the carnal rest of the Jewes is a figure of the spiritual rest of Christians in grace here in glory in the world to come And therefore when he is afraid least he should have laboured in vain upon the Galatians IV. 10. because they observed days and moneths years when he teacheth the Colossians II. 16. not to be over-ruled in the mater of new Moons or Sabbath When he sheweth the Romanes XIV 5. that they who esteemed on one day before another were weak Christians He did not mean to remove the obligation of the seventh day upon the first but to show that Christians may as well think themselves bound in conscience to be circumcised as to be under the precept of the Sabbath And let me understand how we can be bound by the precept of the Sabbath and not be bound to that measure of rest which the precept of the Sabbath limiteth For the constitution which the Jews go by this day is so grounded in the Text that it is not possible to imagine that ever it was practised otherwise the leter of the Law manifestly distinguishing between worke and servile workâ— and permitting the dressing of meat upon the first and last dayes of the Passovâ—r Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles but forbidding servile work that is to say such work as slâ—ves were imployed about for their Masters advantage but upon the Sabbath and day of atonement forbidding all work that is not onely servile work but the dressing of meat upon those days whereupon comes the express prohibition of kindling fire on the Sabbath not for the time that they lived in the wildernesse but as the Law expresseth in all their habitations Ex. XII 16. XXXV 30. XVI 23. Levit. XXIII 3. 7 8 21 25 28. Numb XXIX 1 7. And therefore Deut. XVI 8. where for brevities sake he saith of the Passover No worke shall be done in it The Greek adds out of Exodus and Leviticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides what shall be dressed for meat And therefore when our Lord goes to dâ—ne with a Pharisee Luc. XIV 1. it is no marvail that he is invited upon a Festivall on which they hold themselves still bound to eat the best meat and drink the best wine and put on the clothes they have But he knew his entertainment must be upon meats dreâ—t the day before And therefore he not onely reproveth the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who for their own profit to draw their Oxe or their Ass out of the pit could bâ—lâ— it and in a charitable cause of healing a man stood upon it But further he showes it to be a meer positive precept of the Law when by the right of a Prophet he commandeth the lame man whom he had cured to cary away his bed upon the Sabbath Joh. V. 10. the Prophet of the old Law having forbidding to cary any burthen upon the Sabbath Jer. XVII 21. 22. And the reason my Father still worketh and so do I worke inâ—erreth that as the rest of God was not from bodily labour so neither is it the rest from bodily labour which he or his Gospel intendeth I conclude therefore that which will seem strange to unskilful people That the onely thing commanded by the leter of the fourth Commandement is to rest from bodily labour upon the seventh day of the week on which God rested from whence it is called the Sabbath But by the mysticall sense of it under the New Testament to rest from our own works of sinne here that we may attain to the rest of God in the world to come And I cannot see how a more evident argument can be expected for this then the extending of the precept to cattel and strangers not onely to children who otherwise are not under the precept For strangers in the Law that is those that worshipped the true God alone but were not circumcised who are therefore alwayes translated Conuerts in the Syriack to wit from Idols were onely tyed to seven precepts which all the Sons of Noe had received from him Whereof that of the Sabbath was none And therefore it is not they that are commanded to rest but Gods people are commanded that they shall not work as they are commanded that their Cattel shall not work I know there is a strong Argument against this in vulgar esteem which to me makes no difficulty at all that they are commanded to sanctifie or keep holy the Sabbath But he that admits the true difference between the Law and the Gospel must admit a legall as well as a spirituall holinesse And I would know what holinesse there is in offering a brute beast to God in sacrifice that is not in sitting still on the seventh day Both being stamped with Gods command and the rest of the Body signifying the rest of the soul from sinne which is very holy as the sacrifice is holy because it signifieth the holinesse of our Lord Christ or of them whom he sanctifieth The Apostle teacheth us thus to distinguish when he saith Heb. IX 11. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of a red cow sprinkling the purified sanctifieth to the purity of the flesh For the holiness it procureth is but the capacity of free conversation amongst the people of the true God as to the leter of the Law And bodily rest upon the Sabbath is a full profession of the true God which made heaven and earth and brought his people out of Egypt I do not deny that the service of God was commanded by the Law upon the Sabbath But not by this precept You have an order for publick Assemblies on the Sabbath as well as on other Festivals Levit. XXIII you have an order for what sacrifices should be offered on each of them Num. XXVIII But had the Law gone no further then the fourth Commandment the Jews had not been tied to those precepts I acknowledge further that they were bound to serve God with other offices such as are common to them and us both upon the Sabbath as upon other Festivals when they had Synagogues or means to assemble themselves otherwise as Abenezra observes out of 2 King IV. 23. For had it not been the custome to resorâ— to the Prophets at the Festivals he would not have said Why wilt thou go to the Prophet It is neither new Moon nor Sabbath And the order for this which we see by the acts of the Apostles and the Gospels as well as by the Jews Constitutions no man will deny to have obliged them by virtue of the Law But not by the leter of it which had it been precisely followed the objection of Origen and other of the Fathers must have taken place and no man must have stirred out of the place where he should be found at the coming in of the Sabbath But in regard there was alwayes in that people a sense of that spiritual service of God which these carnal precepts tended to therefore was there provided a power
to range themselves among their own respective Sectaries So that to impute the corruption of their damnable inventions to the Church because they mixed themselves with the Church till they were discovered is the same justice that the Gentiles did the Christians in charging them with those horrible incests and vilainies which the Gnosticks only were guilty of because they so farr as it was for their turn affected to shelter themselves under the profession of Christians I shall have occasion in another place to inquire further concerning the riâ—ng of the Gnosticks during the time of the Apostles In the mean time because I see those who know not how to yield to the truth when it is showed them stand in the justification of the wrong that is done the Church by expounding of the corruptions of the Papacy that which Hegesippus saith of the Gnosticks it shall be enough to give you his own words in Eusebius Eccles Hist III. 32. R. Steph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hegesippus saith That till that time the Church remained a pure Virgin and undefloured Those that indeavored to adulterate the true Rule of that preaching which saveth the Rule of Faith which I said so much of afore lurking in obscure holes of darknesse till then if any such there were But the sacred quire of the Apostles having found the several ends of their lives And that generation of men being past that were vouchsafed to hear the wisedom of God with their own ears then did the confirmation of atheistical error receive beginning through the deceit of false Teachers Who now none of the Apostles remaining undertook bare-headed for the future to preach that Knowledge which is falsly so called in opposition to the preaching of the truth For here you have in expresse terms that Knowledge falsly so called from whence the Church after S. Paul calls all those Hereticks Gnosticks as pretending to have got it by such means as our Lord had not discovered to his Apostles You have also the difference between their lurking under the Apostles and their open preaching after their death in terms so expresse that hee must have a good will to it whoever oversees I shall be obliged to referr my self to these same words in another place Now to that which is objected concerning the opinion of the Millennaries I answer first that it cannot be thought ever to have been Catholick For Iustine the Martyr who first mentions it in his dispute with Trypho the Jew not many years after the Apostles expresly testifies that it was the opinion of the most orthodox Christians to wit in his judgment but withall that it was contradicted by others who were neverthelesse Christians even in his account that is of the Communion of the Church Which as it is a peremptory exception against the Universality so is it a reasonable presumption against the Originality of it Seeing that in so few years between him and the Apostles those that believed not all which they had delivered for the common Christianity can in no probability be thought to have injoyed the Communion of the Church And truely had it not been contradicted elsewhere that excellent Prelate Denys of Alexandriae that suppressed it in Egypt about CXXX after as you may see in Eusebius Eccles Hist VII 23 24 25. would have found a hard text of it For the intelligence and correspondence then in use between all parts of the Church would easily have confirmed those of his charge even against him The reason of atchieving the work was because the rest of Christendom insisted not on it Neither is the number or repute of Writers extant the reason to conclude any thing Catholick if the premises be true But the evidence which may be made sometimes from the disputes of able Writers but much more from the acts which past in the Church according or against that which they dispute that their doctrine was received or not received by the Church in whole or in part as necessary or not And therefore secondly I say that the mater of this position concerneth not the Rule of Faith commonly obliging all Christians but the interpretation of a true Prophesie indeed but the true understanding whereof whoso would make necessary to the salvation of all Christians should tye all Christians upon their salvation to understand the Apocalypse which who does To justifie this opinion it hath been showed that the Jewes have this opinion that their Christ shall raign M years when hee comes which seeing they cannot be supposed to have received from the Christians it makes a just presumption that they had it even in S. Iohns time The Jewes have a Tradition which they attribute to the School of one R. Elias mentioned in many of their writings by name in Baal haturim upon Gen. II. and which is also the conceit not onely of Lactantius VII 14. Tychonius the Donatist in his V Rule for expounding the Scripture and the Epistle anciently intitled to S. Barnabas and lately published but also as you may see in the late Lord Primates Latine Discourse of Cainan That as there passed II M years before the Law under the Law counting from Abraham II M years so the dayes of Christ should be II M years and after that the everlasting Sabbath But whether or no the Jews of S. Iohns time could expect this thousand years for the complement of the Sabbath or work of VIIM years which this Tradition promised Whether or no Christians may expect the end of the World at the end of VII M years the Sabbath that shall succeed being eternity according to that of S. Peter and of the Psalm that M years are as a day in Gods sight let them that have nothing else to do inquire Certainly it will not concern the meaning of the Apocalypse unlesse it could be said that the M years there fore-told are to begin after II M years of our Lord are finished Indeed this wee see that the Jewes whom King Alphonsus imployed to make the accounts of the Celestial motions in appointing the motion of the fixed Starrs from West to East to come rome round in XLIXM years the irregularity of that motion to come round in VII M years and that not being obliged to it by any observations made the like account of Sabbaths of thousands of years and VII thousands as the Law doth of dayes or years or Sabbaths of years But if these Jewes be pitifully put to it when to excuse their not believing in Christ who came when the World was about IVM years old according to their own Tradition they are fain to say that it hath failed a small mater of almost XVII C years for their sins Among the Christians what can be said more but that it pleased God to promise them M years of prosperity and raign which the Jews forsaking Christ promised themselves to no purpose Seing the beginning of them cannot be tyed to the end of VIM years from the beginning of the
