sin shall not have dominion over you were not the reason of that a much greater comfort for ye are not under the Law but under Grace For they that groan under the oppression of Tyrants must needs be most glad to be delivered from their unjust and unmerciful dominion and here is that deliverance for sin which is a greater tyrant over the soul then any monster of men can be over the body shall not have dominion over you but they that have once been under the dominion of tyrants cannot be sure they are delivered out of their hands till they see themselves actually under the righteous and merciful dominion of their own rightful Governours And we may accordingly see that such is our deliverance from the dominion of sin in that it is said in the next words for ye are not under the law but under Grace the spirit of Grace now reigns in you and therefore will not let sin raign any longer in you nor the Law reign any longer over you as it is the strength of sin to provoke it or the judge of sinners to condemn and to torment them For if we lay not some such restriction upon the Apostles words we shall never be able to prove it is a mercy not to be under the Law which is gloriously magnified by the Spirit of God as that which giveth both holiness and wisdom Psal 19. 17. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul there is the holiness The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple there is the wisdom we must therefore say that the Law had a threefold use to restrain to condemn and to instruct to restrain sin to condemn the sinner and to instruct in righteousness The power the Law had to condemn sinners and to wrack our consciences before Gods judgement-seat is taken away by Christ so that they who truly lay hold on the Merit of Christ are not thus under the Law as condemning them And thus not to be under the Law is an invaluable mercy because the Law worketh wrath Rom. 4. 15. in shewing Gods wrath against sinners and us as sinners subject to that wrath But the power the Law had of restraining from sin and of instructing in righteousness still remains uncontroled of God and should be undoubted and undisputed of men for he that gave to the Jew an inheritance on earth to have his Law kept as t is said Psal 105. 43 44. And gave them the Lands of the heathen and they took the labours of the people in possession that they might keep his statutes and observe his Laws hath not promised to the Christian an inheritance in heaven to have his Law broken Therefore the Law must still restrain us from sin and direct us in righteousness only with this difference The power it hath of restraining us from sin grows less and less every day in the regenerate and can remain no longer then this life because sin it self in them shall remain no longer But the power the Law hath to instruct and direct in righteousness grows dayly more and more and is as immortal as righteousness it self and can never be abolished neither in this life nor in the life everlasting for it is easier for heaven and earth to pass then one tittle of the Law to fail Luke 16. 17. Nay the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise 2 Pet. 3. 10. But this power of the Law shall not pass away for it follows ver 13. that in the new heavens dwelleth righteousness And if righteousness dwell there then also the Law which is the rule thereof for it is not possible that any creature should have its own will but only the will of God for the rule of righteousness on which will it must as necessarily depend for its doing as for its being since nothing can be independent in its working which is not independent in its being and he only is independent in his being who is wholly in and of and for himself that is God blessed for ever who is the efficient and final cause of all things the efficient cause by whom the final cause for whom they are and were created In a word the regulating power of the Law cannot be abolished for that shall still remain in heaven the restraining power of the Law is not abolished but only changed in that true faith makes us more obedient for love then the Law for fear and the condemning power of the Law shall never be abolished for it shall still reign over the damned souls in hell and breed the worm of conscience that dyeth not And yet t is this condemning power of the Law that we are chiefly redeemed from not that the power of condemning is taken from the Law but that we are taken from its condemnation so saith the Apostle Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus He saith not There is no condemnation from the Law but he said there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ because they that are in Christ do in him fulfil the Law and so cannot be under the condemnation of it For though they perform not that legal obedience which is able to satisfie Gods Justice yet they perform that Evangelical obedience which is undoubtedly acceptable to his mercy Their obedience though not worth acceptance in it self yet is very well accepted in Christ and that makes them that are in Christ so exceedingly strive to shew themselves dutiful and obedient because no other are made the Sons of God in Christ but only those who are made obedient to him by his Spirit And they truly are under grace because they truly are under Christ the fountain of grace for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. Gratia dupliciter dicitur uno modo ipsa voluntas Dei gratis aliquid dantis alio modo ipsum gratuitum donum Dei saith Aquinas 3a 2. 10. cap. Grace hath two significations First it is taken for the love of God Secondly it is taken for the gift of that love and accordingly he that is under Grace is partaker of both these both of Gods love and of Gods free gift proceeding from that love And the latter is the infallible demonstration of the former the gift is the demonstration of the love For grace as it is the love of God is the cause of no Religious operations in the soul but as it is the gift of Gods love and therefore this phrase ye are under grace doth not bid us look up to Gods decree but look down upon our own souls to see if we can find there such Religious habits as may cause those Religious operations which are the undoubted evidences and effects of the gift of grace and therefore the undoubted evidences because the undoubted effect of it For grace as it is the gift of God in the soul works not immediately by it self or by its own essence but by virtuous
admired in his Passion I Cannot admire my Saviour in his sufferings unless I admire him in his person which made him liable to suffer and in his propitiation satisfaction application whereby I have the benefit of his sufferings And in all these respects hath the holy Apostle Saint Paul admired my Saviour for me 1 Cor. 5. 7. when he said for Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us for these few words afford no less then four considerations of our blessed Saviour the first is of Christ in his person for Christ the second is of Christ in his propitiation our Passeover the third is of Christ in his satisfaction is sacrificed the fourth is of Christ in his application for us So that I have a very good precedent for making these four considerations of Christ the four Chapters of my ensuing discourse CAP. I. Christ admired in his Person SECT I. That the eye of man cannot be fixed with comfort upon God in himself but only upon God in Christ THE contemplation of God in himself is not a ground of joy to us on earth though it is to the Saints and Angels in heaven not that the beatifical vision doth not consist in seeing God but that the eye of mortal man must be strengthened before it can see him and the eye of sinful man must be cleansed before it can see him with comfort and without confusion for if Aristotle could alledge his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noctu◠oculus ad solem an Owl or Bat looking upon the Sun to excuse the imperfect contemplation of some inferiour Truths how much more may we plead this excuse for our imperfect contemplation of the first truth since there is much more in this case an Owl or a Bat looking upon the Sun for there is not only a weak but also a sinful eye looking upon God A weak eye because not accustomed to light A sinful eye because not unaccustomed to darkness Such a weak and sinful eye is it wherewith man in this life looketh upon the Sun of righteousness an eye which cannot stedfastly behold him for its weakness an eye which cannot comfortably behold him for its sinfulness Therefore man whiles he is cloathed with sin and mortality must look on God not in God but in man not in the majesty of the Spirit but in the humility of the flesh or else he will be more confounded then comforted with the vision The Apostles saw but a glimps of our Saviours Divinity in the transfiguration and they fell to the ground Mat. 17. 16. and what then do we think they would have done had they seen the full luster and brightness of the Sun of righteousness Jacob tells Laban of the God of Abraham but only of the fear of his Father Isaac Gen. 31. 42. The reason we may conceive to be this because Abraham was dead but Isaac was yet alive for it is impossible but the Divine majesty should strike terrour and consternation to the most upright man that is whiles he is clogged and burdened with flesh and much more with sin And this observation doth Solomon Jarchi intimate in his gloss upon the place saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God is called the Fear not the God of Isaac because he doth not appropriate his name to just men whiles they are yet alive The reason cannot be That they are less his Favourites but that they are not so much capable of his Favour he is the same God to the living and to the dead but the living have him for their fear because they are in a state of weakness and unworthiness the dead have him for their love and their reward because they are in a state of glory and of blessedness And therefore said God himself to Moses No man shall see me and live Exod. 33. 20. If we see God in himself that sight will destroy our life but if we see him in his Son that will preserve it for as the Chrystal glass may afford much glittering light but not any delightful reflexion to the beholder till it be clouded and darkened with a back of some grosser mettal so the Divinity of Christ may afford many glorious speculations of his Majesty but no one comfortable reflexion of his mercy till it be as it were darkened and shadowed with his humanity Then me thinks I can easily without the help of a Crucifix see in him a head bowed down to hear me an eye carefully looking after me an hand stretched out to defend me a mouth open to call me and a bosom as open to receive me So that I cannot but still desire to see my Saviour in the flesh though not with the eye of my flesh but with the eye of my faith for if I see him in God he is my consternation but if I see him in man he is my salvation SECT II. In what sense Saint Paul cared not to know Christ in the flesh and yet Christ in the flesh only is comfortably known IT is impossible that a good Christian should either desire not to know Christ because he loves him or not to know him in the flesh because so he hath most reason to love him and yet Saint Paul hath said Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. But sure the Apostle speaks not positively but comparatively Henceforth know we no man after the flesh not so as to forget the relations and substance of the flesh in others which we carry about our selves for that were to forget the Law of nature But so as not to overprize the seeming pre-eminencies but indeed real vanities of the flesh beauty honour riches and the like when they are destitute of the gifts and graces of the Spirit as if Christian love and conversation more concerned the outward then the inward man for that were to forget the Law of Grace Thus we must know no man after the flesh no not Christ himself that is in the external representation of his flesh or more admiring the image of his person then the power of his Redemption or in the external presence of his flesh as desirous to enter a carnal instead of a spiritual communion with him and bringing rather our mouths then our hearts to feed upon his precious body and blood Thus must we no more know Christ himself after the flesh but yet we may not we must not forget the substance of his flesh in which the Son of God and the Son of man is but one Christ unless we will forget the substance of our own salvation For in that same flesh he was our Redeemer in that same flesh he still is our Mediator and Intercessor In that same flesh was his head crowned with thorns that ours might be crowned with glory in that same flesh be often bowed down his head to look upon us he once suffered his feet to be fastened to stay for
Do not find any desert in man that entitled him to a property in the creature but sure none can be found to entitle him to have a property in the Creator Yet he that saith unto his Saviour as Saint Thomas did My God and my Lord seems to claim a property in him For how can a man assume or apply that unto himself in which he hath no property Wherefore it is necessary that we examine how Christ is made ours that so we may see the ground both of our property and of this application I say then that Christ is ours in a threefold respect because of a threefold conjunction of Christ with us in his nature in his person and in his office First Christ is ours in his nature by a real conjunction having taken our nature upon him and in that respect he is ours as we are men and he hath bestowed on all mankind a greater capacity of his Grace then otherwise they would have had by reason of their corrupt nature for which cause the Evangelical Promises which God maketh to man in Christ are universal as excluding none because Christ hath taken the nature of all but yet conditional as including only those who repent and believe the Gospel for no others make a right use or attain the end of Christs Merits and Mercies Secondly Christ is ours in his person by a voluntary conjunction having taken our sin upon him as our surety or pledge for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows Isa 53. 4. And in that respect he is ours as we are Christians and hath bestowed on us the knowledge of his grace though very many of us by our own infidelity and impenitency make but a little and a bad use of that knowledge Thirdly Christ is ours in his office by a mystical conjunction such as is between a King and his Subjects both making but one mystical body and in that respect Christ is ours only as we are good Christians and hath bestowed on us the communion or rather the communication of his grace incorporating nay more inspiriting us as his members into himself And this is the happiest conjunction that we can have with Christ whiles we live here on earth To be one with him in the same mystical body or in the same actual communion not only external of his nature or of his person as many are that are little benefited thereby but also to be one with him in the same actual internal Communion of his grace to the inestimable benefit of our souls which are first sanctified and at last saved by this communicating with Christ For all the priviledges and blessings of his Regal of his Prophetical of his Sacerdotal function of his power as King of his instruction as Prophet of his sacrifice or intercession as Priest are made ours by this blessed conjunction according to that comfortable assertion of the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All are yours and ye are Christs for the words are not spoken consequutive sed causaliter not by way of consequence but by way of causality and accordingly import this sense All are therefore yours because ye are Christs Ye are Christs and Christ is yours and he being All in All in and through him All is yours but without him All is nothing and you are worse then nothing O then let me so rejoyce for his coming to me in the body as much more to desire and long for his coming to me in the soul That as the Lord of all is joyned with me in one flesh so I may be joyned with him in one Spirit that I may dwell in him and he may dwell in me for ever There is a mutual In-being betwixt Christ and every good Christian saith Saint Bernard even as betwixt Christ and God As the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father and therefore Father and Son make but one essentially So Christ is in the good Christian and the good Christian is in Christ and therefore Christ and the good Christian make but one mystically If either the Father were not in the Son or the Son were not in the Father they could not be perfectly one by essential Unity And if either Christ be not in the Christian or the Christian be not in Christ they cannot be one by mystical Unity Sic igitur Anima cui adherere Deo bonum est non ante se existimet ipsi perfecte unitam nisi quum illum in se se in illo manentem persenserit Bern. Serm. 71. super Cant. Therefore let not the soul which is happy only through her union with Christ think her self perfectly united unto him till she perceive that he so dwelleth and abideth in her as that she also dwelleth and abideth in him and desireth so to dwell and abide for ever O happy soul that is thus wedded to her Saviour by a spiritual marriage for man and wife are not more nearly and more indissolubly joyned together by being one flesh then Christ and the Christian soul by being one Spirit Vere Spiritualis sanctique connubii contractus est iste Parum dixi contractus complexus est Complexus plane ubi idem velle nolle idem unum facit spiritum â— duobus This is more then a spiritual contract it is a compleat marriage when the same will being in two persons shall make them both but one Spirit So the same Saint Bernard and so likewise saith Saint Paul He that is joyned unto the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6 17. Then let me be joyned to him that I may be one spirit with him and that my spirit may be his rather then mine own For mine own spirit will be death to me because of sin but his spirit will be life to me because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. In my self I can see nothing but sin and death In my Saviour I see both righteousness and life righteousness to deliver me from sin and life to deliver me from death Therefore I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness Isa 61. 10. A fit Epithalamium to celebrate this spiritual marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian wherein though the Angels be ready to make up the Chorus yet the devout soul her self alone sings the song There is joy in them but much more in us for this marriage because we have such a wedding garment bestowed on us as expells the fear both of a Divorce and of a Dissolution the first of which may be the second of which must be in all other marriages They may be under a divorce by sin they must be under a dissolution by death But the marriage betwixt Christ and the good Christian if it be once indeed truly consummated is under neither for the blessed Bridegroom of souls bestows both righteousness and salvation upon all those who
life 1 John 5. 10 11 12. Wherefore that Religion which hath not the Son hath not life and the Religion which hath not life what can it have but death Nor is it lawfull and much less laudable in any man to account those men Christians who doubt the divinity of Christ much less who deny it For they that have not Christ for their God cannot have the true God for their God And therefore Saint Paul takes these two for one and the same mischief to be without Christ and to be without God saying to the Ephesians At that time ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Saint Cyril in his Catechism expound these words of the Heathen saying thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some of them made the Sun their God that all the night long they might be without God others made the Moon their God that they might be without God all the day But in truth the words will concern many men that are far from that stupid and gross Idolatry even all Jews and all Turks and too too many that are called Christians even as many as question the divinity of Christ for all these alike are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Atheists alike as being without the true God And if their Religion make them Atheists what shall we call it but Irreligion or Atheism But I will not insist any longer upon the proofs of the Text to justifie the Christian Religion since even common sense it self doth make known this Tenent and common experience doth make it good For it is a very substantial and sufficient proof that no other Religion hath in it those truths which are really conformable to a rational mans understanding but only the Christian for that no other Religion subsisteth any longer then the sword that forceth it whereas the Christian Religion still abideth and continueth in the world not by the violence but by the patience of those that uphold and maintain the same nowithstanding the many and great difficulties that are in and with it and the many and great oppositions and persecutions that have been and are against it which must needs argue an inward consonancy or congruity of the Christian Religion with the very soul of man as alone having truths able to satisfie it and alone shewing means able to save it And indeed these three excellencies among many other do give to the Christian Religion the preheminence above all other Religions The first is That no other Religion declareth au expiation for sin The Jewish Religion it self being defective in this particular but as it was Christian and looked unto Christ the Apostle plainly and positively assuring us That it is not possible the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins Heb. 10. 5. So that no Jew could have this opinion of his own Religion that it taught a way of expiating sin unless he would be mad that he might be thought religious for there is no room for any the least probability against an absolute impossibility but the Apostle saith it is not possible And yet there can be no comfortable nor cordial practice of Religion to a man that groaneth under the burden of his sins unless he have this perswasion that his sins may be expiated and his person accepted since it is impossible that any man should care to worship or serve God being offended with him if he had no hope to appease him Let this then be the peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it may be most comfortably and most cordially practised because it most teacheth that God may be appeased nay indeed it teacheth how he is appeased even by the merits and mediation of his son who is both founder and the foundation of our Christian Religion The Second excellency is That no other religion proposeth much less promiseth so great and glorious a reward to those that embrace it as is the eternal and everlasting glory both of the body and soul for to let pass the disputes of the Heathen in this kind which were all either vanities or uncertainties even Moses himself in the institution of the Jewish Religion if we look upon the express and explicite Covenants of the law went no farther then a a land flowing with milk and honey and a long and prosperous continuance of them and their seed in that land But for what concerns a better life after this t is either darkly included in this promise or rationally concluded from it not without strong collections of a searching Judgement such as was that of our blessed Saviour Now that the dead are raised even Moses shewed at the bush when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob for he is not a God of the dead but of the living Luke 20. 37 38. Where the conclusion was virtually in the premises though not found out till the eternal wisdom of God discovered it and since that discovery we see t is undeniable in our own humane reason yet if the Jewish Doctors could have seen so much before t is scarce imaginable that one of their chiefest Sects or Parties I mean the Sadduces would have denied the resurrection Let this then be another peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion that it teacheth the body shall live again with the soul in the life everlasting for this doctrine must needs terrifie us from the sins of the flesh because we shall all rise again with our own bodies and give account of the works done in them and be acquitted or condemned according to that account And this same doctrine must also needs comfort and strengthen us against all the maladies and miseries of the flesh for what is a momentary sickness or miserie to an endless and everlasting glory Wherefore since it is the work of Religion to subdue the flesh to the spirit both in its doings and in its sufferings and thereby to subdue the spirit to God and since the Christian Religion alone can do this work subduing the flesh to the spirit in its doings by terrifying it from sin and in its sufferings by strengthning it against miseries I will evermore bless my God for calling me to such a Religion which maugre all the mischief and malice both of men and devils will neither let me be impenitently sinfull nor uncomfortably miserable The third excellency of the Christian Religion above all other religions consists in that admirable holiness and Purity which it requires in the worship of Christ and in all other duties and works of Christianity whereas the Pagan sacrifices were full of cruelty delighting in the blood of men and their mysteries full of obscoenity invading the modesty of women And the Jewish Religion though it had nothing unlawfull or immodest yet it had many things in themselves unusefull and unnecessary though both useful
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loqui ad Cor which is the Hebrew phrase for speaking comfortably other comforts go no farther then the ear then the outward man that his stock is increased his request granted his cause advanced t is only this comfort that enters into the heart and revives the inner man That the time of his warfare banishment and captivity is at an end because his sin is pardoned For here are two distinct times to be observed A time not accepted that 's of warfare banishment and captivity And a time accepted that 's of peace or reconciliation of restitution of liberty For Epiphanius his argumentation is not to be denied 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the nature of relatives si fuit unus annus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ergo fuit alter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Christ preached one year wherein he was accepted as Clemens Alexandrinus labours to prove out of Luke 4. 19. To preach the acceptable year of our Lord then it must needs be that he could not preach only but one year for there must also be another year wherein he was contradicted and no◠accepted His Logick is not to be questioned though his tenent be refused by the Learned Scaliger lib. 6. de emend temp who proves that Christ did preach upon the earth not only one year as Clemens nor two years as Epiphanius would have it but four full years So here the inference is unquestionable If there were a time of warfare of banishment of captivity before the pardon there must needs be a time of peace of restitution of liberty after it If that were a time of expulsion or rejection whiles we were enemies this is a time of acceptance or admission now we are Sons as saith Sant Paul behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 8. That was a day of damnation this is a day of salvation that a a time not accepted this a time accepted The time of the flesh and the time of the Spirit the time of sin and the time of Grace are two opposite times the time that sin reigns in us is a time of warfare banishment and captivity the time that the Spirit of Grace reigns in us is a time of restitution and of liberty First a time of peace and that a peace of heart John 14. 27. My peace I give unto you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid The peace that Christ gives us is a peace of heart a Peace that puts away all trouble and all fear All trouble least it should disturb our peace outwardly and all fear least it should disturb our peace inwardly which is the invincible reason Saint Augustin alledgeth to prove that the holy Angels are assured of their state of bliss because otherwise their fear would disturb their peace and consequently interrupt their blessedness And Aquinas affirms the Saints in heaven to be no less sure of the continuance of their bliss then of the bliss it self and therefore to be in some sort partakers of the divine eternity to which all is actually present nothing to come or else they could not have the full quietation of their wills without which Blessedness it self could be no blessedness 22. q. 18. art 2 3. Secondly the time of Grace is a time of restitution and that to our true Country even to heaven The Philosopher could point thither with his finger but the Christian points thither with his heart For that being once touched with the spirit of God alwayes moves and beats towards heaven as a needle touched with a loadstone moves alwayes towards the Pole For true Christians are so full of hope and their hope is so full of immortality that they are very well contented to resign this mortal life when God shall require it as those who know themselves to be but strangers and so journers hereon earth and that their Country where they are to expect a lasting a sure dwelling is only in heaven as saith Saint Paul in their behalf For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God eternal in the heavens wherefore in this we groan carnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. This house of earth is but our tabernacle that of heaven is our dwelling In this we groan in that we shall rejoice This is to be dissolved as built by man that 's a building of God and therefore not capable of dissolution Thirdly the time of Grace is a time of liberty for Grace is the well-spring and fountain of liberty as sin is of thraldom For as sin is an aversion from God to serve our selves which is the greatest servitude so Grace is a conversion to God to serve him whose service is perfect freedom so that no man is so truly a slave as he that serves himself and none so truly free as he that serves his God Nemo liber nisi sapiens None is a free man but he that is a wise man may not be taken for a Paradox if we be not mistaken in the wisdom but think and say with the spirit of God Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Job 28. 28. T is a heavenly contemplation of the Seraphical Doctors Tunc homo rectus est quum intellectus adaequatur summ◠veritati in cognoscendo voluntas confirmatur summa bonitati in diligendo virtus continuatur summae potestati in operando Et ex hoc homo non solùm rectus sed rector ipse Deo subditus ipsi alia Bonav Prol. in lib. 2. Sent. Man i◠then only well governed in himself and governour of all other things when he depends wholly upon God His dependance upon God in his understanding to know him the first truth In his will to desire him the chiefest good and in his power of action to follow and obey him the highest power makes him subject to God and all the world subject to him This is such a kind of liberty which the son of God only gives and the servants of God only enjoy See it in the Sons gift If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed John 8. 38. See it in the servants receipt And I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts Psal 119. 45. They who are Gods servants are the only free-men for they are so his servants as that also they are his Sons For as the Soveraignty of his dominion claims them for Servants so the transcendency of his goodness accepts them for Sons and therefore gives unto them both the Liberty and the Patrimony of children SECT II. That Christ is generally communicated to all Christians by Baptisme wherein the Holy Ghost is given to regenerate and sanctifie them by taking away the imputation or guilt of original sin and making them the members of Christ
