holy Ghost though they presuppose not in themselves the profession of that true Christianity which the Catholike Church teacheth and whether baptized or not Whether supposing themselves praedestinate to life from everlasting upon the dictate of the same Spirit or justified by that faith which consisteth in revealing to them their praedestination from everlasting Alwayes supposing they have the Spirit in consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ without supposing the truth of that Christianity which they professe as a condition required by God in them whom he gives his Spirit But the opinion of the Socinians having in detestation this unchristian as well as unreasonable Principle acknowledgeth the gift of the holy Ghost to be granted by God to those who believing our Lord Jesus to be the Christ resolve to live according to all that he hath taught but denieth any consideration of the merits and satisfaction of Christ either in his sending the Gospel or in his giving the holy Ghost to enable a man to perform that which it requireth Onely acknowledging the free grace of God in sending those terms of reconcilement which the Gospel importeth and the free choice of man in accepting or refusing the same But upon the accepting or refusing of them concluding the promises of the Gospel to be necessarily due And therefore presuming that it is altogether unreasonable to make them still to depend upon an outward ceremony of Baptisme by water the consideration upon which they are tendered being already performed And therefore construing the proceeding of the Apostles and the Scriptures wherein they are mentioned upon such presumptions as these they conclude the reason and intent of the Baptisme which they gave according to the Commission of our Lord to be particular to the condition of those who being Jews or Gentiles before were thereby to acknowledge their uncleannesse in that estate and to professe a contrary course for the future So that the reason ceasing why they did Baptize the obligation also of their Baptisme must necessarily cease But in this great distance between the grounds upon which these extream opinions inferre the indifference of Baptisme it is easie to observe something common to both Namely that neither of them acknowledgeth any Catholike Church or any presumption of the visible unity thereof limiting that part of the Doctrine taught by the Scriptures which it is necessary to the salvation of all Christians that they professe as received from hand to hand by the Churches of the Apostles founding to be exacted of them whom they Baptize into themselves For this being set aside why should not Enthusiasts perswade themselves that they have the Spirit of God and a title to all the promises of the Gospel depending upon it by Christ if the Socinians can perswade themselves that they may have it by the meer act of their free will accepting the tender of the Gospel by believing that our Lord is the Christ and resolving to live as he hath taught without any consideration of his merits and sufferings Both being perswaded that for their salvation they are to make what they can of the Scriptures without any regard to the Church for securing the intent and meaning of it What shall hinder them indeed supposing the way plained to them both by admitting the necessity of Baptisme to be such that all the effects and consequences thereof may be thought to be had and obtained before and without it Certainly the waving of those grounds upon which the necessity of Baptisme may appear to be consistent with the undoubted efficacy of that Christianity which the heart onely feeleth is the breach that hath made a gap for these Heresies to enter into Gods Church For if no man can be thought to have right to be baptized that hath not true and living Faith which true and living faith alone qualifies any man for Remission of sins and salvation whether it consist in believing that our Lord Jesus is the Christ because he who believes that is obliged to live as he teacheth the Scriptures according to the Socinians Or in believing that we are praedestinate to life in regard of our Lord Christ dying for us according to the Enthusiasts what remaineth for Baptisme to procure that is not assured already before a man be Baptized And therefore I conceive I demand nothing but reason For all the gaine that I demand from all this is no more but that it be freely acknowledged that justification by faith alone and that faith which alone justifieth be not so understood as to make the promises of the Gospel due before Baptisme to which the Scripture interpreted by the consent and practice of the whole Church testifieth that Baptisme concurreth A thing which can by no means be obtained but by placing that faith which alone justifieth aswell in the outward act of professing as in the inward act of believing This profession containing an expresse promise or vow to God whereby we undertake to live as those who believe the Gospel of Christ are by Gods Law to live And that promise or vow to be celebrated and solemnized by the Sacrament of Baptisme appointed by our Lord Christ to that purpose For seeing the professing of Christianity and not the believing of it is that which brings upon the Church that persecution which the Crosse of Christ the mark of a disciple signifies neither can it be reasonable that God should allow the promises of the Gospel to any quality that includeth it not nor unreasonable that he should make them depend upon it And seing it is not the profession of any thing that a man may call Christianity though perhaps grounded upon an imagination that he hath learned it from the Scriptures which God accepteth whatsoever a man may suffer for the maintenance and affirmation of it but of that which himself sent our Lord Christ to preach It is no marvel if God who esteemeth nothing but for that affection of the heart wherewith it is done should notwithstanding accept no disposition of the heart towards the profession of Christianity but that which is executed and solemnized by such an outward ceremony as himself hath limited his disciples their successors to celebrate it with For supposing that God hath founded the unity of his Church upon supposition of professing that Christianity which he gave his Apostles Commission to preach consisting in the visible communion of those offices which God is served with by Christians it will be evident why God who esteemeth the heart alone hath not allowed the promises of his Gospel to any but those who professe Christianity by being admitted to Baptisme by the Church Because as it is not any beliefe or resolution that may be called Christianity but that which the Church hath received from the Lord and his Apostles that qualifies a man for those promises which God tenders by the Covenant of Grace So it is not the profession of any beliefe or resolution that qualifies a
Irenaeus II. 7. Irrationale est autem impium adinvenire locum in quo cessat finem habet qui est secundum eas Propater Proarche omnium Pater hujus Pleromatis Nâ—c rursus in sinu Patris alterum quendam dicere tantam fabricasse creationem fas est vel consentiente vel non consentiente Now it is unreasonable and impious to imagine any place in which their Forefather and Forebeginning the Father of all and of this Fulness ceaseth and endeth Nor is it lawfull again to say that any other in the bosome of the Father made this great creation either with his consent or without it For here you see that the Gnosticks faigning some Principle besides the Father but resident in his bosome to have made the World are reproved by Irenaeus for adulterating the Christian Faith which maintaining the Son to be in the bosome of the Father signified him to be no stranger to the Father but of his own nature Whereby we see further what S. John means when he sayes that the Word was in the beginning with God and came into the World from thence In fine when S. John attributes to our Lord the title of onely begotten of the light and the truth which he that reads Irâ—neus will see that the Gnosticks made severall persons constituting that Fulness which severall Sects of them did imagine it must be concluded that â—â—ey finding these titles attributed by the Christians to our Lord did by attributing them to severall persons of whom the severall Sects of them framed their severall Fulnesses adulterate Christianity And that he finding them so doing vindicates it to the be true sense by fixing the said titles and the Godhead which they import upon our Lord Christ where they are due Here I alledge the words of the Apostle Heb. I 3. concerning Christ Who being the brightness of his glory and the Character of his substance and sustaining or moving all things as it follows in those words which have been already examined Which words the Socinians think they avoid fairely by saying that As the words of men are all Images of their minds so the man Jesus being to signifie that is to resemble the counsell of God to mankind is called the image of God as I sayd afore that he is called the Word of God in their sense And to this they think the words of S. Paul inclinable 2 Cor. IV. 4 5 6. where he saith that The God of this World hath blinded the conceptions of unbelievers that the inlightning of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the Image of God might not shine on them For we preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your Servants for Jesus sake Because it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness that hath shined in our hearts to enlighten us with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face or person of Christ Jesus Because in these words which intitle Christ the Image of God the preaching of the Gospel is so much insisted upon as the reason of it But as for the reason why our Lord is called the Word I refer my self to the premises so that he should be intituled the Image of his glory the character that is printed off from his substance that in consideration of the same he should have purged mans sins and be set on Gods Throne to be honoured with Gods own honours which all follows in the Apostles words is too gross for any reasonable man to digest And therefore in the title of Gods Image as I sayd before in the title of Gods Word there must be couched and understood a reason upon which all this may flow Which is nothing else but the fulness of the Spirit or the Godhead lodged for ever in the flesh of our Lord and rendring him capable as well to redeem all sinnes and to be advanced to the Throne of God that is to the Worship of God as to preach and make good that Gospel wherin the glory of Gods Wisdome and goodness so much appeareth And thus and not otherwise the account will be sufficient not only why our Lord â—s intituled the Image of God but how he is preached to be the Lord and the Apostles his Slaves how the glory of God shines off from his person or face upon the hearts of Believers For I do firmly believe as the Apostles writings have alwaies reference to the Scriptures of the old Testament to shew how they are fulfilled by the new So that our Lord is here called the image of God as the second Adam in reference to the first who is said to have been made in the Image and likenesse of God But with that difference which S. Paul hath expressed 1 Cor. XV. 45. As it is written the fiâ—st Adam was made a living soul so is the second Adam made a quickning Spirit For having shewed that the Spirit of Life which raised Christ from the dead is the fullnesse of the Godhead hypostatically united to the flesh of Christ well may I inferre that it is in consideration therof that he is called the image of Gods glory and the express character of his substance from which will also follow the expiation of our sins and his sitting upon Gods throne to be worshiped as God Thus shall the first Adam made a living soul in the image of God be the figure of the second Adam made a quickning Spirit in the image of God Thus shall the Old Testament be the figure of the new and the animal life given by the Word and Spirit of God the figure of spirituall and everlasting life given by the same Spirit of God dwelling in the Word of God incarnate I will here shew you the strange tale that Saturninus framed out of the relation of Moses concerning the making of man related by Epiphanius that you may judge thereby of the truth of that which he indeavored to disguise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So I read Epiphanius in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which makes no sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because saith he that same light which was the image of the Power above peeping down wrought a certaine provocation in the said Angels by whom he saith the World was made they attempted to frame man out of the â—ust they had to the image above For being in love with the light above and taken with the lust of it appearing and disappearing to them and unable to satisfie themselves of the comelynesse of that which they were in love with because his light flew up as soone as it came at them hereupon this Iugler frames the scene and saies that the angels said Let us make man to wit According to the image not according to our image because he denies that man was made after the image of God that made the world but after the image of the unknown Father which peeped down upon them in the Fullnesse of the Godhead and
so ballanced But chiefly because I see the subject of the dispute to be all upon the literall and mysticall sense of these Scriptures Without the knowledge whereof I am confident the Faith of a Christian is intire though the skill of a divine is nothing And for the consent of the Fathers how generall soever it be after Irenaeus I have the authority of the same Irenaeus backed by his reason in that excellent Chapter where he distinguishes between the Tradition of Faith and the skill of the Scriptures to resolve me that neither this point nor any other point which depends upon the agreement between the Old Testament and the New as this does can belong to the Faith of a Christian but onely to the skill of a divine But now this being premised and setled it will be easie for me to inferre that a state of meer nature is a thing very possible had it pleased God to appoint it by proposing no higher end then naturall happinesse no harder meanes then Originall innocence to man whom he had made The reasons premised sufficiently serving to shew that there is no contradiction in the being of that which there is so much appearance that it was indeed But I must advise you withall that I mean it upon a farre other supposition then that of the Schoole Doctors They supposing that man was created to that estate of supernaturall happinesse to which the Gospel pretendeth to regenerate Christians hold that it was Gods meer free grace that he was not created with that contradiction between the reason and appetite which the principles of his nature are of themselves apt to produce Whereupon it foloweth that concupiscence is Gods creature that is the indowment of it signifying by concupiscence that contrariety to reason which the disorder of sensuall appetite produceth A saying that hath fallen from the pen of S. Augustine and that after his businesse with Pelagius Retract I. 9. allowing what he had writ to that purpose against the Manichees in his third book de libero arbitrio which he mentioneth againe and no way disalloweth in his book de Dono perseverantiae cap. XI and XII but seemeth utterly inconsistent with the grounds which he stands upon against Pelagius For supposing contrariety and disorder in the motions of mans soul what is there in this confusion which it hath created in the doings of mankind that might not have come to passe without the fall Unlesse we suppose that a man can be reasonably madde or that concupiscence which reason boundeth not could be contained within any rule or measure not supposing any gift of God inabling reason to give bounds to it or preventing the effect of it which the supposition of pure nature alloweth us not to suppose For the very state of mortality supposing the immortality of the soul either requireth in man the conscience of integrity before God or inferreth upon him a bad expectation for the world to come And therefore though the sorrows that bring death might serve for advantage to happinesse were reasonable to govern passion in using them yet not being able they can be nothing but essayes of that displeasure of God which he is to expect in the world to come And therefore this escape of S. Augustine may seem to abate the zeale of those who would make his opinion