holinesse of nature for in this he was qualified with all habits of grace and vertue which by his spirit he powreth also upon us For this purpose he took an humane body because sacrifice and offerings would not satisfie Psal 40. and Heb. 10.5 2. This conception worketh a spirituall life and conception in us For our nature in him being conceived and quickned by the holy Ghost in the womb from thence proceeds the power of our regeneration from him that is the originall of spirituall life in our nature for the spirit that formed him in the womb doth beget us again to live in him and so doth justifie us before God from the evils that cleave to our nature Mathe. He is oftentimes called in the Gospell even by himselfe too the Son of man how then shall I conceive his conception to be more then humane Phila. His Conception and Birth are full of wonder yet may be discerned with distinction for it seems a new creation For as he was the Son of God no woman was his mother and as he was man he had no father He is called the Son of man because he took our nature of the blessed Virgins substance Yet he is called the Son of the most High Mat. 1. because he is the second person in the holy Trinity Which title is given to the nature assumed because it had no subsistence but in his person that was the naturall Son of God In which regard the blessed Virgin is called the mother of God not of his deity but of this union of God and man yet his person was not circumscribed in her womb though the humane nature was But as his body is heaven locally and is in the Word substantially and in the Sacrament mystically and in the heart of a beleever spiritually so it was in her body naturally Mathe. How am I to conceive of the birth of Christ Phila. He was born three waies of his Father of his Mother and in the mind of man Of his Father eternally of his Mother temporally and in mans mind spiritually For three things have relation to his birth Deity Flesh and Spirit Of his Father he is born God for ever of his Mother flesh once and in mans mind he is born Spirit figuratively often In respect of his divine nature he had a Father without a Mother in regard of the humane nature he had a Mother without a Father in respect of his spirituall nativity he hath both Father and Mother i. they that do his will Paul saith God was manifested in flesh 1. From the bosome of his Father in whom he was concealed 2. From the shadowes of the Law in which he was prefigured 3. From the womb of his Mother in which he was covered This was the greatest and the most gracious work considered in all the consequences of it as his death and resurrection which without this could not have been that ever God wrought who for these humiliations gave him a name above all names Jesus the Saviour Phil. 2.9 Which name although others had as well as he in the Old Testament yet they were but figures of him yea the name Jehovah signifieth but essence i. God as he is the author of being but Jesus signifieth God our well being a Saviour then which there is no other name of salvation given Act. It was the name of the eternall Word incarnate it contains in it the whole oeconomy of the work of redemption wherein the attributes of God are united wisedome justice peace Psal 85. mercy and truth This was well called his great work of a woman compassing a man And wonderfull great it was in effect For in the Creation God made man in his image and so earth was honoured but in Christs birth God made himselfe in our image and so heaven was debased In creation God made all without resistance he spake but the word and they were made Heb. 12. But in redemption he suffered contradictions of sinners against himselfe In this work he did both speak work and suffer speak graciously work wonderfully suffer unworthily In creation the Word made flesh but in Jesus our Redeemer John 1.3 the Word was made flesh John 1.14 In the creation God took man out of the earth and placed him in Paradise In the redemption he took man out of hell and placed him in heaven through Jesus the Saviour Mathe. What were the effects of his birth Phila. Many For among the heathen voices were heard saying that the great God was about to be born At Rome a woman was seen about the Sun having a child in her arms And the Sybil told Augustus the Emperour that that same child was greater then he and bade him to adore him He would never after be called Lord. The Temple of peace fell down at his birth because he brought better peace to the world The Oracles were all struck dumb by the birth of this eternall Word Jupiters Oak in Dodona was shaken the Caldron smitten with the rod in the hand of Jupiter The Tripode in Delphis Nazi in Julian annotat Nomi the Laurell and fountain of Daphne and the ramfaced image of Jupiter Ammon could utter nothing so that one effect of Christs birth was Gods glory and Satans confusion But further another effect was the good mans peace and salvation For he was born to
impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ
Quest 1 Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Phila. Yes First if there were no eternall happinesse God had made man in vain with so vast a mind which no finite thing can satisfie and then there must be a way to this happinesse or else that happinesse is ordained in vain also for man Mathe. Some think it is not necessary to know any more happiness then nature sheweth and dictates to us Phila. Nature sheweth in part that felicity which is necessary for man to know but not fully but as in the wrong end of an optick glass which makes things appear farther off or lesse then they are or else sheweth us a false felicity as in a magnifying or multiplying glasse wherein it appeareth bigger or more then it is all which sheweth there is an happinesse though nature mistakes it or cannot perfectly shew it though it be necessary for us to know it Mathe. How prove you it is necessary for us to know it Phila. 1. Because I have a soule capable of such a knowledge nor is an industrious soule quiet till it find either it or something like it wherein it may find a rest and content Therefore the spirit of a man is the candle of God to search hidden secrets Pro. 20.27 yea even the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by desire a man having separated himselfe seeks and intermedleth with all wisedome Pro. 18.1 2. Because man is made for it God intended him for happinesse For as the world was made that God might be revealed so God was revealed that man might know him which is felicity God sought to bring man to it first by obedience wherein he failing thereby shewing the mutability of created nature God next set before him the object of beleeving viz. his promise of Christ to know whom in God is life eternall John 17.3 and felicity 3. Because man is a future not only a present creature for he hath a soul which will be existent after death in joy or sorrow and therefore necessary for him to know felicity and to avoid misery Mathe. How prove you that he hath such a soule Phila. From our immortall desires to live either in memory or posterity for ever which argueth the immortall nature of the soule though it be deceived in the choise of it by placing immortality where it is not So Absalom set up his monumentall pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 and some call their lands after their own names Psa 49.12 and men desire tombs which argueth a desire of perpetuall life No creature hath this desire but man for things without life desire to preserve themselves in their particular being Secundum numerum pronunc Vid. Scor. Dist 94. and beasts desire the continuance of their kind only for the present time but man desires a perpetuall being included in no bounds 2. Because it hath a kind of infinit apprehension comprehending singular things and universall things and the kinds of all things which argueth an immortall nature 3. Because God hath made a perpetuall covenant with man Numb 18.19 and therefore the soul hath a continuall being in or out of the body else is the Covenant ended But God is not the God of the dead Mat. 22.32.33 but of the living for all do live to him therefore he cals himselfe the God of the Patriarchs after their death Exod. 3.6 so some in scripture are said to be gathered to their fathers in peace though slaine as 2 Chron. 35. as good Josiah But it is meant to the spirit of the Fathers which were at rest and peace with God bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 among the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 4. Because men undergo losse and crosse and death without cause joifully which were madnesse if the soule were not immortall and expected after death some felicity to enjoy 1 Cor. 15.19 But many love not their lives that they may find them hereafter Mar. 8.35 5. Because God in the last judgement may shew himselfe just as Gen. 18.23 for in this world good men suffer and evill men flourish Psal 37. Psal 71.2 3. so Jer. 12.1 yet it is but to fat them for the slaughter Jer. 12.3 Therefore the soule is immortall that every man may find the justice of God at last 6. The learned heathen did acknowledge this Arist Cic. Tusc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling the soul the first motion as if it were the beginning of motion so by their letting an Eagle flie aloft when the bodies of their Heroes were put into the funerall fires It is true that the Scripture saith the soul that sinneth that shall die but the meaning is not that the soul shall be dissolved in his essentiall life but in the relative life to God-ward by whose goodness and mercy it obtaineth an eternall felicity Mathe. But how can I prove that it hath any existence after the death of the body Phila. Because it is distinguished in this by all wise men from the souls or life of bruits for the spirit of a man goeth upward and the spirit of a beast goeth downward Eccles 3.21 And again Eccles 12.7 the dust shall return to the earth and the spirit to God that gave it which returning to God signifies the souls immortality Psallus that is as God alwaies is so the soule is subsisting with God for if the soule be immortall it cannot wax old Phocylid but must live ever so that you must denie the soule to be immortall or else grant that it never dieth But the old Chaldeans and Egyptians shall rise against such Christians whose precept was that a man should make haste to the light and splendors of the Father and to seek Paradise which is the splendid and cleer region of the soule Trismegistus confirms the perpetuall being of the soul Cic. Tusc Pythagoras saith as much and Tully from him Epictetus saith we are the kinsmen of God and return from whence we came Plat. in Phaed. Comment Mo◠Zill Hisp in Plat. Plato is more clear then any And St Paul himselfe makes use of Aratus in the Acts saying We are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 But beside Christ gives us greater light in the point John 3.36 saying He that beleeveth in me hath life eternall and to the thief he said This day thou shalt be with me when as that day both their bodies were dead 1 Cor. 5.1 So St Paul saith We know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building of God in the heavens He doth not say when this house shall be repaired as at the resurrection but so soon as it is dissolved So in the fifth verse saith he When we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and therefore are willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord therefore he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ And St Stephen praieth God to
