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A13819
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Saint Peters rocke vnder which title is deciphered the faith of Peter, the foundation of the church, Christs sacrificehood, and the comfort of the holy Spirit. Done by Alexander Top Gent.
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Top, Alexander.
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1597
(1597)
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STC 24122; ESTC S102450
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49,647
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124
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SAINT PETERS ROCKE Vnder which title is deciphered the faith of Peter the foundation of the Church Christs sacrificehood and the comfort of the holy Spirit Done by Alexander Top Gent. Printed 1597. To the reuerend father in God Doctor Lions Bishop of Cork Rosse and Cloin in Ireland A. T. wisheth prosperitie and grace euerlasting COnsidering your Lordships zeale to the truth due respect of the Gospell and vnfained loue to the professors I presumed to publish this small worke vnder your Lordships protection partly bicause it was begotten in that country partly bicause the country beareth but little fruit of the scripture but principally and especially to gratifie your Lordship for many fauours The subiect is easie yet not learned often red seldom marked obserued of many yet vnderstood of few But seeing the leuell of all controuersie is to hit the truth whose champions ye all are and by you all arguments must die or liue I appeale vnto your L. for my iust defence or your Lordships better aduise The spirit of grace illuminate your L. vnderstanding London March Anno 1597. Euer your Lordships to command Alexander Top. To the Reader GEntle Reader I haue for thy vse and comfort framed as neere as I could the deriuation of the Christian faith and that thou maist the better vnderstand my meaning heerin knowe that as the Creede was a thing most breef and learnedly composed in the prime time of the Church from many places of scripture so my purpose was to make a true dissipation of the articles disposing them to the places from whence they were first taken to the end that from henceforth thy faith should not he grounded vpon bare words but vpon knowledge of these scriptures so materiall for saluation My paines is free freely vse it God giue grace in all points Farewell A. T. SAINT PETERS ROCKE I BELEEVE First I thinke it needfull to expound this word BELEEVE then to shew the vse of it and lastly to what end it is vsed of the beleeuers The word seemeth of a compound and proper signification deeper than meere English can vnderstand for it meaneth therein or thereby throughly to liue wherein we do beleeue yeelding vp the possession of all spirituall senses disposed from all earthly affection of the members by the true mortification in spirit for this syllable be in apposition is no lesse possessiue or effectiue with vs at this day than with the Hebrewes of ancient time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or BE which alwaies importeth in by or through but far more inwardly of vs to be vnderstood bicause it giueth a most secret meaning to the word it maketh as for example thinke and bethinke adding a very deepe cogitation to thinking get and beget where it hath some speciall conceit in meaning seem and beseem here it makes that which was in outward shew only like it self simple becom a very beautifull creature to the beholders Besides this syllable be that holdeth so small room in a Common-wealth causeth any adiunct to remaine substantially in his subiect as I BELEEVE to wit I am wholy liuing in God the father c. so as quicksiluer confoundeth all other mettals and transformeth their bodies by his liuelyhood so doth this syllable bring a word of common and open sense to a most close and necessarie signification in spirit so that to beleeue argueth a trustie confidence in the essentiall subiect of spirit and for the time of stedfast beleeuing the spirit hath no manner of sympathie with the flesh but the flesh remaineth dead and mortified to all naturall inclination in pleasure or suffering whether it be health or sicknes riches or pouertie loue or hatred cheerfulnes or griefe of hart or any other pleasure or calamitie incident whatsoeuer the communion of the spirit being hereby redeemed out of the prison of flesh and euapored into life eternall For the spirit is no more ruled by the flesh but the flesh by the spirit What then is subiect to this spirituall beleef Ezek. 20. 