time the place the maner and form the ceremonies and solemnities whereby the celebration of Church offices is either already determined by Gods Law or remains determinable by the Law of the Church And this I cannot do better then beginning with the times of divine service and considering what Laws of God what Laws of the Church all Christians ought to be tied to in that point whence it may appear what may be the subject of Reformation in it Where I find it requisite in the first place to debate by what right the first day of the week called Sunday is set apart for the service of God under Christianity There is an opinion too well known amongst us that the first day of the week is kept by Christians in virtue of the fourth Commandment which obliged the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week Which opinion if it be true they have some ground for confining the service of God to it But it cannot be maintained without two assumptions The first That the seventh day in the fourth Commandment signifies not the seventh day of the week on which God rested from creating any more but one of the seven dayes The second That the resurrection of Christ upon the first day of the week is a reason that necessarily determines all Christians to do that which they are bound to do on one day of the seven upon the first and none else Neither of which is true though the later have farre the more appearance of truth in it For it is manifest that the will of God may be having obliged the Jewes to keep one day in seven to oblige Christians to keep one day in six or lesse unesse it be otherwise determined by some commandment of Gods Now it appeareth that the first day of the week was kept in the times of the Apostles our Saviour having peared unto them after his Resurrection upon that day Joh. XIX 26. Act. XX. â— 1 Cor. XVI 2. Apoc. I. 10. But of any precept to make this a Law to all Christians nothing appears in the Scriptures of the New Testament Again it may be said That the Gospel requireth more plentiful fruits of obedience then the Law And therefore if the Law required one day of seven for the service of God that the Gospel requires more Nor will it concern me here to prove that this opinion is true It is more then enough that I can say that before this novelty came into England it cannot appear that ever any Christian thought otherwise For I argue no more in this place but that the rising of our Lord upon the first day of the week doth not necessarily determine the Church to keep one day of the seven as the command of God doth For had God commanded one day of seven to be kept under the Gospel as under the Law there had been no room for further consideration But so long as there is onely a reason on the one side That the Resurrection to Christians is as the Creation to Jews And a reason on the other side That it becomes Christians in this as in all to do more then Jews I cannot deny that there is a sufficient reason for him that hath power of determining that which God hath not determined to appoint the first day of the week but I utterly deny that there is any Law of God before the act of this power to determine it And the reason is plain For in maters of this nature there may be sufficient reason for several determinations because it is not the substance but the circumstance of that which is by nature necessarily good and Gods service Again supposing that Christians are bound to keep one day of seven for Gods service may I not ask why the passion of Christ should not determine them to keep the sixth as well as the Resurrection the first day of the week Especially in the sense of them who think they have reason to feast on good Friday and to celebrate their Fasts on the Lords day For if the resurrection of Christ be no reason to make the day thereof Festivall nor his Passion why we should rather fast on the day of it certainly where both cannot be kept the one concerns us as much as the other do and therefore there is as much reason to keep this as that This to the later of the two assumptions But in the former there is no colour of truth Nor do I see how any thing can be more strange then this That so many men professing learning and zeal to the Scriptures alone should read in the Commandment that God resâ—ed the seventh day from making the world and therefore commanded the seventh day to be kept holy And understand by all this onely that God would have one day of seven not that day of the seven on which himself rested Unlesse it be still more strange that men of common sense should believe that the Jews were not tyed by Gods Law to keep the day on which God rested but onely one of seven so that the keeping of the seventh was not by Gods Law but by mans For if it be once granted that God commanded them to keep not onely one day of seven but in particular the seventh how can any common sense understand that Christians by the same command should be tied to keep the first day of the week If prejudice and faction went not under the colour of zeal to the Scriptures it would appear to be zeal towards our selves and ours that offers such violence to our own sense in seeking to impose this sense upon the Scriptures In plain terms there can be nothing more manifest to Christians in the Law of Moses then it is manifest that the precept of the Sabbath is a ceremonial Precept figuring the rest of Christians from the bondage of sin by doing for the future God works here in the Church militant and from the bondage of pain when that rest is become perfect in the triumphant Church of the World to come And all this by the work of this precept that is by resting from bodily labour in the Land of promise in remembrance of the bondage of Aegypt which the Israelites had escaped For in Deutronomy V. 15. this is the reason alleged why they where to rest Ezek. XX. 12. Ex. XXXI 31. I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that it is I the Lord their God that sanctifieth them And therefore the Apostle Heb. IV. 4. 5 9 10. showeth the seventh day to signifie the rest of the Land of pâ—oâ—iâ—e For saith he in one place it is said God rested on the seventh day from all his work And here Psalm XCV 11. if they shall enter into my rest For he that is entred into his rest hath ceased from his own works as God from his Therefore there remaineth another rest to the people of God as the Apostle argueth by the same reason as
to limite the extent of the leter so as not to destroy duties of greater consequence And it seems they pitched upon a reasonable ground for a reasonable measure when they made a Sabbath dayes journey so much as the distance of the utmost camp from the Tabernacle in the wildernesse But he that was not within that distance of a Synagogue by going to a Synagogue must violate the Law that saith Thou shalt not stirre out of thy place on the Sabbath It was therefore holinesse to sit still otherwise the service of God must not have been omitted for it Therefore the service of God by those offices which Christians serve him with is no otherwise intimated rather then provided for by the Law then as the Gospel is witnessed rather then inacted by it And it is truly said that God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it in that he appointed his rest in the world to come for those who had rested from their own works here But consequently in that he appointed the rest of the seventh day in the Land of promise to be a figure of it For I take not upon me to say That God hallowed not the seventh day till he gave the Law understanding that which is said at the creation that he blessed and sanctified it by a Prolepsis because he did it when he gave the Law because I need not The designing of the thing signified by it which is more properly the rest of God then not working reflecting the attribute of holinesse upon the day which he designed for the sign of it For in that God rested the seventh day from making all his works he signified that he appointed rest for them that do his work here in the world to come In that delivering his people out of Egypt he appointed them to rest from bodily labour upon the seventh day he signified that he appointed them whom he had given the rest of the promised Land a shadow of resting from their own works to do his the substance whereof is the conversation of Christians in the Church which the Land of promise â—igureth as well here as in the world to come The former appointment is that which the blessing and hallowing of the seventh day at the creation the second that which the hallowing of the same at giving the Law signifieth Nor do I make it my business that the Fathers before the Law did ever keep or not keep the seventh day for Gods service because I neither see evidence for this nor for that For though the remembrance of the seven days of the week is so ancient and so general among all Nations as you may see by that very learned Work de Jure naturae Gentium secundum Ebraeos that you may well conclude it to be a mark and impress of the creation in seven days yet will this argue no observation of it under the Patriarches Because the appropriating of them to the seven Planets though conâ—rived by the Devill to divert that truth to superstition which is the ground of Religion according to the Scripture disables us to argue the creation it selfe from it to those that know it not otherwise much more any rule of Gods service grounded upon it But he that should say that the Sabbath was kept under the law of Nature as it was to be kept under the law of Moses must first answer Tertullian cont Jud. cap. IV. and Justine from whom he hath it and all Fathers that have used it after them and understood the interess of Christianity better then we do Quis legit Abrahamum Sabbatizantem For why should he think to perswade us to such a ridiculous imagination if he have no Scripture for it And therefore though I agree not with Philo that the Jews had forgot which was the seventh day till God recalled the remembrance of it by sending down Manna and therefore said Remember to keep holy the Sabbath yet I do not allow this to be said because they had forgot it by their Apostasy in Egypt where it is plain they forgot their God as I shewed you afore But because they forgot Gods first command at the giving of Manna therefore it is reason they should be charged to remember it for the future As little do I esteem of that meere voluntary presumption that being part of the Decalogue the precept of the Sabbath must needs be part of Gods perpetual Law whither naturall and morall or positive For is it not the Decalogue that saith That thy dayes may belong in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Or doth the Land of promise in the leter belong to any but Israelites Again the tenth Commandment forbiddeth to covet another mans wise adultery being forbidden afore And therefore to covet another mans wife in the tenth Commandement is to compasse another mans wife which might be done where the Law alloweth divorces as Moses his Law doth If therefore the first and last Commandment of the second Table are by the terms of them appropriated to Gods ancient people is it strange that the precept of the Sabbath should not be thought perpetual to oblige all mankind but Ceremonial to oblige onely the same That there should be a Ceremoniall precept in the first Table of the Decalogue Nay seeing to all mankind it can import no more then a circumstance of time for the publick service of God what reason can be imagined why a precept of that consequence should make one in the first Table of the Decalogue whereas importing to that people the creation of all things by the true God and their deliverance out of Aegypt and by consequence the obligation of his whole Law it is worthily reckoned by the Jews Doctors among the very principall precepts of it As for Christians the literal sense of it is no lesse unlawful for them to observe then it is for them to be circumcised or to undertake the Law of Moses to the which the Sabbath next to circumcision obligeth And by consequence the spirituall sense of it importeth no lesse then the whole duty of a Christian which all ceremonies do figure that is to say resting from our works of sinne and consequently busying our selves about the works of Gods service And therefore I do marvel that those who so obstinately promote this Doctrine are not sensible of the scandall they give to them who have visibly been seduced to keep the Saturday by grounding themselves upon it And may by the same reason be seduced to be circumcised and turn Jewes If yet it be a thing to do and that divers English in these unstable times not distinguishing between that which did and that which doth oblige when they find both in the Scriptures have not hereby been moved to make that change For when they are told that by the leter of the fourth Commandment they are obliged to keep the first day of the week And by common sense discovering a great part of the premises discern that
