Spirit of his mouth And in Hag. 2.5.6 From the beginning I was and now I am with you saith the 1. Lord of hostes the 2. word which covenanted with you when you came out of Aegypt my 3. Spirit shall dwell among you And if you desire moe proofes out of the old Testament you may reade Ficinus de Christ Relig. Cap. 31. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iehovah that great and fearefull name of God Deut. 28.58 one name of his owne being containes the mysterie of the Trinity For in the forming of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hawah or hayah whence the name is derived Ie is the signe of that which is to come as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yeheweh He shall be or He will be Ho of that which is as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being or He that is and wah of that which hath bin as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee hath beene and thus is the word opened Rev. 1.8 He which was in eternitie the fountaine and eternall Father of Him which shall be in eternity by the common band of all continuance that which is in eternity And this is Hee that was and is and is to come And in the new Testament besides the places cited before in the beginning of the chapter in Math. 3.16.17 and Luc. 3.21.22 you may heare the witnesse of the Father concerning the Sonne and see the Holy Ghost comming downe on Him in the likenesse of a dove And againe Ioh. 14. vers 16.17.1 I will pray the 2. Father and he will send you another Comforter even the 3. Spirit of truth And 2 Cor. 13.13 The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the Love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holie Ghost bee with you all with many other texts not needfull here to bee cited because that when we come to speake of the other Persons of the Trinitie in the Articles following some of them must bee remembred And if the adversaries testimonie be ought worth you may take hereto the Aegyptian oracle of Serapis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First God and then the Word and Holy Ghost with them Of essence one in one accord And from hence it seemes had Merc. Trism that which hee teaches in Pormand of that Light which is God the Father the word which is the Sonne and that life which is the union of them both See the other arguments inductive in the Notes a andb. Notes a BY reason we are summon'd to hearken to this truth Pref. Tho. Aqu. in his questions on the master of the sentences lib. 1. Dist 2. q. 3. brings a couple of reasons to prove a plurality of Persons in the unity of the Godhead which in effect are these 1. with the greatest happinesse there must bee the greatest pleasure and content But in the Possession of that which is good there cannot be pleasure and content without company seeing the perfection of every good thing stands in the community of the use thereof But company is not without plurality The second reason is from the perfection of the divine love and all love ever wishes well to another But these reasons prove no more a Trinity than a society of Ten and fit better for an ordinary than the high mystery in question And therefore having look't well upon his reasons and seeing that they were very poore inductions he resolves it is no way necessary to put a distinction of Persons in the Deity for the force of reasons but onely for the justifying of our Faith and for the authority of the Holy Scriptures And in the third Dist qu. 4. whether it were possible for the old Philosophers which knew not the Scripture by the knowledge of the creature onely to come to the knowledge of the Trinity hee saith that by the view of the creature they might come to the knowledge of the divine power wisdome and goodnesse as the cause is manifest by the effect and conclude that there is one God even as Saint Paul proves Rom. 1. and againe Rom. 10.18 out of the 19. Psalme But that they could not thereby attaine the knowledge of the Trinity because the Creature was an insufficient meanes to bring them to the knowledge of that high mysterie So in the 4 booke of his Summe Contr. Gentiles Cap. 1. hee determines even so concerning the incarnation and the consequents thereof So likewise concerning the resurrection everlasting life and all our hopes that depend thereon Againe in his Summe of Theologie chap. 33. hee concludes that by naturall reason it is impossible to know God in the distinction of Persons and that for these reasons 1. First it takes away from the worthinesse of our Faith 2. Faith is of things not appearing and such as exceed reason as it is said Heb. 11.1 Thirdly Infidels laugh at that which is not fully proved and therefore saith hee it shall bee sufficient to defend that our faith holds nothing that is impossible But Doctor reason must yeeld that to bee impossible which it cannot make to appeare that it is possible And therefore that our faith bee not set at nought by misbeleevers as being of things impossible you tye us for defence thereof to further proofe which if it be full and sufficient your third reason is nothing worth The first reason is lesse worth in it selfe For that is the glory of a Christian faith and the triumph of it over all false worships that is so surely founded in the truth of God that the Gates of hell cannot prevaile against it Therefore to speake cleerely to this question I say the word naturall reason may either meane that reason whereof a man is capable by that light of understanding which is naturally through the gift of Christ in every man Ioh. 1.4.9 the holy Scripture hath opened this light most clearely and therefore is it called the light of Grace or else it may meane such reasons as are gathered from the causes effects and rules which are manifest onely in naturall things Now although the articles of our creede by way of Induction onely may be manifest by naturall reason thus understood as S. Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 11. cap. 26. in this very question hath made it appeare yet by that first light of understanding which wee call naturall reason because it is in every man according to the possibility of nature they may bee understood and approved by other rules than such as have their grounds in naturall things For God is not the God of nature onely but much more the God of grace and mercy and to the knowledge of these principles and the conclusions gathered thereon wee are led by better guides than Aristotle ever knew that is the holy Scripture and the Spirit of Grace who leades us to the right meaning thereof Yet how farre even Naturall light hath gone in the discovery of the great Mysteries of Divinity even of the Trinity it selfe you may judge by this
Col. 1.19 whether he be not also that first created being in and by whom all other things were created and are governed and preserved This Postellus in his booke De nativitate Mediatoris doth firmly hold And although it be plaine by Athanasius Epist 1. contra Arianos that Arius held one Word in the Father as we speak of the Trinity and another Word created which he held to be Christ and in his Thaleia mentioned Epist 2. contra Arianos affirmes to the same purpose a Wisdome increated and a Wisedome created and although Arius affirmed as Postellus That Christ was a creature but not as one of the creatures made but not as one of other things that were made c. and therefore concluded that he held the same faith with the Church and detracted nothing from the glory of Christ when hee called him the first and chiefe creature Epiph. haeres 69. yet Postellus whether he were indeed ignorant of it or whether he dissembled his knowledge makes no mention thereof lest the name Arius might discredit the position although the difference betweene Arius and Postellus be as much as from the East to the West For though Arius held the increased Wisdome or Word to be in the Trinity yet he could not yeeld to this that that Wisdome tooke flesh and became that Saviour to whom we confesse And this was the businesse betweene him and the right meaning Fathers But Postellus held that the created Wisdome that first borne of every creature which in the fulnesse of time tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary and in that flesh made satisfaction for the sinnes of the world waâ— hee in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead did dwell Now by the rule of our faith both the extremities are yeelded unto that Christ is God blessed above all and that he is man as hath beene proved But this is now to be examined whether it be necessary to the beeing of our Mediatour that hee be that first creature of God created before all times and ages of the world by whom all other things were afterwards made in thâ—iâ— due times and are governed as Postellus affirmed The Authorities which Postellus brings are either forraine or else out of the holy Scripture you shall first see them of the first kind with their exceptions then his reasons with their answers and lastly those enforcements which are by him and may beside bee brought from the Word of truth 1. First he saith he is urged to the declaration of this truth by the Spirit of Christ pag. 1 3 7 c. but I say these enthusiasmes and revelations are a common claime not onely to them that speake the truth from God as the holy Prophets say Thus saith the Lord but also to them that vent their owne fantasies and heresies in stead of the truth The second auâ—hority is that of the Abisine Church which commonly they call of Presbyter Iohn out of whose Creed he cites for his purpose thus much Pag. 24. 25. We beleeve in the name of the holy Trinity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost who is one Lord three names one Deity three Faces one Similitude the conjunction of the three persons is equall in their God head one Kingdome one Throne one Iudge one Love one Word one Spirit But there is a Word of the Father a Word of the Sonne and a Word of the Holy Ghost and the Son is the same Word And the Word was with God and with the Holy Ghost and with himselfe without any defect or division the Sonne of the Father the Sonne of himselfe and the beginning of himselfe Where in the first Article you see that Church acknowledges the Trinitie of Persons in the unitie of the Deity according to that faith which wee beleeve The second Article But there is a Word of the Father c. is altogether a declaration of this created Word or Sonne of God by whom all the holy Scriptures were given and inspired as Postel speakes But concerning that Church though Postel to make the authority thereof without exception say it was never troubled with any heresie yet it is not unlikely to have nursed that arch-heretick Arius whom all writers account to be a Lybian Besides it is manifest that they are all Monothelites and so farre forth Iacobites or Eutychians that they condemne the fourth generall Councell of Chalcedon for determining two natures to be in Christ Moreover what their learning is like to be you may judge by this that their inferiour Church Ministers and Monkes must live by their labor having no other maintenance not being suffered to crave almes see Mt Brerewoods Enquiry Chap. 23. 21. a state of the Ministery whereto our sacrilegious patrons and detainers of those livings rightly called Impropriations because they belong most improperly to them that unjustly withhold them from the Church would bring our Church unto But see whereto this want of maintenance hath brought that Church which in the time of the Nicene Councell was of so great regard that their Patriarch had the seventh place in all generall Councels yet now as I have read have they of late yeares beene compelled to send to Rome to beg a religion and teachers from them And this is the Authority of that Church But you will say their Creed is ancient and of authority I say though it be as ancient as Arius yet what wit or judgement was in thâ—s to put such a point into their Creed which they themselves by Postels owne confession doe not understand If it were necessary to beleeve it other Churches would not have omitted it if not necessary why was it brought into their Creed But the ancient Paraphrasts Anchelus and Ionathan are without exception and where the Text is And the Lord spake unto Moses they explaine it thus And the Lord spake unto Moses by his word which all the old Interpreters and especially Rambam understand to be spoken of the created Word of God that Word of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost or the Divinitie which is appliable to the created beeings Pag. 24. The Cabalists also concurie with this interpretation and therefore call him the inferiour VVisdome the Throne of Glory the house of the Sanctuary the heaven of heavens united to eternity the superiour habitation in which God dwels for ever as his body is the inferiour habitation after he was incarnate the great Steward of the house of God who according to the eternall decree brings forth every thing in dâ—e time And these as I remember are all â—he authorities which Postellus cites exâ—ept you will add this that whereas he writes to the Councell of Trent they of the Councell being called for other purposes did not at all passe any censure of the booke or this position which is the maine point therein You may add to these authorities many other and fiâ—st out of Iesus the Sonne of Sirach Chap. 1. vers 4 5. Wisdome hath beene
himselfe to the Angels in that might they behold the invisible God and be abundantly blessed thereby but since the time that the faithfull have beheld him with that Crowne wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals the day of the joy and gladnesse of his heart Cant. 3.11 He is to be seene both of Angels and men eternally and onely in the Tabernacle of our flesh and the glory of God is manifest onely in the face of Iesus Christ And as this I thinke is a full answer to the argument of Postellus so had you need to remember it because it may helpe to the understanding of some places of Scripture which may seeme to make for this conclusion 6. But if such a created Mediatour be as had power to execute the eternall decree and to create the rest of the creature the Angels and man and all this visible world from him it may stand well with the justice and honour of God and the love of that Mediatour toward man to offer himselfe for man when hee had sinned whereas otherwise if no such created Mediatour bee then God the party offended must first seeke the attonement and seeing man was not able must likewise make satisfaction to himselfe for the sinne of another against himselfe But this stands neither with the honour of God nor the rule of Iustice Answ Intire aff ction hates all â—icity And so God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that the world through him might be saved And if the onely begotten Sonne be onely that second person of the Trinity what Son is that created Mediatour And so farre is it from dishonour to God to seeke and save that which was lost as that without his mercy and pitie on man in his misery the worke of God in the creature had beene in vaine But concerning that satisfaction which was made for sinne although it had appeared that it was utterly impossible to bee made by one that was onely man Chap. 19. yet was the satisfaction made onely in the manhood of our Saviour dignified and sustained by his divinity unto the endurance of all that punishment which was due to our sinne as it is manifest by the Prophet Esay chap. 53. Col. 1.22 1 Pet. 2.24 and yet for all that is our Saviour the Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world Re. 13.8 yet is the blood of his sacrifice upon the Crosse called the blood of the everlasting Testament Heb. 13.20 because that by the eternall spirit he offered himselfe for us unto God Heb. 9.14 That he in his manhood might present his Church unto himselfe God blessed for ever holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 So that the redemption of man is the worke of the whole Trinitie the Sonne by the holy Spirit offering himselfe unto the Father accepting this obedience a ransome for the world And because the Sonne offered himselfe by the eternall Spirit therefore is not our Saviour a created Mediatour as Postellus supposed for no creature can be eternall And malgre all the power of hell it was an eternall Gospell Revel 14.6 Written in the Volume of the Booke of the eternall Decree Psal 40.7 Heb. 10.7 to the everlasting comfort of the faithfull That the sacrifice for sinne was appointed before there was a sinner 7. Now before I come to those Texts of Scripture which Postel urges directly hereto it will not bee unfit to let you see how he favours his owne opinion by those Scriptures which he interprets unfaithfully as where it is said Deut. 32.39 There is no God with me as Esay interprets it I am God and there is none else he makes the sense pag. 104. he is the created wisdome before which there was no other God created for he is worthily called God saith he for his union with the Deitie And againe pag. 115. for that which is Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting he will have it that this divine wisdome was created not from everlasting for then it could not be a creature but before any ages were numbred by men So to that of Saint Iohn Cap. 1. The Word was with God he addes as it followes in the Abisime Creed and with the Holy Ghost and with himself argues that whosoever is with another must be different therfrom for the most part inferiour indignity I have answered concerning the authority of that Church the collection of inferiority in dignity followes not neither doth this text prove the unity of any such creature with the Creator as hee inferres but rather the difference of persons in the unity of the God head for so it followes in the Text And that Word was God I say nothing of other Texts which by allegoricall and forraine interpretations he would bring to his purpose such as that pag. 93. where by the firmament Gen. 1.6 he will understand this Mediator who parted the hidden waters of the Deitie from the manifest waters of the creature whereby it would follow that the Chaos or waters the light and darknesse were created before this Mediator see Gen. 1.13 His argument from that Spirit which moved upon the waters Gen. 1. brought pag. 29. is answered before Reason 3. I impute it no fault to him that he pag. 62. confounds those Texts of Iohn 12.28 and chap. 17.5 Charity sees no mistakings where they make not against the truth But his collection is ill from that text Glorifie me with that glory which I had with thee before the world was to conclude either that the creatures were distinct in him whom he cals God man meaning the created Mediaâ—our or for any other to suppose that the glory of God the Sonne was any whit lessened by the taking of our flesh onely it was shadowed for a time under the Cloud of his humanity except that at some times a glimpse therof appeared in his glorious miracles For first if that eminent being of the creatures in the distinction of their severall beings were not in God the Sonne that second Person of the Trinity but in this created Mediator it would follow that the wisdome of God were not infinite nor yet essentiall unto him when the knowledge of the creature in that manner of being must come unto him by a creature contrary to that which hath been proved Chap. 5. 8. And therefore to avoid this inconvenience hee is compelled to say pag. 74. that that second being of all things taking the equivalent being which they have in the Father for the first is not onely in the eternall wisedome but also in the wisdome created Whence it followes that the Creature by the same manner of being shall bee both in the Creator and in the created Mediator But the reason for otherwise the Angels could no see God The position is false the reason insufficient and answered before then to thinke that the Sonne had lost or abated any thing of his infinite glory because he prayes that he may be glorified
as before the world was stands neither with the truth For so neither had the glory beene infinite if once ended nor he coessentiall with the Father neither yet accords it with the circumstance of the Text. Therefore understand it according to the truth That Christ the Sonne of God in his manly being having glorified the Father on earth and finished that worke which he had given him to doe Verse 4. prayeth vers 5. that the infinite glory which was darkned under the forme of a servant Phil. 2.27 might be manifest in the manhood that hee in that manly being might be glorified with the glorie which is infinitely sufficient to glorifie him the head and all the members of his mysticall body as it is manifest in that 17. chap. of Iohn vers 22 23 24. 8. Mal. 3.1 Christ is called the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant therefore he is a creature so united to the Divinity that God cannot worke without him for that reason which is the first before The reason is not of force to the authority I answer The first covenant or promise which God made to mankinde was that in Paradise Gen. 3. The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent This seed of the woman is Christ our Lord which according to the Prophet should come in that Temple which was built by the Iewes after their returne from Babylon So the Sonne of God in our flesh is that Angel of the Covenant of our deliverance from the power of the Devill which came according to the time appointed So he hath the name of an Angel from his office not from his nature 9. The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Luk. 1 35. This holy Ghost is that created Spirit of the Trinity locally moving from place to place which actually performed all those things which hitherto have beene ignorantly attributed to the third Person of the Trinity who being infiâ—ite and filling all places cannot be moved from place to place no more than the Father or the Sonne But this created Spirit might take on him the shape of a Dove Luke 3.22 of a Voice Luke 9.35 and may also change places as he saith Iohn 3.13 No man ascended up into heaven but the Sonne of man which is in heaven pag 75. 75 113. 116 c. Answ I have given the meaning of that text Iohn 3 13. before in the 23. chapter And as the iâ—fiâ—ite wisdome of God foresaw what diversitie of opinions would come into mens minds for hee understands their thoughts long before Psal 1â—9 2 so hath hee left us the rule of his holy word whereby to guide us in the truth Now the writings of Saint Iohn do so cleare this question as if they had beene written in opposition to these opinions of Arius Postellus and those that are like minded I cite some few texts out of his first Epistle chap. 4 v. 10 God hath loved us and sent his Sonne to bee a reconciliation But the question is whether a created Sonne or no Saint Iohn tels us no not a created Sonne but his onely begotten Sonne hath hee sent into the world that wee might be saved by him vers 9. That Sonne or Word who is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost chap. 5. vers 7. That Sonne to whom the Father Himselfe bare witnesse verse 9.10 11. See 2 Peter 1.16 17. That Son who is very God and eternall life vers 20. what can bee more plaine or particularly described or more fully proved If Hee bee begotten then coessentiall with the Father Ergo not created If begotten then eternall for the actions of God in Himselfe are infinite and eternall See chapter 10 Ergo not created If one with the Father then also infinite Ergo not creaâ—ed If vâ—ry God Ergo not a Creature But this spirit of the Trinity which tooke flesh of the Virgin and so became our Mediatour moved from place to place which no Person of the Trinitie could doe because they are iâ—finite and fill all places Had this eye of the Sorbon L. Dan in Haer. Aug. cap. 85. which knew so well that God is in all places repletivè as they speake never read that Moses saith Deut. 33.26 That God rides on the Heavens for the helpe of Israel and on the Clouds in his glory And although David knew that God did continually beset him round about and that there was no place either in Heaven or in hell in the earth or Sea where he was not Psal 139. from v. 5. to 11. yet as a stag embossed takes the soyle so did his heart in his flight from Saul thirst for God saying when shall I come and appeare before God Psal 42.2 Therefore although God fill heaven and earth yet is he said to be in any place more particularly where he gives more evident proofe of his presence as at Bethel Gen. 28.16 in the Tabernacle by the Oracle and those manifest signes which I remembred above note d. Thus God descended on Mount Sinai when the Mountaine did smoke and tremble and thus the holy Ghost is said to have come upon the Virgin Mary when by that wonderful work of his in her body that seed of mankind was taken of her that it might become a tabernacle for the King of glory to dwel in eternally Thus also our Lord saith of himself Ioh. 6.38 I came downe from Heaven not to do mine own wil but c. not but that he was stil in heaven c. 3.13 but because his presence in earth was now manifest in the flesh as it had not bin before 10. And these reasons are if not all yet the most I am sure the best which Postellus brings for his position It may seeme fit moreover in this place to give answer to those texts which beside these already cited may be brâ—ught for this opinion And first to that which is Gen. 3.2 c. Yâ—a hath God said yee shall not eat of every tree of the Garden c. yee shall not dye the death But God doth know that In the day ye eate thereof your Eyes shall be opened The word Elohim God here used is of the plurall number but God is one And beside it may bee thought that the d vill durst not have spoken thus of Christ his creator if Hâ—e had beene God â—less d above all Answ The reason why Christ is every where in the Scripture called Elohim â—s because that being eternally the Sonne of God He also received of the Father power over all things and was appointed to bee that man by whâ—m the world should be redeemed and judged So the word Elohim though sometimes given to Angels sometime to men yet it abates nothing of the excellency of his being To the reason I answer that the devill never perswades a man to sinne but first he corrupts his opinion concerning God For hee that hath true and beseeming thoughts of God is not
doe necessarily follow the nature and being of any thing is to destroy the thing it selfe so that to deny either the divine or humane will of Christ were to make him an unsufficient mediator and is directly contrary to that scripture which is Luke 22.42 Father not my will but thine be done 4. From whence Iordanus Brunus a Neapolitan in my time in Oxford would inforce a more wicked conclusion That Christ was a sinner because His will was not in every respect answerable to the will of God And because that which comes into the wicked imagination of one may proove a stumbling blocke to another I will by the way remove this out of the way Therfore I answer That because man knowes not nor may presume to know what the secret will of God is hee may in the freedome of his owne Will will desire pray for and indeavor any thing which is not contrarie to the revealed will of God and that without sinne especially in such things as stand with the naturall desire of all the creature in the preservation of it selfe in the present being which it hath As a sicke man without sinne may use diet medicine and prayer for recovery although God in His secret will have determined he shall dye Davids purpose to build the Temple though against the purpose of God was so well accepted of God as that he thereupon received the promise of a perpetuall succession even till Christ the eternall king to come of his seed 2 Sam. 7.11 to 16. Nay when Hezekiah had heard the sentence of death from God Himselfe by the voice of his Prophet Esay 38. was his prayer and his teares accounted sinnefull which God did so far accept as that he confirmed his petition by a miracle And although our Saviour knew himselfe to have come into the world that He should dye for the sinnes of the world yet might he without sinne pray unto His Father to save Him from that houre John 17.17 especially divers figures affording that hope was not Isaak in the very stroake of death rescued by the voice from heaven when the Ram was offered up in his stead Gen. 22. was not the scape goate Leu. 16.21.22 on which all the iniquities and sinnes of the sons of Israel were put sent away alive into the wildernesse But wherein was this repugnancy of his will to the will of God Not my will but thine be done He denyed his owne will he laid downe not onely his life but even the desire of life that he might performe the will of his Father so that the true conclusions which arise from hence or the like places are these first seing all men naturally desire to live and would not bee unclothed that is would not die 2 Cor. 5.4 but rather that our mortality might be swallowed up of life as it shall be with them who are found alive at the comming of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.51 and 1 Thes 4.15 16 17. Christ our Saviour was truly man both in the nature and all the naturall properties of a man contrarie to the heresie of Eutyches and the Monothelites of which you may reade further if you will in Thom. Aquinas contra Gent. lib 4. Cap. 36. Secondly and because every pure and meerely naturall propertie is concreated with the thing whose property it is and that the desire of life is naturally in every thing which hath life and that without sinne lest â—e that put this desire in the creature should be supposed a cause of sinne it was â—o sinne iâ— our Saviour to desire life upon that condition contrary to the folly and falshood of Brunus Thirdly seeing that God the Father so loved the world as that he refused to accept the prayer of his owne beloved Sonne when hee besought him with strong crying and teares for life but would give him to that most bitter death for us what confidence and assurance of life may wee have when the price of our redemption is paid and hee our Redeemer restored unto life for if while we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Sonne how much more being reconciled shall we bee saved by his life Rom. 5.10 ARTICLE III. ⧠VVhich was conceived by the Holy-Ghost CHAP. XXV ALthough it were said to Abraham That in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed so that the Humanity of Christ was in Abraham and the fathers originally and so descended unto Him yet you may not thinke that any determinate * You may see the contrary opinion in Galatin lib. 7. cap. 3. matter descended from Abraham or the rest of which the Manhood of Christ was to be made peculiarly no more then the manhood of all others that descended from them And as no more so no lesse was He in the loynes of Abraham then the other Israelites But yet with this difference That whereas all other men being borne according to the law of concupiscence are subject to originall sinne from both the parents a Hee being not so borne was not subject thereto And because He was not borne according to the flesh but according to the promise according to the Law of the eternall life that is of the eternall Father onely on the one side without a mother and so of His mother onely on the other side without a father Therefore was He as not subject to sinne so not tithed in Abraham when he gave tithes of all unto Melchizedek Genes 14.20 as Levi was Hebr. 7.9 10. for tithes are an acknowledgment of sinne in him that is tithed and a confession that he needs a mediator unto God But Christ being a Priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek did therefore in Melchizedek receive tithes of Abraham and by Melchizedek blessed him with whom He had before-hand established His promise Gen. 12.2 3. Now when the fulnesse of time came that this promise of God should bee fulfilled the blessed Virgin Mary being sanctified by the Holy-Ghost unto holinesse of life and puritie of affections was so highly favoured and accepted of God as that in her tender yeeres for they write that shee was not above fourteene yeeres at the message of the Angel shee was vouchsafed worthy to bee the mother of the Saviour of the World Her heart being therefore purified by the Holy-Ghost to beleeve the promise of God made to her by the Angel and by him to bee perswaded of the possibilitie thereof Hee wrought in her also a free consent thereto a full submission to the will of God and a desire of the performance of the promise Reade Luke 1. from 28. to 39. Thus according to the nature of the Holy Spirit she first conceived her sonne in her Spirit or understanding and holy desires then by the working of the Holy Spirit that seed which is the originall of man-kinde was sanctified separate and sequestred into the place of naturall generation and the Eternall Son invested therein that according to the time of life Hee might bee borne the Son of man O sacred mysterie O miraculous conception Yet thus must His conception be who was to vnite all things in one But for all this is not Christ our Lord said to bee the Son of the Holy-Ghost although hee were thus conceived by Him nor yet the Son of the holy Trinitie as
