large vvord to make good But if vve look upon the intent of those that spake it and the mater vvhich they had in hand it will appear very unreasonable to extend it to any thing else Now I suppose upon the premises that the Prophets Esay and Ieremy in the first and literal and obvious sense intend to soretell the return of the people of Israel from Captivity and the great change that should be seen in their faithfulnesse to God though figuring thereby that knowledge of God and that fidelity of Christians which the preaching of the Gospel should produce And truly I do challenge all them that are best acquainted with the state of that people from the beginning to show me any greater change in it then that which we see came to passe upon their return from the Captivity To wit that they who formerly before the Captivity had been every day falling away from their own the true God to the worship of imaginary Deities should from thenceforth continue constant to him when tempted with the greatest torments in the world to renounce him for the worship of Idols as we see by the relations of the Maccabees And is it strange then that I should say that this is the change which these Prophesies intend to declare Especially when I say not that this is all they intend because I know that the Apostles have declared them to be intended of the times of the Gospel But that this is that which they intend in the first instance which by the premises must be a figure and step to that which the Gospel intends to declare And yet in regard of the manifold Idolatries which prevailed before the Captivity it shall be most truly and significantly understood that the people of God who after the Captivity never departed from the true God shall not then teach one another to know the true God because that Law the summe of the old Law should be written in their hearts and entrails so that they should have no need to teach one another to know the true God If this be true referring this Prophene to the Gospel of which the Apostle expounds it in the mystical sense Heb. VIII 8 it will be much more evident how those that are baptized upon the profession of the Christian faith who are the new Israel according to the Spirit shall have no need to teach one another to know the true God who both know God and the way to God which is the Law of God which they bear in their hearts if their Christianity be not counterfeit So that when God promiseth to establish this new Covenant he promiseth neither more nor lesse then the conversion of the world to the Christian faith Accordingly S. John truly tells the Christians to whom he writes that they knew all things and had no need that any man should teach them because the unction that was in them taught them the truth because he doth not mean that they knew the secrets of Geometry or the mysteries of nature or whatsoever is or is done in the utmost parts of the world or any thing else impertinent to his present discourse But because they had in them a principle sufficient to condemn those errors which he writes against there to wit those that deny both the Father and the Son by denying Jesus to be the Christ which saith the Apostle is the spirit of Antichrist For surely he that hath unfainedly professed the Christian Faith upon being catechized in it hath in him a principle sufficient to preserve him from such gross infections which the Holy Ghost wherewith he is anointed upon being baptized into this profession out of a good conscience sealeth up in his heart so that such corruptions can have no access to infect it And therefore the Apostle might well call upon them to try such Spirits whither of God or not seeing that the comparing of their pretenses with that which they had once received must needs be sufficient to condemn that which is opposite to it by the judgement of any man that unfainedly adhereth to it So that S. Paul when he bids the Thessalonians try all things but hold that which is good demands no unreasonable thing at their hands if we understand those things which he would have tried to be such as are triâ—ble by the rule of faith common to all Christians Indeed the same Apostle when he writeth to the Corinthians that the spiritual man is judged by no man but himselfe judgeth all things seems to speak more generally not onely of the rule of Faith but of the secret counsel and good pleasure of God in dispensing the revelation thereof one way to the ancient Prophets another way to the Apostles both by the Spirit of God and Christ Which secret counsel those spiritual men that he speaketh of were able to interpret in the Scriptures of the Old Testament by comparing spiritual things with spiritual things That is the revelations granted under the Law with those which the Gospel had brought forth Which though the Apostles could do yet the grace of understanding the Scriptures of the Old Testament by the Holy Ghost was no more common to all Christians at that time then now that the understanding of the Scriptures is to be purchased by humane indeavours it can be common to all Christians to be Divines By all which it appeareth not that the Scriptures con in all things necessary to salvation clearly to all that want it but that Christianity affordeth sufficient means of instruction in all things necessary to the salvaâ—ion of all that learn it And those who to find this instruction turn simple plain meaning Christians to that translation of the Bible which they like to find resolution in the pretenses of the sects which can arise cannot be said either to teach them Christianity or sufficient means to learn it For he who hath not only acknowledged the substance of Christianity but grounded the hope of his salvation upon it will rather deny his own senses then admit any thing contrary to it to be the true meaning of the Scripture whatsoever be the sound of the words of it But he that onely knoweth the Scriptures to be Gods truth and believeth he hath the spirit of God to conduct him in seeking the sense of it not supposing the beliefe of Christianity to be a condition requisite to the having of Gods spirit may easily be seduced by his inbred pride to devise and set up new positions sounding like the Scriptures which the Church acknowledgeth no more then that meaning of the Old Testament which our Lord and his Apostles first declared was acknowledged by the Scribes and Pharisees And thinking he doth it by the same right as they had must needs take himselfe and his followers for our Lord and his Apostles but the Church for the Scribes and Pharisees As for that extravagant conceit of Cartwright I will once more stand amazed at it A man of so much
Apostle denies any man to be justified For all Christianity acknowledges that the Gospel is implied in the Law neither could the justification of the Fathers before and under the Law by Faith be maintained otherwise And therefore it is no strange thing to say that under the Law there were those that obtained that righteousnesse which the Gospel tendereth though not by the Law but by the Gospel which under the Law though not published was yet in force to such as by meanes of the Law were brought to embrace the secret of it But it cannot there-therefore be said that they were justified by the Law or by the works of it but by Grace and by Faith though the Law was a meanes that God used to bring them to the Grace of Faith And therefore when the Apostles inferences are imployed to fortifie this argument To wit that if a Christian be justified by works depending upon the Covenant of Grace then he hath whereof he may glory which Abraham that was justified by Faith had not Then hath he no meanes to attain that peace and security which the Gospel tendereth all having the conscience of such works as do interrupt it I do utterly deny both consequences For I say that the works that depend upon the Gospel are neither done without the Grace of God from whence the Gospel comes neither are they available to justify him whom the Gospel overtakes in sinne of themselves but by virtue of that Grace of God from whence the Gospel comes Now I challenge the most wilfull unreasonable man in the world to say how he that sayes this challenges any thing whereoâ— he may glory without God who acknowledges to have received that which he tenders from Gods gift and the promise which God tenders in lieu of it from his bounty and goodnesse To say how a man can be more assured that he is in the state of Gods grace then he can be assured of what himself thinks and does For not to decide at present how and how farre a man may be assured of Gods grace whatsoever assurance can be attained must be attained upon the assurance which a man may have of his own heart and actions and that as S Paul saies 1 Cor. 11. 10. No man knows what is in a man but the Spirit of a man that is in him For if it be said â—hat this assurance is from the Spirit of God and therefore supposes not so much as the knowledge of our selves I must except peremptorily that which I premised as a supposition in due place that no man hath the Spirit of God but upon supposition of Christianity And therefore no man can know that he hath the Spirit of God but upon supposition that he knows himself to be a good Christian otherwise it would be impossible for any man to discern in himself between the dictates of a good and bad Spirit seeing it is manifest that among those that professe Christianity many things are imputed to the Spirit of God which are contrary to Christianity Now of the sincerity of that intention wherewith a man ingages to live like a Christian a man may stand as much assured as he can stand assured of his own confidence in God or that he doth indeed believe himself to be predestinate to life And therfore it is no prejudice to that security and peace of conscience which the Gospel tendereth that it presupposeth this ingagement and the performance of it This answer then proceedeth upon these two presumptions That the grace of Christ which is the grace of God through Christ is necessary to the having of that faith which alone justifieth Which the heresy of Socinus denies with Pelagius And that it justifieth not of it self but by virtue of that grace of Christ that is the grace which God declares in consideration of his obedience These presumptions it is not my purpose to suppose gratis without debating the grounds upon which they are to be received having once purposed to resolve wherein the Covenant of Grace stands But I must have leave to take them in hand in their respective places and for the present to dispatch that which presses here which is to shew that the intent of S. Paul and the rest of the Scriptures which he expounds most at large is this That a Christian is not justified by the Law of Moses and those works that are done precisely by virtue thereof not including in it the Gospel of Christ but by undertaking the profession of Christianity and performing the same which is in his language by faith without the workes of the Law and therefore consequently by those workes which are done by virtue of this faith in performance of it And first I appeale to the state of the question in S. Pauls Epistles what it is the Apostle intends to evict by all that he disputes And demand who can or dare undertake that he had any occasion to decide that which here is questioned upon supposition that a Christian is justified by the Covenant of Grace alone which the Gospel tendereth Whether by Faith alone which is the assurance of salvation or trust in God through Christ Or by Faith alone which is the undertaking of Christianity and living according to the same For it is evident in the Scriptures of the Apostles how much adoe they had to perswade the Jewes who had received Christ that the Gentiles which had done the like were not bound to keep the Law which they it is evident did keep These had no ground had they understood from the beginning of their Christianity that their righteousnesse and salvation depended not upon the keeping of it under the Gospel of Christ It is evident that the trouble which Jewish Christians raised in the Churches to whom those Epistles are directed which dispute this point fullest upon occasion of this difficulty was the subject and cause of directing the same What cause then can there be why these Epistles should prove that a Christian is not justified by such works as suppose the Covenant of Grace when as the disease they pretend to cure consists in believing to be justified by the works of Moses Law which supposeth it not For it is evident that had it been received as now that Moses Law is void the occasion of this dispute in these Epistles had ceased what ever benefit besides might have been procured by them for succeeding ages of the Church Is it not plain that the pretense of S. Paul in the Epistle to the Romanes is this that neither the Gentiles by the Law of Nature nor the Jewes by the Law of Moses can obtaine righteousnesse or avoid the judgement of God and therefore that it is necessary for both to imbrace Christianity He that reades the two first chapters cannot question this In the fourteenth chapter together with the beginning of the fifteenth you shall find him resolving upon what terms these two sorts of Christians were to converse with one another And
14. The naturall man admitteth not the things of Gods Spirit for they are folly to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned To wit by that Spirit which Christ purchased the gift of by his Crosse And why should the Soul of man take that for folly which Gods Spirit revealeth were there not a principle bred in our nature to determine all mens inclinations to this generall resistence Againe the same S. Paul teaching them not to think of themselves what the word of God allows not 1 Cor. IV. 7. For who distinguisheth thee Or what hast thou that thou hast not received But if thou hast received it why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it Here if it be said that the speech is of the office of Apostles and the like and the graces requisite to the discharge of them which are graces tending to the common benefit of the Church not to the salvation of those particular persons to whom they are given The answer is evident that S. Paul speakes not of those graces but of the right use of them as it appears by the beginning of the Chapter So let a man account us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God Now in stewards it is required that a man be found faithfull And this fidelity it is in which the Apostle appeales to God and wisheth them not to judge before God nor to think of themselves above what is written because as they have it not but from God and therefore not to boast of So they have it not to the purpose but when God discerneth and alloweth it to be in them And if it be said that it is manifest indeed by innumerable passages of the Apostles of which divers have been produced afore that the holy Ghost is granted to those that truly believe to dwell with them and to inable them to performe what they have undertaken in professing themselves Christians And before that the holy Ghost is granted indeed to those who preach the Gospel Apostles Evangelists Prophets and the like to inable them to convince the World that the Gospel which they preach comes from God and that it is to be imbraced But that it is not the holy Ghost but their own free choice that determines them to adhere to that which the holy Ghost convinceth them that they ought to adhere to I say for the present it is enough for me to shew by the Scriptures that the conviction which the Gospel tenders is from the holy Ghost the Gift whereof the obedience of our Lord Christ hath purchased There will follow enough to shew that the effect of this conviction to wit conversion is from the same grace In the mean time marke why our Lord challengeth the Pharisees and Scribes of the sinne against the holy Ghost Mark III. 28 29. All sinnes shall be forgiven the sonnes of men and blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme But whoso shall blaspheme against the holy Ghost hath no forgivenesse for ever but is guilty of everlasting judgement Because they said He hath an unclean Spirit Where not to dispute at present why the blasphemies against the holy Ghost cannot be remitted when all other sinnes are I challenge this to be evident in the words of the Gospell that their blasphemy against the holy Ghost consisted in this that though convicted that they were Gods works which our Saviour did yet they said that he did them by the devil I acknowledge it is the same crime when they who have tasted the heavenly gift and are become partakers of the holy Ghost and have relished the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come do fall away Heb. VI. 4 15. But with this difference that these are convict by their profession the other onely by their conscience God onely knowing that hardnesse of heart wherewith they resisted that conviction which the holy Ghost in our Lord Christ tendred These by professing themselves Christians who are promised the holy Ghost to dwell in them if their profession be sincere acknowledging that they transgresse the dictate of it Hereupon S. Stephen speaking by the holy Ghost and doing signes and miracles to convince the Jews that so he did Acts VI. 8 10. justly charges them Acts VII 51. Yâ— stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears ye do alwaies resist the holy Ghost even ye as your Fathers And therefore our Saviour having said in one place Apâ—c III. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock If a man hear my voice and open the doore I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me In another John XIV 23. If a man love me he will keep my Word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make abode with him as it cannot be denied that the holy Ghost and in him the Father and the Sonne dwell in him that loves Christ no more can it be denied that Christ knockes at the door of the hearts of them that give him entrance to make them so to love him that he takes up his lodging in their hearts Adde we now to the premises the words of our Lord in the parable of the Vine John XV. 5. Without me ye can do nothing The words of the Apostle 2 Cor. III. 4 5 6. We have this confidence towards God not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who hath also made us sufficient ministeâ—s of the New Testament not the Leter but the Spirit Remembring what I said afore that this extends not onely to the grace of an Apostle but to the right use of it Of which right use the same Apostle 1 Cor. XV. 10. By the Grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me was not in vaine but I laboured more then they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me And againe of the whole businesse Phil. II. 11. 12. Wherefore my beloved work out your salvation with fear and trembling For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do To wit by the holy Ghost which Christ sends and his influence from the beginning to the end of the work of Christianity And Ephes II. 8 9. 10. For by grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is Gods gift not of works that no man may boast For we are his making created by Jesus Christ for good works which God hath prepared afore for us to walk in By the grace of the holy Ghost which we receive upon becoming Christians not by the works of the Law though it be also the same grace that makes us Christians by this grace are we saved Therefore S. Paul againe Phil. I. 6. Having this very confidence that he who hath begun a good work in you will compleat it unto the day of Christ Jesus And our Lord. John VI. 37 44
and alwaies have maintained that which you see I dare not affirm but he dares namely that all Infants who dye unbaptized go into everlasting fire It is demanded in the second place what is that regeneration by the Holy Ghost and wherein it consists whereof Infants that are baptized can be thought capable For the wild conceits of those that imagine them to have faith in Christ which without actuall motion of the mind is not require miracles to be wrought of course by baptizing that the effect thereof may come to passe And if the state of Grace which the habituall grace of Gods spirit either supposeth or inferreth is not to be attained but by the resolution of imbracing the covenant of Grace as by all the premises it is not otherwise attended it will be every whit as hard to say what is that habituall Grace that is said to be poured into the souls of Infants that are baptized being nothing else but a facility in doing what the covenant of Grace requireth But if we conceive the regeneration of Infants that are baptized to consist in the habituall assistance of Gods spirit the effects whereof are to appear in making them able to perform that which their Christianity requires at their hands so soon as they shall understand themselves to be obliged by â—it we give reason enough of the effect of their Baptism whither they dye or live and yet become not liable to any inconvenience For supposing the assistance of Gods spirit assigned them by the promise of Baptism to take effect when their bodily instruments inable the soul to act as Christianity requireth if the soul by death come to be discharged of them can any thing be said why originall concupiscence which is the Law of the members should remain any more to impeach the subjection of all faculties to the law of Gods spirit Or will it be any thing strange that when they come to be taught Christianity the same spirit of God should be thought to â—way them to imbrace it of their own choice and not onely in compliance with the will of their Parents yet is this no more then the regeneration of Infants by water and the Holy Ghost importeth that the spirit of God should be habitually present to make those reasons which God hath given to convince the world that they ought to be Christians both discernable to the understanding and waying down the choice whereas those that are converted from being enemies to God that is to say at those yeâ—rs when no man can be converted to God that is not his enemy before though the spirit of God knock at their hearts without striving to cast out the strong man that is within doors and to make a dwelling for it selfe in the heart are possessed by a contrary principle till they yield Gods spirit that entertainment which God requireth If this habituall assistance of Gods spirit by the moral effect of Gods promise not by any natural change in the disposition of that minde which never used reaâ—on to make choice of it can be called habitual grace as for certain it is a grace of God in consideration of our Lord Christ and no lesse habitual then any quality which the soul of man or the faculties thereof can be indowed with I shall not need to quarel the decree of the Council of Vienna which hath determined the giâ—t of habitual grace to be the effect of Baptism in Infants Onely I exprâ—sse more distinctly and to the preventing of the inconveniences mentioned wherein it conâ—isteth But I shall inferre as a consequence of this resolution that we are not to look upon Christians that are baptized in their Infancy as thoâ—e who are all of them necessarily enimies to God before they â—e converted again to become true Christians For though that very age when they come first to years of discretion obliging them to act as Christians be liable to â—o many and so great temptations that few câ—n pass through it without falling away from the profession of Christians yet because it is not incredible that there are many cases in which the Ministry of education blessed by Gods providence as acted by his grace brings it to pass it is by no means to be supposed that all those who are baptized Infants are necessarily to passe through the state of Gods enemies And therefore that as many as come into that state do fall from the state of Gods grace into which they are baptized Which is none of the least demonstrations of that which hath been maintained in due place that the state of Gods grace is as well lost and forfeited as it is to be recovered again by Christians And upon this ground and to this purâ—ose it was that the ancient Church at such time as the solemnity of Baptizing became tied to Easter and Whitsuntide and the young were baptized with the old not absolutely Infants but according to the opinion of Gregory Nazianzene related afore at three or four years of age used to give them alâ—o the Eucharist as soon as they were baptized For the Eucharist being nothing but the confirming and seconding of the covenant of Baptism the reason why they were baptized inferred the giving of them the Eucharist Which reason being rendred by the supposed Dionysius in the end of his Book de Ecclesiasticâ Hierarchia where he tells us that litle ones received the Eucharist as soon as they were baptized as I do here that they might be alwaies from thence forwards in the state of Grace The Eucharist being the Body and Blood of Christ because the means to convey his Spirit may well be judged the means to secure and confirm that promise thereof which Baptism importeth Yet doth not this inferre that since it is become necessary for the Church to baptize all in the state of meere Infants it is not for the best to deferre the communion of the Eucharist till litle ones may know what they do though in my opinion it is deferred farre longer then it ought to be nothing but a disposition positively opposite to Christianity defeating the effect of it which may prevent the said disposition in innocents much lesse that this can be any just ground for division in the Church so that the division which shall be raised upon this ground necessarily renders those who are the cause of it Schismaticks In fine seeing it is excellently said by S. Gregory Nazianzene in sanctum Bapt. Orat. XLII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we are to think the force of Baptizing to consist in the Covenant of a second life and purer conversation with God And that the Eucharist is nothing else but the seconding of this Covenant where Baptism in that regard is necessary to salvation there the Eucharist though not necessary as the ancient Church never held it cannot be unlawful Whether expedient or not he that contents himselfe with the practice of the Church for Unities sake will prove the best Christian I
the Church and to make voâ—â— the Laws which settled it they cryed up this position as much as the rest But when it came to order that confusion which they had made themselves they then found it necessary to limit both the mater and form though not the words which the offices of divine service should be celebrated with Which what was it but Plowdens case that for the form of Gods service to be prescribed by themselves it is not only lawful but requisite by the Church altogether abâ—â—inable And indeed those who must needs take upon them to appoint the persons who are to minister to the People must needs take upon them to appoint the form in which it was to be done They who make the one to depend upon the moâ—ion of Gods Spirit must make the other do the like though never able to make evidence of any such motion in any person that ever pretended it And yet is that all that ever hath been alledged so farre as I know for all opinions so new to Gods Church That S. Paul forbiddeth to quench the spirit 1 Thes V. 19. I do not deny that other texts of S. Paul have been alleged who in 1 Cor. XXI XIV discourseth so largely of the use of spiritual graces ordering also how they should be exercised and imployed in the said Church Nor that writting to the Romans VIII 23. 26. 27. he saith That the Spirit which groaneth for the resurrection in those that have the first fruits of it helpeth the infirmities of the Saints not knowing what to pray for as they ought interceding for them with grones unutterable which the searcher of hearts knowing the mind of the Spirit findeth to be made after the will of God But in these sayings there is nothing like a precept much lesse such a one as may seem to oblige the whole Church On the contrary the evidences are so frequent and so palpable in the discourse of S. Paul to the Corinthians that the Graces whereof he speaketh are miraculous Graces such as God then furnished the Church with to evidence the presence of his Spirit in it as well as 〈◊〉 their edification in Christianity assistance in Gods service that it were madnesse to require the Church to sollow the rules which suppose them which now appear no more in the Church And truly with what conscience can he alledge against the Church of Rome that miracles are ceased the grace whereof is ranked by S. Paâ—l with those which tend to the edification of the Church 1 Cor. XII 8. 9 10 28 29 30. who challengeth for himselfe or his fellows the priviledge of those Graces in Gods Church With what conscience can they hear S. Paul say 1 Cor. X. 17. That the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with And challenge themselves the priviledge of profiting the Church by Teaching or by Praying without any manifestation of the Spirit For are they not challenged every day to make manifest that ever any of them did speak by Gods Spirit and not by the Spirit of this World inspiring the fruits of the flesh by carnal or rather diabolical pride innovating in matters of Faith and destroying the uniformity of Gods service And therefore when S. Paul having said Quench not the Spirit addeth Deipise not Prophesies what hath been alleged what can be alleged why it should not be thought that he repeateth in brief that order which he had declared so largely to the Corinthians that the grace of speaking in unknown languages should not be discountenanced in the Church and so the Spirit extinguished But that Prophesies the grace whereof he there preferreth so farr before it should no way be neglected for it Truly he that saith The manifestation of the spirit is given to all to profit with doth say in effect that the Spirit which groâ—neth for the resurrection in them which have the first fruits that is the prime graces of it makes intercession for the Saints according to God by helping that infirmity of theirs whereby they know not what to pray for of themselves For those who had not alwayes had the Apostles Doctrine sounding in their ears but onely were instructed by them and their fellows so farr as to be fit for Baptism remaining neverthelesse novices in Christianity why should we think them fit to know what to pray for in all occasions Why should we think it strange that God should give the first fruits of his Spirit to profit them with in this case But the faith of Christ with the reasons and consequences thereof being setled and the order of the Church being established as the gift of miracles ceased as well to the bodily health and support of Christians and the Church as to the demonstration of Gods presence and witnesse to the truth of Christianity As the delivering of incorrigible sinners to Satan to the destruction of the flesh by bodily diseases and death ceased when obedience to Gods Church was established so is it no marvail if the Graces of Gods Spirit which profited the Church in teaching them what to pray for should no more be granted when the Church had not onely knowledge but good order established by which those offices might be preformed to the profit and edification of Christians Let them then who find that they can cure the sick by their prayers anoint them with oyl upon that ground and to that purpose Let them who can sing Psalms extempore so as to become the praises of God because S. Paul saith When ye come together every one of you hath a Psalm hath a doctrine hath a tongue hath a revelation hath an interpretation And that may be as well suggested upon the place as afore hand S. Paul saith that if a stranger coming into the Church should hear divers speak in strange languages that which they made not their hearers understand he would say were madd 1 Cor. XIV 23. dotwithstanding that it might appear that they would not speak those languages but by Gods Spirit I will onely demand of them not to abuse and dishonour Gods Spirit by imputing â—nto it those operations which it is not for the honour of God to acknowledge And then tell them that they must be tried by our common Christianity whether that they pretend to say or to do by the same agree with it But further order of Gods service in the Church let us proceed according to the principles premised comparing that which we find extant in the Scriptures with the original and general practice of Gods Church to say That the service of God consisting of his praises the doctrine of the Scriptures read and expounded and the prayers of the Church especially those which the communion of the Eucharist is celebrated with In the first place the Psalms of David that is the Book of Psalms is necessarily by the practice of the whole Church a form of Gods praises determined to the Church Which conclusion as it