upon the soule to which at first he gave being and making man the instrument to produce it in the seed Mathe. I pray give some places of Scripture to prove the production and some reasons drawn from thence for many places seem against it Phila. Some seem against it but are not so as Exod. 21.22 c. that a man if he hurt a woman with child and her fruit depart from her and yet mischief or death follow not i. upon the mother then the punishment shal be but a fine or mulct but if mischiefe or death follow then he shall pay life for life Now if this mischiefe or death be understood of the woman this place argueth nothing to the souls production by propagation If it be meant of the child then it must have life and how a reasonable creature can have life without the form of it viz. a reasonable soule I know not therefore the judgement surely was to be made upon the child quickning and so life was to answer for life but whether the soule be not infused before even at the conception is still questionable So Numb 27.16 he is called the God of spirits yet is he not also the God of our bodies yes sure as 1 Cor. 6.20 Glorifie God in your bodies for they are Gods But Eccles 12.7 seemeth to make a greater difference for the body is said there to return to the dust but the spirit to God that gave it yet this proves only the soules immortall estate after death not any immediate creation of it except he relates to Adam whose creation was immediate of dust and his soule immediate from God but our bodies are not so and the question still remains whether the soule be not conveied by Gods speciall concurrence in propagation So Isa 57.16 it is said of God I will not alwaies contend lest the soules that I have made faile before me but that is meant by the generall life of all creatures Beside who knoweth not that God makes us we teach our children so to answer us in their Catechisme because God did it originally and doth it still by his benediction of parentall seed yet we know also that the parents beget the children So Ezek. 18. it is said all souls are mine but that is all persons So Zach. 12.1 It is said God formeth the spirit of man within him which no man will deny but the question is still of what whether of nothing or of the parents substance corporall and spirituall Indeed that place of Zachary intends the first mans forming as we see by his alledging Gods stretching forth of the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth which was at the creation or if he meaneth the souls of men since the creation then by forming cannot â—e understood creating of nothing But you will say that God is called the Father of Spirits in opposition to the fathers of our flesh but the opposition is not made there between God and man or soule and body but between naturall life and casuall correction and spirituall but be it meant of God and naturall parents yet it proves nothing to the souls production for he is the God of our body as well as of our spirits Mathe. But if the soule be of a spirituall substance and nature how can it be propagated in generation Phila. Because it is not propagated after a bodily manner though the whole man begets the whole man for the soule consisting rather of power then parts the propagation of it is by promotion rather than decision nor is the soule so spirituall as to be simply simple for only God is so but hath a spirituall composition though not elementary which the God of spirits can blow up to a flame which kindles presently upon fit matter by vertue of his first word given to the nature of man saying increase and multiply and by his continuall assistance to mans generation Mathe. But generation of souls argueth a corruption of souls and so it is not immortall Phila. It followeth not for the corruption of the soule in propagation is only a mutation from power to act and so is not corrupted by putrefaction but advanced by perfection it is the same as it was but not in the same manner as it was and so the soul propagated is not corrupted nor is the soule propagating corrupted for it is neither divided nor diminished no more then the flame of a lamp is by lighting another Mathe. But if it passe in propagation then if conception faile a soule is lost in the emission of seed for want of conception Phila. Not so for the soule is never procreated but in conception namely when the seed of male and female meet in one together with the efficient power of God concurring with all naturall causes for the production thereof therefore when conceptions faile the soule continueth as it was so in unlawfull copulations with other creatures God not conferring his power no rationall creature is brought forth but the soule remains without communication of it selfe Mathe. But if the soule be so traduced from the parents then from one of them or both and I see not how one soul can be divided nor yet how one soule can be made out of two Phila. It cannot be from one for the seed of neither male nor female alone conteins the matter and form of the creature to be produced but two do make one two in number and sex being united make a third and this is Gods ordinance in nature that mankind should be distinguished into two sexes and by their uniting again the whole kind should be preserved neither is the soule divided because it consists not of parts but powers and therefore the propagation of the soule is not done by decision Zanch. de tribus Elohim p. 2. l. 3. cap. 7. but by operation whereby the same power is effected in another which the soule hath in it selfe yet it is neither annihilated nor diminished because it is a spirituall nature as we understand God to beget his Son and communicates to him his whole essence and yet the Father retains his whole essence And this need not trouble us since we see the forms of other creatures are indivisible as well as mans soule and yet they beget their like without any division of their essentiall forms And for the making of one soule out of two you are to conceive how two in act may make one for man and wife is not only one flesh carnally but their very soules do so cleave together like Jonathan and David that they would become one which because they cannot do they by the assistance of God conspire with the fitnesse of other causes to produce another creature like themselves Athanas de var. p. 16. as flint and steel smote together begets fire which is the next creature that a fervent motion can beget Mathe. When do you judge the soule to be thus traduced Phila. At the first conception no doubt and
uniting of the male and female seed the corporall parts whereof although they must have a time to ferment or concoct before they can mix to make a perfect conception yet no doubt the spirituall parts being more quick and active do move in a lesse time and are conceived at the first meeting of the parents seed and so become the form of man from his very beginning which if the seed should want the generation comes to nothing because it wants a form to inform and dispose the matter towards quickning Obj. But then you will say the soule must needs be weak at first but it groweth and increaseth with the body and then it must decrease and die with the body Ans To this it is answered That the soul of man is at first what it will ever be but wanting organs and fit means to exercise her power she lyeth still as seed in the ground for a season till the means to expresse it selfe be administred yet the vegetative soule of the seed is as perfect in it at first as at last and so is the soule in man for it being the essentiall form of the creature and the prime act it must be perfect at first as well as in the processe or else it cannot give perfection to the other parts of the creature because it is not perfected in it selfe Mathe. But all this that you say doth but yet probably set forth that it is so but doth not directly prove it Phila. You say true for indeed the generation of mankind is more wonderfull then any other creature as in Psal 139.6 14. David confesseth the knowledge too wonderfull for him But when I conceive how that some main points of Christian Religion depends upon this opinion I had rather speak something against reason then any thing against Religion Mathe. Make that forth namely that the production of humane souls by propagation hath ground in Christian Religion Phila. If it be found in Scripture or by just consequence drawn therefrom then it may be founded on true Religion And that it is so I find 1. By Gods institution Increase multiply and fill the earth Gen. 1.27 i. not with bodies only but with persons of men consisting of soule and body or else other creatures had power to preserve their own kind and not he who is the best of all 2. We find that God so ordered nature in the creation that every thing in nature should persist by themselves and multiply their kinds that he might make no new creatures after that he ceased from all his work which he had made 3. So we read that God took Eve out of Adam yet no mention is made of a new soule infused into her Nor can I understand lesse in Gods promise That the seed of the woman should break the serpents head but that a person should come of the womans seed who should do it which person must consist of a soule as well as a body or else Christ redeemed mankind by a body without a soule Mathe. Was not Christs soule crâ—â—â—ed immediately of God Phila. No otherwise then ours is and that ours is not we have proved in part and will prove it farther and next that Christs soule was not First that ours is not is plaine from the description of Adams begetting Seth after his own likenesse Gen. 5.3 if by likenesse and image we understand the spirituall form rather then the bodily frame as it is said When God made man after his image Gen. 1.27 So when God said to Abraham I will be the God of thy seed it must be understood of an informed seed not a seed inanimate for God is not said to be the God of a senslesse no more then of a livelesse or dead substance Mat. 22.32 To this purpose also I conceive that the Scriptures say so many souls came of Jacobs loins which if some say it is figuratively spoken yet I know not how a man may be said to be a father of that to which he contributeth the least and more base part of substance Nor is that of Zachary the Prophet to be neglected which saith Zach. 12.1 The Lord formeth the spirit of a man within him for it sheweth first the Lord to be the externall efficient without whose immediate act of providence the soule cannot be traduced and the word forming which is not creating sheweth the manner of it as done by his power yet not created only as not propagated only but formed within man of the spirituall matter of the parents informing their seed in this regard it is said of David Psal 51.5 Ps 51. in sin my mother conceived me not my body sure but my whole nature So when our Saviour saith that which is born of the flesh is flesh John 3.6 he meaneth the whole man and if so then the soule which if immediately created of God cannot possibly be called flesh nor properly fleshly that is sinfull beside if the soule be not propagated how may originall sin be possibly conveied for by one man sin entred and by him therefore it must be conveied to his off-spring for the doing whereof propagation is the most apt and likeliest way because every like begets his like so sinfull man begetting man propagates with him a potentiality of sinning from the first mans privation of originall righteousnesse and inclination to evill but this cannot be unlesse the soule be derived from the parents for the body is not the subject of sin but the whole man for if the soule be immediately created of God it must be good and pure and if so then he cannot justly cast it into an evill condition without a first guiltinesse Gen. 18.25 nor can the soule but unwillingly unite with the body to become sinfull But surely I understand not if the soule be immediatly created how it can be corrupted or made sinfull for from whence should the corruption arise from the soule it cannot being created good from the body it cannot being meer matter neither capable of vertue or vice because it wants intellect will and affection If you say it ariseth from union how can that be if the soul be created good and the body be uncapable of evill If you say it comes by imputation you make God to do and undo to give good and take it away again without cause and so an unjust at least a vain work to give goodnesse to the soule and presently to take it away again by infusing it or uniting it to the body by which it should become sinfull I know some will say God may impute it to man for Adam's fall as well as righteousnesse to us for Christs merits bâ—â— friend the case is much unlike for imputation of righteousnesse is a work of mercy which is to be done without cause but the imputation of sin is a work of justice which canot be done without some cause but if the soule be created pure and the body untainted with sin