the scorching flame and endlesse misery But can a finite creature make treble satisfaction for an offence against an infinite justice or if it could can perfect justice require it or can a man be more mercifull then God or pity the creature more than He or is His just doome to be dispenst withall or dare any Saint undertake for one condemned who without mercy were in the same condemnation But it seemes she speakes as she had learned by tradition or which is confest by most that her Oracles have been corrupted And it seemes that some men have beene of this mind as you may see in Thom Aquin in Sent lib. 4. Dist 46. q. 4. Yet if the question were rightly stated and examined according to reason the affirmative might seeme more probable than that opinion which they father upon Saint Origen that the devills also shall be saved at last But because it is not fit in this grammar of Christian Religion to trouble the vulgar eares with paradoxes you may perhaps find this question handled in that booke which is intituled Arithmetica sacra In the meane time he shall further me much therein that shall truely teach me the true and uttermost meaning of the Iubile ARTICLE VIII ⧠I beleeve in the Holy-Ghost CHAP. XXXIII § 1. THe word Ghost in English our true speech is as much as athem or breath in our new Latine language a Spirit The metaphoricall use of it as it signifies a qualitie as wee say the Spirit of meeknesse of jealousie of pride or that spirit of 7. devills which troubles and overturnes the state of the world which God doth hate above all other Psal 10.3 I meane the spirit of covetousnesse hath no place here nor yet the word spirit as it may meane any being elementall as we speake of the winde or any subtile steame raised from a moist body nor yet as it signifies those created ethereall spirits which wee call Angels but onely as our Lord speakes Iohn 4.24 God is a Spirit which as it is spoken of the God-head essentially so heere wee confesse that wee beleeve in the Holy-Ghost or Spirit that third Person in the glorious Trinity our God our Sanctifier our Comforter eternally one with the Father and the Sonne unto whose faith and service onely wee are baptized as our Saviour commanded Matth. 28.19 Goe teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost As fast as our heavy-footed reason can follow our faith I have in the 10 11 and 12. Chapter and Notes thereon already shewed the distinct substances of the three Person in the unity of their essence so that it seemes there is nothing in this place needfull to that point but onely to bring those Scriptures which doe directly prove the God-head of the Holy-Ghost and that Hee doth proceede from the Father and the Sonne For the first you may take these Texts 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and these three are one Actes 5.3.4 Why hath Satan fill'd thy heart that thou shouldest lie unto the Holy-Ghost Thou hast not lyed unto men but unto God Mark 3.29 He that shall blaspheme against the Holy-Ghost hath never forgivenesse but is in danger of eternall damnation Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto texts brought Chap. 11. § 3. num 9. By all which Scriptures it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost is God coessentiall with the Father and the Sonne and therefore to be worshipped and glorified with the same glory with them And that He doth proceed from the Father and the Sonne these texts doe make it plaine Iohn 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of trueth which proceedeth from the Father Hee will testifie of mee And Iohn 16.7 If I depart I will send the Comforter unto you Rom. 8.9 He is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Gal. 4.6 Because yee are sonnes God hath sent the Spirit of His Sonne into your hearts crying Abba Father See Rev. 5.6 and Iohn 20.22 Hee breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy-Ghost By which it is manifest that the Holy-Ghost proceedeth from Him And this is that Holy Spirit that dwelleth in us and that not onely by His graces and gifts in us nor onely as God every where present that worketh all in all but also as in those Temples which He hath sanctified for His perpetuall dwelling as it is said 1. Cor. 6.19 Know yee not that your bodie is the temple of the Holy-Ghost which is in you Neither doth the Holy-Ghost onely dwell with them whom He hath sanctified unto Himselfe but together with Him both the Father and the Son as it is said Iohn 14.16 I will pray the Father and Hee shall give you another comforter even the Spirit of trueth that Hee may abide with you for ever And againe verse 23. If a man love mee hee will keepe my wordes and my Father will love him and wee will come unto him and make our abode with him And thus is the Tabernacle of God with men and thus doth He dwell among them Therefore let us remember that precept Eph. 4.30 Not to grieve that Holy Spirit by our willfull sinnes whereby wee are sealed to the day of redemption For if any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy 1. Cor. 3.17 This is the seale and pledge of our eternall hope For if the spirit of Him that raised up Iesus from the dead doth dwell in us He shall also quicken our mortall bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us as I shewed more fully Chap. 17. § 4. num 2. Neither indeed were it any assurance of hope or comfort to know and beleeve that God the Father created all things by Iesus Christ and that Christ the Sonne of God died for the sinnes of men for so much the devills acknowledge except wee did also know and beleeve that the fruite and effect of that redemption did belong to every beleever in particular and that in the eternall purpose of God wee were created unto this hope And this faith and knowledge is wrought in us only by the Holy-Ghost as you may read Iohn 16.13.14 and Eph. 1. from verse 17. to the end Neither yet could wee have sure consolation in this witnesse of the Holy-Ghost unto our hearts except wee did certainely know that this Holy-Ghost which witnesseth these things unto us were God who cannot lie Whereof wee have full proofe by those graces which Hee worketh in us as first the knowledge of the trueth then faith to beleeve it then as living water doth he wash our consciences from sinne then as another Evangelist speaketh doth Hee as fire inflame our hearts with the love of God a hatred of sinne and a desire to walke in newnesse of life and although wee be daily assaulted by the world and the devill
to whom wee are often betrayed by our owne wicked imagination ye doth He not forsake us for ever but when wee see our selves to have no strength of our selues to stand in the least temptation and so have learned not to trust in our selves but in the living God and to desire His helpe then doth He returne and comfort us in all the troubles of our mind and even in death it selfe makes us more than conquerors Oh what is man that thou shouldest take such tender care of Him or the sonne of sinfull flesh that thou shouldest so visit him Now it is impossible that any created Spirit at one time in all places of the world and that ever since God created man upon the earth even unto the last man that shall be borne should worke these different effects in the hearts of all Gods children And therefore the Holy-Ghost is God And His witnesse in our hearts that wee are the sonnes of God is an eternall trueth and such as hath neither falshood nor doubt nor double meaning Sect. 2 § 2. 1. But you will say if the word Spirit belong essentially to all the Persons of the God-head and that they bee all holinesse it selfe as it is said Es 6.3 Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hostes how is it here appropriated to the third Person Is not the difference of Persons taken away hereby seeing every one is a Holy Spirit I answere That in this place as in many other texts of Holy Scripture the words Holy Spirit are taken relatively or Personally as they meane that third Person of the Holy Trinity with that relation of procession which He hath from the Father and the Son as it was shewed Chap. 11. Re. 8. 2. But it is said Iohn 7.39 That the Holy-Ghost was not yet which takes away His eternity and so His God-head Answere Tropes and figures are usuall in every language though not minded by the vulgar sort So here is a Metonymia or taking of the author for the gifts of divers tongues miracles prophecie and such like and these gifts were not yet given as it followes in the text because that Iesus was not yet glorified that it might appeare to all that these were His gifts who was before crucified Compare herewith Iohn 16.7 Ephe. 4.8 and 11. 1. Cor. 12.8 c. 3. a If the procession of the Holy-Ghost bee perfect from the Father then doth Hee not proceed from the Sonne or if it be necessary that He proceede from the Sonne also then must there bee in Him something of composition of superaddition or the like whereby His being should not be most simple which were to denie Him to be God So also the procession from the first principle not being perfect would argue a defect therein Answere This is as if you should reason thus If the way betweene Thebes and Athens be the ready way from Thebes to Athens then can it not be the way from Athens to Thebes But I say that the procession emanation or out-flowing of the Holy-Ghost from the Father is most perfect infinite and eternall as from that being from which the procession is actively as the action of understanding is in and yet from the mind which doth understand as from the active principle But the procession or emanation of the Holy-Ghost from the Sonne is likewise infinite and eternall as from the passive principle as the understanding is from that object which is understood And so the procession of the Holy-Ghost is perfect infinite and eternall both from the Father and the Sonne And because all this is in the God-head onely for I speake not now of those graces and mercies which are from God upon the creature therefore it is necessary that the Holy-Ghost be God blessed above all infinitely and eternally one being with the Father and the Sonne You will heere aske me what the difference is betweene generation whereby the Sonne is from the Father and procession whereby the Holy-Ghost is from the Father and the Son If I confesse that I can neither speake nor conceive it you must hold me excused For in those things that are not lawfull nor possible for the creature to know it is not fit to enquire But you may remember that heretofore although we concluded according to the rule of trueth the Holy Scripture that all the Persons in the Holy Trinitie were in their absolute being one yet by the same rule and the enforcement of reason we were compelled to yeeld unto the Father as concerning His Personal being the precedence of originall as being that fountaine of life and glory from which the other Persons doe proceede And because our Lord Iesus is the expresse Image of the Father Heb. 1.3 whose procession or going forth is from eternity Mich. 5.2 and He by the stile of the Holy Scripture called the Sonne of God Psal 2.7 therefore doe wee attribute unto Him as concerning His Personall being the word of generation or being begotten yet in respect of His absolute essence wherein He is one with the Father He is also called the everlasting Father Esay 9.6 But because all things in the Godhead are in the infinitie of perfection and that the being of the Holy-Ghost is alike both from the Father and the Son and that no perfect being hath two Fathers therefore is His personall being said to be rather by procession then by generation Sect. 3 § 3. And because this Article is the last in our Creed whereby we confesse our faith in the holy Trinity it will not be unfit to take up in briefe that which we have spoken hereunto at large It is manifest unto all reason that nothing can be a cause and yet not be for that would bring a contradiction which the understanding of the foole of fooles I meane the Atheist could not endure that a thing that hath no manner of being should bee of such powerfull being as that it should cause either it selfe or another thing to be And because we see that divers things are which could not cause themselues to be when they were not it followes necessarily that there were causes of their being and that all their causes did worke as they were ordered and mooved by their first cause which seeing it is the cause of all beings must of it selfe not onely be but also have power both to be of it selfe and also to moove all other causes to worke to their determinate ends And this most excellent and first being the cause of all other is that which we call God in whom you see the first thing which we can understand is to be but that eternally because there is nothing before Him which might give Him His being and infinitely because there was nothing which could put any bounds to His being The next thing that we can understand of God is that He hath power both to be and to worke but no worke or action can be but in that which hath both actuall being and
Ambassador but I am the Lord God even the Father Neither have these hereticks of old time onely so madded themselves but with us of late Wrightman gave out himselfe for the Holy-Ghost as Hacket before him would needes bee Christ But the discipline of Bedlem or Bridewell is fittest to teach such sencelesse people not to set their mouthes against Heaven 1. But that which all these hereticks affirme concerning the Holy-Ghost is utterly beyond all faith and possibility of being Of faith I say because neither Iewes nor Turkes which cannot beleeve a Trinity of Persons in unity of the Deitie can never be brought to thinke that two of these Persons should bee incarnate when they will not receive Him that was approved of God by so many miracles to bee God with us Neither can the Christians bee brought to beleeve that the Holy-Ghost should bee incarnate when there is not one word in the Holy Scripture whereupon they may ground any such Article of their faith 2. Beside this that which they affirme is utterly impossible For nothing is possible to be in the Trinitie which brings in any confusion or disorder But if the Holy-Ghost should be incarnate then should there not be one Sonne of God incarnate but two sonnes but that were confusion and no way necessary and therefore not possible Compare herewith Chap. 12. Reason 1. and the Reasons of the Chap. 23. 3. Moreover the workes of the Holy-Ghost are the workes of a most pure Spirit whereto a humane body can no way give any furtherance as to renew the mind by Repentance to give faith to teach and comfort the soule to make it love that which is good to hate that which is ill and the like All which and whatsoever else the Holy Spirit doth worke it worketh onely spiritually Therefore it is necessary or meet that the Holy-Ghost should take on Him the body of man 4. That argument which Epiphanius Haer. 66. used against Manes in particular may serve in generall against all the rest If Manes saith he were that Holy-Ghost whom the Lord promised to His disciples then that promise had beene in vaine seeing that this heresie of Manes was not heard of till 247. after the suffering of Christ who also performed that gift of the Holy-Ghost within tenne dayes after His ascension Neither was that heresie of Montanus heard of till about 140. yeeres after Christs ascension And whereas the disciples were commanded not to depart from Ierusalem but to waite there for the promise that was to be fulfilled not many dayes after This heresie of Simon was not broached till after the disciples were scattered from Ierusalem by reason of the persecution that arose about Stephen as some write in the sixt yeere after the suffering of Christ Concerning Melchizedek it is manifest that he was a Priest of the most high God so was not the Holy-Ghost For He onely beares witnesse unto the faithfull soule of Christs eternall Priest-hood The madnesse of Mahumed you shall finde Chap. 34. § 5. N. 8. Sect. 2 § 2. Thus the doubt concerning those persons who were pretended to be the Holy-Ghost being answered it followes next to examine those errours that have been about His being Among these the chiefe was that of Arius who taught that the Son was the first and chiefe creature made by the Father of that which was not And that the Holy-Ghost was a creature of this creature But because the great question with Arius was about the Sonne this heresie is imputed to Macedonius a light fellow fit for his trade which they call the Feathermakers From that he became a Priest and after the Bishop of Constantinople Of him some write that he held the heresie of Arius whole othersome that he held the true faith concerning the Father and the Sonne but erred concerning the Holy-Ghost For some write that he held that the Holy-Ghost was not a Person subsisting in Himselfe but that the Deity of the Father and the Sonne was that which we call the Holy-Ghost Other write that his heresie was this That the Holy-Ghost was the minister of God in the creature or a certaine power created of God in every creature because it is said in Amos 4.13 That God createth the Spirit where although it be manifest by that which goeth before Hee hath formed the mountaines that it is spoken of the mind Yet that adulterate Synod at Lampsacus from thence justified that errour of Macedonius that the Holy-Ghost was a creature For this heresie his followers were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fighters against the Holy Spirit And although others were before him in this heresie as the Originists the Arians and Semiarians yet because he was a savage and a fierce man to them that thought not with him therefore this opinion became as it were his peculiar His arguments were onely such as Arius used and therefore answered as they that were brought by him against the Deity of the Sonne as 1. from that in Iohn 17.3 The Father is acknowledged the onely true God Answere 1. I have heretofore said that by the name of Father all the Persons of the Trinitie are understood and to this Father that onely Mediator betweene God and man the Man Iesus Christ confesseth in this place of Saint Iohn See 1. Tim. 2 3 4 5. and Eph. 4.6 Answere 2. Moreover Saint Paul saith Ephe. 3.14 15. That of the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the whole familie in heaven and earth is named So our Saviour heere to take away the opinion of moe gods than one acknowledgeth that God His Father is that eternall Fountaine from which both the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost doth proceede as I have said before but yet seeing the being of the Father is most simple and one that which doth proceede essentially from that simple and pure being of His must necessarily be all one and the same with Him And therefore both the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost must needes bee God 2. Objection All things were made by Him Iohn 1.3 Therefore the Holy-Ghost also was made by Christ and so as the Arians speake Hee is a creature of a creature Answere Those words All things are interpreted by that which followes without Him was not anything made which was made For if those words All things should be taken in that sence as the Hereticks urge them it should follow that both the Father also and the Sonne Himselfe were made by Himselfe which are things impossible 3. Objection He that receives of another is inferior to Him of whom he doth receive But the Holy-Ghost doth receive of Christ to shew unto His Church Therefore He is inferiour unto Christ and consequently a creature Answere The proposition is false For great Princes receive Presents of their subjects Lords of their Tenants Masters of their Scholars who account it a favour and an honour done unto them that their offers are accepted Moreover that taking of the Holy-Ghost from the Father and the Sonne
and comfort in God be firme and sure if they were not grounded upon His holy promises that never faile 2. And if no man know the things of God but onely the Spirit of God how could we beleeve that which is to be beleeved of Him or hoped for our selues as the Trinity of Persons the Incarnation of the Son the resurrection of the body c. but by the instruction of His holy Word 3. How could we have the true knowledge of sinne and the punishment thereof but by His Law whereby He hath taught us what duty we owe to Him to our neighbour and to our selues And if the holy Scripture doth thorowly instruct us in all things that we ought to doe or to beleeve is not the sufficiency and perfection thereof able to teach us how to be perfect in every good worke See 2. Tim. 3.16 17. 2. And if it might with due reverence unto God be supposed that the holy Scriptures have not sufficiently instructed us in every thing Yet who is he or what is that Church that may presume to adde to His word Proverb 30.6 Lest if they teach things that are not to be beleeved or command that which is not to be done our faith be found to be foolishnesse and our obedience become if not sinne yet without reward as the Prophet saith Esay 1.12 Who hath required this at your hand 3. As the man is so is his strength Iud 8.21 as his wisedome is such are his words And seeing it is evident by the Scripture which is given that it was the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to give instructions unto His Church and that it hath already been prooved that the Wisedome Chapter 5. and the Trueth of God as all His other dignities are infinite Chapter 7. if the instructions and directions of the Scriptures were not in every respect perfect and sufficient for the Church to that end for which they were written then the Wisedome or Goodnes of God should be defective in that which was necessary for His Church to know But that is impossible Therefore the Holy Scripture is sufficient 4. If God have not sufficiently and perfectly instructed us by His word what we ought to doe and to beleeve then can He not in Iustice punish those defects which shall be found in our Faith or obedience especially seeing we are not bound by any precept in His revealed will to hearken to any traditions with that reverence as to His word but rather are every where commanded to hearken to His word and that without any adding thereto or taking away therefrom Deut. 4.1 2. and 5.32 Esay 8.20 sends us to the Law and to the Testimony and if any one shall speake not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them So our Lord sends us to the Scriptures Iohn 5.39 Therefore the holy Scriptures are perfect and sufficient to teach all things that belong by way of divine revelation to faith and godlinesse All the Fathers runne this way and the most learned among the Schoolemen and later Papists as you may see them cited by Master G. Langford Enquiry after verity § 2. Of Traditions Obiect 1 Object 1 Against this doctrine of the sufficiency and perfection of the Scriptures doubts are raised two wayes First from the necessity of Traditions Secondly for that it is supposed that some bookes of the holy Writ are lost For the first it is manifest even by the reasons that are brought for the sufficiency of the Scripture For if it were alwayes necessary that the service of God in His Church should be according to His owne commandement and direction it must follow necessarily either that the Scriptures should have beene given even from the beginning of the world for the Church of the redeemed began in Adam or else that the seruice of the Church was onely according to tradition The first is apparently false For Moses was the first inditer of any Scripture and that after the deliverance out of Egypt which was after the Creation of the world 2513 yeeres Therefore the second followes of necessity that Traditions were necessary Answer This is a wilfull mistaking of the question which being about the sufficiency of the Scriptures must needs be limited to the times since the Scripture was given But Moses was not the first inditer of the holy Scripture but God Himselfe who had first written His Law in mans heart did secondly write it in two Tables of stone with His owne hand in mount Sinai And thirdly againe when the Tables of the Covenant were broken this was the first of all that which we call holy Scripture After which time God taught Moses the Originall of the world the sinne and redemption of mankind the order of times and whatsoever was necessary for that people to know and to doe And although it bee most true that the faith and seruices of the Church before the law was onely according to tradition yet because those traditions were not kept as God had taught them God brought upon the world of the ungodly the Flood Yet even within foure hundred yeeres after the Flood by the craft of the devill and his new revelations the best among men became Idolaters as it is manifest in Iosh 24.2 And therefore God gave Ordinances and Lawes by Moses in writing to the obseruation of which the whole Church of Israel was bound without any addition thereto or taking away therefrom Deut. 12.32 Obiect 2 Object 2. But traditions may be necessary for the Church as well since the Scriptures were written as before as Saint Paul 2. Thess 2.15 exhorts them to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or by Epistle So the Councill at Trent Sess 4. Can. 1. commands them to be received as the holy Canonicall Scripture Answer The word Tradition there is doubtfull For either it may signifie at large any thing that is delivered either by word or by writing and that may be any fundamentall trueth according to the holy Scripture as Saint Paul meanes in that place as Saint Athanasius Epist ad Adelphium de Incarn Contr. Samos calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Apostolicall Tradition and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the faith delivered by tradition that God was manifest in the flesh or else it may signifie any canon or rule for the ordering of things indifferent in Ecclesiasticall policy wherein all things ought to be done in order And in these two sences traditions are to be held the first in obedience to God and His trueth as we receive the Apostles Creed and as you read in the Note on Chap. 33. § 2. N. 4. how Hosius speakes of the coessentiall Persons of the Trinity as a tradition from Christ to His Apostles and from them to us the second for peace and avoiding of divisions in the Church as to kneele at the holy Communion rather then to sit or to stand though none of all these