the rule of our common Faith That which my resolution inferreth is no more then this That supposing God did not create man in an estate capable to attaine the said supernaturall happinesse he might neverthelesse had he pleased have created him in an estate of immortality without impeachment of trouble or of sorrow but not capable of further happinesse then his then life in Paradise upon earth importeth Not that I intend to say that God had been without any purpose of calling man whom he had created in this state unto the state of supernaturall grace whereby he might become capable of everlasting glory in the world to come as Christians believe themselves to be For the meaning of those that suppose this is that God purposed to exercise man first in this lower estate and having proved him and found him faithfull in it supposing Adam had not fallen to have called him afterwards to a higher condition of that immortality which we expect in the world to come upon trial of fidelity in that obedience here which is correspondent to it Whereupon it is reasonably though not necessarily consequent that this calling being to be performed by the Word of God which being afterwards incarnate is our Lord Christ and the Spirit which dwelt in him without measure our Lord Christ should have come in our flesh though Adam had not fallen to do this And this is alledged for a reason why afterwards the Law that was given to Moses covenanted expresly for no more then the happinnesse of this present life though covertly being joyned with that discipline of godlinesse which the people of God had received by tradition from their Fathers it afforded sufficient argument of the happinesse of the world to come for those who should imbrace the worship of God in spirit and truth though under the paedagogie and figures of the Law For they say it is suitable to the proceeding of God in restoring mankind that we understand him first to intend the recovering of that naturall integrity in which man was created by calling his people to that uprightnesse of civile conversation in the service of the onely true God which might be a protection to as many as under the shelter of such civile Lawes should take upon them the profession of true righteousnesse to God Intending afterwards by our Lord Christ to set on foot a treaty of the said righteousnesse upon terms of happinesse in the world to come But thesâ— things though containing nothing prejudiciall to Christianity yet not being grounded upon expresse scripture but collected by reasoning the ground and rule of Gods purpose which concerns not the truth of the Gospel whether so or not I am neither obliged to admit nor refuse So much of Gods counsel remaining alwaies visibly true That he pleased to proceed by degrees in setting his Gospel on foot by preparing his people for it by the discipline of the Law and the insufficience thereof visible by that time which he intended for the coming of our Lord Christ though we say that man was at first created in a state of supernaturall grace and capable of everlasting happinesse For still the reason of Gods proceeding by degrees will be that first there might be a time to try how great the disease was by the failing of the cure thereof by the Law before so great a Physitian as the Sonne of God came in person to visite it This onely I must adde because all this discourse proceeds upon supposition that man might have been created in an estate of meer nature if indowed with uprightnesse capable to attaine that happinesse which that estate required That
can be produced to depose for the Sacrifice of the Eucharist than the sense of those Scriptures of the New Testament already handled which are in a maner all that have any mention of it will inferr and allow There is much noise made with the Priesthood of Melchisedeck of whom wee reade Gen. XIV 19 24. And Melchisedeck King of Salem brought forth bread and wine for hee was the Priest of the most High God And hee blessed him saying Blessed be Abraham of the most High God which owneth heaven and earth In reference whereunto the Psalmist speaking of Christ Psal CX 4. The Lord sware and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck And the Apostle taking for granted that hee is a figure of Christ in the mystical sense Ebr. VII 13. argueth the voiding of the Levitical Law from the purpose of setting up another Priesthood declared by the Psalm But no where in all that Chapter which is all spent about the Exposition of it so much as intimateth the Priesthood of Christ to consist in any thing but in offering up to God in heaven his own body and bloud sacrificed upon the Crosse to make expiation for the sins of his people and to obtain of God that grace and assistance that comfort and deliverance which their necessities from time to time may require Be it granted neverthelesse that seeing of necessity Melchisedeck is the figure of Christ those things which Melchisedeck is related to have done are also necessarily figures of things done by our Lord Christ For otherwise were not the mystical sense of the Old Testament a laughing stock to unbelievers if it should hold in nothing but that which the Spirit of God hath expounded in the New Testament by our Lord and his Apostles I have therefore to the best advantage translated the words of Moses For not and hee was the Priest of the living God That whoso will may argue thereupon that his bringing forth bread and wine was an act of his Priesthood Which if I would deny no man can constrain mee by virtue of these words to acknowledg But I cannot therefore allow that Translation which sayes Obtulit panem vinum that as Priest hee offered bread and wine in sacrifice to God The Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so evidently signifying protulit not obtulit hee brought forth not that hee offered that hee brought forth bread and wine to refrâ—sh Abraham â—nd his people returning weary from the slaughter of the Kings not that hee offered them in sacrifice to God as his Priest the mention of his Priesthood râ—ther advancing the reason why hee blessed them than why hee fed them As both Moses in the words next afore and the Apostle also Ebr. VII 1. intimateth or declareth the intent why hee brought them forth Though if I should grâ—nt that custome which was common to all Idolaters to have been in forâ—e under the Law of nature because wee see it retained and inâ—cted by the Law of Moses not to taste of any thing till some part of it had been dedicated to God in the nature of first-fruits to the sanctifying of the whole till when it was not to be touched I say though I should grant this for a reâ—son why hee may be thought to have offered bread and wine to God not why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be translated protulit hee brought forth no man would have cause to thank mee for any advantage from thence For still the correspondence between Melchisedeck â—nd our Lord Christ would lye in this that our Lord by appointing this Sacrâ—ment brings forth bread and wine to strengthen the peoâ—lâ— of Abraham in their warfare against the powers of darknesse as in the dayes of his flâ—sh hee fed those that attended upon his doctrine least they should faint in their travail Now this will first inferr that it is bread and wine which our Lord feeds us with in the Eucharist And again that it hath the virtue of sustaining us by being made the body and bloud of Christ as in a Sacrament by virtue of the consecration past upon it Which is all that which I say to a hair that by being made a Sacrament it becomes the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse to be feasted upon by Christians In like maner be it granted that the words of the Prophet Malachy I. 11. From the rising of the Sun to his going down my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered to my name and a pure meat offering For my name shall be great among the Gentiles saith the Lord of Hosts is a Prophesie of the institution of this Sacrâ—ment because it is contained in those kindes of breâ—d and wine which served for meat and drink offerings in the Law of Moses But this being granted what shall wee do with the incense and the meat offering which the Prophet speaks of unlâ—sse wee say that they signifie that which corresponds to the meâ—t and drink offerings of the Law and their incense under the Gospel And will not thâ—t prove to be the spiritual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which God under the Gospel is served with by all Nations Though those prayers and prâ—â—es of God being by the institution of the Eucharist limited and determined to be such as the celebration thereof requires it is no inconvenience nay it will be necessâ—ry to grant that the sacrifice thereof is fore-told by these words not signifying neverthelesse the nature of it to require any thing more thâ—n is exprâ—ssed by the premises Be the same therefore said if you please of all the Sacrifices of the Old Law of all the Prophesies in which the service to be rendred to God in the New Testament is described by the offering of Sacrifices As for the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria John IV. 23. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth For the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a Spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Though I grant as afore that this is fulfilled by the celebration of the Eucharist when once wee suppose our Lord to have limited the worship of God under the Gospel to the form of it yet there can be no consideration of a sacrifice signified by these words which neither suppose nor expresse the sacrifice of Christ upon the Crosse the Eucharist no way bearing the nature of a sacrifice but as it is the same with it But for the same reason and by the same correspondence between the sacrifices of the Law and that of Christs Crosse it may be evident that it is not nor can be any disparagement to the Sacrifice of our Lord Christ upon the Crosse to the full and perfect satisfaction and propitiation for the sins of the world which it hath made that the Eucharist should be
be and was sufficient means under the Law to make them understand their obligation to that spiritual obedience which the Gospel covenanteth for though wee suppose as the truth is that the Law expresly covenanteth onely for the temporal happinesse of the Land of Promise Therefore there was also sufficient meanes to oblige them to expect the coming of the Christ as wee see by the Gospel that they did at the coming of our Lord and as all that will maintain Christianity against the Jewes are bound to maintain And therefore to the objection proposed I answer That though the words of the precept of loving God with all the heart and all the minde and all the soul and all the might may contain all that Christianity requireth to be done in consideration of duty to God and with an intent of his honor and service Yet neverthelesse that sense thereof that depends upon the Covenant of the Law is to be limited to the observation of those precepts which God should confine their civil life to in the service of him alone The intent of the Covenant being to contract with God for temporal happinesse in the Land of Promise they undertaking as a Common-wealth to live by such civil Lawes as hee should give as well as to worship him by such Ceremonies as hee should prescribe And therefore supposing they observed those precepts they were to expect the inheritance of the Land of Promise though wee suppose that they did it out of respect to that reward and not onely to God and to his honor and service Yea though wee grant that for the acknowledging of the true God alone they were bound to indure persecution and death rather than for fear of torment to deny God or sacrifice to Idols or renounce his Law as wee see Daniel and the three Children did under Nebuchadnesar and the zealous Jewes in the Maccabees time under Antiochus Epiphanes For if the Heathen had cause to believe that which is received of all as the ground of civil Society that particular persons are bound to expose their lives for the defense of their Countrey that is to no other end but that they may live and die in the Lawes under which they are bred though they had no promise of God that they should hold their inheritance of this world by maintaining them Cereainly the people that obtained their inheritance by taking upon them Moses Law shall stand bound not onely to maintain it by the sword under the conduct of their Soveraignes but also by suffering for it when they were not to maintain it by force A thing nothing strange to a man that shall consider how desâ—rable life is to him that is forced from the Lawes of his Countrey As for the other part of loving our Neighbor as our selves it is without doubt pregnant with an evident argument of this truth seeing in plain reason the extent of the precept might so argue the intent of it For it is evident by infinite Texts of the Law that a mans neighbor in this precept extends no further than to Israelites whether by birth or by religion that is to say those that are ingraffed into the Covenant by being circumcised For example Let mee ask how the Law could forbid the Israelites to seek the good of the Moabites and Ammonites if it be part of the same Law to love all men under the quality of neighbors as themselves Let mee demand of any man how Mordecai was tied not to do that honor to Haman that his Soveraigne commanded to be done How hee could in conscience disobey his Prince in a mater of indifferent nature of it self had it not been prohibited by the Law of God Whether a Jew that is commanded by the Law to professe hostility against all Amalekites could be dispensed with in this obligation by any act of his Soveraign Whether any just reason can be alleged for Mordecai but this Nay those who are called strangers in the Law That is to say those that had renounced all Idols and professed to worship the true God and thereupon were privileged to dwell in the Land of Promise out of which the Israelites were sufficiently commanded to root all Idolaters those strangers I say by the leter of Moses Law are not comprehended in the precept of loving our neighbor as our selves For hee that asked who is the neighbor that the Law speaks of Lut. X. 27-37 is not convicted by our Lord by any leter of the Law but by a Parable intimating the example of that which hee did for mankinde to be the reason of that which the Gospel requires Forsooth if the love of Christians extend to strangers and enemies because the good Samaritâ—ne which is our Lord Christ extended his so farr then not because Moses Law had convenanted for it Therefore besides this precept of loving our neighbors as our selves it was requisite that the Law should by a particular provision limit that respect and tenderness wherewith they were required to use those strangers as converts to the true God for so the Syriack translation of the Law calls them alwaies to wit in the rank of Widowes and Orphans If this be true the precept of not coveting by the immediate intent of Moses Law stands confined to that sense which the Jewes at this day give it according to the decisions of their Doctors that no man by contrived oppresion or vexation designe to force his neighbor that was by the Law inabled to make a divorce to part with his wife or any thing else that hee called his own Which sense our Lord also in the Gospel manifestly favors Mar. X. 19. where recounting the precepts that those must keep that will inherit life everlasting after thou shalt not bear false witnesse hee inserres thou shalt not take away by fraud or oppression that which is another mans for the sense of the tenth Commandement thou shalt not cover that which is thy neighbors All which extendeth no further than the over act of seeking what is not a mans own And though this be out Lords answer to him that asks what hee is to do to obtaine life everlasting yet it may well seem that our Lord intended first to propound unto him the civil Law of Moses as necessary to salvation and a step towards it because the Gospel saith that our Lord loved him that answered All these things have I kept from my youth up as acknowledging that hee said true For that hee had kept these precepts in that spiritual sense and to the intent and purpose which the Gospel requireth it was not true And by that which followes when hee askes what remained to be done namely that hee leave all to follow Christ hee inferrs in one precept the whole inward and spiritual obedience of God which under the Gospel is expresly required To wit that a man set all the world and himself behinde his back that hee may follow Christ Therefore though they be the obedience