charity which is the end of them though not the exact severity So many holy men had dispensation in those times which is not competent with us Abraham to make his halfe sister his wife Iacob to have many wives which is not competent with other ages Mal. 2.15 and therefore reproved by the Prophet So neither are those actions imitable which many were agitated to by zeal and fervour of spirit for Gods cause as that of Moses to excite one brother to slay another nor that of Phineas in transferring Zimri and Cosbi for what actions are exorbitant from common Law are not to be made exemplar Mathe. What may we judge of those that are called Apocryphall books Ph. We are to think them as helps to understand Scripture in many places especially Solomon Wisd and Eccl. Judith Tobie Esdras Mac. and to know the State of the Jewes before the Prophet Malachies time in their captivity and after it also And so neither to contemn them nor yet to build our faith upon all things there written as the Church of Rome injoineth people to do under penalty of a curse as we are to beleeve the Canonicall Scriptures Conc. Trid. but to trie what analogy they hold with truth and so make use of them as in Heb. 11.35 takes an instance of faith from the mother of seven sons 2 Machab. 7.7 Mathe. Some make doubt of the Scriptures Canonicalness because they say there be more books in the world then we have inserted in our Bibles and all that we have in our account Canonicall are not thought to be so Phila. You need not trouble your selfe with that but rather make an holy use of that we have by building our selves up in our holy faith and thank God that he hath reserved for us by his Church a copy of sacred writ sufficient for our salvation which is written that we may beleeve and the rest lost or left out John 21.25 that we may not look after more then is necessary The Jewes reckoned but 22 books of the old Testament we find more Joseph cent Appion Vid. Concil Lao. de lib. Canon Magd. cent 4. fol. 838. c. 4. yet they contained as much as we have but their compiling differed from ours And these were consigned by Ezra the scribe after the return from Babylon in the time of Hagge Zachary and Malachy all in Hebrew Which tongue though it be a good signe of Canonicall Scripture yet it is not the only signe for many of the Apocryphall books were so written at first as Ecclesiasticus seems to be by the Preface a book of great worth and next sure to the Wisedome of Solomon So Tobit and the fourth of Esdras but rather the consignation of the Jewish Church and their continuall receipt of them for such Atha in Synop. So some write of more Psalms of David then 150. but if we should admit of more I feare it would encourage many selfe conceited men to make Psalms too under pretence that they had the spirit of God as well as David as did some in the Councill of Laodicea Conc. Lao. ut supra c. 59. and urged for it Ioel 2. your sons and daughters shall prophecy which Council excludes or at least omits the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalyps yet it reckons 14 Epistles of St Pauls of which that to the Colossians must be one or else there is but 13. Kirstonius in Arab. notes on the Evangel Calv. vid. Bod. method hist c. 7. And why the Apocalyps was left out it may be was because more lately written and divulged except the Councill were of their minds who reckoned it Apocrypha or theirs who slighted it as Ambrese did Persius the Satyrist because of its obscurity We read also of the Gospell of St Thomas and St Bartholomew all which is nothing to us so long as we know that our old Testament and the Jewes agree together still and are the same they were in the time of Christ And for the New Testament we have those that have been generally received as Orthodoxall by the Church and for 1300 years together consigned as Canonicall by the Councils as Nice Laodicea and Carthage Mathe. But whether have not the Iewes corrupted the old Testament Phila. 1. Aug. They would not certainly out of envy to the Gentiles rob their own posterity of the truth Philo. Beside they held it as a sin inexpiable so to do Polanus leb 1. cap. 37. and would die an hundred deaths rather then change one jot of them They know also that the world was created for the Scriptures sake and therefore the world would be turned to a chaos ere they should be altered and so they were faithfull trustees Rom. 3.2 But 2. They could not do it for there was so many Copies dispersed by reason of their dispersion over the world that it was impossible to corrupt it Bellarm. Beside certainly God would not suffer that to be corrupted by which he meant to save the world and therefore Christ said Luke 16.17 that not one iota should perish till heaven and earth passed away Mat. 5.18 And 3. They did not for then they would above all other places expunged or altered those that related to Christ as Esa 7. ver 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive Gnalemah Bethulah not a young woman for that had been no wonder nor worth the world Behold So Esa 9.6 To us a child is born and a Son is given called Wonderfull c. Nor did they deface his passion though they deformed him foreprophecied so clearly Esa 53. Bellarm. Which words in their own language do more forcibly convince the Jewes then the Vulgar Latine doth as in Psal 2.12 Kisse the Son Nesheku Bar. i. embrace Christ not Discipline And therefore certainly the Old Testament was not corrupted by the Jewes 4. Our Saviour never charged them with corrupting the Text but only with misunderstanding or mis-interpreting nor any of the Fathers in their writing against them Just Marr. except one for wronging the Septuagints translation So that it is void of corruption however in the reading there may be some variation yet no deprvation of the Copy Mathe. But methinks they deliver things impossible and some things contradictory and some things in them seem doubtfull in regard of difference of text and margent in the old Testament and diversity of readings in the new Phila. Not things impossible to him whose word it is who to his works requires our faith more then our understandings else his works did not exceed magitians 2. Nor is there any contradictions in them if you observe the rule of contradictions which must be a assertion of the same thing at the same time according to the same part notion or apprehension You must know therefore that there is a vast difference between Scriptures and other books For they do not omit somethings out of mis-knowledge as other books
think themselves above Ordinances They may be in higher forms of knowledge and holy experience then some other Christians but so long as they are in Christs school no doubt but there will be something to be learned Ephes 4 13. whether they be schollers or masters till we come to the measure of the stature of Christ Mathe. How do the Scriptures set forth God to us Phila. By his attributes or qualifications which both the nature of the Godhead and naturall reason will acknowledge to be in him whereby it apprehends him for God being infinite cannot be fully apprehended nor defined by us but his nature is known by way of eminence as whatsoever good I find in the creature I attribute the same to God in the highest degree 2. By way of negation and so whatsoever deficiency I find in the Creature I deny any jot of it to be in God 3. By causation because when I see the creatures I cannot conceive they made themselves but were caused by some being far above themselves and thus even naturall men are led unto God But the Scriptures set him out more clearly to us in his essence and his attributes 1. That he is an essence most highly perfect therefore called Jehovah I am that I am signifying that he is Being in himselfe of himselfe Exod. 3.14 and by himselfe and so is the principle of all beings in whom all things live move and have being and so he is justly called Essence And that this essence subsisteth in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit who in heaven bear record to the Scriptures truth 1 John 5.7 And in regard of this plurality of persons God is called Elohim Lords 2. The Scripture sets him forth to us by divers attributes by which we have a clearer apprehension of him to our capacity which cannot in any one word apprehend his nature Now some of these we find in the creatures others not for some of them cannot be communicated to any but himselfe Mathe. Which are his incommunicable attributes and what use can we make of them Phila. The first is simplicity of essence by which we know he is uncompounded without parts matter or form 1 Tim. 1.7 The second is his infinitenesse without measure quantity Psal 145.3 or determination of time and place or quantity vertue power 3. He is eternall without beginning of time past or end in respect of time to come 4. 1 Sam. 13.23 He is immutable without alteration or corruption change or shadow of change Jer. 23.28 5. He is unmeasurable without circumscription of place without increase or decrease within and without every place 1 Kin. 8.27 Mathe. Of what use are these to us Phila. 1. If God be purely simple then we know thereby that God is but one and full of all perfection that he is true and sincere in his promises nor can deceive any from which consideration ariseth the certainty of our salvation It teacheth us also to avoid hypocrifie and embrace sincerity onenesse and singlenesse of heart and soule and to strive to be like God only without mixture of sin in our affections 2. If he be infinite then to admire his greatnesse and his goodnesse his love and his mercy and to love him infinitely for it By his eternity I have assurance of an election before the world and everlasting life after it in him who hath neither beginning nor end His immutability cals to us for unchangeablenesse in our faith hope and charity by any crosses or afflictions which are all sent from God that is immutable in his love and promises So his immensity and ubiquity ought to confirm us in his providence because he is a God not only neer but a God also afarre off and to avoid sin because we are alwaies in his sight especially hypocrisie because he is within us as wel as without us and also to fly superstitious worshipping of Saints or Angels since he himselfe is neer to all that call upon him Mathe. Which are his incommunicable attributes Phila. Those whose shadowes we find in our selves as life wisedome will and power which are to be conceived in God absolutely abstractively and essentially as that he is life it selfe wisedome freedome and power it selfe not as they are in us finitely imperfectly and mutably but they are spoke of God for our capacity sake without which terms we can understand nothing of God Mathe. Why what do we know of God hereby Phila. 1. By life we understand Gods most simple and infinite activity by which he doth please to act himselfe and all things else And this argueth him to differ transcendently from all fained gods and creatures which have their life only by his communication of life to them yet not as the eternall Son who hath life from the Father by immanency in him and by emanation from him but by participation John 5.26 John 1.4 not of himselfe but of some vertue from himselfe Therefore as God the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given the Sonne to have life in himselfe and this life is the light of men and through the energie of the spirit quickneth all things that hath life For as God made the Sun to be the center of light naturall so he hath ordained Christ to be the center of life naturall in the creation and also the center of spirituall life in regeneration by which we come to be partakers of the divine nature and so finally of life eternally 2. By his wisdome we understand and is signified unto us that God knoweth and understandeth all things infinitely and most simply plainly and distinctly at once not successively or discoursively and therefore praescience and foreknowledge and remembrance is improperly attributed to God saving for our understanding This attribute teacheth us that all wisedome in the creature comes from God Jam. not to feare any troubles in the world raised by Satan or wicked men but resolve to endure with patience because they are permitted by the wise God for ends best known to himselfe for he knowes of them sees and smiles at the madnesse of men who like foolish children desire of their fathers knives and daggers which having got they wound others and themselves worst 3. By Gods wil is signified Gods infinite free approbation or disallowance of what he wisely knoweth to be approved or disallowed so that he neither begins to will what once he would not nor can be hindred to do what he will Now this will hath divers terms in Scripture according to the divers objects of it As 1. Truth because he willeth constantly what he willeth Rom. 3.4 So goodnesse because he is willing and propense to do good to his creature So Love because he is willing to approve what is good and to be well pleased with it So hatred because he is not willing to allow evill but is most willing to punish it because he doth detest it So his justice because