the foundation of our faith and hope for if Christ our Saviour be not very God and very man the being of our Mediatour and the alsufficiencie of his merit is utterly vanished fourthlie it is one of the maine and principall differences between our most high Religion taught us by God himselfe and the false worship of Idolaters of the Iewes Turkes Arians and other hereticks which from time to time have turned the truth of God into a lye Fifthlie we follow herein the holy Martyrs and the Fathers in the primitive Church and those Councells which have from time to time maintained this truth against all heresies And although it cannot bee denied but that even among the Heathens some of their wisest both Poets and Philosophers knew this mysterie by heare-say as they had received it from the Hebrewes as you may reade in Thom. Aquin. in lib. 1. dist 3. q 2. and more at large in Struchus de peren Philos lib. 1. 2. and from them in Philip Mornay of the truenesse of Christian Religion Chap. 6. yet among the Hebrewes themselves except the Prophets and schooles of the Prophets this secret was not knowne or taught and that as it may seem lest the misunderstanding multitude might fall into the Idolatrie of many Gods therefore is this thing so taught in the holy text of the Old Testament that the wise onely might understand it for although the Prophets knew well enough that in the dayes of the king Messiah this mysterie should be knowne even to the Gentiles for of him it is written in the 40. Psalme vers 9.10 I will not refraine my lips O Lord thou knowest but I have declared thy truth and thy salvation I have not concealed thy mercy and thy truth from the great Congregation Yet because they knew they ministred those things of which they spake not to themselves nor to the people of their owne times but for us unto whom the treasuries of the riches of God in Christ were more fullie to bee opened therefore they taught according to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost who hath so from time to time opened the fountaines of knowledge unto his Church and hereafter will as the holy Church shall be able to receive it This glorious truth then being plainely discovered to us in the New Testament let us see with what diligence and faithfulnesse reason that servant of God doth wait on the authoritie of his Lord and how thereby a wee are summoned to hearken unto this truth for although reason could never have found it out yet being taught what the truth of God is herein it joyes to see the necessitie of that truth which it is bound to beleeve But because I have written somewhat to this Argument already which that you misse not I have caused to bee printed at the end of this booke I may be somewhat more briefe herein Onely the reasons I take up here together and adde such other supplies as seeme to be wanting in that treatise § 2. The word Father is taken either personally as it signifies the first Person of the blessed Trinitie with the relation to the Eternall Sonne or else it is spoken essentially of all the three Persons in the Godhead with respect of the creature which is created susteined and governed thereby Of this through his helpe we shall speake hereafter Chap. 13. but first of the first person of the holie Trinitie The Greeke Churches by the authoritie of the Apostle Heb. 1.3 for the severall distinctions of the Persons in the Godhead hold the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hypostasis which wee from the Latin call a Subsistence or severall substantiall being by it selfe But the Latin Church turned it Persona from an old word Persola because it meanes one onely being intire of it selfe for Solus is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is whole in it selfe and entire with all the parts but yet is Persona a title of honour given unto men alone for they define it to be Rationalis naturae individua substantia that is an individeable substance of a reasonable nature and from thence it is translated to God and Angels A Person then of the holy Trinitie is an incommunicable subsistence in the Divine nature These words have their ground in the holy Scripture to which in this great Article of our faith wee must ever have recourse by reason of the many and strong heresies that have beene thereabout Trinitie Triunitie or a threefold being in one hath ground in that Text which is in Matthew 28.19 Goe teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost But certaine it is that in our Baptisme wee bind our faith and allegiance unto Gâ—d alone So 1. Iohn 5.7 There are three that beare witnesse in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are â— one thing or one being By subsistence understand a substantiall or essentiall being not comming to or being in the Deitie by chance It answers to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is different from substance nature being or the like teâ—mes that signifie any common or universall b ing for an Hypostasis meanes a peculiar being wherein the common nature is whollâ— and entyre as I said before and will say untill you understand mee For example the whole nature or being of man is understood in that word Man and so the Angelicall nature in that word Angell but Peter or Gabriel meane that particular person in which the common being is whole and entyre I meane so as that there is nothing essentiall in the being a man or Angell whereof Peter and Gabriel are not partakers essentially so wee understand the difference The being or essence of the Godhead is one individuall most simplie absolutelie and substantiallie one which infinite and undivideable being of the Godhead is yet neverthelesse in everie Person entyre and wholly so that nothing of the essentiall being of the Godhead is in one which is not in the other And therefore Iustin the Martyr and from him Damascen Dialect Cap. 66. and after them our sound Doctors of all sides agree that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a subsistence is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that manner of being proprietie or reall relation which belongs to every one Person in the Holy Trinitie You may here not unfitly note the difference of these words Being Substance and Subsistence Being is that which is common to all things that are The word Substance properlie doth not so much import the verie inward being as that respect which it hath to the accidents that are therein Subsistence signifies that speciall manner of being which belongs to substances that are actually being If you will enquire further you may see what Thom. Aquin. hath writ hereto in Sent. lib. 1. Dist 23. qu. 4. or if you will the Introduct to log Sect. 4. Incommunicable that is peculiar proper or belonging to one alone so that one
yet because all the orders of causes are appointed by him wee may safely say as our Lord hath taught us Mark 4.28 That the earth of her owne accord bringeth forth fruit and as the Prophet Hos 1.21.22 I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the corne and the wine shall heare Israel Which order of causes being put we shall not need to apply the immediate power of that applyable divinity of the Mediator to every effect as Postellus holds it necessary For the whole creature by the power of that blessing which it received at the creation is able to worke according to the end appointed And if it were necessary to put any common agent in the Creature by which every inferiour Agent were to bee moved which wee cannot doe except we hold that Gods decree the law of nature is too weake or may be broken yet I thinke that the dominion of the heavens set in the earth Iâ—b 38.33 or that same anima mundi here below mentioned may better stand with the Scripture than the perpetuall imployment of this supposed mediator That I say nothing of those pâ—rticular intelligences which some Philosophers Postel himselfe pag. 63. have appropriated to every thing beside the specificall vertue of the seed Neither is it cleare that this spirit which moved upon the waters Gen. 1.2 was any such being as Postellus supposes a created divinity or the mediator betweene God and his creature but rather that vigor life or heat concreated with the Chaos that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nephesh anima mundi or spirit whereby every thing is enlivened or made able to worke to the destinate end which ever dwels in the watry part of the compound as the soule in the bloud or if this interpretation be not admitted yet that of Saint Ambrose may stand Hexam lib. 2. that Moses in these words In the beginning God created heaven and earth having made mention of the Father and the Sonne doth rightly adde that clause And the spirit of God moved upon the waters that he might shew that the creation of the world was the worke of the whole Trinity yet may you not hereby suppose that that Spirit of God which fils the whole world sap 1. was carried upon the waters by any locall position but rather as an artificer whose will and understanding is busied in his worke so the holy Spirit disposed the whole creature to naturall action according to his will and power Rab. Maur. Enar. in Gen. If you love to conferre opinions you may read Ioh. Pici Heptaplum D. Willet and other expositors 4. To these reasons of Postellus you may adde a fourth every action is limited by the object so the eternall and infinite action of God the Father understanding himselfe doth thereby produce the eternal Sonne as hath beene further said chap. 11. But because the Father doth also view all the possibilities of being in the creature and that the creature must needes stand in cleare distinction from the Creator therefore as the eternall Sonne is the image of the Father so that idea or image of the creature must needes bee a different being from that image of the Father which wee call the eternall Sonne and so of necessity must come into the reckoning of the creature For the true image of every thing must be like to that whose image it is Answer If the image of the things created were represented to the divine understanding from any thing which is without himselfe the reason were of force But seeing that God knowes all things only in and by his owne being by which being of his only as the cause of all things all things have their possibilitie of being so that his being is the foundation of all beings it followes that the representation of the divine being which wee call the Sonne is also the similitude or representation of all those possibilities of being which are in him so that the creature is in God the Father as the first cause of all equivalently fith his being is equivalent to all being and the possibilities thereof In the Sonne the idea of all being it is as represented or characterized eminently or visibly to the divine understanding and by Him all naturall causes and possibilities are ordered to the bringing of all things into their actuall being And therefore as Christ our Lord Heb. 1.3 is called the expresse image of the Person of the Father so likewise Col. 1.15 is hee the first begotten of every creature For seeing the understanding of God is not by discourse nor habituall as gotten by experience but that it is His owne very being unto the perfection whereof all the termes of Action must of necessity concurre that is both of Him that understands and of the obiect understood and of the action of understanding as was shewed chapter 11. Rea. 8. it is not possible but that seeing they are all infinite they must also bee câ—essâ—â—tiall and one and if one then the action of understanding whereby God vieweth himselfe must also bee that whereby hee vieweth the creature for otherwise it were not infinite if it comprehended not all beings at once So then in this action of Gods understanding there cannot bee a prioritie of an infinite being understood that is God the Sonne and a posterioritie of a finite that is the creature By this 〈◊〉 you say I make the Creature to be coessentiall with God in which incoâ—venience the strength of the former objection doth stand Answ If you meane the Creature according to the actuall being I put it naturally in the preâ—â—â—ent causes and possibilities of nature but as concerning the first and priâ—â—e cause it is so farre from any inconvenience that it is most necessarie that 〈◊〉 and the first cause of all being beside Himselfe be termes convertible essentially And thus the Creature is in God as in the cause But seeing nothing can be in another but according to the manner of that being wherein it is and sâ—â—ing thâ— being of God is his most Pure understanding the Creature is no otherwise in him but is understood or foreseene and willed eternally And if you will stay to see you may in the Persons of the holy Trinity view a wonderfull presentation of the perfections of the Creature The Father is the foundation that sustaines all The Sonne or Mediator that power or efficacie which perfecteth all The Holy Ghost that infinite activity in the strength of which every thing doth worke The number three supposes two and because neither to worke outwardly nor to will within can bee where there is not a power thereto therefore our Lord saith Iohn 15.5 Without mee yee can doe nothing And secondly supposes first so that power cannot bee without a being wherein it dwels And thus you see the Father the foundation of all being is more inward to every thing than the matier thereof the
of this Article that Christ as God hath equall glory and power with the Father yet all these Articles from the second to the eight shew what wee are to beleeve of our Mediatour concerning His man-hood And as our Saviour in the state of His humiliation was for the greater scorne and contempt crucified betweene the two malefactors one on the right hand the other on the left So in this glory of His opposed thereto He is set on the right hand of the Majestie on high the principalities and powers being subjected unto Him 1. Pet. 3.22 So then the meaning of this Article is not onely that Christ in our nature confide caro sits at the right hand of God in heaven but also as Hee speaketh Matth. 28.18 that All power is given unto Him both in Heauen and in earth Vnto Him I say is all power given to raigne and to order the state of the world not onely as the sonne of God which He did and doth eternally with the Father and the Holy-Ghost Pro. 18.15 but as He is the Son of man Iohn 5.27 as Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 15.28 He that was raised from the dead must reigne till Hee hath put all His enemies under His feete This glory of Christ is thus declared Ephe. 1.20 c. God having raised Him from the dead hath set Him at His right hand in the heavenly places farre above all principalitie and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feete and hath given Him to bee the head over all things unto his Church The manifestation therefore of this glory in the humanitie and the exercise of this power is in the discharge and execution of those offices and dignities which He hath received of the Father to bee the King the Priest and Prophet unto His Church He then as King doth order the affaires of the world sometime restraining the power of Tyrants and Persecutors of His trueth sometimes suffering their rage to grow on high yet arming the hearts of His seruants and subjects with courage and constancy against their fury that it may appeare that He raignes in the hearts of men and turneth them whithersoever He will Otherwhile againe giving Kings and Queenes to bee nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers unto His Church that trueth may flourish in the earth as Righteousnesse hath looked downe from Heaven And concerning His Priest-hood this is the summe that wee have such an High-Priest Who is set at the right hand of the throne of the Majestie of heaven to appeare in the sight of God for us to offer up our Prayers to pleade our cause before the infinite Iustice and thereunto to present what Himselfe hath done and suffered in our behalfe Heb. 8.1 and 9.24 and of these two that is His Kingdome and His Priest-hood Saint Peter speaketh Actes 2.36 Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this Iesus both Lord and Christ. The office of His prophesie is in this that as before His appearance in the flesh Hee by His Holy Spirit instructed the Prophets so after that when Hee ascended on high He gave gifts unto men some to bee Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Ephe. 4.11.12 And hereunto belong all those meanes which he hath made subservient hereunto by His Holy Spirit stirring up the hearts of Kings and Princes and other noble benefactors for the establishment and maintenance of Vniversities or Schooles of the Prophets But as the great rivers are nothing else but the gathering together of waters from many smaller fountaines and gilz so the particular Schooles founded by charitable and well-minded men such as the most vertuous Iohn Colet Deane of Paules and founder of that Schoole was are the perpetuall supplies without which the Vniversities could not be furnished either with Prophets or with Prophets sonnes And therefore for these also doth our Lord now sitting at the right hand of the Father by His Holy Spirit furnish men with the gift of tongues and their interpretation And therefore you my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing that an account must be made for whatsoever wee have received either of gifts or maintenance hereunto And although besides our endlesse paines wee endure the inconveniences of these ill and dissolute times the idlenesse and dulnesse of many untoward and grace-lesse children the folly of some more wicked and unthankfull parents though our imployment bee disesteemed yet seeing the hope of the time to come is in our paines let us for that duety which wee owe to Christ that love which wee beare to His Church and our Countrey endeavour the faithfull discharge of our trust and remember that our reward is laid up in heaven Now see the reasons of the conclusion 1. It is justice that the lowest degree of humility and abasement for obedience sake unto the will of God should bee rewarded with the greatest glory and honour that may be done unto the creature But it hath appeared heretofore that our Lord Christ for His obedience sake to the will of His Father became subject to poverty that we might be rich 2. Cor. 8.9 Hee endured stripes that we might bee healed 1. Pet. 2.24 That He suffered shame and death it selfe for our offence See hereto Chap. 27. Therefore Christ is set at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven This is the argument of Saint Paul himselfe Hebr. 12. vers 2. Christ for the joy that was set before Him endured the Crosse despised the shame and sate downe at the right hand of the throne of God This is that argument whereby our Lord strengthened Himselfe against death Iohn 13.32 If God be glorified in the Sonne of man God shall also glorifie Him in Himselfe 2. To the most noble and worthy person the most noble dignities and excellencies doe belong But the person of our Mediator according to His God-head hath equall glory and honour with the Father and the Holy-Ghost Therefore to Him it belongs also as man to sit at the right hand of the Father a because of His union with the God-head For although in His God-head He could not suffer nor die yet because His God-head was clouded in His humanity the whole Person was truely said to bee both humbled and exalted And as by that humiliation and offering of His body and blood Hee made a full satisfaction to the infinite justice for the sinne of His people So did Hee merit and purchase both to Himselfe and to His chosen all that honour and happinesse which either the one or the other can bee capeable of And therefore in His humanity to sit at the right hand of God 3. It is necessary that He sit at the right hand of power that is have the superexcellency of all power
his heele against thee though the drunkards make songs upon thee yet remember that there is a reward for the righteous that thy innocency shall breake forth as the light and thy patience shall shine as the noone day And remember that unthankefull wretches are no new thing in the world for the Orator said long agoe and I have often found it true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But if that Punke could say Men ' moveat cimex Pantilius Shall he that hath experience of such monsters of ingratitude put it in the power of a sonne of Belial to disquiet his peace Therefore let the Rymer read what others judge of him Feltham Resolu Cent. 2. Ch. 56. Let him write a booke against me I will bind it as a Crowne upon my head And if for my love and for my best deserts I find enemies yet will I pray for them Psal 109.4 For seeing we know that if we suffer with Christ we shall also reigne with Him shall we not pray for them that seale unto us the assurance of this hope Therefore shall this be among my chiefest joyes That the drunkards make songs upon me 5. It may further be objected from Iohn 3.17 That God sent not His Son into the world to condemne the world but that the world by Him might be saved And if He came to save the world how shall He judge and condemne the wicked to Hell fire seeing this is contrary to the end of His comming Answer First that is spoken of His first comming onely Secondly it is manifest by the verse before verse 16. that the world in this place signifies onely the faithfull in the world for whose sake the world is and continues For to these only God gave His only Son that they should not perish but have everlasting life And as Christ was once offered for these at His first comming so for these shall He appeare the second time to salvation Heb. 9.28 For the last judgment being but the confirmation of the sentence of their justification by the death of Christ and the putting of them in the actuall possession of those promises that depend thereon their sinnes are so covered as that b there shall not be any remembrance of them in the judgement For the worshippers that are once purged have no more conscience of sinne to their condemnation Hebr. 10.2 seeing the gifts and calling of God are without repentance And therefore as a countrey-man of ours saith well Ames Med Theol Cap. 41 This judgement in respect of the faithfull is essentiall unto Christ as He is the Mediator but in respect of the unfaithfull it is of power onely given Him by the Father not essentiall to His mediation but some way belonging to the perfection thereof because the Father hath committed all judgement to the Sonne Yet let me adde thus much that although the judgement of condemnation be not essentiall to Christ as the Mediator of reconciliation yet He being the great Steward of the house of God it is essentiall to Him as the Son of God to take vengeance without mercy on them that dishonour His Father and despight the Holy Spirit of grace which by the light of their consciences proclaimes their sin unto them which they will in no wise forsake Sect. 4 § 4. 6. The last question is with those mockers that say either in words or by their continuance in their wicked deedes where is the promise of His comming For since the dayes of Henoch who threatned that Iudgement Iud. 14. above 4500. yeeres are passed and yet the world continues and that which hath beene is even that which shall be neither is any thing new under the Sun Eccles 1.9 Moreover though for your reasons against the eternitie of the world Chap. 13. it may seeme the world is not eternall à parte antè but that it had a beginning yet is it not cleare but that it may be eternall à parte pòst and continue for ever in as much as the Creator cannot repen◠Himselfe to bee the work-master of so glorious a frame So not to continue it in that being which it hath and to doe good unto it as the Psalmist confesseth Psal 104. verse 31. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever the Lord shall rejoyce in His workes And if all the creature being made was exceeding good Gen. 1. the destroying of so great a good cannot bee but a very great ill which is farre from that goodnesse by which it was created I answere That the Text of Eccles prooves not but that the judgement shall fit at last and the bookes of every mans conscience shall be open that the judgement may be acknowledged to be according to their workes And although the time seems to us to bee prolonged that the number of the elect may bee fulfilled that the patience and long-suffering of God towards the wicked may be manifest for their repentance that the desire of the godly and their longing for His comming may be inflamed Yet to Him the time is determined and can neither be longer nor shorter than He hath appointed onely that comming to judgement hath been proclaimed so long before that in all ages men remembring the judgement might avoid those things for which they should bee condemned So for those reasons wherby you would enforce the continuance of the world for ever it hath beene answered that it is for the greater good to man and the creature which was made for his use that this world should have an end that the creature might be freed from that corruption to which it is subject by reason of his sinne then that it should still continue Neither doth that text of the 104. Psalme prove any thing to the contrary For as the glory of God had endured in eternity before the world so shall it continue when neither the heaven nor the earth nor yet their places shall be found any more Reu. 20.11 And as for that glory of His which is manifest in the creature it shall bee more wonderfull and excellent in that worke of His recreation which the Cabalists call de Mercava when the creature in the world to come shall be brought to glory and be able to consider the super-excellency of His mercy and goodnesse than it is in this worke de Bereshith or state of creation in this present world And if the deprivation of this present being seeme to be ill because the being of the creature was good in the state of creation then the taking away of all this ill and misery which is since come upon the creature by reason of sinne and the restoring of it into an estate of happinesse without comparison better and surer than that wherein it was created must in both respects be a far greater good than either to have created it such as it was or to continue it in the present being Bring hither what you finde in the 18. Chapter § 2. But because it seemes not
spoken of in that text of Iohn 16.14 is not of grace but by nature neither is it any other thing than this That as the Father from all eternity had decreed to reconcile the world unto Himselfe by the death of His Sonne and that the Sonne accordingly performed this in due time by His death upon the Crosse So the Father and the Sonne by that Holy Spirit which proceedeth from them both doth sanctifie the hearts of the elect and assure them that this reconciliation with all the fruits and effects thereof was for their eternall comfort and salvation For that peculiar manner of subsistence in the Divine nature which He taketh from the Father and the Sonne whereby it is most necessarily concluded that He is God is not heere spoken of 4. Objection The Holy-Ghost is no where called God in the Scripture Therefore He is a creature Answere 1. He is no where in the Scripture called a creature or mentioned among the creatures in Psal 148. or else-where Therefore He is God Answer 2. The proposition is false as it appeared by the texts cited out of Actes 5.3 4. and Matth. 28.19 where He is equalled with the Father and the Sonne and 2. Cor. 13.14 And Iohn 5.7 Moreover no sinne doth make a man lyable to an infinite punishment but that which is against an infinite being But the sinne against the Holy-Ghost shall not bee pardoned neither in this world nor yet in that which is to come Matth. 12.32 Therefore the Holy-Ghost is God Take hereto Actes 28. verse 25. and 27. with Rom. 11.8 and 1. Cor. 3.16 And as these texts of Scripture are sufficient to shew the falshood of this last objection So doe they manifest the vanitie of all the rest and confirme abundantly the trueth of this Article that the Holy-Ghost is God To bring the consent of Fathers and Councells to these Scriptures were as to encrease the light of the Sun by a burning candle yet because it was so plainely declared in the first generall Councell held at Nice by 318. Fathers in the yeere of Christ 325. you may remember it if you will In that Councell this Article was thus declared in that forme of confession which was framed by Hosius Bishop of Corduba As the Father and the Sonne so also the Holy-Ghost subsisteth with them of the same being of the same power of which they are And a little after Wee ought to confesse one God-head one being of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy-Ghost not teaching any confusion or division of the Persons of the unspeakeable and blessed Trinitie But according to the integritie of that faith and doctrine which was heretofore delivered by the Lord Himselfe to His Apostles and hath beene sincerely taught to us by our holy Fathers who kept it pure and intire as they received it from the Apostles wee beleeve and confesse the undivideable Trinitie which cannot sufficiently either be conceived in the understanding or expressed in wordes that is the Father eternally and truely subsisting a true Father of a true Sonne and the Sonne eternally and truely subsisting a true Sonne of a true Father and the Holy-Ghost verily and eternally subsisting with them And wee are ever ready by the power of the Holy-Ghost to proove that this is the trueth by the manifold testimony of the holy Scripture Histor Gelasij Cyzic Act. Conc. Nic. lib. 2. cap. 12. This faith was approved of all but because the present businesse with Arius was especially about the Sonne For he held that the Son was not of the subsistence of the Father nor yet very God That they might meet fully with that errour they agreed to that forme wherein it is confessed that the Sonne is light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the Father c. Thus having ended the controversie about the God-head of the Sonne they come to the question of the Holy-Ghost against whom Phaedon a Philosopher and patron of Arius his cause objected thus It is no where written in the Scripture that the Holy-Ghost is a Creator and therefore Hee is not God To which the Councell opposed that which is in Iob 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made mee and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life And that in Psal 33.6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the Spirit of His mouth To which they added that of Saint Paul 1. Cor. 12. verse 4 5 6. where the Holy-Ghost is called both Lord and God And so concluded that all the three Persons that is the Father the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantiall or of the same substance Lib. Cit. Cap. 25. Likewise when this heresie of Arius concerning the Holy-Ghost was againe revived by Macedonius the second generall Councell held at Constantinople in the yeere 381. condemned the heresies of all Arians Apollinarists and Macedonians confirmed the faith professed in the Nicene Creed and for further explanation of the trueth in this point to that clause Wee believe in the Holy-Ghost they added the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who with the Father and the Sonne together is worshipped and glorified c. And this is sufficient for the declaration of the trueth in this point by the authority of generall Councells All the orthodox Fathers consent hereunto Among whom if you desire to bee further acquainted with the arguments and objections on both sides you may reade the writings of that most noble Champion of the trueth of the holy Trinitie Athanasius and in speciall that sermon of the humane nature taken by the Word the oration against the ging of Sabellius and the first and second Epistle to Serapion and his first dialogue against Macedonius with him Macedonianus See also Greg. Nyss vol. 2. pag. 439. edit Paris 1615. you may also if you will take these objections and their answeres brought by Epiphanius to this question Haer. 74. and with them those in Thomas Aquinas Contra gentes Liber 4. Cap. 16. and their answeres Cap. 23. Another errour against the being of the Holy-Ghost is that which they call of the later Greekes and yet is not onely of the Grecians themselves but of all those Nations and Peoples that are of the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople which if you leave out the Countreys of the poore Painims in the East and West Indies is far greater than the pretended universality of the Bishop of Rome both in Europe and in Asia See Brerew Enq. Chap. 15. and besides them the Melchites or Christians of Syria the Armenians and Maronites hold the same heresie All these though they confesse that the Holy-Ghost is God the third Person in the Trinitie yet they say that He proceedeth onely from the Father not from the Sonne But although they account this but a later errour among the Greekes perhaps because the stirres thereabout after the