Signifying that they expected salvation by the Law which indeed is not to be had but by his Gospel which the Law intimateth and involveth Yee think yee have it so as indeed yee have it not In the next place consider wee a while the Writings of the Prophets that is all that followes the Law in the Old Testament and wee shall finde there such intimations of the world to come such instruction to that conversation by which it is attained as may show that it was not covenanted for though attainable by Gods dispensation of that time That which wee reade in the Propher Esay XXVI 19. Thy dead shall live my carkasses shall arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast forth the Gyants is the very picture of the Resurrection which Christians believe But what it signifies there let the consequence of the Scripture witnesse which showes it by the beginning of the Chapter to be part of a Song which should be sung in the Land of Judab at that day That is at such time as God having afflicted his people according to the Prophesies going afore should restore them again as hee prophesies there and afterwards The Vision of dry bones which the Prophet Ezekiel XXXIII saw upon the breathing of God clothed with flesh and skin to rise againe manifestly foretells the return of the Jewes from Captivity to be a Nation againe But â—o that it cannot be denied that S. Hilary had reason to call him several times the Prophet of the Resurrection for it Nor must wee make any other account of Daniel who having prophesied of the miseries that were to befall the Jewes especially under Antiochus Epiphanes and their deliverances in the end sets forth the glory and ignominy of those that had stuck to their Law till death or fallen from it after they had their freedom under the Maccabees by the figure of rising from the dead XII 1 2. For having first said at that time thy people shall escape whosoever is written in the book Which time is that persecution under Epiphanes when hee adds incontinently And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life some to everlasting reproach and shame And teachers shall sbine as the shine of the sky and those that make many righteous as the starres for ever and ever I say this following immediately it cannot stand with common sense that it should not concerne the same times and persons Though wee allow it a competent argument that the Prophet which sets forth the deliverance of that people in such termes understood the Resurrection of the dead well enough and intended by using the same to make way for Christianity that professes it But the words of S. Job XIX 25. are more questionable I know saith hee that my Redeemer liveth and shall stand upon the earth at last And after they have pierced this my skin I shall see God out of my flesh But if wee compare this with what hath been hitherto produced out of the Prophets it will not seem probable that the Resurrection which they so darkly intimated should be so plainly preached either before the Law when Job lived or under the Law when the book of Job is said to have been penned And truly hee that perswaded himself that God would deliver him out of his present affliction might well say I know that my Redeemer liveth And hee that saith XLII 5. By the hearing of the eare I had heard of thee but now doth mine eye see thee might say to the same purpose that hee should see God standing at length upon the earth after that his skin had been pierced with sores Consider now those passages of the Prophets whereby they declare how they are moved to question Gods providence by seeing the righteous afflicted and the wicked to flourish in this world Psal LXXIII 2-20 Jer. XII 1 2. Mal. III. 13-18 besides all the discourses of this point in Job Ecclesiastes and elsewhere It is plaine every Christian can answer this out of the principles of his profession by saying That God reserves his full account to the day of judgment in the mean time maintaining sufficient evidence of his providence by the account which hee takes of some sinnes in this world And had this been a part of the old Covenant it had been no lesse ready for every one to answer with What saith David When I went into the Sanctuary of God then understood I the end of those men Forsooth thou settest them in slippery places and castest them down to ruine How came they to desolation in a moment they came to an end by terrors As when a man awakes out of a dreame Lord when thou awakest thou shalt scorn the image of them Is there any thing in all this to determine whether in this world or in the world to come Though the consequence be good not in this world therefore in the world to come What saith Jeremy And thou O Lord knowest mee and triest my heart before thee Pluck them out as sheep to be slain and consecrate them to the day of slaughter What saith Malachi They shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts when I store up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his son that serveth him And yee shall again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not All this is true to those that are in Covenant with God as the temporal promises are true even in this life and therefore expresses not the world to come whatsoever may be inferred by the foresaid consequence And truly Ecclesiastes is so farre from expressing the answer that Christianity maketh to this objection as to give some men occasion to imagine that it alloweth the world to come no more than the lives of worldly men do own it And all the obscurity of the book of Job will never be resolved without acknowledging that this truth was then a secret which the Prophets knew but preached it so sparingly and with such good husbandry which the Greek Fathers use to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the hope of proficience by their Doctrine in their hearers did require The same account is to be had of the Prophet Habakkuk II. 3-14 where hee proposeth the difference between the Chaldeans and Israelites in these termes Behold the soul that is exalted is not right in him But the just shall live by faith And concludes See is not this of the Lord of Hosts And the people shall labor for fire and the Nations be weary for nothing For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas Which all the Prophets will witnesse to signifie the restoring of the people of God to the destruction of Idolatry and their enimies Idolaters No where is this truth more
man mistake mee pretends not any general Rule for the interpretation of Scripture even in those things which concern the Rule of Faith but inferrs a prescription against any thing that can be alleged out of Scripture that if it may appear to be contrary to that which the whole Church hath received and held from the beginning it cannot be the true meaning of that Scripture which is alleged to prove it For the meaning even of those Scriptures which concern the Rule of Faith must be had by the same same means by which I shall come by and by to show that the meaning of all Scriptures whatsoever they concern is to be had and established But the being and constitution of the Society of the Catholick Church from the beginning is of force to prescribe this limitation to the Fansies of all men that take upon them to interpret the Scriptures that they neither admit nor impose upon any man any thing for the true sense of Scripture whereby the substance of Christianity which the Rule of Faith importeth may become questionable So that an evidence of such opposition ought to out-shine and supresse any appearance or supposed evidence of truth in any such sense The Rule of Faith Not to go about to determine in this place what it containes because it is the Master-piece of all the Divines of Christendome to say what is fundamental in Christianity and what is not but to give a grosse description of what men mean when they inquire for it consists partly in things to be believed partly in things to be done Hee that holds so much of Christian truth as may reasonably certifie him of all that is requisite to qualifie a Christian man for remission of sins and life everlasting which are the promises of the Gospel may well be said to hold the whole Rule of Faith in things to be believed Hee that holds so much of Christian truth as may reasonably certifie him of all that is requisie to preserve all Christians with consciences void of sin may be said to hold it in things to be done For the common Rule of Faith importeth not what is necessity for any Christian but for all Christians And that any thing contrary to the salvation of all Christians should be held and professed by all Christians is a grosse contradiction to common sense Whereupon it is no lesse evidently true that the Catholick Church of all ages and places is utterly infallible In as much as it is a grosse contradiction to suppose a number of men to attain salvation who all do hold some thing destructive to the salvation of any one So much difference there is between the whole Church which is the Catholick Church of all times and places and the present Catholick Church respectively to those ages in which the Communion of the whole was not interrupted by any breach but effectuated by actual correspondence For the act of the Catholick Church in this sense which I call the present Church if it be lawfull obligeth all that are of it But it self stands obliged to the Faith of the whole Church as that which the being privilege of a Church resupposeth to beâ— rofessed by it And of this I cannot conceive how any question should remain The difficulty that remains is how it may appear that all this is not a fine nothing how it may reasonably seem to signifie something towards the limitation which I prescribe to the interpretation of those Scriptures which may be alleged in mater concerning the Rule of Faith And the answer is that seeing it hath appeared that the Apostles of our Lord Christ established from the beginning one Catholick Church consisting of all Churches by the will of God and his appointment and that in consideration of that which was made to appear afore that all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians though evidently extant and discernable in the Scriptures are not neverthelesse evidently discernable by all them whose salvation they concern that therefore the unity and Communion of the Catholick Church was provided by God as the depository of his truth the acknowledgment whereof should be necessary to obtain life everlasting So that the effect of this trust deposited by God in the Church to be at least thus much That whatsoever was advanced in any part thereof as belonging to the Rule of Faith being condemned where first it was advanced and in consequence of that condemnation by all other parts of the Church to that effect as to render those that held it uncapable of the Communion of all the whole Church That this I say might be accounted a reasonable mark to discern such doctrine to be destructive to the Rule of Faith And thus were all Heresies marked for such by the Church and upon this ground those marks were receivable not onely before Constantine but so long as it may be visible that nothing hindred this correspondence wherein the actual unity of the Church consisted to operate and have effect For if this be the reason and ground which made these marks reasonable as grounded upon it then hee that supposes this reason either actually interrupted or impeached cannot presume upon the like effect And therefore the justifying of these marks requires the evidencing of this correspondence of the Church and no more And truly I could not but admire to finde it alleged by Crellius the Socinian in his answer to Grotius concerning the satisfaction of Christ where hee argues that no Ecclesiastical Writer ever profest that opinion I say I admired to finde him answer that Pelagius the Heretick maintained the same For sure it is not much more pertinent than if hee should allege that the Jewes professe our Lord Jesus not to be the Messias or that the Gentiles do not worship one true God In as much as though they be further from the faith of true Christians than Pelagius yet an Heretick is no lesse excluded from the Communion of the Church than a Jew or a Gentile And the whole reason for which the testiemonies of Ecclesiastical Writers is receivable to evidence maters concerning the Rule of Faith to which they can give no credit but are by acknowledging the same receivable for Christians is the Communion of the Church which make it evident that what such men professe in the Church is not against the Faith of the Church And this in the second place may be a reasonable presumption or evidence of that which belongeth to the Rule of Faith when a thing is so ordinarily and vulgarly taught by Church Writers that there can be no reasonable presumption made by the doctrine of any of them that the contrary was ever allowed by the Church So then I do not tye my self to this that if any thing be found in the writings of any of those whom wee call commonly Fathers it is therefore not contrary to Christianity or to the Rule of Faith that is either expresly or by consequence For
XXII The Authority of the Fathers is not grounded upon any presumption of their Learning or Holinesse How farr they challenge the credit of Historical truth The pre-eminenee of the Primitive The presumption that is grounded upon their ranks and qualities in the Church Of Arnobius Lactantius Tertullian Origen Clemens and the approbation of posterity THese things being said wee have got ground for a resolution in the dispute concerning the authority of the Fathers in maters questionable concerning Christianity and the interpretation of the Scriptures For truly did the credit of those things which they affirm consist in the reputation of their holinesse or learning whether or no the premises be true the consequence would be lame Hee that could make a question of the godlinesse and of the Christianity of those persons to whom wee owe the maintenance and propagation of Christianity under God by preserving Christs flock from the contagion of Heresies by intertaining the unity of the Church and by laying down their lives for the truth must by consequence question though not that Christianity which hee hath sansied yet that which was delivered by the Apostles Which notwithstanding if the Holy Ghost that was in them to save them by saving the common Christianity hath not given the Church evidence that hee was given them to preserve them from error in understanding the Scriptures wee wrong them and the Holy Ghost in them if wee take the truth of their doctrine upon their credit For though the having of the Holy Ghost presupposeth the profession of Christianity as I have showed yet that importeth no evidence to warrant the truth of all that they might say in defense or interpretation of it And though their learning in that which is proper to Christians that is their skill in the Scriptures be such as these ages that boast so much of learning can never equal because they made it in a maner their whole businesse of study And though some of them as Clemens Tertullian Origen and S. Hiâ—rome that looked about them for further helps to the defense and interpretation of Christianity may well challenge the curiosity of these times for great knowledg Yet because mans wit is alwaies fruitfull in that which it is imployed about and may still be well imployed in clearing the true intent of Christianity and the Scriptures so long as there are contrary opinions and sects which cannot all be true I will not create any prejudice to the learning of this time upon that score which it is evident may and doth imploy more helps of learning than they ever did imploy towards the understanding of the Scriptures Two privileges there are belonging to the Fathers of the Church which no man that writes in these dayes can pretend to how godly how learned soever hee may be The first is that of their age and time creating an infallible trust in point of historical truth concerning the state of Christianity during those ages in which they lived or which they might know This is that which neither Pagans nor Jews nor Mahumetanes can refuse them any more than Christians can refuse to believe them in maters of fact which they relate not as things done in private which themselves with a few more may pretend to have had means to know but which were visible to the world at such time as they writ and wherein had they been otherwise they might have been reproved as imposing upon the world not the belief of that which doth not appear to be true but of