condition predestinate one and not another unlesse it be out of some foresight of ones vertue and the others vice Phila. Nothing can be said to this but only Gods secret will and wisedome For men cannot be elected out of any foreseen vertue for an eternall cause cannot depend upon an externall or temporall effect caused thereby but upon the eternall counsell of Gods most free will and favour So rejection is not moved in God by the foresight of mans sin though his punishment be determined thereupon otherwise God may reprobate all as well as some because he foresaw all would sin Therefore these operations depend upon Gods secret will It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth Rom. 9.16 but in God that sheweth mercy for neither predestination is not in the power of the elected nor reprobation in the power of the rejected but in the will and wisedome of God who is the potter and we clay he is our father and we his children and we ought not under pain of cursing say to our Father what hast thou begot Therefore God in his electing of us must be understood to do it either before mans fall which the Scripture best approveth calling us elect before the world or else after mans fall by the first offence Now in what estate of Man soever God did it he looks upon all men all alike and so no reason can be given why he should elect one and reject another For if he looked upon man in his nocency Calv. Instit lib. 3. cap. 22. we can find no reason of predestination if in his innocency we can find no reason of reprobation therefore it is best to sit down with admiration at the unsearchable wisedome of God as St Paul did Rom. 11.32 and to rest content with Gods will as Christ doth Mat. 11.25 And no man can be reprobated that doth so except he neglect Gods revelation or his own duty in purifying himselfe 1 John 3.3 as God is holy that hath called him 1 Pet. 1.9 Mathe. Is not this partiality in God Phila. No for God being a most free agent may as the potters do make severall vessels to honor and to dishonour without acception of persons for there was no persons when God elected men Mathe. But God gives grace to the elect but prevents the reprobate of it Phila. It is true that he predestinates his elect to the means as well as the end and giveth them an influx of grace by which they are voluntarily lead to will and do of his good pleasure But in reprobation or rejection of men God neither destinates them to sin nor prevents them of grace nor gives any influx of evill into the soul but leaves men to themselves So that the predestinate are like the aire warmed and enlightned with the Sun the Reprobate like the aire left to it own coldnesse and darknesse without the Sun Mathe. But methinks this doctrine of predestination leads men into licentiousness because if predestinated they shall be saved however they live and reprobation leads to despair because how well soever they live they are damned Phila. Though predestination be the free grace of God yet it leaves not men to live as they list but rather leads them to make it as sure to themselves by a good life as it is a sure foundation in God for whomsoever he predestinates he sanctifieth them Rom. 8. And therefore there is a conditionate decree joined with the promise of salvation i. if we repent and beleeve we shall certainly be saved so that we may more safely say that those that live licentiously and repent not are not elected for men predestinate lay hold upon the absolute decree by the conditionate and yet they know that this conditionate decree may be published to all and yet no man saved by it but because a conscionable performing the condition is a sign of election they will not neglect it nor doth rejection of it selfe leave men in despaire saving in their own ill grounded opinion Therefore 1. You must conceive that there is no absolute decree casting off men from all grace which may possibly lead them to happinesse As the Angels not elected had grace possible to stand Adam was not predestinated to stand yet he had grace possible to stand 2. You are to judge that by this decree of reprobation is no cause of mans sin for he only permitteth what he is not bound to hinder God foresees evill will be done but he causeth none only he prevents it not he commands the contrary he threatens it with punishment neither of these is a cause of sin no more then not giving an alms to every begger causeth him to steal or a law against stealing makes men theeves 3. Aug. de praed Fulgentius Calvin Know that God denying election to some men doth not therefore damn them for his pleasure but as he permits them to sin so he resolves to punish them 4. Consider that this deniall of election to some doth not produce any sinfull actions as sinfull for though the naturall act of sin as it is a reall being must needs flow from him in whom all things have being but the obliquity of mans will which cleaveth to the action is not of God nor caused by his decree of non-election but of permission 5. Nor doth God by this decree of reprobation over-power the will of such a man though no doubt he that made the will can over-rule it but leaves it to its own deficiency by not creating the heart anew as Psal 51. For he that beleeves not the word it is not caused by Gods constitution in not electing a man but by mans proclivenesse to infidelity And seeing this work is secret and internall in God we must remember Moses saying secret things belong to God Deut. 29.29 and revealed things to us And therefore let us alwaies look to Gods revealed will which insures us salvation upon faith and repentance and by these try their estate and find their election by the effects thereof à posteriore and be content to know God as Moses by his back parts as the Father by the Son and the Sons redemption by the spirit that he hath given us 2. Be not too eager to know by some other way and thy assurance of salvation by some extraordinary revelation lest you fall into some dangerous temptation As 1. To despair if you find it not 2. highly to presume if you find it 3. Or else sullenly to neglect all good works till you have found it but live holily Psal 50. ult and trust God to shew it you in his time Must we not all live by faith and hope in this world yet if we could have the certainty of election we shall think faith and hope needlesse We are saved by hope but hope seen is no hope Rom. 8.24 Be content with adherence and cleaving to and holding fast by him This is a certain signe of
child placed neer the Liver for the better concoction of the milk and neer the heart to excite the mothers affection the more to the child and childs affection the more to the mother whom she may justly adjure upon just occasion by the paps which they have sucked when she so lovingly embraced them which no bruit can do Mathe. What contemplation yieldeth the inward parts Phila. The Lungs by which we breath and speak being placed neer the heart sheweth that speech is the interpreter of the heart and therefore we should not breath out one thing and think another but every man speak truth to his neighbour and not practise equivocations and mentall reservations So the ribs shew the care of God to defend the vitall parts comprized in the heart and the liver well expressed in Scripture by Abner his smiting Asahel under the fifth rib and Ioabs smiting him and also Amasa in the same place and by the souldiers piercing Christ there about that rib where hangs the Pericardia out of which issued water and blood to all which pectorals John 19.34 Vid. Syria-Paraphra if we add the breast-plate of righteousnesse the spirituall heart will be the safer So the bowels may mind us of the bowels of compassion which Christ had Mark 6.34 when his bowels did yearn at the peoples want of provision so the word signifieth for he was a merciful High-Priest Heb. 4.15 So the hungry gut should put us in mind of fasting till we feel that part complain and remember us what affliction of soule we should suffer for offending God But as one is called a blind gut so the belly is said to want ears to hear this doctrin such like the Cyclops know no God but their belly So our kidnies which are the most secretly enclosed should teach us to walk sincerely with God who searcheth the reins Psal 139. lest we like hypocrites have God neer in our mouths but put him far from our reins Ier. 12.1 For want of this we see what man is come to as appears in Psal 5.9 and Rom. â— 13 His throat is an open sepulchre seet swift to shed blood his right hand is a hand of falshood a womans beauty is like a jewell of gold in a swines snout We find the proverb too true the properest man at the gallowes and the fairest woman in the stewes So that we may cry out O most excellent soul what a vile lodging hast thou gotten The five senses that have their beginning from common sense which can judge of all objects absent as the five do of the object present are all worthy our consideration as to behold how every organ of sense hath his proper object the Eie colors the Ear sounds the Tongue meats pleasant or not pleasant the Nose odours or evill savours the Nerves are especially the seat of feeling as well as the means of motion and therefore they being in every part the sense of feeling is in every part and the other four are in the head only and though they be so neer in seat to each other yet one invadeth not another nor can do as the other These since mans fall are become brokers to set our hearts to sale to the devill and the world for the price of a few momentany delights and so the precious soul would be ravished out of Christs hands but the spirit of God interposeth and by the word of God insureth us of the interpellation of the Son of God by which he hath promised to marry our souls to himselfe in righteousness and everlasting glory So the heart of man is the seat of passions a choice vessell that is first formed in generation and first reformed in spirituall regeneration And as it first lives so it dieth last So the life of grace first begins there and is last left there This is that which God strives for against the devill the world and the flesh as Michael did with the devill for Moses body Iude 9. But when we answer Gods request who crieth to us Myson give me thy heart then the battell ceaseth This heart before the fall was like the holy land upon which God set his eies day and night or like the Ark from which God gave his Oracles for the answer of the heart is from the Lord or like a throne where God ruleth by his scepter of righteousnesse or like Moses Tables wherein God writes his Law But since the fal that man set up Idols in his heart God hath turned it as Iehu