The nature and intent of it renders it subordinate to the Clergy How farre the single life of the Clergy hath been a Law to the Church Inexecution of the Canons for it Nullity of the proceedings of the Church of Rome in it The interest of the People in the acts â—f the Church And in the use of the Scriptures 368 CHAP. XXXII How great the Power of the Church and the offect of it is The right of judging the causes of Christians ceaseth when it is protected by the State An Objection If Ecclesiastical Power were from God Secular Power could not limit the use of it Ground for the Interest of the State in Church matters The inconsequence of the argument The concurrence of both Interests to the Law of the Church The Inâ—erest of the state in the indowment of the Church Concurrence of both in matrimonial causes and Ordinations Temporall penalties upon Excommunication from the State No Soveraigne subject to the greater Excommunication but to the lesse The Rights of the Jewes State and of Christian Powers in Religion partly the same partly not The infinite Power of the Pope not founded upon Episcopacy but upon acts of the Secular Powers of Christendom 381 OF THE PRINCIPLES OF Christian Truth The First BOOK CHAP. I. All agree that Reason is to decide controversies of Faith The objection that Faith is taught by Gods Spirit answered What Reason decideth questions of Faith The resolution of Faith ends not in the light of Reason but in that which Reason evidenceth to come from Gods messengers THe first thing that we are to question in the beginning is Whether there be any means to resolve by the use of reason those controverâ—â—es which cause division in the Church Which is all one as if we undertook to enquire whether there be any such skill or knowledg as that for which men call themselvs Divines For if there be it must be the same in England as at Rome And if it have no principles as no principles it can have unlesse it can be resolved what those principles are then is it a bare name signifying nothing But if there be certain principles which all parties are obliged to admit that discourse which admits no other will certainly produce that resolution in which all shall be obliged to agree And truely this hope there is left that all parties do necessarily suppose that there is means to resolve by reason all differences of Faith Inasmuch as all undertake to perswade all by reason to be of the judgment of each one and would be thought to have reason on their side when so they do and that reason is not done them when they are not believed There are indeed many passages of Scripture which say that Faith is only taught by the Spirit of God Mat. XVI 17. Blessed art thou Peter son of Ionas for flesh and blood revealed not this to thee but my Father which is in the heavens II. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes 1 Cor. I. 26 27 28. For Brethren you see your calling that not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen to shame the wise The weak things of the world hath God chosen to shame the strong The ignoble and despicable things of the world hath God chosen and the things that are not to confound the things that are John VI. 45. It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Heb. VIII 10. Jer. XXXI 33. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their mindes and write them in their hearts These and the like Scriptures then asâ—ribing the reason why wee believe to the work of Gods Spirit seem to leave no room for any other reason why wee should believe But this difficulty is easie for him to resolve that diâ—â—inguishes between the reason that moveth in the nature of an object and that motion which the active cause produceth For the motion of an object supposes that consideration which discovers the reason why wee are to believe But the motion of the Holy Ghost in the nature of an active cause proceeds without any notice that wee take of it According to the saying of our Lord to Nicodemus John 111. 8. The winde bloweth where it listeth and a man hears the noise of it but cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the spirit For wee must know that there may be sufficient reason to evict the truth of Christianity and yet prove ineffectual to induce the most part either inwardly to believe or outwardly to professe it The reason consists in two things For neither is the mater of Faith evident to the light of reason which wee bring into the world with us And the Crosse of Christ which this profession drawes after it necessarily calls in question that estate which every man is setled upon in the world So that no marvel if the reasons of believing fail of that effect which for their part they are sufficient to produce Interest diverting the consideration or intercepting the consequence of such troublesom truth and the motives that inforce it The same is the reason why the Christian world is now to barren of the fruits of Christianity For the profession of it which is all the Laws of the world can injoyn is the common privilege by which men hold their estates Which it is no marvel those men should make use of that have neither resolved to imbrace Christ with his Crosse nor considered the reason they have to do it who if they should stick to that which they professe and when the protection of the Law failes or act according to it when it would be disadvantage to them in the world so to do should do a thing inconsequent to their own principles which carried them no further than that profession which the Law whereby they hold their estates protecteth The true reason of all Apostasy in all trials As for the truth of Christianity Can they that believe a God above refuse to believe his messengers because that which they report stands not in the light of any reason to evidence it Mater of Faith is evidently credible but cannot be evidently true Christianity supposes sufficient reason to believe but not standing upon evidence in the thing but upon credit of report the temptation of the Crosse may easily defeat the effect of it if the Grace of Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost interpose not Upon this account the knowledg of Gods truth revealed by Christ may be the work of his Grace according to the Scriptures for that so it is I am not obliged neither have I any reason here to suppose being to come in
spirit of Christ hee is none of Christs So hee had premised Rom. V. 1-5 Being justified by Faith wee have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ together with the joy of hope by the love of God poured out in our hearts through the Spirit of God which is in us The Kingdome of God consisting in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. XIV 17. If it be here objected that the Grace of the Holy Ghost is necessary to bring a man to Christianity and therefore cannot suppose it Supposing this for the present but not granting it because it is in controversie and must be resolved by the grounds which wee seek It will be easie to distinguish between the grace of the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Holy Ghost For hee that is converted to believe the truth of Christianity may acknowledge it to be of Grace but must not presume of the gift of the Holy Ghost that it is bestowed on him for his own till his conversion be complete by undertaking the profession of Christianity If it be further alleged that Cornelius and his company received the Holy Ghost before they were baptized The answer is ready from that maxime of Law That every exception against a Rule establishes the Rule in cases not excepted Cornelius no Jew but converted from Idols to worship the true God under the promises which the Jewes expected with his company of the same Faith being in the state of Gods grace upon that account receives the Holy Ghost before Baptisme because God knew him ready to undertake the profession of Christianity so soon as it could appear to be commanded by God And this for the satisfaction of S. Peter and the Jewes in that secret which hereby begâ—n to be declared that the Gentiles as well as the Jewes belonged to the Church It is true the graces of the Holy Ghost are of two kindes For some of them are given for the benefit and salvation of those in whom they are Some for the benefit and edification of the Church And it is true that both kindes are meant and expressed by these Scriptures But it is no lesse true that neither of them is to be had but supposing the truth of Christianity and of the Scriptures For the first kinde is granted to none but those that imbrace Christianity with a sincere intention of living according to that which they professe Being indeed the help that God by his Gospel promises and allowes them to go thorough with that high and difficult profession which they undertake Wee see the Apostles forsake their Lord and make a doubt of his resurrection before the coming of the Holy Ghost Whom having received they are ready to professe Christ in the midst of utmost dangers And S. John as hee giveth the reason why the righteous sin not because their â—eed abideth in them that is the word of the Gospel by which they were ingendred anew to be Christians 1 John III. 9. So hee giveth the reason why they were not to be seduced by the Heresies of that time because the unction which they had received from the Holy One taught them to know all things 1 John II. 20 27. Thus the Unction of the Spirit supposes the seed of the Word and the seed of the Word inferres the Unction of the Spirit And as when the Word of God came to the Prophets they were withall possessed by Gods Spirit moving them to deliver it to the people So when the word of Faith is established in the heart of a Christian as David saith the Spirit of God possesseth him with an inclination both to professe it and to live according to it As for the second kinde it is true they are granted to those that are not heires of Gods promises as it appeares by the instances of Saul surprised with the Spirit of Prophesie when hee intended the death of David 1 Sam. XIX 23 24. Of those that have prophesied and cast out Devils and done miracles in our Lords name to whom hee shall say I know you not Mat. VII 22 23. Of Caiaphas who prophesied of our Lords death when hee was compassing of it John XI 49 -52. And of Balaam in the last place as all know But as the former kinde supposeth true Christianity in him that hath it so doth this correspondently suppose the profession of it as under the old Law the profession of the true God The tryal of a Prophet under the Law was not the doing of a miracle alone If hee seduced from God in stead of taking him for Gods messenger they were to put him to death Deut. XIII 1-5 So the tryal was the doing of a miracle under the profession of the true God Under the Gospel No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus anathema nor can any man call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. XII 3. Supposing that a man speaketh such things as must come either from Gods Spirit or from evil Spirits the tryal is whether hee professe Christ or not And 1 John IV. 2 3. Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus come in the flesh to be Christ is of God And every Spirit that confesseth not Jesus Christ that is come in the flesh is not of God Every Spirit that is every inspiration which a man of himself cannot have God will not have his people so tempted that under the profession of the true Religion the Devils instruments should have power to work miracles to seduce them from it Upon these terms prophesied Saul under the Law and upon the same terms prophesied those under the Gospel whom our Lord will not own having done miracles in his name As for Caiaphas it doth not appear that hee spoke those words whereby S. John saith hee prophened of our Lords death by revelation or inspiration from God For the reason is given why hee prophened because hee was High Priest that year Now when the High Priests declared Gods orders to his ancient people there is no appearance that they were inspired by revelation with that which they declared But that putting on the Pontifical robes Gods will appeared by the brest-plate of Urim and Tummim though now wee know not how Accordingly to were Caiaphas his words ordered this gift being ceased many ages afore as to containe a Prophesie of our Lords death by Gods intent but without his But Balaams case is farre otherwise Arnobius advers Gent. I. tells us that Magicians in their operations met with contrary Gods whom hee calls Antitheos that would not suffer them to proceed Balaam met with the true God and knew him to be so and all his Inchantments controlable by him and yet sacrifices to false Gods that by their help hee might curse Gods people In this case Balaam though commanded as a subject is not as a friend inspired by God when God forces him to speak what hee would not If any man then resolve the credit of the Scripture into the
that was risen again it followes Then opened hee their mindes to understand the Scriptures which were onely then those of the Old Testament Surely Justine the Martyr in many places of his dispute with Typho the Jew as truly as manifestly professes that the understanding of Christianity in the Old Testament was a grace given to the Disciples of Christ among the rest of distributions of his Spirit upon his ascension into heaven shed forth upon the Church Eph. IV. 8 which being showed the Jews their eyes were darkened as their hearts hardened that they could not understand the truth in them Now it is not my purpose to say that thereby hee challenges to himself the same miraculous grace of the Spirit and that the Prophesies that concern Christ are by that grace interpreted by him in his writings and therefore as truly as those in the writings of the Apostles It is enough that the true meaning of the Scriptures in that behalf was first revealed to the Disciples of Christ by the immediate and extraordinary operation of Gods Spirit Though Christians building on that which they received from persons so inspired may have added many things inconsequent to those principles Now I suppose it is manifest to all mens reason that those things are not clear in the Scriptures to all understandings that could not be discerned in it without a miraculous operation of Gods Spirit But nothing can be more manifâ—st than those particulars of the Law which our Lord and his Apostles in the New Testament have by way of allegory expounded to be meant of his Person and Gospel and Kingdome That the first Adam was to be the figure of the second though to a contrary effect of life by Christ in stead of death by Adam and that hee took our flesh to be the Lord of all things in it as to the effect of the Gospel which the first Adam was made as to the dominion of the creature is clearly declared by the Apostles Rom. V. 12-14 1 Cor. XV. 45-49 Ebr. II. 6-15 That Noe and what befell the world hy the deluge under him was the figure of what befalls the Church under Christ by Baptisme is no lesse manifestly the doctrine of the Apostle 1 Pet. III. 20 21 22. And not onely this particular but all the rest that befell the Fathers and Prophets and Martyrs under the Old Testament is evidently made a figure of what befalls the Disciples of Christ under the Gospel Ebr. XI As it is also evident that the pilgrimages of the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of their posterity the Israelites from Aegypt through the Wildernesse into the land of Promise is there declared and of all Christians received for the figure of that Journey which all professe to travail from sinne wherein it findeth them to the Kingdome of heaven and happinesse How else should the argument hold which the Apostles draw from that which befell the Children of Israel travailing through the Wildernesse to the land of Canaan to the duty of Christians in their Journey toward everlasting happinesse 1 Cor. X. 1-11 Ebr. III. 7 -IV 11. But after their coming into the land of Promise as the persecutions which the Prophets indured Ebr. XI 36 37 38. Mat. XXIII 34 evidence them to be the figures of Christs Crosse as the expiation made by all High Priests is evidently expounded by the Apostle to the Ebrewes to shadow the taking away of sinne by Christ So it is no lesse evident that all the Judges and Kings and High Priests and Prophets of Gods people anointed by God were figures of our Lord both in regard of his Church and the enemies of it than it is evident that our Lord Jesus is the Christ foretold by the Prophets Which things unlesse wee say as no man in his right senses will say that they are manifest to all that reade the Old Testament though they never heard of Christianity or the New wee cannot imagine that the substance of Christianity necessary to the salvation of all Christians is clear to all understandings in the Old Testament No lesse clear is it by the sayings and doings of our Lord recorded in the Gospels that it was not his intent freely and openly at least all waies and every where to declare the truth and substance of it by the said sayings and doings Manifest indeed it is that hee did publickly and freely declare himself to be that Christ whom the Prophets had foretold and the Nation expected and of this no doubt can be made by any man that with common reason examines all that is written in the Gospels Though not all times so free in declaring even this truth As it is evident by the words of the Jewes to him John X. 24. How long holdest thou our mindes in suspense If thou be the Christ freely tell us it And wee see Mat. XII 14 20. what difference of opinions there were about it in his life time forbidding his Disciples to declare it till his death But granting this to be manifest by the Gospels neither is it manifest by them that nothing else is requisite to salvation to be believed concerning his Person and Kingdome nor that thereby hee intended to make manifest what hee knew requisite to be believed of them that should imbrace it when it was become requisite This is enough to answer the Leviathan with pretending that it is not necessary to the salvarion of a Christian to believe any more than this that our Lord Jesus is the Christ Which if it could appear by the Gospels alone then would I not dispute any further that all the truth that is necessary to salvation is clearly delivered by the Gospels I do for my part believe that the substance of Christianity necessary to salvation is contained in the badge and cognisance which our Lord hath marked it with by his Commission to his Apostles Mat. XXVIII 19 20. Go make all nations Disciples baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you But shall I say it is clearly contained in these words about the intent and effect whereof there hath been and is so much dispute The Church it is well enough known hath alwaies rejected those that acknowledge not the Holy Trinity Father Sonne and Holy Ghost subsisting in one and the same Godhead At this day Socinus and his followers will have us believe onely that wee are to professe whether wee be baptized or not that our Lord Jesus is a man that was born of a Virgin by the power of God which is the Holy Ghost And for undertaking or for doing Gods message tendring reconcilement with God to mankinde hath by Gods gift the same power with God to govern his Kingdome and is to be honored as God for it Whether or no they would have us to believe this sense of theirs positively or would not be tyed to believe positively the sense of the
allegorizing the Old Testament is used by our Lord and his Apostles not onely in the Ceremonial Law but in all that properly belongeth to the Old Testament I do conclude not that the Scriptures have two senses but that the Scriptures of the Old Testament have an obvious sense that was understood or might be understood by Jewes and a retired sense which could not be understood but by those under the Old Testament that belonged to the New as S. Austine many times distinguishes And by thus limiting my position I avoid a great inconvenience which Origen and those that go the same way with him though to several purposes have incurred Hee in his Exposition upon S. John notes it for the fashion of the Valentinians and other Gnosticks to draw their strange fantasies from some mystical sense which they fasten upon the Scriptures though they be not able to prosecute and make good the same sense throughout the text and thred of that Scripture which they allege for it as wee understand by Irenaeus in the later end of the first Chapter of his first book To avoid this inconvenience both Origen and many after him have sought for a mystical sense of the Scripture many times where it is not to be found that is to say where the reason and ground of the difference between the Leter and the Spirit reackes not For the ground thereof is the purpose of sending our Lord Christ in due time and in the meane time the Prophets to prepare the way for the Covenant of the Gospel which hee came to proclaime But first the Chief of them Moses was to treat and strike a Covenant between God and his people whereby they should hold their freedome in the Land of Promise upon condition of serving him and governing their own civil conversation by such Lawes as hee should give It will therefore be necessary to grant that those Scriptures which proceed not upon supposition of such a purpose but of the accomplishment of it have but one sense To wit that which was figured by the Old Testament But this being excepted the rest of the Scriptures which suppose this purpose not yet declared must by the same necessity have this twofold sense according as the subject of several parts of it shall be capable of or require both Here those that know what an allegory is must distinguish the vulgar use of it even in the Scriptures themselves from that which standeth upon this ground which is particular to the Scriptures Wherein even men of learning sometimes lay stumbling blocks before themselves For as an allegory is nothing but an ornament of Language it is plain that even the literal sense of the prophesies of the Old Testament and other parts both of the Old and New is set forth by allegories The sense whereof hee that should take to be the allegorical sense of the Scriptures would deceive himself too much For the allegorical sense which wee speak of here is seen as well in things done as said in the Old Testament as not contained in the sayings there recorded immediately but by the meanes of things done under the Old Testament wherein that which is written is true indeed But so that the things which come to passe in the outward and temporal estate of Gods people are intended to figure that which comes to passe in their spiritual estate under the Gospel or in their everlasting estate of the world to come The ground whereof being the purpose of making way for the coming of Christ and the Gospel which hee was to preach as all Christians against the Jews are bound to maintain The New Testament being figured by the Old must needs be the intent and meaning of all that which figured it This wee shall finde by the writings of the Apostles and the arguments which upon supposition of this truth they draw against those who having received Christianiâ—y and upon that account admitting it for a principle did neverthelesse by acknowledging the obligation of the Law seek thâ—ir salvation by it Thus S. Paul 1 Cor. XV. 45. And so is it written the first Adam was made a living soul The last Adam a quickning spirit Meaning that his being made a quickning spirit is in correspondence to the Scripture that saith Adam became a living soul Gen. II. 7. whereby hee establisheth this way of allegory which wee treat upon correspondence between corporal and spiritual from the beginning of the Bible For upon this ground that which wee reade in Genesis of the dominion of Adam upon living creatures is by the Apostle transferred to the subjection of all things to Christ being exalted to the right hand of God Heb. II. 6. 1 Cor. XV. 27. Eph. I. 22. Neither doth the Apostles arguing the duties of Wives and Husbands upon that which Christ performed to his Church Eph. II. 31 32. stand upon any other ground but this So when S. Peter argues that Christians are saved by Baptism as Noe by the floud 1 Pet. III 20 21. hee appropriates eternal salvation to the New Testament by finding it figured in the temporal deliverances of the Fathers Whose Faith manifestly tending to the Land of Promise the Apostle by allegory shewes the secret of Christianity tending to eternal life in it Heb. XI 13-16 For Abraham and his Successors died saith hee without receiving the promises but seeing and saluting them afarre off and confessing themselves strangers and pilgrims in the land whereof they had received the promise Which they that professe declare they have a Countrey which they seek For if they had thought of that which they had forsook they had time enough to return But now they desire a better that is an heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God For prepared them a City Can this be understood without the correspondence between their inheritance of this world and that which was figured by it of the world to come So when S. Paul expounds those things which befell the children of Abraham and Isaac by the allegory of the Jewes and Christians Gal. IV. 22 Rom. IX 7-10 plainly hee maketh the promise of the life to come proper to the New Testament upon such termes as I have said And if this be the reason why and how those things that went before the Law shadowed and were to shadow the Gospel it could not but hold in the Covenant of the Law and the precepts of it This appears by the Apostles exhorting the converted Jewes to stick close to the Gospel from the Psal XCV 7 Heb. III. 12 where if the Israelites who having seen Gods works forty yeares in the Wildernesse tempting and provoking him entred not into his rest but left their carkasses in the Wildernesse Hee inferres thereupon Heb. IV. 1-11 that they are to beware least having received a promise of entring into Gods rest they also should come short by the example of the same disobedience Which all supposes this correspondence for the ground of such
though first penned in Ebrew yet was translated into Greek in Aegypt as the Prefice witnesses Supposing then the interest of Christianity against Judaism to consist in that which the Fathers of the Church do plead That the same Word and Wisedom of God which first dealt with the Patriarchs which gave the Law to Moses and afterwards spoke by the Prophets in after time dwelt in our Lord Christ Jesus and delivered the Gospel I demand what could have been said more to the purpose of Christianity against Judaism by those that lived under Moses Law There is a question whether the Apostles S. Paul and whosoever it was that writ the Epistle to the Ebrews do allege these Books and allow them for their Authors when they call our Lord Christ the Image of God 2 Cor. II. 4. the Image of the invisible God Col. I. 15. the resplendence of the glory of God and the express image of his substance Ebr. I. 3. the Power of God and the Wisedom of God 1 Cor. I. 24. When they say that all things in heaven and earth were created by him and to him and subsist through him as the first-born of the whole creature Col. I. 16 17. that the world was made by him and that hee sustaineth and moveth all things by his powerfull word Ebr. I. 2 3. For how like are these things to those which wee reade in Ecclesiasticus I. 1 4. All wisedom cometh from the Lord and is with him for everlasting Wisedom was made before all things and the understanding of prudence from everlasting And XXIV 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Before the world from the beginning hee made mee and for ever I fail not Having said in the beginning of the Chapter according to the Latine Copy Ego ex ore Altissimi prodivi primogenita ante omnem creaturam I came forth of the mouth of the most High the first born before every creature And again Ecclesiasticus I. 9 10. The Lord himself made her and saw and numbred her and poured her upon all his works With all flesh shee is according to his gift and hee furnisheth her to them that love him And XXIV 5-9 I came out of the most High and covered the earth like a mist I dwell in the highest and my throne is in the pilar of cloud I alone compass the circumference of heaven and walk in the bottom of the deep In the waves of the sea and in all the earth in every people and nation is my inheritance Adding that seeking rest among men shee found it no where but in Israel And in the book of Wisedom VII 22 -27 For there is in Wisedom an understanding spirit holy onely begotten manifold subtile thinn nimble perspicuous undefiled plain to be understood inviolable loving goodness quick not to be hindred beneficent loving to men firm sure not solicitous that can do any thing that survayeth all things and passeth through the purest and finest understanding spirits For Wisedom is nimbler than all motions and attaineth and passith through all things because of her pureness For it is a vapor of the power of God and a sincere effluence of the glory of the Almighty therefore no pollution can happen to it For it is the resplendence of the everlasting light the unspotted mirror of Gods working and the image of his goodness Which being one can do all things and remaining in her self reneweth all things and passing into pious souls in all ages makes them friends of God and Prophets And IX 9 10 11. And with thee is Wisedom that knoweth thy works and was present when thou madest the world and knoweth what is pleasing in thine eyes and right in thy commands Send her from thy holy heavens and from the throne of thy glory that shee may assist and labor with mee and I may know what is pleasing before thee For shee knoweth and understandeth all things and will guide mee wisely in my doings and keep mee in her glory Can any man reade these things and not remember the beginning of S. Johns Gospel In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God All things were made by it and without it was nothing made that was made Can any man conceive that the Apostles should call our Lord Christ the Word the Power and the Wisedom of God that made all things in heaven and in earth it self being brought forth before all creatures supporting and moving all things which was with God from everlasting that hee is the image of God the shine of his glory the character of his substance That the successors of the Prophets should describe the Wisedom of God to be the Word of God that dwelt in the Prophets and the Power of God that made all things being it self brought forth before all things that sustaineth and governeth all things to dwell by the throne of God as the shine of his light the miror of his works the breath and vapor of his power and glory and from thence to come and take possession of the souls of Prophets and not acknowledg all this to come from the same fountain Especially being perswaded afore as all that are not Jews must be perswaded that the same Spirit and Word of God qualified as Wisedom describeth it which possessing the souls of righteous men in that measure whereof each of them was capable made them Gods Prophets dwelt in Christ without measure according to the fulnesse of the Godhead as the Apostles have told and said John I. 14 16. III. 34. Col. II. 9 10. Truly if any man say as I know it is said that the same sense may be derived by the Apostles from the glory of God in Ezek. I. 28. from the attributes of the Messias Psal II. 7. 2 Sam. VII 14. Esa IX 6. from the making of the world by Gods wisedom recorded Psal XXXIII 5. CXXXVI 5. Jeremy LI. 15. X. 12. especially from that which Solomon hath written of Wisedom being present with God from everlasting and doing all his works Prov. VIII 11-31 I will not contend with him about it Though in my own judgment seeing it cannot reasonably be denied that these writings being extant long afore went then with the rest of the Greek Bible And seeing the texts that are alleged do not direct us to understand how the Word and Spirit and Wisedom of God by which the Law and the Prophets spoke dwelleth for ever in our Lord Christ as these passages of their Successors do I do firmly believe that they signifie their allowance of them whose doctrine they use But it is enough that it may hereby appear as it must needs appear that they give us good and sound commentaries upon so high a point of the Prophets doctrine their predecessors when the Apostles that follow them hold such correspondence with them in it Onely hereupon I will from hence draw the reason why the inward obedience to