29. mettals wood or stone as the altar Bamah or such like No you shall not finish that you haue in your mind to do if you serue wood or stone as the heathen Is it mettall not the preciousest of all mettals gold for mightie Emperors haue been deceiued by their golden Idols and haue perished Dan. 3. 1. as Nebuchadnezar by his Image of sixtie cubits high and six broad The Idols stand vp as a palme tree Ierem. 10. 5. but speake not they are born for they cannot goe they can doe neither euill nor good Ierem. 10. 9. fear them not Siluer plates are brought from Tarshish and gold from Vphaz the work of mens hands There shall com out of Bels mouth that Ier. 51. 44. which he hath swallowed vp and the nations shal no more flow vnto it But the wall of Babell shall fall and become an astonishment among nations Can men make gods that are no gods Can their owne hands make them a redeemer or their handy worke saue them No for the beleef of all men being liuely and spiritual cannot liue for euer or be faithfully reposed in such vnprofitable subiects seeing in them there is no blast of life for they neither breath nor smell nor hear nor walk nor speak wherin then can they liue How should they defend a man that trusteth in them but both the caruer and the work perisheth togither What then is subiect to this spirituall beleef A horse bicause he runneth fiercely in the battel or many thousand chariots bicause they seem inuincible or man bicause he can deuise and determin long before nay or princes that so many millions of knees bow vnto these all haue place of life for they both breath smell hear and speak and eeke can go and not be borne yet seeing their bodies be altogither fraile and dissoluble wasting to nothing there is no place for euerlasting life found in them whereupon the spirit of beleef should work much lesse any meanes wherby the grosse nature of man might be iustified Psal. 33. 17. The horse is void of vnderstanding Exod. 14. 28. All Pharaos chariots and confidence perished at once 2. Sam. 24. 1. Dauid was plagued for numbring of his host of eight hundred thousand fighting men whose power and trust was soon abated by affliction This teacheth vs then the vanity of gold the senslesnes of wood and stone the weak defence of horse and chariot nay more Psal. 118. 9. the vtmost safety of an host and the confidence in princes for here Dauid being a king could not saue his host from the pestilence nor his incomparable number worke their Lords securitie wherfore man we see is not the thing to be beleeued in albeit he hath both sense and power in a firme vnderstanding For in nothing but in man is this worke of faith required so that whatsoeuer is aboue man knoweth al things and what so is below him hopeth for nothing One man
father hath giuen him He is the holy one that dwelleth in the praises of Israel Psal. 22. 3. in whom our fathers trusted and were deliuered his therfore is the kingdome power Math. 6. 13. and glory for euer and euer Amen He is the Lord of hosts that now fighteth for the house of Israel whose fight let vs manfully vndertake commending our weake forces to his mighty protection Psal. 18. for he is a sure rock of defence in all his waies WHICH WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST BORN OF THE VIRGINE MARY This especially doth confirme our beleef in Christ Iesus his only sonne in that he was conceiued by the holy Ghost All spirituall conception is from God the father of spirit and life whose works are all miracles in our cleerest sight but this comprehension of our sauiour was meerly spirituall therfore he truly descended from God the father of spirit for before they cam togither she was found with child and that which was conceiued in her was of the holy Ghost Math. 1. Before the morning sprang Messiah had the dew of his birth and before the womb of his mother was made he was knowen who hath been is and shall be all one with the father the same whose yeeres endure for euer although the heauens passe and waxe old as doth a garment He is Michael the Archangel of the couenant high sacrificer of the heauenly Ierusalem and he that buried Moses vsing the words of Iehoua S. Iude. The Lord rebuke thee sathan Here the Papists are seen extremely doting when they make the virgine Mary the queen of heauen and the speciall means by whose praiers and aduocation they attaine to saluation as if of necessity there must be both king and queen which absurd conclusions might by Homers diuinity be sufficiently reproued and corrected when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. II. which is to say A gouernment of many is not good let there be one king Which words although he spoke them not diuinely yet our experience telleth vs that it was skilfully aduised concerning a Common-wealth In saying thus they abrogate the power of Christ and his authority in heauen and make the Trinity imperfect in vnity of Godhead the persons not hauing equal relation each to other they giue vnto Mary that which pertaineth vnto Christ all one with God conceiued by the holy Ghost of his father Wherfore it is he that remaineth still our King our Iudge and Sacrificer whose kingdom is infinit whose iudgement is irreuocable and his priesthood hath none end Saint Iohn saith If any man sinne we haue an aduocate with the father 1. Iohn 2. 