did the house of Baal into a draught house so that now as it is full of all uncleannesse so out of it proceeds by nature nothing else Mat. 15. It was once wise now a foolish heart and ful of darkness Rom. 1. It was once more inclinable to the right but now the left hand Eccles 10.2 which makes us do all things sinisterly Mathe. Whether was mans body immortall before the fall Phila. Not essentially for so only God is immortall nor by the gift of creation as the Angels and the souls of men are but potentially only and upon condition if he had continued in obedience which he not doing his body cannot be made immortall now but by the gift of a new creation which will be at the resurrection So that his body was immortall naturally so long as he kept the condition of immortality It is true his body might have died before the fall for it was as possible to die as he was possible to fall But this possibility would never have been reduced into act if he had not fallen For as the Angels could not die neither was it necessary they should die so Adam might have died but it was not necessary that without sin he should have died so being corrupted by sin it was necessary he should die but not before he fell For we see by the reliques of immortality left in Adam that the Fathers before the flood lived a mighty great age as Adam to 930 years and Methuselah lived 969. which was not so many moons as some think for then they had hardly reached the age of man and so the world would have been a long time peopling and though Adam might well beget Sheth about twelve years after his creation because he was made at first a perfect man yet if Adam begat not his third son till he was 130. moons old surely then Sheth began too young who at 105. years from his birth begate Enos which by the moons account was but eight years and five months But sure their age was measured by the years of the Sun i. twelve months to a year And it is no more wonderfull then that Israels cloths should last forty years in the wildernesse Deut. 29.5 And the manna in the golden pot many hundreds of years Joseph's bones 215. years Joshua 24.32 And the mummies of Egypt are kept by art so many 1000. years in full proportions as when alive What could not God have done to the body of
he was betraied into the hands of sinners and cut off from the land of the living Isa 53.8 and made his soule an offering for sin Isa 53.10 After sixty two weeks said Daniel shall Messiah be cut off but not for himselfe Dan. 9.25 26. that is if you mark the verses the Angel allots seven weeks for rebuilding of the Temple which is forty nine years reckoned of the Jewes but forty six years Iohn 2.20 because they reckoned not the first three years when the foundation was but laid by Cyrus his edict and the work staied again by Artaxerxes Longimanus Ezra 4.7 till they had got a second Edict Ezra 6.1 from Darius Nothus Then the Angell allots to the former seven weeks sixty two weeks more which is about 434. years in all 483. or thereabout in the end whereof Christ suffered on the crosse to make an end of sin and finish transgression and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse This scourging wounding and piercing was foreseen also by Isa 53.5 he was bruised for our iniquities and chastised for our peace And saith Zach. 12.12 they shall look on him whom they have pierced for a souldier pierced his side as well as others did his hands and feet when they nailed them to the crosse So his very carrying of his crosse John 19.34 was typed out by Isaac carrying the wood to sacrifice himself upon Gen. 22.9 10. And as Abraham stretched out his hand to slay his son so God loved the world that he gave his Son Iohn 3.16 and he himself became obedient to the death of the crosse Numb 21.9 And as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse for the curing of the people upon a pole John 12.32 John 14. so was Christ lift up on the crosse for the saving of us who were bitten by Satan and sin also So also his Resurrection had a type as Isaac taken from the Altar and restored safe and sound to Abraham the third day after that he was assigned to death Gen. 22.4 of whom it is said that Abraham received him again in a figure Heb. In what figure but only of him that was to come of his seed in whose death and resurrection all nations should be blessed So Ionah the first Prophet who lived in the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Kin. 14.25 and the first Prophet sent to the Gentiles to Niniveh who because he diverted to Tarsus was swallowed of a great fish in whose belly he remained till the third day after and for so long time the grave swallowed Christ but then he arose and so his flesh saw no corruption Psal 16. and that might well be without a miracle if the body be not accidentally corrupted before it be dead as in violent deaths commonly men are not Now Christ lay not in the grave above 40. hours and commonly dead bodies corrupt not til about seventy hours and this sheweth that he rose within three daies and so saw no corruption as the Psalmist said Psal 16. which is expounded plainly so by St Peter Acts 2.31 And as Isaiah had also foretold that the dead men should live and with Christs body they should come so they did Mat. 27.52 53. Thus Christ conquered death in his own Kingdome as said Hosea 13.14 and death had no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 because he was now swallowed up into victory 1 Cor. 15.55 And thus as God spake to the great fish and it cast out Ionah on the dry land Jon. 2.10 so the temple of Christs body which the Jewes destroied he rebuilt in three daies And for his Ascension as it was prophecied so it was accomplished Eliah was a type of it 2 Kin. 2.11 being taken up in a fiery Chariot so Christ was taken up out of his disciples sight into heaven Luke 24.51 as was prophecied in Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended up on high and led captivity captive So he was taken away his disciples beholding it at first Acts 1.9 but after a cloud took him out of their sight And now he sits on Gods right hand foretold Psal 110.1 and averred in Mark 16.19 And from him the Holy Ghost like a most gracious rain from heaven hath fallen upon his Apostles Acts 2.15 16. and upon many thousands of beleevers as was foreprophecied Joel 2.18 and typed forth by the spirit of Eliah resting upon Elisha 2 Kin. 1.13 5. Even so God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts baptizing us with the Holy Ghost and as blessed fire from heaven giving some the gift of tongue Acts 2.4 others to prophecie some to teach others to learn and increase in faith and the love and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ Mathe. Now as you have shewed the Promises Types and Prophecies and history of Christs Conception Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension shew me also the mystery of godlinesse intended thereby in relation to Christians And first of all I desire to understand rightly his Conception for therein lieth a great mystery wherein our understanding is easily lost if we be not rightly directed For how can one person in the Trinity be conceived or become incarnate without the other two seeing the divine nature is not divided but is in each person totally Phila. The divine nature cannot be divided for substance but in the manner of subsistence it is distinguished For it is after one manner in the Father i. unbegotten After another manner in the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because in him it is begotten i. communicated by divine generation After another manner in the Holy Ghost because proceeding from both John 15.16 Now we are to beleeve that the humane nature is assumed by the divine nature as considered only in the Son as he enjoieth it being the perfect image of the Father Heb. 1.1 2 3. and so being the naturall Son of God was most fit to be the son of man and so thereby restore the sons of men by adoption to be made the sons of God Yet we are to beleeve that all the Trinity had a hand in it John 1.12 for the Father wrought it by the holy Ghost but the Son only assumed it as three folks may make one garment and yet but one of the three wear it Mathe. But the Conception is applied to the Holy Ghost and so I am apt to beleeve that the Holy Ghost was his Father Phila. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost effectually not materially he caused it to be but gave not any matter out of himselfe to the nature of Christ so that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost uniting the natures divine and humane together Bernard Damascen not by generation but by institution and benediction and operation not spermatically as other fathers beget children So it is said Rom. 11.36 all things are of God yet not of his substance but by his power so that we
by those souldiers being witnesses that he rose in spight of all their power and policy So his lying in the grave three daies was to answer to Ionas his type in the whales belly and to make good the prophecie of Hosea 6.2 after two daies he will revive us and the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his sight But you will say he did not lie in the grave three whole daies and nights yet according to the Jewish account he might be said so to do for a day is reckoned by evening and morning Now the former evening and Good Friday on which he was buried made the first day then Friday evening and the Sabbath following made the second day and the Sabbath evening and the next morning of his Resurrection was the third day It may be you may think it strange that Christ would lie in the grave on the Sabbath day but this he did to shew the work of redemption was finished and therefore he rested the seventh day as God was said to do after the six daies work of creation Also to shew that with him was buried the ceremoniall part of the Sabbath namely the seventh day formerly appointed And surely the first Christians so understood it and therefore they kept their holy meeting afterward upon the first day of the week Rev. 1. which St Iohn called the Lords day Now in all this time Christs body corrupted not First because he was without sin which is the cause of corruption and therefore he was preserved by the power of God Psal 16.10 Beside men that die violent deaths are not so apt to corrupt as those that die of diseases by which they are partly corrupted before they are dead otherwise a dead body may possibly be without corruption sixty hours and upwards and Christ was dead not much above forty and so might justly be said not to see corruption By all which he gave us a pledge of an eternall sabbath of rest and that our bodies after death should rise incorruptible And this doctrin of Christs buriall is full of comfort and instruction Of comfort because that now this storm of Gods anger is allaied by our Jonas being cast into this whales belly of the grave which by his body is fanctified for us It teacheth us also to bury our sins with Christ Rom. 6.4 and there let them lie as dead carcasses separated from us for ever and grow loathsome and at last wear out of memory in respect of either by affection or practice and we may live to newnesse of life by vertue of Christs resurrection Mathe. But before I enquire of you the mystery of Christs resurrection I pray resolve me what you think of Christs descending into hell which is an Article of that Creed commonly called the Apostles and in that of Athanasius but not in the Nicene Creed nor in any other that I know Phila. You put a Question of great controversie yet of more then needs if the phrase of hell were rightly understood For in the Old Testament it hath two names given to it namely 1. The congregation of the dead Pro. 21.16 according to which translation it may be understood for the grave and if it be translated word for word with the Hebrew then it may be taken for the depths of water In caetu Riphaim or Gigantum in which the rebell giants of the old world were drowned which Job calleth Sheol infernus or the low place Job 26.7 and so doth David Sheol Psal 