as Master Brerewood hath demonstrated in his enquiries cap. 14. SECT II. That the coming of the Holy Ghost for the communicating of Christ after an extraordinary manner is not now to be expected That preaching and praying with the Spirit come not by infusiâ—ns Enthusiasts are the worst separatists and the greatest blasphemers guilty of the worst kind of sacriledge and Idolatry in robbing God of his publike worship after such a manner as he hath commanded and idolizing their own pretended gifts SInce it is an undoubted truth that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ we may not doubt but his coming unto men alwayes was and still is of purpose to communicate Christ unto them either after an extraordinary manner by immediate infusions and revelations as to the Prophets and Apostles or after an ordinary manner by habitual improvements and assistances as at this day For the extraordinary manner of his coming and the extraordinary manner of his communicating Christ to men by immediate infusions or revelations did both cease together And we may truly say concerning those miraculous and extraordinary dispensations of the spirit what Saint Paul hath said concerning tongues one of the principal effects thereof They were for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. and therefore were to continue and remain no longer then signes and wonders that is till the preaching or publishing of the Gospel or till the planting and setling the Christian Religion For Saint Peter plainly sheweth in the second of the Acts That this Prophecy of Joel In the last dayes saith God I will your out of my spirit upon all flesh was fulfilled in the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles that these were the last dayes meant by that Prophet and therefore after those dayes men were not to expect any more such extraordinary dispensations Wherefore those that will now preach or pray by the Spirit may not rely upon infusions for which they have no warrant but must betake themselves diligently to read and consider the word of God that so they may have the assistance of the Spirit of God For they that go about to separate the Spirit from the Word are the most abominable Separists that ever were or can be in the world because they endeavour to separate God from himself for Gods word is Gods truth and Gods truth is himself Be it then taken for granted which may not be doubted it cannot be denyed that they are very wicked Separatists who separate man from man for they fill the world with sedition and privy conspiracy They yet worse Separatists who separate man from God for they fill the world with false doctrine and heresie But yet still they are the worst Separatists of all who separate God from God that is Gods Spirit from Gods Word for they fill the world with hardness of heart contempt of Gods Word and Commandment which is the ready way to make men first impenitent and then unpardonable and what more can be said of the sin against the Holy Ghost Yet these three separations do so naturally and necessarily spring from one another that they may be accounted themselves inseparable For the sedition begets the heresie and the heresie begets the hardness of heart separating man from man by sedition will separate man from God by heresie and that will also in a short time endeavour to separate God from himself by contempt of his Word and Commandments What an unhappy age do we live in wherein men think they do God good service to run away from his Word by pretending to his Spirit But this is the wit of wickedness the order of disorder the method of atheism that the persons of the holy and undivided Trinity should be sinned against by succession and blasphemed in the same order that they are to be confessed first the Father secondly the Son and thirdly the Holy Ghost For under the Law men were generally given to Idolatry took an Idol for God and so more immediately sinned against God the Father he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himself Under the first times of the Gospel men were generally addicted to Arrianism denying the Divinity of Christ and so more immediately sinned against God the Son for he is God of God But in these latter times of the Gospel for so it is to be feared our sins have made them men are generally addicted to cry up their own phansies for the dictates of the Spirit and so more immediately sin against God the Holy Ghost not considering how unconscionable a thing it is to grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby they are sealed to the day of redemption and how impossible a thing it is for those not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God who constantly blaspheme him and what an unsufferable blasphemy it is to entitle those rude and crude impertinencies to the Holy Spirit which few sober men can hear with patience and no zealous man can hear with profit and no conscientious man can hear with piety Well may such a worship profit some men by exercising their patience but yet it scarce deserves the name of worship because it doth not rather exercise their piety so that we must confess that such pretenders to the Spirit are the greatest enemies of the Spirit and whilst they would be thought the best reformers are in truth the worst blasphemers for as much as they impute those imprudencies and indescretions or rather impieties and irreligions for imprudencies in the service of God are impieties and indiscretions are irreligions to Gods Holy Spirit which are meerly their own vaiâ— imaginations and carnal inventions and in the mean time reject and disesteem those prayers and praises which are the undoubted dâ—ctates of that same Holy Spirit as if they rather hindred then helped us to cry Abba Father what is this but in effect to blaspheme God instead of blessing him for giving us so many admirable forms of prayer and praise in the holy Scriptures and for giving us a Church to teach us to pray exactly according to that pattern in the Mount according to those patterns of prayers and praises whâ—ch came immediately either from God the Son or from God the Holy Ghost What is this but in effect to distract and to hinder men instead of setling and helping them in their Religion whilst they are made beleive that nothing is truly from the spirit of prayer but what is new and unknown to them whereby they are taught first to contemn the known prayers of the Church and then the known prayers of the Scriptures for that the spirit is as much confined by the one as by the other and to hunt after novelty instead of certainty which is a way to exercise the phansie before the conscience because the conscience first tries the spirits then follows them 1 John 4. 1. but the phansie first follows the spirits and never at all tries them A way
Surely such men cannot truly say and yet they say it most of all men that they have the Spirit of God who are so far from the works of the Spirit And they are very far from the works of the Spirit unless hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dividing and standing in parties heresies envyings murders and such like which the Apostle calleth works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19. may be discerned by some of the new lights to be the works of the Spirit It were a foul shame for any Minister of Christ to immix such a reproof as this in his Doctrine if it were not a fowler shame that some Christians have immixed such sins as these in their practise But those that have Saint John Baptists trust to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching of pennance must follow his example constantly speak the truth boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the Truths sake Thus did Saint Paul rebuke the Galatians when they were in the like distemper saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Amentes O ye mad men that are out of your wits or O Insentati O ye sottish and stupid men that are out of your senses who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth They would needs pretend to be reformers of the Gospel when indeed they were disturbers and destroyers of it for this reason the Apostle reproves them sharply as Apostates saying Who hath bewitched you and again Ye are fallen from grace And he also reproves them fitly as hypocrites calling them fools whilst they pretended to be wiser then all other Christian Churches because indeed they were too wise in their own fond conceits ever to attain unto true wisdom Excellently Saint Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To preach mild Doctrines to those that more need reproofs is rather to act the part of a jugler then of a Divine to be an enemy rather then to be a friend Our chief Master did not do so to his Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but sometimes blesseth and sometimes reproveth them and he instanteth in Saint Peter to whom Christ upon the confession of his faith said Blessed art thou Simon Barjona but upon his carnal advice he said Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Greek a scandal unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men Mat. 16. 17. 23. O blessed Saviour still say to this kind of Satan that loves to get in among the Disciples Get thee behind me take away such scandalous Ministers out of thy Church who savour only the things of men whilst they pretend the things of God for such will often offend but never confess thee or if they do confess thee it is only that they may the more covertly and the more securely offend thee Real scandals they are not only to thy Ministry but also to thy self not only to thy Church but also to thy religion Thou hast shewed thy hatred of their sin in that thou hast so sharply rebuked it O now shew the love of their Function in not suffering that foul sin any longer to possess thy Ministers or to deceive thy people It is a question very well propounded by Alensis but better answered by him when he saith Vnde tam detestetur Dominus in Evangelio peccatum Hypocrisis Resp 1. ut notetur quanta debet esse detestatio Antichristi qui maxime per Hypocrisin decipiet 2. Quia hypocrita est contrarius operi Divino Dominus enim ordinat malum in bonum ille bonum convertit in malum 3. Quia contrarius est toti Trinitati c. His question is this Whence is it that our Lord doth in his Gospel shew so great a detestation of the sin of hypocrisie His answer is this 1. To shew men how they ought to detest Antichrist who will deceive them chiefly by hypocrisie 2. Because the hypocrite is directly opposite to God in working For God useth to turn evil into good but the hypocrite useth to turn good into evil 3. Because the hypocrite opposeth the whole Trinity The Father in seeking after his glory for the hypocrites aim is to glorifie himself The Son in not seeking after his truth for his whole life is a lie The Holy Ghost in not regarding his goodness for the hypocrite comes only to appear good but not to be so For this cause our Saviour intermingled sharp reproofs with his Doctrine when he had to do with hypocrites and so did his Apostle after him saying O ye foolish or mad or senseless Galatians who hath bewitched you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He varied the manner of his teaching according to the necessity of his Scholars sometimes burning and cutting where was a gangrene other times applying lenitives where was a green wound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So great a paroxysm shewed a very great distemper For as to be pettish for a trifle argues a poor degenerous spirit so not to be moved to anger and indignation when there is just occasion is the argument of a sleepy and sluggish if not of a sottish man And behold saith Saint Chrysostom Here was a sin greater then the rebuke could be a sin vast and mountanous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as not only separated but also estranged them from Christ A dangerous relapse or recidivation First because after a full knowledge of Christ a mercy denyed to others when bestowed on them For Saint Paul that went through the region of Galatia was forbidden to preach in Asia Act. 16. 6. Secondly because after a full confirmation in that knowledge for the same Saint Paul who had instructed them did also by way of an Episcopal visitation see how they followed his instructions He went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order strengthning all the Disciples Act. 18. 23. In such a case as this the Apostle of Christ could not the Ministers of Christ cannot be too zealous to shew men their apostacy from the Christian Religion and to vindicate the honour of Christ and of Christianity alwayes remembring that distinction of Alensis qui irascitur per vitium irascitur personae qui autem per zelum irascitur peccato Alensis par 2. qu. 139. m. 11. He that bids us be angry and sin not would have us angry only with sin And the rather because for so doing the Ministers have not only the practice of the Apostles as a president to justifie them but also the Doctrine of the Apostles as a precept to command them For this is the express command of the Text There are very unruly vain-talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped Tit. 1. 10 11. Must their mouths be stopped then surely such as Titus Bishops and Ministers must stop them for we cannot expect that God should again send his Angel and shut the Lions mouths as he did to Daniel And the way of stopping their mouths is by
is the most miserable cheat of all cheats to deceive our own souls and cheat our selves of our salvation And this we shall do if we be only hearers of the word as it is a promise to strengthen our saith and not also doers of it as it is a precept to exercise our obedience For Saint Paul tells us plainly that even the Gospel the preaching of Jesus Christ was made known to all nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16. 25 26. Not for the assent or perswasion only but also and much rather for the obedience of faith The second Principle of good Christianity is this That the true love of Christ will make us labour with all our might to keep his words For this is substantia Christianismi the very substance of the Christian Religion so Saint Paul saith expresly Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God 1 Cor. 7. 19. as if he had said External rights and professions are nothing to the Substance of Christianity though to the order of it they may be much but the keeping of the commandments of God is all in all And this is the true touchstone of the soul to try whether it it be made of dross or of purer metal whether it love God or Mammon as its chiefest good For he that cares not to thwart Gods will to fulfill his own is certainly in the state of sin and not in the state of Grace For he loves his pleasure or profit or preferment better then God who for his pleasure or his profit or his preferment cares not to break Gods commandments The Casuists rule is undeniable Constituitur in honore ultimus finis si ob honorem consequendum non curat quis offendere Deum mortaliter Cajet Sum. and again Si paratus sit non curare de praecepto He that so resolves upon riches or honour or any thing of this world as to break through a commandment to come by it is not yet a true lover of God but loves only himself nay the worst though truest part of himself his sinfull affections and is not yet a new Creature because he hath not yet in him faith working by love to make him so For faith working by love and a new creature are one and the same thing in Saint Pauls account as appears Gal. 5. 6. and Gal. 6. 15. in the former place he tels us that which availeth in Christ Jesus is a faith which worketh by love in the latter place that t is a new creature For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but faith which worketh by love Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6. 15. Compare these two places of Scripture with that other formerly cited out of 1 Cor 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of God and you will see the cord which either draws or knits us unto Christ to be made up of these three links keeping the Commandments of God A faith which worketh by love and a new creature This three fold cord is not easily broken and cannot possibly be untwisted In that it is not easily broken it may comfort the good Christian against the fear of being a Castaway but in that it cannot possibly be untwisted it must distinguish him from one that is so For he hath not one of these truly that hath them not all three and he that hath them not all three at least in his purpose and and desire where he is defective in his practise and actual performance is not yet in Christ Jesus For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge thaet if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. The love of Christ is a constraining love impatient either of denial or of delay and the more impatient of delay for fear it should end in a denial The love of Christ constraineth not courteth those who are in Christ to live not to themselves but to their Saviour by whose death they have already obtained the life of grace and by whose resurrection from death they hope to obtain the life of glory The third principle of good Christianity is this That true faith in Christ was never yet without true love of Christ And this much we have learned from our Saviours own mouth who when he was asked a question that concerned faith returned his answer concerning love For so we find St Judes question Lord how is it that thou will manifest thy self unto us John 14. 22. But our Saviours answer is this If any man love me he will keep my words v. 23. The question was made concerning the manifestation of Christ unto the soul which is by faith but the answer was only concerning love and since our Saviours answer may not be thought impertinent or improper we must conclude that true faith in Christ cannot be without true love wherefore the Solifidian must either say That he may have true faith without Christs manifesting himself unto his Soul or shew that Christ hath manifested himself unto his Soul by loving him and keeping his words Saint Jude himself thus understood our Saviours answer and thus in effect explaineth it in his Epistle for our better understanding saying thus But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost v. 20. There 's Christ manifested unto the soul by faith a most pious faith for t is praying a most holy faith for t is praying in the Holy Ghost not despising much less destroying either the house or the exercise of prayer and again Keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ to eternal life v. 21. There 's that holy faith shewing it self by love teaching a man to forsake all things else to gain Christs love and to forsake himself to keep it not looking after that fading life which he hath in himself but after that eternal life which he hath in Christ There is in man a two fold manifestation and a twofold love for either we are manifested unto our selves and love our selves or Christ is manifested unto us and we love our Saviour For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil 1 John 3. 8. He was manifested in his own own flesh to destroy sin and for the same purpose is he also manifested in our spirits and accordingly till he be there manifested we are so far from destroying sin that we wholly delight in it For as long as we are manifestd to our selves our love is wholly of our selves either of our pleasures to defile the flesh despise dominion and speak evill
and the Decalogue righteously taken into our Liturgie but unrighteously omitted by Innovators who vainly obtrude Variety to mens consciences instead of Certainty Sect. 11. The Gift of Prayer examined That it is not a Gift of sanctifying Grace That Prayer as a Duty is above Prayer as a Gift That the Spirit of Prayer is often without the Gift of Prayer and yet the Gift of Prayer is not perfect without the Spirit of it Those Christians who have attained the Gift of Prayer most compleatly that is joyntly with the Spirit of it are not thereby qualified to be the mouths of the Congregations Those Ministers who have not attained that Gift are not for that reason to be despised as not sufficiently qualified for the Ministry And those Ministers who have attained it may not for the exercising thereof be allowed to reject set forms of Prayer in their Congregations because set forms in publick are more for the Ministers and the Peoples good more for Gods glory and more agrecable with Gods command Sect. 12. Set forms and conceived Prayers compared together That set forms do better remedy all inconveniences and more establish the conscience Are not guilty of will-worship nor of quenching the Spirit nor of superstitious formalities and that it is less dangerous if not more Christian to discountenance the Gift then the Spirit of Prayer Sect. 13. That forms of publick Prayer are not to be disliked because they cannot or at least do not particularly provide either Deprecations against private mens occasional miseries or thanksgivings for their occasional mercies yet our Church not defective in occasionals though chiefly furnished with eternals The danger of contemning Religious forms of Prayer and gadding after conceived Prayers Sect. 14. The third and last part of the Churches Trust concerning Religion is touching the holy Sacraments wherein our Church is not faulty either in the number or in the administration of Them as exactly following our Saviours Institution Nor in the manner of Administring as following it with reverence CAP. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is conscionably embraced and reteined by all the People of this Nation and not rejected much less renounced by any of them but against the rules of conscience Sect. 1. EVery particular man ought to labour to be of such a Communion as he is sure is truly Christian both in Doctrine and in Devotion The Rule whereby to choose such a Communion the Proofs whereby to maintain it Sect. 2. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Doctrine free from Hereâ—ie and from the necessary cause thereof a false ground or foundation of faith That is Believeing upon the Authority of men instead of God Sect. 3. That the Communion of the Church of England is truly Christian in Devotion free from impiety either by corrupt Invocation or Adoration Sect. 4. That the Communion of the Church of England obligeth those in conscience who are members of that Church to retein â—â— and not to reject it much less to renounce it by no less then five Commandments of the Decalogue Errata PAge 7. line 4. read Menologie p. 26. l. 35. r. fatlest p. 34. l. 19. r Tria p. 39. l. 4. r. brightness p. 47. l. 3. r. ut p. 56. l. 28. r. They p. 60. l. 20. r. It is p. 61. l. 11. 12. r. likeness p. 66. l. 22. r. protension p. 77. l. 26. r. This p. 78. l. 28. dele not p. 82. l. 17. r. as p. 100. l. 23. r. He p. 101. l. 16. r. greater p. 105. l. 3. r. Turning p. 106. l. r. r. their p. 116. l. 32. dele that p. 120. l. 14. r. without p. 126. l. 36. r. Nor p. 148. l. 14. r. bring p. 150. l. 14. r. of p. 169. l. 1. r. we p. 178. l. 2. r. fully p. 178. l. 15. r. take p. 180 l. 1. r. iniquities p. 182. l. 32. r. affective p. 198. l. 22. r. before p. 208. l. 17. 1. Quid p. 208. l. 18. r. Nam p. 292. in the Contents l. 6. r. Them p. 319. l. 5. r. comely p. 345. l. 3. r. sound p. 415. l. 31. r. Then p. 449. l. 1. r. persection ibid. l. 31. r. such a division p. 549. l. 19. â— beats p. 634. l. 14. r. certainty p. 656. l. 30. r. unpremeditated p. 674. l. 5. r. Obsecration p. 680. l. 4. r. bind ibid. l. 5. r. hands Christ wellcomed in his Nativity CAP. I. The Motives of Christs welcome from God and from his Church both Triumphant and Militant SECT I. Christs image repairs the loss of Gods image in man The Churches desire that Christ should be formed in us and that Christs humiliation is the Christians exaltation IN the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost one God everlasting Blessed be the Holy and undivided Trinity world without end Amen I had once the image of God the Father in my creation and I soon lost it wherefore I now desire to have the image of God the Son in my Redemption which I may never lose O thou eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son vouchsafe to breath in my soul this breath of life that I may live eternally O thou who didst form the eternal Son of God in the womb of a pure Virgin be pleased also to form him in my impure and sinful heart That Christ being formed in me I may not be an Abortive to the life and light of righteousness Thy holy Apostle travelled as in birth till Christ was formed in the Galatians so doth thy holy Church travail as in birth til Christ be formed in me Oh then let the end of her travail be the beginning of my rest that my Saviour being formed in me I may be fitted and prepared for his salvation He once condescended to be made man for me Oh that he will now give me the benefit of that condescention and be made man in me That I may put on the Lord Jesus Christ even as he hath put on me That as he dwelleth in my flesh by a personal union so he may also dwell in my Spirit by a powerful Communion That as by dwelling in my flesh he emptied himself so by dwelling in my Spirit he may fill me For Christs emptiness is the Christians fulness He that filled Heaven and Earth from the beginning of the Creation did in the declining Age of Time Empty himself that he might fill us Them he filled with his Majesty but us with his Mercy And if his emptiness was our fulness what is his fulness but our glory If his fall was our rising what is his resurrection but our salvation If the humiliation of Christ was the riches of the world how much more his exaltation If he enriched us by his Poverty how much more will he enrich us by his Glory The Apostle can mention nothing but fulness when he treats of Christ emptiness Gal. 4. 4 5. SECT II. Christs