utterly unreasonable For the Parable representing unto us Dives and Lazarus conferring together at that distance what reason can there be why this victory might not be declared at the same distance Or why the soul of Christ should move to do that which might be done at that distance Least of all why it should be necessary to salvation to believe that which there is no reason why it should be necessary to be done It is true our Lord entered into possession of his conquest when he raised the bodies of those Saints which upon his resurrection appeared in Jerusalem For that was to say that their bodies as well as their souls were from henceforth free from the dominion which sinne gave death over mankind But seeing their soules as we have seen were not to change their abode till the generall râ—surrection and seeing therefore that the soul of Christ was not to go to take them from the verge of Hell for the marke and exercise of his triumph I do not see why it should go into the nethermost Hell the place of the damned to declare his victory and to exercise his triumph and nothing else Now having proved that the soules of the Fathers were not removed from the Verge of Hell to heaven by the descent of Christs soul at such time as the passage from the Law to the Gospell might seem to make such a change reasonable I shall be very difficult to be perswaded that any soules of Christians who depart in the state of grace are sent to the Verge of Hell by the name of Purgatory there to remaine till having payd the debt of temporall punishment reserved at the restoring of them to the state of Grace they are by the prayers of their friends here dismissed to heaven and happinesse Every man knowes that this opinion is chiefly built upon the words of Saint Paul 1 Cor. III. 12-15 If any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble Every mans work shall be made manifest For the day shall show it for it is revealed with fire and the fire shall try what every mans work is If any mans work remaine which he hath built upon this foundation of Christ he shall receive the reward If a mans work be burnt up he shall suffer losse yet himself shall be saved but so as through fire But who shall consider these words without prejudice seeing he findes them very difficult shall find it impossible to build an article of faith upon them And finding the issue of them to be at the generall day of judgement shall find that removing of souls out of Purgatory upon which all the consequence thereof depends utterly inconsistent with the same For the day whereof S. Paul here speakes can be no other then the day of judgement because had it been any day of inferiour note it must have been described by some further marke which that day needs not I know two opinions that will not have that day to signify the day of judgement Saint Augustine thinkes that it may signify any day of triall For the fire is the meanes of that triall And tribulation being that triall the day will be the day of tribulation Grotius thinks the day to be the judgement of the Church here whereby that which men build upon the foundation of Christ shall be tried whether it be gold silver precious stones according to the foundation or wood hay stubble no way suitable to it For that which agrees not with the foundation there is no reason why it may not be lost and yet he that laid it upon the foundation be saved though not by that fire yet through that fire that tries What pretense is here left for the purging of soules by that fire whereby they are tried If the triall be at the generall judgement to bring souls out of Purgatory then what thanks can it deserve And of the generall judgement S. Paul must needs speake because there is no other triall that is certaine Affliction may try and the Church may try but it may also not try S. Paul speakes of a triall that must be not that may be I confesse this is avoided by saying that Saint Paul here prophesies of a judgement of God to come upon those who adulterated the Gospell at Corinth of whom he speakes For that judgement which S. Paul foretelleth must certainly come to passe But S. Paul when he saith the day shall show it speaketh not of a day which hereby he declareth that it shall come But of a day which otherwise they acknowledge was to come Namely by our common Christianity whereof the day of judgement is a part And whatsoever judgement Saint Paul foretelleth to come upon them seeing the judgements of this world do not use to make every mans work manifest neither can it be said that he whose work remaines shall receive his reward he whose work is burnt up though he suffer losse shall escape as through fire Speaking of such a triall as by the ordinary course of providence manifests not all mens works but some Besides when S. Paul saith the day is revealed he speakes of a day which in the mean time is concealed when it shall be though allready revealed that it shall be And what day is that but the day of judgement Or what fire did they expect that day to be revealed with but that fire which our Lord shall come to judgement with Now the fire of Gods vengeance which the last day shall come with why should it not try as well as punish This is indeed in my understanding all that possibly can remaine questionable in the sense of those words the rest seems clear beyond dispute The fire of the last day is a bodily fire which shall burn up the world or purify it to that constitution which shall remaine for the future But what is that to the trying of their workes Saint Pauls words require it not The day tries the fire consumes the workes and so leaves the men purged by suffering that losse So mens workes being tried by that great day if it the fire of it cleanse their bodies by sensible torments for that which we speak of comes to passe after the restoring of bodies then it is plaine how the man escapes through fire whose workes are consumed by the fire which punishes the man by whom they are done If this fire cannot be properly understood to try what every mans work is it will be nothing unproper to understand the judgement of God to be the fire which examines mens workes by which examination they which have built hay and stubble upon the foundation of Christ shall loose what they have built and yet themselves scape through that fire of conflagration which shall involve those that hold not the foundation with their works The other text of S. Paul is more obscure then this and yet being brought to prove this purpose cannot here be balked 1 Cor. XV. 29.
The nature and intent of it renders it subordinate to the Clergy How farre the single life of the Clergy hath been a Law to the Church Inexecution of the Canons for it Nullity of the proceedings of the Church of Rome in it The interest of the People in the acts â—f the Church And in the use of the Scriptures 368 CHAP. XXXII How great the Power of the Church and the offect of it is The right of judging the causes of Christians ceaseth when it is protected by the State An Objection If Ecclesiastical Power were from God Secular Power could not limit the use of it Ground for the Interest of the State in Church matters The inconsequence of the argument The concurrence of both Interests to the Law of the Church The Inâ—erest of the state in the indowment of the Church Concurrence of both in matrimonial causes and Ordinations Temporall penalties upon Excommunication from the State No Soveraigne subject to the greater Excommunication but to the lesse The Rights of the Jewes State and of Christian Powers in Religion partly the same partly not The infinite Power of the Pope not founded upon Episcopacy but upon acts of the Secular Powers of Christendom 381 OF THE PRINCIPLES OF Christian Truth The First BOOK CHAP. I. All agree that Reason is to decide controversies of Faith The objection that Faith is taught by Gods Spirit answered What Reason decideth questions of Faith The resolution of Faith ends not in the light of Reason but in that which Reason evidenceth to come from Gods messengers THe first thing that we are to question in the beginning is Whether there be any means to resolve by the use of reason those controverâ—â—es which cause division in the Church Which is all one as if we undertook to enquire whether there be any such skill or knowledg as that for which men call themselvs Divines For if there be it must be the same in England as at Rome And if it have no principles as no principles it can have unlesse it can be resolved what those principles are then is it a bare name signifying nothing But if there be certain principles which all parties are obliged to admit that discourse which admits no other will certainly produce that resolution in which all shall be obliged to agree And truely this hope there is left that all parties do necessarily suppose that there is means to resolve by reason all differences of Faith Inasmuch as all undertake to perswade all by reason to be of the judgment of each one and would be thought to have reason on their side when so they do and that reason is not done them when they are not believed There are indeed many passages of Scripture which say that Faith is only taught by the Spirit of God Mat. XVI 17. Blessed art thou Peter son of Ionas for flesh and blood revealed not this to thee but my Father which is in the heavens II. 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes 1 Cor. I. 26 27 28. For Brethren you see your calling that not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen to shame the wise The weak things of the world hath God chosen to shame the strong The ignoble and despicable things of the world hath God chosen and the things that are not to confound the things that are John VI. 45. It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Heb. VIII 10. Jer. XXXI 33. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Laws in their mindes and write them in their hearts These and the like Scriptures then asâ—ribing the reason why wee believe to the work of Gods Spirit seem to leave no room for any other reason why wee should believe But this difficulty is easie for him to resolve that diâ—â—inguishes between the reason that moveth in the nature of an object and that motion which the active cause produceth For the motion of an object supposes that consideration which discovers the reason why wee are to believe But the motion of the Holy Ghost in the nature of an active cause proceeds without any notice that wee take of it According to the saying of our Lord to Nicodemus John 111. 8. The winde bloweth where it listeth and a man hears the noise of it but cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the spirit For wee must know that there may be sufficient reason to evict the truth of Christianity and yet prove ineffectual to induce the most part either inwardly to believe or outwardly to professe it The reason consists in two things For neither is the mater of Faith evident to the light of reason which wee bring into the world with us And the Crosse of Christ which this profession drawes after it necessarily calls in question that estate which every man is setled upon in the world So that no marvel if the reasons of believing fail of that effect which for their part they are sufficient to produce Interest diverting the consideration or intercepting the consequence of such troublesom truth and the motives that inforce it The same is the reason why the Christian world is now to barren of the fruits of Christianity For the profession of it which is all the Laws of the world can injoyn is the common privilege by which men hold their estates Which it is no marvel those men should make use of that have neither resolved to imbrace Christ with his Crosse nor considered the reason they have to do it who if they should stick to that which they professe and when the protection of the Law failes or act according to it when it would be disadvantage to them in the world so to do should do a thing inconsequent to their own principles which carried them no further than that profession which the Law whereby they hold their estates protecteth The true reason of all Apostasy in all trials As for the truth of Christianity Can they that believe a God above refuse to believe his messengers because that which they report stands not in the light of any reason to evidence it Mater of Faith is evidently credible but cannot be evidently true Christianity supposes sufficient reason to believe but not standing upon evidence in the thing but upon credit of report the temptation of the Crosse may easily defeat the effect of it if the Grace of Christ and the operation of the Holy Ghost interpose not Upon this account the knowledg of Gods truth revealed by Christ may be the work of his Grace according to the Scriptures for that so it is I am not obliged neither have I any reason here to suppose being to come in