mouthes of all Hereticks are stopt hereby I meane not every difference in opinion to be an heresie no not in an Article of Faith but there is not any heresie in any maine point but by the strength of reason alone it may be overthrowne as it will hereafter at large appeare Besides when the Christian Religion is found to be so reasonable and to stand on such sure * Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctitatis i. Scriptura sacra et ratioris Psal 87.1 Foundations as that it only is able only worthy to binde the conscience of a reasonable man whereas all other religions or rather false worships although examined in themselves onely by their owne principles are found to be false and against common sense what triumph is this of a Christian over all Heathens and misbeleevers that will they nill they if they will bee men and stand to reason they must confesse that the Christian religion is onely true And seeing the world hath beene called to the marriage of the Kings Son Luc. 14.16 c. First by the voyce of nature declaring the wisdome and power of God in the creature and that they that were so called would not come because their mindes were set on earthly things Secondly by the Law but the Iew who sought righteousnesse by the Law would try what his five yoke of oxen that is his keeping of the Ceremoniall Law contained in the five bookes of Moses could doe and so would be excused Thirdly by the Gospell but the carnall Gospeller and false Christian could not come because he is marryed to pleasure and worldly lusts what remaines but that they who are yet strangers and walke in the broad wayes of sinne and the by-paths of their owne inventions should by reason that servant of God bee compelled to come in And seeing the time cannot bee farre off that all the nations of the earth are to bee called to the knowledge of Christ For great shall his name be from the rising of the Sunne to the going downe of the same Psal 103.3 What hinders that the truth of Christ bee taught according to common reason whereto every man doth listen For it cannot bee but that all Idolatry and false worship all heresies and dissentions about Religion must then cease when the truth is taught in the evidence of that Spirit whereby every man is guided For as God made man reasonable so doth hee command nothing to bee done which in true reason is not the best nor require any thing to bee beleeved which in true reason is not most true You will say is there no difference then betweene faith and reason yes very great For Reason is busied in the proofe of some generall conclusion which is to bee held for a truth and so received of every man but faith is the application of that conclusion to a mans owne selfe As if it be concluded that because Christ being so conceived and so borne had no sin and therefore he suffered not death for himselfe but to save them that should beleeve on him faith applies this generall conclusion thus but I doe beleeve and therefore I shall be saved Now this application is not made by reason but by the speciall instruction of the Spirit of God in the heart of the beleever although it were inferred upon such a conclusion as was proved by reason I have not endevoured herein to heap up arguments by numbers but by weight and therfore have I let passe all reasons from forrein autority and all that were but likely onely and of small importance neither have I brought any one but such as seemed to mee sufficient of it selfe to confirme the question The reasons here used are for the most part from the goodnesse power wisdome and other dignities of God because the questions are concerning the things of God and no arguments can be of greater force and more immediate then such as are drawne from the verie being or immediate properties of the things in question they are handled by necessities and impossibilities to shew that all things that are and are not stand for the truth of the promises of God to us that by all meanes wee might have strong hope and comfort in Christ And though I sometimes bring one argument for divers conclusions yet it is not therefore of lesse force no more than a good toole is of lesse worth because it serves for divers uses I have studied for plainenes as much as I may and therfore have I sometimes handled the same reason both affirmatively and negatively that he that cannot take it with one hand might hold it with the other for that purpose also are divers reasons brought though all satisfying as I thinke yet perhaps all of every one not equally understood but he that understands all may upon these grounds or the like bring many other to the same purpose and give glorie to that infinite mercy which hath so fortified this glorious truth which hee hath bound us to beleeve with such walles bulwarkes ravelings and counterscarpes of reason that all the power of hell all the batterye of Atheists Turkes Iewes and other adversaries shall never bee able to overcome it And because a little light is soone lost if dispersed as in the Starres called Nebulosae and those of endlesse number and distance in the milkie way I have proposed the reasons together in as short and few words as I can that the light of the reason may more easilie appeare For oftentimes while men desire to enlarge themselves the reason vanishes into words The autorities of the sacred Text I bring as need is that the Christian may see whence the Article of faith in question is taken and whereon it is grounded and that in the proofe thereof I bring no other doctrine than the holy Scripture doth teach Let no man carrie my words or meaning awry for although in this search of causes and reasons other conclusions offered themselves yet I held it not meet to propose any other things than the holy Church of old thought fit to be held as sufficient for the saving faith of Christians conteined in the Creed which is called the Apostles as being gathered from their writings and that according to that order as it is therein delivered yet with such prefaces and notes as the necessitie of the things did drive me unto leaving those other things to the higher speculation of them whom God shall vouchsafe to enlighten for their further progresse from faith to faith from knowledge to knowledge till all the holie Church come to bee partakers of those things new and old that are kept for her in store when she shall come unto the fulnesse of the measure of the age of Christ that is the perfect knowledge of all those things which our Lord in his time taught his Disciples who were not able then to beare them till they had received the light of the holy Spirit from above If any man learned bee
ensuing motion must be at a stand And if his power and the working thereof upon the creature did cease as the creature by his power was raised from nothing so would it returne to nothing if by the same it were not continually upheld Therfore God doth worke continually and as the worker is infinite d so is his working infinitely Notes a GOd cannot know any defect in himselfe R. 6. See the reason of this speech Chap. 6. note b n. 2. 3. b No abatement may bee understood therein R. 10. You have need to know that this reason and the like which wee make from our owne understanding hath a most sure foundation and ground in the truth of God for therefore is the light of reason and understanding in man as a glasse or image of the divine wisdome created by him in us Iohn 1.4 Ephes 4.24 that we thereby might be led unto the knowledge of Him and so unto that happinesse for which wee are created therefore the understanding doth evermore apply it selfe unto the truth and makes the will to joy therein and to hate that which is false and impossible For reason in man being the image of Christ the second Adam is set in the Paradise of God freelie to eate of every tree therein that is to consider the whole creature which yeelds unto reason infinite truths as fruit whereon to feed to the praise of him that hath created it but if shee that is given to him for his help that is the imagination his Hevah the mother of all living for by the imagination alone the formes of all things live and are lively presented to reason if shee I say deale treacherously with him and without him entertaine speech with the craftie Serpent then is he by her easily perswaded to taste of the forbidden fruit to follow her foolish and wicked suggestions and to let into his understanding falshood and errours which cannot stand with the light of the truth but are onely according to the traditions of Arts falslie so called aâ—d the authorities of men misled by opinions Concerning authorities See Postell de Nat. Med. pag. 16. 17. and log Cap. 23. n. 8. and note a c The first Mover ceasing to move R. 14. Though this reason shew the truth of the conclusion a posteriori yet is not this argument proper to this place because the question here is onely about the inward actions of God in himselfe not that which is outward upon the creature of which you shall hereafter understand more at large in the 13. Chapter d So is his working infinitely ib. Seeing it is firmely agreed unto both by Divines and Philosophers that God is altogether unmoveable not onely by those kindes of motion properly so called See Log. introduct sect 4. Append. n. 1. but also improper and metaphoricall as change of the will anger desire or other passions it may seeme that this conclusion of Gods infinite action or working is enforced utterly against the truth because it seemes that no working can be without motion I answer that motion and operation or working are very different these are like to motions but neither are motions nor yet with motions for to feele to see to understand to will or any other action immanent or dwelling in the worker are actions operations or workings of the fences the understanding and will but yet no motions but most improperly and onely in likenesse for all working action or operation is of a thing that is in perfection but motion properly so called is alwayes with imperfection and leaves the thing wherein the motion is in possibilitie onely to a further perfection And yet the very moving from place to place may be an example of this working which I have proved in God to be infinite For if you set a ruler upon a pin and turne it with violence upon that centre you shall perceive no part of the surface ouer which it is turned which you shall not see covered every where with the ruler and the swifter it is carried about the better and more closely doth it cover it so that if you suppose that motion to be infinite in swiftnesse with continuance for a certaine time then every part of the ruler in the continuall succession of that time must of necessity be every whereupon the under surface according to the length of that time which the ruler doth make from the navell point to the hemme or circumference So that you cannot more rightly call it motion than rest when every part of the ruler is continually upon every part of the surface under it And even so this working which I have proved to be in the Godhead because it is infinite may most truly according to this example be called rest because his owne action in himselfe is that wherein above all other he can take most glorie and delight as being in the perfection of goodnesse power wisdome truth and glorie c. And thus according to the measure of our weake understanding having considered what God is in his being it followes that we enquire also what Hee is according to the manner of his being The Father Almightie CHAP. XI That there is a Trinitie of Persons in the Vnitie of the Deitie Section 1. THat the wisdome of God manifested in this lower creature and all the possibilities that are therein shall at last bee made knowne to man for whose sake and use they were created I have elsewhere sufficiently proved But as yet how farre wee are from thence every man doth sufficiently know For is there any Dyer so overweening in his craft of dying as that he dare take upon him to know all the possibilities that are in the mixing and setting of colours nay in the service of that great god of our pampered gurmandizers I meane the belly is there any Cooke that will take upon him to bee able to make all those very things which are daylie sought out to please the taste if then in those things wherein our sences are most delighted wherein we studie with greedines how to please our selves we must confesse our dulnesse how much more heavie must we needs be in that whereof neither our sences nor our reason nor the highest and best part of our understanding all Nature helping us herein can give us any knowledge Who knowes the thoughts of a man but the spirit of a man that is within him how much more then is it impossible to know the mysteries of God but by that relation which hee hath made unto us of himselfe Therefore the knowledge of that mysterie of the holy Trinitie in the Unitie of the Godhead is that super excellencie of knowledge which we have by the holy Scripture onely which truth we are so much the more carefull to know and constantlie to uphold first because it concernes that most excellent and high being even of God himselfe secondly because the revelation thereof is from God alone manifested by his word thirdly because it is
But if wee looke diligently unto the text of the Holy Scripture we shall finde how necessary it was that the Mediator should satisfie for the sinne of the creature because the whole creature was made by Him For so wee may reade Ioh. 1.2.3 All things were made by that word which in the beginning was with God And without it was nothing made which was made And vers 10. He was in the world and the world was made by him And vers 14. And that word was made flesh that is tooke on him the whole nature of man body and soule and dwelt among us and we saw on the holy mount Mat. 17.2 c. 2 Pet. 1.18 the glory thereof that is of that flesh or man as the glory of the only begotten Sonne of the Father And againe Col. 1.16 By him that is the Sonne were all things created which are in heaven and which are in earth things visible and invisible all things were created by him and for him and in him all things consist 1 Cor. 8.6 There is one God the Father of whom were all things and we by him Eph. 3.9 God hath created all things by Iesus Christ And Heb. 1. v. 1.2 God hath spoken unto us in these last dayes by his Sonne whom He hath made heire of all things by whom also he made the worlds By all which texts it is cleere which S. Paul hath Rom. 11.36 of him through him and for Him are all things That is that God the deliverer which should come out of Sion vers 26. And thus have these Apostles explained that which is written Gen. 1.1 In the beginning Elohim created heaven and earth which word in the whole body of the old Testament as wisemen have observed is almost never spoken but of the Person of the Mediator onely I suppose then that it is plaine enough which is spoken by our Lord Ioh. 5. v. 19. The Sonne can doe nothing of Himselfe save what he seeth the Father doe for whatsoever things He doth the same things doth the Sonne in like manner That is whatsoever the eternall Godhead ordeined in his everlasting Counsell and decree to bee done that same doth the Sonne execute and performe in the creature answerably and brings forth every thing in time according to the possibilities and opportunities of the creature For as the wiseman saith Ecclus. 18.1 He that liveth for ever made all things together or at once So the Psalmist as also the other Scriptures tels us by whom and in whom Psal 104.24 In wisdome hast thou made them all that is in our Creator and Saviour So then it being cleered by the text of the holy Scripture that the creation of the world was of God the Father in Christ by Christ and for Christ it will easily follow how necessary it was that He our creator by His eternall Spirit should offer himselfe to God for the sin of his creature as it will further appeare when I come to that article Notes a EVery tenne thousand yeares You may reade the position in Aug. de Haer. cap. 43. and the refutation thereof in his 20. 21. 22. bookes de civit Dei But the Cabalists for the renewing of this lower world put seven thousand yeares and no more for the restoring of the whole creature both heavenly and earthly they put fifty thousand yeares You may read the opinion and partly see their reasons in Leo Hebr. de Amore. pag. 500. c. b The world is not eternall The most famoused opinions that have beene concerning the worlds eternity are these One that which the Christian faith doth hold according to the truth of the holy oracles of God and the voice of Reason as you have heard and to this truth the Stoicks are said to haue consented The second opinion is that of Plato and his followers who held that the world had a beginning in time but of an eternall matier and that the continuance thereof should bee eternall For seeing generation and corruption is onely by the change of formes the matier still remaining one therefore they thought that as that forme which is purely without matier was incorruptible and eternall So likewise must matier bee which of it owne nature is utterly without forme And because matier is greedy of all formes how differing or contrary soever Therefore it is ever subject to change Neither is the heaven it selfe utterly freed from all power of Change because of that matier whereof it is in which the power of Change is ever hidde Therefore the world is not eternall in respect of any power in it selfe either to the production of formes or the continuance of it selfe under the same formes but first in respect of the vnformed matier and most of all in respect of that Spirit or life whereby it is guided and ordered as by the internall causes and in respect of the divine will and goodnesse as the outward principle and the end which will as it cannot repent to have done good in giving being unto the world and the things therein contained so can it not will contrary to it selfe and cease to doe good in the continuance of the creature in that being which it hath You may reade more to this purpose in Plot. Ennead 2. lib. 1. and his commentator Marsilius Ficinus The third opinion is that of Aristotle that the world was eternall and from God as an eternall effect of an eternall cause For because it seemed to him impossible and if you looke no higher than nature alone it is indeed impossible that any thing being can come out of nothing therefore matier must needs be eternall and therewith generation and corruption without which nothing is brought forth And because these two could not be thought to be without the moving of the heavens as the cause thereof therefore both the heavenly bodies and motion especially circular must be also eternall and herewith time which is measured by the motion of the heavens But what this eternall matier should bee the Philosophers went into divers opinions Heraclitus thought it to be fire Archelans ayre Empedocles all the elements and among the rest one one thing and another another as you may reade in Aristotle where hee refutes them in Tull. Acad. q. lib. 4. and especially in Plutarch de placitis Philosophorum and from him in many other Aristotle himselfe from Hesiod and they that had beene before him cals it Chaos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In theogonia First was the Chaos then the earth which word if they borrowed not of Moses his Tohu which signifies empty of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sometimes meanes to bring to nought nor of that which seemâ—s to come from thence Chohus whereby as Festus saith the old Latines called the world yet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they meant by it confusion and no way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a countrie or an appointed place Sometime this matier is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
which hee must of necessitie communicate with the Creature And this is that Wisedome created and increate without which nothing was made This both the Creator and the Creature that forme of formes in whom by whom and for whom are all things pag. 21. 103 c. I answer That if it must of necessitie be put that God cannot worke without Himselfe because He is infinite and therefore immoveable then for the same reason it must follow that no such great created being can at all be except you will say that hee created himselfe and so was when He was not or that hee had his creation from some other originall than God which must likewise bee infinite in being able to create so excellent a being and yet finite that hee might move or not move himselfe thereto when he would But first this progresse would be infinite and beside that impossible For if neither God could move because Hee is infinite nor much lesse the creature when it was not how was it possible that any thing at all should be created Secondly Moreover it would follow hereupon that that were possible to the second cause which was not possible to the first but it is manifest that all second causes worke onely by the activity of the first so that if the first cause cease to worke much more the second Thirdly beside this the power of God should not be infinite if it could not worke according to his pleasure in things without But you say as Himselfe so His action is infinite and it is impossible that a finite being should be the subject of an infinite action I say though Sampson were able to breake a Cable yet might he straine one haire of Dalilah to straightnes not to lengthen it to lengthen it not to breake it This is true say you because he was as every creature partaker of being and not being of act or perfection and of possibilities or imperfection whereby he might move or not move at his pleasure But God is not so but alwaies actually whatsoever Hee may be But say I it is one thing to speake of the infinite action of God in himselfe and another of his action in the creature limited according to his Wisdome and His Will in respect of the outward object as I have shewed at large in answer to the objections for the worlds eternity chap. 13. note b ob 2. 3. 4. Neither is the will of God without an infinite Wisedome to dispose of all things in their times nor yet without an infinite power to cause every thing to bee actually according to His Wisdome and His will and the application of his will wisdome and power is sufficient to move all inferiour causes to give all manner of beeing to the Creature 2. But seeing the matier and forme of all things are after a sort contrary and that the bodily composition likewise of things below is of elements contrary in their qualities it is impossible that these repugnances should be brought together into one nat Med. pag. 21. Answ The Philosophers tell us of a certaine quintessence in which the different qualities of all the elements are brought to agreement and give us reason to beleeve it by which quintessence dwelling in every thing the contrarieties of the elements are accorded in every compound Raim Lulli and Ioh. de Rupesc de 5. essentia lib. 1. cap. 2. But seeing they keepe the experiment with themselves neither their reason nor their authority shall bee of any force with us But this is without all doubt that hee that had power to create all things had likewise power out of that created masse fruitfull with the seed of all things to bring out every thing in due time according to the kindes that were by him foreseene and determined And because wee have hitherto maintayned that God alone by his eternall wisdome Our Lord Iesus Christ was the Creator it must follow of necessity that the creature was also ordered and guided by Him For that infinite power which could doe the more and cause that to bee which was not might also doe the lesse and order it at his will So that for this objection wee are not compelled to acknowledge any such created being the Creator and disposer of all the rest And concerning that supposed repugnancy betweene the matier and forme of every thing it is but the begging of the question for all formes are produced out of possibilities of their matier excepting onely the soule of man and the divine endowments thereof as I shewed at large chap. 17. § 4. n. 2. 3. The third argument of Postellus pag. 28. is not much unlike the former drawne from the perpetuall change of things subject to generation and corruption For nature brings out nothing violently or in an instant therefore as the things that are began by little and little to bee by the power of the Spirit of God which moved upon the waters so by the power of the same Spirit are they still preserved in their order of being and by it they are changed from state to state And this spirit of God is that first created being that Mediator betweene God and the creature the spirit of the Vniverse actually moveable and applying it selfe to every thing and working in every thing by the power of the Trinity which dwelleth in Him For nothing which proceedes from the power of the matier is able to move it selfe no more than the matier was no not the soule of man but onely by His strength and activity by whose power it is Answer Concerning the progresse of things naturall from the evening of their beginning to the morning of their perfection I have spoken before But for answer to this I say that it is not necessary to put any such spirit of the universe such an applyable divinity as the Platonicks call Animam Mundi because things are changed from one state of being to another seeing the Holy Scripture tels us Psal 148.5 that all the armies of the creature were made because God commanded And for their changes in corruption and generation it is plaine it must be according to that degree which they cannot passe vers 6. which is the law of nature And moreover concerning the providence of God on every particular thing our Lord hath taught us Math. 10.29 that not a Sparrow fals to the ground without the will of our heavenly Father except Postellus will here except that that heavenly Father must signifie that first begotten of the creature which he doth meane Which interpretation would directly crosse that text Act. 15.18 That all the workes of God were knowne to Him from everlasting And nothing can bee in the second cause which was not in the first Therefore seeing the infinite power of God is that by which every thing is powerfull to worke unto that end whereto it was destinate we must needs confesse that Hee by His power workes what He will both in Heaven and in earth and