that which doth appear to be untrue Neither do I demand that upon this score their credit be admitted any further than that which I have premised will inforce For if I have well concluded that the Church is a Society instituted by our Lord Christ and his Apostles in trust for the maintenance and propagation of Christianity contained in the holy Scriptures which hee deposited with it then is the sense of that time which is nearest the age of the Apostles a legal presumption of the truth of that which it was trusted with And as all Writers that relate things subject to the sense of all men as well as their own have the credit of historical truth and Church writers in maters of fact concerning the Church of their respective ages the state thereof being alwaies visible So those that write under the first ages of the Church though competent authors for the truth of nothing in Christianity for then why should not Christianity be believed upon their credit yet must be admitted as unquestionable witnesses of that Christianity which came hot and tender from the forge of our Lord and his Apostles Nor do I complain that any man refuses them upon this score But when I see how many pretending to search the Scriptures and the truth of things questioned in Christianity never make use of any information they might have from them to argue thereupon the true sense of the Scriptures who if they were to expound any Author of humane learning would count him a mad man that should neglect the records of those Authors that lived nearest the same time and perhaps do themselves imploy the writings of Jewes and Pagans in expounding the very Scriptures I cannot chuse but take it as a mark of prejudice against some truth that men care not to be informed of the primitive Christianity least consequences might be framed against some prejudices of their own which supposing onely the credit of historical truth might prove undeniable And here I must needs mervail at the Cardinal of Perrons demand that the trial of what is to be thought Catholick or universally received in the whole Church of God should proceed chiefly or at least necessarily upon the testimonies of those Writers which lived about the fourth century of years from Christ as that which flourished most for number and learning of Writers For seeing the authority of Church Writers is not grounded upon presumption of their learning And that the credit of historical truth cannot be denied even the single witnesse of those that writ when they were more scarce and lesse knowing at least in Secular studies But what is primitive what accessory is not to be discovered but by the state of those times which were before additions could be made hee that demands to be tryed by the times of three hundred years distance from the original wherein what change may have fallen out not presumption but historical truth must determine I say hee that demands this tryal demands not to be tryed Not that I would deny the Writers of that age and such as follow the credit which their time in the consideration now on foot allowes But that the resolution of what is original and primitive must not come from the testimony thereof but from the comparison of it with the testimony of those ages that went afore The second consideration in which the writings of the Fathers are valuable cometh from that which is now
for God which are sacrificing burning incense pouring out drink-offerings and adoration But others there are by doing which a man cannot be concluded to worship any thing but God till he do it in that way and fashion as is one by those that professe to worship it for God If it be said that these are Jews which allow Traditions but that there is another sort of Jews called Scripturaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which admit nothing but the leter of the Scriptures I answer that those also who admit onely the Text of Scripture and pretend to determine all controversies about the Law by consequences to be drawn from it could never come to agreement among themselves what consequence should take place and what not did they not acknowledge some publick persons whose determinations the whole body of them submitteth to the consequences which they derive their observations by from the leter of the Law being so ridiculously insufficient that they could not satisfie the meanest understandings otherwise as may appear by those which the Talmudists alledge for their constitutions Which being no lesse ridiculous then the traditions which they alledge incredible would be both to no effect did not the publick power of the Nation which while the Law stood was of force by it but now it is void ought to cease put all pretenses beyond dispute And for that which is alledged out of the Apocalyps which in sound of words seems to import some such thing concerning the vvhole book of the Scriptures as these Texts of Moses import concerning the Lavv I shall desire the understanding Reader but to consider that protestation vvhereby Irenaeus conjures all that should copy his Book to collate it vvell vvith the Original that they might be sure neither to adde to it nor take from it as Eusebius relateth out of his Book de Ogdoade against the Valentinians Eccl. First V. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I adjure thee that shalt copy out this Book by our Lord â—esus Christ and by his glorious presence when he comes to judge the quick and dead to collate what thou hast transcribed and correct it by this Copy whence thou hast transcribed it with care and likewise to transcribe this adsuration and puâ—â—it in the Copy Setting aside this adjuration what is the difference between S. Iohns charge and the matter of it And finding the words of S. Iohn to import neither more nor lesse to tell me what he thinks of this argument S. Iohn protesteth in the conclusion of his Revelation that who so shall adde any thing to the true and authentick Copy of these Prophesies to him shall be added the plagues written it who so taketh from it from him shall be taken his share in the Book of life and the holy City and the good things written in that Book Therefore all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians are contained in the Scriptures clearly to all understandings But strain the consequence of this Text beyond the words of it which concern onely the words of the prophesie of this Book that is the Apocalyps if you please and take it for a seal to the whole Bible forbidding to take any thing from or to adde any thing to it for some of the Ancients have so argued from it shall he that addeth the true sense to or taketh false glosses from the Bible by force of that evidence which the Tradition of the Church createth be thought therefore to adde to the Word of God or to take from it Then did God provide that his own Law should be violated by his own Law when having forbidden to adde or to take from Moses Law he provided a power to limit or to extend both the sense and practise of it and that under pain of death to all that refractarily should resist it Now I demand of them that shall alledge S. Pauls Anathema against him that should preach any other Gospel then what he had preached to the Galatians against the position that I maintain whether he do believe that the Galatians had then the New Testament consisting of the four Gospels and other Apostolicall Scriptures or whether he can maintain that they had any part of it For if this cannot as is evident that it cannot be affirmed then of necessity S. Paul speaks of the Gospel not as we have it written in the Books of the New Testament but as they had received it from the preaching of S. Paul by word of mouth which being common to all Christians unlesse we question whether all the Apostles preached the same Gospell cannot be thought to destroy either the being of the Catholick Church or the saith which it supposeth or the power wherein it consisteth and the Authority of those acts which have voluntarily proceeded from it As for the Beraeans that examined even the doctrine of S. Paul by the Scriptures is it a wonder that they should not take S. Paul for an Apostle of Jesus Christ upon his own word but should demand of him to show by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ that so they might be induced to believe him sent to preach the Gospel of Christ Therefore when they were become Christians we must believe that they understood themselves and S. Paul better then to call his doctrine under examinarion or to dispute with him about the meaning of the Scriptures which he should alledge which our illuminati which take this for an argument must consequently do because they value not in S. Paul the commission of an Apostle but the presumption they have that the Holy Ghost moved him to write the Scriptures which he hath left us though they have nothing to alledge for it but the general commission of an Apostle To the words of the Evangelist Ioh. XX. 30. 31. I answer that he speaks onely of his own Gospel And that the things written in that Gospel are sufficient to induce a man to believe that believing he may have life But that is not sufficient to inferre that therefore all things necessary to the salvation of all Christians are clearly expressed either in S. Iohns Gospel or in the whole Scripture because he that is induced by the things there written to belive the truth of Christianity may seek further instruction in the substance thereof that he may attain unto life by imbracing the same So S. Iohn saith not that a man hath life by believing what is there but what by knowing it he cometh to believe As for those words of S. Paul 1 Tim. III. 16. 17. I confidently believe that S. Paul speaketh onely of the Books of the Old Testament then before the writings of the Apostles were gathered into that body which now is the New Testament known by the name of the Scriptures Being well assured that no evidence can be made to the contrary because of those alone it could be demanded that they should bear witnesse to that which the Apostles preached and taught There being no
provided a visible Judg infallible in determining Controversies of Faith either because originally his goodnesse requires it or because wee cannot suppose that men can be obliged to imbrace the Gospel upon other terms It is sufficient that having given the Scriptures hee hath over and above provided the Communion of the Church to preserve the Rule of Faith and the Laws of the Church in the sensible knowledg and common practice of all Christians that the means of salvation might be sufficient and yet men remain subject to trial whether they would render them uneffectual or not to themselvs and the rest of mankinde I confess indeed it would be much for the ease of the parties and would shorten their work very much if it might be admitted for a presumption that all things necessary are clear in the Scriptures or that the Church is an infallible Judg in Controversies of Faith For then the superficial sound of the words of Scripture repeated by rote in the Pulpit or out of the Pulpit would serve to knock the greatest question on the head without any advise what difficulties remain behind undecided upon no lesse appearances in Scripture On the other side a decree of the Council of Trent would serve to put the Scripture to silence without any proffer to satisfie the conscience that is moved with the authority thereof equally obliging with our common Christianity with the sense of the Church on the same side to boot Thus much is visible that they whose businesse it is in England to reconcile souls to the Church of Rome finde their work ready done when they have gained this point and men all their lives afore grounded upon contrary reasons in the particulars which are the subject of the breach change their profession without any coutrary resolution in those particulars that is their former grounds remaining in force Surely nothing were more desirable than a ready and short way to the truth in things so concerning But to pretend it upon a ground which if any thing can be demonstrative in this kinde is demonstratively proved that it cannot be true To wit the authority of the Church decreeing without means to derive that which it decreeth from the motives that should evidence it to be revealed by God This I say to pretend is no better than an Imposture And if this be true I remain secure of that which every man will object against the resolution which I advance that whereas the meaning of the Scripture alone is a thing too difficult for the most part of men to compasse I require further that it be assured by the records of the Church which are endlesse and which no mans industry can attain to know So that the meer despair of finding resolution by the means propounded will justifie to God him that followes probabilities as being all one in that case whether there be no truth or whether it cannot appear to those whom it concerns This Objection I say I do not finde so heavy upon mee that I have any cause to mince but rather to aggravate the difficulty of it having showed that the means provided by God to make evidence of the Faith to the consciences of particular Chaistians is not any gift of infallibility vested in any person or persons on behalf of the whole Church but the Unity of the whole Church grounded upon the profession of the same Faith as the condition of it For in all reason what Unity bindes that Division destroyes And whatsoever Unity contributes to the assurance of a Christian that hee is in the way to salvation so long as hee continues in the Unity of the Church that the Division of the Church necessarily derogates from the same assurance in him that cannot continue in that Unity which is once dissolved and yet believing the Scriptures and our common Christianity to be infallibly true cannot believe the parties to be infallible as they are And what hath hee that desireth the Unity of the Church to do but to aggravate that difficulty of attaining salvation which the division thereof produceth I do therefore grant and challenge as for mine own Interest that it is very difficult for unlearned Christians to discern the truth in those Controversies about which a settled division is once formed as now in the Western Church At least upon so true and so clear grounds as may assure them that they make their choice upon no other interest than that of Gods truth But I do not therefore yield to that which this difficulty it seems hath wrung from Vincentius Lerinensis with whom agreeth the Opus imperfectum in Mat. as you have them quoted afore That there is no means but Scripture to convince inveterate Heresies The reason whereof the later of those authors renders Because those Heresies have their Churches their Pastors and the succession of them and their Communion as well as Catholick Christians For hee supposeth Pastors lawfully constituted to have fallen away to those Heresies And truly the case of this difficulty was put when the Arian Faction had possessed so great a part of the Church that S. Gregory Nazianzene in the place afore quoted acknowledges that the true Church could not be judged by numbers With whom S. Hilary libro de Synodis agreeth But if the same Nazianzene scorn them that value the Church by numbers Liberius in the place afore quoted out of Theodoret revies it upon him in saying that the cause of the Faith could not suffer though hee were alone For not onely the Scriptures continue alwaies the same but though the present Church fail it follows not that the Tradition of the Whole Church must fail with it So long as the original sense of the Whole Church may be evident by the agreement thereof with the Scripture wee may discern what is Catholick without the sentence of the present Church And that which is not so to be discerned for Catholick wee may presume that our salvation requires us not to believe it And therefore Vincentius and his fellow are so to be understood that it is difficult indeed to make evidence to private Christians of Tradition contrary to that which they see received by Heresies And therefore that for the convicting of them in the truth recourie is to be had to the Scriptures But Vincentius who as I showed you acknowledges evidence for Tradition from written records of the Church need not have said that there is no means to convince inveterate Heresies but the Scriptures Be this difficulty then the evidence how much it concerns the salvation of all Christians that the Unity of the Church be restored That the choice of private Christians in maters concerning their salvation be not put upon the sentencing of those disputes the reasons whereof they are not able to manage For being restored upon agreement in those things which it is sufficient for all Christians to believe it will neither be easie for private Christians to frame to themselves opinions