Gospel What room is there left so to interpret and understand Justificatification by Faith alone or the nature of that Faith which alone justifieth that a man may be thought to be ingrafted into Christ by a living faith before and without being baptized He that admitteth S. Peters distinction shall not need to marvel that God should appoint the cleansing of the soul to depend upon the washing of the body seeing the profession of true Christianity obliging him that is baptized both to God and to his Church the power of baptizing into which is the power of remitting sins by the keys of the Church as I proved in due place by the same appointment annexed to the same And upon this ground it is that S. Paul says 1 Tim. V. 8. that he who provides not for his own especially for his Family hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel Because that Christianity to which he is tied by his baptism obliges him to it And the Apostles Jude 4. 2. Pet. II. II. affirm that the Gnosticks did deny the Lord Jesus Christ that bought them who certainly renounced not the profession of Christians which they counterfeited but lived not according to it Whereupon we read in S. Paul of those that retain a fashion of godlinesse but deny the power of it 2 Tim. III. 5. And that professe to know God doubtlesse as Christians if of Titus his charge but deny it by their works Titus I. 16. CHAP. III. The exhortations of the Apostles that are drawn from the patterns of the Old Testament suppose the same How the Sacraments of the Old and New Testament are the same how not the same How the New Testament and the New Covenant are both one The free-will of man acteth the same part in dealing about the New-Covenant as about the Old The Gospel a Law BEsides all this I argue the same from the Old Testament as the passages of it are imployed and expounded by our Lord and his Apostles in the New S. Paul inforceth the observing and fulfilling of our Christian profession specially not to communicate in the worship of Idols thus 1 Cor. X. 6. 11. These things came to passe for patterns to us that we should not lust for evil things as they also lusted Nor be Idolaters as some of them As it is written The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play Nor go a whoring as some of them did and fell in one day three and twenty thousand Nor tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by Serpents Nor murmur as some of them also murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer Now all these things happenned to them for figures and are written for our warning on whom the ends of the world are come If these things fell out to the Fathers that they might be figures for Christians and that they were punished for transgressing the Covenant which they had made with God is it not manifest that the punishments which the Apostle threatneth Christians with must come for transgressing the second Covenant of Grace which the Gospel introduceth consider again the Apostles argument Hebr. III. 7-13 Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as at the provocation in the day of temptation in the wildernesse where your Fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years wherefore I was wroth with that generation and said They always erre in heart and know not my wayes So that I have sworn in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest take heed brethren that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God But exhort one another every day while it is called to day that none of you be hardned with the deceit of sin It is manifest that his intent is to warn them of the crime of Apostasie in renouncing Christianity for the persecutions which the Jewes then followed them with as the whole Epistle witnesseth and here the very terms of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God do evidence And therefore in the end of the Chapter Who did he swear should not enter into his rest but those that were disobedient And we see they could not enter for unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that were disobedient to Gods Law which they had plighted their Faith to keep could not enter into his rest of the Land of Promise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for unbelief or unfaithfulnesse whether you will Therefore they that depart from God having undertaken the profession of Christianity shall not enter into his everlasting rest of the Kingdome of Heaven whether for unbelief or unfaithfulnesse For as they are disloyall to their Promise so by Apostasie they fall into the condition of Infidels Can this Argument proceed upon any other terms And proceeding upon these doth it not suppose an ingagement claiming loyalty Is not the rest of Christians which he mentioneth as clearly the Kingdom of Heaven as the rest whereof the Psalm speaks was the Land of promise wherefore he inferreth upon the words quoted For we are become partakers of Christ if we hold the ground of our confidence or the principle of our expectation firm to the end The ground of a Christians confidence or that from whence his expectation of the promise commences which he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being nothing else but the condition which he undertaketh upon supposition of Gods promise Wherefore S. Paul thus inferreth the warning afore rehearsed 1 Cor. X 1 -5 Now I would not have you ignorant Brethren that our Fathers were all under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea and all were baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and all ate the same spirituall meat and drank the same spirituall drink For they drank of the spirituall Rock that followed them now the Rock was Christ But with most of them God was not well pleased For they were felled in the Wildernesse Did you ever read in the Old Testament that the Israelites were baptized because they passed the Sea under the Cloud without a drop of water to wet them with But this we read that God by Moses had delivered them and thereupon they agree to leave Aegypt under his conduct Hereupon infucs the drowning of their enemies in the red Sea while they are protected thereby with the Cloud also over their heads This therefore was the beginning of that Peoples ingagement to God under the conduct of Moses Which though by by they departed from at Marah and elsewhere mutinying against Moses yet being reconciled to God by his patience and goodness in fulfilling their desires they also tooke upon themselves to obey him and to keep the the Sabbath Exod. XV. 25 26. XVI 27 28 29. Untill being come to Monnt Sinai they received the Decalogue and afterward the whole Law as it was renewed by
through the body of it upon what grounds the Gentiles are invited to the Covenant of grace which the Jewes began then to refuse This being the businesse of the Epistle the drift of it is manifest whether righteousnesse and salvation come by the Law or the Gospel by Judaisme or by Christianity The subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews is this The Jews being priviledged by the laws of the Empire in the exercise of their Religion disclaiming those of their nation that had professed Christianity found means by the power of the Romanes to constrain them by persecution to return to Judaisme The question is whether they can obtaine salvation turning Jews againe which they perswade themselves they might obtaine being such before they imbrace Christianity That this is the question let him that will take the paines to compare the proposition of it in the the beginning of the II. Chapter and the reasons which it is pursued with untill the sixth with the conclusion of the dispute in the thirteenth Considering also that discourse which followes of the intent and effect of the Law Let him I say give sentence If he refuse me I will be bold to say of him That no man is so blind as he that will not see With the Churches of Galatia when S. Paul writ to them the case was somewhat otherwise It is manifest that they consisted partly of Gentiles partly of Jews The words of the Apostle require it Gal. IV. 8 9. But then truly not knowing God ye served those which indeed are no Gods But now having known God or rather being known of God how turn ye back to those weak and beggerly elements to which ye desire to be in bondage againe For neither could they serve those that were not Gods indeed unlesse Gentiles nor unlesse Jewes returne to those elements It is manifest that to avoid persecution for the profession of Christianity those whom S. Paul writes against would have them be circumcised and so conforme themselves so farre to the Law that those who raised that persecution might be satisfied at their hands Those that would make a fair shew in the flesh constraine you to be circumcised onely that they may not be persecuted with the Crosse of Christ For neither themselves that are persecuted do keep the Law But would have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh Saith S. Paul Gal. VI. 12 13. And againe Gal. V. 11. But I brethren if I still preach circumcision why am I still persecuted For then the scandall of the Crosse is void And is not the question then between the Law and the Gospel between Judaisme and Christianity whether of them intitles to salvation and righteousnesse And shall the excluding of the Law exclude those works which suppose Christianity or rather include what ever the Gospel includes or inferres Consider what opinion the Jews had then entertained to alienate them from Christianity then and to divide them from it ever since So long as the nation stood it is manifest how much adoe there was to hold them to the worship of the true God which was the ground of that Law by which they held the Land of promise Being carried to Babylon and seeing the menaces of the Law come to passe and revolving within themselves those things which Isaiah and other Prophets had preached against the worship of Idols upon that occasion it seems but certaine it is they never departed from the worship of one true God afterward But then with the study of his law after their returne from captivity came in a curioâ—ity of learning and keeping all punctillos which the observation of it could require As supposing the wisdom of the Nation which the Law it self magnifieth Deut. IV. 6 8. together with their righteousnesse and holynesse to consist in these niceties Whereas this was indeed but the civile and outward observation of those precepts of the externall worship of one God and civil conversation among themselves to which the civil happiness of the land of promise was tied as I shewed in the first book Hereupon our Lord to his disciples Mat. V. 10. Vnlesse your righteousnesse exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdome of heaven And again to shew that the disease began long afore though then it was come to the height he reproves his hearers with these words which the Prophet Esay had charged upon his time Es XXIX 13. In vain they worship me teaching for doctrines the Traditions of men Mat. XV. 9. Mar. VII 7. Where he instanceth in the washing of cups and pots according to the Law of brasse vessels and beds of the hands before meat and after they came from market according to the tradition of the Elders which the Apostle 1 Pet. I. 18. calls their vain conversation delivered from their fathers This is manifestly that righteousnesse whereof S. Paul sayes Rom. X. 3. That the Jewes not knowing the righteousnesse of God and willing to establish their own righteousnesse were not subject to Gods righteousnesse For as it is evident that not to be subject to the righteousnesse of God is neither more nor lesse then to refuse the Gospel of Christ So their own righteousnesse which they would establish in opposition to the same must needs be that righteousnesse which they might be possest of by virtue of the Law And indeed it is not possible to imagine that the Jewes should so punctually and superstitiously reverence all these nice observations traditions and customes which the Scribes and Pharisees brought in to limit the generality of Moses Law and to determine every clause circumstance and tittle according to which it should be observed which now that vast bulk of their Talmud containes if they did not thinke that true wisdome and righteousnesse before God is placed in the nice keeping of these curiosities Nor can it be doubted that the undervaluing of them by reason of Christianity is that which first occasioned them to take offence at the Gospel and to this day maintaines them in contradiction to it It can therefore by no meanes be doubted that this is the Law and therefore the workes which S. Paul means when he argues that we are not justified by the Law nor the workes of the Law but by grace and by Faith For it is most manifest that he instances diverse times in those precepts which are not of the law of nature nor can the workes of them be counted to belong to the inward obedience of God and his worship in Spirit and truth But meerely formes which God had tied them up to his service with that they might have no occasion to seek after strange Gods And customes whereby he had so limited their civil conversation to one another that being divided thereby from other nations they might have no occasion to learn their Gods So S. Paul Gal. IV. 9. 10. But now having known God or rather being known of God