of Gods service and may not be neglected without scandal THE Apostle establishing our Christian liberty doth much more establish our Christian Piety Rom. 14. He establisheth our liberty ver 6. placing daies and meats in the same rank of indifferency neither of them in it self ought to be reputed a matter of Religion But withal he doth much more establish our Christian Piety ver 7. 8. That both daies and meats daies wherein and meats whereby we live are to be observed or not observed as shall most conduce to his Glory by whom we do and to whom we should all live He overthrows a legal or Iewish observation of daies for themselves because that was a typical worship But he establisheth an evangelical or Christian observation of daies for duties because that is a real and moral part of Gods service For he that so regardeth a day regardeth not it but the Lord And he that so regardeth it not being thereunto called by that authority which God hath set over him were best take heed lest it be thought that he regardeth not the Lord He was best take heed lest he give occasion of scandal or spiritual ruine to his brother whilst he gives him occasion to think that God is not worth the regarding or that those are given to superstition who do most zealously regard him For he that doth this may chance have the milstone in his heart to harden him but sure he must have the milstone about his neck to drown him SECT VIII To oppose the celebration of Christs Nativity is a scandal to Christians and a stumbling block to the Jews keeping them from Christianity PER scandalum laeditur proximus in mente ut per homicidium in corpore per furtum in possessione saith the School-man Alensis par 2. qu. ibi m. 1. Scandal wrongs my neighbour in his mind as murder wrongs him in his body and theft wrongs him in his possession and therefore I have great reason to take heed of being scandalous as to take heed of being a murderer or a thief And truly I cannot see but that our Saviours determination concerning scandal reacheth this very case Mat. 18. 6. Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me it were better a mill-stone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea For tell me do they not believe in Christ who set apart a time of purpose to make Profession of their Belief in him And if they do believe in him how will you answer your scandalizing and offending them whiles they are professing or rather indeed practising that their belief or your scandalizing others whiles you keep them from the same Christian Practice and Profession Wherefore it can hardly be denyed but this is really a scandal or an offence to Christians because it is a way to cause some of them to forget or to forsake our Saviour Christ But surely it is a down-right stumbling-block to the Jews to keep them from embracing the Christian Religion For the main thing needful to their conversion is to prove the Messiah is already come in the flesh which the Jews will take for granted is denyed if not disproved by them who will not allow themselves nor others to celebrate the memorial of his coming for the whole course of their Religion taught them to acknowledge the receipt of far lesser blessings with much more solemn memorials as the receipt of the Law with the celebration of Pentecost So that whatsoever may be urged for serving God in Spirit in Truth to make Christians become sincere worshippers yet we had need keep up an outward solemn service and worship of Christ to make Jews become Christians For it is not imaginable they should leave the outward decency and order that they are bound to use in their own Synagogues according to the whole purport of their own Law to come to the slovenliness and Indecency that may be found in some Christian Churches under the pretence of the purity of our Gospel SECT IX The Jews equally scandalized by Idolatry and by Profaness especially that Profaness or Irreligion which immediately dishonoureth our Saviour Christ IT is much to be lamented that Christians who are bound to do what is in them to convert the Jews should so far scandalize them either by Idolatry or by Profaness as to hinder their conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Jew in his Disputation with the Christian in the second Nicen Council in the sift Action I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you worship Images And is it not as great a scandal if they shall be able to say I am scandalized at you O ye Christians that you do not worship God or at least do not worship him with fear and reverence as God Or That you refuse to worship Christ whom you would have me believe to be the Son of God For is it not an act of Religious worship in Moses his Law to dedicate daies to the worship of God If then we deny the Dedication of daies to the worship of Christ How shall we perswade the Jews that we do indeed worship him as our God It is to be feared if we shall do so they will rather think us turning Jews then that themselves will think of turning Christians SECT X. That those Christians who oppose Christmas-Day do give occasion to other Good Christians to suspect them as not well grounded in the Christian Religion SInce it is the ground of our Christian Religion That all Gods gifts and mercies to mankind do concenter together in Christ it is scarce possible those Christians should be thought truly religious who make it their work to oppose the publick worship of Christ on that very day wherein as Christ he was first capable of being publickly worshipped They that are Jews may think well of this for they denying him to be the Son of God will easily deny that he is to be worshipped But sure good Christians cannot think well of it who are taught to glorifie God in Christ and much more for Christ To glorifie God in Christ is our Religion To glorifie God for Christ is our salvation Religio est motus creaturae rationalis ad Deum ut ad primum principium ultimum finem Christus autem ut Homo est via per quam fit hic motus saith Aquinas 22â— qu. 81. Religion is a motion of the reasonable creature to God as to its first beginning and to its last end But Christ as man is the way wheâ—ein the reasonable creature thus moveth so that once forget Christ as man and you shall soon forget all religion Saint Bernard tells us of a threefold coming of Christ the first was in the infirmity of his flesh to redeem us the second in the power of his spirit to sanctifie us the third in the glory of his majesty to judge us I will thankfully receive him as my Redeemer that I may securely
teach and redeem us The title of the chief corner stone blasphemously applyed to the Pope Christ was not an Apostle one sent from God but an Exapostle one sent out of God I must needs confess that being in this Eden of God in this Paradise contemplating the tree of life I am unwilling to divert my eyes from that tree and much more my heart from that contemplation but am desious to perswade my self that I see the Prophet Isaiahs vision turned into action and God acting it in heaven no less then the Prophet acting it on earth Isa 6. 8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send or who will go for us then I said here am I send me For God the Father did as it were consult with himself saying whom shall I send and God the Son did forthwith answer him Here am I send me For as there was faciamus hominem Gen. 1. 26. God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal wisdom and with his Spirit his eternal power about our creation so there was redimamus hominem God consulting and deliberating with his Son his eternal righteousness and with his spirit his eternal love about our redemption For Gods goodness is as infinite as himself and that hath made him impart to man not only his goodness but also himself Hence that saying of the sublime Areopagite quod ipse Deus propter amorem est exstasin passus That love made God as it were go out of himself For great love is never without some kind of exstasie and therefore as it makes man go out of himself and be not where he lives but where he loves so it also made God the Son as it were go out of himself and come and be in man whom he had loved with an eternal love Thus hath love brought God from God to be in man and thus should it also bring man from man to be in God For this is the end of that blessed Mysterie and more blessed mercy which we commemorate when we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God he was made of us that we might be new made by him he made one flesh with us that we should be one spirit with him Saint Peter accounted it a great mercy that God had sent his Angel to deliver him from the hand of Herod Act. 12. 11. How much more ought we to account it a great mercy that he hath sent his only Son to deliver us from the power of sin and Satan which persued us much more fiercely and would have wounded us much more desperately He considers his deliverance ver 12. and shall not we especially since the Apostle hath shewed us the way how to enlarge this consideration Heb. 1. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers maaners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son It was a great mercy that he spake to the Fathers by holy men a greater that he spake to them by the holy Angels for that was one of the divers manners of his speaking But the greatest mercy of all was that he hath spoken to us by his son and the reason is intimated in the following words for in time past was the beginning the inchoation of his love when he spake by his Prophets and Angels but in these last dayes hath been the accomplishment and consummation of it when he spake to us by his Son Before he had made the world and upheld all things by the word of his power but now he hath redeemed the world and having purged our sins upholds it by the hand of his mercy For till our sins were purged it was only the power of God upheld the world that he might purge it But now our sins are purged t is the mercy of God upholds the world that he may save it This is the only reason Saint Peter gives us why the last day that shall destroy all things by fire is so long in coming 2 Pet. 3. 9. The Lord is not slack but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance The same mercy that made him hasten his first coming makes him delay his second And was it not a mercy not only beyond our expression but also beyond our admiration that the Son of God who was the brightness of his glory should become the brightness of his enemies and the glory of his people Yet so saith Saint Luke 2. 32. to be a light to lighten the Gentiles there he was the Bridegroom of his enemies and to be the glory of thy people Israel there he was the glory of his own people It was a mercy that we could never deserve and therefore must ever acknowledge that God was pleased to send his Apostles to teach us his saving truth and to shew the way of salvation for they were the pillars of the Church Gal. 2. 9. But infinitely greater was the mercy that he pleased to send his own Son to teach the Apostles for he is the cheif corner stone 1 Pet. 2. 5. For it is observable that Saint Peter himself was content to be accounted a pillar of the Church and leaves it only for Christ to be called the chief corner stone And therefore that Preface of Bellarmine which he once made in the Roman Schools Praefatio habita in gymnasio Romano and hath since prefixed before the third general controversie of his first Tome which is de summo Pontifice had need of all the waters of Tiber to wash it from gross flattery if not from detestable blasphemy since he is pleased therein to wrest those words of the Prophet Isaiah Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tryed stone a precious corner stone a sure foundation and to apply them to Saint Peters Successor which Saint Peter durst not apply unto himself but leaves them only for Christ the eternal Son of God We cannot too much prize the voice of the Apostles as for example Saint Pauls Epistles cannot be in too great esteem which saith Saint Hierom bring him every day more glory as Christ more converts But the voice of the eternal word calling to Saint Paul from heaven Act. 9. 4 5. and in him to us who can ever hear with sufficient care and attention who can embrace with sufficient reverence and estimation who can follow with sufficient alacrity and devotion Saint Paul was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent from God and yet how greatly doth he magnifie that office in every one of his Epistles but our Saviour Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sent out of God to man for so saith Paul Gal. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God sent forth his son that is God sent him not only from himself as he sent the Apostles but also out of himself as he sent none but only his beloved Son SECT VIII The Mother of Christ so
silent and gave no answer as if by their silence they had proclaimed that the Word was only in Judea which is not only historical but also rational not only credible for the relation but also for the reason because it was convenient that he who came to break the head of the Serpent should at the time of his coming stop his mouth Wherefore those Oracles that spake from the false and evil Spirit were all silenced at Christs coming as being unfit witnesses to Gods Truth because they were from a false Spirit and to his goodness because they were from an evil Spirit But their mouthes were then most open who spake by the Spirit of God The Angels that had been silent long before then began to sing Babes and sucklings were advanced above men to chant out their Hosanna's to the Son of David when he was made lower then the Angels In a word all tongues and languages of the world accustomed before to speak vanity were then taught to speak the wonderful works of God and Saint Peter gives us the reason of it because God did then pour out his Spirit upon all flesh Acts 2. 17. This is the Spirit that still filleth the hearts of good Christians with Thankfulness and their Mouths with Thanksgivings that they may continually more and more rejoyce in this Son of God till they come to enjoy him For as Christ is called panis descendens Joh. 6. 50. not qui descendit the bread decending to shew that he is alwaies descending in his salvation though he descended but once only in his person so our praise and thanksgiving to God for his descent may be called Cantus ascendenâ— the praise that is alwaies ascending according to that of the Psalmist Psal 71. 12. As for me I will patiently abide alway and will praise thee more and more for this praise never comes to its zenith or vertical point till our souls be there where our Saviour now is and from whence we expect him again to our salvation For good Christians can never meditate enough on their Redeemer never joy too much in that meditation They can never be weary of singing Hosanna blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord because in their souls they have tasted the sweetness of that song The Spirit of God making melodie with their hearts whiles they are making melody with their mouths SECT II. God the holy Ghosts love to man in giving him the assurance of his particular redemption without which there can be no joy of his creation It had been good for that man if he had never been born spoken of Judas according to our Saviours own judgement not our apprehension that gloss an abusing of the Text The joy of our Redemption is not to be lost WE cannot but have great joy if we have true joy in our Redeemer and we cannot but have true joy in our redeemer if we rightly weigh and faithfully embrace the mercy of our redemption therefore when the Holy Ghost hath said Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him Psal 149. 2. he hath much more said in effect Let Israel rejoyce in him that redeemed him for the Joy is not so truly that he is made as that he is made Israel according to that of Saint Augustine frustra profuit hominem nasci nisi redimi etiam profuisset in vain had man been made partaker of the Creation if he had not also been made partaker of the redemption And agreable to this is our Saviours doctrine concerning Judas who in that he betrayed his redeemer forfeited his share in this redemption It had been good for that man if he had not been born Mat. 26. 24. To seek to make the contrary true by Metaphysical quiddities as a Divine of late hath done is so to be in Metaphysicks as to be out of Divinity for though singly and simply in it self being is better then not being yet a Metaphysical being which only exempts from nothing accompanied with a moral not being that makes worse then nothing is certainly not better but far worse then a bare Metaphysical not being for it is clearly better to be nothing then to be worse then nothing and consequently to be no soul at all then to be a damned soul under an eternal enmity with and eternal separation from that goodness which is the fountain of being and which only doth make our being to be good wherefore it must needs be a dangerous Position that requires such a proof but more dangerous that admits it For to admit this is in effect to say that our Saviour Christ is not a man of his word as he that first broached this desperate doctrine being urged with the authority of our Saviours forementioned words It had been good for that man if he had not been born made his answer that our blessed Saviour did there speak secundum captum vulgi according to the opinion of the common people which is little less then to put a fallacy in the mouth of Truth it self and to fasten such a blasphemy upon the word of Christ as will easily enable us to elude the whole Text and verifie his most wicked words by our more wicked practice who once said in zeal to his Church but not to his Saviour Scripturam esse nasum cereum that the Scripture was a meer nose of wax But we have not so learned Christ and dare not so revile his word least we should so learn him we will therefore rejoyce in him that made us out of nothing to be his creatures because he hath also redeemed us from being worse then nothing when we were his enemies and we will commit the keeping of our souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator because we know him to be also our merciful redeemer For the same son of God who made the world and upheld all things by the word of his Power and consequently was our Creator hath by himself purged our sins and is now sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high there making intercession for us Heb. 1. 2 3. Heb. 7. 25. and consequently is also our Redeemer The joy of our Creation we have lost by losing our Innocency but the Joy of our Redemption is never to be lost unless we lose our Repentance which is so true so great a comfort to a man who is born in sin lives in sin dies in sin that if you deny him this you can afford him no true comfort against his sinfulness SECT III. That this redemption whereof the Holy Ghost assureth us is twofold 1. Privative because we are not under the Law that is not under it as condemning us though we be under the Law as regulating and restraining us 2. Positive because we are under grace and know that we are so the right way to attain that knowledge THat would not be so great a comfort to a good Christian which Saint Paul gives him Rom. 6. 14. for
grace in us and which is all one of his favour towards us that the fear of Gods judgement may humble us that the presumption of our own secure state and condition may not ruine us and that the desire of Gods grace may daily more and more increase in us All these three reasons are intimated by Saint Peter If ye callon the Father there 's the desire of the increase of grace who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works there 's the fear of Gods judgement pass the time of your sojourning here in fear there 's against the presumption of our own secure state and condition As then I desire to be humbled as I desire not to be eternally ruined and as I would increase in my soul more and more such holy desires so I must take heed that I be not puffed up with the conceit of my adoption for he that hath given me that inestimable grace when I did not deserve it hath not promised to continue his gift if I will needs abuse it SECT V. Our adoption in Christ not spoken of by Saint John without a double Preface one practical another speculative and is here according to the likeness of his grace shall be hereafter according to the likeness of his glory The threefold Image of God in man ADoption is the assumption of a stranger into a son Adoptio est personae extraneae in filium assumptio saith the Civilian so that our adoption implies three things 1. An assuming or taking of a man from his own kindred into Gods family 2. An assuming or taking such a man as was a stranger into that family 3. An assuming or taking that stranger to be one of the best of Gods family to be a Son A most blessed assumption which gives to the true Christian soul not an imaginary but a real not an anniversary but an everlasting Holy day Hence it is that Saint John cannot speak of this infinite mercy without a double Preface 1 John 3. 1. Behold what manner of the love of the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God! Behold there is one Preface a practical Preface that concerns the person to fix his attention to raise his affection and to confirm his devotion what manner of love the Father hath bestowed there is another Preface a Doctrinal Preface that concerns the thing shewing in it that sublimity which challengeth the best of our attention that excellency which challengeth the purest of our affection that immortality which challengeth the firmest of our devotion There can be no Preface appositely made but is either practical to exite and move the reader or didactical to make way for the explication of the work the end and scope of the first is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to beloved of us the end and scope of the second is to shew that the thing taught is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovely in it self for so is Aristotles distinction 20. Magn. Moral c. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle joins these two several ends and scopes of Prefaces both together before he treats of our adoption saying Behold to shew this lovely and amiable to us richly worth our looking after and what manner of love to shew it is most lovely and amiable in it self And we may easily see by the ensuing words that it is such a good as is not to be valued by the judgement of the flesh for the world knows it not nor sufficiently to be valued by the judgement of the spirit for we our selves yet scarce know it it doth not appear what we shall be It doth not appear to the world what we are nor to our selves what we shall be only this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him ver 2. as if he had said there are at least two degrees if not two parts of this filiation or adoption of sons one in this life when we are regenerated into the hope of everlasting glory the other in the next life when we shall be admitted into the possession of it When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. The first degree of our adoption the world knows not of us the second we do not cannot in this life fully know of our selves Of the first degree of adoption speaks the same Saint John in his Gospel John 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God Of the second degree speaks Saint Paul Rom. 8. 23. We our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body as if the adoption were not to be obtained here but to be expected hereafter wherein however he speaks as it were out of Christs own mouth as well as by his spirit for our blessed Saviour himself useth these words Luke 20. 36. They are the children of God being the children of the resurrection not that they were not the children of God before but only that they were not compleatly and perfectly children till they were admitted to their inheritance and were come to a full similitude and likewise with their Father For as a natural son of man is partaker of his humane nature or else he cannot be his son so also is an adopted Son of God partaker of his Divine Nature though not Originally because he is adopted yet sure derivatively because else he cannot be a Son for on the participation or communication of the Divine nature is founded our adoption or being the Sons of God according to that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 1. 4. That by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinae consortes naturae consorts or companions of the Divine Nature that is communicants in it as well as partakers of it And upon this ground it is we do assert that as the participation of the Divine nature to us is different in degrees so also is our adoption different in degrees as inchoate in this life and consummate only in the next For in this life we are made partakers of the Divine Nature but inchoately and imperfectly that is as it is resembled in grace but in the next life we shall be made partakers of it consummately or perfectly that is as it will be revealed in glory For there is in man a threefold Image of God Imago creationis Imago recreationis Imago similitudinis as saith the angelical Doctor 1 2ae qu. 93. ar 4. The first Image is by likeness of Nature the Image of creation the second is by likeness of grace the Image of regeneration the third Image is by likeness of glory the Image of perfection Tbe first Image hath been so defaced and blotted and slurred by our sin that we are all by nature the children of wrath Ephes 2. 3. So that in and from this Image of God
rise again to newness of life This is the happy estate we acknowledge God conveyed unto us in our Baptism for other visible conveyance there is none when he made us Christians for then he gave us the right of calling him Father and we by saying unto him Our Father do beseech him to confirm this sâ—me happy estate unto us in making us good Christians But how shall those that are bad Christians and cannot be assured of the adoption of sons as having defiled themselves since their Baptism say unto God Our Father I answer if they heartily repent and desire to be adopted and to become children of God they may say so by virtue of their desire though they have not yet actually received the inward seal and have actually defaced the outward seal of their adoption wherefore those only have no right to their Pater noster but do hypocritically and falsly say the Lords Prayer who neither are the children of God by adoption nor desire to be so But those that heartily desire to be adopted supposing they have been baptized may rightly and truly say to God Our Father because they are accepted as sons in Christ though not in themselves I will rise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned saith the Prodigal Son Luk. 14. 18. He was not yet risen he was not yet gone he did only desire and resolve to rise and go to him and this desire and resolution gives him a right of calling God Our Father as if he had still continued a dutiful son our blessed Saviour teaching us in that chapter both by his Doctrine and by his example that God is ready to receive sinners when they truly desire to draw neer to him The Pharisees and the Scribes murmured at the example but they were ashamed to murmur at the Doctrine The lost sheep and the lost groat had opened their eyes but the lost son was enough to open their hearts the lost sheep and the lost groat had made way in their apprehensions for the receiving of the lost son when he returned to his Father but the lost son was enough to make way in their hearts for their own returning that they also might be received they were convinced that there was joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth ver 10. And they were ashamed least what was the Angels joy should be thought their sorrow Therefore though they were still enemies to their own souls in not embracing this Doctrine yet they were ashamed to shew themselves enemies to other mens souls in gainsaying it nay indeed to shew themselves enemies to God himself who must be excluded out of heaven or he cannot be excluded out of thy joy for it is said ver 6. Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth And our Saviour having taught us to say to God Our Father which art in heaven will not have us exclude him out of this joy which is proper to those in heaven nay indeed the parable directly includes him in it ver 32. T was meet that we should make merry and be glad and without doubt God is so well pleased in the righteousness of his Son that he joyes to see penitent sinners made righteous in him and willingly bestowes upon them his righteousness when with unfeigned lips and penitent hearts they call upon him for it For as through Christs satisfaction they have a right to the adoption of Sons so also through his intercession which is always ready to accompany his own prayer they are sure to obtain that right if they continue heartily praying for themselves that so they may have the benefit of his intercession For as far as we are made partakers of Christ so far can we truly in his merit and with his Spirit say unto God Our Father For the right of filiation belongs Originally to Christ and but dirivatively to us He is the Son of God in himself we are the Sons of God in and through him and t is happy for us that we are so for else we could not but fear the loss of our adoption as often as we did find the loss of our obedience For there can be no assurance of such an adoption as shall last till we be instated in our inheritance from our selves but only from our Saviour Christ God indeed is pleased to call good men his sons but none was ever called the Son of God with this promise and Prerogative that God alwaies was and alwaies would be his Father but only Christ or else Saint Pauls Argument would lose much of its strength when he proves our Saviour Christ to be above all the Angels because God had not said to any of them but had said only to him Thou art my Son And again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son For Angels and men are so the Sons of God as to be his Sons in Christ not in themselves and therefore no sooner nor no longer his sons then they were and are in Christ For which cause we can be no farther sure of our adoption in Christ then we are sure of our conjunction and communion with him and that not of a corporal conjunction in the same flesh but of a spiritual conjunction in the same Spirit For our corporal conjunction with Christ doth not only make us capable of being adopted in him but it is our spiritual conjunction with him that gives unto us the seal and benefit of our adoption whereby we are joyned with Christ in the same mystical body here and shall be joyned with him in the same glorious body hereafter Thus may every good Christian saith with Saint Paul Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain to me to live is Christ because I am now with him in the communion of the same Mystical body to me to die is gain because I shall hereafter be with him in the communion of the same glorious body There needs no dissolution for my union with Christ in the same mystical body but only of my sinful being the dissolution of sin from my soul but for my union with Christ in the same glorious body there needs also a dissolution of my natural being a dissolution of my soul from my body I will then labour for that union with my blessed Saviour in my life which will keep me from the fear of my own dissolution at my death For I shall not make a right use of his corporal union with me unless I lay it for the ground and rise of my spiritual union with him whereby to be united with my Saviour not only in the same natural but also in the same mystical body inchoately in his Church militant consummately in his Church Triumphant And this is the way for me so to welcom the Son of God in his Nativity as much more to see and enjoy him in his immortality Amen Christ