by some of theit own body that they who demanded Baptism were no counterfeits but would stand to what they undertook it ought to be an Argument that they were to undertake that which they give the Church security to perform And indeed this custom being nothing else but an appertenance or consequence of the Interrogatories of Baptism I need say no more but that it appears thereby what those that were admitted to Baptism undertook when they were to have Sureties to undertake for them that they dissembled not in that which they undertook But in the next place I will alledge the constitution of the Church and all the authority of it Grounded as by the means which I have imployed to make evidence of it appeareth upon supposition and presumption that by being baptized into the visible communion thereof we attain invisible communion in the promises which the Gospel tendreth There are some that take upon them to censure the ancient Church for the abuse which I spoke of even now in delaying of Baptism These men if they will go alwaies by the same weights and measures must call S. Paul to account why he makes this demand 1 Cor. V. 12 13. What have I to do to judge those that are without do not ye judge those that are within But those that are without God shall judge For those who professed only to believe Christianity though obliged to learn how to behave themselves like Christians for with what face could they demand Baptism otherwise yet to speak properly were not Christians were not of the Church Therefore Clemens Alexandrinus in the end of his Paedagogus bringeth in the Word that is our Lord Christ or his Gospel which he calleth the Paedagogue for governing these Children and Novices in Christianity in their way to the Church giving up this Office to himselfe as being to become for the future their Doctor and Master and Bishop◠at their entrance into the Churcch The passage is remarkable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But it is not for me to teach these things further saith the Paedagogue We have need of a Doctor to expound these holy Oracles and to him we must go And truly it is time for me to give over my Office of Paedagogue and for you to become the Doctors Hearers He receiving you bread with good government having behaved themselves well during the time of their trial shall teach you these Oracles And in good time here is the Church and the onely Doctor the Bridegroom the good mind of a good Father Christ or the Gospel of Christ is the Paedagogue that guides and governs Children in Christianity to the School that is to the Church to demand baptism having behaved themselves well by the way during the time of their triall When that is done he teaches them no more as children are taught by a Paedagogue But as a Master teaches his Scholars so Christ those that are become his Disciples by being baptized Therefore afterwards 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Paedagogue having set us in the Church hoth recommended us to himselfe the Word the Doctor and Bishop of all And this is our Lords Commission to his Apostles to make them Disciples that should take up his Crosse by baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Then to teach them to observe all that he had given them in Charge The same is the ground of Cassanders observation which is much to my purpose That the Church putteth no man to penance whatsoever his life may have been for any thing done before Baptism Zosimus thinks he layes a great imputation upon Christianity in pretending that Constantine finding no means to come clear of the bloud of his Wife Fausta or his Son Crispus gave ear to Christianity because it pretended to wash away all sin That Constantine should seek those meanes which Heathenism pretendeth to purge sin with may well be thought to proceed from the malignity of the Gentiles against the first Christian Prince For the rest not disputing of his doings before Baptism because the Church judgeth not that those are without though he professed Christianity when they were done it would be a disparagement to that Fountain which God hath opened for Juda and Jerusalem that there should be any sin which it cannot cleanse supposing the change sincere which the undertaking of Christianity professeth If not God is his Judge But though the Church refuse no man Baptism because professing Christianity he had delayed his Baptism yet as it appeared sufficiently by the scruple that was made of the salvation of those that died in that estate that the Church disallowed it so when they were come into the Church a mark of the authority of the Church was fastened upon them in that those that were baptized in their beds were made uncapable by one of those Canons which I spoke of in the first Book that were in force before the Church had any Canons in writing of being promoted to the Clergy For this you shall find objected to Noratianus by Cornelius in Eusebius Eccles Hist VII 43. That by the Canons he ought not to have been promoted to any rank in the Clergy because he had been baptized in his bed of sickness having delayed his Baptism for fear of persecution till he found himselfe in danger of death And though the Church put no man to penance for his life before Baptism because Christianity it selfe pretendeth a totall change in him that imbraceth it and that the Church judgeth not but presumeth of the truth of that change which is pretended by him that is without yet it fasteneth a mark of the authority which it purchaseth upon Christianity by providing that no man who had been ever put to penance should be promoted to any rank of the Clergy The reason is expressed in those words of Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians pag. 54. speaking of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preaching over Countreys and Cities they made the First-fruits of them whom they had converted Bishops and Ministers of them that should believe The learned Bloudell will have these First-fruits to signifie those that were first converted to Christianity A mistake more sutable to the prejudice which he had undertook to maintain then to the rest of his learning For who knoweth not that First-fruits are the best the floure the cream of the whole And if no man that dared not to professe Christianity no man that had been put to penance for failing having profest it is to be of the Clergy you see why they are called the First-fruits of Christians In the mean time if the Church judge not those that are without doth it not judge those that are within according to S. Paul Show me any thing that ever was called a Church that is shew me the time when and the place where Christianity was ever settled and exercised according to order and rule where those that had received Baptism were not under a discipline
of penance failing of that which they had undertaken by it What is reformation in the Church and what is not is the subject of this present dispute therefore I cannot here grant that which some of the reformation may have done to be well done Otherwise I am secure no man will choke me with naming a Church that had no discipline of penance But that so it was I refer my self to that which I have said in the first book I demand here what is the ground and reason that so it must be For supposing the Keys of Gods Kingdom exercised in the first place in limiting the terms upon which baptisme is granted not in ministring of it Of necessity it followeth that in the second place it be seen and exercised in limiting the terms upon which those that have failed of that which they undertook at their Baptism may be restored to the visible communion of the Church upon presumption that they are restored to the invisible communion of those promises which the Gospel tendreth Not supposing this there is no reason why it should signifie any more than a scene acted upon a stage as it is taken to signifie by those who understand not this Lastly I will mention here the expresse Doctrine of the Church of England in the beginning of the Catechism declaring three things to have been undertaken in behalfe of him that is baptized That he shall forsake the Devil and all his works the pomp and vanities of this world and the evil desires of the flesh and not to be seduced by him either from believing the faith of Christ or from keeping Gods Commandements And again in the admonition to the Sureties after Baptism you must remember that it is your parts and duties to see that these Infants be taught so soon as they shall be able to learn what a solemn vow promise and profession they have made by you For all that come to Christianity believing what promises they get right to by it and being admitted to it uppon those terms there can remain no question upon what terms they attain the said promises Nor can or ought any Doctrine of that Church to what purpose soever cautioned be interpreted to the prejudice of that wherein the salvation of all consisteth But further in the Introduction to the Office of Baptism For asmuch as all men are conceived and born in sin and that our Saviour Christ saith None can enter into the Kingdome of God except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghost I beseech you to call upon God that these children may be baptized with water and the Holy Ghost and received into Christs holy Church and be made lively members of the same Proceeding to pray That they comming to thy holy baptisme may receive remission of their sins by their spirituall regeneration In the exhortation after the Gospel Doubt ye not therefore but earnestly believe that he will likewise favourably receive these present Infants that he will imbrace them with the arms of his mercie that he will give unto them the blessing of eternall life and make them partakers of his everlasting Kingdome Again Ye have heard also that our L. Jesus Christ hath promised in his Gospel to grant all these things that ye have praied for And after the Sacrament Seeing now that these children be regenerate and graffed in the bodie of Christs congregation And again We yield thee heartie thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit to receive him for thine own child by adoption and to incorporate him into thy holy Congregation All this can leave no doubt of the communion of the Church of England with the whole Church in this point so nearly concerning the salvation of all Christians CHAP. V. The Preaching of our Lord and his Apostles evidenceth that some act of Mans free choice is the condition which it requireth The correspondence betwen the Old and New Testament inferreth the same So do the errors of Socinians and Antinomians concerning the necessity of Baptism Objections deferred THe whole tenor of the Scripture would afford matter of Argument to inforce this consequence But it shall be enough to have thus far pointed out the ground upon which the meaning of the rest is to proceed The reasons of this position from the principles of Christianity can be no other than those which have been touched upon occasion of treating the passages of Scripture hitherto alledged Yet to make the consequence still more evident I will here repeat first the consideration of Gods sending our Lord Christ to show the world sufficient motives why they should imbrace his Gospel as well as to teach them what it is and wherein it consisteth I will not here insist upon any supposition of the clear sufficience of the Scriptures or the necessity of Tradition besides the Scriptures But I will appeal to the common sense of all men to judge whether it be within the compass of reason that our Lord Christ should come to preach and to exhort men to acknowledge him to be come from God and to take up his Cross should show them reasons to believe that all which he preached is true that so they might be perswaded willingly to follow him Should give certain proofs of his rising again from death to inforce the same If men have no will no choice no freedom to do what he requires them or not to do it whether in other things they have it or not The same to be said of his Apostles and Disciples who were strange Creatures to expose their lives for a Warrant of the truth of what they said if they had not willingly and freely imbraced that profession themselves which they pretended to induce the world with the like freedome of choice to imbrace Thus far then we are assured by common sense that the condition required by the Covenant of Grace on our part must be some act of mans free choice the doing whereof at Gods demand must qualifie us for those promises which it tenders But this is not all that may appeare to common reason by the proceeding of our Lord and his Apostles The preaching of the Gospel-premises for a supposition upon which it proceedeth That mankind are become enemies unto God through sin and subjects of his wrath Proposing therepon the termes upon which they may be reconciled to God and intitled presently to and in due time possessed of everlasting happiness Suppose these terms purchased by the satisfaction of Christ though not granting it because all that call themselves Christians in the West do not is it possible to imagine that they who declare all mankind to be Gods enemies for sinne should have commission to declare them heires of his Kingdome not supposing them turned from sin to that righteousnesse which shall be as universally according to Gods will as their sin is against it As on the contrary supposing this do you not suppose
but in the works of mercy and virtue which every Christian may receive at the hands of the Jews and Mahumetans so often as they are not overswayed by their passion or interest But now for the reason which their actions do or ought to follow whereas it is certaine that the reason of all mens actions is derived from the end which they propose themselves and that the end which they ought to propose themselves is the service of God It is as certaine on the other side that through the originall corrupâ—ion of nature a man is not able to resolve to make God the utmost end of his actions and that not resolving this he cannot become free of the bondage of sin This remaines already proved by the necessity of the Grace of Christ demonstrated afore and stands perfectly verified by the experience of all ages and Nations alleged even now For though there is in all men conscience to preferre that which is honest and more honourable before either profit or pleasure notwithstanding experience shews that the world is never without occasions wherein it cannot be obtayned together with profit or pleasure And the same experience will shew that the motives of profit and pleasure which Christians therefore call temptations because they know from whence they proceed easily prevaile over the conscience of that which were according to the due worth of our manhood more honorable for us This if wee take every man by himselfe considering him as not ingaged in society and communion with others But if wee suppose him prevented with such relations it is admirable to consider but evident to be observed that men are more Wolves to men then Woâ—ves are to Wolves and that by those oppressions and cruelties whereof there is no example in the wildest of beasts men mâ—ke themselves way to the greatest glory that the world can raise This is that which Macchiavell observes that the world esteems great things whether they be good or not and magnifying those that follow them shewes that it is not for want of will but for want of meanes and opportunities that the most doe not doe the like Nay they that have the best resolutions when they are alone when they ingâ—ge themselves but in company doe proceed as if they thought it civility to offend God for love of them whom they converse with These are the temptations of the flesh and the world that hold men obnoxius to the bondage of sin notwithstanding that conscience which prefers honesty before profit or pleasure And in regard of this bondage our Lord said in the Gospell Iohn VIII 31 37. If yee abide in my words ye are truly my disciples and shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free And when they answer that â—eing Abrahams Sons they were never slaves Every one that committeth sin is a slave of sin Now the slave abideth not alwaies in the house but the son abideth alwaies If therefore the son set you free then shall you be free indeed And S. Paul hereupon Rom. VI. 17 18. thanks be to God that being slaves to sin ye obayed from the heart that forme of