1. Iesus Christ the iust and he is the propitiation for our sinnes But in that he was born of the virgine Mary he was a fleshly body to stand for the redemption of all flesh yea of his owne mother whom he reproued of ignorance when she said Why hast thou dealt thus with thy father and me we haue sought thee with heauy harts He answered How is it that ye haue sought me know you not that I must go about my fathers busines but they vnderstood not Which sheweth that she was of the earth earthly and now sleepeth no doubt with her fathers waiting for a glorious resurrection of an immortall body by the intercession of her owne Iesus to whom all power is giuen both in heauen and earth as it is said Blessed is the fruit of thy womb for thou hast brought foorth the sauiour of our soules the true Emanuel God-with-vs For he came in flesh to take away the sinne of the flesh and is also in spirit to continue with al them that beleeue in him for euermore Neither may we imagine any other wight in heauen or earth woorthy to be beleeued in besides the three persons in vnity for as the sonne is aduocate with the father and the father and sonne all one so the holy Ghost being of them both conueieth vs vnto them by an assured faith that we may be with Emanuel which is God with vs for euer He was called Emanuel long before by the prophet Isai A virgine shall conceiue a sonne and she shall call his name Emanuel SVFFERED VNDER PONTIVS PILATE WAS CRVCIFIED DEAD AND BVRIED The prophet Dauid spake of this his passion Psal. 22. 16. saying Dogs haue compassed me and the assembly of the wicked haue inclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet He submitted himselfe to the hands of Pontius Pilate for he knew his hower was euen then com and that his kingdom was not of this world Iohn 16. otherwise as he saith his soldiers would haue fought and not had suffered him to be deliuered into the hands of men Seeing then his time was com in which all things should be fulfilled according to his fathers will he besought of his father the cup to wit of bitter anguish might passe from him and lifting vp his eies to heauen Iohn 17. said Father the hower is com glorify thy sonne that thy sonne may glorify thee When he was to be betraied by the child of perdition Iudas Psal. 110. and knew it how great was his patience when as he reprooued him not but told him What thou doest Iohn 13 27. do quickly Pontius Pilate was a Roman vnder whose hands Christ suffered shewing that as the Romanes had alwaies persecuted the lowe Ierusalem the true Church on earth so that the Lord should iustly continue his wrath in them and that they might remaine in a perpetuall curse they also persecuted him whom the world was not woorthy of the high Ierusalem the spirituall Church Which example of cruell tyranny hath euer since beene found in them and shall be doubtlesse euen to their owne destruction But they will say Pilate was commanded to crucify him againe and againe and he excused him not guilty true wherfore Pilate was so much the more guilty of his death bicause he could find no fault in him For when the power to loose one was in him and not in the Iewes Iohn 19. 10. as he said to him Knowest thou not that I haue power to crucify thee and power to loose thee to them he had tried Christ to be guiltles yet willing to deserue the applause of the Iewes and the fauor of Caesar cleane against his owne conscience to his vtter condemnation to death he loosed Barrabas a notable murtherer Acts. 3. 14. and executed that most iust king of peace and righteousnes to euerlasting life It is like this manner of cruelty will not be left among the Romans vntill a finall desolation the end of affliction come vpon them according to the prophecy of Balaam Nomb. 24. 24. Ships shall come from the coasts Kittim Lord of Italy or Romania and subdue Ashur and vanquish Heber and he to say that Kittim shall come to destruction a most plaine prophecy not yet sufficiently noted for our defence against them By Ashur