there was no cause why it might not be wholly Paradise The description of the foure rivers of Paradise Genes 2. doe not obscurely shew it howsoever Beroaldus would bring them all within the compasse of * See Gen 2.13 14. Dan. 10.4 Canaan other by as strange Geography to the springs and falls of Tigris and Euphrates But I hold That that Paradise of Eden wherein Adam was put after his creation was not in the Moone nor in the Aire as some have thought but some speciall place of the earth of plenty and pleasure above the rest as we see there are great differences unto this day And though many places are growne barren and fruitlesse for want of husbandry and especially to proove the just indignation of God against sinne and to manifest the trueth of that word Cursed is the earth for thy sake Yet to the soule being separate and so without the helpe of the sences and imagination by the light which God hath given to it able by it selfe to see what the possibilities of the whole creature are every place is a Paradise while it considers the infinite goodnesse and power of God in the creature as well in that which is deprived of the effects thereof as in that wherein His goodnesse is still effectuall For as there be three estates of mans being This of the Warriour in this life That after death of the Conquerour And the third after the resurrection of the Triumpher So likewise are there three meanes and degrees of His knowledge One in this life wherein wee know nothing but by our sences from whence the imagination or fantasie that Hevah the mother of all living carries unto reason her Adam all the species or formes of things which shee gathers from the sences For nothing lives in the understanding but by the power of the fantasie which because it is false fickle and will of it selfe without reason be working upon every object as the appetite is mooved thereby therefore the reason following the fantasie is deceived and not constant and so it comes to passe that wee know few things according to the trueth which is in them But in that second estate of man when the body returnes to the earth and his sences and consequently his fantasie doth utterly perish Psalm 146.4 Then the soule looking on the creature with its owne eyes sees the wonderfull blessing and goodnesse whereof man had beene made partaker in the right use of the creature if he had not lost the knowledge thereof by his sinne and returnes to the Author thereof that praise that is due to Him therefore and acknowledges that state wherein hee lives out of the proper habitation to bee the reward of sinne yet because it doth evermore enjoy the comforts of God in a certaine knowledge and some present feeling of those joyes whereof it shall be fully partaker hereafter in the perfection of the whole man and sees that this separation is but a preparation for a further perfection in that immortall being which is to come it hath thereby as it were a seisure and delivery of those heavenly joyes which it had here onely in assurance of hope though till the third state it hath not the full possession And although the soule of the wicked man views indeed the creature and knowes now the losse of that blessing which it might have had in the right use thereof yet because it hath no hope in the life to come all that knowledge which it hath is but to see further the wretchednesse of it selfe and for a foretaste of that bitter cup of wrath which it must drinke even to the dregs And this foretaste is able to make all the creature hell unto the miserable soule as the joyes and assurance of heaven make all places Paradise to the faithfull For the devill was not therefore happy because hee was in heaven Iob 1.6 and 1 Kings 22.22 nor therefore miserable because hee was thrust out Reuel 12.9 for not the place but the holy Spirit of comfort onely which never leaves the faithfull soule Iohn 14.16 gives heauenly happinesse as that soule which is destitute thereof hath hell in it selfe and must needs be in hell wheresoever it is Now as it is most certaine that there is such a meane state betweene this of mortality and that of glory so is it most reasonable to thinke that this is the imployment of the soule at least for a time before it bee raised up with the body in glory For seeing man was therefore set in the creature and therefore indued with a reasonable soule that he might in the creature behold the Wisedome and goodnesse of God and to His praise bee happy in the right use thereof It was necessary that He should know the creature and the possibilities thereof which knowledge having by his sinne debarred himselfe of he could not use the creature aright and so became mortall Yet seeing it is impossible that the sinne of man should frustrate the end of God but that He should be glorified by man whom He hath purposed so exceedingly to glorifie therefore in that second estate wherein the soule is better fitted to know as the Angels by intuition or view of the creature onely shall that be effected Moreover seeing our Lord ascended not to heaven before His soule was joyned againe to the body and that it may not reasonably bee thought that the seruant in his greatest basenesse and lowest estate should have preeminence before his Lord nor yet that the soule that most active part of man should be idle what can the soule and understanding bee busied about but onely in the enquirie of that trueth and wisedome which God hath manifested in the creature But whether this inquest shall be immediately after the soules departure from the body or at the time of restitution of which Saint Peter speakes Act. 3.20 I cannot define But although for the trueth and quietnesse sake with them that would instantly be in heaven I denied not an immediate passage into heaven for the faithfull since Christ yet seeing most of the sonnes of Adam must come into this middle state I see not why any man should withdraw himselfe from that taske whereby he ought to give honour unto his Creator Obiect 1 Objection 1. But by this you put a possibilitie of those illusisions of the devill appearing as the ghosts of the dead and justifie that poeticall fiction of Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 1. that they of the golden-age became all Angels and in ayrie bodies lived every where on the earth seeing all the good and ill deedes of men I answere All things are not therefore false because A Poet affirms them but that which he speakes out of the light of nature is certainely true and this what waight soever it hath swayes on my side But for the upholding of those old-wives fables of the walking of the spirits of the dead there is no feare For being dead they must keep
His resurrection and have denied also that I thinke with them that say that He went downe to suffer for our sinne And having as I thinke said enough to all contrary opinions the trueth by the Holy Scripture and the reasons grounded thereon must be made to appeare But first of all it is plaine that the meaning of our Church is such for in the 8. Article it is said that the Creed of Athanasius ought thorowly to bee received and beleeved and that because it may be prooved by most certaine warrants of Holy Scripture And in the 7. Article the Church of Ireland agreeth hereto in these words All and every the Articles conteined in the Nicene Creed the Creed of Athanasius and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought firmly to be observed and beleeved For they may bee prooved by most certaine warrant of Holy Scripture And because it may not bee supposed that our Church cites the authority of Athanasius but according to his owne meaning as he himselfe hath explained it if it were the meaning of Athanasius that Christ after His suffering descended locally into the hell of the damned it must needes bee that our Church accorded to his meaning And what the meaning of this Article in the Creed of Athanasius is we need not to doubt who have Athanasius himselfe to declare it in his Epistle of the incarnation of our Lord Iesus Christ against Apollinarius where hee prooves against his Heresie that there bee onely two parts of the humane nature in Christ a body which the grave received and a soule which went downe into hell the grave received that which was bodily hell that which was not bodily And by his reason you may yet understand his meaning better When the Creator saith he call'd man into question for his disobedience Hee decreed against him a double punishment For to the body He said Thou art earth and unto earth thou shalt returne But to the soule He said Thou shalt die the death And for this cause man being dead is condemned to depart to two places And therefore it was also necessary that the Iudge Himselfe that made this decree should also undergoe it that in the estate of man condemned shewing Himselfe free from sin uncondemned He might reconcile man unto God and restore him to perfect libertie In the same Epistle hee had said a little before that in hell He condemned death that Hee might every way perfect the salvation of man in our image which He had put on and in his fourth oration against the Arians hee saith that the powers of hell withdrew themselues being afraid at the sight of Christ. So the meaning of Athanasius is plaine that the soule of Christ did locally goe downe to hell and withall the meaning of our Church Now among these texts of Scripture by which this doctrine of Athanasius may bee warranted that text of the 1. Pet. 3.18.19 is most plaine especially as it stands in the Greeke Christ suffered for our sinnes that He might bring us unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put to death in the flesh but quickened in the Spirit by which He went and preached to the Spirits in prison Which Scripture must be applied onely to the manly being of Christ who Himselfe had set an example to His followers to suffer ill patiently which could be onely in His manly being For as God He could not suffer ill Beside His God-head mooves not by any locall motion as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doeth signifie And moreover His divine spirit was no way quickned nor could be but He went and preached in that Spirit in which He was quickned which could bee onely in His humane spirit or soule in which having once suffered death He manifested His power to the disobedient spirits by taking to Himselfe the keyes or power over hell and death to shut in and keepe out whom Hee will Reuel 1.18 And although I deny not that the sence is true and good He was quickned by the Spirit that holy Spirit which Hee received not by measure yet I hold that this is not the native meaning of this place and the best printed copies of Stephan Plantin and others are with me Neither will the words naturally beare that change of In and By Neither did the reverend Noel Deane of Pauls and other like Him accord with them Neither is this the onely place of Scripture that prooves the locall descent of Christs soule into hell For that argument of Saint Peter Act. 2.31 whereby hee prooves the resurrection of Christ out of Psalm 16. because His soule was not left in Hell strangles these interpreters harder then Achelous was strangled in the hand of Hercules So that which Ionah the figure said of himselfe being by Christ the substance applied to Himselfe To be three dayes in the heart of the earth must bee as true in the substance as it was figuratively true in Ionah This is the confession of him that was holy as no man was Psalm 68.2 Thou hast delivered my soule from the lowest hell vers 13. as the Apostle speakes Ephes 4.9 10. He descended first into the lower parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that Hee might fill all things So then the Scriptures not being of any private interpretation that is to set out the stories of private men 2. Peter 1.20 must have their highest and uttermost interpretation in Christ Now that this is the native interpretation of this Article and consequently the right meaning of the Composer or Composers of the Creed beside the texts of Scripture on which the Article is grounded it will bee further manifest by the Reasons 1. In a Catechisme the use of Tropes or borrowed speeches are not fit for the use of children and novices and such is the Creed or forme of the confession of our Faith as it is manifest Hebr. 6.1 And the suffering of Christ His Death Buriall c. is taken properly therefore His going downe also into hell Object Object If Christ went to the faithfull that were dead whose soules were in Paradise why doe you say to hell whereby is specially meant the place of the damned Answer Hee first went to the dead in Paradise as His promise was That the Thiefe should there bee with Him in Paradise Then to hell to take to Himselfe all rule all authority and power For God had put all things in subjection under His feet 2. If this Article He went downe to hell be not to bee referred to the soule of Christ after His death then have we no direction by the Creed to know what became of His soule neither are wee taught hereby whether He had a humane and immortall soule or no. So we are still left in doubt whether this Christ be the Saviour of the world But if this Article be referred to the state of Christs soule after His death then are we truely taught and informed against these doubts But that
of the Holy-Ghost give witnesse which Christ who five times in that one day and at sundry times afterwards shewing Himselfe alive did coâ—firme which the glorious Angels and the holy Women did assure to which the Apostles who did see and handâ—e Him 1. Iohn 1. that it was Hee Himselfe and not a Spirit which hath neither flesh nor bones with great power gave testimony wâ—ich His very enemies the Souldiers while they were yet unbribed did confesse Yea all the circumstances of the action it selfe reproove the blindnesse and infidelitie of the Iewes O ye fooles and blind how long will yoâ— not understand You see not your signes and wonders any more there is not one Prophet more the sigâ—es of your Messiah are fulfilled in Iesus the Sonne of the Virgin Mary that greâ—t Prophet that was raysed unto you as Moses of your brethren is there not oâ—e maâ— among you that understands any more Doe you not heare the words of your Prophet Hosea 1.7 I will save them saith GOD by IEHOVA their God aâ—d will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battell by horses nor by horse-men as you sâ—ill dreame But which is the greater deliverance that from hell and the power of sinne and eternall death or from any temporary and worâ—dly thraldome If the greatest deliveranâ—e bee performed why doate you on the lesse Which cannot bee till you forsake your infidelitie and returne Returne therefore unto Iesus your God from whom you are fallen by your unbeliefe Take with you words and turne to the Lord your God and say unto Him Take away our iniquity and receive us graciously so will wee render the calues of our lips But you will say why did not Christ shew Himselfe alive to all the Iewes at on e that they might all beleeve I answere that the life to which our Lord redeemed us is a spirituall life unto which we must walke by faith and not by sight And if it bee not sufficient proofe of His resurrection that He beside other times shewed Himselfe alive to five hundred at once 1. Cor. 15.6 neither would it have beene sufficient to them that seeing would not see and hearing would not heare who said that His great workes were done by the power of the devill though Hee had conversed among five hundred thousand of them every day ARTICLE VI. ⧠He ascended into heaven c. CHAP. XXX § 1. THough the Iustification of the Articles of our Creed bee my onely worke Yet heere I heare two questions demanded of mee The first who those were which are said Matth. 27.52 and 53. to have risen at the resurrection of Christ and to have shewed themselues to many in Ierusalem The second where our Lord was in that time of 40. dayes betweene His resurrection and ascension seeing it is manifest that He conversed not wholely with His Disciples but shewed Himselfe unto them at severall times and that especially on the first dayes of the weeke as on that day He had risen from the dead To these I answere where I have the authority of the Scripture boldly where I have not I leave you at your libertie to thinke with mee First therefore in the number of them that rose immediately after the resurrection of our Lord I put those high Saints which are reckoned in the Genealogie of our Lord from Adam unto Ioseph His nursing Father except Henoch and with them many of the Saints who had slept in the faith of Christ to come in the memory and knowledge of such as were yet alive in Ierusalem as Zechary and Elizabeth Simeon Hanna and many others who by speciall grace were raysed againe shewed themselues alive unto such as were appointed thereto and to them bare witnesse not onely of the resurrection of Christ but by experience in themselues did also testifie that the power and vertue of His Resurrection was of force and availe for the raising up of all them that should beleeue in Him And of these especially you must understand that speech of our Lord which is Iohn 5. Chapter from verse 19. to 30. where He saith that the houre was comming and was even then at hand when the dead should heare the voice of the Sonne of God and should live As you may remember how it was said Note a on the last Chapter that the faithfull are raised by the venue of Christs resurrection but they that shall be raised up to judgement at the last day are raised up by the power of the Father Of these faithfull that had dyed was that word of our Saviour spoken as it is manifest by the text And this is that captivitie or number of Captives which till then had beene held under the bands of death but by the victory of Christs resurrection were freed from death and ascended with Him on high when Hee gave gifts unto men Eph. 4.8 And although some will needes interpret that resurrection only of a new life by repentance from dead workes yet the arguments in that place will not so hold All that are in the graves shall heare the voyce of the Father and shall come foorth some to life some to damnation ver 28.29 Therfore some shall heare the voice of the Sonne and live verse 25. For the Father quickneth the dead so the Sonne verse 21. And whatsoever the Father doth the same things doth the Sonne likewise But to raise the dead and to give Repentance are not the same things So then that which is heere spoken by our Lord is no other thing than that which was prophesied by Hosea 6.2 The third day He will raise us up and wee shall live in His sight and was here fulfilled by the testimony of the Evangelist And if the first fruits be holy then also the whole lumpe Rom. 11.16 So that we which have the same faith shall at last receive the end of our hopes and have our parts in that holy resurrection whereof whosoever is partaker on Him the second death can have no power For as that prophesie of Ioel 2.18 was fulfilled in part after the ascension of our Saviour It shall be in the latter dayes that I will powre out of my Spirit upon all flesh c. Act. 2.17 and for a proofe or assurance of that which shall be fulfilled not in 120. Persons but in all flesh when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Es 11.9 Hab. 2.14 So likewise was that resurrection a pledge and assurance of that holy resurrection of the dead in Christ which shall rise first 1 Cor. 15.23 1 Thes 4.16 but the rest of the dead shall not rise till the time be fulfilled that they shall be judged according to those things that are written in the bookes Revel 20.4.5.12 Whereas of these it is said Iohn 5.24 That they shall not come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into iudgement much lesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into condemnation but are passed from
soules which they sent to Elysium as you may read of Anchises and others Aeneid 6. yet they supposed that their faâ—se gods and such as were by them canonized went up to heaven as Hercules Castor and Pollux Romulus and he that was one of the chiefe masters of the devills slaughter-men Iulius Caesar From whence you may reason thus The place of the greatest glory is most due to Him that is both the Creator and Restorer of all things But such was our Lord Iesus as it hath appeared before Therefore He ascended into heaven 5. It is necessary that the blessed and damned doe differ by all those meanes whereby the paines of the one and the blessednesse of the other may be increased The paines of the damned are increased by the horrour of that place wherein they are tormented therefore the ioyes also of the blessed are increased by the superexcellent beauty and pleasures of that place of their abode And because our Lord is blessed and holy above all that are blessed and holy therefore it is necessary that He should ascend into heaven 6. If Christ after His resurrection had not ascended into heaven then could no other creature bee blessed in heaven by His merit So the place of perfect blisse should be without inhabitants and therefore created in vaine So God should want that praise which were due to Him for His mercy and goodnesse shewed to the creature But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Angels and Saints are blessed in heaven and Christ our Lord their King among them See Iohn 14.2 3. and Ephes 2.6 7. If Christ our Lord had not ascended into heaven yea so that His ascension might be witnessed both by men and Angels Actes 1.10 11. then could not we which beleeve in Him have full assurance of those heavenly joyes that are laid up in store for us 1. So the Christian faith were all in vaine and we still subject to the punishment of our sinnes 2. So His Conception Birth Miracles Sufferings Death and Resurrection heretofore prooved should have beene in vaine So His owne preaching and of His messengers 4. So the prophecies of the Scriptures which were before concerning Him even since the world began should bee without their trueth 5. So the faith and hope of them which confesse the most gloâ—ious things of God concerning His goodnesse and mercy toward His creature which faith they have in Him being taught by Him out of his word and by the successe of all things that have come to passe accordingly should be frustrate But all these things are impossible And therefore God is gone up on high in triumph and our Lord with the sound of the trumpet all the holy Angels and the spirits and soules of the faithfull joying therein all the troopes of the heavens and the heavens of heavens attending His comming and submitting themselues to Him their Lord and King Open your heads ô yee gates and be yee set ope yee everlasting doores that the King of glory may come in Who is this King of glory The LORD of hostes mighty in battell euen our Lord IESVS who by the warres of His suffering and death on the Crosse and by the conquest of His resurrection hath overcome the powers of Hell He is the King of Glory Amen Notes a THerefore He ascended into Heaven This Article hath beene gainesayed by the heretickes diversly Cerinthus said That because Iesus was man onely conceived and borne as other men Hee was not yet risen but should rise at last Aug. de haer cap. 8. And thus by consequence he denied that our Lord ascended into heaven But this Iew both by nation and opinion is refuted before in all by the proofe of those Articles which he denied And because he brought nothing for the proofe of his opinions but onely opinion let them all vanish at the authority of the holy Scripture as mist before the Sunne Carpocrates as he had beene taught by Saturnilus said that the soule was onely saved Epiph haeres 23. So that the soule of Christ onely after it was freed from the body ascended to the Father Epiph heres 27. Against this heresie you may set the reasons and authorities of the Chapter before and them that follow in the Article of the resurrection of the body Chap. 38. The errour of Apelles you read before Note a on Chap. 26. § 1. N. 3. his reasons and their refutation you have Note a on Chapter 27. N. 3. The Seleucians confesse that Christ when He ascended tooke with Him His manly body and carryed it as high as the Sunne but there He put it off and left it there But Saint Paul affirmes that He ascended farre aboue all heavens that is all the visible heavens either of planets or starres yet they brought their reason out of the 19. Psalm vers 4. He hath set His tabernacle in the Sun So the vulgar translation of the Latines hath it from the Greeke and so all the Greeke copies reade it except that of Aquila who according to the Hebrew hath it thus In them the heavens He set a tabernacle for the Sunne and this helpes the Seleucians nothing But the errour which hath swayed most against this Article and which with their sacriledge if they could see it hath now defaced their Church is that of the Vbiquitaries who because they beleeve that very substance of the body and blood of Christ is received with the Bread and Wine they are compell'd to say That His naturall body may be in many and consequently in all places at once as His God-head is And therefore that this ascension of Christ must be nothing else but a disappearance out of the earth or a vanishing from the sight of men For the ground of their opinion they urge the word of our Lord This is my body This is my blood but they deny not the Bread and Wine to continue still which if it be true then the sence of the words must bee In this or with this Bread and Wine is my body and blood But the words beare no such meaning but prove much rather that transubstantiation or change of the Bread and Wine into the body and blood of Christ which the Papists would But this opinion of the Papists were to denie Christ to have taken flesh of the Virgin Mary and so to have beene made of the seed of David at least in part of His bodily being when His hody and blood should be made of bread and wine I but it is said Matth. 28.20 I am with you unto the end of the world Answere Not by His bodily being but by His continuall providence and the graces of His Holy Spirit as Saint Augustine saith Corpus suum intulit Coelo majestatem non abstulit mundo Tract 50. in Ioh. But the Centurists cite also the auctorities of the Fathers for their consubstantiation as of Iust Martyr in Tryph. of Tertullian against Marcion but corruptly and falsly and of Origen but
every man in his greatest security are so many summons to every man to think on that day For as the pilgrimage of Israel in the wildernesse was the type of our pilgrimage in this world so their punishments were types unto us 1 Cor. 10.11 But there is no type but of some thing which is to be indeed So that the destruction of the people in the wildernesse were both to them and especially to us on whom the ends of the world are come an assured argument of this great judgement at the last day And as the carcasses of them that were disobedient fell in the wildernesse whereas the rest enjoyed the promised land So all those punishments that were remembred bring to the faithfull an assured hope that God will deliver them For Noah and Lot were saved from destruction Ebedmelech and Baruâ—h had their lives given as a prey Ezechiel Daniel and they that were signified by the basket of good figges Iere. 24.5 were carryed away for their good The Christians likewise were safe at Pella in the destruction of Ierusalem Euseb Ecclesiast hist lib. 3 Cap. 5. So He delivereth from the noysome pestilence Psalm 91.3 c. and in the dayes of famine those that wait on Him shall have enough Psal 37.19 So these things are testimonies unto us both that there shall be a judgement and that the godly shall be saved and the wicked condemned 12 And as if nature it selfe had imprinted the acknowledgment of this judgement in every mans mind so there was never any man c that confessed the resurrection but did withall confesse this generall judgement And therefore though every other Article of our Creed have been impugned by some hereticke or other yet never any gainesayd this I meane since those errours were stilled in the Apostles time See 2 Thess 2.1 2 3. But whether it be that every man acknowledging the justice of God as no man can confesse him to be God whom he doth not beleeve to be just and a rewarder of them that diligently seeke Him Hebr. 11.6 or whether it be that the testimonies of the holy Scripture are so cleare in this point as that they have stopped the mouthes of all heretickes the thing it selfe is most certaine to be as it may appeare by the texts of Scripture already cited and by these also that follow Psalm 9. vers 8. The Lord hath prepared His Throne for judgment He shall judge the world in righteousnesse He shall minister judgment unto the people in uprightnesse And Psalm 50. vers 3 4 5 6. God shall come A fire shall devoure before Him Hee shall call to the heavens from above and to the earth that Hee may judge His people c. Psalm 96.13 The Lord commeth to judge the earth Hee shall judge the world with righteousnesse and the people with His trueth As it is also Psalm 98.9 Eccles. 11.9 Rejoyce ô young man in thy youth c. but know that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgement And Eccles. 12.14 God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it bee ill Reade hereto 2 Pet. 3. Chap. from vers 7. to 15. and Reu. 20. Chap. from vers 11. to the end Sect. 6 § 6. Thus it being manifest that the judgement shall be it must also appeare that our Lord Iesus must bee that judge Whereto though I have said that which may be sufficient at the beginning of the Chapter yet because it is our speciall hope and comfort that He shall be our judge that was our Creator that hath so dearely bought us that hath been our Mediator that doth evermore preserue us from the power of the enemy let us both begin and end with this lest the conscience of our owne sinnes and the remembrance of that fearefull time should cause us not to long for that comming For if God be very terrible in the assembly of His Saints Psalm 89.7 how much more in that gloomy day when He comes to render vengeance with devouring fire before Him and to repay His aduersaries to their face and to passe on them that fearefull sentence that shall d never be reversed and from which there is no appeale But lift up your heads you that are little in your owne eyes and tremble at His words for that is the day of your redemption and God Himselfe will come and save you And because He is God He knowes the secrets of your hearts and sees your reverence and your feare before Him and your acknowledgment of your owne unworthinesse And because He is man and hath had experience of sorrowes and passed under the burden of unjust and cruell judgement and hath for us endured the Crosse and shame that we might be delivered from the wrath to come therefore lift up your heads and receive the reward of your faith and patience and the end of your hopes the eternall saluation of your soules and bodies 1. For if our Lord having suffered such things for us and having overcome in all His sufferings having ascended into heaven to be our continuall intercessor for us should not then give unto us that everlasting life which He hath purchased for us His sufferings and intercession should be altogether in vaine and our faith in Him which He hath wrought in us by His holy Spirit should be utterly void and those promises which Hee hath giuen us in His holy Word should faile of their trueth and performance But all these things are impossible And therefore our Lord Iesus shall come to give reward unto His seruants both small and great Revel 11.18 and to cast out the unbeleevers out of His kingdome 2. In things that are orderly disposed for an end nothing may be omitted of those things that are necessary for the attainement of that end The end of our Lords incarnation and sufferings concernes either God or man Concerning mankind euerlasting life in all happinesse and joy is that great end for which our Saviour was incarnate died and rose againe and shall raise us up at the last day And by His judgement of mercy and compassion on us shall deliver unto us the seisure and possession of that eternall happinesse Therefore our Lord Iesus shall be judge of the quicke and the dead Concerning God it is necessary that in His love to His Father and zeale to His honour Hee take vengeance on them that have offended the infinite justice and despised that mercy and pardon which hath beene offered unto them and still have continued in their sin and followed it with greedinesse Therefore in this respect also our Lord Iesus Christ shall be the Iudge of the quicke and the dead 3. And seeing our Lord Iesus hath undertaken that honourable enterprise vtterly to destroy the workes of the devill it is necessary that He leave nothing unperformed which doth belong to the accomplishment thereof Therefore Hee shall judge those Angels which are reserved in chaines of