God in Spirit and truth which the Gospel requireth is so plentifully preached in all those writings which wee call Apocrypha Whereas in our Saviors and his Apostles time and much more afterwards they promised themselves the kingdome of heaven upon the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees That is upon the outward and carnal observation of Moses Law and preciseness in all those little niceties which their Masters had fensed it with For it is no mervail that they who under persecution promised themselves a part in the resurrection of the righteous cleaving to God and his Law should finde themselves tyed to that obedience in spirit and truth which God who is a Spirit sees and allows But lesse mervail it is that having attained the carnal promises of the Law in the possession of the Land of Promise they should fall away from the like zeal and yet promise themselves the world to come upon that form of godliness which they observed being destitute of the force and power of it As an argument that this consideration is well grounded and true I will here adde the authority and practice of the primitive Church prescribing these books to be read by the Catechumeni or those that professed to believe the truth of Christianity and offered themselves to be instructed in the mater of it in order to Baptism and being made Christians For seeing these might be as well Jews as Gentiles this signifies that the doctrine of them was held by the Church a fit instruction towards Christianity even for those that were already acquainted with the doctrine of the Prophets S. Athanasius then in Synopsi testifieth that these books were read to the Catechumeni To the same purpose it is read in the Constitutions of the Apostles though the place is not at hand at present And that which the last Canon of the Apostles prescribes that besides the Canonical Scriptures the book of Ecclesiasticus be read by the youth seems to tend to the same purpose To the same purpose Dionysius de div Nom. cap. IV. calls the Book of Wisedom an Introduction to the divine Oracles But let no man think to inferr that the Apostles took these Books for Scripture inspired by God because I grant that they borrowed from them in their writings Origen hath met with this objection Prol. in Cant. where hee observeth That the Apostles have borrowed some things out of Apocryphal Scriptures as S. Jude out of the books of Enoch and the departure of Moses and yet addes that wee are not to give way to the reading of them because wee must not transgresse the bounds which our Fathers have fixed Where you see hee distinguisheth those books which the Church did not allow to be read under the name of Apocrypha from those which it did allow to be read and are therefore more properly called Ecclesiastical Scriptures which name hath particularly stuck by way of excellence upon the Wisedom of the son of Sirach though I contend not about names when wee call them Apocrypha because I see that S. Jerome hath sometimes done it And if S. Paul have alleged Aratus Menander and Epimenides heathen Poets hee did not thereby intend to allow the authors but the mater which hee allegeth If these things be so I shall not desire to abridg any mans liberty from arguing against the mater of these Books to prove them not inspired by God because not agreeing with those which wee know and agree to have been inspired by God But I shall warn them that take upon them thus to argue first to look about them that they bring not the unquestionable parts of Scripture into an undue suspicion for agreeing in something for which they have conceived a prejudice that these Books are not to be received The design of Judith and her proceeding in the execution of it is charged not to agree with Christianity neither is it my purpose here to maintain that it doth But I am more than afraid that those who object this do not know how to distinguish it from the fact of Jaell the wife of Heber the Kenite in the book of Judges which the Spirit of God in Deborah the Prophetesse so highly extolleth The like is to be said of the like passages questioned in the book of Tobit and the Maccabees and namely the fact of Razias killing himself least hee should fall into the hands of persecutors which seemeth to be related with much approbation 2 Mac. XIV 41-46 For to distinguish this fact from Samsons it will not serve the turn to say that Samson did it by inspiration of Gods Spirit supposing afore that it was contrary to Gods declared Law to do it The difficulty being greater in saying that the declared Law of God is violated by the motion of Gods Spirit when as the Spirit of God is not granted to any man but upon supposition of acknowledging Gods declared Law For howsoever Saul or Caiaphas or Balaam may be moved by the Spirit of God to speak such things as by the Scriptures inspired by God wee learn that they did speak Yet that God should imploy upon his own Commission as the Judges of whom it is said that the Spirit of God came upon them were manifestly imployed by God whom hee favored not is a thing which cannot agree with the presumption which all Christians have of the salvation of the Fathers As for the passage of Eccles XLVI 23. which seems to say that it was the soul of Samuel the Prophet and not an evil Spirit assuming his habit that foretold the death of Saul I do not understand why all this may not be said according to appearance not according to truth For it will still make for the honor of Samuel that the King whatsoever opinion hee had of this means of fore-knowledg should desire to see Samuel as him whom in his life time hee found so unquestionable But if it be said that this cannot satisfie the leter of the Scripture yet can it not be said that as Saul a wicked man did believe that hee might see Samuel so a good man at that time might not have the same Being then no part of the truth which true piety obliged all men to acknowledg In the book of Tobit there are several things besides questionable But they that imagine conjuring in the liver of a fish to drive away an unclean Spirit do not consider those exorcisms whereby it is evident both by the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles besides divers of the most ancient Fathers of the Church that the Jews both in our Lords times and after did cast out unclean Spirits For what force could they have but from the appointment of God from whom at first they were delivered for a testimony of his residence among his people Which makes me stick to condemn that relation of the Jews in the Talmud extant also in Suidas that there were admirable remedies delivered by Solomon which hee caused to be writ upon
Moses a little before his death though in effect they had submitted to whatsoever should be required in Gods name by Moses when they passed the red Sea under his conduct Only it is to be observed that the Covenant of Circumcision which God had made with Abraham when he gave him the Land of Promise remained for their Title to it when the promise thereof became limited by the Law Which limitation because they submitted to by leaving Aegypt under the conduct of Moses and being shadowed by the Cloud saw their enemies drowned in the red Sea therefore are they elegantly said by S. Paul to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea For if being redeemed from the Aegypt of this world we undertake to leave it under the conduct of our Lord Christ If hereupon our sins be drowned in the waters of Baptism Were not they baptized in the same sense as we passe the red Sea at our comming out of Aegypt But both upon supposition of the correspondence between the two Testaments without which all this argument could neither have force nor relish And therefore I cannot but admire to see men learned in the Scriptures to maintain by this place that the Sacraments of the Old Testament are the same with the Sacraments of the New Not distinguishing whether immediatly or by way of correspondence For if you make the Kingdom of Heaven and the Land of Promise all a thing then is Baptism and the passage of the red Sea all one But then it will be all one to believe in Christ and to submit to his conduct to Paradise as to believe in Moses as the Israelites did hereupon Exod. XIV 31. and to put themselves under his conduct to the Land of Promise Which is my Argument But if setting aside the correspondence you make their ingagement to God under Moses for obtaining the Land of promise one thing and our ingagement to God under Christ another Certainly the immediate assurance of this and the immediate assurance of that which by means of the correspondence becoms also the assurance of this are severall things And if there be between the Old and New Covenant that correspondence which makes that the figure of this they may as well be said to be one and the same and by consequence the Sacraments of them as a mans Picture is called by his name when seeing the Pictures of our Princes for example we say This is H. the eight and this Queen Elizabeth But to say that the Sacraments of the Old Law do immediately figure or assure the same thing which the Sacraments of the Gospel do is the same thing as to say the rest of the Land of Promise and the everlasting rest of the Kingdom of Heaven are both one and the same Let us now see by what right that is upon what ground S. Paul argues that concerning the Gospel from the words of Moses Deut. XIII 11 -14 which is manifestly said by him concerning the Law Rom. X. 6 -10 The righteousnesse that is of Faith saith thus Say not in thine heart who will ascend into Heaven To wit to bring down Christ Or who will go down into the deep To wit to bring up Christ from the dead But what saith it The Word is near thee in thy mouth and in thy heart That is the word of Faith which we Preach That if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe with thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart a man believes to righteousnesse and with the mouth confession is made to salvation The argument is this If Moses duly warn the Israelites that they have no excuse for not obeying the Law which he had put as it were in their mouths and into their hearts so plainly had he taught it them then cannot those that hear the Apostles Preach the Gospel excuse themselves in not obeying it being so plainly shewed That if they professe Christ with their mouths believing with the heart that God raised him from the dead they should be saved That this word of Faith is put as it were in their mouths and in their hearts Can this be made good to be Moses his meaning not supposing that the Spirit of God intended the Gospel by the Law Or can it be denied so to be supposing it If therefore the profession of an Israelite tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Jews shall not the profession of a Christian tie him to the Law of God given the Christians Shall not the professing of Christ which the Apostle speaks of be the undertaking of it For S. Paul by saying that they were baptized into Moses under the Cloud and in the Sea plainly sheweth that as their undertaking to march under the conduct of Moses towards the Land of Promise through the red Sea was rewarded by God with the drowning of their enemies and the overshadowing of the Cloud So our undertaking to follow Christ towards that Kingdom which he obtained by his Crosse is rewarded with the extinguishing of sin and the refreshing of the Holy Ghost in our travel to the world to come And therefore the ingagement of the second Covenant being inacted and settled upon us by the Sacrament of Baptism the promises of the Covenant must needs depend upon the same What else shall the name of a New Covenant or a New testament signifie if we will not have them to signifie nothing Some man perhaps may marvel whence it comes that the agreement between God and his ancient People being alwaies represented in the Old Testament in the nature and terms of a Covenant the New is by the Apostle proved to have the nature of the last Will and Tessament of our Lord Christ Hebr. IX 16 17. But if this Testament be also a Covenant as the same Apostle saith Hebr. VIII 9. He hath obtained a more excellent Ministery by how much he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which is inacted upon better promises there will be no cause to marvell The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ordinary Greek signifies no more than a mans last Will and Testament But in the use of the Jews that spoke Greek such as are the Apostles the translators of the Old Testament into Greek and others it fignisies also a Covenant If further it pleased God that our Lord Christ should die to assure us of everlasting life on his part which thereby he purchased obliging God on his part to give it to those that shall be found qualified for it well may the Apostle affirm that it is the last Will and Testament of him who died to make it irrevocable because mens Wills are not so till death But it containeth nevertheless a Covenant because men become not Sons of God by birth but by choice accepting the adoption which is tendred being
death in the profession of Christianity left no doubt in the mind of any Christian whether they should be saved or not suffering for Christ before they were baptized But because those who might have had means and opportunity to be baptized at such times and upon such occasions as the rules and customes of the Church furnished by neglecting the same ministred some ground to presume that they had not in them that resolution to undergo the Crosse of Christ in and for the performance of that which baptisin undertakes in consideration whereof he grants those promises which his Gospel proclaimeth And having said this I conceive I need say no more to show the necessity of Baptism according to the doctrine and practise of the whole Church which I proved afore by the Scriptures For if those who professed to believe Christianity and had resolved to enter into that estate and life which it required came under a doubtfull repute as to their salvation among Christians where they were intercepted by death before they were Christened by baptism well may the unavoydable casualties of mortality dispense in the necessity of an act the means whereof may depend upon something else beside his will that wants it But it appears therefore a necessary ingredient in the condition which qualifies for the promises of the Gospel when the desire of having it if it were possible appears absolutely undispensable And this shall save me the labour of producing the testimonies of Church Writers to evidence the sense thereof in all ages For the sense of the Church cannot be so effectually evidenced by the sayings of particular persons of what authority soever in their own Churches as it is evident by the customs really in force which it appeareth that particular persons held themselves obliged to follow And therefore to the opinions presently on foot Of the Socinians That baptisme was necessary under the Apostles to profess that purity of life which Christianity promiseth when men were converted from Jews or Gentiles to Christians but indifferent for those that wear that profession by being born and brought up under Christian parents And of some Enthusiasts among us who think it a meer mistake to baptize with water into Christianity the Baptism of John being the Baptism of water but the Baptism of the Holy Ghost the Baptism of Christ of which Opinions you shall hear more by and by I say to these opinions it shall serve my turn to say That the necessity of the Baptism of Water stands evidenced by the same means that convince the World of the truth of Christianity To wit by the Scriptures hitherto alledged and by the consent of all Christians For it will be impossible to alledge not only any Writer that hath been allowed and credited by the Church but any man that hath pass'd for a Christian in the Church that ever undertook to perswade himselfe or any man else to presume that he should be saved neglecting Baptism For what reason and upon what ground I leave to those that shall neglect S. Peters distinction hitherto pleaded to alledge As for the next point which is the manner of baptizing from the circumstances and ceremonies of it I shall but relate here what I alledged out of S. Peter in the beginning of the solemn questions propounded of course to those that demanded Baptism whether they did believe the truth of Christianity whether they would undertake to profess it and to fight against the flesh the World and the Divel for the observing of it whether he desired to be baptized upon these terms Neither shall I need to alledge the testimonies of Church-Writers for the use of the same ceremony which at this day is in force in the Church of England And though there be those that are liberall enough in censuring it as impertinent now that all are baptized Infants and though this be not the place to consider such exceptions yet I will here take notice how the contract thus executed concerns â—he salvation of Christians that so it may be judged how it concerns the Office of Baptism that what so concerns the salvation of Christians be expressed in it To the same purpose I will here alledge the putting on of white robes after Baptisin Whereupon the Sunday after Easter-day is still called Dominica in Albis The Lords day in Whites which first they had put on at Easter when they were baptized which custome seemeth to have been in use in the Church when S. Paul said Rom. XIII 14. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill it in the lusts thereof And Gal. III. 27. As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ And Joh. IV. 22. 24. To put off the old man and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse And Col. 3. 10. Having put off the old man with his actions and put on the new man that is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of him that made him For all these expressions seem to be allusions to that which they saw done and practised before their eyes But those that yield not so much cannot refuse to grant that the custome was taken up by the Church to signifie the profession of that which the Apostle injoyneth all Christians in those that were baptized The same thing signified by signing those that were baptized with the sign of the Crosse Which S. Augustine expounds very well by the custome of the Roman Empire to set a mark on the bodies of those that were listed Souldiers and upon slaves by which they might be known and brought back if they should run away or depart from their colours For though the sign of the Crosse made upon him that is baptized remain not visible upon him yet being done publickly and solemnly and as S. Paul saith of Timothy under many witnesses he is notwithstanding to be challenged by it of what he undertooke And he that observes this mark to be called by the ancient Church sigillum the signe or seal must think of S. Pauls words 2 Cor. I. 21 22. But he that establisheth us with you into Christ and anointeth us is God who hath also signed us and put the earnest of his Spirit into our hearts And Ephes I. 13. In whom also having believed ye were signed with the Holy Spirit of Promise And IV. 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom ye are signed to the day of Redemption I say he must think of these words of S. Paul as I said of those concerning the white robes of them them that were baptized That they are either allusions to that which men saw done by the appointment of the Apostles or occasions of taking up these ceremonies by the primitive Church I might here argue from the custom of Vndertakers which now are called Godfathers and Godmothers to the same purpose For if it were requisite that the Church should be secured
what they ought to do but to the consequence thereof which naturally and reasonably they are apt to produce but do not necessarily produce Againe on the other side Trust and confidence in God through Christ obtaines the promises of the Gospel who denyes it But is this trust alwaies well grounded and true Is it not possible for a man to imagine his title to the promises of the Gospel to be good when it is not I would we had no cause to believe how oft it comes to passe I grant that at the first hearing and believing the Gospel all the world have ground enough for that confidence that may save them from despairing to attaine the promises of it But hath he that hath ground not to despaire of being justified by faith ground to conside as justified by faith Or is that all one as to have ground enough for that confidence that they have right to the said promises I suppose there is a great gulfe between both For when the preaching of the Gospel convinceth a man that he is lost unlesse he accept it upon whatsoever condition it tendereth it is enough to keep any man that is in his wits from dispairing to know that there is a condition tendered by God the accepting whereof will intitle us to his promises Because being sincerely tendred in Gods name there can be no barre but on our part to the accepting of it But to have a well grounded confidence of our own right and just title to the promises it behoveth that the Spirit of a man which is in him know that there is in him a sincere resolution of accepting the conditions Which how much the better it is grounded and setled so much more shall his confidence be secure And to this confidence to bring a man from this former confidence is as great a work as to induce a man that believes the world to come to preferre it before this For I demand Is he that sins against God for love of this world enemy to God as the Apostle saith James IV. 4. or not Are not all men enemies to God when the Gospel calls them to become his friends If not why may they not be saved without it If so can they have confidence in their enemy by being discovered to be his enemies Indeed the Gospel tendring conditions of peace they have confidence that they may become friends with God by imbracing the same But the confidence of friends till they have imbraced them they cannot have It is therefore a dangerous a imposture to invite an unregenerate man so soon as he is descovered so to be to the confidence of a Christian in God through Christ As not to invite him to that confidence who may be a Christian is to drive him to despaire For not presupposing his conversion from sinne to God it is necessarily carnal presumption not the confidence of a Christian And if the Spirit of God should seal to any heart the promises of the Gospel not presupposing this ground it were not possible for any man to discern the illusions of the evil Spirit from the dictates of Gods The conscience of our submission to those terms being the onely test by which the difference is discernable For all they that trust in thee shall not be ashamed but such as transgresse without a cause shall be put to confusion Psal XXV 2. To transgresse without a cause and to put trust in God are terms incompetible So that wheresoever we are bid trust in God being implicitely forbid trust in the world or our selves which all that love the world or themselves not in order to God necessarily do there is supposed the ground of this trust inconsistent with the conscience of sinne And though this ungrounded confidence importeth carnal presumption yet may it occasion dispaire For when the guilt of sinne in the conscience stronger then all prejudicate opinion and imposture of false doctrine discovers that there is no ground for the confidence of a Christian and prejudice on the other side admits no recourse to that condition which is the ground of it no marvaile if it seem impossible to attain peace of conscience which appearance is the very horror of despair Seeing then that trust in God as reconcileable and for the attaining of remission of sinnes is the immediate fruit of the Gospel believed but trust in God as reconciled which is confidence of remission of sinnes obtained is necessarily the consequence of that faith which justifieth the justification of a Christian being a sinner before a Christian necessarily implying remission of sins what remaineth but that the professing of faith to God for the undergoing of Christianity be the condition upon which the promises of the Gospel become due that is to say that faith which alone justifieth For it is true the Gospel tendereth severall promises remission of sinnes in the first place because the first thing a man convict and sentenced to death seeks is his discharge But no man can have this discharge but upon the same terms he must become the sonne of God whether as regenerate by grace or as adopted to glory that is to the right and title of it and upon the same terms be sanctified by the holy Ghost which as I shewed before is promised as a gift that is habitually to be possessed onely to Christians and to all Christians And therefore it is impossible to imagine a man discharged of his sinnes that is not for the very same reason and therefore at the same instant of nature as well as of time regenerate adopted and sanctified It is indeed to be granted that justification signifies something different from all these promises in as much as it is manifest that in the language of the Scriptures it importeth not making of a man righteous but declaring him and accounting him righteous treating him and dealing with him as righteous All this is true And yet I shall not grant that it is so properly understood to be the act of God as sitting upon his throne of judgement whether according to mercy or justice as the act of God contracting with mâ—n for everlasting life upon condition of submitting to the Covenant of Grace and the terms of it Indeed the preaching of the Gospel premises the generall judgement to come as tendering the way to come clear of it to wit by Christ whom it declareth judge of quick and dead For S. Paul thus proposeth it to the Athenians Acts XVII 30 31. God who eversaw the times of ignorance now chargeth all men every where to repent Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world righteously by the man whom he hath appointed making faith hereof to all by raising him from the dead And of the overture thereof which he made to Felix S. Luke saith Acts XXIV 25. As he discoursed of righteousnesse and temperance and judgement to come And S. Paul speaking of the Gospel Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is
mercy on all And out of the same consideration he argues Gal. III. 10 13. That as many as are of the workes of the Law are accursed For it is written Cursed is every one that continnueth not in all things that are written in the book the Law to do them And againe Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us For it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree For though the Law provided remedies for many transgressions the use whereof might and did restore men to the benefit of those temporall promises which it tendered Yet in as much as there was no remedy against capitall transgressions by the Law in as much as no remedy against death which is the punishment allotted to the transgression of Gods originall Law in so much it is justly said That by the law there was sufficient conviction of that spirituall death to which those that retired not themselves under the Spirituall Law of God were necessarily liable Though that Spirituall Law were never published till Christ by submitting to the literal curse of the law had established the same To this purpose truly saith S. Paul Gal. III. 18 19. That the inheritance being allowed Abraham by promise the Law was added because of transgressions That is because there was no relying upon the good nature of that people whose benefit the promises made to Abraham did concerne that because they professed the true God and acknowledged his providence and judgement to come therefore without constraint of temporall punishments they would abstain even from those sins whereby eivil society is violated And therefore the Apostle addeth That God hath concluded all under sinne that the promise might be given those that believe by the faith of Jesus Christ But before the faith came saith he we were guarded by the law as shut up to the faith which was to be revealed So that the law is our Pedagogue to bring us to Christ that we may be justified by faith The office of a Pedagogue in S. Pauls sense according to the custome of those times is not that which most men understand as I said afore A Pedagogue is not the master of a School but a governour such as Fathers then appointed their sonnes out of their slaves for the most part in whose discretion they had some confidence to trust their children with them for the conducting of them to Schoole and for the over-seeing of them when they were dismissed by their masters againe So that when he saith the Law is our Pedagogue to bring us to Schoole to Christ The sense is most fit and proper according to my intent That discovering the conviction of sinne by the punishments wherewith it guardeth and shutteth men up from offending it leadeth us to the ingagement which Christ requireth of us that we offend no more And upon this ground and to this effect it is that S. Paul inferrs out of the passages of the old Testament which he had there premised Rom. III. 19 20 21. What the Law saith it saith to those that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty to God thot no flesh should be justified before him by the works of the Law For by the Law is the knowledge of sinne But now the righteousnesse of God is manifested without the Law being testified by the Law and the prophets For how is the righteousnesse of God witnessed by the Law which ministreth conviction of sinne and by the Prophets but in regard the Law affords sufficient arguments of the truth of the Gospel by which that righteousnesse which God accepteth to everlasting life is tendered And because the Prophets succeeding the Law do cleare and publish the same more and more And againe Rom. IV. 15 16. For the law worketh wrath Because where there is no Law there is no transgression Therefore of saith is the promise that it may be according to grace that the promise may be firme to all the seed not onely that which is of the Law but that also which is of the faith of Abraham which is the Father of us all For if there be a twofold seed of Abraham one according to the Law onely which worketh wrath the other according to the promise then is there also a twofold Law because that promise inferres a Law of God by virtue whereof those that are of faith are justified by the promise Now if the restraining of that people from grosse offences by those punishments which the Law threatned them with were a considerable meanes to prepare that people to submit themselves to the Gospel when iâ— should come to be preached It will necessarily follow that during the time that the Law was to stand it was appointed by God to bring them to true spirituall righteousnesse who apprehending the secrets of their own hearts open to God whom the Laws ties them to acknowledge and liable to his judgements in confidence of the goodnesse which he prevented them with should engage the resolution of their hearts to worship him in spirit and in truth Seeing then that all the arguments whereby the Law and the Prophets do bear witnesse to the truth of Christianity are grounded upon the correspondence between the temporall promises of the Law and the spirituall and everlasting promises of the Gospel whereupon follows the correspondence between that carnall obedience which the Law and that spirituall obedience which the Gospell requireth it followeth necessarily that though there was then no expresse publication of any will of God to be engaged to give life everlasting to those that should take upon them to yeeld him that inward and spirituall obedience which the Gospel now covenanteth for yet notwithstanding this will of his darkly intimated by the dispensation of the Law was effectuall to make those that imbraced those intimations to yeeld him such obedience and yet the number of them so slender as made the coming of Christ and his Gospel no lesse necessary to the salvation of the Jews then of the Gentiles And this is that equivocation of the word Law which Origen in his exposition of the Epistle to the Romanes and in his Philocalia oftentimes complaines to be the occasion of the obscurity of that and other of S. Pauls Epistles The same in a word which made the Jews stumble at the counsel of God in voiding that Law to which he had brought them up and so well accepted their zeale for it Onely this we must take along with us that whatsoever is here said to be intimated by the Law and made good under it concerning the reward of everlasting life to the inward obedience of Gods spirituall Law is to be understood by virtue of those promises upon which the Gospel is established Which the Fathers from the beginning were bred up in the expectation of according to that of the Apostle Heb. XI 13 16. These all died according to faith not