16.10 which is translated the grave Afterward about the captivity it is called Tophet or Gehinnom Gebenna which are only words borrowed from that execrable place in the vallie of Hinnom where the Jews burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch i. the devill to expresse hell which they beleeved to be a place of torment This term or word held long among the Jewes and Christ used it as the vulgar expression in his time Mat. 5.22 yet Luke 16.23 he useth another word as it is in the Greek text namely Hades which there signifieth hell for it is said Hades the rich man was in hell in torments But it is taken oftner for the grave and the condition of men deceased as Gen. 42.38 Iob 7.9 Psal â—â— â— Pro. 23.14 Acts 2.31 1 Cor. 15.55 and most plainly Rev. 20.13 death and Hades i. the grave shall be cast into the lake of fire Now see how Christ may be said to descend into these for into the grave he had descended and therefore it need not be said again in relation thereunto that he descended into hell If taken for the waters what should he do there 1 Pet. 3.19 except you will suppose that he went to preach to the rebellious spirits that were there imprisoned for their disobedience in the daies of Noah But how he went and when and wherefore how whether in soule or body or both then in what time whether before he rose or afterward and why whether to preach for their conversion or to confirm their damnation would be resolved or whether he went thither to suffer any thing or to triumph surely not to suffer for us for on the crosse all his sufferings were finished nor to triumph for that he did upon his crosse Col. 2.14 15. Beside we are to consider where Hell should be if Christ descended locally thither for we conceive it to be a place ordained for the devill and his angels and wicked men Now if the Devill and his be not yet confined thither what should Christ descend thither for either to confirm damnation or to triumph over them that were not there Now that they are not yet confined to the place appointed is plain because St Paul calleth him the Prince that ruleth in the aire because yet they have great liberty in tempting men Also because the devill besought Christ not to torment him before the time And because both St Peter 2 Pet. 2.4 and St Iude ver 6. say that they are as yet only reserved in chains of darknesse to the judgement of the great day Just Mart. Iren. l. 5. c. 26. Hieron in 6. cap. Ephes Drusius Aug. lib. de civit dei l. 8. c. 22 23. And so held the fathers of the first 400. yeers after Christ St Peter in his second Epistle the second chapter the ninth and seventeenth verses saith so of wicked people Therefore some writers of great account have said that from the earth to the firmament is not a meer empty space but full of spirits which were cast down from the high heavens into these lower parts of the aire as into a prison till the last judgement together with other wicked of their society Now descension cannot properly be applied to the aire but rather ascention Therefore by Christs descending into hell we may as I judge safely understand those inward sorrowes which he suffered in his agony in the garden and on the crosse which pressed him to
cry so bitterly my God my God why hast thou forsaken me which internall sorrowes were as neer infernall sorrowes as the innocent surety of our salvation was capable of which no mention was made in the Creed but only by this Article or that by the efficacy of his death he did pierce into hell i. wheresoever the cursed spirits have their residence despoiling them of their power and confirm their damnation and to signifie the deliverance of his people from their captivity Ephes 4.8 And it seems to me that David intended this sense Psal 16.10 thou wilt not leave my soule in hell i. in sorrow and anguish nor suffer my body to know corruption All which should work in us sorrow for sin which put Christ to so much and make us to descend in all humility under the hand of God as he did that with him we be exalted in due time Also to shun despair since God can bring us from the sorrow of hell it selfe as he did our blessed Saviour Mathe. But I pray tell me the benefits obtained by his resurrection Phila. It is said Phil. 2.9 that for his sufferings God hath highly exalted him so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confesse that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father Now this exaltation consisteth 1. In his Resurrection 2. In his ascension 3. In his session at the right hand of God 4. In the outward and inward adoration of the intellectuall and rationall creature 5. In his comming to judge the world Mathe. Foure of these I agree to but the bowing at his name I doubt of as I doe also of many other gestures which have been used in the Church assemblies Phila. I know this outward gesture hath been much controverted But when I consider that God alloweth of outward visible as well as of the invisible worship and that St Paul saith we must glorifie God in our bodies as well as in our spirits and that this posture of bowing the knee is founded upon the glory of God in Christ Phil. 2.10 It may be practised by Christians yea Chrysost ad popu Antioch hom 61. and ought to be at certain times of devotion as a token of the same and to testifie our submission to Jesus Christ whom God hath so highly exalted and assigned him this worship as a part of his reward for suffering Theodo in Phil. 2. that by our humility he may be exalted who was exalted for his humility even to have him honoured in his name when absent in reference to his person I know that many objections are made against it As first that all things that are here spoken of have not knees as Angels below and above I answer nor have they tongues therefore shall not they confesse him The meaning then is that all in their severall manner shall willingly or unwillingly be subject to Christ whom God hath exalted by manifesting him to be the eternall son of God So that as we that have knees are to bowe them to the person that owns that name Jesus so shall all others do first or last willingly or forcibly to the same person and his power For the bowing to the name as a word or at the naming thereof alwaies I do not understand the text intends it but that Christians in old time did use to uncover their heads at divine service when this name was pronounced in signe that they did acknowledge his deity Zanc. in Phil. c. 2. against the blasphemy of the Jewes and Arrians who would not acknowledg his Godhead is plainly to be found Hiero. in Isa 45.23 and that they bowed the knee also which the Jew in pride would not doe which in time did degenerate to superstition Yet sure as it may be superstitiously used so it may be irreligiously neglected since that Christ hath said he that honoreth the Son honoreth the Father and that he will have all men worship the Son as they worship the Father and that God hath included his own name in Jesus I am Isa 43.11 and beside me there is no Saviour and therefore being Jesus the Savior he must be Jehovah too our righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 Upon this ground I beleeve our Church hath injoined this gesture as may be seen in the 52. injunction of Queen Elizabeth and in the eighteenth Canon But antiquity is antiquated and the Church authority disalowed and so Gods worship disanulled Mathe. Now I pray declare the manner and the benefits we have by his Resurrection and Ascension and his session in heaven and his comming to judgement Phila. First ye are to know that only Christs body can properly be said to rise because that only died although the soule and it were never disunited from the person of the Son of God though the soule was divided in death from the body of which rising there was testimony enough both of Angels and men The time of his rising was the third day neither sooner nor later And that first to fulfill both his type of Isaac who was taken alive from the altar the third day after he was destined for death Gen. 22.4 which receiving was in a figure Heb. 11.19 i. of Christs resurrection and also of that prophecie Hos 6.2 the third day he will raise us for by him we shall all be made alive 1 Cor. 15.22 Againe he rose this day as it were to give a new beginning to the world He died the day of the week that Adam was created and rose the first day of the week on which God began the world by which he enlightned Heaven and Earth with the grace and joy of his resurrection Also he rose with the sun to shew that he was the true Sun of righteousnesse that was to rise with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 to enlighten the new Christian world after so long a night of dark legall shadowes spoken of Cant. 2.17 and Rom. 13.12 bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. 1.10 2 Tim. 1.10 The manner of his rising was admirable As first by his owne power John 2.19 dissolve this temple meaning the temple of his body and I will raise it up again the third day So John 10.18 I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up againe this he did as he was God He did it by himselfe from the Father through the eternall spirit Again he rose by such a way as never any man did before namely as the Prince of life as the first born of the dead as the first fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. He never saw corruption nor ever was to die any more as Lazarus and others He rose in the same body that was buried Luke 24.39 and in despight of his keeper as the Church shall do in despight of all opposers and with an earthquake to shew how he will shake
Cardinall that we read of except in the counterfeit decretall Epistles before Pope Sylvester After Leo the fourth succeeds Pope Joan or John the eight born in Mentz went to Athens in mans apparell came to Rome and was to the Popedome advanced proved with child delivered as she was going to the Church of Lateran of whom Anastasius a Chronologer who lived about this time maketh no mention for shame of the fact but passed it Benedict the third honoured much the funerals of the Clergy with his own presence and desired the Bishops might by the whole Clergie Nicolaus the first succeeds him who suffered the Emperour Ludovicus the second to alight and lead his horse by the bridle a full mile He permitted divorces without consent of parties as the Anabaptists do and or dained that the Clergy should not be subject to civill Magistrates seats of Judicature And that none should receive the Sacrament from a married Clergy man and that the Emperour should not be present at Ecclesiasticall meetings unlesse some point of faith were to be handled and the common service of the Church to be in Latine in all Churches but dispensed with Sclavonia and Polonia He added to the Liturgie the Hymn of Glory be to God on high Hadrian the second succeeds who proudly commanded the King of France Carolus Calvus to let Hircmanus Bishop of Laudunum to appeale to Rome after his condemnation by a Councill in France but he refused However John the ninth his successor crowned him Emperor and after him Balbus and then Crassus all three named Charls Hadrian the third ordained that the Clergy and people of Rome should chuse their Pope without attendance upon the Emperours allowance or leave And that after the death of Carolus Crassus who died without succession that the imperiall title and government of Italy should belong to an Italian Prince which bred great contention and debate among the Princes and much trouble to the Chair of Rome every Prince striving to advance him to it that was most friend to himselfe Stephanus the fifth followed who ordained that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed was to be perpetually observed Pormosus succeeds him who crowned the Emperour Arnulphus and then Boniface the sixt was next Then Stephanus the sixt who offered great violence to the dead body of Formosus cutting off his fingers and disanulling his ordination yea and his crowning the Emperour Arnulphus and set up Albertus Marquesse of Tuscia in his stead Now Antichrist appears