by and by Si quis igitur post Evangelum Christi adventum filii Dei Paedagogae Legis observat ceremonias audiat populum consitentem quod omnis illa justitia panno sordidissimo comparetur cui Esther diadema suum quod erat regiae potestatis insigne comparat Where it is to be considered that the righteousnesse which is in the Law in comparison of the purity of the Gospel is called uncleannesse For that which was counted glorious is not glorious in regard of that glory that excelleth And If any man then after the Gospel of Christ and the coming of the Sonne of God observe the ceremonies of that Pedagogicall Law let him hear the people confesse that all that righteousnesse is comparable to a most filthy ragg◠Wherewith also Ester compares her diadem though the ensigne of Royall Power The Prophet brings in the Synagogue confessing it self destitute of righteousnesse The Apostles shew that the Church onely furnisheth that righteousnesse through faith which the Synagogue by the Law cannot have And shall we say that S. Jerome abuses the Prophet in limitting that uncleannesse which the Prophet acknowledgeth even in their righteousnes to that which is to be had by the Law For though he name onely the workes of the Ceremoniall Law yet is all the righteousnesse that is to be had by the learning of the Letter of the Law of the same nature not attaining to be done with that disposition of the heart which onely the Gospel produceth O Ecumenius upon James II. 14. speaking the sense of some Fathers hath expressed all the points of my position in these tearmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But some of the Fathers have thus judged of this businesse For they say that distinguishing Abraham by times he is the patterne of both Faiths Whereof one going before Baptisme requires no Workes but onely Faith and the profession of salvation and the word whereby we are justified believing in Christ The other is coupled with workes So the Spirit that spoke in the Apostles shewes no contrariety The one justifying him that approcheth by profession alone in case he presently depart this life For such a one hath no workes but the cleansing of Baptisme is to him a sufficient passeport to salvation The other demanding of him that is already baptized that he should shew good workes He had proposed before another way of reconciling the Apostles by distinguishing severall significations in the terme of Faith which in that effect and consequence falls in with this S. Gregory In Evang. Hom. XIX Quod cum it a sit fidei nostre veritatem in vitae nostre consideration◠debemus agnoscere Tunc enim veraciter fideles sumus si quod verbis promittimus operibus complemus In die quippe baptismi omnibus nos antiqui hostis operibus atque omnibus pompis abrenunciare promisimus Itaque unusquisque ad considerationem suam mentis oculos reducat si servat post baptismum quod ante baptismum spopondit certus jam quia fidelis est gaudeat Which seeing so it is we are to acknowledge the truth of our faith in the consideration of our life For then are we truly faithfull or believers if we accomplish by workes what we promise by words For at the day of our Baptisme we promise to renounce all the workes and all the pompes of our ancient foe Let every man therefore turne the eyes of his minde to the consideration of himself and if he observe after baptisme that which he promised before baptisme being now assured that he is faithfull or a believer let him rejoyce He ascribeth that justification which requireth good workes to the fulfilling of that promise which our Baptisme presupposeth To the same purpose the commentary upon S. Pauls Epistles that goes under S. Ambrose his name upon Rom. III. 8. Manifeste beati sunt quibus sine labore vel opere aliquo remittuntur iniquitates peccata teguntur nulla ab his requisita poenitentiae opera sed tantum ut credant By and by Quemadmodum autem ad paenitentium potest pertinere personam cum dicit Beati quorum tectasunt peccata Cum constet paenitentes labore ac gemitu peccatorum remissionem acquirere Aut quomode Martyrio congruit quod dicit Beatus vir cui non imputabit dominus peccatum Cum sciamus gloriam martyrii passionibus pressaris acquiri Propheta autem tempus foelix in adventu servatoris praevidens beatos nominat quibus sine labore vel aliquo opere per lavacrum remittuntur teguntur non imputantur peccata Manifestly they are happy whose iniquities are remitted and whose sins are covered without the labour of any work not requiring of them any paines of Penance but onely to belivee And But how can it belong to the person of Penitents when he saith Blessed are they whose sins are covered Seeing it is manifest that Penitents attain remission of sins by labour and grones Or how agrees that which he saith with Martyrdome Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Seeing we know that the glory of Martyrdome is attained by sufferings and pressures But the Prophet foreseeing a happy time at our Saviours coming names them blessed whose sins are remitted and covered and not imputed by the laver of Baptisme without the labour of any work Whether or no this opposition between remission of sins which Baptisme alone and that which Penance and Martyrdome giveth he pertinently here alledged and like a Divine for Baptisme is the undertaking of Martyrdome if God require it and Penance is the voluntary undergoing of it when sin requireth it evident it is that Baptisme is here the boundary of that justification which faith alone promiseth And upon Heb. IV. 16. he saies that God gives requiem sempiternam fidem habentibus eam tamen quae per dilectionem operatur non credentibus poenam perpetuam Ne forte relicta pollicitatione quam dedimus Deo in baptismo iterum revertamur ad opera infidelitatis quae abdicamus coram multis testibus Everlasting rest to those who have faith but that which worketh by love perpetuall paine to those who believe no. Least peradventure abandoning the promise which we made to God at our Baptisme we return againe to the works of infidelity which we renounce before many witnesses Where the damation of a Christian is imputed to the transgressing of that promise which he makes to God in Baptisme And the true S. Ambrose when he saies lib. 1. Epist 1. Nec enim fides sola ad perfectionem satis est nisi etiam baptismatis adjiciatur gratia sanguinem Christi redemptus accipiat For neither sufficeth faith alone to persection unlesse the grace of baptisme be added and be that is redeemed receive the blood of Christ Cleerly compriseth the Sacrament of Baptisme after which the baptized alwaies received the Eucharist in the ancient Church whereupon S. Augustine afore mention Sacramenta fidei in
because speech it self standing upon reason shews it to be the former as that whereupon it standeth But even so it maters not For though God had not yet sent forth his speech he had it no lesse within himself with and within his very reason silently thinking and disposing with himself those things which he was to utter by speech Further Cap. VI. VII Nam ut primum Deus voluit ea quae cum Sophia ratione sermone disposuerat intrase in substantias species sâ—as edere ipsum primum protulit sermonem habentem intra se individuas suas rationem sapientiam ut per ipsum â—ierent universa per quem erant cogitata disposita imo facta jam quantum in Deisensu Hoc enim eis deerat ut coram quoque in suis speciâ—bus substantiis cognoscerentur tenerentur Tunc igitur etiam ipse sâ—rmâ— speciem ornatum suum sumit sonum vocem cum dicit Deus Fiat Lux. Hâ—c est nativitas perfecta sermonis dum ex Deo procedit conditus ab â—o primum ad cogitatum in nomine Sophiae Dominus condidit me initium viarum dehinc generatus ad effectum cum pararet coelum aderam ei siâ—â—l exinde â—um patrem sibi faciens de quo procedendo filius factus est primogenitus ut ante omnia genitus unigenitus ut solus ex Deo genitus proprie de vulvâ— cordis ipsius secundum quod Pater ipse testatur Eructavit cor meum sermonem optimum Ad quem deinceps gaudens proinde gaâ—deâ—tem in persona illiâ—â— Filius meus es tu ego hodie genui te ante Luciferum genui te Sic filius ex sua persona profitetur Patrem in nomine Sophiae dominus condidit me initium viarum in opera sua For as soon as God pleased to put forth into their own substances and kinds those things which he had ordered within himself with the reason and speech of wisdom the first he brought forth was speech having in it reason and wisdom from which it is unseparable that all things might be made by that whereby they had been devised and disposed nay made aleready as to the sense of God For they wanted onely this to be known and had in their own kindes and substances Then therefore even Gods speech it self assumed his own kinde and dresse sound and voice when God said Let there be Light This is the perfect birth of speech as it proceedeth from God First made by him for a thought devised by him under the name of Wisdome the Lord made me the beginning of his wayes then ingendered to effect I was together with him when he prepared the heavens thenceforth making him his Father for I read Patrem sibi faciens not Pâ—câ—m as I find it promised by proceeding from whom he became a Sonne firstborn as born before all things and onely as alone ingendered by God from the proper womb of his heart according as the Father himself also witnesseth My heart hath uttered an excellent speech To whom rejoycing according as he rejoyceth in the Fathers person he saith Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee And before the morning starre have I ingendred thee As the Sonne also in his person professeth the Father under the name of Wisdome The Lord made me the beginning of wayes unto his works All this if it be understood as becometh God will containe nothing prejudiciall to the Faith of Gods Church whether it containe the true sense of the Scriptures or not through sound and voice and speech and thought or devise if they be understood as they signify in Gods creatures are inconsistent with his excellence But so farre it will be from Arius his heresie as to answer the very ground of it by saying That the Word or reason or Wisdome of God which incaâ—nate is our Lord Christ was from everlasting in God but not under the notion quality or attribute of Sonne till the making of the World And that as Tertulliane said in the place from whence the objection is quoted accidentis rei mentio the mention of an accessory to wit the declaration of Gods will to make the World gave him the denomination of Son which he bore not afore according to Tertulliane whether he hit the true sense of the Scripture in it or onely indeavour so to do though alwayes the same from everlasting The answer to this difficult passage of Tertulliane may serve for another contra Praxeam Cap. II. unicum Deum non alias putat credendum quam si ipsum eundemque Patrem Filium Spiritum dicat Quasi non sic quoquc unus sit omnia dum ex uno omnia per substantiâ— scilicet unitatem nihilominus custodiatur aeconomiae sacramentum quae unitatem in trinitatem disponit tres dividens Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum Tres autem not sâ—aâ—â— sed gradu non substantia sed forma nec potestate sed specie Vnius autem status unius substantiae unius potestatis quia unus Deus ex quâ— gradus isti formae species in nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti deputantur He thinkes he is not otherwise to believe one God then saying that the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost are all one As if one were not all as well if all proceed from one By unity of substance forsooth preserving neverthelesse the mystery of that distribution which disposeth the Vnity into a Trinity ordering three the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost But not three for state but for rank not for substance but for forme not for power but for specialty But of one state one substance one power because one God from whom those ranks and formes and specialties are understood These words non statu sed gradu both Cardinal Bellarmine and Valentia meeting in a passage of Bullinger not naming his author have charged with Arianisme being indeed Tertuallians words manifestly expressing the Unity of the Godhead the substance state and power of it in the Father Sonne and holy Ghost by their personall properties characters or notions in the terms of gradus formae species rankes formes and specialties no other being then in use In like sort Ignatius according to the true Copies saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Goa was born Epist ad Ephes he calls him there Son of God and Son of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God manifest as man He calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The eternall Word that came not forth from silence Epist ad Magnes Athanasius de Synodis quotes out of him We have one Physitian bodily and incorporeal ingendred and not ingendred God in man Justine calleth him the word of God indistinct from him in virtue and Power and â—â—caranate He makes him the Lord of hosts and the King of Glory He expresseth his procession by light kindled from light and fire from fire