thus proceedeth Heb. IX 13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkled sanctify the polluted to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the everlasting spirit offered himself to God blamelesse cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God For though the Soul of Christ raised from the dead have immortality which is life indissoluable yet it hath not the virtue of it which is to be ascribed to the Spirit which raised him from the dead as vvell as us according to S. Paul Rom. VIII 10. 11. If Christ be in you though the body be dead because of sin yet the Spirit is life because of righteousness But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortall bodies also through his Spirit that dwelleth in you And whether the cleansing of sin can be ascribed to any gift bestowed upon the humane Soule of Christ as here they vvould have it ascribed to the immortality thereof let all the World judge I deny not indeed that Christ offers the Sacrifice of himself to the Father in the Heaven of Heavens as the Priest offered him the blood of those Sacrifices which were burnt without the Camp in that Holy of Holies But if I should deny that he offered himself to God vvhen he vvas crucified I might as vvell deny that the Priests offered therein Sacrifices to God when they killed them at the Altar and burnt them upon it So manifest so certain it is that the eternall Spirit by virtue whereof the blood of Christ being offered cleanseth sin was in Christ before his rising again And this is that which S. Paul saith 1 Tim. III. 16. And without crontroversie Great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit preached to the Gentiles seen of Angels believed of the World taken up into Glory It is sayd indeed that the Syriack the Vulgar Latine the Arabick and the Commentaries under S. Ambrose his name all want 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and understand S. Paul to speak of the Gospel all the while And that the Gospel being sayd to be preached before it is sayd to be taken up into Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be no more then that it is exalted and glorified As if the order of the words did inforce that which is first sayd to have been first done or as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not signifie the taking of him up to God but the making of the Gospel famous Such violence will a prejudicate supposition offer even to Gods words rather then to quit an argument For to what sense can the Gospel be sayd to be manifested in the flesh because preached by the man Christ And suppose it may be sayd to be justified by the Spirit as Wisdome is justified by the Children of Wisdome Mat. XI 9. Luke VII 35. how much more proper is it to understand that God who appeared in the flesh should be sayd to be justified so to be in or by the Spirit the Works whereof shewed him so to be as afore Neither shall we need to make any greater doubt of the reading of those vvords of S. Paul Acts XX. 28. Look therefore to your selves and to the whole Flock ever which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to feed the Church of God which he hath gotten with his blood Though the written Copy at S. James and the Syriack read here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because that the Church over which the Holy Ghost makes Bishops it bought with the blood of Christ is the same with that of the Apostle afore that the blood of Christ offered by the eternall Spirit cleanseth sin Neither is it so easie to avoyd the words of the Apostle Heb. XI 16. as some imagine For he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham he took Suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to challenge which is done by laying hands on that which we challenge Is the ground therefore void upon which he challenges these to life as his own that through feare of death were in bondage does not the whole Epistle argue that this is done by the offering of our flesh saith he not expresly that it behoved him to become like his Brethren in all things and that he is not ashamed to call them Brethren because he that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one Heb. XI 11. 14. 17. does Christ vindicate mankind or the Seed of Abraham For though this is written to the Hebrews alone yet it was written at such time as all christians understood that it belongs no less to the Gentiles Wherfore it is manifest that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might seem to signifie Christs challenging mankind or vindicating them into freedome from death as well here as elswhere is restrained by the Text and consequence of the Apostles discourse to signifie the assuming of mans nature by the means whereof he won mankind into freedome and maintains it in the same In fine when the Apostle sayth 1 Pet. I. 11. That the ancient Prophets did search against what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in them did declare and profess the sufferings to come upon Christ and the glories following the same He sheweth plainly that the same Spirit by which they spake by fits dwelt in the flesh of Christ for ever having once assumed it Of which Spirit the Evangelist sayth Marke XI 8. That Jesus knew by the Spirit how the Pharises reasoned of him within themselves For as I sayd afore that when it is sayd in the Old Testament that the word of God came to this or that Prophet an Angel appeared unto him speaking in the person of God vvho vvas therefore vvorshiped as God because the Word of God for vvhich being incarnate our Lord Jesus is for ever to be Worshiped as God vvas in that Angel at the present for that Service So I must further note here that upon such Word of God coming to a Prophet he became inspired that is possessed and acted by the Spirit of God for the time of that Service vvhich God by such a message imployed him about Not that all Prophets did receive such Word by such message from God before they spake those things which we believe still they spake by the Spirit of God For there is a great deal of appearance in the Scripture for that which the Jewes doctors deliver unto us Abarbanel by name alleging Maimoni for his saying upon Numb XI that there are inferior degrees of Prophesie which comes not by apparitions in which a man saw one that spake to him in Gods Name but sometimes meerly by inspiration of Gods Spirit inwardly moving either to act or to speak as
God moved So it is often said that the Spirit of God came upon passed upon invested either Judges or Prophets Judg. III. 10. XI 29. XIV 6 19. 1 Sam. X. 6 10. Judg. VI. 34. 1 Chron. XII 18. XXIV 20. whereupon it is to be acknowledged that those Judges were also Prophets from Joshua the successor of Moses to whom that promise of God Deut. XVIII 18. seems to belong in the first place Nor is it therefore requisite that I dispute here by what meanes these Prophets were all assured that it was Gods Spirit not an evil Spirit which moved them either to act or speak Much lesse how they were inabled to assure others of it Thus much we see in the case of Balaam who by sacrifices to devils hoped to obtaine of them a commission to curse Gods people that when he went to meet his familiars to that purpose and was met with by God he knew God so well and his message that he durst not but do it I shewed you afore that those Angels by whom God spake to the Prophets in the Old Testament did not alwaies speak in the person of God and that in the New Testament the Word of God having once assumed the flesh of Christ though we read of divers apparitions of Angels yet we never read that the Angel who speakes in Gods Name is called God or honoured as God As for those Prophets which we read of in the Churches under the Apostles 1 Cor. XII 10 28 29. XIV 29 32 37. Ephes III. 5. IV. 11. as it is necessary to understand that their Graces were inferior to the Graces of the Apostles that it may be true which S. Paul saith 1 Cor. XIV 32. The Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets So can there be no reason to doubt that they were of that inferior sort of Prophets that spake by the meer inspiration of Gods Spirit without aparition of any Angel speaking to them either asleep or awake either in the name onely or further in the person also of God When therefore the Angel Gabriel appeared to the blessed Virgine saying Luke II. 35. The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the most high shall overshadow thee And therefore the holy thing that is born shall be called the Sonne of God We are to understand that the holy Ghost who upon the Word of God delivered to a Prophet possessed his soul for a time till he had delivered Gods Word to them to whom it was sent upon this message possessing the flesh of the blessed Virgine made it a tabernacle for the Word of God alwayes to dwell in in which Word the Spirit of God alwaies dwelt For so the difference holds between our Lord Christ in whom dwells the fullnesse of his Spirit and his servants that have each of them his measure of it If we understand the word incarnate to have in it resident the power of Gods Spirit by which our Lord Christ proved himself the sonne of God in particular as S. Paul saith by rising from the dead by the Spirit of holynesse But the servants of God to whom this word came to be possessed and acted by the same Spirit onely while they were charged with the Word of God that is with their message Neither seems it more difficult to understand how Christians are possessed of Gods Spirit by the generall Promise of the Covenant of Grace when the assistance of God is by Gods appointment assured them to all such purposes as the common profession of Christianity requires This is the reason of the alliance which the Scriptures expresse between the Word and Spirit of God in our Lord Christ in regard whereof I have thought requisite to referre those Scriptures which speak of the Spirit of God in our Lord Christ to the grace of union rather then to the grace of unction as the Schoole distinguisheth that is to say rather to the Godhead of the Word dwelling in the flesh of Christ containing alwayes and implying the Spirit then to those graces parted out upon his soule which I neither doubt of nor that they are expressed in diverse passages of the Scriptures And this is the reason why the very name of the Spirit is attributed to the word incarnate in divers passages of the most ancient Church-Writers which Grotius hath carefully collected upon the foresaid text of Marke II. 8. And the position of Cerinthus is very remarkable that our Lord Jesus Christ being born as other men of Joseph and Mary at his baptisme the holy Ghost that is Christ saith he came down upon him in the shape of a dove revealing the unknown Father to him and to his followers and that by this his Power coming upon him from above he did miracles And that when he had suffered that which came from above flew up againe from Jesus So that Jesus suffered and rose againe but Christ that came upon him from above which is that which came down in the shape of a dove flew up againe without suffering So that Jesus is not Christ For hereby as it is manifest that they hold with the Church that Christ is God assuring us thereby that it was the originall faith of the Church so they shew that the overshadowing of the blessed Virgine by the holy Ghost imports the incarnation of the Godhead to them who believe it as the coming down of the holy Ghost at the Baptisme imports the dwelling of Gods Spirit in Christ till his suffering to Cerinthus And the same Epiphanius telling us of the Ebionites that sometimes they contradict themselves Otherwhiles saith he they say otherwise that the Spirit of God which is Christ came upon and invested the man that is called Jesus I will give you here if you please that which goes before in Epiphanius Some of them say saith he that Christ is that Adam that was framed first and inspired with the breath of God Others of them say that he is from above and was made before all things being a Spirit or the Spirit and above the Angels and ruleth all things and that he is called Christ and hath inherited that world and cometh hither when he pleaseth As he came in Adam and appeared to the Patriarchs putting on a body coming to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The same say he came these last dayes putting on the same body of Adam and appeared a man and was crucified and rose and ascended againe Here you see that borrowing from the Scriptures the correspondence between the first and the second Adam they force upon it their own fable that both was one You see also by the same reason that their relation of Christs appearing to the Patriarches as in our flesh afterwards though corrupted by them is neverthelesse borrowed from the Tradition the Church In fine you see that the rule of all things the inheritance of the world and the principality of Angels and the Spirit that is called Christ here mentioned argues that the faith of the
uprightnesse of Adams posterity upon the condition of his obedience when as it is evident enough that it was in his power to have done otherwise And this account being rendred it will be easie to say why Eve found not the effect of her transgression before Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit To wit Not because she should never have found any had not he sinned But because the effects of it do not necessarily follow instantly at all times and in all things and that in tempting Adam which was the next thing she did they did instantly appear As for the great difficulty how the spirituall substance of the soul should receive a taint from the carnall concupiscence whereby it cometh to be united to the body I will here challenge the benefit of that principle which I have once established That which once was not matter of Faith can never by processe of time or any act the Church can do become matter of Faith Though we may become more obliged to believe it not by the generall obligation of Christianity but by having studied the reasons by which it is deduced from the principles of Faith Besides that light of reason which Faith presupposeth And by the same reason the Church may justly injoyne it to be received â—hat is to say not openly contradicted For such is the matter of the propagation of mans soul whether by transplanting as part of the Fathers hold or by immediate existence from God in the body which nature prepareth for it Which having been manifestly disputable in S. Augustines time I hold it very consequent to that which I have done in the point of the Trinity whether it may be made evident to reason or not to leave it without producing any mans reason by which I pretend to maintaine that it is either traâ—uced or created A wayes supposing that no reason can be receivable which provideth not for the immortality of it which no man questions Lastly it is manifest that actuall sinne â—s first called by the name of sinne because first subject to sense but so that the displeasure of God and by consequence the name of sinne is no lesse reall against habituall sinnes So I will confesse further as afore of the terms of essence and person in the mystery of the blessed Trinity that they were brought into the Church to prevent the malice of hereticks and to settle a right understanding in that which was necessary to be received by Christians So now that the terme of Original sinne was first brought in by S. Augustine and the Church of his time to expresse that ground upon which the Church had from the beginning maintained the grace of our Lord Christ and the necessity of it But that thâ—s ground is not to be maintained unlesse we acknowledge besides those habits of sinne which we contract an habituall inclination to sinne bred in our nature from the fall of Adam which may be called sinne in regard of the likenesse and correspondence of it to and with other inclinations to sinne contracted by custome Having thus set aside this opinion before I come to decide the difficulty proposed I hold it necessary to debate that which both parts seem to take for granted neither of them having expressed any reason to oblige us so to take it That is whether Adam were created to supernaturall happinesse which is that which Christians now expect in the presence of God for everlasting and therefore indowed with those graces which might make him capable of it Or onely in a state of naturall happinesse consisting in the content of this life onely and supposing perfect obedience to God in the course of it Were it but for the the repute I have of Grotius for his skill in the Scriptures who in one of his Annotations upon Cassander hath declared this opinion for part of his judgement I should count it worth the debating But I have found it further maintained by reasons which seem to me considerable and no way prejudiciall to the Faith Which notwithstanding I do not intend to propose for mine own ingaging my self to maintaine this but to confront with the reasons brought for it what I find reasonable to be said on the other side that in a nice and obscure point the discreet reader may chuse what he shall think most fit to allow Now all the argument that can be drawn into consequence on either side arising from the relation of Moses compared with such texts of the New Testament as may give light to it It is first argued That seeing God first framed man of the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soule It seemeth evident that he was made in a state of naturall life onely S. Paul having said in comparing him with Christ 1 Cor. XV. 45. So also it is written The first man Adam became a living soul The last Adam became a quickning Spirit Meaning to say That as Moses saith that Adam became a living soul So not that Moses saith but that Christians may say that Christ is become a quickning Spirit For hereupon it followes in S. Paul that as that which is spirituall was to follow so that which is naturall or animall was to go before But to this on behalf of the other part me thinks it may be said That Moses as all the Old Testament speakes onely of the state of our naturall life but intends by the correspondence between materiall and spiritual things as the figure and that which it figures to signify to us that which belongs to that spirituall life which the Gospel introduces Of which intent all that I have produced to settle that difference between the litterall and mysticall sense of the Old Testament is evidence So that Gods breathing the breath of life into mans nostrills is the figure of his breathing the spirituall life of Grace into the soul which divers ancient Fathers of the Church have understood to be signified by the same words and that according to the true ground and rule of expounding the Scripture if they suppose the breath of naturall life signified first by the same words to be inspired as a figure of the spirituall life of grace To which agrees well enough that which followes That man became a living soul in correspondence to the second Adam who is become a quickning Spirit according to S. Paul For Christ is become a quickning Spirit because he shall raise the mortall bodies of those in whom his Spirit dwelt here But Adam though we suppose him to be made a living soul in respect of the life of Grace yet had that life from the Spirit of Grace the fullnesse whereof dwelt in Christ On the other side it is argued that seeing man was made in the image of God and his likenesse Gen. I. 26 27. IX 6. and that the image of God consists in that righteousnesse and true holinesse to which Christians are regenerated by grace Ephes IV.
to the nature of Originall sin that God might have made man from the beginning with concupiscence For Originall sinne must of necessity be that evil which we are born with in consideration of Adams sinne And therefore whatsoever we might have been born with seeing that actually and de facto we are born with concupiscence in consideration of Adams sinne who otherwise should have been born with that uprightnesse in which he was made Originall sinne must needs be that which we are now born with though supposing that we had been originally made with it it had not been Originall sinne For the absurdity of this consequence tends to shew that the supposition of meer nature is impossible and presses not me which believe it so to be And now to that novelty in the doctrine of the Church of England that hath caused so much offense because allowing some points of it not to prejudice the common â—aith it is requisite that I freely distinguish my self from that which I allow not I say briefly That if that excellent doctor and those who finde themselves offended at his doctrine will give me leave to interpret one point to distinguish one term of his opinion I shall heartily wish that the offense thereof may cease It is in that he saith that concupiscence was before the fall though much increased by it And I would have it said that all the inclinations of the sensuall appetite were before the fall but the disorder of them seeking satisfaction without rule or measure by it The word Concupiscence being capable of both significations For it is manifest that Adam as we do consisted of flesh and Spirit taking flesh for the substance not the perverse inclination of the flesh and Spirit for the substance of his own not the grace of Gods Spirit of soul and body of a spirituall and carnal substance The appetite of the principal part tending to that which is excellent by nature but the baser part having an appetite proper to the nature of it whereof reason from which all order rule and measure proceeds is no ingredient But it is necessary to say that God who requires the sensual appetite to be subject to the principal part of the soul as the reason to God had provided such an estate for such a creature wherein it might be in the power of reason to give order rule and measure to the motions of the sensuall appetite Otherwise the mortifying of concupiscence being the work of Christianity it will necessarily follow that the coming of Christ was to furnish that grace by which Christians may mortify that which God had created which our common faith admitteth not And therefore it is no otherwise to be admitted that concupiscence is increased by the fall of Adam then as that may be said to be increased which being moderate afore is since become immoderate For seeing that concupiscence being once free of the command of reason and the rule and measure which it might have from thence can have no other bounds then those which in this estate it acknowledgeth which is to be utterly boundlesse so farre as it is consistent with it self and as the satisfaction of severall passions appears not incompetible there is no reason why it should be ascribed to the fall once granting it to be the condition of Gods creature Which without the fall must needs have profited to that horrible confusion in humane affaires the contrariety whereof to the excellence of mans nature reason discerns and therefore religion reasonably introduces the fall to give a reason for it If the supposition of pure nature would indure that man though created liable to concupiscence by virtue of some contrary indowment might be preserved from the effect of it And that the effect of Adams fall were to make that frustrate and void I should not think that supposition any way prejudicial to the Christian Faith But in regard that the supposition admitteth no such indowment because it must be a gift of grace which would destroy the supposition of meer nature therefore it is denyed that God supposing that integrity in Adam which the Christian faith requireth could create him in this state of meer nature If this Doctor had said or could have said That concupiscence being a naturall consequence of mans composition was prevented of coming to act and effect by eating the fruit of the tree of life ordained to that purpose That the leaves thereof were in this regard healing to the nations And that the grace of Christ was dispensed by that meanes in that estate as now by the Sacrament of the Eucharist I might say this were a novelty among divines but I could not say that it were destructive to the Faith But if the coming of Christ be not to repaire the fall of the first Adam I cannot see how the Faith is secure As for the term of sin when he denieth that this concupiscence can be properly sin which is neither the act of sin nor any propensity created by custome of sinning but bred in our nature whereof there is no other instance but it self I confesse when the question comes to the signification of words and the property of it which may alwaies be endlesse because the question is only whether my sense shall give Law to your language or your sense to mine which it is not necessary to insist upon when the faith is secured on both sides I count it alwaies hard to charge an error in the substance of Faith Now whether we say this concupiscence is sin or not the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ his coming and the end of it remains alwaies the same and so the necessity of his grace is settled upon the right bottome And truly if we recollect the language which is used by the Greek Fathers and those that lived before Pelagius comparing it with that which hath been used since S. Austine we shall not find the term of Originall sin so frequent as the ground of it For not only death and the sorrows that bring it but even the inclination of our nature to actuall sin is by them ascribed to the fall who use not the terme of Originall sin As every one that peruseth but the termes of those passages of the Fathers which this Doctor hath produced may easily perceive Upon these terms Clemens Alexandrinus is no interruption to the Tradition of Originall sin in that difficult place Strom. III. that made Vossius say he understood it not He speaks against those that condemned Marriage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them test us where the Child that is borne committed whoredome or how it fell under the curse of Adam that had done nothing It remains as it seems that they say that the Generation is evill not onely of the body bâ—t of the Soul for which the body is And when David saith I was conceived in sins and in iniquities did my Mother lust with me like a Prophet he calls Eve his Mother But
reconcile aswell the activity of Gods providence generally in all things as the efficacie of his predestination and grace in supernaturall actions leading to the happinesse of the world to come wiith our common freedome For it is manifest that this opinion of predetermination proceeds not upon any supposition of originall sin but meerly of the nature and state of a creature and intends to affirme that whether Adam had sinned or not the will of man must have been determined by God to do whatsoever it should do as unable to determine it selfe otherwise then as every creature moves when God moves it And therefore I am here to acknowledg the answer is lâ—rger then the question at least then the occasion of it and the resolution then the ground of the doubt The necessity of the grace of Christ being grounded only upon the fall of Adam and that bringing on the dispute what freewill hath to do where the freegrace of God cannot be spared and herefore what freewill it is that remaines to be freed from the bondage of sin by grace But as the generall comprises necessarily all particulars it is no esse destructive to the covenant of grace that the freedome of the will should be denyed upon the account of the constitution of nature then of depravation by sin And therefore I find my selfe bound to answer in what estate the covenant of Grace overtakes man borne in originall sin whether upon the account of Originall sin or meerly of Gods creature But I do purposely observe this to all them of the Reformation that I believe their own consciences will tell them all if passion or faction give leave that all the controversy advanced against the Church of Rome about freewill in the works of Salvation was grounded upon the supposition of the necessity of grace occasioned by Originall sin from which so much is derogated as is arrogated to freewill without iâ— and therefore the controversy never needed about all kind of works but those only that tend to salvation the meanes whereof became necessary upon the account of Originall sin Which if it be true then cannot the Interest of the Reformation consist in any opinion concerning all maner of human actions without difference whether in the state of uprightnesse or sin Nor can any thing but the spirit of slander impute the maintaining of Gods grace without or against such opinions to any inclination towards the abuses of the Church of Rome but to the conscience of Gods truth without respect of persons For further evidence vvhereof I shall make good use of the evill of faction if not of division now on foot upon occasion of this dispute as vvell among those of the reformation as in the Church of Rome For seeing that both parties are divided about it though in the Reformation only the mater hath proceeded to a breach first between Lutherans and Calvinists in the Empire then in Holland between these and Arminians he that goes about to cast the aspersion of Popery upon that opinion which the Papacy injoyneth not though it aloweth must first answer whether the popery of the Dominicans the rest of them that hold predetermination whether the Popery of Jansenius his followers be Popery or not With all I shall think the way made towards the proof of my position by observing that the ground upon which I shall proceed to make evidence of freedome from necessity under originall sin will necessarily take place against the predetermination of the Will by God whether under Originall sin or in the state of uprightnesie And upon that ground I shall freely affirme that this position is not onely intended to contradict but also effectually contradicteth the opinion of the predetermination of the will by the immediate operation of God CHAP. XXII The Gospel findeth man free from necessity though not from bondage Of the Antecedent and Consequent Will of God Praedetermination not the root but the rooting up of Freedome and of Christianity Against the opinion of Jansenius THE ground which I speak of may be branched out into particulars as large as you please But it shall be enough for me to say That whatsoever is read from one end of the Bible to the other concerning a treaty tendred by God to man concerning an alliance or covenant contracted upon it concerning an inheritance or assurance of an inheritance upon that alliance concerning exhortations reproofes promises threats inducing to observe that contract and not to transgresse it all this and whatsoever else may be reduced to this nature evidenceth that neither freedom from necessity is lost by originall sinne nor the will of man determined by the immediate operation of God to do or not to do this or that I must further mention here that difference between the antecedent and the consequent the conditionall and the absolute will of God the first suspended upon some act of mans free will the second resolute as supposing the same past or not requiring it not because the divines as well of the Eastern as of the Western Church have imbraced it but because they all found that they could not discharge their account of the Scriptures without it But I must not forget to mention withall the rewards and punishments expressed in the Scriptures to be brought upon the compliance with or resistance of those helps which the antecedent and conditionall will of God requireth whether he choose it or not In the Old Testament you have the contestations of Moses in Deuteronomy often warning Gods people that he had set before them the good and the bad for them to make choice You have the Prophet Esay V. 3-6 contesting with Gods vineyard that he had done what he could do for it and that having born wild grapes in stead of good fruit it was therefore just with him to destroy it You have the Psalmist protesting the cause why he gave over his people to their enemies and to famine to be their disobedience Psal LXXXII 9-17 You have the Prophet Ezekiel XVIII 30 31 32. thus reclaiming them Return and repent of your transgressions and wickednesse shall not be to you a stumbling block Cast from you all your transgressions which you have transgressed with and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why should ye dye ye house of Israel For I delight not in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God but repent ye and live For is not this to say of my self I desire not your death but because of your obstinacy in rejecting my Prophets By whom he so often protesteth that he had risen betimes to send them from age to age if by any meanes he might reclaim them to his Law and so preserve them in the inheritance of the Land of Promise In like manner our Lord in the Gospels Mat. XXIII 37 38. Luke XIII 34 35. Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent thee how often would I have gathered thy
said For wee are his offspring As the same S. Paul had premised Acts XVII 26. 27. 28. For to what serves his witnesse but to informe the processe of his judgement But God is said to have let them alone passing by their sins because by tendring them his gospel he did not aggravate their judgement in case they should refuse it nor require of them that obedience which it inferreth Whereas by the Gospel the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnes of men that hold the truth in unrighteousnes as S. Paul saith Rom. â— 18. 19. Because saith he that which may be knowne of God is manifest in them for God hath manifested it to them by his works as it followes there So that the Gospel as it declares the judgement of God upon those sins that are done under the light of nature so it declares so much heavier vengeance against those which are done under and against the light which it sheweth Which is the reason why so many times in the Psalmes the bringing in of the gospel is prophesied under the figure of Gods coming to Judgement Psalme L. XCVI XCVII XCVIII And indeed there is necessary reason for this if we believe that God will judge every man according to his works at the last day Which as I shewed you in the dispute concerning justifying Faith that it is a principle of our common Christianity an Article of our beliefe which no man can be saved that holds not So I may thereupon further say That all men that are under the Gospell shall be judged according to that obedience which the gospell and Christianity requireth For if S. Paul had onely said Rom. XI 12 16. As many as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the law And as many as have sinned under the law shall be condemned by the law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospell by Jesus Christ As the construction which I spoke of even now requires He had onely said that the gospell declareth that God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Which is that which the apostles witnessed as from our Lord Christ to move men to imbrace it But having said also that the Law is not given to the righteous but to the lawlesse and disobedient to the ungodly and sinfull to and if there be any thing opposite to the sound doctrine which is according to the glorious Gospell of the blessed God which I am trusted with 1 Tim. I 9 10 11. He sheweth us also that those who have been under the preaching of the Gospell shall be judged according to that obedience which the Gospell requireth To wit according as they have either performed or neglected it The reason because I have shewed the Gospell not to containe a meere promise of Gods part but a covenant with man by which he must stand or fall as he hath performed the termes of it or not But to neglect the gospell or to transgresse it cannot have been any part of their works that never heard of it and therefore they cannot be judged by it but by the worke of Gods law which is wriâ—ten in their hearts by vertue whereof their conscience bearing witnesse of the works that they have don or not don the thoughts thereof shall accuse or excuse them before God as S. Paul saith of the gentiles during the Law But had they been tendred that grace which is sufficient to save without doubt they must have given account to God of it the account being grounded upon that which a man receives as our Sauiour shewes by the parable of the Talents And that servant which knowes his masters will and prepares not and does according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knowes not and doth things that deserve stripes shall be beaten with a few Saith our Lord Luke XII 47. 48 Not as iâ— any servant knew nothing of his masters will as I have shewed by the light of nature For how should he then doe that which deserves stripes But because many know not that will which our Saviour preacheth and not knowing it are not under account for it Indeed God for his part hath provided that grace which is sufficient for the salvation of all mankind by providing our Lord Christ whose obedience sufferings have purchased the comming of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples and inabled them both by the workes which he had given them to doe and by the interpretation of the old Testament concerning our Lord Christ to tender the world sufficient conviction of his rising againe and of the faith of those promises which he hath made to all them that take up his Crosse to become conformable to his sufferings But these promises are so great that whosoever stands convict that they are true must needs stand convict that hee is in reason bound to imbrace the condition upon which they are tendred unlesse he can make a question whether the world to come is to be preferred before this or not And this I affirme to be sufficient grace contained in the preaching of the gospell which tendreth this conviction to all mankind supposing that no immediate act of God is requisite to determine him that standeth so convict to imbrace it but that it must be the act of his own free choice that must resolve him to it And all this of the meere free grace of God in as much as nothing but his own free grace could have moved him to provide this meanes which only the coming of our Lord Christ could furnish And though for the glory of his goodnesse this meanes is common to all mankind in as much as the motives of faith wherein it consisteth are of the same force and vertue towards all yet is it no lesse the grace of Christ being the purchase of his obedience and sufferings For if it be said that the worke of imbracing the Christian faith is supernaturall in as much as it tendeth to supernaturall happinesse It is to be answered that all the meanes that God uses to induce us to imbrace the same are also supernaturall being provided by Gods immediate act beyond all the force of nature and therefore proportionable to the work which they require And if it be said That the difficulty thereof in regard of originall concupiscence is such as no reason can overcome It is answered That as these motives are the productions instruments of Gods spirit accompaning his word whereby it knocks at the hearts of them to whom this conviction is tendred so they cary with them a promise of the habituall assistance of Gods spirit to move them that yeeld themselves to it to performe that which they undertake notwithstanding Originall concupiscence In the meane time these being the grounds of this sufficience it is manifest that as many as are utterly destitute of these meanes and that by no fault of their own in