us his hands to be stretched out to embrace us and his side to be pierced to send forth water and blood his two blessed Sacraments to cleanse and strengthen us by that same flesh was he made liable to suffering and in that same flesh did he actually suffer all those things which at first bought the purchase and which do still bring to us the joy of our salvation SECT III. True knowledge of and Faith in Christ is not without true knowledge of and Faith in the blessed Trinity That the Protestants Faith The great loveliness of Christ in the flesh as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as God and man and the great mysteries of his two natures in one person KNowledge in the natural man exalts him above other men but knowledge in the good Christian who alwaies loves what he knows of Christ exalts him above himself By knowing natural truths I do improve my reason but by knowing supernatural truths I do also improve my Religion The improvement of my reason exalts me above other men but the improvement of my Religion exalts me above my self And what knowledge can improve my Religion but only the knowledge of Christ who is both the Author and the Finisher of my Faith Therefore let me ever say with Saint Paul I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3. 8. for indeed truly to know Christ in his person is truly to know the whole Christian Faith in the ground and substance of it For what is the ground or substance of our Christian Faith but that which Saint Paul hath set down 2 Cor. 5. 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them which is in effect a short sum of the Apostles Creed for that treats of nothing but of God and of Christ reconciling us to God and of the benefits of that reconciliation the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Accordingly Aquinas makes it equally necessary to salvation to believe explicitly the mysterie of the blessed Trinity and to believe explicitly the mysterie of the incarnation of Christ 22 ae qu. 2. art 7. 8. There is an absolute necessity saith he of believing the Incarnation of Christ for that is the only way for a man to come to eternal blessedness because it is said Act. 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved And there is saith he as absolute a necessity of believing the blessed Trinity for the Incarnation of Christ cannot be explicitly believed without faith in the Trinity for we cannot believe that the Son of God did take our flesh upon him but we must acknowledge God the Father and God the Son and we cannot believe that he took this flesh of a Virgn by the operation of the Holy Spirit but we must acknowledge God the Holy Ghost so that truly to believe and confess the incarnation of Christ is truly to believe and confess God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Wherefore it was not an objection but a calumny in him that said of the Protestants For these good Gospellers have a faith and a justifying faith whereby they apprehend eternal life without Father Son and Holy Ghost without Christ and his Passion or any of those other matters which are rather subtile points of the Papists historical faith then of the lively justifying faith wherewith these Evangelical Brethren in all security are warranted of the certain favour of God in this life and assured glory in the next Reynolds against Whitaker p. 282. for no true Protestant doth believe and indeed no true Christian can believe that to be a true Faith in Christ which believes not the Holy and Undivided Trinity and all other Articles of the Apostles Creed For such a faith cannot justifie it self much less can it justifie the man that hath it wherefore Protestants do not dare not say That justifying Faith doth not believe the Trinity and Judgement to come as well as the Merits of Christ and the forgiveness of sins They only say the former truths are believed with the greater astonishment and admiration the latter truths with the greater affiance or affection but neither with a greater certainty or confidence then the other Fides ex ae quo assentit omnibus articulis fidei quoad certitudinem sed non quoad modum Faith doth equally assent to all the Articles of the Creed as to the certainty of assent though not as to the manner of assenting The sublim truth of the Trinity she believes with admiration the comfortable truths of Christs dying for sinners and the forgiveness of sins she believs with joy and consolation the dreadful truths of hell and judgement to come she believes with sorrow and contristation but all the truths contain'd in the Creed whether sublime or comfortable or dreadful she believeth with one and the same certainty or undoubted confidence And those who teach us that to believe in Jesus Christ our Lord is the proper act of justifying faith for to believe the forgiveness of sins is rather an effect then a cause of justification do not confine our justifying faith meerly to the belief of this one Article but do only profess that though true faith hath as many acts as objects and hath as many objects as supernatural truths revealed from God yet it justifies the sinner only by this one act of believing in Christ and relying wholly upon his merits and mediation Thus do we desire with Saint Paul to be found in Christ not having our own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Phil. 3. 9. But we dream not of a righteousness either by a vain or by a false faith either by a vain Faith that believes not entirely with affection or by a false faith that believes not truly without mistake or deception Wherefore Antitrinitarian and Antichristian may go for all one in the Protestants as well as in the Papists account for indeed they have alwaies gone for one in the account of the Catholike Church We have heard Aquinas speaking the sense of the Western let us now hear Damascene speaking the sense of the Eastern Churches for so he tels us in his third Book de Orthodox◠fide and fifth chapter That the two cheif heads of the Christian Faith are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say the Doctrine of the blessed Trinity which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it treats only of God and the Doctrine of the incarnation of Christ which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it sets forth the wonderful dispensations of God about the salvation of men And these two heads he not only joins but also compares together in one chapter shewing wherein they agree and wherein they
remarkable circumstances we shall then see how properly our blessed Saviour was called the Lamb of God First the Paschal Lamb was one of the flock Exod. 12. 5. So Christ was one of us and dwelt among us Saint John 1. 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us This consideration That the word was made flesh as it may inflame our devotions because our Saviour is in our own flesh to pitty us and to relieve us so it must cool and allay our distempers That he is in that same flesh which we so easily suffer in our selves to be excessively passionate and either distracted by sinful factions or distempered by sinful affections So that now what sins I commit in the flesh I commit not only against that flesh which in my self goes creeping and growling on the earth but also against that flesh which in my Saviour is exalted into heaven and there sitteth at the right hand of God This is the Apostles most pathetical argument against all the sins of uncleanness and should be mine in the like case or temptation Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6. 15. as if he had said I must abandon abhor all uncleannesses of the flesh in that thereby I shall sin against mine own body How much more in that thereby I shall sin against my Saviours body Secondly the Paschal Lamb was without blemish so Christ was without sin the only spot and blemish of the soul In peccato sunt reatus macula saith the School All sin as it brings a guiltiness with it so it leaves a spot and blemish after it Our Saviour Christ was without this spot and we must labour to be without it likewise by being made conformable to him So should we rightly understand the hidden mysterie of predestination more by our practise then we can possibly by our speculations or disputes if every one of us would really endeavour to fulfill that part of it To be conformed to the image of his Son Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did fore-know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son The great quarrel of Christendom at this day is about conformity that all Churches will not be conformed to one And yet even that conformity if it were brought to pass would not could not put an end to other differences But here is such a conformity that would soon end all quarrels whatsoever if men would make it their study and business to conform themselves to the image of the Son of God If men would seriously endeavour a conformity with Christ by holiness meekness patience obedience vertues so much out of our use that they are almost out of our knowledge but quite out of our remembrance they would never be Non-conformists in any lawful thing nor require conformity in any that is unlawful much less would they brand one another as reprobates but every one would strive to make his own Election sure Hope well of anothers so we should all forth with prove unerring students unblamable proficients in that grand controverted Doctrine of Predestination if we did but truly follow the meekness of this Lamb. Thirdly the Paschal Lamb was slain as a memorial of the Jews deliverance from the bondage of Egypt So was Christs death our deliverance from the bondage of sin and Satan Let me then stand fast in that spiritual liberty wherewith Christ hath made me free and be no less afraid of returning to my former sins then the Israelites were of returning to their former bondage alwaies remembring that dreadful sentence in the Apostle who in that he had fallen himself was the more careful to keep others from a relapse the latter end is worse with them then the beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. Fourthly the blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled on the door posts made the destroying Angel pass over the Israelites when he smote the Egyptians So the blood of Christ sprinkled upon our souls preserveth us from the destroying Angel A mercy to be remembred with an everlasting thankfulness and to be commemorated with an everlasting thanksgiving for this is a part of the new song in heaven Rev. 5. 9. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy blood What was the ground of their thanksgiving in heaven must be the ground of our supplication on earth that we lose not the benefit of this blood which is the price of our Redemption that neither through the infirmities of the flesh nor the anguishes of the Spirit nor the backslidings of the world nor the temptations of the Devil we be drawn or driven from faith in the blood of our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And accordingly we must take care that we be not driven or drawn from the outward profession and exercise of this faith least we come by degrees to be driven or drawn from the inward settlement and assurance of it Fifthly the Paschal Lamb was to be eaten with bitter herbs and without leaven so Christ is to be received with repentance and without malice or hypocrisie which is the most common but the most unsavoury leaven of the soul for a small parcell of either of these will infect and corrupt all our best Religious performances even as a little leaven leaventh the whole lump Accordingly the Apostle is most industrious to chase this leaven out of our hearts when he biddeth us to keep the feast not with old leaeven that is the leaven of hypocrisie when we pretend to be new men but are not Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in azymis sinceritatis veritatis for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincerity is a righteous judgement against the sophistications or delusions of malice and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth is a righteous practise for there is a moral as well as a Metaphysical truth against the prevarications of Hypocrisie They generally go both together hypocrisie in the tongue and malice in the heart fair pretences and foul intentions The hypocrite being most commonly malicious as having the Devil in his heart and the malicious needing the hypocrite to disguise his malice by seeming to be an Angel in his tongue But what ever the leaven be whether these or any other infectious sins our care must be first to find it and then to cleanse it wherein it will not be amiss if we follow the great scrupulosity of the Jews who to the intent that not so much as the suspition of leaven should be amongst them at their feast of the Passeover did first cleanse their ordinary vessels of it then searched every cranny or chink of their houses after it then burnt all they found then execrated or cursed all that might possibly be left behind which they could
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 herba amara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Azymus Their Annuntiation belonging to the Passeover was how God passed their Fathers over that night wherein he destroyed the first born of the Egyptians Their annuntiation belonging to the bitter herbs was of their Fathers grievous servitude and bondage in Egypt which made even their lives bitter unto them And their annuntiation belonging to the unleavened bread was their happy and sudden deliverance from that bondage for the Egyptians were so urgent upon the people that they took their dough before it was leavened their kneading troughs being bound up in their cloathes upon their shoulders Exod. 12. 24. We had at the same time a much greater deliverance and why should we have a less Annuntiation For where the mercy it self is much greater why should the memorial thereof be so much less God gives a signal intimation to the Jew Exod. 12. 42. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haec ista non illa This is that very night as if there were not demonstrative pronouns enough to shew that this mercy was to be as particular in their thankful commemoration as it had been in Almighty Gods free donation And Saint Paul seems to speak as signally to the Christian when he saith The same night that he was betrayed 1 Cor. 11. 23. as if he would not have us forget the particular time when he cometh so near the very words of Moses This is that very night to be observed to the Lord And indeed why should not we keep a Christian Passeover as well as a Christian Sabbath were they not both alike feasts of the Jews and as so are they not both alike abolished by the Apostle Gal. 4. 10. saying ye observe daies and moneths and times and years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you labour in vain A Jewish observation of daies which observes daies for themselves is without doubt destructive of Christianity for it places Religion in things meerly ceremonial Not so a Christian observation of daies for duties for that places Religion only in morals Again why hath not the Christian Church as good Authority if not as justifiable warrant to observe an Anniversary as it hath to observe a Weekly festival as well the feast of the Christian Passeover once a year as the feast of the Christian Sabbath once a week for both are alike recommended in the Law and neither is directly commanded in the Gospel and we may not add to Gods commands no more then we may take from them nor may we think the New Testament defective in any necessary command or doctrine unless we will advance Judaism above Christianity Therefore since it will pose the best Divine in Christendom to shew that Text in the New Testament which commandeth the observation of a Sabbath and we cannot run to the letter of the fourth Commandment to keep the first day in stead of the seventh we must be contented in this case with the general equity of the Law and that gives the Church power to consecrate Annual as well as Weekly Festivals to the honour of God and condemneth our profaness in neglecting our perversness in despising the one as well as the other Besides it is evident we cannot or if we can sure the Apostles could not keep a Lords day all the year but as a repetition of Easter-day which was the first Lords day even the very day of his resurrection wherefore we must either say it is a Jewish not a Christian Sabbath or say it is a Lords day from the great Lords day the day of our Lords resurrection For though Saint John telling us He was in the Spirit on the Lords day pointeth clearly at our Sunday the weekly remembrance of Christs resurrection and not at Easter-day the annual remembrance of it because in those Churches of Asia to which he writ Easter-day was not yet confined to the first but might be kept on any other day of the week yet without doubt he called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lords day for that it was a weekly repetition of that very day which our Lord had consecrated to himself by rising from the dead called for that reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Lords day by the primitive Christians And shal we then not think it worth our notice that our blessed Saviour himself chose such a time for his Passion and Resurrection as by the unerring Characters of heaven might be exactly observed all the world over to the worlds end were it so that our Civil year were made agreeable with the Tropical or that the Catholick Church of Christ in its first and purest age would have been so careful to find out and so zealous to settle the time of this Festival if the Fathers of these blessed ages which were less quarrelsom but more pious then any have been since had not thought it highly concerned the honour of Christ and the propagation and justification of the Christian Religion Surely we cannot easily more gratifie the Jews then by putting down the memory of that time wherein they crucified Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh nor can we more easily scandalize good Christians then by putting down the memorial of that time wherein he was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1. 3 4. And God deliver his Church from such practises as are fit to gratifie Jews but to scandalize good Christians SECT IV. Of the antient contention about the observation of Easter That the Apostles zeal more about Duties then about Daies doth not overthrow the observing of particular daies in the service of God And that those daies ought to be observed by Preaching Praying Administring of the Sacrament and also by Almes-deeds So that false administration sc of the Holy Eucharist in one kind and false Devotions and false Doctrine and sordid illiberality in not relieving the poor are allâ— alike Profanations of a Festival FAmous was the controversie betwixt Policrates and Victor the one Bishop of Ephesus the other Bishop of Rome concerning the celebrating of Easter-day For the Churches of Asia would needs keep the very day of the first full moon in Spring conceiving the Apostles condescention to the Iew to have been a dogmatical sanction to the Christian but the Western Churches who had no conversation with the Iews and therefore were not moved through compliance with them at first to forsake their Christian liberty and at last the Christian truth for the Quartadeciâ—… were in proâ—ess of time declared Hereticks would not keep the very day of that full Moon but the Sunday after it for their Easter-day the learned Scaliger gives this reason for their difference The Jewish Converts following their old custom kept still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Passeover in remembrance of Christs Passion
so that we should then see the thoughts of one anothers hearts looking through one anothers breasts were there no other obstacle to hinder us but only the grosness of the flesh according to that position of the Angelical Doctor Cogitatio unius hominis non cognoscitur ab â—alio propter duplex impedimentum sc propter grossitiem corporis propter voluntatem claudentem sua secreta primum obstaculum tolletur in resurrectione nec est in angelis sed secundum impedimentum remanebit post resurrectionem est modò in angelis 1. p. qu. 57. art 4. ad 1. There are now two impediments of knowing mans thoughts one from his body another from his will The first shall be quite taken away in the resurrection and then men shall be like Angels have nothing to keep their thoughts secret but only their own wills of not revealing them Thirdly Our bodies after the Resurrection shall be nimble active and powerful without any weakness For as the soul will move wholly with God so the body will move wholly with the soul and as there will be no impotency in the soul to hinder it from following God so there will be no impotency in the body to keep it from following the motions of the soul Fourthly and lastly they shall also be spiritual and subtle without any sluggishness Now I have almost a carnal soul but then I shall have a spiritual body Now I have a gross spirit but then I shall have a subtle and active flesh why should I not long for that minute which will take away my weakness and sluggishness and cloath me with power and activity in immortal glory So we see that this first miracle the conquest over earth in our Saviours natural body shall in due time be accomplished also in his mystical body For we men shall be partakers of it after the last Resurrection from the death of the body nay we are already in some sort partakers of it after the first Resurrection from the death of sin For as many as are truly regenerated have already even in their flesh in some weak degree this incorruption this glory this activity this spirituality They are not subject to so much corruption as formerly in their conversation for that is reformed nor to so much grosness of heart for that is refined and moves towards heaven nor to so much weakness for they are able nor to so much dulness and sluggishness for they are willing through the grace of God to run the way of his commandments A blessed miracle this to be considered but much more to be enjoyed the first miracle in our Saviours Ascention the conquest over earth in his body And yet we have Another miracle The conquest over heaven in his soul in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was carried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was received up Heaven it self as it were stooping down to carry and to receive him up Christ had conquered heaven in his humiliation by the fervency of his prayer making an Angel Minister unto him Luk. 22. 43. So that t is no wonder if he conquered heaven in his exaltation making a bright cloud to minister unto him For though his glorified body needed no fiery charet as Eliahs did because he ascended by his own power into heaven yet he was received by a cloud out of his Apostles sight to shew that even heaven it self was ready to minister to his Ascention This ministerial assistance of the creature not derogating from the power but proclaiming the goodness of the creator according to that determination of the school Non propter defectum suae virtutis sed propter abundantiam suae bonitatis ut dignitatem causalitatis etiam creaturis communicet God makes use of his creatures in many things not for the defect of his power but for the abundance of his goodness that he may communicate to them the honour of doing good one unto another whiles he himself is the only true Efficient cause of doing good to all But here the honour was so much the greater by how much the need was the less for though the creatures may one need another yet the Creator himself hath need of none and our Saviour in making use of this cloud did only shew unto us that he could have commanded heaven it self if he had so pleased to receive him up as well as to receive him in Thus did the kingdom of heaven first suffer violence from Christ himself and now from every good Christian Mat. 11. 12. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence the violent take it by force 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Clemens Alexandrinus not by contentious wranglings and disputes but by the constancy of an upright life and by uncessant prayers do we get the conquest over heaven many men do now mistake this violence whiles they seek to invade the kingdom of Grace using the sword of the flesh not of the Spirit to set up religion forcing other mens faith and consciences but neglecting their own whereas the violence should indeed be offered to the kingdom of glory every man should now invade that by the strength of his Faith since Christ hath opened it to all believers For nothing is or can be a good Christians treasure but only Christ not to be kept from him by the most watchfull Sentinel not to be taken from him by the most merciless plunderer or the most deceitfull sequestrator and therefoe where his only treasure is there will his heart be also even at the right hand of God This makes him alwayes pressing into the wounds of Christ who sitteth there for in his wounds there is a place to hide his soul from Vengeance and there is blood to wash his soul from sin This is indeed the violence of faith but this violence is more safe in affection then in perswasion for our affection may without doubt carry us up to heaven after our blessed Saviour but our perswasion cannot Therefore a faith which is strong in perswasion and not in affection is but as a dream which soon vanisheth and the image of Christ which is imprinted in us by such a faith cannot but vanish with it So dangerous a thing is it to put asunder those two which God hath joined together in A true and lively faith Perswasion and affection Israel himself could not so prevail with God though he had his name of Israel from prevailing with God T is true he said I will not let thee go except thou bless me there 's the strength of his faith in its perswasion But t is as true that he wept and made Supplications Hosea 12. 4. there 's the strength of his faith in its affection T was both together made him Israel and not the one without the other Thus is the true strength of faith set down by the Prophet David Psal 73. 24. It is good for me to hold me fast by God to put my trust in the Lord God there
the diffusion of his glory he hath prepared a mansion for us with him by the diffusion of his grace he hath prepared a mansion in us for himself O the immortal comfort of a good Christian and the more immortal glory of the Christian Religion shew me a comfort like to the comfort of a good Christian who is already in his head ascended into heaven shew me a glory like to the glory of the Christian Religion which hath him alone for its author for its head who sitteth on the right hand of God Ask the Jew he will tell you he left his Prophet upon Mount Nebo Ask the Turk he will tell you his Pcophet was left at Meca Ask other Religions they will tell you they know not what is become of their Prophets It is only the Christian Religion that can say it had such a Prophet as now sitteth at the right hand of God A Prophet who taught not a religion without righteousness as is the Religion of Turks and Heathens nor a Religion with Righteousness but which could not make men righteous as was the Religion of the Jews But a Religion with Righteousness to shew it self righteous and a righteousness with Religion to make us so For the law which was the rule of righteousness came by Moses but grace which maketh righteous came only by Jesus Christ John 1. 17. By this He still dwelleth in us even now that he is farthest from us which is so invaluable a blessing that it cannot be valued till it be enjoyed and when it is enjoyed it is found invaluable For the soul of man cannot but have a wretched dwelling in the body and a more wretched dwelling out of it unless Christ have a dwelling in the soul It is the glory of men above Angels that Christ dweleth in their flesh It is the glory of good Christians above other men that Christ dwelleth in their spirits By his grace he dweleth with us and in us by our faith and love we dwell with him in him nor shall this dwelling ever be destroyed it shall only be enlarged when what is now of grace shall hereafter be of glory There is so inseparable an union betwixt Christ and the good Christian that as the Christian cannot be in the state of Grace without Christ so Christ not fully in the state of glory without him The head thinks himself not in honour whiles the members are in dishonour and therefore our head being ascended into heaven makes it his work to draw us the members of his mystical body thither after him For we are united unto Christ by a threefold cord that is not easily broken First by the tie of Election God having chosen us in him before the foundation of the world having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Eph. 1. 4 5. Secondly by the tie of incarnation wherein he took our flesh unto himself Thirdly by the tie of Inspiration wherein he hath given his Spirit unto us All which have begot so inseparable an union betwixt the Son of God and the sons of men by a golden chain reaching from heaven to earth that Saint Paul speaks of the good Christians as of those who are already in glory with Christ And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 6. He looks on them not only as having jus ad rem but also as having jus in re not only as claiming but also as possessing their heavenly inheritance O that we would be so careful or could be so happy as not to abuse those mercies which we cannot deserve O that we would lift up our souls truly and entirely unto the Lord then would our hearts be where our treasure is at the right hand of God For we may not be in heaven by our perswasions whiles we are either in earth by our affections or in hell by our dispositions How can we see our Saviour at Gods right hand whiles Satan stands at ours making us to butcher his servants to deface his Sanctuary to discountenance his Religion to defile or despise his Ordinances to deceive his people to destroy his inheritance How can we believe him to be making intercession for us whiles we care not to make intercession for our selves or at least wise use such extravagant prayers wherein we cannot justly expect much less judiciously hope he should make intercession with us Be it the priviledge of faith to have an eye to be able to see Christ but of devotion to keep that eye alwaies open actually to behold and look upon him for which cause some have thought that prayer was the proper act of justifying faith men then most especially believing in Christ when they are praying to him So that to oppose or disturb the exercise of well-grounded and well-settled devotions under pretence of reforming them is to put out the eye of faith whiles we pretend to take off the film that it may see the clearer For the precious talent of faith must neither be wrapped up in a Napkin nor indiscreetly managed if we expect it should enrich our souls with heavenly and immortal comforts but must be diligently and discreetly imployed in judicious as well as in fervent pravers and praises to Almighty God that so we may fight the good fight of faith by defending and maintaining not only the truth of the Gospel but also our profession and practise of that truth Saint Paul requires both alike of his Scholar and in him of us 1. Tim. 6. 12. Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses Saint Timothy had not only embraced the Christian faith in general but had also in particular professed a good profession thereof before many witnesses and Saint Paul binds him as well as he had bound himself to make it good Else as many as had been witnesses of his profession must have been Judges and Condemners of his revolt And doubtless God having exalted our Saviour Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalitie and power and might and dominion Eph. 1. 20 21. hath sufficiently declared That we should so exalt and advance the Christian Religion whereby we seek to glorifie his Son in earth as the Father hath glorified him in heaven that neither principality nor power nor might nor dominion here on earth for those in heaven will not endeavour it should be able to remove us from the truth of Christ either in its belief or in its practise no more then they can remove Christ himself from sitting at the right hand of God And we most humbly beseech thee O blessed Saviour who hast conquered all things to conquer also our inconstancies that we may perfectly and without all doubt believe in thee and shew the sincerity of our faith by