that would onely be saved So that the workes whereby they are pursued must be called workes of supererogation because he that does them layes out more upon Gods service then he is obliged to do They are the words of our Lord to the disciples Mat. XIX 11 12. All are not capable of this word of not marrying For there are Eunuchs which were so born from their mothers wombe And there are Eunuchs which were made Eunuchs by men And there are Eunuchs that have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven He that is capable let him hold this Here it is said that God hath made some men of such constitution of nature that they are able to containe themselves from marriage and that this is the gift of continence which whoso hath falls under a command of not marrying whoso hath not of marrying But when our Lord exhorts those that are able to containe themselves from marriage to strive for that grace certainely he makes not that a gift of nature which he would have a man indeavour to attaine He that is exhorted to make himself an Eunuch is not so made by God but from God he hath the grace to preferre the kingdom of heaven before even that content which God alloweth him here and if he betray not that grace by preferring that content before the clearest and securest meanes of attaining it he will not faile of grace to performe that which he resolves for Gods sake And truely it were strange that the Gospel should make that grace which conducts to the height of Christianity to consist in an indowment of nature But S. Pauls wordes will take no nay 1 Cor. VII 25-28-36 37 38. Of Virgins I have no precept of the Lord but give advise as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithfull I think then this expedient for the present necessity that it is good for a man to be thus Art thou tied to a wife seek not to be loose Art thou loose from a wife seek not a wife But if thou marry thou sinnest not and if a virgine marry she sinneth not Onely such shall have affliction in the flesh But I spare you Againe If a man think he deales unhansomly with his Virgine if she passe her flour and so it must be let him do as he please he sinneth not let him marry But he that standeth firme in his heart having no necessity but hath power over his own will and hath resolved this in his heart to preserve his Virgine doeth well So he that marrieth her doeth well but he that marrieth her not doeth better Is the sunshine more manifest then this A man may resolve either of both for his daughter a Virgine supposing her will to follow his as generally the duty of the children is which S. Paul here supposeth and not sinne but do well yet better in containing from marriage because of the advantage which that state yeildeth Christianity as S. Paul showes Therefore he declares that God hath given no law in it but his Apostle gives that advise for the best which his Lord had done The same Apostle of Widowes 1 Tim. V. 5 9-14 She that is a Widow indeed and desolate hopeth in God and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day And let no Widow be listed under threescore years old having been the wife of one husband having a testimony for good works that she hath bred up her children entertained strangers washed â—he Saints feet helped the afflicted followed every good work But refuse younger Widowes for when they grow wanton against Christ they will marry Being to be condemned because they have renounced their first faith And withall they learn to be idle and to go about from house to house and not onely idle but tattlers busie bodies speaking things unfitting Therefore I would have the younger marry Here is againe a clear case Timothy is directed to liâ—t some Widowes for the service of the Church in the state of Widowes others to refuse That which commends the one for the preferment is the exercise of those workes which they could not have had opportunity for in the state of wedlock That which renders the others dangerous is because for them to desire marriage is to grow wanton against Christ Wherefore when S. Paul would have them to marry it is not because he denieth in the next words that state of proficience which he had acknowledged just afore but because it is better to hold the mean then to fall from the highest ranck of Christianity Which serves to resolve his meaning as well as his Masters 1 Cor. VII 1 2 6 7. For that which you writ to me about it is good for a man not to touch a woman But because of fornication let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband But this I speake of indulgence not by command For I would all men were even as my self But every one hath his proper grace of God some thus some otherwise Doth not the grace of God in married people assiâ—t in the offices of Christianity towards those relations which marriage procureth Correspondently therefore the Grace of God in the continent is not a natural temper obliging them so to live But the helps that inable them to discharge themselves like Christians in a higher rank among Christians So that the perfection of Christianity lies not in the state of continence but in the rank of it That is to say in â—hose offices of Christianity wherein their estate gives them opportunity to be conversant the state being no otherwise so accountable then because there is a presumption that persons are such as they ought to be and as their state gives them opportunity to be The perfection of Christianity then consisteth in the love of God and in his service and the service of Christians for Gods sake That is in spending a mans life in those offices in which there is most regard to God least to our owne temporall interest But is it unreasonable to count that a state of perfection which generally and in reason is the meanes for it because it is found to be practised to other effects Is it unreasonable to think that God who hath need of all states for the service of his Church and giveth those severall graces which are requisite to make severall men serviceable for severall states should not determine by law but leave to their choice whom he indues with those graces that which containes not the work of Christianity but being indifferent by kind is neverthelesse by kind the meanes to procure it Saint Paul gives this reason why he wrought for his living rather then take any thing of the Corinthians in these termes It were better for me to dye then that any man should void that which I glory in For if I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity lies upon me yea woe to me if I preach not the Gospel For if I do
any now unlesse the signification thereof be fuâ—ther limited by other terms which being added to it every man will allow may determine a sense utterly prejudiciall to it True it is divers have observed that the word merâ—râ— in good Latine especially of those later ages in which the Fathers writ signifies no more then to attaine compasse or purchase Arguing from thence that the workes of Christians merit heaven in their sense and language no otherwise then because they are the meanes by which we attaine it So Cassander observes that S. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. I. 13. is by S. Cyprian translated misericordiam merui not intending to say that S. Paul deserved that mercy which he professes to have received of Grace But onely to signify that he found mercy and attained it But though I should grant that this word may signify no more in the language of the Fathers yet the Faith and the sense out of which it is evident that they spake will inforce that it doth signify as much as I say when they speak of our coming to heaven by our workes For having once resolved that the Covenant of Grace renders life everlasting due by Gods promise to those that lâ—ve as at their Baptisme they undertook though not for the worth of their workes yet by the mercy of God in Christ which moved him to tender such a promise he that sayes a man attaines heaven by the meanes of those workes which he lives in like a Christian sayes that those workes of his do merit heaven in the sense that I challenge For as for those that will have the workes of Christians to merit heaven of their own intrinsicke value Of those I have already said that I conceive they do prejudice the Christian â—aith in not allowing the necessity of Gods grace through Christ in accepting the condition which the Gospel requires for such a reward as the intrinsick value of it cannot deserve by Gods originall law For granting those helps of Gods grace in Christ being supernaturall and heavenly to hold proportion and correspondence with the reward of life everlasting which is the same Yet will it not follow that in all regards for the purpose in that the actions which they produce are momentany the reward everlasting which is the consideration S. Paul uses Rom. VIII 18. 1 Cor. VII 17 18. the correspondence will produce an equality of value And though the first principle of them be heavenly and supernaturall which is the help which God for Christs sake allowes yet seeing that it comes not immediately to effect but by the meanes of the faculties of mans soule infected with originall concupiscence it cannot be said that they can demand a reward correspondent to heavenly grace alone when earthly weakness concurres to imbase and allay the value of that which it produceth But as it cannot be denied that the Church of Rome in which that Order which maintainâ—s this extremity hath so great credit allowes this doctrine of merit to be taught yet can it not be said to injoine it Because there have not wanted to this day Doctors of esteem that have alwayes held otherwise Among whom I may very well name Sylvius now or lately Professor of Divinity at Doway who in his Commentaries upon the second part of Thomas Aquinas his Summe expounds that meritum de condigno which the Schoole attributes to the workes of Christians to be grounded in dignatione Dei because God vouchsafes and daignes to accept them whose they are as worthy of the reward expressing also the promise of the Gospell whereby this condescension of God is declared The Schoole Doctors found out the termes of meritum ex congruo ex condigno merit of congâ—uity and condignity Some of them because they thought That the workes of meer nature deserve supernaturall grace in regard that it is fit that God should reward him that doth his best with it That works done in the state of Grace are worth the Glory of the world to come But as the former part of the position which is planted upon these terms is rejected by many So they who onely acknowledge meritum congrui in workes done in the state of grace that is to say that it is fit for God to reward them with his kingdome say no more then that it was fit for God to promise such a reward Which whoso denieth must say that God hath promised that which it was unfit for him to promise And if the dignity of our works in respect of the reward may have this tolerable sense because God daignes and vouchsafes it The Councill of Trent which hath inacted no reason why they are to be counted merits can neither bear out these high opinions nor be said to prejudice the Faith in this point For The kingdom of God is not in word but in power if S. Paul say true And therefore though I affect not the terme of merit which divers of the Reformation do not reject Yet can I not think it so far from the truth so prejudiciall to the faith as the peevish opinions of those that allow not good workes necessary to salvation but as signes of Faith For that which necessarily comes in consideration with God in bestowing the reward which the condition he contracteth for must necessarily do though it cannot have the nature of merit because the Covenant it self is granted meerly of Grace in consideration of Christs death yet it is of necessity to be reduced to the nature and kind of the meritorious cause Nor can the glory of God or the merit of Christ be obscured by any consideration of our works that is grounded upon the merit of our Lord Christ and expresseth the tincture of his bloud The end of the Second Book Laus Deo OF THE LAWES OF The Church The Third BOOK CHAP. I. The Society of the Church founded upon the duty of communicating in the Offices of Gods Service The Sacrament of the Eucharist among those Offices proper to Christianity What opinions concerning the presence of Christs Body and Blood in the Eucharist are on foot IF God had onely appointed the Profession of Christianity to be the condition qualifying for the world to come leaving to every mans judgment to determine what that Christianity is and wherein it consists which it is necessary to salvation hee professe and what that conversation is which his salvation requireth There had been no cause why I should go any further in this Dispute But having showed that God hath appointed the Sacrament of Baptisme to be a necessary means to salvation limiting thereby the profession of Christianity which hee requireth to be deposited and consigned in the hands of his Church whom hee hath trusted for the maintaining and propagating of it I have thereby showed that hee hath appointed all Christians to live in the Communion of the Church The effect of Baptisme being to admit unto full Communion in those Offices wherewith God is