flâ—sh was so husbanded that the deviles themselves though when they were constâ—â—ined to obâ—y him they cryed him up the Son of God yet should not loose the hoâ—e of destroying him Can we think that God immediately designed such a stratagem upon Satan and had not regard to the â—â—linations of his ministers or knew not what effect those considerations wâ—uld have which should arise in them upon those objects wich his providence presented them with By this we may see why our Lord upbraides the Cities in which he did his greatest miracles Mat. X. 21 22. Woe to thee Corasin woe to thee Bethâ—aida For had the mighâ—y works that have been don in thee been done in Tyre and Sidon they had long since repented in sackcloath and ashes And thou Capernauâ— that art exâ—lted to heaven shalt be cast down to Hell For had the mighty works that have been don in thee been don in Sâ—dome and Gomorah they had stood till this day I do so respect the learning and judgâ—ment of Grotius and Janseniâ—s that I will not take upon me to censuâ—e them when they make these words signifie no more then that in probability Sodom and Gomorah had repented at the sight of suâ—h miracles But I find no good reason to inferre as our Lord doth that positively Corazin Bethsaida and Capernaum shall be tormented more then Tyre and Sydon then Sodom and Gomorah because probably Sodom and Gomorah would have repented at the sight of such miracles The same I say to others who would have ouâ— Lord say onely this That had those miracles been don in Tyre and Sydon they would have repented but not from the heart Because miracles are not able to convert any man to God from the heart For in conscience is there reason that Corazin and Bethsaida should fare worse then Sodom and Gomorah because Tyre Sydon would have repented as hypocrites continuing no lesse sinners then they that repented not But to say as others doe that had God ordained those miracles to be done at Tyre and Sydon at Sodome and Gomorah he would have determined their wills by his immediate act to be converted is to say that our Lord by a mentall reservation saies that whereof he expresseth not the reason and so cozens them that satisfie themselves with the reason which he expresseth I know these answers are brought to avoid the heresy of Pelagiâ—s that outward calling without inward grace is enough to convert a man But there is no necessary to grant the consequence The miracles of Christ supposing his doctrine import the inward grace of the spirit to make it prevaile Why else are they who said they were don by Belzeâ—ub guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost And this meanes being sufficient to convert them had been effectuall had they found men better dâ—spoâ—ed What was the difference They had found men not zealous of theire owne righâ—â—ousnesse by the Law who therefore had not resisted the righteousnesse of God which Christ teacheth with mirâ—cles â—ufficient to convict them that he was a true Prophet Upon these grounds God who knew all their hearts might comprehend the event The case of David at Keila is so neere this that I must not mention it any where else 1. Sam. XXIII 11. 12 13. And David said O Lord God of Israell thy servant heareth for certaine that Saul is coming to Keilah to destroy the City for my sake Will the men of Keilah shut me in his hand Will Saul come downe as thy servant heareth O Lord God of Israell shew thy servant And the Lord said He will come downe And David said Will the mâ—sters of Keilah shut me and my men into Sauls hands And the Lord said they will What escape is there here when God out of his knowledg of the secrets of their hearts foretells what they would doe if Saul should come against the City Nor will I forget that of the wise Hebrew for he drewe at the founâ—aine head of thâ— Prophets though he spake not by their spirit It is thâ—ught to be said oâ— Enoch according to that which wee read of him Gen. V. 24 Heb X 5 but the aâ—gument is the same whether so or not Wisdome IV. 10. 11. 14 He pleased and was beloved of him so that whereas he lived among sinners he translated him He was taken away least wickednesse should alter his understanding or deâ—eit beguile his mind For his soule pleased God therefore hasted he to take him away from wickednesse For if God knew such occurrences as would deceive Enoch or one in his stâ—te then by those occurrences be foresees the decree If he knew none unlesse himselfe determine his will to be deceived then can it not be aid that God translated him least wickednesse should deceive him but least God should appoint him to be deceived by wickednesse The same author thus commande h the mercy of God in destroying the Canaaniâ—es by little and little Wisdome XII 10. But chastising them by little little thou gavest them roome of repentance though knowing their pâ—rverse disposition to be such that they could not repent That is knowing that this gentle dealing of God would not be effâ—ctuaâ—l notwithstâ—nding all that he had done to assure his people of the land of promise â—o move them to imbrace the true God Upon which condition they might have been suffered to live as slaves to the Israelites if not as strangers among them as Rahab the harlot was suffered to doe among her kindred because she alone imbraced those termes So that the precept of the Law that commands the seven Nations utterly to be destroyed stands upon supposiâ—ion of this impenâ—tence thus foreseen To the same purpose speake those texts of Scripture in which it is said that or such or such a thing be not done such or such a thing will come to pâ—sse As Gen. XI 6. Behold the people is one and their language the same having begun this they will not give over whatsoever they have thought to doe Acts XXVII 31. Vnlesse these remaine in the ship ye cannot be saved â—say I. 9. Rom X 20. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed we had been as Sodom we had been lâ—ke Gomâ—rah Mat. XXIV 22. Had not those daies been shortned all flesh would perish ' But for the elects sake those daies shall be shortned For there is no necessity to say that God could not have prevented these effects by any other mâ—anes The buildâ—â—g of the Tower of Babel for the purpose by any other meane but by dividing their language The saving of the elect at the destruction of Jeâ—uâ—alâ—m but by shortning their time â—he saving of S. Pauls fellow travelers but by the mariners abiding on shipborde But that God knew that they would goe to build the Tower of Babel that the time not being shortned even the elect would perish that if the mariners leâ—t the ship the rest woulâ— be cast away should not Gâ—d
the world of Judgement because the Prince of theis world is condemned by the conversion of those who forefook him to become Christians Therefore S Steven upbraideth the Jews saying Ye stisnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares ye do alwaies resist the Holy Ghost even you also as did your fathers Acts VII 51. Because being convicted by the Holy Ghost which spoke in him that he spoke from God neverthelesse they submit not to his message Therefore our Lord Mark III. 28. 29 30 All sins shall be forgiven the sons of men and blasphemies which they shall blaspheme But whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath no remission for ever but is liable to everlasting damnation Because they said he hath an unclean spirit which you have againe Math. XII 31 32. Luke XII 10. Because being convicted that our Lord spoke did his miracles by the Holy Ghost they blasphemed saying that he spoke and did them by an uncleane spirit For these words and these workes are the meanes by which our Lord accomplished â—his promise Iohn XIV 23. If any man love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and abide with him For before the condition If any man love me be fulfilled the case is that which our Lord expresseth Apoc. III. 20. Behold I stand at the dore and knock And if any man heare my voice and open the dore I will come in to him and sup with him â—e with me But being fulfilled the words of our Lord take place Iohn XVI 15 16 17. If yee love me ye will keep my commandements And I will aske the Father and he will give you an other Advocate to abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because they â—ee it not nor know it but you know it because it abideth with you and is in you For seeing it is manifest by the premises that the undertaking of Christianity is the condition upon which the Holy Ghost is granted as a gift to abide with Christians the preaching of Christianity that is the proposing of those reasons which God by his word hath shewed us why wee should be Christians is the knocking of our Lord Christ by the spirit at the dore of the heart that he may enter and dwell in us by the same spirit according to the words of S. Paul 2. Cor. II. 16. For ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said To wit I will dwell and converse among them and will be their God and they shall be my people That which some Philosophers say of the naturall generation of man That the soule frames its owne dwelling being fulfilled in the worke of generation by grace when the Holy Ghost by his actuall assistance frameth the man to be fit for the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost by becoming a true Christian If then we believe that the Holy Ghost was given by God and obtained by Christ as well to make the Gospell effectuall as to move the Apostles to preach it there can no doubt remaine that the preaching of the Gospell that is to say the meanes which the Holy Ghost provideth to make it either sufficient or effectual to convince the world of it is the instrument whereby he frameth himself that invisible house of true believers in which he dwelleth And therefore the meanes whereby Gods grace becomes effectuall to those who imbrace it is the same that renders it sufficient for those who refuse it the difference lying as well in the disposition which it meets with for which the man is accountable as in the spirit of God that presenteth it which renders God the praise when it takes effect and leaves men accountable when it does not If this reason had been in consideration with Socinus and perhaps with Pelagius he would have found it necessary acknowledging as all that read the Scriptures must needs acknowledge that which they find so frequent and so cleare in the Scriptures that the habituall gift of the Holy Ghost is granted to inable those who undertake Christianity to performe it to acknowledge also that the actuall help of it is necessary to make the motives of Christianity effectuall to subdâ—e men to it And by consequence that the coming of the second Adam was necessary to restore the breach which the first had made seeing it was not to be repaired without the same Nor is it to be marveled at that naturall meanes conducted by the grace of Christ should produce supernaturall effects such as I have shewed the obediencâ— of Christianity to be which supposing the Covenant of grace and freedome of mans will cannot be otherwise The reasons which appeare to the understanding and move the will to act contrary to the inclination of originall concupâ—scence in professing Christianity and living according to the same being sufficient to convict it to give sentence that so the man ought to doe And the circumstances in which the spirit of Christ conducteth these motives to the heart which it knocketh at by their means being able to represent them valuable to take effect with him who is moved to the contrary by his originall concupiscence And though meanes naturall because they move a man to proceed according to right reason which nature requires him to doe yet as they are brought to passe and conducted by a supernaturall cause nothing hinders the effect to be supernaturall in such a nature as is by them made capable of acting above nature I do much approve the discourse of some that have indeavoured to shew how this comes to passe thus supposing the covenant of the Law to be the renewing of that which was made with Adam in Paradise for the maintaining of him in the happnesse of his naturall life Which we may suppose though we suppose not that God covenanted not with him at all for the life to come For the dispensation of those blessings of this life which the covenant of nature limited by Moses Law to the happinesse of the land of promise tendreth may well be the advantage which God taketh to make the covenant of Grace acceptable especially to those who by Gods blessing failing of the blessings of the first covenant by that meanes becoming out of love with this present worlâ— meeâ— with the Covenant of Grace in such a disposition as may render it acceptable For so long as things goe well with men in this world it seemes haâ—sh to require them to takeup the Crosse of Christ that they may obtain the world to come But when the comforts of this world faile it is no marvell if any condition that tenders hope in the world to come be welcome If it be said that this renders the grace of Christ effectuall onely to the poore and men oâ— meane condition in the world who have cause to be weary of their estâ—te in it It is answered that it is no marvell if the
writeth of those Christians who he saith are seduced by the Hereticks which he speakes of 2 Pet. II. 18 22. For speaking bombast words of vanity they catch with the baite of fleshly concupiscences in uncleannesse those that had really escaped them that converse in error Promising them freedome themselves being slaves to corruption seeing a man is slave to that by which he is conquered For if having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ and being intangled in them againe they be conquered the last error is become worse to them then the first For it had beene better for them not to have knowne the way of righteousnesse than having knowne or acknowledged it to turne from the holy precept once delivered to them But it is fallen out to them according to the old Proverbe The dogge that returnes to his owne vomit And the sowe that is washed to wallow in the mire Is it possible that all this should be thought to import no more then profession as to men without any effect as to God but onely to the Church For if we suppose them all to have counterfeited Christianity not really resolving to live as Christians how comes he to say that they had really escaped those that live in error whose wayes they had not really left And if they had escaped the pollutions of the world by the knowledge of Christianity had they done no more then a man by meere nature may doe Then may a man by meere nature be disintangled of the pollutions of this world But if they had conquered sinne by those helpes of grace which brought them to be Christians for otherwise how should they be conquered by the baites of sinne which those Heretickes deceive them with then had they obtained those promises which the Gospell rewardeth that conquest with In fine Can a dogge returne to the vomit or a sow to the miâ—e which they never left or can the later end be worse then the beginning to them who never were cleare of that damnation in which they were overtaken by the preaching of Christianity To that of S. John speaking of the Antichrists of the time them and their followers John II. 19. They went â—ut from among us but they were not of us For had they been of us they would have continued among us I will use no other answer then that which S. Austine hath given us de corrept gratia cap. IX that those who are qualified by attributes signifying predestination cannot fall away as long as they are described by present righteousnesse they may For saith he had they persevered they had persevered in Grace not in unrighteousnesse neither was theire righteousnesse counterfeite but not durable Therefore they were not in the number of sonnes when they were in the Faith of sonnes because those are truly sonnes that are foreknowne and predestinate and called according to purpose that they may be like the sonne For S. John and S. Paul being assured of theire owne adoption according to purpose it is no marvaile if they presume the like of those whome they comprise in the same quality with themselves in regard of theire present righteousnesse the profession whereof was visible I must not here omit the Epistle to the Seven Churches Apoc II. III. and the exhortations promises and threatninges tendred the Angels of them whether in behalfe of themselves it maters not much to this purpose or which is certaine in behalfe of the Churches In particular to that of Ephesus II. 45. But I have this against thee that thou hast left thy first love Remember therefore whence thou art â—allen and repent and doe thy first workes Otherwise I will come to thee suddenly and remove thy canâ—lesticke out of the place thereof if thou repent not How should any man be exhorted by the Spirit of God to returne to those workes that were not the workes of a true Christian How should the Judgement threatned take effect and no soule perish that had been saved otherwise To that of Thyatira II. 25. 26 28. But hold what you have untill I come He that conquereth and keepeth my workes to the end I will give him power over the Nations and he shall rule them with an iron rodde as a potters vessells are broken as I also haâ—e received of my Father And I will give him the morning starre What means this exhortation to them that are not capable of doing otherwise What means the power of Christ and the morning starre if not the reward of the world to come To that of Pergamus III. 11 Behold I come suddenly Hold what thou hast lest another take thy crowne Is it not plaine that he shall be saved if he hold what he hath That he shall not if another take his crowne Can S. Pauls severe sentences be avoided 1 Cor. VI. 9 10. Know ye not that the injurious shall not inherit the kingdome of heaven Be not deceived Neither whoremongers nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor the soft nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor those that defraude nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers shall inherit the kingdome of God Gal. V. 19. 20. 21. The workes of the â—lesh are manifest which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse wantonnesse Idolatry witchcraft enmities strifes jealousies animosities provocations divisions sects envies murders drinkings debauches and the like to these of which I told you before hand aâ— I foretold you that they who doe such thinges shall not inherit the kingdome of God Eph. V. 58. For this ye know that no whoremaster or uncleane person or that defraudeth who is an Idolatur hath inheritance in the kingdome of God and of Christ Lâ—t â—o man deceive you with vaine wordes For for these thinges cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be ye not therefore partners with them For ye were darknesse but are now light in the Lord. Walâ—e as children of the light They that sowe pillowes under sinners elbowes excusantes excusationes in peccatis according to the vulgare translation Psal CXL 4. and treating termes of reconcilement betweene Christ and Belial betweene the promises of the Gospell for everlasting and the pleasures of sinne for a moment will not have this to belong to the godly whome they allow to doe such thinges for a snap and away without forfeiting their interest in the world to come but to the unregenerate who live in a setled course of such sinnes without remorse And I freely allow that so soone as the godly man whome they suppose to be overtaken with any such sinne shall take such a course to turne from it as may restore in him that resolution of mind for which God accepts a true Christian he is restored to the place which he held in Gods grace not as never forfeited but as recoverd anew In the meane time if any pretense be made that being once in Gods favor he can never faile of it it is as
easy to wipe it off with S. Pauls argument as any of those vaine words that were advanced in his time For if for those thinges the wrath of God cometh upon Gentiles that are darknesse much more upon them who being become light have a share in the works of darknesse if S. Pauls argument be good And whatsoever induces a man to beleeve otherwise belonges to those vaine words which S. Paul forbids them to be deceived with The prophesy of Ezekiel must needes have a roome here which in order to induce the backsliding Israelites to repentance protests that God judgeth the righteous that turneth from his righteousnesse and the sinner that turneth from his sinne not according to the righteousnesse or to the sinne from which but according to that to which they turne Ezek. XVIII 5 For to say that the Prophet of God speaking in Gods name of the esteeme and reward which God hath for righteous and unrighteous speakes onely of that which seemes righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse to the world or which an hypocrite cousens himselfe to thinke such is such an open scorne to Gods word as cannot be maintained but by taking righteousnesse to signify unrighteousnesse and turning for not turning but continuing in that wickednesse which was at the heart when he professed otherwise Which is nothing else but to demand of us to renounce our senses and the reason common to all men together with the signification of these wordes whereby God deales with us in the same sense as we among our selves to make good a prejudice so prejudiciall to Christianity And what shall we doe with those examples and instances of holy men recorded in holy Scripture to have fallen from Gods grace into his displeasure beginning with our first parents Adam and Eve whom no man doubteth to have beene created in the state of Gods grace that will not have theire fall redound upon Gods account For if it be said that this is a difference between the Covenant of workes first set on foote with our first parents in Paradise and the Covenant of grace tenderd by our Lord Christ It is said indeed but it cannot be maintained without destroying all that hath been premised of the Covenant of Grace and the condition of the same Which though it take place under the Covenant of workes which is supposed forfeite to restore mankind to the hope of a heavenly reward upon conditions proportionable to theire present weaknesse hath notwithstanding appeared to be tendred to their free choice as containing conditions by transgressing whereof they forfeite as much as Adam could doe The examples of Saul and Solomon and David and S. Peter have in them indeed some difference one from another but is there any of them that imports not the state of damnation after the state of grace S. Peter it is plaine forfeits the condition of professing Christ whom he that denieth if our Lord say true in the Gospell Luke XII 8. 9. shall himselfe be denied at the generall judgment and can we imagine his teares to have been shedde without sense of this forfeite Wherefore whatsoever seedes of grace remained in him to move him to repentance as soone as he was become sensible of his estate it is manifest that he had lost the state of grace which he laboureth to recover by repentance I will not examine how much longer David lay in his sinnes then S. Peter before the Prophet Nathan brought him to the sense of them It is enough that he prayes so for pardon as no man could doe for that which he thought he had afâ—ore He prayes also for the restoring of Gods Spirit to him againe Psal LI. 10. 11. 12. Make me a clean heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thine holy Spirit from me O give me the comfort of thine helpe againe and stablish me with thy free Spirit For that which he prayes God not to take away he acknowleges to be forfeite So that it is but of reason that he further desires that it be restored him rather then continued Some thinke they avoide this by understanding onely the Spirit of Prophesy to be his desire not wanting the Spirit of regeneration whereby he desires it Which in the case of David no way takes place without offering violence to the words And I have sufficiently advised that by the helpe of Gods Spirit granted out of that grace which preventeth the Covenant of grace and that state of grace which dependeth upon the undertaking of it a man is inabled to desire the gift of Gods Spirit to dwell in him according to that which the Covenant of Grace promiseth As for Saul and Solomon both of them indowed with Gods Spirit the one of them must not be understood ever to have been in the state of grace the other to have ever fallen from it For it is alleged that Balaam and Caiaphas prophesied and our Lord shall say to those that had prophesied and cast out devils and done miracles in his Name I never knew you Mat. VIII 22. 23. But S. Paules words would be considered concerning his Apostles office 2 Cor. III. 4. 5. 6. This confidence we have towards God through Christ Not because we are sufficient of our selves to thinke any thing as of our selves but our sufficience is of God who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit For if the grace of an Apostle suppose not the grace of a Christian how hath S. Paul confidence to God in the grace of an Apostle given him by God which a Christian obtaineth through Christ Certainly no man spares to argue from these words that we are not able of our selves to think any thing towards the discharge of a Christian mans office as taking it for granted that a good Apostle supposes a good Christian And what an inconvenience were it to grant that God imployes men that are not good upon his messages to mankind giving them the oporation of the Holy Ghost to demonstrate that he sendes them which is sufficient credit for all that they deliver as in his name unlesse we will imagine it no inconvenience that God gives testimony to those whom he would not have to be beleeved As for Balaam it is manifest that he was imployed by unclean Spirits to maintaine men in theire Idolatries by foretelling things to come by their means And that Gods appearing to him to hinder him from cursing his people was upon the same account as Arnobius saith that Magicians did use to find the virtue of Spirits opposite to those unclean Spirits whome they imployed not suffering them to bring to effect those misehevious intentions for which they set them on work And by this means it was that Balaam not being imployed by God is forced to declare that will of God which he would have made voide As for Caiaphas it is not to be imagined that he had any
revelation of that truth which he declareth by the inspiration of Gods Spirit but that God who from the beginning had used the High Preists by Urim and Thummim to declare his direction to that people directed his words so that they might serve to declare that will of his which he had never acquainted him with as a Prophet of his nor could have been acknowledge for that will which God intended to declare by him had not S. John by the Spirit of God declared Gods intent in so directing his words Wherefore when God changed Saâ—les heart at his parting with Samuel and sent his spirit upon him straight wayes 1 Sam. X. 9. 10. it seemes that having liked so well of him as to call him to be Prince of his people he indowed him with the grace of his Spirit for the discharge of that place which onely a good man could rightly discharge Whereupon it followes that the taking away of this Spirit and sending an evill Spirit in steade thereof to torment him are the evidences of his fall from that inward grace which the gift of Gods Spirit presupposed afore Whereby we may judge what the Parable of the uncleane Spirit cast out and returning with seven Spirits worse then himselfe Mat XII 43. 44. 45. Luke XI 24. 25. 26. imports to our purpose though being a Parable I bring it not into consequence The like is to be said of those who having prophesied and done miracles in our Lords name shall not be acknowledged by him at the day of judgement For when he saith I never knew you he speaketh out of the knowledge of God which reaching from one end to the other at the same instant when they had the grace of Prophesy to witnesse their imployment from God foresaw that they would fall away and becoming Apostates retaine no part in the kingdome of heaven which they had preached No mervaile if he take them not for his who he sees are not to be his for everlasting To which purpose the graces of Gods Spirit are promised true Christians Marke XVI 17. Acts II. 38. V. 32. And though Origen hath excellently said that the name of Christ had such power over devils that some times being alleged by evill men it did the deed though rather when out of the sound and genuine disposition of beleivers as those Ebrews who in our Lords time did exorcise Devils as he showes us Mat. XII 25. and as we learne by Justine Martyr Irenaeus Tertulliane and Theophilus of Antiochia produced there by Grotius that so they did till theire time yet the doing of miracles in evidence of the Gospell which they preached alleged by those whome our Lord shall disclaime seemes to import a great deale more then the casting out of devils by naming the name of Christ and therefore to containe the approbation of those men whose imployment from God they seemed to witnesse Here is the place where I will give the true meaning to three or foure Scriptures for so many there are that in opposition to the whole streame of Gods book men will needes produce to reconcile the promises of the Gospell with the present guilt and love of sinne in Christians that have beene overtaken with it Jesus answered and said to the Samaritane woman John IV. 13. 14. 15. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst againe But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall not thirst for ever but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to life everlasting The woman said to him Lord give me that water that I may not thirst nor come hither to draw I allow him that hath a mind to it to translate our Lords words shall never thirst For it is plaine the woman understood him as if he had told her of a water which whoso should once drink of should never be a thirst any more as long as he lived But if she failed of his meaning because she understood not that he spake of thirsting in the world to come do not they faile of his meaning who when he saith he that drinks of my water shall not thirst for everlasting understand it to be that he shall never thirst in this world Being so plaine that he shall not thirst in the world to come They make him say He that once tastes of my Grace in him the spring of it shall never dye in this world which is that the woman understood him to say in the literal sense because she understood not that he spake of the world to come He comparing this world with the world to come saith He that drinkes of my water in this world shall not thirst in the world to come Which is to say that he who departs from the Christianity which once he professed in this world does not drink of my water in this world because he comes short of my promise that in him it shall be a well of water springing up to life everlasting I have no reason to be afraid any more of the difficulty of S. Pauls words Rom. VIII 28-39 having showed by evident arguments that the subject of them are they that love God they that are called according to purpose they that he foreknew to be such they that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit in Christ Jesus For to such I may well allow that all workes for the best because God having foreappointed them to be once conformable to the pattern of his sonne that he might be the first-borne of many calleth them â—o their trialls and finding them faithfull in them justifyeth and glorifyeth them therefore Nor can S. Pauls words signify more supposing when he saith whom he foreknew those he predestinated whom he predestinated those he called whom he called those he justifyed whom he justified those he glorified That he speakes of those whom God foreknew to be qualified as afore then this that knowing them to be such he appointed them to bear Christs Crosse and to inherit his glory for the reward of it Wherefore when it followes What shall we then say to these things If God be with us who can be against us He that spared not his own Sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things It is manifest that the quality which S. Paul understandeth in them whom he comprehends when he names us is no other but that which he hath described true Christians by thus farre And therefore when he proceeds Who shall impeach the elect of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn It is Christ that died or rather that is risen againe who is also at the right hand of God Who also maketh intercession for us It is manifest that this word elect hath no maner of reference to Gods everlasting decree but to the present Christianity of those whom God declareth to account his choice ones his jewels his first fruits out of