the zeal of our piety and the constancy of our saith by the unweariedness of our piety that neither faith nor piety may be reproved in thy sight when thou shalt come to Judge us who rulest and governest all things with the Father and the Holy Ghost ever one God world without end Amen Christ communicated in the coming of the Holy Ghost CAP. I. Of the Communication of Christ to his Members SECT I. That we being born in sin our condition is very miserable till Christ be communicated to us but after that very comfortable for the time of sin is a time of warfare captivity banishment The time of Grace a time of Peace of Restitution of Liberty The admirable liberty of Gods servants the woful slavery of those who serve themselves IT is no small part of mans misery who is born in sin and sorrow and therefore born in sorrow because in sin that the afflictions of this world may grieve his soul but all the comforts of this world cannot rescue or release it from grief The Spirit may be perplexed from the flesh but cannot be relieved from it it is only the lover of souls that can exhilerate the soul only the God of Spirits that can comfort the Spirit And till this lover of souls shew his love to us we are hateful to our selves till this God of Spirits do comfort our spirits we cannot but remain altogether comfortless For we are of our selves strangers and aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and consequently from the comforts and immunities of that Common-wealth being alienated from God as far as earth from heaven in our affection as far as hell from heaven in our condition T is a sad truth which may be lamented but may not be denied for in its denyal though a man may shew himself a good Sophister yet he must shew himself a bad divine and cannot shew himself a good Christian That we are all by nature children of disobedience and children of wrath The Jew though he came of the stock of Abraham yet came not into the world without disobedience nor without wrath no more then the Gentile for so saith Saint Paul we were born the children of wrath even as others that is we Jews who came of Abraham no less then the Gentiles who came of the most unworthy and most unrighteous stock in the world Among whom sc the children of disobedience we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh and were by nature the children of wrath even as others Eâ—h 2. 3. as if he had said we were children of disobedience in our affection children of wrath in our condition strangers from God in our affection for being under such lusts strangers from God in our condition for being under such wrath The Apostles intent is fully to declare unto us the state of mans misery which he is in by nature till he be relieved by his blessed redeemer and we may reduce all his doctrine to these four Heads First that our misery consisteth of two parts that we are under the dominion of sin and that we are under the guilt and punishment of Sin Secondly that all men in general as well Jews as Gentiles as long as they are without Christ and his Grace are subject to this misery that is are dead in trespasses and in sins and obnoxious to punishment for the same Thirdly that this our misery is meerly voluntary in regard of the sin though not in regard of the punishment for it is the course of this world and the fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind i. e. perverse and inordinate desires both external of the body and internal of the Soul for body and soul both are alike infected both are corrupted by sin and the desires of the mind are sinfull no less then the desires of the flesh This course of the world we are all desirous to run these desires of the flesh we are all inclined to nourish and to fulfill So that our misery is altogether voluntary in regard of our sin though it be altogether involuntrary and necessary in regard of the punishment we are willingly under the sin as pleasing our corruption but unwillingly under the punishment as bringing our destruction we are contented with the disobedience but we are afraid of the wrath and yet as long as we are under the sin we cannot but be under the punishment as long as we are children of disobedience we are also children of wrath Fourthly and lastly that as it is not in our will so it is not in our power to redeem our selves from this misery for that our corrupt nature doth not so much as desire and therefore cannot recover the state of true liberty either from sin or punishment but t is only the infinite goodness and mercy of God that recovers us by his Grace which is as far beyond our desires as above our deserts such a grace as we could not imagine and therefore did not desire such a grace as we did not desire and therefore could not deserve as saith the Apostle But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ The first Adam communicated nothing to us but sin and death t is only the second Adam that hath communicated to us Grace and Life and therfore t is only in relation to him to our Saviour Christ that the Prophet begins his Sermon of Comfort Isa 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith your God speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned The beginning of the pardon is the end of the war Her warfare is accomplished and her iniquity is pardoned do both signifie the same peace Completa est malitia ejus saith the Latine translation for militia by a small mistake of the letter and that in the printer not in the translator but none of the sense for our malitia is our militia our iniquity is our warfare the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is both her work and her time of war Kimchi in his gloss saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vult dicere tempus quod in captivitate vel exilio dâ—buit transigere He means the time that she was to pass in banishment or captivity we may well admit the gloss For sin is a time of war banishment and captivity of war with God of banishment from God and of captivity not under God for he can be no tyrant but under the devil A sad time surely And therefore the time of Grace must needs be a joyfull time wherein this warfare this captivitâ— this banishment is brought to an end For Christ being communicated the sin is pardoned and the Sin being pardoned the sinner is in peace and in prosperity and in liberty to say this is to speak truly to the heart 〈◊〉
vilifie but to confute their preaching immediatly shew how Christ is more peculiarly communicated by the Spirit of adoption and the rather because his being communicated in Word and Sacraments would not be available to salvation unless he were also communicated to us by the coming of the Holy Ghost Concerning which Alensis hath befriended us with a most comfortable and a most Christian-like position in these words Lâ—quendo proprie de missione non dicitur mitti Filius vel Spiritus Sanctus nisi ratione alicujus effectus pertinentis ad gratiam gratum facientem Nam in missione illorum non solum dona ipsorum sunt nostra sed ipsi quia Inhabitant animum sunt ibi modo specialiori quà m prius Alen. par 1. qu. 73. m. 4. art 2. To speak properly concerning the mission or communication of the Son and Spirit of God neither of them is communicated but only in some effect of saving grace though in general terms either may be said to be communicated in the gift of any grace For when they are communicated unto us not only their gifts are ours but also themselves to inhabit and to dwell in us and to be in us more specially or peculiarly then they were before And why then should not every Christian take up Holy Davids most holy Resolution and say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill I find out a place even mine own soul for the Temple of the Lord and an Habitation for the mighty God of Jacob Psal 132. 4 5. For indeed the Lord and the mighty God Christ and his Spirit are communicated both together according to that of John 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you As there is a communication and distribution of the nourishment to the body that it may live so is there of Christ to the soul or it cannot live And he is communicated by the Spirit For no man can eat his flesh nor drink his blood who is at the right hand of God by corporal but only by spiritual manducation and there can be no spiritual eating of Christ but by the assistance of his Spirit So that Christ and the Spirit of Christ are communicated to us both together and we have alike need of both For as Christ is our Advocate to bring us to the Father so is the Holy Ghost our Advocate to bring us unto Christ And as Christ revealed to us the will of his Father so doth the holy Spirit reveal to us the will of Christ making us in the right use of his Word and Sacraments to receive instruction from him to enjoy communion with him and to find immortal joy and comfort in him This is that Spirit the Apostle speaketh of when he saith For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. The Apostle would have us Christians see the happiness of our own condition above the Jews that we might accordingly shew our thankfulness above them For they being under the terrours of the Law could not but have the Spirit of bondage because they saw nothing in the Law but what was exceeding formidable the flames of Mount Sinai before it and the flames of Hell fire after it But we Christians being under the promises of the Gospel which discharge all that truly repent and unfeignedly believe from the curse of the Law and from the guilt of their sins have the spirit of liberty whereby we can with great confidence and with greater comfort draw near to the throne of grace The Jews had the Spirit of Adoption as well as Christians though not in the same degree but not from the Law but from so much of the Gospel as was revealed to them And the Christians have also the spirit of bondage as well as the Jews though not in the same degree but not from the Gospel but from so much of the Law as is still in force to scourge them unto Christ The same spirit of Adoption was to them a spirit of bondage yet with some hopes and shew of liberty To us it is a spirit of liberty and yet with some fear and shew of bondage They could say unto God Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Isa 63. 16. but we can say moreover Abba Father that is we can call upon God as our Father with greater fervency and earnestness with greater assurance and confidence and with greater joy and comfort then they could For this Abba Father is vox clamantis vox exclamantis vox acclamantis The voice of one crying out the voice of one crying out for help the voice of one crying out for joy First The voice of one crying out there 's the greater earnestness they did say to God our Father but we do cry it not coldly and remissely least our prayers should be congealed in the middle Region of the air before they get up to heaven but zealously and earnestly They said it with zeal but we say it with greater zeal Secondly The voice of one crying out for help there 's the greater confidence The Jew could say Father but the Christian saith Abba Father that is Father Father with greater confidence and assurance of Gods paternal affection Lastly The voice of one crying out for joy there 's the greater comfort The Jew could rejoyce in God as his Father by Creation but the Christian rejoyceth in God as his Father by Redemption The joy of the creation had an allay because of the sin and sorrow which we had brought upon our selves but the joy of our Redemption hath no allay because our blessed Saviour hath taken away our sins and with our sins our sorrows CAP. II. Of the coming of the Holy Ghost where Christ is communicated SECT I. That the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ that is the Spirit of the Son as well as of the Father And that the Greeks were unjustly and uncharitably rejected by some of the Latines as Hereticks concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost Of the Addition of Filioque to the Constantinopolitan Creed and that the Pope hath no Authority to change any article of faith The Greek Church agreed with the Latine about this controversie in sense though not in words therefore not anathematized by the Western Churches which use the Athanasian Creed Bellarmines heavy doom concerning the Greek Church fitter for a Souldier then a Divine IT is not the part of any Christian to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ since that were not only to deny the Word of Christ but also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity It were to deny the Word of Christ for Saint Paul taketh the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ for one and the same saying If so
be the Spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 9. The Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are one and the same Spirit for Christ is God And it were also to deny the greatest and chiefest comfort of Christianity which is this That the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in us to revive our souls now from the death of sin to revive our bodies hereafter from the death of the grave the Apostle plainly attributeth thr Resurrection of the soul from sin and of the body from death only to the dwelling of Christs Spirit in us Rom. 8. 10. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righeeousness there 's the resurrection of the soul from sin and again ver 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you There 's the resurrection of the body from death And this is also from the Spirit that dwelleth in us as well as the other the Spirit of Christ raiseth the soul from sin the Spirit of Christ raiseth the body from death so that to deny the Holy Ghost to be the Spirit of Christ is to deny both our Regeneration and our Resurrection Wherefore this being of so dangerous a consequence The Master of the sentences would not impute this Tenent to the Greek Church as if they denyed the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son though they would not say in their Creed I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Son but only who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified But he saith plainly that the Greek Church did agree with the Latine Church concerning that Article of Faith in sense though not in words Sensu nobis conveniunt dum aiunt Spiritum Sanctum esse Patris Filii They agree with us in the sense whilst they say that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son only we speak a little more plainly saying who proceedeth from the Father and the Son nor are we to be blamed saith he for adding to the Creed much less to be anathematized because our addition is not of a contrary assertion but of a necessary interpretation Nos enim non praedicamus contrarium sed addimus quod deerat ideoque non subjecti anathemati Lomb. 1. Sent. Dist 11. He is more careful to justifie his own Church for adding to the Creed then to condemn the Greek Church for not allowing that addition But his Scholars are not so moderate for Aquinas taxes Damascene of Nestorianism in the case and saith he was carried away with the Schism of the Greeks Damascenus sequitur errorem Nestorii Quod Sp. S. non procedit à Filio quia fuit tempore quo incepit illud Schisma Graecorum Aqu. 3. par qu. 36. art 2. ad 3. And Bonaventure is yet much mor fierce when he saith that the Greek Church denyed this article out of ignorance pride and perverseness Graecos negâsse hunc articulum ex ignorantiâ superbiâ pertinaciâ Bonav in lib. 1. sent dist 11. Three unmerciful words from a Church-mans mouth against a whole Church and surely altogether underserved For the Greek Church always acknowledged the Holy Ghost to be consubstantial with the Son as well as with the Father as appears by the Confession of Faith exhibited by Charisius in the Council of Ephesus in the sixth Action 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit of truth the comforter being of the same essence or substance with the Father and the Son which plainly shews the Greek Church did not deny the article though they were loth to change their Creed wherein they found it was thus expressed Who proceedeth from the Father no mention at all made of the Son For this is their own profession in the Council of Florence in the 25. Session 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have our Creed from seven general Councils and weneither add thereto nor take therefrom And t is evident that the Latine Church it self did a long time demurr about this addition of Filioque to the Greek Creeds Nay Leo the third did strongly oppose it and that not only Papally in his Chair but also Episcopally in his Chancel for he did absolutely refuse this addition when he was thereto intreated by Charles the great and did set up the Creed over the Altar at Rome without it nor did Filioque get into the Article till the time of Benedict the seventh saith Binius in Syn. Constant which was above nine hundred and fifty years after Christ and about six hundred years after the divulging of that Creed But without doubt the Addition it self is to be justified for it was not Additio corrumpentium Symbolum sed perficientium as saith Bonaventure not an addition to corrupt the Creed but to perfect it or rather an explication not an addition as Bellarmine seems to distinguish Explicatio Doctrine non additio contrarii but the manner of maintaining it seems altogether unjustifiable For those of the Latine Church shewed little temper and as little charity in rejecting the Greek Church for hereticks which was trampled on enough by Turks and needed not Christians to help tread it more under foot for not admitting the same addition meerly because they thought themselves under the curse which the Latines are willing to put off by a distinction if they should recede but one tittle or syllable from the language of their own Creeds But this it seems was the fault of the Greek Church which hath been ever since accounted damnable Schism in all other Churches they could not swallow much less digest that crude position Ad summum Pontificem pertinet fidei Symbolum ordinare It belongs to the Pope to order and dispose of the Creeds A position so unreasonable that Aquinas himself the greatest Master of reason among all the Schoolmen is fain to fly to Gratians decree to fetch a proof for it and that proof depends altogether upon the Authority of some few Popes who were very partial Judges in their own cause This is clear that the objection about Athanasius his Creed doth so puzzle him that he is fain in effect to say his Creed is no Creed because he cannot find the Popes hand was in the making of it Athanasius non composuit manifestationem fidei per modum Symboli sed per modum cuiusdam Doctrin◠Athanasius did not set out this manifestation of the faith as a Creed but as a Doctrinal institution notwithstanding the very title of it in Greek is the same which is prefixed to the Apostles Creed and the Latine Church calleth it Symbolum Athanasii unto this day It is not suitable with my purpose and much less with my desire
that the more it busieth the head the less it setleth and establisheth the heart wherefore if that benediction was Apostolical The Lord Jesus Christ himself stablish you in every good word 2 Thes 2. 17 Then this practice must be Apostatical which doth unstablish and unsettle the People in their Prayers the very best words Then was Egypt in a sad case when the locusts did eat up what the hail and thunder had left Exod. 10. And is it not so with Israel when locusts out of the bottomless pit devour that small pittance of Religion which the hail that is their own chill and frozen dispositions or the thunder and lightning that is the tempestuous terrours and troubles of war had left in the Peoples hearts When God suffers such devourers of piety and Religion to come into a land he either looks upon it as Egypt or t is to be feared he intends to make it so The death of the first born is then sure not far off and the drowning of all the rest is not like to belong after it For what can we expect but that the read sea even a sea of blood should cover us all when we persecute the Israel of God for desiring to serve him and say unto those who are zealous for such prayers as they know are either in Gods word or agreeable with it ye are idle ye are idle therefore ye say Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord Exod. 5. 17. as if Praying in known and approved forms were rather a pretence for idleness then a help to devotion This is not only to reproach the Church for teaching us to pray by her Liturgies but also to reproach God himself for teaching the Church to pray by his Scriptures and by this argument we may throw away not only the dictates of the Church but also the dictates of the Spirit of God Sure this is not the part of Christians by one and the same wicked practice to oppose both the authority and the doctrine of Christ the authority of Christ in his Church the doctrine of Christ in his word They pretend to have the spirit of God but yet contemn the word of God They will needs have the spirit of his Son in their hearts and yet care not to have the language of his Son in their mouths giving their Pater noster a quietus est a writ of ease as if the Holy spirit had supplied the servants above the son and taught us better prayers then it had taught our Saviour or as if it were not one and the same spirit that once directed him and still directeth us to call upon the Father Doubless such men cannot take it unkindly that we abstain from communicating with their prayers since they by rejecting the Lords own holy prayer do at the same time reject commnnion not only with all the servants but also with the Spirit and with the Son of God for the Servants of God alwayes used it the Spirit of God indited it the Son of God commanded it T is no wonder if such men be not only Sacrilegious but also perswade themselves there is no such sin as sacriledge and consequently that whatsoever hath been consecrated to Gods Holy name is still unholy and prophane though it hath been conscrated according to Gods own express command in the fourth commandment which is the commandment of consecrations and requires the sanctification of place and of persons and of our substance to Gods publike worship as well as of time Time cannot be sanctified or kept holy to Gods publick worship without these And besides we find these also expresly commanded in other parts of the Bible and since they are all commanded for one and the same end we must reduce the Texts concerning them to one and the same commandment for the ten commandments are Decem summa genera as it were ten predicaments or ten general heads to which is to be reduced whatsoever is commanded as a moral duty in the whole word of God wherefore since it is a moral duty that men should publikely and solemnly call upon the name of God and time alone without place and persons and the maintenance of these cannot serve for the discharge of that duty we must allow the rest of these outward requisites to be commanded in this of time And consequently what of all these alike was common and unholy before it was sanctified to Gods publike worship being once sanctified thereunto is made peculiar and proper to God and therefore to rob or pillage or take away any of these is sacrilegiously to invade Gods property which is a sin of so heavy a burden to press down the soul that the Apostle hath put it in the scale against Idolatry and seems to make this at least to balance if not to out-weigh the other Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Rom. 2. 22. The argument would be of little consequence if Sacriledge were not a sin at least equal to Idolatry And truly so it is whatever we please to think or to make of it For whereas there are two kinds of Idolatry the one to take an Idol for God the other to make God himself for an Idol the sacrilegious person is in effect guilty of them both For it is impossible that any man should rob God if he did not make money his God there 's taking the Idol for God or if he did not take God for one to be mocked rather then worshipped there 's taking God for an Idol And t is no wonder if they can do all this who can contemn the Lords most holy prayer for the three first petitions of that prayer contain all the Duty of the first table and the least part we can shew of dutifullness is to pray that we may be dutifull and consequently he that will not say Our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name cannot be troubled at that Sin of Sacriledge whose property it is to invade and profane all that is dedicated to the hallowing of the name of God For they that can swallow the Camel have little reason to strain at the gnat they that can be guilty of the greater cannot stick at the lesser Sacriledge they that can rob God of his publike worship cannot easily make any scruple of robbing his Church and to take away such publike prayers as do undoubtedly glorifie the name of God what is it else but to rob God of his worship or of the honour due unto his name For he that doth forbid us to take his name in vain doth withall command us to glorifie his name and consequently to make use of such forms of prayer and of praise as we are sure do most glorifie him These forms being accordingly made for the honour of God after the rule of the two first and in obedience to the third Commandment are set apart for this use in obedience to the fourth and to take away these forms is in effect to
sin against all the first Table And they who are guilty of this sin even of putting down the true service of God are guilty of many sins together for as they sin against the third Commandment they are guilty of blasphemy as against the fourth they are guilty of sacriledge and prophaness and as they sin against the first and second Commandments denying men as much as in them lies to have God for their God and to worship him with internal and external worship according to his own holy will and command so they are downright guilty of Irreligion and of Idolatry Nay yet more which is a misery to think and the greater because t is not a mistake to say such men are guilty of worse Idolatry then many of the heathen For no Idolatry is so bad as that wherein a man doth make himself the Idol and have we not here that Idolatry when men set up their own pretended gifts against a known true and substantial worship of God for what is it for any man to pretend the gift of the spirit that all others may rely upon his lips in pouring out their souls to God but to make himself an Idol And what is it for others to rely upon pretences instead of Certainties in Gods worship but in effect to make themselves guilty of Idolatry For to speak the plain truth in this case the people do worship God not in their own Faith but in the faith of their Minister if they pray with him as Communicants before they know what he will pray which is to be guilty of will-worship whiles they resign up their souls in a blind obedience or the minister alone doth worship God whiles the People are present only as Judges not as Communicants reserving their souls unto themselves all the time he is praying till they see they can safely say Amen at the end of his prayer which is in effect to have no publike worship till the worship be quite done for publike worship is not rightly so called from its company but from its communion And Saint Paul would never have commanded all gifts whatsoever in that he commanded the first gift the gift of tongues which came immediately from the Holy-Ghost to submit to Edification if he would have allowed any other gift afterwards to oppose it self against much less to advance it self above true Christian communion since it is a plain case that Christian communion was at first commanded and ought to be still observed chiefly for Edification SECT III. Hypocritical Christians who make prayers for pretences worse Atheists then the heathen Pretenders to the spirit are the greatest enemies to the spirit and shew the least fruits of the spirit Therefore must be silenced by the Ministers of Christ and shunned by his people who have no excuse if they are misled by themselves because they are to be known by their works whereof the weakest and the meanest men are competent Judges THere is no Atheism so much dishonoureth God or deceiveth men as that of Hypocrites who make religion it self a meer pretence whereby to act their irreligious designs and practises So that the Christians Atheism is worse then the heathens for the heathen that hath not the true Religion is an Atheist not knowing God but the Christian who hath the true Religion and useth it for a pretence is an Atheist abusing and affronting him Hence is that terrible curse denounced by our Saviour against such men saying Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye devour widows houses and for a pretence make long prayer therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation Mat. 23. 13. T is not imaginable that our Saviour Christ should discourage either the gift of prayer or the use of that gift in making long prayers for himself continued all night in prayer to God Luke 6. 12. And spake a parable that men ought alwayes to pray and not to faint Luke 18. 1. Therefore we may be sure it is a grievous sin to make long prayers for a pretence when our Saviour himself may seem to dislike the prayers rather then he would not condemn the pretence And questionless such Hypocrites are most abominable Idolaters for whiles they make prayers meerly for pretences they make God an Idol and whiles they make them for pretences of devouring they make Mammon their God And this is the twofold Idolatry of Hypocrites they pray not to glorifie God and to do so is to make God an Idol they pray to enrich themselves and to do so is to make Mammon their God they pray that they may devour So that two grievous sins at once are laid to their charge one is that they are devourers for ye devour widows houses the other that they are pretenders and for a pretence make long rayers he that makes no prayers is in a sad condition because he neglects his salvation but he that makes prayers for a pretence is in a sadder condition for he increaseth his damnation therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation He that doth this may easily deceive men and is sure to deceive himself but he cannot deceive his God Thus to pretend the Spirit of God and to do the works of the flesh is little less then to blaspheme the spirit both speculatively and practically at the same time speculatively in pretending to act by him practically in acting downright against him This is to make themselves Edomites not in Edom but in Israel to speak with the smooth voice of Jacob that they may act with the rough hands of Esau to pretend to snuff the candle that they may throw down the Candlestick and put out the light of our hearts and of our eyes both together even the light of the Gospel no less then the light of Israel This is to go far from the Doctrine of Christ who made that exhortation a main part of his first Sermon Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 5. 16. For though such men are pleased to say they walk in the light more then all the world besides yet t is evident they heap up together so many works of darkness rebellion blood rapine sacriledge prophaneness injustice oppression as do even scandalize all good men and encourage and harden all wicked men and teach them who once frequently glorified their Father in heaven now not to glorifie him and those who before did carelesly glorifie him now openly to revile and to blaspheme him So direct a path have they chosen by following their new lights to make Protestants turn either Papists or Atheists and to keep not only Papists from turning Protestants but also Turks and Jews from turning Christians For what sober man can find any rational motives to be of that Church where men use their Religion not to serve their God but to serve themselves nay the worst though truest part of themselves their unbridled distempers and concupiscences