more then ever before by putting down and setting up Emperours Romanus succeeds him and nuls the decrees of Stephanus Theodorus succeeds him and alloweth them againe John the tenth nuls the decrees of Stephanus the sixt and alloweth them of Formosus How were these men led infallibly by the spirit Sergius the third who again took up the body of Formosus after eight yeers and beheaded it He loved Marozia and on her begot a son who was afterward made Pope and called Iohn the twelfth Pope Iohn the thirteenth committing adultery was slain by the womans husband but first deposed by a Councill called by Otho the first Emperour Leo the eighth succeeds who finding and being weary of the sedition and insolence of the Roman people resigned the chusing of Popes to the Emperour Iohn the fourteenth succeeds who first brought in baptizing of bels and he called the great bell of the Church of Lateran by his own name Iohn Then Gregory the fifth who after much trouble by the advice of the Emperour O ho the third The seven Electors of the Empire appointed made a constitution of seven Electors to chuse the Emperour for the time to come which continueth still namely the Bishops of Mentz Colen and Tryer the Count Palatine the Duke of Saxony and the Marquesse of Brandenburgh and in case of difference the King of Bohemia Next followed Sylvester the second Platina a great scholler but a Magician He enquired of the devill how long he should live Pope he did answer him till he said masse at Ierusalem which fell out at a Chappell so called at Rome where this Pope saying masse in Lent was stricken with a feaver of which he died Mathe. But yet we hear of no great persecutions Phila. True Why no great persecution yet by the Pope because yet the Church was of one language and none stands up against the corrupt tenets of Rome Mathe. Why do you then reckon up this bedroll of Popes Phila. Because you may know how and by whom corruption crept in which corruption being contradicted by some whom God enlightned then began persecutions Mathe. I pray now go on Phila. I have not nor shall trouble you with all of them but with some who have acted things very remarkable Therefore after Sylvester the second and divers other Popes Leo the ninth called a Councill against Berengarius who denied transubstantiation Nicolaus the second followed who forced by a Councill Berengarius to recant who did yet afterward wrote against transubstantiation He was poisoned as other Popes before him Alexander the second followed who denied to rule as Pope without the Emperours consent For which he was beaten in a chamber by Hildebrand in his pontificials and cast into prison where he died Hildebrand called Gregorius the seventh succeeds He called the marrigâ—e of Priests the heresie of the Nicolaitans and receiving Ecclesiasticall preferments and offices from Lay men though Princes symony About this time William the Conquerour came into England This was brought to passe by the thunder of excommunications which made the Emperour Henry the fourth travell to Rome in the hard winter to get absolution from the Popes curse Vrbanus the second excited Princes to war against the Turks who had got Jerusalem This he did in a Councill held at Cleremount in France and by divers Princes recovered it for a while But this war made Christian Princes so weak both in power and purse that the Pope more easily brought them all under his girdle Paschalis the second succeeds him who at the Church of Lateran had a scepter put into his hand and girded with a girdle having seven seals and keies hanging at it signifying his power of binding and loosing shutting and opening sealing and resigning and judging He excommunicated Henry the fourth the Emperour and excites his son Henry the fifth against him He took up the corps of Henry the fourth and kept it above ground five yeers Well did the Bishop of Florence write in this Popes time that Antichrist was born and manifested to the world and therefore he was silenced by the Councill of Florence which this Pope called and his book burnt You see how persecutions began now upon Emperours and Bishops This Pope would not crown Henry the fifth Emperour unlesse he would give over his right of investment of Bishops by the staffe and ring but the Emperor laid hold of him and his Cardinals and compelled him to do it and the Pope solemnly divided the
his spirit that are not his members Indeed there be some things that beare a resemblance with it in which the world is received and that is 1. Civility or common honesty and the next is restraining grace by which they may be said to be sanctified sacramentally or putatively Heb. 10.26 or disposed toward it Heb. 6.4 5. but this is but to have it fieri but non in facto esse i. in a way toward it but not in throughly or truly and therefore men must distinguish between civility which is wrought meerly by morall education according to naturall principles without any knowledge or desire of knowing Gods word but they are carefull to maintain equity and common honesty for the keeping up of trade and commendation of themselves upon which ground also they keep themselves from drunkennesse whoredome and enormous crimes without relation to Gods word Now sanctification though it incline to the same things or duties yet it doth it by the true medium of heavenly light which is the word of God and they that do not so are as far from sanctification as the heathen morallists Now their civility and all meer naturall mens honesty stands principally in the duties of the second table where the light of nature is most clear but for matters of piety in the first table they observe it but ceremoniously and so far as they conduce to preserve their credit among those they live withall but true sanctification hath an eie to both to give to Caesar and to God their severall duties Mat. 22.21 So the morall holy man rests only in negatives and thinks it charity enough not to do hurt but true holinesse doth both eschew evill and do good 1 Pet. 3.11 So the morall man thinks it holinesse enough to professe a dislike of popery and to quarrell with a Bishops dignity though they be utterly ignorant of the orthodox faith and the grounds of the true worship of God Again civility never goeth beyond the outward man Mat. because it takes hold only of the outward letter of the law but passeth over the spirituall sense of it So he that hath restraining grace which he takes for sanctification is much deceived for the difference between them is that restraining grace hath painfulnesse and discontentment at the bridle that God puts upon them and at the bands wherewith they are bound at which they rage Psal 2.1 3. as horses that some upon the bit by which they are guided whereas a man that is truly sanctified desireth that his very inclinations to evill were utterly abolished that it might not rebell against the law of the mind Rom. 7.23 Again they desire to extend their Christian liberty to the utmost without enquiring after the bounds of liberty or the expedience of putting it in practice but a man sanctified desireth to subsist within his bounds 1 Cor. 6.12 and had rather live where nothing is lawfull then where all things are lawful Beside there is great difference in their absteining from sin for restraining grace makes one abstaine from sin for fear or shame because they would give the greater liberty to some sin which they desire to nourish Aug. de civit dei l. 5. c. 12. as some heathens abstained from injustice intemperance and covetousnesse by that unbounded desire which they had after glory and dominion but he that is sanctified escheweth evill because it is evill and displeasing to God of whose love he hath had so large experience that he trembles to offend him Psal 130.4 Again they that have only restraining grace when the means of that straint is removed grow licentious as Israel when they had no King Judg. 17.6 and the 18.19 but they that are sanctified are a law to themselves 1 Tim. 1.9 they need none of the terrors of it though they are willing to be led by the doctrine of it By these rules thou maist know whether thou art sanctified or not and from these marks arise an assured hope of eternall glory because we carry about us the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen of which at the first it may be we have but a conjecture i. a light inclination to the probability of Gospell truths next an opinion wherein the mind is more strongly swaied to think it true Next comes faith which makes a firm and undoubtfull perswasion of the truth of it Now in this case some have a little faith some a full assurance of it which is peculiar to Gods people and they may know they have it by the comfort that it affords to one under the pressures of sin and Gods justice Psal 73.23 24. and also by the ravishing of the affections to the love of those truths which is very strange and supernaturall for there is no greater antipathy in the world then there is between mans heart and Gods word and yet by faith is bred such affection to it that a man will give his life rather then one tittle of this truth should faile and beside it worketh a strange change in the whole man from sin to righteousnesse that one can hardly know him to be the same man Lact. de falsa sapient l. 3. c. 27 Non abscindit sed abscondit vitia This Philosophy could never attain to but rather hides sin then removes it but the word of God is so powerfull in operation that it not only removes sin but also all doubtfulnesse of the truth of Gospel-truth more then the authority of the Church can do which is variable and possibly erroneous So much of the rules of sanctification and hope of glory Mathe. Whereunto doth sanctification advance us more then common Christians Phila. To a true repentance and a communion with God and his Saints in the Catholick Church Mathe. I desire to know what these things are truly in themselves for I fear some do as much mistake true repentance as the Sectaries do the communion of Saints and the Papists do the Catholick Church Phila. You say true but repentance which is holy and sanctified is not a fretting griefe which some take at sin because it hath brought them into a dangerous condition for which they wish the sin undone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no place being left for other advice and counsell This hurts the mind and casts it from the hinges of deliberation except God turn it to a change of mind whereby one becomes more wise afterward to amend what he hath done amisse and to make amends for his error 2 Cor. 7.9 10. The cause of the one is the spirit of adoption whereby we are sealed the sons of God The cause of the other is the spirit of servitude the one arising from the Gospel-promises the other from the threatnings of the law for fear of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both are well distinguished by St Luke The godly repentance Acts 2.37 they were pricked in their hearts for their unkindnesse to Christ but Acts