if the fourth Commandment be in force they cannot be obliged to keep the Lords day Is it not an even wager that not doubting the fourth Commandment to be in force as they are told they shall keep the Saturday which if it be in force they ought to keep rather then the Lords day which finding no reason for it because they are told none they will presently imagine to be a Popish custome I know there is one argument which is very plausible to induce well meaning Christians into that zeal which we see they have for the strict keeping of the Lords day which they call the Sabbath Because this opinion will oblige the world to exercise more works of godlinesse and to abstain from more of those debauches which Festivals occasion in vulgar people then otherwse To which for the present I will say onely this That having showed the truth to be as it is I can oblige all Christians to believe that Gods glory and the advancement of his service cannot be grounded well but upon the truth And therefore I may well demand their patience till I come by and by to show the ground of the mistake which they are carried away with to think that Gods glory and service is not more plentifully provided for by the Laws and customes of the Catholick Church then by strict keeping the Sabbath upon a false ground which hindring the effect of those Laws by consequence hinders Gods service But now all this being setled what is there remaining to alledge why Christians should be bound to keep the Lords day but the act of the Apostles by virtue whereof it came into force among all Christians in all Churches For it would be too ridiculous to allege that it is grounded upon those Scriptures whereby it appeareth that it was kept under the Apostles either as a reason sufficient or as distinct from the authority of the Apostles For these Scriptures being the Scriptures of the Apostles we can derive no authority from them but that which we first suppose in the Apostles I suppose here that no man will say that our Lords appearing to his Disciples after his resurrection upon that day was enough to make it a Law or evidence that it was so made unlesse his Apostles could testifie that he appeared to that purpose As for the rest if it may by circumstance appear that under the Apostles they did assemble to the service of God upon the Lords day will it therefore follow that all Chistians are bound to do the same Or can any more then this appear by that which I alledged out of the Apostles writings If there could the writings of the Apostles being their act as much as any act whereby they could declare an intent to oblige the Church there will be nothing to bind it to keep the Lords day but the authority of the Apostles But he that will give his own common reason leave to speak shall hear it say that it is not their words that oblige us to it but the originall and universall custome of the Church evidencing that they used to celebrate that day with an intent to introduce the obligation of it into the Church For of this original and universal custome having as yet found no question made on any side I hold it superfluous to take pains to make evidence of that which no man questions When Justine the Martyr presenting to the Empire an Apology for all Christans declareth that their custome was to assemble on the Lords day to serve God with the offices of Christianity which there he describeth had it not been to abuse himself and the Empire to declare that for the custome of all Christians which was indeed the custom of some but of others not Whither Easter was to be kept upon the fifteenth day of the first Moon upon which our Lord suffered or upon the next Lords day upon which he rose again was a dispute in the Church as ancient as the Apostles The former custome having been delivered to the Churches of Asia by S. John the later to the West by S. Peter and S. Paul But what ground could there be for this dispute had not the first day of the week been honoured and observed above the rest in regard of our Lords rising again Certainly the Eâ—ionites were one of the ancientest sects thar rose up against the Church and they as Eusebius Eccles Hist III. 27. keeping the Sabbath as the Jews and because the Jews kept it observing also the Lords day because the Christians kept it It is true that among the Eastern Christians the Saturday was observed for the service of God many ages after condescension to the Jews in regard whereof the observation of Moses law was in use after Christ in some parts of the Church more in some lesse was quite out of date But that is no argument that the Lords day was not kept when the Sabbath was kept to them who see S. Paul keep the Lords day Act. XX. 7. within the time of compliance with the Jewes For the offices which God is served with by the Church are pleasing to him at all times as well as in all places whereas the keeping of the Sabbath upon any day but a Saturday would have been a breach of his Law For when the other Festivals of the Jews are called Sabbaths in the Law that is not to say that the Sabbath was kept upon them for I have showed you two severall measures of rest due upon them by the Law but that they participated much of the nature of the Sabbath and therefore may be called with an addition such or such Sabbaths but not absolutely the Sabbath Therefore when Christians afterwards continued the custome of serving God upon the Sabbath that is the Saturday it is to be understood that they served God with the offices of Christianity not with the rest of the Jews Sabbath If it be further demanded whither the obligation of the Lords day do not depend upon the precepâ— of the Sabbath so that it may be called with an addition the Sabbath of Christians though not absolutely the Sabbath because that nâ—me is possessed already by the Saturday in the language of all Christians as well as Jews till men affected an abuse in the name to bring their mistake into mens minds To this I answer that if the Lords day had no dependance upon the precept of the Sabbath we could not give a reason why one day of seven is observed For the choice of the number could not come by chance And I cautioned afore that the Resurrection of Christ was as sufficient a reason why the Church should serve God on the Sunday as the creation of the world was why the Synagogue should serve God on the Saturday But this dependance was not immediate because I showed also that this was not enough to introduce the obligation upon us The act of the Apostles intervening was the means to make the obligation necessary
be said that those ever concerned the salvation of a Jew more nearly than this earnest of our common salvation concerns that of a Christian And why the Synagogue should not have more power in those precepts than the Church in this nothing can be said But to the particulars Suppose some fansies may be possest with such an aversness to wine that no use of reason at years of discretion when they come to the Eucharist will prevail to admit that kinde without such alteration in them as the reverence due unto it can stand with for I have seen the case of one that never had tasted wine in all his life and yet by honest endeavors when hee first came to the Eucharist receives it in both kindes without any maner of offense doth it therefore fall under the power of the Church to prohibite it all people because there may fall a case wherein it shall be necessâ—ry to dispense with some though not comprehended in the case For there is nothing but the meer necessity of giving order in cases not expressed by the Law that gives the Church power to take order in such cases Therefore without those caâ—â—â— it hath none And so in the case of those Nations where wine will not keep yet the people are Christians For neither was the reason otherwise supposing that the ancients did reserve the Eucharist in one kinde onely for the absent or for the case of sudden death to those that were under Penance For this reservation was but from Communion to Communion which in those dayes was so frequent that he who caried away the Body of our Lord to eat it at home drinking the Bloud at present might reasonably be said to communicate in both kinds Neither can that sacramental change which the consecration works in the elements be limited to the instant of the assembly though it take effect only in order to that CoÌ„munion unto which the Church designeth that which it consecrateth And so farr as I can understand the condition of the Church at that time in these cases there may have been as just cause to give it then in one kind in these cases as now to the abstemious or to those Nations where wine will not keep But shall this necessity be a colour for a Power in the Church to take away the birth-right of Christian people to that which their own prayers consecrate If the Power of the Church be infinite this colour need not If it he onely regular as I have showed all along that it is there can be no stronger rule than that of common reason which forbids servants to make bold with their Masters ordinances where no other act of his obliges For all necessity is the work of providence and excuses or if you will justifies where it constrains not where it constrains not The Greek Church hath an ancient custom not to consecrate the Eucharist in Leâ—t but upon Sabbaths and Lords days on the other five dayes of the week to communicate of that which was consecrated upon those dayes by the Council of Laodicea Can. XLIX And this Communion is prescribed by the Council in Trullo Can. LII But that they held the Communion to be completed by dipping the elements consecrated afore in wine with the Lords Prayer it will to him that shall peruse that which is found in Cassanders works pag. 1020 1027. Whereby you shall perceive also that the same was formerly done in the Church of Rome on good Friday on which days the same course was and is observed and that with an intent to consecrate it as the Eucharist is consecrated though at this day it is not so believed in the Church of Rome For the custom of the Church determining the intent of those Prayers whereby the Eucharist is consecrated to the elements in which it is communicated Because wine presently consecrated being in so small a quantity was not fit to be kept there is no reason why the Communion should not be complete Though how fit this custom is I dispute not But there is a new device of Concomitance just as old as the with-holding of the Cup from the people that you may be sure it would never have been pleaded but to maintain it for in the Greek Church that allows both kinds who ever heard of it It is said that the bloud in the body accompanieth the flesh neither can the Body of Christ as it is or as it was upon the Cross be eaten without the Bloud Seeing then that hee who receiveth the body must needs receive the bloud also what wrong is it for the people to be denied that which they have which they have received already And now you see to what purpose Trâ—nâ—â—â—sâ—â—ntiation serves To make it appear that our Lord instituted this Sacrament in both elements to no purpose seeing as much must needs be received in onâ—â—inâ—â—â— as in both And yet by your favor even Transubstantiation distinguisâ—â—th between the being of the flesh of Christ naturally in the body of Christ upon the Cross for so it was necessarily accompanied with the bloud of Christ not yet issued from it and between the flesh of Christ being sacramentally in the element consecrated into it And thus it cannot be otherwise accompanied with the bloud than because hee that consecrates is commanded to consecrate another kinde into the bloud And so hee that receives the body being commanded as much to receive the bloud the body may be said to be accompanied with the bloud But otherwise if hee receive not the bloud then is it not accompanied with the bloud as it ought to be For seeing the command is to receive as well as to consecrate several elements into the body and bloud of Christ it is manifest that the body and bloud of Christ are received as they are consecrated apart Under one element the body under another the bloud Indeed upon another ground which the Church of Rome will have no cause to own I do conceive it may well be said that the body is accompanied with the bloud to them that receive the Sacrament in one kinde in case it may or must be thought that they who in the Church of Rome thirst after the Eucharist in both kindes do receive the whole Grace of the Sacrament by the one kinde through the mercy of God giving more than hee promiseth in consideration that they come not short of the condition required by their own will or default Which is necessarily to be believed by all that believe the Church of Rome to remain a Church though corrupt and that salvation is to be had in it and by it Though whether this be so or not I say nothing here because it is the last point to be resolved out of the resolution of all that goes afore For since it is no Church unless the Grace of this Sacrament be convayed by the Sacrament ministred as the Church ministreth the same And seeing the precept of receiving the Eucharist