Doctrin that was delivered you And being freed from sin ye became slaves to righteousnesse For out of the sense of this bondage he cries out againe Rom. â—II 24. Wrâ—t hâ—d man that I am who shall diliver me from the body of this death Which if it be said of the unregenerate man expresseth the estate of all such If of S. Paul concludeth the unregenerate to be in that estate much more And indeed Originall concupisence having brought into the world the ignorance of that truth which the Fathers had received from God concerning God as I said afore it cannot be imaginâ—d that men should be induced by that slâ—nder light which remaines of one God and his providence that suspicion which was left that he wil one â—â—y take account of mans actions to balke the temptation of profit and pleasure out of a resolution to do all things which the light of nature might conâ—â—ce them to be according to Gods Wil for no other reason but to obay him to do him service though otherwise convict that all is due to him whatsoever they are able to doe for his service Hence came the worship of Idols even among them whom S. Paul affirmes to have known the majestie of one true God Rom I. 20. And hence came those sins which he hath showed us in that first Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans to have been the native consequences of the worship of Idols Hence came all counterfeiâ— Religion into the world in as much as they that know themselves to be lyable to some Religon are neverthelesse unwilling to imbrace that which obliges them to resigne themselves to the service oâ— God so long as any can be shewed them which may tender them plausible pâ—rswasions of peâ—ce with God reserving their own passions and interests And that very Religion which God had tyed his owne people to for a meanes to bring them to understand the difference between the civill obedience and the outward service to which he had promised the happinesse of the land of promise that spirituall service of God to which he intimated the promise of the world to come became so darkned by the same common corruption of nature that in a manner the whole body of that people when they had retired themselves from the worship of Idols to the observation of the Law was carried away with an opinion of righteousnesse before God in consideration of the outward observations thereof consisting in those works which by the force of common nature I have shewd they were able to doe without troubling themselves with the true reason from which they are to be deriveed and the right intention to which they are to be levelled which here I showe that only the grace of Christ inableth us to set before us By that which hath been said a difficult objection may be answered which ariseth from the consideration of those Philosophers and Hereticks who have not been â—or are afraid to lay downe their lives for the maintenance of their Sect or Religion by testifying the truth of it as we reade in S. Chrysostom that many of the same Marcionists would do For if they can indure this which is the utmost that they can indure without the help of God who requires it not at their hands what should hinder other men to lay down their lives for God and by consequence to overcome lesse difficulties which hinder them to follow the true goodnesse which God requireth This is answered by the termes of my position that there is no kind of act which a man oâ— himselfe cannot doe but the reason of Gods will and the intent of Gods service of himselfe he cannot doe it for though he may think that he doth it for no thing else For evidence whereof I must have recourse to that which I said
afore in resolving whether there is any such faith to be â—ound as is not the vertue of a Christian For accordingly I will distinguish that faith is either the beliefe of the gospell and Christianity or the profession of it whether sincere or counterfeit I say then that the sincere resolution of professing of Christianity being the condition to which all the promises of the Gosple are due as I have showed is the worke of that grace which the obedience of Châ—â—ath purchased for us In order whereunto though the preaching of the Gospell contayneth sufficient motives to convince the world of the truth of it yet seeing the publishing of those motives by the Apostles of Chrâ—stâ—â—â— the purchase of his blood and seeing those motives being though sufficient yet not demonstrative are resisted by the greater part it is the worke of Gods grace wheresoever they become effectuall to move any man to believe that Christianity is true in order to the resolution of imbracing it Notwithstanding in as much as the profession of Christianity when it is proâ—ected by the powers of this world is no disadvantage but a priviledg especialy where there is difference about Christianity and a man professes what the Secular Power professes it is easy to see that there is reason enough in this world to move a man to professe Christianity for his own sake and not for Gods Much more to believe the truth of it for which he haâ—â— sufficient reason besides But this Faith not being that which is called Faith absolutely but with an addition of abatement we are absolutely to conclude with the council of Orange that to believe as a man ought is not the worke of freewill but of Gods grace The limitation of as a man ought serving to exclude such counterfeit faith as I have described Now though this reason of professing Christianity for advantage of this world be the most ordinary and visible when Christianity is protected by the Lawes and Powers of the world yet may it as well come to passe and effect otherwise or at least that which countervailes it For Aristotle observes unto us in his Morals that all men are not caried away either with the profit of this world or the pleasure or honours there are those that prefer vertue whether speculative or active Though this active vertue he describes to consist in that meane which the discretion of the world determines For he often repeats this for his principle in that work that the difference of good and bad must be taken for granted from that which the civility of the world accknowledges But how easy it is for them who have addicted themselves to the profession of that civility of that knowledg which the world pretends not to to imbrace and professe opinions which the world allowes not and having made it their businesse in the world rather part with their lives then be constrained either to beleive or not beleiving to professe otherwise How much more in the knowledge of God and the hope of happinesse which we suppose Christianity truly to promise may a man that pursuâ—s not the truth of it with that humility which it requires by the judgement of God fastning upon false principles by virtue of them be induced to imbrace those conclusions which he shall rather part with his life then refuse and yet for his owne sake not for Gods who teaches them not And upon these premises we may determine whether all the actions of the Gentiles and unregenerate are sins or not at least so far as it is requisite to determine any thing in it For on the one side it is evident that seeing it is imposible that they should by nature attaine to a resolution of doing all that they do in obedience to the will of God with an intent of his service It is not possible that their actions should have that utmost end which they ought to have On the other side seeing it appeareth that nothing hinders them to do things for the meere regard of honesty or of doing good to others without making themselves positively and expressely the end of what they doe It is manifest that the next end which they intend by them may be good and that the things which they doe are such as of their owne nature may be ordered and directed to the service of God though by them not so intended And therefore when it is said that unregenerat men doe all for themselves as their utmost end we must distinguish in themselves the seeds of virtue which the common notions of difference between good bad containe from the corâ—tion of orignall concupiscence For well may we say when they are moved with regard of honesty to doe any thing that they do it for themselves because it is the native worth of their man-hood which moves them to doe it But when it is said That adicting themselves to the riches or honours or pleaof this world fro which they addict them selves to love of themselves they make themselves their utmost end This must be understood as in Morall matters for the maine part of their doings The love of riches honour or pleasure much lesse of civil vertue not disabling them or so swallowing up all consideration of that which of it self suits with the worth of mans nature but that without any other regard they may many times chuse to do it And therefore having made good the grounds aforesaid I shall leave it to the readers owne judgement whether he will hold all their actions to be siâ—s because they are not positively directed to the utmost end of Gods honour and service or those which are don for honesties sake to be vertues because they are positively directed to that next end that is according to Gods will and might have been directed to his service Assuring my selfe that no interest of Christianiny obliges either me or him to determine this or that And now before I leave this point I inferr againe here from the reasons which I have used to prove the capacity of inâ—â—fference in the will of man excluding the actuall determination of it before he determine himselfe That all this is not to say that indifference is requisite to all freedome but to the freedome of man alone in this state of travaile and proficience For my ground is Gods â—enâ—â—r of a treaty and conditions of peace and reconcilement together with those precepts and prohibitions those promises and threats thâ—se exhortations and dehortations which it is inforced with So that it is â—â—â—â—â—ly impertinent to alleage here the freedome of God and Angels the freedome of the â—aâ—â—s in the world to come the freedome of our Lord Christs humane soule to prove that this indifference is not requisite to the freedome of man because it is not found in that freedome which they are arived to to whom no covenant is tendred no precept requisite no exhortation usefull as being either the cause of all rule of goodnesse
XI 50. 51. 52. But in what sense doe Christians find it true Surely no man that ever prayed to God in Christs name need to be told it It is requisite therefore that we have recourse to the consideration of those thinges which the Scripture uses to joyne with the mention of Christs dying for us if we will rightly determine the meaning of it And so having premised the consideration of a sacrifice upon which our sinnes were charged of our ransome by the price of it of reconciliation and propitiation for sinne obtained for us by it we must conclude that when the Scripture speakes of Christs death for us the meaning of it cannot be satisfyed by granting that he died to move us to be Christians CHAP. XXIX The grant of Grace in consideration of Christ supposes satisfaction made by him for sinne Neither our sinnes imputable to Christ nor his sufferings to us formally and personally but as the meritorious causes which satisfaction answereth The effect of it the Covenant of Grace as well as help to performe it The Fathers saved by the Faith of Christ to come The Gospel a new Law The property of Satisfaction and Punishment in Christs sufferings Of the sense of the Catholike Church THere remaines one argument from the premises where I concluded that effectuall Grace is appointed from everlasting and therefore granted in time in consideration of Christ and his merits according to S. Paul Ephes I. 3-6 For if this grace be granted in consideration of Christ and life everlasting appointed from everlasting and granted in time in consideration of that quality which this grace effâ—cteth it cannot in reason be avoided that remission of sinne and life everlasting is granted here in right and title and in effect in the world to come in consideration of that quality which the effectuall helps of Grace of their own nature tend to produce which they are appointed by God to produce and which really and in effect thus are produced being granted by God in consideration of Christs obedience But why should I be so solicitous to restore all those Scriptures to their true meaning which they have set upon the rack to make them speak a false having such evidence of reason that by this position they make the death of Christ voide and needlesse even in their owne judgement For though if they should say that Christ came onely to show those workes that migh be sufficient to make his Gospell credible and give us good example I could not say that the death of Christ were to no end Yet would they say that it were to no competent end complaining as they do how much they are wronged when they are understood to acknowledge no further end of his coming But when they say that he died to induce men to be Christians by inacting the Covenant of Grace that is assuring them that God will stand to it on his part and that according to the example of Christ bearing his Crosse they shall attaine his glory I demand how all this can be more assurance then every man hath that is peremâ—orily assured otherwise as no man doubts but competently it may be assured otherwise that the Gospell of Christ is Gods message For when sufficient evidence is once made and a man is convinced to beleeve that God promises remission of sinnes and everlasting life to them that imbrace it can he that beleives God to be God remaine any more doubtfull of the truth of his promise To Pharao and to his people it was necessary that the wonders of God should be repeated till they stood convict that there was no God else which they beleived not afore But to them that admit the God of Israel to be the onely true God being convict that the Gospell is his promise is any further assurance requisite that he will stand to it who were not God if he should not stand to it when they say that Christ died to the end that being advanced to be God he might be able to bring his promises to effect I referre my selfe to the sense of any man that is able to thinke of God with due reverence whether it be possible to imagine that a meere man having made promises to mankind in Gods name can live with God to see Gods promises frustrate And by consequence whether it can appeare necessary that our Lord Christ should be advanced to be God that he might be able in his owne person to fullfill the promises which he had made us in his Fathers Name I referre my selfe to that which I have said to show the word of God which took the flesh of man from the Virgine to be God from everlasting as the Sonne of God and his everlasting wisâ—ome and image And therefore not advanced to be God in consideration of his obedience But that having condescended to that state which his obedience in doing his fathers message and testifying the truth thereof required the Sonne of God incarnate was advanced in our flesh by the appointment of God in reward of his obedience to the privilege of sending the Holy Ghost to make his Gospell effectuall to convert the nations to Christianity that by them he might be acknowledged and glorified for that which he was from everlasting So that the end of his coming being to obtaine that grace by which the world might be converted to Christianity and being converted obtaine remission of sinnes and life everlasting for it and neither of these purposes admitted by Socinus we may well say to him as S. Paul sayes to the Jews Gal. II 21. If righteousnesse be by the Law then is Christ deade in vaine So if righteousnesse came as Socinus would have it then is Christ deade to no purpose Because all that he requires might have been as well effected without it Whereas a due valuable consideration in regard whereof the converting grace of the Holy Ghost and remission of sinnes and life everlasting in consideration of the effect thereof should be granted could not have been had without it It is strange to be observed how litle Socinus hath to produce out of the scriptures to prove a position of such consequence as this All his businesse in a maner being to draw those texts which heitherto have been understood in the sense of the Church to his intent I can for the present recall no more then those frequent passages of the Apostles especially S. Paul whereby they affirme the righteousnesse and salvation of Christians to come by the meere grace of God and our Lord Christ Which I need not here repeate no wayes apprehending the infernce That it cannot be said to come from the meere grace of God if I suppose the consideration of Christs obedience and sufferinges as the purchase of it It is true in the wordes of the Prophet Jeremy XXXI 34-34 alleged by the Apostle Ebr. VIII 8-12 to be meant of the Gospell we find a promise of God to pardon the sinnes of his