of Christ Lactant. de errore Orig. lib. 2. cap. 16. anno 300. for we are not to make images of things in heaven to worship them Therefore the most ancient religious men have set themselves against pictures and images in Churches as did Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus anno 390. as appeareth in his Epistle to John of Jerusalem Epist ad Joan. Jerusal concerning whom see Trip. hist lib. 9. cap. 4. But worst of all is their adoration of the reliques of Saints which hath not any shew of warrant in Scripture nor antiquity but is a meer will-worship Col. 2.23 We find it given neither to Patriarch nor Prophets nor Apostles whose bodies no doubt were more honorable then others till the Church began to be corrupted by idolatry and superstition which they borrowed from heathens and hereticks as Carpocrates who with his Marcellina carried about them little images of silver and gold of Pythagoras Plato Aristotle and also of Christ all which they worshipped Epipha cont Haeres or else from some filthy dreamer Jude ver 8. such an one as Eguainus of the order of Benet an English Monk sware in the Council held in London anno 712. that the Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream and told him it was her will that her image should be set up in the Churches to be worshipped It was therefore concluded it should be so by Pope Constantine the first and Boniface his Legat then here in England and so images were set up in England It is written Amb. lib. de morte Theodosii that Hellen the Empresse found Christs Crosse but yet she worshipped only him that died upon it But these images and worshipping of reliques might the more easily be obtruded upon the people after that Libraries were destroied by the invasion of the Goths and Vandals by which means ignorance and negligence crept into the Church Much lesse is the signe of the Crosse then to be worshipped as a thing that either sanctifieth or puts the devill to flight as the Papists say for that belongs to the efficacy and merit of Christs death nor have we any command or example in Scripture for so doing It is true that the sign of the Crosse hath been anciently used by Christians as a mark of distinction that they were neither Jewes nor heathens but for worshipping of it or attributing vertue or merit to it I read nothing though I find it used by the confession of Fathers 1400 years agoe even at baptisme Cyprian ad Demet. prop. â—â—nem nor thought unfitting by our modern and protestant divines as Bucer Zanchius Zuinglius and others Nor do I think that daies ought to be dedicated to Saints now in the Church triumphant nor to be celebrated in regard of any mysterie inhering to them nor are they more holy then other daies nor the keeping of them a part of divine worship farther then an holy duty done upon that day extendeth it selfe though I know it is lawfull for the Church by a common consent without superstition or idolatry to appoint certain daies for divine duties as to hear the word of God and to pray for the turning away of Gods judgements Aug Epist 128. ad Jan. and to give thanks for benefits received spirituall and temporall As Mordecai appointed the Feast of Purim and Judas Machabeus the Feast of the Dedication But these and all other festivals in the old Testament was set up for the honor of God and so those in the New Testament to the honor of God in Christ one morall in the place of the Jewish Sabbath called the Lords day the other are Ecclesiasticall appointed by the Church in remembrance of what Christ hath done for us But to appoint Holy daies for other use then to God and his worship or to place merit of grace and favor of God in keeping them In vigilis Ap. in fâ—st com Martyrum as the Papists do as appears in their praiers at those times is superstitious so it is also to dedicate such daies to Saints departed I know that some daies of old time hath been kept in the memory of some holy Martyrs for the confirming of Christians in those places where they have suffered but are now out of use Hieron apud Eusebium lib. 4. cap. 14. yet they then did only remember their suffering and gave thanks to God for their constancy in the faith Mathe. What do you count the Church militant to be Phila. That company of faithfull people here upon earth who are governed by one certain head and under his banner do fight against the world flesh and devill and all afflictions in spirituall armour Eph. 6.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. In regard of which battell it comes to passe that the Church militant is not alwaies in one happy state to outward appearance but as Israel and Amaleck one prevailing and sometimes the other like the moon waxing and waining or Noahs Ark sometime tossed on the flood and sometimes resting on the mountain or like Christs ship now in a calm anon in a storm or a lilly among thorns or a childing woman sometimes groaning and anon rejoicing The reason hereof is that God may be known and feared by his Church as a correcting father Pro. 3.13 who will chastise his children for their offences 1 Cor. 11.32 that they may not be disinherited nor condemned with the world the main end whereof is that God may be glorified in delivering of his Church as he was in delivering Israel out of Egypt and from Pharaohs pursuit of them Exod. 15.1 and from the captivity of Babylon Psal 126.2 and that they may learn to hate sin which causeth God to bring afflictions Isa 63.10 and to serve God more sincerely Jer. 31.18 19. by hearty zeal and repentance Rev. 3.19 also that the Church may give an evidence to their profession of the truth Mat. 10.22 and be confirmed to Christ their head Rom. 8.29 who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6.13 and so be distinguished from hypocrites who in time of trouble fall away not understanding that by the crosse the Church is propagated and by dissipation increased and that the blood of martyrdome is the seed of the Church to whom the promise of a better life is made but it must be expected to be performed by hope Mathe. Who is the head of this Church militant Phila. He that is the head of the Church Catholike generally God in Trinity but more particularly Christ who is the Churches mysticall head and she is his body and kingdome Eph. 1.22 and the 4. cap. ver 15 16. and he governeth as her head principally by the scepter of his word and spirit Phil. 2.13 Now thus Christ hath a kingdome naturall or dispensatorie His naturall headship or kingdome is that whereby he reigneth in unitie of essence with the Father and the holy Spirit from all eternity which shall never have an end The
kingdome that he hath by dispensation is that free and voluntary kingdome which he received from God for the salvation of his Church and shall in the end of the world be given up to God the Father again 1 Cor. 15.25 28. in the mean time he is by dispensation the head and sole monarch of the Church But he hath neverthelesse a government ministeriall not only invisible by his spirit and Angels John 16.7 Heb. 1.14 but a visible ministration by the word and wholesome discipline to the exercise whereof some men are by his appointment delegated for the helping our infirmities and speaking to us in Christs absence 2 Cor. 6.1 And this hath alwaies been done by Bishops and Presbyters Acts 20.28 who by the Holy Ghost were made overseers of the flock not secular men though Princes had ever this externall government in the dispensation of spirituall things committed to them for then how was the Church ruled for 300 years after Christ till the daies of Constantine yet the secular power is to govern men as men but the ministers only governs them as Christians and therefore in this case Princes themselves have not refused subjection to this ministeriall government of Christ as the Emperour Theodosius to St Ambrose Bishop of Millane Theod. lib. 5. cap. 17. Nor have any dared to usurp their office without some exemplary punishment as Uzzah and Uzziah till these latter times 2 Sam. 6.7 wherein any tradesman dare take upon him the office of a minister and a seutor to be a soule member Beside if this ministeriall government were committed to secular powers then they might give the Sacrament and a woman if a Prince might preach too notwithstanding St Paul 1 Cor. 14.34 But we find Jehosaphat to distinguish the civill power 2 Chro. 19.5.8 from the ecclesiastick ministry in the Old Testament and surely the Church of the New Testament was not left to confusion in government 1 Cor. 14.40 Therefore the ancient Fathers have reproved even Emperors Amb. Ep 33. de Valentin Imper. Athâ—nâ—s Ep. ad agintes vitam solit when they took upon them to meddle with things divine which was no part of their administration for though God had committed to them the Empire yet to the minister the sacred things the mysteries whereof they are to teach not to be taught yet religious Magistrats are to rule over ministers by their civill power to which ministers are to subject themselves yea they may and ought to correct negligence in the practise of religion and vice which is a scandall to religion yea and heresies blasphemies and sacriledge proved to be so by Ecclesiasticall judgement but not to define points of faith nor to exercise ministeriall offices It is true that Moses Eli and Samuel and others did exercise both offices many times yet we cannot argue from an extraordinary action in a state not fully setled that it should be so in a setled Church and State for by the same reason a Priest may act the office of a Prince or a Judge at any time as did Moses Eli and Samuel But we find when the Priesthood was setled that Moses then medled not with Aarons businesse and Eli and Samuel were Judges by an extraordinary call in a corrupted State but ordinarily it was otherwise So in the New Testaments Church holy things were alwaies ordinarily and ordinately administred by Bishops and Presbyters Eph. 4.11 12. to whom those of the Church were to submit themselves Heb. 13.17 Nor was the Church governed by any one man but by them Acts 15.6 no not by Peter alone though he was in that Councill and the ancient Fathers decline that sole definitive judicature Cypr. lib. 31 Epi. 19. ad Cletum Amb. in 1 Tim. 1. Hier. in Epi. 1. ad Tur. which the Pope hath challenged to himselfe St Cyprian durst not do so and St Ambrose saith that first the Synagoue and afterward the Elders of the Church was to be consulted and without them nothing was to be done and St Jerom saith that till by the instinct of the devill contentions arose in the Church it was governed by the counsell of ministers Nor was the government of it democraticall or in the power of the people for then they must have this power from themselves or from God it cannot be from themselves for this power is not by right of nature or Nations but is supernaturall and of divine right nor have they it from God for no Scripture sets it forth but therein they are called the flock which are to be fed not to govern or chuse their Shepherds Yet it is true they were present at the ordination of Matthias Acts 1. and the seven Deacons Acts 6. but they only named or designed them but ordained them not however such a particular fact at first proveth not that it must be so alwaies no more then because the first Kings were chosen by the people therefore they must be so alwaies So that it seems to me that the Church militant is neither democraticall as governed by the people nor monarchicall by any one man but aristocraticall that is governed by some chiefe heads of the ministry Therefore the Pope can derive no such power from Peter as to be the head of the Church for Peter was never so constituted by Christ nor was ever so acknowledged by the rest of the Apostles for then they would never have contended who should be chiefe as they did Luke 22.24 Christ is only the head who is the head stone and the foundation of it Mat. 16.18 19 for though our Saviour said to Peter thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church yet he called him only Peter Aug. retract lib. 1. cap. 22. Cypr. lib. de unit eccles not Petra the rock for that was Christ for all the Apostles were endued with the same power which Peter had John 20.22 when Christ said to them receive the Holy Ghost whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted Nor can the Pope challenge succession from Peter who was Bishop of Antioch not of Rome as some write But the Scripture saith that the Jewes were especially Peters charge Gal. 2.7 who were all banished from Rome by Claudius Acts 18.2 and so Peter had but little to do there or if he were Bishop there yet the Pope cannot be his successor properly Amb. de incarn cap. 5. if he succeed him not in faith and doctrine for faith is the Churches foundation much lesse can he pretend to be Christs Vicar any more then any other Bishop who may be said to be vice Christi in the stead of Christ to wooe men to be reconciled to God Conc. Nic. can 6. Cypr. Ep. ad Papas 41.58 when he was at the best he was allowed to be but one of the Patriarchs nor called by the ancient Fathers but only brother colleague or fellow Bishop But had they taken him for Christs Vicar or the head of the Church