communicate every day Though it were easy to show how the rest of the Fathers agree or disagree therewith For that supposeth the dayly celebration of the Eucharist whereas who ever heard of daily preaching all over the ancient Church For that the order thereof was to assemble for the praises of God Prayer and for instruction by reading the scripture more frequently then the boldest pulpit man could preach Neither is it questionable for mater of fact nor for the consequence in obliging them that would reform and not destroy to follow the example supposing the premises One thing more I desire may be considered All the affectation of preciseness in keeping the Lords day willnever induce any people indued with their senses to doe that which the Jewes by the Law of the Sabbath whilst it was in force stood obliged to doe Namely to dresse their meate the day before that so neither themselves nor their servants might he obliged to violate the rest of the Sabbath If this precept oblige Christians to heare preaching for the means of salvation how are servants dispensed with to be absent from preaching who cannot be dispensed with for resting on the sabbath For though Christian servants may dresse meate on the Lords day Yet as they are not dispensed with for serving God on the Lords day so if the service of God on the Lords day necessarily requires preaching they must be also preached to on the Lords day But if being catechized in their Christianity they may serve God by praying and Praising God and by heareing the instruction of the scripture read advance in the duties of Christianity then may they doe the duty of Christans to God at Church as well as to their masters at home the duty of Christian servants without heareing sermons on the Lords day In a point so unlimited wherein a private mans opinion is not to be Law I find no better ground for reasonable termes then that which the practice of the Chatholike Church reported by Gennadius intimates For it is not to be gathered from Gennadâ—uâ— that there was meanes to receive the Eucharist every day every where because neither can it be imagined that there was ever any time since the Empire turned Christian when there was meanes for all Christians to be present at it much lesse to communicate On the other side the relation of Gennadius supposing that the celebration of the Eucharist was maintayned when preaching neither was nor could be maintained it followeth that by the Custome of the Catholike Church Lords days and festivals the celebration whereof all Christians were alwaies concerned in are to be kept by celebrating the Eucharist when they cannot be kept by preaching and hearing sermons And that there can be no better order that God may be served by all sorts of Christians then where there is provision and where the custome is that all Christians may communicate on Lords daies and Festivales and when for reasons left to themselves they doe not communicate they may with their spirits as well as their bodies asist the celebration of it Remitting the custome which Gennadius his resolution supposes the celebrating the Eucharist every day to the greater Churches of the more populous Cities and Places But whereas the Apostolicall forme of divine service makes the sermon a part of it And at Corinth S. Paul orders many of those spirituall Graces to concurr to that worke which at assemblies on extraordinary occasions was somtimes practised by the primitive Churches as I have showed there it were too great wrong to common sense to extend this to all assemblies of Christians in villages and not consistent either with the necessities of the world or the interest of Christianity in frequenting those offices most which are principall in Gods service Laying downe then that tyranny which constraines all that have cure of soules to speake by the Glasse every Lords day twice which shuts all the service of God out of dores saving a prayer to usher it in and out The interest of Christianity will require that at and with the celebration of the Eucharist all Christians be taught the common dutys of Christians by them who are to answer for their Soules Not to please the eare with sharpnesse in reasoning or eloquence in language but to convince all sorts what conversation the attaining of Gods kingdome requires of them who believe that he made the world that he sent our Lord Christ to redeem it that by his spirit he brings all to confesse and show themselves Christians and in fine that by our Lord Christ he shall adjudge those that doe so to everlasting life and those that doe otherwise to everlasting death For the rest it is not my purpose to undervalue the labours of S. Chrysostome S. Austinâ— Origen S. Gregory or whosoever they are ancient or moderne that have laboured the instruction of their people even by expounding them the Scriptures out of the Pulpit supposing they expound them within the rule of our common faith But upon the account in hand onely I say that if they withdraw Christian people from serving God by those offices which the order of the Church makes requisite according to the premises which I am sure enough none of the ancients ever did their laboures are not for the common edification of the Church but for maintayning of parties in the Church The celebration of Lords daies and Festivales and times of fasting necessarily furnishes opportunitie both for all Curates to furnish their people with that instruction which they owe them as answerable for their soules and for those whom God hath furnished with more then ordinary graces of knowledg or utterance to advance our common Christianity by advancing the knowledge of Christians in the scriptures But the office of a Pastor necessarily requireth an exact understanding of the nature of humane actions in maters of Christianity whether concerning believing or working not to be attained without the study as well as the experience of a mans whole life And therefore to oblige them who are to provide necessary foode for the soules of their flock to be alwaies gathering the flowers of the scripturers to make them nosegayes of will be to starve them for the want of that knowledge which the common salvation of all necessarily requires that the more curious may have entertainement of quelques choses And therefore for the rest Christian people are to think themselves obliged to come to Church to serve God by prayer and the prayses of God to learn instruction out of the scriptures by hearing meditating upon the lessons of them on far many more houres and daies and occasions then there can be for preaching of Sermons CHAP. XXV Idolatry presupposeth an immagination that there is more Gods then one Objections out of the scripture that it is the worship of a true God under an Image the Originall of worshipping the elements of the world The Devil And Images Of the Idolatry of the
began to make some question of it upon some disputes which he met with That S. Gregory first professed an opinion of it granted upon no scripture no nor Tradition of faith but upon aparitions and revelations That there is great appearance that Venerable Bede having received it from S. Gregorys Scholars who planted Christianity here added much to it by his credulity in such maters And yet that they had yet assigned no quarter in the Verge of Hell for this purpose but onely believed it of certaine soules in some places of this earth untill the Schoole hammered out a debt of punishment to which souls acquited both of the guilt and staine of sin may remaine lyable The extending of indulgence to the voyding of this how properly soever it may be counted purging of soules made the position a mater of great jelousy for the interest of profit which our common Christianity abhorreth And indulgence indeed of Canonicall penance I have showed hath the first ground in S. Pauls example and necessary use in the Church But when redeeming of penance was come into practice in the Church it was granted upon considerations with Christianity and the safety of poore soules allowed not Of paying a rate of taking the Crosse against Infidels of moderne Jubiles But that there should be a stock of merit in the Church upon account of works of supererogation done by the Saints which theire owne reward answereth not and that the Church in granting indulgence of penance may allow it to his account that receives indulgence is a conceite as injurious to the merits of Christ the consideration of all pardon and to the Covenant of Grace the condition whereof it abateth so that hath no evidence from any rule or practice of the ancient Church But that they should be thought to be of force to redeeme soules out of Purgatory and that taxing the time which they grant and the like for which neither there is nor can be any ground The best that is said or can be said in defense of them who publish them to poore people by whom they are frequented is that they get themselves mony the account whereof being almes they charge themselves with And that people are by this meanes imployed in the works of devotion which if not available to the effect which they imagine are how soever good for their soules health As for the translating of soules to heaven before the day of judgement it is so diametrally contrary to all antiquity that the very naming of it takes away all pretense for Traditon on behalfe of Purgatory It is acknowledged indeed that a number of the ancient Fathers during the flourishing times of the Church doe believe that the fire which the world is to be burnt up with as it shall involve the wicked and cary them to be everlastingly tormented in the sink of the world so it shall touch and scorch even the Saints themselves to try if their works be such as Gods vengeance can take hold of and to purge away that drosse which the love of the world they dyed with importeth This is by divers called Origens Purgatory because they conceive his credit might move S. Hilary S. Basil S. Ambrose Gregory Nyssene and Nazanizain S. Jerome S. Austine and S. Chry. with divers others to follow it But Blondel having observed that it is found in the Sibyles verses will needs have them all to have taken it up from thence Which as I have no reason to yeild to having showed already that the credit of that book was not the foundation of other particular opinions which had vogue in the Church So do I not find those famous Doctors so affected to Origen whose writings concerning the exposition of the scriptures they were necessarily obliged to frequent as to admit an opinion so neere concerning the faith upon this recommendation on whom they declare so much jelousy in mater of Faith For my part as I find it very agreeable to the words of S. Paul when he saith that they whose works are burnt up shall escape themselves but as through fire So how mens works should be tryed or burnt up by that fire I find it not easy to be understood And therefore without taking upon me to censure so great persons for innovating in the Church or to maintaine that in which there is no concurrence of any Scripture with any consent of the whole Church I leave the truth of this to judgement as secure that it will not concern the common Faith But this I say peremptorily that admitting it there remaines no pretense for Purgatory in the Tradition of the Church unlesse it be by equivocation of words For this coming to passe at the day of judgement admitteth no release before And without release before Purgatory fire goes quite out No Indulgences no Jubilies no stock of merit to be dispensed by the Church to such workes of devotion as it limiteth can be any of any request if they take not effect afore the day of judgement Take away the opinion of translating souls from the Verge of hell which Purgatory to the sight of God and the Clergy of the Church of Rome shall no more eat the sins of the people as the Prophet complaines of the Priests under the Law For while the people are perswaded that their sins are cured by the sentence of absolution once pronounced Penance serving onely to extinguish the debt of temporall punishment remaining and that to be ransomed by the services which they pay for in the name of their friends which are dead the Clergy live by those sins of which the people dy because they are not duly cured For the lusts for which men sin not being cured by that hardship of Penance which the case requireth to change attrition into contrition the guilt of sin remaines upon the head of him in whose heart the love of sin remaines alive notwithstanding the keyes of the Church mistaking in that case Besides take away the opinion of translating soules from hell to heaven since the coming of Christ and there will remaine no ground for the translating of the Fathers souls from the verge of hell which is Limbus Patrum to the sight of God by the descent of our Lord into hell and his rising from the dead againe There will be no cause why that reason which I tender for that vanity of immaginations rather then opinions or belief in the Fathers which that which all agree in is intangled with should not be admitted For the translating of Christian soules from Purgatory to heaven not being believed why should the translating the Fathers souls remaine Why should not the simple Faith in which all Christians agree revive and take the place of Tradition in the Church which indeed it hath that between death and the day of judgement the good are in joy the bad in paine both incomplete till both be fulfilled after both shall have received their finall doome CHAP. XXIX The