in nature as the worship of the true God and the worship of the Devil for God because that is done before an image Let us survay the matters of fact which we have in the Scriptures Moses thus warneth the Israelites Deut. IV. 15-19 Take heed unto your selves least you corrupt your selves and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure the likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth the likeness of any winged foul that flieth in the aire the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth And least thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the Sunne and the Moone and the Starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be pushed aside to worship them and to serve them which the Lord thy God hath imparted unto all nations under the whole heavens It is like enough that the first Idolatry that ever was practised was the worship of the Sunne the Moone and the Stars But that it was a part of the Gentiles Idolatries by the Scripture alone it is evident and certaine The Jewes as Moses Maimoâ—i relateth in the Title of Idolatry at the beginning tell us that out of admiration of the beauty and constant motions of those glorious bodies men began of themselves to conceive that it would be a thing pleasing to God to addresse themselves to him by the mediation of those creatures which they could not chuse but think so much nearer to him then themselves That this conceit being seconded with pretended revelations to the same purpose brought forth in time the offering of sacrifices to them and making of images of them by meanes whereof the blessings of God might be procured through their influence And Origen often gathereth out of those words that God allowed the Gentiles afore the Law to worship the Sunne and the Moone and the Starrs that they might proceed no further to worse Idolatries Though so farre as I have observed he is not seconded herein by any of the Fathers Nor can he in my opinion be any further excused then the Booke of Wisdome doth excuse him making the worship of the Elements of the World the lightest sort of Idolatries Wisd XIII 10. It is a thing agreeable to all experience that by degrees and not in an instant mankind should be seduced to forget God having had the knowledge of God at the first derived unto them from their first parents and to take his creatures for God But will any man therefore undertake that when they were come so farre as to worship the Sunne and the Moon and the Starres by sacrifices and incense and all those actions whereby the honour of God was first expressed all this was done in honour to God because they were conceived to be nearer him then other of his creatures How will he then answer S. Paul when he saith Rom. I. 25. That the Gentiles changed the true God into a ly and worshipped and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides or parallel to the Creator who is God blessed for evermore For where was the ly but in taking the creature for God And how could they worship and serve the creature hand in hand with God but by degrading God into the rank of his creature and advancing the creature into the rank to which God was degraded by their false and lying conceit How could they expresse this honour by actions formerly appropriated to the service of God had they not first been seduced in the conceit of that honour which they robbed God of to give it his creatures But it is a thing certaine and palpable in the Idolatries of the Gentiles that they deified dead men by attributing unto them the names of the Heavens the Sunne the Moone the rest of the Planets and other Constellations of the Aire the Earth the Waters in fine of the World and the Elements of it So that Idolatry was committed both to the men and to those worldly bodies at once In this case will any man be so willfull as to hold still that these worldly Bodies were no otherwise honoured then in relation to God as his creatures when as it appeareth that the honour due to God alone was studiously procured for dead men by insinuating ridiculous perswasions into the mindes of people seduced to think that they were deified in those Bodies Wherefore it is not to be denied that those creatures were advanced to the honour of God by degrading God into the rank of his creatures as if there might as well be more Gods then one as more creatures of a kind then one Againe when Moses warneth them of making the image of any creature can any man doubt that his reason is least it should be worshipped with the same honour which immediately he forbids the Sunne and Moone and Starres to be honoured with And could the meer priviledge of being Gods creature move any man to take any before another and to make an image of it that under it he might honour God that made it Or was it requisite that first men should conceive an excellence in the creature which if expressed with the same actions whereby they honoured God of necessity it must be taken for the same which they attributed to God And what is that but the opinion of more Gods Can any man find fault with that which the Fathers have so frequently objected to the Gentiles that the gods whom they worshipped were dead men seeing before his eyes in the records of the Romanes Macedonians and Persians during the time of Historicall truth that their Princes were of course as it were deified and worshipped as gods after their death And was all this done in relation to one true God whose graces they had been the meanes to convey to so great a part of mankind Or in despite of that light of one true God though inshrined in their brests they suffered to be overwhelmed with that ignorance which custome had brought to passe Is it possible to imagine that the Egyptians should tremble at those living creatures or those fruits of their gardens which they honoured for their gods if they had taken them for creatures of one true God whom they intended to honour by and under those his creatures Or was it necessary that they should further conceive the Godhead in one City to be inclosed in this creature in another in that and thereupon find themselves obliged to honour the same for God In fine doth not the Scripture in many places plainly declare that which I pointed at in proposing my argument that the Idolatry of the Gentiles was the worshipping of Devils in stead of God Why the Israelites are commanded to sacrifice no where but before the Tabernacle the reason is given Levit XVII 7. And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils after whom they have gone a whoring Deut. XXXIII 17. They
sacrificed unto Idolâ— which were not God To gods whom they knew not to new gods that came newly up whom your Fathers seared not Sacrificing to new gods they sacrificed to devils Psal CVI. 35 37 38. And they served their Idols which were a snare to them yea they sacrificed their sonnes and daughters unto devils and shed innocent bloud even the bloud of their sonnes and daughters whom they offered to the Idols of Canaan and the land was defiled with bloud Offering their sons and daughters to the Idols of Canaan they offered them to devils And S. Paul 1 Cor. X. 19 20 21. What say I then that an Idol is any thing Or that which is offered in sacrifice to Idols is any thing As afore VIII 4. we know that an Idol is nothing in the world and that there is but one God but I say that the thinges which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to devils and not to God And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords table and the table of devils Having said that an Idol is nothing and that things sacrificed to Idols are nothing because they are sacrificed to that which is nothing and that because there is but one God how doth he inferre that things sacrificed to Idols are sacrificed to devills Surely idols are nothing because there is but one God in regard they pretend to be gods that is to say images of gods whereas indeed there can be no more Gods but one And if this were all since nothing can have no effect sacrificing to idols being nothing could not pollute the sacrifices as some Christians alledged to prove that they might eat of things sacrificed to Idols But because in sacrificing to nothing the devill steps into Gods place having caused that nothing to be taken for a God and maintaining that conceit by the same wayes which he raised it with therefore all that communicated in serving those idols which all did that communicated in the feasts which they made of those sacrifices communicated in the worship of devils Whereby it is evident that idolatry presupposeth an erroneous opinion of a false Godhead under which the devil suborneth himself to be worshipped whom did men take for that which Christians take him for they would be farre enough from worshipping him for God And herewith agreeth the reason of idolatry in the worshipping of images For by the premises it is evident that idolatry is more ancient then the worship of images and perhaps the truth is it came not in till the custome came up to worship dead men for gods which as I said afore I believe was later then the worshipping of the elements of the world though I go not out of my way to prove it nothing obliging me so to do Now it appeares by Varrâ— in S. Augustine De Civitate Dei IV. 31. that the Romanes had subsisted above CLXX yeares before they had images But let no man therefore imagine that they were not idolaters during that time For it is evident that there is no record of learning so ancient among the Gentiles as their Idolatries onely the Scripture recordeth time before the same The words of Varro there recorded by the said Saint Augustine tell us truth in that businesse that those who brought in images errorem addidisse metum dempsisse Increased error abated Religion For it is not strange that a knowing man as Varro was should bear witnesse to that truth which the Centiles imprisoned in unrighteousnesse by acknowledging an error in the multitude of their Gods which was by that time grown so ridiculous that a child should it have spoken what reason indited might have reproved it This Error then Varro saith not that it sprung from Images but that they were the means to increase it though to the a batement of Religion which could be but counterfeit when men tooke upon them to make their own Gods But was it thus with the Romans onely was not the case the same with the Grecians also before Sculpture and Picture and other waies of Imagery were devised chiefly for the advancement of this error as the wise Jew Wisdom XIV 18-21 and diveres of the ancient Fathers of the Church as S. Austine de civitate Dei XVIII 24. in Psalm CIII do often alleage Why doe we reade then in Pausanias his most excellent survay of Greece that of old time they worshiped stones onely sharpned at the top for their Gods Could they have found in their heart so to doe had they not formerly imagined a Deity which they meant to remind themselves of by so grosse a marke rather then image But is not this madnesse an evidence that they came by degrees to the representation of those Dieties which they had imagined afore and sought onely meanes to have them alwaies present Joseph Scaliger in that learned appendix to his book de Emendatione Temporum showeth us that the Phenicians had the like custome of having of rude stones for the symboles of their Gods And no marvile For by the act of Jacobs pouring oyle upon the stone at Bethel it appeareth that the Fathers themselves used such records of the true God and of his worship which Idolaters afterwards imagined their false Gods to be present at and thereupon no marvrile that the Law prohibited afterwardes Levit. XXVI 2. seeing it is evident by the writings of the Grecians and the Romans that Idolatry increasing it became an ordinary custome to make every stock and every stone a monument of that Worship which every superstitious sool thought he had cause there to tender to his God by pouring oil upon it as Jacob did Gen. XXVIII 18. by dedicating garlands or the like as Tilullus hath expressed in these verses Et veneror seu stipes habet desertus in agris Sive quiâ— exiguus florea serta lapis with infinite more authors to that purpose And can any man doubt that the Idolatrie of the Persians were not as bad as these though they had neither statues nor pictures Surely those Hethen Philosophers found it otherwise who being weary of the Empire under Justinian because of the ill countenance they found there in favour to Christianity and betaking themselves into Persia as Agathias in his second book relateth found themselves quickly weary of it in regard of those barbarous customes as they understood them which the Idolatries of the Persians had introduced Thus much for certaine that worship which the fire was served with by the Persians was not that which could be tendred in honour of God that made it as conceiving it a prime creature So that considering these things without prejudice wee must needs stand convict that Idolatry in generall is more ancient then the worship of images though particular Idolatries must needs be advanced by it And in that instance that the wise Jew propoundeth for the beginning of idolatry
it could be the same crime in them to worship the true God under an image as in the Gentiles to worship the elements of the world dead men imaginations in effect the Devile under the like image They made a calfe in Horeb and worshiped the molten image Thus they turned their glory into the similitude of a Calfe that eateth hay saith David Psalme CVI. 19. 20 of this act of the Isralites They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things saith S. Paul Rom. I. 23. of the Gentiles who as I have showed did truly intend to worship those creatures for Gods And therefore must conclude that whatsoever Aaron might pretend to represent to the Israelits by this Calfe that they intended to worship for God And when the Israelites joined themselves to Baal Peor and ate the offerings of the dead Psal CVI. 23 Num. XXV 3-8 and Moses commandeth to hang up the Princes and the Judges to slay every one his man that were joyned to Baal Peor Phineas out of his zeale to God executeth his command not out of a private inspiration whereof nothing could appeare as hath fondly and perniciously been imagined and killeth a Prince among the Israelites But when Moses comming downe from the mount saw the calfe made he caused the Levites to revenge the fault by slaying three thousand of those that were guilty of it Ex. XXXII 25-30 And is it possible for any man to believe that the same punishment is assigned by God to the offering of sacrifices to a dead man as to the offering of it to the living God under or before an image Not that I intend to say this of Aaron or what his intention might be in complying with them and avoiding their mutiny without ever imbracing in his heart that idolatry to which he pretended to conâ—urre with them nor will I much contend with him that shall say he chose that figure which might represent something concurring to that worship of God which himselfe had commanded but the act of them that mutinousely constrained him to make them a God to goe before them I can by no meanes distinguish from the idolatries of Egypt which it was but late that they had forsaken As for Jeroboam it is most truly alleged that nothing obliged him to demand of the Isralites to worship any false God or to require of them more then Aaron had done upon their motion concurring himselfe to their Idolatry But then I must say also that by setting up his calves and constraining the people to resort to them for that worship which the Law obliged them to tender to God he certainely knewe that he must needs occasion the greatest part of the people to worship an other God besides the true God howsoever some of them might do that which Aaron had done in concurring with the rest of their people And perhaps the truth is that Jeroboam for this reason made choice of the same image wherein Aaron had offended afore But otherwise the appearance of the Idolatry of the gentiles in the act of Jeroboam that is in the service tendred his calves is evident in the scripture Otherwise how should the prophet Ahiah charge him that he had set up other Gods and molten images and groves 2. Kings XIV 9 15 16. as by Jeroboams owne fin And Baasha that walked in the way of Jeroboam 2. Kings XV. 24. as did also Omri after him 1 Kings XVI 26. are said to have provoked the Lord God of Israell to anger with their vanities 1. Kings XVI 13. 