also power to worke And if from hence I should conclude a Trinity of Persons in the unity of that one powerfull and active being the whole creature would say Amen For as every effect is answerable to the cause and by that voyce which it hath shewes what the cause was so you shall finde that every created being hath in it matier or that which is proportionable thereto which is as the simple being thereof then forme whereby it hath power to worke and lastly working according to that property which ariseth from the matier and the forme For as Saint Paul saith of mankind so is it true in every thing That in Him or By Him we moove that is our action and Live that is the power from whence our action ariseth and Are that is the foundation of both the other But because this argument would be but inductive therefore I referre you to the 11. Chapter before for further proofe of the Trinity of Persons in unity of the Godhead Returne then to where you left GOD is the first of beings and therefore eternall à parte antè for otherwise something should have beene before Him which should have caused Him to be but we consented to the contrary before And if He be the first of beings then nothing made by Him can be greater then He by whose power He might be brought to nothing And therefore He is eternall à parte post to endure for ever eternally And if God be the first of all beings then it is necessary that His being be most simple and pure as having nothing therein of any dependance of another unto whom either matier forme composition accident or any possibility to be either more lesser greater or other then He is can any way belong And if God be eternall it followes necessarily that He have infinite power to continue eternally But an infinite power cannot be but in an infinite being therefore His being is infinite And because nothing can be in His most simple being but that which is essentially Himselfe therefore infinitie must be His being and His being infinitie And if God be infinite in His being then it is impossible that any perfection of being should be wanting to His being for so His being could not be infinite And therefore Wisedome Goodnesse Trueth Glory and all other excellencies of being are in Him infinitely perfectly and eternally And because no abatement want or littlenesse can be in infinitie therefore is it necessary that all those perfections which are in God be also active or working in Him for otherwise they could cause no joy or happines unto Him so should they be unto Him in want and defect and not in infinity Therefore it is necessary that all those perfections that are in God be not onely active in Him but also as infinite in their action as they are in their being lest a twofold being one in the greatnesse of being and another in lessenesse of action should be in God which is utterly impossible But because no action can be where there is no object to worke upon nor no infinite action where there is not an infinite object therefore it is necessary that there be an infinite object of all that glorious action which is in God wherby He works infinitely and eternally And this infinite object is that glorious Sonne of His love the image of Himselfe wherein all His perfection is actuated and expressed and that infinite action whereby the Sonne is Characterized Hebr. 1.3 Formed See Esay 43.10 or brought foorth eternally is the Holy-Ghost And because there can be no action where either the agent or object is wanting therefore is the Holy-Ghost most truely said to proceed from the Father and the Sonne And because I speake onely of that incommunicable action which is in God Himselfe from whence the difference of the three Persons doth arise therefore you must understand that as the action so the Persons also are in the Godhead essentially and that not onely because the action is according to the purity and perfection of the Divine being but also because all the termes thereof that is the Agent the object and the Action it selfe are infinite and eternall which cannot possibly be found out of the Godhead And thus in briefe you see it manifest not onely that God is but also that His being is infinite and eternall with all the perfections both of being and working and how from the infinitie of His glorious and eternall working the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godhead is concluded and consequently that the Holy-Ghost is God eternally proceeding from the Father and the Sonne For further understanding and proofe of all which things you may if you will as cause is reade any of the 12. first Chapters at the beginning Notes a IF the procession of the Holy-Ghost The heresies which have been about this Article of our Creed have beene many and great For the more necessary any trueth is to be knowne and beleeved the more damnable heresies hath the devill raised thereabout But as the heresies that were about our Lord Christ so these here may be brought to three heads The first concerne the person of the Holy-Ghost § 1. The second His being § 2. The third His properties § 3. § 1. Concerning the person of the Holy-Ghost Simon that eldest sonne of Satan would be all in all For he said that he gave the Law to Moses in mount Sina in the person of the Father that in the dayes of Tiberius he suffered in shew under the Person of the Sonne and that after he was that Holy-Ghost that came upon the Apostles in the shew of cloven tongues Thus saith Augustine Haer 1. But Epiphanius Haer 21. saith that he called his Punke Helena the Holy-Ghost for whose deare sake he transformed himselfe that he might come to her thorow all the heavens unknowne of his angels But this fellow presuming too much on the power of his devills while he tooke upon him to ascend into heaven againe he died of the fall and so the necke of his heresie was broken Manes a Persian the father of the Manichees erred the same heresie with Simon the Witch and gave out himselfe for the holy Spirit but being slayed alive by the King of Persia he found himselfe to be a body and not a spirit Hierax an Egyptian Monke affirmed that Melchizedek of whom you reade Gen. 14. was the Holy-Ghost Some there be that write concerning Montanus the Phrygian that he tooke upon him to be the Holy-Ghost But Eusebius lib. 5. cap. 14. and Augustine Haer 86. affirme that this heresie was onely thus much that he had received that Comforter which was promised Iohn 15.26 in greater measure then the Apostles and in this his followers the Cataphryges and with them Tertullian himselfe as it appeares by some of his writings did consent to him But Epiphanius in that 48. heresie cites the words of Montanus thus I came neither Angel nor
Councell of Florence in the yeere 1439. grew more hot than they had beene before and that because the Greekes then present in that Councell in hope to draw them of the West into their helpe against the Turks did seemingly yeeld to that trueth which these Churches in the West doe holde in that point yet it appeares that in the time of Damascen about the yeere 750. it was their received opinion For thus he writes Orthod fidei lib. 1. Cap. 13. He is the Spirit of the Sonne not proceeding from Him but from the Father by Him For the Father onely is the cause Nay if you looke yet higher in that explanation which the Councell of Constantinople spoken of even now made of that Article of the Holy-Ghost in the Nicene Creed that clause and from the Sonne is left out so that this errour seemes not new but falshood is as ancient as the devills apostacie and no antiquitie can make it trueth And if you looke to the authorities of Scripture brought before to this point in the Chap. § 1. and consider well the reasons in Chapter 11. you shall see how rotten this opinion is and how justly the clause And from the Sonne was added by the Latine Churches as they declare it in that Councell of Florence spoken of before So that falshood which some write to Paulus of Samosata that the Holy-Ghost is not any divine subsistence but onely the working and grace of God in the hearts of men and that which they write of Servetus that it is onely a certaine vigor or strength whereby every thing created is mooved naturally at the sight of the same authorities and reasons will vanish as mist before the wind Those childish fantasies of the Elleasites or Sampseans of which you read in Epiphanius Haer. 30. and Haer. 53. would trouble your hearing Sect. 3 § 3. So the onely heresie which is yet remaining is that which concernes the propriety or working of the Holy-Ghost Concerning whom some affirmed that He was not given sufficiently to the Apostles and that therefore further revelations were necessary to be made by them that had greater measure of that gift The Cataphryges or disciples of Montanus and the Manichees must needs be chiefe herein For if they had held that the gifts of the Holy-Ghost had beene given to the Apostles sufficiently their fancies of their new Comforters to teach them more then was needfull had never beene hatcht And among these Tertullian was most too blame who having once detested the Montanists did afterward both follow their errour and defend it But if that Holy Spirit should leade the Apostles into all trueth yea and shew them the things to come as the promise was Iohn 16.13 What further sufficiencie would these Hereticks require They might say the Disciples were ignorant of many things after the Holy-Ghost was come upon them for Peter accounted the Gentiles uncleane Act. 10. Answere But they were not ignorant of any thing that was needfull for the Church to know as S. Paul saith Actes 20.27 That he had declared unto them all the Counsell of God so according to the dispensation of the times which God had appointed the Gentiles were taken into the fellowship of the Faith For though they were commanded to preach repentance and forgivenesse of sinnes to all Nations yet the preaching must begin at Ierusalem Luk. 24.47 from Esa 2.3 Therefore they preached not to the Gentiles till the time was come and then Philip was sent to preach to the Eunuch Actes 8.26 and 29. and Peter to Cornelius Actes 10. and Barnabas and Paul euery where but with this condition first to offer the word of reconciliation to the Iewes and after to the Gentiles because the Children must first be fed See Marke 7.27 and Actes 13.46 So concerning the declaration of things to come Agabus foretold the famine Actes 11.28 that the Church in time might provide for due reliefe So the prophecyes of Saint Paul 2. Thes 2. and 1. Tim. Chap. 4. of Peter 2. Epistle Chap. 2. and 3. and Iohn Rev. all are no lesse lights for the knowledge of the true Doctrine and Church of Christ in these dayes than the prophecyes of old were for the knowledge of Christ when He should come and the benefits which the faithfull should receive by Him unto the Church which was before His manifestation in the flesh And if the Providence of God bee upon all His creatures His speciall mercy and compassion upon His chosen so that Hee never leaues them destitute of that which He knowes to be fit for them can any but Pepuzians and such franticks thinke that God will bee carelesse of His Church for whose sake He gave His onely Sonne to die Or can any man be such an Infidell as to thinke that the instruction of the Holy-Ghost who is God blessed above all is not sufficient to guide the Church according to the rule of trueth the Holy Scripture in the right way to everlasting life Therefore follow that rule and pray for that guide and let the follies of these Enthousiasts for ever vanish The second supply Of that inestimable gift of God the holy Scripture which Hee by His holy Spirit hath given to the Church CHAP. XXXIIII THough for Adams sinne God did hide His face from man except when either in justice Hee did punish his sinne or in mercy declare the meanes and give assurance how he should be freed therefrom as it appeares in Adam Cain Abraham Moses and the Prophets untill the time came that the promise of the redemption was fulfilled Yet by His holy Word hath He so fully provided for the direction and comfort of His Church and every one of His children therein that there is nothing in the whole course of mans life whether in things that are to be done or left undone or in things that are to be beleeved or not to be beleeved in whatsoever it is fit for us to expect any direction or comfort from God immediately wherein He hath not most particularly declared His holy will It was a wonderfull grace and favour beyond all other men unto Moses that whensoever he went into the Tabernacle he might talke with God face to face as a man converses with his friend Is not the same grace vouchsafed to us who not onely in the Churches but even in our private chambers or in the open fields may talke with God and receive His answere in His word And lest any man may pretend ignorance or want of skill how to present himselfe unto God all manner of formes of thankes of of praise of prayers are set out in the Scripture and all summ'd up in that forme which our Lord hath taught us And that we may come boldly unto the Throne of Grace and be assured to find helpe in the time of need we shall in His Word not onely receive His owne Answer but likewise see by examples how holy and devout men have sped in the like cases Thus we
may speake to God and heare His speech to us in all places at all times either alone or with others the holy Angels joyning in our conversation and our selves never destitute of the fruit thereof And because the holy Scriptures are the foundation of all our faith therefore it must first appeare That these Scriptures are the very Word of God Himselfe § 1. Then how necessary it was and behovefull for the Church that God should vouchsafe thereto the knowledge of His Word § 2. Thirdly to shew what these Scriptures are § 3. Fourthly to justifie their perfection or sufficiencie § 4. Fiftly to shew that they are come unto us in the integrity as they were at first delivered to the Church § 5. Then to speake of their easinesse to be understood § 6. And lastly of their interpretation § 7. Sect. 1 § 1. Concerning the first it is an irrefragable argument that the Scriptures were given of God because the Prophecies in them which were before-hand concerning things to come were such perfect declarations of them as that they may rather seeme to be Histories then Prophecies Take for instance that promise to Abraham that his seed should possesse Canaan after 430. yeeres and accordingly in the selfe same day Exod. 12.40 41. were they brought out of Egypt Or the promise of Iudahs Kingdome foretold by Iacob Gen. 49.8 9 10. Of Iosia and Cyrus prophecied by name the one above 300. yeeres the other above 100. yeeres before he was borne Of the captivity of that nation and destruction of Ierusalem foretold by Daniel For seeing God alone is infinite in His wisedome and that all His workes are foreknowne to Him alone therefore can He alone declare from the beginning what shall come to passe at the last as He saith of Himselfe Isa 42.9 whereas the Angels being finite both in their wisedome and knowledge know nothing of things to come but either by speciall revelation as Gabriel foretold the birth of Iohn Baptist or by the Prophecies of the Scripture or by observation of naturall causes in their long and subtile experiences And therefore it came to passe that all the devils that mocked the heathen by their Oracles were so uncertaine in their answeres except they were informed by some of the meanes spoken of As the devil gave a certaine answere to Alexander concerning his expedition against Darius because he knew what the Decree of God was by the Prophecie of Daniel Chap. 8. 2. Another Argument that the Scriptures were given by the Holy-Ghost is that admirable consent of all the Doctrines contained therein which are delivered with that certaintie of Truth and Knowledge with that authority and power over the soule of the faithfull Reader and that in so simple and plaine a manner of writing as no other whereas in mens writings the unsetlednesse of their judgement their ignorance and doubtfull suppositions especially when they speake of their owne as seldome they doe justifies the holy Text Rom. 1.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professing to teach they shew their folly 3. Moreover the Argument or things contained in the holy Scriptures doth manifest the Author thereof the Writers for the most part shewing their Commission Thus saith the Lord and Paul an Apostle not by man but by Iesus Christ and God the Father Then the purport or intent of the Commission We are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled unto God And this under such conditions as none but God alone is able to performe of acceptance eternall life or refusall eternall fire 4. The glorious and mighty workes which Almighty God gave especially to the first Writers of the Law and of the Gospel to doe and those miracles whereby He continually justified the trueth thereof the wonderous preservation and deliverances of the professors as of Daniel c. And the balefull confusion of the adversaries of the Trueth contained in the Scriptures in all ages approve that God alone is the Author thereof 5. The hatred of the devil and his continuall endeavours either utterly to deface the Bookes of the holy Scripture or upon pretext of obscurity and danger of Heresie not to reade them And againe the providence of God in preserving those Bookes and the love and delight which He hath begotten in the hearts of His Saints to reade and understand them are no lesse proofe that these Holy Scriptures are the Word of God and the Testimony of His eternall Truth 6. The extraordinary calling of many of the Pen-men of the holy Bookes and the enabling of them being simple and unlettered men to write and to preach those high Mysteries which none of the Princes of this world did understand as of Amos among the Herdmen of Peter Iames and Iohn and the other of the twelve Apostles shew that the Author of that Truth and their Bookes was God alone 7. The great 1. Antiquity of the Bookes of the Law preserved so long uncorrupted for in comparison of Moses almost all the writings of the heathen all their religions and many of their Gods are but upstarts and things of yesterday 2. The great simplicity and sincerity of the Writers who sought not their own praise nor concealed their owne faults and imperfections 3. The consent of the Church which receiued the Scriptures as the word of God 4. The consent of forraine Histories writing of the same things with such uncertaintie and untruth as time and heare-say use to bring into History as of Berosus Herodotus Strabo Trogus and others are a manifest proofe that the true records of the same things are the writings which God Himselfe did dictate to Moses and the Prophets which followed after him For none but God did truely know the creation of the world and none among men did certainely record the universall flood the Tower of Babel the actes of Abraham Iacob Ioseph Moses Ioshua and others So that if the devill might vaunt as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I did indite and Homer did write In the perfection of truth might the Holy Spirit of God say as it is recorded 2. Tim. 3.16 All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God And 1. Pet. 1.21 Prophecie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy-Ghost 6. And if wee beleeve that the writings of Historians and Poets and other profane Authors are indeed theirs under whose names they goe shall wee not much rather beleeve that they are the writings of God Himselfe that goe under His Name especially seeing wee know that Hee is a jealous God and neither would suffer His authority to bee abused to falshood neither would Hee give His Church to bee ever seduced by lyars and false prophets Sect. 2 § 2. And these holy Oracles God of His Goodnesse and Mercy would have to bee written from whence by their excellencie above all other they are called Scriptures
or Writings 1. First that wee through patience and comfort of these Scriptures might have firme and sure hope in God and His promises Rom. 15.4 2. Secondly that nothing through mans infirmity might be forgotten of all that which ought to be in continuall remembrance 3. Lest by the wickednesse of men and the subtilty of the devil inciting them thereto the holy Doctrine of God might be corrupted from the native and true meaning and so new Doctrines and new Religions brought in in stead of that Service which we owe onely to God and that according to His owne revealed Will and Word 4. No man knoweth the thoughts of a man but onely that spirit of a man which is within him much lesse can any know the things of God but onely the holy Spirit of God The things of God of which I speake are either such as concerne Himselfe or us Himselfe as that in His being He is a Spirit Eternall infinite in Wisedome c. In essence one in Persons three in His dispensation towards us that in the fulnesse of time the Eternall Sonne should dwell in the Tabernacle of our flesh that in our nature and for us He might make satisfaction for our sinne that we might be restored againe to the favour of God which wee had lost by our transgression and so have hope of the full enjoying of those benefits which come unto us thereby as the resurrection of our bodies and eternall life both in body and soule And because it was impossible for us to understand those things except God Himselfe had revealed them unto us therfore it was necessary that He should vouchsafe the certaine and immutable knowledge of them by His Holy Word 5. No Kingdome can bee ordered according to Iustice wherein the Lawes are not manifest and to bee knowne of every subject that will know them But Christ is that King that is to raigne in Iustice Esay 32.1 Therefore it was necessary that the lawes and ordinances of His Kingdome which peculiarly is His Church should be so published that every one both small and great might take knowledge of them 6. No punishment is due but for some offence and where no law is there is no transgression Rom. 4.15 So no reward is due but either in justice for some merit above dutie as the merit of Christ on our behalfe or else in mercie by promise for the carefull performance of that which is due But neither duty nor punishment nor merit nor mercie can either appeare or be such where no law is Therefore it was necessary that God by His Word should both shew what duty He did require of us and what punishment was due to the breakers of His law and what reward was due to the observers as the law declares And moreover because no man in this state of corruption by originall sinne is able to performe the law of God as he ought in perfect righteousnesse Therefore it was also necessary in this impossibilitie on our parts to make it knowne how wee might bee delivered from the punishment by the mediation of another as the Gospel shewes 7. And because so great a benefit as the deliverance of mankind from the thraldome of the devill was never to bee forgotten therefore it was necessary not onely that the Church should bee prepared unto the expectation thereof and dayly put in mind by such lively signes as the sacrifices were the true meaning of which they were taught by the Prophets but also when the time came that the promises should bee fulfilled that the Church should be throughly informed and confirmed in the trueth thereof by the powerfull doctrine and glorious miracles which were done both by the authour and finisher of our faith and by those who were eye-witnesses of all things which they testified to the world Therefore it was necessary that both before the comming of Christ the Church should be catechised unto Christ by the doctrine of the Law and the Prophets and after His comming bee fully instructed by the Apostles and Evangelists the Holy-Ghost evermore working in the hearts of the elect that the things which were taught should be beleeved § 3. Hath it indeede beene the practise of the devill by his principall agents the persecuters of the Church to deface the Holy Scripture and to put out their remembrance among men Histories affirme it Neither can the Father of lies hate any thing so much as the trueth nor the enemie of man-kind endeavour any thing so earnestly as to deface that by the knowledge whereof man may find the way to eternall life yet great was the trueth and prevailed Then by hereticks he would corrupt it but yet the trueth prevailed Then hee would keepe it from us in an unknowne tongue but yet the trueth appeared and every man may reade in his owne tongue the wonderfull workes of God English and Germanes and French and the rest yet the devill had one tricke more in his budget that seeing hee could neither deface nor corrupt nor conceale the bookes of Holy Scripture in a forraine tongue whose vulgar use is vanish't among men he would shuffle in other bookes among them that so we might not discerne the true Mother from the false And if any question grew about the Child traditions which wee must receive with equall affection of piety must decide it Strange Divinitie Did the Church deale thus of ancient time For you onely are wise you onely will be the people Shew the custome of the Church you claime to Fathers shew it from them Saint Athanasius in Synops. divides the bookes of the Old-Testament as wee into Canonicall and not Canonicall The Canonicall he accounts all as wee save Esther the not Canonicall he accounts the booke of Wisdome Esther Iudith and Tobit The books of the New-Testament all Canonicall hee numbers as wee the foure Gospels the Actes the seven Catholike Epistles fourteene of Saint Paul among which following Saint Peter Second Epistle 3.15 he puts that to the Hebrewes and the Revelation Epiphanius also Lib. de Mens pond accounts the Canonicall bookes as Athanasius but puts Esther among them he accounts Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus to be apocryphal Ierom. in Prol. Gal. accounts the Canonicall bookes of the Old-Testament as Epiphanius and as the manner of the Hebrewes was of old they count the books according to the number of the Hebrew letters 22. as the knops nuts or almonds on the golden candlestick were 22. for the Lamentations was one book with the prophesie of Ieremiah and the 12. small Prophets made but one Booke and as five of their bookes were double that is Iude and Ruth 2. of Samuel 2. of Kings and 2. of Chron. Ezra and Nehem. in one booke so are 5. of their letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the end of words are thus written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in Summe they speake of their bookes altogether the Law and the Prophets as Luk. 16.29 and 31. and 24.27 Actes
24.14 and 26.22 and 28.23 And yet some-what more particularly the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes and this division of the bookes of the Holy Scripture our Lord also allowes Luke 24.44 But in this last division the bookes are numbred 24. first of Moses 2. Foure of the former Prophets as they call them Ioshua Iudges Samuel and Kings 3. Foure also of the later Prophets Esay Ieremie Ezechiel and the Booke of the 12. small Prophets 4. The Kethubim or holy writing contained 11. bookes the 5. Poeticall that is the Psalmes Proverbs Ecclesiastes Iob and the Canticles three which they called Megilloth volumes or rolles Ruth Lamentations and Esther among which the booke of Canticles is sometimes accounted and 2. halfe Chaldee which were last written Daniel Ezra with Nehemiah and the Chronicles And these holy writings they divided from the other prophecies because they were not given either by dreame or by vision or by hearing a voice or in any extasie but were inspired by the Holy-Ghost immediately And according to this order of the bookes of the Holy Scripture divers Hebrew Bibles have bin lately printed as one by Plantin in Oct. another by Hutterus in Folio and others Now concerning the bookes of the New-Testament Saint Ierom ad Paulin. reckons them as wee And are not these Aramites strucke with blindnesse that print the Bible the decree of Trent and those prologues of Ierom before it that it may appeare how they set the Fathers at naught But for the full decision of this question let us looke unto the undoubted truth of the Scripture by the Scripture it selfe let us learne what is Scripture or the word of God 1. Therfore concerning the books of the New-Testament M. Luther accounted the Epistle of S. Iames to bee aridam stramineam dry as a Kix and his followers give their reasons against it 1. the seeming opposition which is betweene him and S. Paul in the question of justification by faith and by works 2. because hee teacheth not but supposeth onely that which is the sum of the Gospel that is the redemption of the world by the death of Christ as some men speake for Athanasius concerning the booke of Esther that none of the names of God are mentioned therein to which others answere that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mimmakom acher in Chap. 4. v. 14. is for sense in that place equivalent to any of the names of God which the prophet did there forbeare to remember because hee would not that any of the names of God should bee prophaned among the heathen with whom he lived So also Luther held the Revelation to be the writing of some well-meaning honest man but not Canonical Wherein I thinke the wonderfull wisdome and mercy of God appeared to hide the meaning of that booke from him lest he should be destroyed with pride when he should see himselfe and his ministery so alluded to therein But let Luther and his followers in this question thinke by themselues betweene us and the Church of Rome there is no difference both parties holding all the bookes of the New-Testament to be canonical The onely doubt is about the books which we call Apocryphal of unknowne and obscure Authors or strange doctrines delivered therein In which question the Canon or rule of the New-Testament is for us For concerning all the books of the Old-Testament the reason stands thus 1. All the oracles of God or Canonicall Scripture was received in the Church of the Iewes But none of the Apocryphall bookes were received in the Church of the Iewes Therefore none of the Apocryphall bookes are the Oracles of God The proposition is Saint Pauls and he accounts it as well hee may the first and chiefe preeminence of the Iew that unto them the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 The assumption is manifest for the Apocryphall bookes were extant onely in Greeke which language the Iewes never used in their holy seruices And although the booke of Ecclesiasticus were begun by the grandfather in Hebrew yet was it augmented and finished in Greeke by the grand-child And although the first booke of the Maccabees were extant in Hebrew yet was it not therefore Canonicall no more than the second that was written in Greeke So the conclusion stands sure And if neither the Church before Christ received those Apocryphall bookes nor the ancient Church since His suffering accounted them Canonicall for the Authour of the Sophisticate Cannons of the Apostles wee receive not upon what ground then should the Fathers of Trent presume to doe that which neither the Primitive Church or Fathers attempted before 2. Such another argument you have from Luke 24.27 where it is said that Christ beginning at Moses and all the Prophets expounded unto them all the Scriptures the things that were written concerning Himselfe So all the Scriptures are understood by the Law and the Prophets as I shewed before and yet for further explication it is added in verse 44. the Law the Prophets and the Psalmes For of all the Cethubim the booke of Psalmes was first and by a Synecdoche is put for all the rest Now to which of all these will you bring the Apocryphall bookes By the Law you understand the five Bookes of Moses which the Samaritanes and all the sects of the Iewish Religion except the hereticks called Nasacheans â—id receive The sects of the Sadduces and Samaritanes rejected the rest but the Church of the Iewes held all the Prophets both former and later with all the Kebuthim to bee holy Scripture but the Apocrypha are reckoned with none of these 3. A third argument from the holy Scripture against these apocryphals is from Revel 19.10 The testimony of Iesus is the Spirit of prophecie But in these apocryphals which the Iewes received not there is no prophecy no evident testimony of Iesus that was to come Therefore they are no witnesses of Him no word of His. And although in the fourth booke of that supposed Esdras there be mention of Iesus Christ Chap. 7.27 28. yet the false narration of things never done and other fictions See Master Brerew Enq. Chap. 13. have discredited those bookes so farre that the Papists themselves doe not mention them in their new Canon and vouchsafe them a place in the end of their Bibles onely lest they should be lost Object But the Fathers themselves call these bookes Canonicall Answer And our Church yeelds they are so in the meaning of the Fathers that is serving for rules of good life and vertue but not of faith as the holy Scriptures and that is the question betweene us and Trent Sect. 4 § 4. That the holy Scripture is abundantly sufficient to teach all things that belong to faith and godlinesse is manifest by the reasons brought for the proofe of the second question That it was necessary for us that God by His written Word should vouchsafe unto us the knowledge of His will 1. For how could either our hope