is admitted to Baptism is likewise invested with a right and due title to the promises of the Gospel remission of sâ—nnes and everlasting life As it may appear to all that hâ—ve contracted with the Church of England in Gods name that continuing in that which they professed and undertook on ttheir part at their Baptism they are â—ssured of no lesse by the Church And therefore this is and ought to be accounted that power of the Keyes by which men are admitted to the House of God which is his Church as S. Paul saith At least that part of it that is seen and exercised in this first office that the Church can minister to a Christian And seeing no man can challenge the priviledge of that communion to which he is admitted upon condition of that profession which Baptism supposed unlesse he proceed to live according to it it cannot seem strange that the same should be thought to be exercised in the celebration of the Eucharist as it is done with a purpose to communicate the Sacrament thereof to those that receive I shall desire any man that counts this sâ—râ—nge to consider that which I quoted even now out of Epiphanius That the Patriarch of the Jews at Tiberias being baptized by the Bishop put a considerable sum of Gold into his hand saying Offer for me For it is written Whatsoever ye bind on â—atrh shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye lose on earth shall be losed in heaven For so it follows in Epiphanius And when S. Cyprian blames or forbids offering up the names or offering up the Eucharist in the names of those that had fallen away from the Church in time of persecution till they were reconciled to the Church by Penance doth he not exercise the power of the Keyes in his hands by denying the benefit of those Prayers which the Eucharist is celebrated with to them who had forfeited their right to it by failing of that which by their baptism they undertook As on the other side whosoever the Eucharist is offered for that is whosoever hath a part in those Prayers which it is celebrated with is thereby declared loose by the Church upon supposition that he is indeed what he professes And whatsoever Canons of the Church there are of which there are not a few which take order that the offerings of such or such shall or shall not be received they all proceed upon this suppoâ—â—tion that by the power of the Keys they are to be allowed or refused their part of benefit in the Communion of the Eucharist and the effects of iâ— For not to speak of what is by the corruption of men but what ought to be by the appointment of God it is manifest that the admission of a man to the communion of the Eucharist is an allowance of his Christianity as conâ—ormable to that which Baptism professeth though in no sâ—ate of the Church it is a sufficient and reasonable presumption that a man is indeed and before God intitled to the promises of the Gospel that he is admitted to the communion of the Eucharist by the Church because whatsoever profession the Church can receive may be counâ—erfeit But so that it is to be indeavoured by all means possible for the Church to use that the right of communicating with the Church in the Sacrament of the Eucharist be not allowed any man by the Church but upon such terms and according to such laws that a man being qualified according to them may be really and indeed qualified for those promises which the Gospell tendreth Which being supposed every Christian must of necessity acknowledge how great and eminent a power the Lord hath trusted his Church with in celebrating and giving of the Eucharist when he is convinced to believe that the body and blood of Christ is thereby tendred him though mystically and as in a Sacrament yet so truly that the spirit of Christ is no lesse really present with it to inable the souls of all them that receive it with sincere Christianity then the Sacrament is to their bodies or then the same spirit is present in the flesh and bloud of Christ naturally being in the heavens For suppose that by faith alone without receiving this Sacrament a man is assured of the spirit of Christ as by faith alone understanding faith alone as S. Paul meant it I shall show that he may be assured of it yet if he have determined a visible act to be done to the due performance whereof he hath annexed a promise of the participation of the Spirit of Christ by our Spirit no lesse then of the body â—nd blood of Christ Sacramentally present by our bodies And if he hath made the doing of this a part of the Christianity which under the title of Faith alone inâ—iâ—leth to promises of the Gospell for who can be said to professe Christianity that owneth not such an Ordinâ—nce upon such a promise Then hath he determined and limited the truth of that faith which onely justifieth us at the beginning of every mans Christianity to the Sacrament of Baptism but in the proceeding of the same to that of the Eucharist These being the first Powers of the Church and having resolved from the beginning that the power of the Church extends to the deterâ—ining or limiting of any thing requisite to the communion of the Church the determination or limitation wherof by such an act as ought to have the force of Law to them that are of the Church becomes requisite to the communion of Christians in the offices of Gods service in unity I cannot see any of the controversies whereby we stand now divided that can deserve a place in our consideration before that of the Baptism of Infants For as it is a dispute belonging to the first and originall power of the Church to consider whether it extend so farre as when it is acknowledged that there is no written Law of God to that purpose that it may and justly hath provided that all the Children of Christian Parents be baptized Infants so it will apear to concern their salvation more immediately then other Laws limiting the exercise of the Churches power or the circumstances of exercising those offices of God service which it tendeth to determine can be thought to do But Before I come to dispute this point I will here take notice once more of the Book called the Doctrine of Baptisms one of the fruits of this blessed Reformation commonly attributed to the Master of a Colledge in Cambridge proving by a studied dispute that it was never intended by our Lord Christ and his Apostles that Christians should be Baptized at all That John indeed was sent to baptize with water but that the Baptism of Christ is baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire And so long as the Ceremonies of the Law were not abolished in point of fact though become void in point of right so long also baptism by water was practised by the Apostles as
quà m ex institutionis disciplinâ Caeterùm inquit immundi nascerentur quasi designatos tamen sanctitati ac per hoc etiam saluti intelligi volens fidelium filios Ut hujus spei pignore matrimoniis quae retinenda censuerat patrocinaretur Alioquin memin erat dominicae definitionis Nisi quis nascetur ex aquâ spiritu non ibit in regum dei id est â—oâ— erit sanctus Ita omnis anima eo usque in Adam censetur donec in Christo recenseaâ—ur For hereupon the Apostle also saith that men are born holy of either sex sanctified as by prerogative of seed so by breeding and discipline Otherwise saith he they should be born unclean giving to understand that the children of Christians are as it were designed to holinesse and thereby to salvation that he might patronize those mariages which he thought fit to be maintained by the pledge of this hope Otherwise he remembred the determination of our Lord Unlesse a man be born of water and the spirit he shall not go into Gods Kingdom That is he shall not be holy So every soul is so long listed in Adam till it be listed again in Christ Which you see is not done but by Baptism according to Tertullian Therefore in the end of the next Chapter Proinde cùm ad fidem pervenit reformata per secundam nativitatem ex aquà supernâ virtute detracto corruptionis pristinae aulaeo totam lucem suam conspicit Therefore when it comes to the faith being reformed by a second birth of water and the power above and the curtain of former corruptions drawn she sees her whole light And de Bapt. cap. XVII shewing in what case a Lay-man might baptize Sufficiat scilicet in necessitatibus utaris sicubi aut loci aut temporis aut personae conditio compellit Tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur cùm urget circumstantia periclitantis Let it suffice thee to use it the right of baptizing in cases of necessity if at any time the condition of place or time or person constrain For then is the resolution of him that helpeth accepted when the case of him that runneth bazard presseth There is no such thing as any case of such necessity in the opinion of our Anabaptists therefore it is not Tertullians He shows that the Church alloweth a Lay-man to baptize because it believed that the children of Christians could not enter into the Kingdom of God otherwise The words of Gregory Nazianzene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be all this saith he that delays Baptism in those that demand Baptism But what would you say of Infants that are neither sensible of the losse nor of the Grace Shall we baptize also these By all means if any danger should presâ— For it is better they should be sanctified insensible then depart unsealed and not persued And of this circumcision that is applied on the eighth day to those who cannot reason is a reason to us The daubing of the door-posts also preserving the first born by things unsensible For the rest I give mine opinion staying three years or something over or under that at which age they may hear and answer something of Religion though not perfitly but grosly understanding it then to sanctifie their souls and bodies with the great Sacrament that perfecteth us By and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is in all reason of more advantage to be fortified by the Laver for the suddain accidents of danger that incounter us not being capable of helpe He proceeds disputing against those that would not be baptized aâ—ore thirty because of our Lords example All this is so plain that I will adde nothing to point out the effect and consequence of his words Nor doth the VI Canon of Neo-caesarea signifie any more then this providing that women be baptized while they are with childe And that it be not thought that the baptism of the Mother concerns the child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because every ones proper purpose upon profession is declared Nor Walafridus Strabus de Rebus Ecclesiasticis cap. XXVI saying plainly that in the primititive times the Grace of Baptism was wont to be granted onely to them that were found in body and mind to understand what they expected and what they undertook by being baptized For though the solemn profession of Baptism be a powerfull means to make it effectuall yet what is that to the necessity of baptizing before death And that the custome here testified was not generall the Infant that received the Eucharist in S. Cyprian de Lapsis besides the opinion of Nazianzene which you had even now will witnesse Neither do the examples of S. Chrysostome who being bred under Meletius Bishop of Antiochia was not Baptized till one and twenty or of the same Nazianzene who having a Bishop to his Father was not baptized till he came to mans age prove any more than the then custome of the Church allows that it was by particular men thought fit to be deferred supposing that in case of necessity it were secured But a great many witnesses speak not so much as the Law the rule the custome of giving Baptism by any man that was a Christian in that case of necessity For out of that case of necessity the office of baptizing belonged to the very highest in the Church to wit to as might stand with the more weighty imployments of their office For otherwise a little common sense would serve to inform them that those offices which required more of their personal knowledge skill wisdome and goodnesse were to be preferred before the office of Baptizing which though it concerns salvation yet requires no such qualities Can any man then imagine any reason why all Christians are licensed or rather commanded to baptize in that case but the necessity of the office and that no Infant should go out of the world unbaptized And this chokes all the exception that is made from the custome of giving Infants the Eucharist in the ancient Church For as I have shewed before that it was not held necessary to salvation as Baptism was so here I must alledge that it cannot be said that the Eucharist was celebrated and that all Christians might celebrate the Eucharist in this case of necessity to the intent that Infants might not go out of the world either unbaptized or without the Eucharist As for Origen upon the Romans and S. Austin de Gen. X. 43 who affirmed the Baptism of Infants to come from the Tradition of the Apostles suppose we for the present that it is not Origen that speaks them but Ruffinus that translated him and that this is said IVC years after the birth of Christ CCC and more after the death of the Apostles was it not visible to them what came from the Apostles what from the determination or practice of the Church For that it should come from abuse he that would tell me must first perswade me that Antichrist was in being
whereby they thought they held their estate whether of this world or the hope they might have of the world to come For my opinion obligeth me not to say that Idolatry was commanded by this law of Jeroboam or practised by all that conformed to it But that though not expresly commanded yet it followed by necessary consequence upon the introducing of the Law Not by consequence of naturall necessity from that which the terms thereof imported but by that necessity which the Schoole calls morall when the common discretion of men that are able to judge in such matters evidences that supposing such a Law it must needs and will come to passe CHAP. XXVI The Place or rather the State of happy and miserable Soules otherwise understood by Gods people before Christs ascension then after it What the Apocalypse what the rest of the Apostles declare Onely Martyrs before Gods Throne Of the sight of God I Come now to the nicest point if I mistake not of all that occasions the present Controversies and divisions of the Western Church the state of soules departed with the profession of Christianity till the day of Judgement The resolution whereof that which remaines concerning the publick service of God the order and circumstances of the same must presuppose This resolution must procede upon supposition of that which the first book hath declared concerning the knowledge of the Resurrection and the world to come under the Old Testament and the reservation and good husbandry in declaring it which is used in the writings of it The consideration whereof mightily commendeth the wisdome and judgment of the ancient Church in proposing the bookes which we call Apocrypha for the instruction of the Ca echumeni or learners of Christianity For these are they in which the Resurrection and the world to come and the happy state of righteous soules after death is plainly and without circumstance first set forth I need not here repeat the seven Maccabees and their mother professing to dy for Gods Law in confidence of Resurrection to the world to come 2 Mac. VII 9 11 23 36. nor the Apostle Ebr. XI 35-38 testifying the same of them and the rest that lived or died in their case But I must not omit the Wisdom of Solomon the subject whereof as I said afore is to commend the Law of God to the Gentiles that in stead of persecuting Gods people they might learn the worship of the onely true God For this he doth by this argument that those who persecute Gods people think there remains no life after this but shall find that the righteous were at rest as soone at they were dead and in the day of judgement shall triumph over their enemies Wisdome II. III. 1-8 V From hence proceeding to show how the wisdome of Gods people derives it selfe from Gods wisdome who so strangely delivered them from the persecutions of Pharaoh and the Egyptians for a warning to those that might undertake the like In particular the Kings of Egypt under whom this was writ and the Jewes most used the Greek The Wisdome of Jesus the sonne of Sirach pretending to lay down those rules of righteous conversation which the study of the Law the off-spring of Gods Wisdome had furnished him with is not so copious in this point though the precepts of inward and spirituall obedience and service of God from the heart which he delivers throughout can by no meanes be parted from the hope of the world to come being grounded upon nothing else And he proposeth it plainly from the beginning when he saith He that feareth God it shall go well with him in the end and at the day of his death he shall be blessed The very additions to Daniel are a bulwarke to the Faith of the Church when it appeares that the happinesse of righteous soules after death is not taken up by any blind tradition among Christians but before Christianity expressed for the sense of Daniels fellows in those words of their hymne O ye spirits and souls of the righteous blesse ye the Lord praise him and magnify him for ever And whatsoever we may make of the second book of Maccabees the antiquity of it will alwayes be evidence that the principall author of it Jason of Cyrene could never have been either so senselesse or so impudent as to impose upon his nation that prayers or sacrifices were used by them in regard of the resurrection if they believed not the being and sense of humane souls after death 2 Mac. XII 43. Proceed we to those passages concerning this point which the Gospell afford us and consider how well they agree herewith I will not here dispute that our Lord intended to relate a thing that really was come to passe but to propose a parable or resemblance of that which might and did come to passe when he said Luke XVI 19 There was a certaine rich man that was clad with fine linnen and purple and made good chear every day But I will presume upon this That no man that meanes not to make a mockery of the Scriptures will indure that our Lord should represent unto us in such terms as we are able to bear that which falls out to righteous and wicked soules after death if there were no such thing as sense and capacity of pleasure and paine in souls departed according to that which they do here I will also propose to consideration the description of the place whereby he represents unto us the different estate of those whom it receiveth And in Hell lifting up his eyes being in torments he sees Abraham from afarre and Lazarus in his bosome And afterwards And besides all this between us and you there is a great gappe fixed so that those who would passe from hence cannot nor may they passe from thence to us For I perceive it is swallowed for Gospell amongst us that Dives being in Hell saw Lazarus in the third heavens Whereas the Scripture saith onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the invisible place of good and bad â—oules For so the processe of the Parable obliges us to understand it Sâ—â—ing it would be somewhat strange to understand that gappe wherewith the place of happy soules is here described to be parted from the place of torments to be the earth and all that is between the third heavens and it The Jewes at this time as we see by the Gospell believing according to the testimonies alleged that righteous soules were in rest and pleasure and happinesse wicked in misery and torments called the place or state of those torments Gehenna from the valley of the sonnes of Hinnom neer Jerusalem where those that of old time sacrificed their children to devils burnt them with fire The horror of which place it appears was taken up for a resemblance fit to represent the torment of the wicked soules after death In like manner Gods people being sensible of Gods mercy in using meanes to bring them back to the ancient inheritance
his Temple and there were lightnings and thunders and flashes and earthquakes and great haile For if opened then then shut afore neither was the Throne seen which the arke of the Covenant signifyeth And Apoc. XIV 17 18. One Angel comes out of the Temple in Heaven with a sharpe sickle another out of the Court where all this appeares hitherto called there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Sanctuary as also Apoc. XI 2. in opposition to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Temple out of which came the seven Angels with the seven viols Apoc. XV. 5. so also XIV 1 17. And you shall see by all this what reason wee have to thinke that those who are described before Gods Throne by this vision are not admitted to see his face And therefore if to know God as we are knowne in S. Paul to see him as he is in S. Iohn be our happinesse there is nothing to show us that it is accomplished before the generall judgement For if S. Iohn when he sayeth we shall know him as he is speakes of the resurrection the same wee must needs think is meant by S. Paul when he sayes we shall see him face to face know him as we are known for S. Paul not expressing whether he speak of the resurrection or of the meane time betweene death and it must needs be limited by S. Iohn speaking of the time when our Lord shall be manifested or when it shall be manifested what wee shal be And therefore though Moses spake with God mouth to mouth though he see him by sight not in a riddle yet is this but the highest degree of propheticall vision which notwithstanding no man shall see Gods face and live and therefore Moses himselfe sees but his back Exod. XXXIII 20-23 And notwithstanding that the Martyrs are before Gods Throne in the third Heaven yet for all this they are but in the inward Court and the Holy of Holies appeared not open to S Iohn but upon occasion of judgements the execution whereof comes from thence where the sentence must be understood to passe So that to knowe God as he is knowne according to S. Paul and to see him as he is according to S. Iohn is that which is reserved for them that shall feast after the resurrection in his presence For seeing S. Iohn sees the Throne of God in vision of Prophesy which the same vision describeth the Martyrs soules in heaven to see It cannot be concluded that the Martyres soules doe see God as he is and know him as they are knowne because they are before Gods Throne or because they see him sitting upon it For Moses also communed with God mouth to mouth that upon his Throne in the Holy of Holies the Arke of the Covenant overshadowed by the Cherubines unto whom God said neverthelesse no man shall see my face and live The Apostle indeed to the Ebrewes XII 23. when he sayes We are come to the assembly and Church of the first borne registred in the heavens and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect seemes to speak of this meane time For though some would have those sprits of just men made perfect to be the soules of living Christians as when S. Peter saith 1. Peter IV. 19. 20. that our Lord Christ being put to death in the flesh was made alive by the spirit in which departing he preached to the spirits in prison Which is necessarily to be understood of the Gentiles whom the spirit of God in the Apostles won to repentance though the same spirit in Noe could not effect it as it followes yet it seemes more consequent to the rest of the text to understand it here of the souls of Christians made perfect upon their departure hence But if just men made perfect may be understood to signifie no more then Christians because our Lord distinguishing that righteousnesse which the Gospel requireth from that which the Law was content with concludes Be yee therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect Mat. VI. 48. Certainely the perfection of Christian soules in the meane time between death and the resurrection cannot be concluded to be such as nothing shall be added to because it is said that they are made perfect The same we have from the Apostle 1 John IV. 17. Herein is love perfected in us that we have confidence in the day of Judgement because as he is so are wee in this world For I beseech you how can there be any thing added to his confidence at the day of judgement who hath received his full reward from the day of his death But Saint Paul 2 Thessalonians I. 6-9 Seing it is just with God to render tribulation to them who afflict you and to you that are afflicted rest with us at the revealing of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his Angels in flaming fire rendering vengeance to them who know not God Who shall indure the punishment of everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his strength when he cometh to be glorified among his Saints at that day Where you see he referreth as well the rest of them who are afflicted as the punishment of everlasting destruction from before the Lord to the last day of the generall judgment when he cometh to be admired among his Saints Who shall then be as well glorified Christians as the Angels and that in heaven according to the spirituall sense of the Old Testament as upon earth according to the literall sense the Prophet Esay saith that after the destruction of Senacherib The Lord of hosts shall raigne in mount Sion and Jerusalem and be glorified in the sight of his Elders Esay XXIV 23. Here then all those scriptures which referre the torments provided for the devil and his angels unto the generall judgement come in to bear witnesse in the same cause For therefore the words of the sentence bear Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Mat. XXV 41. to wit against that time And S. Paul 1 Cor. VI. 2. know ye not that we shall judge the angels to wit the evil angels And the possessed to our Lord Mat. VIII 29. Art thou come to torment us before the time And the Apostle 2 Pet. II. 4. For if God spared not the angels having sinned but delivered them to be kept for judgement in the dungeon with chaines of darknesse And S. Jude 6. And the angels that kept not their originall but left their own habitation he keeps in everlasting chaines under darknesse to the judgement of the great day For though there can be no reason why the devils having rebelled against God should not taste the fruits of their rebellion immediately as there is a reason to be given why man is not to be judged till he be tried Especially the Parable of Dives and Lazarus showing that wicked souls are in torment upon their departure Yet seeing
shall confirme it by so visible an instance as this Death was proposed to Adam for the mark of Gods wrath and vengeance which he was become liable to by sinne The turning of this curse into a blessing was to be the effect of Christs Crosse which was not yet to be revealed The life of the Land of Promise was proposed for the reward of keeping Gods law in stead of the life of Paradise Therefore the cutting off of that life was to be taken for a mark of that curse which mankind became subject to by the first Adam till it should be declared the way to a better life by the Crosse of Christ Therefore the Giants that left it with the markes of enmity with God upon them are described as within the dominion of Hell but not asleep unlesse we can think that it is a mark of misery to go to them that sleep when all do sleep Prov. II. 17. IX 18. XXI 17. Esay XXVI 14. For that there should be no praising of God after death holds punctually in virtue of the Old Covenant which brought no man to life and was then on foot though they who writ those things might and did know that by the virtue of the New Covenant under which they knew themselves to be they should not be deprived of the priviledge of praising God after death and before the resurrection how sparing soever they were to be in imparting this knowledge openly to all the world For how otherwise should they whom the Apostle Ebr. XI declareth to have sought the kingdom of heaven have showed themselves otherwise affected with death then the Martyrs that suffered for Christ were afterwards How could it be thought the same Spirit that moved them to such a difference of effects according to the difference of time And therefore the same Solomon that saith there is nothing to be done in the grave Eccles IX 10. saith further Eccles XII 8. that when the dust returns to the earth then the soul returns to God that gave it And when Exoch and Elias were taken away by God in their Bodies neither sleep they seeing Moses and Elias attend our Lord Christ at his transfiguration Mat. XVII 3 4. Mark IX 4 5. Luke IX 30. nor is it possible for any man that would have soules to sleep to give a reason why the Covenant by which all are ordered being the same the soules of Christians should sleep when their souls sleep not And therefore when our Lord proves the resurrection by this That God is called the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob whereas God is not the God of the dead but of the living Mat. XXII 32. Mark XII 26. Luke XX. 37. he not onely supposes that his argument is good but that his adversaries the Sadduces granted it to be good And so Saint Paul when he argues that if the dead rise not againe then are we the most miserable of all people As having no further hope then this life 1 Cor. XV. 19. For what needed more to them that owned the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ and yet would deny the world to come questioning the resurrection that supposes it For the rest I will not repeate that which I produced afore out of the Books we call Apocrypha which he that peruseth will find a difference between the language of the Patriarchs and Prophets speaking of themselves and the language of those Bookes speaking of them But I will insist upon this that our Lord when he proposeth the Parable of Dives and Lazarus manifestly accepts of that opinion which notwithstanding such difficulties from the Scriptures of the Old Testament had prevailed over the better part of that people by Tradition of the Fathers and Prophets To wit that the soules of good and bad are alive in joy and paine according to the qualities in which they depart hence and shall resume their bodies to give account in them for their workes here The same doth the appearance of Moses and Elias at his transfiguration the rendering of his soul into his Fathers hand the promise of bringing the thiefe into Paradise the same day signify Whereby it appeareth that whatsoever might seeme to argue either that the soules of the Fathers were in the devils hands till the death and resurrection of Christ or that all soules go out like sparks when men dy and are kindled anew when they rise againe prove nothing because they prove too much For if they prove any thing they must prove that there is no world to come as the disputes of Ecclesiastes and Job seem to say because by the accidents of this world there is no ground of a mans estate in it Which seeing it is so farre from leaving any dispute among Christians that among Jewes the Sadduces were reputed Sectaries It is evident that whatsoever may seem to look that way in the Old Testament cannot prove that the soules of the Fathers were in the Verge of Hell till Christ riseing againe the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many as we read in the Gospel of Mat. XXVII 52 53. This indeed were something if the Scripture had said that those Saints who arose with their bodies when our Lord Christ was risen againe had ascended into heaven with him in their bodies Which because it derogates from the generallity of the last resurrection having no ground in the Scripture can beare no dispute Therefore seeing these Saints as Lazarus afore and the Widowes sonne of Naim whom our Lord raised restored their bodies to the grave there is no presumption from hence that their soules were brought from Hell by our Lord to be translated into the full happinesse of the world to come with his owne I do therefore allow that which is written in the Apocryphall 2 Esdras IV. 41 42. In the grave the chambers of souls are like the womb of a woman For like as a woman that travaileth maketh hast to escape the pressure of her travaile Even so do those places haste to deliver the things that are committed unto them And VII 32. And the earth shall restore those that are asleep in her and so shall the dust those that dwell in silence and the secret places shall deliver those soules that were committed unto them For in most of those writings which the ancient Church counteth Apocryphal because they are suspected to intend some poisonous doctrine excellent things are contained which the agreement of them with Canonicall Scripture and their consequence and dependance upon the truth which they settle renders recommendable even from dangerous authors And for that which is here said whether we suppose this book to be written by a Christian or not before Christ or after Seeing there is no mention of any Saints in those visions of the old Testament where God is represented sitting upon his Throne but