opening their sins as it follows Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith ver 13. and without doubt whosoever cordially desires to be sound in the Faith either is not concerned in the rebuke or will not be displeased with it It is Alensis his observation that the Spirit of God makes no mention of the sin of Angels in the book of Genesis but sets forth at large the sin of man and he gives this reason for it Quia Angelicam vulnus Deus non praedestinavit curare sed hominis peccatum sanare voluit Par. 2. qu. 98. m. 8. Because God intended not to heal the wound or to repair the ruine of the Angels but he intended to heal the wound and repair the ruine of man so is it still where God will not heal the sinners he suffers their sin to be undiscovered and unreproved but if he be pleased to reprove them t is because he is willing to heal them And if the mouths of unruly vain talkers and deceivers must be stopped by the Ministers then surely their communion and their Doctrine both must be shunned and abandoned by the people who can have no pretence of excuse if they be misled by false Prophets since the Text bids them in this case appeal not to their judgements wherein they might possibly be misguided by misperswasions but to their senses wherein themselves are infallible Judges for saith our blessed Saviour ye shall know them by their fruits Mat. 7. 16. The most ignorant peasant that lives knows the distinction of fruits by his outward sense and goes not to gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles And our blessed Saviour bids him be guided also by his own sense in the choice of the tree from which he would gather spiritual fruit to nourish his soul to everlasting life He may not leave a good and go to a bad tree to gather good fruit The false Prophets will say Lo here is Christ as well as the true Prophets Mat. 24. 23. Yet our Saviour saith believe them not What shall the people do in such a case shall they not believe the Prophets No they must not believe the false Prophets But how shall they distinguish betwixt the true and the false Prophets to believe the one and to shun the other I answer they must look on that other Text which professedly bids them beware of false Prophets Mat. 7. 15. and there they shall find their note of distinction for he that bids them beware teaches them to distinguish and to discern a wolf though he be in sheeps cloathing and they must distinguish them meerly by their fruits whereof they themselves cannot be but sufficient Judges Wherefore let them examine the works of the Prophets and they will soon perceive which are the true and which are the false Whether the scoffing Ismael or the patient Isaac Whether the covetous Balaam who loveth the wages of unrighteousness or the obedient Elisha who slayeth his Oxen and burneth his Plow to shew that no worldly interest can keep him from his calling Whether a false and a fierce Zedekiah that is ready to Prophecy according to the mind of Ahab and to smite a true Prophet on the cheek or a true and a mild Micaiah who vows to speak only what the Lord shall say unto him though he be sent to the prison never so often and who forbears to give ill words when he is smitten Lastly whether a proud Diotrephes who loveth to have the preheminence and receiveth not the brethren but prateth against them with malicious words or a meek and modest Demetrius that hath a good report of all men and of the truth it self In a word whether he that serveth the times or he that serveth the Lord whether he that invadeth anothers right to forsake his Religion or he that forsaketh his own right to keep and practise his Religion Surely it can be no hard matter for the people to discern in such a case on which side Christ is and on which side he is not and if they will not discern we cannot say this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed but this people are cursed because they will not know the Law they will not know that Christ is to be found in the temple among the Doctors not among the mony-changers and out of the temple among just obedient patient men that are ready to suffer for righteousness sake not among unjust rebellious outragious men that are ready to devour those that are more righteous then themselves For Saint Paul speaking of the works of the flesh useth this introduction Now the works of the flesh are manifest therefore as easily to be discerned by the ignorant as by the learned by the people as by the Priests they are manifest for all men to see them and for such men as do them not to avoid and abandon those that do them and the same Saint Paul after he hath spoken of the works of the flesh with an c. saying and such like for fear we should think he had named them all in naming those few useth this conclusion of the which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God doubtless with an intent to instruct the people as well as the Priest the unlearned as well as the learned that those who have not done such things should take heed of doing them and those who have done such things to procure some worldly advantages should take heed of doing them any more unless they will so look after the inheritance of this world as not to inherit the Kingdom of God All the works of the flesh which the Apostle there numbreth do directly proceed either from the sinfull distemper of the body as adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness drunkenness revellings or from the more sinful though less visible distemper of the soul as idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife sedition heresies envyings murders The distemper of the body is the more opprobious the more scandalous the distemper of the soul is the more dangerous the more pernicious I find Noah repented of his drunkenness I find not that Cham repented who mocked at his fathers nakedness I find that David repented of his adultery and of his uncleanness I find not that Doeg repented of his cruelty and of his maliciousness I find Publicans repenting who thought themselves sinners I find no Pharisees repenting who thought themselves Saints I will pray as heartily as I can that God will keep me from the distempers of my body lest I should defile the members of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost But above all will I pray that God will keep me from the distempers of my soul for they will downright expell Christ out of my heart and bid defiance to the Holy Ghost For the temper of Christ was the temper of charity and of humility and so also is the temper of the good Christian Come
unto me saith Christ not go from me there 's the temper of charity to invite and embrace not to repell and reject others for I am meek and lowly in heart there 's the temper of humility lowly in heart and cannot be of that pride as to forget my self meek in heart and cannot be of that presumption as to disdain and reproach my brother where you find not this temper there you may not seek for Christ where you do find the contrary distemper in the forenamed works of the flesh there you are sure not to find the Spirit of Christ and therefore must come with your libera nos Domine though you care not to have the Letanie and say Good Lord deliver me from such professors and from such a profession of the Christian Religion where I can neither find the temper nor the Spirit of Christ SECT IV. Vnsetledness in Religion shews we have not learned it from our heavenly Master or from Gods Exapostole The Holy Ghost being given us from the Father by the Son sheweth there is no salvation to them who believe not the Trinity The mixture of Praises with Prayers in the Psalms was the Abba Father of the Old Testament and proceeded from joy in the Holy Ghost which is a Joy both unsequestrable and unspeakable The Sacrifices and Hymns answerable to that joy IT is very easie for a man to depart and fall away from God but not so easie to return and to cleave unto him No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him saith our blessed Saviour John 6. 44. The Father draws us before we go unto his Son and he draws us with loving-kindness Jer. 31. 3. with bands of love Hos 11. 4. that is by the power of the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of love The Father draws by his Spirit to his Son He that believes not the Trinity cannot hope to be thus drawn and he that is not thus drawn cannot hope to come unto God which is plainly shewed by the Apostle when he saith God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Gal. 4. 6. The Greek word is very observable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for here 's another Exapostle even God the Holy Ghost as in the fourth verse we had before one Exapostle God the Son There it was God sent forth his Son here it is God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son that is He sent such a Messenger as was not only an Apostle one sent from God but also an Exapostle One sent out of God There was one Exapostle to plant the Christian Religion in the world God sent forth his Son and there is another Exapostle to plant it in our hearts God hath sent forth the Spirit of his son into your hearts the same word is used in both places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God made use of Exapostles as well as of Apostles for the planting of the true Religion Messengers sent from God would not have served the turn to make men believe the truth much less to love and practise it unless there had been also Messengers sent out of God Therefore God sent forth his Son and the Spirit of his Son that he might settle and stablish our hearts in the Christian faith So that if we be unsettled in our Religion and carried away with every blast of vain Doctrine as being not firmly established in the truth of the holy Gospel it is a plain case we have not inclined our ears and much less our hearts to those two Messengers who came immediately out of God even his own Son and his own Spirit and therefore it is no wonder if we slightly esteem of all Gods other Messengers God the Father hath sent out God the Son And God the Father and Son hath sent out God the Holy Ghost The salvation of one is the work of three the salvation of one sinful soul is the work of all three persons of the blessed Trinity The Father sending the Son the Father and Son sending the Holy Ghost which of these three persons can we lose or let go and not withall lose or let go our own Salvation which of these three needs not work as God a work of All-mighty power of All seeing wisdom of All-sufficient and All-saving goodness to turn us from our evil waies that we may be sanctified and to keep us in the waies of righteousness that we may be saved God the Son sent out of the Father into your flesh and God the Holy Ghost sent out of the Father and the Son into your hearts His Son and your flesh his Spirit and your hearts both certainly most miraculous conjunctions the one the cause of the other For his Spirit and your hearts could never have met in man had not his Son your flesh met together in God And this produceth yet another miraculous conjunction a conjunction of Prayer and of praise both together in the same mouth and from the same heart and at the same time that a righteous man cannot be so over-burdened with sorrow in himself as not to be relieved and refreshed with joy in his Saviour Thus Hannah was was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore but she found that joy and comfort in her prayer that the Text saith She went her way and did eat and her countenance was no more sad So that in effect she was so of a sorrowful Spirit as also of a joyful Spirit and as her sorrow afforded matter of Prayer so her joy afforded matter of Praise Her own spirit made her sorrowful but Gods Spirit made her joyful And this was indeed the Abba Father of those in the Old Testament who had but dark promises of a Saviour yet did with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation Isa 12. 3. who had scarce any knowledge or revelation of the person yet were very well acquainted with the joyes of the Holy Ghost Hence it is that most of the Psalms as they are exceeding devout prayers wherein Gods own Spirit teacheth us to pray and helpeth our infirmities in praying so they are also most thankful praises wherein the same spirit teacheth us to rejoyce in God for hearing our prayers They are not only prayers but they are also praises concerning the same deliverance whether it be corporal or spiritual whether it be from bodily or from Ghostly enemies as for example The 30. Psalm is a prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation as that noble Champion of Christ both for his Church and for his Truth and for his Authority hath piously and judiciously stated it in his Book of Collects upon the Psalms which should never be out of the hands of good Christians till it be fully imprinted in their hearts I say the 30. Psalm is a Prayer to be delivered from sickness and death and damnation three such sad considerations as were enough to make
That of enemies they are made servants and of servants they are made sons Secondly That being made sons they have the Spirit of his Son Thirdly That having the Spirit of his Son they have also the mind and language of his Son crying Abba Father Having their hearts true to God by inward affection and their mouths true to their hearts by outward profession IT is fit that a foolish son should know his folly as well as his filiation his folly that he may return to himself to do his duty as well as his filiation that he may return unto his Father and beg for mercy Accordingly every good Christian being made the son of God and yet still abiding too much in the sins of other men should look with one eye upon himself to increase his humility and to quicken his obedience and repentance with the other eye upon his Saviour to strengthen his faith and to inflame his piety and devotion He must see his folly as well as his filiation that he may ascribe unto God the honour due unto his name and much more the honour due unto his nature in that he disinherits not a foolish Son besotted and bewitched with the vanities of the world and with his own sinful lusts and affections but first looks on him as wise in Christ his own eternal wisdom and then makes him so that he may not only accept him for a son but may also bring him to his inheritance For there is no doubt to be made but that the filiation will carry the inheritance if so be we take care that the folly do not destroy the filiation And accordingly we must still remember that we were by nature the children of wrath born enemies but made sons by the grace of adoption and take heed of returning to our own natural corruptions or of sinning against that grace whereby we have been adopted For in that we have been adopted into Gods family we have been put out of our own so the Greeks do expresly set forth the nature of adoption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be an adopted son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas is to be put out of our own kindred out of our own stock And the Psalmist requires no less of us when he saith Hearken O daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty for he is thy Lord God and worship thou him Psal 45. 11 12. Thou canst not be an adopted son of God unless thou forget thine own people and thy fathers house that is unless thou go out of the man that thou maist go in to God leave off to be an enemy that thou maist begin to be a son forsake thy self that thou maist cleave to thy Saviour For in thy self thou art a stranger nay an enemy in him only thou art a servant or rather a Son This consideration made Saint Paul say I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. As if he had said I am crucified with Christ in that I am dead unto sin for the thought that he hath nailed my sins to his Cross makes me willing to be crucified with him And yet I still truly live but not that old carnal man I was before but made a new creature so that indeed Christ liveth in me by his Spirit making me lead a new life And though I am still in this mortal body yet my life which I live is immortal for though my person be on earth yet my conversation is in heaven And the same truth which the Apostle here preached by his Example he did in another place preach also by his Doctrine saying And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8. 10. that is the outward man is mortified to the weakning and abolishing of sin but the inner man is renewed to the encreasing and establishing of righteousness And this is the proper work of the Spirit of adoption to change a man from being an enemy to be a servant and from being a servant to be a son which we may well look upon as the first priviledge of the Saints who are truly so that is Saints in Gods account though sinners in their own Saints not of their own calling but of Gods or Saints not of their own but of Gods making Their duty is to be his servants but their honour is to be his friends nay more his sons Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. 14. They were before his enemies they are now his servants and friends They are to do whatsoever he commands them there 's their duty they are obliged as servants yet he saith unto them ye are my friends there 's their honour they are accepted as friends Great is their honour as his friends admitted to his counsels yet much greater is their honour as his sons admitted to his inheritance But this honour is meerly a priviledge not a prerogative t is such as they must thankfully receive not such as they may peremptorily demand for when ye have done all those things which are commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do saith our blessed Saviour Luk. 17. 10. Christ looked upon his own obedience as duty and therefore will not have us look upon ours as supererogation We are unprofitable servants in our service and should be so in our account and are we then in Gods account accepted as friends nay beloved as sons Great was their priviledge who could say We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth and build his house Ezra 5. 11. Sure they could not have said so much if they had pulled his house down But far greater is our priviledge who can say We are the sons of the God of heaven and earth and though we be despoiled of our inheritance in earth yet we cannot be deprived of our inheritance in heaven The prodigal son saith to his father I am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired servants Luk. 15. 19. but each of us may now invert those words and say unto our Father I am no more worthy to be a hired servant and yet thou hast made me be called thy Son A consideration which is able to kindle a holy fire in the breast of every good Christian and enflame his soul with the love of Christ by whom alone of an enemy he is made a servant of a servant a friend of a friend a Son of a son an heir even an heir of God and joint heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. For though men have son that are not heirs yet God hath no son which is not also an heir and
grievous temptation is not so easie to discover though that it hath its work is unreasonable to deny Therefore Saint Ambrose in his apologie for King David affords us a threefold excuse of his sin 1. Quia din noluit in peccato manere 2. Quia corde doluit 3. Quia potius fragilitate naturae quà m libidine peccandi Gratianus de Poenit. lib. 3. c. 25. 1. That he would not long continue in his sin I suppose he meaneth after he had been reproved for it for else he was too long in it at least a whole year 2. That he did repent of it with all his heart 3. That he had fallen into it rather out of weakness then of willfulness now if you will ask the reason of his resistance before his sin of his regret and reluctancie in it of his repentance after it you will answer your self it was from some good principle of the spirit within which made him war against the flesh even at that very instant when he was overcome by the strength of its temptation And accordingly he useth these words in his first penitential prayer Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me The holy Spirit was certainly in him when he repented and therefore not taken away from him when he sinned And thus much Aquinas is willing to admit Quod Charitas ex parte Spiritus Sancti moventis animum ad diligendum Deum impeccabilitatem habet Vnde impossible est haec duo simul esse vera quod Spiritus Sanctus velit aliquem movere ad actum charitatis quod ipse charitatem amittat peccando 22◠q. 24. ar 10. Charity or Grace as it proceeds from the Holy Ghost moving the soul to love God is not to be lost by sin wherefore it is impossible that these two propositions should be both true That the Holy Ghost will move a man to love God and that he by his sin should lose that love We conclude then That they who have once received the Spirit of adoption do still retain him for Gods gifts are without repentance and therefore he giveth not his Holy Spirit the greatest of all his gifts that he may take him away again But this Spirit still abideth in the children of God and will not let them be wholly conquered much less captivated by the flesh but either holdeth them up that they may not fall or raiseth them up when they are down For the foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal The Lord knoweth them that are his And let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2. 19. The first part of this seal cannot be so much as changed The Lord knoweth them that are his for as God himself is immutable so is his knowledge And the second part of this seal can never be totally defaced Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity for he that nameth the name of Christ so as to love what he nameth doth certainly either first or last depart from iniquity departing from it either by his righteousness or by his repentance For though man may be and often is wanting to God yet God is never wanting to himself Shall his Spirit begin a good work and not accomplish it Shall he lay the foundation and not finish the building We know what our Saviour hath said in this kind Which of you intending to build a Tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it least haply after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it all that behold it begin to mock him saying This man began to build and was not able to finish Luke 14. 28 29 30. Be it so that we may pass this jeer and scoff upon man but let us not think it may be passed upon God For it were not only unrighteous but also unreasonable to ascribe less to the Spirit of Grace then Saint Paul ascribeth to the Word of Grace since the Word is made powerful by the Spirit which accompanieth it but Saint Paul ascribeth the power of salvation to the Word of Gods grace saying And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Acts 20. 32. If the word of grace be able to build you up then sure the Spirit of grace much more which is not only able but also willing to build you up or else he would never have begun to lay the foundation and when power and will are both in the premises the work or effect must be in the conclusion So then though we be cast down yet since the Spirit of God is both able and willing to build us up we have a firm hope to be raised at last as high as heaven for though heaven be as far above our deserts as above our reach yet we cannot doubt but he that hath given us an inheritance among all them which are sanctified will also give us an inheritance among all them which are glorified And thus the same Aquinas rightly grounds our hope of salvation which we have in this life not upon mans righteousness which may fade and decay in a moment but upon Gods almighty power and all-saving mercy which can never decay Spes viatorum non innititur principaliter gratiae jam habitae sed divinae omnipotentiae misericordie per quam etiam qui gratiam non habet eam consequi potest Our hope of salvation doth not rely principally upon the grace which we have but upon Gods power and mercy whereby they may have grace who yet have it not and consequently we may come to have grace again if we should lose it Therefore though we should suppose without heresie that grace it self may fail yet we cannot suppose without infidelity that Gods power and mercy should ever fail and that can as easily restore grace as it did at first give it But Saint Gregory will not let us go so far in our supposition having thus dogmatically determined this controversie though some of his own Church will scarce now stand to it as to his decretory sentence or Papal determination Quod in illis donis sine quibus ad vitam pervenire non potest spiritus sanctus in electis omnibus semper manet sed in aliis non semper manet Greg. 2. Moral The Holy Ghost doth alwaies abide in Gods elect as to those gifts without which they cannot be saved though in regard of other gifts and graces he may be said sometimes to depart from them Wherefore we are sure the Spirit of his Son is alwaies in their hearts who are adopted to work in them an habitual perseverance in godliness for that is absolutely necessary to salvation though not alwaies to work in them an actual perseverance in godliness without which they may be saved For the