differences are found But although in that booke set out in folio by Robert Stephan 1550. the differences I thinke are not fewer then the divers readings in the Old Testament yet are they not such as make any change of the sence at all except such as all will confesse to be the fault of the writer as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.11 and these are very seldome found Then concerning that which some others bring for the vulgar edition of the Latine to be authenticall if upon better view they will be content where it is faulty or doubtfull to examine and correct it by the Greeke copy we shall not need to spend any time about it So the onely opposition is from Mahumed who although he speakes more then can be look't for from an aduersary concerning Christ and commends His disciples and other penne-men of the New Testament as men Holy True and Faithfull followers of their Master yet he saith that the Christians which were after them corrupted their writings And that it may appeare what spirit set this mutinous souldier a worke he denies that which is the ground and foundation of our redemption saying That Christ was neither the Sonne of God nor yet that He was crucified for us See Cusa Cribr Alchoran lib. 1. cap. 3. I have already prooved that our Mediator must be God Chap. 21. And likewise that our Saviour was crucified for us Chap. 27. N. 2. And if the reasons there delivered be of force to proove the conclusions then doe they sufficiently refute this falshood of Mahumed and if this Forger had wit to understand it we say no other thing of Christ when according to the Scriptures we call Him the Sonne of God then Mahumed himselfe saith when according to the selfe same Scriptures he calls Him the Word of God For though Sonne in the Scripture be of large signification As sonnes of the quiver for arrowes Lam. 3.13 Sonnes of Sion that is citizens there Psal 149.2 Sonnes of the wedding 〈…〉 chamber that is the bridegroomes friends Matth. 9.15 and many such like in which the word may seeme to bee vsed metaphorically yet is the word properly and truely spoken of every effect that is homogeneous although there be no generation betweene a male and a female as the branches are the daughters of the Vine Gen. 49.22 and the sparks are truely called the sonnes of the cole Iob 5.7 So in that which the mind or understanding of man doth view the name thereof the word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ratio under which it is conceived and the expression thereof is likewise the Son of the understanding and much more in that eternall and infinite understanding of God in the view of His owne being shall the character or actuall expression of that infinite being be truely called the Word or Sonne of God 1. But it cannot be true which Mahumed saith concerning the writings of the Apostles that they are corrupted For as in all other so in the particulars the Testaments doe both agree and it hath been prooved before that the bookes of the Old Testament doe still remaine in their integrity 2. Neither can the trueth in these two points concerning Christ which had been professed 600 yeeres almost before Mahumed was borne which so many Christians in all their persecutions had so constantly sealed unto with so many thousands of their bloods shed in every corner of the world be defaced by a new devised forgery of Mahumed 3. Moreover what can be more absurd and witlesse then to say or thinke that the Christians would falsify the Scriptures in these two points for which above all other things their Religion was hated by the Infidels and themselues so deadly persecuted because they held Him to be God that had died as a man and affirmed that He had risen againe whom they confessed to have died on the Crosse Neither doth he accuse the Christians in these two things only but also that they had defaced his name and memory out of that promise which our Lord made to His disciples concerning the Holy-Ghost For Mahumed would be he by whom they should be led into all trueth Mars Fic de Christ Rel. cap. 36. and out of him Hugo Grocius de Rel Christ lib. 6. But Mahound you never declared what things should come as the promise of the Holy-Ghost doth stand For as you disclaime miracles so where you speake beside the text of the Scripture you utter onely your owne errours 2. Moreover this promise was made to the Apostles and to bee fulfilled in them especially by whose ministery the word was to proceed from Sion among the Gentiles which was never promised to be preached by Mahumed or his theeues of Arabia 3. Beside that glorious gift of the Holy-Ghost the manifestation whereof by speaking with tongues and working miracles had ceased in the Church long before Mahumed was borne insomuch that Aug. 200 yeeres before him had profest that he that would not then beleeve without a miracle Magnum ipse miraculum est And therefore that tricke of the whispering Dove the lie of the Camel that spake to him in the night and that piece of the Moone that dropt into his sleeve as they came too late as they were to no end and without witnesses so are they against his owne profession that he came not with miracles 4. And againe if our Lord had made any such promise as might concerne him the Christians who ever reverenced His word were bound by that promise to reverence the memorie of Mahumed and to expect what further light or manifestation of the trueth hee would bring to the Church But his doctrine brings in againe those weake and beggerly rudiments of the law circumcision and the difference of meats directly contrary to Christ and the doctrine of His Apostles who teach the fulfilling and utter abrogating of all these ceremonies by Christ And yet in those ceremonies of meats and drinkes there is such a dissension about Wine as that his followers cannot agree unto this day His doctrine of many wives though tollerated for a time by Moses in in that hard-hearted people of the Iewes yet is contrary to the doctrine of the Prophets Mal. 2.14 15. of Christ and His Apostles By all which things it may appeare that Mahumed ran when he was not sent which he himselfe if his sencelesse followers could see it doth confesse in that he doth utterly forbid them to question any thing in his Alchoran or to dispute about his religion but to follow it in blind obedience And whether the wares be counterfeit which you must buy unseene every man may judge And these reasons against Mahumed in particular with the rest that are against Simon Magus and his competitors in the Note on Chap. 23. § 1. are sufficient to proove that our Lord made no such promise of Mahumed to come as he did dreame and therefore that the Scriptures of the
onely the Spirit of God therefore in the interpretation of doubtfull places of Scripture the Spirit of God whereby it was written must give also the true understanding or interpretation thereof and this Spirit and the meaning thereof is most easily found in the holy Scripture Therefore the surest and best interpretation of Scripture is by Scripture it selfe 4. The Scribes and Pharises were to be heard sitting in the Chaire of Moses that is teaching the Law according to the true meaning of Moses Therefore the interpreters of the New-Testament also are to be heard speaking the voice of Christ. But His sheepe will not heare a stranger for they know not the voice of strangers Iohn 10. Therefore the interpretation of the Scripture is chiefely by the Scriptures And by the Scriptures onely every question of faith and doctrine to bee decided not by the Church or any humane voice except they speake according to the word of the Scripture 1. For seeing the Holy-Ghost is the chiefe judge in all controversies on whose infallible sentence wee may safely relye and that the Scriptures are His immediate word therefore from thence are wee to expect His immediate answere whereas the Church speakes not from God immediately but as a meane conueighs unto us the voice of the Scripture 2. Beside this the Church may erre the Scripture cannot erre 3. The Scriptures shine by their owne light the Church by the light and Doctrine of the Scriptures 4. The Scriptures are alwayes at hand to be resorted unto the Church never all assembled nor a Councill scarce once in an age and they that vaunt most of the name for the most part have least of the true Church And therefore the Prophets send us to the Law and to the Testimonies and our Lord to search the Scriptures See 2. Peter 1.19 Object 2. By this meanes making it lawfull for every one to reade and interpret the Scriptures you set open a doore to all manner of heresies to enter into the Church and make every private spirit a judge and an interpreter of the sence of Scripture Answer Though every one may and ought to read the Scripture for comfort and instruction yet the interpretation of the harder places belongs especially to the Pastours and Doctors appointed by the Church thereto and if any private man doe interpret according to the former rules yet cannot that interpretation be said to proceed from a private spirit although the man be private For the holy Spirit is the common author of all light and understanding And the meanes whereby He useth to teach is the holy Word the common light of all the faithfull And this may seeme sufficient to have spoken of the Author and use of the holy Scriptures and what they are then of their sufficiency purity easinesse and interpretation And blessed is that man that meditates in them day and night that he may finde by them the full assurance of his hopes and live in obedience and thankefullnesse to the Author and finisher of his faith ARTICLE IX ⧠I beleeve in the holy Catholike-Church CHAP. XXXV A Certaine Iew famed for his riches was once asked by a great lord of the Turkes how it came to passe that the Turkes the Christians and the Iewes did so peremptorily hold every one their owne faith that they could not be withdrawne therefrom The Iew suspecting his wealth to be aimed at answered as their manner is by a witty parable A rich man quoth he had three sonnes that obserued him with great respect because of his wealth he to hold them all in their obedience oftentimes profest among them that he should be the heire of all his estate to whom at his death he should bequeath a ring which he used to weare But in secret he caused Mammurius the Goldsmith to make for him two other rings so like it as Numaes ancylia were not one more like another At his death he called each of his sonnes apart and gave to every one of them one of these rings and withall the possession of all his goods so every one holds his claime quoth he and it is not yet knowne how the controversie will be ended This is the present state of the Church not onely among these three sects named but likewise among all the sects of Christianity yea of all religions whatsoever For there is none among the Pagans but he hath this hope that his soule shall be happy if he serue his god as he ought And having determined those questions which concerne God and our Mediator it followes that in this second part of the Creed we consider those benefits and priviledges which belong unto the Church by that which our Saviour hath done and suffered for it But that we mistake not we shall best be guided by the holy Scripture both for the use of the word and for the knowledge of the thing The word Ecclesia as it signifies in the originall the house of religious exercises or a tumultuous assembly as in Act. 19.32 or a combination of wicked men as in Psalm 26.5 hath no use here but more properly it signifieth an assembly or multitude of people professing the true worship of God such as were the Churches of Corinth Ephesus and others planted by the Apostles and Apostolicall men in a City or Kingdome as we thinke that Ioseph of Arimathea planted the faith in this Island and so established a Church here Every faithfull family is likewise a Church Romans 16.5 and the Church representative as the Synedrion among the Iewes is also so stiled in Matth. 18.17 But because among all these Churches there may be hypocrites unholy and carnally minded men which we cannot count within our Creed and beleeve that they are the holy Church therefore the Church may be taken not onely for the visible but also they whose Mediator our Lord Christ is unto eternall life as he saith Iohn 17.9 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given mee From whence it will easily appeare what this holy Catholike or universall Church is which here we doe beleeve to wit that number of holy men which God out of all nations of the world hath predestinated unto eternall life If we cleare the sence of the words and answere such doubts as arise thereabout we shall afterward easily approove the Article And first concerning the title of holinesse given to the Church Object 1. It may be objected that seeing it is said Psal 14. that among all the Children of men there is none that doeth good no not one how can any Church among men bee called Holy Answere Not by any inbred holinesse in themselues but because the righteousnesse of Christ their Saviour is imputed unto them for their justification before God as it is said 1. Iohn 1.7 The blood of Iesus Christ clenseth us from all sinne then because the Spirit of sanctification dwells in them and makes them zealous of good workes that they
also may bee holy even as Hee which hath called them is Holy and that according to the Law or rule of a sanctified life according to which they ought to live and count it their present misery that they are still subject unto sinne and so in their spirit they serve the Law of God though in their flesh the law of sinne See Rom. 1.25 But so many of this Church as are already freed from this bondage of corruption in the assurance of eternall blisse waite in hope for the redemption of their bodies so that both in body and soule they may serve the living God Obiect 2 Object 2. But why doe you call them holy men Can neither Women nor Children be heires of eternall life Answere As the word Homo in Latine signifies any of the race of man-kind as homo nata est Shee was borne man Serv. Sulp. ad Cic. So is man often used in English and therefore by the title of the most worthy the whole race of man kind is here understood So that not onely they which are within the virge of the visible Churches and have the ordinary meanes of faith that is the word and sacraments are comprehended hereby but also such as have not those meanes as they that live in the Countreys of Panims and Gentiles yea and of the Pagans themselues all such as the Lord our God shall call Neither may wee presume to forbid them to come unto God who seeme denied of the outward meanes of knowledge as the deafe the blind the Idiots in as much as God the God of the spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22 can by His Spirit guide the will and informe the understanding as it pleases him Prov. 21.1 See further hereto Note a § 2. n. 4. on Chap. 32. And thus you understand what is meant by men and withall why the Church is called Catho ike or Vniversall namely because it holds the number of Gods chosen which haâ—e beene or shall be called out from the rest of all the men of the world from Adam unto the last man that shall be borne as this Church confesseth unto Christ Rev. 5.9 Thou had redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and Nation and people The last circumstance is concerning the predestination of them that are in this Church for seeing none can be glorified but they that are justified in Christ neither can any one bee justified but such as are called and predestinate Rom. 8.30 and seeing that to the infinite wisedome of God all his workes are knowne and determined Act. 15.18 it is impossible that any one can be a member of this Church but onely such as God out of His eternall love hath predestinate thereunto Object 1 Object But there is one God and Creatour of all whose mercie is over all His workes and He hateth nothing that He hath made And therefore it may seeme that all are equally predestinate unto eternall life if all doe equally lay hold thereon Answere As the creature could not cause it selfe to bee So neither being corrupted by originall sinne can it change that being wherein it is See Art Eccl. 10. and seeing God alone doth worke in us both to will and to doe of his owne good pleasure Phil. 2.13 it is not in any man of Himselfe to lay hold on eternall life nor to endâ—auour any thing thereto no not so much as to will or desire it without the speciall woâ—ke of God in him who worketh all things according to the counsell of His owne will Ephe. 1.11 So man though made upright yet being originally corrupted and left to the hand of his owne will cannot cease to sinne And although God permit him to follow his owne wayes yet that permission is no cause of any mans sinne nor puts it any thing in the reprobate why he should sinne But in the predestinate it is not so For he renews them in the spirit of their mind unto sanctification converting their will and making them ready unto every good worke Object 2 2. Object If then predestination be not of all men unto eternall life and yet that all men are in one and the same state of nature corrupted by the sinne of Adam It may seeme that God did predestinate and chuse out of the masse of man-kind those onely whom He did fore-see that they would bee excellent for their good works and so for their future merits sake adopted them to bee heires of eternall life Answere God is debtor to no man and where bee that gives is no way bound the gift can no way be accounted but onely of his free will that giveth so Predestination hath no other originall but onely the meere free-will of the Almighty God But if our works fore-seene were any cause of our predestination 1. How then could it bee of His mercy onely Rom. 9.16 2. How could it bee according to the good pleasure of His will Ephe. 1.5 3. How were it to the glory of His grace if the worthinesse of our workes foreseene had any right therein Ephe. 16 4. How were our boasting excluded Rom. 3.27 if they were the cause of our happines 5. And if our workes fore-seene be the cause of our predestination then also of all the consequents thereof as of our election calling justification and glorification But this is most false See 2. Tim. 1.9 Therefore also the former 6. Moreover what good workes can bee in man which God Himselfe doth not worke in us as the Prophet saith Esay 26.12 O Lord thou hast wrought all our workes in us 7. If God have created good workes that wee should walke in them and good workes acceptable to God bee found only in them that are predestinate and chosen to life it followes that good workes are fore-seene in us not as the cause but as the fruits and effects of predestination For if they can be no other than the effects of Gods grace in us they cannot be fore-seene as a cause of His grace towards us This objection is laid to them of the Romane Church but as farre as I have any acquaintance with them I find no such thing by them Tho. Aqu. contr Gent. lib. 3. Can. 163. teacheth the contrary and gives his reasons The grace of God saith hee is an effect of predestination and goes before all humane merit 2. The Divine will and Providence are the cause of all other things For of Him in Him and for Him are all things Neither can it be accounted the doctrine of their Church for in the 7. Can. Sess 6. Core Trid. where all the causes of the justification of man in the state of Nature are reckoned up efficient finall formall instrumentall the meritorions cause is put onely the suffering of our Lord who thereby made full satisfaction to God and merited justification for us And if wee be justified onely by the merit of Christ and not by any merit fore-seene in us then are we called chosen and predestinate
onely in Him through the mercy of God who gratuitò of his owne free will doth wash sanctifie and seale us by the Holy Spirit of promise who is to us the pledge of our eternall inhoritance this is the effect of the Canon Object 3. But how is this Church Catholike or Vniversall if any man be shut out of it Or how is it said by S. Paul 1. Tim. 2.4 That God would have all men to bee saved if there be few that shall enter in at the straight gate Answere The common answere to that text of Timothy is that it is spoken not de singulis generum but de generibus singulorum that is that some of every Nation and degree amongst men shall bee saved not every man of every degree But I suppose that it is rather spoken in respect of the ordinary means which in the Church is the Word read and preached and the Sacraments by which all men are called to repentance and faith in Christ which if they refuse their condemnation is just Also out of the visible Church nature calls in a softer voyce upon all nations and people of the world and upon every one in particular to feare God and to give Him glory which made the heaven and the earth and all therein And moreover the light of every mans conscience accusing or excusing him for those things which he doth contrary or according thereto is the witnesse of God in every mans heart to excuse or condemne him And in respect of these meanes God may be said to will that all men should be saved in that he doth offer his mercy to all and call upon them to turne unto Him that they might be saved if they want not grace to accept it Object 4. The want of that is not imputed to any man which is onely in the power of another to give and seeing that without repentance faith hope and perseverance in vertue no man can attaine to happinesse which vertues of repentance c. are onely in God to give as the Prophet saith Lam. 3.21 Turne Thou us unto thee ô Lord and so shall wee bee turned it may seeme that the want of these things ought not to be imputed to any man Answere If any man refuse a good thing when it is offered the want of that shall be imputed to himselfe as to the wicked that saith to God Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Iob 21.14 and these are they whom God is said to harden because they have hardened their owne hearts through the custome of sinne that they cannot repent Therefore though the predestinate that the mercy of God may appeare are conuerted by the inward and effectuall calling their hearts being renewed by repentance to follow him that calleth yet that the order of Iustice may be observed they that forsake their owne mercy are still left to the punishment of their sinne both originall and actuall because they neglect the outward calling and wilfully shut their eyes against the light of their naturall knowledge and conscience See Rom. 9.21 c. And according to this sence is it that in Scripture the hardning of man in sinne and the preseruing man from sinne seemes to be attributed to God both wayes as where he is said to harden Pharaohs heart and to Abimelech a Gen. 20.6 I have kept thee from sinning against me Sect. 2 § 2. And thus it being manifest what this holy Church is and of what persons it doth consist it followes first to proove that there is such a Catholike Church as wee say wee doe beleeve to bee then to see the differences which are betweene this Catholike Church and other particular Churches and Congregations 1 If there were not a number of holy people which God hath chosen unto eternall life then the end of Christs sufferings for us were all in vaine and the whole race of mankind should have beene created onely to destruction So the mercy of God toward His creature that had sinned should be without effect Neither should His glory be magnified in saving that which was lost So the devill the enemy of mankind might magnifie himselfe against God in that he had destroyed His creature irrecoverably But all these things are impossible Therefore there is a holy Church chosen of God unto eternall life And if this holy Church in the parts or members thereof had not continued in all ages since God made His promise of a Savior to Adam then faith had fail'd from among men and the promises of God being either not beleeved or forgotten the sons of God begotten by the immortall seed had failed So the throne of Christ when there was no faithfull heart wherein He reigned should not have beene established for ever contrary to the promise Psalm 89. ver 4 29 36. and Luke 1. ver 33. So the seed of the enemy onely had flourished in the earth contrary to the disposition of that wise husbandman Matth 13.30 Let both grow together untill the haruest But these things are impossible Therefore the holy Church is also Catholike or continuing from the beginning to the end of the world For your better understanding you may take these arguments apart 2. If the goodnesse of God being essentially one with His infinity were not diffusive or spreading it selfe upon the creature for the succour and aid thereof in the greatest misery then should it be exceeded by the malice and wickednes of the devill which though it be the greatest that may be yet must it needs be finite as having the originall from a finite creature But it is impossible that God should be exceeded by the malice of the devill therefore there is a restoring of man to that blessednesse and glory from which he fell by his siâ—ne as you have seene it prooved before in the 18. Chapter and from all the reasons there brought to that conclusion you may bring reasons for the proofe of this Article 3. If man were created according to the will of God innocent and without sinne then that present estate of sinne and death the punishment thereof wherein he now is must needs have beene brought upon him since his creation contrary to the revealed will of God wherein though for the declaration of the justice of God against sinne some be suffered to continue yet because sinne is contrary to the will of God and death contrary to the end of His creation of mankind it is necessary that there be a redemption or freeing of some appointed thereunto from the thraldome both of sin and death But it hath beene prooved Chap. 15. that man was created innocent Therfore there is a Church or a number knowne unto God of them that are so redeemed 4. There is a God who hath made His promises of everlasting life There is faith hope and repentance and other vertues both Christian and morall whereby the promises of God are apprehended and obedience performed to His Commandements Therefore there is