26. And Abia reproches Jeroboam 1 Chron. XIII 9. and his party that they had made them Pristes after the manner of the nations and other lands so that whosoever cometh to fill his hand with a bullock and seven Rames may be a Priest of no Gods For what are vanities or no gods but imaginary deities as Saint Paul saith that he preached to the Gentiles to turn from those vanities unto the living God Acts XIV 15. And the Prophet Jonas in his prayer II. 8. they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in David Psal XXXII 7. Lying vanities is the same that S. Pauls ly when he saith the Gentiles changed the truth of God into a ly in worshipping the creature besides the creator God blessed for evermore Rom. I. 25. So also Deut. XXXII 22. 2 Kings XVII 15. Jeremy II. 5. VIII 19. X. 15. XIV 22. And why should the Prophet Osee object VIII 6. The workman made it therefore it is not God but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces Had not the calfe been taken for God And againe Os XIII 2. They say of them let the men that sacrifice kisse the calves For that this kissing was a signe of worshipping that which was taken to be God you have from Job XXXI 26 27. If I beheld the Sunne when it shined or the Moone walking in her height and my heart hath been seduced and my mouth hath kissed my hand The Sunne and the Moone being at a distance because they whose hearts were seduced to think them gods could not kisse them they kissed their hands to them in signe that they honoured them for gods Therefore they that kissed the calves whom they might come nigh did it in signe that they honoured them for gods As the answer of God to Elias saith I have reserved my self seven thousand men all the knees that have not bowed unto Baal all the mouthes that have not kissed him 1 Kings XIX 18. And therefore it seemeth very probable that these calves are also called Baalim by the said Prophet when he saith Osee XIII 1 2. When Ephraim offended in Baal he died And now they sin more and more and have made them molten images of their silver and Idols according to their own understanding all of it the work of craftsmen They say of them let the men that sacrifice kisse the calves The author of Tobit is for his antiquity more to be credited in the understanding of the Scriptures then all the conjectures we can make at this distance of time And he saith that the ten tribes went up to offer sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tobit I. 5. to the heifer Baal Whereupon it is thought that S. Paul also when he quoteth the answer of God to Elias 1 Kings XIX 18. I have reserved my self seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal in the feminine gender 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. XI 4. referreth to the feminine substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And if these calves were of the nature of Baalim it cannot be denied that they signified imaginary godheads such as the Baalim were Wherefore when it is objected in the first place that Aaron proclaimed a feast to the Lord by the name of the true God and that both he and Jeroboam said This is the
fit for a private person to say what might be condescended to for the reunion of the Church stopping the way upon those mischiefs which the flourishing times of the Church have not prevented While all bounds are refused all extreamities maintained I alledge it for one of the most considerable titles for reformation without the consent of the whole As for the remaines of the Saints bodies and the honour of them having said this of their Souls whereof their bodies had been the instruments I shall need to say but a little Gennadius I will not forget De Eccles dogmat Cap. LXXIII Sanctorum corpora praecipue beatorum Martyrum reliquias acsi Christi membra sincerissime honoranda Basilicas eorum nominibus appellatas velut loca sancta divino cultui mancipata affâ—ctu piissimo devotione fidelâ—ssima adeundas credimus Si quis contra hanc sententiam venerit non Christianus sed Eunomianus Vigilantianus est We believe that we are most sincerely to honour the corpses of the Saints specially the reliques of the Martyres as of the members of Christ And to come to the Churches called by their names with most pious affection and most faithfull devotion If any man do against this sentence he is no Christiane but a follower of Eunomius and Vigilantius At the first the places of their buriall and times of their triumphs determined the circumstances of Gods service Afterwards when more Churches were requisite then there were Saints to bury their remaines where the Eucharist was celebrated seemes an honor proper for the purpose Nay though S. Jerome confesse that those pore women which lighted candles in houour of them had the zeale of God not according to knowledg supposing both Jewes and Gentiles had a custome to light candles on all occasions which they would honourably celebrate why should it seeme a ceremony unfit to expresse mens esteeme of Gods Grace in them If Vigilantius could not downe with this I have nothing to doe with Vigilantius But there were abuses even before that time Lucilla reproved by Cacilianus Deacon of Carthage for kissing the reliques of some questionable Martyre before the Eucharist by her mony and faction raised the schisme of the Donatist upon his being chosen Bishop Optatus I. S. Austin knew many Christians that worshipped tombes and pictures de moribus Eccles Cath. cap. XXXIV Vigilantius might desire onely that bounds might be put to prevent abuses and in that might be borne out by those Prelates whom S. Jerom taxes In that I doe not find Vigilantius condemned by the Church And those bounds were easily determined if prayer to Saints did not transgresse the bounds of revealed truth For were nothing done that should suppose that they heare the prayers that are made them there should be no considerable occasion to transgresse the bounds of honour due unto their reliques As for the worshipping of images of necessity the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or carved Image in the second commandement must either stand for any similitude so the making or having of any maner of image will be forbidden by the precept Or for the similitude of any imaginary Godhead And so no image but those are forbidden by it According to that former sense the making of the brazen serpent the Cherubins over the Arke is a dispensation of God in his own positive law which is easily understood But Solomon making the Buls the Lions Eagles Cherubins in his temple will be no lesse and wil require a revelation to warrant it According to the later making of images will be no more prohibited the Jewes then other nations by the Law But God having constituted a power in the Nation to limit the Law and so to make a hedge for it as the Jewes speake that which they forbid will be by that meanes prohibited by the Law And so there might be such an image in Davids house as we read of 1. Sam. XIX 12. that is such an one as was not so prohibited And by the sâ—me reason the tribute money might have Caesars picture on it which otherwise must be against the Law And when Josephus saies that Solomon incurred blame â—y making images of living creatures in the Temple it will appear that their constitutions in his time forbad the making of such Tertullian contra Marc II. 22. manifestly affirms the making of the Brazen Serpent Cherubines not to have been against the Law because not made for Idoles alleging the words of the precept Thou shalt not worship them nor serve them For a restriction limiting the generality of a carved image And this opinion I doubt not to be true and that there is no third to be named For if it be said that the meaning of the precept is Thou shalt make no Image that may give occasion to worship it Noâ— supposing a conceit of more Gods then one an image is not a thing that can make a man thinke so supposing the conceite of a God besides the true God without an image a man will worship the same Now either God by saying Thou shalt make no image that may give occasion to worship it refers it to every man to judge whether the image that he may make gives occasion to worship it or not And then he leaves it to every man to make any image which he judges to give none Or he refeâ—â— it to the power which he appointeth to oblige the nation in that behalfe to judge Which is that which I say And therefore seeing no man is left to himselfe to judge in that which God hath appointed a power to determine of necessity this sense is the same which I maintaine The consequence whereof is that it is in the power of the Church to judge whether images are to be had and that in Churches or not For the power that concludes the Church being the same with the power that concludes the Synagogue as the Synagogue and the Church are both one and the same people of God under the Law and the Gospell It is not possible to limit this power under the Gospell not to place images in Churches by vertue of this Law which provides nothing concerning Churches The case would come to be the same if we should suppose the precept to prohibit the making of an Image For then the matter would necessarily evidence that it was positive and given onely the people of the Jewes for that estate which the Law introduced Seeing not onely that which is ceremoniall but also that which is positive in Moses Law necessarily ceaseth to oblige Christians The reason why the Law provideth not to the contrary is that which I have alleged why Christians are not tyed to parte with wives or husbâ—nds that are Idolaters as the Jewes were out of S. Austine That whilst the blessings of the world were the promises which God conditioned to give them that should keepe his Lawes the prosperity of this world might move Israelites according to
is what course the Law of the Church should take And therefore the profession of that continence which single life requireth grounding a reasonable presumption of eminence in Christianity above those that are marryed there was all the reason in the world why the Church should indeavour to put the governement thereof into such hands by preferring them before others On the other side as all truth in morall and humane maters is liable to many exceptions it cannot be denyed that more abstinence from riot and from riches both more attendance upon the service of God is found some times in those that live marryed then in those that live single In which consideration it may well seem harde to conclude all them that are marryed unserviceable for the Church The moderation therefore of the Easterne Church seemeth to proceed upon a very considerable Ground not excluding marryed persons from a capacity of Holy orders but excluding persons ordayned from any capacity of mariage For those who were promoted to the Clergy being single knowing that they were not allowed mariage what can they pretend why they should hold their estate not performing the condition of it As for the promoting of those who are already maried it is the triall of their conversation in wedlock that may ground a presumption as well for that conscience which their fidelity in dispensing the goods of the Church as for that diligence in setting aside the importunities of marriage which their attendance upon the service of the Church requireth It was therefore to be wished that the Westerne Church had used the limitation which the Nicene councill by resting contented with confirmed to admit of persons maryed before orders preferring before them those that are single But it must be granted that as well in the West as in the East though the aime was to perfer single life yet here and there now and then those that were maryed were not excluded It is not to be thought that one Spanish councill which had no effect at all without the bounds of it could as easily be reduced to effect in practice as couched in writing Especially the Generall councill of Nicaea having waived the motion of inacting the same But this demonstrates the credite of the Church of Rome in the Westerne Church at that time that the Rescripts of Syricius Innocent Popes are found the first acts to inforce the same which that Spanish council had inacted For the African and other Westerne Canons that injâ—ine the same are for time after Syricius Whereby it appeareth though they doe not use that exception which the councill of Nicca had supposed yet that the rule of single life for the Clergy was so troden under foot that it was found requisite to seeke meanes by the Synods of severall parts and by the concuâ—rence of the See of Rome to bring it into force For let no mâ—n think that those Canons took effect so soon as they were made which were made on purpose to restraine the mariages of the Clergy Who for the most part had from the beginning lived single but neither before nor after could be totally restrained from maryage It would be too large a worke in this place to repeate either the particular Canons which were made and the discourses of the Fathers to inforce them on the one side or on the other side the saying of the Fathers and other records in point of fact whereby the in execution of them doth appeare Those that would be satisfied in it may see what the Arch-Bishop of Spalato hath collected and find Epiph. his saying still take place during the flourishing time of the Church But all this while you heare nothing of any vowe annexed to the undertakeing of Holy Orders by vertue whereof maryage contracted under them should become voide For the vowe of single life being an act that disposeth of a man and his estate in this world to a totall change of his courses if he mean to observe it what reason can admit any ground for presuming of it when it is not expressed And the custom of the Eastern Church reduceth the penalty thereof unto the ceasing ofâ— that ministry by consequence of that maintenance which the order intitleth to which is not the penalty of breaking a vowe But the effects of these rules and indeavours of the Western Church was never such as to exclude the Clergy from marryage how much soever they might exclude maryed persons from the H. orders When Greg. the seventh undertook to bring them under a total restraint from maryage it is manifest that other maner of meanes were imployed to make that restraint forcible then the constitution of the Church indowes it with For that was the time when the Church undertooke to dispose of Crownes and scepters and to extend the spirituall power thereof to the utmost of temporall effects And therefore it is to be granted that by such meanes indeed it might and did come to effect But in point of fact onely not in point of right as being a rigor which the practice of all parts was sufficient protestation that the Church in that estate was not able to undergoe For the horrible and abominable effects thereof have beene so visiblâ— that it is not possible the cause of them should seeme the production of that reason which the being of any law requireth and supposeth Nor can the See of Rome justly be admitted to charge that no bounds have been observed in releasing of it which it cannot be denyed that the ancient Church in all places did observe For I truely for my part have granted that even Lawes given by the Apostles for the better governement of the Church though written in the scriptures may be dispensed in by the Church when the present constitution of things shall make it appear to the Governours thereof that the observation of that rule which served for that state in which it was prescribed â—ends to the considerable visible harme of the Church in the present state of it And therefore I will not take upon me to say that the state of bigamy which S. Paul I have showed maketh an impediment to some Orders can by no means be dispensed with But the See of Rome which dispenseth with it as of course paying the ordinary fees I conceive cannot in justice charge the releasing of the rule of single life to all the Clergy though in some measure a Law of the whole Church And how many Canons of the whole Church besides are there which must be trampled under foot by bringing that unlimited power into effect which now it exerciseth I could therefore earnestly wish for mine owne parte that some reservation had beene used in the releasing of it that the respect due to single life by our common Christianity might have remained visible to Christian people by the priviledge of it in the Church Nor doe I thinke my selfe bound by being of the reformation to maintaine the acts by