to devour his Pastor then to follow him one more ready to scatter and tear the flock then to associate and joyn with them I must take heed of being a Wolf towards my Brother If I desire to be a Sheep towards my Saviour Homo homini lupus Christo agâ—â—â— were a strange proverb and more strange Divinitâ— That he who is a Wolf to man should be a Lamb to Christ It was an evil Spirit that made Saul a Wolf to David 1 Sam. 19. 9. And the same evil spirit shewed him to be none of Gods sheep He watches to catch David but to lose himself and whiles he seeks to destroy Gods servant he doth indeed destroy his own soul This makes the spirit of God look upon him as a heathen not as an Israelite as appears from Psal 59. 5. Thou therefore O Lord God of hosts the God of Israel awake to visit all the heathen This Psalm was made upon that occasion that Saul had sent and watched Davids house to kill him and we must expound these words according to that occasion So Tremelius Ad visitandum omnes gentes ist as i. e. Copias Saulis quae eodem animo Davidem persequebantur quo gentes aliene à populo Dei facturae fuissent Awake to visit the heathen that is the Armies of Saul which did persecute David with as malicious a Spirit as the very heatheÌ„ who knew not God would have persecuted him Thou which laughest the heathen to scorn saith Isacides wilt also laugh those men to scorn And Ezra shews how he is able to do it saying that he is the Lord of hosts of the Armies of Angels that are above in heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less then of the armies of Israel that are below on the earth God is not said to laugh any to scorn but only heathen as in this Psal ver 8. And in the second Psalm v. 4 or such as make themselves like heathen by raging as furiously as they against the Church of Christ and the ministers of his Gospel as appears Acts 4. where the Apostles being persecuted for preaching Christ make use of this very Psalm in their prayer Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things For such men whether they be Jews or Christians are no better then heathen in Gods account and accordingly he that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision He laughs them to scorn because of their vain imaginations of opposition against Christ and much more because of their vain endeavours in opposing him and his laughing ends in their weeping and their weeping ends as their cruelty began in gnashing of teeth They gnashed on him with their teeth Acts 5. 54. there 's their sin which shewed them be men little better then Wolves and again there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Mat. 8. 12. there 's their punishment which will shew them to be men worse then nothing The first gnashing of teeth was from the fierceness the last shall be from the anguish of their hearts And the spirit of God seemeth to pray that it may be so saying and be not mercifull unto them that offend of malicious wickedness Psal 59. v. 5. So that we need not wonder why so many Christians now a dayes come not to the state of true Christianity which alone puts them in a capacity of mercy for the reason is plain t is because they sin out of malicious wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not mercifull to any wicked prevaricator Selah Tremelius renders the words thus Ne gratiam facias ullis perfidè agentibus iniquitatem summe He finds a new signification for Selah to shew he had found a new Selah for their sin that is a new hight or exaltation in the sin of those men who are praevaricatores iniquitatis who do not only continue but also prevaricate in their iniquity Qui Deum cultu honore Davidem prosequi simulantes perfidè ea perpetrabant quae sequuntur saith he who pretending to fear God and to honour David did perfidiously act all that follows in the Psalm against them both How are such men like to come to Salvation when the Son of God will not preach for it and the Spirit of God doth pray against it Be not mercifull unto them that offend of malicious wickedness Surely OLord mercy is thy delight no less then it is our desire It is above all thy works and shall it not much more be above all ours shall there be any sin which is properly our work of so vast an extent as to reach beyond thy mercy or of so loud a cry as to make thee stop thine ears against the prayer of a distressed sinner Oh no t is not iniquity but prevaricating in iniquity that makes man not care to pray T is not sin but impenitency in sin that makes God not hear his prayers Your iniquit es have separated betwixt you and your God Isa 59. 2. that is your multiplied your malicious sins committed wth a shameless face with a stiff neck with a high hand and with a hard heart which first fill your Souls with iniquity and then with impeniteney such iniquities as these whiles unrepented and t is like they will be unrepented whiles they would be unreproved do separate betwixt you and your God For froward thoughts separate from God there 's the separation of a perverse sinner from God the Father who is God of himself and again into a malicious soul wisdom will not enter there 's his Separation from God the Son who is the wisdom of the Father And lastly wisdom is a loving spirit there 's his separation from God the Holy Ghost who is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son the spirit of love Wisdom 1. 3 4 6. This is the reason why not Iscariot is annexed to that Judas who spake to our blessed Saviour and whom our Saviour Christ was pleased to answer God the Son did not answer such an Apostate such a Traitor as Iscariot was and God the Holy Ghost would not have us think that he did answer him he that once thought it better to be a Traitor then to be a Disciple doth now think it better not to be then to have been a traytor He that once was willing from an Apostle to become a Divel is now much more willing from a Divel to become nothing He then would not hear the voice of Christ and now he cannot hear it unless it be that voice which hath already filled his heart with the horror though it shall not till the last day fill his ears with the noise of it Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Mat 25. 41. A voice that Christ hath reserved as a Judge for those who would not hear him as a Saviour A voice which he will utter to the goates on his left hand not to the sheep on his right hand Lord make me consider in
know not a man Luke 1. 34. I answer then according to this distinction First If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from piety or admiration it is exceeding commendable we have an excellent president for it the man after Gods own heart who twice spoke these words from Gods own mouth for surely with his spirit What is man that thou hast such respect unto him or the son of man that thou so regardest him Psalm 8. 4. and 144. 3. Nor is it possible for any one that hath indeed the Spirit of God when he considers the immensity of Gods goodness and of his own unworthiness not to make this doubt of admiration unto his own soul What is man what am I a sinful man in my person that thou hast such respect unto me or What is the son of man what am I a sinful man in my nature that thou so regardest me Secondly If the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infirmity it is at all times excusable because though the spirit be willing yet the flesh is weak Mat. 26. 41. and at sometimes almost commendable when either by our omissions of piety we have quenched or by our commissions of impiety we have grieved the Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption In this case of spiritual leprosie Gods answer to Moses concerning Miriam may be taken as a full determination concerning us If her Father had but spit in her face should she not be ashamed seven days Let her be shut out of the camp seven days and after that let her be received in again Numb 12. 14. Si pater terrenus aliquod gravis in eam irae signum edidisset puderet eam saltem septem Dies redire in conspectum ejus saith Junius If her father on earth had shewed some great sign of anger against her she would for shame not presently rush into his sight but would forbear to come before him for one seven days The explanation is very punctual and we cannot but see that in God Almighties own Logick the argument is good from our Father on earth to our Father in heaven Hence that prayer of sorrowful David Cast me not away from thy presence He confesseth he durst not come into his sight and prays that he might not be for ever banished from it Psal 51. 11. and again redde mihi laetitiam salutaris tui Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation Having grievously offended his God he could not but discover in his own soul the signs and tokens of that offence therefore he prayes God to restore unto him the joy of his salvation For had he not in his blood-guiltiness lost the joy of his salvation he might in his impenitency have lost the enjoyment of it Good Lord that we should so out-strip this holy man in our sin and come so short of him in our repentance This is certainly a ready way not to strengthen our faith but to weaken it not to lessen our doubtings but to increase them yea to turn our doubtings into distresses and our distresses into despair and our despair into damnation Thirdly and lastly if the doubt concerning our being in the state of true Christianity proceed from infidelity it is neither commendable nor excusable in any nay it is so far from being commendable in any that t is altogether inexcusable in all For such a doubt supposeth not a weakness but a want of faith and consequently sheweth the man that hath it to distrust his Saviour not himself and to remain still in the state of infidelity notwithstanding God calleth him so earnestly to the state of faith Wherefore since without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. such a doubting of infidelity must needs leave him that hath it under Gods most heavy and more just displeasure under his most heavy displeasure because he embraceth not reconciliation when it is offered under his most just displeasure because he believeth not him that offereth it This is the reason of the Apostles exceeding pathetical exhortation Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3. 12. The heart is made evil by unbelief and shews it is so by departing from the living God so that we are advised and exhorted to take heed of unbelief as we would take heed of an evil heart and of departing from the living God T is at first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart oâ—â—nfidelity t is at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an evil heart of apoâ—tacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in apostatizing from the living God But we must here take heed that we confound not together the doubtings of infirmity and of infidelity The one saith Lord I believe help thou my unbelief the other cannot say Lord I believe The one dare not trust himself but the other will not trust his Saviour a doubting of infidelity rejecteth faith but a doubting of infirmity desireth it For though doubting cannot be in faith yet it may be in him that hath faith Saint Peters faith could not doubt yet himself doubted so saith the text when he saw the wind boistrous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cryed saying Lord save me Mat. 14. 13. Though he was full of fear yet he was not empty of faith For he cryed saying Lord save me And therefore we may not say of any other in his case more then our Saviour Christ did say of him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Mat. 14. 31. O thou of little faith not O thou of no faith for he did fully believe in Christ and did only misdoubt himself And surely it would not be much amiss if every confident man would do so too and ask himself the question which Christ asks Saint Peter Lovest thou me John 21. 17. and ask it again and again and not be grieved at the often asking it dost thou indeed love thy Saviour lovest thou him who died for thee lovest thou him who loved thee with an everlasting love For the more you are assured in your own heart that you love your Saviour the more will he assure you of his everlasting love CAP. II. Of the knowledge of the state of true Christianity SECT I. The knowledge of our being in the state of true Christianity is from our keeping the words of Christ And that Antinomians cannot truly be and much less know they be in the state of true Christianity HE that is in the state of true Christianity cannot but desire to know it and he that knows himself to be so cannot but exceedingly rejoyce and triumph in that knowledge Accordingly after the discourse of the state of true Christianity in the next place we ought to enquire concerning our own knowledge of that state for that man can scarce be thought to believe the life everlasting who labours not
69. super Cantic Si sensero aperiri mihi sensum ut intelligâ—m Scripturas aut uberiores desursum influere animo meditationum imbres non ambigo sponsum adesse Verbi siquidem hae copiae sunt de plenitudine ejus ista accipimus If I perceive my understanding opened to understand the Scripture or the influence and distillation of heavenly meditations upon my soul I cannot doubt but the Bridegroom is at hand for these are the armies that the word doth march withall and it is from his fulness that my soul is thus filled The second proof of our communion with Christ is this that we continue and abide in his love and this is a consequent of the former as it is said ver 10. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love No keeping of his commandments no abiding in his love Wherefore the Solifidian is in a dangerous condition who seeks not to joyn obedience to his faith For he abides not in the love of Christ and how then can he expect that Christ should interpose his death and passion betwixt the judgement of God and his sinful soul since that interposition is clearly the greatest effect that can be of Christs love Greater love hath no man then this that a man lay down his life for his friends John 15. 13. Our blessed Saviour dyed for his enemies but none shall have the benefit of his death in the day of Judgement but only his friends and none are his friends but they that abide in his love and none abide in his love but they that keep his commandments if not by their righteousness yet at least by their repentance The third proof of our communion with Christ is this that his joy remaineth in us ver 11. These things have I spoken unto you sc the things that belong to your abiding in me that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full Lord what a mercy is it that thy joy doth come unto us much more that it doth remain in us And from whence coâ—â—â—h thy joy but from the testimony of thy Holy Spirit that thou hast reconciled us unto the Father and from the testimony of our own consciences that we do not abide in any sin to hinder the comfort and hazard the fruit of that reconciliation This is the very joy of the Holy Ghost a joy not heard of but amongst Christian a joy not found but amongst good Christians who have the Spirit of Christ witnessing with their spirits that they are the children of God and if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ if so be that they suffer with him that they may be also glorified together Rom. 8. 16 17. T is not all the losses of the earth can discourage those who are the heirs of heaven t is not all the sufferings of this world can dismay those who have the joy of the next world because they know they can be losers and sufferers only for a time but they are sure they shall have gain and glory for ever SECT II. That our communion with Christ is as our participation of Christ exteral or internal The one may be the communion of hypocrites the other only of good Christians The way to be a good Christian in a bad Church NO man can hope to be wise without wisdom righteous without righteousness holy without holiness true without truth or to see without light or to live without life And therefore no man can hope to be wise righteous holy true or to see or to live without Christ for he of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification 1 Cor. 1. 30. and he alone is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world John 1. 9. and he alone is the truth and the life John 14. 6. Therefore we must have Communion with him or we cannot have wisdom righteousness sanctification truth light or life from him But how can we have communion with Christ since He is in heaven and we are on earth I answer as we can partake of him so we can communicate with him For participation and communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in Saint Pauls language equipollent one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae participatio quae communio are set down as terms convertible 2 Cor. 6. 14. So far therefore as we participate of Christ so far forth we communicate with Christ If we participate of him only externally whether in his Word or in his Sacraments we communicate with him only externally If we participate of him internally we communicate also with him internally according to that excellent determination of that irrefragable Doctor upon this question An mali pertineant ad unionem capitis cum corpore Ecclesiae whether wicked men belong to that Union of the Church wherein Christ as head is united with the body which question he determines in the negative saying thus Mali quidem sunt in unitate Ecclesiae dummodo habent fidem rectam ut zizania cum tritico Mat. 13. sed non sunt in unitate corporis Ecclesiae sunt ergo de Ecclesia sed non de corpore Ecclesiae nam ut in corpore humano est unio membrorum duplex sc materialis per nervos formalis per vitam sic in corpore Ecclesiae est duplex unio membrorum una quasi materialis quae est per fidem alia formalis quae est per charitatem Alâ—n. par 3. qu. 12. m. 2. ar 3. Wicked men are in the Unity of the Church as long as they profess the true faith as the tares are with the wheat Mat. 13. But they are not in the unity of the body of the Church therefore they are of the Church but not of the body of the Church For as in the body of a man there is a twofold Union of the members to wit a material union by nerves ligaments and a formal union by spirit and life so in the body of the Church there is a twofold union of the members the one as it were a material union in the outward profession of the same Christian Faith the other a formal union in the inward affection and love of that Faith which they profess And hence is that distinction of Aquinas for Stapleton and the later writers have it from him Quidam sunt de Ecclesiae numero tantum quidam merito numero Some men are members of the Christian Church only in their number or in their persons some also in their merit or in their Dispositions some men partake of the Word and Sacraments only with their ears and with their mouths but others partake of them also with their hearts as it is said of the blessed Virgin-mother She kept all these sayings in her heart Luke 2. 51. the one we may say are Christs external the other his internal communicants And the Apostle in the same place useth three other
the word for the word of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two edgedsword peircing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discoverer of the thoughts and intents of the heart ver 12. All which force and activity cannot be from the dead letter which constitutes the word but from the quick spirit which accompanies and enlivens it But their faith was and our faith is wanting to the Spirit of God which brings us all under that sharp reproof of our blessed Saviour O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luke 24. 25. For if we be not slow to believe yet generally we believe by an historical faith proceeding from the conviction of the understanding meerly through the evidence of truth as the Devils believe and tremble not by a justifying faith proceeding from the conversion of the will through the love of truth And hence it is that though the cheif corner stone be rightly laid in all Christian Churches all alike confessing Christ to be the eternal Son of God and the Mediator betwixt God and man for if any deny this they are neither to be thought nor to be called Christians yet the building is not rightly raised in many Churches the reason is because there be many mockers in these last times who walk after their own ungodly lusts separating themselves sensual not having the Spirit as Saint Jude admonisheth But in no wise building up themselves in their most holy faith or praying in the Holy Ghost or keeping themselves in the love of God as Saint Jude adviseth No wonder if such a faith as this came far short of its proper object Christ with all the blessings and mercies of God since indeed it comes far short of it self For a faith that maketh men not build up but pull down the practice of religion and pray not in Gods Holy Spirit but in their own perverse spirits and keep themselves not in the love of God and consequently of his Church but in the love of their own self-interests and advantages such a faith or rather such a phansie or fiction and faction as this is and must be called comes far short of faith and therefore cannot but come far short of Christ the proper object of faith Saint Paul tells us of another kind of faith which to them under the Law was the evidence of things not seen and must be so to us under the Gospel saying these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Heb. 11. 13. They died in that faith in the which we ought to live and dye though the object of it be more clearly revealed to us then it was to them a faith which is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen A faith knowing by evidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they did see the promises a faith approving by adherence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were perswaded of them A faith applying by affection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they embraced them and lastly a faith working and persevering by profession practice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they confessed the same promises not only in their words but also in their deeds in their life and conversation accounting themselves strangers and Pilgrims on earth when they considered those heavenly promises And that made them like Pilgrims earnestly to long after their own country and not do or desire any thing for love of earth which might hinder or delay their passage to heaven So that a faith thus seeing thus applying thus approving thus confessing the promises of salvation by Christ is the faith which our Apostle defineth to be the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen that is to say a faith that now maketh Christ present with the soul by the communion of his grace and will hereafter make the soul present with Christ in the communion of his glory Oh for such a faith to bring my Saviour into my soul and to keep him there till faith it self be no longer faith but be turned into vision A faith that engageth the whole man in all his powers and faculties both of soul and body For only such a faith as taketh up the whole man in his understanding will affections actions can take a right and lay a fast hold on Christ such a faith though it cannot miraculously now open the heavens as it did once to Saint Stephen yet it can and will pierce the heavens and there see the son of man standing on the right hand of God ready to defend us on earth and as ready to receive us into heaven Whence we may very well conclude that this communion of good Christians with Christ or of the body with the head though at so great a distance is in the thing it self most real and substantial though in the manner it be only spiritual and mystical Christ and his Church nay every true member of his Church are as substantially united together as man and wife Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church Ephes 5. 25. that is to say his wife And therefore as no distance can keep the man and his wife from being one flesh so neither Christ and his Church from being one spirit He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And to put us out of doubt that we whilst we live here on earth if we live unto him are thus joyned unto him Saint John saith plainly Hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us 1 John 3. 24. There cannot be a more substantial union then is of the soul with the body because the soul abideth in the body and the same union is of Christ with the soul because he abideth in the soul and as we know the soul abideth in the body by the spirit or breath which it giveth to the body so we know that Christ abideth in the soul by the spirit which he giveth to the soul Yet is this union of Christ with his body not carnal but spiritual not to be discerned by the strength of the outer but of the inner man such an union as Saint Paul describeth to all but wisheth only to good Christians for though he might wish the Son of righteousness to shine upon a dunghill yet he might not wish him to be joyned to it that God would grant you to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith Ephes 3. 16 17 Here is a most real and substantial union and communion betwixt Christ and good Christians for the spirit strengtheneth them and Christ dwelleth in them but t is only spiritual for the spirit strengtheneth their inner man and mystical for Christ dwelleth
take no delight in God For if he had delighted himself in the Law of God he would have delighted himself in the Church to which God committed and with which God intrusted his Law But he would not take delight in God and therefore God by way of retaliation will not take delight in him And this he may be sure of if God take no delight in him what ever he may do for a while in this world yet certainly in the next world he will take no delight in himself For he will then be so out of joint as never to be set again Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Isa 50. 11. A text that is to be expounded of Schismaticks in Iarchies opinion who thus begins to gloss it Behold all ye because saith he they did not hear the voice of his Prophets So we see that in his judgement the words concern those who would not hear the Church and we may read in them The sin and the punishment of Schismaticks Their sin is twofold they kindle a fire and compass themselves with sparks that is they are Incendiaries in Church and State and they love to be so And their punishment is also twofold 1. That in this life they are suffered to walk in the â—ight of their own false fire walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled q. d. Quum non acquiescaâ—â—â— igâ—â— sacro pergâ—tote in prophano vestro sed perituri tamen ut filii Aaronis Levit. 10. saith Trem. since you will not acquiesce and rest satisfied with the holy fire that came from God and with the true light thereof that is in his Church go walk in your own strange fire and after your own false lights but know you shall certainly perish as did the Sons of Aaron Lev. 10. where Nabad and Abihu for offering of strange fire were devoured by fire 2. That at the end of this life they are punished with everlasting death This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow as if he had said because ye will needs stand up in sin ye shall be sure to lie down in sorrow and ye shall so lie down in sorow as that ye shall never rise up in glory And we have little reason to wonder at this grievous punishment but less to doubt of it for every Schismatical spirit by putting it self out of the communion of Gods Church doth also put it self out of the communion of God himself For Christs Church requires our communion by the authority of Christ the eternal Son of God And if you ask what Church it must be answered That Church which is his body for that only can act by power and vertue of the Head If you farther ask what Church is his body It must be answered the Catholick Church that is to say the whole congregation of Christian people dispersed over the face of the whole earth For so doth Saint Paul plainly answer for us saying And he is the head of the body the Church Col. 1. 18. Not naming this or that particular Church but taking the whole body of Christian people for the body of Christ or for his Catholick Church For they are all united together in one communion and fellowship by the spirit of Christ even as all the members of the body are united in one communion by the soul So Aquinas Sicut in uno homine est una anima unum corpus tamen sunt diversa membra ipsius Ita Ecclesia Catholica est unum corpus habet diversa membra Anima autem quae hoc corpus vivificat est spiritus sanctus in opusc de symbol As in one man there is but one soul and one body although there be very may several members because they are all made one body by vertue of the soul which gives life to all so is the Catholick Church but one body although it consist of divers particular Churches as of so many members because they are all made one body by the spirit of God which quickens and enlivens them all So that no man can say any one particular Church is the Catholick Church excluding other Christian Churches without confining the spirit of God and dismembring the body of Christ which is little less then damnable blasphemy against the Spirit for he is infinite and therefore unconfinable and as damnable Schism against the Son of God for he hath made himself one with his Church and therefore to cut off any part of his Church from him is to cut him off from himself Let me rather rejoice that the spirit of God is not to be confined and the body of Christ is not to be dismembred for why should my eye be evil because he is good Why should I deny that mercy to others which God hath undeservedly bestowed on me Will he not say to me as Moses to Joshua Enviest thou for my sake Numb 11. 29. for what is it to deny the Holy Spirit to other Christians that are not of our own profession but enviously to wish that God would deny his spirit unto them Or what is it to say they are not of Christs body but malitiously to wish they were not so We may not then labour to bring back so much of Judaism into the world as to say now He hath not dealt so with any Nation neither have the heathen knowledge of his Laws Psal 147. 20. for we cannot say he hath restrained his Church to any one Nation or People since himself hath said that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Acts 10. 35. Be it therefore taken for granted that all the Christian Churches in the world do make up the Catholick Church of Christ and that it is so called not only for its accidental Catholicism which is universality of time place and person because it comprizeth all times all places all persons that is all conditions of men But also and much rather for its Essential or Substantial Catholicism which is universality of doctrine which all they do hold and maintain that are reputed or called Christians and that doctrine is called by Saint John This confession That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 John 4. 2. The Apostles scope and intention in that place is briefly to teach us how to try or examine the spirits that is the several doctrinâ—â— of religion that we may know who are true and who are false teachers and he tells us that whosoever teacheth that Jesus is the Christ that is the only founder and governour of the Church and Saviour of the world that mans doctrine is of God for it is not to be doubted