a holy Catholike Church For it is impossible either that the promises of God should faile of their performance or that saith and other vertues should be without their reward For so the Spirit of grace which wrought these vertues in man should worke in vaine But this is impossible 5. This holy Catholike Church is declared in sundry places of the holy Scripture and in special according to all the causes thereof in the Epistle to the Ephes 4. chap. 1. from vers 2. to 15. And although Saint Paul in that place write to a particular Church yet is the Catholike Church no other than such as is there described no more then the Brittish or Spanish Seas are different from the great Ocean either in substance or qualities For there is but one body and one Spirit one Lord one faith one hope one baptisme one God and Father of all Ephe. 4.4 5 6. And as there is but one God so is there but one Mediator betweene God and man the Man Iesus Christ 1. Tim. 2.5 6. And this one Mediator is that one onely mysticall head of His mysticall body For there is no name given under heaven whereby wee must be saved but onely the name of Iesus Christ Act. 4.12 And as there is but one head so is there one onely body as it is said Cant. 6.9 My Dove my undefiled is but one and Iohn 10.16 There shall be one fold and one shepherd by which texts of the Holy Writ it is manifest that there is one holy Catholike hurch as wee doe beleeve § 3. And by this which hath beene said it may easily appeare what those differences are betweene this Catholike Church and other particular congregations whether in private houses or in Cities Countreys Kingdomes or Peoples which in Cant. 6. cited even now are signified by the Queenes Concubines and the innumerable Virgins which consent to the same points of faith and doctrine 1. The first and most common is this that in the Visible Churches Hypocrites and Atheists are found among the chosen and these are the tares among the wheate the bad fish among the good Matth. 13.48 But in this holy Catholike Church no vile or prophane person can bee as it is said Rev. 21.8 and 22.15 That without the holy Citie shall be doggs the fearfull and abominable the unbeleeving murderers whoremongers sorcerers idolaters and every one that loveth and maketh the lie 2. A second difference is in this that every particular Church is visible so that every member thereof may be fully informed of all things whatsoever is taught therein for trueth either concerning doctrine or discipline but the Catholike Church in the sence we here take it neither is nor ever was nor can bee visible but to the eye of faith alone as here we confesse in our Creed for faith is the proofe or argument of things not seene Hebr. 11.1 If then the Catholike Church be a thing to be seene then is it not to be beleeved if it be to be beleeved then must it needs be invisible 2. Beside this the universall or Catholike Church as Saint Paul describes it Ephes 13.15 is of the Saints in heaven as well as of them that are in earth yea and of them that are not yet borne as of either of these And although all the members of this Church during the time of their pilgrimage upon earth be visible or in a visible Church yet while they are here on earth we doe not beleeve them to be of that Catholike Church with that assurance of knowledge which a saving faith requires such a faith I meane as is due to an Article of our Creed but onely with that hope or credulity which Christian charity and their holy conuersation doth bind us to have of them 3. For as God only knoweth the heart so He only knoweth who are His and if He only know then cannot we and though we see them in a true particular Church yet doe we not thereby know that they are true members of the Catholike Church Object 1. If the true Church be not alwayes visible why doth our Lord send us to the Church Mat. 18.17 Answer That commandement of Christ shewes what is to bee done in particular visible Churches not in the invisible Catholike Church and this is to be obserued in such texts as are like to this which the Papists bring to proove the perpetuall visibility of the Catholike Church For if they could make that good they would hope thereby to proove the Church of Rome to be the Catholike Church But if the first were given the second would not follow For was there no Catholike Church before Romulus murthered his brother or where was the Catholike Church when Rome was yet the mother of all the abominations and filthinesse of the earth First in their worship of devills and after when their lives were answerable to their Religion as you reade in Saint Paul Rom. 1. and in their owne prophets Iuvenal Arbiter c. and againe since they have forsaken their faith once praised Rom. 1.8 and borne the former reward of their idolatry And if that Church be the Catholike Church out of which none can bee saved as they say what shall become of all those Christians in the whole world which detest the Church of Rome and all their idolatries and false doctrines as the Greekes and all that follow them the Nestorians Iacobites Ethiopians the reformed Churches in the West c. which for the number may seeme to be at the least five to one to the Papists notwithstanding their false pretended universality To the former differences betweene the Catholike Church and particular congregations you may adde a third that any particular Church may erre wholly both in manners and doctrine as I shewed in the Chap. before § 7. N. 2. but the Catholike Church cannot erre 4. Any particular Church may faile or cease to be but of the kingdome of Chriâ—t there shall be no end Therefore the Catholike Church cannot faile from whence it followeth 5. That the Catholike Church is of the greatest antiquity as having the beginning thereof in Adam and Eve for I enquire onely of the Church of the redeemed not of the Angels but particular Churches had their bâ—ginning afterward some at one time some at another as that of the Iewes in Abraham and his family that of the Ethiopians in the Eunuch c. 6. Concerning the succession of the Catholike Church there is none such â—s they account of Kings or Bishops in this or that See but becaâ—se Christs kingdome cannot faile therefore there is this succâ—ss â— That before these Saints that now live shall die others shall be borne that are the true members of the Church and thus is there still but one Catholike Church which unity containes all and every member thereof in one mysticall body whereof our Lord Christ is the Head Notes a I Withheld thee from sinning against Mee Against this and many such texts of
Scripture the Hereticke Pelagius taught that man of himselfe wiâ—hout any speciall graâ—e of God might fulfill the divine Commandements and if â—he grace of God were at all needfull it was oâ—ely that a man might more eâ—sily through grace doe those things which he was commanded to doe of his owne free will But this grace said he is onely in our free will which our nature hath received of God without any * See what Pelagâ—us meant by this in answ to the Iesuits challeâ— in Ireland â—ag 478. 179. 480 481. c. merit of ours fore oing In this onely God doth helpe us thâ—t by the law and the doctrine wee may know what we ought both to doe and to hope for Aug. Haer. Cap. 88. By occasion of whi h heresie divers unnecessary questions have beene mooved about free will universall gr ce perseverance and the like which are no way availeable to the increase of godlinesse or the comfort of the conscience but rather have overthrowne the faith of â—ome and beene the feuell of Factions both in the Church and Common-wealth But as among the Corinthians when schismes and discontents arose concerning their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Love-feasts before the holy Communion the Apostle brings them to the simplicity of the first institution thereof 1 Cor. 11.21 So by the same Spirit of wisedome hath his Majestâ—e our gracious Soveraigne with the advice of our reverend Fathers the god y and learned Bishops cut off these curious questions with all inconvenience and sâ—andall as might grow thereby See his Majesties declaration before the Artâ— of 62. Read also the Art 9.10.11.17 So that now through the mercy of God by the piety and constant care of his Majesty and by the providence and zeale of our faithfull shepherds there is assured hope that these tares which so lately troâ—bled our neighbour Churches and by the seruants of the enuious man were attempted to be sowne in our beâ—uteous fields shall never spread any roote of bitternesse among us And although these questions thrust in themselues here in this place to be discussed seeing predestination is the eternall foundation of the holy Câ—tholike Church out of which there is â—o salâ—atâ—on and into which none can come but he that is holy It may seeme that t ought to be enquired what holinesse we have of our selues or what strength to come to that holinesse which we ought to have and what streâ—gth to coâ—â—iâ—ue therein But because obedience is better the sacrifi e and bee use reason ranging beyond these bounds which God hath set â—s accounted by Saint Paul Rom. 9.20 a replying agâ—inst God let us leave these quest on s aâ— Saint Paul left that of predestination to the meere mercy and will of God and that absolute Lordship which he hath over His creature as the tempeâ—er of the clay hath power over the same lumpe to mâ—ke one vessell to honour and â—nother to dishonour And seeing mans understanding searching into the thingâ— of God so farre above his reach as the infinite wisedome of God and His seâ—ret will are must needs fall into errour let us be contented to keepe our selues within those limits which God Hâ—mselfe hath set Deut. 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may doe them To this purpose Saint Paul writeth concerning this sealed secret 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure having this seale The Lord knoweth them that are His and let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity Therefore lest any man should runne beside his owne hopes whilest be enquires too busily into the hopes of other men let us remember that wise and faithfull counsell which is in 4. Esdr 8.55 Aske thou no questions concerning them that perish The reason went before verse 47. for thou commest farre short that thou shouldest be able to love the creature more then He that made it ARTICLE X. ⧠The Communion of Saints CHAP. XXXVI THey that make this clause to bee onely an appendix for explication of the former as if they would say I beleeve the holy Catholike Church to be the Communion or fellowship of Saints come short of the uttermost meaning thereof For beside the two properties of the Church to be Holy and Catholike it is necessary to know what the Priviledges or prerogatives are which belong to that holy congregation that they may know that their seruice is not without reward These prerogatives are 4. 1. This CoÌ„munion of the Saints which is the ground and assurance of the rest For from hence it followes that we may assuredly beleeve that our sins are forgiven and therefore that our bodies shall rise againe and that to everlasting life But this Communion of the Saints is two-fold 1. Among themselves Secondly in the participation of those benefits which are purchased for them by the merit of Christ Yet this Communion among themselves is rather a third property than a priviledge of the holy Church and ariseth from that Communion which we have with Christ For he that loveth Him that begetteth loveth him also that is begotten of Him 1. Ioh. 5.1 2. And because all the faithfull are governed by one Holy Spirit therefore are they ever ready and willing to impart what gifts soever they have received to the common good of all that may be partakers thereof And this not onely in the supply of outward helpes as it appeared Act. 4.32 but much more in like affection one toward another in prayer one for another in supporting each the infirmitie of other as one member of the body is ever helpfull to another in comforting in exhorting and in the Spirit of Meekenes admonishing one another and every one in himselfe giving an example of a vertuous and honest life according to that commandement Mat. 5.16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie your Father which is in heaven And these things proceed from that inward and spirituall Communion which wee have with God the Father and with His Son Iesus Christ as it is said 1. Iohn 1.3 For seeing wâ— know That God so loved the world as that He gave His Son to die for the life of the world wee ought also to love the brethren So likewise the spirituall Communion or participation of those benefits whereof wee are partakers by the merit of Christ stands altogether in this that He our Mediator God and Man having given Himselfe a ransome for uâ— God doth not now looke on us as wee are in our selues corrupted in our sinnes but as wee are washed but as wee are sanctified but as wee are justified in the name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God as wee are one body with His Son and He our head is become our righteousnesse our sanctification and redemption So that through Him wee haue not onely these
priviledges here mentioned of the forgivenesse of our sinnes resurrection and life but also having in Christ the adoption of sonnes wee have by Him an entrance unto God the Father a right and interest in the eternall inheritance of the Kingdome of Heaven and whatsoever may bee availeable to our eternall happinesse for the gift was not as the offence as you might see Chap. 18. § 2. For as we know that Christ our Lord the eternall Son was partaker of our nature and are likewise assured that the greatest actions of God in His creature are for the greatest good that can come neere the creature So ought wee to bee perswaded that we also shall be made the sons of God by that Spirit of God that dwelleth in us as it is said 1. Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit And these are the exceeding great and precious promises that God hath made unto us in Christ that by Him wee shall bee made partakers of the divine nature 2. Peter 1.4 this is that union and Communion for which our Lord prayes that it may bee made perfect in us Iohn 17.21 22 23. 1. For seeing the soule of man is a thing whose excellencie doth so farre exceed all things of this world it may not be thought that the happinesse and perfection of the soule can stand in things that are inferiour to it selfe as in riches honour worldly pleasure or the like But seeing it knowes that there is one onely infinite goodnes which because it is infinite must needs be eternall and able to satisfie all the desire of the creature that can bee partaker thereof therefore doth it aspire thereunto because in the injoying of that alone it can be made perfect And if this desire of the soule should be in vaine then the Holy Spirit of God which wrought this desire in the soule should have wrought in vaine then the infinite goodnesse which might satisfie the desire of the creature should be defective toward the creature and consequently not infinite then the promises of God made in His word should faile and the prayer of our Mediator cited even now from Iohn 17. without effect But all these things are impossible Therefore there is a Communion of the Saints with God and with one another as wee confesse in the article 2. If the merit of Christ bee infinite and that not for Himselfe but for His body which is the Church then it is necessary that an infinite reward be given thereto But the merit of Christ is infinite both actively and passively Therfore an infinite reward is due to us thereby So that by the Spirit of Christ which is in us we have communion both with the Father and the Sonne 1. Iohn 1.3 3. All the dignities of God are infinite and they are all to bee manifested in the creature so farre forth as the creature can bee made capable thereof Ergo. Now the foundation and originall of communion is in this that for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also Himselfe tooke part of the same that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death Hebr. 2.14 and that to this end that wee might be partakers of His immortality and from that union of the divine and humane nature whereby our Lord of the seed of Abraham became one with all man-kind ariseth that spirituall and mysticall union of us with Him that howsoever we are absent in body yet being renewed by the Spirit of our mind we live unto Him have Him evermore abiding in us as we evermore abide in him daily more more grow up with Him into one mystical body as if we were flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones Eph. 5.30 and from this mystical union we have the assurance of that glorious vnion which shall be in heaven when we shal be joyned to our head inseparably and this is that vnion or communion which all the faithfull hope for whereof we have the assurance of His promises in His Holy word the signes and pledges of the Holy supper and the witnesse of the holy Spirit of God in our hearts And thus is Christ ours with His graces and His merits and thus according to the exceeding great and precious promises are wee made partakers of the divine nature not that wee participate of the incommunicable essence of the deitie but that by the renewing of the Holy-Ghost wee put off our corrupt desires and are transformed in our minds according as His Divine power doth give us all things that belong to life and godlinesse ARTICLE XI ⧠The forgivenesse of sinnes CHAP. XXXVII BEing is of God alone whose being because it is infinite therefore must it hold in it selfe all the excreamities of being so that nothing that is can possible be but by Him therefore seeing the soule the body and the abilities thereof are from God alone the devill can claime no interest in man in respect of any of these for none of these had their originall from him But because he was a murtherer from the beginning and inspired his inbred poyson into man even from the beginning the root of man-kind being thereby poysoned the venome spreads throughout all his race to corrupt both his understanding and his will that so his actions being corrupted by the ill which he wilfully committeth his being also may become abominable But as the Physicians make a difference betweene the body and the disease so He our gracious healer discernes betweene the being His owne worke and the corruption thereof the tares I meane which the envious man sowed thereupon to save his owne worke and to cast the venome and the effects thereof on the face of the enemy to the increase of his eternall damnation and first heales the understanding that it may see the sinne then the will that he may detest and avoid it And thus by the renewing of the mind are we transformed from the image of the devill and that stampe which his sinne did set upon us So that the satisfaction being made to the infinite justice both for our originall and actuall sinne the workemanship of God even our whole being may be glorifyed with that glory for which it was created which also it had in the eternall decree before this world was And because our great weakenesse caused of our inbred infection and our many sinnes ensuing thereupon doth every moment stand up as a wall of separation betweene our God and us therefore hath God given unto us such assured hopes of His mercy that although we fall we shall not be cast away because the Lord putteth under His hand Psalm 37.21 and sustaineth us with this confidence That although our sins be as red as scarlet yet they shall be made more white then snow Esay 1.18 And because this hope and confidence ought alwayes to be before our eyes as being the sure stay and anchor of our soules therefore is nothing
the holy oracles of God and the exposition of their Talmudists Then 2. That the mysterie of the incarnation and the deitie of the Saviour of the world is according to the Scripture 3. That His birth ought to bee of a Virgin and therefore His conception by the Holy-Ghost 4. That the mysterie of His passion and 5. resurrection are likewise manifest by the Scriptures And 6. that the first comming of the Messias is already past as you might see all these Articles confirmed before And because these things are necessary to bee knowne and beleeved to everlasting saluation and that the Iewes doe not beleeve them neither can be brought to beleeve them till the Redeemer appeare the second time to judgement that he may turne away the iniquitie from Iacob that all Israel may bee saved as the promise is Let us rejoyce in our most holy faith and pray that their returne to the true faith with the fulnesse of the Gentiles may bee speedie according to the promises Es 59.20 Rom. 11.26 and verse 15. How Faith is said to justifie §. 4. SO precious is the redemption of soules that that must bee let alone to God for ever And therefore no workes or merit of our owne nor of all the Saints of Heaven can be of any availe for us that wee should be accounted just before God but onely by our Lord Iesus and His righteousnesse both originall and actuall apprehended by a true faith are wee accepted righteous For because God doth not accept of any righteousnesse which is not most perfect according to the perfection of his most just law And seeing the fountaine of all our actions is corrupted by our originall sinne therefore is the originall righteousnesse of Christ most necessary to be imputed unto us to take away our originall sinne and His actuall righteousnesse also wholly necessary that by His obedience and His sufferings wee may bee justified Vnderstand by the originall righteousnesse of Christ not that righteousnesse which is in Him as God as some have done but that righteousnesse which was in Him as man from the first minute of His incarnation by the Holy-Ghost which is His originall or habituall righteousnesse And this righteousnesse of His though it bee not in us yet it is imputed unto us even as our originall and actuall sinnes were imputed unto Him that wee might bee justified by Him And although it be necessary for us to know and to beleeve that as wee are made originally sinfull by Adam not onely because the offence of him that was the father of us all is imputed unto us or is reckoned ours because wee were all in him originally but also in respect of that staine of sinne and corruption which wee draw originally from him so is this righteousnesse of Christ accounted ours in as much as He hath set Himselfe to answere for us as it is said Matth. 20.28 That Hee gave His life a ransome for many that as by the disobedience of one Adam many are made sinners so by the obedience of One that is Christ many are justified Rom. 5.19 Therefore faith alone is not said to justifie us but faith with the object thereof that is Christ with all His merits So God the Father for the merit of Christ is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 And the holy Spirit also is said to seale the promise of God unto us Ephes 1.13 and to justifie us in the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1. Cor. 6.11 Neither is faith any meritorious cause for which we are justified neither doeth faith precisely considered include charity or other vertues thereby justifie us but as an instrument or hand is it given to us of God whereby we take hold on Christ and His righteousnesse preached unto us in the word of reconciliation Therefore as the hand which receiues the treasure doth not make a man rich but the treasure it selfe So neither the habit nor the action of faith no not as it is the worke of God in us doth make us just before Him but onely correlatively that is as it brings to us the merit of Christ and makes it ours See what you find hereto in the Note b on the 27. Chapter The Conclusion BEcause I had both read and heard that divers men oâ— fame in learning had undertaken this taske which I have now pâ—rformed as you see I waited with great patience and hope the accomplishmâ—nt of their promiseâ— But when they were dead and no fruites appâ—ared worthy of such hopes as they had given having now past the seventieth yere of my life I utterly despaired of that I had so long hoped for For though I had oftentimes thought of what argument and for mine oâ—ne use had gathered divers Notes and Argumentâ— thereunto â—â—t when I considered that in that age the vigor of wit doth often languish whi h in younger yeares is more prâ—gnant though not alwayes with that staâ—dnes of judgement whiâ—h ought to goe therewith and esâ—ecially that for my profâ—ssions sake I was compelled to poets and their fables and among children to speake to their understanding yet when that great and grievous pestilence which befell in the yeere 1625. had made a stop that dayly toâ—le I knew it was foolish and altogether vaine to flie from the hand of God and that â—o thoughts could befit a Christian better in the continuall hearing of dolefull knells and sight of corpses carryed to the grace then such as â—old the mynd fast to God and those blessed hopes that He â—ath given to Christian men And therefore hauing brought my houshold to a few and them no gadders abroad but such as were easily commanded to stay within I tooke the comforts which Almighty God vouchsâ—fed mee and found my selfe safe under His protection and so cheerefully undertooke that taske whiâ—h I had long thoâ—ght on because my expectation of others had quite faileâ— me Therefore I praise and magnifie that glorious and holy Name not only for that whole and perfect deliverance whiâ—h He vouchsafed â—nto mee at that time but much more also that Hee hath beene pleased to effect by me s meane that which other vertuous and learned men held fit to be done for the benefit of the Church and yet affected it not And if this labor of mine may prove any way availeable to the comfort of others or the strengthening of their faith or establishing of them therein that they fall not into those heresies into which other peruerse minded men have beene plunged For this also shall His praise be ever in my mouth according to that exampl of the holy Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS A TREATISE CONCERNING THE TRINITIE OF PERSONS IN VNITIE OF THE DEITIE VVritten by ALEXANDER GIL to Thomas Mannering an Anabaptist VVho denyed that IESVS is very GOD of very GOD but man onely yet endued with the infinite power of GOD. The second Edition ⧠Imprinted at London 1635. TO MY VERY LOVING FRIEND Master THOMAS VVHYTE
authorities of Scripture were not wanting to both purposes as it is manifest Matth. 6. and 1. Cor. 15. Yea Paul at Athens or wheresoever hee perswaded the worship of the true God among the Gentiles hee perswaded not by authoritie of Scripture which amongst them had beene very weake but by such arguments as they knew to bee sufficient even in themselues If these things were not so how then could the Gentiles which knew not the Scriptures be without excuse for their ignorance of God Therefore I conclude that there is nothing which is beleeved but it may also be knowen Now knowledge we know is ingendered by such principles as have trueth in them the which is evident of it selfe So that by plaine and reasonable understanding a man may know whatsoever he beleeveth You will say To what purpose then serue the Scriptures I answere That God infinite in goodnesse hath together with this understanding and light of Nature given us withall His Word as a greater light whereby our lesser lights might become more shining That He hath given unto us not onely an inward Word to wit our naturall understanding but also an outward word as a most illustrious Commentary both of declaration and amplification of that text whereby we may the better understand whatsoever wee ought to understand without it But how then cometh it to passe that all men have not Faith And how is Faith said to bee the gift of God The first is answered Rom. 1.21 and Ephe. 4.18 For hardnesse of their heart who when they knew God did not glorifie him as they ought therefore their imaginations became vaine and their foolish heart was full of darkenesse And for this cause is Faith also said to bee the gift of God First in respect of that knowledge whence it doth proceed which knowledge is His gift Secondly because it is the onely worke of God to make that knowledge to become fruitfull by laying it so unto mans heart that the hardnesse thereof may be removed that when wee know God to bee good and just wee also beleeve and worship Him as wee ought Thirdly and most especially because that God oftentimes pardoning the ignorance which men have of Himselfe and the creature doth so enlighten the heart with His Holy Spirit that it is suddenly framed without any previant knowledge to faith and obedience The trueth whereof neverthelesse doth not any whit impugne that which I say That God hath given unto every man so much understanding as to know what he ought to beleeve and to be satisfied for the reasons of his Faith if he could open his eyes to see in the middest of what wondrous light he were placed This point is manifest both by many Scripture-authorities and by many reasons which I omitt But taking this as either granted or sufficiently prooved that God hath given us light of understanding whereby to yeeld a reason of the Hope that is in us a reason I say even of every Article of our Faith let us with holy reverence come unto the thing in question and see what reason wee have for our defence I will therefore a while forbeare to use the authoritie of holy Scripture not that I esteeme the waight or evidence of any reason comparable thereto but onely perceiving by that talk I had with you that you had read the Scripture as one of those whom Peter noteth 2. Epist 3.16 Not intending to wrangle about your wrested interpretations I will first propose the evidence of reasonable proofe and afterwards bring in the assent of holy Scripture that you may perceive in what wondrous cleare light you strive to bee blinde And because I know not what your opinion is concerning God for he that denieth the God-head of Christ may as well denie the God-head absolutely that being one step toward the question I will proceed orderly and give you also a reason of our faith concerning that matier taking this onely as granted which is rise in every mans knowledge that both the termes of Contradiction cannot bee affirmed of the same subject that is that one and the same thing cannot be both affirmed and denied of the same subject at one time and in the same respect But first by the name of God know that I meane an Eternall Being infinite in goodnesse in power in wisedome in glorie in vertue and onely worthy of endlesse love and honour My reason is thus If there be not a Being which had no beginning then of necessitie that which was first existent or begun must be a beginning unto it selfe by causing of it selfe to be when it was not But this is impossible that any thing should be a cause and not be for so should it both be and not be therefore there is an eternall Being which is the beginning middle and end of all things and Himselfe without beginning and this eternall Being wee call God My reason is plaine to bee understood and remember what I have said that I may goe on Whatsoever is without beginning is also without ending because it hath no Superiour which might bring it to nothing therefore God is eternall Againe whatsoever comes to nothing is corrupted by his contrarie but nothing can be opposite to God therefore He is Eternall Or else I might thus reason 2. Being and Not-being are such contraries as one of them cannot spring out of another for every thing for the preservations sake of it selfe doth represse and corrupt the contrarie Seeing then that there is Being which could not possibly raise it selfe out of Not-Being it followes that Being had a primacy or priority before Not-Being and therefore of necessitie must be eternall for otherwise there was a time wherein it might be said that Being is not Being and so Not-Being should have beene first and contradictories might have stood together but both these are impossible therefore there is an eternall Being and this eternall Being wee call God Furthermore wee know that the greatest excellency or perfection of every thing is in the nearenesse or likenesse thereof unto the first cause But every thing is more excellent in the Being therof then in the Not-Being Therefore Being was before Not-Being and for that cause Eternall Now Eternitie is an infinite Continuance Therfore whatsoever is Eternall must of necessitie be Infinite and this Infinite being we call God Moreover whatsoever hath Infinite continuance hath Infinite Power to continue infinitely and this omnipotent or endlesse power we call God I might reason likewise of His Goodnesse of His Wisedome Truth Glory c. But one shall serue in stead of the rest and I will take His Wisedome for my example and prove unto you that likewise to be Infinite and that not onely in existence but in action also And first that hee is wise God is most worthy to be such as He is but if He were not wise He were not worthy to bee God Ergo he is wise Now marke how these depend one on another In God