oneby the Holy Angels though in the Apocalypse the Martyrs are before the Throne and the Elders sit on seates round about the Throne seeing it cannot be said that they are translated out of the Verge of Hell into the heavens by the resurrection and ascension of Christ who were in happinesse before by the parable of Dives Lazarus I take the chambers or the houses here mentioned to be the bosom of Abraham in the parable Paradise in our Lords promise secret indeed because the script is sparing in imparting unto us the knowledge of the place But such as oblige them earnestly to desire long for the consummation of all things which not only the comparison of the womb in this Apocryphal scripture but the cry of the souls in Apocal. VI. 10. XX. 12 17 20. witnesseth But I must go no further in this point till I have resolved the difficulty of Samuels souls which he that wil needs question whether it were in the deviles hand for a witch to bring up out of the earth or in the bosome of Abraham where ouâ— Saviour placed Lazarus may as well question whether the witch or the Law sent us to the true God To a heathen man that acknowledgeth not the enmity betweene God and the Devil which the scripture establisheâ—h Necromancy that bringeth the likenesse of the dead out of the earth need not goe for a diabolicall art nor those spirits which minister such appositions be counted uncleane spirits But the scripture even of the old testament placing the Giants Gods enemies beneath oblige us to take it for an uncleane spirit that serves an act forbiden by Gods Law by bringing the likenesse of Gods prophet out of the place where Gods enemies goe after death For though Gods friends goe to the dust as concerning their bodies and as concening theire soules the old Testament declares not whither they goe yet hath it no where described them in that company to which Solomon deputeth his foole And our Saviours parable representeth Dives in the flames which burnt Sodom and Gâ—morrhaâ— no otherwise then Solomon quartereth his fool with the Giants that tyranized over the old world or the land of promise Wherefore though I reject not Ecclesiasticus for commending Samuel because he prophesied after his death because at the worst it is not fit to reject a booke of such excellent use for one mistake yet I had rather say that Saul having by his Apostasy declined to the worship of the Devile by Necromancy did thinke it more satisfactory to be answered by Samuel then by any other likenesse that this is indeed for Samuels honour but that otherwise it is no more for Ecclesiasticus to say that Samuel prophesied then for the scripture that Samuel spoke to Saul Who whether he tooke it for Samuel or for an uncleane spirit the scripture would call it no otherwise then the witch whom he submitted to pretended Shee when she saith I see Gods ascend out of the earth though I find it no incongruity that she should pretend the Spirit whom she imployed to be of that number whom the scripture calleth Gods or Gods sonnes yet because it is rather to be thought that she pretended to bring up Samuel indeed it is more convenient to translate it I see a Judge come up out of the earth understanding that by the habit of a Judge in which he appeared she shows him to Saul for Samuel For the observation of the Jews doctors is most true that Elohim signifies the Judges of Gods people These things thus cleared it is manifest that the soule of Christ parted from his body which lay in the grave did not goe into hell to free the Fathers souls out of thâ— Devils hands and to translate â—hem to the full happinesse which wâ—nts only the company of the body as an accessary to complete it But seeing he may be thought to have gon thither to declare the victory of his Crosse to begin that triumph over the Devill and his partie which the Gospell shall accomplish at the generall judgement by the redemption of the Church Let us see what the Scripture teacheth S. Peter Acts. II. 25-35 first affirmes that David spake of Christ when he said Psalme XVI 11 12. Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell Nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou shalt shâ—w me the path of life thou shalt fill me with the gladnesse of thy presence And proves it because David was dead and buryed and his Seâ—ulchre was seen to thâ—t day Just as he proves afterwards that when David said Psalme CX 2. The â—ord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footestool he meant it of Christ because David never went up into the heavens And there is no doubt the opinion of the Jewes at that day bore him out in that exposition because as to this day so then they did expound those texts of the Messias So he had nothing to doe but to show hâ—w true they were of our Lord Jesus That this no way requireth that thâ—y should not be unâ—erstood of David in the literall sense I refer my self to that which hath been â—aid already But what fignifies it in the literall sense that God shâ—wes David thâ— path of life and fills him with the gladnesse of his presence Surely that he pâ—â—serves him alive in his state title of King of Gods people to serve God before the Arke So Hezâ—kias when he was unwilling to dy â— because the living onely praise God â—â—d â—aid What is the signe that I shall goe into the Temple of the Lord. Esa XXXVIII 19 22. So David how many times doth he â—et forth for the comfort of his life that he might come and see God in the Temple Ps XVII 15. XXIV 3. 5. XXVI 6-13 XLII And in a word every where If this be the literall sense of the Psalme what shall iâ— signifie in the mysticall sense supposing our Lord Jesus the Messias and suâ—posing him killed by the Jewes Let S. Peter be judge when he saies thaâ— â—avid knowing as a Prophet that the Messias our Lord Jesus whom ye have slâ—in should come out of his loines foretold of his resurrection that his oule was not left in Hell nor aid his flesh see corruption For is it any way reqâ—isite to the 〈◊〉 of this argument that our Lords humane soule should triumph over thâ— Devile and his party in the entralls of the earth Therefore â—f you accept his souâ—â— to signifie his person as David Psalm XXV 12. His soule himselfe shall lâ—ve at ease and his seed shall inherit the Land thou shalt not leave my soule in Hell will be no more then thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to lee corruption Thou shalt not suffer me to be cut off from thy presence to which I am to present the sacrifice of my Crosse But if you will needs have the soule to signifie that which stands
of rejoycing are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Pet. I. 5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed at the last time 1 Cor. V. 5. that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 2 Tim. IV. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Luke XIV 14. Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just For all which there were no reason to be given but the mention of the day of judgement would be every where utterly impertinent if the reward were declared at the houre of death and that judgement which then passeth For how can that be expected which is already injoyed You have seen the souls of the Martyrs that appear to Saint John before Gods Throne where none but Martyrs appeare as I have argued bidden to expect the conâ—ummation of their company before the vengeance of God be exercised upon their persecutors Apoc. VI. 9 10 11. VII 14 After this vengeance is exercised and they had raigned M. yeares with Christ and the devil was loosed againe and had brought Gog and Magog to fight against Gods Church and they had been destroyed and the generall judgement represented Apoc. XX. the Spirit returneth to show Saint John the New Jerusalem containing those that see Gods face and have his Name upon their foreheads Apoc. XXI XXII 1-5 Who have no need of the Sunne because God is their light and shall raigne for everlasting For after all this againe The Spirit and the bride say come And let him that heareth say come And let him that thirsteth come and let who will come and take of the water of life for nothing And he that testifyeth these things saith Indeed I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus What demandeth all this That which seemeth not to be refused admitting the consequence of the Visions That those souls who appear before Gods Throne pray for the second coming of Christ and the consummation of all things The renewing of their prayer Apoc. VI. after the representation of the generall judgement Apoc. XX. inforceth it The Saints therefore in heaven still desiring the second coming of Christ is it marvaile if there remaine something to be prayed for on behalf of inferiour rankes having showed that those who were sealed and saved in Jewry are not described to appeare in heaven before Gods Throne Whither we admit all that dy in the state of Grace to be with Christ as well as S. Paul and that in Paradise taken for the third heavens Or reserve as well we may reserve so much privilege to an Apostle and a martyr according to that which I have showed you out of the Apocalypse as not to equall with him all that dy in the state of Grace Certaine we are the estate of those that dy in Gods grace admits a solicitous expectation of the day of judgement though assured of the issue of it That is it which so many texts of Scripture alledged afore signifie nothing if they signify it not What is it then that reason grounded upon the Scriptures requires Certainly did our justification consist in the immediate imputation of Christs righteousnesse revealed by that Faith which therefore justifieth no man could dy in the state of Grace but be must be as pure as the Blessed Virgine and he that can digest such excessive assertions may think strange that any difference should be made among them that dye in Grace But I must and do suppose that which I have proved that the performance of that common Christianity the undertaking whereof justifies makes as much difference between the righteousnesse of severall Christians as must needes be found between the Highest of Gods Saints and the Lowest of those that escape the second death And therefore inferre that the difference of theire estates between death and the generall judgement must needes be answereable though from their death they know to whether lot they be deputed as for their particular judgment And this will necessarily follow supposing this world to be the Race and the next the Gole according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace which hath been declared For supposing that he who keepeth account of his steps and watcheth over his wayes may be ready for Gods call and appeare before him without sinne having washed it away by the blood of Christ infused in the tears of finall repentance Must we not of necessity suppose that they who doe not so who are evidently the farre greater part of Christians departing with the guilt and slaine of such sinne upon them must needs appear with it before God notwithstanding the Covenant of Grace Againe the ove of this world and of our selves from whence such sinne proceedeth and would have proceeded should men proceed to live suppose it be such as drives not Gods Spirit away because incident to that humane â—railty which the Covenant of Grace presupposeth how shall it be washed out of that soule after death by virtue of the Covenant of Grace which hath failed of the Covenant of Grace in not washing it away being alive It is therefore necessarily consequent upon the premises that Christiane soules which escape the second death because the love of God was alive in them to strive against sinne though not to clear them of it continue in that estate wherein they departed till the generall judgement As for the love of God or of the World so for the joy or remorse which they have in them selves for it That the purity of this joy or the mixture of it with remorse be not meerly the punishment of sinne committed but the effect and consequence of the estate in which it departeth though the sin which it committed in the Body be the meanes to constitute this estate That the departure thereof bring it to that anxiety concerning the everlasting judgement which is proportionable to the love of the creature which it departeth with That being reposed in an estate and place of refreshment which those secret receptacles and chambers of Esdras seem to signify it remaine subject as well to those clouds of sorrow and remorse which the sense of sinne done and the love of God which hath not conquered the love of the Creature produceth as to that light and refreshment which the Spirit of God may create That the end of all this may be the trial of the day of judgement purging away all the dregs and drosse of sinne and of the love of this world which may remaine in soules that depart or are found then alive in the state of Grace by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of that griefe which the triall of the generall judgement shall cause It may be thought that the fire wherewith the day of the Lord is revealed seizing their bodies which they shall have resumed by the paine which it
then I said before to show you that the ancient Church from the beginning held the happinesse of the Saints souls to continue imperfect till the resurrection of their bodies Gennadius de dogmat Eccles LXXVIII LXXIX will have us to take it for the doctrine of the Church that the soules of the Fathers before Christ were in hell tiâ—l they were delivered thence by Christ That since Christ they go straight to Christ expecting the resurrection of their bodies that with them they may attaine intire happinesse And that this doctrine had for some time great vogue in the Church I deny not Nor intend to deny that the Saints are with Christ some whereof the Apocalypse represents before the Throne But that there is no Tradition for the translating of the Fathers souls that the saints are in Abrahams bosom or Paradise with them till the resurrection I conceive I have showed by clearing the sayings of the most ancient Christians from the misprisions which they are intangled with He that shall consider the premises may find Tertul. Lactant. and Victorinus whom Cardinal Bellar. acknowledgeth to detaine all soules in their store-houses till the resurrection De S. Beat. I. 5. good company among the rest of the Fathers And therefore I will referre it to the reader to judge between that exposition that he fits the passages of the Fathers with which he produces and that which my opinion requires Especially having Doctor Stapleton Defens Ecclesiast Authorit â— 2. to confesse with others of that side that all the ancients in a manner do hold the contrary of that which is since defined by the Councile of Florence Saint Bernard I must not omit because it is he who considering the text of the Apocalypse which you may see by the premises sayes more then all the Scripture besides hath so pertinently observed out of it that they are but in the Court as yet but at the consummation of their blisse shall enter into Gods house Therefore he maketh three states of the soule The first in tents the second in the Courts the third in Gods house into which neither the Saints shall enter without the common people of the Church nor their soules without their bodies De omnibus Sanctis Serm III. And Serm. IV. the Saints which now see onely the manhood of Christ under the altar he saith shall be lifted upon the altar to see the essence of God The Schoole since his time upon occasion of the contest with the Greek Church believing with Saint Bernard hath stated the dispute upon this terme of seeing God And John XXII Pope is questioned whether intending to determine with Saint Bernard he held heresy heretically or not For his successor Bennet XII first and after him the Councile of Florence hath decreed that for matter of Faith which before the decree was not matter of Faith And therefore if that be true which I said in the first book can never become matter of Faith For my part I see Saint Augustine de cura pro mortuis cap. IX resolve the question how the dead can know what is done here three wayes By the report of those who go hence and by the will of God remember what is done here by the ministery of Angels and by the revelation of Gods Spirit And if Saint John being in the Spirit saw by vision of Prophesy God sitting upon his throne in heaven as well as the Elders and Martyrs soules did I can easily grant that those souls which should have such revelations of Gods Spirit whether by the ministery of Angels or without it might see God upon his Throne as Saint John and the Prophets did and and as the Elders and Martyrs are there described to do But this would be no more that sight of God in which Saint Paul and Saint John seem to place the happinesse of Gods kingdome then that sight of God which Moses had when he communed face to face with God before the Ark was that sight whereof God said to him Thou shalt not see my face For no man shall see my face and live This for certain S. Augustine deriving the knowledge of our maters which blessed soules may have from the ministery of Angels and revelations of Gods Spirit and perhaps from report from hence was farre enough from owning Saint Gregories consequence Quae intus omnipotentis Dei claritatem vident nullo modo credendum est quod foris sit aliquid quod ignorent Those who see within the brightnesse of Almighty God it is not to be thought that there is any thing which they are ignorant of without Moral XII 14. For supposing the Saints see the essence of God it followeth not that thereby they see what is done here because it is not the essence of God but his will by which it may appear So farre it is from any appearance of truth that he who hath recourse to soules that go hence to the ministery of Angels to revelations of Gods Spirit to inform the saints departed of that which is done here should believe them to have that sight of God wherein the happinesse of his kingdom consisteth In fine by the Arch-bishop of Spalato de Rep. Ecclesi VIII 110-120 you shall find the opinion of Calvine to be the same I here maintaine though his followers it seemes are afraid of the evidence for it or the consequence of it Let us see whether justly or not It hath been a custome so general in the church to pray for the dead that no beginning of it can be assigned no time no part of the Ch. where it was not used And though the rejecting of it makes not Aerius an Heretick as disbelieving any part of the faith yet had he broke from the Ch. upon no other cause but that which the whole Church besids him owned he must as a Schismatick have come into Epiphanius his lift of Heresies intending to comprise all parties severed from the Church All that I have known pretended is that which the learned Blondel in a French work of the Sibyls verses hath conjectured that it had the begâ—nning from that book Which book as divers before him have showed reason why it should be thought the worke of a Christian intending to advance Cristianity by such meanes So I confesse I can not see whence it should come more probably then from Montanus or some of his fellow Prophets as he conjectureth For though he hath failed of his usuall diligence in clearing the difficulties which the account of time raiseth how Justine Martyrs Apology and Hermes his Pastor should borrow from Montanus yet doe I not see why Montanus might not begin to declare himselfe by it before the date of them But neither doth my businesse require or my modell allow me to debate it For supposing Justine Martyr or Clemens or Tertullian or Lactantius or many more particular writers were induced to allege it as for the advantâ—ge of the common Christianity He that sees not how
much more it were to induce particular Churches and by consent of them the whole seemes to me to renounce the advice of common reason for love of his own voluntary prejudice Can it be imagined that the Sibyls verses coming from an author of doubtfull credit could perswade the whole Church to take up a custome of praying for the dead because they have perswaded divers writers to alledg them in favour of Christianity Why could not then Montanus perswade it to imbrace the pretense of his Prophesies Why But because it was more to give Law to such a Bâ—dy then to surprise a few Scholars And yet could all this be overseen would not that serve the turne The opinion of Justine that our Lord by his prayers Psalm XXII 21. and by commending his soule to God on the Crosse teacheth us to pray that our souls may not fall into the hands of those spirit which had the fathers soules in their power is the mold in which some prayers in the Church of Rome for the dead are framed Suppose this not granting it This is not the doctrine of the Sibyls verses For they place the sons of Noae in blisse not in the devils hands though under the earth as I showed you Neither could the raigne of Christ upon earth for a thowsand years come from the Sibyls verses how many soever were transported with the conceit of it For though Montanus be found as ancient as Justine he will never be found so ancient as Papias who preached it As for the quartering of righteous soules under the earth and in Paradise I have showed you how both are true according to the dispensation of the old of the new Testament If the simplicity of the primitive Châ—istians speak some times according to the one somtimes according to the other as following the language stile of the Scriptures It is not because they followed any Montanist as a disciple of Montanus whom the Church disowned It must be because they knew him not to be Montanus or any disciple of Montanus And they knew him not by these parculars because others before and after him had committed the same mistakes for supposing they understood not the secret which I spoke of in the Scriptures they were indeed mistakes and were not by the Church disowned for it But what is it that I apeale to in the prayers of the Church for the dead That they are made for the Patriarches and prophets for the Apostles and Martyrs even for the Blessed Virgin as well as for all the departed in the communion of the Church The words of the ancient Liturgies I remit you the answer quoted afore to see p. 185. Be this in regard to the resurrection and the day of judgement so it be in regard to their resurection and judgement so that the benefit which they receive by it not which their bodies receive by it which were not prayed for be acknowledged If that be acknowledged considerable for the whole Church to pray for in behalfe of those how much more in behalfe of all others that were admitted to communion with the Church I acknowledge a scruple made in S. Austines time to the assumption which I suâ—pose de verbis Apostoli Hom. XVII Ideâ—que habet Ecclesiastica disciplina quod fideles noverunt cum Martyres eo loco recitantur ad altare â—ei ubi non pâ—o ipsis â—retur pro caeteris autem commemoratis desunctis oratuâ— Iâ—juâ—ia est enim pro Martyre orare cujus nos debemus orationibus commendari And therefore the Church hath that discipline which the faithfull know When the Martyrs aâ—e reckoned at Gods altar in that place as not to pray for them but for others departed who are reckoned For it is an injury to pray for a Martyr by whoâ—e prayers we aâ—e to be commended Thus S. Austine whereas S. Cypâ—ian in his time made no question of offering for Martyrs Epistle XXXIV The same S. Austine Enchir. cap. CX Cum sacrificia sive altaris sive quarumcunque eleemosynarum pro baptizatis defunctis omnibus offeruntur Pro valde bonis gratiarum actiones sunt pro non valde malis propitiationes sunt pro valde malis et si nulla sunt adjumenta mortuorum qualescunque vivorum consolationes sunt When sacrifices either of the altar or of whatsoever alms are offered for all the dead after Baptisme for the very good they are thankâ—givings for the not very bad propitiations for the very bad though no helps to the dead yet some kind of consolations to the living Thus S. Aust avoideth an objection How the same prayer should be a petition for some for others a thanksgiving For the custom being that the St. departed were rehearsed in one place of the Service others in an other place he takes it to be the intent of the Church to give thanks for Saints and Martyrs to pray for others The forme then used in Africk we have not neither can say why this construction may not stand with it For the very Latine Masse at this day is capable of it where you have first Mementâ— Domine famulorum famularumque tuarum N. et omnium circumstantium pro quibus tibi offâ—rimus vel qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudes communicantes memoriam venerantes inprimis gloriosae semper Virginis Mariae Remember Lord thy servants such and such and all here present for whom we offer unto thee or who offer thâ—e this sacrfice of praise communicating in and reverencing first the memory of the glorious ever Virgine Mary So proceeding to the rest Whereby the wâ—y it is manifest he that made this read in S. Paule Rom. XII 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communicating in the memories of the Saints as S. Ambrose and other Fathers did Not as now we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the necessities But after the consideration Memmento domine famulorum samularumque tuarum qui noâ— pâ—aecesserunt cum signo fidei dormiunt in somno pacis Nâ—â—psis domâ—ne omnibus in Christo quiescentibus locum refrigerii lucis paciâ— ut indulgeas deprecamur Remember Lord thy servants such such that are gone before with the badge of faith and sleep in the rest of peace We pray thee â—ord grant them and all that rest in â—hrist a place of refreshment rest and peace This then showes that there wâ—s some ground in the maner and forme of praying for the dead in the Affrican Church for S. Austines construction That the intent of the Church was not to pray for Saints aâ—d Martyrs at all Which notwithstanding it is evident by the formes which I alleaged afore that the intent of the Church was to pray for them What account Gennadius his position would give for this difference for the prayers then used for the dead I understand not Supposing it to extend the name of St. to all that dy in the state of Grace and to intend that all such siâ—ce Christ goe
to Chrâ—st and are wâ—th Christ afore Christ under the eaâ—th But accordâ—ng to S. Austin and â—hose that dispose of them till the day of judgement in secret stoâ—e-houses signifyed by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the invisible place of the dead against which opinion I maintaine there is no Tradition in the Church the reason is plaine from the dâ—fference of those lodgings according to the difference of the qualities in which men depart though all in the state of Grace Take but the Court of the Temple in heaven which S. Ioâ—n saw in the vision of Prophesy for one of those secret store houses in whiâ—h the Saints soules are bestowed til the day of judgement and the scripture remaines reconciled to it selfe and to the primitive and generall practice of the Church Tertullian mistook a little when he affiâ—med that onely Martyrs soules appeare there For the XXIV Elders sit as judges with God according as our Lord promises that his disciples shall doe when he comes to judgement But if they and S. Iohn sawe both the same Thorne S. Paul may be with Christ as one of them and S. â—ohn may say that when Christ appeares or when it appeares what we shall bee we shall see God as he is that â—is not aâ—oâ—e And so the reason is plaine why the Church prayed for all because it hath some thing to pray for on the behalfe of all To wit that which the Martyrs in the Revelation pray for the vengeance of God upon the enemies of the Church and the second coming of Christ upon which theire owne consummation depends What account Innocent III. Pope gives for the change of a prayer that had been used for the soul of Pope Leo and how the Divines of the Church of Rome are inâ—angled about it you may see in the place alledged pag. 197. But neither had the change nor the account for it needed had it beene considered and admitted that the resurrection shall be a benefit even to the soules of saints and Martyrs supposing that in that estate there remaines nothing else to desiâ—e for them And this Epiphanins also alledges against Aerius that to make a difference between our Lord Christ and the Saints we pray for them Not that Chrâ—stâ—ans need to be taught a difference between Christ and his Saints But because the difference between the state of our Lord Christ having resumed his body carryed it into heaven in perfect happinesse and the Saints departed whoâ—e happinesse is not compleat till they râ—sume their bodies in the whole ground of those prayers in reference to Saints and Martyrs And the same is signified by Epiphanius when he saith wee pray for the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as yet in travaile And perhaps also when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie that which is more compleate But shall there be therefore no difference between the storehouses in which the Apostles Martyrs and those in which all that departe in the state of grace are lâ—dged Is their intertainment the same because there all rest till the day of judgement The Martyrs soules in the Apocalypse praying for Gods vengeance upon the persecutors of his Church thereby pray for their owne accomplishment And therefore the spirit of the Bride saith come Even the spouse of the Lamb the new Jerusalem which S. Iohn saw come down from heaven dressed like a bride for her husband Apoc. XXâ— 2. To wit with fine linen that shineth which is the righteous deeds of the saints Apoc. XIX 8. This bride still prayeth for the coming of her spouse But I have showed you the Lamb upon mount Sion with the hundreth forty foure thowsand that hâ—d the Fathers name marked upon their foreheades which sing not the song of tryumph which the Martyrs sing to their harps but understand it and they onely Apoc. XIV 1 2 3 And therefore I have showed you an other storehouse for soules of a lower rancke yet wâ—th the Lambe And S. Austins doubt supposeth no doubt of praying for those whom the Church accounted not of as it did of Martyrs And therefore If there be written Copies of the latine Masse in which the prayer for refreshment rest and peace to them that are falne a sleep in Christ appeares not as it is alleged in that answer p. 196. it appeares sufficiently otherwise that the church did pray to that effect for those that were not taken for Saints and Martyrs Epiphaneus alleageth against Aerius that because wee sin all with our will or against our will therefore the Church prayeth for remission of their sins And perhaps when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signifie that which is more compleat he meant to distinguish the prayers which were made for Saints from those which were made for others So the formes which you have in the Apostles constitutions VIII 4. and other Lythirgyes so S. Cyril Catech. V. Mystag saith that though the Church knit no Crownes for sinners yet it offereth for them Christ slaine for our sins to render God propitious And the supposed Dionysius though he mention no prayer for Saints whoâ—e names are then rehearsed before the consecration Eccles Hierarch cap. III. yet speaking of burying the dead Cap. VII he mentioneth prayer for the remission of their sins For supposing no punishment inflicted upon any that departeth in the state of Grace notwithstanding it is reason to suppose that the soule remaineth affected with comfort for the present and a cheerefull expectation of her future account or the contrary according to the love of goodnesse which shee contracted here Wherefore if the Saints of God are visited either by the immediate operation of his spirit or the ministery of Angels whereby S. Austine conceiveth they may learne what passeth here Is it strange that ordinary Christians departed in the state of Grace but imperfectly turned from lesse sins should need the influence of Gods spirit or the visitation of the Angels to hold them up in the desire of their accomplishments in the expectation of their trriall to come Is there any thing prejudiciall to the faith in that of 2. Es IV. 35. Did not the soules of the righteous aske questions of these things in their chambers saying How long shall I hope on this fashion When cometh the fruite of the floore of our reward Is it not agreeable to reason and to faith that they should be dissatisfied of their present comfort and of the terrible tryall to come after the rate of that affection they had for the world when they parted with it And yet at rest from the temptations of it and secure of being defeated of ending in Gods Grace And yet not under any punishment inflicted by God but onely under the consequence of that disposition which they leave the world with I do alledg here as for the interest of this mine opinion the example of S. Ambrose praying for the Emperors Gratiane Valentinian and Theodosius and for his