but to have an Anticatholick Spirit in a Catholick Church will make me a Schismatick even in the communion of Saints Therefore Christianus Catholicus Christian Catholick is the Title I desire to assume and will labour to justifie the one may be as my proper the other as my common name the one shewing what I am in my person the other shewing what I am in my communion For I cannot but think Lactantius his pen borrowed inke from heaven when it dropped down this admirable observation Christiani esse desierunt qui Christi nomine amisso humana externa vocabula induerunt Lact. de vera sap cap. 30. They have left off to be Christians who have left off the name of Christ that they may call themselves by other mens external names For indeed all other names are Notes and causes of division t is only the name of Christ is the note and cause of communion amongst Christians This is truely the voice of a dove that hath no gall and me thinks I see the Holy Ghost still appearing in this Dove Sure I am there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but only the name of Christ Acts 4. 12. and why should I then either desire a name that cannot shew my Religion or desire a Religion that cannot bring me salvation SECT II. The excellency of Christian communion as holding of Christ and fom him having Immortality piety verity and charity and of the proper place company and author of this communion THE Communion of men is frequently broken off by faction in their life or necessarily broken off by dissolution in their death But the communion of Christians is altogether indissolvable for it endures no faction to separate the members from the body it incurs no dissolution to separate the body from the Head Other communions are cut off and destroyed by by death but this is confirmed and enlarged by it and the reason is because he is the Head of this communion who is the first born from the dead So saith Saint Paul He is the head of the body the Church who is the beginning the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. And indeed this is the greatest excellency of our Christian communion that it not only begins but also continues with Christ and that in his twofold exaâ—tation in his exaltation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he had by nature as the beginning coaeternal and coaequal with his Father and in his exaltation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he had by dispensation as the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. An excellent communion indeed that is grounded upon eternity both à parte ante for he is the beginning and à parte post for he is the first born from the dead Col. 1. 18. And such is the communion of all good Christians with Christ and surely no other can have communion with him for they were joined with Christ in one election before the beginning of the world as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world Eph. 1. 4. and shall be joined with him in one Salvation after the end of it Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me John 17. 24. The first communion we have with our Saviour as he is the beginning the second as he is the first born from the dead Hence it is that the Apostle Saint Paul so exceedingly labours in all his Epistles first to make us sensible of then to make us thankfull for this great mercy For this Method he observes in all his Epistles making it his business first to shew us the blessings we have in Christ then to exhort us to the practice of true Christianity But more particularly in those Epistles which he writ in his captivity at Rome immediately before his death which he purposely divideth as it were into these two parts one of doctrine another of application As for example In his Epistle to the Ephesians he spends the three first chapters wholly in doctrine declaring the benefits we have by Christ and the three last chapters wholly in application exhorting us to shew our selves dutifull and thankfull Christians So again in his Epistle to the Colossians all his labour in the two first chapters is to shew us what blessings we have in Christ what prepared in our election what exhibited in our redemption what consummated in our salvation and in the two last chapters what thankfulness we are obliged to for so great blessings exhorting us accordingly by all holiness of life that we may approve our selves to be truly thankfull In both which arguments he is so zealous that he takes many whole sentences out of his Epistle to the Ephesians and repeats them again though a little shorter in his Epistle to the Colossians as neither afraid to pen his Sermons though he preached by the spirit nor yet to preach the same Sermon twice for in truth his Epistle to the Colossians is little other then an Epitome or compendium of that to the Ephesians He had heard by Epaphras that the Colossians were setled and established in the communion of Christ cap. 1. vers 8. and that made him write this Epistle to keep them still in that communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Sain Chrysost Saint Paul writ three Epistles to those Churches which he had not then seen that to the Romans that to the Hebrews and this to the Colossians which Church it is probable he never saw at all and accordingly professeth he had a great conflict for them because they had not seen his face in the flesh Col. 2. 1. His intent was to shew he would be with them in his affection though he could not be with them in his person accordingly he gives this reason for his writing to the Colossians which may likewise serve for his writing to those other Churches that though he was not one of their company yet he was one of their Communion saying For though I be absent in the flesh yet am I with you in the spirit joying and beholding your order and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ Col. 2. 5. He openly professeth himself one of their communion yet I am with you in the spirit and sheweth the cause why he was so willing to communicate with them because of their order and the stedfastness of their faith in Christ Good God what a strange course have we taken of late to make all good Christians which are and must be of Saint Pauls mind to abhor our communion who neither care for order nor for stedfastness but instead of order do embrace confusion instead of stedfastness do eagerly pursue inconstancy who neither have order in the practice nor stedfastness in the profession of our religion who pretend to faith in Christ but shew no stedfastness in our faith So that t is much to
that before they came to this Psalm their voices were at a very high pitch God not permitting them to dissemble their danger who would needs oppose his Church though by denouncing and divulging it they incurred their own They were therefore to sing those words in a high and loud tone The righteous Lord hath hewn the snares of the ungodly in pieces ver 4. or rather as it is in the orher translation hath cut asunder the cords of the wickd even those cords whereby they drew the Plow to make long furrows upon the Churches back saith Junius densos funes quibus aratrum trahebant in dorso Ecclesiae And he borrowed this gloss from Aben Ezra who thus expoundeth the place The Lord will cut asunder their cords that they shall not be able to plow upon my back and the meaning is that the Lord will take away their burdens sc who had led Israel captive from off the shoulders of Israel by destroying their Dominion Again ver 5. 6. Let them be confounded and turned backward as many as have evil will at Sion Let them be even as the grass growing upon the housetops which withereth before it be plucked up If they be not confounded and turned backward in this world they will in the next for this curse cannot fall to the ground and to be turned backward in the next world is nothing less then to be turned into Hell as the grass that is withered is good for nothing but to be thrown into the fire And this is the very doom that Saint Paul hath denounced against them Rom. 2. 8 9. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish c. What is there more in Hell then indignation and wrath tormenting the soul then tribulation and anguish afflicting the body And this will be the punishment of those who are contentious and meerly out of contention at first do not obey the truth and at last do obey unrighteousness Therefore the Apostle useth an Emphatical expression to set forth their contentiousness saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lis autem qui sunt ex contentione as the Vulgar Latine hath rendred it But to them that are of contention that is so contentious as if they were born or made of contention this preposition Ex doth here note the material cause as if contention were the very matter of which such men were made Aquinas ingeniously maintains that Position Creare est aliquid ex nihilo facere To create is to make something out of nothing mainly by this distinction Quum Praepositio Ex due importet habitudinem causae materialis ordinem hic non designat causam materialem sed ordinem tantùm sicut quum dicitur Ex mane fit meridies id est post mane fit meridies Where the preposition Ex doth import two things either the material cause out of which the thing is made or the Order of its making here it doth not import the material cause but only the Order as when we say that the noon is made out of the morning we mean after the morning so when we say to create is to make something out of nothing we only mean it is to make that something which before was meerly nothing 1. Par. qu. 45. art 1. But we cannot fasten such an exposition upon these words of Saint Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iis autem qui sunt ex contentione But those that are of contention for this Of cannot import their beginning as if they had been such but now were not and therefore it must import their constitution that they are such and made of such principles that they are so of contention as of that which is the chief ingredient in their composition And according to this interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They which are of contention will signifie those who make contention their study and delight as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3. 7 9. They whch are of Faith doth signifie those which wholly depend and relie upon faith in Christ contrary to whom are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 10. As many as are of the works of the Law that is As many as place their hope and confidence in the works of the Law And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They which were of the circumcision Gal. 2. 12. doth signifie those which did glory or boast of their circumcision and made it their business to be zealous for those kind of outward and carnal Ordinances And this is agreeable with Saint Hieroms criticism upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he thus explaineth Est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quum qui semper ad contradâ—cendum paratus stomacho delectatur alieno muliebri jurgio contendit provocat contendentem alio nomine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hier. in 5. ad Galat. The spirit of contradiction and of contention both are according to this gloss in those men of whom Saint Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But unto them that are contentious None can be a formal Separatist from the communion of his Church rightly established but he must have the Spirit of contention to make him a Schismatick and the Spirit of contradiction to make him labour to justifie or at least to continue and prolong his Schism So that indeed such a man hath indignation and wrath though unjustly in his sin and therefore may expect to have them both but very justly in his Punishment But unto them that are contentious indignation and wrath saith the Text They unjustly had indignation and wrath against their Church that they might be contentious And God will justly have indignation and wrath against them that they may be punished for their contention All which considered we have reason to believe that external Christian communion as far as it is truly Christian is to be carefully followed maintained and preserved in all Churches to be forsaken persecuted and destroyed in no Church For God hath not left it to the disposal of the Kings and Potentates of this world whether he shall be publickly served or not only hath given them a strict command to promote and advance his publick worship and service He gave not power to his Apostles for destruction but only for edisication and therefore that power that tends only to destruction cannot be of his giving What shall we say of those who commanded the Apostles not to speak at all in the name of Jesus Acts 4. 18. Shall we say they had power from God so to do God forbid for then the Christian Religion could not have been planted without Rebellion and so should not have been planted at all For the Text is plain which forbiddeth to do evil that good may come Gods power doth no thwart it self nor put men upon contradictions Therefore in that the Apostles were commanded to pray and preach in the name of Jesus the Rulers of the Jews were commanded not to
those Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus were as much ordained and appointed by men as any can be of any Church till the worlds ends supposing they be rightly ordained to whom yet the Apostle saith Take heed unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers Act. 20. 28. For the ordination of Ministers though it is by man yet is it not of men but of God even as also is the Gospel which they are ordained to preach so that to resist them and their Doctrine is not to resist men but God so said he who first ordained Ministers of the Gospel and still assisteth them in their ministrations He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Luk. 10. 16. How shall any man go on this errand without Gods sending when the eternal word himself would not preach till he was sent How shall any man despise those whom the Word hath sent and not despise the Word that sent them and the Father that sent the Word And how shall any man despise the Father and the Son and not grieve the Holy Spirit who proceedeth from them So impossible is it for any to despise the Church which God hath set over him and not sin against God the Father Son and Holy Ghost For the argument is à minori ad majus if it be dangerous to despise one much more to despise all if to undervalue a Disciple much more an Apostle For as the Apostles had a greater trust then the 70. Disciples so hath every National Church which is as it were the grand Apostle of its Nation a greater trust then any particular Bishop or Presbyter of the same and the Church now hath that trust as the Apostles first had it from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Saint Paul saith of himself but doubtless he saith it for more then himself that he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God that is of God the Father 1 Tim. 1. 1. Saint Luke saith of him that t was God the Son even Jesus our blessed Saviour who called him to be an Apostle who said unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and who said of him He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the Children of Israel Acts 9. 4 15. The same Saint Luke saith in another place that he was called to the Function of the Apostleship by the commandment of God the Holy Ghost Act. 13. 2. The Holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereto I have called them Which variety of expression doth not only verifie that common axiome of Divinity Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa The works of the blessed Trinity in regard of any external product are indivisible so that what is externally done by one person is done by all But it doth also testifie the great trust which was laid upon every one of the Apostles in that he received his commission from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost And as this trust hath since been and still is derived to the Church so it hath been and is derived by the same glorious and blessed Trinity Whereby we see the large Exposition that is to be given to those words he that heareth you heareth me Luk. 10. 16. for it is all one as if it had been said he heareth God he heareth the Son of God he heareth the Spirit of God Wherefore supposing that this national Church wherein we live is as Gods Apostle to this Nation no sectary can justly pretend to God or Christ no Enthusiast can justly pretend to the Spirit of God and Christ why he should not hearken to the dictates and follow the directions of this Church which God and Christ and the Spirit of God and Christ hath set over him I find in the antient Calenders on the twenty sixth of May this Title Augustini Anglorum Apostoli The feast of Saint Augustine the Apostle of the English He was looked upon as one that had planted the Christian Faith amongst us and was therefore in the judgement of the Latine Church esteemed and called our Apostle I will not dispute the ground but only admit the Title for if one single Priest or Bishop was not unfitly called the Apostle of our Nation Then much more may a whole company of Bishops and Presbyters be so called and ought to be so esteemed who have more generally propagated more firmly established and more carefully preserved amongst us the true Christian Faith It is Saint Pauls own argument to the Corinthians If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord 1 Cor. 9. 2. As if he had said no Embassadour can more justifie his trust and his authority by his Princes seal annexed to his Credential letters then I can justifie my Apostleship towards you in that by my preaching you have been converted to the Lord and are confirmed in him what Saint Paul was to the Corinthians in bringing them to the knowledge and to the communion of Christ to the knowledge of Christ by preaching the word to the communion of Christ by administring the Sacraments that our Church hath been and still is to us And therefore what Saint Paul said to the Crinthians that our Church may justly say to us Since these things were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10. 11. If I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtless I am to you For the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord Though others may pretend they have some cause to doubt the trust and the authority of our Church as if she had not a true succession of Ministers which in truth is but a meer pretence or rather a cavil as the learned Mason hath sufficiently demonstrated and should be least objected by them who will have the whole Church depend upon the Pope and cannot deny that they have had many and long lived Anti-popes to disturb their succession yet sure we our selves can neither have cause nor pretence to doubt it since we cannot reasonably deny but our Church hath a true succession of Doctrine so that for us who have not only the speculative but also the practical the experimental knowledge of the Gospel unless we have been grosly wanting to our selves and impiously wanting to our Saviour for us I say to doubt of our Church is little other then to doubt of our Religion as if that either had not come from Christ or could not bring us to Christ and keep us with him For there can be no doubt of the Embassadours authority if there be no doubt of his Princes seal and if we our selves be not the seal of our Churches Apostleship in the Lord the fault is meerly our own t is because we would not
yet can I not glorifie thy name as I ought nor remember thee as I would yea though with my soul I have desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me I seek thee early yet have I not so great desires in my soul as I have defects in my desires All the desire of my soul and of my spirit is too little for my God I have none to spare for any else and if I had yet might I not give it unless I had something greater then it to give unto my God This is the sin which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iniquitas judicata vel judicantis digna quae à judicibus puniatur An iniquity to be punished by the Judge for a man to give that honour to the creature which is due only to the Creator for it is in effect to deny the God that is above For I should have denyed the God that is above Iob 31. 28. The earnest longings of my soul to converse with God in the actions of holy Religion are the best preparative for my soul to converse with him in the fruition of a blessed immortality my Religion must reach him or his blessedness will not reach me T is not conversing with Saints or Angels can give my soul a true gust of eternal blessedness and much less a happy enjoyment of it I should be loth to mispend my time upon so barren so unfruitful a Religion and much less to hazard my eternity upon it The Heathen Philosopher Hierocles could say It was the work of wisdom To make a God out of a man as far as was possible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Christian Divine may not say less of Religion which is the only true wisdom T is its work to transform a man into God uniting the understanding to him by faith and contemplation uniting the will to him by charity and affection Thus saith the Apostle We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. In which words are briefly described both the work of Religion and the power of it The work of Religion is with open face to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord for the soul cannot well fix its eye and much less its love upon any inferiour glory The Power of Religion is to change us into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord for it is only the love and the spirit of the Lord which can change the soul from glory to glory the love of the Lord working that change formally the Spirit of the Lord working that change efficiently upon the soul from glory to glory that is from the glory of Religion to the glory of Fruition from the glory of Holiness to the glory of Happiness from the glory of knowing and loving God to the glory of possessing and enjoying him This being the work of Religion to behold the glory of the Lord I dare look on nothing as Religion which doth not that work This being the power of Religion to change the soul into that glory I dare not be of that Religion which hath not that power Let those that please behold the glory of the creature instead of the Creator they will not find it sufficient to content much less to change their souls I desire a Religion which may change me into the image of the Lord and sure I am that Religion must teach me to behold his face which will change me into his image for no other can have the assistance of his Spirit and therefore no other can have the power to work this change This is the great blessing I have received from God by this his now distressed Church That I have been called to the Verity of his Religion nor do I see how I can thankfully embrace and dutifully obey this Call but only by persisting in the Vnity of her Communion Such a Communion as joyns me with the Saints whether they be Angels or men in the manner of my worshipping not as joyns the Saints or Angels with God in the equality of worshp The Pater noster as it was used heretofore in the private devotions of English Papists allowed not this practice for therein this was the first Petition Hallowed be thy name among men on earth as it is among Angels in heaven The second this O Father let thy Kingdom come and reign among us men on earth as thou reignest among thy Angels in heaven The third this Make us to fulfill thy will here on earth as thy Angels do in heaven Now Prayer being the actual hallowing of Gods name the exercising of his Kingdom the fulfilling of his will must be directed only unto God unless we will plainly thwart these three Petitions and resolve to do these three Duties otherwise then the Angels do in heaven For without doubt they fix their contemplation only on God and place their Fruition only in him And so doth our Church in all her Prayers first teaching us to contemplate God as the first truth that we may pray with knowledge and understanding then to enjoy him as the chiefest good that we may pray with zeal and affection ex gr O God from whom all holy desires all good counsels and all just works do proceed there 's the contemplation of God to enlighten the understanding Give unto thy servants that Peace which this world cannot give that both our hearts may be set to obey thy Commandments and also that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies may pass our time in rest and quietness there 's the fruition of God to inflame the will and affections The soul cannot have this Fruition without having that contemplation and therefore they who teach and enjoyn Prayers to any but to God are in truth injurious to the very contentation and much more to the salvation of souls SECT IV. That the Communion of the Church of England obligeth those in conscience who are members of that Church to retain it and not to reject it much less to renounce it by no less then five Commandments of the Decalogue IT having been declared that the Communion of the Church of England is founded in the Truth of Religion It cannot be reasonably denyed but that even her enemies are bound to her internal and much more her sons are bound to her external Communion And that both are also bound in conscience because Religion will not be contented with a lesser obligation The Doctrine being from God which we profess and the Devotion being from God which we practise All Christians that live at never so great a distance from us are bound to believe our Doctrine and to love our Devotion and that 's enough to constitute an internal Communion But those Christians who live amongst us are also bound to profess our
Act of sin doth not prevail against the habit of righteousness and much less above it So that the habit of righteousness cannot be captivated under an everlasting lethargie that it should alwaies forget its own act The Spirit of Christ which at first infused the habit so working in all those who belong to him that either they still retain the act of righteousness by their innocency or in due time recover it by their repentance God of his infinite mercy give unto us all this Spirit and continue unto us his own gift that we being his adopted sons may so honour and obey him as our Father that we may have the comfortable assurance of our adoption in this life and the glorious fruition of our inheritance in the life to come The one by the Spirit the other by the merits of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord who liveth and reigneth with the Father in the unity of the same Spirit one God world without end Amen Christ received in the state of true Christianity CAP. I. Of the state of true Christianity SECT I. The happiness of Christians who have their conversation with Christ That lovers of themselves or of the world have not this happiness For though Christ speaks to all yet he answers only to good Christians that is to Sheep not to Wolves to Christians not to Heathens for such he accounteth all Persecutors teaching the one to their instruction and contentation the other only to their conviction and condemnation the reason why so many Christians come not to the state of true Christianity IT is the special priviledge of Christians not only to have their appellation or name from Christ the eternal Son of God but also to have their Religion from him and their conversation with him The Jews could begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with God and the Heathen learned it from them But we Christians can begin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the salvation of God even with Jesus who had that name from salvation for he shall save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. Happy soul that is so well acquainted with the dialect of heaven as to understand the language of Jesus and so wholly taken up with that acquaintance as to maintain familiar colloquies with him to hear and to know and to love his voice For if the Psalmist could say with great admiration and greater comfort O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts Psal 84. 1. Then much more O how amiable art thou O Lord who makest thy dwellings so The hope of men and the joy of Angels the salvation of earth and the beauty of heaven No wonder if it follow in the next verse My soul hath a desire and a longing to enter into the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh rejoyce in the living God But where is the soul that enjoyeth this happiness for even one of his Apostles who daily seemed to converse with him enjoyed it not Saint John plainly excludes him in these words Judas saith unto him not Iscariot John 14. 22. As if the Spirit of God had been afraid least we should think that a Traytor could familiarly converse with Christ though he dipped with him in the same dish or have any comfort from that conversation Tremelius glosseth the word Iscariot two waies mercede inducitur ad defectionem ultro declinavit ad strangulationem Mat. 10. 4. The hopes of gain made him a Traitor the thought of his treason made him hang himself Such was this Iscariot A man whose heart was so settled and fixed on money as to sell his Saviour for the love of it Therefore he could not comfortably and much less familiarly converse with Christ by questions and answers For he durst not ask Christ a question to be informed of his Doctrine for fear the answer should have proved an Indictment to convine him of his treason whereof he knew himself already guilty in his heart which made him afraid least he should disclose the same who was the searcher of hearts Therefore he desired not to make any particular addresses to his Master when as the other Judas who had none of this Treachery or covetousness did as it were continually hang upon his lips and was wholly ravished with his Doctrine saying within himself How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter then honâ—y to my mouth Psal 119. v. 103. And accordingly our blessed Saviour answers the Jude but not the Iscariot answers the Confessor but not the Traytor For Jude was a name imposed from confession and praise Now will I praise the Lord therefore she called his name Judah Gen. 29. 35. that is praise or confession whence the Vulgar Latine doth often say Confitebor tibi Domine I will confess unto thee O Lord for I will praise thee O Lord because the same word in the Hebrew signifies both confession and praise Be it so then Christ will answer one that confesseth him but he will not answer one that betrayeth him This is the reason that though he speak so loud yet so few hear his voice That though his love be greatly extended yet it is but little diffused in our hearts For though he be most lovely in himself yet is he not so to them whose breast is filled with another love The Text tells us of a fourfold lover 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A lover of himself A lover of his pleasure A lover of his profit and A lover of his God The first lover will not hearken to Christs voice for self-love and Saviour-love cannot be together since self ends and Saviour-ends are so far asunder The second and third lovers though they may a little hearken to Christs voice yet they cannot much regard it for if any man love the world that is his pleasure or his profit the whole world consisting of nothing else the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2. 15. It is only the last lover the lover of God who heareth Christs voice and rejoyceth to hear it for every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him 1 John 5. 1. To such lovers he will not only speak but he will also answer which shews a familiarity of speaking For though he speak to very many yet he answers to very few that is only to those who are willing to discourse and advise with him He speaks to all that are Christians by outward profession calling aloud to them now in his Word as once he did to the Jews in his person and saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand Mat. 4. 1. But he answers only to Christians by inward affection because indeed they only do hear his voice for why should he answer to those that will not give him the hearing Thus himself hath told us my sheep hear my voice John 10. 27. He must be a sheep that will hear the voice of Christ not a wolf one more ready