be counted Sacraments for the same reason and in the same nature and kind for which any thing else is or can be counted a Sacrament No not though they may all in their proper sense be truly called Sacraments of the Church because the dispensing of them all is trusted with the Church For Baptisme by the premises enters a man into the Covenant of Grace as the visible solemnity whereby it is contracted with the Church in behalfe of God which unlesse in case of peremptory necessity cannot be invisibly contracted So it intitleth to all the promises which the Gospel pretendeth And so also doth the Eucharist being the visible ceremony which God hath appointed for the renewing of it and of our profession to stand in it and to expect the promises which the Gospel pretendeth upon supposition of the condition which it requireth not otherwise And truly the flesh and bloud of Christ mystically received by our bodies necessarily importeth his spirit received by our soules supposing them qualified as the Gospel requireth and in and by the Spirit whatsoever is requisite to inable a Christian to performe his race here or to assure him of his reward in the world to come And yet the necessity thereof not so undispensable but that supposing a man cannot obtaine the communion thereof from the Church but by violating that Christianity which it sealeth neither can a man obtaine it by the Sacrament nor without the Sacrament need he faile of it that is standing to his Christianity as well in all other things as in not transgressing his Christianity for communion in the Eucharist with the Church And this is the case of those which are unjustly excommunicate Seeing in matters indifferent he that yeilds not to the Church that is to them who have the just power to conclude the Church when they judge it for the common good for him to do that which otherwise he is not obliged to do must needs seem justly excommunicable So these two Sacraments have the promise of grace absolutely so called that is of all the grace which the Gospel promiseth which it is to be acknowledged and maintained that no other of those actions that are or may be called Sacraments of the Church doth or can doe upon the like terms as they doe For of a truth it is granted that both these Sacraments are actions and consist in the action whereby they are either prepared or used though with so much difference between the two For Baptisme is of necessity an action that passes with the doing of it Whereas in the Eucharist there is one thing done in the preparing another in the using of it insomuch that the effect of consecrating it which I suppose here to be signified in the Scriptures as well as the most ancient of the Fathers by the name of Eucharistia or Thanksgiving remaines upon the thing consecrated so that the bread and the wine over which God was praised and thanked are metonymically called the Eucharist And yet in regard the consecration in reason tends to the use of receiving it and that the Church is not trusted or inabled to do it with effect but to that intent the totall of both is necessarily understood by the name of that Sacrament For supposing the ancient Church might have cause to allow the use of receiving this Sacrament to them who were not present in body though in spirit at the celebrating of it which I for my part in point of charity find my self bound to suppose even when I am not able to alledge any reason why my self would have done the same in the same case So long as by reasonable construction which the practice of the Church alloweth or groundeth the consecration tendeth to the use of receiving it is reasonably called the Sacrament or the Eucharist in order to that use If it be consecrated to any other intent either expressed or inforced by construction of reason upon the practise of the Church such practice bordering upon sacriledge in the abuse of the Sacrament the Church hath nothing to do to answer for it Nor is it my meaning that the Sacrament of Baptisme or the Eucharist doth or can consist in the outward action of washing of the body or of praying over the elements and reciting the Institution of our Lord. It is true the very bodily action were able in a great part to interpret the intent of doing it to those who are already Christians and know what Christianity requireth But seeing that can never be enough much lesse allwayes It is necessary that the intent be declared by certain words signifiying it But these words with the bodily action which they interpret will by this discourse concurre to make but one part of the Sacrament which containing the solemnizing of the Covenant of Grace will necessarily containe that which all this signifieth of invisible and spirituall grace conveighed to those who are qualified for it by that which is said and done in virtue of Gods promise He that will speak properly of these two Sacraments must make the matter of them to consist in one of these two parts The form of them being not the signification which is the same in all ceremonies but the promise which tieth to them the whole effect of the Covenant of Grace to which purpose it were well if the world would understand them to be seals of it This createth a vast difference between these two and any of the rest which are called Sacraments Which whether the Councile of Trent sufficiently expresse by providing an Anathema for those who shall say that the seven Sacraments are so equall one to the other that none is more worthy then another Sess VII Can. III. or not let them look to it I dispute not Thus much we see a difference is hereby acknowledged But the difference is vast in this regard that whereas both these Sacraments take effect in consideration of every particular mans Christianity and the promises annexed to that end the rest all of them take effect in consideration of the Communion of the Church and that which it is able to contribute towards the effect of Grace Which necessarily consists in that which the Church is able to contribute toward the effecting of that disposition which qualifieth for it So whereas these two immediately bring forth Gods grace as instruments of his promise by his appointment the rest must obtaine it by the meanes of Gods Church and the blessing annexed to communion with it He that believeth not Gods Church in the nature of a Society grounded upon profession of the true faith and consisting in that communion which separateth it not from the whole may promise himself the benefit of his Baptisme and of the Eucharist whomsoever he communicateth with professing himself a Christiane He who believeth every Church to be a part of the whole Church as he must acknowledge it requisite to the effect of Baptisme and the Eucharist that they be ministred neither
you say something more to limit the ground upon which they may be no lesse What limitation I would adde is plain by the premises The preaching of that Word and that ministring of the Sacraments which the Tradition of the whole Church confineth the sense of the Scriptures to intend is the onely mark of the Church that can be visible For I suppose preaching twice a Sunday is not if a man be left free to preach what he will onely professing to beleeve the Bible which what Heresy disowneth and to make what he thinks good of it And yet how is the generality of people provided for otherwise unlesse it be because they have preachers that are counted godly men by those whom what warrants to be godly men themselves In the mean time is it not evident that Preachers and people are overspread with a damnable heresy of Antinomians and Enthusiasts formerly when Puritanes were not divided from the Church of England called Etonists and Grindeltons according to severall Countries These believe so to be saved by the free Grace of God by which our Lord died for the Elect that by the revelation thereof which is justifying Faith all their sinnes past present and to come are remitted So that to repent of sinne or to contend against it is the renouncing of Gods free Grace and saving Faith How much might be alledged to show how all is now overspread with it The Book called Animadversions upon a Petition out of Wales shall serve to speak the sense of them who call themselves the godly party as speaking to them in Body Thus it speaks pag. 36. Look through your vail of duties profession and ordinances and try your heart with what spirit of love obedience and truth you are in your work And whether will you stand to this judgement Or rather that God should judge you according to grace to the name and nature of Christ written upon you and in you Sure the great Judge will thus judge us at last by his great judgement or last judgement Not by the outward conversation nor inward intention but finally by his eternall Election according to the Book of Life This just afore he calleth the seed of Christ and his righteousnesse in a Christian And pag. 38. When we are inraged we let fly at mens principles being not satisfied to rebuke mens actions opinions and workes but would be avenged of their Principles too As if we would kill them at the very hart pull them up by the Rootes and leave them in an uncurable condition rotten in their Principles But Principles ly deeper then the heart and are indeed Christ who is the Principle and beginning of all things who though heart fail and flesh faile yet he abides the root of all Shall he pretend to be a Christian that professes this Shall any pretend to be a Church that spue it not out Let heaven and earth judge whether poor soules are otherwise to be secured of the Word then by two sermons a Sunday when the sense of the Godly is claimed to consist in a position so peremptorily destructive to salvation as this It will be said perhaps that now the Ministers of the Congregations have subscribed the confession of the Assembly But alas the covering is too short When a Bishop in the Catholick Church subscribed a Councile there was just presumption that no man under his authority could be seduced from the Faith subscribed Because no man communicated with the Catholick Church but by communicating with him that had subscribed it Who shall warrant that the godly who have this sense not liable to any authority in the Church shall stand to the subscriptions of those Ministers or to the authority of the Assembly pretended by the Presbyteries If they would declare themselves tied so to do who shall warrant that there is not a salvo for it in the Confession which they subscribe If there were not why should any difficulty be made to spue out that position which is the seed of it That justifying Faith consisteth in believing that a man is of the number of the Elect for whom Christ died excluding others Why that which is the fruit of it That they who transgresse the Covenant of Baptisme come not under the state of sin and damnation come not from under the state of Grace Why but because a back-door must be left for them that draw the true conclusion from their own premises reserving themselves the liberty to deny the conclusion admitting the premises It is not then a confession of faith that will make the Word that is preached a mark of the Church without some mark visible to common sense warranting that confession of Faith As for the Sacraments no Church no Sacraments If they suppose that ground upon which that intent to which the whole Church hath used them there is no further cause of division in the Church for that secures the rule of Faith If not they are no Sacraments but by equivocation of words they are sacriledges in profaning Gods Ordinances The Sacrament of Baptisme because the necessary meanes of salvation is admitted for good when ministred by those who are not of the Church but alwaies void of the effect of grace To which it reviveth so soone as the true Faith is professed in the unity of the Church If a Sacrament be a visible signe of invisible grace that baptisme is no baptisme which signifieth the grace it should effect but indeed effecteth not Such is that Baptisme which is used to seale a Covenant of Grace without the condition of Christianity a Covenant that is not the Covenant of two parties but the promise of one Whence comes the humor of rebaptizing but to be discharged of that Christianity which the baptisme of the Church of England exacteth Why do they refuse Baptisme in New England to all that refuse to enter into the Covenant of Congregations How comes it more necessary to salvation to be of a Congregation then to be Baptized and made a Christian Is it not because it is thought that salvation is to be had without that profession of Christianity which the Sacrament of Baptisme sealeth That it is not to be had without renouncing it Upon these termes those that are denied Baptisme by the Congregations because they are not of the Congregations are denied salvation as much as in them lies but not indeed and in truth For the necessity of baptisme supposing a profession of the Catholicke Church they perish not by refusing it who will not have it by renouncing the Catholicke Church that is by covenanting themselves into Congregations They that are so affected must know that they have authority of themselves to baptize to effect which no Congregation in New England is able to do If the Sacrament of the Eucharist seale that Covenant of Grace which conditioneth not for Christianity it is no sacrament but by equivocation of words Where that conditionall is doubtfull or voide there is no security
do not deny that a Christian may attaine to a kind of morall assurance concerning the sincerity of another Christian That he is in the state of Grace and indowed with Gods Spirit Not by any imediate dictate of the holy Ghost to his own heart which is not promised to that purpose Not by any vehemence or suddennesse in the change which made him so inabling him to designe the time and place and meanes by which it came to passe that it may appear the work of Gods Spirit preventing and swallowing up all concurrence of his own free choice For this the change of the end and designe of a mans whole life and the course of it admits not But by force of those arguments and effects of it visible in his conversation which the prudence of a sincere Christian can impute to nothing else But I deny therefore that every true Christian can by the ordinary meanes which God allowes be so assured of the sincerity of other true Christians as thereby to be priviledged to forsake the Church of God in which they live as consisting of others as well as of such to retire themselves into Congregations in which they may serve God in that order which the sincerity of their Christianity assureth them to containe the purity of Gods ordinances For it is manifest that the gift of Gods Spirit requisite to the salvation of all Christians is not promised to this effect as to give them that discretion which inables to value the consequence of such appearances And if it were and if all true Christians could attaine assurance of all Christians of whom the question may be made whether true Christians or not yet hath not God provided that the truest and sincerest Christians retire themselves from communion with those of whom there is no reasonable presumption that they are such but are onely qualified members of the Church by such Lawes as may comprise all the world professing Christianity in the communion of the Church For whatsoever our Lord hath foretold of the Church in the Gospel as of a net that catcheth both good and bad fish as of a floore containing chaffe as well as graine as of a flock containtaining goates as well as sheep as the Arke contained as well unclean beasts as clean necessarily falls upon the visible Church and hath been so accepted by the Church in the case of the Donatists to assure us that the good are not defiled by communion with the bad but obliged to live in it for the exercise of their charity and patience in seeking their amendment For separation upon pretense of satisfaction in the Christianity of some to them who professe not to have it of others as it carrieth in it a necessary appearance of spirituall pride in overseeing all those that concurre not in it So it sets up a banner to the imposture of hypocrites and turns the pretense of sincere Christianity to the justifying of whatsoever it is that a faction so constituted shall take for it Not measuring mens persons by the common Christianity but the common Christianity by that which appeares in the persons of those who without due grounds are supposed true Christians exclusively to others The ground of Congregations being thus voide the constitution of them must needs involve the sacriledge of Schisme in the work and therefore a nullity in the effects of it The Baptisme which they give void of the effect of Grace The Eucharist though consecrated in the forme of the Church which it is not to be doubted that the Novatians Meletians and Donatists held because they are not blamed in it Nor do I doubt that Tertullians Montanists did the like whatsoever abuse might come in among them afterwards by being separated from the Church void of the thing signified by it The prayers of the Church void of that effect which the promise of hearing the prayers thereof importeth whatsoever Offices the Church exerciseth and solemnizeth therewith How much more the constitution of Presbyteries which pretending no such thing as separating the clean from the unclean admits to the communion upon no further pretense of Reformation then answering the Assemblies Catechisme at the demand of Triers constituted by those who contrary to that solemn promise upon supposition whereof they were advanced to Orders in the Church of England usurpe the Power not of their Bishops but of the whole Church in prescribing an order of Ecclesiasticall communion in all Offices of the Church without warrant from it Ordaining those who undertake to warrant the salvation of poor souls as sufficiently provided for thereby by becomming their Ministers to be their Ministers For what pretense can colour this usurpation can obscure the Sacriledge of Schisme in the act the nullity of Gods promises in the effect of it when the difference consists in renoâ—ncing that authority which themselves deny not to have been in possession according to Gods Law pretending further so strongly as they know by virtue of it In disclaiming single heads of Churches and the Clergy that think themselves bound to doe nothing without them though limited both by the Law of the Church and the Law of the Land And in setting up themselves in their stead to manage that authority without the exercise whereof themselves beleeve Christianity cannot subsist by Presbyteries and Synods As if the tyranny of an Oligarchy were not more insufferable then the tyranny of a Monarch Or as if there were not presumption of tyrannizing in those who find themselves free from the bond of these Lawes which fall to the ground with the authority that used them to use the authority they usurpe at their owne discretion which is necessarily the law of all Government that is not limited by lawes which it acknowledgeth For if they alledge that they provide us a confession of Faith which is a strange allegation not alledging either what we wanted before or what we get by it I shall quickly bring them to the triall by demanding of them to spue out that damnable Heresy of Antinomians and Enthusiasts in turning the Covenant of Baptisme into an absolute promise of life everlasting to them for whome Christ died without conditioning that they beleeve and live like Christians Which they can never doe without contradicting themselves untill they make that Faith which onely justifieth to consist in that loyalty wherewith a man undertakes his Baptisme out of a choice the freedome whereof excludes all predetermination of the will though by that Grace which effectually brings it to passe For this condition making all assurance of salvation the fruit of justifying faith not the act of it as if one could be assured of it by beleeving that he is sure of it obligeth a man to his Christianity for that very reason which first moves all men to be Christians to obtaine the promise which depends upon the performing of it The substance therefore of Christianity consisting in it that baptisme which inacteth it not that Eucharist which
impose upon all their Divines a necessity to maintain that there is no trope in the words This is my cup of the New Testament which so many of their Predecessors had granted because it could not be denied Which being granted must needs take place in This is my body by necessary consequence And surely the common principles of Grammar and Rhetorick will inforce it when they inform us that tropes are used as cloaths are either for necessity because there are more things much more conceptions than words to signifie them For thereupon necessity constrains to turn a word to signifie that which it was not at first intended to signifie and that is a trope Or for ornament to expresse a mans mind with more elegance Compare then our ordinary way of expressing the conceptions of the mind by words which is common to all Languages which our ordinary way of expressing the objects thereof to our minds by the said conceptions If a word be diverted to signifie that conception which it was not first imposed to signifie because there was no other at hand imposed to signifie the present conceit Logick and Grammar will make this a Trope though Rhetorick do not because it was not used for ornament but for the necessary clothing of a mans mind in terms intelligible The trial whereof is if the subject you speak of cannot truly be said to be the thing which is attributed to it As the bread and wine which our Lord blessed cannot be said to be his body and bloud For if the subject mater signified by the Scripture elsewhere require that the body and bloud of Christ be thought present then is the property of the terms to be abated so as they may serve to signifie that presence Voiding all dispute concerning the signification of words which those that hold Transubstantiation could never nor never will agree upon among themselves because it stands upon terms of art the use whereof no mans conceit can over-rule that which the necessity of our common Faith requireth being once secured as here For the reason being rendred why the Eucharist was instituted and why it is to be frequented notwithstanding that the Body and Bloud of Christ may always be eaten and drunk by a living Faith to wit because the reviving of our Christianity by receiving the Sacrament reviveth the promise of Christs body and bloud being the means to convay his Spirit it will not concern the purpose thereof that it should be present by Transubstantiation abolishing the nature of the Elements For though it hath been boldly said by those who dispute controversies That the body of Christ is really and substantially resident in and united to our bodies That Grace and Charity cooled by sinne are inflamed in the Soul by the body of Christ immediately touching our bodies That the seed of our resurrection is thereby sowed in our mortal bodies First none of this is true unlesse you understand it with the same abatement That the body of Christ received in the Sacrament by the body of him whose Soul hath living Faith in Christ is the seed of the life of grace and glory both to his soul and body Because otherwise a dead faith should receive the same Secondly none of this would hold if Transubstantiation be true because rendring the body of Christ invisibly present no mans body whatsoever can immediately touch it And therefore it is no marvel that so many excellent School Doctors have acknowledged that setting the sense of the Church aside of which I will say what shall be requisite by and by Transubstantiation cannot be concluded from the Scriptures Whose judgements I carry along with mee for the complement of that prejudice which I advance toward the right understanding of the sense of the Church To wit that whatsoever the present Church may have determined the Catholick Church did never understand that which the Scripture necessarily signifieth not Now let us see what our Lord sayes to his Disciples being scandalized at those things which I showed you that hee taught them in the Synagogue at Capernaum of attaining everlasting life by eating his flesh John VI. 58-63 Is this it which scandalizeth you saith hee What then if you see the Son of man ascend where hee was afore It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak to you are Spirit and Life The spiritual sense in which hee commandeth them to eat and drink his flesh and bloud is grounded upon that difference between the promises of the Law and the Gospel which I settled in the beginning For by virtue thereof that Manna which maintained them in the Desert till they died is the figure of his body and bloud that maintains us not to dye Whereupon S. Paul saith 1 Cor. III. 6. The Spirit quickeneth but the Leter killeth Not onely because the Law covenants nor for the world to come But also because it was no further the means to procure that righteousnesse which giveth life then the Spirit of Christ was intimated and furnished under the dispensation of it Whereupon S. Paul argues that the Jews have as much need of Christ as the Gentiles because the Law is not able to bring corrupt nature to righteousnesse Wherefore the reason why they were scandalized at this doctrine of our Lords was not meerly because it was difficult to understand hee having so plentifully expressed his meaning and inculcated it by often beating the same discourse there and otherwise made the condition of his Gospel intelligible to his Disciples but because it was hard to undergo importing the taking up of his Crosse as I have said For it is evident by common experience in the world how men find or how they plead their minds to be obstructed in the understanding of those spiritual maters which if they should grant their understandings to be convinced of there were no plea left them why they should not conform their lives and conversations to that light which themselves confesse they have received So that the scandal was the same that the rich man in the Gospel took when hee was told that besides keeping Gods Commandments one thing was wanting to part with all hee had and take up Christs Crosse to wit for the observing of his Commandments And this scandal hee intends to take away when hee referres them to his ascension into Heaven because then and from thence they were to expect the Holy Ghost to inable them to do that which the eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud signifieth spiritually And his words hee therefore calleth Spirit and Life because they are the means to bring unto the communion of his Spirit wherein spiritual and everlasting life consisteth So that the flesh of Christ being exalted to the right hand of God and his Spirit which first made it self an habitation in his flesh being sent down to make him an habitation in the hearts of his people those who upon faithful consideration of
his Crosse faithfully resolve to undertake it do by the Spirit eat his flesh and drink his bloud Therefore when in correspondence hereunto hee pretends to institute the Sacrament of the Eucharist that they who eat his flesh and drink his bloud in that Sacrament may eat and drink the same spiritually as unlesse they crucifie him again they cannot chuse but do it behoves indeed that hee procure the flesh and bloud of Christ to be there by the operation of that Spirit which framed them for an habitation to it self in the womb of the Virgin that so the receiving of his flesh and bloud may be the means of conveying his Spirit But how is it requisite that they be there in bodily substance as if the mystical presence of them were not a sufficient means to convey his Spirit which we see is conveyed by the meer spiritual consideration and resolution of a lively and effectual faith S. Paul writes thus to the Corinthians I would not that you should be ignorant Brethren how that all our Fathers did eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink For they drank of the spiritual rock that went with them Now that rock was Christ 1 Cor. X. 1 3 4. The meat and drink of the Fathers in the wilderness can no otherwise be understood to be spiritual then as I have proved the Law of Moses to be spiritual That is as intimating spiritual promises it intimates a contract for spiritual obedience So S. Pauls argument holds If they who were sustained by God in their travel to the Land of Promise not keeping their Covenant with God fell in the wildernesse Then shall it not serve our turn that being baptized wee are fed by the Eucharist to everlasting life if wee perform not that which by our Baptism wee undertake The Rock then and the Mâ—nnâ— were spiritual meat and drink because they signified the flesh and the bloud of Christ crucified for us Which who so believes as thereupon to undertake Christianity our Lord when hee had not yet instituted the Eucharist promiseth that hee shall be nourished by his flesh and bloud to life everlasting The effect of which promise all Christians find that by the assistance of his Spirit overcome the world in approving themselves Christians When our Lord annexed the promise of his Spirit to his Baptisme and Eucharist by instituting those Sacraments hee tied the spiritual eating and drinking of his body and bloud to the Sacramental in respect of all them whom the affirmative Precepts of using those Sacraments should oblige Christ then was the food and the drink of them who attained Salvation under Moses Law because by the faith of Christ to be crucified they were saved as wee by the faith of Christ crucified But to follow God in hope of Salvation by Christ to come is not the same as to undertake that Christianity which by his coming hee hath taught us The signs of good things to coâ—â—â—ed onely those that were led by the promise of them The rest found by them onely the nourishment of their bodies in their travel to the Land of promise But when our Lord having promised his flesh and bloud for food to those Souls that should conform themselves to his Crosse instituteth the Eucharist and confineth the spiritual eating and drinking of his flesh and bloud to it so far as the precept thereof obligeth Shall hee not be understood to promise his body and bloud by that Sacrament without which hee will not grant it to those that are tied to the Sacrament and neglect it The presence of his body and bloud in the Sacrament is that which makes good the promise of his body and bloud made before the instituting of the Sacrament to them who are obliged to use the Sacrament by the institution of it CHAP. III. That the presence of Christs body in the Eucharist depends not upon the living Faith of him that receives but upon the true profession of Christianity in the Church that celebrates The Scriptures that are alleged for the dependence of it upon the communication of the properties They conclude not the sense of them by whom they are alleged How the Scripture confineth the flesh of Christ to the Heavens IF these things be true it will be requisite that wee acknowledge a change to be wrought in the Elements by the consecration of them into the Sacrament For how should they come to be that which they were not before to wit the body and bloud of Christ without any change And in regard of this change the Elements are no more called by the name of their nature and kind after the consecration but by the name of that which they are become Not as if the substance thereof were abolished but because it remains no more considerable to Christians who do not nor are to look upon this Sacrament with any account of what it may be to the nourishment of their bodies by the nature of the Elements but what it may be to the nourishment of their Souls by the Spirit of God assisting in and with his flesh mystically present in it But this change consisting in the assistance of the Holy Ghost which makes the Elements in which it dwells the body and bloud of Christ it is not necessary that wee acknowledge the bodily substance of them to be any way abolished Nay as I am perswaded that the presence of Christ in the Eucharist cannot be better expressed than by that term which the Council of Trent useth calling it a Sacrament and saying that the flesh and bloud of Christ is Sacramentally there So there is nothing more demonstrative to mee that no such thing as the abolishing of the Elements is revealed by the Scriptures than that the sense of them is so fully satisfied by this term So that the anathema which it decreeth against them that do not believe them to be abolished can by no means be grounded upon the Scriptures Nor do I think the term any lesse fit or serviceable because it serves them to signifie the Local presence of Christs body and bloud under the dimensions of the Elements the substance of them being gone For I shall not be obliged to grant that the Sacrament of Christs body and blood can properly be understood supposing the sign and the thing signified to be both the same subject the dimensions of the Elements being become the dimensions of Christs body and bloud and by the means of them all the bodily accidents of the Elements subsisting in the same And therefore the Sacramental presence of Christs body and bloud cannot properly be maintained unlesse acknowledging the true being and presence of the thing signified wee acknowledge also the sign to remain But if a man demand further how I understand the body and bloud of Christ to be present in or with or under the Elements when I say they